Bob Carlson: The Good & The Bad About Social Security in 2022

IN THIS EPISODE, THE ANNUITY MAN AND BOB CARLSON DISCUSS:
- Hedging for rising inflation rates
- Accessing institutional shares through 401k
- What are your digital assets?
- Watching out for blockchain technology
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- The inflation rate that you experience is probably lower than what data that is shared suggests. However, don’t forget that inflation rates are still rising, showing signs that it won’t be transitory.
401k plans allow access to institutional shares, which have the lowest expenses. Doing a roll-over from a 401k to an IRA will give you access only to retail shares, which have the highest expenses.
- Digital assets are a much broader category than a lot of people realize. It’s a federal crime for others to access your digital assets. You have to specify and give people permission. List and organize all your digital assets.
- It would be wiser to be more interested in blockchain technology than just the cryptocurrency part. Watch out for how companies will utilize this technology and if its biggest problem will ever be resolved: its impact on the environment.
"This is how you decide how much you love your family: are you gonna take time to sit down and write this stuff down, or are you gonna leave them a big electronic mess that’s gonna take a lot of time and effort to resolve, and might not eventually be resolved." — Bob Carlson.
CONNECT WITH BOB CARLSON:
Website: https://www.retirementwatch.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RWcommunity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RetirementWatch
Most Recent Book: https://www.amazon.com/Wheres-My-Money-Secrets-Security-ebook/dp/B0853F3R7R
LISTEN ON ALL YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLATFORMS:
Libsyn: https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/theannuityman
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/niceguysonbusiness/the-annuity-man-podcast#/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fun-with-annuities-the-annuity-man-podcast/id1482993601
Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVhbm51aXR5bWFuLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ27cFahcKEwjgu6j7suzrAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/11fec7ab-59ab-402f-94c7-93860e1694ae/Fun-with-Annuities-The-Annuity-Man-Podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/26y3c7vXgnhfmErLRP3zuM
CONNECT WITH STAN
Call Stan The Annuity Man: 800-509-6473
Website: http://theannuityman.com/
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stantheannuityman/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanAnnuityMan
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theannuityman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theannuityman/
Use the Calculators - https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator/
Get The Annuity Man's Books - https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work
Schedule a time to talk to Stan - https://www.stantheannuityman.com/book-a-call/
FUN WITH ANNUITIES (r)
0:04
welcome to fun with annuities with your
0:06
host me stan the annuity man america's
0:09
annuity agent can annuities be fun can
0:12
contractual guarantees be fun
0:14
absolutely they can find out the brutal
0:17
facts about annuities with no sales
0:20
pitches or high pressure nonsense just
0:23
the brutal and factual annuity truth
0:25
which is all you need to hear
0:27
let's have some fun with annuities and
0:29
let's have that fun start right now
0:33
[Music]
0:39
welcome to fun with annuities i'm your
0:41
host stan the annuity man america's
0:43
annuity agent license in all 50 states
0:44
we have a repeat guest on by back by
0:47
popular demand i got
0:49
a bunch of emails recently like where's
0:51
bob what could bring bob back on and the
0:53
bob i'm talking about is bob carlson who
0:56
is uh just a superstar in our industry
0:58
i'll have all this stuff on our site
1:00
just like i did the last few times he's
1:02
been with us but
1:04
you know we have bob on when things are
1:06
a little bit chaotic
1:08
um first of all welcome back to fun with
1:10
annuities bob carlson how are you i'm
1:12
good glad to be here stan excellent
1:15
let's jump right in all right let's jump
1:17
right into social security and i get so
1:21
many questions bob about the financial
1:23
solvency and and you know all of that
1:25
stuff and i know that the latest
1:28
annual report from the trustees was
1:31
issued in june
1:33
forget what everyone else says i want to
1:36
hear what bob carlson says about that
1:38
because you read it from cover to cover
1:40
and
1:41
you can put it into english for the rest
1:43
of us out here so go
1:45
okay well the good news in the headlines
1:47
is that the
1:49
retirement trust fund is supposed to
1:50
last a year longer
1:52
in the 2021 report the trustees said it
1:55
would last only through the year 2033
1:59
and when the report came out in june of
2:01
this year they extended it a year to
2:03
2034.
2:05
so that that's the good news but you
2:08
know this is a forecast it's based on
2:10
assumptions
2:11
so you have to look at the assumptions
2:13
there are
2:14
a couple assumptions in there at least a
2:16
couple that are kind of questionable
2:19
one is inflation
2:21
uh you know the cola
2:23
for benefits in 2022 was i think 5.8
2:28
right and for some reason in this latest
2:30
report they estimated that the cola for
2:33
2023
2:36
be like three percent something like
2:38
that very low lower than today's
2:40
inflation rate lower than the 2022 cola
2:44
right and then they estimated it's gonna
2:46
quickly drop down to the mid twos and
2:49
and stay around two three two four
2:52
indefinitely
2:54
so
2:54
you know we already know the chief
2:56
actuary uh gave a press conference when
2:59
the report was issued and said he's
3:00
already thinking that the 2023 call is
3:03
going to be eight percent
3:04
about twice
3:06
uh what's forecast in the report
3:08
so we already know social security is
3:10
going to pay more in 2023 and benefits
3:13
than is in the report so that's going to
3:16
reduce the the life expectancy of the
3:18
retirement fund
3:20
another factor in there is uh the birth
3:23
rate as you probably know the birth rate
3:25
in the u.s has been declining for a long
3:28
time
3:29
and for some reason in the assumptions
3:31
last year and again this year they
3:33
assumed it's going to go up
3:35
and it's going to go up higher than the
3:37
current rate
3:40
and of course the way they've done it
3:41
they expect this to happen overnight so
3:44
it's not going to happen overnight and
3:47
you know the way the birth rate helps
3:49
the fund is it produces more future
3:51
workers who pay more taxes and make the
3:54
economy more productive
3:56
so we're not going to reach the birth
3:58
rate that's assumed in the the report
4:00
anytime soon
4:02
so those are just two factors in there
4:04
that make you question whether it's
4:06
really going to last through 2034 as
4:08
projected in this report
4:11
and why did they do that bob i mean why
4:13
would
4:14
they know that people like you are going
4:16
to read it
4:17
and my listeners are going to listen to
4:19
people like you
4:20
so why would they do that
4:23
it's kind of a mystery
4:25
if you ask them they'll say well our
4:27
forecasts are done over a 75-year
4:30
horizon
4:31
and we think this is reasonable
4:34
over a 75-year horizon
4:38
i think what probably actually happened
4:40
is you know they kind of sat down and
4:42
said well
4:44
we've got to end up with a certain
4:45
number in the end what do we have to do
4:47
to get to that number
4:49
but if you ask them they'll say over 75
4:52
years we think these are reasonable
4:54
assumptions that they'll be achieved
4:57
who we're talking to is bob carlson he's
4:59
the founder of retirement
5:01
watch dot com all one word we'll have
5:03
that link on our site if you don't have
5:05
it in your favorites it needs to be
5:07
immediately if you haven't subscribed
5:08
you need to do immediately
5:10
because he is a straight shooter with an
5:13
iq that's off the scale but he has the
5:15
talent to bring it down
5:17
so that you understand it bob
5:20
these inflation numbers um
5:23
i was listening to a peter schiff
5:24
podcast the other day and and some
5:26
people like him some people don't like
5:28
him you know me and you both know peter
5:30
from our days of speaking at money shows
5:32
and things like that
5:33
um he just thinks that the inflation
5:35
numbers are actually double what what's
5:38
being reported what's your take
5:41
on real inflation at this point yeah
5:44
there are several ways people measure it
5:46
uh one thing people like to point out is
5:49
back in
5:50
the 80s or the 90s
5:53
they changed how several things were
5:55
computed in the cpi uh particularly
5:57
housing
5:59
and some people have gone and recomputed
6:02
today's data using the old methodology
6:05
and say you know the cpi today would be
6:08
significantly higher
6:10
if we use that old measure instead of
6:12
the current measure and that people
6:14
brought the government changed that
6:17
measure primarily to reduce things like
6:19
the cola and social security and other
6:21
benefit programs and then there's other
6:23
measures
6:24
uh people will say well you know it's
6:26
based on a basket of goods and services
6:28
you buy a certain percentage of each
6:31
good and service and
6:33
you get the price increase of each of
6:34
those when you come up with the final
6:36
cpi so some people say
6:39
the cola the basket of goods and
6:40
services and real isn't really
6:42
reflective
6:44
of what a lot of people buy
6:46
particularly the elderly there's a
6:48
separate index they call experimental
6:52
for the elderly uh which spends more on
6:55
medicine and a few other things less on
6:57
education
6:59
and some other items and and that's
7:01
always come in higher
7:03
than the the regular cpi so certainly
7:05
people who are older
7:07
are facing a higher cpi than the one
7:09
that's published
7:11
so there are a lot of different people
7:12
who are you know tearing this data apart
7:15
and in forecasting are
7:18
basically saying
7:19
that the reported cpi you see in
7:22
newspapers each month or on the websites
7:24
you check
7:26
is really lower than what you're
7:27
probably experiencing
7:30
do you see um
7:33
do you see inflate do you see the fed
7:35
and what they're doing now is it do you
7:37
think it will affect inflation or did
7:39
they wait too long if bob
7:41
carlson was fed czar during these last
7:44
two years i'm assuming you have done
7:46
things differently a what would you have
7:48
done and b what they're doing now
7:50
what do you think is going to be the
7:52
result
7:54
right a couple years ago i was telling
7:56
my readers to buy inflation hedges that
7:59
inflation was going to go up because of
8:01
all this money that's being printed and
8:03
so forth
8:05
and so they obviously
8:07
the fed has its own economists who do
8:09
their own forecasts and
8:11
they have a history of missing all the
8:13
key turning points in the economy
8:15
letting inflation get too high and
8:18
overdoing the efforts to bring it down
8:20
and triggering a bigger recession than
8:22
they needed to right uh so
8:25
you kind of depend on that and back when
8:27
all the fed people were saying this is
8:29
transitory inflation uh i was among some
8:32
of those people who are saying this it's
8:34
not transitory there are certain things
8:36
baked in there and the fed's making it
8:38
worse by buying all this government debt
8:41
putting more money into the markets and
8:43
the economy and what the fed kind of
8:45
counted on
8:46
uh what's been happening for most of the
8:49
last 15 or 20 years is they do print a
8:52
lot of money and put it out there
8:54
but in the past it's basically gone into
8:57
the investment markets it's why stock
9:00
prices went up much faster
9:02
than economic growth
9:04
and
9:05
and i guess they were counting on that
9:07
happening again where they would you
9:09
know push up housing and stock prices
9:11
and some other assets but not
9:14
goods and services that people buy but
9:16
they were wrong this time and people
9:19
finally stopped putting that money into
9:21
investments
9:22
started putting it into goods and
9:24
services and pushed up the prices of
9:27
that you couple that with
9:29
the way supply chains shut down jinkovic
9:33
reduced the supply the labor supply
9:37
decrease so there's fewer people to hire
9:39
you have to pay higher wages so it just
9:41
started a big cycle
9:43
that's going to take really serious
9:45
efforts i think to break the cycle
9:47
they're going to have to really tighten
9:49
and do what economists call
9:51
demand destruction where they're going
9:53
to have to raise interest rates enough
9:55
and take enough money out of the economy
9:58
where people just stop buying so many
10:00
goods and services and that's going to
10:02
hurt a number of businesses where people
10:04
cut back
10:06
but eventually that's what's needed to
10:08
bring down this kind of inflation
10:11
do you believe that the fed
10:15
will act autonomously like they should
10:18
and like they were designed to do
10:20
and continue with the rate hikes that
10:22
they have announced
10:24
or do you think they'll be bullied
10:26
by the political party and
10:28
power you know and i'm not political
10:31
either way
10:32
um what's your prediction on how
10:34
chairman powell will be handling this
10:37
going forward
10:39
yes so far in his tenure he's been uh
10:43
very much in line with who's ever
10:45
running the government yes um
10:48
and you know if he needs to take a
10:51
strong action as i suspect to really
10:53
bring inflation down to their target
10:56
of two percent
10:57
i think he's going to give up part way
11:00
through
11:01
they're going to get to say four percent
11:03
give or take a percent and
11:06
joblessness is going to go up the
11:08
economy is going to be slowing down
11:10
and they're just going to announce that
11:11
they're going to accept a higher target
11:14
of inflation
11:16
stop tightening the money supply
11:17
somewhere in that three to five percent
11:19
inflation range
11:21
and start loosening it up to get people
11:23
back to work and and so now you're going
11:25
to have a new floor on inflation
11:28
and so it'll go up probably faster than
11:31
it did last time the way it's done
11:33
faster than it's done last 15 or 20
11:35
years
11:36
and so probably we're going to have some
11:38
level of higher inflation baked into the
11:40
economy
11:42
until they finally get to the point
11:44
where they're willing to accept the
11:46
amount of pain that's needed to
11:48
basically correct the errors they put in
11:50
place
11:51
bob you didn't mention mr putin good
11:53
friend of ours
11:55
from russia um because a lot of this
11:57
blame is uh politically is being placed
12:00
on him
12:02
who knows what what the war effort that
12:05
he's waging against ukraine is having
12:08
on a lot of things
12:10
but um
12:12
is that significant
12:14
it's a factor i wouldn't say it's
12:16
significant okay um the inflation was
12:20
rising
12:21
well before he announced plans to invade
12:24
uh it probably caused energy prices to
12:27
go up faster than they would have and
12:30
they've come down the last month or so
12:32
to be back
12:33
probably where they would have been
12:35
absent the invasion same with some of
12:37
the food and grain
12:40
commodities
12:41
that spiked earlier have come down some
12:44
recently or were still higher than they
12:45
were
12:47
so it's a factor some of that's
12:49
corrected but it's certainly not the
12:51
main factor because as i said inflation
12:54
was
12:55
rising pretty steadily before the the
12:58
war even happened
12:59
and there are a lot of things rising
13:02
in price that are just completely
13:04
independent particularly services in the
13:06
u.s
13:07
and that's a factor of a combination of
13:10
a shrinking labor force where businesses
13:12
can't hire
13:14
enough people so they have to keep
13:16
increasing wages to hire and retain
13:18
people
13:19
and also the high demand because so much
13:22
money was put out there
13:24
savings went up a lot
13:26
during the uh the covert pandemic with
13:29
all these stimulus programs
13:31
and also these wage increases the people
13:33
who are working and getting them they
13:35
have extra money to spend
13:37
so that's just pushing up the prices
13:40
do you think gas prices are kind of at a
13:42
new normal i mean i i just can't see
13:44
them going back down for a myriad of
13:46
reasons but hopefully i'm wrong
13:48
um
13:50
but for it just feels like we're we're
13:52
at a new normal with gas prices in that
13:54
three to five dollar range i guess
13:57
that's a big range but still
13:59
pretty darn expensive
14:01
yeah and one factor we haven't discussed
14:03
is uh the climate change policies and
14:06
these are global yeah and basically the
14:09
people supporting them want higher gas
14:11
prices because they want people to start
14:13
looking for
14:14
alternatives to gas and
14:17
related uh types of energy
14:20
so you know in addition to demand and
14:22
supply
14:23
uh we have these public policies around
14:25
the globe
14:26
that are determined to keep
14:28
those prices from going down
14:31
and a lot of those countries that have
14:33
been proactive with those policies
14:35
they're getting caught a little bit here
14:37
i believe germany would be a good
14:38
example of that
14:39
right um
14:40
so i think you know we have to tread
14:42
lightly yes we all want
14:44
you know a cleaner wonderful world
14:47
but i think reality gets in the way a
14:49
little bit but but with that being said
14:51
and not to get on political
14:53
um box here
14:55
but even if we are acting perfectly
14:58
environmentally we need china and india
15:00
and everyone else to act well as
15:02
um as
15:03
compatriots in the environmental
15:06
challenge or else it doesn't work at all
15:08
do you agree with that
15:10
right and that's been part of the
15:12
problem is the developed western nations
15:14
have been uh putting the policies in
15:17
place whereas the the other nations uh
15:20
are not willing to accept the
15:22
consequences of making those changes or
15:24
at least not on the same schedule that
15:27
developed nations are right and so
15:29
they're continuing to uh burn coal and
15:33
use other forms of uh of energy that are
15:36
considered to contribute to uh to global
15:39
warming and climate change so it's
15:41
it's a problem where the the west has
15:43
basically taken this burden on itself
15:46
and the others have not been willing to
15:47
cooperate
15:49
seems like that's uh kind of the way it
15:51
always is right
15:54
you sent me an email recently uh there
15:56
was a pew study and i kind of glanced at
15:58
it
15:59
it was about people
16:01
with their 401ks making mistakes
16:04
rolling it
16:06
to iras
16:08
after they leave their employer and i
16:10
wanted you to kind of go over the pros
16:12
and cons of
16:13
when a person is at that decision and
16:15
fork in the road of rolling their 401k
16:19
one of the reasons go to
16:20
retirementwatch.
16:22
sign up with for what bob
16:24
offers um these are the type of things
16:27
he addresses real world scenarios that
16:29
are solutions
16:31
that you can apply to your specific
16:33
situation can you talk about that in
16:36
detail
16:38
sure uh what the study did was it looked
16:41
at the consequences well first
16:44
the most common ira transaction is the
16:46
rollover
16:48
a lot of different rollovers one tax
16:50
expert went through the tax code and
16:52
said there's more than 30 different
16:53
kinds of rollovers
16:55
how many
16:56
more than 30.
16:58
why
16:59
there's there's a lot of things you
17:00
don't think of as rollovers that are
17:02
called rollovers for example when you
17:03
convert a traditional ira to a roth ira
17:06
in a tax code that's a rollover
17:09
but the most common rollover is when
17:11
someone leaves a job
17:14
they take their 401k account and have it
17:16
rolled over to either an ira or to their
17:19
new employer's 401k right
17:22
and uh so and i used to routinely say
17:24
well you should do that because most of
17:26
these 401k plans are inferior to iras
17:30
and what the pew study did is it looked
17:33
at uh stop for a second
17:35
stay hold up
17:37
when you say that
17:38
say
17:39
tell the people why you believe that is
17:41
it because the ira structure allows you
17:44
freedom of choice for investments as
17:46
opposed to the limitations within the
17:49
401k
17:50
well first that's what i used to say
17:53
it's not
17:54
always true now okay there were two
17:57
factors one is the investment
18:00
flexibility right and the other was
18:02
costs
18:03
gotcha um
18:05
ten or more years ago
18:07
most employers did not put a lot of
18:09
effort in their 401k plans it was just
18:12
something they felt they had to offer
18:14
and particularly the smaller mid-sized
18:16
businesses they'd go to a broker or an
18:18
insurance person and say set up a plan
18:20
for me and these plans would have a lot
18:22
of fees
18:23
and not great investment options
18:26
more recently a lot of the employers
18:29
particularly your larger employers but
18:30
also many mid-size and smaller ones i've
18:33
realized these are valuable benefits
18:35
yeah a lot of prospective employees will
18:38
look at the plan yeah before making a
18:41
decision whether or not to accept a job
18:43
offer
18:44
so you have good investment options in
18:47
many of these plans and low expenses
18:50
and that was what the pew study focused
18:52
on okay many of the 401k plans now offer
18:56
what they call the institutional shares
18:58
of mutual funds right explain that to
19:01
the people yeah
19:02
most mutual funds have what they call
19:04
different share classes
19:07
uh they all invest in the same fund they
19:09
have the same investments
19:11
but they have different
19:12
minimum investment amounts and in
19:15
particular they have different expenses
19:18
the institutional share classes have the
19:20
lowest expenses these are the
19:23
if a major pension fund or endowment
19:25
wants to invest in the fund they will
19:27
get the institutional shares
19:30
but typically you have to have a minimum
19:33
investment of a million dollars to get
19:35
into the institutional chair class
19:39
but many of the 401k plans are allowed
19:42
to
19:43
offer the institutional shares because
19:45
when you aggregate all their employees
19:47
together they're going to have a million
19:48
dollars or more in that fund
19:51
so they'll be allowed to have each of
19:53
the employees buy the institutional
19:54
shares even though they might only be
19:56
putting in 100 or so a month into a fund
20:01
now
20:02
if you roll over from your 401k to an
20:05
ira unless you have a really big 401k
20:08
you're not going to have access to the
20:10
institutional shares yep you're going to
20:12
have to buy the retail shares which have
20:15
the highest expenses
20:17
and the pew study
20:19
compared the cost difference over 25
20:22
years
20:23
between owning the institutional shares
20:25
and owning the retail shares
20:27
and it found out that many people if
20:29
they do a rollover are going to cost
20:31
themselves 20 000 or more i think it
20:34
looked at an average account balance of
20:36
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
20:38
which is what people typically
20:40
accumulate in a 401k over a average
20:43
working career at an average salary
20:46
and so if you have an average 401k they
20:48
estimate it's going to cost you about 20
20:50
000
20:52
over your lifetime in your retirement
20:54
fund
20:55
to move from those institutional shares
20:57
to retail shares
20:59
so that's the that's the big issue when
21:01
you when you're leaving an employer
21:03
whether you're retiring or looking at a
21:05
new job you want to compare
21:07
the 401k
21:09
to your ira options or your new
21:11
employer's options because you have the
21:13
option to take that money roll it over
21:15
somewhere
21:16
tax free transaction
21:18
or
21:19
leave it in that 401k
21:22
and so you want to look at number one
21:24
investment options
21:25
does the current 401k have a
21:28
good diversified mix that's going to
21:30
have all these types of investments
21:32
you're going to want to invest in over
21:33
time
21:34
and number two is a low cost
21:37
you want to look first at the the shares
21:39
of the fund are you getting
21:40
institutional shares low cost shares
21:43
and then also look at any different
21:46
fees that are charged a lot of 401ks
21:48
charge you an annual
21:50
account maintenance fees
21:52
some will charge for different
21:54
transactions whereas an ira might not so
21:58
you want to look at all these factors
22:00
consider what you might do with that
22:01
money over time
22:03
and decide are you going to be better
22:05
off leaving that money in this 401 k or
22:07
rowing it over to an ira
22:10
sounds like also if you're a registered
22:13
investment advisor or master of the
22:15
universe what are you going to call it
22:16
it's also a fiduciary issue i'm assuming
22:19
correct
22:20
well this is the whole
22:22
whole another topic because
22:25
both both the sec and the department of
22:27
labor have been uh looking at rollovers
22:31
and rollover advisors for the last five
22:34
to ten years
22:35
they've issued different regulations the
22:38
obama administration issued a set of
22:40
regulations the trump administration
22:42
withdrew them and issued new ones
22:44
uh the biden people came in and issued
22:46
another set
22:48
uh but basically
22:50
advisors who advise on what to do with
22:53
your retirement account have a
22:56
new level of standards
22:58
that they have to comply with if they
23:00
want to give advice and not get in
23:02
trouble
23:03
and the larger firms have no trouble
23:05
with this but some of you your smaller
23:07
and medium-sized advisors have said i i
23:10
don't have the resources to generate all
23:13
this data that these regulations are
23:15
requiring so either of them
23:17
have just said i will not advise someone
23:20
on whether or not to do a roll over if
23:22
they do a row over
23:24
i'll be advising them and how to invest
23:26
and that sort of wow
23:27
whether or not to do the rollover i just
23:30
legally don't feel i can get involved
23:33
because you and i both know
23:34
rollovers is like chum in the water in
23:37
the financial business because it's
23:38
money in motion
23:40
as they say and um everyone's trying to
23:43
get in front of that from the standpoint
23:44
of managing it or whatever
23:47
but i think you're correct it doesn't
23:48
mean you have to move
23:50
the money
23:51
and from a competitive nature
23:54
these companies are making their plans a
23:56
lot more um
23:58
user friendly and you might want to stay
24:01
i i haven't really thought about that
24:03
until you sent me that that
24:05
email with the study i'm like well that
24:07
makes sense
24:09
um for them to try to keep it and try to
24:11
keep it in-house
24:13
and offer really good
24:16
choices and advisors got to be real
24:18
careful here they really do they get in
24:21
trouble really interesting how the
24:23
employees have changed over time as they
24:25
used to not pay any attention to it and
24:27
then someone pointed out to them in fact
24:29
they didn't want to deal with former
24:30
employees they were happy
24:32
to have the
24:33
former employees take the money away but
24:36
then it was pointed out if you keep that
24:38
money
24:39
you have a bigger plan you can drive
24:41
down costs correct and just make your
24:44
plan more attractive to employees
24:47
plus it's the right thing to do yeah
24:50
yeah throw everything away it is the
24:52
right thing to do let's pivot a little
24:54
bit i know that um
24:56
you have your red phone into dc and
24:59
you know the people in dc trust you and
25:02
what you write once again
25:03
retirementwatch.com
25:06
again retirementwatch.com all one word
25:09
we'll have that link on our site but
25:11
bob
25:12
has been doing this for a long long time
25:14
and i remember in the last
25:17
uh podcast we had it was eight or nine
25:19
months ago that me and you were together
25:21
we talked about the secure 2.0 act bob
25:24
and you said it's got
25:26
remember you'd say saying it's you know
25:27
it's got some potential
25:29
to be okay
25:31
but i don't think
25:33
i think it's become a little bit messy
25:36
between then and now
25:37
can you explain what's going on
25:40
in the mess that's incurred or occurred
25:44
since we've spoken
25:46
yeah it's it's been really interesting
25:48
that's uh as you recall the the original
25:50
secure act in 2019
25:53
uh passed the house in
25:55
may
25:56
with three or four dissenting votes and
25:58
then
25:59
was brought up in the senate late in the
26:01
year in december passed basically with
26:04
no dissenting votes in which the
26:06
president was signed
26:08
and i thought the same thing was going
26:09
to happen this time with secure act 2.0
26:13
i passed the house again in the spring
26:16
very few dissenting votes
26:19
but then it got to the senate and first
26:21
of all some outside people started to
26:23
complain they looked at number of
26:25
provisions in the in the bill and they
26:27
said you know
26:29
this all favors rich people you say it's
26:32
to help average people
26:35
save more for retirement but yeah
26:37
provisions we're looking at primarily
26:39
going to favor rich people and there's
26:41
just a little bit for
26:43
for average and poorer people surprise
26:45
surprise right bob i mean sometimes that
26:48
this kind of happens like that right
26:49
yeah when the financial service industry
26:51
is lobbying for something who do you
26:53
think they're going to lobby for
26:56
i agree
26:57
so they started to complain and also
26:59
there are some key senators who said
27:02
well you know last time
27:03
we just did what the house wanted just
27:05
to get something passed but this time
27:09
uh we have ideas
27:11
and they actually there was something
27:12
like a thousand different bills that had
27:14
put in to the senate the last two years
27:17
and they
27:18
they went through them all and picked
27:19
and chose you know which ones people
27:22
liked and so they've put together not
27:24
one but two
27:25
uh different bills in the senate okay
27:28
and those are still
27:30
not been voted on on the floor they're
27:32
hoping to do that perhaps this fall
27:35
uh but it's not clear
27:37
what'll make it into the final bill or
27:39
when it will be passed and then even
27:41
when that happens
27:43
it's going to differ from what passed
27:45
the house
27:46
and uh the house is going to decide are
27:49
we just going to accept the senate bill
27:52
or are we going to have to go to a
27:53
conference committee and trade back and
27:55
forth to get a final bill
27:58
uh so it's not going to roll through the
28:01
way secure act 1.0 did
28:04
there's still a lot of people supporting
28:07
it very little opposition to the idea
28:10
and most of the provisions in either
28:12
of these packages
28:15
but when it's going to get through and
28:16
what the final version is going to be is
28:19
it's very much up in the air
28:21
what's holding it up is it the volume of
28:23
changes is it
28:25
upcoming midterms or combination of
28:28
everything
28:29
but there's not a big difference between
28:31
all the versions going around but there
28:33
are differences
28:35
and you know each person
28:38
insists their version
28:40
is the best one of course
28:42
and
28:43
you know someone or
28:45
really there's so many different
28:46
provisions there's so many people
28:48
involved a bunch of people are gonna
28:49
have to say
28:51
all right we'll have yours and not mine
28:54
and so that's tough in dc bob yeah and
28:57
and so that's really what's going on is
28:59
just
29:00
really
29:01
disagreement about nuances for the most
29:03
part
29:04
i know ed slott has come out and if you
29:07
don't know who ed is he's a he's a
29:09
really smart dude just like bob and
29:12
focuses on
29:14
kind of the ira world wouldn't you say
29:16
that bob what it does
29:18
um and i don't think he's too thrilled
29:20
at all
29:22
about what's what's in there
29:24
yeah he's had uh criticisms of several
29:27
provisions and there's things he thinks
29:30
should be in there that are not there
29:33
um and
29:34
you know for the most part first of all
29:36
it's gonna complicate an already
29:38
complicated area of the tax code
29:41
and it's going to take people a while to
29:44
figure out what's going on and then the
29:46
irs and department of labor are going to
29:48
have to issue regulations so even though
29:51
a lot of these provisions are designed
29:53
to increase retirement savings
29:56
really no business is going to change
29:58
its retirement plan or its decision of
30:00
whether or not to offer a retirement
30:02
plan
30:03
until not only the law is passed but the
30:06
regulations are issued
30:08
so you're looking at a two to three year
30:12
time frame assuming the law passes this
30:15
year
30:16
before people really know what the rules
30:18
are going to be and what the benefits
30:20
and disadvantages are gonna be and the
30:22
problem with with all types of
30:24
legislation like this that comes out of
30:26
dc
30:27
is
30:28
there will be stories trickling out
30:30
about provisions that have yet to be
30:32
passed which then people call people
30:34
like me and you
30:35
and ask about taking advantage of it of
30:37
which i say it's not passed yet
30:39
so it creates a lot of confusion
30:42
um which is the reason i always say if
30:45
you're going to get those that type of
30:46
tax advice you need to be going to
30:48
retirementwatch.com reading that reading
30:50
bob stuff
30:52
working with your local cpn tax lawyer
30:54
because just because they're rumored to
30:56
pass it doesn't mean it's past which
30:58
means you shouldn't be planning around
31:00
something that's not passed
31:02
and i think that's the problem that's
31:04
what drives me crazy is
31:06
i really wish they wouldn't talk about
31:07
it until they just passed it but that's
31:09
not dc right and a lot of times once
31:11
it's passed uh
31:13
false stories go down about go out about
31:15
what's in there no doubt and and i'll
31:18
get contacted by people saying hey i
31:20
heard this passed how can i take
31:21
advantage of it
31:24
that's not in the law
31:27
yet maybe right
31:30
bob one of the things you specialize in
31:32
you and you you cover you socialize a
31:34
lot of things expert in a lot of areas
31:35
but one of the things i lean on you for
31:38
is just kind of looking at estate plans
31:40
estate planning
31:42
specifics one of the things that you and
31:46
i were recently talking about were
31:47
digital assets
31:50
first of all i want you to talk to the
31:51
people about what a digital asset is
31:54
they might not even know they have it
31:56
and then
31:57
how to include that digital asset
32:01
within their estate plan i know that um
32:04
i understand this pretty well because
32:06
i'm pretty well versed in intellectual
32:07
property
32:08
with a lot of the side things that i do
32:10
in my life other than being stan the
32:12
annuity man but
32:15
a lot of that does involve digital
32:16
assets can you cover that from an estate
32:18
planning standpoint because i think this
32:20
is fascinating blue water new ground for
32:23
people
32:23
to think about
32:25
yeah this is uh
32:27
really one of the
32:29
the leading edge issues in estate
32:31
planning
32:32
and even just 10 years ago
32:35
the law was way behind reality
32:38
and
32:39
only recently of the state started to
32:41
enact
32:42
provisions where you could actually
32:45
reasonably
32:47
provide for digital assets in your
32:49
estate plan
32:51
but now the key is you have to do that
32:54
digital assets are much broader category
32:57
than people realize
32:59
uh you know basically there's a federal
33:01
privacy law and a lot of state laws that
33:04
say you can't access someone else's
33:06
digital assets or accounts
33:09
uh it's a federal crime
33:12
and so you have to authorize people to
33:14
do that what are digital assets give the
33:16
people the 30 000 foot view of what
33:19
those are you start with your cell phone
33:22
your email accounts uh any websites or
33:25
social uh social sites where you have
33:28
accounts on them
33:29
uh those are the you know the first
33:32
layer of them not that you own the sites
33:34
that you have accounts at the sites
33:36
right right right
33:39
basically any kind of electronic either
33:41
website
33:43
or asset
33:45
that's password protected
33:47
by you
33:48
that's a digital asset so a footprint
33:50
whatever your footprint is digitally
33:53
right you need to think of you need to
33:55
think about protecting it right right
33:57
and that's the first layer of digital
33:59
assets another layer
34:01
are accounts
34:03
like your financial accounts
34:05
many people access them online
34:08
passwords and usernames
34:10
uh under the old law you know if you're
34:12
a state executive or even a family
34:14
member if they had your password and
34:16
they went to uh do a transaction in your
34:18
account as a federal crime
34:20
yeah
34:21
even if you told them and put in your
34:23
will you could do that
34:25
so that's another layers all your
34:26
financial accounts that have some kind
34:28
of online access that's protected
34:31
then also a lot of people you have your
34:34
automatic payments
34:35
whether it's drawn from your checking
34:37
account put on your credit card done
34:39
some other way wow that's a digital
34:42
asset someone has to be first of all
34:44
wants to know about it and then you have
34:46
to authorize them to shut it off
34:49
and so there's a wide range of these
34:50
assets you know it starts with your cell
34:53
phone because with many of these
34:54
accounts now they have the two-factor
34:56
authentication
34:58
so you not only have your password to
35:00
get on it online right and they send
35:02
another password to your phone they text
35:05
it to your phone and you've got to enter
35:06
that
35:07
so
35:08
people have to be able to access your
35:10
cell phone
35:11
and then actually access your other
35:13
accounts but how's that part of the
35:15
estate plan bob well you have to put in
35:18
your will or your living trust who can
35:21
access these assets holy mackerel that
35:25
so
35:27
there's an addendum to the estate plan
35:29
that you're saying that people need to
35:31
revisit that has these passwords
35:35
that's in the in the estate plan in the
35:38
trust that you give the authorization of
35:41
who to ask
35:42
ask like like an executor of a will or
35:45
executor of a trust it would be executor
35:48
of
35:49
digital assets
35:50
yeah the law that was passed by those
35:52
states recently
35:54
says that the executor automatically is
35:58
legally allowed to access certain types
36:00
of accounts
36:02
but it's a short list
36:05
but many of the other types of accounts
36:07
it's silent about so you have to
36:08
specifically authorize access to those
36:11
as well
36:13
and then so that's the easy part the
36:15
easy part is putting in your will or
36:17
trust language that says
36:19
my executor can access these assets or
36:22
you can make it broad and say can access
36:24
all my digital assets and accounts some
36:27
people don't want to do that they want
36:28
to separate it they want only a family
36:30
member
36:31
they trust to access their email
36:34
and then forward to the executor
36:36
anything financially related what if
36:38
they don't do that does does digital
36:40
assets go through probate
36:43
they don't particularly go through
36:45
probate because most of them aren't
36:47
really worth anything
36:49
but
36:50
you have to authorize someone to access
36:53
it if you don't then
36:56
basically someone has to contact the
36:58
provider
36:59
wow of that asset which is a mess they
37:02
will have their own rules and what some
37:04
people used to do before this new law
37:07
is they would have to hire techies
37:10
to break into the accounts
37:12
right
37:14
so that you know it's all messed so the
37:15
first rule is
37:17
put the language in your will or living
37:19
trust about who can access your digital
37:22
assets but that's only the first step
37:24
because the important step is
37:27
people have to know which digital assets
37:29
and accounts you have
37:32
you have to write down
37:34
your accounts
37:35
the access information
37:38
uh the automatic payments that's a big
37:40
issue because some of these automatic
37:42
payments they're annual they're not
37:43
monthly you can't just go through your
37:45
monthly checking account or credit card
37:48
bill and remember it you might forget
37:50
about the january so i need to i need to
37:53
stop for some because i need to have
37:54
people people need to take a breath
37:56
because
37:58
this is one that everybody listening is
38:01
going huh
38:02
and you're thinking about it just a
38:04
personal note i'm obsessive compulsive
38:07
so i do this immediately you know i have
38:10
a 20 to 25 page
38:13
um printed password thing that i put in
38:17
the safe and i update it and tear the
38:19
other one up and shred and put in the
38:20
safe
38:21
but i don't have the automatic payments
38:23
on there so i've got to do that
38:25
but i also haven't included that i've
38:28
done that from the standpoint of hey if
38:30
i die here's the password but i do think
38:32
it's important for
38:34
um people to have access you tell who
38:38
has access to it and then i own websites
38:40
and things like that and domain names
38:42
and all kinds of stuff
38:43
i think going forward i think people's
38:45
digital assets will be
38:47
more and more and you're not even
38:48
talking about non-fungible tokens and
38:50
all kinds of nonsense like that you're
38:52
talking about
38:53
day-to-day digital life that we all have
38:56
regardless of how non-techie or techie
38:58
you are right correct
39:02
yeah and uh wow
39:04
even people who
39:05
consider themselves non-techie
39:08
they have a lot more of these digital
39:10
assets than they realize
39:13
you know even non-technical people most
39:15
of them have cell phone they have some
39:16
automatic payments
39:19
social media to some extent email
39:21
account
39:23
so you know you really need to
39:25
to sit down and list these many people
39:28
you know they it's hard they don't have
39:30
an organized
39:32
list of of their
39:34
websites and passwords that you know
39:36
they can really access they count on
39:37
memorizing it uh maybe using the same
39:40
password for multiple which isn't a good
39:43
idea and memorizing is not a good idea
39:45
because there's been hundreds of
39:46
millions of dollars worth of bitcoin
39:48
going poof because people couldn't
39:49
remember remember their their pass code
39:52
i think that
39:54
the task of the day for the listeners
39:56
and viewers of this podcast is if you
39:59
have an estate planning lawyer if you
40:00
don't go get one but if you have one
40:03
lob that call and go hey i'd like to put
40:06
together a meeting because i was
40:07
listening to bob carlson from retirement
40:09
watch and he said
40:10
that we need to do an addendum to the
40:12
trust on the digital assets and just
40:14
shut up and see what they say yeah yeah
40:18
now most most of the estate planners are
40:20
well aware of this and uh really right
40:23
anxious to get people doing it uh but
40:26
the first step is you need an inventory
40:29
of what your digital assets are yes
40:32
all the access information so that
40:34
someone
40:35
basically you need to set it up so
40:36
someone off the street
40:38
can walk in and access these accounts if
40:41
they have your inventory
40:44
so that
40:45
you know it'll be easy to do they won't
40:47
have to hire some techie to do it for
40:49
them
40:50
and then you can go to the lawyer and
40:53
say i want my executor to have access to
40:55
all these or
40:57
you might say i want only my spouse to
41:00
be able to access these insurance record
41:02
access votes
41:04
that's personal decisions so people will
41:06
do it different ways a lot uh but the
41:08
first step there is make that inventory
41:11
and it might take you a while because
41:13
there are things out there you're
41:14
probably going to forget
41:16
and maybe an automatic payment's not
41:18
going to show up for a few months or
41:20
there's something a website perhaps you
41:23
only visit occasionally and you realize
41:26
yeah i've got that i've got to add to
41:28
the list
41:29
well i also think too not to get
41:31
morbidly
41:35
but
41:36
you know we're all looking at cognitive
41:38
decline eventually
41:40
and it's just another reminder of trying
41:42
to be proactive and getting in front of
41:44
that
41:45
that puck going down the ice and getting
41:48
all of this tied up in a nice bow the
41:50
lawyers are going to love it because
41:51
you're going to have to see them more
41:53
like every year just to make sure that
41:55
all the things are updated but
41:57
but that's a really neat way
42:00
to when you pass away that there's no
42:02
issues that you know you know where
42:04
everything is and from a peace of mind
42:06
standpoint looking at money and estate
42:08
planning
42:10
you know it makes sense i always tell
42:12
people that even when you retire with 10
42:14
000 baby members hitting age 65 every
42:16
single month
42:17
or every single day excuse me
42:20
part of your part-time job are these
42:22
types of items that bob just mentioned
42:25
you've got to get your arms around
42:27
so
42:28
that's phenomenal do you have any neat
42:30
stories about digital asset
42:33
stuff
42:34
that you've seen or
42:36
anecdotes that you've heard
42:38
uh
42:39
the main thing is before they put the
42:42
the recent law changes into effect was
42:45
that
42:47
two things would happen one is uh
42:50
the the executor would contact
42:53
you know someone like facebook or a
42:56
website and say hey my dad died
43:00
i need to shut down his page or i just
43:02
need access to his account and maybe say
43:05
you know sorry there's a federal law
43:07
that says only the owner of that account
43:09
can access it and we can't give you
43:12
anything
43:13
and then from there people would
43:16
basically try to hire techies to break
43:19
into the account or they'd you know
43:21
search through the house
43:23
looking for where the password was
43:25
written down
43:27
if they could find it um
43:30
you know so that this is a great favor
43:32
this is how you decide how much you love
43:34
your family is
43:35
are you are you going to take the time
43:37
to sit down
43:39
and write this stuff down
43:41
or are you going to leave them a big
43:42
electronic mess
43:44
that's going to take a lot of time and
43:46
effort to resolve and and might not
43:49
eventually be resolved there might be
43:50
missing assets
43:52
or you might have a lot of difficulty
43:54
shutting off some automatic payments
43:56
because no one's been authorized to do
43:58
it well the other thing too in the world
44:00
that we live in now it's hard to get
44:02
people on the phone can i get a
44:04
hallelujah on that
44:06
so to have the digital at access to the
44:09
accounts allows you to you know do what
44:12
you need to do without
44:13
trying to get somebody on the phone and
44:15
that somebody on the phone even if you
44:16
get them they might not be from here it
44:18
could be really hard
44:20
but i think that is um
44:22
that's one of the best pieces of
44:24
information that there might be people
44:26
listening to this or viewing this that
44:27
go oh i knew that stan come on where you
44:30
been
44:31
um
44:32
but i'm pretty techy
44:34
you know and i've got a you know my team
44:36
is pretty well teched
44:39
but
44:40
when you live in that world you don't
44:41
really think about it you know it's kind
44:43
of like the mechanic driving the car
44:45
that's beat up because they know that if
44:46
it breaks down they can just fix it
44:49
but you got to think about
44:51
if you're savvy technology-wise probably
44:53
your heirs are not or your spouse is not
44:56
or whoever's going to be executive if
44:57
not
44:58
bob would you see executor of the will
45:01
and executor of digital assets could
45:04
that be i mean
45:05
could could that be two different people
45:08
uh it could be uh
45:10
basically it's
45:12
it's wide open for you to do what's ever
45:14
comfortable for you
45:17
uh but keeping in mind of course that
45:20
you know the executor who's processing
45:22
most of the estate
45:25
uh there's probably digital assets he or
45:27
she needs access to or needs authority
45:30
over
45:31
in order to settle the estate but there
45:34
might be other things you have
45:37
you know some people for example are
45:38
running a website based on a hobby that
45:41
you have right perhaps the executor
45:44
doesn't need access to that you would
45:46
just want to give that to someone
45:48
who also has an interest in it might
45:50
want to continue it
45:52
some people they don't want to give
45:54
their executive access to their email
45:56
because there might be things in there
45:58
they they want only a spouse or
46:01
someone else to see and and they just
46:03
count on that person to follow any
46:05
financial really interesting good he has
46:07
to be racist
46:09
so it's it depends on how complicated
46:11
your life is
46:14
what kind of nefarious sites you go to
46:17
what type of logins you have i know it
46:19
might might under some things that you
46:21
don't want to unearth might make you
46:22
think
46:23
twice but uh
46:25
that's really interesting what else is
46:27
new out there by what i mean you get up
46:29
every day and you slay it you're
46:30
fantastic at what you do but
46:33
you know you've forgotten more than most
46:35
people ever know so what's new out there
46:37
that's that that kind of is getting your
46:39
attention or is there anything new
46:44
well you know
46:45
going with with the things you will you
46:47
talk about there's a lot of interest in
46:50
the various annuities uh
46:52
you used to be uh
46:54
you know people didn't have a lot of
46:56
interest in them the stocks were going
46:59
up 20 a year
47:01
uh but now you know with bonds going
47:03
down stocks going down
47:05
one thing i've told my readers
47:08
is basically any kind of bond or fixed
47:11
income investment you've had in your
47:13
portfolio you should get rid of it
47:15
because it's going down in value and you
47:16
should put the money
47:18
into some kind of annuity whether it's a
47:21
miga or just yeah well
47:23
yeah we don't mention we don't mention
47:25
companies obviously here but um
47:27
but the bond you know people just need
47:29
to understand what the bonds you know
47:30
interest rates you know go up and the
47:32
bond valuations go down that's just
47:33
basic stuff that you need to know and
47:35
people also need to know that bonds can
47:37
go down in value
47:39
and at the time of this type and current
47:40
interest rates do lean you toward migas
47:43
which are fixed rate annuities the
47:44
industry annuity the annuity industry's
47:47
version of the cd and we certainly have
47:48
that on my site at the annuityman.com i
47:50
don't want to go in some annuity rabbit
47:52
hole here but
47:54
um
47:55
there the rates are at a point where
47:57
it's starting starting to make sense
47:59
again bob and when when almost a decade
48:01
where
48:02
fixed rates weren't attractive but um
48:05
you know now now they're getting to the
48:07
point
48:08
where people can start
48:10
thinking about living off some of that
48:12
interest and not touching the principle
48:14
which is
48:15
which is really good um i'm not going to
48:18
make you predict interest rates here
48:20
but um
48:23
do you think do you think we're going to
48:25
keep going up over the next year like
48:27
they said or do you think my predictions
48:29
i think chairman powell has one or two
48:31
left bullets left in the gun and then
48:33
they're going to take the gun away
48:36
yeah most likely they're going to do one
48:38
or two more and then see what the
48:40
effects are yeah
48:42
but you know one thing i see a lot of
48:44
research on that surprises a lot of
48:46
people is you know your standard
48:47
investment portfolio is 60 stocks 40
48:51
bonds right
48:52
and you know that's said to be
48:54
diversified and when the stocks are
48:56
going down the bonds will be steady or
48:59
even go up plus they're generating
49:00
interest sure
49:02
and and that's been true for 20 or so
49:05
years when they've been what they call
49:06
uncorrelated they go in different
49:08
directions
49:09
uh but this year they've both been
49:12
highly correlated both stocks and bonds
49:15
are going down at the wrong time at the
49:16
same time
49:18
so people who were in these balanced
49:20
portfolios thinking they had some
49:22
protection from the bonds if the stocks
49:25
went down
49:26
they don't have that though
49:28
the bonds in many cases are down almost
49:31
as much as the stocks uh depending on
49:33
which you own of the two different asset
49:35
classes which particular
49:37
types of stocks and bonds uh but you
49:40
know this is uh people just kind of
49:43
thought stocks and bonds are
49:44
uncorrelated if i own some of each i'm
49:47
always protected but things change over
49:49
time and we're in a different
49:50
environment
49:52
with inflation going up and interest
49:54
rates going up both stocks and bonds are
49:56
going down at the same time and people
49:58
need to rethink
50:00
what is a diversified portfolio and
50:02
what's going to protect me
50:04
uh in tough times
50:07
yeah i i've taken a lot of heat i've had
50:10
on crypto because i've had some people
50:12
on and and we kind of poo pooed it at 60
50:15
000 we poo pooed it at 50 and we kind of
50:17
triple poopooed it at 40. and it's
50:19
probably going to go to a million and
50:20
i'm going to be wrong
50:23
but
50:24
um
50:25
what scares me about that or the people
50:26
that are buying it aren't sophisticated
50:28
and they don't know really know what
50:29
they're buying
50:30
any thoughts and insights on the whole
50:32
crypto situation here bob because you've
50:34
seen you're like me you've been around a
50:36
long time you've seen it all
50:40
yeah the uh
50:42
you know people say crypto like it's all
50:44
just one thing i know like annuities
50:47
right yeah right and it's a lot of
50:49
different things yeah even when you just
50:52
look at the
50:53
currencies there are a lot of different
50:54
ones with definitely different things
50:56
behind them 20 000
50:58
at that time of this typing 20 plus
51:00
thousand uh but you know the real thing
51:02
to keep in mind is it's not necessarily
51:05
a particular cryptocurrency but what's
51:08
making us go is the blockchain
51:11
technology correct that's behind it and
51:14
for the future
51:16
bitcoin and the other currencies they
51:19
might or might not last they might make
51:21
you some money but what you really need
51:24
to look at if you're interested in this
51:26
area
51:27
are how is the blockchain technology
51:30
being used
51:32
what are the different companies out
51:33
there that have some innovative ways to
51:36
profit from it to make it part of
51:37
people's everyday lives correct and look
51:40
at that
51:41
rather than what the headlines are about
51:44
how bitcoin and the others are doing i
51:47
agree
51:48
look at the companies how they're using
51:50
this technology is it going to work
51:52
going forward
51:54
probably one of the biggest issues
51:56
for blockchain technology is
52:00
it uses a lot of energy because it
52:02
involves a lot of people using computers
52:05
it it basically involves a bunch of
52:08
people checking on each other
52:10
online uh verifying their different
52:13
numbers
52:14
and that's been one of the criticisms
52:16
about it is that it uses a lot of energy
52:19
contributes to the climate change and
52:21
all that so it's going to be interesting
52:22
going forward
52:24
how is the legislation effect about
52:27
climate change and things going to
52:29
affect how people can use
52:32
blockchain technology
52:34
i agree with that i agree with that
52:36
totally and i know that the healthcare
52:38
sector the transportation sector you can
52:40
find companies that are utilizing the
52:42
blockchain technology from the
52:44
standpoint of tracking and etc etc my
52:47
conspiracy theory is
52:49
the the treasury will come out with
52:51
their own
52:52
form of cryptocurrency and then that's
52:53
how we'll be taxed real time on a daily
52:55
basis and there won't be any more april
52:58
15th i do know that
53:01
the annuity life insurance side is
53:04
looking at that from the standpoint of
53:06
trackability
53:07
um and just the the transparency
53:10
nature of the the blockchain technology
53:13
i think it's the future and i think
53:14
you're correct i think people are
53:16
getting
53:17
caught looking at crypto and bitcoin and
53:20
ethereum and all those names and you
53:22
just wait a minute stop it's kinda like
53:23
remember when the web came out web stuff
53:26
and there was myspace and aol.com those
53:29
people really aren't players anymore but
53:31
the web is
53:32
so you need to look at it similar bob
53:34
we're coming up on the kind of the end
53:36
of this thing as i always do and i'm
53:37
going to do this again with you
53:38
is our mic drop moment which i'm going
53:40
to ask you to say something
53:43
unbelievably poignant
53:46
and to the point where the people walk
53:48
away and go wow that that was fantastic
53:51
so no pressure at all of course
53:54
so with that being said
53:56
bob carlson mike drop moment go
54:00
well most of the things i discuss in
54:02
retirement watch and my other work it's
54:04
it's the finances of your retirement
54:06
and when most people think of retirement
54:08
they think their finances their
54:10
investments and so forth
54:12
but that's really one of the least
54:14
important factors in deciding whether or
54:17
not you have a successful retirement
54:20
because
54:21
you know how being financially secure
54:23
and independent that's fine that's kind
54:25
of the baseline thing but
54:28
after a point the money doesn't matter
54:30
and and
54:31
surveys of retirees show that that point
54:34
is lower than many people realize yeah
54:36
it is so what matters is whether you
54:38
have a satisfying retirement
54:41
and for that you look at non-financial
54:43
things and that's the most neglected
54:46
part of retirement planning as many
54:48
people focus on the financial part
54:51
and not the non-financial part which is
54:53
going to be the main factor you need
54:55
several things you need a purpose in
54:57
retirement it doesn't you know many
54:59
people their jobs it was their purpose
55:02
it's what they're tied up in
55:04
you need a new purpose and it doesn't
55:06
have to be one purpose it doesn't even
55:08
have to be big things yeah but things
55:10
like you know making taking care of your
55:12
yard having good relationships it's work
55:16
to have and establish and maintain good
55:18
relationships uh things like that so you
55:21
know many people think well i have this
55:23
long list of activities i'm going to do
55:25
in retirement
55:26
and that lasts for a while you have what
55:29
they call the retirement honeymoon it
55:31
might be a few months might be a few
55:32
years yep but after a while you've gone
55:35
through that list and you're in the
55:36
day-to-day routine that's right and
55:39
that's where many people kind of lose it
55:41
in retirement it's why if you uh if you
55:44
do a web search for things like
55:46
depression
55:47
substance abuse suicide among 65 and
55:50
older
55:52
for most of these you'll find that
55:53
they're more prevalent in 65 and older
55:56
and it's increasing
55:58
and it's because they go into retirement
56:00
without a plan
56:02
for the non-financial life
56:05
and they just get bored and depressed
56:07
and they fall into bad habits and things
56:10
of that nature
56:11
and what people who've studied this have
56:13
found is one of the critical things is
56:16
that you have a lot of social contacts
56:19
you should have three or more people
56:21
other than your spouse with whom you
56:23
have a close relationship
56:25
and you should on a regular basis
56:28
have contact uh in different social
56:30
groups whether it's going to church or
56:32
clubs or playing golf or tennis with
56:35
friends
56:36
uh you need to have these things on your
56:38
schedule so when you're approaching
56:40
retirement
56:42
you need to consider
56:44
what is my typical day going to be what
56:46
is my typical week going to be you know
56:48
when you're working
56:50
most of your time is determined for you
56:52
and it's scheduled
56:54
you stop working
56:55
you have all this time to fill it
56:57
commuting time the time at work
57:00
uh you know basically your weekdays were
57:03
filled or determined by work you have
57:05
your weekends
57:07
uh where you did a lot of things you
57:08
couldn't do during the week but
57:10
you retire and you have all this extra
57:13
time
57:14
and initially that's going to be really
57:16
great for you but eventually it's going
57:18
to be something where you have to work
57:20
to determine
57:21
what makes you happy what makes you
57:23
fulfilled what gives you a purpose in
57:26
retirement other than just being
57:28
financially secure
57:29
and that's bob carlson take take
57:31
inventory your finances and take
57:33
inventory of your life
57:35
definitely bob i appreciate you joining
57:37
us we'll definitely have you on once
57:39
again i want to thank everyone on all
57:41
the major podcast platforms to listening
57:43
to fun with annuities and the people
57:44
that are watching us on the fun with
57:46
annuities youtube channel i will see you
57:49
next week
57:54
thanks for listening to fun with
57:56
annuities please hit the subscribe
57:58
button and make sure to go to my site at
58:00
the annuityman.com where you can run
58:03
your own spea dia and culat quotes and
58:06
see a live feed of the best mega fix
58:08
rates in the country and even get
58:11
indexed and income rider quotes as well
58:13
you can also sign up for my six annuity
58:16
owner's manual books and i'll ship them
58:18
for free and under no obligation i also
58:21
encourage you to schedule a one-on-one
58:23
call with me stan the annuity man so we
58:26
can have a full discussion of your
58:28
specific situation it will be the best
58:31
brutally factual and truthful advice you
58:34
will ever get and that's one guarantee
58:36
you should definitely take advantage of
58:38
so join me next time for the number one
58:40
annuity podcast on the planet
58:43
fun
58:44
with annuities
58:48
[Music]
58:59
you
Talk to Stan The Annuity Man® himself
Get Stan for 30 minutes. No cost for his 3 decades of experience. Prepare yourself for the brutal annuity truth.


