Capitalist Investor

Better Retirement Decisions for Couples, Ep. 275

• Strategic Wealth Partners

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1. Divide and Conquer:
Luke and Tony discuss the importance of dividing responsibilities between spouses, especially when approaching retirement. This strategy can help couples manage their tasks more efficiently and reduce stress.

2. Maximizing Retirement Contributions:
The hosts emphasize the significance of contributing to both spouses' IRAs or 401(k)s, even if one spouse is not working. This approach can help save on taxes and increase the amount of money saved for retirement.

3. Enjoying Retirement:
 Luke shares anecdotes about clients who are financially secure but still hesitate to spend money on enjoyable experiences. The hosts encourage retirees to enjoy the wealth they've accumulated and not be afraid to spend money on things that bring them happiness.

4. The Role of a Financial Advisor:
Tony and Luke discuss the importance of having a trusted financial advisor who acts as a "financial doctor" or "CFO." They emphasize that a good advisor should provide strategies for taxes, income, and investments while allowing clients to focus on enjoying their retirement.

5. Building a Trusted Relationship: 
The hosts stress the significance of working with a financial advisor that both spouses trust and like. They highlight that a strong relationship with an advisor can help couples navigate the ups and downs of the market and make better financial decisions together.

Welcome to today's episode of the Capitalist Investor. You have me. Cool. Han, Luke and Tony Z, the tiger. Derek's always on assignment. I do miss D. He brings a nice chill kind of vibe, calm vibe that we need sometimes here in this office. Sure. He's a good dude. Hopefully he's doing all right. Yeah. Down in Disney. No, no, I heard he's in Hawaii. How hot. Yeah. My God, again, how such a hard life. So, like I said, how much do you miss him right now? I'm sad to get that information. He didn't invite me anyway. I know. So we have the planning corner. Yeah, the top, the financial planning corner. Today we're going to talk about, you know, better retirement decisions for couples. A lot of people, when we sit down with them for the first time, and as we're going with them, with just pre retirement, post retirement kind of transitions and everything, what can you be doing if you're married or have a significant other? What can you guys be doing together to make your financial well being and retirement better or more efficient? So one of the first things is divide and conquer, right? I know that I do. This is where, hey, you know, I'm in charge of X, Y and Z, and my wife is in charge of a, b and c. I really don't interfere with a, b and C because I just assume it's going to get done, and that's not my job. I can't worry about six things. I'd rather worry about three. So divide and conquer. So whether that's bills, shopping, taking care of the landscaping, like, whatever that might look like, it's about divide and conquer. And I think most people, as they, you know, settle down and get, you know, relationship, that's what you do. But it's very important to figure that out. But when you, when you're about to enter retirement, still a big deal because things might change. Right? You know, you're both, you know, maybe one spouse was working, maybe both. Both of you were working, and now you both aren't. So now what? Right. So just, that's, that's the first and first thing that came to mind. Any, any idea if you aren't retired. Yet and you're approaching that? I know some easy things we'd always recommend is, you know, if your spouse isn't working or you aren't contributing to both iras, like, you know, make sure you're pumping in as much money into the IRAs or 401 ks, whatever it be, for each other. So that way you can actually have more money saved for retirement. Right. So there's a lot of people come in that might be contributing the max for one IRA, one person, but you can contribute for your spouse even if they're not working. Right. Just simple things like that. Yeah. It can really help you save on taxes or give you more money for retirement. Yeah. I always, always tell people, I'm like, hey, you know, when you're working great, it's the best time to save because when you retire, you're done earning, you're done saving, and you're now spending. Right. So you only have every, everybody, you know what they call that? Grandfather time or time. Time always wins. But like, you know, we all have a, just a finite amount of time to save. So if you have, it's never too late to save either. So never think you're behind the eight ball on it or anything like that. The other thing is the stress of retirement. Everyone stresses about, do I have enough money? Do I need to make more money? Do I need to save more money? All these kind of questions are always up in the air, and I always go back to my whole philosophy when I'm meeting with people is, you know, my job is not always to preach how to save the most amount of money as possible. My job is not always to make the most amount of money for certain clients. It's really to be that financial doctor in some ways. So I've actually had a lot of meetings the past week where a couple of my clients are in really good spots. Like, they're in good financial spots where they don't expend excessively. They have a good asset base to draw off of. But a couple of them actually made comments the past week to me. Like, you know, just, I wanted to stay on. Like, a couple of them went to Mackinac island up there in the peninsula, up there in, up Michigan. And they're like, you know, we wanted, we didn't stay on the Mackinac. We wanted to stay outside of Mackinac because the cost of, you know, staying at the grand hotel, whatever there was just a little too expensive. Well, I'm like, listen, guys, like, here's the numbers. Here's your financial plan. Like, here's what's actually going on in your situation. Here's what the numbers project. Like, you guys are in a really good spot. You guys are both retired. You're 75, in your seventies. Like, if you want to spend the extra money, like, don't be afraid to do so. Go enjoy yourself. You worked hard to accumulate this wealth. You worked hard to accumulate this asset base, like, now that you're there to the point where, you know, you don't always have to pinch pennies all the time. Well, yeah, but some people are wired that way. And I get that, like, dude, there's. 20, 30, 40 years of savings like that. And then when I tell people, when I build a plan, like, hey, you can spend more money, they're not wired that way. They don't know how to do that. They don't know how to do that. I see it all the time. It's just hard. Like, oh, I not working anymore. How can I spend more money? But when you're, and I've seen this, is that when I start talking to these clients that are now approaching 80, in their eighties, and they're like, Tony, my plan is so good. I have all this money, and I'm like, yeah, I've been telling you for the last ten years to spend more and you didn't. But to kind of pull two of them together is like you said, I want to be your financial doctor. I want to be your financial CFO. That's the other way. The other analogy, I kind of use it the same thing, but I don't want to be the CEO. That's you, that's the client. That's the thing like that. I want to be the CFO, somebody to bounce ideas off of, to give you the strategies for taxes, income, the investment strategies. And again, it's a team approach. I'm not a dictator. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I'm going to tell you these are the best things that we're thinking of in our office, and we got a lot of people thinking about it. It's not just me coming up with stuff. It's ran through our team and our process. But if something's not comfortable for you, then we find a solution that's going to be as, you know, hopefully as efficient or slightly like, there's always give and take. And then the other thing is, is that at the end of the day, I want you to focus on retirement. I don't. If you want to moonlight as a financial advisor after you hang up your hat, as, you know, whatever your profession was, an attorney, plumber, doctor, whatever, right? Whatever you are doing, if you want to moonlight as a financial advisor, great. If you want to enjoy your retirement, then you work with somebody like us who is just going to absorb all of those things and make sure that we're efficient and that we're staying on top of new tax laws and tax rules and things that you could or should be doing to be more efficient. Well, I even go back to, you know, some of the conferences I go to. There's like, the family offices that are there. So, like, family offices are usually these hundred million plus dollar, like, net worths of. Of assets that these one or two people are managing. Right. One or two financial advisors are managing the assets for these big, big, high net worth clients. And sometimes they're making decisions not only for retirement, not making decisions for, do you have enough money? Things like that. They're actually hopping on phone calls to negotiate and help with deals. So I'll use this example. I'm not saying this comes up a lot, but the past couple. Two days ago, I had a client, she's getting a new mortgage. And I was like, listen, the ten year yield dropped from, like 4.3 to 3.8%, like, in a couple weeks. This interest rate you locked in, like two weeks ago is probably lower than what you probably could get or higher than what you probably could get now. Some, like, let's hop on the call real quick with your loan provider. I'll hop on the call with you and I'll talk to her. You know, if you don't want to negotiate yourself, I'll help, like, kind of see if they can move the needle a little bit. So, actually, we locked in a 20 basis .0.2%. Lower rate for me, hopping on the call with her, with her mortgage provider. So, like, that, being at homeless personal CFO with like, a family office, because that's something like a family office person would do with their clients. Yeah. Bringing that kind of family office feel to the millionaire next door, like, that's kind of what I feel like we do sometimes. Yeah, I always, you know, talk about that, like, hey, what's, you know, a lot of clients should I pay off my mortgage? But if you just got a new one, this is the time where you're gonna have to always think about it, whether it's a six or twelve months from now, even a couple weeks, because it's so drastic. But, like, interest rates are moving, right? And if you've, if you've recently financed anything, it should or could be looked at to, like, reevaluate that, because interest rates will be going down. And I'm really worried about that. Carry forward trade with our interest rates going down. But that's a different topic. But at the end of the day, again, and then just, just to tie all this together is work with, you know, if you're gonna find somebody to help you with your finances, anything in your life, whether it's electrical or plumbing, like, you're gonna be working with somebody that you like that does a good job, and you have more than just a transactional relationship. That's, again, with us. Like, you guys have to both be on board to have a trusted team. You have to trust them, right. And believe in their abilities so that you can sleep well at night. If one spouse likes your advisor and one spouse doesn't like that, friction will come to the surface at some point down the road because it's not a smooth ride, even for us. Even with us making the best recommendations, sometimes they don't come to fruition because it's just things change. Interest rates change. The market goes up, the market goes down. Market goes down. Imagine that, right? Like, it's not going to be a smooth ride with anyone you work with, and it's just like getting your electrical or plumbing or contracting done. You think that's smooth? Like, talking to the one guy in the office, he's like, yeah, they ripped up my, my bathroom. And next thing I know, I'm getting new framing, new floorboards, I'm getting new insulation. He goes, I was trying to get electrical done. I'm like, now I'm just getting a whole new gut job of my bathroom. Was not expecting, like, things happen. So who do you get upset with, right? Shouldn't be, you know, shouldn't be those guys, but it could be. Never know. That's good. Good points. I mean, in the day, you want to find, like you said, trusted relationship. At the end of the day, this is a relationship business. So they. They work. You work with somebody because you trust them and, like, theme, right? You know, because at the end of the day, I'm going to say, like, all financial advisors are cut the same. I feel, you know, every advisor thinks they're smarter than the others. But, you know, proof's in the pudding, though, too. You know, when you surround yourself with a good team, and that's investments, planning, taxes, estate planning, you know, tying all that stuff together and having everyone on the same page is such a big deal. You hit the nails on the head, as you always do, Tony. Oh, man. Hopefully Derek's back next week. I mean. I mean, I don't. I mean, I miss him, but this is flowing well, me and you. But, like, Derek, you know, is a part of the team. And, yeah, maybe he'll tell us about his Hawaii stories. Tears. I see tears welling up in your eyes there. That's right. All right, all right. Well, thanks a lot again for listening, everybody. This was our financial planning corner for the weekend. If you have any questions or concerns about planning or investments or things like that, hit us up info Connect.com and we can address your questions. Create a show based on a topic you'd like us to talk about, whatever it may be. But that's it for us for this episode, and we'll catch you on the next one. The opinions expressed in the podcast are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any investment, legal, financial, or tax strategy. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. Please consult a qualified professional about your individual needs.