Medicare Deadline and the Importance of Retirement Income

Episode 35: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 35: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
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.

Speaker2:
Welcome to Take Pride in Retirement, the podcast dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ+ community protect and grow their hard earned money. Get set for a show full of education and insights with your host and advisor, Matt McClure. We recognize every family is unique. The goal of the show is to help you achieve financial freedom so you and your loved ones can have the retirement you've always dreamed of, a retirement you can take pride in, no matter who you are, where you're from, or who you love. So now let's start the show. Here's Matt McClure.

Speaker1:
Hello and welcome to another edition of Take Pride in Retirement. Matt McClure here with you, your host, your advisor, your pal, your confidant. I really do appreciate you taking the time and being a part of things once again today. Or, you know, this, this week, this morning, afternoon, night, weekend, weekday, whatever time you're listening, I appreciate you taking the time to listen to little old me. And I am so thankful. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I am very thankful to you each and every one, for listening to the show and for being a part of this journey that we're on, really helping spread the word about the options that are out there for LGBTQ, plus folks to plan their retirement, to do it successfully, to do it safely, and to make sure that you are set up for success. Whether you are a member of the LGBTQ plus community, whether you are someone who is an ally, whether you are, no matter who you are. That's kind of the theme around here, is no matter who you are, where you come from, who you love, how you identify, how much money you have, any of those things. If I can help you make a better situation for your retirement, if I can take what you have now and help make it better, help set you up for more success in retirement, give you guaranteed income in retirement, give you the peace of mind that goes along with that.

Speaker1:
Increasing the amount of money that you have to draw down in retirement to actually live on. Maybe pass some along to your beneficiaries, to those loved ones that are here, like any of the things that go along with retirement planning and with getting you ready for that next stage in your life. And no matter how old you are either, it's never too early to start planning for your retirement years. And that is another sort of big theme that that I adhere to is that, you know, it's not too early. You know, if you think if you're in your 20s and you happen to be listening right now. Thank you. Um, and, you know, if you are in your 20s and happen to be listening to this and want to say, well, look, is it too early? Am I just sort of overthinking? Am I kind of going about this the right way or the wrong way, or what am I doing? It's not too early to start thinking and planning. As a matter of fact, you'll be better off in the long run. Future you will. Thank you for being someone who has planned ahead, and who has actually thought about that, and not thought about the here and the now and the current time so much, and what you can get now and the things and the stuff and all that.

Speaker1:
But future you planning for the future so that your future you can have a better future yourself. That future can be better. And so it's so important to get a plan in place. That's going to be a big theme of this show today. Get a plan in place so that you can weather the storm no matter what storm may come. And you know, weather changes all the time, right? You know, you look outside here in Atlanta where where I am today, it's been beautiful and sunny, but very cold. And just a couple of weeks ago it was, you know, warm and rainy. And then a couple of weeks before that, it was basically summertime temperatures. So, you know, weather can change a lot all the time. And it does. And so, you know, it's super important to have a plan in place that's going to be a plan that's going to work no matter what the weather is. Right. You don't want to get, you know, damaged by that hailstorm that might come whether it's in the form of inflation, whether it's in the form of a recession, whether it's in the form of market turmoil of any kind, you want to have some guarantees that you can get to. And that is the way that I like to work. I like to spread the good word that, yes, there are guarantees that you can get to out there in the form of different, you know, types of products.

Speaker1:
Now, if we're talking about in the market, if we're talking about stocks and that kind of thing, there really aren't any guarantees there. The guarantees are things are going to go up and things are going to go down. And that's pretty much what's going to happen. But I can't tell you how much or when or any of the things because I don't have a crystal ball. But there are some sort of, you know, some guarantees out there that you can get to. We'll talk about some of those today here on the show. We're going to get to a lot actually of different sort of topics as we kind of tackle everything here that's on the agenda. And I wanted to mention though, here, right off the top, if you would like to schedule a free consultation, and I say it's free because it's absolutely free, there is no cost. You don't have to pay for it, no obligation to continue on past this initial consultation. And the initial sort of step here is actually a couple of meetings. Right? It's um, one, we sort of get to know each other, get to know a little bit more about your financial situation, then I will I will take that information. You'll give me some more detailed information. I'll put all the numbers together, run everything through, and then come up with a plan that I believe is right for you in your situation.

Speaker1:
Now, you might come back and say, okay, well, I understand all of this and maybe I don't understand this part, and I'll answer those questions. You might say, okay, I understand and I like all of this, this part I understand, but I don't quite like it. Can we come up with something else for this particular part of my plan? Absolutely. We'll work on it. We'll make adjustments along the way. Um, but, you know, if you want to continue on past that and form a relationship professionally and financially with me, helping you, you know, and advising you on what's best for your particular situation in that fiduciary capacity. Right. So working in your best interests and not my own, I would love to do that. You can get started along that journey by going to take pride in retirement.com. That's take pride in retirement.com. Click on the schedule a consultation button that's right there at the top of your screen. That'll take you directly into my calendar. And you can actually schedule a consultation remotely via zoom. Or we can do it via, you know, face to face conversation if you would like to come in. If you're in the metro Atlanta area, I'm based out of Atlanta, Georgia, and if you are in the metro Atlanta area and want to come into my office, we can do it face to face as well.

Speaker1:
And so, you know, we'll meet, we'll get to know each other. We'll take that information, I will take it and then run the numbers. Come up with a plan, present you with that plan, and then we can move forward. And if you decide you don't want to move forward, no hard feelings after that, right? So take pride in retirement. Dot retirement.com is the website. The phone number, if you prefer to call is 85524692118552469211. Once again is that number. And if you are one who likes to talk on the phone, which fewer and fewer people do these days, it seems like. But hey, if you're one of those people, I'd love to talk to you on the phone as well. And, you know, get to know you that way and do the free consultation there also so you can do it either way. Um, just as long as you do it, take control of your financial future. I am here to help you along that path. It's my job. It's what I want to do and it's what I like to do. So, you know, make it your goal. Whether it's closing out 2024 or opening up 2025 to get your financial house in order, and I'll help you along the way. Take pride in retirement.com once again, is the website all right. We got a lot to get to.

Speaker1:
As I said, we're going to talk about planning for income in retirement and why that is so, so important. Planning for income in retirement, preserving your legacy, protecting your lifestyle, and making sure that you have an income plan in place. We'll talk about why that is so super important. Also, before we get into that, and before we kind of dive into kind of the meat of the show here, we'll of course share our quote of the week. But then I'm going to welcome in a special guest to talk about an important deadline that is right here upon us, literally this weekend, the 7th of December. So if you're listening to this after the 7th of December, you know, you can kind of skip a few minutes here. But if you're listening to this before the 7th of December or on the 7th of December 2024, you'll want to listen up for the next couple of minutes after we share the quote of the week here, because I'm going to be talking about annual enrollment period for Medicare. It is upon us. That deadline is upon us. And so if you have not reviewed your coverage for the year 2025, you will want to do it. I'm going to share part of a conversation that I had about that here momentarily. First though, let us get started with some inspiration for our conversations. It's our code of the week.

Speaker3:
And now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Speaker1:
And this time around, the quote. I just absolutely love it. It comes from Harvey Milk, the late member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Harvey Milk, who was, of course, assassinated back in the late 1970s, just tragically wonderful, really, you know, gay rights pioneer back in the day and someone who stood up for people who weren't being stood up for. And so just an inspiring person who led an inspiring life in many, many ways. And Harvey Milk said this very simple quote this week hope will never be silent. Hope will never be silent. I love that because no matter what your situation, no matter who you are, where you come from, who you love, how you identify, if you have hope, then you have a lot right? Even if you feel like you have no hope. And you know, of course this is a financial show. So thinking about this in your sort of financial situation and in financial terms, if you feel like you have no hope when it comes to your finances, I would love to help you find hope, right? I would love to help you get to a place where in your life you feel like you are going to be successful in your retirement years, you're going to be, no matter how much money you have, going to have a successful retirement, because you've planned ahead, and you don't have to be filthy rich to be able to do it. I would love to show you how you can actually create an income for yourself in retirement. And so Harvey Milk says hope will never be silent. And and that's the thing. I mean, it hope, even though it might seem like just this little tiny glimmer of hope, whether it's for your financial future, your relationship future, your health future, our future collectively as a nation, as a as the human race, whether it's just that little tiny even, it's just that little tiny glimmer of hope.

Speaker1:
It's not going to be silent. That that hope is not going to that light from that hope is not going to burn out. In other words, it's going to be there. And it as long as we cling on to that, it can grow and actually be a motivating factor to us to make our lives and our situations better. And as long as you have hope, as I said, you have a whole, whole lot. So great words there from Harvey Milk and and taking those and applying them to our, you know, financial conversations that we have here on the show. I think that's a great thing. And of course, rest in peace and rest in power, Harvey Milk, and thank you for all your contributions to LGBTQ plus folks. And that legacy lives on. All right. So I actually had a great conversation about the Medicare annual enrollment period, which is coming to an end. It's, you know, several minutes long. I'm not going to share the whole thing, but I wanted to highlight this on the show today because that deadline is just upon us. Listen to this. And in just a couple of minutes, we'll continue with some more great things, especially talking about income in retirement. All right. So here we go a little bit about the Medicare annual enrollment period. I'm speaking with Doctor Mina Simone, director of the center for Medicare at the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Doctor Simone, thank you so much. I really do appreciate your time.

Speaker4:
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Matt.

Speaker1:
It's a very important time to have you as part of things today, because we're right up against the deadline for people to enroll in Medicare, or maybe check their Medicare coverage if they already are enrolled, because the annual enrollment period has been going on since mid-October. But it's just about up here in a day or two, really on on December 7th. So people need to get on it. Right?

Speaker4:
That's right. The deadline for open enrollment is December 7th. And open enrollment is so important for people with Medicare because it is the one time of year where you can check and see what option works best for your needs. You know your health needs may change each year, your financial needs may change each year. And importantly, there are some really exciting improvements to the Medicare program that you need to go and look and make sure that you're picking the option that works best for you so that you can take advantage of those important improvements.

Speaker1:
Yeah, and that was actually going to be my next question. What may be some new things, maybe 1 or 2 highlights that you wanted to share that people might want to check out?

Speaker4:
Absolutely. It is a very exciting time in Medicare starting January 1st, 2025, for the first time in the history of the Medicare program, there will be a limit on what people pay out of their own pocket for covered prescription drugs. They will not have to pay more than $2,000 in a calendar year, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act or the prescription drug law. But it's only for covered prescription drugs. So that's why it's so important that during this open enrollment, you are checking to make sure that your prescription drugs will be covered next year so that you can take advantage of that incredible savings of that $2,000 cap. Another big improvement is that we have expanded financial assistance, again thanks to the prescription drug law. If you make less than $23,000 a year or $31,000 as a married couple, you could be eligible for financial assistance through the Extra Help program. So again, it is so important that if you're having trouble paying for your prescription drug costs or paying for other Medicare costs, because there's also the Medicare savings program that can help you with financial assistance, you need to be able to go and check and see if you're eligible. And open enrollment ends on December 7th. So now is the time to act.

Speaker1:
And you know, a lot of this, it sounds obviously great. I'm sure that there are a lot of people listening who are maybe Medicare recipients or just sort of maybe, you know, turning 65 this year and say, okay, I got to check all of this out, but it sounds maybe a little bit overwhelming, as great as it sounds. Is there help that's available out there for folks to sort of navigate their different options when it comes to Medicare?

Speaker4:
Yes. You know, it's been a priority for us to, you know, make things as easy as possible to navigate. I know how complicated health care can be. And I also know that people are getting inundated with ads right now. So there are three official sources of information to help you pick what works best for you. The first is Medicare.gov. That's Medicare.gov. You can go to the website, click on Find Plans. Now you can input your prescription drugs and get a side by side comparison of plans based on their cost, quality and coverage. Or you can call us at one 800 Medicare. That's one 800 Medicare. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to help you navigate and pick what works best for you. And the third way to get official help is through the State Health Insurance Program, or Schip. There are local, in-person counselors who are available to help you navigate, so you can go to Schiphol Airport to get sources. Number one Medicare.gov number two one 800 Medicare and number three Schip help org.

Speaker1:
Wonderful. And we will definitely direct our listeners to those different resources. Well, Doctor Mina Samani is the deputy administrator and director at the center for Medicare for the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Doctors say. Samani. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate your time and all the great info.

Speaker4:
Thank you again for having me.

Speaker1:
So that is that's the word there. Get on it. If you have not checked your benefits for Medicare for next year. Um, you know, it's very, very urgent that you do that before December 7th, 2024. All right. So income is what we're going to talk about here today. And you know planning for income has got to be central to your retirement plan, especially the closer you get to retirement. Because when you're younger, you know, you're the focus is on building a good sized nest egg, right. How can I accumulate as much as I possibly can? How can I build up a big pot of money that I'm then going to live on in retirement? And so many people focus on that very thing, and it's an important thing. But as you get older, you sort of have to change your frame of mind from just accumulation and just building that nest egg to, okay, what am I actually going to live on in retirement? How can I make sure that I have enough money in retirement to actually live on, and to have a steady stream of income that I'm not going to outlive? That is, as we'll see here in just a few. The number one sort of concern of retirees in several surveys, but including one that we'll talk about in just a moment. But so many people, as I say, don't focus on making that switch. Don't don't focus on flipping that switch in their minds.

Speaker1:
Right. They they still are focused on just the accumulation, even as they get closer and closer to retirement. And you still want to be building the pot of money that you have to to work with. Right. You still want to make sure that you have that, um, that money growing for you. You want to still want to make sure it's working for you, but you also want to make sure that you are going to have income, because you know what happens when you retire the paychecks from your job? They stop coming in. Right? And so, yeah, sure, there's Social Security, but is it going to be there in the same form that it is today? Um, forever. And the answer to that is probably not. It's it'll it'll still be there in my estimation anyway. And, you know, most economists say it'll still be there, but will it be there in the same form? Yeah, it's hard to say because, you know, the finances of Social Security are just not in the best shape with the trust funds going to, you know, estimate it. Any way to run out of money in a decade or less in many cases here. So that is a concern. So are those benefits still going to be there? Yeah probably. Are they going to be exactly what they are today? Probably not. Could be. You know that's no guarantee obviously, but could be changed to where the benefits are going to be lessened in the future.

Speaker1:
Or it could be shored up. You know, lawmakers could see the light and actually shore up the system so that it doesn't go away or doesn't get decreased. So we shall see. But here's the thing with Social Security, you can't rely on it to be your sole source of income. And I'll tell you why in just a moment. You know, a lot of people used to have a pension. Um, now, some people still have pensions, but they're much fewer than they used to have pensions from the 50s to the 70s, pensions were prevalent. Over half of private sector employees were covered by pensions, and they offered secure, predictable income. And that really provided peace of mind in retirement for those who served companies long term. And they also on the company side, they provided a sense of loyalty and security for the company because, you know, they're not as concerned that people are going to leave because the benefits are so good. They've got these good hard workers that are going to stay there and stay there for decades, right. Then it also because it's kind of add to that on the employer side, lifetime benefits. The payments there were based on years of service and salary. So you work there for a long time. You get raises each year or every couple of years and your salary goes up. You have more years of service. You have a larger pension to live on in your retirement years.

Speaker1:
That's kind of how the thing worked and still works in some cases. Um, so that it's a defined benefit plan is what a pension is. That's a that's another sort of term for it and more of an umbrella term for it, but a defined benefit plan. Right. And so, you know, you look at nearly back in as late as the 80s, probably mid 80s, um, the stats from the Congressional Research Service show that as many as 30 million Americans had a pension that has been steadily falling, steadily falling, um, since the 80s, about 1984, 85 through to today, it's been just on a steady decline while the number of people in defined contribution plans. So those are your 401, 403 B's Thrift Savings Plan. If you're a federal employee, those types of plans that, you know, those numbers of participants have just skyrocketed over the last several years. So why has that happened over the last several decades, I should say. So why has that happened? Well, there's been a big shift to the defined contribution plan starting in the 80s. Corporations transitioned to the 401 K plans and other things from pensions to reduce expenses. They did it to simplify plan management, at least on their part, because unlike pensions, 401 shifted the responsibility to employees to then fund and manage their retirement investments. Now, let me ask you this. Are you a financial advisor? Are you a financial professional? If you're listening to the show, chances are probably not.

Speaker1:
Otherwise, what do you need me for? But if you are listening to this, you're probably not a financial advisor, a financial professional, anything like that. So your employer, though, wants you to be one essentially. If you have a defined contribution plan, like a 401 K or a 403 B or a TSB or anything else like that. They want you to be a financial pro for your own financial future, because your responsibility is funding and managing your retirement investments. Unless you're working with, you know, someone who is a fiduciary, a financial advisor like myself, and then I can work on your behalf and actually, you know, make the proper changes that I believe will be most beneficial to you. And again, I say to you, not to me, most beneficial to you, because that is my fiduciary capacity that I operate in. There was also a Pension Protection Act of 2006. It enforced strict funding standards, and that led some companies to freeze or close pensions rather than meet a higher financial burden. It was a, you know, a piece of legislation that was intended to shore up pensions, but instead kind of did the opposite. And more employers got rid of them because they just didn't want to meet the higher standards and higher financial burden. Only 10% of private sector non-union workers have access to a pension plan today. That's according to Investopedia. Just 10% have a pension.

Speaker1:
In the private sector, 68% have access to a 401 K or another defined contribution plan. Public sector employment still offers pensions for many, especially those in government roles, but even those are under pressure because of funding issues. So if you are part of the majority here and do not have a pension, chances are if you hear the sound of my voice, you don't have a pension. Um, or if you do, it may not be so lucrative as far as the monthly payment goes, that kind of thing. What can you do? What should you be doing if you don't have access to a pension? Well, number one, maximize those 401 contributions. Employers, a lot of them anyway. Not all, but a lot. Offer a match. So let's say, just as an example, that your employer offers a match of 5%. So up to 5% of your salary, they will match that dollar for dollar going into a 401 K plan. So then essentially it doubles your money right up until the you know that you hit that 5%. So it's as a percentage of your salary. So if you are contributing, say, 5% of your salary to a 401 K plan, that gets matched dollar for dollar by your employer, so then you're essentially contributing. It's a 10% contribution essentially. Right. It doubles from 5 to 10. So your employer matches that 5%. Here's the here's the rub though. If you're only contributing, say, 3% of your salary, your employer is also going to contribute 3% that same amount.

Speaker1:
It's only going to match up to what you do. It won't pay out 5%. Still, even though you're paying a lesser amount now, if you contribute 10% of your salary, that employer who matches up to 5% in this example is going to still pay out that 5%. So it won't go above and beyond that. But what you want to do is maximize those 401 K contributions. Take a look at how much you're contributing each and every pay cycle. Make sure that you're contributing as much as you can, and at least the minimum guideline here should be enough to get the employer match to max out that employer match. So if you work for that employer that offers a match up to 5% and you are contributing only 3%, you're telling me essentially you do not like free money? And I say, that's kind of crazy. That's the best kind of money is free money. So the employer, whatever that match is, make sure that you are contributing enough to get that match. Also, your employer might offer a Roth type account as well that you can contribute to, and you might be listening to the sound of my voice and never listen to the show before. Maybe this is your first time joining us, if that is the case. Thank you. But if you do not know what a Roth type account is, Roth accounts grow tax free.

Speaker1:
And that can really be valuable for long term planning. So you can contribute a certain amount of after tax dollars to a Roth. A lot of employers will offer a Roth 401 K option. Or you can open your own Roth IRA. I can help you with that. If you would like more information. Take pride in retirement.com once again to reach out. Let's take pride in retirement.com. Now I can help you open up a Roth of your own like a Roth IRA, right? An individual retirement account. I can help you do that. And you pay into that. With after tax dollars, it grows tax free. And then in retirement, the withdrawals from that account, those are also tax free. So that is one of the two sources of tax free income in retirement. The other is potentially a particular kind of life insurance called an indexed universal life, which is something that you could explore as well. Right. So again, take pride in retirement. Com is the place to go. Reach out, schedule a free consultation if you want more information on any of that. So those are the first two. Maximizing your 401 K contributions. Consider Roth accounts also supplement with IRAs because both traditional and Roth IRAs offer tax advantaged growth. One is tax free growth. That's a Roth that we just talked about. The other is tax deferred. You put in pre-tax dollars into the IRA, and then it grows on a tax deferred basis.

Speaker1:
Right. So you don't pay taxes now. You pay taxes later. So in other words, you've got a larger pot of money to be growing. Right. You're growing a larger pot of money because you haven't paid taxes on it. You'll pay taxes in the end of the other side, but that can provide another retirement income stream for you. Is making systematic withdrawals in retirement from a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA. So if you have questions about any of those income sources or more, reach out. And once again, the website take Pride in retirement.com. As I've said, take pride in retirement.com. You can also call me if you would like. Call me any family Guy fans. You probably get that (855) 246-9211. That's (855) 246-9211. I would be glad to help you out there as well. Well, so, you know, pensions are really hard to find in the workplace. And I told you I'd share some stats with you here. Um, about, you know what the sort of numbers look like for people who are, you know, sort of afraid that they're going to run out of money in their retirement years. Right. And so it's long been the case that running out of money is the number one fear of retirees. That is still true today. Really when you're looking at some new statistics. Um, this particular survey is from Greenwald Research. 66% of people are worried that they will run out of money in retirement.

Speaker1:
That is up from their 2023 survey by 6%. So it was 60% of people worried they're going to run out of money in retirement, 66% now in 2024 surveyed by Greenwald research worrying that they're going to run out of money. A lot of that, of course, is due to the rate of inflation over the past couple of years, which is luckily come down. But that doesn't mean that the inflated prices that were already paying are coming down. That just means the rate of inflation has slowed down, right? Price is still going up, just not as fast as they were before. So here's the thing. You want to be focused on a retirement income plan. It is so important to have. And one way that you can be someone who plans for retirement income is to not think of annuity as a dirty word. Now look, there are some types of annuities that I would not recommend to my worst enemy. There are some types of annuities that you know. I definitely would be invested in myself if I were you. And I would, you know, absolutely tell you that if that's the case, You know, for your particular situation. And that's the thing. It's all based on your particular situation. What is best for you and what's best for you is not best necessarily, unless you just happen to have very similar financial situations, not necessarily what is best for your neighbor down the street or your uncle, your aunt, your mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather, um, you know, child, whatever.

Speaker1:
What's best for you is what's best for you. And that's what I'm going to base all of my recommendations on. But what we call smart, safe investing involves a particular kind of annuity, and it is a fixed indexed annuity. I said earlier that the older you get, you know, the less risk you want to be taking with your investments. It's another, you know, sort of part of that going from the accumulation phase to the distribution phase of your retirement. Right. So you want to flip that switch. That's sort of another switch that gets flipped is the amount of risk that you are taking as you get older, because you don't want to be taking as much risk. You want to still get growth, obviously, but the older you are, the closer you are to retirement, the less time you have to make up for any losses you incur in the market. So what do you do? You invest in a smart, safe way, at least for a portion of your portfolio. Not the whole thing, but at least for a portion of your portfolio. This is an investment strategy that we call smart safe, and it's designed to generate the highest possible return while also keeping risk to a minimum. And we generally like to use for this portion of a portfolio something called fixed indexed annuities. Now what's a fixed indexed annuity or an FIA? Well, an FIA is an insurance contract that provides a guaranteed income stream for your retirement.

Speaker1:
Guaranteed, of course, based on the claims paying ability of the issuer. But they're seen as an alternative to traditional bonds and provide a way for investors to protect their retirement savings from market volatility. Feas are designed to provide protection from market downturns while providing potential for growth. Now dive into that just a little bit deeper, deeper here for the next few seconds. Protection from market volatility. How do they do that. Well, since the annuity is linked to a performance of an underlying stock or stock market index, rather it's linked to that stock market index. The income is not directly affected by any short term market fluctuations. So the market can go up and it can go down, go sideways, whatever. But the short term fluctuations in the market are not going to affect any of the money that is in a fixed indexed annuity and FIA, and that makes them an attractive option for investors who are looking for steady and reliable income in their retirement years. You don't have to worry about the Wall Street roller coaster. All you have to worry about is the worst that you can do in a fixed indexed annuity is zero. Zero growth because your principal and any growth that's already credited to the account. Both of those things are guaranteed by the issuer, right. They are not going to go down.

Speaker1:
You won't lose any value. In other words it's only going to go up. So if the market is up 10%, you're going to reap a portion of those gains. If the market goes down 10%. Everybody else is, you know, losing their shirt or tearing their hair out at least. Whatever the case may be, you are not because you are in a much better place if you have at least a portion of your investments in a fixed indexed annuity. You are protected from that market loss because it's the annuity is linked to a market index, but it is not directly invested in it. The performance, though on the upside, is tied to it. Tax deferred growth. Any earnings on the annuity are not subject to taxes until the annuity is withdrawn. This is you know, you can take your funds from your 401 K, roll those into an annuity that is, you know, has that same sort of tax treatment. And it can continue to grow on a tax deferred basis just like that 401 K. You won't be taxed until you take the income from it. When those income payments start in retirement now you can also have an annuity that is, you know, a non-qualified annuity. And the tax treatment is different. This is a qualified annuity. So qualified means it's it's tax qualified or qualified for a treatment tax wise that is tax advantaged right. In some way lifetime income stream. So I told you that 66%, according to that recent survey of people are worried about running out of money in retirement.

Speaker1:
And other surveys have shown several other surveys actually have shown that that's even a bigger fear than death itself among retirees. Well, a lifetime income stream via a fixed indexed annuity can alleviate those fears because you don't have to worry about breaking your budget and you can just enjoy your retirement. You can enjoy spending discretionary money with an income that you can count on, and you can never outlive you turn on that stream of income and you know it's going to be good for the rest of your life because it is, again, guaranteed. It's a guaranteed income stream, subject to, of course, the claims paying ability of the issuer. You are guaranteed to have those payouts for the rest of your life. So here's the thing. I mean, are you nervous about the way that inflation has impacted your finances? Are you concerned that you are going to run out of money in retirement? Are you concerned because of the fact that you're having to not only cut back on spending, but maybe take some out of your savings to make ends meet? Maybe you are having to take some out of your retirement accounts to make ends meet. Not a situation you want to find yourself in because then future You is, you know, going to probably punch you in the face. Um, not not to be too graphic about it.

Speaker1:
Um, will will hit you instead of hug you. Let's say let's say it that way. But it's, you know, it's not going to be as pretty of a picture as it would be otherwise because you have less money to grow over time for your future. So future, you will be much more thankful to you if you let the money grow, instead of having to withdraw it to just make ends meet. And some people are doing that, of course. Um, we've had other surveys that have shown that as well, that a good portion of people are doing that. So are you concerned about running out of money in retirement? You need an inflation proof retirement plan. I can help you get there. One that's going to account for inflation that may come, one that's going to account for whatever storms you need to weather. Financially speaking. I can help you come up with that plan. Take pride in retirement.com is the website that's take Pride in retirement.com. The initial consultation is free of any cost. It's free of any obligation. You can also call 85524692118552469211 to set it up all right. And so I was one more thing before I close out this edition of the show. I was actually speaking with a wonderful couple just last week and doing a consultation with them. And, um, had to, you know, remind them that in a few years they're going to have to do at least with things the way they are now.

Speaker1:
They're going to have to take RMDs, which are required minimum distributions. Anybody who is aged 73 or older. You know all about them. You hate them, loathe them and despise them, I am sure. But as we approach the end of the year required minimum distributions, I need to remind you about them because the deadline for taking your RMD for this year is quickly approaching. It's the end of the year, December 31st, and if you, you know, work with us at the firm that I work for, active Wealth management, you know, we do this proactively with all of our clients to help them plan any annual distributions in an efficient manner. We do that in advance so that you know what's coming. So basically an RMD, if you're not familiar, is Uncle Sam saying, okay, you've you've put money in this tax advantaged account, whether it's a 401 K, an IRA, something like that. That's tax deferred. You haven't paid any taxes on that money yet. It's been growing. It's been working for you. That's great. I've given you this tax benefit so many years and decades now. But I'm Uncle Sam, so I want my cut at the age of 73 as of right now. Eventually it will be a 75, but right now it's 73 thanks to the secure act 2.0. So the deadline for taking that RMD is coming up at the end of the year, because Uncle Sam wants his cut.

Speaker1:
He wants you to withdraw a minimum amount of money that you'll be required to. That's why it's a required minimum distribution. Take a distribution from your tax advantaged account and pay the taxes on it, because Uncle Sam wants his cut of money. After all these years of you having this tax advantage. So required minimum distributions from those employer based retirement plans. And traditional IRAs are due at the end of the year. And those distributions are taxable now. We can also help you explore a Roth conversion. If you have some of those traditional accounts and you want to roll money over into a Roth account. That's great. We can help you along those lines and it'll be, you know, something that could be very advantageous because taxes at some point are going to have to go up, right? That's what the economists say anyway. It's not me saying that. That's a lot of economists saying that, because we've got, you know, more than, what, 335 trillion. I think it is something crazy, uh, almost nearing, nearing $36 trillion in national debt. Trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars in national debt that are going to have to be accounted for at some point. Uh, 36. We've actually crossed 36 now. I just looked it up. 36.1 trillion according to US debt clock. Org. Um, so more than $36 trillion in national debt. And so that's going to mean that taxes will likely have to go up in the future.

Speaker1:
So they're at historically low rates right now. In the future though, they're going to have to go up to to pay up, pay the bills essentially to pay the the debt that the nation owes. So why don't you go ahead and pay now at lower rates as you do a Roth conversion, instead of waiting until the taxes go up in a few years? So that is something that's very important to keep in mind. You don't have to worry about RMDs if you have Roth accounts from those particular accounts, because you're not going to pay taxes on them anyway. You've already paid the taxes. Those withdrawals are tax free, so RMDs do not apply. They're applied, though, to traditional accounts like 401 KS, traditional IRAs and the like. All right. So that reminder for you. And on that happy note, I want to thank you again for joining me for this edition of Take Pride in Retirement. I hope you've gotten something out of the show. I hope you do each and every week. And I thank you again so, so much for taking the time, for joining me, for being a part of the show, for being a part of hopefully, what is a building movement to help the LGBTQ plus community be better prepared for retirement? I do this each and every week, or at least the vast majority of weeks. I'd love to have guests on, like the good doctor I had on earlier, talking about the Medicare annual enrollment period wrapping up this weekend.

Speaker1:
And so I love doing that. I love talking about all kinds of topics, whether they are very specific to the LGBTQ plus community or whether they apply to our community, but they also, you know, maybe apply to others as well. Kind of like, you know, planning for retirement income this week. That's sort of a more widely applicable thing, right? But it also is super important for LGBTQ plus folks, especially given the political environment we find ourselves in some uncertainty around that maybe what the Supreme Court might do with different rights and things that for now, we take for granted. But we shouldn't. So we need to prepare for whatever might come. And so regardless of what changes might come or what financial storms may come, any of that stuff, you can be prepared. And I would like to help you be prepared. Just go to take Pride in retirement.com or give me a call (855) 246-9211. And you can set up a free initial consultation. I would love to sit down with you and go over everything that you have, um, financially speaking, with a fine tooth comb and see how I can make it better for you. All right. Thank you once again, so much for joining me. I really do appreciate it. And until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you next time.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to Take Pride in Retirement. Members of the LGBTQ plus community deserve to work with the fiduciary financial advisor who puts their needs first. To schedule a free, no obligation consultation with Matt McClure and the team at Active Wealth Management, call (855) 246-9211 or go online to take pride in retirement. Dot com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, BCM, a registered investment Advisor, BCM and Active Wealth Management Incorporated 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. Matt McClure and Active Wealth Management are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.

Speaker1:
Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products. They do not in any way refer to investment advisory products. Rates and guarantees provided by insurance products and annuities are subject to the financial strength of the issuing insurance company, not guaranteed by any bank or the FDIC. 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 interest of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure, the Adv2 to item four for additional information.

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