Five Steps to Catch Up on Your Retirement Plan

8.4.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

8.4.23: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to The Buckeye Advisor with your host, Woody Bowling. Woody is a fiduciary licensed financial advisor and Medicare expert who always places your needs first. Woody works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you, too. So now let's start the show. Here's Woody Bowling.

Woody Bowling:
Good morning and welcome to another exciting episode of your favorite radio show and podcast, or at least we hope it is. I'm Woody Bowling. I am your host today. I am The Buckeye Advisor, and that is the name of our show. I'm not even going to delay for one minute longer. I'm going to bring him in right away. He's part of the glue that holds this whole operation together week in and week out, providing great commentary along with a great setup man, co-host and producer Mr. Matt McClure, who is coming to us from his lovely home in Atlanta, Georgia. How are you, Matt? Hope you're having a good week so far.

Producer:
I am doing great, Woody. I am having a good week so far. You know, it's it's been a busy one and but a good kind of busy, you know, it's like if I wasn't busy, I'd just kind of be going stir crazy with, you know, looking for stuff to do. So I like being busy when it's keeps me from doing that.

Woody Bowling:
Well, you know, the old the old saying about twiddling your thumbs. I mean, that's only fun for probably a minute or two. And then if you're like me, which I think you are, you're looking for something productive to do. And that's why we're here doing The Buckeye Advisor again this week. This week's episode is airing on the radio 94.5 FM. The Answer Dayton, Ohio on Saturday, August 5th and Sunday, August 6th. It's being replayed. Those time frames are from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. both days. Or you can be also joining us on the podcast, which means what? You can listen anytime you want. So don't forget that like and subscribe to our podcast. You'll be one of the first ones to hear it uploaded each week wherever you get your podcast. And there's many places you can do that. If you're joining us today in Dayton, Centerville, Springboro, Trotwood, Franklin, any of those surrounding areas, we welcome you back to the show if it's your first time. I really special big shout out to you for joining us. If someone told you about it, thank you to them. We appreciate it. We couldn't be here without you, the listener. And we are here for one reason, and that is for you, the listener, to receive some help, some education, some. Instructions and advice on how to get down this thing that we call retirement. And there's so many different things that go into that. Matt We really enjoy delving into some of the different areas each week that I like to help people because when you look at it from the the 30,000ft view, the overview, there's so many things that are important in retirement.

Woody Bowling:
Do I have the right health insurance Medicare plan or what if I've changed jobs and I'm waiting to get another one? Do I take COBRA or do I have another option for a short term health insurance? Yes, you do. What about that 401. K on that job that I got laid off or I just decided I had enough of it. I was sick of it. I can help with your 401. K rollover. It's called a stray 401 K because it's not really being watched by anybody. What am I going to do for income and retirement besides Social Security? All those are questions that our listeners might be thinking of each week. They're pressing questions that sometimes people just kind of put it off, put it off. They don't want to have these unpleasant conversations about, you know, retirement and are we really going to be able to do it? How much income can we create with this nest egg that we've accumulated or that 401. K that a year or two from now? You know, there's some lots of different things that we help people with each week. And I've been doing this for 15 years and I'm excited about helping. I love all the different people I work with. It's exciting to do that and all the different areas. So Matt, I think we've got another good show prepared for them based on the outline we went over and I think we're going to do it. What do you think?

Producer:
Yeah, it is an action packed show here on Advisor once again and yeah, you know, all the the information, the education also hopefully some inspiration to get people started down that road here over this next hour what we're going to talk about how this kind of upcoming generation that'll be entering retirement in a few years that Generation X, the Gen Xers are just not really prepared by and large for retirement at all. There's a study that shows Americans in their 40s and 50s just don't have enough set aside for their golden years at all. So we'll talk about that then, of course. Okay. We don't just want to present people with problems. We want to present people with solutions, right? So we'll have five steps to catch up on your retirement plan. Perhaps you're one of those the Gen Xers, maybe a little bit older. Maybe you're at the kind of the tail end of the baby boomer generation or right in the middle of it. Hey, Ron knows we do have five steps for you all to catch up on your retirement plan, either if you've fallen behind or if you started late. That's going to be kind of like the brunt of the show here today and hopefully a lot of great information that you'll take away from that. Also, an inflation demonstration. You know, we talked about this last week how the Fed kind of now has this brighter outlook for the economy. Some economists, though, don't necessarily see it that way because there are some still some signs pointing toward a potential downturn, if not a full on recession, maybe an economic downturn at least. So we'll tell you how you can stay prepared for that. And of course, this week in History coming up at the tail end of the show. First, though, let's get things kicked off with our Quote of the Week.

Producer:
And now wholesome financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Producer:
And this week's words of wisdom come from Chris Brogan, who is an author, a journalist. He's also a marketing consultant, a speaker about social media marketing as well. And he's written a New York Times bestseller also. So a guy who knows a thing or two about a thing or two. And here is his quote for this week The goal isn't more money. The goal is living life on your terms. Wow. I think that really should be the goal for for us all, whether it involves more money or not, we should all want to live life on our own terms.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, I think so. And Mr. Brogan has a very nice quote here, and it makes me it reminds me of several things all at once, it seems. Number one, you know, money can't buy happiness. We've heard that phrase, but it can make things more comfortable and it can make people less worried and make them less secure if they have accumulated at least some retirement savings. And what can add to that mix is if you have an advisor that's an independent fiduciary advisor like The Buckeye Advisor myself to help advise you that's not beholden to one company's politics or one company's ideas for investments or one company being committed to put X number of dollars in certain investments. I'm not like that. So when you throw in somebody like myself that can help people with that money they've accumulated, it's going to help you live your life on your terms. And I fully agree that money can't buy happiness, but we also it's a necessary evil and having a better understanding of it and how to manage it, how to use it. We're going to hit on a couple of those things in the episode today and have those kinds of conversations with people every week. I like that quote. Matt That's a good one.

Producer:
Yeah, I thought that was a great one as well and really does bring it home to, you know, just focus on, you know, the goals that you have for retirement and how can you get there. Right. You know, just really making it not all about the money, but using money actually as a tool to get there is a is a good, good way to kind of look at it. And, you know, speaking of retirement planning, which of course we do a lot of here on the show, um, Generation X doesn't seem like they've done a lot of it wouldI mean, you know, there's this study of millions of Americans born between 1965 and 1980, collectively known as Generation X. Well, they're headed toward retirement, woefully unprepared for it. As far as a financial situation goes, according to a recent analysis. This is from the National Institute on Retirement Security. The IRS saying that typical Gen X household with a private retirement plan has 40,000 in savings, according to that report. But say they say that the figure is even more alarming for low income Gen Xers. They've managed to stash away no more than about 4300 wouldI mean, that's that's not going to last long at all. Maybe, maybe like a month in retirement. That's kind of it.

Woody Bowling:
That's one emergency away from having that fund drained completely. And I've got to confess, Matt, I am a Gen Xer and I was born in 1965, so I'm right at the beginning of the Gen Xers and I can honestly say that the Gen X people should have a chip on their shoulder. They don't get a lot of press, they don't get a lot of attention. Who gets it all? The darn baby boomers. And I just missed it by a year being a baby boomer. But all my clients, for the most part, are baby boomers. So Gen Xers, there's still hope and what what I see and hear so much today, what I know is going on, you know, they didn't tell us what the low income figure was for an annual income to call someone a, quote unquote low income wage earner. But look, 40 grand, even in retirement isn't the greatest number. But I also know there's a lot of people that don't have much at all and everybody's situation is different. So if you're not there yet, we want to encourage you. If you're working in an employer where you've got a 401. K or 403 B you can contribute to and get some matching. Even if you can't get matching from your employer, Please, please, please still do it. Sign up now if you're not already, if you're over 50, you're allowed some catch up contributions.

Woody Bowling:
So all is not lost. We don't want to come on here and tell people, wave the white flag. You just give up. That's not what we believe. We believe there are different ways to help people in the long run still catch up and get themselves back in the game. But, you know, according to part of this research also, Matt, a surprising thing I saw was only 55% of Gen X workers participate in an employer sponsored pension or 401. K plan. That seems like a low number to me. But when you think about it now. Especially when you throw into the mix. For the last three years, people have shifted. There are people doing driving for Uber and for DoorDash and the so-called gig economy. They don't have traditional health insurance. They don't have traditional retirement plans. They have more than one job. They might do driving deliveries and then they might do something else part time. So people are doing what it takes. So my hat's off to those people that are doing it, what it takes to not only meet their bills and make ends meet for themselves and their families, but also a lot of people that are not part of these surveys are able to save money.

Woody Bowling:
They're just not getting surveyed, I think. So I know there's people out there that are actually in better position than it seems. And so my hat's off to those people and I think that Gen X. All is not lost. And I think there are positive things to come and we can help you. Whatever generation you're in, if you're 50 years old, 55, 75. I worked with people in all those age ranges on a variety of topics, whether it be a stray 401 K rollover into an IRA. Maybe consider a Roth IRA. Does that make the most sense for you in your situation when you're 65 and you're ready to go on Medicare? I can help with that. I've got 15 years experience doing all these things. Do you have the right life insurance plan? That's a biggie. I've been running into that a lot the last 3 or 4 months, it seems. So all these things are going into the big overall picture and I can help you bring that picture into focus. And that's what I enjoy doing and that's what makes my career enjoyable to me, establishing those long term relationships with those folks that I meet that become clients and they become friends. And we're in it for the long run to make that plan successful in in the long run.

Producer:
Yeah. And it all starts by reaching out if you would like to be a part of that, if that sounds good to you. Listening to the show today, The Buckeye Advisor.com is the website that is The Buckeye Advisor and that's advisor with an Or at the end by the way.com and you can call Woody at (937) 974-6201. A couple of other reasons there Woody that that Jenks is unprepared you know wage growth has been stagnant compared to previous generations student loan debt really high for Gen Xers as compared to baby boomers as well. So I mean, that's that's why it's really important that if people are part of that generation or not, if they face that uncertainty, two things. Number one, listen here to The Buckeye Advisor. That's probably the easiest thing to do because you don't have to. All you got to do is turn on the radio or subscribe to the podcast. That's right. Pretty darn easy and press play, you know, it's not asking too much. But the other thing is then to, of course, reach out to The Buckeye Advisor and once again that's The Buckeye Advisor.com for a free complimentary consultation and analysis of your particular situation. Because as you said, Woody, that's really what it's all about. You know, everybody's situation is different. And so getting a look inside of what your situation is is really paramount here because your situation and your finances, it all looks different than your neighbors, your friends, your family members. Everybody's unique in that way.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, It's so surprising today that people rely on family members to give them advice financially. Well, I do this. You should do this. Or my person says to do this, or Aunt Joe or Aunt Joan or Uncle Jim said to do this, you know, everything needs to be tailored to your situation. And there are a lot of different factors that will go into recommendations that you need to help you reach the ultimate goals that you have financially, you know, in your life. So it the Internet for all the positives there also just as many negatives. People Google information, they do it themselves. Most of the time. You need a personal plan, someone that can sit down with you, look across the desk from you and help you really focus on what's right for you based on how much risk you're okay with. And so when you want somebody to truly be a part of the process with you, that's where I come in. And it's not just about a one and done. Or if you call an 800 number with money at Vanguard or Fidelity or one of those places, you're going to get somebody different every time unless you've got a very, very large amount to have in your portfolio, then you may be able to get one person to talk to a lot. Maybe, maybe not. It just depends on how high that threshold is with the company.

Woody Bowling:
So, look, I deal with people of all backgrounds, of all occupations, blue collar, white collar, you name it. And that's kind of the well-rounded. Experience that I have along with the other things that I do. So we can put it all together and see what it looks like for you. And you know, gen the student loans, it's a big deal. But Gen X is also been through multiple financial downturns and upturns now. And Matt, this week we saw the market on Wednesday get absolutely hammered because Fitch, one of the ratings agencies, downgraded United States government debt. That's a big deal. But the funny thing is, you know, in the long term, this year, the market has trended very, very, very well in the upward direction. And that's encouraging. And long term, there are a lot of signs that say we're trending long term on an upward trajectory again. But I encourage people, don't time the market. You can't do that. Can't just say, okay, now's the time and you've had all your cash sitting on the sidelines. Well, you missed a huge bounce this year. If you stayed in cash the whole time. That's why it always surprises me that people say, well, I can do it myself. But people get emotional. They get excited. They get emotional in a bad way.

Woody Bowling:
When the market goes down 20, 25, 30%, what do they do? They withdraw. They move their money to cash and they say, guess what? I'm going to wait until I see that elevator, that up sign going on again. And then I'm going to jump on the elevator and go up. Well, guess what? You missed the elevator this year. A big chunk of it already. You didn't do anything. So that's why you need an advisor to help coach you through those things so you don't pull out of the market because you do need some growth. You do need some risk based advice on your money and what we believe in as as you get older, you start pulling some of that risk off the table. For most of my clients, they want to do that. They want to look at converting some of that risky money into safe money. Smart, safe and smart risk are two key components of the plans that I put together for clients. Why? Because you want to be able to protect some of those hard earned retirement savings. And no matter whether you've got 50,000 or 500,000 or 5 million, it's all equally valuable and it's all should be treated the same. So that's what I believe and that's part of the success that I've had, I think, over the years with The Buckeye Advisor.

Producer:
Yeah, and that is what it's all about. And you know, you're talking about that sort of emotional investing there and and trying to catch the elevator on the way back up. Well, you know, chances are if you do that, you're catching the elevator on on the 10th floor or on the 20th floor. You're not catching it in the lobby, so you're not going to go up nearly as far as as everybody else.

Woody Bowling:
Just exactly couldn't have said it better. That is a great analogy. Yeah.

Producer:
Just to continue the metaphor a little bit there. Yes. I love a love a good metaphor. All right. So so the the doom and gloom part is well established now for the Gen Xers here that we've been talking about. Woody But for everybody, Gen X or otherwise, we do have five steps to catch up on your retirement plan because it can be challenging to do it late or if you've, you know, maybe fallen behind on your retirement plan, you maybe you got off to a good start, but you hit hard times for some reason or, you know, you had to take out a loan from your your 401. K or something like that because of an emergency. Like these things happen in life, right? So five steps now to begin planning for retirement. If you feel you've started too late or some things to do if you've fallen behind as well. Number one, assess your current financial situation. I mean, you've got to know where you are before you know where you're going to go. Right. What do.

Woody Bowling:
You do? And if you're plugging in directions to a destination, if you don't know, your starting point doesn't do you much good. You know, if you're out in the middle of the wilderness and you don't recognize the area you're in and you're trying to take a hike, you're lost. Same thing with this financial journey that you're on towards retirement. So we consider the retirement red zone anywhere from 5 to 10 years before retirement up to ten years after, because I work with people in all those timeframes. So you've got to know where you're at and people have the tendency work is busy. Like you said, life is busy. And we also know life happens. I worked in the corporate world. I worked in the I was a regional vice president for one of the largest subprime mortgage companies in the United States. I was a regional VP. I worked in northern Cincinnati, had an office with about 80 people underneath me. We were top 5 in 2006 seven. We were one of the first ones. I had a conference call on Monday night at 6:00, which was very weird and never happened. That said, we may be closing tomorrow. Literally out of the blue. We literally by the end of the next business day, I had to let everybody know their jobs were gone and we were the first big subprime lender to go down.

Woody Bowling:
And believe me, financially speaking, I was doing very, very well. The people underneath me were doing great. We had a great team. I was halfway through a divorce. My twin girls were nine years old. So, look, I can relate. Life happens and I've been through ups and downs in the curveballs that life can throw at you. So I appreciate you as a listener if you've been through. Anything. Layoffs, job changes, you know, illnesses with children or yourself or your spouse or your parents. I've been there. I've been through all those things, so I can relate. But have those conversations about where you're at today? What does it mean? And when you can look at where your overall situation is now, then it'll help you get more clear ideas of where you want to go and maybe the best way to get there. And of course, if you need somebody to come in and give you that guidance along that and set the correct path up, that's where I come in. And that's why when you have to spend nothing to have a consultation with me. Matt what did we say? We spend how much?

Producer:
Zero.

Woody Bowling:
Zero to have a conversation with The Buckeye Advisor. And that is a good deal. I will tell you, I would meet with me for zero.

Producer:
I mean, hey, that's that fits right in my budget. I'll tell you that one. Just a couple of minutes before our break here, Woody, I want to get one more of these steps in to sort of catch up on your retirement plan before we go to the break. Number two, set specific retirement goals. I mean, so number one was, you know where you are, right? Number two is basically know where you want to go.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, I think so. And the key that I think people need to keep in mind is have some flexibility. I think you'd like to have a best case and then maybe second best case. You know, I talked to a lady this week. I met with her, found out she had an old 401. K plan that she had. She forgot about She's been with a new company for seven years, forgot about it. We brought it up when I was talking to her about her overall situation, I was fact finding information, gathering whatever you want to call it. She's like, Yeah, I do have an old 401 K for the company. Well, how much? 110 grand. Great. That's found money. So we're moving it right now into a protected environment. So. You got to have somebody, a financial coach, a financial quarterback. Have some flexibility. We know she in particular wants to work two more years. That's her goal. She also said, I might want to quit sooner. And then she also said, if I quit at 67, I may do a part time job and keep going for a little while longer after that. Just want to get out of the house. So have some flexibility. Get a coach like me to help you along the way. Call me. (937) 974-6201. I am standing by my cell phone ready to chat.

Producer:
We'll stick around, folks. We got much more of the show to come after we take this quick break. Of course, everybody's favorite part of the show coming up right after the break. Our dad Joke of the week and we'll have more right after this.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to The Buckeye Advisor. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch videos from this program and other recent episodes. Missed part of today's show. The Buckeye Advisor is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at The Buckeye Advisor.com.

Producer:
Welcome back. This is The Buckeye Advisor. I'm Matt McClure here alongside Woody Bowling. He is The Buckeye Advisor and I'm not and that's, you know, pretty much all that needs to be said about that The Buckeye Advisor.com is the website that is The Buckeye Advisor.com. You can also call Woody at (937) 974-6201.

Producer:
Oh, sure, you can handle ghost peppers. You choose scorpions like Skittles. But can you stomach the dad joke of the week?

Woody Bowling:
Here we go without delay. Matt, did you hear about the man who drank a bottle of invisible ink?

Producer:
I did not hear about the man who drank an bottle of invisible ink.

Woody Bowling:
Well, the update is he's still in the E.R.. He's still waiting to be seen.

Woody Bowling:
Uh.

Woody Bowling:
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy. Chuckle. Roll your eyes. Whatever you choose, use the joke on someone else. But we hope that you enjoyed it. If you didn't tune in next week, and we'll try it again. But stay tuned to the rest of the show. Don't change the dial over a joke that you weren't fond of because it's a dad joke and we like them. So anyways, enjoy. And we got a good rest of the show. Matt Let's keep this thing going where we were.

Producer:
Let's do it mean that I got to love that that joke because it's not only a play on words, also a commentary on the state of health care in the United States. There you go.

Woody Bowling:
That's true.

Woody Bowling:
All right.

Producer:
So number three, so we're going through this list, right, of five steps to catch up on your retirement plan, if you like. A lot of people in Generation X, for example, who we just talked about that study in the first half of the show have really fallen behind, need to do a lot of catching up with their retirement planning. So these five steps we have to catch up. Number one was to assess your current financial situation. Number two, set specific retirement goals. And now that leads us, of course, to number three, which is maximize retirement savings contributions. That is.

Woody Bowling:
True. And what are we saying there? We're saying save as much as you can without tearing down your lifestyle. We're not asking you to give up food or shelter to maximize your retirement savings. A lot of people will still work for companies that provide a 401. K or 403. B We want you to keep doing that. Sign up for it if you haven't already. If you're already in one and you're contributing only 2 or 3%, most people can afford to kick that up a few notches, kick it up to 6 or 7%. If the company matches up to 4 or 5, why don't you go to 4 or 5 at least? Because they'll match. And you know, the funny part is most people will forget what the company matches. They don't remember because if you work there for any length of time, you're like, Oh, I can't remember. What do they match? I know they match something. I see it on my check. That's very important. Take the time, make sure sacrifice a little bit. If you have the ability to save money after your bills are paid, pay yourself. Start investing into an account. I can help you with that. Here's a surprise for people aged 59.5 and older. Most employers today will allow you, the employee, to do what's called an in-service withdrawal from your 401. K that allows you to actually move that money without penalties, without any taxable triggering events, move that money to an IRA, and I can help you manage that. We are using TD Ameritrade in most cases for our custodian. That's soon to be Charles Schwab. That will be done next month. In the month of September.

Woody Bowling:
All those accounts will be transitioned over. It may make sense to do that. You can still the good news, you can still contribute to your 401. K plan and the company will still match. The only thing you're doing is pulling out what you've got that you're vested in and you're putting it into an area where you're probably with me as your advisor, going to have a lot more options, a lot more things that are going to be compatible with your risk and you're going to be able to understand where your money's at and what it's doing and why it's doing it. Because you'll have a personal advisor you won't be logging on to just seeing a statement every quarter about your 401. K, or maybe you call the 800 number just to get a balance or to ask them a question. They don't care. They're just there. They're making an hourly wage sitting in a call center somewhere. So we want you to invest as much as you can pre-tax. The advantages are also that your gross income is reduced by the amount that you put into your 401. K or 403 B So you're paying less taxes currently. And as you defer that income out longer down the road, by the time you start drawing some of that income later on, if you don't put it into a Roth IRA and you keep it in a traditional IRA, you're only taxed on the amount that comes out a little bit at a time anyways. So there's lots of strategies we can talk about, about saving taxes, maximizing tax savings, but please maximize those retirement contributions if you can.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely do that. And it's all about having that plan and working that plan as you go forward. Speaking of plans number four on this list, Woody, is to create a budget and cut unnecessary expenses.

Woody Bowling:
Easier said than done for a lot of folks. And it's look, I look at my phone. And some of my social media and and you know that they're tracking you if you if I look at a golf club or if I look at golf balls or if I look at golf shoes or shirts, I'm going to see 15 more ads in my line on my social media accounts about different brands of golf shirts. And it's tempting every one of them. So, look, it's not easy to say no sometimes is what I'm getting at. And I understand as a human, we're bombarded on all TV commercials, social media things. I mean, so you're bombarded with things, hey, you can buy this. This is an next miracle thing to do this this is the next thing to cure hair loss. This is the next thing to whatever set a budget. It's a tough conversation. Work that budget once you get it set up, that you know the negotiation of that budget between two people. If there is more than one person in that household that's going to try to comply with that budget, there needs to be negotiation.

Woody Bowling:
There needs to be give and take. You can't just be one sided and say, I expect you to give up everything in order for us to have a better monthly cash flow. That shouldn't be that way, right? That's I don't want to get into relationship advice, but you can't be that way. Everybody needs to find their sweet spot. You can't have everything. You do need to realize how much your expenses are. You got to know how much that is, your expenses per month, how much your income is per month, how much can we save after those bills, and then try to reduce credit card debt or get out of it altogether? If you have any, the faster the better you know car payments are. Okay. We understand that they're usually at very low rates for the most part, and mortgages are at low rates. But your long term goal towards retirement is get that mortgage paid off and try to go into retirement with no car payments as well, at least for a while. We know that cars don't last forever, but try to take care of your vehicles, get that maintenance done.

Producer:
What's coming in? What's going out? There's your budget, right? Number five on this list of things to do, steps to take to catch up on your retirement plan is to consider delaying retirement or taking on part time work. Not the most fun thing to talk about, especially if you're just itching to retire. But thing is, if you're not quite there, if you're not quite ready, maybe you do need to extend that career for just a little bit.

Woody Bowling:
You have clients and people that I've worked with over the last few years and people have found it rewarding to say, Hey, even though I'm 65, 66, I don't want to get out of the workforce, but I'm tired of doing what I've been doing for 25, 30, 40 years. So I'm done doing this job. I don't want it anymore. I'm going to take my money and run. So we do the 401. K, We look at Medicare, it's usually going to provide them with very, very good health care planning. And then they decide they want to do something else. Maybe they want to start their own small business and not a business where they're looking to generate 10 million in annual revenue, just a small business that they like doing. Or maybe they want to go do something and work for another company, but on a part time basis, they get that social interaction with other people that people still enjoy and crave. I know I love it and most people do like it, although there are some people that would care, could care less about it. The social interaction, part of having a part time job. But it also can help you delay. The longer you can delay getting your Social Security, you're giving yourself, you know, at full retirement age, which is 66 years and eight months for most people. Now you're giving yourself an 8% raise each year all the way up to age 70. And then you have to take it no matter what. So our advice is if you can delay it, delay your Social Security as long as you can, if you're healthy enough to do it, and if you have some savings, I can help you strategize on what's the right number that I should look at to pull out each month to help budget for my particular situation. That's what I'm for and I can help you do that.

Producer:
Yeah, and that sort of really leads us right into a bonus step here, which is to work with a professional like Woody Bowling.

Woody Bowling:
That was a great Segway.

Producer:
I mean, hey, look at that. It's almost as if we planned it and get in touch with Woody folks, because let me tell you, having that inside look, that deep dive at your particular situation really is so key here. I would be betting that you've probably heard something so far in the show that you didn't know that that you maybe are hearing for the first time different types of strategies that are available to you. That's really what the show is all about. And then getting that complimentary consultation with Woody Bowling is that next step to really get that information personalized for you? Because what's right for somebody else, as we said earlier, might not be right for you in your particular situation.

Woody Bowling:
You know, being able to put it all together based on their own situation is what it's all about. And, you know, most, most financial advisors that are just brokers, let's call them, they're just going to say, hey, put your money in that 64. Stock and bond portfolio and let it ride when it goes down 20, 30, 40%. Don't worry about it. It's going to come back. Well, what if it doesn't come back for four years? What if you need to start pulling income out of it right away for the first couple of years because you just retired and you're now wanting to supplement your Social Security? Well, if you're pulling money out right away without any guarantees on part of your retirement, that is very detrimental to the long term performance, you could run out of money. I don't want anybody to run out of money in retirement, but it can happen. Those first couple, three years out of retirement or into retirement are negative in the market and you're pulling out at the same time to supplement your income. That's a recipe for disaster. And I'll tell you, that's just what it is. Your brokers will never tell you that. So having somebody that understands all that, that's willing to tell you, pull some of your money. We used indexed annuities often not 100% of the time, but often we use those as a portion of the retirement savings that we can generate a guaranteed monthly or annual income to offset and to supplement retirement to offset the Social Security that they're getting. And you protect that principle in that annuity. You get some good market like growth. When the market's doing well, your index is going to do well and you're also getting those other guarantees.

Woody Bowling:
So there's so many advantages. And this is not like annuities 30 years ago, folks. It's not a variable annuity. We've talked about those. Those are horrible. I just replaced some recently. So it's not your father or grandfather's annuity, but it's all part of the overall strategy. And what's right for you is going to be different from what other people, what's the best fit for them. The numbers are all going to be different. Your health is going to be different. Your medicines, your the genetics in your family make a difference in how long you're going to live. So when you take longevity into account now, people you don't want to outlive your money. And that's a huge concern for me. And it's valuable, valuable, valuable to not worry about that. People want security and guarantees in retirement. That's why it's called Social Security. They like that word and they want guarantees in retirement. So. I can help you find some of those guarantees, especially when it comes to your money. Help you find great health care. Great life insurance if you need that in some way or another. And also strategies that will help you if you are concerned about converting some money into a Roth IRA. Can we do it this year? Can we do it partially? Can we do the rest of it in the next 2 or 3 years? Yes and yes. And I'll be able to tell you exactly the tax bill based on your last year's tax returns. We'll be able to plug all those numbers in and get you a very, very comprehensive financial plan.

Producer:
And if you want to start down that road, go to The Buckeye Advisor.com that's The Buckeye Advisor with an or at the end.com or call Woody at 93797462019379746201.

Producer:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It's time for an inflation demonstration.

Producer:
Well, last week, in its ongoing effort to combat inflation, the Federal Reserve once again raised interest rates by the 25 basis points that everybody was expecting. But now mean interest rates have really soared. When we look back at the start of 2022, just a little over a year ago, about a year and a half back, we were at near zero. Well, now we're at over 5% today. So that that is where we stand as far as interest rates to try and combat inflation. There are quite a few signs that inflation is coming down. Now, in its latest statement, the Fed no longer predicting a recession for the US economy in the near future. But many economists, though, they disagree. Several leading economic indicators pointing still towards a downturn. So it's super important to still be protected, be proactive in preparing no matter what happens. And so we've got some some tips for folks here with you, ten of them, as a matter of fact.

Woody Bowling:
We do. And, you know, our crystal ball is still broken. They can't get it back to us in working order. So we still can't tell the future. There may be a recession. There may not. We don't know. But what we do know is we like these tips. Number one, diversify your investment portfolio, spread those investments across various asset classes, stocks, annuities. We use annuities a lot. If it's in a 401. K right now, you can't use an annuity really, because you're going to have to use whatever's in your menu or your menu of mutual funds that you have to choose from. And I can help you understand those if you have questions about it. So call me diversification. We're going to try to reduce volatility in your retirement savings. That's the name of the game. You know, when the market's really taking a dip, we don't want to go down as far. And when it's going up, we want to capture a good share of that increase.

Producer:
That's what it is all about, protection from those big market swings. Number two, establish an emergency fund. And this is really important to what he just just because, you know, you don't want to have to dip into your retirement savings and investments when there's some type of emergency that comes up. And inevitably those happen because life happens.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, things happen. A big car repair, the roof, the air conditioner, the furnace, you know, so many things, especially if you're a homeowner. You know, you can relate to what I'm saying because I can relate to it very well. It might be a refrigerator that goes out, a dishwasher, a washing machine, whatever, so that 3 to 6 months worth of your living expenses on a monthly basis, if your monthly expenses are two grand, try to have 6 to 12 grand put away in a fund that you can get to very quickly, a bank savings account checking account, or if you want to put it in a Folgers coffee can, that's up to you as well. But just make sure you've got it.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. Just make sure you have it and have access to it. Number three, minimize your debt, especially the high interest debt like credit cards, anything revolving like that, because that compounding interest, boy, that that adds up and it just makes that debt burden even worse over time.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, there are certain financial, quote unquote gurus that have made millions and millions of dollars telling people these common sense tips like pay down or pay off your high interest rate credit cards. Guess what? That's common sense. If you've got a credit card statement and you owe any money on it, they have to disclose each month that you get the statement how long it's going to take to pay off. If you only pay off the minimum, be prepared for your jaw to hit the floor when you see that number, how long it'll take you to pay it off. So that's common sense. We like common sense approach. Pay off those credit cards. If you can do six month, 90 day or a year, same as cash. When you make big purchases like furniture, flooring, things like that. I did flooring in our whole main level of our house last year, 12 months, same as cash. Why? Why shouldn't I use their money? It cost me nothing, right? So a couple more months, it's paid off. No interest. I like that.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. That's. That's very good. You can use it smartly, but you just have to be smart about it and be careful with it. Number four, increase contributions during good times.

Woody Bowling:
I like that strategy. You know, on the flip side of that, people do go through life. We say life. We did say life happens, if at all possible. You have run into a circumstance that's difficult. If you can avoid taking money out of your 401. K, please try to avoid it. But there also there there are loans with 401 K's. Many companies will let people borrow up to 50. 80% of their vested balance and then repay it to themselves. The problem is, is that money that you took out that you're repaying out of your paycheck when it's coming back into your 401. K, you're losing out on those potential gains in the market. So that's the downside. If you do need to hit your 401. K. But when things are good, stay out of that 401. K, pick up the contribution and let that darn thing grow for you.

Producer:
Yeah. Number six here, consider annuities. We've mentioned them before here on this episode of the show and plenty of times in past episodes as well. But they can be a great, great option for a lot of people.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, we feel like we should do a MythBusters episode on annuities every week, and Woody and Matt would be very famous. Um, but it's true. They have a place in the portfolio of most retirees, and that's just the plain and simple fact. It doesn't mean you have to have one, but once you understand fully what an indexed annuity can do for you today, most people really, really, really are number one. They're surprised pleasantly by what it can do, and they're not nearly as restrictive as far as surrender charge periods as they used to be. The one that I use quite often is only five years and done, but they can provide so many positives and you're going to keep plenty of other money and other spots that you can get to and let the annuity do its thing and do what it's supposed to do for you in your retirement planning process. That's the beauty of them today 100%.

Producer:
And I just actually realized I skipped over number five a minute ago. Like very close observers of the show will realize that number five was missing. So regularly review and adjust your plan. That was number five. My I just skipped over it. But it's an important one to not skip over in your own life. Don't just set it and forget it.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, I mentioned that earlier. Be flexible, get a plan together, but realize we're going to have to have some flexibility. We're going to have to have the ability to make some changes on the fly. Because why do we say life happens and it's going to deal you some different circumstances. Occasionally you might inherit some money. That's a good change of circumstance, right? Then that can add all kinds of bonuses to the plan that we've set up. So those things happen. Other things happen, divorces happen. Unfortunately, I've seen it happen to people in their 60s and 70s. It's a sad thing, but it does. So, you know, we want to review that plan at least once a year. And with some clients it's more than that.

Producer:
Yeah, and it depends again on your particular situation, how often you need to do that. Number seven, explore defensive stocks. And when we say defensive, we're not talking about, you know, like the football defense or like, you know, the military or anything like that. We're talking about defensive stocks, which is what we know, consumer staples.

Woody Bowling:
Health care utilities is a big one. Yeah, those are all things to people. It's just different ways, you know, that are when the market's not doing so well. These are things that people are always going to need. Those are the things that are usually speaking. They're going to hold steady even in a downturn, meaning if their stock price goes down, they're not going to go down as much as some of these high flying Netflix, Apple, Google, these growth and technology stocks. Man, that is a roller coaster ride with those companies. So if you want to ride those and I do have some of those in some of my portfolio because I manage my own money along with client money. So you just got to buckle up and know that there's a portion of your portfolio that is going to have some volatility. And that's not a bad thing overall in the long run, depending on how old you are. But then you've got to have the safe stuff on the other side of the coin to offset that.

Producer:
Number eight is to delay Social Security benefits if possible. You mentioned that one a little bit earlier, Woody, but that is giving yourself a raise every year, essentially.

Woody Bowling:
I did. And it's hard to get 8% guaranteed from anywhere in the government today. So if the government is willing to give you that and guarantee it, that's not a bad thing. As long as the Social Security fund stays solvent, that's another thing for another day. But yeah, if you're healthy and you enjoy working and you can, you know, keep going, keep pushing off the Social Security, there's different break-even calculations on when should I start taking it? We can help you figure that out with a break even calculation If that's part of your commitment that you want from me, I'll be happy to look at that for you.

Producer:
Yeah, and I'll loop together numbers nine and ten here because we're coming up on the very end of the show. But number nine is to continuously educate yourself. You're doing that by listening to The Buckeye Advisor. And number ten is to consult a financial advisor like The Buckeye Advisor, Mr. Woody Boling. Matt, it's.

Woody Bowling:
Been a pleasure having you here again this week. We enjoy it. Great job helping with the program, as always. And you know, listeners, I'm just going to say to you, there are people that I've talked to over the last year of this show and they're say to themselves and then they say to me, when we meet, I wish I would have called you sooner. I know some people are thinking about it. Maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't. He's going to try to sell us something. That's not the case. If you listen to the program, if you haven't, go back and listen to some of the old episodes we're going to meet. We're going to learn about your situation. We'll come up with a plan, some recommendations, and we'll see if there's a fit to work together. So don't hesitate to call me. (937) 974-6201. Thanks for listening, everybody. We hope you have a blessed week. And Matt, we'll see you back next week.

Producer:
We'll see you then.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to The Buckeye Advisor. You deserve to work with an experienced and licensed expert who will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets. To schedule your free no obligation consultation with Woody, visit TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com or pick up the phone and call (937) 974-6201. That's (937) 974-6201.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor, BCM and The Buckeye Advisor are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your mp3 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you’d love including secure transcription and file storage, collaboration tools, world-class support, share transcripts, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.