With all the market volatility, inflation, and everything happening relative to where they were prior to COVID. And if you’ve thought about making that shift or you just wanna learn more about whether shifting from growth to income might make sense, I think you’re on the right track. We’ve put together a free resource. It’s an animated video that talks about investing for income, and you’ll learn in seven or eight minutes what you need to do to make that shift from investing for growth or capital appreciation, to investing more for interest and dividends. I wanna send this video to you free of charge.

All you have to do is request it, and you can do that by going to providencefinancialradio.com/video. Again, it’s providencefinancialradio.com/video. And once you give us your information, you’ll have that video show up in an email very quickly. All you gotta do is press play. You’ll be able to watch it, and it’s fun because it is animated, but it’s also very powerful because we took a lot of time to really compact that and wordsmith it at the same time.

To claim your free animated video, just go to providencefinancialradio.com/video and we’ll get it right out. You’re really gonna enjoy watching it though. I am Anthony Saccaro. Thank you for taking time outta your day to join us. You are listening to the Providence Financial Retirement Show. We’re talking about the economic environment today and the wars and inflation and everything that’s going on in the world around us, and what impact is that going to have on your retirement.

And currently, we’re in the middle of answering a question by Melissa. She’s from Thousand Oaks and she really wanted to know that with everything going on today, she’s hearing a lot about oil and inflation and global instability and doesn’t wanna make big changes. She’s not panicking, but she really is wondering what are some of the impacts that retirees might not immediately see when something like this is happening?

And I think that’s the right question because it’s not what you know and what you can see that’s in your face that’s going to affect you. Everybody knows that. It’s the underlying impacts, the underlying implications of what’s going on that are a little harder to identify. We already discussed the fact that one of the underlying implications is that the price of energy has gone up by 50% in the last few weeks since the war started, and this leads to higher inflation, and that leads to higher cost of living, and it also leads to higher cost of debt, think home mortgages and auto loans and credit card payments.

On the flip side, when you’re talking about those of you who have saved, if you are invested for income, you can get much higher interest in dividends than you could just a few years ago as well. So there’s a negative and there’s the positive of having higher interest rates. And if inflation stays high at these levels or starts to increase, like we’ve recently had, some signals is happening, that’s going to force the Federal Reserve’s hand at a minimum to keep interest rates where they are not be able to lower them like they wanna do.

And in a worst-case scenario, they might even have to increase interest rates again to combat the inflation. Hopefully it doesn’t get outta control, but that’s still a possibility. And Melissa, that’s the first underlying scenario that could affect you. That’s not immediately obvious. The price of energy goes up, that causes inflation to go up. That means interest rates are going to stay the same or maybe increase, and that’s gonna have an impact on your retirement, both positive and negative as we’ve already discussed. There is a second issue that is underlying, that’s not so much in your face that you have to be aware of as well, and that is uncertainty.

And I’m gonna say that this might even be the biggest issue. The markets don’t like uncertainty, and whenever there’s uncertainty, there’s gonna be increased volatility, there’s gonna be a lot of sudden shifts, and there’s gonna be a lot of unpredictable reactions when you’re working. All of this uncertainty is just noise. But when you retire, it becomes a lot more personal. And this uncertainty, if it goes against you, it can affect when you retire. It can affect how much income you can actually withdraw from your portfolio. And worse yet, it can affect how long your money’s going to last in retirement.

And I thank you, Melissa, for taking time to write in the question because your question is exactly right. You’re not panicking, but what are the underlying issues that we might not see? And there’s two big ones, as we just talked about: the price of energy going up and how it affects you, and the uncertainty that it creates. And again, I thank you for taking time to write in the question. And I hope those two things give you time to pause and reflect on your situation if you are in a situation though, where you are uncertain as well about your entire retirement plan.

Well, in my new book More Life Than Money, I wrote about 10 of the most common mistakes that I’ve seen retirees make. And a lot of them are underlying mistakes that you might not have even thought of. I wanna send More Life Than Money to you. Absolutely. Free of charge. All you have to do is go to our website to request it, and you can do that by going to providencefinancialradio.com/book. Again, it’s providencefinancialradio.com/book. Leave us your information and a brand new hardcover copy of More Life Than Money will show up on your doorstep really quickly within just a few days. To claim your free copy of More Life Than Money, go to providencefinancialradio.com/book and we will get it right out.

I’m Anthony Saccaro. We’re talking about retirement in relation to everything that’s going on in the economic world around us with the wars and inflation and everything else, and we’re also answering a lot of your listener questions along the way that have to do with those very topics. And Kevin from Manhattan Beach wrote in a question and he really wants to know, how does someone know if you’re actually ready to retire?

Well, that’s the question that’s coming up right here on the Providence Financial Retirement Show. I thank you for continuing to join us. My name is Anthony Saccaro. You’re listening to the Providence Financial Retirement Show, where it truly is all about the income. We are your retirement income source, and this is the place where retirees come for income. Really glad that you’re here, wherever you might be.

We’re talking today about the current economy and the economic environment, along with all the concerns that a lot of you have, the uncertainty surrounding the war and inflation and interest rates and everything else. We’re also answering a lot of your listener questions along the way. And the next question that we’re gonna answer comes from Kevin in Manhattan Beach, and he wrote in this: “I feel like I’ve done a decent job saving and I’m getting closer to retirement, but I honestly don’t know if I’m really ready to retire. I have accounts, I have investments, but I don’t have a clear picture of how it all turns into income. How do you actually know if you’re ready to retire?”

Well, Kevin, I think that’s a great question and you’re not the only one I know. Many of you are wondering the same thing. How do you know if you’re ready to retire? It’s probably one of the most honest questions that you can ever ask because you can have a lot of money saved and you can have a lot of accounts that are built up, might have a substantial portfolio and still not have clarity. The problem is that most of your life, you focused on accumulation. But retirement readiness is not about how much you’ve saved, it’s about how your money functions.

The question is not how much do you have. The real question is, what is the purpose of your money and what do you expect it to do for you? Being ready for retirement means that you know exactly where your income is going to come from. You know how consistent it’s going to be, and you know how long it’s going to last. And just as important, you have to understand the risks associated with your investments. It’s very common for someone to have multiple different types of accounts. They’ve got different investments, and sometimes they even have different advisors. But despite all this, most of you don’t have a unified income plan.

You don’t have a clear withdrawal strategy, and there’s really been no stress testing done on your portfolio. In other words, you don’t really know how it would act if we have another major market correction. Think about everything that we’ve already discussed. I don’t have to tell you that there’s been a lot of volatility in the market. We’ve talked about that and why that is. I don’t have to tell you that there’s a lot of uncertainty in the global environment and it’s uncertainty that’s gonna have an impact on your portfolio. And if you don’t know how those are gonna impact your income in retirement, then I can understand why you’re not necessarily feeling ready.

Once again, as I’ve said many times before, even in this show, the success of your retirement is all about your income. Retirement is not about a number. It doesn’t matter how big your portfolio is. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re trying to save a million dollars because that’s what they need to retire. That’s just not true. For some of you, a million dollars might be fine. For others of you, it might be more than you need, and for others of you, it might be a whole lot less than you need. Retirement is really about having a system to turn what you have into the income that you need. And if your system is not clear, then you’re guessing and guessing is never a good retirement strategy.

And if you’re guessing, you’re always gonna be unclear as to whether or not you have enough. Clarity creates confidence. But lack of clarity creates hesitation, and that’s why so many people delay retirement because they don’t have this clarity. And instead of retiring, they just simply decide to continue working longer. Or if they do retire, there’s a lot of anxiety that goes with it because they don’t have clarity. And Kevin, you’re right to be asking the question and you’re asking the right question. And that’s because being ready for retirement has nothing to do with whether you have enough. It’s about knowing how it all works together.

How do all the pieces of your retirement puzzle fit together? And once you have that answer and you know where your income is coming from and you’re not just making withdrawals from your portfolio, hoping that things work out, then you are gonna have the clarity that you’re looking for and the clarity’s gonna give you confidence and you’ll be able to retire knowing that you have enough income to last the rest of your life, not having to hope that you have enough income to last the rest of your life.

Thank you, Kevin, for taking time to write in the question, and I certainly hope that my answer has given you something to think about. And if you are like Kevin, and you’re listening to this show and you’re not a hundred percent clear on where your income’s gonna come from or how much you can withdraw, maybe you have questions about whether or not you’re taking too much risk and maybe you don’t really even have a retirement plan at all, then I think it’s worth taking a closer look.

And because it’s all about the income when you retire, we’ve put together a short animated video that talks about how you can get income from your portfolio that you know you can count on month in and month out without having to guess. If you’d like to get this video so you can learn this information, we’ll send it to you free of charge.

To get it, you just need to go to our website and give us your information. And the website is providencefinancialradio.com/video. Again, it’s providencefinancialradio.com/video. Leave us your information and we’ll email it to you. No cost, no obligation, just the information you need to be able to know how you can get income from your portfolio.

To claim your free video, go to providencefinancialradio.com/video and we will get it right out. I’m Anthony Saccaro. If you just hopped on, you’re listening to the Providence Financial Retirement Show. We’re talking about what’s going on in the global world around us and some of the underlying impacts that you might even be aware of and how it could affect your retirement.

And as we always do, we’re taking your listener questions along the way, and we have a lot of listener questions today. Our next question comes from Vanessa in Pasadena, and she wrote in this, “My husband and I are both 66 years old. We retired about a year ago, and we still haven’t taken Social Security yet. We’ve been trying to figure out the best time to start, but everywhere we turn, we’re getting different advice. Some say take it now. Others say wait as long as possible. We just don’t wanna make the wrong decision. How do you actually figure out the right timing?”

Vanessa, great question. Thank you for that. Social Security is a very common source of confusion because there are a lot of different strategies to take Social Security and it becomes a mathematical equation. But I love the fact that you’re asking because many retirees just take it because they feel like taking it. They’ve never really given it a lot of thought, and you’re not doing that.

You’re giving it a lot of thought because the difference mathematically between taking Social Security the best way and the worst way might be the difference of a couple hundred thousand dollars of lost income over your lifetime if you don’t take Social Security the right way. That’s a very important question, and many people take that question too lightly, but I’m glad that you’re not.

The short answer is there is no one size fits all. Answer anyone that tells you always take it early or always delay it is oversimplifying a very important decision. When to take Social Security isn’t just about timing. You’re making a decision about your income and how long your income’s gonna last over the rest of your life, and how much withdrawals you’re gonna have to make from your portfolio. This includes things like longevity and it also includes spousal coordination benefits. So it’s really a lot more complicated than many of you think.

Let me give you some things that you need to consider though in deciding when to take Social Security. Well, first you’ve gotta consider your health. One of the often-overlooked considerations though, is not just your health, but also the health of your spouse. You might think that if your health is bad, you probably should take it as early as possible. The reality, though, is that if you’re the breadwinner and you’re gonna get the highest amount of Social Security, you might delay taking Social Security until you’re 70. Not so much because you think you are gonna benefit from it, but because of the survivor’s benefit.

The survivor’s benefit says that if your spouse is earning less than what you’re earning in Social Security, when you pass away, they’re going to lose their Social Security and they’ll start collecting yours. And because you waited until 70, they’re gonna get a much larger amount. That’s something that is very often overlooked, but your health is really a consideration.

Another consideration is your need for the income. You mentioned, Vanessa, that you’re both 66 years old. And if you don’t have income from other sources, you might be forced to take Social Security just because you have to. Now, if you have income from other sources, then at least it gives you the option to take Social Security when it makes sense for you. But if you need the income right now, then you might be forced to take Social Security, whether it mathematically makes sense or not.

And those are two considerations that I think are important: your health, the survivor’s benefit, and your immediate need for income. There are really three common mistakes that I see. One of ’em is taking it too early, just not understanding that it’s a permanent reduction that’s gonna cause you to get a less amount of income over the rest of your life. Another mistake is the exact opposite, and that is waiting too long without considering the income needs or your risk. And then finally, a third mistake is just not properly coordinating the spousal or survivor benefits.

Thank you Vanessa once again for taking time to write in that question. If you’re like Vanessa though, and you wanna know when’s the best time to take Social Security and you just wanna learn more, well, we’ve put together an animated video that talks solely about Social Security and the ins and outs and what you need to know to make the best decision for you and your family about when to claim it.

If you wanna get that video, we’ll send it to you free of charge. To get it, all you need to do is just go to providencefinancialradio.com/video. Again, it’s providencefinancialradio.com/video. Give us your email address and your information, and you’ll have it show up in your inbox shortly. But you’re gonna enjoy watching it, especially if you wanna learn more about Social Security so you don’t make a huge mistake. To claim your free video about Social Security, just go to providencefinancialradio.com/video and we will get it right out. You’ll have it in your inbox shortly, I promise.

Thank you for joining us here for today’s Providence Financial Retirement Show, where it truly is all about the income. We are your retirement income source, and this is the place where retirees come for income. Really glad that you’re here. I’m Anthony Saccaro. We’re in the middle of a really good show. We’ve been spending our time today talking about the war in Iran and all the economic uncertainties that are going on around us, and some of the underlying effects that they might have on your retirement throughout the Providence Financial Retirement Show.

God Bless.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for educational and informational purposes only and reflects a general discussion from a live radio broadcast. It is not intended as personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Individual circumstances vary, and listeners should consult a qualified professional before making decisions.