Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd. Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner and senior vice president and financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered investment advisors. We call it something more because we'd like to talk not only about those important dollar and cents issues, but also the quality of life issues that make the money matters matter.
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and across the country. Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd. Welcome everybody. Thanks for being with us for another episode of something more with Chris Boyd here with Jeff Perry. We are both of the AMR team at Wealth Enhancement and glad to have you joining us again and hope you do every episode.
We offer two a week and you can find them not only wherever you might listen to podcasts, but you can find them on video, on YouTube or at our webpage. And you can find that by going to somethingmorewithchrisboyd.com as an easy way to do that. In any case, we have a mishmash of things today. Mishmash. Mishmash. Lots of various things to discuss. Among them will be, we want to touch on a recent client experience talking about rule of 55.
There's been some interesting legislative developments around crypto and stable coin thought would be worth just pointing out and talk a little bit about how and whether that should fit into your portfolio. And a few other things that are timely. Before we jump into some of those, Jeff, I find that lately, when I'm watching TV at night, there's all these oldies I'm watching. Oh, you're getting attracted to them. Yeah. And I can't go by, you know, money balls on, I got to watch it.
Are they oldies if they're... I mean, they're not that old, but you know what I mean? They're not new movies. Movies I've seen before. And then a few good men. I mean, how many odds... Oh, geez. Yeah. But happened by that, I was like, I got to watch it. Do you have any movies like that that are for you? I have a lot of movies. Don't go by like, oh, I really should watch that.
Or do you not watch television that way anymore, where you are clicking through channels where it's more deliberate, just go to the show you want? Well, that's a good point. You know, that's a good point. Like you don't just, the clicker, you know, you're not just... Don't scroll as much as we used to. Kind of have a movie plan or a Netflix series you're watching. But when I'm just like thinking about it, my mind goes back to what do I want to watch?
And oftentimes it's like, oh, I haven't seen the Bridge over the River Kwai in a long time. There you go. That's an oldie. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But I think those movies that were present and meaningful to us in our formative years, define that however you want. They hold a special place. Yeah. And I, in many ways, this is a broad statement, you know, not true in every case, but many ways I still enjoy them more than some of the new movies. So, so true.
Even though you know it and your favorite lines that come up and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, my wife gets a kick out of me. Reciting lines. Reciting the lines and thinking, why are you enjoying this? If you know the lines. Yeah. You know it that well. You know the end. I will say that that's probably a good episode sometime for our listeners, or we'd love to hear from you if you care to share with us now.
What are those things that for you that just, if you're, if you're watching movies, you know, like favorite all time gotta, you can't go past if you're scrolling by. You know what I like? Share that with us, Jeff, if they should want to. Well, if they're watching on YouTube, I guess they could throw a comment in the underneath. Yeah, that would be a good way to do it. You could also, you can shoot us an email. AMR-info at wealthenhancement.com.
If we get a bunch of these, we'll share them as part of an episode. That'd be fun. On the same theme. One of the things I like is when they remake an old movie, like, well, example of something I watched recently was Midway. Yeah. You know, the old Midway. The original, yeah, back in the 70s. I think it was, you know, somewhere around there. Probably late 60s, 70s. Yep. And then they did it. The remake isn't new either, but I just happened to watch both of them maybe a month ago. Just to...
Yeah. What was that? About five years ago, maybe? Yeah. So I do like when they remake them, as long as they're... They're not always as good though. Yeah. I don't know. We watched Jaws recently. Oh, yeah. Because of the anniversary. Yeah. What was that? 50 years? 50 years ago. Yeah. That's great. It was kind of fun to watch. And then just the, you know, it was like noticeably a different era. You know what I mean? Like... The technology.
Yeah. Well, not even the technology of the shark or anything. Just the... In the movie when, you know, they're dealing with the old phones and there's no cell phones. I'm sure, yeah. The styles, the cars. It just, I don't know, felt like, oh, it's kind of fun. But 50 years, that's hard to believe. Yeah. I was like, I was probably the age of that kid right there. But anyway. All right. Well, let's get on to real stuff. I don't know why I went down that little rabbit hole, just sort of fun.
That's real. That's real stuff. Let's start with a reminder about our upcoming webinar. Lots to learn on this and want to share with everyone some valuable lessons. I went to a program that was offered by the Financial Planning Association of New England a while back. And they had a presenter, Kate, I've forgotten her last name now. Excellent presenter. Huffnagle or something along those lines. She is the digital wrangler. And so we've invited her to give a presentation.
Don't leave a digital mess. How to prepare for the inevitable in today's high tech world. There's so many variables that we can easily overlook when it comes to the digital wealth, assets, memories that we have. And I don't mean that in the form of cryptocurrency or something. Correct. Yeah. Although that could be included in this discussion. It's in the category, I think. But more thinking in terms of online footprint, whether it's social media accounts, maybe it's your iTunes.
Maybe it's sometimes we've bought movies or music, things of that sort. What happens to those books that you've acquired, Audible or Kindle or whatever? Examples. Those are just some random examples. Broad category. What about if something happens to you, does someone else have access to that bank account? If there's auto pay going on, is it a joint account? Is it a singly owned account? Will bills stop being paid? Will people know what bills need to be paid?
If you're the one handling it as an example, do people have access? Do they have rights to have access? Maybe the bank or whatever will say, no way, no how. This will be a great explanation of getting your bearings on the variety of things to consider with regard to your digital footprint that may have some implications for your estate planning, or essentially, it's not necessarily your will or something, but thinking in terms of, have I planned for this properly?
What's going to happen to these resources? Will people have the ability to retain any of the things that they might want or I might want them to have? Those are all very valid. Even from an organizational or knowledge point of view, not so long ago, if you were watching over your parent or your aunt or uncle or whoever, and they passed away, you walked into their house, you could probably figure out what their bills were. They probably had a folder. They probably had receipts or mail.
A checkbook or a bank statement. These are all good points. Within a month or two, you would get the whole full picture, but it is entirely possible now, unless somebody's printing things, there are people, I don't know if it's the majority, it very well could be, that have nothing printed. Everything is saved on a computer in the cloud or whatever. If someone doesn't have access, you wouldn't know how to find that. You wouldn't know anything.
They might be getting emails with late notices, but nobody gets the email as an example. And if you don't know, one of the stories that was just told in this, that as people go through, and by the way, we're going to have her on as a guest after we have this program, so our audience for the program will hear some of her expertise, so you'll hear this in more depth, but she shared a story about someone who passed away and the husband's dealing with small kids. It's chaos, right?
They're going through all the grief that comes with a loss, and then suddenly new responsibilities are thrust upon us. This particular individual, suddenly the lights go out. Literally. Literally, the lights went out because they didn't know that there was a bill not being paid because it was all done automatically before and no access to any of this stuff. That's right. It's a very relatable example you could envision.
In any case, at any stage of life, wherever you are, this would have value to you to think about my planning for these issues. We'll leave a link in the show notes. If you'd like to register and join us live, we're going to have this webinar at 10.30 a.m. on September 9th. It will be recorded, and we will be happy to make it available to people as well. There won't be anything that's compliance concerns or anything, so it's just good third-party information.
I think we'll be able to have it available on our website subsequently, but if you want to be able to ask questions, join us live. That'd be the best way to do it. Anything to add to that, Jeff? No. I think the more you think about it and the more that you learn about it as you have, and I hope to on the webinar, it gets bigger and bigger, and it's really something you can't ignore. I have to tell you, she does a great talk. It's very dynamic. It's very fast-moving. There's a lot of information.
It's entertaining, so I think you'll enjoy it. And it's free. And it's free. Yeah, that's a nice perk too, but it's valuable. So anyway, join us. I hope you'll be with us. Additionally, we've got, believe it or not, National Financial Awareness Day is upon us August 14th, depending on when you're watching this. It may be coming up or have just passed, but in any event, or listening rather, watching, listening. So with that being said, let's talk about that for a minute or two.
Yeah, they do it once a year, and I don't know if these things really make people more aware, but they do get on the news. You see those little snippets on the news, and people like us talk about it. And hopefully, it's a reminder to, if you're not where you want to be, or things aren't organized, or you're not reaching for your goals, it's an opportunity to stop and pause and say, is this a good time to get organized?
Kids are going back to school, if you have small kids, and the summer is fading. Sorry about that. I can't believe it. Sorry about that for the people in the Northeast. But it's hard to believe, just on that for a second. I mean, August is flying by. It's only started, but I was talking with Ross, our financial assistant, fellow member of our team here. Our listeners will know, his fiancée is starting as a teacher, and she's moving to the area.
And it's like, in two weeks, she's already going to be full-time at work. So that means school's starting. School is starting, yep. And I know, probably in other parts of the country, it's maybe about to begin next week, next week here in our area of Florida. Yeah, it happens much earlier in the South. So in any case, coming fast. We got to squeeze in as much summer as we can in the next few weeks. So back to national financial awareness day.
Our regular listeners know there's tangents in every episode. Well, just a reminder, go out there and enjoy your summer. Yeah, exactly. So there's six goals to financial awareness day. It's to review and adjust your budget. Some people do this every day. Some people don't have a budget. So I think it's a good idea for everyone to at least have a- People do this every day, Jeff Perry. Yeah, sorry, guilty. Yep, you're good. Good, yep. The people who know me are laughing.
Educate yourself about, you know, be an educated consumer, you know, pay attention, read articles, listen to podcasts. So, you know, you're already ahead of more than half the people are doing that, right? Take an online course. Number three is set financial goals. We talk about goals a lot on this short term, long term goals and check your credit score, I think is a, you know, good thing to do once a year. I helped someone do it yesterday, in fact.
Do you remember the, there's a couple of free, you know, resources for this. How would you typically encourage people to do that? Annualcreditreport.com. There you go. It's a very, yeah, that's the one I used yesterday. It's very easy to use. You know, you need to identify yourself for three different ways and all that, but it gives you, it doesn't give you your credit score. You can pay for that, but it gives you your credit report, which I think is more important than your credit score.
I'm writing it down. I just put it in our chat because I want to be able to do it for myself. That's a good suggestion. Don't do it all the time, but once in a while you got to go see if there's anything you've overlooked. We could do a whole show on this, but, you know, looking at your credit report, the primary thing you're looking for first is, is anyone opened up an account or taken out credit in my name, right?
So then there's all types of other information and ultimately you can get your credit score. You can get your credit score from other sources also, but annual credit report is free. It's all three of the credit reporting bureaus. You can pick one, you can pick all three and get a good review of your credit. The fifth goal for National Financial Awareness Day is start or build an emergency fund, kind of the foundational basis of a good financial plan.
And the last one, which, you know, maybe should be the first one, consult with a financial advisor, you know, seek some help, seek professional guidance on planning strategies, portfolio management, debt management.
When we have a problem, whether it be a legal problem, a medical problem, you know, you turn to the professionals and unless you're very astute and been doing it a long time, which some people do successfully, but if you're having some issues with your finances or you're not reaching your goals or you're struggling with your debt, why not sit down with a financial advisor and get some advice.
And to that end, we will offer the, you know, the reality that we are happy to work with people or talk with people. If you need some opportunity for a consultation or a review of your personal financial life, whether that's your financial plan or your portfolio, don't hesitate to reach out. That's why we're here. We're happy to be a resource. You can connect with us by phone, toll -free 866-771-8901. Does anyone need toll-free numbers anymore, Jeff? I don't think so. All right.
508-771-8900 is our local number. Or you can send us an email, amr -info at wealthenhancement.com. And whoever you work with, you know, hopefully you work with us, but if you don't and you're looking for an advisor or you're working with an advisor, you know, make sure you ask them those three questions that I repeat incessantly on the show is, are you a fiduciary? Which means the advisor has to work in your best interest, ethically, morally, only recommend things that are in your best interest.
Number two is how are they paid? There's several different ways to get, you know, everyone's getting paid somehow. Several different ways people can get paid. If they can't explain to you within 30 seconds how they're compensated, they're probably not being super straightforward with you. And so are they a fiduciary? How are they paid? And number three is where are your assets being held? Are they being held by the same person giving you the advice or are they being held by a third party?
In our case, it's the third party. That's the best practice in my opinion. So you deal with us, we give you advice. We don't make more or less money based upon the advice we give you. And your assets in our case are held at swarble fidelity. So you can go independently to that third party and look at your assets. You can go through us, but you know, they're somewhere else other than the person who's sending you the statements.
Just to go back to the number two on how people are compensated, recent news about an advisor who was being compensated by a fee as a fiduciary, but also being paid through commissions without- Without disclosure. Without clarity around the disclosure around that. And I think that's one of those things that, you know, it's probably an either or, not both for people. Well, if you're not disclosing something, that's a red flag that you're not comfortable with it. Yeah. Right.
And when you're being paid by a third party to recommend something, there's the appearance, even if it doesn't really affect, you know, even if you're this most honest person in the world and you don't let it affect you at all, there's an appearance of a conflict there that should be disclosed. Conflicts have to be disclosed if they're real or there's an appearance. You know, it's not- Right. Right. It's part of the disclosure.
It doesn't always mean that it's, if there is anything untoward, it just means that, you know, there's the potential for that. And if it's disclosed and discussed, it can be something you decide you're comfortable with. You know, just, you have to be careful, I guess. That's really the bottom line.
I mean, I think most of our listeners and consumers know that if you go into any business and they get paid $1 or $2, depending on the product they sell you, there may be a natural tendency for the salesperson to sell you something with a higher commission. Right. So when you're dealing with people who get paid on commission, just, you know, you should be aware of it. And if there's a conflict, it should be disclosed to you. Like I said, in question number two, how are you paid?
If you're being paid by a product that's being sold to you or, you know, just be aware of that as a consumer, that that may not be what's in your best interest. All right. So enjoy National Financial Awareness Day. The actual day, I don't know if you said it, if you did, I apologize, but it's August 14th. So- You can celebrate any day you like though. Yeah. Any day is- Or every day. Yeah. Every day. All right.
One other thing I wanted to talk about as part of our mishmash, a variety of things to talk about. Had a recent client meeting and thought this was worthy of a conversation. So we have these clients who have been planning for a long time to retire early. Okay. Are they fire clients? I wouldn't call them that, but they have for a long time had a mission where they actually are going to travel the world. Okay. So they've planned early and often for their savings. So they're well-prepared.
But one of the challenges you have when you retire early is for a lot of people where they put a lot of their money is in retirement plan savings or IRA or things that are- Work plans, who knows? Work plans. So now if you retire and you are before 59 and a half, do you have access to where a lot of your wealth is stored? So there's a challenge. Now, if you have non-IRA assets as well, that's helpful and valuable and you may be able to navigate this more effectively.
But there is a rule called Rule of 55 that does allow for penalty-free withdrawals. But it is from your current 401k. So the most immediate when you retire, you have to be separated from service. But if you had multiple 401ks, rather, you could not necessarily say, oh, well, I worked for that employer two employers ago. I'm going to withdraw from that 401k. It doesn't work that way. Early. Only without penalty, you know what I mean?
So it's only this Rule 55 that applies to your most immediate employer 401k or 403b type plan. So when I heard this, I said, wait, isn't it for public employees? And I was trying to remember the rule of this. And there is a Rule 55 in Massachusetts for public employees. That is not what we're talking about today. That's right. And this can sometimes be even earlier for public employees. This type of a rule can be maybe age 50. It can be. Can be. But sticky wicky, right?
Lots of details, lots of particulars. So in any case, that's not what we're talking about, though. This is not a public employee rule. Not a public employee rule. Right. So let's just say if you retire early. And again, I want to caution because for most people, you probably shouldn't retire early because, you know, now you could be living 40 years more. Right. Where this money needs to continue to be productive to you. You know, maybe you've worked 40 years. I mean, probably not. Right.
If you're retiring at 55. Right. Right. You've probably worked what? You know, 30ish years. 30 some odd years. Yeah. At the most. Yeah. So anyway, you can see how that could be challenging to be in a position where you're going to have enough to last. And it definitely requires considerable planning and preparation to be in a position where you can do that.
But so but for those who have that kind of opportunity and planning, or if they're more like that fire kind of story, you know, where they're going to maybe try to enjoy it along the way, maybe some time away, some work, some time away, some more, you know, maybe there's more work behind this that comes along the way. But what's what's the fire? It's like retire early as the army.
Yeah. Well, the concept behind the fire movement is you live like on, as Dave Ramsey would say on rice and beans, you live super frugally in the beginning years, you know, years in your 20s and 30s, you save 80 % of your income, you put it away, you don't touch it and you do nothing but work. And then at some some time, you know, hopefully based on math, you say, I'm out at 35, I'm out at 40, I built enough of a nest egg, that I have enough money to retire early.
Now, this, they're not eligible for the rule of 55, if they're retiring at 35 or 40. So you really need that money to be outside of that's right, or a status to help you do that. Here's a couple of the details for those people who are thinking, well, maybe this rule of 55 could be useful to them. And it doesn't have to be at 55. If you said, I'm going to retire at 58. And I've just, I've got to get through that year or two before I can access. Here's how it works.
So there's no early withdrawal penalty, that 10 % penalty that applies when you there's an extra tax. If you take money from your retirement plan before age 59 and a half, ordinarily, that's waived under these circumstances. But only from your most current employer plan, again, 401k type plans could be a 403b that it would apply to, you must have completed your work with this employer, you're separated from service. So if you're working part time for the employer, doesn't apply.
And doesn't doesn't apply to IRAs. IRAs don't qualify for the rule of 55. So that's sort of quick highlights of it and worth looking into. But if you're in that situation where either by circumstance or by design, you've retired early. Otherwise, there are sometimes other techniques, the 72t possibilities, but very complex, a lot of specific rules that relate to that.
And generally, also something to be very careful around, because if you don't adhere to the rules fully, your whole retirement plan can blow up in terms of can be disallowed, and then you can have a lot of tax unexpected. All right. Absolutely. It's a it's one of those decisions, you need some real comprehensive advice to not just, you know, do the math on the back of a napkin and simple division. There's a lot of factors that go into it.
And we're winding down on time, and I won't get into all this in as much depth as I had maybe thought we would. But let me just give it a quick mention. In the past couple of weeks, there have been some legislative movements as it relates to cryptocurrency and stablecoin. And I thought it would be worth just giving some quick mention to this. The Genius Act, which is named for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoin Act.
Genius. Signed into law by President Trump on July 18th, and bipartisan legislation. Basically, the idea is they want some rules around stablecoin. Stablecoin, if you recall, is supposed to be essentially a form of cryptocurrency that doesn't change in value. It's fixed. It's like a dollar, if you will, it might be pegged to a dollar or some currency that it is supposed to reflect. And so they've put in some rules around that, where there will be 100% reserve requirements.
These are going to be treated more like banking institutions and subject to a lot of the rules, anti-money laundering and so forth. And regulatory oversight. You know, that being said, there's still a lot to be determined and executed and implemented. So why do we mention this? Because we've seen some stablecoin go out of business and not very stable.
And so I think this is the beginning of a consumer protection move to make sure that if you're going to be participating in these kind of things, you want to make sure that you're working with or utilizing a stablecoin that is subject to these regulatory rules. Now, ideologically, a lot of times people are drawn to cryptocurrency because of the appeal of that. It's like, I don't have the government, you know, in my business kind of thing. And that can seem appealing.
On the other hand, there's a reason we have a central bank and that is it has helped prevent panics in the market of banking, right? Where it runs on the bank. And we saw that a couple of years ago where First Republic and... The bank in California. The California one, Silicon Valley Bank. There was a run on these banks that were particularly, you know, had liquidity issues, but somewhat tied to technology, perhaps these kind of crypto issues.
In any case, and the Fed stepped in and identified ways to limit the worry that consumers would have about a bank's viability. Well, that prevented a run on banks. That is an example of centralized finance that is helpful to consumers. And we don't have that right now in crypto. Additionally, there was, I think, a legislation that said they didn't really want the U.S. to create its own cryptocurrency. So that would bar the Fed from doing that, I think.
There were a couple of other things, but one of them was about who's going to regulate the cryptocurrency. So Clarity Act was one of them. And do you remember what the others were? There were a couple of acts here. I don't. I don't remember all the names yet or the letters. But overall, I think wherever you are in cryptocurrency, it's good news. I mean, many of the proponents of cryptocurrency use and blockchain are proponents of this.
And many of the people say, maybe where I am on it, but on the law enforcement side of it, the concerns of money laundering and illicit activity, organized crime, getting a hold of it, et cetera, we're also in favor. So I think wherever you are, if you're an investor in cryptocurrency or if you're not, I think it's a good move to regulate it and back to disclosure and all those things that we were talking about with other things. I think it makes sense.
On the topic of regulation, it looks right now that primary regulatory oversight will treat it like a commodity through the CFTC, but the SEC will still have a role in some of the regulatory oversight. So in any case, more to come, I think, where do we stand on this generally? Again, for most of the clients we deal with, this is a highly speculative cryptocurrency digital assets type of asset class, not typically appropriate for the retirees we deal with in our portfolios.
That doesn't mean that people don't do it anyway. And now with the availability through ETFs, this is a mainstream accessible asset type of investment. So we will see more and more of this, I believe. And so I think it's still something we want to talk about, but because of its more speculative nature, we just don't think it's the right thing for most people, unless you're treating it as you're going to the casino to gamble. It's speculation at this point.
Yeah, so you can have fun with it, but it can work against you too. So in any case, if you should have any questions about your financial planning and portfolio management, don't hesitate to reach out to our team. We're here to help. In the meantime, thanks for being with us today. Until next time, keep striving for something more. Thank you for listening to Something More with Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those quality of life issues that make the money matters matter. Whatever's on your mind, visit us at somethingmorewithchrisboyd .com or call us toll-free at 866 -771-8901 or send us your questions to amr-info at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to Something More with Chris Boyd Financial Talk Show, where wealth enhancement advisory services and Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an individual basis to clients only. Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of all facts and circumstances. The information given on this program is general financial comments and cannot be relied upon as pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the information from this show will generate profits or ensure freedom from loss. Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or conduct their own due diligence before making any financial decisions.