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Category: Podcast

Ep. 43 – Stop Planning for a “Normal” Retirement Age

Two of our recent client meetings were with folks who retired much earlier than they had anticipated.

So, I started to go down a rabbit hole of research and thought this would be a great episode to encourage you all to STOP planning for a “normal” retirement age in your assumptions!

Even if you do end up working until 65 or 70, you should not build that into your calculations when planning for retirement.  Instead, whatever you think your expected retirement date is, push it forward 5 years.  So if you want to work until 60, push it to 55.  If you want to work until 70, push it to 65.  

The point is, that you cannot control what you cannot control.  

It then got me thinking about assumptions for retirement planning. And how the inputs/assumptions we, as financial planners, put into the calculations make a huge difference.

So, what I thought I would do for the next several episodes is go through each of those inputs (retirement age, retirement spending, inflation, longevity, investment returns, and taxes) to coach you through some of those important considerations before making certain assumptions.  Also, to point out mistakes that I’ve seen in my career practicing retirement planning.  

I hope you enjoy this episode, the FIRST-ever time we are publishing a video recording! (*Welcome to 2024 😁)

Thanks for tuning in.

-Kevin Lao

Sources:

USA Today Article – Most Americans Retire Earlier Than Expected

Connect:

Are you interested in working with us? Fill out our “Retirement Readiness Survey” and we’ll follow up with some feedback on how you’re tracking for your goals and how we could help.

Ep. 42 – Wealth Protection and Transfer in a Blended Family (with Tim & Alexis Woodward)

Here is part 2 of 2 in the “blended wealth” series! I hope you enjoy it! 

In this episode we shed light on the unique financial planning and estate planning considerations for blended families, emphasizing the importance of tailored advice and open family communication to navigate these complexities successfully.

Today’s guests are Tim and Alexis Woodward, co-founders of Blend Wealth, a firm specializing in financial planning for blended families and business owners.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you listen to episode 41: Blending and Building Wealth in a Blended Family before listening to this episode.

Thank you!

– Kevin

Connect with Tim and Alexis: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendcouple/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/theblendcouple

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blendwealth/

Blend Wealth: https://blendwealth.com/

Key Points:

3:56 – Retirement Distribution and Wealth Preservation: Complexities of retirement distribution, wealth preservation, and estate planning for blended families. Managing different account types for tax diversification and creating a retirement income strategy that supports both parents and children in blended families.

8:14 – Estate Planning and Beneficiary Designations: The critical role of updating estate plans and beneficiary designations to reflect current family dynamics and intentions.

15:10 – Family Meetings for Estate Planning: The value of holding family meetings to discuss and clarify estate plans to prevent misunderstandings and ensure fairness.

21:40 – Long-Term Care Planning: The necessity of planning for long-term care, particularly in blended families, and the options available, including insurance.

27:48 – Life Insurance as a Tool for Estate Planning: How life insurance, especially permanent policies, can be strategically used in estate planning for blended families.

31:36 – Investing in Relationships and the Future: The importance of investing time and resources in family relationships and future generations.

Resources:

Blend Wealth https://blendwealth.com/

Blended Kingdom Families https://blendedkingdomfamilies.com/

Ron Deal’s Smart Stepfamily https://smartstepfamilies.com/

FamilyLife Blended https://www.familylife.com/familylifeblended/blended-families/

Ep. 41 – Blending & Building Wealth in a Blended Family (w/ Tim and Alexis Woodward @ Blend Wealth)

40% of marriages today create a blended family, which involve children from previous relationships or marriages. I’m very excited for these next two episodes with Tim and Alexis Woodward from the Blend Wealth team!

Financial issues are a hot topic within families. And when you add additional parties, it can create added complexity.

We are breaking down this topic of blended family financial planning considerations into two parts:

  • Episode 41: Blending and Building Wealth in a Blended Family

  • Episode 42: Wealth Protection and Transfer in a Blended Family

Tim and Alexis Woodward are co-founders of Blend Wealth, a firm specializing in financial planning for blended families and business owners. We hope you enjoy this episode! If you do, make sure to share this with a “blended family” you care about!! Thank you!

Connect with Tim and Alexis:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendcouple/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/theblendcouple

Blend Wealth: https://blendwealth.com/

Key Points

6:51 – Financial Planning Complexities in Blended Families:

  • Blended families face unique challenges in both family dynamics and financial planning, often dealing with children from previous marriages.

9:36 – Starting the Financial Planning Journey:

  • Importance of transparency and communication about finances between partners.

  • Different approaches to managing finances: joint, separate, or a combination.

14:55 – Prenuptial Agreements:

  • Discussed as a tool for addressing financial anxieties and ensuring security for both partners.

18:29 – Setting Financial Goals:

  • Shared goals might include retirement planning, travel, and charitable giving.

  • Individual goals often relate to obligations towards biological children from previous relationships.

26:33 – Blended Family Dynamics:

  • Emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the marital relationship and intentional parenting in blended families.

33:46 – Retirement Specifics:

  • Social security strategies for blended families.

  • Tax-efficient withdrawal strategies from retirement accounts.

Resources:

  • Blended Family Breakthrough Podcast “Blended Family Breakthrough” Podcast with Mike and Kim Anderson

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode! Stay tuned for Part 2!

– Kevin

Ep. 40 – What this election year means for your investment portfolio

The financial markets are well known to cause some stress and anxiety, but this escalates even more during a Presidential election. Especially this one which is likely to bring out emotions from both sides. As a result, I felt called to do this episode to provide some facts about how Presidential elections impact the stock market.

I hope you enjoy this episode! Make sure to share it with a friend or family member who might find it helpful! I want to impact as many people as possible with this message!

Thank you!

– Kevin

***Just a footnote here. I mentioned I was recording on video, which I did…However, I do not have time to edit this video in time for the next episode. I am currently working on hiring an editor, and will hopefully be adding video as a feature to tune into the show soon enough!

If you’re interested in becoming a client, fill out our Retirement Readiness Survey Here

Links from the show:

https://www.usbank.com/investing/financial-perspectives/market-news/how-presidential-elections-affect-the-stock-market.html

https://www.eatonvance.com/advisory-blog.php?post=election-cycle-is-very-likely-to-impact-stocks-

https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/trading-investing/election-market-impact

https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/capital_markets/Prob_Rec.pdf

https://www.ustreasuryyieldcurve.com/

https://www.blackrock.com/us/financial-professionals/insights/investing-in-election-years

Ep. 39 – Are you getting too conservative too early before retirement?

The issue with getting too conservative too quickly is that you bring inflation, longevity, and interest rate risk into the picture! This is NOT an ideal situation for retirees in 2024!

In this episode, I discuss the three reasons I believe most investors get too conservative too early, my issue with “Risk Tolerance” as the primary driver of asset allocation, and the concept of “Risk Capacity.”

Instead of selecting your asset allocation based on how you feel, or overly simplistic rules of thumb, reverse engineer your asset allocation based on your personalized financial goals and “required rates of return!” Meaning, don’t invest based on how someone ELSE tells you to invest but invest based on your priorities and values.

A few links I referenced:

Jack Bogle’s Asset Allocation Rule of Thumb

The 15/50 Rule of Thumb

Ep. 36 – ⁠Asset Location to Improve Tax Efficiency in Retirement

If you are interested in working with me 1 on 1, please fill out our Retirement Readiness Survey here, and we will provide personalized feedback on how and what we would address your financial situation.

Feel free to send me an email with your support, feedback, or questions for me! [email protected]

Thank you!

– Kevin

Follow me on FB

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Ep. 38 – Leveraging legislative changes to maximize your company retirement plans (w/ Alex Jenkins from NestEggs)

The SECURE Act of 2019 was the first major overhaul of retirement plans, specifically 401ks. However, many people are still curious about what the changes are and how they impact these group 401k plans. I had the pleasure of being joined by Alex Jenkins, the Chief Revenue Officer @ Nest Eggs, to unpack all of this for us. You’ll be sure to learn a lot whether you are a small business owner, an executive at a privately held company, or you’re just interested in the evolution of 401k plans and how to maximize them for retirement.

Interested in learning more about Nest Eggs?

Contact Alex Jenkins

[email protected]

904 252 6780 (cell)

Check out their website here: https://www.nesteggs401k.com/

Links from the show:

The SECURE Act 2019 details and how they impacted 401ks

Information on Pooled Employer Plans (“PEPS”)

Are you interested in working 1×1 with me? Fill out our “Retirement Readiness Survey” and we’ll follow up with some initial feedback on your progress to financial independence and whether or not we would be a good fit to work together.

You can also check out my website at https://imaginefinancialsecurity.com/

I love to hear from YOU, the listener! Email me directly at [email protected]

-Kevin

Ep. 37 – 3 flexible retirement withdrawal strategies to maximize spending during your lifetime

Have you heard of the 4% rule?! It’s the most recognized benchmark for safe withdrawal rates in retirement. However, it lacks flexibility and often leaves retirees “under-spending,” particularly in their prime retirement years.

Think Advisor put out this article (link below) that touched on three alternatives to the 4% rule and how they can potentially increase your spending capacity over time, while also protecting downside risk (outliving your assets).

I hope you enjoy this episode!

If you are interested in learning what it would be like to work with me, fill out my complimentary “Retirement Readiness Survey.” We’ll ask you to answer a few basic questions to determine the key areas of opportunity for you.

Make sure to check “Podcast” at the end when we ask how you heard of us!

Here are some other sources I referenced in the show:

Think Advisor article – Pros and cons of 3 retirement spending plans

Bill Bengen’s SAFEMAX, 4% Rule Study

Guyton and Klinger Decision Rules

Ep. 14 – “Retirees, Stop Underspending in your Go-Go Years”

My blog article on using Guardrails to boost retirement spending!

IRS Life Expectancy Tables

Make sure to share this with a friend or family member who needs to learn about how retirement works! I appreciate all of you!

[email protected]

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me on LinkedIn

Ep. 36 – Asset location to improve tax efficiency in retirement

According to the Vanguard “Advisor’s Alpha” study, asset location can add up to 60 bps in returns on an annual basis! The larger your taxable brokerage account balance, the more you need to pay attention to what investments you own in that bucket!

Conventional wisdom says that the taxable accounts should be tapped into first, and therefore should be the most conservative. However, the result could leave you paying more in taxes than you need to!

This is where proper Asset Location comes into the picture.

I hope you enjoy this episode and make sure to share this with someone else like you!

If you are interested in working with me 1×1, make sure to visit my website:
 https://imaginefinancialsecurity.com/

-Kevin

Sources:
– Vanguard’s Advisor’s Alpha – Schwab article on after-tax returns – American Century average etf and mutual fund distributions

– Kitces article on the benefits of asset location

 

Ep. 35 – Using a reverse mortgage as part of your retirement income strategy

Housing wealth is one of the largest, if not the largest, assets on the balance sheet for retirees today. However, many retirees simply pay off their mortgage and let their housing equity sit idle.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this line of thinking because being debt-free is often a goal for most people. However, you may want to look at a reverse mortgage as a tool in the toolbelt to achieve your ideal retirement, minimize taxes, and age in place.

A big thank you to George Vrban, a reverse mortgage specialist with Movement Mortgage, for joining us on this episode and providing education on how this strategy fits into a retirement income plan.

For me personally, my conversation with George has shifted my mindset from thinking of home equity as a “last resort,” to using it as a potential strategy to maximize retirement wealth and tax efficiency.

Additionally, the reverse mortgage can also be used as a line of credit, not just an income stream, which can be invaluable in case of an emergency.

Finally, I loved the idea of using the reverse mortgage for creative financial planning strategies like Roth conversions, or purchasing a dream vacation home!

Here is a link to George’s contact information:
office: 904 616 8181
email: [email protected]

Here’s a link to Ep. 24 – Self funding long-term care expenses

I always love to hear from you all, so never hesitate to email me directly: [email protected]

If you are interested in working with me 1×1, visit our website to learn more:
⁠https://imaginefinancialsecurity.com/

Ep. 34 – Top investment mistakes retirees have made since 2020

Welcome to another episode of The Planning for Retirement Podcast. I’m your host, Kevin Lao!

2020-2023 brought about legitimate market volatility, the first we’ve experienced since The Great Recession of 2008. I thought I would share some common mistakes I’ve personally seen retirees make over the last few years to highlight the importance of having a disciplined, unemotional, repeatable, investment process.

I’ll also highlight some of the key metrics we are watching in 2024 and how we are currently managing risk in portfolios.

Here are some of the links I referenced in the show:

– Follow me on Facebook (I posted both the Consumer Confidence and the Periodic Table of Returns charts on my Facebook page because they weren’t linking properly in the show notes).

– Follow me on LinkedIn

– Economic Trends in Equity Markets

– What do the markets do after rate cuts are over?

– What do the markets do when there is a Presidential election?

– 2004 – 2023 Periodic Table of Returns

– Magnificent 7 vs. the market

I always love to hear from you all, so never hesitate to email me directly; at [email protected]

If you are interested in working with me 1×1, visit our website to learn more:
https://imaginefinancialsecurity.com/

[email protected]
(904) 323-2069

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