June 29th – Inspiration, Libations, and Donations
Blue Ridge Winery Welcomes More Than Money
Randy Detrick, “Living on Purpose” Host, Inspires You
Taste the Wines of this Outstanding Estate Vineyard
Help MtM Raise Barrels of Money for LLS
Join us for this free, extraordinary, live event as we raise funds for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (LLS). Randy will inspire you. Blue Ridge wines will delight you. Your donations to LLS will lift your spirits.
RSVP today by going to our web site www.MoreThanMoneyOnline.com and clicking on the banner at the top of our home page. You can donate to LLS using that same banner.
This is a free event. We simply ask you give as generously as you are called to the important work of LLS. We’ve all been touched in some way by the demon. Take this opportunity to join lots of like-minded people as we fight back. Bring family and friends. Fill the seats. Feel the love. Share the love.
“Real Life Questions – Real World Answers”
“My wife and I are both 40. We want to be able to retire someday. We have some savings in our 401(k)s, but we worry it won’t be enough. Our projected social security benefits would more than cover what we think we’ll need. Our question is – will social security be there when we retire?”
It depends.
The person’s opinion on social security I trust most is Mark Bacak. Mark has stated quite clearly that he believes social security will be there for you – in some form. Will there the changes? Almost certainly. Will some folks receive benefits reduced from what they expected? Most likely. Will more and more social security benefits be taxed (and thereby reduced even further)? That seems inevitable. What are you to do?
Save as if you don’t expect any social security benefits at all. Save as much as you can. Use every advantage available to you. Learn new and creative ways to pay for everything you want in life with far less money and far more ingenuity. Max out your 401(k) contributions. Get professional investment management for your 401(k)s – with new technology, this is quite easy to do. Work with a trusted, experienced financial advisor who will walk beside you right into your retirement.
“In the last administration I was making money in my 401(k) and it grew from $102,000 to $109,000. In the current administration, I’m losing and my account is down to $85,000. I’m wondering if I should take my money out of my traditional IRA, pay the taxes on it, and move then to a CD?”
One thousand times no.
If you are truly committed to a CD – and there are significant reasons why maybe you should or should not be – you can use the funds to invest in a CD inside your IRA. You do not need to take the money out, pay all that income tax (and maybe penalties depending on your age), and then move what’s left to a CD.
Seeing your retirement funds shrink is painful. Your frustration is understandable and natural. However, your investment options are considerably more expansive than you might be aware. Our More than Money advisors often describe crafting an investment portfolio as more similar to a dimmer switch than an on-off switch. You can dial up your investment in a certain asset class or dial it back without needing to be all-in or all-out.
Your approach to the stock market (or CDs or real estate or gold, etc.) should not be, ‘I’m either all in or all out.’ It is rarely appropriate for an investor to be 100% invested in any one type of asset. If you normally are comfortable with 60% of your funds in the stock market and the market disappoints you, consider reducing to 50% or 40% for a period of time until you get your bearings again. If you feel a need for more stability and wish to add CDs to your portfolio, consider 10-20% allocation as a starting point. It would not be unusual for an IRA to hold stocks and CDs at the same time – and a number of other types of assets as well.
How do you know how and when to make these changes? You should eliminate emotions (like our political angst) from the decisions as much as humanly possible. It is often helpful to have an advisor assist you in this separation of strategy from knee-jerk emotion. It is often helpful to conduct regular (in our More than Money world “regular” is every 90 days) reviews to evaluate what adjustments may – or may not – be appropriate for you. Knowing you have regular opportunities for review and adjustment might provide an additional level of peace of mind.
Please note, there is nothing in this ‘knowing when’ process that includes knowing when the markets are going to go up or down. That psychic ability does not reside in anyone on our planet. Anyone claiming such knowledge is either a criminal or psychotic – or both. Avoid these people.
Take the time and make the effort to discuss your investments – and complete financial picture – with a trusted, experienced financial advisor. Then you can construct an investment strategy that will serve you well whoever sits in the White House.
“My wife and I are fighting over money — actually, a wedding, to be exact. She wants us and our daughter to fly across the country to attend her cousin’s destination wedding. I can take time off work, but I do not want to spend $5,000 on this trip.
I make a very good living compared to her, and just bought a very expensive new car. I also spend a good amount of disposable income on my activities. I do pay a lot more than my wife toward our living expenses.
I told her she can use her savings to fund this trip, and I will happily attend. She says I am rubbing it in her face that I make more money than her and $5,000 is no big deal to me. But, hey, $5,000 is $5,000.
This cousin didn’t fly in to attend our wedding and only sent a modest gift. I’ve met him maybe three times during our five-year marriage. Am I being selfish?”
Selfish? Sure. Short-sighted? Most definitely. Insensitive and arrogant? Those, too. Dense? Clueless? Shall I go on?
You need to see this situation for what it is and it most certainly is not about $5,000. This is about your priorities as a husband, a father, and a man. While it is tempting to fall back on the trite, but true ‘happy wife – happy life’ I don’t think you’re ready for that. Your perspective on what this situation means is too immature to appreciate the opportunity you have right in front of you.
Any guy can spend money on himself. A real man knows how to invest money into the most important relationships of his life – his wife and daughter. A real man, husband, and father knows that you have the chance here to show your wife and your daughter how much they mean to you. So much that you will gladly part with $5,000 to craft a wonderful experience for the three of you to share.
This has nothing to do with your wife’s cousin. If you will pull your head out of – your wallet – for a moment you would see this wedding as a convenient excuse to spend quality time and create memories with your wife and daughter. You can show your daughter how a real man treats his wife and family. You can be a role model to her that will guide her relationships with men for the rest of her life. You can show them both how much you value them. When your daughter sees that, she sees how to highly value herself. And – if you have any real skills – you can show them how you and your family can find fun – even joy – in every kind of experience.
Five-year marriage. Do you want it to be a fifty-year marriage – or a six-year marriage? This is your opportunity to step up as a husband, father, and man.
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