On this week’s show, Erick goes over a list of financial new year’s resolutions that he can help you keep. He also highlights a list of fears that people have about retirement. In 2023, Take Point Wealth wants you to be prepared, not scared!

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12.2.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

12.2.22: 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:
Welcome, everybody to Take Point on Retirement radio. So great to be with you today. Thank you so much for listening. I think we have a great show today. And of course, like always, we have Sam with us, our radio host and DJ extraordinaire. So great to have you with us. Sam. You make everything run smoothly. How are you doing today?

Producer:
I'm doing well, Erick. We are well into the holiday season. There are Christmas trees up. I can see in the windows up and down my street. I think my wife's working on getting our Christmas trees up right now, so it's a it's a festive time of year.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, We actually got the tree up very early this year prior to Thanksgiving because we had an awesome, blessed Thanksgiving. All our family was able to come. We reeled the kids in. So that was pretty cool. And and however I've been, I still have all the lights to put up on the house and, you know, I'm procrastinating a little bit on that. So I got to get get my butt in gear there. But just wanted to say hi to everybody. Wish you hope everybody out there had a blessed Thanksgiving. I know we did. And it was certainly a great season and so much to be thankful for. But and what we're really thankful for is our listeners. Thank you so much for listening. Nature Coast. Tampa Bay. Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. We're so glad you're listening and always love to hear from you. If you would like to get in touch with us, there's something on the show that makes sense or you've got some general questions or you need some help with your retirement planning. From A to Z, we got you covered and you can certainly give us a call. We're standing by the phones today at 352 616 0511. That's 352 616 0511. We'd love to hear from you. And also, if you don't have time to pick up the phone, you can also just Google us or go to our website, TakePointWealth.com and in the upper right hand corner you will see a little box and you just click that box and you're going to get right into my calendar. You can also leave me some notes and some questions and I will reach right out to you and follow up and get you going.

Erick Arnett:
So also, if you have to get you can't catch the entire show today. We totally understand. You can grab our show on any podcast outlet or app. We're just put in take point wealth or take point and you should be able to pull up our podcast. I think we're on Spotify and iTunes and pretty much any app out there that you can get the podcast and then also you can catch up on all those shows and certainly catch up on today's show if you miss something. So like I said, we love hearing from you. This show is for you, the listeners, purely educational. We just want to try to educate, educate and provide you with the best information that we possibly can. And so with that being said, I think we have a pretty good show today. We Sam, we've got the quote of the week and we've got the new some New Year's resolutions, What retirees fear most. We also have a cost cutter of the week, how to stop the bleeding in your bonds. And then also some important updates for 2023. And Sam, you always do an awesome job for us with what that great radio voice you got there and given us that financial wisdom quote of the week. We actually got a couple of them today embedded in the show, but I think this is a pretty good one. Let's kick off the show, Sam, and get rolling with the quote of the week.

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

Producer:
All right, Erick, this week's Quote of the week comes to us from another gentleman who has his own financial radio show, Dave Ramsey. And Dave once said, you must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you. What do you think, Erick?

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, I mean, not a bad little quote there. Pretty powerful. And certainly that's why we have this show and that's why we've been on the show for so long, on the radio for so long. And our entire firm, our whole entire mantra is prior planning pays, right? It's and it's never too late to plan. You may be sitting out there listening right now, and you might be thinking to yourself, Man, it's a little bit too late for me. I got behind the curve. I feel a little hopeless here. I just had a gentleman call me on last week's show, and he was 60 years old. And he the first thing he said to me was actually, man, I think I'm getting a little bit a late start on this, a little bit behind. And I told them, like, listen, I said, it's never too late to start. It's, you know, to make a difference. You know, it doesn't matter if you're 55, 60, 65, 70. It's never too late to make a difference. And perhaps we can help you implement some changes or get you on the right path to some savings, to some income planning, into some Social Security questions, whatever it may be. So once again, please feel free to reach out to us. You can get an appointment right now with us. Completely complimentary. There's no charges, no obligation. We're going to do a full blown comprehensive retirement red zone plan for you.

Erick Arnett:
We call it the Freedom Plan because if you plan properly, it will create financial freedom. And I think that's pretty much what Dave is saying here, is if you don't gain control, which is basically planning, putting a plan in place, controlling what you can control, the variables, money in, money out, savings, proper investment vehicles, making the right decisions with Social Security, maybe reducing taxes, looking at your current portfolios, reducing fees, looking at the current risk that might be in your portfolio because super important. Sam, we're going to get in today and talk about that sequence of returns, which I love, love, love and I think is so, so important to get across to our listeners. It's really important to get it right in the beginning stages of retirement planning. And so we want to talk a lot about about that. And so if you're in control, then your money and situations in life that may come up is not going to control you. You're going to be able to control it. And and of course, you can't always control everything, but you can certainly plan for the best. And and so that's what we do here and hope to do. That's our whole firm mantra is as prior planning plays, pays, you've got to put a plan in place. Listen, maybe maybe you're out there listening right now and you're like, I've already got a plan.

Erick Arnett:
It's working. I've got some ideas. I'm happy with what's going on, and I totally get that and I appreciate that. However, what we're offering you is a free evaluation. Let's look at your plan and then let's test it. What we do is we actually test that plan. It's called a monte Carlo simulation. And we just call it simply a stress test. And we are going to throw 1000 different scenarios at your plan. Good markets, bad markets, high rates, low rates, combinations thereof, multiple combinations that really stress your plan out. And then that plan is going to kick back probabilities of success. And we can share that right with you on two or three pages. Listen, planning doesn't need to be complicated, folks. It's real simple. There's a lot of planners out there and financial planners that will sit down with you and they'll have a 40 page monologue of of all this information that's really just not even that helpful. Our plans come down to two or three pages with some pictures and some some numbers, and it really comes down to one page, and I'd love to share that with you. And that one page really can spell success to and through retirement. So once again, just please feel free if you're listening. Take the time. Give us a shout.

Producer:
I really like what Dave Ramsey is saying here about gaining control over your money. If anyone out there listening has ever been living a little too paycheck to paycheck or ever been in a little bit of credit card debt. They know that feeling of every time that paycheck comes, they feel like it goes right out the window because they're not able to keep up. But once you are able to get ahead, kind of get those handcuffs off, you feel that freedom, which is why I love the name for your plan over there at Take point wealth management, the freedom plan, because, you know, then everything else becomes easier. I think it becomes easier to get up in the morning, becomes easier to go to work because now you're working towards your goals instead of working to kind of serve the money. That's kind of being a lord over you.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, absolutely, man. And you know, obviously today, I mean, in the last few years, a lot has changed, right? I mean, there's been just a ton of things thrown at our pre-retirees and our retirees, You know, our retirement warriors more than ever are being stressed out with what's going on out there and so many rapid changes. And you may be thinking to yourself right now, it's like I just don't know where to turn, you know? You know, we've been doing this for over 25 years. We do it every day. We're students of the game. You know, we're constantly evaluating asset allocation and constantly evaluating plans and ideas. You know, it's a rapid it's a rapidly changing environment. So, you know, you've got to have a plan in place and you've got to be prepared just kind of having your plan or lack of plan sitting out there and hoping for the best is not going to be successful. It's not going to work. So we've really got to hone things in, dial things in, and that's what we do, you know, and and, you know, we want retirees that are in that what we call that red zone to really be managing what we call their sequence of return risk. You can't afford to lose too much money during these years, which means you have to have protection and you've got to have some growth.

Erick Arnett:
Because let's not forget, inflation is pretty high right now historically. So, you know, if inflation is clipping along at eight, nine, 10%, then just kind of hoping for the best and and not making some changes and not even taking advantage, maybe not taking advantage of what's out there currently. Listen, it's it's incredible. What's out there right now for our retirees is so much different than it was just six months ago. And I'm shocked to see some of the changes. And it's for the better. It really is. So it's encouraging. So maybe you haven't re-evaluated these things or talked to anybody about them in quite a while. I urge you to do that. You know, just give us a shout. 352 616 0511 or just go to our website. Take point wealth. If you can actually just take your smartphone and Google or or search whatever search engine use, just put take point wealth in there and our website will come right up and you can click on that. And in the upper right hand corner there's a link. Just click it real quick and within 5 minutes you're on my calendar and we can get something ready and get going and and get you in the right direction. But let's concentrate on, you know, some New Year's resolutions. We're coming up on that New Year. It's it's actually insane to me.

Erick Arnett:
Sam, how fast 2022 has gone by? Cannot believe that we're a couple of weeks away from Christmas and and and 2023 is right around the corner. Thank goodness. I cannot wait to put 2022 in the rearview mirror. What a volatile stressful year for for people. And and I think that. You know, 2023 is going to be much, much better. And I think things will settle down and and but but you have to have that plan in place and you've got to have a strategy to take advantage of that. So. So let's talk about a couple of New Year's resolutions that come to mind. You know, one is calculating your net worth. When was the last time you actually sat down and looked at what your net worth is? And it's pretty simple. And I've said this before on this show, I, I feel very strongly that you need to run your home just like a business. You know, you've got to be fiscally responsible, just like a corporation. You've got to review your assets, which is in your debts, which is your balance sheet. Right. Every corporation has to annually review their balance sheets and send that in to to the SEC and and make sure things are in good shape. You've got to you've got to be fiscally responsible and run your household just like a corporation. And you've got to if you're sitting there right now listening to me, guess what? I have just appointed you Chief financial officer of your household.

Erick Arnett:
You know, you are in charge. You've got to step up. And I know everybody's working hard to get their head done and you're in your career or, you know, the day to day living activities Just just get in the way. But you've got to take some time for yourself and set some time aside and really get serious about this stuff. If you're in that red zone, that five year red zone. So, you know, I always tell people, what's your what's your assets look like and what's your debts look like? Take them, Adam, Add them up, subtract them from each other, and you're going to find out what your net worth is. Pretty simple. You know, your account balances your real estate, anything of value, and then subtract your liabilities like your mortgages, your debts, anything you owe on, and you'll clear and you'll create a clear picture of your net worth. That's the first place you need to start just to kind of get an understanding of where you're sitting at. And then also cash flow, right? So it's important for our business to to continue to thrive and be successful based on having good positive cash flow. So, you know, my grandfather used to always tell me, you know, Erick, it's not about what you make, it's about what you spend, right? Not about what you make, but what you spend.

Erick Arnett:
And that's hard. It's really hard to discipline ourselves. Listen, I'm with you guys. I'm with my retirees. You're out there listening. I'm with you guys. I get it. It's, you know, it's really tough to have that discipline. And when we make more, it doesn't always mean, hey, that's the green light to go spend more, right? So cash flow is super important. What do we have coming in and what do we have going out? And so we've got to really take a look at that, especially if you're preparing for retirement. You know, at some point in time that paycheck is going to stop, right? So we have to find ways to replace that income income or at least supplement that income, you know, and fill that income what we call gap. Right. So if you have that income gap, that's simply, hey, what do I have in guaranteed income sources coming in? Is it my Social Security? Is it my pension? Is it maybe some rental income or some annuity income? What do I know that I can just count on? That's that's that's always going to be there. That's our guaranteed income. Right. And then we're going to look at our expenses and, you know, what is it going to cost us to live comfortably? And, you know, and I mean, not just getting by, you know, retirement should be fun.

Erick Arnett:
You know, the first thing we ask people when we sit down with them is we don't even talk about numbers and investments and all that boring stuff. We talk about, hey, what does retirement look like to you? What are you doing in retirement? You know, are you traveling? Are you efficient? Are you are you do you need to buy are you buying that new boat or an RV or are you just spending time with grandkids? We need to know what does it look like to you? So maybe you're listening to the show right now and you really haven't taken the time to just sit down, take a pause, breathe a little bit and really think about what am I doing in retirement and talk to your spouse, talk to your partner, talk to your buddy. You know, whoever it is that you're going to spend retirement with and ask them, hey, what's retirement look like to you? Because guess what? What we find, Sam, quite often is know we'll sit down with a couple and ask them. You know, Hey, what's retirement look like to you and Sam? It's crazy. I'm going to tell you. I do. You know, I do hundreds of these meetings, right? And so though the folks will just sit there and kind of like look at me like and they don't have an answer.

Erick Arnett:
They don't even their mouth is kind of open and they look at each other like, we've never talked about this before. And I say to them, Well, man, that's crazy. You guys are close to retirement here. You know, you're pushing 60 or whatever, and you haven't talked about this like what you're doing. And it could be that you're on totally different pages, right? So it's really important to start having those conversations if you're in that retirement red zone and really think about what are we doing? Maybe you're downsizing a home and moving somewhere. You know, maybe maybe you even want to open up a different business. I was talking to a guy the other day, You know, he's getting ready to retire at age 60. He's like, hey, I'm still young. I feel good, but I want to do something different. I want to do something else. I've been doing this one job for 40 years. It's been good to me, you know, it's provided and and given me and set me up for a nice retirement. But I want to do something different. So maybe you're maybe you're going to have a working retirement or you're going to start a new business that you always dreamt about. Guess what, folks? We're also a full service business planning and CPA comprehensive tax planning firm. We can help you with all of that.

Erick Arnett:
We can help you set up LLCs. We can look at different formations of corporations for you. We can look at how that income is going to impact your Social Security, all that stuff. So we can talk about all that. So a little long winded, but you've got to really sit there and pay close attention to do an inventory, you know, really sit down, write things down. What of our assets, what are our liabilities, and then what does our cashflow look like? And then how is our cash flow going to be impacted in retirement? What's it going to look like in retirement? What's it look like right now? Maybe you've got five years until retirement. And so let's get let's get serious, let's get aggressive, let's put a savings plan in place for you right now. Let's talk about Roth conversion with your 41k and try to get some of that control out of Uncle Sam's hands. Let's talk about annuities. There's so many different annuities out there, right? Tons of them. And it's very confusing. And I turn on the computer or my phone and I'm bombarded with all these crazy advertisements and, you know, all these different mixed messages for folks. And, you know, annuities are good, annuities are bad, stocks are good, stocks are bad. You know, you've got Cramer on TV ringing the bell. Oh, buy this stock. Sell that stock.

Erick Arnett:
You know, just some you know, there's what, 40 different cable channels that talk about investments or retirement planning. Now, you got guys like me all over the radio shouting out different things, right? So it's got to be just so confusing. And we we hope to really offer you an oasis from that. And we're fiduciaries. We're a licensed Florida fiduciaries. So first and foremost, we're going to put your interests first and foremost. We don't make commissions. You know, we're fee based only. But but what's what's what's so amazing is that if you call in today or you go to our website and book an appointment, it's going to be absolutely free to you. And this is it's a pretty in-depth, comprehensive plan. And we also have our accounting team on it, looking at the tax situations and tax sensitivity. You know, you're going into a phase of life that's very different than what it's been most of your life. You've been just working hard, accumulating assets, saving, but now and you've been and you're basically be trying to be and you've obviously been trying to hopefully grow your investments and your savings and your retirement. But now you're going into a different phase. You're going into that distribution phase, that phase where you're going to have to replace some income or look at the different sources or buckets that you can pull from to create some income for you.

Erick Arnett:
And also, we want to make sure that that income is going to last, right? I mean, it's not just going to be helpful to us if it lasts 5 to 10 years, we've got to make sure that this income and this plan will last 30, 35 years. And not to say that we're going to put a plan in place to age, it's going to be in place for 30 years, We've got to constantly reevaluate things, massage it, look at it, make changes. And that's something that we also are 100% committed to you here at Take Point Wealth management long term is to be your partner in retirement. We're not just going to set up a plan for you, throw you in some investing. Months and say, Hey, take care. Good luck. No, you're with us. You're your family and you're with us for the whole ride. And we're with you for the whole ride. We're going to constantly look at things. We're going to constantly evaluate things on at least an annual basis for you and make sure that we're still headed in the right direction. So. So, so, so. So one of the New Year's resolutions is just sit down, take some time, think about retirement planning, talk to your spouse, talk to your partner. Calculate that net worth. Look at your balance sheet and look at your cash flow.

Producer:
Yeah. Erick And I think that's a good thing to sit down and evaluate where you are. And I love that you start your planning process by asking people what is retirement look like to you because it's hard to reach your destination if you're not sure what it is. And what always surprises me, Erick, is the amount of time that people will spend planning for other things. Like I know people will spend days planning for a vacation that may only last a week or two. Or right now, what's at the top of all our minds is spending all this time planning, purchasing gifts, wrapping them, putting them under the tree. And that's just for one day. And typically Christmas morning or or Christmas evening, whatever your family tradition is only lasts a couple of hours. But you can get started just by going to take point wealth. Get started on a plan that's going to affect you for 30 years or more. It's so important to get this plan in place because this has such real consequences for your life.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, And you know, it's crazy. I mean, we're planners and I've been an investment advisor for for for almost 25 years. And and I always even talked to my son about this the other day. My son's also becoming a certified financial planner, and he's working on that designation. And and he's now officially a financial planner in another firm up in Atlanta. And it's interesting, you know, when he sits there all day long and works and builds plans for other people. And I asked him because I knew I was going to trick him up on this, and I said to him, okay, so you're doing all this planning for everybody and you're working these long hours and stuff. Have you thought about your retirement? Have you started saving? Did you set up your 41k yet? And he just kind of like pause. I was like, no, that's like, So yeah, we don't even take time for ourselves and it's not fun. Like, you know, like I get it if you're, if you're listening right now and my retirement worries are out there, I get it. It's not a fun thing to do, but that's what I urge you to do here. In 2023 and prior to 2023. Let's get together, let's chat about it and really start that planning. But, you know, listen, I don't like to do it either. I mean, my wife and I, we sit down once a year, usually like January, February timeframe, and we take a couple hours and we sit at the table in the kitchen and we put everything down on paper.

Erick Arnett:
We evaluate where we're at, we evaluate our goals. And, you know, it's it's not as painful as you might think it is. And we have the tough discussions like, hey, you're spending too much on this or I'm spending too much on that. Let's tighten it up, you know, So you've just got to have those conversations. And and you're right, Sam. I mean, we'll we'll plan. I'm happy to take hours to plan for that awesome vacation to Costa Rica or or how I'm going to purchase that next toy or item. You know what? I'm going to start saving for that. I'm all excited about that. Right. But to talk about retirement and all that kind of stuff, I mean, come on. Right. That's that's not exciting. So but we've got to do it. It's mandatory, folks. And if you're going to be one of our retirement warriors and join our family, we'd love to have you and and get all that done for you and test it out. A 35 year plan. So give us a shout right now. 352 616 0511. I'd love to chat with you. I'm standing by just to chat with you and answer. You might just have a question. That's fine to give us a call.

Producer:
And once again, that number is 352 616 0511. Or you could easily just go online to take point wealth dot com and quickly schedule an appointment with Erick and the team their Take Point on Retirement. We'll be right back.

Producer:
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Producer:
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Producer:
At Take Point Wealth Management. We know you've worked hard to earn your money and you've worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement. Trust Erick Arnett and his team of experts who have been helping individuals, families and business owners find financial freedom for more than 20 years. Let us help you protect and grow what you've worked so hard for. Schedule your free no obligation consultation now at TakePointWealth.com. Welcome back to Take Point on Retirement. Schedule your free financial consultation now at TakePointOnRetirement.com.

Erick Arnett:
Welcome back to Take Point on Retirement radio. Thank you so much for listening. We really do appreciate you. Can't wait to hear from you. If you're listening today, take advantage of this free no obligation-freedom plan. We call it the Freedom Plan. It's a full blown retirement plan. 35 year plan. A to Z. We're going to test it out and make sure that we can get you to and through retirement successfully. Easy for me to say. And but just reach out to us today. We'd love to hear from you, but getting right back on it, Sam, talking about these New Year's resolutions, you know, super important to update those savings goals. You know, I think this is key. You know, you've got to determine how much money you get to set aside each month for your future. Warren Buffett said it well. He said, don't save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving. And this is funny because what did I just tell you earlier and earlier saying that my grandfather told me the same thing, but my grandfather wasn't quite as eloquent. He was a mountaineer from West Virginia. So, you know, but, you know, don't save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving. So super important. I had a wonderful lady call me this week on last week's show and and she was pushing 70 and she's like, look, I'm still working.

Erick Arnett:
This is what I make per month. You know, this is what I have in assets and I know I'm short. I'd like to find out, you know, is an annuity the right thing for me? How much do I still she's she even said how much do I need to be putting away each month in order to get me to and through retirement. And she was 70 so it's not too late folks. We've got to attack this now and get on it. So, you know, you've got to check up on your retirement accounts. Be sure to take advantage of any contributions matches offered within your employer's retirement plan. If you're over 50, you can contribute an additional 7000 a year. That's $583 a month to an IRA. If you're self employed, then please, please get in touch with us about setting up and contributing to what's called a Sep IRA. So there's a lot of different IRAs out there, depending on how you're set up, whether you're working for somebody else or you're working for yourself. A lot of questions there to be answered. Hey, if you're in a for one K, can you still contribute to a Roth? Right. So we can evaluate all that for you. And has it really all it boils down to different income tables and and where you're at an income.

Erick Arnett:
So super, super important you've got to utilize all the tools that are available to you out there, folks, You've got to I mean, you know, the Roth IRA is it's a tremendous tool. It's never too late to think about that. You know, Roth conversions are very different than Roth contributions. So that's a whole nother conversation. But it's a great way to save for retirement. The reason I love the Roth in your savings plan as a bucket of money is that guess what? When you pull that money out, it's tax free. When you pull money out of your IRA or your 41k, it's all taxable. And so it can create higher taxes on your Social Security in the future, higher taxes on your pension in the future, and also could throw you up into a much higher marginal tax bracket, which could cause higher taxation on all other income sources. So you've got to be very careful there when you're and you've got to do that planning. So, you know the Roth IRA. Great, great tool. Guess what? When you turn 72, you've got to take required minimum distributions out of your 41k or your IRA that's going to go to your bottom line, right? It's going to go to your gross income. And that gross income is going to be taxed at whatever your marginal income tax rate is. So, you know, it could be where you're paying as high as 20, 30, 30% on that.

Erick Arnett:
And they're going to they basically put a gun to your head and said, hey, you've got to pull this out so we can tax it. The great thing about the Roth, if we can get you transitioned over to that Roth and we can show you how to do it and we'll even do it for you and implement that plan for you once you're in that ROTH You don't have to do requirement and distributions. And I think that's probably the most important part or the most the greatest part of the Roth is that you don't have to take distributions. You're in control of your own money. You can take it when you want to take it, and it's not going to be taxed. And guess what? When you pass away and you leave that money to a loved one or a friend or whatever, you know, it's that's also going to be a tax free transition of your legacy if we just let it keep growing and growing in that. Ira, and you get this big tax bubble, all that tax is going to come out and possibly create a tax burden for your beneficiary as well. So underutilized tool for our savings goals. Let's talk about it. Give us a call. I'm standing by right now just to chat with you.

Erick Arnett:
352 616 0511. You can also just go to my website, take point wealth dot com and in that upper right hand corner, just click on my calendar and boom, you'll be right on the calendar and I'll follow up with you and we'll get going. So, you know, another thing I think tough to talk about, but we've got to talk about it is make a plan. Let's let's put a plan in place to pay off those debts. Right. So you could be 40. Listen to the show. You can be 50, 60, 70. I don't care. Let's let's make a plan to make sure those debts are paid off. And that balance sheet looks a lot better and a lot stronger as you age and as you go into those retirement years. So decide how much money you can pay towards any loans, debts and mortgage accounts. Consider paying some extra principal towards your mortgage. Perhaps doing so, you'll earn a risk free return on that money equal to your mortgage interest rate and cut down on the number of years that will take to pay off your mortgage. So super, super important. Also, you know, be careful if you're making that transition now and perhaps downsizing or selling a home or whatever you've got to take into account. Interest rates are much higher right now. If you have to go out and borrow some money to to to get that retirement home.

Erick Arnett:
So we can evaluate all that for you. We have a full accounting team, full financial planning team. So please reach out to us and we'll do all that work for you and give you some good, good options in. Some some good direction. So let's get those debts paid off and then, you know, rebalance your portfolio. That's that's a big one. We've got to look at your portfolio and, you know, the stock market is always going to have its up and ups and downs. Right. But some sectors outperform and some sectors underperform. So now may be a time to rebalance. You want to you want to sell high and buy low, Right? So you might have some things in your portfolio that have done really well, some things that have not done so well. We've got to take a look at that and adjust that and make some asset allocation changes here at Take Point Wealth. The first thing we start doing in November and December as we meet and talk to all of our clients and we do tax loss harvesting in their taxable accounts. So we look at taking advantage of losses to offset gains. We look at past year's gains, potential future gains, and we can utilize that rebalancing of the portfolio to not only optimize your portfolio to take advantage of price fluctuations, but to also make sure that you're still in line with your goals.

Erick Arnett:
You know, maybe, you know, your financial speed is I've got to have, you know, around an 8% return a year. Well, all of a sudden, if your stocks are much lower than your bonds or some other asset that you have, we've got to rebalance that and make sure your stocks are back in place to take advantage of the recovery. So you've got to constantly be rebalancing. In fact, we have found that rebalancing does add performance long term. There's all kinds of studies out there, proper rebalancing of your portfolio in that constant massaging of it does help improve overall performance. So, you know, 2022 has been pretty grim for some sectors out there in the economy and the stock market. So I think we've had a couple of sectors, maybe oil or energy and utilities that have done pretty well and the rest of, you know, really gotten beat up. So now's the time to rebalance that portfolio and and take advantage of those dips. You know, your original or updated asset allocation can make a big difference. You need to take those steps to lock in those gains from those sectors with the best returns and purchase shares in the sectors that have lagged behind. It's pretty simple, basic stuff. You know, you're like you said, you're selling high, buying low. And so that's why just kind of having that static portfolio, it's not going to work long term, it's not optimized.

Erick Arnett:
And just hoping for the best isn't going to work. You know, we we feel very strongly that, you know, you've got to have an actively managed portfolio. You've got to have good, strong, constant communication with your advisory team is so, so important. So, you know, you may have not even heard from your firm or your financial advisor or your broker. I was talking to a guy the other day and I was shocked. I mean, he hadn't heard from his advisor in over two years and that's just unacceptable. So we're going to if you if you become a client or part of the take point family, one of our retirement warriors, you know, we ask you at a minimum, we want to see you once a year and talk to you once a year and go over things. But if you want to see us semiannually, if you want to talk to us monthly, that's fine. So we're going to be with you every step of the way and constantly be monitoring things. Tactical asset management, where you're making changes, rebalancing, shifting sectors instead of just kind of hoping for the best and holding a basket of mutual funds, just not going to work long term. So here's a little tip. If you rebalance your portfolio with a broker, they're likely charging you up to five and one half percent to do this.

Erick Arnett:
And this is not a fee efficient strategy. So we recommend you work with someone who has your best interests in mind. It looks to save you money and not lose more of it. Stay away from those traditional brokerage type relationships where there's sales loads and commissions on the mutual funds, and whenever they make changes, they're making commissions once again take point. Wealth makes no commissions. We are a fiduciary. We're a licensed 65 fiduciary in the state of Florida. And so we are fee based only if your portfolio goes up in value, our income goes up. And so we're closely aligned with your success. Your success is our success. And I think it's important for retirees especially to be in that type of model, you know, super, super important. And, you know, to to, to align yourself with a fiduciary. Your interests are more important than ours, and we're going to make sure that fees are as low as possible. And there's going to be no commissions kind of slowly eating alive your retirement portfolio. So here's another one. This is kind of probably a bad subject here, but paying down your credit cards, right? You don't carry a big balance on your credit cards. I know I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know. But sometimes we get into this trap, folks, and you know, there's most of these cards out there have very high APRs.

Erick Arnett:
No one has ever become rich off of airline miles and hotel points. So don't get sucked into those traps and make it a goal to pay off your balances each month. And also, a credit card should not be your emergency fund. Right? This is not a good plan. So be sure to have at least 3 to 6 months of expenses set aside for unforeseen emergencies. And of course, review your credit report. I pull my credit report once a month and I look it over and make sure there's no fraud or any changes or any errors in it. You've got to pull that credit report. You know, there's all kinds of services out there, even some of the credit card companies now that you may have an account with, have that free credit report for you. So check it regularly. And then, of course, takes steps to repair any negative aspects. There's no excuse for not reviewing this important information. So because errors are not uncommon is always some kind of error. I can remember looking at my report one time and I'm like, What is this? This is this wasn't mine, you know? And so we got it fixed and it was fraud. So you got it. You got to look out for that stuff.

Producer:
I remember a case from a couple of years ago, you know, just like you, I run my credit report pretty regularly because, like you said, errors are not uncommon. And I found that an Internet company that I hadn't used for years had said that I had an overdue balance that I had receipts for. And so getting that unpaid bill off my credit report because it was false, really bumped me up a little bit. So that's something important to check for sure. And then, yes, do not get sucked into the credit card trap. You know, Dave Ramsey likes to call those the financial cigarette. Not good for your financial health. You know, in our family, we pay those off whenever the paycheck comes. That's the first thing, is that the credit cards have to go to zero. So I think that's a good habit.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, especially if you're in that retirement red zone. Give us a call, because if you find yourself in that type of situation or you're tempted, we do have some strategies there. I mean, there's a lot of different things you can do, you know, as opposed to tapping into credit. Let's let's evaluate home equity lines for you. Let's evaluate the reverse mortgage, something that we've had experts on reverse mortgages on our show before and probably should have him back on here again sometime soon, because, you know, especially in Florida, our real estate has really appreciated in value. So you might find that you're sitting on this big nest egg that you can't tap into. And so there are some good solutions out there. You just owe it to yourself to educate yourself first and take the time to really, truly understand it. And we hope to be a resource for you to do that. And give us a call. We can help you out with that. It's 352 616 0511. Or just go to our website, take point wealth and go ahead and book an appointment with me in that upper right hand corner and we can walk you through all those steps and see if it makes sense and fits into your, you know, freedom plan, your red zone retirement freedom plan. And it's completely free to do that. There's no obligation. Listen, nobody's going to hold a gun to your head and say, oh, you've got to work with take point wealth.

Erick Arnett:
We'll do a full blown plan for you. Answer all your questions, optimize your retirement. And if you want to take that somewhere else and do it yourself, or maybe you're going to utilize it to hold your current advisor in check, that's fine too. We're happy to do that. So, you know, and just. Get. But more important, with what we've been going through in this country, you know what the markets, the economy, the change in interest rates, you know, hey, we've got a big announcement coming up this week. Fed Fed Chairman Powell is going to come out and kind of give us an indication as to is he going to keep raising rates? Is he going to lay off, maybe lower or ease off on raising rates? And so that's going to have a big impact on the markets and interest rates and so constantly changing environment. So you owe it to yourself to really evaluate all that. Talk to a lady the other day and it off the radio show she wasn't a good fit for take point Wealth. However, she definitely had insurance needs. So we're also a resource for all your insurance needs, whether it's medical, health care, Medicare, long term care, life insurance, you know, all of those. We have experts standing by to help you out with that as well. So as you move through your your career, your life insurance and disability insurance needs will continue to change.

Erick Arnett:
You know, you've got to give some thought to how much protection you need and consider investing in in even what we call an IUL indexed universal life policy. You owe it to yourself to really understand the difference between whole life policies and all the different types that are out there versus term life insurance versus variable life insurance. There's so many different ones out there and so are resource for you as well. We'll evaluate all of your all of your current life insurance if you've got whole life currently or if you've got term life. Let's evaluate that for you and make sure that's still the best policy for you going forward. We've got the experts standing by right now to to help you out with that. So part of your full blown retirement plan, your freedom plan, is an insurance, a full evaluation of all your insurances. And so super, super important to to do that. And so not only give some thought to how much protection you need and consider investing in an IUL if you're still in your forties and fifties, because these types of policies are one of the only ways to generate that tax free retirement income. You know, we've talked about them on the show before. We can run quotes for you. We can send you literature, information, white papers, whatever it is you may need.

Erick Arnett:
We want to be that resource for you to provide that education. So you really owe it to yourself, because if you're in your forties or fifties, particularly, it's a great time to really take and take a look at those IPOs because that's another way that you can save for a tax free. I say it again, tax free retirement income. Listen, folks, if you're 40, 50 years old, you know, or even in your early sixties, you may have not thought about this before, but and then all of a sudden you get down the road and you're like, oh, my gosh, You know, I sit down with my retirement planner and I've got all my money and what they call that tax deferred bucket. That tax deferred bucket is your IRA, your 41k or your annuities. And you've you've enjoyed the tax free growth, right? But when you go to take that money out now, it's going to be 100% taxable and that piles on top of your other income sources, which can throw you up into that higher tax bracket and cause some problems, cause some challenges. And and we talk about it all the time on the show. Obviously, we do seminars and educational workshops, and the first thing we talk about is the fiscal health of the United States of AmEricka. You know, we're $35 trillion in debt and counting every day.

Erick Arnett:
And guess what, folks? There's only one way that we can take care of this debt. And it's either cut spending. Raise revenue or a little bit of both, Right. So. Or what they're doing currently, which isn't good and you know is is printing money just keep on printing money and print their way out of it. That's not. Unfortunately, all of the governments in the world are are utilizing that that that theory. And I don't think that's a good theory because that is going to cause higher inflation. So everything prices are going to go through the roof like we've already started to experience. So that's going to create a big challenge. And so you've got to make sure that your income plan is in place and it's optimized and your income can grow with inflation, right? You can't just lock in an income and say, okay, yeah, my income gap is 2000 a month, I'm good and you're 60 years old. What's that going to look like when you're 70 or 80? That might be a four or five 6000 income gap. So we've got to plan for that now. And so it's extensive planning. It's in depth planning. We do it all for you. Hand over the keys and we'll take care of it for you. Completely free, no obligation. So, you know, but the IUL life insurance needs. Let's evaluate that because, you know, heck, you might even be paying too much for your premium right now.

Erick Arnett:
You know, life expectancies have gone up underwriting and actuaries and tables have changed. We may be able to reduce your life insurance costs. Maybe you got a term policy right now. You know, that's like a 20 year term or a ten year term and you're paying four or 500 bucks a month or whatever it may be. Heck, we might be able to reduce that. I don't know for sure, but let's give it a shot and run some quotes. Right. And so also, with the increase in interest rates, these IUL policies are crediting more cash flow and better returns than ever because of the increased interest rates. These things kind of are fueled off of interest rates and so with a higher interest rate, that means you're going to do better and you're going to be able to grow your assets, I believe, much stronger for the future. And wouldn't it be nice, Sam, if you're sitting there and you're about 70 years old, 71 years old, and you know, you're at the at the breakfast table or you're at the at the bar or, you know, or you're at the wherever you're at hanging out with your friends, you're at a party or whatever, and you're chatting and and the conversation comes up and says, Man, you know, I'm going to have to start taking those RMDs and man, I've got I'm going to get hammered in taxes.

Erick Arnett:
And you're sitting back and you're thinking to yourself, Hmm, I don't have to worry about that. You know, I've already put that plan in place years ago and I don't have to worry about one. Is the fiscal responsibility of the government going to increase my tax, increase the burden on me? Because what are they going to have to do? Taxes are an all time low right now. We're we're at historical low tax rates. They're going to have to increase tax rates. And so in the future, I believe your tax rates are going to be much higher. So this is going to create a problem of high taxes and high inflation. And so you've got to look at these different strategies to combat that. And imagine I imagine I've got to get there myself. I've got a long way to go. I'm only 51, but I'm really starting to look at, hey, what are things going to look like 20 years from now? I want to have as much money as possible in those tax free buckets so I don't have to worry about. Has Uncle Sam raised our tax rate? Hey. Hey. You know what? Historically, Sam, way back when we've seen tax rates on individuals as high as 60, 70%. So don't think that we can't get back there. It's quite possible.

Producer:
Absolutely. And one thing that we wanted to let people know today, that you should probably go ahead and take a look at those new tax brackets for 2023. Now, the same brackets apply as far as the percentages, but you'll want to take a close look at those income limits within those tax brackets because those have been updated due to inflation, whether you're married, filing jointly, single, whatever. Take a look at those income thresholds because those are different. On the bright side, if you're a Social Security recipient or you're planning on receiving Social Security soon, the cost of living adjustment is still a thing. And in 2023 it will be going up 8.7%, and that's a direct result of inflation as well. So they give you that bump to kind of protect your buying power because of inflation. So those are some important updates for 2023. And when it comes to taxes, Erick, I know you and if you're a listener to the show, you've heard Randy on this show before, you guys take tax planning very seriously. And it's a key component of that comprehensive financial plan.

Erick Arnett:
I thought it was important years and years ago to align myself with with a tax planning team, and that's why I aligned myself. And we've got a CPA on on staff, we've got accountants on staff, and so we take it very serious. C because tax taxation is just the silent killer. It's that little disease or parasite that's kind of eating away at us and we don't even know it's happening and it's eating away at our cash flow. And so great, great point there. I mean, there's there's there's going to more than likely be those tax increases down the road. Inflation. Yes, we're getting those cost of living adjustments, but they're also going to be increasing taxes to pay for that. Right. So so it's a double edged sword. So super, super important to to give us a call and get ahead of that and get in front of that call call today or standing by. Happy to chat with you. Get your freedom plan today. So, so important. We call it the freedom plan, not only because we're patriots and we know I myself was an active duty combat veteran and and and a first responder.

Erick Arnett:
So I love first responders and I love our country. And, you know, but we're looking to also create that freedom and retirement to where you don't have to stress and worry about all these all these crazy headwinds that are coming at you folks, You know, those tax increases. And, you know, we're getting a Social Security increase right now, which is nice, Sam, But guess what? Social Security is in trouble down the road, you know, ten, 15 years from now, they're talking about potentially having to make cutbacks in Social Security. So, folks, if you're listening. Don't just plan on that. Social Security being there forever and staying the same. Let's not have to worry about Uncle Sam, because guess what? The government's really not there to take care of you. We've got to take care of ourselves. And it starts with that prior planning. It starts with that freedom plan. Call us today. Let's get going on your freedom plan. Take point wealth dot com, upper right hand corner to set up an appointment with me or 352 616 0511. And we're ready. We're ready to get started for you today on that Freedom Plan.

Producer:
Thanks for listening To Take a 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 TakePointOnRetirement.com Or pick up the phone and call 352 616 0511. That's 352 616 0511.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC Become 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:
Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short-term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuer.