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 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, no matter who you are, where you're from or who you love.
So now let's start the Show. Here's Matt McClure.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: Hello and welcome to another edition of Take Pride in retirement. Matt McClure here with you, your host, your adv friend, your pal and your confidant. Really appreciate you being a part of things. You know, this is the podcast where and the YouTube show as well. You know, if you're watching on the YouTubes, you know that if you're listening to the podcast, maybe you don't, but it's a podcast, it's a YouTube show and it is all dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ+ community invest with confidence, retire successfully. Do all of that on your terms. You know, on tape Prime Retirement. I like to focus on helping you build a more tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio. All of those things go together to make you have a more successful retirement. So your money works harder for you. You've worked hard for it, it can work hard for you. And let's actually do that and make that happen. We'll also talk about ways on the show to maximize your Social Security benefits, create reliable lifetime income, move beyond that traditional, usually outdated 4% annual withdrawal rate in retirement. If you've ever heard of the 4% rule, not so much anymore. So that you can actually retire with some clarity, with some confidence and with a whole lot of pride at the same time. You know, retirement is not just about money. It's about you. It's about your freedom, it's about your security. It's about living life on your terms and authentically. So that is what the show is all about and that is what this episode is going to be about a lot as well.
Gotta say a couple of things, housekeeping wise, if you are watching us on YouTube, thank you so much. Like the Video subscribe to the channel would really appreciate that. Gosh, it would help me so much, help me spread the word about all the good things that we talk about on the show.
Also, if you would like a consultation, if anything, that I'm coming up with to talk about on the show today. And I hope it's going to hit home because we're talking about market volatility and things have been volatile in the world and as a result in the markets. But we're going to talk about that in just a second. But I will say if anything that I talk about on the show really does resonate with you and you want to have that retirement that you can take pride in, then give me a call. 8552-4692-1185-5246-9211. You could also go to the website take pride in retirement.com. you can schedule a consultation there. You can do all the things right. You can see about me, see past episodes of the show. You can do a whole lot.
So take PrideInRetirement.com is the website and okay, so today it really is, you know, talking about this a lot lately, just in everyday life. The, the world is crazy. I don't know if you've noticed things are kind of insane at the moment. But we're going to talk about kind of the challenge of retiring or planning to retire in a volatile market. You know, the world is volatile, so that means there's going to be some volatility in the market as well. Sometimes the market can shake off things happen internationally or domestically or whatever might be the latest upheaval. Right. Sometimes they can't. Sometimes markets do actually reflect what in the world is happening well in the world. And so you got to be prepared no matter what happens. And so, you know, it's, it's another year 2026 and Happy New Year, by the way. 2026 is another year of elevated uncertainty. Right. It is a year where we're seeing tariff driven price pressures. You know, we're seeing price increases. You go to the, you go to the grocery store, you go to the, you know, big box store or you're even your local, you know, corner shop or whatever that things are not getting any cheaper. Don't know if you've noticed, but we've got tariffs driving prices higher. We've got geopolitical conflict, we've got inflation that's just been really stubborn in key spending categories. And yeah, it is another election year, believe it or not. You're like, didn't we just do this. Yeah, it's the midterms coming up with, you know, the House and the Senate, you know, about roughly about a third of the Senate seats all up for election.
All of the House seats up for election. And then we've, you know, got governor's races in a bunch of states and it's going to be a busy. And state legislatures and all that. It's gonna be a busy, busy year for election stuff. And so for LGBTQ people, that brings up a whole lot of other, you know, concerns. Right.
We have an additional layer not only of sort of emotional stress regarding that, but financial anxiety as well. You know, I mean, policies affecting same sex couples could be up for a vote, could be up for, you know, determination based on who wins the midterm elections in November.
Health care access, spousal benefits, employment protections, all of that can shift, obviously, and shift pretty significantly depending on who's in power.
And that uncertainty really does add another dimension to planning your financial future.
And the critical point, though, here that I want to make as we start off is that there is market volatility that affects everybody, but it affects LGBTQ plus retirees differently. Right. Not just because of the math, but because of our lived experience as members of the LGBTQ + community.
You know, historically, a lot of us faced wage discrimination, career interruptions. Hello, I am raising my hand if you're listening to the audio version of this.
Definitely face that higher health care costs, later life caregiving responsibilities without family support that many other people rely on.
And all of that really compounds the risk that volatile margins markets pose to retirement savings. Right. And volatility absolutely hits retirees and pre retirees harder than it does younger investors.
So, you know, when you're still working. Yeah, the downturns mean you can, you can buy low and sell high. Right. You can buy low, buy shares are on sale, you can buy them up, and you can ride the wave when things go back up again because you got time on your side. Volatility can actually help you in that way. But if you're retired, no, you can't do that because you're, what, withdrawing from those same accounts. So the market's going down and you're withdrawing. It's a big double whammy. And so a downturn early in retirement, not an ideal situation, to say the least. That is called sequence of returns risk. It's when the sequence of your returns does not align with the way that you have to be withdrawing from your retirement accounts because you're already in retirement.
So if you are not seeing returns. If you are seeing losses or negative returns, you could say, and you're making those withdrawals again, double whammy there. Research from Morningstar shows that it's one of the single most important concepts in retirement planning. So you got to protect yourself from it. And then you add another challenge, but here, because retirees actually tend to underperform the market due to emotional decision making. I've seen this a few times in, in my career and in my life. And LGBTQ+ retirees often report feeling more financial anxiety because many shoulder the burden of planning almost entirely on their own. I've had at least, you know, three different clients reach out to me this week expressing that very thing.
You know, that they are just anxious about where the market could be headed, where the economy could be at all of the different, where the world could be headed geopolitically.
And that's the thing is like they're planning this.
Actually, all, all three of the clients that I'm thinking of that are coming to my head right now are planning it pretty much alone.
And, well, they're planning it with me, but they're planning it a lot. Like they don't have that traditional sort of family structure, help and a spouse or whatever, spousal help and all that.
So it can be difficult for LGBTQ plus folks. And also longevity, right? Same sex couples actually live slightly longer on average, according to some, to some emerging demographic data. Actually the Society of actuaries shows a 65 year old couple has about a 50% chance that one of you is going to live past age 90.
Let me say that again, if you are 65, if you are a 65 year old couple, one of you will likely live to age 90 at least 50% of the time, right? So that's what that sort of data boils down to. And longer lives mean longer retirements, bigger healthcare budgets, more pressure on your income plan. And so the bottom line here is, you know, if retirement is here for you, if 2026 not only brought a new year, it also brought retirement for you, or if it's around the corner, or if you're in retirement now for a little bit, it's not about how much your portfolio earns at that point, it's about how long your money is going to last and whether it can support the life that you want to build, the life that you have worked so hard to build for your retirement years.
For LGBTQ plus retirees, that predictability and security matters even more.
So, you know, if the headlines or the politics have you feeling just super uncertain about where things are headed, especially personally. Right. You can be anxious about all of these things that happen sort of around us and, and without our being able to control them. Right. You can sort of just generally be anxious about that. You can also really be anxious about that affecting you in a very personal way because it could make you feel uncertain about your retirement income. Are the markets going to be stable enough for me to be able to retire when that time comes?
You are absolutely not alone if you're feeling that way.
LGBTQ people face a really unique mix of financial and emotional pressures and you don't have to go through that by yourself.
What I do for listeners of the show is give you if you reach out to me, 855-246-9211 is the number website is takeprideinretirement.com you reach out there, I'll give you a no cost retirement analysis and it's going to show you how much income you can count on in your current plan, if you have one. If you don't have one, we'll put together one for you. How much income you can count on with a plan that I suggest for you, whether you're exposed to sequence of returns risk, if there are gaps that exist in your plan, you know, if you're going to have a retirement income gap, not enough money each month, you know, more month than money rather than the other way around.
How to create that predictable and steady income in any market, no matter what the stock market does, no matter what the bond market does, no matter any of those things, to create that reliable, predictable, steady income that is just really part of what you get. You know, get financial plan to your 95th birthday, all the things like very in depth analysis. Again, take pride in retirement.com is the website, the number is 855-246-92 11. And there is no cost, there's no obligation to that analysis and that initial consultation.
All right, so how do you secure a predictable income stream? Right. Well, let's talk about it. Predictable income is the foundation of retirement. And because predictable income means a predictable lifestyle, it's so important for LGBTQ + retirees. I believe having that baseline of financial security can also mean a lot more independence, safety and peace of mind in a world where support networks may look different, you know, we talk about it all the time here on the show, your support network may look different than the straight couple living down the street or whatever. Because, you know, and it's not universally true, obviously don't mean to overgeneralize or anything like that at all. But what I do mean to do is say, look, if you are in a, you know, relationship, let's say you're in a, in a same sex relationship, you are in some sort of, you know, rainbow shaded relationship at all, then your needs may be different because your family structure may be different, right? You may not have that support of, you know, your, your mom, dad, your whomever you grew up with, grandparents, all of that stuff since you came out, like it could just an unfortunate fact in our community.
But we can plan for that, right? We can plan so that you can have that independence. Researchers at the Stanford center on Longevity came up with this sort of emphasis on building stable income sources that you can absolutely count on. They did a lot of research that, that went into this and some of their findings are that you need to really sort of prioritize what you want your income to go toward, right? So first thing is, know your essential versus discretionary expenses.
So your essential expenses, those are the must haves, right? The have to haves, the gotta haves. The roof over your head, the water to drink, the electricity, keep the lights on, you know, the car to drive to, whatever form of transportation, all of those things are the essentials, month to month.
And then those discretionary expenses, the things that you could live without, right? Once you know what those things are, then you know what income sources should go to pay for those things, right? So with those essentials that I talked about, those have to haves, those must haves, those need to come from those expenses need to be paid for with absolutely 100% reliable, highly stable and or guaranteed sources of income. Things like Social Security and yes, LGBTQ couples do now have full spousal benefit rights as of this podcast.
Pensions, which are becoming more and more rare, of course, as we've talked about on the show before, go to take PrideInRetirement.com or listen wherever you get your podcast.
But they're incredibly, incredibly valuable when they are available. Available to you. They're more likely available to you if you work for the government or some, you know, agency, maybe a older large corporation, that kind of thing.
Lifetime income annuities.
I love this source of reliable income for people, for a lot of people, because it just makes sense, right? It's, it's kind of a pension that you personally fund.
So if you've got money saved up in a 401k or an IRA or whatever the case might be, then you can just roll that into an annuity and actually let it grow, get some market like growth in particular kinds of annuities. Get market like growth without the market risk and then flip a switch in retirement, turn that into income. Does it make sense for your whole portfolio? No. A good chunk of it? Yes, most likely. And we can take a look at that.
Those essential things should also be paid for with laddered bonds or CDs, perhaps short duration treasuries, any sort of income generating type of investment like that.
But your discretionary income, those things that you like to have, but you don't necessarily have to have, those are things like, you know, your travel, your hobbies, doing the things that you like to do, not necessarily that you have to do, you know, helping family, giving back, that kind of stuff that can come from market based or more flexible income sources, more flexible assets.
And so especially if you are an LGBTQ plus retiree who doesn't have children or you don't have traditional family caregivers, making sure that those essential expenses are covered each and every month and covered for life is like just mission critical, right? It is the thing that you need to do then.
The other thing that kind of came from this Stanford center on Longevity research showed that you could. One thing to consider is a three bucket income strategy.
And it's really one of the most effective ways to kind of look at things especially for LGBTQ + folks, protecting you from market volatility, healthcare shocks, longevity risk, all of those types of things is that you got a short term bucket that is money that you're gonna, you know, live on years, say one through three, like your immediate bucket of money. And that's stuff like you know, your checking account, cash, CDs, money markets. That's the kind of thing that you're gonna look at there, the midterm bucket. Maybe you're looking at more conservative instruments for your investments. There's where you're going to put your money there.
You're looking at structured income products, certain types of annuities there. And then your long term bucket is really growth focused, it's more aggressive, right? So that's, that's the thing that you're looking for for your growth and that's here's 10 plus what you're thinking about there.
So years one through three in that short term bucket, 4 to 10 ish in the midterm bucket and then years 10 plus in that long term bucket and it gives you some good breathing room so that you can plan not only for today and tomorrow, but down the road and you know that you have income for today and you have growth for tomorrow.
And then of course, that predictability, and this is something I'm going to talk about a lot more on the next episode, is emotional investing. But predictability like that can really reduce emotional decision making.
Because if you have predictable income, if you have that reliable income stream coming in no matter what, what is there really to be emotional about? Because you don't fear losing everything tomorrow. You don't fear losing all of your investments if the market goes down or if it, you know, if we have another 2008 or dot com bubble burst or God forbid, you know, great depression.
You really don't fear that because you know, you've got those guaranteed income sources.
You don't feel pressured to do something every time the next headline pops up on your phone, right?
And for many of us in the LGBTQ community, you've weathered significant financial and social uncertainty throughout your life.
Predictable income is not just a retirement strategy. It is really a source of not only stability, but dignity and empowerment. And it is something that is so essential for you to have that retirement you can take pride in. All right, well, so if you are ready to explore a plan that is tailor made for you, I can present one to you.
Go to takeprideinretirement.com Click Schedule A consultation or just click the contact page. There you can reach out. Take PrideInRetirement.com call 855-246-9211, 8552-469211.
That is the number to call and you can schedule that complimentary retirement analysis. I'm going to give you a look at your investment portfolio. Social Security claiming strategy. I am a registered Social Security analyst and I can really do a deep dive into your different claiming strategies and what that might mean for you, your spouse, your family, your tax exposure in retirement. We'll take a look at that. And your overall income plan gets you something that's built to last.
Again, it is Take Pride in retirement dot com.
And that is really, I want you to go there. Take pride in Retirement.com because your retirement needs to reflect you. It should reflect you. Your life has been spent building this nest egg.
And, you know, maybe you've had hiccups along the way. Maybe you've had some, some speed bumps. Maybe you've had some times where you've just fallen on your face. Financially speaking, no matter who you are, where you come from, who you love, how you identify, or how much money you have, you deserve a retirement that you can take pride in. Take pride in retirement.com is the website once again for that free consultation. Well that's going to do it for this edition of the show. Thank you so much as always for joining. I really do appreciate it. Please spread the word again if you're watching on YouTube like and subscribe. If you are listening to the podcast, leave us a rating. A nice comment there. I would really appreciate it. Just help spread the good word about what we're doing here and it really is all in just love and support for the LGBTQ community. I just want to give back and help people because that's what I love doing. All right, well that's going to do it again for this time around and until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.
[00:22:38] 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 855-246-9211 or go online to Take Pride in Retirement 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.
[00:23:24] 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.
[00:23:38] Speaker C: ADV2A, item 4 for additional information.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products. They do not in any way refer to investment advisory products. Rates and guarantees provided by insurance products and annuities are subject to the financial strength of the issuing insurance company, not guaranteed by any bank or the fdic.
