Protecting Your Spouse: Steps you can take right now

In this episode of the Reliable Wealth Financial Hour podcast, Bob and Cole Falter with the Reliable Wealth Financial Group discuss the importance of both spouses taking part in financial and estate planning to help prevent a surviving spouse from being left with unfamiliar strategies or inaccessible accounts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

This is the Reliable Wealth Financial Hour with Robert and Cole Falter. They're family and they're a team helping you navigate your retirement journey. Over the next hour, tips to optimize your savings.

SPEAKER_04 0:13

What if that savings is in risky investments and the market crashes? Right. That's a huge thing to think now instead of dollar cost averaging your dollar loss averaging.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Strategies to protect what you've earned. Is that gonna last you all the way through retirement? And ideas to help keep your retirement assets on track. So let's get started. Here are Robert and Cole Falter and the Reliable Wealth Financial Hour.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Welcome to the Reliable Wealth Financial Hour. It's the show with your financial future in mind. I'm Cheryl White with Bob and Cole Falter, and today's topic is one that you know is incredibly important to me, and it is to a lot of couples. It's how to make sure if something happens, your spouse is not financially blindsided, Bob. Good morning to our listeners out there.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Good morning, Cheryl. How are you this morning?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

I am great. And this is a conversation I am eager to have.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Yeah. Wow, good. And Cole, how are you this morning? It's good to be great here again. I'm glad we're talking about this too. This is one of those conversations people don't always want to have, but it's one of the most important conversations you can have, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, it really is. And, you know, it's funny, you live with someone, you've been married maybe for decades, and yet there are topics that you're a little hesitant to discuss.

SPEAKER_05 1:33

That's exactly right. You know, and while you're alive, but especially when something happens, that's really when these conversations are crucial. Because when a spouse inherits wealth, whatever that financial picture looks like, it can either be a very clean, easy transition or a very difficult, confusing transition. And so we're going to talk about a few things today to where you can set up your financial plan to pass on to your beneficiary seamlessly.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

And we've talked about this word a couple of times already. So write this word down. And today would be a good day if you are sitting by the phone and uh listening and sitting by the radio and listening to take some notes because we're going to lay this out in kind of bullet points with five questions, things you want to know ahead of time. I know Tammy and I, my wife, have talked about this many times. You know, we've been married coming up on our 30th anniversary. Things are going well. God's blessed us all. We have three magnificent children. Things are going well in their families, and it's really um, but you never know when disaster's going to strike, do you?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

You don't know. And guys, here's the thing, too. It's not only giving a spouse a financial confidence, but it's also in a time of grief, if you lose a spouse, the last thing you want to have to do is figure out where the paperwork is, where the passwords are.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Absolutely. You know, and so uh we want to lay out these in probably four or five questions we're gonna ask, and then we're gonna discuss. And it's really important that you not only understand where everything is and how it works, but you also understand are you planning for the future? And is your husband and maybe the advisor that he works with planning for the future? And are they setting you up so you're planned for your future? Because we see a lot of clients in a week, don't we, Cole? They come into all of our offices.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

Yeah, they do, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

You know, whether it's Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, it doesn't matter. And many come in with their spouses, some come in alone, but oftentimes when we see both of their spouses, they both have different risk temperaments. Almost always.

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Almost always I mean, there are there are a few cases where they're on the same page, but once we start laying it out, you can tell there's a little bit of divide at times.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Right. Yeah. Well, he can gamble with his money, but mine's conservative, she'll say. You know, or something like that'll come up in the conversation. Right. And and that's easy to talk about when you're both there, but you want to make sure that you understand what's going on in both sides of the house. And I ri I guess really this is a topic of conversation that you want to have with the advisor as well. And both spouses have to be able to work with that advisor.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Mm-hmm. Well, why don't we, Bob and Cole, go over the five things that every spouse should know? So what's number one?

SPEAKER_03 4:28

Number one, where is everything? That's an easy question to ask, but it really can get a lot more difficult because where everything is, there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of families. Do you both have a pension? Does she get or he get survivor benefits on the pension? How does she figure that out if something happens to him or if something happens to her? Because it could happen either way, right, Cheryl?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Absolutely it can. And passwords, I mentioned that earlier. I can't tell you how important that is.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Yeah, you're not kidding. So, and have you both looked at the insurance accounts and the bank statements and talk to the advisors and you know, the contact information that you need, who do you call to make sure that pension passes on the way it's supposed to?

SPEAKER_06 5:19

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Who do you call to make sure Social Security gets transferred over? So that if he's got the bigger one or she's got the bigger one, that, you know, you're gonna lose one Social Security if something happens to a spouse.

SPEAKER_05 5:31

Yeah. Well, I'll also say, too, you know, I'm sure there are listeners out there that haven't taken that pension yet. And they're nearing retirement and they're saying, what option should I take? Should I take the bigger option to where it pays me for the rest of my life so I can get more money now? Or should I add on a spouse so that it lasts for her? Right, exactly. You know, and all of those things are important to consider, especially when talking about how does this pass on to her or him.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

So we kind of combined the first two, where everything is and what the income is. But what is number three on our list of five?

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Who's the advisor and how do they get paid? So I want to take a couple of minutes and talk about that. But I also want to go back because I don't quite think we were done with where everything is and what is the income, you know? So we're just gonna blend these three together. But the first question was where is everything? Are both names, husband and wife, on the checking accounts? Or does he have a checking account in his name? She has it only in her name. We've seen problems in the past where a husband passes away. His name was the only one on the checking account. It takes the spouse 60 to 90 days to get into that checking account and be able to deal with it because she can't just walk into the bank and because she's the spouse, say, hey, I want in my husband's checking account. It doesn't work that way. That can complicate things a little. So you want to talk about those things too, you know, and what the income, where is the income, and then how is the advisor getting paid? And where's your income? Does he have you set up in your portfolio when you pick this advisor? Does he have you set up for income? That's probably one of the bigger mistakes. And we're going to relay a story to you in a couple minutes. But um, the advisor makes a lot of difference in choosing the right advisor, and oftentimes the husband, or I should say the main financial advisor, whether it's the husband or the wife, because it could be her too, chooses the advisor based on their temperament and based on a referral or based on how they, you know, but they start working together and then they develop a relationship. You want to make sure that you're not a spouse that's left out of those reviews.

SPEAKER_05 7:37

Well, and you know, some spouses either they don't want to be involved or they don't know how to get involved. And I think that's a big factor because we see couples come in all the time. One just came in the other day, and he was the advisor with his advisor. It was him and his advisor constantly meeting together. They set it up for what he describes as income. He passes away. She's told, just leave it alone. Don't do anything. Right. It's set up for income. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but now that she's inherited this, it's kind of hard to move forward when all you're told is just leave it alone.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:19

You know, how do I start taking income? What happens if after some further investigation, I realize it's not really providing the income I expected? You know, there are all kinds of factors that come with that. With that being said, you know, on that first meeting, if someone comes in and and we meet with one of the two spouses, one of the first things we're talking about is when can we include your partner? Because I think it's important to have everyone on the same page.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

When we sit down in that first meeting, we find out and we learn a lot about you and your spouse, or you as an individual, if you're coming in by yourself. And we want to be able to make sure we can work with you and you can work with us and you're comfortable in that situation. And uh, you know, we kind of joke about it. We say the hardest decision you're gonna make in that first meeting is whether it's gonna be chocolate chip cookies or blueberry muffins. And that's really what it boils down to because we're really getting to know each other, right? They're good chocolate chip cookies. And they were good chocolate chip cookies this week. Yeah. Wonder why we're at the gym every morning at 6 30, you know? Uh, but you want to make sure you understand how much the advisor is getting paid, who the advisor is, what is his strategy. Is he a growth-based advisor? Is he focused only on growth? And maybe you as the spouse are focused more on income. And how's that going to work? Because that's a totally different strategy, isn't it, Cole?

SPEAKER_05 9:40

Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. So, you know, when we talk about question number two being, how does the income work? I think what's tied into that is how does my financial plan work? And does it truly provide income or is it more focused on growth? Just that simple question there. You know, if you're not aware of that and your husband or wife is the primary point of contact with the advisor, you know, I'd encourage you to educate yourself and figure out, you know, are we designed for growth and hitting market highs to where if the market turns, it could be bad? Or is it designed to produce income so that if something happens to my spouse, I have consistent reliable income coming in? Yeah, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

It's a good question to ask. Yeah. And where's the income coming from? And from that, are you earning interest and dividends that are enough that you can live off those and you don't have to touch the principal? Because we've heard long ago, and we've told you in many, many meetings in our seminars and on our webinars that the number one fear of retirees is no longer the fear of death. What's the number one fear of retirees, Cheryl or Cole?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Will my money last?

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yeah. Yeah. And they want to make sure that they don't want to run out of money. Because if you're in your 70s, you could still, 60s to 70s, Social Security statistics say you could live another 25 to 35 years into your 90s easily. And if your mom and dad were in their 90s or 80s, late 80s, and 90s, then there's a propensity that you could easily, you know, God's going to take care of you and he's going to take you all the way through into your 90s. And so you want to make sure you're not spending down the principle. Right now, the market's been fantastic. But remember, what goes up must come down.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Always does at some point.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

It always does. We think this market's going to keep going and going to go to the moon. But anything could bring this market down. It's extremely top heavy. So we want to prepare for that. And now's the time to prepare before the storm. You don't wait until you're in the middle of the eye of the hurricane to batten down your ashes, right?

SPEAKER_05 11:48

You know. You're a little late.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

You're a little late at that point. Yeah. Your house just washed away. When we talk about the advisor, what is his strategy? How do you meet? How often do you meet? Are you, as both spouses, comfortable with that? Would you prefer to get more of an education? Is he an educational advisor? Or does he just give you a phone call once a year and talk about your investments to your husband on the phone or to your wife on the phone? And then you never, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:17

Well, and one of the most important questions is do you like him? Yeah. I mean, that's pretty important, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

I think that's really, really important. It's a relationship and it's a really personal relationship.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

Yeah, it is. And we've actually seen situations in the past where it's been told to us when the spouses came in together, they were fine, and everything, you know, and one of them just kind of sits there and listens, the other spouse chimes in and we have conversations. But when they come in separately, he or she will say to me, you know what? If their advisor ever passes away, my spouse's advisor ever pass or if I had my spouse ever passes away, I'm moving all that stuff right away because I don't even like that advisor. I've actually heard that conversation. That's kind of a scary conversation to think about because not only are you dealing with grief your spouse passed away, not only are you dealing with fear of what's the future hold, but now on top of that, you got to deal with money and financial issues. And I'm sure that some of our listeners out there will relate to this story, you know, because a lot of times our meetings lead us into radio shows, and we want to talk about those. So, and number five, you know, number one, again, let's back up a little bit. Where is everything? Have you do you have a plan laid out on the desk where every piece of paper is in there? Uh, you know, for lack of a better name, let's just call it your drop dead file. Okay. Okay. You know? All right. The pension contact numbers, written numbers are in there. The passwords are in there, the checking account numbers are in there. Everything's in there. So if something happens to either of you, because what could even be worse is that both spouses are in a car accident. And they both wind up in the hospital, and now the kids got to come in and pick that up, and they've got to take that ball and they've got to run with it, and they've got to make decisions for mom and dad. So have you done your estate planning to the point you have your all your paperwork, you know, your everything you need for your son or your main contact, your daughter, whoever the executor is, to be able to come in and speak for you and do the things they need to do to make the decisions they need. And that happens with nursing care, that happens with memory care, that happens with all kinds of things, right? Yep. So we see that often. So where is everything? Are the numbers laid out? What is the income? Number two was what is the income and how does the income work?

SPEAKER_05 14:46

How does the income work? If one or the other spouse passes away, how much of that income passes to the surviving spouse? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

And then number three was who is the advisor and how do they work and how do they get paid and how often you meet? Number four is what is the strategy that they have? How are they invested? Are they set up for income or growth or uh what's their main focus? If the market starts dropping, do they have a plan in place for a market drop? Because we find a lot of stockbrokers and advisors, financial advisors, they may say they're fiduciaries, but I don't know that they technically are because when the market starts dropping, they really don't change anything. They don't become more conservative, they don't move you to bonds, they don't move you to cash, they don't do any, they just let you ride the roller coaster and they say those wonderful words. Don't worry, the market will come back. And so then the number five was confidence. You're able to make decisions when the time comes for you to make decisions, you know? But I'm gonna refer back to a story I told you. I had a couple, well, actually, I met her. I didn't meet the couple, but when she came in, she came into a seminar or workshop that we had back in 2010. And the workshop was on RMDs, required minimum distributions, making sure that you took your required minimum distributions out at the right time and all that. This was back in 2010, and she related when she set through the seminar, she came over immediately, caught my hand, and talked to me for a couple minutes and said she wanted to book an appointment the next day. And that's pretty unusual. We do see some people that are anxious, but she was very anxious, and you know, she really wanted me to look over her statements and some things that resonated with her, and she was feeling like it's time to take care of a problem. So we saw her the next day, she came into the office and she was almost in tears. Her name was Ruth. And when Ruth came in, uh I sat down and I looked at her statement and she started telling me the story. And the story is kind of a sad one, you know, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. This is almost the agony of defeat. So her husband Tom, they had been married for 30, 35 years, quite a long time. He was ready to retire, and he had saved, he and his uh stockbroker, Sam, had saved almost a million dollars in his account, in his 401 and his IRAs, and he felt that was enough. It was time to pull the plug. He was getting into his late 60s, 70s, and so in 2007, he was going to retire. He had already made plans, Ruth and Tom had sat down and talked about it, and they were planning to take the kids and the grandkids to Disney World. They were going to travel to Greece to some places that she had never been before. They had lots of retirement plans, and they had a retirement party, and it was a fantastic retirement party because Tom had worked for that company for well over 30 years, you know? And they had a million dollars saved. Now, after the party, they got home. Tom said, I need to run to the grocery store. And Tom and Sam primarily did most of the investing. Ruth kind of sat by and watched, and that's what the whole gist of our show is this morning. That's right. Are you involved or not involved when you're listening to the advisor? Okay, as the spouse, are you do you understand? So Tom went out to the grocery store and never came home. He was killed in a car accident. Terrible tragedy. And when Ruth found out, she was filled with grief because all those plans they had, Greece, Disney World, all that stuff, she just wanted to travel and see the world and do the things with Tom, but Tom was gone. So now, after they got through the funeral and within a few weeks to a month, she suddenly realized that she was no longer at his side as the silent investor. She was now the investor. And all of those accounts transferred over to her. And so she went in and she sat down and she had a meeting with Sam. And Sam was your typical stockbroker that works for one of the big cookie cutter firms. They do things using the stock market and they do things setting them up primarily for growth. And that's a good strategy when you're in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, isn't it, Cole?

SPEAKER_05 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

You know, it's a great strategy. But when you're getting in your 70s and 75s, maybe that strategy is not the best one. But she told Sam, the investment advisor, I just want to take some income. I need a little bit of income. I've got Tom's pension now, but I need to take some income so that I can travel and do the things that we wanted to do together. I'm still going to take the kids at Disney World. I'm still going to go to Greece. I'm still going to do all those things we planned. But just we're not going to be able to do with Tom. And we really wish we could, but he's gone. So she started traveling, and the advisor said, I can, you know, how much do you need? And he said, about 40,000 a year. That would be more than enough. I've got a million dollars. Do you think? He said, Oh, yeah, the 4% cash flow rule. 4%. You can take 4% out every year. Now, this is a rule that we've talked about before on the show, isn't it, Cole? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:48

Yeah, we have.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Does the 4% cash flow rule work? It depends.

SPEAKER_05 19:53

It depends on a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

It depends on the market, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_05 19:58

And how you're invested and how to provide income and a lot of things, yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Yeah. Because if you're not set up correctly, the 4% cash flow rule will not work. And so what she saw was he was sending her $3,500 a month, $40,000 a year out of her accounts, and he was selling shares of her accounts because she was all in mutual funds and stocks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

Well, I think the important factor here is she didn't know that at the time. Right. She just continued to do the plans that she had planned with Tom. And after what, how many years? Yeah, years. 15, 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Yeah, they invested together. Yeah. You know, and Sam was a good advisor, you know, all through the market. Through the year n the n 80s and the 90s and all the way up through 2000. But now this was 2007. And he was retiring, and he had retired, and then she started taking 40,000 a year out of a million dollars. Who remembers out there, if you're listening this morning, who remembers what the stock market did in 2007 and 208? It took a tremendous drop. The banking industry failed and the market went down and it went down 60% or more. And it did that over a year and a half. Now, what happens when you're taking income out of your accounts and you're selling shares of stock? Those stock prices, their shares of stock were 100 cents on a dollar in 2007 because the market had come all the way back. But when the market starts dropping and you're selling shares, the share price that was 100 cents goes to 90, goes to 80, goes to 70, the share price drops and you have to sell more shares. That's right. What's the technical name of that? Reverse dollar costing. Yeah, dollar cost averaging is when you're putting money in. But when you're taking money out, it's reverse dollar cost averaging. We just refer to it as dollar loss averaging. Because when you're taking money out and you're selling shares, now as the markets drop. Shopping, you have to sell twice as many shares. Well, the long and short of the whole story, she had a million dollars in 2007, eight, nine. She had traveled for three or four years. When we opened her investment statements up, and my partner and I looked at her investment statements, you don't want to know how much she had left. Over 400,000. She had gone through over half of her investments because he was selling shares. She was taking 40,000 a year out. The market was taking 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 a year out. In three and a half, four years, she had almost gone through her entire retirement plan. That's almost the agony of defeat. We've seen that happen where spouses have come in after the fact of a divorce or whatever, and they've gone all the way through the retirement account and spent it all.

SPEAKER_05 22:52

Well, and the sad part is it's widely accepted in the industry as just something that you do when you retire. Right. What do they call it? The decumulation phase. Yeah. And it it the strategy is literally just using your money until you die to where you have no more money.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

And yeah, they keep their fingers and their toes crossed that the market's going to stay up. Well, the good news is the market is up right now. But the bad news is what goes up, like I said before, it might come down. Yeah. And you're right. If you're decumulating your account, you're taking out more money than you make. So that's the bedrock of your portfolio. And it's much I can't really use the word safe because there's nothing safe in the investment world, including CDs because if the bank folds, but it's a lower risk strategy. Let's call it that. Much less risk when you're taking four and five, and you know, you're getting interest and dividends. And we have a slogan or a I guess uh a kind of a mantra that we use that goes with the formula. Can you relate the formula, Cole?

SPEAKER_05 23:56

Yeah, so that formula is TR equals I plus G. Your total return equals income from interest and dividends plus your growth or your loss if it turns around. Take your income from interest and dividends, don't touch the growth.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Right. And so a better, even more simple approach is setting things up for interest and dividends. Setting things up so, and if you want to take a little bit of risk in this market, there are some investments in the market that are doing very well. The AI bubble is on fire right now, isn't it? You know, and we're seeing a lot of AI stock. But don't shift the entire portfolio over to AI stock and abandon your primary business model because your business, our business model, I should say, our business model is to set you up for interest and dividends to set you up because you don't want to spend down that portfolio too soon. When you're in your mid-80s or late 80s, then you may need that portfolio set up for nursing care or memory care or any of those things that happen as we start to get older. You know, and it's uh it's a silly analogy, I'll I'll just share with you, but let's just pretend for a second, Cheryl. Okay, that you had 30 condominiums. Okay. Ooh. I'm doing well. Yeah, you are doing well. Okay. Uh average price on those condos is $200,000. Okay? You have 30 condos and you have an option. $200,000 each. $200,000 each. Yeah. 200,000 times 30 condos. You're doing it. Now you've got your retirement plan, and you could every year sell off one of those condos. You've got 30, 35 years you're going to live. You can sell off a condo, take the money from the condo that you make, and you could use that for retirement, right? Okay. After eight or ten or twelve years, now you've sold eight or ten or twelve condos, right? But now your asset is depleting. Maybe what what are you going to do the last five or six years if you need more money for nursing care and you've only got five or six condos left? Wouldn't it be a better idea maybe to rent the condos? And everybody's paying rent and you're getting four or five, six percent interest and dividends or rent from the condos, and you use that through your sixties and seventies and maybe in your eighties, then start selling off the condos as you need to, or pass the condos on to the kids. You know, it's kind of a silly analogy to think about it, but that's really our business model. Well, we see yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 26:37

You know, I like that analogy because using that same analogy, here's what typically happens. Right. They have these, you know, 20 condos or whatever, they're selling condos to provide income, and the stockbroker is hoping that the price of the condo will double. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

That's exactly what it's like. That's what they're doing.

SPEAKER_05 26:58

Because then if my condos are more valuable, that's okay. I have the same amount of money, even though you're selling off some condos. But that's why we say don't cut up the chickens because dead chickens don't lay eggs.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

What happens if the condos don't grow? That's yeah, if the condos housing market crashes, then you and your condos are in a world of trouble. Yeah, you know, and you could run out of money. I know we've talked about a lot of different, you know, the Tom and Roos story, but we've actually seen some very wonderful success stories, too, in the last couple of years where spouses have passed on their income correctly to their spouse, and they've passed it on in a very, very good market in the last four or five years, and the spouses are doing very well, whether it's husband or wife. You know, and when he comes into our office and sits down and says, you know, she's gone and I wish she wasn't, but I've got everything I need to take care of because we set this up for income. That's really what you want to see. You want to see someone that's flourishing in retirement. They have the money to do what they need to, they're happy, they're traveling, they and the kids are getting along and doing wonderfully, and God's blessing us all. Isn't that what we want to see?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Of course. Of course. And you know, I'm thinking, Bob, this might be a good time to go over those five questions that we started the show with.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

First question, number one, was where is everything? Do you have a file that's set up that has every piece of paper in it? Where is his pension? How much do you get? All of that, checking accounts, passwords, all that. What is your income going to be? Have you looked ahead? And Cole, this is a perfect uh kind of a plug for you because we really set up and dwell on income, don't we, with the retirement income map. Yeah. We haven't talked about that much in a show, but no. Tell them a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_05 28:50

That's step one of where is everything? If you choose to work with us, we do that for you. Yeah, we do. We do, because we have software that incorporates everything pensions, social securities, income stream from rentals, everything. Taxes, estate planning, it's all encompassing. And so at the end of preparing a retirement analyzer, the goal is to provide a three to four page document to give to you so that you can take that home, share it with your kids, kind of educate them on the plan, and know that you have a plan in place when something happens. One point of contact. And so uh our clients find it very helpful because not only can we run different scenarios to kind of test out what might happen. So I'll give you an example. Let's say taxes go up in the future. How would that affect your portfolio? Well, if we notice that you have a bunch of taxable accounts, it might be a big factor. But if not, it should not affect it that much. Things like that. What happens if the market crashes? How would that affect your portfolio? So we can run all those different options to kind of show you where those red flags are. But I think the more valuable piece of it is really just that that one document that includes everything and points of contact with the attorney, points of contact with the accountant, everything in one document.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

And it tells you what your income is because it does it does a full layout of your income and your after-tax expenses and all of your after all expenses are paid, what is your cash flow, and it shows you in a good market with current inflation, it shows you in a bad market. Yeah. With rate rising inflation.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

And that's it that's where, you know, when we look at the retirement income map, that's really where that piece comes in. Because we can look at your current scenario, so what's happening this year, but then we can also take that and predict it out over the next 30 years with inflation and all those other factors. Build in nursing care.

SPEAKER_06 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:46

How will that look like into the future?

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Yeah, right. And you want to really know that you're going to flourish in 10 or 15 or 20 years. Whether the market's up or the market's down, that's probably the one big thing we took away from Minneapolis when we went up there. The market shouldn't really be affecting your portfolio. So we thank you for listening today, Cheryl, to the Reliable Wealth Financial Hour. This is Bob Falter, your host, Cole. And thank you, Cheryl, for being here today and guiding us through it again. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed weekend.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

To learn more about the Reliable Wealth team, be sure to visit our website, reliablewealthfinancial.com.

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