11.11.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

11.11.22: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to Your American Retirement with your host, Randy Sams. Get set for a full hour of financial information and economic news affecting your bottom line. Randy works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you too. So now let's start the show. Here is your host, Randy Sams.

Randy Sams:
Hey, welcome, Central Arkansas. My name is Randy Sams. I want to welcome you to the radio program, Your American Retirement. Again, I am your host, Randy Sams. I want to thank you for listening at 101.1 FM. The Answer, I hope you're having a fantastic Saturday afternoon, folks. We're going to be coming to you the Saturday after the election. So hopefully you all exercised your right to vote. But Today show, man, I think we've got a great show today. Again, as always, I have my producer, Mr. Jim, the folks I want to thank you for listening to the show each week. We thank, you know, the local airwaves one on 101.1 FM. The Answer has been has been great. And also, please go online to our podcast where you get your favorite podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, etc. and take a look, take a listen. And you can also go to the website, Your American Retirement dot com. If you've missed any previous episodes or previous programs, you can click on the previous shows and you can listen to them in entirety. I think we've had some great shows over the past few weeks, over the past few months that we've been on on the air at 101.1 FM. The Answer, But I do want to thank you for listening again. Check out the website, Your American Retirement dot com. YourAmericanRetirement.com. Take a look at what we've got. Leave us some comments. We love the comments that we've had from our clients, from those of folks who are listening to the show. Give us a thumbs up again on the podcast.

Randy Sams:
Subscribe to the podcast. It just helps us out to kind of know how many people are actually listening. But folks, again, we want to thank you. We love helping our listeners, We love listening to our listeners. Leave us some comments. Give us a call on toll free number 866 990 7664. Again, the toll free number 866 990 7664. So if there's anything that you hear on the radio show or any past shows that you want to have a consultation or you want to ask questions about Your American Retirement dot com, leave us a comment. Leave us your contact information. I promise you we're not going to inundate you with emails. We're not going to try to sell you aluminum siding or anything of that nature. We're going to talk about insurance. We're going to talk about retirement planning, because as you know, if you've heard this show in the previous previous months that we've done this show, you know that we are SMMG Financial. I am the president, CEO of SMMG Financial. I've been in the business for 36 years now. I love working with clients and the retirement planning industry. The market I travel five states Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas. I've also got clients in Oklahoma and some in southern Missouri. So we we are all busy. We're very busy working with folks, helping you put together your retirement plan, talking about Social Security, talking about Medicare, talking about when is the best time for us to put that plan into into motion. So again, remember Your American Retirement, SMMG Financial. We are focused on addressing the major financial issues facing retirees and pre-retirees in America today.

Randy Sams:
We want to help people understand and prepare for a secure retirement, not a risky retirement. So we want to be able to take that four-letter word away from your retirement plan, and that is risk. So, folks, we've got a great show for you. Again, thank you for joining us. We're going to talk about a few things, bringing up the subjects from a couple of shows we've been talking about. Yep. Folks, as you know, we are in the annual enrollment period for 2022, which means for those of you who have Medicare Advantage, those of you have Medicare Part A, Part B, those of you have prescription drug plans. This is when you can make your changes, you can switch and we'll go over that. But again, AEP began October 15th and it runs through December 7th. So we're less than a month away from December 7th. So that means this year enrollment period, you've got about a month to go. So let us know if we can help you with your Medicare needs. Answer any questions, folks. There's no obligation. Give us a call. Go to the website Your American Retirement dot com. Leave us your contact information. Give us an idea of what your question might be and we'll be glad to get in contact with you and meet with you in person. Or we can talk over the telephone and we can go over any questions you might have about Medicare or Medicare Advantage.

Randy Sams:
So don't hesitate to give us a call. Again, Direct number 501 249 2343 . Or toll free? 866 990 7664. So folks, what we're going to do to kind of go through the end of segment one, we're going to look at. Yep, we're going to look at Medicare parts A, part B, part C, Part D, We'll talk quickly about Medicare supplement or what's known as a medigap plan, and then we'll talk about what you can do during EAP and then we'll go over this week. So we're going to talk about I've got a great example, real-life example from a client. She was a listener to the show and she'd been listening the last few weeks. We've been going over Social Security benefits. When's the best time to turn those on and what options you might have? And so we're going to give you a real life example of a client that I just put together a program for her, which I call it Social Security Bridge, and we'll talk about that in detail here in either the end of this segment or we'll go into Segment two or Segment three. So anyway, let's go into yep, let's look at Medicare. So folks, Medicare original Medicare, you've got Medicare Part A, medicare Part B, which are basically managed by the federal government. People can see any doctor that accepts Medicare assignment and the government program pays a significant portion of that cost. If you've listened to any previous shows or if you've met with anybody, you know that Medicare Part A and B, I consider it like an 8020 plan.

Randy Sams:
All right. It's not always 8020 because Medicare is only going to pay what the Medicare approved benefits are. So but usually it's like an 8020 plan. That's an example that that I like my clients to kind of get an understanding. Most of the clients that I deal with have been working and they're getting close to retirement and they want to understand what Medicare is. They have a group plan through their employer sponsored plan and they understand what an 8020 plan is or a 7030. So that's kind of how Medicare A and B works. So again, Medicare Part B or Part A is inpatient hospital or skilled nursing facility, basically inpatient hospital. So that takes care of your hospital bills. All right. It's a zero premium. Most people qualify. You have to have, what, 40 quarters? So if you've worked for about ten years or longer, then you probably qualify for premium free part A The deductible for 2022 is $1,556. For 2023, it's $1,600. So it's increasing just a tad. Part B, Part B is for doctor's visits and preventative services. All right. Got to have part B. You're going to go to the doctor. You're going to go to A specialist. Part B also covers some of your drugs that are in the while you're in the hospital or outpatient drugs. Excuse me, but for part B, premium starts at $170.10. That's what it is for 2022. In 2023, that premium is going to drop. So your part B premium for 2023 is $164 and 90.

Randy Sams:
There is a deductible. So before Part B will pay anything, you have to pay your deductible. And that deductible for 2022 is $233 for 2023. It's going down $226. So it decreased, what, $7? Not a lot, but it's still decreased. All right. So part C now, there's a lot of folks that just have Medicare Part A and part B. And again, that is a the plan is managed by the federal government. All right. Part C came along and we look at part C, better known as Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage has the same coverage. That's a requirement. It has to have the same coverage as Medicare Part A and part B. The only difference is that Medicare Advantage is administered by a private insurance company. We could go through a major list. We could go through a list of all the companies that are here in Arkansas. But basically it is part A and part B, but it is ministered through. A private insurance company. All right. You're going to get additional benefits on your Medicare Advantage. Sometimes it has cost help with a vision hearing and dental care and the majority of your Medicare Advantage plans. The Medicare Advantage plans that I deal with, they all include a prescription drug plan. So it's known as a medicare Advantage prescription drug plan. Premiums will continue to be paid for your part B, So even though you have Medicare Advantage, you still have to pay your part B premium. You're going to be billed by any private insurer if there is a monthly premium.

Randy Sams:
A lot of your Medicare plans out there, they have a small monthly premium. Majority of them, though, are going to a zero premium, zero monthly premium for the client, which is good for the client. You do have an out-of-pocket expense where with Medicare Part A and part B, you have no maximum out-of-pocket. So if you had a $100,000 hospital bill with just Medicare Part A and Part B, if we just use the formula as an 8020 plan, you're going to be responsible for 20% of that or $20,000. If you have a medicare Advantage plan, you have an out-of-pocket maximum amount, which right now for 2022 is 7550. Your plan may be somewhere around that or it could be a lot less. That's going to go up. The maximum out of pocket for 2023 is $8,300. So, folks, Part RD is your generic brand name prescription drug coverage. So you can have a standalone prescription drug plan or you're going to have an inmate P, which is the Medicare Advantage with a prescription drug plan. And those premiums also are going to vary depending on what type of medications you take, what type of coverage you want. So give us a call 866 990 7664. Or go to Your American Retirement dot com. Leave us your contact information. We'd love to go over the benefits with you. Oh I'd love to go over Medicare with you the Medicare Advantage and Medicare gap or the Medigap plan. So folks, this again, this is Randy Sams on Your American Retirement.

Producer:
All right, Randy. And don't forget, in case you missed any part of today's show, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can listen at any time or go back in the catalog and enjoy previous episodes Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. So again, subscribe today. Coming up, randy, an important question that needs to be Answered about Medicare. Can you actually file for Medicare if you're still working? We'll Answer that next. This is 101.1. The Answer where Little Rock comes to talk your American Retirement. We'll be right back.

Producer:
Miss part of today's show. Your American Retirement is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at Your American Retirement dot com.

Randy Sams:
Hey, welcome back to Your American Retirement on 101.1 FM. The Answer where Little Rock comes to talk folks. My name is Randy Sams. I am the host of your of this show. Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining us again. Go to the website. Leave us some comments. Give us some subject matter that you might want to talk about or have us talk about in one of the upcoming shows. But folks, we're going to finish up where we finished up on segment one. We were talking about Medicare, Medicare Part A, B, C, and D, what they were what they covered didn't go into a lot of detail. But what I want to do right now, again, we are in AEP, started on October 15th, ends on December the seventh. And a lot of people will have questions not only about what Medicare does and what it does not cover. We also want to know what can I do during AEP? So the annual enrollment period, again, October 15th through December 7th, what can I what are my options if I have a medicare Advantage plan or prescription drug plan? So, number one, you can change from original Medicare. So if all you have is Medicare Part A and B, with or without Medicare drug plan to a medicare Advantage plan. So if you have original only you can you can do that right now during this AEP enrollment period. And you can switch to a medicare Advantage plan. You can change from a medicare Advantage plan back to original Medicare. So during this AEP, if you have original Medicare and you want to switch back to an advantage plan or you have a medicare Advantage plan and you want to switch back to original Medicare, you can do that during this period of time. You can switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to another Medicare Advantage plan.

Randy Sams:
So if maybe the network has changed, maybe your doctors are no longer in the network that you have your current Medicare Advantage plan coverage with and you want to switch to to the plan that has your doctors in there. Now, you can do that. So you can switch from a medicare Advantage plan that does not have a prescription drug plan. You can switch to a medicare Advantage plan that actually offers prescription drug coverage. And then you can switch from a medicare Advantage plan that offers prescription drug coverage to a medicare Advantage plan that doesn't offer drug coverage. Is that confusing? I hope not. You can join a medicare drug plan. So if you have part A and part B on Medicare or standalone only, you can add a prescription drug plan. You can switch from one Medicare drug plan to another Medicare drug plan. So if your prescriptions have changed and you need to have a better or a more let's say the formulary may not include your drugs any longer and you want to switch from one drug plan, you can switch to another Medicare drug plan and you can then drop your Medicare drug plan completely. So, folks, I know those are I went through those kind of quickly, but that is what you can and cannot do during AARP. So, folks, I'm going to bring my my producer, Mr. Jim, into the show. He's got a question that we want to kind of pose, kind of you some folks out there listening, you might be in the in the same position or the same situation. You know, a lot of people look at when I turned 65, what are my options? But there's a question concerning, I believe, what your dad is, Jim.

Producer:
Yeah. So I was talking to my mom, actually, and she was wondering in regards to my dad, who was on the phone, I think it was last week. Long story short, for a pretty long time trying to figure out if you're still working, if you could still file for Medicare. And he wasn't really getting much Answers and he wasn't making much headway. But again, the main question here, Randy, can you file for Medicare if you're still working? Now, for context purposes, too. My father is 64 years old.

Randy Sams:
And he'll be turning 65 soon.

Producer:
Know he'll be turning 65 this month, November 24th.

Randy Sams:
Okay. All right. So good. Good question, Jim. We have a lot of listeners, a lot of people that I have dealt with over the years that have that same question. Just because you're turning 65 does not mean that you have to apply for a medicare Medicare A, medicare B or a Medicare Advantage plan. All right. That's your options. So my first question would be. Are you planning to continue to work? You know as well as I do, folks, that there's a lot of people out there today that, you know, 65 used to be the magical I guess it was the magical that was your that was your destination. I want to hit 65, and that is the retirement age. I guess that's because Social Security benefits used to kick in at 665. That was your full retirement age for everybody. Now it's changed depending on what year you're born in. But going back to Jim's dad situation, a lot of folks are still working. So if you're still working and if you will continue to be covered under an employer sponsored health plan, so you have group health insurance through your employer and your employer is going to let you continue to be covered on that plan, then you don't necessarily have to apply.

Randy Sams:
You can go to your Social Security, you can go to the the website, create your own my Social Security, my Social Security dot gov. And you can go ahead and put in my birth date, put in for part A, but you don't have to apply for part B. Now, here's here's what happens. As long as you are working, as you as long as you are employed. And you have credible coverage basically, meaning that you have a a prescription drug plan through your employer that fits the requirements that's set up by CMS as far as the formulary goes. So if if if they meet those requirements, then you qualify for your prescription drug coverage is what's known as credible coverage. All right. And as long as you have a employer sponsored health plan, you can keep that. But until up until the time that you actually decide to retire. So if by chance, let's say Jim's dad was going to continue to work to age 68, that was his target. He can go set up his my SS dot gov and he can do the part A Just go ahead and put that in there. He's got his group coverage through his employer.

Randy Sams:
But let's say that three years down the road when he actually that's his retirement age. Let's say that Jim, Jim's dad was going to retire at the end of the year. What would happen was his employer would give Jim's dad a document that basically states that Jim has had health insurance and credible coverage from age 65 to 68 and upon this date. So let's say January 1st. So let's say December 31st, that coverage is going to end. And then what would happen would be Jim's dad could then apply for Medicare Part B, he could apply for Medicare Advantage plan. But he has to have that document showing that he has been covered. If not, then he would have to pay a penalty. For the Part B premium because he's had he hasn't he didn't apply for part B for that three year period. But really the simple Answer, Jim, is yes, he can go to Social Security dot gov. My social security dot gov. He can put in for part a. But he'll be covered for his group employer plan until the time that he decides to pull away from that or the time he retires. So does that help, Jim?

Producer:
It does. And I'm going to pass that information along to him. And I'm also going to tell my parents to listen to this show in podcast form. Your American Retirement, Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever they may find their podcasts.

Randy Sams:
I appreciate that. Yeah, we'll send your parents the the link. So folks, we've got folks listening all over the country. You know, again, I travel five states, so I've got clients, you know, in the surrounding states here in around Arkansas that are that are listening. And they and they send me a little text messages or they send me emails or they go to the website and give me a thumbs up on the comments. And anyway, so it's great to have your listening. So what I want to do right now, folks, if if you've listened to the to the last couple of shows, we went into detail about Social Security. When is the best time to turn on your Social Security? Is it better to wait? You know, the longer you wait, the higher your benefits going to be. Is it better to take it at age 62? And that's one of the things that we do at SMMG Financial. I mean, we want to sit down with you and we give you a free consultation. We want to go over some things with you. We want to listen to what your objectives might be. You can give us a call and set up a free consultation. Again, direct is 5012492343. Toll free 866 990 7664. So give us a call. We'd love to be able to sit down with you, but we'll talk about the Medicare that we just covered.

Randy Sams:
And we're also going to talk about Social Security. I want to give you a real life example. And folks, this this happened over the last couple of weeks. One of the young ladies that listening to the program, she's been listening to Social Security because it really hit home with her, because she's at that age where she has to make a decision. So the example I'm going to give you, I'm going to change the names to protect the innocent here. But what I call this is a Social Security bridge. So what what the objective was, was the client, a young lady? She wanted to wait to turn on Social Security payments, but also wanted to retire at age 62. So she's coming up on age 62 very quickly. So she was in a dilemma. Do I go ahead and turn on my Social Security at age 62? Because she still wanted to work. She wanted to work part time. She didn't want to work full time. So our objective with her was to bridge that gap between age 62 and age 67, which would allow her to continue to work part time and without any reduction of benefits. Because if you remember. One of the things that happen when you turn on your Social Security before your full retirement age. So if you turn it on at age 62 and you make over a certain dollar amount that is set by the government every year.

Randy Sams:
If you make over that dollar amount, earned income plus half of your Social Security benefit, then your benefits are going to be reduced. So you're going to be a reduction in benefits. So she wanted to she wanted to alleviate that from her, from her concern, one of her concerns. So here's her situation. We looked at her Social Security benefits again. She had already set up her account. Social Security, my Social Security dot gov. And at her full retirement age, at age 67, her benefit would have been $2,000 per month or 24,000 a year. All right. If she takes the income at age 62, if she turns on Social Security at age 62, folks, she was going to be that benefit was going to be reduced by 30%. That's a lot, 30% reduction that equated to $400 a month or $16,800 a year. Now, that's $600 less a month. When you compare that to her full benefit age at age 67 or $7,200 per year. That makes a difference. So if you take the 16,800 times five years, that means that during that five year period between age 62 and age 67, she would have received 84,000 from Social Security payments. Now, that's that's a good payment.

Randy Sams:
So our objective, again, was to be able to take her from her current age, 62 to age 67. Where she could then turn on Social Security benefit at a $600 increase per month or $7,200 per year. Now, how did we accomplish that? Here's the solution. So what I did for her is I did a five year period certain Speer single premium, immediate annuity. And our target was to get her $4,500 a month exactly what her Social Security would have paid. So that spear. Five years certain guaranteed to pay. That amount of money for that five year period. So it's going to pay for five years, $4,500 per month. At that time, the client, Miss Jane, she will turn on her Social Security at age 67, which is her full retirement age, and then receive $2,000 per month versus the 1400 dollars a month, or she would receive 24,000 per year versus the 16,800 per year or $7,200 more, which is an increase every year thereafter for the remainder of her life. So how did we accomplish that? So, Randy, how how did we come up with that formula? All right. It's pretty easy. We know what you're going to be making with Social Security. If you turn it on at age 62 versus what you would make if you turn it on at age 67, again, that information is on if you set up your account.

Randy Sams:
My Social security dot gov. You can set your account up and it'll show you exactly what you paid in and what your estimated benefits are. So, folks, here's how we solve this. We took $78,000 from her 41k plan. Rolled that into a CPA and she's going to start beginning. She's going to begin to receive a $1,400 a month or $16,800 a year or over the five year period, the same 84,000 that she would have received from Social Security. So what did we accomplish by doing that? Number one, she can now retire at age 62, work at work part time, and she doesn't have to be concerned about making too much money. Earned income from her part time work to would reduce her Social Security payment benefits. Number three, at age 67, Miss Jane will be able she can and she will turn on Social Security payments at a higher benefit level for the remainder of her life. So, folks, we'd love to do the same thing for you. Give us a call. 866 990 7664 or go to Your American Retirement. Leave us your contact information. We'd love to sit down and do a same consultation with you and be able to put together a plan like we did for Miss Jane. So folks, again, thanks for listening. Randy Sams will be right back.

Producer:
Welcome back to Your American Retirement. Here's Randy Sams.

Randy Sams:
Hey, welcome back, folks. Randy Sams, your host for Your American Retirement. We appreciate you listening in, folks, on the Saturday afternoon, 10101.1 FM. The Answer? Again, folks, go to the website, Your American Retirement dot com. Leave us some good comments. Give us a thumbs up on the podcast or give us a call. 866 990 7664. Toll free or direct 501 249 2343. So folks, we're going to go into segment three. And what I want to do right now is you can tell we've put a lot of emphasis over the last few few shows. Think about two or three weeks now. We've talked about Social Security and folks, that's very important. I mean, I'm getting a lot of feedback, a lot of great feedback from our listeners concerning Social Security, folks getting close to age 62 and really trying to decide, is it going to be better for me to wait? Is it better for me to turn it on early? And those are things that we can sit down and we can put together a you know, we can map out a plan for you. We can run a Social Security report for you to kind of show you what your options are, depending on what your input is. But folks, what I want to do right now is I have a Social Security checklist that that might help a lot of your folks listening. Preparing for retirement includes deciding how Social Security benefits fit in your overall plan. Do I take them early, making decisions about how and when to claim? Your benefits.

Randy Sams:
How are we going to make it the most valuable for you? Is it better for you to take it early? Because Selena is like the example I gave that young lady during that five year period between age 62 and 67. She could have been she could have been paid 84,000. But we were able to show her and put together a Social Security bridge and get her from age 62 to age 67, where her full retirement benefit is going to be $600 a month or $7,200 a year more for her, which is what her objective are. So listen to this checklist and you'll learn more about your options and then get in contact with us. Go to the website, leave us your information. We'd love to talk to you. So you got to do a little research and got to have some goal setting. So you've got to decide how you're spend your time, you're going to start, you're going to go on vacation, you're going to play tennis, you're going to play golf, you're going to sit on the front porch, drink iced tea, sit in your rocking chair. What's your plans? You're going to do some world traveling. I mean, it's different from traveling Arkansas, from traveling Paris, right? So you've got to have that income coming in. So you've got to be able to decide how am I going to spend my time during retirement? Consider how long do you want to work? This is just an example like what we spoke about in the earlier segment with Jim's dad about taking Medicare.

Randy Sams:
Should he apply early? Is he going to continue to work? This is the same thing for Social Security, for, you know, your job is your are you secure in your job? Hopefully you all are. You've got a plan. Am I going to continue to work past age 65 or am I going to continue to work past my full retirement age? Definitely. If you're going to work past age 62, you have to take that in consideration, folks, because remember, based on what your earned income is, if you go over a certain dollar amount, a threshold which has been set by the government, it changes every year whether you're single or you are married. If you go over that dollar amount. Guess what happens? Those benefits that you take early are reduced. Now you get those back when you hit your full retirement age. But during that period of time, if you have a full time job and you still take your Social Security benefit, those benefits more than likely will be reduced during that period of time. You've got to learn how Social Security is taxed. Very, very you've got to estimate the tax. So about half the benefit, total income adjusted gross income, you know, tax exempt interest, how much you're going to make if you go over 25,000 and your single. You know, you could have up to 50% of your benefits taxed if you're married and you make over 44,000 joint, man, that's 85% of those benefits could be could be taxed.

Randy Sams:
So you've got to be able to take your tax consideration on your Social Security. So you've got to consider when to claim benefits. All right. And I'm not going to go over every age, but, you know, age 62 is what we call your early, early age. So you can start taking your Social Security benefits at age 62. And then your full retirement age is basically going to be determined on what year you're born. For me, for example, I was born in 1957, so my full retirement age is 66 and six months. So if I want to turn on Social Security at my full retirement age, I have to wait till I'm 66 and a half, 66.6 months, and then I can turn on Social Security at my full benefit. All right. If you were born after 19 or 1960 or after your full retirement age is seven timelines, you know, first of all, you need to create your own line Social Security account. Sa gov. My account set that up. It gives you all your statements. Your previous statement shows you what your benefit will be. Create your retirement budget. Got to have a budget, folks. Again, what are your plans? What expenses do you have? What income do you have coming in? What outgo do you have? What expenses do you have and what are your plans? You've got to have paychecks.

Randy Sams:
And then we've got to set you up for play checks. Play why? Checks? Play checks So you can take those trips abroad, so you can travel the country, you can buy that Winnebago or whatever the most popular model of RV is today. And you can travel and see the United States. You've got to get your documents together. You know, birth certificates, W-2s, Social Security, bank accounts, spouses, birth certificate. You've got to have all your documents together, mark your calendar, and then you've got to apply for your Social Security benefit. And then you need to include your spouse, coordinate with your spouse, and then give us a call at SMMG Financial, Your American Retirement, and help us let us help you be part of your team and set up that retirement plan for you based on what your objective. And we're going to we're going to sit down and put together a great plan for you. Give us a call. 866 990 7664. Go to Your American Retirement. Leave us your information. We'd love to be able to put together a plan, folks. We're going to go right into how to manage the accumulation phase. So what that is, you all know that as we're younger, what phase are we in? We're in the accumulation phase. When you retire and you begin to take money, you begin to take withdrawals out of your retirement accounts. That's known as the accumulation. So that's the process you go through during retirement.

Randy Sams:
When you shift your focus from savings or accumulation to using your assets to generate necessary income. All right. So we've all got a target when you're still working. If you're listening to the program and you say, Randy, I'm 15 years from retirement or I'm ten years from retirement, well, that's great. So you are still in the accumulation phase. We can help you out with that. Also, are you interested in tax free income? You have life insurance. So there's lots of things that we can talk about. Again, you can give us a call 866 990 7664. I'd love to talk to you. Sit down and do a consultation with you. So the soaring number of baby boomers entering and approaching retirement. Is leading to a major shift in focus, folks from accumulation and retirement savings to de cumulation and retirement income. At SMMG Financial. Here at American Retirement folks, Your American Retirement, we focus on income. I've not met I've haven't come across a retiree or someone who is close to retirement that is not interested in income. Especially guaranteed income folks, you live off of income. Assets can be lost. If you have money in a 401. K and you can know what your balance was the beginning of 2022. And you know what your balance is today in November of 2022, you tell me, is your balance up or has it gone down by 25% or more? So you know what I'm talking about. So here's the problem.

Randy Sams:
So most people approaching retirement today. They're uncertain on how they're going to manage their retirement assets, generate consistent income. You retire on income, guaranteed income. All right. And one of the things that their number one fear for most retirees. Can you guess what that is? A BlackRock survey found that only 36% of Americans are confident they will have enough income. They need in retirement. 55% are concerned about outliving their savings and retirement. So without thoughtful and trusted guidance and planning. If you don't plan correctly, this could have a dire consequence on the next generation seeking income to sustain a consistent standard of living. Folks, here's what our objective is. And you've heard me say this before. We want to educate you. We want to help you understand what your options are. We want to set you up for a secure retirement and not a risky retirement. So we want to take that four letter word off the table, and that's called risk. And how do we do that? One of the things that we can do, one of the things that I do is I can provide a pension for you and your spouse, 100% guaranteed income, no loss due to the market. So risk folks is for people trying to get the money level that you already have. If you're close to retirement or you're in retirement, you've got to remember risk is for those people who are still in the accumulation phase. If you're in the cumulation phase, your objective is to do one thing, not to lose.

Randy Sams:
And that's what we help you do. We want to remove that risk. So just ask yourself a question. If your account went down by 48 to say, 60% at this stage of your life, would that be a problem? I believe your Answer to that is going to be yes. So I'm going to ask you two questions. How much guaranteed lifetime income do you currently have? You have Social Security. That's great. Do you have a pension through your employer? That's great. The majority of the folks that I deal with on a day to day basis do not have a pension. We can set you up a pension, a guaranteed stream, a guaranteed lifetime stream of income for yourself and your spouse. Number two question. Have you taken the key risk in retirement off the table? You may ask, randy, what is that key risk? What is the number one risk in retirement? And your Answer is longevity risk. The risk of outliving your retirement savings. So our objective is to number one. Make sure you understand what your objectives are. Put together a plan that you understand it, and let's remove that risk. We want your blood pressure to go to zero before your retirement plan does get that. Unfortunately, there's a lot of folks whose retirement plan goes to zero and they're still living. So they've outlived their retirement benefits because, folks, the longer you live. The more likely the market is going to crash.

Randy Sams:
What do we see this year in 2022? What's what's 2023 look like? I'm not being a doom, doom and gloom sayer, but I want you to realize that, you know, depending on how these elections turned out on Tuesday, I don't know right now because it is Tuesday. But what's 2023 going to look like for any investments? What's the market going to look like? So the longer you live. More likely we're going to see the stock market crash the longer you live. More likely you're going to see an experience, a health issue. You're going to have something that comes up as far as your health is concerned. The longer you live, you have the possibility of taking out too much money, making too high of withdrawals. That's where you run out of money. And the longer you live, the more likely you are to outlive your money. So how do we take care of that at SMMG Financial? We want to set you up with a guaranteed lifetime income annuity, folks. Gives you a guaranteed stream of income for the rest of your life, and we can set it up as a joint income where it's guaranteed for the rest of your life. So during the accumulation phase. Again, the solution is this. You want to be able to look at. Amount of income. Savings pre and post retirement protection, inflation protection and lifetime guarantees. So you've got to have a combination of a mixture of investments and insurance products, and that's why we focus on.

Randy Sams:
Annuities, because annuities often provide a higher yearly income as compared to systematically withdrawing from investment assets. Folks, there used to be what was known the 4% rule. But that was back when folks, you know, they looked at you dying at age 90. Now we've got folks that are living past age 100. So, folks, that 4% rule does not work any longer. As a matter of fact, if you do any research and you talk to any economists, they're going to tell you that right now they're staying that the most stable amount would be around 1.9%, less than 2%. We can set you up with a guaranteed lifetime stream of income through an income annuity, which is going to pay you a whole lot more than 1.9% of your balances. So folks, get in contact with us. Again, my name is Randy Sams, president CEO of SMMG Financial, host of your American Retirement dot com. We want to thank you for listening. We're going to close this segment out. We're going to return very quickly. We're going to go into segment four. We're going to look at some things about Thanksgiving coming up. We need to look at the inflation factor. We're going to see how inflation has is going to affect our Thanksgiving dinner with our families. So, again, thanks for listening. We're going to be coming right back. Randy Sams, Your American Retirement dot com 101.1 FM. The Answer.

Producer:
Are you concerned about market volatility, rising taxes, economic uncertainty, and how it all could affect your future and retirement? Then tune in to Your American Retirement to learn how you can protect and grow your hard earned money, Your American Retirement. Every Saturday at 1:00 PM right here on 101.1 FM. The Answer Protect your hard earned money today and schedule a free no-obligation consultation now at Your American Retirement dot com.

Producer:
Here American retirement with the great Randy Sams one on 101.1. The Answer where Little Rock comes to talk. Welcome back to the show. Be sure to call Randy, of course, at 866 990 7664 or directly at 5012492343. Or of course you can visit Randy online at Your American Retirement dot com. And Randy I'm about to say something that might be a little bit controversial, but I have to say it Thanksgiving is arguably the best holiday. I understand Christmas and the whole holiday season. But Thanksgiving, you know there's something about it, something special gathering with your family, eating, watching football. It's a great, great holiday. And I think a lot of people listening would agree that it arguably is the best holiday out of all the ones that are celebrated throughout the year. Well, NBC News and USA Today have stories out about how inflation could affect the food you buy at the store for Thanksgiving. Food prices gobbling up Thanksgiving budgets. That's the headline of today's inflation demonstration.

Producer:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It's time for an inflation demonstration.

Randy Sams:
Pun intended. Gobble, right?

Producer:
Yes, of course.

Randy Sams:
Well, Jim, I mean, here's what I look at. You basically stated, you know you go back over the years and and I can remember being, you know, as a young man, you know, this was many years ago that, you know, we would go up into the country is what I said. You know, we we would go up into around Greenbrier, Arkansas, around that area, and we would have a family Thanksgiving. All the my dad's brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins and everybody would all show up. And, you know, one of the things that I look forward to on Thanksgiving morning was that all the all the cousins, all of us, whether it was boys or girls, we didn't make any difference. We chose up sides because, you know, Thanksgiving, you know, you have football games. And so what we did is we chose up sides and we became either the Dallas Cowboys or the Detroit Lions or the Minnesota Vikings or. And we would play football. You know, one of my cousins, one of my aunts had a very big front yard. And we used that as the football field. And that was one of the things that, you know, that I look forward to. And, you know, man, when we were talking about food, you had all kinds you know, you had chicken, you had turkey, you had pies, you had mashed potatoes, you, you know, whatever you thought about, it was there because everybody brought something.

Producer:
Not a big mashed potatoes guy. I got to be honest with you. Even with, like, maybe not really. I like the nice hard potatoes.

Randy Sams:
Yeah. And Jim, you know, the way my mom made mashed potatoes, and then over the years, we've had some friends that that were, you know, have moved to Arkansas and they're from up north. And we went to their house for Thanksgiving. Jim Their, their mashed potatoes had lumps in them.

Producer:
Yeah. It's not that's not terrible. That's like chunky peanut butter, right? If you're not a big peanut butter guy, you can always get the chunky part, the chunky peanut butter. So you get chunky mashed potatoes. I could go for that, but I'd rather have the harder potatoes. I'm not a big mashed potatoes.

Randy Sams:
Kind of. Yeah, Well, yeah, My, my, my mom always whipped up those potatoes where there weren't any lots, but, you know, so it was just something that, you know, that I had to get used to. But folks, as Jim stated, we're we're going into Thanksgiving 2022 and the inflation is up above 8%. The Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau Federation families can expect to pay record high prices at the grocery store for Turkey. All right. Here in Arkansas, we have turkey farms. We have chicken farms. I'm sure they've got them all over the United States. But here in Arkansas, you can drive around and you see turkey farms and you see chicken farms. So you wouldn't think there ever be a shortage of turkeys, but the price is going up. So, folks, again, the American Farm Bureau Federation announced in 2022 families can expect to pay record high prices at the grocery store for turkeys. And here's what their example is. The retail price for fresh, boneless, skinless turkey breast reached a record high of $6.70 per pound in September, which is 112% higher than the same time this year, 2021 same time last year, 2021, when prices were $3.16 per pound. Now, Jim, I will have to say when I go to my mom's house or if I buy a turkey to fix for for my family Thanksgiving this year, I don't buy boneless skinless turkey breast. I buy the whole turkey. So I haven't done that yet. So I guess I probably ought to run to the local grocery store here in Benton and check out what the prices are for the turkeys here. But, you know, we want to get because my son, I'm a breast man. I love the white meat on the turkey breast. My son loves turkey legs.

Producer:
I'm I'm like him. I like the dark meat and the turkey legs.

Randy Sams:
Okay.

Producer:
So, see, that's one of the things.

Randy Sams:
Yeah. See, that's what makes it unique. And you know what, Jim? You know, I'm going to throw this in. People are listening to this show on Saturday, the Saturday preceding the Saturday after November 8th, which is what, Election Day. So what do you think?

Producer:
I get it. My we're not doing right or wrong this week. I got that Answer right, though. So can I get a bell ding for that?

Randy Sams:
Yeah, get a bell. Give yourself a bell. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. There you go. But but, you know, sometimes you want to. I'd love to be a little fly or have like a little spy camera and kind of listen in to some of the conversations that are going to take place during the family Thanksgiving festival. Talking about the elections that took took just took place this week. You know, there's been some elections that, you know, you're listening to this on Saturday. Some of the elections haven't been decided because they were already citing that, you know, it's going to be three or four or five days or a week or two weeks before they actually can count all the votes. Kind of strange to me how all the votes in, you know, what, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016. But it didn't start we didn't have any issues with counting votes on the day of election until 2020. That's just my personal opinion. Not trying to get political, but that's you know, I always ask that question, how come we knew who the winner of the elections were, you know, those previous years? But now we have to wait two weeks, three weeks, four weeks for all the votes to be counted.

Randy Sams:
But, folks. Just give me an example. You know how much uncooked poultry, including Turkey, is up 17%. Frozen vegetables is up 16.6%. How about your pumpkin pies or sweet potato pie? Okay. Up 20% flour to prepare all your flour mixes. You know, your mama. Your grandma's making those homemade pie crust, making those cakes. The flour is up 20.2%. How about butter? And you've got to have butter on those rolls. Or put those butter. Put that butter on those mashed potatoes. Butter is up 32.2% this year. So, folks, I hope you've already made plans for Thanksgiving. I hope you've already hopefully taken care of all of your needs for Thanksgiving. You're what? You're going to buy turkey. You're going to do a ham, you're going to do your dressing, you're going to do mashed potatoes, because, folks, it's going to cost us a little bit more, maybe a lot more this year, 2022, than we looked at in 2021 because of the inflation that we're looking at.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.

Producer:
And of course, before I give the quote of the week this week, I just want to mention that you should give Randy a call or visit Your American Retirement dot com YourAmericanRetirement.com And speak with one of the most genuine financial advisors in the entire country. Again, toll free 866 990 7664. Or reach out to him directly 501 249 2343. All right. Financial wisdom. Our quote. I'm glad we're not doing right or wrong, by the way, this week. I'm not trying to go oh in three. My fantasy football team, by the way, I mentioned this I think I did last week. It lost again last Sunday. So I can't take all of these losses. They're piling up on me, Randy, both in and out of work, apparently. All right. So no right or wrong, this week, maybe next week, financial wisdom, quote of the week. And this comes to us from David Bailey. Quote, To get rich, you have to make money while you sleep, unquote. Very simple. But again, making money while you sleep and make your money work for you. Right.

Randy Sams:
So so, Jim, I mean, if I look at that, the first thing I think of is is compound interest. You know, used to people would put money into a bank and, you know, you would receive a pretty decent interest on the money you have in the bank. Unfortunately, today that's not happening. So we're not seeing you know, you have money in the bank. You know, I don't know how else to make your money work for you while you're asleep. You know, you want to invest it into the stock market and many of you have it and I'm not coming against it. But if you have money in the stock market, you may not be able to sleep very well right now because your 401. K or your retirement account is down so much. But between January 20, 22 to November 2022, the average I think decreases is a little bit over 25%. So you may not be sleeping very well and that's not the best way to make money. So compound interest is basically the best way to make interest while you're sleeping, unless you have folks that are out there working for you, you have a you know, you own a business. But that's something that that we can do for you folks. If you give us a call. Again, we'd love to put together a free consultation. Jim, Just put the toll free number on the screen for us. Give us a call. 866 990 7664 or call me direct 501 249 2343. We'd love to sit down with you. Put together a personal retirement plan based on what your objectives are. So, folks, again, I thank you for joining us at Your American Retirement. My name is Randy Sams. I am your host. We are on 101.1 FM. The Answer where Little Rock comes to talk. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Your American Retirement. You deserve to work with licensed financial insurance experts who can offer sound strategies for protecting and growing your hard-earned money to schedule your free no-obligation consultation. Visit Your American Retirement dot com YourAmericanRetirement.com Today

Producer:
Not affiliated with the United States government. Randy Sams does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks of the property of their respective owners. AmeriLife assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as his basis, with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or of the results obtained from the use of this information.

Producer:
Could a recent IRS change actually save you money on next year's taxes? I'm Matt McClure with a retirement dot radio network powered by Amerilife.

Producer:
When you think of the Internal Revenue Service, your mind may very well recall the sting of forking over your money to Uncle Sam or the hassle of preparing your taxes. A recent study by the American Action Forum estimated Americans spent more than $190 billion. That's billion with a B on tax preparation in 2021. Plus, many economists predict the federal government will have to raise taxes in the future to pay off the national debt. But there's one change the tax man is making for 2023 that could actually mean you'll owe less in taxes next year. How much you save will be relative to your personal situation. So it's not.

Andrew Pelosi:
Going to be the same for every.

Producer:
Household, but certainly it could have a nice little savings come tax time. Andrew Pelosi, with Pelosi Accounting and Consulting, recently told Atlanta News. First, the IRS typically makes annual adjustments to income tax brackets, but this year they're bigger than usual due to, you guessed it, inflation.

Andrew Pelosi:
Some people will see a savings of perhaps 1000 per year during tax time on their tax return. Others might see a little bit more. Certainly the brackets have changed, so the those who are in higher brackets will probably see more savings than those who are in lower brackets. But across the board, everyone's going to see some kind of savings.

Producer:
In short, all tax brackets. Jets are going up by about 7% for 2023. That means you can make more money and be in a lower tax bracket than you would be this year. The standard deduction is also going up to the tune of a $900 increase for single filers and 1800 bucks for married couples filing jointly.

Andrew Pelosi:
I mean, look, it's beneficial for everyone, right? At the end of the day, we're all looking to save money and keep more money in our pockets. In a time like this where groceries are more expensive, fuel prices are at record prices. Every little bit helps. Keep in mind, though, that these adjustments are for money you earn next year in 2023, so you won't actually see the results until you file your taxes in early 2024. So could you benefit from the IRS's new tax brackets? That's a key question to consider as you plan your financial future with the Retirement Dot Radio Network powered by AmeriLife. I'm Matt McClure.

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