Mid-Year Retirement Checkup: Are You Still on Track?

0:00Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons, get fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $199 per pound limit 10 pounds. And locally grown, grape-ary cotton candy grapes are $299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus, 24 packs of Canada Dry or 7-Up 12-ounce cans are $499 limit one with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in! These deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Now adjust the volume control so that the sound can be heard in all parts of the room. This is to protect your assets podcast. You get the idea? It's on the internet! Go on. It's like no cheese I've ever tasted. And tell them that it's not the same man. The stock market has been on a tear.

1:02The S&P 500 is up over 12% this past year. And that is better than the average historical numbers for that index. It feels so good, doesn't it? But strong numbers can hide a quiet problem, a portfolio that has drifted out of balance without you even noticing. Well on today's show we're going to walk through what I'm going to call a mid-year money health checkup for successful retirees and those thinking about retiring. We will talk about the AI-driven rally, concentration risk, and the simple moves that can help keep your plan aligned with your life. Not just the headlines. Join us for mid-year money checkup is your retirement still on track. This is going to be a fun show. So stick around. Good morning. You hear the jingle.

2:02People around here call me the Sandman. And that's because I help you sleep well at night by bringing you information about those things you should know about. Do you work so hard for this? We run attacks legal and a financial firm under one roof. I've been doing it for over 30 years. Let's start with a number that should make you smile over the past year, the S&P 500. As of yesterday is up 12.8%. Think about that. Almost 13%. And here is what makes that so striking. That is on average more than the market's long-term historical average. So if you've looked at your statements lately, are you one of those? You just let some sit in the envelope and you really don't want to open up and look at it? Yeah, I know. If that's you, well, let's just say you're peaking at it now. It's a weekend.

3:02You're looking at it and you're smiling because that balance should have gone up. And it makes you feel good, doesn't it? And you should. It has been a strong stretch for sure. But here is where we want to plant a little flag of caution, a red flag, if you will. A recent US news article called the mid-year retirement checkup made a very good point. I'm going to talk about that this morning. There is a temptation to believe returns like this will last forever. And for those of you who have been doing this like me for a while, you remember the 2000 feeling? You remember the 2007-8 feeling? Yep, history says it just won't. And you do not have to take our word for it. I'm sure you heard a warm buffet.

4:03The Oracle of Omaha. Well, he sounded a note of caution recently. He said something that stuck with me, he said it is tough to find values when everybody is preferring gambling. Let that one sink in for a minute. One of the greatest investors arguably of all time is basically saying the crowd is chasing excitement, not value. And when that happens, the smart move is not to panic. It is to any health or your nose. Exhale through your mouth. Pause and check your footing. Which is exactly what a mid-year checkup is for. You do it for your health. You go see your doctor every year. At least this age, it should be. Maybe you missed something.

5:03We're now in September, over halfway through the year. And so I'm going to call this a natural moment in time to look under the hood before the rest of the year unfolds. Because if you're a business owner and executive, maybe a baby boomer with a nest egg you've been saving, a rising market can lol you into thinking everything is perfectly fine when your plan may need quiet attention. So if you're thinking about retirement, then this show today is for you. Stick around as there's much more to come. Now let's get started. Well another great week in the market. The S&P was up again. About 10th of a percent. Like I said, up year today, 12.8 percent. Dow Jones, you're down a little bit this week. 0.3 percent. Still year to date up over 11 percent. Nasdaq, up 0.4 percent, up 14 percent year to date.

6:03The Russell up a little bit. 10th of a percent year to date. 19.9 percent. We're going to focus on that. And the MSCI index, international index off a little bit, year to date up 15.1 percent. Now the 10 year treasury that did at 4.77. And the news this week again was the two year treasury, particularly with the labor numbers that came out Friday, sitting at 4.37. Oil is still over $90 a barrel settling in a 91.48. And gold was down this week a little bit at 44.19. Vicks index is still real low at 14.2 percent. So low overall. Now I'm going to bring you something this morning that maybe you've been reading about tokenization. You may want to write that word down tokenization. What does that mean, Mr. Sandman? Well, tokenization is taking an asset like a bond, a stock, an ETF, a commodity,

7:07real estate football team, and putting a representation of that asset on a blockchain. You're going, what does that mean? That's a fair, good question. Why are they doing this? Well, here's why a tokenized asset like a commodity can trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It can settle, meaning after you trade it, it settles instantly. And it moves through the system cheaper, than the traditional ways we've been doing this since I've been doing this. So think about this. When something is vastly faster and cheaper than the existing system,

8:07over time, once people get comfortable, it tends to get adopted. So if you want to think about this in terms of something you might understand, think about ETFs, exchange trade of funds, as they related to mutual funds about 20 years ago. Eventually, they took market share, or in some cases replaced particular funds, and the incumbents because they improved what capital efficiency. So in the financial arena, assets eventually go to wherever they can flow most freely and quickly, trade most cheaply and be valued most transparently. This is why tokenization has the potential to be one of the most transformative, technological innovations for the financial service industry in literally decades.

9:08So right now, yes, we are in the early innings. There are things being talked about like sports teams. Imagine if Philadelphiaans could get access to owning a fraction of the 76ers. It's possible. This may happen sooner than 10 years from now. Tokenization could be a 50-year upgrade to the world's financial. You heard me say, world, because this is global ecosystem. There's lots of projections out there by respected firms as you read about this. So certainly read about it before you do anything. But these projections are talking about tokenized securities growing from literally billions to trillions of dollars. So let me just give you an example of an ETF. Again, I don't want you to run out and buy this. You need to do your homework and you do your due diligence and you make sure this is appropriate. I read all the disclosures on the website. Okay. But here's an example.

10:09This is called the eye share Ethereum trust ETF ETHA. What is Ethereum? Ethereum is the number one platform right now for tokenized assets. It holds about 60% of total tokenized assets of market share. ETHA is the largest Ethereum ETF in terms of assets by a large margin at this point. This is the world of FinTech, financial technology that's merging with blockchain technology. And it's called tokenization. Coming up next, what are the three things you need to check right now? Consider this your mid-year health checkup for your financial portfolio. Before we wrap up this year, find out when I come back you're listening to the Protecture Asset Show with David Hollander, the Sandman. That's me. We'll be right back.

11:10Take the first step toward reaching your financial goals and get the information that can help you live a confident retirement. That first step is going to PYAevents.com and signing up for our next free event. That's PYAevents.com. Now back to protect your assets with David Hollander, the Sandman. Welcome back. I am David Hollander, also known as the Sandman around here. And you are listening to Protecture Asset's and Warren Buffett recently said it's tough to find value when everybody is preferring gambling. And you should think about that for a minute because one of the greatest investors of all time is basically saying the crowd is chasing excitement right now. Not value. And when that happens, you just don't have to panic. You need to take a step back and breathe and see what's going on.

12:11And right now we're just past the midpoint or about September now. So we're getting near the end of the year here. And it's natural to do a checkup. We'll call it a financial checkup. Just like you go see the doctor every year to make sure you're good. You can do a financial checkup as well to see where you are in relation to what you're trying to do. And so let's look at three steps that you might want to take right now to do your financial checkup. All right, let's start with number one. Action step number one is this. It's called rebalancing. Rebalance your portfolio to help what we call over concentration. What does that mean? Well, this is the direct fix for drift. You might want to write down some of these terms. Sorry, these are just financial terms that we use to discuss things. But what it means simply is trimming what has grown too large

13:14and redirecting that capital toward what has become too small. So your mix matches your original plan that you started with. So in practice terms, if for instance right now, because of the funds you own, I think of several clients I met with this past week where we were looking at their portfolio and they had in their different ETFs, stocks that have done well this year. And essentially become bigger than they were when we started the year. By rebound shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons get fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 199 per pound limit 10 pounds. And locally grown grape re cotton candy grapes are 299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus 24 packs of Canada dry or 7 up 12 ounce cans are 499 limit 1 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal.

14:16Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. I'll end seeing these positions. In other words, selling off the bigger ones or trimming the bigger ones. Not all of it, but some of it and redirecting it to those that are under the allocation percentage. This brings you back to what you intended your level to be. Now, when you do this, you're locking in gains, hopefully. And you're reducing your exposure to a single theme like AI. This is best in your retirement accounts. Because remember, if you sell things in an IRA or 401k, you don't pay any capital gain taxes on that transaction, as long as you leave that money in the account. Make sure you calculate or look at what taxes you could owe on what we call the non-qualified accounts. Those could be your broker's trading accounts that are not in a retirement bucket.

15:21So again, if you're going to sell off say, holdings in your taxable account, you're going to pay a capital gain tax on that. It'll only be the short term, which will be ordinary income. If it's less than a year, you held it. If it's over a year, it should be long-term capital gain. Remember, you can select which positions of those you'd want to sell. It's up to you. Here's a bonus. A recent US news article noted that recent market rotation has been moving toward other sectors outside of AI. So right now, a routine mid-year checkup could help ensure your plan is aligned with where you actually want to be. Rebalancing feels counterintuitive because you're trimming your winners. So psychologically, that might not feel good. We all do this. We all do things that feel good. So right now, you're selling a little high and you're staying balanced instead of writing one

16:22bet all the way up and then possibly down, which doesn't feel good at all. Action step number two, make sure you have enough liquidity. This one is critical for retirees and here's why or people think in a retiring soon. You ever heard of the required minimum distribution? We call that RMD. Those are mandatory at age 73 under most circumstances. On top of that, you have ongoing living expenses every month. These are monies that you must have no matter what. The question is, where do you get that money from when you have to take it? Think about that. If you do not have enough in liquid assets to say, satisfy the RMD, you may be forced to sell those stocks to cover your needs.

17:29And here's the nightmare scenario. The market drops and this is precisely the moment you choose to retire. Or you already made the decision. And now you have to sell your higher performing stocks when they're down, just to satisfy that RMD or pay some bills that just came up. That is how a temporary dip in the market becomes a permanent loss to you. You locked it in because you had no choice. The fix is to plan ahead right now. Keep enough in liquid stable assets so your income and your RMDs are covered without touching your growth investments at the wrong time. Your lifestyle keeps running on the liquid reserves or the short-term investments that you've thought fully laid out. You're not working anymore so you don't have the same sort of time horizon that you did before. That's why I'm ringing the bell this morning.

18:34Action step number three. Reset your expectations. Write this down. Reset your expectation, buddy. This one is mindset, not mechanics. But it could be the most freeing thing of all. Here it is. Ready? It is okay to underperform the market. Did you hear that? Let me say it again. It is okay for you to underperform the market. Smile when you say that. All right. It sounds strange. You feel different, don't you? But think about it. That I catching headline I talked about during the market segment of 12.8% on the S&P 500 is not your personal goal. It shouldn't be if you're retired.

19:37What is it? What is your goal? Your goal is to fund your life. If your plan can reliably provide that income you need for as long as you need it, you don't need to beat a headline index. You need to meet your and your spouses, goals, period. As this US news article put it, set your own expectation and be thankful when you exceed them. A portfolio to fund your life will often be more conservative than the flashiest index and that is by design. And honestly that can help free up your time and provide you and your family and your spouse more confidence. You have far better things to do than stare at the stock charts every day. Now staying disciplined does not mean hiding under the bed. I love how city wealth put it recently. They said this environment is not a reason to retreat.

20:44It's a reason to stay constructive, stay selective and treat dislocations as opportunities to improve your situation. That's what's called a balanced mindset. You don't panic, you don't get greedy either. You stay engaged, you stay disciplined and use these bumps upwards as a chance to strengthen your plan. And let's acknowledge the anxiety out there because it's real. A thriving survey found that 47% of non-retire he's still doubt they will ever be able to retire. That's almost half. And that worry cuts across income levels driven by AI, rising cost, economic uncertainty. So this is exactly why these three steps matter. Write these down. Rebalance, secure liquidity and reset your expectations to match your goals. That is how you help replace doubt with a plan. If you want help running your own, we'll call it financial mid-year checkup.

21:51Call this number 866-776-8328 to get your free retirement checklist. I'm going to email to you this morning 866-776-8328-8666. Right now coming up next, it's time for our popular. They say segment where they say, my statement looks great, I must be fine. Are you really sure? You don't want to miss this one. You're listening to protect your assets with me. We'll be right back. Times are changing. Some would say they've already changed. And how do you actually protect your assets? David Hollander's protect your assets' events, focus on common financial concerns that individuals and families face in retirement. Things like how to prepare for unexpected medical expenses and ways to create income to help support your desired lifestyle. Join us at our next free

22:56event to learn how addressing these concerns can help you feel more confident about the days ahead and help you sleep better at night. Just go to pyaevents.com and reserve your seat today. That's pyaevents.com and sign up or join the wait list today. pyaevents.com. Now back to protect your assets with David Hollander, the Sandman. Welcome back. I am David Hollander, also known as the Sandman. If it comes to money, taxes, the state planning legal issues, well that's what we do here. We have attorneys. We have tax people. We have financial advisors. So Warren Buffett, who I pay attention to, he recently said right now it is tough to really find any value because everybody is preferring gambling. What does that mean? Well, he is arguably one of the greatest investors of all time. And he's saying right now the crowd is chasing excitement, not real value. And when you think about that,

23:58I guess right in, of course, to the AI sector and everything related to that. When you start to digest and look at your portfolio, you might see some things have grown out of proportion. And so today we're asking you to take a minute and pause and check to a health checkup of your financial life. Just make sure your footing is where you want it to be. Nobody does it better than Regent Seventh Seas Cruises. Enjoy all-inclusive unrivaled luxury with unlimited short excursions, indulgent cuisine, personalized service, and more, aboard spacious all-sweet ships. Visit rssc.com to experience the unrivaled. When you shop Ralph's delivery, you can expect the savings you love and fresh groceries delivered right to your door. From fresh produce to everyday essentials, enjoy the convenience of delivery and the trusted selection you've come to know from Ralph's. Because bringing you fresh, quality groceries is what we do best. And right now, enjoy $20 off your first online order

25:03of $75 or more. Restriction supplies, he's sight for details. Ralph's, fresh for everyone! So, it's a natural time right now to look under the hood before the rest of the year unfold. Now it's time for one of our fan favorite parts of our show. This is our They Say segment where we debunk common myths, half truce, sometimes just bad advice that they say. Who are they? What do they know that I don't? And what are they saying this week? Here's David Hollander for the Sandman's answer. All right, so here's one they say, in fact they're saying it a lot right now. My account balance looks great! All time high! I've made all that money! I'm fine! Then the question, are you really? All right, let's step back for a minute.

26:03Here's some things to look at. Get ready, write these down. It feels so logical, doesn't it? The market's up, your portfolio's up, you're happy, everybody's happy. Of course, there's the nagging doubt that some of my voices about, what could go wrong? Now, I'm just going to give you some experience because I've been doing this for over 30 years, been through the dot-com bust 2008. Great recession. COVID 2022. During that market, both stocks and bonds took a pretty good hit. Here's what could go wrong. A strong market can quietly push your portfolio out of balance. Here's why I'm bringing this up. An und-balanced portfolio is a riskier portfolio, even when the numbers look great. And here's why. Much of the markets gains this past year have been

27:05driven by one story. You know what it is. You've heard about it. Artificial intelligence, AI. The company's making the software and the hardware behind AI have been among the strongest performers this year. And sure, that makes sense. But think about what that does to your portfolio. If AI-related stocks have surged, then part of your portfolio, a percentage of it, is probably in those sectors that have grown larger, maybe even far larger, than January 1st of this year, you intended them to do when you look at your overall occasion. We call this drift. This is where things have maybe drifted from one sector like financial services into technology. And if you started the year out with a carefully designed mix because of where you

28:06are in your retirement or close to retirement cycle, then this certain percentage of technology could be bigger than say the financial, the consumer cyclicals, or maybe you're just an indexer with a percent inequities versus a percent in bonds. But when one sector sores, swells like it has so far this year. And suddenly, your balanced plan is anything but balanced. So here is the danger word when it relates to financial life called concentration risk. When you have too much of your money on one theme or one sector, you are exposed. You're running with risk. It's the best way I can put it. You're running around out there right now. Everything's cool and great, but you're exposed. You don't even know it. It's sleeping back there. And then it breaks. Everything happens very quickly when

29:10that happens. So let me make that a little more concrete for you, shall I? Imagine you designed a plan where technology was meant to be a moderate portion of your portfolio. This may not be inappropriate for you. Maybe you can tolerate this 10%. We've now had a pretty good year. I was giving you all the numbers at the top of the show. If you look at the NASDAQ in particular, it's had a very strong year. After the run that we've seen, that portion of your portfolio as a relates to technology, it could be 45%. I'm not I've seen this. You did not choose that. You didn't know what was going to happen. Because if you did, you'd put all your money in there and you'd get out the right time, which is impossible, by the way. The market just did it for you. Right? So the portfolio that looks so strong today may actually be carrying more risk than the one you deliberately took the time to build

30:14in January. And I call that a trap because success in one sector can quietly undo what you carefully designed through your diversification. And this connects right back to the Buffett comment I made earlier. When everyone is piling into the thing that is often exactly where the concentration risk is highest. A portfolio anchored to one winning sector is fragile. And so you need balance. Now I'm trying to be clear here. I'm not saying AI is bad or that you should flee that sector of the market. Not at all. The point is simpler. Ready? Growth in one area can unbalance your well-designed plan. And I'm just asking you to stop and check it now. Because here's the truth. A portfolio is not a set and forget it machine. And this can actually

31:23be a very costly mistake. So when you have strong performance like we've seen, you need to stop, check, make sure your balance. So I'm going to offer you something this morning, but is it? It's called an MRI. An MRI of your portfolio. What we do is we take a snapshot just like an MRI camera or machine without the claustrophobia. We take a picture of it. And then we give you a report that shows your percentages of allocation to this AI sector in your portfolio with everything you own. Yeah. And you can actually look at and say, wow, I had no idea. Maybe that's a little too much. Call this number 866-776-832-8 to get your portfolio MRI check up right now. 866-protect. Listen, if any of today's information has been helpful to you,

32:26imagine what we can help you accomplish when we give you advice tailored to you. Coming up next, keep it tuned right here. Because when I return, I'll give you one metaphor that captures this entire show. Stick around. Times are changing. Some would say they've already changed. And how do you actually protect your assets? David Hollander's protect your assets' events, focus on common financial concerns and individuals and families face in retirement. Things like how to prepare for unexpected medical expenses and ways to create income to help support your desired lifestyle. Join us at our next free event to learn how addressing these concerns can help you feel more confident about the days ahead and help you sleep better at night. Just go to pwaevents.com and reserve your seat today. That's pwaevents.com and sign up or join the wait list today. pwaevents.com. Now back to protect your assets with David Hollander, the Sandman.

33:32Welcome back. I am David Hollander, also known as the Sandman around here. You are listening to protect your assets. And the Omaha investor, Warren Buffett, recently said, basically that investors were throwing money at everything related AI. And it's overvalued. So typically when that happens, the smart move, it's just not to panic. It's to pause and check your footing. And so we thought today would be a great time to do a financial checkup. Very much like you go in to see the doctor one time of year. Well, we're doing that right now with your portfolio. So like I said before that, we have been running a mid-year financial checkup on your retirement today. And I want to close out our show today with a metaphor that comes right out of this US news article describing this mid-year checkup because it captures everything perfectly. The author, his name is Tim Smart. He lives in Florida.

34:33And he points out that when you live in hurricane country, you learn one essential rule. What is it? You have a hurricane plan in effect long before the storm waters start to royal the Atlantic. You do not board up the windows during the hurricane. You do not run to the store for supplies when the wind start howling. You prepare while the skies are blue and clear. And this is exactly the point I'm trying to make today as you think about your financial checkup. Right now the market skies are sunny. The S&P is up 12.8% year to date as of Friday, November, September 4th. This is the calm. This is precisely when you should consider building your retirement hurricane plan not after the storm hits. Because if you wait until the market drops to

35:39get organized, you are making decisions in a panic. And I've been doing this over 30 years and panic. I'll just tell you is where the mistakes happen. So let me recap today's key takeaways for you. First, the market has been strong up above its historical annual average period. Enjoy it. But do not assume it's going to last forever. Even Warren Buffett is cautious. Second, strong performance can quietly unbalance your portfolio gains may have created concentration risk and drift. You never intended. This can hurt you, especially if you are getting ready to retire. Third, take three action steps now, rebounds to help reduce over concentration, secure enough liquidity for your RMDs and expenses that you're going to have month after month and reset your expectations because funding your life beats chasing an index. And fourth, stay constructive, stay selective and

36:43treat dislocation as an opportunity. Don't retreat. Don't gamble. Stay disciplined. And here's the bottom line. A good year in the market is the perfect time for a checkup, not an excuse to skip it. That is exactly what we do at the Liberty Group. We invite you to schedule a complimentary retirement checkup today. We will check your allocation, your liquidity, any concentration percentage risk you have will actually give it to show you where it is just to make sure you're okay. Call this your MRI. Remember, we're local. We're family owned. We have taxes. We have legal estate planning here and financial visors under one roof. And we've been doing this together as a team for over 30 years. Even better this meeting is complimentary. It's straightforward. And it can help you find the weakness. Call the number now 866-776-832-8-866-776-832-8.

37:51Build your hurricane plan while the skies are still calm before we go. Let me tease next week. Here's a question I want you to sit with this week. What happens to your entire retirement if the stock market has its worst day? Write as you write your first big withdrawal check. I'd like to give a big thanks to the Protect Your Assets team for putting together a great show today executive producer, network manager Kevin Renfer, all the fabulous producers back there. Phil, Dylan, Zach, Raf, because that my team. I'm just another pretty voice on the radio. You've been listening to Protect Your Assets show. I am David Hollander, the Sandman. Go out and make the rest of your life the best of your life. Investment advisory services are offered through Liberty Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The strategies mentioned are not suitable for everyone.

38:53The information expressed does not consider your specific situation or objectives and may not be appropriate for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. To better understand how the risk associated with investing and how it reacts to different market conditions, listeners should always consult with a qualified investment professional, financial advisors, legal or tax specialist, and conduct their due diligence before making any financial decisions or taking any action. The legal information provided on the air is not intended substitute for college hiring their lawyers to advise them about personal legal matters. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Liberty Group LLC paid for the following program and the host views and opinions do not represent those of the station or its ownership. California Life Asian number 048569. Persons engaging the services of one affiliate of Liberty Group LLC companies should be aware that each company is operated separately. You are listening to the Protect Your Assets Radio and Emerald.