Finishing Well: Level Up

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Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. Now, let's get started with Finishing Well. Finishing Well is a general discussion and education of the issues facing retirees. CardinalGuide.com, Cardinal Advisors, and Hans Shiel, CFP, sell insurance. This show does not offer investment products or investment advice. It's a really cool episode of Finishing Well today with certified financial planner. We'll call him Mr. Advisor, Cardinal Advisor, Hans Shiel, as he had one of our listeners write him a letter of Mr. Cardinal Advisor, or maybe it was somebody from your YouTube channel, was it, Hans? Yeah, it was from the YouTube channel, and she just addressed me as Mr. Cardinal Advisor. This is what I want to ask you, and I just thought it was, she said it in a very good way.

She wasn't being smart about it. No, I love it. It's exactly who you are. So the neat thing about today's episode, we're going to call it Finishing Well Level Up. It's like anybody who's ever played a video game knows that the idea is to level up, or maybe in life the idea is to level up. If you've listened to us many times, you realize that we often talk about what are seven worries or seven categories that we discuss, and Hans is going to go into all that in a minute. But it's interesting to me, I find it absolutely beautiful, that God loves the cycle of seven, and for many people realize that the seven is a complete number, like God finished making the world in seven days. What's really neat is there's a level up above seven, and if you look at the 119th Psalm, it's just a beautiful thing that King David wrote talking about what's the next level after seven. So if you look at the 119th Psalm the next time you look at it, look at the eighth verse in each of the sections on each of the letters, and you're going to see there's a chance to level up on the other seven. And that level up is adding this sort of divine quality, kind of like this divinity that's above everything else. So as we're talking about finishing well today, yes, we have the seven categories we've talked about, like we're talking about here in a minute.

We'll go over those. But the beautiful thing is God's got, and if you take that number eight and you turn it on its side, you're going to see it's infinity. And so it's just sort of like, here's the divine aspect. I've heard it put this way, I love the way the Jews describe this, that we do everything we possibly can do in order to finish well, but then God's the one that pushes you over the finish line with the stuff you didn't know you needed to do. Sure.

And so leveling up today on finishing well. So the first thing we're going to talk about are these seven, what we call the seven worries, only because we don't want you to worry about them, okay? But there are actually seven categories, and Hans, go ahead and describe those four. So the first one is the one that comes to you first is Social Security, and picking the time you're going to start it and looking at the taxes and looking at your spouse's Social Security. The second one is Medicare, or if you're not yet 65, but you're going to retire or your spouse is going to need health insurance because he or she is not 65 is that would be health insurance or individual health insurance or continuing your COBRA. But for the most part, it's Medicare and how you supplement it and how you sign up for it, how you receive it. The third one is long term care.

And this is one that's overlooked many times, or it's met when I bring it up with a lot of denial and resistance of people, they don't even want to talk about it. But it's critical to have a plan and to at least discuss, like if I was to need long term care, where would I want to receive that? How would I want to receive it?

And most importantly, how am I going to pay for it? The fourth one is really its category all by itself is IRAs, and 401ks, and generally retirement money, and it's money that unless it's a Roth, it's money you have not paid taxes on yet, but you will. And so that has its own category because we really need to plan that money out in a special way that we plan out the taxes. And we also plan out the distributions in such a way that you still have money left.

If you or your spouse live into your 80s and 90s, you need to make sure that that's going to be long lasting. And then retirement income, which is the whole area of living off your savings, and the supplementary amount on top of Social Security. And all of the issues around that is really the fifth one. And then the sixth is having to do with estate planning and life insurance is what's going to happen to your stuff after you pass away after you die? And most importantly, how is your spouse going to be cared for and supported?

If there's two of you, and then you pass away, one of you passes away, how well is the one that lives on going to be taken care of? And I know they're going to go from two Social Security checks to one. And then the seventh one is income taxes. And I put that last because I don't like in financial planning to start with taxes.

Because when you do that, if usually people start with, you know, a strong distaste for taxes, and they want to lower or eliminate taxes, and that it blinds you and many times is going to cause you to make poor investment decisions for financial planning decisions when you're so guided by tax. So it's not like we don't bring it up in the issue of the other six, but we really just as a category, we bring it up last in the seventh one. Right. And so the, the cool thing that is, you point out in this YouTube video that that's actually coming out, is that it's the combination of all these seven that really gives opportunity for you to provide the guidance to help people to level up in general.

Well, sure. I mean, if you start with the first one is you start with Social Security. And it seems almost obvious that the decision is to delay and take Social Security as late as you can, because you're going to get the biggest check. And you're gonna leave your spouse with the biggest check.

That's not always the case. So we go through it, it depends on people's wishes, their desires, their need for money. But as soon as we arrive at, okay, so we're going to start the Social Security check, it's going to be this much, my spouse is going to do it, then we got to move to the issue of taxes.

Okay, and then, you know, we got to see how much taxes, if any, are we going to pay on Social Security, and that's controlled by your other income. So now we're in a couple three more categories. So every time we make a decision in one of the seven areas or one of the seven categories, it affects two or three others areas. And then we go over there.

And now we go to that decision, this area is affected now to make some more decisions there. And it all mixes together like soup. Just throwing all these ingredients in the seven things around a wheel. And what you as the client are going to live with is the result. So I need to be a good soup maker. Well, one of the things I like about this soup that you're describing, and so if we just took the category of estate planning for some people, you know, they want the church to receive all their money, for example, and they have another idea for their for their children for other people. You know, they their children are the issue, but in other words, the flavor of soup that you're stirring up has to do, you know, it's sort of custom made, right? Well, it's especially true in estate planning, is I try to get there early, you know, with new clients, and I really want to just find out.

I just tell them people fit, I tell them a story about other clients, which I have so many of them. I mean, some people are like, that's the most important thing is that I want my children to inherit this farm or this business or this house, or I want this child to inherit this or I want to leave this money. And then it's really the most important thing.

And those people, a lot of times, I've got to listen to them. But then that's going to come with competing objectives is they need some of this money for themselves. So you got the people that, you know, called the extreme, that's kind of the most important thing is the estate, then you have the people that are like, okay, so this money is for us. And it's for our retirement, and it's for our living. And then, but we still want something to go to our kids. And then we want whatever's left. But we're not going to plan the whole thing around that being a priority.

Then you have other people who, who really just, they don't want to leave stuff for their kids. I mean, they almost take sort of a, you know, they have different reasons for this. But, you know, I want to find all that out early. And then, then I want to have a couple.

They're generally not in the same place as I have one of them kind of throwing their thoughts in as a bully, and I can kind of pick up the other one that doesn't exactly agree with that. So, you know, a lot of it is an art more than a science. But we need to arrive at a place is that that place is different for a lot of people.

Oh, yeah. And that's, you know, part of the the idea of leveling up has to do, you know, with that. They're an individual plan and having the experience, obviously, that God's given you to working with so many different people in so many different areas. And one of the things that I think is a highlight is people assume that you're since you're a CFP in a financial planner, that really it starts there with how you're working on their investments and, and that's really one small part of the equation, right?

Well, it absolutely is. Most people on the outside in, they think all I do is just kind of, I'm good at predicting the stock market, which I'm not, by the way. And just to I have an opinion is just like everyone else's, but they think that all we really do is manage money, and we manage risk and that kind of thing and tell them what to do. And that's certainly one thing that we do. And it might be if they have a large amount of savings in retirement savings, that that's a very important thing that we're doing. But it's more like we got to figure out what they need to live on what they want to live on. You know, how much taxes they want to play, how they want their health care taken care of, more importantly, if their long term care, how they want to receive that, whether it's at home or an assisted living and what kind of place they want to be in.

And what part of their, I mean, they're just all the way around the wheel. There's so many decisions to make. And then that starts putting demands on that money. And then then we got to start talking about like with their money, what can you afford to lose? I mean, what can you stomach losing?

Because anytime we're going for returns, there's the possibility of loss. Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, a lot of folks have seen that in the last couple of years with COVID and the concerns of COVID and all those kind of things. But the beauty of it that I've seen as we've talked about this over the couple of years we've been doing this show is that really figure out ways to provide income without the risk is a big part of what you do.

Sure, it absolutely is. And so that's why they call him Mr. Cardinal Advisor, because we want to remind you that the show is brought to you by cardinalguide.com. And of course, Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, which has the seven worries that we're talking about that we don't want you to worry about. The categories we're talking about today are all in his book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. It's all there at cardinalguide.com.

And so when we come back, we're going to do more leveling up on finishing well. Hans and I would love to take our show on the road to your church, Sunday school, Christian or civic room. Here's a chance for you to advance the kingdom through financial resources by leveraging Hans' expertise in qualified charitable contributions, veterans aid and attendance, IRAs, Social Security, Medicare and long term care. Just go to cardinalguide.com and contact Hans to schedule a live recording of Finishing Well at your church, Sunday school, Christian or civic group. Contact Hans at cardinalguide.com. That's cardinalguide.com.

Welcome back to Finishing Well. Today's show, we're leveling up on the seven categories or the seven worries that are in Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. We talked about there is a place that's above all seven that we're trying to reach, but we're going to go back over these seven just to catch everybody else up. If you're just tuning in, those seven worries or those seven categories we're talking about that you're not supposed to worry about, what are those Hans?

Okay. Number one, Social Security. Number two, Medicare. Number three, long term care. Number four, IRAs, retirement plans, 401Ks, et cetera. Number five, retirement income, retirement savings and investments. Number six is estate planning and life insurance.

Number seven is income taxes for retired people. I wrote the book really for me first. You may think that's funny, but it's true. I tend to be all over the place. I've studied this stuff my whole life, and so I get in conversations with people.

I'm just all over the place because I can talk about all these subjects and more just kind of at will. So I needed a track for me to run on about ten years ago when I started writing the book and writing the financial plan. So I really came up with these seven worries, seven categories, just so I could be organized and I could have a checklist in my mind to make sure I cover all seven of these things with all the people. We talked about Social Security, Medicare, but that actual retirement income, that's what people would think. That's your main job description. But nonetheless, it still is an important category.

Well, sure it is. People now have retirement savings. They have 401Ks. They have 403Bs if they work for the school system or a hospital. They have IRAs. Many people have substantial money in those. They don't have pensions anymore.

This used to be easy. You just would work somewhere for a long time and then you'd retire and you have your Social Security check and your pension. And people back then really didn't have a lot of savings.

Wealthy people did. Now average people have many other times substantial savings because they've changed jobs a few times or even if they work somewhere a long time, they've just built up this big savings balance. And now when they get to retirement or they're anticipating retirement or maybe they're already in retirement, they don't know necessarily what to do with it. First of all, they're thinking it's just the investment because that's what they've been doing all along. What do I have it invested in?

How much is that going to make me? What they're worried about is losing it. You know, market correction or perhaps they feel like they're in the wrong things, they're invested in the wrong things, whatever reason. And so now when we're at retirement, we're through adding to it. Just the fact that you make contributions every year out of your paycheck makes it look like the investment performance on that thing was better than it is because you had the investment performance and the additions. Now when you get retired, you're no longer going to be adding to it.

You're still subject to market corrections. And then now you're going to start withdrawing and living off of it. And you need a plan to do that. And that's one of the things that we do.

Right. And actually I was thinking that in today's world, for me personally, you know, when I look at retirement incomes, you know, I have no intention of stopping working. Yet I do have an intention of taking my Social Security and I do have an intention of working on Medicare. And so, you know, that really fits into this particular category as well, doesn't it?

Well, it does. Because I mean, when you get to 70 and you're still working, and then we start that largest Social Security check, and then we also increase your spouse's Social Security check, because it'll be based upon your Social Security or half of it, and then that's going to be new money. So right off the bat, you're going to start saving more money at 70 unless you decide to start spending on something. Then I would be asking you as the financial planner, what do you want to save for? And if you couldn't come up with something, I'd say go start spending it. Okay.

Go start enjoying it or give it away to your kids and grandkids. You know, God, what do you want to see happen in this area, you know, as you bring him along, you know, from my standpoint, in order to level up to get that divine push, we need to make sure he wants us to cross that finish line. Listen, I am thinking, praying about my clients all the time, and specifically the ones I'm going to see in the next week to two weeks.

Sometimes it's not them, though, it's somebody that I need to call and see in the next couple weeks. But just what was on my heart this morning is I'm going over to see one of my longtime clients, and she has a lot of money with me. And part of it is IRA money, part of it is not IRA money, it's just money that she's been able to accumulate. And what she's not happy about is she doesn't seem to be making as much money as she thinks she ought to be making.

And she's in her 70s. And that's really the question that came to my mind this morning is that I'm going to ask her, what's this money for? And I'm just not going to take a, you know, a flippant answer. I mean, we're just going to stay there for a while.

What's it really for? I mean, this is purely extra money, because she's making a lot of money, she still works. So I think I kind of got on you, she's one of these people in her 70s is still working and making a lot of money. But I'm going to really get out of her and lead her to think what's the money really for? And I mean, I don't know that we're going to arrive at a really good answer.

Okay. And, but I think we need to get there. Because if we're not happy with the investment performance, then because we clearly could give her more investment performance just simply by taking more risk. But I just don't think it's appropriate unless she fully understands what risk is, and that this thing could go substantially down. And so we have her invested very conservative.

And, but I don't still don't think that we've defined real well. Like, what's the money for? I mean, to her credit, which is really cool is she takes her minimum distribution every year, and she does it as a QCD and gives it to the church. And we help her do that.

So and it's substantial. So we could just say the IRA is for the church. And if we could arrive at that, that's wonderful. And then I might even encourage her to give more than the minimum distribution now. If she ultimately doesn't foresee needing the IRA for herself, then then it calls for the other money, then the other money that's not in the IRA.

What's that for? And I think where we could end up is in a place where, well, when she's not working or she can't work, I mean, there's got to be some point where maybe there isn't maybe she'll get up into her 80s and still be working and earning an income. Well, then it's really then I guess this money is to give to her kids, or give to you know, the other money is to give to the church. But anyhow, it just kind of God put that on me this morning when I was thinking about her and getting ready for the day, is that I've really got to focus on what's the money for. And to point out to her that she's very fortunate that she has this money, and that she has the luxury of really defining what it's for. Because a lot of people, it's really easy. I mean, with my money, I mean, it's for us to live on, once I stop working, or if I die for Rhonda to live on. I mean, it's just it's just that simple.

This lady has a bit of a luxury with that, but she still needs to do it, if I'm going to do a good job for her. Right. And what I love about the categories, the seven categories that we talk about in every show, is to an extent, I was thinking about this is seven days in a week, you know, how much work would we get done if we only work two of them, right? Because we left out all the other categories.

You know, or, or if we left out the Sabbath, and we never rested or, or sat there and analyzed what all this is for, you know, which is kind of what God had in mind on the seven that then we're missing the boat there too. So combining these into making the soup has to do with paying some attention to each of the categories. Correct. It does. All of them.

Each one and the people want. I mean, I'm just it's coming to me right now, because, you know, I guess I'm doing planning for her on the radio show. But I'm, I'm just thinking she hasn't addressed long term care. She hasn't for your husband. And I talked to her about it before, but just somehow it hadn't gotten done. So but I don't want to just go in there telling her you need to take make this money for long term care. I mean, I really want to lead her to that on her own. But when we're all said and done, we got to address that category. And then we got to really where we may end up is on the estate planning category. Then if the money is not for anything for your lifestyle is then who's it going to and how's that going to happen?

And how can we make that happen in the best possible way? I like her donating to the church. I mean, I know she likes that.

So there's some some real encouragement there that I don't want to describe this lady as, you know, selfish or bad or because she's not any of those things. And it's really cool. Every year when we do we're going to be talking about that next week is QCDs.

And that's what she does that every year. Which, you know, it the whole idea of QCD, you know, involves at least three categories of, you know, taxes and at the same time, you know, estate planning and all it's really it's really a beautiful thing as you begin to realize that these cycles are all something that's coming together to make this soup of finishing well. And what would it be like to have God push you over the finish line in a way you never thought possible, which is, you know, sort of that eighth level we're talking about today.

Once again, we want to point out you can get all that information on all seven category seven worries in Hans's book The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement as well as lots and lots of shows and videos that there are cardinalguide.com The YouTube channel is Cardinal Advisors and it's ORS, A-D-V-I-S-O-R-S. There's a hundred and some videos that are up there. Just think then you can find the radio show on any of the podcast apps where you can listen to past shows. But this YouTube is really one of those videos just went over a hundred and thirty thousand views last night.

And it's only eight months old. It's a pretty impressive thing. Oh, absolutely beautiful. Well, thanks again for listening. You're so we really, really appreciate you taking time with us. And thank you, Hans. Yeah, thank you. Once again, for dozens of free resources, past shows or to get Hans book, go to cardinalguide.com. If you have a question, comment or suggestion for future shows, click on the Finishing Well radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again, that's cardinalguide.com. Cardinalguide.com. This is the Truth Network.