- And good evening.

You've got More Than Money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial advisor at your service, and happy to be so.

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

You have made us the most relevant financial show on TV by sending us your emails, asking questions that are important to you, asking questions that are at the top of your mind so that we can give you answers that hopefully give you peace of mind.

You are the heart of our show.

And I must confess, what you ask is far more interesting than I might have conjured up in my own mind.

You lead fascinating lives.

Some of you are doing immensely well.

Some of you could be standing right here, teaching the class.

Some of you, on the other hand, oh, goodness, good judgment apparently not in your DNA, making some pretty serious errors in judgment.

Hopefully we can help.

Hopefully we can bail out.

Hopefully we can save from "wrack and ruin," as they say.

So if you have questions about investments, retirement, income taxes, estate planning, goodness, business, if it's got a dollar sign connected to it and it's of concern to you, or if you've just got questions, why are energy prices so high?

Why is inflation so stubbornly high?

Why is the Federal Reserve taking the actions that they are?

You've just got those big, macro concerns, make sure you send those along, as well.

Every single question, every single email is answered back by my staff.

Fantastic group of folks, very experienced, very smart, and on occasion, I get to hang into the mix, as well.

For the most part, though, the questions that our financial correspondent Megan brings to you, they're as surprise to me as they are to you.

So if on that rare occasion I've got that deer-in-the-headlights look, it's because I'm pedaling furiously under the water and hopefully staying afloat.

We'll make sure we figure it out for you.

After all, I do have, hmm, 780 years of experience that should help at least a little bit.

Well, let's find out.

Let's go right to our financial correspondent, Megan.

How do we start our show this evening?

- Hi, Gene.

That was a very nice visual to start the show off with.

This question says, "Recently I read an article suggesting "the use of an HECM loan to purchase a house.

"I'm wondering what are your thoughts of this approach?

"With rates and homes at high levels, does it pay "to buy now or wait?

"Thank you for your clear explanation "of issues on your program.

- You're very kind, and, goodness, clear explanation - simple mind.

Got to just take things, get them simple.

I was very blessed as a young man, grew up in the church and I remember as a kid, 11-12 years old, perhaps, walking out of church one Sunday after a sermon that I could not understand, and turned to my dad and said, "I didn't get it."

He said, "That's okay.

Almost no one got it."

It is not a skill to make things confusing.

It's a skill to make confusing things simple, understandable.

And hopefully for my dad, maybe that's a skill I picked up from him.

So, let's talk about HECM.

What the heck is HECM?

HECM - Home Equity Conversion Mortgage.

And this individual says, "I've read recently you can buy "a home using a home equity conversion mortgage."

And the answer is yes, you can.

A relatively recent last few years development in the reverse mortgage arena, HECM is the FHA-sponsored, insured part of that reverse mortgage arena.

Reverse mortgages come in a number of different flavors, quite a number of different flavors, and some of them are insured.

Federal government, some are not.

Some are private.

Some are public.

So you have to be comfortable with the process that allows you to be educated about reverse mortgages before you get too excited about their usefulness for you or not.

I think the questions asked in this brief email are very good ones.

Interest rates are much higher now.

Three years ago, a reverse mortgage might be at a 2-2.5% interest rate.

Currently, they might be at a 7-7.5% interest rate.

That can be very, very challenging for a couple of reasons.

I'll circle back to that.

Yes, home prices have risen significantly in recent years - until recently.

And in some areas, home prices are actually falling as interest rates on traditional mortgages have climbed above 7% on that 30-year fixed rate.

And as a result, the demand for homes has started to pull back in some areas.

Real estate is not a national, what, national market.

Real estate is very much a local market.

And in some of those local markets, the prices are still extraordinarily high.

And in some, the prices have started to come down as the demand has come down, supply and demand.

You remember that - it might be the only thing we remember from our Economics 101 class, but it is absolutely true.

So this individual says, "Can you use a HECM to buy a house?"

Yes, within limits.

Reverse mortgages of all types will not lend you 80-90% of the value of the home.

They will lend you 50-40, or less percent of the value of your home.

So if you're looking to buy a home at $300,000, if you went the traditional route and put 20% down, they would lend you about 240.

A HECM might lend you 150.

It might lend you 120.

Goodness, how are you expected to come up with all the rest of that money?

It is almost always expected that you will be selling a home and having a substantial, in this case, a significantly substantial down payment on the purchase of your new home.

But if that is true, if all those things fall into place and they will lend you $120,000 on a HECM, you have no required monthly payments.

So, the huge advantage of buying a home, using some portion of that purchase price through a HECM is that that's a huge chunk of money you do not have to repay.

You are not required to repay.

It will not be repaid until you leave that home either voluntarily, you're moving, you're selling, or involuntarily, or the middle ground, which is you lose your health and need to be cared for somewhere else.

And then, the home will be sold, and then, the reverse mortgage will be paid off with interest.

With interest that accrues from day one.

So the reverse mortgage environment, lots of players out there, make sure that you're dealing with someone that you trust, someone that's very experienced.

Our More Than Money world headquarters, we're very, very lucky that we have a partner that's been doing reverse mortgages for decades.

She doesn't look it.

She looks too young.

Bottom line, has been doing it for decades, and has a strong instinct for education, for information.

You've got to be educated.

You've got to be informed.

You've got to look at all of the pros and cons before you make a decision that's appropriate for you.

But simple answer, they're available.

Complicated answer, you got to get trained up.

Megan, what's next?

- This next email says, "I've seen your show on PBS "and wanted to run this by you.

"My wife and I purchased individual retirement account "savings certificates from Philadelphia National Bank "in the mid-80s.

"PNB was purchased by CoreStates, "which became Wachovia, and ultimately Wells Fargo.

"We actually forgot that we have these certificates, "but came across them recently.

"I contacted Wells Fargo "and was told they were looking into it.

"I called them as a follow-up and have heard nothing.

"We are wondering whether these are still redeemable, "or if the bank can simply not pay due to the years in between "issuance and possible redemption.

"Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thank you."

- I do indeed.

And before we get too critical, if somebody said, "Ah, I just misplaced some money," most of us are a little more attentive to our assets.

Or are we?

This was 40 years ago.

Multiple banks, multiple bank accounts.

Since then, maybe IRAs.

Maybe other IRAs.

Maybe 401Ks, maybe other IRAs.

So is it possible that something kind of slipped through the cracks?

The answer's sure.

And back at that point in time, IRA contributions were $2-3,000 a year, not the 6-8 that they are currently, 6-7 that they are currently.

So bottom line is, is this understandable?

Sure.

Sure.

Now you're getting no response from a very large bank.

There's sadly no surprise there.

There's sadly no surprise there.

One of the reasons so many Americans are turning to back to smaller community or regional banks is for this very reason.

And the next time you call Wells Fargo, you will likely not talk to the person you talked to the first time or two anyway.

So, yes, very frustrating.

I will tell you that in all likelihood, Wells Fargo's answer to you is "we don't have them."

That's in all likelihood.

In all likelihood, because of the rules in the state of Pennsylvania, if you were not actively involved with these accounts for all these years, these assets have been turned over to the state treasury, unclaimed property.

And the state treasury website has a huge, huge presence around the topic of unclaimed property, because it is such an amazingly large issue for residents of the state of Pennsylvania.

So you can continue to hope that Wells Fargo will find your IRA certificates and pay you.

That's not likely.

You can proactively go to the Pennsylvania Department of Treasury website, use the system that they have online.

Do not call.

They simply are understaffed and not in a position where they're going to be able to help you likely on a one-on-one basis.

But use their online search tool.

Make sure that you're identifying both your name, your name as an IRA, your name as a Philadelphia National Bank, etc., etc.

You may have to search a number of times to locate them.

But my gut is your IRA certificates, CDs are in the state of Pennsylvania's treasury, and they stopped earning interest way back when they were turned over to the Treasury.

But my suspicion is that you will find them there.

If you have a struggle with navigating all of that, I absolutely understand.

Many of our clients have gone through that process, it's not easy.

We have had personal friends who have been so frustrated, they went to their state senators, and then, they got some response.

And that worked out rather well.

So give it a go first.

If you don't get the results that you're hoping for, make sure you seek out your state senator, Pennsylvania state senator, and maybe they can help.

Megan, very, very interesting.

I wish I'd had a better answer for those folks.

-Perhaps a better answer for these folks.

- Perhaps so.

This question says, "I love your show and wonder if you might be able "to help me out.

"I'm 71 years old, still working, and own my own home, "nine years on a 30-year mortgage.

"I have about $160,000 in savings, and it is sitting in "the bank, not doing much for me.

"I would like to retire one day, but I'm not sure "how to go about that.

"I'm a little spooked about the stock market at my age, "and wonder if there is an alternative way to create "a revenue stream out of my savings.

"I think that is the pertinent information that you "might need, but if there are questions, I am available.

"What do you think, Gene?

"Thank you ahead of time for your consideration."

- Aren't people wonderful?

So polite, so appreciative.

I'm appreciative of you.

Just the way you phrased your question.

Fantastic.

Happy to serve you.

Well, a number of things jump out at me.

71, still working.

Good for you.

Retirement, mm, that can be detrimental to your health.

Make sure you work as long as you enjoy it.

So good for you.

Number two, your mortgage.

You still have nine years to go in a 30-year mortgage.

That may be part of the reason you're continuing to work.

One thing you might consider, to extend your cash flow, it's not an income per se, but it's eliminating an expense potentially is to look at a reverse mortgage.

We talked about HECM mortgages earlier in the show.

Explore the reverse mortgage to see if maybe you could eliminate your current mortgage now and eliminate those monthly payments that might get you retired a little sooner, or might make your retirement a bit easier.

Now, as to creating income, is the stock market the only way to create income in retirement?

It's not even 1% of the ways that you can create income in retirement.

There are dozens and dozens, and dozens of ways.

So my first and most important recommendations to sit with a trusted, experienced financial advisor.

I'll circle back to that here in a moment.

I say it so often, a trusted, experienced financial advisor and start exploring, very important, start exploring the pros and cons, nothing's perfect, of the various ways that you can create income, it might be a fixed annuity, a single premium immediate annuity.

It might be a variable annuity with guaranteed lifetime income.

It might be a bond ladder where you're putting your money in bonds and you're getting 2-4%, and then, you're renewing those maturities as they come due.

It might be some combination of bonds and stocks that pay high dividends.

There are lots of high-quality companies out there that are fairly stable, even in difficult times, fairly stable, and produce very strong cash flow that might be useful in your retirement.

One of the things that we say over and over again is "trusted, experienced," it might be financial advisor, it might be tax professional, it might be legal expert, etc.

Finding the trusted and experienced advisor of... ...what category that you need.

It's a challenge, it is not easy.

If you are bumping into that challenge and need referrals, please make sure you reach out to us.

But finding one is really critical.

I'll give you an example, in this gentleman's case.

If you're dealing with exactly that kind of advisor, the very first thing, very first thing that he or she will ask is, "How much do you need in retirement?"

What are your monthly expenses?

What must you have as an income so that your bills are paid, you're happy, you're healthy?

That will drive every other question, every other answer to every other question that you may have.

For example, still working at 71.

My guess is collecting Social Security.

My hope is, because it maxes out at 70, it doesn't go any higher.

So my question would be, if you're collecting, picking a number, 2,500 a month, is that enough to pay your bills?

The answer is yes, you're retired.

And your 160 can be very, very conservative and just give you a nice income for the extras.

If you say to me, "Gosh, no, I need 3,500 a month," now, we've got to figure out what types of investments could possibly generate 12,000 a year for you from your investments, from your home, from perhaps a 401K that you may have.

Using perhaps a software package, one that looks at retirement and creates the opportunity to compare different choices, most advisors that you would trust would have something as a tool of that type that would allow you to see in, well, whether it's on the big screen, that's very common in our office, or whether you see it in print, the comparisons between when you retire, how much you take out, and in retirement income from your savings, whether you do a reverse mortgage or not.

All of these decisions that you may make, you can compare doing them or not, or compare doing them with other choices that you may make, so that you have a very clear, very demonstrable evidence of what decisions that you are making are best for you.

That's the key.

I keep talking about "trusted, experienced".

Trusted is a fiduciary advisor that's assisting you, assisting you in making the best decisions for you.

Not general, not global, but specifically for you.

That's the kind of advice that you're looking for.

You're going to have lots of options.

You're going to have a little bit of homework to do to make sure that you're comfortable, but you'll get to the right answer.

Excellent question.

Excellent, indeed.

Megan, hopefully our next one is every bit as excellent.

- I hope so, too.

This question says, "Next year, I must start taking IRA RMDs.

"I have two annuities, Pacific life index dimensions with "a ten-year surrender, estimated value, $550,000 "and FNG safe income plus, estimated value of $550,000.

"I have various bank CDs, estimated value of $600,000.

"My questions are, what is the best strategy to take RMDs?

"And also, could you give info on a direct "charitable distribution?

Thank you for your help."

- Oh, my pleasure.

Thank you very much, indeed.

Well, 1.2 - I'm sorry, 1.1 million in IRAs.

I'm making the assumption, it may be erroneous, but I'm making the assumption that the 600,000 CDs are not IRAs.

That's my assumption.

So, by the way, if this is your question and that assumption was wrong, please send me another email.

Bottom line is that your first-year RMD is going to be approximately $45,000.

So the IRS says when you have two IRAs, you can take from either or both, completely up to you, and you can change that up year by year.

So one year, you might take it from the first annuity, the second year, the second, and go bouncing back and forth.

You might decide, "I'll just take," because they're approximately equal, "I'll just take an equal amount every year from both."

Strategies...

The one potential strategy that you might want to look at is how those annuities are invested.

So if you have, I'll pick on, we'll call them A and B - if Annuity A is invested strongly in the stock market and currently finds itself down because the stock market has been pushed lower, you might wish strategically to take your entire RMD from annuity B, and allow Annuity A the opportunity to recover.

Will the stock market recover?

Of course it'll recover.

When will it recover?

I haven't a clue.

How fast?

Not a clue.

Not psychic.

Psychotic.

Not psychic.

But bottom line is, it will recover.

Spring follows winter every single time, even when the winters are hard and long, and dark, as this one kind of feels like.

Bottom line is that you've got a couple of different ways that you can approach this, but the IRS gives you that flexibility so that you can make those choices that are best for you.

I will add something you didn't ask.

Inside those annuities, you may have some options in terms of how that money is invested.

Make sure that either you or your advisor are reviewing those regularly.

Too often, annuities are left kind of on their own.

They're kind of left adrift, and they don't get the same monitoring, the same adjustments as perhaps mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, or stock investment accounts might.

Make sure that you're adjusting, monitoring, and making adjustments as appropriate for those annuities, as well.

And finally, 600,000 CDs, my guess is as these roll out, you're coming out of relatively low interest rates.

Make sure you don't auto-renew, make sure that you do not simply accept the interest rate being offered by your bank.

Comparison shop.

There are brokered CDs now, very short-term, very high interest rate.

You may want to consider going outside your current bank to banks outside your geographic area.

Typically, brokered CDs are available through advisors, so you might check with an advisor you trust to get some comparison.

Interesting, indeed.

How about one more?

We have one more?

- We do.

Our last question says, "My husband of 59 years passed away three weeks ago "at the age of 82.

"He had an annuity valued at 28,000 as beneficiary.

"I have been sent paperwork to decide how "to allot this money.

"With the economy the way it is, I am seriously thinking "of taking the lump sum benefit.

"The money could also be paid out five-year "or ten-year payments.

"I am currently 79 years of age.

"I know a W4R form has to be filed.

"It was sent with the packet.

"The chart included seems to show that withholding "would be about 22%, $6,600.

"Could this be correct?

"My husband's pension was $3,000 a month, and Social Security was $1,500, total of $4,500 a month "times six months, no longer paid 27,000.

"Almost the same amount, but taxed differently in PA "since the original amount is a pension, not an annuity.

"Last year, our joint 1040 was $134,000.

"I'm wondering, do you think the lump sum payment "is the way to proceed?

"Thank you for any advice that you might give me.

- Goodness.

My first advice is, three weeks is so very short.

Our condolences, of course, our prayers to you.

That's a very difficult position to be in.

In light of that, you are remarkably detailed, remarkably organized.

Good for you.

Your offering up information is very, very useful in the grand scheme.

Now, I'm interpreting your email in such a way that I'm guessing that the lump sum here, I don't think your email, and Megan, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think your email cites the lump sum value of the annuity, but I'm guessing it to be somewhere in the 35,000 range, if the tax that they're looking to withhold is over 6,000 at 22%, that's roughly the number.

You are already in a significantly high tax bracket.

Taking all that money out, you're going to lose a sum of money.

22% seems, I guess, approximately appropriate.

But bottom line is, this doesn't seem, this doesn't seem to be a choice that's going to move the needle for you financially very much either way, whether you have, with your income, whether you have that as a lump sum, or whether you take it as an income, I suspect that the interest rate that the annuity company will pay you over a 5-10-year period is relatively small.

It is not unusual for those companies to pack in, especially with a death benefit payout, a relatively small 1-2% interest rate.

If I am wrong, if they're offering you 4-5%, you might consider that pretty reasonable rate of return.

If I am correct, however, taking the lump sum, paying the tax is not great, but taking the lump sum allows you then to redeploy those funds into something far more likely to give you a better rate of return.

Whether that's aggressively investing it in the stock market or being very conservative with short-term treasuries at 4.5%, that will be a choice that you will need to make after this initial discussion.

But bottom line is, I don't think it's going to move the needle.

I don't you'll make a mistake either way.

I do think, maybe take a deep breath.

It's only been a short period of time.

Maybe give yourself a little more time, and maybe discuss it with somebody that you trust, whether it's an adviser, a child or grandchild, somebody that you consider to be a trusted confidante, and see how they feel, as well.

And of course, if you need additional assistance or additional support, just let us know.

Speaking of letting us know, if you have a question that will add to our reputation as the most relevant financial show on TV today, by sharing your question with us, something that's of concern to you, please send it to us.

Gene@AskMTM.com works very, very well.

Give us as much detail as you are comfortable.

We will prevent... We will provide you with all the privacy that you require, of course, thank you so much for reaching out to us, spending some time with us.

We'll see you next week on More Than Money.

Goodnight.