10.13.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

10.13.22: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to Financial Freedom with your host Safe Money Bob. Get set for a full hour of financial information and economic news you can't afford to miss. Bob works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you too. So now let's start the show. Here's safe money, Bob.

Bob Loss:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob. I am Bob. A lot going on since our last show. This week, we will be covering financial wisdom with a quote of the week, our usual quotes of the week. We'll have problem solver section, AEP and open enrollment for the Medicare Medicare supplement policies. Some things and tips for smart, smart retirees due as far as paying for some of the Medicare expenses and premiums for their supplement policy. Some cost-cutting tips and how to kick the IRS out of being your partner in retirement. And then this week in history, hopefully we have time at the end of the show to hit some cool facts and tidbits that we've been sharing over the course of the last month or so. So personally, it's been a lot going on in my life. Got to visit my daughter. I think I mentioned it last time at University of Tennessee, actually went to a football game so I could see why she really loves it there and doing a great job academically. It's it's really cool spot. Definitely big, big school. Just lots happening. My son, who plays, he's a lacrosse player. Pretty good one at that. He has been recruited by a few schools, one more than a few over the last 6 to 12 months.

Bob Loss:
And he had a choice between Susquehanna University, my alma mater, or Ithaca College, and he chose Ithaca College. And it's awesome because it's great for him. He's making his own path. He had the guts to decide not to go to my school, and I respect the hell out of him for that. He was worried he was going to disappoint me and I was like, Dude, you can't disappoint me by picking Ithaca College over my school. I go, It's a great time for you. You're setting your own path, creating your own, your own story. You know, I'm looking forward to bundling up and going and watch him play starting spring of 24 or late winter. I guess they start. It's if anybody's know where Ithaca is, it's it's right at the index finger of one of the Finger Lakes. Really nice area. There's plenty of gorgeous hiking trails, water falls, a lot of falls. So it's got a unique character to it. And when you stand at on campus, at Ithaca, you can look across you're at the South Hill, the East Hills, Cornell. So you've got 30,000 plus college kids all around this little town of Ithaca, New York. So it's pretty unique, pretty cool spot. Proud of them. Good dad moment for me.

Producer:
Now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the Quote of the Week.

Bob Loss:
So I want to go into the financial wisdom, the quote of the week. This is from a gentleman named John. Jack. He would go by, actually. And the quote he always would say was, if you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in the stock market, you shouldn't be in the stock market. So it comes back to risk tolerance. You know, some people have some some people have a lot. Some people have a little and some people have none. So depending on which person you are. Like we say every week, you want to talk with an advisor, you want to talk with your current advisor, you want to have a talk with me. You have more than one set of eyes. Look at your situation. You can always go to WW, save money abc.com and book an appointment with me. It could be 15 minutes just to get to know me. Hopefully you're getting to know me pretty well each week on these shows. I mean, I'm kind of bringing you along in the things going on in our life here. You know, it's kind of weird. We're almost like empty nesters, even though my son's still here and he's a senior because he just does this stuff on his own. And my daughter is in Tennessee, so definitely a lot different. So back to the quote. So so Jack Bogle, he passed away back in 19. He lived from May 8th, 1929. So six months before, I guess, the big stock market crash. And he lived all the way till January 16th of 2019. He was an investor, philanthropist. He was credited with creating the first index fund. So if you think about S&P 500 index fund, he was credited with creating index, the first index fund. He's avid investor and money manager himself. He preached investment over speculation and reducing broker fees as much as possible, hence the index fund. There's a lot less management cost and something like that than a highly actively managed mutual fund. So that's sort of where he falls into the whole financial mix and history here.

Producer:
It's time for this week's problem solver.

Bob Loss:
You go to a problem solver section here and hopefully somebody that don't have this problem or these problems, but I'm going to share this situation with you. And again, if you need help and want to just have a free consultation, not only can go to the website I just mentioned, but you can call my office 20 47139083592861. Leave a message. One of my staff will get back to you. Set up a convenient time for us to have a chat. Of course. Always complimentary. No charge. Hopefully I can give you a call. You call today or any day know, Just call Bob at 9083592861 and leave a message and we'll set up a time for initial consultation free of charge. And worst case, you get some good ideas hopefully out of me, even if you don't decide to work with us at this time for any reason. So we recently worked with it's kind of a case study I'm going to share with you. We recently worked with a couple older couple like 80 and 83 years old, middle of their retirement, so they retired, I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, we'll say. And they were getting worried about their spend downs, the amount of money they're spending. So after review and inspection, we figured out that they were overinvested in one particular segment, which was a bond portfolio, and they actually had lost 25% of the portfolio since the start of this year, so since January 1st of 22. And they didn't know they could update an annuity that they had.

Bob Loss:
So what we did is we actually reviewed, we did the annuity x ray analysis, etc. We were able to show them different options. For upgrading to a more suitable annuity for them because your needs change. So even if you have annuity contracts from five, ten, 15 years ago. It's always good to review them with a professional, understand everything that's going on with them. And in this case, you know, they were able to select an option with them that nearly doubled their annuity payout. So instead of making just over 2600 a month. We are getting 5000 a month, just over 5000 a month. And all this was done without them paying fees on this portion of their portfolio. And they received the higher income right away. So they don't need to worry anymore about what they're spending because they have a plan for what to expect. So for a couple in the eighties, a big deal. This was a big deal for them. And we're so happy that we were able to help them. So, again, you want to help like this. You can always call our office. 9083592861. Just leave a message so we will get back to you normally within 24 hours or less, and then we can have a chat. You can also go to the website if you prefer that method w WW safe money by abc.com and there you can book time with me as well. Huh? Let's see here so we can help. A lot of you look at growth options, income options, fees, no fees depending on your tax situation.

Bob Loss:
We can look at those things as well. People, You'd be surprised how many people fear running out of money like they do. It's just something that they worry about and you don't want. You don't want to spend down all your hard earned money and have nothing left to live on or even potentially spend down a legacy that you would have left for your family, your beneficiaries, your kids. So, you know, the cool thing is to investors in annuities didn't lose a penny back in the financial crisis. Again, if they were in fixed index and multi year guarantee annuities, they have no market risk attached to them. You're not in the market. Your worst year in some cases is going to be zero. So the power of zero, I've said it before, probably on almost every show. So instead of being down 20, 25% or worse, if you have money in the Nasdaq 100, I mean, you're talking you know, you could be down over 30%. It's nuts. But it happens. Happened in oh eight. It's happened in 22. So. So I like the transition. It's a little different subject, but it's definitely a big one that's on people's minds this time of year. Medicare. Open enrollment for Medicare. Supplement policies and so forth. Your annual enrollment period is actually October 15th to December 7th. So if you have to do this, make sure you get this done. All right? And if you have a plan already, make sure you want to keep the one you have, because this stuff's always changing periodically, even annually, I guess.

Bob Loss:
And again, for help with this and any other subject in your life that you want to kind of run by me, just give me a call again at 908 359 2861 and leave a message we'll set up a call can be a virtual call. You can see me on video. Could be audio would just be on our phones, whatever you want. So it's all good. Or you can go to the website www dot SafeMoneyBob.com And book a call there for free of course no charge so let's take a look at Medicare and make some sense of the different parts and options available to you. There's a lot of moving parts and I have a little fact here or a couple of facts actually. So you probably know how many Americans are on Medicare or enrolled in Medicare. Well. Approximately 61 million Americans are covered by Medicare health plans right now. And this is courtesy of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. It's a little dated 2020, but it's not bad. It gives us a good feel. I'm sure it's a little higher now than 61 million. About 18.5% of the US population is on Medicare or single care right now, or even more than that. Almost four out of every ten American consumers or Medicare consumers are also enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, which kind of fill the gap.

Bob Loss:
The Gap plan's per Kaiser Family Foundation. Also, this one's actually as of 2021. It's a little more recent. In 2000. For 2022, Medicare beneficiaries have access to 39 different Medicare Advantage plans per the Kaiser Family Foundation, 39 different options. It's a lot of options. So you're going to want to work with someone who can help you, guide you through what to pick and based on your health budget, all those factors. And it's also it's not just health, it's finances, too. 89% of Medicare Advantage plans offered in 22 include prescription drug coverage for Kaiser Family Foundation. So there's a lot of people that rely on Medicare A and B, they rely on Medicare, Medigap, I call them policy supplement policies to have quality health care and not have tons of out-of-pocket expense. So very, very important part of anyone's retirement plan or strategy. So you don't want to you don't want to pay too much premium for things, but you want to have the proper coverage in place, whether it be Medicare, long term care, life insurance, any of those things, you get the best bang for the buck. That's what we do. We help people find solutions and get them the best bang for their dollar. So again, if you want to call 908 359 2861 and book a call with Safe Money Bob or www dot SafeMoneyBob.com Set up a time we'll chat see where you're at. See what's bothering you and see if we can help you of course free of charge. So and again, I appreciate everybody tuning in for Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob, means a lot.

Bob Loss:
I enjoy doing the shows every week. I just want to make a difference. And help people help themselves. Probably set up previous shows. My kids were young. I mean, now there's other teenagers, college and almost all in high school. It's like if people ask what your dad does or say, he helps people help themselves. And that's what I do. So. So I'm going to move along here with some info on Medicare Part A, part B, Part D, Medigap supplement policies. So I'll try to be thorough here. I'm not going to stay on this too much because it's kind of broad information, but it's still good, good things for you guys to learn and know about. So Medicare Part A via medicare.gov. So basically it's known as hospital insurance. It covers inpatient, hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care also covers hospice care. Along with some home health care. So that's Medicare Part A now part B, again, via medicare.gov. It's basically the medical insurance. So part A is hospital insurance for the most part, or B, is medical insurance. So this would basically cover certain doctor services, outpatient care, medical supplies and preventive services. So some people automatically get part B, but others have to enroll. You could be subject to a late enrollment fee if you don't sign up for part B when you first become eligible. So here's a quick little power tip. If and when you become eligible for Medicare A and B specifically B, enroll when you're supposed to.

Bob Loss:
Otherwise, you'll pay a premium, like it'll cost you extra when you get older. So just make sure you take care of that. Then there's Medicare Part D, So Part D is known as the drug coverage and again via medicare.gov. Plans cover a wide variety of prescription drugs. So I don't know if many know this, but like name brand drugs and and generic drugs, a lot of the difference or even premium drugs, a lot of difference isn't in the actual ingredients of the drug. It's in the delivery mechanism in the drug. I learned this from actually a client of mine who is in that field per se, and he was like, Yeah, the biggest difference is the delivery agent or component of the drug, not the actual drug itself. So that was pretty cool information to pick up. And then you have your supplement policies, Medigap Medicare Advantage. So these type of insurance are designed to fill coverage gaps and A and B. So it fills the gap between the coverage gaps in A and B, So you can't have both of them. You have to pick. So about 81% of beneficiaries that Part A and B for Medicare supplement their coverage with Medicare mitigate or employer sponsored plan. So some people have plans when they left their employer that are continuing. They get they get lifetime coverage. So that will become secondary to the Medicare in most cases. So they wouldn't have to get a medigap policy.

Bob Loss:
So Medicare plus Medigap is more expensive than any other than any than other plans. It covers any hospital or doctor that accepts Medicare. I'm sorry. And I want to just real quick disclaimer. So per Investopedia was the 81% of beneficiaries who have parts A and B supplement their coverage with Medigap Medicaid or employer sponsored plans. Just full disclosure there. And then there's no need for authorization or referrals from your primary. So that's pretty cool. It's like open access in my group benefit world that I also participate in here not only on a plan but also procuring them for small business clients that I have that not only do I do their insurance, their their finances, or their investment money, retirement money, college money, savings emergency, all that. I also had an older benefit plan and again, I have a team in every area that I cover helping me help you. So you're not just getting me, you're getting me. Plus a small army. In a way, they help me find the best solutions based on the situation for each client and everything. So and it's also good for people who have specific doctors and hospitals they want to use. So some of the plans work in certain areas. Some of them are just good for everywhere. So it's another thing to kind of keep, keep advance or keep sorry advantage, keep have knowledge of. So what Medicare Advantage, we went on to that and it's also known as part C, So Medicare Advantage plans will cover hospitals and doctors and often include prescription drug coverage and other coverage not included in parts A and B, So it kind of puts the bow around A and B, Medicare Advantage operates as a health HMO.

Bob Loss:
So everybody knows what HMO is network you work with in a network. And it limits people who are covered by the plan to doctors and hospitals in a network. So in some cases, the thought process was premiums would be less because you had pre set fees associated with the carriers and what they were paying for the services from the doctors and hospitals. So that's that's where the whole HMO or health maintenance organizations kind of came about, gosh, probably what, 20, 20, 25 years ago? Maybe I'm trying to think of the first HMO that I saw available. So here's a little tip. And again, to get any help with anything, just share thoughts. Have another look at somebody. Look at your situation. See if anything can be improved. I would suggest you go to www dot SafeMoneyBob.com And book a call at me. We can just you can just talk to me about what's going on and we'll see if we can help you. And you can also call the office 908 359 2861 and have one of my assistants reach out to one of my staff to set up a call if that's easier for you. So. So with that being said, some people will buy an annuity that will cover the cost of these these extra plans, you know, these wraparound plans, I'll call them, plus any co-pays or deductibles.

Bob Loss:
So you can do that. And there's different ways to do it, which we can review If we if when we have our initial chat, we can help you with that today. If you want to cover those costs and not have to worry about it, basically ensuring that your health care needs will be met, which can give you a peace of mind. And again, there's ways we can do that while still controlling the asset. So that's the key. Our tip Don't give up control of your asset if you don't have to. You can still get guaranteed income in different ways. You don't have to annuitize per se. You can, but you don't have to. So that's just something else we would cover in that situation. You can take money from an old 41k if you so choose. Also, put it into annuity. You can use the annuity income to cover the medical sorry medical costs once you turn 65 because it'll still be some out of pocket depending on what plan you pick. So there's just different solutions for different people, but just don't hesitate to take advantage. You know, hopefully you can listen to me weekends at 8 a.m. on WBCB Radio. We appreciate it. You know, it's pretty consistent Saturday and Sunday, 8 to 9. So you can if you missed Saturday, you got Sunday and you listen Saturday and you're really excited, you can listen again on Sunday.

Producer:
Here's the cost cutter of the week.

Bob Loss:
So anyway, let me see here. So I'm going to go into a cost cutter. All right. So just costcutter. If you don't move your Medicare plan every 2 to 3 years. In other words, you review what you have, what you're paying. You could be losing money now, like with regular medical insurance, especially small group that I dealt with for so many years. Like there was a time where you basically would move your change your carrier every couple of years to get a better rate for similar coverage. Now it's just sort of stagnant out there. There's not a lot of moving around, at least on a small group market. But again, it can't hurt to know, okay, I'm paying this with Carrier A, and if I go to Carrier B, it would be this much less per se. Or maybe it's more and you know, you're in the right spot. So by reevaluating your options each year, you'll find you can save money on your Medicare expenses in some cases. It's not everybody, not everybody's going to save money. But again, it's just it's always good to know. And all of your pieces to your financial puzzle are in the right place. Or is a piece broken and need to be fixed? So just good, good, solid recommendations there. You know, some people do a medicare coverage check every year just in case there's might be a way to save money.

Bob Loss:
I mean, maybe that's a little much, but it just depends on what you want, how you feel like you do what you want to do, but take advantage of your current advisors. Lean on me. Like I said, have a have people look over things that you believe are knowledgeable and you believe are always looking at your best interests for you because that's what we do. Whenever I work with anyone, it's like what makes the most sense for you? And I explain it and then I say why We think the recommendation makes the most sense for you. And then if you're completely happy with it emotionally, mentally, physically, you understand everything, then you have then you have the power to make decisions because you don't have the power to make decisions when you don't understand what's going on. So I will never do anything with anyone that doesn't understand what we're what we're implementing. Like I make absolutely sure. Numerous times over and over and over. I'll ask sometimes the same question. A few times in the course of a of a consultation just to make sure. So to take advantage of that you can always go to www dot SafeMoneyBob.com

Bob Loss:
Keep listening to the show. Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob or call my office at 908 359 2861. Leave a message and someone to book a call for you. They'll give you a buzz and look at my calendar and set you up with a call with me. So obviously, I've been harping on this probably every every show, but obviously complimentary consultations. For retirement plan consultation, take advantage of it. You don't really need to have to worry about paying for anything. And it's just a question of getting you to get to a place where you really want to be. So coming up on our first break, and I'm just going to just real quickly go over a couple of things we're going to go over. So I'm going to try to figure out how we can kick the IRS out of your retirement plan in the next segment. You know, just different types of brokerage types, investment accounts we're going to review. I will definitely get hopefully this week to this week in history, lots of cool tidbits, generous sports information and so forth. In the next segment. So everybody stay tuned, take a break, get a coffee, get a water, and we'll be back soon with the rest of this week's show. Thanks.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob. To schedule a free consultation, call Bob at 908 359 2861. That's 908 359 2861.

Producer:
I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Dot Radio Network. Next time you head to the pharmacy, you could be in for some sticker shock. So do you need to plan now for higher drug prices in the future? First, let's spell out the problem, and it's not necessarily a new one. Prescription drug prices have been rising faster than inflation for decades, according to AARP. To put it in perspective, the group says if gas had risen as much as prescription drugs have over time, regular unleaded would cost more than 12 bucks a gallon by now. For seniors on a fixed income, being able to afford prescription drugs is essential. Ron Mastro, Giovanni of Health View Services recently told CNBC.

Ron Mastrogiovanni:
Whether you're affluent or whether you're the average person, I'll tell you what, when you look at your Social Security check, you're paying for health care.

Producer:
Prescription drug insurance plans provide some coverage, of course, but not all plans are created equally. And it's important that you know the details of your plan, especially what it will and won't cover.

Ron Mastrogiovanni:
You really need to look at the coverage in those types of plans to determine what makes the most sense for you.

Producer:
Lawmakers in Washington have been trying to come up with solutions on several fronts. They include things like allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, capping the cost of insulin and more. But those proposals have stalled. They were part of President Biden's build back better plan. It passed the House, but that massive piece of legislation hit a roadblock in the Senate, even though surveys show big majorities of us adults approve of those measures. It seems like everyone agrees something needs to be done to control costs but just can't agree on exactly what that might be. In the meantime, what should you do to prepare for higher drug prices in the future? Well, putting more money in savings surely couldn't hurt, according to the experts. But that can only go so far. And what can you do now to save money at the pharmacy? Well, that is a key question to consider as inflation continues its upward climb with the retirement radio network. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
You're listening to Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob.

Bob Loss:
Welcome back to Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob. Just a reminder, today's show is called Reduce Taxes and Retire Better. We just did an AP. Pretty good review of all that. Hopefully that was helpful for everyone. Again, if you need to consult with me, talk to me whatever. Complimentary. Just go to the website again, www dot SafeMoneyBob.com Book a call 15 30 or I think 60 are the options. And then you can also go to call my my call my actual office 908 359 2861. And have one of my things leave a message. Convenient time to call one of my staff will call you back and set up a call for us. So I just want to go back over opioids. All realize there's a lot of complimentary or freebies, I call them, that we offer our listeners. Not only do we do the the for Retirement Plan consultation, you can work with us if you like, if we can do better for you. And that's always the goal is to do better for you. We will help you analyze. These are all this. These are all the services we offer you. If you just book a call, we'll help you analyze your specific and unique financial situation. So everybody's situation is different. Everybody. So there is no stock cookie cutter plan. It's individualized to each person's situation. Some people don't want to leave a lot of money for anybody else. Some people want to leave money to their church.

Bob Loss:
Some people want to leave a lot of money to their family if they can, all while living the retirement you want. That's the key. You only get one one shot at this. Right, Everyone? You only get one shot. So you got to live. You got to try to live the way you want to live. While not, I guess, eroding all your assets, running out of money, all those things. So there's a lot of different things that come into play to make sure that doesn't happen. So we can always look at how much you're paying for fees as well. If you have brokerage accounts, all for one case, they'll sit with the old employer, you know, maybe cut some unnecessary costs in some of your IRAs or for one K's or other retirement savings accounts you may have. We can examine any annuities that you do have and see if they're still the best deal for you, still providing you everything you wanted out of them, or is there something better out there? I can tell you if you've had annuities that are, say, ten or more years older, there's a lot of new features on the current product offerings that provide solutions for our clients that improve what they're doing. In a lot of cases, almost every case, there's no cost to the transition. They may be going from something that's got like fees to it to something that doesn't have a fee unless they so choose to put a fee on it because they want a particular benefit.

Bob Loss:
Your power tip, annuities, they all have fees. So anything you see on TV and they say they all have fees and or high charges and stuff, it's a bunch of bunk. Let's just straighten that out. Right now. You can pick annuities with no cost. No. Fees. No riders, no charges. You pick it, you can decide or you can say, you know what, I want an enhanced death benefit or I want an enhanced money coming out. If I have to go to nursing a nursing home or I need long term care, you pick it, only you. We present the options, figure out what it is you really want to accomplish, and then come up with the best solutions. And you're the boss. I work for you. We can also help with Social Security planning. Obviously, we just went over Medicare and compare your current situation to what's possible if you work with us. So what we do is we fill out a cue using these acronyms. Client Financial Questionnaire. From there, one of my staff will transform it into a lifecycle model for you all your life. On one page sounds crazy. Your life in one page financially, insurance wise, what have you. So it gives you a great picture of what you're doing, where you are, and maybe where you want to go. A lot, a lot of tools we have to free of charge.

Bob Loss:
Of course, if you go to www dot SafeMoneyBob.com put time with me free nothing else. We just have a nice chat. We leave as friends and you move on or I can help you. Or also go. You'll call my office at 908 359 2861 Leave a message there. One of my staff will also reach out back to you when you would like to set up a call for us to have a chat and hopefully after every show I hope that you all feel like you're learning something. Don't hesitate to call us. Or like I said, I just gave you our website again and our phone number. Just don't hesitate to call it Doesn't you have nothing to lose other than a little bit of time, Worst case scenario. But I'll bet you dollars to donuts you're going to get something out of me that makes a difference whether you work with me or not. So this is what we provide. All those things, all those services we provide to our listeners, our current clients, or referrals that we get. I get referrals all the time. Cpas are for me, they're your clients. Cpas are actually my clients, you know, because they're they're the tax people. I'm the safe money, Bob. They're the tax experts and I'm safe money. Bob. I can work with someone that has managed money with a money manager and be a part of the solution. I don't have to have everything.

Bob Loss:
In some cases I don't. I actually recommend money managers to do the part in the portfolio that my clients want to have management in the market. Maybe they want to try and make a little extra money. You know, they want to have some risk, some exposure. So that's that's also too you're not you're not the fire anybody to talk to me and you don't to fire anybody to work with me. So in most cases, it depends. I've seen situations. Sometimes I scratch my head, you know, people are way too old with everything in the stock market or someone who's got everything sitting in the bank and inflation is just totally destroying their savings because they're making nothing. And even though the CD rates have gone up a little bit, you know, you're still way, way, way below what inflation is running at. So anyway, again, let me remind you, I've said it a few times already. I'll say it again. Call the office. 908 Call Bob at 908 359 2861. Leave a message. One of my staff will call you back. Set up a time to have a chat or go to the website if you like hitting buttons www dot SafeMoneyBob.com And just click on book a call and get a call or get an appointment or whatever and just set yourself up. And my calendar is there. They're all linked everywhere so you'll know when I'm available. So we're going to get into I mentioned it earlier, let's try to kick the IRS out your retirement plan.

Bob Loss:
So there's different ways to do that. And you have to be strategic. You can't just go there and just say, Oh, I'm just going to convert my IRA and and get crushed on taxes. You know, that's not the answer. So it's just ways to do things strategically. So I'm going to give you something to think about and I'm going to pause for maybe ten, 15 seconds, get a drink of water and let you think about it. And then I'm going to kind of go through some ways we can help you get the IRS, kick them out of your retirement plan. So here's the question. Do you think taxes are going to go up or down in the future? I know what my answer is. So what I have found and what I believe most people believe taxes will be higher in the future. So you may want to consider a strategy that kicks the IRS out of being your partner in retirement. So what do I mean? You can reduce taxes potentially in the future with implementing a Roth conversion strategy. Now you can you can do this over time. You can what I used to call it, bump the bracket. So like you can say you're in the low end of the 22% bracket and you've got to say 30,000 available to stay in that bracket. And I'm not counting your state tax, I'm just talking about Fed right now.

Bob Loss:
You can convert pieces into Roth, know what your tax is going to be, and then you're done. I'm actually doing it myself. We have small retirement plans. I think there's three of them. My wife, Beverly, she has them. And I kind of left them doing what they were doing, you know, and they got whacked like everybody else because I'm not really worried about that little piece of our portfolio. But now because they're down, I'm going to convert them all to Roth. I'm re characterizing them in the current contracts where they are, and I'm going to pay the tax this year and then that's it. No more tax and. Fortunately, when you do the Roth conversion strategy, you want to try to utilize money, not in the IRA. So you want to try to utilize savings. Money, market money, money under the mattress, whatever. And here's a power tip. Oh, this is really great. Take the money you pay in taxes for the conversion. Borrow it from yourself out of your cash, rate your life insurance policy like I can pay myself back. The end of the day, I recouped all my tax money I paid on the Roth conversion. And I have we have Roth, not traditionals. Can't tax me, you know, unless they throw away grandfather clauses, they'll never tax us on that money again. Meanwhile, when we were working, when she was working higher income, at that point she was able to take advantage of the tax deduction where we were, I should say we file joint.

Bob Loss:
So little tidbit there for you on how I run my ship over here. You also want to diversify your money so you might not be feasible to convert all of your your IRA or traditional 41k or 43b money into Roth just because of economics. Maybe you have a pension plus Social Security. Your income is higher, which is not a bad thing. So you just have to be you've got to work with a professional again. Listen in week weekends, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on WBRC radio at 11 town. And again you can also go to WWE save money Bob and I yeah we have you can you can go back and if you want to listen again I believe we have them there as well as just call the office if you have the idea you think you might want to look into how Roth conversions could benefit you, let's call the office 9083592861 and leave a message when to give you a call back. Best number and one of my staff will book a call and we can talk about your your situation. So there's three types of investments out there and I want to go over. There's taxable brokerage account, investment account, bank account, money market account CDs, right? You get a 1099 or 1089 for dividends or interest or what have you.

Bob Loss:
If you're buying and selling things in a brokerage account for gain, short or long term capital gains, of course. And again, this is just general information. I'm not a CPA. Do not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night and get the designation overnight. So so just food for thought Here you have your tax deferred account right for one K, Sep or SEP. Plans for the self-employed have annuities that could be IRAs or just non-qualified annuities. Non-qualified annuity defers your taxes. Then when you take the money out, you pay tax on the interest you gain first. So it's LFO acronym last in first out. Unlike high cash value, specifically designed life insurance that are under a certain guideline limit so that the IRS doesn't change the tax of your tax classification. On your characterization on your policy. In that case, you can withdraw up to what you put into it or your cost basis and not pay tax. You can borrow money from it, not pay tax, you can borrow money from it, put it back. And if I showed you the policy, if I have two policies exactly the same and they are both same premium, same cash value, one I borrow from and pay back, say, over a year. The other one I don't touch. Crazy, crazy thing here. It actually looks exactly the same as if I never took the loan. Think about that. It's really cool when you can become your own bank, you know, borrow from yourself, pay for the car, pay your self back, borrow from yourself, pay your kid's tuition, pay yourself back.

Bob Loss:
No taxes, no administrative fees. I can get the money within if it's under five grand and get the money in like a phone call in like a day or two. Otherwise it's 5 to 10 business days. Normally, to get your money, you can use that money to buy real estate. You hold your own mortgage, pay yourself back. So many things you can do. And I'm just going to off a little bit on this because it's near and dear to my heart, a big part of our portfolio and how I'm able to have have my family be secure while I'm here. If I'm not here and not spend down the wealth, retain it, grow it, no risk or worry. Again, it's kind of like tax free or the Roth IRA life insurance. They're the only two tax. I just told you again, power tip. I'm giving you a lot of power tips. Roths are kind of like how life insurance was designed to be when it was formed. Maybe people don't know this, but back in the 1800s, people would buy term insurance for train rides out west from the east. And then all of a sudden they started coming back alive. They didn't get mugged, they didn't get shot. They didn't get robbed. As we moved west. And we have more civilized society, I guess.

Bob Loss:
So the public said, Hey, can I get a life insurance policy that I can keep forever even if I don't die and build wealth? So that's how you that's how permanent life insurance was formed. I believe it was like in the 1850s. It could be off a little bit. But yeah, it was. The public wanted it. So you still have term insurance, right? It's just coverage. It's like renting an apartment. But but it has its place when used properly. I have plenty of time insurance and I have plenty of high cash value permanent insurance, too. So I basically other than maybe a mortgage, maybe I do not borrow money from anybody. You know, I don't I don't have to. I was able to build up my own my own Bob's bank bank, Alison's bank, Danny's bank. So it took time and I had to be very, very strategic but also disciplined. I here again, I'm loaded with power tips. Pay yourself first. If you're still working out there, pay yourself first, and don't just put everything into a qualified plan you're going to get taxed on at some godforsaken rate down the road you don't even know about. Maybe like going into business with somebody who. Is your partner. You don't know what percentage they own in the business until you start taking the money out. Like, who the heck would do that deal? I sure as hell won't. So. So anyway, so if you be interested in generating tax free income for 30 plus years during retirement, we have proven legal strategies and I just touched upon a few of them to do that.

Bob Loss:
You know, when you don't get taxed on your income, your income goes further. I know you have inflation. We all have to deal with that. And we change our spending habits, of course. I mean, I I'm doing so much virtually. My carb needle never moves practically with the gas gauge, you know, And again, with the market being down this year and I just touched upon that personally. It's a very opportune time to convert a tax deferred IRA into a Roth, and we can totally help you do that properly, strategically. So, again, I always want to thank you for listening in on financial freedom with safe money, Bob. And today we're really touching upon heavily the retirement. Reduce taxes and retire better. And we did earlier in the show review all the Medicare. Things going on. So why would you want to think about this? I'm going to give you a little time to think about it after I say it. Why would you continue to pay ordinary income taxes for decades? After you stop working. Are you making as much money as you did in retirement or will you or you projected to. Now. Where are you in your plan? You know, this is why it makes sense to work with an advisor, whether it be me, your current person, a combination of me and your current person myself and your current person.

Bob Loss:
So again, don't hesitate. It doesn't cost you anything. Call. Call me today at 908 35 92861 24 seven. Voicemail Checked. Staff member will call you back. Set up a call with us or just simply go to www dot SafeMoneyBob.com Book it caught me there. So I think at this point on that subject, we're going to probably leave it off there again. So hopefully the big takeaways from this last second segment too, which up until now is just you want to be tax efficient, be as tax efficient as you can. You know, a lot of CPAs, they always want you to save you, cut the taxes work and cut the taxes while you're working, you know, necessarily. That's not just do what everybody do it like a flock of sheep. It's like you got to. Have someone look at your information. Again, I work with tax advisers, too. So, again, I'm not firing anybody. I want to complement everything you got going on or make it make it better. And if you really don't have anything going on and you're doing it, you're going at it yourself, I think you may want to have a consultation with me. So. So I'm going to get off of the financial wagon for a little bit here. We're going to go into our segment this week. This week in History.

Producer:
It's this Week in History.

Bob Loss:
So we got some cool general information, historical information. A lot of times we'll even have sports information. So this week, we're going to go over the film and TV. All right. So let's talk about film and TV a little bit. So on October 15, 1951, the first episode Wait for it of I Love Lucy. Aired on CBS television 1951. I remember watching that show when I was a kid, and that was probably in the seventies, I'm going to say late seventies maybe, and they still air it. I think it's on Hallmark, maybe. I think you can still see episodes of it, I think on there somewhere like that. So the show, you know, starring, of course, Lucille Ball aired 180, had 180 half hour episodes for six seasons, so only it was for six seasons. You think about some of these other shows lasted, gosh, years and years, only six years. It did become the most, most watched show in the United States for four of its six seasons, and it became the first scripted television show. Shot on 35 millimeter film in front of studio audiences. So that's pretty cool stuff to me at least. Hopefully you find it interesting. Now I'm going to get into a historical moment. So back on October 14th of 1947, US Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke. He breaks. He broke the sound barrier, becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. So that was October 14th, 1947, and he was a US Air Force captain.

Bob Loss:
Chuck Yeager. So Yeager flew an X one over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The x one was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet. Now, keep in mind, I was on a plane a few weeks ago. I think we were flying at 33,000 feet. But anyway, 25,000 feet, he was lifted to an altitude of 29, 25,000 feet by a B 29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay. The bomb bay. So think about that. It was like they were dropping a bomb out of the plane. The plane was that big and a rocket, I guess he was flying was that small. So he rocketed up to 40,000 feet and was flying at 662 miles an hour. So that's pretty quick. I think we were flying like 500 something maybe in our whatever the deck jet it was. So Yeager was a combat pilot in World War Two, and it flew 64 missions over Europe. He passed away at age 97. December of 2020. So he just died a couple of years ago. So so that's what I have today on this this week in history. Know we're going into fall. Obviously, it's cooler out in the mornings now. And, you know, leaves are turning. Thankfully, we all got rain in this area because I'm sure we're all our listeners are as well as where I live was pretty darn dry for a long time. So fortunately, the weather is starting to work out for us. We got lucky we didn't get hammered.

Bob Loss:
Too bad with Ian. Unfortunately, some of the people in Florida did. So prayers go out to them. Hopefully they're safe and they can rebuild because I saw some pictures that were pretty disturbing. Yeah, So that's sort of it as far as this week in history. Again, we went over a lot today. So if you want to listen in again, you go to SafeMoneyBob.com And listen again. Try to connect me on LinkedIn. If you're on a profile there, you can also call the office at 908 359 2861 and book a call with us. Again, we don't charge anything, no obligation. It's free. You know, I try to at least give you one good idea. Per session, even if we don't work together immediately or at all. And I'll continue to try to provide value share. Hopefully you guys are cool me sharing, you know, stuff going on in our life because it's a lot of big stuff going on over here, big things happening. So I'm sure many of you have children. Maybe they're younger, maybe they've already gone out or they're out of school. They're all they're all doing their own thing, hopefully having a great life and making a difference and being successful and hopefully getting you some grandkids, if that's what you're looking for down the road. We're not quite there yet. I think I got going through college and then make sure they've got a good career and hopefully are with a good partner and then, you know, just let them fly, right? So let them fly.

Bob Loss:
So. I'm trying to think of some perspective here, I guess. So this year I'm going to go back into the money a little bit here, the financial stuff. And I mean, the losses in the stock market have been for some staggering. I mean, I know people that have money outside of me and they are they got they're getting wrecked. But I told them, like I said, you know, I put this advice up on LinkedIn. I'm like, do not you can't just sell everything like you can't. So if you're if you're still working, make sure you have automatic rebalance on your retirement plan. I have to have that and then keep buying, doing your contributions, you know, as the market's low or goes lower because you're buying cheap. We hope you're buying cheap, buying less expensive at a less expensive point in equities. And then just keep building and building and building, but definitely don't have it all one in one bucket. I always say 5 to 8 different allocations is probably smart. In that type of plan. Of course, you want to add if you can add tax free vehicles such as Roth IRAs or overfunded, overfunded, specifically designed over funded life insurance to create your own pool of money to to access to borrow from to buy big ticket items could be vacations, cars, what have you. You can use your own money and pay yourself back so you can do that.

Bob Loss:
It really helps a lot. You're using the same dollars over and over. It's what happens and you're doing it in a tax efficient manner, in some cases tax free manner, almost most cases. So it helps a lot doing that and adding that as a complement to your qualified plans. And definitely I'm not against them. If you can get 4%, if you put in 4%, you just made 100% on your money. Even if it didn't make anything and you got the tax break on that contribution. So again, not a CPA didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but no, no good amount about taxation on some of these vehicles that are out there or most of them actually. And if I don't, I have my accountant, I got CPAs. All I got to do is send a text, make a call, get an answer. So if you don't have an account, you do things on your own. That might be something you want to consider too, is having someone actually do your taxes. So just there's so many changes year over year you can't keep up. So unless you have a very simple financial situation where you get a W-2 income and that's it, then that's fine. You're probably okay doing your H&R BLOCK. So I'm going to wrap up this week's show. I appreciate everyone listening to Financial freedom with safe money. Bob. I am safe money, Bob. I don't speculate. No, don't do it. I don't just I don't have to.

Bob Loss:
You don't have to. You can still grow your wealth without risking it. You can. And it's definitely, definitely a portion of it for sure. So and we can show you how to do that. So please don't hesitate. Go to www dot SafeMoneyBob.com book a free consultation talk about whatever you want to talk about. We can go from there or call the office 908 359 2861 and leave a message 24 seven I'll care if it's two in the morning. You can call and leave a message if you're up that late or if it's five in the morning and you got to go to work, leave a message then to one of my staff will get back to you and actually set up a call with you so you don't have to go through the website. But again, the website really works well, You know, call today, call tomorrow, Call as soon as you want to get some. Insight and assistance on your situation. I'll do whatever I can to make your situation better. So again, 908 and call me at 908 3592861. Leave a message my staff will set up an appointment with me for you at a convenient time for both of us. We're go to the www dot SafeMoneyBob.com And book a call there if that's how you like to do it. So again I appreciate everyone who's listening. Have a great weekend and we'll be back at it next week. Take care. And God bless everybody.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Financial Freedom with Safe Money Bob. You deserve to work with a financial and insurance expert who can offer proven strategies for protecting and growing your hard earned money. To schedule your free, no obligation consultation, Visit SafeMoneyBob.com. Or pick up the phone and call 908 359 2861. That's 908 359 2861. Not affiliated with the United States government. The agency does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Ameren life assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or the results obtained from the use of this information.

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