0:00:00 - Speaker 1
Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or investment advice. Always consult with your investment professional before making important investment decisions. Securities offered through registered representatives of Cambridge Investment Research Inc. A broker-dealer member, finra, sipc Advisory Services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. A registered investment advisor Cambridge and Greenway Wealth Advisory are not affiliated.

0:00:20 - Speaker 2
It's time to dive into some insider secrets of investing and retirement planning. To make your retirement as smart and as elegant as possible. This is Money Chic with Sherry Rash.

0:00:31 - Speaker 3
Hey everybody, welcome into another edition of Money Chic, women and Retirement, with Sherry Rash from Greenway Wealth Advisory and myself talking investing, finance and retirement and the other half of our 22 money resolutions for 2022. We did the first 11 on the prior podcast earlier in the month and if you didn't check that out, you could go back and check that out on Apple, google, spotify. You can find all those links at the website GreenwayWealthAdvisorycom, or you could type in Money Chic, women and Retirement into your podcasting app and check out those prior ones and subscribe to the podcast and then we're going to do the other 11. This go around and to boot. We are just a few days ahead of Christmas. It's Christmas week. How are you doing?

0:01:15 - Speaker 4
Great, I'm in the Christmas spirit.

0:01:18 - Speaker 3
Rocking and rolling. You got the. You're rocking around the Christmas tree.

0:01:21 - Speaker 4
That's right. Jingle bell rocking.

0:01:24 - Speaker 3
That's right. Kids all excited, of course. Of course it's so different when they're older, and this will be the first year Ars is not going to be home. She doesn't have any more lee from the Navy, so we will not see her. This will be the first time in 24 years, so it'll be interesting.

0:01:39 - Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah it's. It'll be relaxing and quiet, I'm sure for you yeah. Not the exact opposite in my house?

0:01:46 - Speaker 3
Yeah, Exactly, definitely so it'll be. It'll be fun, it'll be different, we'll figure it out, we'll get to it, but it is what it is. But, yes, merry Christmas, happy holidays to everybody out there listening and hopefully you have a great holiday and maybe some of these 11 resolutions can help you moving forward into 22. So, again, we did the first 11 on the prior podcast, so we're going to wrap it up here in December with these second half of this list.

0:02:11 - Speaker 4
So let's wrap it up. Wrap up the Christmas presents.

0:02:13 - Speaker 3
Actually, I didn't even think about that. Yeah, good job, good catch. All right, let's get going. Number 12 on the total list here is check your credit, sherry, if it's been a while. There's a lot of good resources out there you can use.

0:02:27 - Speaker 4
There are. Yeah, I mean just like going back and checking your beneficiaries. It only takes a couple of minutes, like we talked about last episode. Go in, check your credit. Does everything look right? Identity theft is a real thing. It happened. So just making sure everything's on the up and up and looks right for you and the accounts that you have, the credit cards that you have, are open, you're using them. So just looking at looking at credit, making sure everything looks good.

0:02:53 - Speaker 3
Yeah, often some of those websites, you can do that annually for free, so it doesn't cost you anything to do that. So if you've checked your credit, then move on to checking your fees. Number 13, find out what your stuff's costing you.

0:03:05 - Speaker 4
Yeah, do you have those recurring membership fees, monthly subscriptions? We sign up for things and we forget about them or use them for a month or two and then stop using them. But they're on, we're paying for it every month.

0:03:19 - Speaker 3
So sometimes like a hundred bucks going out every month that you're not even using or whatever. Yeah.

0:03:23 - Speaker 4
And there are services I believe that can also do that for you. But print out your credit card statement and look at the fees, look at what you're paying and are you using all of those services that you're paying for? Yeah, definitely.

0:03:36 - Speaker 3
I mean, how many of us now, especially with the streaming stuff, right, you wind up with seven or eight different streaming service plans. You've got one for Paramount and one for you know the peacock channel, and one for Netflix and so on and so forth, and are you using all of them? So you know, it's kind of like cable, like where we used to get all the channels. You'd be paying this high bill and you're like I watch like four channels. Why am I paying?

0:03:57 - Speaker 1
for all this.

0:03:58 - Speaker 4
That's right.

0:03:59 - Speaker 3
That's a great way to uh, have a little money. Resolution there, number 14 Well, do what we're doing, and that is share your knowledge.

0:04:06 - Speaker 4
So tell me a little bit about that one if you work with someone that's great, a great advisor, or picked up some helpful Financial tips, share the wealth. Talk to people about your positive experience. I'm huge on Making money part of the everyday conversation, and it's not the I make x amount or I've so and so in my Checking account. It's just talking about money. Money does not have to be taboo. So if you got a great tip from someone or your advisor pointed out hey, check your beneficiary designations. Talk to your loved ones about it because it helps everyone. You're not sharing personal information. It's for the greater good, and financial literacy Only improves if we make money part of the conversation.

0:04:55 - Speaker 3
There you go pass it on right, and knowing is half the battle or whatever that cartoon was back in the day. Uh, so you know. Another great way thing you can do, folks, is hit the share button on the podcast, right, so you can share this, pop it on to your social media feed, send it to a friend in a you know private message or text message or whatever. You can share the program as well and that way they can pick up some good tips, hopefully from sherry and I as well, as we're talking about these things. So, yeah, definitely share the knowledge. That's number 14 on our 22 for 22. Number 15 donation opportunities sherry Charitable. I mean, it's the time of year for it, right?

0:05:32 - Speaker 4
Absolutely, uh, charitable organizations did an organization come across your desk that you're really interested in or you want to help with Donate? Find ways to donate, not even just your money. You can donate your time, so find some ways that you can donate in 2022, and it also helps your taxes as well, so that's also not a bad thing.

0:05:54 - Speaker 3
Yeah, and if you're a retiree, I mean you could be looking at qcds, you could do something with your you know, your rmd distributions. Lots of different ways you could do that if you're charitable minded. So lots of things you could talk with your advisor about on that front as well. Number 16 review the old tax brackets so we don't get a surprise next year. You know we're in a couple of months, right?

0:06:16 - Speaker 4
So if the only time you're thinking about your taxes is when you're filing them, there's, you're really not creating a tax plan. So Look at as you're fighting, starting to file your taxes for 2021 towards the beginning of the year. Are things going to look similar for 2022? And are there changes that you can implement in 2022 to positively impact your tax situation? And, if there are, take advantage of them now. Do them now, because once the year's over, there's nothing you can really do about your tax situation for that year prior. So look at what happened in 2021 and see if you can make some positive changes for 2022, tax wise.

0:06:59 - Speaker 3
Yeah, most of the time when we're doing tax prep in the first quarter, it's just history. It's just the history of what happened versus tax planning, which can be an ongoing, all year long type of thing. So, and you should be doing that as you get closer to retirement anyway, because that's certainly a big, big place where you can save and hopefully improve your retirement overall. The way we jotted down number 17 here, sherry, it makes me feel like a pharmaceutical commercial or something. Ask your advisor if a Roth conversion is right for you.

0:07:27 - Speaker 4
You may have these side effects.

0:07:30 - Speaker 3
Your less taxes might be a side effect.

0:07:33 - Speaker 4
Yeah, I mean a Roth conversion can make a lot of Sense for for you, but it's not something you just go into. You have to have a strategy around it and, especially if your income is going to be the same for the foreseeable future, roth conversions may make sense. Because Roths are Attractive, because they provide tax-free distributions in retirement, and that's obviously a great thing. So work with an advisor to see if converting some of your IRA, your pre-tax money, to Roth makes sense. But keep in mind you do have to pay taxes, so you definitely want to make sure your advisor and your CPA are all working together For you.

0:08:18 - Speaker 3
Yeah, I was going to say we probably should clarify my my joking statement there that it could save you on taxes Save you on future taxes potentially, but you do have to pay the taxes now. But again, we know what the tax rates are right now versus you know 10, 15, 20 years, whatever it is that when you might need that money from a traditional IRA. So certainly worth having a conversation to find out if a Roth conversion is right for you. Number 18 on our list update those paycheck withholdings, especially if you've had any major life changes or had, you know, just inappropriate amounts. Kind of goes back to that getting prepped for the whole tax deal.

0:08:53 - Speaker 4
I've had clients this year that have had what I call a very high class problem of they're making a lot more money this year than they have in the past. And I said get ready for a tax bill. You're probably going to have to pay extra taxes when you file, so get those deductions down. So your more taxes are being taken out of your paycheck. So, but definitely taking a look at your withholdings, making sure that your appropriate amount is reflected as far as your withholdings go.

0:09:25 - Speaker 3
Yeah, definitely, and that's certainly a good one to do anyway, from number of standpoints where they need more money coming with the paycheck or you need to be shift that thing for the tax scenario.

0:09:35 - Speaker 4
That is definitely an item that gets really overlooked, because we really do just set it and forget it.

0:09:41 - Speaker 3
Yeah we do, and kind of with 19 as well. So 19 is rebalance your portfolio Now, okay, I can hear folks thinking, well, I don't know how to do that. That sounds kind of complicated. Maybe you've got an auto rebalancing, something like a target date fund which is supposed to rebalance itself. But again, if you don't know how, this is a great conversation to have with your advisor.

0:09:59 - Speaker 4
Right, exactly, so log into your 401k or 403b account and just check the box for rebalance quarterly to at least get your percentages back in line, to get your allocations to how they were originally set up, because as markets change and investments perform differently, you could be way over weighted in a certain mutual fund or asset class. So just checking that rebalance box, if you're doing it on your own, could be beneficial to you, but also, obviously, speaking with an advisor about it and here she could guide you through that process would make more sense.

0:10:38 - Speaker 3
Yeah, see it sounded scary rebalance your portfolio, but then there's a little checkbox, you know, in some cases. So that's pretty darn easy.

0:10:45 - Speaker 4
I think the theme of a lot of our resolutions is it sounds a lot more intimidating than it is. Once you do it or think about it, it's not so bad.

0:10:53 - Speaker 3
Isn't that kind of the case in general with financial stuff? You know, in our country for sure you know you and I have talked about it on the podcast before we don't do a great job of financial education, even all the way back when you and I were in high school. You know all the way back. I don't want to date ourselves too much, but still we just don't do a great job at it. And sometimes it does seem more daunting and it's often fairly easy to accomplish a lot of these things. And again, if you don't know how or you just don't want to deal with it, that is one of the fantastic benefits of working with a financial professional is they can help you with a lot of this stuff, like number 20, planning out the transition strategy into retirement. Now, this definitely sounds like it's going to be a bit more complicated, but what I'm talking about, sherry, is like do you want to work when you retire because you don't want to be bored, right? Do you want to go part time? Do you want to go cold turkey? What?

0:11:39 - Speaker 4
Yeah, it's. Covid has certainly brought the idea of working remotely and virtually really to the forefront. So I'm actually seeing a lot of clients now, when they're retiring or thinking about retiring, saying, hey, I can work for my company part time, or they bring the person on as a consultant and do something to keep busy and you can still have the flexibility. You're not going to the office every day. So retiring today and in the future, I think, is going to look very different than what it did 20 years ago, because working can still be part of the retirement plan and again, it may sound more intimidating than what it really is. But having a plan to transition into retirement is very important, having thinking about some of the obstacles you may face, or having that plan of what am I going to do for work, what am I going to do for fun, what am I going to do every day yeah, it is so important when planning for retirement. So not just financially, emotionally and what you're going to do with your time.

0:12:47 - Speaker 3
Yeah, maybe that's why part time could be on the docket for you. Maybe it's not a financial need to continue to work, it's more of just, you know, kind of getting more comfortable with the idea, right, it's like, well, I'm going to be bored or I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I need the structure, whatever that looks like. So maybe you go part time first when you first hit that retirement age and then after a little while you're like, yeah, I could do this. You know, now I'm going to totally just be retired. So lots of little ways to think about if it's best for you. And some folks are like, nope, I'm out of here, I'm going cold turkey.

0:13:17 - Speaker 4
Absolutely. That's great too, that's fine too.

0:13:20 - Speaker 3
So get that strategy into that transition together. And again, sometimes it's just a simple conversation for that Number 21,. Consolidation of accounts. Like there's a lot of folks out there who have multiple things and they're just. You just kind of clean up the junk a little bit there.

0:13:33 - Speaker 4
This is a big one, and I think that everyone can benefit from just consolidating accounts, one for your inbox or your mailbox purposes. All those statements and notifications that you get from all of these different companies can be overwhelming. So consolidating accounts can make your life a lot easier, just to reduce the communications that you receive. But then it can help you investment-wise, because just because your money is in different places doesn't mean it's allocated any differently, and I think that's very important for people to understand. Sometimes the mentality is well, I'm going to have it all over, so then I'm. That's how I'm diversifying. But if company A isn't talking to company B, so they don't know if there's an overlap in the investments.

So by consolidating could actually make you more diversified than what you are now, and then you only have to go to one or two places for your statements and your notifications, versus 10.

0:14:33 - Speaker 3
Yep, exactly. And jumping back to number 11, where we said get organized. And you got that financial junk drawer with stuff in it. It helps clean that up too right, because you have less statements and things, just clogging it all up. So that is 21 of the 22, and 22 is pretty darn easy. So if you don't do anything else, folks do number 22. And that is simply listen to more episodes from Sherry here on Money Chic so that you can our podcast, so that you can continue to hopefully get some good, useful tidbits and little bits of information, nuggets of information, to help you along the way as you are dealing with money. It's a big factor, obviously. It's a huge factor in our life. So that's why we do the show and that's why Sherry tries to share some of her wisdom. So don't forget to subscribe to us here on Money Chic Women in Retirement. But I think it's a pretty easy one, don't you?

0:15:17 - Speaker 4
Yeah, I think this is easy and I think we make it fun. People I heard a statistic that people would rather go to the dentist than meet with the financial advisor. So, hopefully we'll make these resolutions fun and it's a shameless plug, but I hope that you enjoy these resolutions and can implement some of them into 2022.

0:15:40 - Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely Shameless plugs. That's okay. Nothing wrong with that. Speaking of, let me go ahead and give another one or two. Go by the website greenwaywealthadvisorycom that's greenwaywealthadvisorycom and check out another little report. Let us request report, whatever it might be. Whatever you want to call it, sherry, I'll let you tell us, but it's unlock your money blocks. Tell me about that.

0:16:00 - Speaker 4
It's a guide For women. Women have money blocks and this guide will help to unlock them. So empower you when it comes to your finances. Some steps to take. So when you swing by the website, you can get that free guide Fantastic.

0:16:18 - Speaker 3
There you go. So go to greenwaywealthadvisorycom that's greenwaywealthadvisorycom and unlock your money blocks. You'll see the link for that and you can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple, google, spotify and check out past episodes. By subscribing you'll get future episodes, which was our 22 resolution to listen to more episodes of the podcast. So lots of good information. You can find it all at greenwaywealthadvisorycom. That is greenwaywealthadvisorycom. Sherry, thanks for hanging out. Have a great holiday. Look forward to talking with you more in 22, which is wild.

0:16:51 - Speaker 4
Is he happy new year?

0:16:53 - Speaker 3
Absolutely Happy new year, folks. We'll see you next time here on Money, Chic Women and Retirement with Sherry Rash.