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You know, every year there's a moment when winter finally loosens its grip. Especially after the kind of winter we've had this year. It's the first warm afternoon, the extra daylight. And for many of us, it makes you want to reset a little. Clearing out closets, firing up the shredder, getting rid of the statements you don't need, and maybe even thinking about the bigger picture. That's where policy genius comes in. Because thinking about insurance and long term planning can feel overwhelming. Especially when you're trying to take care of people you love. Policygenius makes the process so much easier. They're an honest online insurance marketplace where you can compare life insurance quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. And their license team actually works for you, helping you figure out coverage, amounts, prices and terms. No guesswork. They handle the paperwork, answer your questions, and help you find a policy that fits your life. This is real peace of mind. Protect the life you've built. With Policygenius you can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for a million dollars in coverage. Head to policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com the New Year is the perfect opportunity to reset your space and get back into an at home routine you love. Wayfair makes it easy to do just that. With everything you need for your home all in one place. From bedding and bath essentials to storage, decor and furniture, Wayfair has it covered. You know I bought my little in home desk at Wayfair and it is Amaz has served us so well. What makes Wayfair so convenient is the massive selection. With so many styles, price points and categories to choose from, it's easy to find exactly what works for your home. Upgrading a work from home or study setup or adding smart storage throughout the house, Wayfair makes shopping simple and stress free. Get organized, refreshed and back on track this new year. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W A Y f a I r.com Wayfair Every style Every Home welcome to the Jill on Money show. It's Tuesday, February 24th and you know what? We are just two days away from our huge webinar with Ed Slott. Now. I am so delighted to tell you that Ed has sent over his brand new 2026 tax planning documents and if you are a member of Jill on Money Live, our subscription service. Those new documents are behind the paywall, and they're amazing. I love that he's got one full page, which. And, and these are great. It is like, basically it's. It's one separate page with two different parts of it, which is the one big beautiful bill act of 2025. And he has all of the provisions in here. Incredible. It's absolutely incredible. And so if you're ready to do your taxes and you are thinking about this, you have got to do two things. Number one, subscribe to Jill on Money Live because not only will you get all these great documents, you will be able to join us just in two days for our Ed Slot webinar. Thursday. That's this Thursday the 26th. And it only costs you 45 bucks for the next 12 months. I would pay 45 bucks for these documents every year. I really would. Wouldn't you, Mark?
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Yeah, I would. I hope Ed has worked on his succession plan and to ensure that these charts continue long into the future.
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Well, I don't need that long. I mean, for as long as we're on the air, which is fine. Well, that's really care beyond.
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B
That's why I said long into the future.
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A
Yeah, five years. Now say what you. What you're thinking, Mark.
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B
Long into the future.
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He think. Mark's thinking 10 years. You told me 10, Jill. No, you asked for 10. I said five. I said as long as people will
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listen to us in five years from now, you, I mean, you're, you're just. You have to be doing something. It's just your DNA.
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A
I know.
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I'm not saying you got to be schlepping to the broadcast center, but sitting down at your desk in your house talking to callers. As I recorded, I could see you doing it.
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As I record this on a Friday in the middle of the winter, it was lovely to get awakened by a 4am call to come on the show today.
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B
Right. That stuff will be over. That'll be over.
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A
Thank goodness. Okay. Anyway, you gotta join us for Ed Slott, and he is great, and he is a bundle of amazing energy. So check it out, Jill on Money Live. You must subscribe. And if you really don't care about joining us live on Thursday, but you do want to actually purchase the webinar just to watch it after it's done. 15 bucks standalone. Mark. Let's do some emails so that we can help the shy people get some questions. This is a question from Elle. Hi, Jill and Mark. I Want to know if I should decrease contributions to retirement and put more into a brokerage account. I am 60 years old. I make $197,000 and I plan to retire from my current job in two years. And I will plan to make money doing something else after I retire. I got a million bucks in my thrift savings plan. 22 grand roth. I'm contributing $1700 a month, 11% to the thrift savings plan, $3600 a month into a high yield savings account. It currently has 12 grand because I just completed a recent renovation. Okay. I also have a $6,000 brokerage account, individual stocks. So wants to know, should I contribute just up to the match on my thrift savings plan and then put more money into the brokerage account? Once I retire, my guaranteed income will be $94,000 and it should cover my monthly expenses. Then at age 70, I'm going to take Social Security and that'll increase my guaranteed income to 128,000. Looking forward to the advice. Hey, you know what? I'm saying yes to this. You're two years away. Beef up the non retirement stuff. You're going to be fine. It's nice to have a little kitty that you can access. I would do that. If you're putting money, like maybe your tsp. I don't know if it's going into the Roth or the traditional, but I think definitely put some money into savings, rebuild your savings, put some money in the brokerage account, call it a day. Mark, you okay with that?
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B
I agree the cash is very low right now due to the renovation. You know, you want to have more cash, especially as you head into retirement, which is only a couple years away.
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Yeah, I mean, he's got huge income. So I don't want to like, make it seem like it's, you know, some horrible thing, but, you know. Okay. Paula wants to know how to reduce my tax liability. Perfect timing, Paula. Okay. Paula's like, we have too much interest income and so we are in a higher income tax bracket. We do pay quarterly estimates. We are retired. How can we reduce our tax liability? Well, first of all, Paula, what do you have in your investment account? Because sometimes people throw a lot of stuff in that investment account that churns out interest or dividends. So that's where I would start my focus. And maybe there is a way to rejigger what's in that account so that it's not throwing off so much income. You know, Mark, I remember this used to be a huge problem with a lot of People with those mutual funds that threw off ridiculous amounts of tax liability. And so I would really need to see what's in that account and also what your other income is because sometimes we hear from people and they're like, oh, I'm in such a high tax bracket. And then we're like, really? Are you, Are you in the 24? You in the 22? Like, where are you? So we need more information. But Paula, you. It usually has to do with whatever is in that account that's throwing off too much income or dividends. And then maybe we can help you out perhaps.
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Oops. Good problem to have, right? Also target date.
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Is that why you chuckled?
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I mean, yeah, too much interest income. Would you rather not have it? Also target date funds, if you have those in a taxable account, they can be bad.
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And another thing that happens sometimes when people are retired is that they're pulling money out of their retirement accounts and forgetting that that creates tax liability. And some of that is, you know, maybe you can do it and you should do it, but some of it is just knowing that it is happening so that you withhold enough taxes. I don't know. I don't think quarterly payments is the worst thing in the world. Just saying. But anyway. All right, this is from Jennifer who says my mother is talking about hiring a big bank to manage her money and I'm trying to convince her to use an independent flat rate financial advisor instead of. Can you discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each? I'm having a difficult time articulating my reasoning. Okay, Jennifer, let's get your mom on the air with us. The fee is a kind of irrelevant. I know that sounds crazy, but you can have a flat rate. You can have an asset under management. What is important is what is the big bank going to do in managing her money? In other words, are they going to give her financial planning? Have they set out how they would manage the money? Are they using index funds? Are they using exchange traded funds that are linked to indexes? Are they saying, well, we're a big bank and we're going to put you in your quote unquote special separately managed account portfolio and we're going to pick the best stocks, then I'm not buying it. So I think that there are plenty of independent advisors who charge an asset under management fee and they're well worth it because they do your full financial planning. They really walk you through it. It's great. Then I think there are others who are flat rate, who are expensive and maybe it's not Worth it. So we would really need to find out what else is going on with her. I mean, maybe she's, maybe she's going to be okay. And maybe she is being sold this idea like, oh, we know how to beat the market. Which I think Jennifer, you know already is baloney. So no one can promise that you beat the market. Okay, this is great. This is on the heels of that question, here's a message from Katherine. I am an older widow who has been with a large financial firm and the Same planner for 20 plus years. And I've been mostly satisfied. My planner has now left the firm and struck out on his own with a large fiduciary firm. And I would like to move my money to his new company. My question is, the words on his new business card say, you are an independent company under that firm. Is that a normal statement or should I be concerned? Okay, I think I know what's going on here. So let me give you an example. These are, people are usually called breakaway brokers. And what they do is they come from these large, what we used to call wirehouses. So these are places like Merrill lynch or Morgan Stanley or a big insurance company. And they often will say, I'm moving to another firm where that firm is going to hold the assets of my clients. But I own my own company inside of this, you know, wholly owned, meaning, like they're clearing the trades. I use their research, I use their back office, but essentially I'm running my own company. I don't think it's. This is not like a crazy thing. You should not necessarily be concerned. But I would like to see where the person is going. And then we can also give you some questions to ask about that move and things you might want to understand before you sign all the paperwork, you know, because obviously we want to know what is the price and how, you know, how. What are they going to do for you and all that. So let's, let's try to get a little bit more information. Okay, the last question of the day is from Ronald, who says, tell me where I'm wrong. Okay, here we go. My wife and I are both 75. We have monthly income of $6,800. That's Social Security and pension. We have monthly expenses totaling $6,000. $6,800 is better than $6,000. Mark. House worth $600,000, no mortgage, online savings account, $140,000. IRAs, million dollars all in CDs and bonds, paying somewhere between, let's call it 3 1/4% and 6% maturing. You know, it sounds like laddering, meaning they mature at different points between now and 2029, they have a single stock that's worth 160 grand. It has a big dividend, $5,100 a year. Then they have other stock, which is another like GE stock. So they have about 200 grand. 200 plus 225 of stock. And it drives dividends. Okay, question. Tell me where I'm wrong. Should I continue what I'm doing or modify my investments? I mean, listen, this is such a funny situation, Ronald, because you're in great shape. You have. I'm presuming that your pension has a cost of living adjustment, which means your monthly income should outpace your monthly expenses. That's good. And that might suggest that you don't have to take a ton of risk with your investments at all. Hence the all invested in CDs and bonds. But I would look at that IRA account and maybe, just maybe start to cycle some of that money in other assets. I mean, the CDs are going to mature. Chances are there's not going to be as good an interest rate when they get renewed. And maybe that's a time where you might add a little bit just in a plain old S&P 500 index fund and international index fund. Not a lot. I'm talking about maybe, yeah, I don't know, 20% of the total, just so that you have a little growth in there. But this is not important. The other stocks, the individual stocks, I don't know, I never love individual stocks. But I bet that you have meaning that like you have a lot of money in these few stocks. And it's so weird when you have like all CDs and bonds and then on the other end of the spectrum you have like three or four individual stocks. But what I think might be helpful for you is if you are at all charitably inclined, you would use these stocks to gift to charities because they're probably low basis. You accumulated these stocks at a low level and if you sold them now, you probably would find yourself in a big tax. Well, not big, but you would have some tax liability. So, you know, if you want to do that, that's great. If you are really charitably inclined, you want to do something, you can open a donor advised fund. You could then gift some of the stocks into that donor advised fund and give the money away over time. Where you're wrong is this is essentially called a barbell approach to investing, which is pretty much all very safe stuff. On one end and on the other end of the barbell, it's a few individual stocks. But is it really wrong? Eh, I don't know. Not terrible. Right Mark?
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No, I mean the ira, you know. Yeah. Like you said, if you want to take a little risk, 20, 30% most. That's all he really needs to do.
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Yeah.
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You know, individual stocks. Yeah. Not. Not my cup of tea, but it's not going to make or break a situation.
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Exactly. Right. So, I mean, look, we. We think you're. You're doing fine. I'm not going to tell you you're doing wrong. It seems fine. Just fine. Okay. If you would like a little readout on your portfolio, if you would like some idea about how you are ready to reach a goal, if you're shifting goals. If you need just another perspective on your situation, get in touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note. And if you'd like to join us live on the air, Mark will do everything else. Don't forget to sign up for the free weekly newsletter and that comes out every Friday. And check out all of the other content that lives on the website because Mark does a fantastic job with that. Incredible Mark, really. I mean, I don't know. You taught yourself to be a webmaster. I said, oh, I'm gonna have to now hire someone. When crazy Karen left us, abandoned us.
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Remember those two ladies you used to use?
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Who were those two ladies?
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Down in. I think they were down in Florida or something.
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Oh yeah. How did I get them?
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I don't know. But you had them for a while. And that's when I first kind of transitioned to working with you on a regular basis. I remember I had, you know, I had a call with them, kind of like a handover.
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Yeah. And how did that go?
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I just remember the version of that website back then.
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It sucked.
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It's like archaic.
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I know.
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And listen, here we are.
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Here we are. Thank God for you, babe. That's what I can say. Thank God for Mark. I always said, what would Mark do? Wwmd. That's it. What would. I'm gonna just. I. Maybe I should get my first and only tattoo. Wwmg. The answer is that will never happen. Okay, if you'd like, just get in touch with us, jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button and Mark will get you on the air. That's the way to do it. You can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast. Please leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. Of course, either give someone a hug if you're with them and they say it's cool, but you can also put your hands metaphorically on someone's back. That's something we used to say during the pandemic, that we just, we wanted people to reach out, create, create community, have some connections. That's really important to me and Mark and you guys have done that with us and we do it right back at you. So do that with someone else. It makes you feel better. It really does. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you tomorrow.
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