Now.

Good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Jean Dickerson, you have Megan Smeal.

You've got an entire team.

We can an entire team.

It takes a team to bring more than money to you.

This doesn't just happen.

Falling off a turnip wagon.

Who in the world in the last 50 years has fallen off the turnip wagon?

No, but that's okay.

780 years of experience at your service this evening.

If you're a loyal listener, loyal viewer, you know exactly how this works.

I fuss around for a couple of minutes, get you squared away, or give you a chance to settle in, maybe refill the coffee cup, grab a pad, grab a pen, get ready, take a couple notes, maybe a little something stronger.

Just maybe your questions are a little more, whatever it is, we're here to serve.

And serve is what we do.

And that's what we're really, really happy to do.

The world has changed a lot since my youth.

20 years ago or so.

It's changed a lot.

There was a time when service was always tremendously respected, folks who were in a position to assist and serve others.

Tremendous respect.

Now, there are folks who would tend to look down.

I think that's changing.

I think that's changing rather dramatically.

I think, gosh, even the opportunity to serve, from my standpoint is a great honor.

It's a great honor if you place your trust in us to give you good information.

That's a great honor.

And it's a great honor that we must take seriously and then make the effort to to be worthy of make the effort to, to remain and and and proudly claim to be the most relevant financial show on television today, no matter what channel, no matter what station, coast to coast in America, North and south, maybe beyond.

But I'm not, I'm not.

I don't know about New Zealand.

I'm not sure.

Not sure.

But everywhere that you can go that has, financial information relevant to Americans or is the most relevant because of you?

It sounds like I'm bragging.

I am a little.

But it's not because of my 780 years of experience of my immense talent, which is, I think, clearly obvious.

But it is because of you.

You ask questions that are so important to you.

You ask questions that are so meaningful to you, so relevant to you.

And as a result, so many folks who watch go, I have that same question.

My situation's very much like that.

Wow, that answer helps me.

Or it helps my son or my granddaughter.

It helps somebody I care about.

That's what makes us the most relevant.

So, without further ado, we're going to bring our financial correspondent together.

And, Megan, who may we serve to begin this evening?

Hi, Jean.

Our first email tonight.

Let's see if we can help her do right by her family.

This one says my mother passed away about six months ago.

She had carefully planned her estate so that there would be no surprises.

She had even pre-paid all funeral expenses.

I have power of attorney for her state.

She had two IRAs that were dispersed equally between myself and three siblings by the event, by the investment firm holding them.

Soon after she died.

They were worth about $60,000 each.

She has $10,000 in a checking account that we held jointly, so I could write checks on her behalf if needed.

When reviewing her bank account, her bank statements.

Recently, I noticed that she squirreled away about $160,000 in a savings account.

I fully intend to combine all monies and disbursed to my siblings equally, but only after I am 100% sure that no money is owed by her estate.

I am still dealing with her credit card and cell phone provider charges.

Charges continue to accrue even after providing necessary paperwork to close the accounts.

They were both paid in full.

Is it wrong of me to wait to disclose this to them?

I feel I need another month or so.

I don't want to be pressured into an ASAP situation.

I have done more than my fair share.

Also, can bank checks be sent to each of them via Fedex safely?

Thanks.

Well, first of all, let me say, on your mother's behalf, how proud I'm sure she is of you and how, wonderfully well you are representing her and and the family.

Yes.

It sounds like you stepped up in a big, big way in a number of ways.

So let's let's address a couple of these.

I'm sure, spoiler alert, there's going to be nothing here that you're going to find upsetting.

Nothing whatsoever.

This young lady makes mentioned being the power of attorney for her estate.

No, she is not.

And this is not a negative on her.

This is a reality, a legal reality.

Folks come to me and they say I am my mother's power of attorney.

How old is your mom?

When she passed away, you are no longer power of attorney.

A power of attorney expires when the person that granted the power of attorney expires.

So if you are a power of attorney for Jean and Jean passes away this evening, you are gone.

You're no longer a power of attorney.

At that moment, it flips.

It's a tipping point that goes over to the executor.

Now, it does not say it in the email, but I will.

I'll go out this, an inch and a half on the limb.

I'm very confident she's the executor for it.

And legal terminology.

Executrix sounds kind of naughty, but it really isn't.

It just means that she's in charge of the estate now.

She also makes another observation a lot of folks may find confusing.

Says that mom had IRAs.

They were dispersed almost immediately.

Wow.

Don't.

Don't.

Wills and estates take a long time beneficiaries.

Whether it's an IRA, a life insurance policy, an annuity, a four, one 4 or 3 b, anything that connects with a beneficiary does not go through the will, does not go through probate.

It goes directly to the beneficiaries.

They need to provide evidence.

Certificate of death.

Most most normally that the account holder is a decedent and that they are a beneficiary once they get that days, weeks perhaps, but very quickly.

And that is gone.

It's taken care of.

She's absolutely right.

No worries whatsoever.

She was a joint owner of a checking account that had about $10,000 in it.

Now, this is a tiny wrinkle, but it's a wrinkle nonetheless.

As a joint owner, she could absolutely right check.

So she was able to help mom immensely.

But she also owns half that account.

So at mom's passing $10,000.

That was mom's right is not included in the estate.

5000 is because 5000 of that half is hers.

So assuming she does not say this, we hope it is true.

She's getting some good counsel.

In, in terms of, of of her duties as executrix to make sure things go well, they will identify that 5000 comes directly to her.

That's hers.

The other 5000 will end up being split as she mentions with her siblings.

Now let's turn our attention to her.

Her mom was squirreling away.

That's a fantastic turn.

Good living in the country as I do, surrounded by scroll, seeing them pack away, diligently squirreling it away.

She did 160,000 bucks and apparently nobody knew about it.

Wow, wow, what a wonderful surprise.

Is she under an obligation to, reveal this, share this information?

Prior to the, prior to the settlement, the complete settlement of the estate.

The answer is no.

And she's being very, very wise in and taking her time.

The credit cards and the cell phone.

And you hear her frustration about they were paid, and yet they still haven't, given her the final, blessing that that that they may go in peace.

Goodness.

Frustrating.

Other things can pop up and, it says her mom passed away about six months ago.

Not unusual for somebody to show up and go, she she cosigned on a car.

We just found out, and and she owed some money over here.

So having some money in reserve is very, very wise.

Taking a little bit more time, very, very wise.

One of the things that happens on occasion, not often this kind of thing arises.

All the money is dispersed, and then somebody steps forward and we have to go back to the beneficiaries and say, hey, we need some money back.

That can be awkward, in some cases, difficult, if not impossible.

So take your time.

There's no need to discuss this until it happens.

If your siblings are not expecting this, my my guess is that they will not be terribly upset with you if you show up saying, I wish I could have told you earlier, but here's 40 grand.

40 grand is going to feel, it's going to feel okay.

How's it going to be okay?

You're doing a great job.

Your mom's proud of you.

Proud of you, Meg's.

Meg's.

I'm proud of you.

Where do we go next?

Thanks.

I'm proud of you, too.

Our next question says I have 201 case, and I turned 73 this year.

Earlier this year, I got anxious and asked each 401 K provider to calculate my RMD and send it to me.

I don't know if they used my balance at the beginning of the year or the balance at the time I asked, I'm wondering the balance at what is like what time of the year should the balance be calculated for my auntie?

Thanks.

Yeah, that it's that easy to stumble over that because this is not, it's it is logical.

Once you kind of get a handle on the rule, it actually ends up being very logical, but.

But it's not intuitive.

It's not what?

Not what you would think naturally would happen.

So let's be clear for this individual, number one, the balance that they use to calculate RMDs is the balance in the account.

On December 31st, the last business day of the previous year.

So he says he will turn 73 this year, 2026, on the last business day of 2025.

That number, that account balance locks in his RMDs, locks it in.

So, the first, week or two of 2026 market's gone up.

Lovely.

Doesn't change, the R&D doesn't change.

So, once that number has been established firmly, celebrate New Year's Eve, do it responsibly.

Get home in good shape.

Take the next day off on December.

On January 2nd, you say to your financial advisor, what's my RMD?

They can tell you to the penny and then you can decide to take it January 3rd or December 3rd.

Or you can take it in pieces throughout the year, or you can take it in September when the real estate taxes are due.

Or you can take it in August when you're going on vacation with your family or any combination of the above.

The IRS doesn't care.

They don't care when you take it out, but they care that you take it out.

And they they care that you declare it as taxable income, which is, let's be clear.

They're real caring.

They're real intent.

Having said all that, there's a couple ways that this can go off the rails unintentionally.

Unintentionally.

Lots of you are aware of this.

Armed rule 873 for folks who are born after 1960, it'll be age 75.

You have to start taking money.

Most of you are working now with IRAs, so if you have two, three, four IRAs and you want to take all of your RMDs from one IRA, you can certainly do that.

You cannot do that with for one case.

So this gentleman mentions he has two for one case.

He must take RMDs from each individually, cannot Co-Mingle cannot combine.

Now if he lets you down goes.

That makes no sense.

I don't want to do it that way.

And it's overly complicated.

And isn't there a better way?

The answer is probably yes, probably yes.

If he were to roll those funds from the four one case into one IRA.

Now the calculation is one calculation.

What was the balance of that one IRA?

Last business day of last year, multiplied by the appropriate required minimum distribution percentage.

There's your dollar amount.

And if you're doing it yourself, you've made it so much simpler.

If you're doing it with a financial advisor.

Lots of control, lots of flexibility works out very, very well.

So hey, congratulations for reaching RMD age.

Congratulations on having money put away.

Frustration with your 41K providers and the information.

Understandable.

But once you see how it's done the first time, piece of cake.

Easily done going forward.

Happy healthy 127 more years.

Outstanding.

How wonderful.

Makes what's what's wonderful back there that we can help again.

Our next email is wondering what their retirement might look like.

This one says I'm 61 and my wife is 57.

We are happily married.

We have zero debt, and we own our house outright.

My wife has a pension as a retired teacher, but we aren't going to draw on that for some time.

Her pension won't be more than 1000 to $1500 a month when we decide to take it.

We have 1.65 million in retirement funds.

I've added $16,900 to these retirement funds in the first six months of 2025.

I don't hate working, but I am tired of corporate America.

My annual income is $108,000 and I earn 40,000 to 60,000.

In commissions.

Life doesn't suck, but it's a constant drain to sign more sales when the product is problematic and the market is mature.

My annual, Social Security income is projected to be about $28,000 annually.

I've not figured out my wife's Social Security income.

My middle son is a CFP and he, like you, doesn't believe people should take Social Security until their full retirement age.

My full retirement age of 67.

He says that if I wait until 65 to retire, I can get $100,000 with pensions and Social Security.

I'd retire at 62 just to get out of the grind.

But health care costs prevent that.

We're in pretty good health.

My wife is a CrossFit trail runner, and I just had a knee replaced because of my past running, wondering, can I retire at 62 and live a comfortable life?

Thanks.

No.

And stop whining.

At this turn as I can be, it's I mean, it's television.

I can't can't grandma by the throat.

That's crazy talk.

Goodness gracious.

I wonder how many people.

I wonder what percentage of our audience.

Because we get hundreds of thousands of people get to see our show.

Millions, perhaps when rebroadcast.

Who heard that?

The gentleman makes 108,000 and in addition to the 108, gets between 40 and 60,000 a year in commissions.

He's going to, this, this kind of site really?

Oh my goodness.

There are a lot of things here that make me scratch my head.

A lot of things in this entire package that make me scratch my head.

First of all, we have no, I there's no way in the world I can tell him if he can or can't retire, because the one piece of of information that's missing is what do they need on a monthly basis so that their bills are paid and they're happy and healthy?

I without that number, everything else is a guess, is a guess.

And if you go to a doctor and you say, I need you to treat me, and you only tell the doctor half of your information and make the doctor, he or she gets on the other half, it's malpractice.

No doctor in the world would do that.

No, no reputable doctor would do that.

If you pay somebody, it's a reputable enough money.

They would do that.

And there are financial people out there that will do exactly that.

You got 1.65 million.

Give that to me.

I'll make sure it all works.

Yeah.

That's wrong.

That's just wrong.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say he says to me, he's currently making roughly 150,000 a year.

12,000 a month.

Hey, I need 5000 a month.

So I'm.

My bills are paid.

I'm happy, I'm healthy.

Whereas wife will get about $1,000 a month.

So now he needs for her social security should be, I'm picking a number 2000 a month.

Now.

He's down to two to his social security when he retires.

Should be at 67.

He's saying is is 2800 a month.

I think it's totally wrong.

But let's say that that's true.

That's minus two.

Now you're down to your retired.

You're retired between now and and, well, he's 61.

He wants to retire at 62 between next year and age 65.

You can draw some of the money off of your, hum million.

650 if you need 60,000 a year, draw all of it.

And on gets 1,000,650, 60,000 years.

What about, less than a 4%?

Draw your your account balance.

Well invested.

Won't even go down bridge over to age 67 and spend 5000 a year for the rest of your life.

Plus whatever your IRAs, spell off, life is grand.

Now, having said that, what if it's 10,000 a year?

That's a very different question.

I'm sorry, 10,000 a month.

We said five.

Now we're doubling it.

What if it's ten?

He's making 12,000 a month.

Now.

What if they spend it all?

Can he still do it?

The answer is, I'm not sure.

Again, because the moving parts are not as clear as they need to be.

One of the things that jumped out at me was his estimate, that his income, Social Security benefit would be $28,000 a year.

Why?

Why does that 20 to 2300 a month at age 67?

If you're making $150,000 a year at age 67, your normal retirement age benefit should be in the mid to high threes and if you wait until 70, which is actually what I recommend, you say your son is a CFP and says don't take him until normal retirement age.

I say if at all possible, don't take it until 70.

At 70 your your benefit could very easily be $5,000 a year very easily.

Now corporate grind I get it.

Quality of life.

It's an important thing.

I'm a big believer in quality of life, which is why my team does all the hard work.

I do all the easy work and the pretty face, the organization clearly letting down the organization in that role.

But you get the idea.

Quality of life is important if it's health care issues that are the if if health care concerns, health care premiums are the concern, don't get a much less paying job that has health but health benefits.

I understand that there are major corporations laying off tens of thousands of people, mostly because major corporations can afford to be bloated.

If Amazon lays off 30,000 people, they still have 203 hundred, 400,000 employees.

Please.

Smaller companies, small to mid-sized companies are desperate for high quality employees.

Desperate.

So could you go from 150 to, say, 75,000 bucks with health care benefits, get out of the corporate rat race, get away from the grind, do something that's fun and enjoyable and hang out with some really nice people.

Sure you could.

Of course you could.

And then it's not retirement so much.

At 62, it's semi-retirement.

So my retirement is pretty cool for a lot of our clients.

It's preferable.

Preferable.

At 62 you're going to sit in your barcalounger snap at the top on a cold one and watch Oprah.

Yeah, I don't get it.

And I don't think you would get it either.

Or at least I'm prayerful because there's so much more.

And with 40 more years in triple H club, you got to be willing to give back.

You got to pay it forward.

And you can't do that from a barcalounger.

Speaking of Barcalounger mags, does the next question even include that word?

I don't think so.

That might be the worst segue.

Yeah, that might be that.

Our next email is wondering if they can do this themselves.

This one says asks do I need a financial advisor to set up a brand new Roth IRA for my, two kids and four grandkids?

I have never done anything like this before.

A couple questions.

What's a basic minimum I can begin with?

And are there monthly maintenance fees when adding money or making new investment changes within these funds?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Okay.

Do you need a financial advisor?

Is it a requirement?

No.

Absolutely not.

Is this something that you could do it yourself?

Yeah, I think so.

I think so now, from an analogy standpoint, if, my dad was a carpenter, if if you said to him, hey, I think I'm going to build my own house, he just laugh in your face.

You're a moron.

That's not a DIY project.

Hey, I think I'm going to replace the front steps on my house.

Excellent little bit of training, a little bit of work, a little consultation.

Of course.

Back then you didn't have it, but now YouTube.

I bet there's a thousand YouTube videos on how to replace your front steps.

So is that a DIY project?

Sure it is.

This is more like replacing your steps than it is like building your house.

So is it possible?

Sure, there are rules now.

Fortunately, the vast majority of Roth IRAs IRAs of any kind are set up through investment companies that offer mutual funds or exchange traded funds.

Those kinds of things.

Yeah, many of these names you have heard for your lifetime Vanguard, fidelity, T, Rowe Price, etc.

if you wish to do this on your own and you were to contact, I'm picking a name out of thin air.

Vanguard and said, here's what I like to do.

What do I need to do next?

They will most likely give you excellent guidance as to the paperwork that's required, the rules you've got to follow, the minimum amounts that you can start with.

In general, if you think 50 bucks, you can start with 50 bucks with almost any investment firm in the country, are there, major fees in most cases, no.

In most cases, the fees that you're going to encounter are going to be the management fees of either the mutual fund or the exchange traded fund.

On the mutual fund side, lots of great mutual funds where the management fees are less than 1% a year.

And if you're looking at exchange traded funds, lots of them.

A tremendous number of very high quality exchange traded funds.

The annual management fee, less than one quarter of 1% a year.

So those kind of fees are almost irrelevant, close to irrelevant, commissions?

No.

In general, if you're dealing again, I'm picking on Vanguard, without the specifics in front of me.

My guess is that either they have no fee to open the Roth, or it might be ten bucks a year, a very small number.

Could you end up setting these up for your kids and your grandkids?

Sure, sure.

It would take you a little bit of work.

You learned a lot along the way.

And then, of course, you have to choose the investments that that that's another step to all of that.

And again, can it be done?

Of course it can be done.

Of course it can be done.

Particularly if you're, retired and you've got a little time.

Excellent.

Make it a bit of a hobby and, and work with the, the investment group that you choose to do exactly this, by the way, setting up a Roth IRA IRAs for your kids and grandkids.

What a lovely thing to do.

What an exciting thing to do.

If you were to do that for the next few years, and then the good Lord took you home, decades from now, your kids and grandkids would be gone.

What a guy.

What a grandma.

What a grandpa.

Whatever.

Because those monies will compound tax free for decades and have a tremendous impact on the kids and grandkids that you love so much.

So, DIY?

Sure, sure.

If you're going.

Oh, it doesn't sound like that for me.

A an adventure.

Adventure that you were.

Look forward to an advisor.

Financial advisor, anyone that you trust, a trustworthy advisor, get a good recommendation from a friend.

Would they be able to do all of this for you?

Maybe an hour might take an hour and a half, and you'd be all set, and, you know, it was done right.

But your call, your choice.

But what you're doing fantastic.

Speaking of fantastic.

What a fantastic thing you have done.

You have stuck with us through an entire show.

You've chosen to be with us.

You onerous with your presence.

You allow us to serve you.

It's a tremendous feeling for us.

We feel very, very honored indeed.

And hopefully, hopefully you were rewarded with, with some good information, some good answers, maybe a smile here and there.

That purely accidental, I'm sure.

But bottom line is we're here to assist you.

If you have questions that you would like to explore, either on air or off, all you have to do is send them to me.

Jean at ask mtm.com.

We have an entire team of advisors answering questions back to you, every single questions answered and some up here on future shows.

Speaking at Future Shows.

We hope you'll return next week for another edition of this show.

More than money is that.