Well, it looks like uh we might get a few more people joining us, but we're gonna go ahead and get started.

Um good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Great.

I'm good now.

Okay.

Phone's ringing.

My name is Christian Bryant.

I am your local representative with Nationwide.

And uh nationwide is somebody got it.

Here we go.

Okay, uh, this time together today, I know you all have had the last few days going over a lot of information as it relates to retirement readiness and open enrollment and all of that great stuff.

I certainly want to spend this time highlighting and talking about this part.

Retirement readiness.

Uh, what does this mean?

What does this look like?

Especially as it relates to, or specifically as it relates to the 457B plan.

Uh raise your hand in this room if you are enrolled in a plan.

Want to know who I'm talking to.

That is everybody, almost everybody.

Great.

So this information then is definitely for you.

Alright.

So when it comes to retirement, that is a valid question.

What is your plan?

What is it that you are trying to accomplish?

What's the goal?

A lot of times you'll hear things like, well, people will say, um, I need a million dollars to retire.

My goal is to have X, Y, and Z.

Now, that sounds good, but where did you get this information?

How do you know that a million four or 1.5 is in fact what you need to retire?

What I tell people all the time, this is not necessarily a money or dollar amount driver.

What's important is that you need to have a plan.

That's what matters.

When you have a plan, you can approach retirement with confidence and with the peace of mind that allows you to prepare for what's next.

So, what is planning look like?

We begin our time together today with this powerful question.

Will you have enough money to last through retirement?

Notice the question doesn't say will you have money?

Notice the question does not say will you retire?

Enough money is in fact highlighted, and then it says to last through a retirement.

If you're a thinking person like me, you already have identified, wait a minute.

Retirement looks and sounds like a space.

It sounds like a time period that I'm gonna be in, and rightfully so.

Many of us, we plan for retirement and we see that happening somewhere in our 60s.

Well, when it comes to retirement, there's always I tell clients and plant participants, three ages that people target and for specific reasons.

Age 62, age 65, and age 67.

And each of these ages have a specific benchmark to them.

For example, age 62.

That is the first year you are eligible to start uh taking social security.

And that applies to some folks because there may be a health issue or a condition that you cannot afford to wait until 867.

But you need to know that when you begin taking Social Security, the benefits are reduced because you're starting five years.

Age 65, why is that number important?

Well, Medicare kicks in.

And for a lot of us, as we plan for retirement, what is the goal for the money?

If income is the outcome, then we do not want our retirement savings to be derailed by health care cost.

So then we plan to get to 65 because we know Medicare takes over, and then we can now use the money in what we saved it for.

A lot of times people don't realize that when we talk about retirement readiness, here's a unique thing to this space, right?

We'll start with order here.

There are three major costs to retirement.

Not to say these are the only costs, but these are the major ones that you should be concerned with.

Notice I started the conversation by saying, do you have a plan?

Or what is your plan?

You need to know what's ahead of you so you know how to plan for it.

The first one being inflation.

Take the other two off.

What is inflation?

Why do I care?

Why is this important in retirement?

Well, if COVID hadn't taught you anything, I think by now we should all understand what this is.

By book definition, inflation is the cost of goods and services increasing over time.

We know life continues to get expensive.

If I were to ask any one of you in this room to agree with me, I think all of you will agree that if we looked at just last year alone, 2024 calendar year, I think it's within reason to believe and say that last year will not cost the same as this year.

Right?

Are y'all tracking with me?

This year is probably gonna cost a little more.

Well, think about it.

Um that's inflation.

So, how does that relate to retirement readiness?

Well, I need to know that if I'm gonna do something that creates a challenge for me because for many people it is.

What is the challenge?

Saving money.

70% of this country, we are spenders, we are not savers.

So this applied to many, many people.

It's a challenge.

Not to say that we don't want to save, but we don't have the desire to save, but life shows up in many different forms.

Also, we have responsibilities that we are committed to.

So it brings up that challenge.

We work, we get paid, and then we have to take care of our responsibility.

So, how much is really left to be disciplined with our savings?

So, if we're gonna do something as challenging as saving money for retirement, it needs to keep up with the cost of living.

Because here's one of the major mistakes people make all the time.

They flatline their savings.

They start off with an amount, say, I'm gonna put a hundred dollars of pay peer paycheck into this plan, and they just set it and forget it.

Well, if you're gonna do that and life is doing this, you're gonna run into an issue down the road.

And it's gonna look and sound like this.

Maybe you're ready to retire and you're 62 years old and you're feeling good about your plan, and then we run the numbers, and then we say something like, ah, you may have to work another year or two if you truly want to hit your goals or be comfortable.

And then the frustration kicks in and like, wait a minute, how come you didn't tell me this 10 years ago?

It would have been nice for me to know this then.

But a lot of times that's one of the major mistakes we make.

We set the contribution amount and we don't increase it.

I don't know why, but if we're really, you know, putting inflation into context, if life is getting more expensive, my savings should be increasing over time as well.

I cannot start with a $25 contribution and do the same thing for 25 years and expect to retire comfortably.

It's just not going to be possible.

The next major cost in retirement, healthcare cost.

We touched on this a little bit.

Um what happens to our bodies as we get older?

Y'all got it.

Body breaks down, we have more visits to the hospital.

It's just a natural element or natural elevation of progression through life, right?

More hospital, more doctor visits.

So we gotta understand how this is important and how it affects our retirement savings.

Because what we don't want to do is have a plan or save up two, three hundred thousand dollars, and then we have a situation within the maybe first year or two of retirement, and now we're laid up in a hospital, and half of that is now going towards medical bills.

I have seen this particular thing cause problems for many clients from my time in Connecticut to now in Georgia.

It's just what it is.

It's a factor is inevitable part of that we cannot control.

You can't guarantee what anything that you know is gonna happen with your health.

It pops up, you're left to maneuver and try to figure out the best course of action.

So, this could be the reason why someone retires at 60 and then returns back to the workforce at age 65, because the fear becomes uh I'm gonna run out of money.

That is the number one fear of planned participants and clients when we talk to them.

What concerns you the most is not their ability to save, is not actually retiring, is I'm going to outlive what I've saved.

So, when we think about health care costs, we know Medicare kicks in at age 65.

For many working adults, we get health care coverage or health insurance through where?

Work.

Okay.

Why is that?

Somebody help me out.

I don't want to feel like I'm an only one telling.

It's discount.

It is less expensive.

If you don't believe me, I won't say cancel your health insurance, but go out on the open market and price insurance for your age and your family.

You will come running back to your job really fast.

It is less expensive.

And also you're under a group plan.

At work, it's a bunch of people, you and a bunch of folks.

So for that, your employer has probably negotiated a lower rate.

And as we mentioned, if I'm getting older and I have more trips to the doctor or my body's breaking down, whatever there's health issues, obviously it's gonna cost more.

So we want to make sure that we understand this part and how we are going to plan around it.

So a lot of times you have people targeting at age 65 specifically for this reason.

I'm not gonna allow health insurance to eat at my retirement savings.

I'll retire at 65 instead of 64.

One year more won't kill me.

But that's the thinking behind it.

So health care costs is a major part of the retirement readiness piece, and you need to understand how this could potentially affect you.

And then the last one, longevity.

Longevity.

Why is this on here?

Well, pay attention to where we are.

Uh it's 2025.

We know that we now have medical advances in technology, right?

We can scan for a lot of stuff.

What does that mean?

Life expectancy is up.

People are living longer.

So we go back to 1935 when Social Security was first created, right?

The whole idea behind that was to help American workers have a source of retirement income so they do not have to retire in poverty.

Back then, life expectancy was age 58 and 63 for male and female.

Now it is up to 77 and 80.

So, let's do some quick math.

If I retired in my 60s and I could potentially live to 80 something years old, well, that's your 20 something years right there.

Now go back to the question.

Will you have enough to last through retirement?

Now you see what you're planning for.

You now understand that retirement is a time space, and if I do this thing right and make sure I'm checking off the boxes as I go, I can be comfortable that I can walk away and be just fine through those retirement years.

Well, we talked about the problem.

What are the solutions?

You know what's in front of you, so where would you go, or how do you address it?

Well, let me say it this way.

I started talking about how much money people need.

My time as a financial advisor, and I've been doing this now for year number 18, I believe, 18 years.

Uh, this is a common question that got asked all the time.

Christian, this is what you do.

How do I plan for retirement?

What do I go?

What's the first thing do I need to do?

It's like a kind of like a blueprint.

Where do I go?

And I will always tell people start at work.

Start at work.

Start at work, start at work.

Maximize your benefits.

That's why they're called that.

All of you took the job for much more than just the paycheck.

There's benefits.

Start at work.

Not to say you can't have the brokerage account outside, you can't do the Fisher and the Betterman and the Acorn, whatever you want to invest into.

That's fine.

But maximize your benefits at work.

Because we can all agree on this one fact.

When we get our direct deposits and when we get paid and money goes into our bank accounts, do our banks match dollar for dollar?

They do not.

I wish it's a good response.

It'd be a whole different story how we see an approach that situation.

They do not.

But you have options at work or or avenues that you can invest into or participate in that's going to give you those benefits and those effects.

One of them being a pension plan.

Now, here's the crazy thing about pension, right?

Way back in the day, this was the way.

This is how people retire.

They got a hundred percent of their pay.

I remember when I was in Connecticut, I used to work with a lot of union members.

Sikorski comes to mind, it's one of the biggest plan.

If y'all know what Sikorsky is, uh they're like a Lockheed Martin, they get government contracts, create the helicopter, all that military stuff.

So Sikorsky workers, uh one, their benefits were superb.

But when they retired, they got a gold wristwatch, like gold all out.

Really nice.

So everyone kind of looked forward to this thing.

So I used to talk to a lot of the older guys.

I mean, it was another reason why they were on the job 25, 30, 40 years, some 45 years.

They stayed.

They did not leave because they knew of all of what they got.

Including their pension plan.

Well, that was let's say 40, maybe 50 years ago.

Pensions had that kind of effect.

Since then, so much has happened with pension plans.

If you remember the company AIG, and I'm not throwing shit at nobody, I'm just giving y'all context.

AIG was a major player in the pension business.

Why did they go out of business?

Why did the government have to bail them out?

Well, what is a pension plan?

Pension by book definition is guaranteed retirement income.

It functions like Social Security.

You get this payout for the rest of your life.

That's what a pension is.

It is determined by your tenure.

So a lot of times people start on the job or a new position, they're already asking about pension within the first year.

No, you ain't qualified for it yet.

You're not there yet.

You gotta be here a while to really want to invest into the pension plan because most employers will have investing schedule with that.

But it's within reason to believe that someone who's been with the city of Marietta for 30 years will get more out of the pension plan than someone who was here for only 10.

So back to the AIG point.

Um they were a big player in the pension business.

That's one of the reasons why they got out because they realized that they were giving out more money, they were going bankrupt, and it's just back in.

If people were on the hook for the rest of their lives, and some people have some spouse or writers on it.

It wasn't sustainable.

So companies started shying away from pension plans and some have completely eliminated it all together.

Nowadays you start a new job.

Oh, 401k, 403B or 457 will be one of the first things you hear about.

It's now gone in reverse.

Pension is now actually a flex.

So if you have it, clop and be thankful.

And I will use myself as an example because we are keeping it real in this room today.

So I was with creative planning before I came to Nationwide.

Loved my role.

They were actually paying me more than I'm making now.

But nationwide started poaching me and trying to get me to come over for we'll say almost three to six months in the process of recruiting.

I said no the first few times.

Then what drew me in and one of the deciding factors?

They offer a pension plan, and my old job did not.

So I'm like, wait a minute.

So I get the extra account.

Yeah, I'm now I'm listening.

So that's what this is.

The point is, not every um employer is offering this, so if you have it, be thankful that it's an additional benefit because this is going to supplement your other sources of income.

It's gonna take the pressure off how much money you need to save for retirement.

Social Security.

And if I was to take temperature in a room, at least one or two people in this room knows someone who is currently collecting Social Security or will be at some point in time.

Heck, I hope we all are getting it.

And people say will it be around then?

I think so.

Um, what's happened with Social Security over the years?

I was just having this conversation with a plan participant.

I was down in Perry, Georgia yesterday.

She was like, My only concern is they keep making changes to it.

Well, it's a government program, and the reason why the age went from 65 to 67 is what we talked about earlier.

People are living longer.

So they moved it back, and it may very well move it again, probably to 70.

Don't quote me on this.

I didn't get that information from anywhere.

These are just my thoughts.

But life expectancy is up, people are working longer and not retiring as soon as they used to, so they're looking at it as like, you know, this is a way for us to leverage it as well.

But all in all, we have all been paying into this program since we started working.

I remember my first job.

I was working at 15 years old.

Chuck E.

Cheese.

Don't judge me.

I don't know what y'all first job was.

But that's Social Security.

You've been paying into it all your working life.

So you can expect to collect from it.

And I tell people all the time don't side-eye this, don't look at it as if I don't want it.

No, you earn this.

You have a right to it.

This should be a part of your retirement plan.

It's going to take the pressure of other things you have to do.

So let's have not done so.

I encourage you to go to the website, SSA.gov, create an account, and they can tell you, you'll see right there one, you can view your statement, but also view lifetime credits, how much you've done so far in your working career.

Because you have to earn the 40 lifetime credits to be able to collect from this.

And sometimes, and I bring that up, and I'm spending a little bit of time on this because this is very common within local government.

A lot of times people leave the private sector and they come into this space, or they may have been in a space where they were not paying into Social Security.

So there's a gap in those years.

So you want to double check to make sure where you stand with that.

Alright, um, last one as far as major source of income.

There it is.

I'm actually making this one beat for a second.

Blink.

Okay.

If I took it off and ask you all this question, real talk.

Do you honestly believe that your pension plan, which you're not getting 100% of your income from, some of you are getting some might be a different percentage or grandfather depending on your tenure.

Do you believe that your pension and social security is enough for you to retire comfortably on?

I should actually grab the mic.

Alright.

Probably not is my answer.

Could you do it?

Maybe, but I'll say this with confidence you will more than likely be living on a very fixed, strict budget and within your means.

You're not doing much more outside of that.

Because it's just gonna allow you to probably do just the bare minimum.

This is why, in many cases, I want y'all to understand how this 457B worked.

First and foremost, your employer, the city of Marietta, had to agree that this is beneficial.

We should have this for our plan participants.

So they adopted it into the retirement plan.

They had to sign up on it.

That's why it's available to you.

So it's not a generic thing.

Because at any point in time they could decide we can do away with it.

But they agree that this is beneficial to their employees, so they adopted it into your retirement benefits.

That's why it's available to you through nationwide.

We affectionately refer to it as deferred compensation.

457.

What is that?

That's an IRS tax code, just like 401A, just like 403B.

Those are the three major types of retirement plan.

Why don't they have a name and they have numbers and letters to them?

That's how the IRS wants it.

They make the rules around them.

Y'all got to understand what these accounts are.

Number one, there are four parties involved with the account.

Congress and IRS had to agree to allow these type of retirement plans.

That's why they're called tax advantage plans, right?

There's a benefit to you in putting money into them.

But because they're involved, they set the rules on the limit of how much you can put in per year.

Because that was put on so people don't use this as a reason to hide their income and say they only made so much more.

So if you're under age 50, the maximum you can put in for calendar year 2025 is 23,500.

And if you are over age 50, you get an additional 7,500 as a catch-up contribution provision.

So that brings it to around what, 31.

And that number has been going up 500 the last few years.

So 2024, it was 22,500.

This year is 23.

So maybe next year it's probably going to be 235.

But it's been going up in 500 increments the last few years.

So with the 457B plan, uh, if you look under the IRS tax code under Rule 457B, is going to say defer compensation.

That's why it's called what it's called.

A 401k is available for private sector employees.

So I work for Nationwide, although we are a mutual company, we're still a private company, so I get a 401k.

I don't get a 457.

My wife works for Gwyneth County Public Schools.

So education, health care, and nonprofit, they get a 403B.

That's their avenue to save for retirement.

And then everyone else, state workers, state of Georgia, local government, city of Marietta, or a municipality.

Municipality is an organization that serves the public.

MARTA will fall under that.

They get a 457B plan as your way to save for retirement.

Let's talk about this officer that's accompanying the slide.

Why is he on there?

Well, a little history on the 457B.

Initially, this was the last of the three plans that were created somewhere in 1979, I believe.

Police, it was created for public safety, police and fire.

Because if you think about it, their jobs are more dangerous than the average person job.

So if and it's within reason to believe that many of them typically tend to retire sooner, right?

Earlier than age 59 and a half.

Which, by the way, if you had a 401k or a 403B, you cannot withdraw money from those accounts until age 59 and a half.

That's one of the rules.

If you do, you get a 10% penalty for early access.

Wait a minute.

You're telling me you're gonna penalize me for accessing my own funds?

It's ridiculous.

But it is part of the rules.

So to put it in context, I refer to a 457B plans as the gold standard, because that particular rule is eliminated.

Uniquely designed to this plan is the fact that when you retire, you have access to your money right away.

You do not have to wait.

So if I retire at 52, 55, 57, that 59 and a half or 10% early access penalty does not apply.

There's no age requirement on this.

So it makes it easier to access the fund or the knowledge of knowing that hey, I can plan my retirement a little different.

Not me.

Everything for me has to start after 59 and a half.

So I always joke and say this if I could trade in my 401k for 457, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Twice again on Sundays.

Alright, but what can you do with this plan?

And many of you are enrolled in the plan, so some of this obviously looks and sounds familiar.

But let's talk about it.

Number one, you have full control over this.

Let's say you were at maybe another local government.

I cover West Georgia, so all these plans I'm talking about, these are my other plans.

DeCap County, Marta, Marietta, Douglasville, I have eight of them on the west side.

Um the Cap County, for example, has a 401A plan.

I don't I don't want to over speak, I don't know if y'all have it here, but let's just use them as an example.

In a 401A, it's a plan that's created by the plan sponsor.

The plan sponsor in this case is your employer.

Let's talk about those four parties that's involved in this.

The IRS or Congress, they authorize it.

Your plan sponsor or your employer is the creator of the plan.

You are the plan participant and the owner of the account.

Nationwide is the plan administrator and the record holder.

Those are the parties involved.

It is your money.

But by federal rules, City of Marietta cannot hold your plan.

That's why it always has to be an outside third source.

Because ERISA rule says, you know, they cannot mismanage or invest y'all's money and play around with it.

So it's a rule.

Just like I work for Nationwide, Fidelity has our stuff.

It's always a third party.

Alright, but you control what you put into this plan.

Whereas if you had a 401A, you'd notice that you're making mandatory contributions of a specific amount that you cannot increase or you cannot tell them to stop.

This you have full control over it.

So you decide how much per pay you want to put in.

You can increase it, decrease it at any time you see fit.

There's no limitations, there's no waiting period.

By the way, another huge thing with retirement plans is the ving period.

For example, as I mentioned, the 401A, and I'm doing this to give you compare side-by-side comparison.

In the 401A, that 59 and a half rule applies.

You have no access to it, your employer controls it, and then you have to be vested in order to get it and separated from the employer in order to have access to it.

So basically, if you had it, it's just sitting there, you're watching it grow, but you can't do anything with it.

A lot of times we want options in life.

Most of us working adults, we we set ourselves up to make things easier.

So the flexibility here is that, hey, like my grandmother used to always say, you don't know trouble day, right?

You don't know the day that something is gonna pop up.

Um I don't know when my emergency is gonna pop up, but I surely like to plan and be in a position that if something crazy happens, I have maybe an option of two how to resolve it, especially if it's a financial thing.

So you control how much you invest into this plan, how much you put in.

It is created specifically for public sector employees, you have retirement specialists like myself who are focused on you.

Our job is to provide two things education and guidance.

And as crazy as it sounds, yes, I am a licensed financial advisor.

I am not to give you advice.

So it's kind of looked at differently.

Education and guidance.

Why is that?

Because it is your plan, not mine.

You make the decisions, but the empowerment piece here is that if you have good information around this stuff and you understand how it works, you will make better decisions.

You will know how to plan better and ultimately get the uh the goal that you want.

And then we have valuable resources that are designed around your needs.

For example, I think of the future value calculator, right?

When I do my one-on-one meetings with plann participant, there's a whole bunch of things I do.

By the way, let me just put this quick disclaimer out there.

This is not where I do my best work.

I'm talking to a group of people.

I have no idea what you all have going on individually.

When we get into a one-on-one meeting, that's when we get into the details.

Because now I'm focused on your situation, your unique plan.

Are you married?

Do you have kids in college?

What do you have going on?

Do you own property outside of the state?

Whatever it is, have you done estate planning?

I'm going to make sure that we leave no stones unturned so that you can feel good about retirement, what you've done so far, but then I get my fulfillment knowing that, hey, a lot of people are counting on you every day with the information and knowledge that you have to do make better decisions in life.

So don't take it for granted.

Smart choices can't put you on a better path.

I'm a numbers guy, so we got to show you what deferred compensation should look like.

This is just an example.

And we're going to talk about all the little details at the bottom because I think that's important as well.

But here's what it looks like.

Uh we have a growth period.

What we call that is during your working years, that's the accumulation phase of the account.

That's the build-up part.

You are saving for a purpose.

You're building this thing up.

As you make your contributions, we help you invest this money into the market, and we're looking for growth.

This is not a nationwide thing.

This is not a city of Marietta.

Every single employer.

Most 401k plans, I don't really know of anyone that does not invest in for growth because they can't just hold your money in an account.

How's it supposed to grow?

Um, are in most 401k plans or retirement plans, use target date funds.

What is a target date fund?

Some of you have heard of that before.

A target date fund is exactly what it sounds like.

Target date to your retirement.

So they base it off of your date of birth, and they are available in five-year increment.

So if you even pull up your phone right now and Google target date funds, one of the most common ones in the marketplace, American funds, target date funds.

So they take your date of birth, and they determine the number of years that you may reach what we call retirement age, so somewhere around age 65, and that's the target day fund you go into.

So within that fund, it's already pre-mix of investments.

It's already set.

You cannot change anything within that fund.

So your dollars go into it, it starts off aggressive, it goes moderate, and then it goes conservative.

It literally winds down to the target date of retirement because you and a bunch of people that do your age that have their money in that plan would now start to withdraw from it in retirement.

So to put you on a better path, you're thinking of this your working years as this is my growth time or my accumulation phase.

Things to keep in mind.

Many of y'all probably know this.

You cannot fund this account when you're done working.

It has to be through salary reduction.

That's part of why it's through your employer.

So you've got to think of your working years as your timeline.

So let's do a quick exercise.

You don't have to say it out loud, but I want each of you to take a second.

Take your current age, draw a timeline in your head to age 65, or if you're thinking I'm gonna work until 67.

Whatever you believe retirement is for you.

You don't have to tell me, it's a rhetorical question.

What's your number?

What is your number?

Ladies and gentlemen, you are on the clock.

If you weren't aware, you have been this entire time.

But you have a time frame that you need to get ready for retirement.

So during the growth phase, I am making contributions per paycheck.

So let's go with the fourth line, the $100 line.

I'm going to read through it and just explain some things.

So I make a hundred dollar contribution per paycheck.

The paycheck impact is just a section that shows you, okay, we all kind of try to measure what does this affect my actual take-home pay.

So if I'm doing $100, and let's say I'm doing it pre-tax, we're trying to show you in a way that you know that money never got taxed.

So what you what is actually affecting is your contribution plus unpaid taxes really raw.

$75 is actually coming out of that.

But don't focus on that impact too much.

Because this is what people get this confused when we put up this slide and say, wait a minute.

So you're telling me I'm putting in $100, but you're only counting.

No, no, no.

This is showing you how it affects your take home.

So that's really the most, the least important category is the impact part.

That's just to visually show you.

Moving over.

Annual deferral.

Here's where it gets tricky because a lot of times when you start talking about retirement readiness, people say, ah, that sounds like a lot.

I can't afford to do that much.

Well, if you were putting in $100, we most of us get paid bi-weekly.

So, wait, is it bi-weekly or a weekly?

I caught myself because I've been working with some of y'all, and it is weekly.

But so y'all get paid, well, let's stick with bi-weekly.

It's easier for my presentation.

26 times a year.

Right?

The number says that's all I'm putting in the annual deferral.

$2,600.

Now, does that sound like a lot?

I worked a whole year and I put in $2,600.

Some people say, okay, I'm cool with that.

Others may say it does not sound like a lot.

Depends on where you are.

But that's what is showing you to get a visual of how much are you saving.

So here's how I've guided some clients over the year.

I challenge them to look at this in reverse.

I say you really should be approaching.

Hold on.

You really should be approaching retirement this way.

Because we know year to year things will change.

So think about how much you want to save each year.

I'm gonna use an example.

Let's say, tell me your name, sir.

Adam.

I'm not picking on you.

I'm just using it as an example.

Is that alright?

Alright.

Let's say Adam makes $80,000 a year.

And Adam says, hey, you know what?

I want to save $5,000 each year, you know, for retirement.

I really want to make sure I'm hitting my goal, or I want to, you know, make sure I'm putting in enough.

So then he takes that $5,000, he divides it by $26 pay period, or whatever each week is.

I don't know if it's 48 weeks or $48, if y'all do.

$52 and a half or $52?

Okay.

Um, he divides it by that, and it gives him an idea of what he should be putting in per pay.

That's one way to look at it.

Because it within reason that this year, he doesn't have much going on.

So $5,000 he can save.

Now I'm gonna piggyback off of Adam and put myself into the example.

I discovered something new this year.

Why?

I have a freshman at Kennesaw State.

My oldest daughter is now in college.

Yay.

Only me and my wife are looking like, wait a minute.

Our AGI may disqualify her for some stuff.

What?

It's like life is telling me be successful, but don't be too successful.

But this is new space for us.

So we had to look at some stuff where we can make some adjustments so that it can stay within reason.

So when you when you are targeting this, and that's just now, because the two younger ones, I have three daughters, ten and nine, they're going to college anytime soon.

So once we get rid of this one, we might have a little bit of a break.

Things might go back to what we were doing before.

But we had to make adjustments.

So the point I'm trying to make is that one year could be fine for you to do what you need to do, and the next year you may have a challenge that may not allow you to save $5,000 like you wanted to.

So you can adjust this thing from year to year.

Remember, you control what you put in.

So your employer ain't gonna come back and tell you, hey, you only put in a thousand dollars into your retirement plan this year.

We're firing you, no such thing.

It's your plan.

So if he if he made $80,000 a year and says, I want to save $5,000 into my retirement and I'm gonna do it pre-tax.

This means when he goes to file his taxes, he's only gonna be taxed on $75,000 of income for that year.

Because $5,000 came out pre-taxed and went into the retirement plan.

So that's another way to look at if I'm trying to, and if I believe that I can live off of $75,000, then I can use this method or approach to be, I don't want to say aggressive, but to be intentional with my savings.

Because I have a goal.

I'm trying to retire by a certain year and look at the first lie.

$25 is $650 a year might not move the needle.

Let's be real.

So you're trying to find the happy medium of where you say, okay, this is this is sustainable, but this should get me to where I want to be.

Alright, um, annual deferral over to the ending balance side.

So $100 per pay gives me $2,600 a year.

After 10 years with market participation, I'll have about $37,000 in the account.

After 20 years, $110,000, and after 30 years, $254,000.

Some of you are already saying 30 years, $250,000, but that's not a lot.

Remember, this is not your only source.

This is why these other two are important because it's going to take the pressure off how much you exactly need to save into this plan.

Now let's talk about what's at the bottom of this screen.

So, this table is showing you biweekly of 20, 25, 30 years, assuming a 7% annual rate of return.

First thing I want to provide education on.

In our business, right?

Financial services, we have a benchmark that we look at.

Financial advisors, most of them will tell you, if you are getting any client that you're working with, a 7% of growth year to year, they will love you.

They might cook for you, they might give you free.

This example in the slide is using it.

But let me pause for a second and ask a powerful question.

Who can tell me in here what the SP 500 returns last year?

What was that?

Speak up.

It was in the 30s.

Too high.

Go down a little bit.

A little bit more.

25.

25% it returned last year.

Follow-up question.

What about the year before that?

2023.

What did the SP 500 return?

25.

Who said 25?

25.

25 in 2023, 25 in 2024.

25 is not done yet.

But let me pause and go back to this.

So I'm showing you a slide that gives you or shows you a 7% growth, but the actual real life market return $25% last year.

What is that telling you about these numbers?

They're conservative.

And it's just an example.

So in many cases, some of the stuff we show you, your real life is even better.

That's where we're at right now.

And it's not a guarantee that the market is going to return that every year.

I'm just going off of facts.

This is not fluff.

This is real data from the last two years.

That's what it is.

So if this rate is showing you a 7% growth, imagine what 25% will be looking like and what your numbers could look like.

But let's continue.

So assuming a 7% rate of return at a 25% tax bracket.

Let me pause there for a second.

This is important to know.

Because a lot of times we're we hear taxes and Uncle Sam and we don't like it.

But we also don't know what we're doing in this space.

So you need to know your income determines your tax bracket.

There's nothing you can do about that.

Some of you knew that.

But if you didn't, now you do.

Your income determines your tax bracket.

So if you look at the IRS tax brackets for 20, 25 and 4.

I don't know if I've looked at it much this year.

I'm going off a memory.

10%, 12%, 22%, 22, 24%.

Those are the first four brackets.

Many working adults, many of us fall within 22 and 24%.

Because that's as starting at $50,000 of income all the way up to $200,000 of income.

Many of us fall within that range.

So our tax, our income is already putting us in a tax bracket.

But it's saying at a 25% tax bracket, this is what you're doing over a period of time.

Here's what you can expect to receive.

So I don't know if this thing has a oh, it does have that.

Perfect.

Alright.

So now let me tell you this.

The goal in retirement.

This is a statement.

And I want you to grasp this because people miss this all the time.

Don't get caught up in the monetary piece.

How much money do I have saved?

Understand what you are trying to accomplish.

Let's talk about it.

What is the goal?

Why am I saving for retirement?

What am I trying to win at?

What am I trying to accomplish?

What you are trying to accomplish is very simple.

You are trying to replace your paycheck.

That is the goal.

Not to save a million dollars.

I'm trying to replace my paycheck.

What do you mean, Christian?

So glad you asked.

Well, let's use Adam again.

Adam is 25 years old.

Starts with the city of Marietta.

Um, we're gonna make him a police officer, right?

Starts with the city of Marietta, 25 years old.

He's gonna be here until he's 65.

So what is that?

Quick math, is that 40 years?

Okay.

Um Adam is 25.

He starts off by 28, he gets married.

By 30, he purchases his first property.

Now he's really in love.

Adam and his wife, they have 17 children.

I'm just kidding.

That was the joke.

I was waiting for him to react.

They have a few kids.

Okay, by age 35, they buy another property.

The whole point is hey, we're building our portfolio over time.

These are rental properties outside of our home.

By the time he hits age 55, they're able to buy another home.

Now they have three properties, and he retires at 65.

First thing we want to observe, when at when young Adam started, even though he couldn't keep it in his pants, if I could say that.

When young Adam staffed, he was 25 years old, correct?

And if you watch what I did, his life progressed.

Now that he's 65, one, the amount of money he was making at 25, he's making a whole lot more now.

Correct?

Because his job has increased his income and salary over time.

He's also has established his life more than he was when he was 25.

So he's married with children and he has property.

So now he's here.

Established, grown up, in retirement.

Why would he want to go backwards?

Or why should he have to downsize, change his lifestyle, and if Adam can agree with me, I'm sure you want to maintain the life you have now.

Correct?

That's the goal.

So when I say you're trying to replace your paycheck in retirement, that is the goal.

I'm trying to maintain my standard of living.

This should not be that I left my job, so now it has to feel like truly like I'm poorer, if I can say that.

It's I've done the right things along the way so that I can actually not work and still keep my stuff.

Well, let's continue.

So now that he's 65, he has the pension plan, he has social security, he has, let's say Adam was doing.

Uh, actually, let's do it.

He was doing $100 a paycheck all the way over after 30 some years.

Let's say he has about 300,000 in his 457.

You have pension, social security, you have the 457B account, and also Adam has three properties, right?

That will provide rental income.

That's considered passive income.

So, if we add up all of Adam's sources of income together in retirement, it's easy to see how he could be making more money than he did at 25.

Are y'all tracking with me?

So, that's the reason why we say you want to replace your paycheck.

Because I'm established and now I have more.

This could also be the reason why he could potentially have a higher tax bracket.

And people think this is impossible or not common, but it very much is.

I've had clients in the past.

If you do this thing right, it is not uncommon that you end up making more money in retirement than you did when you were working.

I've seen it before.

So, back to the point.

Now we see that does it really matter how much money I have saved?

It may or may not.

Because here's how this is going to work.

Let's say Adam already knows his number.

He's 65 years old, their properties are paid off.

We talked about his sources.

So right now he and his wife, uh, they need $6,000 a month, right?

To pay, maybe they have a mortgage.

Let's assume they do.

To pay the mortgage, pay off the car, pay the bills, go on vacation, whatever.

Six thousand dollars a month will take care of everything, and they can enjoy retirement.

Okay, well, what is this first source of income?

The pension plan.

He's been here for a long time.

So now the pension is giving him 3,000 a month.

Great.

Social Security is providing another 2,000 a month, or maybe let's say 2,500.

That's 55, right?

Math.

Okay.

So now the shortage or the difference is only 500 that he has a need for to maintain or replace what he had coming in.

So if we go here, and now I'll have to ask you, look at these numbers.

And Adam had about 300,000 in his account.

And he's only drawing out 500 a month, or some months he's not even taking it at all.

Do you now see why this will last a longer time?

Because it's not your first source.

He's using it as a supplement to his other sources of income.

That is why this is important.

If you and y'all have this, understand what it's gonna do first, and then what this will do in the end.

This will allow him to stay retired.

This will allow him the peace of mind that he's been planning for this entire time, knowing that I do not have to return to work.

I'm okay.

We didn't even talk about his rental income.

But that's passive income that's going to help as well.

So maybe in some years he said, nope, I'm not touching this 457 at all.

But what happens to this money just because Adam is now in retirement.

I'm sorry, man.

I just turned this whole thing, made this about you.

Like, dude, stop talking about me.

Um, it does not mean that his account is just sitting there, it's still in the market.

The only main thing that's stopped is he's no longer making current contributions because he's not working, but the account is still being invested for growth in the marketplace.

So over time, even if he takes money out, chances are he could make it right back.

That is how you're able to sustain these things.

So how does the plan work?

So we understand the nuances of the action of what we do on our side.

Okay, Christian, talk to us about what this looks like in the marketplace.

The two arrows are pointing in two different directions.

One says potential reward, the other says potential risk.

We know that that's a saying, high risk equals.

Okay, that's just a part of life, but you want to know, and you don't have to have expert knowledge on it.

You just need to know how this thing works.

Because I promise you, what I tell people all the time, you know what I deliver?

I deliver peace of mind.

Because I do this so well that people really don't have questions.

It becomes, oh, I get it now.

I understand what's happening.

This makes sense.

So, high risk, high reward.

You want to at least know how this is working for you.

So, uh, typically what we call asset classes in a market, right, or asset allocation, is uh divided this way.

Some of us in this room, we all have our favorites, and I'll tell you, because we're creature of habit.

I'll probably use me.

Adam, you're off the hook, I'll use myself as an example.

Um, we have our favorite brands and things that we like and that we invest into.

I learned this a long time ago, probably five, six years into the business.

I worked with some excellent financial advisors who groomed in Connecticut.

So I used to ask all the student-like questions.

What are y'all doing?

So one guy told me he's like, you know, I invest in all the things that I like.

I'm like, what do you mean?

It's like, well, my phone company, I purchased their stocks.

I have T-Mobile stocks.

Uh everything in my house or things that we use and we love, I look for ways to invest in it.

And then it immediately hit me.

Oh, that makes sense.

Why?

You are part of the reason that company continues to do well.

You are a you are supporting them.

So in turn, when they grow, you can benefit from it as well.

So I follow that mindset with everything I do.

One of my favorite things, and where I spent, don't tell my wife this.

Um victor watches.

I have like 30 of these things, and they're not cheap.

But this is a company out of Switzerland.

You better believe I have Invictive stocks and investments.

You better believe it.

T Mobile is the phone company I use, I have their stuff too.

So that's one way to think of it.

Why did I bring that up?

Because a lot of times we get stuck on the individual stuff.

Some people may have Nike stocks and Tesla, this and whatever, right?

But where do these things fall within here?

You should know this.

Not at an expert level, but just surface level knowledge.

You should know this.

So cash equivalents are typically your liquid accounts.

So you think CDs, money market accounts, anything that you can get to pretty quickly or sell-off.

Those are cash equivalents.

There's a need for that.

Because if oh, you're what I thought you were telling me like we gotta go.

If you um if you have a need and you're trying to take some money out of your portfolio, we want to get to the stuff that's easy to sell out first.

That makes sense.

So when we what we call diversification, that's why you want to have it, because you get a mix of everything that's out there.

Bonds.

Many of you have heard of this before.

What a bonds.

Bonds are debt instrument.

IOUs.

If the city of Marietta wanted to build another courthouse, another jail, another public use facility, they may very well issue out a bond to the public.

That's what it what it is debt instrument.

But bonds pay interest as well.

And a lot of times, if some of you in this room have worked with a financial advisor before, you'll probably agree with this.

You'll notice that your investments will shift from more equities and stocks to bonds because it's more secure.

That's why they're there.

So every one of these asset classes has a value and an important place in your portfolio.

Large cap.

What does large cap mean?

Large capitalization.

It is companies that are worth over 10 billion dollars.

So now find your favorite.

Who do you care for that falls in there?

They probably have their stocks within large cap funds.

That's how you follow the Nike and the Teslas or whatever of the world.

If that's the thing you want to go into, then you say, okay, the way I get to invest into what they're doing is find some large cap fund and put my money in.

Mid-cap is for companies between 10 to 2 billion, and small cap is for any company under 2 billion and under.

So that's how our major brands, that's where they fall.

Then you have international.

This one is always interesting.

A lot of people don't know or realize.

Number one, the US stock market is by far, not even by far, I shouldn't say it like that.

Like I'm it is the most sophisticated investment.

We we have it.

We are number one.

No other country is ever gonna top what we do.

But do you know that 55% of the companies that we all know and love do not have their headquarters in America?

They're overseas or abroad.

Many of you did not know that.

We have a lot of brands here who aren't domesticated here or have their domicile here in the US.

So taking that into consideration, and as well as those companies in Germany, Switzerland, China, whatever, they also invest into the US stock market.

This means this opened up this avenue for us to benefit from it as well.

So when I put my money into some international stocks or companies, because I know they're gonna grow and blow up, or whatever the case may be, that's how I get to partake in that.

Now, look at the chart.

High risk, high reward, and that's by design.

Because number one, we as a country do not have a say over what they do, right?

They're not part of the US.

So there's more risk involved with those kind of investments.

They could blow up or they could do very well.

But just giving you context, look what happened to NVIDIA.

COVID turned this company into the most profitable company in the world today.

I think it's 374 trillion.

What does NVIDIA do?

They make chips.

So this is how I want you to think because I say I love to empower people with education, good information that gets you thinking about other things.

What company or stocks that are out there now today that you may be overlooking that's gonna blow up in the next 10 years?

I'll take it back for a second.

1994, Microsoft.

I think many of us know the history of these uh technology companies that started in somebody's basement or garage or whatever the case may be.

Back then, Microsoft shares were less than 40 dollars, something like that in the market.

I think they started trading at 10.

Do you know what Microsoft shares are trading for today?

400 plus dollars.

So that's how you want to think.

This is long-term investment, people.

With everything that you do, you want to be intentional.

Number one, maybe there is someone in this room that's getting ready to retire, but I'm looking around the room.

I think all of y'all might be here for a little while longer.

But this is that I meant that with love.

Not like you're stuck here.

But this is saying that you're not walking out the door anytime soon.

So these next 10, 15 or whatever your number is, be intentional about what you're doing.

Think long term.

Think growth.

If you're gonna do something as challenging as saving money, your money should be working very hard for you.

Be extra about it.

In a sense of I cannot afford to save if this thing isn't returning what I need it to do.

That should be your attitude towards your money.

I don't want conservative.

I want growth.

We've heard the saying the saying scary money don't make no money, right?

So a lot of times when people set up their investments, they are anticipating growth on it.

Asset allocation, as we talk about growth, and then here comes the word that people run from.

Aggressive.

Oh my god.

What do you mean aggressive?

Sounds so violent.

Um aggressive does not mean that I am some white knuckle adrenaline junkie who just wants to do something crazy.

No, it means that my asset allocation is geared towards growth.

I'm engineering this thing by design so that I can actually see growth on it.

So here's how it typically looks within asset classes.

The beautiful thing about this, it's always different for everyone.

Because when you determine where you fall, you are asked a number of questions with no right or wrong answer.

So it's a feeling thing.

Because it's in reason to believe that if I were to sit with Adam, there we go again, and talk to him about the stock market, how he thinks and feel about some stuff, we might have find some differences.

He might be like, risk it all, and I might be like, oh, you're crazy.

I got a kid in college, dude.

I might be a lot more conservative than you.

So it's different for everyone.

But here's an example of what that looks like.

So again, I want you to see that aggressive does not mean I'm putting all my eggs in one basket either.

Rather, with a hundred percents, I have a decent percentage of it that's geared towards growth.

So if we look at conservative versus aggressive, you see the progression all through with the numbers.

Right?

Conservative, most investment plans or retirement plans flow this way.

It starts off aggressive and then it goes down to conservative.

Why is that?

Because at this point, you should be retiring if you've done this thing right.

You're winding down to retirement.

So you cannot, or you really shouldn't, not you cannot, but you shouldn't have your money in an aggressive space when you're getting ready to start drawing from it.

Plus, I talked about bonds earlier.

There it is.

You can now see you have more percentage of your account in bonds.

A safe investment.

So this is what it should look like for many people, and then you can see the in-between of moderately conservative and moderately aggressive, because obviously people do fall within that.

But this is a visual example of what it looks like.

So when you're thinking, or next time you hear the word, I have aggressive growth portfolio style, you're not panicking.

You understand what's happening.

In many cases, with these options, you can adjust them.

And rightfully so.

Because the way that 25-year-old Adam was thinking changed by the time he hit 35, it changed by the time he hit 45, and it changed by the time he was in retirement.

Different things became important to him in different stages of life.

That's what mirrors this.

I do this presentation probably once a week.

But why start now?

Is a powerful question.

Let's look at the example.

Actually, the answer is right underneath it.

But let's look at these two examples of two investors.

Investor number one, at age 30 says, I'm going to start investing into my 457B plan.

I'll do it for 10 years and I'll stop at 40.

Investor number two takes the other way.

Like, I'm not going to do this just yet.

I got some other things going on.

Wait it until I'm 40, or he or she is 40, and then start an investment.

Ladies and gentlemen, why is it that investor number one who only did it for 10 years has more money in their account than someone who did it for 25 years?

The answer is right under Y start now.

That is the power of this.

And here's the point I want to emphasize on that.

The sooner you get a hold of your investment or your retirement planning.

The sooner you dive into this thing and realize it's important.

We're not talking about insurance till y'all know nationwide.

This is why I pay you, man.

Been trying to tell you I want more than just insurance.

But the sooner you get a hold of this stuff, the better or the more likely of a successful outcome.

When I go around talk to people, because I do the department business as well.

I never hear this is a bad idea.

Or I hate that I've saved this much money.

No such thing.

Do you know what the main the common denominator or statement is?

I actually three of them.

I wish I started sooner.

I wished I invested more.

That's what they say.

Or they're there, and then I literally I get calls when whenever I hear someone panicking, I just know I can almost tell you how old they are.

Between 45 and 50.

Because now the biggest concern is I'm getting closer to retirement.

And I don't know if I've done enough.

I don't know if I've done enough.

And we look, they're saving, but that's the concern.

Am I doing enough?

Because it's getting closer.

So, and I'll share this other piece.

I met a client in Connecticut who had zero retirement savings.

I'm not saying that I'm some financial doctor because I'm not.

I'm just good at what I do.

And I love information and I study so that I can stay on top of what the information I provide to people.

He had no retirement savings.

I told him if you rock with me and you follow what I tell you to do, we can create a plan for you now and we can rewrite your story.

10 years is all we needed for him to retire successfully.

So if you're in this room and you're feeling maybe some stuff that I'm saying, you're like, ah, I'm a little older or I'm concerned.

I'm here to tell you it is possible.

Are you gonna make some sacrifices along the way?

Sure.

But that's what discipline is, and I want to empower you to build that muscle because it is important in every aspect of your life.

Alright.

That is it for me, and this is great because I think I can take some questions, and I will love, love, love, love, love to hear some feedback from y'all.

Uh ask any questions that you have about this stuff.

Uh also I want you to know that I am available for one-on-one meetings as well.

So, I think that that's really the best way to do this because some people aren't comfortable talking about this stuff in their in a public setting, and that's fine.

But we get to focus on you in this meeting.

So I'm gonna ask individual questions as it relates to your raffle, right?

Okay, as it relates to your situation.

So, let me first gave you all my cell numbers.

So pull out your cell phones.

Everybody.

Pull out your cell phone.

This is how you can get in contact with me.

Simply call me, shoot me a text.

I want to meet, and I will schedule a meeting with you.

By the way, if you didn't know this, um I come here.

I lost track.

What is it?

Twice a month?

Twice a month on Wednesdays, I call it Marietta Wednesdays.

I'm here in this building on the third floor.

So if it's easier for you to come and see me in person, and that wasn't a thing nationwide was doing before.

But I realized, and I'm always intentional.

I want to be available to these people.

I want to be even more effective than the last representative they have here.

So I gave y'all, I have time block off.

So I want y'all in this room to know that.

And then spread the word to your colleagues.

Alright, we got something for y'all.

So we are gonna give away a gift card.

What's your number?

What's your number?

Oh.

Ooh.

Look, look at all these people want to meet with me.

My bad.

Alright, here we go.

Number 678.

557.

526 7.

678, 557, 5267.

Store my first name as Christian.

Store my last name as nationwide.

Because some of y'all got some other Christians in your phone and that way when I'm calling you, you know exactly who I am.

Christian Nationwide.

Okay, with that being said, do y'all need me to repeat the number?

Y'all got it.

678-557-5267.

Alright.

We got a hundred dollars gift card to give away.

What is this?

A Visa?

It doesn't say.

American Express.

100.

I hope y'all don't do it so I can just put it back in my pocket and keep it for the came from here.

Pull somebody's name who's been here a lot.

Like all week.

All these people.

Shake it.

Shake it.

Can I do it?

Yes.

No, no, no, just one.

Oh, oh.

Oh, I thought that.

Oh, man.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I like you.

I don't want you to think it.

You're the cameraman.

Put it back.

I'm gonna give this to someone.

No, I gotta pick somebody who's gonna really.

Not you.

I know you.

You're cool.

Let's pick somebody else.

Let's just put Paul wants.

Okay.

Alright, I'll do it.

You do it.

I thought everyone was getting one.

I want to be in number four.

Alright.

Everybody's here, right?

I want y'all to see.

I'm not cheating.

Shake, shake, shake, shake.

Alright, here we go.

I'll let you call it.

Really?

Yes.

And she got the marieta shirt on.

Nicely done.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all so very much for your time.

I I was looking around.

Every one of y'all was paying attention and engaged.

I can't ask for anything more.

And I did provide lunch, so I believe there's Chick fil A.

Is it here?

It is here.

Okay, right out the door.

Please grab yourself a box of lunch and thank you so much for coming today.

I appreciate it.