And good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Jane Dickerson, your host, your personal financial adviser.

Happy to be with you for the next half an hour.

I'm at your service and happy to be doing so.

Honored to be doing so.

It is a very challenging time.

We find ourselves in.

And for a lot of you, that carries anxiety, carries fear, carries concern.

Of course, that's to be expected.

What is necessary in times like these is to have a plan, to have a strategy, to have a course of action, a track to follow that keeps you centered.

If you're an athlete, you already know that.

That's how you stay in the moment in the present, when you're in the midst of a tight pressure filled game.

You've got to have a track to follow on.

You've got to trust your skills and you've got to make sure that you don't let fear, anxiety and concern knock you off your game.

Very much investing, very much financial Proper actions are in many ways following the rules of a game.

And if you follow the rules, well, you should expect not guaranteed.

You should expect success.

If you are willing or gosh, maybe unable to follow the rules because of your fear and anxiety, you might very well be deciding to expect, unfortunately, the worst.

So our part of what we offer in our more than money efforts is to to give you confidence, give you peace of mind, give you a support system to keep you on track, keep you on your game, so to speak, whether it's investments, income taxes, estate planning, business.

It doesn't matter what the questions are.

It's staying on track, following the basics, blocking and tackling really does mean something.

When the game is so chaotic, you've got to come back to the basics.

So we hope that one of the basics that you have is that if you have a question, you send that to us, Gene and ask him t and I can just as you see it on the screen, Jean, and ask MTM dot com all of your questions are answered back to you.

Not all of your questions will appear on a future show.

We put as many as we can, but gosh, there are lots of you with lots of great questions.

But we promise one of our more than money experts will be back in touch with you directly.

We answer every single question, even some of the questions that you send.

And you might be surprised to learn that some of your fellow viewers send us questions that we are quite convinced are simply tests to see if we're willing to answer.

Even, even even foolish questions, even silly questions.

And the answer is yup, we do.

By the way, that's not an invite.

You don't have to send us foolish or silly questions, but if it's important to you, we want to help.

So one of the most important parts of our system, our process, our game plan, is to engage our team.

And our financial correspondent, Megan is in the waiting Megan, how do we start this evening?

Hi, Jane.

Great to be with you.

Well, before we jump into questions that we got sent in, I have my own question, but I don't think I'm alone in the question.

I think it's an elephant in the room for quite a lot of people going to the gas station lately and filling up the tank has become significantly less fun, may even say depressing.

I find myself a lot more conscious of the miles I'm driving each day and like, wow, I need to go again.

But I was wondering if you could give us some insight with all your experience as to why that's happening right now.

Megan, it's a really good question, and it's one that affects millions and millions of people daily.

For those of us who fill up a tank at any point during the week, you can't help but notice what started perhaps eight months ago.

And gosh, if you've got 20 gallons in your tank, you might put 41 or 42 hours in, and now 20 gallons might be too much for the auto pump to allow you because it'll click off at $100 to fill the tank.

And for, oh goodness, some of the folks who are using their vehicles, the big trucks for their, their work, those are cash they may have to click off that eight or that automatic pump several times to fill up their tanks and get to work this dramatic increase in the price of fuel is a microcosm of the dramatic increases in the prices of everything.

For those who have been following the inflation numbers as they've been released over the last particularly six months, we have seen rates higher than they we have experienced as a country in 40 plus years.

The Jimmy Carter years were the last time we saw inflation rates.

This high food, very expensive energy, very expensive.

People just announced that they will have another double digit rate increase not long ago, three, four months ago it was 25 or 30%, another 25 or 30% coming on on top.

So imagine you are gosh in a very large group of folks who are very frustrated at these rises in costs across the board.

In my opinion it's the fuel costs, the energy costs that's at the heart of all of this inflation and at the heart of the rise in energy costs is governmental policy.

18 months ago, under a different administration, gas prices were half or less than half of what they are now.

Now, with a change in administration, change in in policy relative to energy production, we have gone from energy independent as a nation to now needing to ask Iran, Russia to assist us with sending US energy Venezuela regimes that we would not normally be in contact with or or have any good reason to be in contact with rather than turning to our own people.

So it is a change in fiscal policy, a change in energy policy that has brought us to this point.

Some would say it's the war in the Ukraine.

Most experts would guesstimate that the increase in prices at the pump are due to the Ukraine conflict is relatively small.

The change in policy impact very, very large so all of that then causes everything else to be more expensive.

Every time you have a delivery to your home UPS, FedEx, et cetera, it's more expensive every everything we eat is trucked to the grocery stores.

So these are very serious challenges.

You're not alone I don't know if that helps.

I hope a little bit at least.

And in putting it in perspective.

It does it sadly does make sense.

I guess a follow up question, though, is what do you what can people be doing in light of all of that?

Oh, goodness.

Again, a very fair question.

A very tough question.

Thank you very much.

There are a number of different parts of your life that you've got to attend to.

You already mentioned one.

I think very wisely, you start to say, wait a minute, I've got to be thoughtful.

I want to drive less miles.

I want to drive less frequently.

I want to be a little more careful, perhaps about my jackrabbit starts and my stamp on the brakes so that you're getting as much mileage out of that per gallon as you possibly can.

Same way with energy use at home.

Yeah.

Flick off those lights, turn that the thermostat either back in the winter or up in the summer these are all things that we need to pay attention.

Lots of folks who have never had a vegetable garden in their lives are having vegetable gardens now because of food prices are at such a high level that it's very, very profitable to have a vegetable garden.

Lots of folks who have had woodstoves in their houses for years and they've remained cold for years are now heating with wood because it's much less expensive.

So on the spending side, there are a fair number of things that you are able to do.

On the income side, you may very well look to a side hustle in addition to your primary job, or you might look around at what other opportunities are out there for increasing your income.

The number of job openings is staggering, measured in the millions.

Last number I saw was between nine and a half and 10 million unfilled jobs.

There may be an opportunity out there for our our viewers to be earning more to help offset this high bump in prices due to higher inflation.

On the investment side, it's very, very important that you have an investment strategy that respects the impact that inflation will have.

Certain investment assets will respond better to inflation.

Commodities tend to respond better to inflation.

Precious metals tend to respond better to inflation.

Even real estate in many ways, many sectors of real estate respond better to inflation.

So that may be a piece of the puzzle that that our listeners, our viewers may want to take a peek at as well.

If you're not clear about how to integrate those into your investment process, Gene and ask him, Time.com works very, very well.

We can assist you and in seeing how best to put those to good use.

This makes very, very good questions, very challenging questions.

I hope we helped a little bit.

I hope I helped you a little bit.

You definitely did.

And I have lots more questions here if you want to get started.

Yeah, go right ahead, please.

OK, this question says or asks, what is the best way to set aside money for your granddaughter to go to college?

Our son is custodian of our estate, but we would like to have something a little more concrete.

Thank you for your help.

Very good grandmothers and granddaughters.

It's a beautiful, beautiful combination indeed.

Best way, in my opinion, especially if we're talking about college as a 529 plan, five to nine plan.

It references the IRS code that allows these plans to be put into place dollars that go into the 529 plan then can grow tax sheltered if they turn a profit they are not taxed on a year by year basis.

And if the money is spent then for approved qualified educational expenses it comes out of the account tax free.

One additional benefit that might be of use to you is that any money in the 529 plan is out of your estate.

It is not taxable to your estate.

So that may be useful as well.

You mentioned that your son is custodian of your estate.

My guess is that you meant executor of your estate.

That's a good thing.

You've got documents in place that will assist your son in making sure that your estate is distributed in the way that you wish.

The 529 allows you to name your granddaughter directly as the beneficiary, and that will solve that problem rather nicely and give you some, I think, some real joy in terms of providing for this young lady that you care so very much about.

We appreciate that question very much.

Begs What's next?

Our next question says, My mother passed away recently and I am the executor.

According to the will, my sister and I split the assets 50, 50, 50, up to a cap.

Any money over the cap is further split between our other family members.

When the cost basis was established on the accounts and properties, the total value is slightly greater than the cap.

Since then, due to market declines, the total value is now lower than the cap.

If this is the case, when it is time to distribute the estate, how does it get distributed based off the time of death cost basis?

Other family members would get money, but where does it come from?

Wow, very, very interesting question.

I'm going to use some numbers.

Obviously not from the email, but just for demonstration purposes.

Let's say that the will says that the the emailer or our viewer and her sister inherit everything 5050 up to 500,000 and that other family members get some piece of the estate if it's above 500,000 excuse me.

The current volatility in the market is pretty pronounced.

It's one of the reasons, by the way, that quite often when there is an estate established in an estate account establish the assets are sold shortly after the estate is established in this case they were not so they have been affected at a lower number when it is time for the distribution if the distribution is below.

In my example, $500,000, the money will be split between the two of you.

The other family members, unfortunately, will not receive any piece of the estate the cost basis actually stepped up basis.

Market value on date of death is an important number, but if it were to be the rule that the date of death numbers would apply, either you and your sister would end up being out of pocket.

Translation.

You'd have to give up some of your inheritance to supply other family members, or in this case, more appropriately.

Sadly, they will be unfortunately out of pocket, so to speak, in that they will not receive an inheritance it's unfortunate.

It's kind of a side product of the type of markets, particularly stock markets we're in.

I need to correct stock and bond markets.

Bond markets are really, really being pummeled by rising interest rates.

So hopefully that helps a bit and of course, of course, make sure that you are using a trusted, experienced estate planning attorney to assist you just to make sure everything goes as it must make it.

Very, very interesting question indeed.

A very unusual question.

What's next?

Our next email says, I'm retired 68 and an author.

I have several copyrighted titles on the market and I'm wrestling with estate planning.

My residence is in Pennsylvania.

I have three adult children the number of copyrights will not divide equally between them.

So I am thinking that I should set up a trust to hold the copyrights, receive the royalties, and be responsible for the taxes.

If my thinking is sound, how should I best proceed?

How do I establish a trust?

And will the value of the trust be treated as part of the value of my estate subject to estate tax?

Thank you for your help.

Thank you for your willingness to help me.

Willing and absolutely it's why we're here.

The easy answer is not the answer that you want.

Will the trust, should you establish one, be taxed to your estate?

The answer is in almost every single case.

Yes.

Now, we preface this, of course, by if you are asking legal questions and you are, you should be employing a trusted, experienced attorney to assist you in these to give you the pros and cons of trusts versus LLC se limited liability companies.

These operate in very different ways, but I'm suspicious that's not the right word.

I am cautiously optimistic that an LLC might be in your best interest rather than a trust.

And I'll explain why here in a moment.

But whatever the value, whatever the market value is of these copyrights, goodness, I'm not clear how someone would evaluate that.

That's why that we have specialist appraisers that can evaluate these kind of unusual assets.

Whatever the market value is, that will be included in your estate and subject to tax.

Depending on the residency, your residency, you're the date of your passing.

Now, a trust trust can be relatively cumbersome to set up.

It can be relatively expensive to set up, and it can be relatively expensive to maintain over what we hope will be many, many years an LLC, on the other hand, is relatively inexpensive to set up, relatively inexpensive to maintain over what we hope will be many, many years.

So if we were to put all of these copyrights into the LLC, you can then distribute pieces of that LLC in whatever proportions you wish.

I'll pick a simple demonstration.

We have all the copyrights in the LLC.

You have four children that you like to benefit.

They receive 25%, not a specific copyright, not a specific asset, but they receive 25% of the entire picture.

So you are literally equalizing the impact of your estate on all of your children by using units, ownership units of an LLC versus individual copyright assets.

I think the LLC might gain might.

I'm not 100% sure we don't have enough information from your email.

But you might gain some tax advantages as well.

If you are filing as an LLC, it may allow you to gain some deductions that you don't currently have.

It may also allow you to set up a retirement plan that you may or may not already have.

So make sure that you're dealing with a trusted attorney.

Make sure you're dealing with a trusted and experienced tax advisor as well.

You might start with a financial advisor, but I think if in all fairness to you, the proper place to start is with a trusted, experienced attorney and then branch out to that tax expert to make sure that you're getting the best of those two disciplines.

You may have other questions that a financial advisor can help, but your questions at the moment at least, are predominantly legal and income tax and estate tax.

Tax questions make an interesting stuff.

What else do you have that might be interesting?

This next question says My mom passed away in November of 2019 without a will and my siblings agreed that I should be the administrator.

It was a very small estate, basically just the house because she had beneficiaries on all of her accounts.

So I've tried to handle everything myself, but the taxes and related paperwork have become quite complicated.

I'm wondering if I could hire you to one look at what I've done so far to tell me what needs to be amended and three tell me what still needs to be done.

My mom resided in New Jersey.

I would like to close the estate this year.

Thank you for your help.

Meghan, I have to ask this young lady passed.

Did I hear it correctly?

2019?

Yes.

November.

Thank you.

OK, so we're gosh, we're coming up on three years.

Yeah, you would want to close this out.

This should have been close that a long, long time.

Ago.

This is an interesting question on a couple of different levels.

Number one, small estates does not necessarily translate into easy to settle estates.

Small numbers do not necessarily translate into this is a do it yourself project three years now what two and a half years in you are still not completely out from under the the estate administration.

Probably not in your best interest, probably not in the best interest of any one.

And my guess is your peace of mind has been affected.

There's there's this cloud hanging over you on nearly a day by day basis.

So that can't be fun.

And attorney trusted estate planning attorney would yes.

Have charged you some fee.

The the types of attorneys that we are most anxious to engage with ourselves and for our clients are those who help settle estates on a per hour basis.

And if this was a very small simple estate, the number of hours likely would have been quite small.

This likely would have been done in six to nine months versus what is now two and a half years.

Can we take a look at it?

Of course, if it really is tax issues, then that makes it pretty straightforward.

We have an entire tax division inside our more than money world headquarters.

So looking at what you've done from a tax standpoint and from an estate tax standpoint, of course, can we give you an indication of what maybe still needs to be done?

Of course, putting that into effect, getting that wrapped up and and finally put to bed, so to speak, might be simple tax filings.

It might involve legal work that needs to be attended to, in which case of course, we need to hand that off to an attorney.

And more than money, financial advisors are not attorneys.

We are not licensed to practice law.

We can see the scenario and then guide you as to the professionals that you need to bring in.

I think if you start with a tax professional, perhaps perhaps a more than money tax professional, I think it's a very good place to start.

You may end up being able to resolve all of your concerns right then and there, or you may end up needing to bring that trusted estate attorney into play.

But in any event, yeah, you got to get that wrapped up this year.

Yeah, you got to get wrapped up probably in the next month or so.

Meghan, we have time for another question.

Is there another one back there?

There is.

It's only two sentences long and it asks, what do you think about moving cash out of our IRAs into a regular investment account and buying I bonds?

Just a simple thought from a simple mind well.

Don't sell yourself short.

I think it's a very interesting question for many of you.

You've not heard the term I bonds.

For some of you who have, you've almost started to think perhaps it's too good to be true.

It is a guaranteed bond principal is guaranteed with interest rates currently above 8% per year.

Goodness I bonds inflation bonds is what some people call them are issued by the US Treasury.

They are issued in amounts up to $10,000 maximum per year.

Per taxpayer.

So if you're a married couple and you wish to gain a very interestingly attractive investment as part of your investment portfolio, or perhaps you've got some money tucked away in the bank earning 0.0 squared, you may very well say, hey, eight, eight and a half 9% would be fantastic.

I bonds might very well suit your purposes.

I bonds are purchased directly by the taxpayer.

You go online you go to Treasury dot gov search for I bonds and you can do that directly there in electronic form.

They generally are one year or longer in maturity.

The initial interest rate is set only for six months and then it could reset.

We've had some folks get concerned, what if they reset it much lower?

I am prayerful that they reset it much lower.

That would mean that the inflation rate had gone much lower as well.

Now, bottom line for this individual, they have money in an IRA.

They know they can't buy bonds with their IRA funds, but they can take money from their IRA and then invest.

And the question is, does that make sense?

In almost every case, the answer would be not really you would have to pay income tax on whatever monies that you are withdrawing from your IRA.

Now, some of you are a fair proportion.

Maybe ten or 15% of you actually find yourself in a zero income tax bracket.

You may find yourself in the two, three, four, or 5%.

It's not the tax bracket.

It's the actual tax rate that you're paying.

Well, if you can take 20,000 out and pay nothing or even 5%, you would net somewhere between 19 and $20,000 and then invest in IE bonds.

Not the worst plan I ever heard.

Guaranteed position, high interest rate.

If on the other hand, your tax rate 12, 15, 20% in my opinion you're giving up too much principal in order to get a short term high rate of return would not be a recommendation that I would get excited about goodness we covered a lot of ground this evening.

I hope that you've learned a tremendous amount.

Actually, I think I learned a tremendous amount.

We have some fascinating folks out there with some very, very interesting questions.

And sadly, of course, this evening at least a couple resolved revolved around resolving estates.

And when you lose someone that you love, the financial piece seems even a bit more challenging than other financial questions.

But hopefully we helped out a little bit.

If as you're watching, you're seeing I've I've got a couple of questions that I'm very concerned about.

Please make sure that you understand you can send those to us Gene and E and ask MTM dot com.

We're happy to answer those questions.

We get them on every topic under the sun.

The title, the show is more than money.

So send those directly to us.

We answer every single question right back to you.

Not every question appears on there, but you will get the information that you need to make a better decision.

Folks, thank you so very much for being part of the show this evening.

We hope you've learned enough.

You like it enough that you'll want to return next week right here on more than money.

Good night.