And good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Gene Dickerson, your host, your personal financial advisor.

Megan, our financial correspondent, waiting with bated breath to answer.

Ask your questions.

I'm waiting with bated breath to answer your questions.

It was way harder to say than I expected, but.

But you understand.

If you're a loyal viewer, you know, a little bit of, of, what introduction is in order for each of our shows.

Always a little bit of a wrinkle here and there.

We sometimes look behind the curtains how we produce these things.

Sometimes we just give you a tip here and there.

So, if you're just joining us for the very first time, you're on this kind of an odd start.

It'll get odder.

Don't worry.

Otter.

No.

Moron.

You understand?

You'll catch on or not, and you're already on to celebrity, Wheel of Fortune.

Whatever it is, we're here for you.

Half an hour goes very quickly if you're even being mildly entertained at any point.

My apologies.

But the reality is, all of this is designed for one purpose and one purpose only.

Serve our audience.

We're here to serve you.

That's.

That's as simple as it can possibly be.

You do us a great honor by sending us your emails.

Jean at ask mtm.com.

Very, very kind of you to do that.

You trust us to give you good answers.

We are very blessed that we have a tremendous team that can help you do, exactly that.

There's no cost, there's no obligation.

You simply you ask a question, you get good information back, and hopefully we help.

And maybe, maybe you'll be famous one day when you can tell all your friends and neighbors.

Hey, I was watching More Than Money last night.

They used my question.

That's pretty cool.

That's a pretty cool thing.

Not that that ain't nothing.

Now, speaking of that, ain't nothing.

One of the things that happens very early in the year, in any given year, is that or should happen, I should say, is that folks should take, at least, a review, a few minutes to, to kind of review.

Where are they financially and what changes might benefit them.

And one of the changes, that we often see overlooked is relative to 401 K plans.

Lots of folks, lots of folks sign up for their for one K plan shortly after they're employed, and they make whatever decisions they make, how much to put in, where the investments go, etcetera, and never look at it again.

I can't tell you how many.

It's not because it's a secret just because there's so many.

I can't tell you how many people come to me and and they say, can you look at my for one k how much are you putting in?

Cash?

It's been ten years.

I don't know, really.

When did you pick these investments?

It's been ten years.

And as a result, this incredibly powerful tool is being left kind of to rust in place and and really doesn't, create any great advantage to, to or doesn't create as as great an advantage to you as it possibly could.

Good example is this.

If currently you're putting in I'm picking a number out of thin air $12,000 a year into your for one k, it comes out paycheck by paycheck and you realize, wait a second, I can put away way more than that.

Maybe, my kids are falling out of college.

Maybe I got a raise.

Maybe I've got more cash flow.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But the bottom line is I could instead of 12, I could put 24.

Now's a good time to do that because you've got all of those paychecks you can be divided up into, and it will smooth out the ride.

If you decide to do that in December and want to put $12,000 in in one block, that's a very difficult thing to do.

So I caution all of you, if you're employed, if you've got A41K, if you haven't looked at it in a while, look at it.

And if you need to make adjustments, now's a good time.

Speaking.

Have a good time.

It's a very good time for Megan to bring us our first question.

Hi, Jean.

Well, this first question is about what time to retire.

This one says my husband is 64, has always had a traditional corporate job, and now has about 1.2 million in his 401 K he is looking to retire in a year or so.

We have two children and two grandchildren.

Our kids are well educated, have good jobs and don't rely on us financially at all.

I'm also 64 and I started a small business almost 30 years ago.

We now have 11 employees and my accountant says the business is worth over $6 million.

My husband says we should sell the business and both retire next year.

I don't think I'm ready to retire and I'm not sure at all.

I'm not at all sure that I would be happy seeing my employees working for someone else, wondering how do I organize my thoughts to share with my husband so he will see my position?

Or am I missing something?

Thanks, Jim.

Well, this is a this is an excellent question.

And it's unusual because it's a woman who owns a business that was successful.

That's very unusual.

If you're hearing that and nodding or you have no clue.

If if you look carefully, I'm not talking about, you know, the, the, the hundreds of billion dollar corporations that are out there, the the, the Dow 30, the S&P 500, I'm talking about the real businesses of America, the ones that are worth 6 million.

They have 11 employees, the ones that employ most Americans, the ones that are doing a tremendous job in America for Americans.

They're fantastic.

Tons of them.

By some estimates, the majority of them are owned by by by business women.

Yeah, pretty cool stuff.

Now, in some cases 30 years to develop some cases, they're doing some really big stuff in a quick way.

Shark Tank kind of idea.

But the reality is that if you're not aware of how successful, women have been in business, you're just not aware.

That's that's just a shame.

Can kind of time to get trained up on this thing.

So, how do we, how does one person in this case that his wife, turn to her husband and say, hey, I'm not ready to retire?

Well, old fashion might be useful.

Depends.

The, the the axiom, happy wife, happy life.

That might be a good start.

Hey, sweetheart, just so you know, I know you're kind of insistent, but did anybody ever mention to you happy wife, happy life and and that mate that may jar them right there?

The reality is, I'm sure she wants you to be happy.

I'm sure that.

And for lots of folks, for lots of folks, the idea of retirement is the very definition of happiness for lots of folks.

Not for you, not for you.

Now, being in a similar circumstance, owning a business, lots of employees I care about, they're tremendous.

Or they're family to me.

They're family to my clients are family to me.

So, the somebody says, hey, why don't you retire?

Why why would I do that?

Well, so you can take some time and spend time with your friends and family.

That's what I do every day.

That's what she does every day.

So, is there an on off switch to retirement answers?

Heck no.

Heck no.

Might you look at might she look at some form of hybrid retirement?

Hey, I'm going to work, four days a week, and we're going to have three day weekends, every week.

And we're going to take, a week off every quarter.

So we'll take four weeks off and travel.

We'll have long weekends to, to do stuff with friends and family.

And yet I'll still keep my business and I'll still be happy.

That's a very reasonable thing to explore.

And I don't know if it's a three day weekend.

Maybe it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday maybe.

Who knows?

But but customizing your, ownership experience to, make yourself happy.

And in, in in meeting your husband in some sort of compromise in terms of quote unquote, retirement, very, very wise.

Now I will, go kind of off script here for I don't have a script, so it's kind of hard to go off script, but I'll go off script here for a second.

I know you're asking a question about how to convince your husband that you don't want to sell your business.

That that's fairly straightforward.

Your husband, 64, wants to retire, in a year or so.

So he wants to be 65 years old, hopefully part of our triple H club.

Happy, healthy, 100 and spend the next 35 years on a barcalounger, with a nice T. What a waste.

What a shame.

And largely overrated.

I would strongly encourage your husband, your husband to think about, the same concept.

Hybrid retirement.

Hybrid retirement.

If his in his mind or retirement.

My wife and I stopped working, and we spent 24, seven together or.

Oh, there are, ladies in the audience right now watching with their husbands who are trying very hard to look the other way so they don't go, oh, that that's not going to work.

Not a healthy thing, indeed.

But if you're both in some sort of hybrid retirement, you're 65 years old.

Hopefully you still have skills.

You still have instincts.

Maybe it's not employment, maybe it's service.

Maybe you're volunteering.

Maybe you're doing something on a again.

Maybe it's, four days a week.

Three days a week, but you're you're you're balancing out, the the the the excitement, the joy, the adventure, the family, the family, the family and friends, with being productive as a productive member of society.

And if you match those things up, I think you're both going to be healthier.

I think you're going to be happier.

I think you're going to live longer.

And, fitness could be great fun.

If it becomes a struggle.

The whole conversation, I, I own several shirts that are striped.

I can wear a striped shirt and a whistle.

Bring you guys in.

I'll be a referee.

It'll be fun.

Be fun.

Speaking of fun.

And it'll be fun.

To answer another question, megs sounds good.

I hope that conversation goes well for them.

Oh, I do too.

Our next question says we love your show and we learn a lot.

My question to you is my wife and I want to give our niece $10,000 to put towards her college loans.

We think she has two loans.

I do believe the 10,000 will totally pay off one loan, and she may have a few hundred dollars left to put towards the second one.

She does not know of our plan to give her this money as of yet.

Wondering do we tell her to pay the current month's loan payment and then apply the balance of the $10,000 to the principal only?

I guess our question is, what is the smartest way that she will, that will save her the most money on paying off these loans?

Do we tell her to apply the additional moneys towards the principal or towards the interest?

This is all new to us, as neither my wife nor I ever had student loans.

Thank you for your advice.

Well, you are very welcome.

You have very kind words, and I want to start with that last sentence.

You and your wife never had student loans.

Good for you.

Good for you.

What's, Very exciting for me.

Very, very exciting for me.

Very encouraging to me is what I perceive as a trend, I think a rather robust trend in America today for young people who are looking, they are of college age, who are looking at the world and saying, I, I don't want to spend four years, studying things.

I want to study getting a degree.

I'm not really interested in coming out in debt 60, 80 or $100,000 and starting my career, starting my life, deep in debt and and and really no further along.

Personally.

Personally, as a result, so many young people, some is fantastic.

Hvac, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, the list goes on and on.

The trades as, as we use kind of a euphemistic, umbrella phrase, the trades have become an incredible opportunity.

You want to speak about the incredible opportunity?

The military, so many of the jobs in the military are in the trades.

You can, enlist in any of the major branches of the military and say, hey, I want to become an electrician.

I want to become a plumber.

You know, be serving your country, getting paid and getting trained and come out with tremendous skills.

Man is an exciting.

And I see young people, I'm so blessed.

I get to meet children, grandchildren of some of my clients or I get to meet clients directly.

They're in their 20s, their 30s who have made that choice, and they're very, very happy.

One of the things that are most happy about they don't have student loans.

They're not sitting there at 28 going, I still owe 80 grand.

That's a mortgage.

Well, most of you who are listening go on mortgage.

I didn't pay that much for my first house.

So fantastic.

I appreciate that very much.

The trend is is exciting.

People with skills, you always have skills.

You go to college and learn something that, three years later is obsolete.

That's a shame.

If you have skills, always skills.

And by the way, the respect.

There was a time my dad was a carpenter.

Swung a hammer.

I had an uncle was an electrician when it was a plumber when it was a mason.

You get the picture.

It was a big family.

They got they were in the trades and, and, and served tons and tons of people today.

You want to be an Hvac tech, you better be pretty smart and you better be tech savvy.

It's exciting.

It's exciting.

Now back.

These folks.

God bless you.

You are doing a wonderful thing.

What a beautiful thing you are doing to help out your niece, obviously, that you love, very, very straightforward.

You will if, if, if she will allow you sit next to her, in front of her computer as she logs on to her, two loans, and on that, in that log in, there should be very clear instructions about how to add more to, paying down their her loan.

So, it will give you the option to go.

Principal.

You want to pay down the principal?

That's exactly what you want to do.

And if, let's say that the first one is 9500, that pays that off completely.

The other 500, you go to the second screen, you log in and you put $500 against the principal.

And hopefully that means that her, monthly payments will drop dramatically if she is smart.

Let's say that the payments on the first 1 or $200 payments on the second one, or $200, we pay off the first one and and you pay a little bit down on the second one.

And let's say she still owes $12,000 instead of going, oh, now I'll just do 200 a month.

If she's wise, she'll do 400 a month and she'll be done with that second loan in twice, what, half the time?

Half the time.

Doubling up the payments much, much faster.

Be done.

Wow, what a nice thing you're doing.

Good for you.

And God bless her.

God bless her.

Marriage.

That was cool.

That was very cool.

I like that very much.

What will I like?

The next question?

I think so.

I think we can maybe ease some nerves for this next person.

They said my parents are planning their estates and they asked me to be their executor.

I have heard awful stories that being an executor is really hard and stressful.

I'm not very clear on what I would be expected to do.

Of course I don't want to let my parents down though.

So what should I do?

Gene?

Say yes, say yes.

Very simple.

Next.

No.

You are right.

The term executor.

If it's a female executrix, which sounds naughty, but it's not.

If you are the executor.

There there have been horror stories told.

Oh, what a mess.

And it was just dreadful.

And the family was dreadful and everything was dreadful.

Yeah.

There are horror stories about almost anything.

I mean, I love, I love cars and I have bought cars that I went, oh, one of the best experiences of my life.

And I bought other cars where.

Yeah, not so much.

So is it possible that being an executor can be nasty?

Sure, sure.

Does it need to be?

No, no.

Absolutely not.

In almost every case that I've heard about that executors have had real struggles and that they really regretted agreeing to be the executor has been one of two things.

The first is easily fixed.

The idea.

I'll just do it myself.

I'll just go down to the courthouse.

I'll file some papers.

Maybe, I'll send in something to the state.

Or maybe there's a federal form.

I'm not really sure, but I just do it myself.

You are?

That's that's crazy talk.

That is crazy talk.

There's.

There was, the opportunities for you to mess up are legion.

There are hundreds of ways for that to go horribly, horribly wrong.

And it's so easily fixed a circle back to it.

So easily fix that.

It's it's embarrassing.

The second is, is interactions with the family and that that should be addressed.

And we'll talk about that here momentarily.

But let's talk first about the whole idea of let's do it yourself.

Don't please don't.

Again, what?

I use cars as an example.

One of my, my first cars, was a triumph TR4.

The cool car.

It never ran very well, but it was a cool car.

But.

Yeah.

Hey, let's change the oil.

You pop it, you jump in there, you unscrew the plug, you drain it out, put it in seven minutes.

Yeah.

Pop the hood on a car made in 2025.

You.

You won't even be able to identify where the oil goes in.

It is not a do it yourself project any longer.

Folks who were always say, hey, I changed the spark plugs on my car.

Yeah, don't do that now you are.

You're just subjecting a tremendously high, highly engineered vehicle to just tremendous risk.

That's what you're doing with, a do it yourself executor ship.

Employ an attorney.

If the attorney who prepared the will is to your liking, that's great.

If they're not, people think why I have to use them.

They prepared you well?

No.

Absolutely not.

Mom and dad may have liked that attorney.

You meet them and go.

Nope.

Not mine, not.

Not for me.

But you do need a trusted, experienced estate planning attorney.

And if you have that now, all of that risk, all of that, that angst, all of that anxiety about, am I doing the right thing?

Did I go to the right courthouse office in my filing the right form, it goes away because you have a professional who has done it dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of times to make sure that all the details that will keep you on the straight and narrow, are addressed appropriately.

Easily done, easily done.

Is there a cost?

Of course there is.

But there's also a cost to trying to do something you shouldn't do, and then mucking it up and having somebody have to fix it, then don't have somebody fix it, have somebody do it right upfront and you're still the executor.

You're still making the decisions.

You just have a an Indian guide taking you down the path.

Very wise.

Now from a family standpoint, there's two things that can make this go much more smoothly.

Number one, if you understand, if your family understands that as the executor, you don't make any decisions.

All you do is follow the recipe.

If you're thinking if they're thinking, he's going to take what I remind and give her to my sister.

Not now.

He's not.

No.

He's not.

The will is the recipe.

There may be a trust, but let's use the will as an example.

The will is the recipe.

This goes here.

This goes here.

The executors role is just to make sure that that recipes follow.

That's all it is.

So it's a family understands you are not making the decisions.

Mom and or dad made those decisions.

You're simply following the recipe.

That helps a lot.

And number two, if you anticipate if your mom or dad anticipates that there is somebody in the family that will cause a ruckus and they're almost always is just human nature, they can cut that off at the pass up front while they're still alive.

They can sit with that person, say, here's what's happening.

Your brother is going to be the executor.

We're going to tell them exactly what to do.

Please don't give him a hard time if you do, by the way.

And I've seen it done and wills if the will is contested, if this person causes problem, they get zero.

Yeah.

Not necessary.

Hopefully not necessary, but but kind of setting the stage in advance and letting everybody know you're simply following the best wishes of your mom and dad.

You'll be fine.

You'll be fine.

Speaking of fine, it would be fine if we can squeeze in one more.

We sure can.

Our last email tonight says I enjoy your show.

I have two 400 3B7 accounts.

One with Vanguard and the other with Lincoln Investments.

The latter is a self-directed account.

Both are invested in Vanguard's Total Stock Market fund, and both have a management fee of around $70 a year.

Neither one is a Roth account.

I retired from teaching at age 55, and I am now 57.

Wondering, should I combine the accounts into one at Vanguard where I have other accounts, or just move them both to my Vanguard T IRA, I haven't moved them yet because I wasn't sure if I would need to tap money from them under the 55 year rule.

However, I'm finding that my pension side hustle and dividends are providing more than I need for expenses.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Well, thank you and congratulations!

You have set yourself up beautifully for you to say.

I like to reference my pension side hustle dividend.

Side hustle zero 5057 years old.

You're a child.

Get out there doing so.

Obviously doing stuff.

I'm I don't think the sh that this person identifies themselves.

I'm certain it's a woman.

I'm certain it's a one.

So smart, so smart.

Done so many things correctly.

So many things correctly.

Now a couple things for three b. A lot of folks have never heard of it.

If you think 401 K, you're 98% correct.

If you think for one K in 4 or 3 BS are typically with with nonprofits, schools, hospitals, etc.. But but they operate very much like for one case she's retired, so she's not she's no longer putting money into her four three BS.

They are being administered by Vanguard, as she mentioned.

And the question is there a reason not to co-mingle them?

Well, you can see from the headline that I have placed on the screen, simplify, simplify, simplify from zero.

There's not only is there no reason not to, there's lots of reasons to do exactly that.

And I would suggest, if it's only 140 bucks, I get that 70 and 70 are the administrative fees.

If she rolls both of them into her traditional vanguard IRA, she likely has no fees, likely no fees at all.

And she's gone from three accounts to one.

Again, simplify wherever you are able.

It's it makes perfect sense.

If you are happy with your investment results of Vanguard, there's no reason to go elsewhere.

If you're not, you can always get a free second opinion from, a financial advisory firm to see if there's something that they would recommend that you do differently.

But bottom line is that you're on the right path.

You're doing wonderfully well.

Now, having said that, there's a, a collateral question.

It's not a question, but she makes note of an I the she referred to as the 55 year rule.

It's actually the age 55 year rule.

And if you retire at 55 or older and you've participated in a forestry B or A for one K, and you want to draw from those funds, even though you've not reached the magic age of 59.5.

Most of you who are in IRAs for one case, for three B's understand that the, withdrawing money from any of those prior to turning 59.5 is usually painful because not only do you pay income tax, but you pay a penalty.

And her reference is a rule that allows you to avoid that penalty.

If you are 55 or older when you retire and you have these funds, you can draw on them and only pay taxes.

You pay no penalty.

There are very serious restrictions, rules, guidelines, framework you must follow to the letter in order to qualify, to not have to pay a penalty or pay a penalty.

Picking a number.

If you pull $50,000 a year out, the penalty would be 5000 bucks a year.

That's too painful.

So you've got to make sure you're following the the the rules specifically and in detail.

She didn't have to, but she was wise enough to say, I know I can't do that with IRAs.

I can for three B's.

I'll just leave it there until I figure out if I'm going to be okay.

And let's again, what does she say?

My pension, my side hustle, my dividends are providing more than I need for my expenses.

This is beautiful.

So smart.

You've done so, so well.

Simplify.

Yes.

Bring those accounts into your traditional IRA.

You're going to be very, very happy that you did.

And congratulations, 57 cash.

You're not even halfway home.

It's going to be fantastic.

Speaking of fantastic, it's always fantastic to serve you.

It's fantastic.

It's, It's a great honor to serve you.

That you put the trust in, in me and my team to answer your questions.

And and, for those of you who are seeing us, maybe for the first time or just a few times, you guys and those guys that that goofy, always a little goofy, but he's really smart.

And by this time, I guess I should be, bottom line is that you can take advantage of that by asking your questions.

Jean, at Ask mtm.com works really, really well.

I have an entire team of advisors that answer questions back.

There's no cost, there's no obligation.

There's sometimes there's give and take.

You go, hey, I got this question.

And then they say, hey, I got a question for you first before I can answer your question, but enjoy all of that and, get information that will make your life a bit better.

You make my life a bit better every single week, because you give me the reason to be the most relevant financial show on television, which is a thing that we will do again.

I'll return next week for our next episode of More Than Money.