Rebecca Rhodes, Investment Advisor Representative with Primerica Advisors

Five Questions that Women Should Ask Their Financial Advisor.

A secure financial future depends on you making the best decisions today. While that’s true for everyone, it may be especially critical for women – who could face extra challenges such as wage gaps, longer retirements, higher healthcare costs, and more caregiving responsibilities.

To help you navigate the circumstances you may face, and take charge of your financial future, here are five questions you should consider asking a financial professional. He or she can work with your tax and legal professionals to assist you as well.

1. How Much Do I Need to Save for Retirement?
Women face different considerations that can impact their retirement savings. On average, women work fewer years and earn less than men,1 but they also tend to live longer. For example, women’s life expectancy is currently 81.1 years compared to 76.1 years for men.2 And once women reach age 70, 3 out of every 4 are likely to live until age 90 (versus 3 out of 5 for men).3

This combination of lower lifetime earnings plus longer lifespans means recalibrating typical retirement savings goals to cover a retirement that could last 20 years or more. To address these realities, do your best during your working years to:

Contribute enough to your workplace retirement plan to qualify for the full employer match if offered – and more if you can.
Consider additional retirement savings strategies on your own, like opening a tax-advantaged traditional or Roth IRA.
If you’re married and don’t have earned income, think about a spousal IRA. Under IRS rules for married couples, a working spouse can generally contribute part of his or her earned income to an IRA (traditional or Roth) for a nonworking spouse if the couple files a joint tax return.

2. Do I Need Long-Term Care Coverage?
The lifetime risk of needing long-term care often depends on life expectancy. Women’s greater longevity also means they need to consider long-term care coverage as a surviving spouse. In fact, it’s estimated that 3 in 4 women will likely need some level of long-term care in the years after age 65.4

With monthly costs currently averaging $4,195 for a home health aide for 44 hours per week and $8,365 for a private room in a nursing home,5 considering how to cover such expenses should be part of your financial planning. To keep care costs from consuming your retirement savings, work with a financial professional to evaluate some of these options:

Long-term care insurance, unlike traditional health insurance, is designed to cover some or all of an individual’s long-term care expenses such as personal care in a nursing facility or your home. Though Medicare may sometimes pay for some short-term skilled nursing and rehabilitative care after a hospital stay, you should not count on it to cover long-term care expenses.6
Hybrid life insurance policies, which combine long-term care and life insurance. If you need long-term care, you can use part of the policy’s death benefit to help pay for those expenses; if you never use the policy’s long-term care benefits, your loved ones will receive a death benefit.
Self-funding. Paying long-term care costs out of pocket depends on a realistic assessment of whether your assets and investing strategy are sufficient to cover long-term care costs on top of years of living expenses.

3. How Can I Better Balance Risk and Returns With My Investments?
Women may need to save more money for the future because of their increased longevity, but statistics show that they could struggle to amass wealth due to a lower tolerance for investing risk.7 Many women, however, say they’re actively looking for opportunities to make their money work harder. In one recent survey, nearly three-quarters (72%) said they want to take concrete steps to help make their savings grow faster.8

What can you do? Ensure that your investing strategy balances risk with the stronger potential portfolio growth needed to sustain your financial future. Talk with a financial professional to determine the appropriate amount of risk based on your age, comfort level, and how much income you’ll likely need. Together, you can develop a clear set of short- and long-term goals that will help clarify your approach.

4. When Should I Claim Social Security?
Because women live longer than men, decisions about the timing and source of Social Security retirement benefits take on extra weight.

You can start receiving reduced benefits as early as age 62, rather than waiting until your full retirement age (FRA), which ranges from 65 to 67 and is based on your birth year. If you take Social Security before your FRA, however, the amount of your annual benefit payment will be reduced by 25% to 30% permanently. Similarly, if you wait to collect benefits until you’re older than your FRA, the amount of your annual benefit will increase by as much as 8% per year until you reach age 70.9

Marital status may also play a role in your benefits strategy. For example:10

Married women can generally choose to claim a benefit based on their work record or receive 50% of their spouse’s benefit, whichever is higher.
Divorced women may be able to claim benefits on a former spouse’s work record under certain conditions.
Widows are eligible to receive either their own Social Security payment or their late spouse’s as a survivor benefit, keeping the higher of the two payments – but not both.

In some cases, you may be able to strategically maximize payments. One example: You can claim a late spouse’s benefit before reaching your FRA, then switch to your benefit later, or vice versa.

All of these choices can affect your financial security in retirement, so it’s important to discuss the scenarios and outcomes with a financial professional.

5. How Can I Protect My Retirement
While Also Caring for My Loved Ones?
Women often shoulder the majority of caregiving services for family members.11 And that support can come with a costly price tag in the form of reduced income, increased financial stress, and at-risk retirement security. In fact, one study reveals that women devote 21% of their average annual income on caregiving expenses, resulting in greater financial strain.12

If you’re stepping into a caregiving role, it’s a good idea to discuss the impact with a financial professional. He or she can be a resource to help you navigate expenses and income sources as well as determine how much financial support you can provide without jeopardizing your financial future.

Making a Plan
With these questions as a guideline, work together with a financial professional to build, protect, and ensure your financial security. Making informed decisions about these key issues may help you better prepare to make the most of your money in the years ahead.

Article from Kiplinger

Although we are having issues in Texas right now, we still plan to go forward with the webinar on Investing at Retirement tomorrow night (Thursday, Feb 18th - 7:00pm). The subject is too important to cancel. However, we will also add a future date, so that those who couldn't make it due to the weather can still get the information.

See yall tomorrow night!

I'm giving a webinar on Investing at Retirement on Feb 18th at 7pm. As we move from growing money to creating income and making sure we don't run out of money in retirement, it's important to shift strategy and make changes.

In addition to telling people you know, I'd love for friends to attend WITH their parents. Communication is important as our parents reach retirement, and as WE look at retirement coming up for ourselves. Losing money IS problematic, risk MUST be turned down, and elder abuse DOES exist. Good communication about finances often helps root these problems out.
Link to join is below
Rebecca Rhodes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Investing at Retirement
Time: Feb 18, 2021 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
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To round out Life Insurance Awareness Month, a little quiz. Which of these Avengers needs life insurance: SpiderMan, Thor, Black Widow, Iron Man, HawkEye, or Black Panther? Don't peek, but answer below once you've taken your quiz.

At first glance, you'd think - ok, these guys have "dangerous" jobs, so maybe all of them need it. But then you might say, since they have super powers, then probably not. However, as we saw in Infinity Wars, they are NOT indestructible. So the process goes like this.
Tony Stark is independently wealthy, so he is what we call "Self-Insured". His personal wealth can cover whatever insurance would pay for, so he doesn't need it. And Pepper can surely live on what's left, despite her grief.
Natasha Black Widow, doesn't have any family. She might need a small policy to help with her burial, but without a spouse or children depending on her income, her needs are small, and if she has any retirement at all to pay for the burial, no life insurance is needed. But she'd need Clint or Bruce to be her beneficiary, to take care of final arrangements.
HawkEye has a huge need for insurance. Not only does poor Clint have no real powers to protect him, but he has a wife and small children who would be in peril if something happens to him. His need is quite significant, and is the best case for life insurance around Shield.
Depending on the financial situation, a case might be made for Peter Parker. He has family, although maybe not dependent, because his aunt seems self-sufficient at present. However, a family might be in his future, so with more information, this is a maybe. And since he's young, it's also cost efficient.
The Black Panther DOES have family responsibilities, his mother and sister, plus that girlfriend that we keep hoping he'll just hurry up and pop the question to. But being a king makes him wealthy, and he really doesn't need the coverage.
And then there's handsome Thor, sadly dumped by Jane recently. He, too, is independently wealthy. Although he's sure to find another to become his queen, I doubt there's anything that would need outside coverage.
All this to say that life insurance isn't an automatic, or just a number to pull out of the clouds. It's a serious calculation, with lots of thought and planning behind it. None of us is immortal, not even those with special powers. If you need it, be the Super Hero for your family, take care of business, and get yourself covered.

Last week's quiz didn't seem to inspire, but it was critically important to how you build your "Financial House". Answers were as follows.
1. First, you need a good foundation, resting firmly on Life Insurance and a Will. This protects your most important assets - your income (life ins), and your physical assets (will).
2. Secondly, you need a good, solid emergency fund, to protect you against acquiring more debt. Think of it as "insurance against debt". This isn't an investment, because you don't take risk with this, but it's savings. After this good foundation, you move to attack your debt.
3 . Now, I tricked you a little bit, because I put NO debt, so it doesn't exactly go here. Debt is the family room in the house, because it's where people spend most of their time. You should attack debt seriously first. People chase return. However, the BEST way to get better return on your money? PAY OFF DEBT, which is COSTING you anywhere from 5%-29.99%. So if you pay off your debt, you raise your return by the rate of interest you have been PAYING on your debt.
4. Retirement savings is next. This is the fun part, the kitchen of the house, because this is where things really get cooking. And people want to do this part first, but without the preceding factors accomplished, you won't get where you need as fast.
5. College funds are often given too much importance in the financial house, which is more of a "social" factor than anything else. If you cannibalize your retirement savings to pay for college, then you will run the risk of running out of money in retirement, and having to move in with the kids you sent to college. Don't worry, that thought scares them as much as it does you. Just remember, there are loans for college. There are NO LOANS FOR RETIREMENT.
6. You other goals and dreams come next - the roof on your family nest. People often make the mistake of living in the moment, and eating, drinking or traveling away their retirement. We're not saying you shouldn't enjoy life. We're saying that building a strong financial house, in the right way, will protect and keep you safe, allowing you to enjoy the other things in life.
Ask one of the Moderators to help you construct your "dream house" of finances.

Today’s quiz:
Place the following aspects of your financial life in order of importance, with 1 being the most important and 6 being the least: college fund, life insurance/wills, no debt, vacation fund, retirement fund, emergency fund. Answer coming tomorrow!

Charles A. Jaffe wrote, "It’s not your salary that makes you rich or poor, it’s your spending habits."

Most of us earn enough during our lifetime to be millionaires. We just only keep enough to make us poor. And most of us don't have a budget we stick to.

Foregoing a few things now to reap the benefits later is a great way to keep enough to make you rich!!

Sir Richard Branson famously said, "If someone offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes!, then learn how to do it later."
I'm looking for new agents. My office is growing, and I need help. I would LOVE to teach you, or someone you know, about financial services, help you get licensed, and watch you grow your OWN business. This is an amazing opportunity in the BEST industry in the world (I think). Even if you're not sure you can do it, say YES! and I can teach you.

Warren Buffett says, "Unlike the Lord, the market doesn't forgive those who know not what they do." Less than 1% of day traders make money, and the average annual return for investors who work without an advisor is 2% v. 9% or better with an advisor. Make sure you seek advice. Your retirement is the most valuable asset you have. It decides the quality of your future.