Josh Scandlen Podcast

In 2009, senior officials at the Social Security Administration were made aware of grossly underpaying widows who were entitled to much larger benefits.  They did nothing.  So, the "whistleblower", for lack of a better term, contacted the one person with a large enough megaphone and deep understanding of Social Security to tell him about this absolute disgrace, Larry Kotlikoff.  In 2015, Larry wrote a scorching article for PBS about this issue.  The Social Security Administration did nothing.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

================================= If you like what you see, a thumbs up helhttps://www.youtube.com/edit?ar=2&o=U&video_id=A57vAupXnTgps A LOT. So, give me a thumbs up, please! Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEzy4i9xrKPoaU9z0_XbmA?sub_confirmation=1 GET MY BOOK:   Strategic Money Planning: 8 Easy Ways To Put Your House In Order It's FREE if you're a Kindle Unlimited Subscriber! https://amzn.to/2wKGi50 GET ALL MY LATEST BLOGPOSTS: http://heritagewealthplanning.com/blog/ PODCAST: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/josh-scandlen-podcast/id1368065459?mt=2 LET'S SOCIALIZE! Facebook: http://Facebook.com/heritagewealthplanning Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshscandlen/ Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Josh-Scandlen Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/1/108893802372783791910 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

I read a lot of investing articles. Some are quite good. Meb Faber’s research over at Cambria Funds comes to mind. His podcast is fantastic as well. But a lot of investment blogs are not very good. Some are just horrific and you wonder how their compliance managers let such tripe be published. Others, though, at first glance, seem to be well thought out until you start to read deeper and realize the author is regurgitating many of the arguments from yesteryear, which have since be debunked. However, some articles do have a few golden nuggets thrown in with a couple cringe-worthy statements. These are the articles the reader can take away good information IF and only if, he or she can differentiate the bad from the good. I walk you through a couple articles just like this today that were sitting, for over a year, in my “stack of stuff.” I have a large plastic crate of articles, books, magazines etc. Every time I walk by the tote, I get frustrated, knowing that there is a lot of great stuff in there I must

Everything you have heard about retirement planning is WRONG!   This white paper from United Income, using data from CDC, BLS, University of Michigan, and many other areas, is a must read.  Retirees are living longer, are healthier and wealthier than ever before.  But here's the critical thing is that retirees on average spend 2% less each year in retirement than the year before.   From the article: The average retiree cuts their spending by about 2 percent every year throughout their retirement. The biggest drop over time is spending on lifestyle expenses, like travel, apparel and entertainment; but, essential spending on transportation and housing falls too, as retirees pay off their mortgages and rely more on friends and family for getting around town as they age. Healthcare is one of the only expenses that tends to increase through retirement, although it tends to increase incrementally for nearly all retirees.  Now, what are we typically told? We aren't' saving enough. Why? &

In the last episode we talked about how retirees today are wealthier and healthier but unfortunately those significant improvements is leading to bad behavior.   Retirees are watching HUGE amounts more TV than ever. And because TV is so sensationalized, read "if it bleeds it leads", many retirees are being affected by their news consumption. They are not as happy, and are more worried about things out of their control AND which will not ever affect them.  It's sad actually.  The liklihood of you being shot in the streets is so remote it's not even worth discussing.  The same goes for being the victim of a terrorist attack.   Could these things happen? Of course, but to focus your energy on these most unlikely events is energy lost.  Don't do it! In this episode, though, I focus on the amazing aspect of where people actually retire.  One would think most retirees are moving to warmer states with low crime and low taxes right?   Actually, that is not true. In fact,

The Secret to happiness in retirement is... Well, if you've been following my channel at all you 'll know what it is.  The secret to retirement happiness is not having a mortgage. And in this video I'll reference a Washington Post article which serves to confirm this assertion once again. Now, the Washington Post article doesn't come out and explicitly state that not having a mortgage is the secret to happiness. In fact, they cite many factors to determine who is actually happy and why. Some of the factors are quite interesting actually: Strong sense of community, homogeneous population who have been in the community over 5 years, attend church, lesser commute, population being less dense.  But what struck me was that in happy communities 13% fewer households spent over 30% of their income on their housing. Hmmm wonder what that implies? You got it!  Cheaper cost of living in rural communities means lower mortgages which means more likely to be paid off come retirement which means less pe

What do you do if you filed for Social Security benefits too early? In this video I will share with you three things you can do to improve your Social Security benefit, even if you already filed. 1. Stop your benefit and pay back what you received. Now you can only do this in the same year you filed, be advised. Before the 2015 changes you could repay all your benefits, interest free, even if you took those benefits years prior.  Those days are over now.  2. Stop your benefits to begin receiving the increases each year you delay taking them up until age 70,   Say you are 64 and started your benefits at 62.  Because you took your benefits before your Full Retirement Age of 66, your Social Security payment was reduced by 25% of your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). However, if you stop your benefits now, you can still receive increases of 8% each year until you decide to start the benefits up again. No big deal.    Of course, if you do this, you'll need to ask where the income

The "best" mutual funds are all the rage. Just do a search on Google and there are nearly 15,000 searches a month for the terms "best mutual funds" and "top mutual funds".  Everyone, it seems, wants to invest in the best.  It's such an alluring idea, it even rhymes.  "Invest In The Best".  Type "worst mutual funds" though and you only get 40 searches a month. Interesting, no? So, what happened when you invested in the Best Performing Mutual Fund Of the Decade?  Not just the year's best, mind you, the entire decade's best fund? You were down 75% 5 short years later.   Even today, after 2 solid years up, 45% in 2016 and nearly 10% last year a $100k initial investment would only be worth $37k today. And you will never get back to your starting point.  Remember my friends, a 50% drop means you need 100% on the upside just to break even! Not likely to happen very quickly, if at all. Which is why you need to "cut your losses".  Rule number 1 in investing...ride your wi

Tax-efficient investing is what Vanguard is known for.  They just sent out a summary of their "model portfolios" and highlights the gross and after tax returns of each.  Which I love. And you should too.  You can find it here. https://advisors.vanguard.com/web/cf/vanguard-models/?INCMPGN=IN:BR:XX:FAS:XX:20180514:ALL:XX:LINK:MODPORT:TAX:EFFICENCY Their 100% equity portfolio lost 6% of its returns to taxes over the last 5 years.  Gross returns were 10.63%. After tax returns were 10.01%. (After tax returns use the highest possible federal rate at the time of distribution but does NOT include state tax.) Their 100% fixed income portfolio though gave away 50% of its returns to taxes.  Before tax it averaged around 2%, after tax, 1%.  That, my friends, is a big deal! In this episode you're going to learn how to avoid all that.  3 accounts. $100k in each, a Traditional IRA, a Roth IRA and a Taxable account. You are a 50/50 investor, that is 50% stocks and 50% bonds.  Whe

Almost every investor owns a mutual fund.  But how many of those investors actually know what it is they own? In this video I am going to breakdown the most important aspects you need to look at when you're considering mutual fund investing.(By the way, the same things are applicable to Exchange Traded Funds as well. 1. expenses 2. portfolio turnover 3. 30 day SEC yield 4. Tax adjusted returns 5. historical taxable distributions 6. tenure of fund manager 7. portfolio holdings 8. unrealized capital gains 9. size of fund 10.  Morningstar Rating Yes, there are many areas to consider.  But once you watch how I do this, you can go to Morningstar.com yourself and analyze your own funds and ETFs. Remember, my friends, the only return that matters is your NET return, i.e.your return after tax and fees.  NOTHING ELSE MATTERS! The problem though is that trading fees are NOT measured anywhere in the SEC literature you can request on the fund you're looking at.  So, you can not be too sure

Many professional money managers will provide a benchmark to their clients as a way to measure their performance.  This is certainly better than the old days when an investor had no clue as how well his/her money manager was doing.  The problem with this new approach though is that the benchmark is basically meaningless.  How is the benchmark determined, first of all? By the folks you are paying to manage your money? doesn't that seem a bit disingenuous at the outset? Think about it like this. I'm a professional football coach. The owner wants to know how I did  last year. Thankfully, I get to pick the benchmark to compare my performance.  So, what do you think I'll use? The Cleveland Browns of course! The investment world is not that far removed from this type of performance comparison.  THEY choose the benchmark.  Yeah, it will be more legit than my football analogy above.  But still, how do they get their benchmark? Is the benchmark something I can invest in di

As of today, (5/13/2018) ANYONE who joins the US Military will do so under the new retirement plan, the "Blended Retirement System". As someone who served 3+ years on active duty in the infantry and another 4 in the National Guard, I am fond of the new rules.   After all, the VAST majority of servicemen and women do NOT stay the full 20 years and receive NO benefits at all upon separating from service. (Yes, they get the VA Loan and college benefits but no medical or retirement benefits.) The new system will reward service personnel for completing their first tour or two without having to commit to remaining the service for another decade and a half or so.   This is good. Also, as an incentive to keep senior personnel who've served 12 years, think NCO's, they will receive a Continuation Bonus when they sign on for another 4 years.   These NCO's are the backbone of our fighting force and we need for them to continue to serve.  They are irreplaceable.  So, giving them bonuses

In this video, I share with you examples of misleading data from the "investment gurus" which serve only to separate you from your hard-earned investment dollars. I also point out WHY these investment guru's use faulty data...because they get rich off investing YOUR money. Yet, what happens to you when the market falls?? Do you get reimbursed? Yeah, not quite. Remember, my friends, investment management, where one tries to outperform the market is a zero sum game. Throw in the quite high fees and it's a game you can't win. Oh, don't get me wrong, someone wins, the investment managers! But not you. Don't fall for it. Your wealth is at stake. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-hedgefunds/u-s-hedge-fund-managers-pour-money-into-2016-race-and-trump-is-a-factor-idUSKCN0WC19G --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Living Trusts play an important role in estate and financial planning, when enacted properly.  The problem, of course, comes when a document hasn't been updated to reflect the change in family dynamics, tax law or legal circumstance.  First and foremost, your trust must actually be funded, i.e., there must assets it actually controls. Assuming the trust is actually funded, the most important part of the trust is the identification of trustee and successor trustee.  These are the people who actually control the trust day to day management. What you want to happen with your trust is contingent on these people.   Typically, the trustee will be the grantor of property to the trust.  Usually, that will be you.  You grant property to the trust AND you are trustee.  You control the trust. You can change it. Cancel it. Do whatever you want.  Any income generated in the trust, flow to your 1040 to be taxed.  In actuality, you still own the property. In fact, the value

A Durable Power of Attorney is one of the MOST important aspects of estate planning.  And yet, it seems to be the one area that is least understood.  What a Durable Power of Attorney does is allow someone to act on your financial affairs, as if they were you, even after you've been declared incapacitated.   A "Durable" Power literally means is survives incapacity.  A "General" Power stops at incapacity.  It's CRUCIAL to understand the difference!  If your Power of Attorney is not durable, it will cease to operate at incapacity, the time it's needed the most, typically.  Read my book on this exact issue, chapter 8, you can read for FREE if you have Kindle Unlimited.  https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Money-Planning-Sustainable-Wealth-ebook/dp/B07C9SQDCT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526048812&sr=8-1&keywords=josh+scandlen What does YOUR estate documents say? Who is the exectuor? WHo is the attorney-in-fact? We'll go over some other documents later.  

If you were born before January 2, 1954 you are the LAST cohort to ever be able to file a Restricted Application.  This means you could literally receive tens of thousands of dollars more in Social Security benefits than someone born January 2, 1954 or later.  When President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, many "loopholes" of Social Security were eliminated.  Mainly the ability to file a restricted application and receive Spousal benefits all the while allowing your own benefit to increase with Delayed Earnings Credits.  Here's the language directly from the Social Security Administration: The loophole allowed some married individuals to start receiving spousal benefits at full retirement age, while letting their own retirement benefit grow by delaying it. Those days are over now..unless you were born before January 2, 1954.  You can STILL apply for your Spousal benefits once you hit Full Retirement Age (66) and allow your benefits to increase each and every year

Retirement Planning is really about how to maximize your dollars. When you're on a fixed income you do not have the luxury to waste money.   In this episode I show you an easy way to save $30 a month, or more with just some basic energy efficiencies.  Change your light bulbs to LED lights. Insulate your attic. Caulk around the light fixtures. Get double-paned windows.  Use your propane grill to cook in the hot summer afternoons.  If you can, air dry your clothes.   You don't need to be a "greenie" per se to save money on your electric bill. Just some basic adjustments. None of which require a huge amount of money to implement. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

When it comes to maximizing your Social Security benefit you have to make sure you're using the proper life expectancy numbers.  The numbers you hear in the media about the life expectancy for the average Americans are for new born, bouncing babies.  They are not for you! Your life expectancy will be much higher.  In fact, if you don't smoke, eat right and have a college degree your life expectancy will be well above what the Social Security tables show.  https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Is the market high, low, does it matter??? In this video I show you some of the JP Morgan research they put out every year for free.  The link is below.  This paper and Vanguard's are really the only two research papers I look look to with high anticipation.  Basically what I'm looking for in JP Morgan's stuff is where we are with valuations.  The 4 most current analytical tools for current valuations are, Price To Earnings ratio, Current Dividend Yield, Price to Book and 10 year Treasury Yield. With those 4 numbers you can get a pretty good idea of your return over the next 5 years because valuations are most important.  Nothing is more important from a future performance perspective than CURRENT valuations, other than an unforeseen event, of course.  Right now, the market is trading at roughly a 16.5 PE, with a 2.20% dividend yield a price to book around 3 and the 10 year is at 2.90% Nothing of these numbers scream OVERVALUATION which many prognosticators continue to say.

Every year the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500, has significant drops in value.  In fact, the JP Morgan research I cite in this video shows the market drops in value on average 14.2% a year.  Unfortunately, many investment prognosticators fail to take this fact into consideration when they discuss investments... Looking at you Dave Ramsey! They simply cite the average returns over time and thus make assumptions based on those averages.  But you should NOT do that! We are human beings and thus live in the moment.  You can cite all your the averages you want but if I look at my account in the middle of August 2011 and I'm down 19% from its high, the averages become meaningless.  Today is my only concern.  If you've studied or even heard of Benoit Mandelbroit's discussion of fractals, you will see how fractals can be seen in basic investment analysis.  We tend to look at the 'stock market' from the bird's eye view.  The market averages 10.5%  a ye