Financial Planning

How Potential Higher Inflation and Taxes Impact Your Retirement Strategy

July 29, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

Reading Time: < 1 minute On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we continue our conversation with Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on how potential higher inflation and taxes impact your retirement strategy. Christine believes we should be mindful of potential inflation and high taxes. A key point she makes is not waiting to implement tax-saving strategies. During this episode, she explains the value of tax-deferred accounts. Tax-deferred accounts blended with other financial vehicles could be beneficial to your financial strategy. At Intelligent Investing, one of our unique factors is that we strive to minimize fees and that includes government fees. There are many planning opportunities, especially in the sweet spot years between retirement from an employer and when you start social security benefits. We love organizing our clients’ financial junk drawers, and we’d love to organize yours. To learn more about Intelligent Investing or to become our next intelligent investor, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

Christine Benz is Morningstar’s director of personal finance and author of 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances and the Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Russian/East European studies from the University of Illinois. Christine lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg. She is an avid cook, a political junkie, and a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan. Follow Christine on Twitter.

The Retirement Bucket Approach Part 2

July 21, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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The Retirement Bucket Approach with Christine Benz

Reading Time: < 1 minute On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we continue our conversation with Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on the retirement bucket approach. During this episode, Christine expounds further on the bucket approach and behavioral finance. Hans and Christine talk about situations where investors reacted poorly to market situations. Christine stresses the importance of sticking to your financial planning during uncertain times. At Intelligent Investing, we strongly believe in behavioral coaching. We believe that the behavior gap (the difference between actual investment return vs. actual investors’ returns) can be significant and minimized if advisors and clients behave properly. This often means doing the hard thing and not chasing after returns or headlines. It also means turning off the scary headlines that make you want to abandon your portfolio and plan. To learn more about behavioral finance and our philosophy, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

Transitioning the Family Business

July 14, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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On this episode of Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll be interviewing Shelly Hamilton on transitioning the family business. During this episode, Shelly is joined by her son-in-law and daughter, Adam and Megan Morgan. They talk about the hurdles, challenges, and considerations that took place when transitioning the family business to Adam and Megan. Shelly stresses the value of communication during the process and considering the feelings of others in the family.

Transitioning a family business is one of the most difficult things to do. When you factor in transferring a family business to another family member, you take the difficulty to another whole level. There can be hard feelings and difficult conversations. One of Intelligent Investing’s core values is Truth. We believe that speaking the truth in love is so vital…especially when it comes to talking within families. We strive to unite families with financial communication, and if you are going to be transferring your business in the near future (especially to another family member), we’d love to start having a conversation with you. We can help be the liaison between family members, and we can help you plan for the many aspects of transferring a business.

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Shelly Hamilton Bio

Shelly Hamilton, the daughter of Frank Garlock, married Ron Hamilton aka “Patch the Pirate” in 1975. They have managed Majesty Music and written sacred music for children and adults since they joined the ministry in 1978. Shelly currently ministers at Majesty Music as pianist, composer, arranger, and recording producer. In 2013, their son killed himself after years of struggle with mental health issues. The family’s public struggle and acknowledgement of mental health issues has reached people around the world. Most recently her family faces a new challenge: Ron Hamilton’s early onset of dementia. Her insight and music will encourage anyone facing the challenges of life.

In January 2018 Majesty Music announced their third generation of leadership. After years of waiting for God’s timing, Ron and Shelly transitioned the ministry over to their son-in-law Representative Adam Morgan and his wife, Ron and Shelly’s daughter, Megan.

The Retirement Bucket Approach

July 8, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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Reading Time: 2 minutes On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we interview Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on the retirement bucket approach. Christine has been a longtime believer in this retirement bucket strategy. During this episode, Christine defines the retirement bucket approach and highlights the pros and cons of this strategy. The basic idea is securing one to two years of portfolio withdrawals. A critical component of this approach is setting aside cash reserves. Liquid reserves can bring peace of mind to those employing a long-term portfolio strategy. There is some initial risk building this cash reserve, but you build yourself a bulwark that you can spend through as opposed to a depreciated equity holding. It is important if not vital for retirees to have a plan for liquidity needs. Perhaps setting aside 1-2 years of living expenses in a money-market type of account or investment is best. Perhaps it is utilizing a bucket approach. Without understanding a clients’ needs, wants, and wishes, and having a timeline for when those expenses may occur, your plan and/or portfolio may not be optimized. We’d be happy to have a quick call or coffee with you to start the conversation of how we may best serve you and your family. To get started, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

The Value of HSAs

June 30, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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Reading Time: 2 minutes On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on the value of HSAs. HSAs are becoming more popular as people grow to understand them. Multiple benefits come when utilizing an HSA. First, there’s an upfront tax deduction. The second benefit is using the HSA as a way to fund medical expenses. Larry suggests to those who have sufficient taxable dollars to pay their medical bills without an HSA. They should treat the HSA as an investment account. The benefit is that it’s never taxed. As Larry and I mentioned, there are a lot of benefits to using an HSA if you qualify. We’ve written a comprehensive blog on this topic on our website. At Intelligent Investing we strive to minimize fees and we think of taxes as another fee that we try and minimize for our clients. We’d love to have a complimentary coffee or virtual meeting with you to discuss ways in which we may be able to serve you and your family. To simply get started, click here. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts. Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing. In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations. Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com. Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp. Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

How Retirees Can Replace Their Income in a Low-Yield Environment

June 23, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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How Retirees Can Replace Their Income in a Low-Yield Environment

Reading Time: 2 minutes On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we interview Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on low-yield bonds. During this episode, Christine gives her perspective on what retirees can do in the current low-yield environment. She encourages retirees to consider a total return approach to their portfolios. Each year take a step back and determine the best place to pull cash flows. Christine believes the best location for retirees to go for cash flows is hiding in plain sight. In their appreciated equity holdings. Trimming appreciated holdings is a way to supply cash flows for a couple of years while reducing risk in the portfolio. The key is to not be dogmatic about your income, but being a tad eclectic in your approach. At Intelligent Investing, we believe in a total return approach when it comes to our clients’ income needs By combining both ordinary income from dividends and interest along with selling appreciated investments that have capital gains, we can help supplement our retiree’s cash needs from the portfolio. By not being dogmatic, we believe the flexibility provides more tax planning opportunities and may lower the tax burden from solely focusing on just dividends or interest which can be taxed at much higher rates. To learn more about our philosophy, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

Balancing Work, Life, and Ministry

June 17, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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On this episode of Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll be interviewing Shelly Hamilton on balancing work, life, and ministry. There’s nothing more all-consuming than running a business. Shelly and Ron Hamilton faced an interesting situation because their business was also their ministry. During this episode, Shelly stresses the importance of enjoying your family and life while balancing all these areas. In fact, Shelly believes including their kids in the business brought them closer as a family.

If you’ve been listening to Intelligent Money Minute, you’ll realize the phrase “Time is Money, so Invest in every minute” is so true. Our time is our number one resource and limited. One of the 4 unique factors that separate us from other advisors and firms is that we maximize time. We do this in a number of ways, but the goal is to be able to maximize our clients lives. We strive for excellence and efficiency so our clients don’t have to waste their time. If you’d like to learn more about Intelligent Investing or would like to become a client, please visit investedwithyou.com and click on the “Get Started” button.

Shelly Hamilton Bio

Why You Shouldn’t Check Your Portfolio Daily

June 10, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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Reading Time: 2 minutes During this episode, Larry gives multiple reasons why you shouldn’t check your portfolio daily. There’s a good bit of science surrounding this topic, yet many still misbehave. The research shows that investors are highly risk-averse. Investors feel the pain of a loss twice as much as the feeling you get when a portfolio gains. The larger the dollar amount, the higher that ratio is. On a daily basis, Larry says the stock market goes up or down about 50% in either direction. As you extend the maturity or the length of time, the odds start to favor the market going up. The more days you watch the market the more likely there will be a negative emotional toll. Your much more likely to stay in the joy territory if you don’t check frequently. Larry offers some good advice and reasons why you may not want to check your portfolio frequently. At Intelligent Investing, we firmly believe in the value of understanding behavioral finance, which is the school of thought that describes how investors actually act. We try to understand how men and women think to minimize the irrational decisions we make from our own emotions and inherent biases. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts. Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.