Empowering Your Financial Future Through Social Security

Are you dreaming of a worry-free retirement filled with sunshine and relaxation? But a nagging question lingers: will your finances allow it?

 The answer lies in unlocking the power of Social Security!  Join us on a journey with Social Security expert Reese Phillips, where we'll crack the code and empower you to secure your golden years.

 Reese isn't just another talking head.  This registered Social Security analyst is here to shed light on the complexities that often leave people feeling lost.  Whether you're just starting your career or nearing retirement, Reese has practical, actionable advice tailored to your specific stage in life.

 Imagine navigating Social Security with confidence!  Picture yourself making informed decisions that could significantly impact your future income.  This isn't just a seminar, it's a roadmap to financial freedom.

 Here's a sneak peek at the valuable insights you'll gain:

·         Start planning early! The sooner you lay the foundation, the stronger and more secure your retirement will be. Learn why your 40s and 50s are the perfect time to take action.

·         Knowledge is power! Unravel the mysteries of Social Security and understand how it can dramatically affect your retirement income.

·         Get personalized guidance! Consider seeking the expertise of a registered Social Security analyst like Reese to craft a plan that perfectly aligns with your unique goals.

·         Marriage and Social Security? Discover how your marital status can influence your benefits and how to factor this into your overall financial strategy.

·         Don't wait until it's too late! Take charge and become proactive about your retirement. The steps you take today will pave the way for a secure and comfortable tomorrow.

By joining us, you'll gain the knowledge and confidence to make smart choices about Social Security.  This is your chance to turn your retirement dreams into reality.  Don't wait – start planning today!

Transcript

Reese: 0:00

This, this conversation always leads into well, my friends are doing this or my friends or my parents did this and I'm a very respectful person. I want to be professional in everything I do, but I also, my job and my fiduciary responsibility, in my opinion, is to tell you the facts. You need to do the research, you need to trust who you're working with, and you need to make the decision for what's best.

John: 0:33

Hi, I'm John,

Erin: 0:35

and I'm Erin. You're listening to connect and power. The podcast that proves age is no barrier to growth and enlightenment

John: 0:42

tune in each week as we break down complex subjects into bite sized enjoyable episodes that will leave you feeling informed, entertained, and ready to conquer the world

Erin: 0:56

Our guests is your season guide through the twist and turns of social security and Medicare. Reese. Isn't just passionate about helping you understand these complex systems. He's dedicated to empowering you to make strategic decisions that enhance your financial stability and personal growth. With his expert knowledge of the health care landscape. He and his team are here to ensure you navigate Medicare and social security with confidence and ease. When Reese isn't busy bringing clarity and peace of mind to his clients while creating strategic plans. He is spending time with his wife and his girls. welcome our guest Reese Phillips. Welcome Reese. Thank you so much for being here.

Reese: 1:40

Thank you guys for having me on. I'm excited.

John: 1:42

Yeah, this is going to be great.

Erin: 1:43

This is going to be such a good topic because I do not know a lot about it. I know that when I get to a certain age, I'm going to retire and hopefully there's money there for me. So today we're talking about social security, but before we dive into that, again, welcome Reese. Excited to have you. If you could just share and explain with us. blah, blah, blah, blah. blah.

John: 2:06

Wow.

Erin: 2:07

I went

John: 2:08

That was great. You went outside the loop on

Erin: 2:11

I totally went

John: 2:11

what you got here on the cheat sheet.

Erin: 2:13

know I ran outside my norm

John: 2:16

That's horrible. Sorry, audience that are,

Erin: 2:19

Chuck. Check, check. No, no, no, no. Anyway, navigating social security and insurance can feel like a jungle, right? So what sparked your passion to educate people about this topic?

Reese: 2:31

Yeah. So that's a great question. I'll, I'll give everyone kind of the blah, blah, blah side of my, my, background. and then we'll jump into it. So, you know, I, I started my my company about seven or eight years ago. It's called Preferred Senior Benefits. we originally started as an independent Medicare advisory firm. and that's what we specialized in for about six years. And we found that the majority of our clients who were asking us about Medicare questions were in conjunction asking us about Social Security. And what we found is similar to the Medicare space, the Social Security space is as or more convoluted because it's something that's being handled by the federal government. the place that you get to make those decisions or call for those decisions are not legally able to give you advice as they're just employees normally reading a script. and it just made sense. And I started Preferred Senior Benefits, because of a family tragedy that we had, to, to sum it up, my grandfather, who raised me and who I'm named after, was taken advantage of by somebody in the Medicare space, and it cost him about three to five years of his life, is what my grandmother thought. So We started preferencing your benefits to make sure that doesn't happen to anybody in the Medicare space ever again. And then what we found is that people from a financial position were being taken advantage of by multiple different angles and multiple different places, whether it be lack of information and correct information. other business lines or business professionals taking advantage of them for their profit, about something that is, is once again, very confusing and can literally make or break your financial future, as you retire. So it just made sense for us to go down the path to become what's known as an RSSA. So a registered social security analyst. It's a designation you have to study for, take classes for, and pass an exam to be, and then you have continuing ed that goes around with it. we're based here in Idaho, but we have offices in, Utah and in California. We serve as clients in about, 18 states now, but like in Idaho, for example, there's only about three or four of us that are licensed to do what we do. So it's something that I just got really passionate about because From the Medicare side of the space, we're definitely going to help people make sure they're taken care of, right? Their Medicare is going to be good. They're going to understand their choices. But if they don't have enough money to, go buy groceries or pay their rent, they're going to care. They don't care if they get, an extra 5 a month in drug cost savings. So, We found that giving them that education would be really impactful and it just made sense because you may or may not know this. Social Security is the major group that manages Medicare underneath it. So it's actually the Department of Social Security is the big overarching group that manages Medicare. So it made sense to why not correlate the two. And that's how we got into the space. And that's why we've been focusing on it ever since.

John: 5:19

what a story. I'm sorry your family went through that, but what an inspiration to Grab the bull by the horns and go with it. And help so many other people. I commend you for that. That's awesome.

Erin: 5:30

And I did not know that social security was like the top and everything else was underneath it.

John: 5:37

Yeah. I didn't know that either.

Erin: 5:38

Yeah.

Reese: 5:39

when you sign up, for Medicare, you're reaching out to social security to get the ball started, whether that's over the phone, online in person, that's how the process starts. So CMS, which is the center for Medicare services is housed underneath the social security division of the federal government. So it's very interesting.

Erin: 5:57

I would say, could you explain social security? go into how we get it, where it comes from, what, where the money comes from.

Reese: 6:05

Yeah, that's a great question. social security was started years ago. was designed originally to be insurance against disability. and then it converted into a strategy to help. People supplement their retirement. basically a forced process where people start paying their, into their, their W 2 taxes, or independent owner taxes, through your, federal tax process, and it correlates to two things. It correlates to your Medicare, and then it correlates to your Social Security. And once you've put in a certain amount of time, energy, and money into that, you then qualify for Social Security income, starting as soon as 62 for most people. and then you can go up to a certain age, point for most people on when you choose to take it. And what we've found is the time in which you choose to take it, And the situation you're in from a finite, family perspective, drastically impacts your future with using that money wisely. Now, a lot of people may say, well, it's probably only people that are really, really reliant on that social security that really care about this. So meaning that that's going to be their only form of retirement. And that is true, right? If your only income is going to be social security income, then understanding how it works and scheduling and planning for it's very, very important, right? Cause that's your only source of income. Then you have people that are really, really wealthy, right? You know, the top 10, 15, 20 percent of people where. That's a big position because how they're going to be taxed on that money and what they do with other asset types is a big impact. So we have to understand that, right? So you have people that are going to rely on it exclusively for retirement, people that are more concerned about the tax benefits of it, and then you have everybody in between. And those are the three categories we really see, which is very similar in the Medicare world where we have people that are on, like low income subsidies, Medicare, Medicaid, to your point earlier, you have the ultra high net worth individuals that are paying extra for Medicare because of their income. And then you have everybody else in the middle. So, so there's a lot of, similarities between the two verticals. Uh, and we really try to get people to understand how it works, what your options are, and how certain decisions like getting married or remarried, or how long you've worked can really impact those

John: 8:33

So what are some different ways somebody qualifies for social security? Because it's just not age too. Because I know that sometimes people with disabilities can start pulling on social security early, correct?

Reese: 8:45

Yeah, so social security income and, social security disability, two different buckets of money, right? But that is correct. If you're on disability, you will qualify for that disability insurance that we spoke on earlier, which is what social security basically started as. you know, and those are for the people, unfortunately, that do have those disabilities. and that can happen at any age, right? That can happen at birth. As long as you're deemed to have those things. so there's are really two key pieces of that. and a lot of times the majority of Americans are going to be more concerned about the income side of that, because, you know, thank the Lord that the majority of Americans are not disabled, but if you are disabled, right, there's a lot more factors, it's more, there's more, complexity to dealing with those things when it comes to a strategy, when it comes to your caregivers, when it comes to. Who's helping you when you draw, how you draw, you know, what happens if a parent dies, there's just so much that correlates to that. And you just have to understand that the information's out there, just like the information's out there on how to do your taxes. That doesn't mean a normal person is going to sit there and read the 50, 000 page tax booklet to understand if they can deduct that pencil they just bought from their taxes.

Erin: 10:00

You mentioned something that was interesting is the age. I'm I, I've always thought social security is when you're 65 and then I keep hearing the rumors or the myths like, well, every year if you're born between this bracket, it's 65. If you're born in this bracket, then it's what? 68, 69, 70. So can you clarify?

Reese: 10:18

Social security has an age bracket system for lack of better description. for most people, and you're going to hear me use that term a lot, because, you know, there's, there are liars that are outside the norm, but for most people, you can start drawing social security as early as 62, all the way up until age 70, okay. Now the 65 mark that you're referencing too, is the correlation of Medicare. That's when most people will qualify for Medicare. What, what is considered as of right now in 2024, your full retirement age also, related to as FRA is when your social security from an income perspective hits a hundred percent, quality. So a hundred percent of what you could get. And for most people, that's between 66 and a half to, 67 ish. But yeah, you can, you can start as early as 62 and as late as 70 and there's pluses and negatives to both. I'm sure we'll touch base on those with further questions.

Erin: 11:19

I was gonna say, there's quite a bit. It's a lot.

John: 11:23

Well, since it is so complicated, I want to just ask this, as an advisor, you sit down with people and help guide them through this, correct? Or are there people that do that? Or is it because I'm looking at this saying, man, I want more information. I want to know about all this as, as far as how it pertains to me and my future. Would I meet with somebody like you or a different advisor?

Erin: 11:45

and how soon should they meet with

John: 11:47

you? Yeah. What age should they start thinking about and planning that? Yeah. Correct.

Reese: 11:52

Yeah, those are amazing questions. So there's a couple of different questions there I'll touch base on. So let's talk about the first one, which is when should you start planning? I think, the sooner, the better in anything you do. But realistically people usually around 45 ish to 50 if they want to be really super proactive will start planning at that point and planning is more of understanding what your structure is, what is it going to look like, how is that going to make sense. So that's number one. people normally start planning around 55. I think that's a little late in the game, but that's in general what we see across the industry. so that's when you should start planning. Now, to answer your question is, do, what do we do or who should I chat with? Yeah, so we're certified, RSSA analysts. So we, We meet with people, we charge them a flat fee, and we do a full analysis. So we scrape their information from Social Security, we put it into a proprietary tool, and that proprietary tool will analyze different scenarios, right? Because there's a lot that goes into this. It goes into how much have you paid into Social Security already, how much are you planning to pay into Social Security the next 5, 10, 15 years, what's your marital status, What's your immigration status? how many dependents do you have? There's multiple things that factor into that. Now, you can do these things on your own. You can go to socialsecurity. gov, log in online, and it gives you a tool that Projects out what you're doing right now. The problem is that it doesn't give you the variables that correlate to what drives that data. So when they calculate your social security income, they're going to take a certain amount of years, your top earning years to use that, to calculate what your benefits are going to look like. If you don't know what those planning years moving forward are going to be, it's hard for you to do that analytical number crunching, particularly on your own. You can do it on what you've done in the past, but not so much in the future. So, just like the Medicare world, there, this is one piece of the puzzle. You have your social security income that was designed to be part of your retirement, not your full retirement. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans, that is their only piece of retirement. But for people that have pensions, even though those don't really exist very much anymore, 401k planning, annuities, life insurance, All these different things that correlate to it, that has to be looked at in the broad picture of when you're going to be deciding to utilize these different, these different strategies. What we really correlate them is to different buckets. When you get to retirement age, you're going to have different buckets of money that you can leverage, and you want to leverage them or start using them in the most efficient manner. Because you want to get things done right the first time, if, for example, if you were gonna, paint your walls in your, your kid's room. I only bring this up because we just painted a, a room in our cabin for one of our kids a couple weeks ago. I'm not gonna paint the walls first. Then put the primer on and then cover the floors to make sure they don't get paint on them. It just doesn't make sense. The paint would already be there. You don't put paint on before primer. I think all the listeners get it, right? You'd want to put the mat down first. You'd want to clean the wall. Don't let my wife hear that because she always says you should clean the wall. And I always say, you don't, you'd want to primer the wall, and then you'd want to paint. So the same thing when it comes to your retirement planning around social security, you need to figure out when's the best time to use that money. Okay. and there's multiple strategy points that go along with that. Not only about what we do and what we offer as advisors around social security, but what your financial advisor says, what your CPA or tax professional says, in some cases, depending on your net worth, what your attorney says, there's most multiple facets you have to look at when constructing that game

Erin: 15:40

So one question I know I for sure have. in the generations that are approaching baby boomers, a lot of them stayed at home. They didn't work. So what happens, whether it's the male or the female, whichever partner did not work and was not able to put into social security?

Reese: 16:01

Yeah, that's a great question. So what happens if I was a stay at home parent? I don't mean to use generalities, but in the most part, that's a, the mom stayed home, the dad worked, generations ago. In that case, as long as you're married for a certain amount of years, the spouse would qualify for a portion of the income. the social security income that the spouse generated. And this comes up a lot, in social security planning, because people don't realize that, let's use a real world example, let's say you were to stay at home, mom, and your husband was an executive for Google and made 2 million a year, okay. And you're married to that person for 15 years. You guys get divorced for some reason, and then you fall madly in love with this guy who happens to work at a restaurant as a server. Just using that as an example. If you get remarried to that person that's a server, You now no longer will qualify to get the income from your previous husband or wife. It doesn't matter, right? So there's a lot of strategy that correlates to that when you're making those decisions. Now as social security advisors, the only thing we advise on, you know, in my firm is social security and Medicare. But in those types of scenarios, that's where your financial advisor, your CPA, and your attorney come into play about those types of strategies. But unfortunately, most people have no clue. They have no clue. and that's really what we see across the board in the two areas that we specialize in, is people just don't know. And if they had the information presented in a very easy to digest way, then they could make better educated decisions based on the information they have now. Because planning for today, planning in today's world for something 20, 30, 10, 5 years from now, is difficult because we have no idea what the world's going to look like, but at least you can start taking those steps to be successful.

Erin: 18:00

it does, but what happens if they are married the whole time? She never works and then he passes away.

Reese: 18:55

Then she will still qualify for his social security. It's completely independent of the money that he makes and whether or not he or she is still alive. now with them passing away, once again, that's a whole nother strategy of, okay, they passed away. What was the income looking like? What was the structure? How is that going to keep happening? Where is your income going to come from? There's multiple variables to that because once again, using the example we talked about, your, your husband who passed away was a CEO of Google, but let's say you guys were only married for 5 or 10 or excuse me, 5 or 10 years above the threshold, and you go get a job now at a gas station, I'm just using examples here, that's going to impact your, your earning years and your earning potential. So you want to make sure you look at all of those different the majority of our clients that have convoluted or complex cases or scenarios, a divorce, someone passing away, something similar in that format, with kids, particularly if they have somebody who's disabled to your point earlier, to look at all the different complexities and understand what decision you make, because it can literally mean the difference. Of 47, 000 a year in retirement to 75, 000 a year in retirement. I mean, the spread is really that, that big. Right. So, and that's just on average, right? The spreads can be a lot higher. You just have to look at it from a numbers perspective, and look at all the variables and then ultimately make the best decision that feels good to you. Cause I can sit here and tell you for most people from a dollars and cents perspective, waiting until you're 70 to draw your social security usually means you're going to make the most money from your social security from a, from a monthly payment perspective. But if your family on average only lives to 67 and you push your social security out until 70 or that's your plan and then you die at 68, well then you got no money. Right? So maybe it would have been better for you to start drawing it at 62, because then you would at least gotten four or five years of that lower dollar amount, but you would have received it. So there's going to be some key takeaways. I hope I can relate to the audience. One of them should be. Do as much due diligence and studying and speaking with the right people as possible to make a decision that you feel best about. But understand there is always going to be a plus and negative to anything you do. There's no crystal ball, right? If there was, you know, I would be on a yacht somewhere. Well, probably not because my wife wouldn't want to leave Idaho, but I would have a big fishing boat somewhere. How about that?

Erin: 21:45

But I have a question to that. What you just said, if someone does not pull their security, social security, and they're waiting till later, they happened to pass and never claimed it with their spouse still be entitled to it or is it just gone completely? Yeah. Absolutely.

Reese: 22:03

No, if you're going to qualify for a spousal benefit, as long as you've met the time criteria, once you've met the criteria, you're going to qualify for it. So, whether your spouse is alive or dead, whether you're still married to them or not, as long as you met the minimum time requirement, which I believe is 10 years, then you're going to, you're going to have access to that

John: 22:23

What about, so, so you're just saying the spouse, so for instance, if say a man or a woman paid into social security their whole life, they had a couple kids or something, they end up passing away before they can start collecting social security. It just doesn't make sense. goes away. The kids don't get any part of that social security benefit that he had put in for all those years. It's gone.

Reese: 22:47

It depends on if the child is disabled or not. It depends on the age of the child and it depends on what the child's doing, whether they're going to school or things of that nature. So unfortunately, those are one of those questions that I can't give a more defined answer to. I would say if the child's disabled, the child's younger, they're still considered, a child under 18 or they're going to school in their younger years. More times than not, they will get some type of access to care or income

John: 23:16

Yeah. It just seems interesting to me because I know like within, with me, with you, with of course you Reese and others, we're all paying into social security. Well, if something happens, we get in a car wreck or whatever, we're right at, right at the brink of collecting that. And then we pass away and we're gone. Then all that money is just gone, it's like when you're putting money into something, And yes, they say that social security may not be here, another 10 or 20 years, or that's what I've heard. I don't know. That's one of my questions to you too, is, do you have any idea? Is that going to be around when?

Erin: 23:52

Well, if he had the crystal ball, he'd be out on his yacht. Yeah. true.

Reese: 23:57

I mean, I, I will tell you this, right? So everyone talks about social security going away. Now, social security is running on some of its surplus currently. And yes, if you look at from a who's taking money out versus who's putting money in, if you projected that out, Three, four, 500 years. Yes. Eventually it would run out of money. we are getting to a point it's either in 2025 or 2030. I'd have to look at the specific dates, where there will be a decision that will have to be made about how social securities handle, because we'll get away from those reserves and we'll start touching based on the core of where the money sits. what I've been told by people who are a lot smarter than me about this type of stuff is that. Realistically, what we'll see, at least in our generation, right? I'm 39. You guys are probably in your early twenties,

Erin: 24:51

Perfect.

Reese: 24:52

32. Um,

John: 24:54

gift card after this is over,

Reese: 24:55

we will still have it. It may be a reduced amount, right? A lot of numbers are thrown around like around 80%. but it should still be there in general. What's really going to happen, and this is getting a little more into my personal views, is that none of the politicians want to deal with Social Security until they have to. Because no matter who, which side you're on, left, right, left, right. Up, down, blue, green, gray, or otherwise, it's going to be a polarizing topic and you're going to piss off half of the country. I mean, that doesn't matter. I believe in the next one to two presidential runs is when that decision will have to be made. And that will definitely impact the country. A lot of things. I remember listening to, some podcasts yesterday or two days ago when I was flying back from Miami or from, Vegas. And one of the ex presidential candidates, I don't remember what her name was talking about changing the distribution of Medicare and Social Security up to age 70. Like making that the starting timetable. because they're going to have to do something different. What that is, I don't know. I don't know the answer. I can tell you from Yeah, I used to be in the banking business when I was in my early twenties. I was the branch manager of the largest Wells Fargo branch in the state as far as transactions and stuff goes. So I saw a lot of money management pluses and money management negatives. And I would tell you that your best. Case for planning for the future and retirement is understanding that social security may or may not be there and don't rely on it. And if it is there, then it's an added bonus, not your only option. Now that's going to be a hard thing for certain people to listen to or to hear. And I totally understand that. I'm just very conservative viewpoint as far as financial, like I just, I always think like I'm going to run out of money. So I always try to plan accordingly. And that would be my message to people is. If you don't have to rely on it, then don't, but make those right decisions now so you can leverage it to the best of your ability. As long as it's there.

Erin: 27:06

I like that advice because we don't know if it will be there or not. So what are you going to do if it's not there? What's your plan?

John: 27:12

I'm relying on You

Erin: 27:13

You are?

John: 27:14

Yeah. You

Erin: 27:16

I got kids. Can you still work and claim social security benefits?

Reese: 27:24

Absolutely. The question then becomes is how much of that's going to be taxed. right. there's different rules for every 2 you spend a dollar, but it's going to be taxed for every 3 you earn, 1 going to be taxed. And there's different correlations to that. Once again, that's a CPA question. That's an analysis question for us to show you where you're sitting and give you those strategies. There is no, everyone that makes this money can do this. It's very specific to your situation.

Erin: 27:51

What would be a reason? somebody would still want to work while claiming it? is there a probe to it?

Reese: 27:57

Yeah, I mean, some people will want to keep working until they turn 65 so they can qualify for Medicare, right? Because that's, for most people, that's when you qualify for Medicare, but all of their friends and family have told them that you better draw Social Security as soon as you can, or maybe their life expectancy is 66 for some reason, so they'll start drawing at 62 when they can, while they're still doing their W 2 job, which increases their income and increases their tax bracket and what they're getting taxed as my CPA once told me, doesn't matter how big of a deduction doing something is, it's not like it's putting money in your pocket. So some people may say, well, I may only make a thousand dollars a month in social security at 62 and pay more taxes, but after I pay my taxes, I'm still making 800 a month. That's better than me potentially not making anything. Cause I'm going to die or

Erin: 28:49

Makes

Reese: 28:50

And here's the funny thing. This, this conversation and the Medicare conversation always leads into well, my friends are doing this or my friends or my parents did this and I'm a very respectful person. I, I want to be professional in everything I do, but I also, my job and my fiduciary responsibility, in my opinion, is to tell you the facts. This is what the law of averages tell us. I'm not saying your friend's wrong, I'm just saying your friend doesn't have the same tipping points or the same scenarios that you do. So yeah, take their advice and it's good to hear other people's opinions. But ultimately, You need to do the research, you need to trust who you're working with, and you need to make the decision for what's best. Alright, another way we correlate it is, if you have a problem with your leg, right, you're probably not gonna ask four or five of your friends what you think's wrong with your leg, and then you go to your doctor and your doctor says it's something completely different than what your friend said, and you'll be like, oh, you know what, forget that doctor, I'm just gonna do what my friends told me to Usually not the case!

Erin: 29:54

hope not.

Reese: 29:55

Yeah.

John: 29:58

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Erin: 30:01

What are some of the things that we haven't talked about that you feel Our listeners need to know about like, this is very important as far as your social security.

Reese: 30:12

What are some things that we haven't talked about that I think is important with social

John: 30:17

Maybe some, are there some changes coming across too? Cause I've seen some stuff in the news that may be Medicare. I don't know if it's Medicare or social security, but I've been seeing a lot of stuff talking about some big changes coming in both Medicare or social security.

Reese: 30:34

Yeah, I mean, there's big, quote unquote, big changes that happen every year. there's probably more significant changes happening in 2025. In the medicare space and there are technically in the social security space. I would, I would say the, the thing that we haven't touched base on is that let me rephrase that we haven't gone in depth on is there are systems and tools, whether it's with me, somebody else through, through the website that the government offers, that gives you the ability to understand scenarios. And by looking at those scenarios will give you the best ability to make a decision across the board. All right. And it's just not how much money do I need to survive? It's not just how much money do I need to be comfortable. It's, a lot of the times spouses, Don't even think about when they're going to draw their social security and how that's going to impact their other spouse. So I'll give you an example. Husband and wife are married. Wife is the bigger income earner. So she gets to a point where she can retire at 62. Husband still wants to work cause he loves his job and he's going to work until he's 67. the wife didn't realize that by her drawing her social security at 62, If she dies when she's 63 and now he's going to lose that social security income, a portion of it because she's no longer there, how that, how that affects the long term planning of the situation. So, I would say that there's tools, there's people. I mean, RSSA is a national organization. There's advisors all across the United States. you have to figure that stuff out and you have to look at all. Aspects of what's going on. that, that's why when, when people come to us as Medicare advisors, we say, this is a portion of what your health situation looks like, right? There, there's multiple tiers and multiple facets to we talk about, if there's a major medical issue, how are you going to pay for that medical issue? So that normally correlates to their CPA and their financial advisor, right? Or we talk about. If there's a major medical issue, who's going to take care of you? Who's your power of attorney? That can be your lawyer. Do you have a will and all these other things, set up? Same thing in the social security space. if this spouse passes away, what happens here? If your son or daughter gets diagnosed with something becomes disabled. What does that structure look like? how do they benefit from those for some of our lower income clients, if you're on Medicaid, which is a state ran low income subsidy, and you draw social security at 62 because you've been waiting for it, and then you lose your Medicaid. You're actually losing money now on a monthly basis because you didn't look at everything. So there's just a lot that correlates to it. And I just wish and hope that people understand there's tools out there, free tools and tools. we charge a fee for what we do. I think it's very competitive for the value we bring, but it isn't what I would say cheap. But you just have to be proactive because ultimately it's your responsibility. there's no one else that's going to do it for you. and I would also say to the husband, because I'm married, two kids, is it's responsible for both spouses to be involved in this process. Because if we meet with just the wife and the husband has no idea what the hell is going on and then something happens to her, he's not going to know what's going on and vice versa. So even though there's a lot of planning that goes into how you're going to do things together, because a lot of times people are basing their retirement around household income. Well, what happens if somebody passes away? What happens if somebody gets disabled? What does that look like? And it's good to be on it together. It doesn't mean there has to be, one person is usually a point person, but I think everyone should be involved in it So, sorry, I started rambling there, but I get kind of passionate about these things.

John: 34:38

I love your passion. Okay. So, so if myself or somebody else was going to meet with an advisor, what do you need as far as information when they're coming in to sit down with you? Do you send them an email with a kind of a breakdown of all the information you need or, or what do they need to

Erin: 34:58

you? Well, before you answer that, my question that I was gonna answer we're over here like I'm going next. No, I'm going next. Is, not only what paperwork should they bring, but what are some of the questions that they should make sure to ask when they come?

Reese: 35:14

Yeah, so we have a dedicated process that we've gotten through RSSA, but also that we've developed here at Preferred Senior Benefits that's going to force them to answer the majority of the questions that we come across that are important, right? when would you like to retire? When can you retire? When's the most optimal time to get income from your retirement, right? Those are questions. What's your life expectancy? There's actually a test that we're going to have everyone take before they come meet with us. That actually has you answer. I think it's like 60 questions and it gives you your life expectancy and it's relatively accurate. kid you not.

John: 35:55

Hers was 94 and mine was 106. So I'm a little healthier than her.

Erin: 36:00

For now.

Reese: 36:02

questionnaire, one of the questions it asks you is, do you wear sunscreen? Well, I'll be honest with you, I've never worn sunscreen other than going to the beach or to a water park on a daily basis. Well, once I got certified, I've been wearing sunscreen every day since. Because obviously, if they're asking that question, there's a reason. Because, these questions are coming from actuaries and scientists on the back end. we're going to, we're going to drive down to those questions. We're going to ask you fact finding questions. We're going to have you do those tests, to get that life expectancy. We're going to have you pull your social security data from socialsecurity. gov. And if you can't do that, we can, we have a video that walks you through it. It's relatively easy. but we're going to, we're going to get all that information together and then we're going to present you, with a live document that we can play with in office and you can look at, but once we've figured out, we like to look at three to four different scenarios, right? When's the minimum you could retire? What your full retirement age is? What your maximum or best benefits are and then maybe a variable like usually we'll have one where, spouse is 67 and wife is 65 because they're really looking to get on Medicare just before they make those decisions. And then we present them with a full dedicated report that they have that they can use from a game plan perspective and move down that path from

John: 37:19

Now, how long does this usually take? Is this one session with you guys or is this multiple sessions? how long does it take to create a plan?

Reese: 37:29

Yeah, I mean, normally we'll get with the, my team will get with our client ahead of time, have them do everything at home before they come meet with us, and then our goal is when they come meet with us, in most cases, we can have everything done and analyzed, in the first meeting. Now, if it's a more complex scenario, it may take a second meeting, but in general, that's not the

John: 37:51

Perfect.

Erin: 37:52

So this might sound odd. I know with Medicare, people say you should get your plan reviewed. Is Social Security also the same way where you can get it reviewed or once you start it, that's just what it is?

Reese: 38:04

Is the question on once you started drawing it, or is the question on as you're planning to start drawing it?

Erin: 38:10

Once you've started drawing it.

Reese: 38:13

In most cases, once you've started drawing it, it is what it is. Now there are a couple strategies that you can take once you've started drawing it to retroactive your decisions, but that's really convoluted and it would, it'd be a whole other podcast for us to get in on that. So that's why making the decision correct the first time is so important.

Erin: 38:35

So I want to just clarify it. We need to meet with you. Someone. What is it? RSS? Is that what it is? I'm so sorry. Can you repeat that again?

Reese: 38:45

Yeah. I own a company called preferred senior benefits. and I am an R S S a. Designation. So I have a registered social security analyst. So it's a designation that you have to study for, take an exam to pass. It's very difficult to do it. It takes, three to six months, depending how much time you're going to dedicate to it. and that gives us the ability to charge, and has the designation to give this advice.

Erin: 39:08

So between the ages of about 45, latest 55, not saying that they can't come later, but preferably to get a good picture and setting you up is when we should find you.

John: 39:20

Or do the

Erin: 39:21

themselves. Or do the research themselves. They'll have a list of questions or you can find your own questions and really start coming up with a plan. Really start and figure out What your life is going to look like. When do you want to retire? How are you going to retire all these questions and then come sit down with you and go, Hey, this is what I've looked at. This is what I researched. This is what I'm thinking. Can you help me? What does that really look like?

Reese: 39:49

exactly. And we're gonna be an advocate to our clients, right? So when you sit down with us, there's two things we do at Preferred Senior Benefits. Medicare, Social Security. That's it, right? So when you come to us with these questions at 55 63, 49, we're going to go through so much stuff that when we're done, you're going to have a social security game plan in place that we can still review every couple of years, every year, whatever you want to do. But I'm also going to refer you to a bunch of professionals that I think are probably going to, Add value to what you're doing. It may be a, it may be an attorney to get your will and your trust done. it may be a financial advisor to help you understand how your 401k works or, or how your life insurance works, or, how does that pension really work. In regards to you and your spouse, it may be a CPA or a tax professional to understand, well, how do you want to get these things structured? for people who own businesses, right? It might be to a business attorney to understand there's probably different ways for you to structure this so you can make sure you're, Earning as much social security as possible. Cause that's, that's one thing we didn't really touch base on is that if you're a business owner, like all of us are here on, on the cast, there's strategies that you can take to increase your social security that when you get to that age that you can potentially deduct on your taxes and as a business owner, if you're not taking advantage of those immediately. You could be losing thousands upon thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. there's multiple variables when looking at that, but we really try to be an advocate to all of our clients and get them in front of the right people. we work with different people. around, what's the best pharmacy you should be going to? do you need a, a realtor to understand, what does downsizing look like? do you need a, a last wish recorded? So you have something to pass on to your family. there's a lot of these different things that people. Unfortunately don't like to talk about because no one likes to talk about dying. No one likes to talk about getting older. except for maybe me because I, I can't wait to retire. these are things that when you force yourself to go through this process, naturally through the process you're going to answer questions that will drive places that you really should be

Erin: 41:59

So I, I know I mentioned 45 earlier, but it almost sounds like, you know,

John: 42:06

Well, it's, it's always good to have education. So what percentage of people out there. actually become educated before they get to a situation of crisis where they, they just, all of a sudden they, they're like, okay, now I qualify for Medicare. Now I qualify for social security. I mean, what percentage of people wait until last minute to

Erin: 42:28

So

John: 42:28

those decisions? Yeah. Very

Erin: 42:30

huh?

Reese: 42:31

Oh, I would assume the majority of people in America are reactive, not proactive. I mean, I, and I, I, once again, I'm not a financial advisor, so I don't know this exact numbers, but I think one of the financial advisors we work with in the state of Idaho is actually the top advisor in the state by Forbes, says that like 60 percent or 65 percent of Americans only form of retirement is social security. Now, I'm not sure that's accurate, but I know it's very, very high. So my guess is the majority of people hate their jobs. hate working are just trying to get to that 62 year old 62 point so they can retire from that horrible boss and you know are going to figure out how to survive on that 1, 000, 1, 500, 2, 000 a month which is sad but once again it is true. so it's one of those things where I would say the majority of people do not or are not proactive right. I would ask I'll ask you guys a question. What percent of people out there do you think have just a basic will set up?

Erin: 43:37

I think 15 percent

John: 43:38

15 to 20. It's pretty low.

Reese: 43:41

So that, that, that's what I would correlate. I think a will is probably more likely than someone having social security planning, right? Unless you work with, someone like myself or a professional in this vertical that, that talks about it. And let me be very clear. There are a lot of people out there that are professionals in the financial advising space or whatnot. That have no clue on how this stuff right? I tell people all the time, the reason we specialize in Medicare and Social Security at Preferred Senior Benefits is, is a correlation to a doctor scenario. If I had a brain tumor that was, that meant life or death, am I going to go to the doctor that does brain surgery every single day of the week? Or am I going to go to the brain surgeon that does brain surgery the second Tuesday of the month? I just tell people that, that. all things are not created equal and you have to understand what you're looking at from a planning perspective. And what does that actually mean for your retirement I don't think we all come on this earth to work our butts off, no matter what it is you do, to then have to struggle in retirement. When if you just took the right strategy or the right approach now, Or as soon as you pop, I mean, you, you could have somebody on this that's 67, right? That's listening to this, that hasn't started drawing social security yet. And maybe they come chat with us and we, we figure out a strategy that they can actually keep working until, 68, but have the income they thought they'd have to work till 70. I don't know. I'm just using these examples. I just wish people would be more proactive.

Erin: 45:19

Well, that's the whole point of our podcast, right? Is we, we were, we saw so many people being reactive. We were like, we've got to fill in the gap because it's people want to help and there's good people, but we need to get that information out.

John: 45:31

Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. And, and in a way where people can do a soft approach, right. They can just listen to a podcast and they can get little bits of information. Then they get inspired or encouraged to make the steps to become more

Erin: 45:44

like it's not as scary as that may seem,

John: 45:47

sure. But there's a, but there's still a lot to it, right? Like a lot of what you've said today, I'm that guy that kind of waits till last minute, like waits until, okay, now I need, I qualify for social security. Now

Erin: 45:58

Or we didn't know that you should start preparing now for

John: 46:02

Yeah. I didn't know, I didn't know, that. the last question I have, and, I'm just curious about this because I know that there are people that, Get together, right? And they both get into a situation that they qualify for social security. They get into a relationship. They're both, say, qualifying or getting ready to, is it better that they get married or is it better that they Maybe stay together, but they collect social security

Erin: 46:31

Well, cause that's a trend starting. A lot of them are

John: 46:33

Yeah, Yeah, Because of the, the, the amount of money that they can pull in separately. It's quite different than they would being

Erin: 46:42

Yeah. What are your thoughts?

Reese: 46:43

Yeah, a hundred percent. Just like the scenario we talked about earlier where the, the wife stayed at home and the husband was a CEO for Google. Then they got divorced and then she started, she found the love of her life that works at a, a golf shop or something like that. We just were in a meeting a couple of weeks ago where a very, very successful man has been with a very successful woman for about five or 10 years. They finally talked about just getting married just for funs and giggles. We had a conversation and we showed them. you guys can still go have the wedding and you can even change your last name, but by getting legally married, this is what it's going to do to your social security. And they both were like, well, we're not getting married.

John: 47:20

Yeah.

Reese: 47:21

kid you not.

Erin: 47:22

Wow.

Reese: 47:24

I don't mean to get too into the weeds here, It's the legal contract of the marriage that's going to directly correlate to social security. Not what you, like you said, what you do in the eyes of God and doing that, that's completely different. That's just my viewpoint. I mean, we've had to have uncomfortable conversations with clients, about how, If they were divorced, they would qualify for Medicaid individually, which would allow them to get the drugs they need to survive. Cause they're going to die if they don't versus by staying married, they don't cause they make too much money combined may sound heartless. You know, it may sound whatever, but that, that may be the strategy that they have to take.

Erin: 48:03

But I think I, and I appreciate you saying that because I think people don't understand. And if I love you, I love you. And it's a very personal choice of why someone may split. This means our survival and being able to afford a lifestyle that we need. Let's have that conversation. We don't have to do it, but let's know all of our facts and have a conversation. Does this fit? Will it work?

John: 48:26

I'm glad I, I'm glad I asked that question. because there's a lot of people I think that are unaware of how it could really factor in because like you said earlier, Reese, there are a lot of baby boomers or people maybe in that age group now, a big group that aren't prepared and they're going to be very reliant on social security. And if they're in love and they go off and they get married. Then there's social security together is going to be a lot less than it would be if they were two separate individuals still acting like they're married, living together, everything, but they, would be pulling in a lot more,

Reese: 49:01

we always talk about divorce in such a negative manner and I'm a big parables person. another thing that's really talked about in a negative manner is bankruptcy. Bankruptcy. Right. If you have a bankruptcy or a horrible financial person, yada, yada. Bankruptcy is just another tool that people use when it comes to business and money management. how many billionaires and multi millionaires have used bankruptcy as a strategy to increase or protect their wealth? So once again, not talking about the religious side of it, I'm very, big believer in God. And I've been a Christian since I was 16 years old at church camp at my birthday. our kids go to private Christian schools. That's a big part of our life and what we believe in.

John: 49:41

Yeah.

Reese: 49:42

But I think when it comes to financial and medical decisions. You have to look at it to what's going to suit you best and keep you protected. Because what good is it to, to be doing something if you're homeless, can't afford the drugs that you're, that you need to survive and die in six months.

John: 50:00

Or you're dragging down your partner financially too, right? if you can qualify for so much more because you don't have much, it's really going to affect your partner as well. and where you could still stay within, have more money or more help and support because you'd qualify for more. So

Erin: 50:18

social security now is more interesting. So thank you.

John: 50:25

Yeah. We really appreciate your wealth of knowledge and your expertise in this. And,

Erin: 50:30

do have another question, a final question for you. I'm like, don't you wrap him up yet?

John: 50:34

Okay. All right. You go ahead.

Erin: 50:39

We love to travel. Please share with us what is on your adventure list of something you want to do and, or a place that you've been that you want to share with us.

Reese: 50:50

Oh, that's a great question. Well, so I'm turning, 40 this year. yeah, in August and, we're breaking down the 40 year birthday into different events. So the big, the big birthday party is about, I don't know, 10, 15, 30 of us are going to go down to Tahoe for my birthday party because that's where I spent my 30th birthday. And that's where I sent my bachelor party. I love Tahoe. so we're doing that. that's somewhere I've been that I love. Big, big advocate of it. And then somewhere I'm going to go is, I've always wanted to get in a great white shark tank. Like, you know, where you get in the ocean with a

John: 51:25

Yeah,

Reese: 51:26

So, we're in the process of scheduling that. I would like to go to South Africa because that's where the biggest sharks are. My wife says I'm crazy for thinking of that. but we're actually going to be having a meeting about that next week to decide where exactly we're doing because before the end of this year, I'm going to get scared to, to heaven and everything by getting in a shark tank. It's

John: 51:48

I love

Erin: 51:49

that. Do you have your life insurance policy before

John: 51:51

you

Erin: 51:51

that?

Reese: 51:52

Oh, yeah. got a life insurance policy when I was in my 20s.

John: 51:57

Make sure you, and make sure you get a GoPro, because if you don't have one, I'll loan you mine, because you'll definitely want a GoPro. So when you're down in that cage and you're getting hit, you capture all of it,

Erin: 52:07

it'd be awesome. The question I forgot to ask you what is the one thing you wish people would ask you?

Reese: 52:14

What is the one thing I would in realms to social

Erin: 52:18

Yes. Yes. If you have clients come and it's like, gosh, why didn't they ask me this? Or why didn't, you know, ask me this question so I can help you.

Reese: 52:27

I would say the one question I wish more people would ask, and I'll be, and I'll be very candid. Normally we, we make them ask it or we ask it for them is what is your realistic goal with retirement? Cause you have to know that to be able to plan around it. And once you know that, have you taken the best steps possible in your situation to achieve that?

Erin: 52:54

I like

Reese: 52:54

Cause once you know what you'd like to achieve, And you know, either you have or have not done everything you can to achieve it. Then everything else is easy. The first step's the most difficult. If my goal in retirement is to live in Florida, fish every single day, play golf every single day and see my grandkids as much as possible. Okay, you know what you want, but you've done no planning around how to get there, then okay, well now we know there are steps that need to be taken. Versus, you know what you want, you've done everything possible, well then you're good to go. That's, I mean, that's a big pat on the back. Most people have not done that, but that would be the situation. Figure out what you want. And then figure out, have you done everything possible to get there? If the answer is no, then there's steps to be taken. And there's no shame. There's no, Oh, I should have done this 15 years ago. There's, you can only react to things now. So let's make the decision and let's move forward. It's really that simple. I think, I think when you meet with a professional, Particularly somebody like me, who's just as blunt as I am. And I think we, we've all talked about this offline. I'm just going to tell you the facts. There's pluses and negatives to no matter what you do, which path do you want to go down? It's not right or wrong. It's, it's your path. You design it. Let us help you figure that out. And once you get past that and just jump into it, you'll feel better. I promise you, you will.

Erin: 54:18

Can you work with anybody anywhere or only in Idaho?

Reese: 54:23

Oh no, we can help anyone, anyone that's going to, are you talking about social security? I

Erin: 54:27

Yes.

Reese: 54:28

yeah, anyone that has, Ida or so in Medicare, we're only licensed in 18 States, 17 or 18 States right now. we can get licensed though in a matter of a week or two. That's not a big deal. So, Medicare, a little limited, Social Security, anywhere. Anyone that has Social Security questions, obviously if they're not, you know, in Idaho we can't meet with them personally, but I'd say 70 percent of our meetings are done via Zoom, just because it's, it's easier for clients to be at home with all those, all those documentation. And if they don't feel comfortable with Zoom, and they can't make it in person, face to face, we can do it over the phone. I'm just a visual person, I like to show people things. So what we usually would do is if we do it over the phone, we'll put together the illustrations, put together the information, and we'll send it to them via email. And then go down that path there.

Erin: 55:14

Oh, this has been so great.

John: 55:16

Yeah.

Erin: 55:17

This has been awesome. Thank you, Reese.

John: 55:19

Yeah, All right.

Erin: 55:22

Well. I think that's all I have for myself. I do, I do feel like our listeners are going to listen to this and come out of it just like we did going, Oh my gosh, you're going to hear that phone. It's been awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much again for your time.

John: 55:39

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Connect Empower. We want to express our gratitude to you for being part of our community, and we hope today's episode has provided you with valuable insights and inspiration to enhance your life and that of a loved one.

Erin: 55:54

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John: 56:15

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Erin: 56:30

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John: 56:50

I'm John.

Erin: 56:51

I'm Erin. Until next Wednesday.