This is the Truth Network. Um Welcome to Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com with certified financial planner Hans Scheil, best-selling author and financial planner, helping families finish well for over 40 years. On Finishing Well, we'll examine both biblical and practical knowledge to assist families in finishing well, including discussions on managing Social Security, Medicare, IRAID, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes.
Now, let's get started with Finishing Well.
So welcome to Finishing Well with certified financial planner Han Scheil. And so today we start something new and exciting. uh we've really never done before and that is a series Uh um Planning. And so it's actually a retirement financial plan series that we're going to be doing in eight episodes. And so today is the first.
Of eight episodes. And so when I heard the number eight, my heart just leaped actually because I realized that biblically the number eight. has to do with you do everything you can do in seven days and then God's going to jump in. Would that something extra? um to to bring it into the You know, the idea of glory.
And so you think about it, Jesus was raised on the eighth day after the triumphal entry. A Jewish boy is circumcised on the eighth day, and there's a lot of eighths in the Bible. And so it's kind of cool to think when you're doing this complete financial plan, which we're going to talk about throughout the episode today. that we're doing everything we can do to plan. But it's fascinating what God will do with all that.
In the end, and some of the parts that we can be thinking about are estate from a standpoint of. a a a heavenly estate that you might think about planning into your um Long-term, you know, assets is what are you planning for heaven for your family, for your business, for your church? You know, all those things. Every time you pray, specifically, you're making a deposit in heaven, and your treasure in heaven is going to grow and grow because God stores all those prayers. And so, every time you're praying for a child, a grandchild, future generations, you're making deposits of wisdom, a blessing.
And believe me, when I tell you, I mean, that's someplace that neither raw moth nor rust or anything, or the stock market crash, you can't take this stuff out. Like when you, when you're making those prayers and when you're involving God and invoking that partnership that you have, that we're doing this planning with you, Lord. I mean, you're the hugest part of the plan. And so, with that said, Hans. Have fun.
Let's get going.
Okay, so Yeah, what made us want to do this is I've had several clients or prospective clients. over the years. Have asked me, send me a sample plan. You have this. thousand dollar Financial plan that covers the seven worries and the seven subject areas.
Yeah. I hear about it. Oh, you told me about it. I'd like to read a specimen. I'd like to see one of these actual plants.
And then that requires us to. blacken out the name and do all of that and we got compliance issues that so we never really done it. And we don't have that many people, but we finally decided: okay, so we're going to do a series. Where we're going to go over a financial plan, which by definition covers Social Security, Medicare, long-term care. IRA 401K It covers income and investment.
Estate planning. And income taxes, it takes all seven of those things, which is happens to be the titles. of the seven shows that we're going through and we're doing each week seven radio shows, seven. uh videos And then we just get to number eight. We just start over at number one.
So and this is in every financial plan. that we do. And so we just thought, well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to make a series. of seven shows but then we made it the eighth show because we got to have in the beginning which is this show We got to tell you what we're doing and kind of lay the groundwork.
than what we're going to cover.
So that's what we're doing today. It's the first of eight. And we also have a goal on all eight of these to make the show and the radio show, which we're doing now, stand by itself so that somebody can tune in for the first time. Or one of their friends can send, hey, listen to these guys, and you're going to learn something about what we do in your financial planning.
Okay, wonderful. Yeah. So Um the first topic Or episode number two is going to be about uh social security And we've got this. Sample a client Who's a real client in disguise, and we've changed the name to protect the innocent and all that kind of stuff. But it is.
Tom, and Tom is a medical doctor. He's an MD. and his wife. Susan, who hasn't really worked that much. Out of the home.
Okay, I mean she just raised their family and he made a lot of money being a doctor and they saved a lot of money and He's been work past 65. And now he's come to us. And he just said, okay. Um I want to hire you guys. Pay the money, and I want you to create a financial plan for me.
I want you to tell me what to do, whether I can retire, how much money I can spend. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and we start with Social Security.
Okay, and so Tom His initial plan was to delay till 70. I mean, we met Tom back. at 65.
So we met him three years ago. when he went on Medicare. and he bought a Medicare supplement. She wasn't quite there yet. Yeah, and so The next year we sold her a Medicare supplement, so we did some light financial planning.
And he said, oh, I'm waiting until 70. I'm going to wait till the most amount. Blah blah blah blah blah. And so now when he's come back three years later, Um We ran all the numbers in the plant and we said, okay, here's your Social Security, here's Susan's Social Security, and what we discovered is. Susan is at full retirement, like right now.
Yeah, and her Social Security check all by itself would be 900 bucks. How much? Because she didn't work much other than After They got married, and just after college, she worked for a few years, and then she's been. uh taking care of the kids so You know, she is eligible for a spousal benefit. Because Tom's Social Security at 68.
is $42.98 a month.
Okay.
So If we started, but Thomas would wait until 70.
So he would, before he met us, he was just planning on going two more years.
So you could get a $5,100 check. And that's kind of what they were zeroed in on. But when we showed him that Susan's Social Security check on her own is $900 a month. But based upon Um as the spousal benefit of Tom is two thousand a month.
So in other words, she's given up $1,100 a month. every month that she's collecting her 900. Until Tom files for Social Security 'cause she can't get the spousal benefit until Tom files. Then Tom was going to wait till 70 to file. and she doesn't get an increased spousal balance.
So where all that kind of took us. Is Tom and Susan are applying for Social Security now. Tom at 68. Susan at sixty-six in ten months. And they're going to get between the two of them $62.98.
is their combined social security check, 6,300 bucks. They were thrilled. And they're getting that baby in October.
Okay? Yeah, it's beautiful, right at the point that actually they're retiring, as I know. That you know, that's the beauty of Why Social Security is the number one part in the plan is You know, everybody's going to get it and it's and it's. you know, sort of bedrock. Yeah.
And so Tom could have found that somewhere else. He's a pretty studious guy, watches YouTube videos. You know, that's how he found us. Um I mean, you could get into Social Security planning, and you could have figured that much out. It's a little sophisticated as.
Wife with lower earner spouse. Double he could have figured that out on his own and we do have people that figure out their social security and they come into us with a firm plan. Um But what I'm going to tell you is they're coming into us. Is a lot of people just stop at that because it's right now and they make the decision of Social Security. We got a whole lot more coming in these.
You know, eight episodes or whatever of Social Security. And then later on, when we get into the actual Social Security show, we'll go into this a little more detail. because that's all we're going to talk about in episode two. I do want to point out that the taxes they're going to pay on their Social Security is an issue for Tom and Susan. We'll deal with that.
And then we also need to deal with the fact that one of them is probably going to die before the other. And then when the first one dies, Susan's check goes away, so that was part of the reason of doing the whole transaction. Whether it's Tom that dies first or Susan that dies first, doesn't matter. The smaller check stops, the survivor lives on with the larger check.
So that's Part of the reason we filed the way we did now, so she starts getting that $2,000 a month now, instead of two years from now, because that check is going to go away at the first death. But then another reason for Tom to delay till 70, kind of the opposite thing. Yeah. When the small check goes away, you want the large check to be as big as it could possibly be.
So You know, they've given up a little bit for the survivor.
Now, we take care of that somewhere else, too, in the plan. But this is the kind of depth that we go into. And I probably went over Social Security a little too much in depth because I got six other. worries to kind of hit on.
Okay.
So and we're we're we're actually probably a good place to To say the next one's Medicare is imagine that you're going. And I found it fascinating as I watch the videos and I understand the situation: Tom is a doctor. right right anyway i think if anybody could figure out medicare You know, and which way to go.
So, I think, I think. His choices in Medicare are going to be really helpful. as we got that coming up real quick. We want to remind you that our show today is brought to you by Cardinal Guide. And if you go to cardinalguide.com, You're going to find these seven worry tabs that are going to be all these different episodes.
Um Of this You know, eight-part series that we're talking about today, but I didn't ask Hans which worried tab will today's episode be under? Mm, that's a good one. Yeah, I don't know.
Okay, well we'll get back to it on that. Let's say Social Security. Yeah, I would guess that it would be. It'll be under the Social Security tab. And again, it's got a beautiful board.
Really, really helpful to show you how each part of this plan, all the fingers, all seven fingers come together to make an eighth, which is that whole entire plan. And it's going to be all there at cardinalguide.com as well as Hans's book, the complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for Living Requirement, the workbook that goes with that. And then, of course, the all-important contact Hans and Tom page so you can get one of these financial plans made out with your numbers. And as you'll see in the video, or as we talk about later today, there is so much software involved. There's so many brilliant things that they put in that are so customized to your situation, what your needs are.
It's absolutely amazing. And again, that's all there. CardinalGuy.com, especially as I mentioned, the contact Toms is Tom Page.
So we'll be right back with a whole lot more of the Retirement Financial Plan Series, episode one. be right back. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, abbreviated BCM. a registered investment advisor. BCM and Cardinal Advisors are independent of each other.
Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Welcome back to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner Hans Scheil, and today's show. Is this new retirement financial plan series, and this is episode one? Time to tying them all together, Hans.
Yeah, this is foreshadowing. I mean, we're showing you. Um What's comin'? And we're doing eight videos. about a specific client Um example financial plan.
Tom and Susan. Uh Tom 68. We're going to be 68 pretty soon, and Susan is going to be 67 pretty soon. and we're going through and we're doing a financial plan. We've done a financial plan for them.
And now we're going backwards and we're showing you everything that goes in it. Yeah, the point I want to make is It's not that hard to do Social Security planning. all by itself, just on your own. And it's not that hard to do Medicare planning all by itself. That's what we're going to talk about next.
And it's not that hard. to buy long-term care insurance all by itself. And it's not that hard to plan for your IRA and do a distributions and plan minimum distributions and to plan Q C D's. And to plan Roth conversions, starts to get a little trickier, but still, there's people when you look at it in isolation, you can wrap your arms around it. And then we get to the income and investment plan.
There's lots of do-it-yourselfers on that. A lot lot of experts. you know, give me comments on my uh YouTube channel. are telling me what they think, how they would like to do it. But then you go on with estate planning.
Again, estate planning, you can buy life insurance all by itself, plan out your estate, go to an attorney, get a will. and well leading up to something and then with taxes. Most people never do tax planning. They think when they go see their CPA, they're doing tax planning, but that's really historical. CPA is.
are all good at history. They can look at right now and before. But what we do is CFPs and financial planners and tax planners. is we look at right now and we look forward. Yeah.
attempt to make decisions and we do make decisions that are tax efficient.
So But all seven of these subjects you can study them in isolation and do pretty well with them. What this financial plan does is takes them all together and throws them in a big pot of soup. It starts mixing it up and turns up the heat, and they all start bouncing off of each other because. As soon as you make a decision on Social Security, you're affecting taxes. And then you got your affecting income.
And you're affecting all kinds of things, and they all start bouncing. Then you gotta make income decisions. And when you make those, you're affecting taxes and you're affecting IRA. I mean, I could, so the real beauty in these plans. Because we do a lot of this stuff with software.
but software combined with interactions with the people And our knowledge. We put together this comprehensive plan. That takes all seven of these worries, all seven of these subject areas, into account. But for that, we charge you a thousand bucks.
Okay, and if you don't have enough money to pay, Or you know, that's a problem and you want to talk to me, don't let that stop you. Yeah I do a lot of a lot of work with people. that I don't charge it for, okay? Um Yeah. Where we left off is we had only covered one of the seven, and I was trying to foreshadow, and I am going to foreshadow like a little bit in each area for Tom and Susan.
The biggest area in Medicare, well, for starters, Tom and Susan met us three years ago when Tom was 65, because he worked. self-employed or had a small practice. And so their group was under 20 employees.
So he didn't have the option of staying on the group insurance, nor did he want to because it was costing him 1500 bucks a month each. for the two of them, so he wanted to get on Medicare. And then what came along with Medicare is a $700 A month. Irma bill. which is high.
You know, but compared to a $1,500 Health insurance premium with a big deductible. He thought, well, it's okay. He had his practice pay it. And then she came along, got on Medicare.
Now it went from $700 a month to $1,400 a month because they both pay Irma. Yeah, and I'm just bringing that up. in the in the Medicare section Because Once he retires, we're doing an IRMA appeal. And that Irma is going to go away. Yeah, that agent affected his whole thing because he can't wait for it to go away.
And so he made a lot of his financial planning decisions, their financial planning, getting themselves under the Irma, and that's immediate that it goes away. Just as soon as he retires. We file an appeal. And then you know, it's going to take them about a month or two and they're going to lower the armor or make it go away.
So That's something we're going to do for you under Medicare. The other thing about the Medicare that, again, we talked about in the Is it him being a doctor? You know, part of the Medicare plan is: you know, are you going to go with Medicare Advantage and/or you're going to get a? a supplement And I found that fascinating that you described, that here's this doctor, and he chooses. to get the medicare with a supplement which i did too based on my experience But with him doing that, knowing what he knows about not needing to be in a network and something, I thought it was a huge.
A huge Peace information. Told you before we have 6,000 clients. Nationwide. that have Medicare with us. Mm-hmm.
A good percentage of those are doctors. We turn ten. Most doctors aren't going to get anywhere near medicarapain. Sure. They get.
First of all, you don't want to have to look. in a book of the network. To pick your doctor. They didn't want to be picked. They don't like networks anyhow because they're on the other side of it.
And then the second thing is. Network is bad enough, but how about when you're going to do surgery or you're going to get surgery? The doctor has to call the insurance company. Yeah. The person he's talking to at the insurance company trying to talk him into approving the surgery.
is not You and a doctor. They're just somebody sitting at a computer screen and you got the... And I don't think they call them with doctors anymore. I don't think they call a email it in, but just the point is Doctors aren't going to go for that. They know when they.
get on Medicare, you don't have that. Right. They they limit their charges. Pretty good. But if you stay on original Medicare in a supplement, you at least don't have to deal with prior authorization or networks.
So Good point, Robbie. Um Long-term care. Again, we talked to them about that three years ago. He wasn't going for it, but what happened is. Susan's Mother Um got into the in the three years She's needing care now and Susan's all involved.
And so that changed their whole way of thinking. about long-term care. And then when we were able to solve that by taking a big chunk of their for a small chunk relative to the size of it of their IRA. and pay for the long-term care insurance one time. with IRA money.
They were all for it. And that's, you know, in the long-term care section, that's one of the things we'll go over. Um IRA 401K, what we're just going over this morning. Why does this have its own? Worry.
Why? There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and you're just thinking, so here you got the IRA 401k money. when you're going to put a due on that we're going to do you know we're going to look at that And then Once we get done with that part of the planning, we're gonna take that out and throw it in, and the next worry. income and investment. And you know, it becomes part of that.
Why do you even need this one? The answer to that is. IRAs have some things that are very unique about them. And most people that are retiring. Haven't really thought about it.
I mean, number one, they have RMDs, required minimum distributions. And that's either 73 or 75. Depending upon your birth year Point being that a lot of people just see that and they say, I'm 65. Yeah. I'll just I don't have to worry about that.
No. We we need to plan now for how we're going to deal with that. Yeah, I'm gonna just kinda leave it at that and that section will get deeper. Then you've got QCDs. You can't even do a QCD, a qualified charitable distribution.
out of your IRA till you're seventy and a half.
So you say, well, they're not 70 enough. Why are we talking about that now?
Well, We're going to go through in their plan, because we're planning the next 30 years. And show them how they can ramp up their charitable giving, or they can at least move it from where it is. Two or QCD. And so I'll let you watch that episode to find out, but We've got to look at it and get a QCD strategy. And then What is the most popular is the Roth conversions.
So, you know, Roth conversion involves paying tax now. that you could put off till later.
So Um You're going to find all of that in that section. Um On to income and investment. I know I'm going kind of fast here, but I'm just foreshadowing. Um This is what a lot of people think this is all we do when you do a financial plan. You come to us, you say, Can I retire?
Do I have enough money? How much do I need? You know, blah blah blah blah blah. Yes, you can. And then you know, there you go.
And a lot of folks think that's all we do here at Cardinal. And we certainly do that, but it's right kind of here in the middle of the plan. And in there we've got Social Security, that's the first check and for Tom and Susan. That's $6,300 a month.
So there you go. We just put that down. That's for the rest of your life. The two and a half percent. uh inflation on that Um or or about that.
Uh as a guest. Um Then what we're going to do is we're going to build spending plan from the bottom up. instead of the top down. What I mean by that, when we ask a lot of clients you know How much do you need? How much income do you want?
How much do you need in retirement? People will throw us a flip and they'll say $100,000 a year. You know, they'll say $150,000 a year, $120,000.
Okay, great.
Now, is that before or after tax? You know, and I kind of get a.
Well, just say after tax.
Okay, well that means we've got to take that 100,000, we've got to increase it to 140. because we've got to pay 40 in taxes.
So we've got to work on 140. And they say, oh, wait a minute. Make it 100. Make it after tax. That that's where a lot of people are and how flippantly they're treating this.
And so When we do a financial plan, we're going to go to the bottom and we're going to build up a spending plan. the bottom how much do you need and with Tom and Susan It was about Five grand a month. is what they need. just to pay their bills. and buy groceries and you know and just a need.
Then on top of that How much do you want to spend? And through a bunch of work, we came up with $5,400 a month or a combination $10,400 a month. is what they need. And I got news for you, that's after tax. Because you can't spend Tax money.
I mean, so then, what I'm saying, from the bottom up, that's how we build it. Then we add on top of there whatever taxes you're going to owe, which is somewhat dependent upon us planning things out properly. And the show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide. And in cardinalguide.com, you're going to see all this information. That's put together in all eight episodes, but today's episode, as we talked about, is gonna be under Social Security, and there's a board that kind of follows that along.
As well as the other seven worries, it's all there at cardinalguide.com and Hans's book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, the workbook that goes with that. And of course. To get this plan, what he talked about is $1,000. You just simply go to the contact Tom's and Tom page, and again, they can get to work on your plan. Or as he said, if that's too steep for you or whatever, call them.
You know, let's talk to them. They don't just, you know. throw this plan out to everybody that calls that you know they want to talk to you get an idea but oh my goodness what what it can tie together uh for all of our futures and and especially um the kingdom. And so thank you so much for listening. Great show, Hans.
Thank you and God bless you. The opinions expressed by Hans Scheil and guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this radio station. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable, although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.
Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Any strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. Before acting on any information mentioned, please consult with a qualified tax or investment advisor to determine if it's suitable for your specific situation. Finishing Well is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject covered.
Investment advisory services offered through Brookstrone Capital Management LLC, abbreviated BCM, a registered investment advisor. BCM Cardinal Advisors are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. We hope you enjoyed Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com.
Visit CardinalGuide.com for free downloads of this show or previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes, as well as Han's best-selling book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement and the Workbook. Once again, for dozens of free resources, past shows, or to get Han's 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.
