All 7 Worries

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This is the Truth Network. 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, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes. Now let's get started with Finishing Well.

Oh, we have a fun show for you today on Finishing Well. We are going to climb to 40,000 feet and take a look at all seven worries all in the same show. And so as we get into that, and we will be getting into that, you know, that if you go to cardinalguide.com, we always talk about the seven worries tabs, and all our shows are based on these seven.

And we're going to get to that in a minute. But before we do that, I wanted to talk about the biblical, you know, precedent, kind of what I was thinking here. What I saw as I watched their video on the seven worries is that everything, every one of these seven, you have decisions in retirement that you got to make.

And so you go through these different things we're going to talk about today, it's all wrapped around in the decisions you're going to make here on Medicare, you're going to make this decision on social security, you're going to make this decision with your investments, etc., etc. And as you think about that, there's so much the Bible has to say about choices or making decisions. For example, you might remember Joshua, right, in his famous speech in Joshua 24, 15, you know, he said, if you don't like serving God, that's, you know, kind of your deal. This is the Robbie paraphrase, by the way, but he says, for me and my house, who are we going to serve? The Lord, right?

He's giving them a choice. And then again, in Matthew 633, also a very, very famous passage on choices. It says, seek ye first, right, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

In other words, again, where's God in this picture? But the one that this really kind of grabs me, especially for the topic of what we got today, is in Deuteronomy 30, 19, you know, God kind of, you know, makes it sort of a life and death thing today. And he says, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your children may live. And that's a fascinating thing about these decisions that we make at this stage of finishing well, not only affect us, actually, they affect us all throughout life, but they affect our children and our children's children. And so the stakes are high, Hans, but we got all seven to talk about in one show. Yeah, well, we just every so often, we do this where we talk about the whole underlying system that we use. And, you know, these are the topics of the show from week to week of the radio show.

There are the topics of the YouTube channel. There are the chapters in my book. If we do financial plan, a retirement plan, financial plan for you, these are the seven subject areas. I mean, it's the whole thing is on the number of seven. So, Robbie, do you think you could name those seven?

If I just, Yeah, I don't know if I can name them in order, but I'm gonna give it a shot here. So I know number one is social security. Right? And number two is Medicare. I'm pretty sure on that one. Yeah. And then number three.

Is it income? It's one of them. I know. Well, that's one of them. That's number five. Okay.

Number three is something different. It's kind of related to Medicare. Medicare doesn't pay anything for it. Oh, it's long-term care. Yeah. Oh, you gave me a hint and I got it. Okay. And then taxes is one of them.

Okay. That's the last one. And that's the seventh one is taxes.

Oh, then is this state? No, that's the sixth one. And the sixth one comes right before the seventh one. Okay.

And we're just missing that fourth one. It's something that slot talks about all the time. Oh, IRAs and 401ks. Right.

You got it. Okay. And I mean, Tom and I have this stuff branded on our soul. So we, you know, we spit it out.

I'm still pretty impressed. You came up with all of them. So they go in specific order, Social Security, Medicare, long-term care, 401k, income, retirement income, estate planning, and then, of course, income taxes and estate taxes. And the reason they go in specific order is just by the age that they really kind of come to you, okay, is Social Security, I mean, could come at 62. It could be delayed as long as 70, but the decisions for it, you really need to make those first in a retirement plan because that's the base income that we use. The decisions in front of you is what age are you going to start it? Are you going to start it at 62, 65, 66 and a half, 70? When are you going to start it? And when is your spouse going to start Social Security? Because your spouse is interconnected with yours, and it depends on your two statements, your need for money, retirement money, and are you going to both delay it?

If you're delaying it, do you have other substitute money in a retirement account that you can live off of while you're delaying your Social Security? So those are the decisions, and I think what we're going to talk about today is once we start making decisions in one area, it affects the other six areas, or some of them at least, and then sometimes we have to go to the other six areas before we make the decisions on Social Security. So what do you think of that? Well, I think, and also, you know, it's critical in making any decision that's based off of good information, right? It's reliable information.

In other words, is it true, just like checking the Bible for, you know, what's the truth here? And so this is one place where you don't want to rely on your uncle, who... Oh, yeah, everybody's got an opinion about it, especially people that have been through it. But your opinion matters when we do our financial plan. I mean, there's just some people that just, I want to get my money now. I don't think it's going to be there in the end. We talked to them a little bit about that, but they want their Social Security now. And if that is where they are, then at least we know that we're going to write a financial plan that involves taking it now.

And that affects everything else. But so what you want and what you desire, if we think it's maybe a little off base, we're going to try to talk you out of it. But in the end, we're going to get you what you want and we're going to do for you what you want. Now, Medicare, I mean, now this is one that you got a whole lot of decisions to make. I mean, we're starting with, are you going to take it at 65? Or are you going to get beyond 65 because you're still working or your spouse is still working?

And do you really want to do that? Or do you want to just go ahead and take it still work? That all has implications. Yeah. And it's fairly complicated of whether or not you actually qualify to, right?

You got to have qualified coverage, which means you got to work at a company that's got larger than 20 employees. There's a lot of issues of just deciding whether or not you're going to do that, right? Oh, absolutely. And so then the next one is, do you going to decide whether you want to stay on original Medicare and get a supplement for that?

Or are you going to go the advantage route? And we're not going to drill down today on that. But it's just that's a major decision. And it's also a point of confusion, that if you don't understand this decision, you could be studying something that doesn't even apply to you. And it is this is a place people get mixed up. Oh, my wife, interestingly, on that one, Hans, I bet I've described it toward 15 times. And she still says, Now, what's the advantage? And we go through it again. But you know, it's it's very confusing.

It is. I have I had a CEO of a healthcare company that's becoming a new there. She could tell me more about Medicare than even I want to know. She was just completely off base on a lot of this stuff, just because when it applies to her, and she's used to understanding a whole lot about everything, she was all mixed up. It was an example of somebody that knew too much, but we got her all straightened out.

It really takes that vulnerability, which is sometimes people when they have a little know it all in them. That's hard to get to that vulnerability and just say, we got to walk back to zero and start all over again, because some of your stuff, you're mixed up. Then you got Irma, then you got Irma, and Irma, where you got the Medicare tax to deal with.

And that's a surprise to a lot of people. But those are the issues around Medicare. And we can't let in any one of these categories, one issue just kind of dominate the day. I mean, Irma may be something we have to pay.

Irma may be something that we can appeal and get rid of. So Medicare is a real hot topic. We're experts at it.

And that's how we meet a lot of people coming into us. And then they look after the other six things. Yeah, and Medicare really does affect hugely, right?

All sorts of things on your estate. And boy, I've seen that. And it's so it's, it's an integral part of why all these are linked together in their own way, right?

Oh, yeah. And as you look at the whole of your retirement, there's probably going to be a point where you value health care more as much as any other financial thing you get going on. Because, you know, when you're 80 years old, and you develop some chronic illnesses and things, you're, you know, where you can go, what doctors you can see how it's covered, what kind of care you get is just, it's on the top of the list.

And the decisions you make in your 60s that are going to affect where you are when you're 80. So now with long term care, I mean, it just we could talk all day about that. And, you know, we got, you need to get clear on who your health care power of attorney is and who your power of attorney because when you're getting long term care, and receiving it, you're not going to be purchasing it.

Somebody else is going to be doing that for you most likely. And that's going to be your way which might be your adult children, your spouse, your niece, somebody you pay to do this. You need to think about, you know, what would happen to you if you had a stroke, if you develop dementia or something like Parkinson's? Who's going to pay the bills for your care? And who's going to actually look after you? And, you know, I will put down what happens by the way, in both of my, you know, the two that my wife and I did caregiving for my father and her mother, in both cases, multiple falls, led to all sorts of long term care. Right?

Sure. Because my father broke his neck and, you know, oh man, now that fell so many different times in so many different ways. And each time, you know, you end up in rehab and there's all sorts of things that relate to that. And so, you know, even if you escape some of the other ones like cancer, or like you talk about Alzheimer's, or other ones that are like that, how many old people fall? It's just what happens.

And that leads to all sorts of care issues. We got to go to a break. But when we come back, we've got a whole lot more on these seven worries. And so I think we got four.

We haven't even got to yet. But the good news is we want to remind you that all this information is at cardinalguide.com. If you go to cardinalguide.com, there you're going to see all seven worries. And under each of those tabs, there's all sorts of stuff to help you with all these decisions, which critically, really impact both you, your spouse, and your children, and your children's children. And so we come back, we're going to give you a whole lot more information on that, including Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living Your Entirement.

We'll be right back. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Index or fixed annuities are not designed for short-term investments and may be subject to caps, restrictions, fees, and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

Please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV2A, item four, for additional information. Well, welcome back to Finishing Well with certified financial planner Hans Scheil. And today's show, as we talked about, we're climbing to 30,000 feet and taking a look at all seven worries all in the same show to kind of see how they interrelate and talk about all the decisions that are along those lines. And so we're ready to get into the last four.

What's the next one, Hans? 401k IRA money. And if people are right at retirement and a lot of this money sitting in a 401k, this is the bulk of the money that most people have. People have millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars when they never really viewed themselves as people having a portfolio. And many of them pat themselves on the back as investment heroes, investment gurus, because the thing is worth so much more than it was 15 years ago. And some matter is patting on the back is good in the sense that they saved and they prepared. But if you just look at what the stock market has done over the last, you know, 11, 12, 13 years, just about anybody that was in anything did well. And now they're going to go to a time where they're going to stop contributing.

No more contributions because they're retired. And so that's been making their returns look real pretty if you're throwing 10 or $15,000 or more in there every year. And then it's earning investment returns.

Now you're going to stop doing that. And now you're going to start taking money out at some point, maybe right now. And so it calls for a plan. And the people that are savers that come to me, they already know about minimum distribution. So up there at 73, you're going to have to, the government's going to make you start taking a certain amount of money. And for some people it's 74 or 75, but there's a point in your 70s where you're going to fall under the dreaded RMDs and you're going to have to take money out. For people that need the money to live on, that's not an issue because they got to start taking money now and they're going to be taking enough out of there that they're going to have no problem with RMDs. These people who can live off their social security, maybe a little bit of their other savings, they're so enthralled with the tax advantages of just leaving it alone, don't take any out, wait till 73. And they have no plan beyond that.

And there's a lot of people out there like that. And when they come to me, the big question that I have for people, I want you to think about your own IRA money. So what's the IRA money for?

What is this money for? And then I shut up and I don't say another thing. So if you're going to come in to see me, or you're going to see me on Zoom, just count on that question coming at some point.

Yeah, because the underlying decisions have got to be made certainly about that topic. Well, yeah. And so a lot of people say, well, it's for me, you know, where I fill it in for them, I say, look, it's to not pay taxes on and not take out unless you absolutely have to. Is that what it's for?

Well, not really. It's for my retirement. Okay, so now you're retired. Why aren't you taking any of it? Well, because I don't want to pay taxes. And then the magical thing is somebody's going to pay taxes on this sooner or later. And if it's not you, it's going to be your adult children. And they inherit it.

And don't want to dig in too deep on that. But that's not really a plan. So people that come in to us, we're going to get a plan to distribute it. Even if it is just to go to the kids, well, then we're going to put together a tax plan that makes it as favorable as it can for them.

Yeah, very cool stuff. And under this area, we need to consider Roth conversion. We need to consider getting into Roth if you're not already there.

Lots of other videos and shows on that. We're just trying to list the decision. So under 401k and IRA, you need a plan. Exactly. Okay, next subject is income, retirement income and investment. So and this includes the prior one, the IRA. I mean, so if you're going to create a retirement income for yourself, we're going to help you do it. If most of your money is in an IRA or a 401k, well, then that's the money we're going to use. So these two topics are related.

But this is income in addition to Social Security. And this is how we you divert, disperse your savings out to you a bit at a time. And we got to have a prac of, you know, we've just got to have an eye towards your 80s and 90s. And make sure you don't run out of money that you don't take too much. Yeah, and what a sense of, you know, the idea of the seven worries tabs is to get rid of the worry.

We know that sin, right? And so we're trying to, you know, find a plan so that we go, okay, this is we've made good decisions along the way. And, and this one is another place that wow, the right plan can just totally eliminate the idea of worry, right? That's what they're all about. Right on.

Oh, yeah. And I'm telling you, I have a lot of clients in their 80s and 90s, they worry about their money. It doesn't seem to matter how much they have either. The ones that have the most worry the most. Like, am I going to have enough? And how's this all going to work? And, and so that's why I'm a big fan of retirement planning, financial planning, estate planning. But nonetheless, the fifth one is the income, is just creating, what are you going to live off of?

How long is it going to last? We'd like it to last for your whole life. The sixth worry is estate planning. And this is where we talk about looking after your children's children.

And this is very biblical. We've talked a lot in our estate planning shows over time. But the first person we're planning for in estate planning is the surviving spouse. You know, if you're a husband, it's the one that's going to survive spouse. You know, if you're a husband, it's for your wife. And if you're a wife, it's for your husband, because we don't know who's going to go first. And if the other one lives on, there's a lot of implications in the estate, just around that subject.

Right. And that's really a good one where everything kind of what you're doing with your Medicare, what you're doing with your social security greatly affects your spouse. And you're in your estate is, as I've seen, obviously, with both my father and my mother in law, that their Medicare decisions greatly affected their estate, and their social security did as well.

Well, sure. And how you position your IRA money, I mean, you really want to spend your IRA money while you're alive. And you want to save your not IRA money or just savings. And you want to give the kids money that's not in an IRA, and you want to give the church the money in the IRA, because the church isn't going to pay taxes on it, or some of it. I mean, most people leave the wrong money to the wrong people or institutions. You got second marriages at play here. And a lot of times that's a real touchy subject where people maybe have been married for the second time for 25 years, when they're meeting me. But if they have children from different marriages, the order of things, and how it goes to kids and all that, we need to plan all that out. So there isn't some kind of a big problem after you pass away or your spouse does. We get into wills and trust, try to avoid probate. You know, we, we need to ask people, does your estate really matter to you? Or is this money mostly for you and your spouse, and then your kids are just going to get what's left over? Or is leaving something significant to the kids a priority? We need to get that question answered in the front end, because it really affects what we recommend.

People are in different places. And the last one, taxes. We've been talking about taxes since we went on the air. And we'll talk about it all through all the other subjects, but I just have a personal pet peeve.

I put it last, because I get people that come into me that just see me as Mr. Eliminate the Tax Dude. And people make bad decisions when all they can, when they have tax breath is the way I'll put it. When people are just, just trying to get rid of taxes, trying to eliminate them, trying to lower them. And I got news for you, you got to pay taxes.

Come to me, I can help you lower them, and be smart about it, and spread them out, and do a lot of things, but it's not the first thing you're going to talk about with me. It's just kind of a personal thing that when we get all done with the other six things, and we talked about taxes all along, then when we get to number seven, then we're going to put together a real tax plan, which is reducing your lifetime taxes. Right. And again, this is a place where really, all of the different other six categories greatly affect your taxes. And so much of the whole planning is, is integral to that whole idea. Yeah, I mean, I, I have some examples, I got one I'm working on right now, that the sister left her brother in the millions, and I found these people, they found me through another client, or another person, and let's just say that the sister did, and her deceased husband, she's now deceased, did like no tax planning, no estate planning at all. And he's now paying some serious taxes on these millions. He's the sole beneficiary of the state, and a lot of money in an IRA, and so he's having to pay taxes to get money out to pay other taxes, other estate taxes.

It's not real pretty. So this is something that really needs to be planned, and it can be planned. Yeah, and it's for both ends of the spectrum, right? Not just for those people have a lot of money, but, but even for those people that are, you know, looking at a, you know, whatever, for, you know, smaller part of the IRA to go as their estate to their children. The planning involves everybody as far as the taxes are concerned, because it's just part of being a good steward of whatever amount you have, right? Well, listen, my mother-in-law left money to the church, just out of her regular pot of money, and then she left money to my wife and her four siblings, and out of the IRA, and they were for about the same amount. And if she would have just reversed that, we wouldn't have had to pay taxes on the money that we received. If she would have left the IRA money to the church, and she left the before-tax money to her children, then the church doesn't pay any tax on any money they get, and the children wouldn't have had to pay any tax on the money that they got, okay? Now, that was just a piece of her money. It's not like she left half her estate to the church.

Well, again, we've run out of time. Before we ran out of show, we want to remind you that this show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide, cardinalguide.com, where the seven worries are all found, as well as show notes, and again, lots and lots and lots of videos. And the videos have their own channel, it's Cardinal Advisors, but the show is brought to you by cardinalguide.com. All the contact information is there, as well as Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement.

It's all there at cardinalguide.com. Great show, Hans. Thank you so much.

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 Whale is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject covered. 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. We hope you enjoyed Finishing Whale, 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 Hans' bestselling 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 Hans' book, go to cardinalguide.com. If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for future shows, click on the Finishing Whale radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again, that's cardinalguide.com. Cardinalguide.com. This is the Truth Network.