Plan Smart, Retire Well with Mark Fried, Episode 16

Cynthia (00:21):

Welcome to plan smart retire. Well, my name is Cynthia DeFazio. I’m joined today by Lisa Odosky. She’s vice president of TFG wealth management. Lisa, how are you today?

Lisa (00:32):

Well, Cynthia, I’m so excited to be here with you. I’m so

Cynthia (00:35):

Excited to be back together with you, Lisa, because obviously the shows are so amazing. They’re so filled with information and you have such a passion for, especially helping women navigate through retirement. Let’s talk a little bit about why is that? Why do you have such a passion for helping women?

Lisa (00:52):

You know, I really saw the lack of women being involved in the planning of their financial associate, their retirements. Sure. They were so long and a lot of times they sit back and they let their husbands kinda take over the meetings. And I hear a lot of feedback from the women that we work with, that, you know, their advisor, they look past them, they don’t talk eye to eye. And so they always say, you know, well, my husband goes, I’m definitely not going to stay with him because he never treated me as an equal. And that’s something we’ve really tried to do at TFG treat everyone as equal really try to pull the woman in to the meetings. Absolutely.

Cynthia (01:33):

And obviously you’ve been so busy with your family as well. Let’s talk a little bit about that because you’ve had a lot of things happen with your family.

Lisa (01:40):

Yes. Back in November, we lost my dad to a terminal cancer and thank you. And you know what, and that’s something else as our family with TFG the outpouring of love. Our, our family sent to me and my family. Oh, it was, it was so emotional for me to get that love from them. And then as a life goes on and the circle of life continues, my daughter gave birth in March to a beautiful baby girl. Oh, I think we have a picture. Oh, there’s my other baby girls, two little baby girls in my life. My two grandchildren, Isabella is four and a half. And baby Brooklyn is a month, one month.

Cynthia (02:22):

Absolutely beautiful.

Lisa (02:24):

That’s my passion. That’s where I get my passion to do it, to make it better for them. Okay. In the future.

Cynthia (02:29):

Oh, and you’re such an amazing role model for them to watch, obviously, because you are so amazingly diversified. Lisa, obviously I want to talk a little bit about unintended female inequality in financial industry. So quiet myself. We’re not stumbling over it. It was wonderful. It was rehearsing. That’s quite, that’s talking about it is. It is. But let’s talk a little bit about that for a minute. And that was

Lisa (02:54):

One of the first articles I had written. I was coming home actually from an event, a financial event in Charlotte, actually North Carolina. Okay. And I was just thinking about how the speakers were all men. And then, and you know, most of the participants were men in the audience. I was like, more women need to get involved. We need to really, you know just get involved and be in the forefront. Sure. So I wrote the article and we’ll talk a little bit about parts of it because in the article we talked about the sandwich general generation, which a lot of us are facing or will be facing some time. Sure. But the article really was my first piece that got me recognized in the woman’s realm of this in the financial industry. There’s a group out there, females and finance and they had me featured for that article. So that was quite an honor. It was an honor. It was quite an honor. Yeah, absolutely.

Cynthia (03:56):

And I know like obviously going back in time, when you think about it, just from a marriage standpoint, a lot of times the husband always being the head of the household. So often, you know, our, our moms and grandmothers perhaps just kind of did the, the cooking, the cleaning, the housekeeping didn’t really pay too much attention to the financial piece. Are you finding that to be the same today? Lisa is a changing, changing

Lisa (04:20):

A little bit, but there was a study out there that 80% of all women are going to be the sole person in charge of the finances and only 20% feel they’re ready for that. Really. We live five years longer on an average of five of our male counterparts. So, and if we’re not prepared for that, it comes up, you know, and I’ll talk about my mom for a moment since we’re living through that, you know, my dad, a very traditional family and my dad was the main person. So my mom, you know, of course I’m helping her navigate the road and it’s not that bad. Cause you know, he had prepared, he was good. And we talked about it, but not everyone talks about it. Yeah. You know, and my mom’s like, Oh, maybe I should have kept better. You know, maybe I should have been more involved. Yeah. You know, but your dad always did it. So what can

Cynthia (05:13):

Women do today to really take charge of their future, Lisa?

Lisa (05:18):

Well, let’s talk about that junk drawer that we all have right. In the kitchen. Right.

Cynthia (05:25):

It’s overflowing. It’s overflowing. I go there. Well, let’s go there for a moment because

Lisa (05:30):

Do we ever want to clean it out? No, no, no, because it’s, it’s what is in there. That’s the fear. Yes. And I don’t want to deal with it. So I’m going to leave it there and keep adding to it. So I think the fear of the, of the unknown is what’s stopping a lot of women from really taking charge. So if you’re out there and you hide that junk drawer, clean it out, take inventory of what you have and face the planning process. Okay. Head on. So no time like today, no matter what time like today. Okay.

Cynthia (06:02):

So it doesn’t matter if you’re married, doesn’t matter if you’re single. Does the, do the rules apply differently for someone who’s a single professional versus a married woman? Lisa?

Lisa (06:11):

Well, the rules a little bit different because they have different obstacles to look at. You know, their tax, their taxes are going to be different with single the way they collect social security, it’s going to be different. Okay. Long-term care. Who’s going to care for them. Who’s going to care for them. If you’re single. And the next segment, I would like to talk about the beneficiaries on accounts. Okay. So important. And I have a great story to share of a tragic situation that happened to someone that we know. Okay. So

Cynthia (06:41):

It’s something that if you’re, you know, obviously let’s say 10 years away from retirement, you might not be thinking about as much, rather than being five years away from retirement, where you would be thinking about more of those things. But having those beneficiaries being spot on an accurate is very important.

Lisa (06:56):

Very important. Absolutely. And like I said, well, we’ll get into the story in the next segment because it’s it’s quite powerful. Okay. What happened? What could happen if you don’t take stock in that? And that’s why it’s important to clean out that drawer, get your statements out, look at your, look at your beneficiaries. You know, depending on what accounts, what kind of account it is, depending on how the beneficiaries are set up every year, we check that with our families that work with us. Excellent.

Cynthia (07:23):

Well, Lisa, I know we have a very special offer. So I think this is the perfect time for us to open up the phone lines.

Lisa (07:28):

Would you agree? I do. I would agree with that.

Cynthia (07:31):

Okay. To the viewers at home, the phone number to call is on your screen. That number is (888) 568-1755. If you have any questions about how to retire with confidence or retire comfortably, we’re going to be offering you the retirement readiness review. All you have to do today is pick up the phone and call. And again, this offer is available to only the first 10 callers. The number is (888) 568-1755. When we come back, I’m going to at least explain a little bit more in detail about what that roadmap is like, that readiness review, if you will. So don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back after this very short commercial break. How

Speaker 4 (08:06):

Confident are you in your current financial plan? Do you know with certainty how the recent market volatility will affect your future hopes and dreams? How much are you paying in taxes and how much are you losing to unnecessary high fees? You didn’t work to save this money so that you could spend your time worried in retirement. Now is the time to take charge of your finances. So you can feel confident about your future call in during the next 30 minutes of today’s show only to set up an absolutely complimentary, no obligation full-blown financial review that will result in your own customized written plan. This is a $999 value that we’re giving away complimentary to the first 10 people who respond. We’ll start with a full blown analysis of what you already have by running a report to untangle how much you’re currently paying in fees, how you’re allocated for risk and what it’s costing to work with your current advisor. Next we’ll identify your goals. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to go? And who do you hope to go there with is your current financial plan set up to get you there without mishap, let’s design a roadmap to create a financial plan. You can follow with confidence, get the piece that so many people are missing from their retirement. Find out how having a written plan can make a difference to your retirement dreams. Call now to schedule your complimentary no obligation full-blown financial review today

Cynthia (09:40):

And welcome back to plan smart retire. Well, my name is Cynthia DeFazio and I’m joined today by Lisa dusky. She’s vice-president of TFG wealth management. Lisa, when we were going into the commercial break, we talked about what you’re offering today and that is the retirement readiness review. Let’s dive into that a little bit further. What does that encompass?

Lisa (10:00):

Five pieces. So your income let’s start with the income. Okay. But before we even get into that, let’s talk about retirement. Okay. So you come in to talk about your retirement. What does that look like to you? Everyone’s picture of retirement is different. Sure. Do you want to travel? Do you want to spend time with your grandkids? Do you want a garden? Do you want to be similar to my husband and play golf three or four days a week? What is it you’re looking to do in retirement? Okay. And then you have your income piece. How do you replace that paycheck that you’ve now been getting for 40 years? The scary, I think the scariest part of retirement is the first week of not getting that paycheck. So how do you replace that? Every day’s a Saturday.

Cynthia (10:47):

Absolutely. And when do you spend the most money? When do you spend the most money? Typically on a Saturday. So that makes sense. You really want to make sure that you’re covered no matter what you want to do. And

Lisa (10:59):

There’s, you know, there’s three phases of retirement. There’s the Gogo. Yeah. He’s the first couple years then you got the slow-go and maybe your health isn’t as, as good. So you have to slow down and then the no-go and you don’t spend as much. So you have to adjust for each of those times families.

Cynthia (11:17):

Yeah, because the face of retirement has changed so much. Lisa, obviously in the past we thought about, you know, people going into retirement, they typically had their retirement cake and their gold watch and their plaque. And then you thought about them just sitting on the front porch, drinking lemonade. Well, that’s not the case anymore. People are on the go when they’re first and they want to travel. They want to do things with their grandchildren. So what I’d love to hear you talk about is the fact that when someone retires, it’s not going to be a change of lifestyle that goes down for them, it should stay the same or actually increase. And you’re able to provide that just by designing a really good plan, basically you and Mark putting that together, the office. Absolutely

Lisa (11:54):

That’s. And then, so that you come into the office, you bring your statements, you bring any kind of life insurance policies. You may have longterm care policies. And then we dive into all that and we find, find out what exactly we take inventory. And as we were talking about in our first segment, people, sometimes that’s a fear for them, especially you have worked for 40 years, you switched jobs, you have a 401k somewhere, and all, I’m going to tell you a funny story. It was December of two, a couple of years ago. And one of our families called and said, we haven’t had this envelope has been sitting in our junk pile for months. I finally opened it and it was an old 401k plan for 220,000. Wow. And they jumped in it and they’re drunk pile mail. I’m going to leave

Cynthia (12:48):

Right here and go, I have to go, okay.

Lisa (12:52):

They were static. Of course, you know, but through life that sometimes happens and then you’ll think, well, really, would I ever really misplaced, you know, 220,000, you might, you know, as you get busy as you’re working sure. And as you’re switching and moving forward, so the inventory piece is so important. Take inventory. Don’t let the fear of the unknown

Cynthia (13:14):

Abs. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we talked in the first segment as well about how important is to make sure that your beneficiaries are properly aligned. So let’s talk about that a little bit more. Why is that so important?

Lisa (13:25):

Well, when you have a 401k and your IRAs that, so, and you have a, will, those are two separate. So your retirement accounts, the beneficiaries have to be named the right way on those accounts. Okay. So every year we really, when we work with our families, we make sure we check all the beneficiaries because things happen within families from year to year that they may make adjustments. But Amy, one of our, one of our families has joined us. Her son died of a brain tumor at age 40. At the point where he died, he was going through his seven year divorce, a very bad bitter divorce had a young child, but never took his wife, his ex-wife or soon to be ex wife off of his company’s pension, a 401k. Okay. So it really was really an ugly situation and very hard to help them through because the mom was named on some and the ex wife is named on others. So it’s a long battle and they’re still going through a lot of court issues. I

Cynthia (14:38):

Have heard that before, Lisa, that that is so impossible. And I want to say impossible, but very challenging to fight in court because if it’s on a piece of paper, it’s a legal document. So how do you prove that that’s not what the person wanted, right? You can’t. Yeah. That’s very, very

Lisa (14:53):

401Ks and IRAs are going to go to the person that you have. Oh wow. So please take inventory.

Cynthia (15:01):

Yes, absolutely. So Lisa, do you go over a lot of these topics in the workshops that you and Mark Dukes? I know you’re very passionate about education. Let’s talk a little bit about that

Lisa (15:10):

Education. So we believe education is so important to our families and to the people that we work for. And with, we don’t believe in just having you in and tell them we educate Mark, especially he comes from a family of educators. So that’s a real passion of his. And I think as you know, talking with him, you could really get that. Absolutely wonderful, wonderful gentlemen. So the so his passion is education and alright. We just educate our clients. We have events and, but they’re always wrapped around our families, like to say, they’re wrapped around the wine, but

Cynthia (15:47):

They are wrapped around education.

Lisa (15:49):

We do have some wine and we have some good food and we have a lot of fun, but we, the bottom line is the education. And I think we discussed we did a self-defense I had it was self-defense but not the physical, self-defense what it was, was mental self-defense. And I never got in an elevator the same way after hearing this that’s from an ex detective. Okay. And he, he just gave us such great ideas. He’s like, you know, you got into an elevator and you push the button and then you go to the back. He said, if a crazy Joe comes in, the worst place you want to be is in the back of that elevator. How are you going to get out?

Cynthia (16:33):

That’s a good point. I’ve never thought of that either. So you’re supposed to stay in the front by the buttons, stay in the fun. Interesting. These are things that you don’t think about it unless someone actually points them out to you.

Lisa (16:44):

I was with all the traveling that we do. I was like, Oh my goodness. I will never get in an elevator the same way. Yeah. But like he was saying the room we were in, he said, I could tell you three ways to get out of this room. When I came in this room tonight, he said, I look to see how I’m going to get out if there’s a situation. Wow. So it was such an empowering for the women there. It was a woman’s event. It was so empowering. And then in the spring time we had them back to do the physical self-defense and we had that in a park. We had a party in the park. Yeah. So it was wonderful.

Cynthia (17:18):

So the physical self-defense, so let’s talk a little bit about that. Obviously

Lisa (17:22):

The elbow elbows and the, you know, carry mace, if it’s legal in your state and you know, know your surroundings, don’t be wearing your ear bugs. If you’re out walking. Yeah. You know, know your surroundings, you know, the, these kids today that they’re on their phones and constantly, they don’t know what their surroundings, you really have to be careful. Absolutely. But a lot of our clients, they brought their younger grandchildren without younger, like my grandchildren, but teenagers, just so they could hear.

Cynthia (17:50):

Yeah. So that’s amazing. So all of the events that you host, obviously with the different topics that are important for women, it all comes down to not only the safety, just from a physical standpoint, but also the safety of your finances in the future. And I love how you marry those two things together because it’s so important to look at it like that.

Lisa (18:08):

It is a story important and you know what to get the group of ladies together is so wonderful because they could talk openly, freely. You know, they don’t have their counterpart there, maybe, you know, taking over the conversation or telling them maybe that wasn’t the right term that they used. So they really feel they leave there feeling really educated and empowered, empowered, absolute, very empowering.

Cynthia (18:32):

Well, Lisa, this is the perfect time for us to reopen up the phone lines. Would you agree? Absolutely. Yes. To the viewers at home, the phone number is on your screen and that is the one to call. The number is (888) 568-1755, which you’re calling in for today is the road w excuse me, the retirement readiness review. I always look at the wrong thing. That’s what I’m trying to say. The retirement readiness review. It’s a complimentary consultation that Lisa and Mark are offering you. And once again, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call eight eight, eight five six eight one seven five five. Don’t go anywhere. When we come back, we’re going to have so much more with Lisa about how to plan your perfect retirement. Please stay tuned

Speaker 5 (19:12):

As a good saver. You’ve been putting away money during your working years. Studies find that the biggest fear of retirees is running out of money market volatility. Isn’t just the downward movement of stock prices. It’s the size and frequency of change. The more dramatic the ups and downs, the higher, the volatility. This can put sabers who are newly retired or a few years away from being retired at greater risk. Today’s generation of retirees is not receiving traditional pensions as our parents or grandparents did. Instead, we have retirement accounts such as 401k or four Oh three BS. These accounts typically expose your money to market risk. The last thing you want right before retirement is to lose a portion of the money you need for income. But how do you turn these accounts into a retirement income? Is it safe to keep all your retirement money sitting in the stock market?

Speaker 5 (20:06):

The last thing you want is to lose a portion of the money you need for income due to market loss, by working with a financial professional, you can learn how to turn a portion of your savings into an income stream for life and income for the life of your spouse. If you’re married, we all have moments in our lives. When we wish we had taken action sooner, don’t let procrastination rain on your retirement parade act. Now, before it’s too late, please call our office to set up your no cost, no obligation retirement income review today,

Cynthia (20:38):

And welcome back to plan smart retire. Well, my name is Cynthia DeFazio. I’m joined today by Lisa dusky. She is vice president of TFG wealth management. Lisa, a great show that we’re having today talking about the importance of women in the audience, taking control of their financing, finances, really educating themselves about how to plan properly for retirement.

Lisa (20:58):

Yeah. And do you know, it’s also a great message for men. If you love the woman you’re with yeah. Get them involved. I love

Cynthia (21:04):

That because obviously you would love to see couples coming into the office together because you like to line up with their goals and dreams are for retirement as a couple.

Lisa (21:13):

Yes. And they’re always very different. Yeah. Yeah.

Cynthia (21:16):

Absolutely. They ever, ever been handy. Some people do about

Lisa (21:21):

It before they get to us. And so we, they do have a clear vision, but not all visions are the same. And a lot of times, you know, the men do retire first and the women are a little bit behind, you know, a couple years. We did have one couple that she was going to work three more years. Well, that turned into about three months. And then she decided to retire and she came to us and said, can I do it? Can I retire? You know, we really want to travel. We want to, you know, spend time with the grandchildren. And yeah, we made it happen because we were able to, you know, do their readiness review and see how we could maneuver their, their situation. Oh, let’s try to make people’s dreams a reality. Absolutely. And it’s important if you know your dream of what your retirement is going to look like.

Cynthia (22:11):

Lisa, let’s talk a little bit about what it feels like when someone comes into the office. I know you have fabulous chocolate.

Lisa (22:18):

We do have fabulous chocolate and we actually have fabulous cookies that some families take with them when they leave. I can see why couple boxes with them. So we have the travel channel playing to so people can sit in peace and almost, I don’t want to say like a spa experience because that’s certainly not what it is, but just to put them at ease. Sure. You know, we’re not there to sell them something. So they come into the office for the first time we spend about an hour, getting to know, first meetings is getting to know you getting to know you getting to know what your dreams are. Retirement, look like, learning a little bit about your past experience, because that always plays a part. Sure. the longevity of your, you know, your parents, so you’re going to need long-term care or do you need to take care of your parents? Part of the sandwich generation we were talking about earlier, you know, a lot of women, what happens is we retire and then our parents are getting older. So we’re helping take care of them. And then you’re helping take care of some people help take care of their children, adult children, move back into the basement and don’t leave. Sure.

Cynthia (23:31):

That’s what I’m thinking of that. Because obviously if you’re taking care of a parent, let’s say you have them in the house, then you have your adult child moving back in that is completely the sandwich generation. And so your financial needs totally changed.

Lisa (23:43):

Goodness. Yes. So, you know, so when my mother-in-law was sick, I took time off to take care of her. Our youngest was in high school, so she was getting, I still remember she was getting ready for the junior prom and my mother-in-law was getting ready to go into a nursing home and to maneuver all that was gosh. And it was, you know, I remember bringing the pink prom dress in to so she could see her granddaughter’s prom dress. And it’s, it’s an emotional time, but I took the time off and I left my job for about a year to help her. And at the time you don’t think about what you’re actually losing by doing that. I know what I gained and the experiences that we shared over those months, it was, it was a wonderful, but also I lost my 401k contributions. I lost social security. So the things that we don’t think about. Sure. So now we really try to educate women on you don’t have to be the caretaker. You could be the care manager. So those things that we don’t think about when we’re in this situation. Sure. That makes sense. So when you have someone to talk to a trusted advisor to talk to, you can maneuver that a little better. Also.

Cynthia (24:57):

I think it’s important to mention that the firm is a fiduciary firm. So you’re putting your client’s needs first in case someone’s in the audience. They don’t understand exactly what that means. Can you elaborate a little bit later?

Lisa (25:07):

Yes. So we can’t we don’t offer any products without knowing your situation. We have to do as the best interest of our clients, not our, our best interest. And that’s why there’s no cookie cutter cutter answer. Yeah. That’s why we have to get to know you.

Cynthia (25:22):

So everyone’s individual everyone’s goals. Their needs are different.

Lisa (25:27):

Let’s make her plan every week. Every plan. Absolutely.

Cynthia (25:30):

And customizable, we’ve talked about that as well. Let’s talk a little bit about someone who’s come in the office recently. Maybe they were interviewing different advisors, but they chose to work with you and Mark. Why was that?

Lisa (25:41):

Well, a lot of people will come in and we’ll have our three or four meetings, you know, sometimes more. And then they’ll ask for, Oh, can we talk to some of your clients? And then we’ll put them in our contact. And one of the feedbacks that we had gotten was, Oh, we we love working with TFG and Lisa Mark. Cause they’re like the ying and the yang. And that really puts a lot of families at ease because they’re getting two different perspectives. Right. So it’s a nice balance. And so we enjoy that. We use that quite a bit, you know, that was a lot of fun that they said that. And yeah, so they interview, you know, you have to go out there, you’ll have to look at a different advisors. And we, we recommend that you do that because we want to be the perfect fit for you. And that everyone’s a good fit. That’s true.

Cynthia (26:26):

That makes sense. But let me ask you, how often do you keep in touch with your clients once

Lisa (26:30):

They become, yeah,

Cynthia (26:32):

We a lot. Mark

Lisa (26:34):

Does. You know, he does his video, flogs with them. I do the newsletters. I also does keep in through an email system and we share life, his life events. Like I said, the birth of the kids and I get pictures of their kids and who’s having, and it’s like I said, we are family and we are a family.

Cynthia (26:56):

And it definitely shows because obviously we’ve heard over and over how people enjoy coming into the office, they feel like you’re specifically taking the time just to listen to them. They never feel rushed. And that’s a huge testimonial to you and Mark, because I know you’re both very busy and yet you make your clients feel like they are your only client. Absolutely.

Lisa (27:17):

That, well, it’s important to us to do that. So we really worked that into our schedule. Absolutely. It’s important for us to know them, to get to know them as much as they let us. I mean, some people are more private and that’s okay. We’re not looking to pry, but the more we know about them and their situation, the more we can.

Cynthia (27:34):

Well, Lisa, thank you for another amazing show this week. It’s gone by so fast. I can’t wait to see you again next week to the viewers at home. Most importantly, thank you for spending time with us today. That number to call is (888) 568-1755. You’re being offered the retirement readiness review. So please don’t miss the opportunity to gain one of those consultations. Be safe, be happy, be blessed. We’ll see you next week.