Building Generational Wealth Through Retirement with Kevin Benson - 133

[00:00:00] Talking about money, changing up your retirement program and building generational wealth for others, all that in more in today's fantastic episode of Money Talk with Skyler Fleming Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming where money matters become conversations and starters. Let's get talking

[00:00:14] In today's episode we're diving into a topic that's often kept under wraps but it's crucial for financial success Talking about money in the workplace We often spend much of our time around those we work with yet we don't turn to them for advice on money

[00:00:28] Why not? Talking about money in the workplace can seem uncomfortable, but it's a great place to learn from other people and even promote change The only way your workplace retirement plan is going to get any better or change is by talking about it with your co-workers

[00:00:40] By expressing what you're unhappy with and things like that and we're gonna talk about that in today's episode. In today's interview with Kevin Benson, founder of Cirque He will join us to discuss how talking about financial matters openly in the workplace can have a profound impact on benefits

[00:00:53] And especially for educators we explore why it's essential for educators to engage in conversations about money and The impact of retirement plans like the 403B the 457B And how services like Cirque Revolutionizing retirement consulting for educators across the nation with different Programs all over the United States

[00:01:11] But this conversation can extend beyond just educators. Are you heading home for work or heading to work and wondering why your retirement options aren't any good? We'll start talking about it with others

[00:01:20] I've been able to promote some change in conversation at my work by talking about money more I know my co-workers will bounce ideas off of me because they know about my podcast and that I like to talk about money

[00:01:30] But I've also been able to talk with HR to get some 401k education for the company And guess what the company that runs your 401k is going to be more than happy to provide that education

[00:01:40] I've also been trying to get them to consider adding a Roth option to our 401k And though it hasn't happened yet simple conversations have been able to get the ball rolling Whether you're an educator or in any other profession

[00:01:49] That's gonna be a great way to get things moving so make sure you're talking about money and make sure to stay tuned for today's great interview And some fantastic content after the interview as well

[00:01:58] I was I'm gonna talk about an article outlining whether door-ashes worth it or not But the money talking points for today's episode R What retirement changes would you like to see at work?

[00:02:07] And two how can you start talking about money with co-workers with the money talking points in mind let's get right into today's episode Hello everybody and welcome to today's interview on money talk with Skylar Fleming joining me today

[00:02:28] I've Kevin Benson and we're talking about an SCRC talking about money in the workplace talking about retirement options It's gonna be a fun conversation today Kevin when you go ahead and introduce yourself for everyone Sure, I'm Kevin Benson. I'm the executive director of cooperative purchasing agency and

[00:02:43] Cirque CRC which is the southern education retirement consortium awesome Well, yeah, like I said we're gonna talk about four one-cares retirements in the SCRC that you mentioned I don't really know what that is so I'm interested to learn but let's start off with

[00:02:58] Kind of an initial one where people are sitting in their workplace and they have a money question on their mind should people Or is it important to talk about money in the workplace?

[00:03:06] It's definitely important to talk about money in the workplace and having been an educator for most of my life Educators don't like to talk about money. They are very

[00:03:16] Don't want to hear about it talk about it anything like that. They want to they want to put something away and just kind of leave it there And not really worry about it so

[00:03:25] Having work for large corporations as well the conversations in those areas were always more centered on money Educators just don't really seem to be focused on Retirement other than their teacher retirement So these are very important Conversations to have because

[00:03:44] Depending on where you live and what retirement system you're in in Georgia it's quite good We get 60% of our two highest years after 30 years for the rest of our life So if you're making the $1000 year when you retire

[00:03:57] You basically you're gonna make $60,000 a year and then you'll get a 1.5% cost of living increase every six months So that's pretty good but Compared to other retirements, but if you keep it in perspective That's a 40% pay cut How many people take a 40% pay cut and still be good?

[00:04:17] So you need some additional pieces in there. Yeah, that makes sense and you're saying like oh here's one of the best Here's one of the best but then when you think about it like if anyone were to say okay your retirement option is to Make 40% less than

[00:04:31] Then you did like that's that's considerable and so do you have to plan for Is there I guess how how do people even begin thinking about that difference like should they just

[00:04:40] Reliad on the 60% or should you try to fill that gap you should definitely try to fill that gap and The more you fill that gap the more generational wealth you're building the more comfort level you're gonna have and again

[00:04:54] You know if you have everything paid off going into retirement You know your mortgage free you're basically your debt free going into retirement Then that 60% may be good and you you know you definitely have to as you get towards that retirement

[00:05:08] You have to start making those decisions that are gonna set you up, but You know if you get to 30 years and you can't take a 40% pay cut You may need to continue working and in many cases with the teacher retirement system once you get about 34 years

[00:05:23] It doesn't really do you you actually start losing money by staying It's just not mathematically is not on the best plan Yeah, so and then social security a lot of teachers They start teaching when they're 20 22 years old and when they have 30 years in they're their 50 55 years old

[00:05:44] Well, you know 62 is the earliest you're gonna see self security if you're going to see it and so you need you know Some additional things that are there obviously with four or three bees you're looking at 59 and a half anyway

[00:05:57] But having that extra stockpile still is is great to have in place Yeah, makes sense like definitely if you're looking at a 40% pay cut for your retirement like while that's nice

[00:06:09] Like you said that's one of the better plans, but I heard Dan like one of the best plans is a 40% pay cut But yeah, you got to think about and is sounds kind of unfortunate But sure let's talk a little bit about the surq or CRC

[00:06:22] Okay, is it similar to a 401k? What is it? Okay, so Slurq is the southern education retirement consortium. It actually has 403 bees which is very similar to a 401k It's just for educators it also has 457 bees which are a little more flexible

[00:06:38] You don't have to wait until that 59 and a half We also have a 401A plan which is for Superintendents and executive directors where the system can put money in for them as well we offer in traditional and tax-free and our pre-tax, excuse me and Roth as well

[00:06:56] So the southern education retirement consortium just to give you an idea how it began I was an educator for 25 years and the executive director position for cooperative purchasing agency Which is owned by schools opened up?

[00:07:11] So I'm gonna apply for that. Well, I knew that I had the job so I was looking at what are other ways that we can help folks We have a warehouse we deliver furniture and supplies and stuff to North Georgia

[00:07:22] So one of the things that came to mind was Well, what if I could save some folks and money on their retirement stuff? So I was actually having a conversation with a gentleman that worked in one of the largest school systems in state of Georgia

[00:07:37] And we were kind of joking around because I had always worked in smaller systems So I said how does it feel To always have the same job as me but make a lot more money and you know Well, then that led us into talking about teacher retirement

[00:07:50] Well, then he started talking about his 403B and he pulls out his phone and he starts showing me the app That shows what he's got in there and it's mutual funds and it's all this other stuff

[00:08:01] So all of a sudden I'm like how do you have mutual funds? I have an annuity product And you know and he started talking about rates. I'm like his rates are a lot better than what I'm paying so

[00:08:12] I was like okay, well, I thought that you know we could make different money But I thought all of our benefits if you were a teacher and state of Georgia or all the same but they're not

[00:08:21] So that kind of missed me actually and so I went home and started looking at stuff and sure enough You know based on the size of the system That depends on how what your fees are because it takes a certain amount of money

[00:08:33] You know, you've got a certain amount of money that it takes to administer a plan You have a smaller number of people They pay more per person Well if you get a larger number of people that's like taxes it goes down per per person charge

[00:08:48] So I thought okay, what if I could save everybody 1% Over 30 year period. What does that mean? So 1% savings over a 30 year period with just the average Contribution that people make in the United States equals out to about 45 grand So I'm like hey

[00:09:06] If we can save 1% that's 45,000 more you have in your retirement Savings at the end compared to somebody next door to you that is definitely worth it. Yeah, that began the journey of creating silk

[00:09:21] That's yeah 1% is a big number when you spend it out over 30 years or even longer over retirement Like I kind of imagine how much money you've saved people over this that's what came to my mind is like

[00:09:33] It'd be kind of crazy if you could actually calculate out like the Opportunity cost of switching and stuff and how much money you've actually saved And we actually, yes, we've got probably 15 systems that are in right now

[00:09:46] It took me four years to build it. We've been live since This October first will be two years that we've been live and We've got just under 50 million in assets in the plan

[00:09:58] But we've got some very large systems that have just that it's kind of interesting because once they say yes Then you have to there's about a week implementation We are a single vendor so the way it set up is very interesting. We actually if you think about three

[00:10:12] Dinner plates sitting in front of you The center plate would be silk this other an education retirement consumer the executive director any system that join Cirque becomes a board member on the circuit board Then the right hand plate so to speak would be our registered investment advisor

[00:10:30] That's Eric Hanson. He actually Goes out he looks at the fun lineup. He determines all of the different things Bring that information to the board if we need to put a watch on something

[00:10:41] A remove something he's monitoring that then the plate to the left is actually the record keeper Now, that's the people that that's kind of the people that are you're more familiar with in our case It's core bridge core bridge was really

[00:10:55] Not to mention they were best price, but they were the Probably the only company that I found that was in any position To do the volume and maintain the level of service that we were going to need because they had a that is not ground game than anybody

[00:11:10] So what What core bridge does is deals directly with the system? They actually do the the payroll deductions. They do all that stuff through system and they provide some ground game as far as advisors as well And as we grow, I'm actually bringing on somebody as well

[00:11:28] Very soon that's going to help us with education and I'm really kind of help us um Build our ground game because we're not just Georgia. We're actually the entire South East minus Florida

[00:11:42] And one of the pieces of that is because it's gonna be so large the savings is going to be greater in greater Because every every 25 million in assets that comes into the plan are price actually drops

[00:11:54] So there's a there's a $25 fee to be part of Cirque. There's a 20 or I'm sorry $20 per year fee to be part of Cirque that will eventually go down over time

[00:12:05] There's a $25 fee for the record keeper and then out of the gate we were our we were at 38 basis points to begin with And we're gonna continue to go down We're actually we've already met our second price drop already and we'll be will hopefully be dropping soon

[00:12:21] I calculated it up you talk about savings. I calculated it up roughly for the state of Georgia If half the systems in the state of Georgia just kind of a clean average half Went with Burke Even at our highest price point which we've already dropped from

[00:12:37] Over the next 30 years, we would save them approximately $4.6 billion in fees That's billion with a B and that's insane. Yeah, that's generational wealth that stays in people's pocket So to put it on a smaller scale If you have like 600 employees in your system Over a 20 to 25 year period

[00:12:59] We're looking at a savings right around 15 million in that particular community So you know having been an educator for years I changed people's lives Then going into procurement I Helped people that help change lives, you know and now when I realize that I'm like, you know what?

[00:13:18] I'm back in the business of changing lives and the unique thing about me is I'm actually a state employee Under the teacher retirement system myself I don't make any commission off any of this at all

[00:13:29] We have a cooperative purchasing agency the $20 per person per year comes back into us and then we actually We profit share Back with the 35 systems that created us based on how much they use our warehouse

[00:13:43] So then that money comes back as a credit to the warehouse so basically what we're doing is we're supplementing everything that we're doing as we're going along and It's created a situation where You know more and more we're actually becoming a household name and many many different ways

[00:13:59] Well, that sounds great like you should be impressed of yourself because that number like you said Just when you get to a community level that's like that's like and it that's like a significant Economy boost of like money that's being able to stay in

[00:14:13] Community stay within the state and not just going to some Black hole of an investment like Entity kind of thing. That's that's fantastic. That's so cool. I didn't know where we would go with this

[00:14:24] But I'm learning so much and this is awesome and I really think that this is gonna change the way things are done around the country

[00:14:30] I've actually I belong to an association that has 29 other people like me around the country and I'm in the process of helping them set up their own

[00:14:39] Regional stuff as well. I get no money for that, but it's again. It's the right thing to do and I really believe in 10 to 15 years This will be the way it is done in education and it will be a single-fender model with

[00:14:54] Basically a consortium like we have and The beneficiaries are obviously the employees Also the beneficiaries are the school systems because it reduces the amount of stress on them no longer Do they wake up in the middle of the cold sweat trying to figure out are we in compliance?

[00:15:11] Well, we cover that compliance. They're still the planted Administrator but there are co-produciary with us and we're creating the framework that helps everything be in place and You know, so that relieves their stress also everything is automated now. So once that eight-week implementation is where

[00:15:32] Core bridge gets their system to talk to the core bridge system. Well, once it's in place each employee Actually can have the app on their phone they can change how much is going into their account from their phone they can

[00:15:44] Do all kinds of different things see what their fees are and if they need a hardship loan They can actually apply for it online and the system doesn't have to go through all the trip look at paperwork and all the different things

[00:15:55] So wow yeah, so like you said you're allowing the school administrators to not wake up in the middle of the night worried about this because they're kind of They're handing it off. It's saving people money and like you said then they don't have to go through

[00:16:08] their supervisor or whatever and file all this HR paperwork that's maybe an uncomfortable situation for a hardship loan that's cool. That's that's awesome stuff. That's yeah, this is interesting It is compared to what people are paying right now if they have multiple vendors you think okay

[00:16:24] If I have more than one vendor that's going to be competitive No because nobody has a big enough market share to make it worth it to be competitive in any way

[00:16:32] So by being the single vendor so when we come into a system they have to get rid of all their other vendors they can only have us And at first you know it took some time I really had to kind of stop think pray about this

[00:16:43] This could affect other people's business and do I want to do I want to make that choice and you know Who's better suited to do it than me because I have no greed factor in this at all the only thing I have is helping people

[00:16:57] So on the right person at the right time to do this to help people and when you think about that generational wealth There's a couple ways to Create generally generational wealth one is to build some type of empire because you're just an entrepreneur

[00:17:10] The other and the most significant for most people is their home They buy their home that's where they build their generational wealth well the only the other real kind of Additional piece is retirement so if you're saving for retirement That's the additional generational wealth that you're building

[00:17:27] So, you know you think about a school system with 600 employees 15 million in that community Over a 20 year period You know that's a game changer for that entire community and it's a major for those folks and for their children And it's money that would have left

[00:17:42] Had we not just disappeared exactly so it's kind of the no-brainer of no-brainers But you know, that's it's pretty neat Awesome, well I love to let's move towards

[00:17:53] How people can talk about money in their workplace and things like that. That was fantastic to learn about and I almost when you were talking about Ways to get generational wealth. I was gonna say you unlocked an extra one to create generational wealth for other people

[00:18:05] Sure, that's a that's what this is doing essentially as you're you're changing the systems of the other people In have that wealth for themselves But let's say someone is at their school and their retirement options are not great

[00:18:16] It's less than that 60% maybe they're maybe they're taken a 60% pay cut. How do they speak up about retirement options? Well, you know having conversations about money with your fellow employees is important to begin with You know hey, what are you doing? How are you putting it away?

[00:18:31] Looking at One of the hardest things to figure out is if you're with a company What are your actual fees Because if the multi vendor system You don't not only you probably have a higher price to knew a deep product

[00:18:47] You probably have a TPA or third party administrator fee because if you have multiple vendors The system usually has to hire an additional third party administrator to Herd the cats so to speak in the thing under control

[00:19:01] So you may be paying you know up to $35 a year, $40 a year just for a third party administrator Even though it doesn't directly affect you it helps the system keep everything together So kind of finding out what your system has and saying hey

[00:19:16] What about a consortium is there any consortiums that are near us and? Of course, you know we're focused on the southeast But if there's a System anywhere in the country that really has no other options and they want to go with us

[00:19:30] I can't guarantee that we will but My board which is made up of superintendents we've we've decided that we will We will entertain, you know reaching out to other people. I really think it needs to be regional because You know the northeast is a completely different

[00:19:47] animal than the southeast in in larger we don't have T-truginians they have T-truginians in the northeast We you know everything is kind of a different climate so You know I'm well suited to this climate because I've been here for you know 25 years

[00:20:02] You need somebody in your area that kind of understands your needs at that type of thing so But if people don't have any other options we're shouldn't be open to helping them

[00:20:12] That's that's awesome. I love the idea of just figure out what your plan is and that'll be okay Get started with that ask your co-workers But what they're doing and that could even be like hey

[00:20:21] What do you invest in and maybe they don't even know what kind of options you have and that's an opportunity to just say hey can we get like An educational Presentation one of these days or something like we just get some education around it too. So sure next

[00:20:34] I want to talk about your money experience a little bit How did you learn about money? Actually, I was 19 and I was a parapro and Michigan and the secretary said to me one day the valic guy is coming And I said what is the valic guy?

[00:20:52] And she said well, that's the guy that comes it helps you know He'll help you take some money out of your check and put it aside for you and it's for retirement So the valic guy came and sure enough I got hooked up with a

[00:21:04] Back then it was an anewity and so that started kind of those conversations and you know with money One thing that you need to understand is you're never gonna know at all You're never going either the the expert

[00:21:20] you're always gonna be a student of learning how to deal with that money and You know once you have like an anewity product, you know They're putting in in things that they're putting in in and if you're in an anewity

[00:21:32] What you need to know is you need to know what you're paying in fees all of the things and sometimes fees are called fees You really have to dig through and basically harass your advisor and to giving you all the all the information

[00:21:45] But then once if you have a mutual fund product Then that opens flexibility now You can start putting money in different places you can start focusing where that goes And there's some fun fees that go along with that and stuff but you can go higher risk

[00:21:59] You can go lower risk it gives you a lot more flexibility but again You have to be a constant student of what's going on and you know the beautiful thing is about internet

[00:22:08] Your podcast in particular people can come and they can learn about things and in an entertaining way And it's not it doesn't feel like school or work It just helps you get a better understanding of things Yeah, that's awesome. I love that you said you someone just

[00:22:25] Someone came and started talking about our time and that got the conversation going I think that's kind of the same thing for me. I was sitting in one of my first couple jobs that had a 401k

[00:22:33] And they had this meeting where everyone had to come to and I'm thankful for that that they had some sort of Progress and system in place where it's like hey here here come learn and come talk about it for a moment

[00:22:43] And then that gets all the questions going in your mind. And then you can ask your co-workers Listen to podcasts watch YouTube things like that. So just kind of plant those seeds as well I'm hearing get those little little things going and realize

[00:22:54] I love to say recently I've been on this idea that one we're not gonna turn around our money situation overnight But we're also not gonna learn everything overnight So kind of give yourself a break when it comes to figuring all this out because there's a lot to learn

[00:23:07] There is a lot of work exactly but it can be fun and you know one of the things to remember for anybody if they take away one thing from this The time you spend in the marketplace is the most important

[00:23:20] If you're 18 and you start putting away now even if it's not a lot of money The time you spend in the market actually equates to more money than necessarily You know if you're at the last five years and you put a ton of money in Yes, that's beneficial

[00:23:35] But if you didn't put that much money in and you were in from the time you were 18 it's actually better So I'm in the market places the most important thing so You know if it's only 25 bucks that's what I started with I started with 25 bucks and

[00:23:46] That was like $17 after you know because it was pre-tax out of my check So I don't need effect it. I was putting 25 away But it was only taking like 17 out of my check So yeah, yeah that's awesome. I love the time is the biggest factor

[00:24:00] That's what like if you start playing with one of those visual compound interest calculators I think that's what can get it to click in a lot of people's minds. So Out of your views so you've you started 19 and you've I'm sure learned a lot since then

[00:24:12] How have your views on money change while you were developing and putting the SCRC in place? It's actually too fold because Before I put certain place I had put What's called a pa which is the Association of Education purchasing agency

[00:24:25] It's a national cooperative for us and we earn 2% of all sales that go through that So you think okay 2% you know you hear about 2% cash back this that the other 2% it's not a lot of money You know what I mean? It's just not however We did

[00:24:42] last year with that contract we did 29.6 million dollars with that contract So that's almost a half a million dollars in profit that came in Just off that contract 2% is a huge amount of money sales 7% if I was making 7%

[00:25:00] I would not on on my sales for that stuff. I would not be able to give the money back to the systems Enough I would have to start doing something it's so much money So when you start talking about okay, I'm paying you know

[00:25:16] I'm paying 2% to 1.5% on my annuity 3% oh That's that's a ridiculous amount of money So my views on this have actually changed that small percentages Equate to a lot of money over time and So it's very very important to

[00:25:34] Pay attention to that and compound interest is one of those things where it's kind of confusing but the more you get a grasp on us It's like a you know if you double your payments on a 30 year mortgage you'll pay it off in 7 years wow

[00:25:48] You know what I mean the amount of money they've interest is just ridiculous because you're not going down that principle So yeah, I could say that's some it's but that's a stuff that I've learned yeah Yeah, that's fantastic stuff. Thank you so much. I love this conversation

[00:26:03] I think there's a lot of pieces people can pull from it and my last question will answer here in a moment is what do you

[00:26:07] Assute a known sooner when it comes to money? But I'd love to give you a moment to to pull yourself working people find the Circ Online find you online and such so

[00:26:17] Circ Online is basically Circ Solutions dot com and that's our website and you can actually email me through the website My website or my email is also K Benson at CPA for the number four schools with an S on the end dot com and

[00:26:35] Certainly I'm open to anybody You know asking me anything that type thing. I will hesitate to say that any third-party administrators anybody that wants to add products to what I'm doing right now I'm not in a place to do that hit that may be in the future, but

[00:26:53] That's that's down the road because we're simplifying what we're doing for folks and until We have you know that settled. I don't want to complicate the waters with any additional stuff

[00:27:04] So if you're vendor, you know keep my email address, but yeah, you give me about two years before you contact me because I'm not gonna I'm not gonna add anything right now

[00:27:12] Well, there you go. I like to keep it simple that's something I think a lot more people need to practice We tend to throw too many things into the mix and then we get confused

[00:27:20] Got a million different investing apps stuff like that so there's a great takeaway from today's episode But Kevin what's one thing you issue it a known sooner when it comes to money? Probably time in the market

[00:27:31] You know, I started early, but then there was times when I you know jumped out and didn't put in and different things like that And there's one other thing that I wish I would have known early on is that if say you're a teacher and you teach in

[00:27:44] Somewhere for five years and you cash in your retirement That's what I didn't Michigan. I was in before years I cashed in my retirement and And Years later I wanted to buy it back

[00:27:55] Well, you can actually use your 403B pre-tax money to buy that back and you don't have to pay taxes on it So for any educators out there that have been in one state and moved to another and

[00:28:07] Maybe they cashed it out or whatever you can use that 403M money to buy it back So that's one thing I wish I would have known sooner because when I cashed it in I literally got $1,200 And then when I bought it back 25 years later it cost me 29,000

[00:28:24] Yeah, you say oh 29,000 for four years. That's a lot of money. However if you think of 60% of my salary for four years That's not very much money to buy back four years

[00:28:34] You know and say and so that's four years in my life that I don't have to work additional If I don't want to give me flexibility if I need to but so that would be You know time in the market and then also

[00:28:45] Being able to buy back years with that or if you have military time that type thing and of course That's eight are you know Yeah, and I think the second point just emphasizes the talk about talk about money with your peers because

[00:28:57] There might be one person that knows that and you get on to that a little bit sooner and then you're able to take care of it So this has been fantastic Evan. Thank you so much for joining us

[00:29:05] I've learned a ton. I'm sure everyone listening has I've never heard of this I can't remember the word but yeah Other education retirement consortium or source of yeah that that word okay. I've never heard of those before

[00:29:19] So this has been really educational for me, so thank you so much for joining no problem any time Thank you so much to Kevin for that fantastic interview and I know I learned a ton

[00:29:36] I've never heard of Cirque or any sort of investment program like this but I learned a ton and His money that he's saving people through retirement fees is crazy There is so much money that he's being able to impact and put back into people's pocket by avoiding fees

[00:29:49] But let's talk about the money talking points first I want to talk about what retirement changes would you like to see it work? Well, I would like to see a Roth option with my workplace 401k and I've mentioned an asked about it before

[00:30:01] And getting more people on board to ask about it would be helpful because it's hard for one person to change the entire system But sometimes there's costs involved with changes like this so you may need to be aware of that

[00:30:10] I could bring more research from my HR department about the Roth option instead of just asking But more researcher on the costs or maybe other companies that could help run the 401k That could be an approach for you to take so what is going through your mind?

[00:30:21] What changes would you like to see in your retirement plan at work? Talk about this with your coworkers. Maybe this is a good water cooler conversation I have with a friend ask them hey have you looked into our retirement plan too much is there anything that

[00:30:33] You think could be better and then you could say hey, let's let's work on that together and present that to HR And we can get that change because that's going to be awesome when you do see that change come to fruition

[00:30:41] The second money talking point is how could you start talking about money with your coworkers? Well, this isn't easy one to get started with ask about your 401k like we just talked about Ask about the company match. Are your coworkers getting the company match?

[00:30:53] This could be an awesome opportunity to teach them what the company match is Maybe they don't know and teaching others is fun when it comes to money because if you're listening to this podcast or other financial podcasts

[00:31:03] You're likely doing pretty solid with your finances and it's probably something you enjoy learning about and I'd be willing to bet It's something you're going to enjoy talking and teaching about and aside note if it's something you enjoy talking about

[00:31:13] Please consider coming on the show reach out and let me know if you would like to be a guest or if anyone You know has a money story to share. I'd love to sit down and talk about money with anybody

[00:31:21] But that's going to wrap up the money talking points in today's episode I want to pass it on over to the handy hint next Today's handy hint goes hand in hand with our money talking points pun intended

[00:31:41] But today's handy hint is talking about money with your coworkers and Kevin pointed out something that was brought up to him in a simple Conversation about retirement that he was allowed then to figure out that he needs to figure out how to change his retirement options

[00:31:54] Something someone brought up talked about retirement and then he said whoa whoa whoa Our benefits are completely different even though we work in the same state and I had a similar story from my

[00:32:04] Credit Union days someone came in and talked about money among co-workers and things like that taught us about the 401k And I've prompted conversations about this in my current job where I was able to ask HR to provide education because like I said earlier

[00:32:16] Your workplace retirement program or company will offer this and it's something that they will set up to educate you on your 401k So today's handy hint is to talk about money with your coworkers

[00:32:26] Start simple and learn a little bit more about your workplace retirement program and ask HR for some education because they know people who can get it to you So that's today's handy hint. Let's pass it on to money talk mastery next

[00:32:46] Today's money talk mastery is about time in the market though this isn't gonna be a long segment I do think it's something that's important for all of us to master and understand

[00:32:53] We need to know the power of compound interest so go to Google or being or whatever search engine you use and search Compound interest visualizer or compound interest calculator and then take a look at a chart as you plug in numbers

[00:33:06] If you got started today investing 25 dollars over the next 30 years What would it grow to be and look at the difference between what you actually put in versus what it grew to be like?

[00:33:14] What is the difference between what you contributed and what the earnings are because that's where it always gets people That's where you always learn the power of compound interest and you can also learn the power of starting early So even if you're well into your 50s 60s

[00:33:27] But if you're especially in your 20s or 30s, there's still so much time where you have the opportunities to let your money grow But also make sure you understand fees as we're talking about this if you're in your workplace 401k or retirement program

[00:33:41] I found that my works S&P 500 find was the best one because all the other one have large fees So that's something to make sure you consider because the impact on fees can also be great and

[00:33:50] Reduce the amount of time and money that you're gonna have in the market There was one story recently that I heard on choose a five where I listen to share that they were being charged a 75 dollar fee Every time they contributed to this one mutual fund

[00:34:02] But they were only contributing a hundred dollars at a time and that's knocking down a lot of potential growth So today's money talk mastery is to make sure you focus on time in the market and understand the power of

[00:34:12] Compend interest if you have any questions about Compend interest if something came to mind Please send me an email my emails in the show notes and I'd love to talk about it next I want to pass it on to trendy talk

[00:34:31] So in today's trendy talk segment. I want to kind of talk about Trendy products and things like that there was a new apple announcement recently brand new iPads and These are expensive technology is expensive new products are expensive

[00:34:44] But the trends push you to buy the latest and greatest tech and I wanted to talk about a savings opportunity They can go hand in hand with trendy spending look at buying refurbished products

[00:34:53] They're a great way to save money on something you want and the other ideas to buy a generation behind Because those prices are gonna come down as manufacturing gets better and more efficient for older products

[00:35:03] But it's a great way to save some money. I recently learned this never buy a new product Always buy something that's either been used in refurbished or if it's a generation behind

[00:35:12] You can still save several hundreds of dollars for a new last gen or a used about well refurbished products I'm sure you look into refurbished products because some of them aren't too great But this is a great opportunity and if you're looking at new technology

[00:35:25] Consider looking at the refurbished market especially if it's an apple product But this is a great way to save when you feel that pull to buy the latest and greatest tech Look at refurbished or last generation products

[00:35:36] I want to pass it on over to the money matters minute next Welcome to the money matters minute. I'm gonna try to keep this in a minute just since it's in the name

[00:35:53] But today I'm talking about side hustles and this money matters minute and this is relevant to the door-dash article that I found Side hustles are not all they're cut out to be is a difference between a side hustle and a business

[00:36:04] You're running and a side hustle likely isn't gonna make you financially independent or super wealthy But the article that I found unnerd wall it is titled how much does door-pay? I tried delivering food to find out and the article highlights that you get paid less than minimum wage

[00:36:19] They have to do it less than ideal times if you really want to make the money and my main takeaways from my experience Door-dashing in this article is that taxes are something you have to pay for yourself

[00:36:28] There's a reason the government takes them out automatically because it's so much easier and because so many people Likely would forget to pay their taxes if it didn't come out automatically and With side hustles and especially door-dash, it's not all profit consider gas costs

[00:36:42] Waring tear on your vehicle and your sanity of being stuck in traffic Why do people want food delivered? It's because they don't want to go out and sit in traffic and just sit there So they're paying someone else to do it for them so consider your sanity

[00:36:54] Also when thinking about door-dash But the link of course is in the show notes and I think we made that in just over a minute But that's gonna do it for today's episode. So let's wrap up this episode next

[00:37:13] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I thought it was fascinating to learn what Kevin is doing with the circuit and how much money people are saving And small conversations can go a long way you heard him Kevin's interview

[00:37:23] He was talking with a coworker appear at a different institution in the state And they had way different retirement benefits because of their size and that prompted him to go in

[00:37:32] Make the changes and now he's saving a ton of money for a ton of people with the program he's put in place So keep talking and start small with appear and then Kevin kept talking and talking about money with other people

[00:37:44] And that led to big changes. So what small conversation can you start now to get those small changes going? And then eventually lead to bigger changes to get you to where you want to go What's a small question you have in mind?

[00:37:55] Shoot me an email or leave a comment on social media and let's get talking about money But thank you all for listening Be sure to check out scatherflamming.com as well as Kevin Benson and nerd wallet all linked in the show notes

[00:38:07] There's some great episodes coming up including one about the financial tug-a-war We're all waiting with ourselves so make sure you're subscribed and share with a friend so we can all do better with money together

[00:38:16] Thank you for listening to money talk with scatherflamming. I'm your host scatherflamming have a great week Thank you for listening to money talk with scatherflamming. This show is provided for information And entertainment purposes and may not be specific to your unique situation

[00:38:29] Please be sure to do additional research before making any financial decisions