Busting Gen X Money Myths

Join Arsenal Financial advisors Doug Orifice and Jeremy Vaille as they open up their relaxed office conversations about various financial topics for everybody to hear. This episode they get together to break down some money myths affecting Gen Xers.  Listen to learn about:

• Should I invest when the market is at an all-time high?
• Do I need 10x my salary in order to retire? (Doug gets a little spicy on this one!)
• Will Medicare cover all of my healthcare costs?
• I have a will, do I need an estate plan?
• Am I too old to make Roth contributions?
• Then finish up with some dad jokes from Jeremy and community updates from the guys.

Learn more about Doug, Jeremy, and Arsenal Financial at arsenalfinancial.com or call (781) 335-9100.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener’s personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.

Transcript

Doug: 0:04

Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast. This is just two guys trying to give the people a listenable podcast about money and finance. We are coming to you from two different locations, Watertown, Massachusetts, and Norwell, Massachusetts. My name is Doug Orifice, I'm a financial planner, and our firm is Arsenal Financial. With me my partner, my buddy Jeremy Vaille, a recovering engineer. JV, good morning. What's up?

Jeremy: 0:28

Good morning. Good morning, a little under the weather this week, but looking forward to getting away from the cold temps next week.

Doug: 0:35

Yeah, I don't know when this comes out, but happy Valentine's Day and happy belated birthday.

Jeremy: 0:41

Thank you, yes, I'm 29. What do the kids say? 18th anniversary of 29, or something like that.

Doug: 0:46

I like that. You know, we're going to out you for your age because our whole podcast is going to be about Gen Xers. So it is what it is. You can't hide from that. You got some warm weather coming, though, huh.

Jeremy: 0:57

Yeah yeah, Marco Island. We're going for a few days next week for vacation and you've got some cold weather coming, eh.

Doug: 1:04

Yeah, you know well, if you go south, I have to keep things, as always, in equilibrium, right? So I will go further north, freeze my face off and enjoy the New England air outside on a mountain. So looking forward to that, should be good.

Jeremy: 1:14

You finally got a good year of snow earlier in the season.

Doug: 1:19

It's been awesome, it's been great. You know New Hampshire, Vermont mountains, good shape. It's a skier and snowboarder's dream right now. So we just got to battle the crowds for February vacation.

Jeremy: 1:29

Not great for mountain biking, but we'll get to that.

Doug: 1:32

You'll get your time. Oh man, you ready for this today?

Jeremy: 1:36

Let's do it. I think you're a little spicy though.

Doug: 1:39

Yeah, we got a new segment, the spicy segment, coming, so we'll get into that, right. So the point of today's podcast is actually having a little bit of fun with your fun segment, because you've done the myth buster the last couple of times, right, where we take investments or financial planning or finance myth or maybe a guideline, and maybe we dig a little bit deeper into it, right. So we're just going to do a whole podcast of money myths in the spirit of your birthday, my Gen X friend. We're going to talk about five Generation X money myths. Oh, I don't have it in front of me, but the Gen X cohort is what, born somewhere between 1965, six, all the way through 1981. Is that right? 

Jeremy: 2:18

Something like that? Yeah, I think you're in there plus or minus a year or so.

Doug: 2:22

So this may be geared to our peer group, which is in our mid 40s all the way to late 50s, early 60s, right.

Jeremy: 2:31

About 45 to 60, somewhere in there.

Doug: 2:31

Yeah, but from like a financial planning point of view, this is an interesting group because this is a group that you know, 20 years ago maybe didn't have a care in the world. You're just starting to work, you're running hard. Maybe you're just starting a family, or maybe just thinking about it for the first time, or it's not even a thought, and then you wake up one day and you're 50 and you're like, oh my god, I have to figure out the next 10 years.

Jeremy: 2:52

One of your famous one-liners is not quite there, but limited runway.

Doug: 2:57

That's right, limited runway. You know it's the limited runway podcast today. So we're going to dig into five Gen X money myths and in the middle we'll have a little fun. We'll add a little segment into this, the spicy segment. We'll get a couple of dad jokes from you later on, so let's just dig into it. All right, are we ready for myth number one, JV?

Jeremy: 03:15

Let's hit it.

Doug: 03:17

Myth number one and this is actually a revisit from the last time we did this. Never invest when the market is at an all-time high. What do you think of that one?

Jeremy: 3:25

Interesting you mentioned it. I think we were really close to an all-time high yesterday. 

Doug: 3:30

Yeah, very close,

Jeremy: 3:31

Like three points off the S&P high, all-time high.

Doug: 3:33

So, JV, should I pull all of my stock investments out of the stock market today?

Jeremy: 3:37

No, I would say absolutely not. I mean we talked when we did address this. We had somewhere on the lines of 57 all-time highs in 2024. And yesterday we're still scratching close to the top. I think the all-time high was January of this year, so we're already having all-time highs again this year. Now each one of those times last year 57 times where you’re thinking I shouldn't invest, or you might've been thinking that you shouldn't, but that isn't the right answer.

Doug: 4:00

And I think I want to hit on that too is part of what we want to think about when we're investing is just addressing and being aware of the behavioral finance part of it, right. So you know when you're buying something that is at its most expensive. You know, if you're buying a house and said house has never been listed for X price before and you're like, man, I don't want to pay that. I've never paid that much for a house. There is a component of it is what it is and this is the new price in our current world. So I think you and I empathize with our clients when they have some fear and some skittishness about investing at this point on the timeline. And there is some truth to it that you may not be buying at the best price in the world, right. However, the time value of money piece of it still applies, no matter what. Because you could have bought at the S&P all-time high at some point in 1999, and you're still ahead of the game, or 2015, and you're still ahead of the game. A recent example.

Doug: 4:57

This is kind of a frustrating period, a sneaky, frustrating period of time to be an investor. 12-31-2021, so the end of 2021, we ended at an all-time high. S&P was in and around 4,800, just shy of 4,800. End of 2021, inflation started to creep into the system. We're noticing higher prices. Interest rates are starting to tick up. All of a sudden, early in 2022, the Fed starts raising rates aggressively to combat inflation and that leads to a miserable, miserable 2022 for all investors.

Doug: 5:31

The only thing that really made money, cash. Certainly there were some things that made money, but from wide general asset classes, stocks were down 20. Most bonds were down. Cash was up a little bit. So it took you all the way to the end of 2023 just to get back to the end of 2021 market high. Super frustrating, right. But, JV, if you're going to invest in stocks, what's your timeframe? How long do you need to let an account cook if you're a stock investor? What would you say? 

Jeremy: 6:01

Five years, three to five years? 

Doug: 6:04

Probably at least five years, right. Because I think a couple of years of stock market returns and stock market data. Anything could happen, right. So you could make a round trip from the end of 21 to 2023. But, like you said, here we are yesterday, new all-time highs and more often than not when you and I are using stock investments as a tool from the toolkit, it's because you have a long time horizon.

Jeremy: 6:27

Really that range of outcomes, right. We've seen that chart before where over the one year, right, you might be up 40%, you might be down 40%, but as you go out the timeline, that range of outcomes narrow. So that over the long run, yeah, you're going to more likely be positive than negative, but in the short run you have that volatility piece. But I think this really plays well to the Gen X crowd, because thinking about investing at all time highs you're like, shoot, it's not as easy as it used to be because now I'm in my limited runway phase. I've only got 10 years. I built my nest egg now. Now I've got a fear of loss and that behavioral piece really rears its head 

Doug: 7:01

Right. Or the opposite, which is like hey, this has been working since I've been 30. Why change it? Right? Here's the good news. Do you invest in just stocks when you're an investor or can you invest in more than that?

Jeremy: 7:11

All sorts of things. 

Doug: 7:12

There's all kinds of things you can invest in, right. I mean, the toolkit an investor has today is absolutely remarkable. There's an ETF, an exchange traded fund, for just about everything. We have higher interest rates right now, there's money to be made in income oriented investments. What I can’t go like 15 minutes without saying income investing, right. So yeah, you know, I guess to button this one up, it is often scary and feels uneasy when you’re putting money to work when something like the S&P is at an all-time high. But just because the S&P is at an all-time high doesn't mean that there isn't other spots of value across different investments. So I guess here's our message, right. Yeah, it's okay to invest when there's an all-time high, but go back to the drawing board for our Gen X pals. You're not 25 anymore, you're not 30 anymore, right. Maybe you woke up, looked in the mirror and maybe you're me. You're like man, that beard's got more grey in it than I remembered, even yesterday. So maybe it's time to think about my limited runway, be more balanced and maybe have less risk of the downside if you are putting money in at an all-time high.

Jeremy: 8:21

Another Douglas classic one-liner is we got a lot more aisles of the grocery store open now than we ever did in the last 20 years.

Doug: 8:30

Heck yes. During our low interest rate period, half the grocery store, shelves are empty. Now that interest rates are higher, you get a full grocery store of options in terms of your investor toolkit. All right. So I think we busted that myth, right. Does that deserve sound effects? I don't know. I don't know. We'll find out. [Boom busted] All right. JV, number two relates to sort of like the blanket calculation for retirement. I'll read the quote. I want to get your reaction here. Jeremy comma, is it true that I need 10 times my salary in order to retire?

Jeremy: 9:03

I think I get that question in some way, shape, or form a couple of times a week. Am I on track? Have I done enough? What do I need, right? There's a lot of companies investment firms putting out material that says you need X amount to retire. 10 times being one of them. There's more sophisticated calculators with a lot of assumptions built in. But you know, but it's not just black and white, it's not just a straightforward, easy answer. If it were, then we would know the number we're always solving for. But I would ask you back, Douglas, what will inflation be? While you're getting to that retirement date?

Doug: 9:36

Amongst a whole other different variables and questions, right.

Jeremy: 9:40

How long are you going to live? Are you going to have a medical event? What are markets going to do? And this is over the course of decades. So and all these questions are intentionally unanswerable because there are way too many unknowns, way too many variables to be able to accurately quantify this. What's your spending habits and saving habits going to be like over the next 10, 20 years?

Doug: 10:01

But, Jeremy, having 10 times my salary today? Would that cover all the unknown?

Jeremy: 10:06

Maybe, maybe not. It all depends, and that's why we take a very customized, personalized approach, not only taking into account a lot of these factors and trying to put pen to paper, but it's really individualized and it depends on the individual and the family that we're talking about.

Doug: 10:22

Yeah, I mean especially the family piece of it too. You know, combined you and I have been doing this for a long time, right. So I mean, if you add up all the conversations we've had about this with folks over the years, that's a lot of reps, that's a lot of data points. We've been lucky enough to interact with and advise just fascinating people and a lot of people who play the role as family glue. So, to your point, it's like, hey, well, 10 times my salary will that cover everything? Well, you know what are your responsibilities? Are you somebody who is a single person in your 70s and you're wired to be normally frugal? Maybe you didn't need 10X to retire, right. Are you the family glue who continues to take care of multiple generations downstream and upstream from you? Maybe taking care of mom who you just built an in-law apartment for, your two kids who have graduated but need help with their expensive apartments in Boston, while the third kid is still in college, and then God knows what grandkids are on the way. We've seen and lived these stories where we just have a ton of heart and effort from clients who are trying to help everything, but the price tag for that, maybe 10x that salary doesn't cover all of those responsibilities. And maybe if things are a little bit more simple and you have more frugal wiring, we'll call it. Maybe you don't need the 10X right. 

Jeremy: 11:43

Way too much, yeah.

Doug: 11:42

Yeah, there's two things here. Point number one and point number two might lead me to my spicy segment here, right. Point number one, at least for you and me, this is what keeps this fun and interesting. And this is where I don't think the answers to your questions about money matters will be completely artificial intelligenced away. Although I think a lot of tools that are coming online that are related to artificial intelligence and finance will be extremely helpful to investors, to savers, and even to you and me. But the dynamism within just a single family and their own circumstances is completely unique. We never see two clients that are alike. Point number two, and I think this gets me to the spicy segment, and people might be saying what is the spicy segment? Right? Do you like Mexican food or hot sauce?

Jeremy: 12:27

We do, actually. 

Doug: 12:28 

So sometimes, if I get aggravated about a certain topic, you'll tell me I'm getting spicy. I'm going to get spicy about one thing, and it relates to this I need the 10 times my salary to retire. [I’m getting spicy]

Doug: 12:40

So some of you out there may have a 401k provider and when you log into your 401k you may get this very well-intended calculation about what your retirement income may look like. Because your 401k provider understands what the balance of your 401k is, understands what it's invested in, and understands your age. And if it understands your age it may also understand what you may get for social security later on down the line. So some of these retirement plan providers will give you a little calculation as soon as you log in and it says, hey, based on what you're doing, you can expect $7,300 in retirement. And then sometimes there's even like a needle that says you're good, you're not quite good, you're ready, you're not quite ready.

Doug: 13:21

I find these things to be completely useless because there's no context there. You get $7,300 a month. They don't know if you have a spouse. They don't know how many mouths you have to feed. They don't know about the complexity of your life. $7,300 to one person could be more income than you will ever need in a month. $7,300 to another person might not even be 50% of expenses.

Jeremy: 13:49

For all the reasons we just talked about.

Doug: 13:51

For all the reasons we talked about. Meanwhile, you have an interface on a dashboard that says hey, you're good, don't worry about it, or hey, you know what? You're never ready. 

Jeremy: 13:59

It's going to either give you that overconfidence, hey, I'm good, I can either cut back a little bit or just keep going this way or this is just an insurmountable goal. I'm never going to get there anyway, why bother?

Doug: 14:11

Right, the other thing you and I have learned the hard way is that when somebody retires this is not linear math. Somebody retires at 60 something, from 60 something to 70 something, this is when our clients want to do stuff. To travel, to spend a few extra dollars to help family, to be with grandkids, whatever it is you know, to live out a second, a third or a fourth chapter. So generally those first 10 years after retirement, spend a little bit more money.

Jeremy: 14:37

Hopefully you are doing the things you want to do.

Doug: 14:40

Correct. Then things may be quiet down.

Jeremy: 14:42

At the end, maybe, yeah, those things quiet down, but then you got more healthcare expenses or some other expenses that replace that. 

Doug: 14:49

Correct. So as I wrote down on my notes here. Right, that little interface on your retirement plan. If you have one of these that says, hey, it's 7,300 bucks a month, you're in good shape, right. Or 7,300 bucks a month, you're going to have to work until you're 90. It doesn't know your expenses, your complexity, your family, your spouse, your dogs, your cats, your rabbits, your zebras, your uncle Jack, your son Jack, it doesn't know, Jack, you know.

Doug: 15:12

So we always talk about setting a bullseye, knowing what to aim at, and a lot of these interfaces don't know what your bullseye are. Whether you're working with somebody professionally or doing it on your own, just make sure that you're setting these bullseyes and goals. So with that, I'm putting the hot sauce away. Had to get that out. All right, shall we move on? 

Jeremy: 15:32

Yeah, yeah. 

Doug: 15:33

Generation X myth number three and this maybe is geared towards Gen Xers that are a little bit closer to retirement. JV, I'm going to ask you this question. Jeremy, Medicare will cover all of my healthcare costs, right?

Jeremy: 15:45

Not true. So a study done in 2024 that a couple age 65, so two people turning 65, enrolling in Medicare, may need an additional $330,000 for out-of-pocket expenses.

Doug: 16:00

Over their lifetime

Jeremy: 16:01

Over the course of the rest of their lives. That's a big number. That's like a college funding number, that's like a house funding number. 

Doug: 16:11

Right, and that's not to throw extra fright out there. It's just that if you have enrolled in Medicare, you have your Medicare supplemental plan. It does take care of the lion's share of expenses, but not everything, not everything. So I guess, as you're planning and as you're thinking about moving on into retirement to maybe part of the kitty, the cash reserves or as we like to call it, the Swiss army knife fund, should be reserved for healthcare type expenses.

Jeremy: 16:36

Or maximizing things like health savings accounts.

Doug: 16:37

Correct, correct. While you can.

Jeremy: 16:41

Triple threat. 

Doug: 16:42

Some items that we have often sent out money and checks to cover too is oftentimes dental work, eye care, and hearing, hearing aids so on and so forth, often not covered, often huge out-of-pocket expenses. Teeth eyes, ears.

Jeremy: 17:00

The things that are going wrong about them.

Doug: 17:02

All pretty important too, right. Oddly not covered to the extent that you would like.

Jeremy: 17:12

So what are the costs beyond those things? Right, you got premiums, you got deductibles, you got other out-of-pocket costs and co-pays. And oh, by the way, that $330,000 number does not include long-term care coverage. So if you need some assisted living or nursing home care, that's an additional expense beyond that.

Doug: 17:25

So you know, one area where we spend a lot of time too, and especially for our retirees who are looking to stop working before age 65, too, is to kind of budget sort of I guess in a tiered way, what health healthcare expenses might look like. You know, 62 to 65, and then during your Medicare life and then during your later in life piece right, stress, testing this and making sure we're okay. So no, medicare will not cover all of your healthcare costs. It is incredible how much gets covered between Medicare and your supplemental plan, but it doesn't cover everything.

Doug: 18:00

The other thing too, you know, if you're an early retiree out there or you're thinking about it and you live here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we are lucky enough where we do have universal healthcare. If you have shopped recently on Massachusetts Health Connector, having universal healthcare doesn't mean it's universally inexpensive. It's an income-based program where the higher your income, the higher your premium. So you know, if you're in your fifties and you're thinking about an early retirement, go to Google, type in Health Connector Massachusetts, go shop around, go get some quotes and whatnot and just gain some insight into what you may be in for if you do have that gap between ages. You know, young sixties to 65, before you're on Medicare and have that supplemental.

Jeremy: 18:40

I think a lot of the times that comes up are, I want to retire a little bit early, but I need to stay in this job until I get to Medicare.

Doug: 18:46

Right, but you don't always have to, you know, and that's where the numbers come into play. All right, so I think myth there, busted. [Boom busted] Number four. Jeremy, I have a will and I'm single, so I don't need an estate plan, I'm all set. How does that ring with you?

Jeremy: 19:04

It gives me some pause and I think the primary thing that gives me concern about that is in case of cognitive impairment. You know, let’s just say you have some sort of medical event where you can’t necessarily make decisions on your own anymore and now all of sudden that's left up to medical professionals, the court, someone else that is going to kind of dictate how everything plays out for you. 

Doug: 19:27

So let's be real in our job, this is probably the least enjoyable part of the planning piece, right is estate planning. And not the doing the estate planning which we don't do estate planning, we walk around the edges of it, we illustrate the need and generally clients working with an estate planner right. But it's not fun, like it's not going out on a Saturday night and having a nice dinner, going to a concert, whatever it is. It is generally dreaded by a lot of people, right, because you're thinking of your own mortality and what have you. I will say there are a number of fantastic estate planners out there who can make this process pretty easy, pretty digestible for you.

Doug: 20:01

And to your point, I think one of the things I worry about, just like you mentioned, is the what if you're still alive part. It's not just about like what happens in the afterworld and you know, sometimes we get like the I don't care what's going to happen after I die, right, you know that's somebody else's problem, somebody else can clean it up. Or you know somebody's like I just want to make it easy for my kids and so long as I get beneficiaries squared away, I'm good. But yeah, you and I worry about the, what if you're still here? What if you're still here and you can't make decisions? Who would you want to pilot the ship?

Jeremy: 20:30

Yeah, I think the other thing that goes with this myth is, I have a will, I'm all set. I think there's a understanding or a myth out there that's, hey, if I got a will, I'm good to go. But a will is going to have to go to the courts. A will is going to have to go through probate. A will means that a judge is going to be having to decide some things for you and put some things in place, and that isn't always necessarily what you want.

Doug: 20:53

Right. And again, our little disclaimer, not given legal advice. We don't give legal advice here, but a proper estate plan gives a lot of direction. And I always joke as Patriots fans here is the Bill Belichick playbook right, or should we call it the Mike Vrabel playbook? Yeah, let's go. The Mike Vrabel playbook for your needs and wants. 

Jeremy: 21:12

You should see how his first season goes. 

Doug: 21:14

It can't be worse than last year. It can't possibly be worse than last year. You know what? I would have rather spent 10 hours redoing my estate plan than watching 10 hours of the 2024 Patriots.

Jeremy: 21:27

You probably did put more time into your estate plan than the Patriots last year.

Doug: 21:31

I don't know, I might have, I might have. I also have a seventh grader who loves the Patriots no matter what. So I get dragged into some bad football, right. So the Mike Vrabel playbook, you know, doesn't roll off the tongue as well as like Bill Belichick playbook, but we'll work with it. So, anyways, I don't need an estate plan, I'm all set. I guess I'd argue like, if you have a little bit of financial complexity and you have some unique desires and you want to just protect yourself and make it easy for folks, the Vrabel Playbook, consider it. You know.[Boom busted]. Last one. Hey, Jeremy, I've made too much money this year. I can't put Roth money away. True or false? 

Jeremy: 22:08

False. Busted. So let's back up the ship a little bit. Roth contributions are after-tax contributions that grow tax-deferred and then are essentially income tax-free when you take them out in retirement. 

Doug: 22:22

That sounds desirable.

Jeremy: 22:23

Yeah, pretty good, right? So we love Roth money. We talk about Roth money all the time because we're in, believe it or not, a relatively low tax environment as far as history goes. And given what's happened in the world in the last five years, good chance tax rates are going to continue to go up. So having tax-free money or income, very desirable.

Jeremy: 22:43

So you're right, there are limits when it comes to putting money into a Roth IRA. So this year the limit, you can put $7,000 if you're under 50, an extra $1,000 if you're over 50, so $8,000 into a Roth or traditional IRA. But the Roth IRA has income limits. So if you show, as a single person, over $150,000 worth of income, modified adjusted gross income, you're going to have lesser ability to contribute to that. If you're married, filing jointly, that number starts at $236,000. So if you exceed those thresholds, there are a couple of ways that you could potentially invest in Roth vehicles. 

Doug: 23:22

More ways than ever this year, right.

Jeremy: 23:23

More ways than ever this year because of Secure Act 2.0, you can now use a simple IRA and a SEP IRA to contribute into a Roth account. That never was the case before. Further, most 401ks now have a Roth provision.

Doug: 23:37

I would love to get the stat on that, but my guess would be well over 95% of 401k plans have a Roth provision.

Jeremy: 23:45

When did those start getting implemented into the 401k?

Doug: 23:49

Oh God, I think we're not quite at the 10-year period. I think it was 2016 or 17. 

Jeremy: 23:54

So relatively new. 

Doug: 23:55

Yeah, it used to be a rarity when you'd see it, but now it's extremely common and should be there. Any 401k you and I put into place has a Roth provision for folks.

Jeremy: 24:04

And those income limits don't apply. So you could make $700,000 in modified adjusted gross income. You can put as much as you can up to the IRS limit into a 401k Roth account.

Doug: 24:17

Here's something for our Gen Xers to keep in mind too, right. If you are thinking about retirement, let's say you're 10 years away and let's say you've done a great job and you've been saving since your twenties and you have a nice 401k. You may have been doing most of this in a pre-tax bucket. And if you've done most of this in a pre-tax bucket, right the one that gives you a little tax break up front but comes out taxable like a paycheck later on down the line, you're going to have to take a minimum required distribution if you're a Gen Xer, probably at the age of 75. So if that's the case, we might actually run your numbers and we might say, hey, you know what, you have enough in this pre-tax bucket.

Doug: 24:51

If you have three or four years left and we're in a fairly, like you mentioned, a fairly forgiving federal tax bracket system right now. The most forgiving system since before World War II, right, go back and look at the data. It may make sense for you to take advantage of the Roth in your 401k as much as you can in your last few years as to not add to that required distribution number, number one. And then number two, like you said, have a tax-free kitty right and that tax-free kitty might be for you, for trips or one-off expenses, maybe in your 70s, maybe it's for the money that you never use because the Roth tax-free money gets passed to your family tax-free.

Jeremy: 25:31

You know, let's say you're 60. You might have 20 more years of investing, 25, 30, even if you can get that tax-free growth.

Doug: 25:38

I almost feel like we should have called this number five the Roth one. I'm too old to do a Roth. Because I don't think you're ever too old to do the Roth, depending on your situation. Everybody loves tax-free something, right? This is when we get something tax-free. All right, I can't put Roth money away. I've made too much. I think we busted that myth. I think we busted all five myths, right.

Jermey: 25:59

Busted them all. [Boom busted]

Doug: 26:01

So, as we tie all these things together, right. Because, again, I think this was geared towards those folks out there who are thinking about their finances and their retirement, they're investing from the ages of 45 to 60.

Doug: 26:14

A couple of tenets here. I think rules of thumb are generally helpful, but dig deeper, right. There's a whole lot of variables that you have to consider. Every person's situation is unique. Your finances and your particular issues deserve some time, no matter how you decide to go about it. For those who are doing it on their own, just make sure that you carve out some time to, you know, put some bullseyes out there and try and think about all the different variables that go into planning a retirement, you know.

Jeremy: 26:44

I like how you said that. Your planning, your finances deserve some time. 

Doug: 26:48

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Cause you don't, you don't want to do this right when you're up against it.

Jeremy: 26:52

Just like our college planning conversation. Got to plan ahead.

Doug: 26:56

So if you all have questions out there or thoughts, or you think we missed something or you think there's another Gen X myth, feel free to drop us a line at info at arsenalfinancial.com. All right, so I think we're done busting myths for the day. We'll save our next mythbuster for our next podcast, next time. You got a dad joke for me?

Jeremy: 27:15

Yeah, definitely. [Hold on, daddy, don't try to be cool. Don't try to be cool, bro, with your dad jokes.] I got two. I like one better than the other, but I'll throw them at you. Okay, here we go. Where do polar bears keep their money?

Doug: 27:34

Matt, you or I is going to get this today. Matt said the snow bank.

Jeremy: 27:39

The snow bank. Nailed it.

Doug 27:40

Yes, I knew it. Awesome. Matt Hanna, point scored. Is that your first of the season? 

Jeremy: 27:46

I know that was kind of a layup, Matt. You know, I'm not going to give you too much credit.

Doug: 27:51

So Matt just said he came off third shift, no goalie, empty netter. 30 seconds left. Ripped a goal, you know.

Jeremy: 27:58

Skated right into it. All right. Second one. What happens if someone slaps you at a high frequency? It's the engineering nerd coming in.

Doug: 28:08

Oh man, you recovering engineers. Got me. Matt, anything? What happens if you get slapped at a high frequency, right?

Jeremy: 28:20

What happens if someone slaps you at a high frequency? It megahertz. 

Doug: 28:25

Oh my god, I'm so disappointed in myself. We should have got that, oh man. 

Jeremy: 28:32

Pretty good one though.

Doug: 28:33

That was good. Today's were good. 

Jeremy: 28: 35

You did great on your spicy segment, by the way. I loved it. Good job spicing it up a little bit. 

Doug: 28:40

Oh, I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that. 

Jeremy: 28:42

I'm going to expect more animation every time we spice it. 

Doug: 28:45

I will, I will. I promise you a little bit spicier of a segment in the spicy segment next time. 

Jeremy: 28:49

Getting your feet wet. 

Doug: 28:50

Hey, do you have any community shout outs for the South Shore today?

Jeremy: 28:54

No, I don't. Nothing this week. Indoor soccer continues to rule my life. And we're going away for a couple of days. So that's been the focus. But looking forward to getting back into the chamber of the South Shore and getting going and things this spring. How about you?

Doug: 29:09

Well, I got one thing I'm really excited about which is not really community related. Then I got a community shout out. Yesterday, on your birthday, the Red Sox signed one Alex Bregman for three years and the Red Sox infield is looking really good. At least the boys in my household are really excited, so it should be a good year.

Jeremy: 29:26

Now he's, remind me because I'm obviously not as clued in as you, he's was he Astros,

Doug: 29:30

Houston Astros all-star third baseman. 

Jeremy: 29:33

Really good player in the World Series several times, right?

Doug: 29:35

Yeah, he was a World Series MVP. He'll take over at second base, I guess. This is exciting stuff. Yeah. My community shoutout, which I'm really excited about. As you know, my heart bleeds Watertown Red.

Doug: 29:48

We have a first of its kind STEM night, which is a collaboration between the Watertown Business Coalition and the Watertown Public Schools. Really excited about this. This is going to be on April 29th from 530 to 8 o'clock at the Watertown Middle School. The point of this is just to showcase some of the amazing things that we're doing from a science, technology, engineering and math perspective at both the Watertown Middle School and Watertown High School, and also outside the walls of the school with the unique mix of STEM-oriented companies that we have here in the community. So again, April 29th, first of its kind STEM night, a community STEM night. Anybody is welcome. Come see what the Watertown Public Schools are up to. Psyched for that. And that's it, man. I think that wraps up another episode. If any of you have any questions out there, you can always reach out to Jeremy or myself at info at arsenalfinancial.com. You can also check out our website at www.arsenalfinancial.com. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time.

: 30:52

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