Tag: Retirement Transition

Planning Retirement the RIGHT Way (with Veronica McCain)
Jason 0 Comments Retire Wealthy Retirement Planning Tips for Retiree's
so you'll pick me up tonight
at 7 45. yo well no I got a few things to take care of first but
why don't we make a quarter to eight I'm 45. live from Joe's mom's basement it's
the stacking Benjamin show [Music] I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug and good news
today is all about getting your way which is my favorite here to help us work out our goals
and find happiness we welcome retirement coach Veronica McCain for our Tick Tock minute we'll
discuss tips on getting your vocab right to succeed in the corporate world in our headlines
why is it that instead of money at the end of the month the month seems to go too many days for
our wallet we'll share an explanation from one popular publication plus we'll throw out the Haven
Lifeline to Lucky stacking Benjamin's listener Jim who wants to know what percentage to put into his
Roth IRA and then I'll share some heartbreaking trivia and now two guys who like to color way
Outside the Lines the Philistines it's Joe and oh [Music] and a happy Monday to you stackers nice open
duck you know given your history I think that was fantastic we got a great show today fantastic
show Veronica McCain is here I can't let that go what do you mean given my history I am Flawless
day after day show after show let what go I don't know what we're talking about Veronica giving
my history great open given my history Veronica McCain is here today she is a retirement coach
and uh oh gee we don't get enough time to talk about just retirement so I'm I'm super happy we
get to do that sweet I'm gonna retire after this Marathon recording episodes podcast for the
last freaking week and a half so you can go on vacation so like yeah by the time people hear
this I've had a wonderful vacation in Spain which meant that uh that yeah we've been talking to
each other a fair amount lately however we got a fantastic show today not only Veronica became
we got a fantastic Tick Tock minute super happy headline today comes to us from the Wall Street
Journal the oh gee sorry the Wall Street Journal The Wall Street Journal are they like the Ohio
state of newspapers forgot to put the emphasis in the right place and they get angry those Buckeyes
no it's the Ohio State I thought it was just oh no no it's the this is from the personal finance
section it's written by our friend Veronica dagger a Veronica writes why it's now easier to
underestimate your expenses and overspend let's dive in Veronica writes many people have a gap
between what they think they spend and what they actually spend this gaps wide recently is the
financial and psychological effects of higher prices further strain people's budgets Elevate
inflation is rippled through Americans wallets for more than a year now some have cut back While
others have increased their spending to keep up credit card balances were staying relatively flat
for a while but have jumped higher recently oh gee you and I let's take it from here I think
that this is a year where it's crucial to have your finger on the pulse of what your expenses are
you know you hear people joke about eggs you hear people joke about the grocery store of course for
a while there you saw the gas pump that seems to have leveled off at least where you and I live but
I think if you don't have your finger on the pulse you're just gonna have less money at the end of
every month well the availability of credit cards and accumulating that Consumer Debt really makes
it easy to continue to live the life that you want to live even if the cost of living has increased
a little bit because you don't feel the pain of that right away you know it's like that kind of
slow death by a thousand paper cuts type of thing it's like you have a little bit of a balance that
carries over then you have a little bit more of a balance that carries over and a little bit more of
a balance that carries over and so that's a really good really good signal I think is if you if you
go month to month and you're not paying off your Visa bill every single month or if you had been
and now you're not yeah that's a good trigger to go like whoa what changed here that'll snowball
pretty quickly listen to this statistic just to tell you how many people are not paying off their
credit cards Veronica writes in the fourth quarter of 2022 the average household's credit card
balance was nine thousand nine hundred ninety dollars up nine percent from a year earlier nine
percent higher it's a huge big number according to wallet Hub customer Finance website meanwhile
the average credit card interest rate of course rose with spread right yeah uh to record high of
about 20 percent last week according to bank rate those are some there's some big downsides for
not tracking your expenses yeah thinking about the math on that real quick it's like okay ten
thousand dollars at twenty percent you're spending 150 100 you know 200 a month of Interest that's
not going to pay that off if you think okay well I make 80 grand after taxes bringing home you
know 60 after taxes and health insurance and 401ks and all that sort of stuff that's a solid
chunk of your annual budget that's just going to interest payments that doesn't really accomplish
anything for you so if you're one of those people that that balance is increased on I think it's
really important to figure out how to tighten I think one way if you have an accountability
partner a spouse a friend that you're working with I really think this can be way easier than people
think that it is Cheryl and I just have a weekly meeting we meet for 20 minutes it's over wine or
over pancakes depending on what time of day it is it's not complicated we just look through it OG
and I think it can be that simple it doesn't have to be you know you're using what you know I love
the tiller money app I think it's fantastic how it takes a spreadsheet and downloads everything every
day and you've got whatever numbers you want you can plug those into your spreadsheet and get it so
you can slice and dice however you want I like the cube app as well we of course have lots of fans
who use YNAB as a great budgeting tool but it's not really it doesn't even have to be that hard
it just has to be having just a finger on on the pulse like where where's our money actually going
you know it might have been you who mentioned it years ago oh gee it could have been Paula pant but
but a lot of people feel handcuffed when they feel like the advice is look at your budget every
month and decide all the details that you're spending on and I think that's one of the things
that intimidates people or just is a huge Downer against budgets I don't think you have to do it
forever and ever I honestly think you set up a budget we use whatever template you want to use
make your own or use some of the ones that Joe mentioned and then you check in on it for let's
say the first six months or eight months however long it takes you to establish habits for just the
way you live just the normal everyday stuff and then once you've sort of curtailed yourself from
essentially taking out a loan to buy that pair of pants or that whatever that thing is you think you
need uh I don't think you need to check in on that budget that often I think it's I mean honestly
I'm checking in on mine every maybe six months to a year I think that I think the big Point here
Doug with inflation having gone up as quick as it did the point is to have these early warning trip
wires that if you're not going to check it that's fine but you got to have a tripwire that alerts
you then that stuff is real and it's different than it was three months ago because to OG's point
if you don't catch it early this gets Beyond you I mean but Wells Fargo's PR team finally getting
getting ahead of the story here and got themselves in this piece listen to this I like this money
grows much faster than most people expect because interest is not interest says Michael learsh head
of Wells Fargo and companies advice and planning center it's a great quote a similar concept
though applies to inflation prices rise and if inflation remains high prices continue to grow on
top of already inflated prices leaving people off guard quote people get constantly surprised that
their money isn't going as far as they thought it would and in fact the cost of eating out and going
for drinks continues to take Dina lion aback even though the 36 year old married mother of one's
dining out and ordering in far less than she did a year ago some prices still give her sticker
shot she says the difference between cooking at home about ten dollars for nice pasta and quick
sauce from canned tomatoes versus Italian takeout for now 50 bucks is astronomical said Miss line
who lives in Brooklyn I think those trip wires are are what you if you're not going to set it up
Doug well let me ask you this I mean given your history with money how exactly do you set up your
own tripwires so we focused all of our spending on One credit card I have a rough idea every
month of what that that number should look like at the end of the month and if it's significantly
higher I kind of raise an eyebrow and then I start scrolling through transactions and realize okay
those are all legit time to cut it back that's my trip but you know then where to cut well then
I start to it's usually uh the same thing for probably 90 percent of Americans Amazon but uh
Amazon could be anything though I know that's such a brilliant way for them to disguise what you're
buying that it just says Amazon yeah because you're like there's no way I spent forty one
thousand dollars on Amazon last year yeah you did like well what did I buy wouldn't you like to know
right I bought Fruit Loops and a backhoe exactly but yeah then I just dig in a little bit if if
the number is significantly higher usually when that has happened it's because of a couple of
big purchases and I know right where it was and um I know that that big purchase isn't going
to happen again the next month it's you that for me that's usually what it is it's not the
trickle effect of Amazon it's usually some big some big Bill I had but uh yeah that's that's my
tripwire yeah I just know that given your history that we really need to make sure that um people
hear the story you are harshing on me today what is happening what am I doing I don't give up
your history and what then you you yeah yeah harsh on my open what is going on I don't I'm just
saying that given your history there we go again I think we need we need to make sure that people
hear the story like it's a it's a great tale hey uh speaking of great Tales time for a tick
tock minute this is the part of the show where we either have some Brilliance from the people at
Tick Tock or we have hashtag brilliance from those very same people uh Doug which one do you think
we got today this one's legit it's solid yeah well more solid than my backdrop which is just about
fell over I love it how people are about to see they're about to see all the canned goods here
in the basement when your professional backdrop goes bye-bye I think you're correct doug because
oh gee today what we're going to talk about is how to succeed in corporate life how to how to
figure out the right things to say let's listen one of the most important skills you'll need
to learn if you want to be successful in the corporate world is how to speak like an absolute
[ __ ] week and a great way to do this is just to totally ignore the basic principles of
English grammar so first take a random noun and then change it into a verb so a word like
idea becomes ideate then take that new verb and turn it back into a noun so id8 becomes ideation
then take that now and change it back into a verb so ideation becomes ideation Inc finally take the
new verb and change it into a meaningless seven word cluster an all hands Blue Sky ideationing
session then sit back and wait to be promoted right that immediately it's pretty
funny after your blue sky ideation session you're you're good that's pretty
funny brilliant Joe tell them some of the we've got some of that same kind of
corporate phraseology here that that just develops organically just happens we have
we've come up with our own lexicon here uh OG we need to talk to you over by the can
peaches we say that you're getting canned first time Doug got canned he thought it was a big
deal oh God I was remember that yeah I was I I had Joy I mean uh tears in my eyes and when it's nice
outside so you know we want to leave the basement we meet up by the clothesline which we call Doug
getting hung out to dry there it is we didn't need the bump this is serious work OG we're all trying
to get promoted here hey coming up is a woman that I don't think we need to promote a lot because
when it comes to retirement planning people take it way too cavalierly oh gee you know this
better than most people spend more time planning their family vacations than they do planning their
retirement which shows why so many people are not successful at retirement planning well Veronica
McCain worked a full career and then realized that as a second career which we may talk about as well
she was going to become a certified professional retirement coach and a charter retirement
planning counselor after 31 years of Public Service work decided you know what time to do that
other thing that I've really really wanted to do so she founded Savvy retirement coach with the
mission to provide holistic retirement planning Concepts focused on self health and wealth we're
going to talk to Veronica here in a second about doing a better job planning retirement but Doug to
get there I think you've got some history well I think of it as trivia you call it history
tomato well given your history of doing the trivia I think we should just have the trivia now
there's some massive punchline coming I can tell I don't know what it is but okay fine here's
the trivia Joe hey there's stackers on Joe's mom's neighbor Duggan did you know that on this
day in 1956 Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley became a number one hit the Smash Hit was written
by the Queen Mother of Nashville Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden Axton played a recording of
Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis at a disc jockey convention in Nashville and the rest is history
so since we're on the topic of hotels I got some hopefully not heartbreaking Hotel trivia for
you my question is if you're evaluating hotels as an investor what is the difference between
these statistics average daily rate ADR versus average published rate or APR I'll be back right
after I asked Joe's mom to celebrate Elvis by making me a peanut butter and banana sandwich
while I tee up Heartbreak Hotel on my Walkman Burning Love Joe's mom's neighbor Doug and we are
commemorating the anniversary of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel becoming a number one hit on
this day in 1956 with some Hotel related trivia so my question was if you're evaluating hotels as
an investor what is the difference between these statistics average daily rate versus average
published rate in maybe our most thrilling trivia question yet try to stay awake non-hotel
investors the average published rate is believe it or not this is going to be amazing are you
ready I'm just settle down because I know the excitement is building it's the amount a hotel
asks for rooms well the average daily rate are you ready for this I know you've been waiting
by your device all day just trying to figure out what this definition is that is the amount
they're actually getting paid for the rooms if you're a hotel investor this is the opposite
of boring because if those numbers are close together it means the hotel is in demand and
if they're far apart you know maybe not so much maybe I should suggest our writing team retires
So speaking of retirement Let's help you get there permanently it's time to learn how to create
your retirement your way with Veronica McCain and I'm super happy she's here at the card table
with us Veronica McCain joins us how are you that you're here because we're about to talk if
this goes according to plan we're about to talk about all the things that you and I think people
should talk about during retirement but often kind of gloss over because they're you know just don't
get me wrong we're gonna talk about the money too but it's about more than money but as a way to
get there Veronica I've always believed that if you want advice it's helpful to get it from
somebody who's kind of walked that path right when I was a financial planner I had been one
in a long time but when I was the fact that I worked with 200 families and I'd seen retirement
over and over and over again should give people a little bit of comfort that yes you want to do this
once I've done it a bajillion times but but I had not at that point ever retired you have actually
retired tell me about that do you remember the countdown to your retirement oh yeah definitely
I mean I remember when I was working you did you know you do the usual countdown on your calendar
kind of exiting out the days until it actually hits and then that when that day comes I think
you get a overwhelming emotions because then I realized you know I'm leaving my work and my work
was not just work for me I actually had you know work family what did you do by the way I worked
for the federal government so I was a associate director over several various departments within
an agency a very small agency about 300 people but um because you're a small agency you kind of
have to sometimes do a lot so oversaw a lot of different departments yeah so so you have this
flood of emotions where the emotions about loss were they about excitement I don't know is it now
all the above is it purpose yeah I kind of had an idea sort of what I wanted to do so I kind of knew
what path I was going to take once every time I know it's going to go into some type of coaching
field didn't know exactly what way I was going to go with it at first I thought maybe more in the
Executive coaching area but then as I thought about that more it kind of gave me flashbacks for
work so then I decided to get into more of the the retirement because people were asking me so
many questions about you know what do you do and what you retire how do you feel your days and that
kind of thing so um you know as I was approaching looking into the coaching area I did look at
retirement coaching and I said oh this will be an interesting field to pursue because I like to
motivate people to have people get excited about their goals and what they want to do in life and
I like the kind of the financial side as well so um you know that's why I decided to kind of lean
more toward the retirement coaching but getting back to when that final day came yeah I think
it was when I had the actual retirement you know sometimes that work to give you a retirement uh
party and you see everybody and they're like uh say something say something and then when I got up
to say something all of a sudden I started feeling like I was gonna cry yeah I was looking out at
everybody and I was like wow I'm you know this is this is really the end um even though I had
something you know like I said to look forward to going through I didn't expect that emotion to
come over me like that but it did and I think a lot of people experienced that when the final
day comes of their retirement there is like a I don't know I mean it's just morbid but there is
like a death I mean you're it is it is your last cake right right you've been to see other people's
cake but all of a sudden you realize this is your last slice yeah it is that that's exactly what
it is it's kind of you know that you're gonna try to keep in contact with the people that
you work with and try to have some kind of relationship but it does change it really does
because you just you know everything usually that you talk about with people at work is work related
stuff and over time when you retire that kind of goes by the wayside with you so do you feel like
we're too Cavalier about that about that process about the uh you know the fact that we're going
to have these emotions we just think oh I'll deal with it when I get there yeah I think a lot of
people are just so caught up and I'm going to be retired I'm going to be tired I can do whatever I
want it's so exciting or whatever so yeah I think you don't really feel like that you're going to
have those type of emotions I think you just feel like you're going to go to this next chapter
in your life and it's going to be oh this this burst of excitement and it is I'm not saying that
you're not going to have it but I do think there's also a period of of where you kind of adjust uh
to you know what you've left behind in your job and your identity and all that with that and
then going forward pursuing what what you had to look forward to in retirement so it's kind
of a mixed bag those first couple of years you tell your own story but you also tell stories
of a few other people in the workbook one is a woman named Susan Susan seems a little lost
can you tell our stackers about Susan Susan is the one who the days and the walls were kind of
closing in yes yeah yeah she was the one person in the book that I talk about and the people
that I talk about the book are actual people that I coach I just use different names and
scenarios names change to protect the guilty yeah she was kind of diverse and this is a this
is a lot like when you're working you're kind of looking forward to those days that you have off
where you can kind of do some things that you want to do but then when you retire and it's every
day it gets a little daunting if you really don't have an idea of what you're going to be doing to
for your days your day-to-day life I think is the hardest thing that most people struggle with when
they retire they have some huge aspirations maybe of traveling or doing that but once they're
sitting in their house house on a day-to-day basis and in the you know the walls of you know
has kind of quiet and not a lot going on you don't have that routine of going to work anymore
it's kind of like what do I do on a day-to-day kind of thing and that's kind of challenging but
what Veronica separates your workbook from a lot of the retirement discussions I've seen is that
you take this day to day and challenge all of us to think really bigger about our life like I got
this feeling even in the beginning Pages as you're telling the story that well let me just quote
you you wrote a big void needs to be filled in retirement but it should not be filled just with
things to keep you busy like this is not just a March to the Grave this is a whole different
piece of your life and it shouldn't just be about rearranging the salt and pepper shaker every
day or you know figuring out that the dog needs to go for a walk like you challenge us to think
a lot bigger about this period exactly it is an exciting time for you to think bigger about your
life because it's probably the first time in your life that you're actually able to do what you want
to do on your own schedule and hopefully have the finances to do that so I think it's more than just
trying to fill your days with just the stuff to do and I think a lot of times when you first retire
if you don't really have an idea of what path you're going to go down once you retire that's
what you start doing you start trying to just okay let me do this do this and do that and you're
not feeling you're still not feeling fulfilled so I'm hoping in the workbook I give you exercises
to help you because people struggle with like what does this mean purpose meaning fulfillment
or whatever yeah those are I think sometimes big words that we use but I hopefully going through
some of the exercises in the book you will be able to figure that out by going through the exercises
and then trying to say okay well what do I really want to look for as far as my next chapter in my
life of what I want to pursue and what I want to do more than just these little small things that
are keeping you busy I get uh coaching from a group called strategic coach long time stackers
have heard me talk about them before but we have we have a workbook similar to yours with these big
questions about leadership and about coaching but you do the same thing here with retirement and
this is not guys this is not a long workbook but if you're doing this right it may take you months
to fill this stuff out because I could see myself Veronica peeling off maybe two pages and really
because the thought that goes into each page of this is really the important part well let me give
everybody some of the tips from the book that you have early on because you have workbook pieces
and then you have some tips here's some tips early on for when you first get to retirement to
kind of send you on this path while you're filling out the workbook schedule activities you enjoyed
during when you took time off from work journal and reflect on your expectations of yourself as
a retired person I love that word Expectations by the way read books and articles listen to podcasts
and a variety of topics to discover what most interests you now and volunteer for different
organizations to discover how you most enjoy helping people and helping help being out it feels
to me Veronica like you're challenging people also to don't be afraid to explore like go go try
stuff expecting that it might not be a fit exactly that's exactly right Joe I want people to not be
kind of Trapped into thinking they have to have everything planned out to just go out and just do
things that they find intriguing or they interest them and then from there they can determine what
they want to continue to pursue what they don't want to continue to pursue but don't don't limit
yourself on what you what you think you should be doing or how you should be doing it this is a time
for you to be adventurous and explore at different Avenues and things that interest you and a lot of
times that's kind of a hard thing to do for people because they've lived this kind of structured life
up to this point with work and all that and to try to say oh just go out here and do whatever and try
to figure it out it can be a little intimidating like whatever what yeah yeah so I'm hoping that
the exercise in the book gives you clue you know kind of cute used to okay these are some things
volunteering doing some other things that you know she thought about what maybe when you were
younger and didn't pursue kind of go back to those times of those thoughts and and try to figure out
if there's um things that you want to pursue now so yeah it's it it's funny because I I really
went through this crisis where I felt like not just there's a lot of stuff not interest me but
but I'm like okay I want to get involved in my community I want to get involved in organization
but but which ones I don't this could sound very horrible Veronica but I just didn't I just didn't
care about any of them and then I realized that it wasn't about that I need to just go get involved
and when I found out and ultimately at first it was the Arthritis Foundation I got involved
with I found out about juvenile arthritis I found out about all of these things happening in
the arthritis Community I got involved in walking trails around town and I realized how walking
trails uh not only your Healthy Living but beautify a city but they're also very inexpensive
ways for cities to raise property values like I learned it by exploring exactly what you're saying
to do in the book exactly that sounds so great Joe because that's exactly what I'm hoping people
would do once they start retiring just like you said you did you just started going out and doing
things and as you started doing those things you learned so much and it got your interest even more
into whatever activities you were pursuing the one thing that people have to realize when they retire
you have to be just to be intentional you have to go out and do it it's not going to come to you and
a lot of times I think you know when I'm working uh coaching with clients they're like well I don't
know I don't know I'm like well you got to go out and try you can't it's not going to come to you
you've got to go out there and pursue it and once you do and when you know you will see oh okay this
doesn't just me or this doesn't interest me but you've got to go out there and do it can we talk
about that what you just said about you kind of kicking people in the butt and and kicking them
out the door to go you know like my mom used to say don't come back inside until that light turns
on you know we we back when kids went outside side maybe I'm dating myself there but you end
almost every chapter of this workbook with who are going to be your accountability Partners it
seems to me like accountability partners are a big piece of this tell me about how you how do you
find these people Veronica maybe just before you retire yeah and sometimes say you know who they
can be they can be trusted friends and and people that you know I think sometimes there are people
that are asking you questions about yourself and are intrigued about you as an individual but you
do have to find sometimes an accountability person because in retirement there's nothing pushing
you to do anything and if you don't sometimes have somebody that you can hold accountable and
if you can't find someone within your your network I would advise you to look for a coach because
that's because what they can be as well pursue look um for a retirement coach or a life coach
or or someone in that field because they can be your accountability partner but if you're finding
that you're struggling trying to get stuff done and you're not really getting out there or you're
bored and you're restless and you want to not get some pickup and you're like you definitely need
to look into getting somebody to be accountable and help you because I even have coaches that I
work with and I'm a coach yeah yeah me so it's just something that just like I said it helps
you keep you accountable to someone to keep you motivated to do things I think that kind of
like you Veronica I just get this feeling that uh with my coach if I say it out loud to Mary Lou
it means I gotta go do it like that if somebody tells you or if you tell your coach then you
then you have to go do it I want to stick with this theme of uh friends and family a little bit
because those might be some of the people you're bouncing stuff off of but you also say if you're
having trouble finding your sense of purpose that friends and family might be a good Outlet yeah
and that's what I found for me that's why I said I want you know I knew I wanted to go into coaching
I wasn't really sure which way I wanted to go and the reason why I decided to be a retirement coach
is because friends and stuff are saying you're good at coaching and talking about this retirement
stuff or whatever and I'm not like you should do something with that and that's why I pursue
becoming a retirement coach but I think oftentimes friends and family see things within you that you
don't even see yourself they recognize talents and things that you have that you're like oh okay
you're right I do enjoy that you kind of brush it off and maybe not pay attention to where they
might be and I think when you're listening to your friends and family you have a tendency because you
trust them to listen to their guidance a little bit maybe more than somebody else that doesn't
really know you so I say I always lean into your friends and families to help you if you're
trying to figure out maybe you know some things you might want to do they might say well you're
good at organizing or you're good at accounting or you're good at this or whatever and they might
give you some cues to help you figure out where that next chapter is going to be in your life in
retirement so definitely look for them for that I like the fact that you go through a lot of
this first about about purpose and value and meaning before you get to the money in chapter
two because your chapter two then really is structured around okay now that you know that we
can focus on spending money where it's important and saving money where it's not and hopefully I
have an idea there you start off with some good tips you talk about traveling a lot of people
in retirement want to travel uh you say to be a conscientious traveler what is what does that
mean yeah everybody always says when they retire they want to travel and then all of a sudden
they just start going places and not really thinking of where they really want to go and why
they want to go there I kind of had to regroup because when I first retired I kind of I think
everybody does that you go through that I just want to get out and go go go go go go and you're
just going everywhere but you're spending money going everywhere and so you want to kind of
maybe reel that back in it's okay to have that little brief period of doing that but you want to
reel that back in and really think about you know where is it where do I really want to go why do
I want to go there what do I want to experience once I get there make sure you're spending your
travel dollars on things that are value to you and make yourself more conscious of the type
of traveling you're doing I know I did a lot of girlfriend getaway travels you know spy and
all that and that's great but I really want it I want to explore the world that's what I really
want I want bigger trips and so you know you need to just be conscious of what your goal is as far
as you're traveling and where you what you want to see and make sure you're you know you're putting
your money into that type of travel versus just doing things yeah yeah what I really like that
you shine a light on is now that you're retired you can really lean into off season and one thing
that's not in your workbook that I love about off season that Cheryl and I have found because she
is a somewhat flexible job and I could travel whenever man off season you get more of the local
experience because the places aren't full of a bunch of tourists people are more likely to be
able to linger and talk to you like off season is great but to your point you save you save a
bunch of money there too exactly and I travel now that's all I do is try to travel off season
because just like you say as far as you want to make sure with your dollars that you're spending
them in a conscientious way as far as when you're traveling too going off season I feel like those
retirees the best time for you to travel because you really get a feel for everything without
the crowds and like you said the pricing is better you're able to enjoy it in a different
way what are some other ways that new retirees and people that are stackers that maybe are are
getting close to retirement can think about areas where they might be able to save money besides
on discount or off season travel at first I would just look in your budget overall of what you you
know you have developed as far as your I think everybody should be tracking their costs before
they retire and coming up with a overall budget um what they think their retirement is going
to be but some of the things you can look at is cars you know the insurance and things of that
nature look at that to see if there's ways you you can save on that once you retire there's
also lots of discounts and stuff like we were talking about off Seasons but also if you kind of
pursue looking you know if you want to go to Parks or whatever whatever your um interest might be
looking for ways you can get discounts on things of that nature and just be aware of any ways you
can save money with traveling it's just a lot of different ways out there too for other things as
well two big ones I really like that you had uh if you've got two vehicles you might be able to go
to one you know think about what you think about Transportation evaluate your life insurance do
you need it anymore are you financially solvent enough where maybe you could get rid of that and
then a medical one which I really liked was hey this medical thing is going to get expensive
stay healthy which also gets you out of the house I feel like Veronica again you're kicking
people's butt out of the house I definitely with the medical and the exercising and now that you've
got all this time you've done definitely can get a nice physical routine into your everyday life
just simple walking I know I take morning walks every morning and not just for exercise but for
meditation purposes for me as well but yeah we all know the medical cost is a big expense when
you retire and we also know that you get more you know seditary in your way you're not as active as
you were where you were working so I do recommend that you do have a physical fitness routine for
yourself when you retire to keep yourself healthy so you can reduce those medical costs because
a lot of the Medical classes stuff you can prevent yeah and things that you could be doing to
prevent you get but you got to start early on your retirement and start doing things to keep yourself
healthy when we go to the doctors at a certain age you're all getting those oh you're close you
know borderline there's water flush that and stuff it's time for you to really you know we're at that
point you can do things within your health to keep yourself more healthy so yeah yeah definitely I
look at a hamburger now and my cholesterol goes up I just look at it I don't know how that medically
happens but it's crazy that is we all we all know that feeling with people that own their house
you have a section of your workbook to go through Renovations on your house and thinking about
your housing situation this is the number one area in our budget our house what are some of
those key considerations about our housing we should be thinking about yeah a lot of people
like especially if they want to stay in their houses should look in as far as their as I call
Aging in place in the houses and look how well their house is going to be able to support them
once they start aging and look at you know I have a checklist in there of things that you should
look at as far as your stairs and your appliances and just repairs and stuff that you might need
to do to your house as you start getting older those kind of costs if you're not prepared for
them can wreak Haven on your retirement budget so if your house is where you want to stay then
you definitely need to look at it like even the showers grab bars and um stuff yeah steps if
that's going to work as you get older I know with my husband he had had accident he couldn't
go up the steps but it made me start thinking you know as we age you know we're not able to go
up the steps how are we going to do it because we don't have bedroom on our main level so those
are the things that you need to really think about if you're going to decide to stay in your house
so what you need to do and kind of come up with a plan so it doesn't all hit you at once because
sometimes it does you know unfortunately it'll be unexpected like your husband's too I mean there's
no you know Tuesday everything's fine Wednesday the game's changed exactly and you need to kind of
be thinking about that especially like I said if you plan on stay in your house what your game plan
is and start trying to figure out how you can get your house accessible so that as you age it'll
it'll still suit you yes you talk about moving and about a lot of people of course think about
moving when they retire and you also talk about friendships and I'm glad that you coupled the two
of those together because one thing I've always thought and now I know we're here to interview you
Veronica but I'm going to pontificate for just a second no problem because I feel like people think
of moving wait we talked about being too Cavalier with this whole thing this especially to me is
an area where people are too Cavalier I'm just going to move closer to to my kids and what you
find is that your kids are really busy they got a bunch of stuff going on you become a full-time
babysitter but you don't end up interacting with them in the way that they want and all of
these close friendships that you developed over the last 30 40 years I'm a guy who lived for
a decade in Texarkana I moved away to Detroit for two years and Veronica we came back and not
because I have family here in quotes because all my friends are here I see some of my friends
as my friends are getting older you know I find them getting vacation houses that are far away
and we're we never get to see them anymore and I feel like this loneliness this isolation that
we put ourselves into because we think it's great like we're I feel like we're way too Cavalier
about that but anyway I will shut up I'm gonna get off my steps duel what do you think do you do
you're sad at all Joe that is exactly what people do they're very Cavalier they have this idea of
oh I'm gonna live here and it's going to be this great but they have no special connections there
yes or I'm gonna go near the grandkids and the grandkids are getting older the grandkids are
going to grow up they're not going to be here forever be little kids they're gonna grow up and
have their own things or even if they're already older they you know have their own activities and
stuff to do so that's why in the in the workbook I give a checklist you know it just even asked
them oh yeah we want you close by and I say also don't let your only connections be your kids your
grandkids or your kids you know you need to have other social connections outside of them because
a lot of people say I'm a little bit closer for the children and that might not work out so yeah
it's one of those things that I think everybody has this idea of how it's going to be yeah this
grandiose kind of idea so not true so not true and that's why hopefully when you go through
the workbook and you look through the checklist and if you do the exercises that are focused on
that you'll have a clear perspective of whether that's a great move for you or not whether it's
going to work for you and as you retire because I think it's hard harder once you get there to try
to move back so oh agree yeah yeah uh you talked about how I was a retiree now you know you're not
forced to get up and go to work you don't have to now lead the charge like you did in your career
Veronica with your department with your agency time management then becomes really important
then for retirees if you're going to get what value you want out of life so you talk about
morning routine daytime routine idea week again accountability Partners but but I
wanted to end by talking about this time management system for retirees you call it uh
postek p-o-s-e-c can you walk us through that one of the things that people struggle with
the most and I kind of alluded to that before is you had a routine when you were going to
work once you retire that routine is no more and I find a lot of times with new retirees
especially that's where they feel the most lost is there's no structure to the day anymore they're
kind of and all you know all over the place and don't know how they can spend time sometimes just
Milling around not doing anything or whatever so I want you to I you know sometimes when I tell
people you know structure they kind of you know like that's why I'm not working anymore I
don't know why not I don't like yeah well easy easy there all right if you want to try to
put me back at work with destruction my name is this is the whole purpose of retirement I thought
for me to just kind of Mill around and not do anything but I thought we find that when people
do that they get very bored so I just ask that you just think of your days and more how am I
going to start my mornings how am I going to get up in the morning get started and get going
through the day I think once you get that start up in the morning of what you're gonna do it kind
of guides you through the rest of the day but you do need to think about how am I gonna just get
my day started you know when you don't have an alarm clock to get you going every morning so yes
the workbook is is my retirement my way it's a workbook for the newly retired it's funny the way
that you go through goal setting like a 30 year old would just reminds me the purpose is important
no matter no matter where you're at in life and uh the book's available everywhere correct yes it
is yes well thanks so much Veronica for helping our stackers get successful with their retirement
it's funny we talked to a guy Wes moss in Atlanta about his book what the happiest retirees know
and it's so funny how it lines up so well like if you read that and do your workbook you're
gonna implement this and you're more likely to be one of those happy retirees so thanks for
this work no thank you thanks for having me this is Daryl from Pennsylvania when I'm not busy
arguing with a four-year-old um stacking Benjamins oh gee I love that we can talk to Veronica
for over 25 minutes and uh the concept of asset allocation doesn't even come didn't make it
doesn't make the cut we're so busy talking about what about my efficient Frontier it's all going to
change I mean not the efficient Frontier but just your emotional landscape I totally agree with her
you see it all the time you go through this this metamorphosis when you hit retirement and even get
close to it that I think most people are way too wait I guess they're not expecting it's a whole
different world I mean if you've been successful in your entire life this is the transition I
mean just inside the money concept not not all the other stuff that she was talking about right
like time and energy and all that sort of stuff but just the money piece of it transitioning from
being a good saver your entire life to being a good spender for the rest of your life in and of
itself is a difficult change so hard to make that switch and it's even harder when you don't really
know what you want yeah you're much more likely to just hold on to the money and the thing that you
underestimate is time you don't have forever to decide what you want to do would you rather have
Charlie munger's money at uh 90 or his wisdom at uh or you know what is he a hundred or something
like that is his you want to trade places with him basically no nobody would trade places with
Charlie hunger right now for all the money in the world well what if Charlie Munger likes what
he's doing I understand that I'm just saying like nobody would trade places with him because
of the time you know because he's 90 something oh like he's got billions of dollars so it's not
it's not necessarily always about the money I see what you mean but so you so to Joe's Point you'd
end up with a really really happy last two years of your life yeah that's right well it's our
it's our friend uh doc G's book about hospice you know about these people who spent their
whole life chasing dollar bills or people that spent zero time chasing dollar bills they
spend all their time going no I don't need any money and then they realize if I would have
had some I could have had better family time that's a good book hey let's throw out David
lifeline and tackle some of life's most important questions our friends at Haven life insurance
agency Doug they put what you value first I tell you what uh white breasted nut hatches white
breasted nut hatches yeah what is that that's a bird and it's also a realization that you've
become old because one day you're joy riding your frat brothers brand new car to Florida when
all he thought was you were like driving around the block and you're like we're going to Florida
and the next day you're getting out your bird ID app because some Bird shows up outside your
window what is that at least it's an app and not a book yeah true but uh and then I also spotted a
fairly rare for my area a brown merger [Laughter] both of those are fantastic names for birds and
I saw them both this morning but you know you know number one thing OG is it's an app on his
phone but the thing that makes him proudest is that it's his most used app on his phone like he
gets that report from Apple and they're like you open that Bird app a lot well thank you next
to his uh walking step counter app and the one that monitors his blood pressure he's he's also
the continuous glucose monitor blood pressure number of steps in the New Balance app
I don't see a problem with any of this to order new shoes every six months given his
history Anything Could Happen hey uh speaking of anything happening we should uh go ahead and
throw a Paving Lifeline because the answer that question Doug was your loved ones in your time
with a bird app it's why they've made buying quality term life insurance actually simple more
time to catch the brown and merger beeping out of the hole hey stackabenjamins.com havenlife now
please go there and then fast forward this 15 seconds to get us out of this bird discussion
their application's simple getting us to cover his decision their parent company Mass Mutual is
more than 160 years old so you know that they've done this before hey uh today we we I I love
Karen repine our show Runners notes for us this is uh Jim from Wisconsin calling in and Karen
says Jim from Wisconsin a real person not Doug thanks we actually have a real Wisconsin
idea is that was is it wisconsinite or is it just cheese head do you just
say cheesehead yeah I think that's the preferred term it's in their
state either Constitution hey Jim hey guys Jim here and I actually am from
Wisconsin I have a question about what percentage to contribute to my traditional 401K
versus my Roth 401k I'm five to seven years away from retirement maxing out my 401k contributions
I read somewhere that when you have saved six times your annual income you should move all
your future contributions to the Roth option what's the thought process in deciding how much
to put where I'll be looking for that shirt thanks Jim thanks for the call thanks by the
way for proving that you're really from Wisconsin uh Burton from Minnesota needs to
learn from Jim he's got to put some Midwest on that uh yeah if you're listening
from last week take a note from Jim it's a good effort Jim I'll give you that
I mean you made a You made an attempt but [Music] it didn't you don't
think Jim really talks like that but that is not a Wisconsin accent oh not
as good as yours was is that what you're saying I don't know what you're talking
about not as good as the interloper yeah Jim thanks for the call oh gee have you heard
this uh rule of thumb that he's using six times nope six times what six times something I've
never heard that gym next time something I've never heard it yeah the answer to when should I
put money in a Roth 401k versus a regular 401K is largely determined by your ability to pay the
taxes today you know you think about it if you're making a hundred grand and you're contributing
the maximum to your 401k you're putting 22 000 in your 401k this year which if it's pre-tax
is going to lower your taxable income to 78 000 before your deductions and all that other sort of
stuff that roughly is going to save you maybe four or five thousand dollars in federal taxes because
of that contribution not including any state taxes if you switch to the Roth side then that deduction
doesn't appear in your W-2 so you effectively are going to have a four or five thousand dollar
additional tax withholding throughout the year so it's you know back to our discussion at the
beginning of today your budget is going to be affected by call it 400 bucks a month if you can
afford that if you can fold that into your budget and not go into credit card debt or not have to
borrow more money for cars or student you know like if you can deal with it then obviously it's
better to pay your taxes today well not obviously but it makes most sense I think to pay your taxes
today because it's a known thing you know in the future all of that money becomes tax-free forever
and there's no there's no government requirements of withdrawals there's no government requirements
of those distributions that you have to take once you are retired it's all in all the roths side
is way way better but it comes at a cost which is that 500 bucks a month well and I think I would
think OG you know he talked about doing the Roth later in the pretext earlier I would think that
to pay that cost and to make it even more worth it because of the fact that you are prepaying the tax
you need those assets to grow much much much more so I would think that at the very least flipping
that around and doing the Roth first makes more sense like the further you are away do the Roth
don't don't do pre-tax first and then switch to Roth I would do Roth as early as I can and switch
to I mean if I'm choosing one or the other which you and I know this most people that listen to
this don't we haven't had this discussion a long time we don't think either one of these is right
we think you should be doing some of each because you don't know what the future is going to hold
but certainly or Roth first approach versus the other way around it doesn't make more sense
if you're thinking about it from the kind of historical context of your earnings you're going
to make the least amount of money early in your career and the most amount of money on the back
end right like usually that's how it works you your income continues to increase throughout
your career so if you have to pay your taxes I would rather pay them at a lower rate if possible
versus when I'm 50 and I'm making 200 000 a year maybe that's the time to use the pre-tax bucket
because of the fact that most 401ks come with company matches and those matches are also pre-tax
I think that if you can start out doing a Roth early in your career and continue to do it your
entire career you'll end up with a good enough balance of Roth 401k and pre-tax because of the
company matching contributions being pre-tax but if you're really trying to optimize tax brackets
and that sort of thing you can kind of manipulate it as you get toward those higher tax brackets
the problem with all of this of course is that we're taking a very big guess at what tax rates
are the day you withdraw the money how do we know whether or not this worked pre-tax versus
Roth well if you put the money in a Roth 401k and you take it out in the future you're betting
that today's tax rates are better than tomorrow's tax rates you're saying I'd rather pay taxes today
than in the future because the future I think are going to be higher that's what you're saying and
the vice versa is also true if you put the money in pre-tax today you're saying I think I can take
this money out at a better tax rate in the future then I can pay it today so I'm you know I'm at
a high tax bracket today I think I'll be in a lower tax bracket in the future the only way that
you know whether or not you're right is after you know that you're right because we don't have
the chart that says what are tax rates in 2037 because if we did then we would be able to
calculate it and say with certainty this is a better choice based on the circumstances
all we're saying is I think I might have a lower tax rate in the future or I think
tax rates might be higher in the future the one thing that I can say is that if Congress
doesn't change any of the rules Roth contributions Roth growth and earnings are 100 tax-free forever
so I don't care what the tax rates are in 20 years from now when I take the money out because it's
tax-free yeah if I'm gonna lean I'm leaning toward pay the taxes today be done with it that said
slots approach too by the way which is to say you got the cash today pay it today so that you
don't look at your IRA and go I've got a million bucks in my IRA it's like no you don't you have
500 000 in your IRA because half of it is for the government Doug I think this is really important
uh stuff for you I mean given your history with taxes and I have no history with taxes so I'm
good well maybe that's the point you gotta earn something to pay taxes maybe that's the point big
thanks to you Jim for the call if you would like to call and ask a question you know what we will
send you a Haven life stacking Benjamin's greatest money show on earth circus t-shirt and Jim from
Wisconsin really from Wisconsin is getting one cent his way slash voicemail gets you the shirt
and we're happy very happy to send it to Jim as I stare ready Doug as I say that I don't know why
I'm staring at Doug as I said Jim well he sounds hideous what are you talking about well it's
just I mean it's like a fiction just thing right this gym it's like the the State Farm guy that's
who you're talking to I know I think it's Jim I think somebody's having a tough day there OG well
before we say goodbye today time for our community calendar man we've got a great week over on the
stacking deed show where Crystal Hammond and Alan Corey dive into real estate Alex e Edwards is
a guy who helps uh has helped a lot of people in the southeast part of the United States
get out of intergenerational poverty through real estate teaching some real estate helps them
learn how to buy houses how to learn to do it in a responsible way he's going to be their guest on
tomorrow's show over on stacking Deeds of course our other sisters show the earninginvest podcast
doc G always has guests who dive deep into Allah into some some topic that is uh always exciting
and a fantastic and a fantastic discussion he has a friend of ours Fritz from the retirement
Manifesto coming up on Thursday Fritz is a guy who retired young documented his retirement an OG
to Veronica's Point earlier in today's show Fritz has really done it right this guy is so busy but
now doing that second career I think he serves on a couple of boards he Volunteers in the city of
Asheville in a couple different capacities one is working with animals he's always out in his
wood shop this guy has so much going on he's not sitting there wondering what he's going to do
so if you're interested more in in retirement Fritz will be over on earn invest of course here
on Wednesday the draft the NFL draft is Thursday so we've got Rob Welch he and a former NFL player
wrote a book together about going pro with your money we're going to talk Wednesday about no
matter what you're trying to go pro in how do the pros treat their money A lot of pro players about
to get a big payday on Thursday and as we already know a lot of them don't do the right thing with
that sudden money OG it goes in the wrong place that's what's coming up this week thanks so much
for hanging out with us today if you're somebody that's my kind of person and will leave a
review for people that they only know via podcast or maybe you've hung out with this
on one of our social media channels please leave a review of the show that helps us so
much helps new stackers realize what they're getting into a little different take on money
than maybe some of the other shows out there thanks to everybody who's done that Mom puts those
on her refrigerator if you're not here though to hang out with us on social media you're not here
just for Doug's trivia you're here because of the fact that you're worried about the economy you're
worried about your money and and how it works together and as a lot of those fears begin to ramp
up for people you might be feeling anxious to make some moves in your finances what I'd like you
to do instead is check out this free guide that OG and his team have put together that'll help you
plan more and panic less no matter what the market does it has some great insights on what you should
be doing and smart questions to ask yourself so that you make financial decisions your future self
will thank you for head to stackybenjamins.com guide that's stackybenjamins.com guide to get that
free guide from OG all right that is what's going on in the community man a lot of takeaways today
but Doug what are the top three man well Joe first take some advice from our guest Veronica McCain
and create your own unique roadmap to retirement second take a memo from our Tick Tock minute
to up your vocab game and Excel above the competition I'm sure you'll get promoted in no
time but the big lesson turns out five times in a row is the limit to singing Heartbreak Hotel
at the top of your lungs after that Joe's mom starts to get irritable and make threats now that
I think about it probably was the hip thrusting thanks to Veronica McCain for joining us
today you can find her book my retirement my way a workbook for the newly retired to
create meaning set goals and find happiness wherever finer books are sold we'll also include
links in our show notes at stackingbenjamins.com this show is the property of SB podcasts LLC
copyright 2023 and is created by Joe salsi High our producer is Karen rebein this show was
written by Lacey Langford who's also the host of the military money show with help from me Joe and
Doc G from the earn an invest podcast Kevin Bailey helps us take a deeper dive into all the topics
covered on each episode in our newsletter called the 201 you'll find the 4-1-1 on all things money
at the 201 just visit stackingbenjamins.com 201 Tina eichenberg makes the video version of this
show Once We bottle up all this goodness we ship it to our engineer the amazing Steve Stewart Steve
helps the rest of our team sound nearly as good as I do right now want to chat with friends about the
show later mom's friend Gertrude and Kate Younkin are our social media coordinators and Gertrude is
the room mother in our Facebook group called the basement so say hello when you see us posting
online to join all the basement fun with other stackers type stackingbenjamins.com basement
not only should you not take advice from these nerds don't take advice from people you don't
know this show is for entertainment purposes only before making any financial decisions
speak with a real financial advisor I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug and we'll see you next time
back here at the stacking Benjamin show foreign [Music] the after show this is uh the part of
the show that doesn't exist if you're new here what happens in the after show stays
in the after show getting back to your clothes I think that singing Heartbreak Hotel at the
top of your lungs just you know given your history might not be might not be great well
since my baby left I find a new place to dwell they're down at the end the lonely streets
called speaking of speaking of Doug's history um there's unfortunately OG a doctor
out there who has violated HIPAA rules and um got us audio from Doug's latest therapy
session and uh well I thought that as long as they broke the rule we didn't we should probably
play it look at the look OG can't wait for this he is so excited about that well I think
this is bad I think doctor shouldn't be doing this but as long as they have let's no
this is this is Doug's latest therapy session you what well you had waffles for dinner and you had waffles for breakfast so we're
gonna eat something else oh I oh I don't know sounds like you're obsessed now
you're really crying pretty good there now everybody is thinking about waffles like that
brain worm is in there and you're going to be thinking about it now for the rest of the
day well I I think I I mean I I really think that uh you shouldn't be thinking about waffles
given your history you're begging for me to ask I've resisted this whole time I'm not gonna
ask I'm not gonna ask why you keep harping on my history so OG and I saw this uh this video
that these guys said that that if you really just want to mess with somebody just end as many
sentences as possible when you talk to them with given your history just say it over and over
and see what happens and watch them watch Doug unravel the entire show they melt it is surgically
effective like it has just been driving me crazy I said it's Alyssa I don't even
remember what it was about but I just you know she was like brushing her
teeth or something and said well you know given your history and she's
like what is that supposed to mean you know just totally like around everything
to a halt just like you said yeah I think that is a bad marital move I said this will work
well with Doug I would not yeah I would not do that right before bed because you are not
sleeping that night stackers you may or may not want to try that your results May Vary but
ours ours I thought today were pretty good Doug didn't know what the hell was going on
actually now that I know it's actually more impressive that you found a way to
dodge my question the whole the whole episode you know given your history of course
yeah I'm not not enjoying your company anymore
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