1.13.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to your Retirement Unbroken with your host, Merrit Strunk. Merrit is a licensed fiduciary and financial advisor who always places your needs first. Merrit works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you, too. So now let's start the show. Here's Merrit Strunk.

Merrit Strunk:
All right. Welcome. This is a Merrit Strunk. I am the president of Momentum Financial and the host of the Retirement Unbroken radio show and podcast. Got a great show in store for you today. And I just want to welcome everybody in the Unbroken Nation here. You could be doing all kinds of things, mowing the grass, going to Home Depot or just working. And instead you are listening to the Retirement Unbroken show. You are sharpening your mind. Iron sharpens iron and you're learning about the financial information you need to know about in order to achieve what the fantastic retirement that is awaiting you. Right? The name of this show is Retirement Unbroken, because the premise is that for many people their retirement is already broken and they just don't know it yet. If you've never been to our radio show, our website, you can go to RetirementUnbroken.com. And if you'd like to reach out to us, just fill out the form there or click the complimentary consultation button there at the top of the website and we'd love to talk to everybody. You can also call us at 858 521 9700. All right. So what are we going to cover today? We're going to hit upon the market briefing. We're going to talk to you a little bit about how it's like to work with us and actually get a retirement plan or a financial plan.

Merrit Strunk:
We're going to talk about how you can delete fees. That's right. Fees from your retirement plan. You can also delete taxes from your retirement plan and delete expenses from your retirement plan. We're going to talk about all three of those things. And then we're going to talk about where the US retirees are moving to, where are they going? There's a great migration going on. How is that happening? And then we're going to get to our inflation demonstration that's going on. So real quickly here, the markets, the US stocks climbed in this afternoon. They were led by gains in the Nasdaq having a great run here of a sequential days. So Nasdaq and Dow really doing well. And this is as investors were optimistic ahead of the inflation report that's coming, that could give the Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve, some room to dial back its aggressive interest rate hike slog that they are in. The much anticipated report that's due on Thursday is projected by economists polling by Reuters to show that United States consumer prices likely grew 6.5 year over year in December, moderating from a 7.1 rise in November. Most S&P 500 sector stocks were higher, with real estate up and most followed by discretionary consumer discretionary.

Merrit Strunk:
So the stocks have risen in some recent sessions, which is just, you know, it's got to make everybody really happy. Finally, we're seeing some positive gains here. Consecutive higher closes and it's helped by hopes that the Fed could soon pause, not stop, but pause its cycle of rate hikes, even as comments from Fed officials have supported the view that the central bank probably needs to remain aggressive in raising interest rates to fight inflation. So we're hoping for that pause here. Pause to do what? To look around and say, well, how are things going? You know, we've had all these interest rates hikes. Is inflation coming down? Is the economy adjusting to that? So the results here are investors are anticipating that we're closer to a pause than at any other point in last year, certainly, and that would be welcomed by the market. So that's what you're seeing is some jubilation. There's some anticipation that there will be a pause and that will be the case. So the Dow Jones was up 196 points or about 0.58%. The S&P gained 48.21 points or thereabouts for around a 1%. The Nasdaq composite added 156 points, or 1.47%. If you're a money market participant, you'll see a 75% chance that the Fed will raise benchmark's rates by 25 basis points in February.

Merrit Strunk:
Not the 50 bips, not the 75 bips with the 25 basis points this week also. It marks the start of the fourth quarter earnings season for S&P companies. And the overall S&P earnings are expected to have declined year over year. Wall Street's biggest banks, which kick off the season later this week, are expected to report lower than quarterly profits amid risks of recession due to the monetary policy tightening that been going through. And the S&P posted 11 new 52 week highs, which is fantastic and one new low. The Nasdaq composite reported 78 new highs and 16 new lows, and that's for individual equity companies and things like that. So, so far right now, we've made a good run. The market is up all in the green and everybody is happy because I'm sure while you're checking your 401. K IRA or brokerage account, you're going, geez, how much longer can this go on? So a half a point, A point percentage. Very welcomed by most people. I'm joined here today by Matt McClure, our producer. And Matt, I'm going to go ahead and head over to you for the financial wisdom quote of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.

Producer:
All merit. I am glad to do it. And thank you as always for for doing what you do and educating us all in it. Hey, educating me to because I learned something every time we get together here. But yeah, our little financial wisdom comes in the form of a couple of quotes this week. And the first one is from Nathan W Morris. And Nathan Morris said, quote, Every time you borrow money, you are robbing your future self. And boy, that's that's definitely true, right?

Merrit Strunk:
Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely are.

Producer:
And then more. Yeah. And our second quote here is from Dave Ramsey, who was, of course, the famous financial personality who is well known. And he said this one time, he said, quote, A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

Merrit Strunk:
Absolutely. Dave is so good at delivering the I guess, the down honed wisdom one liners that make a lot of sense and bring home every single day. We're talking to people who have been touched by Dave Ramsey in their lives and they're going debt free and they're ready to invest. We see that coming through a bunch. People have gotten out of debt and are in a much better place because of Dave Ramsey's contribution. So thank you, Dave. You're doing a great job out there. So here's here's a question. You know, here we are. We get on the air, we talk a lot about what's going on and we talk about financial education and wisdom, things you could do, how to do it better, how to get your plan done, Types of investments. We cover the gamut here on the Retirement Unbroken show. So I guess it's about time we said that if you lost more than you're comfortable with in your portfolio last year, 2022, and you're looking for Answers, we'd love to provide those to you with a free, complimentary consultation and something we call the Retirement Unbroken report that is custom to you. We'll Answer a lot of questions, very illuminating for most people. So you could do that by getting on our website at retirement of broken dot com or calling us at 858521 9700. We'll provide that comprehensive consultation at no cost to our listeners and there's a no obligation you could get this we'll work on it together and you can walk our hopes is we can't help everybody.

Merrit Strunk:
Our hopes is that just by having that conversation and educating you on what your situation is, that you will be stronger and better for it at some point, even if we part ways. That is our our our hope and our wish for everybody. And it's really our mission here on the radio and the podcast now. So we'll help you cut unnecessary cost from your IRA, your 401 K and any other retirement savings account. Also help you and discuss Medicare and Social Security with you. Did you know that for most people, Social Security is $1,000,000 decision and if you're married the way that you do that, that could be a $2 Million decision over your lifetime. And many, many, many times we see people and I'm talking many times, you know, like the majority of people in America elect Social Security at the earliest point when knowing that there are other options out there. And by doing that, they could be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table for who it was your money, you put it in. Who are you leaving it for, I guess the IRS or the, you know, the guys up on Capitol Hill? Because, you know, they need the money. They're spending like crazy. You're spending money we don't have. Okay. So that brings us to our first hard core topic here is how to delete fees out of your retirement.

Merrit Strunk:
Can I repeat that again? How to delete fees out of your retirement. So did you know that you could delete fees on 40% of your portfolio or more with the one change that we're going to talk to you about? So listen up. How can you do that? Look, there's a cost for every investment, right? There's a cost to manage investments. And if you grow your overall situation, then it's well worth the price, right? Because retiring and happiness is a lot better than retiring after a history of ignorance. And then you go, Oh, now I don't have any money or I ran out of money. That is the worst. So, so that bond prices and interest rates have an inverse relationship. So interest rates will rise and bond prices will fall. So when interest rates fall, guess what the other part of that seesaw does? Bond prices rise. So there have an inverse relationships. So when interest rates and bonds, interest rates rise and bonds fall, there's no guarantee you will be able to get your money back. Right. So. How. How do we how do we fix that problem? So taking advantage of what we're experiencing right now, which is this a higher interest rate environment? You want to explore a bond replacement strategy? Bond replacement strategy. If you've got one of those 60, 40 portfolios and you've got 40% bonds you might be interested in to seeing how this might work for you, There's pros and cons with everybody, and it depends on what your situation is.

Merrit Strunk:
We advocate replacing bonds you currently hold in your portfolio and exploring whether or not a fixed index annuity can replace that. So that did you know that in that solution you have upside market potential, but you don't have any loss to your principal due to market volatility. So yes, I can go up, but no, I won't go down. So that was a far cry from what was going on, which is stocks were down, bonds were down. So if you had had this strategy in place, you wouldn't have experienced that. You wouldn't have lost your principal. You may have gained at one year locked in those gains for your bond alternative replacement strategy, and then only had the option to go up, but not down in that in that portion of your portfolio. So by doing that, also a side benefit is you'll delete the fees for that portion of your portfolio. There's going to be no assets under management charge for bonds that you don't no longer have and you've replaced in this bond alternative strategy because there's no fees that come in that instance with that fixed indexed annuity. So the new 60, 40, 60, 40, what is that, 60% equities, 40% bonds, You would replace that 40% of the bonds with the fixed index annuity strategy that has a no loss provision.

Merrit Strunk:
So you're replacing that. And then you could experience upside growth through market indexing, but also experience no loss to any interest that you gain in that portion or loss to your principal due to a market decrease. Right. So pretty interesting strategy that we're on here. And folks, the financial advisors all across America, when when the Martha and the Vandellas song where there's nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, when both your stocks and bonds are going down, the traditional hedges in your portfolio were no longer working and you might have had a 6040 and you're going, Yeah, but I've experienced every percentage point on the downside that the S&P has experienced. Where's my 6040? Right. So I'll just say you're more than a pie chart. You've got to get a real plan here. So the annuities portion of this are safe and fee efficient way to generate not only lifetime income, but also to provide that hedge of downside. And you'll need that income stream to cover your expenses throughout your, I don't know, 30, 35, 40 year retirement. So if you had an income guarantee that come come along with that bond alternative strategy, you're kind of getting your cake and eat it too. So you know that retirees worst fear in retirement is what? What's the most retirees? Worst fear in retirement. What? What is that?

Producer:
My well, my solid Answer to that, only because I know it, because I listen to you is running out of money. I mean, it's running out of money in retirement.

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah, more than death. More than death. You know why? Because then you become a ward of the state or you're homeless. You ran out of money, and now you can't afford housing or goods and services or shelter. I mean, that's not the way to go. So of course, that's a fearful situation. And if you've got elderly parents at given this recessionary, you know, headwinds that we're seeing and the economy headed in the way it's going into a recession, you may be fearful that they're going to have a harder time in their retirement and their remaining years. So I totally get it. You know, if they had guaranteed income and you knew that money was going to come and be deposited in their in their checking account every month, I got to tell you what a comfort that is, because now they can afford health care, nursing care, house upkeep and care. And man, if they want to, they want to order in food. You want steak tonight? We can order that in because there's money to afford those things, right? Isn't that great? So that's the benefit of having those things. And you know, to remove some of the uncertainty, remove the potential downside of your 40% of your of your portfolio, and also have the potential ability to turn on income. Love it. All right. And since we were talking about removing fees and deleting them out of your retirement, let's go ahead and talk about deleting taxes from your retirement. With the national debt being around, fill in the blank, because it used to be we could say 20 trillion. So now, folks, what do we have to say? What's what's the national debt for the United States? It's $31.5 trillion. So we believe, like maybe you do, that taxes are going up in our future matter. Your tax is likely going to go up over your lifetime.

Producer:
I would say so. I mean, you look at them right now, it's they're at historical lows. You know, the brackets are kind of the lowest they've been in a long, long time. So there's almost nowhere to go but up, unfortunately, for for us, the little guy here. But yeah, I mean, in order to when you're looking at that number, which is an unfathomable amount of money, 31 and one half trillion dollars, they got to go up because that's not going to get paid for just by magic.

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah, here we are. We're at the the precipice of the folks up in Washington passing a spending bill to keep the government open. And so they have to keep the government open, you know, unless they're going to play some hardball politics with cutting some cost or something. So they've got to pass a spending bill and they're going to spend money, guess what they don't have? At every every one of these spending packages includes pork. Pork. It includes pork. They're not talking about real pork. You're talking about excessive spending and deals. We want a museum in my state if I'm going to vote for it, you know, and we want some other facility or some other benefit in my state if you want me to vote for this bill. And that is pork. That then becomes deficit spending of money we don't have on top of the spending we do need. Well, one of the ways you can delete taxes out of one of the few, if only solutions you can do to take the taxes out of your retirement is with a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is created when you have earned income, W-2 or 1099. So during your working years, you have to in order to get a Roth IRA, you have to have that earned income and you need to open it up. So if you don't have a Roth IRA and you retire, guess what you don't have.

Merrit Strunk:
A Roth IRA because you lose the chance to open one. So in a Roth IRA and for some of you, this is going to be like old hat. But in a Roth, when you put the money in, let's say it could even be a Roth 401. K from your employer. But then you leave that employer and you roll that as a Roth IRA. But when you're doing either either the Roth four, one K or the Roth IRA, when you put that money in, you're paying the taxes then before it goes in. But you're doing that at your historically low income tax rate. Maybe we don't know that for sure, but maybe chances are your lowest income tax rate you'll ever have. If you agree that taxes are going up over your lifetime, and you know, for my children, they may see a doubling of these tax rates. Well, 22 becomes 44. You know, I was speaking at one time and the guy in the back and said, you know, never. I'm like, Yeah, you know what the highest average tax rate in America has been? You know, the highest record ever, you know? And he was like, What? Well, I think it was somewhere around like 94%. And that was during World War Two. And then the average highest, highest tax bracket is 51%, 51%. So if we're at in the in the low thirties right now, we are at a historically low income tax rates.

Merrit Strunk:
So you could put money into a Roth and a Roth 401k and have the taxes now and you lock that into a situation where that money, the interest, dividends and capital appreciation now is tax free for how long? How long? The master. The wife. Life. Forever. Forever. Forever and ever. Forever and ever. Yeah. Forever. Yeah. So? So isn't that great? Move. Money from the left to the right pocket. There are some catches here, right? So in the Roth IRA, you get tax free growth. So obviously that goes into a Roth IRA or a Roth 401 K, and now it's after tax dollars. So all future growth completely tax free under current law. And I have to keep saying that because people are always trying to figure out how to undo this. Roth You know, the person that created the Roth is Senator Roth from Delaware. And that's why many of Grandma's grandpas never had an opportunity to participate in a Roth because it wasn't created yet. It wasn't adopted as widely as it is now. You can get tax free withdrawals from your Roth IRA in the future, tax free. You also you have flexibility. So more than traditional IRAs when it comes to withdrawals because there is no RMD required minimum distribution. So an RMD is if you had a pretax IRA, well, that money has never been taxed before.

Merrit Strunk:
So there is a age limit. Right now it's 72. It used to be seven and a half. And I think the Republicans in the House are going to put forth a bill that c, c, if they could push that out to 75. But if you're 72 and you don't need the money, guess what you are forced to do, take money out so that who can do what the government can tax you then get your tax dollars in a Roth IRA. You don't have an RMD. You could take it. You can not take it. It's your prerogative, right? There's no ticking tax time bomb on this thing. Now, if you have all your money in a pretax IRA, the statement I just said, a ticking tax bomb, that's very real for you. And if you don't need the money, you had plenty of income. Guess what? You may be bumped into a higher tax bracket by taking that the RMD from your pretax. I've got a few more here on the Roth IRA. We really want to share them with you. It's important that you know these things. People are often confused about them and I'm going to get to those right after we come back after a break here after our first segment here. This is Merrit Strunk, and you are listening to the Retirement Unbroken radio show and podcast. See you back after the break.

Producer:
Missed part of today's show? Retirement Unbroken is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at RetirementUnbroken.com.

Producer:
They say you don't know what you don't know. But a growing number of states are trying to fix that when it comes to finances. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement dot Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. In high school, students are often required to take advanced math courses like algebra and trigonometry. But for years, the basics of budgeting, bank accounts and savings have been neglected in the classroom. But that seems to be quickly changing. 21 states now require at least some form of financial education before students graduate high school. One of those states is Nevada. Governor Steve Sisolak recently told CNBC.

Steve Sisolak:
A great percentage, I think 50 some odd percent of Americans can't cover $1,000 emergency costs if it comes up without borrowing the money. So it tells us that we need to invest more. We have invested $2.5 million from the state into these programs and to make sure that it gets out, we address access and equity so that everybody gets this education. It's not just reserved for the upper class.

Producer:
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves also told CNBC he knows firsthand how valuable a financial education can be. He graduated with a degree in economics and worked in the financial arena before running for office, which is one.

Tate Reeves:
Of the reasons that I'm so passionate about trying to encourage my fellow Mississippians and really my fellow Americans to to to make sure that financial literacy is available to as many people as possible. Because I really do think it can help Americans have a better life.

Producer:
In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy says programs there start as early as middle school.

Phil Murphy:
There's a temptation that comes with a lot of different things that you all of a sudden think you can afford and you don't realize the consequences on the back end, whether it's physical items, whether it's meme stocks or whatever it might be. And so getting kids at the earliest ages possible, we think is critical.

Producer:
How well are the programs working? Well, it could be too early to tell. Money rates. Dotcom found mixed results in a recent survey, but its authors note that financial education itself is not a quick fix, so with more time results could improve. So how educated are you when it comes to your personal finances and planning for retirement? And are you going to pass down that knowledge to future generations? Those are key questions to consider as our financial lives become more complicated with the Retirement dot Radio Network powered by AmeriLife. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
Are you concerned about market volatility, rising taxes, economic uncertainty and how it all could affect your future in retirement? Then tune in to your Retirement Unbroken with your host, Merrit Strunk. To learn how you can protect and grow your hard earned money. Your Retirement Unbroken every Saturday at 1:00 PM right here on FM 96.1 and AM 1170. The Answer Protect your hard earned money today and schedule a free no obligation consultation now at Retirement Unbroken dot com. You're listening to your retirement unbroken to schedule your free no obligation consultation with Merrit visit RetirementUnbroken.com.

Merrit Strunk:
Hey welcome back from the break this is Merrit Strunk. I am the president of Momentum Financial and I'm also the host of the Retirement Unbroken Show. And if you are listening to this, you are now part of the giant listening audience of the retirement Unbroken Nation. So welcome aboard. So we just going through Roth IRA and some of the reasons why you should consider whether or not a Roth conversion is available to you. Like we said, you have to have earned income in order to create a Roth Roth IRA. And if you don't do it by the time you retire, you're going to wish you did, right. So there is no age limitations in terms of numbers and guidelines here. So on a traditional, you've got to take money out by 72 in a Roth, you don't have to take the money out through the RMD type of process. However, there are a couple of things here. If you take money out of a Roth prior to 59 and one half, there is a 10% penalty. It's early withdrawal penalty in a pretax IRA. If you take money out before 59 and one half, you not only get income tax at your current income tax on that withdrawal, which could be high or low, but you also get a 10% penalty. So you have to wait till after 59 and one half to do that. So there's liquidity.

Merrit Strunk:
Your liquidity needs play into this. You wouldn't want to put money in there that you think you're going to tap in to buy buy a house before 59 and one half. You wouldn't do that. You'd have to have an individual account that you have liquidity. And if you sold that at long term capital gains, that would be a 15% long term gains tax rather than, say, income. All right. For for the older folks who are listening here, you may have a sizable IRA, pre-tax IRA, and you start to think of that as well. That's. Or my heirs, my children that I can leave to them when I am promoted off the planet. God willing. But here's the deal. Let's say you have a $500,000 pretax IRA, the traditional IRA, and you're thinking, okay, that's for my heirs. It's a legacy that I will pass on. They now, when they take that guess what's never been paid on this to this traditional pre tax well, income tax. So now they have it. And when they take the money out and they're going to be forced to over a period of time, they have to pay it their income tax rate. So your legacy and their inheritance is going to be less than that nominal number of 500,000, you see. So let's say they're at 24% tax bracket. You've got a 500,000 IRA. They and they inherited. They have to remove they have to remove money out of a non spouse, inherited IRA within ten years.

Merrit Strunk:
They don't have to spend it, but they have to remove it and therefore they are forced to having that add that amount that they have to withdraw in order to keep in the ten year rule. And now that's joined up with their current income to create a new income tax level, which could bump them into the next federal tax bracket. And they've got to pay the taxes on it. So they're not inheriting a half a million dollar IRA. They're inheriting a tax liability and something less than 500,000. So good for you for getting that there. And it is a legacy. It's just going to be a lot less than what you had intended if they still owe taxes on it. So converting that over your lifetime, putting it into a tax free forever bucket might be the great way to do it. Because if they inherit a Roth IRA, no taxes. Praise Lord, that's fantastic. So that's the way to delete taxes out of your retirement. Now, how do you delete expenses from your retirement? That's a little tougher, however. Do you live in a house? If you own a house, right, Or you're still paying on the mortgage? More applicable here to the conversation so that this is the cost cutter idea on how to delete those expenses.

Producer:
Here's the cost cutter of the week.

Merrit Strunk:
Paying off your mortgage and or possibly downsizing the family home. So, you know, it's been said that the happiest people who meet with us for annual reviews of their retirement portfolios and how are we doing and how is your life and how's the family? Well, they're the ones who have paid off their primary home mortgage. They paid it off, and now they have a lot more money because they don't have to be on a monthly basis. They have to be paying one of the biggest expenses they've had, which is their mortgage. So if you continue to pay your monthly mortgage, it can absorb the entirety of potentially one of the two of the Social Security income's for the married couple. Or it could take up most of a single person's monthly Social Security benefit. It was never planned to do that with Social Security to to pay off your mortgage. We strongly encourage all of our clients to pay off their mortgages in a smart way. That said, trying to avoid paying off the family home with your with your IRA money. Try to try to avoid that. Why? Because if it's a traditional IRA, you're going to have to pay taxes on that money you take out to pay down the mortgage. So you get hit with the taxes on every withdrawal that you do. And that's one of the, you know, the contributing factors were possibly moving that over into a Roth conversion. And by the way, one of the myths, misunderstandings or myths about a Roth conversion is that you have to do it all at one time.

Merrit Strunk:
You don't have to convert a pretax IRA balance all at one time and get a giant tax bill because of it. You probably would be better off if it's mathematically feasible for you to do is to plan ahead, have a conversation with somebody like us so that you could do the math and say, okay, over a period of time I'm going to do the conversion systematically. Okay. You also you wouldn't pay a 20% real estate commission rate on a purchase of a house. You don't you don't want to have to pay 20% in taxes when you pay off the mortgage, either on your family's primary residence. And that's what it's like when you're using pre taxed IRA money to do that. So consider using money in investment accounts. Withdraw the cash from life insurance plans. Maybe if you've got a cash balance there, that's tax free withdrawal savings accounts, liquidating collectibles or selling a piece of real estate to raise funds in order to pay off the family home. Tax burden on the sale of these types of investments are are minimal, you know, negligible, and maybe some of them are even zero. So it's amongst the biggest costs that retirees face. And eliminating that mortgage removes a sizable monthly bill from your retirement expenses. And now you're in a good situation. You know, when you sell and we talked about downsizing, where are people going? Where are they headed to? Who are these people? Where are they going? Right.

Producer:
Who, who, what, where, when, why?

Merrit Strunk:
Yes, yes. Who are said people and what is said place. So retirees are moving a lot right now. And you may suspect what the Answer is. More and more retirees are making interstate moves, getting out of one state, going into another in search of cheaper housing, more affordable living, things like that. And so a new study compiled by the US Census Bureau survey data said that Texas no surprise there. I'm a former Texan, born and raised Yahoo! And I and I, I hesitate to to give a college gig of horns or anything else like that because, you know, there might be some Aggies on on here as well or anyway so Texas being a big one, Florida being another one again another no surprise and the Carolinas were preferred destinations of a one way U-Haul truck customer during 2022 ranking as the top growth states on the annual U Haul Growth index. Another way of saying this is if you rented a U-Haul in California, it would cost you a lot more money than if you rented a U-Haul in Texas. And we're headed to California. Why? Because you're just returning the U-Haul where it needs to be, right? Otherwise, U-Haul will have to pay people to try to fly to Texas on a plane to get in the U-Haul, drive it back so that people in California could have a U-Haul to move their stuff out of this state.

Merrit Strunk:
And a big one because of that is no state income tax. And possibly a lack of craziness. You know, at this point, I have to mention, folks, if you're listening in the California area, I have to mention the fella and I will not mention his name because I have great disdain for it. Part of the transportation substructure here in California came up with a super awesome idea that super awesome ideas, a mileage tax on everyone who drives a car. How are you going to do that? Well, that means they have to track you. Well, what do you mean? You're going to have to track me. That sounds anti American. You're going to start tracking my car, my whereabouts, and everywhere I go is to track how many miles I'm going. Yep. So there was a fella in the public transportation area that proposed this, and I'm glad it is not going forward. I think that is absolutely crazy and anti American and ask me if I have an opinion about it. Yeah, obviously I do.

Producer:
Tell us what you really think. There merit?

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah. I was thinking how can anybody I mean yes, Californians are a bit crazy because they will vote themselves a gas tax and fuel tax every chance they get because they can't read the ballot, because they actually have to say no. If they're going to say yes and yes, if they're going to say no, because the politicians in California wrote the ballot that way on purpose. So it would be confusing. So for the folks who can't read, congratulations, you have voted yourself another gas tax. And this fella, crazy person, wanted to tax you on the mileage that you use on your car. And the only way to do that is to track you. So I think it's a bit crazy, but and that's another reason why I think people just they're moving out of California like crazy and guess who they are, their taxpayers. Those people pay taxes. So if if everybody moves to Texas, Florida and Carolinas, who are the big taxpayers? There's only the people left in that state who are who who say those bastards didn't pay their taxes. Yeah, they're coming for you, too. So I'm a big advocate on reasonable taxation.

Merrit Strunk:
Smaller government, no nanny state, reasonable, you know, logical sort of things. Not something crazy like that. You know, the great American road trip would just die. You know, California's got some great parks and scenic routes. They would just die now that you can't afford to do it, because that could be another $50 to $0.80 per gallon on top of, you know, kind of surcharge on top of what you're paying already. Kind of crazy. So going back to this data here, so you hold transactional data confirms that migration to the southeast and the Southwest, by the way, Carolinas are great. Raleigh, Greenville, South Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina. You know, God's country, beautiful places. You can go to the mountains, you can go to the ocean all within the same day. You really could. Texas. Texas is, you know, the number one gross state for the second consecutive year and for the fifth time since 2016, Florida, which ranks second, has been a top three gross state seven years ago. Why Business friendly policies, low cost of living, low housing cost and low taxes.

Producer:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It's time for an inflation demonstration.

Merrit Strunk:
So if that wasn't enough, folks, we're going to bring to you a little bit of sad news here. Beer inflation has hit the shelves across the United States. So while it's been long considered recession proof, I mean, by the way, George George Washington made his his money off of alcohol, by the way. So even though alcohol sales have been considered recession proof, I guess when you're paying more and you're miserable and you're depressed, you're like, hey, go over to the liquor store. Beer prices rose at retail stores 7% during the last three months of 2022. And this comes from a USA Today story about how things have increased and some beers, including, say, like Bud Light, Miller Lite, Yuengling Lager and Coors Light saw prices rise even higher by 10%. The last time I bought a 12 pack of beer. It had been a long time and I was surprised. I'm like, Golly, what has happened? I didn't remember this being that high. I guess I'm just not shopping for a beer. So the lower priced below premium beers such as Budweiser and Miller and Malt liquor type thing, single serving beers saw sales gains in December. Well, I think that's holiday spending there. So here's a fun fact, Matt. Americans spend about 1.3 billion. On beer. In the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl Sunday and consume about 325 million gallons of beer on game day. That just sounds like a lot of calories to me.

Producer:
Yeah, a lot of calories, a lot of carbs. And it makes me want to burp. Hey, I'm.

Merrit Strunk:
I'm feeling full just talking about.

Producer:
It. Right, right, exactly.

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah. So, you know, with inflation high, with the lack of understanding about pre-planning your retirement, with confusion on what what might be said about alternatives to traditional investments, there is a lot of innovation in the financial industry, and I've talked about this before. Tactically, manage portfolios, if you're accredited investor, then private credit or tax free income through real estate investments, all kinds of things that you can get into. Interval funds, things like that. And then and then the drawdown protection portfolios. So with all these challenges, I would say it's, you know, it could it could be classified as one of the most challenging times for retirees in America that has ever been. I mean, just draw the analogy to what's going on in the market. This was one of the most challenging markets we've ever had. And therefore that. The parlays back into my statement. Here's some reasons why you might want to meet with an adviser. A in our case, a certified financial fiduciary or other financial professional. If you don't understand what an expense ratio is, then you might be a redneck. I'm kidding. I'm just like, if you don't know what I started saying, I was like, If you don't know what this is, well then you might very redneck. All right, So, no, I'm kidding.

Producer:
If your dad walks you to school because you're in the same grade, you might be a red dog.

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah, that's right. If your car is in your front yard, has no wheels, and instead it has cement blocks. Yeah, my bare everyday. So if you don't know again what an expense ratio is and you have mutual funds, then you probably need to get educated on that and understand how that might be a parasitic loss to your profit. If you're one of those folks who that all of a sudden were surprised at how much your investments were down in 2022, then we need to take another look at your risk tolerance and understand and take the opportunity to reallocate within your risk tolerance so this doesn't happen. And depending on your age and your time horizon, that could be imperative for you. If you don't have a formal written retirement plan or financial plan, then you need to talk to somebody. If you don't know how things are going to be paid for, how certain buckets and what the function of the purpose of certain buckets of money are and how they function within a retirement income plan, then you probably need to talk to somebody and sooner rather than later. If you don't quite understand how to manage risk within your investable assets again. Talk to us. If you don't know if you should pay your house off or not or how to do it, then certainly give us a call. If you don't have a health care plan in place for your future. Certainly, if you have a long jetty city and your family mom, dad, grandpa lived to a ripe old age of 90 something years old, and especially if you are female and you don't have any provisions for long term care, don't know what it costs, don't know what the options are, then you probably need to talk to somebody.

Merrit Strunk:
So you need to have a plan. I guess that's my point. You need to have a plan and the sooner the better. Please don't wait. Don't don't wait to ask questions. Questions do not cost money. We don't charge by the question. Right? So when I was younger, I used to think I did get paid by the question. How come? That's another question. Anyway, So, you know, consider how long you've spent working during your career. We're all living longer. More and more retirees are retired just as many years as they spent working. And their lives. That could be 30, 35 or even 40 years in retirement. Yeah, I know. You just said it out loud. Oh, I don't want to live that long. You may not have a choice. You may not have a choice. You may do it with replacement parts. You never know. I'm sure you've spent hundreds hours throughout your life planning, vacations, weddings, what you're going to do this weekend. Date night nights out with friends and families. I'm sure you spent tons and tons and hours of doing that. So if if you if you don't spend some time planning ahead, planning your future wealth plan. Then you'll get basically what you deserve because you did spend the time on it. So don't neglect retirement. Don't don't neglect taking time to plan for your future you today and let us be the ones to help you with this.

Merrit Strunk:
We would be honored to do that. You know, I, I make it a policy. Everybody responds to us. I talked to in person. And even when it's situations that we cannot help them, we've oftentimes we've led them to other resources that can help them. It's it's a wide variety of the questions that we get here. So it is our best desire on the retirement Unbroken is to help you unbreak that future retirement that hopefully one day you would have that little voice that's urging you to do that is the future you the future you is saying, I know what I want and you need to get busy because of it. Or if we keep going in this direction, we're not going to arrive where we want to be. Or will we be at risk of losing too much money? And that's the real risk right now. So if you're in one of those situations where losses could hurt you more than gains can help you, you certainly need to reach out to us so that we can talk to you about what your options are. So thanks for attending the retirement unbroken show today and I hope this has encouraged you and equipped you and educated you that you're going to be better off because you spent this hour with us. My name is Merrit Strunk. I'm the president and founder of Momentum Financial and also the host of the Retirement Unbroken radio show and podcast. And we'll see you back here next time on Saturdays at 1:00 PM on 1170 AM and 96.1 FM

Producer:
Thanks for listening to your Retirement Unbroken. You deserve to work with an experienced and licensed expert who will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets to schedule your complimentary no obligation consultation with merit. Visit retirement unbroken dot com or pick up the phone and call 858 521 9700.

Producer:
Advisory services are offered through Momentum Financial and Insurance Services LLC. An investment advisor in the State of California. Insurance products and services are offered through Merit Strunk, an independent agent. California License number 0L7510 Certified Financial Fiduciary is a FINRA recognized professional certification.

Producer:
Are you concerned about market volatility, rising taxes, economic uncertainty, and how it all could affect your future in retirement? Then tune in to your Retirement Unbroken with your host, Merrit Strunk, to learn how you can protect and grow your hard-earned money, your Retirement Unbroken every Saturday at 1:00 PM right here on FM 96.1 and AM 1170. The Answer Protect your hard earned money today and schedule a free no obligation consultation now at Retirement Unbroken dot com.

Producer:
Big changes could be coming and they may affect your retirement. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement dot Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. Increases in costs, market volatility and fears of a possible recession. All have people who are close to retirement worried about the future. Some people who were considering early retirement are staying in the workforce, while others who had already called it quits are going back to work. Marketwatch recently published a list of eight big things retirees and pre-retirees should keep an eye on. Some of them are pretty obvious. Like number one, inflation. As the prices of goods and services continue to go up at rates not seen in four decades, just paying for everyday things could eat through your retirement savings more quickly than you thought. Another concern Social Security. The trust fund is set to be exhausted by the year 2034. Potential changes to save the program could have a big impact on your retirement years. Two items on the list have to do with savings. How much money to set aside for retirement and how to address a growing gap in that amount versus what most of us have actually saved. Yahoo finance contributor Vera Gibbons recently reported that the savings gap has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with a lot of folks dipping into their retirement accounts just to get by.

Vera Gibbons:
We are in an inflationary environment here, and some of the experts I spoke to said given the fact that costs are going up for just about everything, they expect more people to actually tap into their retirement accounts or contribute less this year. Also, keep in mind that people are still quitting their jobs at a record rate, and that group may also be tapping into their retirement accounts too, to cover their costs.

Producer:
Health care spending and drug prices are two more things on the market watch list of retiree concerns. And they could be impacted by the last two items on the list Diabetes, which continues to affect more Americans each year and uses up a good portion of the nation's health care resources and exercise, which could actually bring costs down by helping you stay healthier longer. So which of these items is your biggest cause for concern heading into retirement? That's a key question to consider. As economic uncertainty continues to cause headaches for us all. With the Retirement dot Radio Network powered by AmeriLife, I'm Matt McClure.

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 secure transcription and file storage, automatic transcription software, automated subtitles, world-class support, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.