Join Al Smith on another insightful episode of Retirement Unpacked as he guides you through essential tips for preparing a robust financial strategy for 2026 and beyond. Whether you’re decades from retirement or already in the tranquil years, Al emphasizes the importance of reflecting on your financial situation and shares ways to enhance your standing. From building a sturdy emergency fund to reducing unnecessary expenditure, discover the pivotal steps that can make a significant difference in your financial journey.
Welcome to Retirement Unpacked with Al Smith, owner of Golden Eagle Financial. You want a retirement plan that alleviates your fears about the future so you know your money will last. As a chartered financial consultant, Al Smith will help you find a balance between the risk and reward of the market and the safety of your retirement income. And now, here’s your host, Al Smith.
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Thank you for tuning in another program of Retirement Unpacked. I know there’s other things you could be doing, but you’re listening. So I hope to provide you with some really good information for today’s program. Now, those of you who listen with some frequency will know that I had at least one or two programs near the end of last year where we talked about important things for year end planning. And since we are already well into 2026, I’m going to be talking about some good things to plan for this coming year. And I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions. You want to lose weight. You want to go to the gym. Those are important, but I think getting a handle on your finances, whether you’re 30 years from retirement or if you’ve been already retired for five years, I think improving your financial circumstances in the context of a coming year, a new year, I think makes sense. Not in the form necessarily of a resolution, just a good step to make. and you can sort of evaluate your own circumstances. And with some reflection and looking at a few of your bank statements and looking at some of the circumstances about your own financial situation, I think you’re probably able to create your own list of things that you can do this coming year that will improve your financial circumstances. One of them, if you don’t already have an emergency fund, is to build that up. The financial gurus, if you go online or anywhere like that, they recommend that you have a ballpark of six months earnings in savings for an emergency fund. And emergency funds have a lot of different things that they may go for. I think in terms of if your vehicle needs a new transmission, if your home needs a new furnace, If one of your children’s emergencies becomes your emergency because of your kindness, so a lot of different things can be incorporated into your emergency fund. But if you only have six weeks income in that fund, then it’s a good idea to build that up. Now, some people, when they think in terms of an emergency fund, they’re thinking of money in the checking account. Now, not too many checking accounts pay significant interest. So since we’re talking about a reasonable amount of money here, I would suggest that you find a high interest bearing account. If you do a little searching, you can usually find something in the neighborhood of 4%. And it’s obviously important that that money be liquid because the idea of an emergency is not a CD that has a penalty. If you take the money out, it’s like a money market fund or a fund that you can access the money very quickly. And so if you’re normally living on $4,000 or $5,000 per month, then you’re going to need $30,000 in that emergency fund. And again, I recommend that you do a little searching. There’s a website called Bank Rate, and that website has a whole bunch of different websites banks and financial institutions and what interest rates they’re paying and what terms they have some of these may have minimums but i think it’s important to have a healthy emergency fund Another thing you might do this coming year to improve your own financial circumstances is reduce your spending. A lot of different ways to do that. Don’t use credit cards to buy things that you don’t need to impress people that you don’t even like. Think in terms of spending only on the things that you do need and don’t use a credit card to purchase those things. Use cash. I know one of the things that makes sense with Dave Ramsey is using cash. You can’t overspend if you’re using cash because you can see in your wallet or your purse how much cash you have remaining. eat out a little bit less frequently. And when you eat out, often the cost of adult beverages is a healthy component of that restaurant bill. And if you minimize the adult beverages or if you leave them off the check entirely, you can still enjoy a very nice meal and for a much lower amount. And if you enjoy that meal less frequently every month, you’ll have a little more money remaining in your checking account. Catch-up provisions. Catch-up provisions are parts of the Internal Revenue Code that permit people who are over age 50 to put more money into their retirement accounts. Now, this coming year, you can put $8,000 into an IRA or a Roth. If you are over age 50, you can put $8,500 into that IRA, traditional IRA or Roth. And I don’t have the precise amounts for 401ks, but it’s in the neighborhood of $23,000. And that is how much you can set aside in your 401k if you are over 50%. And if you would like the new 2026 tax cheat sheet, I call it, which has these catch-up provisions, and it also has the new standard deduction, the tax rate on capital gains, and the tax brackets for both singles and couples companies. contact me and I can send it to you in an email. If you come into the office, I can give you a hard copy, but it’s the 2026 tax sheet. And I think that’s really important because you can get a feel for how much you earn and how much that’s going to be taxed and how much you’re permitted to set aside in retirement accounts and things of that nature. So again, it’s the 2026 tax cheat sheet. Some other areas that might improve your financial circumstances, take a little bit of an audit of your own automobile insurance and make certain that you’re paying a competitive rate and that you have healthy coverages. One of the most important things with automobile insurance is to have a large amount of liability coverage. The minimum required by the state would not even pay enough property coverage if you ran into an accident that was your fault and you destroyed an expensive BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche, or something like that. Those vehicles can run over $100,000. And your own automobile insurance is not likely to provide that much property coverage. So the important thing about automobile coverage is that if you’re in an accident, and it turns out to be your fault, you’re not having to dig into your own retirement savings or personal savings or emergency fund to pay the amounts that your own automobile insurance didn’t. So make sure you have high enough liability limits. I would recommend if you have a single limit, at least half a million. Now, the way to save money, I don’t do automobile insurance. I’m not a property casualty insurance agent. But a lot of the companies are going to these systems where you track your mileage. And if you’re like me, I used to drive a lot of miles, but I drive fewer miles right now. My office is very near my home. And that being the case, I should be paying a lower rate for automobile insurance. I think if you drive a short distance to work or if you’re retired and you don’t drive much at all, make certain that you’re not paying for driving more miles than you really are. That’s incredibly important. Something else to think about this coming year, if you have overused your credit cards and maybe have some credit card debt, there are some ways to improve your credit score, which is helpful if you need to get a mortgage and so forth. And Some of the credit gurus are saying that even if you pay off your credit card every month, it’s better to keep that card and use it from time to time. It helps maintain a good credit score. If you’re in the process of reducing debt, trying to improve your financial circumstances, then it’s wise that they even call this – there’s a name for it called the avalanche method of reducing your debt – is to pay off the debt with the highest interest rates first. Now, I know one of the things that I have a bone about when it comes to Dave Ramsey, he provides really, really great advice, but he often recommends to pay the debt with the smallest balance. That way you can sort of jump up and down when you pay off that debt and say, I paid it off, I paid off my MasterCard, or whatever it is. But what makes the most sense economically and with a sharp pencil is to pay the debt first that has the highest interest rate and that is rarely your home mortgage it’s most likely a credit card or maybe a home improvement loan or something like that sit down and look at whatever debt you have And if you have a circumstance where you’d like to get completely out of debt, pay the debt first that has the highest interest rate. And if that’s a credit card, I wouldn’t necessarily suggest cutting it up, but have the discipline to pay off that balance every month. And I’ve got a few more tips to help you financially as you begin this new year. And I’ll talk about those after the break.
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Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial helps you get on track for 2026 by taking a fresh look at your retirement plan. If you’re like most people, money gets spread out over time. Old accounts, new jobs, life changes, and suddenly it’s hard to see the whole picture. Taking a fresh look with Al often means simplifying what’s gotten complicated. So less confusion, clearer records, and a solid plan for the future. And it’s not just about numbers. Al asks what’s really driving you to come in. because sometimes the issue isn’t your 401K. It’s a move you’re considering, family dynamics, new health concerns, or uncertainty about retirement timing. Golden Eagle Financial plans at your speed and follows up regularly so you can be confident that you’re retiring on your terms and getting the most out of what you’ve spent a lifetime putting in. Get a fresh look at your retirement plan with a no-obligation meeting with Al Smith. Find out how on the klzradio.com advertisers page.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome back to Retirement Unpacked. After the break, we’ve been talking about some financial things that are a good idea to begin since we’re in a new year. If you want to improve your financial circumstances, it’s a good time to set down some guidelines and do some things that you think will improve your own financial circumstances. Now, we were talking about reducing debt, and like anything else, it’s wise to create a plan. Take a look at your debt. Get your pencil out. We talked about maybe spending less money. That will permit you to have more money to pay down your debt. And paying the debt with the highest interest rate first makes sense. And in order to help paying down that debt, finding extra work might be helpful. Maybe a part-time job or maybe a way to make a little extra money on the Internet. Going forward, if you don’t need additional money, if your financial circumstances are terrific and coming into the new year, I would recommend volunteering, giving back, doing some things that benefit the community, doing some things that are consistent with the things that you like to do. If you like to ski, Winter Park has a tremendous program for disabled skiers. There’s a program if you enjoy working with adults with disabilities, there’s a program that permits adults with disabilities to ride very gentle horses. And so there’s all kinds of ways that you can be helpful. and giving back, and these aren’t necessarily going to improve your own financial circumstances, but they’re definitely going to provide some fulfillment into this coming year. I don’t think anyone on their deathbed is going to sit down and think to themselves, gee, I wish I would have volunteered less and helped my family less and helped the community less. I don’t think that’s the case at all. Creating your estate plan, if you have not already done that, the mobile estate planner here at KLZ, Michael Bailey, can certainly help you with that. And I can help you. I’m not an estate planning attorney, but I can help you with some general guidelines. But then when it comes to creating your will or your trust or figuring out where you would like your property to go when you leave this world, it’s best to have someone like Michael Bailey provide that estate plan for you. And when you first get up in the morning, the first thing you probably did not think about is where will my assets go when I die? Most people don’t think about that. But there are people who have died with improperly drawn estate plans or with no estate plan. And I’m sure that their plan did not involve dying without a will or whatever. But that still often ends up being the case. So if you have not created an estate plan, I recommend that you do so. You can reach Michael Bailey through the radio station here. And perhaps one of the most important things that you can do going forward into this coming year to help you financially if you are not retired, but if you plan to retire, oh, sometime, even if it’s 20 years from now or if it’s 18 months from now, retire. check and see if you’re on track because when people come into my office and choose to work with me one of the services that I offer is there is a software that we can enter your information into by your information I’m talking about the amount of money you’re setting aside now toward retirement and in your 401k if you’re working, or in your IRA if you’re self-employed. And we kind of compare that to your expenses, and everyone’s circumstances are different, but the software that we use will guide us and give us… an idea if you’re saving enough toward retirement. And we can plug in the date you would like to retire, the amount of income that you think you will need. And the software that we use, it won’t say, yes, everything is fine or no, it’s not. It will give you a percentage likelihood of success. And people that I’ve worked with, when we have used this software, we have had anywhere from a 100% chance of success to a 5% chance of success if someone is spending more money than they should as they get closer and closer to retirement. But I think that is incredibly useful going forward. And if that’s something that… It’s important to you to see if you’re on track to saving for retirement and would like to have that checkup, not just a checkup and say, hey, it looks like you’re doing good, but plug the information into the algorithm and that will help. give you a clear determination if you are on track. And if you’re not, what adjustments do you need to make? And this is something that is not a one-time thing. It’s something that we do on a regular basis to make certain people remain on track. But call my office if that’s something that you think would be useful. 303-744-1128 and arrange to sit down and we can have a conversation and find out if you are on track for retirement. Now last week we talked a lot about aging and so forth and there’s a lot more information out there than what I even talked about last week. The elderly They have a lot of advantages over the rest of us, and I’m pretty amazed about that. There are some facts. For example, people in their 60s and 70s are actually increasing their own vocabularies. The folks, especially, if you read and if you participate in things that involve reading, it’s likely your vocabulary will increase all the way into your 60s and 70s. you’ll gain knowledge of words that you didn’t know about, far in excess of what younger people, especially the very young people, whose idea of vocabulary involves abbreviations that they might use in a text. Some other examples of… There’s an example of a younger person, for example, that was… He was 25 years old, and he was an entrepreneur, and he developed this, what he called a revolutionary idea, and he was explaining it to some investors. There was a 68-year-old investor who was listening to his proposal, and he said, son, that’s a great idea, but I invested in the same concept back in 1987, and do you want to know why it failed and how we can do it better? Well, the young person who developed this concept ended up partnering with the older person who invested in it many years ago, and it ended up being highly, highly successful. So a lot of things that we are not aware of with folks who are older, some of them are missed. For example, you might forget where you put your keys, but did you know that 20-year-olds are just as likely to forget where they put their keys as an older person? And as we age, our brain becomes selective. It’s not necessarily failing. As we are older, a lot of things that come into our memory get put on the back burner, then if we can’t call those up when we want to, that isn’t necessarily a memory problem as much as it is a recall problem. Another example, there was a woman on a jury. She was 72 years old. And the other jurors, mostly in their 30s and 40s, they were all ready to convict someone based on circumstantial evidence. And she spoke to the other jurors, and she says, I’ve seen this before. She’s walked through three similar cases from her own life experiences. They deliberated a whole nother day, and after more deliberation and the input of this 72-year-old woman, they found there was reasonable doubt, and the person who was on trial was found to be innocent. Here’s something wild. While your immune system does change with age, it also gets smarter. Your immune system, when you are older, has fought off thousands of pathogens, and it has a database of resistance to much of the threats that we get every day when we’re out in the germs out there everywhere. During the COVID pandemic, for example, researchers noticed something interesting. While severe cases were more dangerous for older adults, the rate of infection was often lower among careful seniors. And reason for that were better hygiene habits, better judgment about risks, and decades of experience avoiding illness. And one doctor said my 75-year-old patients took the pandemic seriously, and the 25-year-old patients did not. Also, the older patients, they had stronger immune systems. And those who had the comorbidity, that’s not necessarily the case. The oldest person who ever climbed Mount Everest was 80 years old. and i don’t know how many of you listening have thought about climbing everest i know i haven’t but in any event we should gain respect and wisdom from the elderly because they have been around this planet a lot longer than the rest of us thank you for tuning in god bless you and you have a great day and let’s continue to pray for our country and our leaders and that things would go smoothly going forward with all of the things that are going on in the world. Again, God bless you. Hopefully you’ll be here next week, and I’ll have some more good information. If you’d like to have a conversation with me, call my office, 303-744-1128.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for listening to Retirement Unpacked with your host, Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. Set up a free consultation with Al today at klzradio.com slash money. Find your purpose in retirement with Golden Eagle Financial. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. VCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through VCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
