- Okay, so let's talk money. - Time for the Financial Health and Wealth Show with Financial Advisor Cassandra Brazier of Avila Wealth. - All she talks about is money, money, money. - Financial topics relevant to your life heard every Sunday morning at 10, or available anytime as a MyTalk Podcast. - That's great, I love podcasts. - Let's start the show. Here's your host, Ms. Shannon. - All right ladies, we got talk finances. - Yes, we do have to talk finances. - I'm Ms. Shannon, that's Cassandra Brazier from Avila Wealth. And we are ready to give you such amazing information today. Good to see you again. - Good to see you too. - You look lovely, you could tell that the warm weather agrees with you. - It does. - Yes. - I does. For those of you who enjoy the warm weather, and this is your jam, get out there and enjoy it today. If you can. - This week is in Minnesota, it is gorgeous today. - Right, so thank you for listening wherever you are. If you're in the Twin Cities, we appreciate you even more. Because there's other things you could be doing, so hopefully we are a part of that. You can listen to us in your earbuds as you are wandering out and about on this beautiful day. - And if you don't enjoy this warm weather, it's probably not going to last that much longer. - No, it's probably next weekend. So we'll be okay. - We'll be back. - Yes, it's Minnesota. It's not going to last forever. - You know, you and I saw each other earlier this week, but I was talking to another friend about the concept of taking advice from your advisors. And I know that a lot of us are very self-reliant people. So you just kind of get in the headspace of, I don't want to be a bother, I should be able to figure this out on my own. And those things, when it's like, no, I'm not a bother, this is some information that somebody is intentionally trying to impart to me to help me, and that is okay. It doesn't mean that I'm bad at anything that I do, but it is going, well, what are your suggestions on things? And so that, I really encourage people to do, or it's like, you're allowed to have a team to help you not have any blind spots. - Right. - As you're trying to move and navigate through a lot of these things. - Right. And honestly, I think, Shannon, you probably do that better than most people that I know as far as, you really, you talk about that team, right? You talk about that you have a team, and that you work with those people, and you go to them for your different questions. - Right. - And you're not afraid to ask questions, and I think that's fantastic. And what's neat too is that, just from your position, you've learned so much about a lot of things that you can help other people, like you were when we were together earlier this week, given some advice on other things too, with fantastic, so. - And I know myself enough to go, I was telling Dr. Meghan that where I'm going, but I know because I'm the megaphone for people like you. So my answer usually starts with, well, I would suggest X and Y, but that's because I talk to Cassandra so you should call her. - You gotta think. - And so, Dr. Meghan, maybe they're just, they just want my stamp of approval that you're not suspecting. (laughing) - No really, it's not, I'm not joking, if like, for real. I know stuff because I'm friends with you, or I have, you know, I'm friends with family attorneys, so I know I could ask a question. And going, here's, you know, hopefully what we do with all of these, you know, every time you listen to the Financial Health and Well Show, is that we're providing the information in a way that you can go, well, I don't know what my question is, but that helped me frame the question, so I know where to start my educational journey. - Yep. - And that's the hard part sometimes, it just, I know I need help or I could use, I know I could use some help that gives me peace of mind or health setting up better, but I don't even know where to start sometimes. - And that, I think that's where, when you have a team though also, 'cause I have people that come to me, and you have, right, with different questions, I have different clients that come to me, and sometimes it's a question that I absolutely can answer, and that's in my area of expertise. And sometimes it's a question that I might say, that is a tax question, and I will even tell people, ask your tax person X, ask them this. - Exactly. - And then bring that information back, and then we can look at that and look at your options within it, or that might be a question for a loan officer, right? - Yes. - Or that might be a question for Mimi, right, real estate, so it just depends on, you know, sometimes you may not know who to ask your question to, but start somewhere, and I think, especially people like myself who has a team of a lot of other different resources and things as well, I can point people in a direction that can help them give them a few different resources and say, here's a few people, maybe that's a Medicare question, right? Maybe that's a property and casualty type of insurance question, maybe-- - Right. - So there's any different number of areas that we can help connect people, or maybe it's an attorney, or whatever the case is. - Right, which is thanks? It really leads into the kind of conversation that we're gonna have today. Also remind people, if you're wondering how to start this process, it's a good time to set up that complimentary 15-minute introductory call. - That is. - So you can do that by going to your website, abllewealth.com, that's A-B-I-L-A, wealth.com, or they can call you if they'd rather just hop on the phone real quick, they can always call you at 651-600-8555 to start with that and go, "Well, here's where I think I'm at." - Right, and I mean, I've had so many great conversations with people, and I'll share just a quick, quick generic story. I never wanna give too many details about who the person is, right? But I had a great conversation with this lady this last week, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do today. But what I said is, I said here, given your situation, this is what I would do first. This is what I would do next. Get to this point with this, get to this point with that. And then I said, and then, and keep doing what you're doing with your 401K. And I said, and if you want any guidance on where you're investing in your 401K right now, 'cause we talked a little bit, she said, "I don't think I have something like that in my 401K." I said, "Well, send me your allocation. "I'll help give you some guidance on that "if you need some ideas." So there were a whole number of things that I just bullet pointed for her, sent her a budget sheet, and so forth. It's just a matter of just helping people where they're at. And I said, once you get these few things done, come back. Then we will be able to take the next steps and help you with the next steps. So it's one of those things where, and we probably spent, I don't know, 25 minutes, maybe, a little longer than our 15 minutes, but she knows what to do now. She has a solid plan, she knows the next steps, and so forth. And that's just, I wanna help someone, right? There's no cost there. There's no fee for that. I just wanted to help her start taking the right steps. So there's not a, I don't know what the downside would be. It's some time that's really, it will take some of your time. And obviously there's a value to that. And I was talking to a group of my girlfriends, and the other thing that I kept teasing them about is because one of my friends kept saying what she doesn't like is the homework. And I'm like, well, sometimes you just have to do homework. And the thing that's charming about the homework that you get as a fully fledged adult is that the deadlines aren't always as concrete as when they were assigned to you when you were in school. So it's like, I'll use this example. When you and I were talking about, you should get life insurance. It's took me a year and a half to actually getting around. Are you just going, yeah, I did get it. But I'm like, but you weren't sitting there going, if you do it by, if you don't do it by X, you fail this course. It was, this is on the list of homework assignments that you should do. And here's why. And you just would like mention it, okay, you should. And I finally was like, just do it, just pick a thing. 'Cause I was, just get out of analysis, just pick a thing. There's no wrong answer, just pick one. Okay, now I picked one. So that's off the to the list. And so some of those things in that 20 minute conversation that you had with our generically suggested friend probably required some homework. Yeah, there is, yeah, there's some things to do, but here's the thing too. I think when we're in a state of, like you said, paralysis, especially, and I can be this way too when it comes to other areas. Oh my gosh, taxes. Yes, I just put it off as long as I can, 'cause I do not enjoy it, but that's okay. But when I actually start getting it, when I know exactly what I have to look into and figure out and gather together, right? And I have that list and it's clear. 'Cause usually I start with every single time, even though I've done it every year, right? We work on it every year. It's like, tell me again, what do I all need, right? Exactly. So it's, once I have that list though, I feel like, okay, I can start working on it now. I know what I need to do. Right. So I think just having a little bit of guidance on that, and then knowing, now, again, hopefully, people could enjoy this process more than taxes. But I'm really hoping, we try so hard. So it's, once you look at, okay, it feels good starting to move in a direction that is productive, that is maybe gonna get you to a point of knowing what retirement could look like. And then having someone be able to tell you, you're on track. Or let's adjust these couple small little things for some people, or maybe it's, let's reallocate this over here, or maybe it's some tax planning and things. And we work with tax advisors, and we can do some additional tax strategies with them. So there's all these things that could make a huge difference in retirement. Right. That it's just, it does take those initial steps. It does take a phone call, or setting up at least a 15-minute consultation, because sometimes I talk with people for a few minutes, and I look at it and I say, gosh, there's a lot here for us to work on, and do it in a good way, right? There's a lot we can help you with. For some people, there's things not yet. Do this, this, and this first. And for some people, it's just helping them get started. Right. Right. So we are going to help people get started on some overlooked aspects of retirement. So let's just set the stage on why we're having this conversation today, Cassandra. Well, I think one of the big reasons is that these things are overlooked a lot of times. So one of the things I try to do here, right on the financial health and wealth show, is to help bring topics, information, and things that I think would be of value to the MyTalkers and to people in general. So hopefully some of these things that we can touch on today will be helpful in some way, at least put it on your radar. Or if you want to have a conversation about any of these things for your own situation, you're welcome to, again, book that 15 minute intro call. - Fantastic. So if you'd like to be part of the conversation today, you're welcome to call us at 651-641-1071. Be right back with the Financial Health and Wealth Show with my friend Cassandra Brager from Avila Wealth. Here on MyTalk1071. (upbeat music) - I'm doing my air guitar right now. If you just got to do our air guitar on that one. Thank you to everybody that's joining us for the Financial Health and Wealth Show here on MyTalk1071. That's Cassandra Brager from Avila Wealth. I'm Ms. Shannon. We're excited to talk to you today about the subject of overlooked aspects of retirement. - Right. - Encouraging you also, if you want to get your voice into the room, you can call us at 651-641-1071. That's 651-641-1071. So as we are moving through this conversation, what do you wanna talk about? One of the first things that is overlooked. - One of the first things that is overlooked, and this is something we all have heard about probably, is long-term care. - Yes. - And let's talk a little bit about long-term care. And what is the, what is it really for, right? What does it provide or what could it provide? And so in some of you, I know, I'm sure are very familiar with it. Maybe you've got a loved one or a parent or even a spouse or a partner that has needed it, and you've seen it firsthand, the need for care, or maybe you haven't. But what long-term care really, what the purpose of it is, it is an insurance, and it's an insurance that would help cover costs, maybe not all the costs, but even a portion of the costs. Because again, if you've seen it firsthand, you know that it could be very pricey. - Yes. - And so when we talk about long-term care, it could be anything from, there's something that is called adult day care, right? So if you have the loved one, and maybe you work full-time, and maybe you can care for them, right, almost like a child, like before and after school, kind of a situation. So maybe they go somewhere during the day so that you know that they're well cared for, you don't have to worry while you're at work or while you're occupied. - Right. - And then you have them the rest of the time, and that works well. That could be a situation. And it could be a situation where someone comes to their house, maybe they want to live independently, or you are the, maybe you're the person, right? You want to be independent, but you would want someone just to come and help here and there if it's needed. It could also be there are different facilities, right? Long-term care housing and things. And there's varying levels of care in those houses where there's more independent, there might be some that have some assistance then, there's on the other end of the spectrum, there's full-fledged memory care for people that really need that around the clock 24 hour. And if you can imagine, when it's 24 hour a day care, - It's costly. - It is extremely costly. I don't, here in the Twin Cities, I don't know the exact current numbers, I know that recently I had a client who his dad was in a care facility, and this is in the outline area of Minnesota, it's not in the cities, so that usually tends to be a little bit less, but not always, but it was upward of 10,000 a month. - Yes. - Here recently, and that's, I know that's the same in Milwaukee too, I have a grandmother that is in that situation right now as well, so that if you think about that cost, and if you think about how would you cover that cost? - Right. I can add up very, very quickly, right? - There's long-term care insurance, similar to other insurance, in that I have to be a particular variety of health, or they're ones like those other policies where they don't ask you any health questions, you just pay the premium. - No, if you can imagine, they definitely are gonna ask you about your health. - Yes. - Because if you, I mean, if you're in a situation where you currently have any kind of care need, then you don't qualify, right? And so that's one of those situations where, if you are at a point where you don't need care yet, it is something that you could consider looking into. Now, first I wanted to kind of talk about what long-term, right, what does it look like? What does long-term care cover and what is the need there? - Right. - On the other side of it, then we're gonna talk about what are some different types of long-term care coverage, what are some different ways people look at covering this potential risk, right? Not everyone is gonna need long-term care in their life, we know that and we all know that. We've seen people who do and people who don't probably, right? So what's the best way to solve for that if it's something that you do wanna solve for? - Okay. - And that's one of the things we're gonna talk about because again, if you're planning one solution, maybe you're gonna live with family and in some cultures, that is the way it is, that is what you do, that's what we did 150 years ago, right? We had, you had multi-generational living and that works. And who knows, maybe we'll get back to that at some point, I don't know, that's not probably the biggest norm in the United States, but that could be and if that's your plan, my recommendation would be, make sure that that conversation is being had with the people that you are expecting. - So they, to do that? - Right, just to make sure everyone's on the same page. - Yeah, so that you know eventually I'm moving in with you. - Correct. - Correct. - Or you're moving in with me or whatever looks like. - Right, right, whatever that looks like. And so, and one thing to know though that I always do like to talk about also is that, and I think that's a beautiful gift if that's something that someone is able to do for a loved one is to care for them. - Yes. - Anyone who is a caregiver, whether it's for a parent, a loved one, a child, I'm sure you know too that it can be stressful. And there are statistics out there that talk about that, it can decrease life expectancy to be a caregiver. - Right. - Now, so again, that's a labor of love. That is a labor of love. So just, those are things I think all pieces and components to look at if you have other options. - Right. - So your solution to looking at that might be. Now, some people, maybe they have a good amount of savings and they just say, "I'm just gonna cover it out of pockets." - Okay. - That's great. If you've done a great job saving, now, just know, there's a few other ways that we're gonna talk about being able to possibly cover long-term care expenses that might be able to leverage your dollars. - Okay. - So even if you have a good amount of savings, you may or may not wanna consider something else if you want to be able to, maybe it's passing on, things to other generations or to charities or things that might be important to you. So there may be ways just to be, to leverage some of your money to make it go a little bit further in certain circumstances. So if though, if your plan is around paying out a pocket, one other thing to be aware of is what bucket of money, how is that money taxed that you're planning to use? For most people, the majority of their money is in a tax-deferred bucket. They may have done the most savings what a lot of people have in their 401K, right? Or in a retirement-type plan. That's just the way most people save, right? And there's a lot of reasons to do that and that can be very good. Just know though, when you get to a point of retirement, let's say you only needed 6,000 a month for care. So like 72,000 a year. And you're pulling that out of an IRA or a tax-deferred-type vehicle. You may need to pull out upward of 90,000 a year to get 72 net 'cause you're paying taxes on all that money as it comes out. Does that make sense? So it goes a lot faster. So it can dwindle quite a bit faster and 6,000 might be on the low end. So you can imagine how the higher it gets now, again, we're not gonna get into Medicare and all these other things today, but that can, the more you pull out, and especially if you're married still, that can totally impact what your Medicare expenses might be in certain places as well as some of your social, anyway, the point being is that there could be other ramifications that could make other things more expensive if your income takes a big jump from a taxable standpoint. - Okay. - So again though, there are things that we can look at doing sometimes early on, even if you're retired already. - Right. - That we may be able to help start shifting or positioning things that you may be able to have a lower tax impact down the road in retirement. - Because when you put the numbers together that way, it looks like that money goes really fast. - It does. - It seems like, yeah. - It can, I mean, it can, it really can. - And that could be on top of, if you're married again, all the other living expenses that your spouse may have. - Right. - There could be another 90,000 on top of whatever they are living on. - Right. - Which can add up very quickly. - Right, so you went all, you worked so hard in all your career and then it takes you five years to go through the whole thing because it's. - It could, yeah, depending on how much you have. That's why, like I said, that is why I think having a conversation at least about long-term care. Now, I also understand not everybody has excess dollars to look at solving for long-term care. - Right. - And that's okay too, but for people that do, or if you're in a situation, or maybe you get an inheritance, or maybe you've just done a good job saving, we're gonna talk about some other solutions and ways that you might be able to look at long-term care. - We also would love for you to be a part of the show. You can call us at 651-641-1071. We bite back at the Financial Health and Well Show with Cassandra Brazier here on app from Avila Well on My Talk 107.1. ♪ Yeah, but it hurts ♪ - Welcome back to the Financial Health and Well Show here on My Talk 107.1. That's Cassandra Brazier from Avila Well. You can always get a hold of her. If you go to our website, AvilaWellth.com. That's A-B-I-L-A Wellth.com, or call them at 651-600-855. Cassandra, just doing the math on how quickly, if you're paying for your own long-term care. I understand why you're like, "Hey, I did a good job, I just want to pay for it myself." But you did the math so quick right now. I'm like, "Well, money goes fast." - It can. - It can. If you're paying for it all from a tax-deferred type of an account. But again, like I said, right before we went to break, there are some things that, if you're a little ways from maybe or maybe not needing care, which we don't ever know, but this could be a good time then to do some planning. Even if you're not retired, if you're in that 10-year window or so before retirement, again, there are some key things that people can do in the last number of years leading up to retirement as well. There's also some things you want to be cautious about or aware of in the last couple of years before you turn 65 like we've talked about. Again, we're not going to get into all those today, but to have someone looking at some of those things and helping to give you some guidance and advising, you're like, we were just talking about in the break. - Yes. - Sometimes you just want an advisor and someone to say, "These are some things for you to look at doing." - And to help me with the strategy, right? - This is what I would look at as a plan. And so anyway, that's where I think sometimes that guidance, in some ways it's priceless because there are so many things that maybe you're doing a lot of things right, but maybe there's a few other things that could be hugely impactful that are not even on your radar. - Right, right. - So when it comes to long-term care then, maybe you have a good bucket of money that's non-qualified. I have any number of clients that whether it was selling a business that they had and inheritance, maybe they had a property that they sold and they weren't going to invest in a new one and do a 1031 exchange, which is when you take it right from property to property, maybe they just sold it and said, "I'm just downsizing and I don't want the headaches," whatever, whatever the reason is, or maybe you're just a good saver. I have clients that come to me and say, "We just have half a million in the bank. "We don't know what to do with it," right? So there's all across the spectrum of how you might have a bucket of non-qualified money. And non-qualified money is just money. It could be in a bank account, right, where you take as much out or put as much in as you want or it could be in an investment type account where it has those same rules and guidelines. You put as much in as you want. You take as much out, but it's invested, right? So there could be any number of places that you have a non-qualified bucket of money. If you do, though, there are types of long-term care where you can use non-qualified funds and use that you could just write out a check, put it in one time. And for a lot of those types of policies, now you have to qualify, right? Age is a factor, but even if you're in your 60s or 70s, you still potentially could qualify, your current health status, so you would ask about that. Yeah, so certain pre-existing conditions could be prevented, right? Okay. So maybe certain cancers or things or if you currently had cancer. Also, if you're on insulin right now, I know that that is one that can make it very difficult. However, I mean, if you're cognitively sharp, right? 'Cause they do do a, they want to have a conversation sometimes with people and say, we just want to make sure that, you know, that you're cognitively there. Yeah. So then in those cases that people do, and it's not as encompassing as applying for a life insurance policy would be, that where you need blood work and you need, you know, sometimes different things and have more of a physical and so forth. Yes. That is typically not the case. You are just looking at some questions and some health questions and so forth. And it may be a phone conversation, but in those cases, you may be able to leverage the dollars that you put in by two to three times. Okay. So again, if that could help preserve a little bit more of your assets, often in those cases, you put the money in and like I said, you could have two to three times. So if you put a hundred thousand in, you may be able to have two to three hundred thousand of a bucket of money to start drawing from for long-term care if you needed it. Now, if you don't need it, the way most of these work is that you would still have a death benefit. Okay. So that hundred thousand, you may get maybe 112 back, right? The point of doing it isn't necessarily to try and grow that bucket. Right. But it's to preserve it. Right. It would be there and it would also be leveraged in the case that if you needed long-term care. Now, a lot of the ones we work with too, you can also pull that money out if you wanted it. So there's reasons why people may want to consider something like that if you have those non-qualified dollars. Yes. So that's just, that's one way to look at it. Now, HSA dollars can be used for some long-term care costs and things at facilities. No savings accounts. Okay. If they're for medical care, but you got to double check that before you would take the dollars and use it for that just to be sure, make sure that your situation would qualify for that. So if you are in good health and you're not quite, maybe you're in your early 60s and you have a good amount of cash flow, but you don't necessarily have that lump sum like we talked about. One thing you may be able to look at, and this could be in your 50s as well, is you may want to look at a life insurance policy. If you would qualify, you have to, again, you do have to be in decent health. Yes, you could have some medications, but we could go through some underwriting or we could at least find out a little bit more about your situation before we actually apply if that makes sense. But in those cases, there are certain life insurance policies that have what's called either a long-term care rider or a chronic illness rider. There are two different things. We're not going to get into the weeds today about those, but just know that there are ways that even if you don't have that big lump sum, but you may be able to have enough monthly to pay for life insurance, that that could double as some long-term care coverage as well. And if you don't need it for long-term care, that's still a death benefit. That's also a death benefit that is not, it's not considered qualified. So, qualified money from your 401K or an IRA, when it goes to your beneficiaries, that's all taxed, right? That's all taxed to them as it comes out of that account. Life insurance is not, this is not considered qualified. So, that passes to beneficiaries. Now, it's still considered part of the estate. So, if it's someone that has a sizable estate, there could be other ramifications. But other than that, that is money that would pass. And sometimes people use life insurance to help offset taxes and things. So, these are all different planning strategies and things that we can talk about and look at with people depending on their situation. - So, you can hopefully have multiple components to be able to safeguard on all these things. - Correct, like if you're really concerned about wanting to not burden your beneficiaries, your heirs, whoever they are with as much taxes, there's either some planning you can do ahead of time to try and do some conversions and things and minimize the tax implication, potentially down the road to them. Or look at life insurance is another piece or way to be able to do that if there's an insurable need there. So, those, like I said, we look at different options and things and recommendations based on what's important to you. - Yes. - Based on your situation. - Right, which I think for a lot of people, even if you don't have a specific person, that's your heir, if we're doing that, you still wanna maximize how this goes and not go, well, you know what, when I'm gone, it can just all poof disappear. (laughing) I feel like there's not very many people that are in that boat, where it's like, okay, you know, if you are, you're probably one of those people that's like, 'cause I do read the articles about the people that are just going, no, I'ma spend it all before I go. Okay, we know you're that person. - That's fair. - Well, and here's the thing, for that person, the perfect scenario would be they knew the day they were going to die, right? So you could just spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend down. - Spend down. - So that day, you spend your last dollar. - And expire. Boom. - But unless, you know, unless you're doing something that's out of the ordinary, I don't know that we know the day, right? We don't know the day that it's gonna happen. So that's the hard part, not, I mean, it's just the reality. So planning, not knowing, right? Planning for long-term, I think, can be really important. Unless you're fine getting a job maybe at 87. - Yeah, yeah, do that. - And going back into the workforce. - I'm not trying to worry about that when I'm 87. I'm really-- - Yeah. - But if that's your plan, we support it, we support that. That is your plan. That's fine, so for a lot of people, I think they would like to not have to worry about potentially going back to work in retirement. - Yes, especially when we're talking about long-term care. - Right. - If you're in this conversation, you're probably not in a position that you're being able to go back and actively work when you're 87. - Well, that is, that's true. If you're needing care, typically the way that any kind of care would be triggered is that you cannot do, you cannot execute two types of activities of daily living, the ADLs, they call them, right? So either you can't dress yourself by yourself, maybe you can't transfer meaning like getting in and out of a chair or any not of bed or getting on and off the toilet, right, different things, or you can't go to the bathroom by yourself, or you can't bathe yourself, or you can't feed yourself, or there's a cognitive impairment. So any of those things, you know, could be things that could start to trigger needing some kind of care. And that's where, though, looking at these different options and things, you wanna make sure if you're going to put some kind of long-term care coverage in place, you wanna make sure that it is something that would cover what you want, so if you wanna be able to be in your home and you wanna be comfortable and you just want someone to come in, you gotta make sure that in-home care then would be covered, right? You just wanna make sure that those things would be in order, and now, if you're someone who says, I'm gonna spend down everything, and then I want Medicaid. - Yes. - 'Cause Medicare, Medicare does not cover long-term care. - Okay. - Medicaid, if you've spent down everything and you have very little to no assets, that's really what it requires. - Okay. - Then, you would be able to lean on Medicaid, but you also turn over a lot of your options and your independence. You have very little choice at that point, and especially as we have more and more baby boomers aging, the beds in those types of facilities continue to fill up, and so you may be in Bemidji, right? You may be, in different areas that you don't have any loved ones nearby, it might be harder for them to be part of your life at that point. - Right. - So, it's just understanding that you would have no say, you would go where there's an opening, you'd go where there's an open bed at that point. - And hopefully, it works out for you. - Yeah, exactly. I mean, and it's there for people that need it, but if that is your plan, understand that's how it would work. - Right. - So, I have a few more things to cover that have to do with some of these overlooked aspects and costs and things in retirement. We'll get to as many as we can here today. - Right, and we'd also love for you to be part of the show. You can call us at 651-641-1071. Be right back with the Financial Health and Well Show with Avila Wealth here on My Talk, 171. ♪ They call me fire ♪ - Thank you for joining us for the Financial Health and Well Show here with Cassandra Brazier from Avila Well. I am Ms. Shannon, and time is just flying by today as we go through those overlooked aspects of retirement. You do have still time to get your voice into the room. You can call us at 651-641-1071. That's 651-641-1071. Okay, so we covered some long-term care options. - We talked about some different long-term care things. - Yeah, I mean, that is a big one, and like we talked about, you can see how it could be hugely impactful, and it could throw a huge challenge or obstacle in your retirement success if something happened, especially if something happened earlier on in your retirement than planned. But we see this nowadays too, with people younger and younger getting, Alzheimer's getting, and then they may be still healthy, but if they need some kind of memory care early on, that could, again, if it's 10,000 a month, if you're pulling that out of a qualified type account, you may need to pull out 14 or 15,000 a month to cover taxes. - Right, the taxes. - So it's, anyway, so just things to be aware of, at least. Inflation, right, I know we talk about this, but I think it is, it's hard to actually conceptualize maybe, 'cause we start out, you can start out in retirement with a certain amount. - Yes. - Sometimes it's hard to conceptualize that within 10 to 12 years, for sure, 15, you might need twice as much. - Right, because the cost of things might increase. - The cost of things, so whether that's healthcare costs, whether that's the grocery store, whether that's right, whatever cost, living expenses, continue to go up. - Now, inflation can vary, and I know we've seen a little bit more in the last few years than we normally have. - Yes. - But still, we don't know when those periods of, quote, hyperinflation, right, may come up or may pop up. - Right. - And so, now I will say, too, sometimes people end up spending a little bit more earlier on in retirement. Maybe it's because they feel good, they're healthy, they travel more, they're active, they're whether it's activities or they're going out more, they're enjoying themselves, they have more hobbies. And sometimes that does taper off a little bit more into retirement. So, sometimes people are able to navigate with the higher costs and things a little bit smoother, but sometimes that's not the case, right? And certain things that maybe you're really healthy and you might live a long time, maybe it might become harder to enjoy yourself and do the things that you wanna do if you haven't planned for that. - You might be a little more, okay, I thought I was gonna be doing, you know, Mount Everest trips every year and I was 92 and you're like, I can't do that anymore. So, that was right. - Good on you though, if you are doing that, I don't think today I could do that. - Oh, I couldn't do it today, I know. - We have a friend though that wants to do a big climb for her 50th and she asked if, my husband and I wanted to join her and I thought, I don't know if I could do that. - I'm not 50 yet, but I don't know that I could do it, but I'm so excited for her to do it. - Yes. - You're like, I'll support you for her far away. - I know, I'll mature you on. - So, and then one of the things too, we talked about your HSA or health savings account, but if you do have a health savings account, I would encourage you to look at if you're able to fund that, right, and fund it how you're able to, and if you're using it, right, try to continue to fund it because having an HSA in retirement can be really nice to have as an additional bucket of money to help with some of those health expenses and things. - And the one year I did have a HSA, I misunderstood how it worked all together. Like, nobody really explained it to me properly. So I thought I needed to spend anything I put in it that whole year. - I didn't know that there were ones where you could, I'm like, oh, okay. - Or it can carry over and just continue to build. - Yeah, yeah, I have some clients that, I mean, many that have tens of thousands in their HSA going into retirement no more. - Because you didn't have to use it. - Right. - Which is cool. - If you don't need to use it, great. So that's one of those things because any way that you can have any tax breaks, right, at any time, but especially in retirement, that just can help your dollars to go that much further. - Right. - So, and then one thing, we don't have time to get into this today. But again, consider looking at some tax planning today. - Okay. - Because your Medicare expenses could be significantly higher due to what's called ERMA, its income related monthly adjustment amount. - Okay. - Just look up ERMA, IRMAA, and understand that that can impact your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums. And this is something unless someone's told you about it, you had a friend or someone go through it, it might blindside you. - Okay. - You might say, how much do we have to pay for this? Oh, it's because of some outlined thing that happened here this last year, or maybe we just got a big bonus or something, right? It could be any number of things, but that can follow you for two years. - Okay. - And they look at your MA GI, right? So, if you're looking at that and you're looking at your income now, if there was some kind of weird outline thing, you can appeal it. You can go to, you know, Medicare and appeal it. However, I don't know how often they go, I don't know, you know, I don't know how that works. - Right. - It could be. - Anytime you have to appeal something, it sounds really complicated. - It does. - They may be technically complicated. - I mean, if you don't want to deal with your finances right now, I don't know anyone who'd want to deal with the feeling anything to Medicare. Anyway, the point is, though, a little bit of planning and a little bit of awareness on some of this can go a long way, some education. So, remember we have some webinars and classes coming up. - Absolutely, yes. - So, the 20th, September 25th and the evening from six to seven, we have a thriving in retirement webinar. That could be, though, anyone who's looking at transitions in life could be any number of transitions. So, just know that there's no cost to that. You're welcome to hop on it. Get a little bit of information. Here are some tips and things about when you're going through some of those transitions. - Right. - And then we have the two in person baby boomer community ed classes. You do not have to be a baby boomer. - Right. - The information, though, is geared towards people that are approaching or in retirement just for things-- - So, usually, if you're a little closer. - Right, right. But if you're in, I mean, you may not be a baby boomer, but you may want to look at some things for planning for retirement that might be helpful for you to understand today. - And get in front of it. - Right? - Or even if you have an aging parent or someone else that you might be trying to help out in some additional way, or maybe you just like to learn. - Right. - So, it's a two-hour class. It is a lot of information. - And those are on October 8th and on November 12th. - Yep. - And all of these are on your website, right? - If we go to Alabama. - They're not on the website, they're community-eyed classes. We can get you the information. - So, if we go-- - If you email us, or if you send us a note and just say, "I'm looking for the community-eyed classes." - Right. - So, we can get that information to you. Again, if you want to book that 15-minute intro call, you can also do that with us. There's time. September, October, November, tend to be our busiest months in the financial industry. - Okay. - I think people come off a summer, right? They want to try and get some stuff done before, maybe the holidays. - So, this is a time that I think is, that can be really good for people just to get at some of this stuff. - Yes. - And then have it behind you for the holidays. - Right, that's true. And it just helps you plan and go, "Well, how much money can I spend on everybody?" - That's one of the benefits. I mean, if you know that you've got all these other areas covered, you might be able to just feel so much less stress and what you spend on the holidays for people. - And I think it's, you know, a lot of, you know, wouldn't you use words like having a budget, looking at your finances. A lot of people come to it from a position of, "Oh my gosh, I have to be negative, it's gonna be dreary," and all that stuff. - When they're strictive, I think sometimes people think it's restrictive or they feel like they're trapped or whatever the case is. It's not. - Right. - I think most people that come, anytime I get feedback, it is positive. People say, "I feel so much more free now about what I'm doing." - 'Cause I know I can do this. - Right, I know this is how much I have to spend and I can go spend that much and I don't feel guilty and I don't feel like I should or shouldn't. I just have fun spending it then. - Right, and I love that for everybody that you can sit there and go, "No, I can make a quality decision that I don't have to go, "Oh, I'm gonna feel guilty the minute I do this," or something's gonna sneak up up on you and you're like, "I spent all that money and now something happened to my car." Or, "I have to pay for X and now I'm stuck." - Yep, mm-hmm. - No, I think that's fantastic. Just providing people with resources. So, what are we gonna get to next week? Do we know yet? - Well, here's what I'll say. Mike and I have been talking about when we're gonna do the couple's conversation. That may or may not be next week. I have some other topics on the horizon as well that I wanna touch on here this year. One of them really has to do with 401(k)s and some of the changes and things that are going on, especially for small businesses. - Yes. - So, the bottom line is I don't know which one of those will materialize here for next week, but in the next couple of weeks, probably both those topics are going to be talked about. - And we always wanna encourage people that if they have any suggestions on what they'd like to have you cover, they can always go to Avila.com for that as well. - So, again, if you would like to get that 15-minute intro call set up, you can go to AvilaWealth.com, that's A-V-I-L-A, Wealth.com, or call 651-600-0855. And also reminding you can get this episode in previous episodes. All right, go on to maitauchsworld71.com. - This is offered through Harbor Investments Inc, member SIPC. This material is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be financial advice. Please consult a professional on your situation. Content paid for by AvilaWealth.
