Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) is here! On this week’s show, Jeff shares everything you need to know to make sense of the complex options you have for your healthcare plan. Plus, the Smart Retirement Plan Series continues with a closer look at Smart Heath and Smart Care.
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10.21.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
10.21.22: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Producer:
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Producer:
Welcome to Rest Assured Retirement with your host, Jeff Holmes. Jeff is a licensed fiduciary and financial advisor who always places his clients needs first. Jeff works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you too. So now let's start the show. Here's Jeff Holmes...
Jeff Holmes:
Welcome, everyone. This is Jeff Holmes with Rest Assured Retirement show. I am a certified retirement counselor and certified financial fiduciary. And I'm joined here by our producer, Matt McClure. I want to say a quick hello, Matt.
Producer:
Hello, Jeff. And hello, everybody. Glad to be here once again.
Jeff Holmes:
Yes, and so am I. Definitely got a great show today and glad you're here. And what we're going to do is first off, mention the website if you want to get more information, see some of the past podcasts that we've done. It's RestAssuredRetirement.com Or you can call in at 480 454 9191 if you happen to have any questions because obviously what we talk about is very general in these in these shows and you may have some specific questions you need to have answered, especially today, because what I'm going to preview here is, first off, what we're going to go through today. First off, we've got the financial Wisdom quote of the week. I really like that. And then what we call the problem solver. Everyone has really enjoyed hearing that. Also, this is a busy time of the year for Medicare agents. It's AEP 2022. We're about a week into it and we're going to talk about continuing on in our Smart Retirement Plan series and go into smart health and small smart care. And we'll get into some Medicare cost-cutting ideas. And also one of the things that we may be able to make it might not. Might not, because we've got a lot of talk to talk about today because of Medicare is a pretty complex subject, is how to kick the IRS out of being your partner in retirement. Because whether you know it or not, you do have a partner in your IRAs and 401k and that happens to be the IRS and Uncle Sam. And they tend to have their hand out when you take money out for some reason. And that's we'll get into that if we do have time. And then this day in history, that's always a good one there.
Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.
Jeff Holmes:
We'll start off with the financial quote of the week. And Matt, if you'd be so kind to read that you do a great job on those.
Producer:
Well, thank you. And I and I appreciate being able to share some words of wisdom, you know, from people who are much smarter than I am about a lot of different things. And this time around, this particular person who is much smarter than I am or was, I should say, was John Bogle, also known as Jack Bogle. He died back in 2019, was an American investor philanthropist credited with creating the first index fund and avid investor money manager himself. He really preached investment over speculation and reducing broker fees as much as possible. I think that's a bunch of stuff that we can all get in on there. But John or Jack Bogle said this, quote, If you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in a stock market, you shouldn't be in stocks. I think that's pretty apropos these days.
Jeff Holmes:
Amen to that. That's for sure. Yeah, that is very, very true. And you mentioned there's a lot of people smarter and it seems like the older I get, the less smart I am. That's I found that to be very true. Maybe some of you can. If you feel the same, give us a ring if you feel this way about that. So getting into that complimentary consultation before we get into the because you're probably wondering a little bit about what that's all about or just calling in asking questions. But what we do is we provide these full retirement plan consultations and you always people always ask, what's the catch whether there isn't any. The catch was, is you took the time to listen to me on this radio show for an hour and that or like when I was doing classes, people would be in the class and they would listen and they would get educated. So that's why we do it. And what we will do is we'll make sure that if it's not going to work in your best interest, then obviously you shouldn't do it. And obviously when we do things, oh, it is. And you're we do these consultations that are in your best interest. So you have to make that decision whether you're good or a good fit for each other. And we also do the same thing on our side. We'll analyze your specific situation and give you a unique financial situation as a solution on that. And we'll closely examine all of your accounts that could be annuities, your IRAs, your forward case stocks, bonds, mutual funds, whatever it may be.
Jeff Holmes:
We'll also help with your Social Security planning and Medicare. Now, I am not the Medicare expert and have just learned our Medicare expert who's in the House also, she happens to be my wife. And so that's who I'm working for, if you're wondering. And so she has a very busy time right now because at the time of this recording and we do have to record this because of compliance reasons, the compliance in our industry is pretty strong, which is a good thing. And so they will we'll be like a week or so behind here. But what she's doing right now is helping everyone out during Medicare season, and we'll get into that in just a second. Also, if you haven't heard from your advisor lately, you may want to give us a ring and ask for a second opinion. And even if you've learned something today and have questions on that, like I mentioned before, and the the thing that we also found that was very helpful for everyone is they when they get to look at the software, we have all this wonderful software and it'll show your current situation maybe like you've never seen it before, where you have inflation and taxes and a lot of other things in that software. And then we make certain changes. You might see how things can change in your retirement. So that's a little bit on that. And obviously you need to go to rest assured retirement dot com or call 480 454 9191.
Producer:
It's time for this week's problem solver.
Jeff Holmes:
We recently worked with an older couple. He she, I should say, was 80. He's 83. They were in the middle of the retirement. That's pretty good being your eighties and that's the middle of your retirement. So that's the way they felt. And there's something that started that they developed a fear of spending their money. If you're in that boat, remember what I just talked about, those free consultations. You may want to give us a call on that. The reason I got into doing this years and years ago, because I saw this with family members and I was an engineer that was out of work because of contracts being lost by the company I was working for was a small company working for a small government contract and actually was pretty large. I'm joking there a little bit, but what was happening? The market wasn't very good and I saw them stop spending money because they saw the their assets going down because they had the majority of their assets in the market. And with this particular couple upon inspection, what we found is they were overinvested in bonds and they had lost 25% of their portfolio since the start of 2022. They didn't know that they could also update an annuity they had. So we then went into this and looked at their situation. We did a financial checkup of all their accounts, including their annuity. We found out at the time they had an older one and there was something that would be more suitable for them and it would also give them a better option where it actually almost doubled their income, believe it or not. And it went from 32,000 a year on up to 61,000 a year.
Jeff Holmes:
And this has happened. I've seen this happen many times. When people have a much older annuity, they've been using from this from this part of their account, they will be paying no fees. And they were paying fees on this portion of their portfolio. They started receiving income right away. They don't need to worry about spending money anymore, which was kind of crazy. I hope you have to ask yourself question, Do you ever want to be in that situation in retirement where you're scared to spend money, you're worried about that? And for the this couple that is in their eighties, this was a really big deal and we are so happy we could help them, but it also made them be able to sleep better at night. That's the title of the show, Rest assured Retirement, so they can rest and be assured that they're going to have a decent retirement. So we found way too many couples in retirement that have this fear of spending their hard earned money and investing into these annuities that provide the income they're set up. The ones that particular couple got was ones that can't lose any money and they're set up that way. There are annuities out there that can lose money. And if you didn't know this, there are really five types of annuities. Five see my hand right there. So there's five types of annuities and that is something you need to consider potentially intentionally or not. It just has it depends on your your situation. Every everyone's situation is completely different. So now we're going to get into before the break here and get started into the smart health portion of our show today, the AEP Preview hour.
Jeff Holmes:
And this I call it a preview. It's actually just started. And AEP stands for annual annual enrollment period. It starts started October 15th. It will continue on December 7th. The reason we do this is as we find many times people wait till December to do this. I wouldn't do this. We do it early. Gives you then time to have more time to make a decision. It's really very, very important to to do that as early as you can. So as we get started this, how many people are currently enrolled in Medicare? And with all the baby boomers, now we have more than 61 million Americans are covered by Medicare health plans right now. And that comes from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare in 2020. And almost four out of ten Medicare consumers are also enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. And that comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And that's a 2021 study they did. Also, 65% of the respondents said that they would not know which parts or parts of Medicare they should enroll in. I would say from my experience, that number could be higher. And then for 2022, Medicare beneficiaries have access to 39 Medicare Advantage plans and 89% of the Medicare Advantage plans offered in 2022 include a prescription drug. And as of right now, 18.5% of the US population is on Medicare. Now, that's the end of this segment will be coming back and getting into Medicare Part A again, this is the Rest Assured Retirement Show, RestAssuredRetirement.com You can call in at 480 454 9191 also. We'll be back.
Producer:
You're listening to Rest Assured Retirement to schedule your free no-obligation consultation with Jeff. Visit RestAssuredRetirement.com.
Producer:
Got questions? Jeff Holmes is here to help visit, RestAssuredRetirement.com Today.
Jeff Holmes:
Welcome back to the Rest Assured Retirement show. I'm Jeff Holmes, a certified retirement counselor and certified financial fiduciary. I'm joined here by our producer, Matt McClure. We were just going through the smart health portion of our Smart Retirement Plan series, and we were getting into Medicare, which is now in we are now in what they call Medicare season, the annual enrollment period. So we'll continue on with the Medicare part. A portion is what we were getting into at this point. Medicare Part A is basically also the hospital part of the insurance there covers inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care, and some health care. You can get part a premium free at age 65 if you're your spouse did pay Medicare taxes for a certain amount of time while working. You already get retirement if you're already getting, I should say, retirement benefits from Social Security or like a retirement railroad retirement board. You are eligible for these retirement benefits. But if you haven't filed yet, you may want to look at that. You and your spouse had Medicare covered. Government employment also is another option there. Now, the Medicare Part A just kind of comes along with everything. And the next section is on the Medicare Part B, It's also known as medical insurance. It covers all the doctor visits, services, outpatient care, medical supplies and preventative services. Some people automatically get Part B, others have to enroll in it.
Jeff Holmes:
And you may be subject to a late enrollment fee if you do not sign up for part B when you first become eligible. So that's very important to know. If you haven't done anything in this, you really need to call a agent, or you could call Jessalyn, who's our Medicare specialist in house that and use call in to 480 454 9191 or if you want a consultation with her during this Medicare season you can go to. Rest assured retirement dot com. Again rest assured retirement dot com and inside it for a consultation and what she'll do then is get back with you you'll be speaking to me on the Medicare information there it's she is the person to talk to. She is the what I would what her clients call her is a professor of Medicare. So now. Part B is A is an interesting thing. Those are typically deducted from your Social Security or your retirement railroad retirement board and those types of fees. Most people don't even really see what's going on with those, and you actually pay a premium for that in this premium you've been paying, I think in the last year it was $170.10. Well, there's some good news this year with all of the the market volatility and the inflation that has gone up just a little bit. It's actually gone up quite a bit here. And I see that they're smiling.
Producer:
Yeah. The understatement of the century right there.
Jeff Holmes:
That's right. Yeah, it's it's been a little on the high side, but those premiums actually went down to $164.90 per month now. Excuse me for being skeptical of the government, but why would they? Lower these in this time. Just makes me wonder, are they going to be going? Did they overcharge last year or they. I don't know. Just. I don't know. Matt, what do you think? I just I can't help being skeptical here.
Producer:
Or are they just being nice or, you know, what's the deal?
Jeff Holmes:
Yeah. Our Government is gonna be nice...
Producer:
That that never happens.
Jeff Holmes:
Yeah, I'll be a knock on the door if I keep talking like this. The IRS.
Producer:
Right. Got to watch out.
Jeff Holmes:
Better change the subject. Get back on to the notes. Here. I'll be in trouble. So. Okay. Medicare Part D is next. And obviously, this is one where it does make sense. It's not an A or B and you're kind of wondering how it how those letters match up. Well, this is actually is for drug coverage. The D for is for drug coverage in this one. And it covers a wide variety of prescription drugs. There are different protected classes for such drugs as HIV and AIDS, which most plans cover a plan's list, the covered drugs, and is called the Formulary Part D plans have drug tiers. The lower drug tiers cost less than the higher ones. And as you can tell, this is a complex subject. You definitely need help in deciding which way to go on these. So that's where I'm going to throw in another plug. You know, and I may say this more than I need to, but when you're talking about Medicare, you know, it's a very complex. I'll make sure you call in at 480 454 9191 or just go to our website rest assured retirement dot com and set up a consultation. All those that come in from today's show are obviously going to be speaking with Jesselyn and you'll like her.
Jeff Holmes:
She's a lot prettier than I am and you'll like her a lot better than me. And she will help you out with all of these wonderful things. Now, what do you pay for a part D plan? Well, that depends. And here's another thing. The premiums actually went down in the yearly deductible went down. Excuse me for being skeptical. Why is all this happening here? Neil, are you kidding me? You're going these things. Something's going down right now and everything else is going up. So also there's payments and insurance. There are coverage gap costs that they have to call the doughnut hole. There's extra help cost and there's also a late enrollment penalty. If you don't do this. So I would really, really you may want to pay attention to this because even though it may not seem much on the surface, it does build up over time and have just one call in and have her explain that to you. You know, I don't quite understand it myself, but it is there and it kind of it adds up, let's just put it that way. And why would you have that late enrollment penalty? Well, if you didn't enroll in Part B during your initial enrollment period? Potentially, you could have that.
Jeff Holmes:
Or if you go 63 days or more in a row without Medicare drug coverage or other credible prescription drug coverage, you may have to pay a penalty when you do sign up at a later time. Now, there is more to it than that. I'm just giving you all the high points, believe it or not. You know, this this show in itself doesn't give enough time to go over the even the high point. So what we're going to do next is we're going to move on to the differences between what they call Medigap supplement insurance versus Medicare Advantage and what Medicare Advantage is. That's the part C of the plans. Now, I'm not going to have time in this segment to go through that. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to be taking a break. But before I do that, just remember, you want you want to learn more about Medicare during this the AP season. Go to RestAssuredRetirement.com Set up your consultation for this or call in to 480 454 9191. And we'll be back in a bit here.
Producer:
You're listening to Rest Assured Retirement. Are you concerned about inflation, political uncertainty, rising taxes, and how it could all affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over $400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying over a 35-plus year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your free Roth conversion consultation with Jeff Holmes at Rest Assured retirement dot com. Helping bring you one step closer to financial freedom. You're listening to Rest Assured Retirement.
Jeff Holmes:
Welcome back to the Rest Assured Retirement show. I'm Jeff Holmes, a certified retirement counselor and a certified financial fiduciary. I'm joined by our producer, Matt McClure. And today we were having the pleasure and honor of going through the Medicare program and how that works since we're now in a 2022 and we were just starting to go through the differences between our Medicare supplement insurance versus the Medicare Advantage. So we'll get into this again. If you want that consultation with Joslyn, please call in 480 454 9191 or go to RestAssuredRetirement.com So these types of insurances are designed to fill the coverage gaps of Part A and part B plans. This there are gaps in the original Medicare. That's why Medicare supplement insurance or what they call Medigap came about and it came back years ago and then they pass along started off something they call Medicare Advantage. So about 81% of the beneficiaries who have parts A and B supplement their coverage with Medigap Medicaid or a an employer sponsored plan. And that's according to Investopedia. 48% of the beneficiaries pay for Part D coverage. So that's less than half. They must not be paying attention to the penalties potentially that they could end up paying. It is fairly inexpensive for most of the plans.
Jeff Holmes:
So definitely take a good look at that. How do the Medicare Plus Medigap, how does that all work? It's definitely more expensive than the other plan, which is the Medicare Advantage, and it covers any hospital or doctor that accepts Medicare. So if you do a lot of traveling, this is really the one to get you live in different states. It'll give you more access to more doctors. Really, when you get sick, do you really want to just end up with a small number of doctors or a lot more doctors? There's no need to prioritize your authorization or a referral from a primary doctor. You don't have to do that. It's good for people who have specific doctors or hospitals they want to use. There is a good chance that they'll be on those more than not. Course, there's a lot of doctors that are not wanting to are dropping off the rolls as taking Medicare patients. You may have experienced that if you have. Be sure to give a call. You can call it 480 454 9191. And that will give you an opportunity to have her call you and set up a time to go through your particular situation. Now, how does Medicare Advantage better known as Part C work? Well, either you have no premium or a very low premium compared to the Medigap Medicare Advantage.
Jeff Holmes:
Plans cover hospitals and doctors and often include prescription drug coverage, and other coverage are not included in parts A or B, So on the surface it looks very nice, very low premium. But then there's a disadvantage is it basically operates in a health maintenance organization better known as an HMO. And they limit the people who are covered by this plan to doctors within their hospital, within that network. So you have a very, very limited access compared to what you may have in the Medicare supplement insurance or Medigap plans. Whether you have either one of those, it may be a great time to review that and go to rest assured retirement dot com and set up a free consultation with Jesselyn, our Medicare specialist, and have her go through your existing plan or call in to 480 454 9191. Now what we'll be doing in the next segment is will be going through smart care, going through a cost-cutter Medicare ideas that we have. And if we get to it, we'll get into the kick the IRS out of your retirement portion. So we'll see you back in a minute.
Producer:
Thanks for listening to Rest Assured Retirement with Jeff Holmes. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Producer:
I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement dot Radio Network. Next time you head to the pharmacy, you could be in for some sticker shock. So do you need to plan now for higher drug prices in the future? First, let's spell out the problem, and it's not necessarily a new one. Prescription drug prices have been rising faster than inflation for decades, according to AARP. To put it in perspective, the group says if gas had risen as much as prescription drugs have over time, regular unleaded would cost more than 12 bucks a gallon by now. For seniors on a fixed income, being able to afford prescription drugs is essential. Ron Mastrogiovanni of Health View Services recently told CNBC.
Ron Mastrogiovanni :
Whether you're affluent.Or whether you're the average.Person, I'll tell you.What, when you look at your Social Security check, you're paying for health care.
Producer:
Prescription drug insurance plans provide some coverage, of course, but not all plans are created equally. And it's important that you know the details of your plan, especially what it will and won't cover.
Ron Mastrogiovanni :
You really need to look at the coverage in those types of plans to determine what makes the most sense for you.
Producer:
Lawmakers in Washington have been trying to come up with solutions on several fronts. They include things like allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, capping the cost of insulin and more. But those proposals have stalled. They were part of President Biden's build back better plan. It passed the House, but that massive piece of legislation hit a roadblock in the Senate, even though surveys show big majorities of us adults approve of those measures. It seems like everyone agrees something needs to be done to control costs but just can't agree on exactly what that might be. In the meantime, what should you do to prepare for higher drug prices in the future? Well, putting more money in savings surely couldn't hurt, according to the experts. But that can only go so far. And what can you do now to save money at the pharmacy? Well, that is a key question to consider as inflation continues its upward climb with the retirement dot radio network. I'm Matt.Mcclure.
Producer:
You're listening to Rest Assured Retirement with Jeff Holmes.
Jeff Holmes:
Welcome back to the Rest Assured Retirement show. I'm Jeff Holmes, a certified retirement counselor and certified financial fiduciary. Joined here by our producer, Matt McClure. And today we are getting into Medicare since we are now in Medicare Season 2022, which started on October 15th, we'll end up stopping December 7th. Now, when I first heard this years ago and I go, why are they doing it this time of year and why did they start on these dates? I have no idea. If anybody knows, please call in and 480 454 9191 or set up a consultation just to talk about this but rest assured retirement. Dot com. Matt, did you know does that make. Have you ever heard anything on that?
Producer:
You know, not really. It's always kind of been a mystery to me as well. I mean, the only thing that I can think of would be, okay, well, it's like fourth quarter of the year and you're getting everything set for the next calendar year to turn over. But I just I. Other than that, I have no idea.
Jeff Holmes:
Yeah. Yes. I don't either. And yeah, that the one thing I did mention before on that is obviously any changes you make between October 15th and December 7th, they do take effect January 1st. So there you are, Matt. That's a that could be it. It just they wanted to have it start clean and fresh for the next year. Could be the reason. You know.
Producer:
I've discovered the answer
Jeff Holmes:
And of course, the government set this up just like they decrease premiums and the Part D plans and also on the Part B premium. So I should quit mentioning that, should I? For I get a knock on the door by the government officials.
Producer:
That's right. I'm talking.
Producer:
The man in the in the black suits and the sunglasses. They'll come knocking on your door here.
Jeff Holmes:
That's right. So what's next in the Smart retirement planning series that we're in right now? We're going to get into Smart Care, which is kind of tied in with Medicare a little bit. What we find is more than two-thirds of all Americans are going to require some sort of long-term care or assisted living during their retirement years. How are you going to plan for these costs that could potentially happen, whether it's long-term care, skilled nursing or in assisted living, for that matter? Have you done any planning for that? It's a very good question. You need to ask yourself. This is something that happens to a lot of people and happen to both my parents and both my father and mother-in-law. So all four were in a situation where there's assisted living or a long-term care situation. So how are you going to take care of that? Have you done any planning for that? And if you haven't, please call in 480 454 9191 or go to rest assured retirement dot com and set up a free consultation on that and we can go through some planning for you now Gen worth in 2021 they did a study and they have all of these. Stats on long term care and they said the average hourly rate for home health is $27. If you do it annually, it's believe. This is amazing to me. It's $61,776 annually in cost just for that and having a nurse come in. My dad did this for a while and yes, it does add up. And he was paying a much lower rate than what is mentioned here. The annual meeting cost for a private room and nursing home in a nursing home was 108,800 $405, $108,405 on average. I know here in Arizona it's less than that. But still there's a cost. Their annual median cost for assisted living was 54,000, with monthly rates ranging from 3000 in Missouri on up to almost 7000 in the District of Columbia, the overall cost of care increased from 2000 to 2021. Now, that makes sense that it did go up like the Medicare Part B premiums
Jeff Holmes:
I'm sorry, I just stuck on that. So also, there's increased use of PPE and I had to look that up. What is that? It's personal protective equipment by health care professionals and the enhanced training and protocols for medical facilities due to COVID 19. And then they go it represents a small portion of the 2021 increase, and it's expected to go away over time. The main driver has been supply and demand every day until 20, 30, 10,000 baby boomers. How do they know it's 10,000? Could it be 10,005 or that month or it change? Anyway, there's another you know, I just I'm sorry. I ask questions about all this stuff. It's good that you would do the same. Be sure you ask a lot of questions if you're doing any planning. It's very important. But of those 10,000 baby boomers, they'll turn 65 and seven out of ten will acquire long term care or assisted living at some point. Also, there are high turnover rates and insufficient supply of professionals to meet the growing long-term care demand. And this was around before the COVID 19 pandemic that is now amplified by exposure, risk and opportunities with more competitive salaries. So there's a lot of costs that have gone up. And also Medicare does not cover long-term care needs. It does have a provision in there that for the first 100 days you will potentially have some coverage for skilled nursing. But really you're really looking at either going with a traditional long-term care plan where you pay monthly premiums and it gives you a benefit that you would get daily if you were to go into a long-term care situation or assisted living.
Jeff Holmes:
The insurance companies have been work. They've also got other ways because of the traditional insurance becoming more and more expensive, and they found that they were able to add this benefit to help out with these costs into life insurance policies and annuities and offer these benefits, whether they were persons needing nursing, assisted living or any other type of long term care. And so those are a less expensive way to basically pay for long term care if you need it. The good thing about those is you don't just pay the premium and it goes away. What happens is you put premium into one of those, whether it's a life insurance or annuity. And if you ever you don't need that, then some or all of that money may come back to you. So there's some definite benefits there. Also, assisted living care is 2.7 times more expensive than adult day health care. That's another opportunity. And I've had clients say, well, I've got to I've got to leave at whatever time from our appointment and I've got to go pick up my dad from his adult day care as in health care situation. So if you're concerned about the cost of care, call us at 480 454 9191 or go to RestAssuredRetirement.com and set up your free consultation on this. We'd love to hear from you now or if you just want to have some questions answered, that's fine too. It's whatever you need. Whatever way we can help.
Producer:
Here's the cost cutter of the week.
Jeff Holmes:
And here's a big one. And they have this IEP every year and it's there for a reason. And if you don't move your Medicare plan every 2 to 3 years, they found that you could be losing money. Because what happens is you find that the changes in the newer plans may be helping you save money and in many different ways. And that's one thing you need to stay on top of. And it may not take very long. Just call your your agent and see and ask them to review your existing situation and see if there's anything better. That goes for everything that goes for your whether you have a medigap or you have Medicare Advantage Part C or your your drug plan, which is the part Medicare Part D. By re-evaluating your new options each year, you're likely to find that you can save money on a lot of Medicare expenses. Also on the price of the I just mentioned, pas de and the price of the prescriptions that you're buying. So there's a lot of important information you can get from that. And yeah, it does take a little time, but once a year may be a big-time money-saving opportunity for you. Some people do a medicare coverage check every year just in case. And that's really the main reason they have opportunity to save some extra cash. Is it would it be nice to have extra cash in retirement? Oh, yeah. Yeah. The match that they had up and down. Yes. So yeah.
Producer:
Extra cash always sounds good.
Jeff Holmes:
Yeah. Oh, yes, it sure does. That's very, very nice to have. So what we're going to do now is I'm going to attempt to get through part of what they our next segment is, is to kick the IRS out of your retirement plan. Now, we may have to go back to this in our next show next week. But what I'm going to do is get started here, see how far we get now. A question to ask yourself, Do you think taxes are going up or going down in the future? No right or wrong answer. But what do you think? Well, most people actually believe they're going higher in the future, and I'm not sure why. It might have something to hurt the debts now at 31 trillion. Can you imagine that man in 31 trillion?
Producer:
I mean, it's just a just an astronomical number. I don't think we can even fathom that. That number in our brains, you know?
Jeff Holmes:
No, it's a huge number. So. We must consider the strategy that kicks the iris out of being a partner in retirement just because of that fact and to reduce those future tax rate hike that may be coming. Coming up, you might want to look at a Roth conversion and that may be something that you can do there. Smart retirees diversify their money into different tax buckets, and those tax buckets are taxable, tax deferred and tax free. So if you really would be interested in generating tax free retirement during your 30 plus years in retirement and a lot of people say, well, I'm not going to live that long. Well, what if you do? Would it be nice to plan for that? We've got some proven strategies that can work for that, and this may be also a good time to since the market's down. Look at a conversion from an IRA to a Roth IRA. So why would you want to meet with a fine? Obviously, I skipped through this and I went through this pretty quick. There's more to it than that. And why would you want to meet with a financial professional? Well, first off, you have to understand what you may be paying. Understand the risks that you're paying. Set up a formal retirement plan. If you don't have a formal retirement plan. You really, really need to have one. That's very important. And you have to ask yourself, why don't you have one already if you're close to or in retirement, if you don't understand how to manage risk and don't know whether to pay off your house, for instance, pay it off or not, what's the right thing? And do you have health care plan in place in the future? So very important for those things.
Producer:
It's this week in history.
Jeff Holmes:
And this is on October 23rd. In 1976, the number one hit from for one week or four actually for two weeks was from Chicago. If you leave me now, some of you remember that song. It was a good one. Also, in 1963, in sports, the New York Yankees named Yogi Berra as the manager. Boy. And life's never been the same since. He's quoted a lot and I love his quotes.
Producer:
We got to have him for a for a quote of the week at some point.
Jeff Holmes:
Oh, yeah. That's it's got to be in there somewhere. And then on this date in 1925, Johnny Carson was born. He was one of the most popular late night television television host in American history. I actually think he is the most popular. And he was hosting The Tonight Show for 30 years from 1962 to 1992. So, everyone, thank you for being with us today. We'll be signing off If you would like that free consultation, please go to retirement. RestAssuredRetirement.com Or call in at 480 454 9191. And have a great rest of your Sunday.
Producer:
Thanks for listening to Rest Assured Retirement you deserve to work with an experienced and licensed expert who will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets to schedule your free no-obligation consultation with Jeff. Visit RestAssuredRetirement.com or pick up the phone and call 480 305 5661. That's 480 305 5661.
Producer:
Assured Financial is an independent financial services firm helping individuals create retirement strategies using a variety of investment and insurance products to custom-suit their needs and objectives. This material has been prepared for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide and should not be relied upon for accounting, legal tax or investment advice. Advisory services are offered through foundations, Investment advisors and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Certified Financial Fiduciary. Cff is issued by the National Association of Certified Financial Fiduciaries. Cff is reserved for financial professionals who have successfully completed a certification and training process established by the NACFF and the AFEA.
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