Important Steps to Avoiding Common Retirement Regrets

10.20.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

10.20.23: 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:
Greetings to everyone, all you rabid Buckeye Advisor fans, I know you're out there. I know you're joining us today. Saturday, October 21st, 23 or maybe Sunday morning, October 22nd, 9:00 in the morning till 10:00 in the morning. Here on 94.5 Dayton You can always listen live. So if you're in your car joining us and you gotta get out of the car when you get back home with your groceries or your grandkids or your kids, jump on the computer and listen to the rest of our episode. Or you can listen to it anytime as it lives on in forever in infamy on my website, TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com or anywhere that you get podcasts. We are everywhere. We're hard to hard to miss being able to find. And speaking of hard to miss, I can always find this guy at a reliable spot at his place in Atlanta, ready to lend his many talents to this show each week as a co-host and producer. Matt McClure. Welcome, Matt. Happy Saturday to you. Thank you.

Producer:
Sir. Happy weekend and I hope you've had a great week. I know it's been kind of busy, but hey, that can be a good thing. Definitely.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah it's busy, it's busy. It's a good busy busy with Medicare people. Lots of questions. Always feel those dealing with current clients and potentially new people and referrals. Always a blessing to have those referrals. Always a blessing to have our listeners. It's been a good week. It'll be an even better weekend. Matt, if we find out a little later today that Ohio State beats up on the Penn State Nittany Lions. It's a top ten game. Ohio State undefeated. Very, very big game. So all of you Buckeye fans join me in a prayer right this moment that we do the win today and we continue this unbeaten season. Hopefully we get some kids healthy and we're ready to play now. There you go.

Producer:
I mean football season. Oh boy. It's definitely in full swing and definitely down here in in Georgia as well. We are watching everything, watching some injuries that are happening as well. Some unfortunately some surgeries that are happening as well. So yeah you know it's the same all around but still undefeated season down here as well. So you know who knows. We could be looking at the Buckeyes and the Bulldogs meeting up a little bit later on in the you know in the playoffs it.

Woody Bowling:
Could happen again. And last year's game was decided by a couple of points I believe and unbelievable great teams on both sides. But I think our listeners probably are tuning in. I know they love their Buckeyes as some may live, the love the Bulldogs, and maybe there's even a Wolverine fan or two that are listening. But we thank you for joining us today. Wherever you're at on the podcast, listening later on the radio. Thank you for coming. We appreciate it. We can't do this without you. We've got a great show lined up this week. As always, Matt. Our goal is to be informational, educational, have some fun along the way and make people think and make them consider where they're at. Perhaps consider a new direction as they come into their path towards retirement, whether you're 50 or 55 or 60 or 75. I help people of all those age groups with different things to ensure that their retirement journey is more pleasant than the journey that they're on today. So I love what I'm doing. That's why we're here as a fiduciary advisor. Matt, tell us what we've got coming up today and let's get going.

Producer:
Yeah, buddy, I know a lot of people are having questions to, as you said, about Medicare and the open enrollment period, the annual enrollment period, I should say, going on through December 7th. So, of course, if you have any of those questions, just give Woody a call. You can do that. (937) 974-6201 or go online to the Buckeye advisors.com. And that's advisor with an Or by the way of course we are going to start things out with our quote of the week as we always do here momentarily after that we'll talk not so much about Medicare but about Social Security, that other big program that so many people of a certain age benefit from. We'll talk about the Cola announcement that cost of living adjustment announcement for 2024. And the official numbers came out after we did last week's show. So we'll talk about that. And if that's keeping up with inflation, speaking of inflation, you know, how have Americans responded to it. Well, we're going to take a look at what a poll found here not all that long ago about what people were doing to kind of deal with it, what changes they were making in their lives. It will have an inflation demonstration, as well as a popular treat for Americans, raising its prices by about 20%. What treat might that be? Well, you'll have to stay tuned and bring your sweet tooth to find out some required minimum distribution. Talk as well. What to do with your stray 401 K? And then also when we do get to our Medicare talk, Woody, a little bit later on, we'll be talking about some scams to avoid during the annual enrollment period, why people take advantage of all kinds of things. And, you know, Medicare season really no different there. All right. So before we get started with all of that, let's springboard into our conversations this week with our quote of the week.

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

Producer:
And this week's quote comes from Jim Rohn, who was a renowned entrepreneur author most known probably to most people as a motivational speaker as well. He overcame some early financial challenges and really became a mentor and an inspiration to a lot of folks. So Jim Rohn said this quote, we must all suffer from one of two pains the pain of discipline or the pain of regrets. The difference is discipline weighs ounces, while regret weighs tons. Boy can testify to that for sure. Wow.

Woody Bowling:
I tell you, I think that will resonate with all of our listeners. It's just like a truth bomb going off right in front of our face. And you know what Mr. Rohn is saying? I got to confess, until this week, I'd never heard of him. But that sole sentence alone is such an amazing statement on having the discipline to do things that you know you should do, even though they're not always easy. And you know that as parents we ask that of our children. Many times we say, tell the truth no matter what. And you know, the kids thinking, if I tell the truth, I'm going to be in big trouble, so why not lie? You know, with adults it's better to save every month if you can. It's save early, save often. Put money into that 401 K. Take advantage of those matching all those things take discipline to do. And there's always a part of people saying, no, no, you shouldn't do it. There's always that doubt. Don't do it. You're not going to be able to make it. But what we don't see is down the road, the benefit and how much it's going to make a difference in our lives. And as we start preparing for retirement years later. That's the beauty about what he's saying and the regret. And I have clients that don't have a lot of assets accumulated for retirement.

Woody Bowling:
And I understand that. And that's part of life for a lot of Americans. A ginormous portion of Americans do not have much set aside for retirement. So for one reason or another, there's a lot of different things that happen in people's lives because we know life happens. But if you're in the ability to do it. Discipline yourself, save money regularly, do the right things, live within a budget. All those things are going to make such a huge difference for you later on, and you're going to be so proud of yourself when you look back. And I met with someone this week who had a very, very nice. Amount of money set aside for retirement in their late 50s, and I was so happy to see someone have that kind of discipline over the years, over 30 plus years of saving and saving and saving. Setting up Roth IRAs. But they're in their advisor now, doesn't take them seriously. And that's why they wanted to talk to me. And so it can make a difference. But, you know, God bless the people that are willing to make the sacrifice, have the discipline, do the saving, and do the other right things that you know that are going to help you later on.

Producer:
Yeah, that it does take a little bit of going against human nature a lot of time because people, you know, we want it as human beings. We want things here and now. And it's the the push button mentality. We want to push a button and it happens. And that's just not the way that life works. So you got to have that that discipline. You got to have guidance as well to be able to get there. And so that is why we do this show, and that's why you do what you do every day, Woody, is, is to help people out and educate them and kind of, you know, lend them a helping hand here as they try to plan for their future, because that's what it's all about. It's not you don't plan for the here and the now. You plan for the future, and you got to have a plan in place if you want it to be successful.

Woody Bowling:
Yep. Very true.

Producer:
Well, okay, so we mentioned this toward the top of the show, Woody, that Social Security will they announced the cost of living adjustment, the Cola for 2024. And the thing is, you know, the question that will sort of get to here in a second is, are we really keeping up with the rising prices, with the with the inflation that's actually been happening over these past couple of years? So Social Security recipients going to get an annual cost of living adjustment of 3.2% for 2024. And that is of course much smaller than we saw the past year. Certainly, you know, in 2023, but even the previous two years. So kind of break this down for us. What what does it mean for retirees. And that big question are we keeping up with the pace of real inflation?

Woody Bowling:
Well, that's a great debate going on with a lot of different people involved. The Senior Citizens League, you know, they're critical and skeptical that those Cola, that the Cola index they're looking at really represents it. And I would tend to agree with them. And a lot of ways I mean, we can we've talked about it this year on our show. Auto insurance has gone up 30% to 35% for most people. Almost almost everyone I've talked to has had the comment that their auto insurance, no claims, no accidents, no anything went up 30 to 35% happened to me in January. All these other areas of your life, energy prices, food prices, not every food price, but certain foods have gone up 15, 20, 25. Dining out the same restaurant that my wife and I eat at once a month or every other month, that used to be, you know, $35 for this particular dish that we like or $33 now it's 43. That's a 30% increase. So look, things are going up across the board. Inflation is not what it seems to be. And a lot of ways. We've had nice increases the last couple of years three years actually 6% and 21. Almost 6%. Almost again in 22 and then 8.7% last year, 3.2% this year just announced the other day. It's tough to swallow after increases like that.

Woody Bowling:
One of the small bits of good news is the Medicare Part B premium for people on Social Security and Medicare. Next year is going up, and I'm going to use air quotes. When I say only about $10, it's going to go up from one 6490 to 1 7470. I don't know where they get these little the number of cents they come up with, but about $10 it is Medicare annual enrollment period. There are a great a lot of great choices. All the savvy people out there consider Medicare reviews each year of their plans. And I do Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare supplements. There's not a one size fits all. I work with a lot of insurance companies on that part of my business as well. The other part of my business is a registered investment advisor representative. That part is separate. That part is what I do very well as well. So I work with people on all those different areas of their lives. Is very rewarding to help people understand the right way to negotiate through these things. But the cost of living adjustment, I'm disappointed, as I know a lot of other people are, that it wasn't bigger because I think in true life, people are seeing much more than 3.2% out of pocket. Yeah, that's very true.

Producer:
And you know, we've got inflation that is, according to this group, true deflation which runs true deflation.com. They're saying that the great name it is I know I wish I'd come up with that actually. But but true flation.com. They have determined that the real level of inflation since January of 2020 is actually 23.9%. So, you know, are you keeping up with that in your life? As you talked about what we see these different inflation numbers come out and the cost of living adjustment is kind of one of those to throw into the mix here about because, you know, it's tied to one of the measures of inflation, the urban inflation number, the the that they use every year to determine that. But then also, you know, bottom line is no matter where you are, where you live across the country, there in Ohio, here where I am in Georgia, or anywhere in between or around about, prices are going up and people are making adjustments to their lives in order to just make ends meet, really and not even really get ahead a lot of the time, but just to make ends meet, just to be able to pay their bills, talk about this, this study, this was actually done by a consumer insight group and it's called We are Social here and talk about this these numbers because was surprised by some of these.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah I mean they did that survey and they they asked you know Americans how did you adjust your behavior. How have you adjusted your behavior due to inflation. And there's a lot of responses here. 64% of the people responded, I spend less on non-essentials. Of course, essentials would be energy, food, transportation, those type housing, those types of things. And in certain cases, those tend to be fixed expenses that, you know, they're pretty much baked into your budget. You're not going to budge much on those because you can't if you're paying X number of dollars for your house or your rent that's built in your car payment, that's not a variable. It's going to be fixed. It's going to be the same. So where people can make adjustments is they're not buying as nearly as much that they would like to buy. It's want versus need. So they're not buying as many things maybe as they want, but they're sticking to things that they need and they don't feel confident enough because of inflation and all those other factors. 64% say I pay more attention to bargains and deals. That's to me that number seems low. It seems like everybody, 100% of people should be paying attention to bargains and deals. That's what's fun, except everybody has a friend or neighbor that every time you talk to them and you say, hey, I like that shirt or hey, I like those jeans, you're going to get a ten minute explanation on how they looked.

Woody Bowling:
And they found those jeans for $5.28 and they double coupon or something silly. But aside from those people, it makes a lot of sense. You know, for 39% cut back on non-essentials in their vehicle, non-essential journeys, I should say, or trips. So you try to make, you know, and it makes sense if you're spending if you have less money to spend because of inflation, instead of those daily trips here or there, quick trips here and there, you know, consolidate into one round trip, do it all at once. You save the back and forth. You save some wear and tear on your vehicle. People are cutting back and stopping, going out for dinner and lunch. They use gas and electricity less. They're setting their thermostats on lower temperatures. Throw the sweats on, throw the hoodie on, throw the blankets on. I like doing that anyways because I like to sleep when it's cold. But and then a whopping 11%, 11% of these people that are fortunate enough that where they said I didn't change my behavior at all, maybe they're just being rebels, or maybe they're fibbing in their response to these folks doing the survey, I'm not sure which.

Producer:
Surely they wouldn't do something like that. I would know, I would think there probably a few of those in there because, you know, I think everybody has had to at least adjust in some way. But maybe, you know, these are that that 11% or maybe very well-to-do people, and they didn't have to make any huge adjustments consciously anyway to sort of make those ends meet. You know, if you've got, you know, millions or billions, you know, to, to make it through then then you're probably doing pretty well, okay for yourself. But, you know, I mean, all of this equals a bigger struggle for everyday folks to really make ends meet on a day to day basis and make their retirement plan work. I mean, you know, we've got all of this inflation happening and a lot of people might say, okay, well, what do I see as a non-essential? Well, you know, we talked about in the beginning after the quote of the week, you know, we were talking about people wanting things here and now and, and not seeing the value of necessarily planning effectively for the, the future. Well, maybe they might see that retirement plan off way in the distance, those retirement years way in the distance that might make them see retirement planning as a non-essential or something at the moment. They might cut back on that. So, you know, we got to, of course, spread the message. Don't do that because tomorrow you will not be grateful for that. But also if you are staying the course on your retirement plan and we hope that you are going to ask the question, is it working for you with all of this inflation going on?

Woody Bowling:
Yeah. And I want to just to shoot back to the previous little discussion. I've got a lot of clients that technically, they've worked awfully hard over the years to accumulate a good sum of money for retirement. They don't have to necessarily make dramatic adjustments to their spending, but they do. And they're conscious about it because they worked hard over the years to accumulate their wealth and to grow it. And they've taught their kids and their grandkids to work hard. So that's what is fun about dealing with people that are just down to earth people that, hey, we don't necessarily have to cut back, but we do. We talk about it, we don't like it. They don't. They'll complain as much as anybody else about inflation and everything else. But your comment about retirement planning, man, now is the most important time if you. Will be willing to discuss your situation with someone like myself, a fiduciary advisor. I'm a hybrid advisor. I'm well versed for over 14 years in the insurance and investments. I help coordinate a overall plan that is going to encompass insurance, investments, safe money market related investments that are going to have some fluctuation over time, but that they're going to be tactically managed on a regular basis. And we're looking for solid long term performance. That's what you need. People need to understand that. How can we make it all work together? Right now, most people don't have a coherent plan other than their advisor says, we'll just stay in the market.

Woody Bowling:
We're going to keep you in bonds and stocks, and the mutual funds involved in your 401 K is probably in the same thing. People have old 401 S and the same thing. Those advisors, you know, the ones that do work with clients personally that are not 401 K related. Most of those people are caught up in accumulating as much dollars as they can into those amount of funds. They manage and they lose track. And I met with someone a couple of days ago, the gentleman I was telling you about in his wife, and they had never heard of the safe money strategies that I do that we've talked about on the show, a fixed indexed annuity. They weren't familiar with it and how it worked until they had the chance to listen to the explanation of how it's not right for all of their retirement funds that they've worked so hard to accumulate, but it's right for a portion. And we can create guaranteed income for life. And that's a new term to them other than, you know, pensions and social security. So the educational part of what you do is very enjoyable. The advisory part of what I do when I incorporate the different strategies and the people can see how it can all work together in the long run to provide a successful retirement path and plan. So whether you're 5 or 10 years away from retiring and you've just got a 401 K from an old employer that you want to look at, let's do something with that.

Woody Bowling:
Perfect. We can do that when you're 59.5 and over and you've got a 401 K that you've been putting into for 20, 30 years, and you're concerned about getting that recent third quarter statement. And the balance was way, way down because it was a choppy third quarter. Let's talk because most employers allow a 59.5 year old or older to do what's called an in-service withdrawal. And you can roll that money into your own IRA. And we can manage that on a basis of a personalized strategy that's tailored based on how much risk that you're okay with these days, because most advisors, if they've had a long term relationship, they don't stay really in touch with their clients because they're trying to too busy to acquire new clients. So you lose that personal touch. And then for a lot of advisors, if you don't have a really big sum of money invested, you're not going to get their full attention. And that's the way I've had clients tell me they felt with their previous advisors. So we're going to tell you that bond funds have done very poorly. Last year, the worst record in history for the year of 2022. And they're not doing much better today. Inflation still stubbornly high. And there's lots of different things that we can consider that might make a lot more sense for you.

Producer:
Yeah. And you can get a free consultation folks by going to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. . Or call Woody (937) 974-6201. Well that's going to do it for the first half of the show. But stay with us. Much more to come here on the Buckeye Advisor including an inflation demonstration. And of course the dad joke of the week. When we come back.

Producer:
I am speaking with Woody Bowling, the Buckeye advisor. Woody, everything is more expensive these days. And health care is no different.

Woody Bowling:
That's right. Matt, and just to put it in perspective, a fidelity study found that the average retired couple may need $315,000 just to pay health care expenses in retirement.

Producer:
Oh, and I would think that those costs are not expected to go down anytime soon. Yeah, right.

Woody Bowling:
You are, Matt. In fact, health care is projected to get even more expensive. 75 million more people retiring between now and 2030.

Producer:
So, Woody, what can listeners do to put themselves in the best position for retirement?

Woody Bowling:
Bottom line is you need to have a plan and I can help you get started when you contact me at the Buckeye advisors.com. No matter your situation, I can help you with a no obligation retirement and Medicare consultation today. You heard.

Producer:
Him folks. For your. Free consultation. Reach out on TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com today.

Producer:
Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Visit TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com for more information. Miss part of today's show. The Buckeye Advisor is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com.

Producer:
Welcome back to The Buckeye Advisor. I'm Matt McClure, the producer of The Buckeye Advisor Show, and very glad to be in that role here alongside the Buckeye advisor himself, Mr. Woody Bowling. You can reach out as well for a free consultation. Go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. That's TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. Or you can give Woody a call at (937) 974-6201. We'll talk in just a minute about how that all that kind of process works a little bit. But first we got to get some serious business out of the way. Yeah, it's our dad. Joke of the week.

Producer:
The marriage counselor loves them. Keeps him in business. It's the dad joke of the week.

Producer:
And of course, I use the term serious very facetiously here because we like to have fun on the Buckeye Advisor. So. All right, let's do it, Woody. Let's have some fun.

Woody Bowling:
Here we do. Matt, I do have to ask you, did I ever tell you that when I was younger, my dad got fired from his job as a road worker for theft? He was a road worker. He was. I don't know if I ever told you.

Producer:
That he was a road worker. Oh, no, I never, never heard that they got fired. Wow. Why did why did that happen?

Woody Bowling:
Well, I refuse to believe it too. But when I got home, the signs were all there. It's a little different format for today's dad joke, but equally as effective, if not more. I love that.

Producer:
I love that, that's great. Gotta change it up every now and then. That's right. That's good stuff. And you know what, folks? If you call Woody bowling, I mentioned that the number a minute ago. (937) 974-6201. Not only will he tell you a dad joke if you want him to, that is, that is free of charge. Always. Also free of charge are the full consultations about your financial situation, about your financial future and your retirement as well. Talk a little bit. You know, we were talking about that before the break. Woody, wrap that up in a nice, neat little bow for us here before we move on to the rest of our topics today.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah. That's great. So so important. You know, as an advisor, I am as good as the information that I gather from people that are interested in talking with me. And when I do talk with them, I'm going to ask them about all kinds of areas of their life, their savings, their insurance, their investments, all those different things. I'm going to do some homework based on how much risk that they're interested in, where they stand today versus where they want to be. I'm going to give them some answers and feedback on, you know, potential scenarios in retirement. Where can I be? How much income can I generate? All those things are going to go into the equation. We're going to throw them into the blender, and we're going to set it on their setting and come up with a unique plan for their situation. And here's the nice part. Still, the cost is zero because Mr. Matt McClure will insist upon me not letting people charge for that. And I'm not going to because I love helping people. That's what I do. And it's just a great, great thing to work with people that care about their situation. And I'm so blessed to do that each and every week.

Producer:
Yeah. And folks, if you want a free consultation, once again you can go to the website, TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. That's the Buckeye Advisor with an o r.com.

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

Producer:
And as our dramatic introduction to this segment says, it's time to talk a little bit more about inflation. And we've got a sweet demonstration this time around because we're talking about Girl Scout cookies. Yeah. It's not often that this topic comes up here on the show. But as I say, you know, you change the format of the joke a little bit. Woody. We get to change a little bit of the topics we talk about. Love me some Girl Scout cookies, but hey, they're getting more expensive this year.

Woody Bowling:
They are, and they are a universally loved. If they don't have a flavor that you like, God help you. I don't know if you are fixable. I'm just kidding, of course. But you know, they're going to cost more and they've been going up over the last few years at a very alarming rate for many of us cookie lovers. And many people are cookie lovers. So I hope you're enjoying the fact that we're covering such a sweet topic today. The $20 bill that you used to buy four boxes of cookies now covers only three with a couple of bucks left over. That is disappointing. It really is. And you know what surprises me? They sell 200 million boxes of cookies each year. That's more boxes than Oreos. I was unaware of that until we did our research. Matt, can you believe that number?

Producer:
It's kind of crazy, but, you know, you do. I can and I can't just because of the sheer size of it. It's like, wow, they sell that many really. But then you sort of think about it and you're like, well, I guess so, because they're just everywhere. For a few months of the year between January and April, they are all over the place. And people have, you know, like if their daughters are in the Girl Scouts, I'm sure that most of our listeners have had coworkers who have had, you know, the Girl Scout cookies for sale there. People go to the grocery store, the Girl Scouts are out in front of the store as you walk in. And so, yeah, it's but, you know, you got to shell out more money. That box that used to cost $5 now going to cost six. So inflation really, truly is hitting everywhere.

Woody Bowling:
And God love those little Girl Scouts and their moms and their leaders that will sit outside a Kroger or Walmart in the cool, sometimes cold weather and endure sitting in that inclement weather to sell those cookies. I mean, God bless them for that. People should stop and buy a box or 2 or 10 because it's a good cause. And these Girl Scouts are working their little tails off to sell them. Now, here's an important question, Matt. What's your favorite flavor?

Producer:
Well, you know, if I have to choose and I have a hard time choosing here, but if I had to choose, I would say probably the the tagalongs, the peanut butter patty kind. I do have to. I love Thin Mints because I, you know, like my favorite ice cream is, is mint chocolate chip. Oh is it. Yeah. Okay. Well, so I love the mint and the chocolate kind of combo. Samoas I like to you know, those are the ones that the caramel and the whole coconut thing going on. Yeah.

Woody Bowling:
The coconut I'm not into the coconut. I'm with you on the peanut butter patty. The tagalongs. Yeah, I knew great minds think alike. That's it. I let you go first, but I circled it on my outline for today. That's my that's my jam right there.

Producer:
Anytime you can combine peanut butter and chocolate, I'm there. Oh my God, 100%.

Woody Bowling:
I'm hungry as soon as the show's over, you know where I'm going?

Producer:
That's right. Go either to the kitchen or the restaurant down the street. One of the two. That's right. So. All right, let's get back into our maybe a less fun topic for for a lot of our listeners here and talk about required minimum distributions. You know, we mention this try to of course last year as our was our first year on the air together. Now we're a year later and approaching December 31st faster and faster. So yeah the need is here to remind people about required minimum distributions. Talk about that, Woody. Why it's so important for people to have that reminder now so that they can prepare before the end of the year arrives?

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, it's a good reminder. It's a public service announcement or a PSA, I think probably more than anything. And I can tell you from my own experience with clients, many of them don't like the fact that they have to take the RMD. And it's just the fact because a lot of them don't use the money, a lot of them will just take the money. Most of them have maybe 10% withheld for taxes, and then they put it into a savings account. Or maybe they give it away to their kids or grandkids, or they have an extra large Christmas or birthday celebration with it, because a lot of people just rather leave the money and let it grow, right. And then if it continues to grow, they're going to pass it on eventually anyways to their beneficiaries. You don't want to miss taking your RMD, and I've got clients that have more than one IRA account. Like some of our listeners out there. They have more than one account. So if you have three IRAs and that's very possible, you don't have to pull money from each account. You can actually consolidate your total required minimum distribution. And I do this for several clients where they have the year end number that. It says this is your RMD from this account, this account and this one. But they want to take it. What we typically do is I try to take it from their account that is performing in the least effective manner. The one that's making the least the lowest amount of interest for them. And it may be an account that I had nothing to do with setting up. And it's been in place for a long time. And old annuity. It could be many different things.

Woody Bowling:
So if you have to take an RMD, I recommend, if you have more than one account, consolidate into one RMD and as long as you keep track of it, you're fine for tax purposes because we don't want you paying any darn tax penalties for not taking it out, right? We don't want that. The new rule now is you got to be 73 before you have to take your RMDs. But that's previously not been the case. It used to be 70.5 for many, many years that you had to start taking the RMDs. Then it moved to age 72 and now it's 73. So it's progressively been raised a little bit over the last few years. So we don't like RMDs. You can also look at converting over to a Roth IRA. You can get rid of Uncle Sam because you won't have to worry about any tax on that at all once you got it converted fully into the Roth IRA. The good news with the Roth IRA is that once it's done, it's done. You don't have to bite the tax bullet any longer. You can convert it in one year, or maybe 2 or 3 or four years. And the people that you're leaving that Roth IRA to, they get the added benefit of when you leave it to them. Matt, if you are my beneficiary on my Roth IRA, you would love me more than you do now. And I know that's a big that's a stretch, but you would love me even more because all that money is tax free and you owe Uncle Sam absolutely zero. Nada. Nothing. And that's a good number when it comes to taxes, as we like to say.

Producer:
Yeah, I was going to say, is that even possible, Woody? For for me to love the Buckeye Advisor even more than I do. But yeah.

Woody Bowling:
That was a.

Producer:
Stretch. Hey, you know, if it means no taxes being paid, I am all about it. And that would that would that would do it for me. And so yeah. Roth conversion definitely something to think about for people. And you know, can you move that that money over. That's such a great reason to reach out to the Buckeye advisor, Mr. Woody Bowling himself, and talk about that. We also have this free resource, folks, that we can give to you. It's tax free investments for a better retirement. It's a free report that Woody will send your way. Absolutely. As I said, free of charge, no obligation at all. It's just yours. When you reach out and you know it's going to provide you with some great information, some detailed info, as well as some tips for getting started on tax free investments, things like a Roth IRA. Also life insurance that can be used for a tax free retirement as well. And again, schedule that complimentary consultation. That is also no obligation. You can get that free report. You can do it by calling (937) 974-6201, or go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com on the interwebs. And you know, I mentioned those two things Roth IRAs and life insurance, because those are really the only two true tax free investments that are available to our listeners today.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, they are. And some people actually probably quite a few consumers aren't aware of that life insurance is going to go to their beneficiaries on a tax free basis. I just don't think it's something they think about. They think about, oh, I want to have the life insurance to pay off a mortgage or as they get older, maybe to pay off their funeral and maybe any some lingering debt that might be left over, including medical bills. Sometimes from a prolonged situation, they just forget that the actual one of the in addition to being there for their loved ones, it's going to be a tax free benefit, which is even better. Um, a universal life policy. I work with those especially for people in their 40s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Man, if you set one of those up, they're easy to qualify for. You can get a lot of life insurance for a few bucks. And if you're willing to put the time and effort into overfunding that for 15, 20 years, man, that can set up a great tax free retirement income situation for you to supplement your Social Security. Love love, love that idea. Again, it's for people primarily in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Don't get one after that.

Woody Bowling:
I ran into one a couple months ago. The guy didn't even do what the agent had sold him. We fixed it. We got him a different policy. That's a whole life policy that's just going to be there and the premiums not going to change and all that. So you got to be careful. I've seen all the types. Life insurance. I can tell you what kind of mutual funds and investments you're in, in your 401 K's and IRAs. We can run scenarios and save you money, potentially on fees and transaction charges, all those things the Buckeye Advisor can do. And I know there's some people that's been listening for a while. They're sitting on the fence. They're like, man, should I call Woody? I think what they're doing is good, but I'm not sure if it's quite for me. Well, I'll just encourage you. Give us a call. Give me a call. Let's talk. I'm going to be the same person that you hear on the radio. Maybe even funnier. Sometimes it just depends. Um, but, look, we're going to have fun. We're going to come up with good strategies, and it doesn't cost you a thing to consider. Perhaps a different path on how to do things.

Producer:
Yeah. And, you know, no matter the fact, you know, you may think that you are on the right track and that might be the case. And if it is the case, then what he's going to tell you just that. But chances are your situation can be improved. So just go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com folks. That's the Buckeye Advisor with an o r at the end.com. And what he can can help you explore all of your different possibilities. Do a full analysis there and really get to the bottom of things and find out if you can improve your particular situation. One of the ways that people might be able to improve their situation, Woody, is by finding some money that they had either forgotten about or lost or, you know, thought was lost forever. You go from one job to another. Let's say, as we lay the scenario out here, did you bring that old 401 K over with you to the new job? Not the particular account itself, but the funds within that account? Did you bring that money over and roll it into that new 401 K? If not, well, it's now an orphan or a stray 401 K, as we like to say. And that's not a good situation because, you know, you could have money that's sitting there that is yours, that you just really don't even know about anymore.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, people forget and I've ran into it several times. I'm working with someone right now and just worked with someone last month. Same thing. We were talking about Medicare. I was going through my questions that I do to get their full profile and understand their situation. She said, oh yeah, I do have an old 401. I don't remember how much it was. So she goes in and digs it, digs a piece of paper out out of her bedroom. It's got 110,000 in it. Wow. Oh, okay. I forgot about that. So, yes, we worked on that. We moved it into a safe money strategy to help protect it, but still grow it because she's 65, she doesn't want as much risk anymore. So these four, one with the old employer, guess who cares about how it does for you? No one. Right? Because they have a third party administrator doing the 401 K plan. They have a phone network, a phone bank of advisors that are answering questions all day long, and they're getting paid an hourly wage or salary by the company. That's it. Most of them are not going to give you advice. They're just going to tell you what your options are and importantly, more importantly, your options in a 401 K typically are limited to maybe a dozen or maybe a little more options. Okay, maybe sometimes a little more. I don't want to say it's all that way, but when the investment advisory services that I have, I mean, I have between 50 and 75 options that might be appropriate for you that we're going to work them down, narrow them down the funnel till we get something that works for you.

Woody Bowling:
So if you've got an old 401 K, there's no cost in rolling it over into an IRA. It doesn't trigger any tax implications at all. As long as you stay 401 K into a traditional IRA. But it also might make sense. In addition to having all those extra options that we can manage based on your current risk level that you're comfortable with. But it might be a good idea to consider a Roth IRA conversion, because at that point, if you convert it now or part of it this year, part of it next and part of it the year after into a Roth IRA. Matt. The one thing I don't think I mentioned last segment was you don't have to take required minimum distributions anymore. Once you convert your Roth IRA in your traditional IRA into a Roth, so you can go from a 401 K either to a traditional IRA and keep it pre-tax, or you can start converting all of it or a part of it. Then it's post-tax, then it's Roth IRA money, and it grows completely tax free and will be passed along to beneficiaries tax free. And when you do pull money out of it, down the road, if you want to for income purposes in retirement, you pay zero taxes. That's a wonderful thing. We'd love to hear the words together. Zero and taxes.

Producer:
Yes that's right. Not a number. And then a bunch of zeros after it. And taxes. That's the wrong kind of thing. Just one zero and taxes. That's my preference. Absolutely. Especially these days when everything is costing so much more. And yeah, I mean folks, just reach out, if you will. TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. Once again that's the website you can also call Woody (937) 974-6201. And you know what do you spend a lot of time talking with people about Medicare, especially this time of the year during the annual enrollment period? And in the little, little more than four minutes we have left here in the show, people try to take advantage of all kinds of situations. You know, you see disasters like unfortunately, what's going on over in Israel here now and people trying to come up with scams and ways to make you part with your money because of that, anytime there's some sort of big news event that happens, they try to take advantage. Same thing with Medicare's annual enrollment period. People want to take advantage of those who are Medicare beneficiaries and try to part them with their hard earned money. And there are a few ways to avoid scams during this time of the year. And some great tips here, I think.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, there are. Number one, beware of unsolicited contacts. That means you didn't ask them to contact you. Be cautious if it's a blocked number, if it's a foreign number. But you know, the funny things about these crooks today is they've got the software where they can make that phone call come from your own area code. And I know people that answer their calls and will continue to go back and forth with these people even after they know it's a scam call. I've heard people do it. It's scary. Don't share personal or Medicare information with anybody who contacts you first. Research your plans. I can tell you I work with several different Medicare plans. I've got the 2024 information, the summaries of benefits. I'll research those for you. I'll show you those in hand. Don't you know, protect that Medicare card information. Don't give it up. Medicare fraud amounts to several billion dollars a year still in our country. Trust but verify. I think that applies in a lot of areas of our lives. You know, you want to trust people, but look at those bills that you get. My own father a few years ago was in the hospital. He got a bill from the hospital, and he showed me the bill when I went over to visit one day that week. And I said, that's not right. He was getting ready to write the check because my dad's a kind of guy. He gets a bill, he wants to write the check the next day or right then I'm like, dad, just write your bills once a month or twice a month.

Woody Bowling:
You don't have to write a bill every time it comes in. But he's kind of old school like that at age 82, but this was probably 4 or 5 years ago. And he literally almost had the check written out when I showed up and the doctor's office or the surgeon's office had mis billed him, and it would have been about a $2,000 mistake. And I said, dad. Writing this and giving it to them is easy. Getting it back even after we can prove that they shouldn't have sent it, they said they misspelled it. That might have been a challenge, and had I not happened to walk in on that situation where he mentioned it when I got there, he might have gone. He might have just kept going. And that and I know there are people that do that in this country. I know not everyone, but there are people that are good hearted, hard working people that are trusting of their own insurance companies and their doctors because they think they're good companies or good people. But look, that doesn't mean they're perfect and the billing mistakes happen. Fraud happens. All these different things happen. So when you have a trusted advisor that can help you with Medicare investments, all those things that I can help people with, it's a good thing to have.

Producer:
Absolutely is. And you can get that by giving what do you call (937) 974-6201. You can also go online to the website the Buckeye advisors.com. Well Woody, I think we got to a lot of great info today for the listeners here. But just about time for the show to wrap up. Can't believe it's gone by so fast is it? Usually does, but it seems to go by faster and faster. Thank you for everything that you bring to the table, sir, and we'll look forward to doing it again next week.

Woody Bowling:
Matt. Another episode has gone by in lightning speed or warp speed, whichever you prefer. It's been a fun, educational time. Great to spend time with you and our listeners. Thank you listeners for being here. We appreciate however you catch our show, we look forward to hopefully you learning something. Reach out to me and say hello and also join us next week. We're going to be back at the same time ready to tackle some more new subject matter. Hey everybody, have a blessed week!

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 the Buckeye advisors.com or pick up the phone and call (937) 974-6201. That's (937) 974-6201. 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.

Woody Bowling:
It's that time of year again. Medicare's annual enrollment period is here. I'm Woody Bowling, host of The Buckeye Advisor. For over 15 years, I've been helping the people of Ohio understand the complexities of Medicare. I can tell you the 2024 Medicare changes are some of the best I've ever seen. So contact me today at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. That's TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com.

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