9.1.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

9.1.22: 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, Merritt Strunk. Merritt is a licensed fiduciary and financial advisor who always places your needs first. Merritt 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 Merritt Strunk.

Merritt Strunk:
Welcome again to the Retirement Unbroken show. This is Merritt Strunk, your host. I am founder and president of Momentum Financial Insurance Services here in San Diego. And joining us today for the show is Matt McClure, our producer. Matt, how are you doing today?

Producer:
Great, Merritt. How are you so far this weekend?

Merritt Strunk:
You know, if I was doing any better, I bet you people I'm doing great. So I want to thank our listeners. You know, at this time you could be listening to some music, flying down the highway or at home, cleaning, you know, doing home cleaning or whatever, and or maybe even eating a lunch, you know, and listening to music. Now you're on the Retirement Unbroken show and you are getting educated and you are getting informed. And speaking of that, our mission for the folks who are listening here, our mission here on the Retirement and broken show is to transform our listeners into more educated, more equipped and financially savvy individuals so that they can make better financial decisions for their future. So our goal with that is each episode, we will attempt to awaken your mind and your spirit and give you tools and information so that you can act with intention. So that you can do what? So that you may unlock what is possible in your financial future. Look, if you've never been to our website before or go to WW retirement unbroken dot com that's retirement unbroken dot com.

Merritt Strunk:
And you can look at the top and click on the button that says complimentary consultation. Click on that. If you're concerned about the recession, if you've got questions on your 401. K investments, how it's exposed to market volatility, Social Security, Medicare, give us a call. Or click that button and set some time so that we can have a chat. All right. And if you're listening via podcast to the retirement and broken show, click subscribe and like leave us a comment. Send us a message we'd love hearing from our listeners. So today on the show, we're going to be talking about a few things based on our Smart Retirement Plan series that we've been going through. But also, we've got a surprise entrance here on your financial mental mindset. That's interesting, your your financial mental mindset. And we'll talk about what the heck that is and how you can use it. Then we'll talk about smart review and smart income streams. We're all interested in income stream matter. Are you interested in an income stream?

Producer:
Always, always interested in income stream.

Merritt Strunk:
Yeah. Well, great. I mean, I hate to spoil it, but that's what I got you for Christmas. I got you an income stream.

Producer:
Hey, I will take it.

Merritt Strunk:
That. Wouldn't that be great? So before we get into it, just a brief summary on what's going on in the news in terms of the market today. So not a lot of anything happening with the market per se. It started out up and then it went down into losses. All major indexes are finished negative today. And that brings us out to about three consecutive days of losses here, driven by expectations for tighter Federal Reserve policy. What does that mean? That's the raising of the lending rates. And why are they doing that? It's about inflation, man. It's about inflation. So everything everywhere you go today, including how much your hamburger is going to cost in the future, if you buy it from a fast food restaurant in California, you can probably bank on the fact that your $8 hamburger is probably going to be somewhat higher in the future. I'm not going to get too much into that. But for those of you who are informed about the recent $22 an hour increase for California fast food restaurants of a multiple locations and higher, that is going to be remains to be seen how that's going to affect the actual price of the product and or how many people they're going to employ or how many locations are going to keep open. So the issues of the day, recession. Right. Federal Chairman Jerome Powell, if you don't know who he is, you've been hiding under a rock or just turning off the television because it's driving you crazy.

Merritt Strunk:
So Jerome Powell said last week he made it very clear that he and his fellow monetary policy makers there in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, are prepared to raise borrowing rates as high as needed to restrict. Growth of what the economy and reduce inflation that's currently running at more than three times the Fed's 2% target rate. That's what they want to keep inflation at 2%. And in doing so, he led out this statement here, which is that will likely mean air quotes here, softer labor markets and pain for households and businesses. And but allowing inflation to remain high would cause even worse damage. So I got I got a quiz for you here, Matt. If the chair and the Fed raise interest rates for lending money because they want to essentially throttle the economy and businesses, less liquidity, higher borrowing costs, you know, that's going to drive down labor. It's going to drive down business expansion and basically tamp down the economy. So with if the Fed is doing that and saying here's higher lending rates and that's doing all this suppression work in the economy to get it down and put a stop to this inflation. But the administration is spending like it has been spending, spending, spending, spending, not to mention trillions of dollars of COVID relief. And now with the student debt relief and many, many other ones, how is it with governments being spending higher and printing money and then the Fed is hiring lending costs? Doesn't that seem to counteract each other? Right.

Producer:
Yeah, you would think. I mean, with it sort of goes back to the old, you know, economy 101. Supply and demand. Right. You know, you've got the Fed on one hand trying to tamp down demand for goods and services by increasing interest rates. And that's how they're battling inflation. But yeah, if you have a supply of funds coming in to the public, that's going to increase demand because people have more money in their pocket to go out and spend. Right. So yeah, it's a bit of a bit of a catch 22 there.

Merritt Strunk:
Right. So we're, you know, we're financial advisors, financial planners and we look at the economy and everything else. And I'm not an economist, but it just seems like those two approaches are counterproductive to each other. So it remains to be seen how it's going to go. But if Fed gets their way, they will stranglehold the economy and it will bring down inflation. So, I mean, I kind of mentioned a little bit of this. The two headlines that are out there today is the administration will be forgiving up to $20,000 a student debt for those making a certain amount of income. So individual borrower borrowers who make less than 125,000, this is an individual person a year. And married couples or heads of households that make less than 250 annually will see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven. Now, I did say 20,000. Where does that come in if the individual borrower is also receiving a federal Pell Grant while they were enrolled in college, then that individual is eligible for up to 20,000. So the headline is 10,000 per individual. If they also got a Pell Grant, then up to 20,000 of debt forgiveness. Where was this when I had college debt and things like that? Where was that? So the Pell Grants, they're awarded to millions of low income students each year. So based on factors including family size and income and the cost charged by their college that determines the Pell Grant that they got. So ten and ten or ten and 20 all altogether. So interesting little caveat here, too, is eligibility is based on a borrower's adjusted gross income. And for either tax year 2020 or 2021, adjusted gross income actually can be lower than your total wages because it considers tax deductions, adjustments and contributions to a41k and things like that.

Merritt Strunk:
So that's that's interesting how that will unfold. And there are all kinds of opinions about the wisdom of this of the President pushing this forward and the administration. And we'll see how it goes and whether that's not going to contribute to the situation of massive spending by the government. The other one is, and you may have noticed this and not a lot of conversation about there, but Russia is halting its Nord Stream gas pipeline distribution and that Nord Stream pipeline, obviously this is tied to the Ukraine, Germany and Europe as a whole get most of or a good portion of its natural gas, of which it's greatly dependent upon for its energy, natural gas from Russia through that Nord Stream pipeline. And Russia's like, fine, we're just going to turn it off. So, you know, the the world governments warned Germany not to go there on this Nord Stream deal with Russia, but they did it anyway. And now look at this. It's a bad deal for them. Interestingly, I was reading some articles too, that the a really large chunk don't quote me on this. I can't say I've got this percentage right. But it was up north of 70% of our natural gas exports were going over to Europe from the United States. Somehow that's going to affect our natural gas prices as well. And I believe that article came from Bloomberg.com. So the bulk of our exports are going to Europe on that natural gas. All right. So that's what's going on in the market today. And that brings us up to our financial wisdom quote of the week. And Matt, I'll give you honors on this.

Producer:
And now of wholesome financial wisdom. It's time for the Quote of the week.

Producer:
Yeah, we love to share some words of wisdom with our listeners. And this week they come from Jim Rohn and Jim Rohn. I know who you're a big fan of. Merritt. He said this, quote, Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time. I love that. That's very, very true.

Merritt Strunk:
Yeah. Yeah. And I love Jim Rohn. Jim, for those of you are not familiar with John Rome, he is often credited as being the father of self-improvement. He was a mentor of Anthony Robbins, known as Tony Robbins, which more people may be aware if he was a self-made millionaire before he turned 31 motivational speaker and big into the self improvement. And when I was a younger professional early eighties, I was spouting Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins wisdom out of my mouth. And people were looking at me like, I'm cross-eyed because I was, I was I would listen to it. I would write it down, I would memorize it, and then I would, of course, regurgitate it back to friends and family who had zero interest in hearing that sort of thing from me. But they were like, wow, you are you are spouting, you know, Jim Rohn and Anthony Robbins and.

Producer:
We're right there together because I say I see things that my family's not interested in all the time. There you go.

Merritt Strunk:
I love it. So, you know, Jim Jim Rohn has so many of these just wisdom packed quotes. I thought I'd share a few that I've pulled up here and just think about these. So if you don't design your own life plan, if you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. And I can remember hearing that out of Jim. Ron's just amazing voice and syncopation that he has and related to financial and financial planning and retirement planning. Let me shift this a bit around for you. So if you don't design your own life plan, then chances are you fall on somebody else's plan. So here's the deal. If you don't do your financial plan and your retirement planning, you don't do this stuff on a on a regular basis and take the steps that are needed in order to make this happen in your future, which is, you know, it's a tough deal to step aside from life and do that. Then the the person that has the plan for you is the state you now fall into, the states plan for you. And that is not fun.

Merritt Strunk:
That is not a great plan. So the answer there was the plan they have for you. Guess what? It's not much. The next quote is the rich invest their money and spend what is left. So they take they go to invest first and what they have left over. Then they spent. Hmm. No. No wonder they're rich, right? Then, in contrast, the poor spend their money and then invest. What's left is see the juxtaposition, right? So the rich invest their money and spend what's left over. And then in contrast, the poor spend their money and then invest what's left. And I would I would dare say the majority of Americans are out there right now and they are spending then they think about investments not paying themselves first. Here's another one. We all suffer one of two things ready? The pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment. What's he trying to say? You are either disciplined and doing what you need to do so that you will prosper later or you will suffer the pain of regret and disappointment. There's another one in there. It says It's easier to be rich than to have to explain why you are not rich.

Producer:
That is that's one of those things I want to be like. Truer words were never spoken. I'm so tired of explaining why I'm not rich. Yeah, right, right. There you go.

Merritt Strunk:
And I love this. So you're either going to pay you're going to pay the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment. I love it. And this is God. So much to do. With planning and investing your money and so on. And then another one. Failure is not a single cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is just a few errors and judgment repeated every day. So if it's also true that you are a result of your decisions, either decisions you've made and followed up on, or the decision not to make a decision, right? That's also a decision. I'm just not going to make a decision that has so much to do with financial and planning and investing and so on. That here's a here's kind of the metaphor for it. The children's birthday party, where they have a pinata and the first kid gets up and swats that thing and hits it up and it does not leak, Candy. The third the second person gets up there. Swat, swat, swat with a bat. And it does not leak. Candy, finally, the little kid with low muscle tone gets up there, hits it once, and Candy just spills out. Okay. So where was the work done? Was it the folks, the little compound efforts of the folks that came before him who actually did the work, the compound effect where the tiny kid that doesn't get picked for the kickball team gets picked last.

Merritt Strunk:
He gets up there and taps that thing, and then Candy just gushes out. I would dare say it's the compounded effects over time of swatting that pinata. So the metaphor here is compounded effects of making those decisions over time. Right. And then use that that phrase here, failure is not a single cataclysmic event. It's not that one big decision. You're done. You don't fail overnight. Retirement is not undone. Overnight serum coming from us. Yeah. Instead, it's failure from your decisions or lack of decisions over repeated every day, you know, over time. Okay. And here is the last one I'll share from Jim, the great Jim Rohn and his just wisdom. Pat quotes This success is not doing extraordinary things. Success is doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well. Hmm. Go back to the those rich folks that invest first and spend later. Right. That just just lots of wisdom. Lots of wisdom from from Jim Roan. Thank you, Jim. I honor you with your wisdom quotes is chock full of wisdom. And that's going to bring me to segue saying and using Jim Ron's just incredible wisdom quotes here is what is your financial.

Merritt Strunk:
Personality. If you had to give it a name. So with the mind that we're we're going to break through mental limitations regarding money and investing. And let's face it, we're all walking around with some of those things. It was given to us by our family or our socialization, our experiences, or even the media and social media telling you what you should be thinking about. Money and financial. You might have been one of those people, and I cover this in our Retirement Unbroken book about, you might say, we're not rich and we're never going to be rich. Money is bad, rich people are bad. All those things, you know that or I'm not good with money if you're living with that that that mindset inside about money. And, you know, I'm not good with money or I'm not great at that or. Some of those things and other aspects of your life. You may be operating under some of those beliefs, and this is the negative story we tell ourselves. So, you know, I'm not a physicist or anything like that, but related to some of those things and your brain. Did you know the human brain could process 11 million bits of information every second? Wow. Yeah, that's a wild thing.

Producer:
I'm lucky that I can process, like, one per day. I feel like, yeah.

Merritt Strunk:
I'm loving. I'm loving that comment because it plays right in this. The conscious mind. The conscious one. Right. We know what we know. We're here. We're present. This is we're thinking about it with intention can only handle only about 40 to 50 bits of information per second.

Producer:
Now that makes sense that I can sort of wrap my brain around because yeah, if it's, if it's a conscious decision, like things that are done, as you say with intention, then yeah, that I can, I can wrap my brain around. But it's all the other stuff that that we think just happens. But it doesn't really just happen.

Merritt Strunk:
Yeah, the beautiful, the grey matter computer that's God given is just a wonder really that escapes description about how incredible it is. So it's here it is. Know your subconscious or say your super conscious is processing this 11 million bits of information every second. And so it is far more effective in taking in and processing data than the conscious mind, the, you know, the one with intent. Okay. So how can I guess the question that I came across here is how can we use that subconscious ability to absorb data and our brains are cooking back there. It's grabbing on stuff you've heard of the reticular activating system is once you become aware of things, one of them is like, you know, you start thinking about buying a Tesla and all of a sudden you're like Tesla this, Tesla that look at them on the highway that once read this. What does that se model over there? What is that? And all of a sudden you're seeing what you had not seen previously by becoming conscious of the reticular activating system. You may have heard that. So what that is just saying, with this 11 million bits of super conscious absorption with that reticular activating system, all of a sudden it is becoming aware your brain is collecting information, it is all of a sudden becoming attuned to these things you in a way that has not before.

Merritt Strunk:
One of the ways we can do that is by asking super great questions related to financial outcomes, right? So how are we going to use this with that observation of the incredible ness of your brain and with this this thought? That many of us are living. You know, we're living the story we tell ourselves. Interesting. Maybe by default. Maybe by acquiescence, maybe by, you know, my upbringing or my socialization or my tribe. I am living the story I'm telling myself along with its limitations, you know, about life in general. So can we tell ourselves a better story? And bring that and ingrain that into our super conscious, where it's doing some wonderful things and to where we just begin to believe that story we're telling. Well, I'm going to tell myself a better story, and I love that. So I guess it's all incumbent upon of us related to this is tell ourselves about a story. You need to become a better storyteller to yourself and knock off that lousy self-talk, right? The bad ones, the stinking thinking, as Zig Ziglar says, that stink thinking. I love that. So real quick here, if you had to give yourself, Matt, the little part in your body and little part in your brain, that is your financial consciousness.

Merritt Strunk:
If you had to give it a name, what would you name it? And I want you to hold on to that thought. I don't want you blurted out yet. We're coming to the end here. We're going to take a break and then we're going to come back with that idea. And I want you, if you're listening to us, what would I name that part of my my personality that that is in charge of finances, retirement planning, money, budgeting, paying taxes, those things. What would you name it if you're going to be honest about it? Right. Give that person a name. Like, for instance, if your name is Joe, you might say I'm pretty average at that, maybe average Joe. So think about that. And during the break, if you want to hop on our website and click the button at the top for a complimentary consultation, talk about the economy, talk about inflation, Social Security, 401 k IRA. Any of those questions? I don't bite. I talk to everyone in person, so give us a call or click an appointment and we'll meet you back after the break right here on the Retirement Unbroken radio show.

Producer:
This part of today's show, your retirement and Broken is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement. Unbroken dot com.

See, I got a fever of a hundred free. Come on, baby. Do you?

Producer:
Are you concerned about inflation, political uncertainty, rising taxes, and how it could all affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over 400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying over a 35 plus year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your free Roth conversion consultation with Merritt Strunk at retirement on Broken Dot.com.

Producer:
Where's the best place to hang your hat when you retire? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by a life. Whether retirement is just around the corner or several years away. Time is ticking on planning not only your finances for your later years, but where you want to live out your post-retirement life. Personal Finance Website Wallethub recently released its list of Best States to retire in 2022.

Speaker4:
Florida, unsurprisingly, ranked number one, followed by Virginia, Colorado, Delaware and Minnesota, while.

Producer:
At hub analyst Jill Gonzalez.

Speaker4:
The top ten continues with North Dakota, Montana, Utah, Arizona and New Hampshire.

Producer:
So what makes a state one of the best to retire in?

Speaker4:
The study was based on 47 metrics, including tax friendliness, the elderly, population, golf courses per capita and shoreline mileage.

Producer:
As for Florida, which landed the top spot this year.

Speaker4:
Florida excelled in tax friendliness, fellow retirees and things to do, but could use improvement with home health aides per.

Producer:
Capita, even though the Sunshine State is number one overall, if finances are your primary concern, you might want to consider a move to Mississippi. It ranked as the state with the lowest overall cost of living. As for tax friendliness, Alaska jumps to the top of the list. But what if you want some culture in your retirement years? New York ranks as the number one state when it comes to the number of museums per capita. The tradeoff there is, naturally, the Empire State is one of the most expensive in the country. So where do you want to spend most of your time in retirement and what factors are most important to you when considering a potential move? Those are key questions to consider as you plan for the future. What the Retirement Radio Network Powered by a Life. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
You're listening to your retirement Unbroken. To schedule your complimentary consultation with merit. Visit retirement on broken.

Merritt Strunk:
All right. Welcome back to the Return of Unbroken radio show and podcast. My name is Merritt Strunk and we just got through talking about I don't know, is your head blown right off the top? We talked about telling ourselves a better story and our financial personality mindset. And right before the break, I was asking our producer if you would play along with us, Matt, here, if you had to name that personality a little portion of your personality that's in charge of the finances, you know, for you and your family and about budgeting and planning for retirement or investing, what would you name your personality for that?

Producer:
Matt I would. The very first thing that popped into my mind was manic. Matt Which is like it's can sometimes be good and can sometimes be very bad. It just depends on how it's all going to work out that day.

Merritt Strunk:
Said Fantastic. You know, that brings up a lot of connotations about manic and what the opposite of manic is and things like that. I'm feeling it like it's a little lacking on the analytical side and that's my hunch, my feeling. Okay. Oh yeah. So and you heard me say right before the break, I like maybe you consider yourself average in your knowledge and your ability to handle this and maybe average Joe if your name was Joe. So that brings with it certain imagery around the challenges for an average informed individual. How are you supposed to know what you don't know? Right? What if your last name is Smith as an example? Maybe that is the Smith Family Chief Financial Officer. Like a CFO. That's a good one. I like that. That it makes clear what your role is and your responsibility is are very incumbent upon you. I'd say it was a pretty clear one. What about people who are more fearful or emotional about investing? Maybe they're not knowledgeable, but they have a lot of fear of it. Maybe somebody in their family lost a lot of money one time, or maybe they did in 2008 in the recession. So maybe they would say, I'm emotional, Edward. Maybe they're day traders and it would be like day trader Dan or Vegas. Valerie How about avoidance? And, you know, there's there's a lot of people just avoid financial stuff, retirement planning. They just don't you know, I have to know the knowledge. I have to get ready to do this.

Merritt Strunk:
And because I don't know this and I don't know what to do and I'm just not it becomes another reason to the giant capital P or procrastinate when that is such an enemy of progress. Right. Okay. How about expert Bob? Bob knows it. He's an expert. Right. And that comes with its own challenges because of if there is somebody who thinks they're an expert at it and that's not their job, then do they true? Are they truly an expert at it? And then that becomes mental blindness perhaps, right? I like this last one as an example. Discipline. Dan Wow, discipline. Dan So, and so we covered a range of those ones that are not so positive connotation and one's like, wow, expert Bob And discipline. Dan And what I would say here is that if you were truthful with your self, it's telling you something. If you came up with some of those like emotional or clueless or avoidance, some of those things, then then you were honest with yourself about these things. And if you just didn't know what to name, that little personality who's in charge of this thing, then perhaps you do need to spend a moment and ask yourself, where am I? Right? Because that goes to our Smart Review section here. We're going to cover in a section. I'll submit to you that someone who named themselves Disciplined Dan or wealth minded William Manners, a great one. There you go. Is is going to very likely end up in a much better place, financially prepared going into retirement than somebody who named themselves Clueless Claude or emotional Edward.

Merritt Strunk:
Right. Yeah. There's just I mean, intuitively, you just know that's what's going to it's going to happen and discipline. Dan It sounds like discipline. Dan, you know, you've got a criteria. Your your you're following up on things monthly and quarterly and you're measuring growth and progress and you've set goals for yourself. I mean, I get it with that. So it's very, very telling in this exercise. And hopefully you were you were honest with your with yourself. If you're sitting in the car or are at home listening on the radio or on the podcast, walking in the morning, hopefully that was helpful for you as a as an exercise. So, you know, we did a lot of, you know, revisiting Jim Ronan, his incredible wisdom quotes. And, boy, they were great. And here's another great figure from US history and science, Albert Einstein. What Albert Einstein said was Everything is energy. And this is he said in his quote, he said, this is not philosophy, it's just physics. So in to prove it, he said inside your body. Every cell has 0.07 volts of electricity. Okay, so there are 50 trillion cells in your body. Hmm. So how many volts we got? Well, you have 3.5 trillion volts of electricity in your body waiting to be activated by your gray matter. Right, but it's up to you. So how you use that energy to make the things happen in your life.

Merritt Strunk:
So if we use that energy that we talked about just now with telling yourself a better story and knowing that your subconscious mind is the one that does it so much better. So if you can ingrain that better story in your brain and put your will forward, you're going to make some progress and change your life, especially about financial. So in gaining a better story, you know, we wrote the book Retirement Unbroken and the subhead was Your retirement may be Broken. You just don't know it yet. And we see it all the time. People who think they're really great off and they're not because they just are not doing it the right way. They're not planning the right way and so on. So we're going to break the financial story you've been telling yourself and you can decide, I'm a believer in this. You're just one decision away from having a making the decision to have a better financial outcome in some way, shape or form. So you can decide today to make that your your financial identity, to tell yourself that better story and end up with a better financial future. Think of it like an athlete. You know, these elite athletes that compete and people who are successful like that, they shift their thinking about their lives and their financial lives. They just change it and they know hard work alone is just not going to do it. However, if they use leverage and make sure that the effectiveness of that hard work is, is, is magnified, then they've got hard work times effectiveness that equals success, right? So just like the the the little kid who, who stepped up to the pinata and whacked it one time, it was all the work that was done before that last hit that really paid off.

Merritt Strunk:
And so that's hard work. And the effective hit at the end is effectiveness, right? So just can you leverage your your work, hard work by asking the right questions of somebody as a fiduciary financial planner? What's the right way to do this? What should I be thinking about? How should I do this? Right now, the economy is in a mess. The inflation is the mess. The market's going up, down. What's the right things I should be? What should I be investing in? How do I be prudent about this? How about this one? I'm planning to retire in two years. I've saved up money on my 401. K or my four or three B, and I can see retirement around the corner. But this market is really got me worried and I'm still in the same kind of investments that have 100% risk exposure to volatility in my 401. K, is that right? Should I be doing that? Is there a better way to do it? Are there other choices? For me? A lot of people don't know that. They just don't. They don't know. They haven't asked the right questions and they're not taking time out to do that. This is a time to do that.

Merritt Strunk:
Name yourself the CFO of your company and your future wealth. You know you're in charge of that, so start asking the right questions. You could do that with us. Go to that website, click on a comprehensive review that brings us to the Smart Review conversation. So do you review the performance of your investments on a quarterly or semi-annual basis to ensure that you are headed towards your destination? Do you know what your destination is? Do you know what your timing is right to be on the right track with your goals? I bet you disciplined Dan was going to do that, right? He's going to he's going to review. How am I doing? How am I going to get there? What do I need to do to change? Because I may not be projecting the progress I need to. So we're all going to retire someday, right? If we're healthy enough and we're going to be on this planet and we've reached our designated retirement age, of which we set as a goal, then we're all going to retire someday. And that's why we want to help people retire better and unbreak a potential situation where they don't know what they don't know. It's broken. You just don't know it yet. And when will you find out that your retirement was broken and you didn't know it? Well, you might find out around 80 or 82 or 83, and you're out of money. And that's the point where you can't make any more money.

Merritt Strunk:
So now is the time, right? You know the difference about procrastination. You know exactly what that is. And that stress and that little voice you hear in your head, you know what that is? That is your future self telling you to take the actions you're not taking, right? It's telling you to take the actions. And that's the stress in the little voice you hear inside. And your future self is going, I want to be where future self is. Can you just get your act together and do that appointment today or look at that or download this and read that? Can you just do that? How about that monthly budget that you just don't want to do? Procrastination future self is telling you to get on that. Okay. So that brings us to an extra little quote here in Ronald Reagan said this. He said, trust but verify. Right. So I call to action here. You know it trust but verify. And I talked about it in some past things. I even gave a metaphor which was like it's a it's a home inspection. When you buy a home, it's a home inspection. Why wouldn't you do an inspection of your current situation and retirement, financial? You know, maybe there's termites in that thing, right? And you need to have that home inspector go, you know, the pipes here, they're going to you're going to pay for this sooner or later. So get that home inspection, go to the website, click on that complimentary full retirement plan review.

Merritt Strunk:
We will analyze your financial situation, your policies, your investments. What rate of return are you getting? What are the fees you're in? What are the things that you need to know that nobody's telling you about? How many times have we done this where we've we've talked with folks and pointed out something, they're like, No, why doesn't anybody tell anybody these things? I'm like, Well, you're not asking. And they don't have to tell you. And they're really happy with right where you are. So we take that very seriously. And so we're compare that current situation to the future you that's telling you where you want to be. And we'll take a look and see if there's a gap. Now the gap. Right smart income streams when you're looking at retirement, smart income. So we've talked about this a lot, but too many people think that their retirement is about building one big giant nest egg. That nest egg may be sitting in a 401. K and it may be sitting in a traditional 401. K that is going to be a taxed forever nest egg. For as long as you take money out of that, you are going to get hit with taxes in the future. Raise your hand if you think taxes are going up. Wait a minute. If you're driving, don't do that. Just just one hand. All right. Yeah, I think taxes are going to go up over my lifetime. Okay. So you don't need to have it in one big nest egg.

Merritt Strunk:
And actually, we would say that you're lacking potentially a tax diversification in your in your assets. And so you need to have a plan to replace your income. And fund your monthly expenses when you do reach retirement. And the way I like to say it is there's two definitions of retirement. One is that golden years, I'm going to sit in my recliner, go fishing all the time, never going to work again. And the other people is like, I like what I'm doing. I think I can do even part time and I can do this. So it may be that you have a work optional lifestyle, and that is the new definition of retirement. So but traditionally we reach a point where the W-2 income stops. Now, how do you pay your expenses? You've got to do that from the work that you've done. If you don't have a pension, maybe you need to create your own private pension, right? It's in your hands. You have responsibility for it. And you should be asking yourself these questions. Right do the little work along the way. Those future taps to the pinata all the way to the big candy payoff, which you can say is, you know, retirement in the future years. So keep in mind, some income sources are taxable and while others are tax free. Yes, another hand raising opportunity, which is how many of us want tax free retirement income as opposed to taxable retirement income? Yeah, we would all raise our hands there. One of those. Yeah.

Producer:
Mat mean to both hands.

Merritt Strunk:
Both hands, right. Absolutely. Tax free retirement income. Giving it away for Christmas. So. Social Security is one of those. And in in 2021, by the way, 176 million people paid Social Security taxes. And I believe that as of April 20, 22. From my sources say that there are more than 65.5 million Americans receiving some kind of Social Security benefit. And some when I talk to some younger folks who are you know, they don't know so much about Social Security. It's not really in their their lexicon or their everyday language. It's an education process. And they believe what a lot of the media has told them is like Social Security, forget it's not going to be there. You know, and what I educate them and this is an unfunded government obligation. And how does the government fund those things? It's by raising your taxes. Right. Mr. and Mrs. Listener. Social Security is going to be funded by you by paying more taxes. If perchance somebody in the White House was going to say, sorry, folks. Social Security. Insolvent. Going to turn it off. Nobody gets anymore, Candy. Right. As my metaphor goes, well, guess what? The 65.5 million Americans with a cane and walker and, you know, wheelchair and replacement hips and knees are going to we're all going to hit the streets with torches and pitchforks that night. And it's going to be a heck of a party in the United States. And then when that poor guy gets run out on a rail, somebody else will come in there and say, guess what? We're raising taxes.

Merritt Strunk:
We're funding Social Security. All this. Well. Right. It just can't turn off the spigot for 65.5 million Americans out there and growing. Yeah. And, you know, the Social Security Board of trustees has estimated that Social Security will be depleted by 2034 and will only be able to pay out 77% of its scheduled benefits. So guess what's going to happen? You can bet taxes are more than likely going to be increased here. So here are some of these key points here. Income stream, Social Security for a lot of people who are married is substantial. A dual income family that works very often. We see Social Security projections. They may receive over $2 million worth of Social Security payouts over their lifetime. It's pretty significant. And if they don't do it right, guess what? They're leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table. Right. There are certain ways and things and strategies you can use to maximize Social Security and maximize Social Security can be defined as how to bring more family in the household over your lifetime. Right. Once you start Social Security, inflation leads to cola, cost of living, adjustments to Social Security. And because when you elect, you will lock in that base amount, then COLA is is calculated upon that. Okay. A couple of things here. So the maximum monthly benefit in 2022 for people ages 62 was 2364. And why don't we bring up 62? 62 is the earliest age that you can elect Social Security.

Merritt Strunk:
How many people in America do that? The majority? And do they know what they're doing when they're doing it? An argument can be made is they didn't talk to somebody before they did that. I want my money. I'm afraid it's going away. I'm getting it. So if the max monthly benefit for people who elected at 62 is 2364 in 2022, compare that to the latest. You can take your Social Security, which is 70. What is it then in 2022, 4194. So, you know, you don't have to be a mathematician to say that was a ginormous pay increase. How do you figure out which one you should do? If you're single and you're 62. Maybe it's good for you to take it at 62. Depends on your health situation, longevity, things like that. If you're married, it's almost never a good idea to take it at 62. We just have to look and see what the situation is. And there's there are some strategies out there that can increase, like I said, the income coming in for the rest of your life. Backing up something here, we've got a research study from NHP Foundation study and it said, related to Social Security, 62% of boomers believe Social Security will provide at least half. So 62%, which is over half of the people they ask, think that Social Security benefits will pay for at least half their income during retirement. Don't ask me where they got that information. You know, it's just.

Merritt Strunk:
Let me guess. Right. While you're asking me, let me guess. So, you know, it's put it this way, social was never meant to sustain your retirement expenses for the rest of your life. Never, ever, ever meant to do that. Don't be confused about that. And if you say that 60% are thinking half of that expenses will be paid by Social Security. It's possible. But not likely, especially with inflation. And you say the average monthly benefit of Social Security is 1542. That's 18,000 annually. And then the Mac's monthly benefit. If you were if you took it at 62, that's $2,364. That's $28,368 annually. And the max monthly benefit, if you elected 70, is 4194. That's 50,000 328,000. So just imagine you were you you did that and you're getting 18,000 a year and then somebody tells you, you know, you'll be fine at parties if you tell them this. If you had elected at 70 and just delay it, you would have gotten these 8% delayed retirement credits and oh, gosh, you would have had 50,000 instead of 18,000 a year. They may just ask you, where's the bar in it? Where it was a fun party until you showed up to my little conversation. Right. So if you if you take that and go, well, 76% of retirees say income stability or having enough income for the rest of your life is a top concern and retirement truly. All right. 76% of retirees, people who already retired, said income and reliable income and stability is their top concern.

Merritt Strunk:
I understand. Right. So how do you figure this out? Will you have enough money? What we do is we figure out what the retirement income gap will be and a simple calculation will be take your core expenses, food and clothing and shelter and health care needs. And then you add on your discretionary dollars. These are dates eating out entertainment wants and desires that you want to pay for. Then subtract your income sources like pension or Social Security. And if you don't have a pension, it's just Social Security. And if you never paid it into Social Security, you don't even have that. All right. What are your self employed? And you just didn't do that. Then you got nada and you have to have buckets of money to provide that. So again, core expenses plus discretionary minus your guaranteed income sources equals your retirement income gap or your surplus. Right. Now, I know that sounds pretty simple, especially for the DIY or spreadsheet maven. Maybe that was one of the financial personality names, the spreadsheet maven at home. It sounds pretty simple, but there are gotchas in the planning process. What are these gotchas? Well, we're living in it right now. Inflation. There is no more detrimental wrecker or derailment of your retirement plan than inflation because everything just costs more. Okay, so how about taxation over time? Right. Taxes will go up. What about medical expenses in life? You know, we talk about the retirement smile. It's the go go years where your expenses are higher and you're traveling and everything.

Merritt Strunk:
You go to slow go and no go. And now your medical expenses are higher, right? That Medicare may not cover or Medigap. If you don't know what Medigap is, we'll do a whole section on that. So those are the gotchas. What about if your spouse predisposes you? Okay. What happens to your Social Security? Well, half of that half of that goes away. Maybe not half the lesser of the two goes away. Right. So all of a sudden, you have this income and you're planning on it and life looks great. And then. Hmm, wait a minute. Social Security goes half that. The lesser of the two goes away. And now you're saying, well, now I have to adjust my calculations for my drawdown amount. Don't you? So it sounded easy to determine this income gap or surplus. But now there are Trekkies. Can I just say to you, Matt, and for folks listening in the car at home, when it comes to retirement, there's rarely ever do overs. Remember when you were a kid and you played the games and you said, do over, do over. That didn't go right. But the do over did it or do right? Do over in retirement planning. Very rarely ever are there any do overs. So you've got to get it right. You've got to take some time and you got to plan. Most people take more time planning their vacation than they do their financial future, and that is a serious mistake.

Merritt Strunk:
So tell yourself a better story here, folks, about who you are and how you relate to this. Ask questions. Get informed. Understand the critical information. Talk to a fiduciary financial advisor. Go to our website at retirement unbroken dot com. Click on that. A complimentary consultation. Like I said, I meet with everybody individually and we will do a no cost review of your current situation and see what you need to know about. Okay, look, folks, we talked about changing your financial mindset, defining your personality when it comes to retirement. And and that's a moment of truth. You know, there's few moment of truth there. And then we talked about smart review and smart income streams, and we covered a little about that with Social Security. But that's just a tip of the iceberg. What I would encourage you to do is ask the right questions, get the critical information. It does take work and it takes results of that work to equal retirement success. So how do you do that? How do you take the first steps of doing that? Overcome the inertia? Go to WW Retirement Unbroken, click the complimentary consultation button and schedule something with a schedule a conversation. It's no cost, no obligation. And we thank you for listening again to the Retirement and Broken Show. My name is Merritt Strunk and I hope this is a quip to you and opens your mind and how to achieve a better financial outcome for your future in your family. We'll see you next time.

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 or pick up the phone and call 858521 9700 that's 858521 9700 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, strong and independent agent. California License number 07510. Certified Financial Fiduciary is a FINRA recognized professional certification.

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