- And good evening.

You've got More Than Money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial adviser.

Happy to be with you this evening.

Happy to have you join us this evening.

If you're a regular viewer of More Than Money, you know exactly how this works.

We take advantage of you.

We make you the center of the entire show.

You make us the most relevant financial show on television today by posing us your questions, your concerns, your observations about your financial life, where you are and where you're heading, where you are, where you'd like to be.

And that gives us the information that we need to be able to guide you.

Using all of my, hmm, 780 years of experience, it should be fairly useful, and yet giving you the freshest, most cutting-edge information that we possibly can in each and every show.

So if you have a question for us and you'd like to maybe be part of a future show, send us your emails.

Gene@AskMTM.com.

Perhaps we'll have one of your questions on a future show, but without a doubt, 100% assured, all of your questions are answered right back to you.

We have a tremendous team on our More Than Money staff, and they are there to serve users.

No charge, no obligation, no pressure.

You send us your questions.

We send you good information to answer your concerns.

So that could be an investment question.

It could be a retirement question, could be an income taxes, estate planning, the list is pretty long, but those are all just general topics.

The real value is what's going on in your life, and how can we be of service?

So let's turn to our financial correspondent and find out how we may serve our first emailer this evening.

Megan, where do we start?

- Hi, Gene.

Our first question tonight says, "I love your show.

"I'm considering selling my home.

"My question is this, do I need to advise prospective buyers "that my husband passed away in the living room?

"What am I obliged to tell people who are interested in "buying my house?

Thank you for your help."

- Well, goodness.

First of all, our condolences.

That is a difficult challenge indeed.

Our show is seen on many different PBS systems, many different states across the country, so it will very much depend on the state in which your home is situated.

Every state has its own rules and regulations about how much needs to be disclosed.

Many states are insistent that you be very proactive.

Anything that might negatively impact the value of the home, you must offer up.

Some states are quite the opposite, where they are not insistent at all, as a matter of fact, the guidance is you don't have to answer anything that isn't asked.

In all states, as far as my research has shown, in all states, if the question is posed to you directly, you must answer it honestly.

"Has anyone ever died in this house?"

If you know that that is an affirmative answer, you must give that affirmative answer.

So, make sure you're working with a trusted real estate professional.

Make sure that you're working with people who know exactly what the rules and regulations are, and be prepared that you may have to have that discussion, whether that's in some cases uncomfortable, or maybe just the opposite, peacefully died in the home that you raised your family in, perhaps, and the spin might very well be a very positive one.

So we wish you good luck with the sale of your home.

And again, follow the regs that govern your particular state, I think you'll do fine.

I think you'll do fine.

Speaking of find, Megs, what did you "fine" back there in our mailbag?

Well, I found another viewer of our show that they're very pleased with More Than Money on PBS39.

They said, "I am 58 years old, full-time employment with "a 401K and a 403B.

"I have savings over $14,000, "a life insurance policy valued at $15,000, "which is $29 a month.

"There are moments that I ponder my financial decisions.

"I'm wondering, should I leave things as is or seek financial "advice on money management?

Thank you."

- That's a very good question.

It's a very interesting question, and one that applies to a lot of people.

At what point in your life does it make sense for you to seek professional financial assistance?

Is there a point?

Is it a dollar amount?

Is it an age?

Is it an event?

The reality is it could be any of those, or all of those.

It really simply depends on the specifics of your situation.

You've given us a little bit of detail, currently active, you've got retirement plans, etc.

Those are more than enough reason for you to at least explore using a financial advisor.

And when I say "explore," the vast majority of the quality financial advisors that I'm familiar with, and I'm familiar with, you might expect, since I've been in the business for a very, very long time, hundreds of financial advisors, and the vast majority of those coast to coast and from border to border will offer a free second-opinion evaluation of your financial life.

So, you don't have to kind of ponder this in a vacuum.

You don't have to try to guess whether or not you would benefit from working with a financial advisor.

You can determine that for yourself with the specifics of your situation.

You may find after that meeting that that's all you needed, an hour, a little bit of a discussion, some direction, and you're good.

You may find after that discussion that you need ongoing financial assistance, ongoing financial guidance.

And for some folks, that entails, goodness, paying a lot of attention to their investments.

They're in a particular stage of their life where investments are their current focus.

For other folks, investments have nothing to do with it.

In our More Than Money world, we have tons of young folks who have little or no money invested with our firm at all.

But they are on the road, they are working, their perhaps first job out of college, they are considering or have already started with buying their first home.

They may be getting married, they may be having children.

These are all issues, all circumstances, life events, life events that would cause someone rightfully to say, "I hope I'm doing the right thing.

"I hope I'm making the right choices.

"I wish I had some guidance," and a quality financial firm can provide that.

Now, I need to be very clear here.

When I say the vast majority of quality financial firms, that does not mean that there are not firms that will offer to do this, and then charge you.

I would walk away from them.

I don't think that's necessary.

It is also not to say that there are not financial firms typically referring to themselves as investment advisors, rather than financial advisors, where if you don't have a substantial sum of money, in some cases minimum investment amounts of half a million dollars...

There's a very well-known, large national firm, they advertise on radio and TV nonstop, millions and millions of dollars of advertising a year, minimum, half a million dollars.

Other firms, I have heard $1 million or more.

That's not to say that they're not out there.

What it is to say, you don't need them.

You literally don't need them.

There are so many high-quality advisors with great integrity and a willingness to serve you on all of your financial questions the whole of your life, holistic financial advice is what it is sometimes referred to.

Number one, you don't have to pay for the initial meeting.

There are lots of folks who will give you a quality meeting at no charge.

And number two, you don't have to just be focused on investments.

As a matter of fact, I would strongly encourage you, anyone in our audience, if you're currently working with an advisor and they are investment only, I don't really know why you would make that choice, because for exactly the same cost involved, expense involved, you can have advice on every piece of your financial picture, not just your investments.

So, for you specifically, spend an hour, spend no money, but spend an hour with a trusted, experienced financial advisor, explore exactly where you are and where you wish to go, and see if there's a basis for that relationship.

And if there is, fantastic.

And if there isn't fantastic!

Either way, you win.

Speaking of winning, can we make somebody's question a winning answer?

Let's see when we go back with Megan.

Megan, what's next?

- I hope so.

That's always the goal.

This emailer says, "I have been an aggressive investor "all my life, and it has paid off handsomely.

"I retired in December at 63, and I'm being advised "to balance my 100% stock portfolio with bonds and other "more conservative investments.

"I have been leery of annuities my whole investing life, "as I've heard many negative comments on them.

"I went to an SSA seminar, and the financial advisor was "suggesting an indexed annuity as a conservative investment.

"He said that bonds are no longer the flip side of stocks, "and that this annuity type should be considered "as an alternative.

"The 2022 bond performance seems to back him up.

"As he describes it, you can never lose your principal or "any gains you have realized.

"If the index such as the S&P goes up, you don't realize "the full gain, but if it goes down, "you don't realize any loss.

"Can you please provide your thoughts on these investment "vehicles?

Thank you."

- Interesting question.

Very interesting indeed.

SSA is not a company that I'm familiar with, so I am not making any reference to them specifically, or the type of advice that they provide, or their particular opinions.

I don't know anything about the company.

I will address your questions about the use of a fixed indexed annuity as a bond substitute, keeping in mind that there are many companies out there, there are several in our area that make their living selling annuities.

And when I say make their living, I mean they sell nothing but annuities, and they expect that every one of their clients is going to buy an annuity.

As my dad, who was a carpenter and had hundreds of tools at his disposal, his reference observation was, "If all that you own is a hammer, "everything looks like a nail."

So if you are restricted, as many of these firms are, or if you have chosen to be restricted to only annuities, perhaps only fixed indexed annuities as your only tool, you are guaranteed that's what you're going to hear about.

You are guaranteed they're going to give you good explanations as to why that is the choice that you should make.

They will rarely, maybe never, but rarely, certainly not voluntarily talk about the commissions that they are being paid.

It is not unusual for some of these firms that are pushing annuities to all of their clients to be paid 6-12, we've even seen fixed indexed annuities with 15% commission rates.

Now, let's be honest, in the More Than Money world, have we use fixed indexed annuities?

Sure, they are a financial tool.

If they fit the project that the client is needing to complete best fulfils the needs of the client, of course we're going to use that.

At commissions at 1-3, not 8-12.

There are tremendously effective fixed indexed annuities out there with very attractive fee schedules, very appropriate expense ratios.

And so somebody'll say, "Well, what's the difference?

"It looks like I'm getting the same benefits."

It's impossible for you to get the same benefits if the cost to the annuity company goes from 3-12%, to pay out all that extra money has to come from somewhere.

And typically... no, not typically, it always comes from you, the investor.

So the idea that a fixed indexed annuity is a bond substitute is not a new one, and it's not necessarily an inappropriate one, but it's also not necessarily the correct one.

While indeed the bond performance in 2022 was, to use a sophisticated financial jargon word, stinky, it was, double-digit declines across the board in bonds, that was one year.

For 30 years, bonds did amazingly well.

Right now, bonds are in flux, in transition.

Will there come a time when bonds return?

The answer is, of course.

When will that be?

I have no idea.

My crystal ball has been broken for decades.

It's actually a crystal.

It's not a crystal ball.

It's a snow globe.

Little Rudolph, little red... You get the idea.

No one knows.

No one is psychic.

Psychotic, we have covered, psychic does not apply.

So in this case, it seems as if the "advisor" had already made up his or her mind as to what they wanted to sell you, as opposed to what is an appropriate alternative.

By the way, bonds come in lots of flavors.

People talk about bonds as if they are all the exact same thing.

How about corporate bonds?

That's a type.

How about government bonds?

That's another type.

How about international bonds?

How about floating rate bonds?

How about short-term bonds?

How about emerging debt bonds?

How about, there are tremendous selections, there's a tremendous smorgasbord of bonds out there, some of which last year did dreadfully.

Others did very nicely.

And some of you have even heard of I bonds that have been issued over the last year, some of which have had 6-9% interest rates.

So fixed indexed annuities traditionally over a long period of time returning between 3-4% return guaranteed I bonds, returning 6-7% returns.

I think we understand now that SSA may very well be in the position where they really want you to have a fixed indexed annuity.

I would implore you that you look at a second-opinion meeting, not for the decision of bonds versus fixed indexed, but I'll tell you where my number-one priority in terms of a discussion with you would be.

You have been 100% in stocks your entire investment life.

You are now retired.

Should that change?

You will need to convince me that not being 100% in stocks is actually in your best interest.

Because for a lot of folks who retire, the investments that they have are necessary.

They are mandatory to produce a cash flow to help them pay their bills so that they can be happy and healthy in their retirement.

That's not everybody.

And you may very well be able to show me that that's not you, that your investments are ancillary and auxiliary to your retirement.

You've got retirement, perhaps a pension fund, perhaps pension payments, perhaps Social Security, perhaps your spouse is still working, perhaps you simply don't need the income and don't foresee a need for income for quite some time.

The answer might very well be going all the way back to the first line of your email.

You're 100% in stocks.

Maybe you should stay there.

And I understand there are a lot of financial advisors who regularly watch More Than Money to get some... ...inside information about how to better serve their clients.

And though these advisers are my competitors... No, they're not.

We can't possibly serve everyone that needs to be served in America.

We invite them to learn from us.

One of the first things I can tell you, adviser to adviser, is that if you have been trained, as so many of us were, that it is the investment allocation between stocks and bonds is driven by age.

I'm here to school you on the fact it is not.

And in recent memory, we had a gentleman who was approaching 90 years old and who was 95% in the stock market.

If that sounds crazy, you didn't know him.

It fit him like hand-in-glove.

And that's what an investment portfolio is supposed to do.

It's not a generic, it's not a general.

It's not a guideline.

It's not a rule of thumb.

It's very specific to you.

So second-opinion meeting, certainly to juxtapose against what you've seen or heard at the seminar, but more importantly, to determine what's exactly right for you.

Megan, I hope I have an answer that will be exactly right for our next audience member.

What's up next?

- Well, I have a feeling this next one, you're going to have some choice words for.

So this might be the entertainment portion of our show that we warn viewers about and apologize about in advance.

This question says, "My parents bought my youngest sister, "she's 30, a $900,000 house to run a drug rehab center.

"She does pay him $5,000 a month rent for this investment.

"My sister and husband are former addicts who have cleaned "up their lives and are doing much better for the most part.

"My dad is of sound mind, but it's shockingly unlike him "to give anyone money, especially at 900,000.

"Do you have an opinion on this, Gene?"

- Yeah.

I think the word "shockingly" is appropriate.

Shockingly, I have an opinion on this.

That's why they pay me the big bucks, to have an opinion.

My opinion to this young lady who's asking about her sister is it's none of your business.

It has nothing to do with you.

Stay out of it.

Stay out of it on a couple of different levels.

Number one, none of your business.

Number two, you don't understand the financial world nearly as well as you need to, to make this your business.

You are too emotionally invested in the scenario.

And, gosh, anybody that hears this brief email could understand why you would be emotionally invested.

This is a young sister, 30 years old in today's world, very young, already having demonstrated some poor judgment in getting, unfortunately, addicted in some way, shape or form.

And now, gosh, married to someone who in some way, shape or form was addicted as well, and now are getting their lives back on track "for the most part," what an interesting phrase that is not too judgmental.

All right, fairly judgmental.

And hoping, hoping to be able to help other folks who were in a similar circumstance.

That's very admirable.

It is very challenging.

Is it likely that they will have significant challenges between now and the end of their lives?

The answer is, of course there are.

Is it also very possible that they will celebrate 50-70 years of sobriety?

We sure hope so.

We sure pray so.

And of course it's possible, many have done it before them.

Perhaps they will do it, as well.

And we pray that they will.

Judgmental, shocking that your father would give people money.

Shockingly, you don't understand this transaction because it's quite clear he did not give them $900,000.

When you pay rent, you are a tenant.

You are not an owner.

When you receive rent, $5,000 a month, $60,000 a year, you're an owner.

This scenario that you've described with Dad "gifting" 900 grand is incorrect.

Your dad may very well have purchased the property for this purpose, but it appears from your email, from the facts in your email that he retained ownership.

He has receiving $60,000 a year.

Let's say they keep this for ten years.

He paid 900.

He already has $600,000 just in rent.

And the property hopefully will go up in value.

This appears to me that your dad is once again being very financially astute, and understands that your sister and her husband.. have challenges.

We want them to do very, very well.

But there's at least the chance that they will not.

And he is minimizing the financial negative, the financial danger in the scenario by hanging on to the property, having them pay him rent.

My guess is he also had them set up an LLC, a corporation of some type to have liability protection, as well.

Again, this really has very little to do with you.

Pay attention to your own family, pay attention to your own business, say your prayers every day.

Pray for your sister and her husband, pray for your dad, and gosh, lighten up a little.

Lighten up a little.

Speaking of lightning up, Megs, do we have a short one to lighten up with?

- We do.

We have one about pension options.

I will do my best to read fast.

It says, "I am one of the lucky people with a small pension.

"This pension has a lump sum value at age of retirement next "year of $128,000, and a single-life annuity value "of 809 per month.

"I have to do something next year because the value of the "payout tops out at age 65.

So here's my question.

"I'm not sure of the discount rate or life expectancy "assumptions that my company is using, but it seems that it "may be possible to deploy the lump sum in a way to generate a "higher payout and leave my spouse with money "when I get hit by the proverbial beer truck.

"Given certain medical issues, I am not a good candidate "for life insurance products, so here are my options.

I could take a single-life annuity of $809 a month, "take joint and survivor 100% annuity of $675 a month, "take a lump sum and invest it in one of three ways, "dump it into an IRA and buy S&P 500 Index "and bonds at 50/50.

"Two, look into single premium annuity with a delayed start, "I don't need the money right away.

"Or three, some esoteric..." Don't know if I said that right.

"...product that I have never heard of that you will "undoubtedly suggest to me.

"I understand that in a year when I initiate this pension, "the world will be different, but I need to model something "now to be able to tweak my current plan.

"Thank you for any help you can give me."

- Well, the first help that I think I can give you is take a deep breath and let it go.

Sounds to me, I would place a substantial wager on it that you are an engineer.

Engineer by training.

Perhaps, I don't know, with an MBA and spreadsheet-controlled, and, ooh, I got to know.

You're absolutely right.

A year from now, the world is going to be very different.

Investments are very different now than they were even three years ago.

Interest rates are radically different than they were two-and-a-half years ago.

The tax laws have changed.

Social Security rules have changed.

RMD rules have changed.

I would strongly encourage you to take a deep breath.

Since you don't need the money right away, taking any of the pension options, the pension guaranteed payments makes no sense to me whatsoever.

Rolling the lump sum into an IRA will preserve for you all of your options since you don't need the money right away, bringing it out of the pension, the lump sum, 128, dropping it into an IRA will allow you then, as time unfolds, to decide, "I do want to invest it in something more esoteric "or something, and an index fund, or perhaps an annuity "that gives a guaranteed payout similar to your pension, "but maybe with a little tweak so there's some "legacy built in there."

The answers are legion, and if you really want something to fill into your spreadsheet, sit with a financial advisor, look at 3-4 of these options, esoteric, balance funds, perhaps an annuity, a fixed annuity, or a single premium immediate annuity, and run all of those.

That way, you'll have something to compare and something to discuss, at least mull over in your mind between now and next year when the check actually comes through.

And of course, you'll also have a relationship with a financial advisor that you can then turn to when it does arrive, and put into effect whatever plans are best fitted for you.

Speaking of best fitted for you, if you have a question, as we run two seconds left in this edition of More of the Money, please send it to us.

Gene@AskMTM.com.

One of our team will answer back to you specifically.

Every single question gets answered back.

Silly ones, hard ones, great ones, they all get served.

And we enjoy serving you, which is why we invite you to return next week when we're back here on this set, in this studio, answering more of your questions on another edition of More Than Money.

Goodnight.