Money Habits that Could Ruin Your Retirement

5.5.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

5.5.23: 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 and good morning to everyone listening in today to the most recent exciting, tantalizing episode of The Buckeye Advisor, hopefully your favorite radio show here on 94.5 FM. The answer Dayton or on your favorite podcast like and subscribe I am Woody Bowling and I have been called The Buckeye Advisor a time or ten and that is what I enjoy being. I am excited to bring another great show to you, full of good content, educational fun and all of that, and who better to join me and bring it with me as he traditionally does, than my good friend, producer and co-host Matt McClure, coming to us from Hotlanta, where I am sure he is ready to go this morning. How are you, Matt?

Producer:
I'm doing great, Woody. Yeah, always ready to go. You know, when it comes to joining The Buckeye Advisor, I am for it all the time.

Woody Bowling:
Well, Matt spent several days in Las Vegas last week, and I'm thankful that he made it back. I'm not sure how much money he has in his account still, but hopefully he'll be back on his feet sooner than later. We don't have to do a GoFundMe for him or any of that good stuff.

Producer:
I wouldn't turn it down. But no, I'm not in the poor house after coming back from Vegas, so that's always a good thing.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, that's great. You come back with the clothes on your back and maybe in your suitcase. But Matt, we are excited. We've got a show today called Be Proactive, Not Reactive. That tells me we've got some good advice for our listeners, as we always do. We're going to hit on a lot of key points how our listeners can accumulate funds over time, accumulate retirement savings, do some things that can help them along the way with their budgeting and all those important things. We enjoy it. There's a lot of research that goes into this show and we appreciate you listening today. Whatever you're doing, if you're taking a grandkid to a ball game or soccer or baseball, it's baseball season now, which is exciting. And I'm sponsoring a 13 and 14 year old team in my hometown, Carlisle of the Carlisle Baseball Association, my first time doing that. Very happy to give back to the community to have my first The Buckeye Advisor baseball team. So that's kind of cool. I'm looking forward to seeing them play and hope they do well. I was a former baseball player and was pretty decent back in the day, but at several days ago.

Producer:
Matt Yeah, you and me both. I was about halfway decent and, and that was, that's been a while. I you know, I remember when I first got started playing ball, I was really young playing tee ball. And I was always, I was just excited to I was just excited to be there. I didn't know when I was super young, all of the, you know, different rules of the game hadn't really quite dawned on me just yet.

Producer:
You're one of those guys in the outfield picking grass is what you're saying? Basically, dandelions, basically.

Producer:
Or like putting like putting the glove up to my face like a mask, you know, and being like, I'm in disguise, you know, that kind of. I was at least I was having fun. Yeah, I.

Producer:
Think they I think some of the leagues across the country start kids too young. And when you start them too young at the ages of four and five, I think it's going to be a crap show. I know rag Ball is one sport that they use. I started in tee ball, but not until age seven and eight. So that was a good foundation. You know, these days they're doing tee ball at four and five and man, it's early to start kids. But you know, we could talk sports all day. I would love to do that. The NFL draft is now over. We hope we can look back and say the Bengals made some good selections during this draft, but we don't know. You know, we won't really know until probably 2 or 3 years down the road how it was, but maybe some of these guys will have an instant impact and we hope to have an instant impact on our listeners. And we thank them for joining us today. And each week we're here. This is episode number 45, I believe. Very, very excited about that, man. That says a lot about what we're doing and we're getting more folks reaching out to us as we go. So without further ado, man, let's get this show on the road. But I do want to talk real quick. Federal Reserve did raise rates 25 basis points this week.

Producer:
On Wednesday, as expected, very widely expected. The market had an initial pretty positive reaction to it. We'll see if that's something that sticks around or not long term. I think it's based on the fact that investors really expect this to be the last rate increase. We don't know what's going to happen. We'll see what the Federal Reserve commentary looks like. And as the jobs market and the numbers keep coming in, we would be remiss not to mention First Republic, the third bank failure within the last 60 to 90 days bought by JP Morgan and Chase, JP Morgan, JP Morgan Chase for pennies on the dollar naturally. And you know who gets screwed in this deal, don't you, Matt? I hope none of our listeners have stock in First Republic because really, when this happens, the leadership teams don't suffer. They get paid. The problem is the investor in the shares of First Republic Bank, the stock holders, they're the ones that take it on the chin and in the pocketbook. And, you know, individual stocks can be very lucrative. They can do well over time. But a lot of the advice we give people is not to be too heavily invested in just one company. And this is a perfect highlight of how dangerous it can be. But let's tell people how they can be proactive and not reactive.

Producer:
Yeah, we'll do that and we'll do that coming up here in just a few minutes in the show. Also going to talk about the bad money habits that could impact your retirement. Some things to watch out for there, of course, what it's like to work with The Buckeye Advisor if you should choose to do so. And hey, I think you should at least explore that. You know, and then how to prevent retirement tax bombs as well. So much to get to, including this week in history. We've got the dad joke of the week coming up. It's a jam packed show as it always is. First, though, let's get things rolling here with our Quote of the Week.

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

Producer:
And those words of wisdom this time around would come from Stephen Covey, who said, quote, I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. Now, Stephen Covey, you might remember as an American educator, author, businessman and speaker, his most popular book was The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. That one Might Ring a Bell for You.

Producer:
That book was a ginormous large seller, probably is still being sold at a pretty decent clip. But I mean, for a while that was the Bible for business people. So yeah, you know, I love what he's saying there. Circumstances dictate a lot of people get caught up in certain circumstances and they can't get themselves out of them. They get caught up and they just don't have the wherewithal sometimes to just keep plowing through. But, you know, the decisions you make being a product of those decisions, I couldn't agree more. I've told my kids that I live by that. It's a very, very important thing to understand. Whatever decision you make today, you're going to have to live with it tomorrow, the next day and the day after.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. It's you know, we can't control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it. And that's just kind of another way of of saying that there. So yeah, great words of wisdom.

Producer:
That was almost Confucius like.

Producer:
Well you know, I mean I have been confused for Confucius. No, I really haven't. But yeah, no great, great words of wisdom there from Stephen R Covey and some words of wisdom now from The Buckeye Advisor as we go through here and tackle our list of bad money habits that could ruin your retirement. You know, on last week's show, what we highlighted, some of the most productive habits that wealthy people use to protect and grow their money. Well, this time around, we want to kind of turn that on its head a little bit and shine a spotlight on some habits to watch out for, some habits to avoid. Because, you know, I feel like sort of developing any one of these bad habits could really put folks future and retirement at serious risk.

Producer:
I agree. And let me say this before we lead off in the list, I think that probably everyone at some point, unless they were born into a very, very wealthy family, I think most humans can say that they have fallen into one of these bad habits and that's okay. You know, again, we talk about making decisions and we're going to talk about some advice and how to get through these. But, you know, it's just life. So what we do is we navigate life. We try to make good decisions. We get good advice from people like myself, a fiduciary advisor, a 14 plus years now that can help you understand the situation where you're at and where you want to be when it comes to retirement. So, number one, living paycheck to paycheck. According to the survey that we saw January of 2023, at least 60% of us adults are living paycheck to paycheck. They spend every dollar they make as soon as they're paid. And, you know, that is a bad situation, especially, you know, younger families. And it's only multiplied and gotten worse over the last year and a half, almost two years now with inflation. And, you know, one thing I can make a note of, inflation is sticky.

Producer:
It means it's, you know, it's hanging around. It's not going away. It's it's just there. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still high. And once these costs have increased on everything from groceries to restaurant, dining and gas, I mean, look at gas. The people are used to the price being high now, but it's still very high compared to two years ago before you know who took office. And, you know, regardless of who you voted for, energy policies have consequences. And this whole rush to turn everything green is being too rushed. And so they need to have common sense. But living paycheck to paycheck is very tough. And there's things that they can do to, you know, get promotions at work. Sometimes you got to work more than one job. And kudos to all the people that are doing those things to make it happen for their family and for their own future. And there's. Thousands and thousands of workers that do work two and three jobs to raise kids and make ends meet and get ahead of the game by retirement saving.

Producer:
Yeah, it's, you know, definitely something that that should be avoided living paycheck to paycheck. And there are ways to do that. And you've got to and we'll tackle this part of it as we go through the list here. But you've got to just be on top of not only what's coming in, but what is is going out. And that will help you not live paycheck to paycheck. Another one here. Number two, on the bad money habits that could ruin your retirement carrying credit card debt month to month. Boy, that is something that a lot of people say, you know, I'll just make the minimum payment or, you know, that kind of thing. If that's all you can do, then then, you know, maybe you shouldn't have gotten a credit card to begin with. But that kind of goes without saying. But, you know, it's compounding interest. You're just going to get behind and behind and behind. And it gets so hard to get ahead when you do get underwater like that.

Producer:
I remember a few years ago when the credit card companies began to disclose how long it would take to pay off the current balance if they only pay the minimum payment. And when you see a $2,000 balance and it's going to take 12 years to pay it off at 27% interest, that should scare the bejesus out of you. So, you know, look, we advocate don't keep up with the Joneses. A lot of times families and couples get caught up and individuals even get caught up keeping up with the Joneses. And I think what people don't realize is perhaps behind the facade of the Joneses, there might be a lot of trouble brewing back there, a lot of debt, a future bankruptcy and much worse. So, you know, credit cards can be good things to have. We've talked about it. You need one. You need 2 or 3 probably you need them for ID to rent cars or if you're going on vacation, you do a car rental. So they're not inherently evil. But if you do carry those balances over a month to month, it's going to be very, very difficult to get yourself out from under that unless you make a concerted effort to say, I'm going to definitely pay it off in this amount of time, write it down, get agreement with whoever you're talking with, spouse, significant other, get on a plan and get it paid off and then forget about it.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. Great advice there because it can be something that just buries you and as you say, very difficult to dig out from under. Number three on this list, having no emergency fund. We talk about this quite a bit, and that's for a reason. I mean, it's a very important thing to do is to make sure that you have saved enough so that you have an emergency fund of, you know, at least 3 to 6 months of expenses.

Producer:
Yeah. And for a lot of people, that's easier said than done. And we realize that, you know, it's just life. Life happens and, you know, people lose jobs. And of course, when they do, I can help them with their 401. K rollover and get it into an IRA that we're going to direct it and manage it and make sure that we're within the risk that you want to be in. That's a bad thing. You know, sometimes people need to look at it and say, maybe I lost that job. And, you know, I'm a firm believer that when sometimes when a door closes, another one opens. That's meant to open for some reason. And it's not always easy to see that at the time when it happens because of the frustration, sometimes embarrassment, all these different things, these emotions that flood people when they lose a job. And so on the flip side, it's a great job market out there and employers are really, really willing to pay and really willing to step up and be flexible for candidates that they feel are going to be available to work and not only be available, but to work and show up. So the emergency fund, you know, if you're in a situation where you where you're able to save money every week or every paycheck, you should be doing it. Get that emergency fund set up. Don't delay, don't spend all your money trying to be up with the latest fashion trends. You can do shopping at TJ Maxx or one of the other discount places. You don't have to do it all at Nordstrom or one of those.

Producer:
That's very true. And, you know, I know that you're guilty of that. Woody, keeping up with all those latest fashion trends.

Woody Bowling:
Oh, it's difficult.

Producer:
It really it is. It's hard to be The Buckeye Advisor sometimes, but yeah, so that that is of course very important to to avoid. There is not having that emergency fund. Oh and one thing that I did want to mention about that a lot of times, if you have let's say you're still working and you have a job that has direct deposit, an easy way to kind of do this is kind of set it and forget it, right? So you can have a portion of your direct deposit from your your salary, your paycheck, go into one account and another portion of it or the remaining portion of it go into another account and say that might be your emergency fund account. So then it's already taken care of. It's done off the top. And that way you don't even have to really think about it. It's just done for you.

Producer:
That's a great point. And it's just like joining your 401. K don't you won't regret it. Do it. Setting part of your paycheck into savings. A great idea and you know you're directing that and just don't change it. And then the key is of course with the mentality people can have is they know where it's going. As soon as it hits, they're going to do something with it and pull it out, transfer it to checking. So try to avoid that temptation. But investing early and investing often, that is a great rule to live by if you want to build long term wealth and success.

Producer:
Absolutely. And number four on this list of bad money habits is not knowing where you spend your money. I sort of alluded to this one a few minutes ago, and, boy, it's an important one. You got to know where the pennies and the nickels and dimes and the dollars are going.

Woody Bowling:
It's a excuse.

Woody Bowling:
Me, it's a tough conversation and a lot of couples don't want to have it. You know, you got one spouse that does, the other spouse doesn't. There's too much disclosure going on. Maybe there's some secret charges going on. But, you know, just communication is key. When there's two people involved, work it out. Sometimes you got a spender, the other one's a saver. You know, you got to find some compromises, some places to meet in the middle. But check your credit card statements for subscriptions that you get into and that you're not using. We've mentioned that a time or two before. So be vigilant. Look at your statements. Look at the whole thing. Look at your bank account for things that might pop in that are happening regularly that maybe you don't need them anymore. So cancel them. Save the money.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. A great thing to keep in mind. And it's also one of the things, too, that we talk about in our 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023, we can actually send you that free resource, folks. You can just go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com that's The Buckeye Advisor with an or.com or you can call Woody at (937) 974-6201. Request your copy of that absolutely free report again it's the 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023 that's one of them there. You know getting rid of those subscriptions that you don't need and making sure you know where all the money is going. Very, very important. Well, number five here on our list of bad money habits, Woody, is you don't people who don't want more from their careers. And this is one that, you know, I think that that people just sort of get lulled into, you know, the every day and they get into the grind and might not see anything better for themselves in their career. But generally speaking, you know, you can you can have something better in your career.

Woody Bowling:
You can people.

Producer:
People get complacent. People get tired. Sometimes they've been at a job for ten years. They get tired. They don't maybe a they don't see a promotion path or a path of growth. Maybe it's time to look for something else. I mean, I will say this seek out opportunities to advance, whether it's within your own company. Companies are looking for leaders. They're looking for people willing to work hard and they're going to be rewarding you for doing that. And sometimes the best move you can make is outside the company you're at and look for something new and fresh and, you know, always stay up to date on your skill set, whether it's doing a resume, whether it's interviewing, whatever it is, stay fresh, stay focused, and you can definitely improve yourself over time. And that's going to be very helpful in the long run.

Producer:
Yeah, it really is. You know, things like continuing education courses and, you know, things like that that you can do and you can do a lot of that stuff online that can really help you expand your skill set and make you more valuable to your employer and make you more valuable maybe to another employer. As you said, that they might might be, you know, fighting over here pretty soon and make yourself make yourself needed and wanted in these different places. Well, number six on this list of bad money habits, not knowing how to minimize taxes, you know, it's it's it can be very easy just to say, well, okay, I am going to just when I do my taxes, kind of check the box, you know, I'm just going to make I'm just going to do it. I'm going to get it done as quickly and as easily as I can. But that might not be the best thing for you, especially if you have a little bit more of a complicated situation.

Producer:
Yeah, no doubt. Especially anybody listening out there that's self-employed. And I know I've got some self-employed listeners, so if you're listening, thank you for listening, number one. But you're self-employed like me, and I've been self-employed for 14 plus years now. So yes, it is important to minimize taxes. Yes. Keep receipts. Yes. Take every legal deduction you can think of and find the right tax professional that you're comfortable with, who's comfortable with you, that understands your business and work together to minimize that tax liability. It's just the way it is. You got to do what you got to do. So, you know, Roth IRAs, we mentioned those life insurance through an indexed universal life policy can provide tax free income later on in retirement or even before retirement to help supplement your income and Social Security, You know, especially if in your 40s and 50s, an IUL is a great thing to consider looking at and you don't have to be in perfect health either. And people don't understand that either. So even if you're in decent health, more than likely you're going to qualify. And that's just putting money away for a few years that you're looking at that rainy day. And, you know, retirement should be looked at as a rainy day. There's a legit rainy day that's short term, but long term you want to have a goal for retirement and it doesn't have to be a finite amount of money. It can be an income goal. And that goes back to staying in touch with how much Social Security am I going to be eligible for at different ages? And you know, we can help you understand those and other important topics because The Buckeye Advisor is well advised in all of those areas and I want to help people. That's why I'm here.

Producer:
Yeah, that is the point. And you can go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com that's TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com to request a free consultation which of course we'll talk more about as the show goes on here. Got time for one more here before the break Woody Number seven on our list of bad money habits that really could just wreck your retirement. It's being unwilling to take normal risks with your money. So what do we mean there by taking normal risks?

Woody Bowling:
Woody Yeah, normal risk.

Producer:
I mean, we're talking there about if you're, you know, in your 30s, 40s and 50s and you're working, you're doing, you know, don't go to cash in your 401. K, don't go completely conservative in your 401. K don't go all bonds bonds have been a train wreck the last 16 months. They're not the safe haven that they have historically been. So we're talking about don't keep all your money in the bank in the savings account. When you're sitting on a large pile of cash, you have to look elsewhere. You still need to take on some level of risk. And that's ingrained in how I work with people is we want to know how much risk that you're comfortable with. And then I'm going to come back with advice and a plan that actually is tailor made for your situation, investment options on the investment advisory side of my practice. And then we use fixed indexed annuities and structured notes and all kinds of other things to protect people's money, give them some principal protection. So that's what we're doing. We're trying to design plans that are going to hold up over the long term, have some ability to change if we need to, but still reach those goals that we come to agreement on together.

Producer:
Yeah. And that is the name of the game here is coming into that agreement together and working together there. Well you can go folks to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com that is TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com to request that free consultation or give Woody a call at (937) 974-6201. That is the first half of the show and we've got the second half coming up in just a few minutes. We're going to continue this list. We've got a lot more to talk about and we'll hear the ever famous and popular dad joke of the week. That's coming up right after this.

Producer:
You don't have to sacrifice style to save money on clothing. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement.Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. If you like designer brands and the latest looks, you don't have to buy them at high end clothing stores. Andrea Woroch is a consumer expert and recently told Fox 32 Chicago When it.

Fox 32 Chicago:
Comes to clothing, the best way to save is to purchase your clothing second hand. And there are so many resources, whether it's your local consignment store or an online resale site.

Producer:
Websites like Poshmark, Thredup and others have become go to places for those looking for bargains on clothes. Warrack says other sites even allow you to send in your old clothes, which will earn you credits. Then you can turn around and use those credits to buy clothes others have sent in. Then, of course, there are consignment shops and thrift stores. There may be a certain stigma attached to those options, but Goodwill store manager Troy Sanders told Fox 32 That's changing.

Fox 32 Chicago:
Many items we get. They're brand new with tags, you know, so that stigma of coming in, getting, you know, used, you know, items at a goodwill, it isn't entirely true. I actually think that's a misconception that's going away. We found in a lot of our stores, we have younger customers that are coming in and they don't have that same stigma, you know, that previous generations have had.

Producer:
And shopping at a thrift store could get you those new clothes at a fraction of the cost of buying them new. So are you ready to save money while still looking dapper every day? It's a key question to consider, and it's one of the 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023 with the Retirement.Radio Network Powered by AmeriLife. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
To obtain your free copy of 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023, reach out to Woody today at (973) 974-6201 or go online to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com.

Producer:
Welcome back this is The Buckeye Advisor. I am Matt McClure, the producer and co-host of The Buckeye Advisor Show. So yeah, you guessed it, I am not The Buckeye Advisor himself, but I'm here with him. His name is Woody Boling and you can reach out to him at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. That is The Buckeye Advisor with an o r.com or call Woody at (937) 974-6201.

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

Producer:
All right, Woody, the audience has been waiting with bated breath for the dad joke of the week, so I will not hesitate any longer to throw it to you to give it to us.

Producer:
And who am I to keep an anxious audience from hearing why they came, Matt? The question is, why did the Scarecrow win an award?

Producer:
Oh, could be for many reasons, but I don't know why did the Scarecrow win an award?

Producer:
Because he was outstanding in his field.

Woody Bowling:
I should have seen.

Producer:
That one coming.

Woody Bowling:
That is the true.

Producer:
Essence of a dad joke. I'm happy to tell it. And friends listeners enjoy. Share it with your family. Make other people roll their eyes.

Producer:
Exactly. Exactly. Whether you whether you chuckle, whether you roll your eyes no matter what. We hope that you just get a kick out of it and enjoy it because it's part of what makes The Buckeye Advisor a fun show to listen to. So Exactly. We have fun around here. Well, all right. So let's continue what we're in this kind of the middle. Well, the last third really of this list of bad money habits that could ruin your retirement. I'll quickly run down the first few here that we've done. So number one was living paycheck to paycheck. Number two, carrying credit card debt month to month. Number three, having no emergency fund. Number four, not knowing where you spend your money. Number five don't want more from their careers. That's a biggie there. Number six, not knowing how to minimize taxes and number seven, being unwilling to take normal risks with your money. So those are seven of the ten bad money habits here we're going to talk about. Number eight is waiting too long to invest in your retirement. You know, this is one of the things that I often say is that it can never be too early to start investing in your retirement. You can get really, really close to too late. So you want to do it as early as you possibly can. Really?

Woody Bowling:
We do.

Producer:
And we just said in the previous segment, save early, save often. That's the advice that I give people. I've given it to my kids. Do it, make it a part of your being, and it becomes easier as you get used to it. But our good friend Albert Einstein once said that compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. And you know how to do that. You take advantage of saving on a very regular interval and then as you're making interest and your account is accumulating growth, then it's making interest on that interest and your principal. So it's called compound interest. That's a good thing. It's on your side. So when you start early and do it, often time is on your side. I'm sure my listeners are aware of that. I hope that most of them have already been saving and if not, it's not too late. Start doing it and do it now. That's what we say. People should listen to what we say, don't you think?

Producer:
I think so. Maybe I'm a little biased, but I think I think we have some good stuff to tell.

Woody Bowling:
That's right.

Producer:
There you go. Absolutely. Well, and this one. Okay. Number nine on the list of bad money habits. I think this one probably it's funny, doesn't get talked about enough, but it is basically this belief that money is bad or kind of a taboo subject that you don't you just don't want to talk about it. And people have do have a hard time talking about money. And I feel like the longer period of time that it sort of kept under wraps and not talked about, the more time there is for things to go wrong and for then when things are, you know, have to be talked about, you can be in a really bad spot.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah. I'm a big.

Producer:
Proponent of financial literacy classes early in school and, you know, maybe as early as junior high, early in your high school career. It's never too early money getting caught up in it. It can be a bad thing and it can make people behave in ways that they really wouldn't otherwise. But it's a necessary evil is the way I look at it. And it also can make life easier for you and your family as you're growing as a family and also going into retirement. It's it does a lot for you psychologically if you know that you maybe you didn't hit the bigger number you were expecting. But when I sit with people and we talk about how much income they can generate from their retirement savings and protect their principal through something like a fixed indexed annuity. So you get market like growth, you get principal protection, and you also get potentially income for life. If that's part of what you want in the package, it's a powerful thing. So money itself, the love of money can be bad, but money itself is not an evil thing. And people and we need it.

Producer:
Yeah, we absolutely do. They say it makes the world go round and that is, you know, it's a true thing because you've got to have it's one of those things you've got to have in. In life and love it or hate it, you got to have it, but you got to know how to use it. And you need a helping hand along the way, especially if you're trying to prepare for your future and what you want your future to look like. And that's why you need to get in touch with The Buckeye Advisor. You can do that, by the way, at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. And number ten, we're wrapping up this list of bad money habits here that you want to avoid. These things can really wreak havoc on your retirement and it is not saving enough money into an investment account. You know, you want to make sure that you're saving, but, you know, you want to make sure that you're saving enough so that when the time comes and you have to draw down on those funds, that you're going to have enough in your retirement so that you have that steady income and you're not going to you know, you're going to outlive your money. In other words, your money's not going to go away before you you, you know, graduate off the planet.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, no doubt.

Producer:
And it can help people. It can help people be more tax efficient. Also, if they're contributing to a traditional IRA, not so much for a Roth IRA because it's after tax money already being put into it. But know your limits. Work with your tax professional, work with your advisor. I'd be happy to talk with you if you have questions a lot of people are concerned about, man, I just. I don't know. I'm intimidated. I don't want to talk to a financial guy. I can do it myself. You know, I met with a guy a couple of weeks ago. He's been doing himself the whole time. He's in his early 60s now. And he's he's basically looking to hand the baton to someone else to help him get through this. And he's busy with work. He does do some of his own investments or a lot of his own investments. But I think he's going to wind up keeping, like some of my clients do, a small account that he can do his own trading and do his thing. And he just knows that that's money. That's play money, monopoly money, if you will. If he loses it, ultimately, you know, he can afford to lose it. And that's the way you should treat it. So we want everybody to save as much money as they can. And then when they get to the point where it's time to put it to work or they leave a job and they're time to change over to a different job, which I help people do that. Let's take that old 401 K that nobody cares about at the previous company. The company servicing it doesn't. They have a phone. They have phone advisors that take orders all day to move their money to a new IRA. That's what I can help people do. And we're going to do a one on one and understand completely from A to Z where people stand what your unique situation is, what's good for you, what's bad for you. And then I'm going to help put together a plan that will help you get fulfilled in what you're looking to do down the road.

Producer:
Yeah, and that is really all or that really all begins, I should say, with that free full retirement plan consultation.

Woody Bowling:
And what was it again?

Producer:
Absolutely free. That's what was going to say. You know, when we say free, we mean free.

Woody Bowling:
We were.

Producer:
Going to start charging.

Woody Bowling:
For that.

Producer:
No, we're not.

Woody Bowling:
We're not. Okay.

Producer:
It's free and it's going to stay free by gosh, if I have anything to say about it.

Woody Bowling:
Well, you do. And I'm going to.

Producer:
Follow your instructions. I'm not charging. So. Yes, that is right. Matt, hit it on the head. We're going to do a free consultation and we got to build the fundamentals of a relationship. And I got to learn everything about your situation. And when we do that, there's a good chance we're going to have success in putting something together that's going to work for you.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. And you can get a free consultation. Just reach out to The Buckeye Advisor at Buckeye advisors.com that is TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com. You can also call Woody Boling at (937) 974-6201. That number one more time (937) 974-6201. And you can really talk about all aspects of your financial life and your planning for the future as well. And you know, Social Security, planning, Medicare, especially things, other things we've been talking about IRAs, 401. Ks all those types of retirement plans. Roth's you know, the index universal life policies that we've mentioned, annuities, it's all part of the complete package. It's, you know, The Buckeye Advisor, it's a one stop shop for your retirement planning needs. So there you.

Woody Bowling:
Go. You hit it.

Producer:
On the head. I mean, I take so much pride in being a hybrid advisor and there are advisors on most financial advisors out there want nothing to do with Medicare. They want nothing to do with helping people understand a life insurance policy they already own. And they have questions about, number one, the advisor can't answer the question. Number two, they don't want to. Number three, they don't want to work with them on a new policy. They don't want to talk about long term care because they want all the client assets being invested in the market. So there's so many things that I help people with and I get asked every week, Are you a fiduciary? The answer is yes. Number two, as a hybrid advisor, I have expertise across the insurance universe as well as the investment universe. And man, that is a great combination and it's very fun to talk to people. And be well versed in those things that I can help them understand where they're at in their life regarding their situation. And it's a very cool thing.

Producer:
It really is. And once again, folks, the website to reach out for that free consultation is The Buckeye Advisor with an or.com. And part of that whole planning you know scenario is is education really I feel like that's a huge part of of what you do you don't just want you know your your clients flying blind here and so let's continue with a little bit of education here on the show because that's a big part of the show as well. And you know, teaching folks how to be more proactive and less reactive about their retirement. Woody, I feel like is especially important right now because of the uncertainty that we've seen in the economy with, you know, you mentioned First Republic being the third bank failure of the year or just the past couple of months really. And then we've also got the ups and downs of the market, inflation, interest rates increasing, all of that. And really, people do need to be proactive about their planning instead of reactive. And you know that really you're behind the eight ball if you're being reactive, as they say.

Producer:
Yeah, it's a crazy world. And you just went down a whole list of things that people have to be concerned about. And believe me, I talk to people each week and you do as well. It's important and it's causing a lot of stress on people. There's a lot of anxiety. People want answers. They want correct answers. They want certainty. So there's a lot of questions going on in people's heads. So let's start number one on this part. Don't keep more than 250,000 in a single bank. I think that's really good advice. The government can say what they want about covering excess of that. And for my money, I would put it in a different bank. But if you're keeping that much money in cash, I would also question why do you need that much cash in the bank? Because we can probably figure out a way to put it to better use still principal, protect your money, but also maybe accomplish market like growth in an environment that is going to make you happy with your long term result. So very important. The FDIC limits 250 grand. That's always up for debate, depending on who you're talking to in the government. You know, I think that's a great place. Be careful about keeping excess cash in banks.

Producer:
Yeah, definitely. So divide that up if you're going to do that. And like you say, there are other places where you can put that money to work harder for you and get a bigger return on that investment. So a great thing to do is go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com and reach out to Woody, see what your particular scenario might benefit from. And then also number two here on this list, Woody, is to establish a retirement income plan today. You know, people often think that retirement is about the one big number, you know, that magic lump sum number that they've had in their mind maybe for for years or decades even. But it's really about income. That's what the bread and butter of retirement is going to be. Yeah, it really is.

Producer:
And the bond portion of people's portfolio really needs to be examined closely. It's been a theme since we started the show last June of 2022. Bonds are still struggling along. They had a horrible 2022. The bond portion of your portfolio really needs to be considered to be replaced. We can explain more in more depth. Think about this If you're a listener and your bond portfolio is under duress, and even if you're in a bond paying you 2 or 3%, that's okay. But if the value of that bond, the underlying stock, the bond price is going down in this interest rate environment that's been increasing for months and months and months, you're still losing. And then what if you had your money in a safe environment, but you were able to withdraw on an income for life basis somewhere between five and a half and 6.5% of your balance. That's a pretty good and that's guaranteed for life to age 80, 90 or 100. So people can use their imagination in the sense that there are better ways to manage your money. And it's just a matter of being educated about it. People just don't know about some of the things that I do. And that's the fun of seeing people's faces when they learn of what we really can help them accomplish.

Producer:
Yeah, that's the fun of being The Buckeye Advisor. There you go. And number three on this list of being ways to be proactive and less reactive about your retirement is to take advantage of the only two types of tax free investments. We mentioned both of these earlier, so we can kind of skim over these here. But one is the Roth IRA and the other is life insurance and a particular kind of life insurance that I know we like to talk about when we're talking about retirement planning as well. So just kind of give a little synopsis of both of those.

Producer:
Woody Yeah. I mean, a Roth IRA is a great tool. It's one that the government got. Right. And we think it's going to you know, the only the only concern about that is you have limits to your contributions each year if you're building one over time. However, if you're converting a traditional IRA to a Roth, then you're going to have to pay that tax burden based on your current year's income, and that's going to be added to your income, the part that you convert. So it may make sense, instead of doing it all in one calendar year to spread it over 3 or 4 calendar years. So you spread that tax out and that's okay because once the tax is paid, you're done with it. Keep that Roth IRA open five years and you're golden. You don't have to take required minimum distributions at 73 like you do for a regular traditional IRA. And any withdrawals you make, your money can grow longer and make interest longer. And any withdrawals you do make are not subject to any tax whatsoever. So that's a beautiful thing. Universal index, universal life policies, a great tool to generate tax free income. You can get one even if potentially you have decent health. Not pristine, but just decent. There's two really good tools for people to consider because taxes are something that are not our friends. Unfortunately, lots of people believe they don't get their money's worth out of the taxes they pay. So we're going to try to help you figure out a way to avoid them as much as you can.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. Pay what you are obligated to pay. But no more than that. Don't pay more than you have to. In other words, that is the goal there. And I'm going to kind of lump these next two together here, Woody, because they go hand in hand of ways to stay proactive rather than reactive when it comes to your retirement. And that's work with a legal expert and also have a plan for when you or your spouse pass away. This is all about, you know, leaving a legacy and making sure that those who are left behind when you are gone or your spouse is gone, making sure that those people are all taken care of.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, there's a.

Producer:
Surprising amount of people that don't even have a will, a basic will. So you don't want to go through probate. So if you're a listener, you don't have a will. You know, you can get them as simple as getting one off the Internet, printing it and doing it and getting it notarized. You can be more in-depth. You can do a trust, so you can direct how you want your assets distributed later and keep that legacy going. You can be very, very detailed in that trust. I have a team of tax professionals as well as a team of estate planning attorneys that I can use at my disposal. If any of our listeners wants to get really, really in-depth with some of this long term planning and generational planning, it's a great idea to do it. It's a great idea to help offset some of the potential tax liability of the future generations. Ryan's. So there's a lot that goes into that. But we are big advocates of. Thinking about it now to take it off of somebody else's. Take it off your kid's plate, take it off your spouse's plate, you off your grandchildren's plate. Your positive actions now can impact those people for the rest of their lives.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah.

Producer:
The 100%. And next here on the list of ways to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to your retirement, understanding how your Social Security benefit is calculated. You know, I think a lot of people just kind of go into Social Security a little bit blind without really knowing what the calculation is, how that's determined and without knowing ahead of time what they could be eligible for when.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, a lot of.

Producer:
People have in their mind that, hey, I'm going to take Social Security at age 62. The earliest I can take it. Come hell or high water. And that's not always a great strategy, especially if you're still physically able to work, because if you keep working, you're giving yourself a huge increase every year for the rest of your life. And a lot of people don't understand that Social Security is based on your highest 35 years of earnings that you report to your taxes. That's the case. So. You can sit out a few years and there are people that have sat out for a couple of years or three or 4 or 5 for various reasons. But, you know, and that's part of the reason sometimes people keep working longer is they are earning more money towards the end of their career. So they're still working, making money. Maybe they're paying off debt, maybe they're growing that 401. K or 403 be a little bit higher. And they're also increasing their Social Security benefits. So if you don't have an account, go to ssa.gov. Gov. Set up an account. Make sure you check in username password and you can log in any time you want and it'll give you a great breakdown of how much Social security you're eligible for at different ages, all the way up to age 70. And that's as late as you can wait.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah.

Producer:
And that's a great tool to, to check out there. Ssa gov. Well, in the last one here on this list, Woody, is to determine your big budget items before you retire. Yeah, and this sort of goes back to when we talked about our smart retirement plan several weeks back, you know, about having your, like, a smart vision, basically goal setting for your retirement. This really is is part of that whole thing, just determining what your big budget items could be before you call it quits.

Producer:
Yeah, some things people can't plan for. You know, you never know when the roof might have a problem. You got to replace that. A furnace, a car. Those things sometimes you don't know that are going to happen, but you've got to have that savings ready for it. But travel is probably a really, really big one for most people when they retire. So between whatever age they retire, the first 4 or 5 years tend to be more active. They're doing more traveling, they eat out more. The excitement of being retirement in retirement. Let's do this. Let's go here. Let's go there. And then also in earlier years, your health is better for the most part. You know, God forbid your health start failing before that. But as we get older, we start to tend to be less healthy. And that's going to impact the amount of travel and the amount of those things that people do in retirement. So. Typically, if you're on that red zone of retirement 5 to 7 years before or 5 to 7 years after. Things can change. They're always subject to change. That's what I'm here for. Know, I want to help you avoid losses in the market as much as possible. We want to help people maximize their savings, give them safe ways to grow their money, and avoid taxes as much as we can. So that's what we do here at The Buckeye Advisors. So people should just call me at (937) 974-6201. So when the show's over, call me. If I don't answer, I'll call you back. Even if it's on a Saturday or Sunday.

Producer:
He will do it. And you can also go to TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com that is TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com to request your free consultation.

Woody Bowling:
It's this week in history.

Producer:
Well just before we have to run this week Woody we've got a couple of big things that happened this week in our history. The first one I'll let you take, it's a it's a big one in the sports world.

Woody Bowling:
Wow.

Producer:
May 5th this week, history 1901 baseball pitcher Cy Young pitched the first perfect game in modern baseball history as the Boston Americans defeated the Philadelphia Athletics three to zip. Cy Young holds the most career wins innings pitched and games started and actually had the Cy Young Award named after him in honor. Probably safe to say he's the best pitcher of all time. And the Cy Young is the gold standard for major league pitchers. Amazing. The only thing I wish, Matt, I wish I would have gotten to watch him play.

Producer:
Yeah. My goodness. I talk about just just fantastic and still holds those records all these years later. And then on May 6th, one more to share here. On May 6th, 1957, it was the final episode of I Love Lucy, which aired that day. Television hit became the most watched series on TV in four of the six years it was on the air. And of course, it is just absolutely a legendary show. There will never be another Lucille Ball, just a funny, funny woman. And really, that whole cast was just absolutely great.

Producer:
Well, I love the show. And I would say if we run over, we would have some splaining to do. And that's a reference, of course, to I Love Lucy.

Producer:
Lots of splaining to do. And no, you can't be in the show. All right. Well, we've been in the show, but now it's time for the show to be over. This has been The Buckeye Advisor. Woody, thank you so much for all of your insights and your knowledge that you share with us each and every week. And we'll do it again next time, sir.

Woody Bowling:
Ladies and gentlemen, Matt McClure. Co host of the Year, if not officially, at least in my book. We hope everybody enjoyed the show and learned a lot. Tune in each week or join us on the podcast. We love being here. We hope we're making a positive impact in your life. Reach out to us and we hope everybody has 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 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:
Registered Investment Advisors and Investment Advisor Representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients, we have an obligation to act in the best interests of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. If any exist. Refer to our firm brochure the ADV to a page four for additional information. Any comments regarding safe and secure products and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products. They do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company and are not offered by BWR.

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 world-class support, collaboration tools, enterprise-grade admin tools, automated translation, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.