Hello, Tony Kinsey are here and welcome back to lesson three have lunch on the go. First, a quick recap of what we've talked about so far. In Lesson One, we talked about what I consider the critical secret to a successful retirement, asking key questions of yourself, finding your unique answers, and then using them to develop your strategic goals for retirement. Next was fully understanding the difference between strategic decisions and tactical decisions and why that's important. In lesson two, we covered the first four primary questions to ask, and you've heard my comments, you can now start resolving the issues raised by those questions. So here's Question number five.

How do I identify an advisor I can trust if I decide I need help. I've suggested lunch on the go is for those of you on a limited budget or with lots of time on your hands. Some of you may not want any help and you'll figure it out how to do it by yourself. But for Those of you who get stuck and decide you do need help, how do you find that person? mindful, there are no guarantees. And depending on your level of financial literacy, you may only need an interpreter.

After all, we use jargon and terminology, which for some of you means we might as well be talking Greek with an Australian accent. making good decisions involving your financial future is really important. If you don't have the time or energy to learn economics and finance and the jargon associated with it, how do you overcome this? Here's a word that you may not be familiar with fiduciary by definition of fiduciary is someone bound legally, ethically and morally to act in your best interest at all times? This is someone whose actions on your behalf will be held to what is known as a fiduciary standard. Examples are doctors lawyers, Certified Public Accountants, and some financial advisors.

If you decide to find someone to help you, here are three things To look for one is someone well versed in the language of finance with recognizable credentials to someone whose actions on your behalf are bound by a fiduciary standard. Before you start a working relationship with someone, you should ask this question. Are you bound by a fiduciary standard? If I become your client, their immediate answer should be yes. And three, someone you'll enjoy working with over time. This involves using your God given people skills, skills that you've been developing since you were a child.

Forget about learning to speak the language of money. When you find that person and you're okay with who they are, trust your judgment. Question six. As I plan my retirement, how important our income taxes the IRS will always be your Silent Partner, since it's their job to collect money from us. tax revenue allows the government to pay its bills So yes, taxes are important, especially if you've not saved enough money. If you want to worry free and financially secure retirement, it will help if you have more money when you retire.

This may mean you pay more taxes. But one way to do this is with more money. I'm trying to teach you ways to have more money resulting from you making better financial decisions along the way. A famous judge by the name of Billings Learned Hand once said, anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible. He is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.

In this context, you also need to remember there's a huge distinction between avoiding taxes and evading taxes. The IRS is not going to actively promote any idea that might result in US paying less. It's up to each of us to feel Figure out how to do that and stay out of trouble. There are several ways to do this and pay less taxes as money is earned. It's done with an understanding that when you retire or reach a certain age, you then pay the taxes on the income you deferred. There are numerous IRS code sections, excuse me, that allow you to set aside current income and deferred income taxes.

You may already know about IRAs, 401, K's 403, B's and 457. And there are more in the money business. These are what we call qualified accounts as distinguished from non qualified accounts. The word qualified means the IRS has qualified them for tax deferral. In contrast with qualified accounts, non qualified accounts hold money that was taxed when it was earned. A writer I know has identified 14 different types of accounts, whose tax deferral advantages range from 100% on down.

I've published an ebook called your future retirement. There are several useful ideas including one in chapter five, which is intended for successful small business owners. It describes a technique that, if implemented properly, will result in more retirement income. It can be found@smashwords.com get your free copy and use this code ewz 33 F. Question seven. How important are social security benefits to my retirement success? I have no idea how you plan to answer this question.

But for many millions of us Social Security benefits are critical to our economic survival. Without them we'd be unable to sustain our current standard of living. Among the first questions I get asked these days is whether Social Security will be there when they retire? My guess is yes, but not without changes to the system every month Over 52 million Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits. For over 30 million it represents about half of what they need every month to stay alive. What would happen to the national economy and society if those benefits shrank or disappeared?

Ways to fix the system are relatively simple, but require a political will to make it happen. My guess is we'll wait until we're within six years of an absolute crisis. It happened that way in 1983, and will probably happen again. And you and I know that we're pretty used to the system as it is today. I've written several blogs on this topic. If you're interested, you can find them at Tony's blog one of the tabs at the top of this website.

Before we leave this question, now may be a good time to share something with you. I have an associate who recently befriended an older woman she met this person appeared at her front door at about 9pm delivering a takeout meal she had ordered. The person turned out to be at five years old, working from 5pm to 11pm. driving around town for bite squad. I cannot imagine why someone that age would be doing this unless she was desperate and needed a way to pay her bills. And now our last question number eight, what age should I plan to apply for Social Security benefits?

This question is similar to question number one in lesson two. When do you want to retire? The Social Security benefits spectrum is complicated. Sooner or later you need to better understand the variables involved. Without that understanding, you may end up paying more income taxes on your benefits than is necessary and having permanently reduced benefits. This could be critical, especially if you leave a spouse behind when you die.

With 96 months to choose from. Once you make your choice, you are effectively rejecting the other 95 There's a huge difference between month one and month 96. This can mean a lot of money. If you're in the 50% that lives beyond life expectancy. I encourage you to register@ssa.gov website. It's user friendly and has lots of good information.

When you get there, look for your earnings history and make sure the numbers are correct. If they're not, your ability to fix errors are limited if you wait too long, there's a lot of jargon associated with a Social Security system. acronyms are everywhere. One of them is F ra or full retirement age. That's when you can first apply for benefits and get 100% of your P i a, your primary insurance amount. So what is your P if your PII A is the average of your highest 35 or I should say 35 highest earnings years up to the point in time when it gets calculated.

Many of us have zero or low earnings. Yours early in life. This effectively lowers the average, which in turn lowers your benefits for the rest of your life. Claiming benefits early often means not only a smaller pie, but subjects you to an early start penalty as much as 30%, which will last for the rest of your life. I'll say it now and I may say it again. If you possibly can, you should wait for your fra before you claim your benefits.

Claiming benefits early often means not only a smaller Paa, but subjects you to an early start penalty of as much as 30%, which will last for the rest of your life. I'll say it now and I may say it again. If you can possibly wait. You should wait until your fra before you claim your benefits. One thing to understand. However, if you claim early and your piaa doesn't change, you'll just get smaller checks for a longer period of time instead of larger checks for a shorter period of time.

That Because all checks will stop when you die. Just remember the part about the 35 highest earnings years, chances are you earned larger amounts in your later years than you did when you were young. If you do earn more now, your pa will probably change upward, making an early claim painful down the road. They're also going to reduce your monthly benefits between age 62 and your F Ra. If your earnings are above a certain amount, you won't lose it forever, but it won't make you happy. Only when you reach your fr a Can you earn any amount and not have your benefits reduced.

Another reason to wait. Another downside to taking benefits early is if you have a surviving spouse whose earnings were less than yours. Taking early benefits may commit them to smaller survivor benefits, something they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives. Unless you expect to die before age 80 or 81. It's in your best in To try and wait until you're fra before you claim your benefits. With the eight critical questions now in hand, your next step is to put the answer puzzle together and develop a strategic plan to follow.

Each question answered will likely result in more questions. I encourage you to avoid getting caught up in paralysis by analysis. A bad answer is better than no answer. Once you define your strategic goals, you're now free to make tactical decisions to increase your chances of a worry free and financially secure retirement. For those of you who want to dig deeper into this process, I invite you to explore the sit down meal course. Right now it has 18 video lessons that take about two and a half hours from start to finish.

I hope lunch on the go has met your expectations. Don't forget to download everything for future reference and from time to time visit the resource vault. Thank you and please stay in touch