The State of Retirement in the Year 2024

Episode 25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 25: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Welcome to All Things Financial, the show that helps upgrade your financial literacy. Trey Peterson and Yellow Coots are retirement planning specialists here to provide a unique and conservative approach to managing your money. Now here are your hosts, Trey Peterson and Yellow, say coots.

Speaker2:
Welcome to the All Things Financial Podcast. Trey Peterson and Yellow say coots talking about retirement. For those that are in and nearing retirement. And we have a really great show today. I'm actually really excited to talk about with you. Yellow say the state of retirement in 2024. I think we're really at a unique way. And one of the things that you and I have been talking about is how those that are preparing for retirement probably can't prepare the same way that their parents or their grandparents did. And so we've got a handful of things that we want to talk about. But let's start off with the quote of the week, and then I'll let you jump in with some of the things that we're going to discuss. So Jim Roan, who we were laughing about earlier, is kind of one of the the leaders in the personal development world. But he says to solve any problem, there are three questions to ask yourself. First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask? A lot of our listeners probably know, but in high school, I had the opportunity to wrestle for the number two wrestling team in the country. And I'll never forget one of my coaches who was an All American, said, Trey, you don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the brightest, he said. But if you listen to smart people do what they say, you're likely to win at life in every area. So today we're going to be talking about preparing for retirement from my business partner and I and some of the great things that we've seen people do to prepare for retirement. And we want to help you avoid a lot of the mistakes that we make. So, uh, before I hand it off, let's say, uh, where else can people find our podcast as we record today. It's available everywhere.

Speaker3:
Um, so we actually we have clips on YouTube, but every place where you can normally download a podcast or listen to one. Uh, we're available on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts. Just all the all the typical places.

Speaker2:
Yeah. So check out our podcast. We actually have a unique one. Was it number 19? I think that we also talked about like seven things, seven life lessons that we've learned in our business. It was a little different than some of the other ones, but we cover everything from taxes and retirement to long term care to investments, uh, stocks, annuities, everything A to Z. So anyways, glad to have you with us. Our goal is to help you retire once and retire well. Uh, yellow. Say, what's what's the focus of today?

Speaker3:
Well, we're going to start by talking about the retirement red zone. And we talked about that before. And I think in a podcast I did with Ryan two weeks ago or three weeks ago, Ryan kind of made fun of that that term, the retirement red zone. He thought it was a little cheeky, but I think it's a great term. I mean, you played football, I played football, so, uh, for us, maybe it makes more sense than for Ryan. I hear he wasn't, um. He never made it.

Speaker2:
With singing and music, and.

Speaker3:
But it's kind of, you know, we talk about how how you can't retire the way your parents did or the way your grandparents did. And actually, I kind of agree with that. You know, I'm nowhere near retirement. But imagine if you were a year away from retirement, like many of our clients and many of the folks who come in and meet with us. Um, it's kind of a scary time. Like if you're retiring in 2024, it's an election year, obviously. But just like the political climate, everything that's happening in the market, the volatility that we're seeing, uh, all time highs and then huge dips and swings, um, you know, it's kind of a scary time to retire. So, you know, when we talk about the retirement red zone for for those of you who don't I don't know, maybe you don't follow football or really understand the reference. Uh, you know, a football field is 100 yards, and the idea is to get the ball from one end of the field to the other. And if you're the team pushing the ball down the field. The opposing team is trying to stop you. So the red zone is the final 20 yards that you have before you can score a touchdown. And a lot of times people think, well, hey, you know, if I'm in, if I'm within 20 yards, like it should be easier to score. I'm really, really close. And really what you don't understand is, you know, for those who don't follow football, it's actually a lot more difficult to score within that 20 yards because it's a smaller area that the defenders have to cover.

Speaker3:
And I think that, you know, the parallel for retirement that I really like is, you know, whenever you're getting close to retirement, you got a lot of decisions to make, like there's a lot of things and it's all coming at you at once. Um, you know, what's healthcare going to look like, you know? Or are your estate planning documents are those in place? Like, do you actually have enough to make it? And when you're swamped with some of the most important decisions, like it can feel overwhelming for a lot of people. And that's why we often focus on peace in retirement, making sure that you have a plan in place and partnering with somebody who can help you get there. And actually, I looked up a stat to see how often do people actually how often do NFL teams score when they're in the red zone? It's actually only 20%. You know, only 20% can actually get it to the end zone and score when they're in the red zone. Um, you know, so what I would say is my encouragement, you know, let's improve those odds for you in retirement. Let's let's not hover around 20%. Let's, uh, let's partner with people who actually understand what you're going through, who've helped countless people do the same thing and make sure that you're you have a plan in place that's that's going to get you there. Man, that was impressive.

Speaker2:
Just the way you explained how the game of football works. Yeah. Maybe we move on to soccer next. That's really helpful. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker3:
All right. Analogy for everything we talk about.

Speaker2:
Uh, some of the other overview, because one of the things I like, you know, you always say before I listen to something that's going to take 25 or 35 minutes of my time is I want to know, what are we going to talk about? Is it for me? So here are some of the other things. One is we run into a lot of families or individuals that have target date funds. So their money's been in their 401 K forever. They had a 2035 fund. As they get closer to retirement, uh, that fund shifts from higher stocks to more bonds. And we're going to talk about is that a fit for you? What are some of the pros and what are some of the opportunities that you're missing out by being in a target account. So that'll be wonderful. Uh, we're going to talk about the 401 K checklist. What are four steps to improving your retirement future today? You know, one of the things that I tell people is don't just listen to the podcast. Write down 2 or 3 things that you can change or one thing that you can implement. And that way every podcast that you listen to of ours actually has an impact because as we all know, knowledge is not power, but action is. And then, uh, modern portfolio theory. So we're going to talk about how we invest funds all the time. You know we get the question of at Guardian Wealth Strategies and all things financial. How do you guys invest those funds? What makes you different? Are you active managers or are you passive managers? And you say being that's your arena and our office, I'll let you take that.

Speaker2:
What's happening to Social Security? You know, a lot of people know that Social Security isn't as stable as it used to be. Uh, as of right now, in 2035, if they don't make any changes, Social Security is going to get a 24% reduction, which means that whatever your benefit amount is, it's going to drop from 100% to what you're getting to 76%. So that could be significant. So we're going to talk about if we think that could happen will happen how it could impact you. And then retirement crisis on the horizon. Obviously millions of baby boomers. There's now 11,000 of them retiring every single day. Many of them feel unprepared. What are some things you can do to actually have financial peace when you've worked hard for 30, 40 plus years, saving for this next season of your life? And then you say, we'll talk about what it's like to work with us. So I think one of the big questions and we'll spend more time on this later. But one of the big questions that people ask is they'll say, hey, uh, one of the things I've noticed is that you guys specialize in retirement planning. How is that different than my financial advisor, who's more of a generalist that worked with anybody? So we'll touch on that as well. Uh, yellow state takeover. What would you like to touch on?

Speaker3:
Well, um, let's talk about the retirement red zone. I'm just kidding. Um, well, let's see. So, you know, target funds, why don't we just go? Go to that? Unless you have anything else to add. You know, I know we kind of joke a little bit, but that that retirement red zone, we're talking about people that are within five years of retirement or maybe just have retired five, you know, that have been in retirement for about five years. Um, and that's really where where we're talking about making a lot of these critical decisions and having somebody help guide you through that. Uh, but one of the things that we find is, you know, with target date funds, um, you know, whenever since Congress enacted, uh, the 401 K Back in 1978. Um. Pensions have been offered less and less. I think that in 2010, I think, um, 20% of the workforce, uh, had the ability had, uh, had access to a pension or a defined benefit plan, and that's dropped down to 15% as of the latest, uh, Bureau of Labor Statistics report that I read. So only 15% have access to a pension. So most people are looking at their employer sponsored plan, and they're looking at a 401 K or a defined contribution plan. And Trey, do you have the stats on that? How many people have access to one compared to how many people are actually participating in a 401 K plan? Yeah.

Speaker2:
So, uh.

Speaker3:
I do think it's like 60, 60 or 70% of people have access to one and something like 50% are taking advantage of it. Yeah, I think.

Speaker2:
I do think it's surprising, you know, so 20% of people that have access are not taking advantage. I think one of the things that we do a really poor job of is educating people on when to start a 401 K. How to use it? You know, we meet with people all the time whose kids are 40, and they have never started adding money to a 401 K. They haven't even opened it, and many of them somehow have missed the fact that their company actually does a match of three 4 or 5 6%. Right? And they're legitimately giving up free money. So, you know, I think one of the things that you and I see often, you'll say is, you know, almost every day a couple will say to me or an individual will say, man, it'd be nice just to have a little more money in my 401 K or a little more money in my IRA or a little bigger nest egg. And I think everybody feels that way, you know? So there's not like an amount or a number that all of a sudden people feel secure. But going back to talking about the pension piece, one of the things I would say is the clients that we work with that are the happiest are those that have the most guaranteed income, whether it's Social Security and a pension from work, whether it's Social Security and real estate, whatever those things are. You know, I think one of the things that we found is having guaranteed income for most people is what brings a lot of peace.

Speaker3:
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, as pensions, kind of, uh, you know, have fallen by the wayside a little bit. Um, employer sponsored plans are not there, mostly, but most of them have some type of target fund or, or an age based fund or sometimes referred to as a life cycle fund. And I would say that, you know, whenever we sit down with folks and they're looking at their investment options, especially as they're as they're getting ready to retire, and we're exploring many more options that are what are than what are typically available within their 401 K. A lot of times I'll ask like, how did you end up with these investments? And the response we often get is, well, you know, we were kind of told, you know, just just pick the fund that kind of coincides with your retirement date. If you think you're going to retire in ten years, well, do the, you know, 20, 35, uh, life cycle fund for instance. And a lot of that, you know, there there isn't really a whole lot of thought that goes into that. And the idea is you could just set it and forget it. This is all you need. And it's not exactly the right fund for everybody. And that's what I want to talk about. Why there might be some major issues and major challenges with, uh, a target retirement fund compared to some of the customization that you would get when you work with somebody like us. Um, you know, is there anything that you would add to that? Trey? Well, I think.

Speaker2:
One of the things that we see all the time is the fees. You know, I can't tell you how many times in a month I'll say to a couple, do you know what you're paying for fees in your 401 K or the 403 B, and they'll say, oh yeah. On my statement it says, you know, I pay whatever $25 a quarter. And I'm like, no, that's an administrative fee. Like there are so many hidden fees within a target account, like your expense ratios. There's the cost of the 401 K. A lot of people don't realize that there's management fees that can impact your returns over time and what most people don't realize. And you know, if you're listening, you can Google this. But the average cost of a 401 K is like one and a 1:45 and a to 2% all in. And so we have all these people that think they're spending 100 to $200 a year, but it's because there's so many hidden costs that one of the things that we can do for families that we meet with is we can actually show you what is the true cost of your 401 K. You know, every once in a while, we'll sit down with somebody who's a the president of their company or a vice president, and their company will cover a quarter or half or maybe more of their fees. But for 95% of people, they're paying those fees. And there's nothing wrong with having a cost. People just don't realize what they are. And it should be transparent because it's your money. And so one of the things we can do is we can help kind of bring out what are the hidden costs, what are you paying? And not just what are your fees, but what is it costing you by being in a target account that doesn't have the customization that you'd have in an IRA or a Roth IRA. Outside of the 401 K? Uh, how about as far as you say, you work very closely with the investment team when we talked about limited investment control. Touch on that for a moment if you would.

Speaker3:
Yeah. So everybody kind of knows that like whenever you choose to target fund, that fund is going to shift over time. It's going to shift, uh, towards being more conservative. Um, as the, as you get closer to that target date and the challenge where you don't have a lot of customization is, you know what? If you're somebody who just needs to have more growth. Like, there's some people who can afford to have a larger bond position because, you know, they're set for retirement. But there are some people who, if they take a if they assume a larger bond position immediately, they're going to have no hope of providing, like the type of returns that they might need to stay on track. And the worst thing is like, you know what? If you need to have more equity exposure or different type of exposure within your account, but you have this target fund that's progressively getting closer and closer to being more conservative over time, and that's hampering your chances of actually getting to where you need to go. So that's where the customization is a little bit lacking, you know, as far as the fees go. I would say, you know, having looked at a number of, of target funds, um, you know, there's different types, right? There's passively managed target funds, just like there's passively managed mutual funds. And those are typically pretty reasonable. There's also actively managed funds and those can be quite expensive. So I would say you know on the cost side it's easy. It's easy to mitigate that. But then here's the other thing. You know, if you have if you're within a 401 K, you probably only have access to one type of target fund, whether it's fidelity, Vanguard or something like that.

Speaker3:
But if you, you know, if you're looking at your own IRA and you're trying to decide, hey, you know, maybe I take all the guesswork out of investing, maybe I don't have to choose or select these funds, and I'm just going to pick a target fund. Well, now you have options, right? But how do you choose between them? Because, you know, just looking at like, for instance I looked up the Fidelity Freedom 2045 fund, and I compared that to the T Rowe Retirement 2045 fund and the Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 fund. And you would think, hey, it's a 2045 fund. What could be so different about them? Well, the fidelity fund has about 52% invested in US equities and 41% in international equities. If you compare that to the T Rowe one, that's 63% going to US equities and 30% going to international equities. So even though the even the starting point is very different and unique between them. But what about as time goes on goes by. Right. That allocation is going to change significantly. Right. And you have no control over that. You've just selected this fund. And whenever it changes or whenever it shifts towards being more conservative, that happens outside of your control. So not only are they all very different, and it's not as simple as, you know, setting it and forgetting it, you really you really don't have the ability to customize something and tailor it specifically to your needs to make sure that you're on track and that, you know, the projected return that you're hoping to achieve is even possible. I think one of the other things that.

Speaker2:
A lot of the families that we serve really appreciate about us at Guardian and all things financial is that we do all of our investments in house. So what that means is whenever you have a question or whenever you're wondering, why do we still have real estate in the portfolio when real estate's been down, why do we still have a portion of bonds when bonds have, you know, basically sucked until this year, over the last five years, instead of just saying, let me get Ahold of somebody that's a third party. It's literally you and our Saint Louis Park office that's making those decisions. So I think what's really nice is everything is in-house. And so we're making adjustments that make sense and not just setting and forgetting. And you're not having a group that's leaving things alone just because you're a part of this, you know, large group where you don't have access to the decision makers. So I also think it's nice to work with the team, that everything is done in house, that you actually can talk with the decision makers, and a lot of people don't have access to that, because the other thing that we do always say is, is the customization piece, you know, so when we have families that come in and maybe they have a handful of stocks that they really like, we can make that a part of the portfolio, which also can give you some as you talk about often is a little bit of lift on the returns. But anything else you want to say about how we manage funds? I know we're going to go into a modern portfolio theory soon, but maybe that's a good segue.

Speaker3:
Um, I think the last thing I'll say is just a quick example. You know, I was just looking at the Vanguard Target retirement fund. We see that one all the time. And I love Vanguard. I think they're a great company. But I was looking at just the the rate of return that many of these funds have had over the last five years. So they're 2025 fund over the last five years, it's returned about 4%. And that's kind of what you would expect. Right? You're going to retire next year, right? You're going to have a huge percentage of that fund is going to be in bonds. And you compare that to the 2050 fund, right? That's somebody who's going to retire in 25 years. So that's like you know, let's I don't know, let's say that's somebody who's in their mid 30s, probably somebody who's in their mid 30s over the last five years, would have returned about 34% in the 2015 Vanguard Target Retirement Fund. The S&P 500 over the last five years has done about 85%. I know this isn't like a perfect example, but imagine, you know, if you're in your early 30s or mid 30s and you're looking at the market, it's returned about 85% and you've only gotten about 34%. Like, wouldn't that be a little concerning that? Like, I mean, it wouldn't feel very good knowing that, you know, you only got 34% over the same period. The S&P 500 did 85%. Right. So that's where, you know, the customization comes in. And making sure that you're not just sticking everything into one fund, even though you know your plan, your benefits specialist at work is maybe encouraging you to do that because it's much easier, but you're putting a little bit more thought into it, and you're looking at your specific goals and objectives and creating a portfolio around that. So I think with that, um, let's move on to, um, the 401 K checklist.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I actually really like this for people that are checklist people I know I am. This is a good way to, after you leave the podcast to actually put together some action to your new phone knowledge. So step number one is sounds obvious, but keep an eye on your investments. So what does that mean? If your employer offers a free match, make sure you contributing up to that level so that you're not giving away any free money, because we want to take advantage of that benefit. And I would.

Speaker3:
Say that that's probably the minimum, right? At a minimum.

Speaker2:
Yeah, for sure. I think two, I think what you and I would agree on is, you know, you want to get to 10% as quickly as you can. And then I would say every year that you have a bonus or an increase, add 1% until you get to 15% and then revisit it to see if you know. Now you shift other monies to investing in real estate, or if you increase that to 20% and, you know, whatever that number is for you. You know, I know we have a handful of families that we serve that they're within five years of retirement and they've paid off all their debt. So one of them will actually contribute, you know, 50 to 100% of their income into their Sep IRA or into their retirement account to lower their taxes because they don't need the income. So why pay taxes on money that you don't need? So that's something for people that are close to retirement, that you have low expenses and you're not even spending what's coming in, but you're paying taxes on it. That may be something that's thoughtful for you to lower your tax bill and to give you a boost to that nest egg if you're retiring in the near future.

Speaker2:
The other thing that I think is, you know, we see people that are tempted to stop contributing, especially when the market's down. I think it's discouraging. You know, like in 2022, I had a handful of people that were 1 to 3 years away from retirement, and they basically said, hey, what if I just pause because you've said, I have enough? And I'm like, well, you could pause, but then your tax will go up because now you can't write that off, and then you're gonna end up putting it in a savings account that maybe makes 1 or 2% instead of into an investment account. That's averaging, depending on your risk tolerance, 6 or 8 or 10 or 12. And so one of the things I would say is one of the mistakes that we see people make is within a year or a couple years of retirement, if they feel comfortable enough, they'll stop contributing and forget that they're giving up free money. Mhm. Um, how about anything else under keeping an eye on investments that you want to touch on before we move on.

Speaker3:
Yeah. You know when you look at when the market's down that that's actually the best time to contribute right. We all know you know everyone's heard this a million times right. Buy low. Sell high. Um but it's it's you know, you look at what's happening in the economy right now and it's it's understandable. Right? People are borrowing money Credit card debt is at an all time high. Personal savings, that is. Is at an all time low. Um, it might be difficult to make those contributions, especially if you need all of the dollars you can get, right? I mean, obviously inflation potentially, you know, we'll see how under control it is. And it looks like, you know, the rate cut is is all but done in September. But we'll see what's going to happen going forward. So it can be difficult to to lower your contributions, especially when the markets, you know, not doing great when the economy maybe isn't as strong because you need that, the additional income. But I would say, you know, avoid that temptation as much as you can, continue making those contributions, continue taking advantage of that employer match. I mean, that's really the best time to do it, to buy into the market when it is down. Right. Yeah. Uh, number.

Speaker2:
Two, check for target date funds so we won't spend a ton of time because I think we did a good job. Uh, but I would just say, like, just because you've been in a target date fund and it's worked in the past, don't assume because it's worked that there's nothing better. I actually think one of the things that's sad is when we meet with people and they're like, hey, I've had a target date fund, you know, basically the most the, the majority of my career. Why would I change now? You and I both know Jim Collins has a great book called Good to Great and just on a very surface level, I would just say, you know, just because something's worked good, don't let that help you settle for something that could perform or has performed even better. And so one of the things I would say to those listening is, if you've always had target date funds and you want to know, what would it look like to have a custom portfolio and how is that performed compared to what I currently have over the last ten years? That's one of the things that we can show you is kind of just the fruit of a custom portfolio compared to having a target date fund, and I think a lot of people would be surprised of what it looks like to go from that target date fund to a custom portfolio with the oftentimes the extra returns. Uh, what what other things do you see in the target date funds? That could be a mistake for people.

Speaker3:
I personally don't love them, but I just think that, you know, the whole the whole idea of retirement, or at least when you're getting close to it, like your investment philosophy, just it just needs to change a little bit, you know, and and some of it's just obvious, right? You're no longer earning a paycheck. You no longer have the time on your side potentially. But it just it needs to change. And a lot of the fundamentals that make sense for a 20 or 30 year old, they're just they're not exactly the best way for you to invest going forward. And I think that, you know, I love the expression, you know, what got you here isn't necessarily going to get you there. And that's where, you know, you need to look at at some decisions that, you know, that center around the type of the type and the sources of income that you're going to have in retirement, whether that's, you know, like many Americans, you know, two thirds of Americans rely on Social Security. I'm sorry, everybody relies on Social Security. But to make up two thirds of your income, right, where Social Security accounts for two thirds of most Americans, on average, their income in retirement Not everybody has a pension.

Speaker3:
Right? Pensions are going down. To what extent are you relying on your retirement savings to fund your retirement, your daily activities, your expenses that you have? And I think that that is maybe the first question that that you need to answer and you need to put, you know, put a lot of effort and hopefully you're working with somebody who can help you do this into putting a portfolio together that helps you succeed in retirement. What's the chance of success? What are the odds that you're going to make it, and you're not going to run out? That you're going to be able to live in retirement without compromising your lifestyle? I think that's an important thing to ask. And I think that, you know, target funds, even though they can get you there, potentially, there's probably a better way to do it. There's probably some, you know, there's probably more thought and more customization that can happen to help your portfolio perform the way you need it to. Yeah. Well said.

Speaker2:
Number four, it's your money. Take time to control your retirement savings. So is your advisor or your employer really helping you with your investments or do they kind of have a set it and forget it mentality? You know, one of the things I ask people all the time that have a financial advisor and a lot of people have great ones, but I'll say, hey, outside of investing your money, the 1% or the one and a quarter or the 1.5% that you're paying him or her, what is it getting you? And they look at me like, well, what else could they do for me? And one of the things I would, I would challenge people is don't pay 1% just for somebody to pick funds and forget them. You know, what's what's typically a sign that you've been a set and forget. Client one is you still have more than 40% of your money in bonds. You know, you look at the safe money world and a lot of people know that's kind of my focus is there's so many better tools today with money market T-bills, you know, no fee annuities. And so if you're in a model where you're paying 1% and you're in a set and forget it, where you have all these bonds that used to work in the past, and they haven't been performing like they used to. You know, you're probably in one of those models, you know, for that 1%, you should be getting tax advice, you should be getting planning, you should be getting at least, you know, two, three, four appointments a year, reviewing the changes you have around your expenses and inflation and the market.

Speaker2:
And if you're not getting all of that for 1%, in my opinion, you're overpaying. You should be getting more for your fee than just the funds that they put in there. So take control. You know, if you've been passive and you've just trusted your guy or your gal, hey, this is your money. Nobody cares about it more than you do. So get a second opinion. In fact, you say you and I, one of the things that we love to do for people is give them a second opinion. And I think one of the things that surprises people is if people have a good advisor and their plan is working, I said, but one of the areas that we could help you is tax strategy, because that's something that you're not getting And one of the things that you and I find a lot, you say is a lot of people have a tax preparer, and a tax preparer is somebody that looks back at what you could have done were a tax strategist is looking forward. And if you don't have a tax strategist that's looking forward at your tax planning opportunities, that's an area where we can help sit down and show you whether there's opportunities or if you're already taking advantage of all of them. Anything you want to say to wrap up before we go into the next, next piece as we wrap up the podcast here.

Speaker3:
Well, it's amazing how, you know, we sit down with folks and they and they always tell us, well, my CPA said I should have done this. I go, oh, is it your first year working with him? No. Well, why didn't he tell you in the beginning of the year or before? You know, like, hey, is this like, the first time he's noticing it too? Like he's been doing your taxes for five years. Why are the ideas coming after the after? You know, the return is prepared. So you really want to make sure that you're working with somebody who's thinking a little bit more strategically, I would say, than just simply preparing your return. You know, a lot of these guys, you know, they're getting the returns done in ten, 15 minutes because they have 3 to 500 returns that they're trying to crank out. And for them to sit down and like to spend a little bit of time, I mean, that's, you know, that's next to impossible during tax season. So a lot of the work actually happens outside of tax season, outside of that prep season, right, where you're actually sitting down with somebody like us or a CPA, uh, throughout the year, who's helping you plan and be strategic. Right. Well, that's well said.

Speaker2:
Smile.

Speaker3:
I need a picture.

Speaker2:
Taking a picture, man. Um, well, here's what I would say too, is a lot of people don't realize that as your season of life changes, what you need in an advisor changes. So some of the listeners, they have an advisor that is a retirement planning specialist, meaning that they specialize specifically in helping people in this season of life. But most of the people that we meet with, they have a generalist that whether you're 18 or 20 5 or 45. They invest money for everybody and, well, there's nothing wrong with that. They're not spending the best hours of their best days helping people solve the problems that you and I are helping people solve. You know, I would say that your retirement is probably one of the top five, if not one of the top three changes that you're going to experience in your life. Like you think about what are the biggest changes in your life. So maybe number one is the shift. When you go from an academic arena like high school or college to the workforce. Number two is probably when you or if you get married, right. That's significant. Number three is probably when you have kids. That's significant. What's number four? Is there anything bigger than number four when you retire and you go from getting a paycheck from a company or your business to now all of a sudden you're living off of savings that you've spent decades only adding money to. Not only are you not adding money, now, you're actually taking money out.

Speaker2:
And so if you're coming into a season that's probably the fourth or fifth biggest change that you'll ever make in your life, in my opinion, you need an expert to walk you through. When do we turn on Social Security? What do we do for health insurance? What Medicare plan is the best for us? How do we know which bucket of money to pull from and in what order? And do I have a person or do I have a team? And I think one of the things that we've done really well is we've created a team of experts. So the families that we serve and the individuals that we serve. It's not just trade Peterson as their advisor or Jose Coutts as their advisor. They have Trey and jealousy. They have a social security expert with Ryan Moffitt. They have a Medicare and insurance expert with Christine Lanoux. They have, um, uh, a great tax advisor with either Jim or Matt. So we've got this incredible team that we've built that for the same 1 or 1.25% that you're paying just to get investments. You have access to a whole team. So we may or may not be a fit for you, but one of the things that people love about meeting with us is our process is so education driven, and by the time somebody walks away with a solution, most of the time they go, hey, I've been paying 1% just for somebody to pick my funds, meet with me a couple times a year and now for the same or a lower cost, I get access to a team of experts.

Speaker2:
There is value in that. So if you're someone that doesn't have access to a team of retirement planning specialists, give us a call. Shoot me an email. I'd love to give you a second opinion, complimentary and the things that are working. I'm going to point those out. The things that are not working. Jealousy is going to point those out. I say that jokingly, but, uh, you know, we're a great team. We're right here in Burnsville. A lot of you know that we also have access to our partner. We have an office in Saint Louis Park. So wherever you're at in the Twin Cities, we're likely close enough to you that it's worth the drive to say, am I getting everything that I should for that one or that 1.25%? And I really think it would be worth a 45 minute to 60 minute session to see. Can I get more for my money? Because your finances are not a personal decision. They're a business decision. You should be running your finances like a business. Maybe you've always done that. Maybe you've never done that. But I want to welcome you to looking at am I getting as much as I can for the dollars that I'm spending on my wealth management? Yellow. Say, what do you want to add to that?

Speaker3:
So my final thoughts on this are, you know, whenever you kind of near those retirement years, you're going to be inundated with all kinds of mail, all kinds of marketing. Everything's coming at you. And I would just say, just like be careful. Be careful to, you know, to you're making a transition, right? You're probably going to be rolling over your retirement savings from your 401 K's to an IRA. You're probably going to have somebody who's going to help you with that. Most people, they find somebody. So just like, be careful that you're not showing up at a dinner seminar and you're working with with someone who's pretending to be a financial advisor. But three years ago they were selling vacuums. But there's more more money in this industry, right? And you know, they're not they're pushing products, right? They're not putting together a plan where they're considering all of those things. And Trey mentioned that, you know, there's a lot of things that change in life, right? There's, you know, getting married, getting your career started, having children. And those are all mostly positive. But you want to work with somebody who's also been around the block a little bit, and they know what it's like when, you know, when you're working with a client and the spouse has to be confined to a nursing home, or, you know, when somebody's dealing with a loss of a spouse, or maybe we're settling in a state and we've had enough experience to know that, hey, even for those types of moments, the challenging moments in life. This isn't our first time going through it, and we're not in this business just to sell a product. We're putting together a plan for somebody, and we're helping them from the beginning of retirement to the end of retirement. And in many cases, we're working with clients and and even their children, because we've been doing this long enough where we want to make sure that we're leaving an impact, and not just in terms of like, you know, one person's life, but we're also doing a lot of legacy planning. Yeah.

Speaker2:
Uh, I think we can wrap up from here. Here's what I would just say is one, thanks for joining us for episode number 25. Uh, we got to look at the calendar. I would really love for us to get 15 more in so we can hit our goal of 40, let's say. So let's chat about that. Um, but our goal in this was to create a content of library library of content. And, uh, if I can do this, you can do this. No, but our goal is to have a library of content so that the families that we serve and those that we meet have access to all of the information to retire well. And so thank you for joining us. You know, check out our other podcasts. Uh, we're striving for excellence in all that we do. And we would look forward to meeting with you. So good things ahead. The best things are ahead. Check us out. All things financial Podcast.com or Guardian Wealth Strategies. Com and you can see access to our full team in the Birdsville and the Saint Louis Park office. Y'all see anything you want to add? I think you got it. All right. Have a great day. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker1:
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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