Where Do You Want to Go in Retirement?

Episode 36: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 36: 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 advisor, your pal, your confidant. I really appreciate you taking the time to join me each and every time. We have the ability and pleasure of getting together here. To learn more about how you can have a retirement you can take pride in. That is the entire point of the show, and we're going to talk about a lot of that today about how you can build a smart retirement plan. We got so many different aspects of it that I would love to go over with you, including, um, some things that that have been going on with some clients whose names will be changed to protect the innocent. Uh, but some things that have been going on that perhaps you can learn from there as well. So a lot to a lot to get to here. I really do again, appreciate you being a part of things. Take pride in retirement.com of course is the website Take Pride in retirement.com. The show is all about this. No matter who you are, where you come from, who you love, how you identify, how much money you have, any of the things I want you to have, that retirement that you can take pride in, right? I really want you to be in a position where you can have the things that you want in retirement.

Speaker1:
You can have the retirement that you really and truly desire. Right? That should be the goal for everybody. And I think that that should be an achievable thing no matter your situation. So take pride in retirement. Com is the place to go to learn more about the show. You can also learn a little bit more about me and why I do the show. I can sort of expand on that that I just said there. You know the reason behind it. You can also see a videos and there are, you know, episodes of all of the or recordings rather of all the past episodes of the show as well up on the website. Please, please, please also subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening right now, okay? Wherever you listen to podcasts. I would appreciate it if you would subscribe. If you would like, if you would leave us a nice rating, please leave us. Maybe a comment about how much you love the show really would appreciate that because of course it helps the old algorithm. Matt at Take Pride in Retirement. Com is the email that's Matt at Take Pride in retirement.com. You can also give me a call 855246 9211. That is (855) 246-9211. That rings right in the office. And I will get back to you as soon as I can if you, uh, call there and I happen to not answer or if you call and, um, you know, I don't answer, you leave a message.

Speaker1:
Just mention that you heard the podcast. I'll be glad to get back to you as soon as possible. Now, why would you want to call me? Why would you want to email me? Why would you want to go to the website? Well, One of the main reasons is I offer free financial consultations. I am a fully licensed financial advisor. Right? So I help people achieve the retirement of their dreams. And I do that beginning with a free consultation. I'll take a look, go through your situation with a fine tooth comb and tell you sort of where you stand now and where you could be going in the future. And it's it's an in-depth analysis. It's not just some sort of like, you know, okay, we're going to say, take a look at a couple of your accounts and we'll be like, oh, you can do better than this, or maybe you can't, and that's it. And you get like a little two page thing. No, it's very in-depth. I mean, as part of it, you get a financial plan to your 95th birthday. You get to look at how things would look on your 95th birthday if they don't change for you, like if you don't change your strategies or your tactics and the way that you are doing things to plan today.

Speaker1:
If you don't have a plan in place, we'll help you get one in place. We'll also do a Social Security analysis. A Social Security maximization report for you and tell you the best strategies, depending on different scenarios that might happen in your life. Because yeah, there are different decisions that go into Social Security and when to draw that down as well. Again, no matter who you are or where you come from, who you love, how you identify, how much money you have, any of the things I want to help you achieve that retirement that you can take pride in. And it all starts by going to the website once again, take pride in retirement.com. You can click schedule a consultation and you can actually schedule one for real. Right up there on the top of the page you'll see schedule a consultation. Click that. It'll take you directly to my calendar. You'll see my real time availability and be able to to do that I would love to help you out. Okay, so we're going to get started with some inspiration for our conversation here momentarily. Our quote of the week is around the corner. We've also got something that I often stress to people when I do meet with them for the first time, and that is what is your vision for retirement and do you have a vision for retirement? What do you want to do? You've got to set that destination and then we'll map out the road to get there.

Speaker1:
Right. It's sort of like a financial GPS. We'll call that a smart vision for your retirement also. Smart inspection. Have you had a smart inspection of your retirement savings? We'll take a look at that as well. And then also a problem solver, which we haven't done in a while, but I am looking forward to. This is one of those things that, you know, I was talking about how, um, people, uh, some, some things that have been going on with clients and one of them is, you know, helping someone with a stray 401 K or an orphan 401 K, you might call it. I'll tell you how kind of how that goes and and solve that problem. That's actually a real world problem. And it's not happening just to this one person. It could be happening to you and you might not even know it. We can help you track that down. Okay. Also talk about what it is like to work with me and, um, you know, get you started on the road to a better retirement than you would have otherwise. All right. Well, okay, so, as promised, we're going to get things started now 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:
This week our quote of the week comes from Connor Franta. And unless you are, you know, someone who subscribes to a lot of YouTube channels or anything, you might be saying, okay, who in the world is that? He's actually he's a YouTuber, but he is a big time YouTuber, um, with like millions of followers and does some great video content there, and has really made a name for himself in that space, is an author as well. And so just really, really achieving a lot as a member of the LGBTQ plus community. So this particular quote does come from Connor Franta. And I think it's true in finances and in life, and it's this race, gender, religion, sexuality, we're all people and that's it. We're all people. We're all equal. Boy, I love that. Race, gender, religion, sexuality. We're all people and that's it. We're all people. We are all equal. Connor Franta with some wise words there. And you know, that's the way that it should be. We should look at our lives. Not as, you know, the things that divide us or the differences that we have. Um, as a negative thing, we should look at those differences as a positive thing. Because you know what? All of those differences make us. They make us human, right? They make us the human beings that we are. And, you know, no matter any of those things, your religion, your gender, your sexuality, you know, anything your, your social class, like any of those things that we usually use to divide us, why don't we take that and turn it on its head and use those things to unite us? How about it? Because they can.

Speaker1:
If we learn to celebrate our differences. And and here's the thing. Like the fact that we're all human, that is what makes us equal. That's what makes us the same. Yeah, sure, we do have differences. Yeah, those differences do need to be acknowledged and those differences need to be celebrated. Not, you know, cast dispersions upon. Right. Like we don't need to beat each other down for our differences. We need to celebrate those differences and have a positive sort of dialogue with each other. And I feel like the the thing that Connor really does sort of maybe inadvertently capture in that, um, in that quote is the purpose behind this show. Because we are all human, we are all equal. At least we should be right. We should be recognized as such. So just acknowledging that fact is such a great starting place for so many places, great starting point for so many places in our lives, whether it be our social interactions with other people, whether it be our jobs, whether it be, you know, whatever, our family dynamics and all of that, it also should apply to our finances. Just because you happen to be a member of the LGBTQ plus community or not, or if you're an ally, if you're, you know, whatever, however you identify, whomever you are, and whatever beautiful pieces of the puzzle make up who you are.

Speaker1:
No matter any of that, you deserve to have a retirement you can take pride in. You deserve to be in a secure financial situation, and I want to help you get there. If you're not there, I want to help make that situation even better if you are there already. So I think it's a a simple quote. And then it's not a whole lot of words, but it's a very meaningful one. And saying that we are all the same in a lot of ways, despite our differences. And in a strange sort of a way, if you, you know, kind of look at it this way, we're the same because of our differences, right? We're all different. Each and every one of us is different than the other. And because we're all different, that makes us, in a way, the same, right. Because each of us has differences. So it's it's it's funny if you sort of take it and look at it that way, kind of turn conventional thinking on its head. What could I possibly ever have in common with this person? Well, you're a human being, and the fact that you are a human being is enough to find some commonality with others, and it's enough to acknowledge the fact that you should have a retirement. You can take pride in that. You should have a financial situation that you can take pride in.

Speaker1:
And that is sort of what we're going to focus on in the show today, is building a smart retirement plan for you and making sure that you start off by having a what we call a smart vision for your retirement, right? A smart vision for your retirement is like, okay, what do you want that to look like? Do you have a husband, a wife, a partner, a significant other of any type? Do you have a larger family? Do you have parents that you're going to have to take care of? Perhaps. Do you have kids that you're going to have to, you know, pay their way through college? Do you have, um, you know, other things that are potentially going to be big expenses come your retirement years? How can we map out a road to get you to where you want to be in retirement, taking all of those things into consideration, right. So that is that's that's the problem to be solved after we know what you want your destination to be. Right. And that's what we call your smart vision for retirement. What are you going to be doing during your retirement years? What is your dream? Who are you spending your time with? That husband, wife, partner, significant other? The kids? The parents? Any of the things? All of our family situations and family dynamics are different, especially as LGBTQ+ people. So we got to take that into consideration as well and tailor a plan specifically for you as a result of that.

Speaker1:
Again, who are you taking care of? If those parents are with you, who are you taking care of in retirement? Or if you're taking care of the kids? If you have those kids, maybe you have nieces and nephews that you have to take care of at certain points in their lives. It all depends on your individual situation and your family dynamic, as I was mentioning. And that really is a very powerful thing because we can individualize a plan just for you based on all those factors. Do you have any specific goals? What do you really want to do? Do you, do you say, you know, I want to like go on a year long cruise around the world and it's, you know, X amount of dollars. And I got a this is my goal. It's my life's goal to be able to do this and I want to do it. How can we make that happen. I'll work with you to make it happen. All right. Do you want to retire? A lot of people that I speak with, especially in initial consultations, are like, yeah, you know, I plan on retiring, but I'm not really going to retire. I can't, um, see myself, actually, you know, just sitting around the house and kind of doing nothing. I'm still going to be working, or I'm still going to be doing things that I'm very passionate about, whether it has something to do with what I have done as a career my whole life or not.

Speaker1:
Maybe, perhaps if you want to relaunch instead of retire, you can do something that will turn a hobby into something that that makes you some money, right? Maybe help supplement your income by doing something. If you love woodworking, if you love painting, if you love, um, you know, doing things that, uh, being a consultant, maybe, you know, uh, giving your expertise to businesses who maybe need help with their logistics or their day to day operations as a business. Like there are so many different ways that you can relaunch yourself in retirement. If you want to do that, we'll take that into account as well. The big, big question here is how are you going to fund it? How are you going to fund all of those things that you want to do? Do you have that smart vision, and do you have a plan in place that's going to get you there? You know, the holiday's recording, recording this show right now during the holiday season, it's, um, right, sort of almost middle of December at this point, which is so hard to believe here in 2024. And, you know, the holidays are really a great time to sit down with that husband or wife or partner or significant other other family members and think about what you want your future to look like. Think about what you want those retirement years to look like, the first step in planning a successful retirement is deciding what that dream looks like to you.

Speaker1:
And you can actually schedule a no obligation consultation by going to the website. That website, once again, is Take Pride in retirement.com. Take pride in retirement.com. You can schedule a consultation directly there on the website. It's right up at the top of the page on the home page and take pride in retirement.com. You can also give me a call 85524692118552469211. And I say it's a no obligation consultation because it is absolutely free of any cost whatsoever. And there's no obligation to continue on at all. I'm not going to guilt trip you into working with me. I want what's best for you. I have a fiduciary responsibility now. That means that I want what's best for you. And I am bound by rules and ethics to watch out for your best interests and not my own. All right, so you've got a smart vision. Let's say you want to do a lot of traveling. Let's say you do want to do that big trip that I was sort of hypothetically mentioning a minute ago. You want to go on that big cruise around the world in a lot more than 80 days, right? So maybe whatever it is you want to do, maybe you do want to relaunch. Maybe you just want to spend time traveling around and seeing family. Like whatever you want to do. You've got that in mind. Now that's your smart vision for retirement.

Speaker1:
Well, the first step toward getting there, and I sort of like to think about it as a financial GPS, as I mentioned a little bit ago, like your smart vision, that's the first thing that you do when you get in the car, right? You set the destination of where you want to go. If it's somewhere you've never been before, chances are you've never been retired before, so you've got to set that destination in your GPS. Here's what I want to be doing in X number of years. Traveling. Resting, doing X kind of work that may be different or the same or related to what I used to do. Any and or all of those things can be taken into consideration when you are planning out your smart vision. Because it's your vision. It's not mine. It's yours. So you put that destination in and then you say, okay, how do we get there? Well, when it comes to your finances, one of the very first things that we need to, to do and to talk about is to say, okay, have I had a smart inspection of my retirement savings? How are things going for me right now? And as a result of that sort of in-depth analysis of my current situation, how could I improve things? And that's really where we come in at Active Wealth Management and here at Take Pride in Retirement. It's all about what's best for you and every listener who reaches out.

Speaker1:
I will review your accounts, those IRAs, those 401 K's, anywhere you hold assets, including cash. We'll assess the current account balances. You know, how much have you been able to. Save for retirement. What are you currently paying in fees. That is a huge one so many people have. Accounts that are high in fees. They don't even necessarily realize it. So the management of those funds can cost you a pretty penny. We want to say that many people that we work with are actually surprise. Big time by the fees that they're currently paying. And when we show them how they can cut their fees, they are super happy about that, right? Who doesn't like saving money? Because the less that you're paying in fees, the more money there is that can go toward your retirement plan, your retirement savings, the investment in yourself for your future retirement. We'll review the rates of return that you've had over the last 12 months, three years, five years and beyond will determine the answer to this question. Are you going to have or do you have now an income gap or an income surplus? You want to have an income surplus, right? You want to have more money than month. You do not want to have more month than money. And we can help you determine if that's the case. It's a matter of fact. I was just running a plan for a lovely couple this week, and it turned out, you know, they were going to have a big income gap in retirement that was going to cause their retirement funds that they had worked so hard to save up over the years.

Speaker1:
It's going to cause those retirement funds to not be able to last, to not be able to last for a long time in their retirement. You know, they get into their 70s and suddenly they'd be close, if not completely out of money and nothing to to really live on there. So do you have an income gap or an income surplus? If you have a gap. We'll come up with a plan to show you how you can get into that surplus territory, which is where everybody wants to be. We'll take any, uh, you know, of those accounts that you might have that might be pension plans if you are lucky enough to have one. If you say, work for a government agency, or maybe if you work for one of the few private employers that still offers a pension. We'll do an x ray of any annuities that you might have as well determine the best personal pension options that are available out there, and protect your hard earned savings. Do you have a tax problem? We can take a look at and see if you're overly exposed in tax deferred accounts. Well, you may want to consider a Roth conversion. Get rid of some of those future taxes or a lot of those future taxes. Right. We'll also consider your real estate assets.

Speaker1:
You know, a family home, a rental property, your your land that you might own. Things like that. We review life insurance coverage that you currently have. If you have it, and I hope you do and help you take care of, you know, any additional coverage needs that might be there. I just kind of hiding in plain sight. Right. We'll provide you with that Social Security maximization report that I spoke about a few minutes ago as well. Now, all of this can be yours if the price is right. And let me tell you, it is because it's free. Um, it is absolutely no obligation. Listen, what you see is what you get. What you hear is what you get here on the podcast with me. I'm not a high pressure individual. I do not like the pushy salesperson approach to anything. And I'm not a sales guy. I'm a fiduciary. I am here to act in your best interests. I'm here to use the education that I have, the practical knowledge that I have as well, and the resources that I have at my disposal to come up with a plan that's best for you. And that's what I want to do. No matter who you are or where you come from, who you love, how you identify, how much money you have, any of the things just go to take pride in retirement. Com to schedule that free consultation. Take pride in retirement. Com you can also call me 855246 9211 (855) 246-9211.

Speaker4:
It's time for this week's Problem Solver.

Speaker1:
The drama of that introduction to our Problem Solver segment here. I love it. And because I'm a dramatic person. No, I'm really not. I'm actually kind of the farthest thing from a dramatic person. But I do love that intro because I produced it myself. Anyway, it's kind of cool. So, um, makes me feel like I'm in a superhero movie or something. So this is our problem solver segment. Basically, I will present a problem and a solution. And this actually has to do with a real thing that we've encountered recently at our firm, and it has to do with a stray 401 K. You know, maybe you've had a job and maybe you had a job several years ago. Maybe you left a job not all that long ago. What did you do with the retirement account that was associated with that job? That 401 K, that 403 B that, you know, TSP if it was a federal government account like those kind of things specifically though, we're talking about 401, 403 B's kind of right now. And this particular situation that I'm going to mention is an actual 401 K. Right. So a lot of people really, when they leave those old jobs, they kind of just leave their retirement plan, their retirement funds that they've accumulated over the years at that old employer. So If you don't roll those over, that's where you get a stray 401 or an orphaned 401 K.

Speaker1:
So we recently worked with a guy named James. Name changed to protect the innocent, who is an engineer who changed jobs a couple of years ago, had a sizable IRA, but still had this 401 at the old employer that was a stray 401 K. It could have been earning him more situations have definitely changed in the investment world over the past couple of years. And his was just sitting there with that old strategy in place in effect. So what were we able to do to solve that problem? Well, we were able to get that account information and get James's old 401 K rolled over into an IRA, and that increased the size of that IRA by about 10%. So now he has even more investment options and lower fees. He has lower fees because the management of a lot of the funds that were inside the 401 K involved mutual funds. So the mutual funds tend to have higher fees because there's more management that goes along with them. Right. It's more, uh, active. You got to, you know, there's a fund manager who actually is there every day actively managing those funds. That person is has got to make a living, right. So that means larger fees for you in many cases. In most cases.

Speaker1:
And so we were able to lower his fees by rolling that over into an IRA, because with our investment model, the way that we like to do things, we don't use a lot of mutual funds, if at all, in our plans. What we like to use are ETFs, exchange traded funds, which have much, much lower, if any, fees. James is also getting a better rate of return on his investments because we replaced the bond portion of his old 401 K with fixed index annuities. And I got to tell you this too, that a rollover like this, I can I can hear you thinking, I can hear the wheels turning in your head a little bit. Is this going to create a taxable event for poor old James? Is poor old James going to have this big tax bill because he, you know, took money out of this 401 K and put it into another retirement account. No, it's a direct rollover. It's not a taxable event for him. He cashed out the 401 K. Or had he done that rather had he cast out the 401 K and just put that money in his pocket or converted it to a Roth account? Yeah, he would have a tax bill coming due. But the fact that he actually rolled it over directly from one retirement account into another with that same tax treatment, that tax deferred treatment, 401 and IRA are both treated that way.

Speaker1:
Traditional IRA then yeah that that means that there is no taxable event in that particular case, but especially if James is of a certain age, meaning on the younger side, aside from the tax bill that he would have coming due, he would also have a 10% IRS penalty had he taken that out and not put it into another retirement account pretty much immediately. Um, and then, of course, if you roll it over into a Roth, you go ahead and pay the taxes. Now instead of paying the taxes on the money later. The point is, when you when we talk about this whole 401 k thing and the stray 401 k thing is that you don't want to be in a set it and forget it sort of mindset. And that really is what a lot of people do with their 401 s. I know this from experience. I know this from working with others. I know this from myself, especially when I was younger. I thought, you know, just I sign up for the company 401 K and that's all I need to do, right? I don't there are no other choices for me to make or anything like that. No, there are choices that you can make and set it and forget it.

Speaker1:
Just, you know, leaving it alone is not the best. So that's one of the reasons I love to do what I do, is I help people manage their hard earned and hard saved money in a much more efficient way, something that fits their needs to a tee. So let me help you take control of your retirement plan by rolling over those old accounts today. And it's such a great thing to do, such a great thing to take care of, because you don't want those old accounts sitting there when they could be making more money for you. I'd be glad to help you out. Go to take pride in retirement.com. That is take pride in retirement.com to learn more. Schedule a free consultation there as well. All right so I got to say this also I am so so proud and so humbled that the Georgia Business Alliance has nominated Take Pride in Retirement for Best New Business of the year. Best New Business of the year at their annual Out Georgia Business Alliance award ceremony. That's coming up this week. This this next week here in December 2024. I will let you know if we win, but just to be nominated is an amazing thing, and I am really so grateful for that nomination. Um, now, of course, I will say that, uh, it's not about the accolades for me.

Speaker1:
It's about helping people. It's about being part of the community and giving back to the community. That's given me a whole heck of a lot. So that being said, it does feel great, of course, to be nominated for a prestigious honour like this. I will keep you updated on how things go. We'll be going to the awards ceremony. Uh, my husband and I in just a few days, so I will let you know how it all turns out. I feel like RuPaul. I should get out my opera glasses. I can't wait to see how this turns out, you know? Anyway, I thank you for joining me. That's going to do it for this edition of Take Pride in Retirement. I hope you've learned something. I hope you've gotten maybe some inspiration to get things together for your particular situation, to at least get that smart inspection of your retirement that we were talking about earlier, right? That inspection, that smart inspection, to see where you are now and where you could be headed and how to make your situation better. I love doing that for people. I would love to do it for you again. Take pride in retirement.com is the website. All right, so until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.

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 2469211 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.

Speaker1:
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 ADV Two-a item four for additional information. Third party ratings and recognitions are no guarantee of future investment success, and do not ensure that a client or prospective client will experience a higher level of performance or results. These ratings should not be construed as an endorsement of the advisor by any client, nor are they representative of any one client's evaluation.

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, enterprise-grade admin tools, generate automated summaries powered by AI, automatic transcription software, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.