Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: 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.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome to Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida, the show that puts you in control of your financial future. Your hosts, Bradley and Madison Hardin, are a trusted husband and wife team dedicated to helping you design a retirement that fits your lifestyle, your goals, and your vision for the years ahead. From smart income strategies and Social Security planning to protecting your wealth and living life on your own terms, this is the place where financial clarity meets coastal confidence. Whether you're just entering the retirement red zone or already enjoying your golden years, Bradley and Madison are here to guide you every step of the way. This is retirement your way. Let's build the future you deserve.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: Hello and welcome to Retirement yout way. I'm Matt McClure. Thanks so much for joining us this time around. I am here with Bradley and Madison Hardin from Amerilife of Central Florida. Hello once again. Appreciate you of course, as always, sharing your wisdom with us.
[00:01:25] Speaker D: You are welcome. Matt, good to see you again.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: It's very good to see you both. For anybody who might be joining us for the first time, talk about yourselves a little bit and kind of, you know, how you got into this maybe, and you know, AmeriLife of Central Florida as well and what Amerilife is all about.
[00:01:39] Speaker E: Yeah. So for over 50 years now, AmeriLife has been providing life, health and financial solutions to clients nationwide.
And we luckily have combined 17 years of experience helping retirees safely navigate their, their new journey in retirement.
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Doing that right here in Central Florida.
[00:02:01] Speaker D: Yeah. And I started off with Amerilife as a telemarketer. So my job was to call you on the phone and interrupt.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: Interrupt your dinner.
[00:02:08] Speaker D: Exactly. You know, hello, this is Bradley. But you know, over the time of being a telemarketer, I saw that the good that people were doing in the community, helping retirees, when clients would come into the office and then they would leave, the look of relief is really what drew me to want to pursue this as a long term career. And I'm happy to be able to do that with my wife on a daily basis.
[00:02:29] Speaker E: And that's really Amerilife's mission is just to help their clients live longer, healthier lives.
[00:02:35] Speaker C: That is a wonderful goal to have, of course. And you know, a lot goes into planning for retirement. Obviously there are a lot of decision points.
If you have been saving and investing your whole working life, for example, you've probably got a big nest egg saved up by now. The real question though, is how do you take that one big number and turn it into income that you can actually live on? And then more importantly, how do you then, you know, make sure that you can never run out of money in retirement? Well, the focus of today's show is on income. So let's start out by talking about the source of income that we should all be able to count on in our retirement years, and that is Social Security.
It's, you know, of course, the thing that people talk about a lot during retirement. A lot of people, probably too many, rely on it solely for retirement. But it's a big, you know, decision to make when to draw it. There is just a lot that goes into it.
[00:03:32] Speaker D: Right. And when Social Security was designed, it was really only intended to replace 30 to 40% of your working wages.
And so a lot of times when we sit down with our clients, we try to bridge that gap. Okay, well, Mr. Jones, you are making X amount of dollars at your job. Social Security is only going to bring in this amount of money.
So we try to come up with a plan to, to offset that and supplement Social Security, because as you mentioned, it's only going to take up about a third of a retiree's income once they're in retirement.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: Yeah, and that's key because I think that as I alluded to, it's not enough going to be enough to cover all of your expenses in retirement. And you know, it should be a situation, I feel like, where people have a plan in place and then Social Security is kind of the cherry on top. It's not the thing that you're relying on. Right. Every month to make ends meet.
[00:04:26] Speaker E: Right. And one common strategy that we use to kind of explain that is the three legged stool.
So Social Security simply makes up one portion of that, whereas the other two streams are going to be if you were lucky enough to have a pension from a job and then your investment accounts and how those are going to be able to pay you in retirement to kind of bridge that gap.
Unfortunately, pensions from a company are a lot more slim now than they used to be. So if you are lucky enough to have one, and that's great. But where we really see something that we can offer our clients is by creating that personal pension for them in which you're going to have more flexibility for a single versus a joint, which you may not always have at a company. And there's a lot more benefits to that than people understand.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot more benefits, a lot more options there. Some flexibility also. And I think people watching are probably like, wait a minute, I didn't even know that such a thing existed. Is that something that you find people say a lot when you meet with them or people maybe at seminars you do in the community and that sort of thing to educate people about this? They're like, I didn't know I could actually create my own personal pension.
[00:05:35] Speaker D: Right, exactly. Like you said, everyone's heard of Social Security.
Everybody knows generally what a pension is. But creating your own personal pension is new to these seminars and these events. And a lot of people enjoy the ability to be able to control that. So if I want to take it now, I can. If I want to let it defer just like Social Security, I can.
If I want to pay it just to me or to my spouse as well, you've got plenty of options versus this is what it is. And this is all of your choices.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's also something that can provide you with some protection against market risk as well. And when you're in that sort of accumulation phase, you can also get a lot of other benefits even in retirement. We were talking just recently about long term care. If you might need long term care, it's something that you could use that as a benefit. And so I feel like there's a lot of education that we're probably providing to a lot of people here right now because they don't necessarily know that that's even an option. And how many different options are within this one particular investment vehicle?
[00:06:39] Speaker D: Right, Absolutely.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, very good. Well, stick around. We've got so much more to talk about as far as income goes. We're going to talk about different income streams here on today's show.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: It's time for this week's Problem SOL.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Well, let's move on and talk now about an actual real life scenario that you guys have helped a family that you all have helped. We're calling them the Jones family. We're changing the name to protect the innocent here.
But the Jones family, as we're calling them, need a little help in their plan. And one of those was actually having to do with Social Security, something that we were just talking about, but kind of lay out, give us the lay of the land as far as the Jones family and what their issues are.
[00:07:27] Speaker D: Right. And so when we initially met with them, the husband was already retired and the wife is working as a school teacher and he had been taking the advice for as long as he can remember to defer Social Security until age 70. He wanted to maximize his benefit. So that was his plan for years up until.
Up until we met them.
After we did a thorough analysis, we discovered that every year he was having to make withdrawals from his 401k plan to cover the expenses that his wife's employment did not cover.
So she was working, bringing in income, but also to supplement that, he was drawing down those accounts. Those accounts also were still invested on the stock market. So now I know over the past, you know, 10 years or so, those accounts were rising. But we did see in 2022 and 2023, those start to come back a little bit. So when we sat down, we analyzed, you know, is it the best idea to defer your Social Security until age 70?
One reason is we never know when we're going to pass away. And so by him drawing down those accounts, what it was doing essentially was leaving less money in a lump sum version to his wife if something were to happen to him.
And so through discovery and finding out what was best for them, we actually educated them enough to where he did in fact, start turning on his Social Security, started collecting that benefit, and he protected those accounts. So not only were we able to help them create lifetime income that they cannot live, we also protected the assets from the market.
[00:09:12] Speaker C: That's wonderful. And really kind of, you know, using different financial instruments here that to, to use a very old phrase, kill two birds with one stone in, in a way, or, you know, cover all your bases, whatever analogy or illustration you want to use.
And that's important because it's. It really is, as. As we've talked about before, a holistic kind of approach. Because, you know, none of these things live on an island by themselves. It's like, you know, your investments over here, your Social Security is over here, and all this. No, it's all part of one picture.
[00:09:43] Speaker E: Right? And like we mentioned before, sometimes people aren't even aware of these tools that are available to them. And we were able to, like Bradley said, protect some of their nest egg and then also create another income stream that they will be able to turn on, so to speak, whenever they're ready to. So they definitely appreciated the help that we were able to give them, and especially from an emotional standpoint, because it was very stressful for him having to take those withdrawals and just watching their accounts come down and come down just to pay their taxes and pay their homeowners insurance and these big things that certainly aren't decreasing in cost. So it was definitely a to kill two birds with one stone sort of.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Thing, or a lot of birds with one stone. Yeah, we're just killing birds all over the place, apparently.
I love it. Well, and do you find out too, I mean, you know, like as you were saying, people don't necessarily know that particular financial vehicles exist. They might think, oh, that maybe sounds too good to be true, or whatever the situation might be, that really knowledge is power a lot of the time. And when you have the knowledge, because people may have heard bad things about, oh, don't invest in this particular thing or don't invest in that particular thing with people on the radio or TV or whatever making just blanket statements about this entire section of your financial life. Don't, you know, do this.
Do you find that knowledge really is power? And the more, more power that you have, the more that you are able to make those educated decisions.
[00:11:18] Speaker D: Right, exactly. And also these, these solutions have been around for hundreds of years. And so, you know, particularly some of these solutions, they survived through the Great Depression.
So knowing that these people that are providing you these personal pension plans and this protection, this is not anything new. So they've been around for a long time, but it's just people haven't really been looking for it. And, and so it's nice to be able to educate people in the community, whether it's through this or through dinners and stuff, and show them that there are other ways to be protected and kind of have that it's five o' clock somewhere type of retirement.
[00:11:55] Speaker E: Right.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: There you go. And not a just in case kind of retirement. You know, you don't want to just be flying by the seat of your pants and all of the things. I've got so many illustrations and analogies and things today, I don't even know what to do with myself.
Stick around though. We've got much more of Retirement your way still to come, there is going to be a game that we will play. It's called Right or Wrong that is coming up. And who knows, we may have prizes or you may just get to have some pride in yourself if you get it right. So play along with us when we come back. Stick around. Retirement yout Way continues next.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: You're listening to Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida to schedule a no cost, no obligation consultation. Give the team a call at 386-977-9684 or visit planretirementyourway.com.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Do you have a vision for what you want your retirement to look like Matt I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amerilife.
Planning for retirement can be overwhelming. A survey from Go Banking Rates shows that one third of Americans don't think they know enough about retirement, and they're probably right.
So if you fall into that category, how do you know where to begin? Well, you've got to know where you want to go before you start planning how to get there. That's where having a smart vision for your retirement comes in.
Whether you want to be a jet setter during your retirement years, want to take it easy in a quiet cabin in the woods, or start a new adventure by opening your own business, you should set that goal and keep it in mind throughout your working years, retirement expert Dean Wagenspak said during a recent TED Talk.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: I want to challenge all of us.
[00:13:45] Speaker D: To redefine retirement away from depart, remove withdrawal to a new definition, a blending of pay, passion and purpose.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Still, retirement looks different for everyone. Sit down with your spouse and talk about your retirement goals. That will make it easier to determine how fiscally responsible you need to be now and how much income you'll need to make it happen after you retire. That's right, I said income. More and more retirees are finding that cash flow is more important than one big nest egg number. Annuities are a great option for most retirees to generate an income you can never outlive.
That's especially important since life expectancy has grown over the years, so you'll need to plan for a longer period of time than you may think.
So do you have a smart vision for your retirement years? That's a key question to consider as you start planning how to get there with the Retirement Radio Network powered by AmericanLife. I'm Matt McClure.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Welcome back. It's time to talk more about building the retirement you've been dreaming about.
This Is Retirement yout Way.
[00:14:53] Speaker C: Thanks so much for being a part of the show this time around. Matt McClure here alongside Bradley and Madison Hardin with the mural Life of Central Florida. It is time for us to play everyone's favorite financial game show.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in right or Wrong.
[00:15:24] Speaker C: Unfortunately, we have no prizes to give you other than our gratitude for joining us for the show and having fun along with us. But what we want you to do at home or wherever you happen to be is to play along with us. Test your financial knowledge a little bit and see how well you do. As I present a statement, try and Pull the wool over the eyes of these two over here and fool them a little bit.
I'll just say a statement as if it is the gospel truth and they'll tell me whether or not it is actually right or if it is wrong. Okay, let's do this. Another edition of Right or Wrong and we'll hop right into it with a bunch of questions about Social Security this time around, as that's been a big focus of the show.
So this is number one, under current Social Security law, full retirement age is 65, no matter when you were born.
[00:16:14] Speaker E: That is wrong. So full retirement age is actually 67 for anyone born after 1960. And it depends on when you were born.
[00:16:24] Speaker D: Yeah, and big misconception, as you said, is that doesn't matter when you start or when I was born. And actually during the years, depending on the month, you could be 66 in two months, four months, six months, eight months or 10 months. So to say the least, they make it a little bit more confusing than I believe it should be.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: But yeah, I was going to say, doesn't that sound nice to just have one size for everybody? Kind of a one size fits all sort of a deal. But I got to make it a little bit more complicated than that. It's just ease of understanding. Not necessarily a top of mind for this, but that's true. It's either 66, 66 and some months, or the age of 66.
[00:17:02] Speaker E: And just to elaborate on that further, that's something that we help our clients with a lot on our initial meetings is getting logged into that Social Security website. You can track your benefit, see exactly how much it will be if you take it early, if you decide to defer. The website is very intuitive and that's something we help people with because it can be a little bit daunting when you're coming up on Social Security.
[00:17:24] Speaker D: Right. And the main point is we want to make sure that you get to retire your way. And so by helping strategize Social Security benefits again, it's leading to that five o' clock summer retirement where we're taking out all of that worry.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: All right, so number two here, in most cases, if I take benefits before my full retirement age, they'll be reduced for early filing.
[00:17:47] Speaker D: That is right.
And so the earliest that you can take Social Security is age 62, unless you are disabled. So that's a different category. But if you're not disabled, then 62 is the earliest in which your benefit is reduced. Now, every year that you wait, you do get an 8% increase. And part of our initial consultation is helping decide whether or not I should file early, whether I should file full retirement, or whether I should defer all the way to age 70, which is the maximum allowed time for you to be able to wait.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Yeah, and that really is, again, one of those things that is customizable for the individual because you might think, oh, it's this government program. I can just, I'll just take it whenever, you know, go on to. In the beginning, go on, take the money and run. Or I will, you know, wait until my full retirement age and get the full benefit, or I know I'm waiting all the way to 70 and getting the maximum benefit. You know, it really is a different situation for each individual person.
[00:18:46] Speaker E: Right. And for couples, they may want to utilize more of a split approach where you allow the higher earners to get that increase each year while you go ahead and draw on the lower earner's benefit for the now money, so to speak.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: Yeah, and there you go. I mean, just another option there for people in a married couple sort of a situation.
Speaking of married couples, the next one, the next statement in Right or Wrong here is this. If I have a spouse and he or she passes away, I will receive both my full benefit and my deceased spouse's full benefit.
[00:19:20] Speaker E: Unfortunately, that is wrong.
That would be nice, though.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: I know. I was gonna say it's another one of those wouldn't that be nice situations.
[00:19:26] Speaker E: So unfortunately, you will, you know, as they say, you'll get to keep the higher check. So that is great. But the lower of the two checks will leave the house whenever that spouse does pass away.
[00:19:38] Speaker D: Right. And again, part of planning for retirement is planning for the worst case scenario.
So we try to talk about, you know, if this were to happen, what would you do? And when we sit down and meet with our clients, we go through those one on one with them.
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Yeah, you got to plan for those like, what ifs in life because it is, as I like to say, sometimes it's. It's life and anything can happen. You don't have a crystal ball. Mine has been broken for quite some time. So I have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day or anything like that. So you got to plan for all those different contingencies. Right. That whatever might happen. And this is another example of that when it comes to Social Security income. All right, one more here in this edition of Right or Wrong.
Based on the government's most recent calculations, Social Security benefits could be reduced by 20% or more for everyone by 2035.
[00:20:33] Speaker D: That is right.
And so depending on who gets elected to office, they're going to have a decision to make on what to do to fix this problem.
And we can't predict the future. We don't know what's going to happen. But some of the clients that we've met with who are worried about this happening or we've already established a plan, okay, if this does happen, what will I do? And they've gone into vehicles where they can supplement the Social Security and make up that difference and that paycheck will continue for life and there will be no cuts to that paycheck ever. And that is guaranteed.
[00:21:08] Speaker E: Right. And unfortunately, we can't control what the decision is going to be or what the fate of Social Security is, but we can control what we do with our own personal investments in the position that we put ourselves in.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Yeah. And so set yourself up for success and get yourself a plan for your more successful retirement so that you can have a retirement your way. That is the name of the show, after all. But stick around. We've got much more of Retirement your Way to come. We'll see you in just a minute.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: You're listening to Retirement Your Way with AmeriLife of Central Florida to schedule a no cost, no obligation consultation. Give the team a call at 386-977-9684, or visit planretirementyourway.com do you need to.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Jumpstart your savings this year? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amerilife. Hardworking Americans like you are saving money every day, putting funds aside for things like vacations, a down payment on a new home, or building up an emergency fund. But millions of us struggle to make saving a priority. A recent survey shows just over 20% of Americans have more than $5,000 in their savings accounts.
[00:22:19] Speaker C: But experts say there are some things.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: You can do to ramp up your savings and help you meet your goals. One is to refresh your budget. Take a look at all of your bills and make sure you're not living beyond your means. Consider using a budgeting app to help make the process easier. Step 2 Automate your savings. Social media influencer and financial author Vivian Tew recently told the today, very few.
[00:22:42] Speaker E: Of us actually get paper checks anymore. So go into your workplace's direct deposit form that you need to fill out and put some of it into your checking account. But put some of it into your savings account because you get to take advantage of the principle of out of sight, out of mind. You don't see the money you don't spend.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: It even goes.
[00:22:58] Speaker E: It makes it so, so easy.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Step three, set concrete savings goals. Spell out how much and what it's for. For instance, telling yourself save up $2,000 for a trip to London has much more of an impact than just saying save more money.
So are you ready to pay yourself first? That's a key question to consider as you focus on your future with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by AmericanLife. I'm Matt McClure.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: This is Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida. Thank you so much for sticking with us throughout the show today. I really do appreciate your time and hopefully, hopefully you're getting a lot of great sort of nuggets to take into your own financial Life. I'm Matt McClure here alongside Bradley and Madison Hardin with Amerilife of Central Florida.
We've talked about a lot of different things, covered a lot of territory today, mainly around Social Security and retirement income in general. But with a focus on Social Security, what are whichever one of you wants to grab this, As I throw it out here, what's maybe the one main takeaway that you guys kind of want to emphasize from this show?
[00:24:12] Speaker E: I think looking back on this episode, it would be that it's important to meet with a professional and get a second pair of eyes on what you may have thought was going to be your plan for drawing Social Security in your retirement income. It may not always be the path that you stay on, and that's okay. Once you learn new alternatives to your plan, you may want to go a different course with it.
[00:24:40] Speaker D: Right. I agree. And the biggest thing is transitioning from that accumulation stage into that planning, preparation, and then ultimately distribution, where I'm now going to be living on and living with the choices I've made up to this point. And as we pointed out in the case study, it was the couple that we sat with, they thought they knew exactly what they wanted to do. You know, this was the advice. This is where we were headed. And through that discovery and through that conversation, we ultimately decided that that may not be the best strategy for you guys. And it was their choice to make. But we did give them that second opinion and they ultimately decided to go with what we, what we asked of them.
[00:25:21] Speaker C: Yeah. And that is a super important point to make. I think, and really emphasize here is that it's not you simply going and saying, okay, no, this is what you have to do in like this sort of high pressure situation.
It's a. You take a look at the picture holistically. Right. But it's a partnership. You're working with those people to come up with the best plan for them. And the education part is really where all that starts.
[00:25:46] Speaker E: Right. And going back to that holistic approach with these particular clients, we met them before they were retired, before they were of age to be on Medicare, and we were actually able to help them with their health care, with their retirement income, with their finances. So they became clients of ours from all aspects. And because we were able to do that, it gave us a better idea of how we were going to be able to help them from all angles. So it benefited them in a large way.
[00:26:17] Speaker D: Right. And they have a daughter that they still care for. And so we just, we wanted to make sure that they made the right choice for the whole family, not just because they heard somebody talking about, oh, this is what you should do. This is the best and only strategy. And, and again, not every strategy is the same. So we've met plenty of people where they elected to defer Social Security. And again, all of that is customizable and comes out when we create a plan.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: Right. What happens if somebody is to go to the website, call the number? What's that sort of initial meeting like when you sit down with someone?
[00:26:49] Speaker E: So typically in our first meetings, we're just getting to know each other, sort of like I've said before, getting to know that new doctor specialist that you're trying to get them up to speed.
We just ask you a lot of questions. You can ask us any questions, and we kind of get a good baseline for our fact finder. So we say, so we can take it back and do our own research and analyze your specific need, and then we'll come back with any findings that we have and see if we can maybe go from there. But typically our first appointments are very lax. We try to keep it very, you know, easygoing and just get to know each other on more of a personal level so we can build that relationship.
[00:27:29] Speaker C: Yeah. So important, right. When you're starting out with first meeting with people, just actually getting to know them and their financial situation.
[00:27:36] Speaker D: Right, right. And like we've said, it's not one size, absolutely does not fit all. So we try to custom tailor that.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: Yeah, if it says one size fits all, it really doesn't fit anybody all that well, you know, so there you go. If you folks want a customized plan just for you, just specifically tailored to your needs, I would encourage you to set up that initial consultation again. It's free of any cost and any obligation. Bradley Madison will be glad to get started on a plan just for you. Well, Bradley, Madison, thank you both. Really do appreciate your time once again.
[00:28:08] Speaker E: Thank you Matt.
[00:28:09] Speaker D: Thank you Matt. We look forward to sitting with you again.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Absolutely. We'll do it again next time right here when we're back with more Retirement your Way.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us for Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida. Our goal is to bring clarity and confidence to your retirement journey. Remember, Bradley and Madison Hardin are here to help you create a personalized plan for the future you deserve. If you'd like to schedule a no cost, no obligation consultation, give the team a call at 386-977-9684 or visit planretirementyourway.com and don't forget to tune in next week, same time, same place for more strategies, insights and support to help you live retirement your way. Investment Advisory Services offer through Brookstone Capital Management, llc, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Amerilife are separate companies but are affiliated through Common Ownership Insurance. Products and services are not offered through vcm, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents not affiliated with the United States Government. Bradley and Madison Hardin do not offer tax or legal advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended to predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific results. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Amerilife assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or the results obtained from the use of this information.
