John, good to see you. Let's talk about those five financial planning mistakes you really need to avoid. According to bankrate.com nearly three quarters of US adults report at least one financial regret. So today we are breaking down the top five planning mistakes. And I know you've been doing this for a while, John, you've seen a lot, but number one hits especially close to home not having a grip on your retirement. Grip is an acronym. What does it stand for the guaranteed retirement income plan, right? I like to say you need to have a sustainable and predictable income stream in retirement, something that you know is not going to outlast your retirement, because in retirement, folks, I've said this before. I'll say it again, you don't live off your assets. You live off your income. You pay your bills with your income that is developed from your assets. So in that income plan, you want to have an income plan that is predictable, is sustainable, but it's also efficient. Can you develop an income stream with the least amount of dollars possible? And this is really important, because folks, this is what gives you your peace of mind. And a lot of my clients, whether it's in good markets or bad markets, have had the peace of mind that we've carved off a portion of their assets to be solely dedicated to an income stream, right? What do I always say, give your money a job in retirement, take part of your assets and dedicate it solely to an income stream, and give yourself that income plan next would be taking inappropriate risk, taking on too much or even too little risk can derail your retirement. But how do we know how much is the right amount?

Well, you know that, again, is a very individualized situation, and you're going to hear that comment a lot on this video, because this is not your your brother or sisters or your friend's retirement plan. This is your retirement plan, right? So number one, you have to understand that retire, the investing in your working years is completely different than than investing in retirement you can no longer afford. You don't have the time horizon to take big losses. You're no longer contributing to your 401 k, so let's say your 401 K drops in 2022, or at the beginning of this year, and you are shoving money into it. You're doing what's called dollar cost averaging, and you're lessening your blows in retirement. You don't have that right now. You can no longer make contributions, and you really have to be focused on the downside. So I know everybody sees market highs, and we've done videos on this. It's, it's a feel good approach. You want to get, you want to be involved in that participation of the market highs, but you really have to understand what's the downside, because that Erin is when people make the biggest mistakes, and those mistakes often have detrimental, long term effects on the retirement so you have to understand, Number one, what you're willing to lose? Yeah, if you're not willing to lose 10% and you're a buy and hold investor, you can't be invested all in equities. You have to have some type of diversified, more conservative portfolio. And you have to rationally consider it that when the s, p5, 100 is up 30% that if you're nowhere near that, you're fine with that, because protecting your money on the downside is more important than growing it. Yes, we want to grow it. We want to outpace inflation, but losing it says subjecting yourself to major market losses is catastrophic, and it erodes peace of mind. The other thing outside of risk tolerance, what you can actually stomach on losses is the risk capacity, and that's how much you can lose. So you see in this slide right here, we're showing that how much a client can either spend or lose in the market or a combination of both, before they have to make income adjustments, this is a great Gage for a lot of people to understand, wow, I can't lose more than 20 or 25% because this is actually going to be detrimental to my long term success of my plan.

All right? So much to consider with that, and so much I think, that a lot of people don't take into account when it comes to the plan. Good point next, we have a gross planning mistake, which is focusing too much on your gross savings, ie saving too much in those tax deferred accounts, like a lot of us do, right? So you've spent 30 plus years working. You did what you're supposed to do. Erin, and I know you, you save away. The typical person saves in their 401 K, they've done their part. They went without. They were diligent in their savings. And now, you know, for a lot of people, I see they have a million plus dollars in this IRA, and they feel great about themselves, and they should. But the harsh reality is, and I use this as an example, is the potato chip example. Erin, you get that nice bag of potatoes, you open it up, and where do the potato chips actually start?

Yeah, they're halfway up. It's it's half air, right? They're at the bottom half. 50% of that bag is air. And folks, that's what I like to use as my analogy when it comes to tax deferred accounts, or 401, K or IRAs, that top half is going to the IRS. So you have to understand that if you need $10,000 a month to live off of in retirement, you can't take $10,000 out of your 401 k or IRA, you're not going to have $10,000 you have to take into account taxes. So you cannot be, you know, just go, oh, I need to take $10,000 a month. No, you have to account both for state and federal taxes. The other thing is, and I've heard this from a lot of advisors and at conferences, it's, Hey, you should take from your taxable first your tax deferred, and then your your tax advantage. But there's no real individualized plan. And again, we use very advanced software, and we're always, always optimizing our strategies based on taxes. So if you can see on this slide here, we're showing that a client could potentially take this much money from their tax deferred and then this much money from their taxable account. Why are they taking it from both? Because their tax deferred is at a higher ordinary income rate while they're taxable is at a 15% long term capital gains rate. Therefore they're they're reducing and mitigating their taxes for that year and optimizing their income strategy All right, next, this one is really important as well not having a plan for long term care, which is so short sighted, because John as you know, seven out of 10 people will need long term care at some point, and this is even in my office, the hardest thing to plan for the most uncomfortable talks, because it's kind of a morbid thing, right, right? People don't want to accept the fact that they're going to get old. And as we get older, we may fall, you know, we just become weaker physically. And they don't want to think about someone having a they don't want to be, you know, they don't want that independent strip from they don't want to go to into facility. They don't want their kids taking care of them. So they just kind of just put their bury their head in the sand, folks, you can't do that. You have to have a plan, and whether that plan is setting aside giving your money a job in retirement, and this would be long term care only money. You're not touching this money, and you're going to self insure, or you're going to go the traditional route and get some long term care insurance and understand the pros and cons of that, or you're going to use insurance to kind of do an asset based medium. The key is you just have to have a plan. Don't just sit here and say, well, we'll address it when we get there, because that's going to be a guaranteed failure and and, you know, spoiler alert, our next video that's going to come out in a couple of weeks. We're going to dive deep in the long term care, because it is the number one destroyer of retirement that stakes.

Right, all right, and our last financial planning mistake is not optimizing Social Security. Only 4% of people claim at the most financially optimal time, the remaining 96% are missing out on $111,000 per household.

Yeah, and we've done countless videos on social security, and it comes up all the time because it is a very, very important planning aspect. Going back to our first topic that we discussed in the guaranteed retirement income plan, right? You want to maximize Social Security and optimize it to your specific situation. Again, not your friends, not your brothers, not your sisters. This is your situation, and people claim to their detriment, because they're just kind of taking friendly advice from others who may also be making an emotional decision, oh, Social Security is going to run out of money, so we have to get it while the getting is good. Every expert that I've heard has said, listen, Social Security is not going anywhere for the boomer generation. Yes, we could see cuts, but we still want to maximize our dollars before those cuts, because that's still going to be more money. And the fact of the matter is, every year you can delay beyond full retirement age, you're increasing your Social Security income stream by 8% each year. And on the flip side, every year you claim early, you're taking an 8% pay cut before that full retirement age. So you want to make sure that you have a good social security plan that is optimized based on your, you know, on your specific situation. I mentioned this before. Claiming to 70 or waiting to 70 may not work for everybody, and it both emotionally and and actually mathematically, I've actually had our Social Security program say for the spouse they want to claim early based on the age difference of the primary earner. So the end game here is again, have a plan, but get some help. Right? Whether you're buying software or you're using your advisor, make sure your advisor is really taking your best interest to maximize Social Security, because an income stream in retirement is an expensive asset to purchase, and you know, social security for the boomers, as far as we know, is going to be here. Erin, you and I, we may have some bigger fish to front that'll be for another video. Then, you know, it's interesting to talk it through, John, because clearly all of these mistakes kind of fit together, one each one needs to be addressed in your plan. And again, I know you have been doing this for a long time. I feel like we've done a separate video on each of these risks as well. So people can check that out at their leisure on your YouTube page. But if somebody wants to sit down with you and make sure that their financial plan is on track and make sure it's accounting for all these mistakes, what's the best way to reach you?

Yeah, well, you said it that we have done videos on all these and they're on our website, www.gosecurus.com, and we have done individual videos on these why? Because all of these little individual topics interlink into a comprehensive financial plan. So on our website, you'll find videos podcasts where we talk about all these topics, whether it's a YouTube video and a shorter, more granular or a deeper podcast. And while you're on the website, you can visit the contact us tab, where you can schedule a 20 minute phone call if you have any general questions for us, or you can schedule an hour complimentary vision and clarity consultation. Great, John, thanks for your time today. Thank you, Erin