[00:00:00] Speaker A: Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: You're tuned in to the Retirement Planning Pipeline, the show that helps you take control of your financial future. Whether you're five years from retirement or just getting started, we've got the strategies, tools and experience to help make the most of your nest egg. Retirement planning specialists David Pipes and Steve Zarek are two trusted voices in retirement planning with over 30 years of combined experience helping hard working Americans navigate 401k rollovers, income planning, tax strategies and everything in between.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Thanks for joining us. I am David Pipes and if you're wondering how to get yourself on the right track for retirement or how to turn your savings into steady income, you're in the right place.
[00:00:58] Speaker D: And I'm Steve Zarek. Each week we break down the complex world of retirement in plain English, no jargon, just smart strategies to help you retire with confidence.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Now let's dive into today's show and start paving the way to your smooth retirement. Here are your hosts, David Pipes and Steve Zarek.
[00:01:16] Speaker E: Hi everybody. Welcome to this week's edition of the Retirement Planning Pipeline, the show that delivers expert insights, actionable advice and real world financial strategies help you retire confidently and comfortably. Thank you for making our show a part of your weekend. We do appreciate that. I'm Jim Karaboki alongside retirement planning specialists David Pipes and Steve Zarick. Those guys are coming right up. Protect, Grow, Prepare Smart money moves for 2025 strategies to maximize returns, preserve wealth and navigate key 2025 deadlines. Today's show consists of money, growth and alternatives.
Real rate of returns and let's not miss that 2025 healthcare deadline. All of that and more. But before we get things started, I want to encourage our listeners to go ahead and schedule that 100 complimentary consultation with retirement planning specialists David Pipes and Steve Zarek today. It's free offering just for listening to this show. Our listeners can meet with those guys to review their own financial situation for your family or even for your business. And there's absolutely no obligation. Visit retirementplanningpipeline.com for more information.
Let's jump right in with something that's on a lot of people's minds. Certificates of deposit, CDs and what to do when your CD money is coming due. In a falling rate world, a lot of listeners guys have CDs maturing within the next few months. So what should people be thinking about before they just automatically renew?
[00:02:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, number one, Jim, you don't want to renew, right?
When, when rates are dropping as fast as they are, which they're going to continue to drop. You know, there's a lot of better alternatives out there. And I think that, you know, one thing is CD rates, and we're going to go over a little bit later. But again, look at your average rate of return, too. And, and what these CDs are doing, banks are creating these, these, you know, certificate of deposits to really entice people to get a certain percentage. But what's that, what that's doing is locking up, you know, the person's money for that amount of time to see what they, what, what other options they can actually do, you know, and, and on the same side of things. Right. I'm not a big fan of CDs anyways. I, I believe banks are, you know, for specifically loaning out money. You know, I, I, I just, I'm not a big fan, Steve. I know, you know, a lot of the times we look at interest rates compared to each side of things, but on, on, on our spectrum, when we look, when we talk to a client, I guess we're a little bit biased because we know all the rates out there and we know how good of return they can get elsewhere. Right. With us. But what do you think the main reason why people are continuing to buy these things?
[00:03:52] Speaker D: Well, I think you're seeing, you know, some market volatility right now. So you're getting some, some investors in retirement that are a little bit nervous about the market.
You know, they had this wealth built up. You know, they're thinking, hey, I mean, you and I met a client the other day. He's talking about, we're going to go back to 2008. And we got in a conversation with them about that. So I think some of the people that are scared of the market right now are maybe repositioning into, you know, these CDs for security.
The problem is if you look at the interest rates and what's going on with the interest rate environment and with these CDs, you know, I think CDs have a small purpose. And, you know, if somebody needs to park money for three months or something and maybe they're going to purchase a car at the end of the year and they want to park it for nine months and that's earmarked for something, they can get a little bit better interest Rate, when that may be really the only reason people would buy CDs if you're using it in retirement. I think there's definitely other alternatives which we're going to talk about, especially going to the next segment of this show.
But one of the things I want to point out, when you look at these interest rates, and I've been doing a lot of conversations with clients lately, you know, the average rate is around 3.7, 3.8, you know, and, and I was looking and you know, you may be able to get a six month cd. And I think it's what the listeners have to understand is that's apy annual percentage rate. So if they're getting, let's just say they're getting 4% of the bank and they're guaranteeing it for six months, they're not getting 4% for the year because in six months the interest rates may go down again. Now they may be renewing. Instead of four, they're getting three. So really that apy, you know, that was what. That would be a three and a half apy, not four. So I think when we sit down with them, one of the things we do is we analyze the whole picture and is this, retirement funds and why are we going to CDs if it's for security, there's other alternatives and we, again, we're going to talk about that in a little bit. If it's the fact that they're maybe uncertain about the market, you know, there may be alternatives to that. But I think when they're shopping interest rates, there's so much more out there than just going to a bank. And I think that's what you're alluding to.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: Well, yeah, I mean, and, and it's tough because if you're out there and you have CDs, we're not beating on you, I promise. You know, and we don't want to beat on you. You know, I mean, we've got so many clients that have, that have had these issues, but CDs are not the way to go. They're just not. I mean, and then I know that a lot of times people think, well, okay, I'm just going to put my money here and get a fixed rate. There are so many alternatives out there rather than a CD to, to average a fixed rate more than just extend a cd.
[00:06:25] Speaker D: The other thing that I think hurts clients in retirement with CDs is that that money's taxable and a lot of our clients we run into have money in CDs and they're like, well, what are you doing with that? My. I'm just letting it go. And we roll them over and we let them go and we roll them over. And I'm like, well, what's the goal? I just want to keep it safe and get the highest interest rate I can. And they're not even looking at some of the tax implications because, you know, I look at, you know, a 4% interest rate, you know, somebody in a 22% bracket, they're barely netting over 3%, you know, and if you do the math with that, it would take what, you know, the rule of 72 would take them 24 years to double their money. I mean, that's. That's ridiculous.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: It's not keeping up with anything, Steve. And I think, well, and. And, you know, we don't want to get. I don't want to get too nerdy on here, right? Because we. I mean, that's. That's one thing. When we pull out the whiteboard for clients, it's pretty easy, right? We had that CD client about a year ago that we sat down, they had about a million dollars in CDs. And we sat down and showed them. I mean, the. We got them out with what they actually had a penalty for, right? So they got out on a penalty, had a fixed rate with us, and still ended up making more than they would have if they would have. If they would actually kept the cd.
[00:07:34] Speaker D: And I believe I know who you're talking about now. That client was paying a ton of taxes because they were trying to wind down their business. So they were selling off assets, they were selling off properties.
Their tax bracket was huge.
And it just ate up a lot of those gains in CDs. And we did. I mean, that was amazing job we did for them. And now that they're getting close. That was a couple years ago. Now that they're getting close to selling all those assets, they can start pulling money out while it grew. You know, we put it right.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: Right now we're getting in the new year.
[00:08:04] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Their income's down.
[00:08:05] Speaker D: We can start planning for less taxable money coming out of these investments. And I think that makes it. You always say beat the system, David. I love that term you say, right. And, you know, CDs don't beat the system.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: You know, there's a reason why banks offer CDs. Okay? It's because they could pretty. That's pretty much the only thing they can offer in that world, right? I mean, they have a checking and savings account. You get. Get a small amount. But the whole point of that is to give you an interest rate and then loan it out for double and then make double the money on you. So people always ask, you're like, well, how do people make their money? I don't want somebody else making money off me. I mean the bank makes the most money out of anyone on, on, on you. I mean, you know, they're loaning, loaning your money out for 7 to 9% and they're giving you 3.8. It's just, it's a, it's an easy fix.
[00:08:47] Speaker D: Let's talk, let's, let me touch something on that, David, because one of the things I think that comes up and, and I think the fear, and I don't know if people are trained properly in some of the banks we've been dealing with locally in Pensacola. But you know, they're, they're, they kind of put the fear in. Oh, you're going to have this huge penalty. And, and you know, I know all banks are different, but majority of the banks out there, it's an interest penalty.
[00:09:08] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:09:08] Speaker D: And I think that people, if they're looking at repositioning assets, you know, with the environment of the interest rates in the market, the way the interest rates are changing and trending downward, sometimes it may be behoove them in their financial profile to take a surrender on a new, on a CD.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: 99 of the time though, Steve. I mean I wouldn't even say sometimes I'd say with the rates that the CDs are giving.
[00:09:32] Speaker D: Right.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: Unless you're, unless you're now, unless you're a month away, et cetera, which month from wealth eating.
[00:09:39] Speaker D: That's a good point. But I think what people understand, it's an interest rate penalty. So let's say somebody's in a year, they have a one year CD and they're nine months into it. And let's just say it was $100,000 they're getting, you know, I don't know what 4% then that 100,000 for the nine months has earned them $3,000. They're going to lose $1,000 if they cash out early.
[00:10:00] Speaker E: Let me ask you guys a question. We saw incredible CD rates over the last year, but renewal rates seem to be dropping. How big of a problem is this for savers?
[00:10:10] Speaker C: Well, I mean it's, you're, you hit it on that. We already hit it on the head. I mean it's not a problem, it's just a switch up. Right. Everybody has to change a way of, of life Everybody has to change according to the economy. You know, whether the economy's up, whether the economy's down, whether certain, you know, certain things are changing with our, with our markets. So you have to kind of adjust, right? And that's where we come in. I think that that's why we're so important and why clients really appreciate us is because we're adjusting for them. Right. I mean, every year we're adjusting where, where, where the market is, right. If we have clients in certain funds or in certain index funds, we, we, we, we just did it with a client, right? We, we got them a great return. I think it was like 11 or 12%. Now we're repositioning some in that fixed rate, right? And the fixed rate's still pretty high, and that's where planning accordingly. Right. Everything has to change.
Right. So I think that going into a CD now is even way. Well, obviously way worse than it used to be. Right. But you just shouldn't do it. I mean, we, we can literally have so many alternatives that are there.
[00:11:16] Speaker E: So.
[00:11:16] Speaker D: And you're going to get the depreciation of the dollar, because if interest, you know, inflation's running almost 3% right now. So if somebody's going in to a CD barely making a little bit more than 3% and then they're paying tax on that gain, they're actually losing money in that cd. You know, I heard a long time ago we called CD certificate of depreciation. Yeah, I think we're getting close. You know, Jim brings up the question, you know, the comment about interest rates going down, how that's going to affect the retirees. It's, it's going to be a big impression on their retirement funds.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Well, and period. I mean, even back then when CD money was great, when CD funds were great, that just means that other alternatives were better, too. So I just. On, on, on our end, I don't care whether it was when CD rates were 5 or when CD rates are now 3.8, they still weren't the best in the market. And, and that's what people have to understand is, is when you meet someone like us, right? And, and anybody who's out there, listen, you've got to sit down and realize the entire market, the entire private marketplace, what's there, what's to offer? And that's what we do. That's what our company gives us to offer. We're able to offer almost every company in the whole entire state. So that's where it really matters. Depends on the client's goals and for the client's benefit, not just for the companies.
[00:12:32] Speaker E: Yeah. And if your CD matures within the next six months, now's the time to plan ahead, not the day that it expires. Later on, we'll discuss the real rates of return as well. But coming up next, MyGas and fixed indexed annuities. This is the Retirement Planning Pipeline. Back in just a moment.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Visit Retirement Planning Pipeline to schedule your free, no obligation complimentary consultation today. The Retirement Planning Pipeline will return in just a moment.
Welcome back to the Retirement Planning Pipeline. Here are your hosts, David Pipes and Steve Zarek.
[00:13:19] Speaker E: Welcome back to the Retirement Planning Pipeline. Thank you for making our show a part of your Saturday wherever and however you may be listening. 8am every Saturday, right here. Thank you very much again for tuning in as we dive back into today's show. Reminder, if you like the content we're providing, subscribe to the YouTube page YouTube.com and search Retirement Planning Pipeline for weekly video highlights and special content. Protect, Grow, Prepare. Smart money moves for 2025. Strategies to maximize returns, preserve wealth and navigate key 2025 deadlines. Coming up, the real rate of returns. Let's dive deeper though, into two powerful tools we mentioned earlier, MAGAs, multi year guaranteed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. Both can serve as bond alternatives in a retirement portfolio. MAGAs can be incredibly straightforward, great for people who want predictability without giving up yield. So guys, give me some benefits into why using a multi year guaranteed annuity or even a fixed indexed annuity could be beneficial for a retirement portfolio.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: Well, I mean there's, there's so many, there's so many advantages, especially you know, correlating with the first segment, right, Jim, the CDs, I mean they, the, the mygas. Right. The multi year guarantees work just like them. Okay.
And the best thing about it is you can actually have them for longer periods of time. So you don't have to worry about your CD given up at six months or 12 months. Right? You've got three, five, seven year, you know, mygas. And the other thing is, I think right now, Steve, correct me if I'm wrong, what, we've got a 5 point 75% tax deferred. Is that what we have going on?
[00:14:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I think they're upwards of 5.8 right now, tax deferred for 5, you know, for longer periods.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: So it's absolutely insane. And I mean, you don't pay taxes on it until you take it out, right?
[00:15:02] Speaker D: Well, the other, the other thing people don't realize too, I think with these Mygas, these multi year guarantee annuities, they have a lot of flexibility. I mean you can pull out interest, you can plot income, you can, they have waivers if you get sick and go to nursing homes. So I think using as an alternative, especially comparing it to what we just talked about with the CDs, you know, you're obviously going to get a higher rate of return.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: I mean you're 5.75, Steve. That's a whole two B2 basis points.
That's huge, man.
[00:15:27] Speaker D: And if you don't need the money, it's tax deferred.
[00:15:29] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean that's, Yeah.
[00:15:32] Speaker D: I think what we talked about with that one client you and I were helping, you know, somebody says, well, you're going to pay tax on it sometime. I'm like, well, triple compound. So you're making interest on the money you would have paid tax on.
[00:15:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:43] Speaker D: And here's the neat thing. You can do a 1035 exchange later on down the road to a different vehicle without paying tax and then turn it into income for life.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: And it's. And I mean that's right there. If you were listening to the first segment, that's exactly why CDs are a no brainer and not there's not an option. Okay.
These, these other products that work the same dang way are just better. They're just better. They give you more return, they're able to bump your interest up, they're able to give you that guaranteed growth. You're not invested in a bank, which is even better. Right. Because you don't have to worry about them loaning out your money. Right. These companies are actually invested in general strong rated companies. Right.
It's just a. No, it's just a no brainer. You get a fixed rate, that's better, you get to compound. Right. You get to use the IRS as money to make more money. Just like you're.
[00:16:35] Speaker D: Let me ask you a question because this comes up quite a bit. Well, how.
You know, and I guess I can answer it or talk about it, you know, when they talk about security and safety, I knew obviously you have to use a high rated insurance company because it's ultimately the stability of your insurance company that you're going into these mygas. But I think people forget to understand that there's not only is it the company you're going with, it's the reinsurance that company has on your investment. And then also there's some state guarantees that work in, depending on what state you live in that could back it if the, if the company got into trouble. So these are relatively safe investments, just like they are with CDs. You're just getting a better rate of return.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, I mean, you're not, it's not any different.
It's actually longer, longer terms too. And your better rate.
[00:17:18] Speaker D: It's.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: Steve, it's a no brainer. And if you're hearing out there like we just Talked about with CDs, you shouldn't be in them. I mean, they're just, no, there's better alternatives. They're out there.
And then let's go into the FIA world too. Steve.
[00:17:33] Speaker D: Well, that's, yeah, I was going to bring that up because there, there is a fixed rate inside of fia. And why don't you tell some listeners what you've been doing?
[00:17:39] Speaker C: I mean, one of my, one of my, probably one of my biggest products right now, I think it's the best in the country, to be honest with you.
I've probably written what, five to seven million dollars just in the past six months on this company.
But you know, and we don't say companies here, obviously, because we work for a lot of carriers. Okay. So it just depends on what's best for the client at that time.
[00:18:00] Speaker D: Right.
[00:18:00] Speaker C: Or at that need. Right.
[00:18:02] Speaker D: Or what's offered at that time too.
[00:18:03] Speaker C: Right, exactly. There's, there's different points. Right. But we're looking for the best for the client, we're not looking for the company.
So on, on, on, on that part, there's a fixed rate that's actually 5.15%. Right. For when this fix the next annuity. So if a client didn't want to go in the market or anything for the first year and they wanted to keep those caps. Right, because I think the cap rates like 10.75, you have a S&P 500 cap of 10.75 each year and you can capitalize on those earnings and not lose them.
[00:18:33] Speaker D: How would that, how would that help a client? So a client says, well, I'm nervous about the market.
And you're telling me I, I have a cap of 10.75 and then I can get 5.15. What does that mean to the client?
[00:18:44] Speaker C: So if Martin goes down, we can reallocate every year. And this is where the planning aspect comes in, where you can actually have every single year to be able to transition your money depending on where the market is or where, where the economy's at. Steve, that's something that people miss out on is the ability to be versatile. Okay. Sometimes they get Locked up in something and they can't go in anything else. Right? That's what we try to stray away from. We really try to help the client and be able to transition things right to where we can best suit for the best interest rate or best rate of return for the client every single year. Right? So the first year, right now we've got. I mean, I know there's a fixed rate of 5.15 on one of the fixed index sides, but I have the ability next year, after I make that 5.15, to put all the funds into different allocations, into the s and P500, or if I wanted to split it up 50, 50, and go half in the S and P and half in the. But if the market goes down, you can't lose the earnings that you've already gained. So that 5.15 that you already gained, Steve, you can't lose.
Right. I think people miss out on that. Market goes up if. If you put your money in the SB 500 ETF, okay, and it goes up 20%, but it goes down 20% at that next year, you're lower than square one, right? You go up 20%, you're $120,000. You go down 20%, okay? You're actually different now, okay? It's actually $96,000, right. So it's not a hundred grand, because obviously it went down. But even if you went back to square one again, you're still at a hundred grand over those two years, in a fixed index annuity, you would have gained the 10.75. And then when it went down, you would have kept your actual returns, so you would have stayed up 10.75.
[00:20:21] Speaker D: Think about that in retirement. You have people out there right now a little worried about the market, worried about interest rates. You know, they're talking about interest rates dropping over the next year. So.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: Right.
[00:20:29] Speaker D: People are bouncing from CD to cd. That's just. That's a losing strategy. And we have alternatives out there. If they sit down and meet with us, we can show them, you know, hey, look, you want security, you want safety, and you want good returns that's beaten inflation. We can give that to you.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: You know, I mean, we need to. You need to understand what's out there. First of all, even if you don't do business with us, which is, I mean, obviously entirely your choice, we're pretty cool people. When you sit down with us, I mean, you know, normally it's. We just find out what your goals are. And then if you don't want It, I mean, you know, whatever. But 99 of the time you see the math and you see, you know what's better out there for, for you, right? I mean, whether you're getting a CD or whether you're getting a money market or, or a fixed income account in, in, in your stock market, whatever it is, the alternatives out there, if you shop the entire private marketplace, are better than what you have. You just have to look. And I think sometimes people don't want to give themselves the chance to look, Steve. They want to go, oh, well, I'm okay. If, you know what? If you want a 4% and you could have gets 5.75, you go ahead.
I don't know how to help you. Right? I mean, it's just that simple. You need to be looking at these things, understand what you can do, but also have versatility with your money. Be able to take money out, be able to use it when you want to for trips. If you make a good rate of return in a year and you make 10.75, be able to take those earnings out and go on a nice trip for yourself. But the next year, you can't lose any of your principal because if the market drops, you're fine.
[00:21:57] Speaker D: It's funny you say that because, you know, there is a company, again, we don't talk a lot of companies on these shows, but, you know, getting into these index annuities and mygas and helping people in retirement. There's a company out there that gives a 10% premium bonus to the contract and allows the client to take it out after 30 days.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: That's huge.
[00:22:14] Speaker D: So think about somebody puts a hundred thousand there, the company gives them 10,000, and 30 days later they can pull up the 10,000, still have the hundred thousand in there.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: We had a client last August, Steve, that put in a million bucks out of his 401k and made a hundred grand first, right? Gave him a 10 bonus. He took his hundred thousand dollars out in 30 days. Steve paid 22 taxes on it and had 88 grand given to him. And on top of that, he returned 6% this year. Yeah, I mean, what.
You don't get that anywhere else, Steve, you know, without risk of the market, I mean, people don't understand what you can do out there with these, with the fixed side and then the index side without risks the market. But being able to really maximize your rate of growth. I mean, that's, that's the biggest thing, right?
[00:22:59] Speaker D: One of the things we try to do on here is try to keep things in plain language and keep it simple. And I think so many people get so confused and complicated. They just, you know, maybe put their head in the sand and say, hey, I don't want to deal with this. But there are alternatives. We're going to sit down with them, try to make it easy to understand.
You know, the, the biggest thing is we're trying to maximize the returns or whatever their goal is. If it's income, if it's a return, maybe they're more conservative and really conservative, just like CDs. We can improve it with a, with a Myga. I mean I know we looked up, I mean there's two year MyGas paying over 5% right now.
[00:23:28] Speaker C: Right. The worst case scenario is we can help you with your fixed rate. Right. I mean if you don't want anything else, we can help you with your fixed rate. And if that means anything in the world, I'm, I'm just telling you you've got to shop and personally. Right. That's why I love who we are, Steve, is because we get the ability to have every company and to be able to shop these companies and get the best for the client in that certain time.
[00:23:52] Speaker E: Yeah. And a quick reminder our listeners, they can start working with both David and Steve today. Both guys are here to discuss your income goals vision for retirement. They'll take a look at your current income plan and portfolio of assets, walk you through their recommended plan and answer as many questions as you may have about retirement. No question's a bad question. They're here to answer any question that you may have. So reach out. Get started with your own assessment today. Just go to retirementplanningpipeline.com or call 850-424-8977. That phone number again. 850-424-8977 again. That free no obligation consultation. It's right there for the taking. This is the retirement planning pipeline, helping.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: You take control of your financial future.
This is the retirement planning pipeline.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Do you have a vision for what you want your retirement to look like? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amerilife.
Planning for retirement can be overwhelming. A survey from Go Banking Rates shows that one third of Americans don't think they know enough about retirement. And they're probably right.
So if you fall into that category, how do you know where to begin? Well, you've got to know where you want to go before you start planning how to get there. That's where having a smart vision for your retirement comes in.
Whether you want to be a jet setter during your retirement years?
Want to take it easy in a quiet cabin in the woods or start a new adventure by opening your own business? You should set that goal and keep it in mind throughout your working years. Retirement expert Dean Wagenspack said during a recent TED Talk, I want to challenge.
[00:25:33] Speaker D: All of us to redefine retirement away from depart remove withdrawal to a new definition, a blending of pay, passion and purpose.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Still, retirement looks different for everyone. Sit down with your spouse and talk about your retirement goals. That will make it easier to determine how fiscally responsible you need to be now and how much income you'll need to make it happen after you retire. That's right, I said income. More and more retirees are finding that cash flow is more important than one big nest egg number.
[00:26:07] Speaker D: That's when you want to say, hey.
[00:26:08] Speaker C: Listen, I want to start thinking about.
[00:26:10] Speaker D: All of this accumulation that I've done through these decades of working.
How do I begin to think about turning what I've saved and what I've.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: Accumulated into paychecks after I retire?
[00:26:20] Speaker A: That's Lee Baker, president of Apex Financial Services, speaking to cnbc. He says annuities are a great option for most retirees to generate an income you can never outlive. That's especially important since life expectancy has grown over the years, so you'll need to plan for a longer period of time than you may think.
So do you have a smart vision for your retirement years? That's a key question to consider as you start planning how to get there. With the Retirement Radio Network powered by AMERILIFE, I'm Matt McClure.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Planning for retirement doesn't have to be overwhelming. Get expert insights, tools and personalized strategies to secure your future. Visit retirementplanningpipeline.com today. Your retirement, your plan, your peace of mind.
[00:27:07] Speaker E: This is the retirement planning pipeline. If you've missed any part of today's show or want to go back and listen to previous episodes, go ahead and subscribe. Listen to the program and pop podcast form Apple, Spotify, or whichever podcast platform of your choosing. All right, stay with us because coming up, we're going to dissect how rate of return is essential for your retirement portfolio. But before we move on, let's present this week's Quote of the Week.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: And now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the Quote of the Week.
[00:27:42] Speaker E: And our Quote of the Week comes to us from author David Bach. David says, quote, Social Security was never intended to be a retirement plan. At most, it was designed to Provide an income supplement. And again, our thanks to David Bach for providing us with this week's financial wisdom quote of the week. By the way, Social Security Optimization. Any questions or you want some analysis done? Reach out to David and Steve now at Retirement Planning Pipeline.
And as we dive back into today's show, if you like the content we're providing, subscribe to the YouTube page YouTube.com and search Retirement Planning Pipeline for weekly video highlights and special content.
Final Healthcare Prep before the 2025 deadline. Missing a deadline could mean higher premiums, reduced coverage or losing plan options for the entire year. Here are some key elements you should review before that deadline. Prescription coverage changes, doctor and hospital network updates, part D premium increases, Medicare Advantage beneficial changes, benefit changes, and supplement versus Advantage analysis along with long term care gap review as well. If you have any questions about that, reach out to the guys retirementplanningpipeline.com or call 850-424-8977 for your personalized checkup. When it comes to your final healthcare prep, don't miss that date again. It's coming up here at the end of the year. All right, in our last segment, we discussed mygas and fixed indexed annuities. So guys, as far as fixed indexed annuities are concerned, how are FIAs more versatile than CDs or just the plain market overall?
[00:29:17] Speaker C: It's a great question, Jim.
A lot of answers to this. But you know, first of all, for cities, CDs in, in the market give you two sides to things, right? One gives you a fixed ratio, right. Where you can get a fixed rate of return. And one gives you a market rate of return. Right. Or whatever the market, stocks or bonds, whatever your end does. Okay. Well, in the middle, you're able to actually convert both of those together into what's called a fixed index annuity. Right, Steve? And that's, that's kind of a cool thing is you're, you're able to versatile, you're able to be very versatile where you, you can actually do both.
[00:29:55] Speaker D: I was going to use that term. I was going to say get the best of both worlds.
[00:29:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
And being able to do that, right? You can actually play the market, can't you, Steve?
[00:30:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's timing and playing the market is keeping an eye on the economy, keeping an eye on the markets and what they're doing. And you know, every time we meet with a client, you know, we meet them and we talk to them about, hey, here's what we think is going to happen over the next 12 months, nobody knows. We don't have a crystal ball here, but what do you think of this strategy? Maybe we use the fixed rate strategy this year and take the 5.15, let the economy settle out. You know, we know rates are going to be going down. Maybe by the end of next year, market will be back to stabilizing, and we can go into the S P 500, or maybe we do 50, 50. You know, that's the neat thing. Imagine doing 50, 50, put somebody in a 5.15 and put somebody with a cap of 10.75, and they. They hit it on both ends.
That's pretty exciting. Then you're told 70% return. Yeah, that. You know, talking about CDs, you're not going to get anywhere close to that for years.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: With no risk, Steve.
[00:30:57] Speaker F: Right.
[00:30:58] Speaker C: With no risk at all. So that versatility is huge.
And again, if you're out there and you're in and you're. And you're worried, right. You're worried about, oh, well, what's the market going to do? I don't know what to do. You know, is my broker doing this? Right. Or do I have my assets in the right place?
You need to. You need to sit down and meet us. I mean, the bottom line is, is you need to be able to be versatile in each way. Now, is the fixed index annuity great for everyone? No. Right? I mean, no. Now, is it great for most retirees? I'd say yes. Steve, what about you?
[00:31:34] Speaker D: Yeah, it's. I mean, asset allocation. You know, I had a hard conversation the other day with a client when he told me I met him at one of the seminars that we do locally there, and he said, you know, I just put this money with this broker last year, and I think I did pretty well. I made about 9%.
And deep down inside, I'm thinking he got that 9% without the fee. So I didn't want to bring that up because there is a management fee. And you and I had a statement that came in where we put somebody in last year that came in at 12.9 this year with no fee, no risk.
So it's almost, you know, it makes it a tough conversation sometimes saying, well, what was your goal? Well, I just. I'm worried about the market. I want to keep it safe. But I did almost nine, so I think I did pretty good.
I mean, what do you think those come, you know, when you have those talks with people? I mean, it's. They don't.
There's alternatives out there where these Fixed index annuities can plug that. That, you know, he's still worried about the market because he's not, you know, I'm worried about the, well, it's risk.
[00:32:31] Speaker C: To reward ratio, Steve. I mean, you know, and it's as simple as that, man. It's as simple as understanding your risk to reward. If, if, if you're worthy of risking your account value of the downward 20 to 30%, if the market does. Does correct, then, then, okay, I mean, we're, you know, I'm not going to say, hey, look, but if, if you're changing your mind, which you should be in retirement. But by the way, and if you're not, you need to really correct your whole mindset because corrections do happen. I mean, it's a proven history. Okay, now can you time corrections? No, obviously. But now that you're in retirement phase, you don't have the time that you did to accumulate those funds back when you were 25, 30, 35 years old. Right. You're 60, 65, 70 years old. Now it's time to shorten the length and understand, hey, I've accumulated my assets. How do I now take that, right. That, that interest that I've earned and now earn interest on top of. I don't think people understand, Steve, that when you have, you know, a million dollars and then you used to have a hundred grand, a million dollars at 5% is making 10 times more money than you did when you had 100 grand. Right. It takes money to make money. So if you can take that million dollars that you've accumulated over your lifetime and increase, now you're making 50,000, $51,000 on a fixed rate. Shoot, that's people's income every year, right? Right. So to understand that the compounding and the, the interest rate that you're making off your money is more important than just saying, hey, I want to make this interest rate, because you could lose 20% if you have a million bucks. You're down 200 grand. Steve, any retiree should not be risking $200,000 of their. That's just that, that.
[00:34:14] Speaker D: Well, I think, I think you, I think you hit a very important part on the head when you're talking about the people we deal with, you know, and you look at the different options they have in. They've accumulated this wealth, they've had a good run in the market. You know, they've been putting money into, like we talked about in the 401k, they've made this accumulation.
And now either either just new into retirement or get, they're thinking about retiring. What happens if there is a correction of 10 or 15% and they, maybe they saved up 7,000, 800,000 and now they lose 100,000. That's going to change their retirement landscape for the rest of their life.
When they don't have to do that, they can meet with us, we can sit down with them, we can show them these index options and say, hey, let's do some allocation. Maybe we use some of those fixed rates, maybe we use some of the index rates and maybe we stay aggressive on this side.
[00:35:02] Speaker C: Take the, I mean, and if you hear anything from this guys, take the risk out of it. When you've accumulated those funds and you have your assets, if you've got over 500 grand, you need to know how to, you need to know how to use it to make more money, obviously, but you know how to use it to be able to use it for yourself.
Okay. And, and I feel like now, nowadays we've, we've got this financial hurricane coming in where all brokers want to tie into leaving the market. Of course they're going to, you've got, you've got a big firm of wealth. They're going to make a 1, 1% off. 500K is not 1% off of 50 grand. Guys, got this quick story for you, David.
[00:35:37] Speaker D: We, I had one of our advisors, I won't mention his name on here, he works in our office. He came to me and said he met this client over and I think it was Daphne or Fairhope, Alabama. And he said, well, he's with this broker and he, I mean, he didn't have a lot of money. I mean, I say not a lot of money. It's relative to everybody, but, you know, it's 350, 400,000.
And the broker said, well, if you take up the RMDs and we keep investing the way we are, you'll probably have about 8, 7, 800,000 by the time you're 95.
And I'm like, what is he talking about?
Okay. I mean, I just, it was like, we got to meet this client and try to talk to him about what his goals are. Is he looking at trying to keep his money to his 95 and, you know.
[00:36:20] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think people misinterpret what needs to be. I mean, that's exactly what happened to us, Steve. We had half the money of, of a client with 500k and it's fully aggressive. And the rule of ratio is, and you know, in the next 20 years, it should be triple by then, right? So then that, that, that account gets hits 1.5 million, but then the 500ks it was paying him income for that entire time. So now they made times three plus times three. They've literally had six times the amount of either income or growth come in at the same time over that, over those 20 years with a different strategy. Steve, you can't beat it.
You can't beat the system.
You can beat the system by actually really, you know, looking at your money and being able to diversify in the ways that help you. Now, it takes money to make money. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you'll be a millionaire if you have a hundred thousand dollars. That's, that's not, you know, you've got to be transparent with these things. But if you have an amount of assets, you need to sit down and realize what the loss of the dollar, what fees can do to those assets. If you're not plugging money in anymore, again, I'm going to say that one more time. If you are done working or you plan on stop working, you are not plugging money into those investments anymore. It's not happening.
Things have to change. Investments have to change. That's why our business is so important right now. Right? And that's why we help all of our clients. Because that change is the most important change in your entire life. And you need to understand what best benefits your goals as a unique client. It's not going to be the same as everyone else, Steve, and you know that more than anyone in this industry, it's going to be. The main thing is, is what your goals are, okay? Not, not mine, not Steve's, not Jim's, not. Not the Advisor one or Advisor two. It's going to be your goals. And if that those goals aren't being met uniquely, then that needs to be talked about, right? Which sadly is happening 99% of the time out there. Because advisors and corporations don't care about you, okay? They care about your account number and how much money you got in there, to be frank. All right, so. And I mean, I know I get fired up about this, but we do these seminars and people are asking questions and I'm.
If you've got these issues, you need to sit down and meet us, period. Because either you sit down now and take care of it, or you, or you stick your head in the sand like Steve always says, right? And you let it go and all of a sudden you're like one of my other clients that screwed up five years ago and had their advisor almost lose them 80% of their capital. Don't be that person. Get help. Sit down. Understand these things, right?
That's exactly right.
[00:38:55] Speaker E: And if there's anything that we've shared on this week's show that makes sense to you, or you could use some help or you have questions that free, no obligation consultation, it's right there again for the taking. Don't hesitate to give us a call. We do this show to bring important information to people like you and we love meeting our listeners. Visit retirement planningpipeline.com again, retirementplanningpipeline.com or call 850-424-8977. That phone number again, 850-424-8977, for your personalized investment confidence checkup. Stay right there. Coming up next, the number that actually determines whether you're getting ahead financially or slowly falling behind. This is the retirement planning pipeline, 30.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: Years of combined retirement planning experience.
Call David and Steve today at 850-424-8977. The retirement planning Pipeline will be right back.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Missed part of today's show. The Retirement Planning Pipeline is available wherever you get your podcasts and@retirement planningpipeline.com all right.
[00:40:11] Speaker E: Welcome back inside the Retirement Planning Pipeline, the show that delivers expert insights, actionable advice and real world strategies to help you retire confidently and comfortably. Jim Taraboki here alongside retirement planning specialists David Pipes and Steve Zarik. Thank you for making our show part of your weekend on whichever platform of your choosing. Understanding the real rate of return, the number that actually determines whether you're getting ahead financially or slowly falling behind. Most people focus on the nominal returns, like, for example, my CD pays 4% on my portfolio return 7 or my portfolio returns 7% last year, things like that. But the real rate of return adjusts for inflation. So if inflation is 3.5% and your investment earns, say, 4%, your real return is only about 0.5%. So, guys, what are the key dangers when it comes to nominal versus real?
[00:41:04] Speaker D: I think, I mean, I think the perfect example of that is the purchasing power of your, you know, when you talk about people in retirement, you know, there's typically no W2 income on most of our retirees that we talk to. So they're using their assets, their retirement savings to carry them throughout their retirement years. And if their purchasing power is going down every year because they're a CD investor, they're going to go backwards. They're going to cannibalize their accounts. And that's where We've been talking about this whole show of looking at the alternatives, looking at some of these mygas, maybe some of these index annuities, because the other alternatives out there are higher returns nominally, and they beat the inflation rate. So you have purchasing power, your money's still growing.
And if you can be tax efficient with it, you know, and that's a key. If you're not using it, let it triple compound. David likes to use this quite a bit when he talks about, you know, just putting the money aside and you not paying tax on the money you aren't using, how important that is. And you, you want to explain a little bit about that, David?
[00:42:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I think the compounding rate, right, exponentially, when you're, when you're compounding a certain rate, okay, and you're using other people's money to make money, I can't tell you. I mean, it's like people, all these big businessmen that say, oh, I, I take dental and I take debt and then I earn money off my debt, right? Because they're taking someone else's money and they're actually profiting off that money, right? So they don't have to use their own money. Same difference, but with the IRS's money, okay? So if you have a C that comes in at 4%, but you pay. Let's just say it's an average rate of tax rate of 25%. Let's just say that, see, a real rate of return is what, three? Okay? Without even inflation adjusted. We won't even go there. We all know everyone on this show, we can all agree that inflation is going to eat that alive anyways, right? But that 3% rate of return, okay, think about that.
[00:43:01] Speaker D: Those.
[00:43:01] Speaker C: Let's say it's 100. Let's say it's a million dollars, okay? A million dollars. All right? And that 1% that you lost was 10 grand, okay? That 10 grand could be gaining interest for the next five years if you didn't have to pay to the IRS.
So instead of the IRS taking it this year, making money off of it, it's you making money off of it every single year, right? Think about the next year. That's 10 more grand, 20 grand. Over the next five years, you've had $50,000 that you would have paid to the IRS. But what did you do? You use that 50k to make more money. It's the same difference. This concept, I think I come across. And when it, when you talk about mathematically, well, it's a exponential formula, right?
[00:43:44] Speaker D: Well, what's the one thing, David, too touching on that, and I've seen you do this quite a bit with your clients that you're playing with. For those people that haven't taken Social Security.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:43:54] Speaker D: Eligible. And they say, well, I want to wait until I'm full retirement age or I want to wait till the age of 70.
And when you start doing the math, saying, well, what about not only the money you gave up, but the money you could have reinvested during that time? Gave it up.
Right. And I think people don't ever calculate that in when they're looking at their retirement. And, oh, you know, and then you tell them, well, do you realize without even adding in additional investments, let's say you spent it all, it's going to take you 10, 11, 12 years to make it up.
[00:44:22] Speaker C: And now, yeah, 13 years.
[00:44:26] Speaker D: Now you're 82, 83 years old and you got the money back, you know, but you forgot about the money you could have had. You could have reinvested, you could have taken trips. It's all about retirement. It's the go go years. You need the money coming in. You need that real return. You want to keep up with inflation, and that's what we can help with. And how do you think these, you know, these index annuities, I mean, we talk a lot about that on the show, and I know they're very, very popular in retirement.
How can you explain. How can they help keep up with, you know, with inflation, a real rate of return?
[00:44:56] Speaker C: Well, I mean, they can, we can average great rates with these fixed annuities. But I think we're missing one of the important parts, Steve. I think it's the, it's the easy fact of this. Okay. When you're in retirement and you start to use money or. Right. Yeah. You have to. That's what you're planning on. That's what you have. That's what an IRA is for, is Individual Retirement Account. Right. But when I, if a client's making 100k a year. I was talking to a client last night about this. How much of the normal person. Right. Is putting away.
What's the normal amount that they're putting away in their 401k or their Iraq, Steve. Probably around what, 20%?
[00:45:33] Speaker D: Yeah. If you, if you count the match.
[00:45:35] Speaker C: Okay, good. So let's just say about 20 grand a year that you're putting away for retirement. Okay. From your $100,000.
So that's an estimate. $80,000 loss of income when you retire.
$80,000 loss of Income. Okay. Are you Just going to need 20k that you put away every year.
No, no, you're going to need that.
[00:45:57] Speaker D: 80K that you're losing or other investments or your Social Security. I mean, you have to start making it up, right?
[00:46:02] Speaker C: So people don't understand. They're going, well, I can just live up my. No, that's not how it goes. Right? We're a big proponent on spending your money. So if you meet us, trust me, we're going to find a way for you to spend more money. We're going to find a way to maximize your income and to be able to actually use those for yourself. Because I want. Just like my father, okay? I had to talk my father. The day you need to be able to live the best retirement possible. And why is that working?
That's why we care, is because, guess what? You've worked your butts off for it, right? You've accumulated these funds. You've, you've, you've had the long days of work, you know, and then you want to retire, and all of a sudden people want to tell you, or advisors want to tell you, hey, let's figure out a way for you to maximize it and keep it in there and lower your expenditures. No, that's not what retirement's for. Retirement's for you to maximize your income. Okay, well, what you were just saying, Steve, a fixed index annuity has a, has a lot of ways that could actually help out with that. Not with just inflation, but with helping keeping that return rate up to be able to use income plus income riders and other things.
The goal is to not take out 4% of your assets, okay? Or 5% or 6% or whatever it is, okay?
Your, your money's going to end up dwindling down. It's, it's just going to happen, okay? That's how the mathematical terms come, especially when you're taking out a large amount of assets.
But what happens is people that have four, five, six million dollars, okay, and, and above, normally it's a lot easier to take out what they want for income because they've got a large amount of assets. But if you're in the range of 200 grand to 2 million, $3 million, you need our help more than ever, okay? This is where it really gets intricate because people don't want to use the money that they have accumulated, so they want to be able to use both. They don't know how to balance the assets, Steve. Right, we see. That's good a lot.
[00:47:57] Speaker D: I think we've seen a lot of that. And you picked a good mark there because you see people that are like almost between a rock and a hard place. Like, I want to spend money, but I don't want to run out. I want to keep in the market. So it grows, but I don't want to lose my money.
And maybe I go to CDs now because it's a little bit safer now. It's getting eaten up by inflation. So this is. Those are the kind of people that really need to sit down with us, look at what we can do for them, show them. We'll show them different options. You know, we like our people in retirement to do spend money. We want them to maximize their income. You know, and it's using the assets that they put aside for income and using them for income, not for growth.
[00:48:34] Speaker C: And that's, that's important.
We see so many clients that we meet, and their assets aren't. They're not planned properly. Right. And for their income, and they're taking out money in certain places. Again, one of the biggest problems I'm seeing is that people don't understand how to use their money. And I'm not talking about trips or spending. I'm talking about how to use their retirement funds they put away or they've stashed.
[00:49:00] Speaker D: Let me ask you a quick question. If you think about this, I know we're, we're winding down on the show, and I know we got a lot of good information here, but if you think about this for a second, if you, you're talking to somebody who's taking income off their investments, and let's say it's in the stock market and they're pulling the 4% or whatever, the, the rule is 3.74, whatever they're telling them. And all of a sudden we have a correction and the market goes down 20%.
How does that affect their retirement going forward?
[00:49:26] Speaker C: Well, I mean, Steve, I mean, you're, you're pulling out money when you're in. You're selling low. I mean, that just should tell you right there, market goes down, you're still taking 4% of a million bucks, which is 40 grand. Okay, the 40 grand on 800,000, if it went down 20, minus the 40 grand that you've taken out twice.
Think about that, Steve. That's, that's $280,000 lower. You're at 720. But now, what's that 40 grand of the 720 right now, it's not 4% anymore.
[00:49:56] Speaker D: Almost double.
[00:49:58] Speaker C: It's almost double the percentage of what.
[00:50:00] Speaker D: You have and all of a sudden, their money just imploded. And I'm like, I don't, I don't know what happened. My retirement, you know, Yeah, I took out the 4%, but I forgot to add in. You know what happens if I have a loss on that account?
[00:50:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:10] Speaker D: And that's where we can really help people.
[00:50:13] Speaker C: Don't think you have a plan. My biggest thing is this. Don't think you have a plan to pull out money that you did. Trust me. It's very intricate. Sit down, go over it, make sure it actually adjusts to which way. You have to have different. You have to have different weighted averages on, on certain assets for goals your goals have. Your goals are different on each side. I know a lot of my clients have certain goals for their kids or for their grandkids or whatever they're getting. If they do, if they don't, great, let's spend it. Right. I'm all, I'm all about spending money, but on the other side, too, is learn how to be able to put a certain amount of assets away and what you need the income off of. Okay. What rate of return can I actually have from this or what product or what, what sector can I go in to? Really give me what I need to allocate into that bucket to be able to pay me out on that. On that income. That's super, super important.
[00:51:07] Speaker E: Yeah. And the real return isn't just about beating inflation. It's about keeping your lifestyle intact as well. Inflation is permanent, and your retirement should be protected from it. So let's chat. Get David and Steve a call again, 850-424-8977. That phone number again, 850-424-89 77. Or visit retirement planningpipeline.com and again, if you've missed any part of today's show, don't forget to subscribe to the program in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe to the show on YouTube. Search Retirement Planning Pipeline on YouTube for clips and special content as well. This is the Retirement Planning Pipeline, as always for David Pipes. Steve Zarek. This is Jim Tarabokia. Thank you everybody for listening and have a great rest of your weekend.
[00:51:52] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Retirement Planning Pipeline, the show that helps you take control of your financial future. Whether you're five years from retirement or just getting started. Retirement planning specialists David Pipes and Steve Zimmer. Derek. Have the strategies, tools and experience to help you make the most of your nest egg. Take control of your financial future and get started today by visiting retirement planningpipeline.com and if you missed any part of the show today or want to catch up on past episodes, be sure to subscribe to the retirement planning pipeline wherever you get your podcasts.
Not affiliated with the United States Government, Amerilife agents do not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational and nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of the respective owners. Amerilife assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or the results obtained from the use of this information. Charles David Pipes and Steven Zarek are individually licensed and appointed agents. Learn more at retirementplanningpipeline.com fixed annuities, including.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: Multi year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer. Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company. You may not receive the bonuses if the contract is fully surrendered or if traditional annuitization payments are taken. And if the policy is partially surrendered, it could result in a partial loss of bonuses. Because these are bonus annuities, they may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods, lower caps, higher spreads or other restrictions that are not included in similar annuities that don't offer a bonus feature. I'm speaking with Ryan Burgos. He is the Employment Director, National Employment Director at dav. Also a US Air Force and Army veteran. Ryan thank you first of all for your service, sir. And thank you for taking some time out to join me today. Really appreciate it.
[00:54:20] Speaker F: Of course, thank you for having me.
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem at all. This is something that really is dear to my heart that we're talking about today and that is Hire a Veteran Day, which is this week. It takes place every year, of course, but this is the 10th year of this particular program and it's really important, I think, for us to highlight this not only because of the particular day, but also the Importance of hiring veterans all year round.
So for those not familiar, talk a little bit about the program and hire a veteran day for us.
[00:54:56] Speaker F: So our national employment program began 10 years ago like you said. It's been a decade now. And since our inception, we've had over 1,000 job fairs all across this country to include virtual hiring events, which are outstanding because it's the exact same as in person, except they're there virtually. Employer can see them, you can see the employer. They're still doing on the spot interviews on the spot hiring in some cases.
But our employment program does our best to meet veterans and employers alike right where they are and try to assist them in everything that they need when it comes to finding meaningful employment opportunities.
[00:55:32] Speaker D: Great.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: And I imagine that, you know, during the pandemic years, especially the early pandemic years, you guys probably had to make some, some changes and adjustments and have any of those changes kind of stuck around to the way that this whole operation works?
[00:55:49] Speaker F: I think the biggest change that's kind of happened, employers realized that the value that veterans and spouses bring to the table, those leadership skills, those time management skills, and just the simple fact that veterans are mission driven individuals who want to play their role within your organization so that way they can continue to be providers for their family and so that they can help make your corporation great.
[00:56:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. It really is true. I mean, there are a lot of unique sort of characteristics that veterans and family members bring into everyday situations and particularly the work workplace. What would you tell veterans who might be listening and possibly unsure about how their military experience can translate, you know, from perhaps the battlefield or, you know, somewhere overseas at a military installation or here at home at a military installation, but to the civilian workforce.
[00:56:46] Speaker F: So visit jobs.dav.org let our team help you with that. Let's take some of the issues out of it. So it's not as difficult.
We're fluent in all this kind of stuff.
Team is standing ready to assist veterans with that, with that task of translating their skills. Because I mean, myself, for example, when I was on active duty, I was an ammunition specialist. So essentially I counted bullets for a living. And now here I am 13 years later with Dav and I'm on the other side of the coin and I'm able to assist veterans with that translation.
And you can take pride in the fact that it's veterans helping veterans. We've all been there, we've been on the other side where we're trying to find those employment opportunities. Except DAV now has Simplified it.
We've got a job board on our website with over 240,000 nationwide vacancies. These employers know what you bring to the table and they want that brought to their organization. They know that, that you're, you're mission driven and you're going to make their organization great. So check out the
[email protected] and let us help you.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: Perfect. And so jobs.dav.org, that's the place to go. For more information for, for veterans and spouses potentially who may be looking for opportunities. Also talk about the DAV Patriot Employer program, if you will. So kind of the other side of that coin and how DAV helps employers who are looking to hire veterans.
[00:58:11] Speaker F: Sure. You know, sometimes an employer, I think their heart is all in the right place. Sometimes they just don't know how to do it.
Dav, we're veterans ourselves. We know, we, we know what to do. So on our website, we've got a guide to hiring and retaining veterans with disabilities.
But we also have our patron employer program. We want to recognize companies that go above and beyond when it comes to hiring veterans, retaining those veterans, and also their level of community support.
DAV can assist with their employee resource groups. We will educate them on the different work opportunity tax credits that's out there.
We're here to assist. And with this patron employer program, you get a free digital badge to place on your website. Maybe the veteran doesn't know who your company is, but they know who DAB is and when they see that badge, they know that it's a company that they can go to to find meaningful employment opportunities for a career that they can go with and stay with for a long period of time.
[00:59:08] Speaker A: Very good. Well, Ryan, anything else that you wanted to touch on that we haven't talked about that comes to mind or maybe, you know, just reiterate again, the resources that are out there for veterans who might be listening.
[00:59:20] Speaker F: So for veterans, spouses and employers alike, just visit jobs.dav.org you know, you've got nothing to lose, everything to gain. All you can do is locate all the plethora of resources we have on our website and let us help you. Let us meet you where you are, whether you're a veteran, spouse or employer.
[00:59:37] Speaker E: Perfect.
[00:59:37] Speaker A: Helping those who have helped and fought for us. Thank you so much once again, Ryan Burgos, who is A service disabled U.S. air Force and U.S. army veteran of the Iraq War and also now with dav. Ryan, thank you so much again for your service, but for also taking some time out to join me today. Really do appreciate it.
[00:59:57] Speaker F: Thank you very much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
