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The Happiness in Retirement Hour · The Happiness in Retirement® Hour

• # Swell AI Transcript: riverside_edit_- bill — take 04_bill_del-sette's st.wav SPEAKER_03: Hello and welcome to the Happiness in Retirement podcast. I'm Bill Del Ceti, Certified Financial Planner and Registered Life Planner. Here with my partner in crime, Ann Arceo, good cop, bad cop kind of thing. Hey, Ann, how are you? SPEAKER_00: I'm good. Hey, Bill. SPEAKER_03: pretty cool, this is our first episode of the Happiness and Retirement Hour, I should say, isn't that what we're rolling with, the Happiness and Retirement Hour? SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's pretty exciting. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it is exciting. And so this podcast is going to be, I don't know, maybe 30% financial stuff and another 30 or 40% how to enjoy your money, kind of a lifestyle and retirement thing. And the rest of the program is just going to be some good fun. What do you think? SPEAKER_01: Sounds good to me. SPEAKER_03: Does the world need another podcast on standard deviations? Maybe, right? SPEAKER_00: That could be a fun conversation. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, you could still be a financial planner and still be kind of funny, can't you? I mean, or is that not what the viewers decide? Well, as my old boss used to say, why do you think they call it work? They don't call it fun. And here we are. Here we are, maybe going to have some fun, but also provide our viewers with some really good information about things that maybe aren't talked about enough when it comes to money. You know, having enough is one thing, but knowing how to enjoy it is something else entirely, isn't it? SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very true. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and so really the Happiness and Retirement Hour podcast, how do you get to enjoy your money, right? How do you enjoy your money, which on the surface may seem like a stupid question, but hopefully as you'll see it's not. So I guess let's start with kind of what happened last week in the markets because there seems to be a bit of a shift. SPEAKER_02: Bit of a pullback. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. Especially in artificial intelligence related names, a lot of companies kind of took it on the chin. Don't know if it's what we call the pause that refreshes or something more serious. SPEAKER_02: It's rooting. I mean, earning season's coming out. So I think a lot of people, investors are waiting to see how these companies are actually doing. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. And it remains to be seen, doesn't it? SPEAKER_02: Yeah. SPEAKER_03: Wall Street Journal article recently pointed out that AI infrastructure is the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing even the build out of the railroads in terms of percentage of gross domestic product, the spending, and remains to be seen whether or not it's going to pan out. SPEAKER_02: Yeah. SPEAKER_03: Do we have like a, a best use case for AI yet? SPEAKER_02: I don't know. I mean, it seems like you're seeing more of businesses actually adopt it and use it, but I think there's a lot you don't know. We're just scratching the surface with all of this. SPEAKER_03: We are, and there are going to be winners and there are going to be losers. And, you know, my experience is colored from when I got my start because, uh, in the late nineties, I was an advisor during that internet era boom. And then the bust where I think the NASDAQ lost 80% of its value over three years. SPEAKER_01: Wow. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. But there were some big winners, but as this Wall Street Journal article points out, a lot of companies didn't make it and it took longer than expected for these companies to become profitable. So I think that's one of the reasons why we saw this sell-off in these AI-related names last week. You know, we'll see what happens with the markets. SPEAKER_02: So what do you think this means for all the retirees out there listening? SPEAKER_03: Well, hopefully nothing, hopefully nothing. And I, you know, I say that one of the things that money is very, the psychology of money and investing is so important. I would argue more than the most important ingredient in an investor success is how they respond or, or don't respond to the markets. And so we're getting into an environment where there's a lot of so-called FOMO or fear of missing out. And so we're retiree probably doesn't have as much exposure to these related names however you know they might be seeing the s&p five hundred index go up every week by some huge amount and wonder why they don't. Yeah. So I guess the answer is it, it depends. Some retirees and being a student of the markets in the late nineties and what happened, people tend to get carried away with the stock or the, the sector du jour, you know, or the theme du jour and like this wall street journal article pointed out. Nobody knows who the winners are going to be, so I guess the point is if you're diversified and you have a financial plan and you are spending in accordance with that plan, you're probably going to be just fine if things don't work out. You know, you're going to experience bear markets, bear markets come and go on average, I think every three to five years. So it all goes back to the plan and controlling what we can control. For those of you that don't have a plan, You might want to reconsider it, maybe getting a plan in place, meeting with an advisor. Okay, so having said that, there were some important developments last week in addition to this AI sell-off, if you will. The first is the fact that, again, according to Reuter's article, the fact that Many companies in the S&P 500 are actually not doing so well. And the S&P 500 index, the most widely quoted index in the United States, is having a good year. SPEAKER_02: Is it still the mag seven, those top companies? SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so those top companies are carrying the market, in fact, in this article here, and I've got some notes here. Let's see. According to the article, four in 10 S&P 500 stocks are actually down for the year. And 41% are down 30% or more. Now, how can it be that the S&P is near a record high and that so many companies aren't doing well, right? It's this capitalization waiting, which is a little technical, but basically the largest companies in the S&P 500 are given more weight in the index. So when they do well, the index does well regardless of the others. And that's what's happening now, where again, you have these tech and AI companies accounting for most of the gain according to this article and seventy one percent of the gain in the s and p five hundred index this year attributable to those tech and AI stocks and the rest of the companies are up an average of four percent year to date. Yeah. So kind of troubling in the sense that something eventually has to give either these, the rest of these companies are going to just start doing well or the tech and AI related companies are going to be dragged down. One or the other is going to happen or we'll just continue like this indefinitely, which I guess is a possibility too. But there's another big story, isn't there? And that's interest rates. SPEAKER_02: I was going to say interest rates. Yeah, we're just we're in this environment where interest rates are going up. We don't know what's going to happen. You know, maybe the Fed will raise interest rates again. Treasury yields pulled back a little bit, but they've been at historic highs recently, and that makes for an interesting time. SPEAKER_03: Yeah yeah so interest rates just spiked up all of a sudden you know kinda the markets will always surprise you and you know when you least expect it expected and that nobody i think saw the interest rate spike that occurred. SPEAKER_02: Well i think it's just people want they want investors wanna get paid more for all this debt that we're issuing they're demanding more. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the riskier the perception is of that debt, whether it's US government debt or corporate debt, it doesn't matter, the higher the interest rate that people are going to demand. And so we're seeing that now because AI infrastructure, bonds, loans are competing with government loans for the money that's out there. So, you know, more supply, less demand for bonds. And so interest rates are going to go up to entice people. Also though, there's a perception that the United States, you know, maybe isn't in the best shape and people are going to demand more from government bonds. SPEAKER_02: Well, the backdrop of the war that's happening, it's, I guess it's a good time to be diversified. SPEAKER_03: Bingo. Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, being diversified. But now the other thing to consider here, devil's advocate, interest rates are really just where they were before the tech wreck, or excuse me, before 2008-ish. You know, again, the early 2000s, interest rates were very similar to what they are now. The first house that I bought, I think the interest rate was 7% on that house. And that was just considered normal. It wasn't considered too high. SPEAKER_02: We got used to the rates and all of that. They've been low for a long time. And that took them even lower, historically low. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. And, and it, it all, for those of you that locked in, by the way, congratulations, man. You know, we were preaching back then that, you know, people should take out 30 year mortgages and borrow as much as they can. Cause the train ain't gonna. SPEAKER_01: Yeah. SPEAKER_03: You know, the train's going to leave the station, and it has, but only to get back to, quote, normal. And I guess it's kind of good news that so far the economy is sustaining those higher interest rates. It's not necessarily causing a big slowdown yet. Interest rates, when they're higher, people tend to spend less. Companies tend to borrow less. You know, homebuyers tend not to buy homes when interest rates are too high. So we'll see what happens, but the AI train is kind of pulling along the rest of the economy and consumers are still spending. And what about this AI buildout? Is it going to pan out or not? Is it going to work out? Nobody knows. That's the nature of market bubbles is that you don't know you're in a bubble until it's burst. Maybe yes, maybe no. You know, we don't necessarily try and time the market, but we'll see what happens. It's definitely an interesting time to be an investor now. SPEAKER_01: It is. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. Okay, so now this section is called the good life. And so the good life section here, we're going to talk about in every episode a retirement related question or idea about happiness and retirement. And again, Anne, you brought to the table a really great article from the Atlantic Magazine, which just kind of validates everything we've been preaching for years, no? SPEAKER_02: Well, certainly everything you've Bill has been preaching to clients and to the team, and I tend to be a cautious person. So when I read this article that was all about statistics showing, data showing that retirees are underspending, it was eye-opening for me because you've been saying that. And I'm always cautious, giving advice to clients on their spending and what level they can spend at, and it's just very interesting. SPEAKER_03: Wow yeah it is interesting and and being a student of the markets again someone who has been in the business for many years but more importantly in those early years where we had a ten year period of time where the s and p five hundred zero. You know, from 2001 to 2010, the S&P 500 effectively earned zero. And yet none of my clients had to go back to work. Nobody changed their lifestyle. And I wondered what the heck is going on and what was going on. Now we know, I wish I could say it was just, I was a brilliant money manager, right? My clients were diversified, but it had to do with how people actually spend. And so the data and this, this article in the Atlantic is all about the fact that the average withdrawal of the average retiree from their portfolio is around two a year. Wow. In fact, most people in retirement that have over $500,000, again, don't quote me on this, this is from memory, they actually are spending at a much lower rate than they could, and they're actually, their portfolios are going up in value, not down. So if you spend your whole life saving so that you can retire, and then you don't spend that money, that wealth, I'm not saying it's a problem, but gee, think about how much stronger the economy would be if retirees just spent more of their money. SPEAKER_02: That was the other point in the article that made me pause is just, you know, it's also has an impact on the economy when retirees kind of hoard. Well, maybe that's not the nicest word, but they, they have this big bucket in their savings account that they're afraid to touch. It's money that's locked out of the economy, money that they could be spending. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and withdrawals are seen as a loss of principle or as a like a loss. You know, literally drawing down your portfolio just is such a psychological shift from saving. And it really does feel like you're, quote, losing money, but you're not. You're exchanging the money for experiences, what we should do. And that's why another point in the article is that if if people look at it differently or they look at it as a paycheck, SPEAKER_02: Yeah. So retirees, I think what it, you know, what they were saying is that they're comfortable spending their pensions and social security and this income that they get, but really they've treated their investment portfolio like this giant emergency fund that they just put in place and they're scared to really to use it. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and yet it just grows, hopefully, and grows. And there's an opportunity cost to that. We talk a lot about the go-go years, this window of time that we have available where we have health, we have wealth, and we have time. We have the triad, those three things. And when we have those things, as it turns out, this research referenced in this article in The Atlantic by, I think her name is Jean Chatzky, a very famous financial journalist, been around forever, is this idea that people view spending, well, let me rephrase that. People are so afraid of running out of money. regardless of their net worth that they just don't happen in that principle and if you answer the one of the points in the article was that people have no problem spending social security or pension income yeah guaranteed income and. Something like over thirty five or forty percent of folks somewhere in that range they are just taking income from their portfolio now. We have the dividend model that our clients are in, and a lot of our clients are just taking that income, but they're not touching principle. So there's something about eating into principle that causes people to back off and maybe not do it. SPEAKER_01: A little bit panicky, yeah. SPEAKER_03: So I think people need a permission slip to spend their money. SPEAKER_02: That's why we get them. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. How do we do that? SPEAKER_02: I mean, our whole approach around using guardrails to set up this paycheck for retirees and looking at what's a quote safe, there's no guarantees, but what's a safe withdrawal amount that you can take within these guardrails. So if the market goes up by a certain percentage, you could take more. If it goes down temporarily by a certain percentage and you would take less. But it helps you to maximize your spending, even, you know, the guardrails, this, this whole system that we use will allow you to spend down principal, but in a safe way so that you don't put your plan at risk. It's dynamic, it adjusts, but. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, great point. You know, it's really, people just overcomplicate things. Planners overcomplicate things. And it's just human nature. SPEAKER_01: That's detailed, people. SPEAKER_03: What it is, control what you can control, folks. We can't control the markets. We can't control inflation. We can't control whether or not there's a war, the next worry du jour. What we can control, absolutely, is our level of spending. Right that's in our control and the beauty of these guardrails is that they do adjust dynamically and so if we go into a funk which inevitably we will we have bear markets you know over a thirty or forty year retirement you can expect about five periods in your life where on average where the market declines thirty percent or more. And how you respond or don't respond makes all the difference. And so these guardrails adjust the withdrawals for market conditions. If market conditions are bad, you take a little less. If they're good, you take a little more so that you don't end up with a big pot of money at the end of the rainbow unless you want to. So that's kind of the legacy goal. Right, so the simplicity in it, that is what I love, is that we can say to a client, this is what you should be taking from your portfolio. And we say that based on these guardrails, and yet most of the clients we work for take less than that guardrail amount. Now, there are a handful of people that are right on the margin, but the vast majority of people simply don't spend enough. Isn't that amazing? SPEAKER_02: That is, especially to be saying that in this economy. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and so for the folks that buy into the concept, they love the idea that it's just like, OK, here's what you could spend and here's what's going to happen if we see a 30 percent decline. You're going to have to reduce your spending by X until the market comes back. Alternatively, though, and at least as important, is that if your portfolio does better than expected, you could and should spend more. Now, the question that I have for everyone is, have you ever seen Are you all being told by a hearse you can take it with you money is meant to be enjoyed i had the most amazing professor who turned me on to economics it's why i became an economics major i was also an accounting major but fell in love with economics much more than accounting and he used to say that the point of life is to maximize fun. Now economics is gross domestic product, maximizing productivity, maximizing this, minimizing that, the efficient allocation of scarce resources, et cetera. And yet here he was saying that the point of it all is to maximize fun. And that resonated with me and kind of colors how we do planning now, that that's what the money's for. And if you have a systematic approach to doing that, why not, right? Take the trip. SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think there's going to be clients out there saying, well, I've taken the trip. I've done the things I've wanted to do, but it can look, you know, many different ways. It can be gifting to children while they're still, while you're still alive and you're there to see them enjoy it. I did a podcast on that recently or about to do one. Yeah. So, I mean, it's not, it doesn't have to just be spending on yourself going on trips. There's, you know, gifting is also another way to enjoy that money now. SPEAKER_03: Great point, gifting. Have you ever seen an unhappy charitable person? Think about that one. SPEAKER_02: No, a lot of fun, a lot of happiness is derived from helping others. SPEAKER_03: One of the happiest guys I know here in the Capital District, if he sees people he knows in a restaurant, he'll pick up the tab. and he doesn't even, you know, tell her. Where's he gonna be tonight? I don't know why I thought of that, but this idea, have you ever seen an unhappy charitable person? And we do have some clients that I just love. I love when we have clients who are just squeezing all the juice out of life, whatever that means for them. You know and they're like oh i could spend this and okay i'm gonna spend it and they do you know that's the whole point that's the point of this podcast that the main point is how do we help our clients and people out there enjoy their life regardless of circumstances cuz guess what. Circumstances are always changing right and you know so the simplicity in that and there's some buddhism in that not to get to spiritual or anything like that but you know this buddhist idea of always do your best but be not attached to the outcome of your efforts we don't know what the markets are gonna bring over the person who just retired the next thirty years right we have no clue. We do know there's going to be good and bad times, just like in life, and so how we respond and deal with those things, you know, is going to make all the difference, not your sequence of returns, which matters. If your returns out of the gate early in retirement are bad, now we can adjust for that with these guardrails, but you might not be able to spend as much as someone whose returns out of the gate are great. But at the end of the day, if you're going to worry about that, what's the point, right? SPEAKER_02: I think the theme we're hearing is you need a plan. SPEAKER_03: You need to have a plan and then you need to follow the plan. And if your financial advisor says you should spend X, you know, you might want to find a way to spend X, right? Or just know that you left some money on the table or some fun on the table. I don't know. Anyway, so here's a question. Are you spending enough, audience? If you're in retirement, are you spending as much as you could or should? And if not, why not? What's the barrier? What is it about the money or the markets or life that is causing you maybe not to spend as much as you could? Drop us a line on that. We'd love to hear from you. Okay, so very interesting stats. Now, let's go into the retirement reality check. Common retirement mistakes that we see. Number one, waiting too long for experiences. What do you think? SPEAKER_02: You mean maximizing the go-go years? SPEAKER_03: There you go. Bingo. Yeah. Tell us more. SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, how many of us know someone that retired and had all these plans lined out that they put off until that someday when the time, money, and health all aligned and then get sick, something happens and the trip they put off never happened. And so enjoy it while you can. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this idea that there is a limited time where you have health, wealth and time. You have time affluence, you have all the time in the world, you've got the money and you're healthy. Maybe it's five years, maybe it's 10 years, maybe it's 20, maybe it's one. We just don't know. And that's what life planning is all about, is making sure that you get those things in that matter most first. Kind of like the big rocks theory in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People where Stephen Covey does this demonstration and he fills up this bucket. He's got big rocks and he's got sand and he says to his class, okay, how do you fill up the bucket so that it is the most full? Do you put the sand in first or the big rocks? SPEAKER_01: You have to put the big rocks. SPEAKER_03: You got to put the big rocks and then you fill in the big rocks with the sand. And what a great analogy for retirement spending, man. Get those big rocks done. Take the trip, give to the charity, gift to your kids, whatever it is that turns you on and lights you up, get that done earlier. And then if you're still healthy later, great. Right. But you got those big rocks off the table. So that's the biggest issue, I think, waiting too long to enjoy our money. Number two, which ties into it, being afraid to spend. If you have a plan, maybe if you're just taking dividends. Now, there's no guarantees with anything in life. You know, you're going to hear this theme over and over on this podcast. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. SPEAKER_00: Thanks to our compliance team. SPEAKER_03: Thanks to our compliance team. SPEAKER_00: Historical results are no guarantee. SPEAKER_03: They're not, you know, and of course not. Nobody knows the future. But as I said earlier, you know, if you if you play your hand right and you play it right, then, you know, the whatever happens happens, how we respond matters. And that's why the plan should be the driver of your investment approach. SPEAKER_01: A dynamic plan. SPEAKER_03: A dynamic plan. Number three, big one, losing your identity when you stop working. Man, you know, I'm 59 and three quarters. SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I think 59. SPEAKER_03: 59 and seven eights. 59, 59 and seven eights. And by the way, my doctor, you know, is telling me now I've got to stop living like I'm 57. You know, I'm not 57 anymore. I got to slow down. Okay, you didn't say that, but I'm telling people now, just like when I was in kindergarten, they ask how old you are and you always used to say, I'm five and three quarters or five. And I stopped doing that when I was like 10, maybe, and now I'm starting again because I just want to get that little extra. SPEAKER_00: No, you just want to hold on to it. SPEAKER_03: And so my identity is so tied up in my work. And I think any professional, that's probably true, unless you're one of those rare individuals who can separate out. SPEAKER_01: Well, somebody who built his own business and poured his life into it. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so and you made a point that, you know, maybe one of the points of this podcast is I'm experiencing the same thing as maybe some of you folks out there who are around my age. And so losing your identity without, you know, what is that next chapter going to be? And if you look at it like a next chapter and not the end of the road, then it opens up all sorts of opportunities for fun and excitement and You know, but you can't lose your identity. If you do, obviously, you know, it's going to change. But watch out for that one. Plan for it in advance. Number four, ignoring relationships. Number one predictor of retirement happiness is not money. It's the relationships you have with the friends and family. SPEAKER_01: And that makes a lot of sense. SPEAKER_03: the so-called loneliness epidemic in the United States, I truly believe that. I mean, we have social media, we have all this technology, and yet people are lonelier than they have ever been. SPEAKER_02: Less connected. Less real connection. Less real connected. COVID made it even worse. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and now you have young people having relationships with AI bots, right? Really, true story. It's crazy. SPEAKER_00: It's getting weirder and weirder out there. SPEAKER_03: Pick up the phone, make the phone call to the friend you haven't talked to, call your dad, call your family, go out to eat, schedule fun stuff. Like literally get it on the calendar. Otherwise, you know, we end up sitting home and maybe scrolling, doom scrolling or whatever we do with social media. And finally, having no retirement plan beyond finances. You could have the most, the most bestest, the bestest mostest. SPEAKER_00: Bestest mostest. SPEAKER_03: The more better plan? SPEAKER_00: The more better plan. I love that. SPEAKER_03: You can have a brilliant, technically brilliant retirement plan, but if you're not enjoying yourself, what's the point? So another question again is if you have 5 million bucks and you're miserable, are you rich? What do you think? Audience, what do you think? If you have $5 million and you're miserable, are you rich? I don't know. SPEAKER_02: You're rich and miserable. SPEAKER_03: Now, I have a rich and miserable, right? Might as well be broke and miserable. What's the difference? Who cares, right? But it's tough. We're hardwired. We're all hardwired. Another great book, Sanja Lubomirsky, positive psychologist found that we have a happiness set point. Like we're born, we're born with a certain level of happiness. Some of us are lucky enough to be born with like just, oh, you know, just happy all the time. My ex-wife, man, her name was Joy for a reason. And I happen to probably have a lower set point. I'm not just a naturally happy-go-lucky guy. I know that's hard to believe, right, Anne? SPEAKER_00: Well, you're the happiness retirement guy. SPEAKER_03: Well, I am, but I got to work at it. It's not natural. It's not like, you know. So if you have a low happiness set point, Yeah, if you have a low happiness set point, the good news is you can actually influence it by stuff. That's why I exercise. That's why I do a lot of the things I do, because it actually brings that set point up. Anyway, digress a little bit. So okay, and so here's a question for you now. After years of helping clients, what has surprised you about what actually makes retirees happy? SPEAKER_02: Well, it's I think it's a lot of things that don't have anything to do with their finances. Yeah. They enjoy the relationships, having more time for the relationships. The freedom of time, I think, is just huge. Oh, yeah. SPEAKER_03: It sure is. And, you know, when when I was preparing for this podcast, I was thinking about that question and what you just said. It's the little things, isn't it? It's like the little things. It's going out to breakfast with friends. It's spending time with their grandkids, helping at their church or with a charity, you know, going for a walk. It's like these little things. SPEAKER_02: Being in control of your day and your time. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, having control, time affluence, right? This idea that you're rich if you have time affluence, that you could do what you want from the time you get up till the time you go to bed. And I think as a society or in the world, we come back to that in hard times. So 2008, I think people became much more aware of that stuff is just stuff. SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it makes sense. SPEAKER_03: And then the COVID crisis wakes us up a little bit. Yeah. SPEAKER_02: Realize what really matters and how you, the other stuff could go away. SPEAKER_03: Yeah. And that, that's pretty surprising again, that it is the little stuff, which kind of comes back to maybe why people don't spend as much, you know, maybe, maybe they don't need to. Right? SPEAKER_02: We see that. We see clients come in and they say, well, I have everything that I need. That's what I was saying. They've taken the trip. Or they're homebodies. They love their home. They love to garden. They love being with their family. SPEAKER_03: Hmm. Yeah, so true. Hmm. Good point. Good point. Okay. So now let's talk about Guillermo's happiness challenge. For those of you that don't know, my name is Bill, which is in Spanish Guillermo, and I spend quite a bit of time in Mexico with my wife. So let's go with Guillermo. So don't just retire, get a life. What the heck is that about? Here's what I think would be a cool challenge for everyone listening. Spend $100 this week on happiness. Ooh, what does that mean? Five possible ways to spend $100. So here's my challenge, folks. Take someone to dinner. Not bad. Buy tickets to an experience. How about reconnect with an old friend? Try something you've never done before. Here's a question. When was the last time you did something for the first time? SPEAKER_01: Ooh, I love that. SPEAKER_03: Wow. Or do something generous for someone. Now, Anne, you and I, we're going to take ourselves up on this challenge too. So we're going to spend a hundred bucks each on one of those things. SPEAKER_01: Is it my hundred bucks? SPEAKER_03: No, it's got to be your hundred bucks. SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay. SPEAKER_03: What are you going to do? So of those choices, take someone to dinner, buy tickets, reconnect with a friend, try something you've never done before, or do something generous. What do you think you're going to do? SPEAKER_02: Do something generous. SPEAKER_03: I'm with you. I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to give a hundred dollar bill to someone random, but someone who maybe looks like they could use it. I'm already feeling better. What do you think? Right? There's the challenge folks. Take it up. Tell us what you think. Okay. We're getting close to the end, so this segment is called Ask Bill & Ann. So these are some questions that we've heard before from clients. Send your questions in to us, team, at happinessinretirement.com, annathappinessinretirement.com, or billathappinessinretirement.com. Would love to hear your questions. Okay, question number one, Ann, I'm 62 and I have $2 million saved. How do I know if I have enough to retire? SPEAKER_02: Come meet with us. SPEAKER_03: Come meet with us. SPEAKER_02: Let us plug in the numbers, run the scenario. But it truly comes down to knowing your lifestyle, what it costs. Two million dollars can mean very different things to different people. Have you paid off your mortgage? Do you have a big house with a big mortgage? We set up this plan for you. We tend to use, if it's appropriate, a dividend-paying portfolio so it's generating income for you, and we look at the guardrail spending amount and does your lifestyle fit within that quote, safe, nothing's guaranteed. level of spending that we'll recommend. SPEAKER_03: Great point. Yeah. I guess it all comes down to what your spending is and what your plans are. So have a plan, I'm hearing you saying. SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Have a plan. SPEAKER_03: You can't just wing it. SPEAKER_01: And a good planner. SPEAKER_03: And a good planner and a good plan. Okay. Question number two, when should I take social security? This is probably the number one question that we get from retirees. What do you think about that question? SPEAKER_02: Well, there again, I think it depends on your situation. You know, you do, your benefits rise, what, 8% every year that you wait? So you can take it early at age 62 and wait all the way up to age 70. For most people listening, full retirement age is 67 and it depends. Are you still working? So you may not be able to take it earlier. Do you need it? And then there's legislative risk. So we look at all these factors that are personalized to you and your plan. And then the bigger picture is Social Security in good shape. I've heard a thing or two about it. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a great question. The answer is no. Yeah, I'm with you. You know, again, it comes back to having a plan and what, what are your personal preferences and, and what do you think, you know, one of the big things we'll talk about in a future podcast is mortality. How long you're gonna live is gonna play a big role in your financial plan and how much of that lifespan you have a good health span. If you're gonna live to be 110 but the last 30 years of your life you're in a nursing home and you're not doing well, that's a different plan than someone that's healthy. And there are some people that believe that with all these advances in medicine, that there's a really good chance that if you live another 10 years, your healthy lifespan is going to be a lot longer. So the longer that you're going to live, the more it makes sense to delay taking it. But we're making an assumption there, and the assumption is that the system is going to be around in its current form, and folks, it's in bad shape. There is a very real risk that for anyone listening to this, that your benefit level is going to be different, think lower, than it is now for current retirees. If that's true, then you probably should take it earlier. Now, there's one more fly in the ointment, and that is, If you take Social Security at the earliest age, 62, and you work and earn over a certain amount, you actually lose some of the benefit. So you've got to look at that. Are you going to be working and earning? How much are you going to be working and earning? What's your age of mortality? Do you have a long-lived family? Do you believe that the government is just going to keep doling out money? When the system is broke, the Social Security system is in very bad shape. SPEAKER_02: Well, and two, if you're single versus married, one could take it younger, one could wait. So I think it goes back to having the plan and what makes sense for you. SPEAKER_03: have a plan, we just keep, you're going to hear that over and over. Your goals, your life, how you feel about things. What's the saying? How many people are in the world now? Five billion? Say five billion. Five billion people in the world and we're all different. Five billion people, five billion different opinions. Think about that. You would have to be someone else to have their opinion. So that's why a plan is so important and a future to live into. So on that note, we're just about finished. Retirement isn't a finish line. It's a completely different chapter of your life. And hopefully you're hearing that today in this a numero uno episode of the Happiness Retirement Hour podcast, but think of retirement that way. Don't think about falling into the couch. Think about how you can make your golden years the best years and really squeeze the juice out of life. Have a plan, work with good planners, and enjoy your life. Until next time, I'm Bill Del Setti. SPEAKER_02: I'm Anna Arceo. SPEAKER_03: Hasta la vista, hasta pronto, see you soon. Thanks for tuning in. If you like the podcast, drop us a line, let us know, subscribe, tell your friends about it, and we'll talk to you soon. SPEAKER_02: Bye everyone.