You've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial adviser, and for the next half an hour, I am at your service and very, very happy to be so.

If you are a loyal viewer of More Than Money, you know exactly how this works.

We answer lots of e-mails, your questions, your priorities, your agenda, what concerns you most about your financial picture?

That's our highest priority.

And we're really, really happy to share as much of my 780 years of experience as I possibly can for the next half an hour or so.

half an hour goes very, very quickly, please don't wander off.

You're going to miss an awful lot.

And, if at any point you find yourself being even mildly entertained, you have my deepest apologies.

Bottom line, for all of you who are just joining us, perhaps for the first time, is that the title of the show, More Than Money, says a great deal about our approach to you.

Your financial concerns are very real.

Dollar signs are very important, we understand that.

However, it's way more than money.

Most financial decisions in most people's lives are way more than money.

There's lots of interweaving and lots of interconnections between our personal lives, our attitudes, even our spiritual attitudes, and how our financial lives unfold.

So, while indeed we answer all kinds of investment questions, income tax questions, estate planning questions and business questions, the most important questions are the ones that you find most important.

Now, before we get our first email, we have at least a small, what, obligation to highlight an issue that's very important to basically everyone who's watching.

The most recent inflation numbers have come out, and we have hit a 13-year high.

The September numbers were a 13-year high.

Most of you are already well aware if you eat food, prices are really high.

If you pump gasoline, prices are really high.

We're entering the heating system.

You know that the heating costs are going to be quite high, highest levels in 13 years.

That takes us back through the previous administration, roughly 1.5% per year, and through the previous two administrations under President Obama.

Significant length of time, and yet, extremely high cost-of-living numbers, and some would say temporary.

The word is transitory.

That's the popular word in our industry today.

"Not to worry, it's transitory."

There are lots of folks, very smart folks, who are saying it's not transitory.

So, if you have concerns about how inflation is going to affect you, your financial future, perhaps your financial retirement, the way you get those questions asked and answered is you send me an email.

Gene@AskMTM.com We're happy to answer your questions.

Not all will make it to the TV shows.

We don't have enough time!

But all will be answered.

Please send those to me.

Let's give everyone a demonstration of exactly how that works.

Let's go to our financial correspondent Alyssa, what's our first question this evening?

You shouldn't have thanked me.

You're not going to be happy.

Yeah, I think the last line, "Current me feels".. Oh, my goodness.

If you want to make as many financially poor judgments as you can, just follow whatever makes you feel good right now.

Don't in any way, shape or form have any delayed gratification.

Don't in any way, shape or form have any legitimate personal responsibility for your financial future.

You don't want to do that.

That might be upsetting and bruise your tiny feelings.

You're 41.

Long past time to grow up.

Long past time to grow up.

You haven't yet, but maybe this is a good start.

You mentioned that you have two wonderful daughters.

How about putting yourself in the position where you are cognizant of the role-modeling you're presenting to your daughters?

I am hopeful that as a parent, you would want the very best for your children, the very best for your daughters.

As the father of three daughters, that's all that I live for, is to make my daughter's lives the best that they can be, not necessarily financially, but the best people that they can be.

I pray that I role-model for them better judgment than you are.

41 years old, over $100,000 of total income, and you still owe $4,500 on your student debt.

Please.

$10,000 in credit card.

I might be able to alibi the 4,500 in student debt.

It may be it's at 2%, maybe it's at 1%, maybe it's at 0%.

Maybe you've had it for just a short period of time.

I don't know, I might alibi that.

But $10,000 in credit card debt means you are not, as they say, "spend less than you make".

You are spending more than you make, the exact opposite of what a financially-responsible adult would do.

Yes, those loans should be paid off, but not from your 401k.

Those loans should be paid off from your cash flow.

If you are spending all of your 100 and more, time to sit down, calculator, pen and pencil, or pen and paper...

There's got to be a writing instrument in there somewhere.

Paper and something to write with.

Create a budget.

Cut out everything that is not required for as long as it takes to pay off both those notes without touching your retirement.

This...I don't want to be dark, oh, my gosh, the red flags are everywhere.

You're the vulture sitting on the gravestone waiting for Grandma to pass.

You've already got designs on your parents' estate.

They're in their early 70s.

One of the prayers that I pray today and will continue to pray for many years to come, is that your parents live another 30-40 years, so that by the time your "inevitability" happens, you're 80 and you've already kind of floated off into your own hopefully-changed way, and you're perfectly fine.

Or not.

Then you're not.

Second wife for a year.

Do you both make bad financial judgments?

If you do, I don't have a lot of hope for the marriage, let alone your financial future.

And yes, 24,000 in your 401k.

I'm not clear how somebody who's 41 years old.

only has 24,000.

My suspicion is you went through a divorce, it got separated, but still very modest amount of money, but at least it's a start.

And if you leave it there for 30 years and if it gets a reasonable rate of return, let's say 10%, it should double every seven years.

At your age, 48, it's going to be roughly $50,000.

At your age 55, it's going to be roughly $100,000.

At your age 62, it's going to be roughly $200,000.

And at your age 69, $400,000.

You want to take $400,000 out of your retirement cash flow so that at age 41, because you've made bad judgments, you feel better.

Please don't do this.

Please get yourself to a financial adviser who won't buy into your "oh, poor me, oh, look at me, "I'm being more creative.

"Oh, isn't it better because I might not live for tomorrow?"

Well, a wise man once said, you should live as if today is your last, but you should plan as if you're going to live forever.

Good advice for you.

Ah...Alyssa, perhaps something a little lighter?

- Yeah, this one won't get you so riled up... - Well, first of all, our hearts go out to you.

This is a family story, not uncommon at all in our viewership.

There are a large percentage of folks who have adult children that have challenges of all types.

Might be mental illness, might be physical challenges, might be health challenges, developmental challenges, addiction challenges.

The list goes on and on.

So please, don't feel like you're alone.

Please don't feel like you're alone.

Very important to understand that it's a human element.

It's part of the human experience.

And your concerned about your son is very well-founded.

Your concern about using estate planning to protect him is also very well-directed.

Now, making an appointment with us, MTM Financial Group, More Than Money financial advisors, not really the place that you're going to start.

As much as we like to think that, gosh, we'll help everybody, and we certainly give it a go, the people that you need in this case, the person that you need is a trusted, experienced estate planning attorney.

That's where you really need to start.

You need someone that can look at your total financial picture and be able to divine, devise, craft, and strategize ways that your family can best be served and protected when you are gone.

That's a trusted estate planning attorney.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Non-attorneys, as much as a good financial adviser may know, they don't know everything that a very experienced estate planning attorney will.

And more importantly or, as importantly, they can't do anything about it.

They can't draft your wills, your trust, et cetera.

Now, you will have two challenges, and you're absolutely right, somebody's got to be in charge of the money when the two of you are gone.

Somebody has to be in charge of the money.

Somebody else also has to be in charge, so to speak, of the personal welfare of your son, a guardianship of some form.

The money is actually a relatively easy thing to solve.

Trusts are set up every day to address exactly this kind of concern, a long-term need for financial oversight.

Many corporations, many financial corporations provide those services.

In our world, we often use Charles Schwab as the custodian for many different types of accounts, including trust account.

And, because Charles Schwab is a major corporation likely to exist long beyond my days, long beyond your days, having them named as a trustee is an option that you'll want to look at very carefully.

They may very well be able to provide you with that kind of continuity, that kind of stability that's so critical.

And in many cases, if you're using Charles Schwab as the trustee, you can connect that to a financial adviser of your choice, so you actually have that continuity both of the ownership, the custodianship of the assets, and the management of the assets.

So that may be very, very useful.

And of course, then that leaves the issue of guardianship.

Very challenging, very personal issue, can also be solved by a corporate guardianship.

But that's something you're going to want to explore with your attorney.

So, we deeply appreciate that you send your email to us.

If you have an attorney in mind, fantastic.

If you don't, let us know, we can refer you to an attorney trusted, experienced, estate plan, estate planning attorney, someone that can be of real value to you.

Back to our financial correspondent, Miss Alyssa, what have you got back there?

- Another long one for you... - It must be my night, or maybe I'm just cranky.

I might be hangry, when I'm a little hungry, and then, you just get cranky.

Oh, my goodness!

Well, first of all, you are an incredibly wonderful brother.

And second of all, tip of the hat...

Tip of the hat to your wife, putting up with all this hoo-ha all these years.

What a wonderful person she truly is.

Bottom line for us, ugh, I can't believe that this is even a discussion.

I can't believe, I'm so glad you're the brother asking the questions and not the other brother, because the other brother, you want to talk about being unreasonable?

You want to talk about not really seeing things clearly?

In the absence of your $10,000, he has zero.

He has whatever his original 10,000 would have made for him in the bank, in a savings account, in something else.

Without your assistance, it doesn't happen.

And I would strongly disagree with you that he had most of the heavy lifting.

Absolutely not!

He was on site.

He enjoyed living there.

He collected cash flow.

I'm guessing he didn't split that cash flow with you, even though you're half owner of the property, you should have gotten half of whatever the roommates were paying - I'm guessing that did not happen.

So, what you're asking for is not only beyond reasonable, it's almost naive in how wonderfully accommodating you are being.

5% only since the first reify is a gift.

He should not only not be giving you a hard time, he should be kissing you on both cheeks, giving you the big hug.

You're the best brother ever.

Because the reality is $70,000?

You should get 35 grand.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

And the fact that he thinks... Talk about an indefensible position, "You gave me ten, I'll just give your ten back.

"That seems fair."

What world does he live in?

And, whatever world it is, you really don't want to be part of it.

So, as an adviser to you, stick to your guns, get your 5%, squeeze him, do whatever it takes, and get what's fair.

As a brother to a brother.

Your credit score wasn't hurt, you were able to buy your house, you jumped through hoops, but you got it, you're off the deed, and now you kind of know what you're dealing with, in terms of your brother.

If Thanksgivings and Christmases in the future are really important to you, you can, in my opinion, best approach this by saying, "Brother, here's what I expect.

"Here's the 10,000.

Here's the 5% per year.

"Here's the last number.

Here's what I expect.

"But you send me whatever you think is fair."

And whatever he sends you, put it in the bank, never raise the issue again.

Accept it as lesson-learned and as a instruction, perhaps, for your future about whether you get involved in partnerships with or without family.

It's a challenge.

Speaking of a challenge, I know Alyssa has one back there.

It's probably going to hurt my brain.

But let's give it a go, Alyssa.

- You can handle this one... - Well, first of all, our condolences.

Your father was very young.

Very, very young.

When I was growing up 1,000 years ago, somebody who was 76 was four years past gone.

76 now means you've only got 15-20 more good years, maybe only 25-30.

It's young, and it's got to be very, very hard for you.

Your questions are very specific and easily answered.

Who needs to take the RMD?

Your father does.

Your father's final RMD will be taken for the year 2021.

It will be based on his IRA, or IRAs, the balances as of December 31 of last year, 2020.

It will likely be included on his final tax return.

In the absence of that, it will be included on your tax return and almost ends up being the same.

But be very, very careful.

Make sure you're dealing with tax professionals that understand the rules very, very specifically, because you want to make sure you're doing it in a way that at least has an eye on paying the lowest tax that you must pay.

You've got to pay tax, but let's make sure it's the lowest that it can be.

You will need to file a final income tax return, a final 1040 for your dad.

That alerts the IRS, that alerts Social Security, alerts a lot of people that your dad has passed.

And of course, if he was in the state of Pennsylvania, you're filing an inheritance tax return with Harrisburg.

The IRAs will be on that return, as well.

The RMD is based on your dad's age.

Now, going forward, if you are the sole inheritor of this IRA, it will be based on the ten-year rule.

And, as the inheritor of an IRA, ironically referred to as an "inherited IRA", you will be named, but your dad will still be on that account.

Your dad, it will be inherited, IRA, from your father for the benefit of you.

And now, the new rules kick in and you've got ten years.

You can take it all out today, pay the tax and walk away.

You can take it all out in ten years, or a couple of days short of ten years, pay the tax and walk away.

You can take it out in some pattern over that ten-year period.

And that might end up being very beneficial to you.

But we just don't know yet, we don't have enough information from your email to decide.

So, bottom line for us is RMD to your dad, ten-year rule for you, work with a trusted tax professional, and then, start looking at strategies where you might reduce the taxes on the funds that you do receive.

Alyssa, a quick one.

- Sure... - Interesting.

Let's put the word "hedge fund" aside for the moment, and let's talk about making any investment in a Roth IRA.

The tax advice, the tax guidance talking about zero heavy lifting, the rules for a Roth, either deferral, withdrawals, accumulations, contributions are exactly the same, whether you're using a CD at a bank or a credit union, or on the far end of the spectrum, a hedge fund, the IRS is agnostic.

They don't care what investment you're putting inside it.

The rules in terms of how much you can put in, when you can put it in, and what the limitations are when you must take it out, et cetera, et cetera, they're the same independent of the investment that you're looking at.

Now, the hedge fund.

You're talking about a self-directed IRA.

For those of you that were listening closely, that might have kind of tweaked your ear.

Most IRAs are self-directed.

Most allow you to decide how you're going to invest that money.

In this particular case, though, they're mentioning a hedge fund, most IRAs would not permit you to invest in a hedge fund.

There are a small, literally 5-7 custodians that I'm familiar with that would permit an investment in a hedge fund, because a hedge fund carries some very substantial risks.

You may have heard in the news recently that several Silicon Valley investors have Roth IRAs that have one, two, four, $7 billion in them.

How is that possible on annual contributions of 5-6,000 bucks?

Because they got invested in very early start-up businesses, hedge funds, IPOs, the kinds of things that are wildly speculative and wildly risky.

And in some cases, they paid off to the tune of billions.

That's what this person is attempting to do, accessing a hedge fund.

So, you're going to need a custodian that is willing to accept your investment in the hedge fund.

You're going to need a custodian that is certified by the IRS, follows all the IRS rules, and if you've got that, then following the rules is easy.

Following the guidance of a Roth IRA structure is easy.

Whether your investment makes any money or not is not necessarily easy.

Hedge funds can be notoriously risky.

That's up to you.

That's a personal decision.

Hence the name, self-directed Roth IRA.

So, if you are in need of a referral to a custodian that can handle this kind of outside-the-box investment, please let us know, we can help there.

Otherwise, we wish you great luck and we'll keep you in our prayers.

We just have a few moments left in this edition of More than Money.

I hope you picked up a couple ideas.

I hope there's something in there that stimulated your thinking and you went, "Wait a second, I would like more information about that."

If you would like more information, all you have to do is ask.

You send that email to me, Gene@AskMTM.com.

And we answer every single question, so you'll get all that great information directly to you.

And perhaps, just perhaps, you might see your question answered on a future edition of PBS 39's More Than Money with Gene Dickison.

Wouldn't that be fun, to get to all your friends?

Make sure you tune in and check it out.

Folks, I want to thank you for spending part of your time with me.

It means the world that you give me the opportunity to serve you and the people that you care about.

So, if you are so inclined, perhaps you'll circle that date on the calendar every Tuesday night at 7:30 and join us right back here on More Than Money.