Who Pays Your Debts When You Die?

One of the facts of your calls, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Often on Mondays as we begin our broadcast week, we focus on foundational matters related to finances. And I'll remind you of our teaching model that's centered around the five basic things you can do with your money. You can earn it, live on it, give it away, owe it to someone or the government, and you can grow it by investing. That is earn, live, give, owe, and grow.

It's pretty easy to remember. And today we're focusing on owing money and on a particular aspect of that topic that perhaps you haven't thought about. Namely, what happens to your debts when you die? Of course, those debts won't be of much concern to you at that point, but they could be of great concern to those you leave behind. Many people assume that when they pass away, their debts will be written off by creditors and not collected. Well, that is true with regard to some debts, but it is the exception, not the rule. The U.S. government does write off federal school loans when the person who owes the money dies, and that extends to plus loans parents take out for their children's education. In fact, if either a parent or the student dies, the loan is written off. One other possible exception is small medical debts. Sometimes medical providers will write those off, but they are under no obligation to do so. As for other kinds of debt, those obligations do not go away. They'll be assigned to other people who will become responsible for paying them, or they'll be paid from the proceeds of your estate.

I'll explain that in a moment. But first, you need to understand that there are two types of debt, secured debt and unsecured. A secured debt is anything that has collateral. That is something the creditor could take and sell to pay the debt if it came to that. Secured debt includes things such as a home mortgage or a car loan. A creditor could foreclose on a house or repossess a car. Those are secured debts. In contrast, unsecured debt has no collateral.

Credit cards fall into that category. Typically, a secured debt will pass to a beneficiary. If your spouse becomes the sole owner of the house when you pass away, and you still have a mortgage on it, he or she will be responsible for continuing the payments. If you bequeath your car to a loved one and it still has a loan on it, the beneficiary will have to either take over the payments or refuse the vehicle. As for unsecured debts, such as credit cards, those debts will not pass to a loved one unless that person is a joint account holder.

If the person is simply an authorized user but not a joint account holder, that person won't be responsible for the debt. Now, in most cases, credit card debt will be paid from your estate. Estate is a legal term for the assets you leave behind, such as cash in a bank account or maybe a set of tools or collectibles you own. To satisfy the creditors, the executor of your estate will have to pay the bills from those assets. That could involve selling things you left behind to generate enough cash to clear the debts. When settling an estate, creditors are first in line legally.

They get paid before anyone else. That means fewer resources will be left for your heirs or to give away to your church or a charity. Fortunately, some assets are not considered a part of your estate, including life insurance proceeds and retirement accounts with named beneficiaries. Those are protected against creditors.

Now, let me say a word about medical-related debt. In most cases, a survivor is not directly responsible for that unless he or she cosigned to form pledging financial responsibility. However, laws relating to how debts are handled after death vary from state to state.

Nine states in the U.S. are what are known as community property states, in which marital assets are jointly owned. Medical debt may be handled differently in those states. Now, I've only given you a general lay of the land regarding what happens to debts after a person dies. It may be wise to consult an estate attorney if you have specific concerns about how debts will be dealt with based on the state you live in or your particular financial situation.

You certainly don't want your loved ones taken by surprise in this area. I hope that helps you clear up some of the misconceptions you may have had about how debt is handled after death. Next up, your calls on any financial topic. The number to call, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and we'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. I wanted to have you here today as we take your calls and questions on anything financial. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open.

Again, 800-525-7000. We'll of course be taking your questions today. We'll also hear from Bob Doll today. It's Monday. He joins us each Monday with his analysis on the market and the economy.

There's certainly a lot to talk about today. Here we are in earnings season. Of course, the Fed always front and center and inflation.

Last week, OPEC in the news. We'll talk about the implications of that on oil prices and of course gasoline. All of that ahead with Bob Doll's weekly market commentary. And we'll take a few of your emails today, some great questions that came in over the weekend, specifically about tithing on the sale of a home and what to do when you find inaccurate information on your credit report.

We'll tackle those questions as well. Before we dive into the phones, let me take just a moment and say a big thank you to those of you in the MoneyWise Live family that supported our fall share. What an opportunity to tell the story of Moody Radio and all that God is doing as the gospel is proclaimed literally to the ends of the earth. Thank you for your faithfulness and partnering with this ministry. We are so very grateful. And just know that if you didn't get a chance to be a part of our fall share, you can still do that at MoodyRadio.org. But to all of you who were a part of it, new donors, new as well as existing financial partners, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We're grateful. All right, let's head to the phones today.

We're going to begin in Rochester, New York. Dave, thank you for calling, sir. Go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you so much for taking my call. My wife and I have been listening to you folks for many years, and we're thankful for your wonderful ministry. Well, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My question has to do with our retirement funding. We have no debt. I'm 71, my wife's 67. We're both still working.

I have Parkinson's disease, which is obviously a concern. And our retirement funding back in December of 2021 was about $800,000. And today it's down to about $663,000. According to the platform that our financial advisors are on, we have a loss of about 18.8%. And I guess our concern, my wife's concern especially, is that the market may not recover very quickly, which might hurt us when we have to take from our retirement funding.

Yeah. Well, I can certainly appreciate that, Dave, especially in this season of life and down 18%. The fact that you're not down as much as the market is a good thing, and yet that's a significant amount of money.

So I can understand how that would weigh on you. You know, a couple of thoughts. I mean, I think we have to look at, first of all, just the nature of these near recessions or recession, if that's what ends up being the case, perhaps later this year, but more likely into next year here in the US. Remember, the market is a leading indicator.

The market tends to look out six months or more and anticipates what's going to happen in the economy, and particularly with earnings related to corporations, which is what we're investing in when we buy shares of stock. And as we look out, we see all of these headwinds. We see inflation that is just kind of running rampant right now. We see a slowdown and a softening in the economy as a result of that. We see what's happening with oil prices and food prices and across the board. We're looking at a host of issues and more recently, some indications from corporate earnings that the economy is, in fact, softening. And then we see the rest of the world in a in a much more precarious situation with regard to energy, specifically in Europe and China, with the zero tolerance on covid and the lockdowns. Japan has its own set of challenges.

So clearly there's some some challenges out there. And that's why the market has sold off so significantly. But keep in mind, even though I think we longer term have some things we will have to deal with, notably the debt levels in this country and the fact that we're seeing the labor participation rate decline, we're we're at a net loss of of workers every year just because of the aging of the population.

We're not replenishing those workers as fast as we need to. And especially in these high interest rates, the debt service for our country is significant. But I think that's a good bit down the road. I think right now, the fact that we're in a better shape than the rest of the world, we still have the largest and strongest economy in the world, puts us in a pretty good spot in the sense that we will get through this. Even if we hit a recession later this year or next year, you know, we'll work our way through it. We have certain things we can do to to fight the recession and the market will recover ahead of that. So, you know, I think as you all look at this and you say, well, you know, we're in our 60s and 70s and I've got some health concerns, not to mention the fact that, you know, we need this money to last for the rest of our lives no matter when the Lord calls us home, you still have a long time horizon.

You know, if the Lord tarries, you all could need this money to last, you know, 10 or 20 years. And given that, we can weather declines like this. Now, once this portfolio recovers and that could be well into next year, in my opinion, then I think it's time to look at whether or not perhaps we're too aggressive and whether we need to have more allocated away from stocks and toward fixed income type investments.

And that's what's going to soften the blow. The challenge this year in particular was with the interest rates rising so fast, it obviously has put pressure on the bond market as well. So I think in light of all of that, Dave, I would stay the course and just recognize that we go into periods like this even with an income type portfolio where we're counting on the income from it. And typically an advisor would be very strategic about pulling the income from those income producing investments that are more in the fixed income, staying away from the stock oriented investments to give those time to recover. You know, in the good years, which we've had for a dozen years before this one, that'll provide the growth engine to the portfolio, but it also provides more of the volatility when we get into a period like this.

The good news is these are typically fairly short lived, but even short lived means this could last a couple of years. So I think from your standpoint, you still got a significant amount of money. These are unrealized losses until they're sold. So I would plan on staying the course if it were me and just recognize that at least the portion of the portfolio that's been beat up the most is that portion that will probably recover the quickest once we start to have some signs that this economy is beginning to turn around. That said, at the end of the day, you all are the stewards and need to have peace of mind about this. But it sounds like, Dave, you all have done everything right in the sense that your expenses are as low as possible.

You're completely debt free. You're continuing to work even into your 70s and you've still got a significant nest egg, even though the unrealized losses have put some pressure on it. And I realize that's weighing on you and your wife.

But give me your thoughts on all of that. Yes. I mentioned to you that our loss right now is about 18.8 percent. You mentioned that that's lower than the present market or average. No, you're not down as much as the market, depending on what sector of the market you look at.

The market's down 30 percent here. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's probably because you all are more conservative than the overall stock market and the indexes we would typically look at. Okay.

We've got about 19,000 in our emergency funds and 23,000 in a CD. And somebody mentioned that we should get some I bonds. What do you think about that?

Yeah. Let's talk about that. If you don't mind holding, Dave, I've got to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about that emergency fund, how many months expenses and whether I bonds make sense for a portion of that. You stay right there. And then Ruth and Joan, we're coming your way as well.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWiseLive. I'm Rob West, your host. This is where we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices. We've got some lines open today.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand is the number to call. Just before the break, we were talking to Dave in Rochester. Dave and his wife are well, Dave's in his early seventies, his wife late sixties, down about 18 percent in their retirement portfolio. Just wondering about how to think about that and just put that in context as they think about the future and continuing to fund their lifestyle. They're debt free. But Dave, just before the break, you mentioned you all have an emergency fund.

I'm thrilled to hear that. How many months worth of expenses would you say you have in that fund? We've got nineteen thousand dollars in the fund. My wife takes care of that, so I'm not sure any of the details. Okay. If you were to estimate your monthly expenses, do you think you all are spending three thousand a month or more or less?

Great question. I think our retirement specialist mentioned that we needed about seventy thousand. We're spending about seventy per year. Okay. Does that make sense?

Yeah, sure. So let's say it's six thousand a month, and so three months would be twenty-four thousand, six months would be forty-eight thousand. And you said about twenty-three in that emergency fund? We've got nineteen in the emergency and twenty-three in a CD. Okay, twenty-three in a CD.

And when does that come due? I don't know. I'm sorry. Okay.

Yeah, no worries. Yeah, so I like the I bonds a lot. I mean, I would say in this season of life, I'd love for you to have a bit more than just three months expenses.

I'd love for you to have closer to six. But if you feel like everything's fairly stable, you're counting on your income, you don't see that in jeopardy in any way, you don't see anything on the horizon that would cause you to have to come out of that fund in any major way, then I think you do have the ability to say, okay, what if we were to take twenty thousand of that twenty-three and put into the I bonds ten for each you and your wife, you would have to leave it there for a year, you wouldn't be able to touch it for a minimum of a year, but a phenomenal interest rate. And I would expect when it adjusts again in November, it's probably not going down a whole lot, which means you'll get a very attractive rate on this twenty thousand for the next year. At that point, you could pull it out, and you would just give up the last three months' worth of expenses or interest if you pulled it out in less than five years. I like that a lot, but if you all felt like you needed to be more liquid, then certainly you could look at just adding this to your high-yield savings account, assuming that's where the emergency fund is.

If you wanted to go the direction of the I bonds, you would just go to treasurydirect.gov, create your account for you and your wife, and then electronically transfer the funds in. Super. That makes great sense, and again, I appreciate all your help. I think you've answered our questions. I think the biggest one was, how long do you think it'll take for the market to recover? And I think you're saying maybe a year or two? Yeah, I would say sometime in 2023, because I think even if we hit a full-blown recession next year, we'd probably work our way out of that in 2024. By the end of 2023, you could expect the market to probably have recovered.

Obviously, it could be longer and deeper than we expect, and that would mean that that timeline could slip quite a bit. Typically, these last a couple of years, so I think as long as you're thinking in that time horizon, not reacting emotionally, but just kind of stay in the course and continuing to be real prudent in your spending, and obviously you're continuing to work, which is really helpful. We'll pray that the Lord heals you from the Parkinson's, but I think you all are in pretty good shape here, Dave. Rob, thanks so much. We really appreciate you and your ministry. Well, thank you very much, and all the best to you and your wife, my friend. God bless you. To Las Cruces, New Mexico, Ruth, thank you for calling.

Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. I just love your show and have gleaned so much advice from you through the years. I'm calling on behalf of my daughter. She has come to me for advice. She typically works at the time of your program, so I thought I'd reach out on her behalf.

Great. She is single and wants to be a good steward of her money. She is a government employee, no debt, minimal expenses, and currently has about $36,000 in an online banking account. Her employer matches up to 5% in their retirement plan. She's currently putting in 10%. She was considering should she contribute more to that plan, maybe open up a Roth or the I bonds or anything else that you might suggest.

Yeah, very good. Do you know what her expenses are monthly, roughly? They should be probably around $500. About $500 a month. Okay, so she's got quite a bit in savings. Does she have any short or medium term savings goals? Is she trying to save to buy a house or pay for a new car or something like that? The only large purchase item down the road would be a new car. Hers is quite old, so she's hanging on to it as long as she can.

Yeah, well that's good. I'd love for her to try to hang on for another year if she can just while car prices stabilize. Well, I would say I'd do a couple of things. Number one is I love the fact she's got that high yield savings account. I'd look at keeping at least six months expenses in there, but that's because her expenses are so low, she's way oversubscribed that. I have a second account that she's funding for that repurchase of the new, perhaps used car down the road, and let's get that money separate over in that account. And then once those are fully funded, I would say, yeah, go ahead and boost her retirement savings up to 15%. I think that would be great given how young she is.

That's an awesome thing to do. She could look at increasing any giving she wants to do and then just save. At some point down the road, she'll probably want a down payment for a house, and so having that money available in liquid would probably be a great next step beyond boosting the retirement savings and getting that car fund fully funded. I think those would be the better options for her, and let's think longer term as opposed to the I-bonds, which is a little more short term. The only thing would be for the I-bonds, if she had money that she wanted to put in that she knew she could wait another year for the car on, then she could put that money in the I-bonds and get a good return while she's waiting.

If there's some uncertainty as to whether she can wait a full year, then I wouldn't do that. Ruth, we'll talk a little bit more off the air, and we'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions today on anything financial. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open. We'd love to hear from you today.

Again, 800-525-7000. Coming up in the next segment of the broadcast today, our good friend Bob Doll stops by. Bob will weigh in on the market and the economy, give us an update on where we find ourselves today, given our sky high inflation, the prospect of earnings coming in below expectations as we move heavily into this next earnings season, and where the Fed is at today.

That, plus oil prices. We'll get Bob's take on all of it. All right, back to your questions today.

St. Peter's, Missouri. Cheryl, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Yeah. Hi, Rob.

Thanks for taking my call. My husband and I are about three years out from retirement and have been able over the years to be at a good point with retirement. We were not nervous about getting ready to go ahead and retire in three years based on our putting money away over the years.

Obviously, this last year has been kind of tough. Most of our money is in the market either through retirement situations, through his company or my company, or additional IRAs and whatnot. As we've watched that change fairly dramatically in the last year, we started attending a couple of just free seminars at our local libraries, the community college, just to kind of get a little bit more information on potentially maybe moving a little bit of that money. A couple of the things that have come up have been annuities, where some of that would be obviously locked down a little bit more conservatively with a rate of return. However, it wouldn't be as easy to get at, or with the market already being down, is this the time to just leave it and let it do its return over potentially the next couple of years here, and then move to a point where we're locking a little bit of it down. I don't know, we're confused.

To be honest, two or three people that we've spoken to all have totally different approaches. Okay, sounds good. So what retirement accounts do you have right now? Are these 401ks, IRAs, what do you have? They are 401ks and IRAs, both.

Okay. And what do you have, roughly, if you were to put it all together in investable assets inside those retirement accounts? Prior to this year, we were at the million mark. We've lost about 100,000 this year. Okay, so you're down 10% this year, roughly? Correct.

Which is better than the market overall, to be honest. For sure, yeah. And are you all pulling from any of these accounts to supplement your income right now? No, we are not. Okay, you're still working? Yes, correct.

So three more years. Okay, good. All right. Yeah, I mean, I think you all are in a great spot just to ride this out.

I mean, yeah, you're down significantly less than the market. That's a good thing. You've built up quite a nest egg here. You've still got time on your side where you all are continuing to work. That's great. I think the timing on you all entering retirement will probably sync up pretty well with the recovery of this account.

So I would just kind of leave it be. Do you have this managed by someone or are you all doing this yourself? Actually, we do have someone that is doing some managing for us. But because the majority of this is in the market, again, we were just so a little bit concerned watching what the market has done. We kind of got hit with our kids with college in 2008. We had been able to, by the grace of God, put aside most of our kids' college and then because of what's available to us here in Missouri at the time that our kids were born, we did lose some of that. So it wasn't really locked down.

So it was still in the market. And that kind of sent us into a bit of a tailspin right before the kids went to college. And I guess I'm just kind of seeing foreshadowings of the same thing potentially here with retirement. And I'm trying to be a little bit proactive. My husband and I are on the front end of this. Yeah.

And what do you think you will have or you'll need to pull out each year once you hit retirement and you're no longer working? Do you know? Yeah.

Basically, our financial advisor had figured right around $8,000 a month, which was pretty good. So whatever that is times 12. I'm not sure.

Let's see. That would be, yeah. Right around $96,000. So that's pretty significant.

Yeah. And that's what you'll need in total or that's just what you'll need from these investment accounts? That would be total. So that would include my husband was military part time. He's got a pension coming in on top of this.

So there are a few things that are going to add additional into that as well as Social Security. So that would not all be coming out of that investment within the market by any means. Okay, great. Yeah. So I mean, what we would typically look at is a 4% withdrawal rate. So let's say that you said it was a million or it is a million today? It's down to the $900,000 now. Okay.

Yeah. So let's say it's back to a million and you even have a little bit of growth between now and then, but let's just say it's a million. And for round numbers, we'd want to say, let's try not to pull more than $40,000 a year out of that. It sounds very doable given what your expenses are and what you would receive between the pension and Social Security. And so I think from that standpoint, you all are on a pretty good track here. Plus you're going to have three more years of contributions, but you'll be contributing, assuming you're still contributing to these, any of these accounts, you'll be doing it with the market down considerably. So as it recovers, you'll get that appreciation as well.

So I think from that standpoint, you should be in good shape. I kind of like the idea of you all, even beyond retirement age, once you're no longer working, continuing to just keep this in IRAs, have it managed, but with a focus on capital preservation and income to try to offset the $40,000 a year ideally that you're pulling out. So you're maintaining your principal balance, you're getting that $40,000 a year in income that's allowing you to maintain your lifestyle.

And beyond that, you still have access to the money if you need it for something major, your medical expenses or something like that. So I think from that standpoint, I'd probably certainly rather see you let it run the course until it fully recovers. It seems like you all, it's being managed well given you're close to retirement and the fact that it's only down 10% tells me that it's being managed with an eye toward retirement because you would have been down quite a bit more if this was in an all stock kind of portfolio. And so given that, I'd let it recover and I'd probably just keep tweaking it and hang on to access to the money without the complexity of the insurance products. But if you all wanted to trade that for peace of mind, knowing that you're transferring the risk away from yourselves and the market to an insurance company with the downside protection and you're willing to lose access to the money apart from surrender charges and some of those types of things, then you certainly could look at that option.

They're not all created equal, so I'd get multiple people to weigh in on what's the best product for you there. But again, my preference would probably be this stays outside of an insurance company and just continues to be invested with changes to the investment strategy along the way as you move toward a focus on income generation in about three years. Does that all make sense? Yeah, perfect sense. I think the one thing that kind of generated some of these thoughts for us in general was the purchase of a potential purchase of a long term healthcare situation for catastrophic healthcare. That is one thing that we had talked about kind of protecting our assets. Could you weigh in on that just real quickly? Is that a good idea or not?

It is. Between 55 and 65, I like that option. You'd want to get a policy that is with a highly rated company that really specializes in this sector of the insurance world. Make sure it's going to fit into the budget, including escalations along the way because as the cost of healthcare rises, these policies are rising in the aggregate. But I think absolutely if something's going to erode your assets in this season of life, it's going to be the cost of long term care. 70% of Americans 65 and older will need it for at least 18 months or more.

So I think from that standpoint, I would look at one of those policies, shop around and find one that's going to be a good fit for your budget. Cheryl, thanks for your call today. We'll be right back on MoneyWiseLive. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWiseLive where we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices.

I'm Rob West, your host. We're delighted you're along with us today. Before we head back to the phones here in our final segment of the broadcast, we're grateful on Mondays to be joined by our friend Bob Dole. Bob's a Wall Street veteran, a fellow Christ follower and Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments, where investments and values intersect. Bob, good afternoon, sir. Same to you.

Happy Monday. This market's trying to make up its mind on where to go from here. We got a strong jobs report that wasn't really looked on favorably from the market. We've obviously got OPEC in the news.

The Fed is always there. Inflation. What do you make of all this? Do you have any good news there, Rob? Jesus is on the throne. That's the good news.

Let's just pronounce the benediction and move on. In the meantime, we're dealing with everything that points to the Fed's got to keep tightening. Higher oil prices from the OPEC cut, potentially higher rates because the jobs picture's a little too strong. I hate rooting for weak economic news, Rob.

That's the period we're in right now. Bad news is good news because it means the Fed doesn't have to continue to raise rates and threaten a recession. Bad news would mean the Fed's doing its job. The economy's slowing and maybe there's a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Yeah, no question about it. It seems like, Bob, there's a stronger drumbeat out there that perhaps the Fed is overplaying their hand. We saw an open letter today from our friend who is a fellow Christ follower from ARK Invest, Kathy Wood, just saying, listen, I think the data points to the fact that inflation is coming down quickly in a lot of areas. We could even be headed toward a deflationary environment and you all are really going to create some problems here if you continue on this track.

What do you make of some of these remarks? And I realize a lot of these folks have a vested interest, especially if they're in the high growth space. Yes, the truth is, we don't know. The lag time from Fed actions is very variable. Three months to 18 months, according to most economists.

So Kathy could be right, but they could be doing too much too soon. They have raised rates quickly, Rob, because they were late at the switch and inflation moved up fast. So it is a dance now to figure out when will the economy show more signs of slowdown relative to how far and how fast will the Fed raise rates from here. There is a school of thought that says, Fed, you've done a lot. Take a pause and see what's going to happen to the economy as a result. Not sure they're there yet, but they could get there with a couple of good inflation numbers. We get one this week.

Yeah, we'll certainly be looking at that. Bob, obviously it's earnings season. What are you seeing in terms of the early data and what do you expect in the weeks ahead? Well, the early data is not great news, Rob.

Analysts have been slow to lower their numbers. And we've had a half dozen very visible companies, PPG the latest today, saying, guess what? The earnings aren't going to be what we thought because the economy is weaker or the dollar is higher, any series of legitimate excuses. So I expect more earnings disappointments as these earnings reports come fast and furious starting this week.

All right. Just typically, Bob, when you look back through history and you look at periods like we're in right now, I know everyone is a bit unique in terms of the factors that drove it. But there's obviously some big trends we can pull away. If we were to slip into a recession, let's say early next year, what would you make for how long it might take for that to kind of work its way through the system and when we might see a market recovery in advance of that? So the economy and recession is certainly possible for a bunch of reasons.

We think it might be shorter and shallower than average. That would be the strength of the consumer, amount of cash they have, the strength of corporate America, while challenge with profit margins declining is still in pretty good shape, the banking system in good shape. And then, of course, the jobs market remains strong. It'll weaken.

There's some layoffs happen and more coming. But those three signs tell me that if we have a recession, it's probably not going to be real deep and therefore shorter. So the market wants to see the Fed reach the end of their tightening. Once we have visibility on that, who knows when that comes? That's also when the market bottoms and starts to anticipate the other side of this, the goodness. So could that then, for all intents and purposes, mean the market recovers sometime next year, the economy the year after that? Or am I thinking even a bit long in that time horizon? That could be long.

We could have the market bottoming early next year and the economy beginning to recover second half of next year if it's only a six-month recession, which is very possible. Interesting. All right, Bob. Well, we appreciate your insights, as always. I know you're continuing to monitor this day to day, and we'll look forward to hearing more from you next week. Talk then. God bless.

All right, you too. Bob Doll, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global. You can sign up for his weekly investment commentary at crossmarkglobal.com. All right, back to the phones we go. Robert is in Waynesboro, Georgia. Robert, you're next on the program. Go ahead, sir.

Yeah, Mr. West. Thank you for taking my call. I was calling you to see if I could get some type of direction as to finding my pension and my profit sharing from a former company I work to.

Okay, go right ahead. Company is Waste Management, and I've called Waste Management from Texas to Florida, which I'm from Florida, but now resides in Georgia. And nobody can find me in their system. And I was the safety coordinator for Waste Management Southern Southeast. Yeah, I assume, Robert, you don't have any documentation based on this account.

Is that right? No, I don't. When I moved, none of the mail and stuff was forwarded or anything like that. So I never, I never gotten anything. And I just turned 65. So I, you know, just decided to look into it.

Okay. Did you go back to the HR department and just have them reference your previous employment and at least give an explanation as to what retirement benefits you had access to? I mean, you've got to be in their system, even though they may not see a pension account for you.

They can at least trace your employment records and pull you up that way. No, because I'm actually from the old Waste Management, the original Waste Management, and now they're under new ownership. And nobody can tell me anything. And every time I call, I'm not getting any answers. Okay.

All right. Well, obviously, this is something that I'm sure is disconcerting to you. And I think, you know, I mean, obviously, one option is there is a national registry of unclaimed retirement benefits, you could certainly I would do a search there. First, it's simply unclaimedretirementbenefits.com. And that's the national registry.

Just obviously, if you can come up there, that'd be great. If you don't, then really at this point, the only other recourse is just to continue to stay on the company to try to trace back your employment from the previous company and at least give you an explanation as to maybe not for you, but for anybody employed by the prior company prior to the sale or transition whatever occurred, what happened to those retirement benefits. And then once you know what should have happened, I think, just tracing down your employment as a part of that organization, there's got to be a lot of people in your situation that are trying to navigate this and it just seems like you need to be willing to do the legwork to get somebody on the line who's willing to put the time into helping you explore this a bit further. But I would continue to stay on that with the company. And then at the same time, check this website, Robert.

Again, the web address is unclaimedretirementbenefits.com. And let us know how that turns out. We appreciate your call, my friend. To Fort Myers, Robert, you're next on the program, sir. Go ahead.

Yes, sir. I am with Raymond James. And one of the things I find complicated is that they list in two different accounts, they list at least 15 different purchases in each one.

And how does one keep track of how you can better manage that? I've gone from $563,000 down to $495,000 in just two months here. And I'm looking for something more stable. I was told that Raymond James was very stable. But that's not turned out that way.

What do you recommend in terms of finding a really good fund that would be more stable? Yeah. Do you have somebody that's actively managing this account for you, Robert? Or are you making the decisions yourself? No, I have a broker who's managing it. Okay.

All right. Well, I would schedule a meeting with him, Robert. I mean, he should be able to give you whatever level of detail you're looking for, beginning with kind of the current makeup of the portfolio in terms of the various allocations between stocks and bonds and other types of investments today versus in the past.

He should give you a performance analysis to tell you how you're doing versus the benchmarks in light of the strategy that's been selected for you, which in your early 80s, I would hope is fairly conservative. You're down a little bit more than I would have expected with a portfolio of this size given your age. So I think an explanation is in order just so you understand how and why it's being managed the way that it is.

And then obviously there's going to be lots of transactions going on. But at the end of the day, you're wanting to know what did I start with? What do I have today? Did I take anything out?

And what does that mean in terms of performance? And then why am I in the investments that I am? And really the minor changes along the way that show up as individual transactions, which can be confusing, really are secondary to the overall performance and the strategy that's being deployed and whether or not that is consistent with your objectives at this age and stage in your life. So I'd schedule that meeting and see if you can get a bit more information. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to give us a call back. Robert, thank you so much for your call, sir. Elizabeth, I apologize we didn't get to you today. I hope you'll call back tomorrow. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thank you to Amy and Dan. Thank you to Robert as well. We'll hope to see you tomorrow on the next edition of MoneyWise Live. Bye bye.