And good evening.

You've got more than money.

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

It is a joy to be back with you.

We put together a couple shows in advance, and by now you already know who won the World Series.

That kind of a curiosity to me.

If time travel were possible, that'd be great fun.

But time travel isn't possible.

And I'm reminded of that often when we try to make our best decisions financially, our best decisions would be much better.

If we knew exactly what the future had to offer, we would know exactly when to take our Social Security.

We would know exactly whether we would run out of money in retirement.

We would know exactly what colleges our kids might go to and how much we'd have to save.

But that really isn't the way of the world.

It's not the reality of the world that we live in.

There are so many things that we can make our very best decisions based on probabilities, on what will probably happen.

We will put those statistics and probabilities to our advantage, make the very best decisions that we can based on everything that we know at that moment.

Some of those will end up being spectacularly correct, others spectacularly incorrect.

But for the most part, we're going to be right there in the center.

We're going to get most of it right.

So if you're working with or listening to watching a financial advisor that you trust, one that's had lots of experience 780 years, for example, then you will have the greatest probability of making wise financial choices, guarantees.

Those are few and far between, but probabilities they can be had.

If you're just joining us for the first time, welcome.

I think you're going to find that this next half an hour will be, at the very least, informative and mildly entertaining on occasion.

But you will also, goodness hopefully come to us with an attitude of I'd like to pick up some ideas.

I'd like to find something that I can learn from that will better my financial picture, that will help me and my family reach our financial goals better.

So, absolutely.

A pad and pen makes a great deal of sense.

You jot down a couple of ideas.

And secondly, if you find that you're what, interested, maybe intrigued by some of the questions that we answer.

But they're not quite your question.

Make sure you send those to us.

Send us to my email Jean at ask mtm.com.

Send us your emails.

We answer every single one back to you.

Some of those will appear on a future show.

Maybe that will be one of yours.

And to be blunt, we're very selfish about this.

The more of your interesting questions that you send to us, the more that we are able to answer on air, the more people that we are able to serve.

Coast to coast, border to border, across this great country of ours.

And to be fair again, to us, selfishly, it keeps us the most relevant financial show on television today.

Any station anywhere.

24 over seven 365 where the most relevant because of you.

So you ask the questions we and our 780 years of experience and hopefully, more than hopefully we've got a lot of experience doing this.

You benefit in the long run.

So let's get to it and find out what we are challenged with.

This evening.

Educational and entertaining.

Indeed.

I'm a single man with no dependents, no children.

Since I turned 73 this year, I must decide how to begin disbursements from my retirement plan.

I estimate in December it will be about $625,000.

The beneficiary of my plan is a charity.

That's important.

I'm in the 32% tax bracket quite high, and doubt that any disbursements would change that.

Okay, I do not need to take the distribution for living expenses, so any disbursement after taxes would be reinvested.

I have no life threatening illnesses.

That's a very good, online longevity calculators.

Tell me that I have between 10 and 20 years to live.

I'd see 73.

I would encourage you to think 27.

Join our triple H club.

Happy, healthy 100.

The options I'm considering are number one, take only my RMD.

That would be $22,000 plus this year.

The remaining balance.

It continues to earn a guaranteed 4% a year.

Number two, take a transfer or a payout of $75,000 for ten years.

Interesting.

And number three, take a single life annuity of $70,735 a year.

I can partially annuities as well.

The transfer payout and annuity options are irrevocable.

Irrevocable.

You heard that right.

They cannot be changed.

That's certainly a factor that we must address.

My gut says it makes less sense, to pay taxes now with that transfer of the annuity.

But I don't feel confident that my taxable investments will perform well over the next several years.

My gut says my best bet just take the RMD.

I could annuities the remaining balance at any time.

Or should I hedge my bets and annuities part of it.

Fascinating.

My goal is to maximize the value of this asset.

Your insight would be most appreciated.

Are there non-monetary issues I should consider?

Thank you for your expertise and time.

Your program has been both educational and entertaining.

So interesting.

Very very interesting indeed.

A little bit of a wrinkle from our typical questions where, folks are saying, hey, for my family, for my legacy, for my estate.

And John is saying, not my issue.

With no dependents, no children, his estate, his legacy will be the charity that he has chosen, charities, perhaps, that he has chosen to be the beneficiary of his assets.

Now, having said that, one of the things that jumps out at me immediately is option number three take a life annuity, a life in there.

It gives him a very substantial income per year that he does not currently need and eliminates any legacy, any, remainder to go to charity at his passing.

Those two things, I think eliminate number three, the the annuity is an option as even, one worthy of being considered second option, 75,000 a year for ten years.

Doesn't need the income, drains the account rather quickly, and increases his income taxes rather dramatically.

Again, doesn't seem to be, the the direction that that that he wishes to go.

So he's talking about his RMD.

22,000, almost $23,000 a year as his most likely option.

He is absolutely correct.

He is absolutely correct.

So thinking about that, one of the things that I'm absolutely certain being in the 33, 32% tax bracket, he has already considered that that's another 7 or $8000 in income taxes, that he really doesn't want to pay.

Taxation.

It's always something to be considered in any of these types of scenarios, any decisions that need to be made relative to RMDs.

Taxation is always nasty, but at 32% it's particularly nasty.

And he may or may, depending on how, significant his charitable instincts currently are.

He may wish to address that by the use of a q C, d qualified charitable distribution and a qualified charitable distribution would allow him to direct some or all of his R&D 23,000, roughly, in this first year to a charity or charities plural of his choice.

So since all of his, the beneficiary of his entire state is a charity, he could absolutely support that charity during his lifetime by directing that some or all of his $23,000 go directly to that charity.

It is not a tax deduction.

It's not taxable.

So using very simple numbers, if he directed 20,000, directly to the charity and he's in the 32% bracket, he just saved himself $6,400 in federal tax alone.

Not to mention whatever tax may be, on this state and local level and wherever he may live.

So he's got some interesting options.

He's already on the right track in terms of where he should take, the cash for, how he should take the cash flow that he's required to take.

If he considers this QCD option, he may very well find himself very pleased at the taxes he does not have to pay.

And then finally there was a reference to, reinvestment.

But in his taxable accounts, he's not, anticipating, I guess, is the right word that they will do very well.

That causes me to scratch my head.

I don't know why, his taxable investments would do less.

Well, than his, IRA or his four on his retirement plan.

I, I would suggest that if he is concerned in that area, if he's not, pleased with the results that he's currently getting in terms of investment, get a second opinion, talk to a trusted, experienced as a financial advisor who has, options, has lots, access to lots of different options that might very well, benefit him on the taxable side, there are evolutions on investment platforms that just over the last five years have literally changed the landscape, gone from, hey, I'd like to make a decent return, but I don't want to take a lot of risk.

That meant you would make 2 or 3% in bonds and now very protective investments.

Some FDIC insured, some not, some bank guaranteed, some not.

But a blend of those could easily see something in the 5 to 7% per year range with little or no risk.

So from his standpoint, he's got a lot that he has on his plate.

That could be very, very beneficial.

Excellent question.

Thank you so very much.

We're moving right along to our next question.

Articulate or ramp up.

Thank you.

Gentleman writes I'm 78.

I'm unable to, move around very much.

Everything that I currently have is not necessarily terminal, but it's very, very challenging.

I'm currently paying $520 a day, with a plan, to go on Medicaid.

He is in a facility that I have spent, down when I have sold my house.

My resources are about $300,000 in a money market account, $115,000 in an annuity, earning about 3.5%.

And I get this year's RMD and approximately $45,000 in seeds.

I have no spouse or children.

I'm 80.

I have an 87 year old sister and her two sons who are 61 and 62.

I'm not concerned about leaving a bequest currently making plans for a direct cremation and burial.

Sorry for the rambling.

The question is, should I, withdraw my needs from Vanguard funds as needed and only take my RMD from nationwide as required until Vanguard has exhausted and, their funds and then exhaust my 457 the customer help person says I will pay 20% after the RMD, and that doesn't sound quite right.

I'm sorry to ramble.

I'm usually much more articulate.

Thank you for whatever assistance you can give me.

I do try to watch your program on PBS 39 every single week, but you're very kind and you were quite articulate.

Yeah, we we we saw a lot of landscape there, but that's all right.

And as, as the headline says, we take you as you are, and we say that to everyone, everyone's just a little different.

And they approach things in a, in a slightly different way.

So your, challenges, healthwise, of course, make, have, have, a direct influence over what we should be, considering here your investments are earning very, very modest rates of return, money markets paying, what?

And perhaps 1.5%, your annuity paying perhaps 3.5%.

These are not giving you a tremendous amount of traction, with very little effort, you could certainly increase your overall return, but guesstimate your overall return.

Right now, at 2.5%, you could rather easily, bump that up to 3 or 4%, using something simple like KDS or a fixed rate annuities with higher rates of return.

You could also consider, lifetime, annuity income streams.

You could also consider investments that have, substantial guarantees but a little more growth opportunity.

Now, having said all of that, bottom line for you is that the, the the direction or the source from which you draw your funds isn't terribly important.

It doesn't move the needle dramatically.

Whether it's a fixed return on a money market or a fixed return on an annuity, it's going to be drawn down at a relatively rapid rate because the interest rates are not going to be enough to, overcome the withdrawal rates at at $525 a day.

So bottom line for you is, maximize the returns that you're getting from your investments.

If you're not comfortable or if you don't feel confident that you can do that on your own, make sure you seek good counsel and, look very carefully at the Medicaid rules.

Understand where you need to be, before they will kick in.

You have substantial assets.

If I'm doing a quick recap, nearly 500,000 $450,000, that is a very substantial sum of money.

And I don't know what the value of your house is, but, if you put that together, it's very likely that you will spend a very substantial amount of time funding your own care.

So make sure that you understand those rules so that you're not blindsided, in some way, shape or form.

So blessings to you.

Articulate or rambling.

We take you just as you are.

Interesting stuff.

This is why I encourage you to send us your emails, Jean, and ask him TMZ.com, because the financial pieces of these questions are relatively straightforward.

It's the personal side that's, the real challenge.

And, when I say a challenge, certainly a challenge personally, both of these gentlemen have very significant personal challenges that they are facing.

But it's also a challenge from a financial advisory standpoint.

I have often said to folks who have counseled with me personally, and I've trained my advisors in the same way you whoever's watching this evening, in the absence of the fact that you may very well be a financial advisor, we have lots and lots of advisors that watch our show, pick up a few ideas and help out their clients.

We think that's fantastic.

In the absence of being a financial advisor, you will never know.

Never know as much about all of these things as I will.

It simply isn't possible because I've spent 780 years doing this.

You have done it as a as an aside for whatever period of time you have, so you will never know as much about all of these things as I will.

I will never know as much about you, and as much about your family and your wishes and your dreams and your desires as you do so.

What's logical?

If we have two different pieces of the puzzle, both vitally important that we can address, bring those together.

Financial advisors who are doing their job well are a team.

They team with their clients.

They don't replace their clients.

They don't talk down to their clients.

They don't give orders to their clients.

They work with their clients as a team.

And if that's done correctly, it's a powerful, powerful, impact that cannot be beat.

So let's see if we can help somebody else.

Losing money to the IRS in the market drops.

Those are two things that, gosh, doesn't that just give you a warm feeling?

Not I'm a 75 year old widower.

I have no children, and I'm still working part time, making about $3,500 a month.

Fantastic.

I stuff away, great term.

I stuff away $2,000 a month to an employee sponsored for one K. That's outrageously good.

I have 1.1 million in an IRA, mostly 6040 and stocks and bonds about $50,000 in my 401 K stocks and bonds I have about 275 and CDs.

They will mature soon.

I get 2400 a month in Social Security and a pension of about $800 a month.

I have some funds in the bank for day to day expenses.

I have no credit card debt.

I have no big health issues.

My house is fully paid.

My car is also fully paid for, and I won't need to buy another one for at least ten years.

Man, after my own heart, I live a very simple life, but I need help to leave behind funds for my extended family.

How do I avoid taxes and protect my IRA funds from a big market fall?

That's the headline.

So losing money, the IRS paying for it.

We'll talk about that in a moment.

Losing money to big market drops is a very much simpler question to answer.

It may not seem that way to someone who is looking for me outside into the investment world, but it's a much simpler question to answer.

He lives a very simple life.

He's still working.

He gets pension and social security, and with his savings, I'm sorry, with his with his earned income, he's over $7,000 a month.

He's doing great.

So does he need a lot more income?

The answer is apparently not.

Does he need dramatic amounts of growth?

Apparently not.

At some point, of course, he will wish to retire, perhaps, and then need to replace that 3500.

Actually, he doesn't need to replace 3500.

He's saving 2000 of it every month.

That's fantastic.

So I have to replace $20,000 a year or so.

And he has let me refresh my my memory here about a million, five, $20,000 that he would need to draw from 1,000,005 would be something on the order of 1.5%, not quite 1.5%.

So if he's concerned about market drops, he could do something as simple as go to a, a, a, a 3% seed, spend one and a half and allow one and a half to stay in.

Not my recommendation, but that's certainly something that he could look at that would eliminate his anxiety about seeing money, disappear in a market decline.

He could look at something as, as direct as a, a fixed rate annuity currently paying right around 5% spend one and a half leaves, 3.5% in his portfolio and have no stock market risk whatsoever.

Again, not my recommendation, but it is an option.

So if his priority, if his, most high, concern is losing money to the stock market, don't be in the stock market.

Or if you are in the stock market, there are lots of options, lots of investment options where you can invest in the stock market and be guaranteed not to lose money.

For some of you, you're going to have never heard of such a thing.

You should probably send us an email.

There's lots of good stuff out there investing in the stock market without a risk of loss.

That's an opportunity as well.

And the fact that he has such a substantial portfolio means he could absolutely.

Mix and match, have a blend of any number of these things, absolute guarantees, fixed annuities, platforms that guarantee principal, protection, for that principal, and maybe some money in growth because it's fun.

Those are all options.

Now, for his extended family getting this money, particularly the IRA money, well, over $1 million, almost a million to of his money.

Is income taxable?

Getting money to his extended family without taxes?

That's a real challenge.

Part of that might be solved.

He is 75 years old.

Hopefully he's part of our triple H club.

Happy, healthy, 100.

He's got 25 years.

He might consider doing some Roth conversions.

Roth conversions go from, his standard IRA into a Roth account.

He pay he pays tax on it as he does the conversion.

His beneficiaries would not pay income tax.

Or would receive those assets, free of income tax and whatever they would hang on to in the Roth IRA would be free of income tax.

That helps quite a bit.

May not solve the real problem if the real problem is, getting money to folks, with the minimum amount of tax, he should absolutely look to see if he qualifies for life insurance.

Life insurance is a very interesting, financial tool that, under the right circumstances, would allow him to pass a significant amount of money without the beneficiary, his extended family paying income taxes and depending on how he approaches it, he could also avoid estate taxes for them as well.

So bottom line for gosh, his purposes, for his desires, for his goals, we can avoid all market drops and we can help him from his family losing a great deal of money to the IRS.

I think we have time for one more quick one.

But what do we have back there?

Very good.

Cryptocurrency and protection.

Is that an oxymoron?

Well, in many ways it does feel that way.

Doesn't, because cryptocurrency is such a a volatile asset, some would say it's not an asset at all.

That's a different discussion for a different time.

If you have that question is crypto even really a legitimate asset?

Send me your email Jean and ask mtm.com.

That will definitely be on a future show.

But in this particular case, in this particular case, it is not.

Gentlemen.

Right.

We've heard you say many times that you don't believe people should take Bitcoin seriously, that it isn't for most people.

I have said that many times.

We recently heard you talk about some investment companies offering Bitcoin shares where you're protected.

If the bitcoin value goes down, how did this how did these work and does it change your mind?

Reasonable questions now yes I'm not a big Bitcoin fan, but are there investment companies where you can invest in bitcoin.

Gain some of the upside but be protected in case it should drop?

The answer is yes.

There are now at least a half a dozen investment platforms where you can invest in a Bitcoin index.

Bitcoin is one cryptocurrency.

There are many.

So you can invest in a cryptocurrency index if the market if that cryptocurrency goes up, you will get some piece of that.

Some cases you are 100% protected against the downturn.

Some other platforms, you're modestly protected, 15 or 20%.

In any event, it does not change my mind.

And and here's why.

If you're investing in cryptocurrency, it's because you are hopeful, prayerful perhaps, that it will double, triple go up ten times the amount that it currently is, and that you will make a tremendous amount of money.

All of these investment assets limit how much you can go up.

In most cases, their limits are very low anywhere from 7 or 8% to as much as 1015 20%.

Well, 20% cap is not a very generous cap for an asset that many folks hope will go up 100%, 200%, 300%.

And if you're investing in crypto, it's an aggressive asset.

It's not something you would want to be protected.

It's your hopefully play money.

We covered a lot of ground in this show.

Hopefully you picked up some ideas.

If your ideas were not explored or your questions weren't answered, make sure you send us your emails.

Jean at ask mtm.com.

And that allows us to answer all those questions back to you.

If you didn't get your email, check your spam filter.

That happens a lot.

But no cost, no obligate, no obligation, no pressure.

You're going to be dealing with financial advisors who are very experienced and that service oriented and happy to serve you.

So hopefully you'll take advantage of that.

Hopefully you learned enough that as you think about next week in the schedule that you might be on, if you're going to look at that evening schedule and say, I want to return as Jean's back for another edition right here of more than mine and good night.