And good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got tickets in your house.

Your personal financial adviser.

Happy to be with you.

Happy to serve you in any way that we are able for the next half an hour, I am yours.

And that's a pretty cool thing to be a a peek behind the scenes.

Not everybody gets to do that more than money.

We're produce, of course, in our PBS studios and we record our shows a couple of weeks in advance.

So anything that might be happening in the immediate 24 hour segment that you're living through right this second is not what we address and you'll notice that the vast majority of the questions that folks posed to us are far more universal.

Some would say evergreen, far more.

They're playing the long game.

They're looking not at what should I do on Tuesday?

Should I buy apples?

Sell apples?

Sure.

Should I get out of apple completely?

That's not typically the kinds of things that we address.

There are lots of financial shows.

my goodness.

I've lost track.

Lots of them and lots of them purport to know kind of where the market's going to go, where a certain stock's going to go.

And they want to be seen as almost psychic.

Well, goodness, my wife will assure you, psychic is not anything that applies to me.

Psychotic has been a word that has been used on occasion.

But psychic not only does not apply to Jean, it doesn't apply to anybody.

There are no financial advisors or TV show hosts or radio show hosts that can predict even what the stock market will do an hour from now.

They can't.

So the idea that we might say, okay, let's look tonight at Jay and Jay and see if tomorrow that's going to go up in my world is just silliness.

But the idea that you can select a path, a strategy, a tactic that will advance you closer to your financial goals with real confidence and with assurance that if you follow that path, you'll get a pleasing result.

Now, that's something we can get excited about, and the fact that you ask us such interesting questions allows us to be the most relevant show on television.

Financial show, of course, because we are addressing exactly the issues that you're concerned about.

And just as interestingly, the questions are so universal, are so, so evergreen, so much so much playing the long game that even though you're two weeks ahead of me, so to speak, I think you still find real value.

Real value.

The rules change.

The IRS rules change, the armed rules.

Change.

Wasn't long ago, 70 and a half was your armed.

Now, for most folks, it's 73.

In the future, it will be 75.

Yes, those details will change.

But the concern of having a sound plan to get you from where you are to where you wish to be, that's never going to change.

That's that's two people or three people.

A group of people working together to stay on track makes Who do we start with this evening that hopefully we can get them on track?

Our first question tonight is a family matter.

It says, Per our parents will, my brother and I will split their inheritance 5050.

This includes the family house.

I would like to keep the house in the family for my children as I bought my current home nearby to be able to care for my parents as they aged.

I understand the best time to sell a home is soon after inheriting it to avoid capital gains tax.

The issue is that my brother is single and currently living in the house and he may not want to sell his portion right away.

I would be happy to let him live in the house that we jointly own, but I worry that he may decide to sell his half and I'll have to take a financial hit or that he'll get married and live in the home with his family, which may complicate matters.

Wondering how do I ensure my interests in the home are protected while making sure I do right by my brother?

Thank you so much.

It's such a polite question, and I don't think it really calls for a high level of snark, but it requires some real clear delineation of of what children are or are not entitled to, according to your parents.

Will okay.

That's their will.

As of this moment.

They are able legally, ethically, personally and morally, spiritually, in every way possible.

They are able to change their mind at any time and that current well goes out the window and they can set it up any way they want.

Entitled to 5050.

No, that's what your parents currently have decided.

And to be fair, they are likely to continue down that path.

It is rare that we find parents, particularly if the grown children are relatively independent and relatively well-established financially.

It is rare that it isn't 5050, it isn't equal shares.

In terms of fairness, this situation, to be blunt, has a wrinkle.

And with your brother living in the house, your parents might very well decide that they want to do fair distribution, but very differently than what you are thinking.

What if they decided to leave the house to your brother and an equivalent amount of cash investments, etc., to you?

And then the problem is solved not in the way that you expected, not in the way perhaps that you were hoping.

But the problem is solved as much as you would like to keep the house in the family, so to speak.

The problem could be solved in a way that takes it to your brother's side.

Still in the family, just not your family.

It's clear because you move close to your parents that you care about them deeply and that you're active in kind of looking after them.

That's fantastic.

Your brother lives with them and hopefully is doing something similar.

So we don't see any need for conflict there.

How do you ensure your interests?

You can express yourself, communicate well to your parents.

Perhaps they follow that, perhaps they don't.

Let's assume just for a moment that it unfolds exactly the way you thought it would.

You think that it will and you and your brother inherit the home equally.

You now have the opportunity to buy out his half year reference to selling the home right after or soon after the estate.

Not terribly relevant.

Certainly not in this circumstance.

Not terribly relevant.

What is relevant is assuming just for fun, it's a 400,000 our house.

He owns half.

You own half.

If you wish to own and control it thereafter, you must convince him to sell you his half.

You're comfortable with him staying in the home for a period of time or a long period of time.

That can be if he sells you his house.

You own the house.

You have the right to either say, Pay me rent or not stay for a year or five.

You own it.

You can do that if you stay as joint ownership, then both of you have to agree to a dispensation.

What will happen to the House has to be agreed to by both of you sold to someone else that you both have to agree and sign off.

Sold one to the other, perhaps.

And if your brother at some point decides, Hey, this.

I grew up here.

I stayed here.

I'm going to get married.

I like to raise my family here.

Then it's far more likely that that the transaction is going to go the other way, that he will offer to buy you out.

Always done if it's done well, very professionally, very arms length, a professional appraisal is done.

The monies are very straightforward.

So lots of ways to do that without causing a real pickle.

But you're making some assumptions that causes me some concern always.

You may or may not understand that mom and Dad can change their mind at any time and give every everything they own to one person, split it up any way that they wish that they believe is in the family's best interest.

So communicate often.

Let them know your wishes, communicate with your brother.

That may be useful as well, but don't, as they say, can't you checks before they hatch.

I'm not sure that wasn't snarky, Max, was it?

No.

I think you're very well behaved.

Our next question is a short and it's very short notice.

It says, I will be selling my business by the end of the week or next week.

And I would like to get an opinion on where to invest the funds as to avoid a high tax rate.

If this is possible, it's kind of contradictory to our evergreen concept, but what do you think, Jeanne?

Interestingly enough, this is an evergreen concept.

This is a universal long game concept because it is a very good example of not playing the long game.

This individual I've had the chance to to review the situation we are in, working very, very hard to accommodate his their the family's needs.

But two days.

Holy cow.

A transaction that we know is in operation was in process for months and yet, you know what I should think about maybe how to cut my income taxes.

This is an important question, not because of the question, but because of the thought process.

If you are involved in a financial transaction of any kind, it could be the sale of a business selling a piece of real estate, the purchase of a business, the purchase of a piece of real estate, an inheritance.

Either you're receiving or you're distributing an inheritance.

These are all major events.

I don't count winning the lottery as a major event because that's the luck of the draw.

Bottom line here is that these are things that unfold and are likely often anticipated, and you will benefit dramatically by not just anticipating the event itself, but looking at the bigger picture about the impact of that event as it might happen to to impact your taxes.

If someone is retired, it may very well impact their Medicare premiums.

If you are retired and on Medicare, you may not realize that Medicare premiums currently about a buck 70 a month for the act, for Part B for the average Medicare recipient, could be as high as $600 a month, depending on income and a huge income surge in a given year might very well have an impact down the road or not.

There may be tax issues, there may be Medicare issues, there may be estate issues, there may be gifting issues, all of which can be explored.

Understood.

Pros and cons tossed around, thought about, preyed upon before we reach the deadline.

So in this case, actually pretty reasonably positive result.

There are things that can still be done, and those actions are in the works.

But in the bigger picture.

Playing the long game when you have these kinds of situations crop up in your life, don't wait.

If you have a financial advisor, inform him or her right away.

If you don't have a financial advisor and figure that it would be advantageous to have one start looking quickly because finding the one that will be exactly right for you might take some time.

And then doing all the work necessary might take some time.

Will certainly take some time.

So give yourself a little breathing room and get the advice that you actually need.

Short question, long answer, but that was to be expected.

Meg, where do we go next?

Our next email says, I am almost 60 and my wife is in her mid-fifties.

Our twins are almost ten because we had children early in life.

My wife has not worked in a decade.

Our house is almost paid off.

It's worth around $400,000 and I have about $500,000 in my 41k and another 250,000 in various stocks and mutual funds.

My wife does not have any retirement accounts.

I plan to retire at 67.

My concern is not only having to support my wife when I retire, but also our children who will be entering their junior year of high school.

We do not have a 529 plan for the twins, and I have not seen any articles or advice columns for older parents like ourselves and what to do when you're at retirement age yet still have children at home.

What advice can you provide?

Jean?

This is very interesting and it's happening far more often than folks might expect.

So this gentleman, almost 60, has ten year old twins.

Personally, I'm tired just thinking about that.

Wow.

The challenges are substantial.

The rewards are fantastic.

Father of daughters, Fantine absolutely wouldn't change anything about it.

And if it happened all right now, maybe I would have some questions.

But bottom line is good for you and good for you to be thinking ahead of this.

The piece of the puzzle that we may be missing is the cash flow issue.

We don't know from your email whether you have strong income, modest expenses, and a strong savings ability.

Above and beyond your expenses or are do we have a reasonable income and we're spending everything or is it quite quite the opposite?

We're spending far more than we're making.

We don't know.

Ideally, ideally, you will.

At age almost 67 years in, in anticipation of retirement, have a substantial gap between what you are earning and what you are spending.

And if you don't, you should be very, very diligent in creating that gap.

So if, for example, you make 8000 a month and you spend seven.

The gap is pretty tiny.

If you spend for the gap is pretty substantial, you must be committed over the next seven years to saving the maximum amount of money that you can possibly save.

If you are committed to retiring at 67, I would suggest that that may, for non-financial reasons, not be in your best interest.

I'm not clear that 67 has any kind of magic to it.

If it does for you because of health issues, because of physical issues, etc., I get that all the more reason why you need to follow these seven years of maximum savings that you can possibly have.

Knowing your cash flow would be the key to completely answering all of these issues.

So if, for example, I'm looking at you, you have 500,000 your four on K to 50 and stocks.

If you were to average over the next seven years, a 10% return.

I'm not saying that you could.

I'm certainly not saying it's guaranteed, but I assume that you could.

You are one and a half million.

I'm sorry.

You're 750,000 will turn into one and a half million dollars.

Even if you save nothing more in your 41k now, one and a half million dollars.

If we use a 4% rule, it's been around for a long time.

Some people argue it.

It's too generous.

Some say it's not generous enough.

But if we use a 4% rule that will generate $60,000 a year of cash flow, your retirement hopefully will generate another.

I'm picking the number kind of out of thin air that I think is probably because another 40,000 a year.

So even if you did retire at 67, if your money has performed as we've described, you're still going to have an income of roughly $100,000 a year.

And hopefully that mortgage balance that you have on your home has been reduced down to near zero or zero.

And your cash flow will improve by the amount of the mortgage balance.

If you are intending on helping your your twins in college.

I think you're on the right track.

I think what we've described will work very, very well if your intent is to pay all of the college expenses.

That's a very different question.

And yes, using a 529 plan where you will if you're a resident of Pennsylvania, many other states give it give similar tax advantages to putting money into a 529.

If you get a tax advantage of putting money into the 5/29 and your intent is to pay all college expenses, you better do it.

You better do it.

The other piece of advice, man to man, you chose to add children later in life.

Bless you.

Good for you.

Outstanding.

You may need to choose to retire from your current job at 67 and then reemploy yourself.

Perhaps part time.

I have a current client who has surprised his entire family by having a ball learning how to and then driving school busses.

He's making a substantial sum of money every year and and it gets up and out of the house every morning, which makes the house a little calmer.

And you may need to look at something similar, whether it's that or any other thing that you would enjoy that maybe part time you can earn ten, 15, 20, $30,000 a year.

And if you do that the entire time that your kids are in high school and and college, you might get there.

You might be able to pay all those debts off, particularly if we are strategic, smart about how we get our college education.

You got a real shot at it.

Fascinating question.

Hopefully I helped a bit.

Obviously, there's a lot of specifics there that we didn't have access to.

Circle back to us.

Specifics are good.

We'll be able to help.

Specifically, Mags, where do we go next?

Our next question says, My wife and I are both retired.

I am a number of years older than her.

We are living on my pension and social Security.

When I pass away, she will get my full Social Security, but not my pension.

She will get a lump sum payment from my pension.

We do have several hundred thousand invested.

No debt or mortgage.

My question is how can we invest our money so she will have income besides my Social Security when I pass?

We checked out annuities, but we don't like all the sales pitches.

What is your advice, Jean?

Well, first of all, I'm with you.

Sales pitches for annuities can be very wearisome.

I often, by the way, I should say, in all fairness, if you were working with the right financial advisor, you wouldn't think that if you were working with a financial advisor that has the opportunity in serving his or her clients to do an annuity, if appropriate, to invest in stocks and bonds, if appropriate, to invest in mutual funds and ETFs.

If appropriate, translation has the entire universe of investments available to you and as a result could recommend exactly what's correct for you.

Perhaps an annuity independent of their of their compensation without any pressure, without leaning one direction or another, no conflicts of interest, etc..

If you were working with an advisor like that, you wouldn't be asking this question.

You are clearly you have clearly bumped into annuity salespeople.

These are commission driven.

They generally represent one or two or three companies that pay the highest commissions.

And yeah, they can get pretty heavy handed and it can be a very uncomfortable experience.

I will equate that and hopefully your your, your willingness to use my analogy to step back from your aversion to annuity fees and identify your aversion to annuity salespeople.

I would equate that to car salespeople are they're really pushy, arrogant, nasty, self-centered, egocentric, money driven car salesmen.

Sure.

Does that mean we don't buy cars?

No, of course not.

Of course, we still buy cars, but hopefully, hopefully we buy cars from people that we trust, from dealers that treat us fairly respectfully, that don't put high pressure tactics on us.

We satisfy our need for a car, for a vehicle, for transportation by selecting the person that we secure that from.

Yeah, maybe you need to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince or princess.

Let's not be judgmental, but perhaps that's useful.

Perhaps that's what's necessary in order for you to find the right answer.

What you're asking for in terms of income for your wife.

Very appropriate.

That makes perfect sense.

You're looking to trade out a an annuity.

Your pension is an annuity for an alternative annuity that will support your wife through the entirety of her life.

That, by definition, is an annuity.

Are there other ways to create an income stream?

Of course.

Are they guaranteed that you will never run out of money?

The answer is no, they are not.

No, they are not.

If you have a platform that has a contractual guarantee to make payments to an individual or individuals, multiples for the entirety of their life, that is by definition an annuity, which is why a pension is an annuity.

If you have that as your number one goal, all you need do to consult with a financial advisor who is holistic, who has the ability to counsel you on any type of investment and circa plan.

Hone in zone in focusing on the one that's best for you.

It'll be okay.

Megs.

Another one as we as we come close to the end of our show.

Sure.

This email comes from a big fan of the show.

They say I look forward to and benefit from your weekly programs, even when the topics are not specific to my situation.

Please weigh in on setting up an IRA for a grandchild.

We have four questions.

Is a Roth IRA preferable to a conventional?

What is the annual limit on the amount which can be contributed if the individual recipient has more than one IRA?

Is this limit per IRA or per individual?

And is there a limit to the amount a taxpayer can donate to another's IRA?

Thank you for your help.

Fascinating.

Excellent.

Excellent, indeed.

Setting up IRAs for grandchildren is one of the greatest things that you can do if it's done correctly.

For grandma grandpa to turn to a grandchild, particularly one that they're very proud of and set up even a few thousand dollars over a few years, that will then compound for 60 years, 50 years until they start drawing the income.

That's fantastic.

Ross are conventional, if at all possible, the Roth.

They will lose nothing in terms of tax savings.

Right now, and all the money will be tax free in retirement.

You've got to go to the Roth.

Is there an annual limit?

It is limited to the amount of earned income the grandchild has.

So that's the key.

The upper limit of six $7,000 generally doesn't apply to a grandchild, but perhaps it does.

So annually the max is six or 7000, up to 100% of what the grandchild earns.

So if they earn $4,000 doing part time jobs, you can put $4,000.

It is an individual limit.

It is not a multiple IRAs.

You can't have 5010 IRAs.

So it's an individual limit per year.

And is there a limit to how much you can put in the IRA?

The maximum allowed by law is the limit, but you can do as many IRAs if you have one grandchild, Great.

If you have 30 grandchildren, you're going to write a lot of checks, but you're going to make a lot of grandchildren very, very happy.

And again, keeping in mind that compounding for that long can be incredible, even just five, ten, $15,000, starting up front with a 50 year time frame can produce extraordinary amounts of money, exceptionally extraordinary amounts of money.

So much money that grandma's and grandpa's it maybe are now long gone, will never be forgotten.

It's a great instinct.

Please follow through.

Work with a financial adviser.

He'll be fine.

Folks, thanks very much.

Gosh, you spend your time with us.

It is a great service.

You do as I hope we return.

That was giving you good information and maybe even some information that applies directly to you.

If it didn't and you wish to have information specific to you, send us your emails.

At ask MTM dot com works very very well.

Comes directly to our more than money world headquarters and one of our team reaches back out to you.

Answer every single question.

Watch your email inbox because some of you get the emails, but they go to your spam.

Be cautious.

Hopefully you'll be returning to us next week when we're right here behind this podium for another edition of More Than Life.

Good night.