11.11.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

11.11.22: 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 Money Matters with Mike, with your host, Mike Zaino. Get set for a full hour of financial information and economic news affecting your bottom line. Mike 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 Mike Zaino.

Mike Zaino:
What's up? What's up? What's up? It's Mike Zaino coming to you live from Fort Mill, South Carolina. Happy Saturday, people. What a great day to be alive in these United States. The whole goal of this show is to arm you with information and give you plenty of meat on the bone each and every week to chew on. And today we are absolutely bringing it again. On today's show, we're going to discuss how pre-retirees and retirees both are feeling the effects of inflation, interest rates and market volatility. And I'm going to ask a very important question, which is how much more are you willing to lose? As always, I have the distinct honor and privilege of being joined by the one and only Mr. Matt McClure. Matt, how are you doing today?

Producer:
I am doing great, Mike. I hope you are as well. And I you know, that's a that's a very big question to be asking folks. So we have a lot of great ground to cover today.

Mike Zaino:
We do. We do. I mean, I know personally I don't like losing money.

Producer:
Yeah, that's not it's not my favorite. Not my favorite as someone who just had to get these engine replaced in his car, it's yeah, it's not my favorite thing, especially when you don't see it coming and it just kind of grows wings and flies away, you know?

Mike Zaino:
Absolutely. Murphy's Law. Right? If if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. Especially if it's a if it's a bad thing, if it can go wrong, it will. But yeah, so a lot of great stuff coming up. Of course, folks, this is as you as you now know, Money Matters with Mike. I'm Matt McClure here alongside Mr. Mike Zaino himself and money matters with Mike dot com MoneyMattersWithMike.com Is the website. If you'd like to go there you can also give Mike a call at his direct line straight to him. 704 560 1573 704 560 1573. You can also listen to us online and of course, wherever you listen to your podcast, you can listen to past episodes right on the website Money Matters with Mike or you can go to Apple podcast, you can go to Spotify, you can go to all the big podcast things out there. I don't even know what to call them, but the things, the distributors of podcasts and you can get us there as well. Just search Money Matters with Mike and subscribe. Leave us a comment. We would love to hear from you. Well, of course, Mike, we just went through something very important this past week. A couple of big things in the news. Of course, we had a little over a week ago now, we had the Federal Reserve raise interest rates. More on that in just a few minutes. But the other big news event was just this past week, and that was Election Day. Of course, we hope no matter who you cast your ballot for that you at least just got out and cast your ballot, because as we say, if you don't vote, you can't complain.

Mike Zaino:
Not you can't complain. I mean, that's what Election Day is for, is for you to use your voice and hope that it's heard and hope that your candidate wins. But in any case, the best policy is hopefully for us all just to get along.

Producer:
Yeah, there you go. I think that's what people are hungry for, that, you know, there's been so much rancor and political discourse that's not been very civil over the past few years. I think that people are just really ready to just get along again.

Mike Zaino:
I think just to expound on that, Matt, you know, you always have the extremists on one side or the other. You have the extreme right going like this. You have the extreme left going like that, and then the 80% of us are in the middle. All right, Please just shut up. Can't we all just get along? So, I mean, it's it is what it is, but we're moving on.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. Ah, and that's that's the thing is you've got to keep doing it. You got to keep moving on. And hopefully we're moving all on together because we're, we're stronger that way, you know. So we're also and we've been giving this reminder for a couple of weeks now, a few weeks really, about annual enrollment, the annual enrollment period for Medicare. It is still well underway. You have through December 7th to review your Medicare for 2023, right?

Mike Zaino:
That's absolutely true. So if you have any questions about all the different parts of Medicare Part A, part B, part C, Part D, Medicare supplements and how they interact with each other. If you're confused by Medicare, pick up the phone, give me a call. All right. Don't hesitate on that if you're looking. To compare plans or you're looking to join for the very first time, we can help you navigate those choppy waters.

Producer:
Yeah, and it can seem like the alphabet soup of Medicare there. And you need somebody to help you sort of wade through all that and find the find the correct combination of all of the letters that applies to you and it's best for you. And so if you're interested in that, folks, go to Money Matters with Mike Dotcom. Got a lot of great stuff coming up here in the show. Mike, we will play a little a little right or wrong coming up a little bit later on. Have a problem solver about this great couple who's really worked really, really hard in in their life. They've always been good about saving money, but not great about investing and really focusing on an income plan for their retirement years. So we'll talk about them and how their problem got solved. We also have an inflation demonstration. We'll talk about those interest rate increases coming up as well. But first, we've got this.

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

Producer:
And our quote of the week this time around comes from someone you've heard of, but probably not by this name, Alice O'Connor. People know her better as Ayn Rand. She was, of course, the Russian born American author and philosopher and known for developing that philosophical system she called objectivism. Alice O'Connor or Ayn Rand said this, quote, Money is only a tool. It'll take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as a driver. Very important.

Mike Zaino:
That is extremely important because if you understand that it's a tool, then you're going to be able to utilize the tool. I mean, think about everything that you have in your tool shed, if you will. So today's Meat on the Bone segment is actually going to be on how to use money as a tool to build lasting wealth.

Producer:
Hungry for something that you won.

Producer:
Here's some meat on the bone.

Mike Zaino:
So I was reading this article that was written by Medium.com, and he had a lot of good things to say. So I thought it was very appropriate for today's show, and this topic is inevitably a favorite. So many people don't have enough money. They spend too much money, They don't make enough money to cover what they spent, which means they take on too much debt and they couldn't spot an investment if it literally spit in their face. There there are a lot of great books on money management, too. I mean, a lot of great books. Yet the financial education of most Americans is lacking, which is why we do this show each and every single week. So today we're actually going to do a two part Meat on the Bone segment. In part one, we're going to talk about the fact that there are only four ways to build wealth. Yep, only for the first one earn more money, the second one spend less money, the third one pay off debt, and the fourth one is to invest. Those are the only four ways. Every imaginable way you can think to build wealth can be boiled down into one or more of those four areas. So let's skim the surface on each one of them. The first one we said Matt, was to make more money and this sounds easy, but it's not always easy. It's simple in theory, but you've got to put it into practical application.

Mike Zaino:
If you only have one source of income, one source of money, you're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong because you are trusting that your employer will keep on paying you. And one day the fact of the matter is, is they're not going to pay you anymore and so do your future self a favor and figure out at least one other way to generate money. And there is a famous quote that goes something like this and it says, The average millionaire has seven sources of income. Think about that. Seven different sources of income to become the average millionaire. And that's probably true because they're not dependent upon one source coming in each and every week or every month. The second thing is to spend less money. And this Does it mean that you need to stress over every single penny, but it does mean that you have to stop spending money before you make it credit cards and stop spending more money than you make credit cards. Okay. So you've got to be wise with how you're spending your money. Number three is to pay off debt. When you accrue debt from spending more than you make. Bottom line, this is bad. There are good types of debt, but we'll discuss those more at a later point in time. So it assumed today for the purposes of of the meat on the bone that all debts are bad. You need to use any extra money that you make to have to get rid of that debt.

Mike Zaino:
And there are many strategies in paying down debt and they all have their merits. But until your debts are paid off, I wouldn't necessarily focus on investing. Once you have those debts within hand or paid off or at least paid down to where they're not stressing you out, then you absolutely need to invest your cheddar. All right. Invest your money. That's the last step in building wealth as far as investing. And this means putting your money into something in the hopes that it's going to grow and become more valuable, thus growing your money. And this is the business that Wall Street was built on. And as such, they've created tens of thousands of different ways that you can invest your money. Now, the flip side of wealth seeking is that life is not about making money, although it might seem that way again, money is a tool that is needed to establish and maintain whatever your standard of living is, how high that you want. That standard is going to determine how much wealth that you need to see, right? So on the flip side, chasing an unrealistic standard of living can quickly become a toxic situation. And so money is neither good or evil. All right. Again, it is a tool. And the bigger that your tool is or the more money you can accumulate, the more options you have. So we're going to take a short break and come back in a couple of minutes for part two.

Producer:
Yeah, we're going to take a look actually in this break market. You know, you mentioned financial education. Really being lacking in this country. We're just going to take a look at that and how some states are trying to combat it. More and more of them are requiring before you can graduate high school, they're requiring financial education courses and or a part of a course to be a financial education course headed in the right direction, I think, in that. And so we'll listen to this and we'll come back with part two right after this quick break.

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 Billion 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 trying to encourage my fellow Mississippians and really my fellow Americans 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.

Phil Murphy:
And you don't realize the consequences on the.

Phil Murphy:
Back end, whether it's physical items, whether it's been stocks or whatever it might be, it's of 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. Aecom 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:
Miss part of today's show, Money Matters with Mike is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at Money matters with Mike dot com.

Producer:
Welcome back. This is Money Matters with Mike. I am Matt McClure. I'm not Mike Zaino, but I'm here with him. He is the mike in Money Matters with Mike and we're in the middle of our Meat on the Bones segment today, talking a lot about the different ways that you can can make money. That part one was really the four ways that you can use to build wealth. And just to recap for you, as you're listening to us here, one is earn more money. The other is spend less money. Another is pay off debt. And the last is invest. You can really boil it down to those four. So part two here, Mike, that sort of sets us up. Get us into part two of our Meat on the Bone segment.

Mike Zaino:
Part two is really all about putting it into perspective. And the question that you got to ask yourself is what do you plan to use your money for? And before you should learn the ins and outs of accumulating large amounts of money, you should first wrap your head around what you would do with enough money. And notice how I asked that. What is enough money? Well, some people you might have this perfect lifestyle in your mind and your bills may be roughly four grand, five grand a month. And so in a perfect life scenario, you'd like to be able to have $7,500 a month coming in. Well, how much would you need in order for you to live that lifestyle for 20 years? Well, let's boil it down and break it down into some simple math in a simple scenario, and we're going to take out inflation. So imagine you want to make $7,500 a month. Take that and multiply it times 12 and you get $90,000 a year. Then you take the 90,000 a year and you multiply it times 20 years, which will give you $1.8 million. And so 1.8 million would allow you to live for 20 years spending $7,500 a month without earning another penny.

Mike Zaino:
Now, I can't speak for you, but before I ever did this kind of math, I thought I'd need a lot more than that if I wanted to spend 1.8 million. Right. But 1.8 million is an insane amount, you'd argue. Yeah, sort of. Although anything can be broken. And down into manageable parts by not over complicating things and simply doing the math. And again, it's all how you think about it, right? So in the end, if your quality of life is your goal, then that's up to you. You decide how you cut the expenses, you decide how you're going to increase the income, pay off debt and invest. You choose whether you value money, time or something in the middle. You choose. If you want to work a 9 to 5 job or work for yourself. Again, money is just a tool for you to use to get what you want out of life. So I'm calling out to folks out there, right? If you are the primary breadwinner and the leader of your household and you don't know necessarily where to start with putting all of those pieces of the financial puzzle together, I happen to know a guy, please reach out to me today.

Producer:
It's money matters with Mike dot com MoneyMattersWithMike.com That's the website you can go to folks or you can give Mike a call directly at 7045601573. That's 7045601573. A lot of great stuff in there Mike as you went through and I just wanted to sort of call back to one particular area and that is there they're so shiny and they're so they look like such great, wonderful things. Credit cards.

Mike Zaino:
Credit cards.

Producer:
Exactly. I remember when I was in college and, you know, started getting credit card offers in the mail. They saw me come in a mile away.

Mike Zaino:
And you think they used to set up a little kiosk. So you give out free t shirts if you just sign up for the credit card and face it when you're in college. Free t shirts are awesome.

Producer:
Exactly. I mean, forget, you know, signing your life away and a 4,000% interest rate or something like that. Just to exaggerate only slightly. But yeah, you know, that was when I started to run into financial trouble as a young person, not really knowing I was like 18, 19, I didn't know what in the world I was doing. And so that's where a lot of people run into money and run into money troubles, and that's where they run into it, you know, early on, because it can be so enticing. You can you can spend that money and not feel it immediately, but boy, oh boy, can you feel it later on.

Mike Zaino:
It'll absolutely bite you because, I mean, I remember before the government required credit card companies to disclose how long paying the minimum payment on your balance would actually take you to pay off the debt. Just doing the math myself, and if you just paid a minimum payment on $1,000 and assumed the worst case interest rate scenarios that credit card companies are often putting out there for folks, we're talking about 18 years to pay off 1000. 18 years to pay off $1,000. My kids are now 21 and almost 26. And it seems like yesterday that they were you know, I was holding them in my arm like a football. 18 years is basically their entire lives. I mean, think about that. Yeah, crazy.

Producer:
It's true. And you know what? And a lot of that has to do with compounding interest because it's you know, if you carry a balance on that from month to month. Yeah. You initially you're paying interest on the the principal amount that amount that you've spent. Right. You go off and you buy say say you go to the gas station or whatever and you put, you know, $50 in the tank. Okay, You're going to be paying interest on that $50. But then the more that balance carries over from month to month, you're going to be paying compounding interest. So you're paying interest on the interest and then that just snowballs and makes the whole situation worse.

Mike Zaino:
It is. And that's why Albert Einstein called compound interest literally the eighth wonder of the world. Those who understand it, they earn it. Those who don't understand it, they end up paying it.

Producer:
That's very true. You know, Albert Einstein was a very smart man in many, many ways. And that was one of them. Definitely so. Well, of course, speaking of credit cards and interest rates and that kind of thing, we teed this up at the top of the show and we wanted to talk about it here because the Fed, yep, a little over a week ago now did raise the benchmark interest rate once again.

Producer:
75 basis points again. And this is 75 basis points. You can think of that as 0.75% or three fourths of 1%. For those of you follow following along along at home. But yeah, so this just it keeps on happening as their as their way to combat inflation. And you know a lot of people are wondering, okay, how far are they going to go? The Fed's wondering how far it's going to go. And I don't have my crystal ball, but Lord, I hope that that it all works out and that there's some sort of a soft landing here and we don't end up in a scenario where we're in like a, you know, massive economic crisis, sort of a situation where the economy just collapses.

Mike Zaino:
Yeah, we'd like to think that that's going to be the case. But, you know, I keep my ear to the ground and listen to what a lot of the experts are saying And a lot of the experts in the past have disagreed on on what what's going to end up happening. But it seems like a lot of them are on the same page with saying that they're going to continue raising interest rates. It doesn't seem like there's really any end in sight, at least through the first quarter of next year. And that's just kind of scary because, I mean, yeah, it's going to create a soft landing. So they so they hope, but it's also going to throw the current recession into a little bit worse. And we'll talk about some of the stats on that in a little bit later in the show, Matt.

Producer:
Yeah, it's it is scary situation, a scary time. And, you know, we had all of the issues with supply and demand. We still have a lot of those with supply chain issues not having completely worked their way out. We've got the situation in Ukraine with Russia's invasion there causing big problems, especially with, you know, that's where a lot of the world's energy issues have come in, because Russia's entire economy has basically built around the energy industry. I mean, oil and gas, that's like that's their bread and butter and that's that's their thing. So so that is a very difficult, volatile situation. And then, you know, here at home, we've got all of the supply chain issues that are still sort of ongoing and wanting to work their way out along with all the normal stuff. Right. So you got like I just was watching an interview that someone did with since I'm in Georgia, it was someone with UGA, their Agricultural Department, and they really watch, you know, a lot of the crops that are harvested across the state. Georgia's the leading peanut producer in the country. And they said, yeah, you know, it was not the greatest year for peanuts, but it wasn't awful. But it wasn't it wasn't as good as we were hoping it was going to be. So you've got those like normal fluctuations to in addition to things that are because of inflation, because of COVID, because of all the kind of weird, crazy stuff. And weird, again, is the technical term for what we're going through.

Mike Zaino:
And I mean, they want to slow the economy. They want to reduce the risk of causing an unnecessarily sharp slowdown. And because the Fed has raised the rates by three quarters of a point at each of its last meetings, most recently last week or what a week and a half ago, now you've got to realize that they are raising rates at the most aggressive pace since the early 1980s. Until June of this year. They hadn't raised the rates by three quarters of a percentage point since 1994. So these are just things to kind of keep in mind as we keep our finger on the pulse of how the Fed is trying to combat inflation and the global scenarios that are causing those supply chain issues that just lead to higher supply and demand issues because people just their money is just not going as far these days.

Producer:
Yeah, that's right. And, you know, I mean, on both accounts, whether it's being impacted by inflation or impacted by rising interest rates, the dollar just doesn't go as far as it used to. So that's, you know, something that we need to keep our eyes on. Of course, we're all feeling it and you've got to plan for it. And that's why you need to give Mike Zaino a call at 740 560 1573.

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

Producer:
With our inflation demonstration this week, we're going to take a look at the number that is on the rise for retirees and pre-retirees. Right. So so this particular number is not the amount of money in in their pockets or in all of our pockets. No, it's the amount of money that they believe they're going to have to have in retirement. That sort of big nest egg number is really going up, according to this story in The Wall Street Journal.

Mike Zaino:
Yeah, about what is it, four in ten people, I think it was 40% of the folks said that they didn't think that they're going to have enough money in retirement. Nearly half of the people that were surveyed said that they can even envision scenarios where Social Security no longer exists. And just compared to last year, just one year now, Americans are going to think they're thinking, rather, that their households are going to need at least 20% more to be able to live a comfortable retirement than they did just a year ago. That's huge.

Producer:
It's huge. I mean, the numbers are not trending in a positive direction here. It doesn't look like and, you know, I mean, people say that, you know, they'll need more money after they retire. The average amount in a retirement savings account has actually dropped this year to just about 87,000, just shy of $87,000. That's down 11% from 2021. And the expected retirement age also ticking up, too. So it's you know, people are.

Mike Zaino:
Like what people are doing is they're having to work longer. They're having to to squeeze out saving for retirement because they need the money to live and exist. Right. And that's just not a good situation. People I mean, the average retirement age going up to 64 from where it was just over 62 and one half last year, that's an extra year and a half. And I know for me, my full retirement age for Social Security is 67. So one of the things that I'm fearful of, you know, like the people who don't think Social Security is going to be there at all. But the last numbers that we looked at and we've discussed this on previous shows is that Social Security is going to only be able to meet roughly 70% of its obligation by the year 2034. Well, that's in 11 years, in one month, pretty much 11 years in two months from today. And so they're going to have to do something, whether that is is just revamping the entire Social Security Administration and the system as a whole, or they're going to push the retirement dates out farther for initial eligibility. So where you can qualify now at age 62, as long as you're not disabled, they may push that out to 70. Okay. Because people are living longer. And when Social Security first came to fruition, people were supposed to have been dead for four years because the average life expectancy back then was 58. Right. So you should have been dead for four years before you could even start collecting.

Mike Zaino:
It just wasn't a system that was designed to last people for 30 plus years in retirement. Plus you had so many more people paying into it with the baby or the older generation. Right now you've got boomer generation that's taking it out and soon after them you're going to have the Gen Xers that are taking out something has to happen. So I mean, people are probably going to end up working a lot longer than they had originally hoped. And all of that because of the current state of the economy. And couple that in with the national debt and the cost of living. Bottom line, I read from a Bank of America article, the markets are on track this year to deliver their worst returns in 100 years. As of mid-October. We'll think about what was about 100 years ago. That was the Great Depression. And I keep, again, my ear to the ground and my pulse on what's going on. And there are several people out there who are predicting that the worst is yet to come. So bottom line is, if you are about to retire, if you have lost 20 to 25% of your portfolio in the market this year, you need to seek professional help. If you go through another year like this, you're going to be left with half of what you had before. Please, please give us a call today. Visit the website Money Matters with Mike dot com. Listen, you owe it to yourself and to your family to take action and protect your money.

Producer:
Yeah, that is what it's all about. And once again, the phone number, folks, is 704 560 1573. Now, as part of this discussion about people saying that, oh, the big one, big number, the big nest egg that they think they're going to need, they feel they're going to need in retirement. That fact that that's. Growing. We also need to look at retirement income because, you know, there's sort of two different things as you let off with in the earlier part of the show and during the Meat on the Bone segment is, you know, that, you know, $1.8 million sounds like a lot. And it is. But, you know, it can be broken down into sort of manageable pieces. Right. So let's talk about the manageable piece part of this to to sort of, you know, meet obligations going forward. The Social Security Administration actually increased the payout. So the COLA, the cost of living adjustment for 2023 by 8.7%, the largest adjustment in about four decades. So at least, you know, that is going to be some sort of a help potentially to people going forward, although, you know, it's rising because of inflation. And so there are higher costs. So that means that the dollars don't necessarily go as far as.

Mike Zaino:
Well, That is true. And another, I guess, good thing, if you will, about this this year, for next year for 2023, is that the IRS actually made inflation adjustments as far as how much you can save in your 401. Ks or 403 BS or TSP If you're a federal employee, basically your employer sponsored plans, they increase those contribution limits by a couple thousand dollars. So instead of $20,500 like it was this year, you can actually do $22,500 in 2023 plus your ketchup contribution if you're 50 or older for another 7500. So if you're somebody who is able to save $30,000 a year for retirement, then you absolutely should do that, because about 60 million American workers have 401 K plans, according to the Investment Company Institute, and the amount of money that each and every household is going to need to retire depends on a whole host of different variables, including where you live, what your standard of living is, whether or not you expect to care for parents or children in retirement. Those are also factors. And so if you don't have an income plan in place for your retirement, bottom line, we think we can really help you and you can really use our help. We can build you and your family a plan that has your money working as hard for you as you work for it. So give us a call today. Visit the website 704 560 1573 or money matters with Mike dot com. MoneyMattersWithMike.com.

Producer:
And when folks do that Mike if this you know if their interest has been piqued here and they you know you say okay well I'm kind of you know I'm getting concerned about where the future may lead us financially speaking and economically speaking, I'm, you know, just a little bit uneasy about things, too, to put it mildly. Going forward, what do they do to get started? I know obviously we talk about this a lot, but we I think it's a wonderful thing to be able to provide our listeners a free full retirement plan consultation so they reach out, you know, what's that interaction like and how do they get started down that road? I think a lot of people are just like, Oh, it's too daunting and I'm going to you know, I'm going to be overwhelmed and all this. But that's why they're seeking expert help to begin with.

Mike Zaino:
Yeah, that's that's true. And people in by nature are just most people are procrastinators, All right? They put it on the shelf and then they basically hope that it will go away. They sweep it under the rug and hope that nobody will notice. But bottom line is that the one thing you can't cheat is time. And the older you get, the more important it is to make sure that you have enough resources from a financial standpoint to make sure that you're able to live comfortably in your retirement years. And so the first step that you have to take is to take action to pick up a phone or go to money matters with Mike dot com and fill out a consultation request. I'm going to give you a call. And the first call is just a discovery call. It's you getting to know me, meaning that getting to know you and kind of seeing if there's a fit that we should be able to take it to the comprehensive consultation once again, that is at no cost and no obligation. So you're only going to work with me if I can do better for you. So what will I do? Well, I'll analyze your specific situation.

Mike Zaino:
Why? Because it's unique to you. You're not like your neighbors. You're not like the person down the street or your coworkers. You have your own set of issues that you deal with each and every single day of your life. Right? So I'm going to try to help you discover exactly how much you're paying in fees. I'll help you cut any unnecessary costs that you might be paying inside of any IRAs or 401 KS or any other type of retirement savings account that you might have. And bottom line is, like I've said it 10,000 times and we'll probably say it an infinite number of times in the future. We're only going to work together if it makes sense and if I can do better for you. So if you haven't heard from your advisor lately, then you know, because he or she is sticking their head in the sand doing that ostrich effect because the markets are just. Absolutely tanking this year. At least get a second set of eyes and don't hope that it's going to get better because hope is not a strategy.

Producer:
Yeah, that's right. Hope. Hope is hope, but hope is not a strategy for you going forward. It's like, you know, prepare for the worst. Hope for the best. Hope that those people who say, you know, that the worst is yet to come, economically speaking. Hope that hope like everything that they are wrong, but prepare like they are right. And that is exactly what you need to do there, folks, with going to the website Money Matters with Mike dot com or you can call 704 560 1573.

Producer:
It's time for this week's problem solver.

Producer:
And yes, we are going to share some stories. You know, we like to do this each and every week about how we help clients and how Mike specifically helps clients and helps them overcome their problems that they have, financially speaking. This week, Mike, we're talking about a couple who, you know, they've always been hardworking savers. They've been very hardworking. They're the business owners. The whole deal, but not effective investors. Right? This is some pretty big problems that they have. So let's let's sort of lay it out here. I'll present the problem, as I usually do. And Mike will present the solution as he usually does. So here we go. So Mark and Linda, they're actually very good savers because they have 1.15 million in total retirement savings tucked away their business owners. They actually operate a tennis training center. And, you know, they've made a good living for themselves. But now they're like, you know, getting up there a little bit in their years and, you know, doing something like running a tennis training center. You've got to be pretty physically fit, you know, able to get around and do things and do them quickly and easily. But right now I got a situation where Mike needs hip surgery, Linda needs knee surgery.

Producer:
So it's a thing right there. They're feeling it. They're wanting to get out of it. So, you know, throughout their working years, they really didn't save consistently, didn't really have much of a plan in mind. Actually, not any plan at all. They've been risk averse. Their portfolio has lost too much value this year, as so many people's have. And they didn't really even know that there are options outside the traditional financial markets, you know, outside the securities markets that they can use to protect and grow their money. Bottom line here, like numbers wise financially for them, they have expenses of $5,000 a month, but their combined Social Security benefit is going to pay them 4000 a month. But of course, if Mark or Linda passes away, they lose roughly 50% of that. Right. And we really want to enjoy their retirement. They want to be able to travel while they still can, while they can still get around, I should say, and enjoy just a really great lifestyle in their retirement years. So all that being said, what's the solution for them? Great savers, not great investors.

Mike Zaino:
Yeah, we see this a lot. You know, there are a lot of people out there that just they hoard money away. All right? But they, you know, they put it in CD's or they put it in savings accounts or they stick it in a in a safe in their closet. And, you know, Mark and Linda were like this. So we were able to actually implement a smart risk plan that included both a bond and IRA replacement strategy. And by doing so, we were able to eliminate the fees on all of their accounts and we established an income that they can never outlive. So again, Mark and Linda are extremely conservative. So the way we accomplish that was that we redirected roughly 70% of their 1.15 million. It was a little over 800,000 to implement the bond replacement strategy. We converted their bonds, their existing IRAs, and an old 401 K that they had into one fixed indexed annuity. Not only did that simplify their lives by consolidating multiple accounts into one, but what that was able to accomplish was provide them with an extra get this $4,360 in guaranteed lifetime monthly income, plus it protected them in the event that either one of the spouses died prematurely. So keep in mind, we don't make any money on fees, but normal advisors and brokers will charge high fees. So be careful when it comes to who you let rebalance your investments. They're getting paid whether you make money or not. And so this year, if you saw the stock market falling and you moved all of your money to cash, you need to talk to us. There are way better ways to be able to protect and grow your wealth. We can offer you not in the market investing solutions where your principle is 100% protected and we guarantee higher returns than cash and still provide you with some liquidity.

Producer:
Yeah, and that's that's great. You know, if you if you put money in that safe or under your mattress or whatever, it's just taking a nap. It's not doing anything, is it? It's not it's not going to grow.

Mike Zaino:
It's slowly dying actually.

Producer:
Right. Exactly. It's going to be you know, if you take a look at, you know, kind of what the dollar was worth, what what a dollar would buy, you say, I don't know, 30 years ago versus what a dollar will buy you today. And it's a big. Difference.

Mike Zaino:
Not. It's not even close. Think about this. If I were to bury you. You're not going to live very long. Well, if you bury your money inside under a mattress or inside a safe or, you know, in a in a high yield investment account at the bank. Banks are in business to make money, right? You're just those dollars are going to die a slow death.

Producer:
Yeah. I mean that's the thing is like some of these accounts that I have seen and that I have experienced and this is just from personal experience, by the way, you know, you put money in a savings account and then the interest is not going to be, you know, hardly anything that that's going to earn. But even if it looks like it's oh, it's a fairly decent interest rate, a lot of the times the fees that might be associated with that account on an on an annual basis, that's going to kill out any growth that's in that account anyway. And so you're no better off than you start. You might actually be worse than you start started off.

Mike Zaino:
It's true like I mean, I had a couple that was thinking about investing their money in a CD and I said, Well, what rate are they giving you? They said, Well, it's a five year CD. We think that we're getting pretty good on there. It was about 3% for five years. And I'm like, Guys don't do that. Never looked at me kind of strange. I'm like, I can put your your money into a multi year guaranteed annuity that's going to pay you five and a quarter percent. And get this, you still have some liquidity if you need the money during those five years, you can get up to 10%, you know, with no penalties, no fees, no charges, no nothing. And they're like, really? I'm like, absolutely, we can do that for five and a quarter percent. And this is with an A-plus rated carrier that's been literally doing this since most of our listeners were. If we combine them all together. I mean, this company that I'm mentioning was founded in 1848. So they've been around for a while. A lot of folks just don't know that these things exist. And then after five years, just like with a CD, you take your money out and do whatever you want with, Well, those products exist in my world, except they pay much, much higher interest rates.

Producer:
Yeah. And like we say all the time, knowledge is power. And so, you know, you got to you've got to learn those things that you don't know because you don't know what you don't know. As you say all the time.

Mike Zaino:
You apply it though. Matt Right. You can be the smartest person in the world, but if you don't apply what you've learned, you're an idiot. I'm just calling it like I see it. I mean, you could be the smartest person book person, but if you don't put that knowledge into practical application, you're costing yourself. You just are.

Producer:
Yeah. Book knowledge and common sense. And, you know, actually applying that education that you that you have learned all of those things that you've learned, those are those are completely different things. So hopefully, you know you're learning something, folks, by listening to this show. Hopefully you are being encouraged to seek out some some help, some advice with your finances. And if you are the place to go is money matters with Mike Dotcom.

Producer:
Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in. Right or wrong.

Producer:
So yeah, we're going to test our financial knowledge here. And by that I mean, you know, mine or yours, listening at home or in the car or wherever you happen to be. Because Mike Zaino, he knows the answers going in. So I'm not really testing him. I'm testing me. I'm testing you see him, what we know. And he's going to tell us if these statements that I will give are right or if they are wrong. So number one, in this week's right or wrong segment, it's too expensive to work with a financial professional and you'd be better off just managing your money on your own. Is that what right or wrong, Mike?

Mike Zaino:
Matt, That's absolutely wrong. You don't have to be rich or wealthy to work with a financial professional. Professionals can help you save and keep more of your hard earned money. And it is important to work with a licensed professional that can help both you and the spouse in case a family member who is doing all of the financial planning passes away unexpectedly. And so we again offer complimentary consultations on the front end, which is roughly a $1,500 value, and we provide what we call results in advance planning.

Producer:
All right, very good there. Yeah. So and that whole thing about the family member doing the financial planning, passing away and, you know, being there to help in that scenario, that's a biggie, I think, because I'm sure you see that all the time where like, say I'm going to I'm going to say probably most of the time and this is just a guess. You can tell me if I'm wrong. This is not an official question and right or wrong, just, you know, but you can tell me if I'm wrong about this. It's usually the guy because guys just like to control things. And I speak as a guy on that who is like doing the financial planning. Then the guy passes away and the wife is like, I don't know what in the world is going on with this because he just did it. And you know, I don't know the ins and outs.

Mike Zaino:
Yeah, I think that I think that definitely holds true with our older generation. We're starting to see a lot of the women out there take charge of their financial futures, which is amazing. I love that. But the fact of the matter is, is that when you know, the husband passes away 80% and this is no lie and no inflated statistic, 80% of women, the widows, they change financial advisors and financial professionals. Why they never had the relationship with the person that their husband dealt with. So that's why I always encourage both parties husbands, wives, wives, partners, significant others, anybody that's going to be impacted by any financial decision that's made for the household. All parties should be involved for sure.

Producer:
Yeah, definitely be in this together, folks. All right. So number one, didn't go according to plan there. That one was wrong. Number two, if your employer does not offer a pension plan, there is no other way to create a personal income stream that you can never outlive, right or wrong.

Mike Zaino:
Oh, Matt, that's wrong. Okay. You know, we talked earlier in the Meat on the Bone segment about how most millionaires have seven different income streams, and that's how they get to where they are from a financial status standpoint. Well, we talk a lot in this show about annuities. I like some annuities. I love other annuities. And I'm not a big fan of still some other annuities, like I don't like variable annuities for pre-retirees and retirees just simply because of the word variable. But annuities allow anyone to protect and grow their wealth and to establish an income stream that you can never outlive. So take the the fixed indexed annuity for an example. They're tied to a stock market index, which means your money doesn't participate in the market, it just mirrors the index. So that allows you to get market like gains. But without any of the market risk, your principal is 100% protected, meaning the worst you can do is no growth. Zero. And in years like this year, where the market is literally destined to have its worst performance in 100 years since before the Great Depression, you're not losing a penny. So all of my clients who I have in those type of products, they haven't lost a penny. I had one guy tell me he wanted to kiss me on the lips if I was a woman.

Mike Zaino:
I told him, I'm glad I'm not a woman. But these these can be structured for growth. They can be structured for income, and that income is guaranteed for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live. Even if you take more income out than your original investment bought. Or they can be structured for growth for a few years if you're not going to need the money and then income down the road. And one of the strategies that I love for folks to help create that additional income stream or streams in retirement is to ladder annuities. So if you're somebody out there that gets a big fat bonus check every single year, you could purchase an annuity and turn on income at variable points or either ladder them to where they come on every single year. You're getting an additional income stream or you can stagger them and turn on income only if you need it in retirement. So they just give you so much more flexibility from a retirement income standpoint than bonds ever have, simply because bonds have the ability to lose money. Heck, this year they're down 15%. Would you ever pay for an underperforming asset? That doesn't make sense.

Producer:
That does not make a lot of sense. What does make a lot of sense is protecting that, protecting that principle and also protecting the growth on that principle as well as the years go on when you have that annuity in place. So, yeah, I think that sounds like music to the ears of a lot of folks out there and hopefully a lot of our listeners as well. All right. So moving on to our final right or wrong statement here, and it is you won't learn much in a full consultation with a financial professional. You won't learn much. Is that right or is that wrong, Mike?

Mike Zaino:
Oh, man, that's that's absolutely wrong. See? See, once we have a picture of your financial situation, your financial statements, for an example, we can show you all of the risks that you're taking. We can show you the fees that you're paying and we can show you the correlation of all of your assets. We're also going to show you how we can protect and grow your money without investing it in the stock market. We feel like everybody out there listening to us. You deserve to know how much you're paying in fees and you deserve the retirement that you've worked your entire life for. So that is what you can learn by speaking with a financial professional. And Matt, I say this a lot, but I happen to know a pretty good one.

Producer:
That's right. Hey, me too. And his name is Mike Zaino. And you can go to Money matters with Mike dot com to get in touch with him. Money matters with Mike dot com 7045601573. Is that phone number to call as well and I will say this. It does. It really does. We've tried it before. It really does ring right there in his pocket. It's not just, you know, random like robocalls and telemarketers that he's getting on that phone. It's real life. The people just like you, everyday Americans who just want to save money and grow that money for their retirement. So once again, that number, 704 560 1573.

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

Producer:
So it is all about health care in this week's cost cutter. And it's a huge portion of people's expenses in retirement, Mike.

Mike Zaino:
It can be for sure. Yeah, it absolutely can be. In fact, we were looking at an article preparing for the show on on Fidelity dot com that says just the average retired couple that's 65 years old in 2022 they might need approximately 315,000 after tax dollars in order for them to cover their health care expenses in retirement. And that number is kind of shocking because I know a lot of people that don't have 315,000 saved for retirement.

Producer:
Yeah, you're looking at one of them right now. So. So there you go. That's that's a biggie. And, you know, I mean, and this is a huge issue that affects a huge amount of people because, you know, as we as we talk about the baby boomer generation is huge, 10,000 of them retiring each and every day through the year 2032. And so with health care expenses really being just a huge budget item for them, how do we go about making sure that, as you know, retirees, for example, that that our retirees and our listeners are not spending more money than they have to on their health care in retirement?

Mike Zaino:
Well, I think a great way that that a lot of folks have the ability to participate in but for whatever reason, don't are these things called health savings account. And so if you're still working and your employer offers a health savings account eligible health plan, you should definitely consider enrolling with that because what you're doing is you're putting in pretax dollars, kind of like a traditional 401. K, but you have that money earmarked, excuse me, for health care expenses. And so when you withdraw those dollars in retirement and they pay for health related expenses, guess what, Matt? You don't pay any tax whatsoever on that money that you are able to invest pretax. So I think that is huge right there. Huge. Some people will even set up an annuity just to address their health care needs in retirement. They'll set it up before they actually need the money so that when those expenses arise, now they have the income specifically earmarked because they did put a plan in place to cover that unexpected or expected health care expense. So I think those are two ways that folks can if you're still working and your employer offers a health savings account option, definitely participate in that. And if you have a little bit of money left over every single year, if you get a tax refund, I mean, instead of going out and blowing it on a big screen TV or a new set of golf clubs, invest the money in your future self because 315 grand in just in health care expenses in retirement, that's no joke and it's only getting more expensive.

Producer:
Yeah, it really is. I mean, with inflation, of course, affecting all sectors of the economy, health care is no different. And that's really, really going to have a big impact on a lot of retirees.

Mike Zaino:
Yeah, just thought of another one, too. I mean, Medicare, we're we're in the annual enrollment period. So if you have been a medicare recipient for a few years and you haven't kind of revisited. And to look at what plans are now available. Because guess what? You know how things change over time. So do your Medicare plans. And so there may be newer plans out there that are actually more cost efficient for you and can save you a lot more money. And by reevaluating your options each and every year, you're likely find that you can save money on those Medicare expenses. So, I mean, you may as well check to see. Right.

Producer:
Right. It never hurts to check. And you can find something that's, you know, very comparable or even better as far as the benefits go for your particular situation, potentially at a cheaper rate. So that is a is a huge one for folks out there, especially this time of the year. And again, that runs through December 7th is the AEP, the annual enrollment period for Medicare. All right, Mike. So that will just about do it for this week's show. Again, this is Money Matters with Mike and Money Matters with Mike is the website and the phone number to get a hold of Mike Zaino 700 45601573. I have enjoyed it, sir. I've learned a lot. I learn something every week and I really appreciate you and all of your great info that you bring to the table. I know our listeners do as well, and I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

Mike Zaino:
Matt. I hope you do the same. We appreciate your hard work and diligence. You know, a lot of work and preparation goes into putting these shows on each and every single week and bringing you content that's relevant to each and every listeners personal situations. Again, the whole goal of the show is to give you that meat on the bone to chew on. So we realize that without the listeners, we don't have a show. So if you know anybody that we can help anybody that we can impact. If you've learned anything, even gotten one nugget that you can take with you and apply, then share the show. Thank you so much every single week for tuning in and I hope you have a great rest of the weekend. And as always, make it a great day.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Money Matters with Mike. You deserve to work with a financial and insurance expert who can offer strategies for protecting and growing your hard-earned money to schedule your free no obligation consultation visit Money matters with Mike dot com MoneyMattersWithMike.com Or pick up the phone and call 704 560 1573

Producer:
Not affiliated with the United States government, Mike Zaino does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature. It does not provide a guarantee or a specific result. All copyrights and trademarks to the property of the respective owners of life assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as-is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or the results obtained from the use of this information.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short-term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuer.

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