Elliot Raphaelson: The Godfather of Financial Journalism

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 licensed in all 50 states

0:46
very honored to have a guest on today

0:48
i've known him for a while

0:50
he's one of the most respected

0:51
journalists

0:52
in the country his name is elliot

0:54
rayfelson

0:55
and let me tell you just a little bit

0:57
about him and then we're going to jump

0:58
in and tap into his decades and decades

1:01
of knowledge

1:02
that he has and he's been so gracious to

1:04
share that with us

1:06
um

1:06
from 2011 to to currently you might be

1:10
familiar with him because he writes a

1:11
syndicated personal finance column

1:13
called the savings game which is

1:14
distributed nationally you know the

1:16
chicago tribune orlando central all

1:18
those places

1:20
um he's done a lot in his life he's

1:22
taught um personal financial planning at

1:24
rollins college which is a beautiful

1:27
school small school in winter park

1:28
florida he is a retired vice president

1:31
23 years at chase manhattan bank and did

1:34
a lot there he was hired as a consultant

1:36
at dow jones

1:38
he did he actually worked um for for a

1:41
long time as an adjunct professor if

1:43
you're familiar with new york city

1:45
that's what what's called the new school

1:47
and it's a very very nice um

1:50
university that's adjacent to nyu in

1:52
fact my daughter was her last my

1:55
youngest daughter her last few choices

1:56
or schools was nyu in the new school she

1:58
chose nyu but she she loved the new

2:00
school he he worked as a consultant for

2:03
general electric he's done all kinds of

2:05
things he's written two books on

2:06
personal financial planning

2:08
um he has a degree in mathematics from

2:10
clark university

2:12
a masters in industrial economics from

2:14
carnegie mellon i mean he's been there

2:16
done that

2:17
many times i could keep going on his

2:21
credentials but i want to jump in and

2:23
get into the conversation elliot thank

2:25
you so much for joining me on fun with

2:27
annuities

2:28
it's a pleasure to be here

2:30
perfect i want to jump in because you

2:32
have you're on the front line with

2:34
consumers every single day with your

2:36
columns and they feel comfortable with

2:38
you and they

2:39
connect with you and talk with you and

2:41
send you emails and things but a lot of

2:43
the i'm assuming based upon our previous

2:46
conversations a lot of their questions

2:47
are on social security

2:50
can you kind of weigh in on that and

2:52
what you what you see as issues for

2:54
consumers and how they can

2:57
decipher the social security

2:59
conundrum and maze that's out there

3:03
sure um

3:04
i'm just going to go through a few of

3:07
the points that i get mail on all of the

3:10
time for example even this week i got a

3:13
an email from someone who wanted a file

3:17
for social security she's approaching

3:19
age 62

3:21
and she was under the false impression

3:24
that if she filed for 62 and her her

3:27
husband

3:28
is already receiving social security

3:30
benefits and she thought that she could

3:33
get uh 50

3:35
of his

3:37
social security benefit right away

3:40
and

3:40
so that's the first misconception

3:42
because if she's filing at 62 it's going

3:45
to be discounted it's going to be

3:46
discounted from

3:48
uh

3:49
from

3:50
when her

3:52
when she would

3:53
meet her

3:55
full retirement age which is in her case

3:57
was 67 so

3:59
so she's going to be discounted for

4:01
several years and not going to be

4:03
receiving anything close to 50 but worse

4:06
than that

4:07
she thought that she could wait until

4:09
age 70 to apply for her own benefits you

4:12
know what she didn't realize that once

4:14
she files

4:16
at age 62 she's not only filing for

4:19
uh for her

4:21
her husband's benefit she's also filing

4:23
for her own benefits so in other words

4:26
her own benefits would be discounted and

4:28
she couldn't wait until age 70 in order

4:30
to get uh get the bonus for waiting

4:33
until age 70. so a lot of people are

4:35
under the impression that they they can

4:37
file at 62 and then when they reach full

4:40
retirement age or when they reach age 70

4:43
they can file and get much higher

4:45
benefits but it doesn't work that way in

4:47
other words once you you file for

4:49
uh at age 62 whether it's for

4:52
your own benefit or for its f for a

4:54
spousal benefits

4:56
it's permanently reduced

4:59
so that's a common misconception and i

5:01
get mail like that all of the time so

5:04
even though i repeat it in a lot of the

5:05
columns uh

5:07
a lot of people still

5:09
still are not aware

5:11
of of that particular restriction

5:14
and i want to

5:15
let me interject real quick for the

5:16
people that are watching us on the phone

5:18
with the annuities youtube channel um

5:20
elliot's camera was wasn't functioning

5:22
this morning so you're only getting

5:24
audio you're getting a very good picture

5:25
of him

5:26
um and elliot i hear a little bit of

5:28
background noise in the background if

5:29
you have a tv or something on in the

5:30
background i need you to shut that off

5:32
no one can see you moving around but i'm

5:33
hearing some cnbc in the background if

5:36
you can turn that off i don't know

5:37
what's running in the background but um

5:41
talk about a little bit more about

5:42
social security and i think a lot of

5:45
people are

5:47
a little timid to

5:49
i don't know approach their financial

5:51
advisors a lot of financial advisors

5:53
aren't up to speed on that which is why

5:55
they turn to people like you

5:58
what would you do to make things easier

6:01
for people with social security i know

6:03
you do that with your columns

6:04
but what are your ideas because a lot of

6:07
we have 11 000 people turning 65 every

6:09
day this is a big issue

6:12
what are your thoughts on that

6:14
well

6:15
turning 65

6:18
one thing people should realize that

6:21
that doesn't necessarily mean you're

6:22
going to get full benefits at 65 because

6:24
now people

6:26
um the younger people have to wait until

6:28
age 67 to get full benefits so that's

6:31
something that they should uh take into

6:33
consideration as well so just because

6:35
they're

6:36
hit age 65 and they're eligible for

6:38
medicare doesn't mean that they're

6:40
eligible for full social security

6:42
benefits so they have to

6:44
just verify when what their full

6:46
retirement age is over most young people

6:49
is going to be age 67. so that's one

6:52
thing that they

6:53
they should understand as well

6:59
i'd like to touch on some some other

7:03
problems that uh that are associated

7:06
with social security where people

7:08
may not understand all of the key points

7:11
i get a lot of emails from people who

7:14
are divorced

7:15
and so i just want to just cover some of

7:17
the some of the key points there okay um

7:21
first of all you've got to be

7:22
uh if you

7:24
if you are contemplating divorce or you

7:27
are divorced

7:28
from a social security point of view you

7:30
have to be married at least 10 years in

7:32
order to be able to get benefits

7:35
uh from your ex-spouse

7:37
and this is a very important point a lot

7:40
of people

7:41
uh are going to be remarried after

7:44
after they're divorced

7:47
and if they don't remarry after age

7:51
after age

7:55
60

7:56
then they're going to lose a lot of

7:58
their benefits so someone who

8:01
who's been divorced for at least 10

8:03
years

8:04
and they remarry after age 60 then

8:07
they're preserving

8:09
a lot of a lot of their benefits

8:12
so for example

8:14
survivor benefits

8:16
so an individual who

8:19
uh

8:20
waits until age

8:22
60 to to remarry they're they're going

8:25
to be eligible for survivor benefits on

8:28
the basis of

8:29
of their ex as well i'm going to give

8:31
you a perfect example okay

8:35
my first wife passed away after

8:38
uh

8:40
after years of having uh breast cancer

8:43
and i remarried a woman who was divorced

8:45
for 10 years and it turns out that her

8:47
husband

8:48
uh worked until age

8:51
70 before he retired so he was able to

8:55
build up a very significant retirement

8:58
benefit because

9:00
he

9:01
worked for many years didn't

9:04
apply for social security until age

9:07
70 so he had a

9:09
benefit of

9:10
in excess of

9:15
well in excess of two thousand dollars

9:18
as a benefit now my wife

9:21
because she had been married

9:23
for more than ten years and because

9:26
uh

9:27
she married

9:28
remarried after the age of sixty she was

9:31
eligible

9:32
for uh for

9:34
a hundred percent of the benefit that he

9:37
was receiving

9:39
so

9:40
as a matter of fact social security even

9:42
notified her that she was eligible for

9:45
higher benefits

9:46
so a lot of people don't realize that

9:49
they're eligible for uh survivor

9:51
benefits uh once they're once their ex

9:54
passes passes away and a lot of times

9:56
that can be very significant so that was

9:58
a very so in my wife's case she she

10:01
received a much higher social security

10:03
benefit on a basis

10:05
on a survivor benefit from her ex now a

10:08
lot of people

10:09
don't realize that

10:11
and uh and if they hesitate if no was if

10:14
they don't wait

10:15
four or five years to find that out then

10:17
they've lost out on

10:19
uh on significant benefits because

10:22
social security will only go back six

10:24
months so it's an important

10:27
it's an important thing to know

10:29
um we talked a little bit about social

10:30
security i know we could do a full

10:32
program on that but i also wanted you to

10:33
weigh in on medicare as well because i

10:35
know that's a that's a big issue that

10:37
that people

10:39
contact you about

10:41
what are the key issues that people are

10:44
concerned about when they contact you

10:46
about medicare

10:48
okay um

10:50
a lot of times people

10:52
uh

10:53
are continuing to work

10:56
after

10:57
age

10:58
65

11:01
so

11:02
as as most people know age 65 is the

11:06
point at which

11:07
uh you are eligible for medicare

11:10
and if you

11:11
work the sufficient amount under social

11:13
security

11:14
a lot you'll automatically get

11:16
uh part a and part a is

11:21
available at no cost

11:25
part b which involves

11:28
medical expenses

11:32
is not is not automatic and you do have

11:35
to pay for that so if an individual is

11:37
covered

11:38
uh with their current

11:41
and they continue to work after age 65

11:44
there's no reason why

11:45
they should be

11:47
signing up for part b because

11:49
uh

11:51
it's not it's an it can be expensive and

11:54
if you if you're covered under your

11:56
current employer then you can postpone

11:58
uh filing for part b until

12:02
uh

12:02
when you leave

12:04
leave your position so

12:06
i get a lot of meal from people wanting

12:08
to know uh whether or not it's necessary

12:12
for them to sign up for part b so they

12:14
really don't have to do that

12:16
uh if if they're still

12:18
covered for their current uh employer

12:22
uh

12:23
that's that's one one issue that's

12:25
that's related to

12:26
uh

12:28
now people

12:29
a lot of people uh

12:32
contribute

12:33
to

12:34
uh

12:37
hsas

12:39
and

12:41
it's not common knowledge but that once

12:43
you

12:45
sign up for medicare

12:47
you're obviou you're automatically

12:51
uh

12:52
entered into

12:55
part a

12:56
of medicare

12:58
and which unfortunately means you can no

13:00
longer

13:02
uh

13:04
you can no longer make contributions to

13:07
hsa you can still maintain your hsa

13:11
but you can't contribute any

13:13
you can you can continue to make

13:15
withdrawals and pay your uh your health

13:18
care expenses out of hsa but you uh but

13:21
you can't

13:22
make any additional contributions as a

13:24
matter of fact you can be penalized if

13:25
you if you continue to uh to make

13:28
contributions so uh so people

13:31
who've got a choice as to whether or not

13:33
they want to join medicare at all

13:36
uh if they want to continue to

13:38
um

13:40
contribute to hsas then then they really

13:43
don't want to

13:44
uh enroll in medicare they want to

13:46
postpone that

13:48
if they can if they're continuing to

13:50
work

13:51
so that's that's one issue

13:53
that comes up uh

13:56
other issues that are related to

13:57
medicare that are

13:59
that are important is that

14:02
there's a lot of

14:04
restrictions

14:05
in terms of when you can get penalized

14:08
and it's important that when you're

14:11
eligible to join medicare if you don't

14:15
the the exception is if you're

14:17
continuing to work that's fine you don't

14:19
have to apply for uh for parts of of

14:22
medicare

14:23
but

14:24
if you're eligible and you don't sign up

14:26
in in

14:28
in the in the relatively narrow time

14:31
frame that you have then you can be

14:33
penalized

14:34
on a permanent basis so it is important

14:37
for people to know that once they're

14:39
eligible for medicare if they if they're

14:42
not continuing to work then they should

14:44
be signing up during that narrow uh

14:47
that narrow time frame and there is one

14:49
book that that

14:51
that's very good and i advise no need no

14:53
need to show it because we all have you

14:55
on on camera yet and we were just

14:57
showing your face so just read the title

14:58
of that if you don't well in other words

15:00
medicare and you

15:02
uh and it's it's published every year

15:05
and it uh it's available through

15:08
uh through cms in other words if you go

15:10
to www.cms.gov

15:14
you can get that and it doesn't cost

15:16
anything it gives you

15:17
the the basics of

15:20
of medicare and it's a very important

15:23
document it's a lot of free information

15:25
there

15:27
cms you said cms.gov www.cms.gov

15:32
and we'll have that link by the way for

15:34
everybody we're going to have a page for

15:36
elliott on our site and we're also going

15:39
to have all of these links that he is

15:40
talking about so you can do a direct

15:42
um

15:43
directly go to them

15:45
um i wanted to pivot unless you had one

15:47
more a couple more things to say about

15:49
medicare i did want to pivot to

15:50
something else anything else on medicare

15:52
that you want to cover for the listeners

15:54
well medicare is very complicated and

15:57
there's a book that i recommend and it's

15:59
called get what's yours for health care

16:01
and it's written by philip muller

16:04
m-u-m-o-e-l-l-e-r

16:06
okay published by simon and schuster and

16:09
it's an excellent book

16:10
uh and it has been revised so someone

16:13
who wants to be able to

16:15
uh

16:17
read about all of the options

16:19
of medicare and the pluses and minuses

16:22
of different plans i recommend that that

16:25
you obtain that book it's uh getting

16:28
getting what's yours get what's yours

16:30
for health care by philip muller and

16:32
uh if you wanted to get it from the

16:33
library i'm sure you can because it has

16:35
been a bestseller but uh but that's a

16:37
book that i recommend that i think

16:40
so

16:42
i'm sorry get educated right

16:44
yeah it's important what i try to do and

16:47
uh i try to identify different books

16:49
that i think are helpful to people and

16:52
what i'd like to do is just just spend a

16:54
couple minutes

16:55
talking about books

16:57
that i have reviewed favorably

17:00
on different subjects that i think are

17:01
going to be very helpful to people as

17:03
long as the annuity books are my books

17:05
i'm good with that absolutely

17:07
i

17:09
just want to point out that

17:12
any time

17:13
a reader

17:14
writes to me about

17:17
annuity issues

17:19
uh

17:20
i don't claim to be an expert i try to

17:23
answer their basic questions but i

17:24
always refer them

17:26
uh to stan his his website his email

17:29
address and i point out that if people

17:31
want to have the

17:32
the full story

17:34
from an unbiased source i recommend stan

17:37
and i recommend that they get all of his

17:40
uh his free booklets which are very well

17:43
written and i refer to them all at the

17:45
time

17:46
and i'll tell you ellie most of the time

17:48
when people contact me from your site

17:51
i'm just helping them either

17:53
understand what they currently own or

17:55
prevent them from making a buying

17:57
mistake

17:58
or explaining to them

18:00
what they need to be looking for or if

18:03
an annuity fits at all and then

18:04
obviously sending them my book so you

18:06
know it's not

18:08
feel free to contact me people that are

18:10
on on my podcast they know that yes we

18:12
do sell annuities if it's appropriate

18:14
and suitable but that's not you know

18:16
we're not a hammer looking for a nail

18:18
okay

18:19
and i appreciate that what are some of

18:20
the books on other topics that you would

18:23
want to okay yeah i want to just go

18:24
through some of them for example one uh

18:28
i think you mentioned it earlier but um

18:32
while i was working at chase i taught

18:34
for 18 years at the new school

18:36
and

18:39
it was interesting to me

18:41
i really enjoy teaching it a lot because

18:43
at the new school

18:45
uh

18:46
there's this part of the school where

18:48
you can teach courses and you don't have

18:50
to give exams to do

18:52
correct papers and things like that so i

18:54
taught

18:55
uh a course for 18 years on

18:58
personal financial planning and i was

19:01
the first one that wrote to the editors

19:02
there and said gee you know you offer a

19:04
lot of courses but nothing related to

19:06
personal financial planning

19:09
and so i offered to

19:11
teach a course there

19:12
and um like i said i was able to do it

19:15
for 18 years and i just want to give you

19:18
some highlights in terms of my

19:19
experience there sure uh it turned out

19:22
that more than 50 percent of the people

19:25
uh who attended

19:27
my course were women which sort of

19:30
surprised me a little bit

19:31
uh

19:32
and

19:34
the main reason they were there was

19:36
because in a lot of cases

19:38
uh their husband was handling all of the

19:40
personal finances and they just felt

19:43
left out

19:44
and this was a way for them to get

19:46
educated because they weren't getting

19:48
educated from their husbands i guess

19:50
their husbands felt that well they they

19:52
want that he handled the money and the

19:53
investments and sure so a lot of the

19:55
people there uh

19:57
just were there because they really felt

19:59
that they they could learn something

20:01
that they weren't learning at home so as

20:04
you probably know uh very few

20:07
high schools and colleges have basic

20:09
courses in personal financial planning

20:11
so so i've had people in in my course

20:14
that you know may have gotten a

20:16
doctorate in

20:17
some scientific field but when it came

20:19
to personal finance they had very little

20:22
knowledge at all

20:24
and

20:26
i i want to give you one more anecdote

20:28
which was very interesting usually i had

20:30
between 20 and 25 students that would

20:32
attend my class and all of a sudden i

20:34
was getting 50 to 60 that that were

20:36
coming and at the beginning of each

20:38
class what i always did is i said why

20:40
are you here

20:42
and it was very interesting because the

20:43
previous semester there was an editor

20:46
from vogue who took my course um

20:49
and she wrote an article which i didn't

20:50
even realize she wrote about how she got

20:52
educated in personal finances she and

20:55
she gave my my course a plug it was very

20:57
interesting because the reason that she

20:59
took the course was because her husband

21:01
had recently died

21:03
and she really

21:05
didn't know very much about personal

21:07
finance or investments and

21:09
so that's how she got educated and so it

21:12
turned out that after she wrote that

21:13
article

21:14
uh

21:17
the class

21:18
the class size doubled and i had more

21:21
women than i ever had before but it was

21:23
very interesting as to why they were

21:25
coming so most a lot of them were

21:28
were either widows or you know they

21:30
anticipated

21:32
that they would probably outlive their

21:34
husbands so it was it was very

21:35
interesting and uh i found that most of

21:38
these people really just needed a basic

21:41
understanding of all concepts related to

21:44
personal finance

21:45
and that leads me up to one book that i

21:48
i try to recognize that i have

21:50
recommended and that's

21:51
how to how to make your money last by

21:54
jane brian quinn i really love her books

21:56
because she writes very clearly and that

21:59
particular book just covers every uh

22:03
every aspect of personal financial

22:04
planning and is written uh so that

22:07
layman can understand it and she also

22:09
references a lot of the same experts

22:12
that i refer to so that's that's one

22:14
book that that i recommend and you asked

22:16
me about other books that uh that i've

22:18
recommended i give a couple

22:22
one uh one book that i i recommend uh

22:26
highly is the new

22:28
retirement savings time bomb by ed slot

22:31
uh i read

22:33
a lot about uh personal finance related

22:37
to retirement accounts

22:39
iras

22:41
401ks

22:42
roth accounts

22:44
very complicated subject and and next to

22:47
social security that's the topic that i

22:49
get most most of the mail meal from

22:52
from the readers and

22:55
i've worked with ed slot uh and his

22:57
group for

22:59
many years and i find that their

23:02
fine organization that particular book

23:05
by ed slot the new retirement savings

23:07
time bomb which he updates every year

23:10
is is a great book and if you really

23:11
want to get it that's all you have to do

23:14
is uh send it

23:16
send an email to

23:21
yeah i just www.irahelp.com to give you

23:22
a little background in terms of how i

23:24
work you know with with that group

23:27
um

23:28
every couple years they have a seminar

23:31
in the orlando area and they're kind

23:33
enough to invite me

23:35
and uh

23:37
and i attend that two-day session and it

23:39
it keeps me up to date in terms of the

23:42
latest things that are

23:43
that are happening in in

23:46
the world of iras and and tax laws and

23:49
as

23:50
most people know who got iras the secure

23:53
act was passed recently and that changed

23:56
the whole rule

23:57
rules in terms of iras and how

24:01
and and how people

24:03
have to make

24:05
required minimum distributions and i

24:07
want to i'll cover that a little bit

24:08
later but i just wanted to just go over

24:10
a couple of other books and then i'll

24:12
i'll i'd like to talk about a little bit

24:14
more about

24:15
uh

24:16
iras and and what that new law is

24:18
associated with sure

24:20
it does

24:21
uh

24:22
another

24:23
book that i that i've recommended highly

24:25
is

24:26
is the truth about crypto by rick rick

24:29
edelman and that's by simon and schuster

24:32
as well i got a lot of mail from people

24:35
who are interested in in crypto

24:38
uh

24:40
and people

24:43
it's in it's

24:45
as most people know it's fluctuated

24:47
quite a bit recently in the last last

24:49
year or so

24:50
and i'm not saying that it's something

24:52
that should be part of everyone's

24:54
portfolio but i think it's important

24:56
that you re read a book that uh

25:00
that really gives you the basic

25:02
information i think most people who

25:04
invest in this field just don't

25:06
understand the basics and i think it's

25:08
important that that they do and and

25:11
that's why i recommend this this

25:12
particular book he's he's he uh

25:16
had written about uh

25:19
crypto investments for for

25:21
many years and i think he's the leading

25:23
expert in in his book he just

25:26
uh

25:27
he's very logical he's uh gives you the

25:29
background and he tells you the things

25:31
to avoid in

25:33
in terms of investing and

25:36
and i think it's a it's

25:38
it's a book that i think anyone should

25:40
read before they invest one dollar in

25:42
that particular field

25:44
uh

25:45
and there's another book that i i think

25:47
is is excellent for people

25:50
to look at and uh

25:53
and it's written by uh

25:55
wade fowle and i think you've had him on

25:57
your broadcast yeah wait wait wait it's

25:59
a friend he's been on the podcast we're

26:01
trying to get rick on the podcast um as

26:04
well uh because he he does other things

26:06
but yeah what what's the which which

26:08
book of okay do you like

26:10
okay i i've written i i've favorably

26:13
reviewed a couple of his books the last

26:15
one i reviewed favorably was retirement

26:18
planning guidebook which which was uh

26:20
has come out within the last

26:22
several months and it's it's a

26:24
it's a very comprehensive book and it's

26:26
not as easily read as some of the other

26:28
books i recommend but i think it is

26:30
important

26:31
and one of the

26:33
uh

26:34
and i previously favorably reviewed uh a

26:37
book that uh wade wade wrote regarding

26:40
uh

26:42
uh

26:45
regarding

26:47
reverse mortgages now yeah i was gonna

26:49
say that's my favorite one because a lot

26:52
of people have misconceptions about

26:53
reverse mortgages and home equity issues

26:56
and he

26:57
lays it on the line and actually puts it

26:59
in a place in your brain

27:01
that it could actually work within a

27:03
portfolio if you use in other words from

27:05
the standpoint of including it

27:07
and i think it's fantastic what he's

27:09
done obviously

27:11
the advertising surrounding

27:13
that that category is a little messy

27:17
just like annuities but he he did

27:19
clarify that i do think that anyone

27:21
that's a homeowner that has a lot of

27:24
equity in their home and that's one of

27:26
their bigger assets that's a must read

27:28
in my opinion i agree with you and he's

27:30
recently updated that book as well and

27:32
he talks about it in his retirement

27:34
planning guidebook as well

27:36
for many years i had written written

27:38
negatively uh about

27:41
about that particular about reverse

27:43
mortgages but i changed my mind after

27:45
reading a couple of well-written books

27:46
and one of them was by

27:48
was by wade so i agree with you that i

27:51
think that anyone who's really

27:53
considering it

27:54
uh should

27:56
should read one of one of his books you

27:58
have to don't don't don't get swayed by

28:01
television commercials with

28:03
with uh ex you know old movie stars you

28:06
know just just do do your research um i

28:09
wanted to pivot a little bit because

28:10
we're we're you know we've got a limited

28:12
amount of time one of the things that i

28:14
recently did is i did a video called the

28:16
the i bond no brainer and it co and

28:18
dovetailed with some with some um

28:20
articles you've written about eye bonds

28:22
now

28:23
we've talked in the past to me ibonds

28:26
are not a a competitor with fixed rate

28:29
annuities mygas are great their cd

28:31
products cds are great they're cds right

28:34
but anytime you can get a guaranteed

28:35
interest rate and have very secure

28:38
underlying principal protection whether

28:41
i sell it or not i'm for it that's the

28:42
reason i went out and did this i bond

28:44
eyebrow no brainer video

28:47
and it's uh people would thank me and

28:49
wondered what i was doing telling the

28:51
truth i think it's great i think the

28:53
only limitation is they just don't allow

28:55
you to put enough money in it would love

28:57
to hear your

28:59
take on i bonds and giving your um

29:02
experience with this

29:04
okay

29:05
i started writing about i bonds uh

29:09
the beginning of this year mainly

29:12
because

29:13
of what's going on with inflation

29:16
and the way eye bounds work

29:19
is that

29:22
every six months the the

29:24
the interest changes on on i bonds and

29:28
if you weren't in purchase then i bond

29:30
today you get actually get over nine

29:32
percent

29:33
uh

29:35
uh

29:36
which is very hard to beat a nine

29:38
percent rate of return even though it's

29:40
only guaranteed for six months

29:42
uh

29:44
there are there are some

29:45
things you you have to be aware of

29:48
uh one is that once you purchase an i

29:50
bond and in the minimum

29:54
i shouldn't say these minimums are very

29:56
low but the maximum per year

29:58
is ten thousand dollars although this

30:00
weighs around that so uh so you if

30:02
you're by yourself you can invest ten

30:05
thousand dollars in an ibond uh uh your

30:07
spouse can invest ten thousand dollars

30:09
in an i bond uh if you've got a tax

30:12
return

30:13
in which you're expecting a refund uh

30:16
you can invest an additional uh five

30:18
thousand dollars in a family unit uh for

30:22
an eye bond as well but you do have to

30:24
uh enter

30:26
enter the irs i believe it's 999 you

30:28
have to

30:29
include that in your tax return so if

30:31
you get up to five thousand dollar

30:33
refund and of course you can change your

30:35
deductions so that

30:37
you withhold more so that you can get up

30:38
to five thousand dollars so that

30:40
somebody who wanted to

30:42
invest fifteen hundred dollars rather

30:43
than a thousand

30:45
they could make sure that you know that

30:47
they're getting a significant refund so

30:48
they could so that would allow them to

30:50
make a 1500 i'm sorry 10 000 plus an

30:53
additional 5 000 to invest

30:56
and also if you've got a trust account

30:57
you can add an additional uh 10 000 per

31:00
year or if you've got if you've got

31:02
other uh

31:04
other businesses that you're associated

31:06
with for every any one of your limited

31:08
partnerships you can invest another ten

31:10
thousand so the point is even though

31:12
there's a limit of ten thousand each

31:14
year you can buy an additional ten

31:15
thousand so this weighs around that ten

31:17
thousand dollar minimum um what are the

31:20
disadvantages well one disadvantage is

31:23
and i don't call it a significant

31:25
disadvantage is that you do have to hold

31:27
it for at least one year

31:29
and uh if you don't hold it for at least

31:31
five years

31:33
uh then you

31:35
uh then you lose three months interest

31:36
which is relatively minor for the kind

31:38
of interest rate that you're you're

31:40
getting another disadvantage is that you

31:42
can't uh put it in an ira but here again

31:46
relatively uh small disadvantage

31:50
one problem

31:52
and

31:53
it can be frustrating if you want to get

31:55
more information

31:56
if you go to the the

31:58
the uh treasury direct um

32:02
direct.gov

32:03
for everybody and

32:05
and

32:06
if you wanted to just purchase it if you

32:08
just follow the

32:10
the information on that website you can

32:13
purchase it with no problem you don't

32:14
even have to talk to a treasury

32:16
representative but a lot of times people

32:18
have got individual questions

32:20
and uh they want to call and get

32:22
additional information and i'll give you

32:23
the telephone number no

32:25
don't do that we'll just do it let's

32:26
let's just do let's just do the

32:29
okay let's just do treasurydirect.gov if

32:31
you don't mind and they can decipher

32:33
from there okay great but i just want to

32:35
let people know that if you do want to

32:37
call them because there's so much

32:38
interest

32:39
in the last six months because of of

32:42
the high inflation that you may have to

32:44
wait an hour or more to really talk to

32:46
them and that's the reason i discourage

32:48
that you really need to be able to go on

32:50
the site right without speaking to

32:52
someone and and do it yourself because

32:55
you're going to do it yearly on and so

32:57
don't don't treat it like a broker's

32:59
firm in a bank it's not you can do it

33:01
online it's very simple

33:03
treasurydirect.gov

33:04
if you need to ask questions then read

33:07
more on the site period okay

33:12
i think we're running out of time but i

33:13
wanted to talk about an important uh ira

33:16
issue that i'm sure absolutely get a lot

33:18
of mail on i mentioned that the secure

33:20
act passed uh not that long ago which

33:23
which really had made a significant

33:24
change in

33:26
uh and the rules associated with iras

33:28
and there's one particular

33:30
uh

33:32
issue that i wanted to discuss most

33:34
people

33:35
uh are under the impression under the

33:38
new law is that if they inherit uh

33:42
an ira and i'm not talking about people

33:44
who

33:44
uh

33:45
who are

33:47
a spouse or somebody who is

33:50
or

33:52
are a child that that's

33:54
[Music]

33:56
that's eligible for other rights but

33:58
most people who inherit an ira

34:02
uh under the under the current rules

34:05
they have to use

34:06
what's called a 10 10 year

34:09
uh

34:10
plan

34:11
that's not called about the 10 year plan

34:13
but the point is that now if you're

34:15
inheriting an ira rather than being able

34:18
to

34:19
uh make withdrawals over your lifetime

34:22
the irs was very interested in getting

34:25
uh

34:26
uh getting

34:27
the interest getting the the taxable

34:30
interest on

34:31
traditional irs and always if

34:34
you inherited a traditional ira when you

34:36
make a withdrawal you have to pay

34:37
ordinary income tax

34:39
so

34:40
prior to the secure act you you could

34:44
just take

34:45
make withdrawals on the basis of your

34:47
lifetime

34:48
uh or your life expectancy life

34:50
expectancy and using the irs

34:56
tables but under the new rules because

34:59
irs wanted to collect more quickly

35:02
they're forcing you to

35:04
pay

35:05
to take the

35:07
distributions over a 10-year period now

35:09
initially all of the experts thought

35:12
that the law said that you for years one

35:14
through nine you could take out

35:17
uh

35:18
as much as you want and not have to make

35:20
any required minimum distributions

35:22
but the uh at the beginning of this year

35:25
the irs came up with their

35:27
interpretations and they made the point

35:30
uh under the their new guidelines is

35:33
that if if you're inheriting an ira from

35:36
an individual who was over the age of 62

35:40
and was making

35:41
uh

35:42
required minimum distributions

35:45
and you're forced to make required

35:47
minimum distributions yourself

35:49
for the first for years one through nine

35:52
based on your life expectancy and that

35:55
was that's a significant change so all

35:57
of the experts including ed law ed [ __ ]

36:00
thought

36:02
that people who were able would be able

36:04
to for the first nine years

36:06
be able to take as much as they wanted

36:08
out so you could basically take nothing

36:10
out and then in the tenth year the fifth

36:12
year you've got to take all of the money

36:14
up so

36:15
and i don't recommend that people do

36:16
that because then they get hit with a

36:18
big tax burden but under under the irs

36:21
interpretations

36:23
if the individual who passed uh was

36:26
already taking

36:27
minimum distributions then you're

36:29
required to do the same thing so i get a

36:31
lot of meal on that and there's a lot of

36:33
misinformation out there so i think it's

36:36
important

36:37
that you understand what the rules are

36:39
associated with and the rules are very

36:41
complicated i mean the irs has made life

36:44
very difficult for people who are

36:46
inheriting

36:48
iras both both spouses as well as

36:50
everybody else agreed gotta have a good

36:53
financial planner to help you and it's

36:56
it's slot uh is a great source for me

36:59
uh anytime i get any questions

37:01
uh that are complicated and i get a lot

37:04
of complicated questions sure i can i i

37:07
work with a lawyer

37:08
uh

37:10
in ed's group and they'll get back to me

37:13
the same day i any question that i have

37:16
so yeah he's got a full legal team

37:18
obviously full staff absolutely

37:20
big

37:22
big fans of what he does you know

37:24
obviously absolutely and and and they

37:27
were they're a great company to work

37:28
with and and they answer these

37:30
complicated questions very quickly and

37:33
uh

37:34
and i love working with them so i wanted

37:36
to

37:37
you know i know we're running out of

37:38
time but i want to what else is on your

37:40
mind because i got i've got one final

37:42
question for you but if you have

37:43
anything else you want to address to the

37:44
listeners i'd love for you to share that

37:48
okay one there's one other thing that

37:50
related to social security that i did

37:53
want to talk about and a lot of people

37:55
people

37:57
a lot of people get

37:58
uh

37:59
income from a pension plan

38:02
that's not associated with social

38:04
security in other words if teachers

38:07
uh

38:08
you know get uh people who work for the

38:11
government

38:12
uh they they get uh

38:14
pensions

38:15
and they haven't been contributing to uh

38:18
to social security sure they get

38:21
surprised when

38:23
they reach retirement and they think

38:25
they're going to be getting

38:26
uh

38:27
a lot of benefits from social security

38:29
as well and they find out unfortunately

38:32
that if they're receiving

38:34
a pension from a teacher

38:36
the

38:37
teacher's job or some other government

38:39
job they find out that

38:42
they're not going to get anywhere near

38:43
the social security benefits that they

38:45
expect even if they've worked part-time

38:48
under social security so there were

38:50
there were two provisions

38:52
uh that people should become familiar

38:54
with

38:55
one of them is called uh

38:59
uh wep it's called the with the

39:02
withholding um

39:05
i'm sorry the uh

39:07
and gplg is is

39:10
these are

39:11
two

39:12
programs that uh that

39:14
that the irs

39:18
that affect people in terms of having

39:21
benefits reduced from social security so

39:23
you really have to

39:25
uh understand what these provisions are

39:28
because

39:29
a lot of people

39:30
don't understand that if they are

39:32
getting a significant pension pen

39:35
payment

39:36
that they are going to be uh they're not

39:39
going to be able to get full social

39:41
security

39:42
benefits unless they've worked for many

39:44
uh many years under social security as

39:46
well sure so anyone that uh

39:50
that is getting uh

39:52
either is getting a

39:54
a pension uh

39:56
outside of social security they should

39:58
make sure that they uh get in touch with

40:01
social security and get a better

40:03
understanding uh of

40:06
these

40:07
these two provisions one of them impacts

40:09
the benefits they get and it also

40:11
impacts any spousal benefits as well

40:13
just to give you just to give you an

40:15
example under this

40:16
gpo

40:19
government pension offset

40:22
that they could uh

40:25
so somebody who wanted to file for

40:27
um

40:30
for a

40:31
spousal benefit for example for uh for a

40:34
uh

40:37
a benefit a survivor benefit

40:40
they their this

40:41
survivor benefit would be reduced by

40:44
two-thirds of the amount that they get

40:45
from their own pension so it can be a

40:48
very significant uh

40:50
uh

40:51
impact so i think people who are getting

40:54
uh

40:55
a benefit

40:57
from from a different pension they

40:58
should make sure that they understand

41:01
uh what the uh restrictions are in terms

41:04
of of these these two programs

41:07
and so i get a lot of meal on that and

41:08
people a lot of people are very

41:10
surprised when they

41:11
when they go into retirement that they

41:13
don't they're not getting the the kind

41:15
of social security benefits that they

41:17
thought they were entitled to so i think

41:19
that's that's another

41:21
one which i get a lot of me

41:23
well elliott it's so we're coming up on

41:24
the end here and i have one more

41:26
question first of all before we i get to

41:28
that one last question i want to thank

41:30
you for joining me i mean it's

41:31
an honor and a plea a privilege but i

41:34
have one question that i always ask to

41:36
my celebrity guest

41:37
and i don't tell you ahead of time what

41:39
it's going to be so yeah i'm just off

41:41
the top of your head so i call it the

41:43
mic drop moment and really what it is is

41:45
a 30 second a minute answer from you

41:49
on just words of wisdom

41:51
and for you well that's going to be a

41:52
tough one because there's a lot of

41:53
wisdom there a lot of experience but

41:56
what would be your words of wisdom might

41:58
drop moment

42:00
as we exit out of this podcast what

42:02
would you tell people

42:04
okay that you want them to walk away

42:05
with okay i

42:07
i would say that

42:09
words of wisdom

42:10
uh in terms of investing i i think it's

42:13
important that people uh not

42:17
people invest from a long-term

42:18
perspective and they need

42:21
a

42:22
diversified portfolio they shouldn't

42:24
depend on

42:25
investing in

42:27
all of their money or the majority of

42:29
their money

42:31
associated with their employer because

42:33
people you know they can lose their job

42:35
uh sure just because they work for a

42:38
company that seems to be doing well i

42:40
mean you never know you don't want to

42:41
have all of your eggs in one basket so i

42:43
like diversification i think people

42:46
should uh should invest on a long term

42:48
basis they shouldn't be buying and

42:50
selling just because they think the

42:52
market is going to go one way in other

42:53
words

42:55
it's impossible for for even the experts

42:57
to tell you when to get in and out of

42:59
the market so

43:00
my recommendation is that if you're

43:02
young start investing early try to use

43:05
uh

43:06
iras and other

43:08
whatever advantages you have for tax

43:10
deferral

43:11
uh try to uh and try to invest in

43:17
if you're early in life you can invest a

43:19
lot of money or a larger larger

43:20
percentage of your money in equities as

43:22
you get closer and closer to retirement

43:25
uh you should

43:26
modify your portfolio and and and

43:30
and include

43:32
bonds in your portfolio as well try to

43:35
try to use uh

43:37
diversified investments i i always

43:40
suggest that people have a majority of

43:42
their of their equity investments uh in

43:46
diversified portfolios with

43:48
where you don't have any uh high

43:51
expenses associated with it so i really

43:53
like

43:54
uh investing in uh in diversified

43:58
mutual funds in which you've got

44:02
low costs and uh you know

44:06
in a very diversified portfolio whether

44:08
or not it's the s p 500 or some other

44:11
type and result in no matter what

44:13
financial institution you're dealing

44:15
with uh

44:17
the chances are that they've got some

44:18
kind of uh

44:21
large portfolio in which you can invest

44:24
across the board so i i think people uh

44:27
too many people try to try to pick

44:30
individual securities and i'm not saying

44:32
you should never buy an individual

44:33
security but you want you want to have a

44:35
diversified portfolio you should be

44:37
using uh when you're if you're young you

44:39
should be investing as much as you can

44:42
use use dollar cost averaging and don't

44:44
try to outguess the market in terms of

44:47
trying to sell high and

44:49
sure you know obviously you want to buy

44:51
low and sell high and you just

44:53
it's impossible to really outguess the

44:56
market so and take a long-term approach

44:58
and stay diversified

44:59
thank you so much that is elliot

45:02
raffelson who i deem the godfather of

45:05
financial journalist he's been doing it

45:08
a very very long time

45:10
and he is still relevant to this day and

45:13
i encourage you to read

45:15
his column when you see it in your

45:17
newspaper i want to thank every i want

45:18
to thank every single person that's

45:20
that's watching us on the the fun with

45:22
annuities youtube channel apologies for

45:24
the the lack of seeing ellie move around

45:26
we had some fun

45:27
some camera issues but i also want to

45:29
thank all the people on the major

45:30
podcast platforms for joining us and

45:32
i'll see you next week on fun

45:35
with annuities

45:40
thanks for listening to fun with

45:42
annuities please hit the subscribe

45:44
button and make sure to go to my site at

45:46
the annuityman.com where you can run

45:49
your own spea dia and culat quotes and

45:52
see a live feed of the best maga fix

45:54
rates in the country and even get

45:57
indexed and income writer quotes as well

45:59
you can also sign up for my six annuity

46:02
owner's manual books and i'll ship them

46:04
for free and under no obligation i also

46:07
encourage you to schedule a one-on-one

46:09
call with me stan the annuity man so we

46:12
can have a full discussion of your

46:14
specific situation it will be the best

46:17
brutally factual and truthful advice you

46:20
will ever get and that's one guarantee

46:22
you should definitely take advantage of

46:24
so join me next time for the number one

46:26
annuity podcast on the planet

46:29
fun

46:30
with annuities

46:34
[Music]

46:45
you