Transcript

Welcome to roadmap to retirement, the radio show with David Bezar, Karen Bezar and Bret Elam from Thrive financial services. 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 potentially make your money go further and retirement. This is roadmap to retirement the radio show. Now here are your hosts, David Karen and Bret along with Joe Kraus. It’s another edition of roadmap to retirement to Radio Show with David Bezar and Bret Elam and the team from Thrive Financial Services. Welcome into this edition of roadmap to retirement a reminder for our listening audience. There are not very many scheduled workshops remaining for the month of May. There’s one next week you’ll hear information about that as we go in and out of our commercial breaks. But the workshops five months into the year, David have been sold out. Not implying that there’s a charge to enter the workshop, but they’ve been out capacity. Yeah, absolutely. I haven’t we actually started back doing education workshops at public libraries. And those two have been a mob scene. So you know, we continue our goal has always been to get out there into the community, provide that awareness, education, and then ultimately leadership if people need it. And we hope that people you know, just keep coming out. It’s been absolutely fantastic. So good morning, everybody. Welcome into the show. As always, if you want to get in touch with us, it’s very easy to Tex. Brad, what are we using today for?

 

 

We’re gonna use the word prepare, prepare. No, that’s a good word. Yeah, that’s good. Prepare to 215798 90 Ada. And that’s a way to start a conversation with us if you’d like to do that. Now, today’s show is going to be, I think, a very interesting show. You know, I think for our listening audience, this will kind of resonate. You know, when you hear the word Xerox, where you hear the word Kleenex, you know, those are the brand names of products. Like when you say Xerox, what most people think is, hey, can you go make me a zero copy, it could be on a Toshiba, it could be on a meter, it could be on Asana, and it’s Panasonic. But it’s become such a generic name for that particular product. I think I don’t know if that was a good analogy or not. But I think 401 k’s are similar to that people hear the word 401 K. And there’s just kind of a generic feeling about it. They don’t really understand all the mechanics. So we’re gonna dive deep into it today. And actually, we’re going to talk about some of the new strategies and innovations that are actually happening. They’re actually saying kind of reinventing retirement with the more modern 401 K plans. So mentioning IBM, again, another one of those companies, iconic companies, that’s like a name brand. IBM has recent changes in their 401 K plan and the introduction of fidelity, guaranteed income direct platform may actually mark a shift towards offering pension like benefits within employer provided retirement plans. That’s something that’s been missing, right? Those types of plans that you worked for a bunch of years, and you’re guaranteed to get an income stream for the remainder of your life and sometimes their survivor benefits. We see probably what Bret, maybe 25% of the time, that will sit with a retirement couple that also features in their plans that they’ve got a pension plan. Yeah, but a lot of times they’re frozen, where they’re no longer in existence, but at least I have one sometimes better than nothing. But more and more people have nothing these days. It’s crazy. And within our programming, like when we sit down to dinner, to define a plan for people, we have this three bucket strategy to write this three bucket strategy is that first bucket, you know, that’s pretty standard in most plans. It’s it’s kind of your liquid bucket, it’s your emergency funds. It’s that bucket that you want it to happen. Yeah, you just kind of know you’ve got some plans for it in the future. That second bucket is what we call that protected income bucket. And the idea behind that protected income bucket is to have a bucket of money that guarantees you your income outside of Social Security and maybe that other pensions for the next 15 or 20 years. You don’t have to think about it. You don’t have to worry about market conditions. You don’t have to worry about interest rates. You just have set aside enough money in a bucket that you’re gonna make your own paycheck for the next 15 to 20 years. And then that third bucket is your growth bucket right? And what we know over any 15 to 20 year span of time if you leave money sitting in a

 

 

growth oriented bucket, there’s going to be no losses, you’re gonna have nothing but gains and wins. So if you set up a plan like that, that’s really helping you become a bullet proof type retirement plan. So we’re gonna talk about 10 thought provoking questions that you may want to be asking yourself today for this show. Number one, what challenges do individuals face in navigating the complexities of managing their own retirement investments within a traditional 401 K plan? How can how can individuals help ensure the retirement savings that makes sure they last throughout their extended lifespans? How can employers strike a balance between offering flexibility and providing guaranteed income options in the retirement plans? Number four, what are the potential benefits and drawbacks of converting retirement savings into personal pensions? Kind of like using that platform from Fidelity’s guaranteed income direct? And then number five, how can individuals effectively diversify their retirement investments to help mitigate risk and optimize income? We’re also going to be talking about as what factors might individuals consider when deciding whether to invest a portion of their retirement portfolio for long term growth? And that’s one of the buckets that David was just speaking about. Next one is what role does annuitization play in helping to secure guaranteed income for retirees? And what are the considerations and incorporating annuities and retirement plans? Couple of big words there we’ll dig into. Next one is What strategies can individuals employed to assess their individual income needs, and align their savings accordingly with the help of the pension like options? Number nine, in what ways can retirees remain proactive and flexible in managing their retirement income streams to adapt to the changing financial circumstances, and market conditions? And the last thought provoking question for today I want people thinking about is What strategies can individuals employ within the framework of traditional retirement plans to address the absence of guaranteed lifetime income? So as the market set a new high every day, it’s great from a net worth standpoint, but how does it inevitably translate to income. So again, your company’s retirement plan might be on the brink of significant changes, thanks to those moves, as David shared with IBM and fidelity. But IBM, for instance, shifted away from that conventional 401k setup at the beginning of 2024, opting for that model that echoes more of that traditional pension system. Shortly thereafter, fidelity unveiled its guaranteed income DirectX platform completely brand new in the industry. And what’s behind this trend and looking forward to today’s show, towards these pension like options. And again, according to Carrie Dogan, Senior VP at Fidelity, it’s about helping to ensure a seamless transition from savings to retirement, people typically crave the preservation of predictable income to cover essential expenses without the fear of exhausting their savings. That’s the peace of mind that people are looking for all the time. We talk about planning. So inevitably, what does that mean for you? If your company presents a similar option? How do you navigate to make the best decision for your future? And if your plan doesn’t offer such an option? Is there anything that you can do within your current 401k To make it more pension like, and again, that’s what today’s show is going to be about? Again, we’re going to start digging in and exploring some of the options that you can make to ensure that your retirement, again is bulletproof. So today’s show again, we’re going to be talking about as you plan for the future, it is important to keep in mind that the savings in retirement is only half the battle. Because after you stop working, we have to figure out how to take that savings and turn it into an income that will last a lifetime. Now while that’s no easy task, the important thing you need to realize is you don’t have to do it alone. And that’s what we’re here for ready to guide and assist you again if you want to text the word preparer to 2157989088215798908 if you text a word preparer, we’re more than happy to schedule that complimentary retirement preparedness review. Was that annuitization annuitization. That’s a new word for us. It is a new word Yeah. Row dangers around roadmap to retirement the radio show back in a moment answer back here on roadmap to retirement the radio show and again, go to thrive financial services.com and get registered for the upcoming workshop next week and you’ll also find webinar information you’ll find a lot of resources on the website Thrive financial services.com David, over to you

 

 

Yeah, Joe. So, you know, this morning, what we’re trying to accomplish is talk about one of the topics that I think is a big fear for a lot of retirees, not that concept of making sure you got enough money, it’s going to last throughout your lifetime. So, you know, you got to remember, join the income, you’re going to need to live your dream retirement isn’t just about taking on more risk to chase higher investment returns, it’s also about smart planning. And that’s why we focus on helping our clients with a personalized retirement income plan tailored for their particular situation. You know, it kind of reminds me real quick and it you know, deservedly sometimes our industry has a black guy, right. But as fiduciaries, it’s our responsibility, a legal obligation now, to make sure you do the right thing. I had a couple come up to me at one of our recent dinner workshops. And they had some questions and they said, you know, we listened to your radio show every week. But we happen to be listening to another financial advisors radio show, when a local station here in the Philly market, and they were talking about annuities. We went and sat with them, we thought the idea sounded really good. And we wanted to know what your opinion is. Because the question they asked me is, we took our entire 401 K savings and put it into annuities.

 

 

And, you know, I’m not going to

 

 

is that the right thing to do? David’s reaction is priceless right now, because that was a when our jaws hit the ground theater of the mind surely happened? Yeah. And you know, we’re talking about a three bucket strategy, right, putting all your eggs in one basket, in anything you do in life, the extremes are never the best. But you know, somebody who carries a financial planner designation, somebody who carries maybe an accreditation, putting them, you know, declaring that you’re a fiduciary, and then taking somebody’s entire retirement, and putting it into an annuity should be a crime, to be quite honest. I mean, that’s our opinion here. And it locks up the money. This particular annuity, which I’m familiar with tons of fees involved in it all the wrong, like, oh, it couldn’t have been a worst recommendation. And I feel terrible for these people. Because they can’t unwind it, right. There’s all kinds of issues to unwind that. So I don’t want stuff. Yeah, and I don’t want people to mistake we use the word annuitization. This morning, we’re going to talk about pension life, I just don’t want people to make the mistake and think you know that, hey, annuities aren’t great, and they aren’t bad. If they’re appropriate, they could be the right tool for people. So I just wanted to put that out there for everybody. So what I want to talk to is, is essentially what IBM and fidelity have done is taken a step back from the traditional defined contribution models, and incorporated elements, which used to be like the old school pension systems that were out there for years. Now, while traditional defined pension benefits are a rare sight in our market. And you know, in private sector today, IBM is bold move might just spark a ripple effect across other companies, it’s really prompting a fresh look at how businesses approach retirement planning. Now, for many people closing in on retirement, this type of a new account comes as a hot comes actually is like a sigh of relief, because what’s been missing from these plans seems to be the promise of lifelong income, which is actually a cornerstone of most, what will produce really retirement confidence and independence for retirees. Now, it’s not that the traditional 401 K type plans are inherently flawed. Rather, it’s really essential to recognize that relying solely on them. That’s the issue right lifelong retirement income requires a do it yourself approach. When it comes to investing in your plans funds, what ends up happening is the onus is on you to end up selecting what you believe is going to be the best options. So if your aim for this money is to provide a steady income throughout your lifetime, that responsibility totally rely, you know, it basically falls back on you. And if you make mistakes, those mistakes could end up costing you tons and tons of money that could cost you money that now you don’t have the guaranteed income that you’re looking for, you know, now trying to get that done is no easy task. And especially considering that none of us knows how long we’re actually going to end up living. So without knowing that it’s impossible to know how much money you’re going to need to be able to withdraw from your 401k without the risk of depleting it over the entire balance. That’s not even taking into consideration market corrections. You know, all those types of things.

 

 

You start thinking about what David just spoke about, and now you bring in the element of life expectancy. I mean, today you talk about a man who

 

 

reaches the age of 65. Average life expectancy is the age of 84. A woman at age 65, average life expectancy is the age of 86 and a half. So you can say you could assume you’ll live 20 years after retirement. And it’s simply, hey, just take my bucket of money that I had just one bucket divided by 20 and a life’s good. But here’s the problem. Those are statistics. And those are averages. So that means there’s that many people that are on the wrong side of those life expectancies. But then there’s that many people that are healthy, that are going to bring those life expectancy numbers out, which means they’re living a lot longer. And again, we’ve talked about it a lot recently, with the developments in AI, especially in the healthcare industry, and people living longer and longer, and being able to detect diseases and things like that sooner where we just believe those longevity numbers are going to continue to expand. Again, additionally, thinking about it today, one in 365 year olds, we’ll make it to the age of 91 and seven, we’ll make it to the age of 95. So again, if you miscalculate how long you need your money to last, we were going to start hearing the words Houston, we have a problem. Again, if we look back, when the traditional retirement was the three legged stool, you had your Social Security bucket, which is still there, you had that traditional pension bucket, which we were talking about on today’s show went away. And then you just have this big bucket of 401k, which is that third leg, the question then becomes to try and get that peace of mind. We’re going to talk about some of the statistics here. So how do we go take maybe some of that big bucket of that 401k and create that second part of me that second leg of the stool, or that second bucket, which provides that peace of mind that gives you that guarantee for the next 1520 years. Again, transitioning from savings for retirement to living in retirement is completely a shift, because now we’re spending some of that money. But the biggest hurdles individual face might actually be ensuring they have that reliable income to cover essential expenses. Throughout the retirement years. I’m not talking about the discretionary stuff, I’m talking about the the non discretionary the stuff that needs to be paid every single month like housing, utilities, food, health care, etc. And an interesting comment, which is increasing by the day, by the by the minute. Yeah, I mean, you saw just this week credit card, delinquencies are at an all time high. I mean, it’s happening, especially at the same time rates are pretty much at an all time high when the delinquencies are at those times as well. But here’s an interesting quote from Jason. We butcher these names up but Pfitzner. He’s the chief economist from the Bipartisan Policy Center, I said bipartisan, so he’s not working for a company. And he simply puts it like this. The country’s public and private sector retirement systems have become obsolete, as has the now antiquated retirement planning approach of focusing solely on what what’s that bucket of money worth?

 

 

And not in total ignorance to not thinking about the actual income that people will need in retirement? I mean, I think since we’ve started the show, we’re coming up on seven years. In September. I know the words that we’ve been echoing his EQ is income income income. I still remember in 2015, the article that David found from the Harvard Business Review, and it’s still there today, is saying people need to stop worrying about their net worth and start worrying about their monthly income, because that’s what matters. Again, those pension like buckets that every month, it just shows back up. Every month, the income just shows back up. Again, fidelity guarantees income direct empowers individuals to transform their retirement savings into a personal pension, helping to provide that steady income stream to sustain them through retirement. Now, Fidelity’s platform allows employers to offer a straightforward option, which is simply an immediate income annuity. That’s that word annuitization. So they’re starting to put those in the plan. And again, that option aligns with the desires of today’s workforce. And again, according to this is here’s some of the stats. According to fidelity. Recent studies show that a staggering 78% of workers are interested in helping secure monthly income guarantees for retirement, helping protect against outliving their savings. I mean, that’s it right there is people are looking for that peace of mind, especially with longevity is like how can I ensure month in and month out? That same check is going to show up so that we’re not worried about the volatilities that are out there.

 

 

related to the market again, IBM as well, their plan mirrors that that focus on that lifetime income as well. Again, when someone moves from Big Blue, they said the money that has piled up in the account can be paid out as a lump sum, or as an annuity as monthly benefits. The important thing to realize is that now that they’re starting to put some of these options inside 401 K plans, they’re still limited options. The fact that they’re there, they’re now good that now people are aware of them. But now it’s, we’re at a point of now needing to expose yourself as to what other options are out there. You know, I wonder how many people make

 

 

a decision based on convenience, too many, despite the fact that

 

 

it’s easy to care about the past. They don’t care about the mistakes that they’re making, but they’re citing for convenience. And not looking at the whole picture comes a little bit of ignorance, it’s a lack of education, it’s not being aware. And again, that’s what today’s show is all about. So the encouragement is if you want to text the word prepared at 215-798-9088, again, text a word prepare to 215-798-9088 we’re more than happy to sit down with you and go through that retirement preparedness appointment to make sure that all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted. As we go into the break. I would say it’s okay to get outside of your comfort zones. Matter of fact, I probably would suggest even more definitive, even more definitively, to get outside your comfort zone a little bit with it as you start to get into understanding and getting educated roadmap to retirement the Radio Show with David bizarre and Bret Elam back in a moment. Back here on roadmap to retirement the radio show, David bizarre and Bret Elam again, get registered for an upcoming workshop go to thrive financial services.com. David, over to you. You know, I was just sitting here listening as Brent was kind of going through on that last segment. And a couple of things kind of popped into my mind that I wanted to get out to the audience. You know, number one, Bret said their three legged stool was such a common approach to financial planning, when there was a leg to the stool that was available called a pension. And ever, you know, when we sit with people, we’ve sat with 1000s, I mean, 1000s of people, when we do retirement planning, every single time we see a pension in the equation, it’s almost a slam dunk, slam dunk, right? It’s a slam dunk for that couple or that retiree, that their retirements going to work. Because most times the people that we visit, with their average expenses in retirement are somewhere between five and $8,000 a month, you add up to Social Security checks, a pension or to a required minimum distribution check. And they’re like, Yeah, I’m making more money than I need in retirement, that happens a lot, a lot of times to the people who have some form of a guaranteed income coming in. Now, as we’ve been saying, throughout the show, you know, kind of the pension has gone obsolete. Companies don’t want to, you know, do those, they don’t want to administer them. They don’t want the cost of it, all those different things. But to see fidelity and IBM and probably other companies coming back online with that, I think that’s really a great indication. The second thing is

 

 

when we talk about 401 K’s again, we have talked with 1000s of people. When we talk about 401 case, people typically know what their contribution is from their employer and what the matches and what they contribute. But when we start to ask questions about Do you know what the fees are inside of it, they’re like, What are you talking about? And number two, what do you invested in? And they go, that’s really a good question. I kind of just do what everybody else did at the office, when I asked around, like, what are you investing in? And they go, I just invest what everybody else is investing in. And I said, if you take a step back and think about that, is that really the best way to make investments when you have different needs and the person that may be sitting next to you. And that’s so common. You just mentioned in the break to people you know, it’s a little bit of a lackadaisical attitude, it’s convenient. Xenian right, just to kind of do it. We have to, I don’t remember when it was Bret but there was a 60 minute show. The hidden fees and 401 K the hidden fees and 401 K’s it was interesting.

 

 

Right? And they talked about that the average fees in a 401 K are in excess of over 3% A year and it really chips away. Now it’s kind of getting masked right now because of the returns in the market. That’s right. Right but if we are having a bear market situation where maybe even have a negative returns and then you have a fees on top of it with limited choices of what you can invest in I’m

 

 

That’s a disaster, people kind of forget, you know, life isn’t about isn’t always, you know, fun and things are working out perfectly and all that. I mean, there are times that stuff falls apart, you only got one shot to retire successfully. So you got to make sure that on top of your scenario, you got to pull money out at the same time the markets go down and they’re being charged phase you do not come back. That’s exactly that’s what we’ll talk about. Next. Right is accumulation versus D accumulation stages of retirement. So, you know, as we see Americans enjoy longer lifespans, the challenge becomes the stretching of retirement savings, it really becomes more pressing than ever. Now, while financial advice often emphasizes saving more and optimizing investment returns during one’s working years. That’s the accumulation phase of retirement. equal importance must be focused on the de accumulation the spending of that money to support you during retirement. So during that critical period, retirees must transition from savings to generating sufficient income to meet their spending needs. This requires viewing retirement as a dynamic phase rather than a static destination. Developing a robust retirement income plan involves incorporating multiple income sources, and using strategies to actually diversify and enhance retirement income. So what’s of great have interest in in According to a paper that was a joint product of that person that talked about at the bipartisan whatever Bipartisan Policy Center at BlackRock, these two companies did it together, they said, adding guaranteed lifetime income combined with a more aggressive asset, practice. I mean, we talk about this every single day to our people, you know, our financial advisors are trained on this. Outside of Social Security, if you don’t have a pension, you need to have a bucket of money secured. So and there’s many things today, you could you could use money market accounts, you can do CDs, you could use fixed annuities, you could use fixed indexed annuity, and there’s many options to get that secure bucket that will give you guaranteed income for the next 20 years, that actually allows you to be more aggressive in that third bucket, your growth bucket. So you can sit there not touch a penny from it for the next 20 years, be more aggressive. And that could end up in 345 times what you originally put in it. If you start drawing money during that the accumulation phase out of that growth bucket because you don’t have a guaranteed income market. And the market goes the opposite way. It’s like fallen off a cliff. You think about what what David just shared right there is that from that study, they they said that adding guaranteed income generates 29% More annual spending for one’s retirement, excluding Social Security, but listen to this part of it, and then reduces the downside risk by 33%. That’s pretty darn significant. Compared to the old normal, let’s just put 60% of our money, maybe in fixed income. And then 40% of the equities because people say as you continue to chronologically mature, we should have more and more of our money in fixed buckets. But again, we still see people on what that emotional roller coaster market goes down. Oh my gosh, I have to get out.

 

 

And then when it goes back up, oh my gosh, I didn’t get back. And now I just lost, right? Again, we’re emotional beings. What we’re talking about here is a rational plan of putting together saying, Okay, we know we’re gonna go live 15 to 20 years, let’s segment that money over there have that peace of mind, David’s made the point over 15 to 20 years, the stock market has never returned negative figures. You’re saying okay, well, what happens if I make it past 15 or 20 years, we repeat it all over again. Because that bucket of money that you just kept in the market over the last 15 to 20 years, just grew back and got the money back that you just spent down over the 15 to 20 years. And you’re fortunate to be with us and you made it past those life expectancies that we said again, 86 and a half for women 84. For males. It’s your bulletproof your peace of mind, you’re getting out. It’s funny when people try and time the market. The statistics are nuts. It’s like if you time to market and you missed, like the top five days or the top 10 days in the market, the amount of money that you lose in return is so significant. And here’s the problem. A lot of those days when those those gains are way up. It was right after a big down. And so the emotional people are getting out of the market and they missed a rebound right back up. And then they’re riding up and down that emotional roller coaster and nobody wants that in retirement. What do people look for in retirement when people come in and meet with David

 

 

Mind the rest of our team, the one thing you hear all the time, peace of mind, I don’t want to run out of money, I don’t want to be a burden on my kids. Like, those three things are easily one, two, and three, I just want to make sure I have enough. Like, I just want that overall peace of mind. Good conversation here today on roadmap to retirement to radio show, back in a moment. And back here on roadmap to retirement to radio show we thank everybody for tuning in, we continue to stress and encourage the importance of be coming, educated about your retirement, there’s so much to know, beyond what we can understand. And I’m not being disrespectful to anybody in the listening audience. And I’m part of that statement, I put myself in that statement, there’s so much to know, so much, they’ll never know we can’t know it all. It’s impossible. That’s why we need you. Yeah, it’s one of the things that I chat about at our workshops that we do week in and week out, is what happens as soon as you learn the rules. They change the rules. And I say, show hands anybody in retirement looking to become a part time financial planner. I’ve never had one person put their hand up. But yet it’s on you to understand all these moving parts. And how do you pull them all together, just thinking about the segment we just came out of David talking about accumulation phase versus the accumulation phase, all people think about while they’re working is just how do I grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow that money, with total disregard, to the other side of the mountain, which is retirement, and the spending down strategy, where you’re only thinking about it on the cusp of retirement, there is no better thing to do within the take the time, because you’re talking about money, and you’re talking about quality of life. To give you that peace of mind that you’re looking for doesn’t take that long, but it takes it does take a little bit of education, it does take a lot of awareness, realizing what all the pieces of the puzzle that you have available to you. And then it’s working with somebody for that leadership on how do you connect all those puzzle pieces, like and today’s show talk about pension like benefits, reinventing retirement with modern 401k plans. Like I think about my mother, who was a retired school teacher, who didn’t necessarily retire with a lot of money, asset wise, she got a pension. Like, I know, month in and month out, that checks coming back into the day mom and dad both pass away. And what’s it give them and what’s it give me being a child of mom and dad gives us peace of mind. And that’s what today’s show is all about. And again, our encouragement is if you want to text the word prepared a 215-798-9088. Again, text the word prepared 215-798-9088 We’d be more than happy to sit down with you and go through a complimentary what we call is a retirement preparedness review and talk about some of these the three legged stool or the bucket approach that we’re talking about here today. To again, start giving you that peace of mind. And again, time is of the essence you want to give yourself release that anxiety of what if what if what if that’s what a plan does, it gives you that peace of mind that allows you to just go live life knowing that everything’s gonna be okay using David’s word a little bit ago, making sure that you’re bulletproof. checking the boxes, and all those what ifs, and when we talk about transferring risk from you to another company. That’s what insurance is all about. And that’s the importance of of of the annuity word that we’re talking through. So are we going to jump into now talking about a financial strategy and we’ve kind of talked about a proprietor a little bit deeper, designed to last you through retirement again, helping to secure lasting financial stability throughout retirement is obviously a common goal for everyone. Whether your employer provides a 401k with guaranteed income options or not. And again, most still do not. The strategy for pursuing this income remains largely consistent.

 

 

Here, let’s go through some part of the process. First, you want to calculate what your income needs are. And most importantly, people win this way too often. Like we put people through a budget exercise us as fiduciaries, giving you the green light to say things are going to be okay is predicated on getting the right information. So we don’t want people to wing what is that annual income that you need from your portfolio to supplement those other guaranteed sources of money that are coming in like Social Security. We then go to look to set aside a portion of assets in a liquid account for periodic expenses and emergency needs. That’s what they will stop at those emergency buckets. We always want to have three to six months worth of savings kind of sitting on the sidelines. Next, we then go assess the possibility of continuing to invest a portion of retirement of the retirement portfolio for long term growth to help us keep up with inflation and to help ensure what sustanability. What happens again, if we’re living 15 to 20 years from now, again, we talked about repeat it all over long term growth. Now diversifying equity investments or stocks to help mitigate the risk of losses and maintain flexibility of your annual withdrawal rate. Again, as inflation continues to be here, and it’s not going away anytime soon, we’re going to need a little bit more money. As we said, we go to the grocery store, the energy bill, whatever it is, things cost more and more. So consider saving excess withdrawals. This is important during high market return yours to bolster income when during the down years, because what’s the worst thing you can do when the market goes down? Get out. Because as I shared, you’re going to be on the roller coaster you got out to too late. And then you’re going to get back in too late. So we ride it out by having that bulletproof plan. So additionally, you might consider any options, your 401 K or other retirement plan offers that provide guarantee income. And again, we’re talking about the great point that plans like IBM and fidelity are now starting to talk about these guaranteed income products inside their 401k is pleased understand it’s still the Neapolitan factory. It’s all about Baskin Robbins find out about we use the word annuity as David started in today’s show, there’s so many different types of annuities, some are good, some are bad, some are half B’s, and they’re there for different purposes. It’s all about education and understanding which of those annuities if I heard that they sound attractive, but which one sound the best to me, that’s where the the importance of education comes in. Because there’s so many types that are out there. Some of them have no fees, some of them have guaranteed rates, some of them are volatile, they’re all over the place. But it’s understanding, you know what, that that guaranteed piece, alleviating some of that audit some of that anxiety, knowing that month in month out, I’m going to have that paycheck. That’s what this exercise is all about. So again, if your plans and again most don’t offer him today is this as it it’s considering the value of repositioning a portion of your assets to win an annuity to help secure what that guaranteed income stream for both you and your spouse’s lifetime. Again, we got to look to build it for the first 15 to 20 years are still ticking. We just go repeat it. And we just go enjoy life that gives you and protects that income. Should the market experience a decline and so forth. You just continue with that same quality of life. Turn it over to you guys. And enjoy life. Right? Well, some people do. Yeah, yeah. Some people do. I mean, where their financial concierge and where their guidance through that process. Go enjoy. Yeah, I mean, if you look, if you listen to what Bret just said, the changes the complications, misunderstanding, all that stuff’s real. Yeah, no, no, you heard the importance of David said earlier, it needs to be dynamic. It can’t be static. This is life.

 

 

Yeah, and I didn’t mean to go off there. But it’sall good.

 

 

Yeah, and you know, we’re mentioning the word annuity today. And I said, you know, it’s a three bucket strategy. First pocket is your emergency. And it’s, I don’t like to call it emergency pocket, I call it the liquid bucket. Right? Because, look, if you’re going to be paying for a wedding, six months, nine months, a year from now, put that money in that bucket, also have emergency money in that bucket, rainy day type stuff, that’s your first bucket, you can expect a rate of return historically on that somewhere between zero and 3%. And there’s plenty of places today to find that type of return for that type of a bucket. That second bucket is the protected income bucket. And like I said, there’s numerous places you can put that money, it’s things that are going to guarantee the principal and give you a very predictable rate of return a very predictable rate of return. Now today, there’s some attractive features out there like money market accounts. If you get them a mutual fund money market account, you’re seeing north of 5% on that. If you’re looking at treasuries you’re seeing north of 5% on short duration treasuries. If you’re looking at fixed annuities, you’re seeing 567 percent rate of return on those on indexed annuities, which guarantee the principal you can actually participate in market like conditions, get those types of returns. So we’re mentioning it annuities for a reason today, because of the things that I did mention. Those are the most predictable because treasuries money market accounts, CDs, savings accounts, all get tied to interest rates. Right now, interest rates are high. At some time the economy is going to do what it needs to do. Things are going to readjust that the fret at the Fed and interest rates will come back down. So you can’t rely long term 1520 25 years in that second pocket without a tool that’s going

 

 

guaranteed the income. That’s what we’re looking to get accomplished. So the other thing in guaranteeing the income is you got to know what the income is going to be. And what I’ve learned, I see two things that happen. When I ask people what their expenses in retirement are, they tend to just give me a number, right? You know, I calculated I looked at my checkbook, I added everything up i divided by 12. This is what we need for our monthly income. And then I said to them, what do you want to make in retirement? It’s a whole different perspective, right? There’s the need. But then what do you want to do in retirement? Well, you just gave me a number two, his day to day life. But do you want to travel? Do you want to, like what are all those dreams of what retirement was going to be to you, they’re going to take money to get that stuff accomplished. So let’s talk about what your desired income in retirement should be, not what your expenses are two different things. So knowing how much income you can depend on really becomes an essential key to the planning an enjoyable and a very confident of confident retirements important, and sadly, what we see regardless of the balance in their account, most people’s 401 K plans cannot tell them how much income they’re going to receive for the rest of their lives. There’s no thing like they have these estimators. But those estimators are just calculators. They’re not really based on conditional information. So we hope today’s show has really helped give you an idea that you’ve got to build a three bucket strategy. And I would say two things. Number one, you should probably start a conversation with us. You can text the word plan, prepare to I’m sorry, you’re right. That was last week, prepare to 215798 90 Ada. The other thing I do want to mention, because we mentioned new annuities a lot if you’re thinking about purchasing an annuity, I’d make you an offer. Before you do it. Give us a call. We’ll tell you a lot of information will give you can have that bipartisan perspective, and tell you what we think you should be considering and whether it’s a good choice or a bad choice. Great information and a great way to wrap it up on this edition of roadmap to retirement to radio show. And I would also add to that before you put your entire 401 k into an annuity. Yeah, 100% Don’t do that. That’s gonna do it for this edition of roadmap to retirement on the radio show on behalf of David Bezar. And Bret Elam and the entire team here at Thrive, financial services, and all of our listeners. 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 215-798-9088. That’s 215-798-9088

 

 

No statements made during roadmap to retirement the radio show shall constitute tax legal or accounting advice. You should consult with your own legal or tax professional on any such matters. information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities investments or investment strategies. investments involve risks and unless otherwise stated or not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed here. David bizarre Bret Elam and Canvas are Thrive 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 in Fort Washington and offices of convenience use exclusively for client meetings are an excellent Yardley Cherry Hill and Hamilton registration as an investment advisor does not imply any level of skill or training. Today’s program has been pre recorded.

 

 

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