Advertise on podcast: Coach Listens with Coach Pete

Meet Coach Pete and hear why he shares these conversations. This short introduction features archive highlights from retirement author Tom Hegna, Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, and bestselling author Jen Sincero—on income for life, consistency, and taking action. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Hear the full conversations: Tom Hegna: Don't Worry, Retire Happy and Income for LifeTerrell Davis: The Four-Yard Run, Football, and Financial DisciplineJen Sincero: Making Money and the Mindset of Wealth (Full Interview)Produced October 15, 2026, from finished Coach Listens interview audio. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 I talk to very interesting people, and the most important part is that I shouldn't be the only one hearing it. 00:05 I really feel that if these people make sense to me, that everyone out there needs to hear it. 00:10 A successful retirement really has two key components. 00:14 Number one is increasing income for the rest of your life, and number two is risk management. 00:20 So my coach, when I got to the NFL, said, hey, man, we're not trying to have the long runs. 00:26 If you break a long run, that's great. 00:28 But what we want is consistency. 00:29 We want to be able to say, what is repeatable? 00:33 Absolutely, and it's because your mindset is what propels you to take action. 00:38 So if your mindset is focused on, I can't, it's impossible, it's going to be hard and no fun, your actions are going to reflect that, and you're going to get very, very much nowhere. 00:52 And very, very quickly. 00:54 800-661-7383 is the number to call. 00:56 800-661-7383. 00:59 You can also text keyword plan to 600-700. 01:02 Keyword plan to 600-700. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coach Pete D’Arruda and Mike Milligan discuss qualified longevity annuity contracts, retirement-account withdrawal requirements, and the differences among annuity products. They consider why evaluating a financial product requires more than a blanket endorsement or rejection, and why income, access to money, growth, and personal goals need to work together. Part four of their Financial Safari conversation. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. Loving the conversation today. I'm Thomas Lipscomb in studio with bestselling author Coach Pete D’Arruda, also joining us today, host of the One of a Kind Financial Show. He's an author. Mike Milligan, catch up on the show by heading over to FinancialSafari.com. Hey, Mike, do you do any QLACs? Yeah, I've been doing QLACs for like the last 11 years. Oh, okay, yeah. A lot of people don't understand them, so we don't talk about them too many times on the show. QLAC stands for Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract. Yep. You know, you've lived in a world for so long where you've deferred, deferred, deferred, and then all of a sudden you hit an age, and the IRS and the government says it's time to take a required minimum deposit. And you notice I say deposit there, right? Yep. Not distribution. Correct. 00:45 Because it's a required minimum deposit back to their company, right, to the IRS first, right, in taxes, and then you get what's left over. The required minimum deposit that goes to the IRS in the form of taxes is because they're your business owner. So what a QLAC allows you to do is take a little bit of your IRAs, a little bit of your 401k money, and defer it out a little bit longer so those RMDs don't begin, you know, to as late as 85. Yeah. And most find it. You know, the interesting thing about QLACs, Pete, is most firms don't even know they exist. They, they, and then, and then when they hear the word that it's QLAC and they hear annuity, they're like, oh, that's bad. It's got to be bad. It's not bad, folks. 01:31 Right? It's, it's longevity insurance. Right? It's a promise. Yeah. But Pete, did you find the name of the book? Yeah, Quiet Place. Quiet Place. And it's, it's a book about the QLAC, but it's also about how to, how to make sure you have the lifetime income. Now, here, here's one of the misconceptions about QLACs. It's a funny name. It sounds like Aflac a little bit. Yes, it does. That's what I thought. A duck. But a lot of people thought, Mike, and this is a misconception, and I think it's been fertilized by some people who, who don't want you to put money in a QLAC, fertilized, in other words, growing the rumor, the bad rumor, is that you could not touch the money once you put it in until age 85. But the, that's the exact opposite. You have to start taking the money by age 85. You could put it in today at age 65 and take it, start taking it out at age 66. 02:18 Correct? Yeah. It is. Yeah. You know, the technical, I mean, what a QLAC really technically is, is a deferred income annuity. That's really all it is. Zadia. Right? It just has contract language from the IRS code that allows you to avoid RMD on that for a long period of time. It's a good way to pay less RMDs if you're not needing the money. Then put it in a long-term contract where the government can't touch it. Makes sense. And guess what you could do if you, and guess what you could do if you don't need the RMDs? You could use it for something like maybe a Roth conversion. A lot of people do that. Or, you know, you could lower, yeah, I mean, you could lower your tax bracket. The other thing that most people don't realize, too, about, like, later in life is your medical expenses are going to be a whole lot higher. They're just going to be higher when you're that age. And that's going to be for most people, not for everybody, but they're going to be higher. 03:04 The good news is if your medical expenses are over 7.5% of your total income, guess what? You get to itemize that. Right? So there's a potential for even that QLAC income when it starts at 85 to be tax-free if you're using it for medical. QLAC, to me, is also, like, it's just another way to, like, protect long-term care without necessarily having to pay the premiums of long-term care insurance. It's a great strategy to use. You can self-protect yourself or self-fund yourself if you put enough money away. Self-fund. That's exactly right. That's a good way. And you're not paying tax every year on it while you're deferring, which is a very big part. That's right. Compared to anywhere else people have money, you're going to get taxed every year on that. So this way you're not. Exactly. I want to jump in and ask, what happens to a spouse or beneficiary when the person who owns the QLAC passes? 03:54 It goes to the beneficiary. It's still an IRA, right? So it hasn't mysteriously gone to some new world of taxation, right? Okay. The government still wants their required minimum deposit on it. They still want their taxes. They want their share, right? But it goes to the beneficiary. The most important form in that QLAC when you sign up is something called the beneficiary designation form. So basically you assign ahead of time what's going to happen if you're not here anymore. Okay. And that's where people say, what happens if I die early? Does all that money disappear? No. It goes on to whoever. Money never disappears. It goes on to whoever you assign. Okay. Now, if you don't assign anybody, it will go to your will or your estate. And that creates a couple situations you don't need to create if you make sure you have those beneficiary designations. And if you have financial products now, which most people listening do, do you have your bank account set up POD? 04:45 That means payable on death. Do you have your brokerage account set up TOD, transfer on death? These bypass probate if you set them up right. And your beneficiary designations, I've seen people in the past, Thomas and Mike, where they met with me. And when we had this beneficiary form designation conversation, we'd bring out some of their old forms and they were ex-spouses still on there. That creates a nightmare if you didn't correct that, right? So we luckily were able to correct that. So if you'd like a true beneficiary review, give us a call right now. We'll do it at no cost or obligation. We've seen others charge a lot of money for this, Thomas, because this could cost you a whole lot of money if you don't do it right. Let's make sure to get it done at no cost and make sure it doesn't cost you in the future. The lines are open. Take advantage of this opportunity. 800-661-7383. 800-661-7383. 05:32 Or text keyword plan to 600-700. That's keyword plan to 600-700. All right, Mike, annuity. We've been talking about annuities a little bit because I think they're good to talk about. There's nothing to be ashamed of of annuity. There are some bad ones. There are some good ones. But when someone says, I don't want to look at any annuities because of the fees, what would you tell them? Well, good. Let's dissect them. Right? Some don't have them. That's right, because some don't have them. Like, it's so good. If you think annuities are good minus the fees, guess what? We can find one like that. It's just like anything in life, Pete, right? If you, you know, take a pie, for instance, right? There's some pies that I hate. There's some pies in it. But like, would you, if like, I don't want, like, I don't want a cherry pie. 06:21 And you may say I love cherry pies, but I don't want a cherry pie. I like the song. But if I don't like cherry pies, are all pies bad? No. Are all pies bad because cherry pies bad? No, not at all, right? I mean, there's different types. There's fruit pies. There's sweet potato pies. There's savory pies. Guys, annuities, if you're fee adverse, there's annuity solutions for you. Annuities also come with a lot of benefits. A lot of people don't know, right? There's tax deferral if you're in a tax bracket. You don't get like a double tax deferral if you're in an IRA and the annuity. There's also every annuity comes with guaranteed lifetime income in the contracts, right? Already, every annuity, I don't care which one you have, it's in there. And then it comes with, and then, you know, state regulators say, you know, always supposed to talk about this, 07:10 but there is state insurance guarantee funds on annuities. Every state's have them, right? For up to a certain amount. The people that say annuities are bad, grouping them all together, are people with an agenda, right? If somebody tells you, though, that the only thing they do is an annuities, guess what? They also have an agenda. You need to work with a firm, work with a group that has a total picture, right? Everything from CDs to Bitcoin, boy, those things have attributes for investments. They don't mean they have attributes for you, right? But we have to come up with a plan that includes everything. We have to analyze everything. That's good. And then get you that life that you really want to live. And again, you can begin that process by calling 800-661-7383, 800-661-7383. 08:00 You can also connect by texting that keyword plan to 600-700. That is keyword plan to 600-700. You know, it's funny. The people that have asked me about fees and annuities over the years seem to be the people that have been getting feed to death with financial termites on the risk side. So they assume that the safe side is going to be as bad as the risk side. And there are some bad safe options too, Thomas. And that's why you need to deal with a fiduciary who sits down and analyzes. I would never put anyone in something I wouldn't put myself in. Exactly. Like the Mikey, the financial world. It's true. Hey, what would you tell somebody when you're having an annuity conversation with them about this life

Mike Milligan continues his conversation with Coach Pete D’Arruda about matching a retirement strategy to the person who will live with it. They discuss risk, the tendency to rely on familiar products, and lessons from past planning conversations. Hear why the group favors reviewing the full picture rather than treating every retirement decision as a separate transaction. Part three of their Financial Safari conversation. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 And welcome back into the Financial Safari, having a great conversation today. I'm Thomas Lipscomb in studio with America's Wealth, Financial, and Income Coach, Coach Pete D’Arruda. Also joining us from Puerto Rico, Mike Milligan of One Oak Financial. Thomas, let's give a couple of websites out. Yes. I'm going to give one, and I want you to give it. We have so many. I love it. We really need one site where people go and have all our sites on there. We're going to do that. Master site, yes. We're going to do the master site coming up. Let's do it. Coach Pete's master site. Let's do it. But right now, we don't have it. Until then. But we're going to. So you see, you're getting a look inside my mind right now, folks. I've got over 700 domains, Thomas. I'm sure we can find one. I'm sure. So the one I want to give out is a very good one. It's about my new book, Modern Planning. But the site is planonceplanforlife.com. Planonceplanforlife.com. 00:47 Go there. You can download the e-book right now. We're working on an audio book coming up. But right now, you can download the e-book by going to planonceplanforlife.com. It's about 250 pages. And it really puts things in perspective about lifetime income. We're talking about today. The financial termites. How much 2% or 3% fees can cost you as far as what you could have had in your retirement and what you don't have in retirement. And making sure that you have income you can't outlive. Principle that cannot lose due to the market. That's important, too, by the way. Yes, it is. A floor under the spouse. In other words, making sure your spouse always gets income even if you're not here anymore. Ah, yes. And so that's what I call a floor under the spouse. Not knocking your spouse on the floor. And making sure your money isn't doing nothing. It is doing something. It needs to be doing something at all times. 01:33 Going up, not down. So planonceplanforlife.com. Now, what do you want to say? I love it. So the one I am going to focus on is a great do-it-yourself tool at asapplan.com. That's asapplan.com. As you folks know, if you're a regular listener to the show, Coach Pete has a 22-step total retirement plan process. And what we want to do is to try to enable you to take those steps yourself. Kind of figure out what are you missing? What do you have in hand? What questions do you need to be asking? We are developing a new electronic device. It's a calculator on steroids. But take your time. Go over there. I personally would love to hear your feedback. I'm helping develop this. And we want to make sure it's a tool that's beneficial to you. And again, that's at asapplan.com. Again, asapplan.com. 02:18 And we also are keeping track of when you go there because we're going to give an award of a $100 gift card to Ruth Chris for people that go there and give us any feedback. So we're going to draw the name out here in a couple weeks on the show. There you go. Help me out and I'll help you out. asapplan.com. You can't win unless you go and visit and let us know you visited, right? So that's kind of... That's it. That's what Mike thinks. What else? We've got financialsafari.com too if you want to ask a question on the show. Always. Yeah. If you want to ask a question or just catch up on podcasts, check out the television show. And that leads into the Financial Fill-Up Challenge. If you go to financialfillup.com, we would love to have contestants or audience members for our financial game show. You can also subscribe to the channel. Check out our past episodes. It's a really, really fun game show. A great way to look at retirement. Find out how much you actually know about the process. 03:04 We film episodes every three weeks, folks. So call, get on the list. Either be a contestant or if you want to be in the live studio audience. A lot of good giveaways there during the show too. Oh, it's fun. Yeah, we get gift cards we give away for winners too when they win. Yes, we do. And hey, it's a great way to learn the financial world rather than sitting in class trying to learn it. There you go. Hey, Mike, if you ever ask this question to somebody, you say, when the market had its worst week in years, did you have a single dollar sitting somewhere that you couldn't lose a dime? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, it's a fantastic question and one that a listener should listen to, right? Is, you know, I've never asked anybody that question, but one of the questions I ask is, what's the amount of money that you're willing to lose? Yeah. Because it's a similar question that you're just asking there. 03:53 Because at the end of the day, right, when you go to retirement, you don't want to have to continually watch CNBC or Bloomberg every day. You want to spend time with grandkids. You want to go make an impact in the community. You want to travel. And, you know, like having that stress and fear of watching the news every day becomes depressing, right? Because it's almost like riding a roller coaster. And as you get older, roller coasters are not as fun because of like just your age. And so that whole idea of losing money in retirement is not something that at least the people I talk to in our practice won't want to partake of. Unfortunately, a lot of people that we talk to, I wrote another book called Retirement Deja Vu. It's that feeling that you get when you hear the same story over and over again. 04:41 You know, deja vu. We all get that eerie feeling. And retirement deja vu is what I actually experience when I sit down with a new client because I hear the same story. If I talk to somebody from Edward Jones, like a client of Edward Jones, it's the same story. If I talk to a client from Merrill Lynch, it's the same story. If I talk to, you know, if I talk to people at different firms, I know what that firm's doing. They're just, they're selling the same investment plan in their 9, 11, and 1 o'clock meetings every day. And we actually want people to break away from retirement deja vu. And, you know, ours is the one-of-a-kind financial plan. Yours is the fill-up. And we want to make sure that everybody is getting what they need out of life. Because this life is about you folks. It's not about us. It's not about our life. 05:27 It's this life's about yours. Yours is the only one you can live. And you want to make sure your money lasts as long as you do. You know, we get to share our knowledge with folks. I mean, we've seen, I think I could say this, 34 years. I've seen about every kind of situation you could ever imagine. And I would rather, like my dad used to tell me, that a smart person learns from their mistakes. Like if you're trying to hammer a nail in and you hit your thumb, you won't do that again, will you? Let somebody else hammer. But the genius learns from other people's mistakes. So I've seen all the mistakes out there. And when people come in, I already know what kind of mistakes they're making. I can tell them right away. And Mike, a lot of times it goes back to, like you're saying, which company they're utilizing, which investment advisor or investment company. Because certain companies we can already identify. We know they're going to have a mutual fund strategy as well as a variable annuity in there when we meet with them. 06:13 We already know when they say what company their money is with. So I think it's just important to make sure you understand that there are solutions out there that don't involve taking risk. And not all the money should be there, but some of the money needs to be there because we never know what's going to happen the next year. And it brings back memories. 2006, I used to do a live show on WFNC. That's in Fayetteville, North Carolina, right off of Bragg Boulevard. It was a Krispy Kreme donut that I used to always go there. I would get because it was a live show. So I'd get to the Krispy Kreme about five in the morning on Saturday because the show was at seven. Because, Thomas, you never want to be late to your own show. Sure. And so anyway, I met a whole lot of friendly people in Fayetteville. And then I was at a kitchen table with a couple that had called from the show. This was 2006. 2006. And I was sitting at the kitchen table. 06:59 And the husband and wife were on the other side of the kitchen table. And I had the wife's attention. But I kept noticing that the husband, even though he acted like he was looking at me, he was looking over my shoulder. And so the paranoid person in me, because I've seen, I think, psycho movies were out there. I was wondering who was standing behind me because I thought I was getting ready to get tomahawked or something. But I turned around. I casually dropped my pen. And I looked around. There was a TV behind me. And guess what channel it was on? Tell me. CNBC. The price is right. Yeah, CNBC. And he was watching. And his wife said, when his wife finally noticed what I was doing, she said, let's just call him Harry. Harry always has that stupid channel on. And we can never have any fun because we always have to be watching our retirement. Ooh. And long story short, they got two financial fill-up strategies. 07:45 And they've been happy ever after. And so that's what you have to have. And we took the warrior out of living retirement. We left some money in the stock market so we could still play around. But he wasn't glued to the TV anymore because he knew his retir

Coach Pete D’Arruda and Mike Milligan discuss dedicating part of a retirement plan to income and understanding how an income rider works. They examine why a saver’s priorities can change near retirement, the importance of asking how a strategy is structured, and the difference between product recommendations and a plan built around a client’s needs. Part two of their Financial Safari conversation. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. Loving the conversation today. I'm Thomas Lipscomb in studio with bestselling author Coach Pete D’Arruda, also joining us today, host of the One of a Kind Financial Show. He's an author. Mike Milligan, catch up on the show by heading over to FinancialSafari.com. Mike, I'm sure you've been talking to clients for years, and when you talk to them about a true retirement plan, true or false, I mean, we really haven't talked about this ahead of time, so I'm kind of leaving myself out there. But do you believe that if someone is approaching retirement, they need to have some of their money dedicated to lifetime income? Oh, yeah. Like, you know, the book that I'm most famous for is a book called The One of a Kind Financial Plan. Our company, One Oak Financial, stands for one of a kind. So the one of a kind financial plan, the book I wrote, 00:46 says that you have to answer the question, why is money important to you? Because if you don't answer that question, how can an advisor really do their job, right? So answer the question, why is money important? You have to put a vision for what your life's going to be like. You know, what your community is going to be, what your focus on health is, and what's your impact. But then we get to, like, the actual tactical side. Taxes being the biggest expense you ever have, that's what we start with. Number two, then we go to retirement income. Because at the end of the day, right, most investment people, most one-size-fits-all advisors out there, they actually want to talk investments because that's how they get paid, and then they abdicate responsibility. They say, go to this CPA, go to this attorney, go to this insurance guy. 01:32 Because what they want to do is they want to solely focus on investments. But if you don't focus on taxes being your biggest expense, and retirement income being guaranteed that keeps up with inflation, you're just going to be finding a new advisor in retirement, and nobody really wants that. Because at the end of the day, the biggest thing that keeps people up at night is the fear of running out of money. And if I've done my math right, Pete, you can tell me this, but guaranteed means that you would never run out of money. Is that still true? Yeah, and the guarantees, again, they are only as good as the institution backing them. So you need to make sure you only put your money away long-term with companies that are going to be here for a long, long time, if not forever, right? And so how do you really know that? Well, you have to trust the numbers they put out, their books. 02:20 We've analyzed that all the time. We don't let our clients get in any company that's below an A rating. And so because of B or C rated companies, of course, they're going to offer more. But I'm not willing to take that risk with my clients. So they've got to be at least A rated. And there's something called an income rider that some insurance companies offer on annuities. And annuities are great because there are streams of income you can't outlive. The Roman Empire days, annuities were there. The soldiers would give some, when we're going to battle, they'd find the local financial guy. They'd put money in an annuity, which basically said, I want to make sure my spouse gets income when I'm gone. And if I don't show up back, I want that spouse to get the income forever. And that's how long annuities have been. And so the income riders, we've heard some objections, though, usually ignited by the advisor who doesn't want to let go of the money they have in the market, right? 03:07 Because if they let go of the money they have in the market, they lose their planning fee, their quarterly fee, which they call a fee. I call it commission, money's coming out. But here's one, Mike. I don't want to lose control of my money, somebody would say about an income rider. What would you say about that? Well, I mean, like, you're not going to take all of your money at one time. So, you know, the biggest question is, is what's the biggest check you've ever written in your life? So, you know, a listener out there has $2 million, and I'm like, I don't want to put a million of that into an annuity because I lose access to that. Well, what's the biggest check you ever wrote in your life? It's probably the purchase of a car. Maybe it's a college loan payment, or maybe it was that last check you wrote to pay off your mortgage. But for most people, that biggest check they ever wrote written in their life 03:52 is $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000. Why do you need access? Well, going back to that advisor for a second, Pete, that says they want to keep control of the money, most advisors out there don't leave all the money in the market because their compliance arms make them spread risk around between stocks and bonds. Yep. Well, you know, those income riders, you know, not to talk product or anything, but there's 6% and 7% withdrawal rates that you can get on that guaranteed income. Well, right now, what's the best bond investor in the world getting? Three and a half? Yeah, maybe four. Yeah, I was going to say between four and a half. Yeah, and so, but that's not a guarantee. The bonds can't guarantee you a lifetime income, can they? 04:38 No, no. 2022, bonds went down just like the stock market did, right? Because interest rate risk is a real thing. It's a big one. And so, like, using an income rider from an insurance company is a promise. It's a promise that the money's going to show up every month. It's a promise that it will never end, and it's a promise that you don't have to worry that money's going to be in your account. It's a promise that you won't run out of money. And that's the benefit of an income rider. And that's a big one. And so, like, the strong institutions that offer them, and again, we only talk about the strong ones, and some of them don't fit. I mean, everybody's different. So, there's all different ones. I like to put two different streams of income together for my clients. One for their bills. Those are the bills that are going to come, the housing, the car, whatever else, 05:25 and a little bit extra for emergency bills, or we factor inflation in, too, so put more than you're paying now because we've seen how inflation can affect your net worth down the road. And we also put a stream of income together for you that's going to come every single month all the way through retirement for fun, fun money. Who doesn't want some fun money? You're allowed to spend it for fun. You know, the reason why people don't spend, Mike, is because they're worried in their go-go years, they're worried that they're not going to have enough money. But if you have a guarantee in place that a new check is going to come every 30 to 31 days, showing right up, we call it the green flag on the mailbox, there's no worries anymore. Matter of fact, that's why people pass away when they have too much risk. They're always worried about spending, and they usually don't spend what they should or could. Holy cow, preach it, buddy. Keep going. Keep going, man. That's good. I mean, it's just mind-splitting sometimes how people don't take the right step for themselves, 06:12 and the right step for you listening is to get your very own total retirement plan. But inside there, make sure if you have a retirement plan, make sure it has the retirement income you deserve and you need, and you've been told you need to have. So if you don't have income that's guaranteed, you're not. You're just guessing. Thomas, we got the e-book on lifetime income. Probability is shot down by certainty. You've got to have certainty first. Let's get that e-book in people's hands. All they have to do is call right now. And that number is 800-661-7383, 800-661-7383, or just text keyword PLAN to 600-661. 700, that is keyword PLAN to 600-700. So, Mike, why do you think, you know, well, I know, but why do you think that this one side of the financial world that is constantly lobbing grenades over to the fixed side, the side that guarantees income? 06:58 Well, listen, guys, it comes down to that word fiduciary. A fiduciary is going to do what's in the best interest of the client. Yep. But these firms that manage money for a fee have owners, stockholders, board of directors that are telling you, keep the stream of money coming over to our business over and over again. Pete, do you know what a stream of income is? Oh, yeah, I do. It's an annuity. Yes. It's an annuity. Right. So an annuity, you know, staying in the market, paying a fee every month or every quarter is a stream of income to the business. And so why is an annuity, the stream of income, good for the business, but they will tell you it's bad for you as the consumer? 07:43 It's, you know, it's people who act one way and say something another way. I think we call those hypocrites. And there's a lot of hypocrites in the financial market because how they run their business is how they tell the consumer to not run their household. And all the risk is put on the individual. People, if you have money invested in the market, you have control of that. If you're paying somebody a fee, you have control of that. You can end that. You can use their business model, guaranteed streams of income in your life to reduce fear, stress, and anxiety in your life. And that's probably worth a call in to the show today to see if the

Mike Milligan of One Oak Financial joins Coach Pete D’Arruda and Thomas Lipscomb to discuss retirement income as an asset. They explore the difference between an account balance and a plan for monthly spending, the uncertainty of market returns, and the role income can play in supporting a retirement lifestyle. Part one of their Financial Safari conversation. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome into the Financial Safari. Excited for our show today. I'm Thomas Lipscomb in studio alongside bestselling author Coach Pete D’Arruda. And joining us, we have on the line Mike Milligan, founder of One Oak Financial, host of One of a Kind Financial Show, and a friend of the show as well, a friend of Coach Pete's for a very long time. Hey, Mike, how you doing? I'm good, Pete. How are you? Good. Hey, Thomas, tell everybody where Mike is joining us from. So Mike is joining us from the beautiful land of Puerto Rico. Oh, Michael would say beautiful, right? Is it beautiful down here today? Oh, my gosh. It's 84. It's 84, 85 every day. It's absolutely gorgeous down here. And it's a little bit of a breeze. We haven't had that heat that you guys have had back in North Carolina, right? That has just kind of been stifling over the last month or so. 00:46 It's been crazy. Same every day. Same every day. Watching the U.S. Open on TV the other day. And the players who aren't used to humidity, like even in the first set, they were like, they look like we're getting ready to die. We're used to this, Mike. I mean, I worked in the watermelon fields one year when I was in high school. And remember, I'd been working in the fields back in the day. I don't know if you ever did that. But you're a Scotland County guy, too, by the way, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Coach Willard. Yeah, Coach Willard. Willard's watermelon. So a little history, folks. Mike Milligan there. My mom taught him seventh grade, and we found that out a couple years ago when we met. I didn't know who he was because I'm a little older. But my mom taught you, and that's pretty funny. That's funny, yes. That's right. Small world. Ten years different in age. We ran the same streets. As a matter of fact, we were talking, you know, before the show today, 01:33 we were talking about just some things, you know, that happened back in Scotland County. Good old LBG. You had to make your own fun back in the day. Yes, you did. The good thing there was no social media to tell everyone about the fun you were making. Yeah. Nowadays, kids are getting into trouble. They post everything. Thomas, we always talk about, like, Pete and I, when we went through elementary, middle school, and high school in Scotland County in North Carolina, North Carolina was the 50th ranked school in education in the nation. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Wow. There are 100 counties in North Carolina. Scotland County was 100th. So we literally got the worst education in America. The lowest below. Wow. Hey, you're talking junk about my mom? And yet, here we are. The college goes back in the road. 02:20 You cannot be serious. Be serious. I said U.S. Open. So might as well play a little macro there. No, I mean, it is. My mom took it serious. My dad was a college professor. But, yeah, unfortunately, they don't put in. Well, back in the day, we had the mobile home classrooms, and we had the cinder block schools. Look at these Taj Mahals they're building now. I think they're putting money into the wrong places these days. Instead of building big buildings, they should build big mines. That's good. I like that. And the problem was is, like, when your mom had us in her class, right, there were 28 middle school kids in there, right? And we were more worried about, like, man, that girl looks good now because hormones were kicking off. Right? We weren't worried about, like, you know, Pythagorean's theorem or, you know, the atomic symbol of hydrogen. Right? We just weren't interested in it. 03:06 We were interested in what we're going to do in the field later today and what we're going to do in the break. Unless you're going to be a chemist in the future, it really doesn't matter what the atomic symbol of hydrogen is. It's more important to worry about life. And what the most important thing is is to establish a plan in your life, even if you're not the kind of person that likes to write things down, at least have it in your mind. And when we do a plan, Mike, we like to call it Plan Once, Plan for Life. And it's how to give every dollar you own a color and a job and put a check back in your mailbox every single month for as long as you live when you retire. And stop the quiet leaks that have been eating your money alive while you weren't looking. Those are called financial termites. We put a plan together. We eliminate those financial termites, which could save you 2% to 3% to even 4% hidden fees a year not coming out of you, not evaporating out of your portfolio, staying there. 03:55 Over the course of a 25-, 30-year growth cycle, you're talking about about a million dollars you're losing when you talk about the money you lost plus the interest you could earn. How embarrassing is that in the financial world that some advisors are doing that to people? It's absolutely crazy. But think about this, though, Pete. Like when people go to their job, you know, most people work 30, 40 years at a job. When they go into their job, they have a written job description that they know exactly what they're going to get paid for doing that work. And they have somebody helping them along the way, a manager or a coach or a supervisor, right, helping them in their job. And then they go into retirement and they're, you know, they're trying to do it themselves with something that's not written down without a plan. You would never go to work without a plan, right? You would never try to build a house without a plan. You would never try to go on a trip without some type of, you know, some type of itinerary. 04:45 And most people are just, they don't treat their money the same way. And that's what we, I mean, that's what you guys do at your firm when people call into your show is you put this plan in place. That eliminates, right, a lot of things that people don't even know they have, just like termites, right? Most people don't know they have their termites until they're too late. Most people don't realize what advisors are actually charging because, you know, maybe we can talk about this, the things that we've heard advisors say. Yeah. I've heard advisors say, just trust me. Just trust me. You've got my word on it. That's right. Follow the green line, right? I mean, all of these marketing slogans are the best one. The best marketing slogan out there right now, I am a fiduciary. 05:31 Oh, we hear that all the time. Right. Sometimes I say, well, if you are a fiduciary, why aren't you offering a true income plan to folks so that when they hit retirement, they never have to worry about where the income is going to come from? Why haven't you given them a green flag on their mailbox where every month the postman is going to bring you a check? I mean, you have to spend it because the next month another one is coming. So the game here is spending your money, not trying to save it because you've got to spend it because it's coming in faster than you can spend it. That's the ultimate goal of retirement. Well, the biggest asset you have in your life is your income. And most people just don't realize that. Income is an asset. Yeah. Right. Income in retirement is what helps you sleep at night, what keeps you from being fearful. And it's what keeps you motivated. 06:17 Pete, you've seen studies before, right, that people who have guaranteed lifetime income live longer. Why do they live longer if they have guaranteed lifetime income? Less worry, man. And they're not worrying themselves. You heard that phrase, I'm worrying myself to death. Well, I mean, it's truer than you think. It is. Absolutely. Absolutely. Emotion matters so much in so many different things. And I want to make sure our listeners know that you can connect with Coach Pete's team here at Capital Financial. Just give us a call. You can get these questions answered that Mike and Coach Pete are talking about right now. Again, the number 800-661-7383. 800-661-7383. You can also text us if you'd like to take that method as well. Just text the keyword plan to the number 600-700. That's the keyword plan to the number 600-700. Mike, I agree. I think the most important asset class is lifetime guaranteed income. 07:05 Without that, you really don't have a retirement plan. And if we're truthful, and if we all were truthful, if the listeners would just sit back and just be honest with themselves right now, most of the advisors out there do not give you a guaranteed income plan. They give you an investment account and say we're going to take 4% of it. They say let's put this money in this sleeve and you'll just draw down on it. That's not a plan, folks. That's the investment guys still capitalizing by keeping more of your money so they can charge more fees. And at the end of the day, a written income plan is something totally different than a 401k, an IRA, or a brokerage account. A written income plan says what's going to show up in my account on the second Tuesday of every month. 07:51 What's going to show up on the 17th of every month in my checking account so I can pay my bills. A written income plan is something that helps you no matter what's happening in the stock market. We've got something we call a WSST. It's a Wall Street sales tool, WSST. And the biggest Wall Street sales tool we see that is used to put people in the wrong place for retirement, I feel, is something called the Monte Carlo simulation. Are you familiar with that, Mike? Oh, 100%. It's the thing that it's

Coach Pete D’Arruda and Phil Graham examine costs that can quietly reduce a retirement paycheck. Topics include Medicare’s income-related premium adjustments, taxes on Social Security benefits, Roth conversion considerations, and the cumulative effect of investment fees. They discuss why understanding these rules before making withdrawals can help frame a more useful conversation with your financial and tax professionals. Part four of the Financial Safari interview. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. Consumer advocate Thomas Lipscomb here with you alongside Phil Graham, special friend of the show here alongside bestselling author, America's Wealth, Financial, and Income Coach, Coach Pete D’Arruda. Get your own questions answered or tune in to past episodes and check out all of our free resources by heading over to FinancialSafari.com. Again, that's FinancialSafari.com. And don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube. FinancialSpeakeasy.com is the way to get there. Again, that's FinancialSpeakeasy.com. We're releasing new videos all the time. Great way to make sure that you are up to date on what you need to know heading into retirement. Let me give you one more site while we're doing it. PlanOncePlanForLife.com. That's where you can, if you go there right now, we'll send you one of these e-books out right away. The Modern Planning, PlanOncePlanForLife.com. 00:47 Thomas, there's five, and Phil, and everybody else out there in Radio Land, there are five quiet drains on your retirement paycheck, all right? These are quiet assassins. We don't like quiet assassins when it's touching our money. None of these is a scam, and nobody's going to call you about them. Every one is a rule working exactly the way it was written, and every one of them is far easier to deal with before it applies than after. Very, very important. That's why we're going to talk about it. That's good. Now, I've sat across the table from people who did everything right. They saved steadily. They stayed out of debt. They retired with more than they needed, and still watched a few thousand dollars a year walk out the door for reasons they never saw coming. So we're going to talk about what they are. And it's not because anyone cheated them, Thomas and Phil and everybody out there. It's because a threshold moved past them, or a look back caught them, or a rule that they had never heard of finally applied. 01:42 That always stinks to be zinked by something like that. So what follows? We're going to talk about the five I see the most, the five quiet drains on your portfolio. And all the figures are 2026 figures that we're going to talk about here. So they're pretty up-date. But the first one is something that, Phil, we've talked about this, Thomas, as well, off show. And it's one that came out of nowhere. It's called your Aunt Irma. I-R-M-A-A look back. Thomas, not a good thing. Doesn't sound like a good thing. And when I first heard this word, I thought, because my wife is from Holland. Hold on. I feel like I've heard that as a name before. All right. Let me tell you what it stands for. It stands for Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. In plain language, it's your income. If your income is above a certain line, you pay more for Medicare Part B and D. 02:31 And these are two things about it that catch people. All right. The two big things. First, it looks backward two years. So your 2026 Medicare premium is set by your 2024 tax return. Whoa. Now, a lot of people didn't realize that. No, that's interesting. And not this year's income. Not last year's. The one you filed in 2025 for the year 2024. Talk about confusing. Phil, what do you think about that? Can you repeat the question? Can you just listen to it? I was listening to the years, and in my brain, I'm trying to track. And then that last part, I'm like, now I'm lost again. I don't know. That was the correct answer right there. You're lost. Yeah, I can't figure it out. Yeah. So keep in mind, if 2024, we're talking about 2024 and you're in retirement now, possibly 03:18 that was your last full year of work. Or the year you sold a rental property. Or the year you did a large Roth conversion. And now it puts you way over that threshold. And second, it is a cliff, not a ramp. You know, ramps are easy to deal with because they're slow and steady and gradual. A cliff. Now, I've never jumped over one or walked through one or walked over one of you. You wouldn't be here. Exactly. No. You know, I think of those movies, though, where you see all the buffalo or wherever it is, and they're following each other, and they'll just go right over this. Yeah. So what do I mean when I say a cliff? Well, there's no gentle phase in. One dollar over the line. One dollar over that line that they say, the line of demarcation. Just one dollar. And the full surcharge applies for the entire year. Talk about a government penalty. Wow. How does that make you feel? Don't like it. Now, there's something called a QLAC. 04:06 QLAC. Qualified Lifetime Annuity Contract. Now, these have been developed. They've been around for years, but a lot of people don't realize what they are. And what this is, is for IRA money, which really can kill you when you start doing those minimum required distributions, right? MRDs. You can take the money off that MRD equation by every dollar you put into a QLAC. So let's say you have $500,000 in a regular IRA, and you don't want to keep paying those minimum required distributions on that. So you transfer, let's say, $300,000 into a QLAC. Okay. Now, the QLAC now, that takes $300,000 off of your MRD equation. In other words, you're not taxed on that each and every year. You don't have to take the money out. Oh, nice. And the QLAC says, and this is what confuses people, the QLAC says you have until age 85 04:51 to start taking that money out. The confusion, Phil, and I think you'll agree with that, is a lot of people thought that once you put money in a QLAC, you could not touch it until age 85. Is that correct? That's what people thought. Correct. But that's not the case. No. You can basically take it anytime you want. But when you take it out, now you have to start reporting it again on the MRD equation. Yeah. Uncle Sam's usually flexible when it means that they're going to get tax money sooner. Yeah. So I wrote a book about this called Quiet Money. And when you think about it, the money you put in a QLAC turns quiet. It's not sitting there yelling at Uncle Sam saying, hey, come over here and tax me. It gets really quiet and it hides legally. I like that. So that's a good one. That helps with a tax torpedo. We don't like tax torpedoes. Most people believe Social Security either is or isn't taxed. 05:37 It is neither. How much of it lands on your return depends on a number called combined income, which is your adjusted gross income plus any tax exempt interest plus half of your Social Security benefit. Cross that first threshold and up to half of your benefit becomes taxable. Cross the second one and up to 85% of your Social Security, which was a tax to begin with, by the way, is now taxable. Wow. Oh, man. Thanks, Uncle Sam. Here's the part that makes it a torpedo rather than a bump. Those thresholds have never been adjusted for inflation. Think about that. Have we had inflation the last few years? That means they're low is what you're saying. In other words, a lot of people are triggering that and didn't even know it. 06:23 So $25,000 was a real income in 1984. It is not one now, is it? 1984, $25,000. The Social Security Administration's own historians note that the thresholds were deliberately left unindexed and they document the result. The share of beneficiaries owing tax on their benefits has climbed steadily. In other words, if you have money, you're going to pay taxes now for Social Security because they're not adjusting that inflation amount up. So, I mean, it's $25,000. It's nothing anymore, but that starts triggering things. Yeah, sure. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Wow. Phil, how does that make you feel on that? Not good. And when I think about that, Coach, we always talk about it's based on your taxable income. Is there a way to get not taxable income that doesn't trigger that so I can still put the money in my pocket and spend it, but I'm not triggering all these phantom taxes? 07:10 Well, one of the ways is a Roth conversion. And a lot of folks, like David Walker, when he was on here, was talking about he has most of his money in Roth IRAs. And he should know he was our former comptroller general. And he said, Coach, the taxes are going up. There's no doubt. He said, so converting to Roth, it does hurt a little bit. Having to pay the taxes, he said, but now I pay taxes once and never pay again. Again, plan once, plan for life. And you don't have those required minimum distributions where you're forced to take it and your beneficiaries inherit it tax-free. Uncle Sam shows up next year. The tax man says, well, let me start taxing you on your IRAs and say, you know, I don't have any IRAs anymore. I have Roth IRAs. And so you just slam the door in his face. So if you want to find out about the Roth conversion strategies that make sense to make sure you don't get tax torpedoed, call right now. We'll do a plan for you that encompasses everything we've talked about today. 07:57 When you come in, you'll leave with three books. One being this new book, Modern Planning. Plan once, plan for life. You'll also leave with the 22-step total retirement plan. It's a workbook. It's $99. We're going to give it to you. But it's an interactive one. We will cover every step with you or behind the scenes for you and we'll categorize everything on one color-coded page that makes a lot of sense when you see it. There's no need for hundreds and hundreds of pages t

Phil Graham and Coach Pete D’Arruda connect retirement income with the broader work of estate and legacy planning. They discuss the shift away from employer pensions, the stress of repeatedly second-guessing investments, and why a written strategy should explain how monthly income supports the rest of a plan. The conversation returns to beneficiary forms, financial blind spots, and reviewing costs before they erode savings. Part three of the Financial Safari interview. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. I'm having a great conversation. Thomas Lipscomb here with you alongside bestselling author, Coach Pete D’Arruda. Also in studio with us, veteran of the financial arena, financial strategist, Phil Gramming. Have a great conversation. If you want to catch up on it, just head over to FinancialSafari.com. Again, that's FinancialSafari.com. Not only can you catch up on this episode, you can catch up on past episodes, as well as check out all of the great resources Coach has made available right there, FinancialSafari.com. Yeah, I wrote a book called Plan Once, Plan for Life. Modern Planning. And modern planning, what is that? Well, I mean, our planning now, Phil, is a lot different than what our grandparents were planning because our grandparents had a pension. That's right. Most people listening now don't. And so this modern planning techniques, and if you're going to plan and spend all the time putting a plan together. 00:46 Thanks to the government. Yeah. But if you're going to spend all this time putting a plan together, do it once and don't worry about it anymore. So Plan Once, Plan for Life is our motto here. And let me ask you this question out there in Radio Land. Listen, how many times a year do you catch yourself checking, worrying, and second-guessing your money? And be honest with yourself. Now, if your spouse is right next to you, don't give it away with a look on your face because you might be in trouble. But I really think I worry about money. Thomas, you ever worry about money? Oh, certainly. I mean, who doesn't worry about money? Oh, yes. But the worries need to have some action attached to it. Worrying all the time is not good. That's what they call the – something called an ulcer develops if you do that. So what we need to do is get rid of that. And how do you get rid of it? Well, you don't go see a pharmacist because they'll give you drugs for it, right? And then that covers it up. 01:32 That really doesn't get rid of it. How you get rid of it is you rearrange your money. There you go. We're not talking about a Titanic, Thomas, by the way. You know, rearranging the furniture on the deck, was that a good job? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. So that's what happens a lot of times when people say, well, yeah, I'm just going to move from this brokerage house to this other brokerage gal. Well, that's just rearranging the furniture on the Titanic because the money is still all at risk. Correct? It's true. It is very true. And what was your point? And something else that you've mentioned in the past is paralysis by analysis where people get confronted with this, I think, of a tsunami coming at you and just don't know where to tackle it. And that can be very frustrating when you don't have a professional with you. Yeah. Well, it makes a lot of sense. So here's a question. Remember full service, Phil, at the gas station? Yeah. I think even in New Jersey, they still do that. 02:18 They still do. Yeah, they do. So you drive up, go over that little thing, and then that little bell would ring. I remember back in the day, of course, I was little Pete back in the Ambassador Station Wagon days with the wood panel. It looked like Chevy Chase's station wagon. Dad would buy them from the state auction. They were cheaper, like they were state cars. But we'd pull in, and Mom would be driving, and I think Bob or Jeff would be in front. I like to be in back so I could stay out of trouble. Mom didn't see what I was doing a lot of times. But we'd pull in, and two guys would run out. They would pop our trunk. They'd check the oil. They'd refill the windshield washer stuff, and they would fill the car up. And we didn't have to get out. And so that same kind of theory is what we built the financial fill-up strategy around. And let me ask you this question. What if filling up your retirement income worked like filling up your car? 03:07 You just pull in, and they top it off once a month, and it just keeps running all the way through your life. That's the everlasting gobstopper in the financial world. Remember Willy Wonka? Yeah. Yeah, I could get bored with the same candy, though, wouldn't you? I would. What if it kept putting new flavor, I guess? Remember the everlasting gobstopper? I mean, as a candy connoisseur, Thomas, growing up, I loved to watch Willy Wonka chocolate f*g. Oh, me too, me too. And I'll tell you, I can always go back to a butterfinger. Never lay a finger on my butterfinger, as they say. But, Phil, we're talking about the financial fill-up. And a lot of people, again, ask yourself that question. What if you could just every month wake up, and there's a new check in your mailbox? How would that make you feel? That would make me feel fantastic. I would love to have my bank account get refilled every month. Yeah. 03:52 Well, it's possible. It's not one of those improbable things. The problem is a lot of people have their money at too much risk. And when you put your money at risk, what I've seen over my lifetime is if there's risk attached, there's commissions attached. And the commissions are called fees instead of commissions. But it hurts just as much when the money comes out. That's when they can say, well, we don't charge commissions. Well, what is this thing coming out of my account every quarter then if you don't charge commissions? Well, that's a fee. Oh, okay. Well, that makes sense. No, it doesn't. In perpetuity. Phil, does that make sense to you? If it's coming out of your money, who cares what they call it? It's the same thing. I call it a financial termite. That's good. Whether you make money or lose money. I've never seen somebody say that if they manage your money and they lose money, in that quarter, they won't take a fee out of you. Was it like stockbrokers and weathermen are the only people that get paid whether they are right? 04:41 Oh. Yeah. And, you know, the weather, you know, just canceling the cookout is a lot better than losing a lot of money in the market. There you go. Truly. Now that we have microwaves, always cook that hot dog in the microwave. Ballpark Franks, Phil. Remember those? They're still around. They're still around. What do you mean remember? Well, because they're different. What was their saying back in the day? Didn't they fill up the whole bun? They plump. When do you cook them? Ah, there we go. And they used to plump. I used to love that stuff. I'd take it out of the microwave. It'd be double the size. Sure. Not happening anymore. So I'm just wondering what kind of chemical was in there that shouldn't have been. Good stuff. Remember those balloons you'd grow and you'd blow yourself? You'd put the red tube. You'd put that chemical stuff that had a smell to it and you'd blow in the tube and it would make a big ball? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Remember the smell, Thomas? Oh, yeah. Did it remind you of model glue a little bit? I mean, you know. Thomas, don't admit stuff. But, you know, it's funny. 05:27 They don't make that anymore either. And I did some research on it. It was some chemical that has like 30 letters in it. Oh, Lord. Dialed methyl. You know, one of those things. Something that the Breaking Bad guy would probably use. Yes. So let's make sure that our plan is doing what it's supposed to do. And I want you guys, Thomas, do you have a trivia question? Because I want to give a couple of these new books out. Always, always. All right. You got it handy? Let's do it. Let me put the trivia music. All right, folks. So you're going to be able to text your response to the number 600-700. Yes or no? Can a beneficiary designation on certain accounts override what your will says? Yes or no to 600-700. What do you think? 06:13 Good trivia question there. Can a beneficiary designation on certain accounts override what your will says? Text yes or no to 600-700. That is either yes or no to 600-700. And again, you can also call and let us know your response there as well. 800-661-7383. 800-661-7383. And the book is brand new, hot off the press, Modern Planning, Plan Once, Plan for Life. Phil, I've got to get you a copy of this book. It's over 250 pages, and it is a instruction manual for a successful retirement, not just trusting what you hear, but verifying and writing. How important is that? So not hope and pray? No. That's not a strategy? No. And we're going to send this out to you, folks. 06:59 We're not going to charge you anything. I've already bought the books, and I'm going to buy the postage. All you have to do is buy the time, that minute, to text us your address. Truly. And if you have any questions, we can answer those, too. You're also going to get a golden ticket in this book, which will give you the ability to get your very own total retirement plan done for you. You can give it as a gift to somebody else if you want. If you come in and have the plan done, we'll give you another one to give to one of your closest friends or relatives. I just think it's important that we get educated, folks, and make sure our plan is doing what it's supposed to do, what we understand it to do, what we've been told it's going to do. Phil, let's return back to the six places you can put your money to bypass probate. Now, earlier we've talked about 401Ks, 403Bs, TSPs. They bypass any will or trust and probate. We have bank accounts with the POD

Coach Pete D’Arruda and Phil Graham discuss why a will does not necessarily decide who receives every account. They explore beneficiary designations, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death arrangements, life insurance, and the problems that can follow outdated paperwork. Hear the questions they suggest asking when reviewing who is named on your accounts and how those choices fit your family’s legacy plan. Part two of the Financial Safari interview. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. Having a wonderful show today. I'm Thomas Lipscomb here in studio with bestselling author, Coach Pete D’Arruda. We also have Phil Graham on the line, a friend of the show, who has been a financial strategist for going on 30 years. Coach, you have such great friends. Well, yeah, I keep good friends around. If they're very nice people, then I get along good with them. They're not trying to jump off a bridge, right? No, we don't want any of that. You know, we talked, I teased people before we left. I said six accounts that never read your will. And that's a strange way to look at it, but what does that mean? Well, you spend a lot of money on a will or even a trust, and some accounts that don't depend on that or don't even look at it, or you can bypass that. And so people spend real money on a will and then assume it governs everything they own. For a great many households, it governs almost none of it. 00:48 In other words, it doesn't really handle much at all. So the largest accounts pass from a form somebody filled out years ago. It's a form you fill out when you get in certain things. We're going to talk about that. And the will never gets a vote. In other words, there's some ways to bypass that will or trust. This is not a loophole, and it's not a mistake in the law. It's just how these accounts were designed to work quickly, privately, and outside of court. That's a good thing, by the way. The trouble is that the form is usually signed on the first day of employment, filed away, and never looked at again through a marriage, a divorce, a death, and 30 years of life. So, Phil, in other words, the 20-year-old Coach Pete has nothing to do with the 60-year-old Coach Pete. Right? A whole different thing. What if I had filled out a form when I was 23 and I started a 401K with a company, and now I'm 60? 01:36 I don't remember filling that form out. I don't remember what I did yesterday these days sometimes. What I had for dinner, that kind of thing. So there's six accounts, though, that you can buy. This is a good thing. I set it up to make it sound like it was maybe mysterious or not good. These are good things to bypass the court, bypassing probate and bypassing even trust a lot of times. You have to know what forms. A lot of people write all the language in the will or trust, but no one will ever read that because they filled out a form that bypasses it. So, Phil, do you want to give one of the six that don't depend on the trust or will? I would say probably 401K because it has a beneficiary. Exactly. But the real question is, do you know who the beneficiary is you have on your 401K? Could be an ex-spouse. 02:22 Is it your ex-wife? Yeah. So you never know. That's why we encourage people to review your beneficiary forms. And a lot of people don't even remember filling it out. But once a year, if you can, at least every five years. And when we get closer to retirement or in retirement, maybe every year because things speed up. That's right. I mean, years seem to go faster. So 401Ks, 403Bs, and TSPs. Now, TSPs are the Thrift Savings Plan. We've got a brand new book out called Thrift or Thrive. And if you're a federal employee, you really need to get your hands on this. And by the way, I love federal employees, Thomas. That's our mail people, and they do a great job. Anyone who works for FBI people. I love my FBI people. Don't want to get mad at me. But, you know, federal employees, you spend all your time. I mean, think about the mailmen and women. They're working seven days a week now, it seems like. 03:07 I'm getting mail all the time. So I really appreciate them. So I want to donate to them my appreciation. I've got the book, Thrift or Thrive. If you are a federal employee, all you have to do is call now, and I will send you a copy of this book. It's over 100 pages of very helpful tips and techniques to make sure you can maximize and truly benefit from your retirement plan and make sure you're doing the right things. So, Thomas, federal employees, the next 20 right now. All right, folks, just call 800-661-7383, 800-661-7383, or you can text keyword free to 600-700. That is keyword free to 600-700 because, Coach, great gift here. Yeah. Phil, this is just a fun topic to me because this is talking about bypassing probate. We've heard that phrase before. I just rephrased it a little bit. But bypassing probate. So we've got the 401Ks, 403Bs, and TSPs. 03:53 We count that as just one group. So there's five more places that you can make sure to fill out correctly and bypass that trust or will. Do you want to give another one or do you want me to? Well, one that I talk about a lot because there's certain accounts that don't naturally have beneficiaries. Sure. Bank accounts or certain investment accounts don't naturally have beneficiaries. So you have to add a TOD or POD, a specific form to specific people to transfer that money on death or pay that money on death, which does avoid probate to allow those accounts to go around them too. I've been amazed over 34 years of talking to folks in the financial arena that most people have never heard of this and many times didn't fill it out, especially when you open a bank account. 04:40 POD. Phil, basically you gave me two answers, too. You gave me two of the six right there. That's right. I'm an overachiever, Coach. But POD is payable on death, and you fill that out ahead of time. And that means when you pass away, as long as the death certificate is supplied, that money goes right to the beneficiary. You don't have to go through probate. That's the POD with the bank account. Your CDs, anything you signed up with the bank. Call your banker if you don't have that or don't see it or can't find it or don't remember it. Or bring in what you have here. We can call the bank for you, with you. And then we talked about brokerage accounts. That's where you have signed up, you know, online, maybe the E-Trades or wherever you have a brokerage account at. You probably either did or don't remember or maybe didn't do a TOD form. That means transfer on death. Phil, big question to you. Why do they just name them both the same thing? 05:26 I mean, they both do the same thing. They just want to be different, I guess. TOD for brokerage accounts and POD for bank accounts. Is there a reason? My understanding is the transfer on death transfers ownership, so that way you don't have to liquidate those investment holdings to pay it out. Whereas at the bank, it's just cash. You know, you're not worried about is the stock market up or down. Now, tell folks a very important thing about when we die, the money in our stock accounts, when the money passes on or transfers on to the next of kin. What kind of taxes are owed on that stock? Let's say granny bought UPS at, let's say, $5 a share. And that's $500 a share when she passed away. That's a $495 per share capital gain. What did the beneficiaries owe that day they inherited that money on granny buying that five, and now it's worth $500. 06:14 What do you owe capital gains-wise? If it's set up correctly, you can get a stepped-up basis. So what does that mean? It means you don't have to pay any tax, and me as the person inheriting the money, my new cost basis, what my future tax is going to be based on is that higher value, which is what a lot of wealthy people do, is they borrow from their brokerage accounts versus actually liquidating so they avoid the capital gains or at least defer it almost in perpetuity. Now, that's great. If you can afford that and don't need the money, then that's the best way to pass it on. Unfortunately, a lot of people have most of their money tied to the stock market, and they need to fund their retirement plan. And I've heard this phrase now three times from my advisors in the last couple weeks where people have said, I've got too much of a gain. I don't want to liquidate my stock right now, but they need the money to live on. 07:02 But they're worried about paying taxes. And my phrase, and I've used this phrase, well, I'd rather pay tax on a gain than have a write-off on a loss. And let me ask you this question, Phil. Do you think we are in, historically, are we in a good or bad tax environment for capital gains tax? We are in some of the greatest tax rates in history. So they're on sale right now. And with our debt going up every day, with more people needing Medicare, more people needing Social Security, and fewer people actually paying taxes, I think tax rates have – mathematically, they have to go up. Yeah, and whoever's paying taxes is going to be left footing the bill. 07:48 And now they're starting to go after your retirement income heavily from a tax perspective because that's where the bulk of the income is coming from. Yeah, well, we had David Walker on, former U.S. Comptroller General under Clinton and Bush. So he's on both sides. And he said, Coach, I had to resign because I got tired of signing checks and we're going to bounce. And he is agreeing where tax rates are going to go up like crazy. And so if you're delaying liquidating a gain now because you want to somehow hope for some imaginary tax deduction, I don't think those days are coming. And if you need that money, you're torturing yourself right now by not paying those taxes. And you're going to torture yourself in the future when y

Phil Graham joins Coach Pete D’Arruda and Thomas Lipscomb to discuss the questions that can reveal weaknesses in a retirement plan. They examine financial blind spots, hidden costs, market losses near retirement, and the difference between an account balance and a dependable income strategy. The conversation connects those risks with Coach Pete’s Financial Fill-Up approach to planning for future spending. Part one of the Financial Safari interview. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome into the Financial Safari. Excited for the show today. Consumer advocate Thomas Lipscomb with you here in studio alongside best-selling author Coach Pete D’Arruda. We also have a special guest on the line with us, Phil Graham, friend of the show, financial strategist that Coach Pete has known for a very long time, nearly three decades in the financial arena. Welcome in, guys. What's happening, Thomas? Oh, everything. I'm loving it. I'm excited for the show today. We haven't had you on in a few months here now, and every time we have you on the show, Coach, I got to say it. It's just a fantastic program. So much insight comes out. I've known Phil for over 20 years now, probably more than that, Phil. I mean, who knows? It's been a long time. We're getting older. Good thing, though. I like getting older. Better than the alternative. And he's in the Charlotte area, an area called Cornelius. 00:47 And when I hear that, I think of playing the Apes because I'm older. Ah, yes, yes. I think of Vanderbilt. I think of the Biltmore House. So, Cornelius Vanderbilt. Oh, there you go. He's in our series, Grow It or Blow It, Volume 1. Yes, he is. Bryson, he was a blow it, wasn't he? Not him, but his next generation and generation after that. His posterity. Yeah. Yes, absolutely was. Yeah, unfortunately. No, Phil, it's just a fast-moving world. We see this every single day and every single year, and it's been a great time knowing you. And every time we've got together, we've talked about some different financial things that have come up. So, one of the things is, the question we always ask each other, and it's good to think about, when the market had its worst week in years, did you have a single dollar sitting somewhere that couldn't lose a dime? That's what we ask people a lot of times. 01:33 And a lot of people can't answer that honestly or truthfully and say, no, all my money was exposed to bad things. Is that a good thing to have all your money exposed if and when the market's going all the way down or down? Even if it's not necessarily a good or bad thing, is it a scary thing? I think that would be frightening if I didn't know whether my money was safe or not, especially if I'm close to retirement. I think that would be a scary thing. Yeah. I mean, what if there's a lot of financial termites in there, too? I mean, and the first question you have to ask yourself is, what is a financial termite? You hear this guy on the radio talking about it. And then you ask your advisor, oh, don't worry, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. That Coach Pete guy? No, he's just stupid. No, financial termites are unnecessary. And there's a lot of unnecessary things. 02:18 We needed to go to Webster's Dictionary and look up that term, what unnecessary is. But unnecessary fees, risks, and commissions. Now, what's an unnecessary commission in your mind, Phil? I call it Dr. Phil, but Phil? Something I don't get value from. Yeah. Yeah. I would look at that as unnecessary. Hey, Thomas, Phil didn't know he was going to come on and get drilled today, did he? No, it's, you know, unnecessary. Thomas, I saw you typing. Did you look it up? I looked it up. There you go. So it means not necessary, believe it or not, is what Webster's is telling me on the interwebs here. What was the definition? Not necessary. Of what? Of what word? Unnecessary. So unnecessary is not necessary. Well, yeah, Webster did a lot of work on that one. 03:04 I know, really? Oh, man. I think that person was taking the day off when he wrote that definition. Oh, this is funny. Check this out. Browse nearby words. Unnecessarness and unnecessated. Coach, it sounds like you and I wrote this dictionary. Yeah, yeah. Thomas, like they do when they're stalling on the spelling bee. Can you give that to me in a sentence? Hey, no. No, unfortunately, I cannot. When you say, Coach, that's unnecessary. Yay. I like that. That's good. That's a good one. That's a good one. Hey, Phil, while I got you on the phone, you know, we learned this a couple of weeks ago or probably a couple of months ago now. It seems like just yesterday on the show. But, you know, we have borders on our country between us and Canada and us and Mexico. What do the people in Finland call their border? Let me think for a second. 03:50 Thomas, you got the Jeopardy music? Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. I have no idea, Coach. I can't wait to hear the answer, though. Well, it's the finish line, of course. Dang it. There you go. Sounds like a morning show to me. I love it. I love it. But it's just important, and there's nothing to make fun of, but there's too many people out there that don't realize what's really going on in their wallet. So, folks, do you really, and ask yourself this honestly, do you really know where every dollar in your portfolio is going, has been, or will go, depending on what happens in the market or what your advisor has built into your plan that might not be necessary? Again, there's that word again, unnecessary or necessary. So, it's a good question to ask. And, Phil, you know, you've been around advisors for over three decades now. 04:36 And what do you think some of the main concerns when they're meeting with clients or people that they're meeting with that are concerned? Maybe they're not clients yet. But what do you think some of the, like, let's go over three main concerns. Somebody who is approaching that financial red zone. Let's say somebody 60, in the early 60s. What do you think three main concerns that they need to be paying attention to that they really haven't thought about the last decade or even their whole life? Because it's a whole different time of your life when you approach this retirement world. I mean, it seems like so far away, then it's here. But what do people need to do to make sure they're successful in retirement? What I've seen is a lot of people actually are closer to being able to retire than they think as long as they don't lose a lot of money right before they retire. 05:22 To me, that's a big threat is, hey, I want to retire in a couple years, coach. And then all of a sudden, there's a market correction. We should look up that definition. I don't know who the market is correcting for, but it's not me. But if the market goes down right before you retire, that's not a good thing or something you want to happen is to lose money right before retirement. I think that's something they need to look at. Yeah. Well, because it's not just losing money. Now you're losing time. What do you mean, coach? Well, you can't retire now. Right. I mean, you were just getting to that finish line where you were going to, in your mind, just have enough to retire. And then somebody takes 30 or 40% away. What happens next? And on top of that, do you know to the dollar what you paid your advisor last quarter, or 06:08 does it just quietly come out? Think about that. And even psychologically, even if you could technically get enough income to retire, having a big portion of your nest egg evaporate might make you reconsider retiring. And that's not a good mindset that you want to be in either. That's a financial evaporation. We can't have that either. And so, folks, if you are curious about what's going on in your own portfolio, if you weren't able to answer these questions we've gone over in a positive way, or maybe it just aroused some curiosity, call right now. Our team will go over with you from point A to point Z what's going on in your wallet, where those financial termites are, if there are any. If there aren't, it's great to get that financial termite inspection report and get an A-plus on that. That's good. That means none. 06:54 We go from A-plus to F. We've seen too many Fs lately. I don't want you to have an F. That's right. We need to at least, my brothers and I, because my dad was a college professor, we had to have A's and B's. If we approached the C level, we were in a lot of trouble. And that's when the report cards used to come in the mail at the summertime. We'd get that last report. Now it's through the internet. But luckily, back then, it was through the mail. And it was usually a week or two after school was out. And if it came on a Friday, my brothers and I would always get the mail. We would make sure to lose it until Monday. We didn't lose the weekend. So we can't have, we really need A's or B's. Anything below a B would not be acceptable to my dad. And it's not acceptable to me either, as far as the financial world. So call right now. We'll do that financial termite inspection report. We'll also put together for you the total retirement plan and color code your money so you know your red, green, yellows. 07:44 When we get closer to retirement, it's more important to have green with lifetime income than it is to have red with maximum risk. Thomas, tell folks how to get that. The next 20 people will do this at no cost or obligation. We have seen others charge over $1,000 for things that don't even come close to this. And the question we're going to help you answer is where are your advisor's fees coming from each quarter? Are they coming from your pocket? Or somewhere else? And if it's coming from somewhere else, that means your money stays the same as far as fee-wise. Ask your advisor that. Where are your fees that I pay you? Where are they coming from? Thomas, tell fo

Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker joins Coach Pete D’Arruda to discuss America’s debt, the pressures facing Social Security and Medicare, and why fiscal decisions in Washington matter to families preparing for retirement. They explore Walker’s proposals for reform, his concerns for future generations, and the importance of getting your own financial house in order. The conversation also touches on Roth conversions, taxes, and planning ahead instead of waiting for a crisis. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Consumer advocate Thomas Lipscomb here with you alongside America's wealth, financial, and income coach, best-selling author, Coach Pete D’Arruda. Excited for the show today. Coach, you always have such special guests that come on the program, no less this weekend as well. Well, it's been about 20 years since I've known David, and we're having David Walker, folks, former U.S. Comptroller General, and over with both different parties, so it's not like one party. And I remember, David, we saw each other in 2012 when you were in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. You were on your 10 million a minute bus tour. Remember that day? I remember. It ain't worse now. I know. I was telling Thomas and my daughter Carrie, who's my summer intern here, I told those guys, I said, I'm going to talk about it being 10 million a minute, and David's going to get mad about that. 00:45 Now, what is it now, you think, David? It's over 10. I haven't calculated. Let's put it this way. You know, back then, our total liabilities and unfunded obligations were $70 trillion. Now, they're $136 trillion plus and going up rapidly. And so, you know, we've lost control. There's just absolutely no question. You know, when do you think, because Congress, both sides, they meet, you know, they meet all the time, and who knows what they do up there, but they never accomplish what they're supposed to. They kick this can down the road. They can't even agree on a spending bill anymore. We keep having these government shutdowns. How are they ever going to agree to pay this debt? Well, first, Congress is very good at doing nothing. And that's okay when things are going well. But when things aren't going well and they're getting worse with the passage of time, it's 01:34 not acceptable. And it's a bipartisan problem. It is. You know, whether the Democrats are in charge or Republicans, they've both been kicking the can down the road. You know, there's only one thing in the Constitution that Congress is supposed to do every year, only one. And that's passed all the appropriations bills on time. The last time they did it was 96. They've only done it four times in my lifetime. That's an F minus. So look, here's what it's going to take, Pete. You know, it's going to take a statutory, meaning by law, fiscal commission that will educate, engage the American people on the facts, the truth, the tough choices, solicit input, make a package of recommendations for up or down vote in Congress. And secondly, a constitutional amendment that limits how much debt we can take on as a percentage 02:23 of the economy, absent limited and extraordinary conditions. A constitutional amendment is the only thing that will force the Congress to restore and sustain fiscal sanity. They're not going to, I mean, why would they do that? I mean, I can't even get folks a lot of times to pay attention to the fact that a Roth IRA is a great place. You pay the taxes now, you put the money away, you never have to worry about taxes again. People don't want to even think about spending or paying money right now. And same thing with Congress. It seems like they, you know, they can't get enough traction. I mean, you tried very hard there in 2012 to get attention. How far up did we get in the polls as far as people being aware of the debt and wanting to get something done? Do you remember? Well, first, I have done Roth transfers last year and this year. Okay. So I believe in leading by example. Yes. Secondly, people are getting more concerned about it. 03:11 And it's not just Main Street America. It's our investors. We're starting to have a supply and demand imbalance. We need to issue a lot more debt and the appetite for our debt is going down. China has significantly reduced its debt holdings. Other countries are becoming reticent about buying as much of our debt as they have historically. You know, we're having to pay higher interest rates in order to be able to finance our deficits. The second largest expense is interest. The fastest growing expense is interest. And what do you get for interest? Nothing. And so things are changing. I'm about ready to go back on the road again in late 26 and 27 because while these issues won't be a top priority for the midterms, they will be for the 28 election. 03:58 And I've got a new book coming out this fall that hopefully will be a basis to be able to get people much more informed and engaged. Do you have a title for the book yet? Yes. Saving Social Security in America. Common Sense Solutions. What do you think of the top two or three solutions people can push their congressmen or woman to do now? Well, you know, we need that commission. There are bipartisan bills in both the House and the Senate that hopefully can get moved to the lame duck session. Nothing's going to happen before the midterms. Congress is not going to pass a constitutional amendment. And so we need to go with Plan B. Plan B is what the founders envisioned. The states need to get together, propose an amendment. But Congress should have called a state-led convention as far back as 79. 04:44 They didn't do it. They're stiff in the states. And now I'm trying to get a state attorney general to sue the Congress for failing to call the convention. I think these are very two significant things that are either going to happen or not happen in calendar 2026. And so let's hope that they do. You know, Social Security, the trust fund goes to zero in 2032. That's an action-enforcing event. And that's why I say that while it's not going to be a big issue in this year's midterms, it will be in 2028. We need to start telling the ground on it, turning the heat up. It's right when I was supposed to start getting Social Security in 67. I hear you, my friend. By the way, the 67 is probably going to go up one month a year over 24 years. 05:31 Wow. Yeah. Well, I mean, you can't afford to pay us. We're living longer. And we don't have that money there. It's not there. So the Roth IRA, it makes a lot of sense now because at least we know where the tax rates are now. And if we put it in a place that the government supposedly can't touch, I mean, how confident are you that they won't try to change those rules going down the road? Well, your grandfather, okay, even if they try to change the rules going, they're not going to do it retroactively. And I do think that the individual income tax rates are as low as they're ever going to be. And while the problem to be able to put our finances in order are primarily a spending problem, we're going to have to have more revenues. And the single largest source of revenue is individual income taxes. That's not the one I want them to get revenue from. I understand that. 06:17 Yeah, that was raising tax rates. Folks, we're talking to former U.S. Comptroller General Mr. David Walker joining us on the show today. David, it's just frustrating when we all can see this, but it doesn't seem like Congress really cares. Well, the biggest deficit that we have, Pete, is a leadership deficit. You know, we have too many laggards, not enough leaders, too many people living for today rather than help create a better tomorrow. You know, the sad thing is, is for the first 200 years roughly of our republic, we believed in the concept of stewardship, which is not just generating positive results today, not just leaving things better off when you leave them when they came, but leaving things better positioned for the future. We've abandoned that. 07:29 People in it. And it's called Grow It or Blow It. Grow It or Blow It. And it's about, like, people you remember in the past, like the Commodore Vanderbilt, all the famous people, the big millionaires and billionaires who made the money. And within three generations, many of their fortunes they left was gone because the grandkids never saw mom and dad working as hard as they did. The kids usually kept it alive for the most part. It's the grandkids because they didn't see all the sweat and equity that went into building this empire. And so fast, the empire disappeared a lot of times. And that's what's happening here with our government, if we're not careful. Our whole U.S. system could go the same route as some of these inherited wealth folks had the trouble with. Well, we need to learn from history. We need to learn from others. 08:15 There are plenty of superpowers that have existed in the past that no longer exist. The leading indicator on the way up is economic power. The leading indicator on the way down is loss of economic power. We're not exempt from the laws of prudent finance. If you can't put your finances in order, you will lose economic power with adverse consequences both internationally and domestically. Not only economic consequences but also national security consequences. Now, a lot of people listening say, ah, this doesn't really apply to me. I don't really care. The government's going to do it or they don't do it. But what can we really do? Let's take it down to the grassroots level. People are listening. They're getting mad. They should be getting mad because the dollars, folks, that you've been putting aside are worth less and less because of this. And especially if taxes keep going up, the money you thought you were going to have isn't going to be there anymore. 09:00 And, David, what can the average consumer, the

Coach Pete D’Arruda and Tom Hegna look beneath the surface of retirement products, from recurring fees and commissions to the liquidity concerns surrounding non-traded REITs. They discuss why comparing costs requires understanding how a product works, how life insurance may fit into wealth transfer and long-term care planning, and why leaving an IRA to children involves different considerations than leaving an insurance benefit. Hegna shares his perspective on balancing income, access to money, and a legacy plan. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 We're going to offer this to listeners. If you have anyone trying to peddle a non-traded REIT, I would say stay away and run. What do you think about non-traded REITs? Yeah, anything that has limited liquidity, just stay away. There's too many good products out there that you don't have to go searching for some weird thing. And then all of a sudden, the real estate market takes a turn, and those things are worth half of what they were. And then you can't get out of it because there's a thing that you can only get out once a year, once every three years or whatever. I would stay away. There's too many great products out there. It's just amazing. People are trying to come up with income alternatives when the best alternative is right there with a fixed index annuity, a fixed annuity a lot of times with income. What do I tell you, the people that are saying, and again, this is usually coming from the brokerage side, your money's not liquid if you put it into a fixed annuity. Is that true or false? 00:46 That's false. Liquidity is a lifetime event. It's not a one-time event. And any time you're in, let's look at both types of annuities for, you know, if you're getting income, that automatically increases your liquidity, okay? And nobody's saying put all of your money into an annuity. Nobody says that, okay? You need to have some money liquid. We're saying you should at least have enough income to cover your basic living expenses. As far as a fixed annuity or fixed indexed annuity, most of them have 10% withdrawals each year that you can take out penalty-free. Some of them have cumulative penalty-free windows where, you know, if you don't take it for three years, then you can take out 30%. So there's all kinds of liquidity things. And again, don't put all of your money into any one thing. You should have some money liquid for emergencies. You don't want to cash in your 401k because your roof has a hole in it or something or that you, you know, that you need a new car so you're going to cancel your or take money out of your 401k. 01:38 That'd be crazy. So, you know, have some liquidity, have some guaranteed lifetime income, have some investments for growth to fight inflation. That's, it's all based in math and science. You can read the books. You can read the research yourself. There's white papers on this. And coach, here's the bottom line. There's three reasons why you need to put an income annuity into your portfolio, retirement portfolio. Number one, it will improve portfolio performance. And the reason it will is that annuities outperform bonds. So don't compare them to stocks, compare them against bonds, and you're going to be great. Number two, the research shows you're going to be happy in retirement with guaranteed lifetime income. And number three, the research now shows you're going to live longer if you have guaranteed lifetime income. And I can show you numerous studies that have all documented all of this. So all those brokers who are anti-annuity, they're saying they want you to die younger and they don't want you to be happy and they want your portfolio to perform worse. 02:30 And I just don't see why anybody would be for that. Why do you think that people live longer when they have guaranteed lifetime income? The number one killer of people, believe it or not, is not cancer. It's not heart attacks. It's not heart disease. It's financial stress. That has been the number one killer in the National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER. You can Google it. They just came out with a report. 2026, they studied 600,000 people. And it was clear. People with guaranteed income don't just live a little longer. They live significantly longer. There was an article by attorney Patrick Tricker in the Journal for Financial Service Professionals. And he said the average 65-year-old male who purchases a lifetime income annuity can expect to live 20% longer than a 65-year-old male. It's not. You know, Jane Austen wrote about it back in 1811 in the book Sense and Sensibility, that people who have annuities live longer than people who don't. 03:20 So, I mean, this has been known for hundreds of years. You talk to thousands of people a year about retirement. Why do you think so many people keep taking on more market risks than they really can afford to lose even after they've retired and don't have years to recover from a bad market cycle? Why do people continue to pile money onto that risk train that you can see is going to go off the tracks down the road a little bit? Because we've been in about a 15-year bull market that just has been ridiculously to the high side, which I think is great. I mean, I own some stocks. I own some cryptos. I mean, I participate in that. But I don't put all of my money there. I have paychecks and playchecks. I have guaranteed lifetime income, you know? I mean, because retirement is about peace of mind. You don't want to be worried, oh, the market's down 30. My goodness, now I can't have dinner tonight or something. 04:06 That's ridiculous. Have a floor of guaranteed income so that no matter what happens, you're fine. And then invest. And then if that goes up and down, you can let it go up and down. But you do not want to have a portfolio where you're taking money out of the portfolio while the portfolio is going down. Here's my rule. You will never, ever, ever, ever take money out of a portfolio that's going down. If you're going to do that system, you better have a buffer plan. You better have like a whole life policy or a money market fund or a CD or something that's guaranteed. That in those years when the market's down, you take money out of there. Never, ever take money out of a decreasing portfolio. Because when you do that, you're taking all that money out. Or when the market goes back up, none of that grows back. And that's the fastest way to run out of money is to take money out of a portfolio that's going down in value. 04:55 Never do that. If you're going to be the portfolio, if you're anti-annuity, then you better have a buffer. You better have something else where you can take money out if the market's down. Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to be against something. But if you don't have an alternative, like if you're talking to somebody and say, oh, those are bad, bad, bad. Well, you say to them, what do you have that does everything I just told you annuity does? And they'll get quiet or they'll come up with something that's not true. That's what I hear. Yeah, well, if you remember back in the great financial crisis, 2009, what went down? Everything. Stocks went down. Bonds went down. Housing went down. Gold went down. Bitcoin went down. Everything went down. You know what didn't go down? My annuities didn't go down. You know what didn't go down? My life insurance didn't go down. And so you want to have some things, not everything, just some things that when everything else goes down, 05:43 that you say, wow, I'm so sure glad I got this financial bunker right here because this can take care of me until things get back to normal. Now, I say a term, and it's not going to resonate with a lot of folks, but I think anyone listening who it does, it really needs to pay attention. Wealth transfer. So why do you consider life insurance one of the most efficient tools for passing wealth to the next generation, especially compared to just leaving it in a lump sum and throwing it through the tax game to give your next of kin some money? Yeah, don't leave your kids money. That's the stupidest way to leave money. If you say, I just got this money and this is going to my kids, put that into life insurance because you'll double, triple, quadruple, quintuple it depending on your age, depending on your health. You can leverage it. Plus, they'll get it tax-free. You know, I see way too many retirees who say, well, I'm going to just leave that IRA to my kids. 06:31 Don't leave your IRA to your kids. You didn't save your IRA and your 401k for your kids. You saved it for your retirement. Guess what? You're in retirement. Spend it. That is the worst money to leave to your kids. They might not even get 40 cents on the dollar after they pay federal tax, state tax, and who knows? Sometimes there's estate taxes. No, don't leave that to your kids. Leave your kids life insurance. You get leverage and it's tax-free. Talked to a planner once and he said he had a client who, instead of doing the 401k when he started work, just started funding a life insurance policy. And that client passed away at age 48. If he had been doing the 401k, there wouldn't have been much money there and it would have been taxable and all get out, go into the next again. It wouldn't have been any money. But instead, he had been funding a big life insurance policy. 07:17 So his children, he had three of them. Each one was a millionaire when he passed away. You could not do that with a 401k. That's the self-completing feature of a life insurance policy. Do you want to explain to folks what self-completing means? Well, self-completing means while you're paying it, if you live, guess what? You got all these living benefits. You got money for yourself. But if you die, the plan is complete and it pays your kids out. And you can even have a disability waiver that if you're disabled, the company will pa

Tom Hegna joins Coach Pete D’Arruda to explain the difference between the income that covers everyday expenses and the money that lets you enjoy retirement. They discuss the shift from accumulating savings to spending with a plan, the go-go, slow-go, and no-go phases of retirement, and why withdrawing from a falling portfolio can make recovery harder. Hear Hegna’s perspective on building an income floor while keeping money available for emergencies and future growth. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 your book, Paychecks and Playchecks. For folks who've never heard that phrase, can you tell the difference between a paycheck and a playcheck in retirement? Yeah, so that book is really based in math and science. It's the research of the leading PhDs around the world who write these white papers that people don't read while I happen to read them. And really, the paycheck is what you should live on in retirement. And that should be covered with guaranteed lifetime income. So Social Security, pension, lifetime income annuities from an insurance company, that should cover your basic living expenses. That's the paycheck. And then the playcheck, you can invest however you want in stocks, real estate, bonds, crypto, whatever you want. And that's for the travel, the fun, the cruises, the pickleball, the golf, all that kind of stuff. So you want to have both paychecks and playchecks 00:45 to have a successful retirement. Yeah, and retirement's very important. And here's something that let's say you had 50 advisors, different financial advisors, you sat them all down in one room. And you asked them how to build a secure retirement. And you said you probably get 50 different opinions. Why is there so little agreement in this financial industry on something so important as lifetime income? The advisors have kind of followed the baby boomers, all right? And so for 40 years, they were advising them how to diversify their portfolio and accumulate wealth and what stock should I be in and all that kind of stuff. That has nothing to do with retirement. Retirement is totally different, okay? Retirement, you want to make sure that you have increasing income for the rest of your life and that you're managing the risks. You got to manage inflation risk, market risk. You could live a long time. They can raise your taxes. You might need long-term 01:37 care. You might die. There's all these different risks in retirement. So retirement is not about accumulation and diversification and asset allocation. Yeah, those can play a role. But retirement is really about having increasing income for life and managing those key risks. That's what a successful retirement needs. You said they could raise our taxes, Thomas. They will. They will raise our taxes. They're going to have to. I mean, it's math. Yeah. Well, the national debt is kind of scary, isn't it? We're over $40 trillion now that they admit to. That's funded and unfunded liabilities. When you get to look at the promised pensions and all that, we're over $100 trillion in debt that we have a response. Yeah. I've seen, I've seen numbers where it's over $200 trillion for unfunded obligation for social security, Medicare, Medicaid, government pensions, military pensions. I mean, yeah, we're in big trouble. And so, you know, what I've done is first of all, I converted all of my 02:27 IRAs and 401ks to Roth. So, and most of those are in income annuities. So I got all this tax-free income coming in. I moved more of my personal wealth to cash value life insurance. I just finished a 12 pay whole life policy where my premium was 226,000 a year. So, I mean, I'm serious about it. I moved a whole bunch of money into cash value life insurance. And now I I'm sitting in just a great spot because I have all this money that I can get out tax-free. My, my, my annuities are coming to me tax-free. I mean, that's pretty powerful position to be in. And I would encourage your listeners to really, really look at that because what happens if taxes double and, and honestly, to get us out of this mess, they're either going to have to cut spending significantly or raise taxes significantly, and they don't like cutting spending. And so, you know, I think they're going to be raising taxes. 03:14 Lately, we've been having a lot of those Roth conversations with listeners. I think people are starting to realize it makes sense to convert regular IRAs to Roth IRAs. Even if you have to bite the tax bullet right now, you'll never have to bite it again in the future. And that's what people overlook. They like to kick the can down the road, but if you leave all your money in regular traditional IRAs or traditional 401ks, you're going to owe tax every single year, every single year in retirement. And that's going to be money you could have spent on yourself. Now you have to give to the government. And those taxes are going to have to go up, I think significantly. I mean, again, it's just math. You just look at it. You talk to any half smart person who knows numbers and math and any economist, anybody who knows this kind of stuff. And they're going to tell you that we're in a huge, difficult situation and taxes are going to have to go up a lot. 04:00 Well, let's look at your decision process because you said you put about $226,000 a year in a whole life policy and now you're paid off. But what led you to do that? Well, you know, I've been in this industry for 35 years and I've seen how wealthy people use whole life to their advantage. I mean, it's a great bond substitute. It's not a stock substitute. When people try to compare it to stocks, it's not going to beat stocks, but it will be bonds. Okay. And it's tax-free and I can leave life-changing legacy to my family. You know, I wasn't raised, my parents were teachers in the small towns in Minnesota. They didn't make much money. I grew up in a lower middle-class family. When I moved to Arizona, when I first went in the army, everything I owned was in my Masta 626, everything I owned, you know? And so I started with nothing and now I have the ability to not only 04:47 live a great life with my wife and I, but to really have generational wealth transfer to my children and grandchildren. So let's talk about, when we look at Nelson Nash, he was a friend of mine. He wrote the book, Be Your Own Banker. He said, treat a life insurance policy as your own bank. And a lot of folks don't realize that concept, but I think that's what you're doing with the whole life. You also, there are a lot of life insurance policies now that let you use the death benefit to pay for long-term care. So you don't need a standalone long-term care policy anymore. Absolutely. You can solve a lot of problems. And you know, I bought my last two houses with money out of my life insurance policy. Because think about it, we're in Arizona. You had to be a cash buyer to get the good deal down here. If you were going to do a mortgage, you weren't going to get the deal. They wanted cash. Well, where do you come up with one or two million cash in a couple 05:32 days? I, you know, you can't do that at the bank. They're going to fill out this form. We've got to underwrite it. We go see, and then they're going to charge you nine or 10% interest. No, I just call up. In fact, I think I did it all online out of my phone. Two days later, I got, you know, over a million bucks sitting in my bank account to close on the house. And then I, then I pay back, you know, the loan on my, my life insurance policy. So for me, it's been, it's been a really a great blessing. And, and, uh, you know, people don't understand life insurance. In fact, my own son is buying a policy now and he's like, well, dad, you know, I'm looking for a lower premium. I say, Sean, you don't want the lowest premium in life insurance. You want the highest premium. You want to put as much money in there as you can. You know, you want to overfund these policies. You want to put extra money into them. That's, you know, everybody wants a lot of tax-free money. Well, to get a lot of tax-free money, guess what? You got to put some tax-free money. You got to put 06:19 some money in there in order to get it out. And so I don't, you know, I, you know, but I deal, we'll tell you 226,000 was harder than I thought, because that's like 400 something pre-tax to put 226 after tax. So it was a little harder than I thought, but I'm glad I did it. And folks, we're talking to Tom Hegna. He's the author of the really bestselling book, Don't Worry, Retire Happy. A great, great name, great title, Tom, by the way. And, uh, you wrote about the go-go, slow-go and no-go years. And so can you go through those real quick for us? Yeah. Well, you know, a lot of people think retirement's going to be 30 or 40 years of golf, tennis, pickleball, line dancing, and cruises. And that's not true. You go through three distinct phases. The first phase is what I call the go-go years. I'm in my go-go years. I'm about 70% retired. I play golf four to five days a week. I play pickleball two days a week. My wife and I 07:05 travel all over the world. So, uh, but I still do things like this, you know, on my schedule when I'm able to, and when I want to, but that's the go-go years when, when you're, when you're out and you're active and that you actually need a little more income. You know, people say, Oh, when you retire, you'll need 70% of your working income. No, no. For the go-go years, you're going to need more because every day is Saturday and you're out there spending money. The second phase is what I call the slow-go years. Now the slow-go years, you can still do everything in the go-go. You just don't want to anymore. You know, you don't want to go downtown after four 30 because dad can't see when it's dark out. And then the no-go years, the no-go years are those years when you're probably not le

Alan Grissom and Coach Pete D’Arruda examine how direct indexing can create opportunities for tax-loss harvesting. They discuss using individual holdings to coordinate gains and losses, the technology behind managing portfolios at scale, and why wash-sale rules and other tax details require care. Hear Grissom’s perspective on bringing a tax-aware approach to investment management. Part two of the Financial Safari interview. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. Consumer advocate Thomas Lipscomb here with you once again, continuing the conversation with best-selling author Coach Pete D’Arruda. Also in studio with us is Alan Grissom, tax strategist and entrepreneur. Coach, you were talking about how to avoid some of these nasty, nasty taxes through something called harvesting. Any tax is a nasty tax, Thomas. Right? I agree with that. But if you do the right strategies, you can have more in your pocket. That's what it comes down to. You have to do them legally because you don't want to end up in a jail cell. And so there's great ways. You know, we do a lot of research for that book, Tax Savvy Retirement, that I came out with last year. We talk a little bit briefly about tax loss harvesting there. But, Alan, you've taken it to a different level with what you've developed. Yeah, we really have. 00:47 I mean, when you think about how money is managed for people in the United States, it's managed vastly differently for Uber affluent. Yep. All right? So let me kind of start with that, right? Family offices manage. If an individual has a tremendous amount of money, they may have what they call a family office, meaning that they hire someone who manages their money. They may rent cars for them or buy cars or make investments. There's all kinds of things that kind of go with a family office. But at the core of it, they manage their money. Right. And, you know, at scale, when you have a lot of money, you can afford to pay someone to do that. Yeah. When you are, you know, from, you know, modern income to even, you know, fairly affluent, 01:36 that's still not, you know, at scale, that doesn't make any sense because you're going to lose all your returns paying somebody to manage that money. Right. So what we noticed in the U.S. during my time at S&P was that technology was allowing that management of money to happen at more and more at scale, meaning that you could do it with less money and make it work. So one person now could manage two people or 10 people or 100 people, et cetera. And that was, that's really great because now you can move more at scale. And also the people, you don't have to have quite so much money to have special access to certain investments, et cetera. That's good, by the way. 02:21 Yeah, I think so. Absolutely. So, you know, when you kind of look at that, we were paying attention to that at S&P. But one of the things that was very, very interesting to me was how do you manage your money at, so if I'm a wealthy guy, I could buy the S&P 500, all the stocks, right? Each one of the 500 stocks. 500 stocks. Right. 500 stocks, but you also, it's cap weighted, so meaning that I'm going to have to buy certain, I'm going to buy more. More shares of some, less of other, yeah. So it takes a lot of money to actually do that, just to have one, what, you know, you can buy it in an ETF, which is like a... It's a balance already done for you. It's already done for you, right? Yeah, yeah. And so you're just buying a slice of that, you know, how much money you put in. But if you had to do that individually, it takes a lot of money to do. 03:09 But if you have it, if you could do that, you can also deselect companies. So maybe you already had a lot of, let me work for Apple, and you had a lot of Apple stock. You don't need more Apple stock in the S&P 500. Because that would overweight you in Apple. It would overweight you in Apple, right? Yeah. But so technology allowed companies to start managing individual portfolios in that way. So meaning you could select or deselect each one of the individual stocks. That's pretty neat. That's called direct indexing. So essentially, Coach Pete, it's like with you, we would say, all right, so you can own all the stocks if you wanted to, or you can own fractional shares. So if someone had less money than you, and they wanted to have fractional shares, they could still own that in the same weights, et cetera, and deselect or select each one of 03:57 the stocks. Right. That makes a big difference in how you manage your money and your risk. Because if you work for a corporation for a long time, you've got a lot of risk in that one particular stock that's built up. Seen that from a lot of people, by the way. Yeah. Way overweight at many times. It's very common. And you've seen, like, even the past couple of years, like the NVIDIA multimillionaires, right? Rocket ship. Yeah. Yeah. For everybody. Like, if you own some NVIDIA stock, you know, you've had a high concentration buildup on those. So when I was at S&P, I saw an opportunity to leave and build a company that was focused on this direct indexing, which we did. That allowed us to push that technology out into the marketplace to allow people to manage their money in a better way, in my opinion. 04:43 And so ultimately, that's been very successful, but a key part of it was actually how do you manage the taxes? So Uber wealthy families, a lot of their work and a lot of that money management is all around tax strategies. How do we minimize taxes? And how do you take that to the middle market? How do you take that to the upper markets? You know, how do you bring that down in scale from, you know, the guys who are worth $100 million or $50 million or below, how do you bring that into, you know, mom and pop's guy who has $500,000 that they've saved for, you know, they deserve the same strategies that the Uber affluent. And saving on taxes is even more valuable for folks with a million or under or two million or under, like that kind of category right there. That is exactly what I thought as well. 05:31 Yes. So one of the things that we're really focused on in this industry has really changed is how do you create better tax strategies? How do you mitigate those tax loss harvesting, meaning that you sell your gains and you sell offsetting losses of stocks? Yes. Allows you to do some of that, right? So, you know, really, this is where direct indexing comes in. The S&P 500 stocks don't all move in the same direction every day, right? You're going to have maybe Apple's up one, maybe, you know, maybe Nvidia's down that day or Intel or whatever you would say, right? So ultimately, with direct indexing and tax loss harvesting, you own the fractional shares so you can sell those individuals each day to offset the gains. And so ultimately, you're generating losses that allow you to offset the gains, but you 06:17 keep your portfolio essentially the same while you do it. So it's a, to me, it's a next level strategy that individuals should be using. So at the end of the year, when you have a profit on paper, then you go back and because you're using this tax loss harvesting method here, the profit disappears on paper because you had losses the same day when you're having the gains. That's right. Thomas, it's pretty neat when you think about it. It is incredible. You know, you're smart. It's the only way I'd ever want to lose is if you've got to do it that way. Right, right, right, right, right. Well, you know, the way it works too with watch sales, et cetera. So it's fairly complicated. That's why technology, so that's why the scale and the technology is only, you know, it's fairly recent in terms of being able to do this. But it's actually massive for individuals because, you know, we all, every dollar that 07:06 we save on taxes is actually a fantastic return. It's as good as a really good investment, right? So understanding that fundamentally, you really want to approach things from a tax, you know, viewpoint really kind of plays out really well for tax loss harvesting. So we, I'll have to start a company on those things, which I have sold. We'll probably do more again. But it was very, very successful in the space. And ultimately, you know, I think these solutions, we've seen them really grow. And that is, that's why, because everyone sees the value in it. Let's talk about, you know, when you were doing this full time, the tax loss harvesting methods. And what was the, I know you met with people, I'm sure you saw somebody all distraught saying, I'm going to have this gigantic tax bill. Alan, what should I do? 07:51 And what was the best success story you had on that? So ultimately, there was a lot of very high net worth individuals who really jumped on this early on. So when you're looking at that, I know of one case where an individual had a $30 million company sale, all right, in July, and he's able to use tax loss harvesting strategies to mitigate his taxes by about 90% over the year. So you got 30 million. He sold it in July. And by the time January came around, he was able to reduce his taxes by 90%. Yeah, so he paid taxes. He paid about $3 million worth of gains on that. Instead of $30 million worth of gains. Wow. 08:37 That's amazing. That is amazing. All by using the strategy you developed. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's where people, you know, you throw your arms in the air sometimes saying, Uncle Sam's going to get me. Well, there's one more time. There's one person you called, maybe have him not get you as bad. Hey, there you go. Yeah, there you go. And look, it's all by the code, right? So ultimately, it's how do you do these things? How do you work through it? There's a lot of white papers on this. There's a lot of really smart people who've been behind it. This has been something that's been availabl

Tax strategist and entrepreneur Alan Grissom joins Coach Pete D’Arruda and Thomas Lipscomb to discuss how markets developed and why index investing became important. They explore the roots of the financial system, railroad investment, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the relationship between active and passive strategies. Part one of the Financial Safari interview. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. I'm consumer advocate Thomas Lipscomb, still here with you, alongside best-selling author Coach Pete D’Arruda. And Coach, you have brought a friend into the studio today. Would you like to introduce him, or shall I? Well, go ahead and introduce him, and I'll talk about him. Let's do it. Let's do it. So we have Alan Grissom, tax strategist and entrepreneur, has flown in from Nashville. We've got him in the studio here. Happy to have you here, Alan. Nice to have you, Alan. Thanks, Coach. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. You and I have known each other for a while. Well, and in the financial community, like you and I are kind of veterans in the financial community, you kind of start knowing some people or start recognizing some people. And you've done a great job with indexing the market, having indexed. Do you want to tell folks about that real quick? Yeah. So it kind of goes with my history. So I've got a long-standing history in the financial services space. 00:48 The last 12 years before, I had a business with S&P Dow Jones Indices, which is like the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and a million other indices that you may or may not have heard of. All right. So yeah, we were involved in those businesses or those indices for a long time. And I left in 2022 to create what I thought were investment strategies or indices that would be used in space. And it turned out to have a really successful run. So why do people need indices? Well, for a lot of different reasons. Indices, if you kind of look at that, they're a measure, right? And they can be a tool that can be used in investment vehicles. Like most people don't really think about it this way, but the S&P 500 is an index. 01:36 It measures the U.S. economy, right? It's one of the best measures of the U.S. economy. Yes. And so if you want to tell how we're doing as a country, it's a good way to look at it, right? It may not be perfect in the way it measures it, but it gives everyone a lot of confidence in how we're doing in general in the country. So when you think about that, there's a lot of use cases for it. People invest money in the S&P 500 and a lot of the NASDAQ 100 and a lot of other indices that are out there. And ultimately, the idea, because they're rules-based, they're passive in nature, the idea is that over time, those should perform, and they typically have outperformed active management. Because like most people, even active managers make bad investment decisions over time. 02:24 Yeah. And so that's what a lot of people need to know. I mean, passive is better than active a lot of times, right? It's really proven to be true. I mean, Warren Buffett, he's one of the greatest investors of all time. Hedge funds are supposed to be some of the greatest investors as well. And a few years ago, in the late 2000s, Warren Buffett bet the hedge funds a lunch versus a million dollars. He would give them a million dollars or they could buy him lunch if they could outperform the S&P 500. And over three years, most of them had dropped out. By the seventh year, all of them had dropped out of that bet and bought him lunch. So those are the best investors in the world. So it's really tough for individuals to really outperform active managers. 03:10 Can you do it? Absolutely. Yeah. But it's a tricky world out there. But can you do it consistently? You know, anybody can go to Vegas and win on one spin of the wheel, but can you keep winning when the wheel keeps spinning? So that's where people make mistakes in the market many times. And it's also, it's a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah. Do you really want to put that much time in it? You know, we study the markets actively every day, our team. And ultimately, that's a 24-7 job. Well, yeah. So you're an individual investor back home listening now and you say, I can beat the markets. But when you're trying to beat the markets, you're going against teams of people, not just you. And they've got research teams assigned to one stock. Like some of the big companies assigned five different analysts to one stock. Oh, yeah. That's incredible. 03:55 You know, they're full-time researching and they get a lot more information than we as individual investors can get a lot of times, too, because they're closer to the situation. Got to say that it's really tilted in institutions' favor. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Plus, they have psychologists who know exactly when you're going to sell. And they will move, you know, they can move the markets to certain numbers to make you sweat. And absolutely, turn it over. No moss. No moss is a common term, right? You know, I remember Roberto Duran said that back in the day, remember? No moss. No, yeah. Now, speaking of back in the day, I remember growing up and my parents would always have Walter Cronkite on and he would talk about the Dow Jones industrial average. That's about the only thing you ever heard of back then. And a lot of folks didn't realize that Dow was only 30 stocks. So it's really not as good of a barometer as an S&P 500 kind of index with 500 companies. 04:45 Right. In my opinion, because you get more of an overall view with 500 companies. Makes sense. Right. Well, if you look at this, the history of indexing itself, it goes back to what are you trying to measure? Charles Dow in the late 1800s created the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Before that, he had the Dow Jones Transportation Index, which is the first index. Yep. So why were they doing that? At the time, they were, again, trying to measure what was going on in the United States at the time. Right. And so in the 50s, when we did the S&P 500 was launched, as we know it, it really took a different view because there was more companies or more corporations in the 1950s than there were in the late 1800s. Yeah. And so ultimately, this measure, which is mostly stayed in the same framework, has been a really 05:40 good measure of the economy. And also large cap companies are different than small cap. And so you kind of go through those things. And it really depends on what you're trying to measure, right? So. You know, looking at the transportation, Dow Jones Transportation Index was at 1800s, you said, right? What they have to, would they have horse and buggy and maybe a train? Well, you know, that's a great question. That's a great question. What they had were trains. Okay. Yeah. So when you think about the 1800s and really why corporations are around, early Wall Street, the Buttonwood Tree, and then the early exchanges, they basically traded stocks. But there weren't many stocks. There were a few insurance companies and they traded revolutionary bonds. 06:25 And so for a long time, our financial institutions really were not in place, right? Our government, our federal government was really small. But if you look into the 1840s, 1850s, that's really when we started building railroads and trains. And that became, you know, the jet planes of, you know, of the day, right? So massive improvements in terms of how we could move people, how we can move product around the country. And that became an interest of investing. And there was one guy, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had enough money to do it himself. Most, the rest of America did not. And so ultimately, that was a big catalyst of creating corporations, was raising money 07:11 by getting other people to invest to create this company to build a railroad. So you and I talked about railroads last night. It's amazing. Back in the 1800s or before that, when they built train tracks, Thomas, they didn't have all the modern technology they had these days to make sure it was level. Sure. When you come up to a hole, how do you put a train track over a hole? You build a bridge. I mean, you think about how long it took to build a bridge. Some of those trellises, you see, are amazing how far up they had to put the wood to get that, to keep the track level. And the amount of weight going over that. Oh, my gosh. It's amazing, really. Yeah. Well, and you look at all the technology and the wealth that came from that, right? Yep. So, you know, the Andrew Carnegie, so the steel, right? Rockefeller. Yep. You know, so John D was, you know, ultimately, you know, a lot of what they were involved 07:58 with as well was, you know, the oil, rock standard oil, all those things, those evolution of what we were doing at the time really drove a lot of wealth and really catapulted us into, you know, the 20th century and beyond. When you think about the game Monopoly, I don't really know. I should know when they developed that, but it had trains. Remember, they had three, four different railroads on there. For sure. They didn't have airlines, did they? But, you know, to invest in the trains and you make money with those trains. And so Vanderbilt, Commodore Vanderbilt did. Then he left his money, and that's a whole other story, to the kids and like grandkids, I guess, whatever. And most of them blew it. There weren't many that survived or the money didn't survive too many generational shifts there. Yeah, that's terrible. It's unbelievable. When you think about the wealth, because most people would consider Vanderbilt the richest 08:48 man who's ever lived. Maybe they could make the argument for John D. Rockefeller. But at the same time, when you kind of look at where the United States was at the time, it's pretty easy to make the argument that Vanderbilt was the richest man. If you look

Coach Pete D’Arruda, Gary Marriage, and Phil Graham wrap up their conversation about making a retirement plan understandable and putting it into action. They discuss procrastination, retirement resources, and the importance of doing more than assuming everything will work out. The group also shares stories and revisits Coach Pete’s Through the Years book and music project. Part four of their Financial Safari conversation. Call 800-661-7383 or text PLAN to 600-700. Transcript Automatically transcribed from this episode; timestamps are approximate. 00:00 Welcome back into the Financial Safari. Loving the conversation today with bestselling author Coach Pete D’Arruda. Also in the studio with us is Phil Graham as well as Gary Marriage. I'm trying to keep all of these boys on track. I'm consumer advocate Thomas Lipscomb. Catch up on that conversation by heading to FinancialSafari.com. Again, that is FinancialSafari.com. Coach, I see you itching over there. Well, subliminally, as we've grown up, we've always been told to put a plan together. Yeah. And we've been hearing it. But a lot of times we procrastinate, put it off. And so people are saying, well, Coach, what do you mean we've been told about it? Well, there's a show here. Maybe you remember this guy. The plan. The plan. It's a little guy on Fantasy Island. He always pointed out and said, the plan. The plan. So important. Tattoo. We just overlook it. Yeah, tattoo. He was really saying the plane, but it sounds like he's saying the plan. Yeah, it does. 00:45 And so the plan is important. You remember Fantasy Island? Oh, yeah. That was a cool show, wasn't it? Oh, yeah. That guy's name was Ricardo Montalbano or something like that, wasn't it? Or the big guy. Between that and the love boat. Oh, the love boat. Now, I had Gopher on the show years ago. Oh, did you? Fred Grandy. Yeah, really cool guy. Cool. It's probably one of those that got lost when we moved offices, Thomas. That was back in 2011. I had Fred Grandy on. The ones and the zeros have disappeared, unfortunately. We had Klinger from MASH. Shoot, do we still have that one? Yeah, I'll have to look it up and see. Yeah, see, I got some things to do here. Chuck Woolery? The Chuck Woolery one we still have. We have that one. The dating game? Yeah, he was good. Oh, yeah. I had him take us out. He said, we're back in two and two, he said. That's what he used to say. Now, he's passed away also, you know, unfortunately. When you come on my show, you don't stand a good chance. Sorry, boys. Welcome in, Phil and Gary. 01:31 Because Charlie Daniels came on, then he passed away. And Eddie Money came on, then he passed away. Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to have both of those guys back on. Because, you know, Charlie Daniels is from Gulf, North Carolina. He's a North Carolina guy. I didn't realize that. So, Charlie, really cool guy to talk to. Was it a rainy night? That's Eddie Rabbit. Oh. Wrong Eddie. Oh. Remember Eddie Rabbit? Yeah, I remember him, too. I was thinking Eddie Money, Eddie Rabbit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Eddie Money had 21 top 20 hits. He did, yeah. Take Me Home Tonight. Rainy Night was not one of them. No, it was not. Two Tickets to Paradise, one of my favorite ones. Two Tickets to Paradise, great song. So, I was at Madison Square Garden a couple weeks ago for the Big East Tournament. And you ever been to Madison Square Garden? Yes. My first time I've ever been. Really cool place. Oh, wow. But on the entrance, at the entrance, they have this big old glass room. You're not allowed. Cops watch you when you get close to it. 02:18 And inside that glass room is a piano. So, Billy Joel donated to him at his 150th concert he did over there. He said, the 150th concert's Billy Joel, the piano man. Wow. I don't know what I had to do with anything. But, well, we do. Now, I had an autographed song sheet of Billy Joel in one of his first cassettes in our office. So, we get that as a collectible item. Yes, you did. But Billy Joel's one of my favorite artists, too. And don't worry, folks. I'm not going to have him on the show. Yeah. We don't want to curse him, do we? But I've never seen him in concert. I thought it'd be cool to see Billy Joel in concert. I agree. I agree. I agree. What's your favorite concert you ever saw in person, Phil? Oh, man. Ever saw in person. I did front row center stage for Jimmy Buffett one year. Jimmy Buffett was always fun. Came to Raleigh a lot back in the day. He'd come for two nights, and they'd extend it a third night. And I'd go every single night. 03:05 And I had tickets for one of the nights. But it was more fun in the parking lot with all the pair of hats. Oh, yeah. And you could still hear the concert on the inside. Nice. And my buddies and I would walk around. Every now and then, somebody would leave a grill with some food on it to go into the concert. We'd eat very well in the parking lot. Very nice. Very nice. How about you, Gary? What's your favorite concert you ever saw? I've got to tell you, it was Kenny Chesney. Kenny Chesney is a great performer, right? I like country music, too. But he... Doesn't he do Nationwide? Is it on your side? No. No, that's the other guy. That's Brad Paisley. Oh, Brad Paisley. Okay. See? We all confused. The other guy. So you're talking about the parking lot parties, right? Those are like the best. That's right. It's like before football games. But Kenny Chesney concert, somebody brought a pontoon boat. They dragged it behind their truck and they had it in the parking lot. Yes. Kenny finds out about it, comes out in the crowd and decides to start playing on a pontoon 03:53 boat that's in the parking lot. And it was sick. It was so cool. That's so great. Like a private concert with him. Just a good guy. You talk about a way to party. They do have a party bringing a pontoon boat. I've heard of RVs before, but not a pontoon boat. Too bad they didn't have to go to Lake. They could have put it in. He was having so much fun. They had to rush him back to the stage. They're like, hey, you're going to actually do a concert now. Oh, how cool is that? Thomas, what about you? Oh, yeah. You know, I love a lot of different music. Lately, I went with my kids to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which is a swing band. So if you go back to the 20s, 30s, that kind of style of music sounds like that. Wasn't that Brian Sitzler from the Stray Cats? Yeah. So Brian said he does that same style of music. Yeah. He had a huge hit a while back. Yeah. I love that. I got one right, coach. Yeah. Good job. And we did the book, Through the Years, it's called. So we go from 1909 all the way to 2024, tell you relevant facts about each year. 04:41 And then I said, Thomas, I said, we need to make a soundtrack for the book. You know, you have movies have soundtracks. Why don't books? Exactly. Right. Come on. So then we came up with one. For each decade, we had a song. And now we're going to have a second soundtrack coming out because there were songs that were really close. We had to decide between the two. And I said, Thomas, let's go ahead and have a set two come out. There you go. And then we're going to have a country set come out for the decades, each decade country song. But do you have, I know this is random, Thomas, but do you have a song we can get real quick on one of the decades? Well, you know, talking about Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, let's go back to the 30s. All right. The rain gave out the dust blew in. 05:37 We stuffed the cracks with cloth and tin. Five cents for beans, a dime for rice. And bread stayed cheap in half the size. The 30s hit like iron rain. But Seabiscuit ran through the strain. Shirley smiled on silver screens and Mickey's dark broken dreams. A Sears vest cost us 49. But hand-me-downs still fit just fine. One farm and four lost crops to spoil. 06:25 So supper came from garden soil. The bread line stretched a block away. So great, so great. Well, all right, so to the average person listening saying, well, that's just a song. But the cool thing was you had, you designed the lyrics of every song. So every song's lyrics have something to do with that decade. They do. Every single line is mixing. You can learn history by listening to songs. I probably could have learned that way. So we have that book available, folks. It's on Amazon. What is it, $24.99? I believe so, yes, sir. Yeah, it's called Through the Years. And you can get the soundtrack for free. Thomas, tell folks how they can listen to, like, all the decades of the songs anytime they want. Well, and again, freely available. Of course, you can go on Amazon or Apple and buy it. But also the streaming platforms, Apple Music, Amazon, iHeartMedia, Spotify, you name it. 07:12 Just search Through the Years Coach Pete, and it'll come right up there for you. Through the Years Coach Pete. It has a great, colorful cover. And we go all the way from 1910 on this album all the way through 2020. Tried to style each decade as if it was coming right out of that time. You know, my wife, she's a teacher, and she said, Thomas, I got to bring this to middle school next year because this is the way I can teach my kids about the difference. Like I said, it's a good way to learn. Yeah, yeah. Now, what about, do we have electronic book posted for the Through the Years book? We do, yes. You can find it at CoachPete.com. Very easy website to remember, CoachPete.com. So here's what I'd recommend, folks. Go to CoachPete.com, download the book for free, and then go online to any, wherever you get your music from, Spotify, iTunes, whatever, iHeart. I love iHeart. That's what I use. But anyway, you've searched Through the Years Coach Pete. You can read the book, different decades, with your kids or yourself or your family, 08:00 and then play the song. There you go. And see how relevant it is. Did I see some on vinyl somewhere, too? We do have the vinyl. We have the records, too. Yes, that was a fun thing. We're not, I don't think they're for sa