Spring Cleaning for Your Finances: Seven Tips to Declutter Your Future

Episode 8: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 8: 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 All Things Financial, the show that helps upgrade your financial literacy. Trey Peterson and Yelisey Kuts are retirement planning specialists here to provide a unique and conservative approach to managing your money. Now here are your hosts, Trey Peterson and Yelisey Kuts.

Trey Peterson:
Good morning. Welcome to All Things Financial. Trey Peterson, Yelisey Kuts. We've got a great show this morning on spring cleaning of your finances. And one of the things that we believe that All Things Financial is that when your money is in order, everything in life is easier. And we've got some great things to talk about this morning. So spring cleaning of your finances. Seven things that can refresh your mood about money. Uh, potentially talking about self-directed pensions, we're going to talk about safeguarding your Social Security. And then we're going to talk about an offer that we have for you guys at the end of the podcast. But let's start off with this morning's quote, yellow. Say you want to start with that.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah. This one is from Gandhi. Actually, uh, it's the future. Depends on what you do today. And I think it's it's, uh. It may sound very simple, uh, but there's so much truth to that. Actually, I talked to my kids about this every day, about how the choices they made yesterday determine the life that they're living today. You know, I think it's it's simple advice, but there's so much truth to it. And obviously, you can go down that and, um, you know, there's a lot to, to pull from that, that wisdom. Yeah.

Trey Peterson:
Uh, John Maxwell is one of my favorite authors. He says, uh, there's no surprise in your successes. Your success is found in your daily routine, right? So. Right. Uh, you're somebody that's preparing for retirement, and you've talked about always getting a will or always getting a trust, and it's still on your list. Make that phone call today if you don't have an attorney. We have a great partner, uh, to guardian that we can, uh, refer you to. Uh, but let's start off with number one. So number one is revisit your financial New Year's resolutions. You'll say, what do you have to say about that?

Yelisey Kuts:
So actually, I looked up a Pew Research study and it said that, uh, about 50% of adults from the age of 18 to 29. So let's just say people in their 20s, uh, that they make New Year's resolutions. And out of all the segments that they looked at, those between that age of 18 through 29, they, uh, they actually had the largest share of any age group that made New Year's resolutions. In fact, uh, it almost gets cut in half if you look at people from the age of 30 to the age of 49. And I was actually I was going to ask you because this is something you do kind of professionally on the side. You, uh, you sit down with people, you coach them on making good decisions in life and their careers. And, and I imagine the topic of goals comes up pretty often. So just, uh, wondering what you think is the reason for that decline. As people get older, they start, I guess they stop setting as many New Year's resolutions.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah. So great question. I think I think a couple things that I've found in coaching, uh, business professionals and people that are winning in the corporate world is oftentimes, I think the older that we get, the more that we realize, uh, how much is out of our control and not in a negative way. But I think when I speak with people that, uh, are where I was, I want to be someday. A lot of them say that they used to set five and ten year goals, and, well, they may have, you know, some sort of large goal out there. Now, they typically focus on two year goals, because every two years things change so much that what they would have said is a five year goal no longer falls in line with the direction they're going. So I think there's two reasons. One, I think some people, uh, you kind of have a choice in life. Either you change your habits to make your goal happen, or you get discouraged and you change your goal so that you can be successful without changing your habits. I think that's a lot of people. Um, and then the other, like I said, is I think it's that, you know, things change so often that people are setting shorter terms, goals. So one of the things I'd encourage everybody to do is, you know, get around some people that are going to challenge you, that are going to push you. Uh, my business coach Nelson, our business coach, Keith Kraft, one of the things that he says is you have to get in a room full of people that are paying their price to be great. And I think what he's talking about is getting around people that have dreams and goals that are just talking about them, but that are actually getting uncomfortable and making those things happen. So I think the older people get, the more people settle, and also the more people realize that, uh, shorter Tum goals are maybe more impactful than long time goals because it's what we do every day. Um, number two, cleaning out your financial junk drawer. You'll say.

Yelisey Kuts:
You know, well, actually, I wanted to say a couple other things on the on the goal setting. Uh, you know, when it comes to New Year's resolutions, apparently, like 80% of all New Year's resolutions, they have to do with health, exercise or diet. And the next biggest category is money and finances, which is obviously, you know, something that we're passionate about. Uh, so I just, you know, I find it interesting that fewer and fewer people are setting goals around those areas. And, you know, the cynical side of me thinks that, you know, maybe the reason for that is, you know, you've just most of us have probably experienced not fulfilling a goal, not being able to to reach that. I think we're just, uh, some of us are just tired of of letting ourselves down. You know, it's one thing to let other people down. You know, you have your pride, your ego. If you you know, if you don't follow through on a commitment you made to somebody else. But I think sometimes people kind of go down this path where it's easier to let yourself down. And if you if you make that too much of a habit where you've consistently not followed through with your goals, I think that, you know, some people probably take the approach of what's the point? And I think that, you know, if you take that approach to the second biggest category, finances, that can have a devastating effect on your retirement.

Yelisey Kuts:
So anyways, but, you know, it's it's, uh, it's still early on in the year. We're, uh, we're in March. So, uh, so for those of you who maybe have, uh, let off the gas a little bit, um, you know, one of the biggest reasons why people actually do fulfill their, their New Year's resolutions is, uh. Because of the systems they have in place, because of good coaching and mentorship. And the biggest one is, is accountability. And that's actually a big part of what we're here for. So if, uh, if you do need some help with that, uh, please schedule an appointment. Trey will give you a kick in the pants and that'll help you jump start your goals for this year and, uh, help you get going on those things. Well, I.

Trey Peterson:
Think the other things that people forget, uh, you talked about fitness, but one of the things I've found, because I've certainly struggled with fitness and I'm on my longest health kick that I've been on. It's like almost 130 days. Um, but the reason I share that is one of the things that I found is that when I got started working towards the goal, even just a weekend, I was proud that I'd been consistent for a week of working out five days a week. Uh, not eating any bread, cutting down my sugar to almost zero. So I think finance is the same way. Meaning that maybe you're in your 50s and you go, man, I don't have enough saved that I'm retiring in 15 years or ten years. I'll never forget one of our clients, uh, single mom, raised two kids. She didn't start saving until she was 50. And when she turned 50, she decided I have to get after it if I'm going to retire someday. Even though she had every good excuse not to have enough in savings. You know, there was no, uh, she didn't have a partner or a spouse.

Trey Peterson:
She had two kids that were playing sports, which was expensive, and she started saving at 50. And by the time she was 65, uh, you know, she was saving over half her income for many of those years and, uh, ended up with a nest egg of over $1 million. So pretty significant. You know, she did the hard part, got a little lucky in the market. But the reason I say that is, is if you're discouraged, you know, you don't have to have $1 million to feel good. You just have to get on track. And if you're not on track and you want to do the hard things to get on track, give us a call. We'd love to help you get on track, because one of the things that we found is when your money's in order, or even when you have a plan and you're, you know that if you're doing ABC, that you're going to accomplish that thing. Everything in life is better. So we'd love to help you with that.

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah, it sure is. And, and and I think, you know, not only having a plan, but having somebody that helps you stick to that plan helps to remind you what it's, you know, sometimes it's easy to not do that, uh, to remind you what the benefits are, to remind you what the ultimate goal is. Uh, and actually, like the University of Miami, uh, they did a study on this, and they, they looked to see why people didn't commit to their goals or stick to the goals that they put in place. And the biggest reason they cited was, uh, procrastination. Uh, the second one was fear of failure and, uh, having unclear goals and multitasking, which was kind of a funny one there too, because sometimes if you have too much going on, it's really it's really difficult to remain focused. And, uh, you know, it's just important to have somebody who can be by your side that can, uh, can keep the goal and, and the vision that you have for your life can keep that in front of you. And, uh, to make sure that you can think objectively about it.

Trey Peterson:
Well, I think for my fitness, I think one of the things that changed for me is my friend Jared challenged me and told me, I'm going to ask you next week how this week went. And then the next week he goes, I'm going to ask you next Friday how this week went. And since, how would it be since November 15th? We've talked every week and I've had somebody hold me accountable, and I don't want to make the call and tell my friend that I didn't follow through on my diet. I didn't follow through on my exercise. Right. So I do think that all of us need somebody that can challenge us. That's somebody that we respect. That's someone that we, uh, eventually end up caring about. And, uh, I think that's what's made the impact on my fitness. And we love doing that with people in their finances. So if you don't have somebody that's helping you keep your feet to the fire so that you have a successful retirement, let's have a meeting. I'd love to show you what we do, how we do it, and how we can serve you.

Yelisey Kuts:
All right, so, uh, cleaning out your financial, uh, junk drawer, and I think we're, you know, I really want to just liken this to to spring cleaning a little bit. And, you know, have you ever gotten into, like, the elevator or talked to somebody about the weather and you kind of just get the impression that, you know, and everyone kind of thinks this anyways, I think that if someone's talking to you about the weather, they probably just don't want to talk to you.

Trey Peterson:
Right?

Yelisey Kuts:
So I'm actually I'm often caught talking about the weather because I'd prefer just to, you know, to use the elevator to get to where I'm going and not necessarily start a conversation. That's how I think about, you know, travel, too. You know, if I'm sitting on an airplane, I'm putting in my AirPods or my, my, my headphones because, you know, for me, I'm just I'm traveling. I'm not looking to start a conversation to make new friends, but.

Trey Peterson:
I'm the opposite.

Yelisey Kuts:
Well.

Trey Peterson:
In fact, I, uh, I get a flight. I just took a flight about a month ago from Dallas to Minneapolis. Yeah. And I sat next to this guy, and and, uh, we started talking and, uh, found out he's a small business owner. Found out his wife is in marketing and found out his sons were football players for a local high school, and one was the star on the offense. One was the star of the defense. And, uh, we had this amazing conversation. They had two dogs, like we have two dogs and. Yeah. And, uh, he looked at me and he goes, did we just become best friends? And I said, I think we did. And two weeks later, he and his wife and I are having dinner. Yeah, that.

Yelisey Kuts:
That, I mean, the chances of that happening to me like none. I don't have enough optimism to start a conversation and just watch it unfold into a beautiful friendship. I just.

Trey Peterson:
And then his his wife was looking for help in sales. And I can help with that and start talking about church. And I said we haven't been to church since Covid. And I go, I can help with that. So now we're probably going to be going to church together, working together and boating together. And we met on an airplane. So, uh, that that is a little bit different. Well, the.

Yelisey Kuts:
Reason why I bring up weather now is, you know, we're talking about cleaning out your financial junk drawer. We're talking about a little bit of spring cleaning. And weather has been kind of a conversation that, you know, even though most of the time it's not very meaningful. But, you know, we've had an amazing winter in the sense that it's been very mild. We had like, uh, 18, 50 degree days between January and February. And 11 of those were in February, where like the previous record, I think was like six or something. Um, so anyways, you know, for most of us, like, hey, what I, you know, when I started, uh, seeing that the spring is, is coming, I start, you know, cleaning out the my garage, I start doing some stuff around the, around the lawn and and, uh, unfortunately, this week is reminding us that winter is back. So, um, but anyways, you know, the reason why I bring it up is, you know, there's a lot of things that maybe you've been putting off for you. Maybe it's it's, uh, you know, that that juncture that you have or maybe the financial statements or or all the statements from the last couple of years that you've just been collecting. Maybe you need to shred those statements. Uh, you know, and tax season is around the corner. And one of the biggest things that we've noticed, we've worked with a number of CPAs. We have CPAs in house and Guardian tax or in-house, uh, tax preparers and CPAs. Uh, and and believe it or not, they actually have a bunch of pet peeves that they've mentioned over the years to us.

Yelisey Kuts:
And one of those is people who just come in with a giant box of statements and items and expect the CPA to go through it, the CPA to to organize everything and make sense of all the stuff that you've brought in, um, you know, and then another pet peeve that is, you know, sometimes you come in with incomplete information and, you know, think of the feeling that you have after you've completed your tax return, after you finally got through everything, you've organized all of the events that took place the year before, and you're finally on the other side of that. Well, compare that feeling to how you would feel if you just, you know, brought a little bit of organization to your life in general in terms of financial planning, making sure that you're on top of your contributions, making sure that that you're making good investment decisions, that whoever needs to be aware, whether it's a spouse or your children when it comes to estate planning, where you have everything, if you have a documents in place that if something were to happen to you, that the people who, you know end up having to to figure out where everything is, that they don't have to pick up all the missing pieces. So it's important to do that just like you would when it comes to spring cleaning. And the benefits there when it comes to financial spring cleaning are huge.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah, well, I think too, even my wife and I, we. So we have three kids, so six, four and two. Uh, which, you know, is just, it's, uh, it's pure chaos. But to be honest, I love being a dad way more than I even thought I would. So the reason I say that is we're talking the other day, and, you know, we can't believe how many toys we have in our house. And, uh, my staff was just telling me she was like, I just feel like it's so stressful, all the things that we have. And I saw an article on social media and it said, the number one thing that stresses out a mom, especially a stay at home mom, is when they have too much in the house. And it was so funny how she's telling me about the stress she feels with all these things we have. And it's not just toys that we buy, it's not toys that, um, or just things that we've ordered. It's actually things that my parents have bought in them. The uncles, uh, the aunts. So there's all these things that, you know, your your toy room fills up, the bedrooms fill up. And this article is saying that, uh, a stay at home moms happiness is heavily tied to how organized your home is. Mm. And so it's interesting is here we were talking about it how it impacted her. And then I don't know if Siri heard us and they, uh, many of you I don't know if you've been talking about something and all of a sudden in your on your phone, whether you went to Google or you went to social media and the thing that you were talking about popped up. I've had that happen several times. And actually it scares me a little bit. It's kind of cool.

Yelisey Kuts:
It feels like Siri is just betraying you sometimes, right? Like you don't necessarily want your spouse to know about the gift or something you're about to buy them. And before you know it, they see it as an advertisement when you're looking online together.

Trey Peterson:
Actually. Yeah. So I mean, we here we are talking about the things and how they stress you. And then this article pops up showing and backing it with evidence. So I say that to say is that just like you clean out your home to feel better, one of the things that we found is that when we meet with families and we're helping pull together orphan 401 from that old job, or pull together the three IRAs into one. One of the things that we find is that people are so much happier when they have everything in one place, and they have all of their money working together. And I think one of the things a lot of people don't realize is that if you have your assets all over the place and it's two different 401 S and an IRA, if you're an advisor that you haven't talked to in a long time, a lot of times those investments have completely different objectives and they're not working together. And you're creating inefficiency in your portfolio, costing yourself returns. Yellow. Say, do you want to talk about how that can impact people?

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah I there's actually it's it's a bigger deal than you think. Like if there's, you know, if there's a, you know, a pet peeve for a CPA, one for an advisor would be this where people think that maybe they've achieved some diversification because they have their assets spread out in different places. And I know that like the feeling that people have sometimes I think maybe it's like related to the FDIC where people think, hey, if I have more than a certain amount of money in my checking and savings account, well then it's not FDIC insured. I better spread out the risk. It's not that way when it comes to your investments. Uh, typically what happens is you have over exposure and that's really what takes place if you keep your investments, uh, scattered between 3 or 4 different financial institutions, because they're not talking they're not communicating with each other. In fact, they have no way of rebalancing unless, you know, they have real time information, uh, of what's going on in your investments over there. They don't know if the other advisor has been placing trades, or maybe now, you know, rather than being in a 60 over 40 overall, if that's your goal between equities and bonds, maybe it's more like a 70 over 30. Maybe you're taking on too much risk or not enough risk, or maybe you have over exposure to a certain sector. And I've talked about this a lot, but it really is difficult. And I know that it sounds self-serving to say, hey, you should move everything you have to, you know, over to us, let us manage it. But really, it allows for efficiency within your portfolio. Um, and it allows us to manage it appropriately. And according to whatever design we initially set out to do based on the investment policy that we have.

Trey Peterson:
I think what we found is what people call and they go, hey, I need $10,000 for the down payment of a new truck. And if you bought the truck recently, you know you're not getting a new truck for under $80,000.

Yelisey Kuts:
I'm gonna say $10,000 for a new truck. You know.

Trey Peterson:
A down payment.

Yelisey Kuts:
The down payment.

Trey Peterson:
The down. You know, it's normally they'll go, I need ten grand. My vehicle's worth 35, so they put 45 down, right? They borrow some. So what people don't realize, though, is most financial advisors are sending you 10,000 from just wherever. It's the easiest to get it. Yeah. And one of the things I think that we do very thoughtfully at Guardian is that when people request money, we look at all of the different funds they have. We look at the tax piece, what's going to get taxed the least alone. But then we also look how do we make sure that we liquidate the right thing if we're going to do a rebalance soon anyways? And so the other big thing I think, is when you have everything in one spot, you have one financial planner that can oversee everything, and instead of only sending you money from the things they have access to now, they have the ability to send it to you from over. It makes the most sense because you have it all in one spot, right?

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah. And I mean, and just to piggyback off that, imagine if, you know, if you if you took the $10,000 out of one account where you have that account with a different institution, and then you come ask me for distributions later on, I don't know that you've taken it out of an IRA, out of an individual account. I don't know the tax impact, and I can't compare that to the source of the known sources of income, that you have to make sure that we're not triggering too much taxes, too much capital gains, or whatever that might be. So that's why it's important to communicate at the very least, but also making it a lot easier if everything's in one place.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Point number three. Let's keep moving. Pay yourself first by maximizing your retirement contributions. So a lot of you know this. But by April 15th of each year you can contribute up to $6,500 to your IRA. And you can contribute 7500, an extra thousand if you're over age, uh, if you're over age 50. So one of the things that we want you to do is if your savings is growing and you've noticed that either monthly or quarterly or annually, that you're putting a bunch of money in something that's only making 1 to 3%, why not put that into something that's going to offset your taxes and give you better returns? Uh, yeah. Let's say, what are some of the other things that we recommend for people paying themselves first?

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah, I feel like, you know, paying yourself first. Um, you know, I think is taken to meet a lot of different things over the years. I think I first heard the expression when I was like 12 or 13, I had a friend that recommended, uh, Rich dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and I just, you know, it always kind of stuck with me. You know, I think in the book he really makes a huge case for, you know, treating, treating that account or that investment that you have, uh, as an expense, making it seem as though, like, hey, if it's your if it's your IRA, if it's the real estate investment or whatever the investment is that you pay yourself first, treat it as if it's an expense and it's not an optional expense. Put the money into that account first before you pay your bills and all the other requirements that you have, even if that money seems like it's unavailable. Even if you're on a very tight budget, make sure making sure that you take advantage of those IRA contributions in this context. You know, financial planning, uh, and that's important to do because you're developing good habits over time. And as you know, the quote that we mentioned at the top of the podcast, you know, making those decisions today, those good decisions today will enable you to have a better tomorrow. So I think that's very important.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah. Number four, make sure your beneficiaries are named and up to date. Uh, I can't tell you how often. I mean, uh, for sure monthly, maybe more often. That we have a family that walks through our education process, whether that's a Social Security and Medicare analysis, whether that's a tax analysis or whether that's an overall income, and spend down plan analysis. And they decide to partner with us and we move everything over. And I would say almost every month we find whether we're doing accounts that the beneficiaries haven't been updated in 20 years, 25 years, we run into accounts that somebody got married later in life and they never thought about it, and they didn't add their spouse as a beneficiary on their 401 K or an IRA. Or maybe even worse. We've seen where people have been divorced for five or 10 or 15 years, and their ex is still the beneficiary. Yeah. Or their largest retirement account. So one of the things we want to encourage you is if you haven't double or triple checked, uh, you might have an advisor that you assume is doing those things. I can't tell you how often we find that people have an advisor that didn't update the beneficiary, that hasn't looked at it. That's something that should be done. You know, in my opinion, at least every other year, because life is always changing. Relationships are changing. Uh, maybe you have one. You know, I've got three kids, and I joke that my my youngest, uh, is my favorite because he knows how to love on his dad. Where my oldest, you know, I walk up and I'll put my hand on him and he'll say, dad, don't touch me. Okay, so I joke, you know that, uh, I've got three kids, but only two of them are going to be in my will, but have that updated, you know, as as anything changed, are you positive that if something were to happen to you today, that your money that you've spent decades working for is, is going to go to the people hurt the most?

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah. And I think that's like the lowest hanging fruit and we always get a kick out of it. You know, those conversations are you know, they're fun for us. Maybe not so fun for the clients who who realize that the that the ex spouse is still listed on the accounts, uh, you know, but, you know, just to kind of add to what Trey was saying, most of the time today, when you open up an IRA, when you open up a pre-tax account, uh, a beneficiary designation will be required, at least a primary beneficiary designation, you know, but there's all kinds of other things to be aware of, too. You know, we had somebody recently, uh, they had three children, and one of the children, one of their kids had children of their own who were special needs children, unfortunately. Right. That was their situation. And they were worried that if their son died, uh, they were worried that the children wouldn't receive the proceeds. Right. Because depending on how you set it up, whether it's per stirpes or not, that determines whether or not the contingent beneficiaries, if they're listed, if they end up being the beneficiaries of the beneficiaries, or if it just gets distributed to the two, uh, let's say if there's three, if there's three total beneficiaries, if the remaining two get the proceeds versus the one who passed away, that person's beneficiaries. So I know that probably sounds a little bit confusing in the context of a podcast, as I'm explaining that, uh, but really, the point is making sure that the money gets to wherever you want it to go. And there's a way that that can be done. Sometimes it's through beneficiary designations, sometimes it's through our next topic that we're going to talk about, which is estate planning. But there are tools and vehicles and instruments that you can use to make sure that whatever you want, whatever you intend to happen for when you're no longer here, actually happens. And some of it is very easy and as simple as a beneficiary designation.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah, well, speaking of things not being updated, number five is dust off your estate plan or establish an estate plan for the first time. So I'd say equally, you know, almost every month I sit down with a couple and I'll say, hey, do you guys have a will or a trust in place? Or what do you have set up so that if one of you passes, the surviving spouse knows where all the assets are? All the debt is, uh, where bills are being paid from. Do you have a plan so that your spouse is taken care of? Because most often we find that when it comes to a married couple, one person tends to take responsibility for these things and the other person is in the dark. Maybe by choice, uh, maybe not by choice. And so you need to have an estate plan, whether it's a will or a trust. When's the last time that you had that updated? I met with a couple, uh, yesterday, actually, and I said, what do you guys have in place for your estate plan? And they said, well, actually we have one, but it's over 20 years old and we've had some big changes and we haven't updated it. So make sure you update that. I know, you know, for probably two thirds of people that we meet with, it's on their list to make that happen. But going back to our quote from this morning, make it happen today. Make make that phone call. If you don't have a relationship with an attorney that you trust that does things at a fair price, we've got a great partnership and I'd love to share that contact information. Feel free to shoot me an email, give me a phone call, and let's get that process started. And just getting started within a couple of weeks, you know, you'll you'll have that in place. And uh, that way you know that everything that you've worked for is. You all say, what do you want to add to the estate planning conversation?

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah, it's it's one of those things where, I don't know, nine times out of ten, when you ask somebody about what they have in place in terms of estate planning, the answer is nothing. It's almost always like, hey, this has just been something we've talked about over the last couple of years, and we just haven't gotten around to it. And like, you know, uh, it just it just never ends up happening. And it's really, really important. And we don't, you know, I, I tell people this all the time, you don't necessarily need a trust. Uh, you probably need a will, right? If your estate exceeds $50,000, you probably need a will. And that's probably going to be true for most people. But I think everybody doesn't matter who you are over the age of 18 should have powers of attorney in place. Durable powers of attorney, uh, health care directives. Those are things that aren't really negotiable. Those are things that everybody needs over the age of 18. You know, if something happens to you and you can't make decisions on your own behalf, who have you appointed to make decisions for you, for health care needs, for financial needs, right. Who's going to make those decisions for you if you can't, if you can't make them yourself? And then on top of that, what are some of the things that like that you would want in place in terms of health care? I mean, every time you go to the doctors, they ask you, like, maybe not every time, but many times when you go to the doctor, they're going to ask you, do you have health care directives in place? Because sometimes people think that, you know, there's just so many automatics.

Yelisey Kuts:
Well, I'm married, right? I've been married for 30 years. My spouse knows, uh, what I want and how I want to be treated. And the things, you know, my spouse knows what my intentions are. And unfortunately, there aren't any automatics. Your spouse may, if there isn't time, like your spouse, may have to go to court to get permission to make decisions on your behalf. So we want to make sure we have those things in place. It's been turned into a senior topic, but estate planning really like I've seen a number of articles over the last couple of years that talk about why estate planning is a topic for anyone over the age of 18, why young Americans need to have a competent estate plan. So it's an important topic. It's one that we talk about all the time. And of course, some people absolutely do need a trust in place. Um, you know, there's any number of reasons why you might need to trust.

Yelisey Kuts:
You know, we just talked about children with special needs, uh, making sure that they don't lose out on any of the subsidies that they might be receiving from the government, uh, to pay for some of the special needs that they have, some of the care that they have sometimes introducing additional income because they've inherited that could, could make it so that they lose out on some of the benefits. So having making sure that they have you have a special needs trust in place. And it might be something for you to consider, uh, depending on how many beneficiaries you have, depending on if some of your beneficiaries might have chemical dependency needs, maybe, you know, you have one child who's really, really diligent and frugal and and they do a really good job saving. And the other child is a spendthrift. Maybe there's certain people that you're specifically looking to disinherit from your estate. There's all kinds of reasons. Maybe you have property in different states and you're looking to avoid ancillary probate. Um, so there's really, you know, there's there's no shortage of needs for an estate plan. Uh, the only shortage is having the estate plan where most Americans don't have one. And that's something that we really talk about passionately because we hope to to help remedy that.

Trey Peterson:
Absolutely. Spring cleaning. Tip number six. Have your portfolio reviewed by a licensed professional. Hey, Alyssa, I think this is a good time to announce that you passed something pretty significant yesterday.

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah, it might be a little premature. I'm actually not allowed to use the designations until I until I fulfill some of the post exam requirements, but as far as the exam is concerned, I did pass my CFP exam. Uh, so very shortly I will be able to use the designation, but, uh, yeah. So right now that's, uh, I probably a few days away from.

Trey Peterson:
Something really got shut down by our compliance. So what's that? Thanks for saying something. So we didn't get shut down by our.

Yelisey Kuts:
You can never have enough disclosures. Disclaimers.

Trey Peterson:
So anyways, I just want to say one, uh, y'all say way to crush the CFP. For those of you that don't know, uh, getting your CFP and our industries the top of the top so most people don't pass. It's a 2 to 3 year program. So very, very significant. So number six is have your entire portfolio reviewed by a licensed professional yellow. Say what what do people need to have reviewed.

Yelisey Kuts:
Well, really everything. Um, and we've talked about this a little bit. That's what makes it difficult when you have your, your assets in a variety of different places, because when you're, you know, just like a CPA where they can't I mean, you're going to drive your CPA nuts if you bring in incomplete information, if you have some expenses and then others you're not sure about, and depending on, like, you know, if you have half of your 1099 and but not the other half, but you think you maybe took distributions from a different account, like that's going to drive your tax preparer nuts. In the same way when people come in and they, you know, they maybe have 3 or 4 statements and then they think that maybe they have some other assets in this account or maybe their spouses that with them and they're not entirely sure how much their spouse has, but they file married filing jointly, like everything needs to be coordinated. Like it's important to know how much income do you anticipate having from fixed sources like your Social Security, like your pension? What is going to be your projected required minimum distribution? What do you have in highly appreciated stocks? What do you have in terms of liquidity or cash equivalents? You know, maybe it's not necessarily checking and savings, but you know, even a money market mutual fund or treasuries or different things that could be easily liquidated to accommodate some of the liquidity needs you might have. And then once you get an idea of everything you have and, you know, all the tax classifications, um, you know, then we dive into the portfolio itself, right? We want to know, like, to what degree are you diversified? Do you have an appropriate amount of risk considering where you are in life and the needs you might have to draw on the assets that you have? Uh, what type of assets do you have? Are these assets that are going to be designed for income or accumulation? Do you have annuities within your portfolio or is it mostly mutual funds.

Yelisey Kuts:
So, you know, this conversation can go on forever, right. But the whole point is the more information you have, the more you know. And I guess a good way to put this is whenever we plug in somebody's information into our software, what really what we're searching for is the output we want to know, hey, is the output consistent with what the client wants in terms of the end goal in retirement? Do they have enough in there with their assets to, to maintain, you know, a 20 year retirement period or a 30 year retirement period? And if we don't have all the variables put in correctly, then the output is not going to be any good to us. So whenever we were looking to review somebody's portfolios, their assets that they have, we want to make sure that our inputs are are as accurate as they can possibly be. And the way we do that is by having a full and complete picture of what the client or prospect has in terms of their retirement savings and, uh, projections on their expenses and everything else that goes with that.

Trey Peterson:
Uh, lastly, actually, this is a fun one. So closing spring break, cleaning up your finances, uh, plan for 2025 vacation, I think I hear people say often, hey, I, I earned a vacation, I deserved it. Maybe I didn't have the money, but I put it on a credit card because I've been working so hard. And then they have paying, you know, 50% or double for the vacation because they have an interest, uh, credit on the interest rate at 20 to 30%. So here's here's my one tip for today. If you only do one thing that your wife or your husband is going to thank you for starting a savings account for a big trip in 2025. One of the best things that Steph and I and my wife and I have done is we've started planning our vacations out 12 and 18 months in advance. Two things that that does. One is it makes sure that it happens, but two, it gives us something to look forward to doing together. Yeah. And I think one of the things a lot of people forget is in the busyness of life, they no longer have shared goals with their spouses. You know, if you work and your wife works and you're in two different industries and two different jobs, uh, you know, the average marriage only lasts seven years. And they say the number one reason is for a lack of finances. I actually think it's for a lack of vision. It's a lack of two people having a goal that they're working towards together and, uh, not having something that they're, uh, excited about together, something that they're sharing together, something that they're working towards together. And so I think one of the keys to not just great finances, but to a great marriage is also having something that you and your spouse are saving for. You're working towards together, so that when you hit that goal, you've built something together and then do it again for the next year. What do you want to add to that?

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah, I would say that, you know, for for my wife and I, Alicia, um, you know, we don't really plan vacations one year in advance, but we typically map out the entire year, uh, early on in January. And for us, like, anticipating a vacation like that does significantly contribute to, like, our enjoyment of it. I don't know if anyone else uses this. Maybe you do, but I have a I have a countdown app. Do you use a countdown app for anything?

Trey Peterson:
I don't, but I do use not to interrupt, but, uh, Jesse Itzler, if you don't know who he is, look him up. Uh, he has this thing called the big ass map. Yeah, yeah, our big out again?

Yelisey Kuts:
Uh, yeah.

Trey Peterson:
The big investors. It's actually not map. It's calendar. But you're all about it. It's. I've got it sitting in my house. It's this massive calendar, and it's your whole year laid out in one calendar. And obviously it's not designed for tasks, but it's designed for events. So I have all the financial classes that I teach on there as far out as I can. I have our vacations on there. I have my business coaching calls on there. I've got my business, uh, mentorship events you and I do together on there. And what that's really helped us do is plan for the whole year. So not a countdown, but we look at it, you know, at least weekly every Sunday night. Actually, I'll, I'll say this if you and your spouse don't do this, I highly recommend it. Every Sunday night, my wife and I sit down. We look over the week, we look over the month, and we look over the quarter, and we look over the year, and we do all of our planning together. We talk about what's upcoming that way, the appointments that are important to her. I'm not missing the things I want her to be at. She's not missing. We're lining up babysitters. So I just said, says one of the keys, I think, to having a great life and a great marriage is to have great communication. And I think most people on Sunday nights are exhausted, uh, from the week, the weekend. And they sit and watch TV. And one of the things that we started doing is last August, we quit watching TV at night and we started reading books together. We started going over our calendar together. We started dreaming together. And I'll tell you, uh, it's made a big improvement on, uh, our joy, our marriage, a lot of great things. So anyways, I don't know, we got. But let's talk about the countdown calculator. Yeah.

Yelisey Kuts:
Well, actually, I just pulled it up. So my next family vacation is a 30 day, 32 days, 23 hours and seven minutes for those that are watching live. I'm trying to get this right on the camera, but, you know, it's it, it does. It creates anticipation. We we look forward to it. And on top of that, it really helps us stay consistent on our fitness goals. Because I don't know, we just like anybody else, we set fitness goals. And probably it's tough to keep those, uh, top of mind and vacations help that for us. And, uh, you know, I, I don't have the exact studies to cite, but I do know that, like, I've read this over the years, that going on vacation, like, more often than not, actually like, decreases like the risk of heart disease and heart attacks and things like that. Because I think, like, you know, people who who work as much as as we do, sometimes people work more than us. I don't know, like, I mean, you have like, cognitive fatigue. You might have difficulty concentrating, like, I don't know, it just going on vacation can really just help you. I think the biggest thing for me is I get really good sleep, um, sometimes when I'm in work. Mode, and we're just kind of going through the year. Um, you know, we're busy. We have a lot of things going on, and like, sometimes my sleep suffers a little bit. So I think when I go on vacation, I get to refresh a little bit, reset and get really good sleep. I don't know about you. I look forward to good sleep.

Trey Peterson:
I'm the opposite of that. So, uh, my wife, I said, it's so funny when we go on vacation, I don't know what it is, but it's almost like my internal clock. I wake up at like 6 a.m.. She wants to sleep in, of course, because we have kids, so we're on vacation without the kids. That's what she wants. So I'll get up early. I'll go walk around the hotel or the resort that we're at for close to the ocean. I'll go walk the ocean. Uh, I'll get a workout in. I'll grab breakfast, uh, and then I'll go wake her up, and then I'll go down while she eats breakfast. So for me, when I'm on vacation, I'm like, man, I've only got 80, 85 years to live. I don't want to miss anything if I'm in Florida or California or Mexico. So I'm up early and after it, my wife's my opposite. So yeah, I was.

Yelisey Kuts:
Gonna say, I bet she loves that.

Trey Peterson:
Her dream. Yeah. Well, as long as she can sleep in, she doesn't care that I'm up and out. But yeah, I will tell you, one of the things that we've figured out is that when we plan a vacation, a lot of times our, you know, our trips are, you know, 3 to 5 days. But if it's a if it's a full week, what we'll do is we'll do the first night that we get there will be a chill night, the next day will be a beach day. So day and a half of just chilling, which is my wife's dream. The second day or the the second full day will be an active day. That's where I get to pick, you know, the zip lining or the four wheeling or the hiking. Uh, the day after that. Relax day, day after. That's an active day. So what's really great is we've coordinated it so that we each maximize the vacation, spend time together. And, uh, I think I think the balance and planning is very helpful.

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah. Well, I was going to use this as a moment to encourage you to get out there, see the world, you know, take a vacation for once. But it doesn't sound like that's a problem you have. So, uh, yeah. You know, it's not that I like to sleep in, by the way. I wake up early. I just feel like my the quality of sleep I get is just a little bit better. I don't have as many things running through my mind that, you know, just the, the daily tasks and things that I have to get through. So.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah. Wonderful. Well, let's, uh, let's wrap up.

Yelisey Kuts:
Yeah, let's wrap it up there. I think, uh, I think this has been a great conversation and hopefully, uh, our listeners agree and hopefully it's just been it's, you know, just a good reminder to get after it and, uh, continue to pursue your financial goals and get some accountability and people who can help you along the way.

Trey Peterson:
Yeah. So if you've never had a second opinion or if it's been a long time since you've had somebody review your investments, your estate plan, what I call as your spend down plan. If you're coming close to retirement and you don't have a plan for your RMDs, those required minimum distributions, and maybe you're happy, but you also realize, you know what? I don't know how other groups do things. I'm happy with my advisor, but I don't have a tax advisor. Maybe that's a piece that's missing that could be added to what your advisor does. Feel free to give us a call (612) 286-0580 or shoot me or y'all say an email and we'd be happy to give you a second opinion. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for joining us.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to All Things Financial. You deserve to work with retirement planning specialists who care about your money, and take a unique approach to your financial and retirement needs. Visit All Things Financial.com and set an appointment today.

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