On this week’s show, Erick is joined by his son and partner, Jacob Arnett. Together, the guys discuss taxes in retirement while sharing strategies for dealing with the IRS and generating tax-free income.

Call Erick today at 352-616-0511

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1.12.24: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

1.12.24: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only, and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment, and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to Take Point on Retirement with your host, Erick Arnett. Erick is a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor who always places your needs first. The experienced team at Take Point Wealth Management takes pride in knowing they've helped so many pursue the financial future of their dreams, and they can help you, too. And now let's start the show. Here's Erick Arnett.

Erick Arnett:
Well, good morning everybody. Or afternoon or whatever time it is that you're listening to the show today. This is Take Point on Retirement. I'm your host, Erick Arnett. And happy New Year, everybody. 2024. It's pretty crazy. I can't believe it's already here. And but happy New Year. I hope everybody had a awesome holiday season. And you know, typically when we kick off 2024, we've got a whole fresh batch of things to talk about and discuss. But today is kind of a cool show and exciting for me. It's the first time I'd like to introduce some a new team member. Uh, but wanted to remind you first and foremost of who we are. This is Take Point Wealth Management. And this is your show. This is this show is about retirement planning, investment management, estate planning, and all thereof. This is your show, folks. It's an educational show, you know, feel free to reach out to us any time during the show. You can go to Take Point Wealth com in the upper right hand corner. You can click on the calendar there and get right on our schedule. If you have some questions or concerns, we're happy to chat with you there. You can also just give us a call at 352 616 0511 We've got a podcast. You can go to Take Point on Retirement and get all of our past shows. If you miss some something today and you want to catch up on it, just go to that website. Take Point on Retirement, or you can also get our podcast on any one of those podcast apps on your phone, Spotify, iTunes, you name it, just Google.

Erick Arnett:
Or when you get into that app, just the podcast app, just type in. Take Point on Retirement will pop right up for any past shows. Plenty of ways to hear us point out ways to get that information, but don't hesitate to call us. We love, love, love getting your questions. And we love helping our listeners. And you know, we'd love to meet with you and discuss your specific retirement plan and your specific financial future. Of course, this show is a general show, and we talk about a lot of general topics, but we love to dive in to what it is specifically that you may have some concerns about. And of course, when we talk about retirement planning and financial planning, I mean, it it covers a broad array of things, and we can't talk about them all in today on one show. But we're going to try to get to as many of them of those concerns today as we can and super happy to to develop that plan for you. We love building plans for our listeners and helping them make great retirement decisions and feel like, you know, they're really in control and have the confidence that they need to. Whether you're starting in retirement or have you already been in retirement, if you're preparing for retirement, you know, it's it's all about building that plan, that good, solid plan. And that's what we do here at Take Point on Retirement. So we're happy. Happy to stand by and listen to your questions. Please reach out. (352) 616-0511. That's (352) 616-0511. Or just go right on your phone right there and just Google Take Point Wealth.

Erick Arnett:
We'll come right up just in the upper right hand corner of our website. You can schedule right now a 15, 20, 30 minute chat session with us, and we're happy to answer your specific questions. So with all that being said, I'm super excited to have Mister Jacob Arnett on the show today. Jacob has recently joined us from another financial firm, and we're super happy to have him here with us. And of course, you may recognize the last name Arnett. And it's I've been anticipating this for years, but Jacob joined our team back in August. And Jacob's really are insurance, income planning, Medicare planning specialist. And Jacob's got a lot of experience in the business as well. He's been working at some other another firm for several years and didn't come to work for dad right away. And we decided that it might be best for him to get his training elsewhere. And so he's all trained up and he's a super asset to this team. As Take Point Wealth Management continues to grow. Thank you to all of you. Our listeners, uh, our listeners are really what fuel this practice and keep pushing it forward. And I got to give a big shout out to Sarasota, Tampa, Dunedin, Clearwater, of course, the Nature Coast, our home office here in Spring Hill and Brooksville and up and down in the citrus, Pasco, Hernando County. Thank you so much for listening to this show and making us one of the best shows out there, and we're super excited to be with you guys. And and so with that being said, Mr. Jacob Barnett, welcome to the team.

Jacob:
Thank you. Thank you so much. And uh, likewise, equally excited as I'm sure you are. And this has been a long time coming, but it's it's nice that I am officially part of the team and, you know, can't wait to keep going. And we got a lot of exciting things happening and just, uh, very, very optimistic about, you know, uh, the future of Take Point Wealth and the future of how we can continue to help our clients. So it's a pleasure to be on here for the first time.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah. Jake, Jake's a local guy. I mean, uh, grew up here in the Hernando County Nature Coast high school graduate. Uh, yeah. Uh, what a challenger graduate. Um, so for all our listeners and the Nature Coast area, uh, Jacob's a local guy, and he's, uh, covers really the whole southeast for us. So as we expand, uh, we continue to grow, and, and Jacob's going to be on the road working hard for us and, and really helping us keep things together as we grow here. So super excited to have Jacob on board. And Jacob, you know, just, uh, tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of your background and, and how you ended up here and, and kind of what, uh, you know, just tell us a little bit about your past and, and how you ended up here at King Point.

Jacob:
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, God works in mysterious ways sometimes, right? So it wasn't a direct path, but I wouldn't take it, take anything back. Um, so, you know, obviously grew up there and that Brooksville Springhill area, um, went to Chuck chatty elementary school, challenger middle school, Nature coast high school. Uh, I was a golfer. Uh, ended up playing collegiate golf up here in Atlanta at Oglethorpe University. Um, really enjoyed that. Had a lot of success, was very blessed and, uh, decided to give the professional golf thing a run for a few years and had a lot of success. Really enjoyed it. But, you know, it just came a time where I decided, hey, I love golf, but I don't want that to be my job anymore. So it just was a good time for me to transition into this side of the business. You know, I always had a passion for it and helping people. And, you know, obviously, I'm sure there was a little bias with my father being a financial adviser. But, you know, that kind of maybe nudged me at a certain direction. But but yeah, we decided, you know, it was it made more sense just for me to kind of go out. I'm I'm also getting married this year, um, to my beautiful, soon to be wife, Hailey, up here in Atlanta, Georgia. So there was some, some of that that factored into moving back up here to the Atlanta area. And, um, went to work for a great firm up here. Um, got a lot of experience. Lot of responsibility. And I think that's really kind of come full circle now to be able to team up with my with my dad and, um, bring kind of that outside experience that I learned somewhere else and, and, you know, apply it to what we're doing here at Take Point. So. Yeah.

Erick Arnett:
No. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. What? Sharing that with us, Jake. And and, uh, you know, one thing that's exciting for me as Techpoint continues to grow and, you know, uh, it was it's hard to find good people out there to help grow your business. And so it's been a great opportunity for me to grab some, some talent off the market and, uh, get you on board, take point. And so, you know, your family, of course. And we treat all of our clients at Take Point Wealth Management as family. You know, we we feel really strongly about that. Um, it's about relationships. And we care deeply for all of our clients. And we believe that every single one of our clients is a relationship. And we offer that to you as our listener. You know, uh, Take Point on Retirement radio is, you know, it's a little bit different feel here at Take Point Wealth. Uh, we, we, we believe in, you know, your we're a fiduciary first and foremost. And we take that very seriously. We believe that when you ask us and you trust us to guide you and to to manage and grow your retirement assets. You trust us with that responsibility? We take that. We take that very deeply and very seriously, and we treat your money like it's our own money. So as a fiduciary, we're fee based only advisors. So if your account goes up, our fees go up.

Erick Arnett:
You know, if your assets go down and your account goes down, our our paycheck goes down. So one thing that, um, is real important, I think, is when you're out there talking to advisors and you're looking for help, is, is, you know, truly look at the model, you know, look at what type of business model they're running and you know, what is the future. And so it's great to have Jacob on board and uh, in super excited about that. So Jake, thanks for being on the show today. And uh, I'd like to kind of just run through. I mean, we've got a lot of great stuff to talk to you today. Uh, I want to get get to the quote of the week. Jake, I think I'll have you read that we're going to talk about, you know, because already it's January tax. Tax season's coming. It's time to prepare for taxes again believe it or not. And so taxes and retirement some things that you really need to know and consider about taxes Social Security. We want to talk about Social Security why we're concerned and why you need a plan. You know, is social is Social Security running dry or weather concerns there. And and you know, there's different times and different ways that you can take your Social Security. So there's a little bit of planning involved there so that sometimes, you know, you can bounce some ideas off us, off of us.

Erick Arnett:
And so give us a shout and we're happy to answer any questions you have about Social Security. But we also I'm going to have Jacob today kind of share. Jacob's been working with some of our clients and I love to start bringing on board, you know, bringing more, uh, life, life time or real, real time. Cases to the show. And we we can explain to people how we help people at take point and give them examples. And I think that'll help out. So Jacob's going to talk about. Kind of a problem solver that we work through with some clients over here in the past weeks, and how we helped a listener build a tax free income plan. So imagine building a plan that is going to provide tax free income for this individual throughout their retirement. So really excited about that. And then this week in history, some notable events that may be happening this week. So with all that being said, let's kick it off. And nobody nobody likes to talk about taxes, right? I mean, uh, not the most exciting thing, but unfortunately we've got to get into it and things that you just don't want to overlook. But before we start that, Jake, sometimes we do a fun thing on the show and we call it the quote of the week. And oh, yeah, I'd love for you to, uh, give us that quote of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the quote of the week.

Jacob:
Well, that's great because I think this is a fitting one. I might have forgotten to mention. I was an economics major at Oglethorpe University, so that's what I got my degree in. And this quotes actually from one of my favorite economists, a really smart guy, Milton Friedman. Um, born in 1912. He was a leading advocate for limited government intervention and, uh, really emphasized the power of free markets. So, um, anyways, his quote is, I think, very applicable to today's times. It's inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation. So I'll read that again. Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation. So, you know, I know as we've talked about on this show and before, it's you know, inflation is a tax, you know, and it's something that you have to guard against. And it has to come into account when you're planning for retirement. So that's our quote of the week Milton Friedman.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah one one thing that I mean jumps out at me when I. When I listened to this quote is, you know, something that we probably talk about a great deal on this show and it's really, you know, planning for inflation, you know, uh, and we really got bit by this in the last couple of years due to Covid and some, uh, you know, I would say, uh, some administrative decisions that might not have been the best and maybe pumped a little bit too much cash flow into the economy. But we had, um, historical, um, inflation over the last couple of years. And then, of course, the pain that was brought into the stock market and the bond market in 2023 is when the fed decided, you know, in late 2022, they decided that they came right out and said, it's like, hey, we're going to get a handle on inflation here. We're going to have to raise interest rates. And they raised interest rates I think, over 12 times unprecedented, I think is the most interest rate hikes we've seen in our country in a very, very long time. In fact, historically, I think 70 years, something back before we've seen that those kind of, uh, those kind of interest rate hikes so rapid. And so inflation was a real problem. And man, I saw it in my own practice here with all the clients that we work with. I mean, we had people that unfortunately, you know, did not save enough money for retirement, you know, and we're doing our best to help them out.

Erick Arnett:
But they, you know, some people had to go back to work. They just got too expensive or, you know, all of a sudden a home in Florida, instead of it being 200,000 or a nice retirement home, it's 400,000. And then with that goes your property taxes. I think everybody out there listening right now, you're right about now you're getting that property tax bill or you're and you're also getting that new homeowners insurance renewal. And if you're like me, those things went up substantially, uh, for 2024. So, you know, when we're talking about planning for retirement, one of my biggest concerns and one of the things that I think is overlooked very often is what is inflation? You know, what's even okay, if I'm planning right now and I say, okay, you know, I got X amount of money and I'm getting ready to retire. And I know that, uh, you know, I'm gonna have my Social Security, I might have a pension. And, you know, I kind of have a rough idea of what my expenses are, and. And so, I know maybe I've got to pull, you know, somebody off of my IRA or one of my investment accounts in order to supplement my income. And I know that I need $5,000 a month to live on. I'm just pulling out a number, you know, $60,000 a year to live on comfortably.

Erick Arnett:
Well, that's fine and good for right now, but you have no idea what that's going to be next year or five years from now or ten years from now. So when we build out our plans, by the way, which are totally comprehensive, totally free to all of our listeners, this is a probably a 1500 to $2500 value that we're offering today, free to our listeners. So please, please take advantage of that offering. You know, a lot of time, a lot of effort goes into building out these plans. And they're quite comprehensive. We're a little bit different than most shops out there. And most advisors or broker dealers that you're going to sit down with. A lot of times you'll sit down with somebody and they'll just ask you some general questions and they'll say, okay, yeah, let's invest your money in this, and we're going to do this and put you in a diversified portfolio based on, you know, your age. And you answered a few questions. So we know your risk. We're going to put you in a 5050 portfolio. And it's all good. We'll see you later. And we hope for the best right. Well that's not retirement planning folks. I mean retirement planning is so much more comprehensive, so much more detailed. Um, you know. When are you going to take income? From what account? What time? How much is that going to cost you in tax? Uh, you're going to be taxed a little bit higher than if you take it from an IRA versus a Roth IRA, or maybe you're going to take it from your taxable investments first and defer those other accounts.

Erick Arnett:
So there's so many questions that go into comprehensive financial planning and retirement planning. And we keep it pretty simple for you. But we do put a lot of time with a lot of effort in it. It's completely free folks. All you have to do is call us right now. 35261605113526160511. We're standing by to take your call. And we're going to we're going to sit down and we're going to go to work for you. We're going to build out an optimized comprehensive retirement plan first and foremost. And you may have something in place right now. And that's great. And it may be working. And you may be you may be listening to the show and like, hey, you know what? I don't think I really need help with that. And I totally understand where you're at. And I get that. However, maybe it makes sense to get a second set of eyes on it. Maybe it makes sense to see if there is anything you can do to complement that. Whether it be, hey, let's talk about a Roth conversion or hey, let's look at some life insurance for tax free income.

Erick Arnett:
You know, um, let's talk about how your assets are diversified. Let's talk about how much are you paying in fees. What is your what is the risk of your portfolio? But 99% people of of people that come in my office or I talk from the phone, 99% have no idea what the risk factor is of their current investment plan or their current retirement plan. You've got to know how much risk am I taking and what type of returns am I getting for that risk? Right. So we're going to break that down for you. We're going to break down fees. We're going to break down expenses. Because at Take Point Wealth Management our number one focus and our drive is what everybody that comes in this door gives us a call. Our goal is one to reduce your fees and expenses. Two to try to reduce or make your plan as tax efficient as possible. And guess what, folks, that tax burden is probably going to get worse. It's going to increase, as we're talking about, you know, $34 trillion in debt. We're talking about Social Security running dry. This country has got a lot of problems that need to be faced and taken care of very quickly, or we're going to have some concerns with Social Security and whatnot. But how how are they going to pay for all this? They've got to increase taxes, right? That's the only thing they can do.

Erick Arnett:
There's only two things you can do to eliminate the insane amount of debt that we currently have. And one is you can reduce spending, right. Or you can increase revenue. So if you're sitting there listening to the show right now, think about this for a minute. Which one do you think a politician's going to be excited about doing. You know, what are they going to do? And that's why these these politicians, they just keep kicking the can down the road, kicking the can down the road and writing all these blank checks. And if you look at the debt clock folks, you can just Google it and look at the debt clock. It'll it'll it'll astound you. Um, this country is $34 trillion in debt. In fact, our country had to borrow money just to pay the interest on our debt for six months. So we're borrowing money to pay the money that we've already borrowed on the for the interest that we've already borrowed. So it's concerning, uh, we need more revenue. And so where are they going to do? There's over I forget what it is. I think it's, uh, 7 or $8 trillion just in retirement assets and 401 K's. And so, uh, you know, they know that there's a big pot of money sitting there that they're going to have to tax. So we've got to be mindful of taxes. We've got to talk about that. Taxes in retirement inflation is is definitely a tax.

Erick Arnett:
I know I kind of went off on a tangent here, just kind of expounding on Mr. Friedman's quote. But, uh, you can't just plan for what things are costing you right now. I know people that did that simple planning about 2 or 3 years ago got themselves in a lot of trouble. There's there was a ton of people that have come through my office, um, you know, pre and during Covid and post Covid. They did not see this coming. I mean, the increase in living and the increase of retirement expenses. And so if they would have planned for that way back when, they wouldn't be as shocked right now. I mean, I've got people, you know, now starting to have to draw a lot of money out of their retirement accounts that they normally wouldn't have people going back to work at a guy my office the other day, uh, called in off the radio show, came in and saw me for estate planning. And when he was like, you know, I might have to sell my house because I don't have enough money to retire on. And so, uh, this is a real, real thing. So when we do that retirement planning for you, we factor in inflation over the next ten, 20, 30 years. These plans we build out for you folks are 30 year plans. And they take into account inflation. They take into account taxes, they take into account timing of the money, you know, where do I take the money? And when we build out a cash flow statement for you and and the number one thing we're trying to accomplish here, folks, is that you don't run out of money and you don't run out of what? Income? Income.

Erick Arnett:
It's the most important thing to focus on is not just income today, but what's my income going to look like ten years from now? 20 years from now? We have a hard time in this country, our culture, uh, to really sit and think about and plan way down the road, way down in the future, we tend to kind of live in the now, you know, and that's just that's just that's just our culture. But I'm urging you to think about things a little bit differently. I'd like for you to start thinking about sit there and listen, if you're listening right now, and just kind of sit there and think about what are things look like ten years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, what's health care costs going to be? You know, just I mean, we've seen health care costs go through the roof, our our premiums. Uh, Jake, I didn't know if you knew this or not, but, uh, the average couple will pay 3 or $400,000 in their retirement in just Medicare, uh, medical costs.

Jacob:
Yep. Yeah, it's quite, quite possible. And, um, you know, we can definitely lead into this further next segment on a much time we have in this segment. But, um, you know, I have a background now in, uh, Medicare. And that's one of the things we now specialize here at Take Point Wealth is just part of our full service package. So, um, Medicare. And that's a great lead in data. I mean, medical costs are a part of your retirement plan. It is not just about your stock portfolio because, you know, God forbid, you know, having poor health or things happening down the road. And unfortunately for most of us, something is going to come up at some point. And that expense can be much more important than your your portfolio performing 1% better this year or beating the market by 1%, you know, so that is just as important of a piece of retirement planning. And financial planning is making sure that you have the right health plan for you. Um, just like with our financial plans, we'll sit down with you. If you're nearing age 65 and you're confused about Medicare like most people are, because it is very confusing and there's a lot of moving parts to it, we will sit down with you completely complimentary, go over all your options, explain everything to you. Um, Medicare supplement, Medicare Advantage and some other things we can look at. So, yeah. Um, thanks for bringing that up, dad. That's that's an important point that people need to, uh, keep in mind.

Erick Arnett:
Well, yeah, we have a ton of a ton of things to talk about. I appreciate y'all listening. Unfortunately, I'm getting that cue from Sam, our DJ extraordinaire. Uh, that we've got to wrap up segment one I can't believe already, but we're going to be right back with Take Point on Retirement Radio, and we're going to talk about some more tax efficient strategies, and we're going to jump in deeper into health care cost, long term care, and why that's so important to your retirement plans.

Producer:
Remember, all of Erick's listeners receive a free financial consultation just for listening to the show. Visit Take Point on Retirement.com to learn more and schedule an appointment. Thanks for listening to Take Point on Retirement and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.

Producer:
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Producer:
How much risk are you willing to take with your investments? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by a marine life. Who. If you're a thrill seeker, you probably enjoy the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a plane, bungee jumping off a high cliff, or kayaking down a raging river. But when it comes to your finances, do you still find a lot of risk exciting? Or does the danger of losing your hard earned money change your perspective? Think back for a moment to the 2008 financial crisis. Thanks to market risk and some shady Wall Street deals, the S&P 500 fell more than 46% between October 2007 and March 2009.

John Mack:
If you go back and look at the risk that we took 25, 30 years ago, and it was kind of way out there, and a lot of these firms, including some of the things that happened at Morgan Stanley, we were so mesmerized by the great trader and the money they made that they got more and more autonomy until it was too late. We had huge losses.

Producer:
That's former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack speaking with Yahoo News. So how do you protect yourself if we have another year like that or even another 2022, when the markets had their worst performance since 2008? Financial advisors will tell you that to maximize your investment growth, you need to take some risk with your money. Just be smart about it.

Ford Stokes:
You want to have an actively managed portfolio strategy. You just do. It involves shifting investments in your portfolio to take advantage of pricing anomalies and strong market sectors. You want to reduce the risk. You want to have smart risk as part of your portfolio. You want to increase returns and you want to truly diversify your portfolio.

Producer:
Active Wealth Management founder and President Ford Stokes says smart risk investing is based on the concept that all investments carry some amount of risk, and that the only way to reduce that risk is to diversify. This means investing in a variety of different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and other financial instruments. Everyone's situation is different, and that's why it's important to work with a fiduciary financial advisor to get the most out of your hard earned and hard saved money. So how much risk are you willing to take with your retirement? That's a key question to consider as you invest for the future. With the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amira Life. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
Welcome back to Take Point on Retirement. Schedule your free financial consultation now at Take Point on Retirement.com.

Erick Arnett:
Thanks everybody for tuning in back to take part on retirement radio. This is segment two. So glad you're so glad you're with us. This is your show Take Point on Retirement. This is your show about education and planning for a stress free and truly optimized retirement plan. And here at Take Point Wealth Management, that's all we do is we focus on getting you to and through retirement successfully, all the multiple aspects that it requires. It's not just about, you know, taking some money and throwing it in an IRA and picking some mutual funds, folks, and hoping for the best. There's a lot more to it, a lot more involved there. And I think in segment one, we're kind of touching upon some of those detailed intricacies. And one of our concerns, like we were talking about one taxes, of course, trying to reduce those expenses as best we can, reducing fees on your portfolios, your investments, man, if you've got, um, a lot of times it's it's interesting to me. I'll ask folks like, what are you paying? You know, what are your expenses? And they have no idea. Or they'll tell me I'm not paying anything by us just going through this little exercise with you. If you'll help us, help you, and just spend a little time with us and get us your statements, we'll go right through them and we'll pull out some reports, and we'll show you internally exactly what you're paying in expenses. And what's exciting is we'll probably be able to show you how you can work with an advisory team, like Take Point Wealth Management, and is probably not even a cost you any more than what you're doing already.

Erick Arnett:
So why not have that third party consultant or somebody else by your side on your team helping you build out that truly optimized plan? And you know, we're happy to test what you're currently doing. Our our our planning process is we take your plan, your current plan, and we throw a thousand scenarios at it. We test it, we give it a stress test. And so good markets, bad markets, high interest rates, low interest rates, combinations thereof, high taxes, low taxes, a thousand different scenarios we throw at your portfolio. And we want to see how it's going to hold up over time. And, you know, taking into account your budget, your expenses, the amount of money that you've saved for retirement, what type of return do you need to get? You know, some people have no idea what their financial speed is. You know, I wrote a book about about financial speed, I call it, you know, that's what I call that magic number. What is your financial speed? You need to find out what your financial speed is and what does that mean? It's how much money do I need to retire on number one, what type of return do I need to be getting on that money? Number two and how is that going to and what are the average returns and what are the risk I'm taking to get those returns long term. So those factors are super, super important. You've got to know the risks. You got to know the standard deviation of your portfolios. You got to know what you're paying in fees and expenses, and you got to know what your tax implications are.

Erick Arnett:
Super, super silent killers and what we're talking about earlier in the first segment, Jake Jacob Healthcare, you know, Jacob's, uh, expertise in licensing in the Medicare and the insurance. And so, you know, Jacob sees this every day when he's talking to folks, you know, the increase in cost, the increase in cost, the expenses. And it's a real concern for health, for health care. And then one, uh, one big concern that we see all the time, right, is, you know, trying to bridge that gap until 65. You may have retired early, you may have been forced into retirement, or you just say, I've had enough and I've retired early, just can't take this job anymore, you know, take this job and shove it. And you've started retirement early, but you got to get to 65 before you get a little bit of that help in Medicare. So bridging that gap we've we've come across some if you're in that if you're in that scenario, you know give us a call right away. 35261605113526160511. If you're in that kind of quagmire where you're like, hey, I don't have my corporate retirement or health care plan anymore, and I got a long ways to go before I turn 65. How am I going to take care of those health care costs in those premiums, and what type of insurance I'm going to have right now? We've got some solutions for you, and I think it'll be worth your while to give us a shout. So (352) 616-0511. But Jake, I don't know if did you want to expound on that health care cost at all. Yeah.

Jacob:
No, I mean you made some great points and I have a couple things to add. And you know, we've talked obviously about inflation quite a bit so far in this episode. And you know, I think most people don't realize that medical inflation actually outpaces normal inflation by two, 3% most of the time. So we're already talking about crazy historic inflation coupled with medical inflation usually is outpacing normal inflation. So I mean we're looking at, you know down the road medical. Costs and things are going to get very expensive, so it's time to plan now. Make sure you're in a health care plan that's going to cover those things, and we can leave it at that. But yeah, super important to make sure that that's part of your financial plan.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah. And one thing's for sure is that I'm seeing a lot in Florida particularly, you know, it's a common place. People come down here, retire. Sometimes they come down alone or, you know, maybe their spouse has passed away and they find themselves kind of here and there in that situation where, you know, they're not quite Medicare age. And so it can be really costly. It can be very expensive. But we've got some strategies. We've got some ways to help you with that. But it's so important to talk about when we're when we sit down with you. It's not just about your investments folks. I mean that's like that's important. Yeah. But there's so many other things we've got to plan for your health care costs, your Social Security timing, taxation, you know, your required minimum distributions. Do you need long term care assistance? You know, if you're down here in you're alone or your spouse passes and maybe you don't have any children in the area or you have no children at all, give us a call 35261605113526160511. We will build out for you an estate plan, a complimentary estate plan, and will also look at what does it look like if something happens to me and I become incapacitated and I got nobody to help me. What? You know what happens if I end up having a stroke or a heart attack and I end up in assisted living, or I end up in that nursing home, or I just end up in the hospital for an extended stay.

Erick Arnett:
Who's going to pay my bills? Who's going to manage my affairs? Who's going to make those medical decisions? All these things are super important, folks. If you're sitting there listening to the show right now, right now, and you don't have a durable power of attorney in place, you don't have a durable power of attorney for health care surrogate. You're who's going to make medical decisions. Those are two separate power of attorneys, one for health decisions, one's for financial decisions. You've got to have both. If you don't have a will, if you don't have a trust, most people think that they don't need a trust because they're not wealthy enough or I don't, you know, those are for rich people. No. Guess what? Everyone needs a trust. If you're listening to this show right now, you need a trust, and I'm happy. Don't just take my word for it. If you'd like to get a book called Everyone Needs a Living Trust, I'm happy to send that out to you complimentary. All you got to do is give us a call or go to Take Point Wealthmanagement.com in the upper right hand corner, you'll see a little button. Uh, it says a chat session. Just click on that. You'll get right on my calendar and just put a little information in there and tell me your name, your address and email and that you're concerned about estate planning. You're concerned about long term care. You're concerned about who's going to make those decisions.

Erick Arnett:
For me medically and financially, if you don't have any help, we can offer those solutions for you and provide that help that you're looking for. My background, uh, goes way back is in trust. And I used to manage trust. I used to, uh, we used to be corporate trustees. And so I used to run a trust division. So I understand the needs of retirees. I don't want to call you elderly if you're out there listening. That's a bad word. You're a retiree, so I don't want to, you know, but if you're a retiree, even if you have a spouse and you say, hey, it's all good, you know, I guess I'm going to take care of, you've got to have backups. You got to have what if something happens to you and your spouse? And a trust isn't just about death, folks. A trust is about leaving a legacy. A trust is who's going to manage my affairs while I'm still here? I'm still alive. And do you have anybody that can step up into that capacity and help you do? Is there anybody that you like, know and trust that can step into that capacity and make good, sound financial decisions, good sound health care decisions, you know, provide that health care for you, those health care, you know, decisions that you need. We're seeing that in Florida here, more and more prevalent people are coming in my office and they don't have that, uh, they don't have that assistance or they don't have somebody that can help them with that.

Erick Arnett:
And we have the solution for that now. We're super excited about that. But long term care, there's some awesome programs and some awesome strategies out there that Jacob would love to talk to you about. Long term care, uh, policies. You know, there's life insurance hybrid policies you can get if you don't use the long term care. It turns into life insurance and vice versa. So a lot of great strategies out there, great products to fill that need and to kind of manage that risk. So we've got to talk about that, um, managing your state. And you know, if you don't have a will, you don't have a trust. You don't have a power of attorney, you don't have a living will, and you don't have a health surrogate. You don't have any one of those documents. Please stop what you're doing right now. Pick up the phone. Give us a call. It's (352) 616-0511. That's (352) 616-0511. A big, big part, folks, of of proper retirement planning is making sure that estate planning is solid. We've got to have that. First and foremost. That's where we start. And I know Jacob's been studying for Jacob. You've been. Studying to become a certified financial planner. And what is the one of the one of the number one modules with this five core disciplines in financial planning and what's what's one of the major ones that they kick off right in the beginning?

Jacob:
Oh yeah, the estate planning and it is the pinnacle and the foundation of retirement planning. Because what's the point of doing all this retirement planning, spending all this time and this effort to create a perfect plan if we don't know what's going to happen to it, you know, down the road. So, yeah, absolutely the pinnacle.

Producer:
It's time for this week's Problem Solver.

Erick Arnett:
Wanted to jump to, kind of like what we call our one of our problem solver segments, a real live case, somebody that, you know, we've worked with in the past here to kind of give and paint a picture for people so they know well, so say we want to kind of paint a picture for people so they can kind of see as an example what we do here at Take Point Wealth Management, how we help people every day with different aspects of their retirement planning, their health care planning, their estate planning, you know, we've got it all under one roof for you, one stop shop, one phone call, (352) 616-0511. But I wanted to jump right in here. Jacob, you had we had worked recently and you were involved in this case where we helped a listener create a retirement income plan that included tax free income, that I say that loud enough, folks, tax free. Imagine getting into retirement or being in retirement and having these strategies in place to, number one, either drastically reduce taxes or maybe not pay taxes at all. So imagine that for a minute. You're in your 70s and you don't have to pay taxes on your retirement anymore. You get those strategies in place. We've got to implement those now. But Jake, tell us a little bit about Miss Lisa.

Jacob:
Yeah, yeah, we'll call her Lisa. We don't use real names when we use these examples, obviously, to protect identities, but I think this is a great example for today's subject material. So yeah, Lisa is a single woman in her 50s who earns $220,000 a year in income. She's a listener of our show, and she gave us a call to start planning your retirement. She wants to retire on her 65th birthday. Her job doesn't offer a pension, so she wants to establish a personal pension. But she's also concerned about future tax increases. So we suggested a ten pay ten years of monthly payments indexed universal life insurance policy, otherwise known as an IUL, whereas Lisa saves $2,000 a month by making flexible payments into the IUL policy. Now, the index nature of an IUL allows her money to grow as its performance is linked to an underlying market index. So while at the same time her contributions are protected and she'll also have the benefit of a life insurance death benefit for her beneficiaries when she passes. So.

Erick Arnett:
So, Jake, let's jump in real quick. Let's talk about an IUL because there's so many different types of policies out there. Right? And people hear all these things IUL v ul. Ul whole life term, blah blah blah. But let's talk about the reason why we're pretty passionate. There's a million different, you know, policies and programs out there. We love the IUL. Um, you know, I've been doing this 25 years, so I've been able to kick the can on a lot of different strategies and a lot of different products. But we love, love, love the IUL. And so, uh, super important to kind of, uh, really in a sense emphasize what you said there. You know, you can take money, right? And pay what you can afford as a premium. You're going to pay into this policy. And Miss Lisa, you know, she she could afford $2,000 a month. And that's flexible. You know, there's months where you may not be able to do that and you can catch up or whatever. But she had a savings goal in mind that, you know, we came up with this, this idea. So but the cool thing about is once that that money goes in, it's a nice complement to other things you're doing because this money is protected. So it's safe. So the money that you put in is not at risk in the market. This is going to have a 100% protection. And then what we do is we tie an index to that money. So your money's never invested in any in any of the markets. It's insured and protected 100% by the insurance company. But the performance of the cash is tied to an index like, say, the S&P 500, because everybody kind of knows that index, right? So if the S&P goes up, your cash value is going to go up. If the S&P goes down, you don't have to worry about it. Your cash value is going to stay the same. It's not going to be affected. So it's just a good safe saving strategies as well. I just want to chime in there and give my $0.02 on that.

Jacob:
Yep. Yeah. Thanks for doing that. And that. That's important to highlight. Um, so yeah. So once Lisa reaches retirement age of 65, so she's planning on withdrawing $44,000 a year tax free as loans against the policy. So this falls under IRS Tax code 7702, which allows certain life insurance policies, such as IUL, to qualify for favorable tax treatment. So after taking into account this $45,000 a year plus her Social Security benefits, she still had a small retirement income gap in her plan. So there was still a little bit of a gap there. So to close this gap, she's choosing to invest $200,000 into a fixed indexed annuity, which she'll turn on at age 65, which is the same time she would turn on her Social Security and start taking tax free income from her IUL policy. So using a combination of those two. Different tools there. This $200,000 investment in a personal pension solution is projected to generate $28,000 a year in income for Lisa, which will allow her to meet her budget in retirement. So with this plan, Lisa is able to beat the typical 4% withdrawal rate made by retirees. She will allow the remainder of her portfolio of smart risk investments to grow until she reaches age 73 and starts taking required minimum distributions. As many listeners probably already know, the required minimum distribution age has gone up to 73 now, so you do not have to take money out of your IRA until 73, and then that will go up now to 75, I believe, in 2030 or something like that. So yeah.

Erick Arnett:
I love this case. And I wanted to get this in on the radio show because I think for our listeners, they probably never have heard this strategy number one. And number two, it's just not it's just not something that people know. Like if you just don't know what you don't know. Right? And people haven't been taught this, it's not very widely known. Like when people, you know, conventional wisdom, we're just always told it's beat into our head. It's second nature. Like, oh, I got to open up an IRA and put as much money into an IRA as I can to save for retirement, or I got to, you know, have my corporation take deductions from my paycheck and pump it into a 401 K, they're going to match it. And that's only strategies that I have for retirement. Well guess what happens folks. And I have a lot of clients that come see me that are in this big problem. They have this big tax bubble. They've saved all this money inside these retirement accounts. And guess what? They can't they're they're they're petrified to even take the money out because they're going to get hammered in taxes. Yeah. So they created this. They created this huge tax bubble for themselves, no fault of theirs at all. You know, if you're out there listening, this is not your fault. Nobody taught you this. Nobody brought this to the table. It's crazy to me. Like we just don't have the education out there for AmEricka.

Erick Arnett:
You start a job and you sit down, and you might be an auto mechanic or a nurse or even a doctor or whatever, and they're like, hey, you know, take out this amount of money in your paycheck. We're going to match it for you. And then but hey, guess what? You got to go pick your mutual funds. You're in charge of managing your own money with zero experience, right? Yep. And so it's just crazy. And you think to yourself, I mean, no one's thinking what things are going to look like ten years from now, 20, 30 years from now. But I've got these people coming in. They've got these huge tax bubbles now, huge tax bubbles. And we've got fortunately for you, if you're listening, we've got more time now because in the past, uh, you know, uh, you may have had this tax bubble and, but you had to take your RMDs at 70.5 the year in which you turn 70.5. Um, and so, uh, you know, but now they've changed the law to 73, which gives us a little more time. And potentially I'm hearing now that we that they may raise it to 75 before they make you start taking money out of your retirement account. So if you're 60, 65, you're listening to the show. We've got time to to try to get you out of this tax bubble. But there's a clear, concise strategy. It takes time, it takes effort.

Erick Arnett:
And but imagine we're going to show a little quick story to tell. Uh, I was doing I was doing a seminar, a workshop, and I was explaining this, uh, this strategy. And there was a gentleman in the audience who was kind of smiling. And I kind of had talked to him earlier, and I knew he was in the 70s or whatever to ask the guy, what are you what are you so happy about? What are you smiling for? And he's like, oh, I've already done all this. I did this like back when I was in my 60s. And I'm like, what do you mean, what did you do? He's like, I already converted my IRAs to Ross and Isles, and I don't ever worry about taxes again. I don't care if the government raises taxes to 70% of your income, because 0% of 70 is zero. I was like, okay, excellent. So would you like to give the rest of the seminar? Because this is exactly what we need to help people with. And so I love, love, love this example because it just gave people maybe a different idea, a different spin. In fact, uh, I know, you know, Jacob and I were meeting with a new client, uh, next Friday, same type of situation. He came to one of our workshops, and we were talking about the strength of the IUL and increasing your legacy, and also providing tax free income and providing a tax free inheritance to your kids.

Erick Arnett:
Think about it. If you just leave your money and you don't make any changes and, you know, look outside the box and just leave your money in taxable accounts and then tax and then tax. Deferred retirement accounts IRAs, 401, simple IRAs, Sep IRAs, annuities, whatever it may be. If you just leave that money and it keeps growing and growing and growing, all you're doing is creating a huge tax bubble for your beneficiaries. So it's also about legacy planning and doing the proper planning to try to alleviate. I don't think we're going to be able to completely eliminate, but we're going to be able to really alleviate a lot of taxes. So why not conserve your hard earned dollars and conserve that nest egg that you worked so hard to preserve? Let's try to keep as much of that as possible out of Uncle Sam's hands. And the way we do that is we got to get outside of the box, and we've also got to plan ahead. And that's why I love this IUL strategy. If you don't understand it, I totally I get it. Just give us a call (352) 616-0511. That's 352. 6160511. Also, if you don't have time to jump on a call, just just take your phone and Google take point. Wealth will come right up. Go to our website. In the upper right hand corner is a little box you can click on and you get right on our calendar. Today you get right on our calendar.

Erick Arnett:
Today, we'll schedule a 15, 20, 30 minute chat session with you and we'll walk you through it. And more importantly, we'll get to know you and we'll go to pull out, you know, some of the things that you probably need to optimize and make a little bit better. I don't tell people, you got to make a wholesale change when you come to work with Take Point Wealth, that's not necessary. But there's little things that we might be able to do to complement, little things that we might be able to do to optimize. I love the word optimize. I use it all the time because you may have a good plan in place, but if we can make it even better, why not? Why would you not do that? Right? So please, please give us a call (352) 616-0511. That's (352) 616-0511. You owe it to yourself to truly understand how the IUL works and how it can provide you that tax free income in your future. Because guess what, folks? You may or may not know this, but there's this little tax equation, uh, that determines taxes on your on your retirement. And guess what? Your pension, your Social Security, any, any investment income, any retirement income that you pull all goes to that bottom line. And it can throw you in a much higher tax bracket and create more taxes on your Social Security. And guess what? Guess what Medicare. Jacob. What what are Medicare premiums based on?

Jacob:
Yep. It's based on your taxable income from previous year tax returns. So, um, it's very, you know, very important to be as tax sensitive as possible because, um, Medicare premiums, I believe 2024 are going to run 275 somewhere in there. And they go up a little bit every year. But if you make above a certain amount of income and there's there's different stages, but those will go up. And I've seen 400 plus dollar Medicare premiums. So, you know, it's just another thing to think about. So a lot of great points dad. And I just want to say I think every situation is different. And I you you've been in the business a lot longer than I have, but I've yet to personally see two cases that were exactly identical. And we did the exact same thing for. So I just wanted to touch on that.

Erick Arnett:
No, no. So if we can help you with any of your financial New Year's resolutions for 2024, folks, please give us a shout. We're standing by. We'd love to bring you into the family. We'd love to make you a part of the Take Point Wealth Management family where fiduciaries. We take that very seriously. Um, if you're successful, we're successful, and we truly want to answer all those questions. We're going to button things up for you. We want to make your retirement as stress free as possible. And so this is the time of year for making those resolutions and setting those goals. Hey, I'm a financial advisor for 25 years. Every year at this time in January, my wife and I sit down and we talk about our goals, our savings goals, our budget. I know it's an ugly word. People don't like the word budget. We've got to talk about our budget. What's our budget look like now? What's it going to look like in retirement? And we got to start planning for that. So with high inflation, rising interest rates, economic uncertainty, two thirds of AmErickan adults are making resolutions to improve their finances this year, according to a survey by fidelity. So I want my listeners as well to be making those resolutions. Jump outside the box, think outside the box. Get a second opinion. Let's optimize things for you. We don't have to change everything. We might be able to tweak something, might just give you some advice, and you can go on your merry way and take care of it. But some of the most common financial resolutions include saving more money 41%. Paying down debt 38%. Spending less money 30% of people. While estimates vary, people have been found to break their New Year's resolutions within weeks, so if not days. So don't let that be something that you do. Don't let something as important as your finances, your retirement, become one of those forgotten New Year's resolutions. Whether you're just getting started or trying to get back on track, here's how we can go to work for you in 2024. So super, super important. Schedule your free financial consultation with us today.

Erick Arnett:
Simply get in.

Erick Arnett:
Touch with us this week so we can help you build and navigate your financial plan. Because when it comes to something as important as your money, we want to provide you or you are in your spouse a one on one opportunity to ask us those questions about your specific situation. Give your money the attention it deserves and needs in order to grow for your future. So please, please, please take this seriously folks. There are things that you can do to change things, to optimize things. Look at the big picture. Comprehensive planning. It's not just about hey, what am I? What kind of return am I getting on my money today? And don't get sucked into these money market rates. That's temporary. Please don't just start jumping and putting money into money markets as temporary rates are already going down. So much to talk about. Uh, but we've got to wrap up, unfortunately, uh, I can't believe it, but we're already out of time. And, uh, so please, please stay tuned to take part in our retirement radio. We'll be back next weekend, Saturday and Sundays in your local local listening areas. And thank you so much for listening to the show today. Jacob. Welcome aboard. Welcome to the team. We're super happy to Take Point Wealth Management. Take us out, man.

Jacob:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. And you know, it's such a blessing to be able to do this together. And I'm super excited for what we're doing. I'm super excited to help our current and future clients with all the issues we talk about. So again, thank you for having me and look forward to many more great episodes. But, um, to our listeners out there, thank you so much for listening and, uh, hope you have a great rest of your day and do not hesitate to contact us if there's anything we can do to help.

Producer:
Thanks for listening. To Take Point on Retirement. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard earned assets. To schedule your free, no obligation consultation, visit. Take Point on Retirement.com or pick up the phone and call (352) 616-0511. That's (352) 616-0511. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor. Bcm and Take Point Wealth Management 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. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
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