15 Surprising Financial Facts to Round Out 2023, Ep #206

While most of our listeners are in or on the cusp of retirement, many have loved ones who are earlier in their careers. Often we get questions on how our listeners and clients can help their younger family members make better financial decisions. 

As we celebrate International Women's Day with this episode, you’ll meet our newest CFP, Niamh Douglas. Niamh and Allison discuss some tools and strategies to help young people who are just starting out get off on the right financial foot.

Resources & People Mentioned

• Episode 189 - Smart Financial Decisions for Recent College Graduates
• 9 Retirement Surprises
• The Retirement Podcast Network
• 3rd Decade
• LadiesGetPaid.com
• BOOK - Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray
• BOOK - Peaceful Prosperity by Laura Redfern

Many who approach retirement view it as the ultimate goal, but you could have 30+ years to experience the retirement you've worked to build. 

While much of retirement planning is focused on the numbers, people often fail to intentionally plan out how they'll spend their time.

In this episode, we explore some common retirement pitfalls and then ten stepping stones to help us overcome challenges you might encounter.

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🎯 Article - Uncertainty is Underrated

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Many investors have been tempted to invest more, if not all, of their portfolios in the S&P 500 given the incredible run it’s had over the last decade.

But today we are talking through five reasons why you should consider not making a concentrated investment only in the S&P 500. 

Don't let recency bias rule your decision-making on the road to your ideal retirement.

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🎯 Article - A Few Thoughts on Spending Money

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🌐 Explore the Retirement Podcast Network here

One of the biggest financial disasters that people can experience in retirement is divorce. On this episode of Financial Symmetry, Grace Kvantas chats with licensed marriage and family therapist, Lesli Doares.

Lesli shares warning signs to look out for, misconceptions about keeping finances separate, and why couples should seek marriage counseling in retirement. Your marriage affects every aspect of your life. Listen in to learn how you can improve it. 

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🎯 Article - Many Happy Returns by David Booth

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If you have rollover IRA accounts and want to make a backdoor Roth IRA contribution, this episode is for you.

There are several steps involved to handle this strategy in the right way including understanding how you roll the IRA accounts to your 401k.

Today we walk through five considerations you should think through before you implement a strategy to complete your Backdoor Roth contributions.

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In our usual episodes, we aim to arm you with a particular insight or strategy that can help you inch closer to your ideal retirement.  But, with todays show, we want to close the year by providing a list of 15 surprising financial facts about the year that you could share in a conversation with a friend or family member.

We also pay tribute to the great investor Charlie Munger, by providing a few of our favorite Mungerisms.

As you begin your 2024, we thank you all for listening and sharing our show. We look forward to continuing to provide you with helpful steps on your journey to reach an ideal retirement  

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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today

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If you are planning on retiring before age 65, there is no doubt that you have had this question.

What do you do about health insurance? 

In the United States, the health insurance landscape is ever-changing and takes quite a bit of planning. 

Many people even feel anchored to their jobs because of the prohibitive costs of health insurance. However, there are options for healthcare before age 65.

Listen in to discover what your options are and what you should be doing to plan for this complicated aspect of early retirement. 

Outline of This Episode

• [2:44] COBRA
• [8:04] Using your spouse’s plan
• [10:58] The healthcare exchange
• [17:57] On choosing more than one option

Resources & People Mentioned

• Episode 204 - 10 Tax Planning Opportunities You Don’t Want to Miss

Taking advantage of tax planning opportunities before year-end may benefit you this year while also lowering your lifetime tax rate. 

Paying more taxes now to lower your lifetime tax rate may seem unconventional, but if you are serious about building wealth, this episode may include a strategy for you.

Listen in to hear ten tax strategies you could use on the path to your ideal retirement. 

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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today

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On the journey to reach your ideal retirement, stock options can be a valuable tool to have in your arsenal.

However, it’s easy to make mistakes given most people don’t have a class in high school that provides pointers on how to handle when they vest.

There are many things to consider with stock options: the different types, timing deadlines, tax consequences, and the leverage involved.

Since it is such a complex topic, they’re often put on the back burner and can easily be forgotten about causing you to miss out on a valuable opportunity to increase your wealth.

If you have been offered stock options with your company, you’ll want to hear these 8 common mistakes to avoid when managing your stock options.

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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today

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There’s so much we can overlook with retirement plans. Here at Financial Symmetry, we are constantly finding ways to help you be aware of retirement opportunities and rules and improve your wealth. 

On this special Halloween-themed episode of Financial Symmetry, Allison has come up with some retirement plan horror stories to spook you. Listen in to ensure that these horrors don’t ruin your retirement plans. 

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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today

🎯 Subscribe to not miss future episodes here

📰 See the full show notes here