Good Evening.

You've got more than money.

Christmas.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host.

And no, I'm not the Grinch.

Ebenezer Scrooge, he turns out pretty good.

So if you are joining us this evening for our original broadcast of More Than Money, it's Christmas Eve, and, goodness, you're very, very kind to share some of your holiday with us.

It means the world to us that we can be with you.

And, hopefully, hopefully, maybe you're paying a little bit of attention, but you're spending a lot more attention on friends and family and love and the joy of the season.

Christmas is a wonderful, wonderful time of the year, and the reason for the season.

Hopefully you're focusing on that.

You've got us in the background, maybe a little bit.

You might want to refer back to this video a little later, maybe just after the first of the year when you have a little more time to focus, because we're going to give you an entire show, full bore, absolutely questions asked and answered.

But we're doing it in a Christmas spirit, and we're happy to do so.

You see, the decorations are, lovely and joyous and festive.

Kind of like me.

Lovely.

Joyous.

Festive.

Oh, three words that people often use when they meet me for the first time.

The second time they change the words.

That's another story for another time.

So if you are a loyal viewer, you know that we, we, we do this and we are enjoying.

If you are just joining us for the first time, a couple things you need to know more than money was titled for that specific reason.

Life is about way more than money.

And yes, we are financial advisors and yes, we talk about all the kinds of things that financial advisors should, investments and retirement and income taxes and deductions and estate planning and wills and trust and insurances and all manner of financial, financially related items.

But because of you, we are far more interesting than that, because we are the most relevant financial show on television today, on any network, anywhere.

Coast to coast and border to border.

Because.

Not because of me, but because of you.

Because you ask the most interesting questions.

And often you give us the the great honor of being able to assist you in getting a plan kind of put together.

So, again, if you're joining us for the first time, a half an hour goes very quickly.

Don't wander off.

You'll miss a great deal.

And, goodness, if at any point you find yourself being even mildly entertained, you have my sincerest apologies.

Megan.

Shall we show them how this works and ask our first question?

We shall.

Our first email tonight would just like to know what their options are.

This first question says I'm 70 and have been retired for seven years.

I have $80,000 in annual retirement income from three retirement accounts, Social security and a paid off rental home.

My house is also paid for, and the related bills I have are taxes, insurance and utilities.

I have 200 and thousand $200,000 in certificates of deposit.

Wondering what do I do safely with my CDs come due at the end of the year?

Are annuities a safe?

Good idea.

I think the stock market is too risky at my age.

Are there any other options I should consider?

Thank you.

Well, I very much appreciate the tone of the question because it is asking in advance.

Quite often we have emails that come to us and sadly, they describe a scenario where we have already done this.

How do we undo this?

Or how do we minimize the damage that we've already done?

Not the best.

So if asking in advance is the best, we're going to give this gentleman a few options that he should consider.

Could consider that you might consider as well.

Certificates of deposit CDs are very attractive, FDIC insured, very protective.

And for someone who is relatively young, 70 years old, if he's part of our triple H club, happy, healthy 100, he only only has 30 or 40 more good years left.

So I understand his concern.

Bottom line is that in recent years, CDs have, hovered between 5 and 5 and a half, sometimes just a bit higher in terms of, percentage rates of return.

Recently, those numbers have started to come down.

The Federal Reserve recently had lowered their interest rates again.

And so CD rates do tend to be trending lower.

Are there options?

One of the options that he mentioned would be an annuity.

Annuities come in many different flavors.

And yes, all of them could be an option for someone who is 70 years old, has very strong income and is looking to invest in a very conservative way.

There are fixed annuities where there are absolutely no moving parts.

You know exactly what interest rate you will be receiving and for exactly how long a period of time.

There are variable, annuities that are kind of the exact opposite.

They may give you a guaranteed income stream, perhaps, but their investments are variable.

They can go up and down with the market.

And in between there are, fixed indexed annuities where the principal is protected, guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the issuing company and the interest, the return rate of return that you receive is based on some, either single or multiple indexes, most often in the stock market.

So you may have a chance to make a slightly higher rate of return than you might on a fixed, annuity rate and a fixed index.

A linked annuity FILA is often how they are referred.

Is again, almost always principle protected.

And they have lots of opportunities for you to make higher rates of return.

In addition, in terms of options, you are going to want to look at two different types of investments.

Again, they come in multiple flavors, but you're going to want to look at them as options.

One is buffered ETFs exchange traded funds.

And then excuse me as a exchange traded fund.

Very liquid.

Your money's easily accessible.

But yet depending on which one you pick, you're going to have lots of protection, lots of downside protection.

In addition to buffered ETFs, there are items known as structured notes.

And structured notes are issued by major banks.

JP Morgan Chase, etc.

and they, often will offer you the opportunity to be tremendously protected, even 100% protected in terms of your investments.

But you have the opportunity to make a profit whether your investment goes up or down isn't that interesting?

So if you are, as this gentleman is currently in CDs and you're looking for options, you have an entire menu to explore best explored with someone who understands all of those options and can explain them to you in detail.

Pros and cons.

Nothing's perfect.

Pros and cons.

And then pick the one that best fits you.

Excellent start.

Merry Christmas indeed.

Megs, who do we bring a little Christmas cheer to next?

Well, our next question has three questions, but it's all about RMDs.

This one says I love your show.

I've been watching it for a while.

Thanks for giving us all great advice.

I'm retired and reaching the age that I need to take out my RMD.

I know that one of your pieces of advice is to make some QCD, and I'm planning to do that.

Right now, my current revenue, Social security and pension is enough to cover my expenses, so I don't need extras from RMD.

So my questions are, one.

When I take out my RMD, where should I reinvest after tax?

Should I put mostly into CD treasury or should I create a diversified portfolio with some stocks?

Any advice suggestions you have there would be greatly appreciated.

Two can I leave some RMD as inheritance to my kids?

Will it be tax free?

If so, up to what limit allowed?

And lastly, before taking RMD, should I convert some IRA to Roth IRA?

Thank you so much for your help.

You're very welcome.

And, Merry Christmas and thank you for the questions.

These are interesting questions indeed.

For some of you, RMD, QCD.

As for me, these are strange sets of initials.

What do they all mean?

RMD is required minimum distribution if you are of an age.

In this gentlemen's case, 73 is the trigger.

The year that you turn 73.

You will need to begin taking a required minimum amount from your IRAs, 401ks, etc..

So using very general guidelines, the first year will be about 4%.

So if this gentleman has approx 500,000 in his retirement funds, his initial RMD per year will be approximately $20,000 taxable income taxable.

How much tax.

We don't know.

We don't know because that money is added to his other income his other taxable income.

Then we look at the bracket and find out where he is paying taxes.

Maybe it's 15%.

Maybe it's more, maybe it's less.

We don't know.

So the question is not what should whether you should take an RMD, The word required is right there.

So you must take the RMD.

What to do with it is the next stage in this this reference QCD qualified charitable distribution can be very, very effective, particularly in his circumstance where he's already, acknowledged he doesn't need the money.

He's not interested in the cash flow.

Left to his own devices, he wouldn't take it.

But the IRS says you must.

So what?

What should he do with it?

A qualified charitable distribution allows you to send your RMD some piece of it all of it, to one or multiple charities.

And rather than being deductible on your tax return, most folks are using the standard deduction anyway.

They are kind of off book, so to speak.

Anything that goes directly from your IRA to a charity, there's no tax.

The IRA, the charity pays no tax.

You the IRS expects nothing from you.

It's above and beyond your standard deduction.

So if you're having, as a married couple, standard deductions, something in the 30,000 range, and you, you decide to use all of we're using 20,000 a year as an example, all of that in a QCD that would be on top of your 30,000, it would not be taxed.

What we're going to charities of your choice.

For many of you who are listening to this, you go, wait a second.

I'm already already, committed.

I'm very, committed, very personally excited about supporting my church, my synagogue.

I'm excited about supporting the United Way.

I'm excited about supporting any number of charities.

I already do that.

Can I use my RMD in this way to lower my taxes?

Answer is yes.

This is a very exciting opportunity.

One of his questions is, is it possible to leave the RMD to the children without inheritance taxes?

And the answer, sadly, is likely no.

With one exception, again, $20,000.

Let's say that the tax is $4,000.

He has $16,000.

What should he do?

Can he reinvest it?

Sure.

Not in the IRA, outside the IRA.

He can certainly do that.

Can he QCD?

He can do the entire 20,000 as a QCD.

Can he remove it from his estate by making gifts?

And the answer is you still have to pay the tax, so 20 becomes 16.

If he gives away all 16,000 to the children, it's no longer in his estate.

He pays no, they pay no inheritance tax at his passing because he doesn't own it.

And he may very well end up getting the joy of seeing the impact of his gifts during his lifetime, something that could be really, really wonderful.

And his final question about converting from an IRA to a Roth IRA.

Is it available?

Sure.

Is it?

Is it possible?

Sure.

Mechanically easy.

Guidance from a financial advisor and a tax professional.

Very useful.

And in planning this conversion process, he may very well end up deciding that he's going to use his RMD to pay the income tax on very large conversions from his IRA to a Roth IRA, and eventually see a time not many years in the future, six, seven, eight years in the future where he no longer has RMDs because he's converted his entire IRA to a Roth IRA.

Lots of opportunities, lots of what to do is there's an entire menu again, working with someone that you trust.

Somebody has experience in this area is a very, very useful thing to de to do indeed.

Excellent questions and Merry Christmas to you and Megs, Who do we wish?

Merry Christmas to next.

Well, our next question is wondering about IRAs.

This one says I have an IRA with remaining value of approximately $67,000, and my wife has an IRA with a remaining value of approximately $255,000.

Wondering can these IRAs be combined?

This would be a matter of convenience for us.

I am 83, my wife is 80 and we lead active physical lives, are active in community affairs, and are in good financial shape and should be for the rest of our lives.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for the questions.

I confess, first of all, it's Christmas, Merry Christmas, and and the spirit of the season is is one of joy and prosperity and love.

Of course.

One of the things I love about this question and that makes me quite joyful, so fits the season beautifully, is not the question.

It's his description of of himself and his wife.

I am 83.

My wife is 80.

When I was growing up, 83 was four years past deceased.

No longer the case, thank heavens.

And we have our triple H club.

Lots of members, one of which we just lost.

She was 111.

Passed away this, two weeks ago, a lovely lady.

Fantastic.

But he says I'm 83.

My wife is 80.

We lead active physical lives.

Great.

We're active in community affairs.

Fantastic.

We're in good financial shape and should be for the rest of our lives.

That's fantastic.

What wonderful gifts you've been given, what wonderful gifts you've accepted.

So absolutely outstanding.

Role models for all of us.

For all of us.

Now let's talk about making your life simpler in this particular case, for all the nice things I just said, my answer is you can't.

The IRS does not permit the co-mingling of IRAs between spouses.

The, IRA, which is, gosh, for decades now, that's all anyone refers to it as.

IRA stands for individual retirement account, Individual retirement account.

And even though, if you worked for a corporation, you had a 401K, a 403B, a pension fund, etc., etc.

your spouse is considered by law to be, in essence, a co owner.

In essence, you've got to have your spouse's permission to do anything major in terms of distributions from corporate retirement plans.

That is not the case for the IRAs.

They cannot be co-mingled until many, many, many years from now.

Many, many years from now, decades from now.

When one of you passes, then a spouse is permitted to take the deceased spouse IRA and co-mingle it with their own.

So many, many years from now, you're only 83, two decades, three decades from now, when somebody passes away, you can commingle.

But until that moment, even though it would be certainly much more convenient for you, much simpler.

Keep your life kind of more, what's under control?

The IRS simply doesn't permit that.

Now, one thing you might consider in the interim, even though you've done very, very well on your own, is in terms of seeing the bigger picture or being able to integrate all of your financial, moving parts.

Kind of more simply or more, more effectively, perhaps more effectively, working with a financial advisor, you might be able to have a what are referred to as consolidated reporting, where everything is brought together in one report, in our more than money world headquarters, we do that basically, minimum four times a year for our clients, bringing everything together so that they can see all the parts as a whole.

And then, of course, be able to disassemble, dissemble those parts and look at them individually, being able to see it from a 30,000ft view and then much closer indeed in terms of details.

So it may be useful in the absence of being able to legally co-mingle IRAs, your spouse's and your own, it may be useful to be able to kind of indirectly co-mingle or at least, be able to visualize and see in black and white a consolidated view of your financial picture.

That might be a good step, or it might be a useful, what replacement for the ability to, to actually, what?

Integrate your your two accounts into one.

So my answer was sorry.

No, but you have some options.

You have some options.

Merry Christmas, Megs.

Where to?

Well, our next question.

I think we need a little bit more information, but we'll see how we, how what we can, what we can offer.

This one says we have $1 million in a 401 K and fully own a $500,000 home.

Can I retire in five years at age 60?

Thanks.

Well, That's it.

That's a little brief, actually.

It's very, very interesting.

It's kind of like going to the Christmas stocking, and, you know, there's not a lot in it, but if the, if the, the small box in there says Tiffany, might be still pretty good at Christmas, it's not the size of the question.

It's the impact.

And in this particular case, this has, demonstrative value for so many folks out there who have not had, the advantage of either, being trained up financially, having a financial advisor, perhaps having someone in their family, a parent, perhaps that, that that gave them good guidance in terms of how all these things, kind of work and come together.

Not unlike, I would guess, somebody coming to their first Christmas there seems like it's a pretty straightforward thing.

You grab a tree and you put some stuff on it.

There's way more to it than that.

So when they when this individual says, we have $1 million and we own a half $1 million house, can we retire?

It seems like we have a tree and we have some stuff on it.

Isn't that Christmas?

No, it really isn't.

And in this particular case, we have $1 million and a paid for half $1 million house.

Isn't necessarily Christmas either.

It might absolutely be a joyous Christmas, or it may not be.

So let me give you some numbers, some demonstration numbers to give you kind of a sense of why I think this is an important question and why, even though it's very, very brief, that it gives us an opportunity to kind of see behind the curtain.

Here's why.

What does this individual need?

What does he and perhaps his spouse or his family need?

From a cash flow standpoint to be happy, healthy and have all their bills paid?

The answer is we don't know.

So if, for example, he said, well, we need $60,000 a year, we need $5,000 a month.

Oh, and we're 66 years old, so we're normal retirement age for Social Security.

And between the two of us, we will get 4000 a month in Social Security.

So we need 1000 a month from our savings.

Our savings is $1 million.

We need 12,000 a year from $1 million, 1.2% of that million dollars to be spent.

The answer is we can do that easily and in a guaranteed fashion.

Isn't that fantastic?

This gentleman and his spouse, they're retired.

Whoa.

Hang on.

What if the question, to the answer to my question of what do you need?

Is 10,000 a month?

We have 4000 coming in from Social Security.

We need 6000 a month.

Theoretically, $72,000 a year.

From our investments, in order to be happy, healthy, and have our bills paid 72,000 versus a million is 7.2%.

Allowing that kind of a return to come out on an annual basis will likely put a tremendous amount of pressure on the investments, meaning maybe needing to take far more risks than they expected.

And sadly, it could be far worse.

The Grinch literally could have could be stealing their retirement.

The Grinch being inflation.

If we use a simple number 3%, we want a 3% escalator so that we can respond to inflation so that our income grows year by year and that we're not left high and dry.

That adds to the 7.2% that we need for withdrawal purposes.

We put 3% on top of that.

We've got now 10.2%.

And since there were undoubtably be, management fees of some form, investment fees of some form, counseling fees of some form, let's just for simplicity's sake, add 8/10 of 1%.

You'll see why here in a second, because when we add all that up, it's a nice round 11%.

And now we're needing, the pressure on our portfolio to produce is not 1.2%, 12,000 a year.

It's, goodness.

It's it's 11%, 110,000 a year coming out of a, $1 million portfolio.

If you are blessed and your investments can nearly approach that, you will hang on to your money for quite a number of years.

If, on the other hand, your investments produce something less than that, let's say that they produce not 11%, but they produce six, you are 5% $50,000 under your need on an annual basis.

In something less than 20 years, your money's gone.

And no, you can't retire.

So you see how these moving parts are really, really critical.

But everything, everything is based on how much income do you need?

How much, cash flow, do you have, are you expecting so that your your life is what you expected it to be?

Less any guaranteed income?

In a previous, question, we had, Social Security, a pension, an annuity and rental income.

So there are lots of cash flow streams in this particular case.

We don't know.

We don't know.

But the investment portfolio must, must, must, supply, the, the differential, the gap between what you know, you're going to have and what you need.

And the, the higher the return that's required, the higher the pressure Now, Megs I, I don't want you to ask another question, but I do want you on screen to say Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you.

And everybody out there watching is another awesome year for the show.

It has been an awesome year for the show.

You've been such an important part of the show.

I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas specifically.

And then, to the entire team and of course to everybody out there listening.

There's so much going on in this world that causes us to shake our head and maybe scratch your head a little bit and wonder, isn't it crazy?

But I know that you are surrounded by wonderful friends, family who loves you desperately.

And you wish that we wish that for everyone, watching everyone.

That's part of our more than money family.

Whether you're you're right here in the studio helping us produce the show, whether you're back in the home office doing all of the hard work, to be blunt, we're doing the easy work.

All right.

For me, makeup is hard, but that's a different story for another time.

But for all of you that are out there, we, we are blessed.

Not in opening, the wrapper, the wrapping of a box and finding you there, but finding you there every single week and Megs gets to ask your questions.

If you'd like to have her ask one of your questions in the future.

Gene at ask mtm dot com works really, really well.

And that allows her to shine and put me in a very good position to sound very, very smart.

So if you've enjoyed, this year with our More Than Money family and you're enjoying your Christmas, I pray you really are.

I hope we're just a distant sound in the background of a joyous Christmas Eve.

You'll see it another time, I'm sure.

I hope that that's been part of, what will be a wonderful holiday season and that you're looking forward to an amazing, amazing, 2025.

So thank you so much from both of us.

And we hope to see you again right here as we bring you next week.

Another edition of this, this show more than money.

Good night.