Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Welcome to Take Pride in Retirement, the podcast dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ community protect and grow their hard earned money. Get set for for a show full of education and insights with your host and advisor, Matt McClure. We recognize every family is unique. The goal of the show is to help you achieve financial freedom so you and your loved ones can have the retirement you've always dreamed of. A retirement you can take pride in.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: No matter who you are, where you're.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: From, or who you love.
So now let's start the Show. Here's Matt McClure.
[00:00:58] Speaker C: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Take Pride in retirement. Matt McClure, your host, your advisor, your friend, your pal, and your confidants. Appreciate it. I don't know why I said, oh, another edition of Take Pride in Retirement like it was a bad thing, because it's a great thing. I love doing the show and I love it that you are part of it. I am so appreciative each and every time we get together. You know, this is the podcast where we talk about all things LGBTQ plus finances. We talk about especially planning for retirement. That's why it's called Take Pride in Retirement. After all, I want to give you a retirement you can take pride in or help you get there, you know, get you to and through retirement without the fear of running out of money. And that's something that is a recurring theme here on the show. And today is going to be no different. It's part two of the sort of series here on the five big retirement shifts that are happening out there.
Last time around, we talked about the big deal, how big of a deal it is where you live, your healthcare planning. We also talked about longevity and sort of, you know, making sure that you've got enough income to last the rest of your life. Those were the first big three. Now we're going to do the final two and we're going to tack on some big mistakes that people are going to not be surprised or maybe you will be surprised that people are making these days.
The biggest mistakes that I see folks making and that that other advisors have seen as well. And we'll talk about that after we talk about Social Security and then also finding purpose in retirement. Super, super important. There so this is part two of that big Shifts in Retirement series. Last and final part of that series. I want you just right up front to know that anytime you can go to take pride in retirement.com take pride in retirement.com to reach out, schedule a free consultation.
Plenty to come about that as the show goes along here today. Also, you can give me a call 855-246-9211. If you're watching us on the YouTubes, you'll see it scrolling across the bottom of the screen throughout the episode, all that contact information. And yes, if you are watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe like this video. Subscribe to the channel. I really would appreciate you doing that.
It's so great to have you be a part of the show and I want more people to be a part of the show as well. And hopefully you do too. If something out of this help me spread the word. And literally liking and subscribing, clicking that notification bell so that you get notified every time there's a new video. We're doing two of these full episodes a week now. I've got different shorts coming out throughout the week every week also.
And so we're busy here at Take Pride in Retirement and I want you to reap the rewards of that busyness. Okay, so go to take pride in retirement.com. you can get the link to the YouTube page there as well with our different social links. I'm also on Instagram, on the Facebook, I am on threads, I'm on blue sky all over the place. So follow and like and subscribe and do all the things. Really would appreciate it. Okay, so as we continue on with the shifting sands of retirement here, number four, a big shift that is underway right now is the reality of Social Security.
Now, Social Security was never designed to be your full retirement plan. It's always been, you know, a helping hand and not, you know, the full, not a hammock basically. Right. It's not supposed to be that income that you live on. It's really supposed to only replace. At least it does practically speaking, only replace about, say 30 to 40% of income.
Now the average benefit though, if you think about this, it's around 2000 ish dollars a month.
Maybe a little more this year, but it's around say $2,000 a month. So if you get that $2,000 a month benefit, well, 2,000 times 12.
So for the full year, that's $24,000 a year in the year of our Lord 2026.
Do you think for a second you can live on $24,000 a year.
I hope you said no, because you cannot.
I mean, you could maybe if you go completely off grid and live in a hut somewhere out in the middle of the desert, like, I don't know. Chances are you cannot live on $24,000 a year because most retirees spend significantly more than that, and they'll need more than that, significantly more to be able to live comfortably. Especially when you factor in things like we've talked about in the previous episode, like housing, healthcare, inflation, all those different things that you have to take into account.
And then again, as. As is also a sort of recurring theme here for these two episodes in this series is that LGBTQ plus people have another layer of concerns added on top of the same concerns that everybody else has. Because generally speaking, people have those concerns about, you know, inflation, the cost of housing, cost of health care, all of those things. But then when you're an LGBTQ+ person, chances are you've got an extra layer of concerns and an extra layer of things to plan for, to take into account as you plan.
Are you married? Are you single? Those two situations require different types of planning, especially when you're looking at, you know, your Social Security planning. Because if you're married, you've got the other person to take into account things like survivor benefits, potential spousal benefits, all of those different things that need to be taken into account versus when you're single, you're just thinking about, you know, yourself and when you're going to claim, start claiming Social Security. And there is always, for everyone, an optimal time to do that based on several different factors. And so I can help you walk through that right when we're meeting for our one on one consultation or one on two or whatever the situation might be. Heck, one on three, one on five, I don't care, bring the whole family.
But it's a free consultation. Take pride in retirement.com once again, is the website prideinretirement.com again, is that website. So, you know, when you're thinking about survivor benefits, you're thinking about coordinating benefits with other income sources outside of Social Security.
All of those things need to be taken into account.
And yeah, you know, we're hearing a lot about the system's future.
The, you know, Medicare. I'm not Medicare. Social Security, rather trust fund, the main one that, that funds Social Security and the retirement benefits in Social Security, less than 10 years from now is slated to run out of money. Now, what is that going to mean? Does that mean Social Security goes away? Well, no, because you've still got people paying in, you know, it was courtesy of their payroll taxes today, paying into the Social Security system.
Because the trust goes away, though. Those are funds that are used to make sure that people are getting 100% of the benefits that they are owed.
So if that goes away, that portion of the benefit payments would then go away.
My thought is they would maybe, you know, just reduce the benefits by whatever amount, 20 some odd percent, whatever the amount might be. That's just an estimate. Don't write that down in a stone tablet and carry it down from the mountain or anything. But that could be, you know, a significant reduction of benefits, could be how they deal with the Social Security trust fund running out of money.
I think Social Security is not going to go away.
That's my opinion, because it's, as I said on a, on another recent episode, talk about, like political suicide.
How would you like to be the candidate running for office or, or, you know, in office that let Social Security die a gruesome death? You know, that would not be a good position for you to be in. And so we as citizens, as voters, as, as, you know, just people living in this country need to hold the powerful to account and need to say, do something about Social Security, shore it up so that benefits are not reduced. I think that will happen.
It can happen quicker, more efficiently with you reaching out to your elected officials and making sure that that happens.
So I don't think it's going away, but it may change, you know, and planning around it and not relying on it is essential for that reason because there's some uncertainty there. Again, probably not going to go away, those Social Security payments. But you've got to make sure and plan and as I kind of often say, make sure that Social Security is sort of the cherry on top, not the thing that you're relying on to live a 2.8% COLA this year, by the way, to sort of adjust for inflation. The cost of living adjustment is the cola.
And that is what beneficiaries of Social Security received this year versus last year. That much of an increase, 2.8% in those payments.
And you know, it might sound nice, but that amounts to about 56 bucks a month on average, more than you were making last year. And Medicare premiums probably that the increase in that will eat up most of it.
So it's really crucial that you take Social Security into account in the larger scheme of things. Right. A bigger picture. But you don't rely solely on Social Security in your retirement years.
Not a smart thing to do. And I can show you how to do that, how to plan.
Yes, with Social Security in mind, but not with, you know, Social Security being the only thing.
Right. And so I am actually, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see some initials after my name down below.
RSSA are the first initials there.
RSSA stands for Registered Social Security Analyst.
And that means that I have, you know, taken a course and actually several courses and, and not, not easy education at all. It's not like I went to a community college and sat there for an hour and they said, okay, you're registered Social Security analyst. No, this is like postgraduate level stuff where we study the ins and the outs of the Social Security system so that we can give accurate information to you and then provide with a detailed report. When you come to see me and go to take pride in retirement.com by the way, take pride in retirement.com to schedule that consultation. It's absolutely free. This is another free thing that you get with that consultation is a Social Security maximization report. It's called the RSSA roadmap. And it told, it will tell you kind of when is the maximum time, the, or the optimum time, I should say, for you to claim your Social Security benefit. Then it will give you several other scenarios and then you can use that information to make that decision. That is a free service that I provide for being a registered Social Security analyst. And I can help you walk through that so that you understand.
So if you have questions about Social Security. Yes, reach out, give me a call. 855-246-9211 or go to take pride in retirement dot com.
Well, shift number five is, you know, when you enter into retirement, one of the most important things, and I think one of the most underestimated things is you have to have purpose.
You have to have that sense of I have something to do. I have goals in life. I may be, you know, post working years and all of that, but I still have a purpose, reason to get out of bed every morning.
And so the last shift that I want to talk about probably is the most important.
It's that, you know, retirement is not just a financial thing. It's a life transition thing. You're going from working to, not you're going from earning to drawing down money that you've put away during your earning years.
And so it's, it's very different than simply being, you know, doing what you've always done. In other words, and I've seen people, you know, with millions of Dollars retire and kind of not have a great time of it emotionally within a year or so. But I've seen others with far less money retire and just thrive, enjoy their days, enjoy their nights, because they had a purpose. They had a purpose for getting up every morning.
And research shows that actually having purpose in retirement improves your physical health, reduces depression, increases longevity.
And if you work with me, we'll plan for that longevity, right? We're going to make sure that you have a guaranteed income that you cannot outlive.
And so with that increased longevity comes increased peace of mind as well, that you're not going to be in the poor house before you leave this world.
And for LGBTQ+ retirees, purpose replaces the structures many times that work provided you know, that community, the identity, the routine. So ask yourself, you know, what gives your days meaning? What are you going to do to stay connected to folks? What excites you about retirement? Focus on those things.
Don't wait until your last day of work to figure that out either. Have that plan going in.
You know, am I going to volunteer for a particular organization that I really support and, and love? Am I going to go to a community center? Is there an LGBTQ community center near me that I can go and spend time? Are there others, you know, civic groups and organizations and things like that that I can join?
You know, if do I care about a particular political cause or whatever the case might be that I can then go and be a part of? So I'm part of something bigger than myself. So that gives me a purpose to get up and each and every morning. This keeps me connected, keeps the brain going, keeps the, the joints going, keeps everything healthy. And then you will have a more successful and more plentiful in my mind, not just in money terms, of course, but in, you know, fulfillment terms. You'll have a much more plentiful retirement in that way.
So if you want help sort of designing a retirement that's, you know, not just something that's going to keep you financially secure, but gives you some purpose in life, you know, we can talk about that as well. We can analyze your situation, give you a potentially new and better situation. When you meet with me for a free consultation, it really is a holistic look at all of your finances. And as part of that, it's like, okay, am I going to have the money to do the things that I want to do? Those things that are going to give me more purpose in my retirement years?
So go online. Take pride in retirement dot com. Take pride in retirement dot com. You can also call 855-246-9211.
All right, so quickly here, the biggest mistakes to avoid in 2026. I just want to sort of tag out with this because these are some hard truths, but some things that I wanted to mention as kind of the biggest mistakes that I myself, I have seen personally and some other advisors that I've spoken to and worked with, they've seen these as well. The biggest mistakes that we're kind of seeing right now, overestimating Social Security COLA increases, those cost of living adjustments. Right? I said 2.8% this year. Of course, a couple of years ago it was much higher because inflation was much higher. But generally speaking, the kind of consensus is that it doesn't really keep up with the true cost of living every year.
And that's, you know, I've heard economists say that many times. So it's not just, you know, my, my brain processing that information. It's from people who are, you know, do this kind of thing for a living as far as analyzing what's happening out there in the economy.
So overestimating Social Security increases. Biggest mistake number one that I see people making. And, and the, the truth of the matter is it goes back to the beginning of this episode of the show. You don't need to be relying on Social Security, as Michelle Visage would say, stop relying on that body, stop relying on that Social Security alone or thinking that you're going to be able to, to focus on that Social Security alone in retirement because those COLA increases are not necessarily going to actually keep up with those inflation numbers that the true cost of living every year under Planning for health Care. This goes back to part one of this series under Planning for Health Care. Again and again, you have got to make sure that you have a plan that takes into account the cost that you're actually likely going to face in retirement and that you have enough to cover big health care needs because they could very well come your way. You don't know what tomorrow holds. And if tomorrow holds some big health care related event, then be prepared for it.
A big mistake is rushing to a decision when it comes to Medicare or when it comes to taxes. Boy, I now, of course I'm not a CPA or a tax attorney or anything like that, but I do help people with future tax planning, Roth conversions and that kind of thing.
And some people say, oh, I just thought put, put my money here, put my money there in a Roth or in a taxable account or in a tax deferred, then that's fine. You know, and then Medicare. Yeah, I'll just, I'll take this plan and you know, parts A and do a supplement and that's fine. You know, it's like, okay, no, don't, don't be so willy nilly. But these are big decisions, right? So make sure that you take care in making these decisions so that you can take pride in your retirement then. Big mistake number four. Treating retirement planning is like a set it and forget it kind of a thing. Do you remember the old infomercials from Ronco? Ron Popeil was the guy's name.
And I think he has since passed on. I believe, if not, sorry, Ron Popiel if you ever hear this.
But Ron Popeil used to do the thing, the infomercials late at night. I used to watch them as a kid because I was a very exciting child.
And I would always remember, I will always remember this. It was the like the countertop rotisserie thing. I don't remember what the product was called. It was a countertop rotisserie. And all you had to do was set it and forget it because it would take, you know, cook automatically and take care of the rest. Right.
So that's great for Ron Popeil and Ronco. It is not great for your retirement plan. It is not. Set it and forget it. That is a big one. You got to review those plans because they're living documents. Things change, circumstances change, the economy changes. You've got to make adjustments for that. And that's the way that we excel really in helping people plan their retirement is we take all of that burden off of you and put it onto us because we do it every day. And then that way not only a gives you peace of mind, less stress on a day to day basis, but it lets you know that, you know, there are people who know what they're doing because we do it every day, who have your best interests in mind. Because we work in a fiduciary capacity and that we are working on behalf of you, taking all of the things into account, your goals, your, you know, your risk tolerance, all of that stuff into account, all the important stuff into account.
And we're reviewing, we're adjusting, we're guiding you along the way. It's not just that we're doing it all, we're working with you as a team to do it, but that heavy lifting is the part that we do. And then, you know, you are there, you know, to, to work with us hand in hand to guide us through what your goals are and Then we'll say, okay, well, here's how you can achieve them.
And that's really what it boils down to.
You know, working with an advisor like myself isn't about products or, you know, what's the. This thing or that thing, this type of investment. That type of investment. Because what's great, a great product or a great investment for one person may be completely different for somebody else. It's about strategy. It's about who you work with. It's about how they work either for you or for themselves. I would always work for you if we choose. If you choose to work with me, I would definitely work for you and not for myself.
And so that really does kind of sum up what I do each and every day. And if this conversation has made you realize that your plan needs updating or you need a plan to begin with, it's not too late.
That's exactly what I do each and every day for folks. Call me 8552-4692-1185-5246-9211. Go to the website. It's takeprideinretirement.com Take prideinretirement.com and you can schedule that free, no obligation, no pressure, no judgment consultation.
We talk about money absolutely in that conversation, but we also talk about the life that you're building toward because those are really the goals that matter. And how you get there is, is what I will work with you on.
Retirement's not about, you know, just. Just about having enough.
It's about being able to live with confidence, with purpose, as we talked about a few minutes ago, and with pride as well.
So I want to thank you for joining me for this edition of Take Pride in Retirement. See you again next time. That's going to do it for this edition. But until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Thanks for listening. To Take Pride in Retirement. Members of the LGBTQ community deserve to work with a fiduciary financial advisor who puts their needs first. To schedule a free, no obligation consultation with Matt McClure and the team at Active Wealth Management, call 85525.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: Or go.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Online to takeprideinretirement.com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM. A registered investment advisor, BCM and Active Wealth Management, Inc. Are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
Mad McClure and Active Wealth Management are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Registered Investment Advisors and Investment Advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure the ADV2A, item 4 for additional information.
