Make It Last – Ep 147 – The Sandwich Generation

Make It Last – Ep 147 – The Sandwich Generation
October 2, 2021 Site Admin Baby Boomers 0 Comments

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Ever wonder about COVID’s affect on retiree’s? This week Victor and Mark discuss how the 3 million Baby Boomer’s that retired in the past year have affect on the U.S. economy.

What is the sandwich generation? Similar to the meat in an actual sandwich, they’re stuck in the middle…in the middle of raising their kids and taking care of their parents that is.

Victor gives Gen X some serious retirement advice you won’t want to miss on this week’s episode of Make It Last

Also available on SpotifyApple Podcasts, & Google Podcasts

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) and Certified Financial Planner professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

Full Transcription Below

Mark Elliot:  Welcome to “Make It Last” with Victor Medina, Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. I’m Mark Elliott.

Victor and his teams focus on traditional estate planning, asset protection, retirement distribution, proactive income tax planning. He’s been featured on national television, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report.

Here’s the deal, if you have any question about anything that we talked about today on the program, you’d like to learn more about, “Why I didn’t know that, I would like to learn more,” you can always call the team, (856) 506 8300.

Or you’re in that timeline of 5 to 10 years out from retirement, you’re like, ”Boy, there’s a lot of moving parts here. I don’t know what my income plan is. Where’s my income coming from? What about my investment strategy? Should I be tweaking that a little bit?

“What about taxes? Taxes go up, what should I be doing? How do I plan for that? What about estate planning? How do I put all this together?” That’s what Victor’s teams are here to help you with, (856) 506 8300.

Today, we’re going to talk a little bit out of the gate about financial literacy, and it’s not a surprising thing to me, Victor. Now, you said your parents were teachers, correct?

Victor Medina:  Correct.

Mark:  Any of them teach math, either one of them?

Victor:  Neither of them.

Mark:  My dad was a math teacher and I don’t really like math. My mom was an English teacher. I did spend one year teaching seventh and eighth grade English. Then my elective that I taught was a history class, like Zachary Taylor was so short, he had to be helped on his horse.

William Taft was the first president with electricity, and I believe the bathtub in the White House. I think he even threw out the first pitch in a major league game.

It was a fun‑filled show or fun‑filled class, if you will, but I’m not surprised that most Americans get a failing grade when it comes to retirement literacy.

This is according to the American College of financial services. They did a test. It was a 38 question quiz. 89 percent of female participants flunked, 72 percent of men failed the quiz.

I think the challenges in school and I had a business math class or something, I had general math class, or whatever, I wasn’t the calculus person so I didn’t go into the really deep, deep math classes.

To me, Victor, the things that you talked about on the show about the importance of…You’re a math‑based company, not an emotion‑based company, but you do realize we all have emotions.

It seems to me that our education system doesn’t teach some of these basic things that we need to know, especially during our working years, but maybe even more importantly, when we’re on that fixed income and retirement. It seems like we’re messing up here. Maybe you should teach a class around the country about this.

Victor:  All right. Sounds good. I’ll get right to that when I’m not working with my clients. It’s not at all surprising. I totally agree with you that we’re failing, and we’re failing at an early age.

I’ve got three boys, the oldest is working now. Aiden’s got his job as a lifeguard. I feel it’s a personal success that he comes home, and he decides that he wants to spend what are in the tens in the ones column. That he wants to give me to invest and say, “What’s in the hundreds columns for every paycheck.” I think that’s super unusual.

Amongst his friends, he’s a complete pariah for not wanting to spend every dollar that he has. It’s not universal, but it’s certainly enough to the point where it’s unusual for people to have some sense of financial literacy.

The only reason I think that he might be more advanced is because he’s got a dad that works in that area and has explained the concepts of compound interest, and the ‘what happens when you start as early as he’s starting with what he’s saving.’ Just dollar‑cost averaging into it.

We’re failing a lot of them. I want to keen on another part that you talked about, Mark, which is this higher percentage of women that are failing. We’ve got this incredible focus in our planning, around making sure that we help empower women in retirement.

In fact, that that’s the name of one of the books that I’ve written. What will happen is we’ll visit with women that are suddenly in charge of money, either because of a divorce, or they’ve been widowed or something along that. They weren’t familiar with it in the past.

In the division of labor, it wasn’t something that they were in charge of. They’re in a position where they feel lost as to making smart decisions along the way. What’s interesting about that is women typically have a more conservative outlook about what they want that money to do. Meant to be a little bit more aggressive.

It’s not universal, but it is enough for us to say that this is generally the way that it happens. The reason why that’s important is that the majority of the information that’s out there doesn’t help them make decisions in conformity with what they want.

In other words, you’re dealing with these kind of fly‑by, it’s either pants‑stock‑jockey folks that are going to talk about how much they’re going to grow and be swinging for the fences. That might speak to the men that they want to speak with.

It doesn’t help the women that are trying to make sure that they have safety and security in what they’re doing. That’s where a retirement specialist like us can help because that’s our frame. Our focus is making sure that we protect it and help make it last.

In addition to that, because we’ve written this book, what I want to do, Mark, is I want to be able to give that away to folks. If you’re interested, you should give a call to the number (856) 506 8300. This is for the women out there. I want any men posing as women to get the copy of the free book.

If you’re a woman that wants to learn more about it, I want to do you a service and go ahead and gift you a copy of the book. All you have to do is call the number (856) 506 8300. Let us know you’d like a copy of the book. “Make It Last: Empowering Women in Retirement.” We’ve got that available for you to get sent out.

It’d be our pleasure to go and do that. We want to help that. The whole story around that book, Mark, is that my mom faced a sudden bankruptcy when she got divorced. It was because she wasn’t in a position to be able to manage her own money.

Because of that, I’ve seen it as almost a calling of mine to really help empower and respect all the women that make all these contributions to make sure that they’ve got the information to make great decisions as they go out through life.

Mark:  Yeah, I like that. Make it Last: Empowering Women, one of Victor’s Make it Last series. He’s got about five different books in that series. 856‑506‑8300, just asked for it, say, “Victor said I could get a copy.” 856‑506‑8300.

When you think about, are there any certain topics, Victor, that you find most people struggle a little bit with when they come in for that first sit‑down chat with you and your team?

Victor:  I think there are. Really, in focusing around taxes, I think most people who have addressed the concept of taxes have done so in a reactionary responsive manner, meaning that they got to the end of the year, they prepare their taxes, and they paid for whatever they needed to pay in April.

When we start talking to people about tax planning and retirement, we’re actually doing it from the other vantage point, which is what can we do proactively before the tax bill comes to take advantage of tax planning opportunities that you will help expand the money that you have, reduced total number of taxes in there.

The reason why that is ends up being something that a lot of people struggle with is, first of all, the conventional wisdom is pay the least amount of taxes as you can no matter what. We actually expand this and pay the least amount of taxes overall that you can in that situation.

When we start to do that is that maybe that means that sometimes we’re paying a little bit higher taxes now as part of our planning, because it means lower taxes overall, that starts to be a new concept that they haven’t heard. It’s not out there in the world.

Then the other element of that that ends up being a challenge is that we actually have to project where the numbers going to be in the future. For people, they’re very presently focused. It’s this year with his taxes. We’re actually having them expand their thinking to tax rates beyond the year, 2025 tax rates that your children will be paying, versus the ones that you’ll be paying.

We help expand their vision off of it. It usually takes some education to get their mind wrapped around that.

Mark:  Let’s finish talking about kind of situations, whether you have a couple that comes in and you have topics that you’re going to chat with them about, or you have an individual come in and talk about their retirement. It could be male or female, obviously an individual.

We do know that 80 percent of men die married, which means their spouse is there to care for them at the end. 80 percent of women die widowed, divorced or single. Who’s helping them?

It’s a moving challenge, I think for all of us, but talk about the conversations you have about a surviving spouse, because I always say that. One of the things I always say is, are my loved ones going to be OK if something happens to me?

There’s some moving parts to this area that not everybody’s aware of, besides the emotional besides the emotional…

Victor:  Oh, yeah, exactly. Way beyond the loss, obviously, that’s in there. It’s significant. By the way, that loss often comes with people being in a vulnerable position, if they’re not already working with a firm like ours that has got this as part of their planning, because they can sometimes make some bad decisions in their grief.

I think that there are three things that come up when we have the surviving spouse question that needs to get factored into all of this. The first is that the income changes. If you’re relying on two social securities as part of your fixed income, you’ve got to recognize that when one spouse dies, we lose the lower amount of that social security.

We keep the higher one, we do lose one of them, which means we lose one of the guaranteed sources of income in retirement.

We have to plan to make that up in some other fashion because the guaranteed nature of income is where we get our peace of mind and security, the way that we manufacture that paycheck. That switch, that change over that typically happens, is something that needs to be planned for.

The second thing that occurs is that your filing status changes from married to single. I know that sounds cute, simplistic, and flippant.

What happens as a consequence is that the way that you pay taxes increases so that there’s these little brackets that apply to tax rates, and the brackets are one size when you’re married, and then half that size when you’re filing single.

All of a sudden, what’s happening is more of your money is going to the federal government and income taxes, because you’ve just checked the box that says filing single because you have to instead of the ones filing married. Making sure that we account for the higher taxes or pre‑planned for that is another element of planning for that surviving spouse.

Then the last element you alluded to when you were talking about what would happen with a woman out living men and who cares for them, and it is a long‑term care question.

When we have two married people, when they’ve been married couple in there, and one of them gets sick, what happens most of the time is that one of the spouse’s carers for the other person, when we left out to the other spouse, we don’t have that same built‑in caregiver, which means that we have to go and pay for that caregiving in some fashion.

Most people these days are not lucky enough to be living next door to their daughter or son who’s going to take care of them, or let them move in, which means that we have to budget for something like an assisted living or a facility or home healthcare aide or ways of providing for that long‑term care need from the resources that we have, not the free labor that was our spouse.

Those three areas are crucial to do planning ahead of time, because in a crisis moment, it’s not as easy to go ahead and plan for the loss of some of the income, the higher taxes that might be need to be paid and the provision of long‑term care.

Those three things can absolutely be handled in a Make It Last plan that we create for our clients for retirement planning. It’s best done if you do it ahead of time before you suffer that loss.

Mark:  Be proactive, not reactive. (856) 506 8300. A lot of moving parts when you lose a spouse, let alone the emotional trauma of that situation. (856) 506 8300. Let’s finish with single folks, because you don’t always sit down with married couples. You help individuals, male or female, single, widowed, divorced, what have you.

What about their retirement planning? There’s probably some different questions we’re looking at here.

Victor:  There are some different questions. Some of them are what I mentioned, when we talked about a single spouse about taxes being higher and needing to provide for long‑term care. Some things that are part of a single planning, somebody who comes in as a single plan are not something that we have to account for the loss of a spouse. One of them is in the legal realm, Mark.

What we have to do is think about different kinds of legal planning documents. Here, I’ll just take a second kinds of powers of attorney.

Most of the time, when we draft powers of attorney for a married couple, we meet them immediately effective so that when somebody becomes disabled, there’s no test and we can use that power of attorney. It’s almost like giving somebody a blank check to walk around in your shoes and do whatever you want.

When you’ve got a married couple, that’s totally OK. When you’re a single individual, it’s a different consideration. We may need a different kind of legal planning tool called a Springing Power of Attorney that’s only effective when you become disabled or incapacitated.

That’s a special consideration for a single person, because if they’ve got kids, maybe, there’ll be the agents, but, they don’t want them walking around with a blank check to life. If they don’t have kids, then they may be relying on a friend or niece or somebody that’s a relative as a little bit more extended away from them. The right kind of legal planning tool is helpful for them.

The other element of that is looking and planning around different kinds of investments for longevity. We’ve got a different investment horizon for what’s going on with a single individual. That gets layered in as well. Those two things, different legal planning tools, and also different investment strategy for a single person over a married couple.

If you’re interested in making sure that you get a lot more detailed information, married or single, we have an upcoming seminar that’s open to the public. We’re going to provide some food for you at Seasons 52 on July 29th or August 5th, a lunch or a dinner, based on your schedule. There’s going to be two Thursdays.

If you’d like to learn more about that, you can give a call to (856) 506 8300. That’s, (856) 506 8300. Mention the upcoming seminar in July 29th or August 5th. If we’ve got space, we’ll register for that.

That’s be a great way for you to spend a little bit more time getting more detailed information about how you can create a plan for yourself whether you’re married or single.

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Mark:  If you’re in either situation or you’re just going, “You know what, I’m not sure when I can retire? Do I have enough? Money last as long as I will?” Certainly, that big question, “Will my loved ones be OK if something happens to me?”

Victor and the team at Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth are here to help. That’s, (856) 506 8300, (856) 506 8300. It’s hard to believe. We’re only one segment in. There’s been a ton of information that Victor has dropped on us. He’s got a lot more to get to.

Stay with us. This is Make It Last with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth.

Mark:  Glad you’re with us today for Make It Last with Victor Medina of the Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. You can find out more about the Medina Law Group. If you’ve got questions about, maybe, you need a certified elder law attorney. Victor and the team, they can help you with that, certainly.

In Victor’s other company, Palante Wealth, that’s the holistic planning side for your retirement, the investment strategies, income, taxes.

How do we plan for all of that? What if we do need long‑term care, we have a health issue? How does that all play into this? That is palantewealth.com. To find out more, P‑A‑L‑A‑N‑T‑E, palantewealth.com.

Glad you’re with us today. Victor, would you say it’s fair to say…We’ve done this show now for several months. You think about it, we, typically, are talking baby boomers. Would that be fair to say?

Victor:  Absolutely. Since, like, it’s the year 2015 or 2016, there was 10,000 of them turning 65 every day for the next 30 years. It’s been our main focus.

Mark:  Yeah. You think about it, that’s a generation retiring right now. There was the greatest generation from 1901 to 1927. The silent generation 1928 to 1945. The baby boomers, and I’m in that category. 1946 to 1964 is when you’re born. I was born in ’59. That means, everybody that born in 1959, in the year 2021, will be Social Security eligible. Turning 62 in 2021.

Here’s a stat about this. Think about this, all the baby boomers, the youngest baby boomers, by the year 2030, will all be at least 65 years of age. That means what generation is next when it comes to retirement planning? That is probably your generation.

Victor:  That’s mine. I was going to say Generation X. We’re always the forgotten one.

Mark:  Absolutely. 1965 to 1980. That is Gen X. When you think about all the moving parts before we get in because we’re going to spend the next couple segments talking about Generation X, what should you be doing, as you get ready.

Because you think about it, born in 1965, to 1980, which means the oldest are turning 56 this year. The youngest will be turning 41 this year. The age bracket of Generation X is 40 to 56 years of age. We’re going to talk. You’re right on deck.

Your retirement is coming faster, maybe, than you even realize, but you think about all of the baby boomers that went off into retirement and rode off into the sunset. The number was something, like, a million and a half.

Don’t hold me to the numbers. They’re ballpark. About a million and a half baby boomers retired in 2019. About a million and a half baby boomers retired in 2019. Over three million retired or left the workforce in 2020. Those kind of challenges.

Those aren’t the reasons where we see companies and small businesses needing employees, I don’t think. When you lose that many people from the workforce, what does that do to our economy?

Victor:  Yeah, that’s a big one. Because first of all, those folks that were on the retirement age, were the people that were, typically, the most highly skilled of the workers. They’re leaving a void if it hasn’t been properly filled. You look at what the impact on the economy is going to be. It’s two‑fold. There’s one positive and one negative.

The one that’s negative is that we’ve had the skills drain that’s occurred is one of these people have gotten retired. The pandemic probably caused a few more than average to make an earlier decisions and just not going back.

I had a client of mine, that was an education. He just realized when it happened in March, “That’s it. I’m done. I’m not going back in September.” It was completely unplanned.

There is that effect off of it. The positive effect that’s in there is that, we get the opportunity to have innovation and new thinking, draw and push things in a new directions. Probably stuff that wasn’t as anticipated before.

It’s not to say that we can just group all of these people by age and label them with one kind of thought over another. We see all of these advances in more technologically‑based solutions for stuff.

Either we were talking about electric vehicles. We were looking at what’s going on with different services that can be provided. How people are going to work remotely. Those kinds of innovations are coming from people that are challenging the status quo. That they have been in the workforce expecting things to stay the same for a long time.

What’s important about that from the retirement planning perspective, regardless of what generation you’re in, is that you really have to have a forward‑thinking plan that doesn’t rely on the same old same old being there forever.

The same cautionary tale about relying on the biggest blue chips of stocks to be there forever, is going to be the same, as we watched the changeover occur because the baby boomers were the biggest of the generations that we’re making this transition.

We’re going to see the biggest effect occur as people get out of the workforce, just by growing older.

Mark:  It certainly puts more stress on Social Security, Medicare, and those government programs, certainly with, so many baby boomers. 10,000 of them turning 65 every day, basically, who knows how many are retiring every single day. Now, we’re going to focus on Generation X, Victor’s generation.

Victor, I’m going to have you speak for your generation, because we know they’re all the same, but that’s really not true about any generation, is it? Think about this, you’re 40, at the youngest edge of the Generation X, born in 1980. You’re going to be either turning 41 this year, you’ve already done it, or you will be and then the oldest are 55, turning 56 this year.

You think about that, that means they’re really the oldest generation X‑ers are really getting close to retirement, and then maybe it snuck up on them a little bit. Are you sitting down with more of Generation X people, pre‑retirees now than certainly were five years ago. Obviously, I would think, but are you seeing more Generation X come in to talk about retirement?

Victor:  We are and it’s actually happening two different ways, Mark. The first way it’s happening is that we have been dealing with extensively what are their parents having already retired, understanding the smart decisions that we’ve helped their parents make about getting into a sound retirement plan.

Because of that, wanting to have a conversation a little bit earlier, maybe then even they anticipated. It may not be that they’re looking at retirement per se, but they know that good retirement planning starts early.

Because we’ve been helping their parents, or parents will make a referral over and they’ll want to meet with us and we’ll start to talk to them.

That’s one way that we’ve been able to see more Gen X people. The other thing that is also true is that Generation X, basically people that are 56‑ish or so, 41 in that range, in that 15‑year range, are looking at retirement as something that they have to grab by the horns, that is not going to be planned for them.

There’s enough information going out there, especially because of the vast number of baby boomers retiring and all of the things that you’ve mentioned about the stress potentially in social security and this idea that they know.

They’ve been in the work force now for almost 20 years, that there is no magic pension waiting for them at the end, that they’ve got to do some pre‑planning on this. They’ve got to go ahead and really understand what it is that’s going to happen for them in their retirement.

If you’re in Generation X, you’re probably thinking about how am I going to be OK once I get into retirement, and maybe I need to start thinking about this beforehand. It’s no longer something that I can ignore towards the end.

There’s definitely been enough information shared with you to know that the sooner that you start thinking about this, the sooner you start doing some savings, with some smarter investing, the better off you’re going to be at the end. You’ve got to take control of it on your own.

I’m really seeing it from both ends. I’m seeing it the natural outgrow of our clients having their kids come and see us. Also this raising of awareness amongst people, say, it’s not something that you can avoid. It’s actually coming around the corner.

Even at my age at 46 into the youngest of the Generation X at 41, you can’t help but see that you pick oncoming train that there’s…You just can’t avoid being that you have to plan for your own retirement if you’re going to want to have a chance of being successful at it.

Mark:  You think about it. If you’re going to sit down and talk with somebody. We talk about this all the time. It’s a pretty good analogy. Is that when you have kids they go to the pediatrics doctor, they work to the general practitioner, but as you get older you get to my age at 61 now I had a stent put on my heart. I, obviously, was seeing the cardiologist.

We get a little bit more specific with our healthcare as we age. It’s the same thing that should happen in the financial world. A lot of times people don’t change. They’ve had somebody they’ve worked with since they were 35 and they’re like, “They’re fantastic, but they’re not retirement planners.”

Here’s my plea to you Generation Xers that one of the best times to sit down with somebody and talk about retirement is when you have time on your side. If you’re 10 years out, what a great time.

Think how good your plan can be by the time you actually pull the plug on retirement. Maybe your 55 or 56 going, “Well, I want to retire at 60.” That means you’re down to five years or less yet. The idea is get to talk with somebody that actually works in a retirement world that can help you in this area of planning.

That’s Victor and the team of Palante Wealth, (856) 506 8300. Great time to start is right now, (856) 506 8300. There’s no cost for this. Of course, Medina Law Group, Palante Wealth serve the Pennington, the Greater Mercer County area, as well as Bucks County.

Victor has clients in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania. They’re here to help. They don’t know if they can help you though so give them a call. (856) 506 8300.

What would you say to, let’s say the mid 50 generation Xers or the 50 year olds, because now we’re in our 50s. Now we are maybe starting to think about retirement. What would your advice be to that age group of Generation X?

Victor:  I think there’s two things that we would have them focus on. The first is as you’re crossing to the magical over 50 years off of it, you get to be able to save a little bit extra money, you have some catch up contributions you can make.

You really want to make a good assessment on the distance that you need to cover between where you are right now and what you’re going to need in retirement.

In fact, that’s one of the best things that we can help people figure out is that if you’re in a position, not knowing what your number is, or what your number could be based on some savings that you can do, and some projections off of that, we can help you answer that question.

We have to get into a position where you understand what steps you need to take between right now and when you eventually want to retire.

The first thing is that you have expanded options, because as you turn over 50, you can make some catch‑up contributions. By the way, you probably want some smart advice on how to handle taxes off of that. Sometimes that means not always putting it into an IRA, but thinking about other kinds of savings that you want to do.

Some of the best products that are available to help you with your planning take time in order for them to reach their fullest potential for you and your retirement plan.

If you start that in the 50s, which by the way, often means that you are younger, more insurable, healthier, all of those things are in place, if you start that, while you’re at that point in time, you probably have a better menu of options that are available for you.

That’s probably another element of what people in the mid‑50s ought to be thinking about. The other thing that I would help people focus on with these next 10 to 15 years is really have a sharp pencil on what their budget is going to look like in retirement.

What has happened for a lot of people that are in their 50s, is they’ve just gotten off, completing any college funding for their kids, that all of this money that’s been plowed out the door. They have been chasing those dollars to just service all the needs that they have. Very few people have this incredible savings rate.

Now that we’ve ended that, and it’s often like a marker, when you’re just at that point, where you put the last kid through or stopped contributing to this last child for whatever their living expenses are, you fully launched them, you have to make sure that you don’t take up the space of those dollars and with spending on your own.

One of the most instrumental numbers that determine financial success in retirement is your savings rate. I want to make sure that I’m clear about that. It’s not about the balance that you start with, in retirement. They’ve done tons of research around this is not where you have a million dollars versus $2 million, whatever else is really what your savings rate was relative to your income.

The reason why that becomes important is that as you get into retirement, your habits and around money being saving, making sure that you’re spending within a budget and understanding what that is, the longer you can make that money last in retirement.

The closer you get to not living and spending on everything that you’re making, the better chances you have.

In these last 10 to 15 years where you finally are cleared to hurl a little bit, and you’ve got this extra dollars, getting into the habit of understanding what that budget needs to look like and spending the next 10 to 15 years, really understanding that and getting a clear picture of what that’s going to look like when you actually stop getting a paycheck and you have to manufacture your own.

That’s definitely what you should be doing with these 10‑15 years because the clearer you can get on that, the better you can get your savings rate for those purposes, the more you’ll be able to live really, really wonderfully as you get into retirement.

Mark:  Let’s talk about the other part of that Generation X now Generation X born 1965 to 1980, meaning the youngest are 40, turning 41 this year. The oldest are 55, turning 56 this year.

That was your advice to the 50 something Generation X. What about the 40 something which they might be right in the midst of raising a family and doing all of that and their hair’s on fire? Is it too early to start thinking about retirement?

Victor:  I don’t think it’s really any too early to start thinking about retirement.

If we got to go back to your analogy from before, I think that people know that they have to consider something like a heart condition that it was in their family, like their parents waited too long to take care of their own health. They might be seeing the cardiologist much earlier than when the actual need comes.

This would be the same smart planning. One of the things that’s really more present for the folks that are in their 40s is a stress and a lack of potential Social Security benefits, what they got.

If you start looking at the way the trust funds been funded, Social Security, we’ve got people that are already on it, and people coming into it that are really totally fully funded.

In order to make this thing last, especially when we start thinking about the way that we’re going to have to pay for all of the tax credits that were given as part of the pandemic, you’re going to see that one of the avenues that they routinely uses to make sure that social security as a concept lasts, but they don’t have a run bankrupt or anything like that as they start extending the age before you can start to claim it.

People in the 40s like me are going to be the first generation because we don’t vote as often as the older people at the voting block or they’re not going to come up and raise their arms and start writing. Those folks are us, I suppose, in this mid‑40s, are going to probably have a lower overall social security benefit relative to our contributions, but also probably a longer start time.

All of what that means is we’ve got to self‑insure our retirement. We have to go ahead and be our own savings bank, not relying on Social Security, generate the income, if it’s a number that’s going to come to us and maybe a smaller number starting later than we expected, which means we have this time, the time that is in between your 40s.

When you reach your 60s, to go ahead and compensate for that by what we’re setting aside to create our own retirement income in there and not be relying on social security. I really stress that for a lot of folks just because the numbers are pretty clear about where the stressors are to make this thing happen.

You realize there’s only a couple of levers that they can move. They can lower the overall benefit. They can extend the age. They’re going to use one or both of those mechanisms in order to get this thing to continue to last.

They’ve already done it though. I’m not releasing new information about a strategy. This is exactly what they’ve done every time they face a challenge like this. We’re just going to have to see it one more time.

Mark:  You think about all these moving parts. You think about it. You think of Victor’s company, Medina Law Group, helping you with your estate planning. You think, “I don’t really need Victor’s company until I’m probably in my 80s, because that’s when I need to worry about that.”

What if you have a health issue before that. We don’t know what tomorrow holds. The idea is we don’t want to be reactive because something happened. We want to be proactive. This is a great opportunity, especially for Generation X, because you do have a little bit of time on your hands, probably for most of you.

We’re seeing more and more people retire younger all the time, but it’s time to start doing something about it. Maybe you’re not necessarily putting the plan lock, stock, and barrel in place if you’re 45, but you’re getting an idea of where you are.

“Hey, I’ve got 15, 20 years to put myself in a better position.” What a great opportunity for you. I would doubt if you understand all the moving parts of retirement. Victor and his teams do because they do this day in and day out. What a great idea to get a head start.

If you’re in your mid‑50s, it’s time to start getting serious about this planning part of retirement. 856‑506‑8300 is the number. The team is here to help. They would love to help and answer any questions or concerns that you might have. (856) 506 8300. No cost, no obligation, no pressure.

[background music]

Mark:  (856) 506 8300. We’re talking to Generation X today on the program. If you’re already in that baby boomer generation and your retirements is even closer, there’s going to be some good advice for you as well when we come back. This is Make It Last with Victor Medina.

[commercial break begins]

Mark:  Remember that first paycheck when you started working all those years ago? You looked at the net amount and thought, “Whoa, what happened here?” Well, it could be this way with your retirement accounts.

You know how much you’ve saved, but if you haven’t planned for Uncle Sam, you could come up short in retirement. With tax laws constantly changing, there’s a lot you need to know to make sure you’re not paying more than your fair share.

The Palante Wealth Advisors team can help. They’ll help you create a retirement plan that shows you how taxes could affect you now and in the future. Set up a visit with the Palante Wealth Advisors team today. Call (856) 506 8300. That’s (856) 506 8300.

Make sure you know how these changes could affect you so you can avoid those whoa moments in retirement. Call 856‑506‑8300.

Firm offers insurance services and may not give tax advice. Investment advisory services offered through Palante Wealth Advisors LLC, a New Jersey and Pennsylvania registered investment advisor.

[commercial break ends]

Mark:  Welcome back to Make It Last with Victor Medina, Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth, those teams here to help you with any retirement questions or legal questions when it comes to your estate that you have. The teams can help you come up with an income strategy.

Got to replace those paychecks. They are no longer coming in when you get into retirement. Where’s your income coming from? Investments. Will your strategies change the older you get? Everybody’s situation is different. We always focus on that.

Taxes, we know there’s tax changes coming. What’s your plan for that. Estate. Well, we know there’s maybe some possible estate tax planning changes. There’s just a lot of moving parts. The team is here to help. It’s 856‑506‑8300. If you have any questions, 856‑506‑8300.

Today, we’re talking about Generation X, born 1965 to 1980, which means the youngest are 40, turning 41 this year. The oldest are 55, turning 56 in 2021. There’s already some 56‑year‑old Generation Xers. Victor is a part of that group.

You think about this. We’ve talked about this. When we talk about the baby boomer generation, some of the challenges to that generation for retirement was being part of the sandwich generation. Well, I’m thinking that’s going to be a factor for Generation X as well. Can you explain, what is the sandwich generation? Do you have clients you have to help in that situation?

Victor:  Yeah, sure. It’s a sandwich, right? It’s a sandwich. Usually, it’s got the meat in the middle and two pieces of bread on either side. What we have is our clients being the meat with bread on either side of their sandwich between their parents and their kids. Most notably, what their sandwich is doing is actually helping with their care.

They get in a position where they’re still raising their kids, but because their parents are also getting older, they now have to have been responsible for their care, managing the finances, managing the care they need. That sandwich generation was first introduced as a concept when we were having the baby boomers deal with the World War II, the greatest generation and their parents going in.

What’s different now though ‑‑ and it’s kind of more interesting to a planner, I suppose ‑‑ is the options for planning around how to care for an older parent are starting to shrink because all the rules that were in place that allowed us to take care of protected assets are getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

There’s all kinds of outside pressures for that, Mark. We’re seeing long‑term care insurance companies, stop offering personal policies. We’re watching people who were able to qualify for Medicaid. If they ran out of money, we’re watching those rules change.

When Gen Xers are in a position where they going to need to care for their parents, we see that there’s a lot of advantages to having taken care of planning ahead of time. One of the reasons we’re seeing this more and more exactly right now is the incidence of Alzheimer’s is actually increasing at an alarming rate, true Alzheimer’.

Everyone talks about dementia as being Alzheimer’s, but Alzheimer’s is a very specific diagnosis. It’s starting younger and younger. Alzheimer’s as a dementia‑related condition is that time we start to see people in their mid to late 60s, in the beginning of 70s have this cognitive decline.

Guess what. That’s exactly where our baby boomers are. We started this change over to age 65 a number of years ago. We have those people are already turning into their 70s and they’re into their mid‑70s going forward.

We do have the people exactly where they would start to first have these cognitive issues. What’s important for people who are in that sandwich generation where they’re taking care of parents…

If you’re in a position where you’ve had a parent be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia‑related condition, if you’ve got Parkinson’s or something like that, Mark, what’s important for folks like that if you’re in that position is that there are things that you can do to help protect their assets, save the home, and do things to make sure you’re managing their care.

Especially providing a great quality life for the other spouse, the one that’s healthy, but you have to get in front of it. One of the things that we do is we offer a guide for people to download, to understand how to protect people’s wealth off of it. We created a special website for that that you can go to.

If you go to 920elderlaw.com, you’ll be able to download this free guide that will help you understand how to make sure that your health changes don’t destroy your family’s wealth. It is especially helpful people in the sandwich generation.

You can download it for your parents, or you can just tell them that they need to download it. If you download that guide, it will help you understand what you need to start to do to help protect assets and increase the choices to maintain quality of life as you get older.

Mark:  Yeah. That is 920elderlaw.com. There’s no cost for this. You just download it. There you go. You got the information, 920 elderlaw.com. Glad you’re with us today for Make It Last with Victor Medina. I’m Mark Elliot. We’re talking about Generation X and you bring up healthcare.

A lot of people think, “Well, Victor, once I get to 65, I don’t really have to worry about my healthcare anymore because I got Medicare.” Medicare, basically, looks at it. If you’re going to get better, we’ll probably help you. If you’re not going to get better, we’re out.

When it comes to long‑term care, Medicare is not going to be a part of that which is where your Medicaid comes in. Talk about the healthcare part of this for Generation X. It’s hard. I remember being 20, in college and thinking, “I’m never going to hit the age of 60.”

Here I am, 61 going, how did that happen, but when we’re in our 40s, and 50s, and we’re in really good health, and we can’t wait for things that are coming and our families growing, and going, and doing, and all of those kinds of things, it’s hard to think about healthcare issues down the road.

You said it earlier, what a great time to plan is when you are in good health and if you want insurance to help, it’s a great time to get it. Talk a little bit about some of the challenges of healthcare and retirements, probably the number one reason probably that working families, but retired couples have to file for bankruptcy as they had a major healthcare incident and didn’t have any coverage for it.

Victor:  Isn’t it sad, and a travesty that it was something like that, that devastated their plans, something that was completely uncontrolled by them. They didn’t know that they were going to have healthcare event, they didn’t plan for it.

By the way, there’s probably not a lot they could have done to avoid something catastrophic like that, that caused them to need to either devastate their entire life savings paying for this or actually declare bankruptcy. I think it’s really quite sad when that happens.

What people can do if they’re already younger, so if you’re in the Generation X, and you understand that this is something I need to control for on my own, you can actually take advantage of your current healthy state right now, your good health, by looking at the insurance solutions for things like long‑term care insurance, and being able to apply for policies like that.

Now, this is a very confusing world, because you’ve got policies where you pay into, and if something happens, great, they have coverage, but if nothing happens, you just thrown all that money away, but you also have other kinds of policies that will pay you back if you don’t use that policy.

What’s important is for you to get fitted with the right one. Every person is going to have a different solution. You’re going to have something that’s very specific to you, but they all depend on you being healthy enough to qualify for because insurance companies don’t want to write policies on people that are already sick.

The sooner you can do that, the better it can turn out to be. We were talking before about people in their 50s having done paying for their kids, and what are they going to do with this extra money?

One of things they can do is fully fund the long‑term care insurance policy, that when they’re done paying that, let’s say over 5 or 10 years, they don’t have to ever pay for it again.

It stays there for them as a resource. If they never use it, they either leave it behind as life insurance that’d be left for their kids, or it’s something they can draw on in retirement and get the bulk of that money back.

A lot of great solutions for that, but the sooner you get started with it while you’re still healthy, the more likely we can get something like that in place for you.

The other element of it, in terms of healthcare, is that if we watch these Medicare elections that are going in there, we’re going to realize that the A, B, and D or just the base level plans going to the doctors, going to the hospital, paying for prescriptions.

Anything else that’s going to be outside of that is usually some form of Medicare supplement. We offer the ability for people to shop their Medicare supplements and recommend the right policies for them, but that’s usually something for people who are already in Medicare between October and December, that we’re doing that in the open enrollment period.

What’s important for people in their 40s is, if you’re in a generation X right now, you’ve got to realize that those plans have been changing and the cost and the contributions for that keep getting modified.

What you need to do is start a budget for the amount that you have to pay for, for your additional healthcare insurance, for the things that are covering what Medicare isn’t covering on that basic level.

Mark:  At the end of the day, it seems to me that things are always changing. There’s always new tools that pop up in the investment world. There’s new tools in the insurance world. Things and policies, they’re always changing because of what’s going on in the world.

We get it. Companies that create those tools, they’re also in the business of making money but they’re also going, “Well, people need some help on this area, let’s create this tool.” That seems to me to be part of your job is really to help educate us a little bit, if you will. Like your parents being teachers. You have to educate us and then you give us the options.

More than you telling us, “Hey, Mark. You have to do this, you have to do that.” No, “Here is some options. I think maybe this would be a great way for you to go,” but at the end of the day it’s your client’s final decision, I would imagine.

Victor:  There is and it’s one other layer to that too. It’s not only “Here are some options for you to go,” but understand that as an independent and fiduciary advisor, the options that we’re providing for you are things that are in your best interest. They’re independent meaning that there’s nobody driving our recommendations except what we can go.

It’s like not going to one car dealership or you’re only getting that brand of car, but really understand that you’ve gone to a broker.

Like, “Look we can choose from anything that’s out there. What do you need? You need a truck? You need a car? What is it going to help you get to where you need to?” and then we can make the recommendation for the best one for you regardless of the specific company that’s offering it.

That independence and that fiduciary obligation layered with this idea that we’re presenting options for people because we can know the entire marketplace of what’s available, and be able to help people narrow their decisions. Then, it’s ultimately theirs.

It’s those two things together, Mark, that make working with somebody like us so helpful as they’re planning their retirement.

Mark:  For the generation X, just quickly, what would you say would be the best time to come in and sit down and talk with you? Is it 40? Is it at 45? Is it 50, or is it whenever retirement questions start popping up in our mind, and we see the retirement on the horizon?

Victor:  The most self‑serving answer is the moment you come out with any money, you come and see us. If you push me on giving you an age, once we get to age 50, that’s a great time to begin that conversation. We start to open up the world of additional things like cash or contributions towards retirement.

You get a good understanding, like you’re mostly done with the most expensive parts of raising kids. Maybe most of them are through college. We can now see retirement on the horizon a little bit more clearly. Now, we can make sure, because we were talking about this before, about making sure we’re in the right direction.

You might think about it like you’re driving this big, huge aircraft carrier. We don’t want to be hundreds of miles off course because we didn’t stop and realize where we were, and the direction that we needed to be taking.

Even minor adjustments at age 50 are going to lead you much better in a place that you should be when you’re looking at final retirement, like age 65 or 70. I would say that probably that’s the best earliest time if we were looking for a particular number or age.

Mark:  Yes, absolutely. If you would like to chat with the team of Medina Law Group or Planeta Wealth to find out where you are on your road to retirement, a great time to do it would be right now, (856) 506 8300. There’s no cost. There’s no obligation. There is no pressure.

The team is here to help. They would love to help, (856) 506 8300. For Gen Xer it’s a great opportunity because you’re way ahead of the game. That’s a positive, (856) 506 8300. Glad you’re with us today for Make It Last with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group and Planeta Wealth. We’re headed to our final segment right after this, stay with us.

Mark:  Glad you’re with us today for Make It Lasts with Victor Medina, (856) 506‑8300. If you have questions about anything when it pertains to your retirement, pertains to your finances, you need some guidance in the legal world, certainly, Medina Law Group can help you, (856) 506 8300.

Victor, I don’t know. You’ve got three kids, 17, 14, and 8. I don’t know if you’ve ever played a little game of Would You Rather with them, have you?

Victor:  No, I have not.

Mark:  You’ve never said, “All right, you’ve never said, “All right, Aden, you’re 17, would you rather go to college, or have me fund you traveling around the country and enjoying yourself. You never asked that?

Victor:  I haven’t given him that option.

Victor:  My wife would kill me if I gave him that option. I did give him the option. I said, “Would you rather take a scholarship for college, and I will give you a car, or go someplace where I have to pay out of pocket?” He understands that one.

Mark:  [laughs] I bet he does.

Victor:  He said, “When will I get a car.

Victor:  Absolutely. You think about it. When people come in and sit down with you and your companies, Medina Law Group and Planeta Wealth, it’s because they have questions, or they have concerns, or they have a big decision to make. That’s what retirement is all about.

If you’re a married couple. The husband say, “You know what? I can’t wait to go fishing every day.” Well, the wife is probably not going to be excited about that opportunity, maybe. Maybe flip‑flop it. Maybe the wife loves to fish. You don’t want any part of it.

It’s interesting on how you make some of these decisions. There’s got to be a little give and take, especially if you had a job that traveled all the time. You may not want to travel in retirement. The other spouse had a job where they were always at home, maybe taking care of the kids, or worked at home and didn’t go much.

They can’t wait to travel. You got to come to middle ground, if you will. We are going to play a little game of Would You Rather today. Victor, would you say Would You Rather is one of those…I mean, it’s what retirees have to decide, isn’t it?

Victor:  You do. You make decisions between two options and say, “I’d rather be this or that,” or “I’d rather be right or this or that.” I think that’s a good one. I like game shows, by the way, Mark, let’s do this one.

Mark:  There you go. Now we’re going to get into retirement would you rather, but I always like this one right out of the gate. Would you rather, Victor, have unlimited pasta for life or unlimited tacos for life? For me, this is a no‑brainer.

Victor:  What is it for you?

Mark:  Tacos, undoubtedly.

Victor:  I’m with tacos too. I want to make one little caveat because me as a lawyer, I always have to put a little parenthetical. I’ve got to argue the underlying foundation of it.

I also need the ability to have different kinds of tacos just in the same way we want different kinds of pastas for there because I like tacos, al pastor. I like tacos…If we go to the tacos with the caveat that they can be different kind of tacos, unlimited for life, keep your pasta.

Mark:  You’re one for one. Congratulations.

Victor:  Thank you very much.

Mark:  We’re going to get into retirement, and these are the things that I’m pretty confident that a lot of your clients have to make a decision. Some might depend on their age as well. If we get into retirement, let’s say it’s 65, but now we’re 85, maybe our views will change. Fair to say?

Victor:  Yeah, for sure.

Mark:  Let’s just go with we’re going into retirement. We’ve got to make some of these decisions. Would you rather spend your retirement living in your own home, or would you rather move to a retirement community?

Victor:  That’s a good one. I think that I would prefer to stay in my own home. The reasons for that is because we redid our home. We like old homes. I think there’s something about staying in there because of the pride of what we did to change it.

I would prefer to be in my own home. When we think about it from a perspective of retirement, I think people need to have flexibility around their decisions because I don’t know that you can actually control what that looks like.

What I mean about that is sometimes it’s as simple as going to retirement community where you got the shuffleboard and the activities. Maybe it’s just a decision between the two. I actually see this as the ability to change your retirement picture around living at your choice rather than it being forced to.

For example, you might have kids. As you’re starting to have grandkids start to move to other parts of the country. What you need, the flexibility to do is have one base of operations, but perhaps rent a home for two or three months or have a second home if you’ve got one kid to be around your grandkids.

That idea of having flexibility around that is probably more important thing to have in place than directly choosing one.

Because even as you get older and you might need a long‑term care facility as part of what your retirement is, you need to plan around that. You can’t control if you’re going to get sick.

You can’t control, for example, if you’re going to need some additional care. I think there’s a lot of people, like for me, I wouldn’t want to be a burden on my children.

I would want at least to have the option to be in a place that could provide me my meals, and make sure that they have to cut the lawn and take care of me if I got sick, especially, if I had lost my wife and I was by myself or the other way around. I would want my wife to have the ability to have that option.

You think about these things that might be coming and just keep as many doors open for that. This is a tough game, Mark. You’re asking a lawyer to make decisions between two things, and our default answer is always, it depends. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up with this the whole time.

Mark:  It is interesting because I think most would probably prefer to stay in their own home. My mom is 84. She lives in a retirement community, which means everything inside of her gated area, her porch area. There’s yard, but she doesn’t deal with that. Everything’s just inside the fence, basically. She deals with that.

It’s a balcony. It’s really nice, but she doesn’t want to do all the landscaping and all the yard work. She still has her little flower areas, but it’s not as much as it was when she had her own home.

There are some benefits to all of this, and it depends. That’s why I said, “Does it depend if I’m 65 and eager about retirement or I’m 85, and I’m slowing down a little bit? Maybe I don’t want to take care of everything.” We do put this with a grain of salt. We’re not saying, “Look ahead, you’re in retirement. What are you going to do?”

Here’s another one. Would you rather rent a house in retirement or be a landlord? I have no handyman skills, so I guess if that was my choice, I’d have to be rent. I could also hire a management firm and be a landlord. Would you rather rent to someone else or rent a house out to others for potential income in a retirement? You probably have clients that do have rentals.

Victor:  You asked this question. I’m all of a sudden in the Kawasaki book about rich dad, poor dad, about trying to get to that point of being somebody who’s a business owner or somebody who’s an investor and they’re getting income from that. That idea about a landlord just spoke to my quadrants, and I’m looking at which quadrant I’m going to be for cash flow.

The entrepreneur in me, the guy who started two companies and is taking care of all that stuff with the team and wants to grow. For me, I think I would default to wanting to be a landlord, but I would say you this for the people that are landlords or have current properties. If you’re married or if you think about what would happen if you became incapacitated, you have to think about the impact to other people.

I actually had a client of mine who came in, and he was very successful in owning different properties. He had a portion of stuff that was in a shopping center, or he had different apartments that happened to be right near where BMW had its plant, so they were constantly rotating executives into this high‑rise apartment that he had. He was very successful in getting that.

When he came in, and we talked about what we were going to be doing with his plan, one of the questions that I asked him, I said, “You’re very good at this.” You talked, Mark, how you’re not as handy. He would show up to the homes, and he would hammer things, and he would plug things back in. He would do the electric wires.

“You’re very handy, and you’re hands on doing this. What would happen if you got sick or what you think would be the effect if you died suddenly? What would happen to these? We know that we’re going to sell them because your wife is not going to take care of them, but what would happen in the interim of that?”

“How would we even manage that as we were getting ready to sell them? Isn’t that an activity that we should take care of while we still have control over that? You are the most knowledgeable person around this property.”

“Wouldn’t it make sense to have you in control of making decisions on how to get rid of it, when and what you were going to ask for it, and then make the burden on the people that you leave behind much lower?”

You really have to think about if you’re going to be somebody that wants to be a landlord. If you’re fully capable of doing that as long as you’re well, what happens if you become sick and if you’re married? What happens if your spouse is not as handy as you are? And the impact of that.

Because I think everybody that we meet with, and certainly it’s probably the case for most folks that are thinking really about their retirement and how they’re going to manage it. They don’t want to leave a problem behind.

Part of the reason they want to do this planning is that if something happens to them and they’re chiefly the person who’s most responsible for the finances and doing the planning, they don’t want to leave the person who’s not as involved, holding a bag and really in trouble.

One of the things you can do with respect to real estate is lower the complexity level of that. You still have real estate, maybe find a real estate fund that offer what you’re doing, but really want to get into that passive situation rather than it being something that you’re actively involved in because you may not always be there to help manage that property.

Mark:  If you’d like some guidance in this because these are big questions and big decisions that basically every retired couple has got to make. They’ve got to make this decision. “Would I rather do this? Would I rather do that? What if one of us passes away? Then what?” 856‑506‑8300 is the number to chat with Victor and the team.

There’s no cost, no obligation, no judgment. (856) 506 8300. Great opportunity to be proactive, not reactive. Let’s get started 856‑506‑8300. What I want to say to wrap this all up, is that to me, Victor, I think a lot of people think, “Oh, Victor has a wealth company, Palante Wealth. He’s got Medina Law Group, so it’s all about money.”

I think a great deal of what you do is helping people with questions like these. It’s the relationship stuff. Do I buy that second home or do I rent a home for a month or two? How do I make those decisions? Certainly, money plays into this. Your companies are not built just because people have money. You’re trying to help them, and it’s more relationship. Are you on board with me, Victor?

Victor:  I am on board. It is an unfortunate byproduct of any time you talk about estate planning or trust. Like, I don’t have enough money for that. If we talk about wealth advisory or retirement planning, you must only work with people that are super rich. That’s not me either.

It’s certainly an uphill battle that we fight to make sure that people understand that no matter who they are, and how they show up in our lives, we’re going to be helping them. If you called us, we would say, “Hey, listen, where are you right now? We’re going to do the very best job for you where you stand. There’s no values, there’s no judgment.”

Where you are, we always have some ideas on helping you gets to better place. That’s the case whether you have $100,000 or $100 million, about what we’re going to be capable to do.

The bigger point that you’re making is that the value of the person in your life is in the relationship that you’re having with them and the ability that you have someone that you can call and trust to help guide you along the way because the answers that we’re giving you when you come into planning are not answers that are static, without change forever and ever.

It’s the beginning of a plan that sets you on the right course, probably a better course than you were before we met, and gets you headed in the right direction.

Really, where the value of the relationship is, is when you have a question that was not foreseen in what we put together in the plan. That wasn’t something we knew coming in. That change in the law and how it impacts your planning. The change in your personal life circumstances, and how it affects it.

One of my favorite stories, I had one of my very first clients; we had a call with them. They were on there and they spoke with me and they said, “You know, I don’t know if you know this, but you’re with us a lot of the time during the day.”

I said, “I’m not sure what you mean, we’re not talking about spirits or anything like that?”

He said “No, no, no. We sit there, and we think to ourselves, what would Victor say about this or how would he guide us in this area?”

That for me was the highest compliment that I’ve ever been paid. Our clients find so much value in our perspective that we are there with them as that voice, even when we’re not physically there or they’re not calling us. That they’re looking for the guidance we’ve provided put so much value on what we’re doing.

By the way, that comes with it a related obligation. We always have to be there for them if they’re relying on us. We always have to be there for them. That’s the promise we make.

We say, look, we’re going to do this great planning for you and your obligation is that when you have a question, you contact us. When you are worried about what to do or you have a question about it, don’t hesitate, you just contact us.

We don’t bill by the hour and since we’re not concerned about collecting for every time, we’re talking to you. All we want to do is help you in your time of need. The best part of that interaction is to know that when you’re done with it, you’ll sleep peacefully at night.

That relationship aspect, the fact that we are growing a client family, is the thing that we look for and happen to get in all of the testimonials for our law firm.

Anytime anybody talks to one of their friends about it they say, it felt we were treated like family, like if we were his parents. They felt like he was doing that kind of work.

We were welcomed in. We were welcomed with open arms, and we know that that’s a place that we can turn to and get the advice that’s in our best interest from somebody that cares.

We’ll never be made to feel stupid about questions that we’re having. We’ll always get the best possible answer they can give us. We’ll always be cared for and welcomed. That’s the thing that we’re doing. It has almost nothing to do with the dollar amount that’s in your account.

Mark:  Coming soon to Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth, you’ll be able to get the rubber wrist bands that say, WWVD.

Victor:  What would Victor do?

[laughter]

Mark:  There you go. Hey, you want to sit down with Victor and the teams and talk about your situation? We’ve talked about a lot of different things today. You need to have a plan and it starts with a call, (856) 506 8300. No cost, no obligation, no pressure, no judgment. We’re looking forward.

Woman:  Taxes are just a fact of life. You can’t avoid it, even in retirement. What if I told you there are ways to minimize what you pay in taxes? Victor Medina and his team can help. To learn more, visit 920taxes.com to get your free copy of Victor Medina’s tax guide. 920taxes.com, that’s the numbers 9‑2‑0 taxes.com.

Disclaimer:  Palante Wealth Advisors are an independent financial services firm that utilizes a variety of investment and insurance products. Medina Law Group is an independent estate planning and elder law firm.

Investment advisory services offered through Palante Wealth Advisors, LLC, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania registered investment advisor. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principle.

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