Show Notes

• • (00:48) How to Bridge the Gap to Retirement at Age 61? (Jack & Diane, Rochester, MN)
  • (06:04) Can I Convert to Roth Without Impacting My Taxes? (Michael, San Diego)
  • (10:22) What to Do with Whole Life Insurance Policies? (Wilma & Fred Flintstone)
  • (16:55) Financial Strategies for the “Benefitless” (Michael, Kansas City, MO)
  • (23:46) The Origins of YMYW
  • (36:14) The Derails

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Transcription

Andi: Happy Boxing Day, friends! Today on Your Money, Your Wealth® podcast 461, Joe and Big Al are spitballing on, of course, early retirement and Roth conversions! How can Jack and Diane – no, the other, other Jack and Diane, these are the ones in Rochester, MN – how can they bridge the gap to retirement at age 61? Can Michael in San Diego do a Roth conversion without it impacting his taxes? Plus, what should the Flintstones do with their whole life insurance policies, and what spitballs of wisdom do the fellas have for Michael, who is “benefit-less” in Kansas City? Then, we’ll wrap up the final episode of the year with a little story time – the YMYW origin story. I’m producer Andi Last, and here are the hosts of Your Money, Your Wealth®, Joe Anderson, CFP® and Big Al Clopine, CPA.

How to Bridge the Gap to Retirement at Age 61? (Jack & Diane, Rochester, MN)

Joe: Got another little Jack and Diane, a little ditty.

Al: Okay, let’s do it.

Joe: Rochester, Minnesota. “We’ve been listening to the podcast for two years and love it. We’re seeking a spitball to see if Jack can retire at 61, but I’m unsure of the gap years and downsizing before Social Security and Jack’s pension kicks in.” You know, so bridging the gap, it’s called.

Al: Yes. Yeah, right.

Joe: “Jack is currently 59. I’m 58. I retired at age 56. Jack has reduced his hours, but would like to retire as well. We are able to cover annual expenses of $120,000 a year on his salary. But no longer contribute to any retirement accounts. We have made Roth conversions since my retirement.” That was very well written, very succinct.

Al: It was, I like it.

Joe: I was able to follow that. I can see where they want to go with this.

Al: Yes. We know he-

Joe: He stopped working. He’s making enough money to cover the expenses. They stopped saving. They were doing a little conversions because their income was lower. They’re strategizing. The past couple of years have really paid off for Jack and Diane.

Al: We know how old they are. We know when they want to retire with, we know what they’re spending.

Joe: Perfect.

Al: Love it.

Joe: “I drive a 2018 Toyota Highlander.” All right. That’s kind of a-

Al: It’s a big car.

Joe: Yeah, well, it’s Rochester.

Al: Yeah, you gotta have a big car up there, don’t ya?

Joe: You gotta be beefy, you know? Got snow. “While Jack drives a 2022 Ford F150.” Bada boom bada bing. That’s the most popular car on this podcast.

Al: Seems to be.

Joe: “When I’m not driving, I prefer a margarita. Jack prefers a seasonal beer on the golf course or an old fashioned in the recliner.”

Al: Can you relate?

Joe: Oh, yeah.

Andi: So many of your people, Joe. Is it a thing in Minnesota that they drink old fashioneds and beer?

Joe: Oh, God. “We may downsize in the next 5 years, which would cost us $200,000 to $300,000 after selling our house. Got a brokerage account of $400,000, IRA of $400,000, inherited 401(k) of $150,000, Roth IRAs of $150,000, 457 of $500,000, HSA of $30,000.” So, did you catch all that?

Al: Yeah. Yeah. “And cash of $50,000-“ next page, about $1,600,000.

Joe: $1,600,000. Okay, perfect. Okay, “Diane’s Social Security is going to be $20,000, Jack’s is $45,000, Jack’s pension’s $45,000.” So pension at 66 is $45,000, his Social Security at 70 is $45,000, and then Diane, she’s thinking about taking hers at 62.

Al: She is, to bridge the gap, is what she’s thinking.

Joe: All right, so, to retire.

Al: Yeah. Yeah, so I’ll give you some distributions, or distribution rate, like, like right now, for example, without any growth, just using current numbers, that would be about a 7.5% distribution rate before she hits her Social Security, right? But then if I go like 5 years after retirement, because then Jack’s pension kicks in, plus Diane’s Social Security, it’s about a 4.1% distribution rate. And after Jack’s Social Security of another $45,000, it’s no problem. So this definitely works. It’s just a matter of not going broke during the stump period.

Joe: And I think she’s right on, that this is what our concern is. I would highly recommend that you just create a spreadsheet. It’s going to be the easiest way to look at this, is to look at each year from now, 62 to 70. So a 10-year spreadsheet of here’s your expenses of $120,000 and inflate that by 3.5% inflation. So each year that number is going to increase. So you’re going to have a shortfall for a step period, which she knows. It’s like, all right, Jack wants to retire today because I’ve already been retired for the last couple of years. And he’s jealous. He’s like, honey, I got to go to the office and what you’re having margaritas. I want to, I want the old fashioned.

Al: Plus I’m a year and a half older. It’s my turn.

Joe: Yeah, what the hell? So map this thing out and look at the step periods of when your income is going to be and then what that distribution rate is or what that the shortfall is, you can divide, take the shortfall and then multiply it by 25. That’s going to tell you what your nest egg should look like in those given years. That’s probably the easiest way to do this to start creating your own, you know, financial strategy or financial plan and guaranteed she can do this very easily because I could tell how she wrote the email.

Al: Yeah, I, no, I agree with that. So here, I’m just going to-

Joe: And she’s from Minnesota.

Al: Well, there you go. I’m just going to spitball myself and that is, I think it’s, I think it’s doable probably, but it’s a little tight. I think if it were me, I would want to have some part-time income for a few years before some of this other income kicked in. That’s what I’d want to do.

Joe: It’s either going to work or it’s going to be- It’s Chernobyl. It’s going to blow up. If the market blows up and they don’t have the correct investment strategy and they lose 25% of the overall portfolio and they keep taking money out.

Al: And that’s the hard part, right? Because if the market doesn’t cooperate, then all these assumptions-

Joe: It’s a sequence of return risk is their biggest risk.

Al: And your Excel sheet doesn’t work. So, so I’d like a little more cushion by having part-time income. That’s what I would do.

Can I Convert to Roth Without Impacting My Taxes? (Michael, San Diego)

Joe: Got Michael from right here in our backyard, San Diego. “Hey there you three. I love the show, and I’m always happy to see a new episode pop up on my list of shows that I subscribe to.” Well that just puts a smile on my face.

Al: Right?

Andi: Thank you for subscribing, Michael. That is important.

Joe: It is very important to subscribe, I guess, right?

Andi: Yep. That helps us in the rankings, which helps other people see the podcast, which helps us get more listeners, which helps us be more popular, which helps more people hear the spitballing.

Joe: Yeah.

Al: Wow.

Joe: Look at that. Look at her, she’s plugging away.

Al: I need to chart that out. That’s very clever.

Joe: All right. ”I’ll get right to the points. I prefer IPAs when drinking. The higher the IBUs, the better. I’ll get right to the point. For pets, I have a good dog, but I don’t really like him all that much.”

Al: That’s the second point.

Joe: Sounds good. “My question is about Roth conversions as they relate to a 401(k) contribution and the standard deduction. For easy math, I’ll use some made up round numbers for the scenario. My taxable income is $200,000. I take the standard deduction of $20,000. My 401(k) contribution is $30,000. Given these numbers, can I do a Roth conversion of $50,000 without it impacting my taxes for the year and make it seem as I made $200,000 and didn’t take any deductions at all and didn’t contribute to my 401(k)? The other scenario is if I take $20,000 standard deduction and contribute $30,000 to the 401(k), would my taxable income be $150,000 if I don’t do a $50,000 Roth conversion? Your opinion-“

Al:- opining-

Joe: “Your opining on this will help me to understand how the standard deduction and the 401(k) contributions affect my taxes in either way- the same way as each other or in different ways.”

Al: So, let me restate. So, $200,000 a year he makes, we’ll call it a $20,000 standard deduction, $30,000 401(k), taxable income is $150,000. Then he does a $50,000 Roth conversion, gets back right in the same spot as if he made $200,000. Yes, that’s the right way to think about it.

Joe: But so $150,000 of taxable income, and then you look at, all right, from that, then the first $70,000 is going to be taxed at 12%. And then the remaining is going to be taxed at 22%. So your taxable income is the most important line on the tax return, because then each additional dollar on top of that is what taxes you’re going to pay, let’s say if you did a conversion. Or if you wanted to create another deduction. So that’s gonna tell you the tax bracket. So if I’m in the 15%- or I’m sorry the 12% bracket or the 22% or the 24%, so on and so forth, this is gonna tell me what strategy is appropriate. Maybe I do a Roth conversion. I do the Roth conversion to the top of that bracket. So if my taxable income, let’s say, is $70,000, or I mean, I’m sorry, $150,000, well, I’m going to have a lot of room in that 22% tax bracket to do a conversion in just knowing what the tax is on that conversion.

Al: Yeah, so Michael, you’re thinking about it the correct way. Here’s one caveat though, and that is the standard deduction is already built into withholding. So if you’re thinking you typically are break even on your taxes and you do what you’re thinking you’re going to still owe because you’re basically having money withheld as if you’re making $180,000, not $200,000. So just factor that in.

Andi: So how about you? Is paying the tax in the near term, and doing a Roth conversion a good way for you to knock down your taxes in the long term? Go to the podcast show notes now and download the Complete Roth Papers Package to understand how Roth accounts work, so you can take full advantage of their tax-saving benefits. This bundle of Roth guides is packed with valuable information about Roth contributions and conversions, the Backdoor Roth strategy for when you make too much money to contribute directly to a Roth, and the rules for taking money out of your Roth IRA. Plus, you’ll learn the differences and pros and cons of saving in a traditional IRA vs. a Roth IRA vs. a Roth 401(k) and much more. Click the link in the description of today’s episode in your favorite podcast app, go to the show notes, download the Complete Roth Papers Package.

What to Do with Whole Life Insurance Policies? (Wilma & Fred Flintstone)

Joe: “Hi, YMYW team. Call us Wilma and Fred Flintstone.” Remember the Flintstones there, Big Al?

Al: Of course.

Joe: Current age is 52 in our mid-20s.” Okay. “Current age is 52 in our mid-20s.”

Andi: I think there’s supposed to be a period after 52.

Al: Current age is 52. In our mid-20s-

Andi: Yes.

Joe: Oh, got it. I thought maybe Fred’s 52 and Wilma’s in her mid-20s.

Al: That would be, that would be Pebbles.

Joe: That’d be- that’d be Pebbles. “We bought two whole life insurance policies, premiums $90 a month each. We know there were not wise- we know they were not wise investments, but we can’t turn back the clock. So what should we do with them now? Wilma’s policy makes it easy to withdraw the cash value without jeopardizing the death benefit. So we have done that in recent years for home maintenance projects. Doing so reduces the death benefit for additional paid-up insurance, but not the base insurance value. Current surrender value is $33,000, death benefit $285,000. If we want to access Fred’s cash value, we’d have to take a loan from the policy. Available loan amount $30,000, surrender value $32,000, death benefit $300,000. One thought is to keep the policies forever, consider them our legacy to our daughter, Pebbles, who’s 25. Or, we surrender them and invest the proceeds, plus the $180,000 a month we save in premiums-“

Al: $180.

Joe: $180.

Andi: There he goes again, adding thousands to things.

Joe: “-$180 a month we’d save in premiums. We both have life insurance through our employers, which would cover the mortgage balance should one of us die before we get that done, 7 years remaining. We have no other debt. What do you think? Yes, Fred drinks craft beer, while Wilma favors little margaritas, on the rocks, no salt.” All right. Alright, what should they do with this insurance? You got your calculator? I forgot mine.

Al: Sure.

Joe: So here’s-

Al: What do you want me to do?

Joe: Well, let’s say they have to figure out what the money’s for. Let’s say they want to leave it as a legacy for Pebbles. They’re 50 years old. They’re going to have these policies for 40 years. I would have to run an in-force ledger, but let’s just assume you got $32,000.

Al: We’re doing together. So we got $65,000.

Joe: Well, no, because, well, then you can add up the death benefit too, I guess.

Al: Well, actually, no, there’s surrender values, $33,000 and $30,000. So we got, so either we’re going to keep it. Or we’re going to surrender it.

Joe: So let’s just use Fred’s for instance, because they’re already accessing Wilma’s. I guess they don’t really have an issue there. So $32,000 and then put $180 a month for the next, I don’t know, 30 years. They’re going to keep them forever. I don’t know. I would imagine at some point there’d be a paid up, but I don’t know when. So let’s just assume that they continue to pay the premiums until they die.

Al: Okay. Sure. And so we’ll do, let’s see what, how, 52, let’s say 30 years. And let’s do, what rate of return do you want?

Joe 7%.

Al: 7%. Whoops. 7%. I gotta convert that to monthly. 30 years, I gotta convert that to monthly. So future value could be, call it $500,000.

Joe: So they take the money out, they invest it, they take $180,000, and let’s assume they get a 7% growth rate. Then it’s $500,000 that they would have. Or, they continue to keep the policy, they pay the $180 a month, and then the heirs would get $300,000.

Al: Yeah, the death benefit.

Joe: The death benefit. So, the internal rate of return of the death benefit, I’m guessing, is probably closer to 5%.

Al: Probably so. Yeah.

Joe: So, if you think 7% is too rich, and you like 5%, or something, you know, then, hey, you’re going to get a guaranteed 5% rate of return, tax-free, to your heirs, if you keep the policy and put the money in.

Al: Yeah, 5% comes out about $300,000, so you’re about right on.

Joe: So your internal rate of return on the life returns policy is roughly 5%. So if you like that, and if you want it as a legacy play, well, I like tax-free guarantee at 5% a lot better than maybe, I don’t know, if you can get 7%, maybe you get 3%, maybe something else, or maybe you get 14%, who cares, who knows? So, that’s what you have to gauge. Do you want control? Do you want liquidity? Plus, you have to pay taxes on those dollars. If it’s in the insurance policy, right, it grows tax-deferred and then to the kids tax-free. But, that money’s gone. It’s out of your estate.

Al: Would you guess that the $32,000 cash value, would that come out tax-free because it would probably be a return of capital or hard to say?

Joe: I don’t know what the basis is, but I would imagine, well, they would have to pay tax on whatever the growth is. So if they put $30,000 in and the surrender value is $32,000 and they surrender the policy, they’re going to pay tax on the $2000.

Al: Plus penalty, right?

Joe: Well, I don’t know what the – there could be a penalty. There may not be. They bought it a long time ago. So I doubt it. The surrender value is a surrender value. $32,000. So there could be a cash value that’s different than the surrender value. But the numbers that they’re giving us is- I mean, if it were me, I would blow out of these things all day long.

Al: I would too. And here’s how I would think about it is, how much life insurance do I need? And then I’d get out of these if I could, without a lot of penalties and tax, and then figure out what I need and buy term insurance for whatever period of time I wanted. That’s what I would do.

Joe: They don’t have any debt except for the mortgage that they said that it’s going to be paid off in a couple years. I mean, you hold on to these policies for a couple years until the mortgage is paid off, then do it.

Al: You could. Yeah.

Joe: Or I would imagine that a term policy is going to be a lot cheaper than $180 a month.

Al: Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too. Or a similar amount. Yeah, probably, maybe the $180 would buy you a lot more coverage. I don’t know.

Joe: Alright, those are some thoughts.

Financial Strategies for the “Benefitless” (Michael, Kansas City, MO)

Joe: “Hey, Your Money, Your Wealth® team. My name is Michael from Kansas City, Missouri. I’m 49, unmarried, but in a long term relationship, she’s 45. We have an old Labrador, 3 cats, and a 25-year-old daughter. I drive a 2014 Malibu, and she has a Nissan Murano. We don’t drink alcohol often, but on special occasions, enjoy red wine and a good steak. And on a warm summer night, a good vodka and ice with water and a lime is delicious.”

Al: Very nice.

Joe: Yeah. I don’t vodka either, but I’ll tell you what-

Al: Got it.

Joe: “Big Al gave me the confidence to reach out and share my situation when he requested less familiar questions.” Oh. Yeah, Big Al’s voice just reached-

Al: It just got out to the masses.

Joe: All right. “I enjoy my job and I’m paid very well. It’s a W2 job making $90,000 a year. I invest as much as possible in a brokerage account and max out that $6500 in my Roth. The company I work for is very small and offers no benefits. I have worked for the company since 1999, so my entire adult life. Do you have any financial planning ideas for others like me, that are benefit-less. Companies are often- are offering less and less. And as I understand it, if your company doesn’t provide it, you can’t have it, such as a 401(k) or HSA, which leaves us with just an IRA of only $6500 per year for tax advantaged long term financial investing. More personally, I don’t have health insurance since my employer doesn’t offer health insurance and I’ve been too cheap to purchase insurance on the Marketplace.” Okay. Going rogue.

Al: Yeah. Sure. Self-insurance.

Joe: Yeah. What the hell? Let’s go. Live dangerously. Buy that motorcycle. Don’t wear a helmet.

Andi: Nice work if you can get it.

Al: I don’t recommend that. We’ll see what your question is.

Joe: It’s part of a financial plan.

Al: Sure.

Joe: You buy it or not.

Andi: I did that for a very short period of time. Kicked my butt.

Al: It sure can.

Joe: Well.

Al: Anyway, continue.

Joe: Okay. “When I have a medical expense, I just pay it.”

Al: Just pay it. Alright.

Joe: “This method has always been considerably less expensive than shelling out tons of money for a healthcare government plan. Unsurprisingly, at my age, the doctor now wants to do the recommended screenings, which sound unpleasant and cost around $3000. This amount is making me rethink my out-of-pocket healthcare strategy. I put together my thoughts on a couple of opinions or options for my situation. I would be grateful if you would share your comments or ideas of my options or anything I’ve missed or overlooked.” Alright, so how old’s Michael from Missouri here?

Al: 49.

Joe: Okay, so we’re kind of in the ballpark here. So now you gotta do a couple little tests. I understand.

Al: Yep. Get to 50 and now it’s time to kinda, gotta watch this stuff.

Joe: Ooh, moon, moon. Alright. “Option one, contribute less to my brokerage account and spend $600 a month or more on healthcare.gov plan. Since I’m benefitless from my employer, am I not able to do a high deductible plan to start the HSA? Everything I read about an HSA plan mentions the word employer.” Got a comment there?

Al: I do. I do believe you can get a HSA plan individually.

Joe: I believe you can as well.

Al: Yeah. And I think an HSA plan- it would be the correct type of plan. In other words, since you’re self-insuring anyway, you want a high deductible plan and basically it’s there for you in an emergency, right?

Joe: He needs to hire a broker- a health insurance broker and say, you know what? Here’s the coverage that I’m looking for. I’ve been going benefit-less forever, and now I need to do some tests, and I’m 49 years old, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this is what I want to spend, but I want to, you know, catastrophic stuff, I want to make sure I’m covered there, and this and that, whatever. The broker is going to put together a plan to say, well, here’s the deductible, here’s this, here’s out of pocket, and come up with a strategy, I believe, that would be good for Mike.

Al: Yeah, I like that. Or you go to the Missouri Insurance Exchange and see what the choices are.

Joe: He’s already on there. Hates it.

Al: I know, but $600 per month is not the only plan.

Joe: Got it. “Search for a new job with benefits and a good salary.” Bingo. There you go.

Al: That’s a good one.

Joe: “I do not have a college degree, but I’m smart. And I have a great reputation in my industry. One factor in my favor of this option is that the owner of my company is 85 and he’s not shared the succession plan for the company.”

Al: Oh, a little risky there. Yeah.

Joe: You know, I don’t know, he’s 85, butter up, Michael. Say hey, Bro.

Al: I want to be the succession plan.

Joe: Let’s go. “Nobody is above me in the company, so there is no room for further advancement. Additionally, the idea of potentially finding- for the greater good job, like building water cleaning systems for Bill Gates or something, for the second half of my work life is appealing. Thank you, guys. Love the podcast.”

Al: Yeah, he wants to make a difference. I like it.

Joe: There you go. This is what happens when people get close to 50.

Al: Can you relate?

Joe: No. I got- I’m so far from that.

Al: What, 6 months?

Andi: Yeah, right.

Joe: Not even, no.

Andi: Not even that long?

Joe: But then you start evaluating- evaluate your life and you’re like, man, I’m halfway home or maybe past halfway.

Al: Yeah, right? Here’s option 1.5. Go to the 85-year-old and say, I need health insurance if I’m going to stay.

Joe: Yeah. All right. Good luck. Let us know.

Andi: There you have it, sounds like a financial New Years resolution in the making: get the insurance in place and the succession seed planted – or find something even bigger and better. We’ve got six more resolutions to help you get your finances in order in 2024, and you can download them from the podcast show notes. Plus, get insight into the economy, currencies, stocks, and more from Brian Perry, CFP®, CFA, our Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer here at Pure Financial Advisors. What does Brian expect in the financial markets in 2024? Watch his End of Year Market Update webinar on-demand in the podcast show notes and find out. Click the link in the description of today’s episode in your favorite podcast app to go to the show notes, download the Financial New Year’s Resolutions, and watch the End of Year Market Update webinar. Got a question, comment, suggestion, or request for the new year? Click the Ask Joe and Al banner and send an email or a voice message. We’ll finish 2023 with this fun question from Leon in Chicago:

The Origins of YMYW

“My question is a bit of a throwback for Joe and Al. Can you please tell all 7 of your listeners the origin story of your radio show and now the podcast? I’m curious as to how the show came to be. What your motivations were when you decided to start broadcasting and perhaps how that’s transformed over the years. I have to say the show keeps getting better. I’ve listened to all the available episodes on Apple Podcasts which date back to 2016. And they become more enjoyable as the years roll by. While this is not what I mean at all, I do know this is the point that Joe will say, yeah, you guys sucked back then, and now you’re almost tolerable, or something to that effect. That’s probably a more accurate description of Joe’s performance on the golf course as opposed to the podcast. There’s also a noticeable shift for the better when Andi took over the reins. Since I know you all prefer Roth questions, I’ll call back another time with an actual financial question. Thank you for all you do and I look forward to hearing about how and why this fantastic show got up and running. Thanks guys.”

Al: A little history of Your Money, Your Wealth®.

Joe: Wow. Someone’s actually interested in this garbage.

Al: Yeah, I guess this dates, the origin dates back to 2009.

Joe: 2009.

Al: Is what I recall.

Joe: Wasn’t it the Retirement Readiness Hour?

Al: Actually, I take that back. It was 2006, I’m off. 2006 was the year that this, the genesis of this podcast started.

Joe: What was that show? What was the first show we did?

Al: It was with, Lynda Martin asking questions.

Joe: But what was the name of it? Wasn’t it like the Retirement Hour? Retirement Readiness Hour? Get Ready, Retire.

Al: I forgot.

Joe: It was really bad. Yeah, so.

Andi: And that was on radio in San Diego, right?

Joe: Yes, we were in San Diego.

Al: Correct.

Joe: I was working at a wealth management firm. Very successful CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, I might add.

Al: If you say so yourself.

Joe: If I say so myself. And then Alan sells his CPA practice to that wealth management firm.

Al: Correct.

Joe: And so Alan was going to retire. This is back 2006.

Al: Six, yeah.

Joe: He’s like, I’m done.

Al: All my real estate holdings, they’re looking pretty good.

Joe: I am a rich son of a bitch. And so he was getting his CPA practice kind of ingrained into our wealth management firm. And they had a radio show at the time.

Al: That’s right.

Joe: And Lynda Martin was a local TV celebrity in San Diego that did the show. And I forget, she was doing the show with Matt Horsley.

Al: That’s correct. And-

Al: You would just ask questions and Matt would answer them.

Joe: Yeah. It was awful. It was a really bad program.

Andi: And we should mention that Matt is actually one of the advisors at Pure now.

Joe: Yes.

Al: Yeah. And he’s a great advisor.

Joe: Yeah. But it was a really bad show.

Al: Yeah.

Joe: And so, something happened to him one weekend, and they asked me to fill in. They said, hey Joe, will you fill in, Lynda will ask you some questions, and then you can just, you know, riff off whatever you want, and answer the questions. And I said, okay, sure. No problem. So that’s what I did. And you know, come on, I just killed it.

Al: If you say so yourself.

Joe: No, I mean, there was like 6, yeah, probably 6 and a half listeners.

Al: Matt went on vacation.

Joe: Yeah. Matt went on vacation.

Al: And when, when he got back, the firm said, Matt, we’re good with Joe on the radio.

Joe: Yeah. The radio gig’s done. Yeah. Thank you for your help. And so, I don’t know, so I was doing it with Lynda Martin for a while, and then Lynda Martin went on vacation.

Al: That’s right.

Joe: And they were like, well, what are we going to do? And I said, I’ll host the show, but I’m going to bring Big Al on. And Al and I became buddies when he was transitioning his CPA firm because he was like, well, let me, you know, maybe I want to get into wealth management. I’m rich, so I gotta learn how to manage my money.

Al: Yeah, main motivation.

Joe: So then Alan and I would start seeing clients together, and start doing financial planning. He would teach me a lot about taxes. I would teach him very little about financial planning. But we became a pretty good team. And then I said, alright, well, Big Al’s gonna be the co-host. And so, next thing you know, that was it. We told Lynda Martin she doesn’t have a job anymore. It became the Joe and Big Al Show.

Andi: So was that all in 2006?

Joe: Yeah.

Al: Yeah. That was all in 2006. Maybe Matt’s was in late 2005, if I recall.

Joe: So then I left that firm and then we started Pure Financial Advisors in 2007.

Al: And then by the way, I continued that show with Matt Horsley.

Joe: Yeah. And then it lasted like-

Al: We got pulled.

Joe: You got pulled out of the air. The first show I left. Hey, let’s bring Matt Horsley back in. Yeah. Big Al and Matt Horsley and it blew up.

Al: And then you started doing a show at Pure Financial with the founder.

Joe: Yeah, it was then that’s when the genesis of Your Money, Your Wealth®-

Al: That’s right.

Joe: -came about, that was 2007. And yeah, so I did the show with Mike for a year. And then I begged Al to come work with me again here at Pure. And so Al came on board in, what, the beginning of 2008. So we’ve been doing the show. Sometimes, we were on two different stations in San Diego.

Al: That’s right, and we did two different shows.

Joe: Two different shows, and then we were in L.A., and we’d do a different show for L.A. So we were doing it like 3 days a week.

Al: Yeah, two shows on Saturday, one on Sunday. All different.

Joe: And we were doing live radio and everything else. So the genesis of when it turned into a podcast, I think the radio station was like, here, this new thing is called a podcast, do you guys want to do it? And we’re like, sure. And so basically, it was the radio show that they just turned into the podcast.

Andi: They took both hours of the show and just uploaded them as individual episodes as the podcast, right?

Joe: It was garbage.

Al: With commercials and everything.

Joe: Yeah, with commercials and everything. And then all I would do during those times, we would have like 7 seconds of content, and then I would just do CTAs. I’d call the actions, call the number right now, and I would just say the number over and over again. And I would like almost get dizzy and gag, and I was like, I can never do, I can’t do this. Next weekend. I’d say the number every 5 minutes, 3 minutes of content. So, yeah.

Al: So, I mean, so originally we were trying to get clients-

Joe: Right, for the firm that we started.

Al: But we realized somewhere in the middle of all this that, you know what, this actually is an educational show. Let’s educate. And you know what? Some people are going to want to become clients, but let’s focus more on education.

Joe: Because I think I was so burnt out of like trying to sell this, you know, notion, all right, go to fee-only fiduciary advice and all this other stuff. And so Andi’s been with us now for how many years now?

Andi: I started as a contractor in 2017 and I came on full-time in 2018.

Joe: So 2018.

Andi: Yeah. So 5 years.

Joe: So 5 years. So probably maybe a little bit before Andi came on, I was like, I cannot do another CTA ever. And especially in our podcast format. We have to change this whole thing. So we looked high and low for a producer to help us build the podcast and we were lucky enough to find Andi Last.

Al: We were, and we had a lot of potential people. But Andi, you were definitely top of the list.

Andi: Oh, thank you.

Joe: She was the cheapest.

Al: Well that too.

Joe: We could afford her. No, I’m kidding.

Andi: That explains so much.

Joe: No, I’m kidding. It’s a joke. But no, and then so we, we started taking it seriously to say, hey, let’s have a lot of fun with this. So let’s just give our opinion. Let’s just seem like we’re sitting around having a couple cocktails on a Friday afternoon and people would come to our porch and ask us financial questions and we would just riff on, hey, this might be a good idea. This is some things that you’ve got to be thinking about in regards to your overall finance.

Al: Yeah, that’s exactly right. So the focus for the last several years has been education. But still, we do get clients and we appreciate people that come to our firm because of that. But yeah, we wanna educate people. We wanna give good-

Joe: You taking clients, Big Al?

Al: – information. We as a firm. I’m not And neither are you. We as a firm.

Joe: Oh, got it. I meant you’re still, you’re still selling it. Still selling the dream. Still selling the dream. So yeah. So I think that’s-

Andi: That brings us up to the present day.

Joe: Yeah. So people are- So how do we-

Joe: We’ve done thousands of shows and it seems like we’ve done 7.

Al: Well, we’ve done at least one show a week since 2006, right?

Andi: We’re up to- officially numbered podcasts, we’re up to 461 and I’ve been here for 361 of them.

Al: 361. So we, we’ve got 100 before you. Is that the old format with commercials and everything?

Andi: Yes.

Al: Yeah. Okay. Got it.

Andi: And then, you know, obviously that’s before the radio station actually started putting him on his podcast. So then you’ve got thousands of episodes that were happening before that don’t exist online.

Joe: Pure garbage.

Al: We lost him.

Joe: Pure garbage. It would, we would have the list, remember the list, Alan would pull up a Forbes. Oh, yeah. Here’s the top 5 things you should do to budget your refinances.

Al: Top 15 places to retire.

Joe: Oh my God.

Al: And then someone would call in and say, Al is just reading a list from Forbes. It’s like, I’ve been caught on that one.

Andi: I hate to tell you that has happened within the last 5 years.

Joe: It was like, this show is so awful. All Al’s doing is reading articles. I can read articles online myself without listening to Big Al read it. We would give books away for people to ask us questions back in the day.

Al: That’s right. We would beg.

Andi: And now we’ve got 50 pages worth of questions.

Joe: Sorry, we just answered one person’s question that wrote in in October.

Al: We’re a little behind now. But keep them coming because we’ll get there.

Joe: So that, that’s it. So, yeah. Big Al’s been a CPA in the tax field for 40 years now?

Al: Yeah, 40 plus.

Joe: 40 plus, yeah.

Andi: And how long have you been in the financial arena, Joe?

Joe: Yeah, I started my career in 1998.

Andi: And I’ve been doing media for 30 years coming up here.

Joe: 30 years.

Al: So you’re 25.

Joe: Yeah.

Al: 25 in.

Joe: 25. Yeah. So.

Al: So make sure, now that you’re approaching 50, you have health insurance.

Joe: I have health insurance. I’m not approaching 50. Come on.

Al: Approaching 49 and a half.

Joe: Yeah. Anyway, let’s, uh, let’s get the hell out of here. All right. Well, that’s the origin story. And thank you all for listening. Uh, we really appreciate it. It’s been a phenomenal year for us at the podcast. We appreciate the questions and we’re super happy to come on every week and try to have fun with it, but also give you really good information and hopefully that you can use and apply it and make your financial lives a little bit better and maybe have the, uh, You know, smile or chuckle a couple of times along the way.

Al: Yeah, and happy holidays.

Joe: Yeah, appreciate it. We got another strong year ahead of us. A lot of cool things on the docket. If you do appreciate the show, what do they have to do, Andi?

Andi: Subscribe. Follow us on your favorite podcast app. Tell all your friends to listen to this. Yeah, that’ll help us. And subscribe on YouTube as well.

Joe: Yeah, Al wants to sit down and have a couple appointments with you.

Al: Bring it on.

Joe: All right, that’s it for us. We’ll see you next time. Show’s called Your Money, Your Wealth®.

Andi: Cousins, recliners, the Flintstones, Joe’s therapy, and drinking in the Derails, so stick around to the end of this final episode of 2023. Thank you, friends. We are grateful to you for listening to YMYW. Whether you’re brand new or have been listening since 2006, this show wouldn’t be a show without you. Tell a friend to pull up a barstool and join the fun, and please leave your honest reviews and ratings for Your Money, Your Wealth in Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Audible, Castbox, Goodpods, Pandora, PlayerFM, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Podknife, and Spotify.

Your Money, Your Wealth® is presented by Pure Financial Advisors. Click the “Get An Assessment” button in the podcast show notes at YourMoneyYourWealth.com or call 888-994-6257 to schedule your free financial assessment, in person at one of our many offices around the country or online, at a time and date convenient for you, no matter where you are. Chances are, one of the experienced financial professionals on Joe and Big Al’s team at Pure will be able to identify strategies to help you create a more successful retirement.

Pure Financial Advisors is a registered investment advisor. This show does not intend to provide personalized investment advice through this broadcast and does not represent that the securities or services discussed are suitable for any investor. Investors are advised not to rely on any information contained in the broadcast in the process of making a full and informed investment decision.

The Derails

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