3 Lessons From Over 100 Financial Meetings Last Year

Earlier this year I was curious how many meetings Hale Financial held in 2023. We had a busy year and with over 700 contacts in our system, I thought it’d be fun to see some numbers.

To my surprise, Hale Financial held over 100 client and potential client meetings last year! We love these meetings, and they reveal common trends as we serve Wyoming retiree and pre-retirees across our community.

I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some observations from these meetings that will be beneficial to retirees.

Kill debt without mercy

One of my favorite 80s films is The Karate Kid. One of the villains is the ruthless dojo master of the Cobra Kai karate studio. He has indoctrinated his students with the mantra “Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy!”

I’m no fighter, but when it comes to eliminating debt, I couldn’t agree more with the Cobra Kai sensei. Debt, particularly high cost debt, must be struck at hard and without mercy. This is particularly the case for pre-retirees as they look toward full retirement. The happiest retired clients at Hale Financial have implemented a pre-retirement plan to eliminate most or all debt. They do it without discretion; taking to heart this classic quote from religious leader J. Reuben Clark:

“Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands nor orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”

Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy!

The happiest “retirees” are still working

I have retired clients who work as trust administrators, restaurateurs, contractors for past employers, real estate agents, substitute teachers, truck drivers, ranchers, river guides, journalists…the list goes on. 
Nine out of ten times these people love the work they do, and in special cases they may have retired so they could pursue new or related work in other fields, without being tethered to a full-time, 9 to 5 job. There’s often a sparkle in their eye when I ask “How’s your work going?” 

Extra income on the side can help reduce a variety of threats to a comfortable retirement. It can can delay the need to draw funds from retirement accounts which can be particularly problematic if you retire during a market decline. It can also help you delay claiming Social Security, a benefit which continues to go up for each month that you delay (to the tune of about 8% per year). 

Extra income boosts early retirement income during the retirement “go-go” years, when you still have energy to travel and visit family, and your health is still good, too. Extra income is wages, which in the IRS’s eyes, means you can continue to contribute to Roth IRAs, Traditional IRAs, and Health Savings Accounts, if eligible. 

Social Security really matters

I’ve written a lot about Social Security and you can see a list of all of my articles linked here. The decision of when to start Social Security shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s an incredible benefit. 

Pretend someone came to you and said: “I’d like to offer you a pension that can pay you millions of dollars in lifetime benefits, will pay an additional one-half of your benefit to your spouse even if he or she hasn’t worked a day in their life, will continue to pay your full benefit when you or your spouse passes away, has an annual cost of living increase matched to the inflation rate, and is backed by the full taxing authority of the wealthiest county in the history of the world.” 

Would you like that benefit? I would too. It’s called Social Security, and despite Social Security’s potential insolvency issues, it’s a benefit that is extremely popular, that most retirees rely on heavily, and, in my opinion, isn’t going anywhere (for better or worse, some might say).

The main question you have to decide is how best to maximize the lifetime family benefit (for you and your spouse combined), given your unique circumstances of personal and family health history, cash flow needs, access to additional liquid assets, and other variables. It’s not easy to do, but it really matters.

I hope this article has been helpful. Hale Financial is looking forward to another 100+ meetings this year. It’s hard to know how the retirement landscape will change over the years, but I suspect that the benefits of eliminating debt, having fulfilling side work, and being smart about when to claim Social Security won’t be going out of style anytime soon.