Retirement Fact or Fiction
by SGL Financial
Our 2 Cents – Episode #120
Retirement Fact or Fiction
Welcome back to a new episode of the Our 2 Cents podcast! This week, Gabriel puts Steve’s retirement knowledge to the test with a fun game of Retirement Fact or Fiction.
Read below for hints at the quiz questions and tune in to see how many Steve gets correct!
- Retirement Fact or Fiction:
- An ______ retirement is not realistic for many
- Relocation is the ______ for retirees
- It is unlikely you’ll be ______ and unable to ______ healthcare in retirement
- It’s normal to feel some ______ about your future
- It is too late to start ______ in your 50s
- ______ is key to financial success
- Retirement is a time of ______ for most people
- ______ is more valuable than money
- Retirement is the day you ______ all work ______
- Retirement lasts a long time and ______ go beyond the ______
- You’ll be better off if you stay ______ and ______
- Most people need a ______
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Podcast Transcript
Announcer: You’re listening to Our 2 Cents with the team from SGL Financial Building Wealth for Life. Steve Lewit is the president of SGL Financial and Gabriel Lewit is the CEO. They’re here to discuss all the latest in financial news, trends, strategies and more.
Gabriel Lewit: Good afternoon, good morning, good evening. Welcome to Our 2 Cents.
Steve Lewit: You couldn’t quite make up your mind there what part of the day it was.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I thought again, as usual, we don’t know when you’re listening, so I was going to cover all the bases.
Steve Lewit: Right.
Gabriel Lewit: Good afternoon, good morning, good evening.
Steve Lewit: Where I thought you got stuck is that we usually record in the morning.
Gabriel Lewit: We do.
Steve Lewit: And now it’s the afternoon.
Gabriel Lewit: You really threw me through a curve ball today.
Steve Lewit: That’s Katie’s fault.
Gabriel Lewit: No, no, no. Folks, it’s really actually Father Steve’s fault over here.
Steve Lewit: Father Steve, yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Because what you probably don’t know is he recently had surgery. Well, some of you know because you were at our Pie Day event that we hosted a little while back and for our clients and had a lot of great turnout there. Gave away quite a few pies. A couple hundred of them actually.
Steve Lewit: I think a few hundred.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Hundreds of pies and had a great time. So a couple people knew that you were out for surgery, but that’s also why we didn’t do a podcast.
Steve Lewit: Forgot it. Surgery sounds really, really serious. Can you tell them what kind?
Gabriel Lewit: For your hip. He’s fine.
Steve Lewit: I’m fine.
Gabriel Lewit: I told him to get back here and get to work.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Next day.
Gabriel Lewit: But that’s why we missed the podcast.
Steve Lewit: No sympathy here.
Gabriel Lewit: The last week in case you might have been wondering, but we’re back in action now. So as proverbially, Steve’s back on his feet.
Steve Lewit: Literally.
Gabriel Lewit: Literally and proverbially here. So we’ve got a good show lined up for you today.
Steve Lewit: It’s amazing though. Two weeks out and I’m walking and talking and having fun and it’s amazing.
Gabriel Lewit: He’s drinking. Coffee. I’m teasing.
So, hope you guys had a first and foremost, a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Steve Lewit: And thank you all for your good wishes. Those of you, many of you sent me good wishes and I really appreciate that.
Gabriel Lewit: And we hope you had a wonderful time with your family, with friends, had a good chance to get some R & R, some relaxation in. And without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive in here for today.
And I thought to have a little bit of fun here, I thought I would quiz Steve. So, I’ve got an article that I found here that talks about some fact or fictions for retirement.
And this, I think we’ve done this before, this fact or fiction idea. And it was a lot of fun. So I thought I would do this again.
And I don’t want you to look at the answers in advance, otherwise there’s no…
Steve Lewit: Come on.
Gabriel Lewit: No, no.
Steve Lewit: Folks. He just took the cheat sheet away from me.
Gabriel Lewit: Took the cheat sheet away.
So we’re going to dive right on in here. So the question is fact or fiction?
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: An early retirement, or on time retirement, is not realistic for many people in the world. Fact or fiction?
Steve Lewit: Whoa. So let me understand the question. So is it early retirement or on time retirement?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, it’s a little actually interesting because Social Security defines your normal retirement age as, say 67, for most people. But most people don’t want to retire at 67. They find it to be too late.
And so technically an early retirement would be earlier than your normal retirement age according to social security. Meaning before 67.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. So I’m sorry, but what was the question?
Gabriel Lewit: Is not realistic for many people. Fact or fiction?
Steve Lewit: It’s a fiction.
No, I think if people want to plan to retire early, a lot of people can work that out. Here’s why it’s a fiction, because there is no retirement date.
The fact that social security calls 67 or retirement date, or we think in our heads, well normal retirement of 65, there is actually no retirement date. It depends on your finances and your headset. And there is no date. You could retire early.
Gabriel Lewit: Just because you were wrong doesn’t mean you can twist the question.
Steve Lewit: I can hedge around.
Gabriel Lewit: Hedge around the answer.
Steve Lewit: Haven’t lost my hedging ability.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s a yes or no, fact or fiction answer.
Well, the article says fact that many people, especially due to the pandemic, around 71% of people felt like they had to maybe delay or postpone their retirement because of the pandemic and now because of the stock market.
Steve Lewit: But that wasn’t the question.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, it says is it fact fiction is an early retirement realistic for many?
Steve Lewit: It is realistic.
Gabriel Lewit: Well then why would 71% of [inaudible 00:05:08].
Steve Lewit: Well, it just happens to be that something happened.
Gabriel Lewit: Folks, I think Steve doesn’t like that he got the question wrong.
Steve Lewit: No, I think it’s a bad question. Let’s go on to the next question because you’ve lost this battle.
Gabriel Lewit: This is why I thought these would be fun because you can’t see them, and I can.
Okay. Here’s an easier one for you, Steve.
Fact or fiction: relocation is the norm for retirees.
Steve Lewit: Fiction.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Steve Lewit: Got it right.
Gabriel Lewit: Correct.
Steve Lewit: I wasn’t sure. That’s a hard one because a lot of retirees relocate.
Gabriel Lewit: So, the research says by the human-interest survey that 67% of people want to move.
But then AARP study says that 77% of people want to stay put.
Steve Lewit: Well, you know what’s interesting…
Gabriel Lewit: Certainly, different answers from different studies.
Steve Lewit: I think a lot of people want to move, but then when they get down to moving, actually doing it and realizing they might leave their family or they’re going to go to a new place that they’re not comfortable in. They’re not so quick to make that decision.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, it also said that 10% of people intend to RV full time in retirement.
Steve Lewit: That’s something I would like to do.
Gabriel Lewit: Full time.
Steve Lewit: Well, for a couple of years. I would love to have an RV.
I don’t know why I’ve always had this dream of doing this, but I want an RV that’s like a decked out RV. I don’t want a little camper thing.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, you know those are like driving a semi-truck?
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all.
Gabriel Lewit: You ever driven one?
Steve Lewit: I’ve driven a big truck.
Gabriel Lewit: A semi-truck?
Steve Lewit: Not a semi, but they’re beautiful. You open them up, it’s like you got a house.
You can go anywhere you want to go. You can stay a week, two weeks. You don’t have to worry about it.
Gabriel Lewit: Actually, producer Katie, who should be on the show because everybody wants her to join, is still quiet out here in the corner.
We don’t actually have her in the corner of the room, but she’s further down the table.
We should actually, for a future episode, we could talk about is RV life for you in retirement?
Steve Lewit: Oh, I love that. I love that.
Gabriel Lewit: Because it’s quite a controversial, well, not super controversial, but it’s a debated topic…
Steve Lewit: Definitely.
Gabriel Lewit: Of interest for many.
I didn’t know that you wanted to do that.
Steve Lewit: Always, yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Interesting. Okay. Well you’re one for two.
At least scored it an official scorecard here.
Steve Lewit: Well, the official scorecard is not my scorecard, which is different from the official scorecard.
Gabriel Lewit: This one, the question, I don’t like how the question is…
It is unlikely that you’ll be stressed out living on ramen noodles and unable to afford healthcare. I don’t like it because it’s reversed, and those are always hard to…
Steve Lewit: It is unlikely, that is not true. I mean that is true. It is unlikely.
If I said it’s not true, then it would be likely. No, you’re not going to live…
Gabriel Lewit: I told you…
Steve Lewit: You’re not going to live on…
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding. I’m not sure if it’s…
Steve Lewit: No, that’s a ding, ding, ding. There’s no doubt about it. That’s a ding, ding, ding.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, so the question is really talking about how many people unfortunately are projected to live on barely more than Social Security depending on their savings amounts.
Now we encounter obviously a lot of clients and some are very well prepared for retirement and others, in fact, I had a conversation recently with a couple that they recognize that they were behind their savings goals and needs for retirement so that they would be able to live on more than just Social Security.
Because I think the fiction, if there is one here to this question, is the idea that social security is going to be sufficient to cover all your income needs in retirement.
Steve Lewit: Well, unfortunately, in lots of different parts of the US, a lot of people live on social security.
Understand that we are really in a privileged area. We are in a higher income and a higher lifestyle area. So most of our clients, they’re not worried about living on ramen. Although what’s interesting about that, and I’ve mentioned this before…
Gabriel Lewit: You like ramen noodles?
Steve Lewit: I do. But we have some clients who have quite a lot of money and will live on ramen noodles because they’re afraid of running out of money.
Gabriel Lewit: That is very true. It is interesting.
Steve Lewit: Which is different from the article. But around the country, if you go out into the rural areas, into the inner cities, social security is where it’s at.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Okay. So Steve, two out three.
Steve Lewit: Yes. Three out of three.
Gabriel Lewit: Which is a 66%, which is basically a D or a failing grade. If we were to stop right here.
Steve Lewit: You better ask me another question. I got to get my averages up here.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m just teasing. Okay.
Steve Lewit: I just failed.
Gabriel Lewit: Fact or fiction…
Steve Lewit: I’m a failed financial advisor.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s normal to feel some fear about your future. This is a layup.
Steve Lewit: Oh God. That’s easy.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s a layup.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: What do you think?
Steve Lewit: Oh, always. There’s always fear about the future.
Gabriel Lewit: Fact.
Steve Lewit: Fact.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Correct.
We should strike that one. It’s too easy.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I mean, the future is unknown and when something is unknown, now understand fear doesn’t absolutely mean fear and terror, it could be nervousness or agitation or concern.
I mean, those are all different levels of fear. So when we think of anything in the future, there’s always some trepidation that it may not work out that way.
Gabriel Lewit: Trepidation.
Steve Lewit: Yes. Three syllables, four syllables. I can’t count. I have an excuse, I can’t count, I had surgery.
So there’s always trepidation about the future.
Gabriel Lewit: Trepidation or trepidation?
Steve Lewit: There’s always… That’s an interesting question. Trepidation. Trepidation. Either one. The future concerns us.
Gabriel Lewit: If you’re listening and you want to send us an email at info@sglfinancial.com, maybe you can correct us.
One of you’s got to be an English teacher that’s out there that knows if it’s trepidation or trepidation.
Steve Lewit: Might be both.
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know. Interesting. Okay, so I gave you a layup, so now you’re three out of four.
Steve Lewit: 75%.
Gabriel Lewit: Now that you’re at C+.
I’m going to give you another layup to bump up your score here.
Steve Lewit: I need it.
Gabriel Lewit: Fact or fiction, it is too late to start saving in your fifties?
Steve Lewit: That’s another layup.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m giving you easy ones. I got to get you your booster, your ego here.
Steve Lewit: That’s nonsense. It’s fiction.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Steve Lewit: It’s never too late to start saving or begin saving.
Gabriel Lewit: But the reason this is on here is there are people… People, us humans can get stuck in this sort of negative spiraling mindset of, man, well, I didn’t save up to this point, I guess it’s not even worth… why bother now? Right? Kind of mindset.
But you’re correct, there’s no bad time. The best time if you feel like you’re behind on your savings, I would argue the best time is right now.
Steve Lewit: Look, if you are at any point in life, even if you’re somebody that just got a job, one of the questions you want to ask yourself is, how much can I save? And whether you’re 20 years old, 24, or 55, or 85. Well, maybe 85 it doesn’t matter anymore.
Gabriel Lewit: If you’re 85 and you haven’t saved yet…
Steve Lewit: Yeah, maybe at that point…
Gabriel Lewit: You’ve somehow gotten there, but…
Steve Lewit: Maybe at that point you just say the heck with it.
Gabriel Lewit: So yeah, folks, if you’re thinking it’s a good time to save and you need to save more…
Steve Lewit: It’s a good time.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s a good time. All right, the next question here, and keep in mind folks listening, I did not come up with these questions, is from the article, so another fairly easy one for you. Fact or fiction: education is the key to financial success?
Steve Lewit: Fiction. No, no, no. Now I will argue with that all…
Gabriel Lewit: I thought I gave you a layup.
Steve Lewit: That is not a layup, because what is education? Is education knowing how to get through the world, the real world, and how to negotiate all the different kinds of people you meet and run a business. Or is education, learning…
Gabriel Lewit: Let me clear… I’ll add my own word in.
Steve Lewit: What civilization lasted 2000 years?
Gabriel Lewit: Fact or fiction: financial education is the key to financial success?
Steve Lewit: Fact.
Gabriel Lewit: Correct.
Steve Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding, I want my ding dings. Give me my ding dings.
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s clarify the question there.
We’re not talking about the history of the ancient Babylon Empire.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely. You’ve got to know, look, you’ve got to know the ins and outs of how money works and finances work and taxes work, it’s like driving or building a car. You want build an efficient car, you got to know how the darn thing works. A lot of people, all they know about money is I earn it and then I either spend it or save it.
Gabriel Lewit: Kudos to you listeners, our valued listeners, because that’s what you’re doing right now.
You’ve learning and educating yourself on all sorts of topics.
Steve Lewit: Which is why we do these.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, exactly. Okay. That’s why I was hoping you would get that one right. What are you now? You’re six for seven.
Oh my goodness. What is this? Hold on, let me use my calculator here. Hold on. Six for seven. Six out of seven. 85%.
Steve Lewit: Katie, am I seven for seven or six for seven?
Gabriel Lewit: Six for seven.
Steve Lewit: Whose side are you on, Katie?
Gabriel Lewit: Now I’m going to give you a harder one here.
Steve Lewit: I’m ready.
Gabriel Lewit: Fact or fiction: retirement is a time of happiness for most people?
Steve Lewit: God, how do I answer that? Fact or fiction? Time is of… Time of happiness for most people. I will say fact.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Steve Lewit: Yay. That was a hard one.
Gabriel Lewit: I told you that was a harder one.
Steve Lewit: That was a hard one.
Gabriel Lewit: So, a study by Merrill Lynch found that you are very likely to have a happy retirement. And you might be surprised to learn that it’s probably going to be the best time of your life.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I was thinking that. But you then on the other side, I said, well, people retire and then people get sick or it doesn’t work out.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that’s why it was a tricky one. So here’s some stats. It says 51% of 25- to 34-year-olds say that they often feel happy compared to 76% of people ages 65 through 74.
Steve Lewit: Wow.
Gabriel Lewit: So poor youngsters out there.
Steve Lewit: No wonder I’m so happy.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, exactly.
Steve Lewit: I got older, I got happy.
Gabriel Lewit: Yep.
Steve Lewit: Is that how it works? You get older, you get happier?
Gabriel Lewit: It doesn’t give any stats for nearly 40-year-olds.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, right.
Gabriel Lewit: Like me, but who knows?
Steve Lewit: Are you happy?
Gabriel Lewit: I’m very happy.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, you see, so you even get better when you get my age.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Fact or fiction: time is more valuable than money in retirement?
Steve Lewit: Oh, time is more valuable than money in retirement. Oh, is that a fact time is more valuable than money? I say fact.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s actually…
Steve Lewit: Well, if you don’t have time, it doesn’t matter if you have money.
Gabriel Lewit: Do you think it’s money? Do you think it’s a fiction?
Steve Lewit: Yeah, fact… okay.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s a trick question.
Steve Lewit: So, ask the question…
Gabriel Lewit: I’m tricking you. It’s neither.
Steve Lewit: It’s neither.
Gabriel Lewit: It depends on…
Steve Lewit: It depends, right?
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. I’m tricking you on this one.
You didn’t know I could trick you.
Steve Lewit: You just tricked me.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. This is one that actually, the article itself says arguably a fact.
Steve Lewit: Arguably a fact. Which means they don’t know either.
Gabriel Lewit: So yeah. Is time more valuable than money? Well, if you’re thinking about retiring, one of the things I like to say is, you can work an extra year and you will always have more money than if you don’t work an extra year.
The Gabe-ism.
Steve Lewit: This is a significant piece of information. Everybody ought to write down.
Gabriel Lewit: You think it would be self-explanatory, right? But yeah, you’re going to have more money. Now the question is, if we run all your numbers and you’re going to have $10 million by the time you’re 90, and you make a $100,000 more a year, do you really want to have $10,200,000 when you’re 90? Or would you rather have the extra year of retirement?
Steve Lewit: Yeah. So yeah, because most people that work extra time, they don’t spend the money.
Gabriel Lewit: I have clients that have already… We’ve done their plan, they’re in great shape and they come to me and say, I decided I’m going to work a little longer. And I’m like why?
Steve Lewit: I have a client going through that right now. Does not like his job is not crazy about it. And I said, well, so let’s move on. Let’s retire. No, I think I’ll work this year, maybe next year.
Gabriel Lewit: And I think what they’re really buying is they’re buying themselves in some way, shape or form a little more piece of mind with that extra year.
But you do want to weigh that against the time.
Steve Lewit: Exactly.
Gabriel Lewit: So that’s really the question at hand here.
Steve Lewit: And there’s a fear about… Remember we talked about the fear of the future? There’s a fear about retiring. A lot of folks retire and say what on earth am I going to do? I’m going to get up in the morning, I’m not going to know what to do. Yet, 71% was it Gabriel? Of people that retire are happy.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that brings me to my next question for you.
Steve Lewit: I was making a transition for you.
Gabriel Lewit: It was very good. It might even help you answer this correctly. Fact or fiction: retirement is the day that you quit all work forever?
Steve Lewit: Fiction, fiction, and more fiction.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, no, retirement is not the end of work. It’s the beginning. It really is the beginning of a new phase of what you want to do. You might want to start a business, you might want to buy a franchise, you might want to become a writer.
I mean, it’s the beginning of a new line of work that hopefully will be more enjoyable than your old line of work because this is your choice. In retirement, you have that freedom to choose what you want to do.
Gabriel Lewit: And for some people it is doing nothing. But the average survey responder, because this was all done by surveys and research studies, said that they felt that if you worked up to 11 hours a week, they would still consider themselves retired but still working.
If they worked more than 11 hours per week, they wouldn’t consider themselves retired.
Steve Lewit: I see.
Gabriel Lewit: But it also could be your definition, which is just doing something different.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I have folks that work 20 hours a week. I’ll say, so where are you? They say, well, I’m retired. And then I’ll say, so your only income is social security pension?
Oh no, I work 20, 25 hours a week. Which if you’re retired…
But that’s how they think about it. They still think of themselves as… You know why? Because if they don’t like what they do, they can walk away.
And when you can walk away, that’s like, well, I’m retired. I’m just having fun here doing what I want to do. It’s a whole different set.
Gabriel Lewit: Interesting. So you’re doing… I was a little worried after the first question.
Steve Lewit: I wasn’t worried at all.
Gabriel Lewit: And you’ve really upped your score. You’re now 9 out of 10, which means you have crossed into A range.
Steve Lewit: It’s amazing. It’s amazing.
Gabriel Lewit: What a smart guy.
Steve Lewit: What a great…
Gabriel Lewit: Well, there’s still a couple questions.
Steve Lewit: What an intelligent person I am.
Gabriel Lewit: There’s still a couple questions left in.
Well, I’m having a lot of fun. Hopefully you are too. But this is going to end up taking up our whole show, I think.
We did have a second topic if we needed it, but we’ll have to say that for next time.
Number 10, fact or fiction: retirement lasts a long time and you need to prepare for more than just financial items? This is such a layup.
Steve Lewit: That’s a fact.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding.
Steve Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding. I don’t even think we need to say anything about that. Who wrote these?
Gabriel Lewit: It’s an article I found. I don’t know, man.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, no, that’s kind of like vanilla.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, money, you got health, you got all kinds of grandkids, all that kind of stuff. Give me a good one.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, here’s a harder one. Number 11.
Steve Lewit: Number 11 folks.
Gabriel Lewit: Fact or fiction: you’ll be better off if you stay engaged and relevant.
Steve Lewit: Wow. Well, that’s a fact.
How you stay… Engaged is one thing, relevant is a very difficult… Lot of folks that get older, even though they’re engaged, feel they become irrelevant.
Gabriel Lewit: So, to clarify, your answer is fact or fiction?
Steve Lewit: Fact.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Steve Lewit: Thank you.
Gabriel Lewit: And this actually says, the article says fact according to expert opinion. There is a researcher, Ken Dychtwald.
Steve Lewit: Oh Ken, I know him by the way.
Gabriel Lewit: A psychologist, gerontologist, and founder and chief executive of Age Wave.
Steve Lewit: Age Wave, yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: He says that it’s important to stay vital, engage, and relevant in retirement, because he says our studies were showing that many retirees were feeling bored and irrelevant in retirement.
Steve Lewit: Well, here’s a problem.
Gabriel Lewit: Meaning they had purpose when they were working, which is bringing in money and saving and job and… In retirement, they were starting to lose a feeling of purpose and relevancy.
Steve Lewit: Definitely. And here’s the problem. I mean, this is a very serious issue. As Americans age, they are little by little, marginalized by the community.
And they start to feel irrelevant even though they might be doing great work or working at the golf course, just having fun.
But they don’t feel relevant because the community looks at older people and kind of says you’re old and you’re not relevant.
And that is a huge, huge problem for folks as they’re getting older, it causes a huge amount of loneliness.
Even though you might be working and volunteering, you don’t feel relevant because other people look at you as, well, you’re old and…
Gabriel Lewit: Did you read this? Did you sneak read this?
Steve Lewit: I’ve read Ken Dychtwald.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, okay. Well, let me read a quote from the article here.
Steve Lewit: All right.
Gabriel Lewit: So, Ken continues and he says, I have been very troubled by the lack of usefulness amongst so many of my cohort. I’ve observed far too many boomers and older adults make themselves irrelevant. I was really troubled when I read that last year, the average American retiree watch more than 48 hours of television per week.
Steve Lewit: Ouch.
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t believe that’s the best we can do or that’s the best we can be as elder men and women.
Steve Lewit: Well yeah, but he’s denying the other part of that is that the community is saying, we don’t want you, so what are they going to do?
If you’re not one of these self-starter creative types and you can do different things, if the community doesn’t want you.
Look, we have, Gabriel, you and I have very, very talented folks that were downsized during COVID that are 55, 60, 65 years old. And they are marginalized, businesses will not hire them even though there’s no age discrimination, they don’t get hired.
And so you start to feel that little by little marginalization, that community is not interested in you because you are not the future. You’re the past. And that is a huge, huge psychological deal.
Gabriel Lewit: There’s a lot in this particular question to unpack. But here’s the last thing that Ken says, he says, think big. He says here, and this is quoting from the article that people tell him what they want to do and hope to do in retirement.
They say, I want to get some rest, exercise, more, visit with my family, go on a great vacation, read some great books. And then he says that most people stall out and don’t end up following through on those and don’t take the time or the effort to study what he says are the countless possibilities that await you or imagine or explore all the incredible ways they can spend the next phase of their lives.
Steve Lewit: They are countless. They are countless for an older person as they are countless for a younger person.
Gabriel Lewit: Amen.
Steve Lewit: And folks that… You see, if you buy into age, if you buy into it yourself and say, I am older, therefore I am irrelevant. Because if you buy into what the community is telling you, then you’re really stuck.
So the idea is to set a course and say, look, damn it, I have value and everybody has value and my value is valuable and this is what I’m going to do.
And just like you would do if you were 30 years old.
Gabriel Lewit: Absolutely.
Steve Lewit: It makes no difference. Yet the pressure and the constant reminder of the community that you’re old and you are the past is like a big wave that comes on older people that they get buried in it and they drown in it.
Gabriel Lewit: So, you did get that one correct.
Steve Lewit: Sorry.
Gabriel Lewit: I didn’t know how to recap that.
Steve Lewit: I kind of got on a soapbox there. But this is such an important topic. It’s so important. I’m an older person. I’m very fortunate because…
Gabriel Lewit: And you are very young.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I think so.
Gabriel Lewit: Your mentality, your vitality, your outlook, your physical look, I mean, you don’t view age as age.
Steve Lewit: I don’t even think about age to be very candid, but I see people that have so much to give and so much to do in the remaining years of their life.
And you know folks, the fact is you could be 30 and you don’t know the remaining years of your life.
We had a client here, healthy as a horse and get a call from his wife two weeks later, 45 years old, had a heart attack and is gone.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s why they say time… The answer was time for most is more valuable than money.
Steve Lewit: So, you have a lot in you. I believe that every person has a lot in them and don’t listen to the community.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, there is one last question, and this is in the article. And for proof, if you’d like the article, just request it info@sglfinancial.com and I’d be happy to send it to you if you want all the data research and statistics here.
And to prove that I didn’t put this last question in here, which is also going to be a layup for you. Fact or fiction: most people need a written financial plan?
Steve Lewit: I love it. You put that in there.
Gabriel Lewit: I did not put this in there.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, you did.
Gabriel Lewit: Producer Katie. Did I put this in here? You have a copy of the article.
She’s shaking her head. I did not put it in there.
Steve Lewit: All right.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay.
Steve Lewit: I believe you.
Gabriel Lewit: So, fact or fiction. Let’s hope you get this one right.
Steve Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, fact.
Gabriel Lewit: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yes. According to research from Charles Schwab, only 33% of Americans have a written financial plan.
Steve Lewit: Well, I would argue with that. They have what they think is a written financial plan.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, I would agree with you there.
Steve Lewit: But it really isn’t.
Gabriel Lewit: I have some clients that have their own Excel sheet, and they say, oh, I’ve got my financial plan, which is just a listing of their accounts.
Steve Lewit: Right. Good for you.
Gabriel Lewit: Which is great. It’s really good thing to have, because most people don’t even have that.
But it’s the least adopted habit. The study found that is by far the most important to your long-term wellbeing and financial success, which is the foundation of living a thorough, healthy wellbeing, well-rounded retirement.
Steve Lewit: Well, you’re going to live 35, 30 years after you retire, God willing.
And it’s like, okay, I got to make my money last 30, 35 years and I don’t have a plan for it.
Gabriel Lewit: The study says a plan gives you confidence, it reduces stress, it gives you better habits and it improves your outcomes.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely.
I give the article an A+.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m glad. I’m glad you ended up liking it.
And folks, speaking of A+, Mr. Lewit scored 11 out of 12.
Steve Lewit: Amazing. This guy is so amazing.
Gabriel Lewit: A+ rank.
Steve Lewit: I’m glad there’s not two of me.
Gabriel Lewit: When you were at a 66%, I was a little worried.
Steve Lewit: I was worried too.
Gabriel Lewit: But it was only still only one wrong out of three.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Well, I was a little concerned.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Well folks, that’s our show for you.
Hopefully you had a little fun along the game show that is Our 2 Cents today.
Steve Lewit: And are you talking about toys today?
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, so I did want to mention, we just rolled out, it’s December 1st tomorrow, we’re recording this on the last day of November. And we are doing a Toys for Tots Holiday Toy Drive.
Steve Lewit: I love this. I love seeing the boxes fill up.
Gabriel Lewit: And there are many, many, many, many unfortunate kids out there who cannot afford, or parents cannot afford toys that don’t receive toys.
And the goal of the Toys for Tots Drive, which I mean, I am a father of three kids and I see the joy that’s on my kids’ faces every year at Christmas time.
And the goal is to bring more of that joy and cheer to those out there that cannot otherwise get that.
Steve Lewit: So, what are we doing?
Gabriel Lewit: So, we’ve got two boxes, hopefully we’ll fill those up.
Steve Lewit: We’ll need more.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, we might need more.
Two boxes of toys that have, some people have already donated some here in our office at 1130 West Lake Cook Road, Suite 150. And you could drop off a toy anytime. Business hours 9 through 5, Monday through Thursday, 9 through 2:30 on Fridays here at our office.
And yeah, just spread a little joy and cheer. The deadline is December 16th and on December 16th we are actually going to host a small, just a small get-together with some refreshments, pastries cookies, cider coffee, hot chocolate, where you can mingle and say hi before the holidays and drop off your toy between 12 and two on that Friday.
And we’ll send out an email about it as well. But yeah, just pick up a toy unwrapped at the store. New.
Steve Lewit: It doesn’t have to be a big deal, little deal. Anything.
Gabriel Lewit: Could be a Matchbox car for a dollar. My kid loves Matchbox cars.
Steve Lewit: Your kids are not getting these toys.
Gabriel Lewit: No, he doesn’t need any more Matchbox cars either.
Steve Lewit: Well, he’s not going to get to dig through the dot the boxes either.
Gabriel Lewit: No, I won’t bring him to the office.
Steve Lewit: Do not bring them to the office.
Gabriel Lewit: But yeah, if that’s something you’d like to partake in, we… Not we necessarily, but somebody out there would really appreciate it.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely.
Gabriel Lewit: So, and again, wishing you a wonderful day. Hope you have enjoyed our show here.
If you have questions, call us (847) 499-3330. Let’s schedule a time to chat through any financial needs or concerns that you might have or go to our website sglfinancial.com. Click contact us and schedule a time to speak.
Steve Lewit: Stay well everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Have a wonderful rest of your day.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to Our 2 Cents with Steve and Gabriel Lewit. For any questions about your finances, give SGL a call at (847) 499-3330 or visit us on the web at sglfinancial.com and be sure to subscribe to join us on next week’s episode.
Prerecorded Voice: Investment advisory services are offered through SGL Financial LLC an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Insurance and other financial products are offered separately through individually licensed and appointed agents.
