You worked hard for your money, but do you know how to make it work hard for you. You need a team with experience, vigilance, and a strategy to help you live the retirement you deserve. Find your financial safe haven with Haven Financial Group. Today you're listening to the new and improved Haven Financial Group Radio Show, where we bring you comprehensive weekly financial wisdom from the professionals. It's all about helping you solve retirement problems so you can
make your nest egg last. Your tune to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kolvig and Kim Karrigan your guides to weekly retirement confidence. If you're interested in protecting and growing what you have, let us be your financial safe haven. The phone nines are always open at six point two five oh four eighty four hundred. Now get your financial questions ready because the Haven Financial Group Radio Show starts now.
Good morning, and welcome to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, Founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group.
Thanks for listening.
Visit us online at Hanfinancialgroup dot com, or feel free to give us a call at six one two five zero four eighty four hundred Kim. Good to be with you, lots again to talk about this week, retirement income and all the other things that go with it.
Good to be with you.
It's great to be with you as well. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. We're going to talk about understanding retirement income. There are four keys, Larry, and apparently we're going to hit on all of those during the course of this show. Let's take a look at what our listeners can expect. First, we're going to talk about Social Security. You know, a lot of people that is what they're going to rely on when it comes to their retirement income.
You've always said that's not a great idea. But we'll talk a little bit about Cola's for twenty twenty five, which of course is the cost of living raises that people can anticipate, and a little more about some of the changes in Social Security in twenty twenty five. Also retirement accounts and the income question. Obviously, how do you turn those retirement accounts into a steady stream of income. Then we'll talk about whether you're going to.
Be able to live off of your retirement income.
I think that's probably the question that so many people ask you, right am I going to have enough money in will I be able to live comfortably for the rest of my retirement and finally understanding the cost of the benefits of fixed income. So it's a great show come in your way, and I'm looking forward to it. But you know, Larry, you say it so frequently. A lot of people they depend on social security in this country, and there's a lot of questions related to social security.
There is, and it's why we teach frequent classes maximize social security and taxes. That's the reason why they're very well attended. You know, retirement isn't just about how much you've saved, but it's really turning that nest egg or savings into a reliable income for life. And we say for life. You know that could be ten, twenty, thirty, thirty five years. So you hit the nail on the head when you say the biggest question, am I going
to run out of money? If so, is that ninety five or is it seventy five or anywhere in between, And that that's when we draw up our projections. That's what we want to see because there's there's always going to be unexpected shortfalls. The market's going to go up and down. We try to avoid the tax surprises. And you know we're going to touch on some misconceptions here because I always have said that I think a lot of Americans have become too reliant on the number one
income stream for retired Americans. And that's our first topic is social Security because it is the number one income stream and so often in a lifetime it's bigger than the moneies that people have in their portfolio. Let yet they worry about their portfolio, but they just make knee jerk reactions as to when they turn it on. So sure, that's what we try to help people avoid.
Well, I think a lot of people who maybe don't listen to us on a regular basis don't realize that you can change your Social Security benefits based on when you begin to draw and some of the decisions that you make associated with your Social Security benefits. Just a
quick reminder to everyone. If you're listening today and something sort of you know, rings a bell with you or hits a chord and you'd like to talk more to the folks that have been financial group, the number is six one, two, five zero four eighty four hundred, and we'll give you that number periodically throughout the show, but please feel free to give.
Them a call. You can set up an appointment.
Come in, say that you heard us on the radio and that you want to talk a little bit more about some of the issues that you heard Larry and me discuss. So as it relates to social security, let's just back up just a little bit, Larry and talk about some of the benefits related to you know, planning and thinking through when it is that you want to first start to draw.
Yeah, you should first start thinking about well before you get to the age of sixty two, which is the earliest you can take it. So I love to see mid fifties and high fifties folks come out to our classes because that tells me they're being very proactive.
Not that these classes.
Are so fun, but they are very informative. You know, twenty five percent of Americans, that's one quarter of Americans have no confidence in their ability to live comfortably in retirement. And it really starts with social security. You know, we've seen some really big increases in recent years due to inflation, inflationary measures. This year it was the cost of living adjustment is two and a half percent. A couple of
years ago we saw eight point seven. And why that where that really matters is at sixty two you can start drawing, but it grows by six percent plus the cost of living adjustment from sixty two to sixty six and eight percent from sixty six to seventy plus the cost of living adjustment. So we've seen some big increases, yet everything costs more. Becoming too reliant, you know, I don't think any Americans should say I'm just going to live on Social Security only. I don't know how comfortable
retirement that's going to be. So we want to factor in the other income streams like pensions and retirement, nest egg and you know, how do we generate income in what percentage. We'll talk more about that to make sure we're covering all the necessary expenses. But again it's why when people come in, whether you're a client or not,
you're just you know, want to swing on in. If you bring your information, we'll provide anybody and everybody with a very detailed maximize Social Security Report, which people find extremely helpful because it'll outline can based on normal life expectancy, what you can expect if you take it early, if you take it late, and Our job isn't ever to steer anybody in any direction, but through education, it really creates a good roadmap for Wow, this makes sense at this age,
and it didn't make sense to what I was thinking.
And beware of.
The mentality that you know, I talk to my buddy Joe, and Joe did this, And just be careful with all that because circumstances there's different, so many variables. Don't just do what one person says. But talking through these matters, it'll really shed some light. That's why education is the potential for power. It's what you do with it. You know that truly matters.
Sure, you know it's really important too that couple sit down and talk about this, because this strategy is one that couples should do together based on what their life's income has been.
Correct it is it should be a we decision.
If you're a married couple, this should be both of your decision, a WE decision, out of me decision.
You know. Oftentimes, yes, Kim.
I was just gonna say, because maybe one should draw on one shouldn't exactly.
Oftentimes the lower bread winner may turn it on earlier and the higher breadwinner wait till as long as possible. The latest you're going to wait till is still seventy You had only one of two Americans wait to that, which is kind of astonishing.
But not everybody can wait.
And I'll tell you the psychology of waiting till seventy It sounds good on paper, and maybe if you're working till seventy eight, it's not difficult to do. But after you start thinking, you know, you turn sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven, I'll guarantee you're gonna start thinking, why am I not taking it? Why am I not taking it? I could have been earning all this extra income? And so we look at the break even point too, So
longevity plays a role. And then as I stress of my classes, why is it a we decision if you're married, because statistically that surviving spouse could live ten twenty five plus years, And I say, do you not want to leave your spouse with as much income as possible? And I think the only answer is yes. If not, I'm sure you're going to have some communication with your spouse as.
To why you want.
But again, all this goes into that educated decision of when you take it, and that's where we provide a lot of insight and we help a lot of people.
Let's tell everybody about COOLA and how that all works and when those decisions are made. That's already been made for twenty twenty five, but explain how that decision is made.
Well, this summer months beginning of the third quarter, those months they'll measure the inflation the CPIW, they'll measure it and that will really will determine when they announced in October, and they announce it every October the Trustees report comes out and they'll announce it for the next year. So these summer months, late summer, early fall, that will lead to the announcement. And by the way, cost of living adjustments are not guaranteed every year.
They're not guaranteed.
There's been years where there hasn't been, so we really you gott to gauge for this inflation thing, which doesn't seem to ever disappear. So when we look at are there any other ways to keep up because otherwise you got to keep up with inflation and it's been very
difficult to do. So other areas that we've looked at with people is you know, exploring all the options, is you know, tax loss harvesting, reduction of your taxes, you know, trying to keep up with growth returns to offset the inflation. So we want to look at all the different measures that people can look at to offset this inflation. You know, the dollar is not as powerful as it once was, that's for sure, So we want to look at all the options, not just some of the options.
We can't have a conversation about social Security without me asking you this question, and I know what your answer is, but we might have some listeners who don't the solvency of Social Security. People are so concerned about that.
Oh, I know they are, and you know I'm a glass half full person. This has been social Security has been highly politicized on both sides of the aisle for a long time.
It's still here.
If you're asking my opinion, Do I think they're going to do away with it? Absolutely not. Does there need to be changes, yes, So none of us are going to agree on what those changes are because they'll affect how much we get. We live in Minnesota, and if you make too much income, they're going to tax your social Security too. But what we like to point out, if you have an IRA pre tax money, every dollar
that's distributed is going to be taxed. Social Security is taxed very favorably, meaning a zero percent of it could be taxed, but up to eighty five percent of it could be taxed on the federal level. So as we look at individual circumstances, we're going to talk taxes and how your Social Security is affected. So every dollar one can get from Social Security is better than IRA pre tax money because of the tax the tax situation.
Do you have any idea off the top of your head when you guys are going to have another one of the classes that people could attend for social Security.
Yeah, feel free to go to Havenfinanciergroup dot com. We just had two more this week in the Egan area and we were at full capacity, and we have one in Prior Lake. We do them all over the metro, so we pretty much every other week have we have one or two classes. And we also have a Medicare Made Simple class coming up because we teach a lot on Medicare and helping people navigate the healthcare sector, if
you will, all of these retirement puzzle pieces. We offer this education because we're passionate about it and this is how people learn, and this is how people make better decisions.
Let's give everybody that website again, it's Hanfinancialgroup dot com.
Be sure you go there check it out.
You can find out about some of these educational seminars. They are free and they are open to anyone. You don't have to be a client of Haven, but you do need to sign up Havenfinancialgroup dot com and the number is six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. If we're bringing a bell for you, you need to speak to somebody, they would invite you to certainly give them a call. All right, Larry, when we come back retirement accounts and the income question, how do you
take those retirement accounts and make them a study. We're going to try to answer those questions for you when we come back right here on the Haven Financial Radiation Show.
Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and retirement ways, Devin, the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. We'll be right back. Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tune to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kulvig and Kim Karragan. Now back to the show.
Welcome back, listeners.
You're listening to the Haven Financial Group radio show. I'm founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group Kim celebrating our ten year anniversary this year. It's been ten years since we opened here in Burnsville. We're very proud of that. We've expanded now three times. It's amazing what hard work can do. But it's also amazing when you can help
people and what that looks like. And we've done that for anybody that's come in in a very comfortable atmosphere, a laid back approach, but a serious approach, and we're very proud of that. So if you're listening and you're looking for more information about any of these key retirement areas, don't hesitate, but give us a call six one two five four eighty four hundred or Havevenfinancialgroup dot com anytime.
So how do you celebrate ten years?
That's a really good question. I will let you know.
I feel like your wife.
She's got something, she's got something up her sleep.
Oh she's the creative mind. You know that, and I know she has things planned.
But we're very proud of it. And it's hard to believe it's already been ten years. I don't know how that's even possible. But again, we thank the listeners, and we thank our clients and all those that we come across because that's the service we offer, and again we're very proud of it.
Absolutely.
Let's talk a little bit about how you work with your clients to turn lifetime of savings into an income. You know, it's one thing to save and save and save and save, and you've got that all talked away somewhere, and then you decide, you know, this is the year I'm going to walk away from my job and then those paychecks stop coming. Then how do you turn you know, those income retirement accounts into income. Let's walk through that just a bit, Larry. Where do you guys start with it?
Yeah, you just said the key question that I've asked for years for new retirees. What's been the most difficult thing about retiring? Overwhelmingly, it's not getting a paycheck any longer?
Absolutely, So how do you.
Turn this nest egg? And again I think we've done a disservice. Is that a million is a five hundred, whatever your number is is your number. Again, it's not about the number, but what does that How do we
turn that into income? You know that retirement savings and how do we do it over the long haul again ten twenty thirty thirty five years, because again you want to know when you're going to run out, if ever, and how do we increase our chances if it doesn't look so good, if it does look bleak, And we can do that a variety of different ways. We can look at, you know, stacking bond portfolios, and we could look at dividends and other types of investment approaches. Come
up with a very strategic withdrawal policy. You know, everybody's probably familiar with the four percent rule. I think it's a little outdated. Again, all these are based are circumstantial based on your situation. Maybe you're blessed to have a big social security and a big pension, and maybe the
income strategy is not going to be as serious. Although that's not the norm that I see because many don't have pensions, including my wife and I. So again the three legged stool going kind of old school, the social security pensions and the retirement nest egg and we don't have pensions. So how do you create that third pension? We help people do it by doing a self directed pension, which maybe the utilizing income annuities, which by the way.
I do have a class I think in April coming up the truth about annuities that can be done effective if the right approach is taking. You could do laddered CDs. So we're gonna look at all these options. And then and then one that comes up quite often is what if I get a part time job, maybe a little extra cash flow to supplement these. Nobody said you couldn't if you want to. Now hopefully it's because you want
to and don't need to. You know, the wants and the needs things, and sometimes people retirees need to do something just to you know, for financial and mental toughness, and you got to be driven to do something. And you know, retirement is really a transition, and everybody handles it differently. You know. I just had a flight attendant with Delta that was in that long ago and she retired.
She's not liking retirement. She loved her job. And that's amazing. And I got others that day. They hang it up.
They're all smiles, and they're they're going fishing, and they're going hunting, and they're going golfing, and they go, I don't even know why I even worked before, because I love this retirement, so everybody's going to adapt differently. I'll point this one out too, because we're in Minnesota, and you know, everybody knows it was fifteen below this past week.
And I have a gentleman, I said, when are you going to retire? Now?
He's seventy one. He works at Collins here in the South Metro and he goes, well, I've had people tell me that I should do it in the spring in Minnesota, and I said, you're exactly right, because when people retire, you can.
It's whatever.
It's individual's choice, of course, but people that retire in Minnesota in the fall going into the winter tend to regret it because of how long the winters are. So it's just a word to the wise. Plan it out accordingly, and for the married couples, you might want to stagger that about thirty days just so you can over the adjustment.
Orb over.
Oh I love it, I love it absolutely.
Let me go back to this.
I always ask you this, and you explained it so well. But you just mentioned the idea of a part time job. At what point does a part time job become an issue for you? If you start to draw from some of your different retirement accounts or your Social Security.
Yeah, I'll point out because on the topic of social security as well, if you're not full retirement age, which is based upon your birth date and anybody could have anywhere from sixty six to two months to four months up to sixty seven right now, there's an income threshold that if you're not to full retirement age and you make over a certain amount, and it's right around twenty three thousand this year, that they'll start withholding some off
you go over that, they'll start withholding some of your Social Security benefits, which eventually you'll get it back, but it's a withholding. So you might want to consider the income threshold which goes away when you turn full retirement age, so you can make as pretty much as much as you want to. So that and then that needs to
factory and everything is always driven by taxes. And you know what, if you're not getting tax planning and it's tax season, you hear me every week talk about forward thinking tax planning lance.
Our CPA is in full force with.
Tax preparation, but almost every meeting I asked him how it went, and he thrives on when they're when are planning our projections come out to basically being even if that was the goal of of what your what your goal was, rather than oh, my goodness, I owe all kinds of money. I didn't plan accordingly. Fix the problem so it's not a problem next year. Maybe it requires a different partner, Maybe it requires a different financial advisor.
Maybe it requires a new team to work together and put these pieces together so they're not working a part that they're coordinated. Because, let's face it, Kim in retirement investments, taxes, estate planning, insurance, they all go to Medicare, healthcare, long term care. They all go together, or at least they should go together, and there's costs associated with them. What are they Let's figure it out. Let's put pen to paper and avoid negative surprises, especially as you're going into
these retirement ears, these golden ears. A lot of mistakes can be avoided. I'm not saying all mistakes, right, but a lot of them can be avoided.
Yeah, and these are issues that you know we're getting close to obviously you know the tax a deadline. But they, like you say, these are issues that you need to start talking to someone now, not necessarily for April fifteenth of twenty twenty five, but for April fifteenth of twenty twenty six is what you need to start to plan for.
Let me back up for just a second. You talked about that three legged stool, and you know the issue that the old thing has been the social security and pension and a lot of people don't have a pension. We got a lot of people who are listening who are probably thinking, I don't have a pension, and I don't have a huge, gigantic nest egg. And to go in and to sit down with Larry or some of his staff members would would be silly because they would just laugh at me.
That's not the case, right, No, no matter what your situation, and start somewhere to get somewhere, whether you're younger or older or anything in between, whether you have a little bit or a lot, whether you have a lot of time on your hands or very little time on your hands. Sometimes people feel bad, they bury their head in the sand and do nothing. That's probably the worst thing you can do. Nobody should be judgmental. Nobody's going to be judgmental.
Whatever you have is what you have. And if we can help you grow, if we can give you some advice, if we can lead you in the right direction if we can develop a plan. You know that can be different things for different people. But what we do like to look at is all the options we're talking about income and understand you know what you're looking at.
You know, I think of reats.
We didn't discuss it, but sometimes people use real estate investment trusts or dividends. But make sure you understand the complexity of some of these investments. The ill liquid alternative investments may not be a good option, especially if you need the money sooner than later. What are the terms to these annuities? Are you tying things up again? Avoiding these surprises? So you know, if you're really listening and you feel like you've reached the you know.
The top of the mountaintop.
You're on a cusp of retirement, but you don't know how to turn this savings into a retirement income.
Give us a call.
Let's discuss it today rather than tomorrow, sooner than later, because life happens, We get busy and next thing you know, man, I just haven't done anything, and sometimes that's the worst thing you can do. Sure again six one two five eighty four hundred, give us a call. We'd love to visit with you.
Or Hevenfinancialgroup dot com learn a little bit more about some of those educational seminars coming up open to anyone. They would just like to get a head count of at all possible. All right, Larry, still coming up here. Will you be able to live off of your retirement income?
Now?
This is sort of sort of transitions into that question do I have enough? And you know how long is that going to last? The question I think that you have said time and time again the one that you hear.
Most frequently when people walk through the door.
So we're going to discuss that on the other side of this break right here on the Haven Financial Group Radio Shure.
We're we ready to find your financial safe haven. Your dream retirement is in reach. Don't go away, The Haven Financial Group Radio Show will be right back. Are you worried that your financial strategy might be missing something, Well, you're in the right place. Larry Kulvig is back and ready to help you find your financial safe haven.
Good morning, and welcome back to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group, coming to you every week with Kim Carrigan talking about retirement, the complexities of it, the decision making, avoiding some of these mistakes. So if we're ringing a bell, feel free to give us a call. This is important times and before you know it, retirement comes quickly. And again I just had somebody last week. They're about six
months from retirement and they are really concerned. Especially this segment we're going to talk about do I have enough? Have I saved enough? And will I be okay? And this particular meeting proved to be very beneficial and they did a much better job than they thought, and we love that because on the flip side of that coin is if you haven't, you deserve to know because denying the facts and reality are not going to make it better.
Sure, absolutely so, when someone sits down with you and they say, I mean I would assume one of the for our first things you asked them is what's your goals here?
Right? You said it, And we have a very systematic process at Haven. Whether you come out to a class, or you're new to us, or you're referred by your friend or family member, we're going to do the discovery meeting and we do it the same every time to really talk about what are your goals, what are your objectives? And we're gonna we're gonna ask you questions that you've probably never been asked about. You know, do you have a state planning done? Who's doing your taxes? You know,
will give investments, insurance. We're going to cover everything with a wide brush. We're not in any hurry. There's no cost to sit down with us. That can be an hour or two our discovery meeting. So now you've got a good idea of who we are and we have a good idea of what you're trying to accomplish.
Sure that just.
Begins the process.
I'm sure from there, Yeah, from there, if one wants to come back for a more detailed strategy session, that's the that's step two. And we'll come up with some suggestions on and recommendations in any areas. We'll hone in on some of them. And if one chooses that, you know what this is a could be a good partnership, because it should be a partnership, then we would start the implementation process. And and again that just goes into
monitoring and adjustments. And I we have no quotas, so how many times people can come in because we want people to come in and address all these retirement topics as much often as they need to to give them the confidence that they're making the right decisions and confidence in retirement. There's nothing better than that, there really is. That's our process, and it's again we're not high pressure headquarters.
I always say, if you want to go to a timeshare seales meeting, and go to a timeshare seales meeting, because we're the opposite of that.
Well, I think that you have said before here on the show that you you know, you're not really into these some of these old time strategies. You think some of them are a little bit outdated in the idea of like maybe the four percent role of the eighty percent role, which we can walk through, but you feel pretty strongly about the idea of to determine if someone has enough money to get through retirement, you have to just look at their situation and work it through their
particular retirement. You know, what's good for one is not necessarily good for all.
This is not a one glow fits all. Yeah, this is not This is not cookie cutter.
You know.
I'll bring up Tim this past week, who's going to retire in six months local company here, he's done good. He went through divorce and he felt bad. He's like, well, I don't have much compared to others. And I'm like, well, nobody's judging, but you actually did a very very good job. And he was saying, well, my social security's four thousand. I think I spend six thousand. And by the way, we really want to look at spending and expenses very important. And he goes, I think I need six thousand in
retirement per month. Well, social security was four thousand, and he has a little he has two little pensions, and so he doesn't even need much from his retirement ESTE, which was more than adequate. And he's like, I think, from what you're telling me, I could actually retire right now. And I said, we're not telling you to do anything, but could you of course you could. He had no idea.
He thought he was in a world of hurt. So as we look at all these various areas, distinct phases of you spending, do we have to tighten that a little bit. Oh and by the way, please factor in
healthcare because people always underestimate healthcare. It's not cheap. We want to make sure we have an accurate budget, and we don't like the word budget whether you're young or old, but it's why we when we do Monte Carlo projections, the investment team and the certified financial planners on my team, we'll have a category that we call anything else healthcare.
Do you want to travel? And we'll have come up with a number and we'll add that to the overall amount that people need because there's always something else that comes up, and then the car, or the furnace or the grandkids. So when we get into detailed planning, we're factoring all these things. In three months, six months, nine months, twelve months later, we'll sit down again and we may have to modify some of these changes. You know, health
we ran into a health situation. Your savings got decimated because of healthcare, and unfortunately, I have one of my clients in this past week she had a relapse of answer and we're praying for her, but she had to use up quite a bit of savings for medical expenses. These things come up, so reassessing these things. Retirement, You've heard me Kim say this many times. Retirement is more than a meeting once or twice a year for forty
five minutes to an hour. Right, If you're not getting more attention than that, you deserve to get more attention, especially for what you're paying. And by the way, most people don't know what they're paying, and many of them are paying way too much. Nothing's free but your old transparency in an industry that we're in today, if you're not getting transparency, I'd ask more questions.
So, Laura, how do you guys answer the question though? When someone comes in and lays everything out for you and says, do I have enough?
Well, well, you know, we're not the only ones with high tech software. This industry's got some great software, you know. Monte Carlo projections, all kinds of it out there where you know, all the inputs go in. We put all the inputs in, and we want to do it accurately. So if you're something out that doesn't do any good, so then these reports can do it. Based on inflation, we factor in inflation. We're going to factor that in high because inflation is a game changer. We're going to
use reasonable returns. I always say, any financial person can puff up numbers and make them look better than they actually are, and I call that a waste of time.
We want to be realistic.
We want to be a realistic We want to factor in inflation, taxes, reasonable returns, everything into the equation. And I say, it's kind of a worst case scenario. Show me one of the worst case scenarios based upon a thousand iterations of Yours might not be anything like those thousand iterations, But what is the median? And we're going
to go through in as much detail. For some it's more high level because they don't want major detail because it'll give them a headache, and others more engineers, they want to dig down deep in there. And we're willing to take what and spend as much time. And I said, we go slow. You know we're not in any hurry. It didn't take it took years to get to retirement. We're not going to rush through something because we want to make sure we're not leaving anything out of the equation.
We want as much accuracy in any of these areas from the what are your income stream, what are your expenses, what types of investments? What are you passionate about? We'll even get down to are you charitable? Now you don't give charitably for tax reasons, but I can tell you if you are charitable, it can open up some tax ideas. Qualified charitable distributions don't advise funds. Again, it sounds complex, maybe your head is spinning, but that's why we're here.
That's why a partner to lean on. So again six one, two, five, four eighty four hundred, call us and ask questions or just set up a time to come in. There is no cost, there's no strings attached.
And Larry, just so that our listeners know, you guys are very honest, right. I mean, you have people who walk through the door and you've had to say to them, you're not ready.
You're gonna get straight shooters here, because that's the way I was brought up, and that's the only way I know. There's many people we can help, many people that come in thinking we can't help, and to some degree we can. Are there some that come in that are not We're not the right fit for them. Yeah, that's very possible. And there are some that come in that they're not the right fit for us in whatever that means. But for most it's an education.
I love to hear. It's so relaxed here. It feels good.
I always say, if it doesn't feel right, go to the next place. If it feels too stuffy, probably not the right place. Or if it doesn't you don't feel comfortable, move on to the next one. But have a plan with somebody and don't just put it on the shelf. Make sure that it's being looked at on a regular basis.
Absolutely six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. If you're hearing something that's ringing a bell with you, if you have some questions, if you'd like to sit down, as Larry said, with someone and just just talk through where you are and find out, you know, if you are in fact ready, or maybe you aren't ready, but you'd like to start planning. Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. That's how you reach the folks at Haven Financial Group. Don't forget to go to
Hanfinancialgroup dot com. Learn a little bit more about the firm, learn more about those educational seminars. Larry and his team feel very strongly about the idea that people educate themselves about the different steps associated with retirement. It just makes your question answering a lot easier, and it also, of course just makes you feel more confident. Hanfinancialgroup dot com. All right, Larry, when we come back, let's talk about
understanding costs and benefits of fixed incomes. That's coming up right after the break here on the Haven Financial.
Group Radio Shop with you don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and retirement ways. The Haven Financial Group Radio Show will be right back. Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tune to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kulvig and Kim Karragan. Now back to the show.
Good morning once again, and thank you for listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, Founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group. Feel free to give us a call six one two five zero four eight four zero zero, or visit us online Havenfinancialgroup dot com. All kinds of retirement tools on our site, a community site on there. We have clients at share recipes and you know, Grandkid, whatever it is that there is, there's
all kinds of tools. Visit us there In our classes too, Kim, that we have on a regular basis a variety of educational classes where we provide all kinds of tools and resources and materials that can prove very very beneficial, especially if you're just getting started thinking about retirement.
Sure, and that could be.
Whether you're thirty or fifty or seventy, it doesn't matter. You owe to yourself to at least get the information.
Yeah.
Absolutely, I need to go on there and look at some of those recipes because I kind of feeling those cookies are on there and I need a good cookie recipe for the spring.
We do, like do make stress cookies and they are well liked. And we are coffee snabs and if you like good coffee, we get it every week, We get it many times. You guys have the best coffee here. That's intentional because I like good coffee.
Yeah, I like good coffee too, So that's a good that's a plus for me as well.
Let's talk a little bit about fixed income.
First off, tell everybody what is a fixed income strategy.
Well, it's turning that retirement saving into something that's guaranteed hopefully for life, to supplement that Social Security check you're going to be getting or getting eventually. Maybe it's to supplement that pension check that you may be blessed to have, and only like ten percent or less have them. Nowadays, but we do come across quite a few with DELTA people that have turned it into a pension or some
other big corporation. So we do see them because income is the name of the game, and we talk about income, mailbox, money, call, whatever you want to and there's a variety of ways you can do that. We talked earlier about, you know, using an income annuity if that makes sense, whether it's stacking CDs or you know, having bonds and dividends or whatever it may be. And we like to look at
all the options. But I think it's important for people to understand the different types of accounts that they have. You know, every week I talk about we like to see retirees go into retirement with a good balanced approach, and it starts with having some good liquidity.
You know, I've said this.
And some listeners are going to go, what in the world, fifty to one hundred grand is what we like to see in a liquid cash savings checking CD these high yield savings fifty to one hundred You go, why so much? Because there's always something and if the market's down unforeseen circumstances, and I'll tell you we see folks getting close to retirement with five to ten thousand liquid and everything at risk in the market, and that is not a good balanced approach.
That's a recipe for a disaster.
And if I could point out, you know banks, banks are in credit unions, are they're insured money? Okay, and that's important. You know, the banks are FDIC insured and credit unions I can never remember the prefects for it, but they also have insurance to cover those bank accounts. Now those are that's two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per depositor for each account ownership category at each insured bank. So if you're over that, spread it out, make sure
it's being insured. And a lot of times people are not. Now some other not insured products everybody's familiar with, and just you should at least make yourself known of it is. You know, mutual funds are not insured, stocks are not stocks, and bonds and certainly cryptos not. Of course, I don't know if that's a good retirement plan, but you may get lucky. Just be careful safety deposit box or not the content they're not insured. Life insurance does have some coverage,
annuity does have some coverage. But I think it's important to understand what coverage, if any, and make sure you don't have all of it. I don't like to term eggs in one basket, but a good balanced approach efficient and balanced.
I want to go back to this liquidic issue.
You must have people who come in and say, well, Larry, you know I like to play the game, So I don't like one hundred grand just sitting.
Well, I should don't think it should be sitting because today you should be getting four plus percent in those types of accounts, Okay, and that's not bad because for so many years you didn't get anything right. So yes, we're all about having money in the game. But liquidity is important and then there's always going to be pros and cons though, and we got we want people to
look at that. So if I have a steady income stream or in fixed income like these lower risk averse accounts, I'm probably giving up some growth, and that certainly is true. In addition to that, these fixed incomes are also have a higher claim to assets and bankruptcy, so you know, in the event of a company's bankruptcy, bondholders have first position and they have priority over stockholders, so that might give you some more comfort. We're On the other side
of it, the cons of fixed income. You know, you just want to look at credit and default risk, exposure, interest rates. We've seen higher interest rates, so fixed income investments and bonds are you know, they're vulnerable to this interest rate risk or this volatile interest rate environment. Again, way all the risks have a good balance. Talk through the pros and the cons, the good and the bad. But the reality is you need you're going to need
to turn that retirement nest eche for most people. For most people, I do come across those that have pension and social security that is more than adequate and they're never going to touch their investments. Well, then maybe a higher risk philosophy in those portfolios is perfectly fine.
I think.
I think of a couple that was just in two weeks ago. They're both retired teachers, and we need good teachers, but they worked years in that industry. They both have social security, they both have strong pensions. They don't hardly have any expenses or debt, which is important, and they we're never going to spend this money. This is all for the grandkids. Well, their grandkids are in they're eight
to twelve years old. They're fine with more risk. The problem is many listeners, many people we come across, they have no idea how much risk they're taking. They're vulnerable to the exposure. They have very little liquid, everything at risk. And the timing factor we've talked about sequence of returns, the timing of what the market does when you retire can make a huge difference. So being overexposed can be problematic, very being underexposed could be problematic. Sure, but have the
right balance. And the problem is most people don't know what that is.
Absolutely.
That leads me to the idea that you know, there's a lot of people out there who maybe you're listening to us, but they already have a plan, They have a portfolio, and they think they know what's going on, and they may be at high risk or like you said, under risk. You guys have no problem with going through an existing portfolio and maybe working with someone, right.
We do it all the time. And again, I come from small town, many of you know. I've said I grew up on a farm by Wilmer. Mom and dad still crab farm, although they're in Mexico this past week, so I hope they're soaking.
Up the sun.
We're very I'm probably loyal to a fault man. You probably have an advisor you're listening, and you have an advisor you've been with for twenty thirty years. We're not about to ruin relationships, however, we are. We are out there educating and having people know that. You know, this is your retirement, this is your money, this is your life. If you're married, it's your family. What you choose is up to you. But sometimes you know, we as humans, we can become very complacent and we do the.
Same thing over and over and over and over again.
Yet if nothing changes and you didn't like the results when we had a market correction last time or the time before that, yeah, you're doing exactly the same thing. Can you not expect the same results and you didn't like those results last time?
So don't get stuck in your ways.
Maybe you're be enlightened by a second opinion or second option. There's no cost for it. It's what we do, and by doing that, we open up a lot lot of eyes to I didn't even know this existed. Nobody's ever talked to me about this. I didn't know I was paying two to three times the going rate in a very competitive financial industry. Nobody even I've never even heard of this. These are the comments that I and we
have in financial group. We hear it all the time, and that tells me they're getting a lack of attention. You're paying somebody, you might as well get you as much out of it for what you're paying. And right now that's probably not enough.
So, Larry, as we wrap things up this week, we've been talking about understanding retirement income. We've talked about social Security, we've talked about fixed to income. What are your biggest takeaways from today's conversation.
Well, you worked all these years to create whatever that number is, and again, don't get caught up in the number. Whether it's fifty grand or fifty million. We have everything in between, but that number is your number. And income is so very important. We have folks that have our high net worth, yet they're threatened to run out of money. We have people that have low net worth that are
never going to run out of money. So we want all walks of life to be able to walk through this process with us or somebody to look at where is the going to be generated? Do I have enough to retire? When do I run out? How do I avoid running out? What are some things I could be doing that I'm not doing? Again, these are all the various areas that we addressed, and it's not just the investments I talk about all the retirement puzzle pieces. We're in tax season right now. I hope you're getting your
taxes prepared. I hope you're not paying too much. And I hope you plan throughout the course of the year. If you didn't, now we're going to be onto the next year. So Kim, you said it before, plan now for twenty twenty six. Sure, Or maybe you're worried about healthcare and Medicare. Maybe you have no nursing home plan. That's not really fun to talk about, but fifty to seventy percent of us are going to need something. So again,
tie all these puzzle pieces together. Ten years ago, as I mentioned, it's our ten year anniversary, my goal was to have multiple personalities in all of these areas. And I can say, thankfully, over those ten years we have all these areas covered. As an independent firm, not dictated by upper management, but as an independent we can offer all this to you. And it just starts with a conversation and there's not a cost for the conversation.
Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero is how you set up that first conversation. You can go to Havevenfinancialgroup dot com. Learn more about Haven Financial Group as they begin to celebrate their tenth year in business. Again, congratulations to you, Larry. That's really it's a terrific, terrific anniversary to be very proud of.
There's no two ways about it.
Thanks Kim.
When through that ten years we've helped a lot of people that didn't think they could retire or we're worried about retirement, we continue to help them have the confidence in retirement and we can do the same for you.
If you're listening, just come on in all.
Right, Larry, another great week, thanks so very much.
Thank you. We'll see you next week.
Investment advisory service is offered through Guardian Well Strategies LLC. Haven Financial Group and Guardian Well Strategies LLC are not affiliated companies, and investments involve risk, and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.
Please consult with the qualified financial advisor and or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein and comments regarding it.
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