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.
[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 once again to Take Pride in retirement. Matt McClure here with you, your host, your advisor, your friend, your pal and your confidant. Really do appreciate you being a part of things. Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much. Whether you are watching on the YouTube machine or whether you are listening via podcast, I really do, I don't just, I'm not just saying this, I really do appreciate you spending some time with me to learn about your retirement and about some different things going on in the world. How they could affect your retirement and how you respond to them. How that could affect your retirement. That's going to be a big part of the show today. But this show, if this is your first time joining, I just wanted to let you know, the podcast, the YouTube channel, it's all about you. It's all dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ+ community invest with confidence and retire successfully. That really is what it all just, just boiled down to its essentials, that's what it is. So on Take Pride in Retirement, we really do focus on helping you build a more tax efficient, more fee efficient and more market efficient portfol. How to get the most for your money, really. And how to get the most growth for your money with a reasonable amount of risk being taken so that that that whole risk reward thing balances out and equals you having a successful retirement. That's the goal. Your money needs to work hard for you. It needs to work just as hard for you as you have worked for it over the years. Also help you maximize your Social Security, create reliable lifetime income, move beyond that sort of outdated traditional 4% withdrawal rule that might be right for you in ret been kind of like you know, the 4% rule has been around for a long time. Maybe that will work for you in retirement. Chances are it won't. We'll look at what could be a better withdrawal rate for you in retirement.
And you know, it's not just about money either. It is about authenticity, freedom, security, living life on your terms. That is what your retirement should be about. And that is what this show is about as well. Take pride in retirement.com is the website.
Go there if you would like a free consultation. Take pride in retirement.com and. Did he say the word free? Oh, yeah. Did my ears? Are my ears tricking me? Am I mistaken? No, you're not. You're not mistaken. I said free. It's a free consultation that you can receive by going to take PrideInRetirement.com or giving me a call. 855-246-9211. That's 855-246-9211. I'll be glad to walk you through your situation and give you my honest analysis of it based on math, not on just my opinion, but based on the facts that are presented, based on all of that. And then also, you know, based on what you have now and what you could have if you choose to go with the plan that I would, would present to you. All right, so it's all about helping you be successful in your retirement years. And really that is what the show is about today, really every time we get together. But today the show is about taking the emotions out of your investing because a big retirement mistake is letting your emotions get the better of you and investing with, rather than your head with, with your heart a little bit. And not that that can always be a bad thing because, you know, you got to kind of put your heart into the things that you love and the things that you're dedicated to, obviously, but you don't want those emotions to get in the way of your plan and if what makes sense and to get in the way of your successful retirement, that retirement you can take pride in.
So, you know, market volatility, like we've seen here recently and, and luckily there have been more up days than down. But world's kind of crazy, in case you haven't noticed.
Market volatility doesn't just affect your investment portfolio or your, you know, your nerves, but it does do both. It doesn't just affect one or the other, it affects both. It really tests those emotions. Right? And so when you're planning for retirement, especially as an LGBTQ plus individual or couple, the stakes can feel even higher for you.
You know, many people in the community have faced wage gaps. Lost income because of discrimination.
I'll raise my hand again. I did that on the last episode. I'll raise my hand again. Hi.
Lost income due to discrimination. Looking, looking here right at you.
Higher health care costs. Luckily, this is in the past for me, but still, it's a thing that has happened. Higher health care costs.
You entered wealth building, maybe later in life because of, you know, safety and stability for you were not always guaranteed. They were not always a thing.
And so when the market starts swinging back and forth just as wild as a buck, it's so natural to feel anxious, you know, I mean, it just is human nature, right? We can tell ourselves that we're not going to have some crazy reaction to a market change or whatever. And it's easy when you're sitting outside of that to say, oh, you know, it'll be fine.
Easy to do.
But when you are inside of it, when you are just the other side of a big market drop, ladies, gents, and everybody in between, that is not a comfortable place to be. And so you're going to have reactions. It's natural. And it is, you know, completely 100% expected that you would feel anxious like that. But the truth, backed by decades of research, is this letting emotions drive your investment decisions is actually one of the biggest and most costly mistakes that retirees can make.
One of the biggest and most costly mistakes that retirees can make. And studies show that the best strategy is really simple.
Stay invested.
I mean, that's it. I could have just literally done the show, said, hey, I'm Matt McClure's take pride in retirement. Love you LGBTQ+ folks. Stay invested.
So long. See you like that is the essential thing here. Stay invested. Through the ups, through the downs. Trying to time the market and trying to react to things, especially based on fear, it's not a good. It's not a good thing.
And so I actually want to show.
I'm going to take a moment here to show to people who are watching on the old YouTube machine a chart kind of of how we as human beings tend to react to the market, the ups and downs, right? So the market goes up. And if I'll try to narrate this, if you're just listening to the podcast version, if not, hey, head over to YouTube and find it.
But as the market starts to go up, you're feeling pretty good. You start out encouraged, you make yourself, you know, you get confident because things are on the up and up, right there. Things are going well, you're feeling good, then things keep going up. Oh, you are just thrilled because the market is doing so well.
And then you get to a euphoric state when the market has been going so well, you've been riding this high for so long, then what happens?
Inevitably at some point the market's going to drop.
You're surprised at first, then you get nervous, then you get worried, then you're panic stricken.
And what happens during that whole kind of thing before the market bounces back? Well, at that high euphoric point that we talked about a second ago, what do you do? You tend to buy high because you're like, hey, the market's going up. What could possibly go wrong? I don't see anything coming this way that's gonna, you know, get rid of my investments. All I'm used to having happen is, is growth in the market. So I'm just going to keep on buying. Yeah, let's do it. I'm euphoric. And then all of a sudden the market starts falling and you're like, wait a minute, what's going on? Then you go through those other phases, the surprise, the nervousness, the worried phase.
And then you get that to that panic stricken phase when the market basically hits bottom and you sell low.
So you buy high and you sell low. When you sell with or when you trade or do your things, when you invest, I should say, with your emotions taking hold, you buy high. You tend to buy high and sell low.
That is the exact opposite of what you want to do.
You want to buy low, sell high. So at least ideally, right? And maybe sometimes you could have that go right for you in one of those places or another, right? It's like maybe you could get the buy low part right, Maybe get the buy the sell high part right. Maybe that'll work out for you.
But chances are you can't get both because, hey, we're humans, we don't know what's coming. My crystal ball is broken, I always say it.
So what do you do?
Right? What do you do? Well, one of the biggest things is to stay invested, as I said, during the ups, during the downs and that trying to time the market, doing the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do or what you need to do or what you should be doing. That is not helping anybody, especially not helping you plan for your future because all you're doing is losing money on both ends of that spectrum, right? So if you are trying to time the market, especially based on any kind of fear, it's going to hurt your long term results. If you panic and sell during that downturn. You think you're avoiding danger, but you're actually locking in your losses.
And that makes it even harder to recover when the market inevitably rebounds. I have seen this over and over again.
I've seen it over and over again. And for LGBTQ + retirees, you know, you may not have that traditional family safety net, you may not have that multigenerational family support that others might have. Those losses can have an outsize impact.
And so every year Dalbar publishes a study.
It's Quantitative Analysis of investor behavior.
Yes, the Dalbar Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior.
How many times did I have to practice saying that? Well, their conclusion though, is consistent. Each and every time, the average investor dramatically underperforms the market. Not because of poor investments, but because of poor timing. Driven by emotion. People tend to sell when the markets fall. As I said, they chase performance during rallies. They abandon long term plans when fear sets in. You know, they get into that panic stricken mode and just like, okay, I'm going to sell, I've got to sell or I'm going to lose everything.
You know, history has shown us that, you know, with the, with gravity, for example. Thank you, Sir Isaac Newton. With gravity, what goes up must come down.
With the markets historically, what has gone down has always come back up.
And so that is why you need to remain calm. And that's really where working with an advisor really does help.
And so, but people tend to do all those things that they should not do. And it's not a personal failing. It's really biology, right? It's, it's the way that we're wired as human beings. Our brains are programmed to avoid danger. And when the markets drop, that feels like danger. You know, you're, you're wired to avoid being eaten by the panther in the jungle or whatever, you know, whatever metaphor you want to use about ancient man and woman and their struggle for the, you know, survival out in the wild.
And you know what, retirement planning though, isn't supposed to be that way. It's not supposed to be in the wild. It's not supposed to be, you know, ancient humans in the wild. And it's not supposed to be the wild west either.
It's supposed to be strategic. It's supposed to be something that you control, the things that you can control anyway, right? You can't control the market does, but you can control what you do during the ups and downs. And emotional investing really does hurt. LGBTQ plus people more because, you know, retirees in general face a unique landscape, but members of our community face additional financial pressures and some of those that affect everybody. And then there are LGBTQ + points in here as well. But some of those financial pressures are, you know, you're withdrawing, not contributing to your retirement accounts if you're in retirement, right? And so the losses matter more. It's a double whammy for you so called sequence of returns risk.
You may not feel like you have family to fall back on. You may not have family to fall back on if money runs short. You may not have that relationship with them because of different things that have, that have happened in life.
You know, you face the sort of discrimination or identity related career interruptions that may have reduced your savings along the way.
Mentioned that this happened in my life. Health care costs may be higher, especially for those who are transgender or even LGBTQ plus elders maybe who face being denied care because of discrimination.
And we've seen a lot of moves to deny trans people their health care of late.
A poorly timed emotional decision early in retirement can really permanently reduce your lifetime income permanently.
So before you act with any emotion, taking charge, take a step back, take a step back, take a deep breath and make sure you're sticking with the program. Make sure you have a program to stick to, right?
Emotional investing, and I should say avoiding emotional investing is not just, you know, okay, you know, that's a tip. Thank you for the tip thing, you know, level of concern here, avoiding emotional investing, emotional mistakes, it's not just wise, it's, it's essential. That's a must do for you, right?
And I will emphasize here, working with a financial advisor, not just because I am a financial advisor myself, although, hello, yes, I am. And you can reach out to me at take pride in retirement.com take pride in retirement.com or call 855-246-9211.
That free consultation and I'll walk you through everything, what you have now, what you could have in the future with a plan that I would recommend do that deep dive, look at Social Security, all the things that we've already talked about.
But a good advisor for you is not just somebody who manages money or not someone who just advises you on what to do with your money. They're really a behavioral coach. I've done a lot of that this week. A calming voice, a supportive guide, somebody who understands both the financial landscape and the lived experiences that shape your life and that shape LGBTQ plus people's lives before and during Retirement.
You know, I think that's what really kind of sets. Not to toot my own horn here, but I think that's kind of what sets me apart from a lot of financial advisors out there that, you know, I do understand the lived experience of an LGBTQ+ person.
And I am. If I haven't lived your exact experience, because I. I am not everyone.
I'm not Whitney Houston. I'm not every woman or every man or every, you know, whomever.
But, you know, if I, Even if I haven't lived it. Exactly. I have empathy for it. Chances are I've seen it. Chances are I understand what is happening.
And so an advisor can step in, like, you know, when. When the headlines say, oh, recession's coming, or own the market has just dropped 10% this month. Or, you know, if you're tempted to just do something just so you feel in control, an advisor, one who works with you, understands you, gets. You can step in with a bit of perspective and can say, look, let's take a breath.
Let's stick to the plan. We've worked this out. We know things may not be great at the moment, but they can get better in the future.
And so we need to stay invested. We need to stick to the plan. Because that volatility, market volatility, even though we may not be able to predict it when it's going to happen, we know it's going to happen. And so it's built into the plan. Right. It is part of the plan period.
And so that really is just critical to have that perspective.
And research from Vanguard shows that actually working with an advisor adds the equivalent of 3%. 3% in net returns per year, largely because advisors help clients avoid emotionally driven mistakes.
3% each and every year.
Think about that over time and how much of a difference that can make.
You know, advisors can provide what the market can't.
Perspective, discipline, accountability, confidence.
And the real goal here, and the real reason that I do what I do, is because I want to help people create a retirement plan that keeps you calm.
Near the old British World War II poster that's sort of taken off a new. A new life of its own in. In popular culture these past several years. Keep calm and carry on.
That is the goal.
Because, you know, you want to live your life. You don't want to spend every day worrying about your retirement plan, worrying about what the market is doing, worrying about all of these things, giving yourself ulcers the size of basketballs. No. When your income is structured, when your risk level is appropriate and you understand why you are invested the way that you are.
You stop reacting, you stop the doubting, you stop the guessing. And then you start feeling prepared, you feel stable, you feel supported. Working with an advisor, especially someone who understands you as an LGBTQ plus person myself, can really make all the difference in the world.
It's especially meaningful for LGBTQ folks who've had to overcome so much uncertainty in so many different areas of life.
So if you are ready to take control of your retirement plan, all you have to do is go to take PrideInRetirement.com take PrideInRetirement.com click on the top of the page there schedule a consultation. You can also click Contact and just send me a message if you just have a question, something like that. Be glad to answer it for you.
Also you can give me a call if that is more your speed. 8552-4692-1185-5246-9211 is that number and you can schedule retirement analysis absolutely free. We'll take a look at your investment portfolio, your Social Security claiming strategy, tax exposure in retirement. Your overall income plan will give you that is something that is built to last so that you can have a retirement you can take pride in. Well, that'll do it for this edition of the show. Thank you so much for being a part of it once again. Really do appreciate it as always. And until until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.
[00:21:01] 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 2. Go online to take PrideInRetirement.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.
[00:21:40] 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.
