Avoiding Common Investing Mistakes

Rule in your heart.

Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady through the Great Depression, definitely had a way with words. She once wrote, learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

You know, it's good to find a little bit of humor when we mess up. But it's better not to misstep at all. Today, host Rob West welcomes Mark Behler to talk about some typical investing booboos. So you don't have to make them. And it's your calls on anything financial. Eight hundred. Five to five. Seven thousand eight hundred five to five seven. I'm Steve Moore. Avoiding common investing mistakes. That's next right here on Moneywise Live.

Well, Rob, our friend Mark Behler is executive editor at Sound Mind Investing, and if he's made mistakes, we don't know about them. He probably wouldn't tell us anyway.

Well, if he has made mistakes, I'm sure he's learned from them. Let's just say that. Mark, great to have you back on the program.

Thanks. Good to be with you guys.

Well, you recently asked SDMI members what they thought were their most significant investing mistakes.

And I'm looking forward to hearing what they had to say so we can learn from what you're SMI readers were thinking about. And so why did you kick us off? Tell us what was first on the list.

Well, sure, yeah. Not surprisingly, you know, the biggest mistake that was mentioned by RSA, my members was waiting too long to start investing.

So one member wrote a typical example here. My first mistake was waiting 18 months to start contributing to a forum on K, which will cost me more than three hundred thousand dollars by the time I retire.

That probably cut the portfolio in half over a lifetime. Now, that's a very specific example. I'm sure it wouldn't always be that dramatic, but it does illustrate the point.

Now, it's easy to understand why failing to start sooner was one of the most frequently mentioned regrets. Most of us feel kind of strapped when we're starting out in our careers. We don't have a lot of extra money to invest. At least it feels that way. Plus, in our good intentions to get started, investing often get overcome by all the questions that pop up when a person finally does try to start, you know, where do I open an account? What do I invest and how do I do this? Exactly. Yes. You know, you get stuck on these questions before, you know, at another years gone by and you still haven't started. So to counter that, what we tell new SMI members is they've got to stop allowing this implementation paralysis that I was just talking about. You can't let that thwart your good intentions to get going. You know, starting an investing program doesn't have to be real difficult. You make a few fundamental decisions. You take a few easy steps and you can start successfully investing, even if your cash and your knowledge are kind of limited at the beginning. And that's really what we've helped, you know, tens of thousands of people do over the last 30 years.

Yeah. That's exactly right. And I think that really is critical. You need to just get started in so many situations. It doesn't have to be perfect and you can always make changes as you learn. All right.

Before our first break, I think we have time for one more. What's next?

Sure. Well, you just mentioned learning. And ironically, the next mistake, as my members mentioned, was not learning more about the basics of investing sooner. You know, at first glance, this kind of seems like the opposite of what I just said about just getting started. But it's really not. If you took physics or even if you have probably heard of Isaac Newton, the law of Motion, that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Well, that's what that's really the starting piece. What we just covered, you just had to get in motion. But once you're in motion, those basics of investing are actually pretty easy to pick up. You know, I think that people think it's going to be hard learning about investing. So they kind of put that off. But, you know, the same way you can flip on a light switch and take advantage of the benefits of electricity without necessarily understanding exactly what's going on. It's much the same way with investing.

Well, and it just seems like, you know, it's this thing that I'll never be able to grasp. And if I make a mistake, it's going to cost me a lot of money. But you can start slow. You can absolutely learn as you go. And by the way, sound mind investing dot org is a great place to start.

Not only learning the basics of investing and including some advance strategies, but learning it God's way, because God has a lot to say about investing, getting a return on his money that you're the steward of, and so much more will mark. We're going to continue to unpack these mistakes your readers have made right around the corner.

And we'll tell you how you can actually read the article that this information comes from. When we return, Marc Behler with us today. 800 555 seven thousand call eight hundred five. Q5 seven thousand.

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Hey, we're talking investing today with Mark Behler, Mark is the executive editor at Sound Mind Investing dot org, which means he's in charge of and responsible for every word on their Web site. So go check it out today. If you find a typo, I'll be sure to let us know. We'll pass that on to Mr. Biller. Now, if you'd like to speak with him and Rob West, here's a phone number to call. We have open lines at 800 555 seven thousand.

Have you made some investing mistakes? Well, the readers of the Sound Mind Investing newsletter and Web site certainly have, and they were willing to share them. The question is, can you learn from them? And I'm confident you can. Mark Behler and the team at SDMI recently put a survey out to all of their readers asking for their biggest mistakes. Number one, just before the break, we learned was waiting too long to start investing. How much are you giving up by waiting? The second was not learning more about investing basics sooner. And as Mark said, in so many cases, we just need to get started.

We can learn along the way. Mark. What was mistake number three?

Yeah, so another one that came up frequently, Rob was investing without a personalized long term plan. So here we heard a lot of things, like when I started my career began to have money to invest. I didn't have a strategy. And I randomly followed tips from coworkers.

And you can guess how the rest of that story typically would go. Yeah.

So, you know, the lesson here is pretty simple. No matter how good your specific investing choices may be, if they're made outside the framework of a larger plan that puts some boundaries in place and helps you manage risks, you're really inviting trouble. You know, Asomugha is huge on developing a personalized long term plan. We talk about that a lot on these these programs and sticking to that long term plan. And not surprisingly, a lot of our resources on our Web site are devoted exactly to that topic.

Mm hmm. Very good. Let's take one more and then we'll get to some questions. By the way, if you have a question, Vermaak Bellard, a day investing related, maybe retirement or how to proceed in this market?

That's quite a bit of volatility and we'd love to hear from you. Eight hundred five to five 7000 is a number to call with your investing questions. Mark's going to stick around for the next few minutes. And we'd love to chat with you, Mark. Give us the next one.

Yeah. So a key part of a good investing plan like we just talked about is knowing when to get rid of an investment. So another mistake that came up a lot was not following a selling discipline. So we'd hear stories like I purchased one share of Apple stock in 2012, got cold feet and sold it a month later. And, you know, of course, Syria several years later and apples worth five times what it was back then. So costly mistake there. But, you know, the key there is that they didn't have a well-defined selling discipline in that case. They sold too soon. More commonly, the selling mistake is holding on too long. So we often write about how one of the keys to success in investing is having a specific and objective selling discipline so that you know exactly what has to happen to trigger a decision to sell. Of course, then you still have to have the self-control to act when that trigger occurs. But at least you're ahead of the people who really have no idea when they're going to get rid of the investment that they just bought. And, you know, this brings up an important point where really the biggest problem with getting your investing ideas from the financial media, like a lot of people do, whether that CNBC, The Wall Street Journal or, you know, a coworker or even the problem isn't necessarily that you're getting bad investment ideas from those sources. It's that you're probably not going to have any idea when that good investment turns into a bad investment and needs to be sold. If you don't have a follow up and those sources don't have a way to provide you with any follow up, you're just getting a constant stream of new buying ideas. And that's how services like some I really differ from a lot of other investment resources and that we're telling people what to buy, but also in our model portfolios when to sell those investments and move on to something else.

The fuel, my market. Let's take some calls. How many we can get in before the break here or later? Orland Park, Illinois. And Rebecca, what's your question?

Yes, he just answered a few questions that he had in mind and thinking about investing into twenty five thousand into a semi somewhat somewhat of an annuity. He has a 10 percent buffer. I'd have to get it for at least four to five years. And then if it's tied to the stock market, I'd never invested in that. I live now. I'm nervous. And I just wonder if it is something that's going to cause me to lose and that a sleep night. Can I put it in there and just continue to think that 10 percent buffer will cover my twenty five thousand? I looked it at the bank at one percent, not being very much, and I can see where that much if I lose it for me.

But what is my mission there and about that.

Sure. Rebecca, let me ask you.

You mentioned 25000. You were looking at putting in this annuity product. How does that relate to your overall investable assets?

It would be something that I would not need right away, but it would be something that I could be making some money off of. And the cities are doing one percent sure.

And do you have other assets not talking about emergency savings, but other investment assets, other places?

Oh, yes, I do. OK.

What would be roughly the total of your investible assets, if you don't mind sharing?

I got over 200. Three, four hundred thousand something. Where in that regard.

OK. So three or four hundred thousand mark. She's looking at putting 25000 into an annuity product, trying to get a little bit more return. How would you advise her in analyzing this type of decision?

Yeah. Rebecca, is this within our retirement plan or where would you be be making this investment through with an equitable life insurance?

OK. All right. And do you are of those 300 to 400 thousand investments that you have? Is any of that in the stock market already?

No. This is like staring at. I'm nervous about it.

OK. OK.

Well, that that's all very important because if most of that other money was already in the stock market, then that would definitely tilt the decision quite a bit.

Given that you don't really have much, if any, exposure to the stock market right now, that twenty five thousand is a relatively small portion of your total. And given that there is a buffer involved in that to buffer the downside risk, you know, your total risk exposure to the stock market would still be fairly low. The biggest thing, Rebecca, whenever whenever I'm dealing with any kind of an insurance investment product, an annuity like this is there's a there's a big variety of expenses that are associated with these these types of plans. They tend to be fairly expensive ways to invest in the market. So I would I would pay very close attention to what the expenses are and ask them to detail those for you. I know that an annuity like this has some nice features like that buffer, but if you're paying an awful lot for that, you know, you can get a little bit of stock market exposure very, very cheaply on your own without the annuity. So you wouldn't want to you wouldn't want to be paying, you know, several percent and expenses to have them do that for you. Rob, what else would you be looking at here?

Well, I think you're exactly right. I mean, your overall risk is very low. If this roughly 350000 outside of this money, you'd be committing to the annuity is in c.D and cash equivalents, then this would be obviously a very small portion. An annuity product does accomplish what you're setting out to in the sense that it transfers the risk away from you to the insurance company and they can offer some of these protections. But I think Mark is right on. It can be very expensive.

And so you've got to understand what are the real costs and what are the implications of losing the flexibility of having access to the funds in this case? It's such a small portion of your overall portfolio. I don't think it's that big a deal. So no clear red flags apart from you understanding the true cost of making this decision.

Rebecca, we're glad you called. And if you want to dove deeper into this before you make a choice, you might want to visit Mark's Web site. Sound mind investing dot o r g. Thank you very much. Montgomery, Alabama. Love. Thank you for your patience. What's your question?

Yes. Good evening and blessings to you.

Thank you. And military retired. So I get it and calm. And then I'm retired. I get that income.

So I hear about between two and about one third thousand. I don't know where to put.

All right. Tell me a few things about your situation, love. Sounds like you have a good income stream that meets all of your obligations. You're probably living on a budget. And I suspect month to month all those expenses are covered. Do you have a liquid savings account right now?

Will I have enough then meet Man Beeld, play enough. If something happened to play mezzos, skewed dancing like that, I have enough to say, OK, well maybe I'll.

OK, so would you say apart from this money you're looking to invest, you have additional savings, emergency savings that would cover, let's say, six months worth of expenses.

Well, not quite. Satan. No, sir.

OK. What do you think? Three, four.

I was three.

OK. Very good. So three months expenses. And do you have any debt to speak of?

Well, yes. Move from one state to this state and therefore trying to sell a house in the other state. And it's about a hundred and eighty dollars. Be the deal. You know, I'm trying to sell them.

OK, all right. If you don't have any debt, then it sounds like you're in pretty good shape. If this is money that's truly long term. I think putting it into good quality mutual fund, as long as you have at least five to 10 years to let it grow, would be great. I'd also head over to sound mind investing, dawg. To learn more. They could be a great help to you. And you're listening to Moneywise Live Dot.

Oh, our G. We'll be right back.

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Craig, ahead your board today. It's when he was alive with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. And joining us today is our guest is Mr. Mark Bellard from Sound Mind Investing Don. Oh, Archie.

I suspect some of you listening today made some of the mistakes that the SMI readers volunteered that they had mis made mistakes on, and one of them was waiting too long to start investing.

I know I've done that in the past. What about not learning more about investing basics sooner? The SMI readers said one of their mistakes was investing without a personalized long term plan. Mark also heard from his readers that many of them were investing without following what's called a selling discipline, having a real plan not only to get in, but to get out of a particular investment. Mark, what did you hear about diversification?

Yeah, so overinvesting in a single stock came up quite a bit. Rob, as did over investing in their employers stocks. So those two kind of are tied together. You know, there's a principle that we talk about a lot that ultimately it's impossible, we believe, to self-destruct financially if you follow God's time tested principles of stewardship.

And one of those principles is that to protect against the uncertainties of the future, your investments should be diversified. So we we talk about Ecclesiastes, these eleven, too, that says that Roe plainly divides your investments among many places for you don't know what risks may lie ahead. And since you don't and really can't know what the future is going to hold, you never know with certainty which of your investments are going to turn out most profitably. And that's the rationale for diversifying. You want to spread out that portfolio into various areas. So you're not going to be overinvested in anything that's particularly hard hit. Now, that is doubly important when it comes to your own employer stock, because you already have so much invested in your company's success, your income, your health benefits and so on. So you don't want to layer on top of that a huge investment in your own employer's stock.

Yeah, that's great advice.

Mark, we have time just to hit a few of these other ones really quickly. I know one of the things that came up was not involving your spouse in the investing process. Why is that so important?

Yeah. You know, you've got the whole the whole unity aspect.

And I chuckle a little bit.

But but there's also, you know, the very tangible if something goes wrong factor, you know, if you go and do it on your own and you have involved your spouse, or even worse, if your spouse had apprehensions and you did it anyway, then if that goes badly, not only do you have the financial impact of that, but you've got the relational impact of that on the marriage. So it's very important to involve your spouse, to have that that unity of that coming together. And if you're both in agreement on the way in, then you can handle together whatever the outcome as whether a good outcome or a bad outcome. But you don't want to be fractured along those lines.

Well, especially if there's one. And usually there is more prone to taking risks. The other perhaps more conservative. And you might be able to talk yourself into an investment you should never repeat. And if you're more prone to taking risks that perhaps your spouse might caution you against. I know another was following the market's impact port on your portfolio daily.

That certainly can be a mistake. Caused you to react emotionally and then leaving old for a one K accounts with previous employers want to get those into IRAs. This has been so valuable, Mark. I know Steve is going to tell our listeners how to get a copy of this article, but just want to thank you for stopping by today.

Well, thanks. My pleasure.

Thanks as always. Our pleasure as well. God bless you, Mark. The name of the article we've been discussing, are you making any of these common investing mistakes? You'll find it available to read without subscription. When you visit their Web site, subscription is something you might want to consider.

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You're listening to Moneywise Live, where we meet each day to help and encourage each other to manage our money effectively and biblically. We're really glad to have you out there. So let's continue one. Cleveland, Ohio. That vicinity, anyway. Hello. And thanks for your patients. What's your question?

Hi. Yeah, I retired this last March. Can you hear me? Yes.

OK. I retired this last March and I have some retirement funds to my previous employer. I'm hoping to not draw on them for about three years. There with fatalities so far, one case or two and three, the funds that are in target date funds. And I also have a Roth IRA. And I'm wondering if they want to manage them. For me, it's one point seven percent to start up at one point, six percent after that. Is that a good idea? Is that something they should do, which they just leave them where they are? They seem to be doing OK.

Yeah. Very good.

And what do you have roughly in total investable assets among those three accounts you described?

Well, there's three different target date funds. It's about a hundred and fifty thousand. So we send in the graph. It's about 70000.

So about two hundred and twenty five thousand or so when you put them all together.

War.

OK, very good. And you said you will start to draw an income on these, but not for three years.

The one point seven percent you said for setup is that covering the first year of management, or is it that on the front end and then you're going to pay this ongoing fee on top of that?

Oh, God, I'm not sure.

OK, well, in either case, that that's a bit high for that amount of money, I would expect you to pay somewhere around one and a quarter to one and a half percent. You know, fees are coming down and, you know, paying one point seven percent a year on a quarter of a million dollar portfolio. All in is is a little more than I would expect. I think the key is you really want somebody who is going to take an interest in you, somebody that you interview and select because they know your situation. Of course, they have the experience and the integrity that you're looking for. But they really understand what God's calling is on your life and what you're trying to accomplish, what your goals are. We certainly don't want to take any greater risk than is necessary to accomplish your goals and objectives. We need to preserve this capital that you've worked throughout your life to amass so that when you do need to convert this to an income stream, that it's some no higher than 250000. When you start to draw on it, let's say it's, you know, three, three, enter 50000 and that you could have somebody that could help you then turn that income into an income stream. But that portfolio needs to make sure that there's a portion that's there that could be drawn on in the event the market's down. So you don't have to sell the stock portion while the market's depressed, but also so that you could generate a reasonable amount of income, not only through stocks, but bonds and perhaps c.D and other types of fixed income investments that would throw off the income that you're looking for. And I think that's best done through a managed account where you have an investment professional who's looking after it's somebody you can call, who's going to update you regularly on how things are going, but also can put that investment strategy in place focused on capital preservation and income. When that time comes. And for right now. Capital preservation and growth. So you get a little bit of growth while you're waiting. So what I would recommend that you do, and rather than just kind of jumping at that first one, especially since it sounds like the fees they're courting, you were just a bit high. I would probably interview a couple of advisors there in the Cleveland area who this is what they do. I'd encourage you to check out a certified Kingdome advisor. This is somebody who has the experience and has met the character and integrity requirements, but also has been trained to bring biblical counsels. So the advice will align with your values and priorities as a believer. So if you go to Moneywise Livorno or click on Find a C.K., you can put in your zip code there in Cleveland. I'd interview at least three before you made your decision and then see if you can find somebody who could really help you understand not only what are you going to be paying, but also help you craft the investment strategy that works for you.

And thank you very much. We appreciate that call today. Moving along to Florida and Minnie, what's on your mind today?

Thank goodness. I am. I was looking at my credit report. And and then followed, you pay bills. So we have to get that were Guitry items that dropped off from my report because the wife and I paid them back. Well, I given three month installments, but I paid one month in July. And then in August, my credit card, my report dropped thirty three points. I called them up and I paid them the instead of two payments, I paid those two payments and one payment.

That's when I saw that drop.

So and then actually, I have to account that I. The second one I failed in full at one, I make it insolvent. So should I be expecting another three point drop or should I not just baby? Because it looks not any more in my credit report, but I know that they are.

Oh, yes. Well, what could have happened many is that if, in fact, this account had dropped off of one of the three bureaus or maybe more than one by you repaying it, it could have. Now that it's got history and there's a transaction there that is reported. It could have brought that history back into the credit file where it had previously been removed. And if there was late payments or some sort of history on it that was negative, it could have introduced that back into the equation. But I wouldn't worry about that. The right thing to do is to get it paid off. I would make sure that you have some documentation that it has been paid in full. It will be noted as such. And I do like the idea. Even if there is a temporary drop in your credit file of you going ahead and cleaning up these old accounts, getting them paid off, getting that documentation in place, and then you can put them behind you and move on, generating positive credit history moving forward. So I don't think you've made a mistake here. I understand why this could have happened. But your credit score will ebb and flow just based on the the the information at the time the score is pulled. And I would proceed with going ahead and getting getting those other accounts paid off. Just make sure you're an on time pay are moving forward.

Many. God bless you. Thank you so much. Chicago, Illinois. Tina, what's your annuity question today?

OK, so my question is, I have my husband's retirement account invested and I noticed a place in my community and I realized later on, but I made a mistake. It's invested. It's done, and there's nothing I can do about it. But every year they say that we can do investments. I do mean that your investments would be guaranteed instead of the stock market crash. But I have to pay zero point five percent of every year for that. So no matter what this market is, they will guarantee me once a year. What better than that? So it's about Potami about I have to go that number. So should I even consider doing this? I still have. I'm working on 50. I still have a better. Within 10, 15 years to work. So what's your outlook on this?

Yeah. How much do you have in this annuity? Tina.

So we added two three hundred eighty two thousand, yeah.

OK, you know, I would I would have an investment professional or a financial planner look over this for you.

I wouldn't want to give you a counsel right now without reading the fine print, because that's one of the challenges with these annuity contracts, is that they are fairly complicated and these riders can have a lot of nuances and clause that either work for or against you depending on the situation. And so I wouldn't want to take that lightly. This is a significant amount of money. Plus, it may be time to look at whether there's a better option for you to pull it out of the annuity and invest it otherwise.

So I'd find a certified Kingdome adviser there in Chicago to look over everything for you. I think you'll be glad you did. We're moneywise live with Rob West. We'll be right back.

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I said, you out there today, it's money wise. Live taking your calls on anything financial. But before we take another call, Randy, you had something you wanted to mention. You know, let me just encourage you. This is a great time as we head out of summer and enter the fall for you to consider prayerfully coming alongside us to support our work here at money wise media. We can't do what we do each day without the generous support of our friends and partners in ministry who not only pray for us and show up online and contribute to the program with your questions, but also send in their financial support.

That's how we exist. And if you would prayerfully consider your part, we would be grateful if this ministry has blessed you in some way. Just head over to the Web site moneywise live dot org in the top right corner. You'll see the word donate if you click it. It's quick, easy and secure. And we would be most grateful. So would you consider today partnering with us and thanks in advance. Chicago, Illinois, hello. Tony, thanks for holding my friend. How can we help you?

Hi, Rob. This is Tony and wanting to know if. You've never heard of the idea of paying off a mortgage using that he long sort to say you wanted to get your advice on that? Pretty much, yes.

Yeah, Tony, I appreciate the question. There's a lot of YouTube's floating around on this concept. And, you know, it does depend on your income, the size of your mortgage. But this idea of accelerated payments to your mortgage principal by using a hillock, it comes up pretty regularly and it does look like a good idea on paper. In practice, it tends to be a bit complicated. And depending upon how you go about it, it can be expensive because there be folks who will help you kind of do it behind the scenes. You've got to have positive monthly cash flow and really a healthy income to make it work. You've got to add a home equity line of credit to your home in certain months. You've got to put all of your paycheck towards your mortgage. And then the idea's in many cases, you use a credit card for all the other expenses. But then when the credit card bill comes, do you pay it off with the heel lock and then the next payment you pay off the helike instead of your mortgage and you just kind of play this game around and around. But obviously, a lot can go wrong. A lack of discipline. It's got to be really absolute if you're going to do this. Unexpected expenses could interrupt the process. And then obviously you'd be stuck with a mortgage and the heat lock. So I really would encourage you just to simply put discretionary funds toward your mortgage principal, which means you've got to go back to that spending plan, look for ways to cut back, find margin that you can apply and accelerate that traditional mortgage, lot less complicated. You don't have the risk of the interest rates rising on you. And if you had a disruption or something unexpected, you wouldn't have to worry about just the complexity of having this helike alongside the mortgage and all of the pieces and parts that go with it.

So for me, Tony, I'd stay with it away from it. Just a little too complex for me. You know, it's not that they're, you know, playing a shell game. I mean, you can certainly make the math work on paper, but it's just not my cup of tea.

Tony, we appreciate it. Thank you. We wish you the best. Cleveland, Ohio. Craig, what's on your mind today?

Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. My my wife and I bought our first home by five years ago, and it was a bit of the bottom of the market. We bought for about 120. Since then, the house has increased in value to about 175. So back in January, we refinanced and we were at five point nine, thirty four point nine nine. Initially, we refinanced down to four. And we were able to roll in a couple of home improvement loans that we had taken out and ended up cutting a year off our mortgage and saved us three hundred dollars a month. So it seemed like a great decision. Yeah. And then since then, the market interest rates have dropped again. And we have the opportunity to refinance. You know, we're six months later, but we were dropped. Now more than a point and a half again off of the remaining balance of our mortgage. So I applied through a right tucker up mortgage brokers. And one of them told me, well, you could drop another four years off your mortgage and save yourself about forty five thousand dollars over the course of the loan or go to a 20 year mortgage. Or you could go to a 30 year mortgage, make a lower payment and take the money that you would save monthly on your bill and invest it. And you'd make more money on the investment than your word. The interest that you're saving on a wing and I was wondering what you thought about that.

Yeah. Craig, I appreciate the question. Couple of thoughts.

Number one is, I would want to understand not only how much total interest you're going to save, which it sounds like he shared that with you, was a little over forty thousand dollars. And what it's going to do to the term, it sounds like you're going to save several years. But I'd also want to know how many months until you break even on the cost of the refinance, because you've got to make sure that you're going to be in the home at least that long. So that it's worthwhile and doing it's one thing, you know, to stay in this home and stay there forever. But we know the reality is most people just don't do that. Lord blesses you with kids or more kids or, you know, your situation changes. You take a job out of state. All of sudden now you're selling a home and you haven't recouped the cost. So I just want to make sure you you would do that. As to the idea that you could go back to a 30 year, take the difference in the reduced mortgage payment and invest it. I'm just not a big fan of. Even though I agree on paper that can work. You can run the numbers and see how it can pay off. Just not a big fan of borrowing to invest. So I'd rather you really focus on getting that mortgage paid off. Having the peace of mind that comes with that, knowing that you're on track to get this paid off as quickly as you can and and then take, you know, your other funds and live in such a way that you have margin that you can use to not only invest in retirement accounts, but in other vehicles alongside whatever debt and savings goals you have, debt payoff goals and giving as well.

So I would say definitely take a look at shortening the term saving interest, but let's look at the break even and make sure that makes sense to you.

And then I would avoid, you know, this longer term with the investing strategy.

Good question, though, Craig. Sounds like you guys are really doing a lot of the right things. We wish you best as you move forward. Thanks. Time for at least one more Claremont, Florida, Cecilia. What's your question for Rob?

I would just like to say that I got into work a very late age at 59, and when I started at work, I signed up for a pension plan. And now I'm 72 and last about six months. A year ago, they told me that I would have to start taking some of that money out of the pension plans. But what I'd like to know is, does it continue to build up while I'm working or does it just finally. Get all used up.

Yeah. So the pension plan. Yes, here. So you're going to have to start taking withdrawals at 72. But are you saying you're going to continue working beyond that?

Yes, I'm already past 72.

OK. All right. And how long do you plan to be there?

I don't know, another couple years. OK, very good. You know, typically you would see a situation where, you know, if you started to take that money out, you know, you would not see that continue to grow necessarily.

So I think the the opportunity for you is, you know, to continue to work knowing this income will be there for the rest of your life. But you're going to want to get them to explain the fine print to you, because not all pensions are created equal.

So what I would do, Cecillia, is just go back to the H.R. department, whoever administers this plan, and just have them sit down and explain to you what needs to be taken out now and then, what your ultimate pension payout will be down the road.

And the implications of you continuing to work into the future so they can just give you all of the details so you understand fully what's going to be happening, because I'd hate to advise you on what's going to take place, given that I don't know the ins and outs of your particular plan. But kudos to you for continuing to work. And it sounds like the Lord is providing and I know having that guaranteed income source alongside Social Security will be a real blessing to you.

Cecilia, thank you very much. Well, let's see if we can dove into an e-mail quickly. Helbert Lauren who asks, We refinanced our mortgage eight years ago to four point seventy five percent. Should we refinance again and pay all the fees again? Is it worth it to get get it down by a point or a half a point? Yeah.

So if you refinanced your mortgage to four and three quarters, you know. Yeah. It can absolutely make sense to refinance again. I think the key is, are you going to save enough in total interest? Are you going to reduce the term? And then the third piece, which I just talked to the previous caller about is how many months is it going to take for you to break even on the cost of the refinance? That's really the key in terms of what you're looking out there, Lauren. So get them to not only calculate the saved interest total, but the number of months before you break even and then compare that to what you believe your plans are with regard to this particular home. If you don't know if you'll be there long term, it may make sense to avoid it. If you really think this is the place you're going to be for quite a while, the next five years at a minimum, then it can absolutely make sense for you to do it all over again just because of the significant drop in rates we have seen in the last several months.

Rob, how about refinancing with an online bank as opposed to a brick and mortar bank or finance company or someone down the street from where you live?

Absolutely. I'd be checking all over. You know, we've seen studies, Steve, that we've talked about recently about how, you know, we'll often shop pricing on so many things, but we fail to do it on mortgages, which, you know, is one of the biggest purchases we hope will make or expenses we'll have. So absolutely, I'd head over to a bank rate dot com and look and see who has the most attractive rate packages with a highly rated bank and compare that alongside a local option or something a mortgage broker may produce.

All right. Great information. Thank you very much. We'll come back and give it another try tomorrow. Our number remains the same. If he didn't get through today, give us a try. Tomorrow we'll be back. Eight hundred five to five 7000 will be to talking about or jetting about anything financial. No specific topic, 805 to five 7000. And again, visit our Web site if you haven't done that in a while. Lots of additions and changes on a regular basis. It's moneywise lived at Oregon moneywise live dot o r g.

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