Listen and read along to our latest episode!

 

Transcript

Welcome to roadmap to retirement, the radio show with David Bezar, Karen Bezar and Bret Elam from Thrive financial services, who have been featured on Fox, ABC, NBC, the Wall Street Journal and more. Saving for retirement is a great start. But it’s what you do with this money that really matters. What’s your strategy to reduce taxes, generate income in retirement, reduce your risk, and get even more money from Social Security. This is where you can count on straightforward and objective advice about how you can make your money go a lot further in retirement roadmap to retirement, the radio show. Now here are your hosts, David Karen and Bret along with Joe Kraus. Welcome in the 2024 Welcome into another edition of roadmap to retirement the Radio Show with David Bezar and Bret Elam. I’m Joe Kraus navigating this program for you today we begin again with the start of a new year, David? Yeah, happy New Year to everybody. We know this is the time everybody starts thinking about what’s the you’re gonna be like, first of all, we just want to wish everybody happy, healthy. That’s the most important thing. And if you are a pre retiree or a retiree, we’re going to be talking to you today about dodging the top nine retirement blunders, right the things that could potentially derail your retirement, we want to make sure we help people identify what these key missteps are, you know, retirees often do make them. And we want to give you advice for how to sidestep those common blunders that happened during the retirement years. And let me let me emphasize before you get into that conversation, if you hear something on the show today, and you don’t understand, take a moment to follow up and find out there’s a lot of information out across social media right now. On this topic, that topic, especially this time of the year in January. Yeah, as a matter of fact, yesterday morning, I was watching CNBC and jobless claims came out and they had I don’t know, like seven or eight roundtable type people. The numbers were completely different than what the estimates were. They keep talking about revisions happening every time some type of economic date. Nobody knows what the heck’s going on anymore. Right? I saw I don’t know if you remember, I don’t know how popular the grocery train chain was called Carrefour. I remember back in the day, they had a

 

 

a supermarket over to Franklin Mills Mall. That was like the only location it’s a French based company. And what they just did is they kicked out Pepsi, you know, the brand, Pepsi and all of the companies underneath Pepsi, because Pepsi is still claiming that there’s significant inflation going on, we have to raise our prices, the prices have gone through the roof. And finally, a retailer has stepped up to the plate and basically said, Well, we’re not dealing with it, you’re no longer we’re not going to sell your products anymore, you know. So it’s just it’s just there’s a lot right now, you know, to kind of navigate this, I call it an intricate landscape of retirement planning. And it could often feel like you’re kind of walking through a minefield, because you just all this information coming at you made make that missed up. Next thing you know, you’ve blown up your retirement. It’s a long journey, you know, you’ve worked years, you got those years behind you now and you got your golden years ahead of you. There’s really very little room for those mistakes, because those mistakes can cost you 10s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s of dollars. So you know the repercussions of airing in that phase might not just be financial, they can kind of ripple through your emotional well being family issues, it just can cause a lot of stress that just doesn’t work for most people. As a matter of fact, you know, the offer that we want to start the new year with is if the folks that are listening, remember back we wrote a book called reinventing retirement. And it wasn’t really about the economics of retirement. It was really about living a life of purpose, and making sure that the golden years are really special. So if you’re interested in getting a copy of that eBook, you can text the word offer Oh f e r 215-999-3272. Again, the word offer 215-999-3272 And the book will speak Joe directly to that part of avoiding the missteps so you don’t wreck the emotional well being of your retirement because this is the time that you should be enjoying and not being completely stressed out. So we’re going to have 10 thought

 

 

provoking questions that will tie you into the show today. So Bret, why don’t you start out with some of those questions that folks should be looking to get answers for? Yeah. First question we’re going to dig into something to think about is have you ever calculated the actual amount you’ll need in retirement? Or are you just banking on some kind of vague estimate? We see that issue quite a bit. Second one is do you have a plan to address potential health care expenses in retirement beyond just relying on Medicare, a lot of people think Medicare has to end off next one is, is how often do you review and adjust your investment strategy? Most importantly, as you transition from the accumulation phase of your working years to the distribution phase of retirement? Next one is are you aware of the tax implications of your withdrawals from retirement accounts? And could you inadvertently push yourself into a higher bracket not even being aware of it? And fifth one we’re gonna dig into is if social security benefits were reduced or delayed? Would your current retirement strategy accommodate such changes? I mean, Joe, look at just those first five questions, like how complicated like who’s, you know, are you really sitting there thinking, you know, thinking about these things, but these are the things that could impact whether or not your retirement is a successful one or not? A couple more that you can be considering is, like longevity risk, you know, especially with increasing life expectancies, how might that actually affect your retirement savings?

 

 

Another one could be like, are all of your investments tied to the stock market? Or have you finally diversified to include more stable income producing assets? That’s, like, that’s a super, super critical one. People, you know, believe this 6040, you know, equities to bonds split, and then they forget to make adjustments as the years go on. And you’re sitting with that, and kind of exposed that it might not be the right asset allocation for you at this particular time. Have you factored in the effects of inflation? We just talked about it right. I mean, I was, you know, I work out in the morning with a personal trainer, and she was telling me she eats a special type of bread. It’s called Ezekiel bread, right? It’s kind of like, biblical, like it’s made. It’s natural and all that.

 

 

She said she used to pay $6 a load for it. And now it’s 950 Live. Right now. I understand the media keeps telling us the inflation is coming down, but I’m not sure where that’s happening. I must be falling on. Pepsi’s. It’s crazy, right?

 

 

Have you factored? So we talked about inflation? Have you had the conversation with your spouse or partner about your retirement vision, ensuring that you’re both on the same page, right, this is now you’re gonna be spending a lot more time with that partner, that spouse, or you guys talking about what life’s gonna look like, where you’re not going out to your job anymore. And then lastly, if something were to happen to you are all of your financial affairs in order so that your loved ones are equipped to handle and kind of understand what’s happening? So, you know, again, good morning to the show, we hope that we’re going to be able to provide starting the new year with some great information, dodging the top nine retirement blunders, making sure the typical key missteps that retirees often make, we’re going to give you advice on how to sidestep those common blunders. So it’s a good retirement. And if you’re interested in getting our reinventing retirement eBook, it’s a fantastic it’s 150 pages. There’s a lot of great information on it. Just text the word offer to 215-999-3272. And as we go into our first commercial break, there’s messaging for the upcoming workshops. The workshops are underway here on 2020 in 2024, go to thrive financial services.com Back in a moment, start off the new year 2024 And get registered for one of two upcoming workshops and meet the team at Thrive financial services on January 10, at the Plumstead Ville Inn. And then on January 11, at River winds restaurant get registered by going to thrive financial services.com. That’s on the 10th of January at the Plumstead bill in and on the 11th of January. At river winds restaurant. Thrive financial services.com Get registered, get educated. We’ll see you there. It’s roadmap to retirement the radio show on Philadelphia yes am 980 The answer. Welcome back everyone to roadmap to retirement to radio show as David said in the beginning. Happy New Year everyone. Thank you for beginning your new year with roadmap to retirement to radio show Bret over to you sir. Yeah, so before we dive deeper into the retirement roadblocks and again today’s show we’re gonna be talking about dodging the top nine retirement blunders is remember there’s no need to navigate this journey alone and again,

 

 

We talk about the financial side of things, again are offered today is a 150 page eBook called reinventing retirement again, how do we get the most out of retirement, we say about two and a half years on average is what it takes for people to find their purpose in retirement. So just a phenomenal read there. Again, if you want to text the word offer, O FF, E, R, to 215-999-3272, again, text the word offer to 215999327. To get a copy of that book. So if you have been nodding your head in that first session talking about we went through the 10 questions that we’re going to go through today, I look forward to sharing that information with you of going through those top nine retirement blunders. And again, if you’re interested in receiving a complimentary retirement session, as well, don’t hesitate to either text us or reach out to that number. We’re more than happy to reach to set up that time to sit down with you. So let’s jump into things. And we’ll talk about blunder number one, turn it back over to David. Yeah. So, you know, the first blunder that we try to identify folks is what we call an inappropriate investing just before and just after retirement. Right. It’s about that asset allocation. Like, you know, when I think of blunders and challenges, my mind takes me back to high school, when I read about, you know, the Odyssey, the, you know, the main character there, his journey home, was filled with all kinds of obstacles, some of his own making, and some out of his control. So, you know, our journey, your journey to and through retirement can be fraught with challenges and blunders. So in the retirement journey, the obstacles are many and the time is short. So let’s jump in and start to talk about that blunder of inappropriate investing. So the period just before and just after you retire in many ways, the financial tipping point is what we refer to it, of your retirement journey. So think of it as standing at the pinnacle of a mountain, you just spent your whole life climbing it getting to the top, the views, fantastic, but the descent needs to be a very careful navigation. in financial terms. This is when you kind of need to shift your mindset from building that nest egg during your working years, to now preserving what you’ve diligently saved, as you’re now transitioning into retirement. So why is this period so important? It’s so important because once you retire, you’re now going to start drawing on your savings to supplement your lifestyle, because you need to replace that steady paycheck that you were normally accustomed to. So time which once was your ally in writing out like market fluctuations, volatility, all of that is no longer a luxury, you can actually rely on a significant downturn, which a lot of people are kind of anticipating, you know, when everybody’s saying things are great, that’s when you should kind of be running for the hills, right? It’s, it’s the contrarian that usually makes the best decisions.

 

 

So if we were to see a significant market downturn, if you’re overly exposed early in retirement, that can be particularly damaging to the account values. So it could potentially ripple through your entire retired life, making it challenging to recover, and even potentially compromising the whole financial future. So now more than ever, an appropriate and measured investment approach is not just beneficial. It’s really critical imperative. Yeah, I love that we have been chatting about for years sequence of returns risk, and David just spoke to that just the importance of as you’re entering and Azure

 

 

leaving the workforce and getting into the retirement world, just those couple years. It sets the pace of what retirement looks like for the rest have one of those words, one of those phrases that’s hard to understand to sequence of returns, even when you save it for me? Yeah, I’ve listened to it and I’ve absorbed it many, many times on the show still hard for me to grasp. David did a great job of explaining just the importance of understanding the transition there. But I’m going to talk about blunder number two, which is rushing into Social Security. They say on average 65% of retirees income in retirement is what the foundation comes from is Social Security. So for many retirees Social Security serves as quote unquote, that financial that backbone to their financial strategy, but given its importance, it’s surprising how many individuals just simply rushed into claiming their benefits without fully grasping all of the available options or long term consequences of their decisions. Again, at first glance, it might seem straightforward, simply reach a certain age and start collecting your benefits. But reality is it’s a lot more than that. I remember as we first

 

 

started back in 2015, educating the population about just doing social security workshops, 567 different combinations of what makes the most sense. And there’s a whole department of the government that supports it, because it’s not as simple as you reach a certain age and simply start collecting benefits. Again, you can delay your claim, and that will increase your benefits, but it may not necessarily be the best choice for everyone. Again, the coffee, the water cooler talk doesn’t work in terms of what makes the most sense, you need an individual strategy. And again, the key lies and understanding the many choices that Social Security offers, and leveraging them to optimize what you and if you’re married, what your spouse can receive over your lifetime. It’s understanding concepts like spousal benefits and widow benefits. And what if I’m going to continue to work and think that I can claim Social Security? What does that look like? Again, understanding navigating Social Security can be can be like trying to solve a complex puzzle with pieces that shift based on your personal situation. Again, making a decision without understanding all the pieces could mean potentially leaving substantial money on the table. It’s one of the reports that we run, when people come in and meet with us as part of your roadmap to thrive process that we take people through is that we see people making the wrong decision versus the best decision can put an additional one over $100,000 in a family’s pocket. That’s a big deal, especially with everything we’re talking about with inflation and everything else. So again, that’s why given the stakes, it can be beneficial to work with an advisor, that’s very well versed in social security strategies. It’s why so many of our advisors here at thrive as well, are NSSA certified, which means we take them through a course where they understand the nuances of the ins and outs related to social security, because again, given the government, they’re not allowed to give you financial advice. It’s really right there in the handbook of government workers. So it’s important Do not rush into Social Security. Yeah, that was that’s a good topic. And, you know, we see the real life consequences a lot of times, and that report that Bret was just talking about, it’s simple, right? It’s an algorithm based software that we use, that does the math to come up with what’s the best economic condition, but then it takes the kind of the know how of a knowledgeable professional to interpret it, and say whether or not the recommendation of the report can be applied to your personal situation. And it also helps us solve complex situations when it comes to social security. Because a lot of the folks that ultimately become our clients are folks that had worked with an advisor previously. And you know, in the conversation of getting to know them, they’ll say things like, you know, I had questions about Social Security that I didn’t get answered. You know, they said, Hey, I don’t know, that’s a good question, call Social Security. And as Bret just said, you know, they can’t give you advice. If the question is not framed, where you’re either going to get a yes or no, you can’t ask, Well, what about this? Or what about that? Yeah, they put the government in liability situation. They loud, the, you know, the administration people, though, you know, the clerical workers answering those types of questions. We just had one recently, where it was a divorce situation. And the wife in the equation had not accumulated enough of the Social Security credit hours to actually qualify for Social. And she was like in a complete panic, because number one, she just didn’t know was she going to be entitled to any type of Social Security? She didn’t understand spousal benefits. She didn’t know when she could start taking them. You know, all this. And, you know, it just happened to be this situation that she was a stay at home mom, raise the kids never really, she worked part time. But now she’s, you know, do I go back to work? Do I have enough money to retire? Do I get any social security, we took all the different puzzle pieces, be able to put it together and illustrate her in a very simple way. Where she got it. It wasn’t like we had to convince her. We just presented this is what you can do. And you could just see, right, her shoulders kind of eased, you know, the comfort level came in, and she’s like, Why didn’t my previous financial? Like, that’s a question I can answer for you. But it’s something that we hear Thrive take pride in. That when we talk about holistic financial planning. That word holistic means something to us. We’re looking at social security, one of the foundations of financial planning, right because it’s one of the, you know, kind of the legs of the stool, so to say that

 

 

You’re gonna be, you know, you may have to rely upon. So we want to make sure it works in the best possible way for you. So we talked about Social Security, we talk about Medicare, if you are not yet at age 65, but you want to retire, we talked about how to go to the public exchange, and figure out how to qualify for a cheaper version, good quality coverage. But because we can help you structure your income correctly, we can get you sometimes

 

 

subsidies so that the health care cost isn’t something that prohibits you from retiring. How good is that? Right? Something that’s simple that people don’t understand how to make it work. We’re experts in that we can make sure you know how it works, and give you that green light to retire. So, you know, if you’re interested in it just on that topic of social security, you go to our website at Thrive, financial services.com and register for a discovery call with us and ask those types of questions. We can run those reports it’s completely complimentary. And you can get some peace of mind in up any particular topic that has to do with financial planning. The other thing I would just say just don’t want people to forget is our eBook, reinventing retirement, you can get a copy of that right now by going to your cell phone and texting the word offer to 215-999-3270. To see that’s the beauty of what I think Thrive provides too we can sit and identify different details about our life. But we can’t get to the holistic review. There’s just no way for us to do it. We’re just not in the know. So that’s where Thrive financial services comes in roadmap to retirement to radio show back in a moment, start off the new year 2024 And get registered for one of two upcoming workshops and meet the team at Thrive financial services on January 10 at the Plumstead Ville in and then on January 11. At river winds restaurant get registered by going to thrive financial services.com. That’s on the 10th of January at the Plumstead bill in and on the 11th of January. At river winds restaurant. Thrive financial services.com Get registered, get educated. We’ll see you there back to roadmap to retirement, the radio show on Philadelphia am ninth at the answer. Consider getting registered for one of the two workshops that were mentioned in the break go to thrive financial services.com Get educated. David, over to you sir. blunder number three, not planning for longevity. You know, in today’s age of medical advancements healthier lifestyles, people are living longer than ever before. And this has a potential for posing one of the most significant financial challenges for retirees, the risk of outliving your savings, it’s a big deal. So just imagine, like you have been, you meticulously were planning a road trip for a set number of days, but then deciding to extend that vacation without packing extra essentials for or for budgeting for that extended time, you’d likely find yourself short on resources. So in the same way, if you underestimate your lifespan, you may find later years or have overshadow those financial stresses precisely at the time, when you should be relaxing and enjoying life. So it’s really important to kind of recognize that if you’re going to be living into your 80s or 90s, and we’re seeing even more and more people reaching the age of 100. It’s not rare anymore. So you got you know, you know, plotting out that retirement strategy, it’s got you know, can be very wise to lean on the side of caution and end up planning for a longer life, Joe, we get so many people that say, I’m not going to make it to those years and I don’t have to worry about it. That’s just a foolish approach because you just don’t know. Nobody’s got that crystal ball that dictates you know, our date of death. So to overestimate plan for the longer is definitely a safer thing. Yeah, and if you remember, we talked about longevity all the time, we have a couple age 65 50% chance that one person makes it to the age of 92. And then a 25% chance that somebody makes it to the age of 96. We need to plan for longevity. Again, it’s a major to major deal. So on today’s show, we’re talking about dodging the top nine retirement blunders. We’ve talked about the first three and we’re going to jump in to number four, but I want to remind our listening audience again. Today our offer is an e book 150 pages called reinventing retirement. Again, how do you define and figure out what purpose should look like it’s, it’s not really the financial guide. It’s everything else the emotional and just getting the most out of life, especially in these goals.

 

 

And yours again to receive that eBook again type the text the word offer, pardon me text the word offer o FF, E R to 215-999-3272. Again, text a word offer to 215-999-3272. So I’m gonna jump into blunder number four talking about investing too conservatively, and talking about inflation. And again, we could look back over the last three to six months, we talked about the inflation and the price gouging that was going on with inflation coming back down. And we talked about how profits have gone up to exactly the point that David had brought up earlier in the show talking about Pepsi, again, prices have come back down. But why are prices staying up, we’re seeing these record profits from these corporations, and eventually, something’s going to give. And it’s amazing how we talk about things three to six months ago, and how they’re coming to fruition now, and again, the importance of not living in the moment, and being emotional. But the rational side of things about once we hear things, we don’t always see the impact of them right away. But again, the approach of retirement often urges a shift to more conservative investments, for confidence for the future. But there’s a catch. That’s the inflation. Again, it quietly erodes your purchasing power. And again, on the last segment, we talked about longevity, David took us through it. And the longer that we are living, the more we need to be concerned about inflation. And if your savings does not outpace inflation, you’re effectively losing money. So while preserving your assets is important, being overly conservative can backfire. And here’s the key. It’s called Balance investments that grow enough to beat inflation. And this is the big butt. But they don’t expose you to extreme market risks. Again, the key is balance. It’s all about finding that sweet spot to help both preserve and grow those retirement funds. And again, we cannot isolate these items into just silos against the importance of putting a plan together and how it all fits. So Joe, I know this is very, not typical for me, but I’m gonna go off these nine blunders for a second, because I just think it’s really important. You had mentioned earlier about sequence of return risk. And I just really want to help people because this ties in with what Bret just talked about either being too conservative, and not being out, be able to outpace inflation or being too aggressive. And being exposed to market volatility, it is balanced, he is the right word, it’s about balance.

 

 

So sequence of return risk is we don’t know what the future returns of our investment portfolios will be. But based on how the chips fall early in your retirement, will determine whether it’s a successful retirement or not a successful retirement, the example and I want to go in great, great detail. But if you had positive returns, you know, a couple positive returns in the beginning stages of your retirement, then some negatives, then some positives and all that, you’re probably gonna end up okay, right, because you need that extra juice. So to say, at the beginning stages before you start as you start taking withdrawals out, if you’re unlucky, and the timing shows where those first 345 years of your retirement, where you’re withdrawing funds out of your retirement accounts are negative years, good chance that you’re going to run out of money. That’s what sequence of return risk is. The only way to defeat that or mitigate it is using a proper balance. And we call that a three bucket strategy. So one of the buckets is a bucket that is ultra conservative principle protected, three to 5% rate of return, that you put enough money in that bucket, it will last you a minimum of 10 years, you’re able to draw money out of that without touching any other retirement accounts, so that those retirement accounts can go through the fluctuations of the market without you having to withdraw money out of them. Does that make sense? What I just said? Makes sense. Okay, so that first bucket three to 5% rate of return principally protected and enough in that bucket to last you 10 years you are going to draw money out of that bucket to supplement Social Security and a pension. If you happen to have one to live off of for the next 10 years. You’re not going to touch the other buckets. That second bucket is a bucket that is conservatively invested somewhere between five and 7% rates of return right mod

 

 

are at risk, you’re going to put enough money into that bucket to last 10 more years. So we have to the first 10 year stops. Now you pick up the second bucket for the next 10 years for a total of 20 years. So you have not touched that third bucket, which is your market based bucket that will outperform inflation and taxes, like the s&p 500 index, which is the most broadly used index out there has averaged white bread, nine and a half percent during a very long period of time, right, which is an important part of a period of time over any 20 year period of time to average about nine and a half percent rate of return, we have not touched that bucket. So if it’s averaged nine and a half percent rate of return, that bucket has accumulated, outpaced inflation avoided the risk of the market because you didn’t have to tap into it. That’s the way to do miss that blunder, of investing too aggressively or too conservatively. So if you want to learn a little bit more about that type of a strategy, and it’s simple to do, and our clients actually tell us what buckets and how they feel comfortable with them, you could just go to our website, you can call our office and schedule that discovery call or come in for a full blown evaluation. It’s complimentary. And you could walk out with a very good sense that you’ve got it together for retirement. Yeah. Wow. Great description. I was visually thinking about those buckets, as you were explaining, as you were explaining them and taking through ultimately, what is the timeline? Yeah. Let’s move through a timeline, roadmap to retirement to radio show back in a moment. Welcome back. It’s our final segment of this show, our first edition of 2024. Welcome back to roadmap to retirement to radio show Bret over to you. So yesterday on today’s show, we’re talking about dodging the top nine retirement blunders. So we’re gonna jump into blunder number five, which is assuming taxes will be lower in retirement. I think we’ve talked about this over the past six years. But let’s dive into that again. Many people approach retirement under the assumption that their taxes will inevitably decrease. It’s the question, we asked me for every workshop, do you believe your taxes will be higher or lower in retirement, and you get a mixed bag. But again, the rationale is always this five lower income, it should mean I pay lower taxes. But it’s not always that simple. For example, if most of your savings which we see an awful lot, or in your traditional 401k is or IRAs we need to understand is that withdrawals are taxed as regular income, no special treatments just like us working. Additionally, Social Security benefits could be taxable to depending upon that combined income, again, pulling the pieces together. There’s also the broader economic context to consider which our tax laws and rates can change subject in 2026, we expect substantial changes to the tax code, where the changes in 2017 are going to sunset. And we go back to those roles. It’s important to follow up with that. But again, there’s no guarantee that today’s rates will remain the same or not go down in the future. Most people expect, especially given the economy that they have to go up to get us out of the deficit that we’re in. So when planning for retirement, it’s important to be realistic about potential tax burdens. If you underestimate, and taxes end up being higher, it can put a strain on that overall rate of your retirement finances, the importance of a well crafted retirement strategy that considers potential tax scenarios, which is an important piece that everybody misses all the time helping you ensure that you are not caught off guard. When tax season rolls around the importance of planning in the year that we’re in. We’re going to jump into blunder number six, which is ignoring the potential for long term care costs. Some people may like it, some people may not but modern technology in terms of the healthcare industry is continued to improve, and people are living longer and longer. A few weeks ago, we talked about longevity and how those numbers are actually getting a little bit longer for people that are out there. So we need to consider the longer that we live, the more potential we could run into some kind of a long-term care situation. Again, one of the commonly overlooked aspect of retirement planning is preparing for the potential need for long term care. Statistics reveal that seven in 10 individuals will now require some form at 70% of people will now require some form of long term care in retirement in their lifetime. Have you prepared for that? yet? So many people either underestimate or they completely disregard those hefty expenses associated with it and to put it into perspective, ready for this one a single year at a nursing home can cost over $100,000 Especially here in the greater Delaware Valley. Do

 

 

easily over $100,000. And even if care is provided in an assisted living facility, the cost is still $60,000. Plus, it is essential to not be blindsided by these potential costs. So number one spot where we see people again, get either blindsided or where they appear to be weak is to God forbid, if something happens if you pass away, surviving spouse, a lot of times, we’ll still be okay. But what happens if one of us gets ill, and we end up in a facility for a while we can run through our assets, again, setting aside funds or exploring the insurance options for long term care. What does it do gives you the confidence, the confidence that we’re looking for that can ease that anxiety that can give you the good Laude to go in freedom to go enjoy those golden years. Again, it ensures you and your family are insulated from the unexpected. It’s called Life doesn’t always happen. Perfect. So be ready for the unexpected. And it might even be as something where it’s just home care or nurse coming, that’s coming for care to home is going to increase what you can still be 60 plus 1000. Absolutely. It’s not cheap, not cheap. Yeah. I mean, Joe, just real life, right? The reason Karen’s not on the show right now she’s taking care of my parents and her mom. I mean, that’s what’s going on, you know,

 

 

you know, my dad’s in dialysis, three days a week, we hired a homecare worker, these numbers are real. I mean, and the scary number of seven out of 10 people are going to experience I didn’t realize it was that it’s scary. Yeah, that’s scary. Let’s jump into number seven. Not discussing finances with your spouse. It’s an all too common oversight and retirement planning that we see constantly. It’s there’s just a lack of open communication between spouses about finances, right, both partners may have different views on retirement goals, different views on risk tolerance. spending habits, obviously, is a big one. You know, we have found situations where we walk out of one of our conference rooms after doing, you know, an exploratory meeting with a couple. And we’ll get pulled over by one of the spouses. And they’ll say to us, Hey, listen, I got a couple of accounts on the side that either my wife doesn’t know about, or my husband doesn’t know about. And a lot of times these aren’t small, little numbers. And if we don’t have them, and we keep looking, we don’t, one thing we don’t do here is marriage counseling, right? So we have privacy requirements, and all that time we keep that, but we let people know, hey, at some point, you got to you got to talk about this. Because if something happens to you, and your spouse doesn’t know about that particular part of the finances, it could either be a big loss situation where you guys could have been living differently, all you know. So it’s just something that really needs to happen. So I would say, you know, establishing an open dialogue about finance ensures that both partners are actively involved and totally informed. This helps ensure that if something were to happen to one of the partners, the other person isn’t just left in the dark, struggling to kind of piece all the financial puzzles together. And think about how many times that the surviving spouse finds about all those hidden accounts after the first one passes away. And then it’s damage control from there, higher taxes, higher Medicare again, all the dominoes are going to the importance of putting all those puzzle pieces together. So get on today’s show, we’re talking about the top nine retirement blunders that we want to avoid. I’m gonna jump into blunder number eight, which is not getting a second opinion in trusting your financial future, to a single viewpoint can be a risky proposition. Whether you while you might have a trusted financial advisor who’s guided for you for years, it’s always wise to seek a pen a second opinion, while charting the waters of retirement. And that advisor may be you as well. I always share the story at our workshops about my son, at a one and a half years old, had a bump on his head that didn’t go and the pediatrician said hey here in the Delaware Valley, we are fortunate enough to have both chop and DuPont in the area and I want you to go down and check that out. We went to hospital number one doctor put his hand on my son’s head at a time and said hey, your son has a pronounced bone in his skull we can just shave it down later in life if we don’t like it the way it is at the time. My wife was hip hooray. However she married Mr. Rational and said we’re getting opinion number two. We went to the second hospital almost exact same thing played out that that thought but they said let’s get an MRI. Two weeks later we are having a brain tumor removed from our two year old one and a half year olds head today is fine. But imagine if we did not get that second opinion and think if everything was okay, and we always say you need to be healthy, to be wealthy. So while your health is of the utmost importance, your wealth is not that far.

 

 

content and again, that fresh perspective can often spot overlooked opportunities and potential pitfalls. Additionally, financial strategies and products this is important evolve all the time. And a different advisor may introduce you to a newer, more efficient approach that aligns with your retirement goals, not just buying a bunch of products out there, again, getting a second opinion, you’re doing due diligence to help ensure your retirement strategy is robust, comprehensive, and most importantly, tailored to your unique needs. Let me get a quick plug in for our book reinventing retirement and get an E copy of that by texting the word offer to 215-999-3272 to 15999 30 to 72. Let’s finish up with blunder number nine. And that’s really not having a comprehensive sound retirement plan. Right. So this overarching plan that covers all the things that we talked about today. So I would say without a doubt one of the most critical oversights in retirement preparation is the lack of that sound comprehensive retirement plan. This goes beyond merely savings and investing. It’s about creating a blueprint for your future that integrates all the various facets of your retirement journey. Now, while each of the blunders, we discussed already can individually cause significant disruption in your retirement, the compounded effect of multiple missteps can potentially be devastating. So a thorough retirement plan helps to ensure that all the pitfalls are acknowledged and accounted for. Now the problem is many retirees believe that they can navigate the intricate puzzle pieces of retirement planning on their own. What we find is they just like I said, they miss some of the puzzle pieces, right? They fallen off the table, they’re under the couch, whatever it may be. So while some might actually succeed, many unfortunately, do falter because the lack and the depth of the knowledge required it’s a very specialized field we, we classify ourselves as Retirement Income Tax Planning Specialists. That’s a lot of words just for a retirement plan. It’s not just about the savings in the investing. So a full retirement plan is completely holistic and encompasses investment strategy, inflation considerations, Social Security, taxes, health care, the list goes on and on and on. So if you’re interested, come see us. Bret’s gonna wind up the show and tell us how you can come see us. Yeah, so again, today’s offer for a copy of our retire reinventing retirement ebook, again, text the word offer to 215999327 to again text the word offer o FF, E R to 215-999-3272 you can always visit our website at Thrive financial services.com. Again, you can register for one of our events, again, schedule a discovery call. We’re more than happy to speak with you part of your New Year’s resolution, I hope is to get your financial house in order. no better time than the beginning part of the year to begin to do that. And perhaps even start with a workshop. There are two upcoming workshops that you can get registered for. It’s a great setting. That’s a very comfortable way for you to get introduced to thrive financial services. And you can do that by registering online at Thrive financial services.com. That’s going to do it for this first edition of 2024 roadmap to retirement the radio show on behalf of David Bezar, Cameron Bezar and Bret Elam. I’m Joe Kraus. See you next time everybody. Thanks for listening to roadmap to retirement the radio show from Thrive financial services. If you’re like most Americans, you have more questions than you do answers about what to do with your retirement savings. If you have a question about your IRA or your 401 K pension or other tax deferred accounts, if you have a question about reducing taxes, generating income or filing for Social Security, whatever it is, David Karen and Bret are here to help. Often your questions can be answered in a simple phone call. Just call to 1579890882157989088 and so you know no statements made during roadmap to retirement the radio show shall constitute tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own legal or tax professional on any such matters. information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific Securities Investment Strategies. investments involve risks and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed here. David Bezar Bret Elam and Karen Bezar have thrived. Financial Services and thrive Capital Management are licensed to offer investment advisory services through Thrive Capital Management LLC. an SEC registered investment advisory firm office headquarters is located in Fort Washington and offices of convenience used exclusively for client meetings in Exton Yardley and Cherry Hill.

 

Thrive Capital Management is an investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply any level of skill or training. The oral and written communications of an adviser provide you with information about which you determine to hire or retain an adviser. For more information please visit: https://adviserinfo.sec.gov and search for our firm name.

This radio show has been provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal or investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security or strategy. The investment strategy and themes discussed herein may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial situation. Information obtained from third-party sources is believed to be reliable though its accuracy is not guaranteed. Opinions expressed in this commentary reflect subjective judgments of the author based on conditions at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.