Get Your Financial Garden To Grow

This episode explores the parallels between gardening and retirement planning, emphasizing the importance of a flexible, well-thought-out financial strategy. Joe Yocavitch shares insights from his 40 years of experience, highlighting key considerations like healthcare, Social Security, and the significance of a written plan.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the heart of your money with Joe Yakovich, president and founder of JML Financial Group. We hope today's show can help you on the road to your financial wellness. Now, here's Joe Yakovich and the Heart of Your Money.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

And I will tell you, um, I uh changed it up a little bit this year. I went with no grass, which is really crazy. A lot of dogs like my grass.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Oh, I see. So you have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

And we uh we did mulch and we have flowers and bushes, and uh it really is uh going to be spectacular because my landscaping guy came over and he started picking out uh you know certain flowers I should be uh planting in colors and so forth. So I'm really excited about that for uh my uh opening of my uh my home to uh the neighborhood, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

You know, it's funny that you mention the flowers and the beds and the plantings because in my mind, thinking you gotta have a good plan to get that yard the way you want it for the summer, and people take all this time, right? People love being out in the yard and getting this plan together, but it's really not that different than putting together a plan for your retirement.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

That's exactly what it is. It really is funny how you you spun that right down that road. You know, my good friend uh Sig Sigler would say, or once said to me, He says, you know, people don't really care on how much you know until they know how much you know about them. And when you listen to that, I thought, wow, that's pretty and I always I have these uh little sayings I have in my little book, and I always looked at them and before I get on, or when I'm talking to people. And really is, it's uh your point on, Sari, it's it's putting the plan together, making sure that the plan is flexible. It it's not just you know one-dimensional and just one thing. There's so many different things that are happening. And in in my garden is the same way. I have bushes, I have colored flowers and different colors that bloom at different times of the year. No different than um, you know, your own retirement. And if it sounds like you, this is you're up, you came to the right place. Because that's what we do. We we look at the big picture, we make sure everything is in place, we check off the boxes, and if if you're not maxing out your social security or your pension, or actually looking at your Medicare, what it's going to be when you roll into uh retirement. You know, I n not just you know, know this individual, but there's a good friend of mine I called the other day, and he was every time I talked to him, he's always somewhat in a frenzy, and he's working for a big farming company, and uh he's telling me about what's happening with uh you know the Middle East because of uh the production of oil. We got in this conversation and uh it was ironic, but you know, he was concerned about what was going on, and and his company does a lot of the uh kneading of oil, you know. He uses uh a lot of material.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Like the petroleum, the petroleum material.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

He uses gloves and things of this nature. And he said, is we're gonna have a little shortage of this if this thing doesn't get you know taken care of. We're not there yet, he kept on saying, but it's feels like a little pre-COVID. And in and what we do is we want to make sure we don't have a you know a plan that's gonna you have a an off-ramp, so to speak. I I was just you know, I was just riding down a road thinking about at the same time I'm doing my flowers, I'm thinking, what happens if, you know, do you have a a backup plan to what we do? And we always do that, we always give people an opportunity to have detours off their plan and to deviate on certain things that are happening. Because we never know. So the first thing we talk to people about, especially in our conversation, Sari, is healthcare. You know, healthcare is a big issue. And and believe it or not, he said to me, I can't retire today. I have to wait another 18 months. And I said, Why? Because the Cobra plan that I've had or will be having will take me through 18 months. So when I turn 65, I'll be on Medicare. Because the the dollars that he's paying for uh for medicine is quite high. So these are things that we talk to clients about all the time, Sarah. It's it's really it's it's a lot of fun, but you know, it it you have to be prepared. You know, you have to be prepared, having those type of conversations with clients, and and they really truly appreciate that because you're not going in there with one idea and listen to me and it's just gonna work this way. It doesn't work that way. You need to be diversified in your thought process, your communication skills with the individual, but making sure that they feel good about what they're doing, and that's the love of uh what I do, and and I've been doing it for 40 years, 40 years, 4-0. So you can tell I really like it.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Either that or you're crazy. Or I'm crazy. Yes. One of those two, either you love what you do, or you're crazy to keep doing it. Talking about healthcare, I think that this is something that people tend to underestimate what they're going to need to pay for it and the amount of planning that goes into it when they're getting ready for retirement. Because everybody thinks about how much money they've got, right? I've accumulated a million dollars, I'm ready to go. But there are so many other things to think about. Number one, healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Healthcare is like the number one priority when I'm talking to clients when I s sit down with them for the first time. It's our it's our number one conversation uh with uh with with new clients. Uh, you know, we look at healthcare costs and we look at Medicare when's a starting point. And then also we need to look at income coming in because again, this thing called IRMA that again it deals with your income that could determine how much you'll pay for Medicare dollars. And this is a uh a situation where you have single or married, you know, situations that you know the pricing is different for both. And then you have to have concern with you know how retirement trends need to be flexible. So you're looking at when you're dealing with retirement, healthcare is number one or one of the number one priorities, but again, right next to it because of Medicare, you're looking at Social Security benefits and how that will be kind of dugtailed into the Medicare and when do they start the Social Security situation? Uh is it for an individual, is it for a couple? And and you have to look at the the numbers there. And we do crunch the numbers for them to let them know what would be the best situation for themselves and their family. And that's a big deal going to retirement because you in this case you want to be as flexible as you you can, but when you pick Social Security, you can't reverse it, you know, immediately. You might have a year to do that, but normally after that, it's it's etched in stone what you're gonna get uh for the rest of your life. So that's something that we always talk to people about. And then uh not finally, but when we do a plan, and you it's in my it's in my book, it's in some of my brochures, you know, we we do a diagnostic review. I mean, our first meeting is pretty simple. We meet with people, we we sit down with them, just like the way I got into business, which I'll talk about a little bit, and people want to know, you know, why do I uh been doing this for 40 years? But we offer a very simple diagnostic, uh, you know, pre-planned worksheet for somebody to fill out on our website and they could fill out the information so it addresses the things that we're talking about, you know, where the money's located, is it in an IRA, is it in a 401k, is it in a Roth? Is it an annuity? Is do you have a stock portfolio? Are you going to get a pension? Are you adding Social Security? And when are you gonna take Medicare and how much you might be paying for that? So there's a lot of information that we put out there for the client to speak with us on. So it doesn't take one day to do all this with them, it takes a little while, but it's the conversations we have to make sure people are having a good, solid feeling on them for themselves on the direction they're going in working with uh JML Financial Group. The biggest concern I want people to understand when they're sitting with me, we do the math for them. The math. We do the math for them in retirement. It's not what you make, it's what you keep. And that's why there's always an exit ramp getting off. I mean, we're dealing with unpredictables that could happen, and you need to have a written plan if you need to take a detour. And if you don't have a written plan, you could be in serious, serious trouble. And for those of you that want to try to do it yourself, good luck because we find that most people do it yourself don't return the percentage of someone helping them do it. I'm talking, I have numbers, you know, I tracked specifically for that. So it's really funny, but what we try to do is help our clients understand what's taking place and why we do what we do. And you you asked a question a little uh earlier uh when you and I were talking off air, and a lot of people want to know, you know, how did you get into business, Joe Yakovich? I mean, that's like wow 40 years. What was that about? Well, you know what happened, Sari. I you know, I got in a business, you know, fortunately for me, with one of my good close friends that was uh actually starting the business himself. He had his own career working with uh working with us. We were good friends. And uh, you know, I thought about it for a while. And as I attempted to get all the licensing and so forth, uh, you know, I'm learning my profession as best as I can. But what happened was crazy it may be, my mother and father were going through their own retirement. Now I didn't know anything about this. I mean, I was just learning. I was a I was really truly a rookie on learning these things. And uh one thing led to another as I was getting finishing school and I was working for some jobs I had, and it was pretty good jobs too. I worked in the casinos for a little bit and realized, you know, that's not my profession. And that's where I went to work in uh down south uh with Merle in Florida. But I got it in the business that way. But what I realized, you know, being trained with some of the biggest uh companies on on the planet, you know, sometimes they don't train you with everything. They were more concerned about how we can gather assets, you know, gather money for the for the for themselves and for us and for the the company. But 40 years later, I realize no one ever talks about distribution, you know, how to spend that money in retirement. And I was dealing with people that were in their, you know, in their 70s and 80s. In the meantime, my parents are going through this retirement thing, and I'm trying to, you know, help them or at least find out what's going on. Don't you know my dad retired?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

And um And what was his profession, Joe?

SPEAKER_01 10:43

My father worked in uh a very blue-collar job for a big company called Jack Frost Sugar in Philadelphia, and he worked there for 30 plus years, and he was a maintenance mechanic, or actually a millray, they called him back then. So he really knew a lot about a lot of different things, you know, electric, plumbing, and so forth. And uh make a long story short, he's uh he worked here for 30, 35 years, and you know, like normal, you know, back in the day, there was no like 401ks and so forth. There was a pension and they were Social Security. So the the money conversation never took place. It really wasn't a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

It was a much simpler time.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Oh, much time.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

As we say back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yes, yes, and I think m more people would like to have it that way.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

And unfortunately, uh, you know, now it's 401ks and 403Bs and 457s, and now you have to be your own advisor for your own self. And that's again, difficult as it may be because all the information's being thrown at us every day. So dad worked, retired, and I didn't know the whole ordeal. All I know is he picked the highest pension plan that he could possibly pick, which would be a normal situation. But he didn't know that through all the books of uh paperwork that it was given, he didn't realize there was an option where mom would be part of the pension if something happened to him. And that made sense, but back then nothing made sense, nothing was really dictated or nothing ever was was brought to our attention, at least my mother's attention. So therefore, when my father was on pension and he retired for a year, don't you know, one year almost to the month, he passes from a heart attack. Young man, too, by the way. And this left my mother with no money coming in in terms of pension. She had some savings that she she worked part-time jobs, and she was forced to go back to work full-time. Now, lucky for me, my two sisters at the time live with my mom when dad died. So, therefore, you know, they were there to help her, and then soon, very soon, she got sick and not too far down the road she passed. But I saw what mom had to go through, and I saw what the stress that was put on her life and what happened to her. And I thought to myself, you know what? Just getting in this this profession of mine, I I was dedicated right there and then that that should never ever happen to anyone. I should be able to have enough information to sit down with somebody to give them the options, give them the choices that should they should at least be aware of. And I I went about it very viciously to make sure that I knew and spoke with and and got educated on areas that I knew that a lot of people were not being told about. You know, distribution planning, portfolio management, different buckets of money, tax strategy planning, things that, you know, I didn't give it much thought when I was taking all these tests, but I continue to, you know, really love the profession, and I did okay with it for a long, long time. I I I I believe that, you know, it was one of the the uh my big uh pet peeves was you know, I was a hard-working person, watching my mother and father work hard and unfortunately not be around for me as long as I like them or would have liked them to be, but I I did that in a in a very you know understandable way. I I really was committed to understand this and understand how distribution works, not just putting money away, but being able to share with people how to take the money out of the things that you have put together.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Securities and investment advisory services offered through Integrity Alliance LLC, member SIPC. Integrity Wealth is a marketing name for Integrity Alliance LLC and is not affiliated with Integrity Wealth. Jo Yakovich is an investment advisor representative and registered representative with Integrity Alliance LLC, a registered investment advisor and member SIPC. Integrity Wealth is a marketing name for Integrity Alliance LLC. Integrity Wealth is not an affiliated company. Opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect those of Integrity Wealth. The topics discussed and opinions given are not intended to address the specific needs of any listener. JML Financial Group does not offer legal or tax advice. Listeners are encouraged to discuss their financial needs with the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against the loss in a declining market. It is a method used to help manage investment risk. Fixed annuities are long-term insurance contracts, and there is a surrender charge imposed generally during the first five to seven years that you own the annuity contract. Indexed annuities are insurance contracts that, depending on the contract, may offer a guaranteed annual interest rate and some participation if any of a stock market index. Such contracts have substantial variation in terms, cost of guarantees, and features, and no cap participation or returns in significant weights. Investors are cautioned to carefully review an indexed annuity for its features, cost, risks, and how the variables are calculated. Any guarantees offered are backed by the financial strength of the insurance company. Surrender charges apply if not held to the end of the term. Withdrawals are taxes, ordinary income and if taken prior to 59 and a half, a 10% federal tax penalty. Converting an employer plan account or traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences, including but not limited to a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA. Rebalancing reallocating can entail transaction costs and tax consequences that should be considered when determining a rebalancing reallocation strategy.