7B1- Money Made Simple With Nancy Hite

We unpack how to keep money decisions simple and effective with CFP and fiduciary Nancy Hite, from Roth strategy to diversification and long-term care. Practical tips, clear guardrails, and a mindset shift that treats money like calories guide the entire talk.

• KISS method for daily spending and saving
• AI for general info, humans for personal plans
• Diversification across equities and bonds to reduce risk
• Limit employer stock exposure to under 10 percent
• Buy cars off three-year leases to save 30–40 percent
• Pay taxes on seeds not harvest with Roth accounts
• Convert in brackets without triggering higher taxes
• Build a three-month emergency fund before investing
• Long-term care insurance to protect assets and independence
• Hobbies as income, purpose and mental balance
• Volatility as the market’s DNA and why to prepare
• Crypto’s future and the need for regulation
• New 2026 catch-up rule requiring Roth contributions

Follow Nancy Hite at ....

Website

https://thestrategicwealthadvisor.com/

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyhitefiduciarycfp/

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Mirage-Time-Think-Differently/dp/1734876638/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1

Chapters

• 0:10 Setting The Stage For Smart Money
• 3:16 Meet CFP And Fiduciary Nancy Haid
• 10:23 Wants Versus Needs: The KISS Method
• 16:20 AI’s Role And Its Limits In Finance
• 22:00 Diversification, Bonds, And Home Bias
• 28:55 Company Stock Risk And The Enron Lesson
• 33:55 Save On Cars: Buy Off-Lease
• 38:20 Money As Calories: Behavior And Balance
• 43:20 Roth 101: Seeds Versus Harvest Taxes
• 51:30 Conversions Without Jumping Tax Brackets
• 58:40 Free Help For Layoffs And Real Talk

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:10

Welcome everyone to politically high tech with your host, Elias. I know probably some of you. I hope you're not tired of getting new financial people. I mean, finance is such a complicated thing. And look, this is coming from different angles. So this is not repetitive garbage for those of you who are hateful of this. This is for different angles. This is a planning. Yes, and there's even even I did an interview with Sally Gidman about you know getting some benefits like the rich. So she makes a certain income. You only need to be a millionaire to get some of those benefits. So though that was a great episode. Shout out to her on that. But we're not gonna talk about Sally Gidman here. She just gets a shout-out, and that's it from there. So I got a newcomer, a newcomer who is very financially savvy, and she could teach anyone any age who is legally possessed with some monies and savings, okay? And her name is correct me on the on air, Nancy Heid. Correct me, you know, my ego is not important here. And look, she's gonna give us some tips, even me too. You know, I'll just because I'm a host. Um, I'm just going through this journey just like you. The only thing I'm doing here is just guiding the conversation, continuing, continuing the conversation. That's all I'm really doing. I know that sounds like I'm degrading it, but you know, it's important. It's important. It's just it's just, you know, I don't want this super high title unless I solve a big problem. And yeah, I don't mind a little ego stroke and all of that. But let's not let's not focus on me too much here because we gotta talk about some finance. So let me get straight into it. Let's introduce Nancy Hightwich. She has a great amount of experience. She's been doing this job way before I was even born. So, you know, that's how much experience she got. So listen up, people. I know some of you like to be smart, Alex. Just spew your one-liners thinking you're clever. But every once in a while, and I'm gonna say this as nice as I can shut up and listen. Just listen before you're gonna just spew your mouth. You might learn something here. You just might learn something here. And I like her phrasing of kiss, because I I heard two different versions of it. Keep it, you know, keep it simple, stupid, and keep it simple silly. That's her version. No, her version is sweetie. I heard two versions prior to that stupid and silly. So that's her trademark. So if you copy that, I'm pretty sure you're gonna get sued. But I like that. That guy's like the most nicest use of that acronym KISS. Okay, and you know, if you heard of it before, and this is it's not well, it it's original now because she she adds sweetie in there. It's still spelled KISS, okay? And they're stupid, and of course, they're silly. Silly's a nice version of the original one. Keep it simple, stupid. So, all right, and she's gonna go through, you know, and we're gonna talk about AI as well, not just finances and all that, but let's, you know, and before we start, Nancy, what do you want the listeners and the viewers to know about you? Feel free to introduce yourself and rag a bit. I welcome you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:16

Well, I think the main thing as a financial person, I'm a certified financial planner and a fiduciary. Now, what does that mean for you as a consumer? Being a fiduciary means that my focus is on what your personal goals are and what you want to accomplish. And there's never one way to get there. And money is not complicated. A liar said the financial issues are complicated. Believe me, it is not it's no different than the calories in the food. You might love pizza and have pizza what you'd like to have it every single day, but you know that the calories are not in your best interest, so you limit it to once or twice a week. We do the same thing with money. There are many things that we want to buy for ourselves, but when we go to the store, the better way to think about it is ask yourself a question. Do I want this or do I need this? Now, many times you want it, but you don't really need it. So in that case, I would put it back on the shelf. And that doesn't mean you shouldn't have the things you want, but you want to be careful about not doing that all the time because you're thinking about what are your goals with the money that you want to save. Now we all are individual, and I want to know, Elias and I were talking a little bit about the AI, and it's certainly here to stay. And I think it has a great deal of positive things that can happen with it. However, in the financial world, when you're talking about your particular issues, I'm kind of like a financial doctor. You have a particular problem that you want to solve, you want to save certain money, whether it's for a new vacation, a trip to uh Puerto Rico, or you want to buy a car, whatever it is, your individual needs, your goals, your time horizon are particular for you. Using AI to get just general information is fine, but it's not going to be working positively for you because you're the individual, and AI takes the whole group together and says, okay, if you're 40 years old, this is what a 40-year-old should do. Well, that's not really the way it should work. Your goals are unique to you, your time horizon, when do you need this money by? And therefore, we take a look at what is the best way for you that you're comfortable with your risk, so that the risk that you're willing to and get yourself involved in has a great deal to do with it. Being overly risky is not in your favor. And we can talk about how to set up a portfolio in in a little bit. But basically, whether you're working with me or you're working with some other financial person, you want to make sure that they're at least a CFP, certified financial planner. That puts you in a position where the person is looking out for you and they're not here to just sell you a product so they can make a commission.

SPEAKER_01: 6:27

Yeah, you know, she's not a broker. They keep you broke. Let's just let's just say that. All right, she's definitely not that. And look, a lot of us, I mean, me, I say that because I just think not many people either understand or they're ignorant or they lack clarity. I mean, I'm sure you agree with that part at least. Or you know, or just like you said, I love that analogy with the calories because sometimes just impulsive decisions. I I want to get it, I want to get it, I want to get it, but do I need it? It's both, of course, psychological, right? So look, finance is very psychological. I had to come to grips with that. I said, Oh, then this is why I think no wonder markets do stupid things and how stock markets react when something bad happens, it crashes down. Um yeah, no, a lot of things financial is actually psychological and and emotional. So I think that's that's the that's the commonality I see right there. Feel free to correct me. You know, and look, I have different financial planners for a reason because some of them have different focuses. Some focus you know, so many different financial certified financial planners or just people who are you know have great great expertise in finance because one focuses on different groups.

SPEAKER_00: 7:35

Unfortunately, in my profession, if you're an insurance salesman, you can call yourself a financial planner. If you're a stockbroker and you sell stocks for a large company, you can call yourself a financial planner. So that's why I'm sharing with everyone that in order for you to get the best advice for your particular situation, the person has to be, and you can ask them right up front, are you a certified financial planner? If they say no, then their focus is not going to be on your needs and goals. Their focus is gonna be on their paycheck at the end of the month, not your paycheck.

SPEAKER_01: 8:10

Oh, yeah. This is why people, this is why basic research does matter. You know, a CFP with a trademark in there, that's you know that's a great way, you know, to look at that, not just, you know, have you know moved and sold and trade a million dollars worth of stocks. Well, they could be just looking out for their bottom line. Not to tackle stock people, but let's just be clear. There's what the product, I mean, there's a product I think that's incorporating some sense of AI. I think Zoom it is. It's supposed to be like a stock trading AI thing. Um you know, I I don't know what's your opinion of that, because they're they're popping up or at least being popularized to some degree, because I see ads for a few of stock trading apps that was using AIs and supposedly supposed to be copying someone who is smart. I don't know if that's working out or not. I didn't look into that, but you know, that's a way we could just insert AI into the subject. Or is AI going to be ever helpful with financial planning? I know I I'll say right now it's probably not the best tool for that, obviously.

SPEAKER_00: 9:13

Well, I think it is for the for the person who's on their computer all the time. Let's say they wanted to say, well, what should I be investing in? Should I be investing in mutual funds or exchange traded funds or individual stocks? Okay, so there's a kind of a broad question. You're not asking which stock should I go into or which mutual fund, because that brings it down to where your risks are and so forth. Yes, for general information on the financial field, I think AI can be very helpful. All right, so, and also, for example, you we wanted to ask, I want to retire in 10 years and I want to live in Texas or I want to live in New York. What do I need for income so that I can sustain my lifestyle? Those kind of general questions are really where AI will shine in the financial field. Most of us living in America have a what I call a domestic bias when it comes to mutual funds or stocks. We end up buying stocks or looking for stocks that are in the United States. We don't even think about any international ones because we just were brought up in the U.S. is going to be fine, and so we want to invest in U.S. situations. Unfortunately, if we diversify the portfolio as a CFP and an investment person, if we diversify, we can get rid of probably 60 to 70% of the negative aspects of investing in the stock market. There's equities, which are all the stocks and most of the mutual funds, but they're also bonds and they work differently. So we actually want to have a portfolio where when interest rates go down, the bond issues go up because they're trying to get you to understand the value of owning the bond. And the same thing when the when the business cycle is improved, the equities go up. So there are certain we want to have kind of a balance where we don't have all of one type, only equity. One of the biggest problems that people have is they work for for a company, whether it be Costco or or Apple, and our portfolio for investments is a lot of the stock for that particular company. And we're overloaded. And that is the worst scenario to have. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have some, but after Enron went bankrupt about 10 years ago, people started to realize that even though Enron was a great company at the time, it it disappeared. And people just went bankrupt when the company went bankrupt. So 10% of your portfolio in your company stock that you love and you work for is fine. But having more than that really puts your investments at a risk because the amount that it will go down when the stock goes down is really a problem for you thinking about putting money together in the future. So that's another reason. And a stockbroker necessarily who's not a certified financial planner, they're not focused in on that. They're just focused in on the stock that you're interested in buying or the one they want to sell to you. And that's not necessarily uh uh having anything to do with your goals, your time frame, or whatever. So those of let me just give you one little tidbit that I do personally when it comes to buying a new car, because a lot of if you're in New York, you may not be driving uh in general. But if you're listening from some other state, I always buy a car that's coming off a three-year lease. There are people that only want to own a new car off the showroom floor. So they're paying 40, at least 40% more than I'm gonna pay for the same car. And if you're willing to drive a car with 10 or 12,000 miles at the start, so it's broken in, the dealer will shine it up, you'll think it's brand new, and you'll save 30 or 40 percent. And not only that, you can pick any model, any color, everything is available if you're willing to not have the one from the showroom. So think about that as just one little tidbit as a way to have money available for other things because automobiles, uh no matter which type of model you want, two-door, four-door, a larger one, they're very costly at this point.

SPEAKER_01: 13:38

Right. I mean, the only thing I like to add for New York is if you're of course in the five boroughs, you don't really need you don't need a car. But if you're in Long Island or deep upstate New York, yeah, a car is a lot more necessary. So it affects New Yorkers. Just some regions, not as much. You talk about the big apple, yeah, having a car is more of a detriment because you're just gonna be stuck in traffic, you gotta do it with crazy people. Like, this is a New Yorker speaking here to be brutally honest, and you know, somebody just run out of nowhere to have a super reflex or stop the darn thing, and look, and you know, I'm not gonna get into all the drama, but you got you get the idea.

SPEAKER_00: 14:13

Because after the act, the woman who was injured on the train recently, we didn't want to go down that road. So this is that's a different issue. We're not gonna go into that at this point, but we're just talking about money. It is not think about your money as calories for your investments. All right, just as we talked about pizza, that's fine. But you need to have something to balance it, like we're talking about stocks and bonds. So if you're gonna be eating pizza all the time, then maybe you need to join a gym so you can do some extra cardio and do some running and wear off the calories. You can't just keep eating the Sundays and the cookies and all the things we and we all love these things. It doesn't mean you shouldn't have them. And one of the other things I do when I'm worrying about the calories is I put my dinner on a smaller plate. So it looks filled. And if I need to have a little bit extra after I finish what's on the smaller plate, that's okay. But when we put it on a big dinner plate, it never seems to get filled up. There's always space, okay? Unfortunately. So let's try to think about money in that direction. And as I said, it we want to try to keep it simple, sweetie. Now, we can spend a little bit of time talking about the different kind of retirement accounts for those of you that are saving for that.

SPEAKER_01: 15:33

Go. All I'm gonna say is just go ahead, feel free to talk because this is what they're here for.

SPEAKER_00: 15:39

Well, one of the things that I want to ask all of you, and you can answer the question, is is the IRS your favorite charity?

SPEAKER_01: 15:47

You know, and that's a comment section activity. You can put it down in the comments, especially when it goes to YouTube or even Rumble. That's a that's a you know, answer that. Join in, join the conversation. I mean, I got my opinions. I mean, if you want to hear that, I'm just gonna say briefly, no.

SPEAKER_00: 16:03

No. This is not a political question. I don't care what side of the political fence you're on. There isn't anybody who thinks that the government spends our money wisely. And the money that's in that you give to the IRS goes into the treasury, and as a result of that, we can't control how Congress decides to spend the money, but we certainly can control how much we give them. And you, many of you out there who are investing in your retirement account don't even think you have a choice. You now you think you're not paying the taxes now, but one of the trademarks that I have is pay the taxes on the seeds, not on the harvest. So if you're in a regular 401k plan, what's happening is you're taking a deduction for the money you're putting in a certain amount, and if your employer matches 3 or 4%, you're also getting a deduction for that. And you're hoping with the choices that you made for the investments that they're growing. And that when you take it out, if you put in$1,000, it'll be worth$5,000 when you take it out. And of course, we all hope that. That's what we're why we're investing. The only problem with that is you have a choice. You could pay taxes on the$1,000 that you put in, which I call the seeds, and if you choose not to, you'll pay taxes on the$5,000. Now, somebody has given you a scenario that when you retire your taxes will be lower. Please don't believe everything that you read. That is not true. Most of the time, you pay more taxes because you have no deductions by the time you retire. You hope your mortgage is paid off, your kids are out of school, they don't have any deduction. Now, the government has said they're gonna not have taxes on Social Security. Let's see whether that goes through and whether that stays in place. Let's assume that you are gonna have taxes because the required minimum distribution from your retirement account, you will definitely have to pay income tax on. So the question you want to ask yourself, would I rather pay taxes on the$1,000 I'm putting in now or wait and pay the taxes on$5,000? I don't think we have any listeners that would want to pay taxes on$5,000 if they could get away with paying taxes on one.

SPEAKER_01: 18:32

I mean, this will take a math genius to figure that one out. I pay taxes on the thousand, just get it over with, and it's gonna be, you know, this is what I believe in. Feel free to correct me here. I believe suffer a little bit now, so long-term things get better. That's what it sounds like to me right there. So it's just waiting, waiting for it to grow, and then you pay the tax, which could be far more than that.

SPEAKER_00: 18:53

Well, if you go into a Roth, which all the accounts do not, all your retirement accounts don't offer a Roth plan. And I've written a letter to the president asking him and the Treasury Secretary and a couple of senators, asking them to pass a law that says all retirement plans in the United States, whether it's a 403B or a 401k or a pension or a 457 plan, no matter what you have, that there is a Roth option for you to have access to so that you can pay the taxes now. It'll grow tax deferred, and when you take it out, it'll be tax free. Now, is there anyone in our audience who does not like tax-free money? I don't think so. I personally love tax-free money. All right. So, and I'm in the field. So if I can and I have a Roth account, I think it's one of the unused items in our financial world to help us save and also to have it grow tax-deferred, and we get it tax-free. And there are also other benefits to a Roth. You can take some of the money out before you're 59 and a half. If you want to put a down payment on a house, you can borrow some money. There's no penalty for doing that. You can't do that in a regular 401k. And it's not, I don't care whether you're with Vanguard or Fidelity or Nation, it doesn't matter who's running it. Think about it this way. You own on a let me compare it to an automobile, and you need tires for your automobile. So the you go to the tire store, and the person selling you the tires doesn't care whether it's a Mercedes or a Volkswagen. As long as you buy four tires, he's a happy camper. He's going to make money. The same thing is true in your 401k or investment. No matter who's running it, they don't care whether you use the Roth or the regular. That's your personal choice. As long as you have an account, Fidelity, Vanguard, Nationwide, John Hancock, it doesn't matter who it is, they're making money. So we want to set it up so that you know enough to make the proper decisions for you. And many of you have a Roth option, but you're not using it because you don't know how to use it. So that would be another reason, maybe for you to get in touch with me. There's certainly no cost to ask me questions and talk to me. So that you can do even after this uh broadcast that we're having. And Elias will have my information to share with you. But having said that, the issue on the on on the Roth is you can take some of the if you're gonna convert, the only thing I caution you on is please do not take out enough money to convert that puts you in a new tax bracket for this year. So because you're gonna be paying taxes, if you call your CPA or if you look online and get what your what your income is, and you say, well, if I earned another$10,000 this year, I could still be in the same tax bracket. I would maybe recommend you take$10,000 out of the 401k, move it to a Roth, and pay the taxes, and from that point on, you'll never have to pay the taxes on that money again. And you can be invested in the same thing, whether the Roth is in your 401k or you have to go outside to Fidelity or Vanguard or whatever. So think about that's why I asked the question, is the IRS your favorite charity? Because if it isn't, your regular account is really about 20% going to be going to the IRS in taxes. And I don't think I think you have other charities that you would rather use than the IRS. So think about that and sleep on it and think about how it might benefit you in the long run.

SPEAKER_01: 22:50

Listeners and viewers, all you listening here, she is simplifying finances. I might as well just title it that Finance is simplified by Nancy Hay. Okay. No, this is I'm learning here. I mean, I do have a raw off account. Thank goodness, padding my head a little bit. So that's a that's something I did write, at least, because I did study it and research it. But the the problem is it's not talked about, it's not advised, it's not shared of. I I'm sure if this was more this information was shared more publicly, then I'm sure more people would have made that decision.

SPEAKER_00: 23:25

But you know, but what we have is an analysis when I sent the letter to the president, and I said one of the things that would help, I said if the people had access to a Roth, if 10% of the people that have retirement accounts took the money and put 10% of the people put it in a Roth, it would bring billions into the Treasury. Now, anything that goes to the Treasury reduces the deficit. So no matter what side of the political aisle you're sitting on, everyone's talking about the deficit being a problem. Well, yes, it's a problem, but this would automatically bring money into the Treasury to reduce the deficit from now until forever. Now, again, it it's your choice, but you'll be paying less taxes with it, and it grows tax-deferred. And what can be better than tax-free money? But nobody has shared that with you, whether you it doesn't matter who's running the account, and it's not for human resources. When you got hired by this company, you went in, filled out a paper, and they said, Do you want the 401k? And you said, Oh, yes, I want to say, and the company's gonna match. And they checked the box and went on to the next question. It's not their job to educate you. Yes, it's difficult to get the information when you don't know what to ask for. I feel that way about AI right now. I don't have enough information to be able to use it effectively. And I'm trying to find out where do I go to find out what is the best way to use it in my particular field. So I understand the problem you have, and of course, it's a little time consuming. And we don't always have our lives are busy today between one thing and another working and taking care of everything else in our life, and so we don't always have time to go and find the information that we'd like to have. So just know that I'm here for you when we're talking about this subject. If you want to know more information, no obligation to talk to me, no commitment, just information. Come on.

SPEAKER_01: 25:29

Right there, free little little free advice consultation right there, people. Come on. Well, her link to her website and her link that will be in the description of the episode. So that's a way you could contact her, especially when this is when this is released to the public. So I mean, what I was gonna say, sure. I do got an interesting question though. Uh sadly, I'm still thinking about the government shutdown and some of its lingering impacts. I think you're saying are you still giving, I think, some free sessions to those who've been impacted by the layoffs or the government shutdown?

SPEAKER_00: 26:02

I offered I offered free advice to anyone who was affected by the layoff in the army or anything else that uh was working for the government that had a problem financially because of the layoff and uh not getting salaries. We know there were many areas where people were not paid. And so I did offer, and that was that is on my website also, so that I just figure we we have to try to help each other. And one of the things that's happened with uh cell phones and all, that we're not communicating personally with each other. We're texting, we're sending emails, and that because it's easier and quicker, but we're losing the camaraderie, we're losing the friendships. It's really important, I think, in today's world to continue to have those kinds of relationships. Can't just be through texting and emails. We have to have more than that. And that's why when I'm working with people, I frequently either, if I can, I'll visit them in their home, they can come to my office, or we'll do a Zoom meeting so that we can. There are the method that you say things or question, I want to make sure that you understand what we're talking about. For example, in the investment world, we've got individual stocks, we've got individual bonds, we have mutual funds, and we have things called exchange traded funds. Now, many people do have heard that word, but they don't know what they are. So it's important to understand what it is that we're investing in and why diversification is such an important aspect of your investment portfolio to protect you from the downturns in the market. Now, the Fed has been lowering interest rates, so the bond situation has been improving. Now, if the market, if the business community improves, then the equities in the mute in the mutual funds or the exchange trade of funds would will go up. So we have a balance in our portfolio where we're not going to be sideswiped one way or another. Yes, we'll volatility, as I have another trademark, volatility is the DNA of the market. It is not about if, it's about when. And this has been going on forever. So we need to be you we certainly have seen plenty of volatility the last week or so. Even I I was whiplashed. I mean, uh I opened the computer in the morning and the market is up five, six hundred points, and before I know it, the day is over, and it's down four hundred and fifty. So there's all kinds of issues, okay? And so we need to be aware that if you're five feet eight, that's what you are. You're not gonna be six three. And the same thing with the market. Your DNA says you're gonna be five feet eight, or you're gonna be four point ten, you're not gonna be any different. Now, what you weigh, this is really important to your financial health. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But not only am I concerned about your financial health, I'm concerned about your physical health. Because what good is it to have a million dollars worth of money and you can't do anything because you're not physically capable of doing it or mentally capable. And we've seen by past people in the White House that having mental issues doesn't mean you die from that. All right. So we want to be careful. We want to try to take care of ourselves. I said you can eat what you want, but not as much as you want. The same thing with spending money. You can buy things, but you can't buy everything you want all at the same time. So just think about it as money as the calories of your pocketbook.

SPEAKER_01: 29:49

Listeners and viewers, I hope you've been absorbing that wisdom. She's teaching me how to think some of my finances very differently. And it's funny, uh coincidentally. I'm taking my health more seriously. Look, I'm a pretty chubby person. I'm pretty tall. If you want to know that information. But, you know, there's a lot of wisdom here. But if you want to be a smart aleck and reject that advice, that's on you. This is a lot of wisdom here. Look, she practiced what she preached. She is a very healthy weight right now. I'm not a doctor. So don't ask me for medical advice. I mean, if you want to ask me for medical advice, I would laugh. And say you see me in person, you see I have a huge gut. I'm just being honest. And I'm just going to laugh and say, yo, you want to ask me for health advice? Come on, look at me. I could tell you, I could politically I can give you strategies that I'm very comfortable giving, but not for my political predictions or analysis. Don't ask me for for for health. I mean, I'm just learning that myself. You know, drink a lot more water, for example. Cut the sugary stuff, the sodas, the bubble teas, even juices. Yeah. Juices are very unhealthy too. Water. Yeah, they're all exactly all just loaded with sugar. Sugar, sugar, sugar is the common culprit.

SPEAKER_00: 30:58

I've been going to the gym in the morning for years. And at this point, it's not really because of calories, but I have found, and I've talked with other people that are there when I'm there, and I I'll tell you what time I go with the when the gym opens up, which is 5 a.m. And we're standing outside waiting for them to unlock the door. But I do it more for the mental. I find that it's a mentally, it starts the day on a positive note because I've done something positive for myself. And I do different things. And so I'm there seven days a week, and uh some days I'll do cardio for an hour, other days I'll do weight training. And uh, you know, I was saying to somebody the other day, I said, does it ever get easier? And we both laughed. No, it never gets easier. The only thing I can say is that if I can wait use the same weights I did a year or two ago, and I'm a year or two older, I'm a happy camper. Okay, that's the level that I'm not looking to, you know, lift a hundred-pound weight. I know I can't do that. All right, and I'm not worried if I can't, okay? And I used to run Barney Bell's and Ken Kay's, and I don't do that anymore. I do I get on the steps and I'll do different than cross-country stuff, but I'm not running marathons any longer, okay? But I want to stay healthful because modern medicine, as I said, will keep us alive till we're 95 or 100. Now, the problem we have, and I heard recently that Generation K, they want to retire at age 59. I don't want to burst their bubble, but they're gonna have to save enough money for 40 years. Most of us have problems saving enough for 25 years. And thinking about that, one of the things that you need to be thinking about, and Elias is at the perfect age to be thinking about it, is long-term care insurance. Now, what is that for? Well, you can use it for disability if something happens, but the easiest way to spend down your assets that you have in your investment account is not to have a long-term care policy to pay for all the things that you need to have done. You need to have somebody come in two, three days a week to get your food, to get your dress, to get you different places, drive you different places. In today's world, that costs$100,000 a year. That's without inflation. And if you're thinking that I'm not worried about retirement for another 20, 25 years, well, buy it young and buy it cheap. Why spend more? I mean, I'm the first one that says, if you you saw what I do with automobiles. So you know if there's a way to save two bucks, Nancy Haid is gonna do it. And I'm gonna share with you so that you can save it. Because there are too many people, then you probably know some in your own family, where who's gonna take care of them if something happens? You can't do it, you're busy working, you've got your own family. So as a result of that, if they had paid for long-term care insurance, the money would be there and their investments would still be working. But the investments get depleted much too quickly. I've seen it happen where people say, My my my daughter or my son will take care of me. I want you know, unfortunately, in today's world, it doesn't happen that way. Daughters and sons are busy in their own life, and then the family has to get together and they have to take their money and use your money to pay for somebody to take care of you. We don't want that to happen. We w most of us want to be as independent and in control of our lives as possible. And we're not talking about going to a nursing home. We're talking about staying at home, which most of us would want to do, and just having somebody come in and help us. That's all. That's what it that's what it's about. So that's for long-term care. It's paying a bill up front. Yes, it has a premium to it, but there are ways to get it done. We keep it as inexpensive as possible. And of course, we want to look at how many years do we want it for? Is there a deductible? The same way you would with insurance on your car or a life insurance. And is it lifetime? That would be great if we could get a lifetime policy. So it doesn't matter how long. All right, so these are the issues when you're working with a certified financial planner and a fiduciary, these are the questions that the options that you want to make sure you have access to so you can make an informed decision. That's really the key issue. Know enough with the have different A, B, C, D, and E. Which one's gonna work best for you? That's what this is about. That's where money, you make choices. And the choice that you can never make a wrong choice. It's only a matter of what your needs are, what your goals are, what's your time frame.

SPEAKER_01: 35:52

Yep. People, I hope you were absorbing all that. She's just, I'm sure, scratching the surface about what you could do with that money. Be, you know, truly, truly fiscal conservative. I'm not putting a political spin here, I promise you. But this is like real fiscal conservatism for a life. Not, you know, not Republican. I know we like to mix that up, but we're not talking about that. Even though if you want to, I don't really care that much. But just take what she is saying. At least try it out. Because look, let's be honest, most Americans are not saving, most of them living paycheck to paycheck. So I will have an open mind and ear if I was you. Because the stats are it is against us based on what we normally do and assume. We don't have enough information, and a lot of this information is not publicly shared. Me, I had to dig. I had to look. And look, I even got only a piece of that information just by research and digging. So it's good to talk to us a CFP, so they that that could be simplified.

SPEAKER_00: 36:54

That's the key. Many people think they don't have a financial doctor who's a CFP. They're saving money. In the long run, it's costing them more money because they're not doing the right thing with the money they have. And it's not their fault. The the there it isn't enough talked about. And as I said, in my profession, not CFPs, but anyone who sells anything that's a that's insurance or financial, they call themselves a financial planner. And for some reason that's acceptable. Maybe it shouldn't be. A nurse cannot call herself a doctor.

unknown: 37:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 37:31

There there are certain rules that you can do and that you can't do. All right, so we need to be aware of what is important for us and how do we get there with the least amount of moguls that we're we're all, I mean, I don't know if you're any of you are skiers. I used to ski when I lived in Massachusetts. I'd go to Vermont or or Maine when the when the snows hit. But we'd always hit a mogul someplace. And we don't want to hit a financial mogul. We'd like to know, we'd like to see a flag that says, here's the mogul, go around it and go down the hill so you get there safely, so you don't get hurt. And that's what that's why I say K A S S, keep it simple, sweetie. This is not brain surgery. You can do this. It's just a matter of making it a priority. And if your money isn't a priority for you, I don't know what is. Because we're all working for a reason. Try to work in a profession that you love. And if you have children, encourage them to have a hobby, whether it's tennis, whether it's golf, whether it's cooking. It doesn't make any difference. The reason I say that is it's always going to be a way for them to make a few extra bucks. Because you when you and I are doing our hobbies, we don't think we're working. We're having a good time and having fun. And that's why it's people who have professions that they really love and that they don't want to stop doing, whether it's marketing, advertising, writing, teaching, whatever it is, they love it to such an extent that retirement is not something that's they even want to think about. Sometimes they're forced to by the company they're working for, but it's not something that they're what they're thinking about, well, in five years or ten years I'm gonna retire. No, no, no. I want to keep doing what I'm doing. Cooking is a hobby of mine. So I do a lot of cooking. So I just had to have my knives sharpened because they weren't sharp enough to chop the onions for the things that I wanted to cook for the holidays. Okay? So this is what we're talking about. Have a hobby. They encourage yourself to stay with your hobbies. And you can always teach what you know about the hobby to a younger person. Make a few bucks. Whether, as I said, if it's a sport, that's terrific. If it's cooking, that's also. I mean, there are chefs that teach you different recipes. So just know that hobbies are a really important aspect of your financial life. It also keeps you happy because you can say, I'm gonna go do my, I've had enough work. I'm gonna go do my hobby this weekend. So you want to have that for mental stability also.

SPEAKER_01: 40:11

I absolutely agree. If you want to argue with that, you're just simply crazy. What's your hobby? That's a simple question in the comment section. You want to be a comedian to be a smart aleck. There you go. That's one, that's that's an interesting one. Hey, just try to be a comedian in the comment section. It's risky. You might have clap back, or people's gonna agree with you. Oh, yeah, I agree. Okay, or they got they, you know, they they laugh or they show emojis and all that good stuff. I do agree. You love your hobby so much you turn into even uh a career, yeah. You're not thinking about retiring. Retirement is the last thing in that person's mind. Yeah, so you know, you you know, you don't work. This is my thing. Me, this is why I'm in changing my ways. Because, oh, I was just looking for a retirement in 65. I already know that's not even gonna be feasible. That's like what can I do to keep myself sustainable, happy while I be productive, right? That's the better way to go about it. So just, oh my goodness, I'm working. I gotta wait 40 years to retire. That's miserable. That's really miserable. At one point I was thinking that too. Yeah, that's really, really miserable.

SPEAKER_00: 41:14

And I wrote a book. I don't think for some reason or another, I I'm not smart enough to figure out how to hold it up in the camera, but this was number one in Oh, well, I will share in Amazon when it came out two years ago. It was a little ahead of itself. It's called the Retirement Mirage, Time to Think Differently. And what I tried to share with you in there is that we are living longer and we need to make adjustments the same way that we had to adjust to computers, the same way that our older people had to adjust from a horse and buggy to an automobile, then we had to go from an automobile to an airplane. We all have to adjust as technology changes. And as we're living longer, we have to adjust our idea of retirement. As I said, if you love what you do, you're never thinking of retirement. You're saying how much longer I want to do this forever, I want to share this, I want other people to understand how wonderful it is. That's kind of the way I am and what I do. I love what I do, I want to keep doing it forever, and I want to help as many people as I can.

SPEAKER_01: 42:23

Yep. I mean, if you want to see the picture of her book, click at her LinkedIn profile, you'll see at the banner. You might you're not gonna see it on this episode. But if you click at her LinkedIn profile, the banner, you're gonna see the picture.

SPEAKER_00: 42:35

Put it on my profile.

SPEAKER_01: 42:36

It looks like a vacation photo book. You know, that that that's what it looks like with a nice light blue background. Yeah, see Mirage. Yeah, it looked like a nice beach week, retire. That's that's the book called.

SPEAKER_00: 42:48

On my webpage, the Strategic Wealth Advisor, you can pick that up.

SPEAKER_01: 42:52

Background.

SPEAKER_00: 42:53

Retirement Mirage, time to think differently. It was number one when it came out on Amazon because it it was kind of a little bit ahead of itself. It was talking about the problems that we're gonna be facing, living longer, and how we're going to financially account for that. And as I said, it's great. We know nobody wants to be underground. Let's put it that way. Everybody wants to. There's always one more thing we want to get done. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 43:21

One question, it just popped up to me. Yes. What's your opinion on cryptocurrency?

SPEAKER_00: 43:27

Well, I think it's here to stay. I think the the the problem we're gonna have with it is the regulation, and just like everything else, we can't have every state. We're gonna have to have a federal regulation which will probably have to be international because people are using it for currency, and at this point, still the US dollar is the number one currency. So, yes, I think it's here to stay, the same way I think AI is here to stay, and it's gonna make a change and how things are done.

SPEAKER_01: 43:57

All right. So, listen, this has been a great episode. Before I wrap it up and just do the shameless for Nancy and myself, I always do guests first, most of the time. So, anything else you want to add before we wrap this up? This has been great.

SPEAKER_00: 44:12

If anyone has any questions and they can uh share them with you, Elias, I'll be happy to answer them on the screen without using any particular name, just answering just general financial questions. It could be there's specific issues, but we're not gonna say who it is.

SPEAKER_01: 44:27

Oh no, no, absolutely. Well, I will be notifying your assistants with that, especially if they got a comment about me. I'm just gonna give the link either to the YouTube, the Rumble, or yeah, but those are the ones where we I'm gonna be capturing the comments. Really, no, your comments matter, people. I know sometimes I can be a smart alec and say some things, but your comments do matter. You know, engagement matters. And, you know, give a like, share, that kind of thing. I'm not gonna do my shameless plugin right away because I always do guest first, but that really matters. This will increase the spread of the video, okay? That's that matters. You know, it's this is democratic for the most part, these these sites. They like you know, people engage with comments and likes, even dislikes to some degree.

SPEAKER_00: 45:12

If you send me a question on my email, and height at the strategic wealth advisor, just mention that you listen to Elias' podcast and you had a question. As I said, there's no obligation, and the question will be no, you're not required to do anything. You can ask it in general, or if it's a spouse or family member that you want to ask about. Everything will be confidential. So don't worry about that. I'll answer on the email that you send me, and then you can share it with whoever you want. That's fine. We can talk.

SPEAKER_01: 45:47

Yeah, that's a second way, especially that's good for confidential questions. Don't put that in the comment section because you know the comment section is public. If you have just like a general question, like what is a Roth IRA, that's fine. That's public. But if you know if you have something very personal, you know, just contact Nancy Hyde through the email, which is highly highly recommended.

SPEAKER_00: 46:07

No, I am a strong believer in the Roth because I think in the long run, as I said, you're going to be saving money. You'll now look if you're making$100,000,$200,000 a year, you may not want to use the Roth, but the matching that your company has, you may want to put that in the Roth. But I would recommend that by the time you think about retiring, that most of the money you should have paid the taxes on so that you get tax-free money. Now, also, one other point that I'm having some very interesting results with is if you have a mortgage on your home, there is a way to insure that. And when you finish the mortgage, 10, 20 years down the line, all the money you paid for the insurance comes back to you tax-free. So let's say it costs you$50 a month to buy the insurance, and over 20 years you spend$10,000. I'm just using numbers off the top of my head. The company that you had insured with gives you back the$10,000, and that money is tax-free. The return of the premium. So if that's one thing of interest to you, certainly contact me. And I'm licensed in New York. I'm licensed in all, I could be licensed in any state. To be honest with you, I'm too cheap to be pay the fees to get licensed in every state. But with my credentials, there's no problem. I can get licensed almost overnight. But having said that, if you're listening, you know, any place basically on the East Coast and even uh in Illinois, I I've got licenses. But if if you had a problem and you were in a different state, I would do it to get licensed to make sure that uh everything is just the way it's supposed to be. So just know that.

SPEAKER_01: 47:53

Yeah, so look, she uh look, it's not even a credibility issue. It's a strategic financial, you know, not even an issue, you know, or preference. Let's just say that. I'm sure she could afford licenses to all 50 states. I'm just gonna say that out there. You just choose not to like New York, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:11

New York charges money to get licensed. And if I don't have somebody I'm working with there, I don't want to spend the money for something that I don't need at that moment.

SPEAKER_01: 48:21

Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, New York is ridiculously.

SPEAKER_00: 48:24

It's it's not really an issue. I'm a CFP if I do sherry CO, I mean, more credentials than I than are in my name. So, I mean, because I started out as a teacher, I'm always looking to learn something new. But this idea of the um money, and it doesn't have to be for a mortgage. Let's say you had other bills. Now, let me let me give you one or two pieces of advice before you start worrying about saving for retirement. Your first job has to be to figure out what is my monthly expenses, including food, rent, mortgage, whatever you're spending on for the month, going to school, whatever it is. Take that number, multiply it times three, and that amount of money has to be sitting in a very liquid account, bank account, whatever, and it's only there for emergencies. It's not there for you to borrow to go on a trip or to borrow for something else, to buy something you want. It's there so that if anything happens to you and you can't work, that you have enough money to support yourself for at least three months. This is a very, very key issue. And if you're in a relationship with a husband and wife, both of you need to sit down and figure out what the number is, and if you have children and so forth, then the number gets higher. But whatever it is, it's three months of minimum before you start worrying about saving for the next vacation, or because God works in strange ways. We never know when we're gonna be in a position where we're injured. It could be we fall off a ladder that we're on, or we're walking down the street and some some car hits us by mistake. We haven't done anything wrong, but all of a sudden we're we're injured and we can't go to work. So this is more the most important thing is this is what m you want to take care of. You want to be protecting yourself with the money that you have. Don't worry about whether you should buy, you know, Apple or Google or or Nvidia or whatever the stock is. Let's get the first things. It's like learning to walk. Right now you're crawling. When you start walking, you're probably gonna fall down a little bit. That's okay. We expect you to. Falling down helps you learn that you have to be a little more careful. The same thing is true with your money. It is it's not brain surgery. Take it easy one step at a time. It is not difficult, it's just that nobody has made it easy for you. And it is easy. I don't know why that is. They don't teach you about money in school. They could start in second grade, but they don't do anything about it. So what can I say? So I'm here to help you and uh anyone in your family who needs help.

SPEAKER_01: 51:11

I could give a personal story about how I learned money by my mom when I was seven. I started to get some basic ideas of that. No, you're right. You teach again I I teach my nieces and nephews money. They were picking up concepts quick. I said, wait a minute, why does that be taught? I said, money is very important. And I said, even at times I struggle with this, I know I gotta share whatever knowledge I got, even though it was a little fragmented at the time, but I just shared whatever I have. I said, listen, this is what you're gonna pay, this is your taxes, and it's take about certain percentages. And I just say, you know, I just a simple 10% version of the tax, so you could just know how much it gets stuck. This is make it real simple. But you don't have to do what I do, but I do I I was sharing financial knowledge because I just look, I'm not a financial expert, I'm more of a history political buff, but at the same time, I just know look, finance is gonna impact you rather love it or not. And you know, she's making it simple. I gotta say, I'm really thinking finances really differently. You know, it could be strategic, it could be simple, as long as you know you prioritize it, just like your health. And sure, without your health, there's no point. You could be an obese millionaire, have all that wealth, but you could be dying. Who are you gonna give that money to? It's gonna be passed down somewhere.

SPEAKER_00: 52:17

Well, talk, we didn't talk anything about the changes that are taking place. There is one change for those of you that are doing catch-ups on your 401k, and this will be the last thing that I mentioned because there's so many little tidbits, but they haven't been publicized yet. But in 2000, in January 2026, if you're doing a catch up on your 401 because you didn't put in enough money and you're allowed to put in more, that catch up money now has to go into a Roth account, which means you're going to have to pay taxes on it. This is an IRS rule. The IRS is looking for tax money to reduce the deficit. So they passed this idea of Roth. So they took a little bit of my idea and said, okay, for the catch up, you're gonna have to do a Roth. So some of you do not know that at this point and you're planning to do the catch-up. So just know, do the computation. Can you afford to pay the taxes, or will it put you in a new tax bracket if you do the catch up? So maybe you have to wait to do it, or maybe you have to not put money in. Sometimes the amount of money you put into the 401k limits what you can contribute to a Roth or another account. So we need we need a little more information, but that particular law has been passed, it's been signed, it's the only way. Look, I'm on your side. I think that Congress should not have when they got rid of pensions, they should have gotten rid of pensions in Congress also. Whatever they do for the for us citizens, they should be part of that. This should not be a two-step scenario depending upon what your profession is, whether you're a politician in Congress or whether you're a hardworking individual. I just give you a little bit of, you know, things that I'm c that I'm not happy with, okay? But we have to work around it. So that's what we're here for, working around it. Eventually, I think, I d oh, maybe it's just a hope, that whatever they pass for us citizens that is not, we are not in Congress will have to apply to them. So they should no longer have pensions, as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_01: 54:29

I agree a thousand percent. I can't agree. Uh you know, you probably say a triffinity, uh whatever the number. Because listen, I agree. You know, even in the insider trade thing, that's another issue.

SPEAKER_00: 54:41

That's another issue, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 54:42

But that but you know, that's you know, that that's another thing that I would add in there because it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00: 54:48

Somebody looking at that issue.

SPEAKER_01: 54:50

Yeah, but they're not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00: 54:52

Look, you and I are on the same page with that. But you know, they do all kinds of investigations, and uh that doesn't mean anything comes of it, but that's the way it is.

SPEAKER_01: 55:02

Yeah, that's unfortunate. But we know we gotta work around, let's just deal with it.

SPEAKER_00: 55:05

You know, I would we wanna do what's best for you. That's why AI will really not have the input into the individual retirement focus or savings focus. Because each one of you that is listening today is in a different place or at a different age. There are different things that are important, you have different goals. So your investments should be based on what your goals are, what your risks are, making sure that we've covered all the things that are important to you, not to your sister, not for your brother, not for your next door neighbor. Everyone is unique. And you relish that in the rest of your life that you're different than the guy sitting next to you or the girl sitting next to you in the class. Okay? You do things that they don't do and you're happy you can do them. The same thing is true with your money. It isn't AI cannot solve that problem. It isn't made to. It's made for generalization. And that's and it's great for that, and I think we should use it, but it's not for the personal issue.

SPEAKER_01: 56:07

Yeah, that's what a human intervention is definitely needed, for sure. Yep. I mean, look, people, I hope you're really enjoying this because this has been a great episode. A lot of value has been jam-packed into this, let's put it nicely. And it's good. It's good because just give, just give her support. You want to get deeper into your financial plan or do a major reform, you know who to contact. Look no more. Stop reading stop looking around. We got an answer right there. Nancy Hyde, okay? The link to the her website and what she offers, and the link is right there. Don't do any more research. Just check there, okay? And look, she's already giving a whole, I mean, a plethora of the thing.

SPEAKER_00: 56:54

All right, if you've done everything that that you've said you wanted and your goals are set, and you have everything you need, I will let you know. You you're one of the few, but you've done it, and that's terrific. And many of you, as I said, are doing it yourself to save a few bucks. It you're not, you're costing you more. So it won't cost you anything to talk with me. So contact her. There's never an end to what we can share.

SPEAKER_01: 57:20

Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. So let me just do the the wrap up. Remember, just contact her. Her information, her website and linked that will be in the description. So let me do my podcast, Shameless Pug plug-in. Like, comment, subscribe, share this with someone who you believe could benefit tremendously. Okay, and if for reviews, just give a review on Oppo podcast. If it's a if it's five stars, give a reason why it's great. So I could double down on that. If it's four stars or less, what can I approve it? Be specific. Don't just say this episode's great or this episode sucks. I don't take empty compliments or insults. It doesn't help. Okay, so that's what I'm gonna say about that. And then three links I'm gonna share with you. One of them's completely free. The the new paper. It's short, straight to the point, kind of news. It could be politics, international politics, geopolitics, it can be sports, stocks, what have you. Short and straight to the point. The longest it's gonna take you is probably five or six minutes if you read all the sections. But if you're really picky, one or two minutes. If you just want to just use it when you only care about the politics or just sports, it's right there, okay? And yep, and get that retirement mirage book, okay? Oh, now it's showing.

SPEAKER_00: 58:33

Yeah, I don't know. I it I don't I can't tell where the camera is on this screen. That's I have to learn, okay? There's always things in life that you have to learn. This is one of them.

SPEAKER_01: 58:43

Yep. So you get get that book, okay? That's a get that book. Um and Podmatch, join PodMatch, is such a great site for podcast guests and hosts to communicate to see where you're a match or not. And it's a has such a great one-pager function. You don't have to do use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and make get make change and PDF the darn thing, and then you have to re-pdf it, doesn't make changes. It's too much work and it gets lost in the email. Join PodMatcher. It's a it's a great, it's a great tool, and it has a community of like-minded people in terms of podcasting, okay? Both guests and hosts. And a final one: if you need a new website or you don't have one, try the free website guys. They can they can assist you, they'll help build the site for you, design it, do everything for you, go step by step. They give you clear instructions, they're there to help. Okay, you'll be helping this podcast tremendously if you do that. You know, but that's if you, you know, that's if you really want. These are no obligations. None of these are obligations. You want to just keep enjoying watching the content? I am fine with that as well. So once you complete this audio or visual journey, you have a blessed day, afternoon, or night.