TRANSCRIPT

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#49 - Q&A: Social Security Secrets, Widow’s Penalty Warnings, and Working in Retirement

Eric Blake: Welcome to another episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast, where we want to educate and empower women to live your retirement on your terms. I'm your host, Eric Blake. Today we have another q and a episode. I actually had some great questions from our listeners. Also a few questions from our Facebook group to Simply Retirement simply Retirement Podcast Facebook group. Let me get that out so you can find that on Facebook. Also on our Facebook page, where you can find me at Eric Blake cfp. That's my handle across all social media platforms, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, any I can think of any of the others, but that should get you get you where you want to be.

We've got a few questions on social security and taxes. Also an interesting question on working in retirement that I'm gonna talk about. Before we get to that, I wanna bring on Wendy McConnell. Wendy, how are you?

Wendy McConnell: I'm good. Thank you very much. How are you?

Eric Blake: I am good. Thank you once again for joining me, helping me get through these these questions.

So before we get to those, I wanna share just a few thoughts on some of the recently announced changes to Social security and applying for social security benefits. There seems to be a lot of confusion out there before the just to make sure that if you do have a question, a topic suggestion, anything like that, you can go to www.thesimplyretirementpodcast.com/ask Eric.

Back to Social Security. So as we are recording this, we are just a few days from this big deadline. Everybody's worried about March 31st and then this episode will come out after that. But hopefully this will still be valuable. But the some new requirements around identity verification. And specifically if you're applying for benefits or you are, if you are changing your direct deposit account, those are the two big ones.

At March, on March 31st, there's gonna be some new identity requirements where if you cannot go through the online process, you may act, have to actually have to go into a local branch, local social security office. Okay? So it's done, but it doesn't mean you have to go into, there's no physical appointments that are required to apply for benefits.

You wanna make sure you understand what your situation is. So it's not gonna be required to go in, in person to apply for your own benefits or even to change your direct deposit. That's one of the things that has changed in there. Used to take 30 days, basically it was a 30 day hold if you were gonna change your account, your bank account for your direct deposit.

So that's gonna be sped up quite a bit. Basically, they can do it in one day, but what you're gonna have to do is make sure that you, ideally you go online, you set up your, my social security account. And that's either gonna be through the, there's a couple of different options depending on what you prefer, but there's the login.gov, and then there's also the id me, both of those can be used.

You don't need both. You can use one or the other. If you happen to already have one of those set up, you can go and use that. If you don't, you want to go ahead and try to get that done, because that's where that verification process is gonna happen. If for some reason you can't verify your identity, that's when you're gonna have to go into a local office.

So just to make sure there's a lot of confusion around do I now, do I have to go into a, to a local office to apply for benefits? Now the one thing, because this is for our audience obviously we're talking about women who have lost a husband or lost a spouse and you're applying for spousal benefits or your, not spousal, I'm sorry, survivor benefits.

Survivor benefits have always had to be done by appointment. You've always had to do that. So that's not gonna necessarily change with this. Now one of the other things they've made available, I wanna make sure I get this number right. So the agency Social Security Administration recommends calling to request an in-person appointment to begin and complete a claim in one interaction.

So for some reason, you can't verify your identity online. I. You try to apply for benefits, just schedule an appointment to get both of those done. Go in, get your verified, your identity verified, get your application process started. But that phone number you wanna call is (800) 772-1213. So that's a number.

And if that number rings a bell at all, for some of our past episodes on the Social Security Fairness Act, that was also the number that you could use and say, social Security Fairness Act, if you were going through a process, if you were impacted by that as well. So that number, that's a very important number for a lot of things, so make sure you take a note of that and obviously we'll put that in the show notes.

We'll put the links to the different there's been a lot of announcements, different things from the Social Security Administration, and we'll share all those to make sure you can track all this information down.

Wendy McConnell: All right. How was that? That was a lot and a mouthful, but you did it.

Eric Blake: That's again, a lot of confusion.

Now, also, before I forget, if you set up a login on the social security website prior to 2021. You need to go back in and set up a new login through one of those two options I gave you. The login.gov or the ID Me. Again, you don't have to do both one or the other, but if it's been a while since you set up just a traditional type of login, you probably wanna go and do that.

And even if you're unsure, probably wanna go and make sure you've got one of those accounts set up the login.gov or the id? Me? All right, so how about some listener questions?

Wendy McConnell: All right, so the first question is from Lori. She says, I'm planning to retire at the end of the school year. Next year I will be 62.

At that time, I'm wondering if I should go ahead and take survivor's benefits now or take spousal benefits. I think the spousal benefits would be more, I'm thinking I should wait until after I've retire. Just start because of the deductions that take out, they take out for making over the maximum income.

If I wait until I retire, then my income would be less so the deductions should be less. Am I correct on the survive survivor and spousal benefits?

Eric Blake: I. So this is one I actually emailed emailed the listener on this to try to clarify because I think there's some confusion around survivor and Spousal.

So in her mind, she's referring to spousal. I don't know which of these actually she might be talking about, and I didn't get a response, so I'm gonna answer it as best as I can. But a couple of things to think about is if you're talking about survivor benefits, number one, we're gonna go with the assumption that the spouse has passed away.

And more likely than not, that is actually gonna be the higher benefit. So the survivor benefit is a hundred percent of what the spouse, deceased spouse was earning at the time. Or what they would've been eligible for at their full retirement age. So in most cases, that's gonna be the higher the twos.

'cause again, remember spousal benefits is fi up to 50% of your spouse's full retirement age benefit if they are still alive. So I didn't get clarification on which, which, what the circumstances are. So in that case, you're just gonna make the assumption that again, that we're talking survivor benefits is most likely gonna be the larger of the benefits that are available to you.

Again, we're assuming based on, being a teacher or being in education in some form or fashion, that you're not gonna be eligible on your own. And that's again, part of the Social Security Fairness Act. And we'll go into all the details of that. But then the next part of what she's talking about is first she'll be 62 at that time.

Now, technically, if we are truly talking about survivor benefits, she could have applied as early as 60. But she is still working. So there's a couple of things she's worried about there, and that is if she's making too much money, does she lose benefits because of that? Now, here's a really key point that people need to know about when they're talking about social security planning.

And actually, I'm gonna point out a couple of things, but the first one she's worried about is if I'm working and I start Social Security, is it gonna get reduced? Because I'm surpassing, I'm going above the earnings test. Now, here's a key thing to be aware of, is that earnings test in the first year you apply it is a monthly benefit.

It's a monthly earnings test rather than an annual earnings test. So that 23,000 or so divide that by 12, and it doesn't actually start until you start receiving your benefit. So if she waits until she's actually retired, let's say she's 62, she retires day one of her 62nd birthday and then starts social security, she doesn't have to worry about the earnings test at all.

I. Because it is a monthly amount. So she's thinking if I, a lot of times teachers will retire maybe in August. So school year starts in September. She retires in August. Before that school year starts. She's thinking I've earned eight months of income. If I start Social Security, it's gonna get reduced because I had, almost two thirds of a year.

Which in reality, it's actually, it doesn't start until September. So the, it's a monthly earnings test. So instead of having to worry about anything, if she starts September one, she's fully retired, she's not making any earn, she's not having unemployment income. And if social security starts, there is no worry about the earnings test because it's a monthly amount and it starts when you start receiving the benefits.

Wendy McConnell: All right.

Eric Blake: The other thing, and she didn't ask you about the ask about this, but I always wanna point it out, is again, keep in mind if she does start at 62, whichever benefit she's eligible for, spousal survival, whatever it might be, just keep in mind that at 62, it is gonna be reduced from what your maximum benefit could have been.

At full retirement age, which if she's 62, she assume where she's born in what, 1963 or so. So again, her full retirement age is gonna be 67, so that would be the max benefit, especially if we're talking survivor or spousal benefits. So just keep that in mind that it is gonna be reduced quite a bit if you're talking about five years earlier than your full retirement age.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Alright, so next question from the Simply Retirement Facebook group. I have a question on social security. I retired at the age of 62 with a reduced pension due to medical concerns. I recently applied for spousal benefits and was denied. I was told if I had waited to FRA my benefit. Am I saying that right?

Eric Blake: Full retirement age? Yeah.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Wait

Eric Blake: Until full retirement age, I think is what she's saying.

Wendy McConnell: All right, so that would be more than half what my spouse's is. So they determine the amount of what would've been, not what is this correct?

Eric Blake: Yeah. So it's one of those, it's a tricky circumstances where the, if you, I.

Given enough time, if you wait until that full retirement age, your spousal benefit will continue to grow and technically both. There's basically a cap. When you think about the spousal benefit, let's start with that one. So the maximum you can receive is 50% of your spouse's full retirement age benefit.

The earlier you start, it's gonna be reduced. So if you start at 62, which is the earliest you could start it, it's gonna be reduced to basically about 32.5%. So what it sounds like is what she's being advised on is in this particular case, her benefit is enough that by the time she reach the full retirement age, it's going to exceed what her spousal benefit would have been.

So she's actually probably better off under the circumstances of waiting anyway, but that's what it sounds like she's being advised on that. And you technically you could apply. Without knowing the exact numbers, I couldn't really give a full recommendation or full analysis on which is gonna be best for her.

But that's what it sounds like. She's in a situation where basically if she continues to wait a little bit her a hundred percent of hers is going to exceed 50% of his.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Also from the Facebook page. I'm a retired teacher who paid into social security to get my 40 credits. I've been receiving my monthly check for the reduced amount.

Since I am drawing a teacher pension, can I go back and apply for my ex-husband's benefits since his amount would be greater than mine? I was married for 26 years. Are you allowed to reapply after you have already been receiving benefits?

Eric Blake: So the answer would be yes. Again, actually with that caveat that we assume that 50% of his is greater than a hundred percent of hers.

Now, one of the couple of things, key variables we, that we don't have any specifics on is what the ages are. So obviously she has to be at least 62, and if she is, it sounds like she's applied for her own benefits, so she's more likely she's over 62, but we don't know if she's full retirement age, if she's beyond age 70.

We don't know some of those factors. But then if she was married for 26 years, again, the cutoff is 10. So you gotta be married at least 10 years to your former spouse to be eligible for spousal benefits. But yes, she would want to actually go in and apply for that if she never applied before. Go ahead and go and apply, go through that process of applying for spousal benefits, and she's not gonna get the retroactive benefits.

Now, she may be eligible for retroactive benefits, again, based on the Social Security Fairness Act, retroactive act to January, 2024. So more than likely, she's gonna, number one, she's gonna get a lump sum payment based on her own record. She's gonna get an increased benefit monthly benefit based on her own record since she has the 40 credits.

Now, the big question is a hundred percent of hers more or less than 50% of his? And if it sounds like from what she's indicating is that is the case, in which case, yes, now she would want to go in and apply for spousal benefits or ex spousal benefits in this case so that she can get that increase.

But just be aware, it's not gonna be retroactive to anything from the past. It's gonna start whenever she applies. Now we talked about this a couple episodes back. I don't recall the exact episode, but again, she's not eligible for the full retroactive benefits back to January, 2024, based on the fairness that Social Security Fairness Act.

But if she's over full retirement age, she might be able to go back and request that sixth month retroactive payment to get a little bit of a bump from that.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. I have a question from Producer Wendy.

Eric Blake: Producer Wendy, go for it.

Wendy McConnell: Okay, so you can start receiving your benefits early at the age of 62. Yes.

Does that number change when your full retirement age is 67? Is that number only for those who retired full age at 65?

Eric Blake: 62 is always the first the a earliest age you can apply for retirement benefits.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Whether that's, so even if,

Wendy McConnell: even if my official retirement age is 67, I still have the option.

Yes, of going early at 62,

Eric Blake: right? It just means your reduction is different. So the reduction from whatever your full retirement age benefit is gonna be, more or less, depending on whether your full retirement age was 66, 66, and six months, 67. So the reduction amount will change based on what your full retirement age is, but you could always apply as early as 62.

Wendy McConnell: Good to know. Okay, so from the Facebook page, I have been with my common law husband for 12 years. If we do not get married, am I entitled to his social security when or if he passes? When he passes.

Eric Blake: So this is a great question and it's actually more frequent than what may many people might think.

But here's the biggest key. It is state dependent. Does your state recognize common law or do they not? Here in Texas, they do. I. Again, other variables may need to be, we don't know a hundred percent of what's going on here, but in Texas common law is recognized. You could be eligible for survivor benefits based on a common law marriage.

An example, like we have clients in North Carolina. North Carolina does not recognize common law marriage, so you are not eligible. We actually have clients in that same, our planning every year is, we're evaluating her, she's a little bit younger or, and we're looking at, okay, what makes sense for her, knowing that if something happens to him.

She's still only gonna be getting her own benefits. She's not gonna be eligible for survivor benefits. So that has gone into our planning conversations is how do we draw income up until the point she's ready to start turning on her own social security because whatever hers is what she's gonna be getting the rest of her life.

So North Carolina, they don't recognize it. So you would not, she's not gonna get anything, no survivor benefits. So you want to go to your state, go to your local office, contact your local office and say, does our state recognize common law marriage? And that's gonna most likely give you your answer.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah, got some homework to do.

Eric Blake: That is right. There's always homework.

Wendy McConnell: Oh yeah, I know. My favorite. So from the Facebook page as a retired, a widowed retired educator, I was denied benefits in 2014 when I was 65. I still have the letter with the amount I qualified for, but that it was offset by my pension.

Do I have to apply again or do I just wait patiently for something to happen? I'm guessing that's. Not the answer

Eric Blake: Patiently may not be the right terminology. But actually the answer to her question is, based on the guidance that has been provided, she does not need to do anything. She needs to patiently wait.

That is actually the correct answer.

Wendy McConnell: Wow. I would've never guessed that in a million years.

Eric Blake: So basically what we're talking about is we're talking, in this case it, again, it's ba, it's the Social Security Fairness Act, but it's the GPO component, the government pension offset. So basically, again, just to go through how this works, is you take, you're eligible for a.

S pension under non social secur, non social security covered work, which she is, they take two thirds of whatever your pension amount is and subtract that from whatever survivor benefit you would have been eligible for. So basically what this is indicating is that when she applied in 2014, two thirds of her pension basically wiped out whatever she would've been eligible for as a survivor benefit.

The key is that she did apply. This is one that I did talk about in a couple episodes ago where unfortunately, so many were actually advised by the Social Security Administration not to apply because they wouldn't have gotten anything. She fortunately did apply. I don't know that she would need that letter, but the fact that she has, it's just one more tool in the toolbox to make sure that she's gonna get what she's eligible for.

But again, based on Social Security Fairness Act, because she applied, not only is she now gonna be eligible without necessarily having to reapply, I would always contact them and say, okay, here's what my situation is. I wanna get clarity on this. But because she did apply and was denied, she is gonna be eligible for those retroactive benefits.

So she's gonna get a lump sum based on benefits she should have been receiving since January of 2024. So that's gonna be huge. So not only is she gonna get additional income based on the survivor benefits, she's gonna get a lump sum as well.

Wendy McConnell: Okay, this is why I asked the questions and you answered, the next question from the Facebook page is when my husband passed, I was 50 and a half years old. I went to Social Security with my 17-year-old daughter to set up her benefits and I asked if I would receive any. I was told no, just the small funeral amount everyone gets, but when I retired, they gave it to me.

Why not back then?

Eric Blake: Unfortunately, this is just one of the, those little details that, they look at it as it, this is. Survivor insurance. And that's, again, even if you look at the SSI, that, all these different terms. So that's really where it becomes tricky. And unfortunately that's, they look at it as a retirement benefit, that if you live too long, you're gonna have something coming in.

So based on the age, if you've got a. Child that you're caring for, and if they're above a certain age only, they're gonna be eligible for some period of time if they're below a certain age. If it's 16, you, she might have actually been eligible for a caregiver benefit as well, but under these de specific details that she's provided.

She wouldn't have been eligible for the caregiver benefit. Now, I won't get into the details, the nuts and bolts of family maximums, and those are, but those are also things that have to be considered as well. There are some limitations as far as what, how much can actually be received by one single family if you've got children receiving benefits and you've got a caregiver benefit coming in.

Some of those factors, but unfortunately that's just the way it was. The system was designed is to provide something as you're getting older. Not during those care, not specifically during those caregiver years once your child has reached a certain age.

Wendy McConnell: All right, so from the Facebook page also, I have a concern about how filing income taxes affect a surviving wife.

My husband passed away while we still had a mortgage. I am now paying that, yes, I am receiving his social security, but I am now single.

Eric Blake: So this is basically a component of what is called the widow's penalty. And so just to give you a simplified version of this, and this is definitely, I am, I've got in the works very soon, we're gonna do an epi series of podcast episodes on this topic because I want, number one, I wanna, I think it would be unhelpful to do an episode just breaking down what the widow's penalty is, but also then within those individual components like social security, like taxes, income planning.

Within those different components, what are some of the strategies that you either can utilize if this is affecting you, or ideally, what are some of the things you could be doing prior to this becoming an impact on you? Prior to a spouse passing, but basically the simplified version of this is the widow's penalty means that you've got one spouse that passes number one, you're gonna lose one of those social security benefits.

Think about how the social security system was designed. When it first started back in the thirties, for the most part it was the husband was working, the wife wasn't. That's where the spousal benefit comes in. So you can get the spouse, the non-working spouse, could get 50% of the working spouse's benefit, and that's pretty much, that is how a lot of families worked today.

A lot of spouses are two, you got two income families throughout their working years, and now they're basically both getting full Social security benefits. Yeah, one of those goes away and that could be si significant on the family's cash flow and especially if you're a surviving spouse, that can impact your income quite a bit.

But if you say, and I'll just give you some easy math. Let's say you've got maybe 10,000 a month and in total income from IRA distributions, maybe some pensions in there, social security, so on and so forth. If I say, okay, I've got $10,000 in total. 3000 of that was his benefit. 3000 of that was her benefit for social security purposes.

Well, $10,000 subtract three for his. Now I'm at seven. Your income got reduced by about 30%, but your tax brackets got cut in half because instead of being able to file jointly as she indicates, now you're filing single. So your income didn't change a whole lot. It did change by some, and $3,000 can obviously be significant.

So your income got cut by about 30%, but your tax bracket got cut by 50%. So you could have gotten a reduction in income, but actually still be in a higher tax bracket. That's what basically she's thinking about what's, what she's worried about and what she sounds like she's dealing with is basically what we refer to as the widow's penalty.

And there's the social security factor where you lose one of those Social security benefits. There's obviously, I just talked on about the tax implications being your social security, your tax brackets getting cut in half. There's also things like, if your income's high enough, it might push you into what are called Irma surcharges.

You might be paying more for Medicare. Which is what that Irma indicates. So again, your income may not have changed and it actually may have gone down, but if it's high enough, it might push you into a higher Medicare, part B threshold. So these are all the different things that and unfortunately we had a client, that husband recently passed away.

She remembered these conversations that we had. You said I didn't you, I think I remember you saying that if something happens to one of us, we might actually end up paying more in taxes. That's really where that widow's penalty, the concept itself, understanding it, but also what are the strategies, what are some of the things you can do to prepare in advance or even on the back end, what are some of the things you need to be aware of?

And obviously being more proactive on the front end is always gonna be better. Whether we're talking about diversifying your portfolio from tax standpoint, should you be thinking about Roth conversions today versus later? Because one of the things and I touched on some of these other areas, require distributions.

So you think about, if it's a husband and wife, and let's say they both have $500,000 in their IRA accounts. When they get to RMD Age, each of 'em have their own RMD. Now husband passes away and now wife has a million dollars in hers. She's taken the same RMD amount as they both would've taken together.

Now she's in a higher tax bracket.

Wendy McConnell: Oh yeah.

Eric Blake: So that's really where the planning comes in, is again, looking at some of more the advanced plan. This is not something you can do. Again, I hate to say that you, it's not something you can do in the middle of it. There's a lot of times there's nothing you can do after it.

You gotta be proactive now saying, okay, if I retire at 62 and I don't start social security until 67, within those five years, should I be thinking about Roth conversions? I'd be thinking about some of these more proactive tax strategies to alleviate that risk. Of the widow's penalty down the road because it, unfortunately it is gonna happen.

We know, we don't know which spouse is always gonna pass away. Statistically, the husband passes before the wife, but at some point it's gonna be an issue. There's a stat that I use a lot that says 80 to 90% of women are going to be solely responsible for their financial situation at some point in their lifetime.

Could be divorce, could be widowed, just could be, 'cause they're single by choice. But at some point you're gonna have to be responsible for your financial situation. The more advanced planning you can do, the better off you're ultimately gonna be.

Wendy McConnell: All right, so this is our last question from Marian. It's very interesting.

She says, I'm 72 and I'm looking for side work to generate some extra income in that vein, I recently completed a nine week training course. At the end of the course, attendees were given an opportunity to form an alliance with the course founder to generate leads for sales. The Alliance requires paying an annual fee plus a per lead fee.

Out of that, I would get brain brand name, affiliation, and solid, but not guaranteed to buy leads. Do you think I should join or go out on my own with no guarantee of leads, but also no annual or per lead? Feeds?

Eric Blake: Feeds. So I was a little bit hesitant to include this question, but I thought, just thinking out loud.

I can't really give a specific recommendation. And Wendy, feel free to chime in if you've got any thoughts about this, but I can't necessarily chime in. But since I don't really know what the opportunity, what the business is, right. But number one, I would definitely commend you for going out, finding an opportunity, looking for something.

I think the biggest questions I always ask regardless of what the work is, if you're making a decision to work in retirement, and I'm gonna go with the assumption that she's retired and she, again, just looking for extra income. Is this something that your, is it a long term situation or is it a short term?

That would be question one. Number two, is it something that you're passionate about? Is it something that you think you're gonna enjoy doing? Because that, that could dictate a lot of how, what your success is gonna be. Especially if you're talking about leads coming in, being provided for you, versus you having to go out and find your own leads.

The only other thing specific to this particular opportunity would be I would talk to somebody who's either had success or hopefully maybe more than one, talk to a couple of people that have said, yes, I've gone through it. Here's the way it really works. Try to get some real life. Input from somebody who's gone through it.

That's the only specific recommendation I could give you without really knowing what this opportunity is. But again, I would come back to saying, is this something you think you're gonna enjoy, something you're gonna be passionate about? Or is it just sound like a good opportunity to make a decent amount of money in a limited amount of time?

Go into it, make sure you're going into it for the right reason. I dunno, Wendy, you got any other thoughts about this? Again, it's it, I was hesitant to put it in there, but I thought, a lot of more people are looking for things to do, like side hustles while they're retired, all that kind of thing.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah. I think that, if it's a sales position, she obviously was prepared to sell. I personally just am always wary of pay upfront. I don't really like that. System, but that's just my own personal opinion.

Eric Blake: And I think it sounds like what probably it's more than likely one of the, where she's doing it on her own or doing it through this particular organization.

It's like a, it's a numbers game. Yeah. I remember. So when I first started I was with American Express Financial Advisors. This was 1999. I. We used to we used to drool when the leads would come out. So we would get 30 leads a month from credit card holders that had quote unquote, requested information about financial services.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: So we would get those and that, when it was dial time, you had your 30 leads and you just tried, you were trying to get through 'em, and you had your script and everything. So you had to know that, a lot of 'em, they, they may have not realized they requested information, they checked something they didn't realize.

But there was gonna be maybe one or two in those 30 that, yeah, really was interested in getting more guidance, maybe meeting with a financial advisor. So I think you gotta know to kinda understand it's gonna be a numbers game based on what she's describing. So going into that, if you're comfortable with that idea I guess it's also, there's gonna be some aspect of need.

Do you need money or is it again, is it truly just extra income? Because there's a lot of opportunities I saw, told my son one time, he was asking me, Hey, I'd like to start investing and do a little bit more, but I don't feel like I'm making enough. I said there's always a way to make money. He ended up doing one of the food things.

Wendy McConnell: Oh, like GrubHub or, yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So he ended

Eric Blake: up going, doing that for a while, and then he ended up doing ship. He liked that better, which he definitely, that's one of the areas my son takes after me. So he figured out that if he could go to the same store every time, he could figure out where everything was at.

So he would only take orders from Target.

Wendy McConnell: Oh geez. So

Eric Blake: that he could find all the stuff quicker and get 'em out, and maybe he'll make a little bit more money when he was doing it.

Wendy McConnell: Oh my goodness.

Eric Blake: I think, again, just understanding, what the, truly making sure you, you know what's involved here, but I would say talk to some, I talk to 2, 3, 4 people that have had success.

Hopefully you can find somebody. I would even ask them, Hey, can you refer me to two or three people that have, that are doing this or making it work? And you have to just hope that they're gonna be truthful with it. But that would be my suggestion is make sure it's something you think you're gonna enjoy doing.

Talk to a few people that have had success doing it.

Wendy McConnell: I agree wholeheartedly. I.

Eric Blake: Awesome. Wendy, thank you again for helping me get through all these questions. Thank you for tuning into the this episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe, share it with a family member, share it with friends.

For more free resources and episodes, visit us at www.thesimplyretirementpodcast.com. One more thing I wanna throw in at this time. If you're ready to answer the really big questions, the really big retirement questions. How can I coordinate retirement withdrawals and maximize my income? What can I do to lower my tax bill now and in retirement?

How can my investments be optimized for retirement? I. Make sure you visit us at Get My Simply retirement roadmap.com to find out how we can help you get on the right path to the retirement you deserve.

Until next time, please remember, retirement is not the end of the road. It is the start of a new journey.

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All investing involves risk including loss of principal. Results will vary. Past performance is no indication of future results or success. Market conditions change continuously.

Information here is provided, in part, by third-party sources. These sources are generally deemed to be reliable; however, neither Blake Wealth Management nor RFG Advisory guarantee the accuracy of third-party sources. The views expressed here are those of Blake Wealth Management. They do not necessarily represent those of RFG Advisory, their employees, or their clients.

This commentary should not be regarded as a description of advisory services provided by Blake Wealth Management or RFG Advisory, or performance returns of any client. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice.