Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley: Recent Episodes
Ashley Micciche
Planning for retirement can be confusing. Ashley makes it simpler! Every day, you'll receive quick, actionable ideas to help you on your path to retirement.
Disclosure: https://drive.google.com/open?id=149ZdPZDQsnmXXslZ2j1TIEjP8i_BODi8
Welcome back to Retirement Quick Tips. I'm your host, Ashley Micciche, and today's episode is a little different. There's no retirement topic, unless you consider my summer sabbatical a lesson in mini-retirements.
Instead, here's a quick update on what's happening with the podcast this summer. As many of you loyal listeners know, I am pregnant with my 5th child. Hard to believe myself, as I never grew up around a lot of other kids or siblings. I didn't babysit much, and I wasn't even sure I wanted to have kids until my husband and I decided we wanted to grow our family a couple years into our marriage. Since then we've been open to adding more children, and the good Lord has blessed us abundantly with now 5 children.
And that 5th baby is coming very, very soon. My due date is June 11th, so by the time you listen to this episode, it's likely she's already arrived. Which means that this summer, I'll be taking a break from recording new episodes for the podcast.
New episodes are going to be on pause for a bit, and I'll be back in September with fresh content. September.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. "Ashley, what am I supposed to do without my Retirement Quick Tips fix all summer?" Fear not! Here's what I want you to do. Head over to YouTube and subscribe to my channel. It's called Retire with Ashley, and I'm still going to be posting videos over there from time to time throughout the summer. So that's where you'll want to be if you want to stay connected and keep the retirement tips coming your way.
You can search "Retire with Ashley" on YouTube and you'll find it. Subscribe, turn on the notifications, and you won't miss a thing.
Lastly, thank you so much for listening. Whether you've been here since episode one or you just found this podcast last week, I'm so grateful for all of you who tune in, share the show, and send me your questions and feedback. It means a lot and I can't wait to be back with you again in September.
Until then, take care & enjoy your summer.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
We talked about why inflation is so dangerous in retirement, how stocks can help you stay ahead of inflation, why dividend growth matters, how bonds behave in rising rate environments, and how tools like TIPS and I Bonds can fit into a broader strategy. We also talked about practical steps like reducing high-interest debt and managing spending more intentionally.
Today I want to zoom out and talk about the bigger picture.
Yesterday I talked about TIPS and I Bonds—two investment tools designed to help offset inflation. But today I want to zoom out and talk about something just as important: the practical, everyday decisions that can help you fight inflation outside of your portfolio.
Today I want to talk about two tools that are often used specifically for inflation protection: Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, and I Bonds.
Yesterday I talked about why stocks are one of the best long-term inflation hedges. But today I want to get more specific because not all stocks perform equally well during inflationary periods.
Today I want to talk about one of the best long-term inflation hedges available to retirees: stocks.
This week I'm going to talk about how retirees can build a portfolio that is better designed to withstand inflation. We'll cover stocks, dividend-paying companies, bonds, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, and practical steps you can take to protect your purchasing power.
The question of whether to stop saving for retirement before you actually retire is more nuanced than it might seem, but it is absolutely a legitimate planning strategy for the right person in the right situation.
If you're going to coast and stop contributing, make sure the number you're projecting to end up with at retirement is not the bare minimum. You want to build in a bigger buffer and a bigger safety net so that you could still retire even if the number ended up being less than projected.
Now let's talk about some reasons why you would seriously consider stopping contributions so close to retirement.
Before I get into why you would want to stop contributing or why that might make sense, I first want to talk about why you would want to continue contributing.
For many of you -- and I would put myself in this boat as well -- it would be too scary to sit there and coast and say okay, I think I've built up enough, now I'm going to let compounding take me the rest of the way here to retirement. I like being in more control than that rather than relying on returns.
The point you can stop saving for retirement happens when your current portfolio is large enough that, even with no further contributions, it is projected to grow to your target retirement balance through compounding alone by your goal retirement date.
Did you know there comes a point when you're getting close to retirement that saving more every year or maxing out your 401k no longer matters?
When you reach the point of "coasting" to retirement, the annual returns far outpace your annual savings, making them a drop in the bucket.
For example, I have a client with a 3.5 million portfolio. He has a gain of about 8% this year, which translates to about $254,000 in gains. Any savings he might make on top of these gains, even if he's maxing out his 401k, are just a small portion of his overall dollars growing.
Which begs the question - how do you know when saving for retirement becomes optional, and you can let the returns and math work in your favor and not stress so much about saving as much as possible?
So in this week's podcast, I'll talk about how to recognize when you can stop saving so hard for retirement & relax a little bit, what 'coasting' to retirement actually means, and why this phase can be one of the most freeing (and financially misunderstood!) stages of your retirement planning journey because it can help you achieve other important financial goals as well.
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
- Who can and should sign up & fund these accounts
- Why I like them better than other types of savings and investment accounts for kids
- How to sign up
- Investment options
- How to turn these accounts into millions for your kids or grandkids in retirement
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
- Who can and should sign up & fund these accounts
- Why I like them better than other types of savings and investment accounts for kids
- How to sign up
- Investment options
- How to turn these accounts into millions for your kids or grandkids in retirement
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
- Who can and should sign up & fund these accounts
- Why I like them better than other types of savings and investment accounts for kids
- How to sign up
- Investment options
- How to turn these accounts into millions for your kids or grandkids in retirement
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
- Who can and should sign up & fund these accounts
- Why I like them better than other types of savings and investment accounts for kids
- How to sign up
- Investment options
- How to turn these accounts into millions for your kids or grandkids in retirement
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
- Who can and should sign up & fund these accounts
- Why I like them better than other types of savings and investment accounts for kids
- How to sign up
- Investment options
- How to turn these accounts into millions for your kids or grandkids in retirement
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
- Who can and should sign up & fund these accounts
- Why I like them better than other types of savings and investment accounts for kids
- How to sign up
- Investment options
- How to turn these accounts into millions for your kids or grandkids in retirement
No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.
And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's definitely a no brainer. About 5 million Americans have already signed up for these accounts, and I will be enrolling all 5 of my own children before they go live on July 4th. And enjoying the free $1000 of seed money for baby number 5, arriving in June.
So in this week's podcast, I'll be breaking down the key things you need to know about Trump accounts:
Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! The day this episode goes live, I'm on my way home from a weekend at the Oregon coast with my husband and kids, and the weather is supposed to be perfect. Playing on the beach, relaxing, and hoping that I don't have to do much on Mother's Day - exactly the kind of quiet, relaxing weekend I'm envisioning.
I hope your Mother's Day was just as lovely.
And speaking of Mother's Day, I have a special announcement at the end of the episode, so make sure you stick around.
So today I want to address something that comes up all the time: how do you invest new money without second-guessing yourself?
So the big takeaway here: You cannot time the market. You cannot know whether you will retire into a bull run or the next 1968. But that uncertainty does not have to be paralyzing, because the strategies in this series are not about predicting what happens. They are about building a retirement structure that can absorb the worst and still keep you on track.
If you have followed the strategies in this series, a market downturn does not just become survivable. It becomes an opportunity. This is the episode about playing offense when others are panicking.
Don't Retire With the Wrong Portfolio
One of the most avoidable mistakes in retirement planning is carrying a growth-heavy, stock-concentrated portfolio right up to and into retirement. What worked when you were 40 and decades away from needing the money is a completely different risk profile at 62 or 65 when withdrawals are starting.
Don't Retire With the Wrong Portfolio
One of the most avoidable mistakes in retirement planning is carrying a growth-heavy, stock-concentrated portfolio right up to and into retirement. What worked when you were 40 and decades away from needing the money is a completely different risk profile at 62 or 65 when withdrawals are starting.
The single most important thing you can do before and during retirement is ensure you have enough liquid, accessible funds to stop portfolio withdrawals when markets turn down. This episode breaks down the specific framework for doing that.
Most people think about investment risk in terms of averages. If your portfolio earns 7 percent on average over 30 years, you should be fine, right? Not necessarily. Sequence of returns risk is the danger that the timing of your returns, not just the average, can make or break your retirement.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: What Happens If You Retire at the Wrong Time?
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: Your Tax Return Is a Goldmine - Don't Just File It and Forget It.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is: The Top 10% of Retirees: How Much Is Enough?
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is:
Oil, Iran, and a Rocky Quarter: Your Q1 2026 Market Debrief
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: The Hidden Tax Traps in Retirement
In case you missed any episodes this week…
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is The Hidden Tax Traps in Retirement
Today, I'm talking about the trap of social security taxes in retirement.
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is The Hidden Tax Traps in Retirement
Today, I'm talking about the widow's penalty, which is when a surviving spouse goes from Married Filing Jointly to Single.
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is The Hidden Tax Traps in Retirement
Today, I'm talking about required minimum distributions. Talk to any retiree in their mid 70s with a large 401k or Traditional IRA balance, and you'll no doubt hear them grumble about their required minimum distributions, or RMDs.
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is The Hidden Tax Traps in RetirementToday, I'm talking about IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount). It's an additional surcharge added to Medicare Part B and Part D premiums if you have higher income. IF you're single, IRMAA kicks in above $109k in income. If you're married, it kicks in above $218 of income.
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is The Hidden Tax Traps in Retirement
Today, I'm talking about 3 tax traps that most people tend to forget about:
Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is:
The Hidden Tax Traps in Retirement No One Talks About
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Fix My Portfolio
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is fix my portfolio. I'm rating your real-life investment portfolios and sharing with you my perspective and suggestions.
Today's portfolio comes from Cecilia
- Age = 60
- Time to retirement = just retired last month
- Allocation to stocks (54%), bonds (32%), cash (14%)
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is fix my portfolio. I'm rating your real-life investment portfolios and sharing with you my perspective and suggestions.
Today's portfolio comes from Edward
- Age = 76
- Time to retirement = just retired - wife is 62 and plans to continue working ~5 more years
- Allocation to stocks (63%), bonds (14%), cash (23%)
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is fix my portfolio. I'm rating your real-life investment portfolios and sharing with you my perspective and suggestions.
Today's portfolio comes from Benjamin
- Age = 59
- Time to retirement = retired, takes income from investment portfolio, and does part time consulting work
- Allocation to stocks (74%), bonds (23%), cash (2%), other (1%) - small amount in metals and bitcoin
- Portfolio concentrations = 1 volatile, untested tech stock = 23% of the portfolio
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is fix my portfolio. I'm rating your real-life investment portfolios and sharing with you my perspective and suggestions.
Today's portfolio comes from Patrick
- Age = 70
- Time to retirement = been retired for several years
- Allocation to stocks (90%), bonds (9%), cash (1%)
- Other things to know:
- Very high net worth (~$15 million and very low spend rate on assets)
This week's theme on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is fix my portfolio. I'm rating your real-life investment portfolios and sharing with you my perspective and suggestions.
Today's portfolio comes from Bridget
- Age = 66
- Time to retirement = already retired for a few years
- Allocation to stocks (20%), bonds (30%), cash (50%)
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week's topic is:
Fix My Portfolio
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm talking about:
Iran Conflict: What It Means for Markets, Inflation, and Your Retirement
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On
In case you missed any episodes this week, I shared examples of where I gladly spend money, including buying back time through outsourcing tasks, investing in my health to maximize my healthspan, and prioritizing meaningful time and experiences with the people I love.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On
So far this week, I've talked about some of the areas where I think it's smart to spend:
- Buying back time
- Optimizing health
- Spending quality time and creating memories with family and friends
So hopefully the examples I've given of my favorite smart splurges have got you thinking about where it makes sense to spend lavishly. In order to use money in a way that increases contentment and happiness, it's important to spend in a way that is consistent with what you value most.
So I want to revisit questions I asked earlier this week
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On.
Today, I'm talking about spending money to improve your health. When it comes to healthcare spending, I really think of it as an investment. I'm less focused on maximizing lifespan and more focused on maximizing healthspan—the number of years you're healthy, active, and able to enjoy life.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On
Today, I'm talking about splurges on memories, not stuff.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On.
Today, I'm talking about spending money to buy back your time. The older I get, the more I realize how valuable time really is. And the older we get, the less of it we have, which makes it even more important not to waste it.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On
According to a recent survey by Motley Fool Money, today's retirees splurge too! The top wasteful things today's retirees spend money on are food, utilities, and lottery tickets. Baby boomers are more likely than the average consumer to waste food by throwing out leftovers or expired items, to leave appliances or utilities running unnecessarily, to buy brand-name pantry items and to buy lottery tickets.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm talking about:
Smart Splurges: The Things I Love Spending Money On
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Financially Secure, Not Flashy: The Quiet Millionaire Formula for Retirement
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week we're talking about the quiet millionaire formula for retirement.
Today I want to talk about some of the lifestyle habits I often see among financially secure people.
This week we're talking about the quiet millionaire formula for retirement.
So what exactly is a quiet millionaire?
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week I'm talking about the benefits of practicing quiet wealth, and why it's important—especially for retirees—to be intentional about being quiet with our money.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Today, I'm talking about the final scenario worth considering when deciding whether or not to start social security earlier rather than later - which is to smooth out your lifetime tax liability in retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Today, I'm talking about the final scenario worth considering when deciding whether or not to start social security earlier rather than later - which is to smooth out your lifetime tax liability in retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Today, I'm talking about reason #4 to start social security earlier - that is to avoid spending down your assets.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Today, I'm talking about claiming early when you don't expect to live long enough to benefit from a delay in waiting.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Yesterday, I talked about how there could be several benefits - including more predictable income and tax scenarios in retirement from high net worth individuals claiming earlier rather than later. This flies in the face of conventional advice, and can be overly simplistic for the millions of married couples who are trying to decide how and when to claim social security.
So today, I'm talking about scenarios where married couples can benefit from claiming earlier.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Today, I'm talking about the findings from a 2025 Vanguard research report: "Claiming Social Security early: A spectrum of breakeven and longevity risks"
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm talking about:
When You Shouldn't Delay Social Security: 5 Smart Reasons to Claim Early
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm talking about what to do if you're laid off right before retirement. You planned to work another couple years, but you got your pink slip instead. What do you do when your timeline for retirement is completely upended?
This week's theme is just a single episode, so if you're listening on Alexa, be sure to listen online or on another platform for the complete, unedited version of this week's episode.
And if you're new to the podcast - welcome! I'm a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors. For the last 18 years, I've helped my clients make a plan and build wealth for a confident and fulfilling retirement, and this podcast is dedicated to helping you do the same!
In the last couple months, I've had 2 clients who were laid off only a couple years from their retirement. One after working at the same employer for the last 40 years. It's a scary time filled with a lot of questions - do I need to find another job? Will anyone hire me at this age? Can I afford to retire earlier than I expected?
So in today's episode, I'm going to walk you through the steps to take if you find yourself unexpectedly laid off in the crucial couple of years before retirement. So let's get into it…
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme:
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm breaking down the generational differences between Gen X & Boomers. These two generations approach money very differently, and those differences have a big impact on how they save, plan for retirement, and ultimately live in retirement.
Today, I'm talking about how Gen X as they embark on retirement. The oldest Gen Xers are already 60, and getting close to retirement. Some are already retired.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm breaking down the generational differences between Gen X & Boomers. These two generations approach money very differently, and those differences have a big impact on how they save, plan for retirement, and ultimately live in retirement.
Today, I'm talking about Gen X's saving and spending habits.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm breaking down the generational differences between Gen X & Boomers. These two generations approach money very differently, and those differences have a big impact on how they save, plan for retirement, and ultimately live in retirement.
Today I'm talking about a few key differences between Boomers and Gen X that help define how they view and relate to money - particularly as Gen X approaches retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm breaking down the generational differences between Gen X & Boomers. These two generations approach money very differently, and those differences have a big impact on how they save, plan for retirement, and ultimately live in retirement.
While Boomers love to talk about the assassination of JFK and the landing on the moon and can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing during both events, Gen X remembers the Challenger exploding, the LA riots, and the suicide of Kurt Kobain.
The defining economic event that shaped Gen X's financial path was the dot com bust. Younger Gen Xs were just finishing school and launching their careers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while older Gen Xs ers - 35 years old at this time, were now well established.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm breaking down the generational differences between Gen X & Boomers. These two generations approach money very differently, and those differences have a big impact on how they save, plan for retirement, and ultimately live in retirement.
If Gen X had a one word motto it would be: whatever. It's not that they don't care, it's that they've had to roll with so many punches since childhood, that they've learned to be self-sufficient and largely cautious about institutions.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, we're exploring the differences between Gen X & Boomers when it comes to planning for and living in retirement.
For my entire career as a financial advisor, I've been focused on working with boomers, as the great wave of retiring baby boomers had just started 18 years ago when I became an advisor.
But fast forward to today, and the oldest boomers, born in 1946 turn 80 this year, and the youngest of boomers, born in 1964, are now 62 (the most common retirement age for someone in the US) and eligible for social security. The vast majority of baby boomers are retired, and the next wave of retirees - Gen Xers are in the homestretch to retirement.
Born between 1965 & 1980, Gen Xers are now in the homestretch to retirement.
So this week, I'll talk about how these generational differences shaped how & why retirement will look differently for them
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Retiring in 2026? Don't Miss These Critical Financial To-Dos
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about some of the key tax traps to avoid if you can, and at the very least, pay attention to and familiarize yourself with before retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about the importance of simplifying your finances as you get close to retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about thinking through your ideal schedule in retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about revisiting your investment strategy before retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about boosting your emergency savings.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, we're exploring the question: Retiring in 2026? Don't Miss These Critical Financial To-Dos - part 2
Last week I talked about my top five most important items to check off your pre-retirement checklist before you get that gold watch (if you're younger than me, you don't even understand that reference!)
This week I'm talking about 5 more critical steps to take.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Retiring in 2026? Don't Miss These Critical Financial To-Dos
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about considering a move in retirement, to downsize, or should I say right size. The most important consideration here is to plan ahead so you can live somewhere where you can age in place.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about getting rid of all debt before retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about making a social security filing game plan.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year.
Yesterday, I talked about figuring out if you can afford to retire.
Today, I want to spend more time discussing how to create a retirement spending budget.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm covering the essential list of to-dos if you're planning to retire this year, or frankly, anytime in the next couple of years.
Today, I'm talking about the most critical box to check if you're planning to retire this year: make sure you can actually afford to retire
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, we're exploring the question: Retiring in 2026? Don't Miss These Critical Financial To-Dos
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Is 2026 the Right Time to Sell Your Home?
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about what to consider if you're contemplating selling your home and moving in 2026.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about what to consider if you're contemplating selling your home and moving in 2026.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about what to consider if you're contemplating selling your home and moving in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about how problems in the housing market aren't going to disappear overnight. I think mortgage rates coming down may temporarily improve the problem but making houses a bit more affordable, but housing prices need to come WAY down for the market to normalize.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about what to consider if you're contemplating selling your home and moving in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about the golden handcuffs of the 3% mortgage and why those are starting to come off for many people.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about what to consider if you're contemplating selling your home and moving in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about why mortgage rates are likely to move lower in a meaningful way this year and why that might be the catalyst to unfreeze the housing market.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, we're exploring the question: Is 2026 the Right Time to Sell Your Home?
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: The Worst IRA Mistakes To Avoid
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about the worst IRA mistakes to avoid.
Today, I'm talking about making the wrong decisions with your RMDs.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about the worst IRA mistakes to avoid.
Today, I'm talking about another common mistake I see people make - no strategy for inherited IRA distributions.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about the worst IRA mistakes to avoid.
Today, I'm talking about accumulating too much money in tax-deferred accounts.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about the worst IRA mistakes to avoid.
Today, I'm talking about: Ignoring Roth In Favor of a Tax Break Today
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about the worst IRA mistakes to avoid.
Today, I'm talking about: Missing Opportunities To Contribute To Your IRA
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm sharing with you: The Worst IRA Mistakes To Avoid
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm sharing with you: a recap of 2025 and a brief guide for investors in 2026.
I'll talk about what you might expect from the economy, and the stock and bond markets.
Normally I do this in daily episodes, but this week I have lost my voice due to a cold, so I'll spare you the daily episodes and cram it all into one episode this week.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Get Financially Stronger in 2026 – A Step By Step Guide
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered:
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you how to get financially stronger in 2026. A step by step guide to reaching financial independence or making the most progress in that direction in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about an expense that most people don't have the courage to really scrutinize - their housing expenses.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you how to get financially stronger in 2026. A step by step guide to reaching financial independence or making the most progress in that direction in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about boosting your retirement savings in 2026.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you how to get financially stronger in 2026. A step by step guide to reaching financial independence or making the most progress in that direction in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about getting out of the car debt hamster wheel.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you how to get financially stronger in 2026. A step by step guide to reaching financial independence or making the most progress in that direction in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about becoming allergic to credit card debt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you how to get financially stronger in 2026. A step by step guide to reaching financial independence or making the most progress in that direction in 2026.
Today, I'm sharing with you the first step you must take on the road to getting financially stronger this year: getting enough money in savings for emergencies and planned expenses.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm sharing with you: How to Get Financially Stronger in 2026 – A Step By Step Guide
I'll talk about a step-by step guide to help you focus on the RIGHT things to improve your financial health in 2026.
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
This week on the podcast, I'm revisiting the best episodes of 2025 - reruns that are just as relevant today as when it first aired.
Here is today's best of 2025 episode…
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week I'm sharing with you the best and most popular episodes of the year.
I'm bringing back everything from the ideal withdrawal rate in the first year of retirement, to the worst investments for retirees, to how not to let money ruin the trip when traveling with friends.
If you're new to the podcast - Hi there! I'm a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors. For the last 18 years, I've helped my clients navigate the challenges and incredible opportunities of retirement….and this podcast is dedicated to helping you do the same!
Thanks for joining me this week! I'll be back with new episodes on Monday, January 5th.
If you know someone who would be interested in the podcast, share the show! And if you have a burning question about your own retirement, check out my website - truenorthra.com - there you can book a free 15-minute call with me about anything on your mind regarding your retirement.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: What Didn't Make the Podcast in 2025 (But Almost Did)
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my favorite topics that didn't quite make it to the podcast this year - mostly a collection of articles that I found interesting and wanted to cover on the podcast, but it never made it to the top of the heap.
Today, I'm sharing with you the 401k mistake that I see time and time again. Most people don't realize they're making this mistake, but hopefully once it's on your radar, you'll never make this mistake ever again.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my favorite topics that didn't quite make it to the podcast this year - mostly a collection of articles that I found interesting and wanted to cover on the podcast, but it never made it to the top of the heap.
Today, I'm addressing a topic in the moneyist column on Market Watch. Think Ann Landers, but money instead of life problems.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my favorite topics that didn't quite make it to the podcast this year - mostly a collection of articles that I found interesting and wanted to cover on the podcast, but it never made it to the top of the heap.
Today, I'm sharing with you an article from the WSJ from Nov 9th: Feeling Great About the Economy? You Must Own Stocks
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my favorite topics that didn't quite make it to the podcast this year - mostly a collection of articles that I found interesting and wanted to cover on the podcast, but it never made it to the top of the heap.
Today's episode is actually a comment from one of my YouTube videos that I think is an important one to address:
What is a good age to start de-risking in general, in your opinion? Retiring at 55 to 6
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my favorite topics that didn't quite make it to the podcast this year - mostly a collection of articles that I found interesting and wanted to cover on the podcast, but it never made it to the top of the heap.
Today, I'm sharing with you an article from Investopedia - The Shocking Number of Rich People Who Live Paycheck to Paycheck
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm sharing with you: What Didn't Make the Podcast in 2025 (But Almost Did)
A collection of interesting topics that didn't quite make the cut for a full weekly theme, but still interesting and useful enough to share here on the podcast.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Year-End Financial Checklist 2025
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my year-end financial checklist. With only a few weeks before the end of the calendar year, there's still time to complete these before year-end.
Today, I'm talking about cleaning up your accounts and doing a little housekeeping before the end of the year.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my year-end financial checklist. With only a few weeks before the end of the calendar year, there's still time to complete these before year-end.
Today, I'm talking about projecting your income for taxes and 2026 planning.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my year-end financial checklist. With only a few weeks before the end of the calendar year, there's still time to complete these before year-end.
Today, I'm talking about reviewing your allocation to stocks and rebalancing
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my year-end financial checklist. With only a few weeks before the end of the calendar year, there's still time to complete these before year-end.
Today, I'm talking about checking your retirement contributions for the year to see if you're on track.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm sharing with you my year-end financial checklist. With only a few weeks before the end of the calendar year, there's still time to complete these before year-end.
Today, I'm talking about tax loss harvesting. If you have taxable investment accounts, you'll want to look closely at your gains and losses for the year.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm sharing with you a Year-End Financial Checklist for 2025.
A handful of things to check off your list before the end of the calendar year, including making sure you're on track for your retirement contributions, assessing where you're at financially, and tax harvesting in taxable investment accounts.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Why Most Americans Never Become Wealthy
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about why most Americans never reach financial independence and become wealthy.
Debt and spending decisions that start in early adulthood, and patterns of debt accumulation and never getting out of that hamster wheel is why most americans never reach financial independence or build enough wealth to get there.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to a class of high schoolers taking an elective on personal finance, and this is the alterative path I offered to them that will help make financial independence more likely.
Ok, first of all - as I said earlier this week: Follow the old nursery rhyme: 1st comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. Don't deviate from this path. Get married, then have kids. And stay married.
Beyond that, here's the path for someone seeking financial independence that I laid out and would recommend to every single teenager contemplating life after high school and wanting to get started right:
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about why most Americans never reach financial independence and become wealthy.
So far this week, I've talked about the typical path that many Americans take that set them up for failure when it comes to reaching financial independence:
- Taking on student loan debt (average repayment = $500+ a month for 10+ years)
- Buying a car (2nd highest expense for young people behind housing. Average monthly car payment for Gen Z today = $577). For many, it's not unusual to carry car payments of $1000 or more.
- Average credit card debt is $6700 at 23% interest - another few hundred a month in paying it off.
Then we come to the biggest expense - housing. The median monthly mortgage payment for U.S. homebuyers today is currently $2,259. That reflects today's higher interest rates and higher home prices. It's not surprising then that the average age of first-time homebuyer is 38. For many of you listening, you bought your first house when you were in your late 20s or early 30s. Today's first time homebuyers are now middle aged.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about why most Americans never reach financial independence and become wealthy.
Most of you listening to this podcast are boomers and gen Xers. College debt wasn't the crisis back then it was today. In fact, for many of you listening, unless you went to law school, medical school, or got some advanced degree, there's a good chance you graduated college with little to no debt.
Unless you've been living under a rock, that's obviously not the case today. Average student loan debt is now $39,075. Repayment usually takes 10-20 years at $500+ per month.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about why most Americans never reach financial independence and become wealthy.
Today, I'm talking about one of the main reasons why most Americans don't reach financial independence - poor spending decisions made early in life that put you in a debt cycle that most people just don't get out of.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I'm talking about why most Americans never reach financial independence and become wealthy.
Today, I'm talking about an inconvenient truth behind why so many Americans never reach financial independence.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, I'm sharing with you some shocking money statistics that when you put it all together, solve the puzzle why most Americans never become wealthy.
your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and in the week of Thanksgiving, I'm sharing just one episode with you so I can take time to peel potatoes and make sure our turkey brine is doing it's job.
I wish you many blessings this Thanksgiving, and I'm grateful for the time you choose to spend with me on this podcast. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your retirement planning journey, and I wish you and your loved ones a joy-filled Thanksgiving!
If you're new to the podcast - Hi there! I'm a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors. For the last 18 years, I've helped my clients navigate the challenges and incredible opportunities of retirement….and this podcast is dedicated to helping you do the same!
With this week being thanksgiving, I want to share with you how gratefulness helps you make better money decisions, as well as 5 things I'm most thankful for in 2025.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Big Changes Coming For 401(k) Savers Over 50 In 2026
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's what we covered.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the new rules for catch up contributions for higher earners over 50, going to effect in 2026: If you're participating in your 401k plan at work, if you're over 50, you're planning to maximize your contributions including the additional catch-up contribution, and you're going to make more than $145,000 in wages from your employer in 2025 - the rules for making catch up contributions are changing for you in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about your action plan for successfully implementing this rule change in 2026 in your own savings plan.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the new rules for catch up contributions for higher earners over 50, going to effect in 2026: If you're participating in your 401k plan at work, if you're over 50, you're planning to maximize your contributions including the additional catch-up contribution, and you're going to make more than $145,000 in wages from your employer in 2025 - the rules for making catch up contributions are changing for you in 2026.
Today, I'm addressing some special circumstances and some frequently asked questions around this change.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the new rules for catch up contributions for higher earners over 50, going to effect in 2026: If you're participating in your 401k plan at work, if you're over 50, you're planning to maximize your contributions including the additional catch-up contribution, and you're going to make more than $145,000 in wages from your employer in 2025 - the rules for making catch up contributions are changing for you in 2026.
I spent the last couple days explaining this in detail, so if you missed those episodes, be sure to go back and have a listen.
Today, I'm talking about the tax implications of this change and how you can prepare for it if you're used to getting a tax deduction on your 401k contributions.
If you're participating in your 401k plan at work, if you're over 50, you're planning to maximize your contributions including the additional catch-up contribution, and you're going to make more than $145,000 in wages from your employer in 2025 - the rules for making catch up contributions are changing for you in 2026.
Yesterday, I explained more details about who this change is going to impact, and today I want to focus on some special catch-up rules for those of you who are age 60-63.
If you're participating in your 401k plan at work, if you're over 50, you're planning to maximize your contributions including the additional catch-up contribution, and you're going to make more than $145,000 in wages from your employer in 2025 - the rules for making catch up contributions are changing for you in 2026.
Today, I'm talking about the basics of this new rule change so you can better understand how the change might impact you…
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, we're exploring an important change coming to 401k plans in 2026.
If you're participating in your 401k plan at work, if you're over 50, you're planning to maximize your contributions including the additional catch-up contribution, and you're going to make more than $145,000 in wages from your employer in 2025 - listen up! This is going to impact you!
Here's the change: Starting in 2026, all of your catch up contributions must be made into a Roth 401k.
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
Here's is today's interview segment with Kevin Caron…
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
Here's is today's interview segment with Kevin Caron…
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
Here's is today's interview segment with Kevin Caron…
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
Here's is today's interview segment with Kevin Caron…
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
Here's is today's interview segment with Kevin Caron…
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
Here's is today's interview segment with Kevin Caron…
Valuations for many stocks in the S&P 500 are at sky high levels, and for many of these companies, the math on the growth projections simply doesn't add up, which historically has been catastrophic for investors when the music stops playing.
Welcome to Retire with Ashley, your guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and today, I am joined by Kevin Caron, senior portfolio manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors.
He published a piece on his website back on September 9, 2025, called the Illusion of perpetual growth, and that was really the catalyst for this discussion today. I wanted to have him on to talk more about what the market is assuming today about the growth trajectory of stocks, and what that means for investors.
Kevin - welcome to the podcast! It's an honor to have you here!
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: Smart Retirement Withdrawals: 10 Principles for Lasting Financial Security
Actually this theme ran for 2 weeks because it was such a big topic.
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about planning for RMDs at the onset of retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about the importance of paying attention to taxes. If you don't manage your tax situation and pay attention to how portfolio withdrawals and capital gains, and RMDs will impact your tax situation, you'll end up paying more in taxes throughout your retirement, which just means that you'll drain your portfolio faster.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about prioritizing income with your investment portfolio to help you maintain and grow your withdrawals.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about the importance of maintaining discipline in your portfolio so that you're taking on the right amount of risk for your withdrawals.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about another retirement withdrawal strategy in retirement that I really like, and is easy to set up and implement - spending guardrails.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about another strategy to help you manage your withdrawals during times of economic and market difficulties - using your bond portfolio for withdrawals when the stocks are down.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about keeping your powder dry. One of the most important aspects of maintaining and growing your withdrawals without sacrificing financial security is maintaining flexibility…cash is king!
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about carefully selecting your retirement withdrawal rate. If you took the steps I already suggested in creating a budget and making sure that was realistic, then next step is to determine how much of your portfolio you would need to withdraw on a monthly and annual basis so you can support your spending goals.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about the last step in setting yourself up well for retirement withdrawals: test drive your retirement expenses.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about creating a retirement spending budget.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about smart retirement withdrawals - 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals in retirement, while maintaining financial security and not running the risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm talking about simplifying your expenses and cutting out the extras that will weigh you down in retirement. I recommend doing this before you retire to make the transition easier, but you can also wait until after retirement to start cutting the fat.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about 10 principles to help you sustain and grow your retirement withdrawals, while maintaining financial security and not risk of running out of money.
Today, I'm sharing with you the #1 thing you should do if you're still a few years out from retirement: pay off your mortgage.
Welcome to The Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, your daily guide to preparing for and living your best retirement. I'm your host Ashley Micciche, and this week, we're exploring:
The big topic of retirement withdrawals. It's such a big topic that I'm taking 2 weeks to share with you 10 principles for lasting financial security. Managing your withdrawals is key to making your money last in retirement while at the same time spending in a way that brings you happiness and satisfaction.
I'll share with you what to consider as you prepare for retirement. Like nearly everything else in life, we need to measure twice and cut once. Actually when it comes to home improvement projects, my motto is measure never and put 12 extra nail holes in the wall, but I digress.
So we'll talk about how to set yourself up for smart retirement withdrawals in the last few months and years before retirement, what you'll need to do around the time of retirement to get started on the right foot, and how to manage your withdrawals in retirement to balance your various financial needs and goals with the limited resources that are your retirement nest egg in order to make it last.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: I'm Worried About The Stock Market
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about why I'm growing increasingly worried about the stock market - high stock valuations colliding with a recession is historically a recipe for steep losses - and it is looking more and more like we're moving in that direction.
Today, let's talk about an action plan and how to make sure your portfolio is positioned well for both scenarios of continued growth, and a possible economic downturn and a bear market.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about why I'm growing increasingly worried about the stock market - high stock valuations colliding with a recession is historically a recipe for steep losses - and it is looking more and more like we're moving in that direction.
Today, I'm talking about the problem with timing.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about why I'm growing increasingly worried about the stock market - high stock valuations colliding with a recession is historically a recipe for steep losses - and it is looking more and more like we're moving in that direction.
Today, I want to dig a little deeper into the valuation problem, particularly for the big tech stocks.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about why I'm growing increasingly worried about the stock market - high stock valuations colliding with a recession is historically a recipe for steep losses - and it is looking more and more like we're moving in that direction.
Today, let's look at the economy, because understanding where the business cycle is headed is very challenging, but it's the key driver for the stock market.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about why I'm growing increasingly worried about the stock market - high stock valuations colliding with a recession is historically a recipe for steep losses - and it is looking more and more like we're moving in that direction.
Today, I'm talking about the core issue that inspired this week's theme:
Source: Washington Crossing Advisors. (2025, September 9). The illusion of perpetual growth.
"Over 60% of the S&P 500 index value is priced as if superior growth can be sustained forever, with a meaningful slice (about $8 trillion in market value) priced with an implied perpetuity growth assumption above 10%."
"Here is the central problem: no company can grow faster than the economy forever. The math simply will not allow it. A firm compounding at 10 percent while the economy grows at 5 percent eventually overtakes the economy itself — an impossibility."
Driven by FOMO and the narrative that AI will completely change the world, investors have bid up stock prices to new all-time highs and stretched valuations.
AI will no doubt change the world, but the AI arms race carries significant risks for investors at this time.
Especially as the economy shows signs of deteriorating.
Historically, high stock valuations colliding with a recession has been a recipe for steep losses, and that is as the heart of why I'm so concerned right now.
So this week on the podcast, I'll be talking about why I'm worried about the stock market right now - the valuation problem, the cracks in the economy that are appearing, why timing is everything and just because stock valuation look stretched doesn't mean the music will stop tomorrow, and lastly, how can investors - especially if you're getting close to retirement or already retired - protect themselves and take profits in a wise and prudent way.
It's Sunday and I'm wrapping up the week by summarizing this week's theme: How Rich People Accidentally Destroy Their Wealth
In case you missed any episodes this week, here's the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the most common ways rich people accidentally destroy their wealth, and how you can avoid falling into these traps.
One of my favorite Warren Buffett quotes—one I only recently came across—is: "Don't risk what you have and need in order to pursue what you don't have and don't need."
This quote perfectly captures the essence of growing and preserving wealth and how to avoid accidentally destroying your wealth. This week, I've talked about the dangers of over-concentration, bad financial advice, letting ego drive decisions, and confusing the accumulation of assets with the accumulation of stuff. All of these cautionary themes boil down to Buffett's wisdom: don't jeopardize what's essential for something that's completely unnecessary.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the most common ways rich people accidentally destroy their wealth, and how you can avoid falling into these traps.
Many people build significant wealth through a successful investment or by owning a thriving business. But what often happens is that the majority of their net worth—sometimes 90% or more—ends up concentrated in that one asset.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the most common ways rich people accidentally destroy their wealth, and how you can avoid falling into these traps.
Another common way rich people lose everything is by following bad financial advice. You see this a lot with professional athletes or lottery winners—they invest heavily in a business that fails or take advice from friends or advisors who either don't know what they're doing or are acting in their own self-interest.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the most common ways rich people accidentally destroy their wealth, and how you can avoid falling into these traps.
One of the most common ways I see people lose their wealth is by letting their ego drive their financial decisions. They reach a certain level of success, start spending like everyone around them. Suddenly, it's not enough to fly first class—they're chartering private jets. They're buying exotic cars and massive homes, financed with debt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about the most common ways rich people accidentally destroy their wealth, and how you can avoid falling into these traps.
Today, let's talk about the difference between owning assets and owning stuff, and when people don't understand the difference they tend to light their money on fire and lose their wealth.
One of the biggest reasons people lose their wealth is that making money and keeping money require two very different skill sets and mindsets. You might earn your wealth through a high-paying job, a successful business, a lucky investment, or even an inheritance—but holding onto that money is a whole different challenge.
Some people are naturally good at making money. It seems to come easily to them. Others struggle to keep a steady balance in their bank account throughout their lives. And then there are those—more common than you might think—who climb the financial ladder only to fall back down because they didn't know how to preserve what they had.
So this week on the podcast, I'm diving into the most common reasons why people who get rich don't stay rich. I'll share some recurring themes and pitfalls to avoid, along with stories and insights from my own experience watching people let wealth slip through their fingers—losing a lifestyle they could have easily maintained with better decisions.
The signs of an imminent recession are everywhere, yet the markets keep marching on to new highs! What gives? What’s going on?
In this week’s episode of the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, I’m breaking down what happened in the markets over the last quarter, what’s going on in the economy, and how we’re positioning client portfolios moving forward…
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: I’m a Financial Advisor—Here’s Exactly How I Manage My 401(k)
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain and telling exactly how I manage my 401k as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about: a few other tips to make the most of your 401k.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain and telling exactly how I manage my 401k as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about: how I invest my 401k as a financial advisor.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain and telling exactly how I manage my 401k as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about: why I max out my Roth 401k as a financial advisor.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain and telling exactly how I manage my 401k as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about: how much I contribute to my 401k as a financial advisor.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain and telling exactly how I manage my 401k as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about: how often I login (not enough to even remember how much I have in there…is it $200,000? $300,000? $500,000? I don’t know. Somewhere in there I think.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
One thing I believe in strongly is eating your own cooking—or in other words, putting your money where your mouth is. So this week on the podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing exactly how I manage my own 401(k) as a financial advisor.
I’ll walk you through:
- How often I check my accounts and log in
- How much I contribute to my 401(k)
- Whether I choose Roth or traditional contributions—and why
- What I’m currently invested in and the philosophy behind those choices
- How often I rebalance
- Why I personally avoid target date funds, even though I recommend them for most 401(k) participants in most situations
I’ll also share a few extra tips and tools, like:
- Whether it’s a good idea to link your accounts so you can view everything in one place
- Why it’s critical to check and update your beneficiaries
- Why I would exhaust every other option before ever considering a 401(k) withdrawal or loan
Time for the Fed to start cutting interest rates…what does that mean for investors, retirees, and Americans getting close to retirement?
The situation in the economy is not great right now, and the Fed is in a tough spot where they need to act.
ABC news reporting on September 11th: Applications for jobless benefits jump to 263,000 last week, most in nearly 4 years
In another grim sign for the U.S. labor market, jobless claim applications jumped to their highest level in almost four years last week, virtually assuring the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate next week.
Fed officials recently have expressed greater concern about the deteriorating labor market than inflation, and while a rate cut could spur economic growth and boost the job market, economists fear it could push inflation even farther above the Fed’s target of 2%.
The BLS’s revised figures showed that U.S. employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year ending in March 2025, with the biggest weakness coming from the leisure and hospitality sector, professional and business services and retail. The report showed that job gains were tapering long before President Donald Trump rolled out his far-reaching tariffs on U.S. trading partners in April.
The themes for much of 2025 have been that the economy is still growing, but slowly, the labor market is clearly deteriorating, and that appears to be accelerating, inflation has come down to a more manageable 3%, but it remains sticky.
So what is the Fed to do? It appears this week as I record this Podcast episode that it is pretty much guaranteed that the Fed is going to cut rates by a quarter of a percent or 25 basis points.
The problem with the timing of this is that the expected inflation from tariffs has not been canceled but just delayed. I talked about that a couple months ago when I did the mid year market and economic update, and it appears that the expected inflation from tariffs has not yet fully entered the economy. Which means that if the Fed were to lower interest rates they’re walking on a tightrope – A stagflation like risk which would be horrible to put it mildly is not off the table.
So this week on the podcast I’m going to talk about the expected rate cut which by the time you listen to this podcast will likely have already happened. I’ll talk about some of the possible scenarios that come along with a cut in interest rates, and most importantly I’ll talk about what that means for investors and savers and retirees. What does that mean for your investment portfolio what does that mean for stocks and bonds. What does that mean for housing and mortgage rates.
I’ll talk about all of that in this week’s episode…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week on the podcast, we’re looking at private equity and cryptocurrencies as investment options in your 401k - is this a big opportunity or a hard pass?
On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors. This order paves the way for allowing 401(k) plans to include alternative investments like cryptocurrency and private investments in 401(k) plans.
Which begs the question: Is this a good idea for investors? Alternatives and private investments have a track record of higher fees, illiquidity, and higher risk for investors. Their complexity could create problems and additional risks for investors if 401(k) plan trustees eventually move to add these investments to their plan offerings.
So let’s explore this a little more, because you might see these options popping up in your 401ks in the near future, and it’s important to think through the potential benefits and risks so you can make the right decision about how to invest your 401k for your retirement.
Next Monday, I’ll be back with a new theme - at this point, the Fed will almost certainly lower interest rates when they meet this week, and by the time you’re listening to this episode, perhaps they already have. So we’ll talk about what that means for inflation, bonds, stocks, mortgage rates, and your retirement next week.
I hope you have a blessed week. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Are You Being Too Frugal in Retirement?
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the all-too-common problem of being too frugal and underspending in retirement, how this frugality can rob you of a fulfilling retirement, and steps you can take to find a better balance with spending and preserving financial security in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about my Top Tips To Start Enjoying Your Nest Egg More
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the all-too-common problem of being too frugal and underspending in retirement, how this frugality can rob you of a fulfilling retirement, and steps you can take to find a better balance with spending and preserving financial security in retirement.
Today, I'm talking about how generosity when practiced consistently, can help relieve a tendency toward over frugality in retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the all-too-common problem of being too frugal and underspending in retirement, how this frugality can rob you of a fulfilling retirement, and steps you can take to find a better balance with spending and preserving financial security in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about intentional spending = meaningful life. I touched on this yesterday, but I want to continue with intentionality today, because I think it’s really the key to living an anti-frugal and fulfilling retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the all-too-common problem of being too frugal and underspending in retirement, how this frugality can rob you of a fulfilling retirement, and steps you can take to find a better balance with spending and preserving financial security in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about finding the right balance between overspending and over-frugality in retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the all-too-common problem of being too frugal and underspending in retirement, how this frugality can rob you of a fulfilling retirement, and steps you can take to find a better balance with spending and preserving financial security in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about why it’s so hard to spend for so many of you.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
Nearly two in three Americans (64%) worry more about running out of money than death, according to the 2025 Annual Retirement Study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement. I talked about this at length in last week’s theme.
This week, I want to continue that discussion and talk about one of the unfortunate and all-too-common outcomes of a deep fear of running out of money in retirement - being too frugal and not enjoying your retirement years as you should because you underspend.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Americans Now Fear Running Out of Money MORE than Death!
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement that found something striking: 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than they are of death itself.
Today…So far this week, I’ve talked about how you can address the very common fear of running out of money in retirement. There are a number of strategies you can use, but their effectiveness really depends on how close you are to retirement.
For example, saving more makes the biggest impact the farther away you are. So if I’m talking to someone my age—around 40—the advice is simple: reduce expenses, cut out the things that are keeping you from saving more, and then be more aggressive with how much you save. That alone can take you a long way toward reaching your goal of accumulating enough so you don’t have to worry so much about running out of money in retirement.
But if you’re closer—say one to five years out—saving more won’t move the needle nearly as much. At that stage, the best solution is usually just to work a little bit longer. A couple extra years of work can have an outsized impact on retirement security.
Now, what we haven’t yet addressed this week is: what if you’re already retired? Many baby boomers in this survey, all over 60 now, are in that exact situation. They’re still worried—rightly so—about running out of money. But it’s too late to save more, and too late to delay retirement. At that point, the one arrow left in the quiver is maintaining a safe withdrawal rate. That is the key to not running out of money once you’re retired.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement that found something striking: 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than they are of death itself. I
When you’re worried or fearful about anything in life, one of the best ways to kill that fear is to build some knowledge and better understand what you need to do in order to conquer that fear. And it’s no different with planning for retirement.
I think a lot of the fear about running out of money in retirement comes from the simple fact of not knowing. Not knowing when I can retire. Not knowing how much money I can spend in retirement. Not knowing how much is enough.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement that found something striking: 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than they are of death itself.
Yesterday, I talked about how spending less and saving more is one of the best ways to prepare for retirement and avoid running out of money. But here’s the catch—that strategy works best if you still have plenty of time before retirement.
Let me give you an example. If you start saving just $100 a month at age 20, and it grows at 7% a year, by age 65 you’ll have around $350,000—even without ever increasing that contribution. That’s the magic of compounding.
But what if you don’t start until much later? Let’s say you add $1,000 a month, but you’re only five years away from retirement. At the same growth rate, that only gets you about $70,000. The lesson? Time is the real driver of growth. Without it, saving more—while still important—has a much smaller impact.
So what do you do if you’re close to retirement and feeling behind? The answer is simple: work longer.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement that found something striking: 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than they are of death itself.
Yesterday, I talked about the fear of running out of money in retirement, and why so many of us struggle to save enough. A big reason comes down to current expenses—too much house, too much debt, or just day-to-day costs that crowd out long-term saving. Retirement feels far away, until suddenly it’s here—and then it’s too late to catch up.
So what’s the solution? Especially if you’re still at least 5 years or more from retirement, the answer is simple: spend less and save more. I know that sounds obvious, but many people don’t realize where their money is actually going.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement that found something striking: 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than they are of death itself.
Today, I want to dig a little deeper into why that fear is so common…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
Nearly two in three Americans (64%) worry more about running out of money than death, according to the 2025 Annual Retirement Study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement.
Some of the key findings in the study:
- 62% say they are not saving as much for retirement as they would like
- 54% say inflation contributes to their fear of running out of money
- This fear is most prominent among Gen Xers (70%) who are in their 40s and 50s and fast approaching retirement. Millennials aren’t far behind…66% of them fear running out of money more
- Boomers - the youngest of whom just turned 60 last year and who are now mostly retired, curiously had the lowest fear % of the generations approaching or in retirement - yet (61%) of Boomers are still more afraid of running out of money than they are of dying.
This week on the podcast, I’ll be talking about…ways you can reduce this fear in your own situation.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This past weekend, I was camping in 100-degree heat with my kids, while my husband had the wisdom to stay home in the air conditioning with our youngest. I was busy packing and stuffing four bikes, three camping totes, two propane tanks, and—yes—basically a partridge in a pear tree into our minivan. So instead of the usual short daily episodes, I’m mixing things up this week and bringing you one longer episode.
One of the realities of being a financial advisor is death. Clients die, and it usually happens at least a couple of times a year. When it does, and there’s a surviving spouse, part of my job is to make the financial transition as seamless and stress-free as possible. Because when you’re grieving the death of a spouse, the last thing you want to worry about is money—or worse, the power being shut off because you couldn’t log in to pay the electric bill.
Over the years, I’ve helped many widows and widowers through this transition, and I’ve developed a Widow’s Financial Roadmap. The key is to have this roadmap in place before something happens—before you get sick, become incapacitated, or pass away. If you don’t, your spouse may be left without the information they need to keep the household running smoothly, and the stress of grief will be compounded by financial confusion.
If you’re new to the podcast, a quick introduction: I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory firm managing over $450 million in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped my clients retire with confidence. And here on the podcast, I take complex retirement topics and turn them into clear answers in just a few minutes each day—so you can spend less time stressing about money and more time living.
If you know someone who would benefit from this week’s topic, please share the show. And if you have a burning question about your own retirement, visit truenorthra.com where you can book a free 15-minute call with me.
Now, let’s talk about the roadmap. I’m going to lay this out in order—what to do first, and what comes next. Hopefully, you’ve already checked some of these items off, but there may be a few you haven’t thought about.
Step 1: Create a Financial Inventory I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, but it’s worth repeating. A financial inventory is essentially a table of contents for your finances.
It should include:
- Bank and investment accounts (with balances, account types, and where they’re held).
- Insurance and annuity policies.
- Will or trust.
- Social Security information.
- Tax returns.
- Marriage certificate.
- And eventually, your death certificate.
Without this inventory, assets can be forgotten or lost. For example, maybe you still have a 401(k) at a former employer that your spouse doesn’t know about. Without documentation, that money could remain unclaimed.
This inventory should also include a list of your key advisors and their contact information—your financial advisor, CPA, attorney, insurance agents, and even the phone number for the bank where your checking account is held.
One mistake I often see, especially later in life, is not consolidating accounts. People keep money scattered across five different institutions, a handful of bank accounts, and maybe an online savings account. That’s a recipe for disaster. The more accounts you have, the greater the chance your spouse won’t be able to find or access them.
Once you’ve created your financial inventory, maintaining it is easy. Just update it once a year—adjust balances, note any new or consolidated accounts, and make sure contact information is current. It usually takes less than an hour. This is the single most important step for the long-term financial health of your surviving spouse.
Step 2: Ensure Cash Flow Needs Are Met The next step is making sure bills continue to get paid. Your spouse needs a list of all recurring bills with:
- The name of the bill (mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc.).
- The approximate amount.
- How it’s paid (auto-draft, ACH, check).
- The due date and frequency.
This isn’t just a budget—it’s a cash flow map for your surviving spouse. When paired with the financial inventory, it allows them to step in immediately and manage the household without the lights getting shut off or the mortgage falling behind.
On the flip side, you’ll also want to document income sources—Social Security, pension payments, portfolio withdrawals, or other income. That way, your spouse knows not just what bills are due, but also what money is coming in, from where, and when.
Step 3: Set Up a Password Manager If you remember nothing else from this episode, remember this: set up a password manager.
A password manager securely stores all of your logins, and you only need to remember one master password. Some of the top options include 1Password, NordPass, and Dashlane.
This tool is invaluable while you’re alive because it improves security and eliminates the need to remember dozens of passwords. But it’s especially critical when someone dies. Nearly everything is digital now—bank accounts, investments, utilities, email, social media, even photo storage.
Without access, your spouse may spend hours digging through old notebooks or trying to reset passwords—sometimes unsuccessfully. With a password manager, all of that information is organized and accessible. You and your spouse can share logins through the manager, making it easy to cancel subscriptions, manage accounts, or simply retrieve family photos stored in the cloud.
It takes a little time to set up, but once it’s running, the manager prompts you to save new logins automatically. Over time, it builds a complete record of your digital life—one that your spouse can access when needed most.
Step 4: Write a Letter The final step is to write a personal letter to your spouse.
This letter isn’t legally binding, like a will or trust, but it can provide enormous comfort. Think of it as a cover letter to the roadmap. It should include:
- A reminder of where the financial documents are located.
- Words of love and reassurance.
- Encouragement not to make big financial or lifestyle changes right away.
Grief clouds judgment. Many surviving spouses are tempted to sell the house, change investments, or make other major decisions in the first few months. In most cases, those decisions can wait. Your letter can serve as a gentle reminder to pause and breathe before making big changes.
Keep copies of this letter with your roadmap—at home in a safe, in a safe deposit box, and with your trusted advisors. That way, it can be easily found when it’s needed most.
In the First Few Months After a Death So what happens immediately after a spouse passes away?
- Order multiple copies of the death certificate. You’ll need these to handle accounts and claims.
- Notify key professionals—your financial advisor, attorney, CPA, and insurance companies.
- Start claims and transitions—life insurance, Social Security survivor benefits, and retitling accounts.
- Keep bills paid. If your spouse didn’t handle finances before, enlist the help of a trusted child, friend, or advisor to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
- Meet with a tax advisor. Your filing status will change, and that can have a big impact on your taxes.
Longer-term changes—like adjusting investment withdrawals, selling the house, or revising estate plans—can wait until the fog of grief begins to lift, often 6–12 months down the road. At that point, you’ll be in a clearer frame of mind to make big decisions.
To recap, the Widow’s Financial Roadmap includes four steps:
- Create a financial inventory.
- Ensure cash flow needs are met.
- Set up a password manager.
- Write a letter to your spouse.
Do these now, while you’re healthy, and you’ll make life much easier for your loved ones later.
That’s all for this week’s episode of the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast. Thanks for listening, and I’ll be back next week with more!
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: A Financial Advisor Ranks The Worst Investments For Retirees
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m ranking the worst investments for retirees. These investments are ones that I have never recommended and it’s because after 17 years, I’ve seen them backfire - and in some cases, ruin someone’s finances in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about private investments…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m ranking the worst investments for retirees. These investments are ones that I have never recommended and it’s because after 17 years, I’ve seen them backfire - and in some cases, ruin someone’s finances in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about structured notes…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m ranking the worst investments for retirees. These investments are ones that I have never recommended and it’s because after 17 years, I’ve seen them backfire - and in some cases, ruin someone’s finances in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about high yield bonds, and more generally, high yield anything…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m ranking the worst investments for retirees. These investments are ones that I have never recommended and it’s because after 17 years, I’ve seen them backfire - and in some cases, ruin someone’s finances in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about annuities.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m ranking the worst investments for retirees. These investments are ones that I have never recommended and it’s because after 17 years, I’ve seen them backfire - and in some cases, ruin someone’s finances in retirement.
Today, I’m starting with a controversial one: investment properties. Most often this is residential - so a rental home, a duplex, vacation rental, etc.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
One of the fun things about being a financial advisor is that I get to peek into the financial lives of many different people, even before they become a client. One of the first things I request from a new potential client is a copy of their investment account statements so I can see what types of accounts they have (brokerage accounts, IRAs, Roths, etc), and how they’re invested across those accounts.
And sometimes, an uncomfortable conversation I have with a new potential client involves getting the backstory on why they’re invested the way they are. Most of the time, I’m trying to figure out their preferences and risk tolerance, but occasionally, I’m trying to figure out why they own a particular investment that is not appropriate for them.
This week on the podcast, I’ll be talking about the worst investments for retirees
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: College Now Costs $153,000! Here's How To Pay For ALL Of It Before High School Graduation
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to pay for college before little junior ever sets foot on a college campus.
Yesterday, I talked about my favorite way to save up and invest for college or post high-school education of any kind - including trade schools, vocational schools, and the like - and that’s the 529 college savings plan.
For 9 out of 10 people, the 529 plan makes the most sense.
But for those of you who aren’t comfortable with the taxes and penalties if you DON’T use the money for education and you want more control and flexibility, then a regular brokerage account (or a trust account if you want even more control), is another good route.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to pay for college before little junior ever sets foot on a college campus.
Today, I’m sharing with you how I’m paying for most, hopefully all of my kids college or post high school education before their high school graduation - 529 plans.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to pay for college before little junior ever sets foot on a college campus.
Today, I’m talking about the steps I am taking and will take in the future to ensure that all 4 of my kids finish school with zero debt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to pay for college before little junior ever sets foot on a college campus.
Today, I want to run the numbers with you on and why you should do this.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to pay for college before little junior ever sets foot on a college campus.
Today, I’m starting with what should be an obvious question, but one that hardly anyone asks - at least based on the conversations I have with parents of high schoolers and college age kids:
Should your child even be going to college? Is it a worthwhile investment?
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
According to the latest figures from EducationData.org - The average cost of college* in the United States is $38,270 per student per year, including books, supplies, and daily living expenses. Multiply that by 4 years and junior’s college will cost $153,080.
My nephew is going to be a senior in high school this year, and will start applying to colleges in the fall. His top 3 choices are all expensive, and all but 2 are out of state.
It’s that time of year again - back to school, and for many of you planning for both your retirement and trying to get junior through college without mountains of debt or delaying your own retirement with that $153,000 price tag, I have some helpful suggestions this week on the best ways to save, invest, and prioritize college savings along with all of your other financial goals.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week on the podcast, I’m on vacation, so instead of daily episodes, I’m just doing one longer episode for this week, but don’t worry! I’ll be back with daily episodes like you’re used to next week.
I’m on vacation this week with my husband and kids, my sister and her husband, their 2 kids, and my parents. It will be 12 of us in 1 house together for an entire week. I’m excited, but also deathly afraid at the same time!
Vacationing with family is a lot different than vacationing with friends, and as I talk to clients who are in the early retirement years that are often filled with travel, these topics of travel and money come up.
But since this a podcast about finances, I want to talk in depth about a few tips I have for traveling with friends and not letting money specifically ruin your trip, or worse, your friendship!
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Marriage & Money: The One Big Beautiful Bill: What It Means for Your Money
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the key provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill that was recently signed into law and how that might impact you.
Today, I’m talking about how the OBBB really hits home the importance of planning ahead and making sure you’re taking full advantage of the provisions while avoiding some of the big mistakes…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the key provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill that was recently signed into law and how that might impact you.
Today, I’m walking about the new tax deduction for seniors 65+
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the key provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill that was recently signed into law and how that might impact you.
Today, I’m talking about some time sensitive changes to keep in mind - especially if you’re planning to do home updates, buy an EV, or buy a new car.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the key provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill that was recently signed into law and how that might impact you.
Today, I’m talking about how the OBBB is changing planning considerations for those of you who are interested in charitable giving.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the key provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill that was recently signed into law and how that might impact you.
Today, I’m talking about the biggest impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill that no one is really talking about - the impact on the markets, your 401k, and your investment portfolio.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week on the podcast, I’m diving into the One Big Beautiful Bill, which recently passed the House and the Senate, and was signed into law on July 4th. Many provisions go into effect this year, some starting next year, and I’ll try to focus on the ones this week that have the biggest impact for the core group of listeners - those of you who are getting close to and living in retirement….
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Marriage & Money: Top 5 Money Issues That Can Break a Marriage
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, my husband Troy and I are discussing the Top 5 Money Issues That Can Break a Marriage.
Today, we’re diving into an uncomfortable and friction-causing topic in many marriages - the intersection of family issues and money in a marriage
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, my husband Troy and I are discussing the Top 5 Money Issues That Can Break a Marriage.
Today, we’re talking about priority differences between spouses. This is often about money personalities - who’s a saver, and who’s a spender, because savers and spenders will naturally have different priorities, but it;s also about other priority differences that go beyond saving vs. spending.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, my husband Troy and I are discussing the Top 5 Money Issues That Can Break a Marriage.
Today, we’re talking about power dynamics in marriage when it comes to money, and the problems that can create.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, my husband Troy and I are discussing the Top 5 Money Issues That Can Break a Marriage.
Today, we’re diving into a common marriage and money issues: materialism.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, my husband Troy and I are discussing the Top 5 Money Issues That Can Break a Marriage.
Today, we’re diving in with what I think is the most destructive marriage issue when it comes to money - a lack of transparency, and in many cases, financial infidelity.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week on the podcast, it’s a first! I have my husband on the podcast to talk about the top 5 money issues that can break a marriage.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Mid-Year Markets & Economic Update
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re recapping the economic and market conditions that are impacting you and your retirement nest egg this year.
Today, I’m bringing it all home to talk about what does the current economic and market environment mean for you.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re recapping the economic and market conditions that are impacting you and your retirement nest egg this year.
Today, I’m talking about the mixed signals in markets and the economy.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re recapping the economic and market conditions that are impacting you and your retirement nest egg this year.
Today, I’m getting out my very dim crystal ball and looking ahead to the rest of the year. Aside from some completely unexpected and big outside shock, 2025 is the year of tariffs. That’s the driver for the economy and the stock market. It’s almost as if nothing else matters.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re recapping the economic and market conditions that are impacting you and your retirement nest egg this year.
Today, we’re looking at the state of the US economy, which in turn always drives stock and bond markets, and your portfolio.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m discussing the mid-year markets and economic update. What happened in the stock and bond markets, and the economy so far this year and how that’s impacting you and your plans for retirement.
Today, I’m recapping the 1st have of 2025 as it pertains to the markets.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week on the podcast, I’m doing what I always do at the beginning of a new quarter - commentary on the state of the stock and bond markets, the economy, my outlook, and how investors should consider positioning their investment portfolios in light of the current conditions.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Summer Hiatus & Giveaways
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you several resources that I use with my own clients when marking important decisions and planning for their retirement.
Today’s free resource is my Top 10 retirement checklist
What are the top 10 things you need to check off your to-do list in retirement? As if you need one more to do list, right?! Except this one is really important!
Way more important that cleaning your downstairs bathroom or organizing the monstrous pile in your laundry room - both of which may or may not be on my personal to do list…
The top 10 retirement check list will help you focus your energies on accomplishing the most important things in the last 1-3 years before retirement. You could do 100 different things to plan and prepare for retirement. This checklist focuses your energy and time on the most impactful to-dos to help make your transition into retirement as seamless and successful as possible.
Get your copy of my top 10 checklist at: www.truenorthra.com/top10
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you several resources that I use with my own clients when marking important decisions and planning for their retirement.
Today’s free resource is my retirement budget worksheet. Did you know that spending in retirement tends to drop by 20-40% compared to your pre-retirement spending, so your expenses may increase in some areas and decrease in others.
But which areas will go down, which spending categories will stay the same, and where might you spend more money in retirement?
That’s why I created a retirement budget worksheet to help you track your current expenses and estimate how those expenses will change in retirement.
Staying within a spending target in retirement is one of the most important ways to ensure you don't outlive your retirement savings, and running the numbers to see how much you’ll spend, then making sure you have the assets and income to support that spending, is critical before you make the leap into retirement.
To get your free retirement budget worksheet, just go to www.truenorthra.com/budget
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you several resources that I use with my own clients when marking important decisions and planning for their retirement.
Today’s free resource is my financial inventory list.
In my opinion, this is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your loved ones - take an inventory of all of your bank accounts, investment accounts, insurance policies - all in one place. Think of it as a table of contents for your finances.
An unlike organizing your garage which can be overwhelming and likely to never get done, all it takes to get organized with your finances all in one place is to fill out this inventory list.
You’ll use the inventory list to list your accounts, the type, the dollar amount, and the financial institution where they are held.
That way if you die or become incapacitated tomorrow, your spouse, your children, or your executor will have your complete list of assets right at their fingertips. No digging through 30 year old bankers boxes to go through the process of claiming money through the state.
The financial inventory also has a section to put your trusted contacts - your attorney, tax advisor, financial advisor. These trusted contacts become so valuable in the days and weeks following a death or incapacitation, and it’s important that your spouse or executor knows exactly who to contact.
And even if you’re not using it for estate purposes, it’s just really helpful to have your financial accounts all listed on one page. Then, all you need to do is make updates when you add, remote, or transfer an account, and review it annually.
Easy peasy. It’s one of those great projects thats low time investment for a big reward - clarity, organization, and peace of mind.
To get your free financial inventory worksheet, just go to www.truenorthra.com/inventory
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you several resources that I use with my own clients when marking important decisions and planning for their retirement.
Today’s free resource is my asset allocation cheat sheet.
This is the most popular free tool I’ve offered on the podcast, and for good reason. It’s a one-page guide to selecting the right mix of stocks and bonds based on your age.
I’m a big believer in asset allocation as the foundation of every client’s portfolio. It’s always where I start with clients when determining how we should invest. In it’s most basic form, asset allocation is the mix of stocks and bonds in your portfolio, and age is the most important determinant of what your asset allocation should be.
If you would like to get my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that helps you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your age, go to: www.truenorthra.com/allocation
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you several resources that I use with my own clients when marking important decisions and planning for their retirement.
Today’s free resource is my net worth worksheet. Unless you obsessively check your bank and investment accounts 5 times a day, it may not be intuitive why you need to know and track your net worth over time.
But knowing your net worth matters. Tracking your net worth over time is critical to reaching your financial goals, understanding your liquidity, and making smarter decisions with your money…
For your free personal net worth worksheet, go to: www.truenorthra.com/networth
A special bonus - if you complete your net worth worksheet and send it back to me, I’ll send you a personalized analysis, complete with fancy pie charts to help you see what’s working, as well as potential imbalances and red flags, along with my comments.
This is only for the first 10 people who send back their net worth statement, so be sure to download it at truenorthra.com/networth, then complete it and email it back to me at ashleym@truenorthra.com
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week on the podcast, I’m taking a little break to enjoy the sunshine and near-perfect weather this time of year in Oregon. So while I’m taking the week off, I have a few resources to share with you to help you retire with confidence.
I’ll share with you my net worth worksheet, asset allocation guide, retirement budget worksheet, financial inventory list, and my top 10 must do pre-retirement checklist. These are my favorite resources, and they’re also free, so I’ll show you how to access them in each episode this week.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: The Smart Shopper's Guide to Grocery Savings, an interview I had with my good friend, Karrie.
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This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m interviewing my good friend and mom of 9, Karrie on her tips and tricks for saving money on groceries.
Here is today’s interview segment with Karrie…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m interviewing my good friend and mom of 9, Karrie on her tips and tricks for saving money on groceries.
Here is today’s interview segment with Karrie…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m interviewing my good friend and mom of 9, Karrie on her tips and tricks for saving money on groceries.
Here is today’s interview segment with Karrie…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m interviewing my good friend and mom of 9, Karrie on her tips and tricks for saving money on groceries.
Here is today’s interview segment with Karrie…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m interviewing my good friend and mom of 9, Karrie on her tips and tricks for saving money on groceries.
Here is today’s interview segment with Karrie…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets.
For 17 years, I’ve helped clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
One of the biggest spending categories for most Americans is food. Even wealthier Americans will still spend a lot of money on food - eating out more, buying higher quality foods, entertaining, and shopping at places like Whole Paycheck (er, whole foods).
Retirees spend about $7500 a year on groceries and eating out on average, and because food costs matter in your budget, I wanted to focus on that in this week’s episodes. And I can think of no better person to discuss this topic with than my good friend, Karrie.
I first met Karrie about 5 years ago, shortly after her family moved to my town and started attending the same church we go to. OVer that time, we’ve become good friends. She also babysits my little ones a couple days a week, and we share a lot of the same views on things and have a similar sense of humor. At the moment, I’m working on arranging a marriage between their youngest and my 4 year-old, Theodore. I’ve offered their daughter a paid-for wedding, if only she agrees to marry my little man.
As the chief grocery shopper for her family of 11 - her and her husband have 9 kids, ages 20 to 4 - Karrie has learned a lot about saving money on food over the years.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: How To Get Over Your Guilt About Spending Money in Retirement
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my thoughts and ideas about how to get over your guilt about spending money in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how getting over your guilt often requires an attitude adjustment.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my thoughts and ideas about how to get over your guilt about spending money in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how you can prove to yourself that it’s ok to take withdrawals from your investments in retirement, to help combat your guilt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my thoughts and ideas about how to get over your guilt about spending money in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about putting your investment withdrawals on auto-pilot to help combat your guilt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my thoughts and ideas about how to get over your guilt about spending money in retirement.
Today, I’m going to share with you the simplest strategy of getting over your guilt: as the rolling stones would say: Time is on your side, yes it is!
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my thoughts and ideas about how to get over your guilt about spending money in retirement.
Today, let’s talk about how to NOT enjoy your retirement years!
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
This week, I’ll share with you how you can get over your guilt about spending money in retirement.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
On the podcast this week, I’m going to do something quite different.
My father-in-law, Doug Micciche, passed away on May 22nd, after a very brief battle with cancer. I first met Doug when I was 16 years old, and for the last 24 years that I’ve known him, he’s been a confidant and someone I love and miss deeply.
Doug was also a financial advisor in our advisory practice, and over the years, I learned from him - not just personally, but professionally as well. So I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few things about Doug - the kind of man he was, the way he inspired me, and the things he taught me.
To do that, I think we’ll start at the beginning. I don’t remember the first time I met Doug, but my husband and I started dating in high school, so I’m sure 16 year old me walked into his house acting like I owned the place.
Because my husband and I were high school sweethearts, I spent a lot of time at his parent’s house, countless hours in the family room watching TV and movies with Doug. He and I both shared a mutual love for bad 90s action movies.
By the time my husband moved out of his parent’s home, I had already spent more quality time with Doug than most daughter-in-laws get to spend with their father-in-law in a lifetime, and for that I am grateful.
One of my favorite pastimes was needling Doug, which was a tradition that continued until the end. Back in the early days, I would plop down on their couch so aggressively, I might as well have been working on my high jump, using the couch to break my fall. I would immediately look over at Doug with a sly smile, waiting for the inevitable sigh or eye roll. Eventually, after thousands of forceful couch plops, the spring broke in the exact spot where I would always sit…I still maintain I had nothing to do with that janky couch spring.
Their house had hardwood flooring on the stairs, and like a 7 year old boy, I would fly down the stairs. The pounding reverberation on the stairs irritated him to no end, so whenever I would run down the stairs he would always yell: “stampede!!” I took that as an invitation to pound my heels as loud as possible whenever I came down the stairs, just to see if I could get a stampede yell out of him.
Doug was a great listener, and I often went to him when I had a problem or needed some advice. He was always honest and a no-BS guy. He was great at telling me what I needed to hear, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I could trust his advice, knowing that he always had my best intentions at heart. There was no duplicity in Doug, and I very much appreciated that about him.
Doug was one of the most selfless people I know. Anything you asked him to do, he would do it, and whether he wanted to do it or not, you really had no idea, because he cheerfully devoted himself to other people and their needs. He would give me rides to and from the airport - often picking me up in the pre-dawn hours for the early flights I habitually booked. He always joyfully helped out with school pickups for my kids, and this past year, he picked up my 4 year old, Theodore, from preschool twice a week, always first in line because he was also ridiculously and annoyingly early for EVERYTHING. He and Theoore had their routine - he would bring him some gummi worms that Theodore quickly came to expect.
Doug was so deeply authentic, genuinely interested in other people, and kind down to his core, that he made friends wherever he went. He wasn’t super extraverted, but he could relate to anyone, and making new friends was a superpower he had. He made friends with parents at my kids sports games, with other grandparents at school pickup, and most stunning of all - he made friends and stayed in contact with a guy he sold a car to - a chance encounter that turned into a friendship, and they stayed in touch for many years after.
Doug valued simplicity and he was content to spend his days at home, and as his wife Becky wrote in his obituary - “His pleasures were simple: daily exercise, command of the TV remote and a Friday night pizza, an enjoyable book and a nice slice of pie or cake. He was uncompromising when it came to his faith, to keeping his home and yard well-tended and his cars impeccable.”
What I admire most about Doug was his enduring faith. He was Catholic, and attended Sunday Mass every week. He watched daily Mass on the TV livestream nearly every day. He prayed and read the bible often, and like most men, was quite private about his spiritual life. But I caught glimpses of it often - a spiritual book he was reading, a text from him before a doctor’s appointment or during a hardship to let me know he was praying for me. He did this often with me, but I found out after he passed that he did this with many other people too. After my dad had a health issue earlier this year, Doug texted to tell me that he dedicated his rosary that day to my father and his healing.
Doug was diagnosed with cancer on April 17th, and passed away barely a month later on May 22nd. His decline was so rapid and unexpected. We were all stunned by his initial prognosis of 1-2 years, even with chemo treatment. At that time, the doctors didn’t know how advanced his cancer was, but the oncologist commented on his cheerfulness and energy, despite being so sick. He accepted his fate with grace and even humor on occasion.
At the end, I took great comfort and hope in the fact that Doug received all the sacraments - he went to confession and received last rites, which is very important in the Catholic faith.
In his last days of hospice care at home, they moved his hospital bed next to their queen bed in the bedroom, so Becky could lay comfortably with him, always at his side. I spent a few hours laying there with him too, praying for him and occasionally talking to him to let him know that I was there and that I loved him.
Our pastor visited him twice in the last days of his life, and I was there for the last time he visited, a little over a day before he passed. As part of the blessing and prayers for the dying, the priest read the text from Revelation, chapter 21: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.
The one who sat on the throne* said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Looking at Doug lying there, so weakened and close to death, yet so peaceful, those words captivated me…Behold, I make all things new.
He is at peace now, and I have great hope that he is looking down on us from heaven. No more death. No more pain. No more mourning. Only everlasting happiness and joy with God in heaven, because He makes all things new.
I know I can still count on Doug as a confidant, and ask him to continue to pray for me… I just need to look for more subtle signs of his advice and guidance, not the straightforward, blunt, telling-it-like-it-is advice that I’m used to from him.
Doug’s funeral will be on Wednesday, June 25th, and if you’re so inclined, I ask for your prayers for Doug, our family, and all those who love and miss him. His wife, Becky, needs your prayers the most. She was married to Doug for over 40 years, and this is a great loss and a great burden for her to carry right now.
I want to close with an excerpt from a letter from my husband to his dad. My husband, Troy, wrote this letter and shared it with Doug the day his diagnosis changed from 1-2 years to 1-2 months. It turned out that Doug only had about a week left with us, and he heard this letter from his son only a couple days before the cancer took away his ability to comprehend what Troy said in his letter. Timing is a funny thing. If my husband had put off writing this letter and sharing it with his dad by just a day or two, it would have been too late. But he said all the things he wanted to say to his father just in time.
Troy wrote: “Fatherhood, faith, and my marital life. These are the priorities, and you helped instill them in me…You more than did the job that the Lord asked you to do, and you did it well. I am forever grateful.”
We are all grateful to have known and loved you, Doug.
I hope you have a blessed week. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: America's $36 Trillion Tab - Understanding how The U.S. National Debt Impacts You
Everyone’s favorite topic - the crushing US national debt - yay!
In case you missed any episodes this week, here’s the recap
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about America’s $36 Trillion Tab on the national debt and what that means for you.
Today, I’m talking about how you can prepare and protect yourself from the US National debt’s doom loop.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about America’s $36 Trillion Tab on the national debt and what that means for you.
A very smart investor told me recently that the national debt will begin to decline when the growth rate of the economy outpaces the growth rate on the debt.
Ok, so then one could conclude that we just need more robust economic growth to get out of this debt doom loop we seem to be headed for.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about America’s $36 Trillion Tab on the national debt and what that means for you.
Today, I’m talking about the ugly tradeoffs for reducing the national debt and how each of those options, and likely some combination of all 3 could impact you.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about America’s $36 Trillion Tab on the national debt and what that means for you.
Today, I’m talking about why the US national debt is problematic.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about America’s $36 Trillion Tab on the national debt and how it impacts you - what does that mean for your social security & medicare benefits, inflation, taxes, the value of your investments, etc. The unfortunate truth is that the growing debt problem potentially has a big impact on all of these aspects of your life.
Before we go any further, we first need to clarify what the US National Debt is…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets.
For 17 years, I’ve helped clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
I remember having concerns about the US national debt and having conversations with clients about this back in 2011.
That’s what I’ll talk about this week. Because the US national debt isn’t like you or I having debt. It’s quite different. If we don’t have enough income to pay our debts like the US government, then we don’t have money trees. The US government has their own personal money tree, and that can work, up to a point.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Right Accounts in the Right Order - Prioritizing Your Savings as a Pre-Retiree in 2025
In case you missed any episodes this week, heres how I recommend prioritizing savings especially as you approach retirement:
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about savings optimization. How should you prioritize your savings in 2025, saving the right accounts in the right order to get to better financial stability and long-term flexibility.
If you haven’t been listening to each episode in order this week, I suggest going back because each episode is like a step on a ladder. You can’t skip a step, and it’s important to get the right priorities.
Once everything else is taken care of, then last step on the ladder is what to do with additional money you have left to save.
You’re emergency fund and cash savings are where they should be. You’re saving in your 401k and you’re on track for where you need to be at this age for retirement, you have no debts other than your mortgage, and you don’t have any other big goals like saving for kids college or a remodel project, or a big vacation coming up that you need to earmark some savings for.
You’re in a great spot financially, so what’s next? At this point it all comes down to personal preference.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about savings optimization. How should you prioritize your savings in 2025, saving the right accounts in the right order to get to better financial stability and long-term flexibility.
We’ve talked about having enough cash on hand, then 401k contributions,then knocking out your non-mortgage debt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about savings optimization. How should you prioritize your savings in 2025, saving the right accounts in the right order to get to better financial stability and long-term flexibility.
Today, I’m talking about paying off debt.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about savings optimization. How should you prioritize your savings in 2025, saving the right accounts in the right order to get to better financial stability and long-term flexibility.
Today, once you have enough cash on hand for emergencies, big expenses, and if you’re close to retirement, that extra cushion for pausing portfolio withdrawals in a downturn, we can move on to longer term goals, like saving for retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about savings optimization. How should you prioritize your savings in 2025, saving the right accounts in the right order to get to better financial stability and long-term flexibility.
Today, I’m talking about the importance of liquidity and building an emergency fund that’s adequate for most of what life will throw at you.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets.
For 17 years, I’ve helped clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
So this week, I’ll break down each step in the savings optimization ladder…what to focus on first, and what you should focus on next as you check each box and move up the ladder. If you pay attention to the right savings amounts in the right order in the right accounts, you’ll be better off than most Americans and be more flexible with your finances, and set yourself up for more long-term financial stability.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: The American Dream Now Costs Over $4 Million
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the American Dream. According to a 2024 report from Investopedia, the American dream now costs $4.4 million.
Today, we’re discussing what the American costs when it comes to vacations
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the American Dream. According to a 2024 report from Investopedia, the American dream now costs $4.4 million.
Today, we’re discussing what the American costs when it comes to houses and cars
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the American Dream. According to a 2024 report from Investopedia, the American dream now costs $4.4 million.
Today, we’re discussing what the American costs when it comes to raising kids and pets
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the American Dream. According to a 2024 report from Investopedia, the American dream now costs $4.4 million.
Today, we’re discussing what the American costs when it comes to your retirement
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the American Dream. According to a 2024 report from Investopedia, the American dream now costs $4.4 million.
Today, we’re discussing what the American costs when it comes to weddings and funerals.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
Back in March, I came across a 2024 report from Investopedia that looked at all the things that define the American Dream - getting married, buying a house with that white picket fence, having kids, driving a nice, reliable car, owning pets, taking an annual vacation, saving enough for a comfortable retirement,and having a funeral where they don’t throw your body in a pine box (unless you’re into that minimal aesthetic).
What does it all cost to live the American Dream over your lifetime? $4.4 million. Can you live a fulfilling life with less? Absolutely! But I think exploring these areas together is a helpful exercise to see how your attitudes and beliefs on spending money compare to what the average American says are what they want to achieve in life.
So this week, I’ll break down each of these categories of “livin the dream”, explain how Investopedia came up with their numbers and see how that compares with your own personal definition of the American dream. Come on back tomorrow…where I’m starting at the beginning and the end. We’ll talk about wedding and funeral costs.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Answering Your Questions
In case you missed any episodes this week, here are the [1-3] most important takeaways from this week…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your questions.
Today, I’m answering an email question from a listener: I’m in my mid 40s and simply do not feel comfortable with the current political climate and want to safeguard my 401k. I see there is an option to invest in a stable value fund in my 401k, which earns 3% guaranteed. Would it be foolish of me to put a majority of my 401k investments into this fund for the immediate future (4 years)?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your questions.
Today, I’m answering the question: My life insurance policy is expiring soon. Should I buy more?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your questions.
Today, I’m answering the question - I’m retiring in 2 years. Should I start social security at retirement or wait longer?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your questions.
Today, I’m answering the question - I got a big raise, what should I do with the money.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your questions.
Today, I’m answering the question - are we headed for a recession
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
So this week, I’m answering some of your questions - addressing everything from what to do when you get a big raise to figuring out the ideal age to start social security, to whether or not the ultra-safe stable value fund in your 401k is a good idea right now.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: How to Keep Your Focus (and Your Nerve) Amid Market Chaos
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to keep your focus and your nerve amid market chaos.
Today, I’m talking about ways you can build a moat around your finances, so you’re not spinning out during market chaos, and tempted to sell when you shouldn’t.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to keep your focus and your nerve amid market chaos.
Today, I’m talking about the fact that the world is always changing, it’s a scary place, and there are always reasons not to invest.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to keep your focus and your nerve amid market chaos.
Today, I’m talking about how the average investor woefully underperforms the overall market, mostly due to market timing decisions.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to keep your focus and your nerve amid market chaos.
Today, I’m talking about staying focused on the long-term…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, how to keep your focus and your nerve amid market chaos.
Today, I’m talking about how the simple act of stopping or significantly curtailing how often you look at your investments is a powerful way to keep your focus amid market chaos.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
One of my favorite questions that I came across recently that I’ve started asking clients who are nervous about the current environment now is - what needs to happen for you to feel more in control right now?
It’s important to ask the right questions and I find this question to be helpful because it gets to the heart of the issue for most people - you’re not in control of the events of the world, yet you’re feeling the effects of those events in a very real way as your investments go up and so far this year…down.
Sometimes it’s a small change that can make all the difference - slightly lowering your allocation to stocks, selling a particular position that is the most volatile, moving more into cash so at least you won’t need to sell stocks if things get worse from here.
The key is keeping the long-term view in focus and not let current events cause you to completely abandon your long-term investment strategy. And just doing something - the smallest thing in many cases - is enough to help you stay stick to your plan.
So this week we’re exploring the topic: How to Keep Your Focus (and Your Nerve) Amid Market Chaos
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: 10 Stupid Things People Waste Money On
In case you missed any episodes this week, here are the [1-3] most important takeaways from this week…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about 10 stupid things people waste money on.
Today, I’m wrapping up the week by talking about something I see very commonly among my retired clients.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about 10 stupid things people waste money on.
Today, I’m talking about spending money on something that you might only wear once…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about 10 stupid things people waste money on.
Today, I’m talking about overpaying for convenience. This is something that is so pervasive in our culture today.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about 10 stupid things people waste money on.
Today, I’m talking about 2 very problematic problems that point to a deeper issue among Americans: buy now, pay later & not paying off your credit cards every month.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about 10 stupid things people waste money on.
Today, I’m talking about the first 2 stupid things I see people spending money on: luxury handbags & other status symbols
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets.
For 17 years, I’ve helped clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
This week we’re exploring the topic: 10 Stupid Things People Waste Money On
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Going For The Gold: A Smart Hedge or Bad Investment?
In case you missed any episodes this week, here are the most important takeaways from this week…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about gold - is it a smart hedge or a bad investment?
Today, I’m talking about IF I were to buy gold or recommend it, here’s how I would do it.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about gold - is it a smart hedge or a bad investment?
Today, I’m talking about the dynamics that really drive gold prices, and the myth that gold is a hedge against inflation…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about gold - is it a smart hedge or a bad investment?
Today, I”m talking about reasons why you may want to take a pass on gold, and while I still plan to.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about gold - is it a smart hedge or a bad investment?
Today, I’m talking about reasons you may way to consider investing in gold…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about gold - is it a smart hedge or a bad investment?
Maybe you’ve heard recently in the news about the price of gold - it’s currently hovering close to $3500 an ounce as I record this podcast, up 30% this year alone. It’s made strong gains since bouncing around a lot during the Covid era and bottoming out in the fall of 2022. Since that time, it’s up over 100%, which is absolutely stunning!
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets.
For 17 years, I’ve helped clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
This week we’re exploring the topic: Going For The Gold: A Smart Hedge or Bad Investment?
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Too Good To Be True: How to Spot & Stop Financial Scams Before It’s Too Late
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to spot and stop financial scams.
Today, we’re diving into more common sense steps you can take to stop financial scammers in their tracks.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to spot and stop financial scams.
Today, I’m talking about practicing good online hygiene. Unfortunately, data breaches are so common, nobody seems to care and there’s no accountability for literally millions of pieces of sensitive information about all of us now available for scammers to use.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to spot and stop financial scams.
Today, I want to talk about the most important common sense response to any unsolicited request - pause before responding.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to spot and stop financial scams.
Yesterday, I talked about how AI is changing the way scammers operate. That’s probably the biggest development over the last couple of years. Today I want to talk about some other types of scamming trends to watch out for in 2025.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to spot and stop financial scams.
Today, I’m talking about how AI is changing the way scammers operate, making it harder to spot and stop scammers.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped hundreds retire with confidence.
My goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
This week we’re exploring the topic: Too Good To Be True: How to Spot & Stop Financial Scams Before It’s Too Late
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Navigating markets in turmoil
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about navigating markets in turmoil
Today, I’m talking about opportunities during periods of volatility.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about navigating markets in turmoil
Today, I’m addressing feelings of anxiousness and hopelessness you might be having…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about navigating markets in turmoil
Today, I’m talking about Should I make changes to my portfolio?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about navigating markets in turmoil
Today, I’m asking you a question that you definitely need to be able to answer: Can you handle a bear market?...
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about navigating markets in turmoil
Today, I’m talking about the number one question I think is on most people’s minds…is it going to get worse?
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve been helping clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to help you do the same.
Together we’ll simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
This week we’re exploring the topic: Navigating Markets in Turmoil
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about humility
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Being A Better Person To The People I Love Most
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about generosity
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Focusing on what matters
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Saving Money & Spending Money
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Building Character & Good Habits
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Parenting
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Health.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Dealing with people
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Investing.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about success.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about Avoiding Money Stupidity
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned in my 40 years.
Today, I’m talking about 3 inalienable truths (according to yours truly). These are my quirky, yet absolute beliefs that I’ve come to discover are inalienable…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped my clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to help you simplify the complexities of retirement so you can focus on what truly matters— living a fulfilling retirement while maintaining financial security.
I just turned 40 last week. I still don’t know how I feel about it. They say that age is just a number, but I don’t really agree with that. Another birthday and another trip around the sun is an annual reminder that life on this earth is very brief, and hopefully we all grow to be better & wiser along our journey of life.
Do I feel older this year? I’ve been having a lot of pain in my hips and back recently. The other day I was bending over to help one of my kids with something, and as I stood up again, I couldn't do that all at once. I got stuck about ⅔ of the way back up, and had to pause and move slow the rest of the way back to vertical.
I’m constantly putting on hand lotion because the skin on the back of my hands are starting to look all crepey. Stuff that didn’t even enter into my orbit now occupies mental space in my head - like I better take it slow standing back up and did I remember to put my crepe cream on before bed.
So I definitely feel older. Wiser too? Maybe, we’ll see…Because this week and next week on the podcast, I’ll be sharing with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned over the last 40 years.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Stocks Just Entered Correction Territory - What's Your Next Move?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re talking about how to handle stock market corrections.
Today, I’m talking about what you can do if you want to further protect yourself.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re talking about how to handle stock market corrections.
Today, I want to talk about keeping your emotions out of your investment decisions.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re talking about how to handle stock market corrections.
Yesterday, I talked about the problem of complacency and how many investors today are overexposed to stocks. This correction should be a wakeup call to get your portfolio house in order after a decade+ of strong growth in the markets with very little volatility and more than 15 years since we came out of the last major recession.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re talking about how to handle stock market corrections.
Today, I’m talking about the problem of complacency.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, we’re talking about how to handle stock market corrections.
Today, I’m talking about what a correction is and what it usually means…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped my clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to help you simplify the complexities of retirement so you can focus on what truly matters— living a fulfilling retirement while maintaining financial security.
I’m turning 40 this week. And I was planning to share with you 40 life lessons I’ve learned over the last 40 years, but as I was getting ready to record, the stock market continued it’s turbulent path and both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 officially entered correction territory. So I thought it would be timely and hopefully more valuable to share some insights on corrections - what they mean, how to deal with them, and discuss what to do.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped hundreds retire with confidence.
My goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
This week I’m taking a break to catch up from my recent trip to Hawaii.
I’ll be back with new episodes next Monday, March 24th.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Trump's Tariff Turbulence
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about Trump’s Tariff Turbulence.
Today, I’m talking about what you can do in your portfolio if a recession and a bear market are on the horizon.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about Trump’s Tariff Turbulence.
Today, I’m talking about what you can do about higher market volatility, tariffs, and possible economic slowdown in 2025…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about Trump’s Tariff Turbulence.
Today, I’m talking about what you can do about higher market volatility, tariffs, and possible economic slowdown in 2025…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about Trump’s Tariff Turbulence.
Today, I’m talking about the impact of tariffs on the economy.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about Trump’s Tariff Turbulence.
Today, I’m talking about the new tariffs, and why they’re problematic right now for the economy.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped hundreds retire with confidence.
My goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.
I was originally planning to talk about financial scams this week and how to spot and prevent them, especially in the new world of AI. But then as I was getting ready to record, the stock market went into a total meltdown over Trump’s tariffs.
No doubt if you’ve been following the news that this has been on your mind. Regardless of political leanings, my clients have been nervous about what the impact of tariffs will be on the economy and their portfolios.
So this week, I’ll help you digest the tariffs and together we’ll try to make sense of what that means and what you may want to do about it.
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Longevity Risk - Will Your Money Last?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about longevity risk - the risk that you’ll outlive your retirement savings because you lived too long.
Today, I’m wrapping up with one more way to reduce longevity risk in retirement:
Planning for health care costs in retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about longevity risk - the risk that you’ll outlive your retirement savings because you lived too long.
Today, I’m talking about maintaining a tilt toward growth to combat longevity risk.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about longevity risk - the risk that you’ll outlive your retirement savings because you lived too long.
Today, I’m talking about starting with a lower withdrawal rate in early retirement.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about longevity risk - the risk that you’ll outlive your retirement savings because you lived too long.
Today, I’m talking about the obvious answer to longevity risk, working longer.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about longevity risk
Today, we’re exploring what longevity risk is and whether or not longevity risk is the biggest risk in retirement.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets. For 17 years, I’ve helped hundreds retire with confidence.
My goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years to the fullest.
This week we’re exploring the topic: Longevity risk - will your money last in retirement?
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: Micciche Money Principles
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking the Micciche Money Principles. A framework I created back in 2019 to help guide the financial decisions our family makes - both big and small.
Today, I’m sharing with you some tips to help you create your own set of family money principles.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the Micciche Money Principles. A framework I created back in 2019 to help guide the financial decisions our family makes - both big and small.
Today, I’m talking about money principles related to wealth and estate transfer.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the Micciche Money Principles. A framework I created back in 2019 to help guide the financial decisions our family makes - both big and small.
Today, I’m talking about teaching money principles to your kids/grandkids…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the Micciche Money Principles. A framework I created back in 2019 to help guide the financial decisions our family makes - both big and small.
Today, I’m talking about giving principles…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the Micciche Money Principles. A framework I created back in 2019 to help guide the financial decisions our family makes - both big and small.
Today, I’m talking about lifestyle money principles.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host and guide, Ashley Micciche & my goal is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years to the fullest.
I’m a financial advisor and the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only, fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425 million in assets. Over the last 17 years, I’ve helped hundreds of clients save, invest, plan for, and transition into retirement with confidence, and I want to help YOU do the same.
This week we’re exploring the topic: Micciche Money Principles
It’s Sunday and I’m wrapping up the week by summarizing this week’s theme: How to Minimize Stock Market Risk (Even if You’re a Beginner!)
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about How to Minimize Stock Market Risk
Today, I’m talking about the importance of focusing on the long-term to manage your stock market risk.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about How to Minimize Stock Market Risk
Today, I’m talking about managing your stock market risk with proper asset allocation.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about How to Minimize Stock Market Risk
Today, I’m talking about managing your stock market risk with proper diversification.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about How to Minimize Stock Market Risk
Today, I’m talking about why you might be your worst enemy when it comes to managing the risk of your portfolio…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about How to Minimize Stock Market Risk
Today, I’m talking about what I view is the biggest risk in the stock market right now and what I view is the biggest source of potential pain for investors…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! You’ve spent decades working hard to save enough for retirement—but are you truly ready to make the most of your retirement years?
This podcast is aimed at helping you do exactly that - thrive in retirement! I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche & my goal is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years to the fullest.
I’m a financial advisor and the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only, fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425 million in assets. Over the last 17 years, I’ve helped hundreds of clients save, invest, plan for, and transition into retirement with confidence, and I want to help YOU do the same.
This week we’re exploring the topic: How to Minimize Stock Market Risk (Even if You’re a Beginner!).
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: What Is Your Net Worth?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to calculate and track your net worth.
Today, I’m talking about how often you should update your net worth statement
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to calculate and track your net worth.
Today, I’m talking about using your net worth to track your financial health.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to calculate and track your net worth.
Today, I’m walking you through the liabilities portion of the net worth worksheet, and bringing it all together with the net worth summary and some things you can glean from this once it’s complete.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to calculate and track your net worth.
Today, I’m walking you through the asset portion of the net worth worksheet.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to calculate and track your net worth.
Today, I’m talking about the benefits of calculating and tracking your net worth.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: What Is Your Net Worth?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: How To Optimize Your HSA In 2025
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to optimize your health savings account, or HSA, in 2025.
Today, I’m talking about using your HSA in the real world.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to optimize your health savings account, or HSA, in 2025.
Today, I’m talking about optimizing your investments in the HSA. Assuming you max out your HSA every year, how should you invest.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to optimize your health savings account, or HSA, in 2025.
Today, I’m talking about why the HSA is still worth maxing out and investing for the long-term, even if you’re worried about over-contributing and not using the money for healthcare expenses.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to optimize your health savings account, or HSA, in 2025.
Today, I’m talking about how and why you’ll want to consider funding your HSA exclusively for future health care costs.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about how to optimize your health savings account, or HSA, in 2025.
Today, I’m going over some of the basics of the health savings accounts.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: How To Optimize Your HSA In 2025
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week I planned to discuss Optimizing Your HSA In 2025. But as I was finishing up and getting ready to record, I had a family emergency come up, so I need to take a break this week to focus on that.
I’ll be back next Monday, February 3rd where I’ll talk about optimizing your HSA in the new year.
In the meantime, be sure to check out my YouTube channel, Retire With Ashley. You can listen to the podcast there, and I’m starting to post new content over there, with the goal of posting videos more consistently in 2025.
I hope you have a great week! Looking forward to being back with you next week. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: What I’m Reading right now
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some interesting and hopefully useful articles I’ve been reading lately.
Today, I’m talking about a coming change for investors, providing more access to a wide range of alternative investments like hedge funds, venture capital, private-equity funds, non traded real estate, and private credit.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some interesting and hopefully useful articles I’ve been reading lately.
Today, I’m talking about a recent article from the WSJ on new years resolutions. Most of us realize that few resolutions stick. There’s lots of reasons for this, but in this article, the author suggests: “instead of resolving to become a different person in 2025, try setting achievable goals and embracing ‘radical doability.’”
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/new-year-new-you-doesnt-work-heres-how-you-can-actually-improve-your-life-2075af4b?st=oMBJaV
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some interesting and hopefully useful articles I’ve been reading lately.
Today, I’m sharing with you an ominous, yet interesting prediction I read about in an financial advisor industry publication - your 401k will be gone within a decade.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some interesting and hopefully useful articles I’ve been reading lately.
Today, I’m talking about a recent memo to investors from legendary investor, Howard Marks, titled: On Bubble Watch…
https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/memo/on-bubble-watch
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some interesting and hopefully useful articles I’ve been reading lately.
Today, I’m talking about new retirement withdrawal recommendations from Morningstar, suggesting a 3.7% withdrawal rate in the first year of retirement…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: What I'm Reading In January 2025
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 2024 Economic & Market Commentary
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the stock market, bond market, and economic climate of 2024, and looking ahead to 2025.
Today, I’m tying it all together and talking about opportunities for 2025.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the stock market, bond market, and economic climate of 2024, and looking ahead to 2025.
Today, I’m talking about the bond market and adding some thoughts for bond investors in 2025.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the stock market, bond market, and economic climate of 2024, and looking ahead to 2025.
Today, I’m doing a deeper dive on the stock market in 2024.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the stock market, bond market, and economic climate of 2024, and looking ahead to 2025.
Today, I’m talking about the economic recap from 2024 and my outlook for the economy in 2025.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the stock market, bond market, and economic climate of 2024, and looking ahead to 2025.
Today, I’m recapping the economic & market environment from 2024…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: 2024 Economic & Market Commentary
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
Today, I’m talking about the money spent on a vacation with my husband in 2024…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
Today, I’m talking about the expensive handbags I bought in 2024.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
Today, I’m talking about getting a new set of golf clubs…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
Today, I’m talking about the thing I promised myself I would never buy but I did anyways - a first class plane ticket!
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
Today, I’m talking about the weirdest sounding splurge from last year, especially coming from someone not even 40 years old yet - I got new teeth!
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: 5 Expensive Things I Bought Last Year That Were Worth The Splurge
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
Merry Christmas! I wish you peace and joy on this very blessed day, on the birth of our Savior. If you’ve been listening for the last couple weeks, you know I’ve been taking a break from new episodes and rewinding the most popular episodes of the year. But not today.
Today I would like to read you my Christmas card sent to family, friends, and clients. It’s my audio Christmas card to you…
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche.
I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $425 million in assets.I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, helping hundreds of clients along the way carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Changes Coming To Your 401(k) In 2025
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m breaking down the 401k and retirement plan changes coming for 2025.
Today, I’m talking about a new database for lost 401k dollars that is scheduled to go live at the end of 2024.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m breaking down the 401k and retirement plan changes coming for 2025.
Today, I’m talking about new rules allowing part time workers to contribute to their company’s 401k.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2024
I’m bringing you into the new year by rewinding and replaying the most downloaded, most listened to, and most popular episodes from 2024. The topics are varied, covering everything from social security to inflation to the 4% rule.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m breaking down the 401k and retirement plan changes coming for 2025.
Today, I’m talking about the confusing changes to catch up contributions for 2025.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m breaking down the 401k and retirement plan changes coming for 2025.
Today, I’m talking about how the contribution limits have changed for retirement plans for 2025.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m breaking down the 401k and retirement plan changes coming for 2025.
Today, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite topic - Donald J Trump, and what the new administration means for retirement savings and planning decisions in 2025.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: Changes Coming To Your 401(k) In 2025
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Your Money Personality & Why It Matters
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about your money personality type and why it matters.
Today, I’m talking about the worrier money personality type.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about your money personality type and why it matters.
Today, I’m talking about the gambler money personality type. This is perhaps the most dangerous of the money personality types.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about your money personality type and why it matters. According to Ken Honda, author of Happy Money, there are 7 distinct personality types.
Today, I’m talking about what I think is the most tortured of the money personality types - the saver-splurger.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about your money personality type and why it matters. According to Ken Honda, author of Happy Money, there are 7 distinct personality types.
Yesterday, I talked about the most difficult money personality types…the compulsives. Compulsive spenders, savers, and money makers. All challenging to overcome some of the common and destructive pitfalls of the compulsive types.
Today I want to turn to a money personality that’s a bit more subtle.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about your money personality type and why it matters.
According to Ken Honda, author of Happy Money, there are 7 distinct personality types. Honda has spent years researching the intersection of psychology & money. It’s important to remember that you may see overlap with yourself and the different personality types. The important thing is to recognize which personality types most closely resemble your own, so you can better understand your own relationship with money.
Today, I am actually going to talk about 3 money personalities - the compulsives.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help your path to and through retirement, I’m your guide, Ashley Micciche. I’ve been a financial advisor for 17 years, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients carve out their own unique roadmap to retirement. I’m the co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in assets.
This week’s theme is: Your money personality and why it matters.
With it being Thanksgiving this week, gratitude is top of mind, and I hope it is for you too. The benefits of gratitude are well-understood. On the flipside, the problem with not being grateful is dangerous. When we take things for granted, life loses much of it’s joy. So this week is the perfect opportunity to reset your gratitude awareness and practice gratitude.
Thanks for listening! I appreciate you and I am grateful for you! I hope you have a happy and relaxing Thanksgiving and spend time this week with people you love.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m here with my 10 year old daughter, Keegan and we’re talking about some of her thoughts and tips about money…
Today, Keegan and I are talking about giving & investing
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m here with my 10 year old daughter, Keegan and we’re talking about some of her thoughts and tips about money…
Today, Keegan and I are talking about some big picture questions when it comes to money…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m here with my 10 year old daughter, Keegan and we’re talking about some of her thoughts and tips about money…
Today, Keegan and I are talking about spending money.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m here with my 10 year old daughter, Keegan and we’re talking about some of her thoughts and tips about money…
Today, Keegan and I are talking about the following scenario: If someone has enough money to stop working, do you think it’s best to stop working or continue to work? Why would someone choose to keep working? Why would someone choose to stop working?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m here with my 10 year old daughter, Keegan and we’re talking about some of her thoughts and tips about money…
Today, Keegan and I are talking about saving money…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
Here on this podcast I help you plan, save, & invest wisely to live a fulfilling and financially secure retirement with brief, daily, actionable tips. I’m glad you’re here, making this podcast part of your daily routine, & spending a few minutes with me each day.
This week’s theme is: 10 Money Tips From A 10 Year Old
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was:Year-End Tax Planning Tips with Sean Mullaney, The FI Tax Guy
I really enjoyed talking with Sean and getting his perspective on year-end tax planning considerations for investors.
The most important takeaway from this week is that it’s always important in the last few weeks of the year to take a look at your income and tax situation and decide if there is anything else you could or should be doing to help with keeping your taxes lower in the current year, or in the case of the Roth conversion, looking ahead to future years to lower your taxes down the road.
The time to do this is now…before the distraction of the holidays pushes these planning tips to the wayside. Better yet, if you have a tax advisor, now is a great time to connect with them, be proactive, and ask them specifically about the tax savings strategies that appeal to you - get their opinion on which ones make the most sense in your situation and
Tomorrow, 10 Money Tips From A 10 Year Old. My daughter Keegan has been eager to get on the podcast, and she’s a very outgoing and chatty girl, so she has a lot to say about a great many things - even money.
Children can be so wise, and they see things from an entirely different perspective than we can as adults. They’re free from many of the money challenges that plague adults because of experiences, upbringing, hard knocks and successes.
So next week, you’ll hear her unfiltered perspective on money and life.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, please share the show! Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already, and if you’re interested in learning more about working with me, check out my website: www.truenorthra.com.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did on year-end tax planning tips with Sean Mullaney.
Here’s today’s interview segment with Sean, talking about retirement accounts and some additional considerations if you have an Inherited IRA.
Disclaimer: The discussion is intended to be for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal, or investment advice for any individual. Ashley Micciche and the Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley podcast do not endorse Sean Mullaney, Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. and their services.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did on year-end tax planning tips with Sean Mullaney.
Here’s today’s interview segment with Sean - tax loss and gain harvesting.
Disclaimer: The discussion is intended to be for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal, or investment advice for any individual. Ashley Micciche and the Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley podcast do not endorse Sean Mullaney, Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. and their services.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did on year-end tax planning tips with Sean Mullaney.
Here’s today’s interview segment with Sean - a continuation of yesterday’s episode where we talk about why your Roth conversion decision might change based on expected tax policy, as well as Sean’s view of the future tax climate.
Disclaimer: The discussion is intended to be for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal, or investment advice for any individual. Ashley Micciche and the Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley podcast do not endorse Sean Mullaney, Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. and their services.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did on year-end tax planning tips with Sean Mullaney.
Here’s today’s interview segment with Sean, discussing Roth conversions.
Disclaimer: The discussion is intended to be for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal, or investment advice for any individual. Ashley Micciche and the Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley podcast do not endorse Sean Mullaney, Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. and their services.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did on year-end tax planning tips with Sean Mullaney.
Here’s today’s interview segment with Sean, discussing donor advised funds.
Disclaimer: The discussion is intended to be for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal, or investment advice for any individual. Ashley Micciche and the Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley podcast do not endorse Sean Mullaney, Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. and their services.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
This week’s theme is: Year-End Tax Planning Tips with Sean Mullaney, The FI Tax Guy
I’m recording live from FinCon 2024 in Atlanta this week, and I’m excited to have Sean share his expertise and insights about what you’ll want to consider to set yourself up for a strong position as we approach year-end 2024 deadlines.
Sean Mullaney is an advice-only financial planner and the President of Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. Through Mullaney Financial & Tax, Sean provides advice-only financial planning for a flat fee. Sean writes the Plutus Award winning blog FITaxGuy.com on the intersection of tax and financial independence. He also has a personal finance YouTube channel and wrote Solo 401(k): The Solopreneur’s Retirement Account.
I really enjoyed my interview this week with Sean, and I hope you’ll enjoy the conversation as well!
Disclaimer: The discussion is intended to be for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal, or investment advice for any individual. Ashley Micciche and the Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley podcast do not endorse Sean Mullaney, Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. and their services.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
This week I talked about my experience with my no spend October - what I learned, my successeses, my failings, & the benefits of doing one even if you don’t have a spending problem.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my experience with my no-spend October.
Today, I’m talking about tips for your own no spend month if you’re inspired to undertake this for yourself.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my experience with my no-spend October.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important takeaways that I learned from my no spend month and that is making a list and waiting some length of time before buying something.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my experience with my no-spend October.
Today, I’m talking about some oops moments from my no spend month.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my experience with my no-spend October.
Today, I’m talking about the 5 most valuable things I learned from taking a break from spending on everything but the necessities.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you my experience with my no-spend October, where I only spent money on the necessities (along with a few cheats along the way).
I called it my Spend Fast Month…not to be confused with spending money as fast as possible, it was fasting from spending money, which is a different idea entirely!
Today, I’m talking about the rules I laid out for myself during my no spend month.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
Here on this podcast I help you plan, save, & invest wisely to live a fulfilling and financially secure retirement with brief, daily, actionable tips. I’m glad you’re here, making this podcast part of your daily routine, & spending a few minutes with me each day.
This week’s theme is: Reflections on my No Spend October
Link to register for November’s Office Hours: https://bit.ly/40fsBr2
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
This week I’m traveling for work - actually I’ll be in Atlanta, but by the time you hear this episode, I’ll be back home again. I do love Georgia - the last time I was in 2013 when I went to the Masters in Augusta with my dad. That was a special trip and he got to cross off his #1 bucket list item. No golf this time, but it will be interesting to be in a swing state so close to the election.
I live in Oregon which is so deep blue, it’s almost black out here, so we don’t even have any political ads. In fact, true story, you won’t even find any information about Trump in the official Oregon voter pamphlet. True story - google it. But I digress...
Since I’m traveling, I don’t have any new episodes this week, but I do have a special announcement - coming back for a 3rd installment for 2024 is another office hours session where you’ll have the chance to ask me your most burning question about retirement.
Sessions in May and August filled up quickly, so if you want to pick my brain you can click on the link in the show notes to register.
I’m switching up the format for this Office Hours. The last 2 were group discussions via Zoom, this time you’ll sign up for a one-on-one session. I’ve had some feedback where some people prefer the one-on-one format for personal financial questions, so we’ll give that a try this time around.
I love meeting listeners and it’s a lot of fun to answer your questions - I always learn something and I hope you will too! At the very least, you’ll come away with some valuable insight, more clarity, and actionable next steps on what's most on your mind regarding retirement! All with no strings attached!
Note: There are 6 time slots available. Click on the date to see all available times and follow the steps to book your preferred time slot. If you don't see an available time, please send me an email and I will add you to the waitlist.
Email: ashleym@truenorthra.com
Link to register:https://bit.ly/40fsBr2
Thanks for listening! I look forward to hearing your questions in next month’s office hours!
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Keep Calm & Vote On
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the upcoming presidential election and what that means for you and your retirement.
Today, I want to share with you a prayer for the upcoming election, and I invite you to pray it with me.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the upcoming presidential election and what that means for you and your retirement.
Today, I’m looking at the election’s implications for investors if Trump wins. If you missed yesterday, I talked about implications for a Harris victory.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the upcoming presidential election and what that means for you and your retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about how markets have historically fared in election years and under various combinations of democrats and republicans in the white house and congress.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the upcoming presidential election and what that means for you and your retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the historical outcomes of the election. How do markets fare under various combinations of democrats and republicans in the white house, and democrats and republicans in Congress?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the upcoming presidential election and what that means for you and your retirement.
Today, I want to talk about the best thing you can do with your investment portfolio and all major financial decisions for that matter when you’re really stressed or anxious about the election, or maybe after the election since there’s a really good chance that about 50% of you listening are going to be disappointed in the outcome.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
Here on this podcast I help you plan, save, & invest wisely to live a fulfilling and financially secure retirement with brief, daily, actionable tips. I’m glad you’re here, making this podcast part of your daily routine, & spending a few minutes with me each day.
This week’s theme is: Keep Calm & Vote On
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 3rd Quarter 2024 Economic & Market Update
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the 3rd quarter of 2024 in the markets and the economy and looking ahead to the end of the year.
Today, I’m talking about investment opportunities that exist in the current environment.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the 3rd quarter of 2024 in the markets and the economy and looking ahead to the end of the year.
Today, I’m talking about the current interest rate environment and how that’s impacting your bond portfolio.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the 3rd quarter of 2024 in the markets and the economy and looking ahead to the end of the year.
Today, I’m talking about the stock market as we wrap up the year and head into the home stretch…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the 3rd quarter of 2024 in the markets and the economy and looking ahead to the end of the year.
Today, I’m talking about the current economic climate and what’s driving the economy now…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m recapping the 3rd quarter of 2024 in the markets and the economy and looking ahead to the end of the year.
Today, I’m recapping what’s happened so far this year…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
3rd Quarter 2024 Economic & Market Update
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering the question:How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about calculating affordability when leasing or financing a car.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering the question:How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about calculating affordability and some guidelines to keep in mind.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering the question:How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about the paying cash vs. finance vs. lease decision
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering the question: How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
Once you understand the current car marketplace (which I discussed on yesterday’s podcast), I think the next logical step is to decide whether you want to buy a used car or a new car.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering the question: How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about the first step in making a car buying decision: understanding the current car market.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
How Much Car Can You Afford In Retirement?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: The Worst Social Security Mistakes To Avoid
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the worst social security mistakes to avoid
Today, I’m talking about the mistake of misunderstanding the earnings test. If you’re still working and you’re also taking social security benefits, the earnings test applies to you.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the worst social security mistakes to avoid
Today, I’m talking about a common reason why people will time their social security decision wrong - it’s because they assume that social security is going bankrupt and they better get theirs now while they still can.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the worst social security mistakes to avoid
Today, I’m talking another common mistake: Not Maximizing Spousal Benefits
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the worst social security mistakes to avoid.
Today is a continuation of yesterday’s episode on the biggest mistake I see people make - claiming too early.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m addressing the question: The Worst Social Security Mistakes To Avoid
Today, I’m talking about the biggest mistake that I see people make: claiming too early
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
The Worst Social Security Mistakes To Avoid
This week on the podcast, I'm taking a little break. I'll be back next week with all new episodes - the worst social security mistakes to avoid. To that end, you can check out https://truenorthra.com/ssi/ to get your free social security comparison report. Fill out a quick form to compare multiple strategies and make a more informed decision about when to start taking social security.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: How Do I Stop Overspending?
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m addressing the question: How Do I Stop Overspending?
Yesterday, I talked about a no-spend month as the best way to shine a light on overspending and help you build more healthy spending habits. If you’re not ready for that, then I challenge you to a no-spend week or 2 weeks to help you see where your temptations and triggers lie, and learn to say no to some things so you can say yes to what’s most important.
Today, I want to talk about a few other tricks that can help you spend less.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m addressing the question: How Do I Stop Overspending?
Today, I’m challenge you to do a no-spend month. A no spend month is like a detox or cleanse for you and probably the best way you can begin to make progress on your overspending tendencies. A no spend month is exactly what it sounds like - for a month, you just spend money on the essentials. No coffee runs. No extra entertainment. Your bills are paid, you have gas in your car, and food in your fridge, but that’s it. If it sounds hard, that’s because it is.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m addressing the question: How Do I Stop Overspending?
Yesterday, I gave you an easy test to self-diagnose if you’re an overspender: 10% x age X income = expected net worth.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m addressing the question: How Do I Stop Overspending?
Yesterday, I talked about the problem with overspending - which is two-fold - it causes financial and life stress because you can’t cover life’s inevitable emergencies without putting it on a high interest rate credit card.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m addressing the question: How Do I Stop Overspending?
Today, I’m talking about the problem with overspending.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
How Do I Stop Overspending?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Listener Questions - September 2024 Edition
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your listener questions that were brought up in my last office hours session in August.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your listener questions that were brought up in my last office hours session in August.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your listener questions that were brought up in my last office hours session in August.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your listener questions that were brought up in my last office hours session in August.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m answering your listener questions that were brought up in my last office hours session in August.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Listener Questions - September 2024 Edition
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren
Today, I’m talking about using a Roth IRA for kids. These are often called custodial Roths, and they have special requirements and rules that you’ll need to know, and some drawbacks to be aware of, but they can be a great way to save and invest early and give them an extra decade of saving and investing for retirement, which is huge.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren
Today, I’m talking about using investment accounts for minors to save and invest for grandchildren.They are sometimes referred to as custodial accounts, UTMA, or UGMA accounts.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren.
Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about UTMA or UGMA accounts for minors. These are popular vehicles for grandparents to save for their grandchildren, but they have some real and important drawbacks, like the fact that once Junior reaches adulthood, which could be anytime between 18-25 depending on what state you live in, that money is theirs and they can blow it on anything they like.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren
Today, I’m talking about why I like trust accounts for grandchildren.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren
Today, I’m talking about why I love the 529 college savings account and why it’s my go-to when clients come to me asking for advice on setting up accounts for their grandchildren.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Best Investment Accounts For Grandchildren
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime
Today, I’m talking about what to do if you become a victim of cyber theft.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about:Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime
Yesterday, I talked about 3 Practical Steps You Can Take To Prevent Cyber Crime Today, I’m talking about 3 more steps you can take.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime
Today, I’m talking about 3 practical steps you can take to prevent cyber crime. You may not be able to prevent a big data breach like the one that just happened where 2.9 billion records were exposed and likely leaked on the dark web. According to Steve Grobman, CTO at McAfee, this may be one of the worst data breaches ever.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime
Today, I’m talking about checking & freezing your credit as one of the key ways to protect yourself against cyber fraud after the massive data breach that just exposed millions of Americans’ names, addresses, and SSNs.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime
Today, I’m talking about the 80/20 rule when it comes to preventing cyber theft. 80% of outcomes are derived from 20% of causes
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Fortify Your Data & Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn.
Today, I’m talking about finding opportunities in down markets.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn.
Today, I’m talking about the added curveball with the volatility this year, which is that it’s a presidential election year.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn.
Today, I’m talking about the coming recession.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about: Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Navigating the Storm: Strategies for Weathering a Stock Market Downturn
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Top Regrets From Retirees And How To Avoid Them
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some of the top regrets from retirees from surveys as well as from my own experience over the last 17 years working with clients.
Today, I’m talking about retirees who fail to plan.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some of the top regrets from retirees from surveys as well as from my own experience over the last 17 years working with clients.
It’s good to own different investments in different places and you’re supposed to diversify into real estate - get a rental property or a vacation home, right? Well, one of the complaints I hear most often from
And these complexities can be difficult to unwind and cause big tax bills when you don’t want them in retirement.
So today, I’m talking about the regret of having too many complexities.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some of the top regrets from retirees from surveys as well as from my own experience over the last 17 years working with clients.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some of the top regrets from retirees from surveys as well as from my own experience over the last 17 years working with clients.
Today, I’m talking about forgetting health care costs…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some of the top regrets from retirees from surveys as well as from my own experience over the last 17 years working with clients.
Today, I’m talking about the most frequently cited concern during retirement, identified by more that half of retirees - inflation. That’s according the 2022 Retiree Reflections Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Top Regrets From Retirees And How To Avoid Them
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well by Frank Hanna
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some key takeaways from a unique and excellent book by Frank Hanna: What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well
Today, I’m talking about a formula for giving laid out in the book…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some key takeaways from a unique and excellent book by Frank Hanna: What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well
Today, I’m comparing the decision to give now while you’re still alive, to giving later after death.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some key takeaways from a unique and excellent book by Frank Hanna: What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well
Today, I’m talking about the importance in stewardship with non-essential wealth.
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some key takeaways from a unique and excellent book by Frank Hanna: What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well
Today, I'm talking about the dangers of non-essential wealth and spending it all on ourselves, or accumulating it and passing it along to our heirs…
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m sharing with you some key takeaways from a unique and excellent book by Frank Hanna: What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well
Today, I’m helping you answer the question: Am I spending my money as I ought?
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well by Frank Hanna
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
Today, I’m talking about how to reduce your RMDs and taxes on RMDs
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
Today, I’m talking about timing your RMDs
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
Today, I’m talking about what to know the first year starting your RMD and how you can aggregate multiple RMD together if you have several accounts
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
Today, I’m talking about How To Calculate Your RMD & Your Tax Withholding Amount
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
Today, I’m covering the basics and what you need to know about RMDs
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $400 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
The Ultimate Guide To RMDs in 2024
Link to register: https://bit.ly/3zDFaB9
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you are in the right place!
This week, I’m doing something a little different on the podcast. I’m hosting office hours on Thursday, August 22nd from 12-1pm (pacific time). I’m taking a break from the podcast this week, but I want to make sure you have a chance to register!
I hosted a pick my brain office hours in May. It filled up and we had a great discussion, so if you didn’t get a chance to register the first time around or it didn't work with your schedule, this is your chance to ask your most burning question about retirement….
Link to register: https://bit.ly/3zDFaB9
If you click on the link, and it’s full, send me an email. I’ll add you to the waiting list, and you’ll also get first dibs on scheduling for the next office hours (probably sometime in the fall).
My email if the office hours is full: ashleym@truenorthra.com
Thanks for listening! I look forward to hearing your questions in next month’s office hours!
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 3 Biggest Mistakes People Make In Retirement with Jeremy Keil
I really enjoyed talking with Jeremy and getting his perspective on mistakes that people make and how to avoid them, and I hope you did too.
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did with Jeremy Keil.
Today, we’re continuing our conversation from yesterday about taxes in retirement, talking more in depth about Roth conversions and retirement spending strategies.
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did with Jeremy Keil.
Today, we’re talking about retirement mistake #3 according to Jeremy - forgetting to plan for taxes in retirement.
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did with Jeremy Keil.
Today, we’re talking about mistake #2 that people planning for retirement often make, and that is filing for social security at the wrong time. We also dive into why it’s important to think long-term with this decision to start social security, especially if you’re married…
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did with Jeremy Keil.
In today’s episode, Jeremy and I go into more detail about how to plan for a longer than expected retirement…
This week on the podcast, I’m bringing you segments of a recent interview I did with Jeremy Keil.
Today, we’re talking about retirement mistake #1 according to Jeremy, underestimating the length of your retirement, both on the front end, and the back end…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
3 Biggest Mistakes People Make In Retirement with Jeremy Keil
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about investment opportunities in this current market.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about the bond markets in 2024.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about the stock market update for 2024. It used to be the magnificent 7 dominating market performance.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m expanding on yesterday’s recap of the first half of the year to talk about the economy and the outlook for the rest of the year.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m recapping what’s happened in the first half of 2024.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Mid-Year 2024 Economic & Market Update
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
Today, I’m talking about - Why Retire As Early As Your Can: Life Satisfaction
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
Today, I’m talking about a very common reason why people continue to work well into their retirement years, but very few people will ever admit out loud: ego driven reasons. You may tell yourself that you don’t have enough saved yet, when in reality you have far in excess of what you need to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Many people with good jobs in respected careers continue working because they’re chasing the power, prestige, and wealth that comes with their title and their position.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
Today, I’m talking about Why Retire As Early As Your Can: You Can Still Work Part-Time
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
Today, I’m talking about the #1 reason why my clients choose to retire earlier rather than later: to enjoy their healthy years.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
So if you’re thinking about retiring and you’ve run the numbers and you’ll be in good shape financially, I hope you’ll allow yourself the permission to retire early if that’s what you really want to do.
Today, I’m talking about one of the primary reasons why I think it’s a good choice to retire as early as you can…grandkids.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
5 Reasons To Retire As Early As You Can
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
Today, I’m talking about how much you should invest in bitcoin if you decide to go down this path.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
All this week, I’ve been really hating on bitcoin and the new ETFs, but it’s on’y fair that we look at both sides of this coin, so today I’m talking about reasons to consider bitcoin and who might consider adding it to their portfolio. Then tomorrow, I’ll talk about some finer points of how much to own if you’re going to jump in.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
Today, I’m talking about the fear of missing out (FOMO) as a big driver for the popularity of bitcoin and the new bitcoin ETFs.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
Today, I’m talking about the risks of owning bitcoin and why I’m not buying the new bitcoin ETFs for my clients.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
If you’ve been a listener of the podcast for some time, you may have heard me talk about bitcoin and more broadly, cryptocurrencies, previously on the podcast. 2 years ago in June 2022, I talked about crypto in a weekly theme called: Investments I hate!
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Are The New Bitcoin ETFs A Good Investment?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Home Updates That Actually Add Value
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Home Updates That Actually Add Value
Yesterday, I talked about the problem with most home remodel projects from a financial perspective and that is that they are almost always going to cost more than any increase in value to your home. And if you finance those updates with debt, that just makes it pencil out much worse.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Home Updates That Actually Add Value
Today, I’m talking about the financial considerations when updating your home.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Home Updates That Actually Add Value
Today, I’m talking about some additional home updates to avoid
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Home Updates That Actually Add Value
Today, I’m talking about some of the worst home updates you can make that won’t even come close to recouping the cost.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Home Updates That Actually Add Value
Today, I’m talking about the top 5 low cost upgrades that increase value. These are the things that will give you the most bang for your buck, especially if you plan to sell your house in the next few years.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Home Updates That Actually Add Value
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: What I'm Reading - Summer 2024
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m Reading, Summer 2024 Edition. I’ve curated some of my favorite articles and things I’ve stumbled on recently that are relevant for your retirement…These are topics that might not be broad enough for an entire week’s theme, but are still worth discussing.
Today, I’m talking about an interesting article in the WSJ,citing a new study that suggests that people are overly optimistic about how much they can work later in life.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m Reading, Summer 2024 Edition. I’ve curated some of my favorite articles and things I’ve stumbled on recently that are relevant for your retirement…These are topics that might not be broad enough for an entire week’s theme, but are still worth discussing.
Today’s article comes from Bloomberg News - Majority Of Middle-Class Americans Say They Struggle Financially…
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m Reading, Summer 2024 Edition. I’ve curated some of my favorite articles and things I’ve stumbled on recently that are relevant for your retirement…These are topics that might not be broad enough for an entire week’s theme, but are still worth discussing.
Today, I’m talking about a post on Dave Ramsey’s website
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m Reading, Summer 2024 Edition. I’ve curated some of my favorite articles and things I’ve stumbled on recently that are relevant for your retirement…These are topics that might not be broad enough for an entire week’s theme, but are still worth discussing.
Today, I’m talking about the recent milestone of the Dow reaching 40,000
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m Reading, Summer 2024 Edition. I’ve curated some of my favorite articles and things I’ve stumbled on recently that are relevant for your retirement…These are topics that might not be broad enough for an entire week’s theme, but are still worth discussing.
Today, I’m looking at a question from the personal finance subreddit that I stumbled upon recently.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
What I'm Reading - Summer 2024
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
Today, I’m talking about: Adjusting Your Debt & Spending Decisions with the idea that interest rates will not start going down again any time soon.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
Today, I’m talking about: How To Invest In Stocks In A “Higher For Longer” Interest Rate Environment
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
Today, I’m talking about: How To Invest In Bonds In A “Higher For Longer” Interest Rate Environment
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
Today, I’m talking about: The Case For Higher Interest Rates For Longer: Resilience & De-Globalization
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
Today, I’m talking about The Case For Higher Interest Rates For Longer: Sticky Inflation
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Are The Days of Ultra Low Interest Rates Gone For Good?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Listener Questions...Answered!
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- Working Less Later In Life
- Can I Invest my entire portfolio in Target Date Funds?
- What to consider when buying or exchanging an annuity?
- Is the 4% Rule Still a good withdrawal rate rule of thumb?
- How to Pick a good financial advisor
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener questions, answered!
Today’s listener question is: What Should I Consider When Buying or Exchanging An Annuity?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener questions, answered!
Today’s listener question is: Can I Invest My Entire Investment Portfolio Into Target Date Retirement Funds?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener questions, answered!
Today’s listener question is: How Do I Find A Good Financial Advisor?...
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener questions, answered!
Today’s listener question is: Does The 4% Withdrawal Rule In Retirement Still Apply In This Higher Inflation Economy?...
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener questions, answered!
Today’s listener question is: How Can I Cut Back & Work Less In My 50s? What Are The Downsides?...
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $390 million in client assets.
If you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you’re in the right place! This week’s theme is:
Listener questions, answered!
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Jason Parker - 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads.
I’ve included links to his podcast and other resources we talk about in the interview in the show notes, so be sure to check those out…here is today’s interview segment with Jason Parker
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Jason Parker - 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads.
I’ve included links to his podcast and other resources we talk about in the interview in the show notes, so be sure to check those out…here is today’s interview segment with Jason Parker
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Jason Parker - 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads.
I’ve included links to his podcast and other resources we talk about in the interview in the show notes, so be sure to check those out…here is today’s interview segment with Jason Parker
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Jason Parker - 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads.
I’ve included links to his podcast and other resources we talk about in the interview in the show notes, so be sure to check those out…here is today’s interview segment with Jason Parker
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Jason Parker - 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads.
I’ve included links to his podcast and other resources we talk about in the interview in the show notes, so be sure to check those out…here is today’s interview segment with Jason Parker
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Jason Parker - 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads.
I’ve included links to his podcast and other resources we talk about in the interview in the show notes, so be sure to check those out…here is today’s interview segment with Jason Parker
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $350 million in client assets.
This week on the podcast, I’m excited to have Jason Parker join us to share his insights on the 3 numbers you must know to retire with confidence.
Jason Parker, RICP® is the best-selling author of Sound Retirement Planning, Retirement Calculator and the host of Sound Retirement Radio, a popular podcast with more than 1 million downloads. He has been seen as a frequent guest on ABC, FOX, & NBC. He is the inventor of the Retirement Budget Calculator. He has earned the designation of a Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP®). Jason is the President of Parker Financial LLC, which is an independent, fee-only, registered investment advisory firm, and operates as a fiduciary.
Learn more about Jason:
- https://soundretirementplanning.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@retirementbudgetcalculator
- https://www.facebook.com/SoundRetirementPlanning/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-retirement-radio/id306719560
Access the Retirement Budget Calculator: https://www.retirementbudgetcalculator.com/
Thanks for listening! I hope you enjoy this week’s interview with Jason!
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score.
Today, I’m talking about what it takes to get a perfect 850 credit score.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score.
Today, I’m talking about a credit score that’s good enough.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score.
Yesterday I talked about the most important factor when determining your credit score - payment history.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score.
Today, I’m talking about the one thing that determines your credit score more than anything else.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score.
Today, I’m talking about why a higher credit score means more than it used to…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Anatomy of a Perfect Credit Score.
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, you are in the right place!
This week, I’m doing something a little different on the podcast. I’m hosting office hours on Thursday, May 16th, from 12-1pm (pacific time). And I want to make sure that no matter when you listen this week, you’ll hear about it and have a chance to register!
So here’s how it’s going to work the first time around:
Pick My Brain Office Hours is your chance to ask me anything that's on your mind regarding retirement. This Zoom meeting is 60 minutes long. The maximum number of participants is 6, so you'll hear from others too, not just me!
It's meant to be a conversation to help you with your most burning question about retirement or just your finances in general, facilitated by me!
When you register, you’ll have a chance to ask your question. Then in the meeting, after short introductions, I will choose someone to ask their question and we'll discuss the topic for five to ten minutes. We’ll repeat for each participant until all the main questions are discussed, then wrap up.
Currently the podcast has anywhere from 15,000-20,000 downloads per month, so I do expect this to fill up. If you go to the show notes wherever you’re listening right now, I’ll include a link to register.
Link to register: https://calendly.com/ashleymicciche/pick-my-brain-may-office-hours?month=2024-05&date=2024-05-16
If you click on the registration link, and it’s full, send me an email. I’ll add you to the waiting list, and you’ll also get first dibs on scheduling for the next office hours (hopefully in June if this first test goes well), before I advertise the link for office hours.
My email if the office hours is full: ashleym@truenorthra.com
Thanks for listening! I look forward to hearing your questions in this month’s office hours! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
Today, I’m talking about scrutinizing your savings plan. If you review your tax return like I suggested in Thursday’s episode, you’ll hopefully see any missing opportunities for additional savings.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
Today, I’m talking about the importance of organizing your financial documents. Spring time is usually a time of embarking on decluttering, purging, and organization, and your finances deserve some organization as well.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
Today, I’m talking about reviewing your tax return.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
Today, I’m talking about rebalancing your portfolio. A lot has changed in the stock and bond markets in the last few years. 2021 was a fantastic year for stocks, and flat for bonds. 2022 was a bloodbath for everyone, and 2023 was a strong recovery year for both bond and stock investors.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
Today, I’m talking about why now is a great time to revisit your retirement plan projections, your timeline, and your goals.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Portfolio & Your Retirement Plan
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Don't Squander A Large Windfall
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don't Squander A Large Windfall
Today, I’m talking about the importance of not making any major life or spending decisions for 6-12 months after receiving a large windfall.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don't Squander A Large Windfall
Yesterday, I talked about the never ever’s of a large windfall. Basically these are the rules that you don’t want to break. One of the never evers was never spend more than a small percentage on depreciating assets like cars, vacations, other toys, clothes, eating out, etc.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don't Squander A Large Windfall
Yesterday, I talked about the never evers of a large windfall - in other words, what are the things that you should never ever do. Yesterday’s was so important - the most important one in my opinion, which is never ever take financial advice from family and friends after a large windfall - unless you best friends also happen to be your attorney, your CPA, and your financial advisor.
Today I want to talk about 2 other very important never evers
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don't Squander A Large Windfall
Today, I’m talking about the Never Evers of a large windfall.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don't Squander A Large Windfall
Today, I’m talking about the very first thing you should do when you have received or are expecting to receive a large windfall: hire a team of experts.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Don't Squander A Large Windfall
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: How To Ask For It Cheaper
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Ask For It Cheaper
Today, I’m talking about downgrading your subscription fees. The problem with subscription fees is that we have too many of them, and we tend to forget about them. Great for the subscription service business model, bad for you and me.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Ask For It Cheaper
Today, I’m talking about how to ask for a better price on your phone, internet, or cable bill
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Ask For It Cheaper
Today, I’m talking about what can be an awkward situation with no clearcut answers - splitting the bill when you’re out with friends. I’ll talk about this in the context of dinner, but it applies to lots of different social situations where it may not be clear who should pay for what.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Ask For It Cheaper
Today, I’m talking about how to get a better price on a couple of big ticket items like a car or a home….
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Ask For It Cheaper
Today, I’m talking about the basic and a few rules to live by when it comes to asking for a better price.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
How To Ask For It Cheaper
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: 7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- Consistency
- Having desires smaller than your bank account
- Delaying gratification
- Always having breathing room
- Aren't distracted by fear or greed
- Careful about friends and who they hang out with
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
When I was a kid, my dad used to say to me: Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
Today, I’m talking about two very destructive habits that can trip people up and destroy a 7-figure nest egg - fear and greed.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
Today, I’m talking about habit #4 for a 7-figure nest egg: Everyday or middle class millionaires always maintain breathing room with their finances & they tend to be allergic to debt
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
Today, I’m talking about 2 important millionaire habits that go together so I’m combining them in todays episode: Desires smaller than their bank account & delaying gratification.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
Today, I’m talking about the habit of consistency.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
7 Habits to a 7-Figure Nest Egg
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about investment opportunities that exist right now in this market environment.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about the bond market in review for the 1st quarter.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about the stock market in review for the 1st quarter. Stocks are up about 9% already for this year, which is a very strong start, coming off an already strong 2023.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
If I had to sum up the economic climate in the United States right now in one word, it would be: confusing.
Last year, I made a $5 bet with my dad that the US will slip into a recession in 2024. He doesn’t think it will happen, and I will earn $5 if I am right and we do go into a recession next year. I was pretty confident I would become $5 richer this year, and the jury is still out of course as there’s still a lot of innings to go, but let’s talk a little bit about why I made that bet.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m recapping what happened in the 1st quarter this year.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: 1st Quarter 2024 Market & Economic Update
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Retirement Planning When You're Single
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- The Likelihood That You’ll Live Alone In Retirement
- What To Do If You’re An Elder Orphan
- Making arrangements in advance for the 3 most important considerations for a solo retirement: healthcare, your finances, and housing
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retirement Planning When You're Single
Today, I’m talking about making your housing arrangements in advance when you’re solo in retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retirement Planning When You're Single
Today, I’m talking about making sure your finances are taken care of when you’re solo in retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retirement Planning When You're Single
Today, I’m talking about making sure your healthcare needs and directives are taken care of when you’re solo in retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retirement Planning When You're Single
Today, I’m talking about the importance of planning ahead if you are an elder orphan or at risk of becoming one.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retirement Planning When You're Single
Today, I’m talking about the likelihood that you’ll live alone in retirement.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Retirement Planning When You're Single
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme - What You Need to Know About Planning For and Living In Retirement When You’re Single
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s.
Today,I’m talking about the importance of simplifying your financial situation & consolidating your accounts.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s.
Today, I’m talking about the importance of having more cash on hand in savings in retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s.
Today, I’m talking about estimating your healthcare costs.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s.
Today, I’m talking about planning your social security strategy.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s.
Today, I’m talking about creating your retirement roadmap & figuring out your retirement expenses.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 60s
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- How To Double Your Retirement Nest Egg In 10 Years
- Get Your Financial Priorities In Order
- Get Serious About Paying Off Your Mortgage
- Don’t Get Too Conservative With Your Investments In Your 50s
- Setting Your Retirement Date
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s. There are a number of important things to think about and do in what is usually your last decade of working years before retirement, so this week I’m breaking down the most impactful things you’ll want to do to set yourself up for a successful retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how setting a retirement date in your 50s can really help clarify your vision and timeline for retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s. There are a number of important things to think about and do in what is usually your last decade of working years before retirement, so this week I’m breaking down the most impactful things you’ll want to do to set yourself up for a successful retirement.
Today, I’m talking about getting your portfolio in line with your goals, stage in life, and proximity to retirement
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s. There are a number of important things to think about and do in what is usually your last decade of working years before retirement, so this week I’m breaking down the most impactful things you’ll want to do to set yourself up for a successful retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the importance of getting serious about paying off debt, especially your mortgage, in your 50s.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s. There are a number of important things to think about and do in what is usually your last decade of working years before retirement, so this week I’m breaking down the most impactful things you’ll want to do to set yourself up for a successful retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the importance of getting your financial priorities in order as you approach retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s. There are a number of important things to think about and do in what is usually your last decade of working years before retirement, so this week I’m breaking down the most impactful things you’ll want to do to set yourself up for a successful retirement.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important things you can do to prepare for retirement in your 50s: Take advantage of your peak earning years & maximize retirement plan contributions
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
A Guide To Retirement Planning In Your 50s
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- Does More Money Correlate with Greater Happiness? Research Says Yes
- Buy More Experiences & Less Stuff
- Buy Many Small Pleasures Instead of Few Big Ones
- Delay Gratification on Spending For Greater Happiness
- Strategically Buying Time for More Life Satisfaction
The most important takeaway from this week is…more money can actually buy you greater happiness, but you still need to be wise in how you spend your money - and spend it on the right things in order to actually increase levels of contentment and satisfaction.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Retirement Planning In Your 50s.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
Today…I”m talking about how buying time helps to boost happiness.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in April 2011, researches assert that “If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right”
Based on their findings, the researchers suggest several different principles to help you get more happiness out of each dollar you spend.
Today…I’m talking about how one of those principles: delaying gratification can increase the happiness factor of how you spend money.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in April 2011, researches assert that “If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right”
Based on their findings, they suggest several different principles to help you get more happiness out of each dollar you spend. Today’s principle is: Buy Many Small Pleasures Instead of Few Big Ones
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in April 2011, researches assert that “If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right”
They suggest 8 different principles to help you get more happiness out of each dollar you spend. Today’s principle for the study is: buy more experiences and less stuff.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
Today, I’m talking about how more money can bring you greater happiness, which I’ll use as a baseline assumption with how spending that higher income can actually lead to greater satisfaction.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Spending Money To Maximize Happiness
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- Overspending
- Enabling Your Children
- Getting Divorced
- Catastrophic Illness
- Murphy’s Law
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
Today…I’m talking about another common problem I see with spending and withdrawals that can really draw down your assets in a worrisome way: ignoring Murphy’s law…
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
Today…I’m talking about how a catastrophic illness can cause you to jeopardize your retirement savings.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
Today…I’m talking about gray divorce. If you can avoid getting divorced, especially later in life, my advice is to try to work it out and stay married. Obviously marriages are complex with varying degrees of dysfunction, but the later in life you get divorced the more devastating it is financially, for both spouses.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
Today…I’m talking about a very sensitive topic, but an important one that impacts many of you listening. Many people jeopardize their own financial security in retirement by continuing to financially support their adult children.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
Today…I’m talking about the most common way I see clients dwindle down their assets: overspending.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
How To Run Out of Money In Retirement
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: What I’m Reading
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m reading…stories and articles I’ve come across that I find relevant and hopefully useful for you, my lovely audience.
Today…
https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/whats-the-best-time-to-eat-dinner-heres-the-math-0df644ca?mod=djem10point
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m reading…stories and articles I’ve come across that I find relevant and hopefully useful for you, my lovely audience.
Today…I’m talking about how Short Attention Spans Are Killing Investors
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m reading…stories and articles I’ve come across that I find relevant and hopefully useful for you, my lovely audience.
Today…I’m talking about The Real Story Behind Jobs Growth
https://www.axios.com/2023/12/11/jobs-report-statistics-healthcare-government-hospitality
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-welfare-industrial-complex-is-booming-3a7ad15c
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m reading…stories and articles I’ve come across that I find relevant and hopefully useful for you, my lovely audience.
Today…I’m talking about The Death Spiral of The Ark Innovation Fund
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/why-cathie-woods-ark-is-one-of-the-worst-fund-groups-in-america
https://www.wealthmanagement.com/etfs/top-15-wealth-destroying-funds-last-decade
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What I’m reading…stories and articles I’ve come across that I find relevant and hopefully useful for you, my lovely audience.
Today…
https://www.alliancebernstein.com/us/en-us/investments/insights/investment-insights/its-time-to-say-goodbye-to-t-bill-and-chill.html?workspace_id=1056632&suggested_content_id=2482266&social_network=linkedin∣=sco%3Ausr%3Ainsights%3Alinkedin%3Asales2020&hss_meta=eyJvcmdhbml6YXRpb25faWQiOiAzODEsICJncm91cF9pZCI6IDEwNTY2MzIsICJhc3NldF9pZCI6IDIxODU4ODUsICJncm91cF9jb250ZW50X2lkIjogMTI2OTQ3Mzk0LCAiZ3JvdXBfbmV0d29ya19jb250ZW50X2lkIjogMTk1OTA4Mjk3fQ%3D%3D&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=292260966&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_N-0FPel191mUeP4wm1brEbT8znZ0zXiUMqL9CAQw0q0m8qUGP7TOr-V0udAYo6CTFy6mRAm7O9R87WaG_YmvAvAej6w&utm_content=292260966&utm_source=hs_email
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
What I’m Reading…
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- Social Security: The Magic Number is 35
- Social Security: Understanding Spousal, Ex-Spouse, & Widow Benefits
- Social Security: When To Start For The Maximum Benefit
- Is Social Security Insolvent? Should I Start Earlier While I Still Can?
- The #1 Mistake People Make With Starting Social Security
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Today, I’m talking about the #1 mistake I see people make when they start social security: collecting social security benefits while you’re still working
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Today, I’m talking about how you don’t want to let fears about insolvency or the fact that the trust fund will be out of money in a few years influence your decision or cause you to claim earlier than you should. While the trust fund is being depleted, it’s not as simple as the checks will stop coming, so you better get it now while you still can.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Today, I’m talking about when to start for the max benefit.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Today’s topic is: Understanding Spousal, Ex-Spouse, & Widow Benefits
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Today…I’m talking about the magic number of working years that you’ll want to keep in mind for maxing out your SSI benefits: 35
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Tips To Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Hello and welcome back to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in for Ashley. This week's theme was the emotions of money and how to overcome common emotional barriers that impact making good financial decisions. This week we discussed how fear, apathy, pride, and overconfidence can hinder our financial decision-making process, while also sharing the value of working with a trusted thought partner.
Hello and welcome back to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in for Ashley. This week's theme is the emotions of money. In today's episode we are talking about the importance of peace of mind regarding your finances and working with a trusted financial advisor can be beneficial. In this episode, we’ll explore how working with a financial advisor can help you achieve financial peace of mind and how to find a trusted advisor.
Hello and welcome back to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in for Ashley. This week's theme is the emotions of money. Today we are discussing how overconfidence can get in the way of making good financial decisions, lead us to make poor financial choices, and how we can overcome it.
Hello and welcome back to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in for Ashley. This week's theme is the emotions of money. In this episode, we’ll explore how pride can lead us to make poor financial choices and how we can overcome it.
Hello and welcome back to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in for Ashley. This week's theme is the emotions of money and today we’re going to talk about apathy, and it's impact on financial decisions.
Hello and welcome back to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in for Ashley Micchice. This week's theme is the emotions of money and today we’re going to talk about how fear can prevent people from seeking financial help.
Hello and welcome to the retirement quick tips podcast. I'm your guest host Brian Timm filling in this week for Ashley Micciche. This week's theme is the emotions of money and the impact it can have on your finances and financial decisions.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: How To Pick The Best Pension Option
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Pick The Best Pension Option
Today, I’m wrapping up the week by talking about the biggest mistake I see people make, and how you can avoid it when picking the best option for you.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Pick The Best Pension Option
Today, I’m talking about doing the math on your pension options
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Pick The Best Pension Option
Today, I’m talking about evaluating your annuity options.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Pick The Best Pension Option
Today, I’m talking about a common roadblock when making a pension decision, and that is fears over the solvency of the company you work for. In other words, what happens to my pension if the company I worked for goes bankrupt?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Pick The Best Pension Option
Today, I’m talking about the first step in making a pension decision: take stock of the factors that most influence your decision.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
How To Pick The Best Pension Option
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
The theme this week was: Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week…
- Prerequisites To An Effective Retirement Spending Strategy & The One Strategy I Don’t Like
- The 4% Rule
- Retirement Spending Strategy: Just Take The Actual Income
- The Fixed Percentage Withdrawal Rule
- The Retirement Bucket Withdrawal Strategy
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
Today, I’m talking about the retirement bucket withdrawal strategy. It’s actually.my favorite withdrawal strategy if I were applying it to my own retirement, but in practice, it has some significant challenges…
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
Today, I’m talking about the fixed % withdrawal rule where you take the same percentage like in the 4% rule, but instead of adjusting for inflation, you adjust based on the new portfolio value each year.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
Today, I’m talking about the Actual Income Strategy - just taking the dividends and interest, never touching the principal.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
Today,I’m talking about one of the most well-known retirement spending strategies: the 4% Rule
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
Today, I’m talking about the prerequisites to an effective retirement spending strategy and the only strategy that I’m talking about this week which I don’t like.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Designing A Retirement Spending Strategy
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
This week the theme was: Answering Your Listener Questions
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Designing a Retirement Spending Strategy.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: your listener questions, answered!
Today’s question…Moral/social investment" options - considerations
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: your listener questions, answered!
Today’s question…is all about moving in retirement:
When considering moving states at retirement, what advice do you have? In terms of retirement finances, what do we need to consider? Do you have any retirement budget friendly states you recommend?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: your listener questions, answered!
Today’s question has to do with election years and the markets….As we enter a Presidential Election year, do the markets historically go UP or DOWN? WIll there be big swings in the market leading up to election day? Should I just wait it out until I know what’s going to happen?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: your listener questions, answered!
Today’s question…is about how long someone should wait to take social security.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: your listener questions, answered!
Today’s question was far and away the most frequently asked question, and it boils down to this:
How do I manage my withdrawals and taxes in retirement?
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Answering Your Listener Questions
0It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
This week the theme was: Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan?
This week’s question on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan? I’m talking about scenarios that should necessitate an update to your estate plan.
Today, I’m talking about wealth creep.
This week’s question on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan? I’m talking about scenarios that should necessitate an update to your estate plan.
Today, I’m talking about another triggering event that deserves it’s own episode all to itself, because it’s so common and so nuanced - moving to another state.
This week’s question on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan? I’m talking about scenarios that should necessitate an update to your estate plan.
Yesterday I talked about the 2 most common and most important triggering events that require a review and likely update of your estate plan documents and your beneficiaries - death and divorce.
Today, I’m talking about a few more triggering events
01This week’s question on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan?
Yesterday I talked about how an outdated estate plan poses significant risks, and that to avoid these risks, you should review your estate plan about every 3-5 years.
But that’s in the absence of any triggering events. If you have a triggering event, which I’ll talk about over the next few days, you’ll need to review your estate plan and discuss with an attorney what changes are necessary.
Today I’m going to talk about the 2 most common and most important triggering events, and tomorrow I’ll talk about some others that you may not have considered…
This week’s question on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan? I’m talking about scenarios that should necessitate an update to your estate plan.
Today, I’m talking about the significant risks of having an outdated estate plan.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Have You Outgrown Your Estate Plan?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
This week the theme was: How I'm Investing $350 Million In 2024
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Have you outgrown your current estate plan? Signs that you need an update and tips on how to go about updating your plan.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How I’m Investing $350 million in 2024
Today, I’m talking about what you really shouldn’t be too concerned about in 2024. I’m giving you a reason to not worry about something the media is going to tell you to absolutely panic about - the election.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How I’m Investing $350 million in 2024
Today, I’m talking about landmines to avoid
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How I’m Investing $350 million in 2024
Today, I’m talking about how I’m investing cash in 2024.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How I’m Investing $350 million in 2024
Today, I’m talking about how I’m investing in the bond market in 2024.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How I’m Investing $350 million in 2024
Today, I’m talking about how I’m investing in the stock market in 2024.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
How I'm Investing $350 Million In 2024
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Merry Christmas
Today, I’m talking about the free giveaway for this week as my Christmas present to you…
Merry Christmas to you!
And welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $350 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
My Christmas present to you - a free giveaway! But you’ll have to tune in tomorrow (or any day for the rest of the week) to hear more about that.
But for today, I just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas. My prayer for you and your family is that you experience the hope, joy, and boundless love of God this Christmas.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast. By the way, Merry Christmas Eve to you! Our family tradition on Christmas Eve is to make a birthday cake for Jesus that we enjoy on Christmas Day with our dinner to help remind us that Christmas is all about Jesus!
This week the theme was: Tax Harvesting: A Guide To Reduce Your Tax Bill
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A guide to tax harvesting
Today, I’m talking about the last step in harvesting losses - reviewing the strategy and buying back if you choose to do that.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A guide to tax harvesting
Today, I’m talking about pulling the trigger on harvesting by selling positions that will help you save on taxes either by selling winners or losers depending on your situation and the existing gains or losses you already have.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A guide to tax harvesting
Today, I’m talking about the other side of the coin from yesterday’s episode, which is reviewing your losses. Go back to yesterday’s episode if you missed it.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide to Tax Harvesting
Today, I’m talking about step 2, which is reviewing your gains and income.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Guide to Tax Harvesting.
Today, we’re diving into step 1, which is identifying if you’re a good candidate & identifying the right accounts
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about:
Tax Harvesting: A Guide To Reduce Your Tax Bill
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
Today, I’m talking about considering a hybrid policy that combines long-term care insurance and life insurance, so you don’t have the “use it or lose it” problem.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
Today, I’m talking about how you can customize a long term care policy for your budget…
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
Today, I’m talking about when you should look seriously at buying a long-term care policy
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
Today, I’m talking about long-term care insurance basics and we’ll also look at the likelihood that you’ll benefit from this type of insurance policy
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: Buy Long Term Care Insurance or Self Insure?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
Today, I’m talking about the mistake I see all too often that keeps people broke - is chasing fads and reaching for big wins with your retirement savings.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
Today, I’m talking about the little things that don’t seem like much at the time, but they’re keeping you broke.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
Today, I’m talking about why inadequate emergency savings are keeping you broke.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
Today, I’m talking about how too many payments are keeping you broke.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
Today, I’m talking about the problem of acting rich.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: 5 Things Keeping You Broke
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Know When To Stop Working
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Know When To Stop Working
So far this week, I’ve talked about how to make sure you have enough money and financial breathing room to retire, as well as
Today, I’m talking about 3 more signs that you’re ready to retire
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Know When To Stop Working
Today, I’m talking about the role of debt in your retirement decision.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Know When To Stop Working
Today, I’m talking about my top 10 retirement checklist.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Know When To Stop Working
It’s never a good idea to make big life decisions in a state of agitation, frustration, or desolation. Today, I’m talking about Retiring When You Have Something To Retire To
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Know When To Stop Working
Today, I’m talking about knowing when you can finally afford to retire.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: How To Know When To Stop Working
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
Today, as I start to wrap up the week, I want to offer some ideas on how to be more grateful. I fall into the whiny trap too, so I’m talking to myself as much as you this week.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
Happy day after Thanksgiving to you! I think I enjoy the day after just as much, because all the busyness of thanksgiving has passed and I just get to take a day off work, relax at home, and make one of my favorite dinners that I only make once a year: leftover Thanksgiving casserole.
Today I want to talk about the connection between gratitude and spending money in a way that does help bring more contentment and satisfaction.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
Happy Thanksgiving! This year for Thanksgiving I wanted to take the opportunity on this day of giving thanks to thank you for listening to the podcast! The show continues to grow and I know (because you tell me!) that it’s helping you with your important retirement decisions, so I really appreciate you! Thank you!
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
Today is a continuation of yesterday where I talked about the comparison trap and the biggest connection between gratitude and money, which is reflected in our spending habits.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
Today, I’m talking about the most important connection between gratitude and money - comparison.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: The Connection Between Gratitude & Money
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Minimizing Your Future RMDs Today
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Minimizing Your Future RMDs
Today, I’m talking about spreading out your IRA income over more years to minimize future RMDs
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Minimizing Your Future RMDs
Today, I’m talking about how to get more money into your Roth to minimize your future RMDs.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Minimizing Your Future RMDs
Today, I’m talking about how to minimize future RMDs by working longer.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Minimizing Your Future RMDs
Today, I’m talking about the problem with RMDs in retirement & for your heirs
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Minimizing Your Future RMDs
Today, I’m talking about RMD basics - when you start and how much you’ll take out each year.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: Minimizing Your Future RMDs Today.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap
Today, I’m talking about the estate planning considerations when there is a spouse age gap. The primary goal for most spouses is to structure an estate plan that will ensure your spouse is financially secure. You may have other goals beyond that, especially if you are very wealthy, but for most of you listening, you just want to make sure that your spouse will be ok.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap
Today, I’m talking about life insurance and long-term care needs. Hopefully by now if you’ve been listening throughout the week and if you use common sense, you’ve picked up on the fact that one of you is likely to outlive the other, perhaps by many years.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap
Today, I’m talking about how to invest your retirement portfolio when there is an age gap.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap
Today, I’m talking about the impact on social security income when there is a big age gap between spouses.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap
Today, I’m talking about one of the biggest issues to navigate for couples with a big age gap, especially if you both work, which is different retirement dates.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing to debt, social security,saving for retirement, spending and retirement lifestyle, healthcare and taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily quick tips to help you on your retirement journey, stick around this week as I talk about: Planning For Retirement With A Big Age Gap.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
Today, I’m talking about municipal bonds.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
Today, I’m talking about my favorite way to invest in bonds - a bond ladder
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
Today, I’m talking about bond funds vs. buying individual bonds.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
Today, I’m talking about building a bond portfolio with 2 primary goals in mind: stability and income.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
Today, I’m doing a primer on bonds to help you understand the basics:
2 of the most important things to know is:
- What a bond is and how you get paid
- Understanding the relationship between interest rates and bond prices
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to saving, planning, and investing for retirement to debt to social security, healthcare to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: It’s A Good Time To Buy Bonds
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, and I have been pretty sick this week, so I didn’t get around to recording the episodes I planned on this week, so instead, I have a free resource for you:
A top 10 retirement checklist
Sure, you could do 100 different things to successfully plan for retirement, but if you’re like me, you’ve got time for maybe 10 things (if you’re lucky)!
That was the inspiration for this top 10 checklist - what are the essential things to do before retirement without any of the extra, non-essential fluff.
That’s what you’ll find in my top 10 retirement checklist.
To get your free top 10 things to do before retirement checklist, just go to www.truenorthra.com/top10
That’s truenorthra.com/ T O P, then 10, top10
I will be back with new episodes next week, October 30th, but in the meantime, enjoy this free resource. It’s the most comprehensive resource I’ve created to date, and I think it’s really going to give you clarity and confidence about your retirement as you work through the checklist.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! I hope you have a blessed week!
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
Today, I’m talking about maxing out your IRA accounts.
A lot of people I’ve talked to over the years miss the opportunity to max out their IRA or their Roth IRAs because they wrongly assumed that they couldn’t make IRA contributions because of something they were told or something they read.
This gets a little confusing because your ability to contribute is dependent on your income and whether or not you or your spouse is covered by a retirement plan at work
IRS Tables:
- 2023 IRA Deduction Limits - Effect of Modified AGI on Deduction if You Are Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work
- 2023 IRA Deduction Limits - Effect of Modified AGI on Deduction if You Are NOT Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work
- Amount of Roth IRA Contributions That You Can Make For 2023
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
Today, I’m talking about maxing out your 401k
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
Today, I’m talking about maxing out your Health Savings Account (HSA)
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
Today, I’m talking about maxing out your emergency fund in 2023. Now there is no actual limit to this account, but I think it’s important to devote some time to the right amount you should have saved.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
Today, I’m talking about maxing out your net worth in 2023, which is just a different way of saying get out of debt ASAP.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to saving, planning, and investing for retirement to debt to social security, healthcare to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: Don’t Miss The Deadline To Maximize Your 2023 Retirement Contributions
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about investment opportunities that exist right now in this market environment.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about the bond market in review for the 3rd quarter and the outlook going forward.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about the stock market in review for the 3rd quarter.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m talking about 7 reasons why I’m pessimistic about the economy
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
Today, I’m recapping what happened in the 3rd quarter this year. And it can pretty much be summed up by continued rising interest rates.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to saving, planning, and investing for retirement to debt to social security, healthcare to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: 3rd Quarter 2023 Market & Economic Update
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
Today, I’m talking about why I give.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
Today, I’m talking about 3 Tax-Savvy Giving Strategies
- RMDs as QCD
- Donor Advised Fund
- Bunching
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
Today, I’m talking about the secret to growing your charitable giving.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
Today, I’m talking about the secret to getting started with charitable giving
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
Today, I’m talking about 4 reasons to give until it hurts.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to saving, planning, and investing for retirement to debt to social security, healthcare to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: Maximizing Your Giving Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement Savings
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids' College?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids College?
Today, I’m talking about how to have “the talk” with your kids about college.
No, not the birds and the bees…hopefully if your kids are getting close to college, you’ve already had that talk.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids College?
All this week, I’ve been talking about prioritizing saving for your own retirement over saving and paying for your kids' college.
Today I want to turn to an important step in doing both at the same time, and that is arming yourself with the information on cost, before making a decision.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids College?
Many parents help their kids pay for college even when they can’t afford to or when it’s negatively impacting their own financial future, because they want to do everything they can to help their children and set them on the path to success.
As I’ve talked about this week, the priority should be making sure your own retirement is taken care of before you foot the bill for junior’s $100,000 college bill.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids College?
Today, I’m talking about the perfect storm of college and retirement converging at the same time.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids College?
Today, I’m talking about the guiding principle that should help you decide whether to prioritize saving for your kids' college or saving for your own retirement…
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to saving, planning, and investing for retirement to debt to social security, healthcare to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: Do I Save For My Retirement or My Kids College?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: The Art of Spending Money
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I talked about this week:
- How Did Your Upbringing Influence How You Spend Money?
- Devotion to Expense Regardless of Pleasure
- Why You Can’t Enjoy Spending Money
- The Man Who Can Buy Everything Values Nothing
- No One Is Impressed With Your Stuff
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Art of spending money.
I’m sharing reflections from a blog post from Morgan Housel on this topic.
Link to post: https://collabfund.com/blog/the-art-and-science-of-spending-money/
Today I’m talking about why no one is as impressed with your stuff as much as you are
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Art of spending money.
I’m sharing reflections from a blog post from Morgan Housel on this topic.
Link to post: https://collabfund.com/blog/the-art-and-science-of-spending-money/
Today I’m talking about how the joy of spending money can lose its luster over time because there’s less struggle and sacrifice represented in those purchases.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Art of spending money.
I’m sharing reflections from a blog post from Morgan Housel on this topic.
Link to post: https://collabfund.com/blog/the-art-and-science-of-spending-money/
Today I’m talking about one of the biggest challenges I face with clients when they retire...
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Art of spending money.
I’m sharing reflections from a blog post from Morgan Housel on this topic.
Link to post: https://collabfund.com/blog/the-art-and-science-of-spending-money/
Today I’m talking about how many of us are trapped by our spending, often without realizing it.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Art of spending money.
I’m sharing reflections from a blog post from Morgan Housel on this topic.
Link to post: https://collabfund.com/blog/the-art-and-science-of-spending-money/
Today I’m talking about how your background, upbringing, and past experiences heavily influence your spending decisions today.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to saving, planning, and investing for retirement to debt to social security, healthcare to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: The art of spending money.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own
In case you missed any episodes, here’s the rundown of an ideal portfolio for someone who retires today in my humble opinion:
- High Quality Dividend Growing Stocks - 45% of your total portfolio
- High quality bond ladder - 35% of your total portfolio
- All cap growth (US) based strategy - 10% of your total portfolio
- International stocks - 5% of your total portfolio
- Money market/short term bonds or CDs - 5% of your total portfolio
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own
Today, I’m finishing up the portfolio mix by adding in an international component.
How to invest: Definitely mutual funds or ETFs that specialize in this area. I actually prefer mutual funds here, because although you might pay a little more, humans making decisions here is best rather than just a broad mix of investments.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own
Today, I’m talking about stocks again, specifically, how to fill gaps where the dividend strategy falls short. Earlier this week, I talked about the importance of high quality dividend growth stocks being a core holding in your retirement portfolio.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own
Yesterday, I talked about the core bond holding for retirees - a bond ladder. Today, I’m talking about: the other essential elements of the fixed income side of a rock solid retirement portfolio - cash, money market, and short term bond holdings.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own
Yesterday, I talked about the core of your stock portfolio in retirement - high quality dividend growing stocks. Today, I’m talking about the core of your bond portfolio:
A bond ladder.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own
If you could build an investment portfolio from scratch today, what should that portfolio look like?
I know this is a bit oversimplified, but by removing any of the complicating factors like taxes, we can look at this question from the point of view of what’s ideal.
With that in mind, I’m talking today about the most important type of investment that should really be in every single retirees portfolio, without exception, and that is high quality, dividend growing stocks.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: 5 Investments Every Retiree Should Own.
So this week, I’ll talk about the foundational elements of a rock solid retirement portfolio.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Biggest Retiree Regrets
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Not saving enough
- No fulfillment in retirement
- Not prioritizing relationships
- Timing it wrong
- Lack of clarity and goals
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Biggest Retiree Regrets
Today, I’m talking about a retiree regret I’ve touched on in a few other episodes this week, but it deserves it’s own day:
Not defining what a successful retirement means for you.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Biggest Retiree Regrets
Today, I’m talking about Timing It Wrong with your retirement decision.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Biggest Retiree Regrets
Today, I’m talking about: Biggest predictor of retirement success
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Biggest Retiree Regrets
Today, I’m talking about an unexpected challenge many retirees face once the early honeymoon period of retirement wears off: No longer feeling a sense of fulfillment or purpose
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Biggest Retiree Regrets
Today, I’m talking about one of the top retiree regrets: not saving enough
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast and Happy Labor Day! I’m trying to squeeze in the last of summer this weekend before 2 of my kids start school tomorrow, and I’m happy that you’re here with me, when you should be just relaxing…seriously, what are you doing here?! Shut this off and go back to bed, binge on netflix, go to the pool, or do whatever relaxes and refreshes you today!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: Biggest retiree regrets.
I think about regret a lot. I worry that I’ll look back on the years that I had little kids and that I didn’t do enough with them and for them or that I’ll mess them up somehow. I’m fearful that I’ll regret the choices I made, what my priorities were, and how I spent my time. Life is a gift, and my children are all a precious gift to me and I worry that I’ll waste those gifts focusing on the wrong things. I think most of that worry comes from how I’m wired and my personality traits, and being perhaps overly concerned about the future.
If you’re planning for retirement, though, I think it’s helpful to learn from people who have walked before you in retirement…what did they do right? What did they do wrong and what would they change or do differently if they could go back in time?
So this week, I’ll talk about some of the top regrets from retirees about money, relationships, health, finding fulfillment, and using your time wisely.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll share with you
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 401k Strategy 2023
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- You Should Save This Much In Your 401k In 2023
- Choosing the Right 401k Investments In 2023
- Which Is Better: Traditional 401k or Roth 401k?
- Can You Rollover Your 401k While You're Still Working?
- Don’t Take Money Out Of Your 401k! But If You Must, Here’s How…
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 401k Strategy in 2023
Today, I’m talking about what to do if you need to take money out of your 401k.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 401k Strategy in 2023
Today, I’m talking about a question I get a lot from clients - can I rollover my 401k to my IRA while I’m still working?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 401k Strategy in 2023
Today, I’m talking about which is better - a Traditional or Pre-Tax 401k or a Roth 401k.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 401k Strategy in 2023
Today, I’m talking about choosing the right investments in your 401k in 2023.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 401k Strategy in 2023
Today, I’m talking about how much you can and should save in your 401k in 2023
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $340 million in client assets. I’ve been on a summer hiatus since July, so it’s good to be back with you and publishing new episodes this week.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: a 401k strategy in 2023.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, and I’m still on a summer hiatus, but I have a free resource for you:
A top 10 retirement checklist
To get your free top 10 things to do before retirement checklist, just go to www.truenorthra.com/top10
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, and I’m still on a summer hiatus, but I have a free resource for you:
A Financial Inventory List
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, and I’m still on a summer hiatus, but I have another free resource for you this week:
An under-the-hood portfolio analysis.
An under the hood portfolio analysis will look under the hood of your portfolio, showing you how your portfolio is allocated among stocks, bonds, and cash; how much you have invested in each sector like tech and healthcare, and how well diversified your portfolio is across different regions as well. The analysis will even show concentrations in your portfolio of your top 10 stock holdings in your various investment holdings.
You’ll receive a portfolio analysis report, as well as some expert insight from yours truly on how you can improve your portfolio, and any red flags that I see which could derail your investment portfolio.
The analysis is free & confidential with no strings attached.
If you’d like an under-the-hood portfolio analysis report, you can get started by sending me an email: ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you instructions and an access link to a secure folder so you can send me what’s needed to send you the report and analysis.
Again that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
I will be back with new episodes on August 28th, but in the meantime, enjoy these free resources that I’ll be continuing to roll out on Mondays until then.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! I hope you have a blessed week!
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, and I’m still on a summer hiatus, but I have a free resource for you:
A Retirement Budget Worksheet.
To get your free worksheet, just go to www.truenorthra.com/budget
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $330 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you are in the right place.
This week on the podcast, I’m taking a little summer break.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market - 1st half recap
- Economic, stock market, & bond market outlook
- Investment opportunities
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about investment opportunities that exist today in this current economic and market climate, which I must say is a real head scratcher.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about the outlook for bonds in the 2nd half of 2023.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about the stock market outlook for the rest of 2023, and there are a lot of reasons to be cautious that I talked about yesterday, but also several positive signs as well.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m talking about the economic outlook for the rest of 2023.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
Today, I’m recapping the first half of 2023:
Stocks continued to climb a wall of worry in the first half of 2023. The S&P 500 was up nearly 16% this year at the close of the second quarter, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 3.8% this year, despite soft economic data, prominent bank failures, fears about the debt ceiling, and continued worries about an imminent recession.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: Mid-Year 2023 Economic & Market Update
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: I Have No Friends In Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Happy Birthday America!
- Where Did All Our Friends Go?
- 3 Types of Friendships, According to Aristotle
- The Best Predictor of Longevity, Health, & Happiness In Retirement
- How To Start Investing More In Your Friendships
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: I Have No Friends In Retirement
Today, I’m talking about how you can start investing in friendships now.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: I Have No Friends In Retirement
Today, I’m talking about the best predictor of longevity, health, and happiness later in life.
01This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: I Have No Friends In Retirement
Today, I’m talking about the 3 types of friendships, according to Aristotle.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: I Have No Friends In Retirement
Today, I’m talking about some interesting insights from Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist and psychology professor at Yale University.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: I Have No Friends In Retirement
If you’re listening on the day this episode airs, happy Independence Day! And being that the theme this week is all about friendship, I have a challenge for you. If you aren’t already meeting up in person with family or friends today, call or text someone and ask them what their plans are.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: I have no friends in retirement.
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- What is the $7 Trillion Risk?
- The Retirement Crisis That’s Been Brewing For Decades
- Why Affluent Households Are Facing A Crisis Too
- How To Fix Your Own Retirement Crisis - Part 1
- How To Fix Your Own Retirement Crisis - Part 2
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Are You Investing Enough In Your Hobbies & Friendships?
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
Today, I’m talking about How To Fix Your Own Retirement Crisis - Part 2
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
Today, I’m talking about The 2 Part Solution if you find that you have a gap in your own retirement savings.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
Today, I’m talking about Why Affluent Households Are Facing A Crisis Too, and are a big part of the $7 trillion retirement savings gap.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
Today, I’m talking about why the $7 trillion retirement crisis - which is the gap between what Americans have saved for retirement and what they actually need to maintain their standard of living - why this crisis has been brewing for decades
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
Today, I’m talking about what the $7 trillion retirement crisis is and what this massive number represents.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: America’s $7 Trillion Retirement Crisis
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
Today, I’m talking about one final benefit of a financial plan for retirement, and that is that it serves as a road map for decision making.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
Today, I’m talking about when you should embark on the planning process if you’re going to create a financial plan for retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
Today, I’m talking about how a financial plan for retirement helps you prioritize your most important financial goals.
01This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
Today, I’m talking about another big benefit of having a financial plan for retirement: understanding your cash flow.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
Today, I’m talking about the number 1 benefit of having a financial plan for your retirement:
Clarity/Confidence.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: 5 Benefits of A Financial Plan For Retirement
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
In case you missed any episodes I talked about what you could expect retirement to loook like from an income and lifestyle standpoint with multiple different retirement savings scenarios:
$500,000
$750,000
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about what $5mm buys you in retirement.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
My 8 year old likes watching Mr Beast on YouTube. If you don’t know Mr Beast, he is the most popular YouTuber in the world with over 150 million subscribers. She watched this episode last night where he gave $1mm to someone and they had to spend it in 24 hours. They bought a house, 2 cars, and hopefully invested some of it. I’m not sure, because I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I cringed because the first place he went was Best Buy. He bought multiple iPads, iphones, computers, a giant TV, playstations and nintendo switches - mostly for his family, which was a nice gesture, but still. I had to look away. Watching him blow over $23,000 at Best Buy was like watching a horrific car crash. I desperately wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.
A lot of people think that if you retire with $2mm you have it made in the shade. You can have a really nice, comfortable retirement, but you couldn’t and shouldn't be dropping $23,000 at Best Buy either.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about how to retire with $1,000,000 in retirement savings and what kind of lifestyle and income you can expect with those assets.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about how to retire with $750,000 in retirement savings.
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about how to retire with $500,000 in retirement savings.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about: What Does Money Buy You In Retirement?
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
In case you missed any episodes
- Voice Cloning: The Latest Cyber Theft Nightmare
- How Cyber Criminals Steal Your Info & Your Money
- Top 3 Ways To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
- More Ways To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
- What To Do If You Become A Victim of Cyber Theft
The most important takeaway from this week is the criminals keep getting more sophisticated, so if you’re not keeping up and being extra cautious about the various phishing and data breach scams, using a password manager, 2FA, and frequently checking your credit reports
As I was writing my show notes for this episode, I get a text that appears to be from Wells Fargo. Did I attempt a $343 charge in San Antonio Texas? Call this number if you didn’t. A phishing text. But my initial reaction is fear because maybe someone is using my card. So the thieves are using that initial fear response to trick me into clicking a link, calling a number, and providing them with my login information.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: What does money buy you in retirement?
I’ll be talking about multiple different scenarios, and the lifestyle you can afford with each of the following asset levels at the onset of retirement:
$500,000
$750,000
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$5,000,000
So be sure to listen in next week to find out what a retirement in America with $500,000 or any other one of these numbers looks like.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
Today, I'm talking about what to do if you become a victim of cyber theft.
Millions of victims become victims of cyber theft every year, and like I talked about earlier this week with the sophisticated use of AI and voice cloning, the problem is only getting worse.
#1 Rule - don’t ignore or dismiss notifications about logins or credit card usage in unknown areas. The sooner you catch cyber theft, the easier it will be to restore order to your credit, which is why it's so helpful to check your credit report often for signs of fraud.
https://www.usa.gov/identity-theft
Steps to take: https://www.identitytheft.gov/#/Steps
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
Yesterday I talked about some of the top 3 ways to protect yourself from online hackers and cyber theft: checking your credit reports often and protecting your passwords and online logins with a password manager and 2 factor authentication.
Today, I’m talking about a few more ways to protect yourself from cyber theft:
- Freeze your credit reports. Freezing your credit reports makes it impossible for new accounts to be opened in your name unless you remove the freeze.
- Avoid using public WiFi. Or if you do, always use a VPN when you’re not at home or at work.
- Shred your documents. The OG way to keep your identity safe is still relevant today.
- Invest in security software. Antivirus and malware software can help you detect attempts to access your personal information by resourceful online scammers and many times, neutralize those threats. Annual fees can range from $35-$100.
- Be a bit less social. If you’re on social media, enable the strongest security measures available on your accounts to protect your account. Keep your friends list to people you only actually know in real life, and if you’re going to post, make sure only your friends and not the whole world can see what you’re up to. Using caution about posts about your dog Rocky, who also happens to be the base for all of your passwords - the thieves know this by the way - we’re not that clever. It’s a lot of kids and pet names and birthdate based passwords, so keep that in mind if that’s you. But other details too like your city of residence, employer and your own birth date can be great sources of information for thieves.
- Sign up for free credit monitoring. Companies like Capital One and Discover offer free credit monitoring to their cardholders. You can also use free monitoring tools available from many of the credit bureaus or Credit Karma, which provides free credit monitoring of your Equifax and TransUnion credit reports.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
Today, I’m talking about some of the top ways you can protect yourself from cyber theft.
#1: Check your credit reports. You can get a free copy of your credit report every week. If you make it a habit to check regularly and often, you’ll catch any suspicious activity sooner before years pass and a lot of damage has been done.
#2: Password protection:
- Phone - For many of us, there is a lot of sensitive information on our phones. A plain notepad note with your social maybe? Apps for all of your bank accounts and every other account you frequently use. In 2018, Kaspersky Labs found that 52 percent of people don’t password-protect their phones. Turning on password or biometric identification (like fingerprints or facial recognition) can prevent a thief from accessing personal information on your phone. And use the longer 6 digit code. It will be harder to guess if someone does steal your phone.
- Use a password manager - One of the ways hackers can steal your info is that they get one of your passwords, and then they test it on different sites to see if it works there. Most people use repeat passwords that aren’t very strong - password1. It takes like 12 seconds to guess weak passwords and then it’s just a matter of time before they are able to hack into your facebook, email, bank accounts, etc. So its critical to use a unique and strong password for every single online login account you have. Whether that’s Amazon, your bank, email, place you shop, etc. You don’t need to remember these passwords because they’re stored securely in the password manager. You only need to remember your master password, and make sure that it is strong and hard to guess.
#3: 2FA - create another step for log in for your most sensitive log ins with 2FA. This is where you have to enter a code, similar for entering your pin when you use your debit card. It’s that extra step that can stop a thief from logging into your account if they do get your login credentials.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
Today, I’m talking about the number 1 way that criminals steal your info and your money: phishing. Obviously, it’s not the only way scammers can steal your information, but since it is far and away the most common method scammers use, let’s focus on this one in today’s episode.
In 2022, the most common type of cyber crime reported to the United States Internet Crime Complaint Center was phishing, affecting approximately 300,000 people in the US. #2 was personal data breaches - which mostly happen when your account information is exposed and scammers gain access to your accounts.
Obviously it’s important to be aware of the multitude of ways cyber theives can scam you, but since phishing is far and away the most common - more popular than most other tactics combined - let’s focus on that in today’s episode.
Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails or other messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
The first thing to look for is an unsolicited email or text message. You’ve probably seen these and hopefully recognize them by now.
Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. You might get an unexpected email or text message that looks like it’s from a company you know or trust, like a bank or a credit card or utility company. Or even a co-worker or someone else you know. The scary part is that they’re really good at making their emails look legit. They include the actual branding and logos of real companies you actually do business with.
Or maybe it’s from an online payment website or app. The message could be from a scammer, who might
- say they’ve noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts
- claim there’s a problem with your account or your payment information
- say you need to confirm some personal or financial information
- include an invoice you don’t recognize
- want you to click on a link to make a payment
- say you’re eligible to register for a government refund
- offer a coupon for free stuff
It’s important to recognize that while real companies might communicate with you by email, legitimate companies won’t email or text with a link to update your payment or login information. And always be cautious about clicking on links and attachments in any emails, even if they appear to be from legitimate sources.
And never provide any personal sensitive information via email. It’s always best to assume that any information you send via email can and will be seen by others, so that assumption will help you be more careful about what you send via email.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Theft
Today I’m talking about the latest cybertheft nightmare: voice cloning
With the help of AI-software, cybercriminals can now clone voices so accurately that family members and even voice recognition software cannot tell that it is not the actual person who is speaking.
The problem is for many of us, the horse has left the barn. If you have video posted online like on Facebook of you talking, or worse, if you’re like me and you have literally hundreds of hours of your voice posed online because of this podcast, then you’re at risk for your own voice to be cloned and used by scammers.
But it doesn’t have to even be your own voice. A mom in AZ was nearly tricked into wiring $50,000 to scammers who claimed to have kidnapped her 15 yo daughter. They used AI to clone the daughters voice. ““Mom! I messed up!” screamed a girl’s voice.”
The mom told CNN recently: “The voice sounded just like Brie’s, the inflection, everything,”
The lesson here to be guarded about any information, videos, or even names of family you share online, and to be careful about answering the phone when you don’t recognize the number.
Scammers found the daughter's voice and mom’s phone number in order to stage a fake kidnapping for ransom. But it’s not just social media. Simply answering the phone now can open you up to a potential voice cloning scam.
The Federal Trade Commission cautions: “If you answer a phone call from an unknown number, let the caller speak first. Whoever is on the other end of the line could be recording snippets of your voice — and later using it to impersonate you in a very convincing manner.”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about how to protect yourself from cyber theft.
[story about client who had 10s of thousands of dollars stolen from her bank account]
According to a February 2021 report from the Federal Trade Commission, Americans reported losing $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020–a significant jump from the $1.8 billion reported in 2019.
The number of Americans reporting losing money to fraud is also on the rise, with 34% of 2020 fraud reports citing loss of money, versus 23% in 2019.
And sometimes like with my client, there’s no way to get your money back and worse, the breach of a criminal getting access to your sensitive info like your social security number can haunt you and expose you to new risks for years to come.
So this week on the podcast, I’ll share with you the top ways cyber criminals can steal your information and your money, and the best ways to protect yourself
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
In case you missed any episodes
- What Is The Debt Ceiling And Why Does It Matter?
- Debt Ceiling Deadline 2023: 3 Scenarios
- Betting On The Most Probable Scenario
- Is This The Straw That Breaks The Economy’s Back?
- How To Invest In a Debt Ceiling Standoff
The most important takeaway from this week is
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: how to protect yourself from cyber theft. Criminals are getting very good at tricking consumers, where it’s now possible to impersonate you over the phone, tricking even your own family members into thinking it’s you on the phone. And with AI getting more sophisticated, the potential for cyber theft is even scarier.
So next week, I’ll talk about the top ways you can protect your money from cyber theft.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
Today, I’m talking about how to invest in this volatile environment:
- Don’t panic and sell. Stocks will likely do poorly during this process until it’s resolved, but then they should have a decent bounce back, so you’ll just have to stomach some extra volatility for a while. Especially vulnerable will be companies with weak financials or companies tied to the US government, but I’ve been saying focus on quality since the dawn of time, so if this causes you to re-examine your holdings and get rid of the dogs, so be it.
- Short-term winners: Bonds and precious metals should do well - flock to safety and benefits will likely subside once a deal is reached
- If you have cash to invest, DCA
- If you were planning to retire, I would wait if you can until we’re out of the woods on the current market and likely economic recession we’ll soon find ourselves in.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
Today, I’m talking about whether or not the debt ceiling will be the straw that finally breaks the economy’s back and sends us into a recession.
[Discuss chart]:
The rattling of consumers and businesses' confidence in the aftermath of a deal that hasn't yet happened should be enough to worsen the outlook for the economy and send us into a recession we’ve been flirting with since mid-2022. [Recording before June 1st], so if you’re listening when this episode goes live, a deal hasn’t been reached, and the stock market is behaving badly as a result, it’s likely because it doesn’t believe that the US will actually default, but that a coming recession is pretty much certain now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
Today, I’m talking more in depth about the most likely scenario with the debt limit debacle, and it’s a good day for this, because June 1st - the day this show is published and probably the day you’re listening, is the deadline. If no agreement is reached by today, then there will likely be some turmoil and consequences for the markets and the economy. The extent of those consequences depend on how long it takes to reach some sort of deal.
Yesterday, I said the most likely scenario is the deadline comes and goes but there will be a deal after the deadline.
If you look back to 2011, it took a few months to reach a deal after negotiations started in May. A deal was finally reached in August, but the damage was done. Stocks dropped about 15% during that time, and finally recovered a few months later.
Bond prices and precious metals should hold up better if we have a repeat of 2011 with a deal coming sometime after the deadline.
I hope I’m wrong and that a deal is struck by today, but if not, expect at least a few months of turmoil in the markets and in your investment portfolio…possibly longer if the debt ceiling becomes the straw that breaks the US economy’s back and sends us into a recession…I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
Because I record these episodes at least a week before they’re published, my hope is by the time you listen to this episode, the debt ceiling issue will be resolved with very little stress on the markets. That’s my hope, but let’s talk about 3 possible scenarios, since June 1st may come and go without a solution.
There was a great article in the WSJ published on 5/20 that outlines 3 main scenarios for the debt ceiling standoff.
If you want to read the article in more detail, I’ll link to it in the show notes:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/debt-ceiling-standoff-could-start-a-recession-but-default-would-be-worse-d536c3f3?st=po79c6mhgrpzzcv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
3 main scenarios:
- Last minute deal - best case scenario, they come to an agreement before June 1st. In this scenario, there should be little impact on financial markets, and perhaps a big jump in stocks this week if that happens and as markets breathe a sigh of relief
- Deal after deadline - this is what I think is the most likely scenario. June 1st comes and goes and there hasn’t been a deal struck. Negotiations are contentious and power is divided, and this looks a lot like the debt ceiling debacle in 2011.if this happens, you’ll likely see a severe reaction from the stock market.
According to the WSJ: “If consumers’ retirement and investment accounts suddenly shrink, they could sharply curtail their spending, the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Businesses could pause hiring and investment plans.”
Debt payments would have to be prioritized and you’ll likely hear stories about veterans not getting their benefit checks on time or federal employees being furloughed. The government would have to prioritize their payments and would need to decide where to keep the lights on and where to stop paying the bills.
- No deal - Absolute worst case scenario. “There would be chaos in the global financial system” says Wendy Edelberg, an economist at the Brookings Institution.
According to the WSJ: Missed payments would disrupt multitrillion-dollar global flows in short-term dollar borrowing, which are critical to how banks and companies fund operations.
Investment funds, companies and banks all hold Treasurys. Their falling value would hammer balance sheets. Recent bank runs were sparked by falling values of Treasury debt, and the declines could be much steeper in a default.
Analysts also say many investors would flee from risky assets of all sorts. The stock market would plummet 45% in the following months, and unemployment would shoot up by 5 percentage points, a White House report said. UBS said a month-long impasse would cause the economy to contract for four-straight quarters.”
No deal is also political suicide for all involved, so while I don’t think those in power at the top are especially competent, they do like being in power, so they’ll at least be motivated to come to an agreement as the pressure mounts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
Today I’m talking about what the debt limit or the debt ceiling is and why it’s important.
What is the debt limit:
The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments.
If the U.S. Treasury reaches its debt ceiling and runs out of cash, it would be unable to pay all its bills. A failure to pay bills would represent a default by the U.S. Government.
Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.
Much of the time they raise the debt ceiling without much fanfare. But sometimes when there are opposing sides in power in the White House and Congress, the debt ceiling is used for negotiating on spending and borrowing by the Federal Government and things get contentious as the deadline approaches, which is what’s happening now.
Why it matters: Failure to raise the debt limit and reach a deal means that the government basically won’t be able to pay its bills. And not being able to pay its bills means defaulting on our debt, and if that happens, a broader global financial crisis that analysts at Earnst & Young predict would be worse than the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.
So it’s serious, but it’s also important to keep in mind that not reaching a deal would mean political suicide for those at the top, so even though the worst case scenario is possible, I don’t think it’s probable.
When making decisions, especially financial and investment decisions, it’s important to think in terms of what is probable or likely, and not in terms of what is possible. If you think more in terms of what’s possible - especially those worst case scenarios - you’d never leave your house and any money you have would just get stockpiled under your mattress. We can’t have that, so best to think in terms of probabilities - and for that, I’ll dive deeper tomorrow into 3 different scenarios for the debt ceiling standoff tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about the Debt Ceiling 2023: What It Means For You
Originally this week, I was planning to talk about cyber theft and how you can prepare yourself. But with the debt ceiling looming and the U.S. government possibly exhausting its ability to borrow money as early as June 1st without a debt ceiling extension, I decided to cover a more timely and potentially very impactful topic this week.
Since you hear plenty about the debt ceiling in the news, you don’t need me to report on the issue for you. Better sources than me exist for that. However, the debt ceiling is nothing new, and this years debt ceiling negotiations have potentially direct consequences for your retirement investments - everything from a few days to a few weeks of market turmoil to a full blown recession and chaos in the global financial system in the worst case scenario. With that in mind, what does all of this mean for you and what if anything should you do about it? That’s what I’ll cover this week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about what the debt ceiling is and why it matters
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
In case you missed any episodes, here are my top summer book recommendations:
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
- Managing God's Money: A Biblical Guide by Randy Alcorn
The most important takeaway from this week is…managing your money well is about understanding the basics well, and being disciplined - both with your spending and saving habits, and with your emotions and how you react to what’s happening with your investments and in the economy.
The lessons learned in these books are enduring lessons that I have carried with me over the years, and the knowledge you’ll gain if you read any or all these books will serve you well for years to come.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: how to protect yourself from cyber theft. Criminals are getting very good at tricking consumers, where it’s now possible to impersonate you over the phone, tricking even your own family members into thinking it’s you on the phone. And with AI getting more sophisticated, the potential for cyber theft is even scarier.
So next week, I’ll talk about the top ways you can protect your money from cyber theft.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
Today’s book choice is: Managing God's Money: A Biblical Guide by Randy Alcorn
Did you know that Jesus says more about how we are to view and handle money and possessions than about any other topic—including both heaven and hell. In Managing God's Money, Randy Alcorn breaks down exactly what the Bible has to say about how we are to handle our money and possessions in a simple, easy-to-follow format.
If you’re a believing Christian, then you should definitely care what God wants you to do with the money and material blessings He has given you. And Managing God’s Money by Randy Alcorn will help you gain a solid biblical understanding of money, possessions, and eternity.
It will also help you understand the problems with the all-too-common “health and wealth” heresy that many of today’s popular Christian preachers are promoting.
When I read this book in 2019, it inspired me to create something like a family money manifesto that addressed the principles around money for our family. It’s our guide for lifestyle choices, how we view income and work, giving, what we’ll teach our kids about money, and what we’ll do with wealth that’s accumulated and our estate planning.
These principles guide our decisions about money in a way that’s intended to honor God, rather than get swept up in accumulating more money, and getting more stuff, which is definitely contrary to God’s plan for us.
So if you’re at all unclear about how God wants you to handle His money, then I highly recommend this book
Pairs well with: This book isn’t technical or complicated, so it’s perfect for a beach or vacation read or something to unwind with before bed.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
Today’s book choice is: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Who should read it: An investing classic, it’s a great book for those of you who are interested in learning the basic principles of investing and applying them to how you invest. The book
Description (from Amazon): In a time of rampant misinformation about ways of growing your money, Burton G. Malkiel’s gimmick-free investment guide is more necessary than ever. Whether you’re considering your first 401k contribution or contemplating retirement, the fully updated, fiftieth anniversary edition of A Random Walk Down Wall Street remains the best investment guide money can buy.
Drawing on his experience as an economist, financial adviser, and successful investor, Malkiel shows why an individual who saves consistently over time and buys a diversified set of index funds can achieve above-average investment results. He addresses current investment fads and critically analyzes cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and meme stocks. Malkiel reveals how to be a tax smart investor and how to make sense of recently popular investment management techniques, including factor investing, risk parity, and ESG portfolios.
Investors of every age, experience level, and risk tolerance will find the step-by-step guidance they need to protect and grow their dollars.
Why I like it so much: Although I disagree with his diehard adherence to indexing as the best way to make money in the stock market - because it’s not actually true - the lessons in this book
Pairs well with: The most complex and textbook-like book that I’m recommending this week, this book pairs best with water - definitely no alcohol to distract you or dull your sharp wits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
Today’s book choice is another classic, published in 1996, that I read 2 decades ago while I was in college - The Millionaire Next Door.
Who should read it: If you spend too much or fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses, this book is for you.
Description: The millionaire next door is a compilation of research and lessons learned about what makes millionaires different. It wasn’t inherited or flashy wealth but fostering good habits over decades that made most millionaires.
These habits might be easily dismissed by most people, because they’re common sense habits. Habits like spending less than what you make, not “acting” rich by buying things you really can’t afford, and using your income to accumulate assets that grow in value, rather than blowing your money on stupid stuff.
But common sense isn’t so common, and as Stanley says in his book: “[Americans] are debt-prone and are on earn-and-consume treadmills”, which is why The Millionaire Next Door deserves a spot on every bookshelf - so you can read it, and read it again whenever you need a reminder of these important wealth-building habits.
One of the most memorable stories I’ve ever read in any book is the picture Stanley painted of 2 successful doctors. Both doctors were in their 50s, had a high income - but they were opposites in terms of their net worth. One of the doctors used his high income to buy assets that grew in value (i.e. investments). The other doctor was up to his eyeballs in debt because he was living the flashy lifestyle he thought someone with his income should be living. The problem was that he had a negative net worth, and no hope of retirement unless he drastically altered his lifestyle and spending habits.
Pairs well with: This book is full of good stories and lessons, so it’s perfect for a relaxing vacation or bedtime read or listening to as an audiobook on your next road trip.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
Today’s book choice is: The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel
Published in 2020, this book is a modern classic. In fact, at some point, I’m going to devote an entire week on the podcast to this book because there are so many lightbulbs that went off for me when I read this book and many of the insights I read in this book were new to me - which is saying something since I do this finance stuff for a living, and I devote a lot more time to learning and researching topics in this area compared to the average advisor because of this podcast.
Who should read it: Honestly, everyone. Whether you’re money savvy or not, old or young, you will benefit from reading this book.
Description (from Amazon): Money - investing, personal finance, and business decisions - is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.
In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.
Why I like it so much: It talks about things that you don’t normally read in personal finance books - many of which tend to be solely focused on accumulating more money. Instead, Housel talks about why being humble and controlling your envy, greed, and other negative emotional traps is so important to making good money decisions and avoiding the sloppy decisions that can be ruinous.
Pairs well with: your favorite beer or wine. It’s actually a fun read, and something that I would definitely read while relaxing on your patio with your favorite beverage. The content isn’t super heavy, so you can afford to have a drink in hand while you read - even if that means you’ll forget a little of what you read.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
Today’s book choice is a book that I first read in college. It really opened my eyes to debt, how damaging it can be, and the importance of priorities when it comes to how you manage your money. It’s one of the reasons why I became a financial advisor - to help people and to change lives like Dave Ramsey was doing through his book and radio show.
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey is best for those of you who are stressed out by money or trying to get out of debt. His baby steps and inspirational stories highlighted in the book will create a roadmap for getting out and staying out of debt.
Description: There’s a reason why this book has been a long-time bestseller, and his show has more than 16 million weekly listeners - it’s because his advice is straightforward and simple and if you follow it
Why I like it so much: The advice is timeless and because there’s so many books in circulation, you can find a decent used one for around $5
Pairs well with: coffee, a highlighter and a notebook (taking notes) - you can also buy a companion notebook. You can read this one on the beach, especially with all the stories that are sprinkled throughout the book, but you’re going to want to make sure you understand the practical advice and baby steps, and for that, you’ll want to take some notes or buy the workbook that goes with it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing over $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about the Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
When most people think of a fun beach or summer read, they typically think of a good mystery or a romance novel, not a book on personal finance. But with that additional time that many of us seem to have to relax and vacation in the summer, there’s definitely room to add in a book or 2 that can help increase your net worth as well this summer.
So with that in mind, I’ve curated my top picks for books you should check out. Some of these books are classics, some are newer, and I’m sure there’s at least one that you’ve never heard of. So stick around this week as I share with you my best picks for the beach or wherever you’re planning to pick up a book this summer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about the personal finance book I first read in college that helped inspire me to become a financial advisor.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Retire Never?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Retire? Why More Americans Over 60 Are Saying Never
- The Pandemic Dichotomy Of Retirement Decisions
- The Financial Math Improves With Age
- Why Retire Never Just Doesn’t Work
- The Goal: Work Optional
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Best Personal Finance Books To Read This Summer
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retire…Never?
Today, I’m talking about reframing the retire never idea with the work optional idea instead.
Saving and investing with the idea that you could retire sometime between 60-65, regardless of when you actually do retire, should be the goal. You’ll save enough and have the ability to retire, but there’s no pressure to keep working and you could retire at any time without a significant financial cost or downgrade in lifestyle if you happen to retire sooner than planned.
There’s tremendous strength and freedom that comes with work optional. There’s no pressure to keep working or hold on tightly to a career or a job you currently have, because you could take it or leave it.
It’s the detachment that gives you the freedom to enjoy your last working years and focus instead on what you enjoy doing, and what brings you the most satisfaction and meaning.
And it’s only by saving as if you’ll retire sooner than you planned that you’ll get there.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retire…Never?
Today, I’m talking about why Retire Never isn't really a plan and why it’s unlikely to work.
The primary reason it just won’t work is because of life. Stuff happens. You get sick, and you can no longer work. That’s actually the number 1 reason people retire earlier than they planned.
The reality is, far more people end up retiring sooner than they planned - by a significant margin.
Expectations vs. reality (4x difference!):
This disconnect between expectations and reality leads to people not making the appropriate plans, just assuming that everything will be ok, and they’ll have full control over the timing.
[401k employees - no plans - leads to some sad outcomes - layoffs, business closing, late career hard to find work, mom needs full time care, get a diagnosis that prevents them from working, mental or physical decline that prevents working]
If you plan to work past the age of 70, what are the chances that you’ll be among the 7% of workers who ACTUALLY retire later than 70. I’d say the odds are slim…around 7%.
Instead, it’s better that people prepare for retirement with the idea that they would like to be work optional, and that’s what I’ll be discussing tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retire…Never?
Today, I’m talking about one of the most common reasons why people continue to work or plan to never retire, and that is they simply can’t afford to retire.
If you’re married, there’s a 50% chance that at least 1 of you will live to age 90. So if you retire by age 60-65, which is when most people end up retiring, that’s 25-30 years to make your money last, which is a tall order.
And since most Americans are behind on saving for retirement, the retire never or retire much later option is very attractive - especially if you don’t hate your job - for shoring that up.
Retiring later is the single best thing you can do later in your working years, to remedy a shortfall in retirement savings.
The ripple effect of retiring later is powerful
- Saving more in peak earning years
- Delay social security and other pensions
- Compounding of existing retirement savings for longer
- Less years you’ll rely in nest egg in retirement
So powerful that the combination of these factors can make a huge difference in the long run just by delaying retirement by a year or two.
The problem is that you may not have control over when you retire if a health issue or life circumstances alter your plans, and that’s what I’ll talk about tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retire…Never?
Today, I’m talking about how the pandemic has altered many retirement decisions - in 2 very opposite directions.
Retiring early - 1 million extra people retired each year of the pandemic from 2020-2022, so there was a huge boom of people retiring earlier than expected. Reasons - Financially possible, fears about getting sick or dying of Covid if they kept working. Many viewed the risks outweigh the rewards of continuing to work and called it quits.
But for many Americans close to retirement, the pandemic has had the opposite effect, especially for people with jobs that allow for remote work.
Many older Americans are still very much in demand, with the tightest labor market in decades. Many people have the opportunity to be part time or full time remote. I have a client who used to have an hour each way to commute to his job. Then covid hit and he’s been fully remote for 3 years now, and has no plans to retire until they tell him he needs to come back to the office.
He may never need to, and ditching his commute while simultaneously having more flexibility to travel and take time off because of his remote work setup, shifts how he thinks about continuing to work.
It’s much more sustainable for Americans now who maybe enjoyed their work, but didn’t enjoy their commute.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Retire…Never?
Today, I’m talking about why more Americans are saying never to retirement.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 29% of workers expect to work to age 70 or like Jay Simons - the 100 year old attorney I talked about yesterday, have decided to never retire.
In my own life, I can certainly name several people who worked well into their 70s and beyond. I have clients well into their normal retirement years who are still working. My dad turns 70 this year with no plans to retire, and my father in law still works part time at the age of 75.
The WSJ profiled several readers in a recent article on this topic. What I found as the most common thread among why people continue to work past the normal retirement age came down to purpose and meaning in work, that they didn’t think they would have in retirement if they stopped working all together.
Kristine Arlitt, age 73, said:
“I started formally working at 14. As I sit here today, age 73 and feeling like 30, I simply cannot imagine not working. I just enjoy it too much.
I made the decision a few years ago to change how I do it. I left my old firm and took control. Now, I select the clients, the cases I find interesting. I am now able to do a lot of pro bono work for people who simply cannot afford professional services but are desperately in need of them.
I enjoy being relevant, productive and making contributions. I enjoy being happy. I will continue to work as long as I am in control. Slowing down—YES. Changing how I work—ABSOLUTELY. Actually retiring—NEVER!”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Retire…Never.
Today, many Americans are choosing the never option when it comes to retirement.
Jay Simons (SI-muns), an 100 year old attorney still practicing law in Florida is an extreme example of this.
[background/story about the 100 year old attorney] https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/at-100-years-old-south-florida-lawyer-may-be-oldest-practicing-attorney-in-the-state/
While the vast majority of Americans do retire sometime in their 60s, that may not be a decision you’re comfortable with, and it seems to be an increasing trend among Americans for a variety of reasons. So this week, we’ll explore the drivers behind people choosing the never retire option, and the pros, cons, and limitations of this decision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Teach Budgeting Best Practices
- Technology is Your Money’s Best Friend
- Paying Bills (On Their Own!)
- Helping Your Grad Focus On Long-Term Goals
- Building A Good Credit Score
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Retire Never?
A growing segment of Americans over 60 say they have no plans to retire, so next week we’ll talk about why more Americans will just keep working and some potential hazards with this no retire option.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
Today…
How to build a good credit score:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-get-and-keep-a-good-credit-score-en-318/
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
Today…
Many college grads are more concerned with finding a job, buying a car, and paying down student loans then they are with saving for retirement. Those are all important goals, but the problem I see is that because retirement is still a long way off for your young adult child, saving for retirement is often dead last in their priority list.
And then they’re 40 before it occurs to them to start saving for retirement. And it’s just not enough time for most. So start early, save consistently is the goal.
As their parent, you can help them prioritize the right goals and incentivize them to save for the long-term.
A couple ways to go about doing that:
- Gifting a few shares of a stock they’re interested in. My 5 year old loves Tesla cars. Don’t know why, he just does. Every time he spots one on the road (which is a lot) he shouts Tesla! Maybe for his 6th birthday I’ll buy him a few shares of Tesla stock :)
- Same rules apply for college grads. Whether it’s their favorite Starbucks coffee, car company, or they’re in love with all things Apple, it’s a great way to get them interested in investing.
- Better yet, match their IRA contributions and savings they’re able to sock away if you can afford to do that. 2023 Gift limits for these matching contributions allow you to provide matching contributions up to $17,000 per recipient, or $34,000 if you’re married and giving as a couple.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
Today…
- Setting up auto-pay for bills
-
Why: Setting up your essential bills on auto-pay will help remove the stress of remembering to pay your bills. You can often have some control over when those bills are paid, allowing you to pay bills automatically shortly after your child gets paid, ensuring they’ll have the funds available to cover the basic and mandatory monthly bills
-
Stop paying their bills. If you’re still helping with cell phone bills, car insurance, rent, and grocery money, it’s time to cut most or all of that off once they’re working. Talked about this before. Many 20 and 30 somethings are still dependent on mom and dad financially well after their schooling years end, and that creates problems for both them and you.
- Stopping the deposits from the bank of mom and dad, will help ensure that your child is incentivized to work and find meaningful employment and a career of their own. Making it too easy for children to live comfortably with your assistance will not help them learn to manage their own money or be financially independent in the long-run.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
Today, I’m talking about teaching your young adult child how to use technology to budget. Now I’d be willing to be your twenty something is a lot better at using the gram or tik tok, or whatever the kids are into these days. But chances are, they haven’t yet figured out how to apply those tech skills to their money, which is where you can help them.
Technology can be your child’s best friend when it comes to managing their finances. If you think about how different things were when you were there age, they have many more tools to help them be successful. Even I remember a time when it was cumbersome to know and track the status of my money in my checking account. But now, it’s all on my smart phone and I can see how much I have in my bank account all at my fingertips.
Taking it a step further, college grads who are learning to manage their money need to learn how to track their spending and spend within a budget. Yet, many college grads have no idea how to budget. So work with them to select a technology tool to help with that. Here is just a short list of some popular options:
- Bank accounts - many will categorize spending to make budgeting easier
- Mint, for just about everything
- YNAB, for hands-on zero-based budgeting
- Goodbudget, for hands-on envelope budgeting
- EveryDollar, for simple zero-based budgeting
- PocketGuard, for a simplified budgeting snapshot
- Fudget, for budgeting without syncing accounts
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
Today…I’m talking about the most important thing you can do to set your young adult child up for success: teach them how to budget. How to track their income coming in, spending and money going out, and make sure that the latter never exceeds the former.
Some parents aren’t comfortable with helping their child in this area, because maybe you’ve never budgeted yourself or feel that your not great with money. Not to worry.
There are so many amazing resources out there, and it can be an opportunity for learning together. As a graduation gift, pay for enrollment in an online or in person class to learn best practices. It can be something fun that you can learn and do together.
If you and your grad love to read, there are great books on budgeting you can read and learn together, bonding over budgets!
Most courses and books are inexpensive and the financial reward of understanding how to keep finances in check will serve them well for decades, with potential generational impact as they will be able to pass on what they learn and good financial habits to their own children.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
[Zero coupon bonds…a few thousand dollars of unused funds became the seed money for my retirement investments at age 22]
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Top 5 Money Traps To Avoid
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Buy Now, Pay Later
- Debt Consolidation Loans
- Adjustable Rate Mortgages
- Timeshares
- 401(k) Loans
A couple of close contenders that didn’t make the cut: car leases, certain types of life insurance and annuities, and virtually any type of debt that’s not a mortgage: student loans, pay day loans, credit card debt, etc.
The most important takeaway from this week is…the biggest money traps are almost always tied to debt. Whether it’s a 401k loan or a buy now pay later scheme, taking on more debt to fund a particular lifestyle comes home to roost eventually, and it’s concerning the amount of people who are still up to their eyeballs in debt, especially when you’re close to retirement. So pay attention and be aware of these money traps so you can steer clear.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Setting Up Your College Grad For Financial Success
It’s graduation season! If you have a child graduating college this year, congratulations! Many of you listening have a recent college grad, or a child (perhaps multiple children) who will be graduating college in the next few years. So with that in mind, I’m sharing with you my best ideas for how you can set up your college grad for financial success.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top 5 Money Traps To Avoid
Today, I’m talking about a money trap that may not seem like a money trap at first glance: the 401k loan.
The 401k loan is essentially a loan you take from yourself. You’re borrowing from your own 401k balance, and then when you re-pay the loan, you’ll pay interest, but that interest on the 401k loan, you’re paying to yourself.
So it sounds like the loan is free and low risk. But here’s why 401k loans are money traps:
- They’re tempting for the reasons I just mentioned. For this reason, people who use 401k loans tend to view their 401k as a piggy bank to tap into whenever they need, not as an account set aside for retirement. Viewing it this way causes many borrowers to tap into their 401k more often and borrow at higher amounts.
- When you borrow money from your 401k, you’re losing out on the investment earnings you otherwise would have had if they money stayed in hte account and stayed invested. That wouldn’t have been a problem in 2022 when your 401k went down in value, but what if you had a 401k loan outstanding in 2019-2021. The S&P 500 was up 29% in 2019, 16% in 2020, and 27% in 2021. The cost of the loan is essentially equal to those returns you missed out on while your money wasnt invested, making the real cost quite significant.
- You repay your loan using after-tax money. That’s a horrible financial tradeoff when most of the time, your original contributions were made on a pre-tax basis. Think of it this way: if you’re in the 24% tax bracket, you now have to work about 1/4 more to get the money back into your 401k, compared to when you made the original contributions.
- I work with a lot of 401k plans, so I see firsthand what people tend to do when they take a loan. And very often, they stop contributing to their 401k while they’re repaying the loan. We’re talking potentially tens of thousands if not more in a lower 401k balance because of lower or no contributions while repaying the loan.
- All kinds of problems if you change jobs or get laid off or fired. The loan becomes due by the time you file for your next tax return. And if you default, you’re looking at taxes and penalties on the loan.
So despite seeming attractive on the surface, a 401k loan is definitely a big money trap, and should only be used for a true emergency, and paid back as soon as possible.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top 5 Money Traps To Avoid
Today, I’m talking about money trap of timeshares. Despite hearing horror stories about timeshares and learning as a kid even that these are money traps, I am still continually surprised by how often I hear about a client or a friend or just someone I know who has a timeshare. And usually I only hear about it when they’re trying to get out or they made a mistake buying in the first place after they succumbed to the hard sell in exchange for the free round of golf.
Here are 10 reasons, according to Nolo.com, why timeshares should be avoided:
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/top-ten-reasons-think-twice-before-buying-timeshare.html#:~:text=But%20read%20the%20fine%20print,can%20 foreclose%20on%20your%20 timeshare.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top 5 Money Traps To Avoid
Today, I’m talking about the money trap of adjustable rate mortgages. With higher interest rates over the past year, these mortgage products which brings back haunting memories from the Great Recession, are surging in popularity.
From early 2020 through early 2022, adjustable-rate loans made up less than 5% of all mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, a nonprofit organization representing the U.S. mortgage finance industry.
But by mid-2022, they made up more than 10% of mortgage applications. By October 2022, nearly 12% of mortgage applications were for adjustable-rate loans.
During the housing boom from 2004-2007, adjustable-rate mortgages made up over a third of mortgage applications each year, before plummeting to less than 5% across parts of 2008 and 2009, and remaining under 10% until recently.
What makes adjustable mortgages more popular, especially right now, is that the rate you’ll start out paying on your mortgage is lower than a fixed rate mortgage. Right now, the interest rate on a ARM that adjusts in 5 years is 5.81%, compared to the 30 year fixed at 6.94%.
So it’s easy to see why a lot of borrowers are getting sucked into this money trap when rates are so much lower on the ARM. Depending on the size of the loan, you’re looking at thousands of dollars less every year that you’ll pay on the loan, and with many buyers still struggling to afford a house, a ARM looks especially attractive.
The problem is, that if you buy a house today using an adjustable rate, you’re betting that you’ll move in the next 5 years, or that rates have declined AND you have enough equity in your house AND you can afford all the refi fees. That’s a pretty big uncertainty and a pretty big bet that everything will be in your favor when you fast forward 5 years.
If rates are still high in 5 years or housing prices have decreased and you don’t have the equity to refinance, and you’re hit with a higher payment when your mortgage rate adjusts that you can’t afford, that's how you get yourself into a serious mess like we saw with the mortgage mess, foreclosures, and housing crisis back in 2008.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top 5 Money Traps To Avoid
Today, I’m talking about the debt consolidation loan money trap. If you have multiple debts to repay, the debt consolidation loan can be a helpful way to get multiple debts merged into one loan with a fixed interest and a single monthly payment, reducing the stress of managing multiple debts and multiple payments.
Sounds like a great idea, right? While there are some definite upsides of debt consolidation - the streamlining of your payments, & potentially securing a lower interest rate with the new loan, there are quite a few downsides too, making this a money trap.
- Doesn’t address the underlying issue of potential spending problems and mismanagement of finances. Debt consolidation loan might not help much if you find yourself in the same situation next year because you didn’t address the root cause of your debts
- Temporary decline in your credit score, because applying for the new loan is considered a hard credit inquiry
- Sneaky added costs that make it difficult to understand the real cost of the loan: origination fees, balance transfer fees, closing costs and annual fees.
- If the interest rate on the new loan isn’t less than what you’re currently paying, you’ll lock in a higher rate and pay more in interest for the convenience of consolidating your debt
- According to Forbes: “you could still pay more in interest over the life of the new loan. When you consolidate debt, the repayment timeline starts from day one and may extend as long as seven years. Your overall monthly payment may be lower than you’re used to, but interest will accrue for a longer period of time.”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top 5 Money Traps To Avoid
Today, I’m talking about the Buy Now, Pay Later money trap.
On QVC’s website, they have a beautiful aqua blue Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a tilt head and a glass bowl. It’s gorgeous and I want it, but I don’t want to pay the $399 price tag on it.
Enter buy now, pay later. I can pay instead with 5 installments of $79.80 with EasyPay. There are no interest charges and I can spread the cost out over monthly installments, with no extra fees or charges?
This isn’t unique to QVC or expensive stand mixers. If you pay attention to virtually anything you buy online these days, you’ll almost always see this as an option through a service like EasyPay, AfterPay, or Klarna, or others like it even for a $20 item.
Seems like a good idea to not have to pay for something up front all at once, but these ubiquitous buy now, pay later services come with some risks that are concerning, making these a definite money trap.
According to a recent article in the Washington Post, here are just a few problems with these alternative payment apps: ““Buy now, pay later” is largely unregulated, and substantial issues have emerged. Last year, 10.5 percent of users were charged at least one late fee, and several signs indicate delinquencies continue to rise in 2022. Users complain that it is difficult to get refunds and issues can ding their credit score in ways they didn’t realize. But the biggest concerns are that many of these financial technology companies are not doing a sufficient job assessing people’s ability to repay and are using shoppers’ data to suggest more products to buy — on credit.”
The Financial Health Network took a closer look at who’s using these services, and found that “nearly 70 percent of users say they spend more using these products than they would have otherwise.”
If you frequently use one of these apps, it becomes complicated to track how many are outstanding, when your next payments will get deducted, and it’s easy to get overextended.
“People using these products are more likely to experience “rapid increases” in bank overdraft charges and credit card interest. That’s because “buy now, pay later” companies typically have shoppers use autopay when they sign up, meaning they link a debit or credit card to the account.”
Another sneaky trap with these apps is that these companies are beginning to shift their business models away from earning a fee charged to the retailer to collecting user data and marketing products to them.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Crafting Your Retirement Budget.
[What I’m not going to talk about - traps that are so obvious or might only apply to young people]
Timeshare in Mexico…I wasn’t born yesterday so you’ll need to do more than a free breakfast to get me to attend your timeshare presentation! A free round of golf, and a nice dinner for my mom and mother in law and my sister over here, and then maybe I’ll waste a couple hours sitting through your high pressure sales pitch.
Thankfully I just kept saying no to their lame free breakfast offer, because I am a real sucker for a good sales pitch. And there's at least a 50/50 chance that I would be the reluctant owner of a timeshare in Mazatlan today if I didn’t know better.
But that’s the problem, many of us don’t learn our lesson until it’s too late, so this week, I’ll share with you why timeshares and other money traps should be avoided to help you steer clear of these bad financial blunders.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about a newer money trap: the buy now, pay later apps.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was:Crafting Your Retirement Budget
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- How To Budget For Retirement
- Too Lazy To Budget For Retirement? Try This…
- Differentiate Between Needs, Wants, & Wishes
- Don’t Forget About These Sneaky Retirement Costs
- Making A Plan For The Unexpected Retirement Expenses
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Top 5 Money Traps to Avoid
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget
Today, I’m talking about making a plan for the unexpected in retirement.
- How much of your budget should you set aside for surprises or emergencies? 3-6 months + Advice for market declines and extra cash for that
- Maintenance on housing, cars, etc - always unplanned and irregular. Something you can’t put off like you used to. The older you get, the scarier it is to be stuck somewhere because of an unreliable car.
Bottom line: You’re going to want to keep more cash on hand for emergencies when you’re retired so you don’t have to unexpectedly tap into your investment portfolio, you can cut your portfolio withdrawals in a down market, and perhaps most importantly, you can avoid putting an emergency on a high interest rate credit card.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget
Today, I’m talking about sneaky retirement expenses that you may not think about when crafting your retirement budget, because they might only come up every 6 months or once a year, but you want to account for them so they don’t surprise you or create problems for you.
Sneaky Retirement Costs
- Annual - property taxes, insurance - easy to overlook because you might only think about them around the time they’re due
- Annual subscription renewals - BeachBody on demand…oh yea! I forgot about that :)
- Buying a new car every few years - maybe one car purchase in retirement? Maybe more often? Most people I do budgeting with forget to account for this even though it’s a major expense.
- Counting on a tax refund that you may not get anymore once you’re retired and your income goes down
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget
Today, I’m talking about a critical aspect of crafting your retirement budget: categorizing and ranking various spending goals.
Essentially, what you’re doing is listing out various categories of spending in retirement that are beyond your basic needs. This allows you then to rank and prioritize these various goals, differentiating between Needs, Wants, & Wishes.
- List different spending categories (travel, health care, etc) and examples of which ones are needs, wants, and wishes. I like ranking them in order of importance - 10 is absolute necessity, can’t do without need. 1 is take it or leave it. Try not to have more than 1 or 2 things with the same ranking. Makes it easier to figure out where you’ll be willing to compromise if you can’t afford to have all your wants and wishes
- Will vary - health care is a need, charitable giving will be a need for some, a want for others, and a wish for other
- Understanding where each of your spending goals lies on the spectrum of importance to you will help you make some helpful decisions.
- Maybe you really want to spend $10,000 a year on travel. But you also want to join an athletic club that costs $250 a month. If you budgeted for both of these, you’ll know if you can afford them both. But let’s say you can’t afford to do both. Ranking needs, wants and wishes helps with this. Let’s say that you ranked the athletic club as 7, but travel as an 8. The compromise might be that your travel budget has to drop to $7,000 so you can afford the athletic club membership. Or you may decide that because travel is more important and higher up on the needs, wants, and wishes spectrum, that you’ll forgo the athletic club membership all together so you can travel in the way you want to. After all, you can always workout at home instead…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget
Today, I’m talking about how to create a retirement budget if you’re too lazy to track your spending for 3 months or longer.
If you’re Type A, budgeting isn’t tough for you. But if you’re type B, just go with the flow, or not very conscientious, then budgeting might sound like some sadistic form of torture. So for those of you in the latter category, that’s why we have rules of thumb.
Basic living expense = 60% of your income while working to maintain standard of living. When you layer in other discretionary things like travel and home maintenance and buying a new car every few years, that % climbs to about 70%.
So if you’re lazy like me in tracking all of your spending and looking for a rough place to start, then start with about 70% of your pre-retirement income.
That means if you made $100,000 in income annually, you could live off around 70,000 annually while maintaining your current standard of living.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget
Today, I’m talking about how to get started on putting together a budget for retirement
- Tracking for 3 months to establish a good estimate
- Apps and software programs make this much easier to track and categorize if you’re not good with numbers.
- Even if you’ve never budgeted before, it’s an essential exercise before you retire. You’ll want to start budgeting a couple years out so if you’re spending exceeds your asset’s ability to support that spending, you can make some decisions about cutting back and reducing your lifestyle or retiring later, which are your 2 main options when you’re close to retirement. Saving more is helpful, but you may not have enough time to have that move the needle…doing the budget a couple years before retirement gives you time to make a decision when you haven’t already checked out of work.
- Look at expenses that will likely decrease or go away (gas, parking if you commute to work), and ones that will increase (home improvement, travel)
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Crafting Your Retirement Budget.
[background/story - Ash Cell]
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was:Q1 2023 So Far…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: 2023 So Far…
Update on current economic conditions, and the outlook for your investments this year, taken from our quarterly update we send to clients.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year
The key in 2023 is to remain picky with stock and bond selection. Quality always matters, but especially during difficult and volatile economic periods. We are positioning client portfolios defensively, which should help provide stability during uncertain times ahead.
The Bottom Line: We believe a significant economic slowdown is underway, and it’s likely a recession will arrive later this year. The banking crisis will likely contribute to a credit crunch, slower economic growth and a drop in earnings for stocks. Yet, opportunities still exist for investors, especially in high quality stocks and bonds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year
Yesterday I talked about the bad news, which is likely a year of slow or no growth in your investment portfolio, which is especially challenging coming off a year in 2022 when most of you listening experienced double digit losses in your investment portfolio.
So, what’s the good news? The rapid rise in interest rates has provided the first great investment opportunity for fixed income investors in 15 years. Short-term money market funds and CDs are currently paying 4.5% - 5%, and investors are finally being rewarded with higher yields after a very long period of low interest rates. We have been recommending money market funds and short-term CDs to clients with idle cash and keeping maturities short to intermediate for bond investors. This has allowed us to take advantage of higher yields without the duration risk of owning longer-term bonds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year
Today…I’m talking about the bad news for investors for 2023:
What’s interesting about the factors currently driving the economy, markets and portfolio returns is that we’re already 15 months into the current stock market downturn, yet we haven’t yet officially entered a recession. Usually, stock market downturns accompanied by a recession last about 12-18 months, so based on historical norms we should be almost “out of the woods”. If the recession hasn’t arrived, but is coming soon, that means we’re likely going to experience another calendar year of below average growth. We think it’s possible that the worst is behind us in the stock and bond markets, but with an economic slowdown comes additional downward pressure on stocks. We think that 2023 could be a year of treading water for most investors – not much growth from beginning to end.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year
Today…I’m talking about the economic outlook for the rest of the year:
The Conference Board forecasts that “economic weakness will intensify and spread more widely throughout the US economy over the coming months, leading to a recession starting in mid-2023”. We agree with this forecast, believing that a significant economic slowdown is underway, and we will likely see a recession later this year.
The Fed still has more work to do in raising rates to bring down inflation, and that won’t be without economic pain. Consumers and businesses have been surprisingly resilient to higher inflation and higher interest rates, but the cracks are starting to appear – a rapidly cooling housing market, corporate layoffs, and higher delinquency rates on credit cards, etc. Treasury yields and an inverted yield curve (where shorter-term rates are higher than longer term rates) also point to an imminent recession. After the Silicon Valley Bank failure, a credit crunch seems inevitable as banks struggle in this rising interest rate environment.
A recent WSJ article reports: “U.S. banks’ lending capacity will decline by 1% this year because of the fall in the value of many bank stocks as investors reassess the health of midsize banks, the International Monetary Fund said in a report on global financial stability. That reduction in lending is expected to dent U.S. gross domestic product in 2023”
The result will be even slower growth as businesses will find it harder to borrow, grow and expand.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year
Today…I’m recapping what was driving markets in the first quarter of 2023:
Stocks rallied sharply to start the year as inflation subsided and investors grew increasingly confident that the Federal Reserve was nearly done raising interest rates. But when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed, stocks gave back most of those gains. When conditions stabilized and the Fed suggested they were almost done with their tightening cycle, stocks rallied, and the S&P 500 finished up 7% in the first quarter of 2023. Bonds have also turned around after suffering their worst calendar year loss ever in 2022. The US Aggregate Bond Index gained 2.91% this past quarter.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about 2023 So Far...
[Not your source for news…
So this week I’ll be talking about what was driving the markets and the economy in the first 3 months of 2023, when the recession may hit, and the good news for investors looking ahead to the rest of the year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was:Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Understanding Habits
- Identify Your Bad Money Habits
- Pick One Habit At A Time
- Make Bad Habits Harder
- Make Good Habits Easier
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Crafting Your Retirement Budget
One of the most challenging things to figure out prior to retirement is how much you’ll actually spend in retirement. Only about ⅓ of us have a household budget, but if you retire without a good understanding of what you’ll be spending each month, you could be setting yourself up for disaster by spending down your assets too quickly, or huge disappointment by not being able to live the lifestyle you hoped for in retirement, because you simply don’t have the income and assets to do what you envisioned.
So next week, I’ll talk about everything from how to plan for the basics and the one time expenses that you might not have thought about, as well as how to incorporate health care spending, and some rules of thumb that can serve as a good starting place to those of you who might be allergic to budgeting and will struggle to get around to actually doing it.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
Yesterday, I talked about how you can stall or stop the habit loop of: cue, routine, and reward, by creating some barriers to your bad habits. The goal is to make your bad habits harder to stick to.
On the flipside, we want to make our good habits easier. One research backed method for doing this is Habit stacking - according to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, “Habit stacking increases the likelihood that you’ll stick with a habit by stacking your new behavior on top of an old one. This process can be repeated to chain numerous habits together, each one acting as the cue for the next.”
Add in a new habit to something you’re already doing each day: Get out of bed. Take a shower. Brush your teeth.Get dressed. Brew a cup of coffee. Eat breakfast.
One simple example of this: After I finish eating dinner, I will put my plate directly into the dishwasher. After I put my dishes away, I will immediately wipe down the counter. After I wipe down the counter, I will set out my coffee mug for tomorrow morning.
You can start with just one thing like adding in wiping down the counter if you’re already putting the dishes away. Then once the routine is set, you can stack in something else, like setting out your coffee mug.
It creates easy to follow, simple routines that allow habits to stick and become automatic. And when you attach a new habit with something you’re already doing, it’s much easier to stick with.
Getting back into an exercise routine after having a baby in January. I enjoy exercise, but it’s hard to fit it into your day. So I decided I needed to do a few things and use habit stacking:
- Each night when I’m getting ready for bed, I lay out my workout clothes for the next morning. Heard this tip before, never thought much of it, but when I’m half asleep in the morning especially with the fragmented sleep I get now with a baby who doesn’t sleep through the night, it’s much easier to get dressed to workout and not having to use any energy at all to pick out my clothes
- Build it into my morning routine. Every morning I pretty much do the exact same thing:
- Wake up at 6:15
- Get my workout clothes on
- Wake and change the baby
- Go downstairs, make coffee, and unload the dishwasher
- My 2yo wakes up at 6:45, so I get him up and changed and I’m drinking coffee, nursing the baby, and praying from 7-7:30
- Around 7:45, I head upstairs to workout. I used to workout 3-4 days a week, but it made it a lot harder to be consistent since my morning routine varied too much. Some days I would workout, others I wouldn’t. So now, for the first time in my life, I workout every day except Sunday, and I’ve been able to stick with it for the last 8 weeks now. I only workout for 30 minutes, so its manageable and easier to build into every day.
This routine has developed over time, but 2 important things that I want to do every day - pray and exercise, are built into my morning routine because I’ve stacked them on top of things I was already doing - like drinking coffee. The habit of prayer is tied to the habit and reward of drinking coffee in the mornings.
And all of these habit stacking principles apply to any habit, including financial ones. The key is tying a new habit with an existing one through habit stacking, to help it stick.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
Today, I’m talking about how to Make Bad Habits Harder
We rely on habits because our brain needs to devote energy to new and difficult tasks, not brushing our teeth or remembering how to get to work each day. We are also incredibly lazy, and we can use laziness to our advantage when trying to break a bad money habit.
- Example: This isn’t a bad money habit, but it’s a good example. Let’s say you watch too much TV and you want to stop or reduce how much you watch TV. Unplug your TV - creates a barrier to overcome before indulging in the habit. I don’t know about you, but often it’s that little bit of effort that I need to do something or get started on something that keeps me from doing it at all. You can use the same thing
- Turning to money habits, let’s say you shop too much online on your phone. If you’re like me, you use Amazon nearly every day. If overspending is a problem and you routinely shop and buy things on your smart phone, then remove all shopping apps from your phone. This way, when you want to buy something on Amazon or wherever, you need to do it on your computer instead. It’s a small change, but you’d be surprised how much it can reduce overspending by just having a small barrier to following through with the bad habit we want to break.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
Yesterday, I talked about how to identify your bad money habits. Once you have 1 or 2 or 10 bad money habits that need to get out of your life, what’s next?
Something I came across over and over again while researching this week’s theme was the advice: Don't try to change a bunch of things all at one time. Pick just 1 bad habit to focus on
- Problem with resolutions or goals is that we can try to accomplish too much at one time, and it leads to failure.
- Gave up sweets for Lent. After the first week it became a lot easier. Had I also given up wine or tried to build another new habit along with it, it would have been much harder for me
- Maybe you have a habit of going out for lunch more than you’d like and it’s is a bad habit you want to break. Just focus on that.
- Often better to focus on easier habits that aren’t so ingrained or addictive, so you can break it sooner, replace it with a better habit, and get a quick win that will be motivating in continuing with improving your financial health in other areas
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
Today, I’m talking about how to identify Your Bad Money Habits
- 1st step in getting rid of your bad money habits is simply to recognize those habits. We’re often blind to our own shortcomings in many ways and our own bad habits are no exception
- My bad money habits
-
Impulse buying - boredom lead to shopping; shopping with a list and sticking to it, and adding things to my cart, but waiting a week or 2 or longer to buy it.
-
Name the habit you want to change. Examples:
- Look first to spending. These are where some of the most destructive bad money habits live is in your spending habits. It’s also the source of debt and why many people can’t get out of debt permanently, because they have bad spending habits. Daily coffee, mindless online shopping on your cell phone or ipad, eating out too much, booking a vacation without the cash to pay for it, impulse purchases at the grocery store, shopping as a hobby or something to do, buying lottery tickets
- Other bad money habits - looking too often at your bank or investment accounts, not having your saving and investing on auto-pilot, not running the numbers on something before you purchase - especially a larger purchase
So take the time to really pay attention to your habits and routines. With many bad habits, there’s a little voice in our head that occasionally whispers “I don’t think you should do that”. We often tell that voice to shut up…I’m going to have that entire sleeve of Oreos! Or maybe after we do that bad money habit we feel guilty. We all know that feeling, and when we pay attention to that nagging feeling, it can help identify the bad money habits that should be eradicated.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: httpstr://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
Today, I’m talking about the first step in changing your bad money habits, and that is to simply understand how habits work.
Our brains need habits to function, and they help us do everything from playing an instrument well, to arriving at work each day, to remembering to brush our teeth every night before bed. Can you imagine if the things you do each day required the same mental effort each time? So our habits free our minds up to focus our energy and attention on the things that are new or require more effort.
The other important thing to understand about habits is that our habits are tied to cues, routines, & rewards - understanding this habit loop will help you better understand the habits that don’t serve you and make sure you tie a reward to any new habits to make them stick.
- Cue - need something sweet after each meal
- Routine - Grab a hershey kiss, a fun size chocolate bar or some other piece of small candy
- Reward - obvious - the sugary sweetness & sugar’s dopamine, drug-like impact on my brain
And lastly, you’re not going to be able to ditch a habit overnight. Those connections between cue, routine, and reward can be very strong and difficult to break. New habits take time to become routine and automatic - 2021 study - 2-3 months to form a new habit.
So be patient with yourself and understand the habit loop so you can stop the habits you don’t like and replace them with something new, tied to a healthier reward.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks
Did you know that 40% of the things you do each day are habits? Our brain needs habits, so we’re not constantly needing to expend energy on relearning things we do regularly. As a result, we just go through the motions on many things we do regularly, without giving it a second thought. Which is fine for good habits, but what about our bad habits?
Because we don't maintain conscious control over our habits, bad ones can be hard to break, including our bad financial habits. So, to make better financial decisions, we need to cultivate good habits.
So this week, I’ll talk about 5 ways you can better recognize and work to improve your bad money habits, and turn them into good habits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
- Why You Should Always Consider The Net After Tax Return
- Understanding Taxable vs. Tax Sheltered Accounts
- 3 Considerations When Choosing Investment Account Types
- Asset Location 101
- Asset Location: Beyond The Basics
The most important takeaway from this week is
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Change Your Bad Money Habits With 5 Simple Tweaks.
I spend a lot of time on YouTube, I mean A LOT of time. More than I care to admit. It’s usually my go to app when I’m bored and I pick up my phone. Especially these days where I’ve been home with a newborn for the last 3 months, and I spend a lot of time snuggling with him while he eats or sleeps.
I recently came across an interesting video on YouTube that talks about money habits. About 40% of the things you do each day are habits. Because we don't maintain conscious control over our habits, bad ones can be hard to break. Many of our financial decisions are based on habits. So, to make better financial decisions, we need to cultivate good habits.
So next week I’ll share with you some of the insights from this video with my own spin, of course, to help you recognize ways you might be sabotaging yourself with bad habits, and how to cultivate a good habit instead.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
Today,
- Holding periods for taxable accounts and gains (longer holding period, better return, all else being equal)
- Be careful about owning mutual funds in taxable accounts
- Understand implications for withdrawals in retirement - which accounts to draw from first
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
Today, I’m talking about asset location 101.
Asset location, not to be confused with asset allocation, refers to which types of investments you own in different account types.
You would never own a tax free municipal bond in an IRA account, because that negates all the tax free income benefits from that bond. Likewise, you should avoid investing in high turnover mutual funds and REITs (real estate investment trusts) in taxable accounts, since they’re way more inefficient when it comes to how those are taxed. So those are best placed in IRA or Roth accounts, where you won’t be penalized for owning these types of tax inefficient investments.
Asset location also refers to keeping more growth oriented investments inside of Roth accounts. Since those accounts you’ll usually tap into last in retirement, they’ll be invested for the longest period of time. So the Roth should be the most aggressively invested of your accounts, in order to maximize the tax-free growth and the usually long time horizon of that account.
Essentially, asset location is about investing in the right investments within the right accounts. That's because different types of investments have different tax rules, and different types of accounts have different tax treatments as well.
Being tax efficient can increase your lifetime returns significantly, so it’s a very important step when selecting investments that most people, especially most DIY investors fail to consider.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
Today, I’m talking about the top 3 considerations when deciding where and how to invest your money, especially when deciding between funding different account types - like a Roth vs. a taxable account, vs. a Traditional 401k.
- Tax rates now - marginal, including state taxes
-
The term "marginal tax rate" refers to the tax rate paid on your last dollar of taxable income
-
Future tax rates - likely higher or lower when money is needed?
- Timeline for needing the funds - 5 years for buying a house or 10 or 20 years for annual income in retirement?
These factors should all help you determine both which accounts you should be prioritizing saving in, and which types of investments you should own in those accounts (more on that tomorrow)
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
Today, I’m talking about the difference between Taxable vs. Tax-Deferred vs. Tax Free (Roth) Accounts
The reason this matters…is that the net, after tax return, not the gross return matters most.
Net after tax return in a taxable investment account might be a couple % less a year after taxes vs. a Traditional 401k or a Roth, depending on how long you;ll be investing for before you withdraw your money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
Today, I’m talking about why you should always consider the net after tax return, not just the gross returns of your portfolio.
The main reason why you should always consider taxes is that “tax drag” as its commonly known - the impact on taxes on your actual, net returns - is one of the biggest haircuts you’ll take on your investments.
And generally, the higher your income and tax bracket, the more you need to consider the tax drag on your portfolio.
And the more time you have where that money will be invested, the more taxes will matter as well, since that money that went to Uncle Sam in taxes would have stayed invested otherwise, or at least more of it would have been invested. So you lose the accumulated value when the money that was taxed away would have otherwise stayed invested over time, which really adds up.
I’m not talking hundreds or thousands, but for an affluent investor - someone with $500,000 to $2 million in investments - the difference in a portfolio return over your lifetime between someone who reduced the tax drag to the extent they could, and the investor who paid no mind to taxes - the difference in portfolio value over a 25-30 year saving and investment lifetime can easily add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
How Taxes Eat Into Your Returns - Case Study Example
Hypothetical value of $6,000 in annual contributions over 30 years Tax rate = 24%
Annual return = 6%
Even if you liquidated both portfolios after 30 years, you’ll still owe capital gains taxes on the taxable account, and income taxed on the IRA - you’ll still be ahead by a good size margin.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
The genius Albert Einstein once said "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." If he doesn’t understand taxes, it should make you and I feel a bit better.
When it comes to taxes on your investments, taxes should never be the primary driver behind investment decisions. In other words, as I tell clients frequently, you should never let the tax tail wag the dog.
Yet, taxes are still a very important consideration with where and how you invest, and how you prioritize savings among different types of accounts like your 401k, Roth, and taxable accounts, all of which are taxed in very different ways.
If you fail to consider taxes, it’s easy to leave 2% or more a year in returns on the table, which over a lifetime of investing can easily add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars that you could have otherwise have saved for retirement, had you been more tax savvy.
So this week, I’ll talk about
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: The Downside of Being Wealthy
I really enjoyed talking about this topic, and I want to revisit this theme at some point in the near future, because I didn’t even touch on some of the bigger downsides of being wealthy, especially when it comes to passing along wealth to your heirs. Wealth can destroy people’s lives if not handled well, yet it’s not something that is talked about much in our culture today.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Pursuing Wealth Is A Good Way To Waste Your Life
- How Money Distorts Your Reality & Relationships
- Does Being Wealthy Lead To A Boring Life?
- The Overly Complicated Lives of Rich People
- Fixing The Problem Of Wealth
The most important takeaway from this week is having a higher net worth doesn’t necessarily lead to higher levels of contentment and happiness, and if you’re not careful and thoughtful with how you go about acquiring, investing, and spending wealth, having more has some significant downsides and it can make you miserable.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Maximizing Net After Tax Returns In Your Investment Portfolio
Few investors consider the tax implications of their investment decisions, and leave a lot of money on the table as a result. So next week, I’ll talk about specific and important ways you can maximize the net, after tax returns of your portfolio.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Downside of Being Wealthy
I’ve talked about a few of the downsides of being wealthy this week and the unexpected problems it can create in life. So I want to turn today on how you can keep a higher net worth from disappointing you and making you unhappier as a result.
The answer to being satisfied and fulfilled is not to be poor instead, but to not let money or the comfort, power, and recognition that comes with it become the center of your life. Many people make the mistake of pursuing more to the detriment of their relationships with others, and sacrifice their own happiness, because they’re chasing the lie that having more money and more of the things that money can buy will bring happiness and lasting joy.
In short, they’ve made wealth and the pursuit of it the center of their life. It’s the God in their lives, and family and friends, hobbies, their health, etc. gets pushed to the outside. So the solution is to first recognize that wealth can never bring fulfillment or lasting joy. It makes life easier in many ways, but it doesn’t satisfy. Having the right priorities in life and keeping money where it belongs (not at the center) is what will lead to lasting satisfaction and fulfillment.
Another important way to avoid some of the downsides of wealth that I’ve already touched on this week are to live below your means and continue saying no to yourself, even when you can afford the bigger house, the better car, the first class plane ticket. This has many benefits - you don’t blow your assets on stupid stuff, and you don’t fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses. Some of the wealthiest people I know are guarded with their wealth - they don’t flaunt it. They don’t use it to impress their friends and it doesn’t fuel their pride. It’s the millionaire next door mindset.
A third way to prevent a higher net worth from leading to unhappiness is to be generous. Research shows that being generous makes you happier. Focusing on others and their needs and using our resources to bless them is very rewarding and will prevent hoarding, and a toxic focus on just ourselves and our needs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Downside of Being Wealthy
Today, I’m talking about another big downside of being wealthy - the overly complicated life. When you’re wealthy and you have a lot of assets, many people fall into the trap of overcomplicating their lives. They might have a vacation home, multiple rental properties, a boat, more cars than drivers in the household, and while real estate and acquiring certain assets can enrich your life, it’s also more stuff to clean, fix when it breaks, replace when it wears out, etc.
If you’ve ever been to central Oregon, it’s absolutely beautiful. When most people think of Oregon, they think of rain. But central Oregon is the high desert, and Bend, OR boasts that they have 300 days a year of sunshine. That plus mountains, rivers, and lakes, and all four seasons make central Oregon a beautiful place that is definitely worth a visit if you like the outdoors.
Bend is about a 3 hour drive from our home, so we usually make it there once a year. It’s fun to visit in the winter when there’s snow, and in the summer when it’s warm and sunny. My husband and I have talked about maybe buying a vacation rental there someday, but the more I think about it, the less appealing it becomes.
As much as I would love to have our own place there to take our family, and daydream about snowshoeing in the winter, playing outside in the pool and golfing in the summer, and just having a relaxing place to make memories together, I think I’ve talked myself out of buying a place there.
We can rent there a couple weeks a year, save a lot of money, and still get maybe 75% of the benefit of owning a place without the added expense and hassle of mortgage, taxes, repairs, renting it out to try to make some income on it, etc.
So even if you have a lot of assets and can afford the rental property, the vacation home, or the boat, or just more stuff in general, it doesn't mean that it’s something you should do. Or that it’s even a good thing. It might make you unhappier as a result because you’ve unnecessarily complicated your life and created more headaches for yourself.
That’s why I prefer owning good quality stocks, because they make you a lot of money over time, and there’s nothing to fix and no problem tenants that require months and thousands of dollars to evict.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Downside of Being Wealthy
Today, I’m talking about a surprising downside of being wealthy that very few people realize until they reach a certain net worth: that life can be boring
From the outside, most people look at wealthy people or celebrities and think that their lives are amazing. They live in beautiful mansions, drive fast and luxurious cars, go on the most amazing vacations, exclusive restaurants, and parties, etc.
But we’ve all had the experience of something great losing its luster over time. The toy we had to have for Christmas that we never really played with. The new car that we pined for that just became not so special anymore after driving it for 6 months. The forever dream home that becomes too familiar day after day of living in it. The first class airline ticket that is just meh.
We all become accustomed to certain things. With 4 kids in our house under 8 years old, my husband and I rarely eat out at a sit down restaurant. Like I can probably count on 1 hand the number of times in the last year my husband and I went out to a restaurant just the 2 of us. So when we do, it’s special and it’s a memorable, and it’s usually a lot of fun. But if you go out to eat all the time, even the 5 star restaurant become ordinary and there’s nothing special about it anymore because it’s so familiar.
Many wealthy people are bored, because they’ve indulged themselves in the best of what they can afford without reservation, so nothing is special anymore. They’ve become accustomed to specialness, and so they need bigger and better and more extravagant just to have the same feeling I have when my husband and I go to the so-so Mexican restaurant down the street. I’m all giddy about free tortilla chips and my cadillac margarita, and didn’t even feel that way when they stayed at the Ritz on Maui.
If you find yourself in this situation - where nothing makes your heart flutter anymore - one solution is to fast - intentionally deprive yourself of luxuries so the special remains special. As some of you long time listeners know, I’m a devout Catholic, and now during Lent is a time of fasting. It’s a beautiful opportunity to say no to something for a season, get rid of excesses. The purpose of this season is to repent and focus on God, but even if you’re not religious, the same principle still applies. There is tremendous wisdom in the call to fasting, because we need to balance fasting and feasting. When we just feast all the time, we begin to rot, and life loses it’s specialness.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Downside of Being Wealthy
Today, I’m talking about how money can distort your reality and the relationships of those around you.
You don’t have to look far and wide to see how money and the power and status that come with it completely warp one’s reality. If you’ve read the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the bible, you know what can happen when our reality becomes warped because of wealth and success.
The rich man enjoyed all the comforts of the world. Fine clothes, food, and drink. It wasn’t his money that made him a bad person. It was his concern with his self and focusing only on his own needs that he spent eternity in agony in hell.
Money can do this to people. Especially those who acquire power and status along with their wealth. People treat them differently. They get used to getting everything they want, never being critizced, and affirmed in how they are because of their outward signs of success. This is dangerous not just the rich man in the bible, or the powerful dictator, or the out of touch celebrity, but even for successful millionaires. I see it in everyday life.
Wealth can damage our own sense of reality and it can also damage relationships. People will schmooze you, treat you differently, because they want something from you or because they want to be careful not to upset you so it doens’t harm them or their status. Even your own children can see you as not much more than a bank. Friends and colleagues are impressed and want to be around you because of what you have or can do for them, not for who you are.
So be careful when it comes to money, because being on a pedestal isn’t often a great place to be.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The Downside of Being Wealthy
Today, I’m talking about how pursuing wealth leads many down the path of a wasted life.
[story about how I almost didn’t have kids]
Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
The 2nd biggest regret: , from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'...She said: "This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."
And if you read between the lines, it wasn’t work for the sake of work that they were pursuing. It was the income, the money…the result of working more. Now I understand that some of us don’t have a choice. A nurse who misses dinner and putting her kids to bed each night because she works the night shift, or the traveling businessman who misses his kids' games, sometimes, we can’t do anything about our circumstances, but it’s worth noting what we can do and be present with our kids as much as possible.
The lesson here is that pursuing more income and promotions at work in order to increase wealth is a good way to waste your life. Money will buy you certain great things but it will not satisfy or make you happy, and it comes with sacrifices and very real trade offs that you may deeply regret later in life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about The Downside of Being Wealthy.
I know someone who sold his business for several million dollars a couple of years ago. After working hard his entire life, building a successful business from scratch, this business owner had reached an idyllic end to his working life - a financially secure retirement, free from ever worrying about money again.
But then something unfortunate but not uncommon happened…he realized that his identity and sense of who he was was handcuffed to his identity as an owner of a successful business. He didn't know how to be retired, enjoy his comfortable income and assets.
He felt like a purposeless rudderless ship, and the discontent spilled over into his marriage as well. Less than 2 years after selling his business, he was divorced and lost half of his wealth.
The lesson here is twofold. First of all, many people fall into the temptation of letting the source of their wealth - in this case his identity as a business owner - define who they are, and it's like building a house on sand. He built his entire life on the wrong foundation and the wrong identity and as soon as he got what he thought he wanted (selling his business and attaining comfortable wealth and financial security) everything else fell apart.
The other lesson is that a higher net worth doesn’t mean you’ll be happier or have a better life. There are, in fact, real downsides of being wealthy. And it’s important that each of us understands those downsides, so we don’t blindly pursue more with the misguided idea that it will lead to happiness and fulfillment.
So this week, I’ll talk about how the pursuit of money can cause you to waste your life, how it can distort your relationships, overcomplicate your life, and lead to unhappiness if you’re not careful and learn to develop a rightly ordered relationship with money. I’ll also give you some practical tips on how to avoid some of the pitfalls of being wealthy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: The downside of being wealthy
Many people pursue more wealth, without really thinking about the downside of having more and growing your net worth. But it’s important to be grounded in reality when it comes to building wealth - because there are pros and cons to having more. So next week, we’ll explore the downside of being wealthy to keep you grounded in reality when it comes to how having more will actually benefit you
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
Yesterday I talked about the most important way…
- Brokered CDs - spread out coverage among financial institutions within one account. For businesses, they can do basically the same thing with what’s known as Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service
- Treasuries - backed by the full faith and credit of the US government without the much smaller FDIC insurance limits
- Money Markets - variety of institutions to spread out the risk even though they’re not FDIC backed
- Stash Your Cash with the Biggest Banks - Too Big To Fail & more diversified (remember SVB was a niche bank catering to venture capital and tech startups, so they were doomed as soon as the perfect storm hit of deposits and new capital flows drying up because their customers VC businesses were also drying up, and interest rates started rising which created huge losses for them as they sold bonds to cover withdrawals from the bank)
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
Today, I’m talking about how to protect yourself against bank failures.
The most obvious way to protect yourself against bank failures, is to make sure your cash & savings account holdings at the bank are fully covered by FDIC insurance.
The problem is that if you have a lot of cash that exceeds the FDIC coverage limits, you could leave yourself exposed, and if your cash far exceeds FDIC coverage limits, it could be too cumbersome to spread your money around enough to maintain full coverage amounts with different banks, so people just don’t do that, especially with the 2008 financial crisis getting dimmer and dimmer. Up until early March, most people and almost certainly the depositors at SVB, many with millions of dollars sitting exposed and unprotected by FDIC, never considered that they might lose their deposits. But how quickly things change, so let’s break down the FDIC coverage limits so you can protect yourself
The standard FDIC insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank. So if you’re married and have a Joint bank account, your assets there are insured up to $500,000. Anything under that amount is fully insured. Any cash or savings with that institution above that amount are uninsured.
There are some other nuanced rules for other types of accounts and entities, like trust accounts, but applying the general rule of $250,000 in coverage per depositor per bank is going to be applicable in most cases.
So if you have a lot of cash or savings with your bank in excess of this amount, the prudent thing to do is to spread your deposits among enough banks to always maintain the coverage limits.
[Note - you don’t have to do this with all of your investments, keeping $250k at all financial institutions - doesn’t apply to investments, since those assets aren’t on the balance sheet of the financial institution. SIPC protections & additional insurance which will most often be fully insured and protected, and risk of investment itself].
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
There was a good opinion piece by the editorial board at the WSJ last week after the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank was announced:
“For the second time in 15 years (excluding the brief Covid-caused panic), regulators will have encouraged a credit mania, and then failed to foresee the financial panic when the easy money stopped. Democrats and the press corps may try to pin the problem on bankers or the Trump Administration, but these are political diversions.
You can’t run the most reckless monetary and fiscal experiment in history without the bill eventually coming due. The first invoice arrived as inflation. The second has come as a financial panic, with economic damage that may not end with Silicon Valley Bank”
It certainly is frustrating to see that the risks for Silicon Valley Bank were in plain sight but regulators didn’t do anything about it.
Thankfully in the short-term, I don’t think this will look like 2008, and the result of all of this will not be the total financial collapse and contagion spreading, but just more costly and ineffective regulations on banks that in the end will only lead to higher costs and fees for the average American, while doing little to nothing to prevent the next bank run.
So while it’s frustrating to know that this could have been prevented by better management at the bank and better oversight by regulators, the point I want to make in today’s podcast is that it’s scary and you might even be angry when something like this happens, but it doesn’t mean it's time to panic.
NO doubt in the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank failure, people did panic. I know of one person who went down to their bank and pulled out several thousand dollars to put in their safe at home. This is an emotional and bad decision. The money is much safer at the bank then in your safe at home.
Many investors also took this as a sign of just the beginning of a collapse and sold. Thankfully, it doesnt seem to have happened en masse since the stock market didn’t budge that much in the day following the regulators stepping in and taking over. You’ll hear this episode about a week after I record so it remains to be seen how much investors panic and sell.
The worst thing you could do…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
Today I’m talking about the problem with bank bailouts and moral hazard, and how stoping a contagion in the banking system today leads to more problems in the future because of moral hazard.
On Sunday, March 12th, regulators announced that they would give depositors of Silicon Valley Bank access to their funds, not just those that were covered by FDIC insurance. This is important because roughly 97% of all deposits at SVB were not covered by the FDIC insurance limit, and the millions of dollars that some depositors had a SVB would have been reduced to $250,000 overnight.
Since regulators stepped in to back all deposits, the next question is:Are all uninsured deposits now covered by government guarantees?
No. The regulators said they were making an exception for SVB and Signature (which also collapsed at the same time as SVB).
If you recall from September 2008, it was the government’s refusal to bailout Lehman Bros after their collapse, that is widely accepted as the tipping point of the Global Financial Crisis. But 6 months prior to that, Bear Stearns collapsed and was bailed out.
So its likely that Lehman, AIG, and other troubled banks with garbage balance sheets assumed that they could be bailed out too. And if they made that assumption, they would have been slow to act. It’s possible that Lehman could have found a buyer as things started to head south to prevent a bankruptcy. And they certainly would have taken on less risk with their CredDefSwaps and other risky investments if they didn’t have the backstop of the government.
This played out the same way for SVB. By the time SVB tried raising capital to keep things afloat, it was too little too late, and it was too far gone.
When the regulators step in it’s controversial, because it creates what is known as a “moral hazard”. It’s like the parents who will always bail their kids out no matter what. When the kids know this, they feel untouchable and certain kids will take advantage of the situation by doing crazy and stupid stuff and feel invincible all the while. Well as you and I both know, that behavior, if it continues will catch up to you someday with often catastrophic consequences.
That’s moral hazard, and the same is true for banks if the government will always backstop them in a crisis. They and their customers have no incentive to manage their risk or act prudently, because Daddy Government will always step in and save the day. That poor incentive structure and the risky behavior encourages is scary when the US Financial system is put to the test as a result.
Banks and regulators should have learned more from the 2008 financial crisis, but SVB is proving that’s not always the case. Especially in the banking world, where it seems like the management made poor decisions and mistakes. These mistakes were in plain view of regulators months ago when they started racking up the losses, but nothing was done about it, and here we are today.
So when you once again have regulators stepping in to backstop all deposits, unfortunately no one learns from their mistakes and we can expect more of the same in the future.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
Today I’m talking about what happened with Silicon Valley Bank.
Customer base: SVB catered to venture capital, tech startups, and even crypto, all of which have pretty much dried up in the last year, so when customers started taking their money out, there was no fresh capital coming in to offset withdrawals, they were forced to start selling assets to raise the funds to satisfy customer withdrawals. And this is the problem. Silicon Valley Bank had tied up a lot of their assets in treasuries that didn’t mature for several years. After the Fed started aggressively raising rates last year, those treasury bonds on their books started to rack up massive losses - $17 billion by the end of 2022. Then, once they have to sell those treasuries to pay out customer withdrawal requests, the losses are realized, & now they forced to sell their treasury bonds at huge losses, and because of these massive losses, SVB tried to raise additional capital from investors, which they were unable to do.
Then in the 2nd week of March, bank customers started to get really spooked, and more customers because to withdraw their money, creating a death spiral continued to unravel rapidly until collapse and the FDIC had to step in to shut the bank down on Friday, March 10.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-bank-svb-financial-what-is-happening-299e9b65?mod=markets_major_pos2
Even though SVB is in a niche market that made it especially exposed to this type of situation, the contagion spread to other banks with stocks of several other regional banks tanking in the aftermath.
As of this recording, it’s uncertain how far the contagion will spread, but it seems unlikely to spread far at this point, because on Sunday, March 12th, “Regulators including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury Department said the depositors of SVB, which failed last week, would have full access to their money starting Monday. They also said they would protect all the depositors of another bank, Signature Bank, that was forced to close on Sunday.” - https://www.wsj.com/articles/were-banks-just-bailed-out-by-the-government-6b0a582f?mod=markets_major_pos2
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Why Banks Are Going Bust & What To Do About It
Now, I was actually going to talk about a completely different topic this week, but then Silicon Valley Bank failed as I was getting ready to record, I started getting client emails, and shivers down my spine as I recalled the experience of Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros going bust at the onset of the global financial crisis, and I thought I better switch gears to help you make sense of what’s happening with Silicon Valley Bank, one of the largest bank failures in US history.
So this week, I’ll talk about what happened with Silicon Valley Bank, the implications for investors and the banking system as a whole, and most importantly what you can do to protect yourself.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll break down what led to the collapse at SVB.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Bargains In Housing…They’re Coming
- The Opportunity To Downsize
- Buying A Second Home?
- Consider Intra-Family Loans
- What To Do About Your HELOC
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: The Downside of Being Wealthy
Many people pursue more wealth, without really thinking about the downside of having more and growing your net worth. But it’s important to be grounded in reality when it comes to building wealth - because there are pros and cons to having more. So next week, we’ll explore the downside of being wealthy to keep you grounded in reality when it comes to how having more will actually benefit you.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates.
Today, I’m talking about how to handle a HELOC or a home equity line of credit in this current higher interest rate environment.
Tapping into your home equity in years past made a lot more sense if you needed to make a large purchase - like a new car, or a home remodel, and you didn’t already have the cash on hand to do it. Since interest rates were so low for so long, as long as you had equity in your house, it made a lot more sense than selling other assets to fund large purchases.
But since rates have shot up, the math for tapping into a HELOC or any sort of cash out refinance has changed significantly. Rates are often higher than current mortgage rates - currently averaging around 8%, and many of these loans are variable, so if interest rates head higher, your HELOC rate and your payments will climb along with it.
The point here is that since the math doesn;t work any more with HELOC rates being so much higher, it changes the decision making process. For many, unless it’s necessary, the smart thing to do would just be to hold off on the big purchase. It’s anyone’s guess how long rates will stay higher and it’s possible that we won’t see rates drop back down to the previous 3% range for years.
Higher rates may also justify selling other assets to pay for a large purchase, or saving up more cash and investing
If I was planning to make a large purchase in the next 3-5 years, I would save up as much as I could every month, and invest it in something conservative - like a portfolio that has mostly bonds or CDs. I can earn over 4.5% on a money market fund right now, and if rates start to drop, I can migrate that savings to lock in the rate buy purchasing CDs that match my timeline for whatever purchase I’m saving for.
With rates on HELOCs high, a little patience and a lot of added savings will help keep interest costs lower, and provide more flexibility as well.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates.
Today, I’m talking about a common goal that many parents have when it comes to their adult children - helping them buy their first house. My parents and my in laws both helped us with the down payment on our first home, and looking back, it was an incredible gift that I am very thankful for. Because of the help from our parents, we were able to put a meaningful amount of cash down and keep our mortgage payments very affordable. Then, 5 years later when we sold that house and moved to our current home, we had plenty of equity to transfer over and without that initial down payment, we wouldn’t have been able to buy our current home, that now houses our family of 6 + our dog.
One attractive option for parents looking to help their children buy their first home is an intra-family loan. Basically, the bank of mom or dad or both loans money to a child borrower for the purchase of a house. You have to follow a certain set of guidelines for the loan to qualify and not be deemed a gift instead, but if you do it right, it helps both you and your child in several ways:
- The interest costs paid by the child stay in the family (to be used by the parents)
- Origination and other transaction fees may be avoided;
- And the biggest benefit in today’s market: the borrowing cost for the child is typically much lower than interest rates from the bank; the rates for these loans are set by AFR or applicable federal rates, which are currently 3.74% as of early March 2023. Compare that to the national average on a 30yr fixed mortgage right now, that recently topped 7% again.
Now obviously the risk of loaning to your child is real those payments could stop if they lose their job or something catastrophic happens, so the risk is higher than owning a diversified bond portfolio, but the interest rate paid to you as a lender is still better than what the parents can earn from a bond portfolio.
Obviously, you need to have the assets to make an intra family loan pencil out, but if you do have the assets and your child is looking to buy a house, it’s a great strategy to consider with even more appeal when rates are higher.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates.
Today, I’m talking about the opportunity to purchase a 2nd home - whether that’s a rental, a snowbird spot, or a vacation home, a decline in housing prices means an even greater decline for popular vacation or 2nd home destinations. During the global financial crisis in 2008, vacation home sales dropped 30% and prices came down 23% in just one year from 2007 to 2008.
Obviously we’re not there yet, but you can take steps today if you’re serious about it:
- Start shopping & decide on places you would consider buying and understand what’s happening in the market (corporate buyers are already exiting)
-
Story about central OR, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina - seriously considering a move
-
Save as much as possible and invest it in 1 year CD or Treasuries or money market where the money will be safe but grow while you wait
- Crunch the numbers and figure out what you can afford, so you’ll know when the values come down to a more reasonable level and when you’re ready to buy…you don’t need to wait until the bottom (we bought our first house in Jan 2009 when prices came down, but didn’t bottom for another couple of years). Fixed rate mortgages are high, but ARMs are cheaper if you can deal with the potential uncertainty that your interest rate will increase
- Be patient - this could take years to fully materialize - market cycles can be long and the last downturn in housing took about 10 years to get back to peak housing levels, so there is no rush and you have time to be prudent.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates.
Today, I’m talking about what I think is the biggest opportunity that exists with the current housing and mortgage market - the opportunity to downsize.
- Sell and pay cash with equity and savings, or significantly reduce mortgage - cash is king
- Moving to a more desirable location - Buyers also will have the upper hand in a handful of cities where prices are set to fall or are already on the decline. That includes high-growth cities like Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and even Boise, Idaho, as well as coastal California and the Pacific Northwest, where prices could fall by 10% or more - https://www.investopedia.com/us-housing-faces-ugly-transition-in-2023-7111840
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates.
Today I’m talking about why I think we’re just at the beginning of price declines in housing.
- Personal savings rate has plummeted to levels not seen in 15 years, dropping to about 3% in 2022 from a peak of over 30% in the early days of the pandemic. After inflation took hold, the checks from the federal government stopped, and post-pandemic life largely resumed to normal, Americans started rapidly depleting those savings. Since 1960, personal savings rates have been well above 5%. The only other time savings rates have been this low were just before the financial crisis in 2008, when they hovered in the 3% range in the years leading up to that.
- The problem here, is that Americans have no more breathing room in their finances, so it’s a house of cards for many. Homeowners may have equity in their homes, but they don’t have the ability to weather an economic storm like a job loss.
- The housing market has already cooled significantly, and it’s only a matter of time in my opinion - probably later in 2023, that businesses will feel the pain of lower spending by consumers, and higher costs to service their debt, and you’ll see layoffs and job losses accelerate.
- No income and no savings is a bad combo for housing prices that have already been in decline.
- In many places, housing prices have cooled, but I would expect a freeze over and more people in a position of needing to sell because of needing to relocate for work, they lost their job, they needed to start paying on their student loans again, and the math just doesn’t work - they can no longer afford the house they bought
- With inflation being stubborn, interest rates will simply not go down anytime soon and there’s a reckoning coming, because the house of cards that many Americans have built relies on the economy continuing to grow and keeping their job. Both of which are unlikely to continue in this rising interest rate environment.
- So it seems reasonable then, that bargains in housing are coming.
- I’ll talk later this week about specific areas where this could benefit you, but especially if you’re looking to buy a 2nd home, looking to downsize, or looking to move to a desirable location that has recently become unaffordable, you can benefit from the downward pressure on house prices that I think will accelerate in 2023.
- I think in some markets, especially the hottest ones with the eye-popping jump in prices - you’ll see the biggest declines there - possibly 20-30% or more as prices finally come back down to reality. And if you’re house declines in value too - you still benefit unless you’re trying to sell in one of the overheated areas. If you’re house loses 5% in value, you still benefit if your new home has dropped 20% in value
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates
Most of the media pieces out there bemoan higher interest rates as a negative, and it is of course a huge problem for anyone with variable interest rate debt like credit cards, or anyone trying to tap into their home equity line of credit, buy a car or a house right now and get mortgage at 7%...no thank you. But there’s a great article that came out a few weeks ago that talks about ways to benefit from higher interest rates.
So this week, I’ll talk about how higher interest rates can potentially benefit you in a variety of ways…and in some ways you may not have considered before.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about why further price declines in housing are coming, why I think it’s going to get ugly, and how you can take advantage of a housing market that’s in disarray.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
01It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was:The Single Biggest Threat To Your Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- How most people perceive their retirement risks all wrong, and what the real risks to your retirement is…topping the list: longevity
- The real problem with longevity risk, and why most people aren’t protected against it
- What to do about it (3 parts)
The most important takeaway from this week is: to recognize that longevity risk is the single biggest threat to your retirement, and to understand ways to mitigate that risk in your own situation to reduce the chance that you’ll run out of money in retirement
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: How Pre-Retiree Homeowners Can Benefit From Higher Interest Rates
It may not be the best time to refinance your mortgage, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities for homeowners in this current higher interest rate environment. So next week, I’ll talk about some opportunities that exist for homeowners today - especially if you’re close to retirement and considering paying off your mortgage, moving, or downsizing.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: the single biggest threat to your retirement
Today, I’m talking about the last thing you’ll want to do to protect yourself against longevity risk, and that is Have a plan B.
This will mean different things to different people, and it’s something you;ll need to take action on in advance, before you’re 85, broke, and considering moving back in with your children.
Some options to consider:LTC insurance, a reverse mortgage, keep more cash on hand to reduce portfolio withdrawals during market declines, be willing to practice austerity and cut back.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: the single biggest threat to your retirement
Today, I’m talking about what to do about your own longevity risk, part 2. Yesterday I talked about the most important thing you should do about your longevity risk, which is to simply plan to live at least until your life expectancy, if not longer when making decisions for your retirement.
So if you’ve done that, then what? The second thing you can do to address your own longevity risk is to stick to a sustainable, tax-efficient (withdrawal order), withdrawal rate (ideally no more than 3-4%) & prioritize portfolio income in retirement (to help you generate the necessary and growing stream of income you’ll need to combat against inflation over a multi-decade retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: the single biggest threat to your retirement
Today, I’m talking about what you can and should do to mitigate longevity risk in your own situation. This episode is part one of 3 episodes where I’ll cover what you can do to mitigate this single biggest threat to your own retirement.
Plan to live at least to your life expectancy and make decisions with that assumption - SSI’s calculator: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/population/longevity.html - 60 yo female today has a life expectancy of 86 For men, it’s 83. I usually advise clients to plan on living to be age 90 as a worst case longevity scenario, so you can make decisions with that timeline in mind. Take into account both spouses when married, since the money will need to last for both of you.
That means you’ll want to decide when to retire based on your life expectancy vs. planning to only live until age 75 or 80. And making social security and pension claiming decisions with that same life expectancy in mind.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: the single biggest threat to your retirement
Today, I’m talking about The Problem With Longevity Risk
Essentially living a long time and spending 25-30 years in retirement vs. only spending 10-15 years in retirement, means you're going to potentially spend down a lot more of your assets. And since we don’t know our expiration date, it’s a big question mark, that not only is draining on your assets, but also impacts decisions you make about retirement.
The real problem then with longevity risk, is that when you account for inflation and taxes, most people simply don’t have the assets to support themselves for a 30 year retirement, and if they live too long and spend down their assets, they run out of money before they run out of years.
So the first step in mitigating longevity risk is to not underestimate it’s effects on your money. Underestimating how long you’ll live impacts decisions - just the SSI decision alone could cost over $500k of income you didn’t collect if you decide to take it at 62 vs. waiting longer and then you end up living to your life expectancy, you permanently reduced your income in retirement which means you also lowered your lifestyle or perhaps needlessly suffered, not being able to go on vacation or afford a plane ticket to see your grandkids, because you simply didn’t have enough money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: the single biggest threat to your retirement
Today, I’m talking about a recent study that highlights the disconnect between what most people think is their biggest threat in retirement vs. their actual biggest threat.
A 2022 study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that the three main sources of objective risk, from highest to lowest, are longevity, health, and market risk, In contrast, the subjective rankings show that market risk tops the list, which reflects retirees’ exaggerated assessments of market volatility. Perceived longevity risk and health risk rank lower, because retirees are pessimistic about their survival probabilities and often underestimate their health costs in late life.
Source: https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/IB_22-10.pdf
In short, retirees are focusing on the wrong risks and not giving enough weight to longevity risk, which is the risk of living longer than expected and exhausting one’s resources.
“This may distort the decisions people make, including the age at which they decide to retire, and how they decide to spend and invest their money once they are in retirement, according to Wenliang Hou, who authored the research.”
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/05/retirees-may-be-focusing-on-wrong-risks-to-their-financial-security.html#:~:text=Instead%2C%20longevity%20%E2%80%94%20the%20prospect%20retirees,and%20perceived%20risks%20for%20retirees
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about The Single Biggest Threat To Your Retirement
So this week…I’ll talk about what this threat is, why most people underestimate and fail to plan well for this threat, and how you can protect yourself from this greatest threat.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
The most important takeaway from this week is:bonds always have a place in your portfolio for investors in their 50s and older. But like anything else worth investing in, you need to be discerning and smart about how you can invest, to maximize your income while minimizing risk.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme:The Single Biggest Threat To Your Retirement
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023?
Today, I’m talking about how to reposition your bond portfolio in 2023 if you find yourself in one of 2 scenarios…Couple common scenarios:
- Not enough bonds/too high allocation to stocks
- Too many long-term or low quality bonds that are worrisome and risky
Here’s how to reposition your portfolio for higher bond income
- Sell lower quality bonds even if at a loss
- Patience with other bonds or funds - wait for maturity or sell a portion of larger holdings with low yields.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023?
Today, I’m talking about areas that I like in the bond market today…now, this isn’t just how I’m positioning client portfolios in 2023. I think these areas of the bond market are perennially attractive and deserve a place in portfolios for most investors nearing or in retirement:
- The best place to invest your bond portfolio today
- Short to intermediate term bonds - up to 5-7 year maturities
- High quality (investment grade)
- Corporate bonds, CDs, floating rate bonds, TIPS
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023?
Today, I’m talking about pockets of the bond market that you should avoid in 2023, and 2 stand out:
- Long-term bonds (not rewarded) - risky if rates continue higher
- Junk, low quality, less liquid bonds - economy deteriorates = defaults
- Easy money for low-quality businesses for too long. That’s all changing now that rates are higher (explain debt service for higher debt companies, eating into profits, not able to refi, death spiral
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023?
Today, I’m talking about Why bonds always have a place in your portfolio:
Stability & Income
Why it’s a mistake to shun bonds…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023?
Today, I’m talking about the current state of the bond market
Investors are walking away from U.S. stock-market funds, into bonds - https://stocks.apple.com/AAS_M8lE2RsukblYvc0y8nw
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about whether or not its Time To Load Up On Bonds In 2023
[bonds out of favor for my entire career…constantly defending bonds…]
But that’s all changing for 2023: After a dismal year for bonds in 2022 (the worst calendar year performance in history in fact), investors are now looking seriously at bonds again. For the first time in 15 years, yields on bonds are attractive and in 2023, investors are more optimistic that the Fed will slow down the pace of rate hikes, which means both higher income and yield from bonds and more price stability in your bond portfolio as well.
So this week we’ll take a closer look at the bond market, areas you want to avoid and opportunities that exist for bond investors in 2023.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the current state of the bond market.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was:
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Increasing RMD Age Under SECURE 2.0 Act
- How To Take Advantage Of The Increasing RMD Age
- Expanded Roth Contributions
- Retirement Plan Catch Up Contributions
- Emergency Savings & Other Key Provisions of SECURE 2.0 Act
The most important takeaway from this week is that this massive piece of retirement-focused legislation brings changes that impact nearly everyone. By understanding these changes and using them to your advantage - either through waiting longer on RMDs, looking seriously at Roth conversions or additional contributions, or by fully taking advantage of higher catchup contributions, you’ll be able to bolster your own retirement savings accounts in the final years leading up to retirement.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Time to load up on bonds?
After a dismal year for bonds in 2022 (the worst calendar year performance in history in fact), investors are now looking seriously at bonds again. For the first time in 15 years, yields on bonds are attractive and in 2023, investors are more optimistic that the Fed will slow down the pace of rate hikes, which means both higher income and yield from bonds and more price stability in your bond portfolio as well.
So next week we’ll take a closer look at the bond market and where opportunities exist for bond investors in 2023.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: SECURE 2.0 Act & The BIG Changes You Need To Know
Today, I’m talking about some of the other key provisions from Secure 2.0 Act. Previously this week, I’ve focused on some of the provisions most likely to impact you, but this is a big piece of legislation with many other key provisions as well. Here are just a few additional ones that might apply to you:
- Emergency savings account - Beginning in 2024, employers can establish an emergency savings account where employees can save up to $2,500 in a Roth-style account. Distributions will be treated like a qualified distribution from a Roth account (tax-free if requirements are met).
- 529 Plan Rollovers to Roth IRAs - Starting in 2024, beneficiaries of 529 plans may roll over up to $35,000 during their lifetime to a Roth IRA. The rollovers will be subject to annual contribution limits and the 529 plan must have been open for more than 15 years.
- Exemption from 10% early withdrawal penalty for 401k hardships - In case of financial hardship, up to $1,000 may be withdrawn per year, penalty free, from a 401(k) or IRA. The employee has the option to repay the distribution within 3 years. No further distributions will be permitted during the repayment period unless the distribution is paid in full.
- Reduced penalty on RMD failures - Reduced excise tax for failure to take required distributions from 50% to 25%.
- Lost & Found database - The Labor Department will create a national online searchable lost and found database.
As you can see, the SECURE 2.0 Act has a lot of different provisions, and hopefully this week I’ve raised your awareness of what these key provisions are & how they might apply to you, so you can use these changes to your advantage when saving and planning for your own retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: SECURE 2.0 Act & The BIG Changes You Need To Know
Today, I’m talking about a key provision from SECURE 2.0 Act that applies to catch-up contributions for retirement accounts. Now listen closely, because this one is a bit complicated:
Starting January 1, 2025, individuals ages 60 through 63 years old will be able to make catch-up contributions up to $10,000 annually to a workplace plan, and that amount will be indexed to inflation.
Notice that this applies to people 60-63, whereas the current catch-up amount is for people age 50 and older and that amount is currently $7,500.
[example - maxing out 401k but you want to do more…]
And it doesn’t go into effect immediately, but starting in 2025.
One other caveat: If you earn more than $145,000 in the prior calendar year, all catch-up contributions at age 50 or older will need to be made to a Roth account in after-tax dollars. Individuals earning $145,000 or less, adjusted for inflation going forward, will be exempt from the Roth requirement.
This caveat in the new rule applies to catch-up contributions for 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457(b) plans, but not to catch-up contributions for IRAs, including SIMPLE IRAs, and 401(k) and similar workplace plans can include a Roth component, but they are not required to do so.
IRAs currently have a $1,000 catch-up contribution limit for people age 50 and over. Starting in 2024, that limit will be indexed to inflation, meaning it could increase every year, based on federally determined cost-of-living increases. We don’t yet know what that amount will be or how much the catch up contribution will be, but the bottom line is that if you are already maxing out your 401k or IRA accounts, you’re over 50 years old and you want to do more, you’ll likely be able to do that starting next year depending on the types of accounts you’re contributing to and what’s allowed by your employer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: SECURE 2.0 Act & The BIG Changes You Need To Know
Today, I’m talking about the significant changes to Roth accounts in SECURE 2.0 Act. It’s probably my favorite set of provisions in the new Act, and it’s important to take note of these so you don’t miss the opportunity to get more of your retirement dollars into Roth accounts and enjoy the tax-free growth and future tax-free withdrawals that come along with it.
Employers will be able to provide employees the option of receiving vested matching contributions to Roth accounts. Previously, matching in employer-sponsored plans were made on a pre-tax basis. [go through example of this]
Now keep in mind that retirement plans and payroll providers will need to actually offer this as an option, which can take time, so it’s likely not going to be a change you’ll see right away.
Another new opportunity if you are covered by a SIMPLE or a SEP IRA through your work is that you can now have a SIMPLE Roth account, as well as SEP Roth IRAs, for 2023 and beyond. Previously, SIMPLE and SEP plans could only include pre-tax, not Roth funds.
However, if this applies to you, don’t get too excited. Even though you can now create and contribute to Roth SIMPLE and SEP IRA accounts beginning January 1, 2023, as Jeff Levine, writing for Kitces.com points out: “it will likely take at least some time before employers, custodians, and the IRS are able to implement the procedures and policies necessary to actually effectuate such contributions.”
When hearing of all of these positive changes to Roth accounts, you may be asking yourself, what’s the catch? Why would Congress allow more access and flexibility with Roth accounts, which lowers their tax revenue down the road.
Well, Congress is as short-sighted as the rest of us, and as that same article on Kitces.com points out: “the changes highlight Congress’s continued march toward ‘Rothification’, perhaps in an effort to grab tax revenue now in order to make Federal budget estimates look better (or at least less bad).”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: SECURE 2.0 Act & The BIG Changes You Need To Know
Today, I’m talking about how you can take advantage of the increasing RMD age to 73 this year, and age 75 in 2033. If you missed yesterday, I explained this important change in detail, so go back and have a listen to episode 1578 for a detailed explainer on this change.
Moving on to the planning implications and some things to consider with this new change:
- Pushing back the RMDs is always welcome news, because it provides more flexibility. You may still end up withdrawing money from your IRA, 401k or other retirement accounts before you reach your RMD age, but the nice thing is you won’t be mandated to withdraw a certain percentage of your account until age 73 or 75, depending on when you were born, and that added flexibility potentially keeps your taxes lower for longer in retirement. This has a ripple effect on your retirement planning, since putting off retirement-account income for a few more years, can also reduce your Medicare Part B/D premiums. That’s because every dollar you withdraw from your retirement accounts counts as income, and this income is what’s used to calculate your Medicare premiums with higher earning households paying higher incomes.
-
Another important financial planning implication of the pushback in RMD age is that you will now have a few more years of potentially tax-efficient Roth conversions
- Explain - income lower in retirement, so it’s an ideal time to consider Roth conversions. Now you have anywhere from 1-3 more years to make those Roth conversions than you previously did, without RMDs increasing your income in conversion years and complicating the decision.
In addition, the penalty for failing to take an RMD will decrease to 25% of the RMD amount, from 50% currently, and 10% if corrected in a timely manner for IRAs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: SECURE 2.0 Act & The BIG Changes You Need To Know
Today, I’m talking about the biggest change with the new SECURE 2.0 Act to take effect in 2023 - the increasing required minimum distribution or RMD age from 72 to 73 this year, and eventually up to age 75 in 10 years in 2033.
Here’s what this new change means: The age at which owners of retirement accounts must start taking RMDs will go up to age 73, starting January 1, 2023.
The previous starting age under the original SECURE Act to take RMDs was 72, so you’ll now have one more year that you could delay taking your RMD from IRAs, 401ks, and other tax-deferred retirement savings accounts.
And of course, we wouldn’t have a new rule for RMDs, without a couple of confusing and complicating factors. The first is that if you turned 72 in 2022 or earlier, you will need to continue taking RMDs, since you’ve already started.
But if you’re turning 72 this year or later, again the age that you need to start goes up to age 73, so you won’t need to take your first mandatory distribution until the end of the calendar year that you turn 73. The other complicating factor is that the RMD age will eventually go up to 75, but not for 10 years, in 2033.
In effect, if you were born in 1950 or earlier, your RMD age is 72. If you were born in 1951-1959, your RMD age is 73, and if you were born in 1960 or later, your RMD age will be 75.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow I’ll talk about some things you’ll want to think about and some potential financial planning implications with this new change to RMDs. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about the SECURE 2.0 Act & The BIG Changes You Need To Know.
The original version of the SECURE Act passed and was signed into law in late 2019. With the original SECURE Act, there were several major changes that impact retirement plans…the biggest one being
In 2022, Congress passed an expansion of the original SECURE Act, with more far-reaching implications for nearly all retirement investors. The good news is that these implications are largely positive changes, so this week, I’ll break down some of the key provisions of the new SECURE 2.0 Act to help you better understand what it will mean for you and your retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the change that impacts every single one of you if you have an IRA or a retirement savings account through work, and that is the increase in the required minimum distribution age.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 2
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Decide Where You'll Live
- Increase Your Emergency Savings
- Re-Allocate Your Investment Portfolio
- Structure Your Time To Avoid Boredom
- Consolidate & Simplify Assets
Some additional must do items that landed on the cutting room floor, but are also worthy of consideration: Update your estate plan, create a plan B (i.e. part time work), maximize your savings in the last 5-10 years before retirement (including HSA), plan for a Roth conversion in early years of retirement
The most important takeaway from this week is…by ticking these boxes, you’ll be preparing yourself for a smooth transition into retirement, and you’ll avoid many of the traps that people fall into like not having enough cash on hand for emergencies and having an investment portfolio that’s too aggressively invested and misaligned with your age and stage of life - just 2 examples of what I talked about this week.
Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: SECURE Act 2.0 & The BIG Changes You Need To Know
One of the biggest pieces of legislation to pass that will impact the vast majority of you in retirement is SECURE Act 2.0, which just became law. Next week, I’ll break down some of the most important aspects of the new law to help you better understand what it will mean for you and your retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 2
Today, I’m talking about the importance of consolidating and simplifying your assets.
[Why retirement is an ideal time to do this]
Motivating factor for many new clients to work with me. They want to have a strategy and a plan before they retire, they want their assets in one place, and they want someone to manage everything for them so they don’t have to worry about it.
What to consolidate
- Investment accounts at different financial institutions
- No need to diversify in this way (SIPC + additional coverage)
-
Makes things much easier to track - everything from understanding your entire portfolio performance, to getting monthly statements & annual tax filings is simple and streamlined
-
Old 401ks and other workplace retirement plans - then once you retire, you can rollover your current 401k or workplace retirement plan into an IRA account and have everything in one place.
-
It’s not time consuming. It usually takes just about 2-4 weeks from start to finish to get everything in one place, and usually you’re not the one doing the legwork - you can accomplish it by signing a few forms. The financial institution you’re consolidating assets with takes care of the rest
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You also may decide that you don't want the headaches of owning other assets like real estate - many people start divesting some assets accumulated in working years, but decide they no longer want the headaches associated with being a landlord, or owning more than one home, etc.
Lastly, looking more long-term its much easier for your spouse and your heirs to deal with your estate when you have assets consolidated in one place when you pass away. The complications of having a bunch of different assets scattered about creates stress and confusion in an already stressful time for your family. So do yourself a favor now, and your family a favor down the road but consolidating and simplifying your assets before you retire.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 2
Today, I’m talking about structuring Your Time To Avoid Boredom.
Usually after the first few months or once you’ve completed all those projects you’ve put off for years because you were always working, research shows that many retirees become bored, which can lead to anxiety and depression.
There are also the social contacts at work that need to be replaced by spending time with friends and family so you don’t feel isolated and lonely.
In fact, loneliness is a big problem for Americans. The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration has declared a “loneliness epidemic,” specifically citing the increasing phenomena of “no participation in social groups, fewer friends, and strained relationships” as the culprits.
We all know about the loneliness and dramatic increases in depression and anxiety caused by the social isolation during the pandemic. But even prior to Covid in 2018, one survey found that 46 percent of Americans felt alone, and 43 percent of Americans felt that their relationships were not meaningful.
Author, Arthur Brooks states: “Numerous studies have shown that one of the great markers for happiness among people at midlife and beyond is people who can rattle off the names of a few authentic, close friends. It is not necessary that they be numerous to achieve happiness, and, in fact, people tend to get more selective about their friends as they age and reduce the number of true intimates.”
The point is that it’s important to invest in relationships and new hobbies now, before you enter your retirement years. What hobbies have you neglected, or what new hobbies would you like to try? Try them now, while you’re still working. That way, you’ll be able to meet new friends and people who share your interests.
Investing the time into existing friendships and spending more time with your family now is crucial…[story of making a list - helping me invest in spending time with the people I care about most].
Another important way to structure your time is to get more involved in your church or charities you’re passionate about, and spend more time volunteering.
A few years ago, we had a psychologist come and give a talk to our clients about retirement. One of the things she talked about was making sure that ½ of your time is structured in retirement.
As someone with small kids, I’ve come to appreciate the structure and predictability of a routine and a rhythm to life. I resisted it for several years, but as a way to maintain my sanity as a parent of 4 small children, I’ve created structure and routines so my kids know what to expect, and they feel secure in not wandering aimlessly from day to day and week to week. The same structure and routine that benefits little kids is useful for retirees too, since it keeps you active, and ensures that you won’t fill all of your days with bingewatching Netflix or YouTube, all of which will help keep boredom, anxiety, and depression at bay.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 2
Today, I’m talking about re-allocating your portfolio to match your risk tolerance and income needs.
One of the main problems I see with someone’s investment portfolio as they approach retirement is that it doesn’t match up with their age and stage in life. Sometimes it’s too conservatively invested, hampering growth, but most of the time the portfolio is invested far too aggressively, sometimes with 80% in stocks or more. This can be disastrous if not fixed in the years leading up to retirement.
With losses in many portfolios exceeding 15-20% in 2022, this should be instructive & motivating in helping you to re-allocate your portfolio prior to retirement.
Step 1 - getting to the right allocation before retirement. What is the right allocation? The right balance varies based on a number of factors, but for someone approaching retirement, it should be around 50-65% in stocks for most people. (age-weighted AA cheat sheet)
Step 2 - focusing the portfolio on income - dividend paying and growing stocks and bonds that generate income. Thankfully with interest rates heading higher, bonds investments that actually pay decent income are easier to find.
It’s very important that your portfolio is re-allocated before retirement so you don’t suffer big losses in the couple years before and the couple years after retirement. This could force you to work longer, if a quarter of your nest egg is wiped out in a significant down market, and the more in stocks you have, the worse the drop will be and the longer it will take for your portfolio to recover, potentially forcing you to push back your retirement date, just to make up for the bad timing of wanting to retire when a bad bear market hits your portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 2
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself financially in retirement, and that is beefing up your cash savings. You’ll want more cash on hand in retirement than you might have needed while working, but you want to take advantage of the fact that you’re still working and still have income coming in to beef up that bank account balance BEFORE you retire. It’s going to be a lot harder to increase your cash savings post-retirement, since you’ll be needing to use your assets to live on at that time.
So why do you need more cash in retirement? Why isn’t a few thousand dollars or 3-6 months worth of expenses in the bank enough? Well, those rules no longer apply when you’re retired for a couple of reasons:
First of all, you’ll want to consider maintaining even more cash for emergencies in retirement because you’re no longer working. When you’re retired, and the older you are, the harder it is to go out and find a part-time job or a side gig. So if you have a sudden and unexpected expense or medical bills, paying for your emergency with a high interest credit card or having to liquidate your retirement portfolio, can be devastating and can completely derail your retirement plans. So we need lots of cash on hand in retirement.
The other reason why you want to keep a lot of cash on hand that can save you in times of market downturns, recession, and crisis, is so you can reduce or suspend all together your portfolio withdrawals. If your portfolio drops 10 or 20%, you make that drop significantly worse but also taking money out, and exacerbate the downturn in your portfolio. So having cash on hand will allow you to stop some of the bleeding and suspend your portfolio withdrawals in a market downturn. When you can do this, especially if it happens in the early years of retirement, you give yourself a better shot of not running out of money in retirement and preserving more of what you have in the downturn.
Now that I’ve addressed the why behind needing more cash than the standard 3-6 months of cash on hand, let’s talk about how much cash you should have.
At a bare minimum, you’ll want about 6 months worth of monthly expenses on hand for emergencies. So if you spend $5,000/month, you’ll want $30,000 in cash, just for emergencies.
In addition, to protect yourself in the next market downturn, you’ll want to keep another 12 months worth of your portfolio withdrawals on hand. Why? Well the aveage bear market lasts 14 months. Some are shorter, and some of the deeper ones are even longer. So if you can stop your portfolio withdrawals for a year while the stock market is reeling and we’re in the midst of a recession, you can sleep better at night and not make the problem worse. So 12 months of suspended withdrawals from your investment portfolio should be enough, even if the downturn lasts a little longer than that.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 2
Today, I’m talking about deciding where you’ll live in retirement.
Why before? Not necessary of course, and a lot might depend on what happens with the housing market, but I have a client who just bought their snowbird home. They are still a few years away from retirement. Both work remotely since Covid, and they’re in their peak earning years, so it made more sense for them to purchase a home now, so they started wintering in AZ this year, and will eventually move there full-time in retirement.
I liked this plan, because they are still working and their income can easily support both mortgages now, and although they needed to take out a mortgage now, they bought the house when rates were still low, and they will be able to pay it off once they retire and sell their other house.
By wintering in a warmer state, it also makes working longer more palatable, so they can extend their working years. (Not realistic for every one, but that’s why I think it’s important to at least DECIDE where you want to live before you retire, while not necessarily buying a home there yet).
The considerations for moving are multi-faceted - weather, cost of living, estate taxes, housing (palm springs 55+), would you live there full time or part time? How much time would you spend there? If not more than a few months a year, would it make more sense to just rent a place for a month or 2 out of the year?
It’s important to work out where you’ll live long-term in retirement BEFORE you retire, since you have more options available to you while you’re still working and before you make any permanent decisions like transitioning into retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about the 10 things you must do before retirement. This week I’ll be covering part 1, and we’ll continue with part 2 of this theme next week.
Thinking through all the things you should do before you retire can seem overwhelming. But if you focus on doing the right things and start far enough in advance - usually about 2-3 years before you retire - you’ll be better prepared to transition into retirement and you’ll be able to tackle each item without falling behind.
I’ve helped many clients over the years with their transition into retirement, so I’ve seen first hand when they get it all right and when they step on landmines…often landmines that could have been avoided with careful planning.
So this week, I’ll be sharing with you everything from deciding where you’ll live to how much you should increase your emergency savings and why you need to boost it prior to retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the importance of deciding where you’ll live in retirement before you actually retire.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 1
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Make Sure You Have Enough Money To Retire
- Create a Retirement Budget & Withdrawal Strategy
- Estimate How Much You’ll Spend on Health Care
- Plan Your Social Security Filing Strategy
- Pay Off All Debt (Yes, Your Mortgage Too!)
The most important takeaway from this week is…There are several things you can do today to prepare yourself for retirement, and when you focus on the right things - the things that will have the biggest impact for you in retirement, it will help set you up for a successful and smooth transition into retirement.
Tomorrow, we’re continuing with part 2 and 5 more must do things you’ll want to tackle before retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 1
Today, I’m talking about why you should strive to be debt-free before retirement, including your mortgage.
According to 2019 US census data, the median monthly mortgage payment is $1,609. That’s $19,308 mortgage expense per year. $19.308 in annual housing costs that you would carry with you into retirement if you don’t pay off your mortgage.
For most Americans, housing is their largest expense, making up about ⅓ of all household expenses for the average American family. So if you keep that mortgage expense into your retirement years, that’s going to mean a good portion of your fixed monthly cash flow is going to pay the mortgage.
Let’s say you’re 6 years out from retirement, you have 15 years left on your mortgage. If you really get aggressive with your mortgage payments, maybe you can pay it off in 8-10 years. This means that you won’t have a mortgage anymore a couple years into retirement. That will free up the $1,609/mo you were paying toward your mortgage and leave you with more discretionary expenses and less fixed expenses in retirement, freeing you up to spend more on things you enjoy vs. the necessities.
Many people object to this advice because they like the tax deduction, their interest rate is still quite low on their mortgage, and they will earn more on their investments (2022 being an obvious exception to that, but generally those arguments are correct). They’re just not compelling enough compared to the benefit of living in a paid off home and drastically reducing your fixed costs in retirement.
Most of the time, even if it means cutting back on your retirement savings in your final working years, the math should pencil out better for you in retirement if you can eliminate your mortgage vs. saving more in your 401k.
And the closer you are to retirement and paying off your mortgage, the better off you’ll likely be if you pay off your mortgage and focus on that, rather than saving more for retirement.
This applies to all other debts as well. So if you still have some credit card debt or a car loan, or a home equity line of credit that needs to be paid down, you’ll want to get rid of these debts before retirement as well.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 1
Today, I’m talking about planning your social security filing strategy.
What age will you start taking social security? Will you start as early as possible when you retire? Perhaps wait a couple years and plug the gap with higher withdrawals in the first couple years of retirement? Or will you wait until age 70 to start in the hopes that you’ll live long enough to maximize your monthly and lifetime income from SS?
These are all viable options, and the best choice is hard to determine up front, because it’s largely based on your income needs - i.e. do you need to start social security right away or can you afford to wait? Many people simply can’t afford to wait and need to start the income stream from SS as soon as they retire. Others have other income and asset sources to draw from, making the decision a bit more complicated.
The other tricky factor is that none of us know our expiration date, so if you knew in advance that you would live to 75, or 85, or 95, it would make the decision a lot easier. But you can look at your health and your family health history to help you determine a realizstic life expectancy to help make the best decision.
[Explain what we do with clients in side-by-side analysis]
Generally, the longer you expect to live, and the higher your SSI benefit amount will be, the more it makes sense to wait. Doing so will maximize your monthly and lifetime income.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 1
Today, I’m talking about estimating How Much You’ll Spend on Health Care Costs
- Especially if you retire before 65, but even if you’re covered by Medicare, the costs can vary widely depending on a number of factors, so make sure it’s included in your retirement budget
- How to calculate this cost:
- online resources and estimators to help you
- Talk to a health insurance broker who specializes in retirement and medicare health care coverage - just had one on the podcast a few months ago - Tim Becker
- Costs based on a number of factors so it’s important to estimate these costs and work them into your monthly retirement budget
- Type of health insurance coverage and plan you pick
- Premiums and out-of-pocket expenses
- Other factors (like income, age, health status, marital status, state of residence, etc.
- Then make sure it’s included in your retirement spending budget that I discussed yesterday
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 1
Today, I’m talking about creating a Retirement Budget & Withdrawal strategy. This budget should account for:
- Monthly expenses - how to start tracking (3 mos)
- Annual spending (so you don’t forget one-time or non-monthly expenses like your insurance or property taxes)
- Wants like travel
- Include one-time expenses like buying a new car, remodel, weddings, etc.
Part of the budgeting process should also include which accounts will you draw income from and when (discuss order of withdrawals)
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement - Part 1
Today,
- Do a thorough retirement analysis
- According to Schwab's Modern Wealth Index survey, over half of Americans with a written financial plan feel "very confident" about reaching their financial goals, compared to only 18% of those without a plan.
- Go through the process of creating a financial plan for retirement 2-3 years before you retire (explain why)
- Discuss the retirement success forecaster - www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess/
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about the 10 things you must do before retirement. This week I’ll be covering part 1, and we’ll continue with part 2 of this theme next week.
Thinking through all the things you should do before you retire can seem overwhelming. But if you focus on doing the right things and start far enough in advance - usually about 2-3 years before you retire - you’ll be better prepared to transition into retirement and you’ll be able to tackle each item without falling behind.
I’ve helped many clients over the years with their transition into retirement, so I’ve seen first hand when they get it all right and when they step on landmines…often landmines that could have been avoided with careful planning.
So this week, I’ll be sharing with you everything from how to estimate your health care costs to planning for when you’ll file for social security - even if that’s not at the same time as when you retire.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the most important thing you must do before retirement…if you only do one thing, make it the thing I’ll talk about tomorrow.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Financial Resolutions and goals for 2023
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Picking the goal that matters most
- SMART framework for creating goals
- 10 ideas for financial goals you can start implementing in 2023
- Anti-resolutions (or a stop doing x) for 2023, because sometimes the best goal or resolution is to take something off our plate, rather than add something new.
The most important takeaway from this week is…a month into the new year is a great time to re-evaluate your goals for the year, and make sure you’re setting yourself up for financial success for the new year. Hopefully I helped provide you with a framework for setting goals, and some good ideas for financial goals you may want to consider that will be meaningful for you in 2023 and beyond.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: 10 Things You Must Do Before Retirement
I’m sharing with you the top 10 things that everyone should do before they retire. I speak from experience and in working with clients for over 15 years, helping many people transition into retirement, and I see firsthand the successes and the mistakes people make when transitioning into retirement, so next week I’ll help you with some preventive medicine with what you can and should do before retirement to set yourself up for success and avoid some common mistakes.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Financial Resolutions For 2023
Today, I’m talking about a new trend for goals and resolutions that I’ve seen more of in recent years: The anti-resolution. In fact, I came across this just a few weeks ago in the WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/throw-out-your-new-years-resolutions-try-these-antiresolutions-instead-11672705706
Alex Janin, the author of the article states: “Millions of people spend the final days of December coming up with ambitious tasks for the new year. In 2023, resolve to take something off your plate instead.”
An interesting a worthwhile consideration for 2023, is to remove something from your life, your goals, or your to-do list that is not worthwhile or perhaps even stressing you out. Some specific recommendations from the article include: stop weighing yourself, and stop spending money on fitness (whether that’s a gym membership or an app, or a fitness watch you never use).
So it’s an important concept and something to consider, especially if you’re like me and you tend to take on too much, load up your goals and to do list, only to fail because you just couldn’t get it all done. The nice thing about the anti-resolution or the stop doing this goal, is that it frees you up more to focus on what really matters, since when you say no to one thing, it allows you to say yes to something else that is more important.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Financial Resolutions For 2023
Today, I’m continuing from yesterday’s episode with a few more ideas for worthwhile financial goals in 2023.
- Increase retirement savings - get specific on this one. Save a specific % of income. Max employer match, start saving in a HSA and max that out, increase retirement savings to new limits for the year.
- Create a long-term financial plan: If you feel like you need some direction and clarity with your finances but you’re already in a strong financial positon, then 2023 is a great year to create or update your financial plan. A comprehensive financial plan will address how you approach important decisions like when you should retire, and when you should start drawing SSI, to how your portfolio should be allocated between stocks and bonds, to when you should consider a Roth conversion or the remodel on your bathroom. In my opinion, it’s essential that you create a comprehensive financial plan before retirement. We do this for our clients, and if you’re a DIY investor or you work with a financial advisor, you can and should get a plan in place.
- Ditch your bank - not completely, just with the excess cash you have. The interest rates on savings accounts are terrible, so look for somewhere you can stash your cash and earn a better rate. If you have brokerage and investment accounts, that’s where I’d start, since many financial institutions offer money market accounts and short-term CD rates far better than the pennies you’re still earning on your bank account savings
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Create or update your will/trust/estate plan - I am continually surprised how few people have an up to date estate plan, so if that’s you, you’re in good company, but it doesn't mean you should continue with a woefully out of date estate plan.
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Create a financial inventory - accounts, insurance policies, estate documents, information for bank accounts, safe deposit boxes…creating a financial documents master binder
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Financial Resolutions For 2023
Today, I’m offering some suggestions on what I think are some worthwhile financial resolutions or goals for 2023. We’re a month into the new year already, but it’s never too late to implement goals that are worthwhile and will help you be
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Read x number of financial books to improve your knowledge and skillset with money. One of the most common complaints I hear from clients and people I talk to is that they know very little about money, how to manage it, and the people who do get good at this credit experience rather than knowledge to becoming better with their money as time goes on. But there are a wealth of great financial books - all the way from beginner to advanced - allowing you to start where you are. The nice thing about this goal is that it’s not hard, especially if you just start by reading one book about money in 2023. Most people haven’t ever read a single book about money in their entire lives, so starting with just 1 book in 2023 is a great start.
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Increase your savings to 3-6 months living expenses.
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Pay off credit card debt - for most people who have credit card debt, this is the single best financial resolution they could pick. Putting a plan in place and creating a timeline for when the debt will be paid off is key for success in this goal. Some people may have debt that will take 2 months to pay off, others maybe 2 years or more, but creating a debt repayment plan and ensuring you don’t add more to the debt will help you stay on track with this goal
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Pay off your house in x months/years. Use an amortization schedule to make a realistic plan and timeline to pay off your house. If you can be completely debt-free, including your house by retirement, then it’s one of the best goals you can shoot for in planning for a secure and comfortable retirement
- Take the trip you’ve been putting off. Because I have small children, I can’t imagine travelling without them, yet, travelling with them is some kind of torture. We decided to go to Arizona as a family last November, and I think the moment I regretted the trip was just as we walked through the front door of our AirBnb. This was after a 2+ hour plane flight, needing 2 airport carts for all of our carseats and luggage, and then catching a shuttle bus to the rental car place, and waiting in line for our rental car for over an hour while 7 months pregnant with 3 other kids in tow. I promised my husband we wouldn’t do that again until the youngest was at least 5 yo. Now you probably don’t have 4 small children keeping you from taking that trip to Italy you’ve been dreaming about, but many of you have still been putting off travel since Covid, so it’s a great time to incorporate some travel into your financial goals for 2023. And the nice thing about making travel a concrete goal is that you can plan ahead, budget, and save for your trip, so it won’t cause you to rack up credit card debt or dip into your savings to pay for the trip after the fact.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow I’ll continue with a few more financial goal ideas for 2023. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Financial Resolutions For 2023
Yesterday, I talked about the importance of picking the most important and meaningful goals, and ideally, the one thing to focus on that will make the biggest difference in your life.
If you have that one, most important goal in mind, it’s time to set yourself up for success by applying the SMART criteria to crafting the goal.
SMART is a acronym in goal setting that is meant to help you be successful with your goals and resolutions.
Too often, when we set goals, we set vague goals, like I want to lose weight. The problem with this goal is that it’s not really clear what that means and it certainly won’t be clear when you’ve achieved that goal.
The SMART structure helps to clarify your goals. SMART stands for:
- Specific: the goal is clear
- Measurable: so you can track your progress
- Attainable: so the goal challenges you, but it’s possible
- Relevant: This goes back to what I talked about on Tuesday, which is the starting place in my opinion for goal setting. It actually has to make a meaningful difference in your life if you achieved this goal and it actually has to matter to you.
- Time-bound: there is a deadline for reaching the goal or a target for how often you’ll do this thing, if it’s a habit-goal.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about financial goals that apply this SMART criteria, but let’s apply the SMART goal criteria to the otherwise vague goal of “lose weight”
The goal could be rephrased to lose 20 lbs by July 1st. Small change but now it’s specific and measurable. It’s attainable if you are overweight - that’s 5 months to lose 20 lbs which is definitely doable. It’s relevant if this is something that will make a meaningful difference for you. After gaining 40 lbs with this latest pregnancy, I would be very happy with losing 20 lbs by July 1st. It would put me within 5 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight, and it’s important to me that I lose all of this excess weight I always gain every time I have a baby.
And lastly, it’s time-bound. I’m putting a deadline of reaching this goal, so I can get to work on it now and not put it off.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Financial Resolutions For 2023
Today, I’m talking about the first step in setting a worthwhile goal or resolution for 2023, something you’ll want to be clear about before setting one or several new goals for yourself, and that is to focus on what matters most.
Sure, you could set a goal to stop wasting money on takeout coffee or food this year, but you first want to make sure that setting this goal will actually have a meaningful impact on your life. For some it will, but for others, your daily Starbucks, even at $6 a day, most days of the year, isn’t all that important to meeting your financial goals. It may add up to $1500 a year, which sounds reckless to some, but if it’s not going to make a big difference in your overall finances, then I would say, keep wasting that money on coffee.
If on the other hand, you’re within arms reach of paying off your mortgage before you retire in 3 years, but you need to make a payoff plan and get to work on the extra payments now, I would say that’s a more important goal to focus on.
So the key here is to focus on what matters most. It’s easy to get distracted and to busy ourselves with things or goals that aren’t that important.
A good example of this is in living the Christian life…we are so imperfect, it can be overwhelming and not all that helpful to focus generally on not being such a wretched creature. So it’s advisable to not focus on generically being a better person, but to focus on your vices one at a time. So if you’re impatient or prideful, in order to get that vice under control and hopefully out of your life, you would focus on practicing the virtue opposite to the vice…in the case of impatience, it would obviously be patience, and in the case of pride, it would be humility.
By picking a vice (ideally it would be your worst one), and focusing on developing the opposite virtue, you avoid the temptation to pick 10 goals and focus on them simultaneously, thus ruining any hope that you’ll actually succeed at getting your worst vice under control.
So the goal then is to focus on the area in your life that would make the biggest difference for you if you improved. Sometimes that’s obvious, like if your up to your eyeballs in debt. But even then it may not be clear how to tackle it, since you’ll need to address the root cause of what’s led you to the debt burden in the first place. Often it’s overspending and a bad habit, but other times it could be that you didn’t have enough cash for emergencies and a surprise big expense got you into the debt mess you’re in.
The key is focusing on what matters most when setting goals and understanding what needs to change, so you can craft a resolution that will actually improve your life over then long-run.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Financial Resolutions For 2023
I know what you’re thinking: “Ashley it’s already the end of January…a little late to be thinking about new year’s resolutions with month 1 of 2023 already in the rear-view mirror”.
Point taken…however, I think it’s the perfect time to be thinking about or perhaps re-assessing your goals or resolutions for the new year.
Usually in late DEcember, for those of us who make new years goals and resolutions, we’re full of enthusiasm, but as is often the case, that enthusiasm starts to fade once reality sets in and we’ve only lost 5 lbs in January after choking down dry chicken breast and broccoli at every meal since the first of the year.
So this week, I encourage you to think about goals you’ve made for the year, and I want to give you permission to re-assess those goals, change them, or even remove something that’s maybe not as important to you as you might have thought.
I’ll be sharing with you the criteria for setting goals that will help you actually improve your chances of reaching those goals, some ideas for financial goals and resolutions to inspire you this year, and even some anti-resolutions worth considering to remove something from your plate to improve your life, rather than adding something new.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the first step in setting any meaningful resolution or goal for the new year.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: my 2023 outlook for the economy and markets
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- 2022 Recap
- 2023 Outlook for the economy, stocks, and bonds
- And investment opportunities for 2023
To summarize this week…Stocks and bonds had their worst year in over a half century. I believe a recession is likely in the first half of 2023. The Fed will likely determine whether we have a mild or deep recession, depending upon the extent to which they tighten and continue raising interest rates. Investors with cash to invest should consider rising dividend companies & short-term bonds, both of which look attractive at this time.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Financial Resolutions for the New Year
January is just about over, so statically, about ⅔ of you who have made resolutions are still sticking with them.
Financial resolutions rank just below health resolutions, so whether or not you have a specific resolution or goal for 2023 related to your finances, it’s worth having something to aim for with your finances.
So next week, I’ll share with you some common financial resolutions, including listener submissions of your own goals and resolutions for the new year, and provide insight and suggestions for how you can make progress and achieve your financial goals in 2023.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week I’m covering my outlook for the economy and markets in 2023.
So far this week, we’ve recapped 2022, and talked about the outlook for the economy, stock, and bond markets in 2023.
Now let’s turn to opportunities that exist today. Even though I think the economy will deteriorate this year and bring down the stock market further with it, that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to invest. In fact, the best investment opportunities exist during periods of turmoil, as long as you have the courage and fortitude to see those opportunities and take advantage of them.
With that in mind, here are a few key areas of opportunity I see in 2023:
- Increasing allocations to high-quality dividend growth stocks. Growth stocks have dominated the landscape for years, but with rising interest rates, their earnings are less valuable. Value and rising dividend stocks tend to perform better than growth stocks in a rising interest rate environment. Consequently, we have been adding to these areas as opportunities present themselves.
- I mentioned this yesterday, but it’s worth covering again: Increasing allocations to high-quality dividend growth stocks. Growth stocks have dominated the landscape for years, but with rising interest rates, their earnings are less valuable. Value and rising dividend stocks tend to perform better than growth stocks in a rising interest rate environment. Consequently, we have been adding to these areas as opportunities present themselves.
- If you have cash, I would not sit on it, but I would invest it (not all at once) but gradually over the course of this year. Earlier this week, I quoted Warren Buffett, who said: “The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down.” You are just going to have to be more selective and avoid the lower quality and highly speculative pockets of the markets if you want to profit from the current environment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week I’m covering my outlook for the economy and markets in 2023.
Today, I’m talking about the outlook for the bond market in 2023. This is important for many of you who are listening who are close to retirement or already retired, since you likely have anywhere from 40-50% of your retirement investment portfolio in bonds, and if you don’t and you’re closing in on retirement, you should.
Alright, so what about bonds in 2023? I actually think bonds are going to be a bright spot for many investors this year, if you can take advantage of higher shorter term rates.
Bonds were decimated in 2022, with their worst calendar year performance ever. The historic decline of xx% in the bond market caused a tremendous amount of pain for conservative investors, many of whom saw their investment portfolios decline by at least 8-10% in 2022.
Since interest rates are heading higher in 2023 as the Fed continues to snuff out high inflation, it’s likely that bond investors could see further declines in 2023. So why do I think bonds will be a bright spot in 2023?
Well, much of the decline in bonds has already happened, and the Fed has already dialed back the magnitude of rate increases. That means that any further losses in bonds are possible, but most likely will be nowhere near the magnitude of losses seen in 2022. And with interest rates already very high, there are some pretty awesome bargains to be found in bonds at the moment.
For example, many money market accounts which are highly liquid cash like investments that are quite safe and not susceptible to price declines are yielding over 4% at the moment. Short-term FDIC insured CDs that mature in 1-2 years are yielding over 4.5%. These are yields not seen in more than 15 years.
It’s important then that bond investors stick with short and intermediate high quality bonds in this environment, and if you do, you’ll be rewarded with lower risk returns not seen in quite some time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week I’m covering my outlook for the economy and markets in 2023.
As I mentioned yesterday, the economy seems headed for a recession in 2023, and personally I think it's unavoidable at this point. The Fed must continue raising interest rates this year to squash inflation, and that will bring pain for businesses and households. When borrowing costs are so high, people tend to stay put and not spend the precious cash they have.
Higher debt costs create reduced profits for small and large businesses alike, and regular Americans like you and I are more reluctant to buy a car, move, or remodel our homes in this higher interest rate and still high inflationary environment.
All of that equates to a slowing economy and likely a contraction severe enough to lead to a recession.
Last year, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said: “While higher interest rates, slower growth, and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses. These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.”
And unfortunately, any pain in the economy also translates to pain for the stock market. The good news is that we’re already a full year into the current stock market decline, with the stock market peaking in early January 2022. Stock market downturns accompanied by a recession tend to last about 18 months.
So if you judge the current cycle by historical norms, we’ve already been through much of the pain associated with the current downturn. If it turns out to be a mild recession, we may have already discounted much of the anticipated decline and stocks may not drop much more from current levels. If, on the other hand, we have a more severe recession, stocks would likely test the lows reached back in October 2022 and possibly go lower.
Personally I think we’re in store for worse to come for the stock market. That doesn’t mean that you abandon your long-term investment strategy. That would be a mistake. I’ll talk later in the week about how you can take advantage of opportunities that exist in the current environment and if the situation deteriorates further, but for now, I think it’s helpful to manage your expectations, not get your hopes up too much that things will be vastly better in 6-12 months, and to have patience while this pain that Chairman Powell talks about is fully realized.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week I’m covering my outlook for the economy and markets in 2023.
Today, I’m talking about the outlook for the economy in 2023.
By the classical definition of 2 consecutive quarters of GDP decline in the first half of 2022, we briefly entered a mild recession. Growth turned positive again in the 3rd quarter, but it seems quite clear at least to me, that this will be short-lived and the odds of a recession in 2023 is quite high.
The reason is that the Fed must continue raising rates in 2023 to fight sticky inflation, and economic data continues to show weakness. The Conference Board of Leading Economic Indicators has dropped in ten of the last eleven months, and housing continues to struggle.
The real question is: Will it be a mild recession or a deep recession? If it turns out to be a mild recession, we may have already discounted much of the anticipated decline and stocks may not drop much more from current levels. If, on the other hand, we have a more severe recession, stocks would likely test the lows reached back in October and possibly go lower.
There are several key events or unexpected shocks that could cause a deep recession, namely a financial system shock or a worsening of geopolitical conditions, particularly with China & Taiwan or Russia & Ukraine.
The most likely event that would cause a deep recession would be excessive tightening on the part of the Fed. The Fed has a tough job ahead of them to raise rates enough to bring inflation back to targeted levels without overshooting the mark.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week I’m covering my outlook for the economy and markets in 2023.
But before we get into 2023, we need to look at what happened in 2022. Because the biggest thing influencing the direction of the economy and markets in 2023, is likely to be a continuation of what happened in 2022.
So let’s recap 2022 and talk about the state of the economy and markets today.
2022 will go down in history as one of the worst years for both stocks and bonds ever. The S&P 500 Index finished down 20% and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index dropped nearly 15%, a historic decline for bonds…so historic in fact that it was far and away the worst year for US bonds, EVER! This combination of losses hasn’t been seen since the 1930s Depression era.
If you owned a diversified 60% stock, 40% bond portfolio in 2022 (which many of you listening likely have a portfolio analogous to this mix), the decline for 2022 was 16.9%...the 3rd worst in history, only behind the great depression losses and the crash of 1937. Diversified portfolios did worse than the great financial crisis of 2008 and the dot com bust of the early 2000s. That’s because bonds held their value when the stock markets were in freefall, providing protection to more conservative and diversified investors.
With interest rates going up so much in 2022, bonds fared almost as bad as the stock market, creating a lot of unexpected pain for even the most conservative investors.
For much of the year, investors struggled with the uncertainty of mid-term elections, the outcome of the Ukraine war and most of all, just how much the Fed was going to raise rates to bring down inflationary pressures.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about continued recession fears in 2023 and how that might come to fruition, but for now, the theme of 2022 that drove the economy, stock and bond markets more than anything else was the Fed.
Many people don’t appreciate or understand just how influential the Fed’s raising and lowering of interest rates is on everything. And with interest rates going up so aggressively, so quickly in 2022 to fight high and sticky inflation, I’m actually surprised that the economy and markets did not fare worse in 2022.
But not much has changed for 2023. Although the midterm elections are behind us, it doesn’t appear that the war in Ukraine will wind down anytime soon, and with inflation still running hot, the Fed must continue raising interest rates in 2023, meaning that the economy and markets remain on shaky ground.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about the 2023 Economic and Markets Outlook
As we look ahead to 2023, what’s in store for the economy and the markets? It’s anyone’s guess really, but I’ll talk about how the current environment and trends in the economy and markets will likely impact your retirement investment portfolio, as well as opportunities that are unique for 2023.
The most important thing to keep at the forefront of your mind in 2023 can best be summed up in a quote by Warren Buffett: “The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down.” In other words uncertainty and potential pain lies ahead in 2023. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you understand what’s happening and how to take advantage of it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll recap 2022 and lay the foundation for 2023.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Miccich, and on this podcast I help you plan and invest wisely for a secure and comfortable retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you’re in the right place.
As the episode title suggests, I’m off right now on maternity leave. My due date for baby #4 was January 1st, so by the time you hear this episode I’ll no doubt be snuggling with our latest babe, recovering from birth, and delirious with a lack of sleep. This baby was quite a surprise, as I never ever saw myself with a large family of 4 children, and neither did my husband, but we are so excited to welcome this gift into our family.
In fact, the name my husband and I selected for this baby boy means “gift of God”. Interestingly enough, his brother’s name and our 3rd child, Theodore, also means gift of God.
Needles to say, I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off the podcast. I’ll return with new episodes the week of January 23rd. Until then I have a couple of things for you….
- If you have a goal or resolution for 2023 that’s related to your finances, send me an email and let me know what your goal is and how you plan to achieve it, and any potential roadblocks or challenges you think you might have with reaching your goal.
I’ll pick my favorite submissions and feature them on the podcast later this month.
My email is ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
- The 2nd item is a free resource that is very timely as we embark on a new year. It’s a free under-the-hood portfolio analysis.
An under the hood portfolio analysis will look under the hood of your portfolio to show you how your portfolio is allocated among stocks, bonds, and cash; how much you have invested in each sector like tech and healthcare, and how well diversified your portfolio is across different regions as well. The analysis will even show concentrations in your portfolio of your top 10 stock holdings in your various investment holdings.
With continued uncertainty in the economy and markets in 2023, it’s the perfect time to better understand both what’s right with your retirement investments as well as any potential red flags, so you can better position your portfolio for the long-term, and an under the hood analysis will do just that.
Once you email me to start the analysis, I’ll provide a link so you can securely send me the data I’ll need. All of it is free & confidential with no strings attached. You’ll receive a portfolio analysis report, as well as some expert insight from yours truly.
So if you’d like to tell me about your 2023 financial resolution or take advantage of the under-the-hood portfolio analysis, just send an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening! Looking forward to being back with new episodes on the 23rd. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: The Best of 2022
We covered a wide variety of topics from my favorite episodes of the year, including the price of investing, how much you need for a comfortable retirement, and how much is enough cash on hand in retirement.
If you missed any episodes for the last 2 weeks or if you want to revisit any of the over 1500 episodes aried, you can listen to the archives on our website: www.truenorthra.com/podcast
As I mentioned at the beginning of the Best of theme on December 26th, I am due to have baby #4 on January 1st. I’m recording this episode before Christmas, so hopefully by the time you listen to this episode, I will have had the baby!
And because I’m adjusting to life with a newborn, I’m taking a couple weeks off from recording new episodes. I’ll be back with an outlook for the economy and markets the week of January 23rd, and then the last week of Janaury, I’m planning to discuss 2023 goals and resolutions.
So if you have a goal or resolution for 2023 that’s related to your finances, send me an email and let me know what your goal is and how you plan to achieve it, and any potential roadblocks or challenges you think you might have with reaching your goal.
I’ll pick my favorite submissions, feature them on the podcast, and give you some personalized advice on how you can achieve this goal in 2023.
My email is ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast - both this last week and throughout the year in 2022! I look forward to a new year with you and fresh retirement planning content to help you on your path to retirement once I can get my bearings with this new bundle of joy.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Does The Fed Write The Script For The Stock Market?” Originally episode 1482 from November 4, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “How Much For A Comfortable Retirement”. Originally episode 1447 from September 30, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Deadly Sin: Holding On To Your Losers”. Originally episode 1391 from August 5, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “The Price Of Investing”. Originally episode 1360 from July 5, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Investments I Hate: Cryptocurrency”. Originally episode 1342 from June 17, 2022
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “My Favorite Roth Conversion Strategy”. Originally episode 1294 from April 30, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Listener Case Study: 5 Years’ Worth Of Cash?!”. Originally episode 1271 from April 7, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Fund Your HSA First”. Originally episode 1255 from March 22, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Doing This One Thing Could Save You $1,000,000”. Originally episode 1245 from March 12, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “3 Reasons To Pay Off Debt Before Retirement”. Originally episode 1235 from March 2, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “Keeping Enough Cash On Hand For The Next Recession”. Originally episode 1229 from February 24, 2022.
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is: The Best of 2022. I’m bringing you into the new year with some of the best episodes from 2022.
Today’s best of episode is “The #1 Reason You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022”. Originally episode 1208 from February 3, 2022.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast I help you plan and invest wisely for a secure and comfortable retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you’re in the right place.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2022
I’m bringing you into the new year with some of my favorite episodes and topics from this past year. I’ll cover everything from…3 reasons to pay off debt before retirement to why you should fund your health savings account before any other retirement savings account, to one of the episodes that has aged particularly well this year: Why I hate cryptocurrency.
I am due to have baby #4 on January 1st, so for the next 2 weeks, I’ll recap the best of episodes from 2022, then starting January 9th, I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off the podcast. I’ll return with new episodes the week of January 23rd.
If you have a goal or resolution for 2023 that’s related to your finances, send me an email and let me know what your goal is and how you plan to achieve it, and any potential roadblocks or challenges you think you might have with reaching your goal.
I’ll pick my favorite submissions and feature them on the podcast later this month.
My email is ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.I hope what I have to share with you these next 2 weeks will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’ll kick off the best of with the #1 reason you shouldn’t retire in 2022, that still holds true for 2023.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast. And of course, it’s Christmas! Merry Christmas to you! I’m spending this morning opening presents with my kids and experiencing the wonder and joy of Christmas morning through them. We’re also hosting family for brunch this morning, and then I hope to get a nap in at some point, as I am 39 weeks pregnant with baby #4 today.
I’ve enjoyed spending this year with you and I wish you and your family many blessings this Christmas.
This week the theme was: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Why Marajuana Stocks Have Fared Poorly Despite Legalization
- What Happened To Netflix?
- Bitcoin: I Told You So!
- The Sure Fire Bet on Real Estate That Went Bust
- Why Green Energy Hasn’t Produced Returns For Investors
- Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out | Recap (Merry Christmas!)
The most important takeaway from this week is that the narrative for these sure-fire winners should be instructive…just because there’s a good reason to believe that a certain investment, industry, or company will produce profits for investors, it doesn’t mean the actual results will materialize. Investments should never be bought for speculative reasons without first being sure of the fundamentals. There are numerous ways to determine if something is worth investing in, but what it boils down to is: is this investment worth buying and a good value at the current price? If you’re unsure or can’t determine that, then it’s best to move on.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Best of 2022
We’ll revisit some of the most popular and downloaded episodes to close out the year and ring in 2023.
As I mentioned, I’m just a week away from my due date for baby #4 - due January 1st, so starting the week of January 9th, I will be taking a couple weeks off without any new episodes, and then I’ll be picking things back up with my investment and economic outlook for 2023 again later in January, so stay tuned.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
Today, I’m closing out the week with talking about green energy. One area of investing that as a group hasn’t done well is green energy. This is surprising given the strong push towards alternative energy sources like solar, wind, and the technology advancements that have make hybrid and electric cars more common. And more recently, with the controversial emphasis on ESG investing, I would have expected that alternative energy companies would have fared well over the last several years.
Of course there have been many individual winners in this space, but looking at the market broadly it paints a very different picture. The index fund ICLN - diversified global clean energy ETF is a good benchmark for the overall returns in the green or clean energy space. It’s lost about 60% of its value since it’s 2008 inception - so very bad returns over a very long period of time, when most everything else has seen strong gains since this time.
I think the lesson here with investing in green energy is that being too early on a trend can be very painful. It’s likely that the winners and losers with respect to climate change will take decades to sort out. It’s still very unclear how we solve this climate change problem and many alternative energy sources are still proving themselves to be unreliable and needing government subsidies just to survive and have any chance of competing against the still cheap and abundant energy source of fossil fuels.
Despite the explosive growth and tremendous amount of capital that’s flooded into renewables and the politicization of this topic, that’s unlikely to overtake oil any time soon, meaning that investors who are interested in investing in green energy, need to be aware of the real risks and should be very patient if they want to tilt their investment portfolios in this direction.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
Today, I’m talking about the sure fire bet of real estate that went bust in the mid-2000s. In the mid-2000s, it was accepted as gospel that housing prices would continue to rise. I remember hearing people say things like, real estate will only go up from here. Of course, that didn’t happen.
Many people bought homes with little to nothing down and were able to secure mortgages they couldn’t afford with adjustable rates. Risky loans were repackaged and sold as investments and it didn’t take much for it all to unravel.
By 2008, the housing market was still in freefall and my husband and I were looking to buy our first house. At the time it seemed like every other house we looked at was a foreclosure or short sale.
I see a lot of similarities with real estate today, but since lending standards have tightened significantly, and people have a lot more equity in their home today to provide a better safety net, it’s not clear what will happen to the housing market as it continues to slowdown.
But this time around, exceptionally cheap borrowing has made it a lot easier for people to leverage up and buy not just houses, but rentals, commercial properties, etc.
When you look at real estate broadly as a group, the US REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Index was down more than 20% for this year through the end of November. It’s a broadly diversified index that includes real estate investments in the residential, office, industrial, and retail sectors, and it shows how after a run up of 43% last year, real estate is in a bear market already in 2022.
The lesson here is that the experts often get it wrong. No one truly knew what would happen with real estate in the mid-2000s, and no one knows what will happen with real estate today. WIll we experience a small correction or a total meltdown on par with the collapse of 15 years ago?
Since we can’t predict what real estate, or more specifically housing prices or mortgage rates will do from here, it’s important to not get swept up in the circumstances and prevailing opinions of the day when making big financial decisions like buying a house or buying an investment property. I think a lot of people overextended themselves over the last several years with too little down or too high of payments that were contingent on the economy staying healthy, full employment and full occupancy. If the economy continues to weaken in 2023, we could see things get much worse across all sectors of the real estate market.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
Today, I’m talking about my favorite sure-fire bet that fizzled out: Bitcoin. Now to be clear, I’m not celebrating that anyone has lost money on Bitcoin or FTX or any other crypto collapse. But crypto is so speculative and more akin to gambling than actual investing. I’ve dissuaded clients from investing in crypto since the beginning, despite wider access and increasing popularity of this investment in recent years. I secretly roll my eyes when people brag to me about how much money they’ve made in crypto.
Even prior to the collapse of the value of crypto in 2022 and the curious unraveling of FTX that’s still playing out as a ponzi scheme at the moment, I was not a fan of crypto for several reasons - and reasons I’ve talked about previously on the podcast.
1st - and probably most importantly, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are difficult to understand. Cryptocurrency is defined as: “a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority.” Even the definition is confusing! Then more research leads you down the rabbit hole of terms like blockchain, digital wallets, mining coins, and…time to move on.
Warren Buffet’s famous investing advice is to only invest in what you can understand. This is very good advice, yet, I think only about 1% of crypto investors truly understand what they’re investing in. The rest were just jumping on the bandwagon, and now running for the exits.
NYU Professor of Economics Nouriel Roubini cautioned investors at an industry conference (prior to the collapse). He said: “In the case of bitcoin or any other essentially cryptocoin asset, the basis for the fundamental value is not there, it’s vaporware; it’s not backed by anything…They’re not currencies, they’re not even assets, they’re highly volatile, they’re speculative and they’re subject to manipulation of one sort or another.”
Then I came across an article in the NY Post from November says that the flashy luxury cars bought by newly minted crypto millionaires have been flooding the used car market:
“An uptick in like-new models of sought-after luxury cars have hit resale sites such as AutoTrader in recent weeks, but they’re not fetching the premium prices they once did. The Mercedes Benz G-Wagon — the unofficial “new money” badge of the crypto rich — was once valued around $300,000 in the resale market but is now closer to $200,000, car experts say. Other luxury vehicles such as Lamborghini Urus and McLaren Spiders have also taken a hit.”
““It’s clear that in the last couple of months the decline in prices for exotic vehicles has accelerated and that correlates very, very well with the meltdown in the crypto markets where we know that some of the biggest customers of exotic vehicles were crypto millionaires,” CarDealershipGuy said.”
Ok, so the woes of former crypto millionaires having to unload their G Wagons they can no longer afford aside, what’s the lesson here:
Well, I think it goes back to what Warren Buffet said: Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand. The vast majority of crypto investors were playing in a market that they didn’t understand and got burned badly because they didn’t want to miss out. Many will likely never recover, and certainly not in the case of FTX.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
Today, I’m talking about what happened to Netflix, the game-changing company that single handedly destroyed the video rental business.
When I was a finance major in college, I took a valuation course that taught us how to value publicly traded companies using a discounted cash flow model. This methodology is what the professional analysts use when projecting target prices on stocks, and if you have the know-how and resources to value a company yourself, it can be a fun and rewarding exercise as an investor.
The final project in this class which made up about 60% of the final grade, was to complete a comprehensive valuation for a company of your choosing.
Netflix was the company of my choosing when I took this class and completed this valuation project back in 2006. Netflix was gaining steam in the DVD rental business and had some significant advantages over Blockbuster in that it had no expensive retail locations to operate, and it wasn’t charging customers late fees.
I chose Netflix for my project, because it was a very simple business to analyze and value. They weren’t streaming content for subscribers and they weren’t creating their own content - you just ordered DVDs by mail and that was pretty much all there was to the Netflix business model. Call me lazy or smart, it was a good choice for my valuation project because it was a straightforward business.
And of course, we all know what happened to Blockbuster and every other video rental retail location. Over the course of the next few years, they were all gone. Interestingly enough, in Bend Oregon - about 3 hours from where I live, is the last standing Blockbuster store. If you visit Bend, you can still rent a new release and pay late fees if you don’t bring it back on time.
When I completed the valuation for Netflix, it was clear based on my valuation and research that Netflix was way undervalued at that time. Basically, the stock was much cheaper than it should have been, and I would have been smart to scrape together as much cash as I could find to buy some shares. However, being a 21-year-old college student who’s priority was having enough money for drinks and wings at the Cheerful Tortoise bar on Thirsty Thursdays, I never seemed to be able to buy any of the stock.
To this day, I regret not buying the stock after my amateur assessment pointed to its status as a clear winner. Had I bought around the time I completed my report and held on until today, I would have made a return of over 8,000%.
But the industry has changed dramatically since Netflix destroyed Blockbuster. They now compete in the streaming space against a lot of other companies, like Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. In the summer of 2022, Netflix had lost 1 million subscribers in the 3 months ending in June of this year. And they’re struggling to continue to grow amid so much competition. In short, they’re losing market share in an industry where competition is increasing, and they’re having to fight hard to stay on top.
So what’s the lesson here? Companies don’t maintain their top spot forever. Netflix has been top dog of the content streaming space for years, but it faces a lot of competition and is unlikely to maintain its dominant market position in the number 1 spot. The stars of companies rise and fall, and just as Blockbuster was a dominant player before Netflix came along, and while I don’t think Netflix is going anywhere anytime soon, it could very likely meet the same demise someday as it loses market share to an ever-crowded market.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
Today, I’m talking about the sure fire bet marajuana stocks, that have been anything but since many states and the entire country of Canada have moved to legalize the drug over the last several years.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s episode, my home state of Oregon legalized marajuana in 2016. The first 2 states to legalize the recreational use of marajuana were Colorado and my neighbor to the north, Washington, in 2012. And many other states have followed since.
This newly legal industry seemed ripe for profits as the expected growth was set to explode now that people in many states across the country didn’t have to go to a back alley to buy their hash anymore.
With public opinion shifting on the legalization of marajuana, the industry seemed ripe for explosive growth, and handsome profits for investors who got in early.
Investing in marijuana stocks seemed like the right move for many investors. A sure fire bet and an opportunity to get in early while new companies were emerging constantly.
The problem with investing in pot companies is that the fate of the companies that operate in this space is totally dependent on federal legalization and there’s no telling when or if that will happen.
Marajuana stocks did get a boost recently when on On Oct. 6 of this year, President Biden announced his administration would pardon all prior federal offenses for simple mari
So it seems likely that eventually marajuana will become legal in the US, but that doesn’t mean that investing in these companies is a good idea.
Canada is a good example of this. The country legalized marajuana in 2018, and by the Spring of 2019, Ontario-based Canopy Growth, was the world’s largest marajuana company.
Yet, the stock has sputtered since that time, when it was trading around $50 a share. Today the stock trades for $3 a share. Its revenue and profits are in a state of decline, despite being a massive player in a country where marajuana is legal.
And the problems aren’t just confined to Canopy Growth, according to a WSJ article published in October, “Since enthusiasm about the cannabis industry peaked in 2019, around $35 billion has been wiped from the market value of seven major Canadian cannabis companies listed on New York’s stock exchanges, an 85% drop. Individual investors who used to prop up share prices are mostly gone.”
And the rules create problems for big and small players alike. The article goes on to say: “As more entrepreneurs pile in, big listed Canadian stocks are losing market share. Advertising restrictions and plain packaging rules make it hard to build brands that customers are loyal to, as most products look the same.”
So what’s the lesson here?: The fear of missing out on something new and hot is a strong temptation that lures many investors into industries and companies that seem like sure fire winners. You could have easily made the case, like many investors did in 2018, that Canopy Growth and other Canadian pot stocks were only heading higher after Canada legalized marajuana, but the opposite has happened. And the stock and many others like it have crashed hard since pot became legal in Canada.
Canopy Growth stock is dead at the moment, the future is very uncertain for the company, it can’t make money or grow, and in September of this year, the company decided to close all of its retail locations in Canada.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you’re in the right place.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out
After marajuana became legal in my home state of Oregon in 2016, I started to get calls from clients about investing in Marajuana stocks. With public opinion shifting on the legalization of marajuana, the industry seemed ripe for explosive growth as more and more states have legalized pot over the last several years.
But that’s not what happened. Yes, legalization has spread to other states and I think it’s very likely that it will become legal at the federal level at some point, but investing in marajuana stocks has largely been a losing game for investors over the last several years.
So what happened to this sure fire bet and why have most marajuana stocks fared poorly while legalization has spread?
I’ll talk about that and more in this week’s theme, sharing with you lessons to be learned from marajuana companies and several other sure fire bets that fizzled out, and how you can avoid the temptation to be seduced by a sure winner that’s a sure loser in disguise.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Holiday tipping etiquette
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Why tip during the holidays - showing appreciation
- Who to tip
- How & how much to tip
- Tips optional - who you may want to tip, but may not need to
- Some final thoughts on tipping
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out. From real estate in the mid 2000s to bitcoin in 2022 to marijuana stocks, there are plenty of guaranteed winners that turned out to be losers.
So next week, I’ll talk about several examples of sure fire winners that turned out to be losers instead, and what you can learn from these investment bets that fizzled out.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette
Today, I’m sharing with you some final thoughts on tipping for the holidays.
As I’ve mentioned several times this week, tipping is a nice gesture of gratitude, but if you can’t afford it, don’t sweat it. You shouldn’t feel guilty if you don’t tip. And a handwritten and thoughtful thank you card showing your appreciation will mean much more than them to cash anyways.
These days, I think many of us tip because we feel guilty and we see tip jars everywhere. I used to feel guilty anytime I bypassed a tip jar, but my philosophy when it comes to tipping is that it should be a reward for exceptional service or when someone is attending to you, like a waiter at a restaurant. Unless the service is terrible, they deserve a tip, and even if the service is sub-par, I stil think it’s necessary to tip them for bringing your drinks and food and the ketchup when you asked for it. But I also think iit’s not necessary to tip the barista for a cup of black coffee or the kid at the fast food joint handing you a bag of food.
So I encourage you to not feel guilty if you don’t tip. And when it comes to your hair stylist or the dog groomer, I think it’s best to use the opportunity to show your appreciation during the holidays to those service providers who make your life easier throughout the year. But it doesn’t always have to be with cash or a gift.
This year for our nanny’s birthday, I gave her a small gift, some cash and a handwritten card. In the card, I was very specific about how I appreciate how reliable she is, how good she is with the kids, and how it’s obvious how much she cares about them. She told me later that she really enjoyed the gift and the cash, but it was the thoughtful card that meant the most to her.
So whether you can afford to give generously in cash, or can just give a thoughtful card this year, I encourage you to do something to help those regular service providers in your life to feel appreciated.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette
Today, I’m talking about when tipping is optional and when cash tips are definitely not appropriate.
As I mentioned yesterday, a good default if you’re confused about how much to tip your dog walker or your landscaper is to tip the equivalent dollar amount of one service.
The purpose of tipping is to make the people who make your life easier feel special and appreciated this time of year. But there are plenty of situations where tipping is optional or where certain service providers can’t or shouldn’t accept tips.
After some digging online, I found that it’s not a good idea or even practical to tip cash to your mail carrier, the garbageman or the FedEx or UPS driver. In many cases, certain service providers in these situations aren’t able to legally accept tips. A lot of other service providers can’t accept tips either for ethical reasons - like your doctor or accountant. If you have someone like a home health care worker, you might check the rules before tipping them.
In these situations, if you really love this person and want to tip, then you might consider a small gift, a simple thank you card, or something homemade like cookies instead. For your accountant or doctor - they usually appreciate referrals if they’re trying to grow their practice or business.
Same rules for no cash goes for your kids' teachers as well. You don’t want to give the impression that you’re paying them for giving your child good grades.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette
Today, I’m talking about how and how much to tip for the holidays.
If you missed yesterday’s episode on who to tip, go back to that episode so you can first make a list of everyone on your nice list this year who you want to express your gratitude to.
Once you have that list, a good next step is to make an overall budget and write it out so you can plan your tip spending and make sure it isn’t going to cause you to go into debt come January or otherwise cause a financial hardship for you. As I mentioned earlier this week, you should only tip for the holidays to show your generosity - not because you feel guilty or obligated to.
With that said, I did some research online to figure out how much to tip for each service provider, and it can vary quite a bit. So just keep in mind that a good option to default to if you’re confused about how much to tip in a given situation is to default to the tip amount equaling one service session or if you’re on a tighter budget, a fixed dollar amount, like $10, $20 or $25 works too.
So if you pay your landscaper every week for services, a good and generous guideline would be to pay them a tip of whatever you would normally pay them in a given week. Same goes for your hair stylist, your dog walker, or house cleaner.
If you have a caregiver for your mom or a nanny for your kids like I do, then the tip amount usually increases in line with how involved they are with you and your family. Our nanny comes to our home twice a week and has the huge responsibility of caring for my kids, so her tip will be substantially more than what I would tip the pet groomer.
Generally for these caregivers, a tip of a week’s worth of services is suggested.
So make your list, set your budget, then decide an appropriate amount to tip each of those people in your life who makes life easier or makes your hair look it’s best or fits you into their schedule in a pinch.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette
Today, I’m talking about who to tip. I’m going to separate this into 2 categories - essential and optional.
Essential…According to the Wall Street Journal article that was the inspiration for this week’s theme, you want to “Focus on the people who make your life more pleasant all year long, according to experts.”
And they can be separated into 3 general categories:
- Those who help care for your home
- Those who help care for your kids and/or pets
- Those who help care for you
Starting with those who help you care for your home. This would include:
- Housecleaner
- Landscaper
- Snow removal
- Handyman
- Pool cleaner
- If you live in an apartment building or work in an office building, this could also include a doorman, elevator operator, or a garage attendant
Then there’s the people who help care for your kids or pets. This would include:
- Babysitter or nanny
- Teachers and coaches
- Tutors
- Pet groomer
- Dog walker
Lastly, there’s the people who care for you:
- Hair stylist
- Personal trainer or a golf pro
- Massage therapist, acupuncturist, etc
- Your person at the nail salon or a delivery person if you have a regular
- The mail carrier, newspaper delivery kid (if you still get one of those old fashioned fish wrappers), your FedEx guy or gal, and the garbage man
- I would also include anyone here who helps you with caring for your loved ones. If you have a parent in a nursing home or if they have a caregiver who comes to their home, make sure they receive a tip as well.
Depending on the size of your budget, you could also expand this list to people like your pastor or your favorite podcast hosts (kidding! Please don’t send me any money!)
Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about how much to give and who on this list may not be able to legally receive cash tips at all, but the purpose of today is to get you thinking and to make a list of those people in your life that you want to show gratitude to this time of year with a tip or a small gift.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette
The inspiration for this week’s theme came from a wall street journal article I read on holiday tipping a couple weeks ago, which talks about how to handle the long-standing tradition with grace and without stress.
If you want to read the full article, I’ll link to it in today’s show notes, which is episode 1521:
https://www.wsj.com/buyside/personal-finance/holiday-tipping-guide-01666898498
Today, I’m talking about why it’s important to tip during the holidays in the first place.
The problem with tipping during the holidays is that for many of us, it adds to the already bloated spending that hits our wallets and bank accounts this time of year. From additional travel, to parties to gift giving, adding one more expense with your holiday tips - especially this year with inflation running so hot - can seem daunting.
But the purpose of tipping is to show appreciation, especially those who provide services to you, who you have some type of relationship with, and who make your life easier. So it’s important to carve out some of your gift giving budget for those people in your life who deserve something extra and your appreciation.
Beyond showing your appreciation, another good reason to tip during the holidays is to give those service providers an extra financial boost so they can enjoy the holidays and minimize their own stress or financial hangover in January. It’s quite possible that your tip could mean the difference between them being able to afford a nice Christmas dinner or the gift their child really wants this Christmas, or not.
So I hope you’ll take the opportunity to tip those in your life who work hard and deserve your appreciation…but if you truly can’t afford it this year, I also want to give you permission to not do it…it’s ok! If it’s going to cause you financial stress to tip this year because you’re already stretched too thin, then don’t dig yourself deeper in the hole with tipping people or tipping in amounts that you can’t afford. So don’t let this be about tipping because you feel guilty or obligated to. You should tip for the right reasons and only when you can afford it, so I just want to put that out there in case the thought of shelling out additional cash or gifts in too much this year.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk more in depth about who those people are and who you should consider tipping during the holidays.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you’re in the right place.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Holiday Tipping Etiquette
Didn’t I just talk last week about minimizing your spending and financial stress during the holidays and now I’m telling you to spend money on tips for your landscaper and your hair stylist? Why, yes. Yes I am.
While not a requirement, the holidays is the ideal time to show appreciation for those people in your life who make life easier for you throughout the year. These are generally people you have some type of ongoing service relationship with - like a house cleaner or do sitter - but it can also be your mail guy (or gal) or the garbageman.
So this week I’ll talk about:
- Why tip during the holidays - showing appreciation
- Who to tip
- How & how much to tip
- Tips optional - who you may want to tip, but may not need to
- Some final thoughts on tipping that may be slightly controversial
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the importance of tipping.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Inflation
- Portfolio Declines
- Taxes
- Increasing health care costs
- Income gap
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Holiday Tipping Etiquette
Tipping your hair stylist, your landscaper, and your mailman is all about showing appreciation to the people who make your life easier and provide services to you.
So next week, I’ll share with you a guide to tipping - who to tip and how much to help you express your gratitude with your pocketbook during the holidays.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
Today, I’m talking about what is consistently at the top of my list of top concerns and challenges that my own clients face in retirement - too big of an income gap.
Too big of an income gap (pension, SS, and what savings can reasonably cover will not keep up with retirees income wants and needs).
[Example of prospective client early in my career] - The math clearly didn’t work out. He was retired but had been a doctor and was used to a certain income and standard of living. But he didn’t save nearly enough for his retirement, but he kept spending at the same rate. By the time he was in his early 70s, he was spending down about 10% of his portfolio annually and was on track to run out of money by his 80th birthday. I was up front with him about the real risks that he faced if he didn’t significantly cut back, but he was unwilling to make any changes to their spending.
I often see an unwillingness to compromise. We live in a culture of instant gratification and expectations about a certain standard of living. But when your finances encounter reality, that may not be what you were hoping for, so if you don’t plan and ensure that you have adequate income and breathing room in your finances, the result - dwindling assets, more financial reliance on family later in life, outliving savings
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
Benjamin Franklin once said: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" In 2023, over 200 years after he penned that quote in a letter, I think I might add one more to the list: increasing health care costs.
Since the 1980s, health care costs have significantly outpaced the overall inflation rate, and a long term average cost increase of 5.21% per year.
Health insurance costs are expected to jump 7.4% in 2023 as employers and consumers absorb bills from doctors, hospitals and drug companies, according to the Segal Health Plan Cost Trend Survey.
Retirees, on average, can expect to pay about $1000 a month for health care related costs in retirement, and that’s even after taking Medicare coverage into account!
That’s a big part of many retiree’s monthly costs and one that is often underestimated and not planned for when trying to understand and anticipate your expenses in retirement.
The lesson here is two-fold: 1 is to expect that health care costs will continue to rise, since there is no solution for bringing them down on the horizon, and to budget your health care costs accurately.
If you’re planning to retire before becoming eligible for Medicare at the age of 65, it’s even more important that you do your homework, understand what your costs will be, and ensure that you can actually afford to pay for those costs…before you make the leap into retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
Today, I’m talking about a real sore spot for retirees - taxes.
Even though your income is likely to be lower in retirement, you still need to contend with taxes in retirement. Your social security is taxes, you still pay property taxes, and when you combine income taxes with other taxes like dividends and capital gains, many retirees still face tax burdens that are higher than they planned on.
Then, once you reach age 72, you’re forced to take mandatory distributions from your Traditional IRA and 401k accounts, which usually causes your taxes to go up even more.
On top of that there’s the ever-changing tax climate and the unexpected nature of how taxes change from year to year, making taxes a big question mark when it comes to planning and budgeting where you’re money will go in retirement.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do about paying taxes, but of course, it still is important to minimize your taxes wherever possible and to make decisions with the tax implications in mind.
Unless you have a very simple tax situation, the first piece of advice I usually offer clients is to pay someone like a CPA or an enrolled agent to do your taxes. The long-term benefits of using a professional, especially one with a good grasp on current tax laws who is proactive, will usually provide far more financial benefit in the long-run compared to what they charge to do your taxes.
Beyond hiring a professional to help you minimize your taxes, it’s important to consider where you want to live in retirement, be strategic and careful about your withdrawals and charitable giving, pick tax free investments and minimize capital gains where possible, especially if you’re in a higher tax bracket in retirement, and consider Roth conversions in lower income years are all ways you can try to keep your taxes lower in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
Today, I’m talking about another unique challenge that retirees and those of you who are within a couple of years of retirement face heading into 2023 - portfolio declines
- Not just stock market, bond market too
- Even conservative investors have been pummeled in 2022, and as I’ve talked about before on the podcast, until the Fed stops raising interest rates, it’s unlikely to get much better in both the stock and bond markets
- Risk is greater if you’re in your early years of retirement because of sequence of returns risk
- Essentially it’s just bad timing with retiring around the same time that a downturn in your investments happens. It doesn’t sound so bad, but it can be catastrophic.
- According to an article in Forbes published in 2019, “One of the biggest risks for retirees who want to generate their retirement income from a volatile investment portfolio is large negative returns early in retirement. We often call this sequence of returns risk. When you withdraw money from an investment portfolio, negative returns early in retirement can cause the portfolio to fail faster than if those same negative returns instead occurred later in retirement.”
-
In other words, your portfolio withdrawals in those early years combined with a large drop in the value of the portfolio, permanently reduce the size of your nest egg and it’s really difficult to recover.
-
The key with managing bad timing and your portfolio taking a hit in the first couple of years of retirement is to remain flexible. If you can keep working and delay retirement, work part-time in order to stop withdrawals - even if you just did this for 6-18 months - it can mean the difference between a secure retirement and one where you run the risk of running out of money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
Today, I’m talking about a worry that hasn’t really been much of an issue for retirees in the last 10-20 years (until now) - inflation!
With inflation running hot this year and peaking around 8%, it’s caused retirees spending to go up substantially, especially in relation to income. Because their portfolios have also declined this year and cost of living adjustments in things like social security aren’t coming until 2023, many retirees have been forced to cut back.
I read recently that the overall cost of Thanksgiving this year increased by 20%.
So when you have an inflationary environment for retirees that peaked at 9% this year, but you only plan on around 2.5% or 3% annual inflation for cost increases in retirement, you accelerate the negative impact of inflation substantially - cramming 3 years worth of cost increases into just one year.
The reality is that many retirement plans begin to break under sustained, higher than expected inflation. And it doesn't need to be 8% a year to be devastating in retirement. A sustained level of inflation of around 4-5% is enough to wipe out most of your annual investment gains and force you to cut your spending as the years go by, which means less enjoyment of your retirement years, and more anxiety of paying for everyday things like groceries, gas, and heat in the winter.
And when you add to it the uncertainty about 2023 and beyond, it becomes even more problematic to plan around. If inflation stays above 4 or 5% for more than a few years, that’s enough to derail many otherwise solid retirement plans.
Hopefully inflation will return to more normal long-term levels soon, but in the meantime, it’s important to adjust your spending and look for ways you can cut back so that you can keep your savings and financial accounts at healthy and sustainable levels.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you’re in the right place.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
I talk to clients every day about the challenges they face, both in retirement, and in planning for retirement in the next few years.
For most of my clients, there is a foundational anxiety about running out of money before they run out of years. Every specific challenge you might face in retirement when it comes to your money - whether that’s paying for healthcare, dealing with higher inflation, or needing long-term care - is rooted in the possibility that one of more of these issues will deplete your savings and you’ll lose your financial independence.
So this week I’ll talk about some of the key challenges that retirees face, both perennially as well as some unique challenges in 2023 specifically. 2 of the more unique challenges for this upcoming year is higher inflation that doesn’t appear to be disappearing anytime soon, as well as unprecedented portfolio declines - even for more conservative bond investors.
On top of this, retirees also have to contend with taxes, increasing health care costs, and income gaps that can sometimes prove to be unsustainable.
So whether you’re still working or already retired, stick around this week and I’ll share more about how you can address these challenges in your own life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about one of the key issues that’s uniquely challenging in 2023 for retirees - inflation.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Start Early, Finish Early
- Goal Setting For The Holidays
- Set A Christmas Budget
- Say No To Say Yes To What Matters Most
- I Hate Wrapping Presents
The most important takeaway from this week is…being thoughtful about how you spend you time and money during the holidays will help you keep your finances in check this time of year and keep your stress to a minimum at what can otherwise be a very hectic time of year.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Top Challenges Retirees Face In 2023
I’ll talk about some of the top challenges that I hear over and over again from my retired clients, and how you can address those challenges as you prepare for your own retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
Today, I’m talking about practical ways to reign in your gift giving and spending on gifts.
I think this year especially, many people feel pressure to make up for lost time during the pandemic and may want to really go big this year, but we want to be especially careful with gift giving because it really adds up.
So I have a few ideas for you to reign in your spending and gift giving this year:
- Don’t buy gift cards - give cash instead.
- According to an article in USA today from September and a new survey from CreditCards.com, nearly half (47%) of Americans have one unused gift card, voucher or store credit, totaling $21 billion nationwide.
- On average, a person has $175 in unspent gift cards, vouchers and store credit, a $61 jump from 2021.
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"They’re not going to get more valuable over time," Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com, said in a statement. "In fact, it’s the exact opposite, as inflation eats away at the value. And the longer you hold on to these unused gift cards, the more likely you are to lose them, forget about them or have the store go out of business."
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Set strict limits - limits for kids (my kids limit is 3 gifts for each kid + a few small things for their stocking) - start discussing it in Sept/Oct so they can really think about what they want the most
- Adults - forgo the white elephant parties and the gifts for friends/adult family. Most of us have too much stuff to begin with and chances are, unless it was a gift specifically requested
- Less presents to wrap - I hate wrapping presents!
I hate wrapping presents. I absolutely hate it. If it didn’t make me feel like a failure as a mother, I would just throw all of my kids Christmas presents into one big gift bag, throw some tissue on top and put it under the tree.
But unfortunately, I know that a lot of the fun and magic for kids on Christmas morning is tearing off that wrapping paper. So I begrudgingly wrap presents every year.
- Secret Santa
- Make a list of all the people you plan to give a gift to and make sure it’s really important to you to continue giving them a gift, and that you’re doing it for the right reasons - not just because they get you something or you feel obligated to keep gifting to them
- Scale back or get more creative with your gifts. Experience gifts have gained a lot of traction over the last several years and for good reason, I think. Most of us have too much stuff already, it’s hard to find just the right thing for our friends and family, and it’s more meaningful anyways to make memories with those we care about most, rather than getting them one more present this year.
- Get creative with your gifts: Cards, cookies, a meal, a movie & a bottle of wine at home, a coupon for something you can do for them in the future (i.e. bring them a meal)
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
Today, I’m talking about saying no more in order to say yes to what matters most.
A few years ago, I heard it phrased this way when you consider your priorities & what’s on your calendar - that when you say yes to something, you inevitably say no to something else.
If I say yes to going on a walk outside with my kids, I might be saying no to getting the laundry done that day. So I have to weigh the thing that matters most in that moment. And I want
Now that doesn’t mean that it’s ok for my house to be a mess either. Sometimes, it’s the better choice to say yes to the laundry, and no to the walk. But when I weigh decisions - both small and large - with the idea that by saying yes, I’m also saying no to something else, it helps me to choose the better option more often than not.
I struggle a lot with piling too much on my plate, getting to the point of being burned out, then having to dial things back, and then I fall into the same patterns again. It’s especially challenging with 3 young kids during the holidays, because I want to do so many fun things with them and help make this time of year special for them, but if I really reflect on some of the things that I sometimes load onto our plate this time of year, it just adds stress for all of us.
Because I’m 8 months pregnant this year and my baby is due right after Christmas on January 1st, I’m forced to slow down this year, which helps.
And in 2020, because of Covid and having a newborn that year at Christmas, I found that I did miss some things we didn’t get to do, but overall, I found that doing less that year and living at a slower pace helped me appreciate the things we did even more, and it made me be intentional about only adding back the activities and events that matter the most.
So I’m slowing learning to say no to more things and not load up our calendar, especially during the holidays when the temptations to do ALL THE THINGS is stronger than at any other time during the year.
And of course, by doing less and only what matters most to you, you’ll spend less money this season and only on the things that you really care about.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
Today, I’m talking about setting a budget for the holidays.
Because of inflation, many people will be forced to cut back this year, but many of us will struggle with this and will still have the awful hangover of credit card debt in January.
If you’re more stressed about your finances this year, or if you spend too much during the holidays, then it’s really important to have a budget for the holiday season.
And most importantly, it is never worth it to go into credit card debt because you spent more than you could afford during the holidays.
When many people think about budgets, they just consider gift giving and what they’re going to spend on family and friends for gifts and stop there.
But there are so many other ways that we spend more than we might realize during the holidays. We also have to budget for any new outfits or clothes for that holiday party, eating out and travel, which we tend to do more of this time of year.
So when budgeting, it’s important to look at your calendar and activities and consider all the areas of spending beyond gift giving.
Once you build in all the categories of spending, you’ll want to figure out how much in total you have to spend this year across all categories.
And then you can write out all the activities, travel, names of people you want to give gifts or send cards to, and start assigning a budget to each one. Once you put pen to paper, you realize that it adds up quickly, and you may have to cut back on a few things, say no to an event or 2, or decide to wear the same outfit you did last year.
The key with making this work without guilt is to be creative. Maybe you can host a friend at your house with some dessert and a bottle of wine, rather than going out for dinner like you normally do.
Doing a secret santa with my husband's family has saved me hundreds of dollars over the last several years, because I just spend about $150 on 1 person, rather than buying gifts for everyone.
And for my side of the family, my plan is to only gift to my niece and nephew - they’re both teenagers, so I will just be giving them cash, which I think they’ll appreciate more anyways.
If you’re not ready to cut off your family and stop gift giving like me, the Grinch, then consider baking treats or sharing a recipe, give something less expensive and longer lasting, like a plant, a book, or a scrapbook, or maybe consider a Secret Santa in your own family.
Many of us continue to give gifts to family and friends out of obligation or guilt, but most of us don’t really need or want more stuff anyways, especially if it’s causing financial strain or an indebted January to the gift giver.
So take the time to create a budget, and scale back where necessary so you don’t overburden yourself or overspend.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
Today, I’m talking about setting goals for the Holidays.
I don’t know about you, but I think we overdo the whole goal setting in our culture. I have goals for the year on everything ranging from how many books I want to read, to what my weight will be by my next birthday, to how many times I will workout every week.
So the last thing I want to do during the month of December is set some more goals. But what I mean by setting goals for the season is to take a step back and think about what matters most to you this time of year, so maybe it would be more appropriate to call it setting priorities for this season.
Most of us (myself included) don’t take time to reflect and ask ourselves if what we’re planning to do this year really is worth it. I find that’s true especially during the holidays…you might spend $1000 or more flying halfway across the country to your sister’s house for Christmas because that’s what you’ve always done. But whether it’s a big trip to see family or a white elephant gift exchange with your book club, it’s important to ask yourself if this thing you’ve added to your calendar or the gifts you’re buying for the people in your life is actually something that matters to you and them.
Perhaps a trip to your sister’s house in July makes more sense, and you’d rather stay home and read a book than go to your book club party…so take the time now to set priorities, really ask yourself why you’re doing this thing, and make sure you have a good reason other than you were invited or it’s just something you’ve done for years. Then, give yourself permission to make different decisions this year based on what’s most important to you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
Today, I’m talking about starting early and finishing early when it comes to shopping, prepping, and planning for Christmas.
I’m usually the type of person who hates seeing the Christmas stuff in stores before Halloween, I refuse to listen to the Christmas music station on the radio until after Thanksgiving, and I’m silently judging you when I drive by your house at night and your Christmas lights are already up and on in the month of November.
In short, one holiday at a time for me, please!
But this year, I’m doing something a little different - I’m starting early - by the time you listen to this podcast, I’ll have crossed a lot of to dos off my list this year.
Advent is a big deal in our house. We’re Catholic and so the advent calendar is more than just a piece of chocolate that you open from a flimsy cardboard box for my children. We celebrate St. Nicholas and other saint’s feast days, do craft projects, make cookies, and have family game nights to mark off the days until Christmas.
Many days are also low key, but it requires some advance planning to make sure we’re hitting all the major feast days while not overloading the weeknights with too many activities that are just going to stress us out and defeat the purpose of the season.
So something different that I’ve done for the first time this year is use the month of November to plan everything out, buy what I need for Advent and Christmas, so that when December hits, I’ve done nearly all of my shopping and crossed a lot of my list, so I can spend more time relaxing and less time running around doing errands or shopping.
Some other things I’ve added to my list to complete by the end of November:
- Finish all shopping for everyone on my list
- Order advent wreath and candles
- Plan Advent calendar and purchase treats and other items needed
- Order Christmas cards
Now I realize that November is pretty much over, but the idea of starting early and finishing early still applies. If you can get most of your shopping and Christmas preparations done in the next week or 2, you’ll be less frazzled, less stressed, and you’ll save money too because you won’t be making any last minute impulse buys and you won’t have to pay for upgraded rush shipping to make sure the gift you ordered will arrive by Christmas.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of financial planning wisdom, you’re in the right place.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
A few years ago, I convinced my husband’s family to do a secret santa rather than individual gift giving for everyone, and we all agree, it was a great decision…[discuss benefits]
With inflation still running hot, it’s an ideal year to really scrutinize your holiday spending and look for ways to cut back on both your spending and your stress.
So this week I’ll talk about…
- How starting early in the season can make a huge difference
- How creating goals for the season can help you be intentional about how you spend your time and money during the holidays
- Setting a budget that goes beyond gift spending
- How saying no to more things can help you say yes to what matters most to you
- And how to cut back on gift giving and not hurt anyone’s feelings
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Massive Increases For Workplace Retirement Plans In 2023
- What’s Changing (& What’s Not) With Catchup Contributions In 2023
- Happy Thanksgiving!
- IRA Account Contribution Changes For 2023
- Your Health Savings Account Gets A Boost For 2023
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: How To Minimize Financial Stress During The Holidays
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
Today, I’m talking about one of the most underutilized and overlooked retirement accounts that’s getting a boost for 2023 - the health savings account.
I’ve talked about this before on the podcast, but the HSA, if you have access to one, should be one of your top priorities when it comes to deciding how and where to invest for retirement.
More on that in a minute, but first, let me explain what’s changing for 2023:
The annual inflation-adjusted limit on HSA contributions for self-only coverage will be $3,850, up from $3,650 in 2022. The HSA contribution limit for family coverage will be $7,750, up from $7,300. The adjustments represent approximately a 5.5 percent increase over 2022 contribution limits.
Ok, now back to why you want to fund this account in the first place. First of all, eligibility for contributing to a HSA is dependent on the type of health insurance you have. You’ll need to be in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) in order to fund a HSA.
Once you meet that requirement, you can’t beat the triple tax benefits of the HSA [explain & talk about why you can and should invest for retirement]…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
Today is the day after Thanksgiving, so I hope if you’re listening to this episode the day it comes out, you had a relaxing and fun day with those you love most, and you’ve recovered from your food coma.
My 2 favorite Thanksgiving foods are pumpkin cheesecake, which I’ve made for our Thanksgiving feast the last several years, and the leftovers from dinner.
When I was a kid, our day-after Thanksgiving tradition was to go cut down our Christmas tree. These days I like to wait until at least early December to get our tree. And this year, I might finally buy a fake tree, which doesn’t feel right, but I don’t know if I have it in me to vacuum tree needles multiple times a week while 8 1/2 months pregnant this year.
Instead on the day after Thanksgiving, I like to put my fall decorations away and get everything out in preparation for Advent and Christmas. And the other thing I always do is make a casserole with Thanksgiving leftovers. If you haven’t made a casserole with leftovers before, I highly recommend it. It’s super easy, and it’s one of my favorite dinners to make and eat!
Ok, so back to today’s topic which is Traditional and Roth IRA changes for 2023. It’s not just the contribution rate that’s changing for 2023, but due to inflation, the income limits are going up as well.
If you’re eligible to contribute to a Traditional IRA or a Roth IRA, the contribution limit goes up $500 for 2023 - from $6000 to $6500. As I mentioned a couple days ago the catchup contribution if you’re over 50 for these accounts isn’t changing. If you missed that episode and you want to take advantage of catchup contributions, be sure to go back and have a listen because catch up contributions for most workplace retirement plans like 401k and SIMPLE IRA accounts ARE going up next year.
In addition to the contribution limit increase in Traditional and Roth IRA accounts, the income limit is also going up.
It’s important to keep in mind that your eligibility to contribute to these accounts is based on income, and for Traditional IRAs it also depends on whether you or your spouse if you’re married are also covered by a retirement plan at work. So you’ll want to do some homework here to see if you’re eligible.
The best resource is the IRS website, which has clearly laid out the rules. For example, as long as your household income is below $228,000 for married couples filing jointly, it doesn’t matter whether you have a retirement plan at work or not. You can still max out your Roth contributions. That’s not the case though for Traditional IRA accounts, especially if you or your spouse are covered by a retirement plan at work.
So take the time to research the rules and how they apply in your individual situation, so you can take advantage of these updated contributions limits wherever they apply to your situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
Today is Thanksgiving, so I wanted to take a pause from the theme this week to wish you a very happy thanksgiving! Every year on the podcast on Thanksgiving, I like to share what I’m thankful for and express my appreciation and thanks to you for being a listener of the show!
I hope you have a relaxing and blessed thanksgiving, and that you are spending time today or this week with the people in your life that you love the most.
I am very blessed with a husband and 3 children whom I adore and fill my life with joy. In fact, as I write my talking points for this week, my 5 year old and 2 year old sons are playing together and my 5 year old blurts out: “I’ve got slobber all over my butt from Bubba!”. I look over and see that his pants are down and I question him why his pants are down in the first place”. These are the interactions that happen on a Saturday morning when you are the mother of boys. And speaking of boys, I have another boy on the way, arriving in January.
3 boys in 5 years is a terrifying thought, and I never expected to have 4 children, but I’m so grateful for my family and trying to embrace these years with them while they’re young.
Other than my family, I am grateful for my faith, my health, a warm home, and many basics that are easily taken for granted like money in my bank account, food, clean water, and reliable transportation. I am also thankful for my friends, my parents, my in-laws, and other extended family, my co-workers, my clients, and my social circle.
I am thankful for my hobbies like golf, exercise, and reading that add spice to my life. I am thankful for living in the beautiful state of Oregon which makes it easy to get outside and enjoy lots of different activities year-round with my kids.
I hope you take time today to reflect on what you’re most grateful for, and that you have a very blessed Thanksgiving.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
Today, I’m talking about increases to catchup contributions for retirement plan accounts in 2023. If you’re over 50, you’re already maxing out your retirement plan contributions but you want to do more, then consider catch up contributions.
The catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and over who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan is increased by $1000 for 2023 - to $7,500, up from $6,500.
This means that if you participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan and you max out both your regular contributions and your catchup, you can reach an important threshold and save $30,000 in your employer-sponsored retirement accounts starting in 2023.
Some important things to know about the catchup that you’ll want to pay attention to. Oftentimes you have to opt into it specifically and your payroll or retirement plan provider won’t automatically let you make the catchup contributions unless you opt in. Every providers is different so just make sure you find out how to max out both your regular and catchup contributions if you decide to go that route.
As I mentioned yesterday, if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably are over 50 and in your peak earnings years, so trying to max out your retirement plan contributions will help provide a nice boost in your last several working years before retirement.
Catchup contributions are also going up for SIMPLE IRA accounts, by $500 - from $3000 to $3500, but it’s important to note that the catchup contribution for Traditional and Roth IRA accounts remains unchanged for 2023, and remains at $1000.
I’ll talk more specifically about Traditional and Roth IRA accounts on Friday.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
Today, I’m talking about the massive increases for workplace retirement plans in 2023.
If you work for a company that sponsors a workplace retirement savings plan, the IRS announced the largest ever increase in retirement plan contribution limits for 2023 thanks to high inflation this year.
The contribution limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan is increased to $22,500, up from $20,500.
If you’re covered by a SIMPLE IRA, you can contribute up to $15,500 in 2023, up from $14,000 this year.
The biggest mistake I see people make…[not paying attention to these changes and making the necessary adjustments to payroll contributions]
- Don’t assume that it will happen automatically. I’ve had people tell me that they’re maxing out, only to find out that they were maxing out…like 5 years ago, but haven’t made the adjustments since and lost out on tens of thousands of additional contributions and growth that they otherwise would have had in their retirement account.
- Find out what steps you need to take now, so your contribution increases can go into effect in January
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision
The theme this week on the podcast is: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you are over 50 and are in your peak earning years and planning for a secure retirement is high on your priority list, meaning that you probably are willing and able to max out your retirement accounts.
One of the positive effects of inflation is that increases in retirement plan contribution limits are going up dramatically for 2023 - by over 10% for some plan types.
So this week I’ll talk about…
- Increases to contribution limits for workplace plans like 401ks, 403bs, and SIMPLE IRAs. I’ll also talk about what’s changing and what’s not with catchup contributions for the over 50 crowd, changes to Traditional and Roth IRA contribution and income limits, and of course the often forgotten health savings account.
- So stick around this week, and make notes about which of these contribution changes apply to your situation so you can fully take advantage of the new higher limits in all of the retirement accounts you’re planning to fund this year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about the massive increases for your workplace retirement plan in 2023.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Fire Your Financial Advisor
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- How To Select A New Advisor
- Understanding The Account Transfer Process
- You’ve Left Your Financial Advisor For Someone New. What’s Next?
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: New Retirement Plan Limits For 2023
One thing that we can thank inflation for as we close out the year is that the IRS recently announced huge bumps in retirement savings limits for 2023. So next week, I’ll talk about what’s changing for your 401k, IRA, and Health Savings accounts, and how you can best take advantage of these higher contribution rates.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Fire Your Financial Advisor
Today, I’m talking about what happens in the days & weeks after you change advisors and what you need to know about switching things around post-transfer.
- What happens post-transfer
-
Advisor will let you know when the funds arrive and usually by this time, you’ve discussed and agreed on the changes that they’ll be making in your investment accounts
-
Dealing carefully with taxable accounts because of gains
- Implement financial planning recommendations they’ve made
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Fire Your Financial Advisor
Today, I’m continuing with the nuts and bolts of the actual account transfer process to help you know what to expect, and to help you see it’s not as much of a headache as you might think. That’s mostly because the new advisor or brokerage firm you’re working with is going to do most of the work for you.
- Paperwork you’ll sign
- 2 step process -
- Notifying your advisor is optional - your advisor can handle this for you if it’s too uncomfortable.
-
Why it’s a good idea - worked with them for a long time. If the advisor is rude or tries to intimidate you to stay, that’s rare, but you can take that as verification that you’ve made the right decision in leaving. Most good advisors will appreciate honest feedback in what went wrong. All advisors lose clients. The best advisors only have 1-2% of their clients leave in a given year, but it does still happen. I always ask when someone leaves and I appreciate knowing what went wrong so I can identify any patterns and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
-
ACAT is all back-office (advisors are not involved. Timeline is usually a couple weeks and everything stays invested with in-kind, so you’re not out of the market for several weeks.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Fire Your Financial Advisor
Today, I’m talking about what you need to know about the actual transfer process
- Usually fees are minimal ($75-$100/account transfer charge) and no advance notice is required. Once you’ve selected the company you’ll be working with, you’ll provide them with account statements. At this point, they should be able to tell you what fees or potential issues could be involved with the transfer once they see how the accounts are invested.
- 9 out of 10 times it’s pretty simple because you can usually transfer everything in-kind (explain), but there are exceptions:
- Annuities not out of surrender
- Proprietary funds that can’t be held elsewhere
- Illiquid investments
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Fire Your Financial Advisor
Today, I’m talking about how to select a new advisor
- decide what type of investor you are (diy on your own, hybrid with some help and portfolio model or a robo-advisor, or full service working with a financial advisor
- choose an advisor/custodian - don't rely on fancy marketing. Interview each option you're seriously
- Questions to ask - did an entire weekly theme on this topic in May 2019. Here are 5 questions to ask potential new advisors:
-
1 question - are you a fiduciary at all times? Don’t hire an advisor who won’t or can’t be a fiduciary.
- What does your typical client look like? Many advisors only serve high-net worth clients, or have special expertise in working with a particular subset of clients - here at True North, we specialize in working with business owners looking to exit their business in the next 5-10 years. Be sure that your advisor specializes in and has other clients like you.
- How long have you been an advisor? Experience counts for a lot. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’m always learning something new. Don’t pick an advisor who graduated college last week. On the flip side, consider the age of your advisor. If they’re 70 years old, how much longer will they be around to manage your portfolio. If they are closer to retirement, that’s ok. Just make sure they still have some fire left in the belly and a succession plan in place.
- Who will be my day-to-day contact? Ideally, the financial advisor you worked with initially is also your ongoing advisor. But that’s not always the case. Ask to meet all the members of the team and how each of them will be involved with you after you become a client.
- What’s your investment philosophy? Make sure this is clearly articulated, makes sense to you, and is consistent with your goals.
- What are your fees? And just as important, what is the all-in cost of you managing my money? There are fees you pay your advisor, underlying fees for the investments you own, and often transaction fees as well. Be sure your advisor clearly explains the all-in cost, not just their fee, and make sure that fee seems fair and reasonable based on what they will be doing for you on an ongoing basis.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: httpstr://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to fire your financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about why clients leave their advisor
- Bear market: Spotlight on high fees, poor communication, or bad performance
- Biggest problem I see is neglect of the relationship by the advisor. Lazy and complacent after they reach a point of success. Story of working in a large office with a lot of experienced advisors
-
1 reason - poor communication. They’re not proactive or responsive if you reach out. Client who has $2 million with another advisor, but he’s heard from them maybe 3 times in the last 10 years. I remind him that based on the assets invested there, they’ve made probably $100,000 in fees over that time. You’d think that they could at least take the time to reach out once in a while.
- Could be more subtle than that - they ignore your spouse in meetings. You seem even more confused after talking to them and they don’t articulate the why behind their recommendations well. They consistently over-promise and under-deliver and they’re not meeting your expectations.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision
The theme this week on the podcast is: How to fire your financial advisor
Many investors who work with a financial advisor aren’t satisfied with the relationship, and plenty of DIY investors may not be that satisfied with the relationship of the investment company they’re working with, and would prefer to move their accounts and work with someone else, but if that sounds like you, a lot of roadblocks prevent you from making a change.
You may think that it sounds like too big of a headache to move your accounts or you worry about triggering taxes or penalties because of your move. Or maybe you’ve been working with your advisor for a long time, and you consider them a friend, you’re afraid of the damage that making the switch will do to the relationship. Guilt or fear of the unknown keeps you from making the change.
Believe me, I understand. I love the gal who does my hair, but her salon is in one of the worst parts of downtown Portland, where you’ve seen boarded up buildings, riots, and homeless encampments. I'm convinced that every time I go see her that I will return to my car with a window smashed in, but I won’t leave her.
So this week I’ll talk about why clients will leave their financial advisor, the steps you should take if you’re ready to make a change, and why it might be easier to make the switch than you might think.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Election day
- Too Early On ESG
- The Sky Is Falling Bias
- Do Elections Really Impact Your Investment Portfolio?
- Why The 2022 Midterm Election Results Won’t Matter Much For Your Portfolio
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: How to fire your financial advisor.
Poor communication or a lack of communication and responsiveness is the main reason why a client will drop their financial advisor. That’s often a forgivable offense when times are good, but poor communication coupled with poor performance often leads investors to consider looking elsewhere for a new advisor. Many don’t make the leap though, because it seems like too much of a hassle and you’re not really sure if the grass is truly greener on the other side. So next week I’ll talk about what you need to know if you’d like to fire your financial advisor, and why it’s easier than you might think.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Today, I’m talking about why the 2022 midterm election results won’t matter much for your portfolio.
I’m recording this episode prior to the midterm election results, so unlike you, I don’t yet know the outcomes because I’m coming to you from the pre-recorded podcast twilight zone.
But I would be willing to bet the stock market reaction to the election results has been pretty muted. And that is especially true in 2022.
With interest rate hikes, a cooling economy, high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the weird world we still live in post-pandemic, the election is taking a backseat in 2022, at least in terms of how much it matters for your investments and the markets.
Last week, the Federal Reserve raised rates by another .75%, and if you listened to the podcast last week, you know that the Fed decisions carry a lot more weight with your retirement portfolio, than whether Republicans will control the Senate.
It’s important to remember that the stock market is driven primarily by earnings. Strong earnings or profits propel stocks forward. Policy decisions by the government can certainly impact the economy, and that’s certainly happened in 2022. Too much spending and too much money supply thanks to a too easy monetary policy by the Fed last year is a major reason why we’re in the current economic climate that we’re in.
But that’s a short-term issue that will be worked out. Inflation will normalize again, and the economy will start growing again. And when that happens, stocks will continue their upward march. Thankfully, politicians don’t sway the markets all that much in the long-term, which is good news for all of us.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Today, I’m talking about how elections really impact the markets, and by extension, your investments.
In election years, there is a lot of discussion and speculation about who will take power and what potential policy changes will mean for markets.
I remember in 2020 in the months leading up to the presidential election, gunmaker smith and Wesson shot up in value. People were worried that their 2nd amendment rights would be taken away if Trump lost, and it became a record-breaking year for gun sales.
Other industries driven by policy changes - like healthcare and military contractors - can be heavily influenced by election outcomes. So elections do matter in some cases depending on how you’re invested.
But if you’re invested in a well-diversified portfolio and you don’t have heavy concentrations in a particular industry or company, then the outcomes of the election shouldn’t matter all that much.
And history bears this out. There is some variation in historical returns depending on which party is in power, but when you look under the hood and look at other factors influencing the economy and markets over the years, there isn’t a strong correlation between who controls the white house, the house, or the senate and what the stock market returns look like.
One thing to keep in mind though is that the stock market tends to perform best when there is a divided government. If there’s a democrat in the white house, and republicans control the house and the Senate, or vice versa, that’s likely to lead to the best outcomes for the economy and markets.
Why? There’s policy gridlock, and neither party can get much done. This eliminates the possibility of big policy changes that could create sweeping changes for the economy and that is a good thing for the markets.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Yesterday, I talked about a left-leaning former advisor colleague of mine who let his political views sabotage not only his own investment returns, but those of his clients as well.
Today, I’m talking about a common problem I see among people on the right side of the political spectrum, which is they tend to be a little too pessimistic, thinking that the sky is falling.
[story about client who went to cash…doesn’t trust the government…watches too much Tucker Carlson and many YouTube videos that have scared him into thinking the world is coming to an end…he abandoned his long term investment strategy, went to cash earning nothing, and went so far as to stop contributing to his retirement accounts, because as he said - didn’t want to flush his money down the toilet anymore].
He allowed his political beliefs and negative outlook about the future to sabotage his financial security in retirement. It’s likely that he’ll never get back in to the stock market, start saving again, and if he does, it will likely be too late to make any real difference.
The truth is the world is always a scary and uncertain place and there are always reasons not to invest. I was born in 1985, and in that year the US became a debtor nation, and we haven’t looked back since, have we? Then in 1986, the US bombed Libya, the year after that was a record setting stock market decline on Black Monday, followed by a string a bank failures in 1988…Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, a recession hits the US in 91, LA Riots in 1992, and the Fed raised interest rates 6 times in 1994.
Does any of this sound familiar? National debt, stock market declines, financial stress, war, riots, and interest rate hikes. History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme.
Yet, despite all of this, the stock market had an incredible run during the first decade of my life, and it’s had a great run since then too.
So if you’re like chicken little and you’re tempted to let your political bias and your fears about the future influence your investment and financial decisions, it’s important to be a student of history. The world will come to an end at some point, but it’s likely not happening today or this year, or in your lifetime.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Early in my career, I worked in a big office with about 25 other financial advisors.
One of these advisors was about 10 years older than I was at the time. He rode his bike to work every day, and he leaned pretty far left on the political spectrum. His niche was green investing, which was really gaining in visibility and popularity at the time. Being in the deep blue city of Portland, Oregon, he was able to attract like-minded clients who embraced his green investing approach.
He put all of his clients' eggs in the green investing basket. He invested in solar and wind companies, stocks of coffee companies with sustainable practices, and shunned anything having to do with oil or the military.
In 2008 and 2009, you could make a strong argument for these new technologies and governments and people focused on reducing their carbon footprint and trying to address climate change, you could make a strong argument for why this investment bias would pay off and make his clients wealthier while investing with an eye toward their values.
But the problem was, he was way too early to embrace the trend of ESG investing. His clients lost money, and his advisory practice didn’t really grow
The moral of this story is that political views and how you view the world and the future - for better or worse - can create strong biases and blind spots when it comes to how you construct an investment portfolio, so it’s important that you maintain a well-diversified portfolio no matter your political leanings.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Happy Election Day! If you’re a Republican and the polls and predictions are correct, I think you’ll be a happy camper this evening. If you’re a democrat, well I guess it depends on where you live and at least you had your fun in 2020 with a full sweep.
I live in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. I was born here and have lived here pretty much my whole life, and it’s quite possible that we could have a republican governor for the first time in like 40+ years in Oregon. Oregon is a very blue state, so the fact that republican Christine Drazen even has a chance is really interesting. As I record this podcast, she’s leading in the polls, and because of that, the governor race has even attracted national media attention. I was shocked the first time I read an article about Drazen in the Wall Street Journal. If California is Marcia Brady, then Oregon is kind of like Jan Brady. Nobody pays much attention to us up here on the northside of California, so that was the first time I realized that a republican vote in a governor's race might actually mean something in Oregon.
We have mail in voting here in Oregon, so I’ve long since voted and now I’ll just watch with bated breath to see what happens this evening.
One thing I don’t expect when I wake up the morning after election day is a strong stock market reaction. Markets tend not to care all that much about election outcomes, even in the short-term, and whether Congress and the White House are blue, red, or deadlocked with both, thankfully it doesn’t impact the big picture all that much.
I’ll talk more specifically later this week on the ways which elections can influence markets, but whether you’re elated or depressed after tonight’s election outcome, you can at least rest assured that whatever that outcome is, it’s unlikely to have much impact on your investment portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors. I’ve been a financial advisor for 15 years, and I love talking about all things retirement. I’m using my 15 years in the world of finance & working with clients to help bring you more clarity about your own retirement.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Every 2 years around this time, I start getting the same questions…what do you think is going to happen with the stock market after the election?
My answer is the same every time…I don’t really know. But, believe it or not, the outcome of the election will hardly register with the stock market even in the short term.
The reality is that the outcome of the election and whether democrats remain in power, there’s a massive red wave, or whether political power is divided, doesn’t make much difference for the stock market. And that’s good news. You wouldn’t want the fate of your investments to live or die by whichever party is in control in Washington.
But too many people make the mistake of letting their political bias color their investment decisions, so this week, I’ll talk about some of the pitfalls to avoid when it comes to making investment decisions that are influenced by your political bias.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow when I’ll talk about how political bias can wreck your investment portfolio.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Don’t Fight The Fed
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Why Fed Policy Influences The Stock Market
- How Interest Rate Policy Impacts Stocks: Competition & Borrowing Costs
- Does The Fed Write The Script For The Stock Market?
- The Interest Rate Trend Matters Most
The most important takeaway from this week is: If you’re an investor in the stock market, I can’t overstate how important interest rates, as set by the Federal Reserve are for influencing short term stock prices. In the rising interest rate environment that we’re in right now, it’s even more important to understand how both the amount and trend of interest rate increases will impact your portfolio.
If you fail to understand and appreciate this, you’ll likely be confused about what’s happening in the stock market and more prepared for what’s likely to be more pain ahead.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?
Election week is upon us, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be happy when it’s all over. No more political ads, and much of the unease that many of us feel before an election, will subside once the outcomes are decided.
But whether you’re conservative, liberal or somewhere in the middle, you want to be careful about letting your political views infiltrate your investment decisions. So next week I’ll talk about some pitfalls to avoid, where I see people make the biggest mistakes when it comes to their political views dictating their investment decisions, and when it does make sense to allow your personal values to infiltrate your investment portfolio.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Fight The Fed
Today, I’m talking about how the trend of interest rates matters most…
- The direction of interest rates is generally what matters most rather than the actual current level of interest rates. According to Zweig, “the trend of interest rates is more significant than the level itself…and “Moves by the Fed toward easing have a greater positive impact on stock prices than the negative effect” [created by raising interest rates]
- Turning to today, what do we see? Fed policy that clearly points to higher rates ahead.
- With that backdrop, it’s hard to make a case for higher stock prices in the short term.
- The good news is that (hopefully) sooner rather than later, interest rate policy will finally start beating inflation down, and at that point, the Fed can let off the gas with their interest rate increases.
- In the meantime, I think it will be quality that matters most and will keep investors from throwing in the towel. Commenting in late October, Thomas Peterffy, the chairman and founder of Interactive Brokers Group Inc., said “People better roll up their sleeves and begin to research and try to identify companies with great business prospects and good management, ” said Peterffy. “That is not going to be so simple.”
- If you have cash on the sidelines, now is the time to start adding cash when stocks are battered. We don’t know when the Fed will stop raising rates, but it’s likely to happen in the next year, so you want to be fully invested by the time the stock market bottoms.
- Zweig died in 2013, but I think he would be quite pleased that his advice of don’t fight the Fed still holds true today, more than 50 years since he asserted his theory.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Fight The Fed
Today, I’m asking the question: Does The Fed Write The Script For The Stock Market?
- “It’s been said that the Federal Reserve writes the script for the stock market. The evidence supports that theory. The Fed, as it is commonly called, has the job of adjusting the growth of the nation’s money supply, monitoring the trend of credit or borrowings, and influencing the level of interest rates. It does not necessarily tackle all of these tasks at any one time, but whatever goal the Fed has in mind, it is certain to have a major impact on interest rates and ultimately on stock prices.” - Zweig
- With this in mind, let’s look at history. If you layer a chart of the Federal Funds Rate over the stock market over the long-run, you’ll see an interesting connection that’s worth paying attention to.
- When the Fed lowers interest rates, it’s a strong bullish
- Not the only indicator, but it’s a powerful one, because as I mentioned on Tuesday’s episode, as Zweig pointed out in his book Winning on Wall Street, “in the stock market, as with horse racing, money makes the mare go. Monetary conditions exert an enormous influence on stock prices.”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Fight The Fed
Today, I’m talking about How Interest Rate Policy Impacts Stocks: Borrowing Costs
- “when interest rates fall, it costs corporations less to borrow. That reduces a major expense, especially for companies that are heavy borrowers” Zweig
- Lower expenses means higher profits for large publicly traded companies. Higher profits mean higher stock prices.
- It was so cheap and easy for companies to borrow, that it made it a lot easier to grow, expand, hire, and pay their employees.
- The flipside, of course, is also true. When borrowing costs go up because interest rates are higher, that cuts into profits, and can lead to a quick bankruptcy for the most debt-saddled businesses.
- Especially when you see rates go up sharply like we’ve seen…I think you’ll start to hear more about earnings drops, layoffs, and companies going belly up in the coming weeks and months. Too many businesses are financing their operations with debt, and with the prime rate now up to 6.25% and heading higher, its nearly twice as expensive to take on new debt as it was just a year ago when the prime rate was 3.25%
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Fight The Fed
Today, I’m talking about How Interest Rate Policy Impacts Stocks: Competition
- According to Zweig, lower interest rates make stocks more attractive relative to other investments like cash, cds, bonds, etc.
- Incentives drive where money goes. If I’m not making anything sitting in cash or a short term CD, because rates but the stock marke
- TINA effect
- This works in both directions…rising interest rates - all of a sudden cash, bonds, and CDs become more attractive. These days, I can get about 4% on a FDIC insured 9 or 12 month CD. That sounds like a much more attractive option than it did just a year ago when I might as well have shoved my money under a mattress rather than invest in a CD.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Fight The Fed
Today, I’m talking about Why Fed Policy influences the stock market
- “In the stock market, as with horse racing, money makes the mare go. Monetary conditions exert an enormous influence on stock prices. Indeed, the monetary climate—primarily the trend in interest rates and Federal Reserve policy—is the dominant factor in determining the stock market’s major direction. Once established, the trend typically lasts from one to three years.” - Martin Zweig, Winning on Wall Street
- I didn’t appreciate this until 2018. That year, the Fed raised interest rates 4 times. They were all small .25% rate increases to combat inflation that had started to creep higher and a really tight job market. They were essentially trying to get ahead of a potentially overheating economy with a few small increases.
- The stock market did not like it one bit - the S&P 500 lost 6.24% in 2018, with the steepest losses coming right at the end of year.
- What was the primary driver of the losses in 2018? A change in Fed rate policy to raise interest rates. As an advisor who had experienced only an interest rate environment where rates remained near zero, I had little appreciation for how rising interest rates negatively impact the stock market. That all changed in 2018…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! And happy halloween to you! I’m not a big halloween person…In fact, I’m just dressing for the weather to take the kids trick or treating tonight. I think the last time I wore a halloween costume was circa 2006.
And would you think I’m a bad mother if I told you that instead of dressing up my 2-year old in costume, I’m having his father put him to bed at his usual 6:30pm bedtime, we’re turning off the lights, and hoping that no trick or treaters come to the door. Halloween is just another day for him…I guess that’s what happens when you’re the 3rd child - at least in our family.
My 8 year old is going to be a witch - dressing up in matching outfits with her BFF to go trick or treating, and my 5 year old has picked a skeleton ninja for his costume this year.
My job is to keep them from eating all the candy before I have a chance to pull out all of the 100 grand bars and butterfingers for myself.
Alright…back to the podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors. I’ve been a financial advisor for 15 years, and I love talking about all things retirement. I’m using my 15 years in the world of finance & working with clients to help bring you more clarity about your own retirement.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Don’t Fight The Fed
The Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates in 2022 to combat sticky inflation. They meet again this week and are expected to announce another .75% increase in interest rates, and probably another rate increase of about .5% in December as well.
With this top of mind in the news this week, I thought it was an appropriate time to discuss the concept “Don’t Fight The Fed”.
This term was coined by Marty Zweig in his 1970 book, Winning on Wall Street. His advice has held the test of time for over 50 years, so this week, we’re exploring what he means by this, and I’ll talk about why Federal Reserve policy has become so important in determining the direction of the stock markets.
Whether you have a retirement portfolio in bonds, stocks, real estate, cash, or all of the above, understanding what Federal Reserve policy really means for your investments can help you make sense of this confusing time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow when I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Why Boomerang Kids Are Returning To The Nest
- What Parents Are Bankrolling For Their Adult Children
- Are Your Adult Children Undermining Your Retirement?
- It’s Time To Kick Out Your Boomerang Kid
- How Your Boomerang Kids Are Hurt In The Long-Run
The most important takeaway from this week is: while it seems like the compassionate thing to do to continue supporting your adult children, it's critical to have the hard conversations if you have boomerang kids of your own, set boundaries and deadlines to get them to financial independence as soon as possible, because the damage it can do to both you and them has significant long-term consequences.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Don’t Fight The Fed.
The Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates in 2022 to combat sticky inflation. They meet again at the beginning of November and are expected to announce another .75% increase in interest rates. With this top of mind in the news, I thought it was an appropriate time to discuss the concept “Don’t Fight The Fed”. This term was coined by Marty Zweig in his 1970 book, Winning on Wall Street. His advice has held the test of time for over 50 years, so next week we’ll talk about how influential Federal Reserve policy has become in determining the direction of the stock markets, and how you can learn from Marty’s advice.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children.
Many parents feel guilty about pushing their adult children out of the nest and encouraging them to be financially independent, so I think it’s helpful to look at how parents might be hurting their adult children in the long-run by continuing financial support.
But first, let me backup and clarify that this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help them with anything once they reach age 18. It’s probably important to many of you to financially help your adult children with college, buying their first home, wedding expenses, or starting a business. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem I’m trying to address this week is with ongoing financial support to able-bodied adult children who still aren’t paying for rent at your house or for their own cell phone bill.
One of the main issues with ongoing financial support to adult children is that it hurts their own motivation and incentives to work. At first, it sounds pretty awesome to binge Netflix and play video games while working an entry level job for less than 20 hours a week. But the boredom, emptiness, depression, and nihilism are the natural outgrowths of this lifestyle if it continues for any length of time.
Many young people don’t realize that there’s always dignity in work, and finding a meaningful career has significant value, not just financially but emotionally, mentally, and psychologically as well.
In short, delaying financial independence can impact your adult child’s long-term ability to work and succeed in the world, which can do a tremendous amount of damage to them and their own mental and emotional health.
Secondly, supporting adult children for longer than necessary creates dependency. You’re likely going to have to cut them off at some point, so it’s better to set expectations and a deadline for when they will start paying for their own expenses, so they have time to make a plan and leave the nest for good.
Lastly, and considering some longer term consequences, delaying financial independence means that they will be less likely to accumulate enough for their own retirement. If they don’t find a meaningful career, but rather keep things on cruise control by living at home, they will likely damage their own long term savings as a result. By not having the financial independence to save for their own retirement starting in their 20s and 30s, they’ll be way behind in the long-run, and much less likely to ever catch up.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children.
All this week, I’ve been talking about how financially supporting adult children is likely to be hurting your finances and your retirement security, and how common it is that you have a boomerang child of your own that you’re financially supporting.
I want to transition today into talking about strategies for having an honest conversation with your children and setting expectations so they can become financially independent.
First of all, it’s important to note that there is a big disconnect between the perceptions of your finances and your actual finances. A Pew Research study found that 72% of kids who moved home believe their parents can financially support them, yet just 21% of parents agree.
So the first step is to just talk with your kids and begin to set some boundaries. For example, let’s say you have a child living at home rent-free who is working part-time. You are also paying for most of his or her bills and they’re still on your health insurance plan.
Start by reminding yourself that you should not feel guilty about setting boundaries and expectations. And what are those boundaries? It’s reasonable to expect your adult child to pay for most or all of their own expenses and contribute to the household by paying rent if they’re living with you. This will ensure that they’re incentivized to work and find meaningful employment and a career of their own. Making it too easy for children to live comfortably with you will not help them learn to manage their own money or be financially independent in the long-run.
Secondly, it’s important to calculate how much you can afford to help out your adult child. Many parents help out their adult children in substantial ways. Let’s say you’re paying an extra $1000/month to support your adult child. That’s $12,000 a year that you’re not saving for retirement in the last few critical years before retirement.If you’re compromising your own retirement security to financially support your adult children, are they going to be able to take care of you in the future the way you are taking care of them now?
Another useful tip, other than just having frank conversations with your kids and setting expectations is to get to the root of the problem.
Does your adult child have a crushing debt load? Is finding affordable housing the issue? Are they having trouble finding a job? If you can address the real issue rather than putting a bandaid on the problem by financially supporting them in their current situation, you can help them out of their problem and get them to a place of financial independence much sooner.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children. As I mentioned earlier this week, At the peak of the pandemic, 52% of young adults between 18-24 years old moved back in with their parents, according to data from the Pew Research Center. But more than two years later, 40% of parents are still hosting their adult child in their home, and in many cases, financially supporting them.
A survey by Thrivent, a financial services firm, found that 35% of parents with adult children at home have compromised their retirement savings to help their children financially.
Another study from Savings.com found that 50% of parents give their adult children $1,000 a month in financial support, and 25% are willing to dip into their savings and retirement to cover the expense.
This is not good news for your retirement. Relatively few Americans have enough to fund their own retirement, so dipping into your savings, especially if it’s to fund the expenses of able-bodied adult children is not a good idea.
It’s also interesting to note that continuing to help adult children is causing a meaningful delay in retirement. In fact, only 21% of baby boomers who support their adult children are retired, compared with 52% of baby boomer households whose adult children are financially independent, according to a survey by Hearts & Wallets, comprised of more than 30,000 household interviews.
In other words, you’re more than twice as likely to not be able to retire as your boomer counterparts with financially independent children.
Tomorrow, I’ll share with you some ideas on how to lovingly push your adult children back out of the nest.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children.
I talked yesterday about how common it is now for adult children to return to the nest, and often that places a financial burden on you as the parent.
So today, I’m going to dive a little deeper to discuss what parents are bankrolling for their adult children. Eighty percent of parents with adult children are paying or have paid for at least some expenses for those children after age 18, according to a survey on the spending and saving habits of US adults by Harris Poll on behalf of NerdWallet.
This is a little misleading because it includes parents who are helping their adult child through college as well - paying for tuition and living expenses.
But when you dig a little deeper, you see that’s not all parents are bankrolling for their adult children. The survey found that parents of adult children were paying or had paid for the following:
- 56% for groceries
- 40% for health insurance
- 21% for rent or housing outside the family home
- 39% for the child's phone bill
- 34% for car insurance
If you find yourself paying for these expenses for your adult children, it might be time to ask yourself if you can actually afford to continue supporting your adult children, and what that might be costing you in terms of your own financial security in retirement.
That’s what we’ll look closer at tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children.
In July 2020, 52% of 18- to 29-year-olds were living with their parents – the highest proportion recorded since the Great Depression. These adult children who leave the nest and then return home are called boomerang kids. And if you have a boomerang kid of your own, chances are you’re supporting them financially and it’s putting a strain on your finances and your outlook for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about why there’s been such a big jump in boomerang kids returning to the nest.
As I just noted, during Covid, over half of 18-29 year olds were living with their parents. Covid upended a lot of young people from school and cities and drove them back home to live with mom and dad, but this trend started long before Covid.
This is a trend that has been gaining momentum since the Great Recession. I graduated college in 2007, just before the Great Recession. I remember many of my friends struggled to find jobs post-college, and the overhang from the Great Recession lasted for several years. From 2005 to 2013, the % of boomerang kids had increased significantly, according to a Pew Research study.
Beyond the struggles in the economy in the mid-late 2000’s, there was also less stigma associated with moving back home, young adults finding a mate and getting married and having kids much later, and the debt loads of young adults has only become much worse in the last 15 years, paving the way for more than half of young people to move in with mom and dad.
So if Junior is still living in the basement rent-free and you’re paying for his cell phone bill and health insurance, you’re not alone.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children
Have you heard of the boomerang kid? Perhaps you have a boomerang kid of your own. They are adult children who leave the nest, then boomerang back home and back onto the bankroll of mom and dad.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau data from 2015, a third of young people–or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34–lived with their parents. That trend has worsened since the pandemic, leading many close-to-retirement age parents stuck with financially supporting their adult children, and falling behind on their own retirement savings as a result.
Many parents of boomerang kids would prefer to stop financially supporting their adult children, but for a variety of reasons, they feel stuck in their current circumstances. So this week, I’ll talk about how you can gracefully and lovingly push those boomerang kids back out of the nest, which will allow you to refocus on saving enough for your own retirement, so you won’t have to boomerang back to the boomerang kids when you’re 80 and outlived your assets.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow when I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Enrolling in medicare, do’s & don'ts
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed in my interview with Medicare expert, Tim Becker this week…
- What to know when signing up for Medicare for the very first time
- Sorting through different Medicare plan options, finding the best resources and how to pick the best plan options for your situation
- Common and costly mistakes that people make with Medicare
- What the prescription drug donut hole is and how to avoid it
- What to know about the annual enrollment period and whether or not you’ll want to make changes to your medicare coverage if you’re already enrolled in Medicare
You can also check out the full interview, along with over 100 other videos on retirement on my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
The most important takeaway from this week is: Choosing the right medicare coverage plan lineup can be overwhelming and confusing, but there are people and resources out there to help you pick the right coverage and avoid costly mistakes.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: How To Stop Financially Supporting Your Adult Children. It’s called boomerang kids. Adult children who leave the nest, then boomerang back home and back onto the bankroll of mom and dad. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2015, a third of young people–or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34–lived with their parents. That trend has worsened since the pandemic, leading many close-to-retirement age parents stuck with supporting their adult children, and falling behind on their own retirement savings as a result.
So we’ll explore this more in depth next week, and what to do if you have a boomerang kid of your own.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Enrolling In Medicare - Do’s & Don’ts.
I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Medicare Expert, Tim Becker on some of the most important things to know when signing up for Medicare for the first time, and what you need to know about choosing plans during the annual enrollment period, which runs from mid-October to early December.
Here is today’s interview segment with Tim Becker…
Questions about Medicare plans? Contact Tim Becker:
Timothy Becker
(503) 809-5061
T.Becker@PrimeBenefitSolutions.com
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Enrolling In Medicare - Do’s & Don’ts.
I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Medicare Expert, Tim Becker on some of the most important things to know when signing up for Medicare for the first time, and what you need to know about choosing plans during the annual enrollment period, which runs from mid-October to early December.
Here is today’s interview segment with Tim Becker…
Questions about Medicare plans? Contact Tim Becker:
Timothy Becker
(503) 809-5061
T.Becker@PrimeBenefitSolutions.com
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Enrolling In Medicare - Do’s & Don’ts.
I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Medicare Expert, Tim Becker on some of the most important things to know when signing up for Medicare for the first time, and what you need to know about choosing plans during the annual enrollment period, which runs from mid-October to early December.
Here is today’s interview segment with Tim Becker…
Questions about Medicare plans? Contact Tim Becker:
Timothy Becker
(503) 809-5061
T.Becker@PrimeBenefitSolutions.com
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Enrolling In Medicare - Do’s & Don’ts.
I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Medicare Expert, Tim Becker on some of the most important things to know when signing up for Medicare for the first time, and what you need to know about choosing plans during the annual enrollment period, which runs from mid-October to early December.
Here is today’s interview segment with Tim Becker…
Questions about Medicare plans? Contact Tim Becker:
Timothy Becker
(503) 809-5061
T.Becker@PrimeBenefitSolutions.com
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Enrolling In Medicare - Do’s & Don’ts.
I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Medicare Expert, Tim Becker on some of the most important things to know when signing up for Medicare for the first time, and what you need to know about choosing plans during the annual enrollment period, which runs from mid-October to early December.
Here is today’s interview segment with Tim Becker…
Questions about Medicare plans? Contact Tim Becker:
Timothy Becker
(503) 809-5061
T.Becker@PrimeBenefitSolutions.com
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Enrolling In Medicare - Do’s & Don’ts
I sat down for an interview with Tim Becker. Tim and I actually met through his father, and know a great deal about Medicare. He’s been in the insurance industry for over a decade, with a focus on medicare, individual and family plans, and group benefits. His company, Prime Benefit Solutions is an insurance brokerage, meaning that he’s able to educate his clients on the most competitive and up to date solutions when it comes to Medicare plans and other healthcare coverage options.
I’m super excited to talk with Tim this week. Medicare and healthcare costs are such a big part of your retirement spending, so it’s something that you want to make sure to get right. Yet, I don’t have the expertise to help my own clients answer important questions about coverage and Medicare benefits, so I send them to people like Tim who can help them choose the best option for their situation.
So this week, Tim and I will talk about what you need to know when signing up for Medicare for the first time, different Medicare plan options and the differences that distinguish each one, and what is the drug donut hole that everyone talks about.
If you want to watch our full, unedited interview, head on over to my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - where you’ll find this interview as well as over 100 other videos on planning for a successful retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow when I dive into the interview with Tim.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Personality Traits of Self-Made Millionaires
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Higher risk tolerance
- Emotional stability
- Openness
- Extraversion
- Conscientiousness
The most important takeaway from this week is: to think about these personality traits as the perfect recipe for predicting whether or not someone will be a millionaire. You don’t necessarily have to have all of these characteristics or ingredients, but the more you have, the stronger a predictor it is of one’s ability to build and maintain wealth.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Enrolling in Medicare - Do’s & Don'ts. The enrollment period for Medicare began yesterday, and runs through December 7th. If you're 65 years or older, you’re one of the more than 60 million Americans impacted by Medicare.
The problem is that Medicare is complicated, and as a result, most people don’t understand the various plan options, fail to consult with a Medicare consultant, and then wind up signing up for the wrong benefits plans that don’t serve them well. So next week, I’m interviewing a medicare expert to discuss the do’s and don’ts of enrolling in Medicare to help you make better decisions with your health plan.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 personality traits of self-made millionaires. These five traits when combined together can help predict those of us who will have a higher net worth
Today’s self-made millionaire trait is: Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is one of the big 5 personality traits, and is the quality of wishing to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly. Conscientious people are hardworking, responsible and organized.
If you’re conscientious, you probably didn’t need to be told to do your homework as a child, you’re rarely late for an appointment, and you’re future oriented, with more impulse control than the average person.
I would have assumed that conscientiousness is the most important trait that separated the millionaires from the rest of the population, but according to the German study findings, it was significantly less important as a distinguishing trait than risk tolerance, which is the most important differentiator, and somewhat less important than openness and extraversion in predicting millionaire status, which I talked about earlier in the week.
So why is conscientiousness an important trait that helps to distinguish the unique personality of the self-made millionaire? When someone is conscientious, they are able to exercise self-discipline and self-control to achieve what they want in the long-term. To build wealth or build a business that provides wealth in the future, requires sacrifice, diligence, and trade-offs. People with high conscientiousness are also organized, determined, and more likely to stick with their plans and goals over long periods of time.
It seems obvious then why conscientious people are more likely to be millionaires. The vast majority of my clients are millionaires, and I would characterize most of them as conscientious people…whereas there is a lot more variation among them in terms of other personality traits like extraversion and openness, which again was surprising to me that conscientiousness was a lower predictor of millionaire status compared to the other traits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 personality traits of self-made millionaires. These five traits when combined together can help predict those of us who will have a higher net worth
Today’s self-made millionaire trait is: Extraversion
An extrovert, according to Wikipedia, is someone who is “outgoing, talkative, energetic, whereas introversion is manifested in more reflective and reserved behavior…Extraversion and introversion are typically viewed as a single continuum, so to be high in one necessitates being low in the other.”
As someone who used to get kicked out of health class sophomore year in high school with great regularity for talking too much, and am generally comfortable striking up with most people with little reservations, I would consider myself a more extraverted person.
Knowing that an orientation towards extraversion is a more common trait in millionaires, it leads to a couple of follow up questions in my view... At least as far as financial success and the traits of millionaires, why are extraverted people more likely to become millionaires? And is extraversion vs. introversion something that can change.
Of all the personality traits, this one seems the least malleable - either you’re shy and quiet, or gregarious and you tend to talk too much, and there doesn’t seem much you can do about that if you want to change how extraverted or introverted you are.
But in my own life, I’ve actually become noticeably less extroverted over time. I enjoy spending more time alone and it can be draining to be at a big party or event with lots of people. Many times, I’d just prefer to stay at home and read a book.
Because extraversion and introversion operate on a continuum, this trait can shift. I know someone who was very shy as a child, but has needed to become more social in his adult life because of his profession, but it wasn’t easy and he says it wasn’t without great effort.
So what about why extraversion leads to a higher chance of becoming a millionaire?
One study found that more extroverted people — those who were more confident, sociable or assertive — had a 25% higher chance of being in a high-earning job.
My husband is introverted, and recently he has a dilemma that we were discussing, which required him to ask something of someone else. It seems obvious to my more extroverted personality to just ask for what you want…what’s the worst that can happen? You can never expect anything from the other person unless you ask….just ask! To me, it’s no big deal, but to his more introverted self, it’s not as easy to be assertive and just ask for what he wants.
And I think that’s likely the driver behind extroverts being more likely to be millionaires…they’re more assertive and probably also more likely to climb social hierarchies because of their comfort level in being with other people.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 personality traits of self-made millionaires. These five traits when combined together can help predict those of us who will have a higher net worth.
Today’s self-made millionaire trait is: High openness.
According to verywellmind.com, “People who tend to be high in the trait of openness are more willing to embrace new things, fresh ideas, and novel experiences. They are open-minded and approach new things with curiosity and tend to seek out novelty. They tend to pursue new adventures, experiences, and creative endeavors. They are also very good at thinking about and making connections between different concepts and ideas.
People who are low on openness, on the other hand, tend to prefer routines, traditions, and familiarity. They approach new things with great caution and prefer consistency. Individuals who are very low on the trait of openness are often seen as being rigid and close-minded. They may find it difficult to cope with changes.”
With this definition in mind, it’s easy to see why the trait of openness is associated with millionaires.
Rigidness and great caution are not great traits for successful investors or accumulators. People who are low in openness don’t want any uncertainties and often are fearful of new opportunities that may help them grow wealth or advance their career. They stick with what is familiar to them, which is why it’s so difficult for those with low openness to become self-made millionaires.
Like the other personality traits, openness is measured across a spectrum, and while it’s not likely that we can leap across to the other end of the spectrum, if you find yourself low in openness, there are ways you can cultivate openness that in turn can help improve your likelihood of building your net worth.
- Invite someone with a different opinion that you to have a conversation. Listen to them and try to see things from their point of view. How much better off would we all be if we could better understand why those who are different from us think and act and see the world the way they do.
- Traveling more and experiencing the people and culture of the place you’re traveling to.
- Trying something new - it doesn’t have to be skydiving (no thank you!), but if you’re me and you’re kind of middle of the road on openness, maybe i could benefit from wearing a little lipstick now and then.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 personality traits of self-made millionaires. These five traits when combined together can help predict those of us who will have a higher net worth, according to a recent German study.
Today’s self-made millionaire trait is: Emotional stability
Emotional stability (the opposite of neuroticism) is a fundamental personality trait that has to do with being even-tempered, particularly in the face of challenges and threats.
People who score high in emotional stability (low in neuroticism) react less emotionally and are less easily upset. They tend to be emotionally stable, calm, and do not constantly experience negative feelings.
When you connect the dots between millionaires and emotional stability, you can easily see why this trait is such an important predictor of wealth accumulation.
When you are less reactive to negative events, you’ll be able to make better decisions and less susceptible to making knee-jerk reactions based on fear or panic.
The good news is that emotional stability is not a trait that’s set in stone and can change over time, especially if you work at it. The goal is not keep your cool and not allow your emotions to take over.
There are plenty of ways you can work at increasing your emotional stability, and it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean suppressing your emotions. You can and should still feel all the emotions, but there is a lag between the event and your reaction, and that’s where emotional stability comes into play.
Aside from the obvious suggestions of talking to a therapist if you’re especially high in neuroticism, getting better sleep, and exercising more, some other interesting suggestions for increasing your emotional stability include:
- Set boundaries with people and your schedule
- Recognizing and feeling your emotions. Sounds counter-intuitive here, but paying attention to the negative and painful events, and especially the wounds it creates is the pathway to healing. I actually read an entire book on this topic last year, and it was crucial for helping me understand how wounds that we carry with us can harm us if we don’t deal with them properly.
- Better understanding the things that stress you out so you can better prepare yourself for stressful situations. There is a person in my life that I’ll just say is triggering to be around. Thankfully, I don’t have to spend a lot of time with this person, but I always dread seeing and interacting with this person because they push all of my buttons. Even though I can’t avoid this person entirely, but understanding that this person causes me stress allows me to minimize my interactions with them, and I’ve been better able to ignore and not react to the things they say and do that really irk me.
That’s not an exhaustive list of course, but it’s a start, and helpful to recognize that this is something that we can work on and improve to be happier and wealthier at the same time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 personality traits of self-made millionaires. These five traits when combined together can help predict those of us who will have a higher net worth, according to a recent research study in Germany.
Today’s self-made millionaire trait is: higher risk tolerance.
According to Investopedia: Risk tolerance is the degree of risk that an investor is willing to endure given the volatility in the value of an investment. An important component in investing, risk tolerance often determines the type and amount of investments that an individual chooses.
It makes a lot of sense that higher tolerance for risk is a predictor of wealth. According to multiple previous studies, “risk taking is an important characteristic for entrepreneurship - it’s worth noting that the vast majority of the self-made millionaires are also entrepreneurs, which requires a significant amount of risk-taking in getting a business off the ground, as well as ongoing risks
I work with a lot of business owners as clients, and I see this as a distinguishing trait. They aren’t reckless risk-takers, but they understand and appreciate the trade-offs of taking risks in order to achieve their goals, and they are ok with the uncertainty and unknowns of those risks.
I rarely have a client - business owner or not - who isn’t comfortable with risk. It’s a critical factor in wealth creation, investing, and performance.
If you’re chicken little, the sky is always falling, and the only investments you’ll be willing to buy or hold on to for the long-haul are canned food, gold coins, and guns. And you’ll bury the rest in the backyard and never have a chance to grow wealth.
It’s important to note here, that there is a distinct difference in the risk tolerance among self-made millionaires and millionaires who came into their wealth through inheritance or marriage. This second group of inheritors had a significantly lower tolerance for risk than their self-made millionaire counterparts, suggesting that being born into wealth does not automatically lead to the development of the millionaire personality profile.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: 5 Personality Traits of Self-Made Millionaires
A recent study from Germany took an in-depth look at the unique traits that characterize the wealthy - or those with a net worth of 1 million Euros or more. Drawing from a large sample size of over 23,000 individuals, 1125 of whom were millionaires, they split the millionaires into groups of self-made and inheritors of wealth and measured them on the big 5 personality traits along with their risk tolerance. Their findings pointed strongly to a couple of conclusions:
- Self-made millionaires differ significantly from inheritors of wealth in their personalities and risk tolerance, which indicates that personality is a driver of wealth, and not the other way around.
- The millionaires are more risk tolerant, open, extraverted, and conscientious, but less neurotic then the general population. In other words, millionaires differ from the rest of the population by their unique personality profile.
My own conclusions from reading the study is that these findings are like a recipe for predicting the accumulation of wealth. While having these traits is not a guarantee that you’ll be wealthy, the more of them you possess and the stronger they are, the higher the likelihood is that you’ll build and keep your wealth.
So this week, we’ll explore each of these traits individually - defining what each trait means, why the trait is an important predictor of wealth accumulation, how to tell if you possess this trait, and how you can cultivate this trait more in your own life if you want to build more wealth.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow when I’ll talk about the importance of a higher tolerance for risk on predicting your wealth.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast was Nowhere to Hide.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…
- Sell This, Not That
- Don't Abandon Your Plan
- Ideal Time For A Little DCA
- Keep It Short-Term With Your Bond Portfolio
- It's All About Quality, Stupid!
The most important takeaway from this week is: Some of the greatest opportunities present themselves when the economy and markets are in a state of chaos. Most people are hunkered down and too afraid to do anything…and when they do act, they often make the wrong decisions based on fear - like selling all of their stocks or stopping all of their retirement contributions. You may not be able to control interest rates, the economy, inflation, or how much the stock market drops this month, but if you keep a cool head, you can still take action on things you can control, and that’s been the focus this week.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: 5 Personality Traits of Self-Made Millionaires. Do you know what traits differentiate a millionaire - especially the self-made ones - from the rest of the population? A recent study points to 5 key traits and we’ll cover each of these traits and why they’re important for building wealth, next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Nowhere to Hide. It’s been a rough year, with threats of a deepening recession and continued, sticky inflation dominating the minds of most investors. So this week, I’m talking about how you can navigate an economic and investing climate where it seems like there’s nowhere to hide.
In the intro episode of this week I talked about James Carville’s catchphrase - “it’s the economy, stupid!” Carville’s catchphrase helped highlight the recession in the election year of 1992, and helped Bill Clinton get elected as president. Exactly 30 years later, we find ourselves in another recession - this time driven by massive government spending related to Covid ($4.5 trillion worth so far), which has stocked eye-popping inflation, and the need for the Fed to step in to aggressively raise interest rates.
So today, I want to highlight something that I think will be very important going forward, and that is: It’s all about quality, stupid!
- Quality will be important for some time to come. I think that gone are the days when speculative traders could make money on meme stocks, cryptocurrency, and unprofitable tech stocks.
- I also think that in a difficult market, it’s going to be less profitable to be a passive investor and just invest in the overall stock market. I think being more discerning and picky as an investor will become more important.
- I believe that there’s too many things broken right now with our economy and that the pain could be with us for some time... Interest rates have remained low for too long, and all of this cheap and easy money has created a big inflation problem and bubble in a lot of areas - real estate & stocks - to name a couple.
- But that doesn't mean that investing in these areas is going to be a waste of time and money. You just have to be more discerning.
- At the core of investing in quality in anything is to pay attention to the underlying fundamentals. When it comes to a stock, you’re buying a piece of that business. So we need to look for some key ingredients that make for good businesses:
- Consistently profitable
- Strong cash flow
- Durable and predictable
- Healthy and growing dividend
- Low debt
- Disciplined management
These are some of the most important things to look for when buying a stock or selecting a mutual fund or ETF - it’s all about quality. Quality should be the bedrock of an investment portfolio at all times, but it’s easy to get greedy and leave the quality investments behind in favor of higher returns.
But the high flyers of the last decade have begun to come back down to earth, and I think that it’s the quality that will shine through in this difficult market environment, and also when we emerge on the other side.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Nowhere to Hide. It’s been a rough year, with threats of a deepening recession and continued, sticky inflation dominating the minds of most investors. So this week, I’m talking about how you can navigate an economic and investing climate where it seems like there’s nowhere to hide.
Today, I’m talking about keeping your bond portfolio short-term. This is definitely an area I would pay attention to. If you still have long-term bonds, bond funds, or bond index funds in your portfolio, those have been absolutely hammered this year - many down 10-15% or more.
As rates continue moving higher, bond prices for longer-dated bonds will continue their downward spiral, so it’s important to shorten maturities on your bond portfolio. Most of my clients have no more than 3-4 years average maturity in their bond portfolios right now.
The upshot of rising rates is that short term interest rates are the best I’ve seen in my 15 year career as a financial advisor…as I record this podcast, here are some of the short-term rates that are currently out there:
SWVXX – 2.65%
9-month CD – 4%
2-year CD – 4.25%
So if you’re going to make a move, I would move down into shorter rates, where your bond portfolio will be more stable in a rising rate environment, and you’ll be rewarded with higher rates on the short end.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Nowhere to Hide. It’s been a rough year, with threats of a deepening recession and continued, sticky inflation dominating the minds of most investors. So this week, I’m talking about how you can navigate an economic and investing climate where it seems like there’s nowhere to hide.
Today, I’m talking about how now is an ideal time to be using a dollar cost averaging strategy.
If you’re investing in your retirement plan at work every paycheck, then you’re already using a dollar cost averaging strategy.
Dollar cost averaging is simply adding cash to your investment portfolio over a period of time, rather than all at once.
I’ve been doing this for clients over the last several years, mostly because of all the uncertainty regarding Covid and the choppiness in the markets since then.
I had a client who recently sold a rental property. She decided that she didn’t want to reinvest it back into real estate so she added it to her investment portfolio. It was about $500,000 that we added to the portfolio earlier this year, and I was certainly not going to throw it all in the deep end of the pool.
So we implemented a dollar cost averaging strategy. The timing and the amount can vary based on your comfort level. You can also use the current market and economic climate as a guide, but I wouldn’t get too caught up in trying to predict where we’re at there.
But it’s helpful to know that a bear market (or a downturn of 20% or more in the stock market) when accompanied by a recession, typically lasts 20 months from the market peak to the market bottom. It can last longer or shorter than that, but let’s just use that as our guide. So we’re 9 months into this current bear market that started in January.
If I were investing that money today, I would recommend that we dollar cost average over a period of 6-12 months. This likely gets us through the worst of the current downturn, and if historical averages hold true, we’ll be fully invested around the time this bear market ends.
I could be off by a few months, but if the economic climate deteriorates from here and the stock market falls further, the dollar cost averaging strategy will pay off quite well. The worst case scenario is that we’ve already hit bottom but we don’t know it yet, in which case it would have been better to invest everything today to take advantage of the market bottom.
But since I don’t have a crystal ball, I like the dollar cost averaging strategy a lot better.
I think generally investing the same amount monthly like clockwork for 6-12 months is a good dollar cost averaging strategy when adding cash to your portfolio. I also like getting a healthy amount working now that things have already deteriorated so much in the stock market. Often, I’ll invest ¼ or ⅓ now and then we’ll dollar cost average the rest over that 6-12 months.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Nowhere to Hide. It’s been a rough year, with threats of a deepening recession and continued, sticky inflation dominating the minds of most investors. It really feels like there’s nowhere to hide and nothing you can do to stop the train wreck. But alas, there is always something you can do.
And today, I’m actually talking about something you shouldn’t do - abandon your plan.
Hopefully if you’re getting close to retirement or if you’ve retired in the last few years, you have some type of written plan. Now this doesn’t have to be a massive 80 page financial plan, but it’s important to have some type of plan in place that provides the foundation for making decisions when it comes to your money.
You should have a target asset allocation or a mix of stocks and bonds, and you don’t want to deviate from that - especially now when fear could be driving you down the wrong path.
You should have a plan for how much cash you’ll keep and how much of your income you’ll save for retirement this year. Dwindling your cash or stopping your savings because of inflation is not part of the solution…it will only make the problem worse in the long term. Aim to reduce your discretionary spending to keep cash savings healthy, and keep those retirement plan contributions in place. If you’re still working, those contributions are buying more shares of the funds you’re invested in, because their values are lower.
Your plan may call for some adjustments. Maybe you delay retirement this year because of the economy or the fact that your portfolio is now 15 or 20% lower than it was last year. It’s ok to tweak the plan and you should as circumstances change.
But never let fear or a negative outlook about the future cause you to abandon your investment strategy or the plan you hopefully have in place that governs your big picture decisions about retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Nowhere to Hide. It’s been a rough year, with threats of a deepening recession and continued, sticky inflation dominating the minds of most investors. So this week, I’m talking about how you can navigate an economic and investing climate where it seems like there’s nowhere to hide.
Today’s topic is sell this, not that.
Now is the ideal time to review your investment holdings and rid yourself of the investments that are of poor quality.
I have a client who owns a mutual fund in a taxable account. He’s owned this mutual fund for over a decade, and it has a sizable taxable gain. If he sells it, he’s going to pay the taxes on that gain, which he’s not too excited about.
Even though the fund has made him money, it’s a terrible investment with lackluster future prospects. The fees are high, the management style of the fund is questionable and inconsistent with this client’s goals, and it consistently underperforms its peers. The only saving grace here is that at least I didn’t pick this fund for him, and it was something he bought along time ago.
So we’ve been gradually selling some of this fund over the last couple years to spread out the taxes. 2022 is a great opportunity for us to sell the rest and move on. The fund is beat up this year, so his gains and tax consequences have been significantly reduced.
Once we sell it, we can reinvest it in a better quality investment with better future growth prospects, lower fees, etc.
The point here is that while it’s very unwise to sell your stock portfolio in a down market and hide everything under the mattress, you don’t want to confuse the “don’t sell” advice and apply that to everything you own in your portfolio. Markets like this expose the garbage that was previously hiding in your portfolio, so it’s a good time to sell and move to quality investments when you can start smelling the trash.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Nowhere To Hide
In the presidential election season of 1992, campaign advisor to Bill Clinton, James Carville, famously advised the future president and his campaign staff to focus on the economy every chance they got. At that time, the US was in a recession, and highlighting that fact and connecting the dots back to then-president George HW Bush, became a winning strategy.
Carville’s catchphrase - it’s the economy, stupid! - became famous and exactly 30 years later, we find ourselves in another recession - this time driven by massive government spending related to Covid ($4.5 trillion worth so far), which has stocked eye-popping inflation, and the need for the Fed to step in to aggressively raise interest rates.
Inflation is bad for your wallet, but higher interest rates to tame inflation make the problem worse, at least in the short-term. Higher interest rates are already making anything requiring borrowing more expensive, so if you’re in the market for a car or a house, it just got a lot more expensive - car loans are now over 5%, and mortgage rates are over 6%. If you have credit card debt, rates are sky high - above 20% for many borrowers.
And of course, there’s the impact on the stock market from all this as well. As I record this podcast, the stock market is down 22% this year. If you’re concentrated in tech stocks like too many investors are, you’re doing even worse than that, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ down over 30% now for the year.
And the problem is likely to worsen. In August, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powelll, acknowledged the unavoidable reality of raising interest rates to combat inflation, saying: “While higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses,” he said. “These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.”
What he means is that the consequences of a recession are coming. Raising interest rates is done to slow the economy and tame inflation. There’s a price tag for doing that, and a further slowing economy means that job losses are on the horizon. The job market is still strong and unemployment is near historically low levels, but jobs are a lagging indicator, meaning that the jobs situation gets worse after the economy sours.
A few weeks ago, I talked about some important ways you can protect your finances in this gloomy economic climate. Things like aggressively reducing your debt, avoiding any unnecessary purchases to preserve cash, and delaying retirement are all important ways you can protect yourself in 2022.
So this week, I’ll focus specifically on what you can do as an investor when it seems like there’s nowhere to hide in this deteriorating economic and investment climate.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow when I’ll talk about how now is the ideal time to trim some fat in your investment portfolio.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal financ
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How Much Is Enough? It’s based on a parable I read on the wall at a Jimmy John’s, of all places.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week…
- The Minimum Income You Need To Be Happy
- Finding The Sweet Spot With Timing Your Retirement
- More For The Sake Of More
- How Much For A Comfortable Retirement
- Back Of The Envelope Calculation For How Much Is Enough
The most important takeaway from this week is: We want to be careful about falling into the trap of pursuing more for the sake of more without giving much thought to what we might be sacrificing by working longer than we need to. A well-executed plan for retirement provides you with enough assets and income to live a comfortable and financially secure retirement with some guardrails built in to account for the unexpected future that is inevitable.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Nowhere to hide. 2022 has been a dismal year for investors. As I record this podcast, the S&P 500 is down 18% for the year, the bond market is down about 13% this year, and even traditional safe havens like gold and cash savings are losing value due to the rising dollar and inflation, respectively.
So what’s an investor to do. Now that the 3rd quarter just wrapped up and we have about 3 more months left in the year, I’ll talk about where we go from here, and what’s an investor to do, especially if you’re just a few years away from retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Much Is Enough?
Yesterday I talked about a Fidelity study that gives you some benchmarks on figuring out for yourself how much is enough for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about a back of the envelope calculation that you can run to help you determine how much is enough. I wouldn’t rely on this to make important irreversible decisions about retirement. More careful planning is required, but this will at least get you started.
I’m just going to run through this pretty quickly in today’s episode, but if you want to go more in depth in running this calculation, I’ve linked to an article in Kiplinger than will help you do that in today’s show notes, which is episode 1448.
Link to article: https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/605117/find-out-in-5-minutes-if-you-have-enough-to-retire
The first step is you’ll need to figure out your monthly expenses. If you don’t know or don’t track what you spend on a monthly basis on the basics like gas, groceries, utilities, your Netflix subscription, eating out, clothes, etc. You’ll want to track that for at least 3 months to start to get an average.
There are expenses that will go away or change in retirement, and some that will go up. If you’re like me, you probably would stop getting your nails done every 3 weeks at $40 a pop, but I’m definitely still getting my hair done and I’d probably spend more on travel once I’m retired.
So track those expenses and come up with a figure. You’ll need to add taxes too, so in most cases you’ll want to tack on another 20-25% a month for taxes.
A trick offered in the Kiplinger article is to “Look at two years of annual statements from your bank accounts. Divide the total debits by 24. That’s it. This is an accurate portrayal of your monthly expenses. This should encompass everything except what you pay for before it hits your bank account (taxes, health insurance premiums, group life insurance, etc.).”
Ok, now that we know your spending in retirement, we need to look at sources of income from social security, pensions, rental income, and other income streams that will be flowing in during retirement. Don’t count your portfolio withdrawals here, that will come next.
Once you know your outflows (expenses) and your inflows (income), then you can calculate the gap that will need to be filled with your portfolio withdrawals.
Let’s say your expected expenses in retirement including taxes are $6,000 a month. Your income from social security and other sources will be $3,700 a month, which leave $2,300 a month that needs to be covered by portfolio withdrawals.
Multiply this by 12 and you have $27,600 that you’ll need to take out of your investments in your first year of retirement.
From there you can use the 4% rule to calculate if this is sustainable. Again this is not perfect, but it provides a good starting place and a good estimate.
$27,600 of annual income is 4% of a $690,000 portfolio. So in this case, if you have around $700,000 or more in assets, you probably have enough to retire.
As a back of the envelope calculation, it gets the job done and helps you determine if you’re on track and have enough to make work optional or just simply retire.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Much Is Enough?
Today, I’m talking in more concrete terms about how much you need for a comfortable retirement.
According to a Fidelity study, you should aim to save at least 1x your salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by 67.
So if you get to retirement age with somewhere between 8-10x your household income saved for retirement, that is ideal according to Fidelity research.
Of course other factors influence this and may require less or more than this amount. If you’ll have significant sources of income like a pension or rental income, then you may need much less than this amount.
Fidelity study limitations - But it's important to remember that the total dollar amount isn't the end goal. It's all about the income that your assets can generate with some additional cushion for when you need to buy a new car, or a new roof, or if you need to pay for long-term care.
If you read the footnotes of the Fidelity study, you see that they came up with the 10x figure by age 67, by analyzing the household consumption data for working individuals age 50 to 65 from Consumer Expenditure Survey, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The average income replacement target of 45% is based on the objective of maintaining a similar lifestyle to before retirement. It assumes your other income comes from social security.
Social security replaces anywhere from 25% to 40% of your income for most people. So this leaves you with a total income replacement of your income in retirement of abou70-85% whicic is ideal for maintaining lifestyle.
And I think that’s the key. Rather than getting too focused on that final number or dollar amount of assets you need to retire, it’s best to look at how much is enough from an income and lifestyle based benchmark to help you see if you are on track to retire. And that’s what we’ll look closer at tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Much Is Enough?
Today, I’m talking about a common trap that many of us fall into that goes back to the parable I discussed on Monday, which gets to the heart of the fruitlessness of pursuing more and wasting time and energy in the pursuit of more, while at the same time sacrificing what might be more important - namely time freedom, relationships with your spouse, loved ones, and friends - all in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Many people fall into the trap of pursuing more for the sake of more. Not necessarily because they are greedy, but often I find because they don’t really put much thought into how pursuing less could bring more meaning and happiness than pursuing more.
This is always a tricky subject for me - both personally and in conversations with clients. The ultimate goal, in my humble opinion is to live a meaningful and well-balanced life. But we often get out of balance, sometimes miserably out of balance and stay in that state for years. It ends up ruining our happiness, because life is too crazy and we’ve taken on too much.
This doesn’t just have to be about money. It can be about loading up our days with - yes, working more or unnecessarily, but also activities and saying yes to too many things that don’t actually make our lives any better.
I’ve become better about this over the years, but before I was married, my maiden name was Wilson, and my initials were AW. My now husband used to joke that AW stood for always working.
I took it as a compliment at the time, but always working as your nickname, is probably an indicator of a problem. In my case, I would work a lot, sometimes on the weekend, and would stress about working more, all in the effort to get ahead and meet arbitrary growth goals that I had for myself in growing my income and my financial advisory practice.
I was less happy then, then I am now, and I think one of the main reasons why is because I have a more balanced life where I can spend time with my kids, I have time for friends and hobbies I enjoy like golf, and the laundry doesn’t pile up too bad.
The problem is that having money in the world today (or at any time in history actually) also means you have power, more pleasure, and higher status, and we make the mistake of believing that these things will make us happier. As a result, many people pursue money and more without realizing that they’re running in the hamster wheel to pursue something that isn’t actually going to make them any happier.
So the goal is to make thoughtful decisions about saving, working, and investing with a firm grasp of why you’re doing what you’re doing. And knowing that the pursuit of money, power, pleasure, status, etc. is futile.
I have gradually learned and accepted this as truth in my own life, and I see it firsthand in the lives of the people I know and my own clients, that avoiding the common trap of accumulating more, working longer, or making other sacrifices in the name of accumulating above and beyond what is necessary for a comfortable retirement simply isn’t worth the trade off.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Much Is Enough?
Yesterday, I talked about the minimum amount of income you need to be happy and have a high life satisfaction, and how research suggests that above this level, the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in and you don’t have a significantly higher amount of happiness or life satisfaction above around $105,000 of income annually.
With that said, today I’m talking about finding the sweet spot of retiring at the right time. This is a common issue I discuss with clients, as many of them approaching retirement either want to or need to continuing working for a few more years, but they also want to enjoy the early years of retirement while they’re still healthy and can travel more, and just generally enjoy the time freedom that comes with retirement to live a more active and balanced life.
It’s critical then, to find that sweet spot of retiring at the right time. To be clear, there is no perfect or ideal time to retire, since planning for retirement deals with the inherent uncertainty of planning for an unknown future.
But with some careful planning and building guardrails into the plan, I can confidently tell clients, yes you can retire now, or next year or whenever, or you should consider working until this particular age so you minimize the risk of running out of money.
If you don’t work long enough, it will strain your assets and income and you won’t be able to do the things you want to do because you simply can’t afford to.
If you work too long, you may look back with regret that you wasted the good, healthy years of retirement by continuing to work when you really didn’t need to or want to anymore, and now your health or energy or both have declined to the point where like the person who didn’t work long enough, you can’t do the things you wanted to or spend your time and financial resources in a meaningful way that increased your life satisfaction.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How Much Is Enough?
Today, I’m talking about the minimum income you need to be happy. A recent study published by Purdue suggests that you need about $105,000 of income in North America have high life satisfaction. In Oregon, where I live and cost of living is about a third higher than the rest of the country, you need about $136,000 to be happy.
The study suggests that this is an ideal amount and that the law of diminishing returns applies and that more income above this level doesn’t make you happier. Sure you can take nicer vacations and afford a newer car and a bigger house, an important takeaway from this study is that there is an income level that is enough.
Another study published by Princeton in 2010 found a similar result: there is an increase in happiness alongside annual income up to about $75,000 before it levels off. Adjusted for inflation and the 12 years that have passed, the $105,000 of income today is in that ballpark.
So while happiness and income and the associated comforts and things that that income can buy goes up as income rises, some research suggests that it levels off at a certain point, which is important to recognize alongside the continued pressure for more more more.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How Much Is Enough
There is a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop near my office, and a few weeks ago I was in there waiting for my sandwich order, when I spotted a sign on the wall with the following parable called How Much is Enough:
The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then?”
The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”
“Millions?” asked the fisherman, “Then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evening, sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos!”
So this week, I’ll talk about the title of this parable: how much is enough. The answer is different for everyone, but I think it’s safe to say that we all want financial security, happiness, and to be able to spend our time and financial resources in a way that is worthwhile.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow...where I’ll talk about how much income you really need to be happy in the United States.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was:What To Do With A $300,000 Inheritance
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week…
- Don’t Make Major Decisions For 6-12 Months
- Avoid Found Money Syndrome
- Realign The Portfolio To You
- Make A Concrete Plan For Inheritance Dollars
- Case Study: I Just Received A $300,000 Inheritance
The most important takeaway from this week is:
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: How Much Is Enough?
Saving for retirement is a lot like one of my favorite books growing up - Goldilocks. Save too much, work too hard for too long and you’re likely to find that the sacrifices were too great and you didn’t enjoy the working years and you didn’t have enough healthy and relaxed years to enjoy your retirement.
Save too little, and you’re not going to be able to afford to do much else then sit around and watch Fox News and College Football all day.
Save just the right amount, work just long enough to still enjoy the healthy go-go years of retirement and you’ve found yourself a winning combination.
So next week I’ll talk more about how to tell when you’ve hit the baby bear scenario in Goldilocks, where everything is just right.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What to do with a $300,000 inheritance
Today, I’m going over a case study to help illustrate how to handle a $300,000 inheritance in the real world.
Here are the details of the case study:
- Married couple. Receives an inheritance of $300,000 - all in investment accounts.
- They are in their early 60s and are about 3-4 years away from retirement
- Have about $1million saved for retirement
- HH income is $200,000 and they’re saving $20,000 annually for retirement
- Kids are out of the house
- Retirement spending projections are about $70,000 per year, including basic spending, health care costs, and a few trips a year, as well as some fun money for eating out and hobbies.
- They’ll have social security and the wife will have a small pension. Income from their portfolio will cover the rest.
- They have a mortgage of about $50,000 that will be paid off in 8 more years. No other debt.
- They currently have savings in their bank of about $25,000
Ok, so starting with the inheritance amount relative to their other assets. This is a good place to start. The new money is about 30% of their existing assets for retirement, so it’s a meaningful addition to their current portfolio.
Here’s what I would recommend for this couple:
- The fact that they have a decent amount in savings and no other debts other than their mortgage is a good start.
- I would take $50,000 of the inheritance and pay off that mortgage. Since they’re planning to retire in the next few years, before the mortgage is paid off, then it’s going to cut down their retirement expenses in a meaningful way and will give them maximum flexibility for their retirement spending
- Since they’re so close to retirement and based on their desired spending needs in retirement, they don’t have enough assets to afford them the luxury of spending any of the inheritance. So I would invest the remaining $250,000 after the mortgage is paid off. No new cars, no vacation. This is important. This couple needs to grow their investment portfolio as much as possible in the last few years before retirement. If they had more of a cushion where their anticipated retirement spending was a much smaller fraction of their overall nest egg, then I would say they could spend some, but even in that circumstance, I would only spend 5-10% of inheritance assets on something that isn’t necessary.
- Then the portfolio needs to be invested based on their goals, timeline, risk tolerance, etc. and folded into the rest of their portfolio so everything is aligned. I talked about this a couple days ago…
If they had more debt and less in savings, I might use more of the inheritance dollars to knock out some additional debt and boost savings to a healthy level, but in their case, they were already in good shape here to begin with.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What to do with a $300,000 inheritance
Today, I’m talking about the importance of making a plan for inheritance dollars. Often you can’t plan for this in advance, since it might make you feel too icky to plan what to do with your inheritance when mom and dad are still alive. Also, you don’t know for certain how much you will receive, which brings me back to a point I made earlier in the week about waiting 6-12 months before you make any major decisions…which of course, allows you ample time to plan.
When I was in my mid-twenties, one of my former employers was involved in a large class action lawsuit. I had nothing to do with this lawsuit and wasn’t affected by it in any way, but just by filling out some paperwork which took all of 10 minutes, I received a check in the mail for several thousand dollars about 6 months later.
That was a pretty sweet windfall, especially for someone in their mid-20s with a modest income. I dreamed up all the ways I would spend this unexpected and unearned injection of cash…nice vacation, some new golf clubs, new clothes and shoes. We just bought our first home, and it would have been nice to upgrade to some better countertops. I put it into savings and didn’t spend it right away, but I didn’t have a plan for it either.
What happened to that money? I don’t remember. I gradually used it for and it dwindled down and it’s long gone.
Because I didn’t have a plan for these assets, I didn’t do anything meaningful with the money. The same thing can happen with an inheritance.
So how do you plan for an inheritance? You don’t have to plan for this in advance. Since you don’t know the timing or the amount, it’s usually not worth planning on, and counting on an inheritance can be very detrimental to your motivation to save and invest wisely.
Also, you can’t count on an inheritance. According to statistics, the average inheritance is significantly lower than the expected inheritance. Much of it could be used for end of life health care and other expenses, parents live to 100 and use up more assets, funeral expenses, etc.
But again, if you’re waiting 6-12 months after receiving an inheritance to do anything significant, then you’ll have plenty of time to plan thoughtfully then.
Tomorrow, I’ll bring everything together that I’ve discussed this week in a case study.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What to do with a $300,000 inheritance
Today, I’m talking about taking advantage of step ups to re-align the portfolio for your needs.
The estate tax situation is very favorable in our current time. Under current tax law, assets like IRAs and Roth IRAs are passed along tax free - at least at first - until you have to start taking mandatory distributions from non-Roth accounts, which very often occurs in the first year.
There are high exclusion amounts on estate values, meaning that in most states, estate taxes won’t even be an issue until the estate value exceeds several million dollars.
Most taxable investment accounts enjoy step ups in cost basis, meaning that on a long held profitable investment, all the capital gains get wiped out as of the date of death, making it easy and free of major tax consequences to sell inherited assets.
Which brings me to the point of today’s episode: It’s vital that you re-position inherited assets to suit you and your needs and your stage of life.
Too many people don’t re-allocate assets appropriately. They hold on to houses they shouldn’t, stocks they shouldn’t, a CD or bond portfolio designed for someone in their 80s, not someone in their 50s or 60s.
There’s a lot of reasons for this. Guilt I think is one. Being overwhelmed and not really knowing what to do is another common reason. Receiving an inheritance is an important time to bring a financial advisor into the picture to help you make sound decisions, rather than ones based on emotions. He or she can help you move forward and re-align inherited assets to fit you and your needs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What to do with a $300,000 inheritance
Today, I’m talking about how to avoid one of the most common pitfalls when receiving an inheritance, which is known as “found money syndrome”.
Found money syndrome is what Forbes writer Bill Keen says can happen when “you come into money you weren’t expecting to receive: gambling winnings, a family inheritance or, in the most extreme case, winning the lottery.”
We are tempted to treat this money differently because it wasn’t something we worked hard to earn and save on our own. It explains why 70% of heirs burn through their inheritance in 3 years.
It’s tempting to dream up all the things you can do with this windfall - that dream vacation to Europe, a new car, a new house, etc. And it’s easy to justify this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you won’t ever have again.
Also, many people who receive an inheritance are up to their eyeballs in debt, so inheritance funds end up getting used to pay off credit card or other debts, but unfortunately, that often puts a bandaid on the problem, and the debt is likely to return at a future date.
So if you understand found money syndrome and are determined to use your inheritance funds wisely, what’s next?
Well actually, you should use it to pay off debt if you have debt. Especially if that is high interest credit card debt, or medical debt, or even car loans and a mortgage. Using an inheritance to rid yourself of ongoing monthly payments and those debts is often a wise choice.
If you don’t have 3-6 months savings, I would add to your liquid savings, and then invest the rest.
If and only if you are already on track for a comfortable retirement, would I ever recommend using inheritance funds for spending on anything fancy or fun. And even then I hesitate to recommend that any of it be used for spending now.
Several years ago, I had a client who passed away. She died with right around $300,000 that her only daughter inherited from her. She and her husband who predeceased her were never wealthy. They lived a very modest lifestyle with modest income. But they were prudent and good savers, and made it to the end of their lives with plenty left over to pass on to their daughter.
Unfortunately, the daughter burned through the money that took a lifetime to save in about 18 months. She bought a new house, a new car, and kept calling every few months with a new reason why she needed to take money out of her account.
It was sad to watch and angered me that her parents worked so hard for so many years and she spent it all in less that 2 years, living a lifestyle she couldn’t afford, and very likely lost it all later on since her income couldn’t support upkeep and the ongoing expenses of her new house, car, and other toys.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What to do with a $300,000 inheritance
Today, I’m talking about waiting to make any major decisions for at least 6-12 months. For those of you who have received an inheritance, you know that it can sometimes be a lengthy process. For an estate going through the probate process, it can usually take about 9 months to complete.
On the one hand it’s good because you won’t have instant access to inheritance dollars in this case. However, in the case of inheriting assets from a trust or an IRA, the estate is settled much quicker meaning that you’ll receive the inheritance much much sooner.
Regardless of how long you’ll need to wait before you have access to inheritance assets, it’s important that you wait several months before making any major decisions. Why?
There are several reasons why you would want to wait.
- You’re likely going through a period of grieving and so is the rest of your family. It’s never a good idea to make major financial decisions in a state of emotional turmoil or grief. Waiting 6-12 months allows time for the grieving process and to have a clearer head.
- Unfortunately, there can also be disagreements with other heirs. Too many people die without having their estate planning ducks in a row. This creates ambiguity and confusion, and can lead to some nasty arguments and resentments. Waiting to
- Many inheritances involve deciding what to do with a house and other property. Not only that but there is often 30 years worth of stuff in the house that needs to be dealt with, and this just takes time.
- Uncle Sam could come a knocking, so you want to have paid any estate taxes before you start making big changes or big financial decisions, since the tax bill may surprise you, and not in a good way.
- And perhaps most importantly, taking 6-12 months allows you to be more careful, thoughtful, and actually make a plan for how you will save, spend, and invest the inheritance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: What To Do With A $300,000 Inheritance
According to Federal Reserve data, the average inheritance is around $295,000, and because most parents pass away sometime in 80s and very often end up passing wealth to their children who are in their late 50s or early 60s, it’s a relevant topic for many of you listening who may have recently received or are likely to receive an inheritance sometime in the next few years.
The goal here, especially if you receive a meaningful inheritance that will make a difference for you financially and change how you live your retirement, is to make smart decisions and avoid big mistakes.
After all, 70% of those who receive an inheritance burn through it within 3 years. No no no! We can’t have that!
So this week, I’ll talk about how to make smart decisions with your inheritance and use your inheritance funds wisely so that it can last for years to come.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow...
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Know Thyself
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week…
The most important takeaway from this week is: Thinking through some important questions about how you’ll spend your resources in retirement - both your time and money, will help you live a more intentional retirement that is meaningful and fulfilling.
I hope that these questions I posed to you this week will erase any FOMO you might have in retirement, since it will help you live your retirement with more purpose and guide future decisions you’ll make.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: What to do with a $300,000 inheritance. According to Federal Reserve data, the average inheritance is around $295,000. Obviously many people receive much less than that, and some receive much more. While less than 1% of you will receive an inheritance of $1,000,000 or more, if your parents are still alive, chances are you’ll receive something when they pass, so it’s important to make a smart plan for what to with that inheritance before you’re faced with the stress of making decisions in the real world.
So next week, I’ll talk through some important considerations when dealing with an inheritance.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Know Thyself. I’m posing some questions you’ll want to ponder as you approach retirement that will help you keep the big picture in mind and align your finances with your most important goals.
Today’s question looks to your charitable giving goals and your legacy goals. As we age, I find that legacy and how you want to be remembered becomes more important.
Which naturally leads to questions like: How important is it for you to leave assets behind for your children/heirs? Do you have any specific charitable giving or other legacy goals? Both lifetime and after you’re gone
Why it matters:
- margin of safety at the end of life for inheritance and bequests
- Budget in regular giving to your monthly and annual retirement budget
- Plan RMDs for charitable contributions
- Update will, trust, estate plan
Too many people give with what they have left over, but if you want to be intentional with your giving, you’ll want to build it into your overall plan for retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Know Thyself. I’m posing some questions you’ll want to ponder as you approach retirement that will help you keep the big picture in mind and align your finances with your most important goals.
Today’s question is: What’s your vision for your retirement? In other words, How are you spending your time? What are you involved in?
Why it matters…After the “honeymoon” period of the first few months of retirement, boredom and depression are common.
Implications for your finances…Important to make a plan before retirement
Examples:
- Only so much golf, fishing, gardening you can do? What will you do throughout the year?
- Structuring your time - 50% should be scheduled and structured…I’m type A so I recommend sketching out an ideal week. See how much of your time is filled with things you need to do and things you want to do. You may never have a single week in retirement that looks exactly like this, but it will help you to be intentional and fill your time with things that are fulfilling and meaningful.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Know Thyself. I’m posing some questions you’ll want to ponder as you approach retirement that will help you keep the big picture in mind and align your finances with your most important goals.
Today’s question is: What is your greatest strength when it comes to managing your finances? And the flip side of that, what is your greatest weakness?
Why it matters…
Implications for your finances…
If you’re married, dealing with differing strengths and weaknesses
Examples:
- Frugal & a “prodigious accumulator of wealth”. I’ve been maxing out my 401k every year since I was 22, but I would go to happy hour and fret about the $20 bill because I really couldn’t afford to spend money on very many fun things.
- Flipside, is that I can also be cheap…delaying a new roof…would rather strap a kid to the roof of my car then buy a new one…will often buy cheap things that aren’t durable or high quality (clothes, luggage, crap toys that break easily)
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Know Thyself. I’m posing some questions you’ll want to ponder as you approach retirement that will help you keep the big picture in mind and align your finances with your most important goals.
Today’s question is:What are your top 2-3 financial goals
Why it matters…
Implications for your finances…
Tip: Make sure you keep drilling down to the source by asking additional questions…
Examples…
- I want to retire in 2 years
- Why?
- Because I want to reduce my stress, live a relaxed pace of life and spend more time with my spouse and travel to see my grandkids
- What kinds of things would you and your spouse do together?
-
Gardening & playing golf together. Travel together. Read books again.
-
So the goal gets refined and maybe some additional goals spring forth from that…something like retiring in 2 years to live a more relaxed pace of life. More time to garden, golf, and travel
- I want to live a comfortable retirement and not run out of money
- How do you define a comfortable retirement? How are you spending your time?
- Continue drilling down until your goal is more specific, clear, and inspires you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Know Thyself. I’m posing some questions you’ll want to ponder as you approach retirement that will help you keep the big picture in mind and align your finances with your most important goals.
Today’s question is: Are you planning to make any major financial decisions in the next year or two?
- Why this question matters - dealing with immediate needs first. Heavily influences how much cash you should have on hand, thinking through how you’ll pay for it if debt is required, and how you’ll invest the rest of your portfolio
- Examples:
- Retirement
- Moving or buying a vacation home
- Large expenses like a new roof or a remodel or a new car
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Know Thyself
I’ll give you a few questions to ponder as you consider how your prior investing experience, your personality, your values, and your tolerance for risk should inform how you make financial decisions and how you invest your money.
These are questions that I ask clients all the time, so this week, I’ll ask you these same questions and talk about why the answer matters, what the implications are for your finances and plans for retirement, and some common answers I hear from my own clients…all with the goal in custom tailoring your financial decisions and how you manage your money to what matters most to you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll ask you one of the first questions I always ask clients.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Inflation Is Getting Worse…now what?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week…
The most important takeaway from this week is:
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Know Thyself. I’ll give you a few questions to ponder as you consider how your prior investing experience, your personality, your values, and your tolerance for risk should inform how you make financial decisions and how you invest your money.
These are questions that I ask clients all the time, so next week, I’ll ask you these same questions and provide some guidance on how you might think about the issue from multiple angles…all with the goal in custom tailoring your financial decisions and how you manage your money to what matters most to you.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation is sticking around…now what?
Today, I’m talking about why you shouldn’t retire until the recovery is well underway.
I don’t recommend retiring until the stock market has bottomed and we’re a few months into the recovery…that’s probably looking like mid/late 2023 at the earliest if you were planning to retire this year.
If you must leave your current work situation before the recovery is well underway, then I would make sure you have more than enough income to live comfortably, even if your heating costs, gas prices, and grocery bills remain high.
Or work part time so you don’t need to withdraw anything from your portfolio.
That’s the key - to avoid withdrawals on your portfolio in the early years of retirement if the stock market is still declining. You make the downturn in your portfolio much worse and significantly increase the likelihood that you’ll run out of money in retirement if your portfolio takes a big hit in the early years of retirement.
This risk is not well-understood, but it’s worth looking into. It’s called the sequence of returns risk and it’s why a downturn in the early years of retirement is so much riskier for your long-term financial health compared to the same downturn 10 or 15 years into retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation is sticking around…now what?
Today, I’m talking about some longer term planning you might want to undertake in this inflationary environment.
When you’ve dealt with your more immediate needs of adjusting your current spending to maintain financial health, it’s time to start thinking longer term.
Stress test your retirement spending & retirement plan
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation is sticking around…now what?
Today, I’m talking about some longer term planning you might want to undertake in this inflationary environment.
When you’ve dealt with your more immediate needs of adjusting your current spending to maintain financial health, it’s time to start thinking longer term.
Stress test your retirement spending & retirement plan
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation is sticking around…now what?
Today, I’m talking about looking for small ways to preserve cash.
Yesterday, I talked about how the goal is to maintain financial and balance sheet health. This means it’s critical to maintain savings % and cash levels, not deplete current savings, or cut retirement savings, and not take on new debt.
We can’t control the rate of inflation, but you would be surprised how much you can shave off from your daily, weekly, and monthly spending with a concerted effort. Every little bit counts. If you can cut your spending by $25-50/week just by not buying on impulse, eating out less, and looking for ways to save money on groceries, that’s $200 a month extra that can stay in your bank account.
[New Seasons v.s Winco]
[Other examples of cutting spending in small ways…]
Start thinking about ways to cut back on spending for Christmas and the holidays now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation is sticking around…now what?
Today, I’m talking about keeping the end goal in mind. When it comes to anything in life, and especially with your finances, acting with prudence is of utmost importance.
Prudence is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. We don’t want to make emotional decisions, but rather keep a cool head and think through how to adjust your spending habits in light of the likelihood that higher prices are here to stay for a while.
With that in mind, what’s the end goal when you’re trying to protect and preserve your financial health? It’s important to keep this at the forefront of your mind. Prices are higher, your dollar buys a lot less groceries, gas, clothes, stuff on Amazon that it bought 1-2 years ago.
When prices are going up and you can’t buy as much for the same $100, your consumption must go down, otherwise you’ll start spending more than you can afford - you’re savings will deplete, you’ll start needing to make some tough decisions that you wouldn’t have otherwise had to make if you adjusted your spending earlier, or worse, you won’t have any breathing room in your finances which will force you to take on debt to maintain the same standard of living.
Inflation will hopefully stop getting worse and it appears that that’s already happening, but that doesn’t mean prices will be dropping soon. Many people mistakenly believe that when inflation goes down, that prices will go back to what they were a couple years ago. But that’s just not going to happen. A normal inflation means that prices will go up by a reasonable 2-3% annually. Deflation would be a return to previous price levels, so you can expect to continue paying higher prices for food, travel, clothing, etc. for the foreseeable future. Gas is more unpredictable because the forces governing prices are much more complicated.
So the goal, I think needs to be maintaining financial health and a healthy balance sheet. And you want to make adjustments now. That means enough cash for emergencies, continued healthy levels of cash in your savings account, and continuing to save at current levels for retirement.
I already have employees in some of the 401k plans I manage who have had to cut back on their savings levels because they were spending too much already and as soon as inflation hit and they had to divert more of their income to higher food and gas prices, the only place they could cut back was on their retirement savings and dip into their savings to plug the gap. You want to avoid that.
I’ll talk about specific ways to do that as the week goes on, but for now, the most important thing is to keep the end goal in mind with maintaining a healthy financial picture in a sustained inflationary environment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Inflation is sticking around…now what?
Back in August 2020, over 2 years ago, when schools were still shut down and much of the economy was still in a coma, I dedicated a weekly theme to inflation. I said that “I think higher inflation, even problematic inflation is a real possibility due to our skyrocketing national debt and the lack of discipline of our elected officials on both sides to properly deal with it.”
While I said that you shouldn’t be concerned about inflation “yet”, I was still confident that the Federal reserve board’s decision making ability to manage inflation.
I also thought that the economic growth we would experience coming out of the recession would help to offset higher prices due to inflation and help everyday Americans better keep pace with price increases.
I didn’t anticipate sustained inflation in the 7-9% range, and so here we are 2 years later and that’s the reality we’re faced with now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about what that end goal is.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Hiring A Financial Advisor vs. DIY
- Benefits Of Hiring A Financial Advisor
- If You’re In One Of These 3 Scenarios, Hire A Financial Advisor
- Two More Times When You’ll Want To Hire A Financial Advisor
- Questions To Ask Financial Advisors Before Hiring One
The most important takeaway from this week is: That there real, quantifiable benefits from hiring a competent financial advisor to help you navigate the often irreversible financial and investment decisions you’ll make, especially when the stakes are higher as you approach and enter retirement. Hopefully in this week’s episodes, I gave you some clarity about when it makes sense to hire one in your own situation.
And if you ever want to talk to this competent and experienced fiduciary advisor, you can always schedule a 15 minute call with me by visiting my website: truenorthra.com.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Inflation is sticking around, now what? I’ll talk about how to manage your cash, keep your expenses under control, and adjustments you might want to make in planning for retirement to deal with the persistently high inflation we’re facing and will likely still be dealing with over the next year.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Hiring A Financial Advisor vs. DIY
- Benefits Of Hiring A Financial Advisor
- If You’re In One Of These 3 Scenarios, Hire A Financial Advisor
- Two More Times When You’ll Want To Hire A Financial Advisor
- Questions To Ask Financial Advisors Before Hiring One
The most important takeaway from this week is: That there real, quantifiable benefits from hiring a competent financial advisor to help you navigate the often irreversible financial and investment decisions you’ll make, especially when the stakes are higher as you approach and enter retirement. Hopefully in this week’s episodes, I gave you some clarity about when it makes sense to hire one in your own situation.
And if you ever want to talk to this competent and experienced fiduciary advisor, you can always schedule a 15 minute call with me by visiting my website: truenorthra.com.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Inflation is sticking around, now what? I’ll talk about how to manage your cash, keep your expenses under control, and adjustments you might want to make in planning for retirement to deal with the persistently high inflation we’re facing and will likely still be dealing with over the next year.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
If you’ve been listening to the podcast this week, maybe you’ve made the decision that it’s time to look into hiring a professional to help you with financial and retirement decisions, and for a variety of reasons, you’d like someone else to manage your investments as well.
Or maybe you already have a financial advisor, but you haven’t heard from him or her in 2 years, they never call you back or respond to your emails, or you can’t shake the nagging feeling that your advisor is more concerned with their commission or fee than they are about making sure your portfolio is growing.
But sometimes, when hiring an advisor, you don’t really know where to start. Many people find their advisor through word of mouth from a trusted friend or family member, or their personal network, or through a recommendation from their CPA or another trusted advisor.
When you find an advisor that seems to be worth talking to, where do you go from there? I recommend that you come prepared to that first meeting with several questions to ask that will help you determine if the person sitting across the table from you is one you should hire.
- Do you adhere to a fiduciary duty in all circumstances for all clients, and is that in writing?
- Non-negotiable
- Unfortunately it’s also rare that the advisor your meeting with is a fiduciary in the fullest sense of the word - maybe 10-20% are fiduciaries
- What can I expect in terms of ongoing communication & frequency?
- How often will we meet and update our financial plan?
- What is your investment philosophy?
- Will you contact me before making changes to my investments?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
If you’ve been listening to the podcast this week, maybe you’ve made the decision that it’s time to look into hiring a professional to help you with financial and retirement decisions, and for a variety of reasons, you’d like someone else to manage your investments as well.
Or maybe you already have a financial advisor, but you haven’t heard from him or her in 2 years, they never call you back or respond to your emails, or you can’t shake the nagging feeling that your advisor is more concerned with their commission or fee than they are about making sure your portfolio is growing.
But sometimes, when hiring an advisor, you don’t really know where to start. Many people find their advisor through word of mouth from a trusted friend or family member, or their personal network, or through a recommendation from their CPA or another trusted advisor.
When you find an advisor that seems to be worth talking to, where do you go from there? I recommend that you come prepared to that first meeting with several questions to ask that will help you determine if the person sitting across the table from you is one you should hire.
- Do you adhere to a fiduciary duty in all circumstances for all clients, and is that in writing?
- Non-negotiable
- Unfortunately it’s also rare that the advisor your meeting with is a fiduciary in the fullest sense of the word - maybe 10-20% are fiduciaries
- What can I expect in terms of ongoing communication & frequency?
- How often will we meet and update our financial plan?
- What is your investment philosophy?
- Will you contact me before making changes to my investments?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
Yesterday, I talked about the 3 most common triggering events that should cause you to consider hiring a financial advisor even if you haven’t hired one before.
Today, I’m going to talk about 2 more reasons why I commonly see someone hire a financial advisor.
- You don’t have the time, knowledge or desire to manage your investments or do the necessary research.
- You tend to outsource many things, and you see the value in hiring good help. [house cleaning].
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
Today, I’m talking about the 3 most common scenarios when someone will decide to hire a financial advisor.
- You’re nearing retirement
- You received an inheritance
- You need a second opinion on investing and financial planning strategies
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
Today, I’m talking about some of the key benefits of hiring a financial advisor. It’s hard to know what exactly you’re getting when you’re paying for the services of a financial advisor as there’s not always a deliverable at the end.
At least when you hire an attorney or a CPA, you get a trust or other estate planning documents at the end of it or your tax return is filed.
But when you hire a financial advisor, most of the time you’re hiring someone to manage your investments, and help you with ongoing financial and retirement planning decisions. Quantifying that advice and weighing it against the cost can be fuzzy at best.
To help quantify the value of financial advise to weigh against the ongoing cost of hiring an advisor, Vanguard does an annual study that looks at different services advisors provide and quantifies the value of each.
In short, here are the key areas where an advisor provides the most value:
- Suitable asset allocation using broadly diversified funds/ETFs
- Cost-effective implementation (expense ratios)
- Rebalancing
- Behavioral coaching
- Asset location
- Spending strategy (withdrawal order)
- Total return versus income investing
The total estimated annual value of these key areas is around 3% in increased returns per year.
So if your advisor is charging a 1% fee on your total assets to manage your investments and provide financial advice, the benefit outweighs the cost 3 to 1.
The key though is finding a proactive, sharp, and qualified advisor who will actually do these things and do them well.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
Today, I’m talking about when you may want to consider hiring a financial advisor vs. DIY.
It’s probably easiest to tackle this decision from the standpoint of when to DIY. I think it’s fine for most people starting out in their 20s, 30s, and even in your 40s to go it alone. That doesn’t mean you’ll want to blindly make financial or investment decisions without researching and asking for help.
Most people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s would be 80% of the way to financial success by following just a few key pieces of advice:
- Live below your means
- Save as much as you can for retirement as early and as consistently as you can
- Get out and stay out of debt
- Make sure your investment portfolio is invested in stocks and well-diversified
There is usually an older, experienced, and helpful parent or other relative or family friend who you can lean on for more complicated decisions and advice, so many people who develop good financial habits early, and make well researched and informed decisions don’t necessarily need to hire professional help.
On the other hand, the most common reason I see a potential client come through the door who was previously a DIY investor is because they’re approaching retirement and they have some type of triggering event.
This could be an inheritance or an upcoming retirement. I’ll talk about more of these triggering events later in the week, but navigating the maze of irreversible and potentially costly decisions that one makes later in life as you approach and enter retirement requires more careful planning and decision-making, and that’s where a competent and experienced financial advisor can provide significant benefits that far outweigh their cost.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: When Should I Hire A Financial Advisor?
Many years ago when my husband and I were newlyweds and living in our first home, we decided it was time to clean the gutters. Actually it was sort of an emergency, get-it-done-right now situation because our gutters were totally clogged, and there was a big fall storm coming to our area with heavy rainfall in the forecast. Even with light rain our gutters had been overflowing. So we got out there on the ladder, and we decided that I would get up on the ladder, grab the sludge out of the gutter and my husband would stand below as I plopped handfuls of God-only-knows into a bucket.
At first it was a bit of an adventure, and it felt good to be DIYing this important home care task. But that’s where the fun ended. Just as I was beginning to have fun, I pulled a dead bird out of the gutter and nearly vomited on my husbands head. Reaching into the gutter for mystery handfuls after that was making me cringe, and I just wanted to get the job done.
Then my husband had to move a large pot in our driveway so the ladder could fit. Well, he ended up throwing out his back, fell to the ground, laid in the driveway for about 10 minutes, until I helped him limp inside.
He could barely move for the next couple of weeks, and after abandoning the rest of the gutter cleaning, and hundreds of dollars for physical therapy later, we decided that we would hire someone in the future to clean our gutters, rather than doing it ourselves.
Knowing when to hire a financial advisor can be tricky to figure out. You’ll need to weigh the cost and benefits of hiring an advisor vs. going it alone. Some things in life are worth tackling on your own, and other things are best left to someone who has done the job thousands of times and has the expertise to do a good job.
So this week, I’ll talk about:
- Hiring A Financial Advisor vs. DIY
- Benefits Of Hiring A Financial Advisor
- Several different life situations where hiring a financial advisor is essential in my opinion
- And if you’ve made the decision that you need to consider hiring a financial advisor, I’ll give you some Questions To Ask A Financial Advisor Before Hiring One
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about when to hire a financial advisor and when to go it alone.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings.
Today’s final money rule is: Never forget: God is the owner of everything. You are a steward
- What does this mean?
- My kids are my kids, in the sense that they don’t belong to anyone else. But they are also God’s children, and are entrusted to me. I have a tremendous responsibility to raise them in the faith and do everything I can to ensure that by the time they reach adulthood, they have a deep relationship with Jesus.
- Money works the same way. It’s your money in the sense that you have property rights and your house, car, 401k, etc. have your name on them. But the ultimate owner of everything you have is God.
- I talked to one of my clients recently. She’s in her 40s, single, no kids, and makes about $350,000 a year. I was scratching my head because she had less than $100,000 saved for retirement, and is only saving about 3% of her income each year. At her age and income level, she should have a lot more saved. When I dug a little deeper, I discovered that she spends virtually everything she makes and has no breathing room in her finances for anything else.
- Having the breathing room in your finances no matter if you make $350,000 or $35,000 a year is key to not being stressed about money all the time.
- That breathing room is essential for living in a gospel-centered way with the income that you are a steward of, because it will allow you to be generous with your giving and make saving for the future possible. No breathing room means that every dollar you earn is selfishly spent on you and your needs alone. You are not being a steward, you are only acting in your own self-interest.
- Practically this means that when you look at your finances, where is your money going every month. A good place to start is to make sure you’re not spending more on entertainment or eating out, or your particular fun category, than you are on charitable giving to your parish and other causes. If you flew first class on your last vacation, but you only put $5 a week in the collection basket, you’re not acting like a steward.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings.
Today’s money rule is: Learn how to prioritize your financial life.
Correct order: emergency savings, eliminate debt, save for retirement, save for other goals.
- Explain what each one means…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings.
Today’s money rule is: Save as much as you can for retirement as early as you can.
- Start where you are. Afford to save $10 or $20 a paycheck, do that. But the recommended amount to save for a comfortable retirement is 10% of your income each year. So the earlier you start working up to that, the less you’ll have to save over your lifetime.
- If you have a 401k or other retirement plan at work, make sure you take advantage of any matching contributions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings.
Today’s money rule is Never allow yourself to carry a balance on your credit card.
- I see the detailed finances of hundreds of my clients. No one who has built strong financial habits and is in control of their finances carries any credit card debt. The interest rates are insane, and if you have enough in emergency savings, there’s almost never a reason to not pay off your balance in full every month. If you have credit card debt, get rid of it now, and commit to never carrying a balance ever again.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings.
Today’s money rule is: Educate Yourself About Investment & Financial Accounts
If you don’t know what a Roth IRA is, and the difference between that and a Roth 401k, take a little time to research the basics of investing and financial accounts.
- You don’t need to be a personal finance expert, but understanding the various investment vehicles and why you’d be crazy not to invest in a Roth will help you make smarter and more informed decisions about not just how much you save, but where those dollars will go.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: 5 Personal Finance Rules for 20-Somethings
[Intro about YCP talk]
- Back in 2013, Harold Pollack, a social scientist at the University of Chicago made a claim that all the financial advice you would ever need in life could fit onto one index card. He scribbled down his 9 pieces of advice onto a 4 x 6 index card, took a photo, shared it online, and the post went viral.
- He then wrote a book about it and his idea is the inspiration of my own version of this, but for 20 & 30-somethings. If you can get these things right, most everything else in your financial life will fall into place.
- And most importantly, these are all habits and behaviors that are within your control, don’t require you to have a high income, and most importantly, by building a solid financial foundation early in adulthood, you won’t find yourself up to your eyeballs in debt with nothing saved for retirement when you’re 45.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about…
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- How Social Media Has Changed Get-Rich-Quick Scams
- Can’t Miss Signs of a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
- The Get-Rich-Quick Scheme You’ve Already Fallen For
- 5 Get-Rich-Quick Scams To Watch Out For
The most important takeaway from this week is: Get rich quick schemes come in a lot of different flavors. Some are completely legal and others are downright fraudulent scams. But the tell-tale signs to watch out for are always there, so look out for common themes to avoid flushing your money down the toilet and feeling robbed.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: 5 Personal Finance Rules For 20-Somethings. Most of you listening aren’t in your 20s but many of you have children who are now young adults entering the workforce and trying to manage their money for the first time with no experience and little to no real training or education on how to do so.
I shared this advice at a talk I did for young professionals last week, it was a hit, and now I’m sharing it with you, so you can pass it along to your adult children.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Today, I’m closing the week with 5 get-rich-quick schemes according to moneyunder30.com.
- New cryptocurrencies. The crypto market is full of scammers, and some have imploded in recent months as the tide went out on the crypto market. If you must buy bitcoin, which I don't recommend, it’s best to stay away from any new-fangled cryptocurrency and just stick with the old hats.
- Multi-level marketing companies. I might get some hate for this, because multilevel marketing companies (aka MLMs) are so popular. I can name at least 10 people I know personally, probably more, who have been or are currently involved in a MLM. These companies include Mary Kay, Rodan & Fields, Herbalife…the list goes on. “MLMs are notorious for using psychology and manipulation to lure unsuspecting income-seekers into their midst. Then, they squeeze capital out of them on the dangling promise of eventually multiplying their returns.” All of them promise that you’ll “become your own boss, get free training, and earn six figures in your first year!” Yet, according to the consumer awareness institute, 99% of people who join a MLM lose money.
- Third is the lottery, which I talked about yesterday. According to moneyunder30.com, “A mass study on the lottery’s net impact on society found that “the percentage of income spent on the lottery is significantly higher for players with low family incomes and low education,” hence the lottery’s ignominious nickname: “a tax on the poor.”
- Phony job listings, which have become more widespread with technology and work from home trends. The scam works something like this: Someone reaches out to you and They either say “no experience necessary” or that you’d be perfect for it, and since they want to fill the role right away, they’ll just do the interview via a chat window. Before your start date for your high-salary role, they’ll need to add you to payroll and benefits – so you’ll need to pass along your W-9, 1099, and/or a scan of your ID.” You can probably guess what happens next, now that they have your identity information.
- Illegitimate online business courses…”Bad online courses always seem like good investments upfront. They’re taught by people who’ve “made it” in the industry and who promise to tell you all of their “best money-making secrets.” They’re also sold to you at a weirdly high discount (e.g. 97% off) and sometimes, you even have to apply to be in the course. But crappy online courses aren’t just dangerous due to high cost and missed expectations – they can teach you the wrong things that actually hinder your progress and take months to unlearn.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Today, I’m talking about the get-rich-quick scheme you’ve already fallen for. Can you guess what it is?
The business school building at Portland State University where I went to college was nicknamed the lotto building, because it was built with Oregon lottery dollars. That was very instructive for me, and despite knowing that the odds of winning were dismal, it was a multi-million dollar building that was funded by people who found out the hard way that the odds were against them.
While the lottery is a perfectly legal scheme, it still checks the most important box that I talked about earlier this week as a tell-tale sign - big payoffs for little investment and no time or hard work required.
The problem with the lottery, or more generally, gambling is that too many people who play the lottery or gamble, do so with the hope that they’ll win, and some people even gamble with their paycheck for the month.
A recent article in the WSJ about the 1.3 billion mega millions jackpot, looked into how and why lottery ticket sales surge with higher unemployment and economic downturns, according to several studies.
This is not a good sign. You would expect that right now, with inflation being so high and the economy sputtering, that lotto ticket sales would be down, but the opposite is true. In Arizona, lotto ticket sales are up 152% this year, with eye-popping jackpots being a big driver of sales, despite 300 million to 1 odds on the 1.3bn mega millions jackpot.
Higher inflation is a source of financial anxiety, and another driver for increases in sales, with the promise of a big payout to make their problems go away. The reality is though that the odds are so far out of your favor, that the purchase of the lotto ticket or hitting the casino this weekend is just going to make your financial woes worse.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Today is a continuation of yesterday’s episode with a few more tell-tale signs of fraudulent schemes.
The first one is something I see all the time, and is present in more than just fraudulent schemes, but legitimate ones as well, but should give you pause…and that is big, bold promises.
In September 2011, Reebok was ordered to refund $25 million to customers because its advertising promised — without adequate evidence — that the company’s EasyTone shoes could firm users’ butts and legs with every step.
Other promises you’ll hear might sound like:
- Be your own boss
- Six-figure monthly income with little to no work
- “I did it, and so can you!”
- Earn money in your pajamas
- Running ads in front of exotic cars and airplanes to show that they made it
I see promises like this all the time for online business ads, or multi-level marketing business, and they’re always something you want to watch out for.
Another important tell-tale is a lack of transparency. When you can’t understand or do your research on an investment in something, it’s time to take a pass. Any person working for a legitimate business is always going to be able to answer your questions, and if they can’t it’s time to move on. When you get past marketing glitz to the real figures, you can begin to understand if this investment is worthwhile or not.
Warren Buffett always says he never invests in a product or service or business that he can’t wrap his head around, which is a pretty good rule to follow.
The last tell-tale sign is a bad gut feeling…[travel sweepstakes].
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
As I talked about yesterday, scammers are now using online platforms and getting more clever all the time, so it’s helpful to know not just the specific scams to look out for, but also some of the tell-tale signs of a fraudulent scam.
So today I’ll share with you several things to watch out for if an opportunity seems too good to pass up. And since all the most important tell-tale signs can’t fit into one podcast episode, we’ll pick up with part 2 tomorrow.
So the first tell-tale sign is:Some sort of promise or guarantee [talk about legitimate advertising and investment can’t really do this].
There is always some type of required up-front payment required on your part, sometimes nominal, sometimes significant.
And third, it’s hard to find information online, or what you do find looks suspicious or is negative. Email is a common platform used for scamming people, so it’s good to not respond to emails from people you don’t know, or even if it appears to be from someone you know but it’s out of character, best to pick up the phone and call the person to see if it really was them, and not someone who hacked into their email.
But you can also look up the website and online reviews to see if something looks legit, which you should always do anyways. No web presence or a sketchy one is a big red flag. No physical presence is also a big warning sign. Can you find a street address and not just a PO Box?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll continue with a few more tell-tale signs of fraudulent schemes. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Today, I’m talking about how social media has changed get-rich-quick schemes, and what to watch out for online.
One of the problems with social media that makes things a lot easier for scammers is that there is often so much about you available online, and scammers can friend and follow you, and see your posts, see who you’re friends with, and learn a lot about you online. Combine that with the fact that many people these days are comfortable being friends with or being connected with people they don’t know in real life.
This scammer who appears to be your online friend, then will message you and say something like, hey, I helped your neighbor Ellen make money, and it sounds legit because after all they know Ellen. But all they saw was that you posted a picture with Ellen last summer at your neighborhood block party, and they don’t actually know her.
The most common types of scam online are online shopping deals and product giveaways. Someone messages you and says, we want to send you $100 of free (whatever) or you’ve been selected for this free gift card, or an amazing free trip or something along those lines.
But the catch is that you just need to pay $20 for shipping or pay some fee to claim your prize. The fee is often minimal, so you think that’s a pretty good deal…and that’s how they get you. You hand over your $20 and your freebie never arrives and you never hear from them again.
Another common scheme is cash flipping. I learned about this on a WSJ podcast late last year. The scammer says something like: “I can help you make quick cash. I do this for a lot of people. All you have to do is send me $150, and I can just flip that into $1,500." Sometimes people will say that they have some special key to investing money really quickly, that they're an expert in it. No one else knows how to do it. And they'll tell you, "I'm so good at this that I'm going to get even more money than $1,500 after I flip the 150 you give me, but I'll give you $1,500 back." So they make it sound like it's a good deal for everyone involved, but it's not. They just want that $150 from you.
These are just a couple of examples of how social media has changed the landscape, and tomorrow I’ll talk about some of the tell-tale signs that the great opportunity you’ve just stumbled upon is a get-rich-quick scheme that you should avoid.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Back in 2009 I had a client who invested more money than he could afford into an extremely high yield investment. He was retired and an conservative investor, and unfortunately, he didn’t seek my advice before agreeing to hand over his hard-earned money.
The person who called him up on the phone promised eye-popping returns, and that he would start receiving checks within a year and double his money right away.
So he emptied his savings account and handed over $50,000, wondering why his financial advisor - me - wasn’t telling him about these opportunities.
The tell-tale signs of fraud were all there - the promise of incredible returns, little to no risk, and an unsolicited offer that seems very exclusive with no verifying information to be found anywhere - but he was too excited about the guarantee of a much higher income than what he was getting on his bond portfolio at the time, and he didn’t see them.
When the checks never came, he started calling and they kept putting him off saying that things were about to take off, and he would start receiving his money soon. Be patient…don’t worry, they said.
Then they stopped answering, then the phone number was disconnected.
Unfortunately, this scenario is all-too-common, but not every get-rich-quick scheme is fraud. Some are perfectly legal, which makes them even more problematic and harder to spot.
So this week, I’m going to share with you how social media has contributed to the growth of get-rich-quick schemes and new tactics people are using online. I’ll talk about telltale signs of get-rich-quick schemes & real-life examples of these schemes so you can learn how to better spot them, and the most fallen-for get-rich-quick scheme that you, yourself, have probably fallen for.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about how social media is contributing to the growth of get-rich-quick schemes.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Habits that lead to happiness in retirement.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Don’t Smoke & Watch Your Drinking
- Maintain a Healthy Body Weight & Get Moving
- Learn To Cope
- Be Intellectually Curious
- Cultivate Stable, Long-Term Relationships
The most important takeaway from this week is: While all of these habits are key ingredients for remaining happy and healthy well into your retirement years, if you’re going to pick just one of these habits to start cultivating now, start with healthy long-term relationships…call your sister, do something to strengthen your relationship with your spouse, or invite a friend over for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: How To Spot & Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes.
When the stock market and bond markets are in turmoil, like they are in 2022, get-rich-quick schemes start to come out of the woodwork to take advantage of us when we’re beaten down and desperate for a way to make up for losses.
Many people seem to think that only gullible or stupid people fall for these schemes, but that’s simply not true. All the wealthy people who fell for Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme were sophisticated, wealthy investors. I’ve seen firsthand clients who are smart & well-educated fall for similar schemes, so next week, I’ll share with you how to spot and avoid these schemes.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is Habits that lead to happiness in retirement.
The last key to happiness in retirement according to the long-term Harvard research study I’ve been referencing this week, is cultivating stable, long-term relationships. If you’re married and have been for years, you know that it takes work - a lot of conscious and consistent effort to maintain a solid and happy marriage. But it’s not just marriage that’s important here. We all need solid friendships, and stable, healthy relationships with our family to thrive.
According to the Harvard study, the single most important trait of being happy-well in retirement is healthy relationships. That’s it. The number one most important thing. You can still have a shot at happiness in retirement if you smoke, are overweight, and haven’t read a single book since you graduated high school, but you don’t have good, strong, relationships with people you can count on in good times and bad, then you’re much more likely to get unhappier as you age.
Like the other habits I’ve discussed this week, this one doesn’t happen overnight. If you don’t have the relationships in your life that you crave, it can be challenging to form new bonds, but it’s possible. I’ve really had to prioritize this in my own life, because I work full-time, I have a husband, and 3 young children, so I don’t have a lot of additional time to go hang out with friends.
But I have made a conscious effort to be a part of the mom’s group at my church, and I’m making a conscious effort to make time for the friends in my life that I want to stay close to. I refuse to substitute real-life friendships with likes and comments on Facebook, and as a result, I’m spending time deepening friendships with those friends I care about the most.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is Habits that lead to happiness in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about being intellectually curious. Interestingly, this trait is extremely important at all stages in life, and is one of the keys to being successful in your chosen career. If you’re intellectually curious you’re willing to learn new things and when something is new to you or you don’t understand, you ask questions and dig around to find answers. It’s also a sign of humility, which is important for continued learning and growth.
Have you ever known someone who thinks they already know everything? We expect this with teenagers, but I sometimes find this trait in adults, and it’s a surefire way to tell that this know-it-all has learned everything they’re going to, which is unfortunate.
On the other hand, people who are intellectually curious are good problem solvers, they know how to find answers, because they have so much experience searching for and finding answers, and they approach situations with more creativity, rather than just relying on what’s worked well in the past.
I am naturally curious and have always been, and its a big reason why I don’t run out of things to talk about nearly 1400 episodes into this podcast, and why it’s fun and exciting for me to learn new things about retirement, saving, investing, and topics like this week’s which is how to be happy in retirement. I can apply the new things I’m constantly learning to help you, as well as my clients, myself, my children, my family and friends.
In retirement, continuous learning and being intellectually curious mean that you’ll not be content to sit and watch CNN or Fox News every day in retirement. There are numerous ways to continue learning new things in retirement - reading books, keeping up with hobbies and activities you enjoy, volunteering, traveling to new and interesting places, or even enrolling in a college course.
I can think of no better way to spend the extra time you’ll have in retirement by continuing to learn more.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is Habits that lead to happiness in retirement.
So far this week, I’ve been talking about the health habits that will lead to happiness in retirement. This advice is based on a long-term Harvard study that’s still ongoing which has been following a wide variety of Americans starting in their 20s throughout their whole lives. What the study has found is that happiness increases from about age 50 to 65, but then something interesting happens at age 65. People diverge into 2 categories:
Sad-sick, and happy-well. The sad-sick cohort are below average in physical health, mental health and life satisfaction. They tend to get unhappier as they age. The happy-well cohort on the other hand enjoy good physical health, mental health, and high life satisfaction that doesn’t diminish with age.
The sad-sick are more likely to smoke, have issues with drinking, are overweight or obese, and don’t get much daily movement or exercise.
These are all important health habits to cultivate throughout life, but what about the non-health related predictors. That’s what we turn to today, starting with learning to cope.
Life is stressful, and some of us have found ways to deal with the person who cut you off in traffic, or that coworker who always manages to put you down. If you find yourself still angry at the random person in traffic after several minutes, or continuing to stew about your rude co-worker, it can lead to bitterness and resentment for more than just the people who hurt you.
At the Catholic parish I attend, it’s a great place to see this firsthand. There are an unusually large number of people in their golden years, compared to the general population, and its easy to spot the joyful, warm, inviting people, as well as the wounded people who have allowed their hurts, turn into resentment and bitterness. I can tell within 30 seconds of talking to someone whether or not bitterness and resentment have closed them off to the world, and it’s very sad to me how so many people have allowed the inevitable pain and tragedy of life have cast such a dark shadow over their lives.
The solution to this is not easy, because it requires often years-long cultivation of patience, kindness, gratitude, and a conscious effort to have an open heart by loving and seeing the best in others. Those I know with an open heart allow love to flow through them and aren’t handcuffed by pain and resentment. Easier said than done, I know!
Some of us may even require therapy, but if you find yourself angry, resentful, and bitter, then a great place to start is with a book I read last summer called “Be Healed”, by Dr. Bob Schuchts. It’s written for a Christian audience, so take that into consideration on whether or not this book might be for you, but the book is powerful and practical for healing the deep and inevitable wounds in our lives that, unchecked, can lead to misery and resentment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is Habits that lead to happiness in retirement.
Yesterday, I introduced the 80+ year old Harvard Study that is the basis for this week’s theme. It’s a treasure trove of data on what it takes to live happily in your retirement years. The study is still ongoing, and it looks at individuals and their habits over a lifetime.
Think of it like investing in a Happiness 401k. The sooner you can start investing in the good habits and avoiding the bad habits, the more you’ll reap the rewards of your investment in your retirement years.
The first two important habits are don’t smoke & watch your drinking. The next 2 habits are also health related, and nothing earth-shattering that you haven’t already heard a thousand times before, but since it’s clear that it makes a huge difference in your health and happiness in retirement, let’s mention them again:
#1 - Maintain a healthy body weight.
#2 - Prioritize movement in your life every day.
Today, over 40% of Americans are obese, which is defined as having a body mass index over 30. The problem got worse during the pandemic too, and obesity rates keep climbing. It’s such a problem that it’s even a contributing factor to low recruitment numbers for the US Military, as many would-be recruits don’t qualify due to their weight.
The second recommendation of prioritizing movement is obviously related to maintaining a healthy body weight, but it’s slightly different in that exercise has all kinds of benefits psychological and stress-reducing, and happiness boosting benefits in addition to supporting a healthy weight.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow and for the rest of the week, we’ll transition into some non-health predictors of happiness in retirement: emotional resilience, education, and relationships.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is Habits that lead to happiness in retirement.
According to the article that was the basis for this week’s theme: “In 1938, researchers at Harvard Medical School lit upon a visionary idea: They would sign up a bunch of men then studying at Harvard and follow them from youth to adulthood. Every year or two, researchers asked the participants about their lifestyles, habits, relationships, work, and happiness. The study has since expanded to include people beyond men who went to Harvard, and its results have been updated regularly for more than 80 years. Those results are a treasure trove…You look at how people lived, loved, and worked in their 20s and 30s, and then you can see how their life turned out over the following decades. And from this crystal ball of happiness, you can learn how to invest in your own future well-being.As the participants in the Harvard Study of Adult Development have aged, researchers have categorized them with respect to happiness and health. There is a lot of variation in the population, but two distinct groups emerge at the extremes. The best off are the “happy-well,” who enjoy good physical health as well as good mental health and high life satisfaction. On the other end of the spectrum are the “sad-sick,” who are below average in physical health, mental health, and life satisfaction.”
So today, I want to focus on 2 health habits that emerge from the data on this study:
- Don’t smoke &
- Watch your drinking
These recommendations are nothing new. The research pointing to smoking and excessive drinking as a major source of health problems is vast and quite conclusive.
If you’re a smoker, you’ve probably already tried to quit many, many times. And if you’re not a smoker, you’re no doubt happy that you don’t have to battle that addiction.
Alcohol however, is more insidious, because its negative effects aren’t as obvious. One of the most powerful predictors of people who end up in the sad-sick category was problem drinking. And unlike the typical stereotype of an alcoholic, the reality is that a lot of successful and hard-working people are highly functioning alcoholics. Some research indicates that many of the personality traits that predict success, are also strong predictors of addiction.
The bottom line is that if you don’t quit smoking and don’t stop problem-drinking, you’re much more likely to be in the miserable, sad-sick category of retirees.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Habits That Lead to Happiness In Retirement
I got this idea for this week’s theme from an article I read in The Atlantic that was published in February of this year called “The Seven Habits That Lead to Happiness in Old Age”. If you want to read the full article, I’ll link to it in the show notes:
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/02/happiness-age-investment/622818/
You might recognize the author’s name, Arthur Brooks. Back in early June, I devoted a whole week to his excellent book, From Strength to Strength, and it was pure coincidence that I stumbled upon this article in the Atlantic. I actually flagged this article as an idea for the podcast, and then when I revisited it later, I realized that it was the same author of the book I reviewed and discussed in June.
So this week, I’m sharing with you the 7 most important habits that according to research and to Brooks, you can begin to cultivate now that will lead to the highest satisfaction well into your 60s, 70s, and 80s. Think of it as your own Happiness 401k. The sooner you start investing in your happiness 401k, the more you’ll be able to reap the benefits as you age.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’m talking about 2 bad health habits that you’ll want to kick right away.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Deadly Sin: Having A “This Time Is Different” Mindset
- Deadly Sin: Forgetting The Basics of Successful Investing
- Deadly Sin: Taking on More Risk To Make Up For Losses
- Deadly Sin: Holding On To Your Losers
- Deadly Sin: Ignoring Taxes & Trading Costs
The most important takeaway from this week is: that when we’re suffering from losses and uneasy and fearful about the future, we can have tunnel vision and forget how to invest. But during difficult times, principles of successful investing become even more important, and sticking with those principles rather than committing these deadly sins will help see you through the current downturn and emerge stronger on the other side.
Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Habits That Lead To Happiness in Retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is the Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets.
Today, I’m talking about the deadly sin of ignoring taxes & trading costs. When markets are in a tailspin, it’s easy to buy and sell without considering taxes or trading costs.
Because investors tend to buy and sell more frequently during volatile markets, they often do so while ignoring the gains and losses generated by their sales, and ignoring the fees for buying and selling investments. When you hold an investment for shorter than 1 year, the tax rate you pay on gains increases, so you’ll pay more in taxes if you realize gains from your short-term trades.
Trading costs increase as well for many investors the more often you trade, and those fees can really add up and eat into your net returns.
The lesson here is to keep track of your gains throughout the year, and know where you stand with the gains in your taxable, non-IRA investment accounts.
And always know what the fee or commission is whenever you buy or sell an investment, so you won’t be surprised.
Perhaps most importantly, you’re going to be better off sticking with a buy-and-hold philosophy, since the research bears out that the more frequently you trade the more in fees and taxes you’ll pay, and the worse your returns will be with a short-term focus.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is the Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets.
Today, I’m talking about the deadly sin of holding on to your losers. Many investors cannot bear to sell anything at a loss, so they ride it out in the hopes that the sour investment will turnaround.
When I was 22 years old, I was convinced that the Chinese were going to take over the world, and that their economy and stock market would thrive over the coming years. While I was still in college, I started following a Chinese index fund that tracked the performance of the largest Chinese companies. Between 2004 & 2007, this index fund tripled in value. When I graduated college in 2007, I had some savings built up, so I decided to put a few thousand dollars into the index fund. Back then, att 22 this investment of a few thousand dollars was about ⅓ of my entire net worth. Within a few months of buying the index fund, the financial crisis hit and I lost ⅔ of what I had invested.
It took me 3 more years after that while the Chinese market continued to limp along to finally sell my investment and move on.
3 years of holding onto a loser. I’m glad I sold, because I went back and looked, and that index fund still hasn’t returned to the price I bought it at 15 years ago. But some people never sell, because the story they tell themselves is that the investment will recover. But in doing so, they ignore the fundamentals and they ignore all the reasons why that investment may never recover.
The lesson here is to detach yourself emotionally from all of your investments, and cut your losses early.
When deciding whether or not to hold or sell, all that matters is the future growth potential of that investment. Selling is hard because we ignore sunk costs that are a just a part of investing.The sunk cost fallacy means that we are making decisions that are irrational and lead to suboptimal outcomes. We are focused on our past investments instead of our present and future costs and benefits, meaning that we commit ourselves to decisions that are no longer in our best interests.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is the Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets.
Today, I’m talking about the deadly sin of taking on more risk to make up for losses.
Most often I see this happen to investors who are approaching retirement. Maybe you’re 5 years away from retirement, your portfolio is down 30% and the only path you see forward is to roll the dice and get super aggressive in the hopes that your big bet will pay off and you will be able to still retire in time.
I knew someone close to retirement who was behind on saving enough and felt tremendous pressure to catch up. He liquidated his entire 401k, invested it in a single stock. 6 months later he looked like a genius because he doubled his money. But he didn’t sell a single share and in less than 2 years he lost 95% of his investment, and his nest egg is all but gone.
I wish this story was a one-off, but unfortunately it’s all too common. We can become so blind to what’s best for us, when we feel cornered and panicked about how to make up for lost time.
Then we see an opportunity to invest in something that’s our lotto ticket to a comfortable retirement, and like most lottery tickets, it just ends up becoming a worthless piece of paper.
My best advice here is to accept the circumstances you find yourself in today, and figure out where you’ll compromise to make up for lost time. Will you work longer? Will you live on less in retirement? Will you downsize and sell your home? We often want to avoid the more painful way out that involves some sacrifice, but it avoids the risk of losing everything by taking unnecessary risks when you can’t afford to lose so late in your working years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is the Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets.
Today, I’m talking about a common temptation when the stock and bond markets go haywire, and that is forgetting the basics of successful investing.
Many investors get so caught up in fretting about their portfolio losses, that they forget about and abandon the timeless basics of successful investing.
Investors forget about asset allocation, diversification, risk, asset location, company valuation and fundamentals.
But it’s paying attention to these basics in good times and bad that will help see you through. So if you pay attention to asset allocation, that will help you to rebalance your investments and buy when stocks are cheaper. If you respect the principles of diversification and risk, you’ll avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket by owning a single stock or doubling down on an investment thats already reeling with significant losses in the hopes that it will bounce back.
By paying attention to asset location, you’ll ensure that taxes won’t bite you hard later and that you own the right investments for each account type. If municipal bonds look cheap, they’re never cheap enough to own in an IRA or a 401k type account.
And lastly, by paying attention to company valuation, you’ll avoid the temptation of buying a stock simply because it’s dropped in price. Many investors make the mistake of buying a stock after it drops 20, 30, or 40%.
The stock of the popular social media platform, Snapchat, is down almost 80% this year. The company relies on ad revenue to make money, and with that down and projected to get worse, the company has been in the doghouse. On the surface, it might look to some like the stock is now cheap after dropping 80% this year.
But to me, it doesn’t look like the stock is cheap at all. They aren’t profitable, they have plenty of competition from other social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and their future still looks very uncertain.
So don’t ignore the basic tenets of successful investing during a bear market, and you’ll be glad that you didn’t make a snap decision (did you catch that reference there?).
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is the Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets.
Today, I’m talking about the most dangerous mindset that an investor can have during a bear market, and that is:
This time is different.
This time is different. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking “this is it. This is the next great depression. I’m going to be wiped out if I don’t get out, so I need to cash out now and keep my powder dry until I can make sense of the world again”.
If you go back to all of the last severe bear markets, you see a common pattern, and yes, each time was different.
When the tech bubble burst, entire companies went up in smoke overnight. During the great recession of 2008, the entire banking system was teetering on the edge, near collapse. Many people lost their homes, and unemployment exceeded 10%.
When Covid hit, the stock market lost ⅓ of it’s value in just a few short weeks, and now in 2022, we’re trying to cope with higher inflation than many Americans can even remember. I wasn’t even born yet the last time inflation was this bad.
So yes, this time is different. The circumstances are always different, and it’s what makes predicting the next downturn so impossible. But there’s an old saying that’s critical to remember whenever you’re tempted to think this time is different:
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
The circumstances are different, but the stock market and economic fallout are similar, and most importantly, the recovery always comes.
As long as you still believe that the US economy will recover, businesses will recover, there’s no reason to fall into the temptation of thinking this time is different. That thinking will only cause you to sell into the teeth of the downturn and perhaps never recover from that decision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
It’s good to be back with you for some new episodes after taking the last few weeks off during the month of July.
I enjoyed my time off - some highlights were watching my sharp-shooter daughter nail the bullseye with a BB gun at cub scout camp, celebrating my oldest’s 8th birthday, and lots of time at the park, in pools, & slip-n-slides.
This week on the podcast, the theme is: Deadly Sins of Investors In Bear Markets
When the stock market and (bond markets for that matter in 2022) are in a tailspin, it’s easy to lose perspective, and lose your mind, and make bad decisions as a result.
So this week, I’m sharing with you the deadly sins of investors during market downturns. These mistakes are so common that I see them nearly every time a new bear market comes along. But if you know how to spot these deadly sins, you’ll be less likely to fall into the temptation of committing them yourself.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’m talking about the most dangerous mindset an investor can have during a bear market.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the podcast, I’m taking a little summer break. I live in Oregon, in the suburbs of Portland, and summers here are amazing. With 3 little kids at home, I’ve decided to give myself a little extra free time in the month of July.
I will be back with new episodes next Monday, August 1st, but in the meantime, I’ve been sharing with you a free resource each week on the podcast. This week’s free resource is access to our free business valuation tool. If you are a business owner or you have a close friend or family member who is a business owner getting close to retirement, you’re going to want to get this free resource.
I don’t talk about it much on the podcast, because this podcast is for people approaching retirement, no matter if you’re a business owner or not, but at True North, one of our specialized areas of expertise is working with business owners nearing retirement. When you’re a business owner, you have a whole other set of problems and priorities to address before retirement in addition to all of the routine decisions like deciding when to file for social security. The exit from your business is the final and most important business decision you’ll ever make, and figuring out how to do that successfully on your terms with the resources you need to transition to the next phase of life is a real challenge.
Whether you have a small 1 or 2 person home-based consulting business generating $100,000 a year in sales or a business generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, and everything in between, knowing your business value today is the foundational step to embarking on your exit planning and retirement transition journey.
Yet, only about 2% of business owners know the value of their business. To solve that problem and help you start making a concrete plan to exit your business, I created a free checklist to gather the necessary data to value your business.
The checklist is your guide to gathering the relevant data points to accurately value your business. then, once you complete the checklist, you’ll enter the data into our business valuation database to value your business for free. In less than 10 minutes, you’ll have an accurate value for your business that you can use to start your exit planning journey.
To get your copy of the valuation checklist and free access to the business valuation database to www.truenorthra.com/valuemybusiness. That’s truenorthra.com/valuemybusiness.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the podcast, I’m taking a little summer break. I live in Oregon, in the suburbs of Portland, and summers here are amazing. With 3 little kids at home, I’ve decided to give myself a little extra free time in the month of July.
I will be back with new episodes on August 1st, but in the meantime, I’ll be sharing with you a free resource each week on the podcast. This week’s free resource is an under-the-hood portfolio analysis.
An under the hood portfolio analysis will look under the hood of your portfolio. The analysis will show you how your portfolio is allocated among stocks, bonds, and cash; how much you have invested in each sector like tech and healthcare, and how well diversified your portfolio is across different regions as well. The analysis will even show concentrations in your portfolio of your top 10 stock holdings in your various investment holdings.
You’ll receive a portfolio analysis report, as well as some expert insight from yours truly on how you can improve your portfolio, and any red flags that I see which could derail your investment portfolio.
The analysis is free & confidential with no strings attached.
If you’d like an under-the-hood portfolio analysis report, just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you an access link to a secure folder for you to upload copies of your investment account statements.
Again that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Be sure to come back again next Monday for the final week of the summer hiatus, where I’ll be sharing with you one more brand new resource.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the podcast, I’m taking a little summer break.I live in Oregon, in the suburbs of Portland, and summers here are amazing. With 3 little kids at home, I’ve decided to give myself a little extra free time in the month of July. This month, our plans include a few overnights at cub scout camp with my daughter, checking out a baseball game, picking blueberries, taking my kids to the pool and the splash pad, roasting smores, going golfing, and most importantly, consuming more slurpees than the legal limit in the month of July.
I will be back with new episodes on August 1st, but in the meantime, I’ll be sharing with you a free resource each week on the podcast. This week, I’m sharing the most popular resource that I’ve given away before on the podcast, and then for each of the next 2 weeks I’ll share with you 2 new resources that I haven’t shared with you before on the podcast. I’m really excited to share these resources with you, but you’ll need to check in each week if you’d like the other resources.
This week’s free resource - by far the most requested on the podcast - is my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet.
It’s a one-page guide to help you select the right mix of stocks and bonds in your portfolio based on your age.
I’m a big believer in asset allocation as the foundation of every investor’s portfolio. Making sure we have the ideal mix of stocks and bonds is always the starting place with my own clients when determining how we should invest. Other factors, like risk are also important, but age trumps all.
If you would like to get my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that helps you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds based on your age, just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com and I’ll send that to you so you can figure out for yourself what mix is right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back next Monday for a brand new free resource. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Mid-Year Commentary & Outlook
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- The Price Of Investing
- Stock Market Mid-Year 2022 Update
- Bond Market Mid-Year 2022 Update
- U.S. Economy Mid-Year 2022 Update
- Prepping Your Investment Portfolio For Continued Turmoil
The most important takeaway from this week is: things feel gloomy right now, and I believe the stock market and bond markets are in for worse to come. While I wish that it
Tomorrow is the start of a hiatus for the podcast. I’m taking the rest of July off, but I’ll be back in August with some new episodes.
I’m taking this time off to line up some guests for the show and I am working on creating a resources page on the website, where you can download things like the retirement success forecaster and the asset allocation cheat sheet on demand, anytime.
So stay tuned for some updates coming in August, and enjoy the July break from the podcast.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is mid-year commentary & outlook.
Today, I’m talking about what to do about the fact that the stock market, bond market, and the economy are all in the doldrums.
The most important thing to remind yourself of during gloomy times is: this too shall pass. Volatility in the markets and declines of 20% or more are a healthy and normal part of any economy and are unavoidable.
If you think that you can avoid the pain by selling, think again. You have to sell at the top when everyone else feels euphoric, and buy at the bottom when everyone else has lost all hope in the future. You have to be right both times, and I’ve never heard of any investor who was successful at timing the markets, ever!
So if you’re going to stay invested, which I darn sure hope you are, what can you do?
First of all, look at your overall mix of stocks and bonds. If you have too little in stocks at the moment, do some selective rebalancing to take advantage of the current stock market decline by adding to stocks where appropriate. This rebalancing may only be small and on the margins, but adding to stocks after a 20% decline is a great time to start rebalancing.
If you have excess cash that should be invested, start putting it to work. I like investing over a period of 6-12 months from this point, which I think is prudent. If you invest the cash in equal amounts over that time, you’ll be fully invested by the time this bear market is getting long in the tooth by historical norms, if it continues that long.
With the average stock down 30% this year, it may be tempted to buy just anything on sale. Don’t fall for the temptation to buy the ugly yellow trucker hat that you’ll never wear, because it was $3. $3 is still too much to pay if its an ugly hat that you’ll never wear. The same is true for stocks.
No matter what, always be discerning and look for quality. I continue to prefer high-quality, dividend growing stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs as the core of my client’s portfolios. I’m a strong believer that this tilt toward predictable, resilient, and financially healthy companies with strong balance sheets and growing dividends will pay off for clients in the long-run. These companies have a history of weathering economic downturns exceptionally well, and coming out the other side in a stronger position, since many of their less healthy competitors fall away in a recession.Those are the kind of bargains you want to hunt for.
In bond portfolios, I continue to prefer bonds with high quality and stable credit ratings on the shorter-term end of the spectrum (less than 5-year maturity), floating rate bonds, and treasury-inflation protected bonds. This bond allocation with a tilt toward shorter term bonds will help you re-invest sooner for higher income if interest rates continue to rise, which I expect that they will..
As a result of these stock and bond portfolio allocations, most of our clients’ portfolios are more stable than their comparable benchmarks, which is encouraging. And that’s what you’re looking for too if you’re like most people nearing retirement - stability, income, and more predictable returns.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is mid-year commentary & outlook.
Today, I’m talking about the Mid-Year Update for the US economy. I am recording today’s episode 1 day before GDP figures are released for the 2nd quarter, but if I were a betting woman, I would put money on the US economy already being in a recession.
By the time you listen to this episode, I’ll have either been proven right or wrong, but I think that the U.S. economy is already in a recession, which is defined as a business cycle contraction and a general decline in economic activity. Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth are required for an official recession.
GDP growth was already negative in the first quarter of 2022, so I’m holding my breath to see if that decline continues with this current quarter ending in June, which would officially put the U.S. economy in a recession.
There are many reasons to be optimistic that an upcoming recession could be mild and short-lived, but I think it will be still be painful for many Americans, since the Fed is going to have less options to inject monetary stimulus into the economy to stabilize a downturn.
Remember the massive stimulus intended to save the economy in 2008 (i.e. QE, tax cuts, and TARP) and in 2020 (CARES Act, PPP, etc.)? The U.S. government and the Fed don’t have these tools in their toolbox in 2022, because any additional stimulus would counteract efforts to reduce inflation, which will still take a while to abate even if we are already in a recession.
And if you’re wondering what to do about all of this, tune in tomorrow, where I’ll share with you how to prepare your investment portfolio for possibly worse to come.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is mid-year commentary & outlook.
Today, I’m providing an update on bonds for all you bond investors listening.
What’s especially difficult about this current downturn is that even many conservative investors who are tilted more toward bonds in their portfolio are also experiencing double digit losses in their portfolios this year. Not only are stocks down 20%, but bonds are down too, and cash is no place to hide because inflation is so high.
The US Aggregate bond Index is a broad benchmark designed to track the performance of the publicly issued U.S.investment-grade debt. When looking at how bonds are holding up this year, it’s a great place to look. And unfortunately, most investors don’t like what they see: the index is down more than 10% this year.
It’s no surprise that bonds are struggling this year. The Fed has been forced to get aggressive at raising interest rates due to inflation, and rising interest rates are bad news for bond investors - especially rates that rise quickly and to a large magnitude like we just say last month with the Fed raising rates by .75% at one time.
An important concept to always remember is that bond prices and interest rates have an inverse relationship. So if interest rates are going down like they have spent most of the last 30 years doing, bond prices will increase. On the flipside, when interest rates go up, like they are right now, bond prices drop, and the more rates rise and the faster they rise, the more bonds get hammered.
The length of time between now and when your bonds mature has a big influence on how your bond portfolio is holding up at the moment. Bonds that are many years away from their maturity dates - 10 years or more, are getting absolutely hammered this year. On the other hand, bonds that mature later this year have been pretty stable.
Now if you own a lot of bonds, or even some longer term bonds, that doesn’t mean you should abandon your bond portfolio, but it does present an opportunity to reposition your bond portfolio, which I’ll talk more about on Saturday, when I talk about how we’re investing in this current market environment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is mid-year commentary & outlook.
Today, I’m talking about the stock market. As I record today’s episode, the S&P 500 is down roughly 20% so far this year, and the top 3 headlines on CNN’s Markets page today read:
- Consumers are feeling less confident about the US economy as prices keep rising
- Home prices are still going strong, but momentum is slowing
- Analysts accuse Bed Bath & Beyond of turning off AC in stores to save money as sales plummet
Sheesh, talk about doom and gloom! This has been a very difficult year for the vast majority of investors, and there haven’t been many places to hide. The average U.S. stock is down 30% this year. The bond market in aggregate is down more than 11% this year, and cash holdings are losing value in real terms due to the erosion of high inflation.
Investors right now are oscillating between fear and panic, which means that we still have a ways to go before the current bear market bottoms out. Volatility will likely remain high and further losses are probable.
Even though the stock market is unpredictable, it actually follows a very predictable emotional pattern. As I said, I think most investors are still in the fear and panic stage, which means we are not yet at the worst of this downturn.
Understanding market emotions is helpful, since it’s inevitable that we must go through a bottoming process that is characterized by capitulation, despondence, and depression – and unfortunately, I don’t think we’re there yet.
Every significant downturn in stocks follows this same predictable pattern - every time. It may take just days to pass through the fear and panic stage, but other times like in 2008, it can take months.
How long before the market bottoms out? That’s anyone’s guess and it depends on where the economy goes from here, which I’ll talk more about in a couple days when I discuss the economic update.
Since World War II, bear markets last an average of 13 months from peak to trough and it took a total of 27 months to get back to breakeven. During that 13 month average drop, the S&P 500 index dropped an average of 33%. We are already nearly 6 months into the current bear market and have experienced about 2/3 of the typical decline already, so my message for you is to keep the long-term view in mind, and have patience while this bear market continues to go through a bottoming process.
As I talked about yesterday, the price of investing is volatility, and dealing with a couple years of turmoil every 7-10 years in order to profit from those periods of growth and expansion, whose gains far outweigh the temporary losses we’re experiencing now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is mid-year commentary & outlook.
I’m currently reading a book called The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness by Morgan Housel. It’s an excellent book, and even though I haven’t finished it yet, I would easily put this in my top 5 books on money that I’ve ever read, and I highly recommend it. At some point, I’ll probably devote an entire weekly theme on the podcast to the lessons in the book, but while preparing to record this week’s podcast, I happened to be reading chapter 15, titled: Nothing’s Free, which was quite timely in light of this week’s theme.
In this chapter, Housel describes the price of investing, which is volatility, and how important it is to accept this cost to be successful over the long-term.
Here’s what Housel has to say: [excerpt from book]
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast, and Happy Independence Day to you! If you’re listening on this holiday, kudos to you for still caring about your retirement when everyone else is sleeping in and focused on BBQs and day drinking. Maybe that’s still on the agenda for today, but you’re here now and that’s what matters!
I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the podcast, it’s time for the mid-year commentary and outlook.
In July every year, here at True North Retirement Advisors, we publish a quarterly newsletter as a companion to the performance reports that we send to our clients. The goal is to provide some context and an explanation of what’s driving their investment portfolio returns for better or for worse, and to look beyond the daily headlines at the big picture to take a pulse of the economy and the stock and bond markets, and to discuss with our clients what we’re doing about it.
So this week, I’ll share with you some insights and commentary from our mid-year outlook. We’ll talk about the stock and bond markets, the economy, and how you might want to think about positioning your investment portfolio now and areas to consider rebalancing, so you can get through this difficult time period and hopefully emerge on the other side in a stronger position than how you entered.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Drop All Unnecessary Expenses
- Stockpile Two Weeks Of Food & Necessities
- Pay Off High Interest Debt…FAST!
- Secure A HELOC Now
- Delay Retirement Until The Recovery Is Well Underway
The most important takeaway from this week is: Inflation is still getting worse, and we seem to be teetering on the edge of recession - a devastating combo for many Americans finances.
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t take steps within your control to keep inflation and a potential recession from causing a serious amount of financial stress and hardship for you. The key theme running throughout this week’s episodes is that the goal is to create breathing room in your finances. By unburdening debts and forgoing large expenses, you’ll be better able to keep up with rising costs. By securing a HELOC now, you’ll have a plan B for tapping additional savings in the event of a financial emergency or a job loss. By getting some extra food on your shelves, you’ll be able to go to the store less often or not at all for a brief period of time if things get a lot worse. And by delaying your plans for retirement, you’ll give your nest egg a chance to recover and increase the odds that you won’t run out of money in retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Mid-Year Recap & Outlook. I’ll be sharing with you some commentary from our economic and market commentary newsletter that we send to our clients each quarter. I’ll recap what’s happened so far this year that’s impacted your retirement investment portfolio, and we’ll try to make some sense of where we could be headed from here.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
Today, I’m talking about delaying retirement until we come out the other side of what looks to be a near-certain recession.
The last thing you want to do is retire into the teeth of an economic downturn and a cratering stock and bond market. Why does this matter so much? A well-documented concept that most investors are completely unaware of or don’t understand is the sequence of returns risk. This is the risk that you will have significant losses in your investments during the early years of retirement.
The sequence matters here, and it matters a lot, because losses early in retirement are much more damaging than the same magnitude of losses experienced later in retirement - say 10 to 15 years into retirement.
If your nest egg takes a 25-30% hit at the very beginning of retirement when you still need it to last 25 years or more, you don’t have the time to make up for those losses, if you retire during that time and at the same time you’re taking income from your portfolio that you now need for retirement. The nest egg shrinks even more because of your withdrawals, and you just significantly increased the odds of running out of money in retirement.
So what should you do if you were planning to retire in 2022 or 2023. Unless you have well in excess of what you need to live on in retirement, the most prudent thing to do is to wait until the recovery is well-underway before you retire. Your portfolio doesn’t need to get back to it’s previous high-water mark, but it needs to be a lot closer to where it was than it likely is today, and if the markets and the economy continue to deteriorate, you’ll want to wait and see how bad it gets before you make any potentially irreversible decisions about retirement and starting to drawdown your assets, start social security, etc.
If you already retired like so many Americans did during the last couple years, then you’ll want to re-evaluate your financial plan to make sure that the current downturn hasn’t jeopardized your retirement plans. And you’ll want to stress test your plan, so you’ll know how much more your portfolio can drop before changes are required.
Consider ways to cut back or eliminate your withdrawals. That might mean going back to work part time, doing some consulting work, and like I mentioned earlier this week, cutting out all unnecessary expenses.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
Today, I’m talking about securing a home equity line of credit now. Yesterday, I talked about paying off all of your debts, so it may seem odd that I’m telling you to go out and get a home equity line of credit.
If you own your home and if you’re like many Americans with substantial equity in your home, a home equity line of credit or a HELOC, can be an important emergency source of funds if you get hit hard financially in the next recession.
That’s because a HELOC can be tapped into as an alternative to racking up credit card debt or using your 401k as a piggy bank if you run into serious financial issues. The rates on HELOCs are much lower than credit card debt, with usually much higher limits. You can borrow up to 85% of the equity in your home, and you can apply for and get approved for a HELOC, and never use it.
But the time to apply for a HELOC is now, before a recession hits and financial conditions tighten. If you end up being laid off, it could prove impossible to get a HELOC, so it’s best to take care of it now.
Knowing that you have a reserve of up to several hundred thousand dollars of equity in your home will help you sleep better at night and will help you make rational decisions should you find yourself in a real financial emergency.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
Today, I’m talking about paying off your high interest credit card debt as fast as possible. The problem with credit card debt is that the rates are already sky high and getting worse each time the Fed raises rates. Interest rates on credit cards are approaching 20% for borrowers with good credit scores, and getting higher. They’ll likely get over 20% soon, and could go up to 25% or more as the Fed continues raising rates, which they have every intention of doing to tame inflation.
As rates continue higher, it becomes harder and harder to dig out of the deepening hole of debt, and as we saw during the financial crisis in 2008-2009, in a severe recession, that debt load can lead to bankruptcy, foreclosures, and much bigger financial problems.
If you have a few thousand dollars or more of credit card debt, this should be your number 1 priority right now - getting rid of that debt ASAP. I like the debt snowball method for paying off debt, where you pay off the smallest size debt first and then continue from there. The snowball gains momentum as you pay off each debt and you see success right away, so you’re more motivated to continue making progress.
This goes hand in hand with what I talked about earlier in the week, which is cutting all unnecessary expenses. This becomes crucially important when it comes to paying off debt, and extreme action should be taken, since you’ll need every available dollar to knock out that debt fast. Stop eating out. Stop the Starbucks run. Consolidate all trips and errands to cut down on gas usage. Say goodbye to all vacations and extras this summer.
Is it fun to live an austere lifestyle? No! Is it forever? No. This is a short term austerity with big long-term benefits. Because it has the potential to save you in the next recession if you pay off your debts now.
To speed up how long it takes you to pay off your debt, you can get creative by selling things on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. And commit to paying cash for everything, so you don’t add any new debt to your credit card balance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
Today, I’m talking about stockpiling some food and basic necessities. With food prices already crazy high, this is harder to do now than it was a year ago, but it’s still important to do what you can.
Supply chains are already strained and slow to recover, and with gas prices continuing higher, and the war in Ukraine disrupting the food chain around the world, there are likely to be shortages similar to the baby formula issue that hits other categories of food and other necessities.
The headline for an article in Business Insider published June 10th, says: “Truckers warn skyrocketing diesel prices are making US supply-chain and trucking industry unsustainable”.
“Austin Smith, owner of Iron River Express, said it has cost him over $20,000 a week to keep his three trucks running.
"If something drastic doesn't change in the next few weeks/months, I promise you, you'll see empty shelves everywhere you look," Smith wrote in a post that was shared nearly 290,000 times. "You'll see chaos as people fight for the basic necessities of everyday life."
That’s a scary prediction, but it shows the domino effect of inflation and higher fuel prices and how that trickles down to the basic necessities we all need. So take steps now to build up extras of food and necessities, so you won’t be caught off guard and panicking.
There are lots of resources online and guides to help you accumulate the needed items in your stockpile. If you can afford the extra expense to build your food stockpile now, then do it. 2 weeks is a great place to start, and if you can have a goal of 3 months worth of food storage for your family, you’ll be able to get through even the worst case scenarios of supply chain disruption without considerable stress.
But if you can’t afford to spend $1000-$2000 at Costco to build your stockpile in one trip, you can take smaller steps each time you go to the grocery store. Create your list of needed items for your stockpile, and each time you go to the grocery store, buy a few of those items on the list. You’ll make progress and some extra food is better than no extra food.
The other reason why this matters is that if you experience a job loss or a pay freeze or pay cut if a full blown recession hits, even if the supply chain doesn’t crack, you’ll be happy that your food costs are lowered because of your stockpile, since you can use your stockpile to stretch the time in between shopping trips, and buy less when you do go to the store.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
Today, I’m talking about dropping all unnecessary expenses. Not the most fun topic to discuss and much easier said than done, but if a recession is coming, financial stress and potential job losses are in store, especially if you work in a highly cyclical industry that tends to get hit hardest by recessions, expect news of layoffs, furloughs, and pay freezes or pay cuts.
Couple that with the current high rate of inflation, and many Americans will be blindsided by how quickly their financial situation deteriorates if a recession hits. Inflation will likely abate during a recession, but there will definitely be an overlap of continued high inflation and a recession, which is especially painful.
So the goal then is to create breathing room with your finances. And that means that increasing your savings now will be of utmost importance. You don’t want to be caught in a situation where you’re forced to take on credit card debt because you don’t have enough cash savings to get you through a job loss or a financial hardship that could last a few months. So start now. Drop all unnecessary expenses. Planning to remodel your bathroom? Want to get a new car but don’t need one? Wait. Downsize the summer vacation. If you’re like me, you’ve been itching to travel more since being stuck at home during the pandemic. But instead of the 2 week vacation to Hawaii or the Caribbean, save the cash and take a trip to the lake or beach instead for a few days.
It’s especially important to avoid any expenses that will add to your fixed monthly costs. Which goes back to the new car or the bathroom remodel. Even if you have the cash, hang on to it, and if you don’t have the cash and will be using debt to finance these larger purchases, the last thing you want with a recession on the horizon is a new fixed bill added to your monthly expenses.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now
As I sit down to record this week’s episodes, gas prices are still climbing to record levels, I just paid $19 at the grocery store for a normal size package of chicken breasts, and the Fed just raised interest rates by .75% - the most aggressive increase in nearly 30 years, as a desperate attempt to bring inflation down.
I’m very frustrated with the Fed, Janet Yellen, and others with the power to squash inflation for being so ignorant and flat-footed. Rates should have started rising in 2021 when inflation started to pick up. They would have had a longer runway to increase rates gradually, which would have bettered the odds avoiding a recession, which now seems all but inevitable.
According to a Newsweek article from June 16th, “the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta shows the economy on course for zero percent growth in the second quarter of 2022, and the trend from the data would suggest that the economy is on course for a contraction.
This would put the U.S. into an official recession—defined by economists and policymakers as two consecutive quarters of falling GDP.”
That’s because GDP growth was already negative in the first quarter of 2022, so we are possibly already a few months into the current recession. Many of you are nodding in agreement. Never have I seen so much consensus about a coming recession among CEOs, CFOs, economists about the direction of the economy heading south, where a majority now believe a recession is unavoidable…and that was before the Fed took aggressive action this month raising rates by 75 basis points.
We still find ourselves in this high inflation environment, which we have little control over. Couple that with stock and bond markets that are in the doldrums, and a seemingly unavoidable recession ahead, and you have a recipe for serious financial stress for many Americans.
So this week, I’m going to help you take control over these current circumstances that seem so hopelessly out of control. I’ll share with you important steps that you can take today that will help you be resilient in this high inflation environment, and keep your financial stress to a minimum.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Inherited IRAs - Explained
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Inherited IRA Basics
- Understanding The New Inherited IRA Rules
- Clarification to Inherited IRA Rules Coming In 2022 (Hopefully!)
- How To Reduce Taxes On Inherited IRA Withdrawals
- Why The Roth IRA Makes Even More Sense Now
The most important takeaway from this week is: With the new 10-year withdrawal rule on inherited IRAs now in effect, the tax bite on withdrawals could sneak up on you if you inherit IRA assets from family members, and if you’re not diligent with your own estate planning around IRA assets, then you could end up sticking your own children with a fat tax bill when you pass along those inherited IRA assets to them.
One final note about this week’s topic. IRA rules are complicated and since the rules around Inherited IRAs are still a work in progress, its especially important that you always talk with your professional advisors - your financial advisor, tax advisor, and your estate attorney before implementing any ideas from this week’s topic. There’s always exceptions to the rules and while I talked about the rules in general terms that apply to most people, I simply don’t have the time in each episode to cover this topic from every angle, so talk to your professional advisors to help you avoid misinterpreting the rules and making mistakes that could prove costly.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: How To Deal With Inflation.
Inflation is a topic I’ve covered a few times on the podcast, and in August of 2020, before the Fed ever took inflation seriously, which was a massive policy error on their part, I was saying that inflation wasn’t a problem…yet.
Well now it is and I was wrong for thinking that the Fed would be able to rein it in sooner. Yet, here we are with record high inflation at 8.6% and those fears are driving stock markets into a tailspin.
So next week, I’ll talk about a few actionable steps you can take today to minimize the impact of inflation on your family’s finances.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inherited IRAs
Today, I’m talking about Inherited Roth IRAs, and why the case for Roth IRAs just got stronger. Yesterday, I briefly touched on how moving more of your Traditional IRA assets into Roth can help reduce future taxes beneficiaries of those IRA assets will pay on the withdrawals. That’s because unlike inherited IRAs for traditional IRAs, heirs generally won’t pay taxes on assets withdrawn from an inherited Roth IRA, which is great news since the tax bite on a large inherited IRA of say $1,000,000 could be as much as 40% or more for those non-spouse beneficiaries! That’s $400,000 or more gone in taxes over 10 years from a $1,000,000 IRA that took decades to accumulate.
If you’re as sick to your stomach as I am, then the case for Roth IRA assets after these 10-year rule changes went into effect is even more compelling.
So if you’ve been considering a Roth Conversion or simply contributing more of your 401k dollars to the Roth account while you’re still working, think not just about the taxes this year that you’d miss out on by contributing to your Roth, or the taxes you’d pay on a conversion, but think long-term as well on the taxes that your heirs won’t pay on those Roth IRA withdrawals once they inherit the account.
And considering that Roth IRA assets are most often the last accounts to be drawn down in retirement, you’ll want to ensure that as much of your assets are sheltered inside of a Roth to reduce the future tax bite on your heirs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inherited IRAs
Today, I’m talking about a few clever ways to potentially reduce taxes on inherited IRA withdrawals.
With the SECURE Act accelerating the withdrawals and the taxes paid on IRA withdrawals for non-spouse beneficiaries, some of you may want to make some changes to your estate plan and consider some alternatives in how you deal with IRA assets and who you name as beneficiaries.
As I mentioned yesterday, the rules on Inherited IRAs were overhauled in 2019, and even though they should be clarified later this year, there are steps you can start taking now to reduce the tax bite on IRA assets you’re planning to pass along to your kids, or if you’re planning to receive IRA assets from your own parents, it’s wise to have a conversation about planning that can be done in light of these new rules.
In most cases, an estate attorney needs to get involved, so it’s a good excuse to revisit your estate plan.
That’s because mishandling an inherited IRA could bump you into a much higher tax bracket, and significantly reduce the net amount that you would receive from an inherited IRA, so it’s important that the original account owner - whether that’s you for your own IRA, or mom and dad for an IRA that you plan to inherit from them - it’s important that you do some advanced planning here.
First of all, its important to understand the exceptions to the 10-year rule for mandatory withdrawals. A disabled or chronically ill person, a child who has not yet reached the age of majority, and lastly, a beneficiary who is not more than ten years younger than the deceased. If a beneficiary checks one of these boxes then the rules could be significantly different.
Secondly, it might make sense to unequally split different account types among different children, giving IRA assets to children with lower income and a bigger portion of taxable assets like trust accounts to children with higher incomes. [Explain]...
Another consideration here is that Roth conversions become a lot more attractive when viewed in light of these changes, especially from an estate planning and tax minimization standpoint.
That’s because the 10-year withdrawal rule still applies to Roth IRA assets, but none of those Roth IRA withdrawals will be taxable for Roth IRA beneficiaries. A beautiful thing!
Those are probably the 3 main considerations, but it’s important to do some advanced planning while the original account owner is still alive to ensure that the tax drag on inherited assets is minimized.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inherited IRAs
Today, I’m talking more about the new rules on Inherited IRAs and the clarification that will hopefully be coming later this year.
In true lawmaker form, when the SECURE Act was first signed into law at the end of 2019, there were no specifics on how the rule changes to inherited IRAs were going to apply.
For example, the new rule stated that if you inherited an IRA as a non-spouse beneficiary after December 31, 2019, you now must withdraw those funds within 10 years of the owner’s death. In addition, there are other little landmines to watch out for too. You must take the original account owner’s RMD if they hadn’t already done so by the calendar year-end, and it’s unclear whether or not you need to take withdrawals annually or not. We’re 2 ½ years in, and there still isn’t clarification on the required timing and amounts for the withdrawals, making planning difficult.
As an article in Kiplinger points out: ”an adult child who is the beneficiary of a parent’s IRA could wait 10 years after inheriting and then withdraw – and pay taxes on – the funds in a lump sum. This would allow for a decade’s worth of tax deferral and make the process comparatively simple to handle – just empty the account by the end of 10 years.
But the proposed regulations which still aren’t finalized, are pointing toward an annual withdrawal requirement…and again, if you inherited an IRA in 2020 and you still haven’t taken a withdrawal, you’re still in the dark 2 years later about what to do with the inherited IRA withdrawals. It doesn’t matter when they finally get around to finalizing the rules…you still have 10 years from the account owner’s death to withdraw all of the funds.
So you can see why some analysts in the planning world have used terms like “mess” and “nightmare” to describe some of the provisions.
The good news is that the regulations will finally be final (hopefully!) later in 2022, so you’ll be able to plan around it better if you inherited an IRA, or you’re planning to pass along IRA assets to your children.
Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about some clever ways to potentially reduce the tax bite on inherited IRA withdrawals.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inherited IRAs
Yesterday, I explained Inherited IRAs and how they work, so if you missed that episode, go back and have a listen because it’s the foundation for understanding what I’m covering today and the rest of the week.
Today, I’m doing a deeper dive into the new Inherited IRA rules that went into effect in 2020, and what you need to know about how these rules might apply to IRA assets that you plan to inherit and/or pass along to your own children or heirs someday.
Before the SECURE Act was passed that changed the rules, when you inherited an IRA from Mom or Dad, you could take RMDs, which are the required annual withdrawals from a IRA, and stretch those over your remaining life, which significantly reduces the annual amount that you would need to withdraw from the account each year, and most importantly, also reduced the taxes owed by the beneficiaries on those annual required RMDs.
IRA withdrawals are taxed as income, so every dollar withdrawn from an IRA counts towards your income for the year, and so the taxes can be significant, and IRA withdrawals from inherited IRAs can bump beneficiaries into new tax brackets and significantly reduce the net amount of the inheritance that you actually receive once the taxes are paid on those required withdrawals.
What all changed in 2020 after the passage of the SECURE Act is that those withdrawals were no longer allowed to be stretched over your remaining life, but are now limited to 10 years. So if you inherit an IRA worth $500,000, you have 10 years after the original account owner’s death to cash it out and pay the taxes. So for example, let’s say you just let the account sit in cash (which hopefully you wouldn’t!), and the account doesn’t grow at all, you would take out $50,000 per year if you spread out the withdrawals over those 10 years equally.
That $50,000 gets included with your other income, and if you’re already in a higher tax bracket, you could be paying anywhere from 24% to 35% marginal tax rates on those withdrawals, which hurts. There is also a ripple effect from this unexpected higher income in that depending on your income tax situation, it could reduce other tax benefits like deductions and tax credits - especially at lower income levels - that you were used to, and counted on when your income was lower.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Inherited IRAs
Today, I’m covering the basics of Inherited IRAs, since understanding these accounts lays the groundwork for what I’ll be covering later in the week.
According to Investopedia, “An inherited IRA is an account that is opened when someone inherits an IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan [like a 401k] after the original owner dies. The individual inheriting the IRA (the beneficiary) could be anyone—a spouse, a child, another relative, or unrelated party or entity, like an estate or trust.
Rules on how to handle an inherited IRA differ for spouses and non-spouses. And that’s the rub of these new rule changes. If you’re married and your spouse dies, inheriting an IRA is pretty straightforward, because you would just transfer the deceased spouse’s IRA into your own name, and things would continue as they were before. The account becomes yours and you would start taking required minimum distributions (aka RMDs) if you’re older than 72.
If you’re a non-spouse beneficiary of the IRA, it’s a whole different story. Let’s say you’re a 50% beneficiary on a $1,000,000 IRA that you inherit from your mom after she passes. You open an inherited IRA, and deposit your ½ - $500,000. Prior to the rule changes in 2019, you could take those RMDs over your remaining life and spread those withdrawals over decades. Now, you need to withdraw all of the funds and importantly, pay all of the income taxes on those withdrawals within 10 years.
This is bad news bears for your taxes, and I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Inherited IRA
The SECURE Act, which was passed at the end of 2019, significantly changed the rules on inherited IRAs, making IRAs a lot less attractive for beneficiaries. These changes largely flew under the radar because just after the new rules went into effect, Covid hit, and well, new inherited IRA rules didn’t seem to matter all that much, at least at the time.
But if you have a significant portion of your assets in 401k or Traditional IRA accounts, then you’ll want to pay close attention this week. Or maybe you expect to receive an inheritance from your parents in the form or IRA assets…in either case, these relatively new changes for how IRAs get passed to non-spouse beneficiaries are big big changes, and not in a good way, because it significantly alters the taxes and the timing of paying those taxes on inherited IRA assets.
So this week I’ll share with you the specifics on how these new rules might apply to you, how you can reduce the tax bite, and why the case for Roth IRAs just got a lot sweeter with these new rule changes.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Investments I Hate
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Structured notes
- Too good to be true high yield investments
- Annuities
- Cryptocurrency
- Private loans
The most important takeaway from this week is: if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Many of these bad investments sound great to would-be investors because of the prospect of some type of downside protection, high yield, or eye-popping returns. But lurking just beneath the surface are often high fees, not well understood real risks, and disappointing results.
You don’t have to hit home runs with your investment portfolio, you just have to get a lot of base hits to be a great investor. And for that reason, a plain vanilla, high quality, time-tested diversified portfolio will do the trick.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Inherited IRAs: Explained. The rules for inherited IRAs changed a couple years ago, and these rule changes are significant, especially if you plan to pass along your IRA or 401k assets to your children, or if you expect to receive an IRA from a parent as part of your own future inheritance. I’ll talk about why this new change is not a positive one for IRA account holders, and what you can do to avoid costly mistakes when it comes to inherited IRAs.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Investments I Hate. Today, I’m talking about private loans.
I most often see private loans made from my clients to family and friends, or to renters in a residential property they own. The person they make the loan to in the real estate scenario is often a long-time renter who wants to buy my client’s house. It seems like a good idea, since they want to sell it, and they want to give their renter a chance to own the property over time.
The owner of the property can’t sell it outright to the renter, because in the case of the private loan situation, the buyer has poor credit and can’t qualify for a traditional mortgage.
I have a client who sold her rental property using a private loan arrangement, and it only took about 2 months before she stopped receiving payments.
The appeal of private loans is usually 2-fold - In the case of family and friends, you’re usually loaning money to someone you know and care about who is in need. If you’re loaning money to your children for a down payment on a house, there’s nothing wrong with helping them get ahead and giving them a better interest rate on the money they need than they could get from a bank. I get that.
But these private loans can go sideways, so if you’re willing to make a private loan, then you should also be willing to pay an attorney to write a watertight contract, and be prepared to be out additional money if things go wrong.
In the case of my client and her renter who stopped making payments, she’s in the middle of a legal battle right now. She’s received no income from this property in many months now, and it’s going to be probably another several months before the issue is resolved and she gets her house back.
The appeal in her case was that she wanted to help this longtime renter of hers buy a house, she was looking to sell anyways, yet he took advantage of her and now it’s going to cost her a lot of money to get her house back. When a bank doesn’t want to take a risk on a higher-risk borrower, there’s often a good reason, and it’s probably best to steer clear of private loans.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Investments I Hate.
Today, I’m talking about cryptocurrency.
With the meteoric rise in value in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the last several years, and investors like Elon Musk touting their benefits, investing in Cryptocurrencies is something I get asked about a lot more these days.
But crypto makes it onto my hated list of investments for many reasons:
It’s difficult to understand. Cryptocurrency is defined as: “a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority.” Even the definition is confusing! Then more research leads you down the rabbit hole of terms like blockchain, digital wallets, mining coins, and…time to move on.
Warren Buffet’s famous investing advice is to only invest in what you can understand. This is very good advice, yet, I think only about 1% of crypto investors truly understand what they’re investing in. The rest are just joining the crowd.
But me, I’m going to continue to sit this one out.
But that’s not the only reason I’m going to wait and see what happens with crypto before I consider it as a legitimate investment option.
Despite Bitcoin being touted as a replacement for gold or even fiat money like the dollar, it simply has a dismal track record as a reliable store of value - it hasn’t been around long enough and in the short few years it has been around, it’s certainly not something that would be considered a stable currency replacement. In fact, NYU Professor of Economics Nouriel Roubini cautioned investors at a recent industry conference not to view cryptocurrency as an effective hedge against inflation (and questioned whether bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were currencies at all).
He said: “In the case of bitcoin or any other essentially cryptocoin asset, the basis for the fundamental value is not there, it’s vaporware; it’s not backed by anything…They’re not currencies, they’re not even assets, they’re highly volatile, they’re speculative and they’re subject to manipulation of one sort or another.”
And speaking of manipulation, the crypto market is swimming with bad actors. There are a lot of nefarious people who deal in crypto, use it for illicit purposes, and the emerging data on how terrible crypto is for the environment are just a few more reasons why I’m just going to keep saying no for now.
According to the Web site Digiconomist, a single bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of power that the average American household consumes in a month, and is responsible for roughly a million times more carbon emissions than a single Visa transaction. The same people who are forcing me to drink out of a paper straw that disintegrates before I’m halfway through my drink, and the same people often bragging about how much money they’ve made in bitcoin.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Investments I Hate.
Today, I’m talking about annuities. Of all the investments I’m talking about this week, I actually hate annuities the least, but they’re so oversold by advisors and insurance salespeople, and so many of you listening no doubt own an annuity, so I think it’s worth discussing why I hate annuities.
An annuity is an insurance contract with the intention of paying out some type of income stream in the future. There are many different types of annuities, but at their core, most have some type of future guaranteed income stream associated with them.
The most common types of annuities I see are variable annuities, so I’m going to use variable annuities as today’s example of why I hate annuities. Variable annuities are usually invested in with a lump sum - usually a rollover from a 401k.
Then the funds in the annuity are invested in a diversified portfolio, and several years later, once you’re retired, you can draw income from the portfolio.
Annuity illustrations used by salespeople are usually pretty rosy, highlighting the high income stream that you’ll be guaranteed for the rest of your life. That’s because annuities are often sold with these extra bells and whistles, known as riders, which provide some type of guaranteed income stream.
The problem with annuities is that they are usually terrible investments. The fees are quite high - usually around 3% annually, which really eat into the principal value of the annuity. So if you decide later on that you want to cash in your annuity and invest in something else, you’re likely to be pretty disappointed with your overall returns.
Part of the reason for those high fees is that the salesperson selling the annuity receives a fat commission when you buy the annuity. Usually around 4-6%. So if you have a $500,000 rollover, the person selling you that annuity is looking at a commission somewhere in the range of $25,000. I don’t sell annuities with commissions, and it would take me about 5-6 years to earn the fees that the annuity salesperson would earn with selling one contract. So if the incentive structure for selling annuities gives you pause, you have good intuition.
Most annuities are too complex for the average investor to properly evaluate, and like many of my other hated investments, there isn’t a lot of standardization, so it’s hard to do a proper comparison between different types of annuities.
An annuity does make sense for a very conservative investor who wants to create a pension-like income stream for themselves. An annuity can accomplish that, and like many pensions, the income stream loses it’s luster over time as inflation eats away at the buying power of your guaranteed income stream.
Another thing I don’t like about annuities is that they’re hard to get out of until you own them for about 7 years. Most variable annuities have a 7-year surrender charge so if you sell within that time, there’s a penalty you’ll have to pay. That’s a long time to be stuck in an investment, and most of the time, I’m just waiting it out with my clients who were sold a craptastic annuity, so we can move on to something better once the 7-years has come and gone.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Investments I Hate. Today, I’m talking about one of the most frequent offenders that I come across in the investments I hate category, and that is investments with a yield that is too good to be true.
Last week, I attended a panel discussion with several real estate investors. It ran the gamut from residential to commercial investors to developers. While I appreciated their professional insight and learning more about real estate as an asset class, what disappointed me was the way some of them spoke about the returns and yields as if it was all baked in, guaranteed, and you couldn’t lose.
Please show me where I can get a return of 10% on my money year-in-and-year-out and not get burned, and I will gladly write a check for any amount to invest with you. Seriously. But in reality, that’s not the case. I noticed their enthusiasm sounded much like real estate investors in 2005, claiming that real estate would only go up from here. That was clearly wrong. And many of them in the room had been investing in real estate in the last 10-15 years, and weren’t in the game during the real estate collapse in 2008-2009, which I found interesting.
And it’s not just enthusiastic real estate investors, enthusiastically talking about their 13% rates of return, I talked to a client just today who saw an ad on TV for an investment yielding 10%. The only thing I know of that is yielding anywhere close to that, that isn’t junk is I-bonds. But the allowable investment in I-bonds is only $10,000, so if you have a larger portfolio, the $10,000 limit makes them a lot less appealing.
But in a low interest rate environment, there are so many investors desperate for higher income and yield, that promises of high yield investments - whether that be in real estate, bonds, or something else, are usually too good to be true. So if the interest rate on pretty much everything else is only 2-3% and you’ve found something yielding 3 times that amount, it’s probably because it’s risky, illiquid, or both.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Investments I Hate.
Today, I am talking about an investment that I thought was forever dead after the financial crisis, but has miraculously risen from the dead in recent years. History doesn’t repeat itself, but given enough time, many bad ideas eventually come to the forefront again.
Structured notes are one such investment. I saw them occasionally on investor statements leading up to the financial crisis, and usually only in accounts held at the largest financial institutions and investment banks.
You can think of a structured note as a packaged up basket of stocks, bonds, or some index. There are a lot of different types of notes, and how much money you make is dependent on how the underlying basket of whatever is in the structured note performs? So what’s different about these compared to a mutual fund, because it sounds a lot like a mutual fund or an index fund. Well, the attractiveness is that there is usually some type of buffer on the downside, where your losses can be limited.
As I see it, that’s the only potentially good thing about these investments, and most downside buffers on these notes aren’t that great anyways, and you can still lose money on investing in a structured note, even if you hold it to maturity.
So let’s move on to the potential problems with structured notes, of which there are many:
- They’re usually expensive and they earn a nice commission for the advisor selling them. This is probably my biggest issue with these notes, as the cost of owning one of these notes can often be many times higher than just owning that basket of investments on it’s own.
- They’re complex, and each structured note has different features. This lack of standardization makes them difficult to understand unless you have a lot of experience with investing in structured notes.
- There’s a very limited secondary market, which means if you want to sell the note before it’s maturity date, good luck.
- The issuer - the big investment bank, can also call the note early and cash you out, which often happens when the notes increase in value by a certain amount…so your returns are capped on the upside, along with the protection you have on the downside.
- And my biggest gripe with structured notes is that when you purchase them, you are assuming credit risk of the issuing bank, and I find most investors who buy structured notes have no idea they are assuming this risk.
Structured notes crashed and burned bigtime in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, because you might remember a company named Lehman Brothers that went belly up. Well, Lehman brothers issued a ton of these structured notes, which were unsecured subordinated debt of Lehman brothers. So all of those investors who brought supposedly guaranteed, conservative, 100% return of principal structured notes from Lehman thought they were getting a conservative decent-yielding investment, when in fact, as Chris Farley said in Tommy boy: all they sold you was a guaranteed piece of shit.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. The theme this week on the podcast is: Investments I Hate!
I’ve reviewed a lot of investment portfolios over the years. Whenever a potential client and I start down the path of working together, I always evaluate their current holdings. So I’ve seen hundreds of portfolios over the years and many thousands of different investments - some good, some bad, and a handful of sell-that-right-now-and run kind of bad.
So this week, I’m sharing with you my 5 most hated investments. If there’s a common thread that links these investments together it’s that most are expensive, complex and difficult to understand, and the risk-return tradeoff doesn’t justify the investment, or worse, the investment product is so new that there is no historical track record, and hence, any return potential is speculative at best.
Frankly, that’s always a good rule to follow: if you’re considering an investment and it checks any of these boxes, it’s probably not worth investing your hard-earned money.
Of course, you could make a case that for many of my hated investments are in fact, prudent choices for the right investor, but in my experience, these investments are held by too many investors who would have been better off saying no.
The good news is that even if you said yes, and you’re cringing or maybe getting a little defensive this week as I discuss these hated investments, if you decide that you agree and you want to get out, most often there’s still always an out - it’s not a timeshare we’re talking about here.
Although now that I think about it, maybe I should have added timeshares to the list. Or maybe not…I don’t consider timeshares an investment, it’s a vacation that you pay for in advance, but I digress.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Lessons: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks
In case you missed any episodes, here are the 5 most important lessons I learned from this book:
- The Striver’s Curse
- Two Kinds of Intelligence: Fluid & Crystallized
- The Key Is Using Your Crystallized Intelligence
- Taking the Focus Off Work
- The Loneliness Epidemic
What I appreciate most about this book is the holistic approach. As I mentioned earlier, this book really should be required reading and can serve as a roadmap for anyone nearing mid-life and is especially useful for the most frustrated among us who have been over the hill for some time now. This book is well-researched and backed by science, and also draws from wisdom from theology and philosophy.
What I also really appreciate about this book is it’s accessibility. From Strength to Strength is easy to read and understand - you can read it in a few days, and I hope you’ll agree if you end up reading it, it will help you to accept the decline of your fluid intelligence, but by embracing that decline, you are better able to hop onto the other curve of life - the crystallized intelligence curve. This 2nd curve of life is also filled with meaning and purpose through better relationships and a stronger spiritual life, if we have the courage to make the leap.
Ok, so I promised you last Sunday that I would show you how you could get your own free copy of the book. If you’re intrigued by the concepts I’ve been sharing with you this week, here’s what you need to do for your chance of your very own copy. Just send me an email saying you want a copy of the book.
I’ll be drawing 5 names and if I draw your name, I’ll send you your very own free copy. The deadline to email me is Wednesday, June 15th, so don’t wait if you want a chance to win a free copy of the book.
You can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Investments I Hate. Even with such high regulation and scrutiny the industry faces today, financial services is still laden with some pretty terrible products. So next week, I’ll talk about the investments that I hate the most. The ones that for pretty much everyone, under all circumstances, I think are inappropriate, usually much too expensive, and should simply be avoided.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons from the book: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks
Today, I’m talking about my final take away from the book - the loneliness epidemic. Arthur Brooks spends the final part of the book sharing insight and wisdom about the importance of non-work priorities in our lives, and how to focus less on work and more on relationships, our physical health, and our spiritual health.
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration has declared a “loneliness epidemic,” specifically citing the increasing phenomena of “no participation in social groups, fewer friends, and strained relationships” as the culprits.
We all know about the loneliness and dramatic increases in depression and anxiety caused by the social isolation during the pandemic. But even prior to Covid in 2018, one survey found that 46 percent of Americans felt alone, and 43 percent of Americans felt that their relationships were not meaningful.
Author, Arthur Brooks states: “Numerous studies have shown that one of the great markers for happiness among people at midlife and beyond is people who can rattle off the names of a few authentic, close friends. It is not necessary that they be numerous to achieve happiness, and, in fact, people tend to get more selective about their friends as they age and reduce the number of true intimates.”
We all need strong human connections to help you get on the second curve [of life] and flourish. In other words, to go from strength to strength.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons from the book: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks One of the main lessons from this book is the reinforcement that work is secondary to our relationships. Many of us make the mistake of getting these backward, especially the most successful among us. We may have made tremendous sacrifices in missing time with our children when they were young because of work, only to regret that later in life. The same is true for relationships with our spouse, family, and friends.
Here are a few questions posed in the book that are worth consideration:
- Do you fail to reserve part of your energy for your loved ones after work and stop working only when you are a desiccated husk of a human being?
- Do you sneak around to work? For example, when your spouse leaves the house on a Sunday, do you immediately turn to work and then put it away before she or he returns so that it is not apparent what you were doing?
- Does it make you anxious and unhappy when someone—such as your spouse—suggests you take time away from work for activities with loved ones, even when nothing in your work is unusually pressing?
I am especially guilty of the first one. I usually work until I am exhausted and try to accomplish as much as I can every day. Usually, by the time I get home from work, I’m pretty exhausted and I don’t have much energy left for my family.
Perhaps as we get older we recognize the importance of relationships especially in relation to work. Many people discover this too late though, and as their work loses purpose and satisfaction later in life, those relationships aren’t there to fill the gap of meaning and fulfillment, because too many of us haven’t invested the time in the family and friends we care about the most.
I’ll talk more about relationships tomorrow as it was my takeaway from the book “From Strength to Strength”
And if you’re intrigued by the book and you’d like a free copy, keep listening because I’ll share with you later this week how you can win a free copy of the book.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons from the book: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks
Today, I’m continuing from yesterday to talk about the primary theme in this book - which is jumping off the fluid intelligence curve on the crystallized intelligence curve.
Our fluid intelligence, which is our ability to reason, think flexibly, and solve novel problems, declines as we age, and if you’re in your 50s or 60s like most of you are listening to this podcast, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your fluid intelligence peaked decades ago.
That’s the hard truth, but the good news is that our crystallized intelligence increases as we age. So if we can stop the futile exercise of fighting against the decline of our fluid intelligence, and look for ways to embrace and use our growing crystallized intelligence, we’ll be more fulfilled and happy as we age. In fact, the author notes that “the people who are happiest and most satisfied in their fifties, sixties, and seventies are those who made this leap [from the fluid intelligence curve to the crystallized intelligence curve].”
Knowing the types of activities and careers that utilize our crystallized intelligence most are key to successfully getting off the fluid intelligence curve and hopping on the crystallized intelligence curve. That’s because, according to the book “if your career requires crystallized intelligence—or if you can repurpose your professional life to rely more on crystallized intelligence—your peak will come later but your decline will happen much, much later, if ever.”
Careers that involve teaching, mentoring, leadership, speaking and writing, are far more satisfying for us as we age, because crystallized intelligence is our ability to use a stock of knowledge learned in the past. So anything that allows us to share our knowledge and experience to teach others as we see noticeable declines in our fluid intelligence will be the most rewarding and meaningful.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons from the book: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks Today, I’m talking about the most important concept that can be applied to your life from the book “From Strength to Strength”. The author spends a lot of time in the early part of the book discussing the 2 types of intelligence: fluid and crystallized.
Fluid intelligence is our ability to reason, think flexibly, and solve novel problems. Our fluid intelligence declines as we age, and it peaks very early in life - late teens to early 20s. Then it starts a slow decline that becomes more noticeable by middle age. According to the book our “prefrontal cortex degrades in effectiveness, and this has several implications. The first is that rapid analysis and creative innovation will suffer. The second is that some specific, once-easy skills become devilishly hard, like multitasking.”
“Another skill is the recall of names and facts. By the time you are fifty, your brain is as crowded with information as the New York Public Library. Meanwhile, your personal research librarian is creaky, slow, and easily distracted. When you send him to get some information you need—say, someone’s name—he takes a minute to stand up, stops for coffee, talks to an old friend in the periodicals, and then forgets where he was going in the first place. Meanwhile, you are kicking yourself for forgetting something you have known for years. When the librarian finally shows back up and says, “That guy’s name is Mike,” Mike is long gone and you are doing something else.”
That is the decline of your fluid intelligence.
Thankfully the other type of intelligence, crystallized intelligence, actually increases with age, and if we can use more of our crystallized intelligence and rely less on our fluid intelligence as we age, we will be happier and much less frustrated.
Crystallized intelligence is defined as the ability to use a stock of knowledge learned in the past.
What happens as your crystallized intelligence increases as you age is multifaceted. Studies show that “people maintain and grow their vocabulary—in their native languages and
foreign languages—all the way to the end of life. Similarly, you may notice that with age, people are better at combining and utilizing complex ideas. You get better at using the concepts you know and expressing them to others.
“When you are young, you can generate lots of facts; when you are old, you know what they mean and how to use them.”
The key is using these changes in our intelligence to jump off the declining fluid intelligence curve onto the growing crystallized intelligence curve. In other words - going from strength to strength.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons from the book: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks Today, I’m talking about the Stiver’s Curse, which is one of the first lessons you’ll come across if you read this book. The striver’s curse is the torture that people experience who strive to be excellent at what they do, who “often wind up finding their inevitable decline terrifying, their successes increasingly unsatisfying, and their relationships lacking.”
Even if they’ve previously made it and were held in high esteem by their peers and colleagues, many strivers find that at some point they start to feel irrelevant, and as the author points out: “if you attain excellence and are deeply invested in it, you can feel pretty irrelevant when you inevitably fall from those heights. And that is agony.” This is the striver’s curse.
A former CEO interviewed for the book lamented after his retirement:“In just six months I went from ‘Who’s Who’ to ‘Who’s He?”
One of the things that surprised me the most as I was reading this book is that this decline starts to set in earlier than we think. Later this week, I’ll talk more about what’s really happening in our brains that’s causing this decline, but according to research, “In in practically every high-skill profession, decline sets in sometime between one’s late thirties and early fifties.” The difficult truth is that most of you listening are likely many years past your prime in your career. And no matter how hard you might push back, there’s nothing you can do to stop this decline.
For financial professionals, like myself, peak performance happens between the ages of thirty-six and forty. I’m 37, so I’ve only got 3 more years apparently before I can expect some of my mental sharpness to begin to fade. And considering that I’ve lost collectively about 2 years of sleep from having small children the last 8 years, there’s a good chance I’m already over the hill in my career.
One of the most interesting stats in the book is on doctors: “they appear to peak in their thirties, with steep drop offs in skill as the years pass. It’s sort of reassuring to have [an older and more experienced doctor]. However, one recent Canadian study looked at 80 percent of the country’s anesthesiologists and patient litigation against them over a ten-year period. The researchers found that physicians over sixty-five are 50 percent more likely than younger doctors (under fifty-one) at being found at fault for malpractice.
So the first step is to recognize that decline is a natural and part of aging, and it happens to everyone, no matter how smart or healthy we are. Denying this inevitable decline will only lead to frustration, but embracing this decline will open our eyes to strengths we develop as we age, strengths that if embraced and nurtured can bring happiness, meaning, and fulfillment in the second half of life.
That’s why the book is called “from strength to strength” - because it’s about going from your old strengths to new strengths seamlessly.
If you’re intrigued by the book and you’d like a free copy, keep listening because I’ll share with you later this week how you can win a free copy of the book.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: 5 Lessons from the book: From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks
I stumbled upon From Strength to Strength shortly after it was released earlier this year. The book is definitely aimed at a demographic that is closer to retirement, and as I continued to read the book I kept thinking how the message of the book is so important as you approach retirement.
The core premise of the book is that you can find deep meaning and purpose in the 2nd half of your life, but doing so requires accepting the inevitable changes that happen as we age, rather than continue to fight against these changes, which increasingly becomes a frustrating and pointless battle.
So this week, I’ll share with you 5 lessons I learned from this book. In my opinion, it should be required reading for anyone in their mid-40s to late-60s, and it really opened my eyes to the realities of aging and how we can embrace and thrive because of these changes that happen to each one of us.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something!
I shared with you actionable ideas so you don’t just have to sit there and do nothing while the stock market is reeling.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered this week:
- Rebalancing
- Tax Loss Harvesting
- Roth Conversions
- Selling Your Dogs
- Putting Cash To Work
The most important takeaway from this week is: that when things are falling apart in the stock market, there’s a strong urge to do something about it. The absolute worst thing you can do is sell and go to cash, especially now when your investment portfolio is down 10-20%. So when you still feel the natural need to do something about this downturn, turn that angst into something profitable and productive by doing the things that can help you take advantage of the current downturn and come out the otherside with a stronger and better portfolio.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: 5 Lessons: “From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life”. I recently finished reading this brand new book from Arthur Brooks, published just a few months ago.
I really enjoyed this book, which serves as a guide for the 2nd half of life, and how to find meaning and purpose as your skills and abilities change as you age.
The book uses the wisdom and research found in social science, philosophy, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, to illustrate how true life success is well within our reach.
This practical guide is one of the best books I’ve read on preparing for retirement, so next week I’ll be sharing with you my top 5 lessons that I learned from this book and how you can apply them to your life.
Also, I’ll be giving away a few free copies of this book, so be sure to listen in each day next week to find out how you can get your very own copy for free.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something! If you can do something proactive other than just sitting on your hands and hoping that the markets turn around soon, you’ll be better able to get through this difficult time while keeping your long term investment strategy intact.
Today, I’m talking about one of the smartest and at the same time toughest things you can do during a down market - put your cash to work. With inflation so bad right now, cash is dead money, and bargains exist with high quality investments. It’s important to be discerning here and be able to tell the difference between a good quality investment that’s been dragged down and will recover, and an investment that will stay underwater when the turnaround finally occurs. I talked about this at length earlier this week when I talked about selling your dogs, so I won’t go into detail here.
But if you’re like many Americans, you are probably holding on to some cash that isn’t earmarked for any specific purchases in the next year or 2, and would be better off investing that. Some of the wealthiest investors in the world capitalize on downturns to snap up bargains to grow their wealth.
Benjamin Graham once said: “The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.”
If you are holding cash, now is a great time to start putting it to work. Let’s say, for example, that you have $100,000 in cash or short-term investments that need to be invested in stocks. [Explain DCA strategy].
When you trickle the cash in gradually over many months, you’ll take advantage of market volatility without trying to perfectly time the market, which is a fool’s errand.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something! If you can do something proactive other than just sitting on your hands and hoping that the markets turn around soon, you’ll be better able to get through this difficult time while keeping your long term investment strategy intact.
One of the nice things about a stock market downturn and a recession is that it flushes out the excesses that happened during the boom times. Weeding out the bad companies is essential for the continued long-term growth and health of the economy. During the boom times, good opportunities become more scarce, so money starts flowing to the more speculative and lower quality businesses and investments. There’s so much capital flowing around and so few truly good opportunities, that investors start believing that they’ll make money anywhere and everywhere, and lower quality business, real estate investments, ets. are able to secure funding.
When these low quality businesses no longer can ride the coattails of a strong economy and easy money environment, most go bankrupt, and the companies that were stronger are the ones that survive. It’s survival of the fittest in the business world, and again it’s an essential part of maintaining a strong economy over the long-term.
But what do you do when you own some of these bad businesses? Maybe you bought some meme stocks, some speculative crypto plays, or a speculative biotech stock that’s down 50% or more from where you bought it?
Is this a good quality business that got dragged down with the rest of the portfolio, or an investment that’s unlikely to return to it’s former glory? If it’s the latter, then the smart thing to do is get out, don’t wait, cut your losses, and re-position your portfolio to grow again once the markets recover with better quality investments.
When you own one of these dogs, it’s important to recognize the difference between an investment that’s been dragged down by the overall market, and investment that’s terrible in and of itself and needs to go. The trick is to tell the difference between the two, and get rid of your investments that have little chance of ever recovering.
If you invested in a taxable account, then you can benefit from the loss since you can use the loss to lower your taxes, and even carry it forward to future years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something! If you can do something proactive other than just sitting on your hands and hoping that the markets turn around soon, you’ll be better able to get through this difficult time while keeping your long term investment strategy intact.
Today, I’m talking about how you can take advantage of losses in your IRA or 401k accounts to do a Roth conversion.
The goal with a Roth conversion is to maximize the amount you convert while minimizing the taxes.That’s why converting when your IRA is at a loss for the year makes a lot of sense.
Let me explain how and why this works so well, when your portfolio is down 10-20% for the year. Let’s say you decide that in 2022, you want to convert $100,000 of your Traditional IRA to your Roth. The lower the IRA account drops, the more a conversion makes sense since the same $100,000 conversion that you might have made in a given year, now represents a larger % of your IRA account that gets converted to Roth.
My favorite Roth conversion strategy is one that is flexible and takes advantage of market volatility. This strategy would involve spreading out your conversions during the year. Let’s say you decide to convert that $100,000. Maybe you convert ⅓ or ½ now, while the market is down and close to a bear market. Will it get worse from here? That’s anyone’s guess, but that’s why spreading out your conversion makes sense. If your IRA or 401k recovers, at least you converted a portion while it was in the red. If things get worse, then you can convert more later this year, which provides some peace of mind, since by converting some later in the year, you’ll know more about your income, your tax situation and your ability to pay the taxes on your conversion.
I like this approach the most, especially right now with the market already close to a bear market, because it allows you to take advantage of potential market declines during the year. This should also be flexible. Again, you decide in advance the total amount you want to convert. If after the first conversion, your IRA drops another 10% by this summer or fall, that would be a good time to convert say another 25% of your annual total. Then you could wait to see how things play out over the rest of the year. If your account continues to drop, maybe you accelerate those conversions and do the rest of the conversion if your IRA drops further before December. If that doesn’t happen or if the stock market stabilizes, you would wait until year-end to convert the remainder.
Again the goal is to maximize the % of your IRA dollars that get converted to a Roth with minimal tax consequences, and having a flexible strategy that converts dollars at different times and circumstances during the year will help to maximize the retirement assets that are in your Roth.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something! If you can do something proactive other than just sitting on your hands and hoping that the markets turn around soon, you’ll be better able to get through this difficult time while keeping your long term investment strategy intact.
Today, I’m talking about another one of my favorite steps you can take during this difficult time, which is looking for losses and doing some tax loss harvesting.
This only works for your non-IRA and 401k accounts, so if you only have assets in these accounts only, you won’t be able to use this strategy. If, on the other hand, you have taxable brokerage accounts - like an individual, joint, or trust account, here’s what you’ll want to do:
Take a look at your unrealized gains and loss column. You should be able to find this on your monthly statement or when you pull up your accounts online.
Do you have any holdings in your taxable accounts that have an unrealized loss? If the loss is significant, it’s probably worth selling so you can use those losses to offset gains. You’re limited to the losses you can use to lower your taxes in a given year, but you can carryforward losses to future years too, so having those losses could benefit you for years to come.
Once you determine your biggest losers, you’ll want to decide if you still want to own the investment or not. If it’s not a good investment and you’re glad to be rid of it, then you can sell it and claim the loss on your taxes.
If you still want to own the investment, that’s fine too. You can still sell it, but you’ll need to wait 30 days before buying it back again. This will keep you from falling into the wash sale rule, and will force you to sit out for a month if you decide to sell it. Which in this current volatile environment is probably not such a bad thing anyway.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something! If you can do something proactive other than just sitting on your hands and hoping that the markets turn around soon, you’ll be better able to get through this difficult time while keeping your long term investment strategy intact.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important things you can do during a stock market downturn, which is rebalancing.
If at the end of last year, you had a portfolio made up of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, but now your portfolio is down 25%, that mix is probably off by a few % points. If a portfolio has drifted from it’s target mix of stocks and bonds in either direction by more than 5%, then it’s time to rebalance.
Because the stocks are now worth less and are a lower percentage of the portfolio because of the market downturn, when you rebalance to get back to your 60% stock allocation target, you’ll be adding to stocks.
Yes, adding to stocks when they’re down 15,20,25%! Everyone wishes they could buy low and sell high, but when you’re disciplined about rebalancing in good markets and in bad, that’s exactly what you’re able to achieve.
Research shows that rebalancing and taking advantage of a market downturn to add to stocks adds to your long-term returns in a real and meaningful way.
Plus, it helps you take a more opportunistic stance with your investment portfolio by adding to stocks, rather than running for cover, selling everything, and hiding out until you feel better.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Don’t Just sit there. Do Something!
When the stock market is in freefall, and with high inflation, a war in Ukraine, and rising interest rates causing angst among investors, it’s easy to fall into the temptation to abandon your long-term investment strategy, sell everything, and go to cash until things start looking up again.
But what if you could do something to take advantage of the current downturn in the market?
This week, I’ll share with you my best ideas for ways you can take action to improve your long-term situation, that may scratch that itch you have to do something about what’s going on right now, without taking the extreme action of abandoning your long-term strategy and selling everything, locking in your losses after the market is already down 20% for the year.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Earn More On Your Cash
In case you missed any episodesI talked about how you can earn more on your cash though a variety of investments without sacrificing liquidity when needed or putting your money at a significant risk, just to earn a little more yield. With interest rates still very low, there aren’t a lot of options, but I tried giving you a few idea this week, including:
- Money Market Funds
- High-Yield Savings Accounts
- Floating Rate Funds
- T-Bills
- Short-Term Corporate Bonds
The most important takeaway from this week is:
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something!
As I record today’s episode, the S&P 500 has dropped 16% this year. At one point just a few days ago, it nearly touched bear market territory, which is a drop of 20% or more. So with the stock and bond markets in a tailspin this year, it’s tempting to step in to stop the bleeding. While it would be a big mistake to sell your investments and abandon your long-term investment strategy during a downturn in the stock market, it doesn’t mean that you just have to sit there either and do nothing.
So next week, I’ll share with you some important and productive actions you can take during this scary time.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash
Yesterday and today, I’ve ventured into the land of needing to tie up your cash for 6 months or more to get a better yield. Yesterday I talked about short-term US treasury bonds (aka T-bills). Today I’m talking about Short-term corporate bonds.
More specifically, these are bonds that will mature sometime within the next 1-2 years.
And because they are corporate bonds, you can earn a higher rate compared to a treasury bond with the same time to maturity.
My favorite way to access bonds that mature in a specific time is by purchasing a bond fund with a specific maturity, say 2023.
There are several different bond funds, usually these are exchange traded funds. All of the bonds in the fund are bonds that mature in that year, and the basket of bonds in the portfolio might include several hundred different bonds. Because of this, the credit risk is minimal if you choose an investment grade bond fund, and the 2023 bond ETF that I use for many of my clients is yielding about 2.6%. It will mature at the end of 2023, so you’re tying up your money for about a year and a half, but you can sell the fund at any time, and the price is relatively stable.
This particular fund is down about 1.3% this year, whereas most bonds across the board are down anywhere from 6-12%.
So if you’re really wanting to earn some more yield, and you’re ok with the potential that it could lose a little bit, I like the 2023 bond ETFs as an option to get more income on your cash.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash. So far this week, I’ve covered money market funds, high yield savings accounts, and floating rate funds. These are all investments that offer liquidity and a high level of safety without tying up your money for a specific period of time.
If you want any hoping of earning more that 1% on your cash right now, you’ll want to start venturing into tying up your money for a set period of time - say 3 or 6 months.
A great way to do that with an investment that is short term - in this case only invested for 6 months, and offers the highest degree of safety - backed by the full faith and credit of the US government - still the safest place to put your money in the world - then you’ll want to consider T Bills.
T bills are treasury bills (aka bonds) that have a maturity of 1 year or less. What make a T bill different than a regular treasury bond is simply the shorter term of the investment period.
Right now you can purchase a 6 month T Bill and earn an annualized yield of 1.435%. Not too bad for a risk-free way to invest your cash for the next 6 months in this very low interest rate environment.
Despite their safety and relatively decent rates right now, there are a couple drawbacks to these investments:
- could lose money if you need to sell early, and
- if you buy short term treasury bills directly from the treasury, there are no fees, but it’s one more place you’ll need to open an account and keep track your funds
You can buy other investments like mutual funds and exchange traded funds that own T Bills, so you don’t need to buy the T Bills directly from the treasury and open a new account, but the added fees on these investments will reduce the yield.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash
Today, I’m talking about floating rate funds - an underutilized investment for earning a bit more on your cash.
You can purchase these funds in brokerage accounts and IRAs and they’re great for the rising interest rate environment that we’re in right now. Here’s how they work:
A floating rate fund is a mutual fund or an exchange traded fund or index fund that invests in short-term bonds with a variable interest rate. The interest that you earn will fluctuate with the underlying interest rate level, which means that when the rates are rising like they are right now, the interest that you earn also increases in lockstep.
Floating rate funds are often made up of corporate bonds as well as loans made by banks to companies. For that reason, you’ll want to ensure that the credit quality of the fund is high, so you have minimal credit risk.
That being said, floating rate funds are paying around 1% right now - a much better deal than your traditional savings account - in fact, the yield is almost 100x higher than what most depositors are earning at the bank right now.
The other thing to note that unlike money markets and high yield savings accounts, it’s possible that your investment could be worth less that what you invested, but even this year with bond prices in the toilet, floating rate funds have maintained price stability, which is encouraging.
Another thing I like about these funds is their liquidity. Since they’re mutual funds or ETFs that trade similar to a stock, so you can access your money at any time if you need it, and it’s not tied up for a predetermined amount of time compared to something like a CD.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash Today, I’m talking about earning more on your cash with a high yield savings account.
Compared to parking your cash in checking or savings at your bank and earning virtually no interest right now, a high yield savings account is paying a much better rate - many of the ones I checked online were paying slightly over ½% - and most were in the .60% range.
The problem with high yield savings accounts is that you may have to shop around for the best rates, and it’s not easy or practical often to open a new account, move your funds over, and keep it there, unless those high yielding rates stay competitive.
One of the things I do like about high yield savings accounts from these online banks is that they’re FDIC insured, and it’s usually very easy to access funds when you need them.
A drawback as I mentioned earlier is that if you open one of these high yield savings accounts and the rates don’t stay competitive, you could be looking at the hassle of moving your funds to a new financial institution, which is a real pain and probably not worth the trouble.
Another drawback of these accounts is that some require a certain number of transactions a month or additional deposits to get the higher rate, so just make sure you read the fine print.
And of course, always do the math. If you keep $10,000 or less in your savings and bank A is offering .5%, while bank B is offering .75%, that’s a difference of $25 a year in interest, so is it really worth it to shop around, transfer the money and close the old account?
For me, it would never be worth the hassle, time and effort, for $25. On the other hand, if I have $100,000 in savings and the difference in rates in 1%, then that difference in $1,000 per year might now be worth the time and hassle of switching.
Yesterday, I talked about money market funds. I prefer money markets to high yield savings accounts, because even though the rate is a bit lower, it does tend to adjust more quickly and could provide a higher interest rate compared to high yield savings accounts if rates continue to rise. Plus, since they’re mutual funds, you can easily switch to a different money market without opening and closing the account if you find a better money market alternative.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash
Today, I’m talking about one of the easiest ways to earn more on your cash, and that is by investing in a money market fund.
Money market funds are mutual funds that invest in very short term bonds and have minimal credit risk. They’re so low risk, that even during volatile time periods, including the financial crisis in 2008, these investments historically have not lost any value. The drawback of these investments compared to savings accounts is that they lack the FDIC insurance you get with a bank account, but given the historic stability of these funds and what you can earn in interest, I think it’s a fair trade off.
We use money market funds frequently with clients, and have 10s of millions of client assets invested in money market funds at any one time.
You can buy a variety of different money market funds. Some even provide tax-exempt interest, if you’re in a high tax bracket and you’re looking to minimize taxes on your investment income.
So what about the rates?
Compared to most savings accounts which are paying .01% of interest right now, money market funds are paying about .5% right now, which is astronomically higher than savings accounts but with nearly as much security and virtually the same liquidity.
For this reason it’s my favorite place to park cash for clients that might be needed in the next few months to a year, and they deserve serious consideration for your cash holdings.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How to earn more on your cash
Despite interest rates ticking up significantly so far in 2022, I’m getting a whopping .01% on my savings account at my bank account. That means for every $10,000 I have in my savings account, I will earn $1 of interest per year.
My guess is you’re probably a similar boat and I’m not alone here. Many of the big banks - BofA, Wells Fargo, and Chase - are all paying .01% on their savings accounts. Seems a little unfair, but these big banks have no incentive to raise the money they’re paying out on deposits, since they have much higher deposits then they need or even know what to do with at the moment. In previous periods of rising interest rates, it’s always a slow trickle down to deposits, so don’t expect your .01% APY on your savings account to go up by much anytime soon.
What’s even more frustrating is that I’m actually losing money in real terms because inflation is currently running around 8%. That means I’ll actually lose $799 on that $10,000 in savings in real terms. Yikes!
So how do you find an investment that won’t put your cash at risk, still provide liquidity and access to funds when you need it, while earning more than $1 a year in interest?
That’s what we’ll be covering this week on the podcast.
I’ll share with you the best ways to earn more on your cash, while still maintaining that safety and liquidity dual mandate that is so important for your cash holdings.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Analyze Your Tax Return: Marginal Tax Rates
- Analyze Your Tax Return: Capital Gains & Losses
- Analyze Your Tax Return: Tax Deductions
- Analyze Your Tax Return: Tax Loss Carryforward
- Analyze Your Tax Return: Charitable Giving
The most important takeaway from this week is: Don’t just file away your tax return, never to look at it again. There are hidden opportunities in your tax return that can help you make smarter and better decisions with your investments and retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: How To Earn More On Your Cash.
Interest rates are heading higher, which means rates are also going higher on the money market and cash-like alternatives to park your funds that can earn you more in interest than your checking account can offer.
So next week, I’ll share with you some of the best places to invest your cash to maximize your returns without tying up your money for too long or sacrificing access to your funds when you need it.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA.
Today, I’m talking about using your tax return to be more strategic and potentially save a lot in taxes with your charitable giving strategy.
If you are currently donating cash to charities, but you have significantly appreciated assets with large gains, there may be a better way.
If you claim the standard deduction but you still gave $1,000 a month to charities last year, you’re not even getting a tax benefit for that.
A few of solutions to this come to mind:
- Look at your appreciated assets. Those can be gifted and the charity can sell it without paying the tax on the gain. You won’t pay the tax on the gain either. A win-win!
- Consider contributing directly out of your IRA to charities, in what’s known as a qualified charitable distribution. This works best when you’re 72 and subject to required minimum distributions from your IRA, and it’s my preferred way for clients to give to their charity or church of choice once they’re taking RMDs.
- The third strategy involves charitable bunching, where you cram 2 or 3 years of giving into 1 year which could allow you to itemize in that year where you give more.
There are other strategies, too, like using a donor-advised fund and funneling your gifting through that, and then there are more advanced giving strategies that an estate planning attorney can help you set up, but the key here is that your tax return, the way in which you give to charity, and how those gifts are benefitting you and your tax situation could help you identify better ways to give that could also reduce the taxes you pay.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA.
Today, I’m talking about reviewing tax loss carryforwards, and the wealth of information that can be uncovered in just this one line item.
Over the last decade, most investment portfolios have had large gains, and it’s less likely that I’ll see a loss carry forward. When you sell an investment in a taxable account at a loss and you don’t have any gains to offset that with or the gains don’t exceed the amount of the loss, you get to carry that loss forward to future years. But with a decade+ of gains now, I don’t see this much any more and when I do, there’s a story behind it that needs to be uncovered to learn more about my client. And you can use this to learn more about your own temperament as well.
Tax losses can come from selling an investment at a large loss, or maybe a business that went belly up. Sometimes it can indicate a client’s appetite for risk and their tendencies to panic when the market turns south. If you sold your entire stock portfolio when the stock market was in freefall during the early days of Covid in March of 2020, you might still have a significant tax loss carry forward.
So you can learn a lot about your temperament, investment philosophy, and investing behavior all of which are good indicators of future behavior. When working with clients, this is especially useful if they’re a newer client and I wasn’t around in those years where they had large losses. If I see that a client panicked and sold in the spring of 2020, then I am likely to put them into a more conservative portfolio that has less in stocks and is less likely to experience the gyrations of the market.
In the gospel of Matthew in the new testament, there is a verse that says “You will know them by their fruits”. In the behavioral finance bible, if such a thing existed, it would say something like: “You will know them by their tax loss carryforward.”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA.
Today, I’m talking about tax deductions. The place to start better understanding your tax deductions is by looking at your tax return to see if you claimed the standard deduction in 2021 or if you itemized your deductions instead. Whether you itemize or claim the standard deduction can change from year to year, so it’s helpful to understand whether or not you’re likely going to keep claiming the standard deduction or if you will itemize in 2022. For this I recommend better understanding some of the biggest types of deductions you can itemize, and also looking back a few years to see the history of what you did over multiple years.
More people will choose to claim the standard deduction, which will be $25,900 this year if you’re married, or $12,950 if you’re single.
Itemizing vs. taking the standard deduction has several implications for your investment and retirement planning decisions. The most common itemized deductions are those for state and local taxes (aka SALT), mortgage interest, charitable contributions, and medical and dental expenses. If you’re claiming the standard deduction, then these tax deductions won’t benefit you, unless you itemize instead and the itemized deduction amounts to a higher amount that you would have claimed on the standard deduction.
I know this is getting a little technical, but here’s why it matters: Knowing whether or not you itemize or if you claim the standard deduction will help inform your strategy on important financial planning decisions like charitable giving and paying off your house early.
Many people believe that they’re still benefiting somewhere on their taxes from their mortgage interest deduction, and other itemized deductions, so they don’t mind having a mortgage payment because someone at some point told them they were getting a tax break for keeping that mortgage payment. But all of that goes out the window when you claim the standard deduction and don’t itemize. No more SALT deduction, no more mortgage interest deduction, and no tax benefit on certain charitable contributions.
I’ll actually talk more about charitable giving later this week, but for now, check out your tax return to see if you itemized last year or claimed the standard deduction, and know that if it’s better for you to claim the standard deduction, you may want to be more strategic with your charitable giving and mortgage payoff decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA.
Today, I’m talking about reviewing your tax return to understand your capital gains and losses. Ideally, you would have an investment portfolio that is as tax-efficient as possible. That’s not always the case, but having a tax efficient asset location strategy (in other words having the right types of investments in the right accounts) can add up to .75% of additional annual returns. Over time, this adds up big time!
Take a look at your schedule B and schedule D on your tax return. There you’ll find taxable interest, qualified dividends, ordinary dividends, and capital gains and losses.
I want to keep it simple here and focus on capital gains, because I think it’s the biggest opportunity for most people, at least in my experience, to be more tax efficient.
We want to avoid paying more tax than is necessary, and with capital gains, it tends to be something we have a bit more control over from year to year. First of all, wherever possible, you want to avoid having mutual funds (especially stock mutual funds) in taxable accounts. These can generate large and unpredictable capital gains that you don’t have much control over. So if you’re going to own mutual funds, in many cases, but not always it makes more sense to hold mutual funds in IRA or Roth IRA accounts.
Another red flag when it comes to capital gains is a lot of trading and portfolio turnover. This is especially true when I see short-term gains and losses, meaning that the person held the investment for less than a year. Short-term gains are taxed at higher rates, and having any of these at all is problematic.
If you are a DIY investor, you’ll need to be careful about and closely monitor your accumulated or realized gains as the year goes on. You should also be reviewing your portfolio right now and again near the end of the year for losses that can offset gains.
The great news about downturns in the stock market that we’re experiencing right now is that it allows you the opportunity to reset some of the tax efficiencies that might exist in your portfolio and move around some of your holdings to improve your asset location efficiency that I mentioned earlier is so important for your long-term portfolio returns.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA
Today, I’m talking about the place you’ll want to start analyzing your tax return, and that is your marginal tax rate. By reviewing your tax return and finding your taxable income and your marginal tax rate - both of these figures can be found on your tax return. For example, let’s say you’re married and your taxable income in 2021 was $250,000, and you expect your income to remain the same in 2022.
This income puts you in the 24% marginal tax bracket for both 2021 and 2022, and knowing both your taxable income and your marginal rate is helpful for future planning and determining what types of investments are appropriate for you.
Your taxable income will indicate whether or not you’ll owe capital gains tax on investments you sell this year, and whether or not the additional Net Investment Income Tax of 3.8% on top of state and federal capital gains taxes will apply to interest, dividends, capital gains, rental and royalty income, and non-qualified annuities.
Understanding the general impact of interest, dividends, capital gains, and the like can help you make more informed decisions about your investment portfolio, but knowing your marginal tax rate is essential for determining the impact of financial planning decisions like Roth conversions, and whether or not you should own taxable bonds or municipal bonds in taxable accounts.
I find that many people in lower tax brackets, especially retirees like owning municipal bonds simply because they don’t pay tax on the interest they earn. But municipal bonds really only make sense for investors in higher tax brackets.
For example, if I’m in the 24% tax bracket and I live in a state like Oregon (which I do) with an additional state tax of almost 9% and I buy a tax-free Oregon municipal bond that yields 3%, because of my income, that’s like buying a corporate bond that pays 4.5%. Not a bad yield and in many cases, it might make more sense to buy tax-free municipal bonds. If my income is a lot higher than that, that same 3% bond for an Oregonian in the 35% tax bracket would be like buying a taxable corporate bond with about a 5.5% yield.
The higher your marginal tax bracket, the more tax you’ll pay on dividends and bond interest, and the more careful you’ll want to be about your trading activity in your taxable accounts and the types of bonds you own.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA
If you haven’t heard me mention it on the podcast before, my husband is a CPA. This is very helpful, because whenever I have a complicated tax question, I have free and unrestricted access to an experienced expert. So I did a little research, talked to my husband and together, we came up with a few crucial line items on your tax return that you’ll want to review before you just file it away.
I’ll share with you how things like your marginal tax rate, tax deductions, and tax loss carryforward can help you uncover important investment and planning opportunities right under your nose, that can save you lots of money, and help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. So this week, dig up your tax return from 2021, because I’m going to pick one item each day to review from your tax return, that can actually provide some value to you for investment and planning decisions you’ll make going forward.
And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Ain’t Nothing Cheesecake and Conversation Can't Fix - discussing the importance of solid friendships
- Thinking Outside The Box To Live The Lifestyle You Desire in retirement
- Living The Single Life Is Likely b/c of death or divorce
- Hobbies Are Important For Happiness In Retirement
- Don’t Get Paralyzed By Life
The most important takeaway from this week is:
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Analyzing Your Tax Return Like A CPA. Now that tax season is behind us, most people just file away their tax return and move on. But if you do that, you could be missing some important opportunities to make better planning and investment decisions for your retirement.
So dig up a copy of your tax return from 2021, because next week, I’ll share with you a few key highlights from your tax return to pay attention to. Your tax return could point to tax-inefficient investing and missed opportunities, and we’ll cover those next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Today’s lesson from the golden girls is: Don’t Get Paralyzed By Life
In real life, Estelle Getty, who played my favorite and funniest character on the show, Sophia Patrillo, suffered from terrible stage fright. During the days they would tape the episodes, Estelle would often freeze on camera and mess up her lines. She even had some of her dialogue written down and taped to chairs and tables on the set. She was the least experienced actress of the four, and it intimidated her. In a 1988 interview she stated that working every week with talent like Arthur and White scared her out of her wits. She felt like a fraud and worried that the fans would “find out” that she wasn’t as good as her co-stars.
Irreversible decisions in retirement can be paralyzing. A decision to do nothing is still a decision. Estelle Getty pressed on despite her fears and no one watching knew what was really going on behind the scenes.
Having a plan removes some of the scariness of the decision. Estelle Getty’s plan included taping lines to the backs of furniture on the set. It’s what allowed her to survive and not quit the show.
Your plan might include deciding when you’ll retire, making sure your investment portfolio along with your other income sources can sustain you in retirement, calculating your retirement annual budget in advance, planning for other expenses like travel and the periodic car purchase or new roof.
Deciding when you’ll take social security, updating your will, and researching and following through with other decisions that are relevant for you, like whether or not you’ll do Roth conversions in retirement.
The point is a decision to do nothing is still a decision.Like Estelle Getty, doing something about it and making a plan will help you make the right decision more often and have more options and more control over the variety of decisions you’ll face as you approach and transition into retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Today’s lesson from the golden girls is: Hobbies are important for happiness in retirement. The Golden Girls led very active retirements, and maintained fulfilling hobbies.
They were always involved in charity events, especially Rose (Betty White’s character), who according to Golden Girls Wiki “Rose was arguably the most involved in charity work. She drove a bookmobile, was a candy striper at a hospital, and helped organize a charity talent show, among other things. She listed cheese making as a hobby on her resume, as well.”
Both Blache and Dorothy had part-time jobs. Dorothy worked as a tutor, using her former teaching skills in her part-time work, and Blacnhe worked at the museum.
All 4 golden girls led very active retirements, which is really important for longevity, mental fitness, and physical health in retirement, according to research. So we all can learn a little something from the Golden Girls. Because it was a show and not real life, your interests are likely to be more limited than theirs, but having at least a couple of hobbies, volunteering your time, and having at least one hobby or activity that you can share with friends is critical for a fulfilling and happy retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Today’s lesson from the golden girls is: Living the single life is likely. All the Golden Girls were either widows or divorced and it’s likely that you may face the same situation in retirement. Would it shock you to know that The average age of widowhood is 59 years old, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and many widows could go on to live another few decades after the death of their spouses. Many of you listening are older than 59, and living life in retirement that differs from our original plans is something that most people push out of their mind as soon as the thought bubbles up.
In my own practice, I have many, many clients who are single in retirement because of a death of a spouse or a divorce. One of my favorite clients died a couple years ago. She lived into her 90s but was a widow for 40 years prior to her death. She managed just fine, but knowing how to manage the family finances without the help of your spouse is essential.
The Golden Girls certainly had their struggles because they had to navigate their retirement years as single people, but it’s an important thing to plan for. If you’re married and your spouse died or became disabled today, would you be able to pick up the pieces and be okay financially? What would you need to do differently or what skills would you need to learn to be able to function better on your own?
I know it’s tough to think about if you’re married, but it’s important.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Today’s lesson from the golden girls is: Think outside the box to live the lifestyle you desire. The Golden Girls moved in together so they could all afford to live in their house in Miami, which if my memory is correct, Blache owned the house, put out an ad for roommates, and that’s how the show got started. Then Dorothy’s mom, Sophia moved in after her retirement home, shady pines, burned down.
There’s a lesson to be learned from this in that sometimes living the lifestyle you desire in retirement requires some creativity. The golden girls could have never afforded that nice one-level, 4-bedroom house in Miami on their own. Buy pooling their expenses, they could afford to live in that beautiful house with all of that rattan furniture and bold 80s florals.
So how might you also need to Think Outside The Box To Live The Lifestyle You Desire?
- Moving in together to spread out the expenses - GG did this
- Vacationing with friends
- Working part-time
- Working longer
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Today’s lesson from the golden girls is: There ain’t nothing that cheesecake and conversation can’t fix.
If you watched the Golden girls, you’ll remember that in most episodes, there was a crisis that was usually solved late at night at the kitchen table with some cheesecake and talking it out.
What does this have to do with your retirement? A lot actually, because it speaks to the importance of friendships and how important friendships are at all stages of life, but especially in retirement. The Golden Girls always had each other, even when their lives were chaotic and when they experienced loss and heartache.
Last October, I covered a podcast theme on the topic of the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement.
What are those 3 things? Money, Health, and Relationships.
And the kind of relationships that bring the most happiness in retirement, according to research, are friendships and your relationship with your spouse. It’s very easy to become socially isolated in retirement and that’s a big reason why many retirees become bored and depressed in retirement and find that it’s not all they hoped it would be.
When you lose the natural social interactions and friendships that develop in the workplace, you have to become more intentional about cultivating friendships in retirement. Maybe this is spending more time with friends you already have, or making new friends. Retirement allows you to focus more on the things you enjoy doing, so whether you’re into golf, travel, cars, or gardening, try to find ways to enjoy your hobbies with others, or at least make an effort to regularly get coffee or go out to lunch or dinner with friends.
According to Michael Finke (Fink-a), professor of wealth management at the American College of Financial Services and one of the researchers involved in this study, “The retiree’s job is to invest in the inputs that are actually going to result in the output of greater life satisfaction,”
Cultivating friendships is work. If you’re willing to put in the investment of time it takes, it will lead to more fulfillment and enjoyment in your retirement years, and more time spent around the table with a cheesecake, and those you hold most dear.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Inspiration for this week’s podcast is one of my favorite Golden Girls episodes which interestingly enough have 2 separate lessons for retirement in just this one episode:
- You’re never too old to find love again, and
- When the social security administration sends you checks, just keep on cashing them.
In this particular episode, Blanche tries to lure men by placing a fake ad in the paper trying to sell a Mercedes. Meanwhile, Dorothy discovers Sophia is hoarding Social Security money, thanks to a computer error. Sophia received over $100,000 in extra social security checks, and then just starts pulling out wads of cash, and tipping the delivery boy, saying “here’s a president you’ve never seen”.
So this week, we’ll talk about…
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was: Understanding Stock Splits
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- What is a stock split
- Why companies split their stock
- Whether or not it’s good for the future stock price for a company to split it’s shares
- Who is splitting their stock in 2022, and
- Why stock splits may become less common in the coming years
The most important takeaway from this week is:
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Understanding Stock Splits
Today, I’m talking about why stock splits may become less common in the coming years
- Fractional investing…explain
- Allows you to invest in individual stocks with as little as $5. So with $50 or $100, you could own 10-20 stocks and build a diversified portfolio without having to own mutual funds or ETFs.
- Really cool innovation that
- Only a handful of large investment companies are doing this, but it’s becoming increasingly common.
- May take many years - first announced that it would be rolled out at Schwab in 2019. Still not available for institutional investors.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Understanding Stock Splits
Today, I’m talking about which big name companies are splitting their stock in 2022:
- Shopify
- Amazon - buyback $10 billion
- Alphabet (parent company of Google)
- Tesla
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Understanding Stock Splits Today, I’m talking about whether or not it’s a good idea to buy companies who split their stock.
- Don’t add any real value - I’m going to trade you 2 oreos, you’re going to break them in half and give me 4 half pieces back. Nothing has chaged really, I have twice as many pieces of oreos but they’re half the size they were before. That’s a 2 for 1 stock split.
- Make the stock more accessible to more investors at a cheaper price
- Signals the management and leadership at the company are optimistic
- Many companies continue to do well and continue that growth trajectory after a stock split, but there’s no clear evidence that companies who split their stock do any better post-split
- 2010-2020: 240 stock splits
- Average return 1 month post-split = 1.5%
- Average return 6 months post-split = 5.25%
- Only about half of the companies who split their stock over this time period performed better than the S&P 500 over the short term
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Understanding Stock Splits
Today, I’m talking about why companies might decide to split their stock.
One of the best examples of why a company might want to split it’s stock is to look at Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffet’s company has famously never split their stock, and as of when I’m recording this episode, the stock trades at over $505,000 per share. You need half a million dollars just to buy a single share of Berkshire Hathaway. That locks out most would-be investors, because they just don’t have $505k to buy just one share. Now you could buy the cheaper class B shares which trade for a much cheaper $335/share.
Back in 1995, at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting, Buffett acknowledged that having such a high-priced stock — at the time, it was trading around $25,000 per share — could be “anywhere from awkward to disadvantageous” for investors, But he said that the barrier to entry was intentional.
He went on to say that “We want to attract shareholders who are as investment-oriented as we can possibly obtain, with as long-term horizons,” he said. If Berkshire were to split the stock and lower its price, “we would get a shareholder base that would not have the level of sophistication and the synchronization of objectives with us that we have now.”
So Buffet has remained committed to never splitting Berkshire’s stock price, but his stance is pretty much non-existent among all other companies and their respective Boards.
Companies like splitting their stock for a variety of reasons. The most common reason why a company will decide to split it’s stock is that it makes expensive shares cheaper to buy, like in the case of Amazon who will be doing a 20 for 1 stock split in about a month. Amazon shares have gained over 4,300% since their last split on Sept. 2, 1999, so it’s about time if they want to bring their share price back down to a more affordable level.
Companies will often decide to split their stock after a period of strong growth and especially if there is anticipated and continued momentum which is likely to propel the stock higher post-split. Since most investors can still only buy whole shares, it provides more access to the companies stock at a lower price point. Many high-flying growth companies whose share prices have soared in recent years have also announced upcoming stock splits - Apple, Tesla, and Google among them.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Understanding Stock Splits
Today, I’m covering the basics and talking about stock splits 101 - what is a stock split?
A stock split can take on many forms. Most commonly, I see 2 for 1 stock split, which means that for every 1 share you owned previously, you’ll now own 2 shares after the split. And before you get all excited thinking that you’ve doubled your money, the company will also halve their stock price in this split.
So essentially nothing happens with the stock market capitalization. There are now twice as many shares outstanding but the stock price has also been reduced by half.
On the flipside, some companies will do a reverse stock split, which is exactly the opposite. Using the same 2 for 1 split example, in a reverse split, the company will reduce it’s # of shares available by half and then the stock price will double.
While regular stock splits aren’t good or bad in and of themselves, reverse stock splits can be major red flags. When stock prices fall too far they can become delisted from the exchange they trade on which have minimum share price rules. So if the stock is trading for $1, then a 1 for 2 reverse split that doubles the value per share to $2 can keep it from being delisted, and create the perception that things aren’t so bad by artificially boosting the stock price.
But it’s not just 2 for 1 stock splits. Traditional stock splits and reverse splits can take a number of forms like the 3 for 1 split in Disney stock that I discussed yesterday, or the 20 for 1 stock split that Amazon that will take effect in early June.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk about why companies would want to split their stock, but for today, I just wanted to lay the groundwork to explain stock splits and how they can take on many different forms.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Understanding stock splits.
For my 10th birthday, my dad bought me 1 share of Disney stock as a way to try to get me interested in the stock market. Well, it didn’t have the intended impact - at least not right away. He didn’t just buy me 1 share of stock in a brokerage account, he made sure to get the physical certificate, which for Disney stock is pretty cool.
The stock certificate had all of the classic disney characters on it and it’s something cool to frame and put on the wall. Unfortunately, Disney no longer offers these physical stock certificates, but the stock price around my 10th birthday was $18/share. 27 years later when I turned 37 earlier this year, the stock price was $138/share which represents over a 600% increase in the stock price in the last 27 years.
A few years after my dad gave me 1 share, the stock completed a 3 for 1 split, meaning that for every one share I owned, I now owned 3. This happened in 1998, and interestingly, that was the last time Disney split their stock.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember what happened to my 3 shares of stock. I’m sure I eventually traded the certificate in and sold the shares, but I wish I would have held on to it, especially considering that it was the first stock I ever owned and you can no longer purchase the physical certificates.
I was reminded of this story when I started preparing for this week’s podcast. If you’ve ever owned individual stocks yourself, you’ve likely experienced a stock split.
So this week, we’ll talk about:
- What is a stock split
- Why companies split their stock
- Whether or not it’s good for the future stock price for a company to split it’s shares
- Who is splitting their stock in 2022, and
- Why stock splits may become less common in the coming years
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- The Pros of a Roth IRA Conversion
- Why Most People Don’t Take Advantage Of Roth Conversions
- The Best Time To Convert To a Roth IRA During The Year
- The Worst Time To Convert To a Roth IRA During The Year
- My Favorite Roth Conversion Strategy
The most important takeaway from this week is: To make a plan for Roth conversions in your own situation. Decide on whether or not this strategy makes sense for you, and then how much and when you’ll convert those assets during a given calendar year.
And if you’re still not sure if a Roth conversion is right for you, you can still take me up on my offer to run the numbers for you. Just email me your age, the $ amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2022, and I will send you a personalized Roth conversion analysis and help you interpret the results.
Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - again with your age, the $ amount you want to convert to Roth, and your 2022 expected income. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Understanding stock splits.
A number of companies recently announced they were splitting their stock. A number of well-known companies recently announced stock splits, notably Amazon, Google, and Shopify.
But what are stock splits, and do they make a difference for you if you’re a shareholder in any of these companies when they split their stock? We’ll explore this question in more detail next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal financ
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k?
Today, I’m tying everything together and explaining my favorite Roth Conversion Strategy. This week’s theme asks the question: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k? And today, I’m going to answer that question now that we’ve looked at it from a bunch of different angles.
The principles here with a Roth conversion timing strategy are based on maximizing the amount you convert for a given year by minimizing the taxes.
That’s why converting when your IRA is at a loss or at the beginning of the year before you’ve had much growth for that year, both make sense.
So let’s start with the most timely issue right now considering that as you’re listening to this podcast, your portfolio is probably down for the year.
Let’s say you decide that in 2022, you want to convert $100,000 of your Traditional IRA to your Roth. The lower the IRA account drops, the more a conversion makes sense since the same $100,000 conversion that you might have made in a given year, now represents a larger % of your IRA account that gets converted to Roth.
My favorite Roth conversion strategy is one that is flexible and takes advantage of market volatility. This strategy would involve spreading out your conversions during the year. For peace of mind and knowing more about your income, your tax situation and your ability to pay the taxes on your conversion, you could wait to convert a portion until the end of the year, but also convert some at the beginning of the year.
I like this approach the most, because it allows you to take advantage of potential market declines during the year. For example, let’s say you decide this year to convert $100,000 to a Roth, and you already did a $50,000 conversion in January. If your IRA is down 10% this year, now would be a good time to convert say another $25,000 now. Then you could wait to see how things play out over the rest of the year. If your account continues to drop, maybe you accelerate those conversions and do the rest of the conversion if your IRA drops 15-20% at some point during the year. If that doesn’t happen or if the stock market stabilizes, you could wait until later in the year.
Again the goal is to maximize the % of your IRA dollars that get converted to a Roth with minimal tax consequences, and having a flexible strategy that converts dollars at different times and circumstances during the year will help to maximize the retirement assets that are in your Roth.
The key is to have a plan. I find that very few people take the time to just find out if a roth conversion makes sense, even though a well-executed Roth conversion strategy could result in hundreds of thousands of additional dollars by the end of your retirement years. Retirement dollars that won’t be taxable for your heirs either.
So here’s what a Roth conversion plan looks like:
- Decide if a Roth conversion makes sense for you
- Decide what amount you’ll convert in a given year
- Decide on your strategy - all at the beginning, all at the end, or a combination strategy
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k? Today, I’m talking about the worst times to convert during the year.
End of year is when most people convert to a Roth - they know more about their tax situation, but in most years when you have a gain by the end of the year, you’re not making a big enough dent in your IRA.
Example: converting $100,000 of a $1,000,000 IRA at the end of the year. If the IRA grew by 8% that year, the new value is 1,080,000, so they $100,000 conversion at the end of the year only reduces your IRA balance down by only $20,000, because most of what you converted was the growth from that year.
As long as your account is growing in a given year, you’re always behind and not really making a dent in your IRA balance.
Not sure if a Roth conversion is right for you? I’ll run the numbers for you to help you decide if a Roth conversion makes sense for you. Just email me your age, the $ amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2022, and I will send you a personalized Roth conversion analysis and help you interpret the results.
Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - again with your age, the $ amount you want to convert to Roth, and your 2022 expected income. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k? Today, I’m talking about the Best Time To Convert To a Roth IRA During The Year- market downturn, lower taxes (early years of retirement or semi-retirement), now while you still can
- In 2021, there was a proposal in the House to eliminate Roth conversions for Americans in the top income brackets. It was part of the Build Back Better bill that didn’t have the votes to pass, so it’s been punted for now.
- But Roth rules, especially for higher income earners are always on the table for changes.
- Prior to 2010, Your adjusted gross income needed to be below $100,000 to convert a traditional IRA into a Roth. In 2010, the $100,000 income limit disappeared, and anyone can now convert to a Roth
- But you can see that the tax rules around Roth conversions are always pretty active. It’s low hanging fruit when Congress considers raising taxes, because it will still raise hundreds of millions of additional tax revenue over a number of years, without the pain of raising the taxes that comes out of each one of your paychecks.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k?
Today, I’m talking about some of the drawbacks of a Roth conversion and Why Most People Don’t Take Advantage Of Roth Conversions.
Forking over that much in taxes and needing to pay it from an outside source (like your savings account) is a real obstacle. Some people are so turned off by writing a big fax tax check on a Roth conversion, that they just don’t do it, despite the clear long-term benefits in many cases. This is the biggest reason I see for people to decide that a Roth conversion isn’t for them…they simply don’t want to pay the taxes on the amount converted.
This may be a rational choice, and it should be based on weighing a number of factors and potential downsides, not just the tears you’ll shed as you write that check to Uncle Sam.
So here are a few other reasons why people don’t do Roth conversions and why you might decide Roth conversions aren’t right for you:
- You’re going to be in a significantly lower tax bracket in retirement…why pay the taxes now if the tax bite on future IRA withdrawals or RMDs isn’t going to be painful?
- You don’t have enough cash in your savings account to pay the taxes.
- Your income is higher this year and you expect it to be lower in future years - wait for income to go down some because the tax rate you’ll pay on the converted $s will be lower
- You’re going to need the money that you converted to a Roth within the next few years. Roth IRAs have rules that make you wait a few years before withdrawing funds. There are some workarounds for this, but in general, it’s a good idea to not convert assets to a Roth if you’ll be withdrawing those Roth assets in the next few years. In the real world though, this is hardly an issue, since the Roth assets are usually depleted last when you’re withdrawing funds from your assets in retirement.
Not sure if a Roth conversion is right for you? I’ll run the numbers for you to help you decide if a Roth conversion makes sense for you. Just email me your age, the $ amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2022, and I will send you a personalized Roth conversion analysis and help you interpret the results.
Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - again with your age, the $ amount you want to convert to Roth, and your 2022 expected income. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k?
Today, I’m talking about Why At Least Some Of Your Retirement Should Be In A Roth IRA….in other words, what are some of the biggest benefits of having a meaningful amount of your retirement assets inside of a Roth IRA account.
Here are just a few of the biggest benefits of doing a Roth IRA conversion:
- Anticipate higher taxes, especially in retirement. Taxes right now are pretty low by historical norms.
- Estate tax rules significantly favor the Roth IRA assets. The SECURE Act passed in 2019 created a10-year rule for non-spouse beneficiaries to withdraw all funds from the original owner’s IRA. The act established a time period of 10 years for the “full” distribution of an inherited IRA for deaths occurring in 2020 or later. The 10 year rule still applies to the Roth IRA, but $0 dollars of that is taxable to your beneficiaries. This is a huge change, and significantly increases the amount of accelerated taxes your beneficiaries will pay on inherited IRA assets, that’s largely out of their control and could send them into much higher tax brackets especially if the IRA assets are significant.
- The best reason to convert assets to Roth - reduced RMDs (explain)
Not sure if a Roth conversion is right for you? I’ll run the numbers for you to help you decide if a Roth conversion makes sense for you. Just email me your age, the $ amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2022, and I will send you a personalized Roth conversion analysis and help you interpret the results.
Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - again with your age, the $ amount you want to convert to Roth, and your 2022 expected income. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Does It Matter When You Convert To a Roth IRA or 401k?
When I started my career as a financial advisor at the age of 22, I was fortunate enough to work for an employer that offered a Roth 401k option. For the last 15 years, I’ve been saving as much as I can each year into my Roth 401k, and while I have not benefited from the tax deductions that I would have otherwise had from my 401k contributions, as I write this today, about 50% of our personal assets set aside for retirement are in Roth accounts. I’m thankful for this because I won’t have to contemplate significant Roth conversions later in life as I approach retirement, because I took care of getting the money into the Roth on the front end. But most people I work with are in the opposite situation. They might have 10-20% of their retirement assets in Roth accounts, and they’d like to increase those Roth assets.
So this week, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of Roth conversions, and the nuances of why it matters when you complete a Roth conversion during the year. And with the stock market down for the year and changes to the rules for Roth’s always on the table, I think now is an excellent time to consider at least a partial Roth conversion.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and your family’s safety. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Is a Phased Retirement Right For You?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- WSJ: Part-Time Retirement Programs Are on the Rise
- The Benefits of a Phased Retirement
- Why You’re In Such High Demand
- Using Your Crystallized Intelligence For A Happier Phased Retirement
- Other Options When A Phased Retirement Won’t Work
The most important takeaway from this week is: Phased retirement is increasingly common, and with labor shortages across many industries, Americans who are planning to transition into retirement are in a much better negotiating position than predecessors to have the best of both worlds - continued work, income and benefits with a more flexible and relaxed pace of life. Deciding if a phased retirement is right for you is something that should be taken very seriously as you begin to make plans for your own timeline and transition into retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Does it matter when you convert to a Roth IRA or 401k?
With the stock market down for this year and talk of changing the rules around Roth conversions, there is a lot of interest right now in converting assets in a Traditional IRA or 401k to Roth. So next week I’ll talk about why it matters when you do it and how to determine if now is a good time to convert some of your retirement dollars to Roth.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You?
Today, I’m talking about other options to transition to retirement if your employer doesn’t offer this option, if you no longer want to continue working for your current employer, or if you’re in a job that’s too demanding that you just can’t imagine yourself working longer there than is absolutely necessary.
You don’t have to throw in the towel and stop working all together! Depending on your needs and skillset, there are plenty of part-time jobs that would be a good fit for retirees. Here are just a few, according to AARP and a few other sources:
- Driver - school bus driver, Uber or Lyft driver…my FIL’s favorite things to do is shuttle people to and from the airport, and I’ve been many drivers who are retired. I actually have a client who is an Uber driver. He has no need of the extra income…he just really enjoys driving people around wherever he feels like turning on the app and making himself available.
- Bookkeeper
- Admin assistant, receptionist, or office manager. When I was hiring for this position at True North, the hours were part-time and many businesses are looking to fill these types of positions with part-time workers.
- Consultant - this is a big one especially if you have a specialized skill set. Many businesses are happy to work with experienced retirees on special projects or seasonal work.
As I mentioned earlier this week, there are tremendous benefits - not just financial but mental and physical benefits to working longer as well. So if you don’t see how you could make it work in your current position, there are still opportunities and job openings for other companies or in other industries all together.
Who knows, maybe shuttling around elementary school kids will end up being the most rewarding job you ever had. Me personally, I would rather shove a sharp stick in my eye than drive around a bunch of kids, but that’s just me.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You?
Today, I’m talking about using your crystallized intelligence effectively for a happier phased retirement.
Now if you aren’t familiar with the term, crystallized intelligence, it’s important that you know what it is, because it has important implications for being happy in your late-working years.
There’s 2 types of intelligence - fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to reason and think flexibly. Crystallized intelligence refers to the accumulation of knowledge, facts, and skills that are acquired throughout life.
At nearly 15 years in to my career as a financial advisor, believe it or not, I’m nearing the peak of my fluid intelligence in my career. If I stay in this career another 20 years, I will definitely start to see some noticeable declines in my fluid intelligence.
But that’s ok, because even though fluid intelligence declines for all of us and earlier than we think, crystallized intelligence actually increases with age. Many aspects of fluid intelligence peak in adolescence and begin to decline progressively beginning around age 30 or 40.
Jobs that require you to be at the peak of your fluid intelligence are often frustrating for older workers. As we age, we lose our edge and our ability to reason and deal with complex information.
But that’s ok, because this other aspect of our intelligence - crystallized intelligence - continues to increase with age. The key is working in a job, especially a job later in your career - that uses your crystallized intelligence and doesn’t demand so much of what’s left of your fluid intelligence.
Examples of this would be a manager or a supervisor, where you have the opportunity. Jobs that involve speaking and teaching or writing are also good for using your crystallized intelligence, without the frustration of fighting against the decline of your fluid intelligence.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You?
Today, I’m talking about some of most common applications of a phased retirement.
My husband is a CPA and with his experience and qualifications, he could pretty much work wherever he wants and command a high income. I don’t say this to brag…he’s actually decided not to do that since he doesn’t like to tax season grind and would prefer to have a more balanced schedule. I say this because labor shortages are a serious problem in the world of public accounting, and in many other industries as well. I’ve had conversations with clients who are lawyers and architects and the same problem exists in their industries. They can’t find qualified younger workers to fill positions of those who have quit or retired…this was a problem before Covid and it’s only gotten worse over the last couple years.
So if you’re in an industry that has some real labor shortages, you can more likely negotiate your way into a phased retirement that’s going to give you the balance of schedule and free time that you’re looking for while still maintaining some of your income and benefits.
Phased retirements work really well for knowledge workers like CPAs, lawyers, engineers, many desk jobs - especially in government, education, healthcare, and pretty much any position with hard-to-replace skills or knowledge. Phased retirements can also work well for more physically demanding jobs where you might be on your feet all day. Nursing comes to mind here. It’s physically demanding and stressful, but you can maybe last a couple more years on the job if you are working 20 hours a week instead of 40-50+.
Owens Corning, a Toledo, Ohio-based maker of building and construction materials, launched a phased retirement program in 2020. Paula Russell, their chief human resource officer said that with a projected wave of retirements, “we were concerned we were going to lose a lot of institutional knowledge and intellectual capital,”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You?
Today, I’m talking about the benefits of a phased retirement.
I don’t know about you, but when I read a really good article, especially an editorial piece, I find that the comments are often more interesting and insightful than the article itself.
That was the case with this WSJ article that is the basis for this week’s podcast which talks about how more companies are now giving phased retirements a try to deal with the labor shortage and knowledge transfer issues. And inevitably, there was a comment from a reader who articulated so well the benefits of a phased retirement in her own experience.
Jean says:
“I worked part time for 5 years after decades of full-time work for a company. I worked special projects that we all agreed on ahead of time. I was able to keep my health insurance benefit (most important). I was an hourly worker subject to state rules that gave me overtime rates for longer days and weekends. As a result, I sometimes made more than I would have as a salaried employee. I worked on interesting tasks that required my specific expertise, no administrative tasks to fill in my day when I wasn't busy. I sometimes worked from home, sometimes from an office, sometimes on travel.
I had plenty of free time. I retired at 65 and was ready for it.
It was a great way to evolve into retirement.”
A great way to evolve into retirement…Jean hit the nail on the head. She kept her great income and health insurance benefits, which most likely also kept her from tapping into her social security and her investment portfolio. This is the main financial benefit of the phased retirement, and it’s huge. To allow your portfolio and your social security income to continue growing for even just an extra year or 2 can make all the difference.
She also had the flexibility that a part-time work schedule allowed, so she could work from home occasionally, travel, and have plenty of free time without being shackled to her desk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. With so many companies used to providing more flexible hours and work schedules in the post-Covid world, it’s not a big ask anymore for many people to downshift their schedules like Jean did.
This flexibility made working longer more sustainable and much more enjoyable as well.
There are also important psychological benefits to working longer, especially if you like the work you do. There’s dignity in work. Work helps to provide meaning, purpose, and structure to our lives, and keeps our minds and bodies physically and mentally active. Lots of research points to a direct connection between working longer and living longer, as well as staving off cognitive problems like dementia.
So if you want to transition into retirement, the tremendous multi-faceted benefits of working longer, especially on a reduced schedule, are worth serious consideration.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You?
Today, I’m sharing with you a recent article from the WSJ which talks about the concept of a phased retirement. I’ll be using this article as a jumping off point for this week’s them.
If you would like to check out the article, I’ve linked to it in today’s show notes. The article was published on March 15, 2022 and the title is “Part-Time Retirement Programs Are on the Rise.”
Link to article:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/part-time-retirement-programs-are-on-the-rise-11647336602?st=hvd9lb4oky9pnr4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The article says: “Plenty of older workers have wished for something between full-bore work and retirement. Now, more companies seem to be giving them what they want.
Phased retirement programs—which allow workers nearing retirement age to cut back on their hours while keeping some pay and benefits—are growing in popularity. Human-resource executives say the pandemic has opened bosses to flexible work arrangements, while the fierce hiring market and higher-than-expected rate of retirements have motivated managers to find ways to retain older workers with key skills.
In a forthcoming survey of 1,736 HR executives world-wide from consultant Mercer LLC, about 38% say they offer phased retirement, more than double the 17.2% that did so before the pandemic.”
It’s really interesting, but not surprising that such a game-changing HR practice has become commonplace since the pandemic. And with the current labor shortage, I think many companies simply have no other choice. On top of that, many companies benefit tremendously when the more experienced employees are able to successfully transfer knowledge and train the new hires. Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about the benefits - both financial and psychological - that come from a phased retirement.But for today, I just wanted to let you know that phased retirements are more common than ever, and if it isn’t a formal practice at your employer, it could be a great time to ask about whether your employer would consider something like this .
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Is a Phased Retirement Right For You?
Actually, he just opted for a phased retirement instead. He could work the hours and schedule he wanted without any of the headaches of running a practice or managing employees.
I recently came across an article in the WSJ that talks about this concept of a phased or semi-retirement in detail, so since I seem to be coming across this more and more in the real world with clients, I thought it was fitting to do a deeper dive on this topic in this week’s podcast.
So this week, we’ll talk about this WSJ article to help you explore the idea of a phased retirement and whether it might be right for you.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and your family’s safety. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was: Prepping for emergencies in 2022
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Prepping For The Zombie Apocalypse
- Your Best Investments: Canned Food, Gold Coins, & A Gun
- Prepping Goals
- 3 Golden Rules Of Prepping
- Become A Prepper…More Resources
The most important takeaway from this week is: Preparing for emergencies is an essential part of your long-term planning and how you approach it is very similar to how you go about planning for retirement. Start where you are and focus on the most important and most impactful things you can do that will make the biggest difference for you in the long-run.
Since I’ve been talking this week about prepping for the worst, it’s time to lighten things up with a more positive weekly theme, so tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Is a Phased Retirement Right For You?
I’ve noticed a really strong trend among many of my clients over the last 5 years or so, where many of them continue working in their early retirement years, but at a much reduced pace to the rat race they’ve been in for the previous 30-40 years. Then I recently came across a WSJ article about part-time retirement programs on the rise, saying: “Workers have longed for a way to ease into retirement while keeping some pay and benefits. More companies are giving it a try.”
So next week, we’ll look at this new and exciting opportunity for Americans in their later working years to downshift their schedules, travel more, have more control over their working hours, all while earning enough to hold off on tapping into retirement accounts, paying for expensive healthcare benefits before medicare kicks in, and wait on taking Social security income.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.
Today, I’m talking about some further resources if you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole of prepping. Let me be clear - I’m not suggesting this
In generations past, a bad winter, a drought, disease or a bad year for crops would have wiped out an entire family, town, or region. That’s not the case today, and if our ancestors would have had the financial resources and storage capacity to stockpile food, would they not have done that to keep themselves and their families alive? In our world of stocked grocery store shelves and greased supply chains, we have largely forgotten the need to prepare of some likely emergencies.
I strongly believe that while you don’t want to get carried away here, it’s prudent to use your financial resources to not just prepare for your future retirement, but to prepare for your basic future survival in a variety of emergency circumstances.
With that in mind, I want to turn today to some further resources that are worth exploring:
I just scratched the surface of prepping this week, so if you’re new to prepping, focus on the basics and getting started. It’s better to grab a 40 pack of bottled water today at Costco than to research how to build a rainwater catchment system that might take you thousands of dollars and several months to complete.
The best place to start are places like ready.gov - which has supply lists, and how to plan for various types of emergencies like floods and hurricanes. The Red Cross is also a great resource with lots of guides and an interactive map that shows you the most common types of disasters based on where you live.
Websites & Blogs - there is a long list of websites and blogs
YouTube videos - great for building knowledge, learning skills and strategies like building and organizing your food and water storage so things get used and don’t go to waste. One word of caution: easy to get down some rabbit holes with some of the prepper videos. Videos about preparing for doomsday are really common and unnerving, so just be careful about what you watch and listen to when the predictions turn dire…it’s probably not good for your mental health and could even scare you and paralyze you into doing nothing about it.
Books! Great for building knowledge & keeping for reference in an emergency - can’t google how to give someone CPR or clean and stitch a deep wound if you’ve lost power.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022. Why am I focusing on prepping for emergencies when this is a podcast about planning for retirement? Although I am not an expert prepper and there are plenty of people who know a lot more about this than I do, prepping for emergencies goes hand in hand with planning for retirement. What good is your 401k if the power goes out this coming winter for a week, it’s below freezing outside, the power won’t be back on for a week like it was in Texas last year, and you haven’t devoted any time, effort, or money on basic preparedness and essential life skills?
So today, I’m talking about 3 Golden Rules of Prepping. These aren’t the only golden rules of prepping, but based on what I’ve learned over the years here are 3 golden rules of prepping that I believe will serve you well in preparing yourself, your family, and your home for emergency situations:
- The Rule of 3s to guide your priorities.
Earlier this week, I talked about the prepping pyramid that should guide where you focus most of your efforts. This includes building emergency stores of food, water, and basic safety supplies like a flashlight, before you move on to storing up 300 lbs of rice in mylar bags and buckets.
The Rule of 3s means that:
- You can survive three minutes without breathable air
- You can survive three hours in a harsh environment (extreme heat or cold).
- You can survive three days without drinkable water.
- You can survive three weeks without food.
The Rule of 3s is useful because it can help your prioritize the right kind of preparations in the right order - air, shelter/warmth, water, then food.
The 2nd golden rule is:
- Store what you eat and eat what you store
This rule is very useful in not wasting a bunch of money on canned goods you’ll never eat. When I first started exploring building up some emergency stores of food and water, my biggest hang ups were the shelf life of most items, and finding the space to store things. Why would I buy 100 cans of spam if there was no way we would ever eat that?
Storing what you eat, and eating what you store helped to shift the way I think about building up a stockpile of food. My kids love applesauce pouches and pirate’s booty, so I can buy 10 giant bags of pirate’s booty and 10 boxes of applesauce pouches from Costco, that will go into a rotation that will get used up within the next year, so it will never go to waste and whenever something runs out, I go to the pantry to grab a new one, and then add that item to my list to replenish the back of our stockpile.
Now I have to say that I don’t have a large stockpile of any of these items, but now that I understand emergency food storage isn’t just about hundreds of pounds of dried beans and rice, I feel better about building up food stockpiles for emergencies that won’t go to waste.
- Knowledge is the most important tool you have.
I don’t know how to change a flat tire, I’m pretty worthless at getting any tough stains out of clothes, I’ve never been successful at growing anything edible in my garden, and God help you if you ever need me to stitch up a wound, because I was never interested in learning how to sew.
But I can read a map and compass, I can sail a boat, start a fire, cook most anything, build a shelter out of a tarp and some rope, and live alone in the woods for a couple of days which no food (which I actually did when I was 15 years old). In the early days of Covid I learned how to cut hair, and I know the correct way to hold a wine glass.
When it comes to basic survival, you might often hear that knowledge is the most important tool you have. In a life or death emergency, you may not have the time or the ability to just google it, so knowing what to do in a variety of circumstances could prove to be the key to survival in an emergency.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.
Today, I’m talking about creating some prepping goals which starts with having enough emergency supplies for: 3 days, then moving up to 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and if you’re really serious about this prepping stuff - 1 year or longer. I’ll probably never make it to a year’s worth of food in storage, but I am actively working towards a 3 month supply of food and water, which is no small feat.
If I’m being honest, what scares me the most is a prolonged power grid failure, because everything hits the fan when that happens. No heat, no lights, no ability to cook food, the water supply and sanitation would go pretty quickly. No food at the grocery store, no clean running water. And then you have unrest and serious security issues in a prolonged grid-down situation as people become desperate.
But this is not the most prudent place to start and it’s pretty overwhelming to think about. Do I have basic emergency supplies to keep my family fed, warm, and dry for 3 days? Getting 3 days worth of food, water, and backup power, along with some basic tools like flashlights and a first aid kit are a great place to start.
Once you’re covered for 3 days, move on to 2 weeks. CDC has some good resources on Creating and Storing an Emergency Water Supply, and recommends 1 gallon of water per person, per day for drinking and sanitation. So that means in my household of 5 + the dog, we need a minimum of 70 gallons of water for a 2 week supply.
At 2 weeks, you’ll definitely need more food, and a reliable way to stay warm and cook that food, so alternative sources of heat and fuel will become necessary. What good is all that pasta and rice if you have no way to cook it and not enough water for it anyways?
At 2 weeks to 3 months of preparedness, you’ll need to move into the safety and security category as well if all your basic necessities are covered. This doesn’t just involve guns and ammo. How to protect your property and your family goes well beyond that, and I read recently that a good solid flashlight is the most important personal safety tool you can own.
I just scratched the surface here, and later this week I’ll talk about some additional resources to help you build up some emergency preps, but for now, just focus on starting small where you are and building up over time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.
In the early 1970s when the economy slipped into a recession and inflation jumped to 12.3% by 1974, someone was quoted as saying your best investments going forward will be canned food, gold coins, and a gun. I actually had a copy of this quote that I kept in a binder and would sometimes reference it, since 30 years later in the late 2000s, it seemed like a ridiculous quote. Yet, here we are in 2022 with high inflation and economic uncertainty, and now the advice doesn’t seem so silly. It just shows that history doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.
As it relates to this week's theme, the canned food, gold coins, and a gun advice reminds me that this is probably where we should start with talking about using your financial resources to prepare for emergencies that you and your family might face.
While I wouldn’t recommend selling your stock and bond portfolio to buy canned food, gold coins, and a gun, there are definitely things you’ll want to invest in and there is a hierarchy that you’ll want to follow with stockpiling emergency provisions.
Many people get this wrong because they might focus on building up security, like tripwire,an arsenal and ammo, but completely ignore their most basic need of clean, drinking water.
If you’ve seen Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which is shaped like a pyramid and covers most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid all the way to self-actualization at the top of the pyramid, you can think of preparing for emergencies with a similar hierarchy. The Canadian Prepper has a good explainer video on the prepping pyramid on his YT channel that can help guide where to focus your efforts and not waste time on getting a ham radio when you don’t even have a basic first aid kit in your home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOdirgJrwAI&t=917s
At the bottom of the prepping pyramid are air, food, water, warmth and shelter. Depending on health concerns, medicine would also fall at the base of this pyramid. So if you’re going to devote time and money to preparing for emergencies, it’s advisable to start here first. Again, clean air, food, water, warmth, and shelter.
Next comes security and safety. As I mentioned before, I think too many people start here. Plenty of guns and ammo for the band of murderers coming to ransack their home, but no way to stay warm if the power goes out for a few days in the winter.
After this comes knowledge and skill building. Things like knowing how to use a map and compass could help you find a water source, or knowing how to use a trap or grow your own vegetable garden could help you sustainably stay well-fed. Do you know how to build and cook on an open fire? I worked at a summer camp for 2 years in college and was really into hiking and backpacking at this time. I learned how to sail a boat, build fires,
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.
Today, Let’s talk about the emergencies you will most likely face, and why that means you shouldn’t prep for the Zombie apocalypse like today’s title suggests.
I’ve lived in the Portland, OR area my whole life and have been through 2 memorable earthquakes - the first one in March 1993, which was a magnitude of 5.6 about 30 miles from Portland. This happened in the early, pre-dawn hours. I was 8 years old and I ran out of the house along with my dad, which is something that you are definitely not supposed to do in an earthquake! My mom and my sister slept right through it. The 2nd one happened in 2001 in the middle of the day. I was at school at the time and remember feeling this weird sensation of waves like I was on a boat. Neither caused any real damage, but it’s been drilled into me since a kid that we are well overdue for a massive and devastating earthquake here on the west coast.
How bad could it be? In 2016 the US Navy, Coast Guard, and Washington state’s National Guard did a full-scale, nine-day drill to test how well they could respond to a massive earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. That area covers Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland through northern California. The 83-page report comes to a lot of scary conclusions. The authors admit the systems are not ready, infrastructure would collapse, and they’d have a full-blown humanitarian crisis in ten days. We recently interviewed the Portland Water Bureau, and they had a similar message about an earthquake in that region: a million people in that 225-square-mile area will be without water for months, not days.” Months, not days! Eye opening.
The most likely emergencies where I live would be a power outage due to a snowstorm or a heat wave, an earthquake, and wildfires, and probably in that order of likelihood. So my preparations need to reflect the likely events that I’ll face. Instead of building a tornado shelter, I would focus on not keeping all of my emergency items - food, water, tools, medical supplies, etc in one spot. Things get crushed and ruined in earthquakes or something could get so buried that I can’t access it and it becomes worthless.
I also need supplies stored in my car and what’s commonly known as a bug out bag. This is a trimmed down list of items that my family and I can take if we need to leave our home, which would be very important if an earthquake makes our home unsafe to stay in or if a wildfire gets too close.
And probably most common but often overlooked are the everyday emergencies we might face. Things like a burglar, a kitchen fire, or health event like a choking or a heart attack. Or a financial emergency like a job loss. It would be nice to have 3 months of food on hand so you could dramatically reduce your household food spending while you look for a new job.
So a great place to start is to research and understand the most common types of emergencies you’ll face, based on where you live.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. The theme this week on the podcast is: Prepping For Emergencies in 2022
[diaper panic of 2020 story]
Even though the existential crisis of the early days of Covid is long gone, and we’re all still here, the world, as always, is a very uncertain place. We have the uncertainty of the war in Ukraine and the unpredictableness of Putin, continued supply chain issues, the highest inflation we’ve seen since I’ve been alive, and with Biden even saying recently of food shortages: “It’s going to be real”.
After my diaper panic of early 2020, followed by the civil unrest in my own city of Portland, OR, and now the war in Ukraine, my eyes have been opened to the vulnerabilities of the life of ease and comfort and the things we all take for granted every day - food, clean, running water, personal safety and security, and a reliable power grid that provides electricity & heat.
Why am I focusing on this topic and what does it have to do with retirement exactly? Well, a lot I think…what good is it to have a plan for retirement and cash in the bank, if you don’t have enough food, water, Plus, prepping costs money and it’s easy to go out panic buying and waste a lot of money on items you may not really need or that aren’t really a priority.
I find that prepping is much like politics and religion in that’s it’s a divisive issue. Half of you right now are nodding in agreement because you have your bug out bag ready to go. The other half of you are about to shut me off and accuse me of being an end-of-days zombie apocalypse prepper.
The main problem when our human nature collides with an emergency is that we are generally pretty terrible at preparing for things. But the good news is that you’re probably better than most at preparing and thinking ahead, since this podcast is about preparing for your future retirement and you care enough about that to listen to me and this podcast.
If you’re going to plan for the future and set aside resources for your retirement, I am a strong believer that those resources should include the real and practical items you might need if things don’t go according to plan.
So this week, I’ll talk about how to prioritize your prepping and spending money on the things that will have the biggest impact on helping you and your family prepare for everything from a weather-related emergency like an earthquake or a tornado, to a prolonged grid-down scenario.
You can go crazy and waste a lot of money with your preps, so I’ll help you determine where to allocate your time and resources in building up a reasonable stock of emergency supplies for you and your family.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and your family’s safety. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week as I featured a case study from Monica about her upcoming retirement:
The most important takeaway from this week is: While Monica faces a multitude of issues, her situation is actually pretty common. She’ll need to do some additional planning to figure out how she’ll pay for healthcare before Medicare kicks in, how to prioritize paying down debts, and whether or not they can afford to continue living in New York, where the cost of living is very high.
If you would like your own questions answered on the podcast, I’m planning to incorporate more of these mailbag topics into upcoming weekly themes, so please email your own retirement questions to me. I’ll do my best to answer your question and I just might feature your question on the podcast!
Send your email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Prepping for Emergencies.
With the recent attacks on Ukraine, I think a lot of people are concerned about escalation and this turning into WWIII. Myself, I worry about vulnerabilities to our power grid and situations where I might need to protect and feed my family in an emergency situation. And putting apocalypse worries aside, we all saw what happened in Texas last year as In February 2021 with the massive power outage during a string of winter storms. which came about as a result of three. The storms caused the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat.More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power,some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.
So with this in mind, how can you use your financial resources wisely to plan for emergencies. I’ll talk about smart ways to spend your money and what to focus on when making a plan for emergencies, which is a lot like planning for retirement. After all, what good is all the money in your bank account or in your 401k if you couldn’t keep yourself or your family alive for more than a few days in a natural disaster scenario.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement. About a month ago, a listener of the podcast emailed me with some questions about her upcoming retirement and this week, I’m addressing the multitude of issues she’s facing as she nears retirement.
Today, I’m talking about what Monica should do next. Here’s what I would recommend in order of priority:
- Make a plan for getting out of her stable value fund, that will have her fully invested in a 40-60% stock allocation over the next 6-12 months.
- Calculate the cost of healthcare. Because of her husbands disability and health issues, navigating paying for health insurance is more complicated in Monica’s case, so she’ll need to find out what health care costs are going to be, especially since she’ll be retiring before she’s covered by medicare.
- Determine if their income and assets will be able to sustain their spending needs in retirement. I offered my retirement success forecaster, and this type of in depth analysis that looks in detail at your financial assets and income sources to see if that can support a comfortable lifestyle for you in retirement. If you want to go through the retirement success forecaster yourself, just go to truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess
- Pay off debt before retirement.
Monica has a few other homework items as well, but these are either dependent on figuring out the above items first, or they’re not as pressing, so I would recommend focusing on the above to do list, and then moving on to selling their rental house, considering where to live in retirement, determining an annual travel budget, and deciding on whether or not she should choose the pension income or the lump sum for the pension she’ll have.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement. About a month ago, a listener of the podcast emailed me with some questions about her upcoming retirement and this week, I’m addressing the multitude of issues she’s facing as she nears retirement. Today, I’m talking about the number 1 reason why people retire earlier than planned - and that is for health reasons. You may have picked up on this in Monica’s email to me that I read earlier in the week, but her husband is the same age as her and has been retired for several years due to health issues.
He is currently taking SS disability income and they even went into debt because he wasn’t working for several years. Prior to his forced early retirement, he was self-employed and wasn’t covered by any sort of 401k plan or IRA.
This has lead to some struggles for them financially and while they are nearly out of the debt hole they’re in, it’s important to plan for this type of unexpected early retirement.
If you or your spouse could no longer work, what’s your plan B? If you had to stop working to take care of
These are just possibilities. It’s incredibly likely that you may need to retire earlier than planned because of health issues - either your own or someone else’s. The statistics back this up. 11% of people retired earlier than planned because of needing to take care of a loved one. 5% of people retired earlier than planned because of Covid health risks, and 36% of people retired early because of their own health issue or disability. That’s over 50% of people who retired earlier than planned because of health reasons.
So make a plan B, and determine what compromises need to be made if you can’t work as long as your planned to.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement. About a month ago, a listener of the podcast emailed me with some questions about her upcoming retirement and this week, I’m addressing the multitude of issues she’s facing as she nears retirement.
Today, I’m addressing another question from Monica’s email. She wrote: “I read about a philosophy of setting aside 5 years worth of required retirement investment withdrawals to use during a strong and long market downturn, allowing the market to recover without making withdrawals during this time.”
I’ve actually talked about this before on the podcast as it’s a common question I receive from clients: How much cash should you keep on hand for income needs and emergencies when retired? I actually think 5 years is too excessive, as it will be a drag on your long-term returns and although it sounds counter-intuitive, it could actually cause you to run out of money in retirement because you had too much cash. What if 5 years of cash represented 30% of your portfolio? That’s 30% of your retirement assets that’s essentially losing money, because it’s likely not going to keep pace with inflation.
At a bare minimum, you’ll want about 6 months worth of monthly expenses on hand for emergencies. So if you spend $5,000/month, you’ll want $30,000 in cash, just for emergencies.
In addition, to protect yourself in the next market downturn, you’ll want to keep another 12 months worth of your portfolio withdrawals on hand. Why? Well the average bear market lasts 14 months. Some are shorter, and some of the deeper ones are even longer. So if you can stop your portfolio withdrawals for a year while the stock market is reeling and we’re in the midst of a recession, you can sleep better at night and not make the problem worse. So 12 months of suspended withdrawals from your investment portfolio should be enough, even if the downturn lasts a little longer than that.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement. About a month ago, a listener of the podcast emailed me with some questions about her upcoming retirement and this week, I’m addressing the multitude of issues she’s facing as she nears retirement.
Today, I’m talking about Monica’s non-negotiable, which is the age which she retires. She mentioned in her original email to me that the latest she would want to retire is sometime in the first half of 2023. This for her is non-negotiable. She’ll be 64 then and has been working for the same company for 42 years.
She has about 1.6 million saved for retirement, will have social security and a modest pension income, and she wants to enjoy retirement. Her husband also has some significant health issues and it’s important to her that she can be home more with him.
Here are a few concerns I have with Monica’s timeline that she’ll need to make a plan for before retirement:
- Debts - [list them]. How will she pay these off and make sure she keeps enough cash for emergencies that she won’t go back into debt in retirement. The student loans and CC debt definitely need to get wiped out before retirement.
- She has a child that is still in college and will graduate in May 2023. She’s paying out of pocket for his room and board and some other expenses.
- She will retire before turning 65 and health insurance will be expensive for her. Needs to make sure she can afford it.
It’s important for cash flow and peace of mind that Monica knocks out all of her debts except for the HELOC prior to retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement. About a month ago, a listener of the podcast emailed me with some questions about her upcoming retirement and this week, I’m addressing the multitude of issues she’s facing as she nears retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the biggest problem that Monica is trying to solve right now, and that is getting out of the stable value fund in her 401k and back into stocks.
Monica writes in her email: “Up until recently I was aggressively invested in stocks in my 401k. I was always calm about market fluctuations. However, now as I approach retirement all the volatility in the world and in the stock market has me worried. In January I moved all my 401k funds into the stable value fund. Prior to that I was invested in primarily large cap funds.
I know I cannot keep it all in the stable value fund long term so I am looking for an allocation strategy when I feel ready to [get back in the market]. I am not a fan of bonds and I think the stable value fund is a better choice for now. I would be willing to leave some money in there as I reallocate other funds into stocks to hopefully increase [growth] in retirement.”
Monica is right - sitting on cash is not a long-term strategy for investing for retirement. What I recommend for Monica is gradually getting back into the stock market over a period of 6-12 months. But not 100% stocks like she was before. She probably should get to a stock allocation that is in the 40-60% range. The exact amount will depend on some other factors other than her age, but that’s a good range to shoot for.
- Pick an allocation. Pick a timeframe. And start reinvesting without flinching.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Listener Case Study: One Year To Retirement
About a month ago, I received an email from a listener of the podcast. Her questions and issues she’s facing as she nears retirement are so common, I thought it would make a great case study for this week’s theme of the podcast.
Monica writes: Hello Ashley,
I have discovered your podcasts recently as I have been exploring setting us up for retirement. I enjoy your podcasts very much and look forward to them every day. I am just recently educating myself in all the ins and outs of retirement and investing and I feel like I am learning a lot but I know i have more to learn. I wish I had started earlier, but everyday life has been so busy and retirement always seemed so far off and something that just happens. Now I realize how much planning is involved and how important it is.
My husband and I are both 63. He is already retired due to some health issues and collects a small social security check. I am looking forward to retiring myself sometime soon,possibly as early as August, or maybe hold out until next year, when I turn 64.
Up until recently I was aggressively invested in stocks in my 401k. I was always calm about market fluctuations. However, now as I approach retirement all the volatility in the world and in the stock market has me worried. In January I moved all my 401k funds into the stable value fund. Prior to that I was invested in primarily large cap funds.
I know I cannot keep it all in the stable value fund long term so I am looking for an allocation strategy when I feel ready to [get back in the market]. I am not a fan of bonds and I think the stable value fund is a better choice for now. I would be willing to leave some money in there as I reallocate other funds into stocks to hopefully increase [growth] in retirement.
I read about a philosophy of setting aside 5 years worth of required retirement investment withdrawals to use during a strong and long market downturn, allowing the market to recover without making withdrawals during this time.
Thank you so much, Ashley!”
There are just so many great questions and issues to pull out of her email! So this week on the podcast, I’ll share with you my advice for Monica as she approaches retirement. We’ll talk about the biggest issue she’s facing, which is getting out of cash. I’ll also share with you my advice for setting aside enough cash, and what I uncovered through further conversations with Monica - what she’ll need to do to pay off debt before retirement, and her 1 non-negotiable when it comes to when and how she plans to retire.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and help answer questions you have about your own retirement, especially if you’re knocking on retirement’s door - like Monica is.
And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
In case you missed any episodes, here is the order of priority that you’ll want to save in your retirement accounts in 2022:
- Understanding Market Corrections
- Is This The Beginning Of Worse To Come For Stocks?
- The Cost Of Missing The Best Days
- The Worst Thing You Can Do During A Stock Market Correction
- The Best Thing You Can Do During A Stock Market Correction
The most important takeaway from this week is: While selling your portfolio of stocks and going to cash is the worst thing you can do during times of market downturns and economic uncertainty, you don’t have to do nothing either. Staying invested and looking for opportunities can help you emerge from these scary and uncertain times in a better position than when you started.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: A Listener Case Study - 1 year to retirement…what to do now?
I received an email from a listener a few weeks ago, and as soon as I read this email, I knew I wanted to devote an entire week’s worth of content on the podcast to her questions. She has a year left until retirement and I’ll cover everything from getting back into the stock market after going to cash, to retiring prior to Medicate, to using a bucket strategy approach to cover living expenses without dipping into your retirement portfolio during a market downturn, and more.
I think there will be something for nearly everyone, as this listener's set of questions and issues is so multi-faceted, yet so common among so many pre-retirees and retirees today.
I’m really looking forward to reviewing this listener case study with you next week, and if you would like your own questions answered on the podcast, I’m planning to incorporate more of these mailbag topics into upcoming weekly themes, so please email your own retirement questions to me, and I just might answer your questions on the podcast!
Send your email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now Today, I’m talking about the best thing you can do during a stock market correction. Many people think that you just have to sit tight and do nothing. That’s wrong. You can do something, just as long as you don’t sell you’re stock portfolio, there’s plenty you can do.
The most important thing you can do during a stock market correction, and especially a worse drop of 20%, 30% or more, is rebalance your portfolio to add to stocks.
Some other things you should do:
- Continue adding to retirement accounts if you’re still working. If you have a stable job and you can afford to increase your contributions, a market downturn is an excellent time to accelerate your savings, and buy on the cheap.
- Do you have cash lying around. Savings rates are still higher relative to historical norms. With low rates and inflation torching that cash you have in your savings accounts, a downturn is an excellent buying opportunity to selectively put cash to work.
- Convert money to Roth - take advantage of depressed portfolio values to reduce your tax bill and capitalize on tax free growth when things recover. Putting some real $s to this…If you have 100 shares of a stock to covert to a Roth from a Traditional IRA - you still convert those same 100 shares to a Roth, but $100 shares valued at $80 6 months ago, might be worth only $50-60 today. Same shares converted, but you pay less tax because the value of what you convert over to the Roth is less.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
Today, I’m talking about the worst thing you can do during a stock market correction. If you listened yesterday, you may be able to easily guess the answer - and that is to sell!
- No one sells at the top
- No one gets back in at the bottom
Giving into the temptation to sell during periods of market declines and uncertainty is a recipe for terrible long-term returns. In fact, investors are so bad at this that professionals call it “the dumb money”.
Professional investors, market analyst will often ask - what is the dumb money doing? In other words, what is the day trader or the average individual investor doing right now? It’s actually a contrarian indicator, which means that if the dumb money is buying or selling, histroy shows you should do the opposite.
The “smart money” on the other hand is what professionals and hedge fund managers are doing.
Before you get mad a me and say I’m calling you dumb, I’m not! That’s not my phrase…I didn’t come up with it.
But isn’t it interesting that it’s so common for the average investor to give in to their fear, panic, and hopelessness, that the industry has taken note and created the dumb money label for this phenomenon.
The smart money - the professional investors - the Warren Buffett types, they’re out there bargain hunting when the stock market is down 10, 20, 30% or more. I’ll talk more about how to be like the smart money crowd tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
Yesterday, I talked about how I think a recession is likely at this point, and why I’m concerned that this current stock market could get worse. With that said, let me share with you why I’m not doing anything about it - at least for right now…
In May of 2020, right around the time that the stock market bottomed out and revered course after the Covid shock, Katherine Roy, Chief Retirement Strategist at JP Morgan said: “Investors crave control and may be tempted to act in a way that we know is likely to hurt their retirement strategy by selling out of the market after a significant loss, locking in those losses, but with every intention of reentering the market when it feels safer, whenever that may be.”
What’s the takeaway? It’s time in the market, not correct market timing that matters most for your long-term returns. Timing the market is such a futile exercise, that if you just refuse to give into the temptation to sell - even if you thing worse things are on the horizon - you’re going to sidestep the trap of thinking you’ll miss the worst of the decline and know when it’s time to get back in.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
Yesterday, we talked about important statistics about corrections, and the takeaway there is that corrections (which is a price decline in the stock market of 10% or more) happen about every other year and they’re a normal and healthy part of a well-functioning stock market.
But what about when that correction is the beginning of a deeper downturn. After all, when we had the financial crisis in 2008, when the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s, and every major stock market meltdown in history started off as a correction.
So how do you know when it’s just a short-lived drop, or the beginning of much worse to come? I wish I had an answer for this, but I don’t. No one knows. And because we don’t know, our hands are tied. The other frustrating thing about investing is that there are always events happening in the world or with the economy that could seemingly point to worse to come.
I was surprised how quickly the stock market reversed course during Covid, and I’m actually surprised that the stock market has had its best week since 2020 as I record today’s episode. The war with Ukraine is intensifying and the world is increasingly unstable, Covid is still hanging around, inflation is insane - I just paid over $300 for weekly groceries for our family of 5, which was a first when not shopping at Costco or loading up on wine, and I just paid 5.29 a gallon for gas, and the Fed just increased rates by ¼ percentage point. You would think with all the craziness that the Dow wouldn’t be up 5.5% this week, but you’d be wrong, because that’s exactly what happened.
I hate to say it, but I am pessimistic about our economy to sidestep a recession at this point. The Fed has been very slow to react to the inflation problem, continuing to insist until recently that’s it’s transitory.
And they’re stuck now, because if they raise raise ¼ point each meeting this year, it’s too little too late to bring inflation in check anytime soon.
So I think inflation will continue to be problematic for the average American and businesses alike. And since dollars don’t go quite as far, spending will likely start to slow and that coupled with higher interest rates could be enough to push us into a recession this year. I just don’t think we have enough cushion in the economy - we’re not growing enough right now to absorb the persistent inflation and higher interest rates at the same time. And if we have a recession, it’s probable that the current correction will turn into a full-blown bear market, with the stock market sliding further into the red.
If I’m right, and you’re in agreement with me, what do you do about it? I’ll turn to that in the coming days.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
Today, we’re building the foundation by understanding market corrections…what are they? What does a typical market correction look like? And how long do they last?
- Correction = 10% or more drop in price of the stock market
- If the correction crosses over the 20% decline threshold, it becomes a bear market. Bear markets are usually longer, and more painful and are often accompanied by a recession as well
- A typical market correction occurs every couple years. The most important point I want to cover today with market corrections is to help you see that they are normal, healthy, and fairly frequent.
- Sometimes the stock market gets too hot - prices rise too much too fast and stocks can easily become overvalued. Corrections serve to bring stock prices back down to reality, so they are a normal and healthy part of investing.
- A stock market correction can last a few days, weeks, or months, and since WWII, the average correction lasted 4 months, which is actually the time it took for the correction to fully reverse and return to the previous high water mark before the correction began.
Tomorrow I’ll talk more about whether this current correction is likely just a healthy, short-lived correction, or the beginning of worse to come.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
Earlier this month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average entered correction territory, which is defined as a drop of 10% or more. As I sit down to record today’s episode, the stock market had it’s best week since 2020, so the Dow has recovered quite a bit. Now it’s down 4% this year, the S&P 500 is down 6% this year, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is still down in the double digits with a YTD drop of about 11%.
I’ve also started to receive some emails and calls from clients who are worried about what’s happening out there right now. One email I received the other day from one of the 401k participants in a plan I manage read: “Hey Ashley - I was wondering how I go about putting all of my stocks in a safer investment? I want to move to wherever I need to in case the market crashes so I don’t lose a ton of money. Can you help me with this?”
While corrections are a healthy and normal part of typical market cycles, this correction seems more perilous than most I’ve experienced thus far in my 14 year career as a financial advisor.
Inflation, higher interest rates - either of which could derail the US economy into a full-blown recession - then there’s the war in Ukraine, continued economic dislocations and supply chain issues from Covid, and worst of all, none of these issues seem to be going away anytime soon.
So this week on the podcast, I’ll share with you my view on these scary and uncertain times, and what I think is the prudent way to act when you’re standing in the fork in the road. Is this just a brief and healthy, normal correction? Or is this the beginning of a full-blown recession and major market downturn - the likes we haven’t seen since the financial crisis in 2008?
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and help provide more clarity on how to manage a stock market correction.
And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
It also happens to be my birthday today! I love Italian red wine, titleist prov1 golf balls, and dark chocolate and my address is…
This week the theme was: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One
In case you missed any episodes, here is the order of priority that you’ll want to save in your retirement accounts in 2022:
- HSA
- Workplace retirement savings plan
- Focus on paying down debts like car loans and your mortgage
- Fund your IRA
- Fund any taxable accounts
The most important takeaway from this week is: There is a specific order in which you’ll want to save in your retirement accounts in 2022, and knowing that order is important for taking full advantage of your employer matches and minimizing your taxes both now and in the future. As with any financial planning recommendation, this order won’t apply to all people in all circumstances but it will apply to most people, so keep that in mind as you’re applying this funding order to your unique situation.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now
Earlier this month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average entered correction territory, which is defined as a drop of 10% or more. While corrections are a healthy and normal part of typical market cycles, this correction seems more perilous than most I’ve experienced thus far in my 14 year career as a financial advisor.
Inflation, higher interest rates, the war in Ukraine, continued economic dislocations and supply chain issues from Covid - none of which appear to be going away anytime soon.
So whether this is just a brief hiccup or the start of worse to come for stocks, I’ll share with you what I share with clients every day on how to weather the current storm that we find ourselves in.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One
Today, I’m talking about funding the account that should come last in your retirement savings accounts priorities - a taxable account. This could be a joint, trust, or single brokerage account in your name.
The best thing about funding a taxable account is that of all of the investment accounts you can fund for your retirement, it’s the most flexible. There’s no income or funding limits, so if you have a high income, they’re a great way to sock away additional funds for retirement once you max out your HSA, 401k, pay down debts, and fund your IRA - which is what I’ve been talking about so far this week.
The downside of the taxable account and why it’s last on the list is that it’s taxable. You don’t get any tax breaks on money going into the account like many of the other retirement savings vehicles, and you’ll be taxed every year on dividends, capital gains, and interest that is generated within the account.
Great for specific savings goals or earmarked funds for other purchases. Beyond the fact that there is no limit to what you can save inside of a taxable account each year, this is where taxable accounts shine the most.
- Withdrawal restrictions & penalties on 401k, IRA, and HSA accounts
- You can withdraw any amount at any time, and your tax bite is limited to your capital gains from what you sell, which is taxed at lower rates compared to your income tax rate in most cases.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One
Today, I’m talking about funding your IRA in 2022. Surprisingly, for most people this is going to come toward the bottom - after you’ve funded your HSA, your workplace retirement savings plan, and made a dent in your car or mortgage debt for the year.
Why so low on the priority list? Unlike the HSA and 401k which likely have matching dollars from your employer, the IRA has no additional match benefit and the contribution limits are much lower compared to most retirement plan accounts that you have at work.
There are some other reasons too - like depending on your income and whether or not you or your spouse are covered by other retirement savings plans - you may not even be able to save in an IRA.
But if you do make it this far in the retirement savings hierarchy for 2022, here’s what you’ll need to know about funding your IRA:
- Again - eligibility and income limits apply to IRAs, so make sure you’re eligible first
- If your income is below the threshold you’ll most often want to consider funding a Roth IRA first, before funding a traditional IRA
- Max contribution for IRA and Roth IRA in 2022:
- $6,000 (under 50)
- $1,000 catch up if 50 or older
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One
So far this week, we’ve talked about which accounts you’ll want to fund first and prioritize in 2022 - those are your HSA and 401k or other workplace retirement savings plans. Once you’ve check the boxes on those, we can move on to something else entirely, which is paying down debts.
On Monday, I mentioned that if you don’t have emergency savings or you’re paying 22% on your credit card debt, those areas need to be addressed before you should be adding more to your long-term retirement savings accounts like a HSA or 401k.
But what do you do if you already have an emergency fund, no high interest debt, you’ve funded your health savings account, and your 401k?
What I would recommend doing next is focusing on paying down your lower interest rate debts like car loans and your mortgage. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you probably know by now that I’m a big fan of zero debt in retirement. In fact, I think that you’d be much better off focusing on aggressively paying down your mortgage in your final working years, even if it means you don’t save as much in your 401k. So finding the right balance of saving enough and paying down your mortgage is key.
But if you’re on track for your retirement savings, knocking out your other debts is a great next place to maximize your long-term retirement savings, since it will help set you up for lower expenses in retirement.
You’ll want to focus on debts before saving more in your IRA and taxable accounts, which is what I’ll turn to tomorrow and Saturday.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One. I’m talking about which accounts you’ll want to max out first, which accounts should be lower on the priority list and in which order you’ll want to save in each one.
Yesterday, I talked about prioritizing your health savings account contribution first for long-term retirement savings. Once you’ve checked the HSA box, which account comes next?
Your workplace retirement savings account comes next. Whether it’s a 401k, 403b, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, or some type of state or federal government savings plan, hopefully you have access to a retirement savings plan through your work.
At a minimum, you’ll want to save at least enough to maximize your employer match. So make sure you know what the minimum contribution is for you to maximize your employer’s match.
- Common safe harbor match formula
- Example of multiplying your savings with the employer match layered on
- Ideally, if you can max out your retirement savings accounts, you’ll want to do that before you look at saving in your IRA or a taxable account
- Max contribution for 401k = $20,500 in 2022 with an additional $6,500 catch up if you’re over 50
- Consider at least a portion into a Roth too, especially if you have most of your retirement investment portfolio in pre-tax or traditional 401k or IRA accounts
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One. I’m talking about which accounts you’ll want to save in first, which accounts should be lower on the priority list and in which order you’ll want to save in each one.
Today, I’m talking about the first account you’ll want to fund in 2022 - your health savings account.
- Why the HSA - triple tax benefit
- Don’t leave it in cash…max the growth potential with investing it
- Eligibility is dependent on a HDHP
- Minimum = fund up to the match
- Maximum = $3,650: Annual HSA contribution limit for individuals
- Those with family plans will be able to stash up to $7,300 in their health savings account in 2022
- Employees 55 and older can contribute an extra $1,000 to their health savings account in 2022
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One
A common question I get from clients is how to prioritize saving for retirement. They might have a 401k, a Roth IRA, a taxable brokerage account, and a HSA. So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about which accounts to prioritize with your long term savings and how and why you should fund each one in a particular order.
One important point about this week’s tips is that I’m assuming you’ve already established an emergency fund and you have a healthy amount of savings in the bank. I’m also assuming that you don’t carry any high interest rate debt and your debt level overall is low.
If you don’t have emergency savings or you’re paying 22% on your credit card debt, those areas need to be addressed before you should be adding more to your long-term retirement savings accounts, so please keep that in mind when you’re listening to the podcast this week.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and help provide more clarity on which accounts you should fund first and which accounts you should fund last.
And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week on the podcast, I sat down for an interview with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. For over 17 years, Matt has had the opportunity to serve well over 500 families in the process of buying and selling real estate. He’s advised clients on everything from first-time home purchases, to rental properties, to selling a 74-acre farm stand business.
He’s a true professional and has a deep understanding of the real estate market. I really enjoyed our conversation and he had some valuable insights to share with me on buying real estate in the current market.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Surprise! TBD… :)
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. In this interview, he and I talk about the current real estate climate and whether or not it’s too late to buy real estate in 2022.
Here is today’s interview segment with Matt Mahaffey…
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. In this interview, he and I talk about the current real estate climate and whether or not it’s too late to buy real estate in 2022.
Here is today’s interview segment with Matt Mahaffey…
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. In this interview, he and I talk about the current real estate climate and whether or not it’s too late to buy real estate in 2022.
Here is today’s interview segment with Matt Mahaffey…
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. In this interview, he and I talk about the current real estate climate and whether or not it’s too late to buy real estate in 2022.
Here is today’s interview segment with Matt Mahaffey…
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. In this interview, he and I talk about the current real estate climate and whether or not it’s too late to buy real estate in 2022.
Here is today’s interview segment with Matt Mahaffey…
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the podcast, I’m discussing a big question that is on the minds of many Americans these days: Is It Too Late To Buy Real Estate?
I sat down for an interview with Matt Mahaffey, principal broker with the Mahaffey Real Estate Group in Portland, OR. For over 18 years, Matt has had the opportunity to serve well over 500 families in the process of buying and selling real estate. He’s advised clients on everything from first-time home purchases, to rental properties, to selling a 74-acre farm stand business.
He’s a true professional and has a deep understanding of the real estate market. As a 4th generation Oregonian, most of his expertise applies to the Portland, OR real estate market, but as you’ll see, much of what we’ll discuss this week in our interview applies to real estate across the United States.
Matt and I have known each other for about 8 years, and he helped us find our current home back in 2014. He did such a great job that I referred him to my in-laws a couple years later when they sold their house and downsized after retiring.
So this week on the podcast, Matt & I explore real estate issues of particular concern for retiree and pre-retiree Americans. Specifically, we discuss:
-
The current real estate environment (prices, inventory, trends in 2022- higher interest rates, economic uncertainty, what else?)...Recent headlines within the past few weeks:
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WSJ: Median sales price for single-family existing homes was higher in fourth quarter versus year ago in 181 of 183 metro areas (https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-housing-affordability-worsens-11644507291)
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WSJ: In Covid-19 Housing Market, the Middle Class Is Getting Priced Out (https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-covid-19-housing-market-the-middle-class-is-getting-priced-out-11644246000)
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WSJ: U.S. Home Sales Jumped 6.7% in January Amid Record-Low Inventory (https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-home-sales-jumped-6-7-in-january-amid-record-low-inventory-11645196860)
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Selling and downsizing - is there a better time than right now to sell a larger home and downsize to something smaller?
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Single-level homes - big issue of supply for retirees looking for a floor plan that suits their needs as they age
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Concerns about buying at the top of the market…What are your thoughts on the market for investment properties and rentals
- Thoughts on buying a 2nd home as a vacation home or a snowbird destination? Again…concerns about buying at the top
If you want to watch the full video interview with Matt Mahaffey its entirety, you can find it on my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’m diving into the interview with Matt.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- How Volatility Differs From Risk
- Rule # 1: Don’t Panic. Rule #2: Don’t Forget Rule #1
- How To Buy Low & Sell High In The Real World
- The Discerning Stock Market Bargain Hunter
- Doing This One Thing Could Save You A Million Dollars
The most important takeaway from this week is:
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Is It Too Late To Buy Real Estate? My husband and I were having a discussion the other day about real estate. Back in 2017, when I was making plans to leave my old firm, I briefly considered buying property for our office space, but it would have been too many changes all at once, so we leased office space instead. Hindsight is always 2020, and real estate - especially where I live - has gone crazy since that time. Which begs the question…is it too late to buy an investment property or that beach house you’ve always dreamed of?
We’ll explore that question next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage
Today, I’m talking about a promise you’ll need to make to yourself if you want to consistently profit from uncertain and volatile times in the stock market. It’s a very simple promise:
Commit to never selling and going to cash or bonds when the stock market is broadly lower. It’s important to mention that this applies to your entire stock portfolio, and not an individual stock. If you own an individual stock that’s gone sour, then it’s usually better to get out and sell once the future prospects start to diminish, rather than waiting for a turnaround.
But where your entire portfolio or your 401k is concerned, especially when you’re well-diversified, selling in volatile time periods when the stock market has already dropped 10-20% or more will only hurt you in the long-run, so it’s incredibly important to stay disciplined and commit to never selling or going to cash/bonds when the stock market is in a downturn.
Abandoning this commitment has serious long-term consequences for your portfolio returns.
A Vanguard Advisor Alpha study quantified this and your behavior, which mostly boils down to staying disciplined with your strategy in good times and bad, was responsible for about 1.5% of your annual returns over the long-run.
Sounds like not much, but that’s a huge difference. 2 investors with all else equal who both started with $1 million, will have vastly different results over a 20 year time period. Investor A who stayed disciplined, calm, cool and collected at a 7% average return turned his or her million into about $3.87 million over that 20 year time period. Investor B who’s returns were reduced by 1.5% because of emotional investment decisions, had $2.92 million over that same time period - a difference of over $950,000!
So make a promise to yourself that you’ll never abandon your stock portfolio in volatile times and I’m confident you’ll see that reflected in your long-term portfolio values.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage.
Yesterday I talked about how to buy low and sell high in the real world and start using stock market volatility to your advantage, rather than being afraid of it.
Today, let’s talk more about what to buy when you pull the trigger and start adding to stocks.
When the stock market is heading lower, it’s like the tide is going out and a bunch of boats near the shore become exposed. Stocks are like boats in this regard, because the low tide exposes, barnacles, cracks or even gaping holes in the boat that were concealed underwater when the tide was in and times were good.
You should never own junk in your portfolio, but it’s especially important that you focus on quality - well taken care of companies with a clean underbelly and very few, if any barnacles or signs of wear and tear.
Volatile times cause many great stocks to drop in value too, and when you focus on quality, volatile times offer an opportunity to buy great companies at bargains. What makes a quality stock is no secret, so whether you buy stocks or ETFs or mutual funds when you go bargain hunting, you’ll be able to profit from these down periods.
Focus on stocks that have future earnings power, low debt, strong management teams, dominant market positions, and strong cash flow. These are the typical hallmarks of a great bargain stock, and sticking with these quality characteristics will prevent you from loading up your portfolio with garbage and not real bargains.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage
Today, I’m talking about the easiest way and the most profitable way for most investors to use stock market volatility to their advantage - buying low and selling high.
How do you do this in the real world? It’s actually much easier than you might think, but it does take discipline. Let me explain…
Let’s say your ideal portfolio allocation to stocks is 65%, but let’s say the stock market continues to drop and your portfolio is down 15-20%. There’s a good chance that your allocation is now hovering closer to 60% because the stock side of the equation has absorbed all of those losses.
So you would need to figure out how much to add to stocks to get back to your 65% target, then determine what to sell from your bonds to make that happen, and just do it.
Having a target stock and bond mix and then taking action when your portfolio deviates more than about 5% from that allocation gives you the discipline to buy low and sell high. Buying low and selling high evades most investors because they let their emotions or biases get in the way, and they don’t have a target allocation to stocks, which means they don’t take action to rebalance when they should.
Volatile markets give you opportunities to re-balance and do what most investors can never seem to do - buy low and sell high. A Vanguard Advisor Alpha study found that rebalancing enhanced returns by as much as .26% annually. It sounds like a small amount, but over 20 year retirement on a $1 million portfolio earning 6%, that’s a difference of $161,000.
Don’t know your target allocation? If you send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com, I’ll send you my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that will help you figure out what % in stocks is ideal for your age, and help you establish a baseline for using this strategy to your advantage.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage
Today, I’m talking about the #1 rule to using volatility to your advantage..well, 2 rules actually: Rule # 1: Don’t Panic. Rule #2: Don’t Forget Rule #1.
You can’t think straight or act appropriately when you’re freaked out and panicking over the stock market. Keeping your cool is the most important basic first step. You must be able to remain calm and think clearly during scary volatile time periods in the stock market if you have any hope of profiting from this current environment.That’s why I’m starting here this week, and not just diving right in to taking advantage of volatility, which I’ll transition to tomorrow.
But for today, how do we stay calm and collected when the world around us is going bonkers. 40-year high inflation, interest rate hikes on the horizon, a war in the Ukraine…now that Covid is fading, the next several shoes have dropped and the stock market all of a sudden doesn’t like any of it.
Much of remaining calm comes down to some combination of temperament and experience. Most of you listening have been through many stock market periods like we’re in now, and so it becomes easier to deal with as time goes on. When you get closer to retirement, you have more at stake and so that counterbalances the benefits of your experience, and if you’re always worried and anxious about most things, including your investments, that’s also going to make it more challenging to stay calm, and you’ll need to work harder to not let your emotions control your investment decisions.
What about the things you can control? For me, this starts with limiting the quantity of the news I consume. Trust me…the headlines today won’t matter much tomorrow. And the more news we consume, the more uncertain and scary the world feels and it’s easy to get stressed, panicked, hopeless, and that’s when our fight or flight response kicks in and you start making some really bad decisions with your investments.
It’s not just the amount of news you consume, it’s the quality as well. It’s important to stay away from the sources of news that stress you out the most.
If you like Tucker Carlson, but your blood pressure is through the roof after watching him every night, then turn it off. [Reading vs. watching].
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage
Today, I’m talking about the difference between volatility and risk. It’s critical that you understand the difference between the 2 in order for you to be a successful investor in uncertain times like we’re facing today, and the big stock market swings that accompany it.
Volatility is the degree by which the price or value of an investment fluctuates. In volatile periods like we’re in right now, prices swing sharply up and down while in less volatile periods, price swings are muted. 2021 was a very calm time in the stock market. Most days the stock market just kept marching higher, with hardly a hiccup along the way.
Risk, on the other hand, is the chance of investments declining in value or the likelihood for permanent loss.
For example, most broadly invested mutual funds or an index funds are actually fairly low risk investments, even if they’re 100% in the stock market. Why? Because the risk of permanent loss is low.
Most broadly invested mutual funds or index funds have hundreds of stocks across many different industries, with most having no more than a 2-3% in even the largest holdings in the fund. With your money spread out across so many different stocks, the likelihood for permanent loss is low, given enough time.
Is it possible that you could lose money on an investment like this? Absolutely, since you can sell it at any time and lock in those losses. That’s risk. But the chance that that investment goes to zero and you lose all of your investment is extremely low.
When you own a single stock on the other hand, that’s risk. There’s a good chance that the stock could go to zero if the company goes bankrupt, and it can happen overnight.
When you can separate risk from volatility and understand that risk is permanent loss, volatility is temporary loss, you’ll better understand how to take advantage of volatile times and not make the mistake of turning temporary volatility into permanent loss, by selling when your portfolio declines in value.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. The theme this week on the podcast is: How To Use Stock Market Volatility In 2022 To Your Advantage
Nasqaq on 2/24 - day after Russia invaded Ukraine - 3+% drop to a 3+% gain in the same day. That kind of whiplash in one day has only happened a handful of times in history. Followed the next day on Friday with a1.64% move to the upside. Volatility is scary and uncertainty is scary. Most people are scared of volatility in the stock market, but you shouldn’t be afraid of volatility, because you can use it to your advantage to boost your long-term returns, and this week, I’ll go into the details of how you can use volatility to your advantage in 2022.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- Spoiler Alert! Pay Off Debt
- 3 Reasons To Pay Off Debt Before Retirement
- Paying Off Debt Gradually vs. Lump Sum
- Finding Out How Long It Will Take To Pay Off Debt
- Debt You Should Never Have In Retirement
The most important takeaways from this week are two: First, eliminating debt in retirement is one of the best ways you can minimize your expenses and maximize your freedom in retirement, and 2nd: you’re likely better off focusing on paying off your debts in the last few working years that you would be if you devoted that money to saving more in your 401k.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Let’s talk volatility! To say the stock market has been volatile so far in 2022 is an understatement. So next week I’ll talk about volatility, why the way most people think about volatility is wrong, and how you can use volatility to your advantage.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
So far this week, I’ve been talking about paying off your mortgage debt, but you may be asking yourself, what about other debts? Credit cards, medical bills, car loans, etc.
So today, I’m talking about these other types of debt that you definitely don’t want to keep carrying into retirement.
The biggest no-no for debt in retirement is any credit card or other high interest rate debt. Living on a fixed income and portfolio withdrawals that are generating returns in the mid-high single digits and using that money to pay off high interest rate credit cards simply doesn’t make financial sense and it’s a recipe for being chronically broke in retirement.
Many people get into credit card debt because they don’t have emergency savings and they spend too much of their income, sometimes exceeding their income with their spending.
If this is you, you’ll need to figure out a way to build up more cash savings in your coffers while simultaneously cutting your spending.
I find that a good way to tackle spending habits prior to retirement is to live a mock retirement year. Figure out what your income sources will be in retirement and just live off of that income. The last thing you want to do is have to cut way back on your spending or go back to work after retirement, because you weren’t able to adjust to your retirement income. Or worse, you don’t want to continue racking up credit card debt in retirement or worse, spend down your assets quickly in retirement, because your spending is exceeding what your income and assets can support.
Most retirees spend about 60-80% of their income that they were making pre-retirement, mostly because their assets and income sources aren’t quite as high as their income while they were working. And I find that there is an adjustment period in retirement for the first year or 2 while you figure out what your spending really looks like from month to month, so a mock retirement can really help with preparing you for that adjustment.
To address the other types of debt like car loans, etc. I would still prefer my clients and all of you listening to have no debt in retirement because of the financial flexibility that comes with no debt, but there is a range here, so if you don’t have any credit card debt, no mortgage, but you still have a car loan, in most cases, that’s probably ok.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about finding out how long it will take for you to pay off your mortgage - or any debt for that matter. The secret is using an amortization calculator.
Here’s how the amortization calculator works with your mortgage: Let’s say you have 15 years left on your mortgage and you’re 9 years from retirement. How much would you need to add to your monthly payment to pay off your mortgage the same month that you plan to retire?
When you use an amortization calculator which you can easily find online for free, you can enter extra payment amounts to figure out how much you would need to add to your mortgage every month to pay it off early by a certain date.
When you actually run the numbers with an amortization, you might be surprised to learn that knocking those 6 years off your mortgage is totally doable, and not as burdensome as you might have expected.
For example, if you have 15 years left on your mortgage with a mortgage rate of 3.25% & a monthly payment of about $1740/mo, if you add another $1000 to your monthly payment, it shaves 6 years off, timing your mortgage payoff with when you retire. I ran this calculation in under a minute using my favorite amortization online calculator.
Now you might balk at this because adding $1,000 to your monthly payment is a lot, but you’re most likely in your peak earning years so you’re making more money, and I’m also assuming that you’re saving less in your retirement accounts.
Remember, you do need to run the numbers for yourself to make sure that it makes sense, but I can tell you for most people who are just a handful of years away from retirement, most of the time it pays to eliminate that mortgage payment, even if it means saving less in your 401k.
I’ll link to my favorite amortization calculator in the show notes, so you can run the numbers for yourself. You can find the link and all the show notes for this episode - episode 1237 - in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most places where you’re listening to this podcast.
Mortgage Amortization Calculator (from Bankrate) >>> https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/home-equity/additional-mortgage-payment-calculator.aspx
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
Today, I want to talk about a common question I get from clients. The question goes something like this: Ashley, I’m 5 years from retirement, I have $100,000 left on my mortgage. I want to take that money out of my retirement accounts and pay off my mortgage, wipe it out all at once.
Usually my response is: bad idea. We don’t want to take a big haircut on your total portfolio value, and plunge that money into an illiquid asset right before retirement. Unless you have the assets to take out a large lump sum, which most people don’t, you’re going to be better off paying off the mortgage gradually, even if that means you can’t pay off your mortgage before retirement. If you can pay it off within 5-10 years of retirement, because you accelerate payments now, you’ll still be better off than having that mortgage for the next 20+ years.
I actually ran the numbers on this for a client just the other day. In their case, it was about $400,000 in retirement account withdrawals to pay off their mortgage before retirement. They could instead use rental income they have from an investment property to pay off their mortgage in the next 5-7 years. They’re planning to retire well before that, but when I ran the numbers in their situation, and we looked at the side by side scenario of paying off their mortgage gradually vs. in a lump sum, they had about 10% more in assets at the end of their retirement, because they didn’t siphon off that money just before retirement to pay off their mortgage in a lump sum.
Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about how you can calculate how long it will take for you to pay off your mortgage if you do it gradually.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
Today, I’m talking about my top 3 reasons why you’ll be glad you paid off your mortgage before retirement. If it’s just not possible to pay off your mortgage before retirement, paying it off as soon as possible - even if that means you won’t pay it off until year 5 or year 8 or even year 10 of retirement is still worth the effort…because the month that you can end that big mortgage expense is the month where your money is freed up for more discretionary and fun things.
Which brings me to my 1st reason why you’ll be glad you paid off your mortgage ASAP, which is the freedom and flexibility it gives you with your spending. The median mortgage payment for Americans in 2019 was $1,609/mo. That’s over $19,000/ year thats going to your mortgage payment.
For most Americans, their income is lower in retirement compared to their working years, so if you still have that mortgage payment every month, it’s eating into your fun money.
The 2nd reason why you want to pay off your mortgage as soon as possible either before or in retirement is because it’s likely your biggest monthly expense. Many Americans don’t live satisfying retirements, often due to health reasons or they simply can’t afford to do much else other than sit in front of the TV all day.
But when you free up what’s likely your biggest monthly expense, you have more money to do meaningful things like travel, or pursue a hobby, or just buy plane tickets to visit your grandkids a few times a year without the guilt.
The mortgage payment is fixed. Unless you sell your house, move and downsize, you’re not going to be able to stop making those payments, so if you can get rid of that big expense it’s going to give you so much more flexibility and breathing room with your finances.
The 3rd reason why it’s a good idea to pay off your mortgage is peace of mind. When you get rid of your mortgage payment, most of your other necessities are far less expensive, so you have more flexibility with your spending. Let’s say your income in retirement is $5,000/mo from various sources. If $1,500 of that is going toward your mortgage and you wipe that out, now a lot more of your income is going toward discretionary spending, vs. spending on needs.
That means if you want to take a big trip, or there's a recession and you need to reduce your portfolio withdrawals, you won’t feel the pain because you have the breathing room to cut your income and spending, since most of it is now discretionary, with maybe only ⅓ or ½ going toward necessities like groceries, bills, gas, taxes, etc.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
Today, I’m answering the question of should you save more for retirement accounts in your last working years leading up to retirement, or should you focus instead on paying off your mortgage?
According to 2019 US census data, the median monthly mortgage payment is $1,609. That’s $19,308 mortgage expense per year. If you have 15 years left on that mortgage, you’re going to need about $289,620 to pay that off.
For most Americans, housing is their largest expense, making up about ⅓ of all household expenses for the average American family. So if you keep that mortgage expense into your retirement years, that’s going to mean a good portion of your fixed monthly cash flow is going to pay the mortgage.
Let’s say you’re 6 years out from retirement, you have 15 years left on your mortgage. If you really get aggressive with your mortgage payments, maybe you can pay it off in 8-10 years. This means that you won’t have a mortgage anymore a couple years into retirement. That will free up the $1,609/mo you were paying toward your mortgage and leave you with a lot more breathing room with your finances and your expenses.
Most of the time, even if it means cutting back on your retirement savings in your final working years, the math will pencil out better for you in retirement if you can eliminate your mortgage vs. saving more in your 401k.
And the closer you are to retirement and paying off your mortgage, the better off you’ll likely be if you pay off your mortgage and focus on that, rather than saving more for retirement.
The reason is that you need so much more in assets and income in retirement if you keep that mortgage, and because you’re only a few years from retirement, you’re not going to have as much growth on the money you save today, compared to the growth on the dollars you saved in your 30s and 40s.
If you’re not yet convinced because the interest rate on your mortgage rate is so low, or you like that tax deduction, or you think you can earn better returns by investing the money instead - those are all valid objections, so tomorrow I’ll talk about my top 3 reasons why you should pay off your debt - especially mortgage debt as soon as possible if you’re nearing retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement?
At the very beginning of 2020, I posted a YouTube video that asks the question: Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage Before Retirement?
Of the 100+ videos I’ve posted to my YouTube channel, this video has been the most watched by a landslide, with twice as many views as the next most-watched video. So this week, I decided to revisit this topic, since it’s clearly on the minds of many people who are getting close to retirement.
I want to focus on mortgage debt specifically and why I think it’s so important to pay off your mortgage either before you retire or as soon as possible into your retirement years, even if that means saving less in your retirement accounts. I’ll also talk about why I think it’s a bad idea to pay off your mortgage in a lump sum, and why you’re better off paying it off gradually, even if it takes you another 10+ years. I’ll also talk about other debts that must be paid off before retirement, so you can live a more free retirement, unshackled from your debt.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was: Recession coming in 2022?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week…
The most important takeaway from this week is to make plan! Don’t get blindsided by the next recession, because there are steps you can still take today to prepare, even if we are on the precipice of a recession.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement. As you approach retirement, would it be better to save more or focus on eliminating your debts before retirement? I’ll explore this important topic next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Recession coming in 2022?
Today, I’m talking about how you can use a downturn in your portfolio to convert to a Roth…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Recession coming in 2022?
Today, I’m talking about making a plan B for your retirement if we have a recession and you’re newly retired.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Recession coming in 2022?
Today, I’m talking about how much cash you might want to have when the next recession comes knocking.
At a bare minimum, you’ll want about 6 months worth of monthly expenses on hand for emergencies. So if you spend $5,000/month, you’ll want $30,000 in cash, just for emergencies.
In addition, to protect yourself in the next market downturn, you’ll want to keep another 12 months worth of your portfolio withdrawals on hand. Why? Well the average bear market lasts 14 months. Some are shorter, and some of the deeper ones are even longer. So if you can stop your portfolio withdrawals for a year while the stock market is reeling and we’re in the midst of a recession, you can sleep better at night and not make the problem worse. So 12 months of suspended withdrawals from your investment portfolio should be enough, even if the downturn lasts a little longer than that.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Recession coming in 2022?
Today, I’m talking about why it’s critical that you stay invested for the long-term. Don’t let the current economic climate or a stock market downturn convince you to abandon your long-term strategy. After all, even if you’re already retired, your money still needs to last you another 20-30 more years in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Recession coming in 2022?
Today, I’m talking about how to remain disciplined with maintaining a proper asset allocation in good times and in bad times…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Recession Coming in 2022?
Originally this week, I was going to talk about whether or not its better to save more in the years leading up to retirement, or focus on paying down your debts. That’s a topic I’ll come back to on a future week, because as I sat down to get ready to write my talking points for this week’s episodes, new data emerged showing inflation is getting worse, now at 7.5%. The stock market has taken a beating, with the S&P 500 down over 7% for the year as I record this episode. The Dow is faring better - down about 4% this year - but that’s because the Dow is made up of a higher concentration of high quality, solid stocks, and as recession fears grow, there’s a flight to quality and investors prefer companies with strong balance sheets, lots of cash, which is more characteristic of companies in the Dow.
The Fed is going to have to raise interest rates this year to bring inflation in check, and it seems increasingly likely that with the economy on shaky ground already, that higher interest rates might be the straw that broke the camel’s back and send our economy into a recession.
So this week, I’m going to talk about how you can protect your portfolio and your retirement if we have a recession in 2022.
I’ll talk about how you can shore up your investment portfolio, how much cash you should have on hand, and why a plan B is critical if we do slip into a recession this year.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s important to invest and make financial decisions based on probabilities, not possibilities. And even if we sidestep a recession this year, we’re still going to have a recession at some point in the next few years, so these are all steps you can take now to protect yourself even if I’m wrong about the direction of the economy.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was: The new 3.3% rule for retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- The 4% Rule Explained
- Why Did the 4% Rule Change To 3.3%?
- The Gloomy Outlook That’s Driving The 3.3% Rule
- 4 Reasons Why The 4% Rule Still Works
- Why You Shouldn’t Fret Too Much About The 4% or 3.3% Rule
The most important takeaway from this week is that while guidelines like the 4% rule or the revised 3.3% rule can be helpful in determining a safe withdrawal rate for retirement, these rules use a number of assumptions that could be wildly inaccurate over a 30 year retirement. So no matter which withdrawal rate you use in retirement, the key is to remain flexible with your spending and withdrawals to account for the actual changing market and economic conditions as well as natural fluctuations in your spending needs.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Save More or Pay Off Debt Before Retirement. As you approach retirement, would it be better to save more or focus on eliminating your debts before retirement? I’ll explore this important topic next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The New 3.3% Rule For Retirement
Today, I’m talking about Why You Shouldn’t Fret Too Much About The 4% or 3.3% Rule.
If you like structure, rules, and you’re legalistic about things like I am, then the 4% rule or the 3.3% rule is comforting because you can determine an appropriate withdrawal rate for retirement based on well-documented research.
But I urge you not to get too strict about adhering to a 4% or a 3.3% rule in retirement, because the real key to success in not running out of money in retirement is flexibility.
You should hold more cash in retirement so you can stop your portfolio withdrawals during a stock market downturn, or you can pay cash to fix your leaky roof, rather than taking on debt.
What are you going to do in 5 years when you need to buy a new car, but you’re not willing to spend more than 4% of your portfolio to buy the car, on top of your other withdrawals? It could drive you to finance the car instead, which may or may not be the best decision for you in retirement.
You’re likely to have some big medical bills or need long-term care at some point later in life. What will you do then? For most people, this happens at the end of their life, and it could require a significant drawdown of assets to pay for that. Isn’t that why you built up your nest egg in the first place to pay for this unexpected thing that we call life?
In my experience, I find that most of my clients who have passed on make it to the end of their life with plenty left over to pass on to their kids, because they didn’t spend as much as they could have in retirement.
I have a client who will be 92 this year. She lives in assisted living and it’s expensive. She has had to increase her withdrawals over the last few years to pay for this expensive care. But guess what? She sold her house when she needed to move into assisted living, and that provided more than enough resources for her to pay for her increase in living expenses. She hardly spends money anymore because she’s not traveling and most of her other expenses are minimal. She’s in no danger of running out of money in retirement even if she quadrupled what she’s taking out in retirement.
The research from Morningstar recognizes this stating: “While fixed withdrawal strategies produce stable and predictable cash flow, they do come with inherent risks. “If the starting withdrawal is too low and the portfolio outperforms expectations, the retiree will leave behind a large sum, which may not be a goal,”
“If the initial withdrawal is too high, the retiree will consume too much too early and risk running out prematurely and/or having to engage in dramatic belt-tightening later in life.”
Instead, flexible strategies whose withdrawal rates change on a yearly basis may be ideal for helping you reach your goals in retirement without outliving your money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The New 3.3% Rule For Retirement
So far this week, I’ve been talking about how new research from Morningstar may alter recommendations for a safe withdrawal rate in retirement from 4% down to 3.3%. A number of assumptions about future returns for stocks and bonds is the primary driver for that change, so today, I’m talking about 4 reasons why the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals still works.
#1 - the 4% rule still works if you can be flexible with withdrawals. What I mean by this is that you can reduce or stop your withdrawals all together from your portfolio in a market downturn. This often requires cash reserves of at least 12-18 months and some other income to support your lifestyle and expenses - like social security. But if you can be flexible with your withdrawals in retirement, and cut back on travel or big purchases when your portfolio is having a year of lean or declining returns, that should allow you to support a higher withdrawal rate.
The 2nd scenario where a higher withdrawal rate is still sustainable is if returns are better than expected and inflation calms down. The 3.3% withdrawal rule assumes some fairly pessimistic returns for stocks and bonds, but if that doesn’t materialize and you can still achieve average returns in the mid single digits - say 6-7%, you could easily support a withdrawal rate closer to 4%.
The 3rd reason why a higher withdrawal rate still works is the 3.3% rule for withdrawals in retirement assumes you need your money to last for 30 years. We don’t know how long we’re going to live, but if you retire closer to 70, you’re likely to only need your money to last for 15-20 years in retirement, not 30. Spending a decade less in your retirement years, means your portfolio can support a higher withdrawal rate in retirement without you worrying about running out of money.
And the last reason why you can probably sustain a higher withdrawal rate in retirement is research that says your spending will go down anyways as you move through retirement, which challenges the baseline assumption that’s built into the withdrawal rate analysis, which is that your spending will increase every year at the rate of inflation. Chances are, it won’t. I actually dedicated an entire week to this topic of reduced spending in retirement, so if you want to hear more about that, check out episodes 1051-1057, published the week of August 30, 2021.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The New 3.3% Rule For Retirement Today, I’m talking about the forward-looking assumptions that are driving this change from a 4% safe withdrawal rate in retirement to a 3.3% withdrawal rate.
Here’s why according to Christine Benz, the director of personal finance and retirement planning at Morningstar and a co-author of the new research on the 3.3% rule:
“Retirees have enjoyed a “trifecta” of positive market developments over the past several decades…Low inflation, low bond yields (which have boosted bond prices) and strong stock returns have helped buoy investment portfolios and safe withdrawal rates,” she said.
The dynamic has perhaps lulled near-retirees into a false sense of security, Benz said.
Bonds are “highly unlikely to enjoy strong gains over the next 30 years,” and high stock prices are likely to fall as they revert to the average, according to the report. Inflation is also an issue, but the research anticipates that inflation will moderate and won’t be a huge problem over the course of a 30-year retirement.
And this is where the research must be taken with a grain of salt. They’re trying to project likely return scenarios out over a 30+ year retirement. Plenty of stocks are overvalued at the moment, but there are still plenty of high quality stocks that are fairly valued, or even under-valued. And income and total return from bonds may improve over time as the interest rate climate changes.
Are their assumptions realistic? I think so, but the 4% withdrawal rule also assumes moderate returns and has held up well under back tested scenarios under a variety of stock and bond market conditions. Even back tested in the 1970s where we had dismal stock returns and high inflation, you still didn’t run out of money if you retired during that time.
Will you be more likely to never outlive your retirement savings if you adopt the 3.3% rule, compared to the 4% rule? No question! But you may also unnecessarily restrict your spending based on overly pessimistic assumptions.
So tomorrow, I’m going to talk more about when and why a higher 4% withdrawal rule still works in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The New 3.3% Rule For Retirement
Over the last couple days, I’ve been talking about the 4% rule, which is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money. If you missed the earlier episodes this week, I encourage you to go back and listen to those so you can better understand where I’m going with explaining why the rule is now changing.
Morningstar recently came out with some new research that recommends the 4% rule be revised downward to a 3.3% withdrawal rate in retirement? Today, I’ve diving into the rationale for the change.
“Using forward-looking estimates for investment performance and inflation, they found that a 50% stock/50% bond portfolio should support a starting fixed real withdrawal rate of about 3.3% per year, assuming fixed real withdrawals over a 30-year time horizon and a 90% probability of success. This is because bond yields are low and stock valuations are high.” https://www.planadviser.com/3-3-withdrawal-rule-might-sustainable-retirees-going-forward/.
Let’s break this down a little more, starting with the 90% chance of success. That means that running many simulations, using these assumptions, you made it through a 30 year retirement without running out of money if you started with a 3.3% withdrawal rate in retirement. That amount will increase every year for inflation so you can maintain your standard of living.
Next we need to look at the portfolio assumptions. A portfolio that is invested 50% stocks and 50% bonds and cash is going to have a specific return and risk profile and there are a number of assumptions that need to be made about the range of possible future returns based on the allocation of the portfolio.
And that’s why the 4% rule is changing to a 3.3% rule, because the assumptions for the returns on that 50/50 stock and bond mix are more pessimistic going forward because of higher stock valuations and lower projected returns on bonds.
But keep in mind, these are forward-looking assumptions, and tomorrow we’ll dive more into these assumptions about future stock and bond returns that are bringing the safe withdrawal rate down to 3.3%.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: The New 3.3% Rule For Retirement.
Today, I’m explaining the concept of the 4% rule to create a foundation for what we’ll be talking about for the rest of this week, which is new research out from Morningstar that recommends the 4% rule be lowered to 3.3% withdrawal amount for retirement.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
If you apply the 4% rule to your retirement savings, you would take your portfolio value and multiply that amount by 4%...so if you get to retirement with $1 million saved, and multiply that $1million by 4%, you get $40,000. So according to the 4% rule, you can withdraw $40,000 from your portfolio in year 1 of retirement, then increase that withdrawal amount for inflation each year without worrying too much about running out of money.
4% is considered a safe withdrawal rate that has been around for over 25 years and is backed by some well-documented research.
An important question to consider is: Can you rely on the 4% rule? Is this actually a reliable rule of thumb for planning for your retirement?
The short answer is that it does work well...sometimes. The long answer is that retirement is too complex to rely on a rule of thumb - taxes, inflation, your returns in retirement vary widely from year to year, and you may be unlucky enough to retire in the midst of a big stock market downturn - these are all circumstances that will make the 4% rule less useful or blow it out of the water all together.
And that’s part of the reason for the downward revision to the rule, that I’ll talk more about tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The New 3.3% Rule For Retirement
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
It was a concept originally developed by financial advisor Bill Bergen over 25 years ago, and has been widely used since as a quick and easy way to ensure your portfolio withdrawals in retirement remain sustainable. The fact that the 4% rule has held up over a quarter century now as a way to determine a safe withdrawal rate, shows that even though this rule has some flaws it is still relevant and useful today.
However, new research from Morningstar suggests that the 4% rule for portfolio withdrawals in retirement should be adjusted down to 3.3%.
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about why Morningstar is suggesting a lower withdrawal rate, the new assumptions that are built into this new recommendation, in what circumstances the 4% rule will still work, and why flexibility is key to ensuring you don’t outlive your retirement savings…no matter which withdrawal rate you go with.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
The most important takeaway from this week is…by knowing where biases in our thinking and how we’re wired can influence (often in some pretty damaging ways) how we make decisions, we’ll be better equipped to make more rational and less emotionally-driven decisions.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The new 3.3% Rule for retirement. 4% of your portfolio has long been the rule-of-thumb standard withdrawal rate for retirees, but new research from Morningstar lowers that withdrawal rate to 3.3% and next week, I’ll explain why.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
Today, I’m talking about Loss Aversion.
Essentially what this means is that the pain of loss is felt more strongly than gains. In fact, the 2 don’t even compare. For most of us, the pain of losing $1,000 far worse than the happiness we feel if we gain $1,000.
In more precise terms, research shows that the pain of loss is twice as bad as the happiness we feel when we gain something by the same amount.
The applications to money are far-reaching. Many of us are too scared of losing and want to avoid the pain of loss, so we might keep too much in cash, or not be invested in stocks as much as we should.
Where loss aversion is really problematic is when we are in the midst of a downturn in the stock market. When you looked at your January investment account statement and you saw that you were down 8% or that you lost $100,000 in just one month, you probably didn’t like it. Or how about some of these headlines from last month:
- Barron’s - The Stock Market Just Suffered Its Worst Week Since 2020
- Market Watch - Is it time to bail out of the stock market? Wild price swings are shaking the resolve of some investors.
- NY Times - Stock Markets Off to Worst Start Since 2016 as Fed Fights Inflation
- At least 7 signs show how the stock market is breaking down - also from MarketWatch
If your left eye just started twitching, congratulations, you’re human, and you too can fall victim to loss aversion if you let these headlines spook you into abandoning your long-term investment strategy.
Think about this too…there was probably a month within the last couple of years where you had a gain of the same amount - 8% or $100,000 in just one month. Your reaction, I’m guessing was much more muted…”hmmm, that’s nice”
And this strong aversion to loss and feeling the pain can cause us to sell our investments at the worst possible time and abandon our long-term financial plan.
So what can you do about it? Well, one common sense, easy way you can avoid falling victim to loss aversion is simply to look at your investments less often. The more often you look, the more likely you are to see a loss in a given day, week, or month. But if you only look at your investments every quarter or even once a year, those results smooth out and normalize. Some people can handle looking every day or week…others would be better off just looking every quarter or just twice a year, so if your temperament skews more toward loss aversion, then make sure you own quality investments and look as infrequently as you can stand it, while still keeping reasonable tabs on your investments.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
Today, I’m talking about decision fatigue. Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions that you make when you’re in a situation where you must make a lot of different decisions. When you are burdened with too many decisions, it’s just so exhausting, that you can’t stay sharp. So you start making some pretty terrible decisions, just because you’re not as sharp.
The key to overcoming decision fatigue is to just decide on what you can, when you can and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to figure it all out.
I see this happen a lot with social security. It can be a very overwhelming decision, especially when you’re married, and there’s too many options about when to start your benefits, spousal benefits, how social security will be taxed, and how that decision about social security will impact your finances for the rest of your life. It’s a complex decision that requires an understanding of how that decision will impact everything else in retirement.
And then what do we do? Make a knee jerk decision because our head is about to explode, or we decide to defer the decision until later down the road, which may not be a good decision either.
Sometimes the weight of making decisions on your will, your estate, your social security, medical insurance options, your retirement is overwhelming. And it's tiring. That’s when you know you’ve crossed the danger zone.
The worst thing you can do when there’s too many decisions that are confusing and frustrating you is to press on, because your fatigue can lead you astray into some poor decisions.
If you’re truly overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin with an important decision, seek some help. Often, the cure for decision fatigue is just to step away. For an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Sometimes you feel pressured to make a decision right then and there, but unless you have the presence of mind to realize that you’re not capable of making a smart decision in the moment, you may make a decision that’s fatigued.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
Today, I’m talking about Overconfidence Bias, which is mostly about thinking we’re better at something than we actually are.
When I was 6 years old, I thought I was going to be in the NBA…
Overconfidence when it comes to investing shouldn’t always be conflated with arrogance. I find that in reality there are very few arrogant investors, at least when it comes to their arrogance in their investment acumen. That’s some of what overconfidence bias isn’t about, but not all of it.
Overconfidence has two components: overconfidence in the quality of your information, and your ability to act on that information at the right time for maximum gain. Studies show that overconfident traders trade more frequently and fail to appropriately diversify their portfolios. - https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/050813/4-behavioral-biases-and-how-avoid-them.asp
Holding big stock positions and betting it all on just a single stock or a handful of stocks would be an example of overconfidence bias
How to overcome overconfidence bias: It goes back to the 2 components I just mentioned:
- Overconfidence in the quality of your information. No matter the source, no matter their authority or intelligence, they’re often just as wrong and clueless as you, so always remember that.
- Second is your ability to act on that information at the right time for maximum gain. You may be right occasionally and time things perfectly in life, but if you really pay attention and if you’re honest with yourself, you get it wrong all the time. So do I. I think the cure for this one is one of the hardest things any of us can do, which is become more humble, and much of which comes with age. Gandhi once said: “It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom”
I love this quote: the opposite of wisdom is to be sure of your own wisdom.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
Today, I’m talking about confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses. We are all guilty of this and this particular bias in how we filter information is also part of what’s ripping us apart as a country right now. If you are conservative and can’t bear to watch anything on CNN or if you’re liberal and hate Fox News, you’re guilty of confirmation bias.
Social media actually makes this much worse, making it harder for us to see alternative viewpoints, because the algorithms serve us up with news and information that it thinks we’ll like and click on.
When you fall victim to confirmation bias with your finances, you only see the intersection of the facts or data that already confirm your bias. It’s like making a decision with blinders on. You ignore what doesn’t already fit into your narrative, keeping you closed off to all the facts, and often we miss really important facts that should be weighed when making a decision.
For example, let’s say you love tech stocks. You love technology companies so much that they make up your entire retirement portfolio. Instead of objectively looking at that situation and realizing what’s inherently wrong with owning companies from one sector, all you seek out online articles and research that confirm that technology will only go up from here. Or 3 additional tech stocks you need to add to your portfolio this year.
By not expanding your research and searching for reasons to NOT own tech stocks, all you’re doing is digging yourself deeper and deeper into the hole.
Succumbing to confirmation bias only serves to further entrench us in our skewed and bias beliefs. And when we don’t make a decision with all relevant information, we’re doing ourselves a major disservice.
So here’s my challenge to you today. Research a topic from the opposite point of view from your own. Try to pick a topic where you’re already entrenched in your beliefs. Bonus points if the topic is about money. Research it from the opposite point of view, like why not to buy tech stocks. Spend 15-20 minutes researching the topic from the other viewpoint, looking for strong arguments in favor of that viewpoint. Pretend that you need to convince someone else to believe this point of view and research it like you were preparing for a debate. Practicing open-mindedness is uncomfortable, but building this skill is incredibly valuable in all aspects of life in helping you make well-informed and more well-rounded decisions, not just with your finances, but with everything else as well.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
Today, I’m talking about how to avoid the most destructive behavioral finance problem among investors: recency bias.
According to a white paper on this topic from Charles Schwab: “Recency bias is the tendency to place too much emphasis on experiences that are freshest in your memory—even if they are not the most relevant or reliable. Would you want to go for a long ocean swim after watching Jaws? Probably not, even though the actual risk of being attacked by a shark is infinitesimally small.”
I wonder if Hawaii tourism drops substantially after Shark Week on the Discovery channel?
So why is recency bias so destructive?
- It’s largely responsible for why investors buy high and sell low…when the stock market is at the top, you can’t find a worried investor anywhere. Everybody is buying. When the stock market has bottomed out, everyone feels hopeless and many have thrown in the towel.
- Recency bias leads us to just look at what’s happening today to make decisions that will impact you for the next several decades. If you think I’m exaggerating here, think again.
- According to JP Morgan Asset Management, the average investor only made a 2.9% annual return over the last 20 years - only slightly better than inflation, compared to the S&P 500, which made 7.5% per year. Why? Recency bias. Investors let the current trends and what they’re seeing in the news drive them to buy at the top and sell at the bottom, and their dismal returns are proof of that.
So what can you do to prevent recency bias from influencing your decisions? Actually you can do a lot of things. The best advice I can give here is not to act when you’re feeling scared, fearful, or worried that this time is different. It’s probably not, so wait a week…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. The theme this week on the podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin
Behavioral finance has been around for a while now and it combines the principles of psychology with investor behavior. Not only is it interesting to understand how our biases, past experiences, and just how we’re wired impacts our decision making as investors, but it’s practically important too, because it can help you better understand your natural inclinations can lead you to some destructive decisions with your money.
As Dan Akroyd’s character Ray Zalinsky said to Chris Farley in Tommy Boy after he went a little heavy on the pine tree air freshener:
“Good, you've pinpointed it, now the next step is washin' it out.”
And that’s exactly the point of this week’s tips…to help you pinpoint the flaws in the natural way we think and behave, so we can act in our own best interests even when it seems to go against our natural ways of thinking.
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about several behavioral biases that influence our behaviors…how you can recognize those biases and how to act in a way that doesn’t let those biases lead you to make bad decisions with your money.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
The most important takeaway from this week is…
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Will Lead To Ruin
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022
Today, I’m talking about why you may want to wait until 2023 or 2024 to retire if you’re on the verge of retirement and seriously considering retiring this year.
Benefit of waiting just an extra 1-2 years to retire when you’re close.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022
Today, I’m talking about why inflation and the fact that higher inflation is still getting worse should give you pause and make you think twice about retiring this year.
A problematic, but very possible outcome for 2022 is that we have higher interest rates. This may help bring inflation down, but the stock market has been a little drunk on lower interest rates for years, and it now seems clear that the Fed is going to put the cap on the whiskey bottle and raise rates multiple times in 2022.
Big businesses have been enjoying cheap financing for a long time and higher interest rates will expose lower quality stocks with higher debt loads. This is already happening as unprofitable companies have been taking a beating in Jauary with the prospect of higher interest rates.
I believe that higher quality stocks with strong fundamentals, low debt, and dominant positions in their industry will be more immune to a downturn in stock prices due to higher rates, but they will likely still see some shocks.
Higher interest rates also mean lower bond prices, so even if you’re more conservatively invested with less of your portfolio in stocks, you’re still exposed to the current Fed policy and the likelihood of higher interest rates and continued inflation in 2022.
Do I think the stock market or the bond market is going to crash? No. The first few weeks in January has prompted some worried phone calls from clients, but I don’t believe we’re heading for a market crash.
But if you’re on the edge of being financially ready to retire in 2022, a blow to your portfolio in year one coupled with higher inflation which means potentially higher withdrawals from your investments will only make the problem worse. So for that reason I would take a pause and make sure to stress test your portfolio, make sure it can handle a downturn of 10-20% in value and not compromise your plan for retirement, before deciding to hand in your notice in 2022.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022
Today, I’m talking about the #1 reason you shouldn’t retire in 2022 - you still like working!
- When you’re financially prepared for retirement and would like the additional freedom to travel more and finally get to all those house projects you’ve been putting off for years, retirement can seem like a good idea
- But many people underestimate the importance of work in their lives, so you want to make sure you’re ready mentally and emotionally as well
- Numerous health benefits of working longer - increases your longevity, keeps you mentally sharp
- Problem of being blindsided by depression after retirement honeymoon wears off
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022 Today, I’m continuing with yesterdays topic to talk more about why it’s dangerous to feel a false sense of security because your net worth is looking pretty good right now. We’re coming off of an incredibly strong 13-year growth period for stocks without a really painful downturn in that time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022
Roughly 2 million more people than expected have joined the ranks of the retired during the pandemic, according to The New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
2 million extra people are now retired compared to what would be expected since the pandemic began…that’s a lot of people who decided to accelerate their retirement and call it quits over the last couple of years, and that’s in addition to the roughly 2 million people who retire each year in the US.
The typical story behind an accelerated retirement goes something like this: I’m burned out at work, I had a health scare last year, I’m worried about Covid, I don’t want to get vaxxed but my employer is making me….these are all reasons I’ve heard in just the last few months of why some of my clients are retiring earlier than they planned. We run the numbers and find they can afford to retire now, so they put in their notice and call it quits.
And there’s nothing wrong with this. If you would rather be retired and not working anymore and you can afford to retire, great! But I think one of the problems facing early retirees right now, is that they are lulled into a false sense of security because they feel pretty rich right now. Their investment portfolios are fat and growing (at least they were until January of this year), and we really haven’t had a bad recession or a prolonged downturn in the stock market since 2008…that’s 13 years ago now. 13 years of steady growth and the last 3 years have been double digit earning years for most people. Covid counts as a bad recession, but it was over so quickly and recovered so soon that most didn’t feel any real pain. You’re in your peak earning years, likely with the highest income you’ve ever had. Your house is worth way more than it probably should be and so most people close to retirement feel pretty rich right now.
That’s a problem, because if your plans don’t take into account the possibility that we could have a recession and a major downturn in the market in your first couple years of retirement, you could be setting yourself up for a retirement that’s very different from the one you envisioned.
I’ll continue with this topic tomorrow and I’ll talk more about why you don’t want your retirement accounts to lull you into a false sense of security.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022
If you’re like the 2 million extra people who retired during the pandemic, chances are you’ve thought about accelerating your plan for retirement, and perhaps you’re planning on retiring this year. Perhaps that’s why you’re listening to this podcast…you want to retire as soon as you can and you want to prepare yourself financially for the transition.
But retirement is a huge decision and one of the most important transitions you’ll ever make, so while there are plenty of reasons to retire in 2022, there are also a few reasons not to, which I’ll cover this week.
We’ll talk about the risk of retiring at the onset of a recession or a big downturn in the market. It’s been a rough start to the year for the stock market, inflation hasn’t been this bad since before I was born, and it’s possible that tough times ahead will continue, making the timing of retirement now perilous. I’ll talk about other considerations for staying put in your job this year and what I think is the #1 reason you shouldn’t retire.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! I’m excited to dive deeper into this week’s theme with you! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How to include your spouse in financial decisions
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
The most important takeaway from this week is that even if one spouse manages pretty much all of the household finances and makes most of the financial decisions, there are a few key areas where your spouse can and should be included in those money decisions, because it will provide continuity and better security for you as a couple and especially for the non-financial manager spouse, should something happen to the financial guru in the relationship.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Why You Shouldn’t Retire in 2022.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Include Your Spouse In Financial Decisions
Today, I’m asking you an important question: Have you ever asked your spouse if they want to be more involved with the management of the household finances? Would they like to take a more active role in filing your taxes, paying bills, managing your household investments, deciding how much you should keep in savings or how you’ll pay off your mortgage early, or anything else?
At a bare minimum, if you’re the one who manages the household finances, your spouse must have the 30,000 foot view of what I laid out this week, so hopefully, even if they want to be hands-off, you can still both come together a few times a year to discuss finances, review your tax return, meet with your financial advisor, review the household balance sheet inventory list, and both of you can understand the money related tasks that need to be done monthly and annually, as well as the ins and outs of your household finances. That’s essential for both a better relationship, and taking care of your spouse, should something happen to you and you can no longer manage the finances for your family.
I’ve often seen situations where decisions are made unilaterally by one spouse, which can create resentment or one spouse to feel excluded. But when you’re involved together, it increases the likelihood that the spouse who doesn’t manage the day-to-day finances will have more influence over how decisions are made and feel less like the decisions were made for them.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Include Your Spouse In Financial Decisions
Today, I’m talking about the importance of reviewing your tax return - understanding of your income - both employment and other sources, how much in taxes you’re paying, capital gains and how investment decisions influence taxes you pay, your deductions and expenses and how those influence your net income.
My husband does our taxes, so I’m out of touch with this, so it’s really helpful to review this line item by line item each year.
You’ll also want to include your spouse in planning discussions with your tax advisor if you use someone. There’s a pretty good chance that they may need to do the taxes at some point, so having an understanding of the big picture and seeing how it all works is valuable.
Another way to involve them is to work together on gathering the checklist of items you’ll need for doing your taxes this year. It can help the spouse who doesn’t do your taxes understand what kind of homework and prep work is involved when doing your taxes and where all that data comes from, when to expect it (1099), etc.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Include Your Spouse In Financial Decisions
Today, I’m talking about the importance of involving both spouses in every planning meeting with your key advisors (financial advisor, tax advisor, attorney, banker, mortgage lender, insurance agent)
Why:
- Build relationships and trust with your family’s advisors
- Know who to turn to when they need help down the road
- Can better understand your income and tax situation
- Can have a say in and a sense of control on how your investments are managed, since you’re likely to have 2 different appetites for risk.
- Estate planning - this is key! Values and discussions about children, grandchildren, inherited wealth, beneficiaries, restricting access, designating an executor…all decisions that need to be made together
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Include Your Spouse In Financial Decisions
Yesterday, I talked about the importance of reviewing your current balance sheet with your spouse, which at the highest level includes Today, I’m talking about how important it is to make sure both you and your spouse know how to log in to all of your financial accounts and pay bills…while you’re at it, make sure that your spouse knows the process for how you pay bills and which bills are paid from which accounts.
With so many of us paying bills automatically or online and going paperless, how would your spouse know which bills need to be paid or how to pay the mortgage if something happened to you? That’s why the financial inventory is critical, but also why it’s important to make sure your spouse knows how to login to each of your bank accounts, credit card accounts, and investment accounts. Etc.
- Some accounts allow for multiple users
- Others you may need to provide access another way, i.e. Last Pass (explain)
- Taking inventory or going through the tedious process of providing access to 10 or more accounts should be a red flag that you have too many accounts in too many places. At most, I recommend: 1 bank, 1 financial institution for your investments aside from your current workplace retirement plan, no more than 2-3 credit cards. This cuts down on the account clutter.
- Don’t make your spouse deal with your mish mash of accounts spread out all over the place. That’s pointless and stressful, and you don’t want them to deal with that in a stressful situation or when they’re older and unable to manage all of those different accounts. You may be able to deal with it, but that’s because you’re used to it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Include Your Spouse In Financial Decisions
Today, I’m talking about the importance of creating a financial inventory.
This is critical for reducing stress and further financial damage if you die unexpectedly. Here’s how you create a financial inventory
- List all of your accounts and a few high level details
- You don’t need to include all the details. Where is the checking account held? What’s the last 4 of the account number? Which branch or name of the banker who can help? How much is in there currently?
- You do this for bank accounts, credit cards, investment account statements, mortgage statements, insurance policies. Basically, any asset you have, any debt you have, every credit card should all have a line item listing on this inventory list
- The goal is to give your spouse a complete picture of where the assets are held.
- Review this and update annually with your spouse. Let them know where to find a copy, then importantly, give a copy to your trusted advisors
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How To Include Your Spouse In Financial Decisions
There’s a lot of information out there on what to do when you first get married and combine your finances. But what about couples who are nearing retirement, who may at this point have been married for 20-30+ years and are set in their patterns and routines when it comes to managing the household finances.
Are the patterns that we’re settled in after many years together problematic for managing your finances as a couple as you get older? Not necessarily, but if you’re doing it right, managing the household finances is kind of a big job. There’s everything to making sure the utility bills and property taxes get paid to keeping track of money coming in and out, doing your taxes, making decisions about your investments…even couples who are good with their money are often setting themselves up for future catastrophes, or at the very least, future stress and headaches.
That’s because when it comes to finances, it’s most often that only one spouse, not both spouses have a good understanding of the household finances. In many cases, one spouse may not even know which credit card bills need to be paid this month and wouldn’t have the faintest clue about how to file a tax return.
This, of course, can be problematic when the financial guru in the marriage becomes disabled, loses their mental faculties, or dies first. I see this often with older couples, so this week, I’m going to share with you how you can involve your spouse in key financial decisions that will give them some insight to how the household finances function. Everything from creating a master list of your financial accounts, to reviewing your tax return, to ensuring that both of you always participate in meetings with your key advisors.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! I’m excited to dive deeper into this week’s theme with you! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week: I talked about the recent milestone with Apple hitting the $3 trillion milestone, and how concentrated the stock market is - with 25% of the stock market made up of just a handful of mostly tech stocks. I also covered why this concentration is worrisome now, and the consequences of the potential fallout. And lastly I talked about how to find out how concentrated your portfolio is and how much is too much in any one stock or industry.
The most important takeaway from this week is to realize that your portfolio may be more concentrated than you realize and that as time goes on without rebalancing and reducing that concentration, the more susceptible your portfolio is to inevitable corrections and a reversion to the mean. So take the time to find out how diversified your portfolio really is and take steps to rebalance and reduce that risk.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: how to include your spouse in financial decisions.
For most couples, it’s usually one spouse who makes most of the financial decisions, pays the bills, does your taxes, and makes all of the investment decisions. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but there are definitely important conversations that spouses need to have and decisions that need to be made together as a couple. Too often, 1 spouse is left in the dark when it comes to finances, so next week I’ll share with you some tips on how you can talk about your retirement and finances and make better decisions…together as a couple!
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think.
Yesterday, I talked about how to determine how concentrated your portfolio is, if you have any red flags with too much invested in any one stock or any one industry.
Today, I’m talking about how you can use that information to determine if any changes to your portfolio need to be made to reduce your risk.
How much is too much in any one stock or industry? It’s an important question and one that I learned to implement when I was still cutting my teeth as a baby advisor.
When you think about diversification, it means having the right amount of stocks, bonds, and cash, but within the stock allocation, diversification goes much deeper. You’ll want to have a good mix of large and small stocks, have international diversification, as well as diversification across different industries.
So if you have too much invested in any one stock or industry, it introduces an added layer of risk, but it also prevents you from investing in other areas that are important for maintaining proper diversification.
Back to the question of how much is too much in one stock or industry? There isn’t a one-size-fits all answer here, but generally, no more than 10% of your portfolio should be invested in any one stock and no more than 20% should be invested in any one industry.
If your concentrations are higher than that, you’ll want to make a plan for reducing your stock and industry allocations so you can better diversify your portfolio and reduce your risk.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think
Today, I’m talking about how to find out how concentrated your portfolio is and how this concentration translates to higher portfolio risk as it relates to your individual situation.
If you’re like most people, especially if a lot of your investments are held in a 401k, you have a mix of several different funds. You might have a large cap growth fund, an S&P 500 index fund, an international fund, and a couple small or mid cap funds. Or you may have everything invested in a target date retirement fund.
When you have a mix of different investments it can be difficult to find out how the combination of your entire portfolio is invested. How much is in just a handful of the largest tech companies? How much do you have invested in tech stocks? Or financials? Or consumer staples?
What’s your largest holding overall? Is your portfolio more concentrated and more risky than you realize?
Because I want you to be armed with information, and because I love my loyal listeners, I’m really excited about offering you a free portfolio analysis X ray report.
Ok, here’s how you can get your free portfolio X Ray report. Send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com. In your email, list the name of the investment, preferably with it’s ticker symbol, and the $ amount you have invested in the fund. You can send me a list of up to 10 of your top holdings and I’ll send you a portfolio X ray report which will tell you exactly how your portfolio is invested and if there are any red flags with high concentrations.
All I ask in return is that you leave an honest review of the podcast in Amazon or Apple, and you share the love by sharing this podcast with a friend who is getting close to retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think
A recent article in the WSJ titled: “Gigantic Stocks Are a Reason to Worry” says: As Apple, Microsoft and Amazon cross the trillion-dollar mark, index investors should be concerned about concentrated portfolios”.
The article makes the argument that one important reason why you should worry is that “even passive investors are increasingly betting on just a handful of stocks vulnerable to a dud product or regulatory setback. Thinking of it in terms of buying an entire business is helpful: Would you rather own the iPhone maker or all of McDonald’s, Walmart, AT&T, Philip Morris, Berkshire Hathaway, Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, Starbucks, Boeing, Deere and American Express combined? A lot would have to go wrong all at once to torpedo that diversified group of blue-chip stocks.”
This means that the biggest winners also tend to become overvalued over time, as they can only stay at the top for so long and tend to start underperforming as their growth levels off and normalizes.
Apple is a good example of this. The stock only crossed the $1 trillion valuation in 2018. When this happened, Apple was the first company ever to do it, but since then, it soared into $2 trillion territory in 2020, and took just another year and ½ to grow by another $1 trillion to become the first ever $3 trillion company.
It took Apple 40 years to reach a $1 trillion valuation. It took only another 3 years to grow by another $2 trillion. Does that kind of growth sound sustainable to you?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think
The S&P 500 is a common gauge for the stock market and chances are that a large cap mutual fund or index fund that you own is modeled after the S&P 500. You may think that the S&P 500 is pretty well diversified. In fact, as the name indicates, there are about 500 companies in the index. But your money is not split up evenly among those 500 companies, because the S&P 500 is a market weight index, meaning the largest companies make up the largest portion of the index and end up driving much of the performance - for better or for worse.
But just how concentrated is the S&P 500? Just the 2 largest companies by market cap, make up nearly 13% of the weight of the index. Combined, the top 6 companies in the S&P 500 - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Google & Facebook - all big tech stocks by the way, make up a quarter of the index weighting. Roughly 25% of your portfolio if you’re in a S&P 500 index fund is driven by the performance of just 6 stocks!
Which brings us to an important question: How concentrated is your own portfolio? How much of your portfolio is invested in big tech names and is it something you should be concerned about or something you should adjust?
If you send me a list of your top portfolio holdings with the dollar amounts invested in each, I’ll send you a portfolio X Ray analysis report that will show you how concentrated your portfolio really is.
Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com with a list of your top holdings, including $ amounts invested, and I’ll send you a free portfolio X Ray analysis.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think
On the very first stock market trading day of 2022, Apple stock became the first company ever to reach a valuation of $3 trillion. Apple’s value is greater than the entire GDP of India. If Apple was a sovereign nation, it would be the 5th largest in the world, just behind Germany and just ahead of the UK in GDP.
If you’ve owned Apple stock, for any length of time you’re probably a happy camper. And I would be willing to bet that even if you don’t own the stock, you still own it because Apple is a major holding in most broad-based market index funds and mutual funds.
The problem with this is, especially in index funds that are meant to mirror the performance of an index like the S&P 500, is that companies like Apple that keep growing like weeds, don’t get pulled out of the ground, or even cut back.
As a result, Apple and the other tech darlings like it become a bigger and bigger slice of your portfolio over time. This creates significant risks in a portfolio with large concentrations in just a handful of mostly tech stocks.
So even if you don’t own Apple stock, you probably still own a bunch of Apple stock and other large tech giants just like it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Why Your Stock Portfolio Is More Risky Than You Think
When you’re invested in a diversified portfolio or a target date fund in your 401k, you probably think that you’re broadly invested across many different companies across many different industries. But you’d be wrong. In fact, there’s a really good chance that your portfolio has a much higher concentration in just a handful of mostly tech stocks.
In fact, just 10 companies in the S&P 500 index make up over 30% of the weight of that index. And chances are that most of the large mutual funds and index funds you’re invested in have similar concentrations.
So this week, I’m going to share with you how concentrated the stock market is right now, why this is a problem, and what steps you can take to reduce these concentrations and associated risks in your own portfolio.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- Dow @ 36,000
- The Internet will be as influential to the economy as the fax machine
- The great crash ahead (preceding one of the best 10 years for stocks in history)
- Enron: America’s Most Innovative Company
- The Y2K Apocalypse that never was
I shared with you lessons and takeaways that you can learn from these dead wrong predictions to help you make better decisions with your money.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Your diversified portfolio is more concentrated (and more risky!) than you think
You probably don’t realize how much of your portfolio is invested in just a handful of big tech companies. Even if you think you have a diversified portfolio or your money is invested in a diversified target date fund in your 401k so this isn’t an issue for you, think again.
If you look under the hood at the stocks in your favorite index funds and mutual funds, you might be a little surprised how unbalanced it’s become in just a few of the biggest stocks. That’s been a good thing for your returns, but it’s leading investors into a false sense of diversification and security, so next week I’ll share with you how you can better understand how your portfolio is really invested and whether or not you have too much of your portfolio in tech stocks.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to them saying, “Hey, I thought you might enjoy this podcast…have a listen!.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
Probably my favorite dire prediction of all time that never came true is Y2K. I remember being scared about Y2K. I was in high school at the time, and was spending the night at a friends house on NYE. I remember thinking that maybe I should go home because I was pretty worried about what would happen and the chaos that would ensue in the days and weeks after everything crashed. Computers would stop functioning. The stock market would crash. There would be a run on the banks. The world as we knew it would collapse.
There were lots of books written about Y2K, one of which was Time Bomb 2000, among many others. You couldn’t ignore the doomsday drumbeat at the time…as you may recall it wasn’t just books but all over the news, everyone was talking about what would happen when all the computers turned to double zero?
All we could do was wait, and if you were the doomsday preparer type, you had your bunker built and ready to go, stocked with food and water to last until we emerged out the other side of the apocalypse. And then what happened? Absolutely nothing.
What’s the lesson here? Yet another doomsday scenario that was spectacularly wrong. What if you were convinced that this would be the end of the world. After all, everyone else seemed to be convinced that something bad was going to happen to Cinderella at midnight.
If you were convinced it was true, you would sell all your stocks, buy guns, gold, and canned food, quit your job and use all of your free time and stock proceeds to build yourself an apocalypse shelter.
Is it good to be prepared for worst case scenarios? Yes. Within reason. I live in Oregon where a devastating earthquake could happen at any time. I keep running shoes in my office at work. I have food and water for several days and other emergency supplies, both at work and at home. But drastically changing my life to prepare for something that might actually never happen is not prudent, and it can be devastating when you apply these doomsday preparation principles to your finances.
A wise person once told me: Invest based on probabilities, not possibilities. When you invest based on possibilities, anything is possible and you’ll fall for anything. When you make investment decisions based on probabilities, you’re much more likely to find the middle road and reduce the likelihood that you’ll make a bad decision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
If you glanced at today’s episode title, hopefully it gave you a little chuckle. Enron: America’s Most Innovative Company.
Fortune magazine voted Enron “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2001. Yet, we all know that it was all just smoke & mirrors, because in that final year in 2001, everything blew up and Enron went from the most innovative company to the most legendary blowup and fraud. In August 2000, the stock was trading around $90 a share. Just over a year later, the stock was worthless.
The saddest part of this fall from grace was that many Enron employees had the ability to buy Enron stock in their 401k, and most of them did. In fact, as reported by the New York Times, “At the end of the year 2000, the 401(k) plan had $2.1 billion in assets. More than half was invested in Enron company stock. Since then, the stock has lost 94 percent of its value.
At Portland General Electric, the Oregon utility acquired by Enron four years ago, some workers nearing retirement have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The utility has lined up grief counselors to help them work through their problems.”
I remember this all too well. I have clients who worked at Portland General Electirc and who themselves lost hundreds of thousands in Enron stock when it all blew up. It took many years and many lawsuits in order for Enron employees to recoup even just pennies on the dollar of what their 401ks were worth.
The lesson here is that many people who work for large companies can trace much if not most of their wealth to the performance of the company stock, whether that be through the 401k, stock options, or restricted stock. Many employees of these large companies might have 50% or more of their net worth tied up in company stock. And if you were an Enron employee in the year 2000, you’d probably do the same…why wouldn’t you, since year after year, the company was thriving and had a bright future. Fortune doesn’t hand out the most innovative company award 6 years in a row for no good reason.
But too many people ignore the risks of their concentrated stock. It’s essential that you diversify when you can and gradually reduce your exposure to any single stock, without letting your conviction or the reluctance to pay taxes cloud your good judgement.
Because even the most innovative company in the world can fizzle out to dust just like that…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
Today’s stupid prediction is from Harry Dent and his book The Great Crash ahead.
A lot was wrong with Harry’s book, but much of it made sense at the time based on what was happening in the world.
“To Harry Dent, the injection of over $800 billion in stimulus funds into the economy represented so much debt and uncertainty that a market crash was inevitable.”
There was an article about this over at wealth management.com. The article says: “Few authors have been so bold in their predictions. Dent predicted that the Dow, hovering around 11,000 for most of 2011, would fall by three orders of magnitude by 2013 to between 3,000 and 3,800. Few predictions survive the collision with reality. In 2013, the Dow was up 26.5% to an average closing price of 15,009. Dent also forecast a deflation in prices and the bursting of the bubble in China. Both forecasts also turned out to be without merit.”
There are a couple of lessons that I take away from a prediction like this. First, I would never recommend reading a book like this. There are always ways to weave a story together into a prediction that makes sense. So let’s assume you read the book and believe it to be a fair and accurate prediction of what’s likely going to happen in the future? If you took the advice, and sold your stock portfolio, you would have missed one of the best 10 years for stocks ever.
The 2nd takeaway is this: Never take bold action on a doom and gloom scenario. I hear all kinds of good reasons why the stock market, our economy, our society, and our democracy will collapse. Some of these theories make a lot of sense and are backed by smart people who know what they’re talking about. But they can’t see the future, and the world has an interesting way of throwing curveballs.
In order to be a successful investor, you have to stick with quality investments over the long-haul and not throw in the towel on your investment portfolio or your financial plan. It’s a recipe for disaster every time, and it requires that you have faith and hope in the future and make prudent decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
Today’s stupid prediction comes from Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, in 1998: “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically…most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine.”
Ouch! Those are fightin words! And looking back on this prediction, it’s laughable. No one could have possibly predicted how reliant we are on the internet and how it has drastically changed the economy. Forget social media. Just think about how everything you do at work and at home relies on the internet. If you’ve ever had the wifi go out at work, for most of us that means we can’t do anything. You might as well just go home for the day.
A far cry from Krugman’s prediction that the internet will have as much influence as the fax machine.
How spectacularly wrong Paul Krugman was in this analysis, but the lesson in today’s stupid predictions example is one of the most important you can learn when it comes to listening to the opinions and predictions of others.
Paul Krugman isn’t some random guy. He is one of the most influential economists of our time. He is a New York Times columnist, lecturer, bestselling author, and winner of a Nobel Prize for his theories on international trade and economies of scale.
If you were sitting across from him at a coffee shop and he told you that the internet is just a bunch of bologna, you’d have every reason to believe him. He obviously knows what he’s talking about.
But despite his credentials he was still spectacularly wrong, and it’s important to understand that smart people who confidently pontificate on the future are very often wrong. It’s easy to rely on the opinion of someone like Krugman, because one could assume that he’s done his homework, he knows more than I do, and he’s smarter than me so I’ll just take his word for it.
But when it comes to investing and trying to figure out the trends, hot stocks and what’s going to change the world…that’s hard to predict with any regularity. Bold predictions are usually wrong and one shouldn’t rely on the credentials of others to shortcut your decision making..that’s the takeaway from today’s episode.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
Today, I’m talking about the prediction that came over 2 decades too late: Dow at 36,000. “Dow 36,000 was a book published in 1999, predicting that the Dow would reach 36,000 within a very short period of time - 3 to 5 years at the most. The Dow at the time was trading in the 10,000 range at the time, so this was a pretty bold prediction.
This book was published right before the stock market tech bubble burst in the early 2000s and it took about 22 years, not 3 to 5 for the prediction to materialize.
What’s the lesson here? Well, I think that it shows just irrationally exuberant investors were at the time, because this wasn’t some fringe book. It was a popular bestseller with endorsements from the likes of John Bogle, founder of Vanguard. The danger is that investors always feel the most optimistic when the stock market is at or near the top. In fact, one of the best ways to tell if you should start taking some gains and moving your money out of stocks and into something else is when everyone around you is optimistic about future stock market returns and telling you how the stock market is going to more than triple in value within just a few short years.
It’s a pattern that repeats continuously in markets - whether stocks, real estate, or bitcoin, and it’s dangerous to get swept up in the thinking that you must jump on the bandwagon too without another thought so you don’t miss out.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I have a request…I’m working on an upcoming theme for the podcast about financial goals, so if you made a new year's resolution or a goal for 2022 related to your finances, I want to hear from you. If you have a goal for 2022 that’s related to your finances or retirement, send me an email and let me know what your goal is and your game plan for achieving it.
I’ll pick my favorite submissions and feature them on the podcast in the next few weeks. You’ll benefit from my feedback and insight, and help inspire other listeners to achieve their own financial goals for the new year.
My email is ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about the stupidest stock market predictions, to give you clues about why you should take every prediction with a very big grain of salt, when you should just tune someone out completely, and most importantly why you should always ignore the most pessimistic predictions, since these are the most tempting to act on, yet they are also the most dangerous for your finances.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I have a request…I’m working on an upcoming theme for the podcast about financial goals, so if you made a new year's resolution or a goal for 2022 related to your finances, I want to hear from you. If you have a goal for 2022 that’s related to your finances or retirement, send me an email and let me know what your goal is and your game plan for achieving it.
I’ll pick my favorite submissions and feature them on the podcast in the next few weeks. You’ll benefit from my feedback and insight, and help inspire other listeners to achieve their own financial goals for the new year.
My email is ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Stupid Stock Market Predictions
It’s the beginning of a new year, so economic and stock market predictions abound. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing many of these predictions. The people making them are usually smart and their reasons for why their latest prediction will materialize are compelling, despite the fact that they’ve likely been wrong and missed the mark many times in the past. No one tends to keep score on that fact, and we tend to believe that just because someone seems to be smart, credentialed and featured on national financial news, that they should be believed as if what they’re preaching is gospel. However, it’s critical to understand that no matter how much they would like you to believe otherwise, they still cannot predict the future, and most importantly, it can be dangerous for your finances if you go all in on a prediction that turns out to be wrong.
So next week on the podcast, I’ll talk about the stupidest stock market predictions and give you clues about when you should tune someone out, and especially why you should ignore the most pessimistic predictions, which can be the most dangerous for your finances.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022
Today, I’m talking about where to look next if you’ve already maxed out your 401k, your HSA, and other retirement accounts.
- A frequent question…what to do after fully utilizing 401k, HSA…maybe you’ve contributed to a Roth as well or your income is too high?
- Mentioned earlier this week, to look at taxable accounts…that’s where I would look next. But I’m biased…
- You could also look to real estate depending on how much income and cash you have and how much debt you’re willing to carry.
- The only real estate I own is my house. Some people would think I’m crazy, but I generally subscribe to the save, invest, and not have to worry about changing a lightbulb in my rental approach.
- But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be open to real estate as an investment if I stumbled upon the right opportunity. Some of the most successful, savvy, and wealthiest clients I know have real estate holdings in addition to their stock and bond portfolio that’s a sizable portion of their net worth.
- My point here: if you’re on track for retirement, you’re already taking full advantage of the savings that are offered to you and you’ve tapped those out…the world is your oyster. You have a lot of options from conservative investments like tax-free municipal bonds to buying bitcoin to something more middle of the road like real estate.
- You should also consider upping your charitable giving, which in addition to the obvious societal and personal psychological & spiritual benefits, will also provide a meaningful break on your taxes if done correctly.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022
Today, I’m talking about why you should fund a HSA first before your 401k and before even a Roth IRA for retirement, especially if you already have money saved in these other accounts for retirement but nothing in a HSA.
- I believe that a Health Savings Account, or an HSA, is the best retirement plan you can utilize in saving for retirement. So few people use it for its intended purpose though - to plan and save for healthcare costs in retirement…which is perplexing because the HSA allows you to save for healthcare costs today and get a massive tax break for it!
- You’ll be able to sock away up to $8,300 in your HSA account in 2022 if you’re over 55. If you’re younger than 55, the limit is $7,300.
- With an HSA, you get the holy grail of tax benefits, something that no other retirement savings account can match - not your 401k, not even a Roth…Money going into an HSA is tax deductible. Then, once it’s inside the account, those HSA contributions grow tax-free...and as long as the money on the way out is used for qualified medical expenses, it’s not taxed on the way out!
- Because of these massive tax benefits - tax deductible contributions, and no taxes on growth or withdrawals - many financial gurus argue that you should max out your HSA before you save in your 401k, because the tax benefits are so phenomenal. I agree!
- Where many people miss the benefits of the HSA is in how the account is invested. They fund it and use it to pay for medical expenses now. But that misses out on the massive future opportunity that comes from tax-free growth. So if you’re going to fund a HSA, you should be setting aside a significant portion of the account to be invested in a diversified portfolio - not just sitting in cash, earning $3 of interest per year!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022
Today, I’m talking about how much is the right amount to save for retirement in 2022.
- How much should you save for retirement in 2022?
-
- Good advice: 10% of your income consistently over your entire working life
- Most people save far less than this, or wait too long to save, so you may need to save more or less than this amount of your income depending on your situation
- The tricky part…saving more in later working years has less of an impact compared to working longer
- If you want more personalized guidance on how much you should be saving at this stage of life, given your age, income, and how much you already have saved for retirement, then I recommend downloading the retirement success forecaster. at www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.There you can Download a copy of my Retirement Success Forecaster and fill out the short-2 page questionnaire to get your FREE personalized results. Again, that’s www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022
Today, I’m talking about 2022 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits
- Know the max and adjust accordingly
-
- Story of a client who was “maxing out” at $16,500 (in 2011!)
- The contribution limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan is increased to $20,500. On top of this, you can save an additional $6,500 catch-up contribution if you’re 50 or older
- Limits on contributions to traditional and Roth IRAs remains unchanged at $6,000 + $1,000 additional if you’re over 50
- Roth phase-outs:
-
- $129,000 to $144,000 - Single taxpayers and heads of household
- $204,000 to $214,000- Married, filing jointly
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022.
Today, I’m talking about the 3 accounts you should max out for your retirement savings in 2022, and how your savings in these accounts should be prioritized.
- Saving in 3 different accounts - HSA, 401k, & Roth (if eligible and taxable, if not)
-
- Maximize current and future tax savings
- Diversify because of the different tax treatment of the different types of accounts
- Know the rules on eligibility (HD plan) & income limits
- Tomorrow…I’ll talk about 2022 limits to maximize each of these types of accounts
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Happy new year to you and welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: How To Max Out Your Retirement Savings in 2022
You’ve probably heard the conventional advice on saving 10% of your income consistently over your working life, which is good advice, but this week I want to dive into the details about how to maximize your savings for retirement.
Chances are if you’re close to retirement, you’re in your peak earning years and have more income that can be put toward retirement that you had just 5 or 10 years ago. It’s important not to squander these precious last few years as you approach retirement, so this week I’m going to talk about how to maximize and optimize saving for retirement.
I’ll talk about how you should be saving in at least 3 different accounts for retirement if you can afford to. I’ll also talk about the most important retirement account that you should be saving in, as well as how to take advantage of the new contribution limits for retirement plans in 2022.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about…
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: The Best of 2021
We covered a wide variety of topics from some of the most downloaded episodes of the year, including how to know if you have enough to retire, why cash reserves are the key to recession-proofing your retirement, and when you want to ignore the conventional advice of saving 10% of your income for retirement.
If you missed any episodes, you can listen to them all on our website: www.truenorthra.com/podcast
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: How to max out your retirement savings in 2022. I’ll be talking about the new IRS contribution limits for IRA and 401k accounts for the new year, and how you can combine your retirement plan contributions using multiple plans as well as fully funding your HSA to supercharge your savings for retirement.
This is one of the most important concepts in personal fiances to understand - how to take full advantage of the tax-advantaged savings options available to you, and since many of you listening are late in your career and hopefully in your peak earning years, motivated to save as much as possible for retirement, it should hopefully be a timely and worthwhile topic to discuss next week as we embark on a new year.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.” Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word.
That’s it for today. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week, I’m closing out the year with some of the most downloaded episodes from 2021.
I’ll be back with new episodes on Monday to kick off a new weekly theme, but since today is new year's day -I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to listen on this holiday, and making this podcast part of your day. And most especially, I wish you a happy new year, and many many blessings in this new year!
If you’re a newer listener, I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to the show - what its all about, and what you can expect when you tune in each day.
I know from working with clients and advising them on their financial and investment decisions over the last 14 years, that thinking about retirement can be both exhilarating and terrifying. With all the excitement of thinking about the future comes the underlying worry--am I ready? As you approach retirement, you’ll make decisions with real consequences. Many of these decisions are irreversible and have serious long term consequences for you and your family.
So the goal with the Retirement Quick Tips podcast is to educate you so you can avoid the landmines and big mistakes of planning for and living in retirement. Each week, I select a new retirement topic, and break it down into quick daily tips that are easy to incorporate into your daily routine. Most people care about planning for retirement, but they just don’t have the time to devote 30-45 minutes sitting down to listen to a podcast on the complexities of gifting and estate taxes or whether or not you should do a Roth conversion.
With the retirement quick tips podcast, we cover about 20-30 minutes of content each week on a topic, but in daily digestible doses.
As far as I know, it’s the short form daily podcast on retirement, so I hope that you are enjoying the format and find it useful and easy to incorporate into your daily routine.
So if you’re benefiting from these daily tips, I hope you’ll stick with me in 2022 and sharing this podcast with a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor who is close to retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
Merry Christmas! Today I’m sending you a virtual Christmas letter with lots of love from my family to you and yours.
In the Micciche house this year, we had a lot of changes! My kids are 7, 4, and 15 months, and our youngest, Theodore, sailed through so many milestones this year. As the calendar changed to January at the beginning of 2021, he was barely 3 months old and still in the newborn phase of life. As 2021 comes to a close, he is walking, laughing, and flaps his arms like a bird whenever he gets excited.
He’s very spoiled with love from my older kids, as they often argue about who gets to play with or feed Theodore, or as they call him “Bubba Sweetheart”.
It’s been a joy to watch him change and grow so much this year, and he is just the sweetest and happiest baby.
My son, Cameron who is 4, started Pre-K this year. He loves school. It’s a lot of fun to watch him tinker with cars and tools, and keep himself busy with his toys and puzzles. He thrives as a middle child because he loves playing with his older sister and his baby brother, and usually doesn’t mind being bossed around by his sister. Cameron is smart and stubborn, and knows how to push his limits. He’s sweet and lovable too, but “why?” is his favorite question when I ask him to do something. Even though he is my most challenging child to parent at this stage, my favorite part of the day is putting him to bed. Most nights, we snuggle together in his room and talk about his day with his head on my shoulder. In those quiet moments, alone with him, my heart is just bursting with love for him, and he reminds me daily of what matters most.
My 7 year old daughter, Keegan, is the typical oldest child. She loves drawing, coloring, dancing, and helping around the house, eagerly does her chores, and does her homework and keeps her room clean without being asked. She’s so tidy that she doesn’t even want to play with her toys because she doesn’t want to mess up her room, and she has a heart attack whenever Cameron tries to come into her room to play. She’s very social, loves her friends at school, and just loves being with other people. For Christmas this year, she asked that we plan a special day with just the 2 of us doing something fun together, no boys allowed!
My husband, Troy, came to work full-time with me at True North this year. Our business has grown tremendously over the last few years, and I needed someone to handle operations, compliance, accounting, payroll, and HR stuff full-time. It’s fun to work with my husband, and his background as a CPA makes him a much-appreciated addition to our team.
The biggest undertaking of the year for me was the remodel of our home. My husband knew better than to get too involved, so it was mostly my project to manage, and it took the better part of the year to plan and execute. We started demo in mid-July and lived with my inlaws for about 2 months while our house was going through a major renovation.
I don’t recommend extended stays with a dog and 3 small children with your in-laws, but I’m very grateful that they opened their home to us, and thankfully we all survived and everyone is still talking to each other.
It was a lot of fun to see everything come to life, but also very stressful to make endless decisions about everything from plumbing and light fixtures, to carpet, to countertops. At one point I had 7 different white paint color samples in about 5 different spots in the house, calling 2 of my friends who are designers, asking them to come over and give me their opinion as soon as possible, because I was under the gun and needed to make a decision right away. If the painters didn’t order the paint by the next day, we were risking a delay to our project because of supply chain issues and paint shortages. If you tried to paint your house this summer, you know what I’m talking about. A lot of people couldn’t even get paint, especially for larger projects. I never thought picking a white paint color could be so hard or so stressful!
Before I wrap up, I just want to take this opportunity to tell you how much I appreciate you. I am always so encouraged by your emails, and I know that this podcast is helping you make smarter and more informed decisions about your retirement and finances.
So thank you so much for listening today. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: The Best of 2021. I’m closing out the year by bringing you the best and most downloaded episodes of 2021.
So this week and next week I’ll be covering everything from
- Why You’ll Spend Less Than You Think In Retirement...Even If You’re Rich
- To…Why Cash Reserves Are The Key To Recession-Proofing Your Retirement
- And…The Reason You Hoard Money
I’ll even tell you what Teddy Roosevelt Said About Money, and lots more! These were some of the most downloaded episodes for a reason, so I hope you enjoy the variety as we close out the year.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 3rd and I wish you many blessings as you embark on a brand new year. If you have a goal in 2022 that’s related to your finances, send me an email and let me know what your goal is and how you plan to achieve it.
I’ll pick my favorite submissions and feature them on the podcast in January.
My email is ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
I hope what I have to share with you these next 2 weeks will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’ll kick off the best of with: which investment accounts to withdraw first in retirement.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular questions. I had a lot of fund this week, binge watching Dave Ramsey videos on YouTube and bringing you topics that I thought would be most useful when you’re getting close to retirement.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- What To Do With Extra Money In The Bank
- Number One Indicator Of People Who Retire Wealthy
- 5 Things That Will Make You Wealthy
- What Secret Millionaires Don’t Tell You
- Be Weird Or Be Broke
Dave Ramsey never fails to provide the right dose of truth and entertainment, and whenever I need a reminder of the personal finance principles that matter the most, I can confidently turn to the advice of Dave Ramsey.
I hope you enjoyed the common sense reminders about how to win with money this week, from the mouth of one of the best in the world of personal finance.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The Best of 2021.
I’m picking my favorite and most popular episodes from the year, to bring you a highlight reel of the best topics to carry you into the new year.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions
Today, I’m talking about an important and recurring theme from Dave Ramsey: Be weird or be broke.
Dave says: “If you want to win with money, let me give you a good idea: Figure out what most people are doing and run in the other direction. Run!”
He goes on to say in the way that only an angry Dave Ramsey can: “Most people look good, but they’re broke!...They spend like they’re in Congress!”
The stats don’t lie. Most Americans are broke. They spend more than they make. They have more debt than they can afford. They have no savings in the bank, even for smaller emergencies. Bankruptcies and student loan debt is much higher than what it should be for the wealthiest nation at the wealthiest time in the history of the world. The average American today has a better standard and living than most royalty did only 200 years ago.
Yet, we’re still broke. So Dave says you need to be weird or be broke. You want to be contrarian…be weird. The culture has lost its way with money.
So what is being weird? It’s acting differently than most people do with money. Being weird is not caring about credit card points, airline miles, or having a nice car if it means having a payment you can’t afford. It means staying out of debt, spending less than you earn and saving a meaningful amount of your income for retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions
Today, I’m talking about the secret that millionaires don’t tell you. Here’s the gist of what Dave Ramsey has to say about the secret millionaires don’t tell you. Most people who are millionaires don’t drive ferrari’s or fancy cars, they don’t carry around purses that cost thousands of dollars, or the flashy vacation that’s all over their instagram…
These are very seldom actual indicators or wealth, up to the first level of wealth. Dave classifies this as a net worth between $1-10 million dollars. If you have $1-10million, they are typically understated.
They enjoy nice vacations, buy reasonably priced clothes, the Christmas presents under the tree are unimpressive and the valet is seldom impressed with the car.
My favorite quote from this video is this: “The people who achieve that first layer of wealth, that $1-10 million dollars, the way they did it, is they didn’t do it for you. They’re not mad at you, but they don’t care what you think. They were not living their life to impress others.”
I love this insight, and I wish that more people would realize this sooner in life. Too many of us spend too much time and energy worrying about what other people think, keeping up with the Joneses, and instead of saving enough for retirement, I see people spend way too much on the right clothes, the right car, and the right Christmas decorations.
I even fall into this temptation myself. I love to decorate for Christmas. It’s the only season I really well, deck the halls for. Every year when I pull out my Christmas decorations, I can’t use them all and last year I even purged and sold an entire box of decorations that I was no longer using for like $25. I vowed to keep it simple, adopt a less is more mentality, and decorate with less this year.
Well, that didn’t happen. I ended up spending about $200 on new decorations this year. I bought more flocked evergreen branches, a couple new stocking hangers, some pretty white bells, a new rug for my front door, and fairy lights for my mantle. I didn’t need these things. I do enjoy looking at them and making my home festive and cozy, but if I’m being honest, part of what influenced my decision to abandon last year’s vow of celebrating Christmas with less decorations was caring what other people think.
Ugh, I hate admitting that out loud! I would say on the spectrum of caring what other people think, I generally fall to the less side, but I do still care what others think and have this disordered desire to impress other people.
I like hosting during the holidays and having friends and family over, and I want them to enjoy the decorations and feel cozy, warm and festive in my home. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but if I’m being honest, a part of me also wants them to be impressed and I want the love and admiration from their fawning over my cute little white bells.
If I cared a bit less about what others think of me, I would have just kept the perfectly good front porch rug. There’s a good chance that no one will notice it or mention it anyways. I do love the cute strand of white bells though. Well worth the $10 I spent at Target for those.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions
Today, I’m talking about the 5 things that will make you wealthy.
Dave Ramsey asserts that if you do these 5 things, you will win with money 100% of the time. What are these 5 things he’s so confident about?:
- Have a written plan…a budget (no one accidentally wins - at anything…you need a game plan or you’re gonna lose)
- You gotta get outta debt. Dave: “When you don’t have any payments you know what you got? Money!”
- Don’t spend everything you make. This is one of those good rant segments, because Dave really puts that knife in the wound and says if you’re not happy with your job or your income, then don’t be stagnant. Move on and move up. It’s a free country and you can work elsewhere if you need more income to pay your bills
- Save money! Dave: ”You’re gonna be broke until you save and invest money” The problem with your investments is not your fees or your returns, is that you don’t have money. “100% of people that build wealth save money…on purpose, a lot!”
- And the last thing to help you win with money is to be generous…but it takes doing the first 4 right to get to the point where you can be generous in a meaningful way.
I don’t really have much to add here, other than the higher your income is and the more conscientious you are about your spending, saving, and getting out of debt, the less you need a budget. But you still need a plan for you money. What are you working toward. What are you saving this money for? Having a purpose and making a long-term plan will help you stay on track and not lose sight of what matters most to you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions
Today, I’m talking about Number One Indicator Of People Who Retire Wealthy.
Dave talks about the results from a study that looked at the #1 indicator of people who have money in their 401k and who retire with substantial wealth in their 401k
What was the answer? Was it good returns, savvy day trading skills, the lowest cost investments?
Nope? It wasn’t earning 8% or 10% or 12% per year. It all boiled down to the savings rate. How much did you save and how consistent were you in saving?
I see this all the time with my 401k clients and the employees in those plans. I have clients who have managed to save millions in their 401k. In the same plan, I see other people with the same tenure with the company, access to the same investments, the same fees, with much less in their 401k. Why? Because they didn’t make saving for retirement a priority. They spent more, saved less, and now are looking at working into their 70s because they can’t afford to retire.
If you’re late in your career and you’ve saved consistently throughout your working life, it probably didn’t seem like it was that hard. You lived within your means, didn’t get seduced by spending too much or accumulating too much debt, and by saving a meaningful amount for retirement by saying no to yourself occasionally, then you’re likely going to be one of those who retire as a millionaire.
Dave asserts the best thing good financial advice can do is get you to save money…enough money to retire with dignity. And that right there, hits the nail on the head. Yes the fees and the returns matter, but it’s much less important that something that it 100% within your control - your savings rate.
And the further away you are from retirement - 10-15 years away or more…the more your savings rate will matter in helping you to close the gap, make up for lost time and lost savings and get you on track for a comfortable and fulfilling retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions
Today, I’m talking about one of the most frequent questions I get asked and a question that Dave Ramsey addresses on his show with nearly 2 million views. It’s no surprise that this one is popular as it’s a very common problem.
A caller asks: “I have $65k in the bank and I don’t know what to do with it. Is there something better to invest it in rather than sitting in the bank with very little interest?”
Dave’s answer: A mission for every dollar (depends on where you are in the baby steps) - pay off debt, have emergency savings…then invest 15% for retirement…save for kids college…pay off house early…
My answer: Pay off Debt vs. Investing it - it’s not always a clear cut answer. (why - because you might be paying off large debt for 10+ years and that’s a decade lost in saving for retirement) But with extra money in the bank, I would use it to pay off debt first. Then, set aside anything that’s earmarked for a specific upcoming purchase, especially in the next year (big family vacation, new roof, etc)...Then whatever is leftover, don’t let it sit there. It’s a big drag on your money over the long-term if it’s just sitting there, not doing anything for you.
I really recommend watching this video, because in under 6 minutes, it walks through the entire 7 step baby step process. This video is solid gold…I’ll link to it in the show notes if you want an introduction to Dave Ramsey or you need a refresher.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DoGbBQ1Eao
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions
If you don’t know Dave Ramsey, he is one of the most well-known names in personal finance. He’s best known his radio show and books that help people budget and get out of debt. If you struggle with spending, budgeting, or if you’re hopelessly deep in debt and need help climbing your way out of the hole, Dave’s roadmap of the 7 baby steps is where I would send you.
I don’t always agree with his advice, but I really like how he makes personal finance questions and topics so engaging and fun. His tell-it-like-it-is style is refreshing and fun, so I took some of his most popular questions from YouTube and will provide my own spin on his answers in each episode this week.
Each of these Questions and answers generated well over 1 million views each on YouTube, and I tried to pick the topics that would be most interesting to those of you approaching retirement. We’ll cover topics like the “Number One Indicator Of People Who Retire Wealthy” and the “Secret Millionaires Don’t Tell You”
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about What To Do With Extra Money In The Bank
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week on the podcast, I sat down for an interview with Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors, Kevin Caron. He’s a frequent speaker on markets and economic issues and comments regularly for media outlets like CNBC, PBS, Fox Business, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, CBS Radio, and Dow Jones.
He had some interesting insights to share with me on inflation...
- Why the massive increase in the supply of money is driving inflation more than the supply chain bottlenecks you hear about in the news
- Whether or not inflation will last
- How Kevin’s perspective on inflation being transitory has changed over the course of this year
- Why politicians are drunk on using inflated dollars to pay for spending programs
- And investments that work and investments to stay away from if higher inflation becomes entrenched
- We also talk about minivans and why he hasn’t replaced his fence that’s currently in disrepair
Here’s the bottom line: Inflation goes a little bit deeper than what you hear on the news about Covid-driven supply chain bottlenecks. We can also look at history as a guide to help shed some light on how sticky (or not) inflation will be this time around. I think the current trends are worth paying attention to, and prudent investors would be wise to pay attention to the uptick in inflation and position their portfolios accordingly.
I don’t think we’ll have runaway inflation and resort to wallpapering our walls with dollar bills anytime soon due to the collapse in the value of a dollar, but we shouldn’t ignore the possibility of elevated inflation, especially if you’re trying to prepare for retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions.
You’re likely familiar with who Dave Ramsey is, especially if you’re listening to this podcast. He’s a popular personal finance personality with his own radio show, and is most famous for his get-out-of-debt baby step system, and his book, The Total Money Makeover.
So I decided to troll YouTube, find his most popular Q&As and provide my own answers to his listener questions. I don’t always agree with Dave Ramsey and the advice he provides to people who call in to his show, but I respect him and his message - he is responsible for helping countless people get out of debt and have better control over their saving and spending decisions...and I’m looking forward to answering his listener questions next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Kevin Caron, Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors. In this interview, he and I talked about Inflation & why money supply is the real cause of 2021 inflation.
Here is today’s interview segment with Kevin Caron...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Kevin Caron, Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors. In this interview, he and I talked about Inflation & why money supply is the real cause of 2021 inflation.
Here is today’s interview segment with Kevin Caron...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Kevin Caron, Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors. In this interview, he and I talked about Inflation & why money supply is the real cause of 2021 inflation.
Here is today’s interview segment with Kevin Caron...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Kevin Caron, Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors. In this interview, he and I talked about Inflation & why money supply is the real cause of 2021 inflation.
Here is today’s interview segment with Kevin Caron...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m bringing you segments of an interview I did with Kevin Caron, Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors. In this interview, he and I talked about Inflation & why money supply is the real cause of 2021 inflation.
Here is today’s interview segment with Kevin Caron...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Money Supply: The Real Cause of 2021 Inflation
I sat down for an interview with Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors, Kevin Caron. He’s a frequent speaker on markets and economy-related issues and comments regularly for media outlets like CNBC, PBS, Fox Business, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, CBS Radio, and Dow Jones. He had some interesting insights to share with me on inflation, so in each episode this week, I’m breaking down the interview into bite sized segments to conform with the format of the podcast.
So this week on the podcast, Kevin & I explore
- Why the massive increase in the supply of money is driving inflation more than the supply chain bottlenecks you hear about in the news
- Whether or not inflation will last
- How Kevin’s perspective on inflation being transitory has changed over the course of this year
- Why politicians are drunk on using inflated dollars to pay for spending programs
- And investments that work and investments to stay away from if higher inflation becomes entrenched
- We also talk about minivans and why he hasn’t replaced his fence that’s currently in disrepair
If you want to watch the video interview with Kevin Caron its entirety, you can find it on my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’m diving into the interview with Kevin.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- Why Higher Interest Rates Are Actually Good For Bond Investors
- Don’t Abandon Bonds! Here’s Why You Need Them In Retirement
- Rising Interest Rate Investing Strategies: Short-Term Corporate Bonds
- Rising Interest Rate Investing Strategies: The Bond Ladder
- Rising Interest Rate Investing Strategies: Inflation-Protection Bonds
Here’s the bottom line: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater and abandon your bond portfolio. Bonds still deserve a meaningful place in your investment strategy for retirement, but it’s important to understand how interest rates impact bonds and how you should be positioning your bond portfolio to take advantage of it.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Why Excess Money Supply Is The Real Inflation Culprit.
I sat down for an interview with Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder at Washington Crossing Advisors, Kevin Caron. He’s a frequent speaker on markets and economy-related issues and comments regularly for media outlets like CNBC, PBS, Fox Business, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, CBS Radio, and Dow Jones. He had some interesting insights to share with me on inflation - what’s driving it, whether elevated inflation is more transient or here to stay, and what investors can do about it.
I really enjoyed my interview with Kevin, and I’m really looking forward to sharing the interview with you next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about: Rising Interest Rate Investing Strategies: Inflation-Protection Bonds....
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about Rising Interest Rate Investing Strategies: The Bond Ladder...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about Rising Interest Rate Investing Strategies: Short-Term Corporate Bonds...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about: Don’t Abandon Bonds! Here’s Why You Need Them In Retirement...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio
Today, I’m talking about Why Higher Interest Rates Are Actually Good For Bond Investors...
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: What Higher Interest Rates Mean For Your Bond Portfolio.
Interest rates have been quite low for quite a long time. In the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve slashed the Federal funds rate from around 5% to 0% over the course of several months. Since then, the federal funds rate has remained low, hovering around 1-2% until the Covid crisis when the Fed cut rates dramatically to zero.
Now that we’re emerging from the Covid crisis, and many parts of the economy are returning to normal, the Fed has indicated it plans to keep rates low for now, but it seems increasingly likely that the Fed will need to act and start raising rates in 2022, especially if inflation figures continue on their current path.
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about:
- Why Higher Interest Rates Are Actually Good For Bond Investors
- Even though rates are expected to increase, they still could stay low for years to come, so I’ll talk about how to be patient and prudent if rates continue to stay low.
- Then I’ll talk about 3 bond investing strategies that work in a rising interest rate environment
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk about why you want to embrace rising interest rates as a bond investor.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- How gratitude can keep you from overspending
- How gratitude can help you cultivate more patience...a key ingredient for being good with money is patience.
- On Thanksgiving, I’ll list all the things I’m grateful for. The list is long, and hopefully it will inspire you to think creatively about all the things you’re grateful for
- How Gratitude Aligns Your Values With How You Spend Money
- Practical Ways To Start A Habit Of Gratitude
Here’s the bottom line: Taking small steps to become a more grateful person provides numerous benefits. One important benefit is that it will improve your relationship with money and help you make better spending decisions. And the best news about gratitude is that it doesn’t require major life changes...just an extra minute of your day is enough to make progress and become a more grateful person. So I encourage you to make gratitude a daily practice and pay attention to how your life improves as a result.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Interest rates are heading higher. What does that mean for your bond portfolio? With interest rates already on the rise, and the Fed likely to raise rates in 2022, I’ll talk about what that means for bond investors. Understanding how interest rates impact your bond portfolio is critical to not getting burned when owning bonds, so next week I’ll share with you what you need to know about owning bonds when rates are going up.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
If you’ve bought into the idea that I’ve discussed this week - that gratitude will help you be happier, more patient, and spend your money in a way that aligns with your values, then the next natural question to ask if your gratefulness isn’t yet producing this fruit in your life is “how do I get started? What practical steps can I take today to be more grateful?”
The easiest way to start is to make a concerted effort to notice the good in each day. A daily reflection time at the beginning or the end of the day is perfect for this. It doesn’t need to be time consuming. It can just be a minute or two. Reflecting daily on all the amazing things in your life (big and small) will help you appreciate the goodness of each day and will also train you to pay more attention to the good, rather than falling into the miserable trap of complaining and always wishing circumstances were different.
Although I miss days here and there, most days I take a few moments in prayer to thank God for my many blessings. If you aren’t religious, that’s okay...you can still practice gratitude in daily reflection.
Here are a few other suggestions:
- Find ways to say thank you more, do acts of kindness for others and be more present with your loved ones.
- Write thank you cards or send a text to someone just telling them how much you appreciate them. Whenever I write a thank you card, my heart swells. It brings me so much joy and I imagine you might have felt this as well. There’s something about writing a heartfelt note of appreciation to someone you care about that has the power to brighten your day
- Go on a no complaint diet. I did this about 4 years ago and it really helped me cut down on my complaining which in turn helped me to appreciate the good things rather than dwelling on what I didn’t like.
In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear talks about the power of attaching a new habit to something you’re already doing as a way to make that habit stick. For example, if you have a daily quiet time with your cup of coffee, switching from reading the news or scrolling on your phone to a gratitude reflection time or journaling is an easier way to add that new habit into your life, because you’re attaching it to something you already enjoy doing and creating powerful associations in your mind.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
Happy day after Thanksgiving! I hope you spent the day with loved ones and the bloat has worn off!
Earlier this week I talked about how gratitude will help you be more patient and keep you from overspending. I also touched on how gratitude will help you align how you spend money with your values, but today I want to expand on that idea more, because I think it’s the most important takeaway from this week’s tips.
We usually don’t think too much about how we spend money. The more affluent you are, the harder it is to be mindful about how you spend money. When you’re not worried about stretching every dollar as far as possible and making sure you have enough to get you through the end of the month, you’re naturally going to be a bit more frivolous with how you spend money.
Yet, money is still a limited resource, so no matter if you have a little or a lot, it still matters how you spend. Because your spending points to your values and what’s most important to you. Spending without giving it too much thought will lead you to waste money and have less satisfaction in life.
When you are grateful and you can recognize what’s most important to you, you’re better able to spend in a way that will help foster contentment because it’s consistent with your values, rather than spend in a way that’s frivolous and doesn’t align with what’s most important to you.
Many people never reach their most important financial goals because they wasted money on crap that didn’t really matter all that much to them - too many fast food trips, tech gadgets, shoes, or cute little trinkets for the house. It seems like a small thing here or there but it really adds up over time.
But when you know what you value the most because you recognize what you’re most grateful for, you’re able to take the next step by putting your money where your mouth is and spending, giving, and saving in ways that line up with what you value most.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
Today, of course, is Thanksgiving, so if you’re listening today I want to express my gratitude to you for spending a few minutes with me on this holiday that’s all about gratitude. This week and especially today, it’s a day to slow down, reflect on what matters most, and express our gratitude for all of our blessings.
I’ve really come to appreciate Thanksgiving more and more as I get older, so today, I want to take a few minutes to list all the many things I’m thankful for, in hopes that it inspires you to be more grateful today and open your heart to the abundance of blessings that we all have - no matter what your circumstances.
Since it’s November 25th, I’m sharing with you 25 things I’m grateful for today. Here it goes...I am grateful for:
- Being alive and healthy
- My husband
- My 3 children
- My family - especially my parents, my sister, niece & nephew, and my in laws
- My amazing employees who make going to work fun
- The ability to work with my father, which isn’t something I am always grateful for, but I get to go to work every day with my dad, which is special.
- Hosting at our house for thanksgiving, where we recently completed a remodel, so I’m very excited to host family in our home for the holiday
- This podcast and each of you who are listening every day
- My business and doing work that I truly love
- The occasional round of golf when I find time to play
- Grandma babysitters and our nanny who provide loving and caring childcare to my children while I’m at work
- Living in a free society
- Heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer
- Sugar free peppermint coffee creamer
- Minimal complications after getting Covid last month
- A good italian dry red wine, especially with a good book - probably my favorite activity
- My neighbors. Our dryer broke this summer, and I had 2 neighbors who were gracious enough to let me do laundry for our family of 5 at their house for a few weeks. We generate a lot of laundry and it was a sight watching me haul laundry to and fro my neighbors house.
- Snuggles with my infant son and bedtime snuggles with my 4 year old
- Chatting in the car with my daughter about her day at school
- My friends and community at my work, church, & kids school
- Living in the beautiful state of Oregon with all of it’s beauty, green, and amazing summers
- The ability to work in a hybrid home and office schedule that works well for me and my family.
- Lessons I learned these last couple years about dealing with constant frustrations and unknowns with the ever-changing covid restrictions
- Money in my bank account and in my retirement accounts
- My Catholic faith
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
Today, I’m talking about how gratitude will help you be more patient. We live in a culture today that is increasingly impatient. Giant leaps in technology and innovation have made it possible to have nearly anything on our doorstep within a matter of days. You want an answer to a question? You can find out right now by googling it. You want to listen to your favorite song. You can type it in to YouTube or whatever streaming service you use, and bam! My kids are irritated when we watch certain shows on demand where they have to watch commercials. They’ve always grown up in a world that is designed for their instant gratification.
When I was their age, we didn’t have the internet & cassette tapes were still the dominant way to listen to music. Remember the delicate dance of fast forward and rewind if you wanted to listen to your favorite song? It might take you (God forbid) several minutes to find that song!
Without gratitude and the patience that comes with it, especially in our culture today, it’s easy to have this attitude of quickly moving on to the next shiny object and whatever is next.
I don’t think the connection between gratitude and patience is self-evident, so let me explain this a little more. The definition of gratitude is “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for”. So when you’re thankful and appreciate what you currently have, you’re not in a rush to have everything you want right now. If you want something that’s a big expense - like a kitchen remodel, a new car, or a big vacation, and you are patient, grateful, and content today, you’ll be okay with saving up for it over a period of months or even years.
You’ll be less likely to go into debt or own things that are superfluous. Sound financial habits are built on patience. And since patience is a fruit of gratitude, we need gratitude in order to have the patience to save for retirement, stick with a plan, pay off debt, and stay invested when the world is going crazy.
We need patience for all of that, and we need gratitude to be more patient.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
Today, I’m talking about how gratitude will keep you from overspending.
If you sat down and made a list of the 10 things in your life that you’re most grateful for, my guess is that the top of your list would be occupied by life’s essentials - the people you love, your home, your job, good food and clean water. Probably not your latest purchase. Yet, still, we get sucked into the lie that if I just had this [fill in the blank here], I would be so much happier. If I had a better house or a better car, or got rid of those unsightly forehead lines with some botox, travelled more, or even just something as simple as a pair of jeans that actually fit me I would not be so discontent and I would be happier.
Not that there’s anything wrong with having a nice car or house or a perfect pair of jeans, or whatever it might be, it’s the longing for what we don’t have that can cause us to spend more than we should. Without gratitude, there’s a hole in our heart, that we just keep trying to fill with more stuff, which is a recipe for failure and lasting unhappiness if we continually try filling it with more stuff.
Deep down we all know that real and lasting happiness can’t be found in having something we don’t currently have, yet we are still tricked into believing that the pleasure-seeking variety of happiness, which is always short-lived, will make us happy.
But when you practice gratitude, you are more likely to appreciate the good things you already have in life, and less likely to seek happiness in having more stuff. And when our spending isn’t used as a means to buy happiness, we can better use our financial resources to achieve bigger and more important goals - things like saving enough for your kids' college, getting out of debt, paying off your mortgage, or saving enough for retirement.
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
I think we live in a very ungrateful world today.
And I suffer from ingratitude myself. Instead of appreciating the amazing people and things in my life, I find myself always in pursuit of more. Nothing satisfies. I could buy and entire new wardrobe of new clothes and start flicking through my Nordstrom app a week later, looking for a new pair of black leather boots that I’ve talked myself into needing and 100% essential to living a full and happy life.
It sounds crazy when I say that out loud, but that’s more or less the thought pattern that goes on in my mind. Instead of appreciating the season of life I’m in right now with a 14 month old, a 4 year old, and a 7 year old, I often find myself grumbling internally about the never-ending routine of family life - dealing with a baby who can’t seem to work out a regular nap schedule, bribing my 4 year old with candy if he will eat just 4 bites of his dinner, and dealing with the constant cartwheels and handstands when all I want to do is just relax and not have to listen to the noise. I find myself daydreaming about the days when the whining will stop and we can have a care-free vacation that doesn’t involve a u-haul for the stroller, pack & play, diapers and God help us if I forget the pacifiers - which I have been known to do.
Despite sometimes feeling sorry for myself, I have come a long way in embracing and truly loving the season of life that I’m in. I know that my little kids won’t be little for long, and by appreciating everything about my life today and being truly grateful, I will be happier, be a better mom and wife, and have no regrets about wishing away this amazing time in my life when I am older and they have all left the nest.
Beyond its connection to happiness and fulfillment, gratitude also has some deep connections to your relationship with money. So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about:
- How gratitude can keep you from overspending
- How gratitude can help you cultivate more patience...a key ingredient for being good with money is patience.
- On Thanksgiving, I’ll list all the things I’m grateful for. The list is long, and hopefully it will inspire you to think creatively about all the things you’re grateful for
- How Gratitude Aligns Your Values With How You Spend Money
- Practical Ways To Start A Habit Of Gratitude
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talking about the connection between gratitude and your spending habits.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: penalty-free early withdrawals for retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered this week:
- Should You Start Portfolio Withdrawals In Your 50s?
- Which Investment Accounts To Withdraw First In Retirement
- 72(t) Withdrawal Rules...Explained
- Rule of 55 Withdrawals...Explained
- Use Roth Accounts For Penalty-Free Early Withdrawals?
Here’s the bottom line: Figuring out how to access your investment accounts for income in your 50s is not a black and white, easy answer issue. Your circumstances, your income needs, how much you have invested in various account types, and your tax situation will all influence the best withdrawal strategy for you. But the good news is that you do have options, so hopefully after listening this week you are better equipped to sort through those options and determine the right strategy for you if you’re planning an early retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Can Gratitude Help You Make Better Money Decisions?
It’s Thanksgiving week, so it’s the perfect time to explore the connection between gratitude and money, and how fostering a spirit of gratefulness in your life can also help with your relationship with money.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: penalty-free early withdrawals for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about an idea that clients will often bring up and ask about and that is taking withdrawals in retirement from Roth accounts first.
After all, you can always withdraw Roth IRA contributions tax-free and penalty-free, so a lot of clients are like well - why don’t I just do that.
I was racking my brain trying to think of a scenario where that would work and I came up blank. Here’s why: There’s enough flexibility with the early withdrawal rules on retirement accounts that allow for you to tap into these accounts early for an emergency.
And even a small withdrawal from your Roth IRA say at age 55 could prove costly later on in life when you miss out on that tax-free growth because you took the money out of your Roth.
Think of your Roth like a castle. The castle has a big wall and a moat and guards at every tower. Nothing should enter to pillage the castle, unless you have no other options left. Allowing the account to grow tax-free for you for as long as possible will help maximize your overall assets and income in retirement, so don’t underestimate the powerful growth opportunities of the roth and certainly don’t let anything but the last resort be the reason why you withdraw funds from your Roth accounts earlier than you need to.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: penalty-free early withdrawals for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how you might be able to use the Rule of 55 if you retire in your 50s and you need to start taking withdrawals from you tax-deferred accounts prior to age 59 ½. Yesterday, I talked about rule 72(t) for early withdrawals, but the inflexibility and room for error make that a pretty unpalatable solution.
Another option if you’re in this situation is called the Rule of 55. The catch is that it only works for certain workplace retirement plans, like a 401k or 403b, not with a Traditional IRA.
The Rule of 55 is an IRS regulation that allows those 55 and older to withdraw funds from their 401(k) or 403(b) without a tax penalty.
I had this happen recently with a client who retired after age 55. Most of their assets are in 401k accounts, rather than taxable accounts, so it was something that we explored after my client retired. Similar to the rule of 72(t), it has certain restrictions and you’ll want to make sure you adhere to the rules, but it’s so much more flexible and a lot less room for error.
Basically, if you retire after age 55, you would leave behind the money you need for withdrawals in your 401k…let’s say it’s $30,000/year that you need for portfolio withdrawals. You would leave enough in the account for portfolio withdrawals. You could leave everything in your 401k, but if you rollover the remaining balance to an IRA, it’s important that you leave enough in the 401k to cover your withdrawals until age 59 ½.
Your 401k may or may not allow this option, so you’ll want to check with your HR/benefits dept. But if you can utilize this rule, it’s more flexible and easier to administer than the 72(t) withdrawal rule, so it’s worthy of consideration. Once you roll all of your 401k into the IRA, this option is no longer available, so it’s important to find out if this is allowed in the plan before you initiate a rollover with your old employer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: penalty-free early withdrawals for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most common ways to access your retirement accounts if you need to withdraw funds from your IRA or 401k prior to reaching age 59 ½. Normally, if you withdraw funds early from retirement accounts, you’ll be slapped with a 10% penalty, but you can get around this penalty by utilizing the rule of 72t.
Here’s how it works, as described in an article on Investopedia:
“To take advantage of this rule, the owner of the retirement account must take at least five substantially equal periodic payments (SEPPs). The amount of the payments depends on the owner’s life expectancy as calculated through IRS-approved methods. You must also withdraw these funds according to a specific schedule, and the IRS offers three different methods for calculating your specific withdrawal schedule. You must adhere to the payment schedule for five years or until you reach age 59 1/2, whichever comes later (unless you are disabled or die).”
Even though the 72(t) rule allows you to withdraw funds from your IRA or 401k accounts in your 50s, there’s a couple of problems with using this rule:
- If you mess up the calculations or withdraw the wrong amount, it could cost you thousands in additional taxes and IRS penalties
- It’s really inflexible - you generally must continue payments and can’t stop or change them even if later you change your mind or your circumstances change.
So if you can avoid taking early withdrawals from tax-deferred retirement accounts, it’s best to avoid this. However, tomorrow, I’m going to tell you about a client who had no choice, had to start withdrawals from 401k accounts early, but we found a workaround that didn’t involve 72(t) distributions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: penalty-free early withdrawals for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about an important financial concept that you’ll want to have some knowledge about in retirement (regardless of whether you work with a financial advisor or manage your investment portfolio on your own) and that is the sequence of withdrawals. There is a specific spending order that you’ll need to consider when starting portfolio withdrawals in order to minimize taxes in the long-run, and it’s also a spending order that may help you avoid penalties on your withdrawals from retirement accounts prior to age 59 ½.
The conventional wisdom says that the withdrawal order should be:
First - taxable investment accounts like Joint, Single & Trust accounts.
Then, once those accounts are spent or your required minimum distributions kick in, you should withdraw from your tax-deferred retirement accounts like your 401k and your IRA.
Lastly, if those assets are spent down, you would withdraw funds from your Roth last.
For many people, this withdrawal order makes sense, but what’s important to remember here is not that the withdrawal order should always be in this order (because in some cases you would be better off withdrawing from a combination of your taxable and tax-deferred accounts in the same year)...but what really matters is that depending on the types of accounts you have and how much you have in each account - if your assets are skewed more toward taxable or tax deferred accounts, and also your income and tax situation, withdrawal order matters.
Especially if you’re going to retire early, withdrawal order really matters, and that’s because if you have taxable accounts like joint, single, or trust accounts, those will allow you more flexibility, help you avoid the 10% penalty (which doesn’t apply to these accounts) and likely lower tax bills in the early years of retirement if you withdraw from those accounts prior to age 59 ½.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow I’m going to dive into strategies for when most of your assets are in 401k or Traditional IRA accounts and you need to avoid that 10% penalty on withdrawals.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: penalty-free early withdrawals for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about why taking withdrawals is especially problematic from IRA or 401k accounts when retiring in your 50s.
Under normal circumstances, if you withdraw funds from a Traditional IRA or 401k account before 59 ½, you’ll pay taxes + a 10% tax penalty on whatever amount you withdraw. While there much you can do to avoid the taxes, you can avoid paying the penalty on those early withdrawals in many cases.
And that extra 10% penalty on early withdrawals is what makes early distributions from retirement accounts so problematic. So you want to carefully consider other options so you don’t have to tap into your IRA or 401k accounts when you retire early.
I’ll talk about specific strategies later this week for avoiding those penalties, but for today’s episode, it’s important to understand the full impact of retiring early on your finances and why it’s so critical to avoid paying those extra penalties.
When you retire early, there’s a perfect storm of 3 important factors:
- Needing to make your money stretch potentially a decade longer in retirement, and possibly making your money last for 30-40 years in retirement, instead of 20-30 years in a typical retirement
- Social security - since the earliest you can take social security is 62, you’ll need more in assets to cover those higher portfolio withdrawals before social security starts
- Covering the higher medical expenses before medicare starts at age 65
So it’s a real challenge to try to avoid penalties while dealing with the unavoidable issues of not being covered by social security or medicare in the early years of retirement. Be sure you think through all of the consequences of an early retirement - not just what that means for portfolio withdrawals - prior to deciding to retire early.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: Penalty-Free Early Withdrawals For Retirement
One of the main challenges for people who retire early in their 50s is figuring out how you’ll handle your portfolio withdrawals. How do you access the funds needed in your investment and retirement accounts to pay for healthcare before medicare kicks in and cover your living expenses while you wait to start social security? And how do you avoid penalties on early withdrawals in retirement accounts when you access your IRA and 401k accounts before 59 ½?
These are all important questions to ask if you’re contemplating an early retirement. So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about:
- Why taking withdrawals is especially problematic from IRA or 401k accounts when retiring in your 50s
- Typical recommended sequence of withdrawals
- 72t withdrawal rules
- Rule of 55
- Situations where you might want to access your Roth IRA or 401k and why you usually want to avoid the temptation to access your Roth accounts too early.
My hope is that if you’re part of the wave of people who plan to retire in their 50s that you’ll gain a better understanding for how you can optimize your withdrawals while minimizing taxes, which is even more critical if you retire early. You might spend an extra decade in retirement when you retire early, so it’s absolutely critical that you understand withdrawal strategies and how they apply to you in early retirement.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’ll dive into why it’s a problem to tap into your retirement accounts before age 59 ½ and what you can do about it.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
In case you missed any episodes, here are a few essential tax-planning todos to check off your list before the end of the year:
- Gifting
- Maxing out your 401k
- How to handle capital gains and tax loss harvesting
- Roth conversions
Here’s the bottom line: No one knows what the future tax climate will look like, but if it makes sense for your situation, I think there’s an opportunity for gifting, roth conversions, realizing capital gains, and maxing out your 401k that may not be present in future years to take advantage of. All of these strategies for lowering your tax bill have been targeted by lawmakers for change and that may impact your ability to take advantage of these strategies in future years.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: penalty free early withdrawals for retirement. If you retire in your late 50s you have a problem. You can’t start taking withdrawals from your IRA and 401k accounts until age 59 ½. So next week, I’ll talk about ways you can access your retirement accounts penalty free as well as some other considerations if you’re planning to retire in your 50s that you’ll want to think through prior to an early retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, the theme is: your 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
Today, I’m talking about tax loss harvesting. Tax loss harvesting is using losses in a taxable account (i.e. not an IRA or 401k) to offset gains. This is a very popular strategy for reducing taxes, but it’s become less useful in recent years with the stock market marching higher and higher, you may not have any investments that have unrealized losses to offset your gains.
But that’s ok, because there’s another worthwhile strategy to consider, and that is accelerating your realization of gains in 2021. I have a client who has own Microsoft stock for a very long time. His adjusted cost basis in the stock in less than $1 per share and it makes up more than 40% of his overall portfolio. We’ve gradually sold some over the years, but we haven’t been able to make much of a dent because the stock has had so much growth in recent years, and my client has been reluctant to sell because the taxes on his gains would give anyone a heart attack.
But one consideration for certain clients would be to bit the tax bullet and sell part or all of highly appreciated assets in 2021. This strategy is worthwhile for a few reasons.
- Taxes on capital gains are pretty low right now. If your income is quite low, you’ll pay $0 in capital gains tax. But even assuming that you’ll have to pay tax on gains, I would rather do that at the 15% level vs. being taxed at my regular income tax bracket, which is what has been proposed many times.
- If your income was lower in 2021 than it will be in 2022, this would also be another reason to accelerate capital gains and pay the taxes now vs. in future years where your income could be higher. If you’re still may years from retirement, it’s better to accelerate gains because you likely are in a better position to pay the taxes compared to your future retired self.
- One of the most beneficial aspects of how capital gains are taxed is that heirs currently get a step up in basis, meaning that an heir can sell a highly appreciated asset - whether that be a stock or a house - and the clock on those gains resets at the time of death when they inherit those assets. It’s a part of the tax code that’s currently on the chopping block. In a speech in April of this year, President Biden said: “ending the practice of ‘stepping-up’ the basis for gains in excess of $1 million ($2.5 million per couple) and making sure the gains are taxed if the property is not donated to charity.”
The bottom line here is that accelerating sales of assets into 2021 for the purpose of paying the taxes now make a lot of sense for certain people in certain situations. Most people won’t do a darn thing because they can’t swallow the tax bill now and would prefer to just kick the tax can down the road. If you do so, it’s potentially to your detriment later on if you know you’re going to need to or want to sell that asset - but you could do so at higher rates.
As always, talk to your tax advisor - if they’re worth their salt, they will look at this issue from all sides to help you make an informed and prudent decision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, the theme is: your 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
Today, I’m talking about roth conversions. One thing that has been a consideration for change by lawmakers is banning certain types of Roth conversions, especially backdoor Roth conversions. As of this recording, it’s unclear what will become law and when, but if you have a higher income and big balances in your IRA accounts, you could be locked out of roth conversions in future years.
Right now, the laws allow Roth conversions no matter what your income. You may make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA, but you could make $1 million dollars a year right now, and still convert a $1 million IRA to a Roth.
This is a very powerful way to move some of your investment accounts into a Roth, that won’t be subject to future taxes or future mandatory withdrawals.
Traditional IRA and 401k accounts recently became the worst account type to inherit after the SECURE act was passed in 2019. Non-spouse beneficiaries now have just 10 years to withdraw all the funds from the IRAs they inherit and pay all the taxes. So from an estate planning perspective - especially if you want to limit future taxation at potentially higher rates to your heirs - now is the time to consider a Roth conversion.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, the theme is: your 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
Today, I’m talking about capital gains surprises in 2021.
With the stock market up big in 2019, 2020, and now 2021, this year is shaping up to be a big year for mutual fund capital gains distributions, which can be big tax surprises for investors.
Just looking at one example - one of the most widely held funds among investors is the American Funds Growth Fund of America, with nearly $300 billion in assets in just this one mutual fund.
The GFA will be paying out a capital gains distribution to shareholders of the fund in late December in the range of 7-10% of the fund’s value. So if you own $100,000 in that fund, you’ll receive a $7-10m capital gains distribution, that is then taxable to you.
That’s the way the rules work for mutual funds - they must distribute capital gains to shareholders - but it can create some inconvenient tax surprises.
First of all, it’s important to realize that these capital gains distributions will only be consequential in your taxable accounts. If you own mutual funds in your 401k, IRA, Roth, or some other tax-deferred account - the capital gains distributions won’t cause an additional tax bite for you. But that’s not the case in taxable accounts.
So it’s important to review the mutual funds you own in your taxable accounts. You should pull a list of the mutual funds you own in taxable accounts and then go to the websites of the fund companies to find out what the capital gains distribution is and the likely impact for you. Or if you’re working with a good, proactive advisor - he or she should be doing this for you.
If your mutual funds in taxable accounts were purchased recently and you don’t have a large gain, but you’ll be receiving a substantial capital gains distribution, it might make sense to sell the fund before the record date so you can avoid the capital gains distribution, and then buy it back 30 days later or in early 2022.
Another important takeaway from capital gains distributions is that you should always be cautious about buying mutual funds in taxable accounts in the later part of the year. Many mutual fund companies will post their anticipated capital gains distributions for the year in the early fall, so be sure to check that before you buy mutual funds in the later part of the year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, the theme is: your 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
Today, I’m talking about one of the best ways to reduce your taxable income in 2021, and that is through maximizing your 401k or other retirement plan contributions.
In 2021, you can contribute up to $19,500 into your 401k account. If you’re over 50, you can contribute an additional $6,500 - getting the total contribution amount to $26,000. Assuming you’re making pre-tax (not Roth contributions), that’s a substantial amount of money that is excluded from your income for the year. Now I mentioned Roth contributions, and that’s a topic for another day...but in general, I think it makes sense to contribute at least some of your 401k into a Roth if you can, but since we’re talking about 2021 taxes, any pre-tax contributions you make to your 401k will reduce your income, and it’s a great way to reduce your taxes.
[Discuss people who think they’re maxing out but aren’t]
So check to see if you’re on track to max out based on this year’s limits. If not, you may be able to defer a higher amount in your remaining paychecks, or switch to a specific $ amount contribution for a couple paychecks to max out that contribution.
And importantly, make sure you adjust your contributions for 2022, where the max will increase by $1000. In 2022, you’ll be able to contribute $20,500 if you’re under 50 with the catch up contribution of $6,500 remaining the same, for a total max contribution of $27,000 if you’re over 50.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, the theme is: your 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
Today, I’m talking about gifting. Truly, one of the most confusing parts of the tax code - at least in my experience working with clients - are the rules on gifting.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift. So a question I pose to you that is very important to consider now is are you in a good financial position to gift now?
You can give up to $15,000 per gift recipient in 2021 without paying taxes and up to $30,000 per gift recipient if you're married. But what happens if you want to give more than that?
You can actually give substantially more to your heirs without being subject to tax. The additional gift will just be applied to your lifetime exemption.
Let’s say you own a family business worth $3 million dollars. Would you be shocked to learn that you can actually gift that business to your children during your lifetime without paying tax on that gift?
That’s because of the lifetime gift tax exemption, which is currently $11.7 million in 2021. This means that you can give up to $11.7 million in gifts over the course of your lifetime without ever having to pay a penny in taxes on those gifts. And if you are married, it’s double that amount. You and your spouse can give away more than $23 million in your lifetime, tax-free.
Even if taxes don’t go higher next year, this high exemption is scheduled to sunset anyways in 2025, so now is the time to gift. Personally, the gift and estate tax exemptions are so high at the moment, that they have big targets on their backs...It’s low hanging fruit for congress, and likely to change - as of this recording it’s uncertain how or when it will change, but I would gift now because the clock may be ticking on you being able to take advantage of the current gift tax rules and these rules may be changed sooner rather than later.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the podcast is: 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist
With potential tax increases on the horizon, year-end tax planning for 2021 is even more important than it has been in the past. And since the end of the calendar year is coming up, and the holidays are such a busy time, now is the perfect time...the calm before the holiday storm...to look seriously at your tax situation and take some last minute actions to minimize your taxes for this year and make some adjustments to prepare for the likelihood of higher taxes in the future.
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about:
- Gifting - time may be running out on this
- Max out 401k - make sure you’re contributing to the limit if you can afford it
- Capital gains - watch out for recently purchased mutual funds in taxable accounts & realize gains now before taxes go higher (which I think high probability that they will go higher)
- Roth conversions - especially with potential for higher taxes in the future or if your income was lower in 2021 than is typical
- Tax loss harvesting (discuss rules and wash sale)
My hope is that at least one or two of these tax-planning tips will apply to you in your situation and can potentially save you money when it comes time to pay Uncle Sam.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’ll dive into why now is a golden opportunity for gifting that may soon disappear.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast
This week the theme was: 5 Ways To Ruin Your Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here are the 5 ways you can ruin your retirement:
- Vacation home
- Divorce
- Health Care Costs
- Underspending
- Elder Fraud
Here’s the bottom line: It’s always best to focus on the things that are within your control rather than the things you can’t control. You can’t control inflation, taxes, or the stock market in retirement, but you can control and take preventative measures to protect yourself against some of the ways you can ruin your retirement this week.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: 2021 Year-End Tax Planning Checklist. I’ll talk about steps you can take now to minimize your taxes before the end of the year. This includes tax-loss harvesting, maximizing your charitable giving benefits even if you itemize, gifting now while you still can, and more.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast and lastly, I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the 5 ways to ruin your retirement...and all have nothing to do with the economy, the stock market, social security, inflation, or interest rates.
Today, I’m talking about how elder fraud can ruin your retirement. If you’ve ever been a victim of identity theft, had your bank accounts compromised, or even your email or FAcebook account hacked, you know how painful and frustrating it can be to fix the problem.
Elder fraud is becoming more and more common, and costs older Americans more than $3 billion annually. And that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg...many older Americans may not even be aware that they were scammed, or if they are, they are afraid to report it, since it may cause them to lose their independence and the management of their financial affairs. Older people tend to be polite and trusting, and less aware of the ever-changing schemes of the scammers.
It’s hard to keep up with the ever-adapting schemes of fraudsters, but one of the most important protections is a healthy level of skepticism about anything unsolicited. Whether that be a phone call, someone at your door, an email - clicking links or opening attachments in emails are often the gateway for hackers. Understanding and appreciating how easy it is for fraudsters to scam you will help you be on guard and less likely to click on the link or respond to the email about the sweepstakes you supposedly just won.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the 5 ways to ruin your retirement...and all have nothing to do with the economy, the stock market, social security, inflation, or interest rates.
Today, I’m talking about how spending can ruin your retirement. Now when I talk about spending you probably think I’m talking about overspending. And that certainly is one of the easiest ways to ruin your retirement - spend down your assets, run out of money, move in with your kids and live off of social security checks for the rest of your life.
But that’s a rare occurrence. Thankfully, I’ve never had a single client spend down all of their assets in 14 years, and we have about 300 clients. I bet if you polled 10 financial advisors with the same number of clients, they would only have at most 1 or 2 rare tragic case to tell where someone ran out of money in retirement. It’s a big fear, but with careful planning and adjustments along the way, it’s possible to avoid what might scare you the most about retirement.
What I see more often is ruining their retirement by underspending. They are so fearful about spending down their assets that they don’t actually enjoy their retirement years. They stay home rather than take vacations. They deal with lukewarm water in their shower for years rather than paying a plumber to come fix it. They drive around an old, unreliable car, not because they can’t afford a new one, but because they refuse to spend any money.
Retirement years are meant to be a new adventure, particularly the younger years of retirement when you’re still healthy and active. But I see too many people waste it away watching Fox News or CNN all day and not doing much of anything else that’s meaningful or fulfilling.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the 5 ways to ruin your retirement...and all have nothing to do with the economy, the stock market, social security, inflation, or interest rates.
Today, I’m talking about how health care costs can ruin your retirement. Healthcare is one of the biggest expenses for most retirees - ranking right up there with housing and transportation costs, and it comes with an equally big lifetime price tag.
Fidelity estimates that about 15% of the average retiree's annual expenses will be used for health care-related expenses, including Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
In that same study, Fidelity found that the average retired couple age 65 in 2019 will spend $285,000 on health care expenses in retirement. For single retirees, the estimate is $150,000 for women and $135,000 for men. Ouch!
On an annual basis, in my experience I find that most of my clients end up spending $5,000-$15,000 per year on healthcare costs.
And then there’s the big unknown of long-term care costs. If you require long-term care for an extended period or if you develop dementia or Altzheimer’s, the costs skyrocket. The estimated lifetime cost of care for someone with dementia is $341,840.
There’s about a 50/50 chance that you’ll need some form of long-term care in your lifetime, and 15% of Americans will spend more than $250,000 on long-term care in our lifetime.
Those expenses can wipe out your wealth, which is why it’s so important to understand your options and protect yourself.
If you’re in your 50s it’s a good time to look seriously at a long-term care policy and decide if you’re going to purchase coverage or take your chances with self-funding if you need expensive long-term care later in life.
The takeaway with today’s episode is that understanding your annual costs for healthcare in retirement is essential. Medicare isn’t free. You’ll still have out-of-pocket expenses each year. Make sure you understand what those costs are likely to be and make sure you include those expenses in your annual retirement budget before you retire.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the 5 ways to ruin your retirement...and all have nothing to do with the economy, the stock market, social security, inflation, or interest rates.
Today, I’m talking about a rather unpopular topic, especially when it comes to retirement...divorce. When you’re desperate to get out of a marriage, thinking about how that can ruin your retirement isn’t usually top of mind, but I wish couples in troubled marriages would more carefully consider the financial consequences of a divorce before pulling the plug.
Divorce rates among those 50 & over are skyrocketing. It’s become such a noticeable trend that it even has a name - gray divorce.
The main financial problem with gray divorce is that the asset split that happens in nearly every divorce cuts your wealth in half. Research from the National Center for Family & Marriage Research found that someone getting divorced after age 50 can expect their wealth to drop by about 50%. And unlike someone who divorces in their 20s and 30s, you’ve nearly run out of time to make up for that lost wealth since you’re so close to retirement. So unless you want to keep working until well into your 70s, it’s going to be very hard to regain your lost ground.
Someone once told me that the secret to building wealth is: don’t switch cars and don’t switch spouses.
If you or someone you know is in a troubled marriage, I strongly urge you to work through the financial implications of a divorce and determine how your life might be made more miserable in the long run because of the devastating combination of a divorce and losing half of your assets.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I’m talking about the 5 ways to ruin your retirement...and all have nothing to do with the economy, the stock market, social security, inflation, or interest rates.
Today, I’m talking about how a vacation home can ruin your retirement. I live in Oregon where the crown jewel of the state is our endless miles of breathtaking beaches and coastline. Maybe Oregonians dream of owning a beach house. If I owned a beach house it would be in Manzanita - my favorite Oregon beach town. I would get a house perched high on the hill - just outside the tsunami zone where I can watch winter storms roll in my lookout tower…
Can you tell I’ve been daydreaming about my beach house? It may or may not have a yellow door and it definitely has a hot tub.
Here’s the problem when you own a beach house or any vacation home for that matter. Many people buying a second home aren’t paying cash. If you can afford to pay cash for your 2nd home, it’s a bit different, but let’s assume you are carrying some debt on your house. You have the mortgage and the taxes and insurance, plus all the maintenance and repairs. Interest cost of the debt. I would hardly consider most vacation locales investments, because the housing prices don’t grow enough to justify it for investment purposes. Then there’s the decision of whether you’ll rent out your vacation home when you’re not using it - the extra wear and tear that will cause, and the net income after expenses that you can expect.
And then there’s the big question of usage. Most people overestimate how much they will use a 2nd home. If you think you’re going to pack up and head there every weekend, or spend 6 months out of the year there, it’s best to try that out with renting first before you commit to buying.
The point here is that the cost of ownership needs to be carefully calculated, and then you have to take it a step further and calculate your expected and realistic usage to see if it really makes financial sense and practical sense to buy vs. rent. If owning a 2nd home costs you $4000 for each week you’re there, because of how seldom you spend time there, but you could rent a place that’s twice as nice for $2000/week and none of the headaches of ownership, you definitely don’t want to find that out after you drop six figures or sign up for a 30-year mortgage for that beloved 2nd house.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
In case you missed last week, I just rebranded the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast to the new name - retirement quick tips. Nothing has changed. Same content that you love (otherwise you wouldn’t be here, right? Just a new look and a new name.
The theme this week on the podcast is: 5 Ways To Ruin Your Retirement
As is often the case with the podcast, an article I read becomes the inspiration for the theme of the podcast. That’s what happened this week. I read an article about ways you can fail in retirement, and I started to think about ways I’ve seen the best laid plans fail for clients and people I know.
It’s an interesting exercise to think about...how might your retirement plans fail?..
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about common ways your retirement can fail and safeguards you can put in place to protect you. I’ll focus on things you can control, like saying no to your adult children, rather than things you can’t control - like runaway inflation.
My hope is that you’ll think about retirement risks in a new and different way - not just based on how the economy or the stock market is doing but how your actions and the things within your control can lead you to success or failure over a 20-30 year retirement.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’ll talk about how that vacation home that you’ve been dreaming of could be the cause of a retirement demise.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Happy Halloween! I hope you’re enjoying the holiday. It’s my 4 year old’s favorite holiday, and he’s been obsessed with Halloween since he was 2 years old. Last year, I completely spaced and ended up buying him 2 costumes, so he will be Lightning McQueen this year, and fingers crossed that the costume still fits!
This week, I took a pause on new content so I could work out the kinks with the podcast name change. Hopefully if you’re hearing this that means that I didn’t blow anything up and the changes have gone into effect.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme:
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the podcast is that I’m doing a name change! The One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is changing to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
I quickly found after I launched the podcast that I really couldn’t cover bite-sized content on retirement in 1-2 minutes a day, but rather each episode is more like 3-4 minutes each day. So to more accurately reflect what the content is, I finally pulled the trigger on the name change, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years now.
So this week, I’ll be taking a pause on new content while I work out the kinks of the name change and get everything updated. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking process on the back end to make sure everything transfers over and I don’t blow anything up!
I ask for your prayers and well-wishes that it goes smoothly! I would really appreciate it!
By the end of this week, everything should be updated, so I’ll be back with a new episode Sunday, which is Halloween, to preview next week’s theme!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the soon-to-be Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
The theme this week on the podcast is that I’m doing a name change! The One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is changing to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
I quickly found after I launched the podcast that I really couldn’t cover bite-sized content on retirement in 1-2 minutes a day, but rather each episode is more like 3-4 minutes each day. So to more accurately reflect what the content is, I finally pulled the trigger on the name change, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years now.
So this week, I’ll be taking a pause on new content while I work out the kinks of the name change and get everything updated. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking process on the back end to make sure everything transfers over and I don’t blow anything up!
I ask for your prayers and well-wishes that it goes smoothly! I would really appreciate it!
By the end of this week, everything should be updated, so I’ll be back with a new episode Sunday, which is Halloween, to preview next week’s theme!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the soon-to-be Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
The theme this week on the podcast is that I’m doing a name change! The One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is changing to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
I quickly found after I launched the podcast that I really couldn’t cover bite-sized content on retirement in 1-2 minutes a day, but rather each episode is more like 3-4 minutes each day. So to more accurately reflect what the content is, I finally pulled the trigger on the name change, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years now.
So this week, I’ll be taking a pause on new content while I work out the kinks of the name change and get everything updated. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking process on the back end to make sure everything transfers over and I don’t blow anything up!
I ask for your prayers and well-wishes that it goes smoothly! I would really appreciate it!
By the end of this week, everything should be updated, so I’ll be back with a new episode Sunday, which is Halloween, to preview next week’s theme!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the soon-to-be Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
The theme this week on the podcast is that I’m doing a name change! The One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is changing to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
I quickly found after I launched the podcast that I really couldn’t cover bite-sized content on retirement in 1-2 minutes a day, but rather each episode is more like 3-4 minutes each day. So to more accurately reflect what the content is, I finally pulled the trigger on the name change, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years now.
So this week, I’ll be taking a pause on new content while I work out the kinks of the name change and get everything updated. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking process on the back end to make sure everything transfers over and I don’t blow anything up!
I ask for your prayers and well-wishes that it goes smoothly! I would really appreciate it!
By the end of this week, everything should be updated, so I’ll be back with a new episode Sunday, which is Halloween, to preview next week’s theme!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the soon-to-be Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
The theme this week on the podcast is that I’m doing a name change! The One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is changing to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
I quickly found after I launched the podcast that I really couldn’t cover bite-sized content on retirement in 1-2 minutes a day, but rather each episode is more like 3-4 minutes each day. So to more accurately reflect what the content is, I finally pulled the trigger on the name change, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years now.
So this week, I’ll be taking a pause on new content while I work out the kinks of the name change and get everything updated. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking process on the back end to make sure everything transfers over and I don’t blow anything up!
I ask for your prayers and well-wishes that it goes smoothly! I would really appreciate it!
By the end of this week, everything should be updated, so I’ll be back with a new episode Sunday, which is Halloween, to preview next week’s theme!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the soon-to-be Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
The theme this week on the podcast is that I’m doing a name change! The One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is changing to the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
I quickly found after I launched the podcast that I really couldn’t cover bite-sized content on retirement in 1-2 minutes a day, but rather each episode is more like 3-4 minutes each day. So to more accurately reflect what the content is, I finally pulled the trigger on the name change, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years now.
So this week, I’ll be taking a pause on new content while I work out the kinks of the name change and get everything updated. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking process on the back end to make sure everything transfers over and I don’t blow anything up!
I ask for your prayers and well-wishes that it goes smoothly! I would really appreciate it!
By the end of this week, everything should be updated, so I’ll be back with a new episode Sunday, which is Halloween, to preview next week’s theme!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the soon-to-be Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A name change is coming!
Yes, it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time...change the name of the podcast. The story behind the original name is that I wanted to do a short-form podcast about retirement that was built for the Amazon Alexa platform. At the time I started this podcast, there were no other daily podcasts on Alexa about retirement. There are quite a few podcasts on retirement, but this is the only one (to my knowledge) that is providing daily, short tips on retirement.
A lot of retirement topics are nuanced and complex, so my idea was to take a topic, create a weekly theme around it, then cover it in bite-sized bits each day. And that’s exactly what I’ve done from the beginning.
However, in my naivete I thought I could cover it in about a minute each day...2 minutes tops. But what I’ve found is that 3-4 minutes is about right, and sometimes I can go as long as 5 or 6 minutes.
While I try to keep them as short and to the point as possible, it’s definitely not a 1 minute retirement tip. And it’s been bugging me for a very long time, because I feel that the title is a bit misleading.
So with that in mind, I decided to change the name of the podcast to: Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley.
Nothing about the content or the cadence of the weekly themes and episodes will change. I’m simply updating the name to more accurately and honestly reflect what the content is about. I’m also refreshing the branding with a new cover image as well.
So I hope you like the name change, and rest assured that if you like the podcast and enjoy listening each day, that nothing else is changing.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
This week the theme was: Do these 3 things right for a happy retirement.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- The 3 pillars of happiness in retirement - money, health, and relationships
- Then I talked about how they’re all essential ingredients in the happienss recipe and how you can’t expect to be happy, even if just one of those ingredients is missing
- In talking about what does make you happy, it’s important to talk about what doesn’t make you happy - namely spending more time with your kids, and buying fun toys like a car in retirement. We covered that yesterday on the podcast.
If you want to read the article that was the inspiration for this week’s podcast or the more extensive University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study with the research findings on happiness in retirement, I’ll link to both in the show notes of this episode.
- Article: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/for-happiness-in-retirement--forget-about-your-kids-and-the-fancy-car--advisors-say-64230.html?section=3&page=2
- Study: https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/about
Here’s the bottom line: Money, health, and relationships all take hard work and an investment of your time, energy, and resources. But when you’re talking about bringing lasting meaning and fulfillment to your retirement years, it’s well worth the effort and best to start right now.
So I challenge you this week to start making an investment in one of those areas? What’s lacking the most in your life right now in the categories of money, health, or relationships. Maybe you need to sign up for that group at your church that meets once a week, or maybe you just need to start flossing more or add an extra $100 a month to your 401k.
Whatever it is, do something this week that will set you up for a fulfilled and meaningful retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Something I’ve been wanting to do for over a year now, and that is re-branding the podcast. I’m just changing the name...that’s it. All of the content and format is staying the same, but I picked the name of the podcast before it ever launched and I’ve never liked the name...so I’m excited to reveal the new name and branding of the show in next week’s episodes.
Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you (and hopefully it is otherwise you wouldn’t be listening), please share the show with a friend or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to a friend and say, “I love this podcast and thought you might enjoy a listen.”
Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement.
So far this week, I’ve been talking about the 3 things according to The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal study of retirees starting in 1994 that surveys a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people in America.
What did they find out about happiness in retirement? That you need to have a combination of 3 things for real, lasting happiness - money, health, and relationships.
Today, I’m talking about things that are commonly associated with happiness in retirement but are not actually strong contributors to happiness according to the research findings.
Michael Finke, one of the researchers in the study, said: “The one relationship that does not provide greater life satisfaction in retirement is the relationship you have with your children. This is a bit surprising. The frequency of contact with your children is not a source of greater life satisfaction. Even the depth of the relationship is not a source of life satisfaction as it is with your spouse and as it is with your friends. I see a lot of retirees thinking they’re going to spend a lot more time with their children, and that relationship is going to deepen in retirement, when the reality is there’s not a whole lot of data to back that up.”
What about that Porsche GT3 or the beach house you’ve been dreaming about? Will any of these make you happy in retirement? According to Finke, the answer is...it depends.
He says: “If you buy a sports car and it gives you entrée into a new social group, if it becomes a hobby that increases your probability of interactions with other people who are interested in the same kind of thing and that you enjoy talking with, then that’s worth doing,” Finke said. But simply buying the sports car or the RV or the vacation home is not going to lead to happiness and satisfaction”
He continued: “The problem with the working years is we want to get away from social interactions because we get enough of it during our weekdays, but in retirement we can easily become more socially isolated to the point where we actually crave more of those types of social interactions,” he said, and suddenly that beautiful beach cottage is a detractor. “We’re not very good at imagining what’s going to make us happy in the future. Very often what we do is we look at what makes us happy today, but retirement is different. And what makes us happier is a new lifestyle, a new lifestyle that gives us the opportunities for social interaction, for living a more meaningful life.”
The insights from this long-term study on so many retirees is incredibly valuable, because you can take these common predictors of happiness in retirement and use it to invest now in these areas that will bring lasting happiness, as well as have a guide for designing your lifestyle in retirement, based on what’s most likely to bring YOU meaning and fulfillment in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement.
So far this week, we’ve talked about how money, health, and relationships are the 3 key ingredients for a happy retirement. But you can’t be happy without all 3. If you’re sick, lonely and isolated, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you’re going to be miserable.
It’s useful, then, to think of these 3 things as ingredients in the “Happiness in retirement” recipe. When you mix them all together, that’s how you’re going to have the best outcome and give yourself the best chance of having real, lasting happiness in retirement.
I find that too many retirees aren’t intentional about cultivating these areas in their life that will bring happiness and they don’t put in the work into the areas that are going to bring them lasting fulfillment in retirement...and then they wonder why they’re bored and not enjoying their retirement years like they hoped they would.
The hard part is that there is no quick and easy fix for a happier retirement. Building up enough money for happiness in retirement takes decades of sacrifice, saving, and good decisions. Investing in your health requires that you eat your veggies, exercise, floss your teeth, and moderate your drinking. Investing in your social network and relationships requires lots of effort and putting yourself out there to meet new people. It can feel awkward and it can take a really long time to develop close friendships with people in your life.
But, all those investments are worth it in the end, because they’re all key ingredients in the recipe of true happiness, not fleeting pleasure, in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement.
What are those 3 things? Money, Health, and the final pillar that I’m talking about today - Relationships.
And the kind of relationships that bring the most happiness in retirement according to the findings in the study are not with your kids...it’s primarily through social networks. It’s very easy to become socially isolated in retirement and that’s a big reason why many retirees become bored and depressed in retirement and find that it’s not all they hoped it would be.
When you lose the natural social interactions and friendships that develop in the workplace, you have to become more intentional about cultivating friendships in retirement. Maybe this is spending more time with friends you already have, or making new friends. Retirement allows you to focus more on the things you enjoy doing, so whether you’re into golf, travel, cars, or gardening, try to find ways to enjoy your hobbies with others, or at least make an effort to regularly get coffee or go out to lunch or dinner with friends.
According to Michael Finke (Fink-a), professor of wealth management at the American College of Financial Services and one of the researchers involved in this study, “The retiree’s job is to invest in the inputs that are actually going to result in the output of greater life satisfaction,”
Cultivating friendships is work. If you’re willing to put in the investment of time it takes, it will lead to more fulfillment and enjoyment in your retirement years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement. This is not my opinion, but it’s based on findings from a study of 20,000 retirees that followed them from 1994 to 2018.
Yesterday I talked about why money WILL make you happier in retirement, at least up to about $4 million in assets.
Today, I’m talking about the 2nd pillar of happiness in retirement - health. I wasn’t surprised by this at all. Health is something most of us don’t think about until all of a sudden we don’t have our health.
And in retirement, health becomes a forefront issue...certainly much more important that it might have been in your 20s, 30s, and 40s when you were much younger and probably much healthier.
Every day we get older and our bodies are gradually breaking down. To make matters worse, our lifestyle and habits really catch up with us in the last phase of life. If you have arthritis, chronic back pain, or bad hearing, or likely a combination of all 3 of ailments, it’s a recipe for being miserable and in pain all the time, and preventing you from enjoying an active and meaningful retirement.
The good news is, especially if you retire early enough, many of these health issues don’t crop up until your 70s and 80s. And many health issues can be eliminated all together with better habits and a better diet.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement, based on a study of 20,000 retirees that followed them from 1994 to 2018.
Today, I’m talking about the first key ingredient to happiness and fulfillment in retirement....money.
Yes, despite what you’re told, money does actually make you happier. According to the article summarizing the research findings (that I’ll link to in the show notes - https://www.fa-mag.com/news/for-happiness-in-retirement--forget-about-your-kids-and-the-fancy-car--advisors-say-64230.html)
Money “seems to have a relatively linear effect up to about $4 million.” What does this mean? Well, the more money you have the happier you’ll be in retirement...up to a point. The monetary peak of happiness is when you have $4 million.
After $4 million in net worth, more money does not = happier.
Have you been told this before? Most of the research I’ve seen on money and ties to happiness deal with income. Like I’ve read research findings that indicate happiness tied to income peaks at about $75,000 a year, but newer research actually contradicts that original finding that is so often quoted as proof that more money does not equal more happiness.
So does money buy happiness? Maybe.
If you think about it in retirement, and what $4 million in assets would do for your overall well-being, I think it begins to make more sense.
First of all, $4 million can provide roughly $150,000 of income in retirement, perhaps more depending on how you’re invested, while still growing to provide more income down the road.
By the time you get to retirement, you’re likely to have low to no debt, so that $150,000+ a year of income is largely discretionary.
You can easily cover the basics of food, clothing, housing, gas, and health care. Which means you can enjoy travel, gardening, and a golf club membership without worrying about penny-pinching. You can use your money for good in a way that aligns with your values - contributing to causes you care about or college for your grandkids.
Your nest egg is large enough to protect you in an emergency. If something expensive breaks or you need a new roof, you have the assets to pay for it and move on without the insecurity of wondering how that large withdrawal will impact you years down the road.
So if money does buy happiness for many of us up to the $4 million dollar mark, what does that mean for you and how you plan and save and invest for retirement?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Do these 3 things right for a happy retirement.
I came across an article recently in the industry publication, Financial Advisor Magazine with the provocative title, “For Happiness In Retirement, Forget About Your Kids And The Fancy Car”
Wait, what? You mean I’m not going to find fulfillment in retirement spending more time with my kids and grandkids, or getting that Porsche GT3 that my husband keeps bugging me about? Apparently, I said he could get one if we had another child. Well, I got the child and he’s still bugging me about that car. But I didn’t say when, and those cars are expensive...
So this week on the podcast, I’ll talk about the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which is a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people in America.
It looks at factors leading to fulfillment among retirees over a long period of time, beginning in 1994 and following them up to 2018.
From this study, we’ll talk about 3 consistent things that must be present in your life in retirement in order for you to be happy, and why your kids and a fancy car aren’t part of that equation.
Link to article: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/for-happiness-in-retirement--forget-about-your-kids-and-the-fancy-car--advisors-say-64230.html
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’ll talk about the first essential ingredient for happiness and fulfillment in retirement - money.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
Market & Economic Update - Q3 2021
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- stocks, bonds, the economy, how to position your investment portfolio now, and why we’re still positive about further growth ahead for the rest of this year and into 2022.
Here’s the bottom line: Stocks are within 5% of all-time highs despite supply-chain bottlenecks and the Delta variant. Technological advancements are making businesses more productive and efficient even with fewer workers. Here at True North, we think this economic and stock market recovery still has much further to go!
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Do these 3 things right for a happy retirement. I’ll talk about the 3 key ingredients that all must be present in order for you to have a meaningful and fulfilling retirement.
I’ll talk about why money is one of those 3 key ingredients, and the magic nest egg $ amount for maximum happiness according to one survey finding. I’ll also talk about the surprising reason why spending more time with family in retirement doesn’t make the list.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your feedback, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going in depth into our quarterly update that we send to our clients to discuss the current economic and market environment as we enter the last quarter of 2021.
Today, I’m talking about why I’m still positive about future growth ahead despite inflation fears, Covid risks, and uncertainty about future monetary and fiscal policy here in the U.S.
There’s always a million reasons to not invest...and the vast majority of them never materialize or never have the devastating impact that some pundit on TV claims after a bad day in the stock market.
Here are just a handful of reasons why we at True North thinks the future looks bright:
- Lots of pent-up demand from consumers. Many many Americans are better off financially than they were before Covid. We’ve got money to spend and not as many options to spend it with restrictions still in place and Covid fears overhanging. As more Americans get vaccinated and Covid morphs into a less deadly virus, Americans have cash burning a hole in their pocket and are eager to spend again. This should really bolster the economy.
- Related to this is the fact that Americans are collectively sitting on $2.5 trillion dollars in cash. With consumer spending being the biggest component of GDP, $2.5 trillion is an important figure.
- Small business formations are booming. Record amounts of new businesses are forming, which should fuel further economic growth in the years ahead.
- The financial system, which is the grease on the wheels for the economy - is healthy. There have surprisingly been no shocks in the financial system throughout all of this, thanks to dramatic actions by the Fed early on in the crisis. Banks are healthy and have capacity to lend more. Rising interest rates should help banks as well.
These are just a few of the reasons why we’re confident that the economy is on solid ground and has room for further growth as we close out 2021 and head into next year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going in depth into our quarterly update that we send to our clients to discuss the current economic and market environment as we enter the last quarter of 2021.
So far this week I’ve been talking about what’s been going on in the stock market, the bond market, and the economy. Today, I’m talking about what all of this means for positioning your investment portfolio to take advantage of the current environment.
Hopefully if you’ve been listening this week, you got the impression that I’m still positive about where the markets and the economy are headed. Yes, there is a lot of uncertainty, and yes there may be some short-term hiccups in the stock market that you might see reflected in your investment portfolio, but I think that the economy will continue to normalize as we emerge from Covid, and that’s good news for stocks and bonds.
Here’s how I’m positioning client portfolios right now:
- On the stock side, the foundation is still value stocks. I’ve always preferred value stocks especially for investors close to retirement or in retirement, but with increasing interest rates, they’re looking more attractive compared to the high-flying big tech stocks
- On the bond side, I like shorter term bonds, especially laddered bonds, where investors will be rewarded by reinvesting those bonds at higher rates, if interest rates continue higher in 2022 and beyond
- Diversification is key right now, especially if big tech stocks fall out of favor. Many investors don’t realize how much of their supposedly diversified broad-market index fund is concentrated in just a handful of large tech stocks. Investors have been rewarded by this in recent years and have become complacent as a result. I find this concerning that so much of Americans wealth is tied up in just a handful of companies. As we have already seen this year with selloffs in big tech, this trend can turn on a dime and it would be prudent to evaluate your portfolio - really look under the hood - to determine if you are well-diversified across companies and different industries.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going in depth into our quarterly update that we send to our clients to discuss the current economic and market environment as we enter the last quarter of 2021.
Today, I’m talking about the economy.
A really cool milestone happened for the economy this year - 2nd quarter GDP surpassed $20 trillion for the first time ever – topping pre-pandemic levels by around 1%. What’s even more stunning is that this was accomplished with 6.7 million fewer workers compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The shutdown and stay-at-home in 2020 wouldn’t have been possible even just a few years ago, but the technology that’s available today made it possible for people to work from home, food and groceries to still come to you without going to the store or the restaurant, and e-commerce making it all possible.
It really shines a light on just how amazing this technological revolution is that we’re in the midst of right now, and helps explain why tech stocks have been such stunning outperformers, especially over the last 10 years. The tremendous growth in productivity that we all are experiencing will continue into the future, as businesses in every industry get better at using technology for new things. I see examples of this every day in the financial services industry, as technology makes it possible to get more done in less time with fewer headaches.
For businesses in every industry, the Covid-driven innovation through the use of technology should also lead to better profitability and margins.
The good news heading into the fall is that we are still just 18-months into a new economic expansion. Inventories which were significantly depleted need to be rebuilt. Inflation which has been a concern should start to moderate and The Fed remains very accommodating and is in no hurry to raise rates anytime soon. Plus, we may be near a peak in U.S. Covid infections and break-through therapeutics could be a game-changer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going in depth into our quarterly update that we send to our clients to discuss the current economic and market environment as we enter the last quarter of 2021.
Today, I’m talking about bonds, baby! What’s going on with bonds?! Well, a lot actually.
As I mentioned yesterday, there are some inflation concerns that are driving markets, and that’s especially true in the bond market, where bonds are really sensitive to higher inflation. That’s because when you buy a bond, you’re locking in a certain interest payment twice a year that’s unchanging. So when inflation eats away at that, it makes those payments and hence the bonds themselves worth less money.
Related to inflation, and what’s probably driving bond markets even more right now is the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will start raising rates and taper their bond purchases. It now seems likely that they’ll announce this intention formally at their meeting in November, and start tapering in 2022.
Bond yields are already rising in anticipation of this move, which is why you may have seen news headlines about the 10-year treasury yield going higher. That’s been happening because of what the Fed has been saying and will likely continue.
So what does this mean for bond investors? If you’ve been disciplined and stayed invested in short and intermediate term bonds that don’t mature beyond the next 5-7 years, then your patience will soon hopefully be rewarded with higher rates. Bonds in the short to intermediate term categories should hold up ok and will likely benefit from being able to once again reinvest at higher rates.
The bottom line is that as rates go up, investing in bonds becomes more attractive again, especially relative to holding cash, and even to owning stocks, so the while the rise in interest rates may hurt some bond investors, many will likely benefit, especially if you’re adding new money to bonds or re-investing bonds that are maturing soon.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going in depth into our quarterly update that we send to our clients to discuss the current economic and market environment as we enter the last quarter of 2021.
Today, I’m talking about what’s driving the stock market right now.
Despite a strong start to the quarter in July and August, September was a challenging month for stocks with the S&P 500 down nearly 5% in September. Most of that downturn came near the end of the month when uncertainty about the debt ceiling and some surprises on deadlocks with Democrats over a couple of big spending bills spooked stocks.
As of this recording, it’s still uncertain whether Congress will raise the debt ceiling. They have until next Monday to do it, and there’s a lot of politicians playing with fire here, trying to use it as a leverage point, which is concerning. I do think a catastrophe will be avoided and we won’t have a government shutdown, but there’s still uncertainty about taxes and government spending, as well as supply-chain bottlenecks, labor shortages, and the Delta variant. Adding to investors' concerns are worries about persistent higher inflation.
So there’s a lot that can potentially weigh on the stock market for the next few months, and none of these issues are going away anytime soon. Some recent data suggests that supply chain issues are actually getting worse. I can attest to this firsthand, as I am still waiting for a washer and dryer that I ordered in July. In the meantime, I’m having to do laundry at the neighbor’s house for hopefully not too much longer.
So I think it’s possible that these issues continue to weigh on markets, but the good news is that new covid cases from the Delta variant appear to have peaked in September, so if that can lead to a return to normalcy, then some of these supply chain and labor shortage issues should improve with time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Market & Economic Update for the 3rd quarter of 2021. We just closed out the 3rd quarter of the year at the end of September, and we’re rounding third base to the close of the year.
I can’t believe how this year has just flown by and there’s so much going on right now between rockiness in the stock market, the Delta variant, supply chain bottlenecks and inflation issues...It’s a really confusing time to be an investor, especially when you’re so close to retirement.
Now if you listened yesterday, I promised to talk about anticipated tax changes and how you can plan now. As of this recording, Congress still has no resolution for their build back better act and the infrastructure spending bill. So until there is more certainty on what taxes will actually look like I’m going to hold off on talking about this in more depth.
So this week on the podcast I’ll go in depth on the quarterly newsletter we write and send to clients on what the heck is going on in the world of investing.
Tune in each day this week where I’ll talk about stocks, bonds, the economy, how to position your investment portfolio now, and why we’re still positive about further growth ahead for the rest of this year and into 2022.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow...where I’ll help you digest the biggest trends influencing the stock market today.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
A Week of Giveaways!
In case you missed any episodes, here’s all the free tools I offered this week:
- Asset Allocation Cheat Sheet
- Portfolio Stress Test
- Retirement Success Forecaster
- Investment Portfolio Analysis
- Social Security Optimizer
Here’s the bottom line: Planning for retirement means you’ll be making several important decision that will impact you and your finances for the next 20-30 years. Many of those decisions are irreversible, which means that arming yourself with information about what’s best for you will be essential and help set you up for a successful retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Get Ready For Tax Hikes! How To Plan Now. I’ll talk about some of the current proposals and tax law changes that are likely to be enacted into law as part of the Build Back Better Act, the $3.5 trillion spending bill that will require tax hikes to pay for.
I’ll talk about which changes will likely impact you and how you can take action now to take advantage of the current tax laws before these changes go into effect.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your feedback, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A Week of Giveaways! Each day this week I’m offering a free tool that you can take advantage of to help you plan for a comfortable retirement.
Today’s free tool is: Social Security Optimizer
One of the most important and most confusing questions you’ll need to figure out as you plan for retirement is what age to start social security. If you’re married, divorced, or widowed, that question gets even more tangled.
The good news is that with some analysis and planning ahead, you can make a more informed decision about what might be the best age to start social security...for you! A great tool for doing that and something we use all the time with clients is the social security optimizer.
It will look at your social security benefit amount and show you different filing scenarios side-by-side. You’ll see the breakeven age for each scenario...in other words, what age do you need to live to in order for the selected scenario to provide more lifetime income than taking it as early as possible.
The optimizer will also show you the total lifetime income amount for each filing scenario...sometimes all we think about is the difference in monthly income, but if you live to your life expectancy, you could be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table by making the wrong social security decision.
Here’s how you can complete the social security optimizer:
I need 3 data points to complete your social security optimizer:
- Your age
- Your income
- Your social security monthly benefit amount at your full retirement age
Send me an email with those 3 pieces of information and I’ll send you a personalized social security optimizer, so you can make a smart and informed social security decision!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A Week of Giveaways! Each day this week I’m offering a free tool that you can take advantage of to help you plan for a comfortable retirement.
Today’s free tool is: An investment portfolio analysis, performed by yours truly.
Many people collect accounts and investments over the years and have no idea how it all fits together into one cohesive strategy. If this sounds like you, then today’s free tool is for you.
My investment portfolio analysis will look at:
- How well diversified your portfolio is across sectors and styles
- How much in total you have in stocks, bonds, and cash
- How much overlap there is across the different funds and ETFs you own. Maybe all of them have the same top holdings. Chances are there’s some overlap with your holdings where you’re not as diversified as you can be.
- We’ll compare the results of your portfolio with the overall stock market to see how well your portfolio stacks up across multiple time periods.
- And I’ll even show you the total portfolio income you’re currently generating from interest and dividends...an essential data point as you build a portfolio that is well-suited to retirement.
- And lastly, I’ll show you what the total fees are of your retirement portfolio, so you can make sure that your fees are reasonable and aren’t dragging down your returns.
This is something I’ve never offered on the podcast before, and it’s jam-packed with value!
Just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com and I’ll send over instructions and a secure sharing link so you can send over a copy of your statements or a list of your investment holdings to me confidentially and securely. Again that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A Week of Giveaways! Each day this week I’m offering a free tool that you can take advantage of to help you plan for a comfortable retirement.
Today’s free tool is: The Retirement Success Forecaster
The retirement success forecaster considers everything from the age you retire to your social security, to your assets and income sources in retirement to help you answer the most important financial question you can ask as you prepare for retirement: What are the chances that I will live a comfortable retirement without running out of money?
If you’re planning to retire in the next 5 years or if you’ve recently retired, this free tool will help you see if you’re on the right path or if some course corrections are necessary. It’s important to go through this process while you still have options, so if you are planning on retiring soon or you recently retired, don’t wait on taking advantage of this free tool.
Here’s how you can get your copy of the forecaster: Go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess, There you can Download a copy of my Retirement Success Forecaster and get your FREE personalized results. Again, that’s www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A Week of Giveaways! Each day this week I’m offering a free tool that you can take advantage of to help you plan for a comfortable retirement.
Today’s free tool is: a portfolio stress test.
I’ve never offered this on the podcast before and I’m excited to make it available this week.
Many investors have no idea how their portfolio might fare in the next recession and stock market downturn. That’s a problem. You need to understand the inherent risks of the portfolio you currently own, and a portfolio stress test is an excellent way to figure out how risky your portfolio is.
My portfolio stress test will analyze your portfolio as it’s constructed today and put it through the ringer, showing you how much it dropped in all of the last 5 major market downturns.
How would your portfolio as it’s constructed today done in the tech crash of the early 2000s? What about the WTC attacks or the 2008 financial crisis, where the market lost half of it’s value? How much would your investment portfolio have dropped? And of course we have the debt ceiling crisis of 2011 and the Covid recession of 2020.
This is a really cool opportunity to see how well-prepared your portfolio is for the next recession and market downturn, and make some decisions now to rebalance while the waters are calm if you find that there’s too much risk in your portfolio.
Just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com and I’ll send over instructions and a secure sharing link so you can send over a copy of your statements or a list of your investment holdings to me confidentially and securely. Again that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A Week of Giveaways! Each day this week I’m offering a free tool that you can take advantage of to help you plan for a comfortable retirement.
Today’s free tool is: my asset allocation cheat sheet.
This is the most popular free tool I’ve offered on the podcast, and for good reason. It’s a one-page guide to selecting the right mix of stocks and bonds based on your age.
I’m a big believer in asset allocation as the foundation of every client’s portfolio. It’s always where I start with clients when determining how we should invest. In it’s most basic form, asset allocation is the mix of stocks and bonds in your portfolio, and age is the most important determinant of what your asset allocation should be.
If you would like to get my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that helps you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your age, just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com and I’ll send that to you so you can figure out for yourself what mix is right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: A Week of Giveaways!
If you listened yesterday, I promised to talk about anticipated tax changes and how you can plan now. I’ll cover that theme next week. This week, the Micciche’s are moving back home after a 2 month long remodel project. I have been cleaning and unpacking our house this week, which has been all-consuming.
So this week on the podcast as we settle back home, I’m doing a week of free tools instead.
I’ll share with you how you can get some really valuable resources like
- My portfolio asset allocation cheat sheet
- A free social security analysis that helps you figure out the best age to start social security
- And 2 new tools that I’ve never offered on the podcast before.
Tune in each day this week where I will offer a new resource each day and share with you how you can take advantage of it to help you make smarter and more informed decisions for your retirement.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow...where I’m offering the most popular free tool on the podcast: my asset allocation cheat sheet.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Shirtsleeves To Shirtsleeves In 3 Generations...Why?
- Understanding The Natural Dilution Of Wealth
- The Key Difference In Lasting Wealth: Stewardship vs. Ownership
- Are You Doing More Harm Than Good With Their Inheritance?
- Why Estate Planning Is So Important If You’re A Multi-Millionaire
Here’s the bottom line: I know this may be tough to hear, but if your inheritance is gone by the 3rd generation, much of that is probably your fault. It takes a lot of work to pass along values like hard work, stewardship, money-savvy skills, patience, and delayed gratification to future generations who have become accustomed to living easy, affluent lives because of family wealth. The key to success with assets lasting past the 3rd generation largely comes down to communication, values, and a stewardship mindset. If you’re not confident that your heirs will be able to handle their inherited wealth, the best solution is a well thought out estate plan.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Get Ready For Tax Hikes! How To Plan Now. I’ll talk about some of the current proposals and tax law changes that are likely to be enacted into law as part of the Build Back Better Act, the $3.5 trillion spending bill that will require tax hikes to pay for.
I’ll talk about which changes will likely impact you and how you can take action now to take advantage of the current tax laws before these changes go into effect.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your feedback, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
Today, I’m continuing the estate planning considerations for millionaires. If the overwhelming probability is that your wealth will be gone within 3 generations, how should that influence your estate planning decisions?
I think this is one of the most important questions that a 1st generation millionaire can ask themselves? Out of misguided sense of fairness, self-made millionaires most often transfer wealth freely and equally to their children. Children who often have very different values and views about money compared to their parents, and children who are also ill-equipped to handle the funds.
As a result, they don’t act like stewards and don’t take the responsibility of growing and protecting the money seriously. And very frequently, inherited wealth does more harm than good, compromising initiative, character, and judgement...making heirs miserable, all while they’re pissing away your hard-earned money.
So what’s the solution? It’s simple: Be Intentional.
Minimizing taxes is usually the biggest motivator for estate planning, but one of the most important benefits of estate planning is that it helps you be intentional with how assets are passed on to the next generation.
Most estate planning looks something like this - even for the wealthy. Whatever is leftover after I die goes to my kids. I have a will or a trust that spells out how the money is passed along - but it’s straightforward. It’s split evenly among all children.
The children will have a large and instant windfall with little to no communication from mom and dad about the expectations about how that money is to be handled. Children, even though they are usually in their 50s or older by this time are often unprepared. They have no idea how much there is, and certainly no idea how to handle this new wealth. So a good portion is spent up front. A new house, a new car, a vacation for the entire family. Living the good life. Often the money is not saved, invested or even earmarked for their own retirement. And what the first generation multi-millionaire family spent decades building from scratch is spent in the second generation and squandered by the 3rd generation.
Much of this can be prevented through communication early and often about your intentions with your wealth and your expectations about how wealth is to be handled. Responsible children who view themselves as stewards are capable of using that inherited wealth for worthwhile and meaningful purposes.
You can use estate planning as an effective tool to keep family wealth intact, and ensure that the assets and family legacy is preserved for generations. There are plenty of strategies to do this, so I recommend that you take the time to talk to a good estate attorney and think through what's really important to you regarding inherited wealth for your children and future generations.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
If you are a 1st generation, self-made millionaire, how does it make you feel knowing that all of the wealth that you worked hard to earn, save, and grow will be gone after your grandkids? Though you may think your family is different, the probability that it will happen is overwhelming...90% of wealth in the United States is gone by the 3rd generation.
I’ve been spending this week talking about the many reasons why that is, and why it takes so much work and intentionality to pass along values that will create a mindset of stewards in your children and grandchildren, so today I want to explore the question: “If you know that it will likely be gone in 3 generations, how do you want to pass on wealth to your children and grandchildren? To what extent do you want to do that and are you 100% sure that they will be better off as a result?
Many parents split their assets evenly among their children, and the more proactive try to do so in a way that minimizes taxes, but that’s the extent of it 99% of the time, even with multi-millionaires.
If you are not 100% confident that your children would be better off for receiving their inheritance and will act like stewards, ensuring that the assets aren’t squandered by your grandchildren, you may want to ask yourself if there is something more meaningful and lasting that can be done with your wealth to improve the lives of more people, or if your estate plan is in need of some changes.
I don’t have the answers to this. But I do know that I don’t want my children to be on easy-street and not know the value of hard work and delayed gratification, so it will be ever-evolving how I address my estate plan and how I pass along wealth (assuming there is something there to pass along), and I will always remain open to strong restrictions on access to wealth and possibly no inheritance at all if I think it will do more harm than good to one or all of my children.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
Earlier this week, I talked about how the most important money values that predict financial success are not transferred well to subsequent generations.
Today, I’m digging a little deeper into the values that it takes to successfully pass along wealth to the next generation, and in my experience and research, it all comes down to whether or not future generations view themselves as stewards or owners.
Almost all of the families today around the world who have had enduring wealth for hundreds of years have maintained their wealth because of a mindset of stewardship.
This concept is so important that we even find a few examples of this in the bible. The role of the steward is most clearly illustrated in the parable of the talents, where Jesus tells a story about a wealthy man who entrusts assets to 3 stewards while he is away. According to the parable:
To one he gave five talents;* to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money.
When the wealthy man came back and found out what each of the 3 stewards had done, he praised the first two, and gave them even more responsibilities. To the 3rd who buried his talent he said: “ ‘You wicked, lazy servant!...Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.
Like all of Jesus’ parables, this parable has a lot of different lessons that can be drawn from it. But one lesson relevant to today’s topic is that the first 2 stewards acted like stewards. A steward is someone who “manages or looks after (another's property).”
The 3rd steward who buried the talent did not act like a steward. He was too concerned with losing and too fearful of what would happen if he lost his one talent, that he acted out of self-preservation and buried it.
And that right there is the key difference between many families who are able to preserve wealth for generations and ones who don’t. Future generations who view themselves as stewards of the family business or the family property or family wealth will act very differently toward inherited wealth.
They’ll operate with a mindset that’s very different from “this is mine now”. A steward operates with the mindset that I need to look after this and manage this well. I need to grow and protect this legacy so it can continue after me.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
Today, I’m talking about the natural dilution of wealth. This was actually something I didn’t think about much, assuming that wealth was lost in future generations, mostly due to what I discussed yesterday - bad investment decisions, overspending, taxes, and generally money values that are inconsistent with keeping and growing wealth.
But it’s important to understand how the natural dilution of wealth and how wealth is passed down equally in the United States plays a big role in the loss of family fortunes.
Let’s look at a really simple example. Let’s say you’re married and you amass a wealth of $12 million dollars by the time you pass. Interestingly enough, the average multi-millionaire household is likely to have 3 or more children. I’m going to assume in this example that you have 3 children, and they each have 3 children. I am also assuming there is no growth on the wealth and no taxes.
By the time your wealth is split among your 3 children, the $12 million estate is down to $4 million. Assuming no growth and no taxes, once that money is passed to all 9 of your grandkids, the $4 million is diluted further to $1.3 million each.
Contrast this to the way wealth is passed down in Europe or through family trusts and foundations, where fortunes endure for hundreds of years. There is usually a single steward or trustee to the family fortune, and future generations aren’t handed a check for millions to do what they please with their new windfall.
If you’ve watched Downton Abbey you can see how this works. Family wealth, businesses, and properties are entrusted to a single heir. The rest of the family members usually benefit, but they aren’t given the keys to the store. Heirs are more likely to shoulder the responsibility better in keeping the family legacy intact, and so it’s not surprising that you see 5, 6, or 12 generations or more of family wealth enduring under this type of structure.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
Today, I’m talking about some of the most common reasons why 90% of wealth is gone after the 3rd generation. The old adage “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations” is true for the vast majority of wealth.
It’s why most millionaires alive today are self-made and did not inherit their fortune. You may have some assumptions about why wealth is lost, so let’s explore the often complicated reasons why wealth doesn’t stay in the family for more than a couple generations:
Unfortunately, most of it comes down to the values and priorities of both the earners of the fortunes and the next generations they pass the money to.
Lack of communication is perhaps the biggest issue. Most wealthy families do not talk to their kids about money. They do not set expectations or boundaries on how their children should handle money. They rarely think twice about giving their kids the best vacations, the best clothes, etc. Children of wealthy parents almost never have to work for what they have, so their values and experience with money is vastly different from their parents who often had to sacrifice much to build their wealth. If there’s a family business, children are not involved early and they know next to nothing about the values that brought about success with money and in the family business in the first place. Children of self-made millionaires aren’t taught how to invest or how to manage money prudently. For them, money is easy to access and is available to fund whatever, whenever, so children grow up with instant gratification with money and not much appreciation for connecting the dots between work and money.
Because they’ve lived the easy life in terms of money, they usually don’t develop the skills to be prudent with money, invest wisely, etc. They spend more than they save, they know next to nothing about basic investment principles, personal finance, and how compound interest works. Patience with investing does not come easily to the 2nd generation wealthy individual, and they often make big investment blunders because they don’t know the dangers of debt or they can’t analyze the risk/return tradeoffs. No one has ever told them that a 7% return on your money is worthwhile.
Of course, I’m making some broad generalizations here. There are exceptions to this, and when you see exceptions to this - when children grow up developing the same values that brought about the creation of wealth, they are more likely to think of themselves as stewards of the family wealth, vs. owners.
There are plenty of other reasons why wealth doesn’t last beyond 3 generations, including the natural dilution of wealth as it transfers to the next generations (which I’ll talk more about tomorrow), but much of it comes down to the fact that the most important money values that predict financial success are not transferred well to subsequent generations.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear?
Have you heard the quote: “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations”? According to research, 90% of family fortunes are gone after the grandkids and the 4th generation has to start all over again.
So this week on the podcast, we’ll explore how the wealthiest families manage to lose their money most of the time, and the key differences between families like the Rockefellers who are still going strong generations later, compared to the Vanderbilt family, who couldn’t count a millionaire among them by the 1970s, despite both families being among the wealthiest in the history of the United States.
More specifically, I’ll talk about:
- The often complicated and nuanced reasons why it’s likely your great-grandchildren won’t be rich, even if you are.
- The natural dilution that happens with wealth as it’s passed down to children and grandchildren
- And the key behavioral difference among families with lasting vs. transitory wealth
Then we’ll explore whether or not it’s even a good thing for children to inherit wealth. Almost all of us transfer money freely to the next generation and try to give children every comfort and opportunity in life. We’ll talk about how that can often backfire, and then lastly, I’ll tie everything together by talking about the important estate planning decisions you’ll need to make if you plan to pass only 7 figures or more to the next generation.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow...
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
How To Recession-Proof Your Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Why You Never Want To Retire During A Recession - and what to do if this happens to you!
- Gaining Perspective By Understanding Market Cycles
- Why Cash Reserves Are The Key To Recession-Proofing Your Retirement
- How To Protect Your Investments In A Recession
- Having More Control Over Your Finances In A Recession
Here’s the bottom line: Retiring in the midst of a recession, or if a big one hits in the first few years of retirement can be devastating. But that doesn’t mean you need to be a sitting retired duck. You can take steps now to prepare by rebalancing and keeping enough cash on hand, as well as thinking through any changes you would be willing to make if a recession hits you from behind in retirement.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme and exploring an interesting question: Why Do Family Fortunes Disappear? I’ll talk about why most family wealth legacies don’t last past the 3rd generation and the myriad of reasons why wealth tends not to last. Whether or not you think it’s important to leave money to your children and generations beyond, I think you’ll find next week’s podcast episodes interesting and useful in being strategic about how you pass down assets and wealth to the next generation.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your feedback, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How To Recession-Proof Your Retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how to have more control over your finances in a recession. Two of the biggest impact actions you can take in advance of a recession is to keep plenty of cash on hand and rebalance your portfolio. With the stock market and the economy charging ahead, now is the time to insulate yourself and prepare for the next recession.
If you wait until the recession hits, it’s too late. The stock market is usually the first domino to fall in a recession and it’s impossible to predict.
If you missed earlier episodes this week, I went into the strategies on keeping cash and rebalancing, so go back and have a listen to those if you missed any.
Moving on to today’s topic…let’s say a recession hits today. What do you do now? Flexibility is key! Can you afford to stop your portfolio withdrawals? Could you work part-time? If you had to, could you change your lifestyle by putting off travel and shopping more economically for groceries? You may not even need to do any of these things, but if you had to, where can you cut the fat first?
Thinking through this and making a plan will help you mentally prepare for the next recession. When you’re prepared for the storms, you can keep a level head, and not panic and make rash decisions with your investment portfolio because you’re freaked out and you don’t know what to do.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How To Recession-Proof Your Retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how to protect your investments in a recession by rebalancing BEFORE the recession starts! A lot of people get into trouble because they are close to retirement, yet they haven’t rebalanced their portfolio in years. Some people approaching retirement have 80, 90, or even 100% of their portfolio still in stocks.
Taking the time to rebalance is critical right now with the stock market near it’s all time high. We’re coming off of 3 strong years in performance in stocks. Yes, the stock market could continue to go up from here, but now is the time to rebalance your portfolio to ensure you have the right mix of stocks and bonds for your age and proximity to retirement.
When your portfolio is invested appropriately for your age and proximity to retirement, you’ll be able to sidestep the worst of a bear market drop during the next recession. The S&P 500 typically drops about 33% in a recession. But if only 50% or 60% of your portfolio is in the stock market, and well diversified, you may only experience a 10 or 15% drop, which is a lot safer for your retirement and a lot easier to recover from.
If you want to know the mix of stocks that we recommend for our clients by age, you can email me and I will send you our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet. It’s a guide to what your stock and bond mix should be for your age, and it’s the foundation that we when building portfolios for all of our clients.
Just shoot me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com and I’ll send you your free age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, to help you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How To Recession-Proof Your Retirement.
Today, I’m talking about why having enough cash on hand is the key to recession-proofing your retirement.
As I talked about yesterday, typical stock market drop lasts about 18 months. Even the massive stock market decline in 2008 only lasted about 18 months. When you have enough cash on hand to get you through the big drops without making the problem worse by withdrawing money from your portfolio when it’s cratering, you give your portfolio a better chance of recovering and recovering quicker.
One smart way to deal with this problem is to add up the total portfolio withdrawals you anticipate needing for the next 1-2 years, and set aside that amount of cash so you can draw from it and won’t have to tap into your portfolio when the stock market is dropping and the economy is in the tank.
Most of the time, 1-2 years worth of portfolio withdrawals in cash is enough to see you through, so consider sidelining some of your retirement portfolio in the later years of working and the early years of retirement to see you through a potential recession.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How To Recession-Proof Your Retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how understanding what a typical recession and stock market downturn look like will help you gain some much needed perspective on trying to recession-proof your retirement.
The last recession - the pandemic recession was the shortest recession on record. Although the US economy took a steep dive, the recession officially lasted only about 3 months.
A typical, post-WWII recession lasts about 11 months, and they happen about every 5 years. In general, retirees tend to be better equipped to deal with receissions. You aren’t worried about losing your job, you typically have more equity in your house, and more money in your bank accounts which can help you weather the recession storm.
Where retirees get clobbered are in a couple of ways - the stock market during a recession takes a nosedive. Drops of 30% or more are common. A drop of 20% or more is known as a bear market. On average, bear markets have lasted 14 months in the period since World War II. The S&P 500 index has fallen an average of 33% during bear markets in that time.
14 months is the average time between the top of the market and the bottom. It could take much longer for the stock market, and your portfolio to return to the previous value.
Once you know what to expect, you can begin to prepare for probable scenarios. If you’re taking portfolio withdrawals and a recession and a bear market hit, you’ll want to be prepared to stop your portfolio withdrawals or have other options at the ready, which is what I’ll be covering in the remaining episodes this week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How To Recession-Proof Your Retirement.
Today, I’m sharing with you why you never want to enter your retirement years during a recession. A big drop in your portfolio in the early years of retirement can have lasting and serious consequences. In fact, it’s one of the most damaging strokes of bad luck you could ever experience with your finances.
Why is a recession in the early years of retirement such a big problem? Think of your retirement portfolio as a large bucket of water. If a come by and pour out a quarter of the water in that bucket in the first few years of retirement, we have a problem.
That bucket of water needs to last you maybe 25-30+ years and I just skimmed off a lot of water! What if now, on top of that you dip your hand in the bucket and take out monthly withdrawals of water from your bucket. After all, that’s what you need to live.
As the stock market recovers, more water will get added back to the bucket, but if you’re taking handfuls of water out, it may never recover enough to get back to a full bucket.
When your investment portfolio takes a big hit like that so early in retirement, all of a sudden you could be forced to make some tough decisions. Do you go back to work? Cut your expenses and stop your portfolio withdrawals?
The withdrawals on top of the stock market downturn are what makes a recession in the early years a 1-2 punch. That and how much time you still need to rely on your retirement portfolio for income. Big drops and recessions are less bad 10-15 years into retirement, simply because you didn’t dump all that water out in the early years. You dumped the water out when you may only need to make your bucket of water last another 15-20 years, not 25-30 more years.
You’re also moe likely to not have a recession and a big market downturn hit you as bad further into retirement, since you’re more likely to have less in stocks at that point and maybe your portfolio only drops 10-15%, not 25-30%, simply because you’re more conservatively invested at that point.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How to Recession-Proof Your Retirement.
If history is any guide, then you’re likely to live through a recession in retirement. I mean it’s pretty much inevitable. The word “guarantee” is a no-no in the financial world, and you should be suspicious of anyone who uses it, but I can safely say I pretty much guarantee that a recession will happen to you in retirement.
So this week, I’ll talk about
- Why recessions in the early years of retirement can be so problematic and scary
- What you need to know about recession cycles and why it’s important
- How to Protect Your Investments In A Recession
- Why Cash Reserves Are The Key To Recession-Proofing Your Retirement
- How To Have More Control Over Your Finances In A Recession
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’m explaining why retiring during or just before a deep recession can be one of the worst case scenarios that ever happens to your finances.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap and bottom line. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
Are You A Money Hoarder?
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- I confessed my own money hoarding tendencies. If I’m being honest, I needed to tell myself the lessons of this week’s episodes and apply them to my life, just as much as you might needed to hear them yourself if you find yourself crossing the line from saving to hoarding
- Then we talked about the key difference between saving and hoarding
- Why many Americans today are guilty of hoarding with a $17 trillion cash stockpile just laying around doing nothing
- I also shared with you the real reason why you and I hoard, which is often fueled by fear and insecurity about the future
- And lastly, I talked about how to fix your money hoarding tendencies with specific actions to counteract your money hoarding compulsions.
Here’s the bottom line: If you’re serious about saving money, it’s easy to cross the line from saving to hoarding. It’s important to be on guard about tendencies towards hoarding that you have, because you and I can never accumulate enough to make that feeling of insecurity go away, and it is only likely to get worse if we keep giving in to our hoarding tendencies. But there is hope for those of us who like to keep lots of cash on hand or save when we have gone well past the point of having enough - and that is to counteract the hoarding tendencies with a bit more guilt-free spending, regular giving, and getting clarity about whether you’re on the right path financially by doing some financial planning and retirement projections.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Recession-Proof Your Retirement. One of the worst things that can happen in the early years of retirement is retiring during or just before a really bad recession and a big downturn in the stock market. So next week, I’ll share with you how you can insulate yourself from the inevitable recessions in retirement and what you should do if you’re unlucky enough to have a really bad one hit in the early years of retirement. There is hope, especially if you’re not caught off guard.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your feedback, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Are You A Money Hoarder?
Yesterday, I talked about why most of us hoard money, which is driven primarily by fear and insecurity about the future. That fear and insecurity can drive some of us to accumulate much more than what we need, and cross the line from saving into hoarding.
Today, I’m talking about the fix for money hoarding tendencies. Now, let me clarify first that when I talk about money hoarding, I’m talking about it from the standpoint of someone who does not require a medical diagnosis and treatment. Money hoarding can be a disorder, but for many of us who suffer from money hoarding tendencies and not a diagnosable medical condition, there are some important steps you can take to work through your money hoarding tendencies.
Many times, all you might need is a little more clarity about the future. Going through the process of a retirement projection to see if you’re on the right path and you have enough for retirement is enough to ease your mind, and slow your money hoarding train. If you want to access my retirement success forecaster to find out if you’re on the right path to a comfortable retirement, you can access the tool and find out if you’re saving enough by going to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess. You’ll fill out a 2 page questionnaire, then submit it for your personalized results.
If hoarding cash is a problem, then you can overcome hoarding tendencies by picking a prudent amount to leave in cash that you would be comfortable with for emergencies and earmarked savings, and make a plan to invest the rest over the next 6-12 months. Set up an auto-investment so you don’t have to think about it again.
A number of other adjustments can fix hoarding tendencies - if you have issues with parting with funds, set up a mad money account where you earmark funds for carefree spending each month, and set up a regular, monthly donation to a charity. If you struggle to spend money on vacations or eating out even though you have enough, practice ordering the more expensive entree or the Airbnb that seems too expensive.
Money hoarders often have problems making decisions with money, so if this applies to you, then consider applying a timeline for making a decision about the next important financial decision that comes your way. Maybe you’ll decide within a day or a week of facing your next financial decision, forcing you to move forward out of the paralysis of indecision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Are You A Money Hoarder?
Today, I’m talking about the primary reason you and I hoard money. If you’re anything like me, you’ll know when you have crossed the line from being a good saver into being a money hoarder when you start to experience anxiety about spending money, or when you save for the sake of saving more, not for the purpose of saving for a specific purpose or goal.
One of the main reasons why we can easily cross the line from saving to hoarding is that we all have insecurities and fears about the future. The future is uncertain, and there’s no way to make yourself 100% secure financially. Yet, most of us strive for financial independence and security that will be enduring.
And those insecurities and fears about the future may cause you to hoard money in an attempt to reach the point of full insulation from any threats from the outside world. You may not rest until you’re like The Bubble Boy in Seinfeld - completely protected from anything that could harm him, yet completely miserable and anxious all the while.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’m going to talk about the remedy for money hoarding tendencies and to cure your bubble-boy syndrome.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Are You A Money Hoarder?
Today, I’m talking about the $17 trillion cash stockpile.
Although money hoarding may be an acute problem for some, there’s actually evidence that money hoarding is a real issue for many Americans and small businesses today, primarily driven by a steep increase in cash due to Covid.
You may have heard about this in the news...I come across articles from time to time that discuss the stockpiling of cash held by Americans who have kept their jobs through Covid, had their bank accounts bolstered by stimulus checks and PPP loans in the case of small businesses, and because of continued uncertainty around Covid, simply haven’t spent any money.
Earlier this year, I talked about data showing that the savings rate among Americans was around 30% of income. Many of us are stockpiling cash, and a recent article in MarketWatch cites data from the Federal Reserve indicating that the cash stockpile among American households and small businesses continues to rise in 2021.
This all makes sense when you consider that making travel plans is still frustrating with the Delta variant, supply chain issues making it difficult to spend money on everything from dishwashers to laptops, and new restrictions in several states makes it difficult to spend money on eating out.
So the bottom line is that cash has exploded from a pre-pandemic $12 trillion to the current $17 trillion, indicating that many of you listening are likely part of the current cash hoard. If this is you, remember that it’s unnecessary to keep more than 3-6 months of savings in cash for emergencies + a little bit more if you’re retired. If you’re sitting on much more cash than that, it’s likely detrimental to your long-term portfolio value as an investor.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Are You A Money Hoarder?
Today, I’m talking about the distinction between saving and hoarding money. According to an article in Smart Capital Mind by Malcolm Tatum: “While the lines between [saving & hoarding] may at times appear somewhat fine, there is one important distinction that revolves around the intent or reason for the accumulation of financial reserves.
Depending on the reason for that accumulation, the activity may be considered responsible and productive, or be extremely detrimental to the well-being of the individual or family involved.”
Here’s the distinction according to Tatum: “When saving money, there is normally a specific purpose or intent in mind.” Maybe you’re saving up for a vacation, for emergencies, and upcoming car purchase or home purchase...if you’re listening to this podcast, then you’re obviously interested in saving for your retirement.. The point here with saving is that you’re saving for a specific reason. The saving has a purpose. It’s the responsible thing to do.
“In contrast, according to Tatum, “hoarding money has no other purpose than to accumulate financial resources. There is no intended goal for the funds that are set aside, and no plans to make use of the money at some future point in time. People who engage in hoarding money will often forgo necessities in order to add a little more to their savings account.”
An important tell-tale is the person who saves far beyond what is enough for a comfortable retirement, hates their job, but continues working anyways, all in the name of saving more for retirement.
Another tell-tale sign is the person who forgoes necessities to save a little bit more. In an extreme scenario, it’s the person who saves 90% of their income, yet drives an unreliable and unsafe car. Doesn’t buy life insurance or health insurance, and would rather not eat anything on the day they forgot to bring their lunch to work, rather than spending any money on eating out.
So if you save just to accumulate more with no specific purpose, or you have vastly oversaved, yet are still making tremendous sacrifices, then you might be a money hoarder.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Are You A Money Hoarder?
Today, I have a confession to make: I am a money hoarder. How do I know this? I hate spending money. I mean I really hate spending money. Even though I have always lived well within my means, I fret about spending every single dollar. It doesn’t matter if it’s a $30 toy for my son’s birthday, a nice meal out, or a new washer and dryer that I needed to buy after my other dryer stopped working this past summer...it causes stress to hit “buy now”.
One of the signs of having money hoarding tendencies is anxiety when spending money. I’ve always been that way. When I was in college and working minimum wage jobs, I would save every last penny and take months to decide what I was going to purchase with my funds, preferring instead to stash my cash hoard in a box in my bedroom.
Once I started working, I made tremendous sacrifices and trade offs in my 20s so I could max my 401k savings. I was acutely aware with my finance background that I needed to start saving early and often to have flexibility and freedom in retirement, and I gave up the flexibility and freedom in the present moment, by not eating out and barely traveling when I was younger.
Looking back, especially now that I have 3 young children, I wish I would have been more balanced in my approach to saving earlier in life. It sure would have been nice to travel Europe or lay on a beach peacefully with a margarita, without asking my 7 year old for the 12th time to get over here so I can reapply sunscreen. And if you’ve ever tried to board an airplane with 3 young children in tow + a stroller, 2 car seats, and wondering if the airbnb is a death trap for an exploring infant, it may not sound like much of a vacation to you...trust me, it’s not.
When looking at the signs that I might be a money hoarder, I definitely don't check all the boxes… Money hoarders often have difficulties organizing and keeping track of saved funds, constant indecision about money, deep suspicion of the motivations of others when it comes to money matters, and deep fears about losing hard-earned savings.
When I look at these other common characteristics of money hoarding, the only other tell-tale that applies to me is the deep fear of losing hard earned savings. The more I accumulate and save, the less likely that I’ll lose it all and have to start over. More money = security, but that’s not always healthy and there’s a fine line between saving and hoarding for security.
So if any of this sounds like you, I encourage you to tune in each day this week. I still struggle with a tendency to hoard, so I’m talking to myself this week as much as I’m talking with you about how to overcome money hoarding tendencies.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Are You a Money Hoarder?
You may think you don’t hoard money, but if you are a super-saver, you may have some money hoarding tendencies.
So this week, I’ll talk about
- My own money hoarding tendencies and how the deferring of enjoyment everything by not spending money can lead to regret later on in life
- The difference between saving and hoarding money and how you can tell when you’ve crossed the line into hoarding
- The massive hoarding of cash that’s been driven by the pandemic and why that’s a problem
- Reasons why we hoard money and how to tell if you have money hoarding tendencies
- And lastly, I’ll talk about the fix for money hoarding tendencies.
When I talk about money hoarding this week, I want to be clear that I’m talking about it from the perspective of tendencies towards hoarding, not from the perspective of someone who needs medical treatment for compulsive hoarding, which is far beyond the scope of what I will be discussing this week.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I have a confession to make about my own money hoarding tendencies.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap and bottom line. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Why Student Loans Will Burden Your Kids & Grandkids Long After They’re Paid Off
- Why Saving $100k for college isn’t as hard as it sounds, and how to actually do it
- Factors that influence what you’ll need to save for college to avoid student loan debt
- Why the 529 is my favorite college savings plan and the only one I invest in as a parent
- And lastly, the investment strategy to maximize growth in the early years of the 529 savings account, while preserving funds as college approaches
Here’s the bottom line: Student loans can be a major burden to young adults, delaying other important financial decisions like buying a house, and saving for retirement. So set your children and grandchildren up for success by considering chipping in for their college savings. It’s possible to save big money for college if you start early, and it will give those grandchildren of yours the best chance at an early adulthood that is paving the way for long-term financial success.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: “Are You A Money Hoarder?”
Have you seen that TV show Hoarders? Most of us probably watch that show and think, my gosh, how can they live like that! Many of us wouldn’t characterize ourself as a hoarder, but what about when it comes to money? Hoarding with money is about pursuing wealth as an end, not as a means to something else. Why is is wrong to hoard wealth? How can you tell if your saving and preparing for retirement has morphed into hoarding? I’ll talk about why rich, poor and everyone in between can fall victim to hoarding, and how to keep the accumulation of more from robbing you of the joy of living your life.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college.
Yesterday, I talked about why the 529 college savings plan is the account of choice for my kids and all of my clients.
Today, I’m talking about how to invest the money once you’ve contributed it to the 529 college savings plan.
The strategy is based on the idea that it’s best to maximize growth in the early years, while the child is young, then switch over to a more conservative investment strategy when the child is getting close to college, so a recession and a big drop in the stock market won’t wipe out half of those college savings when the child is a senior in high school and just found out they got in to their dream school - that really expensive liberal arts college.
There are a couple ways you can approach investing in the 529 college savings account using this strategy.
The first is to utilize a target date series. Many fund companies now offer 529 funds that operate similar to target date retirement funds, but for college instead. They’re invested based on when the child is going to start college and will be heavily in stocks while the child is young, and gradually become more conservative as college approaches.
You can pick a 529 provider that offers this option, so that’s what I would recommend. Many people think they’re stuck with whatever is offered in their state, since each state has it’s own 529 program. I live in Oregon, and I don’t much care for the offerings in my state, so all 3 of my kids 529 plans are invested in the Virginia state plan. I’ve never even set foot in Virginia - and neither have they. So shop around and pick a 529 plan based on the quality of their offerings, not which state you live in. Just keep in mind that you may miss on on certain tax breaks if you go elsewhere, so it’s important to understand the 529 plan rules and benefits that exist in your state.
If you would rather manage the investments yourself without the aid of a target date college fund, the same principles apply. Try to maximize growth in the early years by being heavily invested in stocks. Around age 15 is when I like to switch over to a more conservative strategy, typically moving about 25% of the account value every year to bonds and cash until the child starts college.
You could eek out a bit more growth for longer, especially since the funds are going to be used over a period of 4 years in many cases, but chances are you’ll exhaust the 529 plan before the end of college, and it’s just not worth the risk for me to keep 529 plan funds invested in the stock market once college starts. Preservation is way more important at that point if you know you’ll need the money for college.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college.
Today, I’m talking about why the 529 plan is the ideal way to save for college. It’s the only college savings plan I recommend.
If you’ve been listening to earlier episodes this week, you may have noticed that I’ve been talking about using time and growth to your advantage when saving for college. Well, the only way you can do that is by investing the money that you save. There are a number of different types of accounts that can be used to save for college, but the 529 account is my favorite. It’s the only one I recommend. All 3 of my kids have college savings plans, and all 3 of them are invested in 529s.
Here’s how they work and here’s why I like them:
A 529 plan is a type of account where the money inside is earmarked for college expenses - this can be tuition, room and board, and other college costs. The types of educational expenses that 529 plans can be used for are actually quite broad, but the important thing to remember is that the money is meant to be used for education expenses. If it’s used for something else, you’ll get taxed and penalized.
With that in mind, here are the 2 most important basics you should know about a 529 college savings plan.
- High contribution limits. You can contribute up to $15,000 into a 529 plan in 2021 per beneficiary, and twice that if you’re married. That means that if you’re married and you have 3 grandchildren, you can save up to $90,000 this year for your grandkids college - $30,000 for each grandchild.
You can actually contribute more than this by making a lump-sum contribution to the 529 plan - it’s known as superfunding a 529 plan, but you’ll want to do your homework so you don’t make any tax blunders or miss opportunities to max out your 529 contributions.
High contribution limits are great for estate planning purposes, gifting to your grandchildren in a tax-efficient way, and making up for lost time if you’re starting a 529 plan in the middle school or high school years.
- Tax-free growth. Another important characteristic of 529 plans is that once the money is inside the 529 plan, the money can grow tax free, and as long as the funds in the 529 are used for qualified education expenses, there is no tax when you take the money out. The sooner you establish and fund the 529 in the child’s life, the more time is on your side to have the money grow tax-free, and the less you’ll have to contribute to the plan in the long-run.
Those are the 2 most important features to know about the 529 plan. There are several other important features to know about 529 plans - like anyone can contribute to these plans, and they’re highly flexible - so even if the beneficiary doesn’t go to college you can still use the funds for something else or someone else in the future.
Despite the availability of other types of investment accounts for college, like an educational savings account or a uniform gift to a minor account, the 529 plan offers the biggest benefits in its unique features and flexibility, so I highly encourage you to research the 529 plan and decide if it’s right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college.
Yesterday I talked about how saving as early as possible is key to saving $100,000 or more for college and also why it’s totally doable, especially if you’re pitching in to save for you’re grandkids college education and you make a plan before the baby arrives.
Today, I’m talking about how to calculate how much you need to save for college. There are lots of online tools to help you understand how much you should save for college. My favorite is the one from saving for college.com. I’ll link to it in the show notes (ep 1061):
https://www.savingforcollege.com/calculators/college-savings-calculator
How much you’ll need to save for college depends on a variety of factors:
- The child’s current age
- How much you’ve already saved for college
- Household income of the parents which influences financial aid, scholarships, and grants
- And obviously, which college junior is aspiring to attend. The price tag for Harvard is very different that the local community college.
The great thing about these calculators is that they will show you how big the gap is likely to be between what you’ll likely save and what the cost of college will be. So you can then make more informed decisions about saving more and whether or not they’d be better off going to community college for a couple years, staying closer to home and living at home while attending school, or taking on a student loan, which should be the last option considered.
For many families, student loans are the default decision to plug the financial gap for college, but as I’ve explained earlier this week, the ripple effect of carrying student debt into adulthood will permanently alter the financial course of life for many Americans, and many will wonder why they could never seem to catch up or save enough for a comfortable retirement...the rock that started that ripple is too often student loans.
My point today is to take the time to apply your grandchild’s individual circumstances to calculating how much you can and will save, and use it as a launchpoint to have a discussion with the child’s parents about how you both can have skin in the game and work toward a debt-free college degree.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college
Today, we come to the heart of the matter. I’m sharing with you why saving $100,000 for college isn’t as hard as it sounds. Today, the average cost of a 4-year public university in Oregon where I live is about $22,000. 4 years of college will cost in the ballpark of $100,000 today. Now that’s going up by about 5% per year, so you can expect to pay more than double that in 18 years.
I’m going to assume that most of you listening have children who are already in college or beyond, so this doesn’t help you out with saving for your own kids college, but you may have young grandchildren or future grandchildren arriving someday, so I’m going to talk about this from that viewpoint, and assume you have 18 years to save for college, since your older and smarter now, and you want to help that grandbaby of yours pay for college.
I think it’s a good goal to try to save at least 100,000 for college, since it’s likely that the grandchildren will pay a lot more than that for college anyways. It sounds like a lot, but not when you start once that baby gets his or her social security number.
If you start saving when that grandbaby of yours is a newborn, and you save $200/month for 18 years, and it grows 8% a year, you’ll have about $100,000 when your grandchild enrolls in college. If you can incentivize the parents to contribute as well - let’s say you’ll double match every dollar they invest...they save $100/month, you save $200 - that’s $300/mo going into the college savings account, you’re up to about $145,000 by the time college starts.
So as long as time is on your side, it’s not as hard to save $100,000 as it sounds. If you can’t afford to contribute $200 a month, consider going the matching route with the parent’s where you each do $50 or $100 a month. Starting early and saving consistently for 18 years is the key for making college a lot easier to pay for.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow where I’ll talk more about how to calculate how much you’ll want to save for your unique circumstances.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college
Today, I’m talking about why you should care about saving for college in the first place. Many parents and grandparents save little or nothing for their children or grandchildren’s education. Many times this is simply because there are more pressing financial needs, and many times because the cost of college is something isn’t planned for, because many people simply procrastinate and put it out of their mind until they need to deal with it. But by the time junior hits high school, it’s much too late to save a meaningful amount of money for college, and student loans become the way to fill the financial gap.
You’ve probably heard all about the student loan debt crisis. College grads are carrying around crushing amounts of student loan debt. And many will still be paying off their student loans well into their 30s and 40s.
The main problem I see with people I’ve advised in their 30s and 40s who have student loans is that it keeps them from saving for retirement or for their own kids college, and the vicious cycle of debt continues. If Americans today don’t start saving for retirement until their 40s, they only have 20 years to save instead of 30.
After all, “It’s time in the market, not timing the market that matters”. Here’s why: If I save $5000/year for retirement starting at age 25, and it grows at a reasonable 8% per year, I’ll have about $1.4 million on my 65th birthday.
If I delay that by just 10 years and don’t start saving until age 35, I’ll have about $600,000 at age 65, less that half of what
The longer you wait to start saving for retirement the more you’ll need to save just to catch up. So one of the best things you can do for your children and grandchildren financially to set them up for success in retirement is to help them avoid student loans, and show them the power of saving early and often - prioritize saving for retirement with their first paycheck and it will build the habit of saving early with the potential for huge payoffs later in life. If they don’t have the burden of student loans, it’s all the more likely that they’ll start saving with that first paycheck.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: How To Save $100,000 For Your Grandkids College.
It’s likely that for many of you listening, helping to pay for college and provide an education for your children and grandchildren is an important financial goal. My 2 oldest kids are starting school this coming week, so with the new school year kicking off, saving for college is a topic that’s top of mind right now. Paying for college is daunting. With the price tag of a 4 year degree in the $50,000-$100,000 range now for most schools and getting more expensive each year, finding the right balance between saving for college and saving for retirement is a real challenge.
So this week, I’ll teach you
- how to figure out how much to save for college no matter what age you’re starting at
- why saving $100,000 for college isn’t as hard as it sounds
- the only college savings account that I recommend to clients
- And lastly, how to invest for growth in the early years and when to switch over to preserving that growth as college approaches
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, when I’m talking about the problem with student loans that no one seems to be talking about.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap and bottom line. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
New Research That Will Shatter Your Expectations About Spending In Retirement
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The Conventional Thinking On Constant Spending In Retirement
- Non-Discretionary Spending In Retirement Is Actually Flexible...Here’s Why
- Why You’ll Spend Less Than You Think In Retirement...Even If You’re Rich
- Can Your Spending Match Your Guaranteed Retirement Income?
- Portfolio Income Strategies In Retirement To Align With Spending Preferences
Here’s the bottom line: In a challenge to conventional thinking about retiree spending remaining flat after adjusting for inflation, new research suggests that retirees reduce their spending by about 2% annually in retirement. If you’re a saver and you show a strong preference for preserving your assets in retirement, you’re more likely to match your spending to your guaranteed income sources like a pension and social security, rather than taking additional income from your investment portfolio to supplement a higher spending amount. In other words, many prefer to just live on less in favor of keeping their assets intact in retirement.
I think there are some middle ground solutions to this, allowing retirees to spend a little more and hopefully enjoy their retirement years a little more as a result. And that is to focus on generating income from dividends and interest and using that income only to supplement other sources, which would allow retirees to spend more without losing sleep over their spending since they’re just living off the income and not dipping into the principal value.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: How to save $100,000 for your grandkids college.
For many of my clients, helping to pay for college and provide an education for their children and grandchildren is an important financial goal. My kids are starting school this coming week. They’re excited, I’m excited! My oldest is starting first grade and my second child is starting PreK. He’s in a class of 10, with 8 boys and 2 girls so my condolences to his teacher.
So with the new school year kicking off, saving for college is a topic that’s top of mind for myself and for many of you who have children or grandchildren still at home..how the heck am I going to pay for college? I’ll teach you how to figure out how much to save for college, no matter what age you’re starting at, the best vehicles for saving, and then lastly, how to invest for growth in the early years and switch over to preserving that growth as college approaches.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: new research that will shatter your expectations about spending in retirement. So far this week I’ve been talking about how retirees tend to decrease their inflation-adjusted spending in retirement by about 2% annually, with many showing a strong preference to asset preservation by matching their spending to their guaranteed income sources and not touching their investment portfolios unless they need to.
Today, I’m talking about how you can align your portfolio income strategy with your spending preferences.
If you’re a saver, not a spender, then you’re more likely to show a strong preference for sticking to your guaranteed income sources.
But what if those guaranteed income sources just won’t be enough? That’s where portfolio income comes in. Psychologically, I find that many of my retired clients prefer to just take their portfolio income each year, rather than selling assets to supplement their income. This means that your income needs would remain flexible to account for changing dividends and income from your investments.
In today’s low interest rate environment, it’s even more challenging because the portfolio income that you can generate from your bond portfolio is a joke, unless you’re taking on a lot of risk.
So what is a retiree to do who wants to preserve assets, but will still need to supplement their guaranteed income? For that, I have 2 suggestions:
First is to own a substantial amount of your stock portfolio in stocks that increase their dividends. I’m not talking about high dividends or high yield stocks, but stocks that have a demonstrated history of raising their dividends year-in and year-out for many years. Many of these companies tend to increase their dividends 5-10% annually, providing a growing stream of income for retirees, even in this low interest rate environment.
The other strategy is to invest in a bond ladder. I’ve talked about bond laddering many times on the podcast. Essentially, it provides a predictable stream of income with an opportunity to gradually grow your income once interest rates start rising again, rather than being locked in by owning longer-term, low interest-paying bonds that are the norm today.
Do you know what your current portfolio income is? It doesn’t take too much legwork to find that out, and I encourage you to see if your current dividend and interest income is enough to supplement your guaranteed income to help you live a comfortable retirement, while at the same time helping you avoid spending down the principal value of your retirement investment portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: new research that will shatter your expectations about spending in retirement.
Research data reveals that retirees are likely to match their spending to their guaranteed income sources in retirement and show a strong aversion to dipping into their portfolio for income. Could you match your spending in retirement to your guaranteed income sources or will you dip into your investments to supplement your guaranteed income sources in retirement?
Now it’s important to state that this is based on an average of a group of people with very diverse spending habits, so whether you’re more likely to preserve and grow your assets in retirement, or spend 4% of your retirement portfolio each year to supplement your guaranteed income sources, there is no right or wrong method here.
Someone who just spends their guaranteed income sources in retirement and let’s their million dollar investment portfolio grow to 2 or 3 million over their retirement years, may not be enjoying life or retirement in a way that’s fulfilling, deferring enjoyment of their retirement years by not taking the trip or not buying a more reliable car when they really should spend some more money. But there are only so many years that retirees can enjoy an active retirement and it may lead to regret later on, realizing that you spent your retirement years in a way that didn’t bring any meaning or fun.
On the other hand, someone who is supplementing their guaranteed income sources in retirement with spending from their portfolio needs to be very careful to not spend down their assets. Many people who are spenders may load themselves up with a boat, RV, or a beach house that cost money upfront and also cost money to maintain over time. Or they go on expensive vacations, buy a golf membership, and eat out and buy new and expensive clothes and shoes. Or maybe all of the above. Can your portfolio sustain your spending habits even if inflation increases or there’s a drop in your portfolio value? Retirees who are spending down their portfolios still need to remain flexible with a willingness to cut spending and ensure that they don’t lock themselves into too many expenses that can’t be sustained over time.
The takeaway here is to know thyself. Are you likely to show a preference for preserving assets in retirement, or preserve your spending in retirement, choosing instead to draw income from your portfolio?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: new research that will shatter your expectations about spending in retirement.
This week I’ve been talking about how retirees tend to spend less in retirement, challenging the conventional thinking that spending is flat.
Today, I’m talking about a few reasons why retirees tend to decrease their real spending over time. By real spending, I mean after adjusting for inflation. It’s important to realize that inflation is going to cause your spending to increase in retirement. If you spend $3 on a gallon of milk today, you might be spending $5 on that same gallon of milk in 25 years. Inflation will make everything more expensive and will increase your spending over time.
But if we remove the inflation component from this analysis, what are the true spending habits of retirees? And the data shows that many retiree spending drops by about 2% per year in retirement.
So if you’re spending $60,000 in today’s dollars in year 1 of retirement, by the time you’re age 90, that might drop to only around $36,000 in today’s dollars.
But why? Why do retirees reduce their spending, even in fixed categories like food and housing? The data shows that retirees have a strong aversion to spending down any assets, preferring instead to live on fixed, guaranteed income sources like social security, pension, and annuity income. In fact, after an adjustment period in the early years of retirement where spending is higher, but the time you reach 70, you’re more likely to adjust your spending to match your guaranteed income.
A big driver of this spending pattern could be driven by a fear of the unknown expenses down the road. What if I’ll need expensive nursing home care, or what if we spend too much and I leave my spouse with very little after I die? Many retirees are also fearful of cuts to social security or pension income, higher inflation, and poor portfolio returns, all of which could change their retirement lifestyle in unexpected and harmful ways.
Most retirees have been around the block enough to know that life happens and sometimes that means massive and unexpected expenses. Retirees know they can be devastated and their portfolio could be wiped out in the worst of scenarios, so rather than taking their chances and spending assets, they often choose instead to preserve what they have and adjust their spending to their guaranteed income sources.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: new research that will shatter your expectations about spending in retirement
Today, I’m talking about why non-discretionary spending in retirement is actually flexible, especially if you’re in the top 20% of net worth, which is defined as a net worth of more than $667,000.
Non-discretionary spending includes spending on the basics. These are things that we all need like food, housing, & utilities. The conventional thinking is that this spending is fixed, but looking closer at the spending habits of the over 1,400 retirees in the survey, non-discretionary spending was actually flexible in retirement.
What the data really shows is that the decline in overall retiree spending of about 2% annually that I discussed in detail yesterday is primarily driven by a DECREASE in non-discretionary spending.
This is a bit of a head scratcher. How could you or I possibly spend less on the essentials as we age, after accounting for inflation. You still need food
But once I think about it a bit more and look at the spending habits of many of my clients, this makes more sense.
Older retirees - those in their late 70s, 80s, and 90s will often make spending decisions that are consistent with this research. Instead of shopping at whole foods, they might shop at the discount grocery store. They often downsize, move to a lower cost of living area, or end up paying off their mortgage in retirement, significantly reducing housing costs. Many retirees are more likely to defer maintenance spending, and more likely to get the full life and usefulness from their roof, their car, and their dishwasher.
The wealthier you are, the more flexibility you had to reduce these non-discretionary expenses. On the other hand, if you were in the bottom 20% of households in terms of your net worth, you had much less flexibility in this area and fixed spending remained truly fixed. One can only decrease their spending so much, so if you start retirement spending only $20-$25,000 annually, you’ve already cut back all you can and so you’re spending is going to truly remain fixed over your retirement years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: new research that will shatter your expectations about spending in retirement
Today, I’m talking about the conventional wisdom on constant spending in retirement.
Most retirement spending strategies assume that spending will remain flat in retirement, after adjusting for inflation. Most modeling for retirement assumes a first year spending amount of a certain dollar amount - say $50,000 - then increases that spending amount annually to account for inflation, so you’re still spending the same adjusted-for-inflation income of $50,000 when you’re 80 compared to when you were 65.
But what the data in this study actually shows is that retiree spending declines annually by 2%, and if you are in the top 20% of households (which is defined as a net worth of $667,000 or more), your retirement spending declines even more - by about 2.7% per year.
That means instead of an inflation-adjusted fixed spending rate, by the time you get to age 80 or 85, you’ll be spending a lot less than you’re spending in the early years of retirement.
The study hypothesizes that this decision is driven by a strong desire to preserve assets, so rather than spend down one’s assets, retirees are more likely to live off of their guaranteed sources of income - like social security, pensions, and annuity income.
Spending is different for everyone - many of my clients are comfortable with taking out a certain percentage of their portfolio in retirement to supplement their guaranteed income sources, but I also have plenty of clients - especially those who have good pension income - who don’t even touch their portfolio in retirement aside from the occasional withdrawal for a big expense like a new roof or a vacation. Preferring instead to spend as little as possible from their portfolio to preserve their assets.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about why non-discretionary spending in retirement isn’t actually fixed. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $325 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: New Research That Will Shatter Your Expectations About Spending In Retirement.
The conventional wisdom on retirement spending says that your real spending (after adjusting for inflation) will remain flat in retirement. But new research that followed retiree spending habits over a period of 14 years, suggests that retiree spending will decline by about 2% annually and the drop in spending is even greater among high net worth individuals. This is good news, because it suggests that if you are like those in this study, you’ll be less likely to outlive your retirement savings and you may have more flexibility that you might realize in your retirement spending.
So this week, I’ll share with you the details of this new research and how it may shift how you think about your own spending as you transition into retirement. The findings are crucial to your retirement spending and lifestyle decisions as well as how much you might need to save today to live a comfortable retirement.
If you want to read the complete report on the research findings published by T Rowe Price, I’ll link to it in the show notes: https://trowe.com/3y6eCSs
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, when I’m talking more about the conventional wisdom and commonly dispensed advice about retirement spending from retirement experts and financial advisors like myself. Are we wrong? We’ll explore that tomorrow.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s time for the recap and bottom line. I’m tying everything together and sharing the most important takeaway from this week’s theme:
Improving Your Credit Score After Age 60
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Why Your FICO Score Still Matters In Retirement
- Your Credit Score Is Determined By These 5 Things
- And then I talked more in depth about 2 of the most important factors of your credit score - payment history and credit utilization and how focusing on these 2 factors can help the most in boosting your credit score
- And lastly, I talked yesterday about a new piece of legislation that may completely overhaul the current credit reporting system.
Here’s the bottom line: Your credit score still matters in retirement. Even if your debt is lower in retirement (and hopefully it will be), an excellent credit score will help you secure better rates on car loans, a mortgage refi, and even insurance premiums. Paying attention to your credit score and maintaining excellent credit will save you thousands, if not 10s of thousands of dollars in retirement through lower payments and better rates.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Groundbreaking new research on retirement spending. I’ll be talking about some new research that explains why you’re less likely to run out of money in retirement than what you’ve been led to believe.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: improving your credit score after age 60
Today, I’m talking about why your FICO score may soon become obsolete and what you should know about the potential overhaul of your credit score. As I was researching this week’s topic, I came across a news story about a new proposal that is under consideration in Congress right now.
According to USA Today, if passed, this piece of legislation would be a complete overhaul of the current credit score system. It would replace “the privately-run three-credit bureau system with a public credit registry [that would] operate under the umbrella of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” (Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2021/07/02/congress-credit-score-overhaul-proposal-act/46965135/)
The proponents of these changes are critical of the current system for its shortcomings and assert that an overhaul would fix several problems, notably reducing errors on credit reports and make it easier for consumers to remove errors. While I think certain aspects of this proposal make sense (like shortening the time bad marks appear on your credit from 7 years to 4 years), I find this new piece of legislation unsettling for a couple of other reasons.
So at the risk of upsetting any of you (which is definitely not my intention), here’s why I think this proposal is problematic.
1) The bureaucratic nature of a national credit reporting agency would only increase the chance for errors on your credit report and increase the headaches in removing them. It’s all about incentives. A privately held business is going to be incentivized to make sure your credit report is accurate, because it’s only useful and credible for them if it’s accurate. Remember, your FICO score is meant to be a quick and easy way for lenders to determine your ability to pay back your debt. Their reputation relies on the accuracy of the credit score in predicting your ability to repay. If you had a credit score of 800, because you were working the system and really couldn’t pay back on your debts, the credibility of these companies would be completely shot. So in that regard, the profit motive has incentivized these companies to improve the accuracy of your credit score as a predictor of your ability to make good on your debts, and I think in this area - where it matters most - I think they’re doing fine.The federal government has no incentive whatsoever to ensure that your credit is accurate.
2) The federal government will be in charge of credit scores and your credit report. Importantly, and perhaps most concerning is that the government would have greater powers in setting the criteria that impacts your credit score. I think it’s a slippery slope that Congress and whoever is in charge will not be able to help themselves in degrading the usefulness of the credit score in order to achieve political goals. This backfired big time in the housing crash 15 years ago in the name of home ownership for all. Lending practices were loosened, in large part because of federal housing policy changes, and too many people owned homes who didn’t have the income or financial health to do so. As we all remember, it led to massive foreclosures and the economy crashing. They’re talking about loosening the standards for credit scores in this proposal, and I think it will do similar harm to people with lower credit scores if they revamped how your score is calculated, incentivizing them to take on more risk, more debt, and thus have a higher chance of bankruptcy or foreclosure.
So what should you do about these potential changes? First of all, I think it’s a good reminder to be vigilant about checking your credit report for errors. Errors are all too common in credit reports currently and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. You're entitled to one free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies, so take advantage of it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: improving your credit score after age 60
Today, I’m talking about how to use the 2nd biggest factor of your credit score to your advantage. As I talked about yesterday, the most important factor in your credit score is payment history. A close second, making up 30% of your credit score is your amounts owed vs your overall borrowing limit, aka your credit utilization ratio.
In other words, how much of your credit available have you actually used. If you have $50,000 of available credit across multiple credit cards, but you’re only using $5000 of that at any one time, that’s going to be better than someone who’s racking up charges close to their credit limits each month. Even if you’re paying off your credit cards in full each month and your payment history is consistent, lower credit usage compared to your overall limit is what you want here.
This brings me to the listener question that inspired this week’s theme. Anonymous writes: “I am 53 years old. I have paid off numerous car loans. I have paid off numerous credit cards. I have paid off my house mortgage. I currently have a net worth of about $1.6 million. I’m still working, not yet retired. I have two credit cards. Each has a $10,000 limit. One of my credit cards has a $3500 balance and the other credit card has a $9000 balance. My current credit score is 725. This seems awfully low for someone with a credit history such as mine.”
I agree, it does seem low for someone who has very little debt compared to his overall net worth, and the fact that he has demonstrated that he can pay his debts, especially mortgage debts should give Anonymous an excellent credit score.
However, in his case I think the culprit lies in his credit utilization. He is doing ok with the one credit card at 35% of the total credit limit, but using 90% of his available credit with the other card. The recommended amount of credit utilization is below 30%, so with a $10,000 credit limit, he shouldn’t go above a $3,000 balance on each card.
High credit utilization indicates a propensity to overspending, but one of the downsides of the credit score is that it doesn’t capture the full picture. Anonymous’ net worth and low debt relative to net worth demonstrate that he’s not a big spender.
The good news is that it’s probably going to be relatively easy for Anonymous to boost his credit score, simply by applying for higher limits and staying well under those limits with his spending. I would recommend paying down some of that debt before applying for a higher limit, but it’s likely that Anonymous will get approved for this higher limit and will see his credit score improve.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: improving your credit score after age 60
Today, I’m talking about how to improve the most important factor of your credit score - payment history.
Yesterday I talked about all 5 factors of your credit score, but an important takeaway from that episode is that just 2 of the factors make up about two thirds of your credit score - payment history and credit utilization. So it’s worth spending the most time with these 2 influencers of your credit score and explore what it takes to boost your credit score by focusing on these factors the most.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about credit utilization, but today I’m focusing on payment history.
Payment history makes up roughly 35% of how your credit score. If you have a history of paying off your debts on time, that’s a good indicator that you’ll pay off new and current debts too. So if you pay off your debts on time, and you don’t have any liens or other dings to your credit like lawsuits or foreclosures, your payment history should be helping your credit score.
The most important thing you can do to improve your payment history is to make your payments on time...always! The good news is you can automate most of your payments and use calendar reminders and other tech tools to help you never miss a payment.
Considering that missed payments can stick around for a while - it may take as long as 7 years to have bad marks fall off your credit report - focusing most of your attention on your payment history is important if you’re trying to improve your credit score.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: improving your credit score after age 60
Today, I’m talking about the biggest factors that determine your credit score. I’ll briefly explain each one and talk about how much each factor weighs into your overall credit score. So let’s jump in with the first and weightiest factor that impacts your credit score:
- Payment history. This makes up roughly 35% of how your credit score is determined. And when you think about it, it becomes obvious. The whole purpose of a credit score is to provide a shorthand way for lenders (who don’t know you) to figure out if you’re actually going to pay back the money they’re loaning you. If you have a history of paying off your debts on time, that’s a good indicator that you’ll pay off new and current debts too. So if you pay off your debts on time, and you don’t have any liens or other dings to your credit like lawsuits or foreclosures, you’ll be off to a good start with this most important factor of your credit score.
- The second biggest factor of your credit score is your amounts owed vs your overall borrowing limit, aka your credit utilization ratio. In other words, how much of your credit available have you actually used. If you have $50,000 of available credit across multiple credit cards, but you’re only using $5000 of that at any one time, that’s going to be better than someone who’s racking up charges close to their credit limits each month. Even if you’re paying off your credit cards in full each month, lower credit usage compared to your overall limit is what you want here. This one makes up about 30% of your credit score, so it’s an important factor to consider if you’re trying to improve your credit score.
After these first 2, the factors drop off significantly in their weight and influence on your credit score. Next is length of credit history or how long you’ve been using credit. This makes up about 15% of your score and shouldn’t be a problem for most retirees who have likely been using credit for decades.
New credit makes up 10% of your credit score. If you’ve recently applied for 2 new credit cards and a new car loan, you may see a drop in your credit score, because it’s not a good sign to be taking on new debt, especially multiple debts at one time. So the next time the retailer offers you 20% off for applying for the store credit card...just say no.
Your credit mix makes up the last 10% of your credit score. Generally it’s good to have a variety of loans like mortgage, credit cards, car loans, etc. The added variety shows that you can juggle these different loan types and thus, you’re a lower risk for lending money. I think it’s important to note, however, that it’s not wise to add new credit types in an effort to boost your score. It’s not a big factor, so it won’t hurt you that much if your credit score is a bit lower because you don’t have a wide variety of debts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: improving your credit score after age 60
Today, I’m talking about why your credit score still matters in retirement. I think a lot of people think that once they enter retirement that their credit score doesn’t matter so much anymore. If you’re retired, you hopefully have less debt and anecdotally, I just find that the average 65 year old cares far less about their credit score than the average 35 year old.
But there's a good reason to still care about your credit score in retirement. It still matters for a lot of reasons. Here are just a few benefits of a really good credit score that you may still care about in retirement, according to a blog post from CapitalOne (link to post: https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/benefits-of-high-credit-score/):
- An excellent credit score can help you get a better rate on your car insurance, home insurance, and other types of insurance. That’s because insurance carriers use your credit reports to help decide whether to approve your application and how much to charge you. Once you’re a customer, they may check your credit to help decide whether to raise your premiums or even deny you the chance to renew your policy.
- Qualify for a better interest rate - you’ll probably still have some need for access to credit and debt in retirement and an excellent credit score can save you tens of thousands of dollars, since you’ll qualify for a better interest rate.
- If you want to apply for a new credit card, like one with those nice perks that all you retirees love, like free companion fares on travel, good credit may also play a role when applying for a new credit card, helping you secure better benefits and rewards.
- An excellent credit score is essential for getting approved for higher credit limits. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in knowing that my credit limit has been increased. BEcause even if I don’t ever think I’ll max it out, there’s security in knowing that I have access to additional funds if I ever need it. This is probably the biggest benefit for retirees who don’t carry much debt - just the added security of having access to additional funds if the need arises. And using less than 30% of your available credit is essential for a good credit score.
There are other benefits as well, but I think these are the ones that matter the most for retirees, and with 4 big benefits on this list, it means you still have plenty of good reasons to care about your credit score in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Improving Your Credit Score After Age 60.
The idea for this week’s theme comes from a loyal listener of the One Minute Retirement Tip. This listener writes: Here is my situation. I am 53 years old. I have paid off numerous car loans. I have paid off numerous credit cards. I have paid off my house mortgage. I currently have a net worth of about $1.6 million. I’m still working, not yet retired. I have two credit cards. Each has a $10,000 limit. One of my credit cards has a $3500 balance and the other credit card has a $9000 balance. My current credit score is 725. This seems awfully low for someone with a credit history such as mine.
Thanks to this listener for submitting this question for this week’s theme. I think I know why his credit score is lower than he thinks it should be, and I also have a solution that could be a quick and easy win to raise his credit score. Stay tuned, because on Friday’s episode, I’ll give my answer to his question.
You too can send me your questions to be featured on the podcast - just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. At the very least I will respond to your question via email, and if I think it has broad application to the podcast audience, your question may even be featured in a weekly theme on the podcast.
Other than answering this listener’s question, I’ll also share with you why your FICO score still matters in retirement, the 5 factors and their weightings that determine your credit score, how to boost your credit score by focusing on credit utilization and your payment history, and lastly, why thanks to some recent legislation now under consideration in Congress, why your FICO score could be in for a complete overhaul.
So whether you’re looking to get approved for higher credit limits, refinance your mortgage in this low interest rate environment or just save money on your home insurance, nearly all of us can benefit from a better credit score...and I’ll show you how to boost yours this week.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’m talking more about why your FICO score still matters (big time!) in retirement.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: How To Rebalance Your Investment Portfolio.
Rebalancing your portfolio is one of the most important aspects of investing, critical for stabilizing your portfolio, minimizing risk, and research shows that it can also enhance your long-term returns. I hope that I helped you understand not just why you should re-balance (ahem - right now!), but also how to actually rebalance your investments.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: I’m talking about credit scores. What drives your credit score and why good credit is important as you approach retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: how to rebalance your investment portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about my process for rebalancing and how I approach rebalancing with client accounts. I have rebalanced client portfolios thousands of times over the last nearly 14 years that I’ve been managing money for clients. This is just one method for rebalancing. It’s my method and I think it works quite well, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. I like having the control over when and how to rebalance, so it’s a manual process.
Here’s how I rebalance:
- First I look at the overall portfolio allocation. If the client’s portfolio has drifted more than 5% away from the target allocation, it’s time to rebalance. For most of the last 3 years, that’s meant selling stocks and moving more to bonds. I determine the $ amount of how much I need to sell to get the portfolio back in balance.
- Let’s assume that figure is $60,000 - now I go to work across the accounts and look at which positions to sell. Most of our client portfolios are custom, so depending on how much I need to sell and in what accounts, I may sell evenly across the portfolio or pick and choose.
- If I’m selling evenly, it’s a simpler choice. Sell $60,000 in this account and move to bonds. I know what you’re thinking....”yuck! Bonds?!” Yeah, me too. Honestly right now, it’s the worst time in my 14 year career to be investing in bonds. Nothing looks appetizing. But when a portfolio has drifted too far, it’s the right thing to do. If you want some ideas on what types of bonds you should consider now, I have some episodes from earlier this year that cover that topic in detail.
- If I’m picking and choosing what to sell, then there’s a more complicated decision making process involved. What are the tax implications? Is there a concentrated position or an investment with lackluster future growth prospects? Is there an investment that is no longer appropriate for the client that should be sold anyways. The goal is to rebalance the portfolio and set up the portfolio for future growth, diversification, and an overall mix of stocks and bonds that’s consistent with the clients age and stage in life.
Sometimes - especially these days - it may take some convincing to talk a client into moving more into bonds when the stock market is doing so well and bonds are flatlined. It requires discipline, but it’s the prudent thing to do, especially when you’re close to retirement or living in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: how to rebalance your investment portfolio.
So far this week, I’ve focused on manually rebalancing your portfolio - determining your target allocation and rebalancing when things get too far out of line. By the way, if you want to know the target allocations that I recommend as a starting point based on your age, just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com and I will send you my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet.
But what if there’s an easier way - what if you didn’t have to fuss with rebalancing your portfolio? Well the good news is, especially if you have a 401k, you can set up automatic rebalancing on your portfolio.
If you own target date or a portfolio model (like an aggressive, moderate, or conservative model) - the rebalancing is done for you. Even if you prefer to customize your portfolio, you can still set up automatic rebalancing. My 401k plan is customized with a handful of different options. I have the auto-rebalance set up to rebalance quarterly. Most plans allow for this, and there is no guarantee that it will improve your returns, but it will ensure that your portfolio risk stays in check, and there’s strong evidence that it's likely to enhance returns over long periods of time. So I encourage you to utilize automatic rebalancing when it’s available to you, especially in retirement accounts where there are no taxes for rebalancing.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: how to rebalance your investment portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about something that might be holding you back from rebalancing your portfolio like you should, and that is taxes.
When you have money in a 401k or an IRA, rebalancing your portfolio is a much less complicated decision. There are no taxes to consider with rebalancing your investments in these types of accounts, and the fees for rebalancing are often quite low...even $0 if you’re rebalancing in your 401k.
Where things get more complicated is in your taxable accounts. This could be a trust account, a joint account, or a regular brokerage account. When you rebalance your portfolio in a taxable account, you must consider the tax consequences.
If you’re selling investments with big gains, the tax consequences can be significant - thousands if not 10s of thousands of dollars, and possibly much more. The prospect of paying capital gains taxes can cloud your thinking and good judgement when it comes to rebalancing your portfolio. After all, no one likes to pay taxes. I just sold off part of a client’s stock position last week that currently makes up over ⅓ of her investment portfolio. Her deceased husband bought the stock about 20 years ago, and the stock has gone gang-busters over the last 5-10 years. Her cost basis in the stock is extremely low, so she will owe thousands of dollars in taxes for selling just a portion of the stock. It’s like a shot of vinegar in your mouth when you’re retired, since your income is usually lower and it’s more burdensome to pay the extra taxes on selling.
But over ⅓ of her portfolio is in this stock, and in my opinion, she would be much better off in the long-run selling a portion of the stock this year, paying the taxes from the proceeds of selling the stock, re-invest the remainder and having a portfolio that is less risky.
The way I look at it is: Never let the tax tail wag the dog. Taxes are an important consideration, but it shouldn’t be the primary factor in your investment decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: how to rebalance your investment portfolio.
Hopefully yesterday I convinced you to look seriously at rebalancing your investment portfolio right now. Assuming you’re persuaded, what’s next? There are multiple ways to approach re-balancing, so today I just want to share with you my preferred method, which is all about your target stock allocation. In other words, what % of your portfolio should be in stocks right now compared to your actual % in stocks?
Don’t know your target allocation? If you send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com, I’ll send you my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that will help you figure out what % in stocks is ideal for your age.
So let’s say your ideal allocation is 65% in stocks, but you haven’t rebalanced in a couple years and now your 75% in stocks. That’s 10% higher than what you should be. So you would need to figure out how much of your stock portfolio you should sell to get back to your 65% target, then determine what to sell to make that happen, and just do it.
Having a target stock and bond mix and then taking action when your portfolio deviates more than 5-10% from that allocation gives you the discipline to buy low and sell high. Buying low and selling high evades most investors because they only focus on the investments themselves, not setting their target stock mix, which means they don’t take action to rebalance when they should. A portfolio that drifts too far from it’s target allocation is a riskier portfolio, and the longer you “let it ride” the more risk you take on - which isn’t a good thing if you’re getting close to retirement.
Re-balancing your portfolio on a regular basis - typically anywhere from 1-4 times a year can enhance your long-term returns. A Vanguard Advisor Alpha study found that rebalancing enhanced returns by as much as .26% annually. It sounds like a small amount, but over 20 year retirement on a $1 million portfolio earning 6%, that’s a difference of $161,000.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: how to rebalance your investment portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about why you should rebalance your portfolio...right now! As I record this episode, the stock market sits just below it’s all-time high. The temptation is to just let it ride...after all, why would you want to sell now when things are going so well and move into something else like bonds, which aren’t really making any money right now.
I understand this temptation. It’s a conversation I have with clients all the time. But if you own stocks and you haven’t rebalanced your portfolio in the last 6-12 months, I can tell with you near 100% certainty that your portfolio is in need of some rebalancing.
The old adage buy low and sell high is particularly true right now with the S&P 500 index up over 32% in the last 12 months. The stock market, like home prices, will not keep climbing forever. The time to rebalance is on the heels of a strong and sustained recovery, like we’ve had since the depths of Covid.
Tomorrow I’ll get into the nuts and bolts of how to approach rebalancing...explaining how much you should consider taking out of stocks. I’m not talking big dramatic moves here - just taking some cream off the top and preserving some of these incredible gains that most of us have benefitted from over the last several years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: how to rebalance your investment portfolio. As I record this episode, the stock market is up more than 13% this year. And that’s coming off of an incredible recovery in the 2nd half of 2020. If you haven’t rebalanced your portfolio in the last year, I exhort you to listen carefully to this week’s episodes and scrutinize your current portfolio to see if it’s in need of rebalancing. One of the worst mistakes that you can make as an investor is letting it ride, especially in the good times. WE humans don’t like change. We like to stick with the comfortable status quo. That’s a problem when it comes to managing your investments, because too many investors don’t take advantage of strong gains in the market, when they could lock in some of those gains by rebalancing, and stabilize their long-term returns.
So this week I’ll share with you the benefits of rebalancing now, and why you want to rebalance your portfolio on a regular basis. We’ll talk about some roadblocks to rebalancing, how you can make rebalancing easier by automating it, and then lastly I’ll share with you my personal approach to rebalancing. I have rebalanced portfolios literally thousands of times with hundreds of millions of assets of client’s money, so I’ll share with you the thought process behind every rebalancing decision later this week.
I hope what we have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your investment portfolio. And whileI am careful to not lead you astray, I am not infallible.
Personal finance is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I’m talking more about why now is an ideal time to rebalance.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: Retirement Tip Rewind. I shared my favorite episodes with you from this year & I hope you enjoyed the variety this week.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The number one thing you should do if you’re planning to retire in 2021
- Why you should consider value stocks now...especially if you’re close to retirement and worried about inflation
- I revisited an episode on why you can’t time the stock market when my dad was a guest on the show.
- Then I talked about the bond investing mistakes I see over and over again
- And lastly, yesterday I shared with you why I don’t think it’s necessarily a good idea that retirees should pay cash for cars
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: How to Rebalance Your Portfolio. As I record this episode, the stock market sits just below it’s all-time high. If you stayed invested while the floor was falling out the bottom of the stock market during the Covid spring of 2020, you’ve no doubt enjoyed some nice returns over the last 16 months, making now an ideal time to look at rebalancing your portfolio. I’ll share with you how I do it with my clients next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Tip Rewind & I’m re-visiting my favorite episodes from this year.
Today’s episode comes from the week of June 21st...
Episode 986: False: Always Pay Cash For Cars
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Tip Rewind & I’m re-visiting my favorite episodes from this year.
Today’s episode comes from the week of April 12th...
Episode 914: Don’t Make These Bond Investing Mistakes
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Tip Rewind & I’m re-visiting my favorite episodes from this year.
Today’s episode comes from the week of March 1st...
Episode 873: No One Can Time The Market
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Tip Rewind & I’m re-visiting my favorite episodes from this year.
Today’s episode comes from the week of May 24th.
Episode 957: Close to Retirement & Worried About Inflation? Consider Value Stocks
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Tip Rewind & I’m re-visiting my favorite episodes from this year.
Today’s episode comes from the week of January 11th...
Episode 821: Retiring In 2021? Your Must-Do Checklist Item #1
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast, I’m revisiting some of my favorite episodes of 2021. I’m pulling out some of the most popular and must-listen episodes from the first half of this year.
I’ll be back with fresh new episodes next week, but in the meantime, I have a little treat for you. If you go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess, you can Gauge your retirement readiness to make a plan for the future. There you can Download a copy of my Retirement Success Forecaster and get your FREE personalized results. Again, that’s www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
I hope what we have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions for your retirement. And while I research each week’s topic and I am careful to not lead you astray, I am not infallible (and according to my husband and kids and pretty much everyone else in my family... I am wrong all the time).
Personal finance is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’m talking about the most important thing you’ll need to do if you’re planning to retire in 2021.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast, I’m taking a summer break. I’ve been wanting to take a short break from the research, writing, and recording grind of the podcast to recharge and catch up on some other projects, so that’s what I’m doing this week.
In the meantime, I have a little treat for you. If you go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess, you can Gauge your retirement readiness to make a plan for the future. There you can Download a copy of my Retirement Success Forecaster and get your FREE personalized results. Again, that’s www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
Come on back next week where I revisit some of my favorite episodes from 2021. Then I’ll be back with fresh, new episodes the week of August 16th.
Thank you so much for being a listener of the podcast. Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed week.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: 5 Inspiring Quotes about Money & Investing
In case you missed any episodes, I shared with you quotes from Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Graham, and Mark Twain on topics ranging from making mistakes, to seeking advice, to the stupidity of speculation, to hard work and avoiding disappointment.
I hope that I helped you think about managing your money from a slightly different perspective, and that you’ll be able to apply something you learned this week to improving your relationship with your money.
Tomorrow, we’re shaking things up...I’m taking a little break for the next couple weeks. I’ll be back with some highlights from my favorite episodes so far this year during the week of August 9th, and then I’ll kick off a brand new weekly theme the week of August 16th.
The summer is crazy, we’re in the midst of a home remodel project and I’m living with my in-laws while our house is getting a facelift. We’re here with my husband, our 3 kids, and our elderly dachshund, so I need a break...heck, what I really need is a stiff drink.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: 5 inspiring quotes about money and investing.
Today’s quote comes from Mark Twain. He said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do”
I like this quote because we can all look back on stupid or embarassing things we did and feel regret and shame. But Twain asserts that what will be even more disappointing in the end is what we didn’t do.
I think this quote is relevant for all of us, but especially if you’re thinking about retirement and your timeline for when you’ll stop working and what that looks like. I know many people who want to stop working and enjoy retirement. But they’re too uneasy to make the leap that they keep working even when they don’t have to work anymore. The key is finding out how much is enough.
But what is enough? That’s a really important question to ask yourself, and it’s a conversation I had with a client the other day. What is enough and when have I moved past enough into something that is disordered - either by greed or a desire for control, or insecurity, or something else?
This client is introspective and had already thought a lot about it, I could tell, before we even had the conversation.
He’s worked hard for 30+ years, and is really stressed at work...all the time. He wants to live a more relaxed pace of life and travel more with his wife. He’s figuring out what is enough for him and his spouse and seriously considering retirement within the next 2 years. If he works another 5-7 years, it’s likely not necessary and he is deferring his enjoyment of life and spending more time doing what will bring him more meaning and fulfillment.
If you can get to retirement with “enough” and live a balanced life that is financially sound, rich in relationships, and meaningful, then I think you’re doing pretty good. Going too far past enough, especially when you’re continuing to work in your 60s and beyond, when you may not enjoy your work, could be a mistake and something you may end up regretting later in life.
So think about what Twain said today. What is something you’re not doing now that you may regret later in life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: 5 inspiring quotes about money and investing.
Today’s quote comes from Benjamin Graham. He said: “You must never delude yourself into thinking that you’re investing when you’re speculating.”
Speculation is always confused with investing, but especially right now, I think this quote is very timely. Between the dramatic rise and fall of bitcoin and meme stocks and the eye popping prices of homes in many areas of the country, there are a lot of people who think they’re investors, but they’re really just speculating and looking to flip a quick profit.
You may be able to win a few times, but the only successful investors over a meaningful amount of time are not speculators. They’re investors and they pay attention to the fundamentals and the drivers of value in any good quality business or investment. So when everyone around you seems to be getting rich quick on speculating - which has been the trend since the depths of the Covd recession - don’t get sucked into the frenzy. Remember the core fundamentals of investing and stick to principles of quality and value, with a little patience thrown in.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: 5 inspiring quotes about money and investing.
Today’s quote comes from Thomas Edison. He said: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Have you ever seen those ads on Facebook or YouTube that feature 20 somethings who have it seemingly all figured out. They’re living life in a tropical locale, fully embracing the 4 hour workweek, and telling you all about how you too can achieve passive income.
There are plenty of people who are wealthy who are making passive income through their businesses, their dividend paying stocks and/or their real estate portfolio, but I can certainly tell you that it didn’t come from hacking the system and earning a passive income stream straight out of the gate.
Building wealth is years and years of hard work and sacrifice. Warren Buffett, at the age of 90, he has accumulated just over $100 billion in net worth through patience and shrewdness. But what most people don’t know about Buffett is that the vast majority of his net worth was earned after the age of 65. He has been at it so long and putting in the time and effort and hard work, that his wealth has exploded in the last 25 years compared to the previous 60.
A lot of that is from the power of compound interest. He has been an investor for so long, and the doubling of his money happened a few more times because he has been investing actively for over 70 years now.
So I think Edison is right….“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” We all want the easy button, but it just doesn’t work that way and it’s not a sustainable wealth to earning and keeping wealth.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: 5 inspiring quotes about money and investing.
Today’s quote comes from Abraham Lincoln. He said: “A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.”
I like this quote because:
- Too many people try to DIY everything from house flipping to cleaning their gutters to managing your finances. The problem when you don’t hire a professional is that you have blind spots and biases and that can do some serious damage.
- Whether it’s cleaning your gutters or drafting your estate plan or doing your taxes or planning for your retirement, I’m a big believer in hiring the best help you can afford. Not everyone can pay top dollar for the best professionals, but there’s a reason why the wealthy people do it and don’t DIY - it’s because they know they’re going to be better off in the long-run by just focusing on what they do best, and outsourcing everything else they can.
I’ve seen some pretty dramatic mistakes made when people try to DIY it with their money. These mistakes can be costly and irreversible. That’s the real danger here. If I try to DIY a kitchen backsplash and it looks like my 3 year old did it. That’s ok. I will have wasted money and will have to spend even more money having it fixed by a professional, but it’s reversible. Most money mistakes can’t be reversed, so I encourage you to pay for the best help you can afford, which is different for everyone.
If you have more than $500,000 in your investment portfolio, then you can probably afford a financial advisor who can manage your money for you, and provide financial advice that’s tailored to you. Their expertise will likely far outweigh their fee in the long run because they are not just picking your investments. They’re looking at the big picture, rebalancing your portfolio, helping you make the right social security decision, keeping you invested when the stock market is in freefall, and not letting you invest in Bitocin at $60,000, and a lot more.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: 5 inspiring quotes about money and investing.
Today’s quote comes from Theodore Roosevelt. He said: “The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
I like this quote because:
- So many times with decisions, we can be so overwhelmed with the choices in front of us, that we often choose to do nothing.
- Sure you can avoid mistakes if you don’t make a decision, but we weren’t meant to live in our comfort zone all the time. We were made for greatness and to reach our full potential as humans, which means sometimes making big mistakes.
- Do you remember the first time you decided to save and invest your money in the stock market? It was probably scary to part with your money and risk losing it, but if you did it, you saw that it wasn’t so bad and you actually made money most of the time. If you put it all in the bank or under your mattress instead, you never lost money but you didn’t gain much either and that’s a much bigger problem in the long-run.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: 5 Inspiring Quotes About Money and Investing. I’m sharing my favorite quotes about money, many of which are more about life in general than money, but their application to managing your finances is very instructive. So I’ll share with you quotes by Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Graham, and Mark Twain, and why these quotes resonated with me and more importantly why I think these quotes can help you be a better manager of your money and your investment portfolio if you can apply the message to your life.
I hope what we have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions for your retirement. And while I research each week’s topic and I am careful to not lead you astray, I am not infallible (and according to my husband and kids and pretty much everyone else in my family... I am wrong all the time).
Personal finance is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow...
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: Setting Your Retirement Budget
Making a realistic plan for how you will spend your money in retirement is one of the most important steps you can take in the years leading up for retirement.
In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- We started with understanding your various income sources in retirement. 1st we gotta figure out where the money is coming in from, and then we can get to work on spending it.
- Then we moved on to the spending part...I talked about how to go about calculating your essential and non-essential living expenses, why you need to separate those out, why health care costs deserves it’s own line item in your budget, and then how to plan for those expected and unexpected spikes in spending during retirement.
I hope that I helped you think about both sides of the spending coin - money coming in and money going out and provided you with some useful guidance on how to begin the process of setting your retirement budget.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: 5 inspiring quotes about money and investing. Theodore Roosevelt once said “The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.” I’ll talk about why I love that quote along with several others, and how it applies to making good decisions with your money in next week’s episodes.
Thank you so much for listening this week! Please leave a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I really appreciate your comments, and reviews also help new people discover the show. My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: setting your retirement budget.
Today, I’m talking about planning for spikes in your spending
Talking points:
- Your spending, like life, isn’t a slow moving lazy river. There’s going to be bumps along the way, rushing rapids, and maybe a couple waterfalls.
- You will have a new car to buy every 5-10 years. Your roof may need replacing. Your house will need to be painted. You may have a child who is getting married or one of the most important goals is to help pay for your grandchild’s master’s degree, or take your kids and grandkids to Hawaii all on your dime.
- Whatever your planned or unplanned expenses are, there needs to be room in the budget for these spikes in spending.
- Much harder to budget for these. You may buy a car 2 years earlier than planned out of necessity.
- First - plan for them. Write them down and in what years you’ll expect to have the added expense
- Then you’ll need to see if your income sources that we talked about earlier in the week will cover that adequately
- Lastly, it’s wise in retirement to keep a little bit more in cash on hand. I’ve talked about this before but it’s not just for these extra expenses. It’s so you can maintain your spending even if the stock market has another 2008-like year during retirement.
- I use the formula of 3-6 months of your essential living expenses in the bank + another 12 months worth of whatever your portfolio withdrawals are. This will cover most emergencies and extras without needing to sell your portfolio at a bad time. In all, it shouldn’t be much more than about 5-7% of your overall portfolio in retirement, which is not an excessive amount of cash to keep on hand
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: setting your retirement budget.
Today, we’re talking about budgeting for healthcare costs in retirement, and why you’ll want to budget for those separately and not just lump them in with your regular monthly expenses.
Talking points:
- Most people lump in healthcare costs in with their general budget for the month
- Break it out differently, because healthcare costs can vary widely, even if you’re covered by medicare
- Inflate differently - go up at a rate that’s likely going to be much higher than the cost of your other expenses.
- Use a calculator to estimate this - there’s a few I like online. Nerdwallet and Fidelity both have good cost calculators online. Varies based on where you live, your income, how healthy you are, whether or not you’re retiring before you’re covered by Medicare, and which supplemental plans you buy to tack on to basic medicare coverage
- I find that many of my retired clients pay at least $1000/month, sometimes a lot more than that for healthcare coverage in the form of premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, and that’s after you’re covered by medicare
- You may also be paying premiums for a long-term care policy and it’s wise to account for some long-term care expenses, especially in your later years of life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: setting your retirement budget.
Today, we’re moving on from adding up your income sources in retirement and discussing your monthly & annual living expenses.
Talking points:
- Start with the basics first - leave out the travel and the golf membership and all the fun stuff, because you need to know what it takes just to cover the basics with not too much extras.
- Extremely important that this is accurate. Perception vs. reality is often very different.
- What’s included in basic:
-
- Food - groceries and eating out (essential)
- Gas
- Mortgage
- Cell phone bill
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Donations - this is my own personal bias, but I believe it belongs here. You may disagree and that’s fine. It can go in the discretionary category that I’ll come back to in a minute
- Small amount of entertainment (Netflix)
- Clothing & shoes - basic - if you like to shop at Neiman Marcus, that goes in the discretionary category
- Taxes - don’t miss this one! Taxes need to be included in your spending budget, but since it’s a irregular thing, many people forget about it
- Leave health care out for now - we’ll get there tomorrow
- Once you accurately determine your basic expenses, you’ll want to add in the more discretionary purchases like travel, subscriptions, memberships, non-essential clothes, eating out, coffee runs. This will also usually include some non-essential expenses that may be important to you, like helping to fund a child or grandchild’s education.
Not sure all the line items to include on your spending budget for both essential and non-essential spending? Not to worry..I’ll send you my favorite worksheet to use for creating your retirement budget. Just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. And I’ll send you the worksheet to help make budgeting easier and provide more clarity for all the spending categories you’ll want to include in your budget. .
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: setting your retirement budget.
Today, I’m talking about understanding the income side of your budget, which is money coming in.Yesterday we talked about accounting for the fixed and more reliable line items of your retirement income.
Today, I’m covering the more variable and harder to set up portion of your retirement income, which is the income that can be generated from your portfolio. This can take the form of dividends, interest, selling investments for portfolio withdrawals or a combination of all 3.
How do you figure out how much you can withdraw from your portfolio each year to provide for your needs and the lifestyle you desire in retirement without running out of money? That’s one of the hardest questions to answer in personal finance and it’s an impossible one to answer for most people.
Because you can always run out of money in retirement, but you’re less likely to if you follow a few guidelines. One that you may have heard of that I’ve talked about many times on the podcast is the 4% rule. In most cases, if you can keep your portfolio withdrawals to 4% or less of your portfolio, it’s unlikely that you’ll run out of money.
The 4% rule is deeply flawed - it’s based on a number of assumptions that don’t reflect reality for most people, but it is very useful in that it’s a great place to start, at least for creating your initial retirement budget.
I recommend a monte carlo analysis which will live your retirement 1000 different times and provide a better estimate of your sustainable withdrawal rate in retirement...most financial planners and advisors can do this for you. We do it all the time with our clients and it provides a lot of clarity to the income that your portfolio can generate for you reliably in retirement.
For the sake of figuring out your income for your budget, let’s use the 4% rule as a starting place. If you have a portfolio of $1 million, and you withdraw 4% of your portfolio value in year one of retirement, that’s $40,000 of income. It’s not perfect, but it’s a reasonably accurate starting point.
Now, you just need to add up all of your income sources that I covered yesterday, include the portfolio withdrawals and you’re all done with the income side of the budget for year one of retirement.
Tomorrow, things are getting a little more interesting...We’re moving over to the expense side of the budget to look at your spending, now that we’ve taken inventory of all of your income sources. We’ll talk about taxes too, which many people forget to include.
Just a quick reminder, all this week if you email me, I’ll send you my favorite worksheet to use for creating your retirement income and spending budget. Just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. And I’ll send you the worksheet to help make your budgeting easier.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: setting your retirement budget.
Today, I’m talking about understanding the income side of your budget, which is money coming in. And I want to focus on the more reliable streams of income that are fixed. These would include social security and pension payments and to a lesser extent, rental income and part-time employment in retirement.
Talking points:
- Take inventory of all of your sources of income - understand and account for all of your income sources
-
- SS, pension, alimony, rental property income, annuity income, part time income in retirement
- Leave out investment portfolio income since that will vary more...I’ll cover that tomorrow
- Important to categorize and line item (rather than bunching all income sources together)
-
- Also need to understand how long income payments will continue for any Example - PT income for 5 years
- Email me for a free budget worksheet
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Setting your retirement budget. Even if you’ve never lived off of a budget before, retirement is a critical time to understand both your income sources, and how you spend your money - both how much and in what categories. Because if you can live in a way that’s sustainable given your income and assets, you won’t have to worry so much about outliving your money in retirement.
I hope what we have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions for your retirement. And while I research each week’s topic and I am careful to not lead you astray, I am not infallible (and according to my husband and kids and pretty much everyone else in my family... I am wrong all the time).
Personal finance is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where we’re diving in to discuss income sources in retirement. For many of you it goes beyond portfolio withdrawals and social security, so we’ll talk about how to plan for income from several common sources tomorrow.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: our mid-year outlook 2021. I brought my dad back onto the podcast and we discussed what’s going on in the economy, the stock and bond markets, and what we see on the horizon for the rest of the year that is impacting how we manage our client’s investment portfolios.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week. We talked about…
- The US economy
- The stock market
- Bond markets
- The best and worst of 2021 so far
- And areas of opportunity that we see in today’s investment climate
Thanks dad for being on the show this week!
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Setting your retirement budget. I’ll talk about how to budget for everyday living expenses, healthcare in retirement, travel, and big-one time expenses.
I’ll share with you a budget worksheet you can use to begin the very important exercise of penciling out how much it’s going to take to live a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
And perhaps most importantly, I share with you how to figure out if your portfolio withdrawals in retirement can sustain that amount of spending.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the mid-year outlook 2021. I’m here with my dad and we’re combining our collective 50+ years of experience managing clients’ money to share some insights about what’s going on in the economic and investment landscape right now. Today we’re talking about our best ideas - areas of opportunity right now...and one thing that is a concern at least for the rest of the year.
- Areas that are catching our attention & pockets of the markets we like:
-
- TIPS
- High-quality dividend paying and value stocks - very cheap right now
- Lower maturity to avoid locking in low rates for extended periods
Bigger pullback could be forthcoming, particularly if inflation is not transitory or if the Fed begins moving towards tightening.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche here with my father, David Wilson, and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the mid-year outlook 2021. I’m here with my dad and we’re combining our collective 50+ years of experience managing clients’ money to share some insights about what’s going on in the economic and investment landscape right now. Today we’re talking about the best and the worst of 2021.
- Best:
-
- Energy
- Financials
- Real Estate - REITS (again!) - how long can this continue?
- Small cap value
- Worst:
-
- Utilities
- Consumer Staples
- Consumer discretionary
- Large cap stocks are underperforming mid and small cap stocks
- Small cap growth
- Bonds - most bonds and bond funds are just treading water this year - one of the few areas that has lost money this year along with gold
Big divergence in stock returns by company. That’s been a big surprise - widening of the haves and the have nots.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche here with my father, David Wilson, and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the mid-year outlook 2021. I’m here with my dad and we’re combining our collective 50+ years of experience managing clients’ money to share some insights about what’s going on in the economic and investment landscape right now. Today we’re talking about the bond market.
To say that interest rates are low is an understatement. [current rate environment]
From David Kelly at JP Morgan Asset Management: “Powell also confirmed that the FOMC is now actively discussing a timetable for tapering its massive bond purchases. Along with its more optimistic outlook on the economy, the committee reiterated its view that higher inflation over the next few months will be transitory and that it will need to see strong growth persist to give the Fed comfort about achieving “substantial progress."
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche here with my father, David Wilson, and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the mid-year outlook 2021. I’m here with my dad and we’re combining our collective 50+ years of experience managing clients’ money to share some insights about what’s going on in the economic and investment landscape right now. Today we’re talking about the stock market.
What’s been driving market trends and performance so far this year?
“Stocks follow earnings.” And earnings exploded in the first quarter, causing analysts to raise expectations. They now see S&P 500 earnings rising 35% and revenues rising 12% for all of 2021. Moderate price gains and bulging profits are making stocks more reasonably priced.
With the market up 14% for the year and 90% off the lows (March 2020), it would not be a surprise if stocks pulled back from recent all-time highs. The market needs time to clear out excesses caused by meme speculation, record margin borrowing and a rash of new IPOs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche here with my father, David Wilson, and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: our mid-year outlook 2021. I have my dad back on the podcast. He’s been advising clients with their money and investments since 1982, and today we’re talking about our economic update & outlook:
- Post Covid GDP growth
In our quarterly commentary to clients, you said: “The U.S. economy is booming, with GDP expected to rise 10% in the second and third quarter. Demand for goods and services is so strong that supply cannot keep up, triggering bottlenecks and wage and price pressures.”
I read that you have to go all the way back to 1984 to see this kind of GDP growth that’s expected for 2021
- Interest rates
-
- Very low!
- Not good for bond investors, but helping to drive more money into dividend stocks where investors can earn a growing stream of income, even in a low growth environment
- Inflation
-
- Price of oil has doubled over the last year
- Food prices are up...plane tickets, you name it
- a rapidly reopening economy is colliding with global supply shortages
- How much of the inflation right now is a temporary surge? Are you concerned about higher inflation looking out a bit further?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche here with my father, David Wilson, and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Mid-Year outlook 2021. I have my dad here with me this week...hi dad!
We’re chatting about the economy, the stock market, bond markets, interest rates, inflation, and investment opportunities we see in today’s post-covid world, combining our 50+ years of collective experience advising clients to help you digest today's economic and market landscape.
I hope what we have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions for your retirement. And while I research each week’s topic and I am careful to not lead you astray, I am not infallible (and according to my husband and kids and pretty much everyone else in my family... I am wrong all the time).
Personal finance is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where we’re laying the foundation for this week by discussing the economy. I don’t think that there’s a more dramatic swing you’ll find historically in the economy compared to where we were last year with today. So we’ll be discussing that massive turnaround and where we go from here.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: critical ages for retirement planning.
Here are the critical ages for retirement that you’ll want to pay attention to:
- Age 50 - switching from growth to a more thoughtful mix of stocks and bonds; catch up contributions
- Age 55 - early withdrawals from 401k and pensions
- Age 59 ½ - penalty free retirement account withdrawals after this age
- Age 62 - social security begins...very important to make the most informed decision you can with social security. If you missed that episode and want a customized social security side-by-side comparison that shows you the actual lifetime income and breakeven ages for starting social security at different ages, just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
- Lastly, yesterday we talked about required minimum distributions that start at age 72 and a couple of strategies that could save on taxes and keep more money in your pocket in the long run
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Mid-Year outlook 2021. I’m bringing my dad back on the show, and we’ll be chatting about the economy, the stock market, bond markets, interest rates, inflation, and investment opportunities we see in today’s post-covid world. We’ll combine our 50+ years of experience advising clients to help you digest today's economic and market landscape.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: critical ages for retirement planning. Today we’re talking about why age 72 is so important:
But first, today is episode 1000 of the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast! It’s a big milestone. I’m going out tonight to celebrate with my husband, and I want to thank you all for listening! The podcast has continued to grow steadily since I launched its closing in on a quarter of a million downloads, and I am so grateful for your listenership.
Ok, so back to today’s critical retirement planning age of 72. This age is so important because it’s the year in which you’ll need to start pulling money out of your retirement accounts, like your IRA.
I get so many questions about this, let me just explain what I think is most important, and a couple of seldom used strategies I encourage my clients to use:
- Waiting until later in the year if you don’t need the income
- QCD
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: critical ages for retirement planning. Today we’re talking about why age 62 is so important:
- Social security starting age!
- % of people who take social security at 62: - reason! They need the money
- Health and longevity will determine whether you might start early
- I’m a big advocate of waiting, especially if your health is good and you’re able and willing to keep working. Or maybe you want to retire, but some part-time work or tapping into your investment accounts in the early years will help lock in a higher income.
- However, there may be some strategic or practical reasons why you would start collecting your social security checks at this age.
Social security analysis - analyzes different social security choices based on your expected benefits and provides a break-even age for each social security starting age. Just send me an email with your full retirement age monthly benefit amount and your year of birth to ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: critical ages for retirement planning. Today we’re talking about why age 59 1/2 is so important:
- Little known reason why 59 ½ is important is because it’s the earliest age most plans allow for in-service distributions - check with your 401k plan
-
- What is an in-service distribution?
- Why take an in service distribution?
- More well-known reason why 59 ½ matters for your retirement is because it’s the age when the 10% early withdrawal penalty for Roth, Traditional IRA and old 401k accounts no longer applies.
-
- Generally, you don’t want to start tapping into these accounts quite this early, but depending on your health situation and when you retire, it’s good to know your options for avoiding penalties and costly mistakes.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: critical ages for retirement planning. Today we’re talking about why age 55 is so important:
- Milestone age for early pension
- Rule of 55 - penalty-free withdrawals from 401k before age 59 ½
- Experts say to have at least seven times your salary saved at age 55
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: critical ages for retirement planning. Today we’re talking about why age 50 is so important:
- Catch up contributions for IRA, SIMPLE IRA & 401k accounts
-
- Maxing out already? You want to take advantage of this
- Catch up for IRA & Roth IRAs:
- Catch up for SIMPLE IRAs
- Catch up for 401ks
- Critical age for paying attention to asset allocation and beginning to dial back your risk.
-
- Retirement is now 12-15 years away and it’s important to switch from growth-mode to smart growth mode, which involves dialing back your allocation some.
- Prior to age 50, I think its prudent to be as close to 100% stocks in your investment portfolio as you can handle.
- But at 50, it’s important to begin the process of gradually moving out of the stock market. For most people, I think an allocation of 75-80% stocks at this age is a good target to shoot for to achieve more conservative growth.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Critical Ages for retirement planning. I’m talking about the ages and milestones that are critical for planning your retirement. I’ll help you understand everything from catch up contributions starting at age 50 to what you need to know when starting your required minimum distributions at age 72 and several other must-know milestones in between.
I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions for your retirement. And while I research each week’s topic and I am careful to not lead you astray, I am not infallible (and according to my husband and kids and pretty much everyone else in my family... I am wrong all the time).
Personal finance is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow where I’m kicking things off with catch up contributions at age 50...and one bonus reason why 50 is an important milestone for planning your retirement.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Happy Independence Day! It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: Ask me anything! I answered your most burning questions about retirement.
I really enjoyed this week’s podcast and answering your questions. I have to say though, it took me about 3-4x as long to digest, research, and respond to these questions. It was worth it in the end though, because I gained some insight into what you, my lovely and loyal listeners, are most concerned about as you enter the homestretch of your working years.
So thank you for the opportunity to address your questions what’s weighing most on your mind right now.
Here are my favorite listener-submitted questions that I answered this week:
- Should I sell my rental properties and use the money to pay off my primary home mortgage?
- How do I know if I have enough money to retire?
- Should I Take The Early Retirement Option With My Pension?
- Does it make sense to allocate savings to the company stock in my 401(K)?
- How can I adequately prepare to care for my elderly parents?
I also snuck in a bit of a diversion by replacing the actual names of the listeners for confidentiality with names with my favorite celebrities and historical figures. I just gave you the first names, did you guess who anyone was?
Let’s see how you did. By the way, there was only one man in the mix...the rest were women...that’s because I stayed with the gender of the submitters of the question, not because I’m biased toward the female population in case you’re wondering why it’s so lopsided.
Ok, so we had CS Lewis, my favorite author, Lucille Ball, my favorite TV star...by the way, fun fact...I was obsessed with I Love Lucy as a child. I’ve seen every episode at least 3 times, and her comedic genius is unmatched in my opinion. I am Catholic, so I included my 2 favorite female saints...St. Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian physician and mother of 4 children, and Jane Frances de Chantal, a rather obscure saint who lived at the turn of the 17th century, was an excellent businesswoman and persevered through depression and many hardships, including the accidental death of her husband just after her 4th child was born. Lastly, we have Babe Didrikson. I dare you to name a better athlete than Babe. Her Wikipedia intro reads: She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics, before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships. I mean, come on!
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Critical Ages For Retirement Planning.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Ask me anything! I’m answering your listener-submitted questions about what is weighing most on your mind as you prepare for retirement.
Today, I’m answering the following question: How can I adequately prepare to care for my elderly parents?
Babe writes:
The thing that keeps me up at night is my parents. It is absolutely a source of distress.
I have a mom and stepdad as well as my biological father. None of them have as much as a 6-month emergency fund let alone a viable retirement plan. The main question I have is: how can I adequately prepare to care for three elderly parents?
I don’t want them living in a nursing home, and I have mentally prepared myself for the prospect of them living with me and me caring for them. I’ve done some research, but I'm really just at a loss for how to plan for best and worst-case scenarios.
Personally, I am set. I will retire with a government pension (& health care coverage) and I am aggressively saving for retirement.
This question is such a common, yet difficult problem. Many of us don’t count on needing to take care of mom and dad later in life, yet it becomes a reality for many of us. According to a 2015 study by AARP, About 34.2 million Americans have provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the last 12 months. 34.2 million of us! That’s more than 10% of the U.S. population who is providing unpaid care.
So Babe is right to be concerned about this issue. If she helps her parents, how will she pay for it considering they don’t have any assets? Will she drain her own retirement savings to help pay for care? Will she be forced to retire early and unexpectedly to care for her parents in her own home.
For as much or as little as my opinion counts here, I think it’s a very loving and honorable thing to care for one’s parents in old age, especially by bringing them into your home to live with you like Babe mentioned. I used to volunteer with my church and through that ministry, I visited homebound seniors about once a month. I used to sign in at several places every time I walked in and I noticed that many of these places, I was the only non-healthcare worker to visit the entire nursing home over the last several days.
I love hearing that Babe is committed to helping her parents however she can, and I hope that I have the selflessness to do the same for my parents some day.
Ok, so on to how Babe can actually prepare for this situation. With no assets to spend down for nursing or long-term care needs later in life, her parents will be eligible for Medicaid. That’s where Babe should begin her research - look into Medicaid to see what they do and don’t qualify for.
Even though she said she is set for retirement, spending out of her own pocket for her parents’ medical care can quickly derail her own retirement, so understanding the ins and outs of Medicaid will be essential in this situation.
Next, if Babe has other siblings, she should have conversations with them to see how they are willing to help out. In my experience, and maybe yours as well, you probably know someone who is caring for an elderly parent. Unfortunately, the bulk of the burden of care, paying bills, driving to doctor appointments, etc. usually falls to just one child. So I think it’s important that Babe understand where her other siblings are willing to help out.
She should prepare herself for not just the potential financial burden, and change to her living situation, but also for the additional stress of the day in and day out of elderly parental care.
But it all starts with Medicaid. Understand that and she can start thinking through the best case and worst case situations, as well as what additional resources and help will be available to her, so she doesn't have to shoulder the burden of caring for her parents alone.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Ask me anything! I’m answering your listener-submitted questions about what is weighing most on your mind as you prepare for retirement.
Today, I’m answering the following question: Does it make sense to allocate savings to the company stock in my 401(K)?
Jane writes:
My company offers a company stock fund within my 401K. I currently have $305,000 invested in the company stock and I would like to continue to invest in the stock. I am confident in the company’s future growth, and I want to reduce my future required minimum distributions.
Does it make sense to continue to allocate funds to the company stock in my 401k?
Ok, this is a great question from Jane, and you might miss the nuance of her question regarding RMDs. Why would investing in her company stock in the 401k allow her to reduce her future required minimum distributions?
Well, it’s because of a little known rule called net unrealized appreciation. When Jane retires, she will be able to withdraw her company stock from her 401k plan, only pay tax on the original purchase amount of the stock, rather than rolling over the stock to an IRA where she will have future required distributions and will pay higher income tax on those distributions. It’s such a crazy loophole, and based on the amount that Jane has in her company stock vs. her original cost basis, it will likely amount to some serious tax savings when she retires.
She’s concerned about required minimum distributions, but I don’t think that’s the most important consideration when deciding whether or not to invest in company stock in the 401k.
$305,000 in the company stock sounds like a lot of money, and it is. But Jane has been with the same company for nearly 40 years, and has done an amazing job of saving. She currently has just over $2 million in her company’s 401k.
The stock makes up about 14% of her total 401k balance. So if the stock is a good quality investment with strong future growth prospects, I don’t take issue with Jane continuing to add to her company stock, as long as she and her husband would be just fine in retirement if the stock went belly up. She is getting close to retirement and classifies herself as a conservative investor, so she needs to be careful to not take on too much risk by continuing to add to the stock.
If you work for a company where you own stock inside of your 401k, it’s important to understand the net unrealized appreciation rules, so you won’t miss out on what’s likely to be a massive tax benefit in retirement.
Lastly, I would just like to take a moment to commend Jane for her loyalty to her employer and her diligent saving over the last 38 years! Well done, Jane!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Ask me anything! I’m answering your listener-submitted questions about what is weighing most on your mind as you prepare for retirement.
Today, I’m answering the following question: Should I Take The Early Retirement Option With My Pension?
Gianna writes:
I am 51 and I’ve been a city employee for 26 years. I have a pension plan and a 457 plan. I will be eligible to retire when I reach age 57.
My pension plan offers a social security equated option for single retirees. I can opt to receive a higher pension payment option from age 57 to age 65. After 65, my pension payments will be permanently reduced. If I don’t choose the equated option, my pension will be around 80% of my income and the monthly income will remain the same for the rest of my life.
I’m wondering if I should consider this early payout option. I’m considering retiring early and collecting my pension at age 57, and continuing to work somewhere else either part-time or full time. I’m also considering just staying at my employer.
Ok, so what Gianna is talking about here with her equated pension option is meant to allow people who retire early to receive a consistent level of income, starting earlier in retirement.
Here’s how these equated plans work: Let’s say you’re going to receive $2,500 in social security benefits at age 65. If you have a pension that has an equated option, you can begin to receive say $3,000 when you’re eligible...in Gianna’s case, it’s age 57. She’ll get $3,000 a month until age 65, then once Social security starts, she will get $2,500 from social security and her monthly pension will drop from $3,000 to $500 a month. Big drop, but remember, she’s front-loading those pension payments and receiving more in the early years.
While it’s nice to begin collecting your pension income at age 57, it comes with a BIG catch with permanently reduced pension income for the rest of her life by as much as ⅔ to ¾ less than what the amount would be if she waited to her normal retirement age to start her pension.
In Gianna’s case, she needs to understand the trade-offs of retiring earlier and taking the optional equated pension amount vs. working longer. And it is possible to do the math on these options, which is exactly what she needs to do.
My guess is that it’s unlikely that Gianna will be justified in taking the early retirement equated option, unless she has some serious health issues. She will likely be giving up too much in lifetime income by taking the equated option, especially if her health is good and she has reasonable longevity. But she really needs to talk to a tax advisor or a financial advisor to compare her options and run the actual numbers. This is a major, irreversible decision that’s going to impact her income for the rest of your life. The good news for Gianna is that she has a few more years to decide whether or not to continue working.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Ask me anything! I’m answering your listener-submitted questions about what is weighing most on your mind as you prepare for retirement.
Today, I’m answering the following question: How do I know if I have enough money to retire?
Lucy writes: How do I know if I have enough money to retire? I know this is super generic and maybe you have a worksheet I could fill out to determine this?
I am 62 and my husband is almost 65 and already retired. He has a pension and very small retirement savings, so I feel I have to make up for it as I would like to maintain our lifestyle.
There’s a lot to address in this question from Lucy. When Lucy says she is trying to “make up for it”, I assume that’s in her own savings through a 401k or some other retirement plan.
Answering the question of if you have enough comes down to a few factors, but the most important is your spending in retirement. Is that going to be covered by your assets and income sources after you account for taxes and inflation? You also need to consider the age you retire, how your portfolio is invested, and a few other factors, but spending in retirement must be sustainable.
I’ve seen people retire comfortably with $100,000 in assets, and I’ve seen people who needed well in excess of $1,000,000 to have everything pencil out, and the difference comes down to lifestyle and spending in retirement.
Lucy asked if there was a worksheet that she could use to determine this. I do have a tool that you can use to give you a more concrete answer. It’s called the Retirement Success Forecaster. Using data from a simple questionnaire, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if you’re not where you need to be, I’ll tell you what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envision.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess/ to download your forecaster questionnaire.
Fill it out, send it back to me using the instructions in the forecaster, and I’ll send your personalized results for free - no strings attached.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Ask me anything! I’m answering your listener-submitted questions about what is weighing most on your mind as you prepare for retirement.
Today, I’m answering the following question: Should I sell my rental properties and use the proceeds to pay off my mortgage?
CS writes: My wife and I are four years from retirement. We own 4 rental properties and we just bought our house that we’re planning to stay in for retirement. The total debt on the rental properties is low and there is not much in the way of expected or expensive maintenance needed anytime soon.
We are currently using a property management company for the rentals and will continue to do so after we retire, if we keep these properties.
I could sell 3 of the rentals and pay off the mortgage for our new home, depending on the tax bite. Or I could hang on to the rentals, give the manager his 10%, and let it appreciate and generate a decent check most months. I don’t think liquidity will be an issue (but check back with me in four years).
Any strong feelings on whether I should sell or hold the rentals?
This is a great question and not an easy one to answer. The first question I have for CS is whether or not he and his wife have other assets for retirement. Because if it’s just the rental properties and social security, that makes me nervous. The downside of investing in residential rentals is that there is no guarantee of income and I could give you plenty of examples where income dried up. Even if that happens for a brief period, if that’s all you have, there’s a lot of risk in that.
CS also mentioned in his email to me that he knows I’m not a fan of carrying a balance on your mortgage in retirement, and selling the rentals would wipe out that mortgage payment on their new retirement home. However, I’m not necessarily a fan of liquidating assets and paying taxes in one fell swoop to pay off a mortgage. Paying off the mortgage with surplus cash or doing it slowly over several years is better. I’m sure that the tax hit on selling those rentals is likely to be substantial and the decrease in rental income probably won’t justify selling to eliminate their mortgage, especially considering they likely have a low interest rate on their new retirement home mortgage.
This also is challenging because in order to answer what is best, you would need to analyze the net income on the properties (after deducting property management fees, taxes, repairs, etc) over a fairly long period of time to determine if holding or selling makes sense.
The short answer is: I’m hoping CS and his wife have other assets and won’t be relying on these rental properties for most of their income in retirement. If that’s the case, I am more comfortable telling him to hold the rentals rather than selling to pay off their new house.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Ask me anything. A few weeks ago on the podcast, I asked you to submit your questions about retirement to me about what’s weighing most heavily on your mind as you approach retirement.
I received some pretty amazing questions, I picked my 5 favorites and I’m addressing them here on the podcast this week.
I'm answering questions about what to do with rental properties in retirement, how do I know if I have enough to retire, how much to invest in the company stock inside my 401k, dealing with the stress and financial burden of caring for aging parents, and taking an early pension offer.
These were such thoughtful questions that deal with real life conundrums, and I’m honored to be sharing my insights this week. I tried to be thorough, so this week’s episodes are a bit longer than usual as well.
To protect the confidentiality of those who submitted questions, I have changed all the names - mostly to my favorite celebrities or historical figures - so bonus points if you can figure out which famous person I’m tipping my hat to.
I hope what I have to share will lead you down the right path to making prudent decisions for your retirement, and I hope your fellow listener’s questions will maybe provide some answers to some like-kind problems you might be dealing with in your own life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: retirement rules of thumb you should ignore.
Here are the retirement rules of thumb that you might want to ignore:
- Save 10% of your income for retirement
- Keep 120 minus your age in stocks
- Withdraw 4% of your portfolio for income in retirement
- Spend no more than ⅓ of your income on housing
- Always pay cash for cars
Hopefully after listening to the podcast this week, you can appreciate that while most of these rules of thumb can be helpful for some, it’s often dangerous to blindly follow rule of thumb financial advice, since it can really lead you astray in making some poor decisions with your money.q
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Ask me anything. I put out a request for your input and to tell me what’s weighing most on your mind as you approach retirement. I received some really great, thoughtful questions that I think will apply to many of you. You asked and so next week I’m answering your questions - everything from buying company stock in your 401k, to paying for your parent’s care, to whether or not you have enough money to retire at 62.
I’m really looking forward to answering your listener questions next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Rules of Thumb You Should Ignore
Yesterday, I talked about how much I hate the rule of thumb about spending no more than ⅓ of your income on housing. It should be much lower than ⅓, especially as you approach retirement.
Generally, if you can have less debt or no debt in retirement, it will free you up for a more active and less stressed retirement. Which brings me to today’s rule of thumb: always pay cash for cars.
I don’t like this rule of thumb because I can think of plenty of exceptions to this rule.
About 10 years ago, when we were emerging from the financial crisis and car companies were really struggling, I had a handful of clients with 0% car loans. If these clients would have followed this advice of always paying cash for cars, he would have paid $40m out of his precious savings to buy a car that he could have financed for free.
If you like to buy a used Toyota Camry every 8-10 years, then always paying cash for cars makes a lot of sense, but the applicability of this rule depends a lot on your car-buying habits.
Are you into cars? My husband is really REALLY into cars. He would rather walk around with a sharp stick in his eye than drive a 3 year old Toyota Camry every day. But I wouldn’t mind it and if I had my way, I’d probably still be driving my first car - a forest green Nissan Pathfinder. I called it her Pathy, and she and I spent many miles and many memories together in the early 2000s.
Car loan rates are pretty low right...you can get a car loan in the 3-4% range if you have good credit. So why would you want to withdraw an extra chunk of change from your retirement portfolio, when you can make more manageable payments on a low interest car loan instead.
Although I’m a big advocate of paying your house off before retirement, I’m not as big of a fan of withdrawing $40-50k every 8-10 years from your retirement accounts to buy a new car that will be worth ½ of it’s value in 3 years. But again, it all goes back to your car buying habits and what kind of dent a larger withdrawal will put on your portfolio. Sometimes a loan makes sense. Sometimes paying cash makes sense.
The other consideration that most people don’t think of is something I commonly see among my clients, which is you’re not as comfortable with buying a used car at age 70 compared to say, age 40. You don’t want to be dealing with reliability issues or expensive repairs for cars out of warranty when you’re in your 70s so most of my retired clients are happy to pay a premium for a newer car, so they don’t risk being stranded by the road in snow and ice or 100 degree temperatures.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Rules of Thumb You Should Ignore
Today, I’m debunking the common rule of thumb that you should spend no more than ⅓ of your income on housing. Of all the personal finance rules of thumb, I hate this one the most. I think it leads too many people astray, with buying houses they really can’t afford.
If you look under the hood of most affluent and wealthy Americans, you almost always will see much less than ⅓ of their income devoted to their mortgage, taxes, and insurance for their house. Spending ⅓ of your income towards housing leaves too little for everything else.
As you approach retirement, this rule of thumb becomes even more problematic. If you’re using your social security income and withdrawing money from your IRA every year just to pay your mortgage and maintain that ⅓ ratio, you’re depleting your retirement accounts and you’re sacrificing your flexibility and freedom to travel, eating out, enjoy hobbies, help pay for your grandkids education, give to the causes and charities you care about. Whatever matters most to you, you don’t want to be cut off from doing that because too much of your income is going toward housing in retirement.
Alternatively, if you can enter into retirement with a paid-off mortgage, that’s one of the best things you can do to set yourself up for a financially secure, and less stressed retirement. You’ll have more discretionary income, and be able to really live an active retirement.
If you’re not able to pay off your mortgage before retirement, it’s a great time to downsize. In many housing markets today, you can get top dollar for your home, downside to a smaller and less expensive home, potentially with no mortgage. With interest rates low and housing at its historical peak, it’s an ideal time to sell and buy something smaller and less expensive for retirement.
So I think the ⅓ rule of thumb for housing costs is the absolute worst, especially when you’re retired. If no more than 10% of your income is going toward housing in retirement - incl. taxes and insurance - you’ll be in a better financial position, and have a lot more discretionary income to actually enjoy retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Rules of Thumb You Should Ignore
Today, I’m talking about the 4% rule. The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
If you apply the 4% rule to your retirement savings, you would take your portfolio value and multiply that amount by 4%...so if you get to retirement with $1 million saved, and multiply that $1million by 4%, you get $40,000. So according to the 4% rule, you can withdraw $40,000 from your portfolio in year 1 of retirement, then increase that withdrawal amount for inflation each year without worrying too much about running out of money.
4% is considered a safe withdrawal rate that is backed by some well-documented research. But it’s actually a pretty flawed rule of thumb that doesn’t take into account the complexities of retirement circumstances that change, an investment portfolio that’s changing, and the complexity of adjusting that 4% withdrawal rate years into retirement.
The short answer is that it does work well...sometimes. The long answer is that retirement is too complex to rely on a rule of thumb - taxes, inflation, your returns in retirement vary widely from year to year, and you may be unlucky enough to retire in the midst of a big stock market downturn - these are all circumstances that will make the 4% rule less useful or blow it out of the water all together.
The 4% rule is useful to help you plan for how much you’re going to need saved at retirement, but when you’re 2-5 years out from retirement, it’s time to leave the 4% rule behind and opt for a more sophisticated calculation that takes into account the thousands of different scenarios and circumstances you could face in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Rules of Thumb You Should Ignore
Today, I’m talking about a common investing rule of thumb: Keep 100 (or 120) minus your age in stocks. It used to be 100 minus your age, but over the last several years I see 120 being used more often. Using this formula...if you’re 65 years old, you take 120 minus your age. 120-65 = 55. That’s the % you should have in stocks: 55%.
Now there is some truth in this rule of thumb, and that is your asset allocation (or your % in stocks) should be based 1st and foremost on your age. This is where we always start with our clients. But it does need to be customized for your risk tolerance, your goals, and to what extent you’ll be relying on your portfolio for income in retirement.
Some people just cannot stomach the ups and downs of the stock market. They’re the ones who panic and sell in March 2020 at the height of the Covid crash. Having too much in stocks can be problematic for these people, so if that’s you, then you’ll want to have less in stocks than you might otherwise have at your age.
On the other hand, I had a client who passed away about 3 years ago. She was in her 90s when she died, watched CNBC every day, and had over $1 million dollars in the stock market. I could have talked her into going skydiving before I would have talked her into buying a bond. She loved stocks and didn’t blink if the stock market took a dive. She wasn’t worried at all when her portfolio dropped in the financial crisis, and even though she was less than 5 feet tall, she had ice water running through her veins.
The other factor that is worth considering now with maintaining a higher % in stocks is inflation. Inflation is a big risk for your retirement. You can plan to spend as much as 30 or more years in retirement. Iis it really a good idea for a 70 year old who has potentially 20 more years to live to be only 30% in stocks if you follow the 100 minus age rule? If you follow the 120 minus age rule, you’re 50% in stocks at age 70, which for most people, I think is probably too high, considering that allocation can result in a drop in your portfolio of 20-30% or more in a down stock market.
So the rule of thumb is flawed I think and I use a different baseline based on age to determine the ideal allocation for my clients. If you want to get your copy of our asset allocation cheat sheet and see the custom formulas we use to determine asset allocation for various ages, just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Rules of Thumb You Should Ignore
Today, I’m talking about the most common personal finance rule that I see, which is save 10% of your income for retirement.
The assumption that’s baked into this advice is that you start saving early in your career - usually your 20s or 30s. Many people don’t save that early, and it’s rare that I see someone saving 10% of their income at that age. People in their 20s and 30s usually have student loans to pay off, and even if they don’t their incomes are going disproportionately toward car payments, rent, and usually savings to buy a house.
You may only need to save 5% of your income for a comfortable retirement, or it could be 20% or more. If you plan to live a frugal retirement like many retirees today, even if you started saving later in life, you may still need to save less than 10% of your income.
The other reason why this rule of thumb isn’t really that useful for most people is that saving more when you’re close to retirement isn’t as important as working longer. If you’re close to retirement and not yet where you need to be financially to retire, then in almost all cases you’ll benefit much more by working a little longer than saving more.
Why? The benefits of working longer are multi-faceted. You’ll be able to delay social security. You’ll spend less time overall in retirement so your portfolio doesn’t have to provide income for as many years. You’ll often spend more time working in your peak earning years. There’s also health benefits to working longer. People who work longer, especially if you enjoy your work, tend to live longer as well and tend to be happier overall.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, CEO and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent advisory firm managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you envision.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Retirement Rules Of Thumb You Should Ignore. I’m going to dive into several commonly peddled rules of thumb about retirement. Sometimes the advice is right. Sometimes these rules of thumb are wrong.
According to wikipedia, a rule of thumb refers to a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. The downside of rules of thumb is that they are inherently flawed.
The upside is that they are easy to remember and apply, which is particularly important in managing your finances. I think that’s why rules of thumb seem to be exceptionally common in personal finance and investing.
Phrases like “buy low and sell high”, “pay yourself first”, and “save 3-6 months living expenses for emergencies” are so common, if I read one more personal finance article that mentions these rules of thumb, I think my head might explode. On the one hand I understand why rules of thumb are so common in personal finance. Most people are terrible with money, we’re not taught this stuff in school, and navigating your financial affairs without some helpful and easy-to-remember rules of thumb to assist would be impossible for too many of us.
On the other hand, rules of thumb in finance aren’t always helpful and aren’t always good advice. So this week, I’ll talk about a handful of rules of thumb, especially for those of you who are close to retirement that you might be better off ignoring, or at least adjusting to better suit your individual situation.
I look forward to spending this week with you, diving deeper into some common bits of advice about retirement, explaining the nuances and exceptions that are important to understand with these rules of thumb.
Come on back tomorrow where I’m going to discuss the most common retirement rule of thumb: Save 10% of your income for a comfortable retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast was: grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans.
Hopefully after listening to the podcast this week, you understand how much of an impact you can have in the financial lives of your grandchildren by being thoughtful and intentional about how you might support them financially with college. One of the best vehicles for doing that with big benefits for both you and your grandchild is the grandparent-owned 529 college savings plan.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- First we started with the basics of 529 plans and I explained why these are such a powerful tool for setting your grandchildren up on the right financial path as they enter adulthood
- Then we talked about the differences between parent-owned and grandparent owned 529 accounts and 6 big benefits of 529 accounts
- Finally over the last couple days, we discussed the latest rule changes with 529 plans owned by grandparents that made these a lot more attractive, especially for students' financial aid packages.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Retirement Rules Of Thumb You Should Ignore. I’ll talk about retirement rules of thumb you may have heard about or are using that you’re probably getting wrong. Even though on the surface it may seem like it’s making planning for retirement simpler and easier, using rules of thumb isn’t always a good idea. I’ll share with you which ones you’ll want to avoid next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans.
Today, I’m talking about the new rule for grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans that just made these plans more appealing for grandparents in 2021.
As I talked about yesterday, grandparent-owned 529 plans used to be problematic because distributions from 529s could have a big impact on financial aid, reducing the amount by as much as 50% of the amount of support provided. So if you contributed $20,000 from a 529 that year to help pay for college, that would reduce the student’s aid eligibility by ½ of that amount, or $10,000 in this case.
But the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, aka the FAFSA form, just had ⅔ of the questions removed, including the one that asked about cash gifts from grandparents. So now, starting in 2021 grandparents no longer have to worry about 529 plan distributions or any other support for their grandkids attending college impacting their eligibility for financial aid.
So if you’ve heard in the past that grandparent owned 529 plans are a bad idea, think again. The new changes to the FAFSA just made them a lot more appealing, especially for students who will still require some financial aid to help pay for college.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans.
Today, I’m talking about grandparent-owned 529 plans and financial aid for college, and the historical challenges that made these accounts less appealing for grandparents to own on behalf of their grandchildren.
That’s all changed now, but you may have heard that grandparent-owned 529 plans are a bad idea. That’s because money paid out from grandparent-owned 529 plans used to impact financial aid eligibility. A withdrawal from a grandparent-owned 529 account to pay for college could have reduced that student’s financial aid by 50% of the distribution amount. So if you used $20,000 from the 529 account to pay for college that year, financial aid amount would be reduced by half of that amount, or $10,000. Why? Because the withdrawal counted as untaxed income to the student and would show up the next time the FAFSA was filed for financial aid.
That wasn’t the case for parent owned 529 plans which were included as an asset on the FAFSA and were treated differently as a result. So grandparents had to get creative if the grandchild was applying for financial aid. This often involved waiting to disperse the funds from 529 plans until later in college years, or changing the account owner to the parent, but there were some potential tax consequences for that.
The point here is that you may have heard that grandparent-owned 529 plans were a bad idea. That’s not true, but the rules were clunky and unfair and they just changed this year...I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans.
Today, I’m talking about 6 big benefits of the grandparent-owned 529 plan:
- More experienced investors,
- more funds to contribute,
- legacy goals of helping a grandchild fund their education that may not be as important to parents
- control over how the account is invested
- can change beneficiaries to another grandchild if that child doesn’t go to college - more options than most parents - esp if you have 10 grandchildren
- Estate planning benefits with superfunding
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans.
Today, I’m talking about grandparent-owned vs. parent-owned 529 plans. A good place to start with explaining the important differences between the 2 is to look at how these accounts are set up. When you set up a 529 college savings plan, there is an account owner and a beneficiary. The 529 plans that I have for my kids are titled with my name, then for the benefit of...my child. I have one set up for each of my children.
The 529 plans for my kids are set up as parent-owned 529 plans. Most of the 529 plans that I see are parent-owned, but I think grandparents miss an important opportunity to help support their grandchildren pay for college if they don’t establish a grandparent-owned 529 plan for their grandchildren.
Tomorrow, I am going to dive into 6 big benefits of the grandparent owned 529 plan, but for today, I just want to explain the primary difference between the 2 accounts. There used to be more differences in how parent vs. grandparent owned 529 plans were used for determining financial aid eligibility, but some recent law changes leveled the playing field making 529 plans more attractive for grandparents to own.
A blog post by Wayne Johnson summarizes this best: “as account owner, a grandparent can retain some measure of control over his or her contributions by changing investment selections, authorizing account withdrawals for both education and non-education purposes, or even closing the account. A grandparent will have this control over these contributions even though they generally aren’t considered part of his or her estate for tax purposes — a rare advantage in the estate planning world.”
That’s a pretty compelling reason to consider opening a grandparent-owned 529 plan. But just remember, the only difference is the account owner, which trickles down to control over investments, withdrawals, & changing beneficiaries.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans.
Today, I’m talking about the basics of 529 plans so you understand the benefits of these plans and why you may want to contribute them as a way to save for college.
College is expensive, and if you pay attention to the news there are a constant stream of stories about mounting student loan debt, defaults, and the ever-increasing cost of college that make it much harder for young adults entering the workforce after college to buy a house and save for retirement, because they’re saddled with lots of debt.
To avoid burdening their children and grandchildren with student loans that can take years and even decades to pay off, many parents and grandparents want to help pay for college. Enter the 529 college savings plan.
A 529 plan is a type of account where the money inside is earmarked for college expenses - this can be tuition, room and board, and other college costs. The types of educational expenses that 529 plans can be used for are actually quite broad, but the important thing to remember is that the money is meant to be used for education expenses. If it’s used for something else, you’ll get taxed and penalized.
With that in mind, here are the 2 most important basics you should know about a 529 college savings plan.
- High contribution limits. You can contribute up to $15,000 into a 529 plan in 2021 per beneficiary, and twice that if you’re married. That means that if you’re married and you have 3 grandchildren, you can save up to $90,000 this year for your grandkids college - $30,000 for each grandchild.
You can actually contribute more than this by making a lump-sum contribution to the 529 plan - it’s known as superfunding a 529 plan, but you’ll want to do your homework so you don’t make any tax blunders or miss opportunities to max out your 529 contributions.
High contribution limits are great for estate planning purposes, gifting to your grandchildren in a tax-efficient way, and making up for lost time if you’re starting a 529 plan in the middle school or high school years.
- Tax-free growth. Another important characteristic of 529 plans is that once the money is inside the 529 plan, the money can grow tax free, and as long as the funds in the 529 are used for qualified education expenses, there is no tax when you take the money out. The sooner you establish and fund the 529 in the child’s life, the more time is on your side to have the money grow tax-free, and the less you’ll have to contribute to the plan in the long-run.
Those are the 2 most important features to know about the 529 plan. There are several other important features to know about 529 plans - like anyone can contribute to these plans, and they’re highly flexible - so even if the beneficiary doesn’t go to college you can still use the funds for something else or someone else in the future.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, CEO and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent advisory firm managing $300 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, a frequent speaker, radio and podcast guest, and I love talking to anyone who will listen about making a plan for the retirement you deserve, including you, my beloved listeners.
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Grandparent-owned 529 plans
There are some recent rule changes that just made grand-nt-owned 529 plans more attractive for grandparents to help save for their grandkids’ college, and make this week’s theme very timely - especially if you have grandkids who are babies all the way up to pre-teen.
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going to dive into 529 college savings plans and what you need to know as a grandparent if you want to help fund your grandkids college.
Which I might add is a very noble and common goal. It’s an amazing way to help your loved ones avoid the burden of student loans and get them off to a great start in adulthood with a quality education. Helping to pay for grandkids college is a common goal among my clients. Your children and grandchildren will no doubt appreciate not starting life burdened with massive student loans, and your gift will pay off in often unexpected ways throughout their life.
I’ll talk about the basics of 529 plans, the differences between parent-owned and grandparent-owned 529 college savings plans, 6 big benefits of grandparent-owned 529 plans, and importantly...the new rule that just made grandparent-owned 529 plans more attractive than ever.
I look forward to spending this week with you learning more about 529 plans, and I hope you’ll come back tomorrow where I’m going to lay the groundwork for the rest of the week by talking about 529 basics and what makes these investment accounts such a powerful tool for saving for the ever-increasing cost of college.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The problem with the big financial institution bigwigs, which is that their advice is often just too watered down
- Then we talked about the question you should always ask, which is what is this person trying to sell me. It’s always something, and it could be as simple as wanting you to spend more time watching their show or their videos. There is always an agenda, which doesn’t mean that you should dismiss everything you hear, it just means you need to be guarded and discerning in accepting the advice that’s doled out.
- After that, we talked about personal finance red flags - the use of the words never and always. Personal finance is so gray, that in your situations and circumstances, you may want to do the thing that you’re never supposed to do, or you may not be better off doing the thing that you’re told you should always do.
- Then, over the last 2 days, I talked about how classic personal finance books are my favorite place to consume financial information, and how you need at least one competent, trustworthy, and most importantly, accountable person to get your advice from.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you have better tools for being discriminating in how you consume financial media and the advice from experts.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: grandparent owned 529s the new rule you need to know. I’ll talk about a recent change to the laws for 529 college savings plans that make them more attractive to open and fund if you’re a grandparent. Help those favorite rugrats of yours pay for a 6-figure college bill. I’ll share with you this new rule and how to take advantage of it next week.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
One of the main problems with financial experts that I haven’t yet discussed this week is that there is no accountability for their bad advice. What do they care if you sold your entire 401k to buy GameStop stock at the top? There is no connection between their bad advice and the consequences of that advice. They’ll never even know that you took their bad advice and blew up your future with it.
So the best place to get your financial advice then is where there is accountability. And that’s what I’m talking about in today’s episode - the best place to get your financial advice.
And that’s me!
You can take advice and recommendations for someone who doesn’t know you and isn’t accountable to their bad advice, but only after you run it through the filter of another trusted person.
This could be your actual financial advisor. If you have one who is competent, who knows you, and who you trust, that should be your first phone call or email when you want to take action on any harebrained ideas you got while watching late night TV.
If you don’t have a financial advisor, maybe you have someone else in your life who is qualified and competent and who knows you. Maybe your friends with an advisor or your best friend is pretty savvy with these kinds of things. Taking financial advice from other people is not recommended, because most people are clueless of all the unintended consequences of their advice, but they’re happy to give it out anyways. But, most of us have at least one people in our lives who is competent, trustworthy, and accountable to the advice they give to you.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
So far this week I’ve been talking about the problems with the financial experts and why you should generally not take advice from people you see on TV. That advice usually carries an agenda with it and more often than not it’s either too biased or too watered down to be useful.
Today, I’m turning to my favorite trusted resources for financial advice...and that’s books. If you take nothing else away from this week’s episodes, I hope it’s to read more and watch less TV if you want to improve your finances and make better decisions about money.
There are so many great personal finance books out there, so it’s impossible to list them here, but I would encourage you to start where you are most interested or where you need the most help.
If you have too much debt, then I recommend “Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. If you struggle with materialism and keeping up with the Joneses, then “The Millionaire Next Door” is the book for you. My dad recently gifted me “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel, a book containing timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. I’m looking forward to diving into that one.
If you stick with the personal finance classics, you’ll be able to use those finance experts to your advantage and level-up your knowledge and confidence with your money.
That’s it for today. But in case you missed this week’s earlier episodes, I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! Questions about your retirement, inflation, can you afford to retire this year, should you pay off your house before retirement...whatever is weighing on your mind about your money right now, submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
Today, I’m talking about 2 words in financial advice that are red flags to watch for if you’re going to take advice from someone in the media or something you watched on YouTube. Those 2 red flags are “never” and “always”. In the world of financial advice, watch out for never and always.
2 extremes that in the world of financial advice usually don’t apply. Always save at least 10% of your income. Never use credit cards. These are common pieces of advice, and I could list many more just like it, but in the world of financial advice, there is always a gray area. Never buy whole life insurance. Always wait as long as possible to start social security.
These statements may be true for some people, but they’re certainly not true for everyone, and I can provide several scenarios for each of those examples above why you would want to save less than 10% of your income, why you should use your credit cards, buy whole life insurance, and start social security as soon as possible.
My point here is that the advice giver usually sounds very confident in their opinion, they’re usually angry at the other side (those crooked insurance salesman trying to sell you whole life), but that in itself is a sales tactic. If you can whip people into a frenzy and get them to think that you’re fighting for them, watching out for them, protecting them from the big, bad enemy, it’s a powerful and proven sales tactic.
Hitler did this quite well with devastating consequences.
So be careful about blanket financial advice that contains the red flag words always and never. It’s never that simple because there’s always a gray area when it comes to financial matters.
That’s it for today, but before you go, I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! What’s weighing most heavily on your mind right now as you approach retirement? Submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and even if I don’t pick your question to answer on the podcast, I’ll do my best to reply and send you an answer anyway.
Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
Today, I am talking about the question you should always ask yourself whenever you are going to listen to someone in the media - TV, print, YouTube, etc. Whenever you are going to take advice from someone who doesn’t know you, it’s critical that you’re not a passive absorber and consumer of the information. Many in the media are very adept at stirring up your emotions, especially fear, and getting you to react.
Remember: someone is always trying to get you to buy something. Even if it’s just buying your time by getting you to watch their program tomorrow night and the night after that. I stopped watching TV financial news years ago, because the writers and hosts are very talented, and I found myself getting dragged down into fear, anger, and paranoia. And I wasn’t even watching political news. This was standard financial markets stuff.
So you’ll want to always be alert, especially when watching TV. Frankly, I would avoid TV as much as possible, because it’s so much easier to just take what you hear as gospel, not questioning it. On the other hand, when you read something, you are taking a more active role.
But regardless of the form of media where someone is disseminating financial advice, you should always be a little skeptical and always ask: what is this person trying to sell me? If I take their advice, how will it benefit them? The more connected they are to the benefit of you taking their advice (i.e. buying an annuity that they’re offering with their newsletter subscription or free report), the more skeptical you’ll want to be about their motives for providing the best advice, especially when they don’t know you.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
Today, I’m talking about the problem with taking advice from big financial institution bigwigs. These experts are often showcased on national TV programs and they carry titles like chief investment officer. They’re bright and articulate, but the problem with this type of advice from people who work at large financial institutions is that it is often so generic and so watered down that it ceases to have any value.
Big financial companies tend to have very grumpy compliance officers and attorneys who are waiting to pounce as soon as the bigwig in question slips up and says something off the cuff.
I used to work for these big financial institutions. For the first decade of my career I had to get compliance approval every time I sneezed. These companies need to keep their name in front of you, so they are eager to weigh in on CNBC or be quoted in the Wall Street Journal, and they are usually worth listening to...if they would only share their ACTUAL opinion on something, not parrot the talking points that their compliance department told them to say.
So I think if you can’t pin these bigwigs down on anything and they stay in the middle lane, saying things like “Well on the one hand, you could...and on the other hand you could…”, then I don’t think it’s worth it to take their advice.
That’s it for today, but before you go I need your help. I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! What’s weighing most heavily on your mind right now as you approach retirement? Submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and even if I don’t pick your question to answer on the podcast, I’ll do my best to reply and send you an answer.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: the problem with financial experts.
I’m talking about some of the challenges of taking advice from TV personalities, chief investment strategists at large financial institutions, the newspaper article you read this morning, the radio show host who tells you to buy gold, and other so-called experts.
Financial advice is so prevalent...heck, you’re listening to it right now. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are constantly exposed to financial advice. That advice isn’t always bad, but there’s most often an ulterior motive - the dispenser of that advice is usually trying to sell you something - whether it’s ratings or keeping you coming back tomorrow night to watch your favorite financial news program, or some type of financial product or service, the advice you receive should always be taken with a grain of salt.
Even if the dispenser of that advice isn’t doing anything nefarious, their biases will naturally creep into their advice.
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going to dive deeply into the problems with some of the biggest offenders of giving bad financial advice, and I’ll share with you some great places to look for financial advice instead.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I want to share with you a weekly theme I have planned and I need your help. It’s “ask me anything” week. Submit your question about retirement to me, and if I pick your question, I’ll read it and answer it on the podcast.
- What’s weighing most heavily on your mind as you approach retirement?
- What obstacles are keeping you from where you want to be?
- Even if you just want my crystal ball predictions on inflation, the stock market, or interest rates, I’ll put my magic merlin hat on and answer your burning questions
Just send me an email: ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
Otherwise known as the 4 L’s of retirement, longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy, provide a useful framework for prioritizing your retirement goals, your income needs and how you will spend your time and money in retirement.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you’re better equipped to plan for your spending in retirement, and you have a greater understanding for the proper attention that each of these categories will require in the retirement planning process.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
And if you want a free worksheet based on the 4 L’s of retirement, just send me an email and I’ll send you the pdf worksheet - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
This simple, one-page worksheet will help you brainstorm your own retirement goals and priorities as they relate to longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy, and allow you to see how they all fit together on one page to form a cohesive strategy.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The problem with financial experts. There’s a problem with the experts that are interviewed on your favorite business programs, the chief investment officer at the big bank financial institution, and the YouTube creator who is peddling a course or a newsletter subscription. I’ll explain what I mean and why you want to be cautious about so-called financial experts (even me!) in next week’s podcast.
And if you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - head over to YouTube and subscribe. I post new videos on Sundays, and each video is aimed at helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement... if you’re enjoying the podcast, I know you’ll love the YouTube videos as well.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
What are these 4 things? They’re known as the 4 L’s of retirement and the concept was developed by retirement researcher, Dr. Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. So far this week, I’ve talked about each of these 4 factors individually. Today, we’re bringing it all together to look at how they are all different parts of the same body. Each is critical on its own, but these 4 factors for retirement success also work together to form the whole picture of your retirement needs and goals.
Thinking about your own retirement with the 4 L’s in mind allows you to build a foundation that guides you toward prioritizing these 4 goals in your life.
If you want a free worksheet based on the 4 L’s of retirement, just send me an email and I’ll send you the worksheet - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
This simple, one-page worksheet will help you brainstorm your own retirement goals and priorities as they relate to longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy, and allow you to see how they all fit together to form a cohesive strategy.
Link to worksheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FUv1csK_Hu5-6UxhTZcM0UvgJ7NKYABd/view?usp=sharing
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
What are these 4 things? They’re known as the 4 L’s of retirement and the concept was developed by retirement researcher, Dr. Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Today, we’re wrapping up with legacy.
Legacy is all about what happens with your money after you’re gone. The wealthier you are, the more this goal tends to work it’s way into your plan for retirement because you’re more likely to have discretionary assets to give, but legacy is something that everyone should think about as they plan for retirement.
If you plan well, you’ll likely have money left over when you pass from this world, which means you’ll want to decide who will get what and what additional impact you want to have on your community, church, and other charities that you care about.
I have yet to have a client spend his or her last dollar on the day he or she kicked the bucket, so you’ll want to think about the legacy you’ll want to leave behind, and importantly, I challenge you to give while you’re still living. Giving in a significant way while you’re still living can help you to have a healthier relationship with your money, and not hold on so tightly to your assets and wealth. And you’ll get to see the impact of your legacy by giving in a meaningful way while you’re still alive.
Maybe you want to work into your retirement spending goals, a monthly or annual contribution to charities. It’s important that you think about this and plan for your legacy and giving goals in advance, so you can give in a tax efficient way. Haphazard giving is usually stupid giving when it comes to tax planning, and there are easy ways to minimize your taxes with your giving. Just one example is giving directly from your IRA to satisfy your required minimum distributions in retirement, or setting up a donor-advised fund. Both of these simple strategies can have major tax-saving benefits.
That’s it for today. But in case you missed this week’s earlier episodes, I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! Questions about your retirement, inflation, can you afford to retire this year, should you pay off your house before retirement...whatever is weighing on your mind about your money right now, submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
What are these 4 things? They’re known as the 4 L’s of retirement and the concept was developed by retirement researcher, Dr. Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Today, we’re focusing on liquidity.
Liquidity is all about maintaining an emergency fund and extra savings that are set aside for emergencies and other curve balls that will inevitably come your way in retirement. This could include supporting elderly parents when you didn’t plan on doing so, a house fire, flood, or lawsuit, or absorbing the impact of an unexpected death or disability.
According to the creator of the concept of the 4 L’s, Dr. Wade Pfau, “Such assets [for emergencies] must not be earmarked for other goals, as unexpected contingencies relate to anything falling outside of the planned retirement budget.”
So while most of planning for retirement is about planning for what you expect to happen, the plan can go sideways pretty quickly when the unexpected happens, which is why it’s so important to maintain cash, so you can cover most of those inevitable unexpected events that will come up during your 20-30+ year retirement.
There are no guarantees in life. And that’s the hardest part of planning for retirement, but that doesn’t mean it’s futile. It just means you’ll need to have enough of a cushion, that’s liquid enough to provide for those emergencies.
The other challenging part about this is we don’t know anything about how much we’ll need to unexpected expenditures. You might have $50,000 or $500,000 of unexpected expenses in retirement.
With all that in mind, how much should you have set aside in cash to cover your liquidity needs in retirement. Too much in cash can drag down the overall returns of your portfolio, but too little in cash can cause you to sell assets, perhaps at the worst time.
Ideally, my recommendation to clients is to have enough cash on hand to cover their basic needs for 6 months. So if your basic spending needs are $3,000 a month, you’ll need $18,000 in cash on hand. In addition to that, I recommend another 12 months of your portfolio withdrawals in cash to cover those big emergencies and allow you to stop your portfolio withdrawals if the stock market and your portfolio take a nose dive. Notice I said portfolio withdrawals, not your total monthly expenses. So if you withdraw $2,000 a month from your portfolio, you’ll need another $24,000 cash on hand.
That’s it for today, but before you go, I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! What’s weighing most heavily on your mind right now as you approach retirement? Submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and even if I don’t pick your question to answer on the podcast, I’ll do my best to reply and send you an answer anyway.
Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
What are these 4 things? They’re known as the 4 L’s of retirement and the concept was developed by retirement researcher, Dr. Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Today, we’re focusing on lifestyle.
Now that we’ve addressed your basic needs with the longevity and understanding the importance of sustaining your essential expenses in retirement, and you are confident that you won’t run out of money to cover your basic needs in retirement, we get to the fun part!
Lifestyle goals in retirement are all about how you want to live your life, and they tend to be more discretionary in nature.
What are your travel plans? If you live in the northern half of the U.S. like me, you may be dreaming of spending the winter months of retirement somewhere warm and sunny. Or maybe you just want to be able to visit the places and new experiences that come with a travel budget of $10,000 a year.
Travel is probably the most common non-essential lifestyle spending goal I see among my clients, but the list of lifestyle spending (aka discretionary spending) goals in retirement is quite long and varied. Some other common examples are:
Buying a new car every few years, paying for a large one-time expense like a wedding or a home remodel, buying a 2nd home, a boat, or an RV, starting a business, setting up and funding college savings accounts for grandchildren, helping a child with their first home purchase, or funding hobbies like a golf club membership or dues for your speed knitting league.
What you’ll want to do with each of these discretionary spending goals is add it to your overall spending plan and see if it pencils out.
It’s easier to plan for the regular lifestyle goals like monthly dues for a membership, but it’s much more challenging to plan for a large one-time expense like a home remodel. Can you afford to withdraw $100,000 for a major home remodel 5 years into retirement? Maybe, maybe not? It depends on the size of your portfolio, how much you’re withdrawing from your portfolio for your other income needs that year, and frankly, the unpredictable ups and downs of the stock market...because even if you plan to take a withdrawal for a large one-time purchase, you may either need to set aside the amount you need in cash gradually, or you may need to delay that remodel if your portfolio takes a hit because of a drop in the stock market. You don’t want to make the problem much worse by piling on to that loss with a large withdrawal.
So think about your lifestyle retirement goals as the goals that help you enjoy retirement and add that spice and fun to life that we all desire. What do you want to do in your retirement years? How do you want to spend your time and money? And most importantly, can your income sources and your retirement portfolio support those lifestyle goals.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is: Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
What are these 4 things? They’re known as the 4 L’s of retirement and the concept was developed by retirement researcher, Dr. Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Today, we’re focusing on longevity.
Longevity goals are all about making sure that your basic needs are covered in retirement, so you don’t run out of money or become a financial burden to others. It’s possible and even likely, that you’ll spend 30+ years in retirement, so you need to make your money last.
Thinking about your retirement in terms of longevity addresses that concern. Do you have enough in assets to cover your basic needs for 30+ years in retirement. Will you be able to pay for housing, health care, and basic living expenses with your retirement nest egg?
Will your portfolio and other sources of income adequately address your longevity needs and your basic living needs in retirement?
It’s also very important to consider how your portfolio and how it’s invested will be able to go the distance for you in retirement. It’s critical that you can keep up with inflation, which will take a significant toll over a 30+ year retirement. And that usually means having an investment strategy that can continue to grow for you while providing for your basic living needs.
If you’re most concerned with providing for your basic needs in retirement and not running out of money, then the longevity goal will likely take priority in your plan for retirement and your spending decisions.
That’s it for today, but before you go I need your help. I’m planning an upcoming weekly theme on the podcast of “ask me anything”! What’s weighing most heavily on your mind right now as you approach retirement? Submit your question to me, I’ll pick 5 of my favorites, and answer them on the podcast. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and even if I don’t pick your question to answer on the podcast, I’ll do my best to reply and send you an answer.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is Get These 4 Things Right For A Successful Retirement.
If you’re searching for how to set yourself up for a successful retirement, it’s important to understand and give pride of place to these 4 factors: longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. This concept, known as the 4 L’s of retirement, was developed by the well-known industry author and retirement researcher, Dr. Wade Pfau.
The purpose of the 4 L’s is to help you understand how these interrelated factors influence your decisions about how you spend your money, your time, and how you invest your money in retirement.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week’s podcast episodes better able to think about your own retirement goals as they relate to these 4 things you’ll want to pay attention to as you approach and transition into retirement.
So I’ll devote each day this week to breaking down one of these retirement success factors, and at the end of the week, I’ll share with you how you can bring it all together with a free worksheet from Wade Pfau and his team.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I want to share with you a weekly theme I have planned and I need your help. It’s “ask me anything” week. Submit your question about retirement to me, and if I pick your question, I’ll read it and answer it on the podcast.
- What’s weighing most heavily on your mind as you approach retirement?
- What obstacles are keeping you from where you want to be?
- Even if you just want my crystal ball predictions on inflation, the stock market, or interest rates, I’ll put my magic merlin hat on and answer your burning questions
Just send me an email: ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, we explored the question: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
In case you missed it, here’s what we covered this week:
- What is a value stock?
- Growth vs. value stocks - over the last 10 years, we’ve seen the widest gap on record in the outperformance of growth compared to value stocks.
- Then we looked at why value stocks may be making a comeback now
- And why you may want to rotate out of your growth stocks and into more value stocks, especially if you’re near retirement and worried about inflation
- And yesterday, I shared with you my recommendation for value stocks and their place in your portfolio.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you aren’t blindly drinking the big tech stock kool-aid, like so many investors are today. Who wouldn’t want to jump on annualized returns of 14% over the last 10 years, right? Well, maybe not you if the favor and fundamentals are shifting back to value stocks.
Many high-quality value stocks are undervalued even as the stock market hovers around it’s all time highs.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: The 4 L’s of Retirement: Longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, legacy. I’ll talk about why balancing these 4 factors will help you make smart decisions that are consistent with your goals and values in order to bring more satisfaction to your retirement years.
And if you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - head over to YouTube and subscribe. I post a new video on Sundays, and each video is aimed at helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement. Last month, the channel hit 500 subscribers, which is still teeny tiny, but very exciting...so if you’re enjoying the podcast, I know you’ll love the YouTube videos as well.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m exploring the question: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
Today, I’m talking about why I like value stocks more than growth stocks right now and in the years to come.
Value stocks have been unloved and have underperformed in this new big tech age that has emerged over the last decade. But one important characteristic of many value stocks is that they pay dividends. Many growth stocks don’t. Their businesses are still new and they use all of their profits and cash to reinvest in the business and help to fuel future growth rather than returning that growth to shareholders in the form of dividends.
Value stocks are different, because they tend to be more established and mature businesses. No longer in their explosive growth phase, they have elected to return cash to shareholders in the form of dividends. This is a good thing. If a company can balance reinvesting in the business with sending profits to shareholders through dividends, it’s a win-win, because you’re likely to see the stock price increase over time as the business grows, all the while you’re getting paid every year from dividends.
High-quality dividend paying value stocks have chronically underperformed over the last 10 years, it’s quite possibly the most compelling time to be investing in value stocks, and capture the consistent and growing dividend income stream that these stocks provide.
I have always been a fan of high-quality dividend paying stocks as the foundation for any investor’s portfolio. And with everything but high-flying big tech being largely ignored and left behind over the last 10 years, the valuations of these companies are priced right.
Today you can buy quality stocks with all of the important fundamental elements:
- Low debt
- Strong cash flow
- Consistent profitability
- Dominant businesses in their industry
- Well-managed
- Pricing power to increase prices if inflation hits without losing customers
It’s a powerful recipe for building wealth by owning great businesses, and many of these companies are trading at a discount to their intrinsic value today.
Even with the stock market at new all-time highs, I truly believe now is the time to be backing up the truck and loading up with high quality dividend paying value stocks.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m exploring the question: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
Today, I’m talking about why value stocks are especially attractive for those of you who are close to retirement. If you’re needing to turn on an income stream from your portfolio and you’re worried about all the inflation headlines plastered all over the news, value stocks are the way to go.
If we have inflation and higher interest rates, I would expect value companies to do very well in that environment. Most high-quality value stocks are characterized by the following:
- Low debt
- Strong cash flow
- Consistent profitability
- Dominant businesses in their industry
- Well-managed
- Pricing power to increase prices if inflation hits without losing customers
When a business has low debt and pricing power to increase prices without hurting their bottom line, like many value stocks have, the company can weather the inflation impact. When they have low debt, their interest and debt service costs won’t skyrocket and endanger the business when rates start increasing.
As a result, high-quality value stocks will be even more attractive to invest in if inflation and higher interest rates kick in, which is a trend that appears to already be underway.
The bottom line is that if you’re close to retirement and worried about inflation, you’re definitely going to want to own a substantial part of your retirement portfolio in high-quality value stocks.
I’ll talk more tomorrow about the dividend component of value stocks that make them especially attractive investments for retirees.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m exploring the question: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
Today, I’m stating my case for value stocks. The S&P 500 is nearing 4,200 as I write this, and tech companies now make up 27% of the S&P 500 index. When just a handful of companies make up most of the entire tech industry in terms of size and influence over the returns of that sector, your portfolio is heavily influenced by the returns of just a handful of big tech companies, because tech now represents a disproportionate % of the total stock market.
If you’ve been an investor of the S&P 500 index or had a lot of your portfolio in large cap growth and tech, you’ve been a happy investor for the last 10 years.
But I think that may soon begin to change. Here’s the thing. The returns in growth stocks have been so steller, many of them are now at or above, many even far above their intrinsic value, and value stocks have started to become more loved as their recent outperformance compared to growth stocks has demonstrated.
Researchers over at Vanguard recently published a paper on this topic. They think that value stocks will outperform growth stocks by 5-7% per year in the coming decade. And much of that outperformance they see coming in the next 3-5 years, with value outperforming growth by 9-13% per year.
Why the reversal? Part of the reason is what I talked about already this week - the reversion to the mean or a return to normalcy in the balance in returns between growth and value stocks over time.
The thesis for value stocks is typically something like this:
Buy quality businesses, with low debt, who are dominant in their industry. If that industry has barriers to entry and the business has pricing power and the flexibility to raise prices, all the better. Value companies tend to be consistently profitable and well-managed. Once you can check all those boxes AND the stock is trading at a discount to its intrinsic value, then you have a winning formula for a quality value stock.
Stock market returns haven’t rewarded these fundamental factors that drive business and stock price value. The only thing investors have cared about is the future growth potential of the business, without discerning all of the factors that are important to consider when investing.
And that’s why I think Vanguard researchers may be right in theorizing that value will outperform growth over the coming decade. Value stocks have been largely ignored, all the while, they’ve been strengthening their companies, without being rewarded in the stock price.
That’s why I’m optimistic and excited for value stock investing to make a comeback.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m exploring the question: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
Today, I’m talking about how growth stocks have absolutely pummelled value stocks over the last decade, and why you should pay attention to that.
About 7 years ago, my dad started assistant coaching girls varsity basketball at this new high school. He has been coaching basketball for 40 years and he and the head coach were both good, experienced coaches. The problem was that the high school was pretty small...so small in fact that they had trouble just getting enough girls for a full varsity roster. If you had a pulse you were heavily recruited. I’m pretty sure their starting point guard was an 8th grader. In their first few seasons they lost every game. My dad really wanted me to come see one of their games, so I went one night and painfully sat through this other team just wallop these girls. At halftime the score was 50 to 5. I’m sure you’ve sat through youth sports games like that before. It’s hard to watch.
Well the same has been true for value stocks compared to growth stocks over the last decade. The difference is performance of growth stocks vs. value stocks has been astounding...according to Morningstar, it’s the widest performance gap on record. Large growth averaged 14.66% returns per year in the 10 years through the end of 2020. Over that same time period, growth stocks averaged a 9.4% annual return.
If you invested $100,000 into large cap growth stocks in those 10 years, it would have grown to $392,000. By investing in value stocks, you would have about $246,000. Nearly $150,000 less over the last 10 years.
There are quite a few reasons why growth stocks have outperformed value stocks over the last 10 years, but what happened last year during Covid was the most telling. Believe it or not, just a handful of the biggest tech companies are responsible for the vast majority of that outperformance in growth stocks over value. Think of it as a winner take all situation where just a few of the biggest tech giants - Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix - were responsible for most of the outperformance.
Most people believe that tech will still be the place to be for the next 10 years, but that kind of thinking is dangerous. There is always a reversion to the mean..in other words, tech will not outperform forever. Value will make a comeback at some point. It’s inevitable. The market hasn’t cared about quality and value for the last 10 years. I don’t mean to say that the big tech names aren’t quality businesses. They are. But the market will one day start appreciating attractively valued, consistently profitable, strong businesses with low debt and rewarding these companies with stronger share price growth that is more in line with the intrinsic value of the business.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about why I think that time is coming sooner rather than later.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m exploring the question: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
Today, I’m laying the groundwork for this week’s value stock discussion by making sure that you understand what a value stock is and how it’s different from a growth stock.
Value stocks are those companies where the intrinsic value is more than where the stock is trading for today. For example, when you watch all those flipping house shows on TV, the buyer is looking to find a house that’s selling for less than what it’s actually worth. The difference is with stocks, you usually can’t flip your value stock right away for a profit, but you don’t have to demo the kitchen either.
Intrinsic value is a measure of what an asset or a business is worth. When figuring out intrinsic value, it’s usually done by an objective calculation or financial modeling, and it’s not based on the current price of the stock.
A stock is a value stock then if it’s currently trading for $100 a share, but it’s intrinsic value is much higher, say $120 or $150 a share. Warren Buffett is the world’s most famous value investor. He only buys businesses that he thinks are worth much more than their current selling price. And this isn’t just a hunch or a wild guess. His instincts are certainly important, otherwise everyone would be able to replicate his methods and there would be many more billionaire investors. But it’s his disciplined approach in investing in quality businesses that are trading at attractive valuations relative to their real, intrinsic worth that has made Warren Buffett perennially one of the wealthiest people in the world.
When you understand value, it’s a bit easier to understand the other side of the coin - growth. Growth companies may be trading at or more than their intrinsic value. But you’re anticipating that the company will continue to grow revenues, cash flow, and future profits, so even though it’s not a bargain price business right now, by investing in it, you’re counting on the future growth of the business and the future potential to make money in the business.
Growth stocks have been the place to for the last decade, and I’ll dive more into that tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
“Technology shares led the broader market lower on Monday as investors dumped high-flying Big Tech stocks, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 off their record highs.”
That was the headline I came across the day I sat down to write my talking points for this week’s podcast episodes.
The article goes on to say: “Investors rotated out of growth names, resuming a trend seen earlier this year amid rising fears of inflation and higher interest rates. Facebook dropped more than 4%, while Amazon and Netflix both dropped over 3%. Alphabet [aka google] dipped more than 2% after a downgrade by Citigroup.”
I’ve been telling clients for years that I think growth stocks are too expensive and overdue for a pullback. Never was I more wrong than in 2020, when the pandemic fueled further growth in the high-flying big tech names, as you and I stayed home and relied on Netflix, GrubHub, and Zoom and technology became essential to daily living.
Our stuck-at-home lifestyles fueled eye-popping growth in the biggest tech stocks in 2020. Apple and Amazon stocks were both up around 80% last year. Netflix was up 70%. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which was up ONLY 43% in 2020.
But as we’ve seen over and over again, it’s not unusual for the darlings of Wall Street to fall, even when it seems they’ll keep going up in value forever.
Will 2021 be the year I am finally right after being wrong about growth stocks for the last 5+ years? Will value stocks finally catch up to their growth stock cousins and start performing more in line with their historical norms?
We’ll explore these questions and more in this week’s theme: Are Value Stocks Coming Back In 2021?
That’s it for today. But before you go, I have a special treat for you. There’s still one more day to sign up for our virtual education event via Zoom - tomorrow night, Tuesday May 25th at 6:30pm (PST).
This event, “Investing in Uncertain Times”, features guest speaker Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. Chad is a regular on various media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, & The Wall Street Journal.
Investing in uncertain times is certainly a timely topic right now! You’ll hear Chad’s perspective on investing and what he’s learned over the years managing nearly $9 billion in assets.
The event is free and you can register by going to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, we performed a financial checkup.We looked at your progress toward your retirement goals, your budget, spending, your will and estate plan, your debt and your cash. These are the key areas to assess, and I recommend doing a review of everything once a year. Take inventory and do your best to assess your current financial situation objectively.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you know what areas to focus on and what questions to ask yourself to keep you on track or get back on track so you can make progress toward your goals and keep your eyes on the prize.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: Is value better than growth in 2021? Growth and big tech stocks have outperformed value stocks for years! If you’ve been invested in the big growth companies, especially big tech, you’ve been loving your returns. But the tide may be turning, and no one is talking about it. So next week, I’ll talk about why I think the recent outperformance in value stocks is worth paying attention to and may continue through 2021 and beyond.
And if you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - head over to YouTube and subscribe. I post a new video on Sundays, and each video is aimed at helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement. Last months, the channel hit 500 subscribers, which is still teeny tiny, but very exciting...so if you’re enjoying the podcast, I know you’ll love the YouTube videos as well.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
One of my favorite books growing up was goldilocks and the three bears. I still have a goldilocks book that my mom held on to and gave back to me when I have kids. It sits on the bookshelf in my daughter’s room, and it even still has remnants of an egg salad sandwich (another childhood favorite of mine), circa 1990.
If you recall from the goldilocks story, everything she tried after she burgled the poor bears’ home was either too big, too small, too hot, too cold. Except for baby bear’s things, which were just right.
The same is true for your cash and emergency savings. I often see people with either way too much cash earning pennies of interest in the bank, or way too little in cash, and they’re among the 40% of Americans who cannot cover a $400 emergency without putting it on a high interest rate credit card.
This week on the podcast, we’re doing an annual financial physical. Today, I’m talking about reviewing your cash and emergency savings. And frankly, I wish I had some more groundbreaking advice here. I don’t. The classic advise you hear from almost all personal finance experts is the same for a reason. It’s because it’s really good advice.
Hold 3-6 months worth of your income in cash to guard against financial emergencies, and earmark any additional cash you might need to any known upcoming purchases - maybe a daughter’s wedding, or if you’re me, that sweet Honda Odyssey that I needed to buy last summer when baby #3 was on the way. I’m officially very uncool driving around in my minivan, but I really do love it. And when it’s just me and the baby, it’s time for a little Dr. Dre, so I can still live in the delusion that I might still be cool, while driving to pick up my other 2 kids from school.
I sympathize with violaters of this rule. I like the security of holding cash, so I usually have too much on hand. So you know, do as I say, not as I do with this one. However, I like paying cash for everything, so I tend to hold more to give me the flexibility to do that.
But holding too much cash is causing you (and me) to lose money. Even with inflation still low, that cash you have sitting in the bank is not earning enough to keep up with inflation and you’re losing money in real terms.
So make sure you’re not hoarding cash, which is a common temptation I see among people who are closer to retirement and have a good income stream and assets.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, it’s time for a financial checkup. I’m helping you take stock of your assets, debt, expenses, and your estate, to help you catch the cancer in your finances before it spreads.
Today, I’m talking about debt. Oh, debt. You know most people think that debt is the problem. It’s not the root of the problem though. The root of the problem when you have too much debt is that you spend too much and save too little.
That may be an unpopular thing to say, but it’s true. I know people making $50,000 a year with zero debt who live well within their means, and other people making $500,000 a year with debt up to their eyeballs.
When you’re doing your annual financial physical, taking stock of your debt is critical to knowing where you’re at today and how you’re going to get debt-free.
Start by listing all of your debts:
- Name of the debt (i.e. credit card, car loan, mortgage, etc)
- Amount owed
- Interest rate
- Months or years left on the debt
Once you’ve taken inventory of your debt, you can make a plan of which debts to tackle first, set a target payoff date, etc. Did you debt increase or decrease over the last year? If it increased, why did that happen? You want to objectively assess your debt situation, especially if your debt grew, to determined why you’re in the position you’re in today.
But first, just take inventory and go from there.
That’s it for today, but before you go, I just wanted to remind you one last time this week that I’m hosting a virtual education event on Tuesday May 25th at 6:30pm (PST) - This event, Investing in Uncertain Times, features Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. Chad is a regular on various media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, & The Wall Street Journal.
Investing in uncertain times is certainly a timely topic right now! You’ll hear his perspective on investing and what he’s learned over the years managing nearly $9 billion in assets.
You can register for the event by going to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, it’s time for a financial checkup.
Today, I’m talking about updating your estate, your will, and ensuring that your spouse and kids will be taken care of when you pass from this world. Even people who own businesses, real estate, and who are wealthy often don’t have their estate plan up to date, nor is it working in their favor, helping to minimize taxes and headaches at their death.
Jimi Hendrix died without a will and the battle over his estate continued for over 30 years. Bob Marley, Pablo Picasso, Michael Jackson, Sonny Bono...all died without a will.
Plenty of people are way behind on their estate updates, or worse, like these celebrities, they have nothing in place at all. I think it’s probably a combination of Type B personality types and the difficulty of facing your own death that keeps people with their head stuck in the sand.
I know all you Type A’s like me got that will in place, but when’s the last time you reviewed your will and your estate plan?
It’s important to do that on an annual basis. People and circumstances change. You may have a troubled child or a relative who has an addiction problem, and a large influx of cash would ruin their life or kill them. Your spouse’s income needs may not be covered if you died. These are real problems, but they’re problems that are solvable with some advance planning.
Tax laws and the size of your estate along with its complexity is always in flux, so what was relevant when you set up a will, trust, and beneficiary designations 10 or 20 years ago may be woefully outdated today.
I recommend reviewing your estate documents and beneficiary designations annually, then meeting with your estate attorney every 3 to 5 years or when you have a major life change.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, it’s time for a financial checkup. I’m helping you take stock of your situation, to help you catch the cancer in your finances before it spreads. It’s a good idea to do this each year, so why not do it now?
Today, I’m talking about your spending and your budget. Most people don’t have a budget. Most people spend a little here, a little there, pay their debts, pay their bills, and don’t manage to save much at the end of the month.
In my experience, I am continually surprised at how little assets most people have given their income. And that’s because most of us don’t track expenses and don’t know where our money goes every month.
Too many Americans spend money in a way that isn’t consistent with their goals. So I ask you: what’s most important to you when it comes to your money? Does your monthly spending and your budget reflect that.
If travel is really important to you, but you haven’t taken a vacation in 3 years because you can’t seem to save enough for the trip you really want to take (forget about Covid for a second)....you’re not spending your money in a way that’s really important to you and will bring more fulfillment to your life, but you stop at Starbucks every day, then you aren’t spending your money in a way that’s consistent with your most important financial goals.
Your most important financial goals and your spending habits need to match up, hand in glove. If they don’t then you need to re-evaluate where your money is going. You can’t possibly do that until you track and categorize your spending.
My recommendation is that you look at your budget in depth every few months and that you keep it up to date. If you’re not doing that, start where you are today. Start tracking where your money goes. There are lots of apps and tools to help you do this. Track your spending for 1 month, then 3 months, and start to identify patterns. Then ask yourself if your spending habits need to be adjusted to help you work towards what is most important to you.
The other benefit of keeping a close eye on your spending is that you’ll catch those services and subscriptions that you’re still paying for, but no longer using.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, it’s time for a financial checkup.
Today, I’m talking about a retirement progress report.
How are you progressing toward your retirement goals. If you’re 5 years away from retirement, are you currently saving enough and in the right accounts to get you to the finish line. Is your retirement date target still realistic? What else can you do to save more if you’re behind, or do you just need to work a little longer? In the last 10 years before retirement, it’s critical that you make a retirement progress check an annual thing.
You need to know where you stand and catch the cancer in your finances before it spreads. The 4 factors that influence whether or not you will outlive your savings in retirement more than anything else are:
- Your retirement age
- Your current savings and your assets (or in other words, the size of your portfolio) and how those assets are invested
- Your income sources in retirement
- Your retirement lifestyle
When you look at these factors together, will the combination of when you retire, how much money you have, it’s growth potential, along with your income sources in retirement be able to support your desired lifestyle in retirement. All of these factors are critical on their own, but the combination of them in your situation needs to ensure that you don’t outlive your money.
That’s it for today, but before you go, if you missed yesterday’s episode, you missed the exciting upcoming virtual event I’m hosting with guest speaker, Chad Morganlander, on investing in uncertain times. For more info and to grab your free spot, head over to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
About once a year, I like to have an in depth financial review and checkup with each client. It usually involves a progress check on their goals, and an in-depth discussion on what’s changed that might impact their finances, whether their targeted retirement date is still a reality, and how their investment portfolio matches those goals. We often make a action plan for how to move forward and next steps, and it’s one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work - helping clients clearly see where they want to go and then prioritize with them how to get there.
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, it’s time for a financial checkup. I’ll walk you through some of the same discussions I have with my clients.
We’ll talk about how to track your progress toward retirement, evaluate your spending and budget, review your estate plan, discuss debt and take an honest look at your cash situation, which is frequently a goldilocks scenario - I see too much, too little, but very rarely cash holdings that are just right.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I have a special treat for you. We’re hosting a virtual education event via Zoom on Tuesday May 25th, 2021 at 6:30pm (PST) - This event, “Investing in Uncertain Times”, features guest speaker Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. Chad is a regular on various media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, & The Wall Street Journal.
Investing in uncertain times is certainly a timely topic right now! You’ll hear Chad’s perspective on investing and what he’s learned over the years managing nearly $9 billion in assets.
The event is free and you can register by going to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was How To Get The Most Benefit From Your 401k Plan.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Are You Really Maximizing Your 401k Contribution? And how to check on the maximum contribution each year and ensure you’re on target to max out if you intend to and can afford to maximize your contribution
- Don’t Make The Mistake of Missing Out On The Roth 401k
- Commit Your 401k Match Formula To Memory - Too many people don’t know what to do to maximize their employer’s match, so know your employer’s match like the back of your hand
- Consolidating Old 401ks To Your Current 401k - too many people don’t know they can move old IRAs and 401ks to their current 401k plan, but it’s a nice feature to consolidate and simplify your investments...and your life!
- And lastly, I talked about when you might want to consider an in-service rollover while you’re still working
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you feel more confident about your ability to maximize all the benefits your 401k plan offers!
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: Time For A Financial Check up! I’ll discuss how you can assess your current financial situation objectively and what questions you should be asking yourself about: your assets, liabilities, income, expenses, risk, and your estate.
And if you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - head over to YouTube and subscribe. I post a new video on Sundays, and each video is aimed at helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement. I just hit 500 subscribers, which is still teeny tiny, but very exciting...so if you’re enjoying the podcast, I know you’ll love the YouTube videos as well.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How to get the most out of your 401k plan. You may be saving and getting the match, but are you fully taking advantage of all the amazing benefits that your 401k has to offer you?
Yesterday I talked about consolidating old investment accounts into your 401k. Today, I’m talking about the other side of the coin - but an equally valuable feature that almost no one knows about - and that is the in-service distribution.
Generally, you can’t take money out of your 401k plan until you change jobs, retire, or die. But most plan rules allow for you to take your money out of your 401k while you’re still working. You may hear this go by a few different monikers - an in-service distribution, in-service withdrawal, or in-service rollover.
The only requirement is that you have reached the age specified in the plan when in-service distributions are allowed. This could be age 59 ½ or a different age, sometimes older. You’ll want to find out first if your plan allows for in-service distributions, and at what age. Even if you take an in-service distribution, you can continue to save an invest in the plan with future contributions, but you have the opportunity to rollover your current balance to an IRA, which could be a great opportunity.
If you have a garbage 401k plan with terrible investments and high fees an in-service distribution is your ticket out to greener pastures.
Even if you have a decent 401k plan, you desire more control, or maybe you would like to invest in individual stocks or other investments that aren’t offered in your 401k menu, or you’re working with a financial advisor who can better implement a cohesive strategy with your portfolio with more control over your assets - these are all reasons to consider pulling your money out of your 401k while you’re still working if that’s an option for you.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How to get the most out of your 401k plan. You may be saving and getting the match, but are you fully taking advantage of all the amazing benefits that your 401k has to offer you?
Today, I’m talking about how you can use your 401k to simplify your finances by consolidating your old 401k and retirement plans into your current 401k plan.
A couple weeks ago I talked about the multitude of benefits with consolidating your investment accounts. But most people who are currently saving in their 401k at work don’t realize that their plan often allows you to rollover other similar accounts into your current 401k. And it doesn’t just include like-kind 401k accounts.
Most 401k plans will accept rollovers from any account with similar tax treatment as the 401k. So this would include old 401ks, SIMPLE IRAs, SEP IRAs, Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs - often all of these accounts are eligible to be rolled over into your current 401k, making it easier to track your accounts and simplify your finances.
A couple words of caution here...only consolidate into your 401k if the plan fees are reasonably low and the plan investments are not terrible. If you work for a large employer with thousands of employees, you’re likely to have a low cost plan with solid investments. But if you work for a smaller employer, fees and fund quality are an issue, so proceed with caution.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How to get the most out of your 401k plan. You may be saving and getting the match, but are you fully taking advantage of all the amazing benefits that your 401k has to offer you?
Today, I’m talking about understanding your employer’s matching contribution, and committing that thing to memory like it’s your grandma's famous chocolate chip cookie recipe.
One of the mistakes that I see too often is that employees leave money on the table by not contributing at least enough to maximize the match in the plan. But matching formulas are sometimes a little complicated, so it’s important that you know how much you need to contribute from your own paycheck to maximize your employer’s match. Is it 4%, 5%, 8%.
The most popular matching formula I come across is a 100% match on the 1st 3% of your contributions and a 50% match on the next 2% of your contributions. What this means in plain English is that you need to save a minimum of 5% of your pay in order for you to maximize the match from your employer.
If you save 5% of your pay into the 401k plan, you’ll get an employer match that equates to 4% of your pay...so 9% of your pay is being deposited each month into your 401k retirement account. Not too shabby. Of course you can and often should contribute more than this to help you live a comfortable retirement, but the starting point is knowing what you need to contribute to maximize your employer’s match.
Then if you can at least contribute that much to the plan you won’t be turning down free money in the form of a match by contributing less that the max required to receive the full match.
That’s it for today, but before you go, I just wanted to remind you one last time this week that I’m hosting a virtual education event on Tuesday May 25th, 2021 at 6:30pm (PST) - This event, Investing in Uncertain Times, features Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. Chad is a regular on various media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, & The Wall Street Journal.
Investing in uncertain times is certainly a timely topic right now! You’ll hear his perspective on investing and what he’s learned over the years managing nearly $9 billion in assets.
You can register for the event by going to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How to get the most out of your 401k plan. You may be saving and getting the match, but are you fully taking advantage of all the amazing benefits that your 401k has to offer you?
Today, I’m talking about the Roth 401k. The vast majority of 401k plans offer a Roth option these days, but most employees are still missing out on the powerful tax-free growth that the Roth 401k option provides.
Many working Americans who are in their 50s and 60s ignore the Roth option in the 401k at their own peril. Diving deep into the benefits of the Roth is beyond the scope and the time allotted in today’s episode, so let me just say this:
The benefit of contributing to your Roth 401k lies in the taxes. Every dollar in the Roth is never taxed again, so you could let money grow tax free for the rest of your life or take the money out as income in retirement without ever paying taxes on those withdrawals or taxes on the growth.
Tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals are a beautiful thing!
The tradeoff though is that you don’t get a tax deduction on your contributions to a Roth, but you do get a tax break in the current year if you make contributions to a traditional 401k.
So take the time to find out if a Roth option is available in your plan and consider if a Roth option is right for you. I’m a big believer in having retirement funds in Roth, so if you want to learn more, I encourage you to search through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip, where I’ve devoted weeks and weeks to the Roth, covering everything from the Mega Backdoor Roth to what you need to know about investing in a Roth after age 50.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How to get the most out of your 401k plan. You may be saving and getting the match, but are you fully taking advantage of all the amazing benefits that your 401k has to offer you?
Today, I’m talking about maximizing your 401k contributions. Occasionally, I come across people in the 401k plan who think they’re maxing out, but they aren’t. I see a 401k flat dollar contribution amount of $16,500, and I have to gently break it to them that they were maxing out...10 years ago.
Since the 401k maximum increases about every 1-2 years, if you’re one of those power savers who maxes out your 401k contribution, it’s important that you adjust your contribution and verify that you’re on track to max out in the current year.
In 2021, the maximum contribution is $19,500. If you’re over 50 years old, you can set aside an additional $6,500 as a catch up, so if you can afford to max out, be sure you take advantage of the maximum allowable contribution in 2021.
That’s it for today, but before you go, if you missed yesterday’s episode, you missed the exciting upcoming virtual event I’m hosting with guest speaker, Chad Morganlander, on investing in uncertain times. For more info and to grab your free spot, head over to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
I work with a lot of 401k plans as the plan advisor. In that role, I wear a lot of hats, but my primary jobs are selecting and overseeing the plan investment options and providing education and guidance to the employees in the plan.
And often, I see employees who leave money on the table and don’t maximize the benefits of their 401k. In fact, even though about 60% of Americans have access to a 401k plan, only 32% of Americans are even participating in the 401k. So the first step is obviously taking advantage of a 401k that’s offered to you by saving as much as you can afford to, but once you’ve got the basics down - you’re participating in the plan, you’re getting the matching contribution, and you have picked a solid investment lineup, what’s next?
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about how you can get the most out of your 401k plan. If you're like most people, you may not be aware of ALL the plan features that you can and should be taking advantage of. I’ll talk about the mistakes and missed opportunities that I see over and over again, to help you get the most out of your 401k plan.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I have a special treat for you. We’re hosting a virtual education event via Zoom on Tuesday May 25th, 2021 at 6:30pm (PST) - This event, “Investing in Uncertain Times”, features guest speaker Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. Chad is a regular on various media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, & The Wall Street Journal.
Investing in uncertain times is certainly a timely topic right now! You’ll hear his perspective on investing and what he’s learned over the years managing nearly $9 billion in assets.
The event is free and you can register by going to truenorthra.com/tickets.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was explaining Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What are NFTs? I talk about fungible vs. non-fungible and what makes NFTs so unique and literally, one of a kind.
- Then we looked at NFTs compared to their close cousin, physical art and collectibles
- Once we laid the foundation for better understanding NFTs and why some have sold for millions of dollars, we switched to talking about NFTs as it more closely relates to this podcast - which is the opportunity or lack thereof of NFTs as an investment vehicle.
- Even though I think NFTs are a terrible investment by almost any measure, I think they’re worth exploring and better understanding, since they are most likely here to stay and the application of NFTs will probably adapt and grow and will likely continue to morph over time as people find new ways to monetize the uniqueness of NFTs.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you better understand this new adaptation of cryptocurrencies, and are better able to assess an investment when you remove the newness, excitement, and novelty from the NFT.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: how to get the most benefit from your 401k plan. I’ll talk about several 401k plan features that are common, but underutilized. If you have a 401k plan at work, be sure to come one back tomorrow when I dive into important plan provisions and features that will help you maximize this important retirement benefit.
And if you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - head over to YouTube and subscribe. I post a new video on Sundays, and each video is aimed at helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement. I just hit 500 subscribers, which is still teeny tiny, but very exciting...so if you’re enjoying the podcast, I know you’ll love the YouTube videos as well.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs)...explained.
Over the last couple of days I’ve been coming down pretty hard on NFTs. I think it’s a really interesting, completely new type of asset or product which is worth exploring, but as an actual investment, I think it’s garbage.
But what if you’re one of those people who loves collecting things, or you love flipping garage sale finds, or scouring eBay for deals on rare trading cards. If you invested in beanie babies in the 1990s, then NFTs might be for you.
By the way, I’m not being judgemental about this at all. I owned a lot of beanie babies in the 1990s and held on while their values plummeted and people lost interest and moved on to the next fad. Interestingly enough, certain beanie babies still fetch a few thousand dollars today. I think I still own peanut the elephant and iggy the iguana somewhere in my mom’s attic. Perhaps I can list those on eBay to pay for some first class tickets to Maui once the Covid restrictions ease up a bit.
We all have quirks about how we spend our money and what brings value to us in how we spend money, but I just want to be clear that a good NFT speculator can hope to break even and that’s it. In all likelihood, most people will lose money investing in NFTs.
Today, I’m talking briefly about buying and selling NFTs. A quick disclaimer about this. I haven’t actually bought or sold NFTs myself, so what I’m telling you is based on my research into this topic, not my actual experience.
The first thing you need to know is that you buy and sell NFTs with Cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin or ethereum.
One of the larger platforms for buying Non-fungible tokens is a website call Open Sea. O-P-E-N S-E-A. All the NFTs on this platform are priced in ethereum, which is interesting because it’s pretty volatile. It’s not like browsing eBay where everything in priced in dollars which is a very stable currency.
If you’re curious about NFTs, I think it’s a pretty cool site for exploring and seeing what’s out there. I can buy a fun pair of blue checkered shoes for roughly $121, but remember, I won’t actually receive the shoes. It’s just a digital image of the shoes that belongs only to me. If it sounds absurd, that’s because it is. But if nothing else, it gives you something interesting to talk about next time you hang out with your best friend.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs)...explained.
Yesterday I talked about where I think NFTs may fit into your life and your investment portfolio. To summarize, you might look at it like a fun hobby, similar to scouring estate sales to find that one-of-a-kind gem. I think that’s the correct way to view NFTs.
Today, I’m taking it a bit further and discussing whether or not you should actually buy NFTs.
NFTs may have practical applications, but for as an investment, I think they’re highly speculative and garbage. I wouldn’t give them a second thought as an investment, actually. Will there be people you hear about who strike it rich in NFTs? Yes, and it’s already happened. I read about a woman who paid $1 for a NFT and was offered $50,000 for that NFT the SAME DAY!
Talk about making a profit! But what you won’t hear about are the millions of NFTs that are sold and never return to their original value. It’s challenging to see the appeal of NFTs as an investment because it’s so speculative, especially when you don’t even get to take possession of the item you bought.
When I evaluate an investment, whether that’s a piece of art, or a stock, a bond, or real estate, I’m looking at the future growth prospects as well as the income or cash flow it provides. You wouldn’t invest in a stock or a business that is not going to provide any income or cash flow. There’s no fundamental reason for owning the investment like the profitability of the business or the income potential of the property.
Your only hope in making money in a NFT is to find someone dumber than you who is willing to pay more for the NFT than you did, and sell it to them. So it’s all very speculative and not driven in the slightest by actual fundamentals.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs)...explained.
Today, I’m exploring the question: Are NFTs just another fad? Or I guess to put it another way given the sky high selling prices of certain NFTs, is this market a bubble that’s ready to burst?
In the short-term, it certainly looks like a bubble. When you have art selling as a NFT in the millions of dollars and just getting a unique token in return that proves your ownership, it certainly looks, talks, walks, and smells like a bubble.
Investor and market commentator Howard Lindzon recently was quoted in the NY Times saying that the attraction of NFTs is driven by a “pent-up cycle where the money has nowhere to go, so it’s doing stupid things”.
As an investment, NFTs have no income or cash flow, the value is highly subjective and isn’t backed by any real asset of value in most cases. You’re only hope to make money as a NFT investor is to score a deal on a NFT and flip it for a profit.
Similar to investing in other collectibles or scarce items, the market is driven by another’s willingness to pay a higher price.With the massive growth in popularity of NFTs as well, the market is likely to be flooded with new sellers and people looking to get rich quick, and that is likely to dilute the value of NFTs when there is just so much more of them to go around.
NFTs may be here to stay, but the appeal is likely to be more of a niche market and very similar to investing in other collectibles and art. Most people who invest in art and collectibles know that they aren’t going to get rich by investing in art. They do it because they enjoy it, but for most art investors, it’s just not profitable. So if you’re into collectibles, art, or antiques, or you have a niche interest in collecting items from a particular person or artist, then NFTs may have their place in your life.
But if you’re looking at it as a potential investment opportunity, you’re probably a lot more likely to get burned by jumping on the bandwagon now.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs)...explained.
Today, I’m talking about the difference between collectibles and NFTs. On the surface, it seems like NFTs and collectibles are basically the same thing. And I think that’s a good way of thinking about NFTs, but with one clear difference.
When you buy a physical collectible, like a one-of-a-kind piece of art, that collectible is a physical item. You would never buy that piece of art if you couldn’t take possession of it and hang it in your home or office or wherever.
What’s different about NFTs is that you buy the piece of art, like in the case of Mike Winkelman’s art that recently sold for $69 million as a NFT. Someone paid $69 million dollars for a piece of art that they don’t even physically own. They just own the proof of ownership that exists with their non-fungible token.
If it sounds downright absurd to you, that’s because it is. If you go on YouTube, you can watch a video of Mike Winkelmann himself explaining the absurdity of his art fetching that kind of price tag.
Similar to collectibles though, the sky high prices for some NFTs can be better understood by looking at the collectibles market. Value is in large part driven by scarcity and uniqueness of the collectible, and the same is true for NFTs.
There are some practical applications for this. Digital files like artwork, memes, and audio or video files can be easily and endlessly duplicated. If you downloaded songs illegally and directly to your computer in the 1990s via Napster, you know how easily digital files can be copied.
With NFTs, artwork can be "tokenised" to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold, solving a lot of the problems that currently exist for creators of digital art. Seems like a good solution if you’re an artist trying to sell your work, which is probably not most of you listening. So tomorrow we’re going to turn to the investment implications of NFTs and discuss whether NFTs as an investment makes sense.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs)...explained.
Today, I’m talking about what exactly is a NFT? A NFT or Non-Fungible token is a unique digital token that is attached to a digital item. This digital item could be any number or things, like a piece of art, a song, or even a festival ticket.
It’s a type of cryptocurrency, because the token is stored on a digital ledger or blockchain, and it’s 100% digital. You’re receiving not the digital item itself, but a unique token that is kind of like DNA for that digital item and proves that you own it.
So if you buy a piece of art or Jack Dorsey’s autographed first tweet, you won’t actually receive the item. You’ll have the digital token instead that proves the one-of-a-kind item belongs to you.
Each non-fungible token is truly unique, which is where the non-fungible name comes in. Non-fungible means that it is unique, one-of-a-kind, and cannot be divided up into smaller pieces.
Other cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, are fungible; one Bitcoin can be replaced by every other Bitcoin and they all have the same value. The same is true for traditional currencies, gold coins, etc.
On the other hand with Non-fungible tokens, it’s the uniqueness that makes these tokens non-fungible.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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What inspired this week’s topic was a recent article I read in BBC News which reported that a “digital-only artwork sold at Christie's auction house for an eye-watering $69 million”. But, get this...the winning bidder will not receive a sculpture, painting or even a print.
Nope. Nothing. Instead, they will receive a unique token known as a NFT, or non-fungible token. Think of NFTs as the cryptocurrency equivalent of investing in collectibles.
Instead, you’ll receive a on-of-a-kind token. And that one-of-a-kindness - there’s only one of these, is what makes NFTs so intriguing, I think. Unlike other collectibles, coins, or mass-produced beanie babies, when you buy a NFT, there’s just one.
Whether it’s Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet signed him which recently sold for over $2.9 million, memes selling for hundreds of dollars, or your very own one-hit-wonder song you’ve decided to write and sell for $5, the curiosities in NFTs abound.
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m talking about Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs). A very new cryptocurrency investment that has all sorts of applications. I’ll explain what they are, how they compare to other cryptocurrencies, and we’ll discuss some interesting examples, applications, and opportunities that exist in this brand new investment.
I find NFTs fascinating and frankly, head scratching, so I’m thankful for all of you here with me this week as I stumble around in the dark learning about this brand new kind of investment...this podcast and you my loyal listeners have been a real gift...you’ve inspired me to better understand NFTs when honestly, I would normally just read some weird article about how someone paid $400 for a 52-minute recording of farts - which really happened by the way, and dismiss it outright as a silly waste of time without a second thought. But I’m not so sure after researching this topic in more detail. The uniqueness of NFTs has really piqued my interest, and I’m excited to be sharing with you what I’ve learned in this week’s episodes.
That’s it for today. Come on back tomorrow, where I dive into the details of NFTs and explain what they are.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: How To Consolidate Old Investment Accounts
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- 5 reasons to consolidate you old investment accounts
- The ABCs of consolidating
- A step-by-step tutorial on how to consolidate your old 401ks to your IRA
- And lastly, how to pick the right financial institution and the right advisor to consolidate your accounts with - not an easy decision, but an important one.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are motivated to simplify your life and finally consolidate your old 401k accounts and other investment accounts that have just been drifting for years like a rudder-less ship.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: WTF are NTFs? Have you heard of NFTs? It stands for non-fungible token is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, and if you still have no clue WTF I’m talking about, you’re not alone, so I’ll do my best to explain this type of crypto investment next week. Frankly, I’m not even sure that I want to tackle this because it’s super confusing and pretty strange, but it’s worth a breakdown since you’ll likely be hearing more about this in the months to come.
And if you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement - head over to YouTube and subscribe. I post a new video on Sundays, and each video is aimed at helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How To Consolidate Old Investment Accounts.
Today, I’m talking about how to pick the best place to consolidate your investment accounts.
Whether you’re a DIY investor or someone who uses a financial advisor, the first step to consolidating your old 401k accounts is picking that person and/or the financial institution where you will house your investment portfolio.
This is your money and your retirement and your future here, so it’s an important decision. When it comes to picking the right financial institution, you’ll want to weigh this carefully. And with so many big name financial companies in the news for all the wrong reasons and the ever-present danger of entrusting your financial future to the next Bernie Madoff, it can seem like an overwhelming decision to make, especially if you’ve been burned by bad advice or bad investment decisions before.
So what should you look for in the financial institution where you house your investment accounts. I suggest looking for 2 important factors with the institution, and 3 additional factors if you choose to work with an advisor.
As for the financial institution, whether they be a big bank or a custodian, I would select a larger one like Schwab or Fidelity or a large bank. We custody all of our client assets with Charles Schwab, and you want to house your accounts somewhere where you have efficient execution of trades, limited or no proprietar products, among many other things. You also need to select a financial institution that will act in your best interest, so be sure that they are willing to allow your advisor to be a fiduciary.
The other 3 qualities are what you should look for in an advisor. And it all boils down to someone you know, like, and trust. Only you can make that decision, but you must enjoy interacting with this person, trust them and their competence, and know them enough to judge whether they are authentic and honest.
A relationship with an advisor is one that is based on mutual respect and trust, and you must be 100% confident that the advice they give you is going to be based in deep-rooted knowledge and expertise, and putting your interests first in giving the best possible advice for your situation. If you can trust them or their advice, then you should walk away and find another advisor. But if you find the right person, it can be a relationship that flourishes for the next 10, 20, 30 years and even for the rest of your life.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How To Consolidate Old Investment Accounts
Today, I’m talking about how to rollover an old 401k to an IRA account. Too often, I find that clients have old 401k accounts that they never moved into their IRA until years later because it just didn’t seem worth the effort. For reasons that I’ve beat you over the head with already this week, it is worth the effort!
I asked our associate paraplanner Michelle to share with you the step by step instructions for rolling over your 401k to your IRA. So get out your notepad, because this step-by-step process will make it easy and if you get started today, you can be done with consolidating your old 401k accounts in just one phone call.
Here’s the process she’s developed in helping to facilitate well over 100 rollovers in her career thus far:
The first step is to make sure you already have an IRA account open. Your old 401k needs an IRA to rollover into and so you need to get the IRA account set up first. Once you have the IRA account open, and you are eligible for a rollover, calling the financial institution is the easiest and quickest way to process a rollover.
I know in the digital age, that sounds weird. Can’t you do this all online? Yes, you can, but that usually adds to the likelihood that you’ll check the wrong box on something and it is not faster than picking up the phone and calling.
Just log in to your account to get the phone number or grab the phone number off your recent statement. Then pick up the phone and give the financial company a call. There is no prep involved for you and you can usually take care of everything in one phone call. Sometimes, you may need to sign a form, but often the rollover can be initiated directly over the phone.
It’s important to know that even though a check will be made payable to your IRA account, the check will most often be mailed to you at your home address and you will need to forward it to the financial institution where your IRA account is held. It usually takes about 5-7 business days for the rollover check to arrive. If it’s an option, be sure to request that the check be mailed directly to the financial institution where your current IRA account is held, to save the extra step of you receiving the check and forwarding it on.
Once the check is in your IRA account and the money is invested, that’s it! See, that wasn’t too hard was it?
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How To Consolidate Old Investment Accounts
If you’re in sales, you have no doubt heard the acronym ABC - Always Be Closing. I’d like to suggest a new ABC acronym for you as it relates to consolidating your investment accounts.
Always Be Consolidating.
Each time you change jobs, you should be rolling those old workplace retirement plans (like a 401k or a 403b) into your IRA account. That way, at most you’ll have your current workplace retirement plan at your current job, and all of your other investment accounts are with 1 financial institution.
This will allow you to have just one or 2 accounts for each type of account all at the same place. For reasons I mentioned earlier in the week - ease of tracking performance and account balances, more reliable tax reporting, implementing a cohesive strategy, estate planning, and just reducing your own mental clutter - consolidating your investment accounts so that you don’t have 5 different Roth IRAs will allow you to get 1 or 2 statements each month...1 or 2 account logins, etc.
As much as possible it’s a good idea to have as few accounts as possible, with as few financial institutions as possible.
You may think it’s a headache to consolidate your old investment accounts, so in tomorrow’s episode, I’m going to share with you how to consolidate those accounts. You won’t want to miss it. It’s easier than you think, and you won’t have any more excuses about why you haven’t yet moved that old 401k to your IRA account.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How To Consolidate Old Investment Accounts
Yesterday I talked about 3 reasons to consolidate your old investment accounts. Today I’m talking about 2 more reasons to consolidate your old investment accounts: 1) simplify and remove mental clutter & 2) estate planning
Let’s go over each one...First, simplify and remove mental clutter.
I’m a bit type A. On the big 4 personality traits, I am like off the charts on conscientiousness. The definition of a conscientious person is “wishing to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly.” I’ve always been that way. Always did my homework without being nagged by my parents and I even had to clean my room before I started my homework because I couldn’t focus if I had physical clutter.
The same is true for many of you, I suspect. If you’re anything like me, you don’t like messes and disorder in your home, office, car and other spaces. Now some people don’t mind messes and clutter one bit, but to the chagrin of my husband, I abhor clutter and messes. I find them stressful and I can’t relax if there is a mess in the room I’m in. I’m one of those crazy people who stores the toaster in a cabinet because I want my kitchen counter clean. Clutter is stressful, and having your investment accounts spread across a variety of institutions is just another form of clutter. It’s stressful because you have to mentally track those accounts and remember that they exist. You have to not forget about the old 401k that you forgot to rollover to your IRA 10 years ago. The more accounts you have in different places, the more the unnecessary clutter adds to stress in your life.
The other reason why you should consolidate your old investment accounts is for your family’s sake. Having accounts in just one place allows your spouse and your family to more easily sort through your estate, understand where your assets are, and be better equipped to make decisions following your death.
I’ve watched as spouses and family members are plunged into chaos while grieving the death of a loved one, because the person who died had accounts spread all over and all their documents disheveled or disorganized in 40 banker’s boxes. For the sanity of your family, consolidating accounts for estate planning purposes doesn’t take a lot of effort, but the payoff is substantial, and will ensure that no account is left behind.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is How To Consolidate Old Investment Accounts
Today, I’m talking about 3 reasons to consolidate your old investment accounts:
simple tax reporting, better tracking of performance and account balances, & ease of implementing a cohesive strategy.
Let’s dive into each of these one by one:
- Simple tax reporting.
Waiting for 1099 or 1099Rs once you start those mandatory IRA or 401k withdrawals is a pain. If you have all of your accounts consolidated with one financial institution it’s easier to track your tax documents and what you need to report for taxes each year.
- Better tracking of performance and your account balances.
I know how you almost never log in to your 401k account online. Don’t try to tell me otherwise. I can actually see the data. Maybe 1 in 20 people log in on a regular basis, so you may be tracking your account balances and your performance separately by financial institution...unless your a math whiz, it’s nearly impossible to track your consolidated account performance across different accounts.
But when you have your accounts as consolidated as they can be, it’s much easier to track your account balances, your net worth, your performance, and progress toward your goals.
- Ease of implementing a cohesive strategy
When you have accounts all over the place, it’s nearly impossible to figure out what you own. How much of your portfolio is in big tech? Probably too much… How much of your portfolio is in stocks and bonds overall? How much is invested overseas? These are very difficult questions to answer if your accounts are spread out, but it’s a very easy question to answer if you have your accounts in one location.
And especially if you work with a financial advisor, it’s really hard for them to implement a cohesive strategy when they don’t have visibility of your accounts. If they don’t know what you own, you’re not going to get the best advice possible. So for your own sake and for the sanity of your financial advisor, be transparent as possible and consolidate what you can. Don’t fall for the lie that you should diversify across financial advisors. If you know your advisor well and you trust him or her, do yourself a favor and consolidate your assets under their prudent management.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! Tomorrow I’m going to share with you 2 more reasons why you should consolidate your old investment accounts.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Recently, we onboarded a new client who had investment accounts at 6 different financial institutions. This new client couple is approaching retirement and it was getting too complicated to track everything and there was no cohesive strategy across all of their accounts. They knew that when they make that transition into retirement in the next few years, that they didn’t want to worry about tracking different accounts spread out at different places, which was part of the reason why they decided to work with me, so I could implement a cohesive strategy and simplify their financial life.
It was a bit of work to take inventory of the accounts, and although it took some legwork to rollover the old accounts and consolidate and simplify everything, it was well worth it in the end.
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going to talk about 5 reasons why you should consolidate your old investment accounts, when to consolidate everything, and since it’s usually those old 401k and previous employer retirement accounts that are most often left behind and most easily forgotten and ignored, I’ll share with you a step-by-step process specific for consolidating those old workplace retirement plans into your IRA.
I’m really excited to cover this topic and looking forward to spending this week with you! This is such a common problem I deal with and many people procrastinate for years on rolling over old 401ks and consolidating and simplifying their accounts. This is such a common problem that seems overwhelming, but doesn’t have to be!
By the end of this week, you’ll see how easy it really is to consolidate your accounts and why you have no excuse anymore not to do it!
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Could you pass this financial literacy quiz? I quizzed you on the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. National Financial Capability Study, a 5 question financial literacy quiz with topics ranging from basic principles on interest, diversification, how debt works, and basic bond concepts.
Sunday is usually a day dedicated to recapping the week, but instead, I’d like to direct you to take the quiz for yourself if you missed any of these episodes for the week. You can find the quiz link in the show notes for today’s episode:
Financial literacy quiz link: https://www.usfinancialcapability.org/submit_quiz.php
The quiz has a bonus question, so here it goes for your extra credit: Suppose you owe $1,000 on a loan and the interest rate you are charged is 20% per year compounded annually. If you didn't pay anything off, at this interest rate, how many years would it take for the amount you owe to double?
- Less than 2 years
- 2-4 years
- 5-9 years
- 10+ years
The answer? 2-4 years. The exact answer can be found by using the rule of 72, which is a quick and easy way to figure out how long it will take for your money to double. It also works in the reverse case in the question posed here. You take 72 divided by the interest rate, in this case 20% and that tells you how many years it will take for your amount owed on your debt to double. 72/20 = 3.6...which means that those high interest credit card payments are racking up like crazy and you’ll soon owe twice that much if you don’t get to work on knocking out that debt. The good news for investors is that the reverse is also true. If you make 20% annually on your investments, it will take only 3.6 years for that investment to double in value.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week you have a better understanding of basic financial literacy concepts. If you scored a 3 out of 6 or higher on this week’s quiz, you’re doing better than the average American, so give yourself a little pat on the back.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: how to consolidate old investment accounts. I’ll walk you through how to consolidate your old 401k accounts - it’s a process that always trips people up, but we’ve done this with our clients hundreds if not thousands of times, so I’ll share with you the steps to take to consolidate your old investment accounts and simplify your financial life in the process. I’ll also talk about why it’s so essential to consolidate and simplify your financial accounts in retirement, and even how to simplify other aspects of your investment portfolio by using auto-pilot features in your 401k.
Thank you so much for listening this week! My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is could you pass this basic financial literacy quiz?
Today’s financial literacy quiz question is: Buying a single company's stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.
True or False?
The answer is false. A stock mutual fund is much more diversified than a single company’s stock, so the mutual fund is going to provide the safer return, since it’s not tied to the fate of a single company or stock.
When you buy a stock, you buy a % of ownership in that business. Now that ownership % may be incredibly tiny, especially when you own shares of stock in Google or Apple or Wal Mart, but your shares of stock represent ownership in that business.
As a result, your results when you just buy a single company’s stock are completely tied to the fate of that business. Now if you hit a home run and that company’s stock grows by 1000%, you’ll be pleased with yourself that you bought that stock. But any investor worth their salt knows that companies and businesses fail. Industries change. Management changes. Times change. In fact it’s likely that the dominant stocks today won’t be the same dominant stocks 20 years from now. Go back across any decade over the last 50 years...it’s a new batch of companies at the top each time, and plenty of the most loved stocks of 30, 40, 50 years ago have been run into the ground, with their stock price falling from grace right along with the business.
So the safer and more prudent choice is to diversify, and that’s why investments like mutual funds and exchange traded funds (aka ETFs) are such a great option.
You can think of a mutual fund or an ETF as a bucket that holds anywhere from about 50 companies to 1000+ companies. By purchasing shares of the mutual fund or ETF, you indirectly own a tiny percentage in all of those stocks that are owned by the mutual fund. Instant diversification for as little as $50 or $100 to get started and spread that money across different companies and industries, all in one mutual fund.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is could you pass this basic financial literacy quiz?
Today’s financial literacy quiz question is: A 15-year mortgage typically requires higher monthly payments than a 30-year mortgage but the total interest over the life of the loan will be less.
True or false?
The answer is true. Even though the payments will usually be higher on the 15 year loan, it’s a much better deal than the 30 year mortgage over the long-term because you’ll pay A LOT less in interest.
Each mortgage payment you make to the bank is a combination of principal repayments on the original loan amount and interest. With a 15-year mortgage you’ll be paying a lot more in principal with each payment and it will be a much cheaper loan over that 15 year time period.
Plus, to have your house paid off in only 15 years is a great thing, especially if you are getting close to retirement. Not having a mortgage payment in retirement will free up your finances and give you more disposable income to spend on travel, hobbies, and enjoying your retirement.
If you don’t want to or can’t afford to lock yourself into a 15 year mortgage, then familiarize yourself with an amortization calculator. They are free online, easy to use, and it will show you how extra payments of $100, $500, or even $1000/month will shorten the life of your loan.
You may be surprised how many years you can shave off the life of your mortgage loan just by consistently making extra payments.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is could you pass this basic financial literacy quiz?
Today’s financial literacy quiz question is: If interest rates rise, what will typically happen to bond prices? Rise, fall, stay the same, or is there no relationship?
The correct answer is bond prices will fall when interest rates rise. They have an inverse relationship and function like a seesaw - when one goes up the other must go down.
Interest rates are very low right now and have already started to tick up again. With that in mind, what would you expect to happen to the value of your bond portfolio if interest rates continue higher?
Yep, you guessed it! The value of your bond portfolio will drop.
One interesting explanation that I don’t think about much is that this happens “because as interest rates go up, newer bonds come to market paying higher interest yields than older bonds already in the hands of investors, making the older bonds worth less.”
You can protect yourself from higher interest rates by keeping your bonds invested for short and intermediate terms. Bonds that will mature in less than a few years won’t see as big of a drop in price as a bond that matures in 10 or 15 years. Diversifying into some international bonds may also help since interest rate markets vary from country to country, and lastly, interest rates and inflation are often tied together, so owning treasury inflation protected securities (or TIPS) is also a great hedge to rising interest rates within your bond portfolio.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is could you pass this basic financial literacy quiz?
Today’s financial literacy quiz question is: Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account is 1 percent a year and inflation is 2 percent a year. After one year, would the money in the account buy more than it does today, exactly the same or less than today?
The correct answer is less, and the reason why is inflation. In the above scenario, prices grew by 2% - so bread, gas, milk, light bulbs - everything is now slightly more expensive than it was a year ago.
When I was a kid, I used to live within biking distance of a 7-11, and I could ride my bike there with my neighbors and buy those individual packs of laffy taffy for 5 cents. That was in the early 1990s and prices have gone up a lot in the last 30 years. But if prices are increasing at 2% and your money in the bank is only making 1%, you’re actually losing money in REAL dollar terms. You may have made money - your $100 is now worth $101 a year later, but that $101 doesn’t buy you as much as your $100 did last year, so you LOST money after accounting for inflation.
It’s very important to understand inflation because it will ensure that you don’t invest in just canned food, gold coins, and guns to protect yourself for the future. Investing in stocks is essential to helping your money grow more than the rate of inflation, and if you understand the damaging effects of inflation, you can make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is could you pass this basic financial literacy quiz?
Today’s financial literacy quiz question is: Suppose you have $100 in a savings account earning 2 percent interest a year. After five years, how much would you have?
- More than $102
- Exactly $102
- Less than $102
The correct answer is More than $102. If you have $100 earning 2%, it will be worth $102 at the end of the first year. Now you’re earning 2% on $102 after that first year, so after year 2, your $100 original investment will be worth $104.04. And will continue earning the 2% on the higher balance amount each year thereafter.
This question tests your understanding of compound interest. I call this the 8th wonder of the world and understanding compound interest is essential to both understanding the decimating impact of owning debt and the amazing results from having your money work for you as an investor.
It’s also a BIG BIG reason why there’s truth in the phrase the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. If you have $10,000 and it earns 7% a year, I’ll double my money in about 10 years. Not too bad. Now I have $20,000.
But if I have $1,000,000 and I earn the same 7% rate of return per year, I will also double my money in those same 10 years, but I didn’t make $10,000...I made another million.
Compound interest is why debt should be avoided and you should start investing as soon as you can legally go to the bar. Because compound interest works both ways.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
I came across an article recently that said “94% of Americans cannot pass a basic financial literacy quiz.”
That’s not good, obviously, but I wasn’t surprised either. Most Americans are not taught basic money concepts in school or at home, and often, children grow up learning bad money habits from their parents. Most Americans grow up without a basic knowledge on how interest works for and against you, what a stock is, what a bond is, etc.
So I thought it would be a fun and educational exercise to test your financial literacy on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week.
I found a financial literacy test online from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. It’s their
National Financial Capability Study, and it has just 5 questions. The question topics range from basic principles on interest, diversification, how debt works, and basic bond concepts.
Each day on the podcast this week, I’ll go through each question and answer on the quiz, and we’ll discuss the results, and why it’s important to know the RIGHT answer to each question.
I did take this test myself, and I have to tell you I was pretty nervous...it would be quite embarrassing for your Dear Leader here on the podcast to miss any of these basic financial literacy questions.
But rest assured, I did receive a 100% grade, and I even got the bonus question right...thank goodness.
Just a quick but related side note, when I was researching this topic, I came across another study that looks at financial literacy reality vs. perception. See, many people are overly confident in their financial literacy. They think they know more than they actually do, which can be dangerous since that overconfidence can cause you to not take the time to learn and understand basic money concepts.
Financial literacy overconfidence is particularly a problem among millennials, my generation. One study looking just at college-educated Millennials, found that approximately 70% of them rated themselves as having high financial literacy; in reality, only 34% even had basic financial literacy.
Even if you think you can pass this week’s questions with flying colors, I hope you’ll stick around with me this week, where you may even learn something new.
That’s it for today, but before you go, if you want to take the test for yourself, I’ll include the link to the test I’m using in the podcast this week. You can find it in the show notes wherever you listen to podcasts for today’s episode, which is episode 918.
Financial literacy quiz link: https://www.usfinancialcapability.org/submit_quiz.php
Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Should I invest in bonds now?
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:
- Are Bonds Right For You?
- Finding the Right Balance With Your Bond Portfolio
- Don’t Make These Bond Investing Mistakes
- My Favorite Way To Invest In Bonds
- How I’m Investing Clients’ Bond Portfolios Today
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week you have a greater understanding for why investing in bonds makes sense, especially if you’re close to retirement, and how to approach investing in bonds in your own portfolio.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Could You Pass This Financial Literacy Quiz? Most Americans cannot pass a basic financial literacy quiz. We don’t teach this stuff in school and most people don’t understand basic concepts regarding compound interest, the stock market, setting goals, and improving your credit score.
So next week, I’ll quiz you, we’ll review the right answers, and we’ll see how you do.
My name is Ashley Micciche and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work, individual bonds vs bond funds, bonds vs mutual funds
This week’s theme is should I invest in bonds now?
In the last 13 years, I’ve traded upwards of $100 million dollars worth of bonds in my estimation. I’ve bought and sold a lot of bonds, so today I’m sharing with you how I’m investing my client’s bond portfolios today.
Yesterday, I talked about bond ladders. If you missed that episode, go back and listen to it because I won’t get into the details of why laddering makes sense in today’s episode, but bond ladders are the core of bond investing for my clients.
Right now, I’m sticking with short and intermediate term bonds, so my ladders for clients usually don’t go past 5 years, and almost none go past 7 years.
Yields on bonds are still low, so the income on a 5 or 7 year bond ladder isn’t exciting, but it does provide stability and I’ll be able to re-invest client money more frequently as rates seem likely to rise over the next 5 years. I don’t think it’s worth the risk of tying up clients money for 10 years or more just to get a higher yield right now.
I’ve stopped by individual bonds except for the rare municipal bond purchase. I prefer to build my ladders with corporate bond ETFs. Each ETF is a basket of bonds that all mature in the same year. The yield is comparable to buying a single, individual bond
I’ve also been adding TIPS to client portfolios. TIPS are U.S. treasury bonds that provide protection against inflation, and if you’ve been listening to the podcast for the last year or so, you know this is a concern of mine.
I’m not a big fan of bond funds with no maturity date, but I’ll buy bond funds if we’re trying to add international diversification to a bond portfolio, and often within 401k accounts, bond funds are the only options there for investing in bonds, so I try to stick with high-quality intermediate term bonds if I’m recommending a bond fund.
That’s it for today. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work, individual bonds vs bond funds, bonds vs mutual funds
This week, I’m talking about investing in bonds now. It seems like an untimely topic with interest rates so low, but that’s precisely why I’m covering the topic this week. This is the time when people question the value of bonds and abandon this important asset class because the yields are no longer palatable.
But the reality is that bonds will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement, so today, I’m sharing with you my favorite way to invest in bonds - the bond ladder.
In order to explain how this works, I want you to picture a ladder. Each step or rung on the ladder represents one year.
So if I build a 5 year bond ladder for a client, I buy bonds of ideally equal weightings that mature this year, next year, and so on for 5 years. Each year is represented by one rung on the ladder.
If you invest $100,000 into a 5-year bond ladder, you’ll have $20,000 invested in each year. The bond ladder doesn’t have to be 5 years, it can be longer or shorter, but hopefully you get the idea.
A year from now, that first bond will mature and cash out and I will have $20,000 to reinvest in the next rung of the ladder, which is 5 years out from next year’s maturity date. Chances are good that the income or yield on that 5 year bond is higher than what I was receiving on the previously invested bond, so often bond ladders allow you to increase your bond income and yield over time.
If interest rates rise gradually over the next few years, you’ll be able to reinvest at higher and higher rates.
What I love most about bond ladders is that they provide predictable income, because one year of bonds will mature each year, but the other 4 bonds stay invested, so the income tends to be very stable. Bond ladders are generally more liquid too because of their shorter-term nature, and they work great in a rising interest rate environment, because you get to gradually re-invest your bonds at higher rates each year as your bonds mature and cash out, rather than being locked-in for years to come.
Bond ladders are a strategy I’ve used successfully with clients since the beginning - over 13 years now, and it truly is my favorite strategy for investing in bonds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, how do bonds work
This week’s theme is “should I invest in bonds now?”
Today, I’m talking about the 3 biggest mistakes that I see over and over and over again when I review people’s bond portfolios. When I talk to prospective clients, I have the opportunity to look under the hood of their portfolio, and when I see people make blunders with their bonds, it usually falls into 1 or more of 3 categories:
- Owning bonds that are too risky
- Reaching out too far for income, and
- Having too much or too little in bonds
Let’s break down each one of these:
- Owning bonds that are too risky. Credit quality or in other words the likelihood of default are very important factors when selecting bonds. If you buy individual bonds and the issuer files bankruptcy, you can kiss your money goodbye in most cases, so its important to keep a close watch on credit quality. Bonds have ratings to indicate their quality or likelihood of default, so watch those ratings carefully, especially if you own individual bonds. For my clients that means owning bonds with investment-grade ratings or higher, usually BBB+ or better. If a bond begins to deteriorate in quality, I sell. It’s not worth the risk in most cases to stay invested.During Covid last summer, I had this happen with a couple of well-known retailers and their bonds that a handful of my clients owned. There was so much uncertainty about the future of these businesses, that it wasn’t worth the risk to wait and hold, so we moved on and their portfolio is more secure now because we sold.
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Reaching out too far for income. Here’s what I mean by that - you might buy a bond that’s maturing in 30 years because it’s paying you 6% or 7% a year in income, but when rates climb higher, you can expect that the bond price will drop - and it could drop by 10-20% or more, so don’t be tempted to reach out too far into the future for income. With interest rates so low right now, reaching out too far for income or buying bonds that are too risky for income is problematic. Ive had clients get lured into buying some “guaranteed” investment that promised to pay them 13% interest, only to have it blow up later and never be able to sell and get out. This happens far too often, especially when rates are low and bond income is dismal.
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Having too much or too little in bonds. We talked about this yesterday when I gave you some guidelines to consider when building your bond portfolio for retirement. By far, what I see most often is that someone has too little in bonds and too much in stocks. This can be dangerous if you’re approaching retirement and the right mix isn’t a one-size-fits all answer. Take a look at your overal mix of stocks and bonds and make sure you can handle a protracted drop of 25% or more if you are heavily tilted to stocks.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is should I invest in bonds now?
Today, I’m focusing on how to find the right balance of bonds in your portfolio.
It’s a delicate balance - too much in bonds could snuff out the growth potential of your investments because you don’t have enough in stocks, and then on the other side of that coin... if you don’t have enough in bonds and too much of your portfolio is invested in stocks, you’re not protected from major market downturns, you have a 40% drop in your portfolio in the first few years of retirement and now you’re faced with some tough choices about going back to work or cutting back on your lifestyle permanently while your portfolio limps back to it’s previous high water mark over a period of several years.
Owning bonds is like the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears - not too much, not too little. We want a bond portfolio that is just right.
The % in bonds that I typically recommend for clients in retirement is anywhere from 40% in bonds to 70% in bonds.
If you want to know the mix of bonds that we recommend for our clients by age, you can email me and I will send you our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet. It’s a guide to what your stock and bond mix should be for your age in 5 year increments, and it’s the foundation that we use to determine stock and bond percentages for our clients. There are other factors to consider other than age, but this guide gives you some specific guidelines and is a great place to start.
Just shoot me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com and I’ll send you your free age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, to help you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your portfolio.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, asset allocation, stocks vs bonds, stock vs bond, investment allocation, what are bonds
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast is should I invest in bonds now?
First off, to make sure we’re all on the same page here, let me backup and explain what I mean by investing in bonds. Technically, we’re talking about fixed income, but you can think about bond investing as everything from CDs that you buy at the bank, to corporate bonds, U.S. Treasury Bonds, or bond funds.
There are a lot of different ways to invest in bonds, and it’s important that you at least have a basic understanding of bonds, since this asset class will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement. So it’s important that you have a basic knowledge of how to invest in bonds and why you should consider bonds for your retirement portfolio in the first place.
Some people object to bonds because the returns are lower than stocks. And that’s true. Over the long-run, you might only expect to receive about ½ of the amount in return that you could earn from investing in stocks.
But here’s why owning bonds is worthwhile: Bonds provide income and stability - two very important characteristics for an investment portfolio in retirement.
First of all, there’s income - Bonds provide steady and reliable income as long as you invest in high quality bonds. This becomes critically important in retirement, as you’ll want to make sure that if you need to pull out $40,000 of income annually from your investments, that a significant portion of that is coming from the income that’s already baked in. That way, you won’t have to rely solely on growth to provide the income you might need from your investments.
An important but often overlooked benefit of owning bonds is that they provide stability during downturns in the stock market. As long as you stick with high-quality bonds, you won’t have to worry too much about your bond portfolio cratering in value in the next recession. But rather, it provides some much needed stability from your stock portfolio that might be dropping 10, 20 or 30%.
There are a lot of other reasons to own bonds in retirement - like diversification and tax advantages for certain types of bonds, but income and stability are the key characteristics that I always come back to when clients ask me why they can’t just put everything in the stock market.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, what are bonds
I read the other day that the Fed is not likely to raise interest rates until 2023. Wha??? That’s cray cray!
Interest rates have been really low now since the financial crisis...going on 14 years! If you watch CNBC or read investment-related news, you may be thinking that investing in bonds is a bad idea.
And you might be asking yourself…Why then are you here telling me about bonds this week? That’s a good question. Investing in bonds isn’t dead! In fact, bonds should still make up a meaningful portion of your portfolio, especially if you’re over 50.
I really do love bonds and it’s important that you understand how to invest in bonds because they are likely to play a key role for your investment portfolio in retirement.
So this week on the One Minute retirement tip podcast, I’m talking about why you should invest in bonds now. How bonds fit into your overall retirement portfolio, why you need them, and what type of bonds I’m investing in right now.
This is a big, important topic and I’m going to do my best to help you become a better bond investor this week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, bond investment definition, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, what are bonds
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
This week’s theme is: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients
I have my dad back on the podcast this week, and we’re sharing common threads that we see among our most successful clients...
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip was “I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!”
Many people who moved their retirement portfolio to cash in 2020 are frozen now because the stock market is at it’s all time highs and it's no fun jumping back in at this point. So this week, I talked about practical ways to move forward from here, and how not to make the same mistake again the next time the stock market takes a nosedive.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The Worst Part About Selling All Of Your Stocks
- How To Not Lose Sight Of Your Long-Term Strategy
- Why You Should Re-Evaluate Your Tolerance for Risk and your ideal % in stocks If You Sold Your Stocks In 2020
- And lastly, I talked about 2 strategies for getting back to your ideal % in stocks - wading into the pool gradually or jumping into the deep end. Both strategies have merit, and it usually comes down to what you can stomach and the tradeoffs between potential reward and potential risk of moving back into stocks now vs. doing it gradually.
The key takeaway from this week is that not being fully invested at your ideal mix of stocks can be very problematic. So if you sold in 2020, making a plan for how to get back in, and putting that plan into action is critical for not staying paralyzed and doing nothing, and earning nothing in cash as a result.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, you have the tools to get back the right % in stocks for your portfolio, as well as the understanding about why succumbing to the temptation to sell again in the future can be very damaging for you in the long run.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: 5 Habits of Highly Successful Clients. I’m bringing my dad back to the podcast, and we’re talking about the recurring habits we see among our most successful and financially savvy clients.
And before you go, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new video every Sunday on helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!”.
Yesterday I talked about the method for getting back into the stock market that I prefer which is moving ⅓ or ½ in now and then the rest over a period of a few months. If you missed yesterday’s episode - go back and check it out, because I laid out the overall strategy for getting back into stocks of first determining your ideal allocation to stocks, determining your timeline, then putting it on auto-pilot.
If you’re brave enough, you could also just move everything that needs to get added back to stocks right now.
That option isn’t attractive to most people, since there’s seemining a lot of risk involved. After all if you’re in this position right now, you’re looking at a stock market that’s at nearly 33,000 on the Dow as I record this podcast - an amazing place to be if you’ve stayed the course. A scary place to jump in if you’ve been sitting out of the stock market on the sidelines.
But here’s the thing to keep in mind. Statistically speaking, the stock market has about a 70% chance of having a positive return in any given year. And as I talked about earlier this week, there is substantial risk of missing out on those few amazing days in the stock market that are responsible for an outsized % of your overall results.
In most cases, the sooner you can get back into stocks, the better. It doesn’t really matter all that much that the stock market is near it’s all time high, because it could continue to touch new highs all year long and keep going higher from here while you sit in cash.
As long as you still believe in free market capitalism and that the US economy is worth investing in over the long-term, then there’s no reason to wait it out longer than you can stomach.
So if you have the temperament for it, you could also implement strategy number 2, which is jumping into the deep end of the pool and getting to your ideal mix of stocks and bonds all at once.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!”
So far this week, I’ve been addressing some of the big problems with getting out of the stock market and almost without fail its a losing strategy that can have devastating consequences on your long-term portfolio returns, and by extension, your life and lifestyle in retirement.
Today and tomorrow, I want to discuss how to move forward from here. If you sold in 2020 and are still parked in cash or even if you’re just underweight stocks, where do you go from here?
The first thing you need to do is determine your ideal asset allocation. For most of you listening close to retirement, that’s anywhere from 40% stocks to 70% stocks. By the way, if you want some guidance here, I have our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet I can send you that provides the recommended asset allocations we recommend for clients based on age. It’s a great starting point to figuring out your ideal mix and then you can go higher or lower depending on your tolerance for the ups and downs of the market, which was the topic of yesterday’s podcast.
Anyways, if you want that asset allocation cheat sheet, just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com and I’ll send it to you. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
So let’s assume that you have a $1 million portfolio and right now you’re 20% in stocks, when you really need to be 60% in stocks. That’s $400,000 to move into the stock market to get up to your ideal 60% allocation.
How are you going to move that $400,000 into the stock market? Certainly not right now when the stock market is at it’s all-time high. You feel a little silly and foolish even for considering buying at the top. After all - buy low and sell high - not the opposite, right?
The most common suggestion I have for someone who has too little in stocks and needs to move a lot or even a little back into the market is to do so gradually. That could be a period of 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months.
I usually don’t recommend going past 12 months until you’re fully invested at your ideal allocation again, but the important point here is that you decide on the timeframe you’re comfortable with. Deciding in advance is important so that you put the reinvestment on auto-pilot after that.
In this example of needing to move $400,000 back into the stock market, I might recommend to a client 6 months seems prudent. So I might move ⅓ or even ½ back in now, since the likelihood is that the stock market will continue moving higher over the next 6 months (that’s not my opinion - that's statistical fact). The sooner you can get back invested, the better usually. So we might move ½ now and then move the other $200,000 back in over the next 6 months - that’s $33,000 a month that’s moving back into the stock market.
That money that’s being moved over into stock each month is done robotically with this strategy - the same day every month, like clockwork it’s moved over. Doesn’t matter if the stock market is up, down or sideways that day or week...we’re moving money back into the market.
So that’s my preferred strategy - determine your ideal % of stocks in your portfolio, then determine your timeframe (not more than 12 months) for being fully invested at that ideal % allocation, then put it on autopilot to get reinvested so you don’t have to think about it or abandon your strategy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!”.
Today, I’m talking about what your panic in 2020 may be indicating about your temperament as an investor and why you should pay attention to that.
Sometimes investors panic and sell because they get too caught up in the emotions of the situation, resort to fight or flight thinking, and sell. In that moment, their emotions clouded their good judgement, and it resulted in panic selling.
But if this has been a pattern for you and you get very anxious and worried each time the stock market drops, with your hand hovering over the panic button, that’s a sign that you may not have the temperament for your current stock portfolio.
If you were 75% or 80% in stocks at the beginning of 2020, and your had $1 million retirement portfolio, it wouldn't have been unusual to see your portfolio drop to $750,000 or even lower.
What happens to you when you look up your account value online after a really ugly day in late March 2020, and you see $250,000 of your retirement savings evaporate?
Do you close your browser and tell yourself it will be ok? Do you lose sleep that night and obsessively check your account multiple times a day, or worse, did you move your entire 401k balance with a few clicks to the cash or stable value fund to stop the bleeding.
If you get very anxious about seeing your portfolio drop in value, that’s not something to ignore. If you sold in 2020 and also in 2011, 2008, and 2001 when the stock market faltered, then that panic selling is doing some major damage to your long-term results and it should be an indication that you had too much in stocks to begin with.
The place to start is understanding your tolerance for the ups and downs of the stock market. If you have a lower tolerance for those downs, then you should have less in stocks than someone else in a similar set of circumstances. It doesn’t mean that you should have nothing in stocks, but aligning your portfolio more closely with your tolerance for risk will help you stick with your long-term strategy during troubled times.
It’s important to remember that by reducing your % in stocks, you’ll also be reducing your long-term growth potential. This is not something to take lightly, as the difference in just a 1 or 2% in annual returns because of a more conservative portfolio equates in a lower portfolio value - often a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That means if you want to be more conservatively invested with less in stocks, you may need to save a lot more, retire later, or spend less in retirement, just to ensure that your more conservative investment strategy doesn’t derail your retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!”. I’m helping you make a plan for getting back in the stock market if you cashed out last year or even if you’re underweight in stocks.
Today, I’m talking about not losing sight of your long-term strategy. Many people who are close to retirement get spooked when big drops in the stock market happen. In my experience, I find that those within 5-10 years of retirement are most susceptible to selling their stock portfolio and moving to cash when the market takes a big drop.
People in their 40s still recognize that they’ve got a ways to go to make up for any losses, and people who are retired are surprisingly more likely to brush it off, which I credit to their experience, especially going through 3 major stock market meltdowns over the last 25 years.
But what about those of you who are just a few years away from retirement. It’s a critical time and you hope and pray for good portfolio returns during your final working years and in the early years of your retirement. It’s the most dangerous time for a big stock market drop, and it’s the most dangerous time to abandon your long-term investment strategy.
The key is remembering that even if you retire today, you still need to make your money last for 20-30 more years, and that means sticking to the plan you’ve laid out for yourself. If you’re 60 or 65 years old, you shouldn’t have more than about 60% of your portfolio in stocks in most cases anyways. That will help insulate you from the roller coaster ride of the stock market.
You should also think through your plan B. If there is a prolonged downturn in the stock market just before or just after retirement, would you be willing to keep working, go back to work, work part time, cut your expenses, build up your cash savings - anything you can do to stop portfolio withdrawals for 12-18 months during a stock market downturn is going to help protect you in retirement.
One last thing before you go...If you’ve been listening a while and you haven’t yet left a review in Amazon or in Apple Podcasts, could you take just a minute and leave me a quick, honest review? It’s been a while since I plugged reviews on the podcast, and it’s starting to show with some of the more recent reviews tending more toward hate and not love. So if you’re getting value from these tips on retirement, or even if you call me nefarious, like a recent reviewer, I would be very grateful for your honest review.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!”.
Today, I’m talking about the worst part of selling all your stocks. This is something that few people realize, but if you can sear this investing truth into your brain, it will help to convince you never to sell, even when it seems the world is coming to an end.
Using data compiled from JP Morgan Asset Management, during the 20-year time period from 2000 through 2019, the S&P 500 averaged a 6% annual return. If you missed just the 10 best days, your returns over those 20 years dropped to 2.44% annually. Astonishing! 10 amazing days in the stock market over a 20-year time period were responsible for more than half of the cumulative returns over those 20 years.
If you missed the best 30 days, your returns were actually -1.95% over that same 20-year time period.
What’s the takeaway? You must be invested at all times to benefit from the stock market’s growth. If you bail out of the market when times are tough, you’re likely to miss at least some of those best days. They usually occur in the midst of a downturn in stocks, not when times are calm. If you watched the stock market closely in 2008-2009 or in 2020, you know exactly what I mean.
A 500, 800, or 1200 point drop in the Dow was often followed by a massive gain shortly thereafter. On March 24, 2020, the Dow has it’s best 1-day gain since 1933, surging more than 11% in just one trading day.
Little did anyone know, but the stock market hit its Covid bottom just a few days prior to that. If you panicked and sold when the stock market was in freefall just days prior, you missed the best day in the stock market in a lifetime.
And that’s the worst part of selling all of your stocks. It most often means you’ve both locked in your losses, but you miss out on those good days in the stock market when it matters most.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
In 2020, I had a handful of clients who sold some or all of their stocks and moved to bonds or cash after the stock market plunged historically in the spring of 2020.
A couple of these clients eventually got back on the saddle again, but often what I see is that when you sell, and lock in those losses it can take years to get back in. Just a casual look at the headlines would cause anyone in cash to be skittish about getting back into the stock market - last year’s election, new covid strains popping up, uncertainty about vaccine rollouts, and waiting for the next shoe to drop.
The hard part about getting back into the stock market after you sell is that it never feels like the right time. Nearly every time, you’re going to have to get back in the stock market before you really start to feel better. If you wait until the negative and scary headlines have stopped convincing you to stay in cash, you could be waiting for years to reinvest. All the while, you’ve abandoned your long-term investment strategy and guaranteeing yourself very low rates of return.
There’s a lot to deal with psychologically when you’ve sold your stock portfolio. Most people feel stupid about selling, and they’re convinced that as soon as they reinvest back into the stock market, it will crash. There’s a lot of guilt and shame and regret wrapped up in the decision to sell your stocks, and it can be paralyzing to reinvest.
The key is realizing that it doesn’t matter what decisions or mistakes you’ve made in the past. All that matters is how you move forward from here. In a lot of ways we can’t live our lives looking in the rearview mirror and wishing it were different. All you can do is look ahead through the windshield and make a wiser decision about where you go from here. So don’t let the remorse prolong the problem. You can’t think like that if you’re going to be a successful investor.
So this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast I’m talking about what to do now if you sold your stocks in 2020. You’re sitting on the sidelines kicking yourself because you were convinced that the pandemic was going to wipe out millions of lives along with your portfolio.
Yet, here we are, a year later and the stock market is at it’s all time highs. So where do you go from here if you got spooked last year and sold all your stocks? Or even if you didn’t sell everything, but you’re underweight stocks and you know you need to increase what you have in stocks, I’ll lay out a strategy to help you get fully invested in this week’s podcast episodes.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast! This podcast is aimed at helping you enjoy a meaningful and financially secure retirement. If you’re getting close to retirement or you recently retired, this podcast is for you.
I’m your host, Ashley Micciche, and each week, I take a retirement planning topic and I break that down into digestible daily doses of retirement wisdom, so in just a few minutes a day, you’ll be better equipped to live the retirement you envision.
I hope you’ll join me this week, and I look forward to spending a few minutes with you tomorrow!
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip was the biggest money worries for retirees
Here are the top money worries that I covered in each episode this week:
- Outliving your money - by far the biggest money worry - it’s almost universal among all but the wealthiest Americans
- Another top money worry - inflation!
- I also talked about the risks of a big stock market crash, health care costs, and cuts to social security.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, I talked about some worries that you have thought about and addressed these worries in a way that helps you take practical steps now to minimize the risk of these worries coming to fruition in your own situation.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: I Sold All My Stocks In 2020...Now What?!
2020 was an unexpected year for growth for the stock market. Most people stayed invested and rode out the covid stock market crash and subsequent recovery without selling.
But what if you did sell in 2020? Surely you had a good reason to...a global pandemic that brought the entire global economy to a screeching halt. Then we had civil unrest through the summer and then a contentious election in the fall.
Just keep your money invested, everything will be fine!
Not everyone bought into that one, and I occasionally talk with people who are waiting for the next shoe to drop - if it’s not new strains of covid or worries of higher inflation that will bring the stock market back down, it’s bound to be something else.
Many people who went to cash last year are frozen because the stock market is at it’s all time highs as I record this episode, and its no fun jumping back in at this point. So next week, I’ll talk about practical ways to get back into the stock market for those of you listening who may have gone to cash last year or are at least under invested in stocks at this point.
And before you go, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new video every Sunday on helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is the biggest money worries for retirees.
Today, I’m talking about cuts to social security. If there ever was a classic example of kicking the can down the road for the federal government, I think social security takes the #1 spot. It’s not politically popular to mess with the income of a large voting block of retirees, so our politicians will likely keep kicking that can until we’re in a real crisis situation.
According to a 2020 article in AARP, the social security trust fund is expected to run out by 2031. That 10 years will be here pretty quickly, and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen. Keep in mind that the current revenue coming into social security from working americans will continue to fund social security payments to retirees, but 100% of those payments won’t be covered. The amount of current benefits that would still be paid out without any reforms to social security is somewhere in the 75% range.
So if you hear people talking about benefits stopping when the trust fund runs out, just ignore them. It’s not correct. Even with no money in the trust fund, the payroll tax revenues are still pouring in to pay current benefits for retirees.
Because too many low-income and retired Americans rely on every penny of their social security checks in retirement, I don’t think they’ll mess with current benefits to current retirees, and I wouldn’t be concerned about it, especially in your 50s and 60s.
I think they’re much more likely to raise taxes or raise the age you can start social security, but worrying about getting the rug pulled out from under you when you’re relying on social security in retirement is not a rational concern in my opinion. The reforms will impact working Americans the most and may result in reforms like someone my age not even having the option to start social security until later, or incorporating means testing which would result in lower social security checks for higher-income retirees.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is the biggest money worries for retirees.
Today, I’m talking about another common money worry for retirees and my clients - health care costs.
Healthcare is one of the biggest expenses for most retirees - ranking right up there with housing and transportation costs, and it comes with an equally big lifetime price tag.
Fidelity estimates that about 15% of the average retiree's annual expenses will be used for health care-related expenses, including Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
In that same study, Fidelity found that the average retired couple age 65 in 2019 will spend $285,000 on health care expenses in retirement. For single retirees, the estimate is $150,000 for women and $135,000 for men.
How much you spend is obviously going to vary widely depending on where you live, how you’re paying for out-of-pocket expenses and how healthy you are, but in my experience, most of my clients end up spending $5,000-$15,000 per year on healthcare costs.
Healthcare will likely be a big ticket item in retirement. There isn’t a whole lot of control you have over that. However, you can still tackle this problem in a practical way:
- Don’t bury your head in the sand. Plan for health care costs, calculate your estimated expenses, and make it a part of your retirement spending budget. Knowledge is power.
- Secondly, I recommend that you attach a 5-7% inflation rate on health care costs. Despite political rhetoric, I don’t think we’ll be solving the health care cost problem in America anytime soon. Costs only seem to be heading higher, and I think it’s reasonable to expect that in retirement.
If you’re still a few years away from retirement and you’re eligible for a health savings account or HSA, you can start saving and investing for health care costs now. I’m a big fan of the HSA as it offers tax benefits that no other retirement savings account can match - tax deductible contributions, tax free growth, and tax free withdrawals as long as the money is used to pay for qualified medical expenses.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is the biggest money worries for retirees.
Today, I’m talking about another top money worry for retirees - a big stock market crash.
A big stock market crash is a major concern for retirees. Especially if that stock market crash happens in the early years of retirement, it can be a big big problem, and some portfolios never recover, and the risk that you’ll run out of money is a lot higher...all because of bad luck and bad timing.
The answer to why a big stock market crash can be problematic lies in a concept known as sequence of returns risk, or sequence risk. According to an article in Forbes published in 2019,
“One of the biggest risks for retirees who want to generate their retirement income from a volatile investment portfolio is large negative returns early in retirement. We often call this sequence of returns risk. When you withdraw money from an investment portfolio, negative returns early in retirement can cause the portfolio to fail faster than if those same negative returns instead occurred later in retirement.”
In other words, your portfolio withdrawals in those early years combined with a large drop in the value of the portfolio, permanently reduce the size of your nest egg and it’s really difficult to recover.
The key thing to keep in mind here is that the biggest risk to you and your portfolio from a big stock market crash is in the earliest years of retirement.
It’s important in the early years to have a plan B in case your portfolio drops. I’m a big advocate of 18 months worth of portfolio withdrawals in cash at all times, so you could stop withdrawals altogether in a big market downturn, which tend to last about a year to a year and ½ - hence the 18 months worth of withdrawals recommendation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is the biggest money worries for retirees.
Today, I’m talking about another big money worry for retirees - inflation. Should you worry about inflation?
I actually dedicated an entire week’s worth of tips to this topic in August 2020, so if you’re really spooked about inflation, go back and listen to episodes 659-665. MY answer about whether or not you should worry about inflation hasn’t changed since last August:
I don’t think inflation is a concern right now. Although more news articles and headlines have come out recently on higher inflation as it has picked up in recent weeks, along with higher interest rates.
But while we’re still in recovery mode from Covid, I don’t think inflation is a concern in the near-term. But should you be concerned about it over the span of your retirement? You betcha. The problem of inflation for retirees is that the cost of everything continues to go up, but your income generally cannot keep pace. Increases in social security to account for inflation are pretty dismal, so you’re going to need your investment portfolio to continue to grow to keep up with the rising cost of everything in retirement.
Inflation is a concern even if we have low or moderate inflation during your retirement years, but it can be devastating if inflation is even in the mid to high single digits. Either your portfolio withdrawals will need to go up, or you’ll have to cut back on your lifestyle and expenses in retirement. Either way, it’s not a good situation.
Rather than sit there biting your nails, there are a few practical steps you can take to protect yourself and your retirement portfolio against higher inflation:
The key principle to remember here is that what you invest in must have growth potential, so that your dollars will grow over time to keep up with inflation. Holding cash, savings, money market accounts, CDs, and low-yielding bonds aren’t good protectors against higher inflation, because the growth rate just can’t keep pace with inflation.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t own any bonds, CDs, or cash, but owning too much of these assets is problematic.
In addition to not owning too much in bonds, there are a few types of investments that actually do well when inflation is higher. Having some of your retirement portfolio invested in these areas can help insulate you from the ravages of higher inflation.
The most obvious and well-known protection against inflation is gold and other precious metals. But gold’s ability to protect you against higher inflation is limited, because owning too much gold comes with it’s own set of problems.
An often overlooked, but in my opinion a better protector against inflation is your stock portfolio. Yes, just by maintaining a meaningful % of stocks in your portfolio, you can protect yourself against inflation, since stock market returns tend to outpace inflation by a wide margin over time.
TIPS or Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are US Govt bonds that have an inflation protection component to them are also a great hedge against inflation, and lastly there’s real estate.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is the biggest money worries for retirees.
Today, I’m talking about the biggest money worry by far. This one is so common, dare I say it’s universal. I don’t know many people, even most millionaires that I know, who aren’t at least a little concerned about this one.
It’s outliving your money. Running out of money before you run out of years is a major worry. Even for some of my clients whose net worth is well over $1 million, this is a major worry. I find that the worry begins to fade once net worth exceeds about $5 million or $6 million. But that’s just not the case for most of us.
Worrying about outliving your money is a well-founded worry. When you transition into retirement, there’s an uncertain road ahead. You have your retirement savings, but you don’t actually know if that will be enough. I think most of us don’t want to be a financial burden to our kids when we’re 80 years old, or sit in front of a TV all day for 20+ years in retirement because you can’t afford to do anything else. That’s probably not the retirement you envision.
You likely want to maintain a similar lifestyle you had while working, without needing to cut back. You probably want to travel more and be able to enjoy time with your family, kids, and grandkids. Go out to restaurants. Enjoy your hobbies. And just maintain your home and keep up with the cost of living. These desires all require money, and you want to be sure you’ll have enough to help you live the lifestyle you envision in retirement.
The key to reducing this worry is based on 4 factors. If you can get these 4 things right, you’ll be able to mitigate much of the risk of outliving your money.
These 4 factors are:
- pre-retirement savings (i.e. how much you save and accumulate pre-retirement)
- The age you retire, as retiring too early can have a ripple effect and drain your portfolio value
- How your portfolio is invested and your mix of stocks and bonds
- Your spending in retirement
These 4 factors are all interconnected and have the most influence on whether or not you’re likely to outlive your money. The good news is that unlike many of the other common money worries - a big stock market crash, inflation, rising health care costs - these factors are all very much within your control.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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I am a worrier. As my dad says, “Ashley, we come from a long line of worriers”. Like it’s something to be proud of or something I’m powerless against. I worry about my kids constantly. I just want to bottle them up and preserve them just as they are. It's excruciating, because my overprotective, helicopter mom tendencies run deep. Knowing where the line is on keeping my children safe vs letting them explore the world is a constant internal battle.
I worry about my business, a difficult conversation I need to have with someone, how divided we are as a nation and whether or not that can be repaired or if eventually we will descend into complete chaos and ruin the greatest experiment in capitalism the world has ever or may ever know. But I digress.
This might surprise you given my default worried state, but I don’t worry about money all that much. I don’t worry much about my own money or the money of my clients. I haven’t fully unpacked why that is. I think it’s a combination of experience and self-preservation. I would be a nervous wreck and a terrible advisor to my clients if I worried a lot about money - both my own and their money. I knew that I needed to not allow myself to get rattled by a downturn in the economy, world events, and global stock market meltdowns, because my shakiness would only lead to bigger problems for clients.
So I don’t react too strongly when the Dow drops by 1000 points or worse. In March last year, when the stock market was in freefall, I was more worried about my clients throwing in the towel on their long-term investment strategy, than I was worried about the state of the economy or the stock market.
My clients, on the other hand, worry all the time about their money. Some more than others, of course. But it is part of my job to help clients work through their worries, determine if this worry is rational, and what steps we can take to reduce or eliminate a particular worry.
And that’s what I’m covering this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast - the Biggest money worries for retirees.
What are those top money worries for retirees?
- Outliving your money
- Inflation
- A big stock market crash
- Health care costs
- Cuts to social security
Any of these sound familiar? If the answer is yes, you’re most definitely not alone! Just be sure to stick around this week where I’ll share with you how you can take practical steps to reduce or sometimes even eliminate these worries in your own situation.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast! This podcast is aimed at helping you enjoy a meaningful and financially secure retirement. If you’re within 10 years of retirement or you recently made the leap into retirement, then you’ve come to the right place.
I’m your host, Ashley Micciche, and each week, I take a retirement planning topic and I break that down into digestible daily doses of retirement wisdom, so in just a few minutes a day, you’ll be better equipped to live the retirement you envision.
So come on back tomorrow and in the meantime, I hope you have a blessed day.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip was “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Facebook Marketplace vs. Craigslist
- How To Get Rid Of Clutter Using Facebook Marketplace
- The Worst Items To Sell On Facebook Marketplace
- The Secret To Selling Fast on Facebook Marketplace
- Finding Bargains on Facebook Marketplace
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, you’re inspired to get to work on spring cleaning, decluttering, and experimenting with selling items on Facebook Marketplace. If you’re like me, you may even have some fun selling your items and fattening your wallet in the process.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: biggest money worries for retirees. What are your biggest concerns about your finances as you approach and transition into retirement. I’ll talk about these worries in detail as well as how to calm your fears and take practical steps to prevent these money worries from coming to fruition in next week’s tips.
And before you go, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new video every Sunday on helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”.
So far this week I have focused solely on selling on Facebook marketplace with the intention of getting rid of those items in your home that you no longer use, you're no longer serving you, and are just taking up valuable real estate in your home. Today I want to do something a little bit different which is focus on buying on Facebook Marketplace.
Not only have I sold a bunch of stuff on Facebook Marketplace I've also bought a few things as well. If you're new to Facebook Marketplace and you haven't tried it yet as either a buyer or a seller I certainly encourage you to try to as a seller first. After all the theme of this week is about getting rid of your clutter and not increasing your clutter or bringing you clutter into your home. However I'm certain things I have found it to be a very valuable resource especially for those of you who are more frugal minded. let me give you an example:
I just had my third child in September and I've had a jogging stroller since my first child was born in 2014. But my three-year-old still likes to ride in the stroller, my six-year-old is big enough now or she can walk, and I need to push baby in stroller. So I knew I needed to upgrade and buy a double stroller that can fit both my three-year-old and my newborn baby. I knew exactly the type of stroller that I wanted - Baby Jogger City Select double stroller. the problem is I have sticker shock with this stroller because it sells for about $800 brand new on Amazon. and with all the accessories and car seat adapters that I would need to buy I'd probably be spending another couple hundred dollars on this stroller.
Starting in Spring of 2020 I started to casually start looking for baby strollers and particularly this double stroller that I wanted. there were items listed from time to time on Facebook Marketplace, but I always felt that they were a little bit overpriced. so I just kept diligently looking from time to time. I might look on Facebook and type in the stroller I was looking for every few weeks, just to see if anything new had popped up. by the Fall baby have arrived and I still didn't have my double stroller. However one day I typed in My Baby Jogger City Select double stroller into the search on Facebook Marketplace dot-dot-dot and there she was. Exactly the stroller I was looking for, even had this writing board that you hook onto the back of the stroller where an older kid like my six-year-old could ride. I messaged the seller asked if the stroller was still available, I noticed he had listed it a couple weeks prior, he told me that I could have the stroller for $125. What an amazing find?!
I had my double stroller and not only that I had a triple stroller where all three of my kids then I could go out and walk together and have a good time. It was a practical purchase and it was an economical purchase. Because if I take care of the stroller there's a really good chance that I could turn around and sell it when I no longer need it anymore for about what I paid for it. So even if you're not into selling items on Facebook Marketplace I still think it has value for The penny-pinching Frugal person know when it's smart to buy something second hand versus paying for something you outright. in my situation it took quite a bit of time and patience to find exactly what I was looking for at just the right price, but it worked out in this situation and for certain items that that you are looking to purchase but don't want to spend a lot of money, it can work out well for you too.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”.
Today, I'm talking about the secret to selling fast on Facebook Marketplace. I have sold things in less than 5 minutes on Facebook Marketplace and I have had things sit with little to no interest for over a month on Facebook Marketplace. A difference I think comes down to pricing. It is all about pricing. if you think about Facebook marketplace with the right mindset, and I think the right mindset is really that it should function as a way to get rid of clutter in your house and things you no longer need but that can be valuable for somebody else, then you can use it to your advantage.
sometimes it can be a real hassle to hack something up and get down to the donation center, especially right now with with a lot more restrictions on that. sometimes if you have something bulky like a Furniture item or a large something it's often easier just to have somebody come to you and get. and if you price it right which sometimes includes pricing it as free you can sell pretty much everything on Facebook Marketplace.
This is kind of a depressing story but our dog died last February in 2020. He was a dachshund and he was nearly 17 years old. In fact on his 16th birthday I put him in my kids Power Wheels Motorized car snapped a picture and joked that y'all better watch out because then he's on the road now it's 16. but little Benny had a dog bed in our living room that I no longer needed after he died. And frankly he didn't use it that much anyways the dog was spoiled and he spent most of his time on the couch and turned up his nose at that dog bed. The dog bed as a result was in excellent condition it didn't think of dog odor and I cleaned up before I listed it on Facebook Marketplace but I listed this dog bed from Costco for free on Facebook and I probably had 25 messages in the first 15 from people who are interested in buying the dog bed. The dog bed was Okie I didn't want to haul it to the donation center, and I knew there was somebody out there who would be interested in that dog bed. And I was right. Now I could have listed that dog bed for money and not listed it as free but at the time I just wanted to get rid of it and I wasn't really sure how I used someone smelly dog bed with sell on Facebook Marketplace. Apparently it probably would have sold quite well even if I requested 10 or $15 for the item.
If you think about pricing your items on Facebook Marketplace similar to how you add items for a yard sale or garage sale I think you will sell items quicker on Facebook. Again as I've mentioned earlier in the week a goal with Facebook Marketplace & is not to get top dollar for your items, but to sell the items quickly and to have successful selling. If you don't have interested buyers within the first day or two of listing an item then that tells you that you've probably priced the item to high. At least that's what I found in my own.
I encourage you to learn from my mistakes price your items attractively as if you were pricing them for a garage sale or yard sale, and I think you'll see that that will lessen the hassle factor of selling items on Facebook and help you sell items quickly and finally get rid of your clutter.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”.
Yesterday I talked about the types of items that sell like hotcakes on Facebook Marketplace. Today I'm talking about the other side of the coin to that which is the worst items to sell on Facebook Marketplace. And believe me if there's anything that I can teach you about using Facebook Marketplace is what I can teach you from the mistakes that I have made in the junk that I have tried to sell and unload on Facebook Marketplace. Here are just a few items that I have tried to sell unsuccessfully on Facebook Marketplace:
- A Christmas dinnerware set. I'm actually a little disappointed in this one because I thought this was so fantastic. It's cute, it's Christmas Eve, and the set is complete and has pretty much never been used. By the way this one is still listed on Facebook so contact me if you want to buy it.
- Another category of items that just sells terribly on Facebook and by terribly I mean not at all or Handbags and wallet I've tried to sell a couple of Coach items on there a really expensive Tumi leather tote bag on there, and have much had zero responses on those items. I think the real trouble here is that I probably want more for them than what they're worth, and I just need to lower the price. but my ego can't bear the thought of parting ways with my $400 Tumi tote bag for less than a hundred bucks considering it's still in excellent condition.
- yesterday I mentioned how well Electronics cell but that needs to be taken with a grain of salt because outdated Electronics I find don't generally sell that well. Last year I actually tried to get rid of one of those big boxy old TVs, and I had actually listed it for free and I couldn't even get rid of it for free. I finally did but it took a really long time to find somebody who wanted that thing.
An article I stumbled upon while researching ideas for this week's tips was an article titled: Facebook Marketplace: the world's worst flea market. The article was 5 years old and poo poos Facebook Marketplace as a legitimate platform, however five years later that proves to be wrong. There is some truth in the sentiment of this article which is there are just certain things that are junk and should not be sold on Facebook.
I think you can sell pretty much anything on Facebook, especially if it's not too Niche, and it's priced right. I'll talk about pricing in more detail tomorrow, but when it comes to the worst items to sell on Facebook I think the key to keep in mind is that most everything can sell at a good price, that's in good condition.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”.
Today, I'm talking about the specific process that I used to get rid of clutter using Facebook Marketplace. Since last fall I've been decluttering certain spaces in my house. One week that might be a utensil drawer in my kitchen, the next week I might sell some Christmas decorations, and the week after that I might sell a decorative orb that I have no idea why I purchased in the first place.
As I go through my house and declutter most of the items get packed up to go to the donation center.. but as I declutter things and put stuff in the donation pile, I ask myself which of these items would likely sell quickly on Facebook Marketplace.
I sold enough items on Facebook Marketplace at this point that I have a pretty good sense of what sells well and what I should just pack up in the donation pile, and go ahead and donate.If you’re ready to declutter and start selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace, here’s the process that I use and recommend:
Go through one space in your home at a time. And I don't mean one room at a time because that can seem overwhelming. I do really mean one space. It could be a bookshelf, or a drawer in your kitchen, or a cabinet in your living room that you're not entirely sure what's even in there anymore.
I like to start with places in my home that I know are going to have a high impact. These are the spaces in my home that I use the most - my kitchen, my living room, my bedroom, my closet, my bathroom. These are the spaces in my home that I've systematically gone through over the last few months, and thrown out items that need to be trashed, set aside items for the donation pile, and lastly, curated items that I think will sell quickly and for a decent price on Facebook.
The key here is to not waste your time trying to sell things on Facebook Marketplace that simply won’t sell. Trust me when I tell you I have tried to sell numerous things on Facebook Marketplace, only to have it sit there with nobody interested in buying my junk. With that in mind here are the top items that sell well on Facebook Marketplace and even other places like eBay and Craigslist:
- Laptops.
- Televisions.
- Home goods.
- Pet supplies.
- Baby items.
- Yard tools.
- Outdoor recreation items.
- Video games.
- Furniture.
- Jewelry.
- Collectibles.
- Vehicles.
The best way to figure out what’s going to sell in your situation is just to keep in mind these categories and then just to list your item for a fair price. You can see what other similar items are already selling for and how much competition you already have, which will help you price your item attractively. If you go into it with the mindset of selling quickly, and not getting top dollar, you’ll find that you can sell items quicker.
And if you're like me at all you may find it a little bit addictive and satisfying to make a quick buck selling some items on Facebook. It also works wonders if you're trying to beef up your savings account, maybe pay off a few hundred dollars of a credit card bill or medical expenses, or cover some type of an emergency. You'd be surprised how quickly you can sell things just laying around your home when you're in a tight spot financially.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”. If you're on Facebook but you haven't given Marketplace a try I strongly urge you to consider using marketplace to get rid of some clutter and fatten your wallet at the same time - especially as we head into spring, and you start thinking about spring cleaning and getting serious about purging and decluttering.
I just had my third child last September and something weird and hormonal happens after I have a baby. What I've noticed with each of my kids is that while I'm pregnant I go through this intense nesting period. You’ve probably heard of that or experienced it yourself. I buy all of the things in the world – diapers, wipes, and stock my pantry and freezer full of food in preparation for the apocalypse.
It is intensely comforting to a 3rd trimester mama to have everything that I could possibly need in preparation for baby’s arrival. However as soon as that baby is born I do a complete 180 and all of a sudden I go into purge mode. That's what happened this fall after my 3rd baby was born. I started decluttering throughout my house - getting rid of duplicate items, purging my closet, taking decorative items off of bookshelves that had no sentimental value and were only serving as visual clutter in my home.
So in the spirit of my recent decluttering kick which involves a lot of listing and selling items on Facebook Marketplace, today I want to talk about the difference between Facebook Marketplace and its primary competitor which is Craigslist.
Now if you've ever bought or sold anything on Craigslist, it has this really icky feeling about it. My husband once bought something on Craigslist from somebody years ago, and I remember him taking a co-worker with him for protection as they met this random person in a deserted parking lot somewhere to do the transaction. Oftentimes when you enter into an agreement to buy or sell something to someone on Craigslist, all you have is maybe a phone number, you're not even sure if they are who they say they are, and it just feels like something bad could happen at any time, like a drug deal gone wrong. All to sell a bookshelf or a car part.
And I think that's the primary difference between Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Why you don't necessarily know who that person is that you're selling your item to on Facebook Marketplace, you know that person has a name, because you can look up their profile, you can see their profile photo, where they live, and often times they also have a rating on Facebook Marketplace if they sold or bought on there before. I have a rating of only like 3 stars because I tend to be slow to respond to people.
So you can get a sense for this person is and whether or not you want to give them your address to come pick up the item that they're going to buy from you
I think that's a number one benefit of Facebook Marketplace to sell and get rid of items quickly, is that there is a higher trust factor with using Facebook Marketplace over a platform like Craigslist.
The other thing I really like about Facebook Marketplace is that it is really really easy to list something quickly and sell it. You can snap a few pictures of the item you want to sell and in less than 5 minutes you can have that item listed.
And you get to dictate the terms, so most of the time if I'm selling something on Facebook Marketplace, I'm requiring that the person pick it up on my porch and leave cash under the mat, especially for lower ticket items. There is some sort of an honor system involved in this process but if you're selling lower value items for $5, $10, or $25, it's a pretty low-risk way to get rid of items quickly and not have to put in much effort.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Last summer I sold a dining patio furniture set on Facebook marketplace for $450. We had bought it a few years ago after we moved into our new house. We thought we would use it a lot more than we did. But instead it was under a covered patio area that we had in our backyard and it was taking up a lot of valuable real estate that my kids could otherwise play in. And in Oregon especially where it rains 8 months out of the year, having a covered outdoor patio space for my kids to play when it's raining and cold was just too valuable to allow to be taken up by a dining room set that we were never using. Also it was collecting all kinds of pollen and dirt, so I just decided last summer that I'm going to sell this thing.
I listed it on Facebook Marketplace and about 2 hours later I had found a buyer after combing through numerous other interested people.
The great thing about this particular transaction on Facebook Marketplace is that:
- I got exactly what I was asking for price wise.
- Secondly, this thing was a big bulky giant table with 6 chairs. It would have been a hassle to haul it off somewhere or to donate it.
- And lastly I was 7 months pregnant at the time and there was no way I was going to lift a finger removing the patio set from my backyard.
The buyers were excited to get a good deal on an outdoor patio dining set, I was excited to get that thing out of my life, and my kids were over the moon excited to have more play space in our backyard.
Other than being a really convenient way of making money selling things that you no longer need, Facebook Marketplace is a really interesting platform for decluttering and selling your items.
That's really why I'm focusing on this topic of Facebook Marketplace - because it’s an incredible and unique tool for finally getting rid of your clutter. Yes you can make money selling your stuff. deal. You can even try flipping things on Facebook Marketplace, but that's not the direction of this week's tips. This week I’m focusing on selling items on Facebook Marketplace to get rid of your clutter and why that will help you simplify your life, get rid of your clutter, and it focus more on what's most important to you in the process.
With spring arriving at the end of this week, it’s the perfect time to think about cleaning up and saying goodbye to those items that you no longer need and are only taking up space and cluttering up your home.
This week on 1 minute retirement tip podcast I am going to talk about:
- What I’ve sold on Facebook marketplace
- What kind of items sell best on Marketplace, as well as the kinds of items that are almost impossible to sell.
- My secret to selling items fast on Marketplace
- And the sad truth about why some things you own are completely worthless and impossible to sell.
That’s it for today. But before you go, I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast! This podcast is aimed at helping you enjoy a meaningful and financially secure retirement. If you’re within 10 years of retirement or you recently made the leap into retirement, then you’ve come to the right place.
I’m your host, Ashley Micciche, and each week, I take a retirement planning topic and I break that down into digestible daily doses of retirement wisdom, so in just a few minutes a day, you’ll be better equipped to live the retirement you envision, and have more clarity about how to make that happen and not run out of money.
I’ll see you tomorrow and I hope you have a blessed day!
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was What You Need To Know Before Starting IRA Withdrawals. As my clients approach retirement, and especially as they approach age 72, when required minimum distributions start, I get a lot questions. So this week, I answered the most common questions I get about IRA required minimum distributions.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- When Do I Have To Start IRA Required Minimum Distributions?
- How Much Do I Have To Withdraw From My IRA At Age 72?
- The Best Time to Take Your RMD
- How To Avoid Paying Taxes On Your Required Minimum Distributions
- The Big Mistake You’re Making With Your IRA Distributions
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, you have answers to some of the most commonly asked questions, and know how to avoid some of the more common mistakes when starting your IRA withdrawals.
Even if you’re still a few years away from starting your RMDs, it’s not too early to understand the do’s and don'ts with required minimum distributions, so you can avoid mistakes and make better decisions.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter.
If you’re in the mood to do some spring cleaning, next week’s tips are for you! I’ve sold a lot of crap on Facebook marketplace over the last couple years - everything from pianos, to nightstands, to an elliptical, to some really random stuff like plastic hangers and a dog bed. It’s been a game changer for getting rid of clutter and stuff I no longer need or want. I’ve learned a few things along the way and I’ll be sharing with you my tips to help you reduce unwanted clutter and fatten your wallet at the same time.
And before you go, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new video every Sunday on helping you live a fulfilled and financially secure retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is What You Need To Know Before Starting IRA Withdrawals. I’m answering the most common questions I get about IRA required minimum distributions.
Today, I'm talking about the big mistake or actually mistakes that you're making with your IRA distributions. These are the mistakes and they're all kind of related but these are the mistakes that I see clients make over and over and over again. These mistakes usually center around taxes and withholding.
One of the most common mistakes that I see among people has to do with their first IRA mandatory distribution. The rules allow the first distributionto be deferred to April of the following year, so rather than having to withdraw your first RMD by the end of the year that you turn 72, you don't actually have to take your first required minimum distribution until April of the following year.
But if you wait until April of the 2nd year - the year that you turn 73 to take that first distribution - you'll actually end up taking 2 required minimum distributions in that second year. That means double the distribution, double the reported income, and double the taxes from your IRA in that year.
This situation can lead to all kinds of unintended consequences and potentially putting you in a higher tax bracket. So generally I don't advise clients to wait take their required minimum distribution in that first year.
The other related mistake that I often see with required minimum distributions is improper tax withholding. I can't give you tax advice, and the amount of withholding that you have is completely up to you. I see some clients who withhold nothing and that's perfectly appropriate and I have other clients who withhold up to 25%. That's usually the top end of what I see.
Where I see people making mistakes is withholding the wrong amount. Either you're in a really low tax bracket and you withhold too much in taxes, or you're in a high tax bracket and you don't withhold enough on taxes. That's really the big mistake I see - improper withholding.
I strongly urge you to talk with your tax adviser to make sure that you're withholding matches your individual tax situation and that you are withholding an appropriate amount. I also recommend that you revisit your withholding every at least two or three years, since your tax situation will change, your income & your life circumstances will change, and tax laws will change.
Don't set it and forget it. Make sure that you're reviewing your withholding and right now -in the midst of tax season - it's a great time to revisit that and determine if your withholding amount should be adjusted based on this year's estimated income.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is What You Need To Know Before Starting IRA Withdrawals. I’m answering the most common questions I get about IRA required minimum distributions.
Today, I'm talking about how to avoid paying taxes on your required minimum distributions. The truth is there isn't much you can do to get around paying the taxes on your required minimum distributions. As I mentioned earlier in the week, when you turn 72 you are now required to start taking out money from your IRA or 401k accounts and paying taxes on those withdrawals, since they now count as income.
However if you are fortunate enough to not actually need the income from your IRA mandatory distributions, you can actually avoid paying the taxes on those withdrawals if you do what's called a qualified charitable distribution.
A qualified charitable distribution is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of the money out of the IRA withdrawal going directly to you, you send the money directly to a charity. When you do this you accomplish two important things:
- when the money leaves your IRA and goes straight to a charity you don't have to count that money as income, because you actually didn't receive the money as income.
- And since you didn't receive the money as income you don't pay taxes on that income.
If you're charitably inclined, this is an excellent way to make those charitable donations, especially since in your retirement years, taxes and income drops and if you’re not itemizing on your taxes, you can still get the tax benefits of charitable donations with a qualified charitable distribution.
Only point of caution on the qualified charitable distributions is that they need to be done in a very specific way in order for those distributions to not be counted as income and taxable to you. So just make sure that if you're going to do it, that you handle it with care by talking to your advisor or your financial institution about how to properly handle the qualified charitable distribution.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is What You Need To Know Before Starting IRA Withdrawals. I’m answering the most common questions I get about IRA required minimum distributions, otherwise known as RMDs.
Today, I'm talking about the best time during the year to take your rmd. now you might be sitting there thinking: why does this even matter? If I want to take my distribution in January vs December who cares? Or if I want to take my required minimum distribution every month why would that matter?
The truth is the timing of your RMD actually does matter - it matters a lot! Let me explain…
As I mentioned earlier this week the amount of RMD that you are required to take during the year remains fixed and determined from last year's ending balance and your current age. That dollar amount will not change during the year, but what will change during the year is your IRA or 401k account balance. And more often than not your IRA or your 401k account will be worth more money at the end of the year compared to the beginning of the year.
Let's say you have $100,000 in your IRA account at the beginning of 2021. It's your first year of taking your RMD and you decide that you're going to take about $4,000 out of the account in 2021. If you take that $4,000 out in January when the account is still around $100,000, it works out to about 4% of your portfolio value that you end up withdrawing from your IRA that year.
If however the portfolio grows by 10% or 20% this year, you don't have $100,000 in the account anymore. The account is now worth $110,000 or $120,000 depending on how much it grew in 2021. So if you were to wait until later in the year to take your mandatory withdrawal you still have to take that $4,000 out of the portfolio, but that $4,000 withdrawal now represents a smaller portion of the overall account.
As a result you put less stress on your portfolio financially, because your withdrawal is a lower percentage of the overall account balance. You be me asking yourself “what if my portfolio goes down in value that year?” If you wait until the end of the year you’d be taking a bigger portion of the account balance out if you wait. That's true and that's a very good point.
However if you just look statistically, about 70% of the time your portfolio will grow in value over a given calendar year. So, seven out of ten years your portfolio will be worth more at the end of the year than it was worth at the beginning of the year.
While no one has a crystal ball and no one can say exactly what their account balance will be at the end of the year or if it will grow during the year, the statistics show that more than likely you will be better off taking your RMD as late in the year as possible compared to taking it early or even as a monthly income stream.
That's what I advise all my clients - whenever possible try to take a required minimum distribution later in the year. It’s a small cash flow change, where you’ll give yourself the best chance of making your money last in retirement. You still receive the same amount of income during the year, but because you waited you took out a smaller percentage of your overall portfolio which can make a big impact in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is What You Need To Know Before Starting IRA Withdrawals. I’m answering the most common questions I get about IRA required minimum distributions.
Today, I'm talking about how much you have to withdraw from your IRA or your 401k accounts once you reach age 72 when required minimum distributions Begin. The amount that you are required to withdraw each year from your IRA or 401K accounts actually will change every single year. And that's because it's based on two factors one is your age and the other is your previous years account ending balance. And because those two things are always in flux each year or you're likely to have a different rmd requirement and it could be wildly different from year to year.
I think it helps to understand what's really happening here. As I explained yesterday the government wants its tax revenue back and so the goal is that not that you get to a age 90 or a hundred with a massive IRA account balance that's been growing for 50-60+ years, But that instead you gradually end up to pleading this account over time and as a result you pay more in tax revenue back to the US government over that same time.
What the end goal in mind I think it's easier to understand how those are MD's are calculated and why that amount changes every year. If you do the math and you turn 72 this year you need to take your first required minimum distribution, the withdrawal amount works out to about 3.9% of your total account balance. So if you have $100,000 in your IRA account, Is the required minimum distribution is just over $3,900, roughly equivalent to a 3.9% withdrawal rate.
If I use those same numbers hundred-thousand-dollar IRA account balance but instead of you being 72 years Old, you're 92 years old now that was strong rate is much much higher it works out to about a 9.8% withdrawal rate. So I'm not save $100,000 you have to take out just over $9,800 in 2021 if you are 92 years old.
So thankfully it's pretty easy to figure out what that rmd amount is each year - there are free calculators available online - just google RMD calculator - and if you work with a financial advisor, they will usually be proactive in calculating your RMD for you and ensuring that you take your full RMD withdrawal.
It gets a little bit more complicated if you have multiple accounts in different places, which is actually one of the reasons why I always recommend to clients - once your transition into retirement don't keep your old 401k account balances, don't keep a bunch of different IRA accounts at different financial institutions.
Sometimes we collect these accounts over our working lives but then when you get to retirement and you have to start taking that required minimum distribution, trust me when I say you're going to like the simplicity of not having to calculate and keep track of multiple required minimum distributions across multiple accounts at multiple financial institutions.
When you have accounts spread out at different places, it becomes a lot more likely that you're going to miss a required minimum distribution or not take your full required minimum distribution, and when that happens the tax penalty of missing a distribution are pretty steep.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is What You Need To Know Before Starting IRA Withdrawals. If you’re 65 or older, you’re probably thinking about how to be smart with required minimum distributions from your IRA. So this week, I’m answering the most common questions I get about IRA withdrawals and required minimum distributions.
Today, I'm tackling the most frequent question I get asked about rmds or required minimum distributions and that is when do I have to start Ira required minimum distributions? And why do I even have to take these distributions in the first place?
Let’s address that second question first - Why do I even have to take these distributions? Well if you have an IRA or a 401k account, you were making contributions to the account throughout your entire working life. And every dollar that you saved in your 401k or an IRA - as long as it was going into a traditional or pre-tax 401k or IRA - you didn’t pay taxes on those contributions.
In fact, you were getting a tax deduction on those contributions. On top of that, all the growth and gains in your 401k or IRA weren’t taxed either.
You didn’t pay taxes on any of the contributions and you didn't pay taxes on any of the growth that was in that account.
At some point, Uncle Sam puts his hands back into the money bag and says “all right now it's time for my money”.
Hence the requirement that at some point during your life you have to start taking money out of the account and when you do every dollar that you pull out of your IRA or 401k account now gets counted as income and you pay taxes on that income from your IRA or 401k account. The best basic answer of why you need to take his withdrawals in the first place and it's because the government wants its tax money back and they choose to take that on the back end.
So when you get to retirement - more specifically when you get to age 72, you need to start taking withdrawals from your IRA and 401K accounts in the form of these required minimum distributions or RMD's.
Now let's tackle the timing of when you have to start taking your RMD from your IRA because the answer to this question has actually changed over the last couple years.. The old rule stipulated that you needed to start taking your required minimum distributions by the end of the year that you turn 70 ½. But thankfully we moved away from the weird half ages with the SECURE Act that was passed in late 2019. If you turned 70½ years old on or after January 1, 2020, you don’t need to start RMDs until age 72.
In 2020, we had a bit of a curve ball with this new rule, because of the coronavirus. Required minimum distributions were actually not required in 2020, but now that we’re in 2021 and starting to come out of Covid, required minimum distributions are now required again at age 72 & older.
There are a few exceptions to this age requirement. If you're still working and you have a 401k you may be able to delay those required minimum distributions, but in general that's the rule - once you turn 72 you have to start pulling money out and count it as income.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
If you’re like most Americans you have money invested in a 401k or a Traditional IRA account. What happens when you are required to start taking RMDs or required minimum distributions? What age do you need to start? How do you calculate your withdrawal? When’s the best time during the year to take your RMD? Should you take it at the beginning of the year? The end of the year? Does it even matter? The answer to that may surprise you.
Perhaps more than anything else, I get lots of questions about RMDs as clients approach retirement. Which is why this week on the podcast, I’m talking about:What You Need To Know Before You Start IRA Withdrawals.
Making missteps is very common among people who take RMDs but don't understand the rules, how to minimize taxes, or how to properly time their withdrawals each year. So I'll cover all of that and more in this week's tips.
Come on back tomorrow, where I’ll be diving in and answering the most frequent IRA withdrawal question I get: when do I have to start RMDs and why do I even have to take RMDs in the first place?
Thanks for listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast, aimed at helping you enjoy a meaningful and financially secure retirement. If you’re within 10 years of retirement or you recently made the leap into retirement, this podcast is for you.
I’m your host, Ashley Micciche, and each week, I take a retirement planning topic and I break that down into digestible daily doses of retirement wisdom, so in the time it takes to brush your teeth in the morning, I’m done talking and you’re a little bit wiser and better prepared for retirement.
That’s it for today. Looking forward to spending a couple minutes with you tomorrow, where I’ll tackle the most common question I get about IRA required minimum distributions - when do I have to start? The answer to this question changed in 2019 with the new SECURE Act, so I’ll clarify this tomorrow.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was 5 Lessons We’ve Learned In 50 Years.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Lesson #1 - Stick With What You Know
- Lesson #2 - Integrity Matters Most
- Lesson #3 - Don't Chase What's Popular Now
- Lesson #4 - No One Can Time The Market
- Lesson #5 - You Can't Make Up For Lost Time
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, you gleaned a nugget or 2 or 5 nuggets of wisdom from 50 years of advising clients.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Selling Stuff On Facebook Marketplace.
And before you go, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a video every Sunday at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern, so head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 5 Lessons We’ve Learned In 50 Years.
My dad is my special guest this week, and collectively, we have been advising clients for 52 years. So this week, we’ve distilled our 50 years of collective experience and wisdom into 5 important lessons learned along the way,
Today’s lesson is you can’t make up for lost time...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 5 Lessons We’ve Learned In 50 Years.
My dad is my special guest this week, and collectively, we have been advising clients for 52 years. So this week, we’ve distilled our 50 years of collective experience and wisdom into 5 important lessons learned along the way,
Today’s lesson is no one can time the stock market...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 5 Lessons We’ve Learned In 50 Years.
My dad is my special guest this week, and collectively, we have been advising clients for 52 years. So this week, we’ve distilled our 50 years of collective experience and wisdom into 5 important lessons learned along the way,
Today’s lesson is don’t chase what’s popular now...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 5 Lessons We’ve Learned In 50 Years.
My dad is my special guest this week, and collectively, we have been advising clients for 52 years. So this week, we’ve distilled our 50 years of collective experience and wisdom into 5 important lessons learned along the way,
Today’s lesson is integrity matters most...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 5 Lessons We’ve Learned In 50 Years.
My dad is my special guest this week, and collectively, we have been advising clients for 52 years. So this week, we’ve distilled our 50 years of collective experience and wisdom into 5 important lessons learned along the way,
Today’s lesson is stick with what you know…
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is 5 lessons we’ve learned in 50 years. My dad is on this show this week, sharing the 5 most important things we’ve learned working with clients for a combined 50 years.
He’s been a financial advisor since 1982. I’ve been at this since 2007. Which means that collectively, that’s 52 years of working with clients.
He’s learned a lot over that time, and I’m excited to bring him onto the podcast for the first time to share his wisdom with you...
If you’re new to the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast, it’s a daily podcast aimed at helping you prepare for and enjoy a meaningful and financially secure retirement. If you’re within 10 years of retirement or you recently made the leap into retirement, this podcast is for you.
I’m your host, Ashley Micciche, and each week, I take a retirement planning topic & break it down into digestible daily doses of retirement wisdom, so that by the time you’re done brushing your teeth in the morning, I’m done talking and you’re a little bit wiser and better prepared for retirement.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was 2021 Economic Predictions.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Inflation
- The Grad Experiment of our ever-growing debt
- Forebearance and foreclosures and the possibility for a future fallout
- Skyrocketing savings rates, especially among those who remained employed during Covid
- And lastly, why “this pandemic is likely to be “THE lifetime defining event for this collection of global inhabitants”.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, you have an idea of the trends that may shape the economy in 2021 and how to connect the dots between the economy, your investments, and you.
My prediction for 2021 is growth. I think we’ll emerge from the pandemic, our economy will start to normalize and grow and as a result, the stock market and your 401k will be just fine. But as I stated earlier in the week: “the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
Considering I don’t believe in astrology, take that for what it’s worth. No one knows, but we can look at the current state of the world and pay attention to the direction we’re moving in to indicate what lies ahead.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: 5 Things We've Learned In 50 Years. I’m bringing my dad on this show, and he and I are going to be talking about the 5 most important things we’ve learned working with clients for a combined 50 years.
He’s been a financial advisor since 1982. I’ve been at this since 2007. Which means that collectively, that’s 52 years of working with clients.
He’s learned a lot over that time, and I’m excited to bring him onto the podcast for the first time to share his wisdom with you.
And before you go, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new livestream every Sunday. Today at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern, I’ll do a deeper dive sneak peak into the theme for next week, so head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 2021 Economic Predictions. I’m sharing with you 5 key takeaways from our virtual client event with economist, John Mitchell.
Today, I’m talking about the most important takeaway from John Mitchell’s presentation. It’s something that didn’t hit me until he said it, but since then I've thought more about it, and I’ve really started to consider just how monumental and life-altering this pandemic will be.
In his presentation, John closed by saying: “this pandemic is likely to be “THE lifetime defining event for this collection of global inhabitants”.
Stop and think about that for a minute. For you, me, and everyone else alive on the entire planet right now old enough to remember, this will likely be the event of our life that shapes us more than anything else. It’s strange to think about it when were still in the midst of this pandemic, but we were all going along just fine and then Bam! Covid hits and the world changes overnight.
When you think about other lifetime defining events it’s easy to see how this is the case.
Lifetime defining events for previous generations were the Great Depression and 2 world wars. The cold war and the fall of the Berlin wall. Many of you listening are old enough to remember JFK’s assasination, the Vietnam war, and watching a man land on the moon. Even more recently - 9/11, and the tech revolution. The fact that many of your are listening to me on a smart Alexa device that recognizes your voice and can do many things is mind-blowing.
But many of these things pale in comparison to the life-altering and shared experience of Covid. It’s anyone’s guess how this pandemic will shape our lives 5, 10, and 50 years from now, but it’s really interesting to think about how monumental this event is in shaping not just the future of our economy by our everyday lives.
I just hope I’ll be able to drink from a communal drinking fountain again and I can’t wait for the day when my 3 and 6 year olds no longer have to wear masks at school. The fact that I’m saying these things out loud would have seemed incredulous just a year ago, but today, it’s the world we find ourselves living in.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 2021 Economic Predictions. I’m sharing with you 5 key takeaways from our virtual client event with economist, John Mitchell.
Today, I’m talking about skyrocketing savings. This one is a bit interesting, considering yesterday’s topic about forbearance and the 90 million people who moved into poverty in 2020. But one of the unique realities of the Covid recession is that this recession was very different for many households than it was for your typical waiter, hair stylist, or hotel clerk. Those people were decimated in the Covid recession.
But overall, what’s really interesting is that the savings rates skyrocketed among consumers. The savings rate as a % of income was 34% in April 2020 & still around 13% in November 2020.
Why is that? Well, if you were able to continue to work and transition to working from home during Covid, you still had a job and an income, but since you were stuck at home, you had nowhere to spend your money.
No travel. No eating out. No drinks with friends. The only thing you may have been buying was toilet paper commemorative earnings and flour to make your own bread. I still don’t understand either of those trends - or those cute 2020 Christmas ornaments with toilet paper on them. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be reminded of Covid every year whenever I look at my Christmas tree. I shudder to think about it.
But the lack of spending among those of us that remained employed throughout the Covid recession skyrocketed our collective savings rates. And this significant increase in savings and cash hoarding could be a catalyst for a recovery in spending, and fuel economic growth in 2021.
If you’re still employed you’ve probably got money burning a hole in your wallet, and as soon as you’re vaccinated and the restrictions lift, plane tickets and lavish steakhouse dinners are soon to come.
By the way, this same cash hoarding could also be good for stocks and other asset classes in 2021 as investors become more comfortable putting cash to work.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 2021 Economic Predictions.
Today, I’m talking about forbearance and foreclosure problem.
90 million people moved into poverty during the pandemic, with low wage workers disproportionately hit the hardest. 90 million people!
Among low wage workers, employment dropped by 35%. Many of the lowest wage jobs are in restaurants, hospitality, and other industries hit hardest by the Covid recession.
The Cares Act allowed for Americans to stop paying their mortgage and rent - otherwise known as forbearance. This kept millions of people out of foreclosure and millions of renters safe in their homes without worrying about evictions.
But the trajectory of the recovery is uncertain and we may still see additional fallouts with foreclosures and evictions when forbearance expires.
Looking at housing specifically, it seems like it’s entering bubble territory, like 2005 all over again. But is a housing crash coming in 2021? Plenty of signs point to no: inventory is really low, if we continue to emerge from the Covid recession renewed confidence may spark additional growth in home sales and prices, and there’s also very low interest rates and the work-from-home trend becoming a more permanent reality, driving many people to buy homes in 2021.
But the frenzied home market is still cause for concern and I would be cautious about buying a home in 2021. Especially when we don’t yet know what the fallout will be from those 90 million people who moved into poverty in 2020 and who can not pay their rent or their mortgage. Keep in mind, many of these people will not have jobs to go back to when the Covid recession ends. Many of those jobs are permanently gone.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 2021 Economic Predictions. I’m sharing with you 5 key takeaways from our virtual client event with economist, John Mitchell.
Today, let’s talk about the “grand experiment”.
The $6 trillion of likely Covid-related spending is a “grand experiment”, according to John Mitchell.
We’ve never thrown this much money at an economic problem before and we’re just figuring it out as we go. The blind leading the blind over there in Washington. But that’s nothing new I guess, right?
I am deeply concerned about our national debt. As a % of our GDP, our national debt has never been higher. Did you know that 20 years ago in 2021, our national debt was only 55% of GDP. Still a lot, but peanuts compared to today. Then during and after the financial crisis, our national debt ballooned, and our lawmakers in Washington have been on a spending spree ever since. Even pre-Covid, our national debt had been above 100% of GDP for years, and with the additional stimulus bills during Covid, as of the end of 2020 our debt was 136% of GDP.
That doesn’t even count the additional $2 trillion of additional stimulus.
The wheels have fallen off, people. Now we could sit here and debate about how the economy today would be much worse without this additional spending. I’m not arguing that. I’m looking at the long-term problems with carrying this much debt.
The highest we came to this current state was after World War 2. In 1946, Debt as a % of GDP was 118%. But we quickly reversed course, and 10 years later it was halved.
I don’t see that happening this time around. Lawmakers on both sides are being very short-sighted with spending decisions, and it will be absolutely essential that economic growth is robust in the coming years in order to solve the current national debt problem. Otherwise we could have some serious issues in the coming years ahead - debt downgrades, higher interest rates, higher inflation, stagnant growth, etc.
It’s a real problem and we haven’t been down this road before, which is why John Mitchell called this a “grand experiment”.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is 2021 Economic Predictions. I’m sharing with you 5 key takeaways from our virtual client event with economist, John Mitchell.
Today, I’m talking about inflation. John’s comments about inflation were: “Inflation is very low (1.6%)…so when inflation picks up again, don’t be surprised by alarming headlines about surging inflation.”
This makes sense. If the rate of inflation doubles from its current rate - an alarmingly sounding metric - that would be just a 3.2% inflation rate. Hardly scary at all.
Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour could stoke the inflation fire even more, but the effects are unlikely to be seen in 2021.
Back in August 2020, I devoted a whole week to the topic of inflation. My opinion from last summer hasn’t changed.
Inflation is certainly possible in the near future, but unlikely as businesses don’t have much power to increase their prices until the economy really starts growing again.
Once the Covid recession is behind us, and the economy begins growing again and wages grow at a sustainable rate, inflation may still not be an issue as long as economic growth will be better able to support an increase in prices.
And we have the Federal Reserve and their ability to manage inflation. Frankly, we’ve seen some deflation - which is a drop in prices and that’s actually a bigger problem to deal with at the moment.
The answer to the question of whether or not you should worry about inflation right now is: Probably not. But with our ever growing national debt, I think that’s probably a problem for your future self to worry about.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
You’re listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip Podcast, aimed at helping you enjoy a meaningful and financially secure retirement. If you’re within 10 years of retirement or you recently made the leap into retirement, this podcast is for you. I’m your host, Ashley Micciche, and each week, I take a retirement planning topic like 401k investing, how much to save, or minimizing taxes, and I break that down into digestible daily doses of retirement wisdom, so that by the time you’re done brushing your teeth in the morning, I’m done talking and you’re a little bit wiser and better prepared for retirement.
Let’s get into this week’s theme: 2021 Economic Predictions
A wise person once said that the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
With that in mind, we brought in renowned economist John Mitchell, former Chief Economist at US Bancorp to pontificate on what’s in store for 2021 via Zoom for a virtual event we held for our clients. You may have heard me offering tickets to that client event in late January, and if you missed it, you’re in luck, because I took notes.
So this week, I’ll be covering my 5 key takeaways - predictions - from John Mitchell’s talk. It covers the good, the bad, and the ugly of what could be on the horizon for the economy in 2021.
And I’ll help you connect the dots between the economy, your investments and you, so you can make smarter decisions with your money in 2021.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was Biden’s tax plan impact on investors.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Biden’s tax plan impact on capital gains, IRA and 401k accounts, and inheritance taxes
- Then I talked about how likely these proposals are to become law - spoiler - very likely but probably not in 2021
- Then we looked at the overall impact of Biden’s tax plan for investors
I didn’t have time to get into the tax proposals' impact on real estate holdings, but that’s another big impact for those of you who own real estate, especially rental and investment properties.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week, you see that there are plenty of tax changes coming down the pike - some will have little to no impact on you - and others will be pretty penalizing. So be sure to talk with your tax advisor and do any necessary planning and adjustments now, while the opportunity still exists, because the tax climate has never been better, but 2022 could look very different.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: 2021 economic predictions. No I don’t have a crystal ball, but if you listened to the podcast back in January, I was giving away free tickets to our live virtual event with economist, John Mitchell. Really engaging and brilliant man - well, during his presentation of his forecast for the economy in 2021, I made some notes with my key takeaways and I’ll be sharing those takeaways with you next week.
Also, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new livestream every Sunday. So today at 9am Pacific, 12pm central, I’ll do a deeper dive into the theme for next week, so head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week’s theme is: Biden’s tax plan impact on investors
Today, I’m talking about the anticipated impact of Biden’s tax plan on investors. We’ve talked about some of the changes to capital gains, taxes on inherited wealth, and the funky proposal that I don’t like to the 401k and IRA deduction rules. Some of these changes won’t have a direct impact on you, but the key to remember with tax law changes is that it modifies behavior. It has an impact on decisions business owners make, corporations...it has an impact on corporate profitability and that trickles down to stock price impacts and on your portfolio.
So whether you agree with the tax changes or not, it’s probably not a good idea to cheer “tax the rich” because it does often have an indirect impact on the middle and working classes as well.
What is the impact on tax increases for investors? Here’s the breakdown of the impact:
Savita Subramanian at Bank of America Securities estimates that the Biden tax plan would reduce S&P 500 earnings by 7% under the current plan, mostly stemming from higher corporate taxes. Growth-oriented sectors would be hit the hardest:
S&P 500: tax hit (estimated S&P 500 earnings impact based on Biden’s proposals )
- Technology - down 9.2%
- Health care - down 8.4%
- Communication services - down 8.2%
- Consumer discretionary - down 7.5%
- Financials - down 6.5%
The Tax Foundation determined that the Biden tax proposal would raise $3.3 trillion over the next decade. Much of that 3.3 trillion would come from raising the corporate income tax rate - which I already discussed above.
It remains to be seen if the hits to the bottom line will impact stock prices - especially in the industries I mentioned above. Robust growth would be required to offset those hits to earnings. If growth doesn’t offset the tax hit, then you may see some companies and sectors struggle in your portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week’s theme is: Biden’s tax plan impact on investors
Today, I’m talking about the likelihood that the proposed changes from Biden that impact investors will actually become law. Now that the democrats control congress, that likelihood seems very high.
However, with Covid still front and center, it doesn’t seem likely that will happen in 2021. Maybe 2022 is a better timing for PR purposes? If the economy is in better shape, they’ll likely get less pushback and grumbling among Americans.
A very important principle in investing is to base your decisions on probability not possibility. Is it possible that taxes will go higher in the next couple years? Yes. Is it also probable? In other words is there a high likelihood that it will happen? The answer here is also yes.
So I would be preparing now, especially if you’re in a high tax bracket. Even if you’re not, I would still look seriously at a Roth conversion, selling appreciated assets sooner rather than later, and other ways of potentially reducing your tax bite in the coming years. Or you could just ride it out and see what happens in 4 years...Maybe there will be a new Republician president who will tip the scales in the other direction.
The takeaway here and what’s important to remember is that taxes are very low right now by historical norms. If you have opportunities to accelerate taxes on capital gains, it might make sense to take advantage of the current environment before the tax law changes.
As always, I’m not a CPA, but I am married to one. My tax advice is free, but I am not a tax advisor and you’re going to want to consult with your tax advisor about the best moves for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week’s theme is: Biden’s tax plan impact on investors
Today, I’m talking about the proposed tax changes to your inheritance. Under current law, inherited assets receive a step-up in basis as of the date of death. So for example, let’s say that your mom knew Steve Jobs and she invested a few thousand dollars in his quirky startup. Well, come to find out 35 years later, her little investment is now worth millions.
If your mom died today, she has a massive gain in the stock. The stock is worth millions so her gains would be millions and she would pay upwards of 23% of her gain in taxes if she sold her stock before her death. If she waits until she dies and doesn’t sell the stock, the gains are wiped out, and now the new cost basis in the stock is whatever Apple’s stock price was the day she died. So if you sell the stock the very next day, your gain amount and taxes owed would just be the difference in price from the day she died to the day you sold it.
Under the proposed tax change, this step up is wiped out, so all those gains get passed to you and now you owe a boatload - likely millions in tax - if you sell the stock.
This change will have the most impact on any greatly-appreciated inherited assets — such as stocks or real estate or a parent’s home. Any asset that was bought long ago and likely has a big gain - that’s where it will be felt the most.
Like all other tax policy changes, this will definitely impact behavior. Depending on the circumstances, some older Americans may decide to sell part or some appreciated assets to eat some of the tax on the gain themselves rather than holding until their death. It will be interesting to see what happens on this one.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week’s theme is: Biden’s tax plan impact on investors
Today, I’m talking about proposed tax changes under the Biden Administration to tax rules for 401k and IRA accounts. Instead of being able to deduct your Traditional IRA and 401k contributions from your taxes, you would receive a tax credit instead.
This one is actually a little complicated to explain, but let’s give it a shot:
The proposal is to change the tax deduction on 401k and IRA contributions to a tax credit. The credit would equal 26%. What that means is the 26 percent credit is equal to a deduction at a 20.5 percent marginal tax rate for all taxpayers, independent of their income level. If none of that makes sense to you, good. At least you and I are on the same page.
Let me try to explain it another way...
For every $100 you contribute to the plan the deduction you get is 20.5% or $20.50. The goal here with this change is to give a larger tax benefit to lower income earners, since this credit amount is higher than their deduction they would currently be getting if say their income is $40,000...the deduction is only 12% in this income tax bracket, but the 20.5% credit gives them a better tax benefit.
One of the problems here is that the credit starts to become less attractive at higher income levels. If you’re effective tax rate is any higher that 20.5% which it is for a lot of people, not just the highest earners, then you’ll benefit less from those 401k contributions if this becomes law.
As a practitioner, people at the lower income levels aren’t contributing to retirement accounts because they don’t get enough tax benefits. They don’t contribute to retirement plans because they can’t afford to. I give this proposal a thumbs down because I don’t think it’s going to d oa darn thing to incentivize people at the lower income ranges to save more, and it’s only going to penalize those who do contribute who now won’t be as incentivized to save in 401k accounts since the tax benefits are lessened. In reality, I think it’s just going to incentive more people to save in the Roth 401k.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: Biden’s tax plan impact on investors
Today, I’m talking about biden’s plans for capital gains. Here’s what it will look like if Biden’s plans become law:
It’s mostly upper-income individuals who would face higher capital gains taxes under the Biden plan. Under current law, the maximum effective federal income tax rate on net long-term capital gains and qualified dividends recognized by individual taxpayers is 23.8%.
Under the Biden plan, net long-term gains (and presumably dividends) collected by those with incomes above $1 million would be taxed at the same rate as income - which is the 39.6% maximum rate. When you layer in the 3.8% for net investment income tax, the maximum effective rate on net long-term gains would 43.4%. That would be almost double the current maximum effective rate of only 23.8%!
Holy expletive! That’s a massive increase in taxes! However, it’s important to note that that tax increase is for those making more than $1 million. If your income is much lower than that, I haven’t seen any tax proposals from Biden that would increase taxes for even those making $100,000-$200,000 of income per year.
So hopefully, this change won’t impact you because your income isn’t high enough, but it is a big problem for high income earners or those planning to sell a business with a low-basis. So if that’s you, you’ll want to do some serious planning to try to mitigate the impact of the capital gains tax.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is Biden’s Tax Plan and its impact on investors.
If you’re wondering how Biden’s tax plan is going to impact everything from capital gains to your 401k to estate and inheritance taxes, tune in this week, because I’m breaking that down for you now that Trump’s cologne smell in the oval office curtains is finally wearing off.
By the way, I had to look this up, because I’m sure fun facts like that exist for the former president. I googled Donald Trump cologne to see what I could find and surprise surprise, he already thought of the idea himself - Success by Trump cologne spray for men is a spicy woodsy scent that is very pleasing and always classy.
You can find it at WalMart online for $57, but you better hurry because there were only 3 left when I looked.
Ok, enough about Trump. ½ of you aren’t even listening anymore today, shutting this off at the mere mention of his name.
No this week we’re talking about Biden and his tax plan and it’s impact on investors.
So stick around because each day this week I’ll help you consider how the proposed tax changes might impact you as an investor, how likely they are to actually become law, and what you can do now to insulate yourself and your retirement from the impact of higher taxes.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme Early retirement offers - should you accept?
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Can You Afford To Take An Early Retirement Offer?
- If You Don’t Accept Early Retirement Will You Get Laid Off Anyway?
- How Will Early Retirement Affect Your Money?
- What Are Your Other Work Options Instead Of Early Retirement?
- Weighing The Complex Decision Of Early Retirement Offers
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week you realize that an early retirement offer is a complex decision, with a lot more to decide on than what’s in your deal. So if you find yourself faced with an early retirement offer, now you’ll be able to make a more informed decision about the best decision for you.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: The Biden tax plan and capital gains.
Now that the election is over and Biden is hanging pictures on the wall in the White House, we have some idea of what to expect from a Biden administration in terms of taxes. He plans to raise taxes - we know that and with a narrow control of congress, he’s likely to get his plans enacted into law.
So we’ll take a look at the Biden tax plan and in particular how it will impact you and your capital gains next week.
Also, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new livestream every Monday. Each week’s livestream is a deeper dive into the theme for the week, so if you want to hear more from this week’s topic head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week’s theme is: Early retirement offers - what should you do if this happens to you?
Today, I’m talking about weighing the complex decisions of early retirement offers. As I discussed throughout the week, determining whether or not you should accept an early retirement offer is not an easy decision for most of us and it’s something that should
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when you’re in your late 50s and early 60s, you just don’t have the same opportunities to move into a new career or move across the country or just be flexible in general about work, the same way you might have been in your 20s or 30s. The decision to work and your ability to work later in life has serious implications for your long-term retirement success.
So we need to get this decision right if you’re faced with an early retirement offer. So let’s bring this all together and discuss all the different aspects of an early retirement offer to consider:
- First of all, you need to determine if you can afford to take an early retirement offer, and if you can’t you’ll need to weigh the likelihood that you could get let go later anyways and make a plan B
- How will your early retirement offer impact your money - mostly your health insurance, social security, and your retirement savings. I talked about that at length earlier this week but you’ll also want to understand the impact of early retirement on your pension if that’s part of the deal too
- And then if you do accept an early retirement offer, would you retire? Would you work part time or try to find another full time job? Are there job opportunities in your field or would you need to change careers? No easy task late in career. Or perhaps you have expertise in an area where consulting work is in high demand.
- Most of us don’t plan on early retirement - after all you are still working when you receive the offer, so it’s important to ask yourself are you ready to retire - not just financially but emotionally as well. Moving into retirement is one of the most important transitions you’ll make in life. It will completely change your daily routine and how you spend your time. You’ll need to make sure you’re really ready to retire and make some plans for how you’ll spend your time in retirement so you don’t become bored or depressed after the initial honeymoon period wears off.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: Early retirement offers - what should you do if this happens to you?
Today, I’m talking about other work options instead of early retirement:
- Your first work option instead of early retirement is just to keep working at your job and hope that you don’t get laid off later on or the company doesn’t go out of business. As I mentioned earlier in the week, it’s important to understand as much as you can about the financial health of the company you work for when deciding on taking an early retirement offer.
- You could take the early retirement offer and retire. You’ll want to make sure you can afford to retire. If you want some help with answering that question, I have a free tool for you - The Retirement Success Forecaster - just complete a 2-page questionnaire, send it back to me and I’ll send you your personalized results. Just go to truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
- Finding another full time or part time job is possible, yet as I have experienced with my clients and people I know who were laid off close to retirement, it’s very hard to find a job and if you do, its usually always a cut in pay to go start somewhere new so late in your career.
- Related to finding another part-time or full-time job is starting your own side hustle. Maybe you have expertise in a specific area and a lot of contacts, that would allow you to do consulting work.
Whatever it is, don’t feel trapped in your options and consider alternatives that may be viable for you. The key word there is viable. You must make sure that whatever decision you make about whether to take or not take your early retirement offer - that you can afford to live with the consequences. The numbers have to pencil out. Otherwise, you’re playing with fire with your long-term financial security in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: Early retirement offers - what should you do if this happens to you?
What many people often don’t consider when they retire earlier than planned is how an early retirement will impact your money. Many people just think about the salary they’d be giving up, but it’s actually a lot more complex than that.
Today, I’m talking about how taking an early retirement offer can impact your money - namely, how it will affect your health insurance, your social security, and your retirement savings.
Health insurance - is health insurance coverage included in your early retirement offer? If not, how will you pay for health insurance? Most private plans cost at least $900-$1,200/month. You’ll need to find an affordable way to get health insurance until your costs go down at 65 once you’re covered by Medicare.
Social security - An early retirement might force you to take social security earlier than you planned. Not only is your lifetime benefit permanently reduced, but you’re also giving up what are likely to be your highest earning years when calculating your benefit.
Social security lifetime income is dramatically different for someone who lives to their life expectancy if they start drawing social security at 62 vs. your full retirement age. It’s likely to reduce your income by $100,000 or more.
Plus, you’re later working years are usually also your highest working years. Social security benefits are calculated based on your highest working quarters, so you’re also going to get less if you stop working, unless you’ve already maxed out your benefit.
Bottom line is that early retirement has expensive consequences for your social security.
Lastly, your retirement savings. Not only are you giving up the ability to save more in your last working years, you are also going to need to make your retirement portfolio last longer in retirement, since your total years spent in retirement will now be greater.
You’d be surprised how much of an impact retiring just 6 months or 1 year early can make, so be sure to understand the multifaceted ways an early retirement offer can and will impact your money in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: Early retirement offers - what should you do if this happens to you?
Today, I’m talking about what happens if you don't accept your early retirement offer. As I talked about yesterday, you may decide that you simply can’t afford to accept your early retirement offer.
If you can’t afford to accept an early retirement offer, you’re in a tough spot, especially if you’re in your late 50s or early 60s. You could of course continue working for your employer even if you don’t accept the early retirement offer.
But if you’re being offered the early retirement offer you’ll want to try to better understand why the company is offering the early retirement and how likely it is that you’ll be laid off later anyways, perhaps with a much less attractive severance or offer that’s in front of you now.
What’s the company’s financial picture look like? If you work for a large publicly traded company, you’ll have access to this data. If you work for a private company, you may only have access to some information or in some cases, you’re only intel is the water cooler talk.
What’s the growth trajectory of the industry? Are you working in a growing industry or an industry that will suffer for years to come after this pandemic? Or are you working in a dying industry where your company and probably all of your competitors won’t be in business in 5 years.
The hard reality when you’re faced with an early retirement offer is that it is harder to find work the closer you are to retirement, yet a wrong choice about retiring too early could create decades worth of financial problems because you just don’t have enough money to make it work.
So be sure to ask yourself: If I don’t accept my early retirement offer, will I just get laid off later anyways and get offered a worse package than what’s in front of me now?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: Early retirement offers - what should you do if this happens to you?
Today, I’m talking about the most important question you should ask yourself if you are faced with an early retirement offer - can you afford to take the early retirement offer?
If you’re 62 and you planned to work 3 more years, can you afford to retire now? Maybe you can and that’s great - it makes the decision a little bit easier and allows you to consider other factors as well. But some of us simply can’t afford to take the early retirement offer.
Or maybe you could afford it if you worked part time. Or you could afford it if your health insurance continues until Medicare kicks in. Or maybe you could afford it if you were able to negotiate a better early retirement offer - many people don’t realize that early retirement offers are often negotiable. Whatever the retirement offer, the very first question to ask yourself is - can I afford to take this?
If you can’t afford to take it, what happens if you don’t take it and then get laid off later anyways. I’ll talk about addressing that problem tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is early retirement offers - should you accept?
[Story about DM - layoff in early 60s]
Takeaway - if you’re unlucky enough to be near retirement during a downturn in the economy, your industry, or your company, you could be face with an early retirement offer. Deciding whether or not to accept the offer is not an easy decision to make - there are multiple things to consider from a financial standpoint to simply answering the question if you do accept the offer: what next?
With many companies struggling due to the pandemic, I’ve had several clients accelerate their retirement plans or fear that their early retirement would be forced upon them as the companies they work for limp along and look for ways to cut costs.
And with payroll most often being the biggest line item cost for businesses, you may find yourself in the position of being offered an early retirement.
So this week, I’ll help you consider what to do if that happens to you...
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was what do I do with my inheritance money?
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- How To Waste Your Inheritance where I talk about some of the biggest mistakes made when you have a windfall inheritance
- Then I talked about Why The First 6 Months After Receiving An Inheritance Is Critical and why you shouldn’t make any big spending decisions in that first 6 months for a variety of reasons.
- Next we looked at a hypothetical scenario of what to do with $1 million inheritance
- Finally, we wrapped up by talking about 3 smart ways to use your inheritance and planning for your own wealth transfer wisely to the next generation
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week you have a better idea of how to wisely spend, save, and invest any future potential inheritance you might receive. The average inheritance received in 2016 was about $295,000, and it’s likely that most of you listening will receive some inheritance. Most of us prefer not to think about our parents dying, but that means that we also put off thinking about our potential inheritance. Until the day comes when you’re forced to deal with it. So I tried to help prepare you this week how to handle an inheritance wisely.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: early retirement offers - should you accept?
With many companies struggling due to the pandemic, I’ve had several clients accelerate their retirement plans or fear that their early retirement would be forced upon them as the companies they work for limp along and look for ways to cut costs.
But what if you’re offered an early retirement? Should you accept it? I’ll help you consider what to do if that happens to you next week.
Also, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I post a new livestream every Monday. Each week’s livestream is a deeper dive into the theme for the week, so if you want to hear more from this week’s topic head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week’s theme is: What Do I Do With Inheritance Money?
Today, I’m talking about planning for your own wealth transfer.
If you listened to all of the podcast episodes this week, then you know that the inheritance statistics are pretty grim. Many Americans waste their inheritance by making poor spending and investing decisions and the money is often gone 2,5, or 10 years down the road.
With that in mind, I encourage you to be thoughtful about your own wealth transfer. If you manage your money well in this life, you’ll likely have something to pass along to your children. And that something may be a substantial amount.
Many parents place no restrictions on wealth transfer to their children, and as a result, when children inherit money - even in their 40s, 50s and beyond it can have some really bad outcomes.
Wealth transfer to children should only happen when addiction is not a concern, the child is a good steward of their own money, ideally you’ve tested them already with lifetime gifts and paid attention to how they use the money, their incentive to work isn’t compromised, and the inheritance won’t be squandered to fuel a few short years of a luxurious lifestyle.
If I’m being honest, seeing how many people handle money, especially inherited money - responsible management of an inheritance is an exception, not the rule.
So I encourage you to plan well for your own wealth transfer and make sure that your children are well-equipped to handle it. And if they’re not, then have the courage to explore alternative solutions via trusts, restrictions, or giving away most of your wealth to organizations and the causes you care about most.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: What Do I Do With Inheritance Money?
Today, I’m talking about 3 smart ways to use your inheritance.
The first smart way to use your inheritance is to spend money on something meaningful to you and consistent with your values Of course, you’ll want to do this within the confines of spending, gifting, or donating no more than 10% of your inheritance, which is what I covered yesterday.
[jewelry - meh...] - so if I bought a pair of diamond stud earrings or a fancy new ring, that wouldn’t be a gift used with my inheritance would be likely to bring me joy. On the other hand, there are many travel-related things I would like to experience with my husband, and based on our past travel experiences, it would bring joy to allocate some of my spending in their area - not just because of the fun involved in the trip itself, but also the lasting memories created.
Make a wish list and discuss your plans with your spouse and your children. If you make the decision to be prudent with your spending, you may not be able to do all the things you ever dreamed of with your inheritance. And that’s ok. In fact, it’s probably better that way. So given the limited resources available, it’s a good idea to make a wish list. Let that percolate. Talk about it with your spouse and your children. Whether it be a one-time spend or an annual budget to do something with the funds, it’s important to make your wish list and really consider it. You may find after talking to your family and mulling it over for a month or 2 that your priorities change or something more appealing takes it’s place.
Lastly, the smartest use for your inheritance is to invest for future growth. If you’re 50 and you receive an inheritance of $1,000,000 it’s not unreasonable for that $1million to be worth $4 million dollars by the time you’re 70 if you don’t touch in and invest it wisely.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: What Do I Do With Inheritance Money?
Today, I’m asking an important question to help you begin to think about the best way for your in your situation to allocate future inheritance dollars. What would you do with $1 million?
Most of us don’t daydream too much about our future inheritance, because it also leads to thinking about the death of our parents. Personally, I think it’s best not to count on an inheritance at all, even if you think it will be sizable. It’s not something you can plan for since you don’t know when the windfall will occur, and you may end up receiving a lot less than you anticipated.
Yet at the same time, it’s also a worthy exercise to put yourself in the shoes of your future self and think about how you would spend, save, and invest your inheritance.
When you make decisions in advance or at least set some guidelines for yourself, you’ll be better prepared to handle the inheritance when the time comes.
So with that in mind, here’s how I would advise the vast majority of people to handle an inheritance:
#1 - Pay off debt 1st. If you have expensive credit card debt, I would start there. If you have car loans I would also consider paying those off as well depending on the size of your inheritance. The goal here is to use the funds to get out of debt, except for your house.
Next, you can earmark some for spend, gifting, and donating, but the most I would recommend is 10% - realistically, that should be lower for most people. Then use the rest to save and invest for the long-term and for retirement.
Going back to the $1,000,000 example, lets see what that looks like:
- Let’s say I have $5,000 in unpaid medical bills and $25,000 left on my car loan. Those are my only debts. So I would use $30,000 to wipe out those debts first.
- Next, I have a maximum of 10% that I can spend, gift, or donate - which leads me to $100,000. Perhaps my house needs a new roof and my kitchen is 15 years overdue for a remodel - I might spend $50,000 on those 2 things, donate $20,000 and earmark the rest of a $15,000/year vacation budget over the next 2 years. You can see that it’s pretty easy to spend $130,000 on making debt problems and a leaky roof go away among other things - perhaps some deferred upgrades on your house and some deferred vacation spending.
- With $130,000 spent, you’re going to want to use the remaining $870,000 to keep enough cash for emergencies, then save and invest the rest for the long-term and your own retirement.
Now if you already have millions and you don’t need this inheritance at all, it may be best to earmark this money for other things. But for most Americans, any inheritance received is money that will help ensure better financial security down the road, which makes prudent decision making essential.
The most important point here is that the spending and gifting must be constrained with boundaries, so the inheritance isn’t continually used like a piggy bank to fund a lifestyle you can’t afford until the money runs out.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: What Do I Do With Inheritance Money?
Today, I’m talking about why the first 6 months after receiving an inheritance is critical. Too many people who receive an inheritance quickly get to work spending it. Buying that car you’ve always wanted. Finally remodeling the kitchen, etc.
But if you’re going to spend a portion of your inheritance, it’s best to wait 6 months before touching that money. Leave it in the bank, tie it up in a CD for 6 months before you make any decisions about spending.
If you’re going to save and invest your inheritance, then it’s not necessary to wait as long as you have good, objective advice that’s in your best interest for a competent financial advisor. You’ll also need to consult with your tax advisor about investment decisions after receiving an inheritance, because you’ll want to avoid any tax missteps after receiving an inheritance.
The other important reason why a 6 month waiting period on spending is critical is because chances are that this will also be a very emotional time, filled with grief. Most people will inherit from their parents and when faced with the difficult decisions of being an executor or dealing with your parent’s house or possessions, it’s also a very stressful time.
So it’s best to not let your foggy judgement during your grieving period lead you into some damaging decisions when it comes to managing your inheritance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s theme is: What Do I Do With Inheritance Money?
Today, I’m talking about how to waste your inheritance. Yesterday, I talked about how 20% of Americans who receive an inheritance will end up spending it all. And a great many of those I imagine will be worse off financially because they got themselves into houses they couldn’t afford and lifestyle changes they couldn’t sustain, and as a result, end up losing more than what they gained in the inheritance.
Studies show that most of us only end up saving and investing about ½ of our inheritance.
So with these dismal stats in mind, let me share with you some reliable ways to waste your inheritance:
- Sacrificing your retirement and long-term financial security for short-term pleasures. If you receive an inheritance in your 50s and 60s like many Americans do, that could be the key to financial security in retirement, and make up for a lack of savings on your part. However, it’s very tempting to spend your inheritance on luxury vacations or a beach house, and you miss out on the opportunity to make the money last and continue to provide for your needs years into the future.
- Spending without a plan in place. I’ll actually talk more about this in a couple days when I’ll be asking you what you would do with a $1,000,000 windfall today. But a big mistake that people make when they receive an inheritance is that they just start spending. They think that a little here and and little there won’t add up, but it does. Having a plan and earmarking specific funds for specific purposes is key to not wasting an inheritance and then wondering where it all went
- Listening to the advice of friends and family, or worse, no one at all. People who know that you received an inheritance may be eager to help you spend your inheritance or try to get you to invest in something that isn’t prudent. And many people who aren’t used to managing their money won’t know what to do with a large sum all at once. But objective and unbiased advice is key. Don’t take investment advice from your hunting buddy or your brother-in-law. Instead, seek out the council of a competent tax advisor and a financial advisor who will put your needs first and help you make a plan for the long-term so you don’t squander your inheritance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is What Do I Do With Inheritance Money?
[Client story about Inheritance]: Lifelong savers, never high income earners, worked hard…
After both parents died, their daughter inherited about $600,000 in their investment assets plus their house. She was excited about her windfall and she said she was just going to spend enough of it to buy her dream home.
The problem was that her boyfriend was unemployed and she worked part-time making about $30,000 a year in income. It wasn’t going to pencil out. Even if she paid cash for the house, she wouldn’t be able to afford the upkeep, taxes, etc.
She ended up burning through all $600,000 in about 18 months and I would be surprised if she still lived in that house.
Unfortunately, and sadly, this daughter of my client is like most people who receive an inheritance. Does it surprise you that statistics show that many of us are just going to waste our inheritance?
One study found that adults who receive an inheritance save just half, while spending, donating or losing the rest; nearly 20 percent of baby boomers who received $100,000 or more spend their entire gift.
20% of us spend it all!
So this week I’m going to help you make smart decisions about what to do with your inheritance. We’ll talk about the biggest mistakes made, why you should wait before making any spending decisions, and help you start to think about guidelines for spending, saving, and investing your inheritance wisely. Then we’ll wrap up the week by talking about how you might want to plan now for your own wealth transfer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was life changing money habits.
Here are the 5 life changing money habits that I covered in each episode this week:
- Track your spending - most important
- Reduce/eliminate debt, especially paying off high interest credit card debt
- Beef up your emergency savings – maintain 18 months of expenses in savings as you approach retirement
- Prioritize saving for future goals that are meaningful to you
- Increase your giving – this one has important psychological and spiritual benefits
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week you are inspired to pick a financial goal to work on for 2021. And if you do, I encourage you to just pick with one of these habits, start where you are, start small, and experience the life changing opportunities that better financial health can bring to your overall well-being and life satisfaction.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How to spend inheritance money.
It is estimated that my generation, the millennials - yes, I am a scorned millennial - it is estimated that millennials will inherit $68 trillion by 2030. As my generation’s baby boomer parents enter their 70s and 80s, over the next 10 years, there will be a tremendous transfer of wealth. But the reality is that the transfer of wealth is already happening. And it’s likely that many of you listening will receive at least some inheritance that will become part of your retirement portfolio.
So next week, I’m going to share with you how I would advise who received a $1 million inheritance. What would we do with that money? I’ll dive deeper into the details of this hypothetical scenario next week.
One last thing...if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - with a new livestream every week, where I do a deeper dive than I have time for in each daily episode. So if you want to hear more from this week’s topic head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about life changing money habits.These are the habits, the goals, and the behaviors that will have the biggest impact on your life.
Today, I’m talking about the last life changing habit of the week - increasing your giving. The emotional, psychological, and spiritual benefits of giving are well-documented. According to research, generosity is one of the secrets to a meaningful and happy life.
I included this habit of increasing your giving last in this week’s topics, because it’s the thing that most of us still aren’t doing enough of, even when we are doing everything else well with our finances.
Knowing that giving has tremendous rewards for the giver and the receiver, I encourage you to look at how much you gave of your time and talents to the organizations and causes that you care about most in 2020 and ask yourself if you’re in a position to do more this year.
It’s hard to give at a meaningful level when you’re buried in debt, you don’t have any cash in the bank, you don’t have a handle on your spending or your financial priorities, but if that’s not the case for you and you’re in a comfortable position financially, then I encourage you to get aggressive with your giving.
That starts with evaluating what you gave last year. How much of your income went to the causes that you care about the most?
Just over half of American households (55%) donated something to charity in 2014. That means 45% of us gave nothing. On average, Americans give 2.1% of their disposable income to charity. So nearly half of us give nothing, and when you average it out, we’re giving about 2% of our income to charity.
We can do more and especially with such well-documented benefits of giving more, consider giving more in 2020.
If you gave 2% of your income last year, give 3% or 4% of your income this year. Set up an automated contribution so your giving doesn’t become haphazard or an afterthought like it does for so many of us. Being intentional with your giving in 2021 will go a long way toward increasing your giving and bringing more purpose and meaning to your life as a result.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about life changing money habits.These are the habits, the goals, and the behaviors that will have the biggest impact on your life...if you do these things right, they have the potential to offer the greatest rewards. On the flip side, if you do these things wrong or ignore them altogether, you do so at your own peril.
Today, I’m talking about knowing your financial priorities. When it comes to your finances it’s usually not the money that we really care about, but what the money allows us to do that we really care about.
I always like to set goals for myself for the coming year. Aside from losing the baby weight from having my 3rd child last September, which is my #1 goal for 2021, my next most important goal is to make quality time and relationships with family and close friends a priority this year. I sketched out a plan for Sunday family walks, monthly weekend adventures with my husband and kids, a monthly date night, a monthly friend get-together, and a quarterly vacation.
These activities will cost money. But because it satisfies my most important priorities, I’m okay with spending money if it means that I will be making memories with my husband and kids, and enjoying life together as a family. Now I must say that I view travel with children as a mild form of torture, so I’m hoping at least 1 or 2 of those quarterly vacations will be sans kids, but that remains to be seen...
Here’s my point - if you have a goal of retiring early, or helping to pay for your grandkids college, buying a 2nd home at the beach, or building an armory - these things all require financial resources and are most often driven by some deeper motivation that gets to the core of what we value the most.
Too many of us don’t realize our most coveted financial goals, because we aren’t laser focused on what matters most. We don’t have our priorities figured out, and as a result, we aren’t funnelling our financial resources to these most important financial priorities.
So I challenge you to think about and answer for yourself: what are your most important priorities - is it centered around family, relationships, career, health, spiritual - whatever aspect of your life is most important to you, should also command it’s proper share of financial resources.
Knowing your priorities and what is most important to you will help you focus on earmarking the proper financial resources to bring satisfaction - both now and in the future - to those areas of your life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about life changing money habits.
Today, I’m talking about beefing up your emergency savings.
As you approach retirement, you’ll want to consider maintaining even more cash for emergencies because you’re no longer working. When you’re retired, you can’t just work overtime for a couple of months or easily pick up money doing a side hustle if you have a large and unexpected expense to pay for.
So paying for your emergency with a high interest credit card or having to liquidate your retirement portfolio can be devastating and can completely derail your retirement plans. Which means you’ll need lots of cash on hand in retirement. How much?
At a bare minimum, you’ll want about 6 months worth of monthly expenses on hand for emergencies.
The other reason why you want to keep a lot of cash on hand in retirement is that it can save you in times of market downturns, recession, and crisis. If your portfolio drops 10 or 20%, you make that crater in your retirement portfolio so much worse by also continuing your withdrawals.
Having cash on hand will allow you to stop some of the bleeding and suspend your portfolio withdrawals in a market downturn. When you can do this, especially if it happens in the early years of retirement, you give yourself a better shot of not running out of money in retirement and preserving more of what you have in the downturn.
To help insulate you in a stock market downturn, I recommend keeping another 12 months worth of your portfolio withdrawals on hand. Why? Well the average bear market lasts 14 months. Some are shorter, and some of the deeper ones are even longer. If you can stop your portfolio withdrawals for a year while the stock market is reeling and we’re in the midst of a recession, you can sleep better at night and not make the problem worse. That’s why I think 12 months of suspended withdrawals from your investment portfolio should be enough, even if the downturn lasts a little longer than that.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about life changing money habits.These are the habits, the goals, and the behaviors that will have the biggest impact on your life.
Today, I’m talking about eliminating debt.
I took a public speaking class in college with a girl who confided in me that she was $25,000 in credit card debt. She knew I was a finance major and asked me what I thought she should do about her debt. She was just paying the minimum payments and she didn’t understand that she should be paying more than the minimum if she ever had any hope of paying that debt off.
I asked her how she accumulated that debt. It was mostly from buying clothes and designer handbags. I told her to cut up her cards and stop shopping. Easier said than done.
Regardless of how much debt we have and how we got there in the first place, accumulating debt in this country is still astonishingly easy. And digging out of the debt hole is often quite hard. That’s why one of the best life resolutions you can make is to maintain a commitment to minimal debt.
As you approach retirement, ridding yourself of debt becomes even more important. Walking through your retirement years with the shackles of debt obligations - mortgage payments, car payments, credit card debts - will prevent you from being able to fully enjoy your retirement years.
If you’ve been a listener of the One Minute Retirement Tip for any length of time, I am a big advocate of zero debt by retirement because of the freedom it provides. And especially if you have high interest credit card debt, you’ll want to start there and make a plan to pay off that debt as quickly as possible.
Regardless of how much debt you have and what those monthly debt payments are, one of the most life changing financial habits you can commit to in 2021 and beyond is to reduce or eliminate your debt all together.
That’s it for today, but before you go...we have a special virtual event coming up tonight - Wednesday, January 27th at 7pm Pacific - The 2021 Economic Outlook, featuring renowned economist John Mitchell. Boring economic outlooks are a dime a dozen, but John is hands down one of the most charming and engaging economists you’ll hear. This is an invite only exclusive event for our clients with the opportunity for Q&A at the end to ask your burning questions.
I have 25 tickets reserved for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, so if you’d like to attend just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - and if you’re one of the first 25 to email me, I’ll send you the link to register. That email again is ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about life changing money habits.These are the habits, the goals, and the behaviors that will have the biggest impact on your life.
Today, I’m sharing with you what I think is the most impactful life changing money habit - track your spending. Would it surprise you to know that even people who make really good money decisions, people who are able to delay gratification today, and live within their means still have trouble keeping track of where their money goes every month.
In my experience in working with clients I find that this is often the case. Most of us have no idea where our money goes every month. We don’t really have a good handle on how much we really spend on groceries, eating out, gas, and the treacherous Target run.
Yet, for those of you who actually do track your spending, you can attest for those of us who don’t, how eye-opening this one habit is. Understanding where you’re money goes every month is the first step to accomplishing nearly every other financial goal - want to get out of debt? You’ll need to know how much you have available to devote to paying down debt? Want to save more for retirement or your kids college? You need to know what you’re spending in order to determine where you can cut back in one area to save more in another area?
Understanding the in (i.e. the income) side is easy. Understanding the out is a little more tricky, but the good news is that with technology, you can track most of your spending these days automatically, so understanding your cash flow isn’t the time-intensive chore that it used to be.
If you’re not already tracking your spending, I encourage you to start here. It will open your eyes and unlock new possibilities for reaching your financial goals.
That’s it for today, but before you go...we have a special virtual event coming up on Wednesday, January 27th at 7pm Pacific - The 2021 Economic Outlook, featuring renowned economist John Mitchell. Boring economic outlooks are a dime a dozen, but John is hands down one of the most charming and engaging economists you’ll hear. This is an invite only exclusive event for our clients with the opportunity for Q&A at the end to ask your burning questions.
I have 25 tickets reserved for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, so if you’d like to attend just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - and if you’re one of the first 25 to email me, I’ll send you the link to register. That email again is ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is life changing money habits.
I thought about doing this episode at the end of December when you were likely thinking about your goals and resolutions for 2021. But then I thought, no, you’re bombarded with weight loss ads and everyone talking about resolutions right after Christmas and through the new year. The last thing you need is me telling you about the financial resolutions you should be making for 2021.
And by now, if the statistics are accurate, that New Year’s resolution may be fading, which could be a sign that it wasn’t a goal that was really all that important to you to begin with.
But what would happen for you in 2021 if your finances improved? How much more could you accomplish over the next year, 5 years, or 25 years if you had your financial house in order? How much more freedom would you have if you made more progress on your finances and put that front and center with your priorities?
So this week, I’m suggesting 5 life changing money habits that have the potential to be exactly what they promise - life changing.
These are the habits and the goals that if done well have the power to make a massive impact in your life. On the flipside, if you ignore these habits and don’t make these important financial goals a priority in your life, it could put you on a path financially that you want nothing to do with.
I’ll dive into each, one by one, in our time together this week.
That’s it for today, but before you go...we have a special virtual event coming up on Wednesday, January 27th at 7pm Pacific - The 2021 Economic Outlook, featuring renowned economist John Mitchell. Boring economic outlooks are a dime a dozen, but John is hands down one of the most charming and engaging economists you’ll hear. This is an invite only exclusive event for our clients with the opportunity for Q&A at the end to ask your burning questions.
I have 25 tickets reserved for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, so if you’d like to attend just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - and if you’re one of the first 25 to email me, I’ll send you the link to register. That email again is ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- How my assets are allocated between property, stocks, cash, and how my largest asset is completely illiquid - and the pros and cons that come from that
- Then I talked about how I spend my money as a financial advisor - our budget and where it all goes on a monthly basis
- I also talked about how I prioritize saving for retirement and my kids college,
- And lastly, I talked about how much cash I have for emergencies and a good rule of thumb to follow for how much cash you’ll want to always keep on hand for emergencies.
I tried to bring value by being candid with you about my own spending, saving, assets, etc. to provide some insight into how a financial advisor allocates her resources.
After all, I’m providing advice to my clients and thousands of daily listeners on this podcast, so hopefully you have benefited from better understanding where my financial priorities are and how that influences the advice I provide to my clients and how my personal money values influence what I talk about here on the podcast.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: life changing money habits. I’ll be talking about 5 money habits that can be a game changer for you in 2021 and beyond. It’s late January and chances are you made a resolution or a goal for 2021, and maybe you’ve already broken that esolution.
That’s ok because I have a few resolutions to consider that have the potential to improve your finances and change your life.
So next week I’ll be talking about 5 life changing money habits and how just picking with one of these habits, starting where you are and starting small can be a complete game changer for you and your finances.
One last thing...if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - with a new livestream every week, where I do a deeper dive than I have time for in each daily episode. So if you want to hear more from this week’s topic head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about how much I have in cash as a financial advisor.
The standard advice is that you should have 3 to 6 months worth of living expenses in cash for emergencies. This has become even more important during the pandemic with widespread layoffs and unemployment benefits that were slow to pay out in many cases.
Having a cushion of 3-6 months living expenses in savings will keep you from having to pay for emergencies or even put basic living expenses on a credit card when the inevitable emergency happens or if/when a job loss occurs.
For that reason, my husband and I (both being savers) have always tried to maintain a cash balance that was consistent with this recommendation. We typically maintain about 5 months of living expenses in cash. Because of our adherence to this recommendation, we haven’t yet had to put a roof leak repair, or medical bills, or any other emergency expense on a high interest credit card, which is the goal of having savings in the first place - to make sure you can cover life’s inevitable setbacks without making things worse for yourself and your family financially.
That’s it for today, but one last thing before you go...I have an amazing free tool for you to help you on your path to retirement. It’s called the Retirement Success Forecaster.
Using data from a simple questionnaire, the retirement success forecaster will tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if you’re not on track, it will pinpoint exactly what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envision.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess/ to download your forecaster questionnaire. Fill it out, send it back to me using the instructions in the forecaster, and I’ll send your personalized results for free - no strings attached.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about how I save for my kid’s college as a financial advisor. College is expensive. That’s no secret.
My husband and I went to college and it’s important to me that my kids attend college as well. But not just any college. You see, I’m Catholic. And not just any Catholic. I’m so Catholic that I wear a veil to Mass. I’m so Catholic that I think I might explode if I don’t go to confession at least every 6 weeks. I’m so Catholic that I look with admiration at the family at my church who needs a 12 passenger Sprinter van to fit all of their kids.
My faith is the most important thing in my life, and my top priority as a mother is to raise my children in the faith and do everything I can to ensure that they have a deep and enduring relationship with Jesus. An important part of that is sending my children to solid, Catholic schools. And that includes college.
My children aren’t aware of this yet, but their list of mom-approved Catholic colleges is rather short. Only the most traditional Catholic schools make the list.
So that means that if my kids decide to go to college, it won’t be cheap, since all Catholic colleges fall into the private schools category.
For that reason, I have been saving for my kids college education since they were infants. And my approach to saving for college is unique. I actually can’t take credit for this one - it’s my dad’s idea.
The idea is to frontload college savings into the first 5-7 years of life. And then once kids are around this age,you reduce or eliminate college savings and let the money grow from there by investing in the stock market. Then once kids turn 15, you gradually start reducing the exposure to stocks, so that by the time the child turns 18 and starts college their funds are secure and out of stocks, so you don’t worry about major stock market declines around the time you’ll need the funds for school.
This accomplishes 2 important things: First of all, you’re not stuck with helping your kids pay for college in your peak earning years when funds would be better off used for saving for retirement - remember - you stopped saving by the time junior was a second grader. Secondly, because you started saving early in life when college was still nearly 2 decades away, most of the funds for college come from growth and earnings rather than your dollars, so it minimizes the overall amount needed for college when you start saving as early as possible.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about a subject that hits close to home for me - how much I save for retirement as a financial advisor.
I started my career as a financial advisor 13 years ago, when I was fresh out of college at 22 years old. Frankly, I am shocked that anyone would take financial advice from my 22 year old self, but a few people did, and here I am today.
I think if there is a universal truth to what each of us humans dislike it’s a hypocrite. There is nothing more disappointing to finding out that the successful businessman was hiding behind a house of cards, or the upstanding husband was really cheating on his wife the whole time.
As a financial advisor who has always had a focus on retirement, I consider it blasphemy to not take my own advice. For that reason I have always contributed 10% of my income towards retirement. Some years it’s been higher than that, as my goal is to max out my 401k contributions.
I remember going out to happy hour with friends after work in my early 20s and being really anxious about my $20 tab. I also didn’t travel much in my early 20s because that was expensive and I made the decision to prioritize saving.
I was also keen on buying a house in my 20s, so I was trying to save as much as I could. Looking back, this was all a little miserly, but 13 years later it has paid off and I feel good about where we are on our path to retirement. Being so far from retirement - potentially 30 years+ at this point - I have no idea what our retirement journey looks like, but the important thing for me is that we’re creating options for ourselves. So if I decide to retire earlier or later than usual, we can afford to do both.
My husband and I are on track with our retirement savings, so I feel comfortable about where we are on our current path to retirement, which ridiculously enough to most of you listening is still far off in the distance.
By the way, if you want to better understand how on track you are for accumulating wealth, a simple formula created by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, authors of the "The Millionaire Next Door," can help you determine whether you're wealthy — or at least, as wealthy as you should be.
Here’s how it works:
[Your age] x [pre-tax annual household income from all sources, except inheritances] / 10 = your "expected" net worth.
So if you’re 50 and you make $100,000/year, you would multiply 50 x 100,000, which = $5 million. Divide that number by 10, and you have $500,000.
Under accumulators of wealth (UAWs) are those whose real net worth is less than one-half of their expected net worth.
Average accumulators of wealth (AAW) are on par with their expected net worth.
Prodigious accumulators of wealth (PAWs) have a net worth twice their expected level.
Do the math for yourself and see where you fall in the accumulation of wealth bell curve.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about how I spend my money as a financial advisor. If you thought that I managed the budget, paid the bills and took care of the finances in our household, you would be wrong. My husband is a CPA and he does all that. I’m thankful that he does that important task for our family, and it also means that I have a really good understanding of how we spend our money and where it all goes. He uses quickbooks and tracks our income and expenses pretty accurately, so here is a breakdown of our top spending categories as a % of our take-home pay:
- Housing - we spend 13% of our after tax income on housing. The average American family spends about ⅓ of their after-tax income on housing, which I have always been against. I’ve never wanted to be house poor, so we have always lived below our means in the housing category.
- Our next largest spending category is cars. As I mentioned yesterday, my husband is a car guy. It’s his thing. He is happiest in the garage working on a car, washing his car, or driving his car. If I had my way, I would probably still be driving my 1997 army green Nissan pathfinder, because I’m so cheap and I loved that car, but my husband makes the car decisions for our family, and
- Our 3rd largest monthly expense is a tie between giving and childcare. We have 3 kids, we both work full-time jobs, so we have a part-time nanny and our 3 year old is in a montessori school. Kids are expensive. If you’ve been a listener of the one minute retirement tip for a while, you know how strongly I believe in giving. It’s been an important goal to increase our giving over the last several years and I’m very happy that this now has become our 3rd largest monthly expense.
- Next on the list is household expenses - this includes things like groceries, most Amazon purchases which are usually things like diapers or household items.
- Finally, we’re getting to something fun. Our 5th largest spending category is entertainment - eating out and my golf addition are also included in this category. When we travel - it’s also lumped in with entertainment, but we generally don’t spend a lot here because we like cooking at home, we have 3 kids 6 and younger so we have no social life, and eating out and family vacations sound like some form of torture at this stage in our lives.
I didn’t include saving for emergencies, retirement, and our kids college in these calculations because I just looked at our budget from a monthly take home pay standpoint. I’ll be talking in depth about retirement savings tomorrow.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
Today, I’m talking about how I allocate my assets as a financial advisor - in other words, how my assets are split up among stocks, bonds, real estate, property, cash, etc.
My largest asset is my business interest in True North Retirement Advisors, which is the business that I run and co-own with my father. We currently manage about $285 million in assets and it’s a 7-figure business. The upside is that our business is growing and I expect that this asset will continue to grow, the downside is that it’s a completely illiquid asset, which is a tricky challenge that all business owners face. It’s not uncommon for half of one’s net worth as a business owner to be tied up in their business, and I’m no exception.
My next largest asset category is stocks - these are spread out among joint accounts, Roth IRA and 401ks, and Traditional IRA accounts. I’m including mutual funds and ETFs here too when I talk about stocks, because I own some of those, but in virtually all of my investments, I
I also have a preference toward owning individual stocks. I like dividend paying stocks, and small and mid-cap growth companies. Most of my investment accounts are invested in individual stocks. But I actually don’t do my own stock picking. I’ve outsourced that to a couple of asset managers, and for a very low fee, I have customized stock portfolios that I’ve been very happy with.
I own virtually no bonds - less than 1% of my portfolio is invested in bonds - which makes sense given that I am 35 years old and my husband is 36. I love owning stocks and when it comes to investing, I don’t get too worked up about losing money in a down market, so I suspect that I will always have a strong personal preference toward stocks. Seeing daily fluctuations across my client’s accounts of millions of dollars has really desensitized me to volatility in the stock market.
Even though I don’t own bonds, I do keep a large amount of cash on hand - about 10% of our liquid investments are in cash. I like having cash for emergencies and larger purchases.
Next after our stock portfolio is our property - our largest asset here is our house, but I’m also including cars here. The real asset value is lower here after the debt, because we have a mortgage on our house and a couple of car loans. We still owe about half of our home’s value through our mortgage, and aside from our mortgage our only debts are car loans.
Finally, we have college savings accounts for all 3 of our kids and a donor advised fund - all of which we contribute to monthly. I’ll talk more about the college savings accounts later this week and the unique strategy we’re using to stretch our dollars in those accounts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is How I invest my money as a financial advisor.
I read a fascinating article a few weeks ago by another financial advisor about how he spends, saves, and invests his money. While it’s terrifying to open myself up to sharing something personal on a public forum, this week I’m sharing with you how I invest my money as a financial advisor.
I’m talking about how my assets are divided among stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, and other, how much I spend, how much I save for retirement and my kid’s college, and how much I keep in cash.
To keep some privacy and to save my husband from having a heart attack that I’m sharing this information with you, I’ll keep it high level, and rather than tell you how much money I have hidden in the backyard or in my Roth IRA, I’ll talk mostly about percentages.
Very rarely do we get a good look at how others are actually balancing the various competing financial priorities in life. So I hope that opening up my balance sheet to you will help give you some insight into how a financial advisor thinks about money and more importantly what they do with their own money.
Since it’s not what we say but what we do that actually matters.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
Here’s all 5 must-do checklist items to tick off before you retire:
- setting your retirement spending budget
- figure out if you can afford to retire
- eliminate all debt - at the very least, get rid of all debts aside from your mortgage
- decide when you’ll start taking social security
- squirrel away 6-18 months of expenses in savings
There are lots of things you can and should do to prepare yourself financially for retirement, but to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed by all the things you should be doing, I just focused this week on my top 5 that will have the most impact in helping you live a more financially secure retirement.
Hopefully after listening to the one minute retirement tip this week, you have a clear idea about where to start if you’re planning to retire this year - or even anytime within the next 5 years - because you don’t have to be in your last year of working before you tackle some of these items.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: how i invest my money as a financial advisor.
I read a fascinating article a few weeks ago by another financial advisor about how he spends, saves, and invests his money. While it’s terrifying to open myself up to sharing something personal on a public forum, next week I’m going to share with you a breakdown of my assets, savings, retirement investments, kids college savings, and cash to give you some insight into how a professional financial advisor prioritizes saving and investing goals.
To keep some privacy and to save my husband from having a heart attack that I’m sharing this information with you, I’ll keep it high level, and rather than tell you how much money I have hidden in the backyard, I’ll talk mostly about percentages. And about that backyard money hole, there’s nothing back there, so don’t bother trespassing with your shovel.
Last thing...if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - with a new livestream every week, where I do a deeper dive than I have time for in each daily episode. So if you want to hear more from this week’s topic head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and subscribe.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
Today’s must-do checklist item you’ll need to tick off before retirement is to squirrel away 6-18 months of expenses in savings.
First of all, you’ll want to maintain even more cash for emergencies in retirement because you’re no longer working. When you’re retired, and the older you are, the harder it is to go out and find a part-time job or a side gig. So if you have a sudden and unexpected expense or medical bills, paying for your emergency with a high interest credit card or having to liquidate your retirement portfolio, can be devastating and can completely derail your retirement plans. So we need lots of cash on hand in retirement for emergencies.
The other reason why you want to keep a lot of cash on hand is because it can save you in times of market downturns, recession, and crisis.
If your portfolio drops 10 or 20%, you’ll make that drop significantly worse by continuing to take money out, and exacerbate the downturn in your portfolio.
Having enough cash on hand will allow you to stop some of the bleeding and suspend your portfolio withdrawals in a market downturn. When you can do this, especially if it happens in the early years of retirement, you give yourself a better shot of not running out of money in retirement.
Just how much cash should you set aside for this scenario? At a bare minimum, you’ll want about 6 months worth of monthly expenses on hand for emergencies.
In addition, to protect yourself in the next market downturn, you’ll want to keep another 12 months’ worth of your portfolio withdrawals on hand.
Why? Well the average bear market lasts 14 months. Some are shorter, and some of the deeper ones are even longer.
If you can stop your portfolio withdrawals for a year while the stock market is reeling and we’re in the midst of a recession, you’ll not make the problem worse and you’ll make your portfolio much more likely to last over your retirement years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
Today’s must-do checklist item you’ll need to tick off before retirement is to decide when you’ll start taking social security.
If you think you should start taking social security the same month that you retire - think again. For many of my clients that’s actually not the best decision and when we ran the numbers, we found that they were much better off waiting until 68, 69, or 70 to take social security.
Since social security is likely to be a meaningful proportion of your retirement income, you should only decide when to start your social security payments after careful thought and analysis.
If you’re in good health, and you retire at age 62, it might even make sense to wait until age 70 to start social security payments. To plug the gap, you might decide to withdraw a higher amount from your assets in those early retirement years or work part time.
Since most of us are now living into our 80s and many of you can and should plan to live into your 90s, waiting to take social security will help to maximize your lifetime income from social security, and make sure you’re not stuck with a permanently reduced monthly income because you started social security before your full retirement age.
The difference in lifetime income for someone who lives until age 90 is massive - several hundred thousand dollars in many cases - if you start taking social security as early as possible vs. waiting.
And the higher your social security monthly benefit amount will be, the higher the lifetime income is the longer you wait.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
Today’s must-do checklist item you’ll need to tick off before retirement is eliminating all debt.
One of the worst things you can do for yourself financially is enter retirement with loads of debt. If you have debts right now, you’ll give yourself so much more freedom in retirement, not being obligated to monthly payments - sometimes at astronomically high interest rates.
If you have credit card debt, that’s a must go, since interest rates are so high. You’ll also want to eliminate car loans and other types of debt that you have even if the interest rate is pretty low. If you’re married, you might find that you only need 1 car in retirement depending on your lifestyle and where you live.
Lastly, if you can pay off your mortgage before retirement, that would be a game changer for many of you. Since most of us spend about ⅓ of our income toward housing, not having a big monthly mortgage payment to the bank will free you up to spend your retirement years travelling more and spending money on the things we value the most.
It’s important to think and plan ahead here - maybe downsizing or moving will eliminate your remaining mortgage. Maybe if you are disciplined and drastically reduce your spending, you can pay off your remaining mortgage in the next 1-3 years.
No matter what your situation, I would explore every avenue possible to pay off ALL debts before retirement so you open yourself up to the freedom that too many people never experience - freedom from debt and monthly payments.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
Today’s must-do checklist item you’ll need to tick off before retirement is to figure out if you can afford to retire. Yesterday, I talked about creating a retirement budget to answer a very important question: How much will you spend in year 1 of retirement?
Once you know what your retirement spending looks like, we can move on to actually figuring out if you can afford to retire.
Can your income sources like your social security, pension, assets, and other sources of income support your income needs in retirement without you running out of money.
It’s not an easy question to answer, so I recommend that you get some professional help here. If you’re already working with an advisor, ask them for help in figuring this out.
If you don’t have an advisor, I suggest that you find one - even if it’s just to do this one exercise. It’s dangerous to try to figure this out on your own, because you need to get the assumptions right.
Remember when the projected Covid deaths by the summer here in the US was going to be 2 million people? The reason they were so wildly off was because their assumptions were dead wrong. It’s the same with your retirement. You have to factor in return assumptions, inflation, taxes - none of which is easy to do.
But it’s so critical that you take the time to do a retirement analysis to determine if you can actually afford to retire. Because if you can’t you’ll definitely want to know that before you put in your notice. Even if you’re dead set on retiring this year, running the analysis will still give you options like working part time or living on less in retirement, so you can determine what compromises you’d be willing to make if it turns out you can’t retire.
If you haven’t taken me up on the Retirement Success Forecaster, I suggest that you do that, because it answers today’s question for you and whether or not you can afford to retire. Using data from a simple questionnaire, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if you’re not on track, I’ll help you determine what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envision.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess/ to download your forecaster questionnaire. Fill it out, send it back to me using the instructions in the forecaster, and I’ll send your personalized results for free - no strings attached.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
Today’s must-do checklist item you’ll need to tick off before retirement is setting your retirement spending budget.
Many people I work with - even people who are good savers and make smart decisions with their money - don’t have a clue where their money goes every month.
If you can’t tell me how much you spend on groceries, eating out, travel, and for all of the various subscriptions you have - then you’re playing with fire when it comes to your retirement.
For most of you, your income will be less in retirement, so it’s critical that you understand your spending and where you’ll likely cut back, and where your spending might increase.
The purpose here is to establish a realistic budget and understand how much you spend on a monthly and annual basis and how much you will need to support and maintain the lifestyle you desire in retirement.
Too many people don’t do this, and the result is either spending down of your assets because your assets can’t sustain your income needs - this will potentially leave you penniless sooner than you realize. Or, you get to retirement and you realize that you can’t afford to do any of the things that you envisioned.
So setting your retirement spending budget comes first. And should be done well in advance of your retirement - ideally 1-2 years out. If you are starting from scratch here, start by tracking your spending over a 3-6 month time frame. Then you’ll want to determine which spending categories will shift in retirement (maybe you’ll spend more on healthcare and travel and less on gas and clothes). Once you know your numbers, you can use these numbers as a baseline for answering one very important question:
How much will you spend in year 1 of retirement?
Don’t worry yet about how you’re going to cover your spending - we’ll talk about that tomorrow.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is What To Do Before You Retire In 2021.
When you’re contemplating retirement, especially in the next year or two, there are a few must-do checklist items you need to tick off before you collect your gold watch and pack up your office space. Nobody gets a gold watch anymore, right? These days I think it’s just some cake and an Amazon gift card and a don’t let the door hit ya on the way out after 20 years of faithful service.
If you’re planning to retire in 2021, it would be foolish to not do a few key things before you retire - some examples include beefing up your emergency savings, estimating health care costs, calculating your spending, deciding if you’ll work part time, updating your will, and eliminating debt - these are just a few important things you’ll want to do before retirement.
But if you are already feeling overwhelmed by all the things you should do, take heart because this week, I’m going to focus on just a handful of items that I consider must-dos. These are the things that if done right will set you up for success in retirement, and if done wrong could costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars or worse, lead to you running out of money in retirement.
So this week, I’ll cover 5 must-do items to help prepare you for a smooth transition into retirement, helping to ensure that your money lasts in retirement and you spend your retirement years in comfort, and not broke.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was the 2021 stock market & economy outlook.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Economic growth predictions as measured by GDP here
- Stock Market Outlook for 2021
- Winners for 2021
- Losers for 2021
- Housing and Real Estate Market Outlook
While nothing you heard this week was likely earth-shattering news, considering I still have my crystal ball in storage, my hope is that you come away from this week with a better sense of the opportunities that exist today - namely dividend paying stocks and other potential winners for 2021 - as well as some areas to be cautious about - namely that S&P 500 index fund you might own and going all in on commercial real estate in the former republic of CHAZ in Seattle.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: What To Do Before You Retire In 2021. If you’re planning to retire in 2021, what are the must-do checklist items to tick off before you make the leap into retirement. Next week, I’ll cover 5 must-do items to help prepare you for a smooth transition into retirement.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - with a new livestream on Mondays at 9am Pacific, where I go in depth on the topic for the week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the 2021 Stock Market & Economy Outlook.
Were you as surprised by the housing market in 2020 as I was? You wouldn’t guess that in the middle of a deep recession with double digit employment, that the housing market would be on fire this year...but that was certainly the case.
Demand was strong despite uncertainties and record low mortgage rates helped grease the wheels for a
Today, I’m talking about the housing and real estate market outlook for 2021. Danielle Hale, realtor.com chief economist says: “We expect sales to grow 7 percent and prices to rise another 5.7 percent on top of 2020’s already high levels. While we expect mortgage rates to tick up gradually, sales and price growth will be propelled by still strong demand, a recovering economy, and still low mortgage rates. High buyer demand and still-lagging supply will keep prices growing, but at a slower pace than 2020 as buyers contend with mortgage rate and price increases that create affordability challenges.”
So that’s good news if you’re looking to sell a home in 2021. But what about all this we keep hearing about people leaving the cities and certain regions of the country? What about all those companies with remote workers or brick and mortar retail companies who have failed in the pandemic - all of whom will not be renewing their leases.
What’s going to happen in commercial real estate and in certain parts of the country? Already, about 10% of commercial loans are in trouble and the real fallout hasn't even arrived yet, since stimulus and PPP loans helped many renters stay afloat.
Property prices appear to be collapsing in NYC. The work-from-home and less business travel trends don’t look good for office space and hotels respectively. Higher density in cities and the fallout from civil unrest in certain cities without the protections for property owners could depress commercial real estate in 2021 and beyond.
For me, the general stance with real estate in 2021 is to be cautious. With so much upheaval, there will no doubt be opportunities, but I would be cautious about buying any type of real estate - especially with home prices continuing to new heights this year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the 2021 Stock Market & Economy Outlook.
Today, I’m talking about some likely losers in 2021. At the end of February 2020, the stock price for Zoom was just over $100/share. If you had a crystal ball and could see into the future and see all of us on our Zoom calls, you would have made serious gains in the stock this year as it jumped from it’s pre-pandemic $100/share to nearly $600/share in the fall. But the stock has since dropped back down to $350/share as of this recording.
The stock appears to be overvalued with a lot of investors driving up the stock price by piling in to the stock this year. But with a price to earnings ratio and other valuation metrics skyrocketing, the current price doesn’t seem justified.
So I think in 2021, there will be some investments out there like Zoom, or DoorDash or any other covid darling that benefited from the obvious Covid trends, but whose valuations got so stretched that the stock price wasn’t justified and may drop significantly once the economy begins to return to normal.
So I call these covid-bandwagon stocks and I would tread lightly here and make sure if you own stocks that benefited greatly from Covid and the lockdowns that the stock’s value has not lost touch with reality.
I’m also not a big fan of the big tech stocks. The likes of Google, Facebook, Apple & Microsoft have experienced years of outperformance, and as I mentioned earlier this week, the music has to stop at some point. 2021 could be the year that tech stocks finally slowdown - after a big run up in 2021, investors could take profits, and there is a greater potential for antitrust litigation for these tech giants that could hamper profits and destroy confidence in these bubble-like stocks.
The biggest problem with Big tech stocks is that it’s likely that your S&P 500 index fund or your target date mutual fund you own in your 401k is loaded up with these stocks - as the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netfilx and Google) now make up more than 15% of the S&P 500 index.
So just be mindful of that and consider rebalancing if you own a tech heavy portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the 2021 Stock Market & Economy Outlook.
Today, I’m talking about some likely winners in 2021. I touched on this briefly yesterday when I talked about the stock market outlook for 2021. So today, I’m going to talk more about why I think monies will flow into high quality dividend paying companies, as well as neglected areas such as cyclicals, financials, and small cap growth companies.
Let’s start with high quality dividend paying stocks. I was surprised that dividend paying companies didn’t perform better in 2020 as the flight to quality during difficult stock markets and economic downturns typically props these types of companies up. In 2021, I think it’s reasonable to forecast that dividend paying companies will benefit as we begin to emerge from the pandemic recession. Dividend paying stocks tend to be profitable, cash cow businesses, with dominating positions in their market. Most dividend paying companies aren’t big tech or consumer discretionary companies, so they largely got left behind last year.
I think returns in 2021 won’t be so lopsided - in 2020, unless you invested in big tech or consumer discretionary companies, your portfolio likely underperformed the stock market in 2020. I think returns will likely be normalized in 2021 as the economy begins to return to normal.
Small cap companies were also largely ignored last year, as well as cyclical companies. However, both of these groups tend to do very well coming out of a recession, so I would expect the same in 2021.
Lastly, financials were hit hard in 2020 and it was one of the worst sectors to be invested in last year. Low interest rates and business shutdowns hurt financials a lot, but as we emerge from the recession, financial and bank stocks seem poised for a strong recovery in 2021 especially as credit conditions improve.
The key across all of these potential opportunities though is quality. There will still be plenty of losers, even in areas of opportunity, so choose your investments prudently in 2021.
That’s it for today, but before you go, I have a special free offer just for you - my loyal listeners - the Retirement Success Forecaster. Using data from a simple questionnaire, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if you’re not where you need to be at this stage in the game, what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envision.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just go to www.truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess/ to download your forecaster questionnaire. Fill it out, send it back to me using the instructions in the forecaster, and I’ll send your personalized results for free - no strings attached.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the 2021 Stock Market & Economy Outlook.
Today, I’m talking about the 2021 stock market outlook. If I told you in late March when the economy shut down and the stock market drop had it’s swiftest and sharpest decline ever, that the stock market would reach all time highs just 6 months later, most of you would have laughed, some of you would have argued with me, and nobody would have agreed with me.
Yet, the stock market recovered from the shortest bear market on record to rally to new all-time highs by late September. In fact, as of this recording the tech-heavy NASDAQ finished up +42.7% for 2020, the S&P 500 Index is up +14.6%, and the industrial heavy Dow Jones is up +5.8%. What made this all possible was the stimulus that went to consumers and the PPP loans that kept businesses afloat during the shutdown.
The recession and the stock market drop would have no doubt been much deeper without government intervention. But what about looking ahead to 2021? Will that trend continue? Will the stock market continue to touch new highs this year?
In our 2020 year-end commentary to clients, we at True North believe 2021 will look much different than 2020. The darlings of this year (mostly tech stocks) and many other untested companies have skyrocketed to astronomical heights. At some point the music will stop and someone will be left without a chair.
We think monies will flow into high quality dividend payers as well as neglected areas such as cyclicals, financials, and small cap growth companies in 2021. I’ll talk more about that tomorrow when I cover the outlook for the likely winners in 2021, but for now, it seems likely that 2021 will be a good year for stocks - perhaps with high single digit ir double digit returns for the S&P 500, on the heels of an economy that will likely continue it’s recovery.
As the vaccine gets injected into us Americans and as life hopefully begins returning to normal by mid-year, I would expect to see strong earnings, capital spending, buybacks, and higher dividends - all of which spells good news for the stock market.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the 2021 Stock Market and economy Outlook.
Today, I’m covering the economic outlook for 2021.
On a recent work trip to Boise. My 1 hour flight home from Boise to Portland had 16 people on a Monday evening flight. 16 people!
Then when I arrived at pdx, I saw a sight I had never seen before. One lane open at the security checkpoint and NO ONE going through the line. PDX is a bustling airport that is busy all the time, especially during the holiday season. Now here I was, less than 2 weeks before Christmas, the airport was a ghost town. It was stunning.
It’s a clear sign of the pandemic, and also a sign of some lingering and perhaps permanent changes to the economy. Reduced air travel - particularly for business travelers, who have found other creative ways of seeing clients and conducting business virtually.
History often behaves in this way - like a big bang effect - where a sudden and unexpected event permanently changes an entire industry, an entire economy, and the entire world. And so the airline business may forever be altered.
In other industries too, there will be some dark clouds lingering and some permanent changes. Hotels and restaurants and small retail shops will likely struggle for years - many will have permanently closed. Many job losses experienced in the pandemic are permanent.
But there are reasons to expect that the overall economy will thrive in 2021.
After President Trump signed the $900 billion stimulus bill at the end of December, Goldman Sachs forecasts 2021 GDP growth at 5% in the first 3 months of 2021. The economy will likely jump in the first 3 months of the year as stimulus checks arrive and consumers and businesses start spending the funds.
As vaccinations roll out in 2021 and things begin to return to normal - people begin to travel again, eat out more at restaurants and go back to work, the economic growth is likely to continue.
And all of this makes sense...the economy was doing well at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, so once the main cause for the sharp recession has passed, then it seems likely that growth will continue.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is th 2021 Stock Market and Economy Outlook.
I don’t have the ability to predict the future, but I think it’s a worthwhile exercise to look at the current trends happening in the stock market and the economy that will likely continue into 2021. And then use those trends and the probability of those trends continuing to hopefully make smarter decisions with your money.
So in my outlook this week, I’ll cover 5 key areas and themes that you should pay attention to as we embark on a new year:
- Economic growth predictions as measured by GDP
- Stock Market Outlook for 2021
- Winners for 2021
- Losers for 2021
- Housing and Real Estate Market Outlook
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on Monday to kick off a new weekly theme, but since today is new year's day - happy new year to you! And over ½ of my listeners are tuning in on Amazon Alexa, and maybe more than a few of you have found this podcast recently after getting an Alexa device at Christmas, I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to the show and what its all about, and what you can expect if you stick around with me.
Thinking about retirement can be both exhilarating and terrifying. With all the excitement of thinking about the future comes the underlying worry--am I ready? As you approach retirement, you’ll make decisions with real consequences. Many of these decisions are irreversible and have serious long term consequences for you and your family.
The goal of the OMRT podcast is to educate and inform you so you can avoid the landmines and big mistakes of planning for and living in retirement.And while I’m at it I try to keep the mood light in order to keep you engaged in a subject matter that has a reputation for being as dull as dishwater.
So if you’re benefiting from these daily tips, I hope you’ll stick with me in 2021 and share the love by telling a friend who is close to retirement to subscribe.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Merry Christmas! In honor of Christmas and Christmas cards with those fun family updates, today I’m sending you a virtual Christmas card with lots of love from my family to you and yours.
This Christmas is extra special in our house because my 3rd child, Theodore, was born in September. Celebrating a 1st Christmas with a new baby is always special, and Theodore is a cheerful little guy who is spoiled with constant attention by his big sister, Keegan, who is 6, and big brother Cameron, who is 3.
All the little children in my house still believe in Santa Claus and we had a blast this year writing letters to Santa, decorating the tree, making gingerbread houses and cookies, and singing out of tune Christmas songs with all the wrong words like only a 6 year old and a 3 year old can do.
I think this is my favorite Christmas so far, as I am overjoyed that we are a family of 5, and the blessing of this Covid time has been a more peaceful and joyous Christmas and Advent season.
I’ll wrap up here and let you get on with your day, but before I do, I just want to take this opportunity to tell you how much I appreciate you. Keegan wants to say Merry Christmas and thank you to you too.
The podcast is approaching 100,000 downloads for 2020 and I’ve been blown away by the steady growth of this podcast. More importantly, I am always so encouraged by your emails, because I know that this podcast is helping you make smarter and more informed decisions about your retirement and finances.
So thank you so much for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
I’m closing out the year with a sprinkling of several different topics from the most downloaded episodes of 2020.
I’ll be back with new episodes on January 4th, and in the meantime I have a new resource for you that's jam--packed with value - the retirement success forecaster.
Go to https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/retirementsuccess/ - there you’ll be able to download the free retirement success forecaster to gauge your retirement readiness. Once you answer a few questions you’ll receive your free personalized results.
To get your free retirement success forecaster go to: truenorthra.com/retirementsuccess.
And now here is today’s best of 2020 episode...
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was 5 types of bonds to own now.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Building Your Bond Ladder
- Consider Foreign Bonds To Diversify & Increase Income
- TIPS: A Bond Investor’s BFF
- Don’t Overlook These Short Term Bond Funds
- How To Get A Higher Interest Rate On Your Savings
My hope is that you come away from this week with some hope that you can still invest prudently and earn income on your bond investments in a very low interest rate environment.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: The Best of 2020. We’ll revisit the most downloaded episodes of the year and touch on lots of different topics as we close out what’s been a year unlike any other!
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - there’s over 120 videos on the channel, and every Monday at 9am Pacific, I’m posting a live stream podcast bonus episode where I go in depth and talk about the topic for the week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about 5 types of bonds to own now.
Today, I want to turn to a very important question that I get asked all the time, and it goes something like this: “Ashley, I’m saving up for a house remodel, to buy a new car, for my daughter’s wedding - whatever this big expense is - and I have my money in a savings account that’s earning me $12 of interest a year. What can I invest in that will earn me a better return?
When you have money set aside for a specific goal, it’s important that you invest this wisely and base your investment choices on how long from now you’ll need the funds.
And that’s why I still like short term CDs and why I would still buy them for clients who have specific time-based short-term savings goals. If you’ll need funds for a specific purchase within the next 6 months to 2 years, it’s not wise to risk losing those funds, but you’re leaving money on the table if you just leave the money in cash. With a CD that matches the timing of when you’ll need funds, you’ll at least earn a little bit of interest without risking losing your investment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about 5 types of bonds to own now.
Today, I’m talking about short term bonds and why I like them even when the yields on bonds - especially shorter term bonds are so low. And let me just clarify that by short-term I mean 1-5 years.
The primary reason I like short-term bonds right now, even if you’re earning less than 1% yield on these bonds is because they provide stability, albeit with less income, and they’re not going to get clobbered when interest rates start heading higher again.
Longer-term bonds - bonds that don’t mature for 10, 20, or 30 years may be more appealing right now, because you can get a better yield, but longer-dated bonds get hit much harder when rates turn around and head higher.
So I think there needs to be other ways to find income and you’ll need to find income in other places. First of all, you can find a lot of high quality stocks right now that are paying dividends in the 3% range. Investing in more dividend paying stocks will help bridge that gap if you’re already retired and you need portfolio income.
But if you’re nearing retirement, which most of you listening are - invest in the bonds for the stability they provide - they’re going to earn more than cash, but stay disciplined and don’t get desperate for yield by looking for it in all the wrong places - high yield, high risk, or longer-term bonds.
Not sure how much you should have in bonds at your age? Email me and I will send you our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet. It’s a guide to what your stock and bond mix should be for your age, and it’s the foundation that we use when building portfolios for all of our clients.
Just shoot me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com and I’ll send you your free age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, to help you determine the right mix of bonds for your portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about 5 types of bonds to own now.
Today, I’m talking about a type of bond that has been irrelevant for the last decade, but could become the best bond investment decision you make if we have higher inflation in the future. And if you listened to last week’s podcast episodes, you know what I think. In short, I think higher inflation is coming.
When inflation goes higher, the income you’re getting from your bond is fixed, so that bond income you’re getting buys you less and less as inflation goes higher and higher. And that’s why bonds aren’t great investments in an inflationary environment. Bond prices also drop when there’s high inflation, making your bond’s value lower as well.
So what is a bond investor to do - well first of all, stay away from long-term bonds when inflation and interest rates are going higher, because the bonds that don’t mature for 10, 20, or 30 years are the ones that get creamed when interest rates and inflation are heading higher.
But you don’t have to abandon bonds altogether when higher inflation arrives because you can own TIPS. TIPS stands for Treasury inflation-protected securities. These are bonds issued by the US govt and are indexed to inflation.
When you own TIPS bonds, the price of the bond adjusts for inflation. So if inflation is going up, the price on your TIPS bond is also going up as well. The income payments you receive also adjust with every payment based on inflation, so you benefit from both a higher value on TIPS bond and higher income while you own the bond.
Owning TIPS isn’t very compelling when inflation is low, since the interest rate you earn will be lower than comparable bonds, but if and when inflation returns in a meaningful way, TIPS can be a bond investor’s best friend.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about 5 types of bonds to own now.
Earlier this week I mentioned that govt issued bonds in Germany are yielding negative .6% at the moment. So if you think rates in the US are low, go over to Deutschland where you’ll get less money back when the bond matures than what you originally purchased the bond for.
But there are places outside the United States and Germany where rates are better, and that’s what I’m talking about today.
The interest rate environment varies from country to country, and the exchange rate varies from country to country as well, which means there are always opportunities for bond investors if you’re willing to invest outside of the United States.
So if you’re desperate for more yield, consider investing in foreign bonds where yields are usually higher than here in the US. You have to be very careful about this though. In my opinion, the most prudent way to invest in foreign bonds is through mutual funds and ETFs. You’ll want the diversification that these funds can provide to minimize your risk, and you’ll definitely want to dig a little deeper and make sure that the quality of the bonds are solid.
I’d stick with bonds from the developed world for safety as well. There are plenty of options and right now you can find foreign bonds that will pay you a higher income than what you can get by investing in US bonds exclusively.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about 5 types of bonds to own now.
Today, I’m talking about building a bond ladder, which is my favorite way to own bonds. It works when rates are going up, down, and sideways, and it helps keep your income from bonds more predictable. Here’s how it works: I want you to picture a ladder. Each step or rung on the ladder represents one year. The ladder might have 5 rungs or 10 rungs, or somewhere in between.
So if I build a 5 year bond ladder for a client, I buy bonds of ideally equal dollar amounts that mature next year, the year after that, and so on for 5 years.
Here’s why I love bond ladders...Bond ladders provide predictable income, because one year of bonds will mature each year, but the other 4 bonds stay invested, so the income tends to be very stable. Bond ladders are generally more liquid too because of their shorter-term nature, and they work great in a rising interest rate environment, because you get to gradually re-invest your bonds at higher rates each year as your bonds mature and cash out, rather than being locked-in for years to come.
It’s a strategy we’ve used successfully with our clients for decades. I like buying corporate bonds because the yields are higher. You can do this through buying individual corporate bonds or by buying bond ETFs with specific year maturities. I prefer the ETFs because the yields are about the same as individual corporate bonds, but it’s much more diversified.
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them - just send them a quick text with a screenshot or a link and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is 5 types of bonds to own now. With interest rates so low, you might be frustrated with the low yields and low income you can get these days from bonds.
Right now, you can get about .28% on a 6 month CD, .84% on a 10year treasury, below 2% on most corporate bonds and even the 30 year treasury is yielding just shy of 1.6%.
To say rates are low is an understatement. And it’s even worse in other parts of the world - in Germany the 10-year government issued bond is yielding negative! You give them your money to hang on to and rather than them paying you interest, you pay them for the privilege of holding it for you. Makes your head spin, doesn’t it?
But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater!
Because there are still opportunities that exist for owning bonds today. So this week, I’ll talk about 5 types of bonds that I’ve been buying for my clients to help provide income and stability to their portfolio in order to help you make better decisions when buying bonds in your own portfolio.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was why inflation matters in retirement. Inflation, although low right now, can seriously jeopardize your retirement if you don’t understand it, appreciate it, and take steps to minimize its impact on your investment portfolio and your lifestyle in retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What is inflation and why it’s so important
- Portfolio Returns Required To Keep Up With Inflation
- Worried About Inflation? Avoid This Mistake In Retirement
- Is Higher Inflation Coming?
- Bulwarks Against Inflation
My hope is that you come away from this week with a better understanding of this important and often overlooked topic, and how you can avoid the perils of ignoring inflation in retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: 5 types of bonds to own now. With interest rates so low, a lot of investors are frustrated with the low yields and low income on bonds. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater! I’ll talk about 5 types of bonds that I’ve been buying for my clients, and opportunities that still exist for bond investors today.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics and starting with this week’s video,I’ll be doing a livestream on this week’s topic, which is going live today. So if you didn’t get enough on inflation this week, be sure to head on over to True North Retirement at 9am pacific/12pm eastern today, when this week’s live stream will be broadcast.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about why inflation matters in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about bulwarks against inflation. What can you invest in that will help safeguard your retirement from the harmful effects of inflation?
- I’ll just start off with the most obvious and well-known protection against inflation - gold and other precious metals. But gold’s ability to protect you against higher inflation is limited, because owning too much gold comes with it’s own set of problems.
- A better protector against inflation is your stock portfolio. Yes, just by maintaining a meaningful % of stocks in your portfolio, you can protect yourself against inflation, since stock market returns outpace inflation by a wide margin over time.
- TIPS or Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are US Govt bonds that have an inflation protection component to them.
- Real estate is another way to protect against higher inflation, especially if you own income-producing rental properties, because you’ll likely be able to increase rent in an inflationary environment, which will lessen the blow of inflation on your bottom line.
Lastly, the prospect of higher inflation in retirement should prompt you to get aggressive in paying down your debt, so you’re not stuck with a mortgage, car payments, etc. when the cost of groceries and other necessities go up. The more flexibility you have with your spending in retirement, the less inflation will be a problem for you in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about why inflation matters in retirement.
So far this week, we’ve discussed the general problem with inflation in retirement, so today, let’s look at the state of the world today and explore the possibility for higher inflation ahead.
While I have no immediate concerns about higher inflation ahead, the ever-increasing national debt, and trillions of dollars of fresh stimulus being pumped into the economy because of Covid, higher inflation in the coming years appears more likely.
In June of this year, an interesting article came out in The Economist. The title of the article: “Don’t worry about inflation—yet”.
I would tend to agree with this sentiment. Higher inflation is unlikely right now. Businesses (except for the ones selling hand sanitizer) are unlikely to have the power to increase their prices until the economy turns around, so consumer prices are not heading higher anytime soon.
But the higher our national debt becomes, the fewer options we have to deal with it without higher inflation. When the national debt is high, the government will have higher interest costs and higher payments to its creditors. It needs money to pay these higher interest costs and debt payments, which means it needs higher revenue (i.e. taxes) or it can print money. Too much money floating around in the economy will lead to higher inflation if not managed well.
So should you worry about inflation right now? Probably not right now. But it would also be unwise to live in denial that higher inflation is ahead. And as I explained earlier this week, even moderate inflation in the 4-5% range can be devastating for your portfolio and your lifestyle in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about why inflation matters in retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about how you need to make a 7% return on your investment portfolio just to break even with a 15% tax rate, 3% inflation, and a 4% withdrawal rate.
Today, I want to take a closer look at that 7% return and how to avoid the mistake that too many people make in retirement.
Knowing that a 7% return is a good target in retirement to help you keep pace with inflation, taxes, and portfolio withdrawals, let’s look at what your investment portfolio should look like to help you get there.
A good place to start is to look at what won’t get you there. If you think your money is safe under the mattress, buried in the backyard, or sitting in your bank account, think again. It may be safe as far as it won’t lose any nominal value, but that’s as safe as it goes. If your money isn’t earning at least enough to keep up with taxes and inflation, you are LOSING money in real terms.
Translated to real dollars, if you’re in the 15% tax bracket, your money needs to be making a 2% rate of return in today’s very low inflation rate environment just to break even. In other words, if you’re not making at least 2% on your money right now, you’re losing money.
Because interest rates are so low right now, bonds and CDs are also struggling to keep pace. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t own bonds - they certainly have their place in a retirement portfolio, but the error many retirees make is having too much in bonds.
The key is to invest in a portfolio that is capable of earning 7-8% a year, which means that stocks have to be part of that equation, and that’s even more true right now when it’s challenging to earn meaningful returns in cash, CDs and bonds in this current environment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about why inflation matters in retirement. Today, I’m covering the most important topic of the week - what are the returns you’ll need in retirement to keep up with inflation in retirement.
If inflation is 3% a year, you’ll need to make 7% on your investments to earn 4%. That’s before taxes. If you’re in the 15% tax bracket in retirement, that cuts your real returns to only 3%. So even at a reasonable level of inflation of only 3%, you’re net returns after taxes and inflation are pretty low.
And we haven’t even considered portfolio withdrawals you’ll be taking in retirement. So you can see how challenging it is just to break even after inflation, taxes, and portfolio withdrawals and avoid depleting your investment portfolio.
There are 2 important takeaways from this to understand about how inflation impacts your retirement. First of all, a 7% portfolio return is quite good in retirement. I would be very happy with that over a 20-30 year time period. Many investors earn much less than this in retirement because they have a lot in bonds and cash. That’s why you must be careful to not be too conservatively invested in retirement because it can seriously come back to bite you in retirement.
Even with this standard base case scenario, you’re still just breaking even. But what if inflation is 4 or 5%? Your real returns drop to the 1-2% range, before withdrawals, so that’s where your purchasing power goes down. Your portfolio returns can’t keep up and you either have to cut back or seriously risk running out of money in retirement.
And that’s why inflation matters so much in retirement. Because it only takes a slightly elevated inflation to put your retirement in jeopardy.
Tomorrow I’m going to continue on this topic and discuss how inflation can be devastating in retirement, and we’ll talk more specifically about what you can do to guard your portfolio against the ravages of inflation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about why inflation matters in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about inflation 101 - what is it and why it matters.
Inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index or CPI, is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Inflation is very low right now - with the CPI only increasing about 1-1.5% over the last 12 months according to the Bureau of Labor.
Low inflation is ideal in retirement, because your portfolio returns are better able to keep up with the price increases of groceries, gas, travel, etc., allowing you to maintain your lifestyle over a 20-30 year retirement.
As inflation goes higher, that means every dollar to your name is now worth less and you need more and more dollars just to stay even and be able to purchase the things you were used to paying less for before.
You can see the impact of inflation by looking at how much things used to cost compared to how much they cost today.
In January 1988, a loaf of white bread cost approximately 59¢. In January of 2013, that same loaf of bread cost $1.42. So in the twenty-five year period, the bread increased 83¢ or 140%.
Because that happened slowly over time, you probably aren’t angry about the rising price of bread over the last 25 years, but your income and net worth would have had to also grow by 140% over that same time in order for that loaf of bread to not feel more expensive to you.
The problem comes in when your income and your net worth doesn’t grow in lockstep with the inevitable price increases due to inflation. That’s why it’s such a massive mistake to put all of your cash in a safe, or under your mattress or bury it in the backyard. If your money isn’t growing at least at the pace of inflation, then you are losing because the value of what every dollar can buy is dropping over time. And that’s why inflation is so dangerous in retirement. Opportunities to increase your income when you’re retired are so limited that higher inflation really takes a toll.
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is why inflation matters in retirement. Right now, inflation is very low and has been for many years. As time goes on and we go longer and longer without meaningful inflation, Americans become less and less concerned, I think. I rarely have a client who asks me what we should be doing to protect them from inflation, because over the last 20 years, it just hasn’t been something that any of us have had to worry about. In fact, with the Great Recession of 2008-2009, we had the opposite problem - worries about deflation.
But as I’ll go into depth on this week, inflation can be a big big problem, especially in retirement. If you are unlucky enough to retire during an inflationary time period like the 1970s or 1980s, high inflation is such a problem that it can completely alter your lifestyle in retirement, or worse, cause you to run out of money, just to keep pace with inflation.
Inflation is problematic anytime, because your dollars don’t go as far as they used to. But when you’re working, wages are usually rising to keep up with inflation. That’s not the case when you’re retired.
The problem comes in when your income and your net worth doesn’t grow in lockstep with the inevitable price increases due to inflation. If your money isn’t growing at least at the pace of inflation, then you are losing because the value of what every dollar can buy is dropping over time.
So this week, I’ll talk about why inflation matters for retirement, what kind of investments will help safeguard your assets and your income in an inflationary environment, and what investments you should avoid. I’ll also talk about why I think higher inflation is on the horizon and why the time to prepare for higher inflation is now.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The Problem Of Too Much Christmas
- Finding your why when it comes to cutting back on Christmas - how will you benefit? Maybe it’s more relaxed time to actually enjoy this season, or less spending or less stress.
- How I Slashed My Christmas Spending
- The Holiday Stop Doing List
- The New & Improved Holiday To Do List
My hope is that you come away from this week empowered that you don’t have to do all the things and buy all the things this holiday season. In fact, because of Covid, you have a real opportunity to cut out not just one or two things, but ALL the things that don’t bring you joy during this joyful time.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Why Inflation Matters In Retirement. We’ll cover the basics on inflation, why you need to pay attention to it in retirement, how it can crush you if you’re not careful, and most importantly, how you can protect yourself from the hairy scary inflation monster in retirement.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rules.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about cutting back on Christmas. Yesterday, I talked about developing your holiday stop doing list, and today I’m talking about how you can bring more meaning to the holidays by being more intentional about the traditions, gift-giving, and how you spend your time at Christmas. If you cut out all the crap, you’ll free yourself up to do more of the things you want to be doing and what’s meaningful to you.
With that in mind, here are a few of the traditions in the Micciche household that are meaningful and I would never give up:
- Advent calendar - every morning my kids open their advent calendar. There is a small drawer for each day - sometimes it’s a piece of candy, other times its an activity that we’re going to do that day. This is their favorite thing to do during the holidays and it creates surprises since the kids don’t know what’s on the agenda from day to day
- Advent wreath with nightly prayer - I’m Catholic and pretty orthodox, so praying every night with our advent wreath is a big deal and the top priority in our house. This year I’m super excited because I bought a new daily advent book that has prayers and conversation starters appropriate for my young kids, so we can teach our children about the coming of Jesus during this important time
- Watching classic Christmas movies - Every year, I look forward to watching the classics with my kids
- Driving around and looking at lights - as I mentioned earlier this week, we don’t put up outdoor lights, but we do love driving around about once a week to look at the lights near our house. My 2 oldest kids are 6 and 3, so this is a big deal around here.
- Shopping for a toy for a needy child - giving is something that’s very important to teach my kids, especially during the holidays, so I involve my kids in buying, wrapping, and dropping off toys we buy for needy kids
- Baking - I love baking with my kids and trying new recipes and we usually do this at least once leading up to Christmas
- Getting our tree - We live in Oregon where there are more Christmas tree farms than perhaps anywhere else in the world - cutting down our own tree and bringing it home is a special tradition from my childhood I’ve continued with my own family
- Christmas dinner with family - my parents and in-laws, our family, and my brother in law all get together on Christmas night for dinner. This allows us to all stay home on Christmas morning and have a relaxed day until we gather in the evening in one spot.
- Make a birthday cake for Jesus - you may think I’m crazy, but we don’t put cookies and milk out for Santa. Instead, we make a birthday cake for Jesus on christmas eve and sing happy birthday to him.
The only way we’ve been able to do some of these things is because we’ve cut out all the meaningless traditions, parties, and gift-giving. The focus on all of these activities is spending quality time with family and growing closer to the Lord, and raising my kids in the faith which are the priorities. Nearly all of our activities help fulfil this purpose and so even though we’re still busy this time of year, we’re busy doing the things that bring meaning and joy to the Christmas season.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about cutting back on Christmas. Today, I’m talking about your holiday stop doing list. What are the things that you do that you really shouldn’t be doing this time of year? The things that if you stopped doing, you could reclaim some of your time and sanity during this stressful time of year.
Here are 6 things I don’t waste time on during the holidays:
- Hanging outdoor lights - I remember begrudgingly helping my parents with this chore growing up, and I swore I would never hang outdoor lights on and around my house. Decorating for the holidays is confined to the inside and it saves me and my husband the time of putting up and taking down, or the expense of paying someone else to do it. Plus all the extra electricity use just isn’t worth it. I take my kids out about once a week and we enjoy looking at everyone else’s hard work instead.
- Elf on the shelf - I don’t know how or why this became a thing?! Not only is elf on the shelf just downright creepy, it sounds like the most stressful stupid tradition with the pressure of having to cleverly come up with new activities and new locations for your elf.
- Sending Christmas cards - ooo, this one is hard, and this is the first Christmas we are forgoing this one. As much as I enjoy receiving Christmas cards from others, I think we’re officially done with this one in the Micciche household. Too much time and work getting out cards.
- Shopping after Thanksgiving - I shop for Christmas, but I try to avoid going to the store or the mall unless it’s necessary. With the ability to buy pretty much everything online these days, there’s no reason to battle for a parking spot at the mall...I get stressed just thinking about it.
- Presents for non-family (neighbors, teachers, white elephant) - I talked about this at length yesterday. Even though I feel pressure every year to make cookies for my neighbors, buy a gift for my kids’ teachers, or participate in the white elephant exchange party with my mom’s group, I’ve had to learn to just say no to these superfluous gift giving events. I console myself by rationalizing that my neighbors don’t need any more sweets, I can give my kid’s teachers something at the end of the year or for their birthday instead, and I’ll see my mom friends again in January.
- Non-essential parties - we all have the book club party or the ladies golf party in my case or some other holiday party to go to. With most if not all of these regular parties not happening this year because of Covid, it’s the perfect reason to just say no from now on. My rule is that as long as I’m not obligated to go or I love going every year and it’s something I really look forward to, the RSVP is no.
What about you? What’s on your holiday stop doing list this year? I encourage you to pick at least one thing that you dread doing every year, and just stop.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about cutting back on Christmas. Today, I’m talking about how I’ve spent the last 10 years or so systematically slashing my Christmas spending and gift-giving and how it’s benefitted me and my wallet. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m happy with the direction we’re moving and I feel like we’ve found a good balance between lower stress and lower spending, without my young kids being deprived in any way.
When I had my first child in 2014, I saw it as an excellent opportunity to cut back on Christmas traditions and gatherings. It was the perfect excuse to stop waking up early on Christmas morning, loading up the car and driving up to my parents house for opening presents and breakfast.
Since that first family Christmas at home in 2014, I have systematically deleted holiday traditions that I don’t enjoy, and most especially I have cut down on gift giving.
One of the best things I’ve done for my own sanity is cut gifts down to the bare minimum. My children only get one gift each from Santa, and one gift each from Mom and dad. They are free to make gifts for each other, and they each are only allowed one gift from grandparents and aunts and uncles. My husband and I both come from small families, so when you do the math, my kids each have 6 presents under the tree on Christmas. They love it and my husband and I love it because Christmas morning in our house is calm and relaxed, and we end up keeping our Christmas spending to under $500 for everyone on our gift lists by cutting out the excessive gifts for our kids. For reference, the average American spent nearly $1000 on Christmas gifts last year. So our spending is about a quarter of that and we haven’t lost any of the joy.
Another thing we do is only buy one or two gifts for each other, and Christmas isn’t a reason to buy expensive jewelry or a new car, despite what the commercials would have you believe.
As for other family, we’ve moved toward the secret santa concept which allows us to just buy one gift and I buy almost no gifts for people outside of my family.
If you’re broke in January, I encourage you to set limits on how many gifts and cut back on who you buy for. You should never buy a gift for anyone because you feel obligated. You can always do other things to show you care. A coffee date, invite a friend over for a meal, or write a nice Christmas letter.
I have almost zero gift-giving related stress during the holidays, and it’s because I’ve cut out all but the essentials.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about cutting back on Christmas. Today, I’m talking about your why. Earlier this week, I discussed the fact that ⅔ of us have reached our breaking point with Christmas, with stress and financial strain of Christmas being the chief culprits. It’s so bad in fact, that 45% of us would prefer to just skip Christmas all together.
So if that’s you and you want to cut back on Christmas, it’s important to start with why. Why do you want to cut back on Christmas? How will this time of year be more joyful and less stressful if you cut back on Christmas. I’ll share specific ideas for ways to cut back later this week, but first we gotta get to the bottom of how your life will improve if you cut back.
So I want you to fill in the rest of this sentence: “I want to cut back on Christmas because…”
Personally, I want to cut back on Christmas because I want my kids to grow up learning that Christmas is about the miracle of the Christ child JEsus coming into this world, rather than thinking that Christmas is all about Santa and presents.
I want to cut back on Christmas to avoid the strong temptation of materialism and overconsuming this time of year.
I want to cut back on Christmas so I can spend more quality time at home with my family, rather than shopping or cramming too many activities into the month of December.
I want to cut back on Christmas (presents especially) so Christmas morning is calm and actually fun.
I want to cut back Christmas so we can give more to help others in our community have a meaningful Christmas.
I didn’t have to think for more than about 10 seconds on each one of those answers and I suspect that you have a few reasons why you may want to cut back on Christmas - especially if you’re typically stressed and grinchy this time of year.
So what is your why? If you still need some help here are some common whys:
- Reduce stress
- Have more time for what matters most
- Save money
- Give more
- Reduce debt
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about cutting back on Christmas.
Today, I’m talking about the problem of too much Christmas.
My favorite holiday tradition from the earliest I could remember was going to the Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving every year. My sister who is 10 years older than me was usually home from school, so I was excited to spend time with her. We went to the same tree farm every year, got our handsaw, ventured out into the far corners of the farm to find the perfect 8 ft Noble fir. Then after we found our tree we would head inside for hot cocoa and a visit with Santa, usually purchasing a new ornament for our tree on our way out. It was always a perfect day, and looking back, I think I enjoyed getting our tree more than I enjoyed Christmas morning. The tree farm we visited every year was eventually sold and after that it was never the same. We stopped the day after thanksgiving tradition, but with my husband and kids we still venture out every year to pick out and cut down our tree - and living in Oregon, that’s pretty easy to do with Christmas tree farms about as common here as cornfields in Iowa.
The point of this story is that there are certain holiday traditions that are worth it - for me, that’s the annual trip to the tree farm. But there are a lot of other things that we do and spend money on during the holidays that have the opposite effect. They cause stress, strain our wallets, and suck all of our time to the point where we need the entire month of January just to recover.
The problem with Christmas is that we as a society have just ruined it I think. Our society has forgotten Who Christmas is all about and we’ve replaced Jesus with Santa, and quality time with family to mowing people down for a big screen TV on Black Friday.
Christmas has become this hectic and stressful time and the problem is so widespread that more than half of Americans are burned out - 69% of us are stressed by the feeling of having a “lack of time,” 69% of us are stressed by the financial strain of Christmas.
And nearly half of Americans - 45% - would prefer to skip Christmas all together. Yet, we still do all the things and spend all the money. If you’re feeling like it’s time to redefine the Christmas season in your own life, tomorrow we’ll get started by talking about why and how you actually go about doing that.
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is cutting back on Christmas.Sometimes we just do something because that’s what we’ve always done without giving it much thought. Christmas can easily become one of those seasons where we buy the things and do the things because well, that’s what we’ve always done.
I don’t know about you but it seems like the pressure to spend more and do more every holiday season only grows every year. Christmas music starts playing on the radio just after Halloween, and I start panicking about getting holiday cards out in the mail, arranging for a time when our family friend will come over as Santa for a visit - who is the spitting image of Santa - even in July.
We have to get our Christmas tree and somehow find the time to decorate a gingerbread house, make cookies for our neighbors, buy a present for my kid’s Kindergarten teacher, decorate the house, watch all the movies and see all the lights.
The problem with all of this is that Christmas has become this hectic and stressful time. And I’m not alone. 69 percent of people are stressed by the feeling of having a “lack of time,” 69% of us are stressed by the financial strain of Christmas, and 51% are stressed out about the “pressure to give or get gifts.”
And nearly half of Americans - 45% - would prefer to skip Christmas all together. Yet, we still do all the things and spend all the money.
But one of the great blessings of Covid I think, is that it gives all of us a chance to slow down and really re-examine our priorities, how we spend our time, and how we spend our money. This year could be your opportunity to set yourself free from the traditions, activities, and gift-giving that has become overwhelming.
So this week I’ll be talking about how you can cut back on Christmas, why that’s important, how I’ve been cutting back on Christmas gradually over the last decade and how I intend to do that even more this year, and how to add more meaning and peace to a time of year that’s intended to be joyful and peaceful, not hectic and draining.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was how gratitude changes your outlook on money.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Disconnecting Happiness With More Stuff
- How Gratitude Helped Me Be More Patient
- A very happy thanksgiving to you and in honor of the holiday, 26 things I’m grateful
- How Gratitude Helps You Make Values-Based Money Decisions
- And lastly, Getting Started With Practicing Gratitude
My hope is that you come away from this week with a better understanding of how gratitude is deeply connected to your money and has an impact on your most fundamental money decisions - including your spending, giving and saving habits.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How to cut back on christmas. Now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is here! And covid is the perfect excuse to simplify your holiday traditions, cut back on shopping and spending, and reduce the stress of this usually hectic holiday season.
I’m kind of crazy and counter-cultural in how I celebrate Christmas, so next week I’ll be sharing with you how we celebrate Christmas in the Micciche household, and how that has helped my sanity and our bank account at the same time.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rules.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how gratitude changes your outlook on money. This whole week I’ve been talking about how gratitude is the foundation for being more patient, being more content with what you have, and saving, giving, and spending in ways that are consistent with your values, but the question then becomes - how do I get started with practicing gratitude so I can enjoy its fruits?
The easiest way to start is to make a concerted effort to notice the good in each day. A daily reflection time at the end of the day is perfect for this. It will help you appreciate the goodness of each day and will also train you to pay more attention in the moment. Although I have fallen out of the practice of this myself, I have done this in the past and it has worked wonders in helping me become more aware of the graces in each day.
Find ways to say thank you more, do acts of kindness for others and be more present with your loved ones.
Write thank you cards or send a text to someone just telling them how much you appreciate them.
Incorporating gratitude into your daily prayer time, or if prayer isn’t your thing - incorporating it into a daily meditation or mindfulness practice.
Go on a no complaint diet. I did this about 4 years ago and it really helped me cut down on my complaining which in turn helped me to appreciate the good things rather than dwelling on what I didn’t like.
In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear talks about the power of attaching a new habit to something you’re already doing as a way to make that habit stick. For example, if you have a daily quiet time with your cup of coffee, switching from reading the news or scrolling on your phone to a gratitude reflection time or journaling is an easier way to add that new habit into your life, because you’re attaching it to something you already enjoy doing and creating powerful associations in your mind.
That’s it for today. I hope some of those ideas are helpful in getting started.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how gratitude changes your outlook on money. Today, I’m talking about how gratitude can help you make values-based decisions.
By being aware of what you appreciate the most in your life, you’ll be able to connect the dots with what is most important to you in life and using your financial resources to support what’s most important to you.
It’s like the saying - put your money where your mouth is, which is just backing up what you’re saying is most important with real action.
If you have a particular cause that you are passionate about, but you’re not providing financial support to that cause or charity, how important is it to you really?
When you are grateful and you can recognize what’s most important to you, you’re better able to spend in a way that will help foster contentment because it’s consistent with your values, rather than spend in a way that’s frivolous and doesn’t align with what’s most important to you.
Many people never reach their most important financial goals because they wasted money on crap that didn’t really matter all that much to them - too many fast food trips, tech gadgets, shoes, or cute little trinkets for the house. It seems like a small thing here or there but it really adds up over time.
But when you know what you value the most because you recognize what you’re most grateful for, you’re able to take the next step by putting your money where you mouth is and spending, giving, and saving in ways that line up with what you value most.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how gratitude changes your outlook on money. And today is Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope that despite covid, you’re still able to spend time with those you love the most today - hopefully that’s some face to face time, but if not, hopefully it’s at least a few phone calls to tell those you love how special they are to you.
So in honor of Thanksgiving day, I’m sharing with you 26 things I’m grateful for today in the hopes that it will inspire you to think about those things - big and small - that you are most grateful for. Here it goes...I am grateful for:
- Being alive and healthy
- My husband
- My 3 children
- A hot shower
- Not having to host or cook a lot of food on Thanksgiving
- This podcast and each of you who are listening every day
- My business and having a job that I love
- My freedoms
- A beautiful sunset
- My warm home
- Cinnamon coffee creamer
- Snuggles with my infant son and bed time snuggles with my 3 year old
- Chatting in the car with my daughter about her day at school
- My hobbies, especially golf
- Living in the beautiful state of Oregon with all of it’s beauty, green, and amazing summers
- Quiet mornings alone before the rest of my house wakes up
- Facetime and Zoom during Covid
- My favorite red wine
- My daughter being in school in person
- Lessons I learned this year about dealing with constant frustrations and unknowns
- Money in my bank account and in my retirement accounts
- My employees
- Having a drink with a friend
- Life changing books I’ve read
- Oversized sweaters
- My faith
There you have it...so what are you most grateful for today? In honor of Thanksgiving, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about this and maybe even make your own list.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how gratitude changes your outlook on money. Today, I’m talking about how gratitude helped me be a more patient person.
Without gratitude, it’s easy to have this attitude of quickly moving on to the next shiny object and whatever is next. In my life, I find that whenever I work toward accomplishing something that I actually achieved, I was always surprised how the reality of the situation never felt like I expected it would.
A friend of mine is in his mid-40s and has been working really hard at paying off his mortgage for several years. This was a major financial goal for him and his wife to own their house free and clear and it took sacrifices and years of focused dedication to pay off his mortgage. Well, he finally paid off his mortgage this past summer and you know what he felt after making that last payment? Nothing. That was very sad to me because I was happy for him and he never got to enjoy the fruit of all of those years of hard work.
But I also understand why this happened to him, because it’s the same thing that always happens to me. I take about 3 seconds to enjoy my victory, then I’m over it and moving on. It doesn’t matter if I make the perfect lasagna or I just got a new client...the enjoyment lasts ever so briefly. I think what’s really going on here is that I lack the gratitude to appreciate the accomplishments and the good things that come my way, so I impatiently move on to the next thing I want. Only since I have been more intentional about being grateful and slowing down to appreciate the graces of good things, have I become a little bit more patient.
But sound financial habits are built on patience. And since patience is a fruit of gratefulness, we need gratitude in order to have the patience to save for retirement, stick with a plan, pay off debt, and stay invested when the world is going crazy.
We need patience for all of that and we need gratitude to be more patient.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how gratitude changes your outlook on money. Today, I’m talking about how gratitude helps disconnect your happiness with having more stuff. If you sat down and made a list of the 10 things in your life that you’re most grateful for, my guess is that the top of your list would be occupied by life’s essentials - the people you love, your home, your job, good food and clean water. Probably not your latest purchase.
Deep down we all know that real and lasting happiness can’t be found in a pumpkin spice latte, yet we are still tricked into believing that the pleasure-seeking variety of happiness, which is always short-lived, will make us happy.
We we aren’t grateful, we quickly become discontent, which can lead to trying to find happiness in having more stuff, or even filling our days with more busyness and doing more, going on vacation, which are more subtle but still fall into the pleasure-seeking category. I’m not saying that going on vacation is wrong, but that it won’t lead to authentic happiness.
So when we are able to disconnect happiness with having more stuff, and understand that we will never find happiness in having more stuff, but find contentment in what we already have, we can spend money in a more responsible way. And when our spending isn’t used as a means to buy happiness, we can better use our financial resources to achieve bigger and more important goals - things like saving enough for your kids' college, getting out of debt, paying off your mortgage, or saving enough for retirement.
That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is how gratitude changes your outlook on money.
I was a little caught off guard this morning before I sat down to write out my talking points for the podcast this week. Every morning, I sit down and pray, and read from a daily gospel passage. Today’s gospel passage speaks directly to this week’s topic of gratitude.
In Luke, ch. 17, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem when he meets 10 lepers. Jesus heals all 10 of them, yet only one of them returns to say thank you. Jesus said to him “Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
To me this seems very odd. You would think that these lepers who had been suffering, and who had been outcast from society, would be falling over themselves to say thank you for being cured. Leprosy was no joke - especially 2000 years ago when there wasn’t a cure - you would have blisters and pain in the joints, nerve damage, loss of fingers. And on top of that, the intense loneliness and hopelessness that came from being cast out.
Yet, 9 out of 10 of these cured lepers didn’t bother to say thank you. I think this points to a couple of truths. First of all, I think because of our human nature, we aren’t wired for gratitude and it takes work and an awareness to foster gratitude. Each of us may think that we would be the 1 who returned to give thanks, but most of us probably spend way more energy complaining and grumbling then we do giving thanks.
The problem of our ingratitude leads to less than ideal outcomes - both for our happiness and how we manage our money.
So this week I’ll be talking about how gratitude can help you be happy with less, help you become more patient with your money decisions, and help you make financial decisions that are consistent with your values.
That’s it for today. But before you go...I just want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving week. This week is going to look a lot different for many of us, and my sincere hope is that if this week is especially difficult or lonely for you, that you will find some peace in looking for ways to be more grateful rather than dwelling on what you wish were different this year.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week’s theme was index card personal finance. If I could only give you a few pieces of advice - all of which would be able to fit on a 3x5 index card, what would I tell you?
Here’s what I would put on that index card and what we covered in each episode this week:
- Make your advisor commit to a fiduciary standard
- Max out all of your savings accounts available to you - HSA, 401k, & IRA accounts
- Pay off your credit cards every month
- Spend less than 70-80% of your income
- Stay invested for growth for the long-term
- Pay off your mortgage before retirement
My hope is that you come away from this week with more knowledge about what habits, behaviors, and actions will move the needle the most for you in helping you achieve your most important financial goals.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: how gratitude changes your outlook on money.
It’s Thanksgiving week after all, so it’s only fitting that we talk about gratitude. Plenty of research now suggests that gratitude has a big impact on your happiness and sense of meaning and fulfillment, so I’ll talk next week about how gratitude can also help you be more content with your income, your lifestyle, and your place in the world as it relates to money.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about index card personal finance. If I could sum up the best advice on personal finance onto an 3x5 index card, what would be on there?
That’s what we’re covering this week. I would change a few of these have different pieces of advice for people in their 20s or 30s, but since most of you are in your 50s and 60s, this week’s tips focus on the best advice I can give you at your stage in life.
Today’s rule is to pay off your mortgage before retirement.
Mortgages tend to be big debts. You might still owe $100,000 or more on your house by the time you enter retirement, so it’s no small feat to pay off your house.
Now, many people say that the mortgage interest tax deduction helps them with their taxes. That may be true, but you are still handing over your hard-earned money - principal and interest over to the bank every year and the tax deduction is just a portion of that, so it just isn’t that compelling when you compare it the flexibility in your finances with not having a monthly mortgage payment at all.
So yes, I think it’s wise to pay off your mortgage before retirement if you can make that happen. Especially if you’re like most American households where your mortgage is your largest monthly expense and it makes up about a third of your monthly expenses.
If you can free that up in retirement by paying off your mortgage, imagine what kind of breathing room it will give you with your finances?! What would you be able to do because you no longer have that mortgage? Could you travel more? Enjoy life more? Give more?
Rather than paying off your mortgage with a big lump sum, it’s almost always preferable to pay it off gradually. To do this, you’ll need an amortization calculator which you can find easily online.
An amortization calculator will tell you how much you would need to add to your monthly payment to pay off your mortgage the same month that you plan to retire. Or maybe if that’s not possible, but you can pay off your mortgage within the first few years of retirement, you can enter extra payment amounts to figure out how much you would need to add to your mortgage every month to pay it off early by a certain date.
When you actually run the numbers with an amortization, you might be surprised to learn that knocking 5 or 6 or 10 years off your mortgage is totally doable, and not as burdensome as you might have expected.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about index card personal finance. I’m summarizing the best advice on personal finance and sharing with you what I would squeeze onto a 3x5 index card.
Today’s rule is to stay invested for growth for the long-term.
I have about 25 401k plans as clients, and part of my job as the advisor to these 401k plans is to hold employee education meetings, twist people’s arms about saving more, and meet with people individually to address their unique needs when it comes to saving for retirement and balancing that with all of their other financial obligations and priorities.
One of the biggest issues I see behind employees not saving enough for retirement, is a a 401k portfolio that is inappropriately invested. At the extremes, I’ve seen 20 somethings with everything invested in cash who have no hope of long-term meaningful growth, to 60 somethings with everything in the stock market, desperate to catch up and take on more risk to make up for lost time and being behind on their savings.
So it’s absolutely critical that you have the right mix of stocks, bonds, and cash in your retirement portfolio. The general advice for 20, 30, and 40 somethings is that you need to maximize your growth opportunities by maximizing your stock exposure. Once you hit 50 and retirement inches closer every day, the portfolio mix needs to be fine tuned and regularly reviewed to ensure that you have the right balance of stocks and bonds for your age.
If you don’t know what your target asset allocation to stocks, bonds, and cash should be, I’m happy to share with you the age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that we use as a starting place with our clients to determine the right target for each client. I’m happy to share it with you for free. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com, that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll send along the cheat sheet so you can figure out the asset allocation that’s right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about index card personal finance. I’m summarizing the best advice on personal finance and sharing with you what I would squeeze onto a 3x5 index card.
Today’s rule is to spend less than 70-80% of your income every month.
When you only spend 70-80% of your income, everything else seems to fall into place. You’re able to save enough for retirement, maintain a healthy emergency fund. You’ll also be able to set aside money every month for large purchases, so you can pay cash for things like home remodel projects, your next car, your daughter’s wedding.
And importantly, you’ll be able to give to the causes and organizations that are important to you. Restrained spending, healthy saving and giving are key to aligning your money with your values and giving you the breathing room necessary to not stress about money and not fight about it if you’re married.
And it all starts with living off of 70-80% of your income, since without doing that the saving and the giving just won’t happen.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about index card personal finance. If I could sum up the best advice on personal finance onto a 3x5 index card, what would be on there?
That’s what we’re covering this week. I would change a few of these have different pieces of advice for people in their 20s or 30s, but since most of you are in your 50s and 60s, this week’s tips focus on the best advice I can give you at your stage in life.
Today’s rule is to pay off your credit cards every month.
Being able to pay off your credit cards every month is a critical money rule for living within your means, restraining your spending, and keeping the long-term view in mind. It will also prevent you from paying astronomical credit card interest rates.
And when you transition into retirement and are living off your investments and social security, paying high interest rates on credit card debt can seriously jeopardize your finances in retirement, so it’s critical to fix the problem before you retire.
If you cannot pay off your credit cards every month and this is an ongoing problem rather than a one-time emergency situation, you likely have a spending problem. You’ll want to ask yourself some tough questions about why you maintain balances on your credit cards. Getting to the bottom of the issue without making excuses is critical, and you’ll likely need to track your spending closely over the course of 1-3 months to pinpoint the areas where you are overspending.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about index card personal finance. If I could sum up the best advice on personal finance onto an 3x5 index card, what would be on there?
That’s what we’re covering this week. I would change a few of these have different pieces of advice for people in their 20s or 30s, but since most of you are in your 50s and 60s, this week’s tips focus on the best advice I can give you at your stage in life.
Today’s rule is max out all the retirement savings accounts available to you. There’s a hierarchy to this too, so if you have a health savings account you’ll want to start there. If you’ve been a listener of the One Minute Retirement tip for a while, then you’ve heard me beat you over the head with this one. Why a Health savings account? Tax deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals when used for health care expenses that qualify. Health savings accounts are the best retirement savings vehicle from a tax-advantaged standpoint, so if you qualify for one, use it and also be sure to take the long-term view with it and invest at least a portion of the account for long-term growth.
Next you’ll want to max out your 401k or your Roth 401k if you have one available through your work. This year and next year, you can put up to $19,500 into a 401(k) plan at work, plus another $6,500 if you’re aged 50 and over.
If you’ve maxed out those accounts, and you still can afford to save more, look into Roth and Traditional IRA investments. Depending on your marital status, your income, and your access to a 401k plan at work, you may be able to contribute to your IRAs as well.
I didn’t mention saving inside of a traditional investment account like a trust or a joint account. The advantages here are that you can save any dollar amount inside of these accounts each year, but the tax treatment varies and you’ll be taxed on income and capital gains every year, so I typically don’t advise clients to add to these accounts until after maxing out the HSA, 401k, and/or IRA accounts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
Back in 2013, University of Chicago social scientist Harold Pollack asserted that you can fit all the financial advice you'll ever need on a single index card. The result was a photo of nine pieces of advice that he squeezed onto one 3x5 index card. The photo went viral and Pollack wrote a book about it: The Index Card: Why Personal Advice Doesn't Have To Be Complicated.
It’s a really interesting concept - forcing you to choose what’s most important and also discarding other things that might seem important, but in reality, maybe you shouldn’t worry too much about it. So this week, I’ll borrow a couple of Pollack’s ideas and share with you a few of my own in this week’s theme - index card personal finance.
Let’s get into it with rule #1, which is borrowed from Pollack’s list: Make your financial advisor commit to a fiduciary standard. A fiduciary is required to put their client’s interest ahead of their own, avoid conflicts of interest, they cannot accept commissions, and generally are held to the highest standard possible.
The reality is that the vast majority of financial advisors are NOT fiduciaries, and that’s a problem for consumers. When your advisor doesn’t act as a fiduciary, you better make sure you trust your advisor to do the right thing - navigating that is a mine field though, because non-fiduciary advisors who sell insurance and different mutual fund products have disordered incentives to sell you something that will pay them more but may not be in your best interest.
So be sure that if you’re interviewing an advisor you ask if they are always acting as a fiduciary and get that in writing. I strongly believe in the fiduciary standard for all advisors, and I don't think we’ll get there until more consumers are aware of the differences and demand that their advisor be a fiduciary in all circumstances at all times.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at 2020 year end tax planning tips that you’ll want to consider before the end of the year in an effort to minimize your taxes.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Creative ways to take Advantage of Charitable Deductions
- Smart planning For Higher Future Taxes
- Fix Your Withholding and how to know if you’ll need to do this
- Don’t Miss Opportunities To Gift In 2020
- And lastly, How To Review Your Gains & Losses
My hope is that you come away from this week with a few ideas on how you can and why you should review your income, tax situation, and investment portfolio before the end of the year. 2020 was a unique year and the CARES Act along with low tax rates based on historical norms make this year a really important year to look seriously at tax planning before year-end.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: index card personal finance. Back in 2013, University of Chicago social scientist Harold Pollack asserted that you can fit all the financial advice you'll ever need on a single index card. The result was a photo of nine pieces of advise that fit onto one 3x5 index card. The photo went viral and Pollack wrote a book about it: The Index Card: Why Personal Advice Doesn't Have To Be Complicated.
So next week, I’ll be sharing with you my own version of the index card for personal finance and dive deep on the 5 key pieces of advice for financial success.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about year-end tax planning to help you take advantage of opportunities to potentially lower your taxes this year.
Today, I’m talking about how to review your gains and losses, which is something that you’ll want to do with your tax advisor and financial advisor near the end of every year.
In 2020, especially, there are wild variances in returns among different asset classes and types of investments. If you own energy stocks, financial stocks, international investments or value stocks, you’re likely to have losses. If you have a heavy concentration in tech companies or consumer discretionary stocks, you’ll likely have some big gains there.
Outside of your investment portfolio, you may have gains or losses from selling business or real estate or other assets.
The key here is that you’ll want to review both realized and unrealized gains and losses in your portfolio to determine if it makes sense to sell in order to offset gains for the year. For example, let’s say you sold a stock earlier this year in a taxable account that had a gain of $50,000. Normally you would owe taxes on the amount of the gain, but if you have a loss in another stock or investment in the same account, you can also sell that investment and the losses will reduce the amount of the gains.
Even if you don’t want to permanently sell the investment, as long as you stay out of that investment for 30 days, you can buy it back later and still recognize the loss.
This is an important strategy that should not be overlooked, so be sure you take the time to review gains and losses with your advisors before the end of the year to determine if you can offset any of those gains and reduce your tax bill as a result.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about year-end tax planning to help you take advantage of opportunities to potentially lower your taxes this year.
Today, I’m talking about gifting opportunities. Back in June I devoted an entire week to this topic. If you missed that week and you want to dive deeper into gifting, head on over to my website - truenorthra.com. Under the resources tab, you’ll find the podcast page with links to episode archives.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift. Seriously, don’t wait...it’s unlikely that the generous tax laws on gifting will stick around.
Let me explain...
In 2020, you can give up to $15,000 per gift recipient without paying taxes and up to $30,000 per gift recipient if you're married.
But...you can actually give substantially more to your heirs without being subject to tax. The additional gift will just be applied to your lifetime exemption.
Let’s say you own a family business worth $3 million dollars. Would you be shocked to learn that you can actually gift that business to your children during your lifetime without paying tax on that gift?
That’s because of the lifetime gift tax exemption, which is currently $11.58 million in 2020. This means that you can give up to $11.58 million in gifts over the course of your lifetime without ever having to pay gift tax on it. And if you are married, it’s double that amount. You and your spouse can give away a total of $23.16 million before paying the gift tax.
Keep in mind though that if you have substantial wealth or assets to transfer, you want to do it before the rules change and not wait, because the IRS has stated that there will be no clawback on these lifetime gifts. Which means that you can now transfer tens of millions of dollars of your estate - gift tax free, without fearing that those gifts will later be taxed.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about year-end tax planning to help you take advantage of opportunities to potentially lower your taxes this year.
Today, I’m talking about fixing your withholding. This is something you’ll want to look at annually as your income changes, but this is especially relevant in 2020 where your income may be substantially different than it was in 2019.
Withholding the right amount on your income - like salary, bonuses, or IRA withdrawals - is important, because you don’t want to overpay or underpay taxes. While you don’t want to give more money to the government than is necessary in the form of too much withholding, the real problem are potential penalties for underpaying taxes on your withholding. The good news is that you still have time to correct the issue before the end of the year through increased withholding on your salary, bonuses, or retirement plan distributions.
So if your income changed a lot in 2020 - especially if you’re fortunate enough to have an increase in your income in 2020, be sure to review your withholding and make sure it’s appropriate to avoid underpayment penalties.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about year-end tax planning to help you take advantage of opportunities to potentially lower your taxes this year.
Today, I’m talking about how and why you should plan for higher future taxes now. Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law at the end of 2017, it has been one of the most favorable tax climates in recent history. So right now is arguably the best time to do tax planning and take advantage of the current favorable tax environment...because it’s not likely to last.
Here are just a few ideas you may want to consider in light of the high probability of future tax hikes:
Exercising stock options or selling stock that has a low cost basis. Capital gains tax rates are pretty low by historical norms, so now is a good time to look at exercising options or selling a long-held large stock position. Even if you don’t sell all of it, it’s wise to consider selling some in this tax climate.
Another strategy to consider is converting a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. The more money you can save inside of a Roth IRA or 401k, the lower the taxes will be on your IRA distributions in retirement. That’s because every penny you withdraw from your Roth IRA in retirement won’t be taxed.
A Roth conversion allows you to convert money from a Traditional 401k or IRA to a Roth 401k or IRA and pay the taxes now. Since tax rates are low right now, and especially if you have substantial assets in traditional IRA or 401k accounts that will be subject to tax down the road, you’ll want to look seriously at a conversion before the end of the year.
If you’d like some help determining if a Roth conversion makes sense for you, I can help you answer that question with a free Roth conversion analysis. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com with your age, the dollar amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2020, and I’ll send you your free personalized results. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about year-end tax planning to help you take advantage of opportunities to potentially lower your taxes this year.
Today, I’m talking about taking advantage of charitable deductions. If you itemize and don’t just take the standard deduction when you file your taxes, your charitable giving can have a meaningful impact on your taxes.
In today’s tip, I want to touch on 3 important strategies to consider for taking advantage of charitable giving:
- Strategy 1 that’s unique for this year - normally, you won’t benefit on your taxes for your charitable donations if you don’t itemize, but this year, the CARES Act created an above-the-line deduction of up to $300 for cash contributions from taxpayers who don’t itemize. So even if you take the standard deduction, you can still benefit from your charitable contributions because of the CARES Act for 2020
- Next is charitable bunching. This is a strategy where you lump your charitable donations into one year, so instead of donating to charity every year, you would donate more dollars less often. So for example, if you donate $5,000 every year to charity, but switch to donating $15,000 every 3 years instead, you would still donate the same amount, but by donating a higher amount in a given year, the strategy of lumping or bunching those contributions into one year can help you qualify for itemized deductions and hence, allow you to continue to receive a tax deduction on those charitable contributions in the years that you bunch.
- Lastly, consider donating property, appreciated stock or other real assets. You can still often get a tax deduction when you donate certain items in-kind, and it’s a great strategy if you are strapped for cash but you have a valuable asset that you would like to donate.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
As we approach the end of the year, it’s an important time to do some year-end tax planning to take advantage of opportunities to potentially lower your taxes before the door closes on December 31st.
I just received an email the other day from a listener of the podcast who has had a really unique year with a wildly different income and tax situation than normal. I recommended that he seek the advice of a qualified tax advisor, and in many cases a knowledgeable and proactive tax advisor is capable of saving their clients headaches and tax-saving opportunities, so if you have questions especially as we get into the weeds of some of these tax strategies this week, I encourage you to talk to a well- qualified tax advisor.
This week, I’ll cover 5 specific strategies to help you lower your tax bill in 2020. There are a few tax quirks this year with Covid, so we’ll talk about how your stimulus check is taxed as well as a couple of perennial ideas like how to review your capital gains and losses and why you don’t want to miss gifting or charitable giving opportunities.
The key with 2020 is that for many of you listening, 2020 may have been a bit of a curveball - some of you may have been laid off or furloughed, or seen your income drop from 2019. If that’s the case you’ll want to pay special attention to your tax situation this year and to this week’s tips.But even if that’s not the case, my hope this week is that you will use the ideas I’ll be sharing this week to look at your income and tax situation, and consider what savings strategies may apply to you before 2020 comes to a close.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at investing in an election year. As I mentioned previously, I record the podcast a couple weeks in advance, so I don’t yet know the results of the election. But there are principles that are important to be mindful of when you're looking at the election through the lens of planning for your retirement and how that might impact you and your investments.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What a possible blue wave could mean for you and your retirement
- The election’s historical impact on the stock market
- The biggest mistake you can make right now
- Don’t get spooked by post-election volatility
- And lastly, what to do about taxes and estate planning opportunities - the clock is ticking on massive opportunities to transfer wealth in a very tax-efficient way, so you definitely want to consider taking action now if it makes sense in your situation.
My hope is that you come away from this week with some perspective that the election or any resulting volatility in the stock market because of the election isn’t something to panic about or abandon your long-term strategy over, but rather it’s likely that the election results will have very little impact on your long-term strategy and for some, the election even represents an opportunity to take advantage of any coming changes to policy, regulation, taxes, etc.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme:2020 Year End Tax Planning Tips. I’ll talk about 5 ways you can potentially reduce your taxes this year and take advantage of several opportunities in 2020. Everything from what to do about your stimulus check to maximizing deductions.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year.
As I record this podcast a couple weeks in advance, I don’t yet know the outcome of the election. Something I’ve already touched on this week is the importance of tax and estate planning before the tax laws change.
This is especially true if Biden is elected president, but it’s also true I think if Trump remains in the White House for another 4 years. Let me explain…
If Biden is elected, and especially if Congress is controlled by democrats, you’re likely to see higher taxes. Biden campaigned on this, and especially with all the stimulus money being pumped into the economy because of COVID, taxes seem very likely to quickly change course and go higher.
Even if Trump remains in the White House or if Congress is controlled by Republicans, taxes are still likely to go higher. It may take longer for taxes to increase with Republicans in control, but our national debt is increasingly unsustainable and economic growth may not be robust coming out of the Covid recession to grow our way out of the debt.
This reminds me of what George HW Bush said in 1988: “Read my lips. No new taxes”. But 2 years later, he made a deal with the Democrat-controlled Congress to increase taxes as a way to reduce the national budget deficit.
Hmm, does any of this sound familiar?
If history is any guide, higher taxes are probable looking out on the horizon.
This means that 2020 is an important year to do some planning and gifting, especially if you are wealthy. As I talked about a couple months ago on the podcast when I covered gift taxes, 2020 is an ideal time to do some gifting and estate planning, especially if your estate will likely be worth millions, you have a valuable business or other assets that may be subject to high estate taxes down the road.
The estate and gift tax environment has never been better than it is today, and no matter which party controls the government over the next few years, the clock is ticking to pass along wealth in a tax-efficient way to the next generation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year.
Today, I’m talking about the likelihood for higher volatility in the days and weeks ahead.
Some people are so fearful about what lies ahead politically, that they make big changes to their portfolio. Maybe you’ve decided to go out and buy a few guns and while you’re at it, put all of your IRA into gold.
Allowing fear to dictate your decisions is almost always a mistake, especially when it comes to investing.
So the worst thing you can do is abandon your long-term plans during or after a presidential election.
As I’ve mentioned earlier this week, you need to pay attention to a few things and make some changes if necessary while you still have time - especially when it comes to taking advantage of today’s tax environment, but outside of planning and making sure you don’t have all your eggs in one basket with a particular stock and a particular industry, an election year is not a time to abandon your long-term plans by going to cash or putting everything in canned food, gold coins, and lots of guns.
While it is natural and normal to want to protect yourself in times of uncertainty, keeping a cool head and thinking rationally will always help you make smart decisions that don’t include abandoning your long-term strategy.
Instead, the best investors look for opportunities in times of chaos and uncertainty. Where are those areas of opportunity? Perhaps in particular industries or types of stocks - like international or high-quality dividend stocks. Or as I just mentioned - opportunities in tax and estate planning. Keep your eyes open to opportunities and you’re more likely to come out ahead in the long-run.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year.
Today, I’m talking about the biggest mistake you can make post-election, which is to get spooked and make big changes to your investment strategy as a result of the election.
Some people are so fearful about what lies ahead politically, that they make big changes to their investments and their strategy, without considering that the election results will likely have little impact on your retirement strategy over the long-term.
So the worst thing you can do is abandon your long-term plans during or after a presidential election. I know people on both sides of the political spectrum who think that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. About half of the country is pretty pissed off at the election results.
But if both sides are divided and both think the country is going in the wrong direction, who’s right? Probably neither.
As I’ve mentioned earlier this week, you need to pay attention to a few things and make some changes if necessary while you still have time - especially when it comes to taking advantage of today’s tax environment, but outside of planning and making sure you don’t have all your eggs in one basket with a particular stock and a particular industry, an election year is not a time to abandon your long-term plans by going to cash or putting everything in canned food, gold coins, and lots of guns.
While it is natural and normal to want to protect yourself in times of uncertainty, keeping a cool head and thinking rationally will always help you make smart decisions that don’t include abandoning your long-term strategy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year to help you keep the proper perspective with your money and your retirement during a very contentious and anxious time.
As I record these episodes in advance, I don’t yet know what the results of last night’s election are. But here’s what I do know. There’s a very high chance that the stock market will be volatile in the days and weeks ahead as we digest the results and what that means for Americans and American businesses.
Today, I want to talk about the impact of the election on markets. The reality is that if you go back almost 100 years, the stock market doesn’t really care all that much what happens in the election.
If the incumbent is re-elected, the stock market for the following year was higher by about 6.5% and if a new President is in the White House, returns were only slightly lower at 5%.
So the point here is that although an election year means potential changes to policy, laws, taxes, regulation, etc., the stock market’s reaction tends to be pretty muted, no matter what happens. And that’s because changes to policy and laws tend to be slow and many campaign promises never materialize.
Predicting political outcomes in our democracy is about as accurate as predicting when my 3 year old will finally be fully potty trained. In the meantime, just like with our politicians, I’ll have to put up with a lot of crap in the meantime.
And if you think about it, it makes sense that doom and gloom predictions about the impact of politics on the economy and stock markets are overblown, because no matter what happens, the pace of change is usually slow and no matter what happens, the stock market likes the fact that we have some clarity over the political landscape over the next 2-4 years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year.
And today is election day! So I want to talk today about what a possible blue wave could mean for you. By blue wave I mean Biden taking the White House and democrats controlling Congress. This scenario would represent the biggest possible change to our political system and the economy, and could impact everything from taxes to the environment, to trade.
Potentially the biggest impact from a democrat sweep of the White House and Congress is taxes. Biden and most democrats are pretty clear about their intentions to raise taxes - both on individuals and corporations.
This could have significant implications for your estate planning, capital gains, etc. so if the country turns blue after today’s results, the prudent thing to do especially if you have a high income or wealth, you’ll want to consider accelerating some of your estate planning and tax strategies before tax laws change.
Not only could taxes go higher for individuals, but higher corporate taxes could result from the election as well, which could lower profits for US companies, and hence, put downward pressure on stocks of these publicly traded companies.
Ensuring you have high quality companies in your retirement portfolio with strong cash flow and room for some profit squeezing will help insulate your portfolio from the negative impact of higher corporate taxes.
Stricter regulations on environmental industries, particularly oil companies is also likely in a blue wave election result, which could hurt a badly battered energy industry even more in the coming weeks.
Of course, depending on the election results tonight this could all be moot but it’s important to consider the implications on the election and your money.
That’s it for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow and for the rest of the week where I’ll be talking about the likelihood for higher volatility in the days and weeks ahead and what else will and won’t change after the election.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
Well here we are - it’s Presidential Election week. Some of you listening may be excited, anxious, or fearful - depending on what you want to happen in the election this week, and what that might mean for you personally.
While I don’t care to make this a political podcast, since everything else in our world today has somehow become political, it’s an important week for us to look at the reality of what THIS election might mean for you and your finances.
So this week, I’ll talk importantly tomorrow on election day of what a possible blue wave could mean for you. By blue wave I mean Biden taking the White House and democrats controlling Congress. This would represent the biggest possible change to our political system and the economy, and could impact everything from taxes to the environment, to trade.
Then I’ll spend the rest of the week talking about how markets typically react during the election season and importantly, what’s unlikely to change no matter who is in the White House and who controls Congress for the next 4 years.
My hope for this week is that you maintain the proper perspective about what this election will mean for you, and not get sucked in to the media hyperbole about what is and what might happen as a result of this week’s election.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The Most Important Millionaire Habit
- Why you’re better off with base hits and not home runs
- How millionaires avoid the trap of get rich quick schemes
- How making better decisions is key to building wealth
- And lastly, why you’re more likely to see a millionaire driving a 10 year old honda accord than a brand new car.
My hope is that you come away from this week understanding that becoming wealthy isn’t about having a high income or winning the lottery. It’s about taking the long-term view, and habitually making good decisions with your money. The good news is that it’s largely up to you whether or not you become a millionaire. The bad news is that most people think it’s beyond their control...it’s not.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Investing In An Election Year, Part 2. Back in July, I talked about investing in an election year and what you’ll want to pay attention to this fall. Well, here we are! The election is just a couple days away, so it’s a good time to revisit this. That way if your chosen candidate doesn’t win, you won’t panic and make rash decisions with your money. I’ll talk about changes you can expect if Biden wins and what you should be doing with your retirement portfolio, no matter what the outcome.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
Today I’m talking about making millionaire decisions about the big ticket items you buy.
When you walk into a dealership to buy a car, the conversation about what car you can afford is always framed around how much payment you can afford.
Many people who make poor decisions with their money, frame most of their big ticket purchase decisions this way, and the thought process goes something like this.
This car or house costs this much. I think I can afford a monthly payment of $500 or whatever it is.
But framing a big purchase decision around the monthly payment amount, is the absolute worst way to frame whether or not you should buy something. Lenders will always be willing to lend you the maximum amount, so what you can afford according to the lender is usually way more than what you can actually afford if you have other goals, like saving for retirement.
When you buy cars and houses, and other big ticket items, successful people realize that deciding on how much to spend is not about monthly payment to the bank you can afford. It’s about what amount and what debt load makes the most sense given your financial goals and what’s most important to you.
I have a lot of clients who drive cars like 10-year old Honda Accords, and have a paid off mortgage, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. The bestselling book, The Millionaire Next Door talks about this concept at length. In fact, if you’re interested in diving deeper into the topic of millionaire habits, it's an inspiring read, and I highly recommend it. The book looks at 2 people with the same income levels but vastly different levels of wealth. One who made good decisions, and the other who let lifestyle creep prevent him from accumulating any meaningful wealth, other than just a bunch of stuff.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire.
According to an article in Psychology Today, “some sources suggest that the average person makes an eye-popping 35,000 choices per day. Assuming that most people spend around seven hours per day sleeping and thus blissfully choice-free, that makes roughly 2,000 decisions per hour or one decision every two seconds.”
That’s a lot of decisions. Most of these are pretty mundane, like choosing the next word I’m going to say to you. Maybe you’re deciding right now to take another route to work because of construction traffic, take another sip of coffee, or maybe you’re about to decide to shut me off early today and move on.
But what’s different about millionaires is that when it comes to their money, they are better than the average person at making decisions. They tend to be more long-term focused and avoid impulse purchases. They understand the importance of paying yourself first when it comes to saving money consistently. They choose to live below their means and as I talked about yesterday, they don’t get suckered in to sexy get-rich-quick schemes.
So how can you and I cultivate better decisions. It starts with knowing the difference between good and bad financial decisions and then beginning to discipline yourself in making better decisions. And the key is starting small. Perhaps you know that you spend too much on coffee at your favorite coffee shop. My wallet would certainly benefit from less trips to Starbucks. Rather than cutting it out altogether, the key is to go one less time a week. Not only will you save a few dollars, you won’t be overwhelmed by this massive change and begin to build the habit of saying no to your desires a little less often.
Making long-term focused decisions is hard. We all have baggage and biases that cause us to make bad decisions all the time.
But successful people understand that their decisions today will impact their lives tomorrow, and that awareness and commitment to the long-term view helps them make better decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire.
Today, I’m talking about the absence of millionaire market timers.
The most popular YouTube channel on day trading stocks is a channel with about half a million subscribers and more than 16 million views on her channel.
It’s not uncommon to see ads or videos online touting how you can get rich easily and quickly by day trading, options trading, or short selling. You see this kind of stuff all the time with real estate too.
But I ask you this: Have you ever met a millionaire market timer or a millionaire day trader? Despite being touted as such, most of these strategies aren’t easy or formulaic, but instead are more akin to gambling than actual investing. If it were simple and easy, you would know plenty of people who got wealthy this way and you would likely be wealthy yourself from day trading, options trading, or risk-free house flipping.
But my guess is you don't know a single person who is wealthy from any of these methods.
Part of what makes a successful investor, successful is their ability to avoid chasing the next get rich quick scheme or fall victim to really bad investment ideas. Millionaire understand this and don’t fall victim to get rich quick schemes. They are perfectly happy to win the race the tortoise way by diligently saving, making smart decisions about where to invest, and growing their wealth over time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire.
Today, I’m talking about how it’s more important to get base hits vs. home runs. This is true in many things in life, and while on the surface it sounds like settling for mediocrity, it’s not. Let me explain...
First of all, let me just say that I know next to nothing about baseball. But I do know that baseball isn’t just about smashing home runs. It’s also about strategy and hitting base hits when the situation calls for it to get other players into scoring position.
The same is true with money and investing. Too many investors aren’t successful because they ignore base hit opportunities...all the while, wildly swinging at every pitch and praying for a home run. But all it leads to is strike after strike.
Hitting base hits isn’t as fun as hitting home runs, and it requires more patience, but investors can build serious wealth by patiently sticking with base hits, knowing that if they are patient, they will likely hit a few home runs along the way too.
This means sticking with a boring, diversified portfolio and not chasing the hot stock tip of the day, or betting everything on the next big trend.
Good investors and the best investors like Warren Buffett still get home runs, but it’s not because they’re chasing after home runs. It’s because they patiently pursue base hits, and don’t let greed, or fear of missing out cloud their good judgement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. The vast majority of millionaires in the United States did not inherit their wealth, but rather, achieved millionaire status from strong habits and good decisions.
Today, I’m talking about the most important habit of millionaires - paying yourself first. In other words, millionaires make sure that they set aside money in savings and retirement accounts before they spend their income on eating out, or even before they pay their mortgage and their other bills.
This is the exact opposite of what most Americans do. Most people pay everyone else first, and pay themselves last. When all you get is the scraps and leftovers, it’s much harder to build wealth. It also leads to inconsistent savings habits. Some months you might save and other months you don’t. Then your retirement and financial future is left to chance.
Millionaires understand how important it is to save early and often, rather than throwing money away keeping up with the Joneses. It’s not difficult to become a millionaire if you understand this. In order to build wealth, you must have this habit. I’ve seen clients who have very high incomes but very little wealth because they didn’t follow the pay yourself first rule.
Even with an average income during your working life, you can still become a millionaire by following the rule of paying yourself first. Here’s why:
I ran the numbers, and if you saved just $3,500 a year starting at age 25 to retirement at age 65, you would be a millionaire at retirement, assuming your investment grows at 7% a year. If you were able to set aside $10,000 a year for retirement in that scenario, you would have about $3 million at retirement.
The good news is that if you have a 401k or similar retirement plan through work, you’re already paying yourself first.
But, if you are currently paying yourself last, you can flip the switch by setting up automatic transfers from your checking account into your savings and retirement accounts. Setup the auto-transfer within a couple days of your paycheck hitting your bank account. It’s a simple way to make sure you pay yourself first, and pay yourself consistently every single month.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll be discussing how baseball can help you become a millionaire. Yes, baseball.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is How To Become A Millionaire. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of millionaires can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
The good news is there has been a lot of research done on the habits, behaviors, and attitudes of millionaires, and anecdotally, I work with a lot of clients who have a 7 to 8-figure net worth. And I notice there are traits that they share that set them apart from the average American.
Most of my millionaire clients have not inherited their wealth, but they’ve achieved affluence through a combination of hard work, consistency, strong habits and good decisions.
Each day this week I’m going to share with what I’ve learned over the last 13 years working with my affluent clients. I’ll focus on the habits and behaviors that I beleive are the most influential, along with some practical advice on how you can get started building better habits if you’re not yet where you want to be financially.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at whether or not $1 million is going to be enough for a comfortable retirement. Perhaps not surprisingly, the answer to that question depends on a lot of factors - primarily your other income sources, your income needs, taxes, how long you’ll live, and how your portfolio is invested.
In each episode this week, we looked at each of these factors in more details to help you determine how much is enough for retirement. Maybe it’s around $1 million. Maybe it’s much more, maybe it’s much less.
Hopefully, I gave you some useful tools this week to determine how much is enough in your situation.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme that’s a continuation of this week’s theme: how to become a millionaire. I’ll talk about the habits and traits of millionaires that can help you better manage your money and make better decisions.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about whether or not $1 million is going to be enough for a comfortable retirement.
Today, let’s look at your investment portfolio and how that influences whether or not $1 million will be enough for you in retirement.
Earlier this week, we looked at the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals - which provides a ballpark estimate of income that your portfolio can provide. Take 4% x your portfolio value and that tells you what you can withdraw in year 1 of retirement. So if you do the math, $1 million can provide about $40,000 in retirement income.
But there is an important assumption built into this rule - and that is that you have a well-diversified portfolio that holds approximately 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds.
What if your portfolio has a much higher allocation to stocks or a much lower allocation to stocks? Well, then the 4% rule doesn’t work as well.
The problem with too much in stocks is that the bad years can be really bad with too much in stocks and take years to recover, which was the case in 2008-2009. So you may have to significantly cut your withdrawals, at least temporarily in economic and stock market downturns to protect the longevity of your portfolio and make sure your money will last in retirement.
The problem with too little in stocks is that you have really no hope in keeping up with inflation. Especially these days with savings accounts, money markets, and bonds paying abysmal rates of interest. Over a 20-30+ year retirement, inflation is the silent killer that will eat away at your portfolio, so you’ll have to withdraw more each year just to keep up and maintain your same standard of living. If you don’t have enough in stocks to provide for the growth necessary to keep up with inflation, you may have no hope for maintaining a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
So the bottom line here is that $1 million can provide about $40,000 of income in year one in retirement, but usually only if you have a well-balanced portfolio of somewhere between 50-70% in stocks.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about whether or not $1 million is going to be enough for a comfortable retirement.
Today’s topic is another important consideration when determining if $1 million is enough for retirement - your health and longevity.
If you are 60 years old, healthy with no underlying health conditions, you don’t smoke, and your parents and grandparents all lived into their 90s, you have some special considerations for ensuring your money can last in retirement.
When calculating how far your retirement nest egg will last in retirement, you’ll need to assume that you’ll live to be 90 or even longer. It would be disastrous to only plan to live until you’re 80, spend like you’ll live until age 80, then run out of money before you run out of years and have to rely on social security alone and the financial support of your family for your basic needs.
When you retire in your 60s and live until age 85 or 90, inflation will have a significant impact on your portfolio. You may start out spending $70,000 or $80,000 a year in retirement, but because of inflation, you could very easily spend more than twice that amount by the end of your life because of inflation, so you’ll need a portfolio that can support higher withdrawals over time because of inflation. And that’s what I’ll be talking about tomorrow.
Before you go though, I encourage you to take me up on a free offer just for my loyal listeners - the Retirement Success Forecaster. Using data from a simple questionnaire, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if not, what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envision.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you the forecaster to complete, and once you send it back to me, you’ll receive your personalized results - for free!
The forecaster will help you answer with a lot more clarity, the big question we’re tackling this week, which is do you have enough for a comfortable retirement when you consider your portfolio size, your income needs, taxes, inflation, etc.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about whether or not $1 million is going to be enough for a comfortable retirement.
Today, we’re covering everyone’s favorite subject - taxes. So far this week we’ve looked at how $1 million in retirement can provide about $40,000 income in retirement in year one of retirement, and how you can combine that income with your other income sources to determine if that will be enough for a comfortable retirement.
But I haven’t yet talked about the impact of taxes, and it makes a big difference.
When you’re planning for retirement and adding up your income sources, you’ll want to use the after-tax figure. Especially when you’re trying to match up those income sources with your lifestyle and spending goals in retirement.
So you’ll need to know the impact on taxes. And this can vary widely from person to person and from portfolio to portfolio.
For example, if your $1 million portfolio is invested in a Roth IRA, you won’t owe any taxes on those withdrawals. If it’s invested in a taxable account like a joint account or a trust, you’ll pay capital gains on what you sell to generate that $40,000 withdrawal, and if you have everything in a Traditional IRA or 401k, you can expect to pay income taxes on every penny you withdraw from that account.
Chances are your portfolio is invested in some combination of these accounts, which means that there will be taxes to consider - likely in the 10-30% range - before you arrive at your net after-tax amount. So your million dollar portfolio may provide even less income for you in retirement after taxes are taken out - instead of $40,000, you may end up with $30,000 or $35,000 after Uncle Sam is finished with you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about whether or not $1 million is going to be enough for a comfortable retirement.
Yesterday, we determined from the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals, that $1 million in retirement can provide about $40,000 in income in year one of retirement.
Today, we need to take the next step in figuring out if $1million is enough in retirement by looking at your other income sources in retirement and your income needs.
If you’re like most Americans, $40,000 from a million dollar portfolio will not provide for your lifestyle in retirement.
The average retiree lives off of about $65-70,000 in retirement, so we already have a shortfall. Depending on how much you want to travel and how much you enjoy eating grass-fed beef, you may need more or less than that.
The good news is for most of you, you’ll have other sources of income, namely Social security. You may also have a pension or some other source of income in retirement like a rental property. It’s important to add up these other income sources to estimate your total income stream in retirement.
Let’s say after combining your $1 million portfolio with your other income sources, you can generate $70,000 a year in income. Next, you’ll need to figure out if that’s enough.
Based on your desired lifestyle and spending, can you live off of $70,000 a year or whatever that number ends up being? I can’t emphasize enough that you’ll want to do this exercise starting in the last 10-15 years before retirement, a repeat the exercise annually so you can course-correct when necessary before you get to the end of your working years.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’m going to talk about taxes, which I have so far left out of our discussion this week, but it’s an essential component to determining how far $1 million will take you in retirement.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about whether or not $1 million is going to be enough for a comfortable retirement.
Today, we’re diving into the key question of the week, which is how far will $1 million stretch in retirement. In other words, how does $1 million saved for retirement translate into income for you.
To make things simple, I’m going to assume you retire sometime in your mid-60s, you have a diversified portfolio with about 60-70% in stocks, and you decide to withdraw 4% from your portfolio.
You may have heard of the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals, which essentially multiplies 4% by your retirement nest egg to give you an easy, back of the envelope withdrawal strategy for retirement. It’s a far from perfect method for calculating your withdrawals, but it’s a good starting point, so to keep things simple, I’ll use that figure.
If you apply the 4% rule to $1 million retirement nest egg - 4% x $1 million = $40,000/year in retirement income.
If on the day you retire, you have $1 million and you apply the 4% rule for your withdrawals and take out $40,000 that first year from your portfolio, you have a reasonably high chance of success in not outliving your money in retirement.
The good news is that you can also apply this 4% rule to whatever your retirement nest egg balance is. Just take 4% X your balance, to figure out a ballpark income figure that will provide for you in retirement, which you can then use as a jumping off point to do some additional planning.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll be discussing how to combine your portfolio income with your other sources of income in retirement to determine if you’ll have enough for a comfortable retirement.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme: Is $1 million enough for retirement?
According to TD Ameritrade’s 2019 Retirement Pulse Survey, 58% of Americans surveyed think that $1 million will be enough for retirement?
A million dollars is still a lot of money, and while $1 millon would have been more than enough for retirement for the vast majority of Americans 20 years ago, that’s not the case today.
Which begs the question...Is $1 million saved for retirement going to be enough for you? Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Maybe you’ll need much more than that to live a comfortable retirement. Maybe you’ll need much less.
The answer depends mostly on your retirement spending & your other income sources.
So this week I’ll be diving into how far you can stretch $1 million in retirement, to help you determine how much is enough in retirement for you.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, I covered 5 essential things you’ll want to do in your last year before retirement to help set yourself up for success once you transition to the other side.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Calculate If You Have Enough To Retire - this is the essential first step and must do item
- Next, I talked about why you’ll want to Prioritize Debt Reduction Over Saving More As You Approach Retirement
- How to figure out what health care will cost
- Why you’ll need to track your spending and experiment with living like you’re already retired
- And lastly, how you can establish a routine in retirement that will help you overcome the all-too-common boredom and depression that can sometimes set in once you retire
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a roadmap and a checklist for a few of the most important things you’ll want to take care of before you collect your gold watch and sail off into the sunset.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Is $1 million enough for retirement?
A million dollars is still a lot of money, and while $1 millon would have been more than enough for retirement for the vast majority of Americans 20 years ago, that’s not the case today.
So next week, I’ll talk about how far $1 million will take you in retirement, and how to calculate for yourself how much is enough.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about your one year from retirement checklist. When you’re one year out from retirement, there are several things you’ll want to do to help ensure that both you and your finances are ready for you to take the leap into retirement.
Today, I’m talking about something that many pre-retirees don’t consider before they retire, which is how will you spend your time in retirement?
Many people are blind-sided by unexpected feelings of boredom and depression once the initial few honeymoon months of retirement pass.
There is well-documented research suggesting that retirement for many of us isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. There is purpose and meaning in work, especially if you like what you do for work, so you’ll want to have a game plan for finding meaning and purpose in new things after you transition into retirement.
A number of years ago, my dad and business partner brought in a psychologist to speak to a group of our clients who were soon-to-be retiring and newly retired. This speaker shared some insight into how to find fulfillment in retirement.
One of her primary suggestions was to keep half of your time structured. Maybe you play golf every Tuesday, or take care of your grandkids on Wednesdays, or have coffee with your best friend every Friday morning, or volunteer once a week.
Whatever those activities are that are important to you, it’s important to have about ½ of your time during the day structured. This has many benefits and helps to stave off boredom and depression, because the structure helps you keep a similar routine to when you were working, as well as give you something to look forward to each week.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about your one year from retirement checklist. When you’re one year out from retirement, there are several things you’ll want to do to help ensure that both you and your finances are ready for you to take the leap into retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the 4th item on your 1 year from retirement checklist - live like you’re retired.
Here’s what I mean by this: Let’s say that you are exactly 1 year from retirement today. What you’ll want to do for the next 3 months is track your spending. You don’t need to limit or cut back on your spending, but you’ll need to know exactly what’s going out of your wallet every single month.
Too many people have no idea how much they spend every month, but when you retire, knowing your spending is absolutely critical to understanding if you have the income and the assets to support your lifestyle in retirement.
So you’ll want to track for the first 3 months. Tracking for a few months will help you average out your expenses to get a more accurate picture of what you actually spend.
Then, once you have that 3 month average, you can use that to figure out whether or not your income sources and assets can provide the income you’ll need to sustain that spending.
Most retirees cut back and end up only needing 60-80% of their income once they retire, so you should use this exercise to determine how your expenses will change in retirement. You might spend less on gas and parking if you’re commuting to work, but you might spend more on travel and home improvement projects now that you have the time and you’re retired.
And then for those last 9 months, keep tracking your spending, cut out what you don’t want or don’t need or can’t afford, and ideally, try to as much as possible live like you’re already retired to see if that lifestyle is sustainable.
If it’s not, at least you found out if you’ll need to work longer or work part time, before you transitioned into retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about your one year from retirement checklist. When you’re one year out from retirement, there are several things you’ll want to do to help ensure that both you and your finances are ready for you to take the leap into retirement.
Today, I’m talking about calculating the cost of healthcare in retirement. You’ll want to understand your expected healthcare costs in retirement, even if you’re covered by Medicare, and you really need to do this before you retire.
Health care costs in retirement are a big expense for most retirees, costing an average of about $1000/month for most of my clients. Yet, most people are blindsided by the unexpectedly high cost of healthcare in retirement, and are disappointed to find out that their costs are still substantial, even with Medicare coverage.
Calculating the cost of healthcare is even more important if you plan to retire before age 65. You can expect to pay double or even more for health insurance and health care related expenses if you’ll need to find another health care option prior to Medicare kicking in.
The good news is, estimating the cost of healthcare is pretty easy. There are a number of free calculators online you can use to estimate costs in your situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about your one year from retirement checklist. When you’re one year out from retirement, there are several things you’ll want to do to help ensure that both you and your finances are ready for you to take the leap into retirement.
Today, I’m talking about why you should prioritize reducing your expenses over saving more as you get closer to retirement. This tip also applies if you are few years from retirement - not just in your last year.
In most cases, you’re going to get substantially more benefit by reducing your expenses over saving more in the last years before retirement.
Maximizing your savings is of utmost importance, especially in your first 10-20 working years, but the impact of saving more wanes as retirement approaches, mostly because your savings just doesn't have as much time to grow and multiply like it did when you were 25, 35, or even 45 years old.
Instead, you’ll want to focus on knocking out debts and reducing expenses. This means paying off any debts you can before retirement, including your mortgage. Or if that’s not possible, look into a re-fi that could reduce your monthly payments or shorten the life of your mortgage.
You’ll also want to look at all your other expenses. Are you still paying for your 25 year old son’s cell phone? What about the gym membership you haven’t used since Covid and probably won’t go back to. Maybe you can downsize to 1 car instead of 2. Wherever you can reduce debts and trim expenses before you retire - do it. You need to cut the fat in order to give your money the best chance of sustaining you and your lifestyle in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about your one year from retirement checklist. When you’re one year out from retirement, there are several things you’ll want to do to help ensure that both you and your finances are ready for you to take the leap into retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the most obvious thing you’ll want to do before you retire - and that is determine if you are financially ready for retirement.
This is the table stakes, because if you don’t do this, nothing else I’m going to talk about this week will matter all that much. You absolutely have to know in your unique situation if your assets and your income sources in retirement will be able to pay for your living expenses, health care, travel, groceries, etc for a 20-30+ year retirement.
Yet, so few people actually do this, and instead, most just have a vague idea of whether or not they have enough.
Now hopefully since you’re listening to this podcast, you’re serious about planning for retirement, so if you haven’t already run the numbers on your retirement, you are probably planning to as you get closer to the big day.
If you’d like me to run the numbers for you to see your chances for a successful retirement, just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I will send you an easy 2 page worksheet to fill out and send back to me. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is your One Year From Retirement Checklist
When retirement is so close that you can taste it, what are some of the essential things you’ll want to do in your last year of work before you retire? That’s what I’m covering in this week’s tips.
You’ve spent years saving and investing and working toward a comfortable and secure retirement, so you don’t want to transition into retirement without doing a few essential things. So what should you do in the last year of working before retirement? Stick around each day this week, where I dive deep into a checklist item each day and explain why and how you can get this done before you say sayonara to the working world.
My goal for this week is that you will have the roadmap of the essential to-dos that will help you secure a comfortable retirement, and avoid one of the biggest retirement blunders of all - not being prepared for retirement and making the leap when you really shouldn’t.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at behavioral finance, which is the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of investors. You and I aren’t always rational, we have limits to our self-control, and we are all influenced by our biases - these factors influence how we make decisions with our money - for better or for worse.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- How Your Psychology Impacts Your Money Decisions In Retirement
- Why our emotions cause most of us to be terrible at decisions when it comes to money
- Understanding a couple of key behavioral finance concepts that if avoided will help you make better money decisions - namely loss aversion and herd behavior
- And lastly...the secret sauce of making better money decisions - awareness.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have that awareness of how your psychology and emotions can get in the way of making good decisions with your money, so you can apply that awareness to help you pause, think more rationally, and avoid some of the money blunders that too many of us fall victim to.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: One Year From Retirement Checklist
When retirement is so close that you can taste it, what are some of the essential things you’ll want to do in your last year of work before you retire? You’ve spent years saving and investing and working toward a comfortable and secure retirement, and you won’t want to transition into retirement without doing a few essential things. So what should you do in the last year of working before retirement? I’ll dive into that topic next week.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from RMD mistakes smart retirees don’t make to understanding non-qualified deferred compensation plans.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance to help you understand how your psychology and biases influence your money decisions.
Today, I’m talking about the secret sauce to making better decisions with your money... Awareness
What ties all of these behavioral finance concepts together is awareness. Just having a basic understanding of how your biases, emotions, and past experiences influence how you see the world and how you make decisions goes a long way towards minimizing the negative impacts of those decisions on your money.
When you are more aware of the emotional forces that are acting on you, it’s easier to stop and say “ah, I know what’s causing me to feel that way,” and hence, you’ll be less likely to get lulled into what could be a really bad emotional decision.
If you’ve ever tried to change something about yourself, you see the positive impact that awareness brings to your decision-making.
After I had my 2nd child, I was frustrated after my weight loss stalled after about 6 months, with still another 10+ pounds to lose.
So I joined weight watchers, which meant tracking everything I ate and weighing myself regularly. It worked really well - I lost 5 lbs the first month on weight watchers, and I credit most of that success to an awareness of tracking everything I was putting into my body.
This time around on my 3rd pregnancy, I tracked what I ate with weight watchers for most of my pregnancy, and while I wasn’t trying to lose weight, it did help me stay well within the healthy range for weight gain during this pregnancy, which is really nice, especially here at the end as I am already a week past my due date at this point.
The same thing is true with your behavior when it comes to your money. So focus on those decisions you’re making every day, week, and month that impact your wallet and retirement, and take steps towards becoming more aware of the emotional and psychological forces that are at work in your decision-making.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance to help you understand how your psychology and biases influence your money decisions.
Today I’m talking about herd behavior.
CS Lewis summed up herd behavior quite well when he said 'When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”
But sometimes being a good investor requires that you run in the opposite direction. Herd behavior is so common, I don’t have to dig very deep to give you some good examples. If you weren’t buying bitcoin in late 2017, gold in 2011, or profitless tech stocks in the late 1990s, you probably felt like an idiot. If you weren’t flipping houses in 2005, you likewise felt like you had missed the boat.
There is never a shortage of people out there who will brag about their massive wins, but you almost never hear about the other side...when that person was dead wrong, bet everything on a hunch, and then lost it all.
If you’re not careful, herd behavior can cause you to make some bad decisions - like buying some hot stock when it’s way overpriced, or jumping into an investment opportunity without investigating whether or not it makes sense for you. When the stock market was down 30% in March and people at work are bragging about how they moved to cash right before Covid hit, it takes discipline to stay invested and ride things out.
To avoid falling victim to herd behavior and making poor decisions as a result, it’s important to remember that the masses are often wrong - very often. I talked about this at length earlier this week, when we looked at the dismal long-term returns of the average investor.
Your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make. You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 13 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance to help you understand how your psychology and biases influence your money decisions.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important concepts in behavioral finance - loss aversion. Loss aversion is a bias that most of us share. It states that we often feel more extreme and negative feelings over losses vs. the positive feelings we feel about gains.
Using gambling as an example, you’re actually still likely to feel the pain of loss even when you come out ahead. If you win $1000 and then lose $900 in the next hand, it feels like a net loss even though you are actually ahead by $100.
Loss aversion is a problem because the pain of loss can drive us into emotional and bad decisions. If your portfolio drops by 10% or 20%, you may be tempted to panic and sell, because the pain is too great.
I had a handful of clients call me this past March when the fear and uncertainty of Covid was at its peak. The stock market was in freefall, millions of Americans were projected to die, and the economy around the world had just come to a complete stop. And the pain of loss and fear over future losses was just too much to stomach any more.
Conversely, when you see your portfolio is up 10%, 20% or 30% like it probably has been since March if you stayed invested, you’re much more likely to react like “meh, that’s nice”.
In order to overcome the loss aversion problem, the first step is to recognize that you’re wired to experience losses in a much more extreme way compared to how you’re wired to experience gains. Just understand that you and I and everyone else is prone to feel worse about losses than we feel good about gains is an important first step.
A second and important next step, especially if you have made decisions in the past based on your own loss aversion, is just to find ways to avoid the temptation to feel bad in the first place. For your retirement portfolio, this means tracking your portfolio value less often. If you look at your portfolio everyday, you’ll see losses all the time. If on the other hand you only look at your portfolio balance a few times a year, you’re much more likely to see a gain and not expose yourself to the pain of loss and fall victim to the behavioral finance blunder of loss aversion.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance to help you understand how your psychology and biases influence your money decisions.
Today, I’m talking about why most of you listening are pretty terrible at making decisions with your money. I don’t say that to insult you. It’s just the reality...
If you are even remotely like the average investor, and statistically speaking, you are...then you are a terrible investor. Why? Because you get in and out of the stock market at all the wrong times.
The research company, Dalbar, has been analyzing investor behavior for the last 25 years and here’s what they found:
During the 20-year period from 1998-2018, the stock market made a 5.6% average annual return. Pretty good when you consider that that return include the bursting of the tech bubble in the early 2000s, and the worst recession and stock market drop since the Great Depression in 2008-2009. Stocks still made 5.6% a year. Over that same 20-year time period bonds made 4.5% a year. Do you want to know what the average investor made?
1.9%. 1.9%! Not even enough to keep pace with inflation. Behavioral finance concepts, specifically what I discussed yesterday, which is that we make most of our decisions based on our strongest internal feeling - that’s why most investors don’t have the kind of returns that are necessary for growing wealth over time.
Investors make emotional decisions based primarily on fear and greed, and getting in and out of the market at all the wrong times.
You don’t even need to go back more than a few months to see this in action. Many investors and a few of my own clients were so frightened about the impact of the pandemic on their portfolio that they had to go to cash. It’s hard to stay invested and keep the long-term view in focus when predictions are dire and the Dow is dropping by 1000+ points day after day.
The point of today’s tip is that behavioral finance matters big time for your retirement, because if you only make 1.9% a year on your investment portfolio, that’s not going to provide the kind of life and lifestyle in retirement that you’re hoping for!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand.
Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
Today, let’s talk about how behavioral finance impacts your money decisions that you make before and during retirement. It’s easy for you and I to overlook how important our money decisions are, and how they can have lasting (and if you’re not careful, damaging) consequences.
Did you know that the average adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day? That’s a lot of decisions. Some big. Some small.
In order to not make our heads explode with the sheer volume of decisions we make all the time, we use our prior experiences and biases to help us make decisions.
The downside of making decisions this way may also lead to us making decisions with blinders on. We also make decisions based on emotions virtually all the time. You and I are often in denial about how much our emotions influence our decisions, but the truth is that we usually just follow our strongest internal feeling when making a decision.
That can spell trouble for our money decisions.
Because our decisions about money, investing, and retirement can impact us for the rest of our lives, we must be especially on guard to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is behavioral finance. You might be asking...What is behavioral finance?
Behavioral Finance is a relatively new field of study that has become more commonly understood over the last 20 years. It’s the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of investors. Since investors aren’t always rational, we have limits to our self-control, and we are all influenced by their own biases - these factors influence how we make decisions with our money.
So it’s important that you understand the impact of your conscious and subconscious behaviors, in order to make rational decisions and avoid some common blunders.
This week, I’ll help you understand what behavioral finance is, how to be more aware of your psychology and how it impacts your decisions when it comes to your money, how to avoid some of the biggest blunders, and how to avoid falling into the traps of loss aversion and herd behavior.
My goal for this week is that you will develop a deeper understanding of how you make decisions with your money, which will hopefully lead to you making better decisions with your money.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we covered the opportunities and risks in today’s stock market and what you should be paying attention to as an investor right now.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Why the worst is likely behind us with the Covid recession
- Opportunities in high-quality dividend stocks, small-cap stocks, and international stocks
- Risks in a tech-heavy portfolio
- And lastly, what to expect this Fall from the stock market as we head into the heated political season of a presidential election year
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a clear sense of some of the trends, the opportunities and risks to be mindful of as you try to navigate the world with your investment portfolio.
I don’t claim to be an investing genius, nor do I have all the answers. But I do have a magic 8 ball in my office, so that probably counts for something as I dispense this advice to you.
The point is that while not all of my predictions may materialize, they are important enough to be aware of and pay attention to, and take action if necessary, so you can protect your retirement against some potential risks as well as position yourself for success over the long-haul.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: What is Behavioral Finance?
Behavioral Finance is a relatively new field of study that has become more commonly understood over the last 20 years. It’s the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of investors. Since investors aren’t always rational, we have limits to our self-control, and we are all influenced by their own biases - these factors influence how we make decisions with our money.
So it’s important that you understand the impact of your conscious and subconscious behaviors, in order to make rational decisions and avoid some common blunders.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from RMD mistakes smart retirees don’t make to understanding non-qualified deferred compensation plans.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about opportunities and risks in today’s stock market and what you should be paying attention to as an investor right now.
In the latter part of the week, I’m shifting to the risks in today’s stock market, and today I’m talking about the real risk of the upcoming election.
Back in July, I devoted an entire week’s worth of the podcast to the nuances of investing in an election year, so if you want to dive a little deeper you can go back through the archives to episodes 645-651.
Now in a typical election year, if you go back almost 100 years to the 1930s, you don’t see much impact on the stock market during an election year. In fact, the stock market was usually higher overall during an election year.
An election year means potential changes to policy, laws, taxes, regulation, etc., but historically, the stock market’s reaction tends to be pretty muted, no matter what happens. However, with the current political tensions, civil unrest, and Covid, this election year is shaping up to be like no other, which means I wouldn’t be surprised to see heightened volatility or big up days and big down days in stocks as the election approaches.
I don’t think there is anything to do about this expected volatility, other than to be aware that it’s likely coming, and no matter who is elected President for the next 4 years, the stock market could react strongly in the short-term, yet the person in the white house for the next 4 years won’t have as much impact on the stock market or your portfolio as the media would have you believe.
Thank goodness we live in a democracy where changes to policy, regulations, and taxes tend to be slow moving, so any changes that may result from November’s election will likely get baked into the stock market slowly over time.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about opportunities and risks in today’s stock market and what you should be paying attention to as an investor right now.
So far this week, I’ve been talking about how the worst of the Covid recession is likely behind us, and specific opportunities that exist today in the areas of dividend stocks, international stocks, and small-cap stocks.
Today, I want to shift gears and focus on some of the risks that are out there. Namely, big tech stocks which have seen massive growth since Covid hit. The big tech names have been almost 100% responsible for the recovery in the stock market since March.
Amazon (which is technically not a tech company but a consumer discretionary company) has seen it’s stock price double since March. And you don’t have to look much further than the FedEx or Amazon delivery driver who is delivering packages to you and your neighbors on a daily basis.
Other tech companies have been largely insulated from the ravenous effects of Covid and have seen their stock prices run up big this year - think Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook.
Many investors, not wanting to miss out on the growth of these companies have jumped on the tech bandwagon, which creates further growth in the price of these companies.
While I don’t think we’re in for another tech bubble like we say in the early 2000s, it’s important for you as an investor to be discerning about any company you buy and for most of you who are investing in these big tech names indirectly through mutual funds or index funds in your 401k or IRA, I think you would be shocked to see how much you really own in these big tech names and how they represent a greater portion of your portfolio than you probably realize.
That’s it for today’s tip, but before you go I have a special treat for you that I offered yesterday and I want to offer again in case you missed yesterday’s podcast…
You may be listening this week and think - I have no idea how much in tech stocks (or small cap or international stocks) I have in my portfolio and more importantly, how that compares to the percentage that I should have.
If you would like an expert to look under the hood of your portfolio to see how much you have invested in big tech, small cap, international stocks - to shine the spotlight on gaps or areas of risk in your portfolio - just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you instructions for sending your portfolio investments to me securely, and I’ll run a portfolio analysis for you - for free. It’s secure and confidential with no strings attached. Just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com to get the ball rolling on your free portfolio analysis.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about opportunities and risks in today’s stock market.
Today, I’m talking about a couple of categories of investments that like dividend-growing stocks which I discussed yesterday, have largely not participated in the stock market recovery so far and thus represent good buying opportunities right now. Fundamentally, these areas look attractive because they are cheap or on sale.
The first area is international stocks. If you look at the 3-year cumulative performance of the MSCI EAFE index, which represents the performance of large and mid-cap stocks across 21 developed markets around the world, that index is only up 6% over the last 3 years. Compare that with the S&P 500 here in the US which is up 42% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq which is up 74% over that same time.
International stocks have been unloved ever since the last recession in 2008 and 2009, and have really struggled to regain the lost ground from over 12 years ago...then when Covid hit, international stocks got slammed harder than US companies, so they represent a good entry point and a good buying opportunity, since there are still plenty of reasons to be positive about investing internationally over the long-run.
The other area of opportunity is small-cap stocks. These are smaller companies that similar to international stocks have been hit hard in 2020. Now represents a good entry point if you’re looking to reposition your portfolio and take advantage of cheaper valuations.
That’s it for today’s tip, but before you go I have a special treat for you because I love my listeners and I appreciate you taking the time to listen to me babble on in the mornings…
You may be listening this week and think - I have no idea how much in dividend stocks, or small cap or international I have in my portfolio and how much I should have. If you would like an expert to look under the hood of your portfolio to see how much you have invested in big tech, small cap, international stocks - to shine the spotlight on gaps or areas of risk in your portfolio - just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you instructions for sending your portfolio investments to me securely, and I’ll run a portfolio analysis for you - for free. It’s secure and confidential with no strings attached. Just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com for your free portfolio analysis.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about opportunities and risks in today’s stock market and what you should pay attention to as an investor in today’s environment.
Today, I’m talking about one of my favorite topics when it comes to investing - the opportunities that exist in high-quality dividend stocks.
Dividend stocks are an opportunity right now for a couple of reasons:
- They will pay you income, which is critical in this low-interest rate environment. It’s not hard to find a high quality dividend stock that pays a dividend of 2-3% or more. Compare that with savings accounts that are paying nil or even a 10 year treasury with virtually no upside growth potential that is currently paying 1.42% and you have yourself a winning combination of growth potential in dividend stock along with current income that far outpaces what you can get with many bonds right now.
- Secondly, dividend paying companies in general haven’t been strong performers this year. Tech and consumer discretionary sectors have seen the most gains in 2020, but many of the high-quality dividend paying stocks are in sections like consumer staples, health care, industrials, financials, and utilities - all sectors that have seen little to negative growth in 2020. For you as the investor, that translates to bargains in these companies.
In addition, as we come out the other side of the Covid recession, being discerning about quality when it comes to your portfolio will be very important. Many companies saddled with debt, poor management, and choked by a lack of cash flow will not survive.
A hallmark of high-quality dividend paying stocks is that most of them have low debt, are well-managed and cash rich, so they are more likely to weather this difficult economic climate and come out the other side unscathed.
In addition to the opportunity today in dividends, a strategically invested dividend portfolio is also capable of generating dividend growth rates of about 10% a year. That’s a big deal once you transition into retirement because it means in about 7 years, you could be generating twice that monthly income from your dividend portfolio as you’re generating today.
Dividend paying stocks aren’t sexy and when a company announces a dividend increase, it’s rarely the top story on the investment news stations, but believe me, dividends are one of the best and most consistent ways to grow your income in retirement, and they represent a great buying opportunity right now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about opportunities and risks in today’s stock market.
Today, I’m talking about why I think the worst is likely behind us with the Covid recession and its impacts on the stock market and the economy.
Of course, there is always a risk that the economy could shut down all over again, but short of that happening, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic that the Covid recession will have been swift and short-lived.
Looking at the numbers, As the U.S. economy continues to reopen, the Atlanta Fed is projecting GDP will grow +29.6% in the third quarter, with further strength expected in the 4th quarter.
On the jobs front, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.4% in August, down from 15% at the beginning of the pandemic. The economy has regained about half of the jobs lost this Spring, yet we still have 11.5 million fewer jobs than in February.
There are specific industries like travel, brick & mortar retail, and restaurants that may take years to come back...if at all, but with the exception of the hardest hit industries, the economy is already on a sharp trajectory of recovery, and I think general fears about the next shoe dropping are generally unfounded.
So if you’ve been hesitant to save more this year or if you’ve even got spooked by everything and gone to cash with your investments, I don’t believe its rational to remain on the sidelines and as I’ll talk about later this week, there are still plenty of investment opportunities for growth ahead.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is opportunities and risks in today’s stock market. I’m talking about how to find opportunities right now in stocks, what to pay attention to, the risks associated with the upcoming election, whether or not you should be cautious about investing in tech stocks right now, and why the heck the stock market is having a surprisingly good year, despite Covid-related shutdowns and high unemployment.
It’s been such a crazy ride this year in the stock market and the economy, and it’s been a while since I’ve done an investment-themed week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, so I think it’s a good time for us to look at this and talk about what to pay attention to and where the potential hazards are right now.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, I’m talked about eradicating your debt and the importance of doing that before your retirement. I also shared with you practical steps to get started on getting rid of your debt and getting started today.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Why Debt In Retirement Will Hold You Back
- How to get started on knocking out your debt just by taking inventory
- An explanation of the debt snowball method and why it works
- Why you should pay off your mortgage before retirement
- And lastly, envisioning what a life without debt will feel like
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you’ve completed your debt inventory and you’re motivated to get to work on the necessary steps to eradicate debt from your life.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Opportunities and risks in today’s stock market. I’ll be talking about how to find opportunities right now in stocks, what to pay attention to, the risks associated with the upcoming election, whether or not you should be cautious about investing in tech stocks right now, and why the heck the stock market is having a surprisingly good year, despite Covid-related shutdowns and high unemployment.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from RMD mistakes smart retirees don’t make to understanding non-qualified deferred compensation plans.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about being debt free in retirement - why this is so important and how to take steps now to become debt free by retirement.
Today, I want you to envision your life without debt.
What would your life be like if you didn’t have any debt? How much more freedom and flexibility would you have when your only monthly bills are utilities, groceries, and mostly discretionary purchases? How much would it grow your confidence in retirement, that you won’t run out of money, if you have no debt?
My guess is - A LOT!
Money is one of the biggest stressors for Americans, outweighing relationships and work on the stress meter. According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2018 Planning & Progress Study, 44% of us are stressed about money.
Unloading your debt means less stress, more confidence and...better health as a result!
So today, I ask you to have the courage to envision a life without debt. Go there in your mind. Let yourself hang out there for a while and see what it feels like. Then...get to work on the necessary steps to eradicate debt from your life. I laid out how you can get started in the earlier episodes this week.
As one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain aso wisely stated: “The secret to getting ahead is getting started”.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about being debt free in retirement - why this is so important and how to take steps now to become debt free by retirement.
Today, I’m answering a question that I get asked all the time:
“Ashley, what about my house? Should I pay off my mortgage, so I don’t have a mortgage in retirement?”
Good question! And not an easy question to answer because like most retirement planning related questions, the answer varies depending on your situation.
Mortgages tend to be big debts. You might still owe $100,000 or more on your house by the time you enter retirement, so it’s no small feat to pay off your house.
Now, many people say that the mortgage interest tax deduction helps them with their taxes. That may be true, but you are still handing over your hard-earned money - principal and interest over to the bank every year and the tax deduction is just a portion of that, so it just isn’t that compelling when you compare it the flexibility in your finances with not having a monthly mortgage payment at all.
So yes, I think it’s wise to pay off your mortgage before retirement if you can make that happen. Especially if you’re like most American households where your mortgage is your largest monthly expense and it makes up about a third of your monthly expenses. So if you can free that up in retirement by paying off your mortgage, imagine what kind of breathing room it will give you with your finances?!
Yesterday I talked about using a debt amortization calculator as you make progress on eradicating your debt. I’m revisiting that today, because it will be a crucial tool for paying off your house and seeing if it can be done before retirement.
Here’s how the amortization calculator works with your mortgage: Let’s say you have 15 years left on your mortgage and you’re 9 years from retirement. How much would you need to add to your monthly payment to pay off your mortgage the same month that you plan to retire?
When you use an amortization calculator which you can easily find online for free, you can enter extra payment amounts to figure out how much you would need to add to your mortgage every month to pay it off early by a certain date.
When you actually run the numbers with an amortization, you might be surprised to learn that knocking those 6 years off your mortgage is totally doable, and not as burdensome as you might have expected.
I’ll link to a favorite amortization calculator of mine in the show notes, so you can run the numbers for yourself. You can find the link and all the show notes for this episode - episode 712 - in Apple Podcasts or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley.”
Mortgage Amotization Calculator >>> https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/home-equity/additional-mortgage-payment-calculator.aspx
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTune: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about being debt free in retirement - why this is so important and how to take steps now to become debt free by retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about the easy first step of eradicating debt from your life - just taking inventory. I had you list all of your debts, the amount owed, the number of years left, and the interest rate on each debt.
Now that you have your debt inventory list, let’s look today at probably the most well-known debt reduction strategies - the debt snowball method. If you are a Dave Ramsey fan, you know how this works, but if not, let me explain:
In the debt snowball method, you list your debts, smallest to largest, and start knocking out the smallest debt first. And then move on to the next smallest, knock that out, and continue down that path until all of your debts are wiped out. It’s called the snowball method, because the snowball starts small, but grows over time.
The debt snowball works well because you get quick wins from eradicating those smaller debts, which for many people will give you the motivation to keep going.
If you try to tackle a $30,000 car loan first or the $100,000 mortgage first, it could take a year or more before you feel like you’ve made any meaningful progress, and that can be discouraging and could cause you to throw in the towel on paying off your debt - and we definitely do not want that!
One last thing I want to mention is that a critical component of using any debt reduction method, and one that is all too often overlooked is to familiarize yourself with a debt amortization calculator. Debt amortization sounds like a scary accounting term, but what it allow you to do is figure out how long it will take to pay off a given debt.
Just google debt amortization calculator and you can find a free one where you just enter the items from your debt inventory list - debt amount still owed, how long you have left on the loan, and your interest rate. Find one that allows you to enter extra payments. Because you can enter the extra monthly payment amount, and see how much time it knocks off the loan.
For larger loans like your mortgage, it’s amazing how an extra $100-200 a month in payments will take years off your loan. This will allow you to put a concrete and realistic time frame on eliminating each of your debts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about being debt free in retirement - why this is so important and how to take steps now to become debt free by retirement.
Today, I’m talking about getting started on eradicating debt from your life.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Mark Twain. He said: “The secret to getting ahead is getting started”. What I love so much about this quote is it’s simple truth. As humans, we are naturally opposed to change. Especially if that change is difficult - like making sacrifices to eradicate debt from your life. But Twain was right - the secret IS just getting started.
So how do you get started on eradicating debt from your life?
The answer is surprisingly simple.
The first step in getting started is to take inventory. And this shouldn’t take you too long, so you don’t have an excuse not to do it. In fact, if you listened to Monday’s episode, I already mentioned this was the essential first step, so hopefully you’ve already done this. But let me reiterate how to take inventory of your debt:
Here’s how you take inventory: Get out a sheet of paper and create 4 columns:
- First column - Name of the debt. Is this a Macy’s credit card, a car loan, your mortgage? Whatever it is, list all your debts by name.
- Second column - write the current balance that you owe
- 3rd column - write down the number of years left on the loan
- Last column - write down the current interest rate. Is it 2%, 12% or 22%? Whatever it is, write it down.
All done! See, that wasn’t so hard, now was it? Once you take an inventory of your debt you can put a realistic plan in place to knock out those debts and I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about being debt free in retirement - why this is so important and how to take steps now to become debt free by retirement.
Today, I’m talking about why debt in retirement is problematic. If you still have debt when you enter retirement, it can create a potentially dangerous collision. This collision may not happen for many years down the road, but you can see the cars piling up in front of you and we gotta put the brakes on now. Especially if you’re still working and can take steps to pay off debt before retirement or at the very least in the early years of retirement.
The problem with debt in retirement and why it can lead to more problems down the road, is that debt creates minimum monthly obligations - bills you’ve got to pay. If you have a mortgage payment, and a car loan, and some credit card debt, those are all bills that need to be paid every month. And if they’re not paid, you’ll face serious consequences, like foreclosure or bankruptcy.
If you can’t pay your debts during your working years, it’s much easier to dig yourself out of that hole because you can get a second job or really cut back on your other expenses.
When you’re retired though, most people have already cut out everything they could and many times you can’t go back to work to pay down your debts.
If you’re retired, your income is limited to what your social security, pension, investment portfolio, and other income sources can provide. So your ability to earn your way out of a debt problem by getting a job is now very limited. Especially as you age. How many 80 year olds do see driving an Uber?
So by reducing or eliminating your debt by the time you hit retirement, you have a lot more breathing room and a lot more freedom and flexibility to decide how to spend your income every month, rather than being tied down to monthly obligations and payments that could snuff out any potential for fun or travel or anything else that you’d rather spend your time and money on when you’re retired.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is how to set yourself up for a debt free retirement. We Americans often have an unhealthy relationship with debt. There’s a lot of different reasons for this, but many of us have too much debt, which prevents us from saving enough and reaching our most important financial goals.
Each day this week I’m sharing with you the importance of reducing or eliminating your debt before retirement, the tremendous freedom that little to no debt in retirement provides, and how to take incremental steps today to begin reducing your debt.
I’m excited about this week’s tips! It’s a big topic to tackle and I’m going to do my best to share insights with you this week that will help you eradicate debt and move closer to financial freedom.
Today I have a homework item for you to complete before we embark on this week together. I want you to take an inventory of all your debts:
- List the type of debt (mortgage, credit card, car loans, etc)
- Write down how much you still owe, the interest rate, and how long you have left on each loan.
Understanding your current debts - both big and small will be a big help to you as we embark on this week’s tips, so take a few minutes today to pull that inventory list together.
Tomorrow, we’ll dive in by talking about why having debt in retirement is a bad idea.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week,
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
I talked about the quick win you can get by creating a simple inventory list of your assets and your accounts, as well as documenting your trusted contacts like your CPA, attorney, and financial advisor. This one quick and easy step is going to be the easiest and most helpful thing you can do to get organized and save your loved ones a lot of heartache, because they won’t have to go looking through your file cabinets or old bankers boxes in the midst of their grief, trying to make heads or tails of your accounts and trying to determine which ones still exist.
Then I gave you some guidelines about what to keep, what to shred, and a few good organizational systems you can use to set yourself up for success.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you will at least get started on this process with a simple inventory list - even if you do nothing else, that’s a big win!
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Debt Free Retirement. I’ll share with you how and why you can work toward a debt free retirement, covering everything from paying off your house to methods of paying off your debt, so you can get to work on a retirement full of flexibility with your finances because your free from the bondage of debt.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from RMD mistakes smart retirees don’t make to understanding non-qualified deferred compensation plans.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about organizing your financial documents.
So far this week, I've been talking about creating an inventory of assets, accounts, and a list of trusted contacts. Taking action on each of these items isn’t a time-consuming endeavor, and it will give you the boost of motivation you need to keep going down the path of organizing your financial documents.
As you begin the task of going through your files and getting everything organized, it’s important to pause and decide what organizational system will work best for you to keep all of your financial documents organized.
As a type A, OCD kinda person, with a former professional organizer as my mother, I know a thing or two about organizing things. In middle school, I used to rearrange the furniture in my room when I was a kid, because I thought it was fun. I would do this several times a year, just to experiment with what setup I liked the most. I would usually do this late at night when I couldn’t sleep and was bored. My parents must have been wondering what the heck was wrong with me - making all that racket at midnight.
Even prior to that when I was still playing with barbies, my favoirte thing to do was stage my barbie mansion and move furniture around, instead of actually playing with my Barbies.
I’m getting off topic here, but the point is that some of us like myself need order and organization, and many of us live in chaos and disarray, especially when it comes to our paper clutter. But it’s really important no matter how you’re wired, that you figure out a way to keep those important financial keeper documents organized in a way that makes sense both for you and your loved ones.
With that in mind, there are 3 main organizational systems that work well for financial documents:
- A binder system - visual and convenient, it also forces you to keep your files from expanding, unless you want to keep buying more binders.
- Files and a filing cabinet - also visual, but you must be consistent in your labeling to ensure that your filing system works well
- Scan and file - ah, ok - I am technically a millennial, so I like the idea of scanning documents. The beauty of the scanning system is that you can store and find information quickly, while getting rid of all the papers you have! A win-win!
You’ll want to adopt the method that works for you, before embarking on organizing your documents.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about organizing your financial documents - how to do it and how to get some quick wins and make progress towards a more organized financial life.
Today I’m tackling another common question I’m asked: “Ashley, how long should I keep all of my financial documents?”
That’s a really good question! Yesterday, I talked about what you can shred, so today I’m going to focus on what you should keep.
Let’s start with your tax records.
7 years is a good rule for keeping your tax records. It’s a good idea to keep annual tax filings, 1099s, and other tax forms for 7 years. Keep them in a file by year, then just cycle out the file every 7 years.
For your investment accounts, keep your annual summaries. I like keeping all of the year-end summaries and year-end account statements for each of your financial accounts, going back indefinitely, especially for taxable accounts where it matters knowing when you bought something and what you paid.
Speaking of when you bought something...
I also advise clients to keep trade confirmation statements forever. You may have bought a stock back in 1991, you still own it, and it has a massive gain. You’ll want to know what day you purchased the stock, at what price, and how many shares you bought to keep accurate records of the stock. Also, if you’ve been investing for a while, you’ve probably received those shareholder class action letters. If you ever want to participate in one of those, you’ll need to show proof of when you purchased the stock, so it’s just a good idea to always hold on to trade confirmations.
If you’re like, “crap! I haven’t held on to any of those things!” That’s ok. Go back to your financial institution or your tax advisor and see if they can send you copies of old tax records, year-end summaries, and trade confirmations that you might be missing.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week’s tips are aimed at helping you better organize your financial documents, and today I’m answering one of the most common questions clients ask me about their financial documents - what should I keep and what should I shred?
The good news is that you can probably get rid of more documents than you might realize. With that said, here’s some guidance on what you can shred and when:
- Bills - go ahead and shred these when the payment clears
- Credit card and bank account statements - You can shred these after reviewing and verifying that everything looks correct, especially if you have online access to your accounts.
- Paycheck stubs can be shredded after you verify the stubs match your W-2 and there are no other discrepancies
- Investment account statements - your monthly or quarterly statements can be shredded after you receive your annual summary after the close of the year. This one is a big one, because I see clients who keep every monthly statement going back 5, 10, or 20 years, and it’s really not necessary. And when each statement is several pages long, it will really free up space in your files if you just keep the year-end summary.
And these days with virtually everything available online anyways, and easy ways to store documents securely in the cloud, you don’t need to keep most of those account statements you still might be getting in the mail.
Once you know what you can shred, you can also get in the habit of shredding more often, so you don’t store things that you don’t need.
Today, my challenge is for you is to start purging anything you’ve been hanging on to that you don’t need. Have a little shredding party and experience the profound cleansing euphoria that happens when you rid yourself of unnecessary documents!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about financial document organization. Only the most type A among us have everything all in order, so I’m sharing with you some tips, and quick and easy ways to get your financial life organized.
Today’s episode is a continuation of your personal financial inventory list that I talked with you about yesterday. If you recall from yesterday, one of the first and easiest steps to take with organizing your financial documents is creating an inventory list. You list all of your accounts and where they are held, so your loved ones and at least 1 trusted contact know where your assets are located.
Now that you have the list that tells your loved ones where your assets are located, we want to take the next step and help them get in contact with the right people.
So the next step in this process is creating a list of advisor contacts and their contact info. You’ll want to include your:
- Accountant
- Attorney(s)
- Financial Advisor
- Insurance Agent
- Bank or banker
- Executor, Trustee, & power of attorney
- Employer/HR contact
And like your asset inventory list, you’ll want to keep your list of contacts updated by setting a reminder about once a year to do this. Your attorney may retire. You may get a new life insurance policy or fire your financial advisor, so you’ll want to make sure to update it once a year or when you make a major change.
And like your asset inventory list, having a list of contacts that your spouse or loved ones can call will be very comforting and will ease any stress in what is always a difficult time - after a death or disability.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about financial document organization. Only the most type A among us have everything all in order, so I’m sharing with you some tips, and quick and easy ways to get your financial life organized.
Today, I’m focusing on the single best thing you can do that will give you a quick win on getting your financial life organized.
And that is...creating a financial inventory list. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can be handwritten or typed up on a spreadsheet. Your personal financial inventory should list all of your financial assets. You’ll want to include:
- Investment accounts
- 401k or other retirement plan accounts
- Insurance policies & annuities
- Bank accounts
- College savings accounts
- Physical or special assets (like gold, coins, valuable collectibles, or real estate)
- And if applicable, pension information too
This simple list should include the account type, account owners, the name of the financial institution where the assets are held, & the last few digits of the account numbers.
Put a copy in a safe place, make sure your spouse knows where this inventory list is stored, and give a copy to one or more of your trusted advisors, like your financial advisor, your CPA, or attorney. Then just set a reminder on your calendar to review it and update it as needed - usually once a year is often enough, or when you make big changes like moving your accounts to a new institution or when you retire and rollover your old 401k to an IRA.
When you're the one handling the finances in your household, and don’t do this, it can create real hardships for your spouse or your kids. I’ve talked to a spouse who didn’t know about an insurance policy death benefit and then found some paperwork in a box several years after the spouse died.
Trust me, the insurance company is not going to come knocking on your door to write you a check for the death benefit, so you’ll want to make sure your spouse and at least one other trusted contact knows where to find all of your assets and accounts and where they are all located.
This is such a quick win, because it doesn’t even require you to compile all of your statements and all the details of the accounts. We’re just creating something like a table of contents and a list of your accounts, which is easy to do.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
If you died today, how messy would it be for your spouse, your kids, or your executor to sort through your financial life? If this question makes you cringe a little, then this week’s tips are for you, because I’m talking about financial document organization.
Each day this week I’m going to share with you tips on how you can organize, store, and take inventory of your financial documents. I’m going to give you some quick wins and answer some commonly asked questions - like what you should do with that IRA statement you’re still holding on to from 5 years ago, and the one thing you can do today, which will have the biggest impact on helping you get organized.
Be sure to come back tomorrow where I’m covering one simple, easy thing you can do today that will give you a quick win and that boost of motivation to continue with getting your financial life organized.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, I explained few of the more important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind as you decide when to start collecting your social security checks.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week.
- The costly mistake too many Americans are making with their social security decisions that could cost you over $400,000
- When you should wait until age 70 to start social security
- How social security income is taxed
- Addressing concerns over cuts to social security,
- And lastly, special considerations for ex-spouse benefits if you’re divorced
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a better understanding of some of the key questions that are important for you to answer for yourself before you decide how and when to start collecting social security.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Financial Document Organization. I’ll share with you how you can systematically organize your financial documents and put all of your most important documents all in one place. Having everything organized is critical for your spouse and your family in the event of your death or disability, yet it’s something that very few people do well. I’m going to make this process a whole lot easier for you with next week’s tips.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from RMD mistakes smart retirees don’t make to understanding non-qualified deferred compensation plans.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m explaining social security retirement benefits and a few of the more important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind as you decide when to begin collecting your checks.
Today, I’m talking about special social security considerations for those of you who are divorced.
Did you know you can collect social security benefits from your ex-spouse?
Here’s how it works: If you were married for 10 years or longer, your ex-spouse is now old enough to receive social security, you’re at least 62, and your social security benefit is lower than theirs, you can collect social security ex-spouse benefits as long as you haven’t re-married.
Your collection of your ex-spouse's benefit doesn’t impact their benefit, and you don’t even have to talk to your ex-spouse about your decision to start social security.
One thing that I do want to point out is that the rules used to allow ex-spouses to collect divorced spouse’s benefits while letting their own social security benefit grow without tapping into it...those rules have changed.
If you were born in 1954 or later, social security is going to make you pick one or the other. But, according to SSA.gov, “if the benefit on your ex-spouse's record is higher, you will get an additional amount on your ex-spouse's record so that the combination of benefits equals that higher amount.”
The point here is that if you fit the criteria to collect social security benefits from your ex-spouse, it makes sense to look into the difference in collecting on their benefit vs. yours to see which strategy will maximize your benefit amount.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m explaining social security retirement benefits and a few of the more important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind as you decide when to begin collecting your checks.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most common fears among retirees - cuts to social security. My clients fret about this all the time, and for good reason - if you’re the average American worker, social security makes up about 40% of your income in retirement. With it being such a big source of income for many of us, potential cuts to social security is a big deal and would be catastrophic for many.
Just like a wasteful and frivolous trust fund baby who has squandered every last dime of their inheritance, the U.S. has done the same thing. The social security trust fund is projected to go broke in just 15 years - in 2035.
For a variety of reasons, and mostly because it will be so unpopular to address, lawmakers just keep kicking the can down the road, and will keep doing so until social security is in a true crisis and must be addressed. Which looks to be about 15 years away.
What’s important for retirees or those planning for retirement to realize is that with so many Americans dependent on social security, it’s unlikely that you’ll see cuts to your social security once you start collecting your check.
However if you’re 35 like me, or even 45 or 55, I think there is more cause for concern about whether or not you’ll have the same social security benefits that many retired Americans are enjoying today.
In all likelihood, the empty trust fund will be replaced with a combination of tax increases on working Americans and a delay in the age in which you can receive benefits.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m explaining social security retirement benefits and a few of the more important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind as you decide when to begin collecting your checks.
Today, I’m talking about how to avoid the social security taxation trap.
A common question many people ask is: Is social security taxed?
I hate to break it to you, but yes it is...and it gets taxed at a fairly low income threshold as well.
Up to 85 percent of your benefits become taxable if your income is more than $34,000 (individual) or $44,000 (couple).
On top of that, several states also tax your social security benefits!
Considering you paid into social security your entire working life, it seems more than a little unfair that you also pay taxes on your social security checks in retirement too.
So it’s important to consider how social security will be taxed in your situation, so you don’t overestimate your NET income from social security in retirement. If you don’t consider the taxes, and plan on more income then you’ll actually end up having, it could be a big oops surprise in retirement and may force you to cut your spending in retirement to make up the difference.
So when you’re figuring out how much after-tax income you’ll need to live comfortably in retirement, you’ll want to consider how all of your income sources will be taxed, and remember that social security is taxed as well when your income exceeds certain thresholds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m explaining social security retirement benefits and a few of the more important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind as you decide when to begin collecting your checks.
Today, I’m talking about whether or not it’s a good idea to wait as long as possible to start collecting social security.
If you’re in good health and you expect to live into your mid-70s or longer, you’ll most likely want to consider waiting as long as possible to start social security.
Why? Most Americans should plan to live into their 80s, which means that taking social security somewhere between age 67-70 makes the most sense.
As I discussed in yesterday’s tip, the difference in lifetime income between starting social security as early as possible at 62 vs. waiting until age 70 was nearly $600,000 for the client I told you about yesterday.
If you’re going to hold off on starting social security, this naturally leads to an important question: where do you draw income from instead if you’re going to retire before you start those social security checks?
The clients I told you about yesterday won’t start social security for close to 10 years AFTER they retire, so we’re going to take higher withdrawals from their portfolio to fill the gap, and then lower those withdrawals once social security starts. This strategy makes sense for a lot of people, as long as those higher withdrawals in the early years are sustainable and won’t drain your investment portfolio. You’ll want to run the numbers for yourself to see if that pencils out.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m explaining social security retirement benefits and a few of the more important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind as you decide when to begin collecting your checks.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most costly mistakes people make with their social security decision.
Recently, I met with a husband and wife couple. This couple have been clients for many years and they are retiring next Spring! I’m so excited for them to retire, and they are excited to start a new chapter in their lives.
When we met, we had a planning discussion and made some important decisions about retirement. One of those decisions was about when they would start taking social security. They are retiring in their early 60s and they just assumed that they would start social security as early as possible, at age 62.
It wasn’t until we ran the numbers that they realized that this would be a massive mistake.
If they live to their life expectancy, they would collect nearly $400,000 less over their lifetime in social security benefits if they collect at age 62 compared to waiting until their full retirement age.
If they wait until age 70, that difference in lifetime income jumps to nearly $600,000!
Here’s the point: In nearly every circumstance, unless you have no other choice, no investments to provide income and fill the gap while you wait, or you are in poor health and don’t expect to live past your early to mid-70s, taking social security as early as possible is usually a mistake!
It’s important that you understand not just the current differences in income - but also the cumulative lifetime income differences of starting social security at different ages.
To make this easier for you, I have a special treat if you’re listening today: Send me your social security monthly benefit amount at your full retirement age, and I’ll run the numbers for you! I’ll show you the impact of taking social security at different ages, so you can make a smart social security decision!
I normally charge for this type of analysis, but for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, it’s free. no strings attached.
Just send an email with your full retirement age monthly benefit amount to ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about social security! This is a pretty big topic, so I’m going to focus on helping you understand the most important things you’ll want to think about as you make your social security decision.
Most people underestimate the importance of this decision, and too many people mistakenly decide to start drawing social security when they retire, but when you’re potentially going to collect over $1 million dollars from social security over your lifetime,so this decision should not be taken lightly. It should be a carefully planned decision that considers a number of factors.
Stick around because this week I’ll share with you:
- The social security mistake that could cost you over $400,000
- The trap of social security taxation
- How to plan for potential cuts to social security
- The special benefit that exists for people who are divorced
- And why you may want to wait until you’re 70 to start social security
I’m bringing insight from over a decade of guiding clients on their social security decisions to you this week, and I’m so glad you’re here with me!
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, I shared with you how you can grow your income in retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week.
- How waiting to take social security is arguably the best boost to your income in retirement for most Americans
- Why dividend growing companies should be the bedrock of your portfolio for their income growth potential, and the qualities to look for in these types of companies
- And then I talked about how to grow your income, especially in the early years of retirement with a side gig
- Lastly, I talked about how moving to a state with a lower cost of living can be a great back door way to grow your income in retirement, because you’re stretching your dollar further in a locale with a lower cost of living in retirement.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you aren’t so concerned about interest rates being so low, and bonds, CDs, and savings accounts paying pennies on the dollar, and you see that there are other options for growing your income in retirement that also don’t force you to take on too much risk.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: social security retirement benefits explained. I’ll talk about the ideal age to start social security, mistakes to avoid, the social security taxation trap, and more!
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds. Just search for True North Retirement on YouTube.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to grow your income in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how you can grow your income in retirement in an unexpected way. It’s not something that comes to mind first, because it’s more about cutting expenses that finding new or growing sources of income...but it’s just as impactful.
And that is moving to a lower cost state. I live in Oregon, which is a pretty expensive place to live. Housing is expensive here and the state income tax is pretty high as well. Food, gas and other essentials vary, but I ran the numbers and if I moved to Boise, Idaho, my cost of living would drop by about 10%. For a family making $100,000/year, taxes in Boise are lower by 12%, housing is 16% lower, and food costs are about the same.
I would only need $90,000 instead of your $100,000 to enjoy the same lifestyle that I enjoy here in Oregon. Translated on a monthly basis, that $833 more dollars in my pocket, which is a nice way to back into growing your income in retirement.
So if you’re considering move to another state as a way to make your retirement nest egg stretch further, rest assured that it’s a powerful option to make a significant impact on your lifestyle and expenses. And if you would like to run the numbers for your own situation, there is a great cost of living calculator on smartasset.com, which I’ll link to in the show notes:
https://smartasset.com/mortgage/cost-of-living-calculator
You can find the show notes in Apple podcasts or by going to www.retirementtip.libsyn.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to grow your income in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how you can grow your income in retirement and work on your terms with a side gig.
It’s becoming more and more common for retired people these days to not actually retire. And that’s great news, because staying productive in your retirement years, has well-documented health and psychological benefits, and it also has financial benefits as well.
Taking on a part-time job in retirement could help you bridge the gap if you haven’t saved enough for retirement, and it can also help you delay starting social security, which as I talked about earlier in the week, is one of the best ways (if not THE best way) to grow your income in retirement.
So what are some side gigs you can start in retirement? The answer varies for everyone, but if you have a specialized skill set and decades of knowledge and experience, consulting work is one of the best side gigs you can take on in retirement. You could also become an uber driver, work at your favorite non-profit, become a mediator or a professional organizer. If you know a foreign language fluently you could become a translator, or perhaps there is an opportunity to continue working in your current profession only 10-20 hours a week.
The opportunities are endless, and the good news is that usually by the time you hit retirement age, you have a good grasp on the intersection of what you’re good at, what you are passionate about, and what the world needs that could also provide you with additional income in retirement.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or Apple Podcasts. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to grow your income in retirement.
Yesterday I talked about how dividends are one of the best and most consistent ways to grow your income in retirement. My preferred way to invest in dividend growth companies is to build a portfolio of individual companies that pay growing dividends. However, that’s not the only way to invest in dividend growing stocks.
There are a number of mutual funds and ETFs (or exchange traded funds) that have a dividend growth focus. There are a few key criteria that you’ll want to look for in a dividend-growth focused investment - whether that be an individual company, a mutual fund, or an ETF.
Here’s what you’ll want to look for or what you’ll want to look for in the strategy of the mutual fund of ETF that you invest in with a dividend focus:
- Consistent and growing dividends over at least the last 10 years, with no dividend cuts over that time. So if a company just started paying a dividend 2 years ago, you’ll want to wait for a more established history before investing.
- Stable and growing cash flow. Cash flow is king in business for good reason, and strong cash flow is equally important for dividend growth over time.
- Quality business with a dominant position in their market and solid management team in place
- Moderate to low levels of debt. Companies saddled with debt are quick to run into troubles and cut their dividends during economic downturns. And the last thing you want in retirement is to invest in companies that cut their dividends and shrink your income stream as a result.
One of the great things about investing in mutual funds and ETFs with a dividend focus is that the portfolio managers of these funds will do all of the homework to identify which companies fit the criteria. But it’s still important to understand how the mutual fund or the ETF picks those stocks to include in the fund, which is why you’ll want to know what you’re looking for and what to expect if you’re going to outsource the stock picking to someone else.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to grow your income in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about one of my favorite investment topics and frankly, it’s not one I cover enough here on the One Minute Retirement Tip. But I should, because this is one of the best ways to passively grow your income in retirement, and I believe this investment strategy should be the bedrock of every retiree’s portfolio.
What am I talking about? Growing dividend stocks.
Many companies that you can invest in today pay dividends and many of these same companies also grow their dividends year in and year out, and have been for decades.
A dividend is simply a sum of money paid regularly (usually quarterly) by a company to its shareholders out of its profits. When you buy companies that pay a growing dividend, not only do you benefit from the growth in the stock price (hopefully), but you also benefit from a growing stream of income.
My preferred way of buying dividend growing stocks is buying the individual stocks themselves. You can build a nice portfolio full of high-quality dividend growing stocks, or pay a professional to build one for you, that generates a dividend yield of about 2.5% to 3% a year. That means on a $500,000 portfolio, you can generate about $1,250 a month in income. That doesn’t even include the growth that you will hopefully achieve as well.
In addition to that, a strategically invested dividend portfolio is also capable of generating dividend growth rates of about 10% a year. That means in about 7 years, you could be generating twice that monthly income or about $2,500 a month from your dividend portfolio.
Dividend paying stocks aren’t sexy and when a company announces a dividend increase, it’s rarely the top story on the investment news stations, but believe me, dividends are one of the best and most consistent ways to grow your income in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to grow your income in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most impactful ways to grow your income in retirement, which is to delay starting social security for as long as possible.
If you were born in 1960 or later and you wait to take social security until age 70, you can multiply your benefit at your full retirement age by 124%. If you’re older than that, it’s likely to be an even greater % increase. So let’s say your social security at full retirement age at 67 is $2,500/month.
If you wait another 3 years to start collecting your checks, your monthly benefit goes from $2,500 to $3,100/mo.$600 more a month in income is pretty substantial. That’s about the same impact as saving another $200,000 for retirement when you look at what it would otherwise take to take another $600/month in income.
When you extend this income difference over your lifetime, we’re talking well into a 6-figure increase in lifetime income if you wait. Anecdotally in working with clients, I’ve seen the lifetime income increase by as much as $400,000 or more compared to taking social security income as early as possible.
The bottom line here is if you need more income in retirement, try to wait for as long as you possibly can to collect social security up to the age of 70, because every month that you delay will lock in a higher lifetime income amount.
That’s it for today’s tip, but before you go let’s talk about something that’s top of mind - especially if you’re listening to my podcast...
Here’s the reality - Planning for your retirement can be both exhilarating and terrifying. With all the excitement of thinking about the future comes an underlying worry--am I ready? That’s where my Retirement Success Forecaster comes in. Using data from this simple questionnaire, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if not, what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envisioned.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you the forecaster to complete, and once you send it back to me, you’ll receive your personalized results - for free!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how to grow your income in retirement. Interest rates are extremely low right now, and the Fed is likely to keep rates low for possibly many years to come. So with savings accounts, bonds, and CDs paying so little, how can you find income in this environment? That’s what I’ll be talking about this week.
You can always find more income, but more income usually equates to more risk. My aim then is to show you ways to invest your retirement portfolio to generate a growing stream of income in this low-rate environment without taking on too much risk.
It’s a tall order, but it’s something that I’ve been doing for clients for over a decade, so I plan to share my income-generating secrets with you here on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast this week.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, I shared with you my predictions about How Covid Will Change How You Plan For Retirement. With so many drastic changes since the emergence of Covid, and many of those changes having a lasting and permanent impact on how we live our lives, I think it’s a relevant time for us to look at this topic and how Covid will change your retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week.
- How Covid will accelerate early retirements
- How covid will change where you might live in retirement and the implications for your lifestyle and taxes
- How covid could permanently shift how you allocate your time, money, and energy and the bright spot of this pandemic, which is that it has helped many of us decipher between what matters most and what matters least.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you’ve been able to reflect on how Covid will change how you plan for retirement and how that will influence everything from your spending habits to how you spend your time.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: how to grow your income in retirement.
Interest rates are extremely low right now, and the Fed is likely to keep rates low for possibly many years to come. So with savings accounts, bonds, and CDs paying so little, how can you find income in this environment? That’s what I’ll be talking about next week.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds. Just search for True North Retirement on YouTube.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how Covid will change how you plan for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how covid will help you focus on what matters most.
One of my favorite questions to ask clients and people I know well right now is: what is the hardest thing for you about this pandemic? So I’ll ask you the same question....what’s been the hardest thing to cope with during this challenging time.
When I first started asking people this question, I expected lamentations about having their spring and summer travel plans cancelled, or not being able to eat out at their favorite restaurants, or the struggles of trying to work from home.
But by far the most common response I heard was that they just missed spending time with family and friends, and found the social isolation very difficult. I talked to a soon to be first time grandmother who wouldn’t be able to see her newborn grandchild because she would have to travel and her son and daughter in law were nervous about exposing their newborn to anyone outside the household. Weddings, graduations, baptisms, and birthdays - all the special occasions that we want to share with those we love the most. All cancelled or significantly altered.
Which brings me back to the topic of today’s tip - how will covid help you focus on what matters most? Perhaps you realize that you want to live closer to family or spending more of your free time and hard-earned money cooking at home for friends and family. It’s so important to be ever-mindful of what matters most and what matters least and then to allocate our precious time and money toward what matters most and to forget about everything else.
Of course, it’s easier said than done, but hopefully Covid has helped you shine a light on what really matters to you so you can make that a priority in how you spend your time and money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how Covid will change how you plan for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how Covid will change your spending habits in retirement. Over the last several months there has been a dramatic shift in where Americans are spending their money. It’s no surprise that Amazon stock has doubled in price since mid-March when the shutdown took effect. E-Commerce spending is way up, grocery spending is also up as people are eating and cooking at home. Online grocery, gaming, and food delivery spending are all up over 50% compared to a year ago.
It’s no surprise that travel, fitness, clothing, and movie theater spending have all dropped 50-90% compared to a year ago.
A lot of this spending will shift a Covid eventually subsides, but it’s important to consider how your spending habits will permanently change because of Covid. Do you find that you really enjoy cooking at home vs. eating out and you plan to continue that post-pandemic. That will change how you spend your money and how much you budget for eating out.
What about travel? Some of you are probably desperate to resume air travel, while others may have discovered a love for camping and road travel, which will also change how much you spend over the long-term.
So consider how this pandemic has shifted your current spending habits and what’s likely to stick post-pandemic. And then take a look at your budget and total spending to see how that shift may alter your spending and lifestyle choices in retirement.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how Covid will change how you plan for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how Covid will change where you live in retirement. Yesterday, I talked about how anecdotally, I have talked to many people who are planning to move in the next year and who are re-thinking where they will spend their retirement years. Some are moving because they don’t like the restrictions in their state, others because they no longer feel safe in the city, and others because they have experienced a job loss.
I think one of the more interesting Coronavirus trends that will be interesting to watch over the next several years is how the population changes in cities. I live outside of Portland, Oregon where the 3+ months of nightly protests, unrest, violence, and property damage has been a serious issue that has made national news.
Greater civil unrest, coupled with less desire among lawmakers to keep the violent protesters in check, and potential defunding or at least a lower presence of police officers, coupled with higher concentrations of populations in cities like NY where Covid cases exploded due to population density, all mean more risks for people living in cities.
Which is why the headlines over the last few months have predicted doom and gloom for American cities. While this is likely overstated, I do believe that shifting preferences among city dwellers will impact how you plan for retirement.
If you are living in a city right now, will you continue to live there in retirement? How will property values be impacted in the long-term in the cities that struggle with potentially increasing infection rates, higher crime rates, and civil unrest?
It’s an important consideration as you plan for your own retirement - will you stay put where you are or will you move elsewhere? Does it make more sense to accelerate your move now or wait until the dust settles. Home purchase decisions are the biggest purchase decisions that most Americans will ever make, so it’s important to consider how many of these trends shaped by Covid may impact you and your housing decisions as you approach and transition into retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how Covid will change how you plan for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how Covid will change where you live in retirement.
According to a new Pew Research Center survey that came out in July, around one-in-five U.S. adults (22%) say they either changed their residence due to the pandemic or know someone who did.
With the extreme job-loss and upheaval with schools, there are quite a few Americans who are reconsidering their living situation. For decades, adult children have been leaving the nest and moving away from home, but the lack of family support nearby creates additional stress for working parents, especially those with young children who are trying to balance work with kids in school trying to distance learn from home.
Anecdotally, I have talked to many people who are planning to move in the next year and who are re-thinking where they will spend their retirement. Some because they don’t like the restrictions in their state, others because they no longer feel safe in the city, and others because they have experienced a job loss.
I think we’ll see a lot more mobility among people for a variety of reasons as the pandemic continues, and if you’re thinking about moving yourself as you approach retirement, it’s important to consider how a move has big implications for your retirement - most notably your cost of living as that can vary widely from state to state, and taxes - the state you live in has implications for your income taxes, property taxes, and estate taxes.
That’s it for today’s tip, but before you go let’s talk about something that’s top of mind - especially if you’re listening to my podcast...
Here’s the reality - Planning for your retirement can be both exhilarating and terrifying. With all the excitement of thinking about the future comes an underlying worry--am I ready? That’s where my Retirement Success Forecaster comes in. Using data from this simple questionnaire, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if not, what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envisioned.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you the forecaster to complete, and once you send it back to me, you’ll receive your personalized results - for free!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how Covid will change how you plan for retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how Covid will accelerate early retirements. At the beginning of August one of my clients unexpectedly retired. He was planning to work another 2-3 years, but Covid changed all that.
I spoke to another client the other day who thinks he may be on the chopping block at his company and wants to know if he could retire or if he would have to start looking for another job in his early 60s if he got laid off.
The fact is that during a recession, many workers who are close to retirement end up facing an early retirement. Those of you who are the closest to retirement are also often the highest-paid, so layoffs of older workers allow companies, especially larger ones who are more likely to see employees as more of a number or a line item expense, to cut costs during difficult economic times.
In January, a survey from Allianz Life Insurance Company found that half of Americans retired earlier than they expected. A majority of respondents said that they did so for reasons outside of their control, with 34% citing job loss and 25% health-care issues. Now keep in mind that was in January - before Coronavirus. Those numbers are likely to go higher during this pandemic.
The bottom line here is that Covid will most likely change the retirement timeline for many Americans, so it’s important that you look at your options and determine if you could retire early, and if not, what you’ll do to ensure that the Coronavirus recession doesn’t wildly change your plans for retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how Covid will change how you plan for retirement.
Can you remember a time when there has been this much mass disruption to daily life, as we have all experienced in the last 6 months?
There’s a funny YouTube video that I stumbled upon recently where this lady is sitting at a table with her future self, and the future self is explaining to her pre-pandemic past self the craziness of Covid. Future self advises past self to put a little money in Zoom, that the Australian wildfires are definitely NOT the big news story of 2020, and just do a Costco run real quick to save her past self a lot of hassle.
It’s amazing how we are so adaptable, and despite the frustration, anger, and anxiety that many of you are feeling right now, the reality is that Covid is not going away any time soon, and it’s likely to usher in a number of changes to daily life, including how you plan for your retirement.
So this week, I’ll be pontificating on all the ways I think Covid will change the way you plan for retirement - everything from unplanned early retirement to leaving the city to permanent changes to your travel budget.
That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, I shared with you 5 tax-savvy strategies to help you lower your tax bill in retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week. How to lower your tax bill in retirement using a variety of strategies including:
- Matching investment types with the right account types
- Smarter withdrawal and donation strategies in retirement
- And how to convert assets to a Roth to help lower your taxes on distributions in retirement
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you better understand how these various tax-saving strategies can benefit you, help you keep more of your hard-earned nest egg intact in retirement, and as a result, give you a better chance of making your money last in retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How Covid Could Change How You Plan For Retirement. Covid is impacting everything from layoffs forcing early retirement, to people leaving the city and reduced travel. All of these trends could have a lasting impact on how you plan for retirement, and how your spending habits may shift in retirement.
With so many drastic changes because of Covid potentially impact you it’s a relevent time for us to look at this topic next week.
Also, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds. Just search for True North Retirement on YouTube.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement.
Today, I’m sharing with you how a Roth conversion can lower your tax bill in retirement. The more money you can save inside of a Roth IRA or 401k, the lower the taxes will be on your IRA distributions in retirement. That’s because every penny you withdraw from your Roth IRA in retirement won’t be taxed.
If you’ve been listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip for any length of time, you know I’m a big fan of the Roth IRA. Too many of us have too few of our retirement dollars in Roth IRAs, so making an effort to get more of those dollars into a Roth before retirement can go a long way toward keeping your taxes lower in retirement.
If you have a 401k that allows for Roth contributions, or if your income is below the threshold to contribute to a Roth IRA, that’s usually the best place to start.
A Roth conversion should be considered next, especially if you have a short window of time - say just a few years to convert money from Traditional IRA or 401k assets to a Roth. First, you’ll need to determine how much to convert to a Roth, what the taxes owed will be, and how you’ll pay the taxes. Then you can better determine if a conversion strategy makes sense for you.
If you’d like some help determining if a Roth conversion makes sense for you, I can help you answer that question with a free Roth conversion analysis. Just send me an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com with your age, the dollar amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2020, and I’ll send you your free personalized results. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how you can be smarter with your charitable giving in retirement to reduce your tax bill.
One of the simplest tax-saving strategies involves taking your required minimum distributions from your IRA and giving those to charity instead. When you turn 72, you are mandated to start withdrawing funds from your IRA and 401k accounts and pay taxes on those withdrawals. However, every dollar of those distributions that you donate instead, lowers your income and your tax bill.
So when you start taking distributions from your IRA, it’s a good idea to send those directly to your charities rather than writing checks, since it will likely lower your taxes.
Another strategy that I like for lowering your tax bill in retirement is to make contributions to a donor-advised fund, especially in years where you have a large windfall taxable event. Perhaps you sell a business or have a large capital gain from selling a property. In those years where your taxes spike, a donation to a donor-advised fund will allow you to take a substantial tax-deduction. Of course, you could just make a large donation to your favorite charity, but a donor-advised fund has a number of other benefits that allow the money to grow and de-couple the tax deduction you receive with the timing of the donation to the charity.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTune: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement with smarter withdrawal strategies from your investment portfolio.
The conventional wisdom says that once you start withdrawals in retirement, you should withdraw funds from your taxable accounts first, then your tax-deferred accounts (like IRAs and 401ks next), then last, once those accounts are depleted, you would withdraw from your Roth assets last.
This strategy makes sense because you let your tax-deferred and tax-free accounts grow for longer in retirement until you start withdrawing from them. However, depending on your tax situation, you may want to consider taking proportional withdrawals from each of your accounts instead.
So if your 401k & IRA accounts make up 60% of your assets, your taxable accounts make up 30% of your assets, and your Roth IRA makes up 10% of your assets, you would withdraw 60% of your annual withdrawals from your 401k & IRAs, 30% of your withdrawals would come from your taxable accounts, and 10% each year would come from your Roth.
The idea here is that you are spreading out the taxes more evenly in retirement, and potentially also reducing your taxes on social security income and medicare premiums, as well as making your money last longer in retirement, because you’re preserving more of your assets.
But as with most other financial and tax-planning strategies, there is no easy answer to what is the best strategy for you. So you’ll want to run the numbers for yourself or ask your financial or tax advisor to run a side-by-side comparison so you can determine which strategy makes the most sense for your individual tax situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement. Even though your income is likely to be lower in retirement, taking advantage of opportunities to keep your tax bill lower in retirement is just as important as when you’re working, in order to preserve more of those assets and income streams that you’ve worked so hard to build up for yourself in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement with better asset location. Most people are unfamiliar with asset location, so let me explain…
Asset location is simply being conscious of how different investments like bonds and stocks are taxed, and then making sure when you own those assets, they are in the right accounts.
For example, you would never want to own tax-free municipal bonds in your IRA account, because the income you receive from those bonds is tax-free. But if you own those bonds inside of an IRA account, you negate the tax-free income benefits, since you’ll still be taxed on every dollar that you withdraw from your IRA.
Tax-efficient asset location then is simply matching the types of investments you own with the most tax-efficient account type.
Other examples of this include putting investments with higher turnover in IRA or Roth accounts, and placing dividend stocks in taxable accounts, since the income on dividends is taxed in a preferential way compared to your earned income.
So make sure as you near retirement and every time you look to rebalance your portfolio or make changes, you are also paying attention to asset location and how that will impact your taxes now and in the future.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how to use a HSA to lower your tax bill in retirement. A health savings account, or a HSA is an account that you can use to pay for medical expenses - both while you’re working and when you’re retired.
If you plan ahead with your HSA, you can use this account to pay for healthcare costs in a VERY tax efficient way in retirement. Let me explain.
Most people use a HSA account to pay for healthcare costs in the current year. But if you set aside funds from your HSA to grow, so you can pay for healthcare costs later in retirement, those assets in your HSA will grow tax-free and when you take the money out to pay for healthcare expenses in retirement, those withdrawals are tax-free.
It’s hands-down the most tax efficient retirement account you can fund for your retirement, so don’t waste the tax-free growth opportunities of your HSA by using all of the funds inside of your HSA every year.
Thinking about retirement can be both exhilarating and terrifying. With all the excitement of thinking about the future comes the underlying worry--am I ready? That’s where my Retirement Success Forecaster comes in. Using data from this simple form, I’ll be able to tell you if you’re on track for retirement, and if not, what adjustments you can make today to live the retirement you envisioned.
Getting a customized retirement forecast is easy. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you the forecaster to complete, and once you send it back to me, you’ll receive your personalized results.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how to lower your tax bill in retirement.
If you are like 101% of Americans, you would like to pay less in taxes. So this week, I’ll be sharing with you 5 tax-smart strategies to help you lower your tax bill in retirement.
We’ll talk about how you can effectively utilize HSA and Roth accounts, as well as be smart about asset location and withdrawal strategies in retirement to keep that tax bill low. I’ll also share with you how you can be smarter about your donations by utilizing donor-advised funds, and how making donations directly from your IRA accounts in retirement could save you thousands in taxes.
And if you have no idea what I mean by donor advised funds or asset location - that’s ok. Just be sure to listen in each day this week, where I’ll break down the what and the how of each tax-saving strategy to explain how it all works and help you decide if each of these strategies makes sense for you.
That’s it for today. If you know someone who is close to retirement and needs to hear this week’s message, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, Kathleen Burns Kingsbury was here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through her podcast “Breaking Money Silence” and several books on financial and wealth psychology, Kathleen’s mission is to empower women, couples, and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters.
In case you didn’t catch every episode this week, here’s what Kathleen covered:
- What Is Money Silence & Why it hurts couples
- How to Identify Your Money Talk Mindset
- Why Curiosity is essential to talking about money
- How to celebrate Better
- And lastly, Dare To Join The Breaking Money Silence® Revolution
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are better equipped with the tools to break money silence in your own relationships, so you can talk more openly about money with your spouse and loved ones.
If you liked her tips this week and you want to hear more from Kathleen, be sure to check out her podcast called “Breaking Money Silence” wherever you listen to podcasts.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: how to lower your tax bill in retirement. Who doesn’t want lower taxes, right? Next week, I’ll talk about several ways that you can lower your taxes in retirement and keep more of that hard-earned nest egg from funneling straight to Uncle Sam every year!
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through her podcast “Breaking Money Silence” and several books on financial and wealth psychology, Kathleen’s mission is to empower women, couples, and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters.
This week, she’s here to give you a foundation in breaking money silence so you can talk more openly about money with your spouse and loved ones.
If you like her tips this week and you want to hear more from Kathleen, be sure to check out her podcast called “Breaking Money Silence” wherever you listen to podcasts.
Without further ado, here is Kathleen’s daily dose of breaking money silence...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through her podcast “Breaking Money Silence” and several books on financial and wealth psychology, Kathleen’s mission is to empower women, couples, and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters.
This week, she’s here to give you a foundation in breaking money silence so you can talk more openly about money with your spouse and loved ones.
If you like her tips this week and you want to hear more from Kathleen, be sure to check out her podcast called “Breaking Money Silence” wherever you listen to podcasts.
Without further ado, here is Kathleen’s daily dose of breaking money silence...
Subscribe on iTune: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through her podcast “Breaking Money Silence” and several books on financial and wealth psychology, Kathleen’s mission is to empower women, couples, and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters.
This week, she’s here to give you a foundation in breaking money silence so you can talk more openly about money with your spouse and loved ones.
If you like her tips this week and you want to hear more from Kathleen, be sure to check out her podcast called “Breaking Money Silence” wherever you listen to podcasts.
Without further ado, here is Kathleen’s daily dose of breaking money silence...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through her podcast “Breaking Money Silence” and several books on financial and wealth psychology, Kathleen’s mission is to empower women, couples, and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters.
This week, she’s here to give you a foundation in breaking money silence so you can talk more openly about money with your spouse and loved ones.
If you like her tips this week and you want to hear more from Kathleen, be sure to check out her podcast called “Breaking Money Silence” wherever you listen to podcasts.
Without further ado, here is Kathleen’s daily dose of breaking money silence...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week is another guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip! Kathleen Burns Kingsbury from the Breaking Money Silence podcast is here to give you some tools to talk more openly about money with your spouse and loved ones.
Sometimes it’s really hard to talk in a productive way about money, but it’s crucial to a healthy relationship with both your money and your spouse. But when you don’t talk openly about money it’s hard to have a shared vision about retirement and work together towards a common goal.
So this week, Kathleen will be sharing with you her unique insight into breaking money silence in order for you to improve both your relationship with your spouse, if you’re married, and your relationship with money.
Here’s a bit more on Kathleen:
Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is a wealth psychology expert, founder of KBK Wealth Connection, and host of theBreaking Money Silence® podcast.
She is an internationally published author and speaker. As an expert on financial psychology, Kathleen has appeared on television and written for consumer and trade publications. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, PBS News Hour, MoneyMagazine, TODAY Money, Forbes,and CNBC.
Be sure to check out Kathleen’s podcast Breaking Money Silence wherever you listen to podcasts. And you can find out more about Kathleen by visiting her website: www.breakingmoneysilence.com.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we discussed the national debt, inflation, and should you be worried about either or both. The short answer is probably not right now, but it is important to understand the confusing topic of inflation so you can understand how to protect yourself from higher inflation...especially if that occurs during retirement when your ability to grow your income and your net worth to keep up with the rising cost of everything is much more limited.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The National Debt And Why It Matters
- The Problem With High Inflation & how inflation impacts you
- Should You Worry About Inflation Right Now?
- And lastly, how To Protect Yourself From Higher Inflation
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you aren’t overly concerned about inflation at the moment, but you know how to better protect yourself.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: It’s another guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip! Kathleen Burns Kingsbury will be here to talk about breaking money silence. Her mission is to empower women, couples,and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters. And next week, she’ll sharing her expertise in money psychology to help you and your partner better communicate and have a healthier relationship with money as a couple.
I’m excited for Kathleen to share her insight with you next week!
In the meantime, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds. Just search for True North Retirement on YouTube.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about inflation - are we in for higher inflation in the coming years? And if so, what does that mean for you and your retirement?
Yesterday, I talked about whether or not you should worry about higher inflation. And my best answer is probably not right now. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t understand how to protect yourself against higher inflation.
I think higher inflation, even problematic inflation is a real possibility due to our skyrocketing national debt and the lack of discipline of our elected officials on both sides to properly deal with it.
So whether higher inflation is just around the corner, or years down the road, what can you do to protect yourself from higher inflation?
The key principle to remember here is that what you invest in, must have growth potential, so that your dollars will grow over time to keep up with inflation. Holding cash, savings, money market accounts, CDs, and low-yielding bonds aren’t good protectors against higher inflation, because the growth rate usually won’t be enough to keep pace with inflation.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t own any bonds, CDs, or cash, but owning too much of these assets will cause your standard of living to go down over time.
So here are the types of investments you’ll want to make sure you own to protect yourself from higher inflation:
- I’ll just start off with the most obvious and well-known protection against inflation - gold and other precious metals. But gold’s ability to protect you against higher inflation is limited, because owning too much gold comes with it’s own set of problems.
- A better protector against inflation is your stock portfolio. Yes, just by maintaining a meaningful % of stocks in your portfolio, you can protect yourself against inflation, since stock market returns outpace inflation by a wide margin over time.
- TIPS or Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are US Govt bonds that have an inflation protection component to them.
- Real estate is another way to protect against higher inflation, especially if you own income-producing rental properties, because you’ll likely be able to increase rent in an inflationary environment, which will lessen the blow of inflation on your bottom line.
Lastly, the prospect of higher inflation in retirement should prompt you to get aggressive in paying down your debt, so you’re not stuck with a mortgage, car payments, etc. when the cost of groceries and other necessities go up. The more flexibility you have with your spending in retirement, the less inflation will be a problem for you in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about inflation - are we in for higher inflation in the coming years? And if so, what does that mean for you and your retirement?
Every year for the last 13 years that I’ve been an advisor, I’ve been hearing from clients, the media, and plenty of people I know that higher inflation is just around the corner. Yet, over the last 20+ years, inflation has remained remarkably low.
But with the national debt climbing and trillions of dollars of fresh stimulus being pumped into the economy because of Covid, is higher inflation in the cards over the next several years?
In June of this year, an interesting article came out in The Economist. The title of the article: “Don’t worry about inflation—yet”.
I would tend to agree with this sentiment. It’s certainly possible in the near future, but unlikely as businesses (except for the ones selling hand sanitizer) are unlikely to have the power to increase their prices until the economy turns around.
And once the Covid recession is behind us, and the economy begins growing again and wages grow at a sustainable rate, inflation becomes less of a concern because economic growth will be better able to support an increase in prices.
It’s a delicate balance, but personally, I still have confidence in the Fed’s ability to manage inflation - and deflation for that matter, which is a much bigger potential problem today because of Covid.
So should you worry about inflation right now? Probably not.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about inflation - are we in for higher inflation in the coming years? And if so, what does that mean for you and your retirement?
So far this week, I’ve laid the groundwork by helping you understand the intersection of our rising national debt and the increasing likelihood for higher inflation as our debt gets bigger and bigger.
Today, I’m turning to a more personal topic as it relates to inflation to help you connect the dots between the national debt, inflation, and why that matters for you.
So what’s so bad about inflation, anyway? As inflation goes higher, that means every dollar to your name is now worth less and you need more and more dollars just to stay even and be able to purchase the things you were used to paying less for.
You can see the impact of inflation by looking at how much things used to cost compared to how much they cost today. In January 1988, a loaf of white bread cost approximately 59¢. In January of 2013, that same loaf of bread cost $1.42. So in the twenty-five year period, the bread increased 83¢ or 140%.
Because that happened slowly over time, you probably aren’t angry about the rising price of bread over the last 25 years, but your income and net worth would have had to also grow by 140% over that same time in order for that loaf of bread to not feel more expensive to you.
The problem comes in when your income and your net worth doesn’t grow in lockstep with the inevitable price increases due to inflation. That’s why it’s such a massive mistake to put all of your cash in a safe, or under your mattress or bury it in the backyard. If your money isn’t growing at least at the pace of inflation, then you are losing because the value of what every dollar can buy is dropping over time.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about inflation - are we in for higher inflation in the coming years? And if so, what does that mean for you and your retirement?
Yesterday, I talked about the national debt and why that’s a key indicator for higher future inflation.
Because the US government owns printing presses, they can print money to pay down debt. Easy solution, right? The problem is that when those printing presses print too much money, it creates a situation where too much money is chasing too few goods and services. This leads to price increases, and dollars continue to lose their value as more money is printed, and it can spiral out of control.
After World War I in Germany, the printing presses were turned on max power, and as a result, the Deutsche Mark became virtually worthless. You needed so many D-Marks just to purchase basic goods that people turned to bartering to survive and instead used money and bank notes for kindling to light stoves.
This is an extreme example of hyper-inflation, but it illustrates what can happen to the dollar, the cost of goods and services, your investments, and your retirement if inflation gets out of control.
As our national debt continues to explode with no end in sight, the US government has fewer available options to deal with the debt, making higher inflation an increasingly real risk.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow and for the rest of the week, I’m going to talk about how higher inflation could impact you, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about inflation - are we in for higher inflation in the coming years? And if so, what does that mean for you and your retirement?
To establish a good foundation for the rest of the week, I’m spending today and tomorrow talking about the national debt and inflation basics and how the national debt is unique from debt like you and I have. There are several drivers for higher inflation, but a soaring national debt is one of the biggest, if not the biggest driver of higher inflation.
So what is the national debt? The national debt is simply how much the government owes its creditors. The national debt amount is over $26 trillion and it keeps going higher with no end in sight.
But unlike you and I, the US government has printing presses. So they can just turn on those printing presses to print more dollars to pay down the debt. The problem with doing that though is that if the printing press is abused, the impact on higher inflation can be devastating. Examples of this happening in other countries abound - places like Germany and Venezuela have experienced hyper-inflation that has devastated the economy and their citizens.
The other reason why a high national debt is problematic is because it causes lenders to lose confidence in the government’s ability to pay that debt back. In effect, it lowers our national credit score. New debt issued by the U.S. would then need to be issued at higher rates because of the increased risk of borrowing. Higher rates on government issued debt means that it’s more expensive for the US to pay interest to creditors every year, and these increased debt servicing costs mean that the government spends more of the tax revenue it takes in each year to pay interest on debt, and not on roads, schools, or programs like social security.
As the national debt clock keeps ticking higher, higher inflation becomes an increasingly real possibility, so we’ll talk about the problems with higher inflation due to high government debt levels tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about inflation - are we in for higher inflation in the coming years? And if so, what does that mean for you and your retirement?
The problem right now is that our national debt is at a whopping $26 trillion and it’ll grow by another $5 million while you’re listening to today’s One Minute Retirement Tip.
With all this national debt, especially recently with the additional COVID stimulus being pumped into the economy, it’s a relevant time to look at inflation & the national debt and what they both might mean for you and your retirement. So I’ll talk about inflation, the national debt, and you - and how all 3 are related in this week’s tips.
A lot of people make some wrong assumptions about the national debt and the interplay with inflation and your retirement, and the future financial health of this country, so hopefully by the end of this week you’ll have a clear, common sense understanding of the impact on our national debt on inflation and you.
That’s it for today. If you know someone who is close to retirement and needs to hear this week’s message, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at how to pay for your kids college and save for your own retirement at the same time.
When you’re in your last working years, planning to retire, you’re typically also hit with big college bills. How do you make smart decisions about saving for retirement and helping junior with his or her college tuition and bills at the same time? It’s an important question and a common conundrum that many parents face.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The Challenges of Paying For College & Saving For Retirement
- The #1 rule to follow when balancing paying for college and saving for retirement
- How to run the numbers on college costs so you can make smarter decisions
- Why you absolutely must consider the ROI of college
- And lastly, how to ruin your retirement by paying for your kids’ college
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are better equipped to make smart decisions for your retirement and paying for your kids’ college, all while avoiding some big mistakes that I see many parents make.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Should you worry about inflation? Our national debt is at a whopping $26 trillion and it’ll grow by another $5 million while you’re listening to today’s One Minute Retirement Tip.
With all this national debt, especially recently with the additional COVID stimulus being pumped into the economy, it’s a relevant time to look at inflation & the national debt and what they both might mean for you and your retirement. So I’ll talk about inflation, the national debt, and you next week.
Lastly, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds. Just search for True North Retirement on YouTube.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about how to pay for your kid’s college and save for retirement at the same time. Today, I’m talking about how to ruin your retirement by paying for college.
Research suggests that 30-40% of parents will tap into their retirement accounts to pay for their kid’s college.
And unfortunately, the rules for retirement accounts make it pretty easy to do just that. You can take out a loan from your 401k, and penalty-free withdrawals from your IRA and Roth IRA in many cases to pay for college.
But taking money out of your retirement accounts to pay for your kids’ college is never a good idea. Period.
Why? Well, not only do you decrease your retirement nest egg permanently, but you also miss out on the future growth on whatever amount you withdraw from your account. Even a withdrawal as small as $10,000 or $20,000 from your retirement accounts can mean a reduction to your retirement nest egg by 6 figures in retirement.
So what are your options then? As I’ve talked about earlier this week, keeping your options open and exploring all alternatives - community college, having your kids work part time and live at home to help pay for school and keep costs low, exhausting all scholarship and grant opportunities - anything to help ease the burden and reduce the need for student loans, so you can continue to save for retirement in your last working years while your kids are in school, and definitely avoid touching your retirement accounts to help pay for college.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to pay for your kid’s college and save for retirement at the same time. And today, I’m talking about the importance of considering the ROI or the return on investment of college.
Would you ever spend $100,000 or more on something without expecting a big payoff in return? Of course not! But people do it with college all the time.
Kids go to college without a clue or a direction of what they want to do with their degree after school, all the while racking up student loan debt and spending your hard earned money.
When I was in college, I worked in the admissions office. My job was to learn to walk backwards giving campus tours, and then for a couple months during the summer, I would meet with big groups of incoming students to help them register for classes and answer their questions about campus life.
That was about 15 years ago, but I still remember one overbearing father in particular, who was picking the classes his daughter would register for....Hovering over her at the computer, telling her which classes she was going to take. At the time, I remember thinking that his daughter should be the one selecting her classes, not him. But now, I get his logic.
See, he was paying for these expensive classes, and he didn’t want any of his money to be wasted on bowling electives.
College is an investment...a very expensive one. So I encourage you to think about this today:
What is the expected 30 year net ROI? In other words, what is the amount of money earned by an individual over the course of 30 years minus the total tuition cost. Is the selected school and the major chosen going to payoff in the long-run?
I find that a lot of parents are happy to keep writing checks and flushing money down the drain for expensive college bills for a worthless college degree that won’t have any practical applications in the real world.
When you and your college-age kid view college as an investment - and it is - you can make clear-headed decisions about how much to spend, which school to attend, which classes to take, and which majors should be selected.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to pay for your kid’s college and save for retirement at the same time.
Rather than fretting over how you’re going to pay for college while saving for retirement, you just gotta sit down and run the numbers. Once you do that, you’ll have a clearer picture of what college costs will be, and from there you’ll be able to figure out your options.
If you go to www.savingforcollege.com, there’s a really amazing calculator to help you estimate college costs on everything from private school to community college, and it takes about 3 minutes to crunch the numbers.
Based on the numbers I entered into the calculator for a 15 year old, Sending your 15 year old child to a Community College in 2023 for 2 years will cost about $28,630 for a family with a household income of $100,000.
On the other hand, Sending your 15 year old child to a private school in 2023 for 4 years will cost about $148,391 for a family with a household income of $100,000.
As you would expect, quite the difference! Whichever options you’re weighing, you can then consider how you and your child will pay for that gap. It’s important to involve your child in the conversation as well. You may be surprised at what creative solutions you’ll come up with alongside your children, and the sooner you do this, before your child has their heart set on the most expensive option, the easier it will be to find the right path for your child’s college education and both of your finances.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to pay for your kid’s college and save for retirement at the same time.
These 2 competing priorities are a real challenge to balance, so today I’m talking about the #1 rule to follow when it comes to deciding between funding your kid’s college or funding your own retirement.
As a parent myself, I understand how important it is to give your children every opportunity to succeed in life. But my hope for parents of kids who are faced with the conundrum of paying for college vs. paying for retirement is that you will consider this:
You can get a loan for college, you can not get a loan for retirement.
We all love our kids deeply and we make sacrifices for them, but putting college first, ahead of saving for retirement is a mistake. The number one rule to follow is that retirement must come first on the priority list. And that’s not being selfish to put your retirement first.
Children have options when it comes to school. There are loans, scholarships, less expensive trade schools or community colleges, working part-time. You don’t have the same options when it comes to retirement. And bad decisions when it comes to retirement means you could run out of money and become a financial burden to them later in life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how to pay for your kid’s college bills and save for retirement at the same time. Most parents get slammed with tuition bills just before retirement, when you should also be socking away as much as possible for your own retirement.
Today I want to talk about why these 2 competing priorities are such a challenge - not just because of the financial strain it often causes, but also because of the real heartache and feelings of guilt it can cause when you can’t support your children through college in the way you hoped.
I was talking with a dad of a high school junior not too long ago, and he made a promise to his daughter that he would pay for half of her tuition. But this was a promise he couldn’t keep. His income was not high enough to cover half of her college bills. He is a single, working class man and it just wasn’t going to pencil out. Not only that, but he was saving nothing for retirement at the time, and he would have needed to go deeply into credit card debt or work 2 other jobs and never sleep to make good on that promise.
Paying for college and reducing or eliminating the need for your children to accumulate student loans is an incredibly loving sacrifice that you can make for your children, so I completely understand his conviction about making good on his promise.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how to pay for college & save for retirement. A big problem that many people face as they approach retirement is that right around the time you’d like to retire, you’re also staring at expensive college bills for your kids right in the face.
I’ve seen many parents make mistakes in their decisions on paying for their kids college, and I’ve also seen many parents set themselves and their children up for long-term success because of the smart decisions they made.
Since you can’t go back in time and start saving for college like you planned to when your kids were still in diapers, my tips this week are addressed to the majority of parents who didn’t save enough over the years to cover expensive tuition bills. You want to support your children and help pay for college so they’re not burdened with debt until they’re 45 years old.
But when it comes down to it, how do you balance the competing needs of trying to get your kids through college without mountains of debt with your own needs to save for retirement? That’s what I’ll be talking about this week - how you can keep both of these 2 competing priorities in their proper place.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, we looked at how investing is different in an election year and what you need to know about investing in what is always an uncertain and stressful time.
No matter who wins this fall, Presidential election years are always so full of turmoil and uncertainty that it’s easy to lose your cool and abandon your long-term strategy and sit on the sidelines to wait and see what happens. But as I discussed this week, that’s usually a mistake.
However, the smart and savvy investor will also not bury their head in the sand and will pay attention to how the next 4 years will likely look like under both a Trump and a Biden scenario, and will take action accordingly.
This week, I tried to pinpoint some of those areas that may see the most change if Biden wins the White House.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- How COVID and the civil unrest have put the election in 3rd place at the moment, but how that’s also likely to change over the next couple months
- How election years typically impact the stock market
- What’s different about this election year and how you can plan and prepare for 2021 and beyond if Democrats control the White House, and especially if they control Congress as well
- There are some policies, especially tax policies that are likely going to change, and certain industries that may be hurt by the upcoming election, and I talked about what to pay attention to there and what to do about it now
- And lastly, I talked about the biggest mistake that you can make in 2020
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you know more about how the election cycle influences not only policy, regulation, laws, and taxes, but also the stock market and your retirement portfolio, so you can make smart decisions about how to invest and how to plan for retirement during a time of heightened uncertainty, strife, and turmoil.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How to pay for college AND save for retirement! When you’re in your last working years, planning to retire, you’re typically also hit with big college bills. So next week, with a return to school (hopefully!) just around the bend, I’ll be talking about how you can prioritize saving for retirement and helping junior with his or her college tuition and bills.
And...be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds. Just search for True North Retirement on YouTube.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, and for good reason. Election years bring uncertainty, and the likelihood for changing policies, laws, and regulations.
Today, I’m talking about the biggest mistake you can make in 2020, which is to make big changes to your investment strategy.
Some people are so fearful about what lies ahead politically, that they make big changes to their investments. Allowing fear to dictate your decisions is almost always a mistake, especially when it comes to investing.
So the worst thing you can do is abandon your long-term plans during or after a presidential election year. I know people on both sides of the political spectrum who think that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but who’s right? Probably neither.
As I’ve mentioned earlier this week, you need to pay attention to a few things and make some changes if necessary while you still have time - especially when it comes to taking advantage of today’s tax environment, but outside of planning and making sure you don’t have all your eggs in one basket with a particular stock and a particular industry, an election year is not a time to abandon your long-term plans by going to cash or putting everything in canned food, gold coins, and lots of guns.
While it is natural and normal to want to protect yourself in times of uncertainty, keeping a cool head and thinking rationally will always help you make smart decisions that don’t include abandoning your long-term strategy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio!
Yesterday, I focused on the likelihood of higher taxes in 2021 if Biden is elected president. This has implications for tax planning now, but also for gifting and estate planning and wealth transfer if you are wealthy. So it’s important to pay attention to these changing winds and take action in 2020 to help insulate yourself from higher taxes in the future, especially if you are wealthy.
As seen in the civil unrest, wealthy individuals and business owners are increasingly vilified, with law enforcement having little incentive or little power to protect property rights.
Aside from higher taxes, another likely change, if someone new is in the White House next year is increased regulation. This will likely impact certain industries. Healthcare and energy come to mind. With continued pressure to fix healthcare in America though government intervention and the popularity on the left of initiatives like the green new deal, certain industries are more likely to be impacted in a negative way in a democrat-controlled Washington.
If you have a heavy concentration in a particular industry or you have a concentration in a particular stock, you’ll need to understand how changes in policy, taxes, and regulation may help or harm that particular company or industry, so you can take steps now to minimize any potential future losses.
The bottom line here is that while presidential years are generally no different than any other year for the stock market, it’s important to listen to what each party is campaigning on to give you a sense of how the policy, tax, and regulatory environment may change and impact you no matter who controls Congress and who is in the White House for the next 4 years.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio!
Yesterday I talked about how election years typically impact the stock market and the short answer so you don’t have to go back and listen to yesterday’s episode is - not that much.
Today, I’m talking about the unique landscape of the 2020 Election and what you should pay attention to.
First of all is taxes. If Biden is elected, and especially if Congress is controlled by democrats as well, you’re likely to see higher taxes. Biden has already been campaigning on this, and especially with all the money being pumped into the economy because of COVID, taxes seem very likely to quickly change course and go higher.
This means that 2020 is an important year to do some planning and gifting, especially if you are wealthy. As I talked about a few weeks ago on the podcast when I covered gift taxes, 2020 is an ideal time to do some gifting and estate planning, especially if your estate will likely be worth millions, you have a valuable business or other assets that may be subject to high estate taxes down the road. The clock may be ticking to pass along wealth in a tax-efficient way to the next generation if you don’t take advantage of the current gifting and wealth transfer environment.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio!
Today, I’m talking about how election years typically impact the stock market...and hence your retirement portfolio.
Surprisingly, if you go back almost 100 years to the 1930s, you don’t see much impact on the stock market during an election year. In fact, the stock market was usually higher during an election year.
If the incumbent is re-elected, the stock market for the following year was higher by about 6.5% and if a new President is in the White House, returns were only slightly lower at 5%.
So the point here is that although and election year means potential changes to policy, laws, taxes, regulation, etc., the stock market’s reaction tends to be pretty muted, no matter what happens.
And this is usually because no matter what happens, at least the stock market has some certainty over the political landscape over the next 2-4 years as well.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio!
As long as you know what to expect, you’ll be able to stay focused on what matters and not worry about everything else.
Today, I’m talking about the elephant in the room - Coronavirus and the civil unrest that began after the killing of George Floyd. Typically in a Presidential election year, it’s all we’d be talking about at this point with the election less than a few months away.
But COVID and the civil unrest changed all of that. The stock market and the economy have obviously reacted strongly to COVID, but at this point the markets have had almost zero reaction to the protests, despite their daily dominance in the news and social media.
Historically, when you look at other times of civil unrest - think large Vietnam war protests, the LA riots, etc. - the market doesn’t respond to these types of events. This year it’s been no different. The stock market was up slightly in the month of June as the civil unrest, protesting, and the country of CHAZ emerged, probably because this unrest is unlikely to do any significant economic damage.
COVID on the other hand, will still bring uncertainty to a year otherwise dominated by PResidential debates, rallies, and overly politicized facebook feeds.
As the election approaches - inside of 2-3 months - you’ll likely see the news shift more into this arena, with the protests likely to have mostly subsided and COVID taking a backseat as well.
So while this Presidential election year is vastly different than previous election cycles, we should see some typical patterns begin to emerge as the election draws near, and I’ll talk about what those are tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio!
Now, coronavirus and the last several months of civil unrest have pushed the significance of the election into 3rd place at the moment, but at election day approaches, the headlines will turn more and more to the upcoming election and so it’s helpful to have an understanding of what a Presidential election year means for you and your portfolio.
So this week, I’ll be talking about several of those election year forces that influence your retirement portfolio and what you’ll want to know to keep a cool head as election day approaches.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, Nick True from Mapped Out Money was here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. If you liked his tips and insight this week, which I hope you did - he had a lot of great nuggets of wisdom to share - I hope you’ll check out his Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app. There, you’ll be able to hear his daily tips about money and budgeting!
So this week, Nick shared his top tips on the importance of budgeting.
Here’s what Nick covered this week:
- A Budget Is Simply Making A Plan
- Discovering How Your Purchases Align With Your Values
- How A Budget Gives You Peace of Mind
- Using Your Money For What Matters Most
- And lastly, how you can budget Accurately For Retirement
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have more clarity about your finances and better insight on how budgeting can be a powerful tool to help you achieve the lifestyle that you envision for yourself and your family...both now and in retirement.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Investing In An Election Year.
A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio! I’ll talk about several of those election year forces that influence your retirement portfolio next week.
Now coronavirus and the last several months of civil unrest have pushed the significance of the election into 3rd place at the moment, but at election day approaches, the headlines will turn more and more to the upcoming election and so it’s helpful to have an understanding of what a Presidential election year means for you and your portfolio.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Nick True is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through Mapped Out Money, Nick writes and speaks about personal finance and budgeting, all while traveling full-time with his wife and four pets in a 27ft Airstream.
This week, he’s here to talk about The Importance of Budgeting.
I hope you like his tips this week, and if you do, be sure to check out Nick's Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app to hear his daily tips.
Without further ado, here is Nick’s daily dose on the Importance of Budgeting...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Nick True is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through Mapped Out Money, Nick writes and speaks about personal finance and budgeting, all while traveling full-time with his wife and four pets in a 27ft Airstream.
This week, he’s here to talk about The Importance of Budgeting.
I hope you like his tips this week, and if you do, be sure to check out Nick's Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app to hear his daily tips.
Without further ado, here is Nick’s daily dose on the Importance of Budgeting...
Subscribe on iTune: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Nick True is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through Mapped Out Money, Nick writes and speaks about personal finance and budgeting, all while traveling full-time with his wife and four pets in a 27ft Airstream.
This week, he’s here to talk about The Importance of Budgeting.
I hope you like his tips this week, and if you do, be sure to check out Nick's Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app to hear his daily tips.
Without further ado, here is Nick’s daily dose on the Importance of Budgeting...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Nick True is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through Mapped Out Money, Nick writes and speaks about personal finance and budgeting, all while traveling full-time with his wife and four pets in a 27ft Airstream.
This week, he’s here to talk about The Importance of Budgeting.
I hope you like his tips this week, and if you do, be sure to check out Nick's Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app to hear his daily tips.
Without further ado, here is Nick’s daily dose on the Importance of Budgeting...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Nick True is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Through Mapped Out Money, Nick writes and speaks about personal finance and budgeting, all while traveling full-time with his wife and four pets in a 27ft Airstream.
This week, he’s here to talk about The Importance of Budgeting.
I hope you like his tips this week, and if you do, be sure to check out Nick's Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app to hear his daily tips.
Without further ado, here is Nick’s daily dose on the Importance of Budgeting...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week is another guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip! Nick True is here to share with you the Importance of Budgeting.
Nick is the host of a very popular money flash briefing on Alexa, called 30 Second Money. So if you’re listening on your Alexa device like most of my loyal listeners are, and you like Nick’s tips this week, be sure to check out Nick's Alexa brief by searching for "30 Second Money" in your Alexa app to hear his daily tips.
A little bit more about Nick...
Nick True is a married twenty-something from Tennessee and father to four fur-children. Through Mapped Out Money, Nick writes and speaks about personal finance, budgeting, and Slow-FI, all while traveling full-time with his wife and four pets in a 27ft Airstream. With some creative help from his wife, Hanna, Nick aims to produce approachable and engaging personal finance content to help you understand finance and manage your money, so you can get on with living your unique adventure.
Nick has experience working with people in all stages of their financial journey, and I know his perspective and unique insight on budgeting will be valuable for you this week.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, we looked at tax free bonds.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What Are Tax Free Bonds - I talked about what tax free bonds are and how they’re different than other types of bonds
- The Big Tax Perks of Tax-Free Bonds
- Who Should Consider Tax-Free Bonds (hint - it’s a very small group of high income earners)
- Then I talked about how tax-free municipal bonds just aren’t as compelling as they were 10 or 20 years ago for a couple of reasons, and then lastly
- How To Invest in Tax-Free Bonds if you determine that these bonds make sense for you.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you know more about tax-free bonds and whether or not they make sense for you as a way to earn tax-free income now...and in retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Its a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip! Nick True from Mapped Out Money will be here talking about the importance of budgeting.
And...be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from should you pay off your mortgage before retirement to the hidden danger of index funds.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week I’m talking about tax-free bonds.
Today I’m talking about how to invest in tax-free bonds. If you’re in a higher tax bracket then these bonds will likely make sense for you (by the way, if you missed my earlier episodes this week go back and have a listen where I talk about who is a good fit for these bonds).
So if you do determine that tax-free bonds are something you want to invest in, there are a number of ways you can invest.
A good place to start is with your local bonds. You can find local sewer, water, or school district bonds through a brokerage firm and your financial advisor. Personally, when it comes to buying tax-free bonds for clients, I tend to prefer buying the local individual bonds. You have the advantage of living in the area and having a better pulse on the financial health of the issuer you’re buying the bond from.
Another great option is buying bonds indirectly by investing in mutual funds or index funds that own municipal bonds. As I mentioned earlier in the week, if you live in a state that has an income tax, you’ll want to look for state-specific bond funds first. There aren’t that many. In Oregon where I live, there are only a handful of options.
You could also look at buying tax-free bonds through national mutual funds or index funds. These are the most common and if you do a little research and look up best tax-free bond funds or a similar search term, you’ll see that there are plenty of options.
But just like when you buy any bond, you want to be careful and discerning that no matter how you invest you don’t just pick the one with the highest rate. You have to take into account the quality of the bond or bond fund, the maturity date, the interest rate risk, etc.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about tax-free bonds.
Today I’m talking about the changing landscape of tax-free bonds, and why investing in tax-free bonds is a lot different than it was 10, 20, 30+ years ago.
My dad has been a financial advisor for almost 40 years. When he started as an advisor in 1982, interest rates were a lot higher than they are today. And one of my favorite stories he told me was about a client he used to call from time to time to pitch bonds to.
Back in the early 80s you could by a 30 year tax-free bond that paid 8%. Can you imagine if you had the opportunity to lock in a tax-free interest rate of 8% on your money for 30 years? It’s amazing. But of course inflation was higher back then too and rates were going up.
This particular client balked and said “call me back when rates get to 10%”. Well, rates didn’t get to 10% and that 8% is looking pretty sweet now.
Rates today on tax free municipal bonds are much lower. You’re lucky to get 3% right now on a tax-free bond and for the most part, rates on these bonds are in the 1-2% range. Wah wah…
So bond interest rates in general and especially tax-free bonds just aren’t as attractive or compelling as they once were.
The other problem with tax-free municipal bonds that I see today is that especially since the financial crisis in 2008, a lot of local city, county, and state governments have frankly done a poor job of managing their finances. So you have to be a lot more careful these days with the bonds you invest in, so you’re not stuck holding a bond when the government can no longer pay you the interest you’re owed.
But as I discussed earlier in the week, that doesn’t mean you should ignore tax-free bonds. They’re still a compelling investment option, especially if you’re in a high tax-bracket.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about tax-free bonds.
Today, I want to talk about who should really consider buying tax-free bonds. The main issue I see is that too many investors who are retired with lower incomes and in lower tax-brackets are the primary owners of these types of bonds.
Here’s the principal to follow when considering tax-free municipal bonds: the higher your income and taxes, the more these bonds make sense. They start to lose their appeal, usually when you get 2-3 rungs below the top tax rate.
So really, you should only consider tax-free municipal bonds if your income is high and you’re in a higher tax bracket, because at those higher tax rates, the fact that you won’t pay taxes on the bond interest you’re earning is very compelling.
But if you’re retired and you’re going to have an income of around $40-50k this year, that puts you in the 12% tax bracket, where tax free municipal bonds just don’t make a whole lot of sense anymore.
The other consideration is that you should really only invest in tax-free bonds when you have assets in a taxable account - this could be a trust account or a joint or single account. You don’t want to invest in tax-free bonds inside of an IRA or a 401k because the tax-free income is negated in that scenario since you’ll pay taxes anyways on the income you withdraw from those accounts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about tax-free bonds.
Yesterday I talked about tax-free bond basics...tax-free bonds are most often issued by state, county, or city municipalities and the primary benefit of tax-free municipal bonds is their tax-free nature.
That’s because the interest that you earn when you invest in these bonds won’t be taxed. So you could by a tax-free municipal bond with a 5% coupon or interest payment. You’ll earn $500/year on that bond and none of that will go to Uncle Sam in the form of federal taxes.
So today, I want to dive a little bit deeper into the amazing tax perks of tax-free municipal bonds, because I think it’s also an area where a lot of investors get tripped up.
Here’s how this works. The current top federal tax rate is 37%. If you’re married, filing jointly and you make over $622k in income this year, you’ll be in the 37% tax bracket. If you live in Oregon like I do you’ll pay 9.9% state income tax on top of that + a 3.8% net investment income tax. If you have a high income you’re looking at over 50% of that going to pay taxes.
Enter the tax free municipal bond. If I buy a tax-free bond issued from an in-state municipality like an Oregon sewer or a local county bond that pays 4%, since none of that 4% interest is taxable, that’s like buying a CD or a corporate bond that pays 8%. Because of the tax I would pay on the corporate bond or CD interest, unless I can find something that pays over 8%, I’m better off buying the 4% municipal bond that won’t be taxed - mostly because I’m in such a high tax bracket in this example.
Here’s the principal to follow when considering tax-free municipal bonds: the higher your income and taxes, the more these bonds make sense. They start to lose their appeal, usually when you get 2-3 rungs below the top tax rate.
So let’s look at the same 4% tax-free bond scenario, but instead of a really high income earner with a high tax bill, let’s say your household income is $100,000. Instead of buying another taxable bond that makes 8%, you only need to find a bond that pays more than 5.8% in order to choose the other bond over the municipal bond vs. the 8% yield required if you were in the highest tax bracket.
If you want to run the numbers for yourself based on where you live and your income to see if municipal bonds offer a good bang for the buck, just google “tax-free equivalent yield” calculator and you can enter your own personal numbers to find out if these bonds make sense for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about tax-free bonds.
Today I’m covering the basics with tax-free bonds to help you understand what they are and how they’re different from other types of bonds.
Tax free bonds are similar to other types of CDs or bond investments. You invest a certain amount of money, say $10,000 in a specific bond that matures in a set # of years. The main difference between tax free-bonds and other types of bonds is the interest that you earn is not subject to federal tax.
And if you live in a state that has an income tax, like my home state of Oregon, you can also buy bonds in your state where the interest you earn on those bonds is exempt from state taxes as well.
Another term for tax-free bonds that you might have heard before is municipal bonds or muni bonds for short. That’s because many tax-free bonds are issued by municipality - state, city, or county governments. Other than bonds issued directly from governments, tax-free bonds also include school and utility bonds like water, sewer, and electric bonds, as well as hospital bonds and even bonds for projects like zoos and parks.
These government municipalities use the money raised from the bonds you buy to pay for projects, buildings, etc, so it’s often a cool way to invest in specific projects, especially if you buy local bonds.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’m going to talk about the tax perks of buying tax-free munis, which is the primary reason why investors choose these types of bonds over the other options.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about tax-free bonds. I find that a lot of investors and many of my clients are confused about tax-free bonds. And many people think that because the interest is tax-free it’s a no-brainer that they should invest in these bonds.
But it’s not that simple. Tax-free bonds aren’t right for anyone. In fact, I find that for most people tax-free bonds don’t make much sense at all. But for the right investor, they’re a powerful investment and they’re one of the few ways to keep your taxes lower in retirement, since the interest on these bonds is exempt from federal tax, and in many cases state tax as well.
So this week, I’ll be talking about the benefits & the drawbacks of tax-free bonds, who should invest in these bonds, and the myriad of ways you can invest in municipal bonds if you determine that this type of investment makes sense for you.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, we looked at the 4% rule, a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
The 4% rule is a useful tool, but it has some serious drawbacks, so this week I talked about when you can use this rule of thumb and when it’s better to use more sophisticated tools to help you make important decisions about something as dynamic as your retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- A primer to the 4% rule, explaining what it is and how it works
- The problem with the 4% rule and why this rule is often oversimplified
- When the 4% rule works really well
- And lastly - a better alternative to the 4% rule - a monte carlo analysis that lives your retirement 1000 different times rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all rule of thumb.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you know more about how the 4% rule can help you plan for retirement, while also realizing it’s limitations.
And if you want to dive deeper and figure out if the plan you have in place for retirement will actually last, I offered a free retirement success forecaster that fills the gaps where the 4% rule falls short. If you just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com, I’ll send you a quick worksheet to complete to get your personalized results for free. So just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com for your free retirement success forecaster and personalized results.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: What are tax-free bonds. I’ll talk all about tax-free municipal bonds - the benefits, the drawbacks, who should invest in them, and the myriad of ways you can invest in municipal bonds if you determine that this type of investment makes sense for you.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week I’m talking about the 4% rule.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money. Its a useful tool to help you decide how much of your portfolio to spend in retirement, but it has some serious limitations.
Today, I’m talking about a better alternative to using the 4% rule to determine how much money to withdraw in retirement. It’s a monte carlo analysis. A monte carlo analysis will test your retirement and spending over many different scenarios, and recommend a spending rate that is unique to your situation.
A monte carlo analysis that we use with our clients lives your retirement 1000 times in good, bad, ugly scenarios to determine based on your retirement age, spending, portfolio allocation, social security decision, etc - how all of these factors contribute to answering one simple question:
Will all of these decisions lead to a secure retirement or will you run out of money in retirement, and the likelihood that that will happen.
If you’d like to dive deeper than a rule of thumb 4% rule can do, just send me an email and I’ll send you a 2 page worksheet so you can see for yourself your personalized results whether or not the lifestyle you envisioned for your retirement is sustainable.
Just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com. I’ll send you the worksheet and then once you send it completed back to me, I’ll send your personalized results for free.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 4% rule.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
This week I've been mostly critical of the 4% rule, but today I want to talk about when the 4% rule does actually work.
Because even though it has some significant limitations and you shouldn’t rely on the 4% rule for retirement, you can rely more on the 4% rule if you check a few important boxes.
First, I think some background on where the 4% rule came from will be helpful to understanding whether or not the rule actually works. The 4% rule came out of research by financial planner William Bengen in the early 1990s. Bengen tested a variety of withdrawal rates on several different investment portfolios using inflation data and investment returns going back to 1926.
After crunching the numbers, he concluded: "Assuming a minimum requirement of 30 years of portfolio longevity, a first-year withdrawal of 4%, followed by inflation-adjusted withdrawals in subsequent years, should be safe."
So what are the scenarios where the 4% rule is more likely to work:
- If you have a balanced portfolio - a portfolio that has 40, 50, or 60% stocks in retirement is more likely to work with the 4% rule. The good news is that most retirees portfolios fall somewhere between 40-60% in stocks
- If you’re willing to adjust - As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes this week, if you can be flexible to cut your withdrawals when your portfolio drops in value, you’re more likely to make the 4% rule work for you in the more normal years
- If you have the ability to accurately track and adjust your spending for inflation. A key component of the 4% rule is an adjustment to your spending for inflation. So you do have to do some legwork each year to recalibrate your spending to account for inflation.
If you maintain a balanced portfolio, are willing to make adjustments to your withdrawals, and track inflation, you’re more likely to be able to make the 4% rule work for you in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about the 4% rule.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money. To use the 4% rule, you take your portfolio value at retirement and multiply it by 4% and you have a safe withdrawal rate for year one. Increase that for inflation each year and you have a simple rule of thumb for calculating a safe withdrawal rate in retirement where you’re unlikely to outlive your portfolio.
On the surface it sounds like the 4% rule is a useful tool. After all, it’s backed by research and makes the complexities of planning for retirement a lot simpler.
But is the 4% rule oversimplified? That’s what I’m talking about today.
Do a quick search on google for the 4% rule, and you’ll find more articles that poo-poo the 4% rule than articles in support of this popular rule of thumb.
That’s because spending in retirement is too complicated to capture with an easy rule of thumb.
Most people who just stick with the 4% rule in retirement will probably never run out of money, perhaps to the detriment of the enjoyment of their own lifestyle in retirement. Or you could run out of money as I explained yesterday if they are unlucky enough to retire in the midst of a recession and a major downturn in the stock market.
Instead, you’ll want to consider how your spending in retirement is a dynamic and changing thing. You may want to spend your early years in retirement travelling and spending more money on travel, but are you still going to be trekking around Europe at 85? Probably not. You also have big, one time expenses that can’t be captured with the 4% rule - a child’s wedding, helping out with your grandkids college, the mortgage that will be paid off 5 years into retirement, the remodel that you plan to do in 10 years, or the new car you’re paying cash for in 7 years.
The reality is our spending can’t be captured with a rule of thumb because life can’t be captured with a rule of thumb. Spending ebbs and flows depending on needs and what’s happening in life right now. So to try to plan for a consistent and auto-pilot spending rate using the 4% rule in retirement doesn’t capture what spending in retirement will really look like.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 4% rule.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money. To use the 4% rule, you take your portfolio value at retirement and multiply it by 4% and you have a safe withdrawal rate for year one. Increase that for inflation each year and you have a simple rule of thumb for calculating a safe withdrawal rate in retirement where you’re unlikely to outlive your portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about the primary problem with the 4% rule.
There are actually a few glaring problems with the 4% rule - primarily, it makes several assumptions about your mix of stocks and bonds and bond returns that may be wildly different than how you’re actually invested in retirement.
But that’s not the real serious problem with the 4% rule. If you’re unlucky enough to retire around the same time as a major recession where your portfolio might drop 20%-30% during the first few years of retirement, it could be game over for you.
If your retirement gets off to a bad start in terms of your timing and your portfolio returns in the early years are dismal, you increase the likelihood that you’ll run out of money using the 4% rule.
The risk that you’ll retire at the onset of a major recession and stock market downturn is actually one of the major risks to you outliving your money in retirement.
This actually has a name - it’s called the sequence of returns risk - so if you want to learn more, you can google sequence of returns risk and you’ll better understand why bad returns in the early years of retirement are bad news for you.
Unfortunately, it also debunks the usefulness of the 4% rule in retirement. So be sure to have a backup plan and be willing to lower or suspend your withdrawals in the early years of retirement if you happen to retire during a recession.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 4% rule.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
Today I’m answering the most important question you should be asking if you’re going to use the 4% rule to plan your withdrawals in retirement: Can you rely on the 4% rule?
Is this actually a reliable rule of thumb for planning for your retirement?
The short answer is that it does work well...sometimes. The long answer is that retirement is too complex to rely on a rule of thumb - taxes, inflation, your returns in retirement vary widely from year to year, and you may be unlucky enough to retire in the midst of a big stock market downturn - these are all circumstances that will make the 4% rule less useful or blow it out of the water all together.
You can rely on the 4% rule in the years leading up to retirement to help you calculate how much you’ll need to save based on your lifestyle and income needs, but that’s where it’s reliability ends. I don’t recommend using it as a planning tool once you enter retirement.
So for example, let’s say that after accounting for social security and other income sources you’re going to have in retirement, you calculate you’re going to need another $3,000/month from your investment portfolio.
That’s $36,000 in year one of retirement. Using the 4% rule, you’ll need to save about $900,000 by the time you reach retirement, to generate income of $3000/mo or $36,000/year, because 4% X $900,000 = $36,000.
So it’s useful to help you plan for how much you’re going to need at retirement, but when you’re 2-5 years out from retirement, it’s time to leave the 4% rule behind and opt for a more sophisticated calculation that takes into account the thousands of different scenarios and circumstances you could face in retirement. I’ll talk about that a bit later in the week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about the 4% rule.
The 4% Rule is a short-hand rule of thumb that helps you calculate how much of your portfolio you can safely withdraw in retirement without running out of money.
If you apply the 4% rule to your retirement savings, you would take your portfolio value and multiply that amount by 4%...so if you get to retirement with $1 million saved, and multiply that $1million by 4%, you get $40,000. So according to the 4% rule, you can withdraw $40,000 from your portfolio in year 1 of retirement, then increase that withdrawal amount for inflation each year without worrying too much about running out of money.
4% is considered a safe withdrawal rate that is backed by some well-documented research. But it’s actually a pretty flawed rule of thumb that doesn’t take into account the complexities of retirement circumstances that change, an investment portfolio that’s changing, and the complexity of adjusting that 4% withdrawal rate years into retirement.
So this week, I’ll be talking about why the 4% rule can be useful in planning for retirement...up to a point, some landmines to watch out for when using this rule of thumb, and an alternative to the 4% rule that’s way more useful in helping you plan for a retirement where you don’t outlive your money.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, we looked at how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The actual cost of healthcare in retirement
- How Medicare factors into how you plan for retirement and the big surprise for many Americans…
- Medicare isn’t free
- Then we talked about - how you can save wisely for healthcare costs in retirement before you actually retire
- And don’t forget about paying for long-term care on top of everything else!
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you understand what the heck healthcare is going to cost you in retirement so you can plan for and prepare yourself for those costs!
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: The 4% Rule.
The 4% rule is an easy back-of-the-envelope way to calculate how much income you’ll be able to safely withdraw from your portfolio each year in retirement and not run out of money. The 4% rule has its advantages in that it's easy to calculate how much you’ll need to save for retirement in order to live the lifestyle you want, but it’s not without its problems either...so next week, we’ll be talking about the pros and cons of this useful retirement planning tool.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about long-term care which is an expensive need for many retirees later in life, and is in addition to the typical health care costs I mentioned this week. A 65 year old couple can expect to pay about $285,000 for healthcare related costs in retirement. But what about if you need long-term care? Long-term care is needed when you can no longer take care of yourself or meet the regular activities of daily living on your own.
The median annual cost for long-term care ranges from $18,000 for adult day care to $97,000 for a private room in a nursing home.
If you require long-term care for an extended period or if you develop dementia or Altzheimer’s, the costs skyrocket. The estimated lifetime cost of care for someone with dementia is $341,840.
There’s about a 50/50 chance that you’ll need some form of long-term care in your lifetime, and 15% of Americans will spend more than $250,000 on long-term care in our lifetime.
Those expenses can wipe out your wealth, which is why it’s so important to understand your options and protect yourself.
You can take your chances and self-fund, which is likely the way to go if you have millions in assets or if you haven’t saved much at all for retirement. The problem lies when you’re in the middle. If long-term care costs have the potential to wipe out your wealth in retirement and you need to preserve that wealth for your spouse, your kids, or for some other reason, you’ll want to look seriously at buying long-term care insurance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
As I mentioned earlier this week, the average retired couple age 65 in 2019 will spend $285,000 on health care expenses in retirement. For single retirees, the estimate is $150,000 for women and $135,000 for men. Ouch!
Today, I’m talking about how you can pay for those health care costs, now - before you retire! You can do that through the holy grail of retirement savings accounts - the health savings account. If you have a high-deductible medical insurance plan through your work, you can save up to $7,100 in a HSA in 2020. If you’re over age 50, you can add another $1,000 to your HSA this year.
Many people who have access to an HSA through work just view it as a savings account that exists to help them pay for doctors visits and medical bills now.
But I want you to think instead about the Health Savings Account as a tool that will help you pay for healthcare costs long after you’re retired. See, you can invest your HSA to grow over time, so you’ll have more money for doctor visits, prescriptions, and all kinds of health care costs, next year or 20 years down the road.
And the beauty of the HSA and why it’s the holy grail of retirement savings accounts is that it offers tax benefits that no other retirement savings account can match: tax-deductible contributions on money going in, tax free growth, and tax-free withdrawals when you pull the money out to pay for healthcare costs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about Medicare 101 - just a few basics to help you better understand medicare plans, costs, and how to plan for it as you approach age 65. So if you missed yesterday, go back and listen to that episode.
Today, I’m diving a little deeper into the costs of medicare, and addressing a common misconception - medicare is not free! Wait? I paid into that system all my working years...why isn’t it free?
The truth is that when you turn 65 and enroll in Medicare, you’ll still have deductibles, premiums, co-pays, etc. And there are plenty of other healthcare costs that aren’t covered by your standard medicare plans including dental, vision, and long-term care.
So let’s look at each part of Medicare, what it covers and what you can expect to pay.
First, there’s Medicare Part A, which covers hospital stays, skilled nursing, hospice and some home health services. These expenses are mostly covered after you meet your deductible.
Then there is Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient care and medical supplies — has a standard monthly premium of $144 this year...but you could pay a lot more than that depending on your income. It also comes with a $198 deductible. Once the deductible is met, you typically pay 20% of covered services.
Confused yet? Are you seeing how the costs can begin to add up?
Medicare Part D covers prescriptions, and as I mentioned yesterday Medicare Advantage and "Medigap" supplemental insurance plans are also an option.
So there is a lot to consider as you think about and research your options for Medicare. And with healthcare costs being such a big ongoing monthly expense, it’s important to do your homework well in advance and understand how your healthcare expenses are going to impact your overall spending and budget in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
Today, I’m talking about Medicare 101. Now, Medicare is so complicated, at some point I’ll devote a week or more to this topic, but for today, I just want to cover the basics and some common misunderstandings.
First of all, a lot of people think that when they go on Medicare at the age of 65 they’ll be covered and won’t have to pay out of pocket for healthcare costs like doctor’s visits and prescriptions. Not true. You’ll still have to meet deductibles and pay premiums and other expenses after you enroll in medicare.
As far as the plans themselves, there’s Medicare Parts A, B, and D, as well as Medicare Advantage and "Medigap" supplemental insurance plans. They all provide different types of coverage and you’ll end up having multiple plans.
If you scratch your head every year trying to sort through your health benefit options at work, I’m sorry to say that Medicare is even more confusing, so it’s important to start researching the options and understand the Medicare ins and outs at least several months before you’re eligible at 65.
With Medicare, you have an enrollment period that actually begins before you turn age 65, so it’s important that you do your homework and understand the various plans and what they cover so you can plan for your out-of-pocket costs as well and pick the best plan for your situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow I’m going to continue with the basics of Medicare to help you understand more about this often confusing topic.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week I’m talking about how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
Today, it’s gettin’ real depressing over here at the One Minute Retirement Tip, because I’m sharing with you how much you can expect to pay for healthcare in retirement.
Healthcare is one of the biggest expenses for most retirees - ranking right up there with housing and transportation costs, and it comes with an equally big lifetime price tag.
Fidelity estimates that about 15% of the average retiree's annual expenses will be used for health care-related expenses, including Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
In that same study, Fidelity found that the average retired couple age 65 in 2019 will spend $285,000 on health care expenses in retirement. For single retirees, the estimate is $150,000 for women and $135,000 for men. Ouch!
How much you spend is obviously going to vary widely depending on where you live, how you’re paying for out-of-pocket expenses and how healthy you are, but in my experience, most of my clients end up spending $5,000-$15,000 per year on healthcare costs.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how much healthcare will cost in retirement.
It’s a big question to factor into your spending in retirement and it’s something that many people forget to plan for when they are figuring out how to budget for this big expense.
So this week, I’ll be talking about what you can expect to pay for healthcare in retirement, how medicare works, and to handle unexpected curveballs like needing expensive long-term care later in life.
One important tip about calculating your spending for healthcare in retirement, that I want to make - you should budget for healthcare separately, rather than just lumping it in with your total monthly or annual spending. It really needs to be its own line item.
Why? Well, because healthcare costs are likely to keep climbing at a higher rate than inflation so it’s likely that healthcare will become an increasingly bigger slice of your monthly spending pie, especially as you age - not just because cost increases will likely outpace other costs, but also because you’ll probably spend more in healthcare as you age, since most of us aren’t built with bodies that hold up well past the age of 70-80.
Tomorrow I’m going to dive in with the depressingly high $ figure you can expect to pay for healthcare in retirement.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, we took a deep dive into the 2020 gift tax rules, and how you can take advantage of lifetime gift strategies while these options are still on the table.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- How The Gift Tax Exclusion Works
- The Lifetime Gift Tax Exemption...Explained
- Why lifetime gifting now makes sense compared to waiting until you die to pass along wealth
- The best ways to gift assets and what types of assets you can give besides cash
- And lastly, the do’s and don’t of gifting assets to your heirs
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you understand the gift tax, how it works both with the annual amount you can give, and the amount you can give over your lifetime without paying tax. And most importantly, I hope you understand why now is an ideal time to gift and why you shouldn’t wait to gift if you can afford to do it now.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How Much Will Healthcare Cost In Retirement?
Ah, the big question that may people forget to plan for when they are figuring out how much money they will need to pay for healthcare in retirement. So next week, I’ll be talking about what you can expect to pay for healthcare in retirement, how medicare works, and to handle unexpected curveballs like needing expensive long-term care later in life.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 2020 gift tax rules, and how you can take advantage of lifetime gift strategies while these options are still on the table.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift. But gifting isn’t right for everyone, and that’s what I’m talking about today - the do’s and don’ts of gifting assets to your heirs.
The most important consideration with lifetime gifting is to do so only when you can actually afford it. You don’t want to gift $15,000 this year to each of your kids and run the risk of those gifts jeopardizing your ability to continue to live a comfortable retirement.
That should go without saying, but I have personally witnessed clients and friend sacrificially give to their children, even when that gift wasn’t necessary, at the expense of their own financial well-being. It’s a big no-no, so you should only gift when you can actually afford it.
Secondly, and on a more sensitive note, it’s important to use lifetime gifts to test the waters to ensure your children will handle inherited wealth in a responsible way.
Gifting can have a lot of negative consequences for both you and your children, so gifting should only be done when: Moral character is strong, their incentive to work isn’t compromised, and funds will not be used to fund luxurious and wasteful lifestyles.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 2020 gift tax rules, and how you can take advantage of lifetime gift strategies while these options are still on the table.
Today, I’m talking about the best ways to give assets. As I’ve been trying to shout from the rooftops all week, lifetime gifting right now is as attractive as it’s ever been in your lifetime, making now an ideal time to gift. But as I’ve also explained, the clock is ticking, so if you're going to take advantage of the current rules and pay zero tax on millions of dollars that you can gift to your heirs, now is the time to do it.
Now most people think about gifting in terms of cash gifts. But there are numerous assets that you can gift. Large gifts will be subject to the lifetime gift tax exclusion, but you can still give over $11 million if you're single, and over $23 million if you’re married tax-free during your lifetime...at least for now.
The best kind of gifts you can give are the ones that don’t eat into your lifetime exemption amount at all. These gifts are:
- Gifts to charities approved by the IRS
- A gift to your spouse (as long as he or she is a U.S. citizen)
- A gift to cover someone’s education tuition, if paid directly to the educational institution
- Gifts to cover someone’s medical expenses, if paid directly to the medical facility
- A gift to a political organization
Other types of gifts that will eat into your lifetime exemption, but that are still powerful ways to pass wealth during your lifetime tax-free include gifting property, business interests, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, & collectibles.
So if you own a beach house or a business that you want to pass on to your heirs, there has literally not been a better time in your lifetime to pass along these assets to your heirs, free from tax.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 2020 gift tax rules, and how you can take advantage of lifetime gift strategies while these options are still on the table.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift.
So far this week, I’ve talked about the gift tax rules - both the annual amount and the lifetime amount you can gift to your heirs, free from estate tax.
But I find that a lot of people struggle to understand why gifting matters in the first place and why they wouldn’t just wait until they die and let their assets pass to their heirs then.
The way the laws are currently written, when you die, a certain $ amount of your assets will pass to your heirs without being taxed. Currently that amount is pretty high - $11.58 million or $23.16 million if you’re married.
My guess is that most of you listening have estates that will be much smaller than this when you die, so you might be thinking “well, that doesn’t apply to me”. I beg to differ. Because tax rules change. And the estate tax rules are about as generous as they’ve ever been.
Back in 2000, the estate tax exemption was only $675,000 and as much as 55% of your estate above $3 million, would have disappeared to the federal government in the form of taxes.
Estate and gift taxes are as generous as they have ever been and it’s unlikely to last, since estate taxes are a powerful way for Congress to raise revenue to fund their ballooning debt load, so you can bet that estate and gift taxes will change and will likely drop - maybe substantially so by the time you kick the bucket.
If history is any guide, you can expect a much lower estate value will be subject to tax in the future and that tax rates on your estate could be as high as 50, 60, or even 70%.
So the clock is ticking, and now is the time to gift.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 2020 gift tax rules, and how you can take advantage of lifetime gift strategies while these options are still on the table.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift.
Today, I’m talking about the lifetime gift tax exemption, which is where the real benefit of gifting lies.
You can gift up to $15,000 per gift recipient in 2020 without paying taxes and up to $30,000 per gift recipient if your married, which is what I covered yesterday. But what happens if you want to gift more than that?
You can actually give substantially more to your heirs without being subject to tax. The additional gift will just be applied to your lifetime exemption.
Let’s say you own a family business worth $3 million dollars. Would you be shocked to learn that you can actually gift that business to your children during your lifetime without paying tax on that gift?
That’s because of the lifetime gift tax exemption, which is currently $11.58 million in 2020. This means that you can give up to $11.58 million in gifts over the course of your lifetime without ever having to pay gift tax on it. And if you are married, it’s double that amount. You and your spouse can give away a total of $23.16 million before paying the gift tax.
As I’ve stated before, Democrat lawmakers are not big fans of the current gift and estate taxes, so if Trump loses in November, the clock may be ticking on you being able to take advantage of the current gift tax rules and these rules may be repealed sooner rather than later.
Keep in mind though that if you have substantial wealth or assets to transfer, you want to do it before the rules change and not wait, because the IRS has stated that there will be no clawback on these lifetime gifts. Which means that you can now transfer tens of millions of dollars of your estate - gift tax free, without fearing that those gifts will later be taxed.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week I’m talking about the 2020 gift tax rules, and how you can take advantage of lifetime gift strategies while these options are still on the table.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs, and with the current generous gifting and estate tax rules, now is the time to gift.
Democrat lawmakers are not big fans of the current gift and estate taxes, so if Trump loses in November, the clock may be ticking on you being able to take advantage of the current gift tax rules.
Today, I’m talking about the annual gift tax exclusion and how it works. In 2020, you can give $15,000 per gift recipient that isn’t subject to tax. So let’s say you have 4 kids. You can give each one of them $15,000 this year without that gift being taxable to them or you. If you’re married, you can give twice that amount - $30,000. But it doesn’t stop with your kids...you can give to grandkids, spouses of kids, etc.
The rules are even more generous when you’re making direct payments to cover medical or tuition bills for your loved ones.
I don’t see enough clients tax advantage of the lifetime gifting and the high exclusions that are available to them, yet it’s a powerful way to reduce the size of your estate, potentially lower your estate taxes, and pass on your wealth to your heirs.
If you give above that amount to any one person in 2020, you may have to pay tax on that, but it’s also likely that you give substantially more than that without triggering taxes, and I’ll talk about how that works tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about the gift tax rules for 2020 and how you can and why you should take advantage of gifting this year.
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs.
And right now is an excellent time to gift, because the rules on exemptions and exclusions from paying taxes on those gifts are really attractive...But, we are in an election year and if Trump loses to Biden in November, and especially if democrats also control the House and/or the Senate... you can bet that estate and gift taxes will likely switch course.
So if you plan to take advantage of favorable tax treatment on gifting assets, the clock could be ticking because estate and gift taxes will have a giant target on their backs come November if Biden unseats Trump. So this week, I’ll explain the current gift tax rules & who should consider gifting.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, Scott Alan Turner was here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Scott is a consumer advocate, a certified financial planner, an author and a podcaster.
And this week, he shared his 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom
Here are the 5 secrets that Scott covered in each episode this week:
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1 - Getting Going On Something You Love
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2 - Moving From Success To Significance
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3 - Protecting Yourself, Your Family, & Your Nest Egg From Too Much Risk
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4 - Buying The Best...For You
- And, #5 - Being Content With Today
Hopefully, after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have more clarity about your finances and what’s most important to you as you approach and enter retirement, and ultimately, better insight into how to be happier as you work toward financial freedom. I also hope that Scott's fresh perspective helped you think about your pursuit of financial freedom in a new and different way.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
And sure to check out Scott Alan Turner’s podcast “Financial Rock Star”...And take advantage of his free 3-part video masterclass Millionaire Success Habits at www.scottalanturner.com/truenorth. (spell it out).
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: The 2020 Gift Tax Rules That Could Evaporate Next Year
Gifting, especially during your lifetime, can be a powerful strategy to transfer wealth, business interests, property, and a variety of other assets to your family and heirs. And right now is an excellent time to gift, because the rules on exemptions and exclusions from paying taxes on those gifts are really attractive...But, we are in an election year and if Trump loses to Biden in November, and especially if democrats also control the House and/or the Senate... you can bet that estate and gift taxes will likely switch course.
In fact, I won’t be surprised to hear Biden and other democrats campaign on this exact issue. So if you plan to take advantage of favorable tax treatment on gifting assets, the clock could be ticking because estate and gift taxes will have a giant target on their backs come November if Biden unseats Trump. So next week, I’ll explain the current gift tax rules & who should consider gifting.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Scott Alan Turner is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Scott is a consumer advocate, a certified financial planner, an author and a podcaster.
And this week, he is talking about 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom
Be sure to check out his podcast “Financial Rock Star”... And be sure to get Scott's free 3-part video masterclass Millionaire Success Habits at www.scottalanturner.com/truenorth. (spell it out).
Without further ado, here is Scott’s daily dose of Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Scott Alan Turner is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Scott is a consumer advocate, a certified financial planner, an author and a podcaster.
And this week, he is talking about 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom
Be sure to check out his podcast “Financial Rock Star”... And be sure to get Scott's free 3-part video masterclass Millionaire Success Habits at www.scottalanturner.com/truenorth. (spell it out).
Without further ado, here is Scott’s daily dose of Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom...
Subscribe on iTune: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Scott Alan Turner is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Scott is a consumer advocate, a certified financial planner, an author and a podcaster.
And this week, he is talking about 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom
Be sure to check out his podcast “Financial Rock Star”... And be sure to get Scott's free 3-part video masterclass Millionaire Success Habits at www.scottalanturner.com/truenorth. (spell it out).
Without further ado, here is Scott’s daily dose of Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Scott Alan Turner is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Scott is a consumer advocate, a certified financial planner, an author and a podcaster.
And this week, he is talking about 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom
Be sure to check out his podcast “Financial Rock Star”... And be sure to get Scott's free 3-part video masterclass Millionaire Success Habits at www.scottalanturner.com/truenorth. (spell it out).
Without further ado, here is Scott’s daily dose of Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, Scott Alan Turner is here for a guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Scott is a consumer advocate, a certified financial planner, an author and a podcaster.
And this week, he is talking about 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom
Be sure to check out his podcast “Financial Rock Star”... And be sure to get Scott's free 3-part video masterclass Millionaire Success Habits at www.scottalanturner.com/truenorth. (spell it out).
Without further ado, here is Scott’s daily dose of Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m very excited, because it’s the first ever guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip! Scott Alan Turner is here to share with you the 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom.
Scott Alan Turner is a consumer advocate and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM).
A bestselling author, his books include 99 Minute Millionaire, Money A-to-Z, and How To Save $1,000 This Week. His podcast “Financial Rock Star” debuted at #1 on Apple Podcasts.
Scott has an interesting backstory. He is a self-described former money moron, living the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle, losing $40k following bad investment advice, and racking up a load of debt.
But by age 35, he turned it around and became a self-made millionaire who now helps others get financial independence, ultimate happiness, and a life full of awesome experiences. Scott is the dad of twin 6-year-olds, and plays guitar in a rock band.
So this week, Scott is sharing with you his 5 Secrets to Happiness On The Road To Financial Freedom to bring you more clarity about your finances.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the amazingly low mortgage rates out there right now, and tried to help you answer an important question that you need to be asking yourself: should I refi now?
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Why these low mortgage rates are literally an opportunity of a lifetime
- Why you should refi before you retire
- The one thing you should do with your mortgage before you retire
- 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Refinance Your House (Even At Crazy Low Rates)
- And, How To Go From 30-Year Mortgage To A 15-Year Mortgage Without Refinancing
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you’ll at least look seriously at refinancing now, and you understand why lower or no mortgage payments offers so much more flexibility and freedom for you in retirement.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. And if you want more in-depth videos on retirement, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: I’m excited to announce that it’s the first guest takeover of the One Minute Retirement Tip! Next week, Scott Alan Turner, the host of the “Financial Rock Star” podcast will be here, sharing with you his 5 secrets to happiness on the road to financial freedom. He’s a Certified financial planner, a best selling author, and a self-made millionaire who also plays guitar in a rock band. He has a lot of valuable insight to share, and he’s a pretty cool guy, so I think you’re really going to enjoy hearing his best tips for you next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the amazingly low mortgage rates out there right now, and helping you answer an important question that you need to be asking yourself: should I refi now?
Today I’m talking about an easy way to turn your 30 year mortgage into a 15 year mortgage without locking yourself into higher fixed monthly payments by switching from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage.
And the secret sauce with this is knowing your way around an amortization table. I already touched on this earlier this week when I talked about paying off your house before retirement, but I want to go more in depth to the wonders of the amortization table today.
An amortization table allows you to calculate how you can pay off your mortgage quicker by making additional payments. These are so flexible and they allow you to figure out how much you would need to add to your monthly payment to pay off your mortgage in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, or whatever makes sense and is affordable for you.
When you actually run the numbers with an amortization table, you might be surprised to learn that you can totally knock off 10 or 15 years years from your mortgage.
For example, let’s say you have 20 years left on a 30 year mortgage with a $300,000 original mortgage amount at 4% interest. If you add $325/mo to your payments, you’ll shave 5 years off those remaining 20 years. If you add $950 a month, you’ll cut that 20 year mortgage in half and pay it off in 10 years, saving over $56,000 in interest that you didn’t pay to the bank.
The beauty of adding extra payments is that you don’t lock yourself into anything fixed. Most banks allow you to make extra payments without extra fees, and you can stop or reduce those extra payments at any time if you can no longer afford to make those extra payments.
If you want to run the numbers for yourself, I’ll link to my favorite amortization calculator in the show notes. You can find link and all the show notes for this episode - episode 601 - in iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley.”
Mortgage Amotization Calculator >>> https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/home-equity/additional-mortgage-payment-calculator.aspx
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the amazingly low mortgage rates out there right now, and helping you answer an important question that you need to be asking yourself: should I refi now?
All week long I’ve been talking about the incredible opportunity that low rates give you to look seriously at a refi, but there are also several circumstances when you shouldn’t refi, even at crazy low rates, which is what I’m covering today.
Ok, so reason #1 why you shouldn’t refi even at crazy low rates is that the costs don’t pencil out. According to lendingtree.com, the costs associated with refinancing can range from 2-6% of the loan amount. So if you already have a pretty low rate, those costs may make refinancing a losing game for you, but it’s worth looking into and it doesn’t hurt to look into a re-fi especially if your current rate is 4% or higher.
Reason #2 why you shouldn’t refi even at crazy low rates is that your income has gone down or your credit isn’t good. Banks look at your income and your credit when you refi, so if you’ve lost your job recently, your income is lower, of you’ve been delinquent on any recent bills, the rates for refinancing might be much higher than what you hoped, or you may not even be able to refinance as all.
The 3rd reason why you shouldn’t refi even at crazy low rates is if you are planning to move soon. A lot of people decide to downsize or move close to or just after retirement, so if your planning to move in the next few years, refinancing and incurring all of those additional costs just to up and move again may not be the best use of your money.
By the way, today marks episode 600 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, so I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for listening, and thank my audio editor, Ash, who cleans up the audio and takes care of uploading these reliably every day for me, so you can get your daily dose of retirement tips.. He’s fantastic, so if you ever get into the podcast game yourself or know someone who is and you would like a recommendation let me know, because Ash is amazing!
Thanks for listening. That’s it for today. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the amazingly low mortgage rates out there right now, and helping you answer an important question that you need to be asking yourself: should I refi now?
Today, I’m talking about the one thing you should do with your mortgage before you retire. So what is that one thing? Pay it off!!
Mortgages tend to be big debts. You might still owe $100,000 or more on your house by the time you enter retirement, so it’s no small feat to pay off your house.
Now, many people say that the mortgage interest tax deduction helps them with their taxes. That may be true, but you are still handing over your hard-earned money - principal and interest over to the bank every year and the tax deduction is just a portion of that, so it just isn’t that compelling when you compare it with not having a monthly mortgage payment at all.
So yes, I think it’s wise to pay off your mortgage as close to retirement as possible. It tends to be the largest expense for most American households - making up about a third of our monthly expenses, on average. So if you can free most of that up in retirement by paying off your mortgage, it makes a big difference for your finances.
Here’s what I don’t want you to do though - don’t take a lump sum out of your retirement portfolio to pay off your house. This is a common temptation, but if you do this you’re amputating your retirement portfolio while simultaneously plunging a bunch of money into an illiquid investment - your home.
Instead, calculate how you can pay off your mortgage quicker by making additional payments. Let’s say you have 15 years left on your mortgage and you’re 9 years from retirement. How much would you need to add to your monthly payment to pay off your mortgage the same month that you plan to retire? Ooooo, how good would that feel?
You can figure out this extra payment amount by using what’s called an amortization calculator or an amortization table.
When you actually run the numbers with an amortization, you might be surprised to learn that knocking those 6 years off your mortgage is totally doable, and not as burdensome as you might have expected. And it’s easy to find out with an amortization calculator.
That’s it for today. But before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or in iTunes! Reviews help people decipher between the gold and the garbage, so if these tips are helping you on your path to retirement, please share the love with others by leaving a review!
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the amazingly low mortgage rates out there right now, and helping you answer an important question that you need to be asking yourself: should I refi now?
Today I’m talking about why you should refinance your mortgage before you retire, and not just now because rates are low, but why it makes so much sense especially in the 5-10 years leading up to retirement.
The biggest reason you should refi before you retire is if you can lower your payment. Housing costs and mortgage payments make up a pretty big portion of monthly expenses for most Americans, so ideally you would eliminate your mortgage before you retire, so you don’t have a house payment at all. But if that’s not in the cards for you, lowering your payment reduces your living costs in retirement, and helps you make your money last.
The other reason to refi before you retire is to take advantage of low rates that are fixed. The fact that you could lock in a 15 or 30-year mortgage at 3-3.5%, where those payments won’t go up during your retirement is a compelling reason to refinance. Part of the challenge of living on limited resources and a set dollar amount of assets and income in retirement is that the cost of everything is always going up. Groceries, gas, eating out, travel, etc. But if you have a house payment that won’t change in retirement and is lower than what your paying now because you refi’d, that’s a nice fixed bill that won’t go up when everything else is.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the amazingly low mortgage rates out there right now, and helping you answer the question: should I refi now?
Today, I’m talking about the incredible opportunity with low mortgage rates and putting this all in context historically.
Many of you listening are close to retirement. If you bought your first house 40 years ago in 1980, your mortgage would have been about 12-13%. If you bought in 1990, your mortgage rate would have been about 9-10%, and if you bought a house in 2000, your mortgage rate would have been about 7%.
Interest rates on mortgages didn’t drop below 5% until 2009, and they’ve never been this low. Right now, you can lock in a 30-year mortgage for around 3-3.5% and a 15-year mortgage for under 3% right now.
So if you are looking at buying a house or you are in a position to refinance because you have income, good credit, and equity in your home, it’s seriously an opportunity of a lifetime with rates this low.
Forgive me if I sound like one of those mortgage lender commercials, but believe the hype because that’s the reality. When housing makes up one of your largest monthly bills and you have an opportunity to reduce that monthly bill and lock in that lower bill for 15 or 30 years, you need to at least do your research and look into whether this makes sense for you. Who knows how much lower rates will go or how long they will stay this low, so don’t get greedy and try to time it and wait and see if they go lower from here. We likely have several months of lower rates ahead, but as the economy improves when we finally come out of this COVID cloud, rates are likely to go higher.
Interest rates are like death and taxes - no one can predict what will happen next, so do yourself a favor and look into a refi while corona is wreaking havoc on all of us.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s theme is should you refi now? Mortgage rates are insanely low right now, especially by historical norms. You can lock in a 30-year mortgage for around 3-3.5% and a 15-year mortgage for under 3% right now.
Even if you’ve refinanced or bought a house in the last few years, for many homeowners, it makes a lot of sense to look seriously at refinancing right now.
But not everyone should be re-financing right now.
So this week, I’m sharing with you why refinancing now makes a hell of a lot of sense, why you shouldn’t overlook this opportunity, 3 reasons why you may want to take a pass on today’s crazy low interest rates and NOT refinance, and the one thing you should do with your mortgage before you retire - regardless of whether you refinance or not.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about re-evaluating your spending priorities during COVID-19.
With so many restrictions on travel, eating out, closed stores, this is a unique time to think about the areas of spending in your life that are most important, as well as those areas that are least important.
So this week, my goal was to help you use this time as an opportunity to let go of the areas of spending that you don’t miss that much, and be more intentional about spending money from here on out. Your wallet, your overall life satisfaction today, and your long-term financial security tomorrow will thank you.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Understanding spending needs vs. wants vs. wishes
- What do you desperately long to spend money on, and why you should pay attention to that
- What you should stop spending money on after COVID
- What you should spend more money on after COVID
- And...how to break your bad spending habits and why now is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do that
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have become more intentional about using this time to shed the non-essential and prioritize those areas of spending that you actually care about - the ones that are meaningful and bring joy and real satisfaction.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. And if you want more in-depth videos on retirement, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Should you refi now? Mortgage rates are insanely low by historical norms. If you bought a house in the 70s, 80s, or even in the 90s, today’s mortgage rates would have been a dream come true. But not everyone should be re-financing right now. So next week I’ll talk about the circumstances where you should consider refinancing, and when it’s best to take a pass on today’s historically low interest rates.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about re-evaluating your spending priorities during COVID-19.
Today, I’m talking about why COVID Is a Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity To Break Your Bad Spending Habits. When it comes to habits and lifestyle changes, a good rule of thumb to remember is the 21/90 rule. The 21/90 rule states that it takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to make a lifestyle. So if you can form a new habit and break an old habit in 21 days, then commit to your new habit for 90 days, it will become a part of your daily routine and will become easier to stick to in the long-run.
Did you used to spend $30 a week on Starbucks runs 4 times a week? Or did you mindlessly wander through Target when you were just there to buy laundry detergent, but you left with a swimsuit you’ll never wear, a book you’ll never read, and an amazingly good smelling candle you definitely don’t need. (Guilty!)
But because we are all thrown out of our normal, mindless daily routines, it's an amazing time for breaking some of those bad spending habits that we fell into before when the world was our oyster.
What are some of your old spending and shopping behaviors that were only hurting your ability to allocate your money and your time to what mattered most to you? Since we are all naturally forced to get away from those sometimes destructive habits, it’s an ideal time for cleansing and for shedding those habits that are not serving us well or our wallets, since many of these habits we’ve been forced to break by the 21/90 rule by being stuck at home anyways.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about re-evaluating your spending priorities during COVID-19.
I spent the last couple days talking about those areas of spending that are most important to you as well as what matters least and what you would be wise to eliminate after COVID. Today, I’m talking about something you might not normally think about when you’re re-evaluating your spending during this time.
What are new categories of spending that you want to prioritize now and after COVID? Many people have returned to old, long forgotten hobbies or projects during this time of quarantine. Maybe you’ve re-discovered your love for reading, or gardening, or working on cars. Hobbies you never seemed to have time for before, but that have been a saving grace for your during this time of pandemic.
So if you’ve been fortunate enough to discover a new hobby or re-discover an old hobby, think about how you want to continue to allocate your time and your money to this new endeavor in the future.
Money spent on activities and hobbies that help bring joy and meaning to our lives are one of the best uses of your money. So if your hobby costs money, be sure that you carve out the necessary funds every week or month or year so you can continue with a hobby that brings you real satisfaction.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about re-evaluating your spending during COVID-19.
Yesterday, I talked about what you’re desperate to spend money on.
Today, I’m talking about the opposite...what you don’t truly value that much and what you can and should let go of after COVID. We all engage in mindless spending, or spending that’s fueled not by what we actually value, but spending that we THINK is necessary to keep up with everyone else.
When it comes to travel, or your coffee run, eating out on the weekends, or your shopping habit, you have, in fact, been living without it and you may now realize it’s not that important to you. Good! That’s something to pay attention to.
Back in February, before Coronavirus posed any real threat to our daily lives, as an experiment I decided to stop wearing jewelry except for my wedding ring, and cut down my makeup & hair routine to just the essentials for about 6 weeks.
What surprised me is that I found it to be very liberating to not be so concerned with wearing jewelry or more makeup than is necessary. I didn’t really have a strong desire to go back to my old routine after my 6 week fast was over. Now I often leave the house with no earrings and little more than mascara. For a really long time, like years,, I’ve wanted a pair of diamond stud earrings. But now I realize I actually prefer wearing little to no jewelry, and I’m like “meh”. Don’t really care that much. Probably lose them anyways.
A greater understanding about what really matters, and what doesn’t matter can be liberating & help you spend your time and financial resources on those areas that do in fact matter the most to you and forget about the areas of waste that really should just go.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about re-evaluating your spending during COVID-19. Despite the difficulties of this time, it’s an amazing opportunity to really think about the areas of spending in your life that are most important to you, as well as those areas that are least important.
I think a useful exercise is to think about 2 or 3 things that you miss the most right now? If the economy opened up tomorrow and Coronavirus disappeared, what are you desperate to spend money on? What do you miss the most right now?
Whatever you’re dying to spend money on can be a strong indicator of the types of spending that are meaningful to you and bring you the most joy. This answer is unique to everyone, but too many of us throw money at things that we don’t really value, and the problem with that is that money is a limited resource. So when you spend your hard-earned money on something that isn’t really that important to you, it prevents you from using it for something that will bring you joy, satisfaction, and more fulfillment.
For me, it’s actually really hard to come up with something that I’m desperate to spend money on. I miss eating out at certain places and I wonder when I’ll travel again, but if I had to pick something though, I would pick getting my hair done. I will be texting my hair dresser the moment I get a whiff that hair salons are opening again where I live. It’s something I could do without or do for less money, but I miss getting my hair done...a lot. And the box haircolor that I used last month is terrible at covering grays. But Joni is much better at covering my grays with beautiful color and I very much long to see her and that color brush or hers once again.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about re-evaluating your spending priorities during COVID-19. With so many restrictions on travel, eating out, and closed stores, this is a unique time to really think about the areas of spending in your life that are most important to you, as well as those areas that are least important.
Today, I’m talking about spending needs vs. wants vs. wishes. Understanding the difference between each of these categories and where something falls into is very important, yet the lines are often so blurred between needs, wants and wishes, that certain spending categories can become needs in our minds when they're really a non-essential item.
If you’re experiencing financial difficulty during this time, or if you have faced financial hardships in the past, you learn quickly the difference between needs, wants, and wishes. So I encourage you to use this time to think about your spending habits and your stuff. Is there anything in your life that needs to go? Anything that needs to be downsized or traded in for a more simple, less expensive alternative?
You may have been used to getting your nails done every 2 weeks and it was something that you HAD to keep up on...until now. Maybe this time has shown you that spending an hour and 40 bucks in a salon twice a month was not a great use of your time and your money. Maybe this crisis has helped you realize that your car or your house or even just your gym membership, your NBA season tickets, or your spotify premium subscription are a luxury that have become a burden that you really just don’t value that much and it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
With all the talk of essential vs. non-essential businesses and activities, I encourage you to use this time to think through the essential (the needs) vs. the non-essential wants and wishes and allow this time to re-shape your intentionality with your spending as we move forward and begin to re-open the economy and opportunities for spending money re-emerge.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
With so many restrictions on travel, eating out, closed stores, this is a unique time to think about the areas of spending in your life that are most important, as well as those areas that are least important. One of the great opportunities of this current crisis is that it takes an evaluation of your spending from a hypothetical exercise to a real-world reality.
So this week, I’m sharing with you how you can discern what areas of your spending really matter to you, and what you may just want to permanently leave behind to your pre-COVID days.
Despite the difficulty of this time, we are also all given a really unique gift to truly reflect on the areas of your life in general that matter most, but as it relates to this week’s topic and this show - your spending. What do you miss and long for and what could you truly live without. Because the fact is, when it comes to travel, or your coffee run, eating out on the weekends, or your shopping habit, you have in fact been living without it and you may now realize it’s not that important to you.
So let’s not go back to normal when this pandemic is over, but rather use this time as an opportunity to let go of the areas of spending that we don’t miss that much, and be more intentional about spending money from here on out. Your wallet today and your long-term financial security tomorrow will thank you.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about your legacy. You are literally writing your legacy every single day with how you live your life and the impact you make on those around you...scary isn’t it!? But there are also several intentional ways you can leave your legacy and make a lasting impact on your loved ones. I talked about several of those ideas for leaving your legacy this week.
Many people think about legacy in terms of helping pay for grandkids college or leaving your coveted beach house to your kids, or your coveted vintage record collection to your favorite niece and that’s where the thought of legacy ends...with the stuff.
So this week, my goal was to help you go deeper into the process of thinking through your legacy and how you want to be remembered.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Write Your Obituary...It’s More Fun Than It Sounds
- Make A Scrapbook For Your Kids
- Write Your 90th Birthday Speech
- Make a Legacy Video For Your Family
- Decide On Your Charitable Bequest Now
The beauty with all of these exercises is that they matter and will be meaningful...most of them are easy to get done and in the process, you’ll discover more about your priorities and what’s most important to you.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have at least one good idea of a legacy you want to implement and what you really want to be remembered for, and my ultimate hope is that you take action to document your own legacy for your loved ones.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. And if you want more in-depth videos on retirement, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Re-evaluating Your Spending During COVID-19. With so many restrictions on travel, eating out, closed stores, this is a unique time to think about the areas of spending in your life that are most important, as well as those areas that are least important. Once of the great opportunities of this current crisis is that it takes an evaluation of your spending from a hypothetical exercise to a real-world exercise. What will you permanently cut back on or cut out? Let’s not go back to normal when this is over, but rather use this time as an opportunity to let go of the areas of spending that we don’t miss that much and be more intentional about spending from here on out. That’s what I’ll be covering next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several creative and meaningful ways you can leave a legacy.
Today, I’m talking about deciding on your bequest now. If you look up the definition of bequest, the definition is legacy. A bequest is the act of giving assets such as stocks, bonds, jewelry, and cash, to individuals or organizations, through the provisions of a will or an estate plan. Bequests can be made to family members, friends, institutions, or charities.
Since we’ve been talking about your legacy this week, a big part of that is obviously what happens to your stuff. And with this COVID health crisis top of mind for so many of us, it’s an excellent time to think through what you want your financial legacy to be.
Most people don’t have an up to date will and estate plan, even famous celebrities with complicated mistakes famously make big blunders in this area. But being intentional about your bequests and your legacy will help ensure that the memories and the assets you leave behind after you’re gone meet your wishes, and hopefully mitigate any potential family in-fighting or strife as a result of unclear wills or an absence of a will or thorough estate plan.
It’s also important to think through the bequests you want to make to those people and organizations outside of your immediate family. What impact do you want to make on your favorite charities or your church? Especially if you have financial assets that will outlast you, deciding in advance how you want these assets used for the greater good can ensure that your legacy lives on.
My church has a maintenance trust fund that was funded many years ago by a single donor. This donor has long since died, but his legacy lives on and his generosity is still providing for roof repairs, new lighting, a much needed new sound system installed last year, and hopefully in the next few months, some much needed new carpet in our church. What an outstanding legacy he has left with his generosity to provide well after he passed on from this world.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several creative and meaningful ways you can leave a legacy.
Today, I’m talking about how to make a video for your family. Of all the ideas I’ve shared with you this week, this one is my favorite.
Similar to writing an ethical will or a legacy letter, a video is a different version of basically the same thing. In your legacy video, you share your values, blessings, life's lessons, hopes and dreams for the future, love, and forgiveness with your family. You can take the time to individually share what you love most about each of your family members, and words of encouragement and advice for each of them.
I don’t know about you, but someone communicating with my after they pass from this world with a special message has a real impact, and is something that your loved ones will likely carry with them for the rest of their lives. When you can cement that through video, it has an even greater impact.
There is no right or wrong way to do this, and there are plenty of resources online to help you think through what you want to say and how you want to share it.
Something you’ll definitely want to think through is storage. You’ll want to record and store your message in a way that will last. While there is no best way to store your precious memories, you’ll want to store duplicates of your video in more than one place or in more than one location, where your loved ones will know to look after you pass. Think physical hard drives, or CDs stored in a fire-proof safe or safe deposit box in an external hard drive, CD, or other durable storage method. You can also store things in the cloud, and leave a physical copy and instructions with your estate documents.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several creative and meaningful ways you can leave a legacy.
Today, I’m talking about writing your 90th birthday speech. Imagine your loved ones are all gathered together to celebrate your 90th birthday, and you stand up to give a speech. You want to share the wisdom and life lessons you’ve learned.
If you’ve heard of an ethical will or a legacy letter, that’s essentially what this is. Traditionally something done in Jewish culture, an ethical will or legacy letter, is a way to share your values, blessings, life's lessons, hopes and dreams for the future, love, and forgiveness with your family.
What are the messages and lessons you want to communicate to your family and future generations that you want them to remember? How can they benefit from these lessons? Like writing your own obituary, writing your 90th birthday speech helps you think about your life from the end looking backward.
After 90 years, what do you realize is the most important? Thinking about these things now, and not when you’re 90 or on your deathbed will help you prioritize what’s most important. The most common regret among the dying is not having the courage to live a life true to myself, rather than the life others expected of me. Another top regret was working too much and not staying in touch with friends. Writing that letter now will shine a spotlight on your values, life lessons, and hopes for the future while you still have time to make changes.
Plus, if you write this legacy letter and store it in a place where it will be found after you die, you will be able to communicate these important things to your loved ones if you were to die suddenly, experience a cognitive decline, or otherwise miss the opportunity to share your reflections and wisdom later on.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about leaving your legacy. What’s your legacy going to be? It’s not just about helping pay for your grandkids college, leaving your IRA and the coveted beach house to your kids. Legacy goes so much deeper than that, so this week I’m sharing with you creative and meaningful ways you can leave your legacy, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with the money you leave behind.
Today, I’m talking about making a scrapbook for your kids. When I was in high school and college, I got really into scrapbooking. I’ve always loved taking photos and so I would chronologically compile those photos into albums sorted by year, complete with fancy paper, stickers, embellishments, and journaling. Those scrapbooks are tucked away right now, and I’ve lost contact with most of my high school and college friends, but the memories of everything from 9/11 to the 3 weeks I spent backpacking in Maine are preserved there.
A few years ago, my mother in law lovingly created little scrapbooks for her 2 sons for Christmas. In them she shared 10 things she loved about them, and included some notes and details along with some photos. The scrapbooks were simple, beautiful and made both of her grown-men sons cry.
The beauty of a scrapbook is that it can be as fancy or as simple as you like. And with so many themes and directions you can go here, you can really let your creative juices flow. But a place to start is just a simple blank spiral bound book with your thoughts and journaling about your favorite top 5 or top 10 memories of each of your kids. Throw in some photos and you have a gift for your child that they will cherish.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about leaving your legacy. It’s not just about helping pay for your grandkids college, leaving your IRA and the coveted beach house to your kids. Legacy goes so much deeper than that, so this week I’m sharing with you creative and meaningful ways you can leave your legacy, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with the money you leave behind.
Today, I’m talking about writing your obituary. Sounds morbid, right? I actually did this myself and it was a fun and enlightening exercise. For starters, you get to choose how and when you die. I chose a very uneventful dying in my sleep well into my 90s. So I didn’t have to deal with grief, I also decided that I would die first.
But writing your own obituary forces you to think about your life from the point of view of those closest to you. What would they say? What would they remember? What would they point in in the obituary that was unique to you. What would you want them to say. What things would you want to be included in your obituary that you haven’t yet accomplished.
Writing your own obituary helps you to think about your life from the end of your life looking back, which is powerful in putting the right things into perspective. In writing my own obituary, I discovered that I wanted to be known by others as someone who was always laughing and making others laugh with a wise crack or a joke, having uncompromised integrity, being a great listener (which is something I’m still working on), and that my whole life was ordered to the love and service of God. I also don’t retire until I’m 75, which surprised me a bit, and I discovered that I’d really like to spend my later working years writing and speaking as much as possible. And of course, in lieu of flowers, you can make a donation to my charitable foundation, which does not yet exist.
I found this exercise to be meaningful, fun, and help shine a light on what’s truly important in life. It takes all of about 10 minutes of reflection, and 20 minutes of writing, with the goal that it’s this free-flowing exercise that you don’t overthink. So I hope you’ll carve out 30 minutes this week to write your own obituary.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
Last fall, I was at a conference where one of the breakout sessions discussed some really creative and powerful ways you can leave your children with so much more than your house and a few dollars in your IRA when you pass from this world. The presenter gave some really creative and innovative ideas for leaving a legacy, a couple of which I have implemented myself, and all of which I’ve seen implemented by others.
Legacy is important, because the reality is, every one of us will leave a legacy. Even though your name probably won’t be on a hospital wing or a concert hall, it’s still important to think through how you want to be remembered and what gifts you want to leave with your family when you pass on from this world.
So this week, I’m sharing with you several creative and meaningful ways you can leave your legacy.
Being intentional about your legacy also has an impact on your life today, and how it helps you prioritize what really matters and the impact you want to make on the people you care about the most. I had this experience myself when I went through the exercise of writing my own obituary a couple months ago. It was a real eye-opener and it spotlighted something that was important to me that I wasn’t really aware of until I went through this exercise.
So tomorrow I’ll share with you what it’s like to write your own obituary (which is actually pretty fun), and then the rest of this week I’ll share with you additional ways you can leave your legacy and in the process, discover what’s most important to you in life and give some pretty amazing gifts to your loved ones.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about stress testing your retirement. You can’t just plan for retirement hoping for the best, so I spent each day this week talking about some likely scenarios - stress tests if you will - that you should throw at your existing retirement plan.
Each of these scenarios have the potential to derail your retirement, and just like a cardiac stress test helps to pinpoint problems in a controlled clinical environment, a retirement stress test runs controlled tests on your retirement portfolio to see the potential holes in your plan and address them before they lead to major issues down the road.
Here are the stress tests that we covered in each episode this week:
- Cuts To Your Social Security Check
- HIgher inflation
- A bear market meltdown
- Living to age 100
- And, needing long-term care
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a better idea of the stress tests you should consider running on your retirement, and how you should approach each of these what-if scenarios.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. And if you want more in-depth videos on retirement, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Leaving Your Legacy. What does leaving a legacy mean to you? Leaving a legacy is so much more than giving your IRA account and your house to your kids. What’s the legacy you want to leave to your family and your kids beyond your assets and a few family heirlooms. How do you want to be remembered? Last fall, I went to a breakout session at a conference that shared some really creative and powerful ways you can leave your children with so much more than the memories and a few dollars in your IRA when you pass from this world.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several types of stress tests that you should run on your retirement portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about stress testing your retirement with a long-term care health event. According to a 2017 study by AARP, if you’re 65 or older, there is a 52% chance that you will need some type of long-term care in your lifetime. 52%. Toss a coin and it could go either way. So the odds are pretty high.
The median annual cost for long-term care ranges from $18,000 for adult day care to $97,000 for a private room in a nursing home.
If you require long-term care for an extended period or if you develop dementia or Altzheimer’s, the costs skyrocket. The estimated lifetime cost of care for someone with dementia is $341,840.
And 15% of us will spend more than $250,000 on long-term care in our lifetime.
That’s a big drain on your portfolio in retirement, so ignoring the impact and likelihood that you’ll need long-term care at some point, perhaps at considerable expense, could completely derail your retirement, and if you don’t recover, the costs associated with extended long-term care expenses can devastate your surviving spouse.
The problem with long-term care is that most people simply can’t afford to pay the premiums that come with purchasing a long-term care insurance policy. But if you’re in the sweet spot of having enough income to afford a policy, yet you aren’t so wealthy that a long-term care health event costing $250,000 or more would still devastate your retirement portfolio, then looking into buying long-term care insurance policy would be a smart move.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several types of stress tests that you should run on your retirement portfolio. Just like a stress test in the cardiologist’s office, a controlled test on your retirement portfolio helps you see the potential holes in your plan and address them before they lead to major issues down the road.
Today, I’m talking about the longevity problem. Most good plans for retirement should project your money to last at least age 85 or 90. But what if you need your money to last longer than that? Could your portfolio go the distance for another 10 or 15 years?
Most people don’t expect to live well into their 80s or 90s, but if you’re 65 years old today and married, there’s nearly a 1 in 10 chance that one of you will live to be 100. And you have about a 30% chance of living to age 90.
So while it’s unlikely you’ll live to age 100, you want to at least plan to need your money to last until age 90. That way if you live longer than you expect, your portfolio doesn’t run out before your ticker stops ticking.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several types of stress tests that you should run on your retirement portfolio.
Today, I’m talking about the most common stress test that probably comes to mind when you think about a stress test on your retirement or your investment portfolio, and unfortunately, it’s also the only kind of stress test that anyone ever bothers to run on their retirement. And that is the bear market meltdown stress test.
What happens to your retirement if your investment portfolio loses 25, 30, or 35%? A big bear market loss, especially in the first few years of retirement can be devastating.
The most important thing you can do is understand your risk of a big portfolio loss. The more in stocks you have, the more susceptible you are to this risk, but it’s a balance because while you need to protect yourself from the roller coaster of the stock market, you need to have enough in stocks to provide growth to keep up with your withdrawals and the continued cost of living increases in retirement from inflation.
Another way you can protect yourself is to have enough in cash so you can suspend your withdrawals for 6, 12, or 18 months and let your portfolio recover.
The good news about this type of stress test is that it’s one of the easiest to calculate. If you have $1,000,000 at retirement, but 2 years later it drops 25% and you have $750,000 and it takes a few years to recover the loss, can you make adjustments to preserve what you have. What would you be willing to do? Go back to work part time? Reduce your spending? The danger with a bear market drop is that your withdrawals from your investments make the losses worse and can cause permanent damage, making it more difficult if not impossible for your investments to recover to their previous value.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several types of stress tests that you should run on your retirement portfolio. Just like a stress test in the cardiologist’s office, a controlled test on your retirement portfolio helps you see the potential holes in your plan and address them before they lead to major issues down the road.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important stress tests you should run on your retirement: higher inflation. We’ve all been lulled into complacency about inflation. If you’re younger than 45-50, you probably don’t remember first-hand the damage that high inflation can do to your cost of living. Imagine paying a mortgage on your home where the interest rate was 16%! If you bought a house in 1981, that was the average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage that year.
But let’s not kid ourselves, inflation is not a thing of the past. It’s a very real and continuous threat that any conscientious person planning for their retirement would be well-advised to seriously consider the risks of higher inflation.
With higher inflation, the cost of everything goes up - food, gas, housing, travel, clothing - everything. And when you’re living on a fixed income in retirement, that becomes a problem, because you would either have to cut back your lifestyle and spending or withdraw more from your investments, which your portfolio may not be able to maintain for the long-haul.
Inflation is also a double-edged sword because in addition to your cost of living going up, your portfolio takes a hit as well. Retirees tend to have more of their money invested in bonds and cash, which after inflation, net you lower returns. So you have increased expenses in conjunction with a portfolio that’s producing lower returns in real dollars.
So a good place to start is to stress test reasonable levels of inflation, not wild Venezuela-style, 53 million percent increase in inflation. But if your cost of living was going up 4 or 5% a year for 5-10 years or more, can your investment portfolio in retirement keep up with the higher cost of living without you putting yourself at risk of running out of money?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you several types of stress tests that you should run on your retirement portfolio. Just like a stress test in the cardiologist’s office, a controlled test on your retirement portfolio helps you see the potential holes in your plan and address them before they lead to major issues down the road.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most common fears among retirees - cuts to social security. My clients fret about this all the time, and for good reason - if you’re the average American worker, social security makes up about 40% of your income in retirement. With it being such a big source of income for many of us, potential cuts to social security is a big deal and would be catastrophic for many.
Just like a wasteful and frivolous trust fund baby who has squandered every last dime of their inheritance, the U.S. has done the same thing. The social security trust fund is projected to go broke in just 15 years - in 2035.
For a variety of reasons, and mostly because it will be so unpopular to address, lawmakers just keep kicking the can down the road, and will keep doing so until social security is in a true crisis and must be addressed. Which looks to be about 15 years away.
What’s important for retirees to realize is that with so many Americans dependent on social security, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll see cuts to your social security once you start collecting your check. So I don’t think it’s a reasonable stress test to perform if you’re really close to retirement or if you’re already receiving benefits, because it’s just so unlikely that the rug will get pulled out from under you.
However if you’re 35 like me, or even 45 or 55, running a stress test on your retirement that includes what would happen if social security is lower than you planned (perhaps 10-20% lower) or that you can’t collect social security until you turn 70) is a worthwhile stress test. In all likelihood, the empty trust fund will be replaced with a combination of tax increases on working Americans and a delay in the age in which you can receive benefits. So what would happen to your plan for retirement if your monthly check were 10 or 20% lower or your couldn’t take social security until age 70. If you’re 55 years old or younger, it’s a worthwhile stress test to run on your retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week’s topic is: Stress test your retirement. If you’ve ever had a stress test on your heart, you know exactly what I’m talking about. A cardiac stress test is a test that measures your heart's ability to respond to external stress in a controlled clinical environment. Under the careful monitoring of your doctor, they can see what your heart can withstand that can guide future decisions and treatments.
Well, you can do the same type of controlled test on your retirement portfolio to see the potential holes in your plan and address them before they lead to major issues down the road.
You can’t just plan for retirement hoping for the best, so I’m spending each day this week talking about some likely scenarios - stress tests if you will - that you can throw at your existing retirement plan that could derail it.
Just like the coronavirus pandemic was out of the blue and unexpected, the same is true for other types of derailments - like will you be okay if your social security checks get cut or if inflation is higher than you planned for. Or what happens to you if your investment portfolio drops 25-30% or more 3 years into retirement.
The point is not to scare yourself, but to better understand how these types of events could alter your planned course in retirement and think through the options if such an event occurs. Thinking through a stress test in advance will help you logically process the what-if or worst-case scenario in a low-stress, controlled environment so you can rationally prepare for how to deal with these events that you might face down the road.
So this week, I’ll walk you through the important exercise of the what-ifs so you can do like your cardiologist and stress test your own retirement.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money. I have a 5 year old, a 2 year old, and another one coming in September, and since I help people save, invest, and retire with confidence, and I do that for a living day in and day out, I’ve thought a lot about the important life lessons that I want to teach my kids to set them up for success in life when it comes to their relationship with money.
As I mentioned earlier this week, what I plan to teach my kids and what I have been teaching them about money places the highest priority on teaching gratitude, responsibility, delayed gratification, incentives, investing, saving, and giving.
The bottom line here is that Money is an instrument for good or evil, not good or evil on its own. Some people say “money is the root of all evil”. That comes from the bible, but its a misnomer, because the actual translation from the King James version of the bible says: “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil”, which is obviously very different.
So I believe that money is a powerful tool for teaching children essential skills and moral values about money’s proper place and how to be responsible with their money, and that’s what the lessons for my kids are based on.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Give and save before you spend
- A twist on money doesn’t grow on trees
- Money is earned, not a birthright
- Debt is a prison to be avoided, not a means to fund a lifestyle
- And lastly, the rule of 72
Hopefully, after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you picked up a couple of ideas and principles that can help you in shaping your child’s healthy relationship with money. It’s never too late to start teaching your kids, especially if they are still under your roof at home.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. If you want more in-depth videos on retirement planning specifically for business owners and entrepreneurs, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Stress test your retirement. I’ll talk about scenarios you’ll want to run on your retirement plan to see if it can take the heat. You can just plan for retirement hoping for the best, so I’ll talk about some smart scenarios you can throw at your existing retirement plan - like will you be okay if your social security checks get cut or if inflation is higher than you planned for. I’ll talk about the most common and important stress tests you can run on your retirement, next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money.
Today, is the only lesson about investing that I’m sharing this week, and in my opinion it’s the most important lesson you can teach your kids about investing. And older kids, especially ones who like math, will really enjoy learning this lesson. It’s the rule of 72. The Rule of 72 is a simple way to determine how long an investment will take to double given a annual rate of return. By dividing 72 by the annual rate of return, you can get a rough estimate of how many years it will take for your investment to double in value.
So for example, let’s say you are looking at investing you money in a savings account or the stock market. A savings account that pays 2% over it’s lifetime will take 36 years for that investment to double in value. 72 divided by the 2% rate of return = 36, so it will take 36 years to double in value. Yikes!
On the other hand, you could invest in a diversified stock portfolio that we expect to earn 8%. Using the rule of 72, you divide 72 by 8, and you get 9 years. Only 9 years to double your money compared to 36 with the “safe” savings account.
The rule of 72 illustrates how rates of return apply in the real world. Many people struggle to translate a return of 2% or a credit card annualized interest rate of 24% into real numbers, and understanding the rule of 72 helps kids and adults alike understand this important concept.
Importantly, the rule of 72 also shows the consequences of being too conservative with your investments and stashing it under the mattress, which is a mistake that I see many young people make when I’m working with them through their company’s 401k plan where I serve as their plan’s advisor.
Once you understand the rule of 72, kids can be taught about the power of compound interest, which is something I like to call the 8th wonder of the world. Compound interest is a big part why the rich get richer, since as wealth grows, it accelerates and grows like a snowball gathering snow as it barrels down the hill. It’s also responsible for why people struggle to dig out of the hole they’re in when debts increase.
So teach your kids about the rule of 72. It’s a fun way to use math and apply it to the real world to help them understand compounding interest and the power of growth on their investments.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money. Today’s money lesson for my kids is debt is a prison to be avoided, not a means to fund a lifestyle.
Between student loans and access to credit cards, most young adults become burdened with at least some debt before they fully understand what that debt will mean for them over the long-term and how they’re going to go about paying it off.
In addition to credit card debt and student loans, many young Americans add car loans and a mortgage to the debt load by the time they’re 30. Then throw in the expense of a couple kids and it’s no wonder that 40% of Americans have virtually no emergency savings and 15% of us have nothing at all saved for retirement.
So what can we do as parents to prepare our kids for life in the real world and help them understand that debt all too often becomes a prison? There are lots of ways you can teach your children about debt, but one of the things that we’ll be implementing in our family is that at a certain age, our children will be expected to pay for large, discretionary purchases that they can’t afford through work and/or loans. Loans for new purchases that they can’t afford to buy on their own that will include interest and repayment schedules.
If you think it’s harsh to play the banker to your children, repaying a loan teaches several important lessons about debt. First of all, you can calculate and show them the ongoing repayment schedules so they can see in advance how those loan repayments will impact their cash flow and their ability to buy other things, since their money is spoken for and they must pay the bank first. Second, you can show them how interest payments increase the overall cost of the purchase, and third, they can learn to be resourceful to work for pay to pay off the loan sooner.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money. Today’s money lesson for my kids is perhaps one of the most important lessons you could ever teach your children about money - regardless of life’s circumstances and social class, and that is: money is earned, it’s not a birthright.
Many children today don't grow up learning the dignity of work and earning money. Everything from basic needs to clothes, new shoes, toys, bikes, phones, etc is purchased for them 100%. When we give our children these things without giving them an opportunity to learn the value of working for these possessions, and when we deprive them of the pride that comes with purchasing and caring for those things, we do them a tremendous disservice.
Instead, by expecting children to work for pay and purchase many of their own things they are taught to be responsible, to be grateful for what they do have, and are less likely to fall victim to one of the worst vices plaguing many Americans today - materialism.
In practice, this translates to several parenting choices:
- Children must work and do age appropriate chores around the house to earn their weekly allowance, which if you heard my earlier tip this week, it’s a whopping $1/week for my 5 year old, but that will grow with time as her responsibilities around the house grow and she takes on more.
- If my 5 year old wants to buy something at the store when we go shopping, she needs to bring her own money and pick out something to buy herself that she can afford. I will occasionally buy my kids a treat when we’re at the store, but that’s an exception, rather than the rule. This has already paid tremendous dividends, because my kids never whine about something that they want when we are out shopping and it saves me a lot of aggravation.
- And 3rd, outside of special occasions like birthdays and holidays, I rarely buy my kids new toys and new stuff. So they aren’t conditioned to expect new things all the time, and when they want something, especially something big like a bike, they know they have to wait until their birthday to get a bike.
If you still have kids at home, teaching them through your actions and parenting choices that money is earned, and it’s not a birthright is one of the most valuable life lessons you can teach them.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money. Today’s money lesson for my kids is a twist on one of the most annoying lessons that almost all of us hear as kids. If you’ve ever asked your mom or dad to buy you something they couldn’t afford, you’ve mostly heard them bark back - “don’t you know that money doesn’t grow on trees!”
What I’m planning to teach my kids is a slightly less annoying lesson with the same underlying principle: Money used in one way prevents it from being used for something else.
Money is a limited resource, so when we use it in one way it prevents it for being used for something else. If I spend $5 every day on a latte and $500 eating out every month, I may not be able to afford to take a vacation this year. The daily latte and frequent restaurant visits isn’t inherently wrong, but I better make those decisions to spend my money in that way, because I get more satisfaction from spending my money in that way vs. sitting on a beach in Hawaii for a week.
With the guiding principle in understanding that money is a limited resource, and when you use it in one way, it prevents it for using something else, something else that could potentially be more important.
Spending decisions (even the seemingly inconsequential daily spending decisions on a little something here and there) should be subject to the scrutiny of this understanding of what am I missing out on or is there a higher or better use for my money that what I’m choosing to spend it on.
Learning this principle will also reinforce one of the most important life lessons that any child can learn - delayed gratification. If my kids learn to discern whether or not a current use is more valuable than a future use, they’ll be able to apply the value of delayed gratification.
Money is a powerful tool for teaching delayed gratification, and understanding money as a limited resource that doesn’t grow on trees and something that must be used wisely, will establish a foundation for your children for making smart, well thought out decisions in everything from money to relationships to their health.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money. I have 2 young children and a 3rd on the way, so there are some things I need to wait until later to teach my kids, but one of the first things you can begin to teach your kids, even when they’re toddlers, is today’s lesson: Give and save before you spend.
More specifically, I am teaching my kids about how to allocate their piggy bank funds into 3 categories - giving, saving, & spending. My daughter receives a whopping $1/week in allowance, and she receives that allowance in dimes. We’ve taught her to allocate 10% to giving, 10% to saving, and the rest she can split as she chooses.
To help keep this visual and easier to understand for young kids, there are a lot of compartmentalized piggy banks that will allow your kids to separate the funds on their own. It’s important to me that my kids prioritize giving and saving, rather than just hoarding all their money for themselves. If you have older kids, there are a lot of apps and tools out there to let them create the same buckets in their bank account or online wallet separate their funds in the same way.
Allocating their allowance builds a foundation for kids to be generous in serving the poor, delaying gratification and saving up for larger purchases, as well as establishing ratios for saving and giving that will be important for them to continue into adulthood.
On top of that, research shows that being generous makes you happier, and I see that in action as my daughter lights up when she gets to contribute her giving funds to the collection basket at church or when she gets to help me buy a toy for a needy child at Christmas. She is so happy that that little boy or girl had a more joyful Christmas because of her generosity, and she already has a big heart for the poor even though she isn’t in Kindergarten and can’t yet read.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about 5 things I’m going to teach my kids about money. I have a 5 ½ year old, a 2 ½ year old, and a 3rd on the way, arriving in September. If you still have kids at home or even if you have grandkids, hopefully you’ve taught them a few principles about money through your words and your actions.
Too many young adults are released into adulthood with no clue how to handle money the right way. Few parents and few schools teach the next generation this critical life skill, and yet the world is eager to create materialistic, debt-loving consumers. So instilling the right money values are vitally important from both a practical and a moral standpoint.
Now I have to warn you, my views on money are somewhat counter-cultural, so you’ll hear a different perspective than your typical advice for teaching kids about money. My views on money are also highly influenced by my faith, so you’ll see biblical principles threaded through these tips as well. As a side note, if you are a Christian yourself, I highly recommend that you read the book Money, Possessions, and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn. This book serves as the most comprehensive guide I’ve ever read about what the bible says about money. This book changed my life, and has had a massive influence on the principles that guide our family’s decisions about: Lifestyle, Income, & Work, Giving, Wealth & Estate Transfer, and the topic of this week’s tips - what I plan to teach my kids about money.
What I plan to teach my kids about money places the highest priority on teaching gratitude, responsibility, delayed gratification, incentives, investing, saving, and giving, and I’ll be addressing all of these principles in this week’s tips. Money is a powerful tool for teaching young people about so many important life lessons and values that will serve them well throughout life, so if you have kids still at home or even grandkids, I hope you’ll benefit from the tips and ideas that I’ll be sharing this week.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about some of the best and most unique financial planning opportunities available during this coronavirus crisis. There are several tried-and-true opportunities that present themselves in nearly every crisis and market downturn, but there are also several that are unique to this current crisis.
Today I’m talking about one of those unique opportunities that has presented itself during this current crisis. If you have kids in college, who have received tuition refunds because they’re not in school right now, you can actually re-invest those refunds back into a 529 plan. If you receive a refund for funds paid from a 529 plan, you have 60 days to roll those funds back into a 529 plan.
The advantage of doing this is that you could reinvest those funds at lower values because the stock market has dropped or if you’re going to take the funds back out within a few months, even just putting the money into short-term bonds to earn some interest while you wait and see when they’ll be able to return to school is a good plan, because any earnings and growth will be tax free.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about some of the best and most unique financial planning opportunities available during this coronavirus crisis. There are several tried-and-true opportunities that present themselves in nearly every crisis and market downturn, but there are also several that are unique to this current crisis.
Today I’m talking about perhaps the most tried-and-true opportunities that exist in every stock market and economic downturn - the opportunity to invest while the market is low and while bargains abound.
But how do you actually go about doing that? Well, first of all you have to have the funds to do it. So if you have excess funds in cash or in your bank account that aren’t earmarked for emergencies or what’s needed for a small cash stockpile, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get that cash to work!
You could also rotate already invested money out of bonds and other investments and into stocks if it makes sense in your situation.
But when you have cash to invest we want to get that invested. There are 2 ways to go about that. You could throw a dart and hope that the market doesn’t get worse from here and invest it all at once. Or and especially if you have a lot of cash on the sidelines, it’s prudent to invest gradually over a period of 3-6 months. That way if the market drops further you sidestepped some losses, but still got that cash to work while the stock market was going through it’s bottoming process. You could invest gradually over a longer period than 3-6 months, but that of course is up to you.
The key is that you put a plan in place to get that cash to work that doesn’t include the losing strategy of waiting until things look better before you invest. If you wait until you see blue skies, the stock market is likely to be much higher by then and you’ll have missed a massive opportunity.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about some of the best and most unique financial planning opportunities available during this coronavirus crisis. There are several tried-and-true opportunities that present themselves in nearly every crisis and market downturn, but there are also several that are unique to this current crisis.
One thing about a global pandemic is that it gets us to think about our own mortality and what would happen if we or a loved one became sick, hospitalized, or died during this time.
Rather than fretting and wasting time worrying about things we can’t control, a renewed focus on your own health and mortality is an excellent opportunity to revisit your health care directives. And while you’re at it you might consider updating your estate plan as well. Most of us have woefully outdated wills, or worse nothing at all in place. And it’s a real possibility that your health care directives don’t even match with what you want your family to do if you are no longer able to make healthcare decisions for yourself.
So save you and your family the heartache and uncertainty down the road of not having up to date directives and estate plan documents, and get those in place now. If God-forbid you become sick or die from this virus, you’ll be glad you took action now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about some of the best and most unique financial planning opportunities available during this coronavirus crisis. There are several tried-and-true opportunities that present themselves in nearly every crisis and market downturn, but there are also several that are unique to this current crisis.
Today I’m talking about an opportunity that fits both the tried and true criteria, as well as something that’s completely unique to this current crisis:
Slashing your expenses.
This is an opportunity that requires some legwork and resourcefulness on your part, but if you can take advantage of it, it can be a big help during this economic crisis.
When times are good, we often don’t get loose with our finances, spend more and don’t keep close tabs on our spending. But in times of crisis, especially if your income has dropped or you’re laid off, you’re forced to cut back. Slashing your expenses can be as simple as looking at your budget and the money that goes out the door every month to get rid of some of the unnecessary luxuries and cut back, but with this current crisis, there are several additional opportunities.
The place to start once you’ve cut out the unnecessary is with your debt payments. A lot of credit card companies are offering some relief to reduce or delay payments, reduce interest rates, and so on, and the same is true for student loans and mortgage and rent in certain areas. The rules for 401k loans and hardship withdrawals have also been relaxed, making it easier to take a loan.
The key is doing your homework to find out what’s available for you and contacting your credit card company, mortgage company, etc. to see what the options are in your situation so you can decide what’s best for you.
But remember, any debts you have are unlikely to be forgiven...you’re just kicking the can down the road in most cases to stop the bleeding now, but you’ll still have to pay later, so you should only defer or delay payments if your situation necessitates it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about some of the best and most unique financial planning opportunities available during this coronavirus crisis. There are several tried-and-true opportunities that present themselves in nearly every crisis and market downturn, but there are also several that are unique to this current crisis.
Today I’m talking about one of those tried and true opportunities that should be on your radar during every market downturn - Roth conversions.
I’ve talked about the Roth on the One Minute Retirement Tip more times than I can count, and for good reason. Once your retirement dollars are in the Roth, it’s not taxed again. The rules allow you to convert any dollar amount from your 401k and IRA balances into a Roth, but there’s a catch. Whatever amount you convert to the Roth, you owe taxes on.
The big tax bite keeps many people from taking advantage of Roth conversions in a meaningful way, thus subjecting themselves to often substantial future tax liabilities because of future required withdrawals from non-converted IRA or 401k accounts.
But when the value of your 401k or IRA drops because of a market downturn, you now have an opportunity to get more money into a Roth, because you can now convert a bigger percentage of your IRA and 401k balances to Roth than you would have otherwise been able to when those account values were higher.
Not sure if a Roth conversion is right for you? As a thank you to all of my loyal listeners, I’ll run the numbers for you to help you decide if a Roth conversion makes sense for you. Just email me your age, the amount you want to convert, and your expected income for 2020, and I will run a Roth conversion calculation and help you interpret the results.
Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com - again with your age, the amount you want to convert to Roth, and your 2020 expected income. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about some of the best financial planning opportunities you can take advantage of during COVID-19. Market crashes aren’t just a time for buying low or taking advantage of the obvious planning opportunities like tax-loss harvesting.
So this week, I’m sharing with you some lesser-known planning opportunities that have come out of this current coronavirus crisis. Planning opportunities abound in everything from health care directives to budgeting to Roth conversions, and you may only have a short window of time to implement some of these strategies. While we can’t control the spread of the coronavirus, or massive unemployment, we do want to focus on what we can control - and that’s our own behavior.
When you keep the focus on controlling what you can control and not getting too caught up in trying to change reality or wishing things were different, we can use our energy to see opportunity and seize it when and where appropriate. So I’ll be talking about several unique opportunities and whether or not you’re a good candidate for each one.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the importance of recognizing the predictable emotional patterns of the stock market to help you identify approximately where the stock market is at any given time, but especially to help you understand what a market bottoming process looks like.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Emotions That Define A Stock Market Bottom
- The timing of a bottoming process and How Long Will Stocks Remain This Low?
- 3 Unique Opportunities In Stock Market Crashes
- How Warren Buffet Made $10 Billion During the Last Stock Market Crash
- The Complete Stock Market Emotional Cycle
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you can recognize stock market crashes for what they really are: incredible opportunities. So when the rest of the world feels hopeless and depressed, take comfort in knowing that we are at or near the bottom. And hope and optimism are around the corner.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. If you want more in-depth videos on retirement planning specifically for business owners and entrepreneurs, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Top Financial Planning Opportunities To Take Advantage of During COVID-19. Market crashes aren’t just a time for buying low or taking advantage of the obvious planning opportunities like tax-loss harvesting. I’ll share with you some lesser-known planning opportunities that have come out of this current coronavirus crisis. Planning opportunities abound in everything from health care directives to budgeting to Roth conversions, and you may only have a short window of time to implement some of these strategies. So I’ll talk about several of these unique opportunities in next week’s tips.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about stock market crashes and the predictable emotional pattern that all crashes follow.
Today, I’m bringing this conversation full circle, by talking about the complete emotional pattern of stock markets. So far, I’ve only talked about the emotions during a bottoming process, but it’s important to recognize what it looks like when then market comes out from the depths of the bottom and starts its inevitable climb again. Because in this crisis, it’s not a matter of if, it’s when that will happen.
The climb out from the bottom starts with hope. Signs appear that maybe the world won’t come to an end after all. After hope comes relief, then optimism.
After the financial crisis, it wasn’t until around 2012 before investors really started to feel optimistic about the future again. The housing market was still in rough shape and employment was still elevated at 8%. It was a long, slow, hard recovery coming out of the last recession and it took years for real optimism to return. Of course, by then if you waited until you started to feel optimistic to jump back into the market, you missed a massive opportunity, since the stock market bottomed over 3 years prior and had more than doubled in value since the lows in 2009.
Following optimism, excitement starts to enter as investors start to feel really good about the stock market. The emotions following optimism are in order: enthusiasm, exuberance, until finally at the top you have euphoria. The best example of euphoria was with the housing market in 2005. I was thinking about buying my first house around that time and looking at housing prices, and was hearing things like, if I don’t buy soon, I may never be able to afford to buy a house, because housing would only go up from there. Of course that was far from the truth, but I remember worrying that I would miss the opportunity to buy a home.
So it’s just as important to understand the emotions of a bull market, because the point of euphoria and the top of the stock market also marks the point of maximum risk.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about stock market crashes and the predictable emotional pattern that all crashes follow. If you know how to spot a stock market bottoming process, you’ll be better equipped to take advantage of the amazing opportunities that exist at and near the bottom.
Today I’m talking about how Warren Buffett made $10 billion during the last stock market crash. Buffett called the financial crisis of 2008 an economic pearl harbor. He made investments in struggling companies like Goldman Sachs and General Electric, and his investments paid off big, earning him a profit of $10 billion on those investments in just a few years.
What’s interesting is that he admits he was a little early on those investments. Those investments didn’t pay off right away as he put his chips on the table while the market was still about 6 months shy of the bottom, but the unique nature of his investments may not have made them even possible if he didn’t act when he did.
That’s how the wealthy and savvy investors think. They keep their eyes open for opportunities and are poised to take advantage of them by repositioning other assets or putting cash to work. But even if you don’t have $5 billion laying around like Buffett, his actions during the financial crisis are instructive, because it demonstrates that all investors need to remain open to opportunities, because that’s where the most potential for gain is - at and near the bottom.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about stock market crashes and the predictable emotional pattern that all crashes follow. If you know how to spot a stock market bottoming process, you’ll be better equipped to take advantage of the amazing opportunities that exist at and near the bottom.
Today, I’m talking about 3 opportunities you can use your newfound knowledge of market bottoms to take advantage of.
The first obvious opportunities is rebalancing and rotating money out of bonds and cash and into stocks near the bottom. When you have a diversified portfolio, there are almost always opportunities to add funds to stocks. And if you tend to keep more cash on hand or have a lot of savings in the bank, it’s an incredible opportunity to put that cash to work, assuming you always keep enough cover emergencies that might come up.
A second opportunity that exists near and at the bottom is tax loss harvesting. You may have stocks or funds in taxable investment accounts that now have losses. You can sell these investments as use the losses to offset gains to potentially reduce your tax bill. You can still buy the stocks back, but you have to wait a month, so the risk is that the investment sold climbs significantly while you’re not invested, but regardless, it’s still an opportunity if you have significant losses from a tax standpoint.
A third opportunity is for Roth conversions. Since your IRA balances are now lower than they were last year, you can convert a higher portion of your IRA balance to Roth and pay less taxes.
And a bonus opportunity for anyone taking required minimum distributions from their IRA or inherited IRA balances, those were suspended for this year, which is another tax-saving opportunity.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about stock market crashes and the predictable emotional pattern that all crashes follow. If you know how to spot a stock market bottoming process, you’ll be better equipped to take advantage of the amazing opportunities that exist at and near the bottom.
Yesterday, I laid out the emotions that define stock market bottoms - primarily: surrender, hopelessness, and depression. When the rest of the world is feeling hopeless, it feels like a terrible time to invest, but if you know what the bottom looks like and feels like, these emotions can help you take advantage of the abundance of opportunities at the bottom, or at the very least, help you keep your cool and stay invested during the dark days of market bottoms.
Today I want to talk about the timing of the market bottoming process. And that’s the rub, because the market can pass through these various emotional stages very quickly or very slowly. As I mentioned earlier in the week, my spidey sense tells me that we’ve already passed through the panic stage of the market bottoming process, which in this most recent crisis, happened in mid-March.
The largest single-point decline in the DJIA ever happened on March 16th when the market dropped nearly 3000 points and lost nearly 13% of it’s value in one day. In fact, 8 out of 10 of the largest point drops ever in the DJIA all happened between Feb 5th and April 1st of this year. While that makes sense because the Dow is also the highest point value it’s ever been, it’s notable that this period of panic selling all happened within a period of a couple months.
The measure of fear and panic known as the VIX was approaching levels seen during the financial crisis, has since calmed down and dropped by more than half, which is a good indication that the panic has passed.
So these emotions can last a few days, weeks, or even months. The bottoming process can be painfully long. It can also be strikingly short as well, making it all the more important to be watchful and pay attention to those opportunities during a market bottom.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk about 3 specific opportunities you can take advantage of during a market bottoming process.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about stock market crashes and the predictable emotional pattern that all crashes follow. If you know how to spot a stock market bottoming process, you’ll be better equipped to take advantage of the amazing opportunities that exist at and near the bottom.
Today I’m talking about the emotions that define a stock market bottom. It’s worth mentioning again because I can’t stress the importance of this enough - while stock markets are unpredictable, market cycles follow a very predictable emotional pattern.
So here’s what the stock market bottoming process looks like from an emotional standpoint:
1st - anxiety. There’s a few cracks and reasons to be concerned, maybe a few down days in the stock market, but the market is relatively close to it’s highs.
Then as the market drops further, we now have fear. People are scared. Headlines are starting to predict doom and gloom. Stocks are dropping.
Near the bottom is panic. This is an important emotion, because this is where most people will abandon stocks and their long-term strategy and it’s usually the height of selling. My guess is that we likely passed through the days of panic in the current crisis in late March when the stock market was dropping so much and so fast that it actually triggered its circuit breakers and trading temporarily halted. Classic case of panic selling.
Many people think that panic is the bottom but it’s actually not. The bottom is defined by surrender and a throwing up of the hands. When you start to read stories and headlines about how this time is different and it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to crawl out of the market and economic hole that we’re in, then surrender has arrived.
Then at the very depths and closely tied to surrender is hopelessness and depression. These are the emotions that mark a true market bottom.
While it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact market bottom, when you know that the depths of the market bottom are marked by surrender, hopelessness, and depression, you can then recognize the bottoming process for what it really is - the point of maximum opportunity.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about the stock market, and whether or not stocks have hit bottom yet. You may think you need a crystal ball to pinpoint a market top and a market bottom, but what most people don’t realize is that while stock markets are very unpredictable, they actually follow a predictable emotional pattern that makes spotting a bottom (or a top and everywhere in between) a bit easier than you might think.
So this week, I’m giving you a lesson on these important emotional patterns of the stock market. This is especially important right now because the stock market has dropped so much from it’s high point earlier in the year. It’s scary to ride the market rollercoaster but understanding these emotional patterns that I’ll be discussing this week can help you keep a cool head, stay the course, and take advantage of opportunities that exist at various points along a market cycle.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about how to get back on track for retirement.
Unfortunately, most Americans are not on track for a comfortable retirement and will have to compromise one of the 4 primary factors of retirement in order to make the numbers work. Others just wing it and hope that they don’t run out of money, which usually doesn’t work well, since you may quickly realize that you just don’t have enough money for the comfortable lifestyle you envisioned in retirement.
To prevent you from winging it in retirement, I introduced the 4 primary factors that determine retirement success and have the biggest influence on whether or not you run out of money in retirement.
This is a timely topic right now as the Coronavirus is upending daily life and could change your plans for retirement, especially if you planned to retire in the next couple years.
The 4 primary factors that determine your success in retirement:
- Asset allocation
- Savings Rate
- Retirement Date
- Spending in Retirement
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you understand these four critical factors to determining whether or not your money will last in retirement, and how you might have a better chance at a comfortable retirement than you might realize, especially if you’re open to adjusting your original plans and one or more of these primary factors.
If you want to find out how to close the gap on your retirement, send me an email and I will send you a simple 2 page worksheet that you can use to calculate your ideal asset allocation, savings rate, retirement age, and spending in retirement, so you don’t run out of money in retirement. You can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
[If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. If you want more in-depth videos on retirement planning specifically for business owners and entrepreneurs, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.]
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Have we hit bottom yet? I’m going to explain how to spot a stock market bottoming process and take advantage of opportunities that exist at and near the bottom. No I don’t have a crystal ball, and markets are unpredictable, but markets actually do have a predictable emotional pattern, and there are certain emotions that define market bottoms. So we’ll talk about those tell-tale emotional signs that the stock market is at or near a bottom next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to get back on track for retirement.
On Tuesday, I outlined the 4 primary factors that determine your success in retirement:
- Asset allocation
- Savings Rate
- Retirement Date
- Spending in Retirement
Today I’m focusing on the 4th primary factor: your spending in retirement.
What are your monthly living expenses to cover your basic needs? In addition to that, how much do you want to travel or eat out or budget for the other things you want to do? There’s also charitable giving and one-time expenses to consider, like paying for your daughter’s wedding, remodeling your kitchen, or buying a car after retirement. And the biggest question of all: what is healthcare going to cost in retirement?
All of these questions can be answered, but it requires tracking where your money goes every month, and prioritizing those areas of spending that are important to you in retirement.
One of the best things you can do as you get close to retirement, is closely track your expenses for 6 months. Find out where your money goes, and try to live this 6 months as if you’re already retired, so you can see what your expenses will likely be in retirement. Once you better understand your average basic living expenses on a monthly basis, you’ve done most of the homework, since we can easily add in expected healthcare costs, budget for travel and other activities, and throw in one-time expenses, once those basic living expenses are better understood.
If you want some help calculating your monthly expenses, send me an email and I will send you my favorite budget worksheet that I send to all of my clients to help them calculate their basic living expenses for retirement. You can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to get back on track for retirement.
On Tuesday, I outlined the 4 primary factors that determine your success in retirement:
- Asset allocation
- Savings Rate
- Retirement Date
- Spending in Retirement
Today I’m focusing on the 3nd factor: your retirement date.
If you’re close to retirement, delaying your retirement date can often have the biggest impact on helping catch up if you’re not on track for retirement, and give you a better chance of making your money last in retirement, especially if you’re behind. Delaying your retirement even by just a few months or a year can have a big difference.
Delaying your retirement will allow you to continue saving longer, take less income from your portfolio over your retirement since you’ll now be spending less time in retirement, and importantly, it allows you to delay social security (hence allowing it to grow).
If you can’t bear the thought of working any longer past your planned retirement date, consider working part time. Every dollar that you bring in is one less dollar that you’ll need from social security or your retirement portfolio.
If you want to find out the retirement age that is ideal for you, send me an email and I will send you a simple 2 page worksheet that you can use to calculate your ideal retirement date, so you don’t run out of money in retirement. You can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to get back on track for retirement. This is a timely topic right now as the Coronavirus is upending daily life and could change your plans for retirement, especially if you planned to retire in the next couple years.
On Tuesday, I outlined the 4 primary factors that determine your success in retirement:
- Asset allocation
- Savings Rate
- Retirement Date
- Spending in Retirement
Today I’m focusing on the 2nd factor: your savings rate. The younger you are and the further you are from retirement, the more important this factor is. If you’re really close to retirement, say within 5 years, increasing your savings actually won’t be as effective as delaying your retirement date or reducing your spending in retirement, but it’s still important.
So let’s look at savings rate and how it impacts your retirement. Recently, Fidelity determined that in order to be on track with your savings for retirement, you need to have 5x your income saved by age 55, 8x your income saved by age 60, and 10x your income saved by age 67, assuming you plan to retire at that age. Using this rule of thumb calculation is helpful in the years leading up to retirement, because it’s a quick way to assess whether or not you’re on track or behind.
If you’re behind, the next step is to figure out how much you need to increase your savings to catch up. This step is a bit more complicated and it also needs to factor in how much you can afford to save, since what you should save and what you can afford to save are often 2 different amounts.
If you want to find out how to close the gap on your retirement savings and figure out how much you need to save for retirement, send me an email and I will send you a simple 2 page worksheet that you can use to calculate how much you should be saving for retirement so you don’t run out of money in retirement. You can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Yesterday, I told you about Joe and his 5% chance of success of making his money last in retirement.
Joe’s problem is a common one. Many Americans are behind on retirement, but hope is not lost because with a few adjustments that Joe was able to live with, we got his chance of making his money last in retirement up to 82%.
There are 4 primary factors that influence whether or not you’ll make your money last in retirement, and today I’m talking about the first factor, which is asset allocation.
Asset allocation in the context of what I’m talking about today is simply - how much of your portfolio is in stocks, bonds, and cash.
This has a massive influence on your retirement, and if you think about it, it makes sense why. The makeup of your portfolio is what determines your long-term returns, so it’s essential that you have a portfolio that is safe enough to withstand downturns, but invested enough in the stock market that you’ll have growth that can keep up with your withdrawals as well.
So the right balance is critical in retirement, and that’s why asset allocation is one of the 4 primary factors that influence your chances of making your money last in retirement.
- If 100% of your portfolio is in cash you’re going to have a hard time keeping up with inflation and many of us simply don’t have enough saved for retirement to be this conservative with our money.
- At the other end of the spectrum, if 100% of your portfolio is in stocks, your returns are going to be much better than in cash, but you’re going to get clobbered in down markets like we’re facing right now, and most of us can’t afford to lose 30, 40, or 50% of our portfolio value in a down market because everything is in stocks.
I’m a big believer in asset allocation, and it serves as the foundation of every client’s portfolio. If you would like to get my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that helps you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your age, just email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com and I’ll send that to you so you can figure out for yourself what mix is right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about how to get back on track for retirement.
Today I want to tell you about Joe. He’s 55 years old. He wants to retire in 6 more years. Currently, he has $576,000 saved for retirement, most of that is in his 401k plan at work where he’s been for over 20 years. He saves 5% of his salary into the 401k and his employer matches 4% - so 9% of his income is saved for retirement every year.
He’s a single guy and makes $90,000 a year in income. He expects that his spending will go down in retirement, but he’s calculated that he needs about $78,000 a year in income to support the lifestyle he wants in retirement.
He will have social security income, but the rest of his income will need to come from his portfolio.
The question is: Will Joe be able to retire at 61 and spend $78,000 in retirement based on his current assets, and projected growth and his current savings?
What do you think? Well, I’m sorry to say to Joe that he has about a 95% chance of running out of money in retirement?
If I live his retirement 1000 times, in all but the most optimistic scenarios, Joe depleted all his savings and ran out of money well before he kicked the bucket.
But by making a few adjustments, we can get Joe from a 5% chance of success in retirement to an 82% chance of success. It all hinges on what adjustments he’s willing to make and the 4 most important factors that determine success in retirement, which I’ll introduce and talk about tomorrow.
In the meantime, if you want to run Joe’s numbers for your own situation, send me an email and I will send you a simple 2 page worksheet that you can use to calculate your chances of success and not running out of money in retirement. You can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how to get back on track for retirement if you’re behind. Whether you’re 10 months or 10 years from retirement, understanding if you’re on track for the retirement you envisioned is critical to the important decisions you make today and in the future.
So this week, I’m covering the critical factors that influence your retirement and determine whether or not you’re on track.
I’ll also give you a simple and effective tool so you can calculate for yourself whether or not you’re on track for a comfortable retirement. Retirement is different for everyone, and it’s also one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make, so I hope you’ll keep coming back this week so you can answer for yourself this very important question:
Am I on track for retirement and if not, what can I do to get back on track?
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the 5 more mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
The anxiety, fear, panic and uncertainty brought on during bear markets and times of crisis can cause investors to make some bad decisions. So in light of the current Coronavirus crisis, I wanted to discuss some of the most common mistakes that investors make and how you can avoid them.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Mistake #1 - Getting Stuck with a Margin Call
- Mistake #2 - Micromanaging Your Portfolio
- Mistake #3 - Thinking Like The Herd
- Mistake #4 - Misunderstanding Market Cycles
- Mistake #5 - Losing Patience
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you know how to recognize these common and often devastating mistakes so you can avoid them.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. If you want more in-depth videos on retirement planning specifically for business owners and entrepreneurs, check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme, how to get back on track for retirement if you’re behind. Whether you’re 10 months or 10 years from retirement, understanding if you’re on track for the retirement you envisioned is critical to the important decisions you make today and in the future. So I’ll discuss the critical factors that determine whether or not you’re on track, and how you can calculate whether or not you’re on track for a comfortable retirement - however you define that.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
Mistake #5 is losing patience in a bear market.
Bear markets are painful, and can often last a long time. And the longer they last, the more hopelessness investors feel and the more often I hear the sentiment: “this time is different”. What’s true about all bear markets is that yes,“this time is different”. Sure, the circumstances that led to each current crisis is different, but there’s also something that every bear market has in common - they all end.
The problem is that too many investors lose patience and bail, often near or at the bottom. On average, bear markets have lasted 14 months in the period since World War II...The S&P 500 index has fallen an average of 33% during bear markets in that time.
Of course, that’s just an average, so bear markets can be short-lived too. The bear market in late 1987 only lasted 4 months, while the last bear market during the global financial crisis lasted a painfully long 18 months.
For the stock market to return to it’s previous high-water mark, the recovery to new all-time highs can sometimes take years.
So it’s not surprising then that investors lose patience and faith in the stock market. And when you lose patience, it’s tempting to abandon your long-term strategy.
Instead, discipline and commitment are needed for long-term success with investing. Ensuring you’re diversified and that you don’t get stuck with too much in the stock market close to or during retirement will help insulate you and smooth out those bear market drops, making it easier to stay committed in the long-run.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow I’m going to recap the week and give you a little preview of next week’s topic. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
Today, I’m talking about mistake #4 that smart investors don’t make - misunderstanding market cycles.
Understanding the emotions that define market cycles is very important. Market emotions tell you when we’re near or at the top, and when we’re near or at the market bottom. The key is spotting those emotions and taking advantage of it.
Market bottoms are defined by pessimism, followed by panic, followed by capitulation (or surrender). Market bottoms - all of them by the way - are marked by feelings of hopelessness and depression. It’s palpable.
In March of 2009, 18 months into the stock market downturn of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate was still climbing, millions of Americans had already lost their homes, and the stock market had lost half of it’s value.
Yet, on a random day in early March of 2009, the stock market hit bottom and started it’s slow and steady climb for an incredible 11 year run since that time. An article from CNNmoney.com on March 9th, 2009 reads: “Stocks tumbled Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending at fresh 12-year lows, as Merck's $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough failed to distract investors from worries about the economy….The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost nearly 7 points or 1%, to end at 676.53, its lowest point since Sept. 12, 1996….‘We're seeing more of the same," said John Buckingham, chief investment officer at Al Frank Asset Management. "With an absence of good news, the path of least resistance is down."
In this one news article, you can feel the surrender, the hopelessness, the throwing up of the hands in just the simple observation of “well, it’s another down day... just more of the same.” That’s all the commentator had to add that was noteworthy - more of the same.
Yet on this day - March 9th, 2009, the stock market hit bottom, and began one of the greatest and longest bull market runs in history.
When you understand the emotions that define stock market bottoms, you can more clearly see them for what they really are - not more of the same, but an incredible buying opportunity.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 more mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets. Today’s mistake to avoid is thinking like the herd.
One of my favorite authors, CS Lewis, once said: “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”
A big mistake that too many investors make in good markets and bad markets, is following the herd. We are social creatures, and without even realizing it, we look to others for signals on how to behave and how to act.
This instinct serves us well in navigating the world and relationships with others, but a problem with this natural social instinct is that we also do it with our investment portfolios.
Our herd instincts explains why when bitcoin grew in popularity and started skyrocketing in price in 2017, no one wanted to be left behind and a lot of people jumped in. Anyone who bought near the peak lost about ⅔ of their investment in just a few short months, and despite a few short-lived comebacks, 1 bitcoin is worth about $6,725 dollars today...a far cry from bitcoin’s peak price of over $19,000 in December 2017.
This same herd behavior and chasing returns also applies in down markets. Money flowing into the stock market and money flowing out often correspond to market tops and market bottoms. In fact, during the last big bear market, the stock market peaked in September 2007 and bottomed in March 2009. Take a guess when money flowing into and out of the market was at it’s greatest. The exact month that the stock market peaked, (the exact month!) the dollars flowing into stocks were their highest. Everyone was buying at the top. Then at the market bottom in March of 2009, the money flowing out of stocks peaked as well. Everyone was running for the exits during arguably the best buying opportunity of a lifetime, and selling at the bottom.
That’s the problem with the herd. They buy at the top, and sell at the bottom, with an alarming accuracy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 more mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
In today’s uncertain world, it’s tempting to check how the stock market is doing more often, get sucked in to CNBC, refresh your favorite news app every 14 minutes, and check on your investment portfolio every day.
But some of the most savvy investors I know rarely check on how their portfolio is doing. I checked my own portfolio for the first time since this crisis started a couple weeks ago, and I haven’t looked since. I only check on my own portfolio a handful of times in a given year. I know what I own. I keep tabs on it, but I don’t micromanage it, and that’s key.
When you micromanage your portfolio and check it often, you’re more likely to trade frequently and more importantly, you’re more likely to to fall victim to an important concept in psychology called negativity bias.
Negativity bias is a theory that negative events elicit more rapid and more prominent responses than non-negative events. Basically we have a stronger reaction to bad news compared to good news. It’s why we focus more on past insults than past compliments, and in regards to your money, why the pain of a loss of 10% carries more weight than the pleasure of a gain of 10%.
When you look at your portfolio more often, you’re more likely to see a loss, especially in times like now when the stock market has more down days than up days. In fact, over the last 50 years, if you checked on the stock market every day, you would only see a gain about 54% of the days. That means 46% - nearly half of the days - were down.
You can see how easy it would be to get down when even in the best of times, the stock market still frequently has bad days.
But if you only checked on your portfolio once a year, you’d see a gain about 70% of the time, and because of negativity bias, you would feel a lot better about how your portfolio is faring compared to the micromanager who watches every uptick and downtick in their portfolio.
So if you must check on how your portfolio is doing, be sure to check on things after the stock market closes for the day, and after a good day in the stock market, when you’re likely to see a positive uptick in your own portfolio. Your mental and emotional health will thank you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
Today I’m talking about mistake #1 - extending yourself with margin.
Thankfully, I don’t see too many people who margin their investment accounts, but it can turn a downturn in your portfolio to a complete disaster very quickly.
Margin is a loan that you take out against your investment portfolio. You can borrow money when needed and use your stock portfolio as collateral, just like your house is collateral for your mortgage loan.
The strategy works just fine when the investments that you borrowed against are doing well, but when the investment value drops below a certain value it will trigger what’s called a “maintenance margin”. Basically, the financial institution where your account is held will force you to deposit more funds or sell off some or all of the holdings in your account to pay down the margin loan.
Margin and other risky strategies are used often by hedge fund managers and other large, institutional managers, and it’s this forced selling that has made the stock market returns worse in the current crisis and every other crisis.
While margin loans can be a tempting way to buy more stocks with less cash, or take a loan from your portfolio when times are good, let this current environment be a lesson to you to stay disciplined with your portfolio and frankly, just stay away from margin loans altogether.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
As the stock market continues to suffer blows and it now seems inevitable that the U.S. economy will quickly enter a deep (but hopefully short lived) recession, I’m continuing last week’s theme to talk about 5 (more) mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets. Things have quickly fallen apart for the economy due to the Coronavirus - the unemployment rate is projected to be higher than during the Great Depression, and the consumer (you and me), who makes up 70% of the economy, isn’t spending much outside of rice and toilet paper these. Businesses are already failing and the government is having to step in with a massive stimulus package to try to prevent us from having to completely rebuild our economy once this coronavirus pandemic passes.
What’s happening right now is scary, and it’s easy to let your emotions - namely anxiety, fear, panic, and hopelessness - drive you into making some damaging decisions with your money during this time of great uncertainty.
So this week, I’m talking about 5 more mistakes smart investors don’t make during bear markets. These less obvious, but equally damaging mistakes can prove costly in the long-run so I’ll unpack all 5 in each episode this week.
So before you hit the “sell all” button on your portfolio, I hope you’ll tune in each day, because I’ll be talking about the problems with debt and margin, micromanaging, herd thinking, and losing patience - and how each of these mistakes can all derail your retirement portfolio.
That’s it for today, but before you go...If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
The anxiety, fear, panic and uncertainty brought on during bear markets and times of crisis can cause investors to make some bad decisions. So in light of the current Coronavirus crisis, I wanted to discuss some of the most common mistakes that investors make and how you can avoid them.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Mistake #1 - Panic Selling
- Mistake #2 - Having No Cash On Hand
- Mistake #3 - Failing to See Opportunities In Crisis
- Mistake #4 - Buying Losers
- Mistake #5 - Holding On To Losers
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you know how to recognize these common and often devastating mistakes so you can avoid them.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme, which is a continuation of this week’s theme - 5 (More!) mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets. There are so many pitfalls to avoid in times of crisis that I have a few more for you next week. These include micromanaging your account, falling victim to the herd mentality, excessive leverage, and losing patience with a bear market that seemingly never ends.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
Yesterday, I talked about how to avoid buying losers, and today I’m continuing with mistake number 5, which is holding on to losers.
Quality is a critical component of a good investment. If something is cheap like the stock market is these days, not everything is cheap. An investment is only cheap if the price is low compared to it’s value or quality. Cheap by definition means: “worth more than its cost.” So it’s critical to avoid the losers in the first place, but sometimes after you buy something, it’s quality subsequently deteriorates, and you’re faced with a new dilemma - should I get out or hold on and see what happens.
There’s a lot at play when you make a decision about whether or not to let a soured investment go. But sell-discipline is very important to successful investing over time, and a few things can get in the way of a good sell-discipline.
The first is ego. If the investment was your idea in the first place, it can be difficult admitting you were wrong or detaching from the reasons you bought the investment in the first place. This is where DIY investors often get into trouble as I see that far too often they hold on to an investment for years after it should have been sold, too attached to let it go.
2nd is unfounded optimism. When you own an investment, it’s easy to achor on to the reasons why you bought it or what’s still good, despite the deteriorating future prospects. It’s kind of like a bad friendship. You might keep the friendship alive because of your history together or by hanging onto the positive aspects of the relationship, which can blind you to the fact that in reality the relationship or the other person is toxic and you shouldn’t be spending your precious time and energy with the relationship any longer.
The same is true for good investments that have since turned into losers. Just remember that it’s rare for any business to be a perennial powerhouse, so a sell-discipline is essential.
I’ll leave you with this tidbit to remind you about why it’s so important to sell a good investment once it’s gone bad. Over the past 60 years or so, the S&P 500's makeup has changed dramatically. So these are the largest, most well-known and successful businesses in the United States. As of 2019, only about 12% of the original companies in the S&P 500 remain. Some have been acquired or absorbed or sold or taken private, but many of those businesses failed as well, so it’s a sober reminder to always be willing to let go of a good investment gone bad, to prevent you from riding it all the way down to bankruptcy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
Today, I’m talking about mistake #4 that smart investors don’t make - buying losers. Yesterday I talked about taking advantage of opportunities that exist in times of crisis. While it’s important to spot opportunities, it’s equally important to differentiate the good apples from the bad apples so you don’t wreck your opportunity-seeking efforts by investing in a dud.
Here’s what I mean by that...not every cruise ship, hotel chain, and airline will come out from the Coronavirus Crash unscathed. In addition, many of the hardest hit companies that survive a given recession often limp along for years. So you must be discerning in what you buy.
Cheap isn’t just based on how much a stock has dropped. It’s based on the price vs. value.
So cheapness is relative. Something is only cheap if the price is less than the value, and the quality is good. Cheap by definition means: “worth more than its cost.”
I have 2 kids and another one arriving in Sept. So I know a thing or two about diapers. The average child goes through 7,000 diapers before they’re potty trained, so I feel like an expert in this area. I’ve tried pretty much every diaper brand and I could tell you the pros and cons of each one...in detail. The diaper brand I love the most is pampers. They’re the best. That’s not my opinion, that’s a fact and I will argue with anyone who insists otherwise.
But they’re also one of the more expensive brands. If I go to the store tomorrow and see pampers selling for 20 or 30% off, I’m buying more than one box. But other brands go on sale all the time, and if they’re the kind that leak or give my kid a rash, then it doesn’t matter how cheap they are, I’m still not buying them.
It’s no different with stocks. If a great business is on sale for 10,20, or 30% off, it’s a great buying opportunity. If a bad business is cheap, it doesn’t matter what the price is if it’s bad.
It’s incredibly important to discern if a company is really cheap, or if the price is low for a reason, so you can stay away from the losers, and tell the difference in quality vs. garbage. It’s not easy to do that though, which is why you hire professional money managers and financial advisors to discern that for you. That’s a big part of the job of an advisor like myself, that you hire. Just make sure your advisor understands what a bargain and what cheap really means.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
In today’s chaotic times, fear and panic often block our optimism and make it difficult to see opportunities. These opportunities always seem obvious in hindsight, and I discussed yesterday with the example of Warren Buffett. He is quoted with saying “bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price,” And that’s exactly what he did in 2008 when everyone else was running for cover. He made big investments in troubled companies like Goldman Sachs and GE, and in just a few short years made more than $10 billion in profits from his buys in 2008.
A big part of what makes Buffett one of the richest men in the world and an icon for investors is that he always sees opportunities.
So where are the opportunities today? There are plenty of investment opportunities in great companies that are now on sale. Great companies are well-managed, have low debt, a strong market position, and grow their dividends to shareholders. That’s what I look for and invest in for my clients if we’re talking about stocks.
Now, there’s also tremendous opportunity in other places too. With the Fed lowering rates to zero, that translates into lower rates on mortgages, student loans, and credit cards, providing an additional opportunity to refinance or consolidate and reduce those debts. The headline of an article published in the WSJ on March 18th 2020 reads: “Plunging Rates Spell Opportunity for Student-Loan Borrowers”. So there’s opportunity in a variety of circumstances if you’re looking for it.
It’s also a great time to look at Roth conversions. If you want to move more money into your Roth from a Traditional IRA or a 401k, those IRA and 401k balances are now substantially lower than they were a few months ago, so any amount that you convert will be subject to less taxes than had you converted when the stock market was much higher.
So don’t let fear and uncertainty cloud your ability to see opportunities in crisis, because they’re there if you look.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
In today’s uncertain world, cash is king. The turmoil in the stock market has been dominating the headlines, but even the typical safe haven hideouts for investors during times of crisis - namely bonds and gold - are showing sign of stress as well.
A mistake that too many investors make heading into times of crisis is that they don’t have enough cash. There are a couple of different applications to this, so let me explain:
First of all, if you’re retired and you’re relying on your portfolio to provide income, one of the best ways you can prevent further losses in your portfolio during market downturns is by having cash on hand, so you can suspend those portfolio withdrawals.
Most Americans, even financially savvy Americans don’t have enough cash on hand. In fact 40% of us could not even cover a $400 emergency without putting it on a high interest credit card.
But by having 6, 12, or 18 months of your income needs covered by cash, you can weather the market storm much better, especially when you’re retired.
The second reason why you need to have cash on hand is so you can pick up bargains and take advantage of opportunities in times of crisis. For every panicked phone call I’ve received over the last week, I’ve received another call saying “Ashley, I have $10,000 or $100,000 or whatever it is sitting in my bank account right now, what do you recommend”.
That’s what cash does - it allows you to capitalize on the chaos. That’s how the wealthy think. That’s what Warren Buffett did in 2008. He called the financial crisis of 2008 an economic pearl harbor. He made investments in struggling companies like Goldman Sachs and General Electric, and his investments paid off big, earning him a profit of $10 billion on those investments in just a few years.
If Buffett was saddled with debt or fully invested and forced to sell other assets to make those investments, he wouldn’t have been able to buy in the first place. But because he had lots of cash on hand, he could jump in and take advantage of opportunities that existed in those dark days of the Fall of 2008.
So remember, cash is king in times of chaos and it’s important to have a meaningful amount on hand so you can protect yourself and take advantage of opportunities.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about 5 mistakes that smart investors don’t make in bear markets.
Today I’m talking about the most obvious, but also the most common mistake investors make in times of turmoil - panic selling.
When times are uncertain, our fight or flight response kicks in and for those of us who opt for the flight response, when you see that your portfolio is down by 10, 20, or 30% all you want to do is just stop the bleeding.
The obvious problem when you sell into the teeth of a big drop in your portfolio is that you got out too late and you locked in those losses at the point where you sold. You’re also abandoning your long-term strategy, and most investors wait too long to get back in the market - after the stock market has long-since recovered. I saw this happen with people who got out in 2008. Often, they were still sitting on the sidelines 3 or 4 years later, meanwhile missing tremendous gains in the stock market and a recovery in their portfolio.
If you’re going to try to time the market, you have to be right twice - you have to get out before the downturn begins, near the top of the market - unlikely, considering you feel like a crazy person for selling at the top when everyone else is euphoric. And you have to jump back in at the bottom. Stock market drops usually follow a consistent emotional pattern and the bottom is marked by hopelessness. We’ve moved past fear, panic, and depression at that point, and have come to terms with the fact that hope is lost.
Obviously, history proves otherwise, but that’s the feeling. So you have to get out when everyone else is euphoric and get back in when the world as we know it has ended. There are only billionaire long-term investors, no billionaire market timers and consistently making market timing calls and being right is just outside of our human abilities. Anyone who tells you they can do otherwise is lying and I would run from them as fast as you can.
So the bottom line here is that by succumbing to panic-selling is a recipe for terrible long-term returns, and the data backs me up on this. Acting on your emotions with your investment portfolio, can drag on your annual returns by 1.5% or more. That may seem small, but that’s the annual impact, so when you multiply that over a lifetime of investing, you could be reducing your total assets by 6 or even 7 figures.
And that’s why it’s so important that you can keep a cool head in both good times and in bad, but especially in bad times when anxiety, stress, and uncertainty can all lead to panicky decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
As the stock market continues to suffer blows and it now seems inevitable that the U.S. economy will quickly enter a recession as the unemployment rate shoots up, and we all hunker down and stop spending money, I want to talk about mistakes to avoid during this time of chaos.
Specifically, 5 mistakes smart investors don’t make during bear markets.
So if you haven’t already panicked and sold everything in your 401k and locked in your losses, this week’s tips are for you. It’s rough out there right now, so my goal this week is to help you avoid some of the more common pitfalls that investors make during scary times like these.
I hope you’ll tune in each day, because I won’t just be talking about how to avoid the temptation of panic selling, but also how you can avoid missteps in picking and holding on to losers, and missing opportunities that are hard to see in the moment, but clear in hindsight.
That’s it for today, but before you go...
If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the FAANG stocks - these are the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. The FAANG stocks have generated some amazing returns for investors for the last several years, which begs the question - are FAANG stocks still a good investment?
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The amazing returns in the FAANG stocks over the last 10 years
- The hidden concentration that you might already have in FAANG stocks....and how much is too much in FAANG stocks
- Then I talked about...are FAANG Stocks Worth Buying Now?
- And...What Makes A Good FAANG Stock?
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you understand FAANG stocks - what they are, how you likely already own them even if you don’t think you do, and how to determine if these stocks are a worthwhile investment for you.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How to generate income in retirement. This is a timely topic as the interest rate on the 10 year treasury just plunged to a new record low, hitting under .5% as investors - scared of the Coronavirus and it’s economic shockwaves - piled their money into safe US treasury bonds and drove the rate down. Now, what that means for you is that if you go out and buy a 10-year treasury bond today, you’re going to get a measly .5% per year in income. If you invest 10,000, you’ll get $50 a year in interest for the next 10 years. Not too exciting and a little depressing when you’re nearing retirement or in retirement, and bonds need to be making up a higher percentage of your portfolio. Which begs the question - with rates so low, where can you find income now? I’ll cover that next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about the FAANG stocks - these are the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
Yesterday, I talked about whether or not you’ve already missed the boat on investing in FAANG stocks with the returns up 1,433% over the last decade and if these stocks are a worthwhile investment to consider going forward.
I didn’t give you a definitive answer, because the answer is different for each stock and its always changing. But there are principles that govern what makes a good stock, and that’s the topic of today’s tip. So whether it’s a FAANG stock or a completely different business, what are the qualities you should look for in any business before you invest?
Here are the boxes to check:
- Durable competitive advantage - ideally the business isn’t selling a commoditized product and has pricing power. There should be high barriers to entry as well where it’s not easy for any startup to come in and wipe them off the map. A competitive advantage for a strong business helps ensure future growth.
- Free Cash Flow is also a very important but more difficult metric to evaluate. Cash cow businesses that have strong, consistent cash flow have the ability to reinvest in the business
- Strong management team who is competent and capable
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the FAANG stocks - these are the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
Today, I’m talking about whether or not FAANG stocks are worth buying now. An equal investment in each of the FAANG stocks would have resulted in an average return of 1,433% during the 2010s. So is it too late to get in and buy one or several of the FAANG stocks?
One of the worst things you can do as an investor is to buy in to something when it’s overpriced. It's a common temptation to let the fear of missing out drive you into a bad decision, and buy in after all the value in something is already baked in and most of the upside has already passed.
But it actually doesn’t matter that the FAANG stocks are up 1,433% over the last decade. What matters is not past returns or the current price of the stock. What matters is the value. Is the stock price justified based on the company’s earnings? And future growth prospects...is the stock price justified based on the company’s business model, their competitive advantages, market dominance, and so on.
So whether or not you should buy then, depends on an objective assessment of current value and future growth prospects, along with several other qualities that I’ll cover in tomorrow’s tip.
The bottom line is: Don’t make a decision about where you go from here, by looking in the rearview mirror. You must look forward through the windshield.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about the additional qualities to look for in FAANG stocks (or any investment for that matter), regardless of whether or not it’s a FAANG stock.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the FAANG stocks - these are the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
These stocks currently account for over 12% of the S&P 500 index. This is incredible, and something that few people realize. The S&P 500 is made up of 500 of the largest companies in the US. But it’s a market-weight index which means that the largest companies also make up a higher weighting in the index. And since Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google are massive businesses they make up a massive % of the index. Heck, Amazon alone is worth about $1 trillion right now!
So whether or not you own these companies through an index fund, a mutual fund, or individually, it begs the question: how much is too much in FAANG stocks?
This question is really the motivating factor behind this week’s topic. More often than not, I see portfolios where people have too much in these stocks. And why not? If you bought Netflix 10 years ago, it’s up 4000%. You’d be crazy to sell it, right? If you owned a significant portion of your portfolio in Netflix 10 years ago, it could not be worth 30 or 40% or more of your portfolio today.
Large concentrations of a particular sector, like tech, or a particular stock, like Netflix can be a big problem depending on the % of your portfolio that the sector or the individual stock makes up.
So the first step is understanding what you own. There are x-ray tools that will look through the ETFs and mutual funds you own to see what stocks you own and what the concentration is.
You might be surprised that you already own 10% or more of your portfolio in Apple, because you own 3 or 4 “diversified” mutual funds, which all have concentrations in this stock or any of the other FAANG stocks.
Even if you want to own the stock, you want to avoid having a concentrated position in any one stock, since a major decline in the value of that one company could be devastating for your portfolio.
Generally a concentrated position of 10-15% or more in any one stock is considered risky, so if any of your stocks make up more than 10-15% it’s wise to reduce your position over time in that stock.
In addition to individual stock concentrations, too much in any sector or industry, like technology, or energy, or health care can also be problematic. Tech as a group makes up 23% of the S&P 500 index. Personally, I think this is a problem, since so many dollars are invested in the S&P and few people realize how concentrated they are in just a handful of tech companies and the tech sector as a whole.
Having concentrations in specific sectors has burned many people in the past - notably the tech bubble in the early 2000s, so no company, no sector or industry is immune, so if you have a concentration in one stock or a concentration in any one industry - which I would define as 20%-25% or more in any one sector, it’s wise to keep that in check.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the FAANG stocks - these are the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
Yesterday, I talked about the wildly impressive results of these 5 stocks over the last 10 years. If you’re fearing that you missed out because you didn’t buy any of these stocks 10 years ago, think again.
If you own any large cap mutual fund or an ETF like the S&P 500, chance are you own some, if not all of these stocks already. These 5 stocks alone made up over 12% of the S&P 500 index in 2019, and they’ve been making up an ever larger piece of the S&P 500 pie over the last decade.
Back in 2012, these 5 stocks made up only 5% of the index, but because the returns of these 5 stocks since then have been parabolic, they’ve become a larger and larger percentage of the index.
So whether it’s in your 401k or another investment account where you own mutual funds are target-date funds, you likely own some of these stocks already, and perhaps even a higher percentage than you realize, which could be problematic, as I’ll discuss tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the FAANG stocks - these are the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
Today, I’m talking about the mind boggling returns of these 5 stocks over the last several years. Tech companies as a group have outperformed the S&P 500 5 out of the last 5 years, and 7 out of the last 10 years. But for this subset of companies, the results have been stunning. Over the last 10 years, Facebook: Up 444%, Amazon: Up 1,290%, Apple: Up 1,007%, Netflix: Up 4,082%, Google: Up 345%
Suffice it to say you’d be pretty happy with those results over the last decade, and if you missed the boat, its a painful reminder of what you missed out on. But as I’ll talk about tomorrow, there’s a good chance you already own these stocks, even if you don’t realize it.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
Have you heard of the FAANG stocks? FAANG (F-A-A-N-G) is an acronym referring to the stocks of the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
Their strong returns as a group, and their name recognition among virtually everyone make them a popular group of stocks to invest in. So this week, I’m going to look at whether or not these stocks - both collectively and individually - are a good investment.
You’d be quite happy with your returns over the last several years if you invested in the FAANG stocks. The results of these 5 stocks and tech companies in general continue to produce impressive results. Plus, when’s the last time you went a week or even a day without using Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. In the case of Facebook, Apple, and Google, chances are you don’t go more than a few hours (or maybe even more than a few minutes) without accessing Facebook, your Apple device, or searching for something on Google.
Investing in these stocks might seem like a no brainer, but just because you use something all the time, doesn’t mean it’s a good investment now. So this week, I’ll talk about the amazing returns of these stocks, and probably make you want to cry if you’ve sat on the sidelines. But don’t reach for the kleenex box yet, because I’ll also talk about how you probably already own these stocks even if you don’t realize it, and whether or not investing now is a good decision.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, I have a couple more things for you:
- First of all, an important disclosure: True North Retirement Advisors, LLC or its investment advisor representatives may own positions in certain companies discussed in this week’s podcast. Nothing in this podcast should be construed as a recommendation to purchase or sell any securities.
- if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and raises visibility of this podcast to help others find it. And thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about how to keep calm in a bear market. A timely topic, since in just a few short weeks, the stock market came tumbling down from it’s all time highs, and everything around the world seems to be shutting down.
Once the stock market drops 20% from it’s highs, it’s an important threshold, and given the moniker “bear market”. Bear markets typically accompany serious events, like the coronavirus, and more often than not are joined by the equally concerning economic counterpart - a recession.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What a bear market looks like and what you can expect from a typical bear market
- A letter I wrote to my clients
- An interesting plan for panic
- Is it time to start buying stocks? A strategy that takes courage in the face of fear, but one that historically pays off
- Lastly, yesterday I talked about what to do if you retire during a bear market. A bear market in the earliest years of retirement can spell trouble long-term for making your money last, so I talked about how to make a contingency plan in case this happens to you.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you understand bear markets better than you did at the beginning of the week, and more importantly, how to react to these scary drops in your retirement portfolio.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How to generate income in retirement. This is a timely topic as the interest rate on the 10 year treasury recently plunged to a new record low, hitting under .5% as investors - scared of the Coronavirus and it’s economic shockwaves - piled their money into safe US treasury bonds and drove the rate down. Low interest rates are a little depressing when you’re nearing retirement or in retirement, especially when you are likely to own bonds as a higher percentage of your portfolio. Which begs the question - with rates so low, where can you find income now? I’ll cover that next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about how to keep calm in a bear market.
Today, I’m talking about what to do if you plan to retire this year and how to handle a recession and a bear market in the early years of retirement. Even if you are still years from retirement, a recession and a bear market can hit anytime, so it’s important to have a back up plan.
One of the most challenging things about planning for retirement with clients is that a recession that hits in the first couple of years of retirement can be devastating and drastically change your plans for retirement. If you think about it, it makes sense, because a nest egg that was just cut by 15, 20, 25% or more right at the beginning of retirement now gives you a smaller amount to live off of. If you’re simultaneously taking money out of your portfolio, you’re drawing down the balance even faster and making the problem worse, so we need to be careful and have a plan B so we can delay retirement or not take money out of your portfolio during a bear market in the early retirement years.
So let’s talk about a few plan B options. The best plan B option, is continuing to work. It’s ideal for a lot of reasons. By continuing to work, you delay tapping into your retirement funds and your social security benefits for income, allowing both to continue to stabilize and potentially grow. Also, by delaying retirement for 1-3 years, that’s 1-3 less years that you are relying on your portfolio in retirement, and every day, month, and year counts.
In fact, if you’re behind on saving for retirement, and your health allows you to continue working, a willingness to work longer is one of the best ways to close your retirement gap. It’s way more effective than saving more in the last 5-10 years before retirement.
If you can’t or you’re unwilling to continue working, you may want to consider cutting back on your spending or taking on a part-time job, so you won’t be exacerbating the negative returns by taking money out of your portfolio as well.
Lastly, consider building up a stockpile of cash before retirement. If you can build up 12-18 months worth of expenses in cash or short-term bonds that’s earmarked for withdrawals and separate from your retirement portfolio to get you through a tough time, you’ll be able to survive most bear markets without tapping into your retirement portfolio for withdrawals.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to keep calm in a bear market.
Today, I’m talking about whether or not now is a good time to buy stocks. There is always opportunity, even in down markets, so today I want to talk about a couple of circumstances when you should be adding to stocks during this chaotic time:
First of all, it’s a good time to buy if you are holding a lot of cash. If you have excess funds in your bank account, beyond what you need for emergencies and a cushion for the unexpected, and you’re currently earning $1.76 in interest a year, now is a great time to pick up some bargains in some great companies that just went on sale. That can be done through individual stocks or by adding to existing high-quality mutual funds or ETFs that you already own.
Secondly, if you had a low percentage in stocks heading into this bear market, now is a great time to be adding to stocks. LEt’s say you’re 40% in stocks currently, but you should be 50% in stocks. Then I would be jumping in to the stock market to get that mix back it its ideal target.
Don’t know what your ideal mix of stocks and bonds is? Starting with your age is a great way to figure out an appropriate mix. We have an age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that we use with our clients in determining the right mix of stocks and bonds for each of them, and you can get your copy by emailing me at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m @ truenorthra.com.
So don’t be afraid to add to stocks during this time, especially if you have lots of cash or if you are low in stocks to begin with. It’s a strategy that takes courage, but one that tends to pay off, since you are doing what every investor tries to do, but seldom achieves - buying low.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to keep calm in a bear market.
Today, I’m talking about a plan of action for when you’re feeling panicked. Back in 2008, when I was still cutting my teeth as a new advisor, I remember well those panicked days when the Dow would drop big or some new devastating news would come across the headlines. Being inexperienced, I was often shell-shocked during this time and didn’t quite know how to keep clients from panic-selling, since this was new territory for me as well.
But one day, I was talking to one of my clients who badly wanted out and wanted to sell. Like today, the stock market had already dropped significantly, and the last thing they should have done at that moment was sell into the teeth of the death spiral that was the stock market in 2008.
After running out of reasons of why they should sell, it dawned on me. I said “look, I don’t want to sell today. It’s a mistake. Why don’t we do this. If you still want to sell just as badly a week from today as you do today, call me, and we’ll talk again. I won’t argue with you if you decide a week from today that you still want to sell”.
The client didn’t call back a week later. Concerned over how they were doing I called back a couple weeks later, and even though there was still blood in the streets, they had come to their senses and no longer wanted to abandon their long-term strategy.
I thought, hmmm...maybe I’ve stumbled onto something here. It was my last resort with clients who were panicky, and as a result I only had a handful of clients who liquidated in the teeth of the 2008 recession. Almost all of my clients stayed the course, stuck to their long-term investment strategy and were happy that they did.
So “wait-a-week” is a plan that I’ve used since, even though I stumbled upon it on accident. A week of contemplation before taking action allows some time to think rationally and weigh the risks and consequences of your decision, and so if you’re thinking of making a rash decision, I would encourage you to practice patience and wait before acting.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to keep calm in a bear market.
Today, I want to share with you an email I sent to clients on March 10th, a day after the 11 year anniversary of the start of the bull market, and 2 days before the biggest one-day drop since Black Monday in 1987. The email summarizes my view on this pandemic and it’s impact on the economy and stock market, and my goal with this email was to encourage clients to stay the course and not let fear and panic drive their investment decisions, so I hope it’s helpful for you as well:
“Dear Clients:
With the current stock market reacting so strongly to the Coronavirus, I’ve been trying to reach out to many of our clients over the last couple weeks, but its challenging to get in touch with everyone, so I wanted to provide you an update via email. If you’re especially nervous, please let me know and I will be sure to give you a call within the next week so we can talk one-on-one.
Now that the S&P 500 and other major averages are down nearly 20%, we’re very close to this current downturn turning into a full-blown bear market (which is defined as a drop of 20% or more from the top). This current correction, brought on by fears of lasting global economic damage from the Coronavirus, is the seventh one since March 2009, so it’s not unusual or even surprising that this is happening.
What is unusual are the wild swings in the stock market since this Coronavirus correction started. According to Bespoke Investment Group, the incredibly wild swings we’ve seen in the stock market recently have only occurred a few other times since the S&P 500’s inception in 1928. Aside from the multiple occurrences during the Great Depression era and a brief period around the Crash of ’87, it’s since only happened in late 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession/Financial Crisis and again in August 2011 when U.S. debt was downgraded.
It remains to be seen whether this current downturn will be temporary or the beginning of the next recession and bear market, and because there are still so many unknowns, the stock market has been reacting very manic-depressive to the daily news cycle.
Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab said today: “Economists don’t quite know what to do with gross domestic product forecasts, and analysts and strategists don’t know quite what to do with earnings estimates.” The good news is that the economy was on a solid foundation heading into the current Coronavirus crisis, so the lasting impact of the current downturn depends on how quickly the pandemic can be contained.
Our advice during this current volatility is still the same. For most of our clients, the best advice we can give you is to do nothing. The likelihood is that your asset allocation (i.e. your stock and bond mix) is aligned for your age, and your investment portfolio is positioned to handle a downturn.
But what if the economy sours and the stock market continues its decline? We have been through this before and we do not intend to sit on the sidelines. For many of our clients, that means we plan to take advantage of the downturn to “buy low” and add to stocks. This strategy takes courage, but it’s worked exceptionally well in previous recessions and bear markets.
So for now, we are in a wait-and-see mode. Above all, we want you to remember that panic-selling is not an investment strategy. Patience is usually rewarded, and this time around is unlikely to be any different.”
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about how to keep calm in a bear market. A very important topic, especially considering that acting on our fearful and greedy human tendencies can result in a reduction of annual returns of 1.5% or more. That may seem small, but that’s the annual impact, so when you multiply that over a lifetime of investing, you could be reducing your total assets by 6 or even 7 figures.
And that’s why it’s so important that you can keep a cool head in both good times and in bad, but especially in bad times when anxiety, stress, and uncertainty can all lead to panicky decisions.
Today, I’m talking about the reality of the bear market. What a typical one looks like and what the really bad ones looks like - to help paint a picture of what you can expect from these down markets.
First of all, let’s define a bear market and make sure we’re all on the same page. A strong, growing stock market is referred to as a bull market. Think of an aggressive, unstoppable, charging bull. A Bear market on the other hand, is defined as a drop of more than 20% from the highs. The stock market officially becomes a bear market once it hits this 20% threshold. Think of a bear as a sleepy, stumbling, bumbling, angry bear and you’ll remember what the terms mean.
On average, bear markets have lasted 14 months in the period since World War II. The S&P 500 index has fallen an average of 33% during bear markets in that time. Interestingly enough, with this bear market, it’s been swift. As of March 12th, the Dow was already down 29% from its Feb. 12 record high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are 27% from their Feb. 19 peaks.
This is the fastest entry into a bear market from the market peak since the Great Depression, which is astonishing.
The worst bear market we had since the Great Depression was the last one from 2007-2009, when the stock market lost ½ of it’s value. It was both longer and deeper than usual, with the stock market taking about 18 months to bottom out. The drivers of that drop were fundamentally scarier than the coronavirus, and it’s hard to imagine that this bear market will be that bad.
So hopefully that gives you a better understanding of bear markets, and if you’re like me, you take some comfort that we are already approaching the historical norms in terms of the depth of the drop.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
Well, the stock market once again derailed my plans this week. I was going to discuss the FAANG stocks this week (which is an acronym for facebook, apple, amazon, netflix, and google), but as I prepare my talking points for this week, the stock market just had it’s worst day since 1987. So this week, I’m going to talk about a much more timely topic - how to keep calm in a bear market!
It’s official. The bull market that started during the depths of the financial crisis in March of 2009 is now officially over. The stock market is down more than 20% from the highs, which is a very important threshold because a 20% drop officially marks the start of a bear market.
So if you haven’t already panicked and sold everything in your 401k and locked in your losses, this week’s tips are for you. It’s rough out there right now, so my goal this week is to help you put this current situation in perspective with your long-term plans for retirement and give you some guidance on where you go from here.
I hope you’ll tune in each day, because I’m cramming in my best advice on how to keep calm and carry on in the midst of the Coronavirus chaos.
That’s it for today, but before you go...
If you haven’t already left a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip, please consider leaving an honest review in Amazon or iTunes. I read them all, so feel free to leave any feedback or topic suggestions there too.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the growing trend of gray divorce.
In each episode this week, I unpacked this upswing in divorce rates among pre-retirees and retirees and what a gray divorce could mean for your retirement plan.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The growing trend of gray divorce
- Why Americans are divorcing later in life at higher rates
- The troubling and disproportionate impact of gray divorce on women
- 5 ways a gray divorce can impact your finances in retirement
- Calculating the impact of divorce on your retirement
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you better understand the impact of gray divorce. I fear that few people realize how devastating a gray divorce can be for your retirement, and my hope is that by shedding light on this topic, I have helped you better understand the complex, difficult, and emotional decision of divorce, especially from the point of view of your finances.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Are FAANG stocks a good investment? FAANG (F-A-A-N-G) is an acronym referring to the stocks of the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. You’d be quite happy with your returns over the last several years if you invested in these stocks. The results of these 5 stocks and tech companies in general continue to return impressive results, so next week, I’ll talk about whether or not the FAANG stocks are a good investment.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week’s topic is gray divorce. Gray divorce refers to the skyrocketing trend of divorce rates among those aged 50 and older. In fact, over the last 25 years while divorce rates have dropped for the younger generations, the divorce rate has doubled for Americans over 50 and tripled for Americans over 65.
Today, I’m continuing yesterday’s discussion by talking about how you can calculate the impact of divorce on your retirement. So yesterday, I talked about the 5 ways that divorce impacts your finances in retirement, namely, assets being split, reduced social security income, reduced income in other areas, and changes to how you plan for long-term care and your estate plan.
But how do we actually calculate the costs of these changes? I should mention that it’s important to consider the financial blow of a gray divorce before you make any final decisions. Because divorce is a very emotional decision fueled by factors that often have nothing to do with finances, I suspect that few couples consider how gray divorce can destroy both of their finances. But hopefully if you run the numbers on how a gray divorce will impact you and your spouse, you might consider one more round of counseling before calling it quits.
There are 4 main areas that you’ll want to consider as you run the numbers on your retirement solo vs. staying married. You’ll want to determine what your assets would be post-divorce. How your income would change both now and in the future, and how your expenses would change. It’s important to note that housing expenses may change, and you could have certain expenses that go down, but others that go up. Lastly, you’ll want to consider how lifestyle choices will change. Would a divorce change which state you live in or change your travel plans.
There are other considerations as well, but these are the major factors. So take the guesswork out of retirement planning solo vs. married and be sure to run the numbers on your retirement before you decide to call it quits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about gray divorce. Gray divorce refers to the skyrocketing trend of divorce rates among those aged 50 and older. In fact, over the last 25 years, the divorce rate has doubled for Americans over 50 and tripled for Americans over 65.
Yesterday I talked about how gray divorce is especially hard on women, with an estimated drop in standard of living by 45% and a post divorce poverty rate of 27%.
Today, I’m talking about 5 ways divorce will impact your finances in retirement. I touched on a couple of these briefly yesterday, but today I want to dive deeper into each of these.
The most obvious way that a gray divorce will impact your finances in retirement is the asset split. If you as a couple had $1 million dollars and you were set for retirement, but get divorced 2 years before you planned to retire, you’re likely going to need to go back to the drawing board on your retirement plans and make some major adjustments to your retirement lifestyle. If you opt to keep the house and take less of the financial assets, it’s an even bigger dilema. You may have to work longer or drastically reduce your spending in retirement, or both, to help ensure you won’t run out of money.
The second way that gray divorce impacts your finances in retirement is social security. For many of you listening, social security makes up a big portion of your retirement income each month. If that’s cut in half or ⅔ or more because you divorced and you made less money than your spouse, it can be problematic.
The third way a gray divorce can impact your finances in retirement is lower income. Whether that’s through lower assets in your retirement portfolio or social security like I just mentioned, or maybe you have a spouse who is still working full time or part-time, no matter what your circumstances, you can expect that your income will be lower, usually substantially so. And because kids are grown up and out of the house, continued spousal support could be a lot less as well.
The fourth and probably rarely considered way that gray divorce impacts your finances is long-term care. There’s a high likelihood that you’ll need some kind of long-term care at some point in your life, usually later in life. This could be as little as help around the house with everyday chores and activities to suffering from altzheimers and needing 24/7 help in a memory care facility. When you’re married and the other spouse is healthy, they can usually help shoulder the burden and reduce the need to pay for outside help. When you’re on your own, you’re on your own for long-term care, so it’s important to consider how you’ll cover the cost if you’re divorced and you’ll need long-term care.
Lastly, gray divorce impacts your finances in retirement because of the changes it necessitates to estate planning. If you get divorced, you’ll probably want to reconsider your beneficiaries and it will likely adjust how you deal with your estate.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about gray divorce. Gray divorce refers to the skyrocketing trend of divorce rates among those age 50 and older. In fact, over the last 25 years, the divorce rate has doubled for Americans over 50 and tripled for Americans over 65.
Today’s topic is the impact of gray divorce on women.
One of the interesting and concerning pieces of evidence from the research on gray divorce is that gray divorce actually tends to be harder on women than it is for men. Women who divorce after age 50, faced a 45% drop in their standard of living, compared to a 21% drop for men. In fact, one study found that by age 63, the poverty rate for women who went through a gray divorce was 27%. That’s higher than widows and 9 times higher than couples who were married in the same age group.
What’s especially interesting is that despite these hardships and a big drop in women’s standard or living following a gray divorce, ⅔ of gray divorces are actually initiated by women.
So how do women actually fare worse because of gray divorce compared to men? Well, several reasons that are unique to gray divorce.
First of all, women more often choose to keep the house while the ex-husband keeps more of the retirement accounts and other financial assets. This can be especially problematic for women in gray divorce, since the house is not going to produce income as long as you’re living there. In fact, quite the opposite as there is upkeep, property taxes, house payments, and other expenses to consider.
In general, women tend to have lower social security benefits compared to men. This is especially true if you took time off to stay home with the kids for several years, or worked part-time. In a divorce situation, women can still claim their ex’s social security benefits as long as they were married for over 10 years. But the catch is that if you do that, you’ll still only receive half of your ex-husband’s benefit amount.
Lastly, in a gray divorce women and men alike can risk losing out on their spouse’s health insurance, and may experience sticker shock when trying to pay for health insurance on their own.
Financially it’s a grim financial picture for many couples who get a gray divorce, but especially for women.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about gray divorce. Gray divorce refers to the skyrocketing trend of divorce rates among those age 50 and older. In fact, over the last 25 years, the divorce rate has doubled for Americans over 50 and tripled for Americans over 65.
Today, I’m talking about why Americans are divorcing later in life. A blog post by McKinley Irvin, a prominent family law firm, compiled the research on why and compiled it to identify some of the reasons behind this growing trend. They have some other great research findings and articles that go deeper on this topic as well, so if you want to know more, I’ll link to their resources in the show notes which you can find in episode 507 in iTunes.
Here’s what they came up with and what the studies show is behind this trend:
- Multiple marriages. Couples in their 50s and 60s who are on their 2nd or 3rd marriage are the most likely to get a gray divorce. In fact, the divorce rate is 2.5x higher for people who have had more than one marriage, compared to those who have only been married once.
- No more kids. A lot of empty nesters find it difficult to hold together an unhappy marriage once the children leave.
- Lifestyle changes. Once one or both spouses retire, it can have a big impact on the lifestyle of individuals and couples, and can often cause friction if that vision for retirement isn’t a shared one.
Those are just a few of the reasons behind the gray divorce trend and something to be mindful of and on guard for, especially as the empty nest and retirement transitions approach.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about gray divorce. Gray divorce refers to the skyrocketing trend of divorce rates among those age 50 and older. While the overall divorce rate has declined from 1990 to 2015, it actually doubled during that same time period for Americans over the age of 50. For those age 65 and older, the divorce rate has tripled, and that poses a big problem for your finances in retirement.
Today, I’m laying the groundwork to talk about this growing trend and why it’s of special importance and significance for the over 50 crowd, especially since you are so close to retirement.
Among people in my own circle of family, friends, acquaintances, and clients, I have certainly seen an uptick in gray divorce over the last several years - something that seemed a lot more rare when I was growing up. If someone I knew was getting a divorce, it was always a couple in their 20s or 30s, but now the research backs up what I’ve seen anecdotally - and that is the prevalence of divorce rates among baby boomers.
The main financial problem with gray divorce is that the asset split that happens in nearly every divorce cuts your wealth in half. Research from the National Center for Family & Marriage Research found that someone getting divorced after age 50 can expect their wealth to drop by about 50%. And unlike someone who divorces in their 20s and 30s, you’ve nearly run out of time to make up for that lost wealth since you’re so close to retirement. So unless you want to keep working until well into your 70s, it’s going to be very hard to regain your lost ground.
Someone once told me that the secret to building wealth is: don’t switch cars and don’t switch spouses. And I think there’s a lot of truth to that, so tomorrow, I’m going to talk about what’s behind the trend of gray divorce and why so many 50 and 60-somethings are calling it quits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about gray divorce. The divorce rate among people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s has skyrocketed in recent years. It’s such a prevalent trend that there’s even a name for it - gray divorce. So this week, I’ll unpack this upswing in divorce rates among pre-retirees and retirees and what a gray divorce could mean for your retirement plan.
Last September, I read an article in the magazine ‘401k Specialist’. The article highlighted the increase in divorce rates among Americans close to retirement, and the devastating impact that it can have on your retirement plans.
After reading this article, I knew that it would be a worthwhile and important topic to cover on the One Minute Retirement Tip. It had confirmed a lot of what I had been seeing in my own life - the uptick in divorces I was experiencing with my own clients who were divorcing in their 50s and 60s and how that was painful for them - both emotionally and financially. In addition, I’ve had several close friends whose parents divorced when their children had grown and moved out, even after staying in the marriage for decades. Those divorces later in life were so curious to me because I just assumed that if you could stay married for 20-30 years like many of these couples had, you were committed for the long-haul.
But as we’ll cover this week, despite staying married for decades, many couples are divorcing later in life, sparking this new moniker for the trend of gray divorce.
The other thing I want to mention about this topic before we kick off the week is that I put off this topic for 6 months now since reading that article, because I didn’t know how to talk about divorce from a financial and retirement perspective while still being sensitive to the complexities involved in a divorce decision.
And since divorce is such a contentious and emotional topic with strong extreme opinions on both sides of the issue, I want to be cautious in avoiding any land mines or alienating listeners while I cover this topic.
My goal this week is to speak the truth and help you think through this difficult, painful, and emotional topic from the perspective of your finances. As I’m really not qualified to talk about the impact of divorce from other angles, we’ll look at the reality of divorce in your 50s and beyond, why there’s massive growth in gray divorce, how it is especially harmful to women, 5 ways that a gray divorce can impact your finances in retirement, and how you can calculate the impact of divorce on your retirement.
For those of you who are struggling in your marriage right now or are contemplating divorce, I hope this week is especially relevant for you.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and raises visibility of this podcast to help others find it. And thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the coronavirus and it’s impact on the economy, the stock market, and your investment portfolio.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Coronavirus - what does it mean for your portfolio and the markets
- Will the coronavirus send the US economy into a recession?
- Should you get out of stocks now?
- A guiding principle for making decisions in times of fear and panic
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are well-equipped to make smart decisions and the news about the coronavirus develops - for better or for worse.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Before I close out the week though, I want to offer a prayer for all those who have been sickened and all those who have died because of the coronavirus, as well as their families, and all the medical workers and scientists who are working diligently to find a solution. As rough as this outbreak has been for the markets, it’s nothing compared to losing your life due to the coronavirus.
Almighty God, your only Son took upon himself the sufferings and weakness of the whole human race; through his passion and cross he taught us how good can be brought out of suffering. Look upon our brothers and sisters who are ill, whom we now remember in a special way. In the midst of illness and pain, may they be united with Christ, who heals both body and soul. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Are FAANG stocks a good investment? FAANG (F-A-A-N-G) is an acronym referring to the stocks of the five most popular powerhouse American tech companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. This was actually the topic slated for this week, but after big drops in the stock market, I thought I’d better focus on something more timely and push out the FAANG discussion another week.
You’d be quite happy with your returns over the last several years if you invested in the FAANG stocks. The results of these 5 stocks and tech companies in general continue to produce impressive results, so next week, I’ll talk about whether or not the FAANG stocks are a good investment.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week’s topic is the coronavirus and its impact on the economy, the stock market, and your portfolio.
Yesterday, I answered a very important question - should you sell your stock market investments because of the coronavirus?
Today, I want to give you a guiding principle to help you answer that question and others like it. So when the next crisis du jour occurs, you’ll know how to react and what to do.
The principle is easier said than done, and it flies in the face of our natural tendencies to protect ourselves in times of trouble and crisis, but it’s a principle that will greatly enhance your ability to make good financial decisions, and if you’re capable of implementing it in your life across the board, it will no doubt bring more peace and calm into your life.
Here’s the principle: Focus on what you can control and not on what you can’t.
Focus on what you can control and stop worrying about what you can’t control. Do you have any control over the coronavirus outbreak and the spread of the disease? No. But you do have control over how you prepare for an outbreak. You can stock up on emergency food supplies and buy a medical face mask for everyone in your family. You can avoid travel to high-risk places and wash your hands.
Do you have any control over the drop in the stock market and the drop in value of your investments? No. But you do have control over your reaction and what you do about it. You do have control over making sure you have enough in savings so you don’t have to dip into your portfolio if you need some cash. You do have control over how you invested in your portfolio leading up to the downturn. I talk often about the importance of a mix or stocks and bonds that is aligned with your age, income needs, and proximity to retirement. If you are disciplined and focusing on taking the right actions on the things you can control, a drop in your portfolio or a recession won’t derail your plans, so there isn’t too much you should worry about anyways. If you’re healthy, you can control whether or not you work another year or work part time in retirement to allow your portfolio to recover if you retire into the teeth of a recession.
So focus on what you can control. Just like you can’t control your mother-in-law’s passive aggressive comments, but you can control your reaction to her comments, you can’t control world events and their impact on your investment portfolio, but you can control your reaction to them.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the coronavirus and its impact on your retirement and investment portfolio.
Today, I’m answering an important question that has most likely flashed in your mind - should you get out of stocks because of the coronavirus. Certainly the closer you are to retirement, the more the recent drop in the stock market has you worried.
The problem with changing your long-term strategy based on current events and a possible recession and bear market is that you have to be right not just once, but twice. You have to get out of stocks before the market drops and things get ugly, and I’m guessing that since the drop in the stock market was so swift, you probably didn’t do that.
And you have to get back in before the stock market turns up again. And incur all the trading costs and potential tax liability for selling your stock market investments.
My dad always used to tell me there are no billionaire market timers. Only billionaire long-term investors. Think about it. How many day traders do you know who are even millionaires due to their trading and market timing prowess. If there are, it’s due more to luck than skill. Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world who can credit his wealth to his investment acumen, once said: “When major declines occur, they offer extraordinary opportunities to those who are not handicapped by debt,"..."No one can tell you when these will happen. The light can at any time go from green to red without pausing at yellow.”
This time the light has definitely gone from green to red, with the market racing to a correction of more than 10% from the all-time high faster than ever before.
But I do have an answer for that question I asked at the beginning of today - should you get out of stocks because of the coronavirus.
It’s the same answer I give to clients that call me in a panic each time the market has a big drop. Don’t sell today. If you still want to sell in a week, give me a call and we’ll talk. I’ve refused to sell into the teeth of a downturn many times and asked clients to call me in a week if they still want to sell. Inevitably, clients calm down and decide to stick with the long-term plan we put in place, and that’s what I recommend to anyone who is seriously considering getting out of their stock market investments - patience is your friend, and one of the worst things you can do for your long-term success with investing is to react and make decisions based on fear and panic.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the coronavirus and the big question that is on everyone’s mind - will the coronavirus send the US economy into a recession and cause bigger drops in your retirement investments than we’ve already seen.
My crystal ball is out of order, so unfortunately I can’t give you a definitive answer on that. But here are the relevant facts as I see them. The U.S. economy is growing at about 1 to 1.5% right now, at least that’s the estimate for the 1st quarter of 2020. When the economy is in slow growth mode, it doesn’t take much to push us into recession territory. So yes, it’s very possible that the coronavirus could be the straw that broke the camels back.
However, it all depends on how the coronavirus spreads and how long it takes before the contagion can be contained. The longer this goes on the more likely it is to push our economy into negative growth.
But even if that did happen and we are on the brink of a recession, the factors fueling this recession are nothing compared to the recession in 2008. I think it’s all too easy to look back on 2008 and think that the next downturn will be just like it. The Great Recession was long and deep, and fueled by a credit crisis around the world. Credit, which is the underpinning of virtually all consumer and business spending, isn’t the driving force this time around. The world’s financial system isn’t on the verge of collapse and we don’t have any asset bubbles that are ready to pop. Bubbles are the drivers of big drops of 50% like we saw in 2008, and that’s just not present right now.
The recent drop could just be a hiccup or it could be the catalyst for a recession. Frankly, it doesn’t really matter because you don’t want to abandon your long-term plans because of current events. I’ll talk more about that tomorrow when I answer the question, should you get out of stocks because of the coronavirus?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Are you panicking yet about the coronavirus? The stock market is certainly infected as it reacts badly to the news of the pandemic.
Today, I’m talking about the winners and losers with the coronavirus - at least in terms of sectors and the economy. Over the last week, some of the hardest hit sectors have been energy, consumer, transportation, and technology stocks have been the hardest hit. The stock market is bracing for less travel and less consumer spending if the world hunkers down for the coronavirus outbreak. A lot of individual companies that are closely tied with China, have been suffering as well.
On the flipside, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some of the better performing industries include medical labs, grocery stores, tobacco, and paper products. Certain medical labs and healthcare stocks will certainly be some of the winners from the coronavirus if they can find a solution to curb the contagion. And in the meantime, the market is predicting that people will be stocking up on grocery staples, cigarettes, and toilet paper.
Safe haven investments like US Treasury bonds and gold have also been doing quite well as fear grips the stock market.
As I mentioned earlier this week, the stock market is down 12% in the last week as I write these tips because of the expectations over continued spread of the coronavirus. It remains to be seen if this is a short-term panic or the start of a more significant downturn in the economy and the stock market.
My point with today’s tips is that no matter what is happening in the world, there are always both winners and losers and opportunity if you are able to shake off the fear to find it. I would encourage you not to panic and sell and abandon your long-term plan with your retirement because of a big market drop like we’ve seen.
If it’s not the coronavirus, it’s SARS or a government shutdown, or natural disasters, terrorist attacks, a sovereign debt crisis, or a trade war.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the coronavirus and its potential impact on your investment portfolio and the economy.
Today, we’re de-briefing on what’s happened so far to stocks and the stock market and what the likely impact is on stock markets.
Let’s start by putting this recent drop into perspective. As I mentioned yesterday, as I write the tips for this week, the DJIA is down more than 12% over the last week due to concerns over the coronavirus. 2 of those days involved drops of over 1,000.
With China manufacturing and their economy being so important to the world economy, it will no doubt have an impact there and a ripple effect to other economies around the world, including here in the U.S.
One of the other problems with the timing of this shock to the markets and the world economy is that most economies around the world are slowing down. Here in the U.S. 1st quarter GDP (otherwise known as the growth rate of the economy) is expected to be about 1-1.5%. Our economy has been growing, but growth has slowed, so the impact of the coronavirus on certain industries and the economy as a whole could be the straw that broke the camel's back. When the economy is growing at 3-4% it’s more resilient to shocks like this, compared to the current low growth. When we’re only growing by 1-1.5%, shocks like this can be enough to push the economy into a recession.
I don’t have a crystal ball and my magic 8 ball told me to “concentrate and ask again” when I asked for it’s prediction, so I have no idea what this pandemic means for the economy or your portfolio long-term.
It really depends on the severity of the pandemic. If life in China and around the world can return to normal relatively soon, then it’s unlikely to create any serious long-term economic or market impacts. But it’s also possible that the coronavirus could continue to worsen and if it does, you may not like what you see when you look at your 401k and investment account balances over the coming weeks or months.
With that said though, shocks like this are actually very common and even though it’s tempting to sell everything and hide it under your mattress, if history is any indication, often shocks like this are just temporary and nothing to panic over. In fact in the 35 years from 1980 to 2015, despite finishing up for 27 of those 35 years, the stock market dropped during the year an average of 14.2%. That’s worth repeating. During a 35 year time period, you could expect double digit drops during the year, even though the stock market finished up the vast majority of the time.
Because the reality is, if it’s not coronavirus, it’s SARS or a government shutdown, or natural disasters, terrorist attacks, a sovereign debt crisis, or a trade war.
Hopefully when you realize that a shock like the coronavirus is nothing new and unlikely as of right now to send the economy and the stock market into a deep dive, you can better equip yourself emotionally for the ups and downs while the crisis du jour gets sorted out.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! Conornavirus! Holy Cow..what is going on! Masks are selling out in NYC. Websites that sell emergency food supplies are shutting down...I know because my husband tried to order from 2 different sites a couple weeks ago and you couldn’t even put in an order.
This week, I’m talking about the coronavirus and its potential impact on your portfolio. If I’m being honest, I’m a little bit freaked out about the coronavirus - hence the ordering of emergency food supplies. And it’s not because of the potential damage it can do to our economy, and investors and their portfolios. It remains to be seen how widespread the coronavirus will be, so it’s hard to say, but if history is any indication, the impact of the coronavirus, especially if it can be contained, will not have any long-term or devastating consequences for the economy and the stock market, and the big drops that we’ve seen in recent weeks are likely to be short-lived.
After all, the current devastation and death toll is still nothing compared to the common flu, which according to wikipedia is responsible for 650,000 deaths every year around the world. That’s a big number, 650,000.
I guess what has me concerned is the uncertainty of it all. Not knowing if a viable treatment will be found or if the spread of the disease can be contained, or if in just a few short weeks schools and offices here in the US will be shut down because of outbreaks. I have 2 young children, ages 2 & 5, so I am also acutely aware that they are more vulnerable than most, and as a mother I worry about my precious babies.
But that uncertainty about what’s in store with this pandemic - that’s what’s got the stock market spooked as well. The stock market hates uncertainty and always reacts badly to it. As I write this week’s tips, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has had 6 straight days of losses and is down 12% just in the last week.
So this week, I’m going to stop and take a few deep breaths, even if I have to do that with a medical mask on, and discuss the big picture when it comes to your retirement portfolio and how to best handle curveballs like this. It’s tempting to sell and get out while you still can, so my goal this week is to share some perspective and to help you answer one very important question - what should you do now?
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and raises visibility of this podcast to help others find it. And thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the fiduciary standard in the world of financial advice. What is a fiduciary and why should you care?
In each episode this week, I dug a little deeper into the fiduciary issue in an effort to help you better understand what a fiduciary is and when, why, and how that matters for your long-term financial success.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- Early in the week we laid the foundation by defining fiduciary
- Then we talked about how to spot who is and who isn’t a fiduciary
- On Thursday, we went even deeper to explain the nuances behind the Suitability vs.Fiduciary Standards
- We talked about what to do if your advisor isn’t a fiduciary
- And yesterday, we covered how you can better understand the main areas of conflicted advice - namely fees vs. commissions and sales vs. advice.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you’re well-equipped to make smarter decisions to ensure the people you hire to help you manage your finances are acting in your best interest.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Gray Divorce. The divorce rate among people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s has skyrocketed in recent years. It’s such a prevalent trend that there’s a name for it - gray divorce - as in your hair is gray. So next week, we’ll unpack this upswing in divorce rates among pre-retirees and retirees and what a gray divorce could mean for your retirement plan.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about the fiduciary standard in the world of financial advice. What is a fiduciary and why should you care?
Today, I’m wrapping up the week by talking about the 2 main sources of conflicted advice:
- Fees vs. commissions
- Sales vs. advice
Last week, I made the mistake of taking my kids to the mall with me. I had to return a sweater to Nordstrom, and after we were done with that I found a pair of pants that I wanted to try on. So the helpful gal at Nordstrom took my pants to the dressing room for me while I looked around a little bit more. I didn’t see anything else I wanted to try on so we headed to the dressing room. When I walked in there were 3 other items the gal at Nordstrom had put in the room for me as well. My 5-year year old is very observant and she noticed the other clothes and asked “Mommy, why did that lady put more clothes in here”. I answered her “because she’s paid on commission, sweetie”. It was an interesting conversation because I had to explain to her what that meant and that she gets paid more if I spend more money. One of the items was a $495 sweater. Because I like torturing myself, I decided to try it on even though there is no way I would ever spend that much on a sweater!
But if I would have bought that sweater, the gal at Nordstrom would have been paid more and benefited more from helping me out.
Because I understood her motivations, I was better able to make a good decision about walking out of that dressing room without the sweater.
The biggest 2 distinctions for financial advisors are fees vs. commission & sales vs. advice. You need to know whether or not your advisor can switch hats, and if they can when are they wearing their fee hat and giving advice in a fiduciary capacity, and when are they wearing the commission hat and selling you something. In this case, when they wear the commissioned salesperson hat, they can be self serving and act in their best interest not yours as long as the recommendation they make is suitable.
So, take the time to ask the right questions about whether or not your advisor is a fiduciary at all times or not, and then if not, know what to look for when you’re taking advice from them and understand what hat they’re wearing when they give that advice so you can make an informed decision about whether or not you take that advice.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the fiduciary standard in the world of financial advice. What is a fiduciary and why should you care?
We’ve done a pretty deep dive on the fiduciary issue this week, and I hope as a result you have a better understanding of how to pick out a fiduciary, and why you should work with an advisor who will act in your best interests.
Today, I want to talk about what to do if your advisor isn’t a fiduciary. The good news is that the advisory industry is moving more and more in that direction. 20 years ago, finding an advisor who wasn’t paid commissions and always acted in a fiduciary capacity was quite rare. Now it’s a lot more common. At my company, True North Retirement Advisors, we are fiduciaries to our clients and that was a very strategic decision we made when we started our firm, because we wanted to be able to say to all of our clients that we are working for them exclusively and aren’t conflicted in our advice.
So what do you do if you’ve been working with your advisor for a while and they’re not a fiduciary. Do you need to go find a new advisor? I think the answer depends on how well you know your advisor and how much you trust them. If you’ve been working with your advisor for 30 years, they’re your best friend, your kids godfather, and you trust them with your life, then fiduciary status is less important. You know them well and you trust them.
If however, you have doubts about your advisor, they seem to have put you in some odd investments over the years that you suspect had high fees or high commissions, or they only seem to call you to sell you something, that should be a red flag that you are working with an advisor who is self-serving and doesn’t actually care about putting your needs first.
As I mentioned earlier this week, the more you arm yourself with information about how your advisor gets paid and understand whether or not your advisor is a fiduciary or not, you’ll be better equipped to make an informed decision about whether or not this person is someone you can trust to give you sound advice that’s in your best interest.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the fiduciary standard in the world of financial advice. What is a fiduciary and why should you care?
Today, I’m diving a little deeper into the differences between fiduciary and non-fiduciary status by discussing a very important distinction - suitability vs. fiduciary standards. Now if you remember from earlier this week, a fiduciary duty is the ethical and legal obligation to act solely in someone else's best interest. A fiduciary advisor must put the interests of their clients ahead of their own.
Suitability on the other hand, requires that your advisor make recommendations that are suitable based on your situation, assets, risk tolerance, etc., but the standard does not require the advice to be in your best interest. Kind of hard to believe, right?
Maybe a term life insurance policy is what would be in your best interest, but the commissions on term-life policies for advisors that sell them are terrible. Even on a large policy, they’re dismal. But an insurance agent or your financial advisor can make a boatload of a commission by selling you a whole life policy instead. Now, it may or may not be in your best interest to buy that whole life policy, but that actually doesn’t matter. As long as the recommendation is suitable it doesn’t actually have to be in your best interest. The agent has done nothing wrong by selling you a policy that was more ideal for them than for you.
Just like if you go to a car dealership. If you’re at the Toyota dealership and you tell the salesperson what you need in a car, the perfect car for you might be a Honda or a Ford. But is the Toyota salesperson going to tell you to walk away and go down the street somewhere else - no! But you know that. And because you know that, you can make a more informed decision about taking their advice.
The same is true when working with a financial advisor. While a fiduciary standard is ideal, we live in a world today where most advisors are just required to find a suitable fit for you, and not something that’s necessarily in your best interest.
So the best thing you can do is to understand whether or not your advisor is a fiduciary and understand how they get paid. When you understand that, you can trust the advice you’re getting or go find an advisor that you do trust.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the fiduciary standard in the world of financial advice. What is a fiduciary and why should you care?
Today, I’m talking about who is and who isn’t a fiduciary, and how you can tell the difference.
But first, I want to take a pause to celebrate because today marks episode 500 of the One Minute Retirement Tip! The podcast continues to grow every month thanks to you, and I love receiving emails and comments from you in the reviews, so thank you so much for being a listener and if you’re finding this podcast valuable, consider sharing it on social media or telling a friend who is close to retirement.
Alright, back to today’s topic. It’s actually really difficult to tell who is and who isn’t a fiduciary, unless you know what you’re looking for and you’re the 1% who reads the fine print of all the documents you sign and all the disclosures that your advisor sends to you.
The biggest giveaway that will tell you if they are a fiduciary is whether or not your advisor is a fee-only advisor. Back in 2015, CNBC released its second annual list of the “Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms” to the public. The joke was that when you looked under the hood at the top 10 “fee only” firms on the list, 9 out of 10 of them share in insurance commissions, own an insurance agency, or are under common ownership alongside an insurance affiliate to which advisory clients are referred.
In other words, 9 out of 10 of CNBC’s “Top Fee-Only” firms are not actually fee only! And since they can and do receive commissions on selling insurance products, they aren’t fiduciaries to their clients in all circumstances either. So if CNBC can’t tell the difference, how can you?!
There are a few tell-tale signs though that aren’t fool-proof but definitely help:
- First off, you could just ask “are you a fiduciary”. If your advisor is honest, which most are, they should be able to explain whether or not they are a fiduciary
- Another good question to ask is if they receive other types of compensation other than what you’re paying them. Fiduciary advisors are fee-only, meaning the only compensation they receive is from the advisory fees you pay them, usually on a quarterly basis. Non-fiduciary advisors often receive other types of compensation and how they’re paid will often be an indication of their fiduciary status. This might include commissions or trading fees, incentives from their firm (like a higher payout for selling more of a particular type of investment), or soft dollars - usually compensation directly from mutual fund companies. For example, at my old firm, if I bought a Vanguard fund for a client, I couldn’t get paid on that. But I could get paid with a laundry list of other mutual funds. I’m not going to work for free, so if Vanguard was truly the best option for that client, I had a potential conflict of interest. So be sure to find out all the ways your advisor gets paid.
- When you buy or sell a stock, mutual fund, a life insurance policy or an annuity is there a commission that your advisor gets paid? If they receive a commission, then they are acting in the role of salesperson and aren’t a fiduciary.
- The last way to tell if often just looking at the firm they work for - any advisor who works for a large brokerage firm - think Edward Jones, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, etc. is unlikely to be a fiduciary - they might be in some situation, but advisors working at big firms are dually registered, meaning that they are fiduciaries in some circumstances, but then they can take that hat off whenever they need to in order to sell you an annuity or get paid a commission.
The biggest giveaway regarding fiduciary status is how your advisor gets paid. If it’s solely on fees paid by you, and they receive no commissions, they are a lot more likely to be a fiduciary and upholding the highest standard of care in their dealings with you as the client.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the fiduciary standard in the world of financial advice. What is a fiduciary and why should you care?
Today, I’m laying the groundwork by defining fiduciary and what it means.
A fiduciary duty is the ethical and legal obligation to act solely in someone else's best interest. A fiduciary advisor must put the interests of their clients ahead of their own. This should be in writing and it’s the highest standard of care that exists between any advisor and his or her clients.
It sounds like that a fiduciary duty should just be the table stakes when dealing with a financial advisor, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Most advisors do not operate under a fiduciary duty in all circumstances with all of their clients, which means the relationship is more likely to be fraught with conflicts of interest.
When there are conflicts of interest and a disordered set of priorities because a fiduciary duty isn’t part of the deal, it can erode trust, or cause your advisor to do things that are not in your best interest - like invest your money in a high fee product that pays them a fat commission.
It’s important to try to eliminate these types of conflicts, and working an advisor who has a an obligation to put your interests first because they are a fiduciary to you, eliminates many of those ethical pitfalls.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about the F word. No, not that F word! I’m talking about the other F word: fiduciary.
What is a fiduciary and why should you care? I’ll talk about the fiduciary standard as it applies to financial advisors, planners, insurance salesmen, and even the advisor at your bank. As an investor, you can empower yourself by better understanding what motivates the people you hire to provide financial advice and sell financial products. And when you know who is a fiduciary and who isn’t and when and why it matters, you’ll be able to make smarter decisions to ensure the people you hire to help you manage your finances are acting in your best interest.
So this week, my goal is to help you better understand what makes someone a fiduciary (hint: it’s not an easy thing to spot), so you can make informed decisions knowing what motivates the people you are trusting with your money.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
In a review on Amazon, Frugal Mama writes: “keep 'em coming Ashley, I do appreciate your daily information, and your positive energy each morning to start my day!”
Thank you, frugal mama. And thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement.
In each episode this week, I covered some of the biggest life transitions you’ll need to navigate before and during retirement, including:
- The empty nest transition
- Caring for elderly parents
- Transitioning into Retirement
- Dealing with a health scare
- Coping with the death of a spouse
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a better understanding of how each of these transitions and their timing will impact you and your money in retirement. Ultimately, I hope that you will be more prepared to navigate these important life events with the right preparation and plenty of grace.
If you’re married, I encourage you to talk through each of these transitions with your spouse and determine if there is more you need to do to prepare. Whether it’s budgeting for more travel in the early years of retirement, or planning to work part time, or deciding now whether or not you want to stay in your current home, and under what circumstances you would move. The last thing you want to do is discuss these important decisions after a major life change, when emotions are running high or after your mental capacity to make these important decisions has already declined.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: What is a fiduciary and why should you care. I’ll talk about the fiduciary standard as it applies to financial advisors, planners, insurance salesmen, and even the advisor at your bank. As an investor, you can empower yourself by better understanding what motivates the people you hire to provide financial advice and sell financial products. And when you know who is a fiduciary and who isn’t and when and why it matters, you’ll be able to make smarter decisions to ensure the people you hire to help you manage your finances are acting in your best interest.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement.
If yesterday wasn’t depressing enough for you with the discussion on health scares and how they can derail the best laid plans you had for your retirement, today I’m talking about navigating the death of a spouse.
Now, if you’re like me, you live in constant denial of your own mortality and the mortality of your loved ones. That’s why life insurance salesmen have it so rough and estate attorneys are so grumpy - no one ever wants to face the reality of their own death, yet as we all know, the human death rate still stands at 100%.
If you’re age 65 and male, you can expect to live another 18 years. If your 65 and female it’s another 20 years. So if you’re married, that puts us squarely in your 80s when you can reasonably expect that one of your will die.
Besides the emotional issues, grief, and loneliness of losing a spouse, there are several other important factors to consider here. Navigating the estate issues, potential changes to living situations, etc. There may be life insurance proceeds to handle, and the re registering of bank accounts, investment accounts and IRA assets can be a daunting process.
The biggest problem I see from a financial standpoint is that one spouse is almost always the primary caretaker of finances and often the other spouse has little to no involvement. LEarning about managing money in your 80s is no walk in the park, and so it’s really important that both spouses take an interest and have an understanding for the couple’s money and finances, and both spouses know where all the accounts are, know what insurance policies exist, and know how to get into the safe deposit box.
When a spouse is left alone and unprepared to deal with household finances, it also opens the door for mismanagement and elder financial abuse, which sadly is very common today.
So if you’re married, be sure that you talk with your spouse regularly about the household finances, you meet with your financial advisor and other advisors like your CPA and attorney together, and importantly, both spouses are clued into where all the accounts are, where the important documents are located, and how to find them.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement.
Today’s important life transition is navigating the health scare. Cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, strokes, and other major health events are obviously always an issue no matter what your age, but it’s no surprise that dealing with some kind of health event becomes more common and more likely as we age.
And many of us will deal with some kind of health scare in our 70s or you may be perfectly healthy yourself, but your spouse may have a stroke or need a new knee or experience hearing loss, or a whole laundry list of other issues.
And since many of these issues crop up or become worse in retirement, dealing with a major health event can disrupt your plans, causing you to put travel on hold or may make it difficult to stay in your home, or cause you to struggle financially to pay medical bills. It also may require caretaking if it’s your spouse who had the health event.
Most of my clients approaching and transitioning into retirement are acutely aware that time is running short, so I think it’s a good idea to try to front-load as much as your fun activities in your early years of retirement. I had a husband and wife as clients, who were very frugal and put off travel until retirement, but then right after they both retired, the husband was diagnosed with terminal and aggressive cancer, and they ended up not getting to do any of the things together that they planned to do. You probably know someone in a similar situation.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you blow through your retirement nest egg on a spending binge, but within reason and within the bounds of what you can afford, it’s wise to do the important things that really matter to you sooner rather than later, because later may not ever happen at all.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the retirement transition. Most Americans retire in their 60s, with the most common retirement age being 62. Not surprisingly, this age coincides with the earliest age you can draw social security income.
Navigating the retirement transition is a big topic that I could take weeks to cover, but today I just want to emphasize a few of the important and irreversible decisions that you’ll need to make at retirement.
First of all, is the timing of your retirement. When will you retire, and can you afford to retire when you plan to or do you need to consider working longer.
Related to the retirement timing decision is whether or not you’ll work part-time when you retire. Part-time work is increasingly an option for healthy Americans who have reached retirement age, but maybe can’t afford to fully retire, or don’t want to stop working for other reasons. More and more, I have clients who do consulting work, are still running their business, or are even driving Uber to bring in additional income and fund their retirement lifestyle in the early years of retirement.
Another key component to the retirement transition is planning and running the numbers to make sure you can actually retire. You’ll also need to decide when to begin tapping into your investment portfolio for income, how much income you’ll need, and whether or not that is realistic and sustainable. Again it’s important to run the numbers on this before you retire, so you don’t have any negative surprises later on and deplete your portfolio after its too late to course-correct.
In addition, you’ll usually have more travel, or take on some expensive home projects. These expenses are often front-loaded in the early years of retirement and need to be accounted for.
Then lastly, one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make is the timing of social security. The difference in lifetime income between taking social security at 62 and full retirement age, or even age 70 can add up to over half a million dollars in lifetime income. So the social security decision is one of the most important and impactful decisions you’ll make in retirement, and defaulting to timing social security with when you retire, may not be the best option.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement.
Today, I’m talking about navigating caring for your elderly parents. This is an important transition that usually happens in your early to mid 60s. But it can happen much earlier or later depending on the age and health of your parents or your spouse’s parents.
Caretaking of elderly parents often falls on family members, with 65% of older Americans who need care today are relying on family and friends exclusively. And of those caregivers, ⅔ of them are female.
So for you women listening, it’s likely that at some point, if you aren’t already, you will be providing some type of care for mom or dad...or both.
The implications of this are numerous and differ in each situation. The challenge for many women is that you just raised your kids and soon after may be thrust back into a caregiving role, so it’s important to understand and accept the possibility that that may happen so you can better cope with it.
Other challenges of caretaking for elderly parents include time & energy commitments. You might need to also provide financial support if your parents don’t have the financial means to independently care for themselves or pay their bills. Another challenge is reduced income for you or your spouse. Because of the time commitments, you may decide to work part-time or stop working altogether to take care of mom or dad. This can be particularly challenging for your finances and retirement plan if you didn’t plan on this change. Not only do you reduce your income, but you also may not be able to contribute to your retirement during this time.
Of course it’s different for everyone and every circumstance, but depending on the age, health, and financial resources of your parents, you’ll want to think through this important life transition that can blindside many people during their peak working and earning years, and either accelerate or delay your own retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement.
Today, I’m talking about navigating the empty nester transition. For most of you, kids start leaving the house when you’re about 10-15 years from retirement, and you become empty nesters by the time you’re in your mid-50s.
While there’s a newfound time freedom that comes with being an empty nester, since you’re no longer schlepping kids to soccer practice or their friend’s house, there is usually a financial burden, since many parents are supporting kids financially during the college years, and often beyond as well.
Most Americans are in their peak earning years in their 50s, so you probably have greater financial means to support your kids, but every dollar that goes toward college tuition or junior’s rent payment is one less dollar that gets socked away for retirement in those last, critical 10-15 years before retirement.
There’s also navigating financial aid and scholarships and using funds from 529s to pay for college.
You can prepare for this ahead of time, by better understanding what it’s likely going to cost to support your children in the college years and beyond, if you decide to continue financial support. Understanding your out-of-pocket expenses will help you determine if you’re still going to be able to save enough for retirement.
The important thing to remember here from a financial standpoint is that you can get a loan for college, but you can’t get a loan for retirement. So be sure that you calculate the cost of supporting your kids and communicate with them whether or not they’ll need to pitch in for their own expenses and to what extent to make the numbers work for everyone.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about navigating life’s important transitions before and during retirement. Ah, life. Does it ever get easier!? No, but hopefully we can grow in wisdom as we age to better handle life’s inevitable challenges and changes. This week I’m talking about some of the biggest changes you’ll face in the years leading up to retirement...all the way through the important transitions you’ll likely need to handle later in life in your 80s and beyond.
I’m diving into everything from becoming an empty nester to retirement to taking care of elderly parents to the death of a spouse. For most of you listening, these events are not just likely, they’re inevitable. And, they’re deeply connected to your finances. You’ll need to make some important decisions before and during each of these important transitions, so this week, my goal is to help you think through each of these life transitions, so you can navigate them with preparation and grace.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
In an Amazon review from last August, “frequent buyer” writes: “Waste of time for any serious listener seeking real information.”
Thank you,frequent buyer. And thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about how to avoid the hidden danger of index fund investing. I spent much of this week talking about what no one tells you about index fund investing and what few people actually understand about index funds and ETFs - because of their market weights, they are not as diversified as you might think.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- What You Think You Own in a S&P 500 Index Fund
- What You Really Own in a S&P 500 Index Fund
- Why You Can Get Burned By Index Funds in the Next market meltdown, and how to avoid the hidden danger of index funds
- And lastly, some key takeaways for this week about a prudent way to approach index fund investing
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you now know that index funds is that in and of themselves are a perfectly good investments, but you still need to work to build a diversified portfolio when you own index funds, rather than just buying one or two and mistakenly believing you are diversified.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Navigating Life’s Important Transitions Before and During Retirement. I’ll talk about how to prepare and plan for life’s inevitable transitions that happen in your 50s and beyond...everything from becoming an empty nester to retirement to taking care of elderly parents to the death of a spouse. For most of you listening, these events are likely and often inevitable, and there are important decisions that need to be made before and during each of these important transitions, to help you navigate each of them with preparation and grace.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, index investing, ETF investing, index funds, ETFs, etfs vs mutual funds, etf vs stock, how to invest in index funds
This week, I’m talking about how to avoid the hidden danger of index fund investing. I’ve spent much of this week talking about what no one tells you about index fund investing and what few people actually understand about index funds and ETFs - because of their market weights, they are not as diversified as you might think.
Today, I want to bring this home by mentioning a few key principles to keep in mind when you buy index funds. First of all, index funds are a great choice for a lot of people. They have tremendous benefits in being cheap, and accessible, and liquid. They trade like stocks so you can buy and sell any time the market is open and with a small investment, you can build yourself a nice little portfolio of index funds.
But too many people think that they can just go out and buy a S&P 500 Index fund of the Russell 3000 and they think that's it. I’m done. I’m diversified and now I can just set it and forget it. Hopefully if you’ve been listening to the tips this week, you now realize it’s not that simple.
Here’s what you need to do if you’re going to invest in index funds or ETFs: It’s crucial that you understand what you really own when you buy an index fund. Don’t assume that an indexing strategy is safe and prudent. Indexing carries with it its own set of risks, so be sure to always know what you own and look under the hood!
Index funds aren’t bad investments. We recommend them to clients all the time. Most of the 401k plan clients that I advise offer a S&P 500 index fund in the fund lineup – that I selected!
But the gospel that is preached about investing in index funds, tries to oversimplify the process of investing by promoting the purchase of a market index fund as a holistic investment strategy.
The world’s richest stock picker, Warren Buffett, famously recommends that most people would be better off investing in the S&P 500 over the strategy that made him so wealthy – stock picking. There’s wisdom in his advice, but it’s important to understand WHAT you actually own when you invest in an index fund. Or any fund for that matter!
So ask questions. Look under the hood. Know what you own. Don’t just assume that all funds are diversified. They’re not!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, index investing, ETF investing, index funds, ETFs, etfs vs mutual funds, etf vs stock, how to invest in index funds
This week, I’m talking about how to avoid the hidden danger of index fund investing.
Today, I’m diving a little deeper on the dangers of owning a large portion of your portfolio in an index fund like the S&P 500 index whenever the next market meltdown arrives.
If you go back and look at the technology sector around the year 2000, you would see that the sector as a % of the S&P 500 grew tremendously from about 12% of the index to 33% in just a couple years. And by the time the dot-com bubble burst on the tech stocks, this sector was the largest in the S&P 500, which led to a bigger crash in the market, and a deeper dive in your portfolio if you had a large sum or all of your portfolio tied up in what you thought was a diversified index fund.
The same pattern emerged (although less dramatic) in financial stocks just before the market crashed in 2008. For most of the 2000s, financial and bank stocks comprised 22% of the S&P 500 index. Again, this sector’s weighting in the S&P 500 index was bloated, since the historical average was 14.7% of the index. Big banks’ stock prices were growing steadily in the 2000s leading up to the financial crisis and Great Recession, so the bank stocks were the most bloated and made up much more of the S&P 500 index, right at the worst possible time – when financials were hit hardest during the financial crisis.
These sectors were bloated compared to their historical weights and caused the index to crash harder than it otherwise would have if there was less concentration in the index.
And that is why you can build a diversified portfolio with index funds, but you need multiple funds to be truly diversified, and need to be aware of the hidden dangers that exist with market-weight index funds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, index investing, ETF investing, index funds, ETFs, etfs vs mutual funds, etf vs stock, how to invest in index funds
This week, I’m talking about how to avoid the hidden danger of index funds.
Today, I’m continuing yesterday’s discussion about how when you look under the hood of virtually every S&P 500 index fund, the diversification you find is lacking and troublesome.
Did you know that the 5 biggest companies in the S&P 500 make up over 15% of the index. 5 companies out of 500 - just 1% of the total number of companies make up 15% of the weight and performance results of the index. These are Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
And what else do you notice about all of these companies? They are all big tech firms. Compare these big tech stocks to Costco or Nike which each make up only about ½ of 1% of the index, and you begin to see that the S&P 500 index fund that you’re invested in isn’t as diversified as you think. In fact, if you bought just 20 individual stocks across a variety of industries in equal weights, you would be more diversified than the S&P 500 index.
My point here is that you need to know what you really own when you buy index funds. What’s under the hood and what are your largest holdings? I use the example of the S&P 500 index fund, but most index funds and ETFs are market-weight which means the largest and often most bloated or overvalued companies could carry the most weight, and be the most influential, which helps when they’re moving up, but when you look back historically, it also leads to bigger drops on the downside as well.
The takeaway here is that while you can build a diversified portfolio with index funds, you can almost never build a truly diversified portfolio with just one or two index funds. You may think you’re diversified, but chances are, you’re not.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, index investing, ETF investing, index funds, ETFs, etfs vs mutual funds, etf vs stock, how to invest in index funds
This week, I’m talking about how to avoid the hidden danger of index funds.
Most investors would like to diversify their investments and reduce their risk as much as possible. One popular strategy for diversification and setting your investments on auto-pilot is the index fund. The S&P 500 index fund is the most popular of them all – containing 500 of the largest and most well-known companies in the world.
With 500 companies in just that one fund, you’re pretty diversified, right? Not as much as you might think. Why? Because the S&P 500 index and other funds like it are market-weight index funds, meaning the largest companies make up the largest % of the index.
So what you actually end up with is an investment where just the largest 10% of companies make up half of the index! I wouldn’t exactly call that diversified.
Many people mistakenly believe that the S&P 500 and most other index funds like it are equal-weight index funds, meaning that each stock in the portfolio represents an equal weight share. This is not the case with most index funds. The vast majority of index funds are market-weight index funds, and therein lies the problem.
Because over time, the largest companies get bigger and bigger and a portion of the index fund, and there isn’t a human behind the scenes who can say, I think this position and that position are bloated and overvalued. Let’s rebalance and reduce our risk.
If you look back at all the major stock market meltdowns, tech stocks were a bloated portion of the S&P 500 index in the late 90s and bank stocks were bloated and made up a much higher percentage of the S&P 500 index compared to today. When the balloon popped on those bloated sectors of the market, investors who thought they were diversified were hit harder than those who were truly diversified. And the same is true today.
Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you the 5 stocks in the S&P 500 that make up more than 15% of the entire index.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, index investing, ETF investing, index funds, ETFs, etfs vs mutual funds, etf vs stock, how to invest in index funds
This week, I’m talking about how to avoid the hidden danger of index funds. And before I get into all the buyer beware fine print that you need to know, I need to spend just a little more time talking about what’s great about index funds, lest you think that I’m some index fund hater, which is entirely possible if you listen to the rest of the tips this week after today.
First of all, here at our independent advisory firm, True North Retirement Advisors, we manage about $260 million in client assets. And a sizeable portion of that is invested in index funds. I really like index funds and I think they are a great fit for most investors. And here’s why:
It’s a cheap way to build a diversified portfolio. Just as an example, it’s hard to beat the fact that I can build a diversified bond ladder for a client with less than a quarter of 1% in annual fees, that provides about the same yield with significantly reduced risk compared to buying individual bonds.
The same can be said for using index funds to invest in the stock market - lower fees compared to most mutual funds, and less risk compared to individual stocks. It’s a win overall.
But, I think too many people take the Dave Ramsey over-simplified investment advice of “just buy a good growth stock mutual fund”. I generally like Dave Ramsey a lot, but this is pretty garbage advice that can get people into a lot of trouble, as I’ll explain tomorrow.
So rather than building a diversified portfolio of several index funds with exposure to different asset classes, many investors just buy the S&P 500 index fund, or some other broad-based index fund and call it good. They think their diversified because they own 500, or 1000, or 3000 different stocks with their “diversified” index fund, but the vast majority of index funds are market-weight index funds, and therein lies the problem...which I’ll get into tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, index investing, ETF investing, index funds, ETFs, etfs vs mutual funds, etf vs stock, how to invest in index funds
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about how to avoid the hidden danger of index funds. Index fund investing continues to grow in popularity, with almost ½ of the assets invested in the U.S. stock market today is owned through indexing.
If you’re not familiar with index funds, you also might have heard of ETFs, which are basically the same thing. Essentially, index funds or ETFs are a basket of stocks, bonds, or other investments that’s diversified and cheap!
For example, you can buy several different index funds today that are meant to track the S&P 500 index. So rather than buying all 500 companies in the S&P 500, you can buy an index fund that will in effect, allow you to invest in those 500 companies with just a single investment in that index fund.
Index funds have been around for so long and are in such high demand, that you can buy an index for a lot of specialized types of investments as well. Perhaps you want to own tech stocks or bank stocks, or gold, or 10-year treasury bonds without actually going out and buying a bunch of treasury bonds - there’s an index fund for all of those and plenty of other asset types as well.
So today, I just want to lay the groundwork and make sure you understand what an index fund is, before I get into the details about what you need to know as an investor in index funds and how you can avoid some of the hidden and often overlooked dangers that exist with index funds. Hopefully we accomplished that today.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
In a recent review The Roy writes: “always seems to hit the mark each week. take 1 minute to listen and find a gem to get you thinking. thanks ashley. I'm glad you are a part of my flash briefing”
Thank you, Roy, and I am honored to be a part of your flash briefing lineup. And thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about the decision to rent vs. buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always calculate the cost of ownership along with your expected usage to determine the real cost, then seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Rent or Buy - how to approach the question
- Rent or buy - big ticket items. We spent a day each on vacation homes, RVs, boats
- And then we talked about how to get creative and put some thought into those smaller purchases like power washers, skis, golf club memberships, and leaf blowers.
- And lastly, yesterday I showed you a method for calculating the true cost of ownership for any big ticket item you might be contemplating, and then how to apply that cost to your expected usage to determine if it really makes sense to buy.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are better equipped to make well-thought out and sound decisions about those big and small items you’ll contemplate purchasing in retirement.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Index investing. Index investing has become very popular over the last couple decades. Index investing offers a convenient and cheap way to build a diversified investment portfolio, so next week I’ll share with you what you need to know about index investing, and some common pitfalls to avoid to help protect you and keep you from getting burned.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent vs. buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Today I want to go into detail on how you can actually compare the cost of renting vs. the cost of ownership. For many people who aren’t “numbers” people, this may be a little intimidating. But the good news is that with a little research you can get a good handle on the costs of ownership for whatever it is you’re planning to buy.
For this exercise, I’m going to use the example of a boat and walk you through how you might determine the cost of ownership. The best place to start is with a spreadsheet or even just a pen and paper.
- The first obvious cost is the purchase cost. How much are you going to spend on the boat.
- If you’re taking out a loan to buy the boat, you’ll also want to add in the total interest you’ll pay over the life of the loan. The best way to factor this in is just to add the interest amount you’ll pay over the life of the loan as a separate expense each year.
- Then there’s insurance.
- Buying a trailer for the boat
- Storage fees if you’re going to store the boat at a marina or somewhere else.
- Maintenance - winterizing, engine maintenance, maintenance and new tires for the trailer as well.
- Gas
- Other equipment, lifejackets, and other misc. Items
- Boating licenses
These will vary based on the type of boat you buy, but again you can find some pretty solid estimates online.
Considering that the average boat lasts between 10-20 years, you can take your costs and convert them all to an annual amount to determine how much the boat will cost you each year.
Now you’ll want to consider how much you’re going to use your boat. A quick search online tells me that the average boat sees about 50 hours on the water each year. This is different for everyone, but it’s important that you’re realistic about how often you’ll use the boat.
I think the best way to do this is per day. Figure out how many days a year you’ll plan to use your boat and then divide the total annual cost of ownership that you already calculated by the days of use to come up with the cost per day.
Once you’ve done that, you can ask yourself 2 very important questions:
- Do the benefits outweigh the inevitable hassle of ownership?
- Is it worth it for me to pay $X per day to buy a boat or does it make more sense to rent instead?
The good news is that you can apply this method to any purchase. Heck, you can even apply it to smaller things like a power washer or an expensive pair of shoes.
My hope is that this method of estimating the cost of ownership with the expected usage will help you make smart decisions about those big ticket items and whether or not it makes more sense to buy or rent.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, rent or buy, rent vs buy, is it better to rent or buy, should i rent or buy
This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent vs. buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Today I’m talking about whether you should buy or rent a leaf blower. I don’t actually mean a leaf blower per se, but rather a whole group of purchases that can add up...ski equipment, household tools, power washers...you get the idea.
In our self-sufficient, individualistic culture we live in, it’s natural to default to the buying decision when you need to power wash your driveway, or decide to upgrade your ski equipment.
First of all, especially for seldom-used items like a power washer, it’s important to compare the cost of ownership with the cost of renting for 1-2 days a year which is probably all you’ll need it for. Then there’s the consideration of storage. Power washers, leaf blowers, ski equipment, all take up a lot of room. If it’s something you’re dead-set on buying, maybe it makes sense to go in with a neighbor, a friend, or a family member. You’ll halve the cost of ownership, plus it won’t always need to live in your garage either.
When it comes to ski equipment or a golf club membership even...is the expense justified given your expected usage, or does it make more sense to rent skis when you need to or just pay greens fees at the public course vs. paying hundreds of dollars a month for the golf membership. You might make the decision anyways on the golf club membership - I certainly did - but that decision should be made weighing the cost with the expected usage, and seriously considering the other available options.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, rent or buy, rent vs buy, is it better to rent or buy, should i rent or buy
This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent vs. buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Today I’m talking about buying vs. renting a boat. I love boats. When I was a kid, our family had a jet ski and some of my best summertime memories growing up were playing around on that thing. Then in college I worked at a summer camp on the puget sound for 2 summers, and I learned how to sail several different kind of boats. I also love canoes and kayaks...I just love being on the water.
I’ve also heard it said that the best 2 days of boat ownership are the day you buy and the day you sell it. But the real question here is not whether or not a boat is a good investment. Anyone with any sense knows that it’s a complete money pit.
The real question here is can you afford it? Do you understand all of the costs involved - with boats, there are storage fees, repairs, maintenance that is often expensive.
All those costs need to be carefully calculated and compared to the expected usage. I would love to own a boat, but a couple things prevent me from doing so - #1: the hassle-factor. I don’t live on the water. I don’t have room to store the boat, so any time I would want to use the thing, it just sounds like a lot of work. #2: time constraints. I live in a part of the country where the boating season is about 3 months. Every day spent out on the water is a day that I couldn’t spend doing something else with my kids or be on the golf course, which is really where I prefer to spend my free time in the summer.
So in reality, I just wouldn’t use the thing that much and it would be a total waste of money to buy one, especially since I could rent a boat a couple times a year for a tiny fraction of the expense and all scratch my boat itch.
If you’ve been listening to these tips all week, you probably think I’m trying to dissuade you from making any large discretionary purchase, and rent instead. I think it would be bad advice to say you should never buy a 2nd home, an RV, or a boat, but I do think it’s very important to factor in the real cost of ownership along with your expected usage and the headache factor. If you can do that and still come out ahead on the buy decision, then buy the darn thing. But too many people make emotional decisions and don’t consider all the factors, which is what I hope you’ll be better equipped to do after listening to these tips this week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, rent or buy, rent vs buy, is it better to rent or buy, should i rent or buy
This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent vs. buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Today, I’m looking at the rent vs. buy decision from the point of view of an RV. Now if I’m being honest, I would go out and buy an RV or some kind of camper right now if I knew my husband wouldn’t freak out and have divorce papers drafted in response. He wants a beach house, I want an RV, and unfortunately, I don’t think either of us are going to get what we want.
Just like buying a vacation home, RVs can often be very expensive and sit unused for much of the year. One big reason why you wouldn't want to buy an RV is because it’s a depreciating asset. I read online that the value drops as much as 40% in the first 2 years - yikes! Then there’s insurance, interest costs to consider since most people take out a loan to buy the RV, storage fees, camping fees, the extra gas costs, etc.
These all need to be factored in with the expected frequency of use. This is one area especially where I think it makes a lot of sense to rent, since you can also try out different types of RVs, get a realistic picture of how often you’ll actually use it before you drop $50,000 to 100,000+ on something.
So if you have dreams of travelling the country in your camper trailer, just be sure that you calculate the true cost of ownership and your expected usage, to see if it might make more sense to rent when you need to and leave the headaches and depreciation for someone else to worry about.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, rent or buy, rent vs buy, is it better to rent or buy, should i rent or buy
This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent vs. buy. While it’s a dream for many of us to own a cabin in the woods or a beach house, anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Today, I’m looking at the rent vs. buy decision when it comes to buying a vacation home. We live in Oregon, just over an hour from the Oregon coast. We go there a few times a year, and if you have been to the Oregon coast, it’s one of the most beautiful and scenic places anywhere in the world. I’m a little bias obviously, but between the cliffs, miles of sandy beaches, and famous giant rocks, you quickly see why no one really minds that you can almost never wear a bathing suit at the beach in Oregon.
One of my husband’s dreams is to someday buy a beach house in Manzanita, OR. It’s a cute little beach town with an amazing pizza place, lots of cute little shops, miles of sandy beach, and the quintessentially Oregon legal pot shop.
But a beach house in Manzanita isn’t cheap. My husband thinks if we owned a beach house that we’d go to the beach more. I say, let’s go to the beach more and then we can talk about buying a beach house. Vacation homes are a particular difficult decision when it comes to rent vs. buy, because the considerations are complex. And it’s often a massive investment up front and over time.
You have the mortgage and the taxes and insurance, plus all the maintenance and repairs. Interest cost of the debt. I would hardly consider most vacation locales investments, because the housing prices don’t grow enough to justify it for investment purposes. Then there’s the decision of whether you’ll rent out your vacation home when you’re not using it - the extra wear and tear that will cause, and the net income after expenses that you can expect.
And then there’s the big question, which I alluded to with my husband and our ain’t-gonna-happen Manzanita beach house. And that is the question of usage. Most people overestimate how much they will use a 2nd home. If you think you’re going to pack up and head there every weekend, or spend 6 months out of the year there, it’s best to try that out with renting first before you commit to buying.
The point here is that the cost of ownership needs to be carefully calculated, and then you have to take it a step further and calculate your expected and realistic usage to see if it really makes financial sense and practical sense to buy vs. rent. If owning a 2nd home costs you $4000/week because of how seldom you spend time there, but you could rent a place that’s twice as nice for $2000/week and none of the headaches of ownership, you definitely don’t want to find that out after you drop six figures or sign up for a 30-year mortgage for that beloved Manzanita beach house.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, rent or buy, rent vs buy, is it better to rent or buy, should i rent or buy
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent or buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
So this week we’ll be exploring the rent vs. buy decision when it comes to vacation homes, RVs, boats, and even that leafblower you bought last fall.
Too often we don’t look seriously at the rent vs. buy decision, so this week I’ll help you think through the best option for you and how to think through the rent vs. buy decision of these big ticket items in a rational and thoughtful way.
The key point with the purchase of any big ticket item is to remember that money is a limited resource, and that money used in one way prevents it for being used for something else. So it’s important that the purchase is a worthwhile one that considers not just the benefits of that purchase but the drain that the purchase will place on other resources, like your emergency savings, your expenses, and other things that your money could be used for instead.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thank you for listening and a special thank you to those of you who have already left a review. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, rent or buy, rent vs buy, is it better to rent or buy, should i rent or buy
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about “would you rather” - retirement edition. We all have limited resources and with those limitations in mind, you’ll definitely need to make trade-offs in retirement.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Would You Rather Sacrifice Kid’s College or Sacrifice Your Retirement?
- Would You Rather Take Twice As Many Vacations or Dine Out Twice As Often?
- Work Longer And Build More Wealth Or Retire Sooner But Live On Less Income?
- Would You Rather Die In 10 Years With No Regrets Or Die In 40 Years With A Lot Of Regrets?
- Leave your child with $10 million or leave your child with nothing but the memories?
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you’ll be better equipped to make well-thought out and sound decisions about the important conundrums you’ll face when it comes to your own retirement choices.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Big ticket items - should you rent or buy? We’ll take a look at several big ticket items you might be contemplating in your retirement, and whether or not it makes better financial sense to rent or buy.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
This week, we’re playing “would you rather” - retirement edition. We all have limited resources and with those limitations in mind, you’ll definitely need to make trade-offs in retirement. By thinking about these conundrums ahead of time, you’ll be equipping yourself to make thoughtful and smart decisions when the time comes.
Today’s “would you rather” question is: Would you rather leave your child an inheritance of $10 million or leave your child with nothing but the memories?
Many parents who pass wealth to their children, seldom think about the consequences of what that inheritance will do to their children. If you have inherited wealth or know someone who does, it can be a blessing, but just as often I find it can be a curse.
Money is powerful, and sudden wealth through inheritance or even winning the lottery can be problematic. You’ve probably heard the startling statistic that found that a third of lottery winners declare bankruptcy after winning the lottery. This leads a lot of people to scratch their heads, but to me, it makes perfect sense. Unearned wealth magnifies existing temptations and can produce new ones - addictions, gambling, frivolous spending on luxuries, etc.
Unearned wealth very often makes people unproductive, and robs them of sound judgement and initiative. It has the power to create ugly side effects like greed, entitled attitudes, and it very often destroys incentives to work.
While there’s no right or wrong answer to how much inheritance is too much, the sad reality is that few people think about the consequences of transferring wealth of any size to their children, yet it’s so vital to be thoughtful about how and how much wealth you transfer to your children, and should be done only when you’re confident that your children can handle the wealth responsibly.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
This week, we’re playing “would you rather” - retirement edition. We all have limited resources and with those limitations in mind, you’ll definitely need to make trade-offs in retirement. By thinking about these conundrums ahead of time, you’ll be equipping yourself to make thoughtful and smart decisions when the time comes.
Today’s “would you rather” question is: Would you rather die in 10 years with no regrets or die in 40 years with a lot of regrets?
Oh, boy this one is deep and gets to the heart of long life vs. quality of life. Personally, I would rather die tomorrow with no regrets then die at any age with a lot of regrets. But regrets are inevitable, I think, if most of us take the time to examine our lives and take a good look in the mirror at the self-centered and broken creatures we are.
Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, wrote a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. In the book she goes into detail about the common regrets she witnessed most often among her dying patients. Here they are:
- I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
- I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
- I wish that I had let myself be happier.
- And the most common regret of all - I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
What would your top regret be if you died today? It takes a lot of courage, thoughtfulness, and intention to live a fulfilling and meaningful life, and it is my sincere hope that you don’t have to choose between living 10 more years with no regrets vs. living 40 more years with a lot of regrets, but rather, that you live a long life with few to no regrets.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
This week, we’re playing “would you rather” - retirement edition. We all have limited resources and with those limitations in mind, you’ll definitely need to make trade-offs in retirement. By thinking about these conundrums ahead of time, you’ll be equipping yourself to make thoughtful and smart decisions when the time comes.
Today’s “would you rather” question is: would you rather work longer and build more wealth or retire sooner but live on less income? As you might imagine, this is a very common trade-off that many of us face. If you’ve reached retirement age and are still in good health, you enjoy your work and could see yourself working another 5-10 years, that’s great.
The bottom line here is that no one should enter retirement without the financial means to live comfortably - however you define that. Now that may very well mean that you retire earlier and make some sacrifices so you can sustainably live on less, and that’s okay.
However, many people I talk with who are trying to decide what to do about working longer vs. living on less income need to be aware of a couple of traps:
- First of all, if your motivation for retiring early is because you hate your job, your boss, your co-workers - basically trying to escape where you are right now, that is not a good reason to retire early, but instead maybe it’s an opportunity to consider other employment options or part-time work if you can afford to work less. Many people are so dissatisfied in their work that they would rather put a sharp stick in their eye than work one more day in their living hell, but don’t let your desperation cloud your judgement in making a good, rational decision that is going to have long-term ramifications for you.
- Ok, the other pitfall that I see people fall into with the decision to retire earlier and live on less is that they put themselves in a position of being constantly strapped for cash. The income you draw from your portfolio might support your monthly needs, but when people retire with just barely enough, there aren't any additional safety nets with cash savings or a larger nest egg that can support the new car you’re going to need in 3 years, or the new roof that’s due in 10 years, or the nursing home stay in 20 years that’s going to cost double what you’re drawing from your portfolio in the early years of retirement.
Again, you need to make the decision that’s right for you, but the risk of retiring early and living on less offers more risk, less options and less flexibility, so if you’re leaning in that direction, be sure that you run the numbers, make sure you have enough cushion for emergencies, the occasional big expenses, and the inevitable curve balls of life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
This week, we’re playing “would you rather” - retirement edition. We all have limited resources and with those limitations in mind, you’ll definitely need to make trade-offs in retirement. By thinking about these conundrums ahead of time, you’ll be equipping yourself to make thoughtful and smart decisions when the time comes.
Today’s “would you rather” question is: Would you rather take twice as many vacations or dine out twice as often?
Ah, the dilemma of how to spend your discretionary income and your free time in retirement. What is more valuable, fulfilling, and fun - more travel or more eating out?
This is a personal decision obviously that is going to be different for everyone, but like many other lifestyle choices in retirement, it’s one that needs to be carefully considered, since most of us just don’t have the means to do whatever we want, when we want. When it comes to how we spend money, it’s vital to our life satisfaction that we spend it in a way that is consistent with what we value.
Personally, I enjoy travelling and visiting new places, but I would have to go with eating out twice as much over travelling twice as much. Many of you listening probably think I’m nuts and would choose travel over eating out, and that’s why it’s so important to be thoughtful about the choices you make in how you allocate your discretionary funds in retirement, ensuring that where you spend your money is contributing to your happiness and fulfillment, and your not just flushing your money down the drain by spending it on things that don’t actually matter to you all that much.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
This week, we’re playing “would you rather” - retirement edition. We all have limited resources and with those limitations in mind, you’ll definitely need to make trade-offs in retirement. By thinking about these conundrums ahead of time, you’ll be equipping yourself to make thoughtful and smart decisions when the time comes.
Today’s “would you rather” question is: would you rather sacrifice your kid’s college or sacrifice your retirement? This is a common one that comes up often with my clients. Many of my clients delay retirement because they can’t afford to retire until after their youngest graduates from college and is off the parental payroll.
While this is understandable and there isn’t anything wrong with delaying retirement to support your college-age children, I often see parents taking the financial support of children to the point where it seriously compromises or even destroys their own chances for secure retirement.
Being a parent myself, I understand how making personal sacrifices to set your kids up for success comes with the territory, however, we must be careful when it comes to sacrificing our own retirement security for the sake of our children. While it’s not wise for kids to graduate college saddled with debt, a wise person once told me: You can get a loan for college, but you can’t get a loan for retirement.
This is sound advice. And it’s advice that parents of college-bound or college-age students tend to ignore. Financial support for college and to able-bodied adult children should only be provided to the extent that it doesn’t sacrifice your retirement security.
Some of you may disagree with that or think that you’re being selfish if you do that, but think about this: If you’re a burden to your children later in life because you ran out of money before you ran out of days, that’s likely going to be a much bigger cross to bear for your child than paying off student loans or going to community college for 2 years to reduce the cost of college.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, we’re going to play a fun game of “would you rather” - retirement edition. You’re probably familiar with this game, usually played at parties or with friends or as an icebreaker at that awkward corporate retreat. It goes something like this: Would you rather be an average person in the present day or the king of a large country 2500 years ago?
I like this one...honestly I think I would rather be an average person today, because there was no indoor plumbing 2500 years ago and it seems to me that royalty back then were constantly being beheaded, exiled, or captured in battle, so I’m definitely going with average person today where I’m a lot less likely to have someone poison my drink.
You get the idea...so when it comes to choices about retirement, unless you are a king or a queen, we all have limited resources and we often need to make decisions about tradeoffs in retirement, so this week, I’ll help you explore some of the more common trade-offs that you’ll face in retirement through a fun game of would you rather...Like, would you rather work longer so you can save more and grow your retirement nest egg, or retire now but have less income to spend in retirement. We’ll explore this question and others like it this week.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
In a recent 5-star review Chris writes: “Have your kids listen in and discuss with them. They will thank you later”.
Thank you Chris, and thank you all for listening today. My name is Ashley Micciche and I look forward to spending a couple minutes with you again tomorrow.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I talked about
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- Removal of the age cap on IRA contributions
- RMD age increasing to age 72 and what you might want to do about it
- How the SECURE Act just blew up the rules for inherited IRAs - there was so much to digest in that one that I split it over 2 days
- And lastly, yesterday I talked about how certain part-time workers will now be eligible for your 401k plan at work.
Hopefully, after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a better understanding of the SECURE Act and how it will impact the financial planning & estate planning choices that you make as you plan for and transition into retirement.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: “Would you rather”...We all have limited resources and we often need to make decisions about tradeoffs in retirement, so next week I’ll help you explore some of the more common trade-offs in retirement through a fun game of would you rather...Like, would you rather work longer so you can save more and grow your retirement nest egg, or retire now but live on less in retirement. We’ll explore this question and others like it next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
This week, I’m talking about the SECURE Act. It’s a massive, 1,773 page piece of bi-partisan legislation that was just signed into law in December 2019, and it brings sweeping changes to the rules around your retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how the SECURE Act has changed the rules for part-time workers in 401k plans. Previously, if you worked less that 1,000 hours (roughly less than 20 hours/week) and your employer has a 401k plan, they didn’t have to include you in the plan.
Under the new rules, people who have either worked at least 1,000 hours in one year, or three consecutive years of at least 500 hours in each year, will be able to participate in retirement plans.
In other words, now you just have to work 10 hours with your employer, and be an employee for the last 3 years to be eligible to save in the 401k.
Here’s why this matters for you...people who work part-time often struggle to save enough for retirement, and even when they can afford to save, they are locked out of their employer’s plan because they were working less than 20 hours a week. Well now with the weekly requirement cut in half, a lot more people will have access to retirement plans.
I see this being a big boon for a couple of specific groups of people:
- 1 is part-time workers who are married, and whose spouse makes enough income to support the family. A part time worker can now save $19,500 in 2020 in the 401k plan or up to $26,000 if your over 50 years old.
- With lots of retired folks working part-time in retirement, having access to a 401k plan will allow you to save a lot more, and boost your nest egg, assuming you don’t need all that income from your part-time job to fund your current living expenses in retirement.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? There are quite a few irreversible decisions tied to your retirement - everything from your retirement date to your social security filing decision will have major long-term consequences.
You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
This week, I’m talking about the SECURE Act. It’s a massive, 1,773 page piece of bi-partisan legislation that was just signed into law in December 2019, and it brings sweeping changes to the rules around your retirement.
Today is a continuation from yesterday’s tip, where I introduced you to the massive tax law change to inherited IRAs. if you inherit an IRA from your parents, you only have 10 years to fully cash out the IRA. That’s a problem if you inherit a large IRA balance, because you’ll likely be forced to cash out that IRA in your peak earning years, report every dollar you pull out of the IRA as income, and pay the taxes.
If you inherit a large IRA worth $1 million or more, you could be looking at a 6-figure bump to your income every year for 10 years and a lot bigger tax bill than you expected as a result.
Now, there are a few things you can do about this to try to reduce the tax bite, but they need to be done by the account owner and not the beneficiary, because by the time beneficiaries inherit the IRA, it’s already too late to do much about it. So if you have parents with large IRA or 401k balances, be sure that you talk with them about this. And if you have a large IRA or 401k balance, here’s what you can do to minimize the impact of taxes on inherited IRAs for your children.
Adjustments to beneficiaries like leaving taxable accounts to higher income earning children and assign IRA assets to children in lower tax brackets is one strategy. Taking advantage of Roth conversions is another option. In fact, this rule change just made Roth IRAs and 401ks much more attractive, since those distributions won’t be taxed for beneficiaries of inherited IRAs. So consider not just conversions, but contributing more to your Roth IRA or Roth 401k if you have access to one or both of those.
The change to the rules with inherited IRAs also changes the conventional advice on the order in which you may want to spend down your assets in retirement. Maybe you want to spend more from your IRAs while living so your beneficiaries receive more of the taxable assets that will receive a step-up in cost basis and will likely not be subject to such harsh taxation.
The bottom line here is not that you fully understand which strategy to employ, but that you do understand that if you have a large IRA or 401k balance, you better be talking to your attorney, financial advisor, and tax advisor about how this change impacts you and if it makes sense for you to make any changes to your estate or beneficiaries, or whether or not you should look at converting more IRA dollars to Roth or changing how you pull money out of your investments for income in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
This week, I’m talking about the SECURE Act. It’s a massive, 1,773 page piece of bi-partisan legislation that was just signed into law in December 2019, and it brings sweeping changes to the rules around your retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the biggest bomb buried in the SECURE Act - the new 10-year deadline for inherited IRAs. This one change in the SECURE Act is going to bring in an estimated $15.7 billion in revenue over the next 10 years to the Treasury in additional taxes, so listen up, because this one change may create some serious tax consequences for you (if you inherit an IRA) or for your children if you plan on transferring your IRA balance to them when you die.
Under the old rules, most of the time, if you inherited an IRA from Mom or dad, you could spread out the distributions over your remaining life and importantly, since those distributions are taxable, you could spread out the taxes for maybe 30, 40 years or more.
But now, if you inherit an IRA from your parents, you only have 10 years to fully cash out the IRA. Here’s why that’s a problem.
Let’s say that you’re an only child and you dad died 5 years ago. When he died, his IRA account was transferred to mom. She only took out the minimum amount every year, and since they both were good savers and made smart investment decisions, when mom died this January, you inherited a $1,000,000 IRA. You also happen to be in your mid-50s and you’re in your peak earning years. You make good money and already pay a lot in taxes every year.
Well guess what, that $1,000,000 IRA must be cashed out fully in the next 10 years, which means that even if you stick it under the mattress and it doesn’t grow, and take out an equal amount each year, you just increased your taxable income by $100,000 each year for the next 10 years. Depending on your current tax rate and state taxes, you could be handing over as much as 50% of Mom and Dad’s IRA back to Uncle Sam.
Now remember, under the old rules, you had the rest of your life to take the money out and spread out the taxes. So it’s a punishing change that’s going to bring in a lot of revenue to the government which will pretty much pay for all of the other benefits of the SECURE Act.
This is such a massive change, that tomorrow I’m continuing with part 2 of how the SECURE Act just blew up the rules for inherited IRAs.
Before you get all depressed about all the taxes you’ll be paying when you inherit mom or dad’s IRA, there are a few strategies at your disposal if you’re the IRA account owner that you may want to consider, and I’ll be talking about what those are tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
This week, I’m talking about the SECURE Act - a massive, 1,773 page piece of bi-partisan legislation that was signed into law in December 2019, and it brings sweeping rule changes with IRA and 401k accounts that will likely impact you, so that’s what I’m focusing on this week.
Today, I’m talking about my favorite provision in the SECURE Act - the RMD age increase to 72. If you aren’t familiar with RMDs, it stands for required minimum distributions. Basically, forced withdrawals from your IRA and 401k accounts once you reach a certain age.
Under the old rules, the age where you had to start taking those RMDs was 70 ½. But now, that age increases to 72.
Here’s what this means for you...a bigger window to make Roth conversions just opened up, and this is an important planning tip that could potentially save you a substantial amount in taxes, so stick with me here while I explain this.
Many people will retire before reaching age 72. So let’s say you retire at age 65. If you don’t have to start taking those RMDs until age 72, you now have a 7 year window before those RMDs start to convert money to a Roth.
Here’s why this matters. Once you retire, your income is likely to drop - often substantially. And those years when your income is much lower present a unique opportunity to convert money in an IRA to a Roth. See, every dollar that you convert to a Roth from your IRA is included in your taxable income for that year, but if your income has dropped substantially, the tax bite on those conversions will be lower than had you converted while you were still working and presumably had higher income.
Let’s say that over that 7-year time span, you were able to convert $150,000 to a Roth from your Traditional IRA. This is important because you just put that money into an account that will never be taxed again, and it means that the size of your Traditional IRA is now $150,000-$200,000 smaller than it otherwise would have been - making your future RMDs lower by thousands of dollars every year.
So in summary, by taking advantage of Roth conversions in those lower-income years and paying the taxes one time, you’ll set yourself up for more flexibility and potentially lower taxes over the long-run by getting those Traditional IRA dollars into a Roth.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
This week, I’m talking about the SECURE Act - a massive, 1,773 page piece of bi-partisan legislation that was signed into law in December 2019, and it brings sweeping changes to the rules around your retirement.
Today, I’m talking about how the SECURE Act eliminated the age cap on IRA contributions. Under the old rules, once you reach the age of 70 ½, you could no longer contribute to your IRA account.
The new rules under the SECURE Act eliminate that restriction, as long as you’re still working. That’s the catch...you can still make IRA contributions past age 70 ½, but you still gotta be bringing in a paycheck.
This was a popular feature of the SECURE Act, because many Americans are still working past the age of 70 ½ and would like to keep saving for retirement. Well now you can.
And that’s why this matters for you...because you can save for longer in your IRA if you’re working longer. Many people will transition into retirement without enough for retirement, but if your health is good and you’re able to continue working, you can save longer too, and that’s good news!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about the SECURE Act. Lawmakers always have clever little names and acronyms for their fancy new rules and this one is no exception. The SECURE Act stands for: The Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act. It’s a massive, 1,773 page piece of bi-partisan legislation that was signed into law in December 2019, and it brings sweeping changes to the rules around everything from using 529 funds to pay for student loans to blowing up the rules on inherited IRAs.
Most of the provisions in the SECURE Act that I’ll be talking about this week will deal with the changes to rules on IRA and 401k accounts. So if you have an IRA or a 401k listen up this week, because these new rules will undoubtedly impact you.
And if you have a big balance in your IRA or 401k balance, these new rules might even cause you to change tactics on estate planning decisions, beneficiaries, how you save for retirement and how you spend down your assets in retirement.
So be sure to tune in this week where each day I’ll review one important provision from the SECURE Act and explain what it means for you and what you should do about it.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a few seconds and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
In a recent 1-star review Mary Ann writes: “I had to shut you off..not good with my coffee”.
Thank you Mary Ann, and thank you to all of you who have already taken the time to leave a review.
And even if you decide not to leave a 1-star review like Mary Ann, I still love ya for being a listener of the One Minute Retirement Tip. My name is Ashley Micciche and I look forward to spending a minute or two with you again tomorrow.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, SECURE Act, 401k limits 2020, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA conversion, IRA conversion, RMD rules, new RMD age, rmd age 72, rmd rules 2020, inherited IRA, stretch IRA, inherited 401k
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- The WeWork IPO Disaster & What You Can Learn From It
- The Stock Market Went Up, Up, Up In 2019...What To Do Now?
- Why No One Cared About Tariffs In 2019
- Impeachment, Brexit, and All The Things That Never Were
- What You Should Do With Your Bond Portfolio After 3 Interest Rate Cuts In 2019
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a better understanding of how some of the stories that dominated the news in 2019 impact you and your investment portfolio.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: The SECURE Act. Signed into law just last month, this massive piece of legislation is the biggest change to the rules around your retirement in the last decade. This new legislation is so sweeping that there’s a really good chance it will impact you in one way or another. So next week, I’m going to cover the key highlights from this beefy piece of legislation and how it changes the way you plan and save for retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them.
Today, I’m talking about your bond portfolio and what you should do with it after 3 interest rate cuts in 2019. If you own bonds (and if you’re over 50, you definitely should own some bonds in your portfolio), 3 rate cuts by the Federal Reserve means that interest rates and yields on everything from your savings account interest to mortgage rates is lower today than it was in 2019.
In fact, interest rates dropped so much in 2019 that bond portfolio returns - which move in the opposite direction as interest rates - were up big, at least for bonds in 2019. In fact, even with stocks getting all the attention in 2019, the bond market posted an 8.8% gain in 2019 – a fantastic return for bonds! The bond market returns have been driven primarily by lower interest rates, and with the Fed now on pause with interest rate cuts, you can probably expect more stable yields and lower returns for bonds in 2020.
So here’s what I recommend for 2020 when it comes to your bond portfolio:
- First of all, interest rates are hard to predict, so don’t make strong bets on how you invest your bond portfolio based on the current environment of low but stable rates. They could go up at anytime, and it’s impossible to know when that will happen.
- Secondly, I think it makes a lot of sense to keep your bond maturities shorter right now, since you’re really not rewarded for buying bonds that mature in 10 years compared to bonds that mature in 2 or 3 years. With interest rates low, the risk is that rates will move up, and that is likely to hurt long-term bonds more than short-term bonds. So I like shorter term bonds where you can get comparable income with less risk.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them.
Today, I’m talking about Impeachment, Brexit, and all the things that never were. And more than anything, today’s tip is a continuation of my rant from yesterday, which is the media is motivated by drumming up drama over trade talks and tariffs.
They were obsessed with Impeachment and Brexit as well, and what happened when those events came to a head?
Crickets….
Nothing! Now, impeachment and Brexit are still playing out and aren’t yet resolved as I write this, but the takeaway here is that political events, whether it be a government shutdown, impeachment, Brexit, or a contentious battle brewing in a Presidential election year, it rarely has any impact on your investment portfolio. It’s important to remember that, so when you watch the news you’re not constantly worried that the next crisis is going to be “The One”.
The media is adept at getting you to think that, and then they move on to the next crisis de jour. So while you may or may not like who is elected in November, just know that it doesn’t really matter all that much who lives in the White House when it comes to stock market returns and your investment portfolio.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? There are quite a few irreversible decisions tied to your retirement - everything from your retirement date to your social security filing decision will have major long-term consequences.
You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them.
Today, I’m talking about tariffs. The trade war with China and the impending doom of the tariffs dominated headlines all year long. And for what? Well, I’m recording this prior to January 15th, but that’s when phase 1 of the trade deal is slated to be signed.
Unless you are in a business that relied heavily on imports from China, all this tariff talk has just been noise. I paid a little more for some office furniture this year than I otherwise would have, with the vendor passing on a price increase and citing the tariffs, but now I realize they may have just been looking for an excuse to raise their prices.
According to the Tax Foundation, the nation’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit, “the tariffs planned and imposed so far by the Trump administration would reduce long-run GDP by 0.25 percent...If the Trump administration acts on threats to place new tariffs on automobiles and parts and additional tariffs on products from China, GDP would fall by an additional 0.32 percent.”
So even if the tariffs happened and we didn’t eventually reach a deal with China, just over a ½ % drop in our GDP, not exactly enough to push us into a recession or kill all of our jobs. Really, the trade war is much more about politics than it is about the overall economy, which is why it’s unlikely to have the predicted impact of your retirement portfolio that the news media claims it will have.
I don’t think people were all that worried about the tariffs anyway, even if the media made it seem disastrous.
The takeaway here is that it’s important to not get stressed or wrapped up in the media hype about certain events. Often, withholding celebration or panic until the outcome is final is the most prudent action. If you pulled your retirement portfolio out of the market because you were worried about tariffs and the doom and gloom drumbeat of the media, you would have been pretty disappointed missing out on the incredible stock market returns of 2019 that didn’t even bat an eye at trade talks.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them.
Today, I’m talking about the amazing run in the stock market in 2019 and what you should do about it now.
What a year for stocks! In 2019 the Dow was up 22%, the S&P 500 Index grew nearly 29% and the NASDAQ was up over 35%. I don’t expect anything close to these results in 2020 because of the very contentious political environment and the now long-in-the-tooth business cycle. After all, we are now in new territory - the US economy has never gone this long without a recession.
Even though I don’t think you can expect the kind of growth in your investments that we saw in 2019, I’m still optimistic for several reasons:
1) economic indicators are still (mostly) positive,
2) Presidential election years are usually good for stocks no matter the outcome, and
3) The Federal Reserve cut rates three times in in 2019, which should give stocks a boost heading into the first couple months of 2020.
So last year was an incredible growth year for stocks, the economy is still humming along, and all the political distractions probably won’t impact stocks that much in 2020. What are you supposed to do with that info?
Well here’s what I would do and what I’ve been doing with my clients. First of all, take a look at your asset allocation - the % of stocks and bonds in your investment porfolio. There’s a good chance with last year’s growth and the returns of the last 10 years, you may have more stocks that you should at this point, so it might be prudent to trim that back a bit.
Now is an excellent time to rebalance. With the market at all-time highs right now, you don’t want to just let that ride. You just want to be careful not to go too far in the opposite direction.
If you’d like a copy of my asset allocation cheat sheet - the ideal mix of stocks and bonds that we recommend based on your age, you can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll send you my age-based asset allocation cheat sheet. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them. I believe that the less news you watch, the better off you’ll be. And I think that’s especially true when it comes to your money. But I do think it’s a worthwhile exercise to digest some of the top stories from 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from these news events.
Today, I’m talking I’m talking about the WeWork IPO disaster. If you don’t know what WeWork is, it’s a pretty amazing concept. If you’re a solo entrepreneur or part of the growing gig economy, WeWork is a dream come true, because it’s the professional alternative to working out of a Starbucks. WeWork rents out professional co-working or shared office space in trendy locations, with all of the amenities of an expensive office, for a fraction of the cost and headaches of leasing office space.
Truly a genius concept and WeWork grew parabolically over the last few years. At it’s core, WeWork is a real estate company. However, in just one short month in 2019, WeWork’s valuation fell to $10 billion from $47 billion, removed their CEO, and pulled the plug on its IPO.
So why did WeWork fail? Well, lots of reasons - terrible corporate governance, unstable management, and a valuation that was blown out of proportion. But most importantly, WeWork was losing money - a lot of money, and reportedly hemorrhaging cash as well. In business and in life, it’s all about cash flow. No cash coming in the door and it’s not long before you’re scrambling to pay the bills.
Despite their terrible business management and financial acumen, the overinflated egos at WeWork thought that the pump was prime to go public, raise additional funds, and importantly I think, get really really rich.
That didn’t work out how they hoped. Here’s why it’s an important lesson for investors. It is the rare business that can make money for investors when it’s losing money. Amazon is one of the few exceptions I can think of, where it was posting losses for years because it was reinvesting so much back into their infrastructure to dominate the world.
Just because the idea is great and it may be changing the world in some way, it doesn’t automatically make it a good investment. The financials matter - a lot. So whatever you invest in (whether it’s an IPO, an established business, or your buddy’s start up) never hand over any of your hard-earned dollars unless the financials back it up.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, I’m talking about the top investment news stories of 2019 and what lessons you and I can learn from them. I’ll be covering everything from the WeWork IPO disaster to tariffs, Brexit, and Fed rate cuts to help you digest what the heck happened in 2019 and the nuggets of wisdom that can be extracted from these top stories.
So this week, I won’t just talk about these stories and what happened, I’ll talk about how they are relevant for each of you and how we can use the lessons of these stories to make better financial and investment decisions.
Tomorrow we’re going to dive right in and I’m gonna talk about the WeWork IPO disaster, and how this popular, much-hyped IPO turned into a chaotic meltdown with the company now struggling to stay afloat. There are many valuable lessons to learn from this one and I’ll be covering it all tomorrow.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, the theme was How Much Money Do You Need To Retire?
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- What’s Your Number? (And why you should focus on your income needs instead of your nest egg dollar figure)
- Don’t Bother With Retirement Comparisons (how the trap of comparing yourself to others can derail your retirement plans)
- You Need This Much To Retire… (A Rule of Thumb to figure out if you’re on track or not)
- A Quick & Easy Retirement Calculator (My super-secret back of the envelope retirement calculator)
- Do This Before You Retire (The critical step to take when you’re 2-3 years away from retirement)
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a better understanding of what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can answer for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: “Would you rather”...We have limited resources and often need to make decisions about tradeoffs in retirement, so next week we’ll explore some of those common trade-offs in retirement through a fun game of would you rather. Like, would you rather work longer so you can save more and grow your retirement next egg, or retire now but live on less in retirement. We’ll explore this question and others like it next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
This week, the theme is how much money do you need to retire?
Each day this week, I’m breaking down this really big and important question into bit-sized pieces to help you better understand what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can answer for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
Yesterday, I talked about a quick and easy back of the envelope way to calculate how much money you need to retire, and today I’m diving a little bit deeper to urge you to go deeper and spend the time and effort to go through the process of calculating how much you need to retire.
Retirement is one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make, and in order to transition into retirement with confidence, there is no replacement for a comprehensive retirement analysis.
A detailed retirement analysis uses technology and important data provided by you to live your retirement 1000 times to help you answer one very important question: Will You Run Out Of Money in retirement?
It’s critically important. You may discover that you need to work another year or 2 or cut back on your travel budget, wait a couple more years to take social security, or work part time to make the numbers work and the last thing you want to do is transition into retirement not knowing that.
So instead you retire, drain your portfolio, then have to drastically cut back on your lifestyle 10 years in because it became clear to you that you don’t have enough money to make it 10 more years in retirement without moving in with your kids.
The ideal time to do a detailed retirement analysis is 3-5 years before retirement, since you are close enough to retirement that the numbers are pretty accurate, but still have enough time to course-correct if you need to. Just don’t do it after you’ve given your notice.
If you already work with a financial advisor, many of them offer this service as part of their ongoing work and don’t charge for it. Or you can usually pay a financial planner a flat fee to do this for you if you’re not working with someone.. Just make sure you work with a fiduciary that you trust, who isn’t just using the opportunity to upsell you on life insurance or an expensive long-term care policy.
When your retirement is on the line, don’t make the mistake of making that important transition without going through the process of a detailed retirement analysis to see if it all pencils out.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
This week, the theme is how much money do you need to retire?
Each day this week, I’m breaking down this really big and important question into bit-sized pieces to help you better understand what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can answer for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
Today, I’m sharing with you my super-secret back of the envelope way to figure it out how much you need to retire. Now I have to warn you that this quick and dirty calculation has its limits because it doesn’t factor in your longevity and possible scenarios like higher inflation, how your portfolio is invested, etc. but it’s a great place to start.
So here it goes...time to get out your envelope:
First - Add up all of your planned expenses in retirement. Be sure to include health care costs, and all of your regular, ongoing monthly expenses. This is your basic monthly living expense.
Next - Add in irregular and non-recurring expenses like travel one-time insurance. Build in a buffer for fixing the roof and buying a new car every few years.
Then - translate all of your expenses into an expected spending figure for year 1 of retirement. You’re going to take all of your ongoing basic monthly expenses, multiply that by 12 months and lump in your irregular expenses together to calculate an annual living budget. If you need help with this and to make sure you capture everything, you can email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll be happy to send you the retirement budget worksheet that we use with our clients.
Once you have your total living expenses for year one in retirement, add up all of your income sources. This could be social security, a rental property, a pension - whatever those are, add them up.
Then calculate your gap. Your gap is the difference between your year 1 living expenses and your year 1 income sources. The gap will be filled with the income from your retirement portfolio.
Lastly, take your gap number and divide that by your total portfolio value. You’ll get a % amount. If this number is higher than 4-5%, you don’t yet have enough to retire. If it’s in the 4-5% range, then you can be more confident in transitioning into retirement.
Again, this simple calculation is no replacement for a detailed retirement analysis that considers all the important factors that I mentioned earlier, but if you’re currently in the camp of “I have no idea how much money I need to retire” this back of the envelope method will give you some answers.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
This week, the theme is how much money do you need to retire?
Each day this week, I’m breaking down this really big and important question into bite-sized pieces to help you better understand what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can answer for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
Today, I’m talking about my favorite shorthand way to figure out how much you need to retire. Several years ago, research by Fidelity Investments concluded that by the time you retire (assuming you retire at age 67), you’ll need 10x your income saved for retirement.
So if your household income is $100,000, you’ll need 10 times that, or about $1,000,000 to retire. If you make $200,000 you’ll need $2 million, and if your household income is $60,000, you will need much less - about $600,000.
While there are some limitations to this number as I discussed on Tuesday of this week, since the size of your nest egg is determined first and foremost by your income needs, their findings are useful especially when you’re farther out from retirement.
In addition to their 10x findings by retirement, they provide some guidance to help you see if your on track even if you’re still in your 30s or 40s. They found that in order to be on track for retirement and that 10x figure, you should have 3x by 40, 6x by 50, and 8 times your income saved by age 60.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? There are quite a few irreversible decisions tied to your retirement - everything from your retirement date to your social security filing decision will have major long-term consequences.
You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
This week, the theme is how much money do you need to retire?
Each day this week, I’m breaking down this really big and important question into bit-sized pieces to help you better understand what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can answer for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
Today I want to talk about something that really irks me about the 401k and retirement planning industry. Through research they have discovered that it’s a powerful motivator to get you to save for retirement by showing you how you compare to others like you.
More and more when you log in to your retirement account you can see if your ahead or behind your peers - people with similar incomes and ages - when it comes to how much you’ve saved for retirement.
When I asked one 401k company why they do this, their response was that it was based in research and effective in motivating people to save more in their 401k account, so at least they weren’t falling behind the jerk on the other side of the cubicle.
While the end goal of creatively getting people to save more for retirement is worthy of praise, the tool used to motivate people was disappointing. At its core, comparison feeds on envy and jealousy, and feeling superior to those around you, and can quickly turn us into bitter, spiteful people if we don’t stay alert.
As I’ve talked about in this podcast many times, comparing yourself to others, especially when it comes to money can lead you down some dangerous and unhealthy paths. As Rick Warren said in his book The Purpose Driven Life, “there is no win in comparison”. You either compare yourself to others, find you’re doing better and feel prideful and arrogant. Or you find you’re doing worse and you feel less-than and envious. There is truly no win.
So I encourage you to just focus on yourself when it comes to figuring out how much money you need to retire with. Your retirement nest egg, your income needs and lifestyle choices are unique to you, and should never be influenced by what others are doing.
It is all too easy to fall into the comparison trap, so you’ll have to stay conscious of the tendency and temptation to make decisions based on a comparison to a particular person, a lifestyle, or some mythical American retirement ideal.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
This week, the theme is how much money do you need to retire?
Each day this week, I’m breaking down this really big and important question into bit-sized pieces to help you better understand what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can answer for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
A few years ago, there was a well-played commercial by ING where people walked around with their number. An oversized number that people hauled around with them while they walked the dog or commuted to work. The goal behind the commercial was to get people to figure out their number and what they needed to retire.
But too many of us, think of retirement as achieving a specific dollar amount. And while their isn’t anything inherently wrong with trying to amass a specific dollar amount for retirement, it can lead to some misguided decisions.
Why? Because how much money you need to retire isn’t about a specific dollar amount. It’s about an income stream. How much income do you need to live a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
So your number is only one component of that. You may have rental income and social security. If you’re lucky you have a pension. And so the goal must be to first calculate your expenses in retirement, add up your other income sources, and then figure out how much income you’ll need to withdraw from your investments every year to make up the difference.
So if you need to take $40,000/year of income from your retirement portfolio to plug that gap, then you probably need around $1,000,000 to retire. If you only need $20,000 a year from your portfolio, then you can likely retire with much less than $1,000,000.
So don’t fall into the myth that accumulating enough for retirement is all about the $ figure. It’s not. It’s all about the income. Start there and then use that to inform the dollar amount that will sustain the income needed for your lifestyle in retirement.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, the theme is How Much Money Do You Need To Retire?
Wow...what a big question! And it;s not an easy one to answer even for someone like me who deals with this question on a daily basis.
There are a lot of myths and misinformation out there about how much you need to retire, and there are a few principles and things you need to know about how much is enough that you can apply to your own life.
So this week, I’m going to break down this really big and important question into bit-sized pieces to help you better understand what it will take to retire with confidence, why the answer to this question is different for everyone, and how you can determine for yourself: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to dive right in and I’m gonna bust a popular and widespread myth about retirement. I can’t stand this myth, so it brings me great joy to trample all over it in tomorrow’s tip. So join me tomorrow, and in the meantime I hope you have a fabulous day!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how much do i need to retire, how much money do you need to retire comfortably, how much do i need to retire at 62, how much money do you need to retire, how much money do you need to retire at 60, retirement calculator, best retirement calculator, retirement savings rule of thumb, how much money should you have at retirement
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 255 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, I’m closing this recap week with the “The Best Piece of Advice I Can Give You Now ”...
Be sure to tune in next week, where I’m kicking off the first full week of 2020, with my best attempt to answer a complicated and perhaps the most important question about your retirement: “How Much Money Do You Need To Retire?”
So I hope you like the last episode of the 2019 most popular episodes, and be sure to come back tomorrow where I’ll be unpacking this burning question - How Much Money Do You Need To Retire?
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 139 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in March, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “Bond Funds vs. Individual Bonds”...
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 271 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “Where to Park Your Cash So it Actually Earns Interest”...
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 275 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “How to Pinpoint Your Values”...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 283 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in July, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “How Much Will You Need to Live On?”...
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 295 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in August, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “Caring for Aging Parents”...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 281 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in July, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “Will You Run Out of Money in Retirement?”...
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 259 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in June, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “The Danger of Retiring During a Recession”...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 269 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in July, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “Cash: Your Best Friend in the Next Recession”...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 294 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in August, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: A rundown of my top 5 “Must Read Personal Finance Books”...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over these next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Originally episode 270 of the One Minute Retirement Tip, and published in July, here is today’s most downloaded episode of 2019: “why $54,000 of cash on hand isn’t too much”...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
Ho, ho, ho - Merry Christmas!!!
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over the next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
But today is Christmas, so we gotta take a break so I can wish you a Merry Christmas and wish Jesus a happy birthday!
I hope you are having a blessed day today, and my 5 year old daughter, Keegan has a special Christmas message for you. And knowing her, probably a carol or two as well.
Here she is...
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over the next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020.
Today’s episode is the most downloaded episode of 2019 - Unload Your Debt. This is episode 162 and originally aired in March. It received more than twice as many downloads as any other episode this year.
So without further adieu, here is 2019’s most popular and most downloaded episode of 2019...
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast,
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, the theme is: most popular episodes of 2019.
I went back to the most downloaded episodes of the year, which means we’re covering a wide spectrum of retirement tips over the next couple weeks to close out the year and bring you in to 2020. I’ll be talking about:
- Why $54,000 of Cash on Hand Isn’t Too Much
- Unloading your debt
- Must Read Personal Finance Books
- The Danger of Retiring During a Recession
- Caring for Aging Parents
- The Best Piece of Advice I Can Give You Now
- And lots more!
So tune in over the next couple weeks for the most popular and most downloaded episodes of the year. Tomorrow, I’ll be kicking off the best of series with the most downloaded episode of the year, with over twice as many downloads as any other episode this year.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week, the theme was snowbirding in retirement.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- What are you leaving behind by being a snowbird?
- The pros of snowbirding
- The cost of being a snowbird
- Renting vs. owning
- And...the unglamorous side of snowbirding.
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you have a greater understanding of the tradeoffs with being a snowbird in retirement, and if this is an option you’ve been looking at seriously, you are clearer about whether or not snowbirding is it right for you, and how will it impact you and your financial security in retirement.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: The Most Popular Episodes of 2019. For the next 2 weeks, we’re taking a look back at the year by revisiting a variety of retirement nuggets with the most downloaded episodes of the year.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
This week, the theme is snowbirding in retirement. Should you be a snowbird? It’s a challenging emotional, financial, and lifestyle decision about where you live in retirement, so I’m unpacking snowbirding this week.
If you’ve been listening to the tips this week, you know I’ve been raining on your snowbird parade. It’s not because I want to dissuade you from being a snowbird, but too often only the glamorous side of snowbirding and the reasons to do it are considered. I just want you to think about the pros AND the cons of this important decision, and it seems to me like not many people out there are talking about the unglamorous side of snowbirding, which is what I’m focusing on today.
We’ve talked about the cost and renting vs. owning, but today I want to focus on a few non-financial headaches that comes with being a snowbird. Here are just a few examples:
- Stopping and starting your newspaper, forwarding your mail
- Having someone you trust check on things back home, pick up packages and the newspaper that inevitably still comes even though you’ve called them 3 times, check your basement and pipes to make sure your house doesn’t flood. My parents came home from a month in California a few years ago, to some minor bathroom flooding that happened while they were away.
- Stopping and starting cable and other utilities, which can be a really big hassle. Often you just end up eating the costs of paying for year-round utilities in both places which can be another cost to consider.
- And one that almost nobody thinks about - many snowbird spots have more volatile home prices, which get slammed in recessions, and take longer to recover, which means that your 2nd home didn’t grow in value like you hoped it would. And when you die, it’s one more illiquid asset that your heirs probably don’t want to deal with or fight over what happens to it.
- You like your doctor at home? You’ll also have to find another doctor, dentist, obgyn, etc. What a hassle trying to find someone good for all your health needs!
If the weather and sunshine are still worth all the hassle, great. But I hope the tips this week have helped you look at the pros AND cons of the snowbirding decision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
This week, the theme is snowbirding in retirement. Should you be a snowbird? It’s a mess of an emotional, financial, and lifestyle decision about where you live in retirement, so I’m unpacking snowbirding this week.
Today I’m talking about renting vs. owning in your snowbirding location of choice.
Maybe you’ve dreamed for years about spending the winter in Scottsdale. You’ve vacationed there a few times. You love the desert, you love the sun, you love the golf. I was just in Scottsdale in November and it was perfect. 80 degrees every day. My husband and I played golf, laid by the pool, we ate at some great restaurants, and I went on a few runs in the sunshine. It was the best vacation we’ve had together in years. Everything was perfect.
You may have been to Scottsdale or somewhere like it a few times on vacation, and you’ve got your heart set on buying a place in a particular snowbirding spot.
But not so fast. Before you make a semi-permanent decision to buy a place, test the waters first by renting. Long-term rentals are way cheaper than owning in most cases, and you don’t have all the upkeep and maintenance, worries and headaches when you head back home in the spring.
If you really think about it, how many winters will you be a snowbird? 15? 20? Once you reach a certain age, it just doesn’t make sense to travel each year, and a 2nd home is more headaches with your estate for your family to deal with. Not to mention that most snowbirding locales have volatile housing markets, where your 2nd home may not appreciate that much.
So if that’s the case, why not take the opportunity to spend the winter in different places? You could spend one winter in Arizona and the next winter in Hawaii. The year after that you could winter in Florida. You really like Arizona, so you go back the following winter and spend the next 3 winters there. Then you want to try a more urban area like Austin, Texas or another beach locale like Mexico or Costa Rica.
If you buy a place, you’re going to feel like you have to always go there, and you’ll likely be reluctant to travel elsewhere, which is fine for some people and an unintended negative drawback to their decision to handcuff themselves to a single location by choosing to buy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
This week, the theme is snowbirding in retirement. Should you be a snowbird? It’s a mess of an emotional, financial, and lifestyle decision about where you live in retirement, so I’m unpacking snowbirding this week.
Today, I’m talking about the cost of snowbirding. If you decide to be a snowbird, it will be one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make in retirement, so it’s not a decision you want to make lightly.
There’s obviously the purchase price of a second home if you decide to buy in your chosen snowbird destination. I know a lot of people chose to snowbird by renting or living out of their RV, and I’ll be talking about that decision tomorrow, but for today, I’m going to assume you want to buy a place and that you’re only going to be a snowbird during the winter months.
So there’s the purchase price, but then there’s property taxes (on not one but 2 homes), travel to and from your homes, maintenance costs on both homes, owning or transporting an additional car - and if you drive, you’ll still need to factor in the wear and tear on hauling your car long distances several times a year, insurance on 2 homes, HOA fees, golf memberships, buying furniture, decorating, dishes for your new place, landscaping (both places), and the costs of opening up and shutting down every season.
The one time and ongoing costs of maintaining two places can be substantial, and you don’t want to get blindsided, so it’s important to understand and plan for the costs ahead of time to make sure you can actually afford it and it’s worth it to you.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? There are quite a few irreversible decisions tied to your retirement - everything from your retirement date to your social security filing decision will have major long-term consequences.
You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
This week, the theme is snowbirding in retirement.
I don’t mean to be a negative Nancy, but in my experience, too many people make rash decisions about snowbirding in retirement and they end of unfulfilled because they didn’t look at this important life decision through a variety of angles, but instead were focused just on escaping the cold, dark, wet winters of their northern state for a few months out of the year.
So this week, I’m helping you look at the decision to be a snowbird from a variety of viewpoints to help you make a smart decision that you hopefully won’t regret. But today, is the only day that you’ll hear me really sing the praises of snowbirding. And it’s not because I’m biased towards this important retirement lifestyle decision, but because I just want to help you look at the pros and the cons…
So to keep things fair and balanced like Fox News, I’m talking about all the wonderful reasons you may want to consider being a snowbird.
Here are just a few reasons why being a snowbird is freakin awesome!
- The weather - this is a bit obvious, but you can’t beat 80 degrees and sunshine in January
- Lifestyle - golf, mah jong, lazy days by the pool or the beach. The snowbirding lifestyle is the relaxed, slower-paced retirement that so many of us yearn for after working our tails off for 30-40 years
- Social life - A lot of popular snowbirding locales have an abundance of activities and opportunities to get to know people with similar interests, most of whom are close in age to you. My parents snowbird in the Palm Springs area, and they live in a 55+ community, where everyday there are multiple things to do.
One of the best parts about being a snowbird, is that there are so many different options to find a location that suits your desired lifestyle - whether its hiking, playing golf, dancing, or boating, it’s not hard to find the perfect spot. The catch is whether or not you can afford that perfect spot, which is what we’ll be talking about tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
This week, the theme is snowbirding in retirement.
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you some things to consider if you’re planning on being a snowbird in retirement, and today I want to get right to the heart of the matter by asking you one simple and very important question: What are you leaving behind by becoming a snowbird?
I live in Oregon, and about ½ of my clients live here in the pacific NW. I have quite a few clients who now live in places like CA, AZ, FL, TX - either part-time or full-time, and the reasons for snowbirding are varied but really it’s about the weather. It rains a lot here in Oregon in the wintertime, and I’ve been living here for 34 years. I’m pretty sick of the rain, cold, and darkness in the winter. I would love nothing more than to spend 3-4 months out of the year in the warmth and sunshine in the southern part of the U.S.
It’s very easy to get lured into the sun down south, but it’s really important to also ask yourself: What am I giving up? What am I leaving behind? How will it impact your relationships with friends and family? You have a community of neighbors, church, family, friends, here. And when you’re gone for several months every year, how will that impact those relationships?
My parents are snowbirds, and my mom doesn’t see her grandkids for 4-5 months out of the year? So it’s important to think about not just what you’re gaining by snowbirding in the winter, but the tradeoffs as well and what you’re giving up, especially with those core relationships in your life, because it will be difficult to maintain the same bond when you’re away every year for months at a time and it will also be challenging to establish new, deep friendships in your snowbirding locales.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, the theme is snowbirding in retirement.
Should you be a snowbird? Is that a good financial decision? Does it make more sense to rent or buy? What are the pros and cons? For many of my clients, snowbirding or moving permanently to a warmer climate is often a very emotionally-driven decision. And for good reason. We’re talking about where you’re going to live in retirement!
But it’s really important when contemplating the snowbird decision that you look at it from a variety of angles, which is exactly what we’ll do this week.
So this week, I’m going to break down this snowbirding issue to help you make a smart decisions about where you decide to live in retirement. Now is the perfect time to be thinking about this issue, because winter arrives this week. It’s dark, it’s cold, and you’re dreaming about playing mah jong down in the southern california desert right now, aren’t you?
Not so fast, listen to this week’s tips before you make any rash, irreversible decisions about where you decide to winter in retirement.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, snowbird, snowbirding, how to be a snowbird, how much does it cost to be a snowbird, pros and cons of being a snowbird, snowbird retirement planning
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Financial resolutions for 2020.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week: 5 different types of financial resolutions you may want to consider adopting for 2020:
- Saving resolution
- Planning resolution
- Giving resolution
- Debt-reduction resolution
- And...a learning resolution
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are inspired to make a commitment and set a specific financial goal or resolution for 2020.
While I tried to give you several ideas throughout the week, I encourage you to pick just 1 or 2 meaningful financial resolutions for 2020 to adopt, and focus with laser-like intensity on putting an action plan in place to reach your goals.
Need help crafting a financial resolution? I encourage you to use the SMART method. SMART stands for: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Ensuring your resolution meets each of these characteristics will make it much more likely that you’ll stick with your resolution past the first 2 weeks of January.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Snowbirding in retirement. It’s the official start of winter later this week, and if you live up north like I do, you probably dream of warmth and sunshine this time of year, as the depths of winter cold and darkness descend upon us. So next week, we’ll look practically at being a snowbird in retirement. What are the pros and cons of heading south every winter, is it right for you, and how will it impact you in retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
This week, the theme is financial resolutions for 2020.
Each day this week, I’m giving you ideas on how you can adopt a financial resolution for 2020.
Today’s financial resolution for 2020 is: a learning new years resolution.
Too many of us go most of our lives without understanding the basics of finance. They don’t teach this stuff enough in school, and since most people view money as a taboo subject, it doesn’t get talked about in our homes either.
The old adage is true: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
What is the one area of money, personal finance, investing, or retirement, that if you knew more, it would make a difference in your life? If there is an area that you struggle with financially - spending, budgeting, investing, managing money with your spouse, debt - that’s probably an indication on where you can focus your learning to have the most impact.
Why not do something about your knowledge gap by reading a book, taking a class or a course, or going to an event or conference. You could even watch videos on YouTube for 20 minutes a week on a specific topic, and be eons ahead this time next year in your understanding of the money topic that is vexing you the most right now.
The key is to pinpoint an area of your financial life that you struggle with the most, and commit to learning more about it in a deeper way.
The more you know, the easier it will be to take action, find the best path, and stop struggling with the money issue you’re struggling with the most right now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
This week, the theme is financial resolutions for 2020.
Each day this week, I’m giving you ideas on how you can adopt a financial resolution for 2020.
Today’s financial resolution for 2020 is: a debt-reduction new years resolution.
Whether you have high-interest credit card debt, a car loan, a business loan, or a mortgage, reducing or removing the burden of debt is one of the best things you can do for your financial health and your stress in 2020.
Here are some ideas for resolutions to reduce your debt in 2020:
- Make a debt payoff plan using a system like the debt snowball or the debt avalanche method to systematically tackle your debt
- Target a specific debt to payoff, make a plan to pay it off, and put the plan into action
- Begin setting aside $50-100/month into emergency savings, so you’ll be less likely to go into debt in the future
- Learn how to use an amortization
- Commit to taking on no new debts in 2020, and make a plan for what you’ll do to prevent you from caving on your no new debt resolution.
- Cut up your credit cards on January 1st.
- Pick 1 month in 2020 where you spend no money on nothing but the essentials. Take the money you save and use it to pay down debt and boost your emergency fund.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
This week, the theme is financial resolutions for 2020.
Each day this week, I’m giving you ideas on how you can adopt a financial resolution for 2020.
Today’s financial resolution for 2020 is: a giving new years resolution.
John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople in the late 4th century, and an influential figure in the early Christian Church once said in one of his sermons: “The most pitiable person of all is the one who lives in luxury and shares his goods with nobody.”
If we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us would probably admit that we aren’t giving enough. What are the causes that you care about the most? How can you use the resources you’ve been given to lift others up?
Because money is a limited resource, when we use it in one way, it prevents us from using our money in another way. That’s why it’s so important that we’re intentional with saving, spending, and giving, because intentionality keeps us from squandering our resources and using our resources for more than just our own needs and wants.
Here are a few ideas to help you formulate a giving resolution for 2020:
- Give 1% more of your income in 2020
- Pick a cause or a charity to support, and support them with a consistent, monthly donation
- Automate more of your giving. If your giving tends to be sporadic and inconsistent, then one of the best ways you can put a giving resolution into action is by making it automatic. Charities love this too, and most will allow you to set up an automatic transfer each month.
- Every month, call your local food pantry, clothing distribution center, or homeless shelter and find out what they are in most need of, then go out and buy what’s needed. You can even multiply the giving by collaborating with your friends, family, or your church.
- Consider giving more of your time and talents through volunteer work, and make it a regular part of your week or month.
Whatever you decide to do, I encourage you to find one concrete way in 2020 that you can be more generous and use your resources for the greater good.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
This week, the theme is financial resolutions for 2020.
Each day this week, I’m giving you ideas on how you can adopt a financial resolution for 2020.
Today’s financial resolution for 2020 is: a resolution to plan. Ugh, that sounds so boring just saying that...plan. But good planning is the key to success in any meaningful endeavor, especially with your retirement.
Planning involves setting a goal and then sketching out the steps you’ll take to meet that goal. Planning is essential to help you make better decisions through focused planning in 2020. Without a plan, it’s easy to get distracted and derailed with shiny little objects.
Let’s go through a quick example on how you can use planning as a financial resolution in 2020:
- Start by targeting a specific financial goal (like paying off your mortgage or retiring in 3 years) and sketch out the first 3 steps to take in making progress or achieving that goal. Using the example of paying off your mortgage:
-
- Step #1 would be gathering the information about your current mortgage (interest rate, loan balance, etc.)
- Step #2 would be entering that information on a loan amortization table which you can find for free online.
- Step #3 would be deciding on an extra payment amount or a target date for paying off your mortgage and entering that into the amortization table to figure out how long it would take to pay off your mortgage with an additional payment, or how much that payment would need to be to pay off your mortgage within a specific targeted timeline.
- Step 4 would be deciding on an extra payment amount and taking action.
Paying off your mortgage is just one example, but I think it provides a nice illustration for the planning process. One of the big benefits of planning is that it breaks up a seemingly overwhelming task - paying off your mortgage - into bite-sized manageable steps. With a good plan, before you know it, you’ll be making consistent progress on those goals that are most important to you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
This week, the theme is financial resolutions for 2020. Can you believe it’s already the dawn of a new decade?! Heck, I’m still waiting for the fallout from Y2K...and that was 20 years ago!!
Each day this week, I’m giving you ideas on how you can adopt a financial resolution for 2020.
Today, is one of the most important and impactful financial resolutions you can adopt for 2020 - A resolution to save more.
Most Americans aren’t saving enough for emergencies or for retirement, and as a result, about 40% of us couldn’t cover a $400 emergency without putting it on to a credit card.
So if you’re like most people, you could benefit from a saving more. The key with saving more is to boil the frog slowly by starting where you are. Here are a few ideas for some saving financial resolutions for 2020:
- Save 1% more in your 401k in 2019
- If you have no idea how much of your income you’re saving right now, start tracking that. That could be a resolution...just start tracking.
- Save an extra $100 each month that’s earmarked for emergencies
- Target a savings goal as a % of your income. For example, if you’re saving 3% of your income right now, your resolution could be to bump that up to 4 or 5% of your income in 2020.
- Start a mad money account. Go to the bank and open an account that’s just for fun spending and start putting money into it each month. That way when you want a new pair of shoes or impulsively decide to head to the beach for the weekend, you can just tap into your mad money account, guilt free.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, the theme is “Financial Resolutions for 2020”.
I’m sharing with you 5 financial resolutions to improve your life in 2020. Although I’m not a big fan of new year’s resolutions, I do like the idea of a fresh start to the new year, and it’s arguably the best time to reflect on your life currently, decide what needs tuning up or a complete overhaul, and get to work creating more purpose and fulfillment in your life!
Healthy finances are like the WD40 of life. Without a firm financial footing life can be pretty rough. While money doesn’t lead to happiness, in the absence of money and financial security, life can get pretty miserable. If you’re a listener of the One Minute Retirement Tip, you probably already get that, so I won’t spend too much time convincing you of that this week.
So this week, I’ll share with you a variety of financial and money resolutions for the new year, and while I don’t recommend that you adopt all of these, because that would be overwhelming, I challenge you to adopt at least 1 of the financial resolutions that I’ll present to you this week, and make it part of your non-negotiable goals for 2020.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, new years resolution financial goals, financial new years resolutions 2020, financial goals for the new year, how do you set financial goals for the new year, money tips 2020
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: How to have a more frugal (and a more joyful) Christmas
Christmas doesn’t have to be a mad dash through the mall to overspend on gifts. Instead with a little effort, you can save a lot of money this Christmas, and bring more joy to the season by focusing on sentimental gifts and spending more time and less money with those you love the most.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week: 5 ideas for a frugal Christmas:
- Something heartfelt and homemade
- A Video letter
- Secret Santa
- Trimming your list of people and trimming your budget
- Start a frugal tradition
Hopefully after listening to the One Minute Retirement Tip this week, you are inspired to cherish this season, slow down, and spend less, and start new frugal traditions that will bear fruit for your relationships and your wallet for years to come.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Financial Resolutions for 2020. Another year is coming to a close and it's a good time to think about how to start fresh in the new year. So next week I’ll be sharing with you several types for financial resolutions to help you make progress on your journey to retirement. I’ll also share with you the criteria you’ll want to set for each resolution you make, to help you stick with your resolution beyond January.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
This week I’m sharing with you my best ideas on how you can make this Christmas a frugal and a more joyful one.
Today, is frugal Christmas idea #5 - Start a frugal tradition
If you normally go out to a fancy brunch, spend $100 each on your girlfriends, or if you break the bank every year buying lots of gifts for your children or grandchildren, here are some fun, frugal traditions you could try this year instead:
- Drink hot cocoa, then walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights
- Host a Christmas cookie exchange
- Celebrate with a Christmas movie night, complete with popcorn and candy
- Volunteer somewhere as a family
- If you have little kids or grandkids you’ll be spending time with during the holidays, snuggle up on the couch with a stack of books and read Christmas classics.
Time spent with family, friends, and those you love most is so much more meaningful and memorable than giving them stuff, and if you’re thoughtful about the activities and traditions you do together, you can be frugal at the same time!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
This week I’m sharing with you my best ideas on how you can make this Christmas a frugal and a more joyful one.
Today, is frugal Christmas idea #4 - Trim your list and trim your budget.
If you sit down and write out all the people you plan to buy Christmas presents for this year, how many people are on that list? Is there anyone on that list that should be downshifted to a card or a Christmas letter?
Are there siblings, friends or co-workers on there where maybe you could go to coffee or do a group lunch in lieu of exchanging gifts? If you broach the subject with them and say you would rather spend some quality time together instead of exchanging gifts, what are the odds that they too, will be relieved?
Trimming your list of people to buy gifts for will naturally trim your budget, but it’s also important to set a realistic budget for Christmas with the list of people that remain. Setting a budget is vitally important even if you can afford not to, because it will prevent materialism from taking over this Christmas. And if Christmas tends to plunge you into credit card debt after the holidays, even more reason to trim your list and set a budget that you...and your bank account...can live with.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
This week I’m sharing with you my best ideas on how you can make this Christmas a frugal and a more joyful one.
Frugality doesn’t have to stifle your enjoyment of Christmas. Actually the exact opposite it true. By keeping our wallets tucked away it forces us to be creative and focus more on relationships and spending quality time with the people we cherish the most.
Today is Frugal Christmas Idea #3 - Secret Santa.
If you don’t know what Secret Santa is, it’s where you and a designated group of people exchange Christmas gifts anonymously. Each member of the group is assigned one other member to give gift to, with a budget set.
I am very excited - like bursting at the seems excited - because this year on both sides of my family, we are doing Secret Santa. So instead of buying presents for like 8 people, I only have to buy a gift for 2 people - one from the Secret Santa we’re doing with my family, and one with the Secret Santa we’re doing with my husband’s family.
By doing Secret Santa with our families, it cuts down the number of gifts I’ll be buying this year by two thirds, and instead of stressing trying to find gifts for everyone in my family, I can just focus on finding something extra special for my 2 secret santa recipients.
I highly encourage you to consider this in your family, especially if the overflowing amount of presents and consumerism in your family has taken over. You’ll save a boatload of money and stress by keeping it simple with Secret Santa.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
This week, I’m sharing with you how you can have a more frugal and a more joyful Christmas this year with 5 of my best ideas on Christmas frugality.
Today, I’m sharing with you frugal Christmas idea #2 - The video letter
Last year for Mother’s Day, my sister came up with the idea to record a video letter to our mom. All 4 of our kids recorded little video clips on what they loved most about their grandma, their favorite food grandma makes, and their favorite way to spend time with grandma. Then I took all the clips and compiled them into a video that we put onto YouTube and showed it to my mom. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
And the best part is that those memories will always be there and she can go back and watch any time. And what’s even better is as the grandkids get older and grow up, it will be special for all of us to look back on those memories and those sweet little kids telling their grandmother how much she means to them.
A sentimental and heartfelt video letter works well for any loved one, especially someone you don’t see very often. You can keep it simple and just record something on your iphone and upload it to your computer, or if you want to get fancy with music or compiling different clips or photos, programs like iMovie and Movie Maker that come free with Mac and Windows computers, respectively, allow you to create something amazing and special for no-cost.
Just pro tip on uploading the video - there are several ways to share a video, but one of the best is through YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive or DropBox. The video will always live there, and you can make your videos private as well, so only specific people will have access to them. You could also transfer the video from your computer to a USB drive, which is a fun option if you’re sending something in the mail or want to create a physical gift with your video.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
This week, I’m sharing with you how you can have a more frugal and a more joyful Christmas...at the same time! I always get a little stressed out about Christmas. All the gatherings and parties to attend, gifts to buy, travel, activities with kids. It all adds up pretty quickly, but with some effort, it doesn’t have to hurt your wallet and compromise your bigger and more important financial goals.
Today, I’m sharing with you frugal Christmas idea #1 - Heartfelt homemade.
No, I’m not talking about a lopsided pottery experiment gone wrong. Several years ago, my mother in law gave her 2 sons and myself scrapbooks for Christmas. They were small, simple booklets with photos and handwritten notes with memories and things she loved about each of them. I get a little choked up thinking about it today. Her grown sons were in tears reading the heartfelt notes and feeling the love that their mother shared with them through this handmade gift.
But it doesn’t have to be a scrapbook. It could be a heartfelt letter telling a loved one how much they mean to you or anything else sentimental, like passing along a family heirloom that has meaning as well.
That’s it for today. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, the theme is “How to Have a More Frugal (and Joyful) Christmas. Are you sick of running the materialistic rat race of Christmas each and every year? Tired of giving a pile of gifts that aren’t all that meaningful to your loved ones and then experiencing the credit card hangover in January when the bill comes?
If the answer is yes and yes, then this week’s tips are for you. I’m sharing with you ideas on how you can bring more joy and less materialism to Christmas this year, and how doing so can help your wallet as well.
When I was 4 or 5 years old, I went downstairs in the early morning hours, and was delighted to see many presents under the tree. There was even a new kids table and chair set for me with a pretty bow on it just for me. And being the obsessive organizer that I am, I started to sort the presents by name. But then, I realized that I did not have the most presents under the tree. This was very upsetting to me as the youngest and obviously the most spoiled in the family as well. So I grabbed a few books of mine from my room, grabbed some wrapping paper, wrapped the books and put those under the tree as well. Now I had the most presents under the tree!
Then when it came time to open presents, I played it off like I’d never seen the books before in my life and wholeheartedly thanked Santa for his generosity in bringing me these oddly familiar books with crumpled paper and way too much tape. Nobody said a word. As embarrassing as it is to admit this, I think it embodies the opposite of the spirit of the tips this week, which is to help you bring more joy and less materialism to Christmas this year.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, frugal christmas, frugal christmas 2019, no cost christmas gift ideas, christmas on a budget, christmas, christmas 2019, christmas gift ideas, christmas traditions
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Gratitude, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, it can also help with your finances and retirement. So I devoted this week to gratitude in honor of Thanksgiving, looking at it through the lens of your money and retirement.
Here’s what I covered in each episode this week:
- The gratitude connection to your money
- Are you rich? Keeping the right perspective on your own wealth
- 20 Things I’m grateful for
- How to start a habit of gratitude
- Enjoy the little things - a story of gratitude
Hopefully after listening to these tips on gratitude this week, you are inspired to spend more time each day reflecting on what is good in your life and what you are most thankful for, confident that an increase in happiness will increase your happiness and eradicate bitterness and resentment.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: How to Have a Frugal and More Joyful Christmas. Are you sick of running the materialistic rat race of Christmas each and every year? Tired of giving a pile of gifts that aren’t all that meaningful to your loved ones and then experiencing the credit card hangover in January when the bill comes? Next week, I’ll be sharing with you ideas on how you can bring more joy and less materialism to Christmas this year, and how doing so can help your wallet as well.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year to reflect on what you and I are thankful for. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, being grateful can also make a meaningful difference in your finances and retirement.
I have this handwritten quote that I wrote on a chalkboard sign 5 years ago, that I still haven’t erased. It serves as a constant reminder to me about what’s meaningful and important.
You may have heard this quote before. It reads: “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things”.
At that time, 5 years ago, I was overwhelmed with my new role as a mother. It was a difficult adjustment for me and I was trying to figure out how to take care of my child and balance marriage, work, and motherhood. I felt like I had no time for myself, which was a radical adjustment. Before my daughter was born, I played golf most days after work in the summer, and could generally do what I wanted with a tremendous amount of freedom. I had sacrificed much to become a mother in my mind, and I was struggling with the resentful feelings I was beginning to have. Then one day, I came across that quote, and it shifted my perspective. Here’s this tiny beautiful baby girl who is growing up so fast. If I continue to focus on what I don’t have (time for myself) or what I can’t do (play golf), I’m going to squander this precious time I have with my baby girl. I’m not going to be present with her, and I’m not going to be able to love her in a way that she deserves.
Focusing on the little things in life, and just being present with her, made me realize that those little things are the big things. That quote still sits on our bookshelf in our living room, reminding me every time I see it to enjoy life, be grateful for what’s right in front of me, and focus on what matters most, and not on what I don’t have or I can’t do.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year to reflect on what you and I are thankful for. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, being grateful can also make a meaningful difference in your finances and retirement, since gratefulness has the power to improve our spending habits as well, and takes away the constant desire for more and better when it comes to lifestyle choices.
Today, I’m sharing with you how you can start a habit of gratitude in your life. The key for getting started, I believe, is to start small. How can you incorporate gratitude into your existing daily routine? Maybe it’s adding gratitude to your morning coffee, prayer, or workout time. Just start by thinking of one thing you’re grateful for each day. At first you may need a phone alarm or a post-it note to remember to do this, but if you’re consistent with the “when” and pair your gratitude habit with another cue to help make the habit automatic, it won’t take long before the gratitude habit becomes routine.
Once you have ingrained the daily habit of gratitude, you can add some other cool stuff - like writing random thank you cards, buying coffee for the person behind you in the drive thru, starting a gratitude journal, giving more generously, and stop comparing yourself to others.
Start small, and practice gratitude consistently each day, and you will soon see the amazing benefits that a more grateful heart can bring into your life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
Happy Thanksgiving to you! Thank you for being a listener of the podcast, and I hope you are spending time with those you love most today, and I hope you’re in a thankful mood, because this week is all about gratitude here on the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, being grateful can also make a meaningful difference in your finances and retirement.
If you’re needing a little jumpstart in feeling more thankful, and to get you thinking about how much there is to truly be grateful for, I’m listing 20 things that I’m grateful for today. I’ve been practicing gratitude as a regular daily habit for about the last 18 months to 2 years, and it has really shifted my perspective away from what I don’t yet have, and what I still haven’t accomplished to how I am so blessed already. I still have a long way to go in being fulfilled in the present, but all the more reason to start now and stick with a long-term and regular habit of gratitude.
Here are 20 things I’m grateful for:
- My warm bed and home
- Clean water
- My husband
- My kids
- Italian red wine
- My health
- A flexible work schedule
- McDonald’s Egg McMuffins
- My parents and my sister
- Time to read, play golf, and enjoy hobbies
- Friends who love me and want the best for me
- Snuggling with my 2 year old when I put him to bed every night
- Coffee with peppermint creamer
- Disposable income to travel occasionally
- Talking with my daughter on the way to school in the mornings
- Praying with my kids
- My employees
- My audio editor, Ash, who edits and publishes these tips
- My phone - an incredible blessing of technology and convenience
- Hearing my 2 year old son say new words and talk more every day
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year to reflect on what you and I are thankful for. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, being grateful can also make a meaningful difference in your finances and retirement.
Are you rich? Affluent? Middle class? Working Class? Poor?
Research shows that most of us think we’re not as rich as we are. You could ask a couple making over $250,000 a year whether or not they are rich, and they will probably tell you no. But statistically speaking, they probably are actually “rich” when looking at income alone, since that income will put them in the top 10% of households in most of the metropolitan areas in the United States. If this couple lives in Las Vegas, Orlando, or New Orleans, they’re income of $250,000 puts them in the top 5%.
Globally, if you have $200,000 of equity in your home, other stuff like furniture, cars and jewelry worth $50,000, and a retirement portfolio worth $500,000, you may or may not feel rich, but your wealth puts you in the top 1% of people in the world. You may not feel like a 1%er, but a great deal many of us are actually in the top 1% globally.
You have a smartphone or an alexa device to listen to me talk to you about money. So many of us are blessed beyond belief, especially when you look at historical norms for how much money people had and how they lived. Most of us, except the truly destitute among us, are living in time of unbound comfort and wealth.
So I encourage you, especially this week to keep a good perspective on reality, and be grateful for what you have and how your birthright as an American living in the 21st century has made you wealthy and much more comfortable than your ancestors.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year to reflect on what you and I are thankful for. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, being grateful can also make a meaningful difference in your finances and retirement.
Studies on gratitude show that a regular focus on what you are grateful for is one of the simplest and most effective habits you can cultivate to improve your health, happiness, and overall well-being.
Here are a couple of benefits of gratitude from the research that are connected to your finances and money, specifically:
- Gratitude reduces a lot of negative and toxic emotions, like envy, resentment, frustration, and regret.
- Gratitude reduces social comparisons, which I have talked about at length on the One Minute Retirement Tip. Comparing yourself to others can make you envious and resentful toward people who have more money, a nicer car, better vacations, nice shoes, new clothes, and higher paying jobs than you. The research shows that comparing yourself to others is a major factor in reduced self-esteem. When you’re grateful, you can free yourself from the comparison trap. Since you’re thankful for what you already have, it becomes less important to you what others have and you’re less likely to be consumed with jealous and resentful.
When you are more content with what you have because you’ve made it a regular, daily habit of being grateful, you can better resist the temptations of materialism and wasting your hard-earned dollar on stuff and experiences that don’t bring you fulfillment.
The ungrateful heart is never satisfied and will spend a lot of money in an effort to seek fulfillment through having more. The hole can never be filled because once the pleasure of the moment wears off, we’re right back to wishing for what we don’t have - the fence we don’t have, a new car, a bigger house, and better bottle of wine, a first class plane ticket.
But the grateful heart, spends money with a different mindset. Not spending to fill a bottomless pit in his or her heart or to keep up with the Joneses, but spends with intention. The grateful heart is never lured into the lie that money can buy happiness, because they are already content and thankful for the things, people, and resources they currently have.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year to reflect on what you and I are thankful for. Since it’s Thanksgiving week, we’re doing something special and a little different. It’s gratitude week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, it can also help with your finances and retirement. So I’ll be devoting this week to gratitude in honor of Thanksgiving, looking at it through the lens of your money and retirement.
I’d like to kick off the week of gratitude by telling you how grateful I am for each and every one of you. The One Minute Retirement Tip has had over 45,000 downloads since the inception of the podcast last October. The podcast is steadily growing each month. So today, here we are at episode 407, and I am glad you’re here!
Bringing these tips to you every day is a lot of work, but it’s meaningful to me, mostly because of the emails and feedback that I get from each of you. You tell me that these tips are meaningful and helpful to you on your retirement journey, and it is my sincere hope that these tips are moving you closer each day, week, and month to a financially secure and fulfilling retirement.
So thank you for being a listener of the One Minute Retirement Tip. Before you go, though, if you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, gratitude, how to practice gratitude, benefits of gratitude, the power of gratitude, importance of gratitude, gratitude examples, thankfulness, gratefulness, practicing gratitude, attitude of gratitude
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you have to start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts by the end of each calendar year with rare exceptions.
It’s a common source of confusion among my clients, and I get lots of questions about RMDs, especially towards the end of the year, so I addressed the questions I get asked most often about RMDs in this week’s tips.
Here are the frequently asked RMD questions that were covered in each episode this week:
- Do I Have To Take My RMD?
- Understanding Gross vs. Net IRA Distributions
- What Should I Withhold For Taxes On My RMDs?
- Can I Aggregate RMDs From Multiple Accounts?
- What Happens If I Don’t Take My RMD By The End Of The Year?
Hopefully after listening to these tips on RMDs this week, the funky rules that engulf RMDs in a cloud of fog, are more clear to you, and you are armed to make smarter and better-informed decisions about your own RMDs than you were just a week ago.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, since it’s Thanksgiving week, we’re doing something special. It’s gratitude week here on the One Minute Retirement Tip. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, it can also help with your finances and retirement. So I’ll be devoting next week to gratitude, looking at it through the lens of your money and retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
This week I’m talking about Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you have to start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts by the end of each calendar year with rare exceptions.
It’s a common source of confusion among my clients so I’m covering the questions I get asked most often about RMDs to help you better understand the complicated rules about those mandatory withdrawals.
Today’s RMD question is: what happens if I don’t take my RMD by the end of the year?
In general, except for in the first year where the RMD is not required, you’re going to be slapped with some pretty stiff penalties for failing to withdraw your full RMD amount. In fact, it’s one of the harshest penalties in the tax code - 50%.
If you fail to take out your full RMD from your IRA in a given year, you are penalized on 50% of whatever you didn’t take out. So let’s say you’re short on your RMD by $3000. When you find the error, you still have to take the $3,000 out of your IRA, pay the taxes on the withdrawal + pay an additional $1,500 for missing that RMD.
The IRS isn’t messing around here, and neither should you!
Since you’re punished so severely for failing to take your RMD, it’s important that you keep close tabs on this, especially if you are a DIY investor of have your money in a 401k account.
Often, you’ll just receive a letter or a notice to remind you to take your RMD, but many of the financial institutions don’t have the bandwidth to do much more than that, and since it’s ultimately you’re responsibility to ensure you’ve taken your full RMD for the year, you’ll want to track what that amount is and be sure that you withdraw that full amount by December 31st each year.
Now at the risk of promoting myself and other financial advisors, if you are working with a financial advisor, and they’re proactive, they are probably hounding you come early December about your RMD to make sure that you won’t pay those penalties for failure to withdraw your full RMD.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
This week I’m talking about Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you have to start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts by the end of each calendar year with rare exceptions.
It’s a common source of confusion among my clients so I’m covering the questions I get asked most often about RMDs to help you better understand the complicated rules about those mandatory withdrawals.
Today’s RMD question is: Can I aggregate RMDs from multiple accounts.
The answer is, yes you can, and often you should consider doing so as well. But it wouldn’t be a good RMD rule without some exceptions, so here’s an important one:
For some types of accounts, like 401ks, if you are 70 ½ and you have multiple 401k accounts, you can’t aggregate those RMDs together. You have to take RMDs individually from each account. This is part of the reason it makes sense to consolidate your old 401k accounts when you change jobs or retire into an IRA, because it simplifies everything into one account and you won’t be required to keep track of and take multiple RMDs from multiple 401k accounts.
But let’s say you’ve already aggregated your 401k accounts into IRAs and now you have 2 IRA accounts. It doesn’t matter if you have 1 IRA or 10 different IRA accounts. As long as you take the total required minimum distribution from your IRAs, it doesn’t matter if you take it from each account individually or aggregate those withdrawals from just one IRA account.
Many of my clients have more than one IRA and there are several reasons to consider aggregating RMDs from multiple accounts into one RMD:
- By taking funds from just one account, it’s often an opportunity to rebalance the portfolio since you can pick and choose what to sell and from which account.
- It’s cleaner and easier for most people to just receive one deposit or one check in the mail compared to 2 or 3 or more.
- If you have some underperforming dogs with poor future prospects in your portfolio, selling a bad investment to satisfy your RMD provides a good excuse to move on without liquidating your higher quality investment holdings.
That’s it for today. If you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute and it helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
This week I’m talking about Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you have to start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts by the end of each calendar year.
It’s a common source of confusion among my clients so I’m covering the questions I get asked most often about RMDs to help you better understand the complicated rules about these mandatory withdrawals.
Today’s RMD question is: What should I withhold for taxes on my RMDs?
Yesterday, I talked about gross vs. net distributions on RMDs, and today is a continuation of that tax withholding discussion.
Most of my clients who withhold taxes on their RMDs, take a net distribution instead of a gross distribution, because a % of their distribution goes to pay the taxes on the withdrawal.
So if you have to take out $10,000 from your IRA this year, and you withhold 20% for taxes, you would receive $8,000 net of taxes, and $2,000 would be sent to Uncle Sam to pay the taxes on that withdrawal. Whether or not you decide to withhold any of your RMD for taxes and what that withholding percentage is determines the difference between gross and net distributions.
The first decision to make about withholding for taxes is whether or not you should withhold in the first place. You don’t have to withhold anything for taxes, but you’ll want to carefully consider this decision, so you don’t have any big, unexpected tax bills next Spring.
If you decide to withhold some percentage of your RMD for paying the taxes, you’ll need to figure out an appropriate withholding amount, given your tax situation.
Most of my clients who withhold for taxes withhold between 10-25%. Although this is a common range, it’s also a wide range, so you’ll want to talk to your tax advisor to find out which withholding % makes the most sense for you.
You’ll also want to consider state tax withholding as well, if you live in a state where you pay income tax. Those RMDs will be subject to state income tax as well, if you live in a state like my home state of Oregon.
If you decide to withhold for state taxes you’ll do that separately from your federal tax withholding.
It is important that you get this right so you don’t under or over pay in taxes. So take the time to look carefully at your tax situation, and talk to your tax advisor before making a decision on withholding.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
This week I’m talking about Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you must start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts by the end of each calendar year. There are some exceptions to this mandate, a couple of which I explained yesterday, but generally, yes, sorry, you will have to start taking RMDs once you reach age 70 ½, and include those RMDs in your taxable income for the year, which also means paying taxes on those withdrawals.
And that brings me to today’s topic: Understanding net vs. gross distributions for your RMDs.
Because RMDs are included in your taxable income, many of you will likely want to withhold a portion of your RMD to pay the taxes, so you’re not slapped with a surprise tax bill next Spring.
For example, let’s say that it’s your first year taking your Required Minimum Distribution and the RMD amount is $10,000 from your IRA.
You have 2 options: You could take the full amount out of your IRA - $10,000 and have that amount deposited directly to your bank account or sent to you as a check, or transfer the money to a non-IRA taxable account. This is a gross distribution, because you are taking the full amount out of the account without withholding any of it for taxes.
Now, because you are reporting that withdrawal as part of your taxable income for the year, you’re likely going to have to pay taxes on that withdrawal. This is where net distributions come in. So using that same example of an RMD of $10,000, you could withhold a specific amount on that withdrawal for taxes.
So let’s say you decide to withhold 20% for taxes. The gross distribution amount is still $10,000, but 20% or $2,000 of that is withheld and sent to Uncle Sam for the taxes, and you receive a net distribution amount of $8,000.
Tomorrow, I’m going to talk in more depth about what you should withhold for taxes, but for today, I hope you now have a better understanding that the difference between gross vs. net distributions is all about taxes.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
This week I’m talking about Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you have to start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts by the end of each calendar year. It’s a common source of confusion among my clients so I’m covering the questions I get asked most often about RMDs to help you better understand the complicated rules about those mandatory withdrawals.
Today’s RMD question is: Do I have to take my RMD?
Good question. The short answer is generally yes, once you reach the age of 70 ½ or if you’re required to take money out of an inherited IRA, then you must begin those distributions by the end of the calendar year in which you turn 70 ½.
However, there are a couple common exceptions to this rule:
- If you are 70 ½ or older, and you’re still working and participating in a 401k plan at work, in most cases you will not be required to take RMDs from your 401k until you stop working.
- Another common exception to the mandate on RMDs is in the year you actually turn 70 ½. You can wait until the following year to take your first distribution, but you’ll have to take 2 distributions in that second year, so for many people the extra tax hit in year 2 is reason enough to not delay the first distribution.
The bottom line is that you’ll want to talk to your financial advisor and/or your tax advisor about whether or not you are required to take RMDs. There are rare exceptions after you turn 70 ½, so it’s good to know if your unique situation qualifies you for one of those exceptions.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about Required Minimum Distributions, otherwise known as RMDs. When you reach the age of 70 ½, you have to start distributions from your IRA, 401k, and other qualified accounts. This topic is a big source of confusion for our clients, especially this time of year when there’s a push to satisfy those RMD requirements before the end of the year.
I talked to my staff and asked them the most common questions they get about RMDs, and I’ll be covering those questions and my answers in each episode this week.
Today, I want to lay the groundwork by discussing the rules that govern IRAs and the rules associated with them, so you can gain a better understanding of why RMDs are a thing, and why they’re required.
When you have money in an IRA, 401k, or some other type of qualified account, you receive a tax deduction when you put money into those accounts. Then, the money grows tax-deferred, often for 20, 30, or even 40 years or more. Getting that initial tax break and paying zero dollars in taxes on your investments for decades is a pretty sweet deal, and it exists to help incentivize people to save more for retirement, so we all won’t be broke when we’re 80.
But at some point, the tax-deferred gravy train comes to an end, and that happens in the year that you turn 70 ½. In that year, the government comes back to you with a hand extended and says: “Ok, I’ve been pretty generous here for many many years, letting this money grow for you without you paying me any taxes, but now, you have to start taking money out, reporting the income, and paying the tax.
The required withdrawals start around 3% of your account value and gradually increase from there, with the goal that if you make it to 90 or 100, you end up depleting most of the account, and paying taxes.
In the end, even though you’re forced to withdraw a minimum amount from your retirement portfolio pay the taxes on that, it still works out to a better deal in the long-run than saving and investing that money in an account that is taxed every year on income and capital gains.
I hope that gives you an understanding of the RMD basics and the why behind it as we embark on the topic of RMDs this week.
And even if you’re not even close to age 70 ½ and think this week’s topic doesn’t apply to you, think again. Because you many have an inherited IRA that requires distributions long before you are required to take distributions from your own IRA or 401k, and many of these same rules that I’ll be covering this week will apply to inherited IRA RMDs as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, IRA, 401k, RMD, required minimum distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, RMD age, RMD age 70, 401k still working rmd exception, rmd tax, rmd tax withholding, does traditional IRA have RMD
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: materialism and how it might be wrecking your retirement. Materialism places utmost importance on money, the things money can buy, and outward signs of financial success, and when we’re too materialistic, and spend too much on the things that bring fleeting pleasure, not only does it not satisfy our desire for meaning and happiness in life, it can wreak havoc on your long-term financial success, since you’re throwing money on some meaningless possession today that could have been saved for a higher purpose tomorrow.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What is materialism and why it’s a problem
- The deeper issue behind materialism
- How materialism might be wrecking your retirement
- The irrationality of materialism
- And lastly...How to overcome materialism
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a new topic: I’m answering your most burning questions about required minimum distributions (otherwise known as RMDs). If you have money in a 401k or traditional IRA, you’re mandated to take money out by the end of the year, if you’re 70 ½ or older. I polled my staff to find out the questions they get asked most often about RMDs, and next week, I’m sharing with you those questions and answers. So if you’re getting close to age 70 ½ or if you have an inherited IRA where you’re mandated to take distributions, stay tuned next week where I cover this important and confusing topic.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
This week I’m talking about materialism and how it might be wrecking your retirement. Materialism places utmost importance on money, the things money can buy, and outward signs of financial success.
If you own up to your materialism, then you probably realize that it’s hindering your most important long-term goals and getting in the way of real, lasting happiness.
The next logical question is: how do I overcome my materialism?
It’s not easy, but here are a few suggestions that have been helpful for me:
- Ask yourself why before you buy something. What’s the reason behind it? Is your desire for buying something fueled by impressing others or living up to some expectation from society or others?
- Stop comparing yourself to others. Rick Warren calls this the comparison trap and I spent an entire week on this topic earlier this year in episodes 113-119. When you stop comparing yourself to others, and feel either less than or prideful as a result, it’s a powerful way to prevent you from falling into the keeping up with the Joneses materialism trap.
- Practice gratitude for the things and people in your life that you already have, rather than focusing your attention on what you want or what you don’t have. Your warm bed, your home, your dog, your spouse, your kids. Food to eat and clean water to drink. A smile from someone you love, and laugh shared with your child or grandchild. Focusing on the non-materialistic and the wonderful things in life that already bring you joy and meaning to life, can help squash materialistic desires.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
This week I’m talking about materialism and how it might be wrecking your retirement. Materialism places utmost importance on money, the things money can buy, and outward signs of financial success.
Today, I’m exploring the irrationality of materialism.
Deep down, we all know we can’t take our possessions with us when we die. But many of us, myself included, behave as if we can.
My favorite example of the irrationality of materialism is King Tut, and the other ancient Egyptian pharaohs. They believed that you could take all your stuff with you into the afterlife. When King Tuts tomb was discovered in the early 20th century, they found all of his crap, still there, much of it rotted away.
King Tut was buried with 36 jars of wine and eight baskets of fruit. Hopefully, he was able to at least eat a few snacks and enjoy some of that wine on his journey into the afterlife. It sounds ridiculous and gives a whole new meaning to aged fine wine, but how different is it really in how we behave today?
I think the right approach to accumulating wealth and possessions is to settle on a reasonable definition of what is enough for you. Enough to satisfy your basic needs in retirement, to cover health care costs, keep up with inflation, provide some cushion during market downturns, and allow you to have fun and pursue hobbies and interests that are meaningful to you.
Once you have enough for this, it’s important to stop and ask yourself why you continue to accumulate more.
I know this can be a challenge because it’s a struggle for me to. I am constantly woo’d into the pursuit of materialism and more, we’re bombarded with the parade of celebrity excess and more more more, and they all seem to be having so much damn fun, that it’s hard to ignore.
I’ve been reflecting a lot on my own materialistic habits over the last 6 months or so, and only after speaking with a couple of people I respect in this area and reading a book on this very topic, have I seen the light on accumulating more in an attempt to find pleasure, contentment, and happiness. If I’m being honest, a big motivation to write these tips is to further convince myself on the fruitless pursuit of more for its own sake.
I still have a long way to go.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
This week I’m talking about materialism and how it might be wrecking your retirement. Materialism places utmost importance on money, the things money can buy, and outward signs of financial success.
Yesterday, I talked about how too much debt might be wrecking your retirement.
Today, I’m talking about the second tell-tale sign that materialism might be wrecking your retirement: Spending choices.
If you are already well on track for retirement and you have 6+ months worth of expenses socked away in savings at the bank, then none of what I’m about to say applies to you. But if you’re not where you should be financially, which statistically speaking is like 90% of you, then please take to heart what I’m about to say about spending choices.
If your Christmas light display would make Clark Griswold jealous…
If you paid full price for the latest iphone the day it came out…
If you have a handbag that costs over $100…
If your monthly car payment exceeds what you’re saving for retirement every month…
If you consider shopping a hobby…
If any of the above applies to you, and you are not on track for retirement and don’t have a substantial cushion in savings for emergencies, than your spending choices, driven by materialism is probably ruining your long-term chances of financial stability and security.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that you live on rice and beans so you can accumulate millions for retirement. What I am saying is that many of us put very little thought into what we spend our money on, and we often throw our hard-earned dollars at things that don’t bring joy or fulfillment.
The key with making smart, non-materialistic spending choices with money is to be honest about your motivation. Is the spending choice driven by an intrinsic motivation that’s non-materialistic and righteous, or are you just proving a point to that son of a you-know-what across the street with a flashier Christmas light display and the new 40 foot reindeer that’s gonna really piss him off this year.
So the next time you make a decision about how to spend your hard-earned dollar, ask yourself why you’re making the purchase. Is it motivated by materialism? Personally, I wish I would have had more awareness over how my own spending decisions have been driven by materialism…I would have figured out much sooner that stuff can’t fill the hole in our hearts and I would have spent a lot less money along the way.
That’s it for today, but before you go, I have a favor to ask: if you haven’t already left an honest review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, would you take a minute to do that now? Your review helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
This week I’m talking about materialism and how it might be wrecking your retirement. Materialism places utmost importance on money, the things money can buy, and outward signs of financial success.
Today, I’m talking about the first sign that materialism might be wrecking your retirement: Debt.
The amount of debt that Americans are dragging around is alarming. The average American now carries over $137,000 in debt, and that number has been skyrocketing for the last several decades.
High debt and little to no savings characterizes our materialistic culture today. A nice house, 2 car payments, student loans, and $10,000 in credit card debt later, it’s no wonder that almost 40% of American adults wouldn't be able to cover a $400 emergency with cash or savings.
We are up to our eyeballs in debt, with no savings even for the inevitable emergency, it’s no wonder that so few Americans are able to retire with confidence. I talk to too many people who are stressed out financially, but they aren’t willing to live somewhere cheaper or trade in their car for something less expensive. Too many of us have become slaves to our stuff, and it’s wrecking our happiness today because it’s stressing us out and it’s putting us further and further behind on more meaningful financial goals.
If you aren’t on track for retirement, it’s time to take an honest look at where your money is going every month and ask yourself if you can truly afford your current lifestyle, or if you are just kicking the can down the road and sacrificing financial stability later in life for better stuff today.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
This week I’m talking about materialism and how it might be wrecking your retirement. Materialism places utmost importance on money, the things money can buy, and outward signs of financial success.
The problem with materialism is that many of us blindly pursue more and more, with the expectation that doing so will make us happy. A higher salary, a bigger house, a nicer car, and a first class plane ticket with bring contentment. Not only does this not satisfy the hole in our hearts, unchecked materialism can also wreck you financially, especially if your materialistic impulses are driving you into debt or taking precedence over your long-term financial goals - like saving enough money for retirement.
Today, we need to address the deeper issues behind materialism. Stopping damaging materialistic behavior goes so much deeper than an act of the will. Declarations of stopping spending so much money and cutting up your credit cards usually won’t be enough.
We have to look deeper and understand what’s driving our materialism in the first place. When the data clearly points to that wealth and money and more stuff can’t buy happiness, why do we so blindly pursue more, more, and more?
For nearly all of our existence, we humans have been mobile creatures, and being weighed down by possessions was completely unnatural and impractical. A closet full of shoes is only a very recent luxury, and toting around that many pairs of heels would have got you killed by a wild beast, so the hoarders among our ancestors were most definitely wiped out.
So if it’s not in our nature or our history to store up treasures here on earth, why do we do it? In my research, what I came across most is that there are two good reasons: 1 is pride and ego and 2 is that there is some type of deep unmet need that we are trying to fill with stuff.
Pride and ego are angling for attention and for people to see you and think “wow, he’s a success” or “dang, she’s got everything”. Materialism and monetary success are easy ways in which we can measure ourselves against others, so it serves as natural fuel for our pride and ego.
The unmet need or hole in our hearts can be a result of a number of factors, but what it boils down to is that we are unhappy and unfulfilled, often without purpose, living a life that we are less than capable of, spending time with people who bring us down who don’t really love us in the way we need them to, working a job that is sucking the life out of us, and we mistakenly believe that a new sweater or a $50 pair of underwear will fill the emptiness in our hearts.
We are all materialistic in one way or another. The key is self-examination to get at the root of the problem so you can move on to changing your materialistic ways.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about materialism and why it might be wrecking your retirement. I’ll be talking about the deeper issues behind our materialism, specific signs to look out for in your own patterns and behavior that indicate your own materialism may be destructive, and how to overcome materialism.
Today, I want to lay the groundwork by discussing what materialism is and why it’s a problem. Materialism has many different definitions, but here’s how I’m defining it this week for our purposes:
Materialism is the pursuit of pleasure, comfort, and wealth as the highest goals. Materialism places money and monetary success above all else. Materialists are overly concerned with this pursuit of monetary success and wealth to the detriment of their relationships with each other - family, friends, neighbors, as well as one’s relationship with God. If money or financial wealth is your God, then you are most definitely a materialist.
The problem with materialism is that many of us blindly pursue more and more, with the expectation that doing so will make us happy. A higher salary, a bigger house, a nicer car, and a first class plane ticket with bring contentment.
The taste of these things in our lives do bring pleasure, but the pleasure wanes quickly. As soon as the flight in first class is over, or after about a month driving that new car, we’re right back where we started.
As Steve Taylor wrote in his article in a Psychology Today article about materialism: “The sense of ego-inflation generated by wealth or expensive possessions can be more enduring, but it's very fragile too. It depends on comparing yourself to other people who aren't as well off as you, and evaporates if you compare yourself to someone who is wealthier than you. And no matter how much we try to complete or bolster our ego, our inner discontent and incompleteness always re-emerges, generating new desires. No matter how much we get, it's never enough.”
I think that sums it up pretty good right there. So we just continue in the rat race, all the while spending money on things that don’t bring happiness and backfire by getting in the way of what really matters in life or what truly does have the potential to fill that hole in our hearts.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, materialism, disadvantages of being materialistic, causes of materialism, materialism in society, how to beat materialism, materialistic
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: how to rebalance your investment portfolio. I talked about why it’s so important to rebalance, the 3 steps I take whenever I rebalance a portfolio (which I have done literally thousands of times), and how to know when you should rebalance. I also talked about 3 bonus tips to keep in mind whenever you rebalance.
I said this on Tuesday, but the takeaway for this week is to take a look at your current portfolio to see if it’s time to rebalance. With the stock market 10 years into its upward climb and up over 300% during that time, it’s an excellent time to rebalance, especially if you haven’t done it in a while. So take the time to look at your portfolio this week!
It’s Sunday, I know you’re just watching football or taking a nap anyways. It won’t take you too long to assess where you are and figure out if your portfolio is in need of rebalancing, so take some time to do it today and don’t put it off, otherwise, when the next recession arrives, you will likely lose your opportunity.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- How to rebalance
- Why you shouldn’t wait and what the long-term impact is on rebalancing your portfolio on your overall returns
- The 3 steps I take whenever I rebalance a client’s portfolio
- And... 3 bonus tips on effective rebalancing
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a new topic: Is Materialism Wrecking Your Retirement? Materialism can subtly and not so subtly creep into our lives and our wallets, so next week I’ll share with you the 5 signs that materialism might be wrecking your retirement...and what you can do to break free from the materialistic “more, more, more” message of our culture today.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
This week is all about rebalancing your portfolio. Rebalancing is the process of realigning your portfolio back to its intended position. We all get a little out of whack sometimes, so this week I’ve been walking you through the process of rebalancing an investment portfolio, which I have literally done thousands of times.
Today, I am sharing with you 3 quick bonus tips to help you be a better rebalancer.
Tip #1 - Rebalance based on triggers. Some people out there will tell you to rebalance at least once a year or twice a year, but I don’t like a calendar based approach. I believe it’s way more effective to pick a trigger and stick with it. Personally, my favorite trigger that’s worked well over the years is the 5% rule for the overall portfolio. Whenever the portfolio allocation to stocks gets out of balance by 5% or more, that’s when it’s time to rebalance. So consider a trigger if you’re going to rebalance manually.
Tip #2 - Set up an auto-pilot approach to rebalancing. If you have access to target date retirement funds through your 401k account at work, you can let a professional take care of the rebalancing for you. Target date retirement funds are like an auto-pilot approach to investing in your 401k plan because all the rebalancing is done for you.
Tip #3 is rebalancing with new money. This tip applies if you are making regular contributions to your account or if you have new funds to invest, like an inheritance. Rather than rebalancing your current portfolio, you would just add the new funds to something more conservative. This works well if you have large gains in a taxable account and are reluctant to sell what you own to pay the taxes. Instead, you could divert future contributions to a more conservative bond investment, rather than selling what you currently own to rebalance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
This week I’m talking about how to rebalance your investment portfolio. Rebalancing is the process of realigning your portfolio back to its intended position. We all get a little out of what sometimes in all areas of life, but when it comes to your investment portfolio, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to bring things back into alignment when it gets out of whack.
For the last 2 days, I’ve been sharing with you how to review your current mix of stocks, bonds, and cash to determine if you need to rebalance and by how much.
Today, I’m sharing with you step #3 on how I rebalance portfolios (which I have done literally thousands of times), and how you can follow this same process for rebalancing your own portfolio.
Once you’ve reviewed your current allocation and determined how much it’s drifted and how much it’s going to take to get it back into alignment, we need to look at what to sell.
And this isn’t as simple as it sounds. It’s determined by several factors - what type of account it is, taxes, and future prospects of what you’re looking to sell. Continuing the example from yesterday, let’s say that you need to sell $25,000 of stocks in your portfolio to get your portfolio back in balance.
Where do you begin? What do you sell? First of all, we need to determine the tax implications of selling. If you’re planning to sell within an IRA or a 401k account, this isn’t an issue since there are no taxes for selling. So if you’re selling in an IRA or 401k or other tax-deferred type account, you can move on looking at each individual position. Are there any that you’re not too keen on for future prospects or that have become too bloated. Are there 1 or 2 positions that you think would be good candidates or do you want to sell a little bit of everything? It’s usually best to sell as few as the positions as possible as this often keeps things simple and cuts down on any transaction costs of selling.
If you are rebalancing in a taxable account, then taxes are more of a consideration. You’ll want to know the tax implications of selling before you sell. If you have a loss in anything, it’s a good place to start since you can always buy the stock back later, while minimizing the taxes of rebalancing by selling something that has a loss.
If you don’t know how to get started with rebalancing, a good place to start is to figure out your ideal asset allocation to stocks, bonds, and cash based on your age. I’m happy to share our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that we use to find the right target for each client. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com, that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll send along the cheat sheet so you can figure out the asset allocation that’s right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
This week I’m talking about how to rebalance your investment portfolio. Rebalancing is the process of realigning your portfolio back to its intended position. We all get a little out of whack sometimes in all areas of life, but when it comes to your investment portfolio, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to bring things back into alignment when it gets out of whack.
Yesterday, I shared with you how to review your current mix of stocks, bonds, and cash to determine whether or not it’s time to rebalance.
Today, I’m sharing with you step #2 on how I rebalance portfolios (which I have done literally thousands of times), and how you can follow this same process for rebalancing your own portfolio.
Step #2 for rebalancing your portfolio is comparing your current allocation to the ideal allocation you have established for your portfolio to see if it’s time to rebalance. You may look at your investment portfolio 2-4 times a year and rebalance only once or not at all. And that’s fine.
But when it’s time to rebalance, we need to be able to pull the trigger, and here’s how you do it. My rule for rebalancing is that I rebalance each time a client’s portfolio gets out of whack by 5% or more. So if your portfolio should be 60% in stocks, but because of growth in stocks in your portfolio, you’re now at 65% in stocks, it’s time to rebalance.
You may have a different rule for when you rebalance, and that’s fine. It’s not unusual that people will rebalance sooner than 5% or by a completely different trigger all-together, like every 6 months, no matter what. I personally like 5%. It’s worked well for me over the years. It rebalances often enough to be meaningful, but not so frequently where it’s starting to create a tax problem by constantly generating capital gains from selling.
In a $500,000 investment portfolio, I need to reduce the stocks in the portfolio by about $25,000 to get the portfolio back down to its 60% target. Now that we know our portfolio is out of balance, and how much needs to be sold from the stock side of the aisle to get the portfolio back in line, we can move on to step 3, which is determining what to sell. I’ll be covering that, tomorrow.
If you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute.
rcaprice recently wrote on Amazon: “Not valuable. Listened but not useful information. political.”
Hey, thanks rcaprice! I didn’t realize this was a political show, but we all hear what we want to hear, right? So whether you have a 1 star review and think I’m overly political like rcaprice, or if these tips are valuable for you and you think it’s worth 5 stars, or anywhere in between, please leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. It helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
This week I’m talking about how to rebalance your investment portfolio. Rebalancing is the process of realigning your portfolio back to its intended position. We all get a little out of what sometimes in all areas of life, but when it comes to your investment portfolio, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to bring things back into alignment when it gets out of whack.
Today, I’m sharing with you how I rebalance portfolios (which I have done literally thousands of times), and how you can follow this same process for rebalancing your own portfolio.
The first step you’ll need to take when rebalancing your portfolio is reviewing where your portfolio allocation is currently. How much of your portfolio is in stocks? How much is in bonds and cash? That’s the basic criteria. It’s important to look under the hood a little more and check out the percentages you have in each position or holding of yours, and also take a look at how much you have in different industries, small, mid, and large cap, and how much you have in international. I take a look at these things every time I review a client’s portfolio, and it’s important that you look at these areas too. If this all sounds a bit overwhelming though, just start with looking at your mix of stocks and bonds and cash.
You’re looking for how that current allocation to stocks, bonds, & cash compares to your target amount. So if your target is to have 50% in stocks, but your stock percentage is now 55 or 60%, it’s probably time to rebalance. The rule that I live by is the 5% rule. If the overall allocation to stocks, bonds, and cash is out of balance by 5% or more, it’s time to rebalance. That has served me well over the years.
If you don’t know what your target asset allocation to stocks, bonds, and cash should be, I’m happy to share with you the age-based asset allocation cheat sheet that we use as a starting place with our clients to determine the right target for each client. I’m happy to share it with you for free. Just send me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com, that’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll send along the cheat sheet so you figure out the asset allocation that’s right for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
This week I’m talking about how to rebalance your investment portfolio. Rebalancing is the process of realigning your portfolio back to its intended position. We all get a little out of what sometimes in all areas of life, but when it comes to your investment portfolio, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to bring things back into alignment when it gets out of whack.
A recent Vanguard study actually quantified the impact of rebalancing vs. just letting things ride in your portfolio, and they found that rebalancing adds about .26% a year in returns. While that seems like a small amount, over a lifetime of investing it can be as much as 6-figures in portfolio value.
And I’m glad you’re with me today, because it’s probably the most important rebalancing tip of the week, and it’s also the easiest to understand.
If you haven’t rebalanced your portfolio recently - and by recently I mean in the last year, 3 years, 5 years or longer - it doesn’t really matter. Chances are that if you haven’t been paying close attention to your portfolio, it’s way out of whack. Why? Well, the last 10 years have seen a 300% gain in the stock market and an even bigger gain in certain stocks and industries.
We are now officially in the longest economic expansion in the history of the United States. If you do not take this opportunity of tremendous growth that you’ve likely had in your investment portfolio to review your current allocation to stocks, bonds, and every position in your portfolio and ask yourself if that mix is right for you at your current age and stage in life, you are playing with fire.
I don’t know when the next recession will be, and how deep the next stock market downturn will be, but I do know this - it will happen. And the time to rebalance is when the seas are calm and you can sell your bloated positions, bring everything back into alignment at or near a high water mark in your portfolio.
If you wait too long, and you don’t do it before the next major market downturn arrives, you miss your opportunity. So take the time this week to review your portfolio. Look at your current mix of stocks and bonds, and the current positions you own and determine if any of it is out of whack, and rebalance if necessary.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip!
This week I’m talking about how to rebalance your investment portfolio. I’ll be talking about why it’s so important to rebalance, the 3 steps I take whenever I rebalance a portfolio (which I have done literally thousands of times), and how to know when you should rebalance.
Rebalancing is the process of realigning your portfolio back to its intended position. We all get a little out of what sometimes. Last year my daughter dislocated her thumb and we had to go to the doctor to have him pop her thumb back in place. After a couple weeks of wearing a cute little splint, she was as good as new. If you don’t keep close tabs on your investment portfolio, it can get out of whack too.
The overall proportion of stocks can get bloated, especially when the stock market is up over 300% from it’s low in March 2009, just 10 years ago. If you haven’t rebalanced in the last few years or at all since March of 2009, you could have way more in stocks than you realize and be taking on way more risk than you should.
Many people go years without rebalancing their portfolio. This is especially a problem if you have money in an old 401k or an account that you don’t watch closely, where you tend to just set up the investments once and then just glance at your statement once a year without ever bothering to review your investment strategy and rebalance.
If this sounds familiar, this week’s tips are for you. Because that’s where rebalancing comes in. When you pay attention to your investments and realign your portfolio when it gets out of whack, it can make a meaningful difference to your long-term returns.
A recent study by Vanguard determined that rebalancing a portfolio adds about .26% annually to the return of your portfolio compared to not rebalancing. A quarter of one percent doesn’t seem like much but when you add that up over 20, 30, or 40 years of investing, we’re easily talking a difference of 6 figures in portfolio value over time for many of you.
So stick around this week as I cover a critical topic to successful investing, and I show you the steps I’ve taken thousands of times to rebalance a portfolio.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, how to rebalance your portfolio, portfolio rebalancing strategies, how to rebalance portfolio, should you rebalance your portfolio, how to rebalance your portfolio without paying taxes, how to rebalance your mutual fund portfolio, balanced portfolio by age, automatic rebalancing, selling funds in 401k
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: behavioral finance blunders. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand.
So this week, I talked about how some of the biggest behavioral finance blunders can infiltrate your own decision-making and how you can avoid making mistakes that can derail your retirement.
Here are the specific behavioral finance blunders that we covered in each episode this week:
- Choice Overload
- Anchoring
- Confirmation Bias
- Decision Fatigue
- And...Overconfidence Bias
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a new topic: How to rebalance your investment portfolio. I’m going to talk you through the process on how you should rebalance your portfolio, and why now is an ideal time to look seriously at rebalancing.
So don’t miss out on next week, where I’ll give you the tools to rebalance well, and don’t miss the opportunity to rebalance, after 10+ years of massive gains in the stock market.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
This week is devoted to better-equipping you to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible, through better understanding the behavioral finance concepts that influence your decisions.
Today, I’m talking about overconfidence bias. Overconfidence bias is when people’s subjective confidence in their own ability is greater than their actual performance.
If you think you’re a good driver, you’re probably just falling victim to overconfidence bias. More than ¾ of Americans say they are above average drivers, but if you think about it, that’s statistically impossible, since ¾ of drivers can’t be above average. Clearly overconfidence bias is at work here. In fact, this statistic probably seems laughable to you, considering that most of us witness poor driving on a daily basis, and 93% of drivers admitting to unsafe behavior behind the wheel. But that’s other people right? Not you or me? I’m a good driver.
Overconfidence bias can not only be a big problem for bad drivers who don’t think they need to improve their behavior. It can also be a big problem for your investment portfolio.
I’ve been in conversations with people before who clearly have selective memory. They tell you that they’ve made 16% per year going back to 1984, or that their real estate holdings have never lost value. They may actually believe that this is the case, but they’ve just put their mistakes and blunders out of their mind.
Overconfidence can also be a big problem for professional investors, portfolio managers, and your financial advisor, so be careful about working with anyone with a big ego, who can’t or won’t admit that they’ve made some mistakes over the years. Even the most talented investors in the world like Warren Buffett have made some big mistakes. Part of why he and others like him are so successful is because they have the humility to see that they were wrong and they learn from their mistakes.
Overconfidence bias can lead to excessive risk-taking with your retirement portfolio, lead to concentrated positions where one industry or one company makes up a bloated portion of your portfolio, and too much trading - all of which can lead to some big blow ups that derail your retirement.
So be on guard for overconfidence bias both with yourself and the professional advisors you work with.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
Your decisions about money, investing, and retirement must be made based on logic and rational thinking. The problem is that we often make money decisions with our emotions, which can wreak havoc on your retirement and impact you for the rest of your life.
This week is devoted to better-equipping you to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible, through better understanding the behavioral finance concepts that influence your decisions.
Today, I’m talking about decision fatigue. Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions that you make when you’re in a situation where you must make a lot of different decisions. When you are burdened with too many decisions, it’s just so exhausting, that you can’t stay sharp. So you start making some pretty crappy decisions, just because you’re not as sharp and your just kind of over it.
The key to overcoming decision fatigue is to just decide on what you can, when you can and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to figure it all out.
When my husband and I created a will, I was pregnant with our first child. We met with an attorney for about an hour and a half, deciding on everything from when we would pull the plug if I ever became incapacitated, to who would take care of our children if we both died in a fiery roller coaster accident.
The weight of those decisions was overwhelming, and it would have been nice to take some more time to think through it. But this attorney was expensive, so we pressed ahead, making decisions that would impact our family in big ways with the clock ticking and the attorney bill running higher.
Sometimes the weight of making decisions on your will, your estate, your social security, medical insurance options, your retirement is overwhelming. And its tiring. So you start doing what I did and just say screw it, let’s just get this over with. That’s when you know you’ve crossed the danger zone.
As soon as you become overwhelmed, decision fatigue has set in. If you press on, your fatigue can lead you astray into some poor decisions.
The cure for decision fatigue is just to step away. For an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Sometimes you feel pressured to make a decision right then and there, like I did, but unless you have the presence of mind to realize that you’re not capable of making a smart decision in the moment, you may make a decision that’s fatigued.
I think I’ll go back and review our will and make sure I still agree with those decisions we made after I was already feeling overwhelmed and fatigued....
If you haven’t already left a review in Amazon or iTunes for the One Minute Retirement Tip, can I ask a favor of you to go do that right now? It just takes a minute.
Mary Ann recently wrote on Amazon: “I had to shut you off..not good with my coffee”.
Ouch, Mary Ann! Whether you have a 1 star review and think I taste terrible with your coffee, like Mary Ann, or if these tips are valuable for you and you think it’s worth 5 stars, or anywhere in between, please take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. It helps to spread the word, and helps other people find this podcast.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
Your decisions about money, investing, and retirement must be made based on logic and rational thinking. The problem is that we often make money decisions with our emotions, which can wreak havoc on your retirement and impact you for the rest of your life.
This week is devoted to better-equipping you to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible, through better understanding the behavioral finance concepts that influence your decisions.
Today, we’re taking a look at Anchoring bias. Anchoring bias occurs when you rely on the first piece of information to make subsequent decisions. And by relying too heavily on that first impression, you anchor to it, hence the name anchoring bias.
If you have ever bought something that you probably shouldn’t have just because it was on sale, you have been guilty of anchoring bias. Black Friday deals are a perfect example of this. You probably don’t need 20 new pairs of socks, but when 20 pairs are $3, originally $15, you’re not going to NOT buy them. That’s anchoring. You’re making a decision solely on the discount you’re getting off the original price, and you’re so sucked into the screaming deal you’re getting on those socks, you don’t pause to ask yourself if you even want or need 20 additional pairs of socks.
It’s important to be mindful of anchoring when making purchase decisions, so you don’t get so easily sucked into making a decision based on a screaming deal. Anchoring bias also rears its ugly head with your investment decisions, and I’ve seen this all too often with my own clients. And even myself.
When I was 22 years old, I bought a Chinese index fund. I had been hearing a lot and doing quite a bit of research on China, and like many people at the time, I was convinced that China was going to topple the U.S. as the dominant global economic superpower. Their tremendous economic growth prospects were undeniable. So with a couple thousand dollars, which was lot when you’re 22 and fresh out of college, I bought this Chinese index fund. Just a few short months later, the global economy plunged into the great recession of 2008, and my beloved Chinese index fund plunged in value.
I lost ½ of my original investment in less than a year, but because I was anchored to the original price I paid, I was determined to hold on and stick it out until I got back to even on my original investment. This didn’t happen. Another 2 years passed and I was still underwater on my original investment. Thankfully, I did sell and move on, but I ignored the fundamentals and some serious problems that still need to be sorted out with the Chinese government and their economic system.
Investors commonly make this mistake. Stubbornly holding on to a bad investment and ignoring the compelling reasons to sell, all because they are anchored to the original price they paid or their high water mark in the stock.
This is a mistake. Investment decisions should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be made with the future potential in mind, not based on anything in the past. So if you are underwater in something, and you know it’s time to cut your losses, don’t let anchoring bias influence you in making a bad decision and holding on to a bad investment because you’re anchored to what you paid or what the investment was worth before things went south.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
This week, I’m talking about how you can avoid some of the biggest behavioral finance blunders. Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
Because your decisions about money, investing, and retirement can impact you for the rest of your life, being better equipped to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible is essential.
Today’s behavioral finance blunder is confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses. We are guilty of this and it’s part of what’s ripping us apart as a country right now. If you only follow friends on facebook or news outlets who share your viewpoint, you are guilty of confirmation bias.
When you fall victim to confirmation bias, you only see the intersection of the facts or data that already confirm your bias. It’s like making a decision with blinders on. You ignore what doesn’t already fit into your narrative, keeping you closed off to all the facts, and sometimes really important facts that should be weighed when making a decision.
Here’s how this is relevant for your money decisions. Let’s say you love tech stocks. You love technology companies so much that they make up your entire retirement portfolio. Instead of objectively looking at that situation and realizing what’s inherently wrong with owning companies from one sector, all you seek out online are stories and articles that confirm that technology will only go up from here. Or 3 additional tech stocks you need to add to your portfolio this year.
By not expanding your research and searching for reasons to NOT own tech stocks, all you’re doing is digging yourself deeper and deeper into the hole.
Succumbing to confirmation bias only serves to further entrench us in our skewed and bias beliefs. And when we don’t make a decision with all relevant information, we’re doing ourselves a disservice.
So here’s my challenge to you today. REsearch a topic from the opposite point of view from your own. Try to pick a topic where you’re already entrenched in your beliefs. Spend 15-20 minutes researching the topic from the other viewpoint and see if you can at least see the other point of view. Practicing open-mindedness is uncomfortable, but building this skill is incredibly valuable in all aspects of life.
Expanding your worldview and being open-minded to possibilities and opposing viewpoints can pay big dividends in your relationships and in the case of your money and investment portfolio, help you make better and smarter decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance blunders. Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money. Because our decisions about money, investing, and retirement can impact us for the rest of our lives, we must be especially on guard to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible. That means having a working knowledge of behavioral finance and the forces working in the background on our decisions.
So this week, I’m focusing on some of the biggest blunders of all so you can be on guard!
Today, I’m talking about choice overload. You experience this first hand whenever you walk down the wine aisle at the grocery store, and you don’t already know what you’re looking for. Why are there 42 different pinot noir choices, all with different attributes, price points, pretty labels, and AVA regions? It’s downright overwhelming.
The same is true for investing. There are endless ways to invest your money, and I commonly see the choice overload problem rear its ugly head in 401k plans. I’ve seen some plan lineups that have 85 different funds. When you have a lot of different choices, what ends up happening is you feel overwhelmed and you end up making no decision at all.
There is well-documented research to back up the choice overload problem, especially when it occurs with your 401k plan at work. Plans with more options actually have lower participation among employees, and those who do participate in the plan, end up saving at lower rates compared to plans that have a more manageable 10-15 investment choices.
So the next time you’re overwhelmed with the amount of choices thrown at you, understand that the temptation is to make no choice at all and do nothing. Understanding that a “do nothing” choice is the temptation will hopefully help you press on in making a better decision.
But if doing nothing means you’re not going to participate in your 401k plan or save less, you’re obviously making a big mistake with your retirement. So when you are faced with a choice, seek out help from someone who can help you. In the case of your 401k plan, chances are you have access to an advisor who can help you, or some type of easy auto-pilot option like a target date fund to pick from instead.
Just don’t let choice overload frustrate you into making a decision to do nothing.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! Last week, I talked about behavioral finance 101. This week, I’m continuing with the behavioral finance theme to go deeper on some of the biggest behavioral finance blunders.
Last week was a good overview, but we really gotta dive deeper into this essential topic, so that’s what I’m doing this week.
Let’s start with defining behavioral finance. According to the corporate finance institute, Behavioral finance is “the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of investors or financial analysts. It also includes the subsequent effects on the markets. It focuses on the fact that investors are not always rational, have limits to their self-control, and are influenced by their own biases.”
Our psychology and our biases impact how we make financial decisions and investment decisions in a big, big way! Understanding that there is a lot happening in the background each time you make a decision will help you take a pause, and hopefully make better financial decisions as a result.
So stick around with me this week as I talk about the inner workings of that mind of yours and how sometimes it can lead you astray. I’ll provide real world examples of how behavioral finance concepts like anchoring and choice overload can lead you down the wrong path if you aren’t careful.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would I be correct in saying that your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory, choice overload, confirmation bias, anchoring, decision fatigue, overconfidence effect
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand.
So this week, I talked about what behavioral finance is, what it means for your retirement, and how you can use behavioral finance concepts to avoid some of the biggest blunders when it comes to your retirement.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- How behavioral finance influences your decision-making and can easily lead you astray
- Why people are such bad investors...and how you can avoid the biggest blunder of all
- And a couple of important behavioral finance concepts, namely loss aversion & herd behavior
- How awareness can help improve your money decision-making skills
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re actually continuing on this behavioral finance theme, and I’m going to going into more detail on several other behavioral finance topics. You can actually get a college degree in this topic, so it’s a pretty deep topic that we could spend many many weeks covering. But I want to give you a deeper understanding of this important topic to help you improve your decision-making skills when it comes to your money, your investments, and your retirement.
Come on back next week, where we’ll continue our studies of behavioral finance and its impact on you.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand. Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
Today, I’m talking about how you can use behavioral finance to your advantage, and it’s relatively simple: Awareness
Earlier this week I talked about some common behavioral finance blunders - namely, how fear and greed emotions cause investors to buy and sell all at the wrong times, how loss aversion can impact everything from small purchases to big retirement decisions, and how herd behavior can drive you to make thoughtless decisions.
What ties all of this together in my opinion, is awareness. Just having a basic understanding of how your biases, emotions, and past experiences influence how you see the world and how you make decisions goes a long way towards minimizing those decisions. When you are aware of those illogical and emotional forces that are acting on you, it’s easier to stop and say “ah, I know what’s causing me to feel that way,” and because of that awareness, you’re less likely to get lulled into a bad decision.
Lately, I’ve been working a lot on improving my patience and trying to keep my cool in stressful situations and not get upset, raise my voice, or lash out. When you live with a 2 year old who throws his dinner on the floor while smiling at you, and then 5 seconds later loses his mind when you won’t let him watch a show on TV, you can begin to see why I am trying to work on my quick temper. For my family’s sake and my own sanity, it’s a work in progress.
While it’s still very much a work in progress, and sometimes I feel like I’m making no progress, I have had some success controlling my temper, and a big part of the reason is because I pay very close attention to that frustration bubbling up. I am hyper-aware of when I’m about to blow my top and that awareness and my determination to get better allow me to take a pause, take a breath, and choose to speak and act calmly.
The same thing is true with your behavior when it comes to your money. So focus on those decisions you’re making every day, week, and month that impact your wallet and retirement, and take steps towards becoming more aware of the emotional and psychological forces that are at work in your decision-making.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand. Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
Today I’m talking about herd behavior.
CS Lewis summed up herd behavior quite well when he said 'When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”
But sometimes being a good investor requires that you run in the opposite direction. Herd behavior is so common, I don’t have to dig very deep to give you some good examples. If you weren’t buying bitcoin in late 2017, gold in 2011, or profitless tech stocks in the late 1990s, you probably felt like an idiot. If you weren’t flipping houses in 2005, you likewise felt like you had missed the boat.
There is never a shortage of people out there who will brag about their massive wins, but you almost never hear about the other side...when that person was dead wrong, bet everything on a hunch, and then lost it all.
If you’re not careful, herd behavior can cause you to make some bad decisions - like buying some hot stock when it’s way overpriced, or jumping into an investment opportunity without investigating whether or not it makes sense for you. When the stock market is down 30% and everyone around the water cooler is bragging about how they moved to cash right before you-know-what hit the fan, it takes discipline to stay invested and ride things out.
To avoid falling victim to herd behavior and making poor decisions as a result, it’s important to remember that the masses are often wrong - very often. And you can’t rely on what’s right for everyone else as a shortcut to figuring out what’s right for you. Remember - you don’t need to run over the cliff just because everyone else is.
Your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make. You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand. Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
Today, I’m talking about one of the most important concepts in behavioral finance - loss aversion.
Loss aversion is a bias that most of us share. It states that we often feel more extreme and negative feelings over losses vs. the positive feelings we feel about gains.
Using gambling as an example, you’re likely to feel the pain of losses even when you come out ahead. If you win $1000 and then lose $900 in the next hand, it feels like a net loss even though you are actually ahead by $100.
Loss aversion is a problem because of the pain of loss can drive us into emotional and bad decisions. If your portfolio drops by 10% you may be tempted to panic and sell, because the pain is too great, that you just can’t take it any longer. I’ve had clients call me over the years after bad days in the stock market, or after they open their statement and see a big drops from last month’s value. Conversely, when you see your portfolio is up 10% or that you made lots of money in the last month in your investment portfolio, you’re much more likely to react like “meh, that’s nice”.
In order to overcome the loss aversion problem, the first step is to recognize that you’re wired to experience losses in a much more extreme negative way. Just understand that you and I and everyone else is prone to feel worse about losses than we feel good about gains is an important first step.
A second and important next step, especially if you are prone to make rash, emotional decisions, is just to avoid the temptation to feel bad in the first place. For your retirement portfolio, this means tracking your portfolio value less often. If you look at your portfolio everyday, you’ll see losses all the time. If on the other hand you only look at your portfolio balance a few times a year, you’re much more likely to see a gain and not expose yourself to the pains of loss aversion.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand. Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
I’m just going to level with you here. If you are even remotely like the average investor, and statistically speaking, you are...then you are a terrible investor. Why? Because you get in and out of the stock market at all the wrong times.
The research company, Dalbar, has been analyzing investor behavior for the last 25 years and here’s what they found:
During the 20-year period from 1998-2018, the stock market made a 5.6% average annual return. Pretty good when you consider that that return include the bursting of the tech bubble in the early 2000s, and the worst recession and stock market drop since the Great Depression in 2008-2009. Stocks still made 5.6% a year. Over that same 20-year time period bonds made 4.5% a year. Do you want to know what the average investor made?
1.9%. 1.9%! Not even enough to keep pace with inflation. Behavioral finance concepts are the primary reason why. Investors make emotional decisions based primarily on fear and greed, and getting in and out of the market at all the wrong times.
The point of today’s tip is that behavioral finance matters big time for your retirement, because if you only make 1.9% a year on your investment portfolio, that aint going to cut it! You could have thrown a dart and picked the most mediocre investment for the last 20 years, and stubbornly held on, and you still would have probably done better than 1.9%.
And the more you understand and accept that your own psychology, biases, and shortcomings are influencing your decisions, the better equipped you’ll be to actually make better decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
This week, I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand.
Essentially, behavioral finance looks at how your psychology, your emotions, and your biases impact your decisions and your behavior when it comes to your money.
Today, let’s talk about why behavioral finance matters big time for your retirement. It’s easy for you and I to overlook how important our money decisions are, and how they can have lasting (and if you’re not careful, damaging) consequences.
Did you know that the average adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day? That’s a lot of decisions. Some big. Some small.
One decision that’s been on my mind recently is my cell phone. It’s on its last legs. I’ve been needing a new one for a few months, but I’ve been procrastinating on making a decision on getting a new phone, for a lot of reasons. But I keep getting these messages from my carrier that I’ll get a $200 credit if I upgrade to the new iphone...but only if I buy online.
How do I know where I will get the best deal? I don’t even know which phone I want, and I don’t know what it’s going to cost me. Is it going to impact my plan? And if the past is any indication, I will have to read the fine print and ask a lot of questions to make sure the salesperson isn’t screwing me over. So I think for now, I’ll just wait a little longer.
Many of the same parallels can be drawn to our decisions about money. We weigh our prior experiences and biases. We might make decisions with blinders on, or make an emotional decision. Back before the smartphone days I absolutely had to have a Razr phone. It was a sleek flip phone that would be laughable today, but I had to have it. So I made a decision driven more by emotion and attraction than rational self-control. Does this sound familiar?
Because our decisions about money, investing, and retirement can impact us for the rest of our lives, we must be especially on guard to make careful, self-controlled, unemotional decisions as often as possible.
That’s it for today. I’ll spend the rest of this week covering a few of the most common behavioral finance blunders, starting with the biggest behavioral finance blunder of all tomorrow.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week,
I’m talking about behavioral finance. An incredibly important topic when it comes to your money and your retirement, yet at the same time it’s something that few people really, truly understand.
So this week, I’m breaking down for you what behavioral finance is, what it means for your retirement, and how you can use behavioral finance concepts to avoid some of the biggest blunders when it comes to your retirement.
Let’s start with what behavioral finance is in the first place. According to the corporate finance institute, Behavioral finance is “the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of investors or financial analysts. It also includes the subsequent effects on the markets. It focuses on the fact that investors are not always rational, have limits to their self-control, and are influenced by their own biases.”
Our psychology and our biases impact how we make financial decisions and investment decisions in a big, big way! Understanding that there is a lot at play each time you make a decision will help you take a pause, and hopefully make better decisions as a result.
Dick Vitale, or Dickie V as he is affectionately known in the college basketball scene, once said: “Life is simple. Make good decisions and good things happen. Make bad decisions and bad things happen.” Very true in sports, life, and in your retirement.
So stick around with me this week as I talk about the core concepts of behavioral finance to help you make smarter and better decisions.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts, behavioral finance examples, behavioral finance biases, why is behavioral finance important, behavioral economics, investor psychology, behavioral biases, herd behavior, herd behavior and investment, herd behavior financial crisis, loss aversion, prospect theory
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: year-end tax-saving giving tips. How you can be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time!
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are inspired to give more and be more thoughtful with your giving. If you plan ahead and understand how certain types of giving have the potential to save you a boatload in taxes, compared to giving the same amount, but in a less tax-efficient way, you will be more likely to make better informed decisions.
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- The Unexpected Benefits of Giving
- How To Use Charitable Bunching to your advantage
- Using Donor-advised funds to multiply your giving
- The problem with donating cash
- And...a smarter way to withdraw money from your IRA
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: Behavioral Finance. Have you ever wondered how your psychology, upbringing, and biases impact your financial decision making? You may be making some serious mistakes when it comes to your money, because of how you think and how you see the world, so I’m going to shed light on some of the most common behavioral finance concepts to help you better understand what influences your financial decisions, so you can make better financial decisions.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
The theme this week is year-end tax-saving giving tips. I’m sharing with you how you can be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
If you are taking withdrawals from your IRA, and donating money to charity from other accounts, listen closely to today’s tip, because you may be missing out on some pretty amazing tax benefits if you made charitable contributions directly from your IRA instead.
Many investors look at the difference in making charitable contributions from their IRAs vs. regular donations to charity (i.e. writing a check) as a “six of one, half a dozen of the other” issue.
But that assumption is wrong! Every dollar you withdraw from your IRA is included in your adjusted gross income for the year. One way to avoid reporting higher income and potentially higher taxes is to send your RMDs directly to charity.
When you send charitable contributions directly from your IRA to charity, it’s called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (or a QCD). Just by making this small change of where you pull funds to make your charitable distributions, you could be saving thousands of dollars in taxes.
When you’re over 70 ½ and you are forced to take withdrawals from your IRA and 401k accounts, this strategy is especially powerful, since every dollar of those mandatory withdrawals that you send to charity is one less dollar that you are taxed on that year.
So even if you’re not yet taking IRA withdrawals, talk to your friends and family who are over 70 about this strategy. I find that in practice, very few people take advantage of it and as a result often end up paying thousands of dollars more in taxes every year than they need to.
One last point about the Qualified Charitable Distributions from your IRA. It’s important that when the money is withdrawn, that’s it’s done so correctly in order for it to count as a charitable distribution and hence, for the money you withdraw to stay out of your income. So be sure to talk to your financial institution about this before you take funds out of your IRA to give to charity.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
The theme this week is year-end tax-saving giving tips. I’m sharing with you how you can be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
Today I’m talking about the problem with donating cash. Most of us write checks to charity or give a few dollars here and there, but for many of us, that’s actually a really inefficient way to give.
One way to give the same amount but to be more efficient so more dollars end up in the hands of your favorite charities, is by giving appreciated assets, like stocks.
For example, let’s say 10 years ago you bought a stock for $20,000. The stock has done well and is worth $50,000 today. Let’s say you want to make a sizeable donation to charity this year, and you plan to sell that stock. You have 2 options:
- You can sell the stock, pay the taxes, and donate the proceeds to charity. If you did that, using a few assumptions about your tax situation, you’ll end up donating about $43,000 to charity, after accounting for the taxes paid on the sale of the stock.
- If on the other hand you donate the stock directly, you pay $0 in tax, and all $50,000 goes to the charity. As a result, you get a bigger tax deduction from your donation, and more money goes to the charity! A win-win!
So when you have appreciated assets that you’re looking to sell, first ask yourself if it makes sense to make a donation with part or all of that asset before you sell. And as always with these issues, be sure to consult with your tax advisor as well.
Your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make. You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
The theme this week is year-end tax-saving giving tips. I’m sharing with you how you can be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
Have you ever heard of the donor-advised fund?
I love, love, love the donor-advised fund and here’s why - if you’re intentional about your giving, and want to give in big, bold way and really make a difference in the causes you care about most, you need to look seriously at a donor-advised fund.
A donor advised fund is an investment account that allows you to make tax-deductible donations in a given year. Let’s say you sell your business or have a major windfall that’s going to be a big tax hit. You’re charitably inclined and you want to do good while lowering your tax bill at the same time. A donor-advised fund helps you do exactly that.
Let’s say you put $100,000 into a donor-advised fund, and let it grow for 10 years. Let’s say the account did really well and doubled in value over that time - now you have $200,000 in the account. You just doubled what you were able to give to charity by investing those dollars and allowing them to grow!
Imagine what your favorite organization could do with double or triple the amount of funds you otherwise would have donated. We’re upgrading from your name on a single brick to your name on the building, baby!
And when the account minimums on donor-advised funds are pretty low - you need around $5000 in many cases to start one - these are not just for the wealthy. If you want to give in bigger, bolder ways and really maximize the dollars you donate over your lifetime, a donor-advised fund deserves a serious look.
Using the power of growth to give more tomorrow than you could otherwise give today is inspiring, and will take your generosity to the next level! It’s also an incredibly efficient way to give, since you’re allowing the growth of the investments in the fund, to compound your giving for you.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
The theme this week is year-end tax-saving giving tips. I’m sharing with you how you can be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
Today, I’m talking about charitable bunching. The changes to the tax code with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, have made it harder for a lot of Americans to get a deduction for charitable contributions. This happened because the standard deduction amount was basically doubled, and so it no longer makes sense for many Americans to itemize. And when you don’t itemize, you don’t get credit for those donations you’re making. Unless you bunch your contributions with a little strategy called charitable bunching.
Here’s how charitable bunching works and how it might be relevant for you:
Charitable bunching is a strategy where you lump your charitable donations into one year, so instead of donating to charity every year, you would donate more dollars less often.
For example, if you donate $5,000 every year to charity, but switch to donating $15,000 every 3 years instead, you would still donate the same amount, but by donating a higher amount in a given year, the strategy of lumping or bunching those contributions into one year can help you qualify for itemized deductions and hence, allow you to continue to receive a tax deduction on those charitable contributions in the years that you bunch.
This can be particularly useful in years where you have higher income or a bigger tax bill, as the accelerated giving that’s involved with bunching can reduce your tax bill. I’ve seen situations where people have used sizable giving in year’s where they made Roth conversions or had a significant taxable event, like they sold a business.
Making large donations in those years can sizably cut your tax bill, so it’s important to be aware that giving in big chunks can help you do good and save a boatload of taxes all at the same time.
Just be sure to talk to your tax advisor about this, since they will be able to help you decide on the right amount of bunching that will help you reduce your tax bill and/or qualify for itemized deductions in a given year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
The theme this week is year-end tax-saving giving tips. I’m sharing with you how you can be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
Today is all about the wonderful and unexpected benefits of giving. The reality is that very few of us give a meaningful amount of our income. Most people who donate to charity give about 2-4% of their income, and a whole ⅓ of us give nothing at all.
Talk to most church leaders across the country, and they will often report that just 10% of their congregation provides about 90% of the funds, and that many give nothing at all.
This makes me a little sad. Not just because of the needs of so many, especially the poor, who could be helped by greater generosity, but because greater generosity has so many benefits for the giver as well. If you’ve ever felt the joy of giving a thoughtful gift to a loved one, you know exactly what I am talking about.
This past April, I spent 2 weeks in Israel. One of the most memorable experiences of my trip was the afternoon I spent at the Dead Sea. You really do just float, yet the water is so salty and full of minerals that if it touches your face or gets in your eyes it stings...a lot. What makes the Dead Sea, well dead, is the water in the Dead Sea cannot get out. It has nowhere to flow, so it just evaporates. As a result, the Dead Sea is 10 times as salty as the ocean and nothing can live in it.
The Dead Sea isn’t a sea, but a lake that is filled with water flowing into it from the Jordan river.
But since nothing flows out and it holds on to all the water it receives, it is barren and lifeless.
It works the same way when we selfishly hold on to everything we have. We die inside and become more and more indifferent to those around us. But as I’ve experienced in my own life, generosity breeds more generosity, more love, and a profound satisfaction and freedom that comes with being able to let go.
Don’t be afraid to let go and be more generous. I promise it will bring you more joy and a more profound wealth in all other aspects of your life.
My hope is that this week’s tips will not only help you be smarter with your giving, but I challenge you to give more than you are giving now. If you’re giving nothing, then start small and start where you are with $10 a month. If you are giving 2-4% of your income, like most Americans, I challenge you to boost your giving by 1% of your income. You’ll likely not miss the money that much, but the reward you will experience will be worth infinitely more than the extra 1% you gave away.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week,
I’m talking about year-end tax-saving charitable giving tips! How you can take advantage of some recent changes with the tax cuts and jobs act, otherwise known as the Trump tax cuts, to give more to the causes that are meaningful to you, and do so in a tax-efficient way.
If you want to give smarter, then be sure to listen this week, because I’m talking about everything from qualified charitable distributions to charitable bunching to donor-advised funds… all to help you be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
Before I send you off into your day, I just want to acknowledge that today is a very special day. Day 365 of the One Minute Retirement Tip. A year ago today these daily tips were started on a whim, and much to my surprise, I am still here talking at you a year later. I got the idea to do a daily retirement tip from my buddy Nick True, and after a frenzied 2 weeks figuring out everything from where to record and how to navigate podcast hosting to compressing audio files, the One Minute Retirement Tip was born.
And thank you for listening and making these tips a part of your day. I have been so motivated and inspired by the success the podcast has already had, and I am so overjoyed by your reviews and emails with your comments that these tips are making a difference.
I very much appreciate you, and I love bringing you daily tips to help make your journey to retirement within reach. And I hope to continue to bring you these tips for years to come! I know I’m not retiring any time soon, but I hope you are!
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2019 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2019, charitable donations 2019, how much do people give to charity, donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions, donor advised funds, charitable bunching
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The Backdoor Roth IRA strategy. If your income is too high to contribute to a Roth IRA, there is a little known backdoor Roth IRA strategy that is perfectly legal, that will still allow you to contribute up to 7,000 to a Roth IRA in 2019 if you’re over 50.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you now know whether or not this strategy is potentially right for you, and you’ve already called your tax advisor to get their take, because as I talked about on Wednesday this week, the clock is ticking...you only have until the end of the year to make this happen for 2019!
Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:
- What Is The Backdoor Roth IRA?
- When the deadline is for the backdoor roth...hint, hint, it’s coming up soon!
- Why you should consider the Roth in the first place
- The Mega Backdoor Roth for you super savers out there and how it works
- And...Why you may just want to keep things simple by not worrying about the backdoor Roth if you have a Roth 401k
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: Year-end charitable giving strategies! How you can take advantage of some recent changes with the tax cuts and jobs act, otherwise known as the Trump tax cuts, to give more to the causes that are meaningful to you, and do so in a tax-efficient way. I’ll be talking about everything from qualified charitable distributions to charitable bunching to donor-advised funds to help you be generous, do good, and cut your tax bill all at the same time.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
The theme this week is the backdoor Roth IRA strategy. If you make too much money to qualify to make a Roth contribution in 2019, don’t fret. There is a little-known strategy called the backdoor Roth, that will still allow you to make Roth contributions.
Here’s how it works: You make a non-deductible or after-tax IRA contribution to your Traditional IRA. There aren’t income limits on conversions from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, so you can then turn around and convert that contribution to a Roth. Bam. Done. Take that Uncle Sam!
If this all sounds too complicated for you, that’s ok, because I have another solution for you: just take advantage of your Roth 401k plan at your work. If you work somewhere that offers a 401k, chances are good that there is also a Roth option that would allow you to save up to $25,000 in your Roth 401k in 2019 and not mess with any of these quirky Backdoor Roth strategies.
That’s what I’ve been doing since I became eligible for a 401k plan for the first time in 2007 - putting as much money as I could into my Roth 401k every year, and it’s worked out great.
So if you have access to a Roth 401k plan through your work, and you won’t be able to max that out anyways, you may just want to keep it simple and forget about the backdoor Roth IRA strategy all together.
But plenty of you listening don’t have access to a Roth 401k at your work, and in that case, the backdoor Roth strategy is a compelling choice when your income is too high to qualify for a Roth.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
The theme this week is the backdoor Roth IRA strategy. If you make too much money to qualify to make a Roth contribution in 2019, don’t fret. There is a little-known strategy called the backdoor Roth, that will still allow you to make Roth contributions.
Here’s how it works: You make a non-deductible or after-tax IRA contribution to your Traditional IRA. There aren’t income limits on conversions from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, so you can then turn around and convert that contribution to a Roth. Bam. Done. Take that Uncle Sam!
Today I’m talking about the Mega Backdoor Roth Strategy. It’s like the backdoor Roth, on steroids! You can only convert $7,000 to your Roth in 2019, using the backdoor Roth strategy, but with the mega backdoor Roth, you can actually save up to $62,000 in a Roth in 2019.
Here’s how it works: Through your 401k plan, you can contribute up to your maximum of $25,000 in 2019 if you’re over 50. In addition to that, if your employer does not provide any matching contributions nor profit-sharing, you could contribute up to an extra $37,000 on an after-tax basis to your 401(k). From there, if your plan allows, you can then rollover the full $62,000 into a Roth.
The stars need to align in order for you to take advantage of the mega backdoor Roth, and your 401k plan needs to have all the right features and language written into the plan document. So this strategy works best for small business owners who have a say in the design of their 401k plan. It works really well for solo entrepreneurs where it’s just you, because it’s much easier to put this type of plan in place. It works best when you don’t have matching contributions, and if you have employees it’s harder to get your contribution amounts up to that $62,000 maximum.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
The theme this week is the backdoor Roth IRA strategy. If you make too much money to qualify to make a Roth contribution in 2019, don’t fret. There is a little-known strategy called the backdoor Roth, that will still allow you to make Roth contributions.
Here’s how it works: You make a non-deductible or after-tax IRA contribution to your Traditional IRA. There aren’t income limits on conversions from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, so you can then turn around and convert that contribution to a Roth. Bam. Done. Take that Uncle Sam!
Today, I’m taking a step back to explain why you want to consider the Roth IRA in the first place.
The answer lies in the taxes. Every dollar in the Roth is never taxed again, so you could let that grow tax free for the rest of your life or take the money out as income, but whatever you do, the government never gets their hands on it after you retire.
Tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals is a beautiful thing!
And not only that, but Roth IRAs also don’t have mandatory withdrawal requirements when you reach the age of 70 ½. So you could leave the money in the Roth and let it keep growing if you don’t end up needing the money for income in retirement. No forced withdrawals, and no taxes on those forced withdrawals.
If you’re like 110% of Americans, you would prefer to pay less in taxes, and socking as much into a Roth as you can during your working years will provide more flexibility and a lower tax bill in your retirement years.
Many people won’t use the Roth to its potential as a retirement savings vehicle, because they are too short-sighted when it comes to their taxes. They would rather get a tax break now by making contributions to their traditional IRA or 401k accounts. But as I’ve talked about a lot here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table in the long-run by not socking away more money into your Roth.
But just go ask any 72 year old you know who has money in their IRA, and ask them how much they love those forced withdrawals every year, how those withdrawals drive their income up, and how much they love paying the taxes on those withdrawals.
My clients gripe about it all the time, but it’s too late for them now. They can’t go back in time and contribute to their Roth, but if you’re still working, you still have options, so be smart and take advantage of those options.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
The theme this week is the backdoor Roth IRA strategy. If you make too much money to qualify to make a Roth contribution in 2019, don’t fret. There is a little-known strategy called the backdoor Roth, that will still allow you to make Roth contributions.
Here’s how it works: You make a non-deductible or after-tax IRA contribution to your Traditional IRA. There aren’t income limits on conversions from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, so you can then turn around and convert that contribution to a Roth. Bam. Done. Take that Uncle Sam!
Today, I’m sharing with you why I chose to do this topic in October - it’s because if you’re going to utilize the Backdoor Roth, the clock is ticking. You only have until the end of the calendar year to make your Backdoor Roth conversion, so if you haven’t yet talked to your tax advisor to see if this strategy makes sense for you, what are you waiting for?
You should consider the Backdoor Roth Strategy if:
- You don’t have access to a Roth through your 401k plan
- You make too much money to qualify for a Roth IRA contribution in 2019
- Your pre-tax IRA account balances are low. This is important because you could owe taxes on the amount you convert to a Roth if you already have a lot of money socked away in an IRA account.
So do your homework, talk with your tax advisor, see if this strategy makes sense for you. But do it now, and don’t procrastinate, because if you wait until the end of the year, you could miss the opportunity to do a backdoor Roth contribution for 2019, and will have to wait until next year.
Your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make. You want to get it right. Well, so do I. For the last 12 years, I’ve been helping clients just like you make the transition into retirement. If you want to talk one-on-one with me about whether or not you can retire, head on over to truenorthra.com, where you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you. The call is confidential, free, and I promise to help guide you on whatever is weighing most on your mind right now regarding your retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call today.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
The theme this week is the backdoor Roth IRA strategy. If you make too much money to qualify to make a Roth contribution in 2019, don’t fret. There is a little-known strategy called the backdoor Roth, that will still allow you to make Roth contributions.
Here’s how it works: You make a non-deductible or after-tax IRA contribution to your Traditional IRA. There aren’t income limits on conversions from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, so you can then turn around and convert that contribution to a Roth. Bam. Done. Take that Uncle Sam!
2 important things I need to point out here, and it’s important that you understand this, because there are a couple of circumstances where you could still owe a substantial amount of taxes by using the backdoor Roth:
- Pro rata rule - when you report the Roth conversion on your taxes, you’ll also need to include the total value of your IRA accounts, like SEP IRAs and Traditional IRAs, because this total value of existing IRA assets that you have is used to calculate the taxes on the amount you convert. Keep in mind that 401k balances aren’t included in this. The bottom line here is that if you have a lot of money in tax-deferred IRA accounts, you could be faced with a tax bill on the amount you convert to a Roth, so be sure to run this strategy by your tax advisor before you pull the trigger, so they can estimate what that tax hit might be for you.
- Taxes on gains - if you invest the money you contribute to your IRA before converting it to a Roth and it grows in value, you could also pay capital gains taxes on the amount you convert, so you may want to consider just leaving any IRA contributions in cash before you convert to the Roth, to keep any gains to a minimum.
The takeaway here is that a Backdoor Roth is worthwhile if your income is too high to qualify for the Roth, but as always, the rules can get a little complicated, so check with your tax advisor to make sure you don’t have any surprises come tax time next year.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week,
I’m talking about how you can still qualify for a Roth IRA, even if your income is too high.
Alright, you ready for this? You ready for your mind to be blown? If you’ve been told for years that you make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA, there is a little, perfectly legal loophole that allows you to still contribute to a Roth, and it’s called a backdoor Roth IRA.
So this week, I’m sneaking you in the backdoor, and we’re talking about how you can take advantage of the backdoor Roth IRA strategy if your income is over the threshold to qualify for Roth IRA contributions in 2019.
Most people mistakenly believe that if your income is higher than these thresholds that the Roth IRA is a no-go. But that’s not true, because there is a perfectly legal way for you to still contribute up to $7,000 to a Roth IRA in 2019 if you’re over 50, regardless of your income. And I’ll even share with you how you can utilize the mega backdoor Roth IRA to get even more money into your Roth for 2019!
So if you make more than $122,000 in 2019, and you’re single, or you’re married and your income is higher than $193,000 in 2019, pay close attention this week.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, Roth IRA, roth ira income limits, backdoor roth ira, roth ira income limits 2019, modified adjusted gross income, ira contribution deadline, ira rule, roth conversion, backdoor roth conversion, roth conversion deadline, backdoor roth ira conversion, backdoor roth ira conversion deadline, magi limit, backdoor roth limit, 401k limits 2019
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Why I don’t think a recession is looming.
I got my beloved magic 8 ball out to tell you why I think a lot of the recession rumors out there right now are based more on sensationalism than actual data, and why I’m still positive about the direction of the economy and hence, the stock market.
If you listened on Monday, you heard loud and clear that the magic 8 ball said “my reply is no” about the looming recession. Let’s see what she has to say today… “Ask again later”
Well there you have it.
In all seriousness, hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you will be less likely to freak out the next time you watch the major news networks parade out some doom-and-gloom talking head who is convinced that we are already in the midst of the next recession.
As I pointed out in my daily tips this week, a lot of the data out there right now suggests otherwise.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- 2 important economic indicators to watch
- How to interpret the yield curve
- Trump and tariffs - everybody’s favorite and most agreeable topic!
- Jobs data remains positive
- Corporate profits are beating expectations
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme, “Why High Income Earners Should Utilize the Backdoor Roth”. If you make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA, you’ll want to come back next week where I cover the nuances of the backdoor Roth and what you need to know to determine if this is something you should consider for 2019.
And time is running out, because you only have until the end of the calendar year to do a backdoor Roth for 2019.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
This week, I’m getting my beloved crystal ball out to tell you why I think a lot of the recession rumors out there right now are based more on sensationalism than actual data, and why I’m still positive about the direction of the economy and hence, the stock market.
Today, I want to turn to corporate profits, particularly the profits of the companies in the S&P 500, to look under the hood of the state of the economy.
The companies in the S&P 500 are the largest, publicly held businesses in the United States. They make up pretty much every household name across every industry.
The profits of these businesses provide an excellent window into where we are in this economic cycle, and importantly, S&P 500 company profits have a strong influence on stock prices and hence, your retirement portfolio.
Overall, S&P 500 profits are still strong, but there are a few weak points: Companies with exposure to China and tariffs have been struggling, and certain industries like pharmaceuticals, materials, and industrials are struggling.
Companies is the S&P 500 are just about done reporting their profits for the 2nd quarter of 2019, as I’m collecting this data. Profits for these companies is up about 5% year over year and 72% of companies have beaten the expectations on earnings estimates, according to JP Morgan Asset Management.
While not every big business is hitting it out of the park this year, most are still growing strong, which is a good sign that the economy is likely not yet near the cliff of the next recession.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
This week, I’m talking about “why I don’t think a recession is looming.” Ok, I realize that I don’t have a crystal ball, but I seldom talk to a client these days who isn’t worried about the state of the economy and their investment portfolio. Despite double digit returns in the stock and bond markets in the first 3 quarters of 2019, investors out there are just downright scared.
So we gotta tackle this head on and talk about what is going on in the world right now - what’s driving the economy and the stock market, and take an honest look at where we might go from here.
Earlier this week, I talked about a couple of leading economic indicators that are worth paying attention to because they are strong predictors of the direction of the economy - housing starts and consumer sentiment.
Today & tomorrow, I’m talking about 2 more reasons to continue to stay positive about the economy - jobs and corporate profits.
The jobs data is still positive. According to Confluence Investment Management, a money manager that I closely follow, “The labor market data suggests a recession isn’t imminent, meaning investors should avoid becoming overly defensive at this juncture.”
So why are jobs relevant for the state of the economy? The creation of new jobs signals business are hiring and are still positive about the future. Large and small businesses alike are usually very cautious about bringing on new employees and will only do so if they are positive that the new people brought on will fuel further growth, rather than cause a cash crunch if the economy slows.
In addition, wages are growing and the unemployment rate remains shockingly low at 3.7% which is just about the lowest it’s been over the last 50 years.
So, keep an eye on how the jobs data changes over time. Job growth has slowed this year, but that’s mostly because businesses are running out of people to hire.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
This week, I’m getting my beloved crystal ball out to tell you why I think a lot of the recession rumors out there right now are based more on sensationalism than actual data, and why I’m still positive about the direction of the economy and hence, the stock market.
Today, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite topic - Trump! No matter how you feel about Trump, his twitter feed, for the last several months, he’s been putting on his Apprentice hat, and telling China “You’re Fired”.
You’re fired”
Oh geez...do you know how long I practiced that for. I think I threw a little too much Jersey in there.
Ok, enough with that. What am I really talking about here? Trump and the trade negotiations with China.
Here’s why I don’t think it matters all that much for the direction of the economy, and why you may want to dismiss most of the news hype around it…
Despite potential cost increases for the things that you buy that are made in China, according to the Tax Foundation, the nation’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit, “the tariffs planned and imposed so far by the Trump administration would reduce long-run GDP by 0.25 percent...If the Trump administration acts on threats to place new tariffs on automobiles and parts and additional tariffs on products from China, GDP would fall by an additional 0.32 percent.”
So just over a ½ % drop in our GDP, not exactly enough to push us into a recession or kill all of our jobs. Really, the trade war is much more about politics than it is about the overall economy, which is why it’s unlikely to have the predicted impact of your retirement portfolio that the news media claims it will have.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
This week, I’m getting my beloved crystal ball out to tell you why I think a lot of the recession rumors out there right now are based more on sensationalism than actual data, and why I’m still positive about the direction of the economy and hence, the stock market.
Today, let’s talk about inverted yield curves. Yikes, that sounds like some crazy health contraption, but it’s a real thing, and historically has been a strong predictor of a looming recession, which is why the recent inversion of the yield curve has all the talking heads on TV freaking out!
Let’s back up for a minute so I can share with you what an inverted yield curve is, and why it matters. Under normal circumstances, longer-term yields on bonds are higher than shorter term yields. Think about it this way - let’s say you go down to the bank wanting to buy a Certificate of Deposit aka a CD. They tell you that you can buy a 6 month CD, a 1 year CD, or a 5 year CD. You would expect that the 6 month CD would pay you the lowest yield, maybe 1%, the 1 year CD would pay a little bit more, say 2%, and the 5-year CD would pay you the highest yield, to reward you for tying up your money for so much longer.
But when the yield curve inverts, that means that shorter-term yields pay you more than longer term yields, so the 1 year CD is now paying a higher yield than the 5 year CD. It makes no sense! Why would you tie up your money for 5 years and receive a lower return than tying up your money for 1 year?
Well. it’s all about future expectations. If I expect the economy to get worse over the next couple years and inflation to stay low, I’m going to demand more yield for shorter-term bonds, and buy longer-term bonds. When I do this, along with everyone else, the demand for longer-term bonds go up, prices go up, yields go down, and the yield curve inverts.
When the yield curve of the 2 year and 10 year treasury inverts, that’s predicted every recession since 1955. So that perfect batting average has everyone worried. But the key here is that once the yield curve inverts, it took an average of 18 months for the recession to hit, and it could be as long as 3 years based on history. So it’s not like the recession is looming when the curve inverts.
So I wouldn’t batten down the hatches just yet.
If you’re getting close to retirement, you’re probably concerned about how your retirement portfolio will fare in the next recession. Your retirement is perhaps the most important financial decision you’ll ever make. You want to get it right. Well at my business, True North Retirement Advisors, so do we. If you head on over to truenorthra.com, you can book a 15 minute call with me, at a time that’s convenient for you to talk about right there on on our homepage. I’d love to help you on your journey to a financially secure retirement. So head on over to truenorthra.com and book a call.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
The theme this week is “why I don’t think a recession is looming.”
I seldom talk to a client these days who isn’t worried about the state of the economy and their investment portfolio. Despite double digit returns in the stock and bond markets in the first 3 quarters of 2019, investors out there are just downright scared.
So we gotta tackle this head on and talk about what is going on in the world right now - what’s driving the economy and the stock market, and take an honest look at where we might go from here.
Today, I’m covering 2 important leading economic indicators to watch. Keeping a pulse on the leading indicators can be helpful for understanding when we’re getting close to the edge, and when the economy might fall over the edge into the next recession.
Focusing on leading indicators is important because these types of indicators are more reliable for signalling an approaching recession, compared to a lagging indicator which might point to a recession, but because it’s lagging it may not signal a recession until we’re several months into one, making it a poor forecaster. So we want to focus on leading indicators.
There are plenty of leading economic indicators to follow, but today I’m sharing with you 2 indicators that I follow closely. They are also relatively easy to understand - you don’t have to be a professional investor or an economist to track these.
Leading indicator #1 - Housing starts. I like this one because it’s well-followed, and housing starts data is released monthly, along with building permits. Builders don’t start building homes unless they’re confident that the house will sell quickly. Based on the data from August 2019, housing starts reached their highest level in over 12 years - 1.36 million. On the other hand, an extended drop in housing starts has been a reliable predictor of a recession since the 1960s, so this is an important one to pay attention to.
Leading indicator #2 - Consumer Sentiment Index. The University of Michigan publishes a consumer sentiment index each month. It gauges how the average person is feeling about the future. Consumer activity represents the vast majority of our GDP, and when the consumer feels good about the future, they tend to spend, borrow, and generally continue to drive the economy higher. Readings above 90 are considered very positive for the economy, while readings below 70 signal the consumer is nervous and is bad news for the economy. The September 2019 reading came in at 92.
The takeaway here is that if you’re concerned about the direction of the economy and where we currently are in the economic cycle, pay closer attention to leading economic indicators, like these 2, and focus less on the crisis de jour.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m getting my beloved crystal ball out to tell you why I think a lot of the recession rumors out there right now are based more on sensationalism than actual data, and why I’m still positive about the direction of the economy and hence, the stock market.
I seldom talk to a client these days who isn’t worried about the state of the economy and their investment portfolio. Despite double digit returns in the stock and bond markets in the first 3 quarters of 2019, investors out there are just downright scared.
So we gotta tackle this head on and talk about what is going on in the world right now - what’s driving the economy and the stock market, and take an honest look at where we might go from here.
And that’s exactly what I’m doing this week. I’ll be covering Trump’s trade beef with China, inverted yield curves, leading indicators to watch, and much more. We’ll take a rational look at these events and how they might impact your retirement portfolio.
Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in with a primer of those important indicators that give us some idea of the direction the economy is heading.
But before I end today, I have a confession to make. I don’t actually own a crystal ball, nor am I full of hot air enough to actually think I know what’s going to happen 2, 4, or 6 months from now. Heck, even tomorrow is just a guess. The best I or anyone else can do is try to understand the drivers of the market and the economy and make an educated guess about reality. Keep in mind that even the so-called experts get it wrong all the time.
If it’s any consolation I do own a magic 8 ball. I consulted it before I started recording. I asked her if a recession is looming, and she’s such a hunk of junk that it took 5 shakes to make out a reply, but alas, here’s what she said: “My reply is no”. So there you have it. The magic 8 ball agrees with me.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, recession, economy, US economy, leading economic indicators, economic indicators, recession 2019, recession 2020, yield curve, inverted yield curve, inverted yield curve history, yield curve inversion, interest rates, bond yields, trade war, trump tariffs, us trade war, trump china, china trade war, us jobs report, wage growth, s&p 500 earnings, s&p 500 companies, earnings growth, stock market earnings
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: 5 Beneficiary Mistakes To Avoid
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are motivated to take action in reviewing your beneficiaries. It’s one of the most important things you can do to keep your estate plan and your wishes up to date, especially after important life changes.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- Beneficiary Mistake #1 - Assuming Your Will Has You Covered
- Mistake #2 - Failing To Review After Life Changes
- Mistake #3 - Leaving Out Contingents
- Mistake #4 - Not Understanding The Beneficiary Pathway
- Mistake #5 - Not Coordinating Beneficiaries With Other Estate Planning Documents
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme, and thankfully for all of you, I’m moving away from talking about you impending demise, to something a bit lighter.
Next week, I’m getting my crystal ball out, and I’m going to talk about why you should still be positive about the direction of the economy and your investment portfolio. There is a lot of negative news out there right now about the markets and the economy, yet the reality is, there are plenty of reasons to remain positive and not panic.
I have conversations with clients about this all day, every day, so next week I’ll share with you my thoughts on the current state of things, and why I’m not running for the exits!
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
This week I’m sharing with you 5 beneficiary mistakes to avoid. If you’re like most people, you probably set up your beneficiaries on your IRA and 401k accounts 2 decades ago, and you haven’t revisited them since. So this week, I’m sharing with you the mistakes that I see people make most often and how you can avoid those same mistakes.
Today, I’m talking about beneficiary mistake #5 - Not coordinating your beneficiaries with your other estate planning documents.
If you’ve been listening to the other tips this week, hopefully by now you appreciate the importance of thoughtfully choosing and frequently reviewing your beneficiary designations.
But there’s one extra step to this process that is so essential, yet rarely done. For most people - out of laziness or of wanting to save a few bucks - they don’t take the time to coordinate their benes with all of their other estate planning documents.
The best piece of advice I can give you this week is this: Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Take the time to meet with your estate attorney and coordinate all of your beneficiaries with your overall estate plan.
Yes, this will cost you money, but what will it cost you if you don’t do this? You could potentially cost your heirs hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, depending on the size of your estate, in unnecessary taxes and lost growth by making mistakes that I’ve laid out for you this week.
Not to mention the resentment,anger, and most importantly, potential loss of financial resources for loved ones who were left out, which could happen if your assets aren’t trasnfered appropriately based on your intentions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
This week I’m sharing with you 5 beneficiary mistakes to avoid. If you’re like most people, you probably set up your beneficiaries on your IRA and 401k accounts 2 decades ago, and you haven’t revisited them since. So this week, I’m sharing with you the mistakes that I see people make most often and how you can avoid those same mistakes.
Today, I’m talking about beneficiary mistake #4 - not understanding the beneficiary pathway. This is probably the least understood mistake that I’m covering this week, so I’m going to try to explain this the best way I can.
Let’s say that you have worked hard and saved a lot over the years, and you now have $1 million dollars in your IRA account. You have 4 children and 13 grandchildren. You have named your 4 children primary beneficiaries, each with a 25% share. But let's say one of your children dies.
Should their 25% share get distributed to their children, or should your 3 remaining children receive equal ⅓ shares, effectively locking out the children of your deceased child from receiving any share of your IRA.
What I am talking about here is the difference between per stirpes and per capita beneficiary designations on your accounts, and if you haven’t taken the time to specify which you prefer - assets transfer to remaining beneficiaries or the heirs of the deceased beneficiary, your assets could transfer in a way that’s different than your actual intentions when you die.
So take the time to review your beneficiaries and determine which pathway you want your beneficiary designations to take - per stirpes or per capita. The good news is that you don’t have to understand how to do all of this yourself. Your financial advisor and especially your estate planning attorney can help you set up your beneficiaries in a way that’s consistent with the ideal pathway of how you want your assets to transfer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
This week I’m sharing with you 5 beneficiary mistakes to avoid. If you’re like most people, you probably set up your beneficiaries on your IRA and 401k accounts 2 decades ago, and you haven’t revisited them since. So this week, I’m sharing with you the mistakes that I see people make most often and how you can avoid those same mistakes.
Today, I’m talking about beneficiary mistake #3 - Leaving out contingent beneficiaries.
A contingent beneficiary is someone whom you would list as a “just in case” or backup beneficiary. If you just list one person as your primary beneficiary and both of you die at the same time in a fiery plane crash (I know, so pleasant to think about, right?) how will the court or your heirs know what your plans were with those assets?
Or maybe the primary beneficiary dies before you but you forget to update your beneficiaries, or maybe that person is in the witness protection program and can’t be located...whatever it is, there are plenty of scenarios where just naming a sole primary beneficiary could be problematic, so it’s important to add contingents, or backups, as well.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
This week I’m sharing with you 5 beneficiary mistakes to avoid. If you’re like most people, you probably set up your beneficiaries on your IRA and 401k accounts 2 decades ago, and you haven’t revisited them since. So this week, I’m sharing with you the mistakes that I see people make most often and how you can avoid those same mistakes.
Today, I’m talking about beneficiary mistake #2 - Failing to review your beneficiaries after major life changes I’ve heard horror stories of the ex-spouse who received all the assets, while the current spouse was left with nothing, all because beneficiaries weren’t reviewed and updated after the divorce and remarriage.
There are a lot of trigger events that should prompt reviews of your beneficiaries. I actually talked about the 7 Trigger Events That Should Prompt An Estate Plan Review in episode 332 of the podcast, so check out that episode on iTunes or Spotify if you missed it, but today, I just want to cover the most important ones that should prompt a review of your benes.
- Death - this is the biggest one. Be sure to update your beneficiary forms right away if one of your beenficiaries dies, so there’s no confusion about your intentions.
- Divorce - As I stated earlier, this can be a big surprise for your intended heirs or future spouse. According to Investopedia “unless a court order states otherwise, the former spouse is likely be entitled to receive the assets if he or she is the named beneficiary on record at the time of the IRA owner's death.” Yikes.
- Remarriage - If you’ve been divorced and subsequently re-marry, you’ll want to update your beenficiary forms if you want to ensure your new spouse receives your intended share of those assets.
- Birth - When you have children or grandchildren or at the birth of anyone else you want to include as a beneficiary, it’s important to update your beneficiary forms at that time as well.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
This week’s theme is 5 beneficiary mistakes to avoid. If you’re like most people, you probably set up your beneficiaries on your IRA and 401k accounts 2 decades ago, and haven’t spent much time revisiting them (let’s be honest...you have no idea who’s on there). But that’s ok, because this week, I’m sharing with you beneficiary mistakes that I see clients make and how you can avoid them. You just need to dig up the information and take the time to review it. This week is dedicated to helping you with that process.
Today, I’m talking about the most common beneficiary mistake that I see: assuming that your will has you covered.
Or worse, naming your estate as your beneficiary. While researching this week’s topic, I came across an article on bankrate.com, which I will link to in the show notes, that said naming your estate as a beneficiary can be the “biggest blunder of all”.
Why? Because current laws allow beneficiaries to stretch the distributions on IRA and 401k accounts. This is especially helpful for your children, since they can elect to take distributions slowly over time, rather than be forced to take the money out of your IRA all at once.
The immediate tax bite of naming your estate as beneficiary in this situation, coupled with the loss of continued growth for your heirs is a double whammy mistake!
The takeaway here is to take the time to carefully consider who you want your beneficiaries to be, and actually take the opportunity to name them as beneficiaries.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about 5 beneficiary mistakes to avoid on your accounts. What will happen to your IRA account or that insurance policy you purchased 20 years ago.
If you’re not careful about setting up your beneficiaries, or worse, you’ve set up your beneficiaries on your accounts all wrong, your spouse and your family could be left with some unfortunate surprises if you’ve made mistakes with the beneficiaries on your accounts.
Mistakes made on your beneficiary forms could be costly for your loved ones, causing your assets to be split in unintended ways, or causing your heirs to pay more taxes than they need to. So this week I’m covering 5 beneficiary mistakes that I see over and over again, and now you can avoid these mistakes.
The good news is that beneficiary mistakes are easily rectified if you discover and correct them. My goal for this week is that you better understand what you need to do to review and update your beneficiaries, and keep this top of mind when life’s events should prompt you to make changes.
Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in with the most common beneficiary mistake that I see with my own clients.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, beneficiary designation vs will, ira beneficiary designation rules, bank account beneficiary vs will, IRA beneficiary, what is an IRA, inherited annuity, life insurance beneficiary, beneficiaries, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation, beneficiary form, secondary beneficiary, beneficiary insurance definition, 401k beneficiary, 401k beneficiary rules surviving spouse, 401k beneficiary designation rules, 401k contingent beneficiary, spousal 401k
This week’s theme is: smart women retire rich. Here’s the reality: Women tend to outlive their husbands and they are already inheriting money at staggering rates. Women who are single later in life, through choice, divorce, or widowhood have a lot of important decisions to make about money.
So this week, I’m focusing on some core principles for women when it comes to managing money.
Today, I want to talk about something that can sometimes happen when married couples work with a financial advisor - and that is that the relationship can seem unbalanced.
Let’s assume that you’re married and your husband is the primary financial decision maker. Your advisor very quickly gets used to the relationship he or she has with your spouse - calling them, emailing them, coordinating meetings with them, etc.. And occasionally, unless the advisor is hyper-aware to pay attention to you, you may end up feeling ignored.
First of all, unless your advisor is a total jerk and doesn’t even recognize that you’re in the room, this behavior is normal. Speaking from the advisor’s side of the table, keeping the relationship balanced for the advisor is really quite challenging when most of my contact is with one of the spouses. When I call to review the portfolio or discuss harvesting tax losses at the end of the year, I will usually just talk to the same spouse each time.
But when an advisor meets with you, make sure that they’re considering the needs of you as a couple and treating you both equally. If you’re not being heard or considered in the conversation, it’s important that you bring it up. It’s also important that you make a concerted effort to build a relationship with your advisor. Make sure that you know, like, and trust your advisor just as much as your spouse does.
Considering there’s a good chance you’ll be working with this advisor on your own, you’ll want to establish a trusting relationship with them.
The last thing you want to have happen if your spouse dies, is to be dealing with an advisor who doesn’t really know you or hasn’t taken the time to establish any kind of relationship with you. You may go looking for a new advisor when that happens, but it’s a bad idea. Most new widows are prone to make emotional and foggy decisions that could later come back to bite them, so you want to make sure that your advisor in that situation is someone you know well, like, respect, and trust.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, women and money, women investing
This week’s theme is: smart women retire rich. Here’s the reality: Women tend to outlive their husbands and they are already inheriting money at staggering rates. Women who are single later in life, through choice, divorce, or widowhood have a lot of important choices to make about money.
So this week, I’m focusing on some core principles for women when it comes to managing money.
Today, I’m talking about why women are inheriting all the money.
According to research from RBC Wealth Management, By 2020, women are expected to control $72 trillion, 32% of all wealth and up from $51 trillion in 2015. In addition, about half of high net worth millennial women (those with $5 million or more in assets) have received part of their net worth through inheritance.
There is a large wealth transfer happening in the United States, and women tend to receive inheritances from their parents or grandparents, and then they tend to outlive their husbands, so especially later in life, women end up with sizable sums of money their often handling on their own.
Another interesting finding from the research by RBC is that “36% of women who have inherited wealth received no guidance at all”.
So what’s the takeaway here? Understand that through either inheritance, death of a spouse, or both, if you are a woman, you will likely be left to manage your finances at some point in your life, and it’s important to educate yourself and prepare for that wealth transfer now.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, women and money, women investing
This week’s theme is: smart women retire rich, where I’m focusing on some core principles for women when it comes to managing money.
Today is a continuation of yesterday’s topic where I focused on the likely reality that married women will be the sole decision-maker of their household finances at some point in retirement - either through necessity, divorce, or widowhood.
Yet, I find that most married women still aren’t as involved as they could be in the family’s financial decisions. If that sounds like you, today’s tip is aimed at helping you take a more proactive approach with your family’s money decisions.
Here are 3 things you can do to better understand finances and investing:
- Take an interest to understand the basics.
You don’t need to know what an inverted yield curve means for the bond markets and the economy, but you should have a good working knowledge of your household finances - money coming in and where the money goes every month, a solid grasp of your assets, debt, insurance policies, bank accounts, net worth, etc. A basic understanding of taxes, investment principles, and various account types like IRAs and trust accounts. There are plenty of personal finance 101 books that can help you develop a well-rounded understanding of money and investing, and it would be well-worth your time to read a well-written book on the topic.
- Ask questions
As humans, we have such fragile egos and we hate to look dumb. So as a result, we often don’t ask questions when we should when we don’t understand something. But I would suggest developing a curiosity about personal finance and investing. Ask questions. And if you don’t want to look stupid, well then, google search is your best friend...Hey Siri - what is a money market fund?
Rest assured that Siri won’t think any less of you of your intelligence for asking basic questions.
- Make joint decisions with your spouse
I know this is probably going to sound crazy to you, because I have a podcast about money and investing and I do this for a living, but my husband is the primary decision-maker in our household when it comes to money. He is a gifted CPA and is more than capable of making financial decisions. I decide how we invest our money and he does all the personal finance stuff like our household budgeting, paying the bills, and doing our taxes. But just because he handles much of the day-to-day decisions, doesn’t mean that we don’t discuss major financial decisions together. So I encourage you to have a deeper level of communication with your spouse, if you aren’t heavily involved currently with your household finances. It can help your overall communication as a couple, and will help you keep a better pulse on what is happening with your family’s finances.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, women and money, women investing
This week’s theme is: smart women retire rich. Here’s the reality: Women tend to outlive their husbands and they are already inheriting money at staggering rates. Women who are single later in life, through choice, divorce, or widowhood have a lot of important choices to make about money.
So this week, I’m focusing on some core principles for women when it comes to managing money.
Yesterday I talked about how feminine qualities that most women possess actually set us up to be very savvy investors...dare I say better than the menfolk.
Today, I’m talking about why you should count on managing your finances and investments on your own someday: most married women will outlive their husbands.
In fact, according to the US census bureau, 80% of wives will outlive their husbands. On average, women outlive men by about 5-6 years.
The problem with this when it comes to your finances as a couple is pretty clear: in practice with my own clients, I would estimate that for the vast majority of my married clients, the husband is the primary contact when it comes to the couple’s finances and investments, and he is also the primary and often the sole decision-maker. In many cases, the wife really doesn’t have an interest in being involved and prefers to outsource the money management in the relationship to the husband.
But as we’ve seen today, when the money decisions are shifted too far in the direction of the husband, women are often thrust into managing their money completely on their own with very little experience making important money decisions.
And to make matters worse, many women also end up making financial decisions for the family if their husband becomes incapacitated due to dementia or Alzheimer's or some other health issue. Not exactly an ideal time to learn how to manage money when you have the additional stress of caring for your spouse.
But there is hope, and all it requires is being a little more proactive and involved when it comes to the money decisions in your household. My goal for today is to confront my married women listeners of the likelihood that you will outlive your husband. Tomorrow, I’m going to continue on this topic by talking about 3 things that every woman can do to better understand money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, women and money, women investing
This week’s theme is smart women retire rich. It’s a week devoted to some important information that women need to know about managing money and finances.
So many women go through life with little to no involvement with the household finances, especially your investments. But, at some point, either because of divorce (which is now skyrocketing for couples later in life) or widowhood, there is a high probability that you will be thrust into managing your household finances.
This can be scary, so I’m giving you a few principles and some action steps you can take today to prepare yourself for this very real and likely possibility.
Today’s tip might offend some of you male listeners, but that’s ok because I’m just preaching the truth.
Women are actually naturally wired to be better at investing than men. Here’s what I mean by that. When it comes to investing, women tend to be more patient, long-term oriented, and more risk-averse. Several studies back up the gender differences between men and women, finding that men tend to trade more frequently, be more short-term in their thinking and expectations and are willing to roll the dice more.
And sorry guys, but these differences in traits leads to a significant outperformance by women over men in the stock market. In fact, a study done by Fidelity Investments found that women outperform men by about .4% per year. This may not sound like a lot, but when you attach real dollars to this over a lifetime, Jane is kicking your butt by several hundred thousand dollars.
Of course, there are plenty of men who are amazingly talented investors. And men are more well-known for investing, not because they are better at it - the studies point to the opposite - but simply because men are more likely to just be investors in the first place.
But I think women underestimate their natural abilities and qualities when it comes to managing their money, and it’s time that that changed. So if you are a woman who lacks confidence in your financial and investing prowess, take heart. We naturally possess many important qualities that set us up to be successful investors.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you have already left a review.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, women and money, women investing
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about Smart Women Retire Rich. I’m sure I just totally ripped off a book title there...But here’s the reality. Women tend to outlive their husbands and they are already inheriting money at staggering rates. Women who are single later in life, through choice, divorce, or widowhood have a lot of important choices to make about money.
So this week, I’m focusing on some core principles for women when it comes to managing money. Hopefully by the end of this week, my female listeners will have more confidence about managing finances and investments, and better appreciate the likelihood that you will be in charge of important financial decisions, especially later in life.
And to my beloved male listeners, you all have women in your life who probably need to hear this message, so stick around with me this week and bring your favorite lady in your life along by encouraging her to listen as well.
Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in and I’m going to tell you some important feminine qualities that actually make women better at investing than men.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast, women and money, women investing
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Estate planning essentials.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you understand that estate planning is vital to ensuring your family is protected after you’re gone, and that your assets are distributed how and when you want.
One other important point about estate planning. Don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish. Find a competent estate planning attorney in your area who will take the time to understand your situation and your needs and draft the necessary documents to ensure that your favorite niece and your favorite dachshund , Morty, are both properly taken care of after you pass from this life. It can be overwhelming to figure out all the necessary documents you need for your specific situation, so I encourage you to seek professional help from a competent and caring estate attorney.
Because I took the time to discuss why you should seek professional help with your estate plan, I don’t have time to get into the specific episode recap.
But...If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: Smart Women Finish Rich. I’m sure I just totally ripped off a book title there...But here’s the reality. Women tend to outlive their husbands and they are already inheriting money at staggering rates. Women who are single later in life, through choice, divorce, or widowhood have to make a lot of important choices, so for my female listeners, I’m going to focus on what you can do to make smart money decisions.
And to my beloved male listeners, you all have women in your life who probably need to hear this message, so stick around with me next week and bring your favorite lady in your life along next week by encouraging her to listen.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials. If you think a will is all you need or that you need to be ultra-wealthy with a complex estate to have all the proper documents in place, think again. Estate planning deals with so much more than divvying up your assets when you die, and it’s an essential way to help ensure that you and your loved ones are taken care of when (not if), but when you die or become incapacitated.
Today, I’m talking about the one thing that almost no one has in place, but its also something you shouldn’t ignore.
The digital estate plan. Have you heard of this? It absolutely blew my mind when I first heard about it a few years ago. It’s so obvious, yet complicated. Think about this: What happens to all of your email accounts, your online banking accounts, social media accounts, that Etsy shop you’re running as a side gig. What happens to all of those digital assets of yours. Perhaps the more important question that the digital estate plan addresses is what SHOULD happen to those assets.
According to an article I read from Everplans while researching this topic, which I’ll link to in the show notes, “Sharing your logins and passwords is essential to the continuity and responsible management of your digital estate.”
In addition, you’ll also want to consider “computers, external hard drives or flash drives, tablets, smartphones, digital music players, e-readers, digital cameras, etc., [and] you'll want to record where those items are located, as well as any passwords that are required to access those devices.”
Link to article >> https://www.everplans.com/articles/digital-cheat-sheet-how-to-create-a-digital-estate-plan
I believe a digital estate plan is already an essential part of the estate planning process, and that it will only become more important as our world becomes increasingly digitized. So do your research, and start thinking about what you want done with all those digital assets that you’re accumulating more and more of, and if necessary, start taking steps to ensure your wishes with everything from your gmail account to the thousands of photos you have stored in the cloud are accessible to the right people or your executor.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials. If you think a will is all you need or that you need to be ultra-wealthy with a complex estate to have all the proper documents in place, think again. Estate planning deals with so much more than divvying up your assets when you die, and it’s an essential way to help ensure that you and your loved ones are taken care of when (not if), but when you die or become incapacitated.
Today, I’m actually going to talk about something I haven’t actually done myself. While it makes me feel quite hypocritical having not done something that I’m suggesting you do, I think it’s important enough for you to have in place, so I’m going to point the finger at myself first, and hopefully I’ll get around to actually doing this sooner rather than later.
What I am talking about is the estate inventory checklist. I think this is a genius idea. It’s a detailed list of all of your assets, important documents, and where to find them, all in one place. What I think works best is some type of binder system where the estate inventory serves as a table of contents, and inside are all of the supporting documents for investment accounts, insurance policies, copies of your will and other estate documents, property holdings, safe deposit box information, etc.
I mean the list can get pretty long depending on your assets and what you own. But think how much easier it will be for your loved ones and your executor to sort through your estate when everything is right there and nicely organized.
I once had a client cash in an insurance policy death benefit years after her father died. She had no idea that her father had this insurance policy and the insurance companies usually aren’t in the habit of combing the obituaries to find policy owners who have died so they can contact the beneficiaries. This wouldn’t have happened if he had a detailed list of his assets and all the things relevant to his estate organized.
I don’t have time to go into the details of everything to include in an estate inventory checklist in today’s tip, but google is your friend here. You can find several good lists online to get you thinking about what you want to include in your personal estate inventory checklist. You might also check with your estate attorney or your financial advisor to see if they have one for you or can help you with this process. Many hands on advisors, like myself, are more than happy to help their clients take inventory.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials. If you think a will is all you need or that you need to be ultra-wealthy with a complex estate to have all the proper documents in place, think again. Estate planning deals with so much more than divvying up your assets when you die, and it’s an essential way to help ensure that you and your loved ones are taken care of when (not if), but when you die or become incapacitated.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I am not an estate planning attorney, nor do I play one on this podcast, and today, I’m moving comfortably back into my wheelhouse to talk about beneficiary designations on your investment accounts. One thing that most people don’t realize about beneficiary designations is that beneficiary forms can override your will. Yes, that’s right...Whoever you put on that beneficiary form for your IRA, 401k, insurance policies, or any other investment account that allows you to name a beneficiary...that’s who is going to receive the assets in that account after you die.
Let me repeat that. The beneficiary designation on that life insurance policy or IRA account of yours, will trump your will. This could be a costly mistake if you’ve named an ex-spouse or someone other than your actual intended beneficiary. So review your beneficiaries and make sure they’re up to date.
The key takeaway here is that you need to make sure that ALL of your estate plan documents are coordinated. And like I already talked about earlier this week, if you’re like most people, you probably haven’t reviewed your estate plan since your sister’s wedding in 1989. So take some time to review all of your estate plan documents, including all beneficiary designations together with your estate planning attorney.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials. If you think a will is all you need or that you need to be ultra-wealthy with a complex estate to have all the proper documents in place, think again.
Hopefully if you listened yesterday where I talked about the importance of a durable power of attorney and advance healthcare directives - both of which have nothing to do with how much money you have - you realize that you don’t need to have a lot of money or a complex estate to concern yourself with estate planning.
Today, I want to focus on probably the biggest issue that I see with clients. I can almost guess what the answer will be before I ask the question, but I’m going to ask it anyways. When was the last time you updated your estate plan?
Think about it? When was the last time you updated your estate plan or your will? I cringe a little inside when I approach the end of this question, because I know what the answer is going to be. Somewhere along the spectrum of “I don’t have a will”, to “not since our kids were little”, to “I can’t remember”. Unfortunately, for most, an estate plan is a one-and-done kind of a thing, but it should never be. It’s always a good idea to review your estate plan every few years, and especially for major trigger events. Here are just a few trigger events that should prompt you to review and potentially update your estate plan:
- Marriage
- Divorce
- Children
- Remarriage and stepchildren
- Move to another state - different states have different laws, so it’s important to review your estate if you move and talk to a local estate attorney who understands the laws in your state
- Major Financial changes - large inheritance or sizable growth in wealth that should prompt you to look at trusts and tax strategies involved with estate planning
- And the biggie - Death. You’ll need to update beneficiaries and usually additional estate planning documents as well should a close family member die.
Tomorrow, I’m going to dive deeper into the beneficiary issue.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials.
If you think a will is all you need, think again. In practice, I find that many people either don’t have a will, or they haven’t updated in 30 years, which was also 4 marriages and 8 stepchildren ago. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating here a little bit, but you get the point. So this week, I’m helping you kick it into gear and take the essential steps necessary to just get the basics done with your estate plan. That usually starts with a will, so today, I’m focusing on a few other vital estate plan documents you’ll want to have completed and updated.
#1 - Durable Power of Attorney - this helps ensure that someone is in place to act on your behalf, if you are no longer able to. I see examples of this all the time with older clients who develop dementia or Altzheimer’s, so it’s critical that you get this in place, especially as you get older. Otherwise things can get messy when it comes to decisions about your affairs and finances.
#2 - Advance Healthcare Directives - also known as a living will - what you will use to provide details about what actions should be taken for your health if you are no longer able to make decisions for yourself because of illness or incapacity. When my husband and I had these drawn up a number of years ago, we discovered that we are polar opposites in this regard. He is like “keep me alive at all costs! I want to be a burden, even if there is no hope!” And I’m like, “oh it’s a paper cut...pull the plug!” It’s possible you’ve even dealt with the pain and guilt of having to guess at what someone’s wishes were when they didn’t have in place, and if not, you probably know someone who had to make difficult decisions for someone who was incapacitated, possibly taking their loved one off life support without the direction of the healthcare directive. It’s very sad. Please don’t put your loved ones in a situation where they will have to play a guessing game with life and death situations.
That’s all I have time for today. I’m going to devote an entire day this week to beneficiary designations, and of course, if you have young kids or a special needs child, you will want to have a few other documents in place as well.
That’s it for today. One last point here, I am not an estate planning attorney and I don’t play one on this podcast. This is not intended to be legal advice, but rather just some useful information to get you moving in the right direction toward putting these things in place.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you who have already left a review.
Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials.
If you think a will is all you need, think again. And if you think you don’t need to worry about an estate plan, because you don’t have enough money, think again. This week is dedicated to helping you take the vital steps to provide for your loved ones financially and help ensure that your wishes for everything from what happens if you become incapacitated to where your beloved pet dachshund, Morty, goes to live after you die...are honored.
So this week, I’m going to share with you other estate planning docs you’ll want to consider besides a will, the important trigger events that you need to know for when to update your estate plan, how to make sure your beneficiaries are consistent with your wishes, the amazing estate inventory list and why you need one, and the one thing that almost no one has in place that shouldn’t be ignored.
It’s a week jam-packed with information that’s too important to miss, so I hope you’ll join me each and every day this week!
Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in with the list of crucial estate planning documents that you’ll want to consider, besides a will.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, estate planning documents checklist, estate planning, estate planning definition, estate planning trusts, estate planning checklist, estate planning attorney, estate planning documents, beneficiary designation, primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, beneficiary designation form, beneficiaries, will, last will, digital estate plan, power of attorney, living will, medical directives, advance healthcare directives
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: 5 timeless lessons Warren Buffett can teach us about investing. The stock and bond markets have been on a wild ride this past month, so I think this was a good week to take a deep breath and look at what the Oracle of Omaha has to teach us about core investment principles, especially when everyone else is running around like Chicken Little!
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you have a better idea of what factors should drive your decisions - whether that’s with picking funds in your 401k or buying individual stocks, or even investing in your cousin’s business.
To recap, here’s what we covered this week:
- Invest in What You Know
- Don’t Overpay
- Greedy When Others Are Fearful. Fearful When Others Are Greedy
- The Trend Isn’t Always Your Friend
- And...The Most Valuable Lesson You Can Learn From Warren Buffett, in my infrequently humble opinion.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow we’re starting a brand new theme: Estate planning essentials. We’ll talk about how and when you should update your will, what you need to know about beneficiaries on your investment accounts, how an estate inventory is a simple and amazing tool for your spouse and heirs, and the one thing that almost no one has in place, that shouldn’t be ignored. So whether you last review your estate plan yesterday or 20 years ago, come on back, because it should be an informative week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
This week, I’m talking about 5 lessons that Warren Buffett can teach us about being successful investors.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest and most successful investor of all time. He is still an active investor today, and luckily for us, he has immortalized his investment acumen through shareholder letters, countless TV interviews, and several books written about him and his investing principles.
Today, I’m cheating a little bit and giving you perhaps the best lesson that Buffet has to offer for you, but it’s not actually about investing in the stock market.
It’s about investing in yourself. Lesson #5 from Warren Buffett, is this statement. He says: “Now, you can improve your value by 50 percent just by learning communication skills-public speaking.”
Interesting. It’s the investment he made in himself in his early 20s to become a better public speaker that he credits much of his success.
Fortunately, for all of us, there are inexpensive ways to become better at speaking and more comfortable.
You could do a daily podcast like me, but since that’s not in the cards for well...all of you I’m sure...YouTube, countless, books, and organizations like Toastmasters to help you.
I was in Toastmasters for about 10 years and I credit much of my confidence on stage speaking (which I do often), in a meeting with a client, speaking off the cuff or remaining calm when being put on the spot to the training I received from Toastmasters.
So I would encourage you to work to improve your public speaking skills, and if you have kids or anyone you mentor at work who is early in their career, tell them that you know the one thing that will increase their value by 50%, and then encourage them to take the steps to banish their fears and improve their skills.
I suspect that with our continued absorption with technology and smartphones, strong communication skills will only become more valuable over time.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
This week, I’m talking about 5 lessons that Warren Buffett can teach us about being successful investors.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest and most successful investor of all time. He is still an active investor today, and luckily for us, he has immortalized his investment acumen through shareholder letters, countless TV interviews, and several books written about him and his investing principles.
Today, I’m giving you lesson #4 from Warren Buffett - The Trend Isn’t Always Your Friend.
It is a well-known fact that Buffet isn’t fond of most technology companies, and was able to largely side-step the dot com bust of the early 2000s because he avoided tech stocks. Even today, he is the rare billionaire who can’t brag about his Silicon Valley startup riches.
Instead, Buffett prefers investing in stocks like Southwest Airlines, Coca Cola, American Express, and even plenty of companies that most of you have never heard of.
What you won’t find in Buffet’s top holdings list are the top 10 must-own stocks of the minute. There are lots of reasons for this, but I think there are 2 that are worthy of discussion:
One is that with technology that is rapidly changing, it’s really hard to pick the winners. It is so disruptive that unless you get in early, it’s rare that investors will stumble upon the next Google or Amazon.
Secondly, Buffett likes to invest in companies that have an economic moat. Think of a castle with a giant moat around it. The moat helps to protect the castle from outside invaders. The problem with a lot of technology companies is that they don’t have a moat around them. Anyone can and everyone tries to replicate their business model, and often with technology companies, that’s easy to do.
Now, let me be clear before I start getting hate emails that I’m not saying that you shouldn’t invest in tech companies. It’s been a great place to be for the most part over the last 20 years as an investor. But Buffett is smart is that he sticks to his guns, and doesn’t just jump on the trends, unless the business meets his criteria. And if it’s too hard for him to sort out the winners and losers and there isn’t a moat - regardless of industry - well then I think he is wise to stay away.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
This week, I’m talking about 5 lessons that Warren Buffett can teach us about being successful investors.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest and most successful investor of all time. He is still an active investor today, and luckily for us, he has immortalized his investment acumen through shareholder letters, countless TV interviews, and several books written about him and his investing principles.
Today, I’m talking about Lesson #3 from Mr. Buffett, which happens to also be the one I must continually remind myself and clients about: “Be greedy when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are greedy”.
This is perhaps Buffett’s most famous quote, and it speaks to how we should think and act during times of heightened emotions in the stock market.
The stock and bond markets have been on a wild ride since May, so I think it’s time to take a deep breath and look at what the Oracle of Omaha can teach us about keeping a cool head, when everyone else is running around like Chicken Little!
Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And he’s not just talking about feelings. He’s challenging us into action. You buy stocks, rebalance your portfolio, add more to your investments when others selling and running for the exits.
On the flipside, when you see signs of euphoria and irrational exuberance, it’s time to cut back, reduce your stock position, and baton down the hatches. You may look like a fool to everyone else, but as C.S. Lewis once said: “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”
Being fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful feels foolish, icky, and idiotic. Your gut is telling you something different and so is everyone else. But when it’s time to put all your chips on the table or take all your chips off, all the signs of the right path are there. You just need to recognize them and be prepared to run away from the cliff.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
This week, I’m talking about 5 lessons that Warren Buffett can teach us about being successful investors.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest and most successful investor of all time. He is still an active investor today, and luckily for us, he has immortalized his investment acumen through shareholder letters, countless TV interviews, and several books written about him and his investing principles.
Today, I’m giving you lesson #2 from Warren Buffett - Don’t Overpay.
On Tuesday of this week, I talked about understanding what you’re going to own before you make a decision to buy. But once you understand what you own, you can’t just buy it at any price. We should only buy an investment if it’s trading at a good price.
I wrote this week’s talking points while on a flight to Denver. I paid only $80 for my one-way ticket to Denver, and was quite pleased with the deal I got. The problem was, I missed my flight. By an entire day! While this situation was stressful, and very out-of-character for me, I went ahead and twisted the knife in the wound by shelling out over $330 for a last minute ticket to Denver.
Now thankfully, I still arrived at my destination on time and with no harm done, other than that done to my wallet.
But think about the difference in ticket price. An airline ticket to the same place, but under different circumstances, that ticket cost as little as $80 or as much as $330.
The same is true for stocks. You want to buy at $80 a share, not a $330. So another aspect of doing your homework is finding out what the company is actually worth. You can do this through research, or pick a money manager that has a good track record of finding and snapping up bargains in stocks. Ideally, you would only invest in companies that are trading for less than their actual worth.
That’s a big reason why Buffett has been so successful...he has an amazing knack for bargain hunting. And while bargain-hunting takes know-how and skill, the takeaway here is to be cautious about how much you pay for any investment. And whatever you do, don’t overpay because you want to get in on the hot stock of 2019 after it’s already up 1000% for the year.
That’s it for today.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
This week, I’m talking about 5 lessons that Warren Buffett can teach us about being successful investors.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest and most successful investor of all time. He is still an active investor today, and luckily for us, has immortalized a lot of his investment acumen through shareholder letters, countless TV interviews, and several books written about him and his investing principles.
Today, I’m sharing with you lesson #1 from Mr. Buffett - Invest in what you know.
Buffett is famous for investing in boring businesses that he understands well. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns part or all of many businesses that are about as exciting as watching paint dry:
Toothpaste & ketchup makers, restaurants, airlines, credit card companies, soft drink makers, & banks.
The takeaway here is that you should not buy a stock unless you understand and can articulate it’s business model. What does this business do? How does it make money? What are some of the potential threats to this business? What are the opportunities? And of course, you must be able to justify the price you pay for the stock, which is the topic of tomorrow’s tip.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about 5 lessons that Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, can teach us about being successful investors.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest and most successful investor of all time. Currently, he is the 3rd richest man in the world, with a staggering net worth of $80 billion. And luckily for us, he’s still giving presentations at his annual shareholder’s meeting, writing letters to his shareholders, and sharing nuggets of wisdom with us on the occasional interview on TV.
So this week, I’m going to share with you 5 timeless lessons that Buffett can teach the average Joe investor about investing.
I’m looking forward to a week filled with insight from one of the most brilliant businessmen on the planet, and I hope you come away from the tips this week informed and able to incorporate at least one little nugget of wisdom on your path to and through retirement.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you who have already left a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, warren buffett, warren buffett net worth, investing principles, warren buffett quotes, berkshire hathaway, value investing, value investing warren buffett
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The Roth. Roth IRAs and Roth 401ks are one of the most googled topics on retirement. But the nuances about these accounts, misunderstandings, and the bad advice commonly dispensed make these powerful retirement savings vehicles often overlooked by Americans.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you have a better idea of whether or not a Roth makes sense for you, and how you can best take advantage of this powerful vehicle for saving for retirement.
To recap, here’s what we covered this week:
- Roth Basics - what the Roth is, what it isn’t, and how the money going in and out is taxed.
- The bad advice about Roth’s that you can and probably should ignore.
- How to determine if a Roth or a Traditional IRA or 401k is right for you
- Why Roths are still a good choice even if you plan to start drawing money from your retirement accounts
- And lastly - the weird quirk about Roth 401ks that you’ll want to watch out for when you turn 70 ½.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: What you can learn from Warren Buffett about investing. The stock and bond markets have been on a wild ride this past month, so I think it’s time to take a deep breath and look at what the Oracle of Omaha can teach us about keeping a cool head, when everyone else is running around like Chicken Little!
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
This week, I’m talking about the Roth. Roth 401ks and Roth IRAs are one of the most googled topics on retirement.
What’s interesting, though, is that in practice, I find that not enough people take advantage of the Roth. So the aim of this week’s tips is to help you better understand why the Roth is a compelling choice, especially in those last few years as you approach retirement.
As we wind down the week, I want to pass on a little quirk about Roth 401ks specifically that you’ll want to be mindful of, especially in retirement.
Part of the majestic beauty of the Roth is that there are no required minimum distributions when you turn 70 ½. When you turn 70 ½, you must start withdrawing money from your Traditional IRA and 401k accounts, which is kind of a drag, since these withdraws are included in your income and you’ll pay tax on those withdrawals.
However, the fact that that there are no required minimum distributions or RMDs mandated from Roth accounts is only partially true.
While Roth IRAs don’t have forced withdrawals at age 70 ½, Roth 401ks do have those required minimum distributions.
So the takeaway here is that you’ll most likely want to rollover your Roth 401k into a Roth IRA before those required minimum distributions begin at age 70 ½, so you allow the value of the Roth to continue to grow, without being hamstrung by annual withdrawals.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
This week, I’m talking about the Roth. Roth 401ks and Roth IRAs are one of the most googled topics on retirement.
What’s interesting, though, is that in practice, I find that not enough people take advantage of the Roth. So the aim of this week’s tips is to help you better understand why the Roth is a compelling choice, especially in those last few years as you approach retirement.
One reason for the lack of participation in the Roth, at least in my experience, is that people approaching retirement don’t want to contribute to a Roth if they are going to retire in the next few years, since they’ll have to turn around and start withdrawing money from their retirement accounts.
But when you consider that often the most tax-efficient approach to taking money out of your investment portfolio in retirement is to save those withdrawals from your Roth for last, there’s a good chance that you may not tap into your Roth for 10, 20, or 30 more years, if ever.
So even if you are close to retirement, don’t brush off the idea of contributing to this account, since you may not ever touch it, unless you run out of money in your other investment accounts first.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
This week, I’m talking about the Roth. Roth 401ks and Roth IRAs are one of the most googled topics on retirement.
What’s interesting, though, is that in practice, I find that not enough people take advantage of the Roth. So the aim of this week’s tips is to help you better understand why the Roth is a compelling choice, especially in those last few years as you approach retirement.
Yesterday, I told you what 2 pieces of garbage advice about the Roth you can ignore. Today, I’m talking about how to determine which option is best for you - a Traditional IRA or 401k or a Roth IRA or 401k.
The Roth IRA was established by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, so with a little over 20 years of history now, more data is available on the benefits of the Roth, compared to the Traditional IRA or 401k.
More history means that we have more evidence to suggest that Roths are a good choice for at least part of your retirement assets. One study done a few years ago looked at the Roth 401k vs. Traditional 401k contributions. They ran thousands of different scenarios and the conclusion that they came to is that most people would be better off contributing to BOTH a traditional 401k and a Roth 401k.
But guess what, every single dollar that your employer puts in to your plan through matching and profit sharing contributions is pre-tax dollars. So the only way you can get money into your Roth bucket when you utilize it through your 401k, is by contributing to the Roth from your own paycheck.
So the moral of the story is that with different tax treatments and the power of the tax-free growth that the Roth offers, it should be a component of your retirement portfolio.
You can contribute to a Roth IRA if you qualify, or a Roth 401k if your company offers that option. And since most people end up with a sizable about of Traditional IRA and 401k assets by the time they reach retirement, it makes a lot of sense to load up on those Roth contributions while you still can.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about why you still want to look at the Roth, even if retirement is near.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
This week, I’m talking about the Roth. Roth 401ks and Roth IRAs are one of the most googled topics on retirement. And the advice out there is always this wishy-washy garbage that always hinges on whether or not taxes will be higher or lower in the future.
Excuse me, but how many of you out there know if taxes will be higher or lower in retirement? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Most people can’t even tell you what their tax situation will look like this year because of all the recent tax changes, courtesy of President Trump.
Go ask your CPA what they think taxes will be in 5 years...good luck getting them not to laugh.
The conventional garbage advice also follows that if you’re in a higher tax bracket, you should maximize your Traditional 401k and not contribute to your Roth because when you contribute to a Roth, you don’t get a tax deduction.
So why would you want to contribute to a Roth?
Because, you are...never...taxed...on...that...money...again.
If you get anything out of this week’s tips, I hope it’s this - don’t listen to the advice about Roths that require you to get your crystal ball out to predict future tax rates. And don’t fall into the trap of trading in a tax deduction this year for the future long-term tax benefits of the tax-free growth and withdrawals that come with the Roth.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
This week, I’m talking about the Roth. Depending on your income and what’s offered through your 401k plan at work, you’ll want to take a serious look at the Roth IRA or the Roth 401k.
What’s interesting, though, is that in practice, I find that not enough people take advantage of the Roth. There are deep misunderstandings and plenty of bad advice about the Roth.
So this week, I’m going to do my best to help you better understand why the Roth is a compelling choice, especially in those last few years as you approach retirement.
Today, I’m giving you the foundation for the rest of the topics this week. We’re talking about what a Roth is, what it isn’t, and how the money in a Roth IRA or Roth 401k is taxed.
Ok, so what is a Roth. Roth IRAs and Roth 401ks are retirement accounts. Some people think that Roths are a type of investment, like a stock or a CD. A Roth is not an investment, but rather, a type of account that holds investments like stocks and bonds.
I like to think of the Roth as a type of bucket with specific rules and regulations about what happens to money going in and out of the bucket. So in the Roth bucket, you do hold investments - like cash, bonds, mutual funds, stocks, etc.
What’s unique and powerful about the Roth is how it’s taxed. Money going into the bucket has already been taxed. So, you don’t get a tax deduction for making contributions to the Roth, like you do with a Traditional IRA or 401k. But here’s the value of the Roth.
Once you put money in the Roth bucket, it’s not taxed again! It grows tax-free, then when you take money out of the Roth, it’s not taxed either. So Uncle Sam doesn’t get to put his dirty little mitts on your money again once it’s in the Roth.
So the potential long-term tax benefits of contributing to a Roth are tremendous.
There are 2 types of Roth accounts - the Roth IRA and the Roth 401k. There are a couple important distinctions.
In 2019, you can put up to $7,000 into the Roth IRA if you’re over 50. And you can only contribute to a Roth if your household income is below a certain threshold. In 2019, that threshold is just over $190,000.
The Roth 401k, on the other hand is much more flexible. You can contribute up to $25,000 to your Roth 401k if you’re over 50. And those income limits that lock out high income earners, don’t apply to the Roth 401k.
Let me repeat that - you can contribute $25,000 to your Roth 401k in 2019 if you’re over 50, no matter what your income is. It’s a sweetheart deal with seriously compelling long-term potential tax benefits.
The trick is that your employer must offer a Roth 401k option in your retirement plan, so if you don’t have access to a Roth 401k at work, go talk to your employer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about the Roth. Depending on your income and what’s offered through your 401k plan at work, you’ll want to take a serious look at the Roth IRA or the Roth 401k.
The good news is that while Roth IRA contributions aren’t possible if your income is above a certain level, if you have access to a Roth 401k, you can still contribute to a Roth, no matter what your income is. It doesn’t matter if it’s $25,000 or $2.5 million...you can and should look seriously at the Roth.
But in practice, I find that not enough people take advantage of the Roth. There are deep misunderstandings and plenty of bad advice about the Roth. So this week, I’m going to do my best to help you better understand why the Roth is a compelling choice, especially in those last few years as you approach retirement.
I’ll talk about:
- Roth Basics - what the Roth is, what it isn’t, and how the money going in and out is taxed.
- The bad advice about Roth’s that you can and probably should ignore.
- How to determine if a Roth or a Traditional IRA or 401k is right for you
- Why Roths are still a good choice even if you plan to start drawing money from your retirement accounts
- And lastly - the weird quirk about Roth 401ks that you’ll want to watch out for when you turn 70 ½.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you who have already left a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, 401k retirement withdrawal rules, Traditional IRA, Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, Roth IRA rules, Roth 401k, how to avoid taxes on 401k withdrawals, how to withdraw retirement funds, roth IRA vs 401k, roth IRA limit, iras, roth 401k limit, roth IRA definition, roth 401k definition, roth IRA tax, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, roth IRA withdrawal rules, what is a traditional IRA, roth 401k vs 401k, roth 401k contribution limits, roth 401k employer match, roth 401k limits 2019, roth IRA limits 2019
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: How interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impacts your retirement portfolio. Interest rates today are low compared to historical norms and that has an impact on your retirement portfolio.
I don’t think I can overestimate the impact that Fed decisions about interest rate policy have on your portfolio. Decisions from the Fed to raise or lower rates are massive drivers behind what happens in both the bond markets and stock markets.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The Relationship Between Interest Rates and Bond Prices
- What Happens To Your Portfolio When the Fed Cuts Interest Rates
- How You Can Avoid 2 Big Mistakes Investors Make When Bond Yields Drop
- And...How to Boost Your Retirement Income When Bond Yields Are Low
Hopefully, after listening to the tips this week, you better understand how interest rates impact your portfolio, and what you can do to protect yourself and still generate some yield and income in this low interest rate environment.
If you missed any of these episodes or if you want to revisit any of them, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: What you need to know about Roth IRA and 401ks if you’re over 50. I love, love, love the Roth, and there are some special considerations and things you need to know about Roth IRA and 401k accounts, especially as you approach retirement. So I’ll talk about the Roth next week.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
This week, I’m talking about how the interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impact your retirement portfolio.
We’re in a period now where interest rates are dropping. The Fed just cut rates for the first time in over a decade and seems to intend to keep their stance on lower rates for the foreseeable future.
Over the last few days, I’ve been talking about some common mistakes that investors make with their portfolio when rates drop by searching for yield in all the wrong places. Today, I want to share with you one reliable place to increase your income in retirement, even if rates drop.
And that is increasing dividend stocks. When the focus of your retirement stock portfolio is on high quality companies who consistently increase their dividends, it gives you the opportunity to grow your portfolio income, even in the face of lower interest rates.
Many high quality dividend companies have paid consistent and growing dividends for decades, providing a growth in income of about 7-10% a year.
Dividend stocks are a fantastic option, not to replace your bonds, but to shift the focus of your stock portfolio, so you can replace and continue to give you the opportunity to grow your retirement income, even if rates drop.
If you’re concerned about your portfolio and whether or not it’s positioned for the current interest rate environment we’re in, I’m happy to take a look at your portfolio for free. I’ll look at the current yield and income and give you some ideas for how you can boost your yield without sacrificing quality in this low-rate environment. If you’re interested, just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@true-north-r-a.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
This week, I’m talking about how the interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impact your retirement portfolio.
Yesterday, I talked about a damaging mistake that investors often make when interest rates drop - reaching for yield by trading in shorter-term bonds with longer-term bonds.
Today, I’m sharing with you the other costly mistake that I see investors fall victim to in their bond portfolio when interest rates drop - searching for more income and more yield in lower quality bonds.
With rates today, a bond portfolio yield of 3% is good. However, investors often get lured into trading their higher quality bonds for lower quality bonds in order to earn 5, 6, or 7%. While this higher yield sounds great on the surface, trading in your higher quality investment-grade bonds for junk bonds as they are commonly known introduces a variety of risks.
Namely, the default risk on lower quality bonds is much higher. When a company defaults on it’s debt, guess what? You don’t get paid that 6 or 7% interest anymore. And good luck getting your money back too. More often than not in a default situation, you lose the money you originally invested, in addition to the stopping of interest payments.
So it’s important to exercise caution when investing in lower quality junk bonds with a higher rate of default. We tend to stay away from these types of bonds since they are so unpredictable and the risk just isn’t worth it for us to invest our client’s money, even if the yield is higher.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
This week, I’m talking about how the interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impacts your retirement portfolio.
Yesterday, I talked about how interest rate cuts impact your stock and bond portfolio. This is a timely topic because in July, the Fed cut rates for the first time in over a decade, and they’ve indicated that they intend to keep rates lower for the foreseeable future.
Today, I want to talk about a couple of costly mistakes that tend to trap investors searching for higher income in their bond portfolios when interest rates drop. There is a real danger in getting lured into searching for more income and more yield in all the wrong places.
The first place that investors usually look to increase their yield and income when interest rates drop is in longer-dated bonds. In other words, they trade in their bond that yields 2% for a bond that yields 5%. But in order to get 5% or 6% or even more, investors often need to buy bonds that mature in 20-30 years.
Here’s the problem with reaching for yield by buying bonds that mature in 20-30 years. As I talked about on Tuesday, interest rates and bond prices have a teeter-totter relationship. Interest rates go down, bond prices go up. When interest rates go up however, bond prices drop. So whenever the Fed decides to start raising rates again, those longer-dated bonds can see some pretty big drops in price, because the longer the maturity date is on a particular bond, the more sensitive it tends to be to changes in interest rates.
Investors are usually blindsided by this drop in prices which can be 10% or more depending on how much rates rise. And because those bonds don’t mature for 20-30 years, you’re stuck owning them at their lower prices, unless you want to sell and potentially take a loss on the bond.
So the lesson here is to not reach for yield and trade in your bonds for longer-dated bonds when rates drop. It’s a common temptation, but one that can lead to trouble when rates start going up again.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about the other big mistake that investors make with their portfolios when rates drop.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
This week, I’m talking about how the interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impact your retirement portfolio.
Yesterday, I gave you a primer on the teeter-totter relationship between interest rates and bond prices, which is important to understand for this week’s topic.
Today, I’m getting into the meat of why this is relevant for you by talking about what happens to your portfolio when the Fed cuts interest rates.
As I’ve mentioned earlier this week, Fed Interest Rate Decisions have far-reaching impact on the economy and markets, but there are 2 areas in particular i want to focus on today - how your stock and bond portfolios are impacted when the Fed cuts interest rates.
In July, the Fed cut interest rates for the first time in over a decade, after steadily raising rates for the last 5 years. I want to focus on rate cuts today, since that’s the path that the Fed appears to be on for the foreseeable future.
First, let’s look at bonds. When the Fed cuts interest rates, the rate that you’ll get on your bonds (i.e. the yield) drops. So for example, if rates dropped from 5% to 2%, you would likely see that the yield on your bond portfolio would also drop, and if you’re reinvesting and buying new bonds, you are probably forced to settle for lower income as well. This has really hurt retirees over the last 10 years, since they need income from their bonds and the income has been much much lower than historical norms.
On the flipside, when interest rates drop, bond prices go up, so even if the income or yield is lower, the value of your bond portfolio will often remain stable or even grow, which is nice!
But in general, cuts in interest rates, especially over longer periods of time, tend to be harmful for your bond portfolio, because it may not be able to generate the kind of income that you need it to in retirement, since the interest rates on the bonds you own are lower.
Fed decisions on interest rates don’t just impact your bond portfolio. They also impact your stock portfolio as well - in a big way! The big drop in the stock market last December and the big gains in the stock market so far in 2019 have largely been the result of the Fed’s intentions and actions to lower interest rates.
This isn’t always the case, but in general, interest rate cuts tend to be good for stocks, mainly because rate cuts help inject a little more juice into the economy. Lower rates equal lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, which helps grease the wheels of the economy. The stock market usually reacts positively to this extra grease, and the reaction is usually immediate.
So while lower rates might not be great news for your bond portfolio, it’s generally great news for the stock market, and can be a catalyst for growth in your overall portfolio.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
This week, I’m talking about how the interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impact your retirement portfolio. Before we get into that though, we need to spend today on a very important primer, so you can understand what the heck those talking heads are yelling about, and why it matters when you hear on the news that the Fed cut rates again at this month’s meeting.
Today, we’re talking about the relationship between interest rates and bond prices. The Federal Open Market Committee - you’ll often hear this committee referred to as the FOMC or the Fed - they meet eight times a year to determine the federal funds target rate. The Fed’s decision to raise, lower, or leave rates unchanged have a direct impact on everything from mortgage rates, to interest you’re earning on your bond portfolio, to your stock portfolio.
The current federal funds rate is currently just above 2%. That’s very low by historical norms. Over the last 60 years this rate has been closer to 4-6%. And it’s even jumped to as high 20% in 1981, as many of you baby boomers remember. My parents bought their first house that year and paid a 12% interest rate on their mortgage. Can you imagine? 12%! Insane.
Here’s what you need to know about interest rates, other than they ebb and flow and are about as predictable as whether or not the groundhog will see his shadow next year: Interest rates and bond prices have a teeter-totter relationship.
If you can keep that image of a teeter totter in mind, it will help you remember one of the most important lessons about interest rates and bond prices: When interest rates go up, bond prices go down. When interest rates go down, bond prices go up.
During the Great Recession, the Fed cut rates to zero. When that happens, bond prices went up, which no doubt helped prop up the value of your bond portfolio, but the downside is that when you looked at the rates you could get on your savings accounts and rates on buying new bonds, it was pretty depressing. Then in 2015, the Fed started raising interest rates again, and have continued to gradually raise rates until this summer when they cut rates in July for the first time in over a decade.
So as rates have gone up over the last 4 years, you can earn more interest (or yield on your bonds and your savings accounts), but the overall return in bonds over the last few years hasn't been great because the increase in interest rates have caused bond prices to drop - again because of that teeter totter inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about how the interest rate decisions by the Fed to raise or lower interest rates impact your retirement portfolio. Interest rates today are low compared to historical norms and that has an impact on your retirement portfolio.
I don’t think I can overestimate the impact that Fed decisions about interest rate policy have on your portfolio. Decisions from the Fed to raise or lower rates are massive drivers behind what happens in both the bond markets and stock markets.
While no one can reliably predict what the Fed will do next, it is important that you understand how the current interest rate environment impacts you.
So this week, I’m sharing with you the relationship between interest rates and bond prices, what happens to your portfolio when interest rates are cut, 2 big mistakes that investors make when rates are low...and how you can avoid them, and lastly, how you can boost your income in retirement when you’re lucky to get 2-3% returns in your bond portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in with the foundation of our discussion on interest rates - The Relationship Between Interest Rates and Bond Prices.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you who have already left a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, interest rates today, interest rate policy, federal reserve, fed policy, rate hikes, rate cuts, monetary policy, monetary policy definition, monetary policy tools, interest rate cut, fed interest rate, how to interest rates affect the economy, why does the fed raise interest rates, why does the fed lower interest rates, what happens when interest rates are cut, bonds, fixed income, bond interest rate
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: 5 questions to ask before you rollover your old 401k. When you change jobs or retire, you’ll want to decide what to do with that old 401k plan from your previous employer. You really have 3 good options - leave it there, roll it over to your new plan if you’ve changed jobs and your new employer offers a 401k, or you can roll it over to an IRA. But how do you know which option is right for you?
So this week, we talked about 5 questions that you’ll want to ask before you do anything with that old 401k.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you better understand how important it is to really put some thought into how you want to handle that old 401k, so you can make an informed decision.
Here are the 5 questions we covered this week:
- How Will The Fees Change?
- Will the Investment Options Be Better?
- Do I Need Protections that the 401k Can Provide?
- Will You Continue To Work For Your Previous Employer?
- Does Consolidation Make Sense For Other Reasons?
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: What fed policy means for your retirement. The Fed has recently started lowering rates again, which the stock market seems to love, but how will changes to interest rates impact your bond portfolio and your stock portfolio in retirement. It’s an interesting topic that will hopefully allow you to pontificate on the ramifications of lower interest rates at your next cocktail party.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
When you change jobs or retire, you’ll want to decide what to do with that old 401k plan from your previous employer. You really have 3 good options - leave it there, roll it over to your new plan if you’ve changed jobs and your new employer offers a 401k, or you can roll it over to an IRA. But how do you know which option is right for you?
So this week, I’m teeing up for you 5 questions that you’ll want to ask before you do anything with that old 401k.
Today’s question that you’ll want to ask before touching that old 401k is: Should I consolidate my old 401ks into an IRA for other reasons.
Remember, you don’t actually have to take your money out of your old 401k plan when you leave, as long as you have more than $5000 in the plan.
Besides the considerations I talked about earlier this week, that might persuade you to take your money out of your old 401k - namely investment quality and fees, there are a couple of other reasons why you may want to consider consolidating your assets into an IRA.
Reason #1 - RMD Rules are strict and penalizing. In the year that you turn 70 ½, you’ll start taking Required Minimum Distributions, or RMDs, from your retirement plans. There are some exceptions to starting at 70 ½, that I’ve talked about on my YouTube Channel, so if you want to dive deeper exceptions to that rule, head on over to True North Retirement on YouTube and search for RMD. Subscribe too while you’re there, will ya?
Ok, so back to the RMD rule. Here’s the problem with leaving money in old 401k when you start RMDs...you have to take separate RMDs from each of these 401k plans, which is annoying. Many of these 401k providers like Fidelity, Empower, John Hancock, etc have millions of accounts, so they won’t chase you down at the end of the year if you haven’t taken your RMD.
If you miss taking your full RMD from all of your retirement accounts, you will pay hefty taxes and penalties on the amount you should have taken, so it’s just a good idea once your RMDs start to move all of your retirement assets into one IRA, with one financial institution, with a good advisor who will hound you starting around Thanksgiving if you haven’t yet taken your full RMD.
Reason #2 why you may want to consolidate your old retirement accounts into a single IRA is simplification. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to get statements every month from 4 different places for 13 different accounts. If it’s not necessary for you to have duplicate accounts types spread out across different places, then consider consolidating to simplify your life. It’ll feel like Marie Kondo came in and sparked joy in your financial life when all those accounts are in one place.
Also, for estate planning purposes, it’s also much easier for your spouse and heirs to sort through everything if it’s all in one place.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
When you change jobs or retire, you’ll want to decide what to do with that old 401k plan from your previous employer. You really have 3 good options - leave it there, roll it over to your new plan if you’ve changed jobs and your new employer offers a 401k, or you can roll it over to an IRA. But how do you know which option is right for you?
So this week, I’m teeing up for you 5 questions that you’ll want to ask before you do anything with that old 401k.
Today’s question that you’ll want to ask before touching that old 401k is: Will you go back to work for your previous employer or do you plan to work part time for your old employer in the future.
I had a client who retired recently...I use the word retire loosely, because she is actually continuing to work for her old employer, she has just massively scaled back her hours and responsibilities for her old employer.
This is not uncommon. A lot of people go back to work for previous employers, so if that’s you and you have a 401k parked at your old employer, it may be easier for you to leave your 401k where it is, so you can contribute to it in the future without starting over from scratch with $0 in the plan.
Keep in mind, your employer will likely have restrictions on whether or not you can contribute to the plan and receive matching dollars if you are part-time. So be sure to find out what those annual hours requirements are if you’re working part-time, and see if you can still contribute to the plan.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
When you change jobs or retire, you’ll want to decide what to do with that old 401k plan from your previous employer. You really have 3 good options - leave it there, roll it over to your new plan if you’ve changed jobs and your new employer offers a 401k, or you can roll it over to an IRA. But how do you know which option is right for you?
So this week, I’m teeing up for you 5 questions that you’ll want to ask before you do anything with that old 401k.
Today’s question that you’ll want to ask before touching that old 401k is: Do you need protections that the 401k plan can provide.
An interesting rule about 401k plans is that the money inside your 401k is protected from creditors if you file for bankruptcy.
If you are concerned about your credit and think it’s likely you’ll file for bankruptcy in the foreseeable future, you may consider leaving the money in your old 401k plan, and not rolling it over to an IRA. Since the money is protected inside of a 401k, but not in an IRA. It’s a funky rule and it should be the same across all retirement accounts, but leave it up to Congress to make things complicated.
My point is that knowing this rule in a bankruptcy situation can potentially shield your precious retirement assets from creditors in a deep, dark bankruptcy situation.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
When you change jobs or retire, you’ll want to decide what to do with that old 401k plan from your previous employer. You really have 3 good options - leave it there, roll it over to your new plan if you’ve changed jobs and your new employer offers a 401k, or you can roll it over to an IRA. But how do you know which option is right for you?
So this week, I’m teeing up for you 5 questions that you’ll want to ask before you do anything with that old 401k.
Today’s question that you’ll want to ask before touching that old 401k is: Will the investment options be better?
When you change jobs or retire, you don’t actually have to take your money out of the 401k plan. If you have more than $5,000 in the plan, you could leave the money there. But you definitely don’t want to leave your money in your old 401k plan if the investment options are a complete dumpster pile of rubbish.
One of the drawbacks of the 401k plan is that your investment options are chosen for you in most cases, so you can only choose from what’s selected for you. Some plans have a great lineup of funds with good quality and variety. However, I’ve seen my share of complete garbage over the years.
If you aren’t thrilled about what’s available to you in your old 401k, it might be wise to move your money out sooner rather than later.
And when you rollover your old 401k to an IRA, you have tens of thousands of investment options that are open to you, and you can hand over your IRA to an advisor who can take care of all the investment management for you - another plus of rolling over your old IRA - freeing you up to focus on other things that are most important to you.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
When you change jobs or retire, you’ll want to decide what to do with that old 401k plan from your previous employer. You really have 3 good options - leave it there, roll it over to your new plan if you’ve changed jobs and your new employer offers a 401k, or you can roll it over to an IRA. But how do you know which option is right for you?
So this week, I’m teeing up for you 5 questions that you’ll want to ask before you do anything with that old 401k.
Today’s question that you’ll want to ask before touching that old 401k is: How will the fees change?
Retirement plan fees vary widely. Often the larger the 401k plan is, the cheaper it is. So if you go from mega-multinational-household-name company to mom and pop new 401k, chances are the old 401k from uber-large conglomerate is going to have lower fees compared to your new plan.
The important point here is that while fees alone shouldn’t drive your decision about what to do with your old 401k, it should be a consideration. So it’s important to understand the fees in your old plan, and how those fees compare to your new 401k or your IRA that your considering transferring your money to.
401k plan fees are still a bit muddled, despite some major headway made several years ago with some new rules aimed at better fee transparency.
So if you have no clue how to figure out what your 401k fees are, I have a little workaround for you. Call the provider where your 401k plan is held. Ask them for a document called the 404a-5 Participant Fee Disclosure Document. You’re required to receive a copy of this document at least once a year, but your plan provider should be able to send you another copy if you request one. This 404a-5 fee disclosure document should clarify in plain english the fees in your 401k.
The point here is that you need to know what you’re paying in your old plan if your money is still parked there, and know what the cost is of investing with the new provider - whether that be through a 401k plan with your new job or an IRA. Either way, arm yourself with the cost information so you can make a more informed choice.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about rolling over your 401k when you change jobs or retire. While you definitely want to keep things consolidated so you don’t have 10 different 401ks floating around from 10 previous employers, it’s also important to understand the pros and cons of rolling over your old 401k.
So this week, I’m sharing with you 5 essential questions you’ll want to ask before you take money out of your old 401k and move it elsewhere.
We’ll cover the questions you should ask about the fees, investment options, special nuances about 401ks compared to IRAs that very few people know about, consolidation of old accounts, and your intentions about working for this employer in the future - and how all of these considerations will influence what you do with your old 401k.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in by covering a very important but often overlooked question - how will the fees change when you rollover your 401k.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you who have already left a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, required minimum distribution, RMD, rmd penalty, ira vs 401k withdrawal rules, rmd aggregation rules, rmd exceptions, IRA rollover rules, IRA transfer, IRA rollover, 401k rollover, what is a rollover, 401k rollover to IRA, 401k rollover rules, 401k rollover to IRA rules, 401k rollover to new employer, 401k option, 401k investment options, 401k plan fees, 401k fees
This week, I’m talking about dealing with the financial and emotional stress of caring for aging parents, all while trying to save for your own retirement and balance all of your other competing priorities.
I want to pause briefly from this week’s topic, because we’ve hit an important milestone here on the One Minute Retirement Tip - episode 300!
I don’t think I’ve told you the origin story of the One Minute Retirement Tip...
Thanks for being a loyal listener, I’m happy to say that the last time I checked the number of the One Minute Retirement Tip, we were at over 24,000 lifetime downloads since the inception last November, and it keeps growing every month, so thank you for being here with me every morning!
So since this is episode 300, I have a special favor to ask. I would be so grateful if you could give me a virtual high five in celebration of reaching the 300th episode milestone, by leaving a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. Reviews help others find these daily tips, so if you find this information valuable and worthwhile, it’s a great way to spread the word. And if you’ve already left me a review...thank you!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, paying family members for elder care, getting paid for taking care of elderly parent, caring for aging parents statistics, caring for aging parents, caring for elderly parents stress, medicaid cash and counseling program, importance of elderly care, taking care of the elderly in your home
Every month, on the 3rd Thursday of the month, I go visit about 10 people from my church. All of them are homebound and unable to make it to Mass, so I do a little communion service for them at their home. It’s something that I really enjoy, and I always feel uplifted after my morning spent visiting my fellow parishioners who are homebound.
But often at these adult care homes and nursing homes, when I sign in as a guest at these adult care homes, I don’t see many other names on the sign in sheet. I noticed a few months back at one home in particular, that of the 5 or 6 residents who lived there, only 3 other people had visited in the last week.
Loneliness is a pervasive problem among the elderly in our culture. For a variety of reasons, many aging Americans are not frequently visited by their families and they spend the last years of their life with a television as their sole companion.
So if you are a caregiver, keep up the noble work you’re doing, and if you’re not a caregiver, but you have family living in a nursing home, adult care home, or assisted living, make it a priority to visit more often. And heck, just call your mom more!
And while you’re there, try to visit with another resident who is very likely lonely and in need of some companionship from someone who still values them as a person.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, paying family members for elder care, getting paid for taking care of elderly parent, caring for aging parents statistics, caring for aging parents, caring for elderly parents stress, medicaid cash and counseling program, importance of elderly care, taking care of the elderly in your home
This week, I’m talking about a very widespread issue, yet it’s one that seldom discussed today - Dealing with the financial and emotional stress of caring for aging parents, all while trying to save for your own retirement and balance all of your other competing priorities.
More than 10% of the U.S. population is providing unpaid care to someone else over 50.
So far this week, I’ve talked about the financial strain of caring for aging parents, and how you can explore getting reimbursed for care you’re already providing, but today, I want to switch gears and talk about the emotional stress of caring for your aging parents, particularly if you are caring for a parent with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or who is just plain stubborn.
Earlier this week, I was having lunch with a woman who was telling me the story of a friend of hers who lost her husband in the mall for 2 hours recently. He has dementia and wandered off while she had her back turned for just a second. Imagine the panic and worry she must’ve felt as no one could find her wandering husband for over 2 hours.
I’ve heard other stories of parents with dementia leaving for the bathroom in the movies, only to head to the car and drive home instead, or leaving the house and walking along busy streets, ending up across town.
Those are just extreme examples, and don’t take into account the daily ups and downs, stresses and frustrations of caring for an aging parent - especially one who is forgetful, stubborn, or who needs a high level of care.
If that’s you, I don’t have much to offer anything other than encouragement for the noble work you’re doing. Not only are you providing the financial and physical support to your loved one, you are also providing emotional support by your presence, conversations, a meal cooked, or time spent together driving in the car or waiting at the doctor’s office.
If you find that you’re struggling financially or emotionally with your caregiving role, reach out for support. Talk to your family - see if another family member can help out to lighten your load. Consider hiring a part time caregiver to give you a break, and look into support groups - as I mentioned, over 10% of the population is providing unpaid care to a loved one over 50.
So make sure you’re still taking good care of you while caring for an aging parent, and explore other sources of help if you’re feeling burned out.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, paying family members for elder care, getting paid for taking care of elderly parent, caring for aging parents statistics, caring for aging parents, caring for elderly parents stress, medicaid cash and counseling program, importance of elderly care, taking care of the elderly in your home
This week, I’m talking about a very widespread issue, yet it’s one that seldom discussed today - Dealing with the financial and emotional stress of caring for aging parents, all while trying to save for your own retirement and balance all of your other competing priorities.
Yesterday, I talked about the fact that caring for aging parents often falls during those last working years and early retirement years, making it particularily difficult to plan for your own successful retirement. It seems like you just got done raising your own family, and now you’re thrown right back in the caregiving role by caring for mom or dad.
A common question that comes up for unpaid caregivers is: can you get reimbursed for the care you’re providing?
That’s a really great question, and not an easy one to tackle, so I’ll just touch on a couple of points here, but if you go to the show notes which you can find over on itunes for episode 297, all the links for additional reading and resources can be found there.
The short answer is that most of the time, it’s going to be very difficult to get paid to care for a family member. There are certain exceptions though, so do your homework. There are state-specific programs that will reimburse you or provide you with other benefits for caring for an aging parent. There are other programs available through Medicaid and certain government agencies and charitable organizations. You may also be able to deduct medical expenses for an aging parent depending on your situation.
The key here is not to just suck it up and pay for expenses out of pocket. You probably can’t get reimbursed for your time, but there are avenues to explore for getting reimbursed, and again, I’ll link to further reading on today’s show notes in iTunes which is episode 297 of the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Additional Resources:
- https://thecaregiverspace.org/paid-to-be-a-family-caregiver/
- https://www.caregiver.org/frequently-asked-questions#faq2
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, paying family members for elder care, getting paid for taking care of elderly parent, caring for aging parents statistics, caring for aging parents, caring for elderly parents stress, medicaid cash and counseling program, importance of elderly care, taking care of the elderly in your home
This week, I’m talking about a very widespread issue, yet it’s one that is seldom discussed today - Dealing with the financial and emotional stress of caring for aging parents, all while trying to save for your own retirement and balance all of your other competing priorities.
Caring for your aging parents is a lot like a Chinese finger trap. You’re being pulled and stretched in opposite directions and there seems to be no way out. You may even have the perfect storm of continuing to support college-age or young adult children while trying to save for retirement and provide care and/or financial support for your parents.
It’s stressful, and it’s a problem that impacts many Americans today. According to a 2015 study by AARP, About 34.2 million Americans have provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the last 12 months. 34.2 million of us! That’s more than 10% of the U.S. population who is providing unpaid care.
And about 16 million adult family caregivers care for someone who has Alzheimer's disease or other dementia.
Many caregivers also do the shopping and pay for expenses out of their own pocket for their parents.
In addition to the expense involved, the responsibility of caregiving can also take a toll on your wallet because of the time involved. Every hour spent on caregiving is time spent away from work, where in your late 50s or early 60s, you’re also missing out on what is often your highest paid working years.
In addition to the paycheck you’re missing out on if you leave your job to care for an aging parent, you’re also missing out on retirement contributions and matching dollars, social security credits, and other important benefits like health insurance coverage.
So the financial burden of caring for aging parents is nothing to take lightly, since it can diminish your own financial security in retirement.
Now I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m saying here about caregiving for family. I think it’s a very noble, loving, and kind thing to do. However, all the choices we make have trade-offs, so it’s important that you understand and consider the financial impact when making decisions about providing care for a loved one.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, paying family members for elder care, getting paid for taking care of elderly parent, caring for aging parents statistics, caring for aging parents, caring for elderly parents stress, medicaid cash and counseling program, importance of elderly care, taking care of the elderly in your home
Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! This week, I’m talking about a very widespread issue, yet it’s one that seldom discussed today - Dealing with the financial and emotional stress of caring for aging parents, all while trying to save for your own retirement and balance all of your other competing priorities.
It’s an important topic, and one that needs to be talked about, so that’s what I’m focusing on this week.
I’ll talk about the stress and emotional drain of caring for aging parents, how you can get reimbursed if you’re helping to pay for mom and dad’s bills, and why the work that you’re doing is important and worthwhile.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in by addressing the financial stress of caring for your aging parents.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to you if you who have already left a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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This week, I’m sharing with you my must read personal finance books. Today I am sharing with you the book that Warren Buffett calls “the best book on investing ever written.” That’s a pretty powerful stamp of approval from arguably the best investor of all time.
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a must read for investors. In fact, if you only read one book on investing your entire life, make it this one.
In the book, Graham lays out a framework for making smart decisions, understanding and keeping your cool in the manic depressive nature of the stock market, investing in good and bad markets, and minimizing losses.
Graham’s influence on some of the most successful investors of the last century cannot be ignored, and thankfully he has shared the core principles of his philosophy in this classic book.
I’ll link to the book in the show notes of this episode, which is episode 293:
https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Collins-Business-Essentials-ebook/dp/B000FC12C8/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=the+intelligent+investor&qid=1563300049&s=digital-text&sr=1-3
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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As an avid reader, I’ve consumed many books over the years on the topics of money, personal finance, and investing. So this week, I’m sharing with you my must read personal finance books.
Today, I’m sharing with you the most read book of all time that has a lot to say about money - the Bible.
If you are a Christian, the Bible should be your guidebook when it comes to your relationship with your money. Even if you’re not a Christian, the Bible has much wisdom to teach us about money.
First of all, it seems clear that God is teaching us through his Word that simply having money is not evil or wrong. It’s the love of money, or greed, that is the problem. So it’s no wonder that greed is one of the 7 deadly sins.
In Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus himself says: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus’ teaching is clear. Our love for God cannot be divided. If the love of money is edging it’s way into our lives, then we are edging God out at the same time.
I think Dave Ramsey’s view on money best summarizes what our relationship to money should be - he says that our money is not actually ours. Our money and wealth belongs to God. We are called to be stewards of God’s wealth and be responsible with the wealth He has blessed us with.
Which means first and foremost providing for our families and our own well-being, and yes, it’s okay to be wealthy and have money. It’s not how much we have, it’s what we do with our money (with God’s money) that matters. Building wealth, then, isn’t a race to see who can die with the most toys.
Using God’s wealth appropriately requires us to be generous and responsible, and even to make sacrifices in being generous with those who are in need everywhere around us. So I encourage you to read what the bible has to say about money. And examine your own behaviors with your money. Are you living beyond your means? Spending too much? Deeply in debt? Do you give to those around you in need? If you are living just for yourself, trying to accumulate more and more, that is in clear contrast to what God asks of us in His biblical teachings.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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I believe that the right book at the right time has the power to change your life. As an avid reader myself, I’ve consumed many books over the years on the topics of money, personal finance, and investing. So this week, I’m sharing with you my must read personal finance books.
Today, I’m sharing with you the book that isn’t a finance book, but when you apply the principles of this book to your relationship with money, it’s a powerful tool for focusing on the right things.
Essentialism by Greg Mckeown is actually a book about productivity. Not trying to fit more in to our busy lives and get more done, but rather, focusing on what matters, what’s essential, to spend our time on the right things.
Essentialism is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.
So how do you apply the principles of this non-financial book to your relationship with money, and why does that matter.
Every day we make choices about how we spend our money. A choice made today impacts the choices we have tomorrow. For example, let’s say that you buy a daily latte for $4.50. That daily latte costs you over $1,600 per year. Is the latte the right thing you want to spend your money on? It very well might be, but we have to consider the trade offs. Choosing to spend your money on the daily latte might keep you from saving more for retirement, taking that trip you’ve been putting off, or otherwise spending your money on what really matters to you.
So it’s important that you take a good look at your money habits. How are you making the highest contribution to what really matters with your money.
Another practical approach to essentialism in your personal financial life is to list your top 3 financial goals for the next 1 year, 5 years, and lifetime. When you know what’s important to you and why, it will help clear the path for acting in a way that’s consistent with your most important goals, and not wasting time or money on what doesn’t really matter to you.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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I believe that the right book at the right time has the power to change your life. As an avid reader myself, I’ve consumed many books over the years on the topics of money, personal finance, and investing. So this week, I’m sharing with you my must read personal finance books.
Today, I’m sharing with you the book that every high school and college student should read, but also a book that you’re never too old to read and learn from.
The Millionaire Next Door. This book, first published in 1996 is a timeless classic. It asserts that the typical American millionaire family “bargain-shops for used cars, raises children who don’t realize how rich their families are, and reject a lifestyle of flashy exhibitionism and competitive spending.
That’s the very behavior that made them wealthy in the first place. For the vast majority of millionaires, their wealth didn’t come from winning the lottery or from a trust fund or inheritance. Instead their wealth was amassed slowly over time by hard work, living below their income, a commitment to saving, and self-discipline.
In our hedonistic culture where the vast majority of Americans live the YOLO lifestyle and spend their money on clothes and lattes instead of saving and investing their money, we all need to keep the message of this book in mind.
This book is encouraging because you are already equipped with everything you need to build wealth and change your life. And you can start today.
The other thing I appreciate about the book other than it’s comprehensive study of actual millionaires and their habits is that the lessons in the book are practical. The authors distill their study of millionaires into 7 habits and common traits that each of us can learn from and apply in our own lives.
So if you’re not where you want to be financially, pick up this book.
I’ll link to the book in the show notes >> https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-William-Danko-ebook/dp/B00CLT31D6/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
By the way, you can buy this book for really cheap used, $5 if you have a Kindle, or you can read it for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, best books to read, best investing books of all time, best investment books, best finance books, best finance books of all time
I believe that the right book at the right time has the power to change your life. As an avid reader myself, I’ve consumed many books over the years on the topics of money, personal finance, and investing. So this week, I’m sharing with you my must read personal finance books.
These are my top 5 books on money that have been meaningful to my life and changed my understanding and view of the world. These books are all accessible too. You don’t have to have an MBA or a PhD in Behavioral Finance to grasp the core message of these books and put their lessons into action in your life.
A fun fiction book is great for the beach, but I encourage you to also read something this summer that will help you grow in your understanding of and improve your relationship with money. Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you will be inspired to add one of these books to your summer reading list.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in with the book that shows you how anyone can become a millionaire.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, best books to read, best investing books of all time, best investment books, best finance books, best finance books of all time
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Will You Run Out of Money in retirement.
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background and my experience helping many clients make the transition into retirement with confidence, in order to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- How much you’ll need saved when you retire
- What you’ll want to do now to figure out how much you’ll spend in retirement
- How to calculate your income gap
- The tax curveball that can surprise you if you’re not prepared for it
- And...the importance of asset allocation to sustain higher and higher withdrawals in retirement
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: My Top 5 Books on Finances. This is my all-time, best of favorites list, that have majorly impacted how I think about money and investing, so you won’t want to miss it...just in time for some summer reading. So if you’re looking for a book that doesn’t just entertain, but has the power to change your life, then tune in next week where I share with you the books that have changed my life.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background and my experience helping many clients make the transition into retirement with confidence, in order to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
One very important factor in determining whether or not you will run out of money in retirement is your portfolio returns. If your portfolio averages 2-3% annual return because you just invested in cash, CDs, and Treasury bonds in a low interest rate environment, you’re more likely to run out of money if those flatline returns don’t keep up with your portfolio withdrawals.
On the other hand, you would probably love to make 8-10% a year or more by being invested in a portfolio that’s 100% in stocks. But I’m guessing that the idea of losing half of your nest egg in a really bad recession, is a no-go as well.
So we have to invest in an investment portfolio that will be well-balanced. Not too risky. Not too conservative. As goldilocks would say…”Just right”.
Well, that just right amount depends on a lot of factors, most notably your age, your income needs, and the thickness of your skin in withstanding the inevitable portfolio fluctuations. But it’s important that you do have the right amount of stocks and bonds and cash that can support your withdrawal rate in retirement.
At True North, we have guidelines for asset allocation based on age that we use as a starting place for determining the right mix of stocks and bonds for each client. If you want a copy of our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, just email me - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background and my experience helping many clients make the transition into retirement with confidence, in order to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about how to calculate what you’ll need to pull out of your investment portfolio to supplement your other income sources in retirement, and whether or not that withdrawal rate is sustainable.
Today, I’m throwing you a curveball, and we’re talking about taxes. Here’s why taxes are the curveball...the money that you withdraw from your IRA or 401k accounts will be taxable, so you’ll want to figure out the after-tax amount of portfolio income you need, and also factor in the taxes you’ll be sending to Uncle Sam on those withdrawals. The total withdrawal amount including taxes is the number you’ll need to look at to determine if your portfolio withdrawal rate is sustainable or not.
If you need $3,000/month from your investments, you might need to take out $3,500 or even $4,000 each month when you factor in the taxes on those withdrawals.
Now here’s the million dollar question - no pun intended. Whatever that amount is that you're pulling from your investment portfolio each month or each year...how do you know that the withdrawal amount isn’t too high? How do you know that you’re not going to run out of money in retirement?
Here’s where a good financial advisor is worth their weight in gold, because they can run the numbers for you. We do this all the time for clients. We look at their portfolio, their income needs in retirement, their sources of income, and all sorts of other factors. Then we run a monte carlo analysis, which lives their retirement 1,000 times to see how often the plan failed and they ran out of money. It’s incredibly valuable and can course correct when necessary, as long as you do it before you retire.
So talk to your financial advisor. If you don’t have one, it’s totally worth it to hire a planner to run the numbers for you. Many advisors will do a retirement analysis for you for a one-time flat fee or even as a value-add for free if you are already a client.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow I’m going to share with you how your mix of stocks and bonds influences your chances of running out of money in retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background and my experience helping many clients make the transition into retirement with confidence, in order to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
Yesterday, I shared with you how to figure out how much income you’ll need in retirement.
Today, let’s talk about where that income will come from and how to make sure you don’t run out of money in retirement by draining too much from your portfolio.
Now that you know what you’re spending on a monthly basis, let’s calculate your income sources. Start with social security and any pensions. Add those up, then determine any other income sources like rental property or alimony, etc. Once you add up all your other income sources, calculate your shortfall by looking at what you’ll be spending each month.
Whatever income needs aren’t covered by these sources is the amount you’ll need to take out of your investments each month. Calculate what % of your current portfolio that represents on an annual basis.
So let’s say you have $1,000,000 and you need to take out about $3,000 out each month from your portfolio to fill your income gap. That’s $36,000 a year, which represents a withdrawal rate of 3.6% on your $1,000,000.
For the most part, an annual withdrawal rate at or below 4% is ideal, but each situation is different depending on how old you are when you retire, how your portfolio is invested, etc.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you the tax surprise in retirement that you don’t want to overlook.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background and my experience helping many clients make the transition into retirement with confidence, in order to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
Yesterday, I shared with you my favorite shorthand rule for making sure you have enough assets by the time you retire to maintain your standard of living.
Today, let’s focus on your lifestyle in retirement. How much will you need to live on in retirement per month? What are you spending right now every month? If you don’t know what’s going out the door each month, finding that out is a critical first step to figuring out if your money will last in retirement.
I’ve talked about budgeting a lot here on the OMRT, but it’s worth revisiting here. Track your monthly spending for a month. Ideally, you should track for 3-6 months, but just get started with one month. What are you currently spending? How might that spending change in retirement? Are there things like a house or car payment that will go away in retirement? Will you spend more on travel or perhaps you need to earmark some funds for the kitchen remodel you’ve been putting off until retirement.
So you’ll need to look at what you’re currently spending, and then once you know your baseline, make adjustments to your retirement budget based on the lifestyle changes you expect in retirement.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Before you go, I have a special treat for you. If you want the budget worksheet that we use with our clients to help them determine their spending needs in retirement, send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com, and I will send you my retirement budget worksheet.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background and my experience helping many clients make the transition into retirement with confidence, in order to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
Today, I’m sharing with you my favorite shorthand calculation for figuring out how much you should have saved for retirement.
A few years ago, Fidelity Investments did an extensive study which found that you’ll need about 10x your current income saved by the time you retire, assuming you retire at age 67. There are a number of assumptions used in this study, so you may consider looking into this more. I’ll link to the results of the study in the show notes of this episode, which is episode 282.
Fidelity Study - https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-do-i-need-to-retire
So if you need about 10x your annual household income saved by the time you retire, assuming you retire in your mid-late 60s, and you and your spouse make $100,000/year, you’ll need $1,000,000 saved at retirement, to help ensure that you will be able to maintain your standard of living in retirement.
I like this approach of using a multiple of your income, because it just works. If you make $50,000/year, you’re going to need a lot less income in retirement to maintain your lifestyle, compared to a surgeon who is used to the lifestyle based on $700,000/year of income. $1,000,000 is probably more than enough for the $50,000/year earner, but it would be dangerous for the surgeon making $700,000/year to transition into retirement with a nest egg of $1,000,000.
Now the good news is that Fidelity also backtracked their numbers to help you see if you’re on track before age 67. Using their numbers, you should have 6x your household income saved at age 50, 7x by age 55, and 8x by age 60.
If you’re behind, don’t fret. You can kick it into gear with higher savings or consider working longer to close the gap.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
One of the biggest fears for retirees and near-retirees is that your money won’t last in retirement. In fact, for my clients, I would say that it’s their biggest fear. Making your money last in retirement for possibly 30 years or more, not knowing what lies ahead is daunting.
The last thing you probably want in retirement is to spend your last dollar before you kick the bucket. So this week, I’m sharing with you some ideas from my financial planning background to help you better understand your chances of running out of money in retirement.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you’ll better understand how your decisions about when to retire, how much you’ll need, how much you’ll spend, and how long you might live will impact your chances of making your money last in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, we’re going to dive in with an easy, shorthand calculation for how much you’ll need saved before you retire.
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, run out of money in retirement, retirement calculator, do I have enough to retire, how much is enough for retirement, how long will my money last, how much do I need to save for retirement, how long will my retirement savings last, retirement withdrawal, retirement withdrawal rate, can I retire
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at its core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to describe this concept then, is values-based investing.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- Socially Responsible Investing 101
- How to Pinpoint Your Values
- The One Question You Need to Ask Yourself about SRI and ESG Investing
- Ownership Matters
- Top SRI and ESG Screens
- And...Where to Find Socially Responsible Funds
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Will you run out of money in retirement? I’ll talk about the most important factors that determine whether or not you will outlive your investment portfolio, and how you can find out what your chances are of running out of money in retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
This week, we’re talking about socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at its core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to describe this concept then, is values-based investing.
So far this week, I’ve been helping you decide if this strategy makes sense and which values might dictate your investment decisions. Today, I want to explain 3 different ways you can invest your money in a way that’s consistent with your values.
Let’s say for example that you don’t want to invest in any companies that support abortion. You’ll want to search for “anti-abortion investing” or “pro-life investing”. Just by using these types of search terms, you’ll be able to find several options.
There are 3 common ways to screen for your values-based criteria. The most transparent way is by investing in individual stocks. It’s easier to implement positive screens by investing in companies you want to support, and screen out what you don’t want when you know exactly the businesses you own.
The 2nd way is through mutual funds. Depending on your criteria, there are often several mutual fund options that t specialize in the values-based screen that matters to you.
Lastly, there are more and more ETFs and Index funds that screen for certain values-based criteria. This route can often be the least expensive.
The bottom line here is pick your criteria and do some research. You’re bound to find something that fits what you’re looking for.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
This week, we’re talking about socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at its core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to describe this concept then, is values-based investing.
Today, I want to cover some of the more common screens that you may want to consider using if you’re going to invest your portfolio in a way that’s consistent with your values. Also, I want to reiterate that it’s not necessary that you implement socially responsible investing in your own portfolio, as the vast majority of investors choose not to go this route.
With that in mind, here are the top socially responsible investing screens:
- The environment and carbon footprint
- Human rights issues like fair wages, working conditions, abortion, & child labor
- Weapons and war
- Tobacco & Alcohol
- “Sin” industries like gambling and pornography
- Corporate governance and executive pay
It’s best to just stick to the top 1-2 categories that you care about the most, and not worry about the rest, since every screen you use narrows the investment options.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow I’m going to share with you where you can find socially responsible investment options.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
This week, we’re talking about socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at its core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to describe this concept then, is values-based investing.
Today, I want to explain what it means to invest your money and why that matters when determining if a values-based approach is worth considering.
It doesn’t matter if you own individual stocks or companies, mutual funds, or index funds, when you invest in the stock market, you own tiny little slices of those companies you invest in. If you invest in mutual funds and index funds, you likely own thousands of different companies. When these companies are profitable and successful, you get paid as an owner through dividends and an increase in the value of your stock price which represents your ownership stake in the company.
Now, in all likelihood, your largest holding probably represents no more than a teeny tiny fraction of a percent of ownership in that business, but you are directly benefiting and participating in the profits of every business you invest in. If those profits were derived from business practices that are abhorrent to you, you may not be so keen to reap the rewards as an owner.
So if there are particular industries or types of businesses that you would boycott, consider restricting those same companies in your investment portfolio.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you some common SRI and ESG screens so you can think about what areas, if any, you want to restrict or more thoughtfully support.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
This week, we’re talking about socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at its core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to describe this concept then, is values-based investing.
Today, I’m sharing with you the most important question you’ll want to ask yourself when deciding if a values-based approach is right for you. It’s a question that I ask every single client before they become a client and before I make portfolio recommendations.
Here’s the question: Is there any area where you would not invest your money? Think about it: Is there any area where you would not invest your money? Or to put it another way, are there any restrictions you would like to put on your investment portfolio?
Often, when we discover what we want to avoid, we also discover areas we want to support. For example, I have a client who is big on environmental issues. Through the process of talking through this question, we settled on a portfolio strategy that not only avoids the companies he wants to exclude, but actively invests in the types of companies that are leaders in the environmental space.
By the way, 9 out of 10 clients don’t want to place restrictions on their investment portfolio, so don’t feel obligated to place a restriction on your portfolio. In fact, if you don’t have restrictions, the entire universe of investment options remains open, making it easier to select the best strategy.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
This week, we’re talking about socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at it’s core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to describe this concept then, is values-based investing.
Today, we need to start with understanding your values as it relates to investing. You might value your family, a good bottle of wine, and the opportunity to go hunting now and again. But what about your values that impact your investment decisions?
A good place to start, I think, is looking at the types of organizations where you already give money to or volunteer your time. Do you volunteer at the annual beach cleanup and give money to the American Cancer Society in honor of a loved one who died of lung cancer? In that case, you’ll likely want to invest in companies that have sound environmental practices and avoid tobacco companies.
You can put all kinds of screens on your investment portfolio to weed out the types of companies you don’t want, while actively investing your money in the types of companies that you do want. The list is long. Everything from the environment and tobacco, to abortion and human trafficking and child labor.
The key though is to first discover and articulate your most important values.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, I’ll share with you the most important question I ask my clients to determine if a values-based approach to investing is the right path.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
This week, we’re talking about socially responsible investing, as well as it’s related cousin, ESG investing. Socially responsible and ESG investing mean a lot of different things to different people, but at it’s core, socially responsible investing is about determining your most important values, deciding if those values should dictate your investment decisions, and if so, how you can invest your money in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
A better way to descibe this concept then, is values-based investing.
So this week, I’ll clear up some of the confusion around socially responsible and ESG investing, to help you determine if socially responsible considerations should be a part of your investment decisions; and I’ll give you the most important question you should ask yourself when deciding whether or not you should consider a values-based investing approach.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you’ll be fully equipped to decide if you should pursue a values-based approach to investing in your own investment strategy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, SRI investing, socially responsible investing, ESG investing, ESG, SRI, SRI stocks, sustainable investing funds, sri vs esg, what are socially responsible funds
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns, since you’ll be able to curtail your portfolio withdrawals if and when that happens if you have enough cash on hand.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The Importance of Cash in Retirement
- Why Cash Can Be Your Best Friend in the Next Recession
- Why $54,000 of Cash on Hand Isn’t Necessarily Too Much
- Where to Park Your Cash So it Actually Earns Interest
- And..How To Plan For Big Purchases
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Socially responsible investing. I’ll share with you how you can put your money where your mouth is to invest in a way that is consistent with your most important values.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
This week, we’re talking about cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns, since you’ll be able to curtail your portfolio withdrawals if and when that happens if you have enough cash on hand.
In addition to setting aside plenty of cash for emergencies and the next recession, how should you handle those upcoming major purchases?
Let’s assume you’re already retired, and you want to remodel your kitchen next year, your car only has 2-3 years worth of life left in her, and your daughter seems to be getting pretty serious about this guy she’s dating. You promised her $20,000 for her wedding and it looks like she’ll be cashing that check soon as well.
How do you handle these bigger planned purchases.
The answer here isn’t so black and white. If you know you’re going to need the money soon - like within the next year or 2, it’s not a bad idea to set that aside in cash now.
You could also set aside enough each month in a separate savings account earmarked for that purchase, so that by the time you need a new car or your daughter gets married, you’ve saved enough, but done so gradually over time.
If it’s been a good year for your retirement portfolio and you have some big gains like you’ve hopefully had this year, then you could also just pull the money from your investment portfolio when you need it. The problem with this strategy though, is that if your portfolio drops 10% this year, you wouldn’t want to make the problem worse by pulling out additional money.
So it’s best to set aside at least some cash for major planned purchases. But the amount and timing of setting aside that cash is based on how much you need, how soon you need it, and how your investment portfolio is doing.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
This week, we’re talking about cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns, since you’ll be able to curtail your portfolio withdrawals if and when that happens when you have enough cash.
So far this week, we’ve covered why you need cash for emergencies and stock market downturns. Yesterday, I gave you some guidelines about how much cash to keep on hand, so today, let’s talk about where to park all that cash so it can earn some interest.
Of course, for maximum safety and FDIC coverage, you can just park it in savings at your bank. This will yield you the lowest amount of interest on your money, since bank deposits are still paying laughable amounts of interest.
Another option is a money market account, which doesn’t have the FDIC insurance coverage of the bank account, but is still very safe, since it only invests in ultra-short term cash like investments. Currently, money market accounts pay in the 2-2.3% range, which is pretty good. Money markets are my preferred place to park cash for clients.
Lastly, CDs are another great place for your cash. It does require that you tie your money up, but you do have the FDIC insurance, and the penalties for selling early in an emergency are typically worth it for the higher rate of interest that you can often earn.
Talk to your financial advisor about CDs and money markets. Often they have access to CDs from banks all across the country and plenty of money market options to choose from, so you can let them shop around for the best rate for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
This week, we’re talking about cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns, since you’ll be able to curtail your portfolio withdrawals if and when that happens when you have enough cash.
I’ve spent the last 2 days trying to convince you of the importance of holding on to more cash, and today, we’re getting to the heart of the issue - how much cash should you actually keep on hand in retirement.
At a bare minimum, you’ll want about 6 months worth of monthly expenses on hand for emergencies. So if you spend $5,000/month, you’ll want $30,000 in cash, just for emergencies.
In addition, to protect yourself in the next market downturn, it would be wise to keep another 12 months of portfolio withdrawals on hand. So if you take out $2,000 from your investment portfolio every month, you would want to keep a year’s worth of withdrawals in cash, which is $24,000.
So we have 6 months of living expenses and 12 months of portfolio withdrawals, for a grand total of $54,000 in cash in this scenario. It seems like a lot, doesn’t it. But in my opinion, the 6 months of expenses and the 12 months of portfolio withdrawals are the minimum.
You could increase that amount, but I wouldn’t go too crazy, since the more cash you have on hand, the more it will dampen the long-term growth prospects on your money, since cash pays so little.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you where you can park that cash to earn more than a few pennies of interest every year.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
This week, we’re talking about cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns.
Yesterday, I talked about why it’s so important to keep extra cash on hand in retirement, since it will prevent you from dipping into your retirement assets or taking on new debt in an emergency. In retirement, most of you won’t be able to just cut your spending or make more money to pay off a new debt in retirement, so it’s even more important to leave ample cash in retirement for emergencies.
Today, I’m talking about the other main reason to keep lots of cash around in retirement - to prevent you from taking money out of your retirement portfolio in the next recession and market downturn.
Picture this - you’re retired and relying on your investment portfolio for income. Bu then the next recession hits and the stock market drops 30%. Your portfolio drops 15% if you’re lucky. If you had $1,000,000, you no longer have $1 million, you now have $850,000. Then, you take out another $50,000 that year for income and you’re left with $800,000. Do you see how taking money out of your retirement portfolio when it’s simultaneously dropping in value is such a problem? You just exacerbated the bad returns and now it will take even longer for your portfolio to recover.
But if you maintain enough cash to stop your portfolio withdrawals in the next downturn, it would help prevent you from making matters worse for yourself, and in the end, give you a better chance of not running out of money in retirement.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, I’m going to get specific on how much cash you should actually keep on hand in retirement for emergencies and insulating yourself in the next recession.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
This week, we’re talking about cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns.
Today, let’s focus on why cash matters so much in the first place.
The main reason why you need to maintain cash reserves in retirement is for emergencies, which is no different than when you were working. You’ll want to consider maintaining even more cash for emergencies in retirement though, so you won’t have to pay for your emergency with a high interest credit card or liquidate your retirement portfolio, both of which can derail your retirement plans.
Debt in retirement is problematic, because it’s much harder to pay off those emergencies if you use debt, since you can’t just pick up some extra hours at work. Most retirees aren’t able to reduce their spending or make more money to pay off a new debt in retirement, so it’s even more important to leave ample cash in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, share with you the other reason why you’ll want to keep plenty of cash available in retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
This week, we’re talking about cash savings in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and will help stabilize your portfolio during the inevitable stock market downturns.
So this week, I’m giving you some guidelines to think about when deciding how much cash to keep liquid once you make the transition into retirement.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you will have a better understanding of how much cash is enough, and why you may want to hang on to more than the standard 3-6 months worth of expenses that many of you have been advised to keep on hand while you’re working.
I’ll also talk about where to park that cash so you earn more than 38 cents of interest each year.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to withdraw money from retirement account, cash in retirement, money market, taking money out of 401k to pay debt, money market account definition, savings account, best high interest savings account, money market risk, CDs, certificate of deposit, cash for emergencies, emergency fund, where to put emergency fund, emergency savings fund, emergency fund examples
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Non-Retirement Tips. It’s a bit of a lighter week, with 4th of July this week, so this week, we looked at the big picture, and I’m shared with you some non-retirement tips...my personal life hacks that have helped me navigate the challenging, unpredictable, and winding path of life.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The big lie we tell ourselves that prevents us from reaching our goals
- How to use the Japanese concept of Kaizen to improve your habits
- The only Netflix recommendation you’ll get out of me...period.
- How to prioritize how you spend your time to accomplish more of the big things you want to do in life
- and ...How I wake up at 4:15am every day and how you can find the wake up time that is ideal for you.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: How much cash should you keep in retirement. Deciding how much cash you should have on hand at all times in retirement is more important in you might think. Having enough cash on hand will help prevent you from liquidating your investments for emergencies and help stabilize your portfolio in the inevitable stock market downturn. So next week, I’ll give you some guidelines to think about when deciding how much cash to keep liquid once you make the transition into retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
I’ve always been a morning person, but in 2018, I really became a morning person when I started getting out of bed around 4:15am every day.
I started doing this because I took inventory of what I wanted to accomplish for the day, and I backed into what time I needed to get up. The beauty of waking up early is that you have time for you. No distractions, no deadlines, no one bugging you for anything. You can just focus on your priorities. And there is plenty of research to back up that this time of day is ideal for creativity and being productive. It just takes a bit of caffeine to get going.
It’s hard to wake up in the mornings super early unless you have a compelling reason to do so and a really great why. So an important first step is finding out what that reason is for you. I wake up early because I want to pray, exercise, and knock out some focused, distraction-free work every morning. I also need to shower, get ready to go to work, and occasionally eat breakfast.
Here’s how I backed into my wake up time, and how I recommend you do it. Figure out those activities you want to get done in the quiet hours of the morning. I carved out 30 minutes for prayer and spiritual reading, 1 ½ hours for focused work, 45 minutes for working out, an hour for showering, getting ready, and breakfast, and getting out the door for work, which is only a 10 minute drive from my home. That’s 3 hours and 45 minutes. So if I need to get to work by 8am, then I need to wake up by 4:15 am. It’s that simple.
There are plenty of resources on how to actually wake up earlier online, especially on YouTube. I’ve heard of the 5,4,3,2,1 method by Mel Robbins, and setting your alarm one minute earlier each day from Eric Thomas. The point is not which method actually works, but instead that you find something that works and more importantly, that you figure out why you want to wake up earlier, sketch out all the things you want to accomplish in the morning, then back into what time you need to wake up to make it happen.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
This week, we’re looking at the big picture, and I’m sharing with you some non-retirement tips...my personal life hacks that have helped me navigate the challenging, unpredictable, and winding path of life.
Today, I’m sharing with you a proven tip for being more productive, and focusing on the most important and impactful things you want to accomplish.
Without thought or discipline about how we spend our time, many of us give in to the default of distraction on our phone. A 2017 report from comScore found that the average US adult spent two hours and 51 minutes on mobile—per day. Yikes!
So how can we focus our attention on the important things in life, instead of distracting ourselves with email, busywork, and our phone.
One answer that I’ve found incredibly useful in structuring my day and how I spend my time lies in the concept of rocks, pebbles, and sand.
Think of your day as a jar. This jar can only hold so much. Most people fill their jars with small, unimportant things - like checking email, watching TV, or scrolling throgh facebook. If you fill your days with sand, you don’t have enough time for the bigger priority and more important tasks, which represent your pebbles and rocks. Pebbles represent medium-priority tasks, and rocks represent the 1 or 2 big things that you really want to get done that day.
The trick is to fill your jar with the rocks first, then the pebbles, then the sand goes in last to fill in the gaps and holes. So what is the one thing that you really want to accomplish today? Maybe it’s taking your kids or grandkids to the park. Or perhaps its a work presenation that needs polishing. Whatever that big rock for the day is, identify it and make sure it goes in the jar first so it gets done. Then, fill in the pebbles, and last, the sand.
Your days will be more meaningful, fulfilled, and productive, and you won’t be wasting so much of your precious life on things that aren’t important to you.
If you would like to go deeper on how you can carve out time in your life for what really matters, I recommend 2 great books:
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
Happy 4th of July! This week, you’re too busy getting tipsy at your neighbor’s BBQ potluck and lighting off fireworks to care about your retirement, so I’m lightening things up with some non-retirement tips this week.
I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I do get addicted to a Netflix show every now and then. And today, in honor of our Independence Day, I’m sharing with you a show I just finished watching a couple months ago on Netflix - Turn: Washington’s Spies.
This show first aired in 2014, but the whole series is now on Netflix. Turn is about a farmer from Setauket, New York and his childhood friends. They form an unlikely group of spies called the Culper Ring, which eventually helps to turn the tide during the American Revolutionary War.
It’s a really interesting show, based on real people, and it’s worth checking out, even if you aren’t a history buff.
And lastly before I send you off on what I hope is a fun-filled day of celebration for you, I want to leave you with this: Without our freedom, we have nothing. Our government, our capitalist economic system, and our country is far from perfect. But we are free. And it takes a conscious and consistent effort to maintain that freedom. So let us all do our part today and every day to protect our freedoms and rights, and fight the misguided socialist ideals that have begun to permeate our culture. An estimated 100 million people died in the 20th century because socialist governments lost sight of the importance of individual freedom. Let us not forget that.
Happy Independence Day!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
This week, we’re looking at the big picture, and I’m sharing with you some non-retirement tips...my personal life hacks that have helped me navigate the challenging, unpredictable, and winding path of life.
Today, I’m talking about Kaizen, which is a Japanese word meaning continuous improvement. Kaizen is what took Toyota from a tiny Japanese car company to the world’s largest car manufacturer in the world.
I first learned about Kaizen in college when I took a quality control and lean manufacturing course as a required business class. When I signed up for this class, I thought it was going to be a colossal waste of time. Little did I know that what I learned in this class would be one of the most valuable things I learned while in college.
At its core, Kaizen is about making small, seemingly insignificant yet constant improvements, rather than big leaps of change to make big changes over time.
Kaizen doesn’t just work in the business world either. Author and psychologist, Robert Maurer, applied the concept of Kaizen to his psychology patients with dramatic and lasting results.
Kaizen is so effective because the ridiculously small steps you take to build new habits or destroy bad habits circumvent the brain’s built-in resistance we all have to a new behavior.
I have plenty of bad habits, but the poor health habit that has nagged at me the most over the years is that I have never been consistent with flossing. I don’t want my teeth to fall out, but I can’t seem to will myself into flossing every day. Usually I just floss regularly for about 3 weeks before my dental cleaning so I don’t get scolded, then fall back into my old bad habits again.
If you follow the concept of Kaizen and you’re trying to build the habit of flossing every day, you would start by just taking a piece of floss and just placing it on your counter. Then after doing that for a week, maybe you floss one tooth. Then 2 teeth, and continue to build, one ridiculous step at a time. You might build the habit gradually, one painless step at a time, until one day you’re flossing your whole mouth!
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening, but I need to go floss 4 teeth now.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
This week, we’re looking at the big picture, and I’m sharing with you some non-retirement tips...my personal life hacks that have helped me navigate the challenging, unpredictable, and winding path of life.
Today, I’m sharing with you the lie we tell ourselves that prevents us from reaching our goals or even trying to reach our goals.
I started as a financial advisor straight out of school, when I was 22 years old. My first client was 75 years old. I cold called him and miraculously, he transferred his 2 million investment portfolio to my care after our first meeting. I wanted to ask him, like, “you sure about that? I don’t know if you noticed, but I don’t know what the hell I’m doing over here.” He was more than 50 years older than me, and I was giving him advice about his money and his retirement.
Over the years, I’ve spoken to thousands of people about money and their retirement and I’m only 34 years old. Sometimes I feel like I’m a fish out of water. I feel like I have to prove myself, because I still am young and I still look young too. I had someone ask me the other day what school I go to. He thought I was in college. No, I am an adult!
There’s a term for this - it’s called imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome basically refers to a pattern of behavior where people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. Even if you’re not actually a fraud, many of us often feel like imposters who will somehow soon be found out for the inexperienced idiots we are.
Here’s the lie: I’m too young or I’m too old.
We quickly move from feeling like inexperienced imposters to has beens. Many of us tell ourselves that we are too young or too old for something, and as a result, we don’t go after what we really want.
Here’s some food for thought…
- Mozart was 8 when he wrote his first symphony
- Paul McCartney was 15 when he and John Lennon formed a band
- Joan of Arc was 18 when she led the French army to victory
- Ray Kroc was 52 when he started McDonalds
- Dom Perignon was 60 when he first produced champagne
- Nelson Mandela was 71 when he was released from prison and 75 when he was elected president of South Africa
- Benjamin Franklin was 79 when he invented bifocals
- Frank Lloyd Wright was 91 when he completed his work on the Guggenheim museum
So whatever you’re telling yourself at the moment, whether you think your too young or too old, realize that you are blessed with incredible gifts and talents, if you can only get out of your own way.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
Welcome to a brand new week of the One Minute Retirement Tip. This week, I am talking about non-retirement tips. It’s a bit of a lighter week, with 4th of July coming up this week, so I wanted to do something a bit lighter here on the One Minute Retirement Tip. The funny thing is, I actually had a hard time coming up with some non-retirement nuggets of wisdom for you this week. I have 3 years worth of retirement topics ideas stored in my noggin, but I had to dig deep to bring you these decidedly non-retirement, but hopefully just as valuable tips that I’ve learned over the years. No wonder my 30-something friends don’t like hanging out with me anymore.
So this week, I’ll share with you my life hacks that have helped me navigate the challenging, unpredictable, and winding path of life. I’ll talk about the big lie too many of us tell ourselves that holds us back, what the concept of Kaizen can teach you about ditching your bad habits and picking up new ones, how to prioritize your life with rocks, how I roll out of bed at 4:15am every day, and the only Netflix recommendation you’ll likely ever hear on the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you will pick up on at least a couple of good nuggets that you can implement to improve your own life, which in the end will help you lead a more fulfilling retirement anyways.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner,
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The Danger of Retiring During a Recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio will also likely drop - 10, 20, or even 30% or more, which can derail your plans for retirement.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The danger of retiring during a recession...explained
- Why you should consider rebalancing and reducing your stock allocation...right now!
- How you can stress test your retirement
- Keeping enough cash on hand to help you get through a rough patch in the stock market
- And...a discussion of what you would be willing to give up in order to protect your portfolio - would you be willing to cut your spending or work part time? If so, it could potentially mean the difference between maintaining financial security in retirement, or relying on social security.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Non-Retirement tips. Yes, that’s right. It’s the 4th of July next week, the official start of summer, and you couldn’t care less about your retirement...come on, be honest! You’re too busy getting tipsy at your neighbor’s BBQ and fireworks bash to care about what I have to say about your retirement. So that means I’m bringing you a few non-retirement tips. I’m not going to give away much here, because I want you to tune in, but I hope you’ll find it valuable and insightful, even if it’s officially non-retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
This week’s topic is the danger of retiring during a recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio may also drop, 10, 20, or 30%, and can derail your plans for retirement.
Today, we’re wrapping up the weekly theme on the Danger of Retiring During a Recession, but before we slide into home base with our Sunday recap tomorrow, I have one last tip for you on this topic:
Be flexible with your withdrawals. In addition to keeping enough cash on hand to help you weather a potential recession in the early years of retirement, another way you can protect yourself is by remaining flexible.
Here’s what I mean by that: what are you willing to do to lessen the impact of a stock market downturn and a recession on your retirement portfolio? Are you willing to reduce your income from your portfolio? Are you willing to go back to work or work part-time?
Cutting back or stopping your portfolio withdrawals can be huge for helping you weather the storm of a recession in early retirement. Are you willing to work part time, scale back your lifestyle? It’s important to think through what you would be willing to do to lessen the impact of a stock market drop on your portfolio, before you’re faced with the decision to drive an Uber every day just to buy groceries.
So I encourage you today to think about how flexibility with your portfolio withdrawals in the face of a recession and a market downturn can help protect you, and what you would be willing to do in order to cut back or better yet, completely stop withdrawals during a stock market downturn.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
This week, I’m talking about the danger of retiring during a recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio will also likely drop - 10, 20, or even 30% or more, which can derail your plans for retirement.
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you how you can protect yourself from a stock market drop either just before or just after you retire - which can be devastating for your retirement and significantly increase your chances of running out of money later in life.
Today, I’m focusing on a wise and practical way to protect yourself from a stock market drop in the early years of retirement - keeping enough cash on hand to weather the storm.
The typical stock market drop lasts about 18 months. Even the massive stock market decline in 2008 only lasted about 18 months. When you have enough cash on hand to get you through the big drops without making the problem worse by withdrawing money from your portfolio when it’s cratering, you give your portfolio a better chance of recovering and recovering quicker.
One smart way to deal with this problem is to keep 1-2 years of cash on hand in a money market fund, that you can draw from, so you don’t have to tap into your portfolio when the stock market it dropping and the economy is in the tank. Most of the time, 1-2 years worth of cash is enough to see you through, so consider sidelining some of your retirement portfolio in the later years of working and the early years of retirement to see you through a potential recession.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
This week, I’m talking about the danger of retiring during a recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio will also likely drop - 10, 20, or even 30% or more, which can derail your plans for retirement.
Today, let’s talk about stress testing your retirement. By stress test, I mean that you take a look at your portfolio as it’s invested today and you backtest it by looking at how much it dropped during all of the last market crises of the last 20 years. This includes the Great Recession of 2008, the WTC attacks, the tech bubble, as well as a handful of other big drops in the stock market.
This is an important exercise, since understanding how your currently portfolio would have held up (or didn’t hold up) in a number of stock market drops, you’ll better understand how risky your current portfolio is and how to take steps to lower your risk if you find that your current portfolio dropped more than you would be comfortable with.
We stress test all of our client portfolios, and it’s a key part of our review process for clients. If you would like me to stress test your portfolio - no strings attached - just send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com , that’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com to get started.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
This week, I’m talking about the danger of retiring during a recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio will also likely drop - 10, 20, or even 30% or more, which can derail your plans for retirement.
Today, I’m sharing with you the best piece of advice I can give you right now - which is to look seriously at rebalancing your portfolio now. And I mean now. Seriously, do it now if you have too much in stocks. I’m not messing around, here. The stock market is near it’s all time highs. And as I tell clients all the time, the point of maximum optimism is also the point of maximum risk.
A lot of people get into trouble because they are close to retirement, yet they haven’t rebalanced their portfolio and they are still 80, 90, or even 100% in stocks. Yes, the stock market could continue to go up from here, but now is the time to re-balance your portfolio to ensure you have the right mix of stocks and bonds for your age and proximity to retirement.
If you want to know the mix of stocks that we recommend for our clients by age, you can email me and I will send you our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet. It’s a guide to what your stock and bond mix should be for your age, and it’s the foundation that we when building portfolios for all of our clients.
Just shoot me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com and I’ll send you your free age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, to help you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your portfolio.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
This week, I’m talking about the danger of retiring during a recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio will also likely drop - 10, 20, or even 30% or more, which can derail your plans for retirement.
Today, I want to clarify why a drop in your retirement portfolio a couple of years on either side of retirement is problematic.
I’m going to throw some numbers at you so stick with me. Let’s say you have $1,000,000 saved for retirement, and the next recession hits and your portfolio drops 20%. That means you don’t have $1,000,000 for retirement anymore. You now have $800,000. The result is that you’ll either need to live off of less income every month - about $660 dollars/month less. Or, if you don’t cut back on your spending, you run the real risk of running out of money.
So, for the rest of this week, I’m going to share with you practical ways you can protect yourself and make sure that the next recession won’t derail your plans for retirement or force you to work longer than you hoped, but today, my goal is to show you that you how important it is to prepare for the possibility of a stock market drop around the time you retire.
The reality is, if you just stick your head in the sand, just let it ride, and don’t take steps to protect yourself, it could mean the difference between financial security and relying on social security in the later years of your retirement.
I don’t want to scare you, but the reality is that a big drop in your portfolio in the early years of retirement can have lasting and serious consequences, so I want you to take this seriously. On that note, thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
Welcome to a brand new week of the One Minute Retirement Tip. This week, I am talking about the danger of retiring during a recession. The problem with retiring during a recession is that your investment portfolio may also drop, 10, 20, or 30%, and can derail your plans for retirement.
So this week, I’ll share with you why a bad timing decision with your retirement can be so devastating for your portfolio, and what you can do about it.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you will better understand what you can do to protect yourself in the early years of retirement from a stock market drop, and what to do if a recession hits just before or just after you retire - which, by the way, if you plan to retire in the next 5 years - is a very real and likely possibility.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. If you find these tips valuable, or if you have feedback for me or topic suggestions, it’s a great way to share the love and share your ideas with me! And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, retiring soon, retirement concerns, recession
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Must-listen-to podcasts on money.
Unfortunately, it seems like every money podcast out there today is for millenials - how to crush your student loans, how to flee the country so you don’t have to pay back your student loans, how to make six figures as a youtube star.
But what about you, my loyal baby boomer and Gen X listeners? Where can you find helpful money advice and entertaining podcasts geared toward you?
That’s what we focused on this week - podcasts to help you on your path to smart money decisions and a fulfilled retirement where you don’t run out of money. Podcasts that speak to your in your stage in life to help you crush not your student loans, but crush your retirement.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- Must-Listen-To Podcast if You Like Dave Ramsey
- Must-Listen-To Podcast for Thoughtful Investors
- Must-Listen-To Classic Money Podcast
- Must-Listen-To Podcast for Side Hustlers
- And finally, the Must-Listen-To Podcast if You Like To Mix It Up
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The Danger of Retiring in a Down Market. This is a timely an important topic, for anyone, but especially for those of you who are within a few years of retirement. The economy is still growing but showing signs of slowing down, and a recession and coinciding stock market drop can be devastating for your retirement plans if it happens during the early years of retirement. So I’ll share with you how you can protect yourself if a bear market decides to show up when you collect your gold watch.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
This week, I’m talking about my must-listen-to podcasts on money. It’s actually pretty hard to find a podcast on money that isn’t geared toward millennials, but red beans and rice!, I think I’ve done it!
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you one of my must listen-to podcasts on money that will help you on your path to financial security it retirement.
Today, I’m bringing you the “Must-Listen-To Podcast if you like to mix it up” - Jill On Money
Now Jill has a lot of street cred - she is an Emmy-nominated Business Analyst for CBS News. In addition to her podcast, she is a regular on CBS and NPR, wrote a book last year, and spent 14 years in the investment advisory business.
Of all the shows I’ve featured this week, her topics are the most broad. She covers topics like leadership, insurance, whether to rent or own your home, student loans, and how to preserve your assets. So some of the episodes may not always be relevant to you, but she has great guests and her show is very well done.
Ok, so a bit more about the show...new episodes are published every Tuesday and Thursday, and episodes vary widely in length. Some are under 10 minutes, and others are as long as 40 minutes.
I’ll link to his podcast in today’s show notes, which you can find over on iTunes under episode 251 of the One Minute Retirement Tip:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jill-on-money-with-jill-schlesinger/id431167790?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
I’ll also link to a sampling of a couple of recent episode that you might like:
- Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money
- How Much Do I Need for Retirement
Happy Listening! That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
This week, I’m talking about my must-listen-to podcasts on money. It’s actually pretty hard to find a podcast on money that isn’t geared toward millennials, but Yowza!, I think I’ve done it!
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you one of my must listen-to podcasts on money that will help you on your path to financial security it retirement.
Today is the “Must-Listen-To Podcast for Side Hustlers” - The Side Hustle Show
Here’s why I like this topic for pre-retirees: Many of you will be working part-time in retirement, and many people dream about turning their retirement years into a 2nd career. This show is a treasure trove of ideas and tips, covering all aspects of starting a business and making money. The show also has deep archives with over 300 episodes for you to binge on.
And guess what? If you’re listening to me on Alexa, you can also find Nick Loper and another version of his show - the Money Making Minute - on Amazon Alexa.
Ok, so a bit more about the show...new episodes are published weekly, and most episodes are between 30-45 minutes long.
I’ll link to his podcast in today’s show notes, which you can find over on iTunes under episode 250 of the One Minute Retirement Tip:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-side-hustle-show/id655135292?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
I’ll also link to a sampling of a couple of recent episode that you might like:
- Multi Six-Figure Consulting on the Side - who wouldn’t want that in retirement, right?
- The Million Dollar Hobby: How to Monetize What You’re Already Interested In
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
This week, I’m talking about my must-listen-to podcasts on money. It’s actually pretty hard to find a podcast on money that isn’t geared toward millennials, but holy cannoli, I think I’ve done it!
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you one of my must listen-to podcasts on money that will help you on your path to financial security it retirement.
Today is the “Must-Listen-To Classic Money Podcast” - the Clark Howard Podcast
Clark Howard has been a personal finance radio personality for years, dispensing advice to help his listeners save more, spend less, and avoid ripoffs.
What I like most about Clark Howard is that he covers topics on his show that I wouldn’t have thought about, like whether or not I actually need premium gas, and how to shop for travel insurance. He also talks a lot about scams and cybersecurity, which I am personally very interested in as you might have noticed if you listened to my tips from 2 weeks ago, where I talked about how to protect you and your wallet from hackers.
Ok, so a bit more about the show...a new episode comes out each weekday, and each one is exactly 38 minutes long.
I’ll link to his podcast in today’s show notes, which you can find over on iTunes under episode 249 of the One Minute Retirement Tip: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-clark-howard-podcast/id207724573?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
I’ll also link to a sampling of a couple of recent episode that you might like:
- Facial recognition to speed up travel; Why annuities are so bad
- Another school lunch issue arises; New Airbnb scam; Where to put your savings now
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon, iTunes, or wherever you’re listening to this podcast. Reviews are the best way to share the love if you’re enjoying this show and it’s helping you on your path to retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
This week, I’m talking about my must-listen-to podcasts on money. It’s actually pretty hard to find a podcast on money that isn’t geared toward millennials, but Eureka, I think I’ve done it!
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you one of my must listen-to podcasts on money that will help you on your path to financial security in retirement.
Today is the “Must-Listen-To Podcast for Thoughtful Investors” - Money For The Rest of Us
If you are interested in learning more about investing, I recommend you listen to J. David Stein and his podcast Money for the Rest of Us.
I like the variety of the topics in his show, and he takes what can be a complex and sometimes boring topic of investing and makes it simpler and entertaining.
Ok, so a bit more about the show...a new episode comes out each week, and each one is about 25-30 minutes long.
I’ll link to his podcast in today’s show notes, which you can find over on iTunes under episode 248 of the One Minute Retirement Tip: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/money-for-the-rest-of-us/id883011006?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
I’ll also link to a sampling of a couple of recent episode that you might like:
- What Central Banks Don’t Know Should Concern You
- Investment Rule One—Avoid Ruin
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
This week, I’m talking about my must-listen-to podcasts on money. It’s actually pretty hard to find a podcast on money that isn’t geared toward millennials, but by golly, I think I’ve done it!
Each day this week, I’m sharing with you one of my must listen-to podcasts on money that will help you on your path to financial security it retirement.
Today is the “must-listen-to podcast if you like Dave Ramsey” - The Chris Hogan Show.
Chris Hogan is part of Dave Ramsey’s team, sp you’ll hear a lot of the same advice you might hear from Dave Ramsey. His episodes focused a lot on debt, budgeting, and building everyday millionaires.
I like Chris Hogan because he’s fun, interesting, and kind of reminds me of that high school football coach that you respected but feared. Like, “whatever you say Mr. Hogan. Yes, sir, Mr. Hogan, I will pay off my car like you told me to Mr. Hogan.”
And then he yells “Why aren’t you a millionaire yet?! Drop down and give me 20”. Then I start crying cause I can’t do 20 pushups but you can be darn sure I’m going to be a millionaire now, because I don’t want to do any more push ups.
He’s not a crazy drill sergeant, but just enough to get you to sit up and listen to what he has to say. Or if you just want someone who sounds like Barry White talk to you about money, then have a listen to his show.
Ok, so a bit more about the show...the length of each episode varies - many are about 25-30 minutes, but some are closer to an hour.
I’ll link to his podcast in today’s show notes, which you can find over on iTunes under episode 247 of the One Minute Retirement Tip: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-chris-hogan-show/id1117556964?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
I’ll also link to a sampling of a couple of recent episode that you might like:
- Why Retirement Planning Must Start With a Unified Vision
- What Do 79% of Millionaires Have in Common?
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
Hi there, welcome to a brand new week of the One Minute Retirement Tip. If you like this podcast, you probably like listening to other podcasts, which means you’re probably going to really like this week’s theme.
I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts about money. Some I love and stick with for years, and others I get bored or annoyed with and turn off after a few episodes. It’s hard to find those gems that really provide value. Hopefully I’m doing that for you, but that’s not what this week is about. This week, I’m talking about my must-listen-to podcasts on money.
Unfortunately, it seems like every money podcast out there today is for millenials - how to crush your student loans, how to flee the country so you don’t have to pay back your student loans, how to make six figures as a youtube star.
But what about you, my loyal baby boomer and Gen X listeners? Where can you find helpful money advice and entertaining podcasts geared toward you? That’s what we’re focusing on this week. I’m sharing with you 5 of my favorite podcasts to help you on your path to smart money decisions and a fulfilled retirement where you don’t run out of money.
Podcasts that speak to your in your stage in life to help you crush not your student loans, but crush your retirement.
Each day this week I’ll be sharing with you one money podcast that I love. I’ll explain what it’s all about, why I love it, and give you a sampling of some recent episodes that you can check out for yourself.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, money podcast, making money podcast, financial podcast, best financial podcasts, best investing podcasts
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Do You Know Where Your Money Goes Every Month?
I really tried to cram down your throat why you must have a solid understanding of your income and expenses in retirement BEFORE you transition in retirement, and hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are motivated to start a budget.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- Why a Budget is a Must Before You Retire
- Why the 80% retirement spending rule of thumb is worthless
- What to do if you will need to lower your spending in retirement
- How to Find a Budget Tracker that Works For You
- And...how to complete your budget in just 2 weeks
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: My list of Must-Listen-To Money Podcasts. If you’re listening to me, you probably enjoy listening to other podcasts as well, so I’ll be sharing with you my favorite podcasts on money that can help you on your path to a successful retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, budgeting, budgeting tips, budget, retirement budget, budgeting app, how to track spending
How long do you need to track your spending for until you get a good idea of your budget and what that actually looks like? A month, 3 months, 6 months of spending? That sounds cumbersome, doesn’t it. But what if I told you that you can get a really good idea of what you spend, just by tracking for 2 weeks?
Back in 2016, I volunteered with the Financial Wellness program with Catholic Charities of Oregon. It’s a great program that places people who are in some pretty tight spots financially with coaches like me who can help them take control of their finances.
One of the biggest hurdles for people in the program was the budgeting part. It was an essential first step because I couldn’t really help the person I was working with until I had a better handle of the numbers around their income, bills, debt, and spending.
Tracking this for a period of months wasn’t realistic for someone who was financially stressed and needed help now, so we told the people we worked with to just track for 2 weeks.
That’s it. 2 weeks. Then you double that number, subtract any one-time expenses, add back recurring expenses that didn’t occur in those 2 weeks, like your mortgage payment, and viola - you have a pretty good estimate of your spending.
Now, in an ideal world, tracking your spending for 3 months is ideal, because you’ll have a much better idea of your actual expenses if you track over a 3 month period, but the important thing is that you get started. And you can get started by tracking for just 2 weeks, so give it a try!
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, budgeting, budgeting tips, budget, retirement budget, budgeting app, how to track spending
Do you know where your money goes every month? When you retire, you’ll need to figure out how much money is coming in the door, which is often pretty simple. The hard part is figuring out where your money goes every month, yet it’s essential to do that before you transition into retirement, so you’re not blindsided by too little coming in and too much going out.
I’ve spent most of the week so far, talking about why a budget is so important, how much or your pre-retirement income you’ll need in retirement, and what to do if your income in retirement isn’t enough, so today I’m hoping that you’re ready to get started on a budget. I’m talking about finding a budget tracker that works for you.
In my opinion, there are 3 basic ways to track your income and expenses that work for most people. Personally, I prefer a budgeting app, and that’s what my husband and I use now, but I still use a spreadsheet style budget for my company, and I’ve used pen and paper as well.
Those are the 3 methods that I think work the best, and depending on your preference, you should pick the one that your most likely to stick with in the long-run.
Ok, so first we have the budgeting app. Popular examples of budgeting apps are Mint, PocketGuard, Wally, and many others. Do a little homework and pick a budgeting app that works for you. I recommend an app that will sync up with your debit cards, credit cards, and your bank account so that it can track and categorize all of your expenses for you. One of the biggest benefits of these apps is that they take most of the work of budgeting off your plate, so take advantage of that.
And just a pro tip here, to make it even easier to get started...once you pick an app to use, sync it up with just one card. Then use that card for every purchase for the next few weeks while you’re testing the app; that way you don’t have to sync everything up to the app when you get started - just the one card.
If the app route doesn’t appeal to you, then I recommend old school pen and paper. Just be sure to always ask for a receipt everywhere you go and sit down to record at least once a week, so the pile of expenses to record doesn't get too big.
Pen an paper works for a lot of people, but I think a more secure and better tool is a spreadsheet. The other benefit here is that there is less room for error, since you can let the spreadsheet do the adding for you. You can often find templates for budgets online that you can import to the spreadsheet software you have on your computer.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening and happy budgeting!
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
Do you know where your money goes every month? When you retire, you’ll need to figure out how much money is coming in the door, which is often pretty simple. The hard part is figuring out where your money goes every month, yet it’s essential to do that before you transition into retirement, so you’re not blindsided by too little coming in and too much going out.
This week’s episodes have been building - I started by talking about why it’s so important to budget and track your spending before retirement, then I talked about how to find out what you’re likely to spend in retirement.
I’ll spend the rest of the week talking about how to find a budget system that works for you and the quick and easy way to get started with a budget that’s designed for those of you who hate budgets.
But before I do that, today, I want to talk about spending habits. When you start tracking your spending you’ll likely have a few surprises. Maybe you discover that you spend more on your dog than your mortgage every month. Believe it or not, I’ve seen that. Maybe if you’re like me, you think you don’t spend much on eating out until you realize that your Egg McMuffin breakfast habit is getting out of control.
If you have a shortfall in your budget where you will have more money going out in retirement than coming in, you probably don’t have to start eating rice and beans every night, and sell your car for a 1994 Toyota Camry. But you will want to pay attention to those 1 or 2 areas of spending that seem a bit high, and experiment with how you can cut back in those areas.
Again, it’s critical to do this before retirement. It would be a real bummer to discover this after you retire, and feel like you have to pinch pennies all the time, so find a way to cut back now if you have a shortfall in your income vs. spending.
Here are a few ideas to get you thinking that have worked for me:
- With personal care - are you willing to DIY your own nails, or use (gasp!) haircolor in a box? Or dare I say, even easier and cheaper would be to let those wisdom hairs grow in. That’s code for gray hair. So ask yourself, “what am I paying for right now, that I’d be willing to stop paying for altogether or switch to DIY?
- This one I call the cart trick. It works really well for online shopping. If you are buying something online, go ahead and put it in your cart and leave it there for a week. If you forget about it, then you didn’t need it or want it that much anyway. If you come back to it a week later and you still want it as much as you did before and you’ve been obsessing about it all week, then go ahead and make the purchase. Keeping something in your cart for a week before you pull the trigger, will help reduce your spending and curb your impulse spending.
- If you’re someone who likes games and challenges, try a “No spend week”. Make sure you have toilet paper and groceries before you start the week, and then buy nothing all week. No eating out, no coffee, nothing. Don’t open your wallet...at all! This helps to condition you not to NEED to buy things. Also, pay attention to how it makes you feel. It always helps me realize that I’m just as happy and satisfied when I’m not buying stuff, and that stuff doesn’t bring happiness.
Everyone is different, so find something that works for you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, budgeting, budgeting tips, budget, retirement budget, budgeting app, how to track spending
Do you know where your money goes every month? When you retire, you’ll need to figure out how much money is coming in the door, which is often pretty simple. The hard part is figuring out where your money goes every month, yet it’s essential to do that before you transition into retirement, so you’re not blindsided by too little coming in and too much going out.
Yesterday I talked about why creating a budget and tracking your income and spending in an absolute must before you retire. Today, I want to talk about another topic that will help you budget your spending in retirement, which is how you can expect your spending to change in retirement.
The fact is, your spending will change in retirement. A popular rule of thumb that governs much advice in this area is the 80% rule, which suggests that you should plan to need about 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living in retirement.
Most rules of thumb are worthless pieces of garbage, and this one is no exception. Sorry, but it’s just too simplified to plan for your changing expenses in retirement with this 80% rule of thumb. For plenty of Americans, particularly working class Americans who can’t afford to live it up in retirement, they will be spending a lot less than this in retirement out of necessity. They may only have social security and little else.
If on the other hand, you make $100,000 a year and I tell you that you’ll need $80,000 a year in retirement because of the 80% rule, that may seem reasonable to some and ridiculous to others. No client has ever told me: “Ashley, I’m so excited to retire so I can downgrade my lifestyle”. Or, “I can’t wait to cut back on all the fun stuff I used to do when I had a job!”
Am I right? For many, expenses don’t necessarily go down, but they do change. You might payoff your mortgage at some point during retirement. You’ll usually spend less on gas and parking, especially if you had a long commute for work, but you’ll likely spend more on travel, hobbies, or home projects now that you have the time to tackle those things.
So forget the rule of thumb, and just track your actual expenses. Then look at the expenses that will change based on the lifestyle you envision in retirement and ask yourself if you’ll need more, less, or about the same income as you have today to cover those expenses.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
Before you go, I have a quick freebie for you. If you want to forget the rule of thumb planning and get answers to your specific questions around retirement, send me an email at ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll send you a link where you can schedule a free, 15 minute retirement strategy call with me at a time that’s convenient for you.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, budgeting, budgeting tips, budget, retirement budget, budgeting app, how to track spending
Do you know where your money goes every month? That’s what I’m talking about this week, on the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Today, I really want to stress the importance of why you absolutely need to budget and know what’s coming in and what’s going out every month BEFORE you enter into retirement.
Let’s say you spend $5000/month. Currently, while working, your take home pay is $6000/mo. That’s great. But what happens when you retire and your income drops to $4,000/mo. For people who don’t budget, they get blindsided by this. And they usually either live in denial and keep spending that $5000/mo even though they can only afford to spend $4000, quickly draining their portfolio, or they make drastic decisions, that are sometimes unnecessary - like getting on one of those tiny house or couponing shows.
But when you budget and understand what you’re spending and what you’ll need to live in retirement, BEFORE you retire, you’ll have the breathing room to make smarter decisions about what to do about that $1000 shortfall. You’ll have more options. Maybe that shortfall is just too big, so you decide to work another year. Or maybe you can do some part time work to cover the shortfall...whatever it is, we need to know the gap so you can figure out how you’ll close it.
The budget is the only way you’ll figure out what the gap is and how big it is, so you can deal with it in a smart way.
Or, better yet, if you don’t have a shortfall, the budget will give you peace of mind that you really can afford to retire.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, come on back because I’m answering a question I get asked all the time - how much do household expenses for Americans really change in retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, budgeting, budgeting tips, budget, retirement budget, budgeting app, how to track spending
Do you know where your money goes every month? If you’re like many Americans, the answer is a yessy maybe, or a hesitant “eh, kinda?”. So this week I’m talking about that dirty B word - no, not that sister in law of yours that you can stand...not that B word. I’m talking about budgets.
The word “Budget” gets such a bad reputation, because it conjures up images of carrying around envelopes of cash, and restricting yourself to one starbucks a month, and definitely no target runs! That all sounds like a bad dream.
But what I mean by budgeting within the context of this week’s tips is just getting a handle on where your money goes every month. How much do you actually spend on your mortgage, groceries, eating out, travel, etc.
Budgeting doesn’t have to be this suffocating overlord, trying to ruin every pleasure you have in life. Instead, knowing where your money goes every month and tracking your income and spending gives you freedom!
So this week I’m going to share with you why you should never retire without having a budget in place, how to plan for changing expenses in retirement, ideas for course correcting if you have a shortfall, how to find a budgeting tool that works for you, and the quickest and easiest way to get started with a budget if you aren’t already tracking your spending.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, budgeting, budgeting tips, budget, retirement budget, budgeting app, how to track spending
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Protecting yourself and your wallet online. I probably don’t need to convince you too much of how important it is, yet most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices.
Your odds of being a victim to identity theft is 1 in 15...per year! So the odds are very high that you will get hacked at some point over your lifetime.
A recent study by the Department of Justice found that the average cost of identity theft like unauthorized credit card use and the stealing of your personal information averaged $1,343 per person. But beyond that, there is also the negative impact on your credit scores and the headaches of fixing the problems stemming from stolen information like your social security number.
So this week, I shared with you 5 quick and easy ways to help you keep your your wallet and your identity secure online.
My hope is that you will implement at least a couple of these tips, if you haven’t already tightened up your online security.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The Genius of the Password Manager
- 2 Factor Authentication - What It Is and Why You Should Care
- Email Security 101
- Just Say NO to Public Wi-Fi
- And...Pretend All of Your Facebook Friends Are Thieves
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Budgeting for your retirement. Budgeting is always important, but it’s especially important as you approach retirement, so you can better understand where your money is going and how your expenses will change in retirement. So next week, I’m going to share with you some budgeting tips which will not restrict you, but instead, give you more freedom as you transition into retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
This week’s theme is protecting yourself and your wallet online. Remember the good old days where your information security was as simple as keeping your file drawer locked and shredding your bank statements. My goodness, do things change!
I probably don’t need to convince you too much of how important it is, yet most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices. Since your odds of being a victim to hackers is frighteningly high, I’m sharing with you some important ways that you can protect yourself online.
One of the main areas where people tend to be lax in their cybersecurity practices is on social media. So today, I want you to assume you have a rogue facebook friend who is really a shameless hacker. Think about that person every time you post on social media.
Hackers can use information on facebook to guess commonly used passwords, like your child’s name. They can see when you’re on vacation and break into your home while you’re gone. They can use information you share about your favorite sports team to correctly answer challenge questions on your online logins.
In addition to limiting the information you share online, your personal security is also a great excuse to scale back your social friends list and only share information with a select group of friends and family.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
The theme for this week is: protecting yourself and your wallet online. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, so it’s hard to keep up, and unfortunately, most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices. So this week, I’m sharing with you 5 quick wins to take your cybersecurity protection to the next level.
Today we’re talking about one of the greatest sins I see, which is poor security in public places. I go to a coffee shop and I see someone working and answering emails, where anyone walking by can see their screen and what they’re doing.
I see people shopping online, and I sure hope those people whipping out their credit cards and logging into data sensitive websites have encrypted their public wi-fi surfing. The problem with public wi-fi is 2-fold:
- You might inadvertently log in to a hackers private network who is posing as the coffee shop. So always get the exact name of the public wi-fi network, so can protect yourself on that front.
- Other people have the ability to see what you’re doing on a public wi-fi network. There are ways you can browse safe and securely on public wi-fi, but it’s best to only do activities on public wi-fi that you wouldn’t mind others seeing, and avoid file sharing or activities involving sensitive private information, as a general rule.
So how can you protect yourself on public wi-fi? One way is by turning your phone into a hotspot, which allows you to circumvent the public wifi. Or, you can use a VPN, which stands for virtual private network. This is a software tool that you can install on your computer that encrypts your data on public wi-fi.
Turning your phone into a hotspot or setting up a VPN are very simple to do, but a in-depth explanation is beyond the scope of these tips. Personally, I’ve used both and I use these methods any time I log in to a public wifi network. For more information, ask your most tech savvy friend for help or turn to a google search.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
The theme for this week is: protecting yourself and your wallet online. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, so it’s hard to keep up, and unfortunately, most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices. So this week, I’m sharing with you 5 quick wins to take your cybersecurity protection to the next level.
Today, I’m sharing with you one of the top ways that hackers can wreak havoc on your life - your email account. In addition to making your email more secure through stronger passwords and 2 Factor Authentication, which were the topics of Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s tips, you can protect one of the most vulnerable entry points for hackers with a few email best practices.
So today, I am sharing with you 2 best practices that should help you keep your email more secure.
- Assume everyone is reading your emails. This mindset around the emails you send will make you think twice about sending your social security number, account numbers, or other personal information via email.
- Think before you click - many hackers get access to your computer and your data through links that you click or email attachments that you open. Beware of all links and attachments, even if it appears to come from a familiar source.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
The theme for this week is: protecting yourself and your wallet online. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, so it’s hard to keep up, and unfortunately, most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices. So this week, I’m sharing with you 5 quick wins to take your cybersecurity protection to the next level.
Yesterday, I talked about one of the quickest and easiest wins that will insulate you from hackers and identity thieves - the password manager. Today, I’m continuing with a related topic - 2 factor authentication.
2 Factor Authentication is where you have to enter an additional code when you log in to your account. Often it comes in the form of a text message, your fingerprint on your phone, or a code you have to enter from an app. The purpose is to provide an additional layer of security, so if your password does get hacked, thieves still need that additional code to log in.
You should enable 2 Factor Authentication wherever it’s offered, especially on websites where your information is most vulnerable - your bank accounts, investment accounts, file sharing, social media, & email accounts.
To make it easy to implement this tip, keep 2 Factor Authentication top of mind as you use various websites. Then, as you use each one, find out if 2 factor authentication is available, set it up, and you’re done. Instead of this massive undertaking, just bite off one website as a time, and set up 2 factor authentication as you go.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
The theme for this week is: protecting yourself and your wallet online. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, so it’s hard to keep up, and unfortunately, most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices. So this week, I’m sharing with you 5 things you can do to take your cybersecurity protection to the next level.
Today, I want to cover one of the most important ways to keep your personal info safe and secure - good password habits! Are you still using “password1” as your password or your dogs name followed by your year of birth?
Passwords should be long, with numbers, special characters, and letters. You probably know that. But the problem is that you might have as many as 50 different online log-ins, and since you don’t want to be constantly resetting your password, you use a password that you can remember, and you use the same password in several different places. Therein lies the problem.
A hacker gets your password for your social media account, your email, or your online shopping account, then they try that same password everywhere else - potentially providing them access to several of your accounts, because they know you repeat passwords.
That’s where a password manager comes in. A password manager stores and remembers all of your passwords. It’s an encrypted and secure place to store all of your passwords, allowing you to have strong and unique passwords for all of your online log-ins.
A password manager is a MUST for protecting yourself online, and when you use a password manager, you just have to remember one password - the password to log in to your password manager.
You can find out more about a password manager by googling the term. 3 of the more popular password managers are 1Password, LastPass, and DashLane.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, come on back because I’m continuing with the topic of securing your online log-ins with 2 factor authentication.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
The theme for this week is: protecting yourself and your wallet online. Remember the good old days where your information security was as simple as keeping your file drawer locked and shredding your bank statements. My goodness, do things change!
I probably don’t need to convince you too much of how important it is, yet most of us are pretty lax in our cybersecurity protection practices.
Your odds of being a victim to identity theft is 1 in 15...per year! So the odds that you will get hacked at some point over your lifetime are very high.
A recent study by the Department of Justice found that the average cost of identity theft like unauthorized credit card use and the stealing of your personal information averaged $1,343 per person. But beyond that, there is also the negative impact on your credit scores and the headaches of fixing the problems stemming from stolen information like your social security number.
So this week I’m going to share with you 5 quick and easy ways to help you, your wallet, and your identity stay secure online. These are quick wins that will have a big impact in helping to protect your personal information and online security.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, cybersecurity, cyber security, why is cybersecurity so important, email security, identity theft, 2 factor authentication, two factor authentication, password manager
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: stock market cycles...explained. If you’re an investing novice, like the vast majority of Americans, the stock market and it’s wild gyrations can seem intimidating and confusing. But what if I told you that the cycles of the stock market are actually more regular than you think, and hence more predictable.
When you better understand how stock market cycles work, it becomes easier to decipher where we are in the current cycle and potentially profit from it by making smarter decisions with your money.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you realize that stock market cycles are not random, but relatively predictable, and that, as billionaire investor, Howard Marks said: “the key to mastering the market cycle is understanding where it is today.”
Here’s what we covered this week:
- What happened on March 6, 2009
- The predictable stock market cycle
- Understanding the market cycle we’re currently in
- How long market cycles last,
- And some further reading from billionaire investor, Howard Marks if you’re interested in going deeper in this topic
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Keeping yourself (and your wallet!) secure online. Hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated, but there are several things you can do to protect yourself online. I’ll talk about 3 simple, yet vitally important steps you can take to prevent identity theft, fraud, and cybersecurity attacks.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
The theme for this week is: stock market cycles...explained. If you’re an investing novice, like the vast majority of Americans, the stock market and it’s wild gyrations can seem intimidating and confusing. But what if I told you that the cycles of the stock market are actually more regular than you think, and hence more predictable.
When you better understand how stock market cycles work, it becomes easier to decipher where we are in the current cycle and potentially profit from it by making smarter decisions with your money.
One of the most brilliant investors in the present day, Howard Marks, has a lot to say about market cycles. In fact, he wrote an entire book on the topic, published in October 2018 aptly named: Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side.
I’ll link to his book in the show notes if you want to dive deeper into this topic.
But what does Howard Marks have to say about the current market cycle we’re in today. In an interview with yahoo! Finance in February, which you can find on YouTube, and I will also link to in the show notes, Marks poses an important question: “At this time, should you worry more about losing money, or more about missing opportunity?”
He believes that investors should worry more about the former - losing money. He emphasizes that that doesn’t mean investors should get out of the market and go to cash, but instead, investors should “emphasize caution to avoid losses”.
Of course, the market has continued its upward march since Marks made this statement in February, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t close to the top. While we can’t predict the future, Marks argues, as do I, that the key to mastering the market cycle is understanding where it is today.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
The theme for this week is: stock market cycles...explained. If you’re an investing novice, like the vast majority of Americans, the stock market and it’s wild gyrations can seem intimidating and confusing. But what if I told you that the cycles of the stock market are actually more regular than you think, and hence more predictable.
Now, in episode 227, 2 days ago, I explained the complete market cycle. If you missed that episode, go back a couple days to episode 227. It’s critical that you understand the full explanation of the market cycle as well as how long these market cycles usually last, which is the topic of today’s tip.
According to assymetryobservations.com, “A complete market cycle (or a full market cycle) generally lasting 4-5 years. The average bull market from 1937 to 2013 is about 39 months. The average bear market is about 17 months”, providing a total cycle length average of 56 months, or 4 years and 8 months.
Interestingly enough, the current market cycle we’re in has lasted more than 2 times that long - if we mark the start of the current market cycle by the bottoming out in March of 2009, we are 122 months in, and as I argued yesterday, we haven’t yet reached even the mid-point or the top of this market cycle.
So market cycles and their timing can vary...a lot! The other point to note here about market cycles, is that the market can pass through stages in the cycle in a matter of days, weeks, months, or even years. In the current cycle, it seems that we spent quite a long stretch of time in the early stages of the upturn, defined by hope and optimism. Investors didn’t even seem excited about the markets until last summer, already 9 years in to the current upswing.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve also seen the market pass through pessimism, panic, and capitulation relatively quickly back in 2008. The market was ripping apart at the seems, and quickly.
The point here is that entire market cycles can be long or short, and the stages within them long or short. Pay attention to the prdiciably order of the steps and you’ll be less likely to miss where we are in a given cycle, no matter how long or short that stage lasts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
The theme for this week is: stock market cycles...explained. If you’re an investing novice, like the vast majority of Americans, the stock market and it’s wild gyrations can seem intimidating and confusing. But what if I told you that the cycles of the stock market are actually more regular than you think, and hence more predictable.
When you better understand how stock market cycles work, it becomes easier to decipher where we are in the current cycle and potentially profit from it by making smarter decisions with your money.
Yesterday, I talked about the complete market cycle. It starts with hope, transitions into euphoria at the top, then declines into anxiety, panic, and depression. It’s important that you understand the entirety of the stock market cycle, so if you missed it, go back to yesterday’s episode - episode 227. Today’s episode will make more sense.
Today, I’m going to take a stab at where I think we are in this current market cycle. I don’t often get my crystal ball out, and I don’t believe you can reliably predict the future, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor to try to determine where we presently are, so that’s what I’m going to do today.
Interestingly, the stock market spent most of the spring of 2019 hitting new highs. As I write this, the S&P 500 hit new all-time highs as recently as April 30th, before deteriorating trade talks with China spooked the market. Which begs the question, have we reached the top?
Remember, the emotional state of the market needs to pass through excitement and thrill before reaching its euphoric top. Have the market and investors been in a state of thrill and euphoria at the recent upward march of the stock market? I would argue no. I don’t think we’re there yet. Investors remain cautious, and there are a lot of signs that continued growth in the economy lies ahead. In addition to that, there are massive amounts of cash sitting on the sidelines right now. At a true market top, most of that cash has been put to work, as investors don’t want to miss out. That isn’t happening right now.
So there you have it. I still think this market cycle has room to run. I could be wrong, and only time will tell. What do you think? I encourage you to spend some time this week picking the brains of people you know and paying attention to the emotional state of the markets through the news. Where do you think we are in this current cycle?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
The theme for this week is: stock market cycles...explained.
Predicting where we are in the current cycle isn’t as complicated as it sounds. You just need to have a good pulse on the general emotional state of investors, which you can get from talking to coworkers, neighbors, friends, and family, as well as paying attention to what the so-called experts are saying in the newspapers and TV - because they usually fall victim to the emotional pattern too.
Today, I’m explaining the full market cycle, so you can bring this all together and understand the ups and downs of markets.
Before I jump into the full stock market cycle explanation, I want to let you know I’ll be linking to a visual chart of the stock market cycle in the show notes of this episode - episode 227: https://bit.ly/2HrP4XJ. If you’re a visual learner like me, check out the chart in the show notes.
So here’s the market cycle, explained:
The beginnings of the market cycle after a market bottom begin with hope. After capitulation, despondency, and depression, come hope. And that’s what begins the upward trend of a positive market cycle. After hope comes relief, optimism, then excitement, thrill, then finally at the top, euphoria. At the point of euphoria, investors become blind to any and all risks. This was evident in the peak of the real estate market in the mid-2000s, when everyone was clamoring to get in, because housing prices were only going up from there. We all know how that turned out.
After the euphoric peak, and the stock market begins its path to the bottom, we have anxiety, followed by denial, fear, panic, then finally, capitulation and depression at the bottom. Then, the cycle starts over again.
As you can see, the key to understanding market cycles is just to understand that a) it’s a predictable pattern and b) its emotionally driven.
If you can become an astute observer of human behaviors and the general consensus of those around you, it will help you better understand market cycles and not get sucked into the damaging emotional buying and selling at the wrong times that afflicts so many investors.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
The theme for this week is: stock market cycles...explained.
Now, to be clear, I’m not talking about trying to time the market and get in and out at exactly the right time. That’s a fool’s errand, and if people could reliably do that, there would be a lot more billionaires in this world. I have yet to hear of a billionaire market timer, so keep that in mind.
What I’m talking about instead, is better understanding the stock market cycles and how they repeat themselves time and time again. Better understanding the cycles of the market will help you manage your emotions, and take advantage of the highs and lows in the markets when they inevitably happen.
So today, I want to illustrate how a better understanding of market cycles is crucial for managing your temperament at the highs and the lows.
In order to do that, let’s rewind to March 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a low of 6,469.95 on March 6,2009, having lost over 54% of its value since the October 9, 2007 high. The S&P 500 was below 700 for the first time in 13 years, and Goldman Sachs put out a research report that warned the S&P could fall as low as 400. The economy was still in freefall. Unemployment numbers were hemorrhaging, and people were losing their homes to foreclosure everywhere you turned. A well-known hedge fund manager warned clients that they’d be better off buying shotguns to protect themselves in the inevitable social unrest that could follow if things got any worse.
I could go on, and if you weren’t personally devastated by the great recession, you certainly know someone who was. Personally, it was an instructive time, but when I look back on it, I have this almost visceral reaction and I try to shove the painful memories out of my mind immediately.
But something happened in March of 2009 that almost no one saw coming. The market bottomed out, and started it’s upward rise, that has continued today, over 10 years later.
Now you might say that no one could have seen this coming, and although it would have been difficult to perfectly time the bottom of the market, you would see that the signs were all there of a market bottom, if you understood and were paying attention to market cycles.
That’s because a down market cycle follows this consistent emotional pattern: unease, denial, pessimism, panic, capitulation...then bottom. After panic, when capitulation sets in and everyone has thrown up their hands and given up, that’s the time to buy. That’s when the market is near or at the bottom. The problem was, everyone was still selling.
And this isn’t new. This is how the stock market has been behaving since its inception. So now, hopefully you see why market cycles matter and why understanding their predictable patterns can help you make brave and smart decisions with your money.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening! Tomorrow, come on back because I’m going to do a full explanation of the stock market cycle - both good and bad markets.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
The theme for this week is: stock market cycles...explained. If you’re an investing novice, like the vast majority of Americans, the stock market and it’s wild gyrations can seem intimidating and confusing. But what if I told you that the cycles of the stock market are actually more regular than you think, and hence more predictable.
When you better understand how stock market cycles work, it becomes easier to decipher where we are in the current cycle and adjust your behavior accordingly. By upping your stock market cycle wisdom, you’ll be able to have a lively debate about the stock market at the next cocktail party or family gathering, but more importantly, you’ll be able to use the knowledge you glean from understanding market cycles to help you make smarter decisions with your money and even take advantage of the stock market.
See, if you’re able to correctly predict where we are in the current cycle, you’ll be able to put your money where your mouth is and better avoid the common, tragic pitfall of buying high and selling low. And, as I’ll show you this week, predicting where we are in the current cycle isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Sure, you’re not always going to be right, but you’ll still be able to use that knowledge to your advantage.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would you take a quick minute to leave a review in Amazon or iTunes? And thanks to those of you who have already taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, stock market cycles, what are the stages of the market cycle, stock cycle, where are we in the stock cycle, stock market cycles forecast, djia, economic cycles, investment cycle, cycle investing
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: how to pick a financial advisor. Here’s the reality: There are about 300,000 financial advisors in the United States. Many are trustworthy, competent, and looking out for your best interest. But the barrier of entry to being a financial advisor is low, and you might occasionally come across a bad apple.So this week, I shared with you the criteria by which you’ll want to evaluate and choose a financial advisor.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you know what a fiduciary is and are better equipped to ask the tough questions that need to be asked when deciding on a very important business relationship with your advisor. After all, this person may be a part of your life for decades, so I want you to understand how to choose an advisor who will be a good fit for you and your family.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- How to pick a financial advisor
- Do you need a financial advisor?...how to tell if you should go that route in the first place.
- What is a fiduciary and why it matters
- 3 qualities to look for in a financial advisor
- 5 interview questions to ask a potential advisor
- And...the most important question you haven’t asked but you should
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Stock market cycles...explained. Understanding market cycles and making an educated guess about where the market currently is in a given cycle is not as complicated as it might sound, and it can help you make smart decisions with your investment portfolio. So next week, we’ll dive in to market cycles, and I’ll do my best to decipher where we are in this current cycle and debunk some myths floating around right now.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
The theme for this week is: how to pick a financial advisor. Here’s the reality: There are about 300,000 financial advisors in the United States. Many are trustworthy, competent, and looking out for your best interest. But the barrier of entry to being a financial advisor is low, and you might occasionally come across a bad apple - never a good thing when it’s your money and your retirement. So this week, I’m sharing with you the criteria by which you’ll want to evaluate and choose a financial advisor.
Yesterday, I gave you 5 important questions that you’ll want to ask your financial advisor before signing on the dotted line.
Today, we’re talking about the most important question to ask...at least in my opinion. It’s also a question that I’m willing to bet $20 that you’ve never asked.
I’m going to regret saying that, aren’t I...don’t email me saying I owe you $20 if you have asked this question.
Ok, so here’s the question:
“If I call you one day and I tell you to liquidate my portfolio, will you do it?”
Now, why is this question so important? The answer tells you a lot about your financial advisor. While you don’t want a stubborn mule for an advisor, you want an advisor who will stand up for his or her convictions and not let themselves be tossed around by the prevailing winds of the day. If you have a weak advisor, he or she will not stand their ground and will let you cash out everything after the market has already plummeted 20 or 30%.
Having an advisor like this can be very damaging, because not only are they more likely to sell low, but also buy high. Never a good combination.
So be sure to ask your advisor this one question: “If I call you one day and I tell you to liquidate my portfolio, will you do it?”
And just as important, make sure they have a good answer. Press them a little too. Ask them to tell you how they keep their clients sticking to their plan when panic sets in.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
The theme for this week is: how to pick a financial advisor.
Today, I’m giving you 5 essential questions you should ask your advisor. These can be questions to a potential advisor, or questions to ask your existing advisor. After all, like any relationship, you’ll want to make sure that it continues to be a good fit and not let yourself suffer due to complacency.
So here are 5 questions you should ask your advisor:
- What does your typical client look like? Many advisors only serve high-net worth clients, or have special expertise in working with a particular subset of clients - here at True North, we specialize in working with business owners looking to exit their business in the next 5-10 years. Be sure that your advisor specializes in and has other clients like you.
- How long have you been an advisor? Experience counts for a lot. I’ve been doing this for almost 12 years and I’m always learning something new. Don’t pick an advisor who graduated college last week. On the flip side, consider the age of your advisor. If they’re 70 years old, how much longer will they be around to manage your portfolio. If they are closer to retirement, that’s ok. Just make sure they still have some fire left in the belly and a succession plan in place.
- Who will be my day-to-day contact? Ideally, the financial advisor you worked with initially is also your ongoing advisor. But that’s not always the case. Ask to meet all the members of the team and how each of them will be involved with you after you become a client.
- What’s your investment philosophy? Make sure this is clearly articulated, makes sense to you, and is consistent with your goals.
- What are your fees? And just as important, what is the all-in cost of you managing my money? There are fees you pay your advisor, underlying fees for the investments you own, and often transaction fees as well. Be sure your advisor clearly explains the all-in cost, not just their fee, and make sure that fee seems fair and reasonable based on what they will be doing for you on an ongoing basis.
Here’s the thing...I don’t care whether or not you work with me or another advisor. Just make sure the person helping you make the most important financial decisions in life is competent and capable of answering these 5 questions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
The theme for this week is: how to pick a financial advisor.
Yesterday, I talked about one of the most important qualities that you should look for when choosing a financial advisor - fiduciary status.
Today, I’m talking about 3 important qualities that you’ll want to look for when choosing the right advisor for you.
People usually do business with other people that they know, like, and trust. That’s usually no different when it comes to your relationship with your financial advisor - perhaps even more important. A solid relationship with a financial advisor often lasts for decades. This is someone that you’ll talk to, meet with, have lunch with, and interact with for many years to come, so you want to actually like the person and get along well with them so lunch doesn’t feel like a chore, even if they’re buying.
When interviewing advisors or in the early stages of the relationship, it may be difficult to really get to know your advisor, but you’ll want to try to get to know them as much as possible. I find that potential clients often don’t go deep enough here, even if they eventually go on to become a client. Find out as much as possible about their character and personality. Are they open and authentic and willing to share who they really are so you can get to know them? You’ll want to get to know them before signing on the dotted line.
And last, and perhaps the most important is the trust factor. It probably goes without saying that trust is a crucial factor in choosing an advisor. Most people are astute enough to pick up on an obviously smarmy advisor, but there are also additional ways you can determine the trustworthiness of your advisor:
- Are they a fiduciary? I talked about this at length yesterday, so go back to episode 220 to find out why this is important
- Do they seem genuinely interested in you? Do they ask questions about you, your family, your life, and your goals that show they genuinely care and aren’t just trying to close the deal? This can be very telling.
- Look them up on brokercheck. This is a website where you can see if an advisor has complaints filed against them by current and former clients. You’ll want your advisor’s slate to be squeaky clean. If it’s not, proceed with caution.
- Ask for references. Many people discover their advisor through a referral from a friend or family member, but if you found your advisor by another path, be sure to ask them for references.
So there you have it - know, like, and trust. Qualities that hold true for choosing a financial advisor as well as most other important business relationships in your life.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
The theme for this week is: how to pick a financial advisor.
Today, I’m going to share with you one of the most important criteria you should look for in a financial advisor, and it’s something that only a minority of financial advisors possess.
What is this important quality? Fiduciary status.
A fiduciary duty is the ethical and legal obligation to act solely in someone else's best interest. A fiduciary advisor must put the interests of their clients ahead of their own. This should be in writing and it’s the highest standard of care that exists between an advisor and their clients. You should ask to see this in writing, and I would argue that it’s a non-negotiable. This one criteria alone will eliminate many of the financial advisors on your short list.
It sounds like that a fiduciary duty should just be the table stakes when dealing with a financial advisor, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Most advisors do not operate under a fiduciary duty, which means the relationship can be one that includes conflicts of interest.
When there are conflicts of interest and a disordered set of priorities because a fiduciary duty isn’t part of the deal, it can erode trust, or cause your advisor to do things that are not in your best interest - like invest your money in a high fee product that pays them a fat commission. We want to eliminate those types of conflicts, and working an advisor who has a an obligation to put your interests first, who cannot legally receive commissions, eliminates many of those ethical pitfalls.
So ask your advisor if they are a fiduciary to you in all circumstances and ask them to put it in writing. If they are unwilling or unable to do that, you should think long and hard about whether you trust them to put your interests ahead of their own and avoid the sometimes lucrative conflicts of interest that exist when a fiduciary relationship is not part of your agreement.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
The theme for this week is: how to pick a financial advisor.
Today, let’s talk about why you might want to consider a financial advisor in the first place. I’m sure many of my beloved listeners are DIY investors, and that’s fine. So let me just spend some time today discussing when using a financial advisor might be a good fit for you.
I find that people generally outsource their financial and investment decisions to a financial advisor for one or more of the following reasons:
- Time. Managing your money and making smart financial decisions requires time. What is your time worth? Many people find that their time is worth much more than the few hundred or few thousand dollars they pay to their financial advisor each year. Not worrying about staying on top of your retirement portfolio frees you up to spend time on more meaningful and profitable activities.
- Know-how: Financial planning and investing your money can get complicated, especially as you transition into retirement and aren’t just trying to save enough to maximize the growth. Now we have to protect and continue to grow this nest egg, make decisions about social security, taxes, and estate planning that have massive consequences. So understanding how to make smart investment and retirement planning decisions is critical. This is by far the #1 reason I see smart, capable people outsource their investment management and retirement planning decisions. It’s just complicated and it can be harmful when you don’t know what you don’t know.
- Nerves of steel. Stock markets are a wild roller coaster. If you watch cable news everyday, you’re bound to think that the world is collapsing any day now. Staying invested when the economy is collapsing requires just a wee bit of ice water flowing through those veins of yours. On the flip side, you’ll need to be cautious and not greedy, so you don’t fall for get-rich-quick schemes or investments that are just too good to be true.
So if you have all 3 of these qualities in spades - time, know-how, and nerves of steel - by all means, continue doing it yourself. Just make sure you’re honest with yourself and not being penny wise and pound foolish.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to talk about something that very few people understand, yet it’s one of the most important qualities you’ll want to look for in a financial advisor - what is a fiduciary advisor and why you should care.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
The theme for this week is: how to pick a financial advisor. Here’s the reality: There are about 300,000 financial advisors in the United States. Many are trustworthy, competent, and looking out for your best interest. But the barrier of entry to being a financial advisor is low, and you might occasionally come across a bad apple - never a good thing when it’s your money and your retirement. So this week, I’ll explain the criteria by which you’ll want to chose and evaluate a financial advisor.
I may be a little biased, but a great financial advisor is worth their weight in gold, so my aim is to help you find that gold nugget of a steller human being to manage your money and guide you with some of the most important financial decisions you’ll make in life.
We’ll talk about what a fiduciary is & why it matters, interview questions you should ask a potential advisor or your current advisor, and the most important question to ask that you’re probably not asking.
Picking a financial advisor is a big decision, and ideally, if it’s a good fit, it’s a relationship that lasts for decades or even longer in the case of multi-generational relationships. Hopefully at the end of this week you’ll be better equipped to pick the right financial advisor for you and your family.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would you take a quick minute to leave a review in Amazon or iTunes? And thanks to those of you who have already taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, how to pick a financial advisor, fiduciary financial advisor, fiduciary, fiduciary law
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: IPO investing. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to a stock that becomes publicly traded for the first time. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you better understand how the IPO market works, what qualities to look for in an IPO, and make smart decisions about when you may want to invest in an IPO and when it’s best to watch from the sidelines.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- What is an IPO
- Is an IPO a worthwhile investment?
- What you need to know about how IPOs work
- Qualities to look for in an IPO
- When to buy
- And...how much of portfolio you might want to allocate to IPOs if you wanna play in the IPO market with a little bit of mad money
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: How to pick a financial advisor. This is a very popular topic, and there is a certain set of criteria you should look for in a financial advisor. Many “financial advisors” out there are looking out for the best interest of their clients, yet many aren’t. Since the barrier of entry to being a financial advisor is so low, I’ll explain the questions you should ask your advisor to make sure they are competent, qualified, and looking out for you.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
The theme for this week is IPOs. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to a stock that becomes publicly traded for the first time. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs.
Today I’m focusing on how much you should allocate to an IPO. I should preface this by saying that most investors should probably steer clear of IPOs. They tend to be highly speculative, with very little established history, so for most investors it’s best to just sit on the sidelines in most cases.
But IPOs can also be a fun way to make investing in the stock market a little more interesting. Personally, I’ve never invested in an IPO. But I also hate gambling. If you want to make things a little interesting, you could allocate a small percentage of your portfolio to “mad money”.
Whatever you allocate to speculative investments must pass the vanish-into-thin-air test. In other words, if you lose it all tomorrow, you wouldn’t lose sleep over it. If I was advising a client in this area who really wanted a mad money account, I would suggest anywhere from 1-5% of the portfolio, but no more. It doesn’t matter if you buy 1 IPO or 20 IPOs - I don’t think it’s wise to allocate more than 5% of your portfolio to speculative investments like IPOs.
And try to be discerning about the IPOs you invest in. Pick no more than 1 or 2 a year, do your research, be careful about when you buy, and only select the highest quality IPOs that you think can go the distance as solid long-term investments. If you can keep that criteria in mind, you’ll be more likely to succeed and not flush your mad money down the drain.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
Before you continue on with your day, please take a moment to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. If you’re getting any value from these tips, it’s a great way to share the love. And thank you to those of you who have already taken the time to write a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
The theme for this week is IPOs. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to a stock that becomes publicly traded for the first time. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs.
So this week I’m sharing with you what you need to know when considering an investment in a newly minted publicly traded company.
If you caught previous episodes this week, you might have picked up on the fact that I’m not a huge fan of IPOs. They are highly speculative, and many IPOs just don’t pass the test when it comes to their established history of profitability.
That being said, there is still opportunity to make money in IPOs if you want to have a little fun and play in the IPO market.
Today I want to focus on timing, which is crucial to be aware of if you’re going to invest in IPOs.
Timing matters because many investors who invest in IPOs are not in it for the long-haul. They’re looking to flip and make a quick profit. If you realize that, you’re less likely to get burned.
In the first few days of trading, there is a lot of excitement around IPOs and there can be wild swings in price. It’s often a good idea to sit on the sidelines in the initial days to let things settle down. After the initial hype, you may want to look again and see where the stock is and decide if you want to own it.
The other timing consideration that you want to be aware of is when the lock-up period for the IPO expires. Company and other insiders who were issued stock in the initial IPO will often be free to sell shares after the lock-up period, which can range from 3-24 months after the IPO. Many insiders will sell their shares after the lock-up period, so knowing when the lock-up period expires will help you from getting blindsided if insiders dump their shares and drive the stock price lower. The plus-side is that the dip in price that usually accompanies the end of a lock-up period can often be a good time to buy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
The theme for this week is IPOs. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to a stock that becomes publicly traded for the first time. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs.
So this week I’m sharing with you what you need to know when considering an investment in a newly minted publicly traded company.
Today, we’re going to dive a little deeper into that to discuss qualities you should look for if you’re serious about buying one of the upcoming IPOs in 2019.
If you want to be a smart IPO investor, you’ll want to look at an IPO the same way you would look at any other stock investment. That means you’ll want to look at revenue, profitability, debt-to-capital ratio, P/E ratios, etc.
Ah, but here’s the problem: Because an IPO isn’t a publicly traded company yet, that information is pretty limited.
You won’t be able to analyze historical trends in these fundamentals because there isn’t much history. A prospectus for an IPO will provide some basic financial data going back a few years, but it’s very limited.
On top of that, many IPOs are still losing money when they go public. You could find an IPO with strong fundamentals and a solid history of profitability, but it’s not typical.
Personally, I don’t want to invest in something that’s not profitable, and IPOs are no exception. That’s how investors got burned in the dot-com bubble in the late 1990’s. New internet IPOs were all the rage, and so investors usually didn’t look under the hood.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
The theme for this week is IPOs. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to a stock that becomes publicly traded for the first time. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs.
So this week I’m sharing with you what you need to know when considering an investment in a newly minted publicly traded company.
Yesterday, we covered how an IPO works and today we’re going to discuss whether or not most IPOs are good investment.
What makes an IPO a potentially good investment is the potential for growth and a quick win. Many IPO companies are in a high growth phase, and so the potential for big gains in a short period of time is very appetizing for investors. And for investors who get in on the initial offer price, it’s not unusual for them to flip their shares at a handsome profit after just a few months.
It’s part of our human nature to want a quick and easy win, and who wouldn’t love the bragging rights and fat bank account of getting in on the giants like Amazon or Apple when they were still teething infants.
However, the speculative nature of IPOs should also give you pause.
We don’t need to look far to find an IPO flop. It’s a common refrain. Just look at Groupon. In 2011, Groupon went public at an initial offering price of $20/share. The stock jumped to $26/share in it’s first day of trading, but a little over year later, Groupon stock was trading below $3/share. $26 down to $3!
In more recent years, the stock has flatlined in the $3-5 range, and doesn’t shown any sign of returning to it’s IPO price any time soon.Investors were buying at $26/share...just be glad it wasn’t you, or at least I hope it wasn’t.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
The theme for this week is IPOs. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to a stock that becomes publicly traded for the first time. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs.
So this week I’m sharing with you what you need to know when considering an investment in a newly minted publicly traded company.
Yesterday, we covered IPOs 101 and what this topic is timely right now. Today, I want to focus on how an IPO works.
When you understand why a company sells shares or ownership of the company to the public, you can better understand whether or not an investment in an IPO makes sense for you.
One of the primary reasons why a company will issue shares of their company to the general public is to raise money to grow and expand. Sure, companies can borrow money or seek other private investors to buy-in to their company, a la Shark Tank, but issuing shares on the stock exchanges raises a lot of money...and quickly.
When Facebook went public in 2012, they raised over $16 billion dollars in that initial IPO and look how they’ve expanded since then.
The catch with IPOs for us common folk is that there’s a 99.99% chance that you won’t have access to those initial shares. The investment banking firms that bring these IPOs to market allocate shares to their best clients only. So unless you’re a top client of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, or Morgan Stanley, you’ll have to wait for those IPO shares to start trading, which means that they may have already jumped up in price by the time you buy.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to look at whether or not most IPOs are actually a good investment.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
The theme for this week is IPOs. An IPO, or initial public offering, refers to when a stock becomes publicly traded for the first time. There is usually a lot of excitement and clamor for IPOs. When a company offers ownership for the first time to the public, it can seem like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
IPO investing can be a fun way to own stocks, but investors should exercise caution when investing in IPOs. So this week I’m going to share with you what you need to know when considering an investment in a newly minted publicly traded company.
I’ll talk about what you should look for in an IPO, and when you should stay away. With the recent influx of IPOs this spring - notably, Lyft, Uber, Levi Strauss, and Pinterest, this is a timely topic and one that I’m excited to dive into this week.
That’s it for today, but before you go, would you take a quick minute to leave a review in Amazon or iTunes? And thanks to those of you who have already taken the time to leave a review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, IPO, IPOs, what is an IPO, lyft IPO, uber IPO, recent IPO, pinterest IPO, initial public offering
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The 4 L’s of retirement, a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you’re better equipped to plan for your spending in retirement, and you have a greater understanding for the proper attention that each of these categories will require in the retirement planning process.
The 4 L’s, covered in detail this week are:
- Longevity
- Lifestyle
- Liquidity, and
- Legacy
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: IPOs. IPO stands for initial public offering. It refers to when a stock becomes publicly traded for the first time. There have been a huge influx of IPOs this spring - notably, Lyft, Uber, Levi Strauss, and Pinterest. We’ll talk about what qualities an investor should look for before investing in IPO, when you may want to consider an IPO, and when you’re better off just watching from the sidelines.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme for this week is the 4 L’s of retirement. When planning for your retirement, the 4 L’s can be a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors. These 4 L’s were developed by retirement researcher, Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. In the previous episodes this week, we addressed each of the 4 L’s in detail. Today, we’re bringing it all together.
Thinking about your own retirement with the 4 L’s in mind allows you to build a framework that guides you toward prioritizing these 4 goals in your life.
In the show notes of this episode, episode 209, I’ll link to a free worksheet from the creator of the 4 L’s, Wade Pfau: http://download.retirementresearcher.com/hubfs/RIO/Packet%202%20-%20Your%20Retirement%20Income%20Optimization%20Action%20Plan.pdf
If you want to go deeper in exploring the 4 L’s, this multi-page worksheet will help you better understand how to use the 4 L’s to help you achieve your most important goals for your retirement.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme for this week is the 4 L’s of retirement. When planning for your retirement, the 4 L’s can be a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors. These 4 L’s were developed by retirement researcher, Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. In the previous episodes this week, we addressed longevity, lifestyle, and liquidity. Today, we’re wrapping up with legacy.
Legacy is all about what happens with your money after you’re gone. The wealthier you are, the more this goal tends to work it’s way into your plan for retirement, but legacy is something that everyone should think about as they plan for retirement.
If you plan well, you’ll likely have money left over when you pass from this world, which means we have to decide who will get what and what additional impact you want to have on your community, church, and other charities that you care about.
I have yet to have a client spend his last dollar on the day he kicked the bucket, so you’ll want to think about the legacy you’ll want to leave behind, and what you want to give while you’re still living.
Maybe you want to work into your retirement spending goals a monthly or annual contribution to charities. It’s important that you think about this and plan for your legacy and giving goals in advance, so you can be tax efficient with your giving. Giving directly from your IRA to satisfy your required minimum distributions in retirement, or setting up a donor-advised fund, can have major tax-saving benefits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme for this week is the 4 L’s of retirement. When planning for your retirement, the 4 L’s can be a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors. These 4 L’s were developed by retirement researcher, Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. In the previous episodes this week, we addressed longevity and lifestyle. Today, we’re focusing on liquidity.
Liquidity is all about maintaining an emergency fund and extra savings that are set aside for emergencies and other curve balls that will inevitably come your way in retirement. This could include supporting elderly parents when you didn’t plan on doing so, a house fire, flood, or lawsuit, or absorbing the impact of an unexpected death or disability.
According to the creator of the concept of the 4 L’s, Wade Pfau, “Such assets [for emergencies] must not be earmarked for other goals, as unexpected contingencies relate to anything falling outside of the planned retirement budget.”
Planning for a successful retirement also includes planning for the unexpected. The challenging part about this is we don’t know anything about what that unexpected looks like. You might have $500,000 of unexpected expenses in retirement, and depending on the size of your nest egg, these unplanned
There are no guarantees in life. And that’s the hardest part of planning for retirement, but that doesn’t mean it’s futile. It just means we have to recognize the real possibility that the unexpected will happen, and we should have enough of a cushion, that’s liquid enough to provide for those emergencies.
And if you’re a worry wart like me, and are extra cautious, you might give the liquidity goal priority over the others, but stashing plenty of cash and buying more insurance, like life insurance, long-term care insurance, or additional earthquake insurance, to help shoulder the burden of those expected curve balls.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
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My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme for this week is the 4 L’s of retirement. When planning for your retirement, the 4 L’s can be a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors. These 4 L’s were developed by retirement researcher, Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Today, we’re focusing on lifestyle.
Now that we’ve addressed your basic needs with the longevity spending goal, and are confident that you won’t run out of money in retirement, we get to the fun part!
Lifestyle goals in retirement are all about how you want to live your life, and they tend to be more discretionary in nature.
What are your travel plans? Maybe you want to spend $10,000 a year on travel during the first 10 years of retirement, then $5,000/year after that. Great! We can add this goal to the plan and see if it pencils out.
Lifestyle goals should address both ongoing and one-time or periodic purchases. For example, you might have a daughter getting married at some point down the road and you’ll want to pitch in for her wedding. Or you may have a long-overdue kitchen remodel that you’d like to complete once you’re retired and you have the time. Since these goals all cost money, we need to identify them and plan for them in the lifestyle section of your plan for retirement.
You’ll also want to address your regular monthly spending needs like a golf club membership or getting your nails done. While these aren’t essential spending categories - well, actually I beg to differ. As an addicted golfer who likes to get her nails done, I could make a pretty compelling argument for the non-discretionary nature of these 2 spending categories...but I digress.
To summarize, the lifestyle retirement goals are all about maintaining your desired lifestyle in retirement. What do you want to do? How do you want to spend your time and money? And most importantly, can your income sources and your retirement portfolio support those lifestyle goals.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the 3rd L - liquidity.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire, retirement lifestyle
The theme for this week is the 4 L’s of retirement. When planning for your retirement, the 4 L’s can be a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors. These 4 L’s were developed by retirement researcher, Wade Pfau.
The 4 Ls of retirement are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Today, we’re focusing on longevity.
Longevity goals are all about making sure that your basic needs are covered in retirement, so you don’t run out of money or become a financial burden to others. It’s possible and even likely, that you’ll spend 30+ years in retirement, so you need to make your money last.
Thinking about your retirement in terms of longevity addresses that concern. Do you have enough in assets to cover your basic needs for 30+ years in retirement. Will you be able to pay for housing, health care, and basic living expenses with your retirement nest egg?
Will your portfolio and other sources of income adequately address your longevity needs and your basic living needs in retirement?
It’s also very important to consider how your portfolio and how it’s invested will be able to go the distance for you in retirement. It’s critical that you can keep up with inflation, which will take a significant toll over a 30+ year retirement. And that usually means having a portfolio that can continue to grow for you while providing for your basic living needs.
If you’re most concerned with providing for your basic needs in retirement and not running out of money, then the longevity goal will likely take priority in your plan for retirement and your spending decisions.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to cover the 2nd L - Lifestyle.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies, how long will money last in retirement, do I have enough to retire
The theme for this week is the 4 L’s of retirement. The 4 L’s are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. This concept was developed by the well-known industry author and retirement researcher, Wade Pfau.
When planning for your retirement, the 4 L’s can be a useful tool to think about and prioritize your retirement goals within the context of 4 seperate, but related factors.
The purpose of the 4 L’s is to help you understand the how the various factors - longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy influence your decisions about how you spend and how you invest your money in retirement.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week’s tips better able to think about your own retirement goals as they relate to these 4 Ls.
So each day this week, I’ll dive into detail about each of these, and at the end of the week, I’ll share with you how you can bring it all together with a free worksheet from Wade Pfau and his team.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to dive in by talking about the first L - longevity.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, retirement income planning, retirement income sources, retirement income, retirement income withdrawal, retirement spending strategies
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: How to Pick the Right Investments in Your 401k.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are more confident and knowledgeable to make smart decisions about setting up and maintaining your 401k portfolio.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- When you may want to pick the target date fund
- 3 scenarios when you may want to customize your 401k investment strategy
- How and when to use model portfolios in your 401k and a couple points of caution if you pick that route
- The mistake that too many 401k investors make when picking funds
- And lastly, how to research funds in your 401k so you can pick the right ones for you.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The 4 L’s of Retirement… The 4 L’s are an incredibly useful way to think about your income needs and spending goals in retirement. The 4 L’s are longevity, lifestyle, liquidity, and legacy. Next week, we’ll talk about each of the in more detail to help you think holistically about your own spending needs and wants in retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing
The theme for this week is how to pick the right investments in your 401k plan. Regardless of whether or not you go with the autopilot target date fund option in your 401k or customize your investment strategy, it’s a good idea to do a little homework on the fund or funds you select for your 401k.
Today, I’m going to share with you how to go about doing that, so you don’t make the common mistake of picking the fund that have the best performance. As I talked about on Thursday of this week, that’s a terrible idea. You can drive just by looking through your rear-view mirror. The same is true for investing. You can’t just look to the past returns to find the best investments.
In my opinion, the best, objective online resource for mutual funds and ETFs is Morningstar. So here’s how you can use Morningstar to research funds in your 401k.
Find the ticker symbol for the fund that you want to research. This is a 5 letter symbol that’s like a social security number for funds. It’s important that you research with fund symbols and not the name of a fund, since most mutual funds can have 5 or more different share classes for a given fund, so you want to be researching the right fund, which means you need that 5 letter ticker symbol.
Type that 5 letter ticker symbol into google. Usually the 2nd or 3rd result is morningstar - click on that and you can find a wealth of information about that fund for free. You’ll want to research performance over long periods of time vs. peers. Take a look at the fees, how long the manager has been with the fund, the % of stocks, bonds, and cash in the fund. If it’s a bond fund, do a little more digging to find out about the credit quality, and the duration of the bonds in the fund.
If this is all Greek to you, that’s okay. It just indicates that you may want to just go with the target-date option or have your financial advisor help you pick the right mix of funds in your plan.
Morningstar has a lot of information, which is great, but there is a little bit of a learning curve in finding what you’re looking for. But it’s worth it. This is your retirement we’re talking about here, and a little research and knowledge about what you’re investing in will go a long way.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing, morningstar
The theme for this week is how to pick the right investments in your 401k plan. So far this week, we’ve talked about target date funds and when you may want to customize your 401k investment strategy, and today I want to continue with a 3rd investment strategy option that’s available in many 401k plans - the model portfolio.
Model portfolios are usually designed around the amount of risk you’re comfortable taking. Usually you answer a few questions and then a recommendation is made for a model strategy that you can pick from - across the spectrum of conservative, moderate, and aggressive.
It’s a bit more customized than the target date funds, and yet you’re not completely on your own when it comes to picking funds and designing your investment strategy. So in theory, it’s a great approach to investing in your 401k, but I have a couple words of caution if you go with the model portfolio option in your 401k:
First of all, we all like to think we know ourselves well, but most of us aren’t very self-aware, especially when it comes to knowing our temperaments when it comes to investing. Younger people should be in aggressive model portfolios, but if you answer the questions a certain way, you might be recommended the conservative portfolio, which is a terrible choice for the younger person who is 30+ years from retirement. So know thyself well if you go with this approach.
The other point of caution with selecting a model portfolio is that you can’t set it and forget it. Many people (maybe most people - at least in my experience) pick funds when they sign up for the 401k plan and never bother to make any changes, ever again. If you pick a model portfolio, and you work at the same place for 10 or 20 years and never adjust the portfolio that you’re invested in, that could lead to a lot more risk than you should be taking with your investments. So when you pick a model portfolio, be sure to still review your 401k at least annually and decide if you need to adjust which model you’re in as you get closer to retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing, asset allocation model portfolio, portfolio risk management, asset allocation funds, portfolio risk formula
Today is a very monumental episode of the One Minute Retirement Tip - Episode 200! I can’t believe it’s already been 200 episodes, but that’s what happens when you do these daily. My goal with these tips is to bring my ideas and experience with helping clients navigate to a successful retirement to each one of you. Thank you to all of you who are listening today and here with me for this milestone episode.
Some of you have also emailed me and left me reviews, and your feedback let’s me know that these tips are helping you on your own path to retirement, which fuels me in continuing to crank out these daily tips!
So before I jump in to today’s tip, I have a request: Would you take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon? Amazon uses reviews as social proof that this flash briefing is useful, so it’s the best way for you to spread the word if you’re getting any value from these tips on retirement. Thanks in advance if you leave a review. I do a little happy dance every time I read a new review.
Ok, so yesterday, I talked about when you may want to customize your 401k investment lineup. Today, I want to go a little deeper in helping you think about how to go about doing that, because many people make one, huge mistake when customizing their investment lineup…
You chase performance. You get that one page printout of all the investment offerings in your plan, look at the performance numbers, then pick the best performing fund of the lot.
Bad idea. If you’re going to customize your investment lineup, you can’t pick the funds of the best performing of the bunch - that will lead you far off track.
The place to start is deciding on your ideal mix of stocks and bonds. Let’s say that you want to be 60% in the stock market and 40% in bonds. Great. Once you’ve built the foundation, now we can start working on the siding, and putting the roof on. That’s where we start filling in other categories - like large cap stocks, international, small cap, etc.
When you are trying to pick the best funds for you, performance is that last place you’ll want to screen for when picking the right fund. Start with your asset allocation and then fill in the funds that fit those asset classes from there, only looking at performance when you’re comparing two like-kind funds.
If what I just said is Greek to you, that’s a clear sign that you should probably just stick with the target date funds if those are offered in your plan. And that’s ok. That’s what I talked about in Tuesday’s episode, and that’s why target-date funds are usually the better choice unless you have a strong desire to customize your own investment strategy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing
The theme for this week is how to pick the right funds in your 401k plan. Yesterday, I talked about why the vast majority of you should probably just go with the target date fund in your 401k, if that’s offered to you.
But today, I want to talk about when you may want to shun the target date fund option and customize your 401k investment strategy instead. So here are 3 scenarios when you may want to custom design your 401k strategy:
- You have an advisor to help you customize your 401k. If you have other investments, your financial advisor can often help you pick funds in your 401k that will be in harmony with your entire investment portfolio. This can be incredibly valuable in creating a cohesive strategy for your retirement. The advisor often has access to research tools that can help you pick the best options in your plan, and the 401k can be included in your annual planning meeting with your advisor, so you can monitor and make decisions together.
- You actually like picking investments. If you’re in the 3% of the population that is confident, knowledgeable, experienced, and actually enjoys investment research, then by all means construct your own investment portfolio in your 401k.
- You want more control over your investments. In a target date fund, you have no control over the holdings of that fund, when it’s rebalanced, or the trajectory of risk (in other words, how much is in stocks and bonds at any given point along your journey to retirement). If you’re a control freak like me, you may want to consider customizing your investment strategy so you can have a say-so in what you own and how often your portfolio is rebalanced.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing
The theme for this week is how to pick the right investments in your 401k plan. I’m kicking off this week with the most common advice that I give to most 401k participants that I work with - just pick the target-date fund.
Most 401k plans these days have a target date retirement fund. You pick the fund that corresponds with the year closest to your retirement, and that’s it. The target date fund is aligned with your stage in life, and will maximize the growth while your young, then gradually reduce your risk and percentage in stocks as your approach retirement. It rebalances for you, and it’s basically on auto-pilot.
These funds were created as the easy button for investing in your 401k and they work great for most of us, because many people don’t have the knowledge, skillset, desire, or time to keep up with their investment portfolio in the way that they should, and since you’re kind of on your own when it comes in picking funds in your 401k, and you usually don’t have an advisor to just take care of everything for you, the target-date fund is the next best thing.
So if you have cobbled together an investment lineup that you’re not really paying attention to, and your plan offers a target-date series of funds, consider that option instead.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to share with you when you wouldn’t want to invest in target date funds, and what you may want to consider instead.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing, target date 401k, target date funds, stock mutual funds, best mutual funds for retirement portfolio, target date funds pros and cons
The theme for this week is how to pick the right investments in your 401k. Investing in your 401k can be complicated. There are a lot of decisions to make - how much of your paycheck should you save in your 401k? Should you invest in the Roth option, just the traditional 401k, or both? How should you balance saving for retirement with other financial priorities, like paying your mortgage or paying for your kids’ college? And that’s even before you get to the 3 dozen different investment options that you’ll likely have to choose from in your 401k plan.
That last one is the topic I want to focus on this week - how to pick the investment strategy and the individual investments that are the right fit for you in your 401k plan.
I love this topic, it’s one I deal with often, because my background is in 401k consulting. I have a number of 401k plans that I work with, where I design the investment menus, and then I help the employees of those plans sort through the various decisions to make the right one for their unique situation.
So this week, I’m bringing that experience working with hundreds of employees in the 401k plans I consult with to help you make smart decisions about your 401k investment strategy.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week’s tips better informed, and better able to make confident decisions about picking the right investment options in your own 401k plan.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to dive in by talking about when you should just pick a target-date retirement fund and call it good.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, 401k, 401k plan, Roth 401k, 401k investing, 401k investment strategy, smart 401k investing
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The Best of...Handpicked favorites. I covered a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way in nearly 200 episodes of the OMRT.
These are the episodes that I think give you the most useful information to help you on your path to retirement, all in about 1-3 minutes per day. Today is episode 196, so there were a lot of topics to sort through.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you have been introduced to a new idea or two and some new episodes that you might have missed along the way. Hey, even my own mother misses most of these episodes, so chances are you have missed a few yourself and heard something new this week.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The Roth 401k
- Why the health savings account is perhaps the most important savings account you’ll ever open
- The costly social security mistake that many people make
- How long to keep your financial documents
- And...if you work longer, does that mean you’ll live longer? (hint: research points to yes)
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme…How to pick the right funds in your 401k. I’ll share with you my secrets for narrowing the list of over 12,000 mutual funds and ETFs down to a total of about 15-20 funds that I make available to my 401k plan clients and their employees, and what you can learn about picking the right investments for your own 401k from my methodology.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover my hand picked favorites. I’m covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way. These are the episodes that I think give you the most useful information to help you on your path to retirement, all in about 1-3 minutes per day.
Today, we’re talking about the psychology of retirement and a big reason why you might want to keep working.
The #1 reason someone will retire earlier than they planned is because of poor health. They are forced into retirement, and that is a very unfortunate circumstance that you don’t really control.
But if you are one of the lucky ones who can decide when you’ll retire and especially if you don’t work in a physically gruelling career, the research suggests that working longer can keep you healthy.
A study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that working past the age of 65 reducing the risk of healthy people dying by 11 percent and unhealthy people by 9 percent for each year of delay."
Research also points to a decline in cognitive abilities after retirement, that people who are still working are less likely to experience. Work provides many opportunities for engaging your mind - learning, problem-solving, and reasoning - all of which help to combat the effect of aging on your brain.
Work also helps to keep us physically active, which has numerous health benefits.
So let me send you off into your day with this: If you are getting close to your transition into retirement, think about ways you can continue to challenge your mind, continue to learn, and keep yourself mentally sharp in retirement.
Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to talk about the importance of structured time in retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, when to retire
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover my hand picked favorites. I’m covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way. These are the episodes that I think give you the most useful information to help you on your path to retirement, all in about 1-3 minutes per day.
Today’s tip is aimed at helping you better organize your financial life. I’m tackling one of the most common question that I get: “Ashley, how long should I keep all of my financial documents?”
That’s a really good question! So let’s talk about what you should keep.
One of the most common questions on what to keep revolves around your taxes. How long should you keep your tax records?:
7 years is a good rule for keeping your tax records. It’s a good idea to keep annual tax filings, 1099s, and other tax forms for 7 years. Keep them in a file by year, then just cycle out the file every 7 years.
For your investment accounts, keep your annual summaries. I like keeping all of the year-end summaries, going back indefinitely, especially for taxable accounts where it matters knowing when you bought something and what you paid.
Speaking of when you bought something...
I also advise clients to keep trade confirmation statements forever. You may have bought a stock back in 1991, you still own it, and it has a massive gain. You’ll want to know what day you purchased the stock, at what price, and how many shares you bought to keep accurate records of the stock. Also, if you’ve been investing for a while, you’ve probably received those shareholder class action letters. If you ever want to participate in one of those, you’ll need to show proof of when you purchased the stock, so it’s just a good idea to always hold on to trade confirmations.
If you’re like, “crap! I haven’t held on to any of those things!” That’s ok. Go back to your financial institution or your tax advisor and see if they can send you copies of old tax records, year-end summaries, and trade confirmations that you might be missing. That’s it for today.
Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, go paperless, financial organizer, what to do with old statements, how long to keep records, how long do you keep bank statements, how long to keep investment statements, how long should I keep tax returns, financial inventory, personal financial inventory spreadsheet
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover my hand picked favorites. I’m covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way. These are the episodes that I think give you the most useful information to help you on your path to retirement, all in about 1-3 minutes per day.
I met with a client last Fall who will be retiring in just a couple weeks. I’m so excited for this couple to retire - they’re actually retiring at the same time and moving soon after retirement as well. Lots of changes. Very exciting!
When we met last year, we had a planning discussion and made some important decisions about retirement. One of those decisions was social security. They are retiring in their early 60s and they just assumed that they would start social security as early as possible, at age 62.
It wasn’t until we ran the numbers last week that they realized that this would be a massive mistake.
If they live to their life expectancy used in our scenario, they would collect nearly $400,000 less over their lifetime in social security benefits if they collect at age 62 compared to waiting until their full retirement age.
If they wait until age 70, that difference in lifetime income jumps to nearly $600,000!
Here’s the point: In nearly every circumstance, unless you are in poor health and don’t expect to live past your early to mid-70s, taking social security as early as possible is a mistake!
Run the numbers for yourself. To make this easier for you, I have a special treat if you’re listening today: Send me your social security monthly benefit amount at your full retirement age, and I’ll run the numbers for you! I’ll show you the impact of taking social security at different ages, so you can make a smart social security decision!
I normally charge $1000 for this type of analysis, but for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, it’s free.
Email your full retirement age monthly benefit amount to ashleym@truenorthra.com. It’s free; no strings attached.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon or iTunes. It’s the best way to spread the word and share the love if you are finding value in these tips.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, social security, when to start social security
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover my hand picked favorites. I’m covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way. These are the episodes that I think give you the most useful information to help you on your path to retirement, all in about 1-3 minutes per day.
I believe that a Health Savings Account, or an HSA, is the best way to plan and save for healthcare costs in retirement. Why?
Because it allows you to save for healthcare costs today and get a massive tax break for it!
You’ll be able to sock away up to $8000 in your HSA account in 2019 if you’re over 55 ($7000 if you’re under age 55).
With an HSA, you get the holy grail of tax benefits, something that no other retirement savings account can match - not your 401k, not a Roth...let me explain.
Money going into an HSA is tax deductible. Then, once it’s inside the account, those HSA contributions grow tax-free...and as long as the money on the way out is used for qualified medical expenses, it’s not taxed on the way out!
Because of these massive tax benefits - tax deductible contributions, and no taxes on growth or withdrawals - many financial gurus argue that you should max out your HSA before you save in your 401k, because the tax benefits are so phenomenal.
If your 401k contributions are matched by your employer, I don’t agree with that logic, but their emphasis on the importance of the HSA is spot on.
If you start saving in an HSA early enough, you can pay for a significant portion, maybe all of your future health care expenses with those HSA funds, because you can invest the account to grow over time.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, HSA, HSA contribution limit, health savings account, what is a HSA, how much can i put in a HSA
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover my hand picked favorites. I’m covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way. These are the episodes that I think give you the most useful information to help you on your path to retirement, all in about 1-3 minutes per day.
Roth 401ks and Roth IRAs are one of the most googled topics on retirement. And the advice out there is always this wishy-washy garbage that always hinges on whether or not taxes will be higher or lower in the future.
Excuse me, but how many of you out there know if taxes will be higher or lower in retirement? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Most people can’t even tell you what their tax situation will look like this year because of all the recent tax changes, courtesy of President Trump.
Go ask your CPA what they think taxes will be in 5 years...good luck getting them not to laugh.
Here’s how Roth contributions to your 401k work: Every dollar that goes in to the plan goes in after you’ve paid taxes on it, so you miss out on that tax deduction in the current year. But guess what? Every dollar in the Roth is never taxed again, so you could let that grow tax free for the rest of your life or take the money out as income, but whatever you do, the government never gets their hands on it after you retire.
There was actually a study done a few years ago that looked at Roth 401k vs. Traditional 401k contributions. They ran thousands of different scenarios and the conclusion that they came to is that most people would be better off contributing to BOTH a traditional 401k and a Roth 401k.
But guess what, every single dollar that your employer puts in to your plan through matching and profit sharing contributions is pre-tax dollars. So the only way you can get money into your Roth bucket is by contributing to the Roth from your own paycheck.
And my take on this is that it applies for people in higher tax brackets too. The conventional garbage advice is that if you’re in a higher tax bracket, you should maximize your Traditional 401k and not contribute to your Roth because when you contribute to a Roth, you don’t get a tax deduction.
So why would you want to contribute to a Roth?
Because, you are...never...taxed...on...that...money...again.
So let me send you off into your day with this: Take a look at your current 401k contributions. If you’re not making Roth contributions, consider making Roth contributions for at least a portion of what you’re putting in to your 401k.
And if your plan doesn’t offer a Roth option, ask the powers that be to add it to your plan. It’s quick, cheap, and easy for them to do, and it can make a world of difference in the long-run.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, Roth 401k, Roth, Roth IRA
Here at the one minute retirement tip, we get a lot of new listeners every week. Now that we are on episode #190 of the OMRT, chances are you’ve missed many episodes along the way.
So here’s what we’re going to do this week. I’m going to go back to the most useful tips from the first 190 episodes. We’ll revisit 7 episodes of pure retirement planning gold.
I’m covering the best of social security, the Roth 401k, health savings accounts, getting your financial documents organized, and the psychology of retirement.
It’s going to be a week jam-packed with some of the most valuable content since I started these tips last October, to get you thinking about the most important decisions you’ll make when planning your retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to dive in to what everyone gets wrong about the Roth 401k.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The Best of...Most Downloaded episodes for the archives of the one minute retirement tip. Today is episode 189, so there are a lot of topics to sort through.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you have been introduced to a new idea or two and some new episodes that you might have missed along the way. Hey, even my own mother misses most of these episodes, so chances are you have missed a few yourself and heard something new this week.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- The most downloaded episode of the One Minute Retirement Tip so far...and it’s all about the scary long term care statistics
- How to avoid the comparison trap
- Asset allocation as the foundation of every well-built portfolio
- Charitable bunching
- and...Why invest in bonds
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re continuing with the “best of” theme...but next week, we’re doing something a little different...I’m handpicking my favorites among over 180 episodes. These are the episodes address some of the biggest challenges you face as you plan for your retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover the most downloaded episodes, and covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way.
Today we’re revisiting episode 135 - Why Invest in Bonds.
Bonds will likely be a critical component for your investment portfolio in retirement, so today I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned from working with clients over the last 11 years, and buying and selling what I estimate to be about $100 million dollars worth of bonds for clients over that time.
Why should you consider investing in bonds for your retirement in the first place? Some people object to bonds because the returns are lower than stocks. And that’s true. Over the long-run, you might only expect to receive about ½ of the amount in return that you could earn from investing in stocks.
But here’s why owning bonds is worthwhile: Bonds provide income and stability - two very important characteristics for an investment portfolio in retirement. So let’s talk about each one of these separately:
- Income - Bonds provide steady and reliable income as long as you invest in high quality bonds. This becomes critically important in retirement, as you’ll want to make sure that if you need to pull out $40,000 of income annually from your investments, that a significant portion of that is coming from the income that’s already baked in. That way, you won’t have to rely solely on growth to provide the income you might need from your investments.
- The other key benefit of owning bonds is that they provide stability during downturns in the stock market and the economy. As long as you stick with high-quality bonds, you won’t have to worry too much about your bond portfolio cratering in value in the next recession. But rather, it provides some much needed stability from your stock portfolio that’s gyrating more than a drunk girl at a bachelorette party when the economy heads south.
There are a lot of other reasons to own bonds in retirement - like diversification and tax advantages if you own tax-free municipal bonds, but income and stability are the key characteristics that I always come back to when clients ask me why they can’t just put everything in the stock market.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to let you know what’s on the horizon for next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, what are bonds
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover the most downloaded episodes, and covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way.
Today we’re revisiting the topic of charitable giving and talking about charitable bunching. I really don’t want you to get your panties all in a bunch over it, because it’s actually a pretty cool strategy.
And by the end of this tip today, you’re going to be like “Wow, that’s genius, Ashley!” Well, yes, I know...it is genius, but I have a little secret - I didn’t come up with this. I’m just bringin the bunching to the people!
Ok, enough messing around...here’s how charitable bunching works and how it might be relevant for you:
Depending on your tax situation, and the fact that the standard deduction has shot up for 2018, many people won’t benefit from the tax deduction on charitable contributions, like you may have in years past.
Enter charitable bunching. It’s a strategy where you lump your charitable donations into one year, so instead of donating to charity every year, you would donate more dollars less often. So for example, if you donate $5,000 every year to charity, but switch to donating $15,000 every 3 years instead, you would still donate the same amount, but by donating a higher amount in a given year, the strategy of lumping or bunching those contributions into one year can help you qualify for itemized deductions and hence, allow you to continue to receive a tax deduction on those charitable contributions in the years that you bunch.
Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we’re going to talk investing in bonds.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, charitable contributions limit, charitable bunching, retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market,charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover the most downloaded episodes, and covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way.
Today we’re revisiting another popular episode from the archives - Asset allocation is the foundation of every well-built portfolio.
Ah, asset allocation. I could devote a month’s worth of tips to this topic alone. Probably more, actually. It’s the principle that we focus on the most with our clients. Asset allocation comes up in nearly every discussion with every client, and we’re zealots when it comes to our adherence to this principle.
An asset allocation that is aligned with your age, goals, and risk tolerance is the foundation of every well-built portfolio.
In its most simple form, asset allocation is the mix of stocks, bonds, and cash in your portfolio. Getting to the right mix of stocks, bonds, and cash should consider 3 factors:
- Your age
- Your goals
- Your tolerance for risk
The starting point here is age. And this makes sense. I don’t care if you are afraid of your shadow and you have no clue what your goals are. If you’re younger than 45, you should have as much of your portfolio invested in the stock market as you can handle. And for most, that means upwards of 100% in stocks and no less than 80% in stocks.
If you’re 65, planning to retire this year, and you’re going to start taking money out of your investment portfolio, then being 100% in stocks is a really bad idea. You probably can’t afford to see your portfolio drop by 40% in a down market. So most of our clients are invested closer to 50% stocks and 50% bonds and cash by the time they are ready to transition into retirement.
At True North, we have guidelines for asset allocation based on age that we use as a starting place for determining the right mix of stocks and bonds for each client. If you want a copy of our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, just email me - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, asset allocation, asset allocation by age, asset allocation formula, asset allocation model, why is asset allocation important, why asset allocation matters
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover the most downloaded episodes, and covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way.
Today we're revisiting the comparison trap. Comparing yourself to others is natural, and is something we all do all the time. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that it leads to one of two miserable places: “pride or envy. You’re always going to either find somebody who’s doing a better job than you, and you get full of envy, or you’re going to find that you’re doing a better job than somebody, and you get full of pride.” That’s according to Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, who first introduced me to the concept of the Comparison Trap many years ago.
But guess what? The Comparison Trap, fueled by feelings of pride or envy can also lead to some pretty terrible money decisions.
How many people have bought houses, cars, shoes, and driven themselves into bankruptcy in a desperate attempt to keep up with others.
How many people have you met that have this repulsive air about them. They think they’re smarter, richer, and cooler than you and they’re quite proud of themselves. You are probably calling to mind a specific person right now, aren’t you! That jerk cousin of yours who thinks he’s better than everyone!
How would your life be different if you stopped comparing ourselves to others, stopped allowing yourself to be eaten up by envy or pride, and instead, just tried to be a better version of ourselves?
There is always someone who is richer than you, better looking than you, who can kick your butt at whatever sport or talent you’re best at. It’s a fool’s errand allowing ourselves to fall into the comparison trap!
So here is my challenge for you today: You will inevitably see something today that makes you green with envy - a car on the road that you lust after, a friend posting pictures on Facebook of their perfect vacation in Hawaii (it’s freezing, it’s February, and they’re staying at the Ritz!), another friend on instagram who just got back to her high school weight, or a neighbor who’s lawn is always green and lush!
Just for today, catch yourself. Replace your jealousy with gratitude for what you have, and even if you have to force yourself, practice being genuinely happy for that person.
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback. Plus, the more reviews the Tip gets, the more exposure Amazon gives it.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
This week, we’re going back through the archives of the One Minute Retirement Tip to cover the most downloaded episodes, and covering a wide range of retirement topics that you might have missed along the way.
Today we're revisiting the most downloaded episode of the one minute retirement tip - the statistics about long-term care to help you understand the harsh and expensive reality of paying for long-term care.
First of all, let’s talk about the likelihood that you’ll need long-term care in the first place. According to a 2017 study by AARP, if you’re 65 or older, there is a 52% chance that you will need some type of long-term care in your lifetime. 52%. Toss a coin and it could go either way. So the odds are pretty high.
If you’re a woman, the odds are even higher - it’s a 58% chance that you’ll need long-term care.
On average, a man will need long-term care for 1 ½ years while a woman will need long-term care for 2 ½ years. One of the downsides of living longer for us women is that we will usually require long-term care more often and for longer periods of time.
Now let’s talk about the financial cost of long-term care.
The median annual cost for long-term care ranges from $18,000 for adult day care to $97,000 for a private room in a nursing home.
If you require long-term care for an extended period or if you develop dementia or Altzheimer’s, the costs skyrocket. The estimated lifetime cost of care for someone with dementia is $341,840.
And 15% of us will spend more than $250,000 on long-term care in our lifetime.
Those costs can wipe out your wealth, which is why it’s so important to understand your options and protect yourself.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies, when to buy long term care insurance
Here at the one minute retirement tip, we get a lot of new listeners every week. Now that we are on episode #183 of the OMRT, chances are you’ve missed many episodes along the way.
So here’s what we’re going to do for the next 2 weeks. I’m going to go back to the most popular and most useful tips from the first 183 episodes. We’ll revisit 14 episodes of pure retirement planning gold.
We’ll cover the best of social security, Roth IRAs, taxes, health savings accounts, millionaire habits, charitable giving strategies, your 401k, the psychology of retirement and lots more.
It’s going to be two weeks jam-packed of the most valuable content since I started these tips last October to get you thinking about the most important decisions you’ll make when planning your retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to dive in with the most downloaded episode of the one minute retirement tip - The Long-Term Care Statistics Don’t Lie
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: The Best Age to Retire.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are better prepared to make one of the most important decisions you'll ever make - when to retire! It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- When do people actually retire?
- 3 signs you’re ready to retire
- How Many Margaritas You Can Drink in a Beach Hammock
- 3 Reasons Not to Retire
- And...How to Test Drive Your Retirement
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The Best of the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Here at the One Minute Retirement Tip, a lot of new listeners come into the fold every week. This is very exciting, but now that we’re on episode #182 of the OMRT (as I like to call it), chances are you’ve missed many an episode along the way.
So here’s what we’re going to do for the next 2 weeks. I’m going to go back to the most popular and most useful tips from the first 182 episodes, and we’ll revisit 14 episodes of pure retirement planning gold!
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
The theme for this week is the best age to retire. The timing of your retirement is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Period. It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
I want to wrap up this week’s tips with a suggestion that might help you determine the best time for you to retire: test drive your retirement.
Not everyone will be able to do this, but if your job allows you to take a sabbatical, or downshift to 3 days a week, or work remotely for 3 months out of the year so you can spend winter in a warmer climate, this is the perfect opportunity to test drive your retirement plans.
If you own a business or are a senior executive, this is a great way for you to gradually shift responsibility to a successor and see how things go in your absence before you transition out for good.
A retirement test drive can help scratch the retirement itch by giving you more flexibility and free time, while allowing you to keep working in a career that you enjoy and are fulfilled by - a win win! A retirement test drive will also help you experience a pseudo-retirement lifestyle to help you determine if this is what you really want before you quit and buy one of those houses that you saw in Aruba on House Hunters International.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
The theme for this week is the best age to retire. The timing of your retirement is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Period. It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
Earlier this week, we talked about 3 signs you’re ready to retire. Today, I want to flip that around and talk about 3 reasons why you may want to keep working, even if you’ve reached the age of retirement, which traditionally is in your early to mid 60s.
An obvious reason why you shouldn’t retire is that you’re not financially ready to retire. So that’s a given. You definitely don’t want to retire if you’re not financially prepared, so let’s focus today on 3 other important reasons why you may not want to retire just yet.
#1 - You still enjoy work. Who says you have to collect your gold watch and walk outta there at 63? Many people love working, they love what they do, and work brings them a sense of fulfillment. I recently read an article about an 106 year old attorney in New York who is still working. According to the article in the New York Law Journal, “Until [Mordie Rochlin] contracted pneumonia at age 102, he worked in his tidy office on the 32nd floor three or more days a week reading company email, working with his assistant, attending partner lunches, telling stories about the early days and sharing the keys to his longevity.” If you’re like Mordie, I say ignore what everyone tells you about when you should retire and just keep working, baby!
#2 - You can’t seem to get a clear vision of your retirement. If you don’t yet know what you’ll do in retirement - how you’ll spend your time and with who, and you don’t have a strong vision for retirement, that could be a clear sign that you’re not ready to stop working yet. It’s important to have a clear vision and sense of purpose for your retirement, because that will determine your goals and ultimately the day-to-day lifestyle of your retirement. Try to get crystal clear on your retirement vision before you make the leap into retirement.
#3 - Working longer may help you live longer. A study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that working past the age of 65 reducing the risk of healthy people dying by 11 percent and unhealthy people by 9 percent for each year of continued work. Research also points to a decline in cognitive abilities after retirement, that people who are still working are less likely to experience. Work provides many opportunities for engaging your mind - learning, problem-solving, and reasoning - all of which help to combat the effect of aging on your brain. Work also helps to keep us physically active, which has many health benefits.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
The theme for this week is the best age to retire. The timing of your retirement is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Period. It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
Today, I’m talking about how many margaritas can you drink in a beach hammock? This is not a joke or a riddle.
I love margaritas in beach hammocks. I was in Mexico in 2013 and I recall drinking many a margarita on the beach, in a hammock. It was fun.
But I was on vacation. If I got drunk on margaritas every day on the beach in Mexico, it would transition from fun to boring to sad to rehab in about 3-4 weeks.
So why is retirement always pitched to us in this way? There’s always a beach, usually a hammock, and often a margarita. That’s a vacation, not a realistic retirement lifestyle.
I think many of us are still caught up in this romantic idea of a lazy retirement on a beach or on a golf course every day, but even die hard golfers I know would get bored after more than 2-3 days per week of golf.
My point here is that when you envision your life after retirement, make sure that vision is realistic. How will you spend your time? How will you maintain a sense of purpose and fulfillment that work no longer provides? How will you replace the social contacts at work?
Studies show that for many Americans, boredom and depression often set in after the initial novelty of retirement wears off. So in order to guard against this surprise, we must have better and more realistic expectations of what retirement looks like. Otherwise, you might end up drinking too many margaritas in a beach hammock...not because it’s fun, but because you’re sad, lonely, and depressed.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, I have a favor to ask. Would you take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon? Amazon uses reviews as social proof that this flash briefing is useful, so it’s the best way for you to spread the word if you’re getting any value from these tips on retirement. Thanks in advance if you leave a review. I do a little happy dance every time I read a new review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
The theme for this week is the best age to retire. The timing of your retirement is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Period. It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
I’ve watched many clients over the last 11 years transition into retirement, and it’s always an exciting time.
A lot of uncertainty lies on the other side of retirement. But when I see clients who are truly ready to retire, I see many similarities in their circumstances and their mindset. So here are my top 3 signs that you might be ready to retire:
#1 - You’re financially prepared for retirement. You’ve run the numbers. Based on your income, the size of your nest egg, and your projected lifestyle in retirement, there is a very low chance that you’ll run out of money. You also have enough cushion to absorb a down stock market, unexpected cuts to social security, or higher inflation. You’ve also figured out how you’re going to pay for healthcare and perhaps long-term care in retirement as well. Without a retirement roadmap and being financially prepared for retirement, none of the other factors really matter that much.
Sign #2 that you might be ready to retire - You aren’t interested any more in keeping up with the technical knowledge base of your profession. A sure sign that you’re ready to retire is when you are no longer trying to keep up with changes in technology or changes in your field that impact your job. You’ve stopped going to conferences. You no longer read books or trade publications in your field. You’re no longer hungry to learn. If you’ve lost the fire and especially if you’re just burned out and exhausted all the time, it might be a sign that you’re ready for a change. Burnout is an obvious sign, but pay attention to your hunger for continued growth and learning in your profession, as this may be a more subtle message that you’re ready to transition into retirement.
Sign #3 that you might be ready to retire - Your primary areas of fulfillment and satisfaction are outside of work. If you list all the things that are important to you, where does work fall in that hierarchy? When my daughter was born in 2014, my mother-in-law decided to retire. She enjoyed her work, but she was a stay at home mom to her 2 boys and was excited for the opportunity to be involved in her first grandbaby’s life as babysitter numero uno! She has formed a strong bond with my daughter, babysitting her 2-3 days a week for the last 4 years, and my daughter loves her Gaga very much. When you are strongly pulled to other areas of life satisfaction outside of work, that may be a sign that you’re ready for retirement, or in my mother-in-laws case, career #3 as stay at home grandma.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
The theme for this week is the best age to retire. The timing of your retirement is one of the most important choices you’ll make. Period. It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
Today I want to lay the foundation for our discussion this week by talking about when most Americans actually retire.
In the United States today, the most common age to retire is age 62. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is the same age when you can begin to collect social security, so many Americans leave the workforce in their early 60s and start collecting social security and stop collecting a paycheck.
The typical age range for retirement is actually quite narrow - about ⅔ of Americans retire between the ages of 57-66.
While the statistics are helpful in determining a baseline, it’s important to consider your own situation when picking an ideal retirement age. Do you enjoy your work? Are you financially prepared for retirement and can you afford the retirement lifestyle that you envision for you and your spouse? What is the impact on your retirement portfolio and your social security benefits if you work an extra 1-2 years?
While understanding when and why people retire at the age they do is helpful, it’s ultimately your decision, and it’s a decision that should weigh multiple factors - not just whether or not you can afford to retire.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to share with you 3 signs that you’re ready to retire.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
The theme for this week is the best age to retire. The timing of your retirement is one of the most important choices you’ll make. Period.. It’s a decision that has financial, psychological, and health consequences that could impact you for the rest of your life, so the decision about when to retire must be carefully considered.
This week, I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned over the last 11 years helping clients make thoughtful decisions about their retirement.
We’ll talk about how to know if you’re ready to retire, reasons why you may want to continue working, how to test drive retirement, and how to think through how you’ll spend your time in retirement.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week’s tips better informed, and better able to make a decision that will lead you to a fulfilling retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to dive in by talking about when most Americans actually retire.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, best age to retire, retirement age, how to decide when to retire, what age do people retire, best age to retire for longevity, what is the best age to stop working
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Immutable Principles of Successful Investing - Part II
Immutable by definition means “unable to be changed”. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are better equipped to be successful in good markets and bad markets and not get caught up in the ever-changing winds of the day.
Here are the immutable principles of successful investing that we covered this week:
- Avoid the Hype
- Be Tax Aware to Maximize Investment Returns
- Make Sure Your Investment Fees Are Reasonable
- Maintain the Right Mix of Stocks and Bonds
- And...Don’t Freak Out!
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: When to retire. I’ll share with you some common mistakes I see people make when choosing the timing of their retirement, and I’ll talk about questions to consider when deciding on the timing of your own retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks
This week, we’re talking about the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles. Today’s immutable, unchanging principle is: don’t freak out!
Managing your emotions - particularly fear and greed - is one of the most important characteristics of a successful investor.
In fact there have been many studies that show that investors are generally pretty terrible at managing their emotions, and as a result, achieve some pretty dismal returns.
Here’s the reality: Yes, we will have another recession. Yes, the stock market will drop. Yes, your portfolio will drop - maybe as much as 20, 30, or even 40%.
You will open your account statement in the mail and want to cry. Or vomit. Or maybe both. Then what will you do? Will you freak out, sell everything, and put it under your mattress?
Then what? How long will you wait before you put your money back in the market, or will you sit on the sidelines for the rest of your life?
If you have a million dollar portfolio and it drops by 30%, that’s a $300,000 drop. How long did it take you to save $300,000? A couple decades most likely, and now it’s been wiped out in the course of maybe 9 months.
So there’s no sugar-coating it. Significant losses in a down market can be devastating. Especially when you’re close to or living in retirement. But in order to be successful long-term, you can’t let your emotions get the best of you. Do whatever it takes not to sell. If you have to stop watching cable tv news or shred all your statements without opening them for the next year, so be it.
The key here and the immutable principle of today is: Don’t freak out.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, emotional intelligence, emotional investing, investors psychology, behavioral finance, psychology of market cycle
This week, we’re talking about the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles. Today’s immutable, unchanging principle is: rebalance to maintain the right mix of stocks and bonds.
Some people might go 10 years without ever once rebalancing their portfolio. This is dangerous because you might have individual investments, whether they be stocks or mutual funds, that have ballooned and now represent a larger percentage of your portfolio than they should. Or, more importantly, you might have an overall portfolio allocation that has veered dramatically off course from your ideal mix of stocks and bonds.
If you were 50% in stocks & 50% in bonds 5 years ago, and you haven’t rebalanced, chances are your portfolio is now 65 or 70% in stocks or higher, and you’re taking on more risk than you might realize.
So keep an eye on each of your investment holdings, and especially on your overall portfolio stock and bond allocation.
Some people like to rebalance every quarter or every year. It’s often a time-based interval like that which triggers a rebalancing. I see this often in 401k plans, where you can set up your portfolio to automatically rebalance once a year. While this is better than no rebalancing, I disagree with the time-based method, because I think it’s more effective to do a trigger-based rebalancing instead.
With our clients, I like to use the 5% rule - if a client’s overall stock and bond allocation drifts more than 5% outside of their ideal mix, then we rebalance. It works well because it provides a systematic, unemotional way to buy low and sell high.
Whatever your rebalancing strategy, remember this immutable principle of investing: rebalance to maintain the right mix of stocks and bonds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, rebalance portfolio, rebalance 401k, asset allocation, rebalancing, key to investing
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles. Today’s immutable, unchanging principle is: make sure your fees are reasonable.
Fees do matter when it comes to your investment portfolio, but cheaper isn’t always better.
Here’s how I want you to think about fees instead. There is no free lunch when it comes to investing your money. So it’s important to understand what your fees are. How much are you paying in trading costs or commissions? How much are you paying per year in the underlying investment fees of the mutual funds or ETFs you invest your money in? And if you use a financial advisor, how much are you paying him or her?
My point is, while investing isn’t free and cheaper doesn’t automatically equal better, what you pay should be reasonable. That’s the key word: Reasonable.
So what is reasonable? If you’re a DIY investor, your all-in annual costs shouldn’t exceed .75% annually. If you use professional help from a financial advisor, your fees should not exceed 1.5%. In practice, I’ve found that if clients’ all-in fees were less than 1.5% per year, we didn't have issues with underperformance, plus they were able to take advantage of all of the advice and planning that comes with having a trusted advisor, all while saving themselves a lot of time and effort trying to do everything on their own.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, I have a favor to ask. Would you take a minute to leave an honest review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon? Amazon uses reviews as social proof that this flash briefing is useful, so it’s the best way for you to spread the word if you’re getting any value from these tips on retirement. Thanks in advance if you leave a review. I do a little happy dance every time I read a new review.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, investment fees, cost of investing, mutual fund fees, ETF fees, expense ratio, mutual fund expense ratio
This week, we’re talking about the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles. Today’s immutable, unchanging principle is tax awareness.
Investing for your retirement is fraught with of potential tax land mines. Our tax system is complex and there are a lot of rules and exceptions to those rules, especially when it comes to taxes on your investment portfolio.
At some point, I’m going to devote an entire week or more to this topic because it’s critically important, but for today, what I want to convey is how important an awareness of taxes is for your long-term returns.
First and foremost, it’s important to understand the tax treatment of different account types. IRAs, Trust accounts, and Roth IRAs all have vastly different tax treatments - both on money going in to the account, how money is taxed while it stays invested in the account, and how the money is taxed on the way out.
So by understanding how each of these accounts are taxed, you can then make better decisions about the types of investments you own in each to maximize the tax efficiency with the different types of accounts that you have.
Not sure if your portfolio is as tax efficient as it could be? I have a special treat for you. If you send me a copy of your account statement - either for a single account or your entire portfolio - I’ll do a tax awareness audit on your portfolio to let you know if there are any glaring tax-inefficiencies in your investment portfolio.
Send an email to ashleym@truenorthra.com, that ashleym@truenorthra.com, and I’ll send you a link to upload a copy of your statement to me securely.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you my rule of thumb for determining if your investment fees are reasonable.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, tax aware investing, tax efficient investing, how are investments taxed, taxed on stocks, capital gains taxes, investment tax rate
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, and today’s immutable, unchanging principle is avoid the hype.
Look no further than bitcoin for a prime example of hype in the investment world. If you weren’t on the bitcoin bandwagon in 2017, you were made to feel like an idiot. Everyone was talking about bitcoin, and it seems everyone was doubling their money overnight.
You know things have gotten out of hand when you hear people bragging on the sidelines of their kids soccer games about about how they’ve made 400% in bitcoin - that year alone!
Then in 2018, Bitcoin lost 70% of it’s value and a lot of people who speculated on bitcoin and bought in 2017 after the price already soared got burned...badly.
Cryptocurrencies are difficult to understand and crypto as an asset class is still a little teething toddler. So the jury is still out on the long-term legitimacy of this asset class. In addition, cryptocurrency is technology-based, which leaves this investment open to cyberattacks. Hacking is a serious risk, since there is no way to retrieve your lost or stolen bitcoins.
So here’s the point: When it comes to investing, it’s important to avoid the hype. When you feel like you’ve missed the bandwagon on something, just shrug it off. Don’t be tempted to jump in after the price has skyrocketed. Many people get romaced into buying something that they don’t really understand and haven’t done their homework on because they don’t want to be left behind.
But don’t fall for that temptation. As bitcoin and countless other hyped up investments gone bad will show you, once you feel like you missed the boat, you should just wave and let it sail on by.
In other words, avoid the hype.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to cover the importance of being tax-aware with your investments.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, bitcoin, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency prices
The theme for this week is Immutable Principles of Investing, part 2. These are the most important, unchanging, timeless principles of investing that will bear fruit in good and bad markets in order to help you reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
In mid-January I covered my top 5 immutable principles of successful investing. This week, I’m continuing with 5 additional principles.
Immutable by definition means “unable to be changed”. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles.
Each day this week I’m going to share with what I’ve learned over the last 11 years working with clients. I’ll share practical advice on how you can implement these principles in your own portfolio.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week better equipped to be successful in good markets and bad markets and not get caught up in the ever-changing winds of the day.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to dive in with how to avoid the hype - a common pitfall that both novice and experienced investors find difficult to resist.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Unloading Your Debt.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are inspired to eradicate debt from your life and enter into retirement completely debt-free!
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here what we covered:
- Why debt in retirement is a problem
- How to envision your debt-free life
- The first step in getting started on eradicating debt from your life
- A discussion of two popular debt reduction methods - the debt snowball and the debt avalanche
- And...whether or not your should pay off your house in retirement
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Immutable Principles of Successful Investing - Part 2. Back in January, I talked about 5 unchanging, immutable principles of successful investing.
Next week, we’re continuing with 5 additional immutable principles to help you be a savvy and successful investor. I’ll be talking cryptocurrency, tax-efficiency, and rebalancing...and what you need to know about each to help you on your path to a financially secure retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
This week, we’re talking about the importance of unloading your debt before you transition into retirement.
What would your life be like if you didn’t have debt? How much more freedom and flexibility you’ll have when your only monthly bills are utilities, groceries, and mostly discretionary purchases? How much would it grow your confidence in retirement, that you won’t run out of money, if you have no debt?
My guess is - A LOT!
How much more control would you have over your financial life if you had zero debt and committed to maintaining zero debt - we payin’ cash for everything now, baby!
Money is the biggest stressor for Americans, outweighing relationships and work on the stress meter. According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2018 Planning & Progress Study, 44% of us are stressed about money.
Unloading your debt isn’t just about paying cash for your car. Unloading your debt means less stress, more confidence and...better health as a result!
Tomorrow we’re going to recap the week, but today I ask you to have the courage to envision a life without debt. Go there. Let yourself hang out there for a while and see what it feels like. Then...get to work on the necessary steps to eradicate debt from your life. I laid out how you can get started in the earlier episodes this week. As one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain aso wisely stated: “The secret to getting ahead is getting started”.
If you’re ready to start reducing your debt, but you need some more guidance, I suggest picking up a copy of Dave Ramsey’s book - The Total Money Makeover. In my opinion, his step-by-step process for reducing your debt and improving your finances is the best method out there. If you’re not convinced that it works, just tune in to his radio program on debt-free Friday to hear callers do their debt-free screams. It’s powerful and encouraging!
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
This week, we’re talking about the importance of unloading your debt before you transition into retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about the debt snowball and the debt avalanche methods for kissing your debt goodbye, and today I want to answer a question that I get asked all the time:
“Ashley, what about my house? Should I pay off my mortgage, so I don’t have a mortgage in retirement?”
Good question! And not an easy question to answer, but I’ll take a stab at it in about 2 minutes.
Mortgages tend to be big debts. You might still owe $100,000 or more on your house by the time you enter retirement, so it’s no small feat to pay off your house.
Now, many people say that the mortgage interest tax deduction helps them with their taxes. Hogwash, I say! That may be true, but you are still handing over your hard-earned money - principal and interest over to the bank every year and the tax deduction is just a portion of that, so it just isn’t that compelling when you compare it with not having a monthly mortgage payment at all.
So yes, I think it’s wise to pay off your mortgage as close to retirement as possible. It tends to be the largest expense for most American households - making up about a third of our monthly expenses, on average. So if you can free most of that up in retirement by paying off your mortgage, it makes a big difference for your finances.
Here’s what I don’t want you to do though - don’t take a lump sum out of your retirement portfolio to pay off your house. This is a common temptation, but if you do this you’re amputating your retirement portfolio while simultaneously plunging a bunch of money into an illiquid investment - your home.
Instead, calculate how you can pay off your mortgage quicker by making additional payments. Let’s say you have 15 years left on your mortgage and you’re 9 years from retirement. How much would you need to add to your monthly payment to pay off your mortgage the same month that you plan to retire? Ooooo, how good would that feel?
You can figure out this extra payment amount by using what’s called an amortization calculator or an amortization table.
When you actually run the numbers with an amortization, you might be surprised to learn that knocking those 6 years off your mortgage is totally doable, and not as burdensome as you might have expected. And it’s easy to find out with an amortization calculator.
I’ll link to a favorite amortization calculator of mine in the show notes, so you can run the numbers for yourself. You can find link and all the show notes for this episode - episode 166 - in iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley.”
Mortgage Amotization Calculator >>> https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/home-equity/additional-mortgage-payment-calculator.aspx
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon! Reviews help Alexa users decipher between the gold and the garbage, so if these tips are helping you on your path to retirement, please share the love with others by leaving a review!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
This week, we’re talking about the importance of unloading your debt before you transition into retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about the easy first step of eradicating debt from your life - just taking inventory. I had you list all of your debts, the amount owed and the interest rate on each debt.
Knowledge is power, so we have to start by knowing where we stand today.
Now that you hopefully have your debt inventory list, let’s look today at 2 very popular debt reduction strategies - the debt snowball and the debt avalanche.
In the debt snowball method, you to list your debts, smallest to largest, and start knocking out the smallest debt first. And then move on to the next smallest, knock that out, and continue down that path until all of your debts are wiped out. It’s a snowball, because the snowball starts small, but grows over time.
The debt avalanche method, on the other hand, lists all of your debts, from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate, and you start by knocking out the highest interest rate debt first. And then you move on to the next highest interest rate debt, and continue until all your debt is gone.
An avalanche to rid yourself of debt sounds better than a snowball, right? But personally, I nearly always recommend the debt snowball method to clients. A lot of people might disagree with me, since financially it’s usually better to tackle this highest interest rate debt first. In many cases, you’ll pay less in interest over the years with the avalanche method.
Imagine that you have a $10,000 credit card debt debt at 24%. That’s your highest interest rate debt, so if you pick the debt avalanche, you’ll pay that one off first. But how are you going to feel in 9 months when you’re still slogging away, paying off that first debt. You’re making progress, but it’s been 9 months and you’re still paying off that first debt. It’s harder to keep going when it doesn’t feel like you’re winning.
But let’s say you pick the debt snowball instead, and you have a $250 balance on your Macy’s card, and a $1200 medical bill to pay off. Those are your smallest debts. The first one you knock out within a month and the other one only takes you 2-3 months.
Ching ching ching! The quicker wins and the accomplishment from paying off 2 of your debts gives you the motivation to keep going once you get to the bigger debts. Your confidence grows because you’ve made progress and achieved some success. So we need the gratifying rewards that come with making progress quickly.
From here, you now have a path to follow to reduce your debt, but also make sure that your chosen path is going to motivate you to see this through to the end.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
This week, we’re talking about the importance of unloading your debt before you transition into retirement.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Mark Twain. He said: “The secret to getting ahead is getting started”. What I love so much about this quote is it’s simple truth. As humans, we are naturally opposed to change. Especially if that change is difficult - like making sacrifices to eradicate debt from your life. But Twain was right - the SECRET is just getting started.
So how do you get started on eradicating debt from your life?
The answer is surprisingly simple.
Oh, and by the way, how you get started isn’t dependent on if you have a little or a lot of debt. You might just have mortgage debt. Or, if you’re like many Americans, you’re swimming in debt. Your mortgage will be paid off when you’re 104. You have 2 car payments that if we’re being open and honest here you really can’t afford, and you have a few thousand dollars of high interest credit card debt that you’re paying a whopping 24% interest rate on.
The first step in getting started is to take inventory. And this shouldn’t take you too long, so you don’t have an excuse not to do it.
Here’s how you take inventory: Get out a sheet of paper and create 3 columns:
- First column - Name of the debt. Is this a Macy’s credit card, a car loan, your mortgage? Whatever it is, list all your debts by name.
- Second column - next to each debt, write the current balance that you owe
- Last column - write down the current interest rate. Is it 2%, 12% or 22%? Whatever it is, write it down.
All done! See, that wasn’t so hard, now was it?
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, I’m going to explain 2 popular debt reduction strategies that you can choose from, once you’re finished with your inventory.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
This week, we’re talking about the importance of unloading your debt before you transition into retirement.
If you still have debt when you enter retirement, it can create a potentially dangerous collision. This collision may not happen for many years down the road, or never at all, but you can see the cars piling up in front of you and we gotta put the brakes on.
Here’s the real problem with debt in retirement: Debt creates minimum monthly obligations - bills you’ve got to pay. If you have a mortgage payment, and a car loan, and some credit card debt, those are all bills that need to be paid every month. And if they’re not paid, we’re talking serious consequences, like foreclosure.
If you’re retired, your income is limited to what your social security, pension, investment portfolio, and other income sources can provide. And your ability to earn your way out of a debt problem by getting a job is now very limited. Especially as you age. How many 80 year olds do see driving an Uber?
So by reducing or eliminating your debt by the time you hit retirement, you have a lot more breathing room and a lot more freedom and flexibility to decide how to spend your income every month.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to cover how you can get started on reducing your debt before retirement. It doesn’t have to be this grand, austere undertaking. I’ll give you a simple way to get started in tomorrow’s tip.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re unloading your debt before you transition into retirement. I’m going to talk about the importance of reducing your debt, the tremendous freedom that little to no debt in retirement provides, and how to take incremental steps today to begin reducing your debt.
Last fall I was at a financial industry conference, where Rachel Cruze was the keynote speaker. She is the daughter of famous financial guru and the ultimate hater of debt, Dave Ramsey. She talked about debt in her keynote, and her words were the inspiration for this week’s tips.
She said: “Debt is like bondage and slavery. It limits what you can do.”
Bondage, slavery, and limitations on your life. Debt promises all of those things.
So today, I want you to think about how your current debt load is limiting your own life. And I want you to envision a life without debt and the piece of mind that comes with that.
Because if you’re going to put in the work to eradicate debt from your life, you’ve got to keep that vision of a better life in front of you - a life free from bondage, slavery, and the limitations of debt.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week’s tips inspired by the small changes you can start making today to wipe out your debt and remove the shackles that debt so often brings.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, I have a favor to ask. Would you take a minute to leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon? Amazon uses reviews as social proof that this flash briefing is useful, so it’s the best way for you to spread the word if you’re getting any value from these tips on retirement. Thanks in advance if you leave a review. I do a little happy dance every time I read a new review.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, rachel cruze, getting out of debt, debt snowball, debt avalanche, amortization, amortization schedule, debt free, debt free living, debt free calculator, debt in retirement, dave ramsey, total money makeover
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: long-term care. What it is, why you need to think about it as you transition into retirement, and how you can protect yourself if you ever need to pay for long-term care.
Hopefully after listening to the tips this week, you are better informed about long-term care and you’ve answered a very important question for yourself: Should you buy long-term care insurance to protect yourself in retirement?
It’s an important question to answer, especially if your in your 50s. Because if you’re going to buy long-term care insurance, that’s the time to do it. If you wait until you’re older or if you’re not in good health when you buy long-term care insurance, the premiums skyrocket.
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here what we covered:
- What is long-term care and why you should care
- The scary statistics that highlight the probability that you’ll need long-term care
- Who should buy long-term care insurance and if it’s really worth the cost...and
- The ideal time to buy long-term care insurance
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Unloading your debt before you retire. We’ll talk about the importance of getting to little to no debt by the time you hit retirement, and how to make progress on knocking out your debt so you can have the freedom and peace of mind of being debt-free in retirement.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies, when to buy long term care insurance
This week, we’re talking about long-term care and why it’s important to make some decisions today about how you’re going to pay for long-term care in retirement.
Yesterday I talked about the trade-offs between the cost of buying long-term care compared to the benefit amount a policy would provide if you need long-term care.
Today, let’s talk about when you should buy long-term care insurance. The two primary factors that drive cost for long-term care insurance are your age and your health. The healthier you are and the younger you are, the lower the cost of your long-term care insurance policy.
The sweet spot for buying long-term care if you’re healthy is in your 50s. If you wait longer than that, you’re playing a dangerous game, because you’ll need to stay healthy in order to not get priced out of a policy in most cases.
Also, it pays to shop around. Work with an independent broker who can get you side-by-side quotes from at least 3 insurers. A good broker can also help you compare the trade-offs of different policy features and other options, like tacking on a life insurance policy to your long-term care policy.
Personally, I’m no longer licensed to sell long-term care insurance, but if you email me at ashleym@truenorthra.com, (that’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m @ true-north-r-a.com), I’ll send you information about who to contact if you’re serious about getting a quote and making some decisions about your long-term care.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
But before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon! Reviews help Alexa users decipher between the gold and the garbage, so if these tips are helping you on your path to retirement, please share the love with others by leaving a review!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies, when to buy long term care insurance
This week, we’re talking about long-term care and why it’s important to make some decisions today about how you’re going to pay for long-term care in retirement.
Yesterday, I told you about my client Lucy who was rapidly draining her retirement nest egg to pay for her late husband’s alzheimer's care. Today I want to dive a little deeper into long-term care insurance, because for the vast majority of Americans in the financial middle, some long-term care insurance makes sense.
Why? Well, being in the middle class or upper middle class is where paying for long-term care can do the most damage. The poor will be covered by medicaid and the rich have plenty of assets to pay for long-term care. But if a $200,000 lifetime spend on long-term care over your lifetime is going to wipe out your nest egg, then you’ll want to look seriously at long-term care insurance.
So let's take a look at insurance today, starting with: what does long-term care insurance cost? I ran the numbers for a 57 year old, single female in Oregon and the estimated monthly premium amount is $151 per month, which would provide a long-term care monthly benefit of $2500/month.
If you can afford the cost of insurance, it can provide for a significant long-term care benefit if you need to use the policy later in life.
Insurance policies have also evolved over the years, so if you don’t end up using your long-term care insurance you can tack on a life insurance benefit so at least you won’t have to “use it or lose it”.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk more about when you should buy long-term care insurance.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies, when to buy long term care insurance
This week, we’re talking about long-term care and why it’s important to make some decisions today about how you’re going to pay for long-term care in retirement.
Yesterday we talked about the harsh reality of the long-term care landscape - there’s a decent chance (about 50/50) that you’ll need long-term care in your lifetime, and it can be very expensive to pay for - potentially wiping out your retirement nest egg.
Today we’re talking about how you can protect yourself financially if you need long-term care.
I have a client, we’ll call her Lucy, who’s husband battled Alzheimer's for 9 years. The first 7 of those 9 years, she cared for him in their home, but the last 2 years, she could no longer care for him on her own and he moved to a memory care facility.
The care Lucy was providing for those 7 years was an incredible burden, but when he moved to memory care, it began to take a serious financial toll on Lucy. And I became genuinely concerned she was going to run out of money.
Their investment portfolio was not large enough to support the large withdrawals she was taking out to pay for his care. And they didn’t have long-term care insurance. As long as they still had assets, Medicaid wasn’t going to kick in. So Lucy was left with draining their savings to pay for her husband’s care. All the while worrying if there would be anything left for her.
Thankfully in the end, she did not run out of money after paying for her late husband’s long-term care. But the cost of long-term care did some damage to her nest egg, and it caused enormous financial stress and worry for Lucy that she would be left with nothing.
This story illustrates how important it is for those of you in the middle to take a serious look at long-term care insurance. The poor will be covered by medicaid and the rich have plenty of assets to pay for long-term care. But if your retirement will be wiped out if you need to spend upwards of $200,000 on long-term care over your lifetime, then you’ll want to look seriously at long-term care insurance.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies, when to buy long term care insurance, long term care medicaid
This week, we’re talking about long-term care and why it’s important to make some decisions today about how you’re going to pay for long-term care in retirement.
Today we’re covering the statistics about long-term care to help you understand the harsh and expensive reality of paying for long-term care.
First of all, let’s talk about the likelihood that you’ll need long-term care in the first place. According to a 2017 study by AARP, if you’re 65 or older, there is a 52% chance that you will need some type of long-term care in your lifetime. 52%. Toss a coin and it could go either way. So the odds are pretty high.
If you’re a woman, the odds are even higher - it’s a 58% chance that you’ll need long-term care.
On average, a man will need long-term care for 1 ½ years while a woman will need long-term care for 2 ½ years. One of the downsides of living longer for us women is that we will usually require long-term care more often and for longer periods of time.
Now let’s talk about the financial cost of long-term care.
The median annual cost for long-term care ranges from $18,000 for adult day care to $97,000 for a private room in a nursing home.
If you require long-term care for an extended period or if you develop dementia or Altzheimer’s, the costs skyrocket. The estimated lifetime cost of care for someone with dementia is $341,840.
And 15% of us will spend more than $250,000 on long-term care in our lifetime.
Those costs can wipe out your wealth, which is why it’s so important to understand your options and protect yourself.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies, when to buy long term care insurance
This week, we’re talking about long-term care and why it’s important to make some decisions today about how you’re going to pay for long-term care in retirement.
Today we’re starting at the beginning to clarify what long-term care actually is. When many people think of long-term care, they think of nursing homes. But long-term care is a very wide spectrum of care that you or your loved ones might need when you can no longer perform everyday activities on your own.
Long-term care is defined by needing help with everyday activities, also called "activities of daily living." This includes bathing, dressing, grooming, using the toilet, eating, and moving around—for example, getting out of bed and into a chair.
When defined in this way, it’s easy to see why so many of us will need long-term care as we age.
Today, most long-term care is provided at home by unpaid family members and friends. In the case of dementia or Alzheimer's, long-term care could mean living at a memory care facility.
So it’s a wide spectrum of care. And chances are very good that you will need long-term care as you age. Tomorrow we’ll talk more about those statistics, but for today, I want you to think about how you would handle your own long-term care needs in retirement.
Even if you don’t need round-the-clock memory care, do you have family members who are willing to help out or willing to let you move in with them if you can no longer live on your own? Many children who provide long-term care to a parent reduce their hours or stop working entirely to help out an aging parent. They often end up contributing financially as well on top of the lost wages from not working. Are they going to be ok with that and are you going to be okay with that?
Would you be comfortable living in a retirement community or a nursing home or is it critically important that you stay in your own home?
First understanding how and where you want to live if you require long-term care is an important first step because it influences decisions you’ll make about paying for long-term care.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to cover the eye-opening statistics about long-term care.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies
It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re talking about long-term care. What it is, why you’ll want to give it some serious thought as you transition into retirement, and how you can protect yourself if you ever need to pay for long-term care.
My hope is that you’ll come away from this week’s tips better informed about long-term care, and be able to answer a very important question: Should you buy long-term care insurance to protect yourself in retirement? It’s an important question to answer, especially if you’re in your 50s.
Because if you’re going to buy long-term care insurance, that’s the time to do it. If you wait until you’re older or if you’re not in good health when you buy long-term care insurance, the premiums skyrocket.
Before we go any further this week, I want you to know that while I used to be licensed to sell long-term care insurance and I know a lot about it, I don’t actually have a dog in this fight. I gave up my license and ability to sell long-term care insurance when we started our firm, True North.
Hopefully that will help you trust that what I’m going to share with you this week is my honest opinion that doesn’t come with a sales pitch attached.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is so important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, long term care, long term care insurance, long term care definition, long term care cost, what is long term care facility, long term care options, long term care insurance, long term care insurance cost, alternatives to long term care insurance, long term care insurance quotes, long term care insurance definition, pros and cons of long term care insurance, probability of needing long term care, long term care insurance companies
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Myth Busting! There are a lot of myths floating around out there about investing, so the focus this week was busting some of the more pervasive myths that could hinder your chances of a successful retirement.
I hope after listening to this week’s tips, you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smart decisions about how you invest your money.
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here are the myths I tried to bust in 2 minutes or less:
- You must be a savvy investor to be successful
- Stock market investing is exactly the same as gambling
- Cheaper is always better when it comes to picking investments
- Real estate is a better investment than stocks
- Gold is a safe investment
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Long-term Care. I’ll help you better understand long-term care insurance, whether or not it’s a good fit for you, and the importance of considering long-term care as you approach retirement. Needing to pay for long-term care can quickly obliterate the best laid plan for retirement, so I’ll help you work out if you should take a closer look at long-term care insurance in next week’s tips.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, stock market myths
This week, we’re busting myths about investing, so you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.
Today myth I’m busting is: Gold is a safe investment.
Eh! Wrong again.
When there’s volatility in the stock market, the ads for gold come out of the woodwork - “Protect your IRA by transferring it to gold today!” But have you ever noticed that these ads disappear again as soon as the stock market turns around?
Gold has long been a safe haven investment in times of uncertainty and economic downturns. But it’s actually a terrible long-term investment. If you bought gold in the 1970s, you lost money for about 35 years. 35 years. Multiple decades of negative returns before gold investors were finally vindicated in the 2000s, when gold finally had a nice run. Any investment that could possibly lose money for longer than I’ve been alive is not even remotely a safe investment.
In fact, what makes gold a poor investment choice is that it is incredibly volatile! Extreme volatility without properly rewarding you for that roller coaster ride.
And if that wasn’t enough to bust this myth about gold being a safe investment, consider the words of Warren Buffett, arguably the most successful stock market investor ever. He said: “(Gold) gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
But before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon! Reviews help Alexa users decipher between the gold and the garbage, so if these tips are helping you on your path to retirement, please share the love with others by leaving a review!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, stock market myths, stock market crash, gold, gold investing, is gold a good investment, is buying gold a safe investment
This week, we’re busting myths about investing, so you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.
Today myth is: Real estate is a better investment than stocks.
Buzzer! Wrong.
If you lean toward real estate as the better investment, consider the risk, lack of diversification, headaches, and lack of liquidity that real estate offers you.
Most people don’t have the assets to invest in more than a handful of properties. That’s a lack of diversification. Most people also only consider homes and not other types of real estate, like commercial properties. That’s a further lack of diversification if you’re just investing in one type of real estate.
Investing in real estate has a lot of headaches because you have to keep it up, paint it, change the lightbulbs, pay for a new roof - and if you’re not willing to do that, you have to pay someone to do it for you.
And then there’s the lack of liquidity. It can take months or years to sell a property. What do you do if you need money in an emergency.
And then there’s the massive debt that’s often required to invest in real estate.
Real estate isn’t a bad investment, but let’s be realistic about it. I meet a lot of people who have all of their net worth tied up in real estate who are happy to laugh and tell me what a joke the stock market is. But these same people don’t actually factor in the total costs of owning real estate. I often talk to real estate investors who own properties where they are losing $200/month or $500/month, but hey, they’re in a great location and it’s going to turn around real soon.
Stock market returns (as measured by the S&P 500) have averaged 7.2% per year for the last 20 years. That’s with 2 massive declines from the tech bubble burst and the great recession. 7.2% per year even with those big downturns thrown in - pretty impressive. You quadrupled your money as a stock market investor over the last 20 years, all while not changing a single light bulb or having to evict any delinquent tenants.
The average home price in the U.S. increased by an average of 3.4% over that same time period - less than half of the return in the stock market.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow I’m going to tell you what I really think about gold.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, stock market myths, stock market crash, real estate vs stocks, real estate investing
This week, we’re busting myths about investing, so you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.
Today’s myth is: Cheaper is always better.
Buzzer! Wrong!
Of course, fees do matter when it comes to your investment portfolio, but I see investors pursue low cost investing at the expense of a whole slough of other factors that should also be considered when evaluating your portfolio.
So here’s how I want you to think about fees instead. It’s a two-prong approach. 1) There is no free lunch when it comes to investing your money. So it’s important to understand what your fees are. How much are you paying in trading costs or commissions? How much are you paying per year in the underlying investment fees of the mutual funds or ETFs you invest your money in? And if you use a financial advisor, how much are you paying them?
Successful investing isn’t just about picking good investments. It’s about managing your emotions, making sure that you have the right stock and bond mix, that you’re saving enough, rebalancing your portfolio when you should, being tax efficient, and upteen other things, which is why I don’t run out of things to talk about here on the one minute retirement tip.
My point is, that while investing isn’t free and cheaper doesn’t automatically equal better, what you pay should be reasonable. That’s the key word: Reasonable.
So what is reasonable? If you’re a DIY investor, your all-in annual costs shouldn’t exceed .75% annually. If you use professional help from a financial advisor, your fees should not exceed 1.5%. In practice, I’ve found that if clients’ all-in fees were less than 1.5% per year, we didn't have issues with underperformance, plus they were able to take advantage of all of the advice and planning that comes with having a trusted advisor, all while saving themselves a lot of time and effort trying to do everything on their own.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to put real estate head to head with stocks to see which one is better.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, stock market myths, stock market crash, wealth management, low cost investments, mutual funds, ETFs, ETF, index funds
This week, we’re busting myths about investing, so you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.
Today’s myth is: Investing in stocks is just like gambling.
Buzzer! Wrong!
This one used to throw me for a loop, because it is so wildly untrue, yet I hear it over and over again. I have a number of 401k plan clients, and as part of that consulting work, I put on education sessions for the employees in the plan. So I’ll give presentations about the same topics we cover in these tips, and inevitably someone raises their hand and says “Now why would I invest in the stock market? It’s no different than going down to the casino!”
I’m not a big gambler. I hate losing money and gambling stresses me out. I actually was in Vegas a couple years ago for like 3 days for a conference and I didn’t gamble once. But I do occasionally gamble and my favorite casino game is Roulette, which is also the dumbest game to play because it has the worst odds. The odds of hitting a single number on a straight-up bet are 37 to 1. But the payout is big if you hit your number: 35 to 1.
Do you know what the odds of losing all your money when you invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds? From 1950 to 2018 (nearly 70 years), there were definitely individual years where you lost money, but for someone who was invested 50% in the S&P 500 and 50% in the US Aggregate bond index, there wasn’t a single 5-year time period where you lost money!
Pick any 5-years you want from 1950 to today - every single one was positive. In addition, the average annual return of a 50/50 stocks to bonds portfolio since 1950 has been 8.8%. That means you’ve been doubling your money about every 8 years!
Does that sound like gambling to you?
If you’re tempted to stay out of stocks or bonds because you think it’s just like gambling, consider the alternative: hiding your money under the mattress where the real wealth killer - inflation - will do tremendous damage on your hard-earned cash.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, stock market myths, stock market crash, wealth management
This week, we’re busting myths about investing, so you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money for retirement.
Today’s myth is: “You Must Be Savvy and Understand the markets to be successful.”
Buzzer! Wrong!
Unfortunately, personal finance topics like saving, investing, and avoiding debt, are scantily covered in school. Even if you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, you probably entered adulthood woefully ill-prepared to properly manage your money.
You’ve surely made some mistakes with your money along the way, and hopefully somewhere along the way, you figured things out. And you obviously care enough about educating yourself and making smart decisions with your money, otherwise you wouldn’t be here listening to me blather on day after day.
Most financial advisors, like myself, would likely tell you that success at investing and managing your money well isn’t about what you know. It’s about your habits.
Habits like consistently saving, investing in your 401k in good times and bad, and paying off your credit card balance in full every month. Most of what it takes to be successful has nothing to do with understanding whether or not Facebook or Apple stock is a good buy right now. You don’t have to be a savvy stock picker, because you can hire that out to someone else (whether that’s a financial advisor, or a fund company like a mutual fund or ETF to pick the stocks for you).
Too many people lack confidence in their own knowledge and abilities and are intimidated by investing, so they stay out of stocks all together or don’t fully participate in the 401k plan offered at work.
I’m still understanding the markets and there's a lot I do not know. And not only did I study this stuff in school. I’ve been doing it day in and day out for over a decade. And I still am humbled by what I don’t know and still have to learn. So don’t let a lack of knowledge keep you from trusting the incredible long-term wealth building engine that the stock market has proven itself to be.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to tackle the most common investing myth I hear: Investing in the stock market is just like gambling.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, wealth management
It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re busting some myths about investing. These myths are tossed around all the time, and believing these myths could hurt your chances of success in the long-run. And we can’t have that!
Here are the myths I’ll be busting this week:
- Myth #1 - You must be savvy and really understand the markets to be successful
- Myth #2 - Investing in the stock market is just like gambling
- Myth #3 - Cheaper is always better
- Myth #4 - Real estate is a better investment than stocks
- And, Myth #5 - Gold is a safe investment
Each day this week I’m going to try my darndest to obliterate one of these myths, all in the hope that you’ll be better equipped to think rationally about investing and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is so important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investing myths
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: the most googled personal finance topics by state. I recently came across an interesting article on SmartAsset.com that analyzed google search trends to see what people were searching for by state.
I picked the personal finance topics from these search trends that I think are most useful when it comes to your retirement, and that’s what we covered this week.
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:
- 529 plans
- Early retirement
- Pet insurance
- Roth IRAs, and
- Money laundering (based on the state searching for this, my guess is that they’re searching for HOW to launder money...take a guess and go back to Thursday to find out the answer.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Investment Myths...Busted! I’m going to bust several myths that I hear over and over again. People who want to tell me that investing is the same as gambling. Um, no. No it’s not. We’re also going to talk about real estate vs. the stock market, why lowest fee doesn’t equate to best investment choice, and several other myths that are continually perpetrated in the world of investing.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, 529 plan, early retirement, FIRE, FIRE movement, pet insurance, Roth IRA, Roth vs traditional IRA, roth vs traditional 401k
This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve plucked topics from search trend results by state that are relevant for your retirement.
Today’s most googled personal finance topic by state is Connecticut, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for Pet insurance.
Apparently, people in Connecticut love their pets! Today I want to focus on whether or not pet insurance is a smart use of your dollars.
We live in a society where where doggie tummy tucks and face lifts are actually a thing, so within the context of that reality, pet insurance seems pretty normal, but it probably would have been a laughable concept to most people just 30 or 40 years ago.
As I found in 2014, pet insurance can come in handy. I paid over $10,000 out of pocket for my dachshund’s back surgery and 2 ½ week stay in the Vet ICU after the poor guy got tangled in his leash and fell awkwardly onto his back, instantly paralyzing himself. It was a traumatic experience, and financially, it was a big hit to our savings.
It sure would have been nice if pet insurance would have covered that, instead of use having to drain our savings to pay for little Benny’s back surgery and all the expensive complications that it came with. But a scary sob story isn’t justification enough to purchase pet insurance.
So let’s explore if pet insurance is a smart purchase. “Checkbook.org, an independent, non-profit consumer organization, took a deep dive into pet insurance and found that “pet insurance is not worth it for many people” - that’s according to a September 2018 article in NBC News.
What many people don’t realize when they buy pet insurance for their puppy is that premiums go up as your pet ages. And, unless your dog has serious and chronic medical issues, you’ll likely pay more with pet insurance over your pet’s lifetime.
For a 13 year old male dog who needed typical, moderate care over his lifetime, total care costs with pet insurance ranged from $11,000 to $23,000, compared to about $9,000 without insurance, according to Checkbook.org.
The bottom line here is that while pet insurance would be a better option that going into credit card debt to pay for Fido’s serious and treatable health problems, keep in mind that you’ll likely spend more on pet insurance over your dog’s lifetime, and consider just doing the smart thing of keeping enough money in savings for emergencies instead.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, pet insurance, pet insurance cost
This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve plucked topics from search trend results by state that are relevant for your retirement.
Today’s most googled personal finance topic by state is Delaware, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for the Roth IRA.
The Roth IRA and it’s cousin, the Roth 401k are worthy of an entire week’s worth of tips, but today I want to clear up the paralyzing confusion of deciding between a Roth and a Traditional IRA or 401k.
A Roth is a retirement account where you don’t get a tax break on money going in, but from that point on it grows tax-free, and money going out isn’t taxed either. It’s a pretty sweet deal to not pay taxes on that money you pull out of a Roth in retirement.
If you research Roth IRAs at all, a lot of the advice you’ll find is wishy-washy. And that’s because no one knows what tax rates will be in the future. And since a traditional IRA is taxed later and a Roth IRA isn’t, it’s anyone’s guess how tax rates in retirement will impact the taxation of the money coming out of your retirement accounts. So don’t try to predict the future and base your Roth vs Traditional choice on what you think tax rates will be in your retirement years. That’s a fool’s errand.
Consider one other selling point for the Roth: No mandatory withdrawals at age 70 ½. Withdrawals are required from traditional IRA accounts at age 70 ½, but Roth IRAs don’t have mandatory withdrawals in retirement, which will give you more control over how your income is taxed in retirement.
In case you couldn’t tell, I love the Roth. 90% of my personal IRA and 401k accounts are in Roth.
I think the best piece of advice I could give you about the Roth is that no matter what your age, income, or prediction about future tax rates, investing at least a portion of your 401k or IRA dollars into Roth makes sense. And if you make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA, a Roth 401k is still available to you since there is no income cap. Plus, you can sock away as much as $25,000 into a Roth 401k this year if you’re 50 or older.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow I’m going to tell you which animal lover state ranks the highest on google for pet insurance, and I’ll tell you if buying pet insurance is a dumb idea. You’ll have to come back tomorrow to see what I think.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, Roth IRA, Roth vs traditional IRA, roth vs traditional 401k
This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve picked out topics from search trend results by state that I think are most useful when it comes to planning your successful retirement.
Today’s most googled personal finance topic by state is Washington D.C. which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for...wait for it...money laundering.
Seriously?! Our nation’s Capital and all the government workers in DC are searching for money laundering more than any other state. Frightening.
Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s probably just a bunch of aids and interns trying to dig up dirt on the opposing side (cough: Trump). There are probably 100 full-time staffers in DC, whose lives are dedicated to trying to dismantle Trump, so I guess it’s not surprising after all.
All joking aside, a similar type of criminal act that you’ll want to pay attention to as it relates to your retirement is elder abuse. It’s very common in this country, and often family members are the primary abusers of the elderly. Yes, that’s right...family. If you take away nothing else from today’s tip, remember that.
So, as you face caring for aging parents and plan for your own retirement, I encourage you to pay attention to the signs of elder abuse: sudden and large increase in withdrawals from bank or investment accounts, or ATM cash withdrawals, additional names added onto bank accounts, and beneficiary changes in wills or retirement accounts.
Consider providing access to more than one person who can view account activity on bank or investment accounts, so there is more than one set of eyes on things. This can be set up with an interested 3rd party release or by establishing a trusted contact on an account that the financial institution can get in touch with if they see suspicious activity.
Banks and investment firms are taking more steps to protect against elder abuse, so look into ways you can protect yourself or your loved ones with additional protections on financial accounts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to talk about who is googling Roth IRAs and why you should consider investing in a Roth.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, money laundering, washington dc money laundering, elder abuse, elder financial abuse
This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve picked out the personal finance topics from these search trends that I think are most useful when it comes to planning your retirement.
Today’s most googled topic by state is Massachusetts, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for early retirement.
Ah, early retirement. This is also known as the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. And it means a lot of different things to different people.
It’s a way of life that has has soared in popularity in recent years, but has also drawn harsh criticism from the likes of Suze Orman and other personal finance gurus.
The jury is still out for me on the FIRE movement, but I do think that some people chasing after or living an early retirement may not realize the risk of needing your money last for potentially 50 years, if you were to retire at, say, 40 years old.
That’s 25 years of paying for healthcare before medicare kicks in, all the costs associated with raising kids, paying for college, 5-10 downturns in the stock market in retirement, watching inflation make everything you buy more expensive, not to mention the risk that things will go wrong in life that can completely change your plans like a serious illness in your family.
Any one of these factors could force you to go back to work and start all over again after 20 years of living your early retirement. Now at age 60, you have no retirement savings and will have to work again until God knows when. There are real risks there, that many FIRE chasers don’t fully appreciate, and that is worrisome.
My other criticism of the FIRE movement is that I’ve met many people who are pursuing FIRE to stroke their own egos.
Think about this: If you’re 40 years old and someone asks you what you do and you say “I’m retired”. That’s like the ultimate status symbol. It’s instantaneously clear to anyone that you clearly have plenty of money or a large trust fund, in order to retire before your hair turns gray.
So if you’re considering FIRE, please make a thoughtful decision about the sustainability of a 40-50 year retirement in your situation and really question your motivation for pursuing FIRE in the first place.
Take the time to do a full-blown retirement analysis, which will show you the likelihood of not running out of money, based on your lifestyle. But it should also show how vulnerable you are if things go sideways, which can help you make the most informed decision possible. Here at True North, we do retirement projections which can model a lot of different scenarios for clients all the time, and they provide so much clarity to help clients make smart decisions. So I encourage you to talk with a financial advisor who can show you whether your early retirement dreams are actually doable.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about who is googling money laundering. The answer might scare you.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, early retirement, early retirement extreme, early retirement health insurance, fire, fire movement, financial independence retire early, financial independence
This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve picked out a few personal finance topics from the rankings that are relevant for your retirement.
Today’s most googled topic by state is Maryland, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for 529 plans.
Today, I want to focus on 529 from the grandparent’s perspective today, since many of you listening are within 10 years of retirement and may already have grandkids.
In my not always humble opinion, a 529 plan is the best way to save for college. The money inside of a 529 plan grows tax-free, and as long as it’s used for qualified education expenses - like tuition, and not a spring break booze cruise to Mexico (which is arguably a qualified education expense in the mind of a 19 year old), taxes won’t be owed when the money is pulled out and used for college.
Priority number one after my kids were born and I got their social security numbers was setting up and contributing to their 529 plan. We all know that college is ridiculously expensive these days, so the earlier you start, the better.
One of the great things about 529s is that anyone can contribute to the account, not just the account owner. So the parent could be the account owner, but you as a grandparent can put money in there any time as well, and help pay for your grandkids college, in a very smart and tax-efficient way.
When my nephew was born 12 years ago, my dad told my sister that he would match contributions that she put in to the 529 plan. My dad also set a monthly savings target to shoot for, because he knew that if they could save more in the early years and let it grow, they would have to save less $s overall for college. He’s done that for all 4 of his grandkids and those matching dollars will go a long way toward growing the 529 plan quickly.
If you can’t commit to regular, matching 529 contributions, at very least, consider making contributions for birthdays and Christmas.
Imagine sitting in the stands on college graduation day, beaming with pride because you were able to do your part to help your grandchild receive that diploma, hopefully without the crushing debt of student loans.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow I’m going to explain what the acronym FIRE means in the realm of retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, 529 plan, 529 plan rules, 529 plans grandparents
It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I recently came across an interesting article at SmartAsset.com that analyzed google search trends to see what people were searching for by state.
I encourage you to check it out, and I’ll link to article in the show notes, which you can find over on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley.
Most googled personal finance topics by state: https://smartasset.com/personal-finance/map-the-most-googled-personal-finance-terms
You can see which states ranked highest for search terms like motorcycle insurance, free college, foreclosure, gold, money laundering, etc.
I pulled out the personal finance topics from these search trends that I think are most useful when it comes to your retirement, and we’ll be covering those this week.
We’ll talk about:
- 529 plans
- Early retirement
- Pet insurance
- Roth IRAs, and
- Money laundering (based on the state searching for this, my guess is that they’re searching for HOW to launder money...take a guess and I’ll give you the answer on Thursday of this week)
Interestingly, I found that my home state, Oregon, did not rank for any of these key terms analyzed from google. I guess the takeaway there is that we Oregonians couldn’t care less about our money or our financial well-being. We’re probably all blowing up google search with cat memes instead of asking google thoughtful questions about retirement. But that’s a discussion for another day.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is so important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, 529 plan, early retirement, FIRE, FIRE movement, pet insurance, Roth IRA, Roth vs traditional IRA, roth vs traditional 401k, money laundering
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Investing in bonds.
Bonds will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement. So it’s important that you have a basic knowledge of how to invest in bonds and why you should consider bonds for your retirement portfolio in the first place.
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:
- Why bonds serve an important role in retirement
- How much of your retirement portfolio should be invested in bonds
- The top 3 mistakes I see investors make with their bond portfolios
- What a bond ladder is and why it’s a time-tested way to invest in bonds
- And, a discussion of the trade-offs of individual bonds vs. bond funds.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The most googled personal finance topics by state. We’ll look at who’s googling pet insurance, Roth IRAs, & early retirement and what’s important for you to know about each of these personal finance topics.
We’ll also find out which state is googling money laundering. I think you’ll find the answer not surprising in the least, but comical nonetheless.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work, individual bonds vs bond funds, bonds vs mutual funds
This week’s theme is investing in bonds.
Bonds will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement, so this week I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned from working with clients over the last 11 years, and trading upwards of $100 million dollars worth of bonds over that time.
Today, let’s try to shed light on an important debate: Individual bonds vs. bond funds.
Individual bonds are bonds you own from a single entity - like a CD bought from a bank, a corporate bond issued from a single company, or a municipal bond issued from a specific city, county, or state.
Bond funds, on the other hand, are a basket of bonds. So if you buy a municipal bond fund, you might own hundreds of different bonds all with different maturity dates, from a wide variety of municipalities. All in that one bond fund.
Bond funds provide more diversification than owning individual bonds, which is their greatest perk. But bond funds have some downside too. Unlike their individual bond cousins, bond funds have no maturity date, which means you could be underwater for years if the bond fund drops in value, with no specific date when you can expect to get your money back.
The income from bond funds is also variable, not fixed like individual bonds, so there is more uncertainty about what you will actually collect from the bond fund in terms of income.
And lastly, bond funds have ongoing fees, so they are usually more expensive to own over the long-haul.
There is no one best way to invest in bonds, but it is important to understand the trade-offs between individual bonds and bond funds when managing your portfolio.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work, individual bonds vs bond funds, bonds vs mutual funds
This week, school’s in session on investing in bonds.
Bonds will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement, so this week I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned from working with clients over the last 11 years, and trading upwards of $100 million dollars worth of bonds over that time.
Today, I’m sharing with you my favorite way to invest in bonds - the bond ladder.
In order to explain how this works, I want you to picture a ladder. Each step or rung on the ladder represents one year. The ladder might have 5 rungs or 10 rungs, or somewhere in between.
So if I build a 5 year bond ladder for a client, I buy bonds of ideally equal weightings that mature this year, next year, and so on for 5 years.
Here’s why I love bond ladders...Bond ladders provide predictable income, because one year of bonds will mature each year, but the other 4 bonds stay invested, so the income tends to be very stable. Bond ladders are generally more liquid too because of their shorter-term nature, and they work great in a rising interest rate environment, because you get to gradually re-invest your bonds at higher rates each year as your bonds mature and cash out, rather than being locked-in for years to come.
I would encourage you to google the term “bond ladder” or ask your financial advisor about it, because it’s a strategy we’ve used successfully with our clients for decades.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about an important debate in the bond world: Bond funds vs. individual bonds.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, how do bonds work
This week’s theme is investing in bonds.
Bonds will likely be a critical component for your investment portfolio in retirement, so this week I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned from working with clients over the last 11 years, and buying and selling upwards of $100 million dollars worth of bonds.
Today, I’m going to share with you the 3 biggest mistakes that I see over and over and over again when I review people’s bond portfolios. When I talk to prospective clients, I have the opportunity to look under the hood of their portfolio, and when I see people make blunders with their bonds, it usually falls into 1 or more of 3 categories:
- Owning bonds that are too risky
- Reaching out too far for income, and
- Having too much or too little in bonds
Let’s break down each one of these:
- Owning bonds that are too risky. Think General Motors or Puerto Rico bonds. Credit quality or in other words the likelihood of default are very important factors when selecting bonds. If you buy individual bonds and the issuer files bankruptcy, you can kiss your money goodbye in most cases, so its important to keep a close watch on credit quality. Bonds have ratings to indicate their quality or likelihood of default, so watch those ratings carefully, especially if you own individual bonds.
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Reaching out too far for income. Here’s what I mean by that - you might buy a bond that’s maturing in 30 years because it’s paying you 6% or 7% a year in income, but when rates climb higher, you can expect that the bond price will drop - and it could drop by 10-20% or more, so don’t be tempted to reach out too far into the future for income.
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Having too much or too little in bonds. We talked about this yesterday when I gave you some guidelines to consider when building your bond portfolio for retirement. By far, what I see most often is that a retiree has too little in bonds and too much in stocks. So be sure to look at your overall mix of stocks and bonds and ask yourself if you could afford to lose 25-30% or more in the next recession because you had too much in stocks.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to talk about my favorite way to invest in bonds - the bond ladder.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work
This week we’re talking about investing in bonds.
Bonds will likely be a critical component for your investment portfolio in retirement, so this week I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned from working with clients over the last 11 years, and through that, buying and selling upwards of $100 million dollars worth of bonds over that time.
Today, let’s talk about how much of your portfolio should actually be invested in bonds. The answer to that depends.
It’s a delicate balance - too much in bonds could hamper your growth potential, and too little in bonds could cause you to panic and sell when your portfolio drops in the next market downturn.
Owning bonds is like the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears - not too much, not too little. We want a bond portfolio that is just right.
And just right could be anywhere from 40% in bonds to 70% in bonds in retirement. That’s the range we typically recommend for clients.
If you want to know the mix of bonds that we recommend for our clients by age, you can email me and I will send you our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet. It’s a guide to what your stock and bond mix should be for your age in 5 year increments, and it’s the foundation that we use to determine stock and bond percentages for our clients. There are other factors to consider other than age, but this guide gives you some specific guidelines and is a great place to start.
Just shoot me an email - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s a-s-h-l-e-y-m@truenorthra.com and I’ll send you your free age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, to help you determine the right mix of stocks and bonds for your portfolio.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the top 3 bond investing mistakes that I see people make over and over again.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, asset allocation, stocks vs bonds, stock vs bond, investment allocation, what are bonds
This week’s theme is bond investing.
Bonds will likely be a critical component for your investment portfolio in retirement, so this week I’m sharing with you what I’ve learned from working with clients over the last 11 years, and buying and selling upwards what I estimate to be over $100 million dollars worth of bonds for clients over that time.
Today I want to focus on why you should consider investing in bonds for your retirement in the first place. Some people object to bonds because the returns are lower than stocks. And that’s true. Over the long-run, you might only expect to receive about ½ of the amount in return that you could earn from investing in stocks.
But here’s why owning bonds is worthwhile: Bonds provide income and stability - two very important characteristics for an investment portfolio in retirement. So let’s talk about each one of these separately:
- Income - Bonds provide steady and reliable income as long as you invest in high quality bonds. This becomes critically important in retirement, as you’ll want to make sure that if you need to pull out $40,000 of income annually from your investments, that a significant portion of that is coming from the income that’s already baked in. That way, you won’t have to rely solely on growth to provide the income you might need from your investments.
- The other key benefit of owning bonds is that they provide stability during downturns in the stock market and the economy. As long as you stick with high-quality bonds, you won’t have to worry too much about your bond portfolio cratering in value in the next recession. But rather, it provides some much needed stability from your stock portfolio that’s gyrating more than a drunk girl at a bachelorette party when the economy heads south.
There are a lot of other reasons to own bonds in retirement - like diversification and tax advantages if you own tax-free municipal bonds, but income and stability are the key characteristics that I always come back to when clients ask me why they can’t just put everything in the stock market.
That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!
Tomorrow I’m going to explain how much of your portfolio should be invested in bonds in retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, what are bonds
It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re talking about investing in bonds. (snore) No, kidding! I love bonds and it’s important that you understand how to invest in bonds because they are likely to play a key role for your investment portfolio in retirement.
First off, to make sure we’re all on the same page here, let me backup and explain what I mean by investing in bonds. Technically, we’re talking about fixed income, but you can think about bond investing as everything from CDs that you buy at the bank, to corporate bonds, U.S. Treasury Bonds, or bond funds.
There are a lot of different ways to invest in bonds, but here’s why I’m focusing on this topic: Bonds will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement. So it’s important that you have a basic knowledge of how to invest in bonds and why you should consider bonds for your retirement portfolio in the first place.
So this week, I’m going to help you better understand bonds - why you should invest in bonds, what % of your portfolio should be invested in bonds in retirement, the top 3 bond investing mistakes that I see people make, how to build a bond ladder, and how to decide between bond funds and individual bonds.
This is a big, important topic and I’m going to do my best to help you become a better bond investor this week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is so important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, bond investment definition, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, what are bonds
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business plans to get from where it is today to where it wants to go.
You can replicate the business strategic plan to develop a strategic plan for your retirement, and that was the theme for this week.
Articulating your mission, vision, values, and goals will no doubt invigorate and inspire you to live the life that you envisioned for yourself!
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:
- An overview of a strategic plan for retirement and the essential elements of that strategic plan
- How to define and articulate your mission, vision, and values
- How to set 3-5 retirement goals that are aligned with your mission, vision, and values
- And, the key initiatives that you can focus on for the next year to help you reach your goals
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: How to invest in bonds. For most of you, bonds will be a critical component of your investment strategy in retirement. And chances are that many of you already own bonds in your investment portfolio. So next week, I’m going to explain why bonds are so important for your investment portfolio in retirement, and give you some guidance on how to invest wisely in bonds so you don’t get burned.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values, mission statement, personal mission statement examples, what is a personal vision statement, personal vision statement examples, goal setting, retirement goals, how to set goals, retirement goals examples
The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. This week I’m showing you how you can replicate the strategic business plan and apply it to your retirement.
When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values. Focusing on your goals without establishing your mission, values, and vision is a mistake.
Yesterday, we did actually get to the goals part of your strategic plan for retirement. I encouraged you to focus on just 3-5 goals for your retirement, while not get carried away with setting too many goals.
Today, we’re drilling a little deeper into goals to complete your strategic plan for retirement. We’re talking about your key short-term initiatives.
Your goals will probably take some time to achieve, so your key short-term initiatives are the smaller actions you’ll take this year to make progress on reaching your goals. If you have a goal to run a marathon and you’re a beginner runner, the key term initiative to that big goal is could be that you’ll start running 3 days/week or you’ll participate in 5 10ks this year.
What are the 5 things you can do this year to help you eat the elephant one bite at a time?
Take the time to write out 5 key initiatives that will move you closer to the retirement goals that you outlined yesterday.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values, mission statement, personal mission statement examples, what is a personal vision statement, personal vision statement examples, retirement goals examples, key initiative, what is a key initiative
The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business will get from where it is today to where it wants to go.
When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values.
Now that we’ve done the hard work of articulating your mission, vision, and values, let’s move on to setting some goals for retirement.
The first thing you’ll want to do when establishing your goals is to go back to your vision. What was that big, hariy audacious goal that you set for yourself earlier in the week. Your goals are not arbitrary, and they should be aligned your vision.
Any goal that distracts or reduces that chance that you reach your vision is a bad goal. Period.
It’s easy to get distracted here and if you’re like me, you tend to move into overachiever mode with goals like, I’m going to swim to hawaii, then do an ironman once I get to hawaii, and then swim home. All while I grow my business 20%, make my marriage better than it’s ever been, and pop out a 3rd kid - maybe while I’m on that swim to Hawaii.
I’m kind of a hippie when it comes to childbirth. Waterbirths and no hospitals for me, so I’m thinking an ocean birth is definitely the way to go.
I explained earlier in the week that your vision should be big and bold, but your goals should be realistic and achievable. So pick 3-5 goals for your retirement years that are aligned with your mission, vision, and values, and plug those in to your strategic plan.
And importantly, while these can and should be long-range goals, and they don’t have to be goals for this year, they should be time-based.
And they should follow the SMART goals framework, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how you can set some key initiatives, which are the stepping stones of progress toward reaching your goals.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values, mission statement, personal mission statement examples, what is a personal vision statement, personal vision statement examples, goals, life goals, how to set goals, retirement goals examples
The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business will get from where it is today to where it wants to go.
When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values.
Yesterday, we talked about how to articulate your personal mission and vision statements, and today, we’re turning to your core values.
You might have several values that are important to you, but I’m going to challenge you to pick just 3-5 as your core, non-negotiable values.
This is my favorite part of the strategic plan, because once you pick your core values, you’ll have so much more clarity in your decision making.
When we created our strategic plan for True North, we identified 4 core values for our company, and it’s amazing how much easier it becomes to make those hard decisions. If I’m dealing with an opportunity, a problem, or an important decision, and I put it through the test of our core values, the decision becomes so much clearer.
Honesty, faith, creativity, compassion, love, family, adventure, fitness, health, loyalty, patriotism, efficiency, reliability, excellence, positivity...You get the idea.
Print a comprehensive list, which you can easily find on google, circle the values that jump out at you as important, then narrow that list down to the 3-5 that are your most important, immutable, unwavering values.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to move on to setting some goals for your retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values, mission statement
The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business will get from where it is today to where it wants to go.
When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values.
So today, we’re diving in the first step of developing a strategic plan for retirement, drafting your personal mission statement and your vision. These 2 elements of your strategic plan are inter-connected, but they are NOT the same thing.
Let’s start with your mission. When creating your mission, a good way to think about this is to think outside yourself. What’s the impact you want to have on the world? How do you want to add value and meaning to the lives of others through your place in this world.
Here are some examples to get you thinking:
My mission is…
- To inspire positive change through teaching and coaching
- To grow in integrity, vitrue, and love in order to be a better person today than I was yesterday
Once you have your mission statement, you can move on to your personal vision statement. The idea is that you want to be bold and scare yourself a little here with your vision. Your vision should inspire the heck out of you!
My favorite term to describe how to articulate your vision is the BHAG - your big, hairy, audacious goal. Or to put it another way: “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star”.
Your vision is more concrete than your mission statement, and it should capture a vivid picture of an outcome at a specific moment in time in your life. For example, when I am retired, I will...then paint a picture of what your life looks like - who you are, what you’re doing, where you’re living, etc.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how to identify your core values and how you can incorporate those into your strategic plan for retirement.
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values, mission statement, personal mission statement examples, what is a personal vision statement, personal vision statement examples
The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business will get from where it is today to where it wants to go.
When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values.
Today, I want to lay the framework for what a strategic plan for your retirement should look like. Don’t worry, this is actually simpler than it sounds. I’m not going to ask you to do a SWOT analysis...your strategic plan for retirement is a scaled down version of the typical strategic plan, yet it still has all of the essential elements to help you define how you want to live in retirement.
There are 5 elements of a really good strategic plan for your retirement. I’ll briefly cover these 5 elements today, then we’ll spend some time over the next few days unpacking each of these elements, so you can build your strategic plan for retirement.
Here are the 5 elements:
- Mission or Purpose - Who are you, what are you here on earth for, what’s your primary goal in life, why do you exist? Oh my gosh, you’re like Ashley, this is a trick question, right? We spend our whole lives trying to figure this one out, don’t we?! I’ll explain this one more tomorrow.
- Vision - My favorite term to describe how to articulate your vision is the BHAG - your big, hairy, audacious goal. Or putting it another way: “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star”. Your vision should be connected to your mission and it should be articulated in just 1-2 sentences.
- Core Values - You’ll need to identify 3-5 values that are most important to you. My core values include integrity, discipline, faith, fun, and continuous improvement. Your core values might include love, respect, reputation, creativity or adventure. The point is that you pick just 3 to 5 and write them down.
- Goals - Once you’ve outlined your mission, vision, and values, then we can move on to the goals. I’ll explain how to set 3 to 5 meaningful goals for your retirement on Friday.
- Key short-term initiatives - Your goals will probably take some time to realize, so your key short-term initiatives are the smaller actions you’ll take this year to make progress on reaching your goals. If you have a goal to run a marathon and you’re a beginner runner, the key term initiative to that big goal might be to start running 3 days/week or that you’ll participate in 5 10ks this year.
That’s the overview of the 5 key elements of a strategic plan for retirement - mission, vision, core values, goals, and key short-term initiatives. Tomorrow, I’m going to dive deeper into crafting your mission and vision.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values
The theme for this week is: A strategic plan for retirement. Most well-run businesses have a strategic plan that outlines the company’s mission, vision, values & goals. It’s the roadmap for how a business plans to get from where it is today to where it wants to go.
When it comes to planning for retirement, many of us just start with our goals, without ever considering how those goals align with our mission, vision, and values.
As Simon Sinek famously said, we have to start with why. And that means starting with the mission, vision, & values...then, the goals will flow naturally from there.
If you just start with the goals you have for your retirement, you might unintentionally start on the wrong path. Our goals must be rooted in the overall strategic plan in order to have meaning and value for our lives.
So this week, I’m going to help you craft a strategic plan for your retirement. A living, breathing roadmap that will help you make smart decisions and align what’s most important to you with how you spend your time and your money in retirement.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, strategic plan template, what is strategic planning process, what is a strategic plan, importance of strategic planning, personal mission statement, vision board, personal vision statement, retirement goals, core values
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was: Tax Time! CPAs don’t even like tax time (trust me, I’m married to one). Can you think of a more depressing way to spend the late winter months than doing your taxes?!
I’m talking taxes this week, because mid-February is when you’ll want to kick your tax planning and prep into high gear so you can file your taxes and move on with your life.
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:
- Why you should stop getting excited about your tax refund
- How to get organized with your taxes and a free pdf checklist to help with your tax prep
- A rundown of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is the biggest tax law change since the 1980s
- How the new tax law has changed the rules for Roth Conversions
- And...above the line tax deductions you can still take
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Creating Your Strategic Plan for retirement. All well-run businesses have a strategic plan. A clear vision, mission, a plan for how they’re going to get where they want to go. If you’re serious about living a fulfilled retirement, I suggest you put a strategic plan in place for your retirement, and next week, I’ll show you how it’s done.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, standard deduction, standard deduction 2018, IRA deduction, 401k deduction, hsa account, hsa deduction, roth ira, roth conversion, roth ira conversion, roth 401k, roth 401k conversion, tax prep checklist, tax preparation checklist 2018, tax preparation, CPA, turbo tax, tax withholding, tax withholding 0 or 1, 2018 withholding
The theme for this week is: Tax time! CPAs don’t even like tax time (trust me, I’m married to one).
Mid-February is when you’ll want to kick your tax planning and prep into high gear so you can file your taxes and move on with your life.
Pretty soon, you’ll start seeing advertisements and promotions to grab some of those tax refund dollars that millions of Americans will receive this year.
Every year, I talk to people who gloat about their tax refund. They’re so excited about their mini-jackpot winnings from Uncle Sam, and I always regret to inform them that all a refund is a interest-free loan from you to the U.S. government.
That’s right - a tax refund is actually your money, not a free gift from the government. And on top of that, it’s free money that you loaned to the government all year, which they just paid back to you with 0% interest.
Stop loaning money to the government at an interest rate of 0 for the entire year!
If you have a sizeable refund each year, that should be a wakeup call for you to adjust your tax withholding on your paycheck in order to reduce your interest-free loan to Uncle Sam.
Now, what’s different about filing your taxes this year, is that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has such sweeping changes, that the proper withholding amount and the size of your refund are way more unpredictable this year.
Unfortunately, it’s too late to adjust your paycheck withholding for this tax season, but you can still change it for 2019 going forward. So pay close attention to your refund amount this year. If it’s more than a few hundred dollars, consider adjusting your withholding so you stop giving Uncle Sam more money than he needs!
The other perk of reducing your refund: If a fraudulent tax return is filed on your behalf and the thief gets your refund check, the stakes aren’t as high because you’re not out thousands of dollars, which can take months and plenty of hassle to get back.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, standard deduction, standard deduction 2018, tax withholding, tax withholding 0 or 1, 2018 withholding
Getting organized for tax season can save you headaches, time, and money, so today I’m going to focus on several tips aimed at making tax season a little more pleasurable, and as my mom would say, better than a sharp stick in the eye.
Tip #1 for getting organized: Get on your tax advisor’s calendar
Many tax advisors operate on a first-come first-served basis, meaning that the clients who get all the forms, receipts, etc to them get their taxes done sooner. So it’s best to make an appointment (well, yesterday) to sit down with him or her and hand everything off. Plus, this will give you the motivation to gather everything together before meeting with your tax person.
Tip #2: Get a tax prep checklist
Mmm, mmm. I love me a good checklist! This can be your guide as you gather the myriad of tax forms and receipts to make sure that you don’t forget anything important. Get yourself a folder, staple the checklist to the front, then, start checking the boxes as you receive and compile all of your tax documents. That way, you have a clear visual of where you stand, what you’re waiting on, and what you need to go searching for.
TurboTax has a pretty thorough pdf checklist available for free online, and I will link to it in the show notes, which you can find in iTunes by searching for the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Tax Prep Checklist: https://digitalasset.intuit.com/DOCUMENT/A44724mxI/TurboTax_TaxPrepChecklist.pdf
Tip #3: Plan to file early
By tricking yourself that the tax filing deadline is say, March 1st, you can get organized sooner, file your taxes early, and be done with it!
This is especially helpful if you file your own taxes, and it can help prevent tax fraud as well. If you’ve already beaten fraudsters to the punch by filing your taxes early, they won’t be able it to file a fake tax return and claim your refund, because you’ll have already done it!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about why you should stop getting so excited about your tax refund.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, tax prep checklist, tax preparation checklist 2018, tax preparation, CPA, turbo tax
The theme for this week is: Tax Time!
I’m explaining some of the most sweeping changes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and how those changes might impact you.
Let’s turn back to the realm of retirement planning and talk about Roth conversions.
Here’s how a Roth conversion works: Let’s say you’ve been saving for many years in a Traditional IRA or 401k account. At some point along the way, you decide you would like to convert those dollars into a Roth.
You’ll pay taxes on the amount you convert to the Roth today, which is kind of a bummer, but you won’t pay taxes on that money again, potentially lowering your taxes in retirement when you start pulling money out of that account down the road in retirement.
Sometimes when you make a Roth conversion, you later decide that was a mistake. This can happen for many reasons, namely that you get to the end of the year, find out that your income is now too high and the tax bill too great to fork over the money to pay the taxes on the Roth conversion.
That’s ok, because the law allows you to undo your Roth conversion. Or at least it used to. Not anymore! Roth conversions for 2018 and beyond are now irrevocable, so it’s important that you really take the time to understand and project the tax bite before you convert traditional 401k or IRA dollars to a Roth.
Your tax advisor is probably the best resource for understanding what the tax bite will be on any amount that you want to convert, so talk to your tax advisor and take advantage of their tools and know-how to help you make a smart decision.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how getting organized with a checklist to compile all of your tax forms, receipts, etc. before you sit down to do your taxes can save you headaches, time, and money.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, roth ira, roth conversion, roth ira conversion, roth 401k, roth 401k conversion
Ah, taxes. Yesterday, I talked about how the big jump in the standard deduction amount will now make it easier for an estimated 90% of Americans to do their taxes this year, since they’ll just claim the standard deduction instead of itemizing.
However, there are still several tax deductions you can take “above the line”, in other words, before you tack on that standard deduction. It’s important to understand what those are and how to apply them to your own situation, so today I’m going to cover a few of the more common above-the-line deductions.
- Teachers, listen up! You can still take a deduction of up to $250 for any unreimbursed classroom expenses.
- Next is Health Savings Accounts: Any HSA contributions you make are still deductible. If you aren’t piling as much money into a HSA as you can, you should go back and listen to episodes 32-34 on iTunes, where I talk about Health Savings Accounts. They are the holy grail of retirement savings accounts.
- If you are making contributions to a Traditional IRA or 401k, those contributions are still tax deductible
Several other above-the-line deductions still exist - like student loan interest, and plenty of deductions for business owners and entrepreneurs. You’ll want to talk to your tax advisor to see what deductions apply specifically to you.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about one of the biggest changes buried in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - the rule change for Roth Conversions.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, standard deduction, standard deduction 2018, IRA deduction, 401k deduction, hsa account, hsa deduction
The theme for this week is: Tax Time!
First of all, I want to explain as best I can in 1-2 minutes how the biggest tax law change since the 1980s - the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - might make things way different for you this year when you file your taxes.
Where to begin?! Oh my goodness! Ok…here goes:
The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.
Sorry, kidding. Ok, really:
Probably the biggest change that you’ll want to understand is that the standard deduction has doubled. So what does this mean? It means that instead of itemizing your deductions, more Americans will just take the standard deduction.
This makes doing your taxes more simple for most Americans, because if your itemized deductions will total less than the standard deduction - $12,000 for single filers or $24,000 for joint filers - then you’ll just claim the standard deduction, rather than bothering with trying to itemize.
The Heritage Foundation estimates that 90% of taxpayers will not itemize, and just claim the new standard deduction amount. Whether or not you take the standard deduction or continue to itemize largely depends on the complexity of your situation, the amount of deductions you took in previous years and are likely to take again this year, and your income.
Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about deductions that will still apply “above the line” before you throw in the standard deduction, like your 401k contribution - but for now, I think the most important change to understand is the simplification of doing your taxes due to the higher standard deduction amount taxpayers can now claim.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, standard deduction, standard deduction 2018
It’s the most wonderful time of the year...tax time!
Actually, I dread this time of year. My husband is a CPA, so luckily I don’t have to worry about doing my own taxes, but things are a bit stressful around here, because he’s working 6 days and 60 hours a week until April 15th, and it’s a little hard on me and the kids.
Ok, pity party over now. But if you know someone who’s married to a CPA, please take the time to offer them your condolences this week.
My loss is your gain, because I picked my husband’s brain in order to bring you these tax tips this week. You’re getting an insider’s perspective from someone in the tax trenches every day.
So this week, I’m going to explain:
- How the biggest tax law change since the 1980s - the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act might make your taxes a little different this year, and hopefully a little easier
- How to mitigate negative surprises
- The rule change for Roth conversions that you’ll want to understand
- Deductions you can still take even if you end up taking the standard deduction, and
- How you set yourself up for success by getting organized
Taxes are complicated, and the more you understand how the rules apply to you, the better you’ll understand how to keep more money in your pocket and out of Uncle Sam’s pocket.
I’ll leave you with this thought today: If you usually do your own taxes, I really do believe that you’re being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Hiring a competent tax advisor can save you time, headaches, and money. Especially this year with all the changes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, do yourself a favor and outsource your taxes to a competent practitioner this year.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform, trump tax cuts, trump tax reform summary, trump tax cuts 2018, standard deduction, standard deduction 2018
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
The theme for this week was the Comparison Trap.
Comparing yourself to others is a trap. Because you either feel inferior which leads to feelings of envy, or you feel like you’re doing better than the other person, which leads to feelings of pride.
This toxic trap manifests itself in many different ways, but one way is with money. We often see how our friends and neighbors are living their lives thanks to social media, and we spend money to keep up them, which over time, can destroy our chances of reaching our actual financial goals.
We sacrifice what we REALLY want, in order to impress and keep up with others.
In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:
- A deeper look at the concept of the comparison trap and how this concept changed my own life
- Common cures for the comparison trap: gratitude and genuinely celebrating the successes of others
- How to shift the focus back inward to your unique talents, abilities, and your purpose, to avoid comparisons
- And...The marketing messages that are adding more fuel to the comparison fire.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Tax time!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yeah...no.
Now that tax season is kicking into gear, I’m going to talk about what you need to know about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, deductions that are still relevant even after all the tax law changes, getting organized before you sit down to do your taxes, and how you can avoid surprises with your tax bill.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
The theme for this week is: The Comparison Trap.
Comparing yourself to others is natural, and is something we all do all the time. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that it leads to one of two miserable places: pride or envy. And that’s why there is no win in comparison. Instead it’s just a trap. A trap that can lead us to make poor financial decisions in an effort to keep up with (in the case of envy) or feel superior to everyone else (in the case of pride).
This rat race of comparing ourselves to others only leads to misery...and overspending on shoes.
Author Harold Coffin once said, “Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.”
One of most common tips for combating feelings of envy is to practice gratitude. Shifting your focus to the good things in your life and being thankful for your blessings can go a long way toward easing the suffering of pride and envy that we often feel. The beauty of cultivating gratitude in your life is that it squashes BOTH envy and pride.
Just being happy for the essentials in your life - a new day on earth, your beating heart, and your breathing lungs is miracle enough. So if you struggle with pride or envy because of the comparison trap and you find that it’s distracting you from focusing on what really matters in your life, try shifting your focus to gratitude for the simple things, the next time you’re tempted by the comparison trap.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
Did you know that every time you compare yourself to others, you lose? That’s what I‘m talking about this week. How the result of comparison is either a feeling of envy or a feeling of pride.
Both are damaging to you, your relationships, your health, and your money. Because when you act on your feelings of envy or pride - trying to keep up with others or trying to show others how perfect you are, it can lead to some pretty terrible money decisions, that don’t reflect your true values.
Yesterday, we started to focus on what you can do to reduce the temptation to compare yourself to others.
Today, we’re continuing with practical ways to avoid the comparison trap. So let’s turn our attention to social media, the ultimate breeding ground for comparisons! Instead of allowing your facebook or instagram feed to fuel your comparisons to others, use your social media feed to make a conscious effort to be genuinely happy for other people and their successes.
Sometimes it’s hard to really, truly be happy for others, especially if your life isn’t much to brag about at the moment.
But one thing that I’ve found helpful is to practice genuine enthusiasm for the successes of others.
Maybe you have a friend who just bought a vacation home at the beach. She posted pictures of her new, gorgeous home, complete with one of those stupid beach house signs that you secretly love: In this house we wear flip flops. We track sand in the house. We soak up the sun. Blah blah blah.
If your first reaction to a post like this on social media is to feel jealous, take the time to stop, reflect, and write a thoughtful, sincere comment of congratulations.
By cultivating sincere feelings of happiness for the successes of others, you’ll realize that it feels so much better to actually be happy for someone, and you’ll be able to better tame the green monster of envy.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how gratitude can help you avoid the comparison trap.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
The theme for this week is: The Comparison Trap.
Comparing yourself to others is natural, and is something we do all the time. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that it leads to one of two miserable places: “pride or envy. You’re always going to either find somebody who’s doing a better job than you, and you get full of envy, or you’re going to find that you’re doing a better job than somebody, and you get full of pride.” That’s according to Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, who first introduced me to the concept of the Comparison Trap many years ago.
Over the last few days, I’ve tried to help you become more aware of how we compare ourselves to others, and how damaging that habit can be to our psychological, spiritual, and financial well-being.
Let’s turn today to some practical ways to catch and redirect your thoughts and feelings to avoid the comparison trap.
If you believe in God, I think the spiritual example provides the greatest mindset shift that can help you stop comparing yourself with others. To continue with Rick Warren, he states: “When you get to Heaven, God is not going to say, “Why weren’t you more like this person or that person?” No! He’s going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like you?” You can’t focus on your purpose while you’re focusing on other people.”
That bears repeating: You can’t focus on your purpose while focusing on other people.
So today, instead of focusing on what everybody else is doing, reflect on how you can make progress on YOU. What’s your purpose? What are you supposed to be doing today, this week, or this month.
Focus on you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to continue with some additional ways you can shift your mindset, so you can stop falling victim to the comparison trap.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
The theme for this week is: The Comparison Trap.
Comparing yourself to others is natural, and is something we do all the time. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that it leads to one of two miserable places: “pride or envy. You’re always going to either find somebody who’s doing a better job than you, and you get full of envy, or you’re going to find that you’re doing a better job than somebody, and you get full of pride.” That’s according to Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, who first introduced me to the concept of the Comparison Trap many years ago.
During the holidays, I saw a car commercial on TV that really brought this into focus for me. You’ve probably seen the car commercials where the husband brings home a new car for his wife for Christmas. It’s got that giant, obnoxious red bow on top...you know what I’m talking about.
Well this particular car commercial featured a husband who brought home not one, but 2 new cars for Christmas - a giant truck and a brand new SUV! Now he and his wife were going to have to battle it out, because it turns out they both wanted the truck.
Is this the new normal? Who can just drop over 100,000 on 2 new cars for Christmas!? Very few people, actually, but this commercial and hundreds of others like it send us messages every day that we can’t just buy new socks or a bottle of whiskey for our significant other for Christmas. We need to buy 2 brand frickin new cars!
Marketing messages certainly influence our tendency as humans to compare ourselves to others. The trick is building more immunity to those messages to protect our wallets and help us actually build and maintain financial security, which last I checked, dropping 6 figures on Christmas presents doesn’t help with.
So just for today, pay attention to the marketing messages that inspire pride or envy. Marketers know that these are powerful emotions and they know how to use them to get you to buy stuff. So practice awareness of the marketing messages you hear today, and note which ones lead you to compare yourself to others.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the antidote for the comparison trap.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
The theme for this week is: The Comparison Trap.
Comparing yourself to others is natural, and is something we all do all the time. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that it leads to one of two miserable places: “pride or envy. You’re always going to either find somebody who’s doing a better job than you, and you get full of envy, or you’re going to find that you’re doing a better job than somebody, and you get full of pride.” That’s according to Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, who first introduced me to the concept of the Comparison Trap many years ago.
But guess what? The Comparison Trap, fueled by feelings of pride or envy can also lead to some pretty terrible money decisions.
How many people have bought houses, cars, shoes, and driven themselves into bankruptcy in a desperate attempt to keep up with others.
How many people have you met that have this repulsive air about them. They think they’re smarter, richer, and cooler than you and they’re quite proud of themselves. You are probably calling to mind a specific person right now, aren’t you! That jerk cousin of yours who thinks he’s better than everyone!
How would your life be different if you stopped comparing ourselves to others, stopped allowing yourself to be eaten up by envy or pride, and instead, just tried to be a better version of ourselves?
There is always someone who is richer than you, better looking than you, who can kick your butt at whatever sport or talent you’re best at. It’s a fool’s errand allowing ourselves to fall into the comparison trap!
So here is my challenge for you today: You will inevitably see something today that makes you green with envy - a car on the road that you lust after, a friend posting pictures on Facebook of their perfect vacation in Hawaii (it’s freezing, it’s February, and they’re staying at the Ritz!), another friend on instagram who just got back to her high school weight, or a neighbor who’s lawn is always green and lush!
Just for today, catch yourself. Replace your jealousy with gratitude for what you have, and even if you have to force yourself, practice being genuinely happy for that person.
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback. Plus, the more reviews the Tip gets, the more exposure Amazon gives it.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
If you start paying attention to how often you compare yourself to others, you’ll no doubt be surprised of how often you actually do this.
I never stopped to think about it how I compare myself to others or why that could be a problem, until I read the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren a number of years ago.
In the book, he discusses the dangers of the Comparison Trap.
Comparing yourself to others is a trap because, according to Warren: “Every time you compare, you’re going to fall guilty to either pride or envy. You’re always going to either find somebody who’s doing a better job than you, and you get full of envy, or you’re going to find that you’re doing a better job than somebody, and you get full of pride.”
So this week, I’m talking about how to rid yourself of the comparison trap.
And here’s why this matters so much: comparing yourself isn’t just damaging to you psychologically or spiritually, it can lead you to make some pretty terrible financial decisions too. Decisions that can rob you of your financial security.
We’ll talk about:
- The subtle messages we’re bombarded with every day that encourage us to compare ourselves to others
- A closer look at what Rick Warren means when he says the Comparison Trap
- And...Practical ways to avoid comparing yourself to others, and what to do instead.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow! Until then, do yourself a favor today and just start noticing when you compare yourself to others...just for today.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, the comparison trap, jealousy, envy, pride, 7 deadly sins, rick warren, the purpose driven life book, comparing yourself to others, how to stop comparing yourself to others, comparing yourself to others psychology, comparing yourself to others bible
The theme for this week is: Small Changes. Big Results.
When you make changes in your life, they don’t always have to be massive, earth-shattering, blow up your world kind of changes in order to make a difference.
Sometimes, small changes can have massive results too. And actually, because small changes are so much easier, we can circumvent the brain’s freak-out-what-have-you-done-to-me! reaction, making it more likely that we’ll stick with our small changes in the long-run.
And today’s small changes, big results topic is: Saving more for retirement in baby steps
You might not be where you want to be in terms of your readiness for retirement. And that’s ok. The point is not that you’re perfect, but that you keep making progress.
So today, I want to encourage you to save 1% more of your income for retirement. You probably won’t miss it or notice it’s gone. And if you have a 401k plan, that’s easy to do by either logging in to your account, or signing a form.
Imagine if you saved 1% more of your income every year for the next 5 years. You’d be saving 5% more of your income than you’re saving today.
Now that’s a small, baby step change, with lasting results!
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, save more in 401k, 401k saving, what percentage should I contribute to my 401k, save 1% more, how to save more for retirement, savings for retirement, tips on saving for retirement, how can I increase my retirement savings, 401k
When’s the last time you checked the interest rate on your savings account or money market account? What are you getting in return for stockpiling your cash?
Interest rates have been steadily climbing over the last few years, so much so that the dollar amount you can earn on your cash is climbing.
Most money markets, which are cash-like investments that usually pay a little more than bank deposits, are now yielding over 2%. That’s pretty good.
Instead of just throwing around percentages, let’s actually do the math on this.
Let’s say you have $50,000 socked away in your savings account today, and you’re pretty happy because you used to get $0 of interest on your cash, and now you’re getting a whopping .1%. Hey, it’s something right. Well, that something works out to $50/year.
But, if instead, you found somewhere to park your cash that’s paying 2%, like a money market, you’re not getting $50/year. You’re getting $1,000/year!
That’s $950 more dollars that you would have otherwise received, just by picking the higher interest money market instead.
One point of caution here, is that money markets are very safe investments, but they are not FDIC insured like the low-interest bearing savings account, so you’ll want to keep that in mind as your make a decision about where to invest your cash.
They are a great option for your cash though, and here at True North we have millions of dollars parked in money market accounts, so it’s worth looking into.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how you can start thinking about saving for retirement in baby steps.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, money market, best savings account rates, money market rates, money market account definition, money market examples, savings account vs money market
Ah, the free trial. I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for a good free trial.
But you know the problem with the free trial? No one ever calls to tell me, “hey your free trial is ending and your credit card will now be charged for 3-years worth of our service, all up-front”..AH!!!.
So it’s easy to forget, but then you’re charged, and then it’s a hassle just to get a refund, that is...if you’re not stuck paying. And that’s if you even noticed it in the first place.
Who knows, I probably have some free trial that I signed up for 12 years ago that I’m still paying for...let’s hope not.
Here’s the easy-to-implement tip on making sure free trials don’t turn into paid subscriptions: Mark your calendar.
I recently hired a nanny for my kids, and I used one of those caregiver matchmaker services to find a nanny. In order to use the service, I had to sign up for the paid option, which automatically renews every 3 months. If I don’t cancel my subscription by April, I’ll be paying for another 3 months of something that I no longer need.
This service and millions of other trial period service offerings like it are counting on the fact that I’m probably not going to keep tabs on this, and that I won’t cancel before the renewal.
So, to ensure that I don’t get charged, I marked my calendar for a couple weeks before the renewal date. If you get in the habit of noting the expiration date of the trial period on your calendar each time you sign up for a free trial or an introductory period, you won’t forget to cancel those subscriptions that you no longer use or want.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, subscription boxes, subscription services, free trial
The theme for this week is: Small Changes. Big Results.
You know, when you make changes in your life, they don’t always have to be massive, earth-shattering, blow up your world kind of changes in order to make a difference.
Sometimes, small changes can have massive results too. And actually, because small changes are so much easier, we can circumvent the brain’s freak-out-what-have-you-done-to-me! reaction, making it more likely that we’ll stick with our small changes in the long-run.
And today’s small changes, big results topic is: Subscription Boxes.
Stitch Fix, Birchbox, HelloFresh. I mean come on, who doesn’t love opening a curated box of clothes, goodies, or pre-prepped food.
But have you ever stopped to wonder why subscription-based services are everywhere these days? They’re creating income and loyalty on auto-pilot.
I have been tempted by Spotify premium for a long time now. I’m well-versed in the benefits because they barrage me every 3rd song. Only 10 bucks a month gets me unlimited skips, no ads, and I can take my music anywhere.
Must. Resist.
So you justify it. Ah, it’s just $10 here. Another $5 there. $19.99 over thata way. Then before you know it, you’re blowing $50 a month on little luxuries that you don’t use, need, or appreciate that much.
So I’d like you to try 2 things:
- Next time you’re tempted to buy a subscription for something and give someone else your money on auto-pilot for eternity, wait a month. Just think about it some more and ask yourself, is this really worth it! Because once you have it, even if it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, it’s much harder to let it go.
- Audit all of your subscriptions at least once a year. If you listened yesterday, I talked about how important it is to track your spending and create a budget. One of the many great benefits of a budget is that is allows you to see not just what you spent, but WHO you spent it with. Take inventory of all of your subscriptions, what you paid for those on an annual basis, and then ask yourself if it really enhances your life.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the trickery of free trials.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, subscription boxes, subscription services
The theme for this week is: Small Changes. Big Results.
You know, when you make changes in your life, they don’t always have to be massive, earth-shattering, blow up your world kind of changes in order to make a difference.
Sometimes, small changes can have massive results too. And actually, because small changes are so much easier to make, we can circumvent the brain’s freak-out-what-have-you-done-to-me! reaction, making it more likely that we’ll stick with our small changes in the long-run. This is not just me BSing you. This is actually backed by science.
So let’s talk about one small thing you can do with your finances that can have lasting impacts on your money and retirement security: Budgeting.
Ugh, she said the dirty B word! I know. A budget. It sounds like the least fun thing in the world, but if you haven’t yet figured out how to stick to a budget, you’ll be in for a rude awakening when you retire.
Please, listen closely to what I’m about to say...Rare is the retiree who doesn’t need to be mindful of and stick to a budget. When you’re retired and living on a fixed amount of money for the rest of your life, is not when you want to be learning how to budget.
So if you don’t track your income and spending, start now.
And here’s why I lumped this topic in the small changes category. Because technology has come so far in this area. There are great tools now that can basically budget for you, so they have taken most of the time, headaches, and number crunching out of the equation. Just google budgeting tools or budgeting app, and you’ll find a smorgasboard of options to choose from.
So get to work and just start tracking where your money goes every month. That’s a great first step and technology has now made this an easy first step too!
Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, budgeting app, you need a budget app, wally budget app, mint budgeting app
Sometimes, in order to see a big impact in your life, you have to make big and drastic changes. Like undoing a lifetime’s worth of poor eating habits if you need to lose 100 lbs or drastically changing your spending habits and your lifestyle to knock out $100,000 of debt.
But there are also those things in life where just the smallest little change can have big results and massive long-term payoffs. So much easier, right?
So this week, I’m talking about those seemingly small changes that can have massive, long-term impacts on your money. Small changes that are quick and easy and won’t take much time or effort to do, so you won’t have an excuse not to do it!
I’m going to cover things like:
- Reducing blind spots in your budget
- Resisting the subscription society
- Reminding yourself about that free trial
- Reconsidering where you’re parking your cash
- Ramping up your savings just a little bit
Small little tweaks here and there that are straightforward and easy to implement, yet can have big results in the long-run.
That’s it for today, but...
Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback. Plus, the more reviews the Tip gets, the more exposure Amazon gives it.
Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, subscription boxes, subscription services, free trial, money market, best savings account rates, save more in 401k, 401k saving, what percentage should I contribute to my 401k, save 1% more
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I talked about the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement.
If you didn’t catch all of the episodes this week, here is your 2019 Retirement Checklist:
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1: Determine How You’ll Pay For Healthcare
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2: Educate Yourself on Stock Options, Rollovers, and Pensions
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3 - Decide When To Start Social Security
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4 - Do a Full-Blown Retirement Analysis
- And... #5 - Talk to Recently Retired People
It’s certainly not a comprehensive list, but in my opinion, these are the most important actions you can take as you quickly approach retirement that will determine your long-term success, and ensure your financial security in the next phase of your life.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to start a brand new theme: Small Changes, Big Results. We’re going to talk about the small things you can do today that can have lasting impacts on your money and financial security. Retirement and financial security is a lot like most sports in this regard. It’s a game of inches and getting the small things right. So we’ll talk about those seemingly insignificant little tweaks that have the power to change the course of your finances.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire
If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about the 4th thing you’ll want to do if you’re retiring this year, which is also the most important thing you’ll need to do before you retire, and that is to answer the question: Will you run out of money in retirement?
Today, checklist item #5 is finding and talking to 3-5 people you know who are recently retired. And by recent, I mean they’ve retired in the last 1-3 years. Take them to lunch or coffee and pick their brain. Make sure these people are straight talkers who will share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly of retirement.
Retirement can be a difficult transition, and if you’re not careful, it can lead to dissatisfaction and regret over your decision. Many recent retirees report some real and unexpected downsides to retirement - namely boredom, loneliness, and depression once the novelty of retirement wears off.
So ask your recently retired friends some important questions so you can better equip yourself with this big life transition. Questions like:
- What do you enjoy the most about being retired?
- What’s been surprising to you about retirement?
- What’s been difficult or challenging about retirement?
- How have you replaced social contact with your co-workers?
- What advice do you have for me as I transition into retirement?
If you’re interested in learning more about the psychology of retirement, I devoted an entire week to this topic - Episodes 8-14, which you can find along will all past episodes of the One Minute Retirement Tip at http://retirementtip.libsyn.com/. That’s retirement tip dot l-i-b-s-y-n dot com.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire, boredom in retirement, how is time passed in retired life, depression in retirement, how to decide when to retire
If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about the 3nd thing you’ll want to do if you’re retiring this year, which is to decide when to start social security benefits, and why it might make sense to wait until after you retire to start your social security benefits.
Today, I’m talking about checklist item #4. It’s what I believe is the most important thing you’ll need to do before you retire, and that is to answer the question: Will you run out of money in retirement?
The only way you’ll be able to answer this question confidently is by doing a detailed retirement analysis with a competent financial advisor. Ideally, you’ll want to work with an advisor who has some advanced training in this area, like a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor or a Certified Financial Planner.
Often, you can have a financial plan done for you for a flat fee, or if you’re already working with a financial advisor and you haven’t done this, it might not cost you any additional outlay to do a retirement analysis.
Here’s what the analysis will do for you. It will take inventory of where you are today - your assets, your target retirement date, and your income needs in retirement. It will assess your spending goals, like travel, remodeling your home, or paying for your daughter’s wedding, incorporate healthcare costs, taxes, inflation, and look at your current investment portfolio to answer a very important question:
Will you run out of money in retirement?
The software we use will live your retirement 1000 different ways in good and bad times to see what the chance is of you outliving your money and having to move in with your kids when you’re 80 years old.
You only want to make the transition into retirement if your chance of success is high - ideally, above 80%. Anything less than that and you’ll need to rethink your retirement date, your goals, or make some adjustments to your spending in retirement...or maybe you just need to drive Uber for a couple years to generate some extra income once you retire.
Either way, this is the best use of time and money you can spend in the last year or even 5 years before retirement. The sooner you complete a retirement analysis, the longer you have to make adjustments if the results aren’t good.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the unexpected and often overlooked thing you’ll want to do before you retire.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire, how much do I need to retire, can I afford to retire, how much money should you have at retirement, how much is enough for retirement, retirement calculator, retirement analysis
If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement - your 2019 retirement checklist.
Yesterday, I talked about the 2nd thing you’ll want to do if you’re retiring this year, which is to educate yourself on company stock, pension, and rollover options.
Today, I’m talking about why you may want to separate your retirement date with the date you start social security benefits.
If you’re in good health and you expect to live into your mid-70s or longer, consider waiting as long as possible to start social security.
Most Americans should plan to live into their 80s, which means that taking social security somewhere between age 67-70 makes the most sense. With some clients, I’ve seen the lifetime income difference in waiting be as high as $600,000, if a married couple waits until age 70 to start social security vs. taking social security at age 62. $600,000 lifetime income difference!
If you’re going to hold off on starting social security, this naturally leads to an important question: where do you draw income from instead if you’re going to retire before you start those social security checks?
You might consider taking higher withdrawals from your portfolio to fill the gap, and lower those withdrawals once social security starts. This strategy makes sense for a lot of people, as long as those higher withdrawals in the early years are sustainable and won’t put you at risk of depleting your investment portfolio. You’ll want to run the numbers for yourself to see if that pencils out.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. And if there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in your comments as well.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, social security age, social security benefits age 66 still working
If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement.
Yesterday, I talked about the #1 thing you’ll want to do if you’re retiring this year, which is to figure out how the heck you’re going to pay for healthcare in retirement.
Today, checklist item #2 is educating yourself on stock options, rollover options, and pension.
If you have restricted stock, stock options, ESOP shares, or some other form of equity compensation, you’ll want to become an expert at understanding what will happen to your stock when you leave. This is important because you don’t want to leave money on the table by the timing of your retirement decision.
In some cases, working for just a few more months may allow a significant sum of stock to vest, so it’s important to understand what will happen to your stock when you leave, if you will be required to sell or not, and the tax implications of selling your stock.
Every company is different, so take the time to educate yourself on your options with selling or keeping your company stock after you retire.
Next, you’ll want to educate yourself on your pension options, if you have one. I see some clients wait until they’re ready to retire to do this. Don’t wait. You’ll want to give careful thought to how and when you start your pension benefits, whether or not you’ll take a lump sum or a lifetime income stream, and how much of your pension pension benefit you’ll want to provide to your spouse if he or she outlives you.
Lastly, you’ll want to look at your rollover options for your 401k or other company retirement plans. Will you keep the 401k at your old employer or roll it over to an IRA. There are pros and cons to each option, and it’s important to understand those before you leave your job.
I suggest working with a fiduciary financial advisor to help you sort through your options with your company stock, your pension, and your rollover, to help you make a smart and informed decision. An advisor who acts as a fiduciary is required to act in your best interest and put your interests ahead of his or her own. So you can be more confident in their advice to you about how you should handle these important decisions.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk social security and why the timing of this decision shouldn’t necessarily coincide with your retirement date.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire, stock options at retirement, stock options, RSUs, RSU, restricted stock units, ESOP, employee stock ownership plan, rollover, 401k rollover, IRA rollover, pension, which pension option is best, pension decision, pension election
First of all, before I get into today’s topic, I have to let you know that today is episode 100 of the One Minute Retirement Tip. I am so happy that you’re here for the centennial episode, and I hope these tips are providing value for you on your path to retirement.
Ok, let’s get in to today’s tip…
If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement.
Checklist item #1 is: figure out how the heck you’re going to pay for healthcare in retirement.
Take the time to understand the alphabet soup of medicare if you’re eligible for medicare when you retire.
There’s Medicare part A, part B, part D. Part Z....just kidding. There’s no part Z, but you’ll want to fully understand coverage options so you don’t have gaps in your insurance coverage.
Also, it’s very important to understand what you’ll be paying for healthcare costs in retirement. You’ll still have out of pocket costs.
The average annual healthcare spending of a retired couple today is over $12,000/year. Make sure you’ve budgeted that into your monthly retirement expenses.
You’ll also want to take advantage of tools like a health savings account for paying for healthcare costs in retirement. With an HSA, you get the holy grail of tax benefits.
Money going into an HSA is tax-deductible. Then, once it’s inside the account, those HSA contributions grow tax-free...and as long as the money on the way out is used for qualified medical expenses, it’s not taxed on the way out!
You’ll be able to sock away up to $8000 in your HSA account in 2019 if you’re over 55 ($7000 if you’re under age 55).
If you want to learn more about paying for healthcare in retirement, including several tips about HSAs, I devoted an entire week to this topic in episodes 29 to 35. You can find those episodes in iTunes - just search for the One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley in iTunes.
Thanks for listening! And I’ll see YOU tomorrow!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire, how much will my healthcare cost in retirement, how much money do I need for healthcare in retirement, HSA, health savings account, HSA limits 2019
The timing of your retirement decision is HUGE! Deciding when you’ll retire sets in motion a number of other decisions, like when you’ll take social security and how you’ll start drawing income from your investment portfolio.
So this week, I’m talking about your 2019 retirement checklist - the 5 must-do things you need to do if you’re retiring in 2019.
You’ll want to make sure you get everything buttoned up in the last few months before you transition into retirement, so you can be confident in your decision that now is the right time.
I have several clients who make the transition into retirement each year, and there are always the same discussions that come up over and over again. I’ll to share with you some of the advice I’ve shared with clients over the last 11 years, to help you make a smart decision for your 2019 retirement.
And if you’re not retiring this year, don’t worry. This advice applies whether you retire this year, next year, or in 5 years.
Tomorrow is a very special episode - it’s the 100th episode of the 1 minute retirement tip! We’ll kick off the 1st of the 5 things to do if you’re retiring in 2019, but before you go, please leave a review in Amazon or iTunes. Your review helps others find these tips, so whether you’re finding value in these tips or you think I’ve lost my mind, please leave a review.
Thanks for listening!
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, when to retire, retirement income, what age is the best time to retire, guide to retirement, 2019 guide to retirement, age to retire, how to plan for retirement, retirement checklist, how to decide when to retire
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week’s theme was Immutable Principles of Investing. These are the most important, unchanging, timeless principles of investing that will help you reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
Immutable by definition means “unable to be changed”. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, yet it’s easy to get caught up in the ever-changing winds of the day.
If you didn’t catch all of the episodes this week, here’s what we covered:
- The role of asset allocation as the foundation of every well-built portfolio
- Why you should never overpay for an investment and why you sometimes need to run in the opposite direction of everyone else
- Why rebalancing should be done manually and not automatically
- And, how to properly diversify your investment portfolio
It’s certainly not a comprehensive list, but in my opinion, they’re the most important principles that will determine your long-term success as an investor. And it’s much harder to blow up your portfolio if you stick with these immutable principles in good and bad markets.
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to start a brand new theme: The 5 things you need to do if you’re planning to retire in 2019. And if you don’t plan to retire this year, all the better! You can still start on these 5 things now to set yourself up for a confident transition into retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, diversification, stock diversification, diversified, diversified portfolio, asset allocation, asset allocation by age, asset allocation formula, asset allocation model, why is asset allocation important, why asset allocation matters, rebalancing investments, rebalance portfolio, rebalance asset allocation, why is rebalancing important, buy low sell high, overvalued stock, risk tolerance, financial goals, income in retirement, retirement income
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, and today’s immutable, unchanging principle is:
Diversify your stock portfolio by geography, industry, and company size to reduce your risk.
The goal with diversification is to have enough variety that all of your investments don’t move up and down together in tandem. Even the best investors in the world make mistakes, so it’s important that you spread the risk of loss around among different types of investments.
Diversification can be made over-complicated by others in my profession, so I want to give you a more simplified way to achieve diversification in your portfolio.
First of all, let me just say that you don’t need a bunch of fancy asset classes in your portfolio to be successful. You don’t need to invest in gold, other precious metals, real-estate investment trusts, and the new-fangled investment du jour (ahem, bitcoin) to be diversified.
In fact, several successful investors are known for abandoning traditional views of diversification all-together. Warren Buffett, chief among them, who prefers to go big or go home and has been successful, largely because of the home runs of very few investments.
But since most of you listening are not professional investors, you’re going to have to settle for a little more diversification than Mr. Buffett.
So when it comes to your stock portfolio, share with you my 3 principles for diversification:
#1: Don’t have all of your eggs in the U.S. basket. I see many investors who have virtually no holdings outside of U.S. focused stocks. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity outside of the U.S. for investors, so make sure at least a portion (but no more than 20-30% of your portfolio) is invested overseas.
#2: Diversify across several industries. If I see a bias towards any one particular industry right now, it’s tech. But if you are too concentrated in 1 or 2 industries, you can get burned. Tech has been burned before in the dot-com bust, and it will surely get burned again. Financial stocks in the 2008 great recession, and oil stocks over the last few years have been burned as well.
#3: Make sure you own investments that differ in company size. Your portfolio shouldn’t contain just the largest companies, but should also contain mid-size and small companies as well, which have shown historically to behave differently than their large-company counterparts.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, diversification, stock diversification, diversified, diversified portfolio
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, and today’s immutable, unchanging principle is:
Rebalance your portfolio if it drifts more than 5% away from your ideal asset allocation
Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to getting your asset allocation right. And today, I want to talk about a related topic, which is rebalancing.
One of the most important decisions you or your advisor can make when it comes to your portfolio is: When you should rebalance your portfolio.
Some investment experts recommend every quarter, or once a year. In my experience, I’ve found that the best method is not based on a set, automatic schedule, but based on
1) how far your current portfolio has deviated from your ideal asset allocation, and
2) your age.
Some people might go 10 years without ever once rebalancing their portfolio. This is dangerous because you might have individual positions, whether they be stocks or mutual funds, that have ballooned and now represent a larger percentage of your portfolio than they should. Or, more importantly, you might have an overall portfolio allocation that has veered dramatically off course from your ideal mix of stocks and bonds.
If you were 50% in stocks & 50% in bonds 5 years ago, and haven’t rebalanced, chances are your portfolio is now 60 or 65% in stocks, and you’re taking on more risk than you should.
So keep an eye on each of your investment holdings, and especially on your overall portfolio asset allocation. If your overall allocation drifts more than 5% outside of your ideal mix, then you’ll want to rebalance.
It’s what we call the 5% rule and it works remarkably well for maintaining a targeted asset allocation and for helping you to buy low and sell high.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the importance of diversification.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, asset allocation, asset allocation by age, asset allocation formula, asset allocation model, why is asset allocation important, why asset allocation matters, rebalancing investments, rebalance portfolio, rebalance asset allocation, why is rebalancing important
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, and today’s immutable, unchanging principle is don’t overpay.
One of my favorite, timeless books on investing is The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, by Howard Marks.
If you’re interested in becoming a better investor, it’s a must-read. I’ll link to the book in the show notes for this episode, which you can find it over on iTunes by searching for the One Minute Retirement Tip, Episode #95 - Don’t Overpay.
Buy the book on Amazon
In his book, Howard Marks points out: “No asset is so good that it can’t become a bad investment if bought at too high a price.” In other words, don’t overpay.
He goes on to say:
- In the short run, investing is more like a popularity contest.
- The most dangerous time to buy an investment is at the peak of its popularity. At that time, all the positive data and assumptions are reflected in the price. Everyone that is going to buy has already bought.
- The optimal time to buy an investment is when no one else wants it. At that point, all the negative data and assumptions are reflected in the price. Everyone that is going to sell has already sold.
- Buying at a price below the real worth of an investment is the most reliable approach to make an investment profit.
This principle is applicable to individual stocks, but also to other investments, like mutual funds, ETFs, and especially, the stock market as a whole.
The time to add to stocks is when no one wants to own stocks. That’s the exact opposite of what most investors do. They get in and out of the stock market at precisely the wrong times, and it has a devastating impact on their long-term returns and their ability to reach their goals in retirement. So have the courage to run in the opposite direction of everyone else, and always remember: Don’t overpay.
That’s it for today. Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. And if there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in your comments as well.
Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, buy low sell high, overvalued stock
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, and today’s immutable, unchanging principle is asset allocation.
An asset allocation that is aligned with your age, goals, and risk tolerance is the foundation of every well-built portfolio.
Asset allocation is so important that I’m devoting 2 days worth of this week’s tips to this topic.
In its most simple form, asset allocation is the mix of stocks, bonds, and cash in your portfolio. Getting to the right mix of stocks, bonds, and cash should consider 3 factors:
Your age
Your goals
Your tolerance for risk
Yesterday, I talked about how your age should be the starting point for determining your asset allocation. Today I’m continuing with the other factors that should determine your ideal mix of stocks, bonds, and cash: your goals and your tolerance for risk.
I believe most people should stick with the age-based approach to asset allocation. Most of our clients don’t and shouldn’t deviate too far from the ideal asset allocation for their age.
However, sometimes your goals (which includes your spending habits and big planned purchases) will force an adjustment to asset allocation either higher or lower. Your income needs, especially, should inform your personal asset allocation decision. I have clients who don’t need to draw much income from their portfolio, and they are mostly concerned with growing their assets to provide a legacy for their family and the causes they care about. This client would have a higher allocation, because we are more focused on the goal of growing their assets vs. providing income for them in retirement.
Your personal tolerance for risk should also be considered. If you can’t handle the ups and downs of the stock market and are willing and able to sacrifice the long-term rewards of having a higher allocation to stocks, then you may want to consider a lower asset allocation than your age dictates.
But again, it all starts with your age. Use that as your baseline and refine from there.
At True North, we have guidelines for asset allocation based on age that we use as a starting place for determining the right mix of stocks and bonds for each client. If you want a copy of our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet to help you determine the ideal asset allocation for your age, just email me - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about my 2nd immutable principle of successful investing: Don’t Overpay.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, asset allocation, asset allocation by age, asset allocation formula, asset allocation model, why is asset allocation important, why asset allocation matters, risk tolerance, financial goals, income in retirement, retirement income
This week’s theme is the immutable principles of successful investing. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, and today’s immutable, unchanging principle is asset allocation.
An asset allocation that is aligned with your age, goals, and risk tolerance is the foundation of every well-built portfolio.
Ah, asset allocation. I could devote a month’s worth of tips to this topic alone. Probably more, actually. It’s the principle that we focus on the most with our clients. Asset allocation comes up in nearly every discussion with every client, and we’re zealots when it comes to our adherence to this principle.
In its most simple form, asset allocation is the mix of stocks, bonds, and cash in your portfolio. Getting to the right mix of stocks, bonds, and cash should consider 3 factors:
- Your age
- Your goals
- Your tolerance for risk
The starting point here is age. And this makes sense. I don’t care if you are afraid of your shadow and you have no clue what your goals are. If you’re younger than 45, you should have as much of your portfolio invested in the stock market as you can handle. And for most, that means upwards of 100% in stocks and no less than 80% in stocks.
If you’re 65, planning to retire this year, and you’re going to start taking money out of your investment portfolio, then being 100% in stocks is a really bad idea. You probably can’t afford to see your portfolio drop by 40% in a down market. So most of our clients are invested closer to 50% stocks and 50% bonds and cash by the time they are ready to transition into retirement.
At True North, we have guidelines for asset allocation based on age that we use as a starting place for determining the right mix of stocks and bonds for each client. If you want a copy of our age-based asset allocation cheat sheet, just email me - ashleym@truenorthra.com. That’s ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening!
Tomorrow, we’re going to continue with asset allocation and talk about how your goals and your tolerance for risk may lead you to deviate from using your age to determine your ideal asset allocation.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks, asset allocation, asset allocation by age, asset allocation formula, asset allocation model, why is asset allocation important, why asset allocation matters
This week’s theme is Immutable Principles of Investing. These are the most important, unchanging, timeless principles of investing that will bear fruit in good and bad markets in order to help you reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
Immutable by definition means “unable to be changed”. Successful investing for the long-term requires discipline and sticking to a set of unchanging principles, yet it’s easy to get caught up in the ever-changing winds of the day.
Just take the last 3 months as an example. As I record these tips, the stock market is down more than 12% over the last 3 months. Signs of a weakening economy dominate the news, and worries of an impending recession and bear market are palpable.
But let’s re-focus on what matters most - the immutable principles of successful investing. Because that’s what will help you stay on course if the current downturn in the stock market gets worse.
Each day this week I’m going to share with what I’ve learned over the last 11 years working with clients. I’ll share practical advice on how you can implement these principles in your own portfolio to reach your goals.
I currently oversee close to $100 million in client assets and I’ve helped my clients grow their wealth and financial security by sticking to these core principles - in good times and bad.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where I’m going to share with you the foundation of every investment portfolio.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, investment principles, how to be a good investor, stock market, stock market investing, disciplined investing, timing investments, stock market downturn, recession, bear market, bull market, how to make money in the stock market, how to make money in stocks
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week’s tips were aimed at helping you build millionaire habits. Paying attention to the habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
As a financial advisor who works with a lot of millionaires, I have exclusive access to their money habits. I get to see the good and the bad behaviors of clients, and I’ve paired that experience with the conventional advice about the habits that build wealth to bring you these tips this week.
If you didn’t catch all of the episodes this week, here’s what we covered:
- The most common millionaire habit that I see: paying yourself first
- Why base hits are more important than home runs when it comes to investing
- How keeping your emotions in check will prevent you from making big mistakes
- The meticulous decision making skills of the wealthy
- And...Why millionaires don’t ask “how much can I afford”
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to start a brand new theme: The 5 things every investor needs to understand about investing. These are the core principles of investing that can help you build, achieve, and maintain wealth to secure your retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits, pay yourself first, 10,000 good decisions, controlling fear and greed, how to make better decisions
This week’s theme is millionaire habits. Paying attention to the habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
When you walk into a dealership to buy a car, the conversation about what car you can afford is always framed around how much payment you can afford.
That is the absolute worst way to frame whether or not you should buy something. Lenders will always be willing to lend you the maximum amount, so what you can afford according to the lender is usually way more than what you can actually afford if you have other goals, like saving for retirement.
When you buy cars and houses, and other big ticket items, successful people realize that deciding on how much to spend is not about what you can afford. It’s about what amount makes the most sense given your financial goals and what’s most important to you.
I have a lot of clients who drive drive cars like 10-year old Honda Accords, and have a paid off mortgage, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. The bestselling book, The Millionaire Next Door talks about this concept at length. In fact, if you’re interested in diving deeper into the topic of millionaire habits, it's an inspiring read, and I highly recommend it.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits, how much car can I afford, how much house can I afford, how much should I spend on a car, how much should I spend on a house, millionaire next door
This week’s theme is millionaire habits. Paying attention to the habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
There’s this video on YouTube that I’ve watched over and over again. It’s a compilation of a bunch of quotes from motivational speakers set to music. I like to watch it when I need a little inspiration.
One of the quotes in the video is “The average millionaire has made 10,000 good decisions. That’s meticulous. The rest of us are just sloppy.”
I tried searching for the author of this quote in google, but it came up inconclusive. If you know who this is, please leave a review on iTunes or Alexa and let me know who it is.
Ok, so back to the quote. 10,000 good decisions. If you think about it and look back on your life, the windy path that got you to where you are today was marked by many decisions. Your decisions shape your outcomes in life.
How good are you at making decisions?
Do you weigh the risks along with the upside of every important decision? Are you able to make logical decisions and remove your biases? Are your decisions based on seeking pleasure today or are you willing to make a decision that delays your gratification?
Making decisions is hard. We all have baggage and biases that cause us to make bad decisions all the time.
But successful people understand that their decisions today will impact their lives tomorrow, and that awareness helps them make better decisions.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the worst question you could ask yourself when planning a big purchase.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits, delay gratification, delayed gratification, 10,000 good decisions, how to make better decisions
This week’s theme is millionaire habits. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement. So this week, I’m focusing on the millionaire habits that I observe most often among my clients.
Back in December when the stock market was in free fall before Christmas, I spent more time than usual talking to clients with rattled nerves.
But during that month, I didn’t have a single client call who begged me to get them out and sell everything. Most of the clients I talked to were concerned, having lost thousands of dollars that month alone, yet they took it in stride.
Part of what makes a successful investor, successful, is their ability not to let fear dictate their investment decisions.
Someone who panicked and sold before Christmas when the market was plunging also missed the single biggest point gain in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average - up 1,086 points on December 26th. And then they missed the day after that when the Dow was up big again!
In fact, some of the best days in the stock market’s history have come shortly after big drops.
You have zero control over the events of the economy & the stock market, but you have complete control over your reaction to those external events. So the next time you’re tempted to panic sell, think about the last time you’ve met a millionaire market timer.
Yeah, I’ve never met one either.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits, december 2018 stock market crash, dow jones industrial average, fear and greed
This week’s theme is millionaire habits. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
Today’s tip is all about how baseball can help you be a better investor. Let me explain.
First of all, let me just say that I know next to nothing about baseball. But I do know that baseball isn’t just about smashing home runs. It’s also about strategy and hitting base hits when the situation calls for it to get other players into scoring position.
The same is true with investing. Too many investors aren’t successful because they ignore base hit opportunities...all the while, wildly swinging at every pitch and praying for a home run. But all it leads to is strike after strike.
Hitting base hits isn’t as fun as hitting home runs, and it requires more patience, but investors can build serious wealth by patiently sticking with base hits, knowing that if they are patient, they will likely hit a few home runs along the way too.
This means sticking with a boring, diversified portfolio and not chasing the hot stock tip of the day, or betting everything on the next big trend.
I rarely have a client come to me with a hot stock tip; something that they must buy because they don’t want to miss the boat, and I think it’s for good reason.
Most of our clients are successful at investing because they patiently pursue base hits, and don’t let greed, or fear of missing out cloud their good judgement.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about why I’ve never met a millionaire market timer.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits, fear of missing out, how to be a successful investor
This week’s theme is millionaire habits. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
The most common millionaire habit that I see among my clients is that they save and invest first. In other words, they make sure that they set aside money in savings and retirement accounts before they pay their mortgage and their other bills.
This is the exact opposite of what most Americans do. Most people pay everyone else first, and pay themselves last. When all you get is the scraps and leftovers, it’s much harder to build wealth. It also leads to inconsistent savings habits. Some months you might save and other months you don’t. Then your retirement and financial future is left to chance.
The good news is that if you have a 401k or similar retirement plan through work, you’re already paying yourself first.
But, if you are currently paying yourself last, you can flip the switch by setting up automatic transfers from your checking account into your savings and retirement accounts. Setup the auto-transfer within a couple days of your paycheck hitting your bank account. It’s a simple way to make sure you pay yourself first, and pay yourself consistently every single month.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow, where I’m going to share with you how baseball can help you be a better investor.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits, pay yourself first, pay yourself first definition
This week’s theme is millionaire habits. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
Many of the clients I work with have a 7 to 8-figure net worth. Most of my millionaire clients have not inherited their wealth, but they’ve achieved affluence through a combination of hard work, consistency, strong habits and good decisions.
Each day this week I’m going to share with what I’ve learned over the last 11 years, working with my affluent clients.
I strongly believe that your choices and habits determine your success and failure in life.
Just like maintaining a fit body and a healthy weight...It doesn’t happen by accident. If you want to look good, you have to exercise and eat healthy. It’s simple, yet hard to do because it requires discipline and consistency.
Building wealth is no different. So this week, I’m going to focus on the habits and behaviors that I beleive are the most influential, along with some practical advice on how you can get started building better habits if you’re not yet where you want to be.
Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. Also, if there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where I’m going to share with you the most common millionaire habit I seen in nearly every one of my clients.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, millionaire habits, what millionaires do, how most millionaires are made, rich habits, building wealth, wealth building ideas, how to build wealth, get rich, positive habits
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week’s tips were aimed at helping you better organize your financial life.
If you didn’t catch all of the episodes this week, here’s what we covered:
- An overview of how to start the process of organizing your financial life
- Why a personal financial inventory is the easiest and quickest way to boost your financial organization prowess.
- What to keep and what to shred (and what you should keep forever)
- And...How to keep your financial documents organized and secure
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to start a brand new theme: The core principles to abide by if you want to be a successful investor for the long-term. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful investors can teach you something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, go paperless, financial organizer, what to do with old statements, how long to keep records, how long do you keep bank statements, how long to keep investment statements, how long should I keep tax returns, financial inventory, personal financial inventory spreadsheet
One important thing that you’ll want to take some time to really reflect on is: what organizational system works for you to keep all of your financial documents organized?
As a type A, OCD kinda person, with a former professional organizer as my mother, I know a thing or two about organizing things. I used to rearrange the furniture in my room because I thought it was fun. Instead of playing with my Barbies, I would just stage the furniture in their home.
There are 3 main organizational systems that work for financial documents:
- A binder system - visual and convenient, it also forces you to keep your files from expanding, unless you want to keep buying more binders.
- Files and a filing cabinet - also visual, but you must be consistent in your labeling to ensure that your filing system works well
- Scan and file - ah, ok - I am technically a millennial, so I like the idea of scanning documents. The beauty of the scanning system is that you can store and find information quickly, while getting rid of all the papers you have! A win-win!
I’m a big proponent of the scanning method. I haven’t adopted it at home, but we use it at True North, and it makes it so easy to find documents. The other thing I love about scanning is that it allows you to purge and shred the originals, so you don’t have to keep storing so much paper.
Just make sure that if you save your important files to your computer that you password protect your computer and take the necessary security measures to ensure those documents remain safe. Also, be sure to backup your files, which you can do with a secure cloud storage system. That way, if your computer is irreparably damaged, you won’t lose all of your records.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, go paperless, financial organizer, what to do with old statements, how long to keep records, how long do you keep bank statements, how long to keep investment statements, how long should I keep tax returns, financial inventory, personal financial inventory spreadsheet
This week’s tips are aimed at helping you better organize your financial life, and today I’m tackling one of the most common question that I get: “Ashley, how long should I keep all of my financial documents?”
That’s a really good question! Yesterday, I talked about what you can shred, so today I’m going to focus on what you should keep.
One of the most common questions on what to keep revolves around your taxes. How long should you keep your tax records?:
7 years is a good rule for keeping your tax records. It’s a good idea to keep annual tax filings, 1099s, and other tax forms for 7 years. Keep them in a file by year, then just cycle out the file every 7 years.
For your investment accounts, keep your annual summaries. I like keeping all of the year-end summaries, going back indefinitely, especially for taxable accounts where it matters knowing when you bought something and what you paid.
Speaking of when you bought something...
I also advise clients to keep trade confirmation statements forever. You may have bought a stock back in 1991, you still own it, and it has a massive gain. You’ll want to know what day you purchased the stock, at what price, and how many shares you bought to keep accurate records of the stock. Also, if you’ve been investing for a while, you’ve probably received those shareholder class action letters. If you ever want to participate in one of those, you’ll need to show proof of when you purchased the stock, so it’s just a good idea to always hold on to trade confirmations.
If you’re like, “crap! I haven’t held on to any of those things!” That’s ok. Go back to your financial institution or your tax advisor and see if they can send you copies of old tax records, year-end summaries, and trade confirmations that you might be missing.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how you can organize and keep track of all of these important documents that you need to hang on to.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, go paperless, financial organizer, what to do with old statements, how long to keep records, how long do you keep bank statements, how long to keep investment statements, how long should I keep tax returns, financial inventory, personal financial inventory spreadsheet
This week’s tips are aimed at helping you better organize your financial life, and today I’m tackling what you don’t need to keep and the financial documents that you can shred.
The good news is that you can get rid of more documents than you might realize.
Here’s some guidance on what you can shred and when:
- Bills - go ahead and shred these when the payment clears
- Credit card and bank account statements - You can shred these after reviewing and verifying that everything looks correct, especially if you have online access to your accounts.
- Paycheck stubs can be shredded after you verify the stubs match your W-2 and there are no other discrepancies
- Investment account statements - your monthly or quarterly statements can be shredded after you receive your annual summary after the close of the year. This one is a big one, because I see clients who keep every monthly statement going back 5, 10, or 20 years, and it’s really not necessary. And when each statement is several pages long, it will really free up space in your files if you just keep the year-end summary.
With online access, you won’t need to keep most things that you can get access to online, so keep that in mind as well.
Once you know what you can shred, you can also get in the habit of shredding more often, so you don’t store things that you don’t need.
Today, my challenge is for you is to start purging anything you’ve been hanging on to that you don’t need. Have a little shredding party and experience the profound cleansing euphoria that happens when you rid yourself of unnecessary documents!
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, go paperless, financial organizer, what to do with old statements, how long to keep records, how long do you keep bank statements, how long to keep investment statements, how long should I keep tax returns, financial inventory, personal financial inventory spreadsheet
This week’s tips are aimed at helping you better organize your financial life, and today I’m continuing with yesterday’s theme, which is how to take inventory of your financial accounts. By the way, if you missed yesterday, go back and check it out. Creating a financial inventory is single best thing you can do that will give you a quick win on getting your financial life organized!
Today’s tip is a continuation of your personal financial inventory. Now that your loved ones and at least 1 trusted contact know where your assets are located, we want to help them get in contact with the right people.
Once you’ve created your financial inventory list, add a list of advisor contacts and their contact info. You’ll want to include your:
- Accountant
- Attorney(s)
- Financial Advisor
- Insurance Agent
- Bank or banker
- Executor, Trustee, & power of attorney
- Employer/HR contact
If you’re looking for a template for your personal financial inventory, Vanguard has a pretty comprehensive pdf template. I’ve linked to it in the show notes on iTunes for todays episode, episode 80:
Your Personal Financial Inventory Template: http://www.vanguard.com/pdf/FM_inventory.pdf
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to have a shredding party, so you get get rid of all that paperwork you don’t need anymore!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, personal financial inventory, financial inventory list, financial inventory spreadsheet, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, financial organizer
Happy New Year to you! This week tips are aimed at helping you better organize your financial life, and today I’m focusing on single best thing you can do that will give you a quick win on getting your financial life organized.
And that is...creating a financial inventory list. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can be handwritten or typed up on a spreadsheet. Your personal financial inventory should list all of your financial assets. You’ll want to include:
- Investment accounts
- 401k or other retirement plan accounts
- Insurance policies & annuities
- Bank accounts
- College savings accounts
- Physical or special assets (like gold or real estate)
- And if applicable, pension information too
This simple list should include the account type, account owners, the name of the financial institution where the assets are held, & the last few digits of the account numbers.
Put a copy in a safe place, make sure your spouse knows where this inventory list is stored, and give a copy to a trusted advisor, like your financial advisor or attorney. Then just set a reminder on your calendar to review it and update it as needed, when new accounts are created and old ones are closed.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to a spouse who didn’t know about an insurance policy death benefit and then found some paperwork in a box several years after the spouse died.
Trust me, the insurance company is not going to come knocking on your door to write you a check for the death benefit, so you’ll want to make sure your spouse and at least one other trusted contact knows where to find all of your assets and accounts.
That’s it for today, Welcome to 2019! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow, where I’m going to share with you what you should do next after completing your personal financial inventory.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, personal financial inventory, financial inventory list, financial inventory spreadsheet, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, financial organizer
Happy New Years Eve! As we embark on a brand new year, I want to share with you some tips on getting your financial life organized. Only the most type A among us have everything all in order, so I’m sharing with you some tips, and quick and easy ways to get your financial life organized.
If you died today, how messy would it be for your spouse, your kids, or your executor to sort through your financial life? If this question makes you cringe a little, then this week’s tips are for you!
Each day this week I’m going to share with you tips on how you can organize, store, and take inventory of your financial documents. I’m going to give you some quick wins and answer some commonly asked questions - like what you should do with that IRA statement you’re still holding on to from 5 years ago, and the one thing you can do today, which will have the biggest impact on helping you get organized.
Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. Also, if there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where I’m going to share with you the one, easy thing you can do today that will give you a quick win on getting your financial life organized.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, organizing financial documents, financial management, document management, go paperless, financial organizer, what to do with old statements, how long to keep records, how long do you keep bank statements, how long to keep investment statements, how long should I keep tax returns, financial inventory, personal financial inventory spreadsheet
It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!
This week I’ve discussed some of my favorite wise words, quotes, and jokes about money, retirement, and investing.
If you didn’t catch all of the episodes this week, here’s what we covered:
- Merry Christmas wishes from the sweetest 4 year old I know, little Miss Keegan
- A shout out welcome to those of you who are new
- Frank Sinatra’s wise words about material possessions
- Funny texting abbreviations for baby boomers that you can start using to stump us younger folk
- And...Proof that you’re never too young or too old to accomplish your goals in life
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to start a brand new theme for the new year - helping you get your financial life organized - I’ll be outlining what you should always keep, what you can shred, and how to keep the most essential documents organized and up to date.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance
Often times, when I am talking to employees in the 401k plans I consult for, I hear things like: “I don’t have enough time to catch up.” “I’ll never be able to retire”. Many people who are behind on their goals are tempted to throw in the towel. Nonsense!
If you aren’t where you want to be at this point in your life, you may not be able to live the lifestyle you envisioned for yourself when you were younger, but all hope is not lost!
You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages:
-
At 5, Yo-Yo Ma began playing "Suites for Unaccompanied Cello" before bed each evening.
-
Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank.
- Michelangelo created two of the greatest sculptures “David” and “Pieta” by age 28
- Oprah was 32 when she started her talk show
- Model T came out when Henry Ford was 45 years old
- Ray Kroc was 53 when he bought the McDonalds franchise and took it to unprecedented levels
- J.R.R. Tolkien published the first volume of " Lord of the Rings." at age 62
- Cornelius Vanderbilt began buying railroads at the age of 70.
- At 81, Bill Painter became the oldest person to reach the 14,411-foot summit of Mt. Rainier.
- At 95, Nola Ochs became the oldest person to receive a college diploma.
No matter your age, you can still go after your dreams and goals. It’s never too late to do anything or accomplish an important goal.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m going to give you a little preview of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, goals, accomplishments
This week’s theme is wise words, quotes, and jokes about investing and retirement. You probably have kids or grandkids who like to text or email you in abbreviations:
LMK - let me know
ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing
ILY - I love you
The one I use all the time is IDK - I don’t know. I put this little abbreviation in an email to my father in law the other day. He’s 70, and I’m pretty sure he had no idea what I was saying.
So to get back at those little technologically savvy buggers, I have some texting abbreviations you baby boomers can start throwing around to thoroughly confuse the younger generations:
FWBB - Friend with Beta Blockers
CBM - Covered by Medicare
IMHO - Is My Hearing-Aid On?
WAITT - Who Am I Talking To?
And my personal favorite:
WTP - Where're the Prunes?
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about why you’re never too young, or never too old to go after what you want in life.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, jokes, texting abbreviations for baby boomers
Frank Sinatra once told his friend, Tom Dreesen: “If you possess something but you can’t give it away, then you don’t possess it. It possesses you”
Tom Dreesen is a comedian who opened for Frank Sinatra for many years. After Frank Sinatra’s death, he relayed the following story:
“We were coming out of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City one night, going out the back door on the way to a gig,” Dreesen said. “Security was rushing us to the limousine and a woman jumped out of the door. She’s howling, ‘Mr. Sinatra, please! Mr. Sinatra, please!’ He turned around and said, ‘What is it?’ She said, ‘Mr. Sinatra, my husband is home sick and, if I could get an autograph from you, it would mean the world to him.’ Frank said, ‘Sure.’
He’s signing an autograph and she says, ‘Oh, what beautiful cuff links.’ These were $2,000 cuff links. Dreesen knew where he got them. Sinatra said, ‘Thank you.’ And he signed the autograph and took the cuff links off and handed them to her. He said, “Give these to him.” She said, “No, no, no, no, no! I don’t want them, I was just admiring them.’ He said, “No. I want you to give those to your husband.”
“In the limo, Dreesen said, ‘Frank, that was really nice, but, why did you do that?’ He said, “Tommy, if you possess something that you can’t give away, then you don’t possess it. It possesses you.
“He once said to Dreesen, ‘Nothing you possess is yours. The second you die, it transfers. It belongs to someone else. We’re only using it.’
Don’t you feel a little uncomfortable when you hear this story? I think this story really forces us to think about what we would do in that situation, and I think it’s very hard for most of us to be detached from our possessions, myself included.
But Sinatra understood that there’s freedom in being able to say “here you go, you can have it” to anything and everything you possess. There’s true freedom in that. And freedom is, above almost everything else, a universal, basic right that we all seek and we all need.
So today, my challenge is for you to practice detachment with your own possessions. Give away something that means something to you. Give something away that hurts a little, something that’s not easy to give away. And experience the freedom that comes from not letting your things possess you.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, frank sinatra, generosity, detachment, materialism
It’s the day after Christmas, and many of you listening today may be hearing this show for the first time because you just got an Alexa device for Christmas. Or maybe you’ve tuned in along the way and missed the intro week where I talked in depth about what these tips are all about.
So I want to take a step back for a moment to say welcome, and thank you for listening!
I want you to feel like the content here is speaking directly to you at this stage in your life, so let me start off with what we’re not about over here at the “One Minute Retirement Tip”:
This is a show for Americans quickly approaching traditional retirement. You’ve made good choices along the way. You have money saved for retirement (maybe you still need to save a little more), and you want to retire within the next 10 years.
The decisions you make over these last few years will be absolutely critical to your long-term success in retirement. So we talk about how to get to a fulfilled and secure retirement, all while balancing so many other competing financial priorities: Putting your kids through college, trying to pay off your house, taking care of your aging parents, and having a little fun too!
These tips are organized by weekly themes, so there will be a new topic each week, so I can go in depth on a certain topic while keeping these tips short, sweet, and under 2 minutes. Last week we talked about charitable giving and next week I’m going to help you get organized and give you some guidance on all of those financial documents. What to keep, what to shred, and how to keep your financial life organized.
So let me send you off into your day with this: Thank you so much for including me in your daily routine! I hope to bring you massive, massive amounts of value that you can take to ensure your retirement security.
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to continue with this week’s theme: wise words, quotes, and jokes about investing and retirement, and you’ll hear what Frank Sinatra has to say about money.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance
Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas! If you’re listening today, I just want to take this opportunity to tell you how thankful I am that you’re listening to these tips!
I have been so blown away by the success of the tips, particularly on Amazon Alexa and I really appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on retirement and my experience to help you on your path to retirement.
I love bringing these tips to you every morning, and more than anything, I hope that these are useful to you and that you implement some of the ideas from the One Minute Retirement Tips to achieve financial security, so you never run out of money in retirement!
And before you get back to what I hope is spending time with those you love most on this special day, my 4-year-old daughter, Keegan, would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and sing you a Christmas carol…
Keegan riffs :)
That’s it for today, Merry Christmas! Can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow, where I’m going to share with you some wise words from the late, great Frank Sinatra.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance
Merry Christmas! Today is Christmas Eve, and to help you stay in the Christmas spirit this week, I’m sharing with you some of my favorite wise words about investing...quotes and jokes that I love.
Each day this week I’m going to pick one of my favorite wise words to share - quotes and jokes to brighten your day and to help you think about retirement from a different perspective.
Above all and especially this week, I hope these daily tips find you and yours happy, healthy, and grateful for your blessings this Christmas season.
Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. Also, if there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where my 4 year old daughter, Keegan, is going to sing you a Christmas carol.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance
It’s Sunday, which means...
It’s recap time!
With Christmas just 2 days away, time is running out to buy a Christmas gift for your favorite peeps. I really do believe that the right book at the right time for the right person has the power to forever change a life! So if you’re still looking for the perfect gift for someone you love, consider the gift of a good book.
This week I’ve reviewed some of my favorite books that I read this year, and hopefully given you some great gift ideas along the way.
Here’s the rundown of my favorite books from 2018:
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Off Balance by Matthew Kelly
- One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer
- Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
- And, Non-Obvious 2019 by Rohit Bhargava
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. I’ve included links to buy each of these books in the episode description, so feel free to go wild and binge on episodes over on iTunes.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where we’re going to celebrate the week of Christmas with some light-hearted quotes and jokes about investing.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, best books to read, best books 2018 non fiction, best books 2018, Christmas gifts for book lovers, want need wear read ideas, how to focus better, building good habits, best books for business leaders
Today’s book selection is a book that I’ve never read. That’s because it hasn’t been released yet. But the good news is that you can pre-order it and it will be sent to your trendsetter friend on January 1st.
The first book I’ll be digesting in 2019 is Non-Obvious: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future - a Wall Street Journal Best Selling Series by Rohit Bhargava.
Non-Obvious is released every year with 15 new updated annual trends and a guide to the power of non-obvious thinking. The world today is filled with obvious ideas and narrow-minded thinking. This book attempts to find the trends and ideas that will be the most impactful for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors in the current year.
One of the examples of a non-obvious trend from 2018 is referred to as “human mode”. As automation increases, people hungry for more personal and authentic experiences, begin to put a premium on advice, services, and interaction with humans. Case in point: The Human Library. A place where you can check out a volunteer human to share their story in a conversation.
Ridiculous? Yes.
An actual thing? Yes.
Non-obvious trend? Yes.
This book is perfect for your trend-setting, early adopter, forward-thinking friend who loves big disruptive ideas.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, best books to read, best books 2018 non fiction, best books 2018, Christmas gifts for book lovers, want need wear read ideas, best books for business leaders, wall street journal bestseller, amazon bestseller, non obvious 2018, non obvious 2019, business trends, entrepreneurship, non obvious 2019 review
The most recent book I read was Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. Holy cow, this book a must-read for anyone in business!
Most businesses spend way to much time talking about themselves. “Here’s our why, read all about our story and the principles we were founded on, this is why we’re the best, look at us and how great we are”. And all potential customers hear is “blah, blah, blah”. People only care about you and your brand to the extent that you can help them solve their problem.
Miller challenges marketers and business leaders to think about their positioning and message to customers and clients that’s based on the formula of good storytelling that has resonated with humans since our caveman days. Every great story has a hero. That hero has a problem and finds a guide to help the hero solve their problem. It’s a formula that exists in every great story.
The problem is that too many businesses position themselves as the hero in the story. Uh uh! You are not the hero. Your customer is the hero. You are the guide and you need to show your customers the plan to solve their problem and transform their lives.
Just think about this tip you’re listening to right now and why your listening. You’re not listening because you think I’m awesome. You’re listening because you need someone to guide you on your path to a financially secure retirement. You’re the hero. I’m just the guide who is trying to get you there. If I start competing with you to be the hero in this narrative, you tune me out and unsubscribe. That’s what StoryBrand is all about.
StoryBrand is a book that helps business leaders clarify their message so they can guide their heros - their customers and clients - to realize their most important goals.
This book has been influential in so many aspects of my life - everything from business to social settings, and I think it can be a game changer for any business who is desperately trying to stand out in a competitive industry.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, I’m going to tell you all about the best book I haven’t even read yet.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, best books to read, best books 2018 non fiction, best books 2018, Christmas gifts for book lovers, want need wear read ideas, best books for business leaders, storybrand, storybrand donald miller, storybrand book, brandscript, building a storybrand donald miller, building a storybrand summary, building a storybrand review
One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer is today’s must-give book.
The concept of small, steady change to dramatically improve your life is best illustrated through the concept of Kaizen. Kaizen is Japanese term for continuous improvement is a tried and true concept in business, that the author and psychologist, Robert Maurer, applied to his psychology patients with dramatic and lasting results.
Kaizen is so effective because the ridiculously small steps you take to build new habits or destroy bad habits circumvent the brain’s built-in resistance to new behavior.
I have plenty of bad habits, but the poor health habit that has nagged at me the most over the years is that I have never been consistent with flossing. I don’t want my teeth to fall out, but I can’t seem to will myself into flossing every day. Usually I just floss for about 3 weeks before my dental cleaning so I don’t get scolded, then fall back into my old bad habits again.
If you follow the concept of Kaizen and you’re trying to build the habit of flossing every day, you would start by just taking a piece of floss and just placing it on your counter. Then after doing that for a week, maybe you floss one tooth. Then 2 teeth, and continue to build, one ridiculous step at a time. You might build the habit gradually, one painless step at a time, until one day you’re flossing your whole mouth!
That’s it for today! Thanks for listening, but I need to go floss 4 teeth now.
Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the must-read for everyone in business.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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The best book I re-read this year was Off Balance by Matthew Kelly. I first read this book a couple years ago, and I returned to it this year after my workaholism took a turn for the worse.
Kelly turns the concept of work-life balance on it’s head with this book, Off Balance.
Kelly argues that work-life balance is unattainable and that we should focus on work-life satisfaction instead. Because we don’t really want balance. We want satisfaction.
Through identifying my priorities and what matters most to me, I’ve been better able to make the necessary trade-offs between all of the different choices we have on a daily basis with how we spend our time.
Reading this book changed my life because Kelly doesn’t just throw out a bunch of ideas for how to live a more satisfying life. He provides a process for identifying your most important priorities (which is actually really hard to do!) and then building the core daily habits around your priorities.
Whatever your priorities, this book will help you solidify the importance of those priorities in your life, and then build daily habits that are consistent with those priorities.
This book is perfect for the person in your life who is stretched too thin, close to burnout, and not spending their time in a way that is consistent with their most important values and priorities.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to build on this concept of developing solid habits with a little kaizen - the key to flossing more, losing weight, saving enough for retirement, or getting out of debt.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, best books to read, best books 2018 non fiction, best books 2018, Christmas gifts for book lovers, want need wear read ideas, best books for business leaders, Matthew Kelly, Matthew Kelly Off Balance, Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction, Floyd Consulting, matthew kelly off balance summary, matthew kelly off balance review
One of my favorite books this year was Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.
Like most people, I struggle a lot with staying focused on my work. Even as I write my notes for these tips, the TV is playing in the background, my dog just farted, I’m stressed because I don’t know where my phone is at the moment, and I just heard the ping of a new email arrive in my inbox moments ago. Is it important? Maybe I should check my email real quick to see. It’s probably not anything urgent. Must. Check. Email! And 20 minutes later after going down a rabbit hole, I’m back focusing on my work.
That’s what Cal Newport would define as shallow work. If you are working on an important project or if you’re what he calls a “knowledge worker” like so many of us are today, shallow work causes a massive loss of productivity.
Only by returning to the discipline of deep work, can we write the book, finish the painting, polish the presentation, and unleash the creative potential that we need to crank out serious and satisfying results.
The problem is that we’re so distracted these days and we spend so much time in shallow work, that very few of us have the ability to really go deep with our work anymore. Only by training ourselves to spend more time in a state of undistracted focus, will we be able to accomplish our most important goals.
Newport outlines some practical strategies to develop a habit of deep work, and you’ll need to read the book to find out those strategies.
My one big takeaway from the book was adopting time each morning to perform deep work. This is a time of undistracted, coffee-fueled time early in the morning where I write and work on the projects that require the most focused work. These daily tips wouldn’t be possible without that undistracted deep work time early in the morning.
This book is perfect for person in your life who keeps talking about writing the book, restoring the car, or launching the business, but can never seem to find the time to get started.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you the book that I love so much I re-read it in 2018.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, best books to read, best books 2018 non fiction, best books 2018, Christmas gifts for book lovers, want need wear read ideas, best books for business leaders, , deep work cal newport, wall street journal business bestseller, deep work cal newport review, deep work cal newport summary
It’s almost Christmas, so this week is devoted to one of my favorite types of gifts to give - the gift of a great book! I love to read, and I love to learn, and I really do believe that the right book at the right time for the right person has the power to forever change a life!
I read 20-30 books every year. I usually have a couple books going on my kindle, an audiobook or 2 in rotation, and 2 or 3 or let’s be honest, 7 other physical books, all going at once. I can’t tell you the last time I finished a fiction book. I think it was sometime in 2015. So my recommendations are heavily biased toward non-fiction books.
Each day this week I’m going to pick one of my favorite books from 2018. I’ll tell you what it’s all about, why I liked it, my 1 big takeaway, and who I think this book is perfect for.
Who in your life do you still need to shop for for Christmas? Time is running out and I hope these best books of 2018 will inspire you to find that perfect gift! The book that has the power to change their life!
Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. If there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where I’m going to share with you the book that will help you squash your distractions and help you focus better on your most important projects.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, best books to read, best books 2018 non fiction, best books 2018, Christmas gifts for book lovers, want need wear read ideas, how to focus better, building good habits, best books for business leaders
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market,charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, charitable bunching, donor advised funds
Transcript:
It’s Sunday, which means...
It’s recap time!
The tax cuts and jobs act for 2018 has really changed the charitable donation landscape, and seeing how Christmas is the season for giving, I wanted to spend a week devoted to the best kind of giving there is - charitable giving!
This past week, we talked about:
- How the new tax law changes your charitable giving tax breaks
- Charitable Bunching
- The best charitable donation vehicle out there - the donor advised fund
- Why you should write down your charitable giving goals
- And...How to pick the right charities to give money to
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. Feel free to go wild and binge on episodes over there.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where I’m going to tackle a brand new theme: Last minute gift ideas for Christmas - books to give your favorite people this year - books that have the power to truly change their lives for the better.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market,charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, how to pick the right charity, charity navigator, the human fund, festivus, Seinfeld, guidestar, how to pick the right charity, Sunshine Division,
Transcript:
Remember in Seinfeld when George Costanza creates a fake charity in the Festivus episode - the Human fund. George gives out these cards to his co-workers stating that a donation had been made to a charity called "The Human Fund", with the slogan, "Money For People".
The festivus episode was one of the Seinfeld greats. “The tradition of festivus begins...with the airing of grievances. I GOT A LOT A PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE!”
Ok, I digress...
When you donate money to charity, how do you know that it’s not just another human fund scam, but it’s a worthwhile organization that is aligned with your values.
That’s really the first step. What are your values? What are your priorities? Of all the causes related to education, the arts, animals, the environment, the needy and homeless, which causes resonate the most with your heart?
Those important priorities may shift over time, so it’s important to really ask yourself what’s most important to you and why you continue to donate to the charities you give money to. Above all, make sure those donations mean something to you.
Do your research. You’d be surprised how interconnected many charities are. I used to volunteer with and give money to the Sunshine Division, which is a charity that provides food and clothing to families in the Portland, Oregon. I was amazed when I found out how many other charities the Sunshine Division supported directly with food and clothing.
This is not always a good thing, though. If you’re going to give money or donate time, you’ll want to make sure that other organizations they partner with aren’t at odds with your beliefs or values.
For in-depth research on charities, tools like Charity Navigator and GuideStar can help you find more information.
Above all, make sure you chosen charities are aligned with your values, using it’s dollars efficiently, and that those dollars are really making an impact in the community.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market,charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, donor-advised funds,
Transcript:
I love, love, love the donor-advised fund and here’s why - if you’re intentional about your giving, and want to give in big, bold way and really make a difference in the causes you care about most, you need to look seriously at a donor-advised fund.
A donor-advised fund is an investment account that allows you to make tax-deductible donations in a given year. Let’s say you sell your business or have a major windfall that’s going to be a big tax hit. You’re charitably inclined and you want to do good while lowering your tax bill at the same time. A donor-advised fund helps you do exactly that.
Let’s say you put $100,000 into a donor-advised fund, and let it grow for 10 years. Let’s say the account did really well and doubled in value over that time - now you have $200,000 in the account. You just doubled what you were able to give to charity by investing those dollars and allowing them to grow!
Imagine what your favorite organization could do with double or triple the amount of funds you otherwise would have donated. We’re upgrading from your name on a single brick to your name on the building, baby!
And when the account minimums on donor-advised funds are pretty low - you need around $5000 in many cases to start one - these are not just for the wealthy. If you want to give in bigger, bolder ways and really maximize the dollars you donate over your lifetime, a donor-advised fund deserves a serious look.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to continue with how to tell a good charity from a bad one and how to pick the right charities to donate to.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: charitable contributions limit, charitable bunching, retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market,charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, new tax bill charitable deductions
Transcript:
Today we’re talking about charitable bunching, and I really don’t want you to get your panties all in a bunch over it, because it’s actually a pretty cool strategy.
And by the end of this tip today, you’re going to be like “Wow, that’s genius, Ashley!” Well, yes, I know...it is genius, but I have a little secret - I didn’t come up with this. I’m just bringin the bunching to the people!
Ok, enough messing around...here’s how charitable bunching works and how it might be relevant for you:
Depending on your tax situation, and the fact that the standard deduction has shot up for 2018, many people won’t benefit from the tax deduction on charitable contributions, like you may have in years past.
Enter charitable bunching. It’s a strategy where you lump your charitable donations into one year, so instead of donating to charity every year, you would donate more dollars less often. So for example, if you donate $5,000 every year to charity, but switch to donating $15,000 every 3 years instead, you would still donate the same amount, but by donating a higher amount in a given year, the strategy of lumping or bunching those contributions into one year can help you qualify for itemized deductions and hence, allow you to continue to receive a tax deduction on those charitable contributions in the years that you bunch.
Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the best way to give to charity!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: charitable contributions, retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, goal setting, write down your goals, 2019 goals, how much do people give to charity
Transcript:
You’ve probably heard that if you’re serious about a goal that you really want to accomplish, it’s smart to write that goal down. There’s something very powerful about putting pen to paper and solidifying that goal by writing it down.
In fact, it’s so powerful to write down your goals because it unlocks all sorts of psychological and personal benefits. The difference in results from writing something down vs. just thinking about it or talking about it is over 100%!
Now that we’re coming up on the end of the year, many of you will start thinking about goals you want to achieve for 2019. If you’re serious about reaching those goals, you’ll want to write those goals down.
If you plan to give to charity in 2019, write down how much you’ll give. How much per month will you give? What’s your giving goal for the entire year? What about your time? What is your weekly, monthly, and yearly volunteer hours that you’ll give in 2019?
Whatever those goals are, be sure to write them down, and you’ll be more likely to achieve those goals.
It will also help you narrow your focus. If you already know how much you’ll give, and the hours of volunteer time throughout the year, you can say yes to the causes you care most about and say no to everything else without guilt.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to switch gears and talk about charitable bunching! What’s that? Stay tuned because it’s a really cool strategy for getting a tax benefit for your charitable contributions.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction, tax cuts and jobs act, 2018 charitable deduction rules, charitable giving rules 2018, charitable donations 2019
Transcript:
The tax cuts and jobs act has majorly overhauled the rules for charitable contributions. Making charitable contributions gives you a tax deduction, but only if you itemize those deductions on your tax return.
With the standard deduction going up significantly in 2018, many more people will stop itemizing on their taxes, so those charitable contributions will no longer provide a tax deduction if you’re among the majority of Americans who will not itemize.
If you’re curious about what those limits, google “standard deduction for 2018”.
Many of you listening this week will have deductions that will exceed the standard deduction amount, which means you will continue to itemize, and you’ll continue to benefit from charitable contributions.
As we close out 2018, and you start thinking about charitable contributions for 2019, it will be important to find out if you will itemize or just take the standard deduction when you file your tax return.
If you will be itemizing in 2018 or 2019, it will be very important to plan ahead, give strategically, and maximize the tax benefit on the charitable contributions you make.
The rest of this week will be dedicated to helping you be strategic with your giving, so you can do the most good with the dollars you have to give.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to talk about why it’s so important to write down your charitable giving goals.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market,charitable donations, charitable donations 2018, charitable donations tax deduction
Transcript:
It’s only a couple weeks away from Christmas, so it’s crunch time to make those charitable contributions before year-end! It is the season of giving after all, which is why I want to focus on giving this week.
Most people aren’t strategic about their charitable giving, so I want to emphasize how just writing checks randomly to charity or dropping some cash in the collection basket at church can cause you to miss out on some important tax breaks.
This week we’re going to cover:
- How the new tax law changes your charitable giving tax breaks
- Charitable Bunching
- My favorite strategy when you’re donating big bucks
- Why you should write down your charitable giving goals
- And...How to pick the right charities and the importance of doing your research
This week, I’m bringing you insight from over a decade of guiding clients on their charitable giving decisions, and I’m so glad you’re here with me!
Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. I read every one and your feedback means a lot to me. If there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where we’re going to talk about how the tax benefits for charitable giving have changed under the new tax law.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Transcript:
It’s Sunday, which means... It’s recap time!
This week’s topic was social security. The decision about when to take social security is one of the most important decisions you will make when planning for retirement. It’s not a decision that should be taken lightly, especially when you’ll likely collect $1 million dollars or more from social security in retirement.
This past week, we talked about
- The social security mistake that could cost you over $400,000
- The trap of social security taxation
- How to plan for potential cuts to social security
- The special benefit that exists for people who are divorced
- And why you may want to wait until you’re 70 to start social security
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. Feel free to go wild and binge on episodes over there.
Before you go, I have a little treat for you: If you email me your social security monthly benefit amount at your full retirement age, I’ll run the numbers for you and show you the impact of taking social security at different ages, so you can make a smart social security decision!
I normally charge $1000 for this analysis, but this week, for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, it’s free. Email it to me at ashleym@truenorthra.com.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where I’m going to tackle a brand new theme: It’s the season of giving, so we’re going to talk about charitable giving strategies that allow you to do the most good with the most benefit!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.
Topics Covered This Week:
retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still working
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Transcript:
Did you know you can collect social security benefits from your ex-spouse?
Here’s how it works: If you were married for 10 years or longer, your ex-spouse is now old enough to receive social security, you’re at least 62, and your social security benefit is lower than theirs, you can collect social security ex-spouse benefits as long as you haven’t remarried.
Your collection of your ex-spouse's benefit doesn’t impact their benefit, and you don’t even have to talk to your ex-spouse about your decision to start social security.
One thing that I do want to point out is that the rules used to allow ex-spouses to collect divorced spouse’s benefits while letting their own social security benefit grow without tapping into it...those rules have changed.
If you were born in 1954 or later, social security is going to make you pick one or the other. But, according to SSA.gov, “if the benefit on your ex-spouse's record is higher, you will get an additional amount on your ex-spouse's record so that the combination of benefits equals that higher amount.”
The point here is that if you fit the criteria to collect social security benefits from your ex-spouse, it makes sense to look into collecting on their benefit vs. yours to see which strategy will maximize your benefit amount.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Topics Covered This Week:
retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still working
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Transcript:
An October 16th, 2018 headline from Forbes reads: “Senate Republicans Set Sights On Cutting Social Security”
According to the article, “a couple where each spouse earned constant “average” wages over a career beginning at age 22 and retired on their 65th birthdays would have over $1 million in health and retirement benefits.
A million dollars! The government is going to pay $1 million dollars in benefits to the millions of baby boomer couples transitioning into retirement! Is it any wonder that social security is in crisis?
Social security should have been addressed years ago, and it will be addressed at some point. It’s kind of like a speeding train careening ahead, but the tracks have run out. We know the tracks end, but we just don’t know how or when the train will crash.
Politicians don’t want to address it, which is why I don’t buy the headline above...After reading the article, I think it’s all talk.
How many of you would re-elect someone who cut your social security? What politicians want more than anything else is not to do what’s right, but to get re-elected. Sad, but true.
The likely result is that social security will be in true crisis mode, where we have no choice but to do something drastic. That something may include cuts to social security, and if you have assets and other income sources besides social security, I think you’re walking around with a target on your back, and you should have a contingency plan if your social security income is cut in your lifetime.
Could you absorb a 10, 20, or 30% cut to your social security checks?
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to continue with the silver lining from a divorce - social security benefits from your ex!
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Topics Covered This Week:
retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still working
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Transcript:
Is social security taxed?
Ugh, yes, unfortunately, it is...and it gets taxed at a fairly low income threshold as well.
Up to 85 percent of your benefits become taxable if your income is more than $34,000 (individual) or $44,000 (couple). Jimminy Christmas! In addition to that, 13 states also tax your social security benefits! Come on...Can we catch a break?!
Considering you paid into social security your entire working life, it seems more than a litle unfair that you could also pay taxes on your social security checks in retirement too.
My point here is not to round you all up to go rioting in the streets, but that you will want to consider how social security will be taxed, so you don’t overestimate your income from social security in retirement.
So when you’re figuring out how much after-tax income you’ll need to live comfortably in retirement, you’ll want to consider how all of those income sources will be taxed, and remember that social security is taxed as well when you’re income exceeds certain thresholds.
Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about cuts to social security - will that happen to you?
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Topics Covered This Week:
retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still working
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Transcript:
Is there an ideal age to take social security? That’s a complicated question to unpack, but here’s the guiding principle I like to use when advising clients on their social security decision:
If you’re in good health and you expect to live into your mid-70s or longer, consider waiting as long as possible to start social security.
Most Americans should plan to live into their 80s, which means that taking social security somewhere between age 67-70 makes the most sense.
As I discussed in yesterday’s tip, the difference in lifetime income between starting social security as early as possible at 62 vs. waiting until age 70 was nearly $600,000 for the client I told you about yesterday.
If you’re going to hold off on starting social security, this naturally leads to an important question: where do you draw income from instead if you’re going to retire before you start those social security checks?
The clients I told you about yesterday won’t start social security for close to 10 years AFTER they retire, so we’re going to take higher withdrawals from their portfolio to fill the gap, and lower those withdrawals once social security starts. This strategy makes sense for a lot of people, as long as those higher withdrawals in the early years are sustainable. You’ll want to run the numbers for yourself to see if that pencils out.
I have a special treat if you’re listening today: Send me your social security monthly benefit amount at your full retirement age, and I’ll run the numbers for you! I’ll show you the impact of taking social security at different ages, so you can make a smart social security decision!
I normally charge $1000 for this analysis, but this week, for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, it’s free.
Email your full retirement age monthly benefit amount to ashleym@truenorthra.com. It’s free; no strings attached.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to switch gears and talk about the social security taxation trap.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Topics Covered This Week:
retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still working
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Transcript:
I met with a husband and wife couple last week. This couple have been clients for many years and they are retiring next Spring! I’m so excited for them to retire, and they are excited to start a new chapter in their lives.
When we met last week, we had a planning discussion and made some important decisions about retirement. One of those decisions was social security. They are retiring in their early 60s and they just assumed that they would start social security as early as possible, at age 62.
It wasn’t until we ran the numbers last week that they realized that this would be a massive mistake.
If they live to their life expectancy used in our scenario, they would collect nearly $400,000 less over their lifetime in social security benefits if they collect at age 62 compared to waiting until their full retirement age.
If they wait until age 70, that difference in lifetime income jumps to nearly $600,000!
Here’s the point: In nearly every circumstance, unless you are in poor health and don’t expect to live past your early to mid-70s, taking social security as early as possible is a mistake!
Run the numbers for yourself. To make this easier for you, I have a special treat if you’re listening today: Send me your social security monthly benefit amount at your full retirement age, and I’ll run the numbers for you! I’ll show you the impact of taking social security at different ages, so you can make a smart social security decision!
I normally charge $1000 for this type of analysis, but for listeners of the One Minute Retirement Tip, it’s free.
Email your full retirement age monthly benefit amount to ashleym@truenorthra.com. It’s free; no strings attached.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to discuss the ideal age to start social security.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Topics This Week:
retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still working
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This week we’re talking about social security! Ok, this is a pretty big topic, so this week I really want to focus on the most important things you’ll want to think about as you make your social security decision.
Most people underestimate this important decision, and often start drawing social security when they retire, but when you’re potentially going to collect over $1 million dollars from social security over your lifetime, this decision should not be taken lightly.
This week we’re going to cover:
- The social security mistake that could cost you over $400,000
- The trap of social security taxation
- How to plan for potential cuts to social security
- The special benefit that exists for people who are divorced
- And why you may want to wait until you’re 70 to start social security
I’m bringing insight from over a decade of guiding clients on their social security decisions to you this week, and I’m so glad you’re here with me!
Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. I read every one and your feedback means a lot to me. If there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments as well.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening! I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow where we’re going to talk about the social security mistake that could cost you over $400,000.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Topics: retirement, investing, money, finance, stock market, social security, social security at age 62, full retirement age, social security at age 70, ex-spouse social security benefits, cuts to social security, social security taxable, social security tax, social security delayed retirement break even, social security age, max social security tax, social security benefits age 66 still workin
It’s Sunday, which means...
It’s recap time!
We talked this week about investing jargon. These are a handful of terms that I think are some of the most important and universal for investors to understand. So I picked one term each day and explained what it means and why you should pay attention to it.
This is not by any means an exhaustive list, but it is a list of terms that can help you make smarter decisions about your retirement if you understand what they mean.
This past week, we talked about
- Money Market Funds
- Why Keeping Track of Your Cost Basis Matters
- The importance of yield and expense ratios
- And why you shouldn’t compare a Honda Civic to a Porsche 911
If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”. Feel free to go wild and binge on episodes over there.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.
I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow morning, where I’m going to tackle a brand new theme: Making a smart decision with your social security.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
Pop quiz! Does a money market fund own stocks?
No, but years ago I remember reading a poll where a really high % of respondents thought that money market funds owned stocks.
Actually, a money market fund is a kind of mutual fund which invests only in highly liquid cash and cash equivalent securities that have high credit ratings.
Money market funds are attractive places to park your cash because they offer high liquidity with a very low level of risk.
Think of a money market fund as a higher yield savings account. Although money market funds are not FDIC insured, like your bank deposits in a checking, savings account, or a CD, they have remained stable investments, even during times of economic crisis like in 2008.
Today, with interest rates going up, rates on money market funds are becoming meaningful again. So if your savings account at the bank is still paying you a few pennies of interest a year, look closer at a money market fund - many of which are paying over 2% today.
That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.
My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
The focus this week is on investing jargon that you should pay attention to in order to make good decisions for your retirement, and today I’m talking about cost basis.
Investopedia defines cost basis as the original value of an asset for tax purposes, usually the purchase price, adjusted for stock splits, dividends and return of capital distributions.
Cost basis is important to understand because you use it to calculate your gain on an investment when you’ve sold it or are planning to sell it, so you can figure out what the tax bite is going to be.
Cost basis is especially important when you own an investment outside of an IRA in a taxable account, like an individual account, a joint account, or a trust. Cost basis in these types of accounts is necessary to calculate what the gain or loss is on the investment after it’s sold, which in turn determines what your taxes owed will be.
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had to help clients guesstimate or find missing cost basis when they decide to sell an investment, so here’s my key takeaway for you from today’s tip:
Always, always, always keep trade confirmations from your financial institution. Confirmations will tell you the day the investment was purchased, the purchase price, and the total cost basis - all critical pieces that you’ll need if you ever sell the investment in a taxable account.
And if you think the financial institution will keep this information on your behalf, think again. If you bought something 30 years ago and don’t know your original cost basis, it might be impossible to find it, especially if you transferred your account to another financial institution.
Reporting requirements have improved significantly in recent years, but tracking cost basis is your responsibility, and IRS expects you to keep and maintain records that identify the cost basis of your investments.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’re going to continue with money market funds.
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What fees are you paying in your investment portfolio? There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world of investing, so it’s important to understand the underlying costs of the investments you own, which are captured in the expense ratio.
Expense ratios are the operating expenses of a mutual fund, index fund, or ETF and they can vary widely. But the good news is that information on expense ratios is readily available online.
Expense ratios are always expressed as a %, and they reduce your return as an investor, which is why it’s important to invest in funds with reasonable fees. For example, if you invest in a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio or fee, and the fund return was 10%, after fees you actually earned 9% that year.
So the lower the fee, the higher your net return will be in that investment.
With a lot of low-cost funds out there to invest in, the expense ratio is an important consideration when constructing your portfolio, and it’s an important consideration when assessing the total cost of investing.
The takeaway here is to keep in mind that investing isn’t free and while it’s not necessarily the best strategy to buy the lowest cost investment you can find, understanding expense ratios or the underlying fees of the investments you own is an important consideration when calculating your total investment fees.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we’re going to switch gears and talk about cost basis.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
This week I’m demystifying some of the most important financial and investing jargon you should know to help you make smart decisions with your money.
Today, I’m talking yield. Yield is a measure of cash flow that an investor gets on the amount invested in a particular stock, bond, or fund. That’s the basic definition from Investopedia.
Knowing the cash flow, or income that your portfolio generates becomes increasingly important as you transition into retirement, and start drawing money out of your investments.
Let’s say you have a million dollars in your portfolio, and the total yield of your portfolio is 3%. A 3% yield on $1 million is $30,000 of cash flow or income that year.
Even if your portfolio drops by 10% or soars by 20% in a given year, you should be able to plan on receiving that $30,000 of income if your portfolio is diversified and all of your stock and bond investments keep paying dividends and interest - which they usually do.
When you transition into retirement, it becomes increasingly important to understand how much cash flow (or yield) your portfolio can reliably generate for you in a given year.
Because, if your portfolio can generate a reliable and growing stream of income for you in retirement, you’ll be better positioned to keep up with increasing cost of living in your retirement years.
Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about why expense ratios matter so much when calculating the total fees of your investment portfolio.
My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
According to Investodepia, “A benchmark is a standard against which the performance of a security, mutual fund or investment manager can be measured.”
Measuring your portfolio against a benchmark matters, because it gives you a gauge of how well your portfolio is performing, compared to something else - ideally, a basket of investments that are invested similarly to your portfolio.
When I was in college, I drove a red Honda Civic. The car was great - it was reliable, got really good gas mileage, and was low maintenance. It was also really fun to drive, even though I couldn’t figure out how to drive a manual transmission. If I was going to compare the quality of the Honda Civic with other cars, it should only be compared to like-kind cars - a Toyota Camry, Ford Focus, and other cars in the compact car category.
I wouldn’t take the Honda Civic out to the race track against a Posche 911 or a Ferrari. It’s just not fair to the Civic, because the car wasn’t designed for that and its a completely different type of car.
Your portfolio benchmark functions the same way. You should compare your portfolio to a like-kind benchmark. One of the most common benchamrks used is the S&P 500, but if you own a lot of international, small-cap stocks, or bonds - the S&P 500 as a benchmark misses the mark because it’s made up of large, US companies.
The point here is to take the time to understand the makeup of your portfolio, so when you’re comparing it to a benchmark, you know how to make a relevant comparison to measure how your portfolio is performing over time.
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The last 10-15 working years before retirement are critical for socking away as much as possible, but it presents a challenge because many parents are also helping to pay for college during this time.
Topics covered this week:
- Whether or not you can get a loan for retirement
- The return on investment (or ROI) of college
- Other paths to a 4-year degree
- What to do with your 529 plans when your kids are in high school
- And...why an ivy league name on a piece of paper doesn’t mean much to Google
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
The last 10-15 working years before retirement are critical for socking away as much as possible, but it presents a challenge because many parents are also helping to pay for college during this time.
Topics covered this week:
- Whether or not you can get a loan for retirement
- The return on investment (or ROI) of college
- Other paths to a 4-year degree
- What to do with your 529 plans when your kids are in high school
- And...why an ivy league name on a piece of paper doesn’t mean much to Google
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
If your child wants to be a software engineer at Google straight out of college, and they’re competing against some of the best and brightest in the country and around the world, you need an Ivy League degree, right?
Well, according to an article from CNN Business, “Google doesn’t care where you went to college”.
So if you're tempted to overpay for your kid’s college, because you think that the name of the school matters, consider instead what other qualities are valuable in the working world (work ethic, curiosity, humility, and servant-leadership), and help your child build those qualities alongside a solid education.
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As kids enter high school and college draws near, there are a couple important things you’ll want to keep in mind:
First - look at how the account is invested. If you haven’t rebalanced in a while or are still 100% in stocks, you’ll want to make sure that the money in the 529 is not going to crater during the next downturn when you need that money to be there to pay for school. So make sure the money in the account is invested conservatively and risk is minimized as college approaches.
Second - Even if the account is in your name as the parent, other people can contribute to the 529 as well.
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Instead of having tunnel-vision on getting into the best 4-year college money can buy, many parents and students are buying into the merits of other paths (albeit much cheaper paths) to the same end - a college degree.
So today, I want to help you consider alternative paths to a 4 year degree that can save some serious coin. Here are 6 ideas...
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Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
The last 10-15 working years before retirement are critical for socking away as much as possible, but it presents a challenge because many parents are also helping to pay for college during this time.
Topics covered this week:
- Whether or not you can get a loan for retirement
- The return on investment (or ROI) of college
- Other paths to a 4-year degree
- What to do with your 529 plans when your kids are in high school
- And...why an ivy league name on a piece of paper doesn’t mean much to Google
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
The last 10-15 working years before retirement are critical for socking away as much as possible, but it presents a challenge because many parents are also helping to pay for college during this time.
Topics covered this week:
- Whether or not you can get a loan for retirement
- The return on investment (or ROI) of college
- Other paths to a 4-year degree
- What to do with your 529 plans when your kids are in high school
- And...why an ivy league name on a piece of paper doesn’t mean much to Google
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
The last 10-15 working years before retirement are critical for socking away as much as possible, but it presents a challenge because many parents are also helping to pay for college during this time.
Topics covered this week:
- Whether or not you can get a loan for retirement
- The return on investment (or ROI) of college
- Other paths to a 4-year degree
- What to do with your 529 plans when your kids are in high school
- And...why an ivy league name on a piece of paper doesn’t mean much to Google
Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP
Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs
Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a biggie! We’re talking about how the heck you’re going to pay for health care in retirement!
Topics covered this week:
- The cost of health care in retirement
- The problem with living longer than you planned, and
- HSAs: The holy grail of tax benefits for retirement, the biggest mistake you’re making with your HSA, and how much you can sock away next year in your HSA.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors, is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularly fear and greed get the best of you.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors, is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularly fear and greed get the best of you.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors, is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularly fear and greed get the best of you.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors, is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularly fear and greed get the best of you.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors, is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularily fear and greed get the best of you.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors, is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularily fear and greed get the best of you.
This week’s topic is a timely one. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in the stock market lately and you’ve peeked at how your portfolio is reacting, you probably feel a bit nervous. In the month of October, the S&P 500 was down more than 7%...in one month!!
But one of the universal traits of most successful investors is that they don’t let their emotions get the best of them. They understand that markets go up and down, and they stay disciplined and stay true to their plan, knowing that taking the long view is how they’re going to reach their financial goals.
So this week, we’re diving into some specific topics that will help you better understand how to manage your own emotions when it comes to your portfolio, and how damaging it can be to let your emotions - particularily fear and greed get the best of you.