0:00

We've got a great episode for

0:02

you today. We are talking about

0:04

from work to wealth a high

0:06

net worth guide to a secure

0:08

your retirement Welcome back to the

0:10

podcast everyone We're bringing on a

0:12

client favorite today Nick Heiminson. He

0:14

is a certified financial planner in

0:17

our office as an advisor and

0:19

he works with a lot of

0:21

our families, has a lot of

0:23

experience with helping create and maintain

0:25

these retirement focused financial plans that

0:27

we speak so highly of, and

0:29

that we believe everyone should have.

0:32

And so in today's podcast, we're

0:34

kind of walking through, you know,

0:36

what are people thinking about as

0:38

they approach retirement? So the stressors,

0:40

the risks, the risks, the concerns,

0:42

the concerns, the concerns, the concerns.

0:44

And then how do we transition

0:47

all that into a solution? We

0:49

talk about the peace of mind

0:51

pathway and what that really looks

0:53

like. We also spend a good

0:55

amount of time on the investment

0:57

strategy, which you may have heard

0:59

us talk about before, but we

1:01

wanted to reiterate it today in

1:04

the idea of the three buckets

1:06

for cash, safety, and growth. especially

1:08

given the current environment in the

1:10

markets, volatility is a little bit

1:12

higher. And so we think it's

1:14

good to just kind of talk

1:16

that through again. Clients are bringing

1:19

it up to us all the

1:21

time about their risk levels and

1:23

that's something that we want to

1:25

be making sure is in line.

1:27

So we thought it'd be a

1:29

great day, a great time to

1:31

roll out an episode like this.

1:34

So if you're listening and you

1:36

think maybe... You've got interest in

1:38

this or you don't have a

1:40

plan in place or you want

1:42

to learn more about the bucket

1:44

strategy. Feel free to hop over

1:46

to our website pomwealth.net and on

1:48

the website in the top right

1:51

hand quarter you will see a

1:53

button that says here to schedule

1:55

a call. That'll bring up our

1:57

calendars and we're happy to have

1:59

a conversation with you to understand

2:01

whether or not we may be

2:03

a right fit for you or

2:06

maybe help you find the best

2:08

place for you. So look forward

2:10

to that conversation. Before we get

2:12

started though, quick low disclosure. The

2:14

information contained in this podcast is

2:16

intended to provide general information only

2:19

and not to be considered individualized

2:21

advice. Different types of investments carry

2:23

different levels of risk. As always,

2:25

please contact your financial professional for

2:27

advice appropriate to your situation. Enjoy

2:29

the show. Welcome to the Secure

2:31

Your Retirement Podcast. This is

2:33

the place where high achieving

2:35

professionals come to gain confidence

2:37

on how to successfully navigate

2:40

their transition into and life

2:42

during retirement. There's no such

2:44

thing as a passive retirement

2:46

plan. To have a successful

2:48

financial future, your plan must

2:50

be actively managed. Each week,

2:52

we will bring you action

2:54

plans and expert interviews that

2:56

will help you gain insights,

2:58

learn fresh perspectives, and finally

3:00

experience peace of mind about your

3:03

retirement. Here to help you achieve

3:05

your dream retirement and live the

3:07

life you deserve are your hosts,

3:10

certified financial planners, Raiden Stancel, and

3:12

Merce Tarik. Welcome everyone to

3:14

the Secure Your Retirement podcast.

3:16

Very excited to come to

3:18

you today. Today we are

3:21

having a very special episode

3:23

entitled from work to

3:25

wealth, a high net worst guide to

3:27

a secure retirement. That's the name of

3:29

our podcast, Secure Your Retirement, the name

3:31

of our firm as Peace of Mind

3:33

Wealth Management. We think those two names

3:35

go hand in hand very well together.

3:37

Today I'm bringing in Nick Hymonson, another

3:39

CFP on our team, to kind of

3:41

help walk through some of these concepts

3:43

that we talked to our clients all

3:45

the time about, but I'm sure you

3:47

as listeners are curious as to how

3:49

someone can construct a financial plan and

3:51

you know, see that all the way

3:53

through, and what are the things that

3:55

we need to be thinking about along

3:57

the along the way. because what happened.

4:00

is we earn and we save

4:02

and then we have to spend

4:04

it and that has to last

4:06

a long time. And that's where

4:08

a lot of the anxiety can

4:10

come in around how all of

4:12

this is going to work and

4:14

isn't going to work at all.

4:16

And bottom line, our whole concept

4:18

revolves around this idea of the

4:20

peace of mind pathway, which I

4:22

will talk about a little bit

4:24

more, but it's all encompassing in

4:26

this concept of a retirement focused

4:28

financial plan. So let's go ahead

4:30

and kick it off. Nick, why

4:32

don't you talk a little bit

4:34

about just the beginning part of

4:36

this is, you know, this idea

4:38

of I've been working and saving

4:40

and then I'm thinking about retirement

4:42

and what does that shift look

4:44

like and what do you see

4:46

clients going through as they're thinking

4:48

about this? Yeah, so, you know,

4:50

it's a good question. Ultimately, you

4:52

know, we talk to clients who

4:54

are essentially trying to figure out

4:56

when they can retire and what

4:58

that transition looks like. For many

5:00

people, it's an emotional decision. It's

5:02

also a mindset shift to go

5:04

from accumulation of assets to actual

5:06

distribution of assets and really, you

5:08

know, beginning to pay yourself and

5:10

give yourself a paycheck. And so

5:12

some of the fears that we

5:14

consistently see across the board is

5:16

really, you know, am I going

5:18

to run out of money and

5:20

also, you know, what happens if

5:22

the market goes down? in retirement.

5:24

And so we have kind of

5:26

strategies in place specifically around investments

5:28

that we'll talk about today to

5:30

help transition someone from working in

5:32

that accumulation phase to the distribution

5:34

phase and really providing some protections

5:36

there. Yeah, so I know earlier

5:38

I mentioned the title being a

5:40

high net worst guide. I think

5:42

there's a lot of definitions out

5:44

of as to what high net

5:46

worth is. For today's purpose, let's

5:48

just imagine that we're talking to

5:50

someone that is, say, somewhere in

5:52

the realms of a million or

5:54

more of assets, not including property

5:56

or anything like that, really just

5:58

talking about investable assets. That's our

6:00

loose definition of high net worth

6:02

for today. So, Nick's right, right?

6:04

We save and we save and

6:06

we save and then somehow we

6:08

have to start creating our own

6:10

paycheck and how is this going

6:12

to work and how is it

6:14

going to last me 30 some

6:16

odd years on top of how

6:18

am I going to provide for

6:20

the family and am I going

6:22

to leave money behind? So, we

6:24

can go into so many different

6:26

areas. First thing we want to

6:28

touch on today and we're going

6:30

to come back to this is

6:32

one of the biggest risks that

6:34

we see as we approach retirement

6:36

and start to go into that

6:38

distribution phase is a technical term

6:41

called sequence of returns risks. There's

6:43

a lot of risks. out there

6:45

that we deal with when it

6:47

comes to investing and planning. You

6:49

know, you have market risk, you've

6:51

got inflation risk, you've got interest

6:53

rate risk, one that's not talked

6:55

about enough, I think is sequence

6:57

of returns risk. And so in

6:59

a nutshell, what this is, is,

7:01

and there's been a lot of

7:03

case studies done on trying to

7:05

explain this to someone, but in

7:07

a nutshell, it's basically saying, depending

7:09

on when we retire. and depending

7:11

on what types of returns we

7:13

experience at the beginning of our

7:15

retirement is strongly going to dictate

7:17

the success of our outcomes and

7:19

the success of how that plan

7:21

operates. So what does that mean?

7:23

So I've told a story of

7:25

two individuals. They both save the

7:27

same amount of money. They both

7:29

go with a million dollars. They

7:31

both each have a million dollars

7:33

of infestable assets. And over a

7:35

10-year period, they both had the

7:37

same average rate of return, and

7:39

they're both spending or withdrawing the

7:41

same amount of money every single

7:43

year. The dollar they're withdrawing is

7:45

arbitrary in this example, but what

7:47

the key differentiator is, in one

7:49

person's life, they experienced rough... returns

7:51

at the beginning of their retirement.

7:53

So imagine a 2008 where it

7:55

was really from 2007 to 2009,

7:57

we have negative market returns that

7:59

were pretty significant, or imagine a

8:01

2001 type of scenario that crisis

8:03

as well, where you have negative

8:05

returns at the beginning of your

8:07

retirement, and then you go on

8:09

to have some really good returns.

8:11

And, you know, your average over,

8:13

say, a 10-year period is rather

8:15

strong, maybe in that five, six,

8:17

seven, eight, you know, very desirable

8:19

rate of return, but at the

8:21

beginning, we lost a lot of

8:23

money up front, and on top

8:25

of that, we were taking out

8:27

20, 30, 40,000 dollars a year

8:29

out of the portfolio as it

8:31

was dropping, and if you experienced

8:33

it, you probably felt like it

8:35

was dropping every single day. And

8:37

to go to the other person

8:39

who actually walks into retirement and

8:41

they got 20 positive returns for

8:43

the first three to five years,

8:45

and then they hit that negative

8:47

2008 downturn. The moral of the

8:49

story here and what sequence of

8:51

returns risk is is that... depending

8:53

on when we walk into or

8:55

what types of situations we walk

8:57

into from market volatility, even if

8:59

we have the exact same return

9:01

over a period of time as

9:03

an average, one scenario ends up

9:05

way worse than the other. And

9:07

so sequence of returns is something

9:09

that we are, it's not something

9:11

that you can completely get rid

9:13

of, but you can put strategies

9:15

in place that we can really...

9:17

take away a lot of that

9:20

risk. And that's what financial planning

9:22

and investment strategy is all about

9:24

is trying to weigh this idea

9:26

of risk versus reward. And, you

9:28

know, typically as people do enter

9:30

into retirement, they start to think

9:32

a little bit more conservative, this

9:34

mentality of, hey, I've got what

9:36

I've got. So, um... That's a

9:38

little bit on that. We're going

9:40

to come back to that with

9:42

a bit of a strategy that

9:44

we use to try to avoid

9:46

some of that sequence of returns

9:48

risk. So that's a big one.

9:50

Nick, what are some other concerns

9:52

that people have as they are

9:54

thinking about retirement, entering into retirement?

9:56

Yeah, so, you know, there's a

9:58

bunch of... concerns that can come

10:00

up ultimately some common ones are

10:02

you know inflation concerns what's going

10:04

to happen if you know throughout

10:06

my retirement inflation averages at a

10:08

higher percentage from what compared to

10:10

what I've seen over the last

10:12

10 years or 15 years so

10:14

we want to plan for that

10:16

also another concern is hey I'm

10:18

now losing a paycheck and I

10:20

want to make sure that my

10:22

assets last. I want to make

10:24

sure that I can actually fund

10:26

myself from an income standpoint throughout

10:28

my retirement. And you know, maybe

10:30

I also have goals of leaving

10:32

a certain amount behind. I also

10:34

have goals of, you know, taking

10:36

Social Security at a certain time

10:38

to maximize that for maybe my

10:40

spouse. So there are certain strategies

10:42

there that we can put in

10:44

place from a withdrawal standpoint, but

10:46

also an investment standpoint that can

10:48

help achieve those. And also, you

10:50

know, something that's come up a

10:52

lot with our clients lately is

10:54

long-term care. So And you've probably

10:56

heard it long term care costs

10:58

and long term care insurance has

11:00

become increasingly expensive. And so that's

11:02

something that's a major concern down

11:04

the road in most people's retirement

11:06

plans is how do I plan

11:08

for that? How do I make

11:10

sure that I can actually afford

11:12

that and make sure that you

11:14

know when I do need that

11:16

care that you know, I'm not

11:18

a burden to my kids or

11:20

grandkids or whoever it may be.

11:22

So that's another major concern and

11:24

risk in someone's retirement plan and

11:26

something that we'll talk about as

11:28

well. All right, so let's transition

11:30

a little bit. What we've done

11:32

so far is kind of talk

11:34

through, well, what are the worries

11:36

and the stressors as we plan

11:38

for retirement, and now let's talk

11:40

about a little bit about how

11:42

we tackle those worries and ease

11:44

the minds as people are. working

11:46

towards this goal of retirement regardless

11:48

of the age, and how do

11:50

we do it? Well, we believe

11:52

that everyone, regardless of assets, should

11:54

have some element of a plan

11:56

and not try to just roll

11:58

the dice on their future. And

12:01

so that all is kind of

12:03

fully encompassed in this term that

12:05

we come up with called the

12:07

peace of mind pathway. If you

12:09

think of a pathway, it's a

12:11

guide. Some would have likened it

12:13

to a GPS where we put

12:15

in where we want to go

12:17

and the GPS tells us exactly

12:19

how to get there. If there

12:21

are, you know, if there are,

12:23

if there's construction in the way,

12:25

there's hazards in the way, there's

12:27

a wreck in the way, the

12:29

GPS naturally is going to reroute

12:31

us to get us to our

12:33

destination. Maybe not on time, but

12:35

it gets us there safely. And

12:37

so that is in a nutshell

12:39

what the pathway is. We want

12:41

to not just look at investments.

12:43

That's a big thing. And I

12:45

think... Often we are so focused

12:47

on how do I grow the

12:49

money we lose side of all

12:51

the other other elements that are

12:53

required for a sound financial plan,

12:55

especially for retirement. So, you know,

12:57

the investments are important, but also

12:59

what's equally important is, well, where's

13:01

my fixed income coming from? So,

13:03

like, Social Security, pension sources, maybe

13:05

you got rental income, what about...

13:07

taxation and retirement, how is that

13:09

going to work? We've got different

13:11

types of asset classes that are

13:13

taxed differently. We need to understand

13:15

that. A lot of us have

13:17

money in pre-tax buckets that we

13:19

haven't paid a dime of taxes

13:21

on yet. So are there tax

13:23

strategies that we can employ as

13:25

well? The estate plan, very important

13:27

as well. If we're leaving money

13:29

behind, we want to make sure

13:31

it's done smoothly and effectively from

13:33

a tax perspective as well as

13:35

just a less of a burden

13:37

on the surviving spouse or the

13:39

kids that are the kids that

13:41

are inherent. Medicare, you know, long-term

13:43

care, all these things, that is

13:45

the pathway that we kind of

13:47

look through in this idea of

13:49

a roadmap that says, hey, here's

13:51

where we are, here's where we

13:53

want to get, and we want

13:55

to do that in an enjoyable

13:57

manner. So what are all the

13:59

things that we need to think

14:01

about in between? just focusing on

14:03

the investment side of things. And

14:05

so once we have that pathway

14:07

in place or that roadmap in

14:09

place, well then we go into

14:11

implementation mode, which means now we

14:13

are going to implement for our

14:15

clients exactly what the pathway needs

14:17

for success. And then the biggest

14:19

piece of it I think is

14:21

the third element. So you've got

14:23

the roadmap, you've got the implementation

14:25

phase, and then you've got. the

14:27

nurture phase which means we're monitoring

14:29

this we're looking at it every

14:31

single year sometimes multiple times a

14:33

year most of our clients today

14:35

are getting two very structured meetings

14:37

a year one around financial planning

14:40

saying hey what's going on in

14:42

your life this year how's cash

14:44

flow what do we need to

14:46

know about what are your goals

14:48

and then the other is all

14:50

around tax strategy we bring in

14:52

our tax specialist and she helps

14:54

them think through hey here's what

14:56

your tax scenario looks like for

14:58

the year And here's some adjustments

15:00

we can make. Here's some things

15:02

we can do to make your

15:04

tax scenario a little bit better

15:06

this year, as well as from

15:08

a long-term perspective on taxation down

15:10

the road. I hope that you

15:12

are enjoying the show. By the

15:14

way, if you are in or

15:16

nearing retirement, and are someone who

15:18

wants to gain clarity on what

15:20

questions you should be asking, learn

15:22

what the biggest retirement myths are,

15:24

and identify what you could be

15:26

doing to achieve peace of mind

15:28

for your retirement. Get started today

15:30

by requesting your complementary video course

15:32

four steps to secure your retirement.

15:34

To access the course, simply visit

15:36

pomwealth.net/podcast. If you're new here or

15:38

you haven't done this yet, this

15:40

is definitely the first step to

15:42

get started in applying these principles

15:44

to your life. So head over

15:46

to pomwealth.net/podcast and check us out.

15:48

So there's a lot that goes

15:50

into a the peace of mind

15:52

pathway and we'll talk a little

15:54

bit more about that But Nick,

15:56

let's talk, you know I mentioned

15:58

sequence of returns risk and how

16:00

that's something we want to try

16:02

to avoid as best as possible

16:04

I mentioned that we do have

16:06

a bit of a strategy That

16:08

works rather well. So let's talk

16:10

a little bit about the three

16:12

bucket investment strategy that we utilize

16:14

strategy, you may have heard of

16:16

it on this podcast before. And

16:18

ultimately, what it is, is three

16:20

different buckets, the cash bucket, the

16:22

safety and income bucket, and then

16:24

also the market bucket or the

16:26

growth bucket. So, and each bucket

16:28

has a different strategy in place.

16:30

And I'll start with that cash

16:32

bucket. So the cash bucket is

16:34

really there for... Really, it's going

16:36

to be a money market account.

16:38

It's going to be checking high

16:40

yield savings and really any amount

16:42

that is someone's preference for how

16:44

much they want to keep in

16:46

cash at all times. For some

16:48

people, that's 20,000. For others, that

16:50

could be a few hundred thousand.

16:52

That's something that we don't necessarily

16:54

have a strong preference on, you

16:56

know, as long as it doesn't

16:58

hurt someone's plan. And ultimately, that's

17:00

a comfort zone and comfort amount

17:02

for... you know everyone in their

17:04

own in their own plan so

17:06

that's really what that cash bucket

17:08

is there for it's for emergencies

17:10

it's for monthly expenses and really

17:12

where the investment strategy and where

17:14

the the risk of sequence of

17:16

returns is sort of diminished a

17:18

little bit is the combination of

17:21

the safety and income bucket as

17:23

well as the market bucket. So

17:25

those work hand in hand to

17:27

reduce that risk. I'll talk about

17:29

the safety bucket first, and really

17:31

the goal there is a safe

17:33

rate of return, so we say

17:35

anywhere from 4 to 8 percent,

17:37

just given the year in the

17:39

situation, and also protection from market

17:41

risk. And the safety bucket strategy

17:43

is to give a safe withdrawal.

17:45

and without any risk of the

17:47

downside. So still a good rate

17:49

of return because we don't want

17:51

to sacrifice significantly a growth rate

17:53

and something that can protect against

17:55

inflation, but we want that money

17:57

to really be for expenses in

17:59

covering someone's retirement expenses for their

18:01

needs and wants throughout their retirement

18:03

plan. That sort of reduces. the

18:05

risk on the overall plan, but

18:07

provides the stability and security in

18:09

someone's retirement so that they are

18:11

not, you know, considerably stressed and

18:13

really relying on the market bucket

18:15

to give them everything they need

18:17

in retirement. And the market bucket's

18:19

job is sort of a risk

18:21

approach, but also growth long term.

18:23

So we know that there's going

18:25

to be fluctuations in the market.

18:27

You know, we've seen it a

18:29

lot over the last six months

18:31

and we're probably going to continue

18:33

to see it in the future

18:35

and there's going to be those

18:37

down years. There's going to be

18:39

those positive years like we've seen

18:41

in the last two. So the

18:43

market bucket is really going to

18:45

be that long-term growth strategy that's

18:47

going to offset inflation. It's going

18:49

to be able to provide us

18:51

the liquidity that we need and

18:53

that's your ETFs, that's your stocks

18:55

and bonds in the market. And

18:57

that's really there for that. you

18:59

know, larger growth, annualized growth percentage

19:01

of, you know, we can say,

19:03

but depending on the investments anywhere

19:05

from six to 12 percent. So

19:07

how does this bucket strategy that

19:09

Nick just described kind of alleviates

19:11

some of that pressure of sequence

19:13

of returns risk? Well, in a

19:15

nutshell, go back to my story

19:17

of you retire and then the

19:19

market crumbles and for the next

19:21

three years, the market loses, you

19:23

know, 30 to 50 percent, kind

19:25

of like that 2008 debacle. Well,

19:27

if all of your money is

19:29

in the market, then you're going

19:31

to be susceptible to that 30

19:33

to 50% loss. Whereas if we've

19:35

got some element of bucketing where

19:37

we do have money in the

19:39

stock market and the growth bucket

19:41

like Nick was talking about, well,

19:43

yeah, that money is going to

19:45

be exposed to loss, but is

19:47

there for I think a key

19:49

thing he said is that it's

19:51

long-term money. It is not there

19:53

for our daily or monthly paycheck

19:55

that we're going to start generating

19:57

for ourselves. That's what the safety

19:59

bucket is for. If we have

20:02

enough in that safety bucket that

20:04

can generate the cash flow that

20:06

we need to... cover our needs

20:08

and our wants for a extensive

20:10

period of time, five, ten, fifteen

20:12

years, whatever your comfort level is,

20:14

well now, now we bought the

20:16

growth bucket, that stock market, plenty

20:18

of time to recover if there

20:20

is a downturn. And if there's

20:22

not a downturn, well, it's got

20:24

plenty of time for cumulative compounding

20:26

growth that the stock market we

20:28

know provides if we give it

20:30

enough time to do so. Another

20:32

category that's kind of growing in

20:34

popularity. in the in the what

20:36

I would consider in the growth

20:38

bucket world is the alternative investment

20:40

section of the world now for

20:42

a long time this has been

20:44

really a difficult space to get

20:46

into we go to investment conferences

20:48

all the time and you know

20:50

the you got to be worth

20:52

tens of millions of dollars to

20:54

get access to some of these

20:56

alternative types of investments well that

20:58

world has changed quite a bit

21:00

and It's becoming more accessible. in

21:02

a liquid format. So in our

21:04

portfolio is we use alternatives and

21:06

clients have access to those. And

21:08

then there's also this term of

21:10

an accredited investor, which is really

21:12

that million or more of investable

21:14

assets. That's one category. There's multiple

21:16

definitions of accredited. But that's where

21:18

you can kind of really get

21:20

into private equity, private credit, general

21:22

partnerships, all these different things and

21:24

what the data behind alternative says.

21:26

And by the way, this is

21:28

not a billboard for go put.

21:30

all your money and alternatives, it's

21:32

this whole theme is let's be

21:34

well diversified to control risk as

21:36

well as to make sure we've

21:38

got our cash flow needs taken

21:40

care of. Alternatives serve as a

21:42

piece of that pie. And the

21:44

historical on alternatives is that their

21:46

correlation to the stock market, just

21:48

call the S&P 500. Alternatives are

21:50

not going to be moving like

21:52

the. Market is so if the

21:54

market's down 30% alternatives are maybe

21:56

not down 30% in fact maybe

21:58

they're positive. If the market's up

22:00

30% alternatives are possibly down or

22:02

maybe sideways or maybe they're up

22:04

30% right? The idea here is

22:06

that they are not correlated whereas

22:08

if you buy Apple stock and

22:10

you're looking at the S&P if

22:12

Apple stock is down 1% you

22:14

better relieve the S&P and the

22:16

NASDAQ are kind of following suit

22:18

because it's such a big piece

22:20

of the market right now. So.

22:22

part of diversification is you don't

22:24

just willy-nilly buy stocks and bonds

22:26

and buy a bunch of them

22:28

to hope that we've got good

22:30

diversification. You've got to buy different

22:32

types of asset classes as well,

22:34

which is where the alternatives can

22:36

fit in place. We have a

22:38

future podcast episode coming up specifically

22:41

on alternatives with a really sharp

22:43

guy, so be sure to tune

22:45

into that. We're going to go

22:47

way more into what that space

22:49

looks like, but I just wanted

22:51

to tease it here a little

22:53

bit today. Okay, so we've talked

22:55

about this idea of buckets and

22:57

different types of investment classes. So

22:59

Nick, let's talk a little bit

23:01

about, you know, withdrawal strategies and

23:03

how do we do this? What

23:05

are things that we're looking at

23:07

to make this effective and efficient

23:09

for our clients? Yeah, so, you

23:11

know, we asked the question. from

23:13

time to time to our clients.

23:15

And it's essentially, you know, if

23:17

you were to have the safety

23:19

and income bucket, which is not

23:21

exposed to any market risk, actually

23:23

be able to provide you the

23:25

income that you need in retirement

23:27

to cover all of your expenses,

23:29

as well as some of your

23:31

wants like vacations and gifts and

23:33

all of terrible giving, things like

23:35

that. are you going to be

23:37

worried about what's happening on a

23:39

day-to-day basis in the market bucket?

23:41

And, you know, our strategy is

23:43

really to make sure that our

23:45

clients are not worried about the

23:47

market bucket because they have that

23:49

safety bucket in place. And that's

23:51

really how this comes together. Ultimately,

23:53

the goal here is, like MERS

23:55

said, for that market bucket to

23:57

be the long-term growth. to provide

23:59

that protection against inflation, but also

24:01

be there down the road, which

24:03

has for a bunch of accumulation

24:05

over time. And that's where we

24:07

see, you know, ETFs, private market

24:09

investments, alternatives, things like that, that's

24:11

gonna grow over time, whereas the

24:13

safety buckets really there to provide

24:15

that predictable, secure income. so that

24:17

our clients are not worried about

24:19

where they're going to get expense

24:21

or income in retirement. It also

24:23

just relieves the pressure on the

24:25

market bucket. If we had to

24:27

withdraw funds getting back to that

24:29

sequence of returns conversation from an

24:31

account that's down, it may actually

24:33

affect its ability to recover and

24:35

grow over time. And so the

24:37

safety bucket allows us to not

24:39

have to worry about that. What's

24:41

also, you know, extremely important is

24:43

to... you know, provide against or

24:45

protect against significant loss. We try

24:47

to do that on the market

24:49

bucket side of things, but of

24:51

course the safety buckets really there

24:53

to have no risk of loss

24:55

in the market. And we believe

24:57

that's a good strategy for retirement

24:59

income. Yeah, I mean, if you

25:01

think about this year in particular

25:03

in 2025, we've had... someone new

25:05

or change of White House, change

25:07

of just a lot of things

25:09

going on in the political world

25:11

and some clients are very excited

25:13

about what's happening. We have just

25:15

as many clients that are very

25:17

concerned and nervous and you know

25:19

if you every day it seems

25:22

like there's a headline that comes

25:24

up that sparks some volatility in

25:26

the market based off of a

25:28

decision or something that was done

25:30

or a concern about inflation still,

25:32

whatever it is. you know if

25:34

you're if you only have one

25:36

investment strategy you're constantly thinking about

25:38

well do I need to be

25:40

tweaking that strategy do I need

25:42

to go more conservative or is

25:44

this a time to go more

25:46

aggressive whereas what we believe is

25:48

There is a place for aggressive

25:50

money and that's in the growth

25:52

bucket and there is a place

25:54

for conservative money and that's in

25:56

the safety bucket and now all

25:58

we really need to do is

26:00

make sure that those two allocations

26:02

kind of stay in line and

26:04

yeah we can shift here and

26:06

there but we're not overly concerned

26:08

about whatever political climate comes our

26:10

way or. whatever geopolitical issue comes

26:12

our way, just because we've got

26:14

a predetermined type of risk exposure

26:16

just based off of how much

26:18

we put into the safety bucket

26:20

and how much we put into

26:22

the growth bucket. So I think

26:24

at this point, maybe we talk

26:26

a little bit about, so Nick

26:28

sits in hundreds of meetings a

26:30

year. working with clients, working with

26:32

people that are interested in our

26:34

services. And so he's pretty much

26:36

seeing not so great plans and

26:38

he's seen the best of the

26:40

best when it comes to plan.

26:42

So Nick, could you give us

26:44

some tips and things that people

26:46

should be thinking about as they

26:48

prepare for retirement? Think of someone

26:50

that's, you know, five to ten

26:52

years out of retirement. Yeah, so,

26:54

you know, like Merced, I've seen

26:56

a lot of different scenarios. Ultimately,

26:58

we start with the conversation of

27:00

when do you want to retire

27:02

or when does someone want to

27:04

retire? And that kind of determines

27:06

how we set up the retirement

27:08

strategy. But planning ahead of time

27:10

is so critically important because that

27:12

can really define when retirement can

27:14

happen for many people. So, you

27:16

know, for someone, they might say,

27:18

I want to retire at 65

27:20

or 62 or 63 or whatever

27:22

it ends up being. There are

27:24

a lot of different things to

27:26

think through, not only investment strategy

27:28

to help really plan for that

27:30

date and make sure that everything's

27:32

in place and make sure we

27:34

protect against any significant market loss

27:36

before that time, but also things

27:38

like withdrawal strategies and tax strategies

27:40

and planning for health care. So

27:42

things like that that weren't necessarily

27:44

a. a strategy before retirement are

27:46

going to come to be very

27:48

important as we get closer. And

27:50

let's say the other scenario of,

27:52

hey, you know, maybe you love

27:54

your job and you can see

27:56

yourself working until 67 or 70,

27:58

but at some point you do

28:01

want to retire, then that's kind

28:03

of a different conversation of, hey,

28:05

how do we maximize growth until

28:07

that point without taking too much

28:09

risk? you know, obviously making sure

28:11

that we're all comfortable with that

28:13

risk, but making sure that we're

28:15

still on the path for long-term

28:17

growth, and based on your retirement

28:19

plans, make sure we get there

28:21

at the time you want. So

28:23

let's talk a little bit about,

28:25

well, how do we do this?

28:27

And if you're listening... and you're

28:29

thinking, oh, I don't have a

28:31

bucket strategy or I don't have

28:33

a plane in place. I've never

28:35

really sat down or maybe, you

28:37

know, I'm getting close to thinking

28:39

about all this stuff and I'd

28:41

really like some help. You know,

28:43

our offer to anyone out there

28:45

is we, we. think about this

28:47

in that idea of the peace

28:49

of mind pathway. So the roadmap,

28:51

which is, hey, here's where we

28:53

are today, here's where we want

28:55

to get, and the get is

28:57

usually, I want to have a

28:59

successful retirement, whatever that means to

29:01

you, and here's all the tools

29:03

that we have to work with.

29:05

and all the things that we

29:07

need to think about in between

29:09

from decisions around Social Security, Medicare,

29:11

long-term care, the investment strategy, income

29:13

strategy, tax strategies, it goes on

29:15

and on. And that's something ever-changing.

29:17

So we get that in place,

29:19

we go to work, and we

29:21

implement all that, and then we

29:23

do make sure that we monitor

29:25

that because lives change, people move,

29:27

people pass away. people are born,

29:29

right? So life changes and so

29:31

we do need to nurture that

29:33

plan year over year over year.

29:35

So if this was of interest

29:37

to you and you want to

29:39

kind of see if maybe peace

29:41

of mind wealth management could potentially

29:43

help you or at least guide

29:45

you in the direction, let's hop

29:47

on for a 15 minute phone

29:49

call. Best way to get that

29:51

scheduled is to go over to

29:53

our website. wealth.net in the top

29:55

right hand corner, you'll see a

29:57

button that says click here to

29:59

schedule. It'll take you to our

30:01

calendars and you'll be able to

30:03

pick a time there that works

30:05

best for you and would be

30:07

happy to have that conversation, tell

30:09

you how we can help or

30:11

if not, at the very least,

30:13

get some questions answered and maybe

30:15

we guide you to a better

30:17

place, better suited for you. Well

30:19

that's all we got for you

30:21

today. Nick, thanks for being for

30:23

being here and thanks for tuning

30:25

for tuning your retirement podcast. All

30:27

right everyone that wraps up today's

30:29

episode of the Secure Your Retirement

30:31

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