Josh Scandlen Podcast

I have a financial planner friend who came across a client being solicited to roll a TSP(Thrift Savings Account) into an index annuity.  My friends radar went up and suggested I do a video on Index Annuities, which I'm happy to do here in this video.  Now, be advised, I am a 100% fee-only, fiduciary advisor.  This means I sell NO products.  Thus I sell no annuities.  Some may think I'm biased AGAINST these products because a lot of fee-only, fiduciary advisors,  are opposed to all annuities.  That is not me.  Annuities have a place in a clients toolkit for sure.  In fact, there is becoming a cottage industry of  academics extolling the benefits of INCOME annuities for most retirees.   I'll do a video on that in a future episode.  However, in this case, after analyzing the brochure for index annuities, I simply do not see the value here, especially when it comes to rolling over ones TSP to it.  In this video, I analyze the growth potent

Life Insurance is a big deal.  It's an even bigger deal if you thought you had a life-long policy but suddenly find out that your policy has lapsed. Now what do you do??? In this video, I'm going to show you exactly what you need to do ensure your life insurance policy doesn't expire  before you do. I can not tell you how many clients I've had in my 20+ years who thought they had Whole Life Insurance.  But in actuality they have Universal Life.  The difference between these two life insurance types are significant.  With Whole Life Insurance, you pay the agreed upon premium, on time, and the policy will literally be there for your "Whole Life".   There is no risk to you.  Other than your ability to pay the premiums.  Now, because there is no risk to you, the amount of whole life insurance protection will generally be much less than  a similarly priced Universal Life Insurance policy.  The reason for this difference is that the risk with Universal Li

Bob and Jane come into my office to discuss when they should file for Social Security.  Three things I need to know to guide them: 1. What are their PIAs (don't know what PIA is? click here: https://youtu.be/EoMQSwVh0XE) 2. What their Income NEEDS will be. Now this is SO much more important than simply taking a percentage of current income, like 80%.  This is a rule of thumb that is highly used in the industry but is not specific enough to YOU.  We need to understand truly what your expenses will be! Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING is contingent of an accurate accounting of your cash flow needs...in retirement. What you spend today may have no relationship to what you spend in retirement.  So, there is some guesswork involved but it's important to take the time to truly analyze and predict future expenditures. 3. Value of your liquid net worth.       Liquid net worth includes your investment accounts and bank accounts.  Any type of accounts that

Widows pay a huge amount of taxes, especially when compared to what they paid when they were married.  Unfortunately, by the time one is a widow/widower there is little they can do to avoid the insane tax burden they face.  And yet, very few retirement planning blogs, magazines, Youtube videos, TV shows discuss this.  Certainly, the IRS doesn't, neither does Social Security.  So, a widow is in for a huge surprise come tax time when they are no longer Married Filing Jointly.  Watch as I go through a typical scenario I've seen time and again with clients. It starts with the fact that widows will have LESS income coming in than when they were married, due to the simple fact, they will lose one of the two Social Security benefits they were receiving when married. Yet, they also lose a standard deduction.  Plus, less income is required for a single taxpayer to be in a higher tax bracket.  For example, taxable income of $40k for a married couple puts them at the low end of

Social Security taxation is one of my all-time pet peeves. Primarily this annoys me because by the time the taxes are felt, it's too late for the taxpayer to do anything about it. At that point, it's just a matter of hoping they have enough resources to pay the tax-man and live comfortably. In this video, I show you an article from Money magazine where in passing a tax pro mentioned how tax-exempt benefits are taxed when it comes to your Social Security. Unfortunately, this mention was made in passing and  I imagine most people would overlook it.  He said that tax-exempt interest is counted in your combined income to determine the amount of taxes you pay on Social Security.  But the writer of the article completely failed to discuss in any further detail, as is typical with business writers.  They seem to over-look what should be obvious and thus fail to ask the fundamental question "You mean to tell me, my tax-exempt interest can make my Social Security subject to taxation?"  

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are a TAX BOMB that many soon-to-be retirees are ignorant of.  You can't afford to be.  Your RMDs can be absolutely BRUTAL when it comes to your taxes.   RMDs can certainly put you into a higher tax bracket, thus you pay more to the IRS. However, RMDs can also increase your Social Security taxation too.  And, yes AND,  RMDs can increase your Medicare Part B and D premiums as well! Oh, we're not talking small increases in premiums either.  Doesn't take much income to have your Medicare premiums double..and more. In this video, we bring back Bob and Jane, our favorite pre-retiree couple.   But now they are only 55 years old.  Bob doesn't work.  Jane has $400k in her 401k that she is going to stop contributing to.   She expects to get 6% annual rate of return.  And will not take anything  out of it until she is 70 years old. Just watch what happens next.  You'll be shocked.  I need to recognize

In part two of our Required Minimum Distribution video I show you the  HUGE tax increase that Jane is facing with upon becoming a widow. Not only do her income taxes (and brackets) increase dramatically but the tax on her Social Security does as well PLUS she now will pay more than double premiums on Medicare Part B and D. It gets worse too folks.   The longer she lives, the larger her RMDs will be and the larger ALL three of those taxes will be as well. The funny thing is that Jane actually is living on LESS income than when Bob was alive and yet is paying much more in tax! Again, it's not just the tax rates and taxable income you need to be considering. It's the tax on your Social Security benefits PLUS the increase in Medicare premiums as well. Unfortunately,  now the only way Jane can avoid these increases in tax is to  give her RMDs to charity.   There is no other way.  Should have done tax planning in her 50s, which is what I call the "Golden Years of Tax Planni

If you like electricity, you are going to be happy to watch this video and read the accompanying article about Domestic Produced Steel.  A HUGE Win for the US, for the state of Texas and for the many Americans who are going to be employed going forward. We need, desperately need, steel manufacturing to be done in the United States.   For a plethora of reasons.  But reason number one is simply due to the fact that without electricity our economy shuts down.  And we're going back to the stoneage. Our electrical grid relies on STEEL, believe it or not.   Yet, most of the steel we use in the US for our large power transformers is produced...IN CHINA!  Not good. But with the Trump tariffs coming into effect, there is a moement now to create more domestically-produced steel here in the US. Yeah, the prices of the steel will go up. Indeed.  But for economic security, that is a price we should be very happy to pay.  https://youtu.be/PkAbeKlNqi0 https://www.reute

The likelihood of you being killed in a terrorist attack by someone form another religion, by a gun-toting Trump supporter, or by ANY random event that happens while you're living your day-to-day life is almost ZERO! Yes, these things do happen to some people.  And that's horrible.  But it's such a small occurrence it makes no sense to organize your life around these events which simply will not happen...to you.  There are other things that will get you though.  What you put into your body, be it smack or even just high carb, low fat foods COULD lead to an early demise.  So focus on those things because that is where the "action", so to speak, is. Thus focus on the things you CAN control, realize the things that are out of your control are not likely to do you harm and....ENJOY YOUR LIFE! https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death Gary Taubes "Why We Get Fat and What TO Do about It" https://amzn.to/2Em3FDH Nina Teicholz "The Big Fat Surprise" https://amzn.to/2NjP0fc ===========

Medicare premiums are MEANS-TESTED!  Let me state that again...Medicare premiums are MEANS-Tested! What does that mean?  Well, simple. You pay higher premiums the more income you have. "Oh, that's only for rich people!" You might be thinking.  Uh huh.  Think again. In this video I show you how a single taxpayer, let's say a widow, can have her Medicare Part B and D premiums increase by 100% with only a 20% increase in income. Think it can't happen to you? Well, your Medicare premiums are based on your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI).   MAGI is ALL the income you receive PLUS your tax-exempt interest.   MAGI is before you use your Standard Deductions or itemized deductions you may claim.   Remember, there is a huge difference between TAXABLE income and Gross Income.  And there is another difference between Gross Income and Modified Adjusted Gross Income too.  If you are ignorant of how this works, you can easily be paying Medicare Premiums well above

https://joshscandlen.com/global-warming-crusade-literally-freezing-poor-people/ https://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analyses/temp/Power%20System%20Reliability_Report_Published.pdf https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/29/doe-if-it-werent-for-coal-fired-electricity-plants-the-northeast-would-have-blacked-out-during-recent-bomb-cyclone/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/371145-cold-winters-are-testing-the-limits-of-us-energy-grid http://energyskeptic.com/2015/power-transformers-that-take-up-to-2-years-to-build/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Annuities:  Love 'em or hate 'em, I am not going to debate that here.  But one thing I am going to rail against is having them in Non-IRA accounts.  "Oh no!  What's this guy saying???"  I can hear my fellow financial planners utter in pure disbelief.   "Doesn't he know you don't get double tax deferral by having annuities in an IRA???" My answer to this is simple.  What happens when you want to move an annuity that is NOT in an IRA to another account? THINK about this, folks!  You have an annuity that is NOT in an IRA and decide you want to move it someplace else.   What are your options? Well, let me share with you an example I've seen a million times if I've seen it once. Guy puts $100k into a Variable Annuity in 2003.  Now, it's 2018 and he looks at his year end statement and sees the annuity has grown to $180k.  Yet, his other account in which he invested $100k into a plain vanilla mutual fund has grown to $375k over the same time, and this is

Latest episode of The Josh Scandlen Podcast --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Lots of studies show how dividend stocks out perform non-dividend stocks.  I have actually shared many of these studies right here on this youtube channel. The problem though is that outperformance due to the dividend or actually something else? In this white paper from Meb Faber he shows how you can get Dividend-like performance WITHOUT the tax drag.  https://www.cambriainvestments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DTAX-10.23.17.pdf --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

I get so fed up about hearing of this supposed "Retirement Crisis" when I see the numbers with my own eyes telling me it's not so.  Am I crazy??? So, to prove my sanity, once and for all, I decided to take the numbers from the Census Bureau, yes even though there are some issue with those, and then run a scenario on the Social Security Admin calculator.  I wanted to see what the Social Security benefit would be for someone who's HOUSEHOLD made the median income going back many, many years. I mean, think about it like this.  If my household was able to get by on $5k a month while working should my household be able to get by on less than that in retirement?   Of course!  No one would argue that.  Okay, so if we run the Social Security numbers we see that even with stopping work at 62, my spouse and I have a replacement ratio of well over 50% from SOCIAL SECURITY ALONE relative to the income our household brought home while working. With just a couple tweaks we can get a repl

Anchor --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

In my recent research I've come to the conclusion the number one thing retirees can do to secure their retirement is NOT to carry a mortgage.   The data is starting to be overwhelmingly evident in my estimation. I'll share more and more as we go forward.  In this video though I use "Table 1702. Housing tenure and type of area: Annual expenditure means, shares, standard errors, and coefficients of variation, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2015" to "prove" how a mortgage hurts charitable giving, increasing one's networth and even one's sense of peace in their financial circumstance.  (BE advised, you can't PROVE one's sense of peace, but given the numbers I share with you here, tell me the folks with a mortgage are not MORE stressed than the one's without a mortgage even though the one's without a mortgage have SIGNFICANTLY LESS income.) It's actually amazing too that we've been soooo freaking trained to look at retirement planning as what percentage of pre-retirement income do we need, i.e., "

I literally never thought I'd compare financial research with the "Climategate" scandal, and its "hide the decline" fraud, but I'm starting to get a feeling that what we've been told previously isn't all it's cracked up to be when it comes to the financial number crunchers.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Latest episode of The Josh Scandlen Podcast --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Latest episode of The Josh Scandlen Podcast --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support