You've 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 full nines are always open at six point two five 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. Give us a call at six one two five zero four eight four zero zero, or visit us online at Havenfinancialgroup dot com. See all the different classes that we're teaching and all kinds of good retirement tools on the site. Kim, good to be with you again this week. Great to be with you as well. I hope that you're well and enjoying summer.
We certainly are. Our youngest daughter, mon Ages graduated from high school, our youngest, and she'll be going off to college at the University of Kansas this fall. So bittersweet this last weekend, absolutely, but congratulations, thank you. These are wonderful family times, that's for sure, and I hope you're enjoying it. And I hope she has a wonderful summer before pack her up in the fall. I'm sure. So yeah, I'm sure she will as well. Hey, we wanted to talk about social security as one
of the few topics that we wanted to take up today. Let me share with everybody sort of the highlights of the show today social Security, income and cola predictions. I know this is one that a lot of our listeners are going to be very interested in hearing, Larry, because a lot of people have concerns about the social Security system, so I know they'll be anxious to hear what you have to say about it. What to do with your retirement
account, how to tell if your retirement income will be enough. There's another one of those questions that people constantly are asking, do I have enough money to retire or will I run out? And then finally the pros and cons of fixed income of retirement. So we want to start with Social Security.
You know, the Social Security system certainly was not put in place originally to be the end all be all when it comes to people's retirement, but unfortunately, for some people, it is just that first thing I'm going to ask you. I've asked you this before, but I think it's worth repeating. Do you believe the Social Security system is stable? Will it continue to exist? Well, I definitely think it's going to continue to exist. It's been
highly politicized for years. They've talked about doing away with it. My opinion is they're not going to do away with it, but eventually there's going to have to be changed, and it's hard to get both sides on the same page. But what changes, we're not going to like them. It could be taxing more of your income, it could be means testing, it could change the Social Security formula. But I don't think they're going to do away with Now, does anybody really want to live on social Security? Only?
No, I wouldn't think so, but there are a lot of Americans that are, and quite frankly, Kin, we've just got become too reliant on social Security. I think it's been here, I think it'll stay, but there certainly has to be changes, absolutely, and depending on what happens in the fall, we could see those changes, maybe even sooner than some might anticipate. You know, this has been a really tough time when it comes
to inflation, and that certainly has affected social security beneficiaries. Let's talk a little bit more about how the adjustments in COLA have been and what you're anticipating. Yeah, well, we all know that in twenty twenty two the US face some of the fiercest inflation in four decades, and we're still feeling it.
However it is it is getting a little bit better because the cost of living adjustment for Social Security is tied to inflation, or more importantly, the CPI index, which is a measurement of a variety of I would say,
consumer goods and services. It's based upon the spending patterns of urban wage journers and these next summer months will be the main indicators as far as what happens this fall, because every October they come out with the announcement of what the adjustment is going to be for next year, and the cost of living adjustment KIM is not guaranteed. Listeners may recall not getting any increases, but because of inflation, we've seen last year an eight point seven percent increase that's very
substantial. We've seen pretty much three years in a row increase. This year it's three point two and it's all tied to that inflation. So we've seen some good growth because from sixty two to sixty six, your Social Security grows by six percent plus the cost of living adjustment, and then sixty six to seventy eight percent in those latter years. So if you're in those latter years
you're delaying, that's almost a seventeen percent increase. So it's why we think we think it's important to teach our social security and tax classes and help people understand their ramifications of taking it early later what makes sense, and again an educated decisions so important. Sure, when you have some of your clients come in and they start talking to you about COLA numbers, do you tell them not to rely on the idea that it's going to go up all that much.
Oh. Absolutely, I mean we would like to plan for the worst and hope for the best, of course, but it isn't a guarantee they'd like to Again, like I said, these next few months will be the determining factor on what it will be announced in October, So we'll see what happens with inflation these summer months. But the goodness is, we are seeing some interest rates some of their highest levels in two decades for fixed income types
of accounts. So you know, folks should be getting four or five, five and a half percent on some of these money markets and CDs or fixed income. But again, look at all the options. We're always big into checking out all the options that are on the table now. Just a moment ago, Larry mentioned social security classes that Haven Financial holds. First of if you're interested in one of those, let me tell you how you can get
into one. They are free, you do have to sign up in advance, and they do fill very quickly, So you want to go to Havenfinancialgroup dot com. That's our website. Check it out. Not just social security courses, there are other educational courses there, but if you're interested in the social security that's where you would find some of the dates, and Larry,
I can only imagine that those are probably some of the most popular. Talk about some of the other things that you guys besides you know, the idea of inflation and how those on social security can deal with that, But talk about some of the other things that people might learn if they attend one of
those social security classes. Well, some of the earnings thresholds. You know, prior to full retirement age, if you're still working, you know that you can't make much of over twenty two thousand, just a little over twenty two thousand before they start withholding a little bit two dollars a dollar benefits with hell for every two dollars that you go over that. So we just put
some thought into does it make sense to retire to delay? For married couples, we often say, you know, maybe the lower bread winner turns it on earlier, the latter one maybe waits a little bit longer. The longer you wait because that higher amount remains when the first one passes away. So again, just educating them on the taxation of social security taxes is relevant at
every age, but probably even more so in a retirement. So it's why we have lots of tax conversations, and the benefits of Social Security's income, you know how it's taxed. The more you can draw from that rather than from your iras, which are pre tax may better serve you. But again it's not a one glove fits all. It's more, okay, what makes
sense in your situation. And sometimes people come in with the idea, we're going to turn it on because we're worried or a socker to the government, like I always say, and in conversations, that is not always the best move. So again, stay tuned for this fall. But again they're actually forecasting right now approximately a two point seven cost of living adjustment. But again
these summer months will be the indicator. Sure when you hold these educational seminars, what's the most surprising thing that you find people are not aware of when it comes to Social Security? Well, there's a lot of water cooler talk out there where you know, well, my sister did this or my best friend to turn it on, and a lot of people don't know that about seventy percent of Americans turn it on right away at sixty two just because they
have a lack of understanding of what the options are. So, you know, we just had two classes this past week in Fairball, very well attended. We have forty fifty people at each each night, and you can tell that you can just see the hunger for education. There's worry and there's concern in all the different fronts of what's going on in America, no doubt about
it. And once people get educated, they just have a little bit better sense of understanding of what they should do compared to what they maybe think they should do. Sure, absolutely, And again you said that one of the big issues that you talk about during the course of some of these learning sessions is the tax ramifications. Briefly, just tell us a little bit about I think a lot of people don't even know that some Social Security can actually be
taxed. Yeah, from on the federal level for sure. And then we still live in the state of Minnesota, which had about a year ago. Last summer they had a change where if you're under one hundred thousand married filing jointly adjusted gross income, your Social Security if you're under that will not be taxed at the state level. Of course, anything above that it still will be taxed. So it was a step in the right direction because there's tax
thresholds. We know it's a progressive tax. Up to eighty five percent can be taxed if your social security. Now that doesn't mean all of it will be taxed at eighty five There's a fifty percent threshold and an eighty five percent threshold, and up until that first threshold there would be no tax on social
Security. So again, the utmost importance of having a discussion about that, and when you talk inflation, you know, just some simple things we can do maybe to fight inflation is and we help people do this is review. Review your budget. Okay, even at retirement age, there should be some budget. You know, we'll look at options of maybe diversifying your income streams
maybe a little bit. Certainly paying down those high interest credit cards or into high interest debt is a good way to do it, and consider a cash back credit card. Maybe just be careful with that. Mean again, as I mentioned, make sure you're getting some interest on those high yield savings or
money market accounts. Absolutely all right, So social security, there are a lot of questions surrounding social Security as well as cola predictions and if you'd like more information, then you probably would be a perfect candidate for attending one of Haven Financial Groups learning seminars on social security. So how do you find out more about that? You go to Havenfinancialgroup dot com. That's Haven Financial Group. You'll see when the next seminar is going to be held and you'll be
able to sign up. They are free, but they do fill very quickly. And by the way, not just social security. You're going to find that there are seminars on taxes as you've just heard Larry talking about. There's some overall retirement seminars. There's also seminars on tax planning or i'm sorry, state planning. So be sure that you check it out Havenfinancialgroup dot com.
And if you'd like to set up a consultation in the office with a member of Larry's team, you can go to Havenfinancial Group again dot com or you can call six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. All right, when we come back, Larry, let's talk a little bit about what to do with your retirement account. I know that might sound strange, but we're going to explain it when we come back right here on the Haven Financial
Group Radio show. Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and retirement pays govin the Haven Financial Group Radio Show will be right back. Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tuned to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kulvig and Kim Karrigan. No back
to the show. Welcome back listeners. My name is Larry Kalvig with the Haven Financial Group and you're listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show where we talk about all the different retirement topics today's social Security retirement accounts and all the
different things that go into that decision making. You know, Larry, when people save their money and save their money with the idea, you know, and have a tucked away maybe at a four or win K or they've got it in Samia Rays And the idea here is they have a goal, they want to save a certain amount of money before they make the decision to retire. And they get there and they say, Okay, now I got this big pot of money. So how do I make it work for me as
I step in to the retirement phase of my life. So let's talk a little bit about you know, I bet you do have a lot of people who come in and say, look, Larry, here's my numbers. Now what do I do? Oh? For sure years you've been saving, or at least hopefully you've been saving, and now employment ceases, you retire. Now, where does the income come from? How do we turn on that distribution or income strategy? Or what is that strategy? Do you have?
Are you blessed enough to have a pension, what will social security be? What will that income stream look like? And what additional moneys will you have to draw off of? Of course, in the most tax efficient way possible, all of these things are tied together, and as I mentioned many times, the coordination of retirement accounts, investment accounts, of state planning. Because I just had last week a couple that actually both retired and Larry, where
do we start. We don't even know which accounts to draw off of. Then we bring in our CPA, you don't have to use lands, he's very good, and we start crunching numbers and draw off of this. Here's this income stream, here's this income stream, and retirement potentially needs the last almost ten, twenty or thirty years, so longer life expectancies are factored in so when we do projections or Monte Carlo projections call or simulations, whatever you
want to call them. You know, we're forecasting out to usually about mid nineties. You know, plan for the long run, and obviously if you don't quite get there, it'll just be more legacy. If that's important, and the need for a state planning. So factoring all these income streams and then being tax efficient and don't rule out I mean, part time employment might actually help a lot is but maybe it's because you want to, not necessarily
you need to. So maybe part time job can supplement income. And again it's why it's important to have a plan. You and I talk weekly about
having a plan. And that's where we walk people through our process of talking about what's their goals, what's their aspirations, you know, small, medium, large, How to social Security factor into the retirement accounts, and you know, we talk about some benchmarks like Americans really should not rely on more than forty percent of their retire hirement income should be coming from social Security.
Now that's just a benchmark what we have to factor in and what we talk about in our class as well, is that leaves sixty percent of what I call other income sources and retirement. Other income sources could be discussing annuities. Annuities can be used for income, what other types of accounts do you have, and really just looking at all the different options that are out there. Sure you know, I would bet that when you have people come in,
they're sometimes a little bit shy. I don't want to use the term embarrassed, but maybe a little embarrassed because they don't know how to now implement a plan after they've saved so long. But that really isn't surprising, is it. I mean, people shouldn't feel like they are embarrassed or they should be shy about how to go about this. They're asking how to go about it because you only do this once, right, right, this is uncharted territory.
I mean, you shouldn't feel bad and yet you are correct him. A lot of times people are real sheepish about it. But the fact is, again this is just the start of retirement which could last a lot of different years. So having an open discussion and bringing things out in the opens oftentimes create a sense of confidence. Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem to be or might bring to light. Maybe things aren't as good as they might think they are. So really, how do you do How do you
create your own pension? We help people do that. Is it through laddering CDs? Is it through a lifetime income payment through an annuity? Is it you know, putting money in real estate or trusts or roots creating some sort of income, And maybe it's it's utilizing bonds or you know, dibitend paying stocks. There's a whole variety of different ways. Not that we're attempting to
make things complicated, because actually most of our clients like simple. Maybe it's some rental income, just laying it all out, talking through it and then coming boiling down and getting back to the tax situation. That's what we help a lot of people in. We'll talk later about the four percent rule and some of the other things. But again, there should be no embarrassment. There shouldn't be. It's very normal. Not everybody likes talking about income and
money. But I had a couple in last week from Lakeville. He does it all. She showed up and I commended her because you know, at the end of the day, she needs to know the way things are going as well. Sure, absolutely, very very important point. So there's a few different ways to go about this. Let me ask you a little bit about like benefits and risks of maybe more fixed income strategies versus maybe withdrawal strategies.
Yeah, creating a pension to supplement your social security and if you do have a pension, I'm going to be teaching a class pretty soon again of the truth about annuities about how they can generate income. They don't have to be used for income that there's four types of annuities fixed annuities, fixed, indexed, variable, and immediate annuities, and how they can potentially be utilized in an income strategy. They don't have to be used for that because there's
other ways that you can do that as well. But do you have guaranteed income or is it variable income? The one creates a lot more stability than having variable income tied to maybe a moving target that has a lot of risk to it. So we want a good balance between liquid monies and a lot of people don't have nearly enough, then fixed income or principle protected investments,
and then stock market risk investments and having a good balance. The problem is that oftentimes people don't know until something negative happens, So and a lot of people don't have enough liquidity, and a lot of folks that we sit down with have way too much risk, and it's because they don't know it. It's not because it's bad, it's just they're unaware because no realbody's really holding their hand and educating them and talking through where they're at at this stage of
life. M hm. So, if this sounds like something that you need some help with, you know, you've saved, and you've saved, and it's time to start thinking about how to make that money work for you. I was reading an analogy. It's like you have been climbing a mountain and you get to the top of the mountain and now it's time to start to descend the mountain. So you're not exactly sure how to go about that.
Then I'm going to highly suggest that you give Haven Financial Group a call, sit down with a member of Larry's team or Larry himself, chat a little bit about what you've done over the course of your life and where you would like that money to take you next. You can call it six one two five zero four eight four zero zero six one two five zero four eight four
zero zero, or you can check them out at Havenfinancialgroup dot com. That's Hanfinancialgroup dot com, so where you'll find out more about some of those free educational seminars that Larry was just talking about that he's planning to hold over the next few months and into the fall. You have to sign up for those. They are free, but you have to sign up and they do fill very quickly. So what's the biggest fear when people get to the top of
that mountain? Do I have enough money to retire? Or when will I run out of money? And let's face it, all these years of the accumulation season of life, which is what it's been. All these years that you've been working and putting into the four oh one K that's been the accumulation phase or the savings phase. Now you're entering the preservation or distribution phase,
which is completely uncharted territory. So if you feel like you are coming down that mountain and now it's time to turn that savings into income, certainly give us a call. We can map out that plan from an income distribution and tax plan, and you certainly can have the confidence to know that you're doing the right thing. Two five zero four eight four zero zero. When we
come back here on the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. Let's talk a little bit about do you have enough money to retire or do you have enough money to be comfortable throughout your retirement? That's coming up next right here on the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. 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 Colvig is back and ready to help you find your financial safe haven. Welcome back to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group. Thanks for listening. Retirement income, What is enough and what's not enough? Kim Hi, this has gotta be the question that you're
asked the most frequently. It is by far the most frequent because again, and I think people probably want you to give them a magic number, don't they. Well, and in our industry, we've kind of done a disservice because you hear all these advertisements do you need one million or four million or two hundred thousand, and those are just numbers because I've said it before.
We have clients that have multimillions and it's barely enough, and we have those that have not nearly that much, but they have pensions and they have guaranteed income. So it's not about a number. I don't particularly agree with that. It's it's an individual situation because I can think of a couple they retired, they have about two hundred thousand and retirement investments and they are happy as can be because their expenses are super low, and others where expenses are super
high. So it's an individual basis, and that's when we sit down with folks. That's what we're addressing. Sure, well let's talk about you know, when you sit down with people, obviously you have to determine their goals. So what's the conversation that you have. Well, well, we're going to look at the expense expenses. You know, do they have a budget? Is that number accurate? Because have you ever put pen to paper.
We sat down with a couple this week they finally created their full budget and their response was, wow, our expenses are way higher than we even thought they were. So good. It's good to do that because the eighty percent real estimates that retire reason need about eighty percent of their pre retirement income annually. And we kind of look at it this way. And Tom Hagen is a great motivation motivational speaker, which we actually have his books in our office
and certainly we actually give them the customers. He talks about the go go years, you know, the first few, the early years of retirement where you're able to get around, you're on the move, you're going to the Curran Kids events. Then things start to slow down a little bit where you're not going to go to everything with the slowgo years, and then the no
go years where Medicare or healthcare expenses can get a little higher. So we do see kind of a trend of early retirement higher expenses, then it starts to slow down, and then the latter years obviously I hope not but the medical expenses. So we're factoring those things in when we build out plans for people because that's kind of how the cycle that we see. Absolutely, let's
talk about assessing retirement expenses and the four percent rule. Yeah, I think that well, it's been talked about for a long time where the four percent rule suggests that retirees can spend about four percent of their savings each year and in addition to social Security and other traditional pensions, and that they're going to
be just fine. I think that's a little bit outdated. Again, it's an individual basis and really honing in on those expenses and determining really how much is going to be required in retirement, what will be sufficient, and then making sure you buffer in some of these potential bigger purchases. We factor in, you know, five years down the road, do you think you're going to get a new car, new vehicle? If you like to travel,
we want to buffer in obviously travel expense. So we really want to look at throughout our process as what are your goals, what are your aspirations? Is it doable? And really plan for the worst and hope for the best. And I think it's critical when we do this that we use reasonable rates of return. Any financial perfect person can puff up numbers and make things look rosier than they really are and make them try to make themselves look better.
But we want to use reasonable returns adjusted for inflation, and at the end of the day, accurate expenses, and then we should be able to get a pretty clear, clean picture of what you know, what retirement really will
look like for you. You know, it seems to me this process that you're explaining right now gives a lot of validity to the idea that you need a plan in place before you're ready to retire versus at retirement time, because I can't imagine anything more frustrating then coming in thinking, you know, at the end of twenty twenty five, I'm going to retire, and you sit down with someone on your team or with you, Larry, and you find
out you don't have enough money to retire. Correct. I mean, let's face it, we see folks that are worried, worried, worried, and when we build out the plan and we look at the projections, I don't know what they're worried about. I mean, barring any life changing moment, of course, But then there's certainly times where people had their overconfident, they really don't have a plan, and winging it for retirement probably not a great
strategy. So you have nothing to lose by at least addressing the situation. You owe it to yourself and get an understanding and awareness of what you're doing. And I had John and Nancy from Savage in last week. He was a retired engineer and she was a retired teacher, and they really had no idea of where they sat. Fortunately for them, they were good savers and they're very, as he said, very frugal, and they were fine,
but they really had no idea. So in our conversation, you know, they left with a lot more confidence than they did when they came in. And that's why it's important to take the time. You owe it to yourself. We like to take our time, We like to be relatable and we like people to understand that we're listening because knowing how much you need in retirement, it's not an easy calculation, but it's crucial nonetheless. And again, there's no cost for you to give us a call and set up a time.
There's no commitment, there's no obligation, and we're going to spend the time whether it's whether it's on income or distribution or investments. And well, every week I talk about all the retirement puzzle pieces and carry our estate planning attorney Lance, our CPA Glennon Isabella on the medicare and healthcare side of things. Our investment team we manage with Charles Schwab and team does and Again, all this may seem overwhelming, and it may be overwhelming to you, but
we can simplify. And again it starts with the educational piece. Sure, absolutely, and it's just not a simple calculator. No, everyone is different. You've said that about everything. Everyone's retirement is different, and it just feels like to me, Larry, while I know you know you may be in your mid fifties and you really don't want to be thinking about that down the road quite yet, that's about the time you better start thinking about it
so that you have a better sense of it when the time comes. Oh, I completely agree, because we may have an idea in our mind that we're going to work till mid sixty sixty six, sixty seven, but the reality is statistics show that people end up retiring earlier, oftentimes unforeseen circumstances. Just in the last few months, I've had a couple of people lose their jobs. They've relocated, and life doesn't always cooperate with your calendar. So
that's why time is of the essence. Better to start now and have something in place, rather than wait for unexpected circumstances and go, oh no, I should have started a lot earlier. Absolutely, is this resonating with you, because if it is, then we'd like for you to run to the phone and call they even findingcial group, set up a free consultation, you know, and sit down and talk about what your plans are when you'd like to retire, and begin to put together that plan so that you know that
you'll have enough when that date rolls around. The number of six one two five zero four eight four zero zero, I want to read that to you again. It's six' one two five zero four eight four zero zero. You can also go to the Havenfinancialgroup dot com website and get more information about some of these educational classes that are available. Larry, we talked about social security and I mentioned a few in the last segment of our show, But what
are some of the other classes that are available. Medicare made simple classes, truth about annuity classes, social security and tax classes, a variety. And
we do this in Dakota County Tech and some other colleges. We do this in a lot of community centers, lot of libraries, so again were we do lots of educational and that's where we really it starts and from there people do have the ability to come in no cost spend thirty minutes to an hour and a half whatever you want, and we're going to take the time to listen. What I find out there in the marketplace is people are paying somebody
and they're not getting the attention. They're maybe getting together once a year for forty five minutes to an hour, and retirement has a lot more pieces to it and should require a lot more attention. Not that we have to be babysat or anything, but people aren't getting the attention and the education they should be getting, especially for what they're paying well, and I want to be honest. I know you say you're not babysitters, but at the same time,
a little hand holding sometimes is not such a bad thing. Completely agree Again, I always say when I get on the plane, I'll let the pilot do the flying. I'm not going to study to be the pilot. You know, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. This is what we do five days a week and have for for quite a few years. Or our team is extremely experienced. And again, the relatability, I think is so important, and I love to hear people say, wow, it's so
comfortable here. You guys are easy to talk to. We're not stuffy. We like we like now. We are a little stuffy because we like really good coffee and we make fresh cookies for every meeting. So maybe a little stuffy with the coffee, but otherwise we're not stuffy at all. I love a good coffee snob, so that's okay with me. That's for sure. Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. That's the Haven Financial
Group number. Or you can go to Havenfinancialgroup dot com. All right, we're not finished yet, Larry. We've got more to talk about today, including the pros and cons a fixed income for retirement. You're listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and retirement pays Devin. 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 Kolvig and Kim Karragan. Now back to the show. Welcome back again to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kalvig, founder and CEO of the Haven Financier Group. Thanks for listening. Visit our website Havenfinanciergroup dot com or give us a call with questions Email us again Havenfinanciergroup dot com or six one two five zero
four eight four zero zero. Crosen cons a fixed income Kim. Okay, So first off, let's just walk through for anybody who's saying, Okay, I think I know what you're talking about fixed income, but just you know, walk us through that. Well, fixed income is the what's just exactly what it says. The income you have guaranteed coming in every single month. And that can be your Social Security deposits that get put in, that could be if you're fortunate to have a pension, it could be anything maybe you
created your own pension. Guaranteed income compared to very income, covering the things that you need and then covering the things that you want. Okay, first cover the things that are needed, housing, transportation, health care, all those things, and then the stuff you want to do if you're joining the country club or all the other stuff. So income is the name of the
game. Well, let's talk about the pros of fixed income to begin with steady income stream that you just explained it, it's coming and it's guaranteed. Yeah, and it's predictable, and it may give you peace of mind. It's guaranteed payments. Oftentimes, though there can be some complacency because they tend to have lower returns. So againting not getting complacent, not getting the returns necessary, So again being careful with that to create the right balance. You
know, there's no perfect investments. Okay, there's no perfect but what is a good balance for that? You know, looking at what type of companies you're invested in, especially when it comes to company bankruptcies. Never say never done this a long time, And I remember when Layman Brothers went south and other big companies. So not being having over exposure to some of these companies, and what's the reputation of the company are they? Are they reliable?
And again stable returns are great, But again you don't want to get locked into just risk averse. Necessarily you just might be not be getting the returns that you want. So I always say, like everybody else, I want the highest returns. I wanted one hundred percent liquid, and god forbid, I don't want to pay anybody. Well me too. The problem is that there is no perfect investment. So again, looking at all the options that are out there and creating the right balance. All right, So those were
some of the pros when it comes to fixed income. Let's talk about some of the cons like lower returns as you've just mentioned. Yeah, it's susceptibility to interest rate risks, not getting the returns to keep up with inflation, more sensitivity to the inflation which we've seen in the last few years. Credit or default risk. You know, bonds carry risk of a default, and it's particularly corporate bonds. So not being overexposed to some of these and you
know, oftentimes people think of bonds as the safe fixed income alternative. And I'm always liarly about the word safe because in twenty twenty two we've seen bonds at fifty or lows, and so we oftentimes, Yeah, the team uses bonds in our portfolios, no doubt about it, but understanding the possibility of default. You know, in twenty twenty two, bonds were down thirteen percent.
They've hardly rebounded since they have rebounded somewhat, and a lot of the folks that had more conservative portfolios, you know, halfway through last year, those that had higher risks, they got their money back in stocks and equities. Those that had more conservative they didn't get it back all last year. So again, it's not for us to steer anybody there in a certain direction.
It's we look at willingness for risk, the need to take risk, and the ability to take risk, and how you really answer the questions should put you in the right position, because you know, we have folks that are sitting really, really strong in retirement. They don't need to take a bunch of risk. Now. They might have the ability, but they don't want to. And it's not for us to say you should take more or
less. It's just for us to help you create the right balance so you're not overexposed to certain things that you don't want to be, nor maybe you should be so lower. You know, the goal is always higher returns, but at what cost. The problem is, we see lots of people, well, Larry, we're in our mid sixties now and we're more conservative investors.
Yet when we stress test their portfolio, which they had maybe haven't done in years, they're not even doing anything close or consistent with what they just told us. That's a recipe for a problem, and we're trying to avoid the problems in the golden ear specifically, Sure, it seems to me too. One of the real cons for fixed income would be inflationary issues, which obviously a lot of people had this problem and have still been living out this
problem here of late. How do you protect against that? Well, no doubt about inflation, you know, poses a risk to those fixed income investors because what happens is the power of the dollar and it can really erode those real returns. And we've seen it in recent years. And you know, for fifteen years we couldn't get anything but a few pennies on money market and savings accounts. And thankfully right now where you know, we are seeing five
five and a half percent inflation. I just saw this past week or that they think it's about down to three percent right now. The inflationary rate, I'm not sure what they're measuring because it still seems a little bit higher that to me. Their goal is two percent, but they have put off with
these interest rate cuts. So while fixed income can help you replace your paycheck, there's a lot of options that go into this, and we want to look at all the different strategies what makes most sense for you, because what makes sense for you may not make sense for your neighbor or your brother or sister. So again, there's lots of fixed income questions that people have and this is the area where we'd like to help. Absolutely. Let me tell
everybody how they can get your help. Larry. They can give you, guys a call for a free consultation sit down talk about fixed income if you'd like. The number is six one two five zero four eight four zero zero six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. You tell them that you heard Larry and Kim on the radio and that you'd like to set up a free consultation. Come in and sit down and talk about retirement, all
the different aspects of your retirement. Maybe you need to put together a plan, a portfolio, maybe you have one that needs a stress test, as we just heard Larry talk about. Maybe you just have some questions about estate planning, or you have some questions about taxes and you'd like to sit down with professionals. Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. You can go to Havenfinancialgroup dot com learn more about the Haven Financial Group. You
can also sign up for those educational seminars there. There's lots of different topics and Larry has shared some of those with us. They are free. They do fill up quickly, so it's important that you do check that out and
sign up pretty quickly here to make sure that you get your spot. So, Larry, we've talked about social security, we've talked about fixed income today, tell me what you think the takeaways are today for people when they're trying to make decisions about their social security, about what they'll do with their investment, whether they have enough money, you know, talk to us about what
you think the takeaways from today's show might be. Well, Kim, I think it comes back to having a detailed plan and if you're not comfortable with you know, discussing some of the things, or you don't know where there's a lot of question marks in today's show, that's where we walk people through our discipline process of a discovery, you know, getting kind of where you're at in life, where are you at, what are your goals? What
would you like to see? And we take a lot of notes. Again, we come up with a strategy potentially, and we offer recommendations and suggestions and if one chooses to implement that, we assist in that process and that it's just not a matter of setting it and leaving it. It's continued monitoring and adjusting as you navigate through life. And yeah, we talked on the income and social security and all those things today, but truly putting all the
puzzle pieces together and having him coordinated. We assess investment risk, stress testing portfolios, but we actually are actively managing investments. Again, we use Charles Schwab. The team does and retirement income. We talked a lot about it. It's important and there should be a plan to it rather than just winging it. Putting some thought into social security, not that we're trying to convince you to wait, but when only two percent of Americans wait till seventy it
tells me there's a lack of education. And not much about today but tax returns and tax pre operation. In our model, the tax planning conversation does not come with additional costs. That's an added value piece to what we bring to the table to our clients. And you know, let's not forget about long term care. I just had a couple, you know, last week that both of them, they're both newly recovered, they worked work, both of them worked for Seagate, they're retired, and both of them are taking
well. She's taking care of her sister who's in the nursing home and he's taking care of the mom. Well, how have you prepared for long term care? I imagine one of the next couple. In the next few weeks, we'll talk more about long term care, life insurance reviews. When's the last time you had your life insurance reviewed? People say, well, I haven't twenty years. Well, make sure it's going to do what it's supposed to do. Medicare, healthcare, all the retirement puzzle pieces, again,
they don't all have to be under the same roof. But I can tell you the best compliment we do get and I get, is Wow, it's nice having it all under the Haven umbrella. And we have multiple personalities that can educate, implement, and again we're looking to cultivate obviously long term relations. Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. That's the Haven Financial Group telephone number. Give them a call, set up a consultation today,
or you can check them out at Havidfinancialgroup dot com. Lots of great information again this Weeklarry Yep. If you're looking for any information on any of these key retirement topics, give us a call. Kim. It's always good to be with you again our website, Havenfinancialgroup dot com or give us a call at six one two five zero four eight four zero zero. Great to be with you, Kim. Look forward to next week. I will look forward to it as well. Have a wonderful Weeklary, Yes, you as
well. Take care. The investment advisory service is offered through Guardian Well Strategies LLC. Haven Finding 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 safe and secure. Investments and guaranteed income streams
only refer to fixed insurance products. They do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company