52. All about the 401k

Andrea and Griff celebrate one year of the Loaded Podcast, and are joined by Jason Folsom of Principal and Elena Peerson of Capital Group to discuss our 401k plan and the importance of saving for retirement.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Hahn Ready Mix podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, and we're uh producer Lex is in and out.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

He's not in. He's not in.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

He set us up, but then he set us up.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. We also have two special guests today. Thank you for being here. Jason Folsom with Principal and Elena Pearson with Capital Group Amerif Amerifunds, right? American Funds. What did I do that right? Okay. Cool. Thanks for having us. We appreciate it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Well, we'll do some announcements quick and then we'll jump into it. First of all, Andrea, are you aware this is our 52nd episode? We've been doing this for one year.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

I had no idea. I've just been putting my head down and grinding through this every week.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

One year that we've done this. It's incredible. Yeah. So I appreciate it. Without missing, we haven't missed a week. We haven't missed a week.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

We've struggled occasionally to squeeze it in or to come up with a topic that was relevant and timely, but we stuck with it. Look at us consistent.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

So, in that, what's your favorite moment from all the podcasts we did? That's the question I have for you on the spot.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

No warning. The ones that come to mind are like the holiday episodes where we answered embarrassing questions. I feel like that was good. A good highlight.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

I really liked when we sat Greg Mulder from the Ready Mix Association down with zero warning and said, guess what? We have a podcast and you're on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

That is fun to do. We should do that more. Like anyone who walks in the front door, there's a good chance we're going to drag you into a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

The people with us today are thinking the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Thank you for giving me warning. I'm very, very pleased that I had some time to think about this and prepare myself mentally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Uh the only announcement that I had was just to quickly remind people about washout times and how we're, you know, we're really keeping an eye on that. And we do want people to have time to wash on their trucks. Just make sure you're letting dispatch know because we're reviewing those every day. And we don't want to bother you and ask you what you were doing if you were washing your truck. Just let us know.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, absolutely. Uh I also wanted to add, you know, we've we've been a little bit more restrictive and draconian with um spending and hours and things like that um this year, as we've came off a really, really slow year with a slow winter. And um I just want to say that we can see the impact of that, uh, I guess in our financials. So that effort is challenging for everyone, and it's not for nothing. Like it's it's yeah, it is making a difference on um how it sets us up for the year that should allow us to do more of the things we need to do to be successful.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

So I don't wanna I don't want to overstate it, but it does seem like we're hearing positive things from the market about work that's coming up, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I think I think it's starting to sound a little better. Yeah. So I'm I'm I'm hopeful. Absolutely. All right. Jason, Elena, let's get into this.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

We you guys were in here today to give a presentation. You know, after the health screenings, we had a 401k presentation. Principal is the record keeper. You guys manage our 401k program. Correct. And Capital Group manages the funds within those programs, right? Is that correct? Yep, that's right. Excellent. So for anyone that doesn't know, let's just start with the real basics. Like, what is a 401?

SPEAKER_04 3:27

Great question. Uh, we get that question all the time, of course. 401ks can sound really complicated, but really what they are is they are retirement savings vehicles that are sponsored by your company because we know that it's so important when we are earning money to be putting it away to benefit you all as employees. So uh it used to be that back in the day, maybe your parents or your grandparents had something called a pension plan from the company that they worked for, where the companies would manage retirement savings for individuals. Um, today you have a 401k plan, which is is similar, but you have choices. You have the choice to contribute, you have the choice to have to decide how much to contribute, and you have the choice to choose. Choice to choose is a silly thing to say. You have the uh you get to choose how much you put in and what you're investing into. That's really all that it is. And it's sponsored by your company as an employee benefit, and it follows you wherever you go. So if you ever go to a new employer or you come from an old employer and you have a 401k, it's really your responsibility to be moving it in to your new employer, having it follow you throughout your working career, because again, this is 100% your money to take with you and to use in retirement.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

But way easier if you just stick with us and keep your money up.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Way easier. Way easier. You also in the 401k, it's it's so great because when an employer sponsors a retirement plan, usually, not always, but usually, there's a benefit to contributing that your employer gives you. So you get an employer match for if you contribute, it's a way to incentivize you and to promote good financial habits. And so right away, if you put in right 5% into the Han retirement plan, then you get an employee match of 5%. And look, your money just doubled. So really great opportunity to help supercharge your retirement saving, which is which is great.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah. Another way I like to say that to people is if you're not putting 5% in, you're leaving money on the table where we could be matching that. So if you're only putting 2 or 3% in and you're only getting 2 or 3% from the company, then there's still 2% out there that you're that you're leaving on the table. So the best way to get the most money from the company match is to contribute at least that 5%. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

And I think it's important to know like why we do that. Yeah. You know, we want uh two reasons, really. First, we want the people that work here when they look back on their career to be happy with the decisions they've made and be comfortable in their retirement, right? That they can say, listen, uh, I I've worked hard and I've earned a retirement where I can be comfortable. Right. And so uh the employee match is a way that we can help accomplish that and the whole 401k program. The second thing is it's a a competitive thing to to attract employees, right? We want people to want to work here, and we talk a ton on this podcast about values and the way we interact and all those things, and all and those are all designed to have people have a positive experience while they work here and want to stay and want to come work here. But there's also the financial part of it, right? You we don't work just for the fun of it. We all have uh families to support and and things we want to do that take money. And so the 401k match in the program is part of the benefits package, the total compensation, say like this is some of the reward for being here, right? So yeah, so that's why I think it's important to have a 401k. It's important to have the the match.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Totally. I've I've picked jobs based on the 401k match before. Yeah. I've been like, okay, you know, this is kind of apples to apples, but this 401k match is awesome. Yeah, so I'm gonna go that route because that's real money.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah. I can take it a little bit deeper just because I have experience with so many other 401ks out there. Not every business owner talks the way you just did, Griffin. So often I'm in conversations about, you know, we could put a safe harbor in, which is the type of plan that you have. And then they do the payroll and like, oh, well, that's gonna cost me 10,000 or 20,000. Well, I'm not gonna do that. I don't care about them. Unfortunately, there are business owners like that. So one of the great joys that I have working with the Han Group is that you guys actually care about your employees. You do good things. Uh, you know, you put some expectations on us to do things to help them. And a secondary piece to not just the match on the 401k is we've got some really great investments. Uh, Capital Group uh is a top-tier firm. And we didn't start with them. We started with principal and we made a change. So principal's still the record keeper, but the target date funds are with Capital Group because they were best in class. And with a conversation with Jeff and I sitting down and reviewing, saying, hey, this looks like a better opportunity. Now looking backwards a year and a half, it was a really wise choice. They performed very, very well. So match is important, but the underlying investments as well have done incredible for not only you guys, but the employees.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Well, that was gonna be one of the questions I had. Whenever, you know, my six-year-old gets a dollar and he he's like scrap, he can't scramble up to his room to put it in his piggy bank fast enough because it's safe there, right? And he he's like, I I got I gotta go now. I gotta go now, we gotta go home so I can put this in my piggy bank right now. You know, it's it's gotta be safe. So I think we all have that whatever we work hard to earn, it's it's hard enough to shove it under your bed where you have control over it, right? Why is it so much better to invest it? Like what what's let's talk about how growth and and and the difference on keeping cash, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

So the where I would start with that is the concept of we always think about, hey, I've got this investment, and we just see, you know, target dates 2060, and you know, maybe I have$10,000 in it, and then next week it's 9,800, and you think, oh, I lost money. I I want you to reframe the thought process on that. And instead of I have this mutual fund or this target date fund, I want you to think about what they own underneath of that and then pose a question. If you owned Apple, the stock, and it was a hundred a share and it became 95 a share, would you sell it? No. Okay. So when we realize that our investments aren't just a piece of paper, but they are a uh undivided equal share inside of great American companies and some international, but great American companies like John Deere and Caterpillar and Walmart and McDonald's and uh Facebook, all these great firms that continue to grow that from time to time go on sale because of the media or the news, or potentially they had a bad run, uh, is really an opportunity to just continue to double down and continue buying on. So that's my thought process on it. I'd love to get your take as well.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Yeah. Um, well, just thinking about your son, I I remember when I was that age, and you know, I would also have a couple of dollars and I'd run into my run into my piggy bank and throw it in there. And uh usually when I was buying something as a kid, I was probably buying something or using that money for something that was only like a few months away or a few weeks away, or I'd go spend it. And so cash made sense because I was gonna spend it right away. But I think when you're thinking about longer-term goals that are five years out, 10 years out, 20, 30, 40 years out, like like retirement, then that's where the investments come in. So if you're sitting in cash and you're holding cash for 10 years, then 10 years from now, guess what? Inflation happens. Yeah. Right. The I went to a grocery store the other day and the cost of eggs ranged from like eight to is killing me.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

I love beef and it's so expensive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

It was like eight to fifteen dollars. I don't know what they're putting into those eggs that make them$15, but whatever. Certainly didn't buy those. But you know, the purchasing power, what you can buy with that money if you just hold it in cash for those 10 years is much less than if you put it into something that has the opportunity to earn more. So that's where like a stock comes in. So if you're investing in a stock, there's a really high likelihood that 10 years from now the stock market will be higher than it is today, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Those time periods are pretty proven, especially if they're 20 years, 30 years. And so having the opportunity to put your money into something that's going to grow faster than inflation, that's where you have the opportunity to make money.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

And just to underscore the inflation part of it, I was running a report on something. I had to inflation adjust what something cost back in 2016 to today. And so 10-year time frame. And I believe it was around 39% inflation since 2016. Right. So if you have shoved your money in uh under your mattress, it's worth 39% less if you did that 10 years ago today than it was when you put it under there, which is mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Yeah. And I, you know, I think about it sometimes like um, like think about buying a car. The average cost of a car today is like$50,000 or a little bit over$50,000. That's insane. My frame of reference is okay, well, 10 years ago when I entered the workforce and I bought a car, it was way lower than that. So how do you save knowing that the cost of those cars are going up? Well, you probably need to be investing in something that's going to earn you more than inflation so that you can make sure that your purchasing power matches whatever that car's value is going to be in the future.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Absolutely. What what do you say to someone who, let's say they go, okay, this all makes sense, but I just can't afford it or I can't take that hit of pulling money out of my paycheck. What's your advice?

SPEAKER_04 13:31

It's really hard.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:33

It's really hard because you have to make choices. Um, and you know, everybody is on a budget and they're trying to figure out what their biggest priorities are. And guess what? Your biggest priorities are probably going to be your bills, your children, your housing. But those things don't go away in retirement either. But what does go away is your income, right? You just have Social Security, which we can talk a little bit about, but really that's on you. And so what we always try to remind people is you really can't afford not to save for retirement because along the way, there's always things that you can borrow for. Not advocating that we should all be, you know, all in all in debt, but what we really can't borrow for is our retirement savings. So it's actually you're paying yourself first when you're when you're putting money into the 401k plan, which is really powerful. So we always say, look, try to do a couple of percent. Chances are you're not gonna feel it as much as you feel like you do or you think you do. Yeah. And try it. You're not married to it. You can always go up and down in your percentage whenever anything happens, but just getting in and getting taking advantage of your match, right? That's that's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah, you said it in the presentation just before we came in here. It's like start with a percentage and then go up a percentage every year, right? And and then it's not like, oh, I just took a 10% pay cut because I did it all at once. If you can, that's it's better to get the money in earlier, right? So so do that if you can. But that's that's a hard ask for anybody.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Yeah, it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah. So I like that idea of of starting small and just go up a percent. Because that that's what I did at the beginning of my career was I can't remember, I started with a really small number and then every year I just went up one percent. And, you know, in hindsight, I wish I would have been more aggressive with that and put more in early. But yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

But that's you know, I wanted to go have fun and do dumb things you do in your 20s, right? So 100%. Uh yeah. So I I I but I love that idea of just incremental kind of just taking small steps. So we've invested you you invest in the 401k. Let's talk about those target date plans. What do those mean? How are they managed? Let's just go through that.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Yeah, absolutely. So the one of the scariest parts of a 401k is the fact that it does get invested, right? And you as an employee, as a person, this is your account. So you have, like I said, you have choices to make. You have to choose what and what you want to invest into. Um, and we recognize that. And we recognize that not everyone's an investment expert. And so target date funds are a very common thing in the retirement industry that became really popular about 20 years ago because they are designed for American investors to uh have your money professionally managed without an additional cost based on how old you are and what year you're going to retire. So the target date funds are really interesting because they all say target date uh 2025, 2030, 2035. They go in five-year increments and you pick the one that matches the year that you're going to retire. So for usually people retire somewhere between 62 and 67 in the US. And so we say, okay, pick the one closest to the year that you turn 65. So mine is, I shared this earlier. I'm 32, I'm out of myself, it's fine. Um, but my target date is 2060 because that's the year I'm going to turn 65. And so I put my money into this fund and Capital Group American Funds, my company, manages it for me. And it is a mixture of actually 18 different funds that are inside of this portfolio. About 450 investment professionals are working behind the scenes inside of that fund to manage the funds. It's fascinating. And so the managers, they work together, they kind of work alongside each other, and they each only manage about 20 to 30 different stocks or bonds positions, and they study the heck out of those companies. They are on planes, trains, and automobiles. They go on site and they study the companies to make sure that they're doing what they say they're doing, and that we have a really high conviction, really high belief in their management teams, that their CEO has a great strategy. And so we get to know those companies really, really well. So we can walk into any company. Uh, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Amazon. Actually, um, our CEO has a podcast. And uh yesterday he launched a podcast episode with uh Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, about why we choose to invest in them and what their strategy is. Cool. So, like very, very cool stuff that we get.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Did you guys steal the idea from us too?

SPEAKER_04 18:15

We probably did. Yeah, we did. Um, it's I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We thought that you know we had that partnership with you guys. But uh there's a lot of a lot of work that's put into those target dates. And again, so we have those boots on the ground portfolio managers that are studying those companies. And then our strategy team puts together the right mix for different age groups. And the strategy team says, okay, somebody who's 25 should probably be in something that's much more aggressive. So I think like those common, those commonly heard about names that are in the news, like those more tech, tech-oriented or growth opportunity companies, you'll have a little bit more of those. And then when people get closer to retirement, we need their money to be more safe because they need to actually pull this money out for retirement. And so we don't want to risk it because market volatility happens.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yeah, those tech companies can be up and down and they totally can be really responsive to whatever is changing constantly. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

And they're really concentrated in the market. So they're so big that they really shake up the markets when they go down. So we put our investors' money into more safer, more dividend-paying stocks. So think more established household name companies. Uh, Jason, you mentioned some of them earlier. We talked a little bit about like what a blue chip stock is. So think more like a Caterpillar or an Eli Lilly, which is a healthcare company. So a lot of healthcare companies go in there, financial firms, uh, companies that are really well capitalized, they have really strong balance sheets that go tend to go down less when there's market volatility. Yeah. And then we also put in a lot of bonds uh to protect people from market volatility and to earn income. So that again, when you retire, if you want to keep your money in the plan and you just want to pull out a monthly payment, then our goal is to invest in a safe way so that you can do that. And we can still replace your income so that you can continue to keep uh keep investing and earning more.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Excellent. Can I throw a couple of thoughts on top of that? No, you cannot. All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Just in addition to that, what what I find fascinating about that and how many managers that if I'm a brand new employee and I start today and I save just 1%, and you know, maybe I only have a few hundred dollars in that target date fund. I have the same diversified, professionally managed portfolio as someone with a million dollars in there. Uh, that that wasn't true when I started in this industry. You could not have access to that. So it's the democratization of investing really has come full circle that uh the brand new employee or someone just starting can get the exact same professional management that a frankly multimillionaire would want and can get out in the uh open environment, but you can get it right here in your 401k with an instant return. Yeah. So it's really a fantastic concept.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

Yeah, actually, I love that you brought that up. Actually, a really cool thing about what we do at Capital Group is so all of our what we call solutions, our capital group solutions, are managed by our solutions committee. So the same team that does all of our high net worth portfolios for like ultra-wealthy people is the same team that manages our target date funds for America's workforce. It's the same research, it's the same people, the same strategy, because we believe that everybody should have access to that high quality of a solution. It's the right thing to do for people.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah. And we make business sense too, because you can pool so many people into those funds that you have this giant assets that you're working with, right? So it allows you to do that. So yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

We do, we, yeah. We do have the response. Responsibility of managing managing money for tons and tons of people.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

So that's really not to put you on the spot, but what is it? How what with Capital Groups got to be well over a trillion dollars?

SPEAKER_04 22:09

We're at three trillion dollars.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Three trillion dollars. Three trillion dollars as of last season.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

As of mid-last year. Yeah, we're pretty big. We're pretty big.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

That's cool. The last piece on that is you look in the S P 500. So the top 500 companies in America, it's a widely watched index. Today, the top 10 companies make up nearly 40%. Wow. So 10 is uh almost the other 490 just haven't driven. So it's not as diversified as it once was, which is what the capital group and those 10 companies are all doing the same thing, basically. They're they are all very similar. They're they're doing a lot of similar things. So I I used to never be worried about that. Ten years ago, if someone said, Hey, I'm gonna put all my money in the Vanguard S P 500 index. Oh, you'll be great. No worries. It's totally fine. Today it scares me. Um there is a it is truly a non-diversified investment, which makes the target date concept even more important. And of course, financial planning, uh comprehensive financial planning even more important.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah. So I know we have some other funds in there other than the target date funds. Um, just real quick, what are those um what are those funds and what do they do? I would literally have to go online and pull the account. I think we had like uh an international fund and a small cap of large cap.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

So we'll have the morning star style boxes. And what I mean by that is large, small, um, mid-sized companies, growth, core value. So it's a uh nine box, and then we have the international. And then we'll have a safe bond, we'll have a uh high yield bond, uh, we'll have an international bond. So we can fill out all those target, all those boxes, but which ones they are exactly, I do not recall off the top of my head. That's okay. Uh 85% of new money coming into 401ks are going direct to target date. But if you did want to get creative, or um, I I read a lot of research from Capital Group and other firms, principal, et cetera. And one of the things I hear a lot right now is uh international looks very attractive, uh, according to them. So if someone could say, you know what, I I I want to get a little bit cute, let's throw an extra 5% in that direction. It certainly is something you can self-direct inside your four. Okay. Uh, per what you were saying earlier. It's your choice. Yeah. So you get to choose how to do it if you want to.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about Roth. A lot of people, I think, don't know what Roth is or what the benefits might be. So let's let's do that quick. You did a great job this morning. I'll I'll let you do it again.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. And by the way, I'm not, I'm not a tax expert. So here's my just financial disclosure. Uh, none of this should be considered tax advice because I am not a tax expert, but I can give you some like general rules of thumb that we've kind of seen. So in your 401k plan, you have two different ways you can contribute. You can contribute the what we call the traditional way, and we have the Roth way. So the traditional way is when you put your money in, you put in your 5% or your 10%. It doesn't actually feel like that much is coming out of your paycheck because you're not having any withholding taken out of that. So you actually get a little bit of extra tax money that's normally taken out, put back into your paycheck because of that. And so you put in the money, it goes into the 401k and it grows and it grows and it grows for many decades. And then when it's time to take money out, you pay your taxes at whatever your tax rate is when you retire. So, yes, we pay taxes in retirement. It's based on however much money that you that you earn from your retirement plan plus Social Security each year. And so you can choose to defer your taxes into the future. That's kind of the traditional method because we say it hurts less today, but then you have to deal with the tax bill in the future. The Roth is the opposite. You pay your taxes now at whatever your tax bracket is. So you put in your 5%, it feels like 5%, but you invest it over many, many, many decades, and then you take the money out, and all of it's tax-free, including all the growth that you have earned. And on average, when people retire, about 70% of your account balance is just market growth. It's just all the returns. So all that's tax free too.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

So the question is, okay, well, do I pay my taxes now or do I pay it in the future? Or I can split up my percentages and I can do a little bit of both, which is actually, you know, what a lot of people do.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Um, because it's it's hard to, it's hard to know the future. If we knew that, that would be great. So the question is I usually ask people is, okay, well, first and foremost, how old are you? If you're in your 20s or your 30s or even your early 40s, you probably haven't hit the height of your career yet. You haven't hit your full income earning potential. So you might be making less money today than you will in your 50s and your 60s, and maybe even in retirement. And so, because of that, why not pay your taxes now so that you have tax-free income in the future? So that's one of the ways is kind of age. If you're already in the height of your career, your 50s, your 60s, maybe you're paying more taxes than ever. So maybe you want to do pre-tax, push it into retirement because you might take out less money from retirement than you're currently making today.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

So that's one thing. Uh, the second one is based on kind of where we are in terms of federal taxes and state taxes, do I think that tax brackets are going to go up as a society in general? Yeah. And that's a really weird question. But, you know, I I spent high spent 10 years in Washington, D.C. I'm actually heading there tonight. Um, and you know, you hear whispers from the Capitol, we have a really high national debt, right? And so the question is, how are we eventually going to reduce that? One of the ways might be that we'll see higher tax brackets as a society in the future. And I'm not talking five years from now or 10 years from now. These are not like political statements. It's more like decades from now, are we going to have higher tax rates? You know, an Elena opinion, maybe, maybe that's possible. I want to protect against that risk. Yeah. And so because of that, I might split up my contributions and do a little bit of Roth, regardless of how old I am, because I want to reduce my risk of potentially having higher tax brackets in the future. So I pay it now.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Because it's not just the day you retire, it's till the day you die, really. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

You have to file a tax return until the day you die. That's that's how it works, baby. Yeah. And so, and so because of that, I might want to hedge my bets. And if if I'm contributing 10%, I might do 5% and 5%, or I might do two and eight or eight and two in the other direction. Yeah. Right. And so, again, like as long as you're contributing, I think that's that's 75 to 85% of the right thing to be doing. And then you can fine-tune your tax strategy by chatting with your tax professional or chatting with again the folks at principal, your advisors to make sure that whatever mix you're doing is the right one for you.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

All right. So my my thoughts on that are almost identical. And I can tell you personally, I do half and a half. John and I work a lot with retirees. And I can tell you, the biggest, one of the biggest issues we deal with is everything that they pull out is taxed. They pay tax on their Social Security, they pay tax on their IRA, they pay tax on their 401k. Um, and the Ross weren't a thing 30 years ago. So they didn't have the opportunity to put that out there. So I think that's a really great question, Griffin, and certainly something they should look at and at the very least start doing something in that direction because you're going to want to have options. Yeah. Uh having options is the best place to be in when you have no options and the only thing you can do is send more money to the federal government if you want to spend your money. Not a great option, but I guess at least you have the money to spend, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

But good question. If you could give, well, this open-ended, if you could give one piece of advice to all any Han Reddy Mix employee about their retirement, what would you what would that be?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

I I'll go first. And the number one is if you haven't started, start now. Um, start at 1%. The easiest way to start a journey is to take the first step. So if you haven't started your journey, take that first step. Uh if you've started your journey, uh, but you don't feel like you're quite there yet, bump it up 1%. If you're you're down the path and you're feeling really good about yourself, um, come have a comprehensive financial plan put together at no cost, part of the benefit package here at Hahn. Uh, you can meet with uh John or I, and we'll walk you down and give you an idea of, hey, how are you really doing? Uh so that's the that's the piece of advice is start the journey.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yeah. If people wanted to reach out to you to set set up a meeting, how would they do that? Uh simplest way, cell phone 815-441-4444. That's on the internet forever.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

It is on the internet.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Yeah, I did mention that beforehand. So it's on the internet forever. And that is a real phone number. Yeah. All those fours are not fake. And uh it'll be either with me or John. Um you can meet with them. Uh the other, you know, just reach out to Andrea or anybody else in the staff. Uh we're we're here fairly uh often. Uh we can come in and have one-on-ones here uh uh like we did today, or just out to the office. But yeah, just reach out. And if you don't know, we got emails and you can shoot us an email and we'll get together on that too.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

I appreciate the question. You know, what's the one piece of advice? Honestly, I would say I would I would actually make it more of an ask. And I would say the one thing that I would ask would be trust us and trust the process. There's so much work, and you guys know this because you had to do the work to hire all of us to and trust us to make the right decisions in investing and structure and design for your employees' really hard-earned retirement savings. I hope you heard a little bit today about how much work goes behind the scene. You know, 450 investment professionals, the entire strength of our giant firm, of principal, of your financial advisory team, and of you all making sure that we're doing the right things to serve your employees. So I would say trust us uh to help guide you and trust yourself to uh, you know, take that first leap in in the journey and to make the right decisions and ask the right questions. I think that's that's the biggest thing that you can do.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

So, for some practical, tactical advice, what I have for people is if you're not sure what you you're contributing, the easiest way is to look at your pay document on Paylocity and you'll see how much is coming out of your check each week.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Um, the best way to make changes actually is to download the principal app and get yourself logged in. And you can do that without any help from me. Like it's just gonna ask you for your name, your email address, and it will find your account and it and attach it that way. Um, principal app is the best way to make changes, and you can do that at any time. Like, this is not something that's tied to open enrollment or when you first start or when you first leave. Like you can change it whenever you want to, and you can change your investments in there also. I would recommend talking to someone before you go crazy with the investments, but the change of how much you're contributing and to be able to see it the best way is through the principal app.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Yeah, that's a great point. Thank you for that. That's absolutely the right place to start. Well, I appreciate you guys coming on so much. This was a great conversation. So thank you very much. Yeah, if anybody has questions, reach out to Jason and and his team and and they can help.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Yeah, or you can also message dispatch or me or Leah on the payroll phone and we can get you connected with them also.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Thank you guys for having us. Thank you so much for having us.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

This is cool.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

Thanks for listening to Loaded the Hon Radio Mix podcast. We'll be back again next week.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

See ya.