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1.6.23: 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 Retire 360 with your host, Dwight Mejan. Dwight is a licensed fiduciary and financial advisor who always places your needs first. Dwight 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 Dwight Mejan.

Dwight Mejan:
Well, happy New Year to everyone. This is Dwight Mejan, I am your host. And alongside me today, of course, is Mitchell Keiser and Sam Davis, our executive producer. Producer. Welcome you guys back to this. Happy New Year. How you guys doing today?

Mitchell Keiser:
Doing well. Happy to be here. And happy New Year to everybody. Sorry I missed you last week, but we're excited to get into some important topics today. Yeah. Happy New Year to everyone listening on w, e b and on the Retire 360 podcast and we're excited to keep bringing you new information in 2023.

Dwight Mejan:
Absolutely. Well, this is, as I like to say, this is our audience's show. It's not our show, guys. We've all talked about that and glad to have our regular listeners back and perhaps we picked up some new listeners in this New year and we're excited for that. We're excited for the content that we have to not only go over today, but hopefully turn the page on a good year ahead. Jury's still out on that. We've got some time to kind of wait and see. No one will know for sure exactly where this market's headed. But stay tuned and we'll be bringing you the most relevant and up to date information for your future and your portfolio. Our goal here at the Retire 360 show is to help you win with your money. And also we want to help you face your financial future with confidence. There's a lot of fear that is still out there as far as the market goes. And a lot of people hold on to cash and a lot of people wish they would have got in some cash about this time last year. But all that to say, we want to bring you relevant information on how you can win with your money. If you're new to the show, check us out. You can go to Retire360Show.com. And certainly if you want to talk to us personally set up a complimentary meeting you can reach us at 910 235 0812.

Dwight Mejan:
Our office is in downtown Southern Pines and we also have an office in Banner Elk where I'm broadcasting from today. But please reach out to us. We'd love to hear from our listeners. So we've got a lot of topics today on the show that we're going to go over. We're going to talk about the quote of the week, which Mitchell is going to take us through that we're going to look at some big takeaways from 2020 to talk a little bit about inflation. We're going to look at energy and food costs, talk a little bit about interest rates, and we're going to talk about the good news and the bad news from 2022. We want to put that year behind us, but still some good data that's come out since our last show that we want to touch on. We're going to talk about beating bank CD's, although the yields are pretty good right now. There also there are some alternative places you can look with your money. And then we're going to look at the most important change to make to your plan in 2023. We've got an inflation demonstration that will hopefully get to and we'll talk about this week in history. So with that, I'm going to introduce my right hand here and son in law, Mr. Mitchell Keiser. Mitchell what'd you do, first of all, to kick off the New year? You weren't on here last week, So what'd you do?

Mitchell Keiser:
Yeah, so I, my wife and I a.k.a your daughter went over to the western part of North Carolina, so we spent some time in Asheville with, I guess most of our listeners, you know, where that's at. And we were in Boone. So that's how we kind of finished out the year. So but it was, it was awesome. We love that part of the state.

Dwight Mejan:
So Joni Snow up.

Mitchell Keiser:
There, actually, no, not not while we were up there. I know banner out gets a lot of snow, but we weren't we didn't experience snow. I mean, we went to a we actually went tubing a day and but that was created snow. So I don't know if that counts.

Dwight Mejan:
Oh, I was hoping you were mainly snow tubing and not water tubing, because I say you're pretty brave. And I don't think my daughter would do that for sure.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.

Mitchell Keiser:
Our first quote of the day. Here we got from Robert Allen and said, How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings savings accounts? I rest my case. And you know what, Dwight? I'll tell you this quote kind of reminds me of. I used to work in a gym and people used to always say, because, you know, people get hype on this workout plan, this workout plan, and some are better than others. But really, the most important thing is just that. You go to the gym, you're doing something. You're. You're going. You're starting something for yourself. And it's kind of the same thing with investing. As long as you've it's good that you've at least got the ball rolling and that you're doing something with your money. That being said, even like working out, you still tweak things, you still modify things or still things that you can be doing better. You've got to watch your form. You've got to watch your who you're listening to. Same thing with your finances. You got to watch where you're investing, what types of things you're investing in. You've got to watch who you're taking advice from. At the gym, I don't just listen to one person when they say, Hey, Mitchell, you should lift biceps this way or this here's a cool leg exercise you could do. Same thing with your finances. I think people would be kind of foolish to just take advice from one person because everybody's everybody's got a bias. That doesn't matter if you're talking about investing the gym or a lot of other areas. But that one, that one pertains to me. So that's the one I used to demonstrate We had.

Dwight Mejan:
We had a few people come up to us. One of our last events and we're we're looking to have one here towards the third or fourth week in January on taxes and retirements is probably one of our more popular seminars that we do. But we actually did one about a week ago up in the western part of the state, and we had a lot of people come up to us that had questions about cash and being in cash, cash positions and where to put that money. And it kind of fits the quote. I think it's relevant to the notes that were put together for the show, basically applied to an event that we were at. And many people were asking, Hey, do you think it's a good time to invest right now? So but as we say, when you're in savings accounts, like the quote says, you know, cash or savings accounts, which are the equivalent of cash, it's basically the safest place where you can lose money today because inflation like we're going to talk about here shortly. It does eat away at those dollars and we want to at least try to make sure we're keeping pace with the purchasing power of those dollars.

Mitchell Keiser:
So the next one is a sports from our Venus Williams. So Venus is the she's the sister of Serena, right? Serena is the big one, correct? Yeah. So I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and try to ignore the rest.

Dwight Mejan:
Yeah. Former number one in both singles and doubles. Venus won several Grand Slam singles titles, I believe five Wimbledon and I believe two at the US Open. So she is certainly regarded as one of the all time greats of the sport of tennis. So great quotes there to start us off this week. Well, let's kind of jump right in here and let's do some year review here and some big takeaways from 2022. And one of the big reminders that I find from 2022 is a reminder that down years they do happen. We've all experienced it if we've been investing for any length of time. And you need to be managing your risk in an effective way that protects your principle and gains the best that you can. We talk about that a lot on this show. It's really important, particularly if you're listening to our show and you're in those years where you're required to pull money out of traditional IRA accounts and those would be anybody listening. Now that is turning 72 this year or above that age, you're having to pull money out and we find a lot of people. Mitchell, don't we, that don't need to pull money out of those accounts, but they have to do it or they're penalized. And that's that's critical that you have money that's in some smart, safe, as we like to call it. We call smart, safe money and smart risk money.

Dwight Mejan:
Smart risk money is the money that you can take a calculated risk with where you're comfortable losing a certain amount off that portfolio. And, you know, I just met with somebody this morning who one of their accounts on a 401 K was down 36%, which tells me two stats that we're going to talk about here. One is the S&P and the other is the Nasdaq. The Nasdaq lost 35% in 2022 and the S&P 500 lost 20%. So if you were in the category like this person was that I talk with this morning before the show that was down in that mid 30% range, that tends to be a pretty aggressive portfolio. And if you were able to stomach that, that's good. That's okay. However, if you're older in that category of having to pull RMDs out, you're having to liquidate money to meet that IRS mandate that's put upon you by the IRS. And when you're doing that at a at depressed share prices, you're just letting go of more of your money. That's basically what's happening. So and the S&P that lost 20%, just something to be aware of. And we're going to hop into a quick break here. And when we come back, we're going to talk about inflation and how that has transpired here in the last year. So we'll be right back after this break.

Producer:
Are you interested in protecting your assets from market volatility, rising taxes and economic uncertainty? Then tune in to Retire 360 with Dwight. To learn how you can protect and grow your hard-earned money. Retire 360 Sundays at 3:00 pm right here on Talk 97.3 FM 104.1 FM and 990 a.m. W.E.E.B. Protect your hard earned money today at Retire360Show.com.

Dwight Mejan:
Welcome back to the show here. My name is Dwight and I am your host. Alongside me is Mitchell Keiser, our executive producer Sam Davis. So we want to welcome you back and we're going to hop in here to talk about inflation. But I just want to remind folks, if you want to catch up with some previous podcasts, we are able to download our show through anywhere where podcasts or downloaded. So check us out there at the Retire 360 the Retire 360 show. We'd love to hear from you as our listeners, so reach out to us by phone. 910 235 0812. So the big topic, one of the big topics, of course, for 2022 was inflation and inflation. And we saw it soar and really reach its peak in July. Prices are still increasing, though, still elevated, but we're starting to see a little bit of relief. So we don't know exactly where they're headed. But we do have a relief and they've been trickling down a little bit, particularly since the fourth quarter of this past year. Americans are finally beginning to feel a little bit of relief after months of prices rapidly increasing, such as food and fuel and rents. Overall inflation has fallen for five straight months and it's expected to continue its descent in 2023, or at least that's what we hope will happen. The other big topic was rising energy costs, and this includes fuel prices. There was a global effect there Gasoline, electricity, natural gas prices skyrocketed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It really ruptured the global energy supply chains. Households and businesses we see are facing higher energy bills amid extreme price volatility. And there's a lot of uncertainty right now with the war still looming and there's a lot of winter storms that have affected parts of the United States, and that's further increase the energy demand.

Dwight Mejan:
But gas prices, thank goodness, we are seeing some relief there. I know I've been feeling up here for just a little bit under $3 lately, right in the 290 range. So I think the peak that we saw this past summer, gasoline was about $5 per gallon nationally, but they have retreated some from record highs, thanks in part to a decline in global demand. But food costs was another area that we saw in 2022 that rose at really an unprecedented rate. I'm not one that does all the grocery shopping in my household, but I can tell you I was sent for some items this summer on a on a larger grocery bill, and I was astounded at how many bags I actually got out of the grocery store for what I paid. So it's it's been everybody has been feeling it at food and at home with energy costs. But just to give you some statistics here, the food at home, grocery store and supermarket purchases, that bill increased 12% since November of 2021. So a little over a year we've seen an average of 12% increase. That's just that's just astounding, really. And the food away from home, which would be restaurant purchases that increased about eight and one half percent since November of 2021. So, Rachel, you're a newlywed there, so you don't have a lot to compare this to. But what did you experience from any of those? Which did you see the biggest cost in kind of being a homeowner yourself?

Mitchell Keiser:
Sure. So actually, on both of those. So first, at the grocery store, I know my Halie and I were kind of going from like our local store, Harris Teeter, to Aldi. And since inflation, you know, we've watched like the price of milk and bananas and bread and all this stuff. Well, then we got the same thing, you know, places like Aldi and like similar stories, I mean, similar stores. And it was the same thing for a fraction of the price. So, I mean, I've and as we went there, I know we talked on a previous show that a lot more. There's a statistic of households that make over $100,000. They have been since this inflation has started to increase the number of those people that have continued to go to places like the cheaper chains like Aldi has also skyrocketed. So, yeah, you've definitely felt that at the grocery store, at the restaurant. I'll tell you, the thing I noticed the most was since inflation, everywhere you go, even if you're picking up coffee, if you're picking up a takeout order, everybody's flipping around their screens for a tip. So, you know, you add 8% for inflation. I mean, depending on how generous you are. I mean, I think most people here and there are going to at least select one of the options, especially if you get hit with that three times a day, I think statistically your odds are you're going to click that tip. So there you go. You you have already added 8.5% on inflation, but now you're adding 15 to 25% on that tip that you're kind of getting pushed to push to give, which I'm not saying that's bad. I'll tell you, if you're a sucker like my wife, sometimes me, I find the best way to pay in those situations is with cash, because it's a lot harder to ask for. Ask for your.

Dwight Mejan:
Money. Well, it's interesting, Mitchell, to add to what you're saying over the holidays, I won't mention the establishment because we like their food, but something new that they had done, we had carried out and it was a carryout order. And they tacked on an additional what amounted to be on about a $70 takeout order or another ten or $11. And I asked them about it. I said, Hey, what I don't understand the charge here. And she actually disclosed it and she said, Well, any takeout orders right now, above $60, they were adding a percentage to the bill. And I do think some of that is coming from just the restaurant's inability to hold on to good staff, because as we all know, sometimes the service in restaurants is substandard these days because they don't have the help in restaurants. So, sure, I kind of evaluate that like, hey, do I want to keep eating out as much? And, you know, my wife and I have had that conversation over this whole rise of in food prices. But I find it interesting that some restaurants are either having to or have decided to add on an extra bill. It's funny, one of my sons, he said, Well, Dad, he said, why don't you split the bill up and or the order up in two different orders, you know, keep it under 60 bucks and you don't get the price tag down there. So that's one of my kids spitting it back to me. But. Right.

Mitchell Keiser:
Well, you know, one of the other things, though, with that, too, you know, with these with people asking for these tips and with them tacking that on is, you know, a lot of these staff members, like you said, I mean, I know people in the service industry, they're only making like two or $3 an hour and they rely on those tips. So they're not getting that increase. The minimum wage is still at, I think, seven and a quarter, right?

Dwight Mejan:
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what it is here. Yeah.

Mitchell Keiser:
So it probably has something to do with that.

Dwight Mejan:
Well, hey, let's let's move on here and just address interest rates. Interest rates are on the rise. Interest rates a lot of times lag behind the federal funds rate. We're going to talk about that here in a few minutes. But so so how can you take advantage is what we want to talk about here of rising interest rates. What do you need to adjust given this big change in interest rates? So there's higher borrowing costs for homes, for cars, for credit cards. Hopefully, if you listen to this show, you're able to pay off your credit cards. Hopefully you're not carrying balances. But if you are, Mitchell, I'll ask you some questions. Any idea what the average credit card interest rate is currently at from from about the end of the fourth quarter, let's say, of January, I'm sorry, fourth quarter of 2020 to an idea, the average interest rate on a credit card is 19.1%. So pretty, pretty high. Most people know credit card bills are high, but what about average for a 60 month car loan? Mitchell You might be more familiar with this 160 month car loan. What's the current average yield on that one.

Mitchell Keiser:
At this point? I know I got a car a couple of years ago now. I would guess they're probably over 5%.

Dwight Mejan:
6.1% is the average for a 60 month new car loan. So average rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage. This is an interesting one.

Mitchell Keiser:
Well, it's probably not two and a quarter anymore.

Dwight Mejan:
Well, I'll tell you that exactly a year ago, a little over a year ago, that average 30 year rate was right around 2.3, 2.4. You could still get as a low, I think two and one fourth was about where it bottomed out. But today, average 30 year fixed mortgage is 6.8%. So that's a big, big jump. And then finally here, the less probably known to people is what's called the federal funds rate. So the federal government basically has raised interest rates seven times in the past year. And the central bank basically controls just one interest rate, and that's called the federal funds rate, and that's the rate at which banks lend money to each other at what's called the overnight lending rate. And its actions have almost they have almost immediate impact on all types of lending, including mortgages, car loans, credit card rates, all of which, as we just looked at, are getting costlier. So the bottom line is we found that too many pre-retirees, you know, these people that are in that retirement red zone, you're about five years from retirement or you've retired recently or within the last five years. Many people are afraid to spend their money because of down markets and because of rising inflation. And what we want to help you do at 360 Capital Management is we want to help you solidify a plan. That will empower you to live the retirement lifestyle that you've worked really hard for, because we know it takes a lifetime to accumulate retirement funds that you have a vision for. And it's really about a plan that gives you as the listener confidence so that you can weather storms. Whether it's a good market, obviously that's great. But in a down market like we had this past year, we want to help build a plan for our listeners that instills a level of confidence that you have that you can go into a year like we had last year if it was to repeat itself this year you have predictable guaranteed income for a portion of your income and protection inside that portfolio so that you're not taking the heavy hits that we see so often.

Dwight Mejan:
And that's we talk a lot about sequence of return risk on this show. And all that simply is about is if you retire in in the early years, you have consecutive years of down market that can have a can wreak havoc, particularly when you're pulling money out of that portfolio if you depend on income. So here at the Retirement 360 show, we want to help you put a plan together if you would like to meet with us to talk about this, to talk about inflation, what it's done to your portfolio, Please, please. We love to hear from our listeners. Reach out to us at our telephone number at 910 235 0812. Or you can check us out on our website. You can book a complimentary consultation with us there that's at Retire360Show.com and there's a little link down there on the bottom that you can just click on that and schedule a complimentary consultation with us for about 30 minutes and we'll be glad to look at some things with you and hopefully put together for you a guaranteed retirement income plan that you can't outlive and show you how to protect that money from in down markets. So with that, we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we'll pick right back up here on where we left off.

Producer:
Helping bring you one step closer to financial freedom. You're listening to Retire 360.

Producer:
Big changes could be coming and they may affect your retirement. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement dot Radio Network. Powered by Amerilife. Increases in costs, market volatility and fears of a possible recession. All have people who are close to retirement worried about the future. Some people who were considering early retirement are staying in the workforce, while others who had already called it quits are going back to work. Marketwatch recently published a list of eight big things retirees and pre-retirees should keep an eye on. Some of them are pretty obvious. Like number one, inflation. As the prices of goods and services continue to go up at rates not seen in four decades, just paying for everyday things could eat through your retirement savings more quickly than you thought. Another concern Social Security. The trust fund is set to be exhausted by the year 2034. Potential changes to save the program could have a big impact on your retirement years. Two items on the list have to do with savings. How much money to set aside for retirement and how to address a growing gap in that amount versus what most of us have actually saved? Yahoo finance contributor Vera Gibbons recently reported that the savings gap has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with a lot of folks dipping into their retirement accounts just to get by.

Vera Gibbons:
We are in an inflationary environment here, and some of the experts I spoke to said given the fact that costs are going up for just about everything, they expect more people to actually tap into their retirement accounts or contribute less this year. Also, keep in mind that people are still quitting their jobs at a record rate, and that group may also be tapping into their retirement accounts, too, to cover their costs.

Producer:
Health care spending and drug prices are two more things on the market watch list of retiree concerns. And they could be impacted by the last two items on the list Diabetes, which continues to affect more Americans each year and uses up a good portion of the nation's health care resources and exercise which could actually bring costs down by helping you stay healthier longer. So which of these items is your biggest cause for concern heading into retirement? That's a key question to consider. As economic uncertainty continues to cause headaches for us all. With the Retirement dot Radio Network powered by AmeriLife, I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
You're listening to Retire 360 with Dwight Mejan. Now back to the show.

Dwight Mejan:
I'm Dwight Mitchell and welcome back to the Retire 360 show. Good to have you back. And if you're a first time listener, just to shout out to all of you, we're glad you're taking part of your day to invest with us and we want to invest back in you with some relevant information. So we're going to kind of pick up where we left off here and some good news, bad news. I think everybody knows if you've been around and you're breathing that. The bad news is the market dropped throughout 2022. We said S&P was down 20% and the NASDAQ was down in the mid thirties, 35%. But there is good news in that as this market does present some great buying opportunities, especially in certain sectors that we have confidence in. And it's a good time to get more efficient with assets that you currently hold or starting a Roth conversion to improve your tax plan. We talk a lot about a tax map on this show, and that's one of the things that we run for our listeners. We simply take your tax return, which for most of you still is the 2021 tax year, and we can show you opportunities on that tax return that you have within your portfolio to max out a Roth conversion without converting to a higher federal tax rate. We have software that we use for our listeners and we can show you some creative ideas within your own personalized and customized tax map. So if you reach out to us, give us a call at our office at 910 235 0812. We will be happy to run that tax map for you. And you know what's interesting, Mitchell and I talk about this a lot. You know, when people first learn of mistakes that happened within their investment portfolio, what month do you think? Is it is it a month when most people realize they made a mistake? What month is that discovered? Mitchell tell our listeners what the Discovery Month is for most people?

Mitchell Keiser:
Well, I would guess that that would be like my thought would be in May, because that's right after people pay all their taxes, correct?

Dwight Mejan:
It's about the time they talk to their accountant and they realize that what happened, they have a certain number in mind that they owe for taxes. And most people are just basing it off of the previous year's tax return. However, a lot of people find out through something that happened in their portfolio. For example, had a client come in a few months ago and they took an inherited IRA of about $40,000. And instead of just putting it into an inherited IRA account, they just cashed that money and put it into their checking account. They wanted some cash. But what that did is it caused some problems on the tax return. They found out in April when they did that that their Medicare premium was being increased, which can happen. You got to know where those little breakpoints are on the tax return because you can and will oftentimes be required to pay more for your Medicare Part B premium. And that's what happened to this person. It also threw her into capital gains, which she hadn't really experienced before. And it just cost a little bit of a cascading effect on that tax return. So one of the things that we do not only for our clients, but we do the list for listeners of this show is we will run that complimentary tax map, see how close you are to having something like that happen, and then also give you some opportunities of things that you can do to optimize doing a Roth conversion strategy.

Dwight Mejan:
We talk about that a lot with listeners on the show is to say, for example, if you're in that 12% tax bracket currently federal, that next jump in your tax bracket is 22% to 10% jump. But for a lot of our listeners, you might be able to convert several thousand tens of thousands possibly, and stay in that 12% bracket. And I find what's interesting about that is when we pull people, most people believe taxes are going up, but very few people have a plan in place to mitigate or minimize the taxes that they pay over their retirement life expectancy. And one of the ways that we help clients do that is through that tax map software reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you. The other thing we are encouraging people to look at is looking at beating.

Producer:
Bank CD's need a higher rate of return from your safe money. Listen up, It's time to beat the bank CD rates.

Dwight Mejan:
You know, beyond a reasonable emergency fund. We don't like to see people holding too much money in savings accounts. We would rather see people put that extra money to work at rates that make a difference. Bank rates right now, I don't know if. Mitchell Do you have any of those up?

Mitchell Keiser:
Most good bank CD's are over 4%, so if you're getting anything less than 4%, you're not getting a good deal. The most I saw was 4.6% and that was with a $0 minimum deposit. So that's that's pretty strong. I know on the private side, like with what we do, the mind does the multi year guarantee annuities? Most of those are over 5%. So I still think on the private side we're able to still do quite a bit more than you can get at a bank.

Dwight Mejan:
So so Mitchell, tell our listeners again about the MIGA, that that rate, is that fixed for the term that they take that out four or.

Mitchell Keiser:
So different different companies have different terms? I'll say I would say from my experience with my guys versus CD's, most my guys tend to be longer as well, whereas Bank CD, like a lot of the ones I saw, were 4% or 4.5% for 14 months where you can get a CD four or I'm sorry, you can get a mega four, five, seven, ten years. I mean you can even get them as small as two. But if you want to lock in on that strong guarantee, you can get it a lot longer than what I've seen for CD's.

Dwight Mejan:
Now that's great. Well, and it's also a great time within the the annuity structure to consider indexed products. There are some shorter term as little as five year terms on some indexed annuities, which people that were in those products last year, they didn't experience any loss to their principal. While they didn't probably get a lot of them any gains either. It wasn't like others that were heavily invested in the stock market. You are able to protect some of that and that's where we were advising a lot of clients last year that were heavy in bonds is to consider money in equity linked indexed annuities where basically your rate of return was tied to an external index like the S&P 500. There's lots of. Different hybrid indexes out there that you could be linked to, but it gives equity linked exposure without having any loss to principal. So if that's kind of a new concept for you, reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you and we can see if that would make sense, particularly if your bond portion of your portfolio took a hit last year, which it should have if you were headed heavy in bonds because it was the worst year in recorded history in the bond market. So a lot of these indexed accounts right now with indexed annuities, you're setting at pretty low rates with the markets being down 20 to 35%. We talked about the Nasdaq earlier. You can come in and link at these low index values and any growth that would happen perhaps this year. You can capitalize on that growth inside of those indexed accounts. So we see caps right now on five year products. A cap is the upper limit of what you could earn. They protect you on the downside. But the caps we've seen as high as 12% in some of the five year products directly linked to the S&P 500.

Dwight Mejan:
So, for example, if the S&P 500 went up 10% over the next 12 months and you had a 12% cap, that means you would experience a 10% growth in that product, up to 12% as the maximum. So maybe a great option for some of our listeners who are hearing this to just reach out and see if that's a fit or if you have some old products, some old annuities, perhaps you're in some lower participation yields right now from the the last period of time that you were invested in. And you may be able to consider rolling that or doing an exchange for that annuity will help you determine if that would make sense and if you can avoid penalties or perhaps even make some of the penalty back up, we can look look at that as well. So the new 6040 portfolio is 60% stocks, and much of that 40% would be in fixed indexed annuities. And it's gaining a lot of momentum in the investment world. Annuities are safe and they're fee efficient as a way to generate income for life as well. Many of our listeners need that guaranteed income. So we would love to see if we could run some illustrations for you and just see if it makes sense to generate that income through a fixed indexed equity linked annuity. So give us a call. We'd love to hear from you again where our office is in downtown Southern Pines and our phone number is 910 235 0812. Or you can go to our website at Retire360Show.com. And we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we'll pick back up and talk a little bit more about inflation.

Producer:
When it comes to saving for retirement, Who is winning the battle of the sexes? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement dot Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. The gender gap is a real thing in the US, with women making less money on average compared to men. Congress passed the landmark Title nine law more than 50 years ago prohibiting gender based discrimination in education, and that resulted in women pursuing careers that had previously been considered off limits. And while females have made strides over the years when it comes to finances, a new study from TIAA shows it's men who are setting aside more money for retirement 27% more to be specific. And while that number is better than in years past, it's still a significant gap.

Stephanie Asympkos:
And in the past year, 78% of men have increased their retirement portfolios through stocks, compared with 51% of females. And now this imbalance really underscores not only the gender wage gap, but it also has really far reaching implications for long term retirement security.

Producer:
Stephanie Asympkos with Yahoo! Finance recently reported on the gender gap in retirement savings.

Stephanie Asympkos:
When stretched over the course of a career, a woman's lower wages really directly impact her ability to save for that nest egg and then live comfortably in retirement.

Producer:
And she says the pandemic surely didn't help the situation. In fact, it got.

Stephanie Asympkos:
Worse because of the pandemic, a preponderance of women have downshifted taken time away from work to really concentrate on these pandemic measures of supervising remote schooling for children or caring for aging parents.

Producer:
The TIAA study also showed women have some catching up to do when it comes to financial literacy. When asked financial questions in a survey, women got 45% of them right, compared to 55% for men. And Olin, with TIAA told CNBC that all of this underscores the need to equalize financial education among the sexes. So women, do you have a sound retirement plan in place? That's a key question to consider. As all of our retirement years draw closer with the Retirement dot Radio Network powered by a married life, I'm Matt McClure.

Dwight Mejan:
All right. Well, welcome back to the Retire 360 show. I'm your host, Dwight Mejan, alongside me as Mitchell Keiser and Sam Davis, our executive producer. So, hey, we want to talk a little bit about inflation here, a demonstration.

Producer:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It's time for an inflation demonstration.

Dwight Mejan:
Adult children of retirees are really worried about the impact that high inflation is having on their parents retirement savings. That's what a recent survey had said. 60% of respondents expressed concern that inflation is hurting their parents financial situation, and many said they're afraid that their parents won't be able to afford retirement in later years. The surveys from American Advisors Group said. You know, it's interesting. I have a neighbor that today is I do this show. My boys are home from college and they are helping a neighbor move some furniture around in in a bedroom because one of the the couples, their mom is moving in with them. And I don't know all the details and the reasons behind that, but I know a lot of that is happening in many households today because the cost of care is very expensive. And many people, you know, are trying to preserve their retirement nest eggs. And if it can be done and somebody obviously has the training, the ability to to care for a parent, that's a lot of responsibility to do that long term care. We talk about inflation a lot, health care costs. I think I mentioned this in last week's show, 315,000 is the expected amount of money a couple can expect to spend out of pocket in their health care over their retirement years.

Dwight Mejan:
So a very, very expensive item. And health care costs go up about four times the rate of inflation. So, again, long term care, I'll have Mitchell say something here maybe in a few minutes on health care, since that's a big area that he specializes in with our clients and people that come to our office. But long term care, if it's not something that you have looked at, I would highly encourage you if you are still working or recently retired, you know, there's some creative strategies out there that the insurance industry has put together, and it's not just premium based policies where you pay an annual premium or a monthly premium. There are now what are called asset based policies, and we don't have time to go into the details of that. You can contact us to go over that. But if you have looked at premium based policies and ruled out long term care for your portfolio and for your future, you probably need to give that another look. If you haven't looked at asset based care and essentially what asset based care is, it's taking a slice of your portfolio, a segment of it, and allocating those funds into an insurance contract that is then used to leverage those dollars 2 to 3 times that could be used to pay out benefits for long term care.

Dwight Mejan:
And that could be care in your home or care in an institution somewhere. Again, one in two people will need some form of long term care. So it's either Medicare, which runs out after 100 days between that and your secondary, or it's self insuring your portfolio or it's using asset based care or some form of long term care insurance to do that. We're big advocates of long term care insurance because I can tell you in my 29 years of working with clients and their portfolios, it is the single largest expense, if it's unplanned for that wipes out financial futures and financial plans. So definitely need to take a look at that. The retirement savings crisis is real. Going back to those adult children, many Gen X adult children are telling us that caring for their parents will be extremely difficult and potentially unattainable. That was Eddie Herder. That was American Advisors Group, vice president of Brand Strategy said in a statement. So a very real crisis. Mitchell, I want to ask you about Medicare. Just some things that are coming up there or anything else you want to add to. Anything I've spoken on, tell the listeners just some things that they need to be aware of as we kind of launch off here into 2023. If they're on Medicare.

Mitchell Keiser:
Sure. I would tell people, especially our older listeners, that things have changed. You know, I hear sometimes that people say, Oh, well, somebody told me to get this plan and never change it. Don't ever switch, you know, switch off of this, or people just get pretty narrow minded in what they think is good for insurance. So I will say recently I've noticed some things, even with certain advantage plans. I'll tell you, we have a client. I won't say his name, but he didn't have any kind of health care. And he said, you know, what's the benefit of me getting some of these advantage plans? Now? He went from paying, I think it was like $180 per physical therapy session to like $10. We by putting him on an. Manage plan. He was able to get a lot of care for free. I added $100 a month back into his Social Security check and he got a $50 a month stipend that he could use at like a grocery store or on like his electric bills, things like that. I mean, there's just like these different plans out there that I'd say have just come within the past couple of years. People that are in between that gap of retiring and being on Medicare, they don't have any insurance or people have sent me stuff where they're paying like eight or $900 a month for their whether it's COBRA or whatever they got on the open market for insurance. I mean, there are other options out there as far as, you know, looking for different types of insurance. And that's when you're younger and it's when you're older, I'll tell somebody I pay for my own insurance and it's less than for my wife and I. I mean, it's around 300 bucks. That's a fraction of what I find most people are paying that are have to go buy it for themselves. You just have to know where to look. So again, if you have questions on that, you can contact me at 910 235 0812. Or you could send us a message at our radio show website which is Retire360Show.com.

Dwight Mejan:
You know Mitchell it's hearing you talk about that I was thinking you know it's like sports you know a lot of it is returning back to the basics and you know when we're starting this new year fresh, a lot of it is just going back to some of the basics in I think even on the portfolio side of what I'm responsible for in our office with the portfolio and management is, you know, it's just looking at things like what are my advisory, what are the fees I'm paying, do I have a fee efficient portfolio? That's one of the basic things that we look at. You know, I think of a of a recent client that came in towards the fourth quarter that needed income. Their main objective from their portfolio was income producing assets. Well, when we ran a report, basically as a morningstar report, we went backwards, looked at those funds. We found that their expenses on their portfolio expense ratio, it's called that was very expensive. We were able to lower that for this client, which in essence produced a substantial amount of income that they needed per month. And on top of that, we found some dividend companies that they didn't have access to and some other income producing assets that substantially increase this client's income to the tune of about 56% more income is the number that I remember from what this client's current income was. And for that, it was it was a pretty easy decision for that particular client to make some changes in their set, their already set off for 2023 here to already be taking this higher income. So it's just something that we encourage our listeners to do. If that is something that you need to look at your fees, your expense ratio, making sure you're in the right income for your assets, and making sure you're not holding a lot of the same assets.

Dwight Mejan:
We see that quite often as well, where people have these retirement accounts spread out. They got old for one case. They've got an IRA account managed at this particular custodian, another one over there. And all they're doing is they're saving money and they're doing a great job of it, but they don't realize how much of the same holdings they have between all those different funds. And we will look at that for you and show you ways to bring more diversification, which should bring less risk to that portfolio and hopefully stabilize the return. So if you saw a lot of volatility, that could be something that was going on. But you also want to take a look at those fees, take a look at the expenses on that portfolio. And if you are an income needed investor where you need income, let's make sure and we'll help you do that complimentary. We'll take a look at that portfolio for you and run some reports and sit down with you and see if there's ways to improve that in the coming year. So reach out to us again. My name is Dwight. Meghan, you can call us at 910 235 0812. Our office is in downtown Southern Pines. We'd welcome you there. And also you can go to Retire360Show.com and book that complimentary consultation right there We'll do zoom calls if you prefer a zoom call or you can come in We'd love to see you face to face. So with that, we'll wrap up when we come back. And look at this week in History.

Producer:
You're listening to Retire 360 to schedule your free no obligation consultation with Dwight visit Retire360Show.com.

Producer:
No matter what you do, there's always someone looking to separate you from your hard-earned and hard-saved cash. I'm Matt McClure with a Retirement dot Radio Network powered by Amerilife. Hey, Drew. Will Robinson, Danger. Online scams are nothing new. Things like fake Craigslist ads or emails from a Nigerian prince offering you his fortune in exchange for a couple thousand of your own money have been around for years. But the scams do keep changing as scammers tactics evolve. Aarp recently released its list of red hot scams in 2022. One of the newest came in at the top of the list, the Google Voice scam. Here's how it works. If you're selling something online and include your phone number for people to reach out, a bad actor could call and say they want to make sure you aren't a scammer. They'll then tell you that you're about to receive a Google verification code. What's really happening is they're opening up a Google Voice account in your name so they can pose as you while cheating others out of their money. Aarp says to avoid this one, don't ever give out verification codes to anyone. Another one on the list involves fake jobs. Scammers will get your information from an online resume and contact you with a fake job offer. Then they'll ask for payment for things like supposed home office setup fees. This one is similar to income scams that make big promises for easy money but don't deliver.

Rhonda Perkins:
Here's the reality There's no such thing as a guaranteed way to make money. If you see an offer like that, it's a scam, period. The FTC has sued and shut down lots of companies that have made fake claims like that.

Producer:
Rhonda Perkins is an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission.

Rhonda Perkins:
So before you invest in a program that says you'll make a lot of money, stop, take your time and do your research. Be skeptical about success stories and testimonials. Also, check with your state attorney general's office.

Producer:
Also on the AAP list, rental assistance scams, Fake Amazon Employees, Cryptocurrency ATM Payments Imposters offering to settle your tax debt, Fake emails that look like they're from a friend asking for a gift card payment and demands through money transfer apps like Venmo or Cash App. With any of these, it's essential that you verify the identity of the person you're speaking to. Never give your personal information to anyone you don't know, and if necessary, report it to the authorities. So are you prepared to protect your money from online scams? That's a key question to consider as you try to grow your wealth for retirement. With a Retirement dot Radio Network powered by AmeriLife, I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
Missed part of today's show. Retire 360 is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at Retire360Show.com.

Dwight Mejan:
All right we're back here at Retire 360 show. Thank you for being with us during this hour and welcome again to all you first-time listeners who are picking us up for the first time. It's an honor to have you with us. This is your show. And if you ever want some topic that you'd like us to discuss, hey, we'd welcome hearing from you. In any case, we'd love to help you, obviously, with guiding you the right way with your portfolio. But if you have ideas for the show that you'd like to hear us talk about, hey, call us and give us that as well. And we'd be glad to tackle some of those issues on this program as well. And you can reach us at 910 235 0812. We want to wrap up the show this week by just looking at this week in History.

Producer:
It's this week in History.

Dwight Mejan:
January 6th is the date and in sports and the sports world in 1920. One of the most impactful transactions in Major League Baseball history occurred when Babe Ruth was bought from the Boston Red Sox. Sounds interesting that we talk about people being bought, but it's interesting. And sports assets are referred to as people. So interesting there. But Babe Ruth on a on a financial note, when I saw that this was this week in history, Babe Ruth did not suffer hardly any losses during the time of the Great Depression. Interestingly enough, a lot of his money was parked not in the banks when people were jumping off of bank buildings, they were in insurance products. He used annuities. You can do the research on that yourself. I'd encourage you to do that. But interesting little sidebar on that one. But also on this date, January 6th, in 1976, Ted Turner, he purchased the Atlanta Braves for a reported get this, $12 million. I don't have $12 Million. But I know based on that date and time, that's a pretty good return on your money Sam unit. Anybody know what the reported value of the Atlanta Braves is today? That would be an interesting statistic. I have no clue because I'm not a huge Major League Baseball fan, but I don't even know what the most recent team purchased. I don't even know how long ago that was. But that would be an interesting statistic. Any of you guys know that?

Mitchell Keiser:
Yeah, we'll look that up and I'll get that information before the end of the show. But I'm just assuming based off of headlines that I've read recently, when teams sell that, that could be worth over $1,000,000,000 right now. So we'll get that answer for you by the end of the show.

Dwight Mejan:
Yeah, I hope Ted Turner has some good financial people in his corner, and I'm guessing that he does because that's a pretty good taxable gain on $12 Million investment. But anyway, in pop culture, on January 6th, on this date, 1975, the American hit game show Wheel of Fortune made its premiere on NBC television and believe it or not, Wheel of Fortune Show ranks as the longest running syndicated game show in the United States and has taped, I did not know this over 7000 episodes. So that is a long time running. Pat Sajak. And is it Vanna White? Do I have that right? I'm not a I'm not a fan of the show, but I think that's who we're talking about here. I know it's Pat Sajak, but January 7th on This Week in History birthday on this date, 1964, American actor and filmmaker Nicolas Cage was born. I haven't seen him in a movie lately, Have you, guys? What was his last movie? Was it the treasure? The treasure.

Mitchell Keiser:
That. Yeah, it could. It could have been the second national treasure. I know he's done some smaller movies recently, including a movie where he played himself. But yeah, he was he was definitely a bigger name in the nineties and early. 2000s.

Dwight Mejan:
Yeah, he was Valley Girl. I remember that one. I remember the National Treasure Film series and leaving Las Vegas. That's the one. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor. So and then on January 8th this past week, Music Birthday. On this date, 1935, American singer, guitarist and actor Elvis Presley was born. Mitchell We were going over this before the show and he didn't know a whole lot of these people. So I guess they leave the old guy here to do the This Week in history. But Mitchell, you do know Elvis Presley, right?

Mitchell Keiser:
I do know Elvis. I'll say. I didn't know he was I mean, that's still relatively young, so he'd be like 88 years old.

Dwight Mejan:
Yeah.

Mitchell Keiser:
So to me, I guess he was gone before my time. So I would have thought he was older than that.

Dwight Mejan:
Yeah, well, there you go. Well, Sam, as promised, he gave an estimated value of the Atlanta Braves, and we are looking at it right here. Estimated value. Anybody want to guess that's listening to the show? Well, if you said in the hundreds of millions you are wrong. Estimated value of the Atlanta Braves today is 2.1. Billion dollars. So he bought it in 1976. Ted Turner for $12 million. So I guess that's why they want to own major league sports teams. I'm a hockey fan. I'm a big, big hockey guy. I grew up in Chicago, so I love hockey. What's what's your sport, Sam? What do you follow?

Mitchell Keiser:
Growing up in Kansas, I'm definitely a big college basketball fan. Was rooting the Jayhawks on and their big win last weekend over Oklahoma State won right at the end. But, you know, I enjoy turning the TV on and watching whatever the biggest event that weekend is, whether it be the golf tournament that's on or the NFL playoffs. But I would say basketball college basketball has to be my number one.

Dwight Mejan:
Okay, cool. Mitchell, how about you? What are you following these days? What's your sport?

Mitchell Keiser:
So my wife and I have just been following the hurricanes.

Dwight Mejan:
A good team to follow in her place and hoping to make a playoff run here, we hope. But we got a little we got a little ways to go yet. A couple more months to decide that. So but hey, with that bet, you got anything you want to add to the show here before we sign off today? Anything else you want to add to the listeners?

Mitchell Keiser:
I don't think so. If you have any questions on anything health care related, be happy to help somebody. It's not too late. If you want to make a switch. We've had some things going on in our county with power and with the hurricane, so there's some special elections that people might qualify for. So if you have any questions on health care stuff as well, I know we're talking a lot about money and inflation, but be happy to help so you can reach us at 910 235 0812.

Dwight Mejan:
Absolutely. And thank you for spending part of your Sunday afternoon with us. And we look forward to a fun year ahead on some relevant topics that will help you win with your money and instill a level of confidence whether the markets continue to go down or hopefully rebound. We want to give you a plan that you feel secure with and as your host here, Dwight BGN, I just want to welcome that call that Mitchell said. Go to our website. We'd love to book that complimentary session with you, give you that second opinion. It is free again. Where I like to say we Shine is building a portfolio around your tax map and that is helping you to optimize the amount of taxes that you pay. That is a big part of your retirement. It's a big expense in your retirement. And as I say, you know, taxes in retirement can get more confusing than they were pre retirement because at that point it was a lot just wages. Now it's other factors like pension, income, Social Security, different types of income on that tax return can create different taxation. So we would love to help you understand how taxes relate to your portfolio. That's one of the areas that we provide some specialty. We're not CPAs, but we do understand how it works within the structure of your portfolio, and that's what we want to help you put together. So with that, thanks for listening. Check us out at Retire 360 show. Com or contact our office 912350812. And thanks again for being with us today.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Retire 360. You deserve to work with an experienced and licensed expert who will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets to schedule your free no obligation consultation with Dwight visit Retire360Show.com or pick up the phone and call 910 235 0812. That's 910 235 0812.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offer through Brookstone Capital Management LLC BCM a registered Investment advisor BCM and 360 Capital Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity. Contract guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer. Registered Investment advisors and Investment Advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients, we have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosure of any conflicts of interest, if any exist.

Producer:
At 360 Capital Management. We know you've worked hard to earn your money and you've worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement. Dwight Mejan is passionate about helping people protect and grow their wealth. Visit Retire360Show.com to schedule your free consultation. Today it's a $1,500 value provided at no cost to you. Book yours now at Retire360Show.com.

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