Latest / Financial Survival Network / Launch Your Retirement, Bitcoin Investing & Taxes - Ted Thatcher #6210
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I think at this point though, it's pretty hard to
- 0:02Speaker 1: deny the power that bitcoin currently has up until what
- 0:06Speaker 1: the last week and a half, with all the discoveries
- 0:09Speaker 1: we've seen posted about Google achieving in terms of quantum computing,
- 0:15Speaker 1: I think there's a little bit of concern that those
- 0:17Speaker 1: type of computers could crack the code for a bitcoin.
- 0:20Speaker 2: You're listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, where you
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- 0:48Speaker 3: And welcome you are listening to and watching the Financial
- 0:51Speaker 3: Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Luttz. Well Ted Thatcher's
- 0:56Speaker 3: back with us, well known noted financial expert. Ted. You
- 1:02Speaker 3: just released your book, Finally Launch Your Retirement, a financial
- 1:08Speaker 3: planning guide to go from saverer to spender. Well, I
- 1:12Speaker 3: was never a saver, so the transition was easy for me,
- 1:16Speaker 3: and I'm not getting retired.
- 1:18Speaker 1: But so who's this book for. It's a great question.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Carry is always as great to be with you. You know,
- 1:25Speaker 1: I think in today's world, there's a ton of information
- 1:28Speaker 1: available online about what to invest in, how to start,
- 1:32Speaker 1: you know, building up some assets. But the question I
- 1:37Speaker 1: get so often is, hey, like I maybe I've built
- 1:40Speaker 1: up this nest egg. How do I like take that
- 1:44Speaker 1: and replace my paycheck? You know kind of say, hey,
- 1:47Speaker 1: how do I build that golden goose that lays the
- 1:49Speaker 1: golden eggs? And so this book is for that person
- 1:52Speaker 1: who's trying to say, hey, I have some money, now
- 1:56Speaker 1: how do I replace my paycheck? How do I make
- 1:58Speaker 1: sure that I don't have to.
- 1:59Speaker 3: Go back to work anymore? Okay, so you asked, you
- 2:04Speaker 3: asked the question, now answer it, yes, So how do
- 2:08Speaker 3: we do it? Right? Of course?
- 2:09Speaker 1: So the book basically outlines our planning process and basically
- 2:15Speaker 1: everything you need to do to launch your retirement. So
- 2:18Speaker 1: uh there, we basically follow what we call the five
- 2:21Speaker 1: pillar process, and that is first making sure you have
- 2:25Speaker 1: an income plan for your money. You know, basically, like
- 2:27Speaker 1: I said, how much money we're going to need to
- 2:29Speaker 1: replace that paycheck? And you know there's a lot that
- 2:32Speaker 1: goes into that. Right, you got to make sure you
- 2:34Speaker 1: have your Social Security right. You know, a lot of
- 2:36Speaker 1: clients we work with, we'll have like rental property or
- 2:39Speaker 1: a pension, you know, certainly you know stocks, maybe do
- 2:41Speaker 1: it unstocks, things like that. The second pillar is having
- 2:44Speaker 1: an investment strategy, right, just there's a lot that goes
- 2:48Speaker 1: into that, you know, analytically, of course, but what it
- 2:50Speaker 1: boils down to, and I think that sometimes it gets
- 2:52Speaker 1: blost in the weeds, is simply having enough money set
- 2:55Speaker 1: aside for growth and having enough money set aside for income.
- 3:01Speaker 1: Then we get into our third pillar, and that's actually
- 3:04Speaker 1: having a tax strategy for your money. I think a
- 3:07Speaker 1: lot of financial advisors I talked to even honestly, it's
- 3:11Speaker 1: like they would treat this word tax like a four
- 3:13Speaker 1: letter word they can't say. And I really reject that premise.
- 3:18Speaker 1: You know, I think that at least for the vast
- 3:20Speaker 1: majority of retirees, the analytics and the data tell us
- 3:24Speaker 1: that the biggest bill a retiree is going to pay
- 3:27Speaker 1: is their tax bill. And then of course, just to
- 3:30Speaker 1: round it off, I mean, I would tell you very
- 3:32Speaker 1: much that those are primary sort of foundational pillars. Then
- 3:35Speaker 1: we get into what we call advanced planning, you know,
- 3:38Speaker 1: healthcare planning for Medicare and legacy planning. And state planning
- 3:41Speaker 1: those types of things. But not to get too long winded,
- 3:44Speaker 1: that's what the book is about, walking you through all
- 3:46Speaker 1: those different steps to make sure that you're set up
- 3:50Speaker 1: for success in creating that sort of permanent paycheck so
- 3:53Speaker 1: you don't run out of money, which is the other
- 3:54Speaker 1: question we get a lot, all right, so.
- 3:57Speaker 3: What let me ask you, what do you think about
- 4:04Speaker 3: how social Security should play into this?
- 4:07Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think the one question Carrie I get
- 4:11Speaker 1: a lot is especially around Social Security, is hey, is
- 4:13Speaker 1: it going to be there?
- 4:15Speaker 3: Right?
- 4:15Speaker 1: It's underfunded, it, you know, underwater, and so I think
- 4:20Speaker 1: it's created a lot of questions for folks in retirement
- 4:23Speaker 1: or getting close to retirement about whether it's going to
- 4:26Speaker 1: be able to be counted on, and you know, how
- 4:29Speaker 1: does it play into it? You know, for most people,
- 4:31Speaker 1: of course, it's a part of you know, their monthly expenses.
- 4:34Speaker 1: The Social Security Office itself has come out and said
- 4:36Speaker 1: you would expect social Security on average, meaning if you
- 4:40Speaker 1: have an average American family's expenses and wages, et cetera,
- 4:43Speaker 1: that it would maybe count for about a forty percent
- 4:47Speaker 1: or so of your monthly needs. But to kind of
- 4:49Speaker 1: come back to that answer in that question.
- 4:51Speaker 3: The way I think.
- 4:52Speaker 1: About social security tends to be a very i'll say
- 4:55Speaker 1: practical one. And so when I look at Congress red
- 5:00Speaker 1: or blue, I have not seen a real political will
- 5:05Speaker 1: from our congress people to spend less money. And of course,
- 5:13Speaker 1: if faced with the option of i'll say, reducing retirees
- 5:19Speaker 1: social security benefits or simply writing a bigger check, it's
- 5:24Speaker 1: my opinion at this point most congress people would simply
- 5:27Speaker 1: choose to write a bigger check because I just think
- 5:30Speaker 1: the incentives are, unfortunately such that if they did, you know,
- 5:36Speaker 1: vote to be i'll say, for austerity, they would likely
- 5:42Speaker 1: be voted out and maybe replaced by somebody who would
- 5:44Speaker 1: be willing to simply, you know, sign that omnibus bill.
- 5:48Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Well, but Trump is talking a big game here, right, Sure.
- 5:56Speaker 1: The Department of Government Efficiencies are you referring to?
- 5:58Speaker 3: Of course, the dose I hope it's a doge and
- 6:02Speaker 3: not a dog, right, I.
- 6:04Speaker 1: Think so, you know, I think, uh, you know, I
- 6:08Speaker 1: think most people now will look at the government and say, hey,
- 6:11Speaker 1: we're probably spending too much money. And so I think
- 6:14Speaker 1: that the Department of Government Efficient efficiency and the natural
- 6:18Speaker 1: you know, initiative in the name, is the right thing
- 6:21Speaker 1: to prioritize. I think that the the natural I mean
- 6:26Speaker 1: criticism is probably too strong of a word. But there
- 6:28Speaker 1: is a practical, you know side of how deep they
- 6:31Speaker 1: even can cut. And so, you know, what is sort
- 6:35Speaker 1: of required spending and what is discretionary spending comes to
- 6:37Speaker 1: mind really quick, right, and most people would argue, of
- 6:41Speaker 1: course medicare spending and social security spending, even military spending,
- 6:46Speaker 1: those are you know, baked in, and so I think
- 6:49Speaker 1: under I would say, really positive auspices like the DOGE
- 6:56Speaker 1: they could cut a third of the budget and still
- 6:59Speaker 1: they you know, two thirds of our spending is still
- 7:02Speaker 1: considered you know, a non discretionary, and so I do
- 7:05Speaker 1: I'm interested to see how deep they're actually able to go.
- 7:08Speaker 1: I think if I were going to place my bets
- 7:12Speaker 1: on what might be actually some of the most important
- 7:15Speaker 1: work that they do, I think it might be around regulations.
- 7:18Speaker 1: Because I was reading an article in the Wall Street
- 7:20Speaker 1: Journal just about how much the regulatory environment has grown
- 7:26Speaker 1: over the last you know, even just ten years, and
- 7:30Speaker 1: their argument that they were making. The author of the article,
- 7:34Speaker 1: of course, said that if they could basically reduce you know,
- 7:39Speaker 1: the regulatory environment in a substantial way that we could
- 7:43Speaker 1: actually get our GDP up to six percent a year,
- 7:46Speaker 1: which is like rocket fuel when it comes to you know,
- 7:49Speaker 1: economic growth, of course, and that could really have an
- 7:52Speaker 1: effect on, you know, ultimately the financial picture of the US.
- 7:57Speaker 3: The question is will they do it? And Trump say
- 8:00Speaker 3: he's hell bent on it now. And look the military,
- 8:05Speaker 3: you know, we all know we need a strong defense
- 8:07Speaker 3: blah blah blah. But a veritable fortune gets wasted every year,
- 8:17Speaker 3: like forget it, right, I mean we know this, right,
- 8:23Speaker 3: as much as half of it gets wasted. And you know,
- 8:26Speaker 3: corporate now there, Look we've got three hundred and fifty
- 8:30Speaker 3: when i'd look two three years ago billion per year
- 8:33Speaker 3: of corporate welfare. Right, that's just short government money that's
- 8:39Speaker 3: just blown on corporations that don't need it. Right, So
- 8:45Speaker 3: even if there's a lot of blooding and then three
- 8:49Speaker 3: hundred and fifty billion a year of improper payments, and
- 8:52Speaker 3: then like you said, he's not going to touch the
- 8:55Speaker 3: money to the recipients, but the people who were there
- 8:59Speaker 3: who don't show up the work for years and all
- 9:02Speaker 3: the fat there. You know, it's not hard to envision.
- 9:07Speaker 3: And then the corruption, like I said in the military
- 9:12Speaker 3: the spend or right uh you know, the big contractors,
- 9:18Speaker 3: they just put in change orders and they automatically are accepted,
- 9:21Speaker 3: and then the general retires and he goes to work
- 9:24Speaker 3: for fill in the blank, mega defense contractor. But it's
- 9:30Speaker 3: going to be pain here, Like everybody wants somebody else
- 9:34Speaker 3: to take less, but not themselves, right I think.
- 9:39Speaker 1: So, I mean, I do think that I think that
- 9:42Speaker 1: the point you make, especially around the defense is well made,
- 9:45Speaker 1: and I think it's the one that Trump would agree with,
- 9:47Speaker 1: you know, and it doesn't take very far to you know,
- 9:49Speaker 1: you don't have to look very far to see the corruption.
- 9:52Speaker 1: I mean, the amount of money that's been spent in
- 9:55Speaker 1: the Middle East and you know what has been you know,
- 9:57Speaker 1: branded as forever wars. Uh is deserves I think all
- 10:02Speaker 1: the criticism in the world. And it is absolutely crazy
- 10:05Speaker 1: to think that, you know, one day you can be
- 10:08Speaker 1: signing the the approval on a contract for like you said,
- 10:14Speaker 1: insert large defense contractor, and then the next day you're
- 10:17Speaker 1: sitting on the board and then two years later you're
- 10:19Speaker 1: back in Washington maybe you know, if you were lucky.
- 10:23Speaker 1: And so I think that that is hopefully the kind
- 10:27Speaker 1: the kind of thing that we are going to see
- 10:29Speaker 1: a lot of light shed on because I don't I
- 10:32Speaker 1: don't know like an American on either side of the
- 10:35Speaker 1: aisle that just thinks that that's okay. You know, waste
- 10:37Speaker 1: isn't okay. And we've just especially when the people that
- 10:42Speaker 1: pay that price are our kids and our grandkids. You know,
- 10:46Speaker 1: I certainly when I look at my family, I want
- 10:48Speaker 1: my kids to have a better life than I have.
- 10:51Speaker 1: My folks hope that for me, and I think that
- 10:53Speaker 1: that trend certainly, of course continues.
- 10:56Speaker 3: Of course, a my kids are already having a past
- 11:00Speaker 3: life than me, so I'm not competing. I want him
- 11:04Speaker 3: to have a real good life so when I stopped working,
- 11:08Speaker 3: they'll be there to pick up the slack for me.
- 11:11Speaker 3: But but seriously, you know, it's it's it's very intractable.
- 11:17Speaker 3: Nobody has ever had the political will to do it.
- 11:20Speaker 3: Reagan tried. He managed to cut taxes, but he couldn't
- 11:25Speaker 3: cut spending. And you know, but it is interesting thing.
- 11:30Speaker 3: This isn't an ad for Trump or anything else. My
- 11:33Speaker 3: own preference was the lesser of two evils or the
- 11:38Speaker 3: evil of two lessers. That's what we're at least faced with.
- 11:42Speaker 3: But this guy like somebody was saying that you think
- 11:47Speaker 3: he's stupid. He now he now is going back to
- 11:54Speaker 3: the White House, has the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court,
- 11:59Speaker 3: the world's just man ever working for him, the most
- 12:03Speaker 3: notable Kennedy working for him. So if we can't get
- 12:07Speaker 3: it done now, Ted, then it's hopeless, isn't it. Yeah?
- 12:12Speaker 1: You know, I think that we have a really interesting
- 12:17Speaker 1: window of opportunity as a country is specifically around what
- 12:21Speaker 1: we've been talking about here when it comes to efficiency
- 12:24Speaker 1: and when it comes to and I would say, hopefully
- 12:27Speaker 1: at a minimum, maybe stopping the level of spending, even
- 12:30Speaker 1: if we're not able to, like, even if we weren't
- 12:32Speaker 1: able to drastically reduce the size of government, which you
- 12:34Speaker 1: know we could have again we kind of discussed already,
- 12:39Speaker 1: even if they could just stop.
- 12:40Speaker 3: The the the.
- 12:42Speaker 1: Balloon that's been occurring, I think it would be a success.
- 12:45Speaker 1: And I think it was Charlie Munger who said, I
- 12:49Speaker 1: want to say it was actually this about Elon Musk,
- 12:51Speaker 1: which he says never what did he say said, never
- 12:54Speaker 1: underestimate a man who overestimates himself. And I always struggle
- 12:58Speaker 1: with that one.
- 13:00Speaker 3: Yeah, well, uh, well, you know what's amazing here, Ted
- 13:07Speaker 3: is we see like all these governments which are opposed
- 13:10Speaker 3: to him, they're all collapsing all over the place. First
- 13:13Speaker 3: we see Germany collapse, then France. Uh, probably Canada is collapsing. Now.
- 13:21Speaker 3: I don't see how the current occupant there of Ottawa
- 13:25Speaker 3: can stay in and uh, you know, his government's collapsed
- 13:30Speaker 3: around him. I'll have to carry him out in a stretcher.
- 13:34Speaker 3: I have a few links, but I think you're going
- 13:38Speaker 3: to see it in China. There's going to be collapse.
- 13:41Speaker 3: You know. It's uh, it's really interesting. So getting back
- 13:46Speaker 3: to transitioning for retirement, what do you say to the
- 13:49Speaker 3: person who says, well, I'm never really gonna fully retire.
- 13:52Speaker 1: I think you I'd probably say that you're in good company.
- 13:55Speaker 3: You know.
- 13:56Speaker 1: I have a real mixed group of people that you know,
- 13:59Speaker 1: I've chatted with over the years, and I actually work
- 14:02Speaker 1: with the gentleman. I remember, I want to say, maybe
- 14:06Speaker 1: two years ago or something, he had retired and he
- 14:09Speaker 1: I think he probably stopped working for maybe about eighteen months,
- 14:12Speaker 1: and he came back and he basically said, Ted, I'm bored.
- 14:15Speaker 1: I'm going to you know, die with my boots on.
- 14:18Speaker 1: And I think that really there is some transition people
- 14:21Speaker 1: go to for sort of from sort of I'll just
- 14:23Speaker 1: say working because they have to pay the bills and
- 14:28Speaker 1: working to do something that they find a lot of
- 14:30Speaker 1: purpose in and that they enjoy doing. And regardless of
- 14:34Speaker 1: what path you take, I think it's really important to
- 14:36Speaker 1: think about what you're going to retire too, because retirement
- 14:39Speaker 1: isn't the end of the finish line of the marathon,
- 14:41Speaker 1: right like you don't just claps the end of it.
- 14:44Speaker 1: You know, there's chapters in life, and you're making a
- 14:47Speaker 1: big transition for most folks in their financial life, and
- 14:50Speaker 1: then they're going to find some purpose in something new
- 14:53Speaker 1: and ultimately, again, regardless of whether you're not working entirely
- 14:57Speaker 1: or working part time or taking on a new endeavor,
- 15:00Speaker 1: I think just really determining hey, what am I going
- 15:03Speaker 1: to retire too is just as important as you know,
- 15:08Speaker 1: i'll say, the allocations and the decimal points and the
- 15:10Speaker 1: percentages and all that stuff.
- 15:13Speaker 3: Mm. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. So, what
- 15:19Speaker 3: do you think looking ahead? And obviously we don't know,
- 15:23Speaker 3: but do you think everybody should be putting some money
- 15:27Speaker 3: into cryptos?
- 15:29Speaker 1: I think that you know, when it comes to when
- 15:33Speaker 1: it comes to cryptocurrency, I think I would say a
- 15:34Speaker 1: couple of things. You know, I think for a while,
- 15:37Speaker 1: over the last even several years, I think cryptocurrency has
- 15:41Speaker 1: held a place in my mind where it was more
- 15:43Speaker 1: of a speculation than a like real investment, And I'll
- 15:48Speaker 1: speak more specifically of bitcoin in that scenario. I think
- 15:51Speaker 1: at this point, though, it's pretty hard to deny the
- 15:54Speaker 1: power that bitcoin currently has. Up until what the last
- 15:58Speaker 1: week and a half, with all the discoveries we've seen
- 16:01Speaker 1: posted about Google achieving in terms of quantum computing, I
- 16:06Speaker 1: think there's a little bit of concern that those type
- 16:08Speaker 1: of computers could crack the code for a bitcoin. But
- 16:11Speaker 1: should people have money invested in it, well, you know,
- 16:14Speaker 1: I think, I guess I would say this, it's a
- 16:16Speaker 1: cautionary side. Fear of missing out is not an investment strategy.
- 16:20Speaker 1: And so while I don't categorize bitcoin just as a
- 16:23Speaker 1: speculation anymore, I do think it is investment, as volatile
- 16:26Speaker 1: as that may be, I just wouldn't guide folks towards
- 16:29Speaker 1: investing a bunch of money because they're afraid of missing out.
- 16:32Speaker 1: And certainly the other principle that comes to my mind
- 16:34Speaker 1: is don't risk the empire for a pot of gold,
- 16:38Speaker 1: and so you know, don't take unnecessary risk. As the
- 16:41Speaker 1: whole point there, I think when I look at bitcoin
- 16:44Speaker 1: as to where it fits, I think that it trades
- 16:47Speaker 1: a lot like equity right now, a lot like technology stocks.
- 16:51Speaker 1: You see the correlation with it, and so just like
- 16:54Speaker 1: you know, you might see folks guide toward a diversified
- 16:58Speaker 1: mix of stocks, big technology stocks, you might include bitcoin
- 17:02Speaker 1: as a piece of that. But I think, really where
- 17:04Speaker 1: it fits as it trades a lot like an aggressive equity,
- 17:06Speaker 1: and so sure, you know, I probably wouldn't put more
- 17:09Speaker 1: than two to five percent of my money in that asset.
- 17:15Speaker 1: But I think it's beyond the point now where you
- 17:17Speaker 1: can can avoid the discussion. And I mean, the truth is,
- 17:24Speaker 1: I think it's pretty clear that we're at almost ground
- 17:27Speaker 1: zero with governmental and institutional adoption, and there's potential for
- 17:32Speaker 1: a whole lot of more growth from here. To say
- 17:35Speaker 1: nothing of the FED.
- 17:37Speaker 3: Yeah, to say nothing of the Fed, yeah, So all right,
- 17:42Speaker 3: But so you put a small bit because it looks
- 17:45Speaker 3: like Trump is held bent on setting up a national
- 17:49Speaker 3: bitcoin reserve, and if he does that, who knows how
- 17:55Speaker 3: how high the price can go?
- 17:56Speaker 1: Sure, you know, I think, like I said, yeah, a
- 17:59Speaker 1: ground zero for governmental adoption and institutional adoption. Maybe not
- 18:03Speaker 1: quite ground zero, but close to it. I think that
- 18:06Speaker 1: that him doing that, I think is really interesting for
- 18:10Speaker 1: several reasons. One, I do think that there's been because
- 18:13Speaker 1: of the discussion in the last several years about how
- 18:16Speaker 1: much spending we've had, is that there needs to be
- 18:18Speaker 1: some alternative to quote unquote the dollar as a reserve currency. Well,
- 18:23Speaker 1: I think really interestingly, if you look across the crypto market,
- 18:28Speaker 1: almost all crypto is priced is in US dollars, like
- 18:33Speaker 1: as compared to US dollars. And to your point, given
- 18:39Speaker 1: the broader you know, uh international scope you mentioned China,
- 18:43Speaker 1: and you know some some decline h and you know
- 18:47Speaker 1: some of these bricks countries, et cetera. If the United
- 18:50Speaker 1: States has a substantial amount of bitcoin and it does
- 18:54Speaker 1: continue to go up, I think it protects two things.
- 18:56Speaker 1: I think it actually protects interestingly, the dollar as a
- 18:59Speaker 1: reserve currency because everything is priced typically in the crypto
- 19:03Speaker 1: world to US dollars. And of course you have the
- 19:05Speaker 1: balance sheet potential, right if bitcoin goes up a lot,
- 19:09Speaker 1: it potentially of course puts the US had a better situation.
- 19:12Speaker 3: All right, well this is interesting. Hey, how do we
- 19:16Speaker 3: get your book? TeV? That a great question.
- 19:19Speaker 1: So if you just go to our website bright Lakewealth
- 19:21Speaker 1: dot com.
- 19:22Speaker 3: There's a tab we have there.
- 19:23Speaker 1: It says, you know, just off for our book, Launch
- 19:26Speaker 1: your Retirement, of course, is the title. You can find
- 19:29Speaker 1: it on Amazon. Just google Launch your Retirement. You can
- 19:33Speaker 1: go to launch my Retirement dot com. It's they're available.
- 19:36Speaker 1: But if you just search for the name of the book,
- 19:37Speaker 1: you'll be able to find it real easily.
- 19:39Speaker 3: All right, Well, we got a link in the show
- 19:41Speaker 3: notes this interview on Financial Survival Network your book, what's
- 19:45Speaker 3: your what's your regular company website?
- 19:48Speaker 1: Brightlakewealth dot com.
- 19:50Speaker 3: All right, of course that's in there. And I've got
- 19:53Speaker 3: any questions for Ted myself, shoot me an email k
- 19:56Speaker 3: l at Kerrie LUTs dot com. When you visit Financially
- 20:00Speaker 3: Survival Network dot com you find the links right there
- 20:02Speaker 3: in the show notes. While you're there, we just ask
- 20:05Speaker 3: you to please sign up for your free newsletter like
- 20:08Speaker 3: sixty thousand other FSN community members have and tet we
- 20:14Speaker 3: will talk to you soon. Thank you, Kerry, good to
- 20:16Speaker 3: be with you.
- 20:16Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network your
- 20:21Speaker 2: solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to
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