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Financial Symmetry: Balancing Today with Retirement

When considering retirement, do you wonder what financial opportunities you may be missing? Busy lives take over and years pass without taking advantage. In this retirement podcast, the Financial Symmetry advisors unveil financial opportunities, to help you balance enjoying today so you are ready to retire later. By day, they are fiduciary fee-only financial advisors who answer questions about tax savings, investment decisions, and how to save more. If you’ve been putting off your financial to-do list or are just not sure what you’ve been missing, subscribe to the show and learn more at www.financialsymmetry.com. Financial Symmetry is a Raleigh Financial Advisor. Proudly serving clients in the Triangle of North Carolina for over 20 years.
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Now displaying: December, 2019
Dec 30, 2019

Are you in the Social Security tax bubble?

Tax rules are complicated enough, and Social Security benefits during retirement years add another layer of complexity.

Watch corresponding Youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RnQY0NxhSM&t=39s

Your Social Security income can cause your actual tax rate to be much higher than expected. Not understanding how and when Social Security benefits are taxed can lead to an unpleasant surprise when Uncle Sam comes calling.

You’ll also learn why multi-year tax planning is so important in retirement. 

How should you decide when to take Social Security?

If you are approaching age 62 you may be considering when to take Social Security. It can be tempting to take that low hanging fruit as soon as possible. But we often recommend that you delay taking your Social Security benefit for as long as you can. If you don’t take Social Security early then you need to think about how you’ll make enough money to cover the costs of your lifestyle. Do you have IRA’s, 401K’s, or even an old-fashioned pension? When planning your retirement income you’ll also want to think ahead to age 70 ½ when you’ll have to take the required minimum distribution or RMD. Have you decided when to take your Social Security benefit? 

Social Security tax bubble or tax torpedo?

Your Social Security benefit can be taxed like any other income source. But there is a way to determine if and how your benefit will be taxed. You can use a special calculation that is determined by the IRS. To do this, add up your taxable income and add half of your projected benefit. If it is over a certain threshold then it will be taxed. You’ll need to be careful when determining your income since tax rates increase slowly and then suddenly jump from 22% to 41%. You don’t want those taxes to torpedo your retirement planning. Listen in to find out how to plan ahead.

It pays to plan ahead

Sure, you want to pay the lowest amount in taxes each year, but retirement tax planning is a bit more complicated. You’ll want to consider your lifetime tax bill. You don’t want to pay 0% in taxes this year only to be stuck with a 24% tax bill next year. You’ll want to have a comprehensive retirement plan which considers when to take out more money for those big-ticket items that will inevitably come up. With a little bit of planning, you can spread your tax burden out over multiple years. You also need to consider that your 60’s provide you with a unique opportunity to name the income that you won’t have in your 70’s. Discover why your 60’s may be the most important tax planning decade by listening to Will Holt’s tax expertise. 

Understand all the tax opportunities and risks that are out there

There are plenty of risks involved with retirement tax planning but there are also lots of opportunities to save on taxes as well. One tax opportunity you shouldn’t miss is topping out your tax bracket with Roth conversions to help minimize your RMD once you turn 70 ½. 

If you are planning to retire early the Affordable Care Act could throw you another curveball. It is important to understand the income levels needed to qualify for the subsidies available. There is a lot to consider when in retirement tax planning. 

Financial Symmetry is a Raleigh Financial Advisor. Proudly serving clients by providing financial planning to the Triangle residents of North Carolina for 20 years.

Outline of This Episode

  • [1:27] When should you take Social Security?
  • [4:12] A brief overview of the Social Security tax bubble
  • [9:00] Why you should not only consider this year’s tax bracket
  • [13:22] Can you change your mind when to take Social Security?
  • [15:44] Why would someone take Social Security early?
  • [17:32] What are other considerations?

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Will Holt

Connect With Chad and Mike

Subscribe To This Podcast

Apple Podcasts <> Stitcher <> Google Play

Dec 16, 2019

What does it take to get to 100 podcast episodes?

In his book, Shoe Dog, Phil Knight describes his emotions upon starting the company that became Nike, as a crazy idea. When describing how he felt, he realized that many of the world’s greatest achievements started as crazy ideas.

Watch corresponding Youtube video here.

What seemed like a crazy idea for us 4 years ago, has turned into more than we could have ever imagined. We recently shared about what motivated us to start the show in our review of FINCON.

In this episode, we’re pulling back the curtain, as we reflect on our 4 year journey to episode 100. We discuss lessons learned, surprises we encountered along the way, and mistakes we made. We also reveal some of our favorite episodes and you’ll also hear what’s next for the Financial Symmetry show. But this exciting milestone wouldn’t have been possible without you!

What we have learned over the past 100 episodes

We were fortunate to start our passion project at a good time. The strong tailwind of meteoric growth for all podcasts propelled our show to a 600% growth rate in downloads since our first year. Most of our listeners find us on Apple Podcasts currently, but we included an article below discussing the growing popularity of Spotify as a podcast deliverer. Podcasts also allow for listeners that would otherwise never hear about us. To that point, 20% of our listeners are in California. The magic of a technical tool that will continue to expand and grow.

We’ve enjoyed using this medium to share our views about unique financial planning opportunities and uncover risks that our listeners may not be aware of. We’ve also learned how much fun creating a podcast can be. After overcoming the difficulties of getting started, we were reminded that consistency is key.

We have learned from our mistakes

Mistakes are inevitable part of any journey. The key is to use them to propel you to be something better. Our podcast was a treasure trove of bumps in the road when getting started. Just dial up our a few of our first episodes, especially if you enjoy hearing someone reading directly from a blog post. Thankfully we learned fairly quickly to ad-lib and play off of each other.

Listening to yourself, also provides a great opportunity to critique your communication style. Inviting other experts in the firm, added a nice potpourri of voices as well. I’m sure our listeners appreciate the fact that we have learned to use an audio editor to improve the quality of our material. A key truth that translates to many areas of life. Bring your expertise to your specialties and find experts in other fields to do the rest.

Our favorite episodes, and yours

Inevitably, some episodes are better than others. Regardless, our aim is to always provide you with content that plants a seed that might motivate you to dig a little deeper on a specific planning topic. But we also try to present the content in an entertaining and engaging way. A few of our favorite episodes include episode 20 where we drew comparisons of common financial planning conversations to one of our favorite movies, The Usual Suspects. Another favorite was episode 27, where we broke down Mike’s top 10 investment lessons he’d learned just after turning 40. We share a few more along with the top 4 most listened episodes since we started.

What’s next for the Financial Symmetry show?

We’re continually learning how to improve our content and provide you with material that you can learn from and implement. We are excited to make better use of an editorial calendar to plan future episodes. Is there a topic that interests you that you think we should cover on the show? Let us know what you would like to hear by sending us an email with your suggestions.

Outline of This Episode

  • [2:27] Some listener statistics
  • [6:27] What we have learned along the way
  • [14:17] Surprises we have encountered
  • [15:35] Mistakes we have made
  • [19:26] Our favorite episodes
  • [25:24] Most listened to episodes
  • [29:12] What is to come on Financial Symmetry?

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect With Chad and Mike

Subscribe To This Podcast

Apple Podcasts <> Spotify <> Google Podcasts

Dec 2, 2019

Who you gonna call? Retirement Mythbusters!

Short Youtube recap here: https://bit.ly/2R0QJcA

Visit Full Article Here: https://wp.me/p6NrVS-3g5

Not as catchy as Ghostbusters, we know, but these retirement myths can be much more hazardous to your long-term financial health. Many of us have certain beliefs, internet rumors or family hearsay that are passed down about retirement rules of thumb. But believing in these stories could be detrimental to the long-term success of your retirement. On this episode, we do our best Mythbusters imitation (of Discovery Channel fame) to bust these common retirement myths. Listen in to hear why you may want to challenge conventional thinking, and discover what it could cost you to continue to buy in to the hype. 

8 common retirement myths

  1. I’m not going to live that long. So many people don’t think they will live until age 90. But the truth is, men who are 65 today have a 20% chance of living until 90 and women have a 33% chance. Couples have a 48% chance of one of them making it to age 90. You need to make sure your money will last as long as you do. Does your financial plan cover you until age 90?
  2. I’ll work until age 65. The actual median retirement age is 62. Many people plan to work longer, but they are forced into retirement early. Some people try out a second act. Whenever you do choose to retire, be sure that you are retiring to something, not away from something. Do you have big plans for your retirement? 
  3. Social Security will run out. Some people use this myth as an excuse to claim their Social Security benefit early. But claiming Social Security below your retirement age greatly reduces your lifetime benefit. If you delay until age 70 will result in an 8% increase per year!
  4. Once I reach X amount of money I can retire. The reality is that everyone’s situation is different. There is no magic number! There is so much more to retirement planning. What magic retirement number did you have in mind?
  5. Paying the lowest amount of tax is always best. Are you trying to be too tax efficient? Think about optimizing your tax situation rather than minimizing your taxes. Consider working with a financial planner and an accountant to help you consider long-term tax planning. 
  6. When I retire my investments should be conservative. This isn’t always the case. People are living longer than ever so you may need your investment portfolio to last you 30 or 40 years. There is actually a bigger risk of being too conservative rather than risky. 
  7. I need to pay off my mortgage now. A mortgage is the cheapest money you can get in a loan. So not paying it off and investing the difference actually makes more sense financially. But for some people paying off their mortgage provides them with peace of mind. Which camp do you fall into? Would you prefer the peace of mind that a paid-for house provides?
  8. Retirement spending is the same throughout retirement. Retirement planning is more complicated than you think. Your spending in retirement changes throughout the years. In the first 5 years of retirement, people spend a huge amount of money. You may spend it on travel, fixing up your home, eating out, or whatever it is that interests you. You finally have the time to spend all the wealth that you have built. Then spending slows down as you do. Unfortunately, retirement spending tends to increase the older you get, but this time it’s on medical expenses. Have you planned to spend the same amount each year in retirement?

Financial Symmetry is a Raleigh Financial Advisor. Proudly serving clients in the Triangle of North Carolina for 20 years.

Outline of This Episode

  • [2:47] I’m not going to live that long
  • [5:30] I’ll work until age 65
  • [9:22] Social Security will run out
  • [13:12] I can retire after I have $1 million saved
  • [15:10] Paying the lowest amount of tax is best
  • [18:00] When I retire my investments should be conservative
  • [21:00] I need to pay off my mortgage now
  • [23:55] Retirement planning is more complicated than you think 

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect With Chad and Mike

Subscribe To This Podcast

Apple Podcasts <> Spotify <> Google Podcasts

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