This is the Haven Financial Group Radio show. Each week we get together to talk about life, living and planning on living life after retirement. If you're looking for a clearer picture of your retirement plan, the team at Haven Financial Group is here to offer you clear financial guidance and help you realize that planning
for retirement can be simple and easy. Have a question for the team connect now at Havenfinancialgroup dot com, or we have team members waiting to talk with you off the air at six one two four four one two four four one And welcome man. Thank you so much for being here with us this weekend after the big holiday. Putting down my first cup of coffee is still full. I don't know about you, Larry full, still full, Holy cow. A lot of good stuff happening over the weekend with Thanksgiving. I hope
everybody had a great holiday. I am Bill Seller along with Haven Financial Groups Founder and CEO Larry Culpig. Is a pleasure, my friend. It is Bill. Good morning, good morning, good morning. And as we try to shake off one holiday, just to realize the next one's about three weeks away. Let's they're going to get into the show today and talk about a bunch of things that are happening that could be affecting your money in retirement.
And that's really why we're here every week is to talk about getting to and getting through retirement and what Larry and his team and Haveven Financial Group can do to help you with that. Coming up on the show today, we're gonna ask you, you know, finding out the answer to this question. Is there a best age to buy an annuity? We're gonna talk to Larry about
that. Also working in retirement more than a financial advantage. We've got details about that, and we're going to check out a new ranking of the best and worst airports in the US in case you've got traveling to do coming up here during the holidays. We'll let you know what you're in for there. And do people still need people? Well, one supermarket chain think so so. Boy, that's nice to hear. As a matter of fact, we're
going to start things out here in a minute talking about just that. But I ran across this story and you know, with the holiday being Thanksgiving and the things were thankful for, I bet this guy was extremely thankful. The holy Grail of collectible postage stamps just sold at auction for a record amount of money. This is a collectible postage stamp. It just sold for two million
dollars. Larry two million dollar postage stamp for now. The way inflation's going, could have cost it that much to mail a letter pretty soon, but two million dollars. It's a misprint of a twenty four cent air mail stamp from nineteen eighteen. It's called the Inverted Jenny. It's red and white with
a blue image of a biplane, but the plane is upside down. It's the only stamp from the only misprinted sheet of one hundred from back in nineteen eighteen, and the auction house said it is in the finest condition that they've ever seen. I guess it was sitting at a bank vault for about one hundred years. Somebody found I was able to sell it at auction for two million bucks. So history Now, what is that person that bought it? What do they do with it? Well, like I said, they get
ready to mail five or six letters and buy the stands for those. Is the way things are going. So who knows. I don't know, but we're going to start today with a kind of a hot topic question for a lot of people right now. It may get you fired up self checkout, love it or hate it. I like using self checkout because, well, the lines are usually shorter. I can scan my item faster than the cash
here and just paid, bag my items and leave. Now. On the other side of that argument, if you're going to run me through your self checkout machine, do not then stop me at the door as if I'm trying to steal something. I make a scene so that somebody will come over and help me and basically do the job that they're supposed to do. I'm getting ready to pay you for what it is I want to buy, and then you can't have someone there to check me out. And there's actually times where
I don't buy stuff because I hate self checkout so much. I've actually been behind somebody who walked right by the receipt checker and refused to do it. Situation, it's convenient, but at the same time, like they're saying, if you're going to have me do your job, well, then trust me on the way out the door. This kind of gets back to what I said at the top of the show about needing the human touch. And there is a grocery store chain in England that is actually doing away with self checkout
because they believe that customers should be dealt with by real people. And I know Larry that in today's world, that is something that you've never waivered from it Haven Financial Group. I know you are a big believer as I am. If we can still do things on a handshake, we get them done that way, right. But I mean one number one interaction is what you guys are all about one hundred percent, you know, on that self checkout at grocery stores. And I know there are some people that love them.
I'm the opposite. I absolutely despise it. I hate it. I have never been a good checkout person. I need the human element. I love the holidays because you have you know, local sports organizations and social teams and stuff that help with packing groceries. And I'll seek them out every time and tip them a little bit just so I don't have to pack the groceries or bring my daughters with And they love that because then I get out of it. But you know, there's got to be the personal touch, the customer
service experience. You know, it's gone by the wayside. Everybody wants tips and multiple tips for no experience. In a lot of cases, and you know with those self checkouts, you got inconsistencies you might have. You know, I've witnessed a you know, loose items such as fruits and bakery products and they get the struggle through the self checkout and you buy alcohol and all of a sudden, you got somebody checking to make sure you're the right age.
And you know, I understand the other part of it too, is because I have clients. I just had one of my clients, Carol, she works at Target and Lakeville and she, I mean when she described the amount of stealing, I was, I was just shocked. I mean we're talking Target and Lakeville. And again there has to be, you know, those restraints on people because there is so much stealing. So, you know, the human element in our business, it's that's what it's all about.
You know, through COVID. You know, we were busier than ever when people made retirement decisions. You know, yes, I know zoom calls became popular, but not so much with us, not that we were against them, but discussing you know what you've worked hard for all these years. You know topics that are you know, emotional or sentimental, maybe health related. You know, folks that we sit down with and we're planning, walking through our proprietary process and our plan. You know, they want to be able
to ask questions. They want to be able to shake hands and see eyeballs. Make sure that you're actually paying attention and listening. You know, I just had somebody here in the last couple of weeks they go, I think you're the first financial person that's ever actually listened. It didn't rush us out the door, And I'm like, really, that's been your experience. It's terrible. You know, these folks want to see sincerity, they want to
see integrity. They want to discuss all these puzzle pieces, which we encourage, and that's where the human interaction piece. You can't take that away from people if you do in the retirement planning business. You know, I think you're just you're not You're not getting the fair attention. It's not it's why we see, you know, robo advisors or you know, those types of things not become very popular with the group that we serve. So I'm all
about the human touch, personal. You know, our clients, Hey, we loved Nothing makes me happier to when people come and say we love to come in here. To see faces and smiley people and talk about serious topics but have as much fun with it as possible. That's fulfilling in our industry. Absolutely. I think I'm very worried about the future for lack of human
interaction to be able to understand. Here's the thing. If they want a lot of that stealing and thievery to go down, go back to checking people out yourself exactly. It's what really I mean, it's gonna want the the attempt at saving money isn't working because people are stealing all your profits and enforce the laws. Yeah, well there's that. There's what a simple concept on
some good news to a good start today, Bill. The third quarter actually saw all mos, all dividend paying large US companies maintained or actually increase payouts, and according to fund manager Janis Henderson, the US is still in line to post a record payout for twenty twenty three. So a little good news there. So, Larry, how does how does that work? How do dividend investments work? Is there total upside to them or what's going on there?
Well, there's pros and cons with everybody, with everything. There's no perfect investment, even though that would make our job really easy, you know, But a company's dividend policy can be, you know, really a testament to you know, a company's confidence and future earnings. You know their growth and sustainability, you know the health of the company. And we're seeing ninety eight percent of companies have held or raised their payouts, you know, delivering
about a four and a half percent increase this year in cash distributed. That has really outdone the global trend, if you will. So you know, those US dividend paying stocks, it's good because you know, on the flip side of it, dividend invest you know, can that can prove you a cash flow, but it needs to fit with somebody's investors' goals and objectives and preferences. It can deliver a recurring income stream, if you will, But
is that income stream guaranteed? Not necessarily and it's not so not It may not be necessarily a stable source of income. So there's pros to that. You know, you've got to look at the tax ramifications of doing that, you know the cons of it. It's may not be a guaranteed. Different dividends may signal some instability with certain companies. It's a matter of having the
right balance plan. We talk about that weekly based on your situation. Isn't too good to have some dividend paying stocks, of course it is, But what's the right recipe compared to dividend to value to emerging markets? You know, what's the right recipe for your portfolio. That's where we see the underlying potential for problems as it relates to market risk. And you know, we
talk talk about folks should stress test their portfolio. You know, at the end of the day, most folks weekly I see it folks that think they're in a position of more safety, lower risk. Only once we looked at it and take a peek under the hood, they were doing the absolute opposite of that. So again, coming up with that right recipe based on your
situation in your timeline of life. Dividend stocks nothing wrong with them, not guaranteed, and you might lose potential for higher gains you know, from the growth oriented companies, and always take a look at how it affects you tax wise. There's a lot of different variables that go into this doesn't have to be complicated, but if you're working closely with somebody that's giving you the attention in the time, then you should have confidence you're doing the right thing.
Absolutely absolutely, and that's what the folks that have in Financial Group are here for. So make sure you get in touch with them for your complimentary retirement readiness review. Just give them a call at six' one to two four four one two four four one six one two four four one twenty four forty one. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and uh, coming up on the show, some tips for deciding at what age should you buy annuities.
Also, more than half of Americans say that a comfortable retirement may not be the direction they're headed in. We're gonna give you some tips for getting back on track for that as well. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show on twin Cities New Stock eleven thirty and one oh three point five FM. Begin it'sha, get it done, get some win and in the pomp. Meantime, Don is investing a state, planning taxes and more. Want
your complimentary retirement readiness review? Call now at six one two four four one two four four one. That's six one two four four one two four four one or connect with us at Havenfinancial Group dot com. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. If you're looking for a clearer picture of your retirement plan, the team at Haven
Financial Group is here to offer you clear financial guidance. Have a question for the team, connect now at Havenfinancialgroup dot com or we have team members waiting to talk with you off the air at six one two four four one two four four one Grounds Control to made a Tom, Grounds Control to made a
Tom Take up Road Team. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Shows with Haven Financial Groups Founder and CEO Larry Calbay Guy and Bill Seller and well, I'll tell you there's just all kinds of ways for folks to make money. Larry, I was reading the story the other day that if you haven't really decided on your final resting place yet, well, now a company by the name of Celestis is offering memorial space flights. You can actually send a portion
of your remains or the remains of a love went into space. The deceased dashes can blast off from Cape Canaveral into somewhere in space, or even go to the surface of the Moon in case you're wondering and really thinking about it. Prices for these space trips started about three thousand dollars. The actual trip to the moon is going to be about thirteen grand Is that on your Christmas
list this year? Me? No, Although I got some people in my life I wouldn't mind sending to space, but they're not dead yet, so we gotta wait. But that's just I mean, really goodness gracious, and you know what, people will do it. People will do this, Larry, Oh they will. I just wanted to throw that out there for you. So just before the break, we were talking about annuities, what they are and how they work and all that kind of good stuff. And one
thing we didn't get to was age. Is there a right or a best age to buy an annuity? Well, life Hacker listed some consider iterations, for example, life expectancy, which of course is that lovely number that people in the insurance industry consider out to calculate. Do you do you agree with that, Larry, or is there more to it than that? Well, first of all, I think it's important to understand what an annuity is. You know, we've not spent a lot of time talking about it, but
annuity is an annuity is an investment vehicle. All annuities are through insurance companies. Sometimes we don't like we'd like to hate insurance companies, but they have the money. I find that probably seventy seventy five percent of people have annuities and they don't understand what type of annuities they have, and that's a problem.
In fact, I teach a class and I don't know anybody else that necessarily does on the ins and outs of annuities, the good, the bad, the indifferent, because you know, there really is four types of annuities. There's no real ripe age. First of all, you don't have to have any annuities. And you got to be careful in the industry because there's a lot of marketing in the industry that you know, for years there's been articles that say I hate annuities and you should too, and all kinds of
stuff like that. And you know, that's interesting because it's such a general thing to say, you know, social Security is an annuity payment. Oh I guarantee you're going to cast a Social Security check. A pension is an annuity payment. The problem is people think automatically, because it's the old school way of thinking that annuities are only for payments, and that could be further from the truth. You can use annuities for a variety of different reasons if
it makes sense in your portfolio. And I'll summarize this. There's four types of annuities. We'll keep it simple. There's immediate annuities where you give up control of the cash value. There's variable annuities that are variable investments that are in the market, and there's fixed annuities. Like I said, all annuities that their insurance companies, but they're fixed. They're like a CD at a
bank, except through an insurance company fixed rate of return. And then you have fixed index that are fixed tied to the stock market for better growth potential. All of them potentially have limits, but two of them are very different than the other two. My point is having an understanding of what you have,
why you have it, how it fits into your portfolio. Oftentimes we use them as a bond replacement in a portfolio, but having that right mix and being very careful number one, to understand what you have because otherwise you know, an annuity is a contract written in a way that that's what's going to happen. Can you get out of it? What are the fees attached to it? Do you have to have any fees. The answer is no. Can they be used to create your own pension? Absolutely, So there's
a lot to talk about these. Problem is people don't understand them. They're sold in a way. Sometimes that can be misleading. If something sounds too good to be true, ask more questions. It may be too good to be true, or it might be a good fit in an overall portfolio, or perhaps you shouldn't have one at all. Good understanding and education is where it starts in all areas of retirement. And obviously we talk about that.
Weekly annuities have always been one of those things that I've wondered about but never really quite understood that. Hopefully that clears it up a little bit for everybody. And again, I guess the question that we started with, is there a certain age to buy them? That's just all you're basically saying. It depends, right, It depends, And there is no age, not at all. It's what your needs, your goals are. Do you need income? When is it now? If you need it for income, then the
life expectancy. You know, some offer guaranteed lifetime income. It can supplement your Social security, you know. Some have better payouts. Sometimes people can use them for long term care provisions, but it's a matter of how does it fit or those you know that have more investable assets. We use it as a bond replacement to offset a year like last year where bonds were significantly
down and stocks were down. Well, that fixed indextinuity maybe either made zero or three, four or five percent, So it's all part of your overall portfolio. Just know though there are some that think annuities are for everybody,
and that isn't the case. You just mentioned long term care, which is actually the next topic I was going to bring up now because KFF recently conducted a survey and it found that only forty three percent of adults say they have ever had a serious conversation with a loved one about who's going to take care of them in the future. And I always remember my parents trying to have that talk with me, and it's not an easy talk because I didn't want
to hear it. You don't want to talk to your parents about that time in their life, but it was very important to do. Did that load number of forty three percent? Does that surprise you, Larry? I know, it actually unfortunately does not surprise me, because we you know, long term care is one of the retirement puzzle pieces that we integrate into our education. You know, we have access to all the long term care things you can do that are out there, and you know, let's face it,
these aren't fun discussions. And you know, we we say, have you looked at it? Most people haven't. I think you said, you know, forty three percent say they're not confident they'll have the resources to pay when seventy percent, the last statistic, will need some sort of care in our lifetime. And you know the statistics are staggering. Point is, you know, many don't have anything put aside, very few feel confident in whatsoever,
yet seventy percent are going to need it. Now. You know, we have these discussions because you know, we jokingly sometimes say, well, I know, what's your long term care backup plan is? You know, it's for your daughter and son in law to take care of you when that happens, and they don't even come to visit you now, so I'm not sure
that plan is going to work out so well. So then what you know, if you're a married couple, statistically the men, you know, not always and then the wife's here maybe to help, but then if they go well, then oftentimes the second one to go now doesn't have anybody. So now what you know, Medicaid is not long term care. So there's how do you prepare yourself for it. It's why we have a discuss about you know, have you talked about long term care? Here's what people remember about
maybe if they've had conversations. Well, somebody tried to offer me a Cadillac plan ten fifteen years ago. Nobody in the right mind could afford it. And that's as much as we looked at it, I get it. The thing is, this industry has changed a lot. You know, a lot of these companies that were in the long term care industry, they miscalculated costs
and a lot of them aren't even around anymore. You know, different types of long term care discussions, which we have Glenn handles out at our office and we have accesses to all the companies, is hybrid long term care or asset based long term care, which is much more intriguing and much more doable for a lot of people than the traditional long term care, which we don't see and I just mentioned you can use annuities that have long term care provisions
that can offer some support or some aid if you get into that position. We had a couple actually from the Eagan area. You know, they just got a couple long term care annuities for the provisions she's got MS answer. There's different things we can talk through to see can we cover some of those bases. And let's face it, if genetically you know, dementia and long term care and these things running the family, you know, we don't want
to be a burden to our kids. Different laws have been changing throughout the country where the kids or loved ones could be responsible. So make sure you're not burying your head. And the said, look at the options, see if they're feasible. Don't rule anything out. Nothing's for everybody. Anybody that's been through or is going through this situation with their parents or loved ones or
whomever, they know the importance of It's ugly and it's not cheap. You know, you're looking at in the Twin Cities for full care thirteen to fifteen thousand dollars a month bill. Where is that going to come from? And if you haven't prepared, it can decimate your hard earned money. You know, this might seem like heavy topics for a Sunday morning, you know at this time, but it begins with the education. Probably just give us a call, come on in. It's laid back and uh, you know what,
nothing's for everybody. But as long as you've talked through things and develop a confidence and at least a little bit of a knowledge level, it'll make more sense. Nothing's for everybody. But again, look at all the options. We got to take a quick break. And on the other side, tips for keeping your retirement plans on track. Also is delaying Social Security like withholding too much for your paycheck. We're going to talk to Larry about that
as well. Miss is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show on Twin Cities News Talk eleven thirty and one oh three point five. Flu invest a little time to be sure your investments are working for you. Reach out to the Haven Financial Group now for your compliment ory no obligation retirement readiness review. Our team is standing by now to take your call at six one two four four one two four four one. That's six one two four four one two four four
one. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. Have a question for the team, connect now at Havenfinancialgroup dot com or we have team members waiting to talk with you off the air at six one two four four one two four four one fast. Welcome back to the Haven Financial Group radio show. I'm Bill Seller with Haven Financial Groups Founder and CEO Larry Colviewance a song called
deer Disaster. Imagine this. You've been trying to sell your truck, right, and you found somebody who's actually very interested, and they're on the way to take a final look at the truck, and then out of nowhere, a deer appears and jumps at the truck, putting a big dent in it. That's what we call a deer disaster. And of course this happens just as the potential buyer is driving up, and actually did happen to a man
in New Jersey. But the story kind of has a happy ending. The buyer still bought the truck, but one thousand dollars less than what he was willing to offer to begin with. I guess with a deer dent you get to knock a grand off. How is that for bad luck, wrong place, wrong time. I mean, you're just sitting around waiting for the buyer to show up, and this deer jumps out of nowhere. Oh well, and this again proves to me why that bumper sticker made so much money.
That that bright yellow one that said it happens stuff like that is why that bumper sticker made so much money. So the expectation of attaining a comfortable retirement, now, the attitude towards that seems to be changing. According to the latest CNBC Your Money survey, fifty six percent of Americans agree that they are not on track to retire comfortably. Now, of course we've talked about it before. Everybody's definition of comfortable is different. But Larry, what are some
things that we can do to gauge our retirement readiness. Well, first we'll have a plan and I'll touch on that. But you know, retirement does mean different things to different people. You know, it may be spending your days without an agenda, travel, seeing family, doing things on the bucket list. Made me working because you want to, because you want to have
some sort of purpose. Maybe you need the paycheck. With fifty six percent of Americans feel they're not on track, that means probably some of them are going to have to work to get a paycheck. And you know, it can be very stressful to think you won't be financially ready to retire when you
may be emotionally or physically ready. You know, I think of a couple this week, you know, they're emotionally and physically, but financially they weren't ready, and they knew it. They were actually closer than they thought they were there from Lakeville, but you know, it does require a little bit more work, and at least they're starting with the plan and prioritizing some of these retirement goals and objectives and developing a discipline because you know, you know,
we talked, we've talked many times over the years about you know, how much do you need to retire? You know that you need a million or four million or this and that, and you know it really, you know, it sounds so flippant to say, but it really depends. You know. I think just this week, you know, Joe and Sue from Lakeville. He was a retired contractor, she was the retired teacher. He was union. So they both had pensions. They both have social security that
equals almost ten thousand dollars a month in income. So there you have your income peace with their pensions and social security. Their retirement nest egg is about two hundred thousand, so by a lot of people's standards, certainly not one point three. But you know what, they sleep good, they're smiley, they have plenty of monthly income, and they're happy. Now that could be
the polar opposite for somebody else. So we when we walk people through our proprietary process, through you know, the discovery, to the coming up with a strategy implementation kind of looking at our Monte Carlo projections where we project out thirty thirty five years, we're going to factor in the most accurate expense as we can factor in health care. Health Care has a different inflationary rate than regular expenses. We want to incorporate that. We want to adjusted for inflation.
We've seen inflation, it's real, and we're going to factor all those things in and we're going to project that out to see to hopefully answer two of the biggest questions we get. Do I have enough money to retire? Or when along the life path does my money run out? Is it seventy
five, is it eighty five? Do I never run out? And by having that sort of plan, which you can modify make changes as life happens, hopefully good changes, we can get a better understanding of how you know, comfortable we are, how prepared we are, and as you and I call that on a weekly basis, the retirement readiness review to see if you're well positioned, not positioned. Sometimes people are have a sense of comfort and maybe they shouldn't have, and others are like, wow, we're actually doing
better than you think think. And you know some of these old rules that people have used, you know, they don't always hold a lot or like the four percent rule of the three percent rule and the new flat factor in a risky portfolio, and you know, in another war and a stock market that's very unpredictable and an electioneer coming up and oh my goodness, this is
overwhelming. But by having a plan, working with somebody to talk through these things, really factoring everything in, okay, put it all on the table, pen to paper, and again making sure you have a good idea. That's what it's going to take to get a comfortable idea if you're well positioned for retirement or not, or is that timeline two to three years or two to three months. Those are the things we're going to talk to very thoroughly
well. And I also read recently that one way to add to that retirement comfort level is to maybe work a little longer. Sure not just a financial boost to Ronstein did their twenty twenty three Annual Work Monitor, and their research finds that for some work is just as important as making the money, just
physically going to work. And we've talked about that before too, Right, the hardest thing in retirement is to find a purpose, right, a reason to get up every day, because your whole life has been to get up and go to work. But working longer, even in retirement, apparently is a pretty good option. Do you find that to be true with your clients, Larry, I do. I do. Probably the biggest thing that I see people continuing to work is for healthcare, especially if you're not to medicare.
I see that one a lot. But there's a variety of reasons people extend their careers, you know, the social connection with their coworkers, the social side of things. All of a sudden, now all those years you work there, you develop friends there. Maybe you want to maintain your reputation professionally in the industry that you've maybe worked twenty thirty forty years. Maybe you need the income, maybe you need the money, but you've said it very
well a purpose. You know, my parents still crop for them a candy high Minnesota. They don't need the crap for them. But my dad's alway, he's like, well I got to do something. Okay, Well crap goes right back in there. So good for them, because you know, you just it usually doesn't bode well to sit seven days a week, most of the hours on the recliner. There's got to be something to do. And you know, it may be a lot of what we're seeing a lot
is people phasing into retirement. I like that idea. I've seen that work really well. You know, some of the employers, because they need workers, have offered, you know, motivation for people to come out of retirement. And then you have the highbred where maybe I can work from home a couple of days and I don't have to travel in into the office, and you know, there's a shortage of workers, and there's a variety of different
ways you can do it. But you know, map that up with your situation, you know, and every week it's just you know, you know, I'm kind of old school to the degree that I see the work ethic is so poor out there, and it just it drives me nuts and I didn't grow up that way. Thankfully, at the end of the day, work ethic was ingrained in be And by the way, Happy birthday to my blady birthday to my mom Carol, to my mother in law Joyce, and
my brother in law Adam, all birthdays this past week. So again it's been family week, Thanksgiving week, and I don't want to go without noticing their birthdays. Well, happy birthday to all. That's a heck of a week. Soget going on there, man, that's right, that's a lot of stuff to take care of all in one week. Thanks for a good wife. Yeah, you know you're talking about the work ethic, and I have just two words for you. Trophy generation well said, because it just
has. We are now reaping the results of people being raised to think that everybody is special, everybody is equal, everybody is fine, and if it doesn't work out for you, we'll take care of it for you. And I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole. But you know, those are the cards that got dealt over the last couple of generations and now we're seeing it as our twenty somethings are out in the world and not really sure what to do, so SAIDs that there's that very accurate Listen. We're gonna
take a break when we get back. The question is could you end up with more by taking Social Security at sixty two and investing that money rather than waiting till seventy to claim your benefits. And if you're flying this holiday season, well you're gonna want to hear the latest Wall Street Journal ranking of the best and worst airports that is on the way, as well investing, estate planning, taxes and more. Want your complimentary retirement readiness review, call now
at six one two four four one two four four one. That's six one two four four one two four four one, or connect with us at Havenfinancialgroup dot com. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show on Twin Cities News Talk eleven thirty and one oh three point five FM. This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with Haven Financial Groups Founder and CEO Larry Call Me Guy and Bill Cellar. We appreciate you getting up and having a cup of coffee
with us this morning. If if you are looking for that perfect holiday gift for that hard to buy for a person, here's an idea. This is from Neiman Marcus and their list of fantasy gifts for twenty twenty three. For just one hundred and ninety five thousand dollars, Larry, just a mere one hundred ninety five thousand dollars, you can purchase a walk on roll with the American Ballet Theater in New York City. I think I'll pass, Bill. Yeah, yeah, although listen, I wouldn't fit up there very well,
I don't. I don't know. Man, you're a decent looking guy. I don't know about you into too though. But that's not all you get for your onundred ninety five grand. The price also includes premiere seats to the ballet, a meeting with a principal dancer to get ready for your performance, and of course wardrobe, hair and makeup, plus an autographed pair of ballet shoes. So I think the folks that I sit down with on a regular basis may see me in a different light with wardrobe, hair, makeup,
ballet shoes. Yeah, a pair of tights that the guys are wearing. Why would you go? I'm sorry, we just might be too early for this. Who knows. So we talk a lot about end of year financial housekeeping, and we brought it up in the last couple of shows. Actually, but one more thing to check is that if you're still working, are you allowing the government to withhold more in taxes than is necessary. That's the kind of thing that sometimes we don't even know is happening. Right, It's
like giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan. The website go Banking Rates says this same principle applies to delaying your social security. This is the topic we get into all the time, but I've never looked at it from that perspective. Larry, do you agree with that? Well, I do agree with it, and it's why we're big into tax discussions. You've heard me say
it many times. Forward thinking tax planning bill. We're in the fourth quarter now, and I bet you I had a half dozen meetings with our CPA and clients this week to make sure we're not missing opportunities as it relates to taxes. Number one. You know people, oh my goodness, I owe money every year. Well have you looked at the withholdings? Should you withhold more? Should you withhold less? And you know, there's different school of thoughts here. I know what I think, you know. The closer we
can get to break even to me makes the most sense. Now, there are folks that want to withhold more and extra because they like getting a big refund check back, you know, maybe as vacation money. And that's fine if that's their discipline. You know, I would see that thing a little bit differently, just because you are giving an interest free loan to the government and they will find a way to spend it. So I wouldn't recommend that, but if that fits you, okay, But breaking even, hey,
that sounds good. But the other things we're discussing now is, you know, is that now the right time to do Roth conversions? You know, I can think of Sue from Egan. She's a retired postal worker. Just this week she was in thirty year in a row. We did Roth conversions minimal to fit into her tax plan. But by three years, by the end of twenty twenty five, she'll have all of her IRA money in wrath, no more pre tax when the tax laws go up and tax rates go
up. So we're having these discussions because people have a good indication now of what their income is going to be. So again, I think it's extremely important because people miss opportunities and at the end of the day. We want to make sure we take advantage. And you know this kind of leads into I think, you know, is it similar to social security? Yeah, you could say that. You know, we teach a lot of classes on social security. Just this week we had four classes. By the way,
you can go to our website and see a various educational events. We have a brand new revamped website, by the way, so go check that out to see where we're going to be at. And because we're big into education, and we had very well attended four of them at Northfield, Egan and Shocopy just this week. Yes, even this close to Thanksgiving and throughout the holidays, because it's quite evident people want to learn, they need to learn.
You know, they're in a position where they've never been this close to retirement and making retirement decisions. So again the education piece, When should you take social security? I know it's highly politicized and they always want to scare people, and you know, what's the break even if you're a married couple. This should be a we decision, not a me decision. And it's not for us to say you should wait till seventy But what makes the most
sense based upon your circumstances, your variables. This is what matters in making a lot of decisions. And again the same for tax planning and when should I turn on the Social Security payments? So these are what we help people with on a regular basis. And Larry's talking about checking out the new website that is of course at Havenfinancialgroup dot com. Also not just to see the website, but that's where you can find out more about these classes he's talking
about as well. And now back in that one thing you mentioned something about maybe taking your social security early and potentially investing them trying to get better returns. First of all, there's no guarantees social security is going to grow by six and eight percent plus cost of living. If you do that, you're at your own risks because what other investments are going to guarantee that, especially
in a very highly volatile market. So I'd be very careful with that if you're going to take that early and put it in a market based investment. Again, what you choose to do is up to you, but I sure hope you give it plenty of thought because you wouldn't want to make that be a very bad decision. Yeah, Yeah, that's a good Actually, that's
a good way to look at that. And they say, this is the kind of advice you get when you work with Larry and his team at Haven Financial Group and getting in there and setting up that complimentary retirement readiness review that we talk about is so important. Could be one of the best calls you make today. Let me give you that number again. It's six one two four four one two four four one six one two four four one twenty four forty one, and it's a quick phone call. They're just going to get
you on the calendar. You don't have to spend a lot of time setting that up today, and there is actually somebody standing by right now to talk with you. So please do yourself the favor of having that complimentary retirement readiness review with the Haven Financial Group six one two four four one two for one. Well, if you're getting ready to do any traveling for the holidays,
and it will involve flying. The Wall Street Journal has released its list of the best and worst US airports of twenty twenty three, and the rankings are based on reliability, value, and convenience. Any idea which airport took the number one spot? I'm going to give you a little little musical hint here,
Larry, the time I get to Phoenix, Shoe. Yeah, Phoenix, Photix was the number one airport, however, proudly followed Shoes by our own airport here in Minneapolis that was at number two, number two, and then Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Detroit. So how did Los Angeles get in there? Well, apparently, like I said, it's based on reliability, value and convenience. I've never been in it. I've never been to the La Airport, so I don't know. I haven't and that's not been
my experience. But I'm not surprised to see these East Coast ones like Newark, John FK. I've had my miserable experience at Dulls as well, so I'm not surprised. But again, there by the way, that's that's the bottom half of the list, folks, that he's talking about right there. This is the ones that are based on congestion issue and other things. I've never been in out of Newark, but I hear it is just terrible.
Oh yes, I've had terrible experience in the Phoenix, I have to admit, because I work with a lot of firms out of Phoenix in Scottsdale, and I've had very good success there and you know, as much as Minneapolis may frustrate, it is a nice airport, fairly clean, so I'll give
it that. So, yeah, it's holiday season, travel season, plan ahead, prepared for congestions, and you know, I got a lot of clients actually so that are tsa and they give me all the updates is to you know, what to look for and how frustrated they are and all that kind of good stuff. But at the end of the day, people are back traveling, and more power to them because we took what three years off.
Yeah, boy, and I actually had a beer in the Phoenix airport once I was there for a layover, had enough time to grab an adult beverage and then get back on another plane. It seemed nice. But I wasn't there very long, so I don't know. Yeah, I play it through there two three times a year. It is a very very organized,
very clean airport. So I'll give them it there in Phoenix. Well, if you're planning on traveling and you have to fly, the good news is if you're going to any of those five airports, you should be okay. If you're going through Newark, JFK or Dallas Ford Worth. Well, that's another story, another story entirely. So when you do and I know you just mentioned you've got a lot of folks that you work with that do spend time traveling, and that's kind of one of the things that you work on
with planning, right Larry. I mean when it comes to getting ready for retirement, we always talk about the two lists, right, the half two lists like healthcare and planning for those kinds of things, and then the want to list, and whether that's to buy a new house, upgrade, downsize, or travel. And travel is always on the list, isn't it. For many people it is they put it off for all these years because of work or family or kids. And you know you have the needs in the
wants. When we build out plans and talk through all the various things we talk about, you know, when we find out that travel, especially in the early years if you is important, we're going to buffer that into the overall projections as to hey, we like to travel, here's our budget for travel comfortably. Does that work or doesn't that work? We want to make sure we're not excluding anything that's important to your retirement or at least what you
want to do. Maybe you won't be able to do them all, but we want to make sure we include everything to get an accurate projection, because that's what you want. You don't want to sugarcoat things and make things better than they are. You want to be realistic, optimistic, but realistic.
And so here's the deal. If you want to make sure that you're set up for all these things that you want to do and that you have to take care of in retirement, that's what your complimentary retirement Readiness review is for. So call Larry and the Gang now it's six' one two four four one two four four one to get on the calendar as soon as you can for your complimentary retirement readiness review. Well as always Larry the the hour just goes by way too fast, but it's always a pleasure, my friend,
and we will talk again next week. Look forward tuned, Neil, have a great week. He thank you for listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio show on twin Cities Newstock eleven thirty and one oh three point five. Fair Investment advisory services offered through Guardian Wealth Strategies LLC, Haven Financial Group and Guardian Wealth strategies LLC are not affiliated companies. Investments involve risk, and, unless
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