Bowman Financial Strategies Podcasts

This episode of Uncommon Cents focuses on Required Minimum Distributions, or RMDs.

Uncommon Cents Podcast 

Erik (00:06): You're listening to uncommon sense, a podcast by Bowman Financial Strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman and thank you for joining me today. Hi everyone. This is Erik Bowman, your host and it's January 22nd, 2020. Erik (00:27): One of the highest priorities we have is providing our clients accurate information to allow them to make informed decisions relating to their retirement income. Taxation is probably the biggest expense retirees will face in retirement and bringing actionable information to make confident decisions is a core philosophy of the Bowman Financial Strategies LiveWell Formula. The LiveWell Formula is our process of analyzing our client's current situation, managing their financial investments, coordinating their distributions from various accounts with the goal to minimize taxes and increase net income. It also includes detailed social security, filing, timing and pension planning. Recommendations for some estate planning and legacy planning are a part of the plan. In this episode, I am going to cover some of the highlights of the Secure Act approved by the Senate on December 19th, 2019. The Secure Act addresses many issues relating to retirement savings and distribution. Like everything in this world though there is some good news and some bad news in this new legislation. My goal is to provide you an education of the main components of the law and understand how it may impact you personally and additionally, we want to address how this new law may require changes to our retirement plan to both take advantage of the new provisions and to minimize the pain associated with others. Erik (01:57): The setting every community up for retirement enhancement act of 2019, better known as the Secure Act, which originally passed the house in May of 2019, was approved by the Senate on December 19th, 2019 and signed into law by the president on December 20th of 2019. The bill includes significant provisions aimed at increasing access to tax advantaged accounts and preventing older Americans from outliving their assets. There are a few key provisions regarding required minimum distributions and inherited IRAs that should be considered. Erik (02:39): In addition to the inherited IRA and required minimum distribution provisions, there are other aspects of the Secure Act. First, IRA contributions can now be made after the age of 70 and a half as long as you're still working. Employees can contribute to their own or their spouse's IRA after they've reached the age of 70 and a half. Long term part time workers are now able to join their company's 401k plan. Employees that work over a thousand hours in one year or over 500 hours in three consecutive years are now able to participate in their employer's 401k. Small business employers, of a hundred employees or less, will receive a maximum tax credit of $5,000. That's $250 per non highly compensated employee. When they establish a retirement plan, account owners are able to withdraw up to $5,000 penalty free from their retirement plan upon the birth or adoption of a child. This will be free from the 10% early withdrawal penalty, but will still be subject to ordinary income tax. Further, 529 Plans can be used to pay down student loan debt and small business owners can now more easily establish Multiple Employer Plans, or MEPs, by allowing unrelated employers to join together in the creation of a plan. The employers no longer have to be related by common ownership or by being in the same industry among other options. Erik (04:05): But for today we're going to really focus in on the required minimum distribution aspect and then our next podcast we are going to focus in on the inherited IRA changes. Today I'm going to focus on the required minimum distribution changes. They are pretty exciting and I think that most retirees would look at this as a benefit. I am going to talk about the pros and cons of this change, however. So the age for required minimum distributions has increased the age at which a retirement plan participant needs to take required minimum distributions has been pushed back from 70 and a half to age 72. What that means is in the previous setup, when you reach 70 and a half, you had to begin taking required minimum distributions by April of the following year based on a calculation by the federal government. Now they've pushed off the required minimum distributions until age 72, allowing a retiree to allow their IRA to continue to grow tax deferred until age 72. Individuals who are tr who turned 70 and a half on 1-1-2020 or later will not have to begin taking RMDs until April of the year following the year in which they turned 72. Individuals who have turned 70 and a half prior to the end of 2019 are not affected and must take out RMDs based on that 70 and a half mile stone. Erik (05:37): So let's dig into this a little bit. First, the old 70 and a half methodology was simply confusing. Why use a midyear data point to increase the odds of someone making a mistake and having to pay a 50% penalty to the government? Sounds a little bit like one of those questions that already has the answer pretty well known so I'll let you mull that over on your own. Don't forget that that penalty for noncompliance, again with the required minimum distributions, is 50% on the amount you were supposed to take out payable to the treasury. Now that the RMD start date is age 72 the first question is why? The second is how can we leverage this to the advantage of our clients? The primary published reason for increasing the RMD age is because people live longer. By previously forcing distributions and taxation at 70 and a half, the government was potentially forcing distributions from a person that might not necessarily need them and therefore forcing them to incur a tax bill that they otherwise would not create and potentially forcing them to liquidate their IRA earlier than hoped during the course of retirement. For more information on the general RMD provisions and how they functioned, by the way, I do have a dedicated podcast to all things RMDs that I did earlier in 2019 you might want to check that out. Erik (07:04): The benefit of the later age requirement of age 72, is that a client may continue to defer taxes in their IRA until age 72 which would result in a larger tax deferred account balance at age 72. And this sounds good at first glance. However, to get good use out of that, you would have to consider not taking distributions from your IRA until age 72. That can be a pretty big challenge for people who aren't generating income through wages and who may only have a social security income coming in. This could force you to actually take social security earlier than hoped for if you decided you wanted to bridge that gap and delay until age 72. For our clients, we're going to be running revised 30 year projections considering expenses, various social security filing strategies, and various IRA distribution strategies along with Roth conversions to determine the optimal combination of tactics to provide efficient net income after taxes. Erik (08:07): To clarify the new age 72 rule. Here are two examples to highlight the basic provisions. Example one John's birthday is April 20th and he turned 70 and a half in 2020. Will he need to take RMDs in 2020? The answer is no because John turned 70 and a half after the start of 2020 so he will not need to take RMDs until April of the year after he turned 72. John will turn 72 on April 20th, 2021. He will need to begin taking his first RMDs by April of 2022. Example two Sue's birthday is June 20th, and she turned 70 and a half in 2019. Will she need to take RMDs in 2020? The answer is yes because Sue turned 70 and a half before the end of 2019 she will need to take her first RMD by April of 2020, the year after the one in which she turned 70 and a half. Erik (09:16): Suffice to say, most people would say this is a win for retirees and I agree on many levels. However, it may not be as powerful for those that need to already take IRA distributions to meet the expense needs from mid sixties to age 72. In addition, not to be cynical, but let's walk through this from the government's perspective. First, by allowing you to delay until age 72, theory goes, your account balance should be larger. That means the formula used to calculate your RMDs at age 72 will result in a larger distribution than you would have taken at age 70 and a half so this can lead to a scenario. Will you be unknowingly pushed into a higher tax bracket than you otherwise would have been if you had taken strategic action in the decade leading up to age 72. The government actually likes this because they will get larger tax proceeds starting in 2021 and potentially larger account balances and IRAs may be passed on to children, or what we call non spousal beneficiaries. And the issue here is that with the new inherited IRA changes in the secure act, it can result in tremendous taxation at very high tax brackets for your non spouse beneficiaries. Erik (10:33): Usually a child. More on that. The inherited IRA changes in my next podcast. Erik (10:43): However, one strategy that may become more advantageous because of this and other secure act provisions is the Roth conversion opportunity. Roth IRAs are not subject to required minimum distributions and are tax free at distribution. The taxes are paid at contribution or the year of conversion. This strategy can lower your taxable IRA balance, therefore allowing you to control your tax bracket more efficiently and effectively in retirement. Make sure you evaluate the pros and cons of the strategy with your current advisor and make sure it fits into your long-term tax strategy. Certainly everyone should at least explore this option. If you're not a client and you want to hear more about Roth conversions and other tax mitigation strategies for those approaching or in retirement, how it may impact your plan, pl

Erik: (00:06) You're listening to uncommon sense, a podcast by Bowman Financial Strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman, and thank you for joining me today. Hi everyone and thank you for joining me today. This is Erik Bowman, owner of Bowman Financial Strategies. Our topic today is required minimum distributions or more commonly known as RMDs. Erik: (00:32) To some of you, it may come as a shock that you cannot keep your retirement funds in your retirement account indefinitely. Generally speaking, you really must start taking withdrawals from your IRA, your simple IRA or your SEP IRA or even your qualified retirement plans such as a 401k or 403B when you reach 70 and a half. Roth IRAs by contrast do not require withdrawals until after the death of the owner. Your required minimum distribution or RMD is the minimum amount of taxable distribution that you must take out of your retirement account each year. Once you reach 70 and a half. Erik: (01:16) The RMD poses all sorts of conundrums for retirees, like how is it calculated? Who calculates it, when is it due? What happens if I don't take it and what if I don't want to take it? And the list goes on. Today I'm going to cover the basics of an RMD. Who does it apply to? Calculations and resources to further educate yourself and of course some potential strategies that may alleviate some of the challenges surrounding RMDs, namely taxes. Erik: (01:52) So let's start from the beginning. When you turn 70 and a half, you are required to take an RMD from your retirement account, an IRA, for example, by April 1st of the following year. For all subsequent years, you must take the distribution by December 31st of that year. For example, if you turn 70 and a half in August of 2020 you must make your distribution by April 1st of 2021. If you choose to do that, you would also have to calculate your 2021 RMD and also take that in 2021. So in actuality, in the first year that you decided to take that RMD, you would actually have to take two distributions. Now you don't have to delay until April 1st you can take your RMD in the year that you turn 70 and a half. Erik: (02:49) An exception to this rule applies to 401ks, also known as a qualified retirement plan, which is the terminology that's used to describe an employer sponsored 401k, 403B, 401A, just to name a few. For these accounts, you must take an RMD by April 1st of the year following the year you turn 70 and a half or upon retirement, whichever is later. If you're still gainfully employed for example, and you have an act of 401k and you're 72 years old, you don't have to take an RMD from that qualified plan that you have at that current employer, even though you're older than 70 and a half. However, once you retire, those RMDs are due by April 1st following the year that you retire. And one really big caveat and a mistake that you do not want to make that is even if you are working and you're older than 70 and a half, if you have an IRA in addition to your 401k, you still must take your required minimum distribution from that IRA. Don't make that mistake and I'm going to be talking about the penalties the IRS can impose if you fail to take your RMDs. Erik: (04:07) here are a few other points that may save you some headaches and money in the future. If you have multiple qualified plans or multiple 401k's, meaning maybe you've worked at previous employers and you have simply left your money behind at those various employers 401ks and you have not moved them into IRAs, you must calculate the RMD for each account individually and then take the distribution from each of those respective 401ks by the deadlines. By contrast though, if you have an IRA or multiple IRAs, you can calculate the required minimum distribution for each IRA individually. Add those together and take the total sum of those as a distribution from one of your IRAs. Now, depending on how you're investing your assets, this may be a beneficial thing to do. It certainly seems a little bit simpler than making a distribution from multiple IRAs. Since 403B's are considered qualified plans, you might think that the same rule applies. Erik: (05:09) However, it is a little bit different. If you have more than one 403B tax, sheltered annuity account, also known as a TSA, you can total the RMDs from each of those 403Bs and then take them from any one or more of the tax sheltered annuities. So I mentioned penalties a little bit earlier. So let's gather round and chat about this one. Most people are aware that if you take money out of an IRA before 59 and a half, that you will pay a 10% penalty on that distribution in addition to the taxes. And that's not fun and should be avoided in most cases. By comparison, if you fail to take your RMD on time, you will pay a whopping 50% penalty to the IRS. Yes, that's a 5- 0% penalty. So if you were supposed to take $10,000 out and you failed to do that, by the respect of deadline, you would literally owe a $5,000 penalty to the IRS in addition to income tax on the total amount. The IRS wants their taxes and they will get them one way or another. So don't let this rule catch you by surprise. Erik: (06:27) So let's talk a little bit about the actual distributions themselves. You actually do have a couple of options. First, if you've calculated your RMD for the current year, you can actually opt to take the full calculated amount in one lump sum anytime up until December 31st of that year. The one exception, of course, is your first year of required minimum distributions. You do have until April 1st of the following year, but that is only for year one. Another option is you may also choose to take periodic distributions over the course of the year to meet your obligation. You also want to take into account income, cash flow and expenses to help guide you here. But there could be strategic and tactical reasons why you might want to spread that out on a monthly or quarterly basis over the course of that year as opposed to making one large lump sum distribution. It's a little synonymous with the concept of dollar cost averaging when you're buying into stocks and bonds and other investments that you get a better average share price potentially by buying in over time. Same on the way out when you're making distributions from your IRA. It could be beneficial to take smaller amounts out over a 12 month period and in that case in, if there was a declining market, you may have actually saved yourself some principle over time. Erik: (07:56) Okay, now onto calculations. How do we determine how much you must withdraw each year? No surprise here. It's not the same every year. It's kind of complex and it totally depends on your unique situation. The IRS publishes a table called the uniform lifetime table. It's table three on the IRA RMD distribution worksheet that's available on our website on this podcast page. For example, your first IRA distribution for the year you turn 70 and a half, requires you to know your exact balance of your IRA or IRAs on December 31st of the prior year. You then take this balance and divided by 27.4. Seems like an odd number but it's a joint life expectancy number. So by dividing that balance by 27.4 the answer to that equation is the exact amount you must make as required minimum distribution. You need to do this for every single retirement account you have unless one of the exceptions I mentioned or other exceptions that your financial professional mentions may apply to you. Erik: (09:06) In the next year, when you turn 71, you will take the prior year's 1231 balance and divided by 26.5 and by the time you reach 114 yes, the table actually goes out to 115 and older, you will divide by 2.1. So 2.1 is the divisor for one 14 it drops down to 1.9 when you reach one 15 and stays there if you happen to live longer than that. But what you'll notice is that each year that goes by, the lower number in this equation gets smaller and smaller, which means the amount of money you have to distribute from your account becomes a larger portion of that account every single year. Erik: (09:53) another exception that we see periodically, it's not an everyday occurrence, but it could be your situation. So this is an exception to the rules on that table and that is if your spouse is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and he or she is more than 10 years younger than you in this case, the IRA utilizes another table for you to calculate your distribution. The IRS wants more money from you while you are alive so that when your IRA is left to your younger spouse, who by the way can usually take RMDs based on their age and spread that out over a longer period of time. Well, there's going to be less money in that account to spread over a supposedly longer lifespan of your younger spouse. It's just another way of the government saying, we would like to ensure that we get these tax dollars sooner than later, but don't forget that it is a totally different calculation with a different bottom number on that fraction when you're calculating your RMDs, if your spouse is more than 10 years younger than you. Now there are many, many other rules regarding RMDs. If you're a 5% owner of a company for example, and you're still working in that company and you have a 401k, you're not allowed to continue to delay RMDs, passed 70 and a half. You actually still have to take them per the original rules, but just know that you really should be talking with your financial professional before you solidify any of your RMD calculations or distribution strategy. Erik: (11:30) So relating to strategies, the name of our company after all is Bowman Financial Strategies and we really try to look for opportunities to save our clients money, save them on taxes and just to be efficient when it comes to the distribution of their assets during the retirement stage of their life. So relating to strategies, one of the challenges to a moderately high net wort

                                             Erik:                                     00:06                    You're listening to uncommon sense, a podcast by Bowman financial strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman, and thank you for joining me today. Hi everyone. My name is Erik Bowman and I am the owner and founder of Bowman financial strategies. Thanks for taking the time to listen to this podcast. Today, I'm going to be discussing the three primary risks in retirement. Erik:                                     00:34                    At Bowman Financial Strategies, we work every day helping clients who are transitioning from accumulation to distribution to do so wisely and confidently. I've seen the success stories, worked with many challenges facing retirees and helped my clients craft income plans they are confident will meet their needs for the entirety of retirement. Importantly, these plans are built to provide stability and to support your standard of living regardless of market conditions. Getting motivated to take the necessary steps to create an effective retirement plan can be challenging. However, not crafting an effective plan can be catastrophic to your retirement. It's often been said that your retirement outcome is a result of your retirement income and never truer words have been said. You have worked hard, saved during your careers and budgeted wisely, knowing that the day was going to come when you will need to replace your income without working. Now you have an accumulated bucket of money to retire with and the primary goal many times is to maintain your current standard of living you enjoy now plus add in more travel. Erik:                                     01:43                    Well one method is to invest in the stock market, hope you're diversified and allocated correctly, and hope to get enough of a return, and hope that the market doesn't crash and take your retirement with it. At Bowman Financial Strategies, we don't ever use the word hope in our retirement plans. Our plans are designed to remove anxiety knowing that all three risks in retirement are addressed appropriately. The Bowman Financial Strategies income planning process known as the LiveWell formula focuses on three primary risks in retirement, and every recommendation in our plans directly addresses these primary risks. The risks in order are sequence of return risk, inflation risk, and longevity risk. To further break these down, let's look at them one at a time. Erik:                                     02:37                    The first risk: sequence of return risk. I also call this early retirement market timing risk. This risk is represented by the risk of significant negative market returns in the early years of retirement. You only have to go back to 2007 through 2009 to witness over a 50% drop in the U.S. Stock market. It's been over 10 years since that low and the markets have marched steadily upwards since then with very few exceptions. And with markets routinely setting new highs, some would say that the potential for continued growth for the next 10 years is less likely than a significant drop during that same period. If you are just starting retirement and you're fully exposed to potential market losses like 2009, and many seniors were and are, your future retirement plans may change dramatically requiring an unpleasant adjustment in your standard of living to make ends meet. We seek ways to limit early retirement market timing risk by using fixed or guaranteed rate of return solutions to reduce the exposure to pure stock market. Erik:                                     03:50                    The second primary risk is: inflation risk. And this is really the opposite of the market timing or sequence of return risk because inflation risk is the risk that your assets and income may not get enough of a return and be able to keep up with the ever rising costs of goods and services. If your income never increases or your assets never increase the rate of return, but the cost of a gallon of milk doubles in 10 years, your effective purchasing power has just dropped significantly. Accounting for inflation is critical to a good income plan. By failing to plan for inflation, you may misjudge the amount of money you can spend each year in retirement, finding yourself running out of money a decade sooner than you planned. This leads once again to a catastrophic change in your standard of living if you run out of supplemental income sources like IRAs, in addition to social security and pensions midway in retirement. We typically address inflation risk by having professionally managed stock and bond portfolios for our clients that are appropriately allocated for their timeline and risk tolerance. Erik:                                     05:00                    The third primary risk is: longevity risk. This risk can be further divided into two types of risk, longevity risk associated with income and longevity risk associated with health care expenses. Income risk is the risk of running out of income sufficient to cover your essential expenses in retirement. Having enough guaranteed income to meet your essential needs or a floor of income provides not only a financial advantage but also a psychological one. Your confidence and baseline income allows you to live anxiety free and stick with the long term plans related to your invest-able assets that may be in the stock market that are dedicated to long term inflation protection. The other longevity risk is healthcare risk, which is the risk that you may experience deteriorating health that require the assistance of qualified professionals to help you with the six basic activities of daily living also known as A.D.L.s. Contrary to what many believe, health insurance and Medicare do not pay for long term care expenses. Erik:                                     06:05                    If you don't have a strategy in place, you are considered "self-insured", quote unquote. This means that if you experience a health condition requiring assistance with the six activities of daily living, you will need to spend down your assets until you have $2,000 (at least that's the requirement in most states to be eligible for Medicaid as well as some income thresholds that if you exceed would make you non eligible). But if you even are eligible for Medicaid at some point, then your state Medicaid program may help. And as former president, Ronald Reagan said, "don't worry, I'm with the government and I'm here to help." So most people don't look at Medicaid as the primary route to take care of their health care expenses later on in life if they have the resources to help plan against that risk. Erik:                                     06:54                    Now that we understand the three basic risks, that being: sequence of return risk, (you don't want to lose a lot of money early in retirement), inflation risk, (we still need to seek growth with our retirement assets because things will get more expensive and over a long 30 year lifespan in retirement or more, things can get significantly more expensive.) And then finally, longevity risk. And that would be the risk associated with assuming that you can figure out how to have guaranteed income streams that will last as long as you live, no matter how long that is, and then the long-term care expenses that are also commonly associated with longevity. Once we gather all of your required information, we then begin using sophisticated financial software to calculate the maximum annual income using agreed upon assumptions and always addressing those three financial risks in retirement. Thanks a lot for joining me today. I truly appreciate your time. If you ever have any ideas of topics that you would like to have me discuss here, please drop us a line. You can send me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com that's E R I K @bowmanfinancialstrategies.com or you can simply give us a call at (303) 222-8034. And finally you could go to our Facebook page and you can drop us a note there as well. Thanks again for joining me today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your week. Erik:                                     08:20                    Thank you for joining me for Uncommon Sense. The Bowman Financial Strategies financial education series. I'd love to hear your feedback on financial topics you would like to learn more about. Just drop me an email at Erik, that's E R I K @bowmanfinancialstrategies.com or go to the Bowman Financial Strategies website and send me a note on our contact page. In addition, you can always search for topics of interest in my archive on our podcast page at www.bowmanfinancialstrategies.com/podcasts. Have a great day. Disclosure:                         08:56                    This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and may not be used as such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance. In addition, investment advisory services offered by Change Path, LLC, a registered investment adviser. Change Path and Bowman financial strategies are unaffiliated entities.  

Erik:                                     00:00                    You're listening to Uncommon Cents, a podcast by Bowman Financial Strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman and thank you for joining me today. Hi everyone. Today we're going to be discussing common beneficiary mistakes and how to prevent them. It is June 20th, 2019. Thanks for joining me today. Erik:                                     00:32                    Before I get into the common beneficiary mistakes, I thought I might take a moment to briefly give you an overview of some of the principles that we adhere to at Bowman financial strategies when it comes to beneficiary designations. The first thing is that we always want to name at least a primary beneficiary and whenever possible or when it makes sense. We also want to name a contingent beneficiary. The rationale for this really revolves around ensuring that your assets are going to whom you want them to go to after you've passed away without interference from the probate courts in the government and potentially contested wills and things like that where what you want to have happen may not actually work out smoothly if you don't designate it in the original contract or by making an additional beneficiary designation after a contract has already been opened up. This would apply to investment accounts, qualified and non-qualified example of a qualified account would be an IRA or an individual retirement account. And then there's non-qualified taxable brokerage accounts. Then of course, life insurance policies. All of these, you want to make sure that you have appropriate beneficiary designations. Erik:                                     01:51                    So the first primary issue is not naming a beneficiary on a life insurance policy or an investment account. Most of our custodians, fidelity and Schwab, for example, when we open up an IRA or a Roth IRA, they actually mandate that you list a primary beneficiary at a minimum before they'll even open the account. However, for non-qualified accounts, also known as transfer on death accounts, they actually do not require a beneficiary to be named if there is no beneficiary, the investment company or the custodian typically has their method of how they're going to dispose of those funds upon the death of the account owner. And usually it means it's going to go to the estate and then you're going to have the state get involved through probate with probate courts and lawyers cost, time and aggravation. So if you want to ensure that your assets flow through to who you want them to flow to after you're gone, you want to ensure that you are listing at least a primary beneficiary on all of your accounts. Erik:                                     02:57                    As an extension of this, first of not naming a beneficiary, as we've just discussed, you should always name it primary, but it's also problematic if you don't name a contingent beneficiary, a contingent beneficiary as the person who's going to receive the assets. If the account owner dies and if the primary beneficiary is also no longer alive, then the cash or the assets will flow directly to that contingent beneficiary. Once again, if a husband and wife die in an auto accident to be morbid for a quick moment and the surviving or the spouse, the wife was listed as the beneficiary and they both died in that car accident and if there's no contingent beneficiary, then once again those assets are going to be subject to probate. Erik:                                     03:47                    Another issue can run into sometimes, is that with an individual retirement account, what we find is that some people want to name a trust as the beneficiary. The issue with this is that upon the death of the account owner, the assets are going to then be liquidated and pass on to the trust, which is going to create some tax implications that are not usually very beneficial. That doesn't mean however, that every time you want to have a trust as a beneficiary for an IRA that it's wrong. There could be an example where we have a single parent and the children are minors and they don't want to leave $500,000 to a two year old. So you would accept that there are tax consequences and have the beneficiary be the trust. But at least the trust then and through the trustee is going to be able to exercise control over the distribution of those assets. Erik:                                     04:40                    But in most situations you would want to list your spouse as the beneficiary, which offers the definitive benefit of the IRA simply becomes the account of the surviving spouse. It's in their name, it doesn't have any reference to the deceased. And that means all tax deferral applies to the surviving spouse and their age. So for example, if the deceased spouse was older than the surviving spouse, this would delay the required minimum distribution rule so that they don't have to start taking money out of this IRA until they're age 70 and a half as opposed to, I'm taking it out based on the age of the deceased. Erik:                                     05:27                    A third issue with beneficiary designations would be not taking into account special circumstances. Not all loved ones should receive assets directly. These individuals might include minors or individuals with special needs. Individuals with special needs, for example, may be receiving benefits from the state to the State Medicaid program. And if you were to leave them money directly through a beneficiary designation, those assets then would fall into their ownership and therefore into their estate and would be counted against them, if you will, that might prevent them from receiving future valuable government benefits. So you want to evaluate that with an estate planning attorney and determine if potentially a special needs trust or some type of trust might make sense in that case to prevent that person from losing valuable government benefits. Erik:                                     06:25                    The fourth issue that we often see is not updating beneficiaries over time. Who you want to or should name as a beneficiary will most likely change over time as circumstances change and naming a beneficiary is part of an overall estate plan just as life changes. So should your estate plan. Beneficiary designations are an important part of that overall plan, so you want to make sure that they're updated regularly. Erik:                                     06:54                    A final error that people can make when naming a beneficiary is to name the wrong beneficiary. Now this may be unintentional because sometimes the beneficiary section of an application may not ask for a lot of information. It may only ask for a name and if you have multiple people in a family with similar names such as senior junior or the second or third, but the beneficiary designation form doesn't allow you to be that specific. Well that can cause potential litigation down the road and confusion. So you want to make sure you have the ability potentially through a letter of instruction in addition to the actual application to get very specific about exactly who that person is. Now many times on the application they actually have a place for the social security number and date of birth of the beneficiary. By adding these two pieces of information, you can be assured that the correct person is going to be receiving the benefits should the owner pass away. Erik:                                     07:52                    So in review, the primary mistakes we see regarding beneficiaries are number one, not naming a beneficiary. Number two would be not taking into account special circumstances when naming a beneficiary. Number three, not updating your beneficiary designations over time. And number four, naming beneficiaries incorrectly, which could lead to some confusion on who actually gets the money. And one of the subcategories that I also discussed was the downside of potentially naming a trust as the beneficiary. You want to make sure you're doing that with full knowledge of why you're doing it and the implications. As always, if you have any questions about beneficiary designations, please feel free to reach out to me, Erik Bowman at Bowman Financial Strategies. You can give a call to our office at (303) 222-8034 or you can send me an email at Erik that's E R I K at Bowman Financial Strategies.com. I appreciate you listening to this podcast today. Please feel free to share it with your friends and I look forward to speaking with you all again soon. Thank you for joining me for Uncommon Cents, the Bowman Financial Strategies financial education series. I'd love to hear your feedback on financial topics. You would like to learn more about. Just drop me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com or go to the Bowman Financial Strategies website and send me a note on our contact page. In addition, you can always search for topics of interest in my archive on our podcast page at www.bowmanfinancialstrategies.com/podcasts have a great day. Disclosure:                         09:39                    This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and may not be used as such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance. In addition, investment advisory services offered by Change Path, LLC, a registered investment adviser. Change Path and Bowman Financial Strategies are unaffiliated entities.  

Erik:                                     00:00                    You're listening to Uncommon Cents, a podcast by Bowman Financial Strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman and thank you for joining me today. Hi everyone. This is Erik Bowman, your host for Uncommon Cents and today we're going to be talking about the Colorado retirement income tax exemptions. Before I get into the details of these specific exemptions that can help lower your Colorado state taxes, it is important to note that before you make any assumptions or attempt to take any of these exemptions, I highly recommend that you get with an accountant to understand how these are going to actually impact your taxes and to ensure that you're following current state law. The primary topics we're going to cover today are what is the exemption and what type of income qualifies for the exemption, who does it apply to, and what are some of the planning opportunities that may make sense for you if you're in retirement and currently taking some type of retirement income? Erik:                                     01:07                    First, if you meet certain qualifications, you may be able to deduct or subtract some or all of your qualified retirement income on your Colorado individual income tax return. For these purposes, Colorado determines retirement income and defines it as annuity or pension income, IRA distributions, portions of your social security income as well as Roth conversions. All of these potentially apply for this exemption. In addition, if you derive retirement income from the Colorado public employee retirement association, commonly known as Colorado Para, or if you receive a pension from the Denver public school retirement system, you may be able to claim those as well. So first things first, who can actually claim this exemption? Well, you may be able to claim the exemption if you received qualifying retirement income and you meet the following criteria. First, you have to have been at least 55 years old or older at the end of the tax year that you're wishing to claim the exemption. Erik:                                     02:17                    Or, you should have received the qualifying pension or annuity income as a beneficiary because of the death of a person who earned the pension or annuity. One of those two are the minimum requirements. Let's talk a little bit more about the type of income that is potentially exempt. As I mentioned, annuity income can be exempt. A Colorado Pera pension may be exempt as well, and so our distributions from your traditional Ira and what we're talking about here are the taxable distributions from a traditional Ira, not the distributions from a Roth Ira or a non-qualified account. In addition, portions, social security income may be exempt. We do need to remember though that all of your social security income is not necessarily taxable at the federal level, and in order to qualify for the state exemption, the social security income must be taxable at the federal level, so that's going to require a little bit of accounting help to make sure that you're accurate in that respect. Roth conversion income is exempt as a part of this rule as well. That's very important because as a financial strategy, Roth conversions may be a very valuable tool to save income taxes over the life time of retirement. Erik:                                     03:41                    The second topic I'd like to discuss is how much is potentially exempt? Well, if you're at least 55 years old but less than 65 years old at the individual level, you may be able to have a maximum allowable subtraction or deduction of $20,000 once you are at least 65 years old, that maximum allowable exemption increases to $24,000. That means that for a married couple filing jointly, you actually have a total potential household state exemption of 24,000 each, which is 48,000 total at the household level. If you're both over 65 years old, however, you can't share that exemption, meaning if one person took $48,000 of income from a traditional IRA and the other spouse did not take any retirement income, the spouse that took the $48,000 traditional IRA distribution is capped at the $24,000 maximum allowable subtraction. There are certain exemptions for tax-payers that are under 55 years old where you may have a maximum allowable subtraction of up to $20,000 for example. Erik:                                     04:59                    You may be able to claim the subtraction for pension or annuity income received due to the death of a person who earned the income even if you're younger than 55 next, I'd like to touch on some of the planning strategies that you may be able to consider as part of your overall income and tax planning as a retiree. So let's take an example. This may be the easiest way to explain it. Let's assume that we have a married couple. Both are age 63, at age 63 if you recall, you have up to a $20,000 exemption because they're not 65 yet, and let's assume they both have traditional IRAs of $500,000 each. Just as a reminder, a traditional IRAs is an IRA where you made contributions pretax, you did not pay income tax on the year of contribution. Those dollars grew tax deferred and now upon distribution in the tax year of distribution, you're going to pay income tax on those distributions. Erik:                                     06:03                    Well under that scenario, each of the spouses is eligible for a $20,000 state exemption because they are older than 55 but younger than 65 one of the planning strategies would be to consider how much money you're going to actually take at the household level in distributions to meet your expense needs and then potentially split those distributions between the two traditional IRAs, the husband and wife, so that you can maximize the household deduction. As a more specific example, if they needed to take $48,000 of distributions from traditional IRAs at the household level, you might consider splitting those distributions between the two IRAs so that each person could get a $20,000 exemption. By comparison. If, let's say we have one of the spouses take all $48,000 from their personal traditional IRA, they are only, you are only going to get a total of a $20,000 exemption in this case as opposed to the household $40,000 exemption. Erik:                                     07:06                    If they both leverage their $20,000 individual exemption at the state level, that is a potential state tax savings of over $900 and that is because at the individual level, even though they're married, the maximum allowable potential exemption is $20,000 per person and there is no sharing of that exemption even between a husband and a wife. So once again in review, a potential planning strategy is to maximize the state exemption by looking at the distributions required to meet your income need in retirement and split those distributions between two traditional IRAs, one owned by one spouse and one by another so that each can maximize that state exemption. Erik:                                     07:59                    Another potential strategy revolves around Roth conversions. Let's imagine the same couple husband and wife are both age 63 years old, but they don't need to make any traditional IRA distributions to meet their expense needs. What they can do, if it makes sense for their long term retirement plan, is to perform Roth conversions. This means moving the assets from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and pay the taxes on that movement of money or distribution in the year of conversion. The Roth conversions are typically going to be taxable at the federal level as well as at the state level. However, Roth conversions do qualify for the state level exemption, so in any given year, if you actually do Roth conversions and you're over 55 you can take up to a $20,000 state exemption per person at the state level for that Roth conversion. That type of strategy and managing your marginal tax rates and exemptions can be very beneficial in the long run for your income plan and something that you should be reviewing with your adviser. Erik:                                     09:10                    One very important consideration when looking at any of these plans is that this exemption does not count at the federal level. Federal exemptions are totally separate and calculated separately. You need to ensure that you're working with an accountant that has a full understanding of the state tax laws and also understands how specific retirement income exemptions may fit into your tax filing. If you ever have any questions about the financial situations involving Roth conversions, the state exemptions of retirement income, or just want to review your current financial situation, by all means, you can reach out to us at Bowman Financial Strategies at 303-222-8034. You can also feel free to send me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com and that's Erik, spelled E. R. I. K. We look forward to hearing from you soon and please share this with people that you know, if you think that it would be beneficial to them. If you're an existing client, you can always call my cell phone or reach out to the office to schedule or call for a face to face meeting. Thanks for joining me today to discuss the Colorado state retirement income tax exemption. Let me know if you have any topics that you would like to see discussed here at uncommon sense. We do want to provide you with information that you find helpful. Thanks again and have a great day. Erik:                                     10:29                    Thank you for joining me for Uncommon Cents, the Bowman Financial Strategies financial education series. I'd love to hear your feedback on financial topics you would like to learn more about. Just drop me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com or go to the Bowman

Erik:                                     00:06                    You're listening to uncommon sense, a podcast by Bowman Financial Strategies. I'm your host Erik Bowman, and thank you for joining me today. Hi everyone. Erik Bowman here, the owner of Bowman financial strategies in Englewood, Colorado. I appreciate you listening today. Today's podcast is going to be discussing something that we work on every single day in our firm and that is social security maximization. We're going to discuss not only the basics of social security maximization, but what are the three biggest mistakes people tend to make when filing for social security? So to get started, social security maximization is the process of analyzing all potential filing strategies available to a household and determining which strategy offers the highest potential income. You have worked over 80,000 hours [based on a 40 hour work week times 35 years] and contributed to social security for your whole life. You deserve to receive the highest income possible. Unfortunately, the social security administration cannot and will not help you determine what filing strategy is in your best interest. Erik:                                     01:15                    The Social Security Administration can only tell you how much your benefit would be at any filing age. They are neither licensed nor allowed to discuss filing strategies with the public. With a lifetime value of potentially over $1 million for a household. We recommend that you put the appropriate amount of effort into making this extremely important choice when to take social security. So to the question when to take social security, everybody has 96 basic social security filing choices, meaning you can take it as early as age 62 and you can delay as long as age 70 and if you count the number of months up (because you can take your social security benefit at any month in between those two ages), you have a total of 96 discrete choices and if you're married, your spouse also has 96 discrete choices, which means when you look at the combinations of filing strategies, there are over 9,216 basic filing strategies for an American couple. Erik:                                     02:18                    In addition, if you include all of the spousal benefit choices that are available to a married couple and to divorce participants, potentially the number of filing choices exceeds over 100,000 [https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/matrix.html] and if you compare all of those potential combinations of filing strategies, you could sort them from the highest amount of income you'll receive over retirement to the lowest amount of household income you're going to receive over retirement, and that difference can be as high as $150,000 or more of lifetime retirement income. In other words, by making the wrong filing choice, you could receive $150,000 less in lifetime income than if you made a more strategic decision. Erik:                                     03:04                    The three biggest mistakes that people make when filings for social security, in my opinion, are number one, not paying attention to potential spousal survivor benefits, and only looking at a basic break even equation for your own personal benefit. By doing this, you totally miss out and don't calculate the additional survivor benefit that would go to a surviving spouse in the event of death of a social security recipient. For example, if the higher wage earner delays taking benefits until age 70 increasing the total amount of social security they would get each year. If that person were to pass away, that higher check is going to be left behind for the survivor. On the other hand, if that higher wage earner took their social security benefit at age 62 for example, the earliest possible age to be able to take social security, the reduction is tremendous and that is going to be forever reduced in the amount that would be left behind for a surviving spouse. Most of the time it is the male that's going to pass away first and therefore leaving a lower amount of ongoing monthly benefit to a surviving spouse. Erik:                                     04:21                    The second mistake that I often see is filing too early and having to pay back your benefits to the Social Security Administration. If you're working and make over a certain income threshold and you are taking an early benefit from social security meaning before you hit full retirement age, also known as FRA and (by the way your FRA is determined by your year of birth but it's going to land somewhere between age 66 and age 67) well if you take your social security benefit prior to FRA and you're still working in making over the income threshold that changes each year, you very well are going to be stuck paying back $1 for every $2 earned over that threshold and it is possible that you could pay back all of your social security benefits. In addition, it's a decision that is very hard if not impossible to unwind a very unwelcome situation. Erik:                                     05:22                    The third mistake I often see is not coordinating your social security filing decision within the context of your other assets. That means taxable assets that upon distribution you will pay income tax on such as IRAs and 401k's and non qualified assets. Those that don't have any tax benefits but you don't necessarily have to pay income tax when you make distributions, you'll only have to pay capital gains tax on the growth. Well in some cases, as an example, it may make sense to delay social and utilize your IRA assets until age 70. This may not apply to you, but the longest you can delay your benefits is age 70 and by doing so and lowering your IRA account balance from your mid sixties till age 70 when it comes time to take your required minimum distributions, you very well will be forced to take less out each year than you otherwise would. Erik:                                     06:23                    And then by turning on social security at age 70 what we see and what we need to understand is that only 85% of your social security benefits are taxed. So now at age 70 if you only have 85% or up to 85% of your social security wages being taxed and you are allowed to take smaller distributions from your IRA, you very well could find yourself paying less than federal taxes. The way I look at it is a dollar saved in taxes is an extra dollar you can spend in retirement. Now, this strategy does not necessarily work for everybody. If you need income, you very well will have to turn on your social security to start producing income if you're not working anymore. However, if you do have a sizable retirement assets such as an IRA worth over a million dollars, you would want to analyze how it would look to delay social security, increasing that benefit and potentially utilizing your IRA in the earlier years of retirement to consciously reduce that account balance. Therefore, you would be reducing your RMDs or required minimum distribution amounts starting at age 70 and a half. You should always consult with a financial adviser and an accountant to ensure that if you're going to implement a strategy such as this, that it makes financial sense Erik:                                     07:47                    Because the value of your social security decision is so high, often worth over $1 million in lifetime income at the household level. We believe all retirement income plans should contain a thorough analysis so you make the most appropriate social security filing choice to maximize your social security income. After all, you have paid taxes into the system for decades and you deserve to maximize what you get in social security benefits. If you're an existing client, please reach out anytime. If you ever have questions or need to sit down to discuss your plan. If you're not a client and have questions, please contact our office to schedule an appointment by calling (303) 222-8034 or you can go to our website at www.bowmanfinancialstrategies.com and drop us a note. I look forward to hearing from you all. Have a great day. Thank you for joining me for Uncommon Cents, the Bowman Financial Strategies financial education series. I'd love to hear your feedback on financial topics. You would like to learn more about. Just drop me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com or go to the Bowman Financial Strategies website and send me a note on our contact page. In addition, you can always search for topics of interest in my archive on our podcast page at www.bowmenfinancialstrategies.com/podcasts Have a great day. Disclosure:                         09:25                    This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and may not be used as such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance. In addition, investment advisory services offered by Change Path LLC, a registered investment adviser, Change Path and Bowman Financial Strategies are unaffiliated entities.                                                                            [Please see the Social Security website at www.ssa.gov for more information.  The information for this podcast has been taken from the Social Security Handbook found at https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf .  This podcast is meant for general knowledge, not specific to your personal needs. We are not affiliated with the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.]  

Erik:                                     00:06                    You're listening to uncommon sense podcast by Bowman financial strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman and thank you for joining me today.      Erik:                                     00:17                    Hello everyone. Erik Bowman here, owner of Bowman Financial Strategies. I hope you are having a fantastic day. It is April 3rd, 2019. You may have noticed some new letters next to my name. I've recently been awarded the designation of RICP, which stands for retirement income certified professional. Erik:                                     00:43                    An RICP designee is trained to understand how to structure effective retirement income plans, how to mitigate risks to the plan, and how to create a sustainable income stream to last throughout a client's retirement years. To achieve this designation, I've taken three college level courses with a study time of around 150 hours. These courses include topics such as; sources of retirement income, managing the retirement plan, and strategies specific to the retirement processes. I picked this designation because it has the broadest course of study throughout and it is focused specifically on the needs of the clients that I serve almost exclusively, and that is people transitioning from accumulation to distribution. Erik:                                     01:55                    In addition to completing these courses, I will also have 30 hours of continuing education every two years to keep this current. This allows me to stay on top of any changes in the regulatory environment that may impact my clients. I feel that this designation is a tremendous benefit to my clientele, because it really helps solidify my knowledge of the tools to help you live well in your retirement years. By having this designation, I'm better able to answer your income questions, but also making sure the plan that we make together is effective, meets your goals, is tax efficient, and can withstand an unknown future, a future that has risks and opportunities. By mitigating the risks and positioning assets to leverage opportunities for growth, our desire is that you experienced the retirement you have always dreamed of. If you're an existing client, please reach out anytime if you ever have a question or need to sit down to discuss your plan. And if you're not a client and have questions, please contact our office to schedule an appointment by calling (303) 222-8034 or you can go to our website at www.bowmanfinancialstrategies.com and send us a note. I appreciate your time today. Thanks for listening and I hope you have a fantastic day. Erik:                                     02:53                    Thank you for joining me for uncommon sense, the Bowman financial strategies, financial education. I'd love to hear your feedback on financial topics you would like to learn more about. Just drop me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com or go to the Bowman financial strategies website and send me a note on our contact page. In addition, you can always search for topics of interest in my archive on our podcast page at www.bowmenfinancialstrategies.com/podcasts. Have a great day. Disclosure:                         03:30                    This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and may not be used as such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance. In addition, investment advisory services offered by Change Path LLC, a registered investment adviser. Change Path and Bowman Financial Strategies are unaffiliated entities.  

Erik:                                     00:01                    Welcome to Mastering Monday, the interview segment. Hi, I'm Erik Bowman, your host and owner of Bowman financial strategies where we provide straight answers so you can make confident decisions to live the retirement you have always dreamed up. I wanted to thank you for listening to the interview segment and this is part three of three episodes of an interview with Janelle Graham fitness trainer out of Castle Rock, Colorado's 24 hour fitness, enjoy. Janelle, what would be the one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who's currently retired or is going to be retiring soon and why? Janelle:                               00:45                    My biggest piece of advice would be to move. You got to move. Moving is improving and if we're not moving, then we're not improving. It's not just sitting from a desk chair into your couch or in your recliners, um, although that's much comfier than your work situation may have been. But actually getting up and being mobile and actually moving, getting outdoors, sometimes indoors, whatever it takes, but actually moving for at least 30 minutes, 30 minutes Erik:                                     01:21                    Each day. Janelle:                               01:23                    Yes, consciously moving because moving is going to keep you improving. And if you're not moving, then your body is not improving and it, it's gonna start shutting down. Erik:                                     01:32                    I was thinking about some of the things you probably are helping people with during training sessions. And I believe that when people are at their house and they're doing their everyday things, whatever, whatever that may be, cooking in the kitchen, doing laundry, going up and down the stairs, cleaning out their basement, all the photographs that they plan on going through, one day they're down in the basement and now they have to move boxes out of the, out of the way to get to them so they can start that project in retirement that they should be thinking about every movement when they're going down the stairs, they should be thinking about what muscle they're using, how their balance is actually being impacted by that step up or down the stairs when they're bending over to pick something off the bottom of the pantry floor that they don't just in a non thoughtful way reached down that they should think about what joints are using and the more time they get in the gym with somebody like you, that can actually start to kind of overlay, here's why this exercise is important to your normal daily life routine. And I just think that that's something that gets missed a lot of the times because they don't realize that there are ways to move the can hurt you and ways to move that can help you. Janelle:                               02:39                    Absolutely. Taking what they're doing on a daily basis and really making it even more efficient. Right. And making it move efficient and more balance and more stability and more strength so that they can do more. Right, and they feel like moving more because they're actually moving better, right? They're moving more efficiently. It doesn't hurt to bend down and pick up that box (right) of photos and have to carry it up the staircase because you've learned how to move. That improves your everyday lifestyle. Erik:                                     03:12                    Success breeds success. Whenever you begin an exercise regimen. I think some people may be concerned or be thinking about the idea that it could hurt, number one, especially if you haven't done it in a long time. So there's this progression in a way to move into it slowly but also some reality check on how quickly results come and to understand what that cycle actually looks like so they don't get maybe disappointed and checkout sooner than they should. Janelle:                               03:47                    You should feel a difference within four to six weeks. So you should feel that walking around your house is easier. Bending down to pick up the groceries and walk them into the house gets easier. So it's a progressional base. As you do more, you kind of oil all of your joints and you oil your body, it's going to start to move better. And those aches and pains that you used to have should start to go away within four to six weeks and you should start to feel a little bit better. And then that progresses you into the next phase to where you can start taking on a little bit more. But it's all based off of where you're at and giving you specifics of what to do written down. Um, also videotaping is another great way because then you have a compare and contrast. Like, all right, this is whenever you started at week one, how you were squatting and how you are lifting your arms up to put something into a cabinet and now you've gotten a sequence of exercises that you're supposed to be doing at home, right? And progressively, okay, now where you at six to eight weeks later and retaking a video because then you have that visual. Now it's not just a feeling anymore. You feel that you're better, you feel it. The aches and pains are gone, but what have I actually improved on? Erik:                                     05:15                    You don't have to ask the grand kids to open up the mayonnaise jars. Janelle:                               05:18                    There you go! You know it's true. It's totally the truth. So those little things speak volumes, but it's being aware of, hey, maybe you didn't even notice that whatever was aching or painful isn't achy or painful anymore and you can't figure out exactly what it was. But over the last four to six weeks, just changing up what you're doing and how you're doing it because you have a sequence of things and you know what to do to help make it successful. Erik:                                     05:54                    Talk a little bit about if somebody was actually seeking a trainer, what's that first meeting like? What do you talk about? What do you typically do with somebody at the gym? Janelle:                               06:04                    The first meeting is really just to get to know you. It's to find out about what you're doing currently. Also about your past history. So what did you do in the past? Uh, what was your job? What were some of your activities? Do you have kids? You know, what are your goals? Are you wanting to travel? So it's a lot of one on one time, just kind of getting to know you. Then we sit down and we talk about nutrition. Okay, right? How are you eating? What are you consuming? Because then that kind of gives me a baseline, um, as a trainer to know, okay, this is what you currently did. This was your past history. Here are some goals. So we try to lay out at least three goals. Now I've have your nutrition, so I'm starting to get to know you a little bit better. Janelle:                               06:49                    Then we take you into what we call an overhead squat assessment. I'm going to set you up and stand and I'm going to have you squat and do what your body is going to allow you to do and we look at you and different angles and take notes and that gives me a baseline of how your body is moving in time and space currently. Okay. And that gives me a direction to go and to help you to get you closer to those goals that we talked about and what you're wanting to achieve. Now that you're retired and you have all this extra time on your hands. Erik:                                     07:22                    And I assume that you know, based on that functional assessment that then you can determine me a more specific regimen to help address their shortfalls as opposed to just kind of a generic everybody should do. Although there are probably some exercises everybody should do, but I assume you see people with various range of motion issues and strength issues and core issues that would require a more specialized approach. Janelle:                               07:47                    Yes. So everyone is going to move differently and it doesn't matter how tall you are, how short you are, how much you weigh, right? It's what your body is actually allowing you to do in that time and space. And every individual that comes in is going to have a completely different plan, (right.) than the person before or after them. Even if you have 10 gentlemen and 10 ladies that are all 5'8" and they all weigh the same amount, all 10 men and all 10 women are going to all move differently. Right? (Right.) So they're all going to have a completely different exercise and cardio regimen that they need to do based off of where their body is. Erik:                                     08:31                    Some people may be thinking about the type of exercise they might do in their home and it sounds a little bit solitary, maybe are not that enjoyable. What are some things that people could consider that might make exercising more enjoyable or even something they look forward to? Janelle:                               08:46                    Yeah. And make it fun. Um, so getting together with a friend and go for a walk outside or even getting together the group of people, finding a group that's a walking group or a skiing group, if that's, you know, your interests at home, pulling up a podcast and doing, you know, what's on that podcast. Erik:                                     09:08                    So like an exercise podcast? Janelle:                               09:09                    Yeah, there's exercise podcasts. You can get stuff through dish network and direct TV. Um, they've got different exercise workouts, Erik:                                     09:18                    Youtube as well. Janelle:                   

Erik:                                     00:01                    Welcome to mastering Monday, the interview segment. Hi, I'm Erik Bowman, your host and owner of Bowman financial strategies where we provide straight answers so you can make confident decisions to live the retirement you have always dreamed of. This is the second part of a three part interview with Janelle Graham fitness trainer out of Castle Rock, Colorado is 24 hour fitness. If you were to recommend anything to a senior too, be healthier, what are the few things that you think are going to be the most important to achieve? 80% of the optimal results. And that goes towards a little bit of a concept I talk about with my clients, the 80 20 principle that there is a certain number of activities where you can achieve really good results and by doing more activities your marginal return starts to shrink a little bit. So what are the top things, do you think anybody who's a senior citizen should be considering to try to be a little more active and a little safer and healthier? Janelle:                               01:04                    I would say number one is an exercise regimen to routine. Number two would be nutrition. What are they in taking on a daily basis to help get them healthier and stay healthier to live longer. And number three I would think would be a mindset. Our minds are huge benefactor, but they can also be a disadvantage if we are in a good mindset that feeds into how our bodies actually act and react to what we think. Erik:                                     01:38                    Well, let's go ahead and break that down one step further than exercise. What are the top one or two things that you would recommend somebody does for an exercise regimen if they haven't done much for the last couple of decades and now they've got some time on their hands and they want to prepare for retirement? What are the top two things that you would recommend they do Janelle:                               01:57                    From an exercise standpoint? Number one would be getting up and just walking. So we talked a little bit about cardio, so getting out and just walking a few blocks and then gradually increasing that to like a mile or so. (Okay.) And the second one would definitely be a strength training regimen. So actually getting the muscles and the bones stronger. Erik:                                     02:16                    If they're not going to the gym and they don't have a gym membership, what could they do around the house to help develop some strength? Janelle:                               02:24                    You could use anything in your cupboard. So soup cans, chairs, anything from your kitchen table chairs to even your sofa sitting and standing. If you have a staircase, just stepping up and down on the staircase will build leg strength. But then you're also going to have a little bit of a heartbeat increases as well. So there's a lot of things to surround your home inside, but also outside, Erik:                                     02:48                    When it comes to nutrition (Mm-hmm?) What do you think the top one or two things are there? Janelle:                               02:54                    My biggest thing with nutrition is, it's not about what you eat, but how much actually consume. Enjoy what you're eating. But how much of it are you actually in taking on a nutrition basis? Really being aware of, okay, I really want steak and potatoes and Erik:                                     03:12                    chocolate cake, Janelle:                               03:13                    chocolate cake! Some cookies. Absolutely. But learning how to actually give yourself that, okay, I can have this, but watching how much we're actually in taking. So instead of having a full cookie splitting in half, Erik:                                     03:30                    I was going to say instead of having five have two, but instead of one, we'll have the half out there. Might agree with two instead of five. Janelle:                               03:38                    They probably will. Okay. Erik:                                     03:41                    I think hydration is a big thing, especially out here in Colorado because every joint in the body, all of your connective tissue requires that. And I think there's a lot of things on the market that you can buy. But what are your thoughts on just water? Janelle:                               03:54                    That's the second big thing with nutrition. So first we talked about food and consumption, but like you said, the water aspect is huge. That is something that you need to really take into consideration. It's not just the tea and the coffee and maybe the soda that you have, but just pure water that you're in taking on a daily basis and making sure that you're getting enough because that's going to help keep the body moving functionally. How it's supposed to move and give the joints and the muscles that lubrication that they need. Um, your body's like a car. You take your car in to get it checked up and get it fixed up and make sure everything's working well. Change the oil. Yeah, you got to change the oil. Sometimes it needs new brakes or new tires. Do you think about your body as the same thing? Your body is a machine and there's different tuneups and different things that we need to do and water is one of those tune ups (Right.) that just keep things moving fluid, (Right) and keep the body moving fluid like the oil in your car. Erik:                                     04:58                    Many people, they have been focused on raising children, uh, volunteering at school, working full time for decades and now it's time to maybe start thinking about themselves for the first time in a long time. And if exercise is a part of that, one of the questions that I think they should have answered is how do you transition into an exercise regimen so that you can do it safely without injuring yourself and so that you can enjoy it enough that you don't quit Janelle:                               05:28                    With a workout routine or regimen really comes down to what are your goals and what are you personally wanting to achieve? Thinking about, okay, well now I've got all this time on my hands and I'm excited about it. What have I done currently or in the past that could help me further myself forwards and get into what are your interests? You're wanting to go skiing, right? Or take that trip overseas. So first having what we're wanting to do because then that keeps us motivated. We have to have a motivator to get us going sometimes. So if we have a motivator to get us going and then we gradually work into those stepping stones to get you through that. So a similar case would be a gentleman that comes in and works out personally with me. He had retired and been retired for a few years and him and his wife for wanting to go on a vacation and he hadn't been moving, he'd been more sedentary. So how do we get him up and how do we get him moving? And so it's stepping stones, just teaching them how to actually squat properly, sit and stand, and really working on balance, giving different things balance wise because we have to have a lot of balance. And that's one of the biggest things that ends up going as we get a little bit older that's going to help with walking. Erik:                                     06:54                    So part of what you're reviewing or training of the client in, in that particular scenario are specific exercises and routines that focus on balance? Janelle:                               07:06                    Like standing on one foot, Erik:                                     07:07                    okay, Janelle:                               07:08                    Just standing on your right leg and pulling your left leg up, walking heel to toe down a straight line. So very simplistic things. A lot of people are like, oh well I can do that. And then you ask them to do it and they're like, oh my goodness, I thought I had great balance. (Right.) You know, but very simple stuff that you can do every day just in your own home. You don't have to come to the gym to do. So it's kind of almost like your homework (yeah). That you do on your own. And it's, um, simplistic everyday life stuff. But those are the building blocks we have to get into place first to lay a foundation, right? Because once we lay a good foundation, you get going every few weeks and by three to four months down the road, he's squatting without a chair or a box behind him. Janelle:                               07:52                    He's able to stand on one foot. He notices that he can step off of a curb without being worried about catching himself and he's getting in and out of his car easier. Right? Not grunting, no. Right. Or like, Ooh, ow, this hurts or that hurts. Yeah. We've got those few months underneath our belt and now he's got another month or two before he actually leaves for his trip. (Right.) And so now we've built those building blocks. We've laid down stones and a pathway to help him get there. And now we can actually progress a little bit further and get him stronger to go on his trip. Erik:                                     08:31                    Thank you for joining us for the second of three episodes with the interview segment with Janelle Graham fitness trainer from Castle Rock, Colorado's 24 hour fitness. You can leave comments on our Facebook page or on our website at www.bowmanandfinancialstrategies.com                  Disclosure:                         08:56                    Investment advisory services offered by Change Path LLC, change path and Bowman financial strategies are unaffiliated entities.  

Erik:                                     00:06                    You're listening to uncommon sense podcast by Bowman financial strategies. I'm your host Erik Bowman and thank you for joining me today. Disclosure:                         00:18                    This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and may not be used. As such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance. In addition, investment advisory services offered by Change Path LLC, a registered investment adviser, Change Path and Bowman financial strategies are unaffiliated entities. Erik:                                     00:42                    Hi everyone. Welcome to Uncommon Sense Episode 2. Uncommon sense being the financial education series by Bowman Financial Strategies. My name is Erik Bowman, your host. Today we're going to be discussing HSAs. What is an HSA? How has an HSA treated from a tax perspective? How do HSAs interrelate with Medicare and what are some strategies that retirees can utilize HSAs for? Erik:                                     01:19                    An HSA, for those of you who may not be familiar with the acronym, HSA stands for health savings account and it's a specifically designed type of savings account where you can put away money on a tax preferred basis to use for qualified medical expenses. A few quick things to know about HSA is just so you don't get confused and potentially open up the wrong kind of account and therefore wouldn't have the tax benefits is it differs from an FSA or a flexible spending account. The biggest differences that an HSA, it rolls over year to year and you can accumulate those dollars each year up to the maximum contribution. In the year 2018 for an individual, the HSA maximum contribution limit was $3,450 and for a family HSA contribution limit in 2018 it was $6,900. For the tax year 2019, there's been a slight increase of $50 to the self only HSA contribution limit, so it's now $3,500 a family HSA contribution limit we are now at $7,000. one very important stipulation regarding HSAs is that you may only contribute to a health savings account if you have a qualified high deductible health insurance plan. This is very important to understand because if you have a traditional PPO or HMO plan, you cannot contribute to an HSA and enjoy any of those tax benefits. So just to dig in a little bit, and really review, what are the basics of HSA? Is there one of the most powerful tax deferred or tax beneficial plans out there because they're actually tax beneficial in all three phases. That means that when you make a contribution into an HSA, that's going to be tax deductible in that year of contribution. And as a side note, you may contribute to an HSA up until the filing deadline for that particular year. So for example, for the year 2018, you can contribute up to the maximum total amount for the household by the filing of April 15th, roughly of April, 2019. Erik:                                     03:47                    In addition, when the dollars are put inside of an investment account, which they are allowed to be put inside investment accounts, um, those, that growth is going to be tax free. And then as long as you're following the rules and using the dollars from the HSA for appropriate medical expenses, it will also be untaxable when you take the money out. So as you can see compared to an IRA or a 401k, what we have is that you get the additional benefit of not only having it be tax free on the way in, but during the entire growth phase. And on the way out, no other retirement plan actually allows for all three phases of those dollars to be tax free. Another interesting caveat for HSAs is that so long as you have had the appropriate type of high deductible health insurance plan, if you never did make your contributions like you could have, you could make current contributions in the current year into your HSA and you can reimburse yourself for previous year's expenses. Just keep in mind those expenses had to have been incurred while you are under an HSA qualified health insurance plan. Erik:                                     05:07                    So the bottom line is that what is available to you and is often under utilized for people who actually have one of these health savings accounts, is that the maximum contributions are not ever made. And this would be even in the face of paying health costs or healthcare costs that would exceed that contribution limits. So there's money being left on the table, savings and tax benefits that are being left on the table. So what you can think about now is if you've contributed to your IRA and your 401k, and even if you have maximized those contributions, and if you're in your early sixties and have an HSA eligible health insurance plan, it may make sense to contribute to the maximum allowable by law each year, build up a reservoir of tax free funds that were tax deductible in the year of contribution that you can then use it anytime, even after you've gone on Medicare. Erik:                                     06:10                    One of the questions that I oftentimes get regarding HSAs relates to Medicare. The question often sounds something like this, which is, can I have an HSA or contribute to an HSA while I'm on Medicare? Because those tax advantages sound very beneficial. The quick answer is no. That once you file for Medicare, you are ineligible to contribute to an HSA anymore. That's a pretty black and white statement by a Medicare and the IRS. However, if you have been contributing into an HSA and you have not utilize those dollars and there is a balance in there that has accumulated over the past couple of years, you may use those dollars with no penalties at any time. Even while you were on medicare, you simply can't continue to make contributions into the HSA while you were on Medicare. Erik:                                     07:07                    It's really just another way to save for retirement. Although those dollars in order to enjoy the tax benefits and need to be dedicated to healthcare costs, certainly we know that as we enter into retirement and live along fun life and retirement, that there's a good chance we are going to have healthcare expenses and it's nice to have a reservoir of dollars available that are treated so special from the IRS from a tax perspective. And once again, you can't make any new contributions into an HSA once you start Medicare, but you can use your saved up assets inside of your HSA account for qualified health care costs if you are on Medicare. Very important distinction there. And finally, a key takeaway points are number one, if you have an HSA and you're capable, you should maximize those contributions even if you don't think you're going to spend that amount in the current year because those dollars will rollover and you can use those in future years for qualified health care expenses. Second, if you have Medicare, you are not allowed to make additional contributions into an HSA, but you may use the previously accrued balances for qualified health care expenses. I hope you found this podcast on Erik:                                     08:31                    HSAs health savings account to be useful and I hope it answered some of the basic questions that you may have about it. Thank you for joining me for uncommon sense, the Bowman Financial Strategies financial education series. I'd love to hear your feedback on financial topics you would like to learn more about. Just drop me an email at Erik, that's E R I K, at Bowman financial strategies dot com, or go to the Bowman financial strategies website and send me a note on our contact page. In addition, you can always search for topics of interest in my archive on our podcast page at www.bowmenfinancialstrategies.com/podcasts. Have a great day. Disclosure:                         09:16                    This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and may not be used as such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance. In addition, investment advisory services offered by Change Path, LLC, a registered investment adviser, Change Path and Bowman Financial Strategies are unaffiliated entities.  

Interview with Janelle Graham, Fitness Trainer from 24 Hour Fitness in Castle Rock, Colorado.  Topics include priority actions seniors can take to live a more healthy life and LiveWell in their retirement.  Erik:   00:01         Welcome to mastering Monday, the interview segment. Hi, I'm Erik Bowman, your host and the owner of Bowman financial strategies where we provide straight answers so you can make confident decisions to live the retirement you have always dreamed of. Today is the first of three episodes where I interviewed Janelle Graham of fitness trainer from 24 hour fitness in Castle Rock, Colorado. I hope you enjoy. Erik:      00:32                    Hi Janelle. How are you today? I'm well, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for coming and talking with us today about physical fitness. Uh, I'd like to start off with you telling us just a little bit about yourself, your history and what it is you currently do. Janelle:    00:47                    I am originally from Illinois. I went to school for Athletic Training and Sports Med to um, just get to help others because I have a big heart and helping others and just improving what people are doing on a daily basis and helping them live a healthier, fitter and stronger life. So I have been doing group fitness for 14 years and I got into the personal training one on one with clients for about the last three years now. It's been a different journey from being in a big group setting. So now working one on one and getting individuals personalized programming to help them daily, life wise. Some clients want more of that athletic bound and then other clients are just wanting to be able to get up and move on a daily basis. So wide array. Erik:       01:38                    What is it you like most about the personal training as opposed to the group training? Janelle:    01:43                    My personal training aspect is it's a one on one. So I have personal responsibility for that persons and helping them feel better about themselves or help improve some type of performance if that's their number one goal. Some it is just, you know, they want to get up and move on a daily basis and be able to walk around to get an out of their car easier and just do daily life activities better. (Right.) So that's a big shift in difference from like a group fitness setting cause you're dealing with 30, 40, sometimes even 50 people. So in that one on one setting, it's more individualized for their wants and their needs and what they're looking at doing. Erik:   02:30                    And where are you located? Where do you work out of? Janelle:     02:32                    I'm at 24 hour fitness and Castle Rock, Erik:   02:35                    Colorado Castle Rock. And just full disclosure, you work with my wife Heidi and you've been a godsend to her to help her maintain some mobility and um, develop strength training and she loves working out with you. So thank you for that. Janelle:    02:47                    Thank you. Erik:     03:33                    A couple of questions and as we go through the questions, we just want to keep in mind that you know, my firm works primarily with seniors or people that transitioning from the working years of their life. We call that the accumulation years and they're transitioning into the distribution years where they are going to stop working, still generating income, but hopefully having a time of their life. They want to be going on vacation, they want to be going on cruises, they want to spend time with grand kids. They want to be able to walk and hike and ski and do all of these things. And we know that just because we're all aging doesn't mean we want to take doing less as the route that we must go down, that we want to take advantage of those, especially the first 15 years of retirement where we're still healthy and we have the assets to be able to do fun things and enjoy our life. So with that said, um, one of the questions I had and I think that a lot of my clients would have is we can divide physical fitness into flexibility, strength training, cardiovascular fitness, how do those work together and is any one of those maybe a higher priority for somebody who's 60 years old plus? Janelle:    04:00                    Looking at those, if you're 60 plus, the biggest thing I would personally take in would be the strength training aspect of it. And because as we get older, our bone density decreases. So having a good strength training program or just a regimen to keep the bones stronger and that's going to help you actually stay active longer cause you're not going to have to worry about slipping and falling and maybe hurting or breaking anything. So strength training, research out there has shown that it actually increases your bone density. So keeping just the skeletal system strong because that's what all of your muscles attached to and that skeletal system actually helps you move. Strength training is a big part as 60 and older to keep you upright so that you're able to just go for a walk on a daily basis. That could be your cardio format and programming. Janelle:    04:59                    Just walking a mile a day would be probably number two is just getting up and actually moving. So a lot of 60 and older come into a lifestyle change where they may have been getting up and going to work and they've been on this great schedule. So they've been moving and now that they're into that retirement phase of life, they get more freedom, which is exciting because now they get to go into a bunch of things. Um, but then they also find themselves more sedentary. Thinking about a cardio programming can be as easy as just getting up and going for a walk around a few blocks, you know, mile, uh, maybe walking up and down a hill. And if you've got stairs in the house, it's simple as that as well. Erik:      05:42                    A little quick anecdote there is, uh, my wife got me out walking with her, a couple actually over the summer. We went out for about three months straight and I thought that my knee was going downhill and I had arthritis and it hurts so much and I couldn't bend down to pick things up off the floor and I went out because my wife told me to and so I did, but then magically one day after doing that for three months, just walking one to five miles a day, my knee was completely healed. Janelle:    06:09                    All the pain was gone! Just from walking, (just from walking right) from walking. That pounding the resistance that you get just from walking on concrete or walking on dirt roads or even like hiking trails. The impact just from that actually helps with the bone density as well. Then the last one would probably be flexibility than mobility, so that's going to come into a big factor, especially as you start to move a little bit more. You're going to notice that things muscles start to get a little bit tighter and you may lose a little bit of range of motion and that's where the flexibility mobility of what you're doing on a daily basis is going to be important as well. Erik:     06:54                    You had mentioned a little bit Janelle about strength training being critical because of bone density issues with seniors and aging. When it comes to flexibility, can you talk a little bit about how strength training and flexibility to actually tie together? Janelle:    07:33                    They absolutely can. So with strength training, you want to be working through specific ranges of motion just in your strength training regimen on a daily basis. You'll actually be heading into that flexibility and getting more mobile basic things of learning how to sit down in a chair properly and stand up is strength training, but it's also falls in the realm of flexibility and mobility. Actually getting the joints of the body to actually move the way that they're supposed to move. Erik:    07:46                    How would you think that a physical regimen or an exercise program for a senior is going to differ from one for somebody who's 30 or 40 years old and why? Janelle:     07:59                    With someone that's on, you know, that's in this their 60s compared to the 30s and 40s, um, their bodies are going to move just a little bit different and they're going to need a little bit more of a structure base, almost a checklist of things to do and their physical activities to make sure that they're working in that strength zone and actually getting the strength that they need just to be able to do daily life activities, like picking something up off the floor, bending down to get their groceries, and then putting things into a cabinet are simple things for someone that starts to get a little bit older. (right) But building up the strength to actually be able to lift something a little bit heavier compared to someone that's in their 30s or 40s they're getting into more of that athletic sense more so, and so they're going to be moving at a quicker pace. They're going to be lifting a lot heavier. So as we get older we have to be a little bit more cautious of how we're actually moving and that we're actually moving in a safe and effective manner so that we don't hurt ourselves and that we can do more in the gym but also at home as well because we do have a higher chance of getting injured as we get older. (Right.) Erik:     09:17                    We may have brought some of those injuries with us too. Janelle:     09:24                    Right. You know, based off of what your job was and maybe even some of your past history of what you did whenever you were younger, you know, did you play sports or were you more active when you were in your 30s and 40s? (right.) Some people aren't as active in their thirties and forties and also some family history comes into that as well. But anybody can be healthier and fitter and stronger as long as they have an understanding of it and they have a program that is sui

Links and Show Notes The IRS has a checklist here, https://www.irs.com/articles/tax-form-checklist.  The financial Website Investopedia has a great article and checklist to help you get prepared here:  https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/tax_prep.asp if you are making Charitable contributions, here is a link to the IRS pamphlet Common Informational IRS Forms: W2 (Income earned, and taxes paid.  For an Employee) 1098 Mortgage Interest Statement 1098-C, E, T (Donations, student loan interest, and Tuition payments) 1099-Misc (Non-employee compensation) 1099-B (reports Gains or Losses on securities investments) 1099-R (IRA distributions) 1099 INT (Interest received) 1099-DIV (Dividend received) 1099-LTC (LTC benefits received) 5498 (IRA contributions)       Contact Information  Please feel free to send me questions by going to our website at www.bowmanfinancilastrategies.com and go to the Contact Us page or send me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com.  Finally you can always reach us at 303-222-8034.   You're listening to Uncommon Cents podcast by bowman financial strategies. I'm your host, Erik Bowman, and thank you for joining me today. 00:34                                     Hi everyone. Thank you for joining me today for Uncommon Cents, episode one. My name is Eric Bowman and I am your host. Uncommon Cents is the financial education series by bowman financial strategies. Today's podcast is the inaugural episode of Uncommon Cents and I wanted to provide you a brief overview of what you can expect and how this podcast differs from its sister podcast mastering Mondays. Many of you may be familiar with mastering Mondays. It's a non-financial podcast discussing topics to help you live better in retirement, covering topics like health psychology, food travel, relationships, and hobbies, just to name a few Uncommon Cents by contrast is focused solely on financial topics with a focus on areas relevant to those that are near or at the transition from accumulation to distribution. Today we're talking about tax forms, just saying it makes every accountant get excited. Ooh, tell me more about my 10, 99 are please. 01:39                                     Today I'm going to review the most common forms that you will run across and some other basic tax preparation tips. Many of these forums are related to accounts I manage for my clients, so if you're a client you ever have questions about any tax form or need a copy from a current or prior year, please reach out to my office and we are glad to help. As you prepare for the 2018 tax filing season, you may find the following checklists helpful on the text and blog version. You can click on the active links they outlined, the forms you should be collecting in the coming months so you can successfully file your taxes. The IRS has a checklist@www.IRS.com/articles/tax-form-checklist. The financial website Investopedia has a great article and checklists to help you get prepared. It's located at www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/tax _prep.asp, and of course you can just click on it if you look in the notes section of the podcast, 02:58                                     now as many of you sit down at your computer to begin gathering documents in preparing for your tax appointment, I wanted to go over some of the common steps that can help make this process more efficient for you. Here's a summary of the action steps that you should be considering to prepare for tax season. Step one, schedule a time with your preparer so you can have an appointment prior to April 17th. This allows you to ensure that you can institute any tax savings actions prior to deadlines imposed by the IRS. If you use an accountant be early, they get very busy during the accounting season and the first folks in the door will get taken care of first. If you don't use an accountant, I recommend finding one unless you're taxes are extremely simple. Step to gather information. We're going to dig into many of the forms that you will be required to have as part of your tax filing process, so I'll be digging into that more a little bit later on. 04:02                                     Step three, gather receipts and charitable contribution information. In addition, if you are making charitable contributions and you believe their deductible, here's a link to an IRS pamphlet that details that type of substantiation. You may need to include your contribution as a deduction. Once again, you can find that link in our notes section of the podcast. Step four, gather all personal information like social security numbers for you and any dependents you will be filing for gather he ends if you happen to own a company or have one associated with a trust. In addition, a TIN, taxpayer identification number or your social security number may also be the number that's appropriate for the trust. Step five, gather last year's tax returns, particularly if you're using a new accountant they will need to see last year's, state and federal tax returns. Step six, go to your appointment and file your taxes. Now here's a quick list of forms I commonly see my clients receiving. You can click on the name of a form in the quick list, and it will take you to the Investopedia website where you will find the specific description of each forum. I also wrote a brief description of each form below as well as a slightly longer description and some unique circumstances that may apply to you. 05:26                                     Common Informational IRS forms. The first one is the [inaudible], which is based on income earned and taxes withheld. You would receive this forum if you are an employee of a company. Ten Ninety eight mortgage interest statement, the 10 98 c or the 10 98 e or the 10 98 t in order these cover donations, student loan interest and tuition payments, the 10 99. Miscellaneous shows, non employee compensation. Most people think of themselves as an independent contractor when they receive these forms, a 10 99 B, which reports gains and losses on securities and investments in non qualified accounts, a 10 99 r which shows IRA distributions the 1099 INT that shows interest received 10 99 dividend or d I v for dividends received 10 99 ltc which shows long-term care benefits received and the 5498 which shows IRA contributions. 06:40                                     Now some details on each of these forms. First, the w two, many of you are still working. Many of my clients are still working and very well. We'll be working potentially part time during the early part of retirement. If you are an employee of a company, you will receive your annual w two from each company you work for in that calendar year. This form is provided by your employer and per the IRS website. It reports the wages earned by employees and the taxes that were withheld from their paychecks. It also reports a social security tax, also known as the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, tax or FICA to the Social Security Administration. The FICA tax has two components, the social security portion and the Medicare portion, which are separately reported on tax form w two, you should receive these forms per current law by January 30. First, you may have multiple w two forms. 07:37                                     If you worked for more than one company in the calendar year and you should receive one from each employer. 10, 99. Miscellaneous. For those who are not w two employees but earn their income as independent contractors, you will receive a 1099 miscellaneous per the IRS tax form 1099-Misc is commonly used amongst self-employed professionals to report profits from services performed for other organizations. If you are a sole proprietor and were paid more than $600 for services during a given tax year, the business you work for is required to send tax form 10 99. Miscellaneous. The 10 99 are a common form that our clients will see each year. The 10 99 form is issued by the IRS and reports distributions from IRAs, annuities, profit sharing plans, insurance contracts, or pensions. The form must be mailed to the recipients by the custodian at the latest by January 30, first of the year after the distribution was made. 08:44                                     Now more on the 10 99 R and for my clients, you may see this form in three common scenarios, although all scenarios may not apply directly to you. One, the first common scenarios is when you make a distribution from an IRA. If you're taking the distribution during the normal course of retirement just to supplement your income called a normal distribution and it's used to cover expenses, for example, will those distributions will be taxable at your ordinary income tax rate and are reportable on a 1099 are so the account that you took your distribution from that custodian will be the entity that sends you the 10 99 are number two. If you perform a rollover or a qualified transfer of funds from one IRA or qualified plan to another IRA, that transaction is considered a distribution, although a nontaxable one if done correctly, and you will receive a 10, 99 are some of you to get specific about some of the strategies that we put in place at Bowman financial strategies may have a one America asset care three long-term care plan. 09:55                                     That specific strategy incorporates a qualified 20-year fixed annuity that pays annual distributions as premiums into a whole life policy with long-term care benefits each year. The 20 year fixed annuity will pay that premium through a distribution and that distribution will show up on a 10 99. Are each year the purpose of having the annuity payout over 20 years is simply to spread out your tax obligation over a 20 year period while still enjoying long-term care coverage immediately. The next form you may see as a 1099-DIV for dividends, and this is a form you received from banks and other financial institutions to

A full interview with Connie Pshigoda discussing the concept of seasonal eating and its health benefits.  Your Health and Your Body Are Not Cookie Cutters . . . Create a New Beginning to Last the Rest of Your Life - and That Never Go Out of Season - Starting Today! It doesn't matter what age you are . . . author and Natural Health Consultant Connie Pshigoda has crafted a variety of seasonal health tips and delicious recipes to satisfy your hunger for a better life and year-round well-being. Within the Wise Woman's Almanac, she connects Nature's seasons and your natural life rhythms, resulting in perfect harmony and balance. Throughout The Wise Woman's Almanac, you will use reflective questions, seasonal food lists, charts and exercises to achieve optimal well-being. You will discover that your physical, emotional and spiritual vitality are the essence of good health and wellness . . . not the lack of disease. The human body's physiological needs are profoundly influenced by the rhythms and cycles of the Earth's seasonal changes. You will discover that there are 5 seasons in your yearly well-being almanac: Springtime is youth, young adulthood, beginning a first career and growing through education and life experiences. Summertime is an abundance of mid-age adventures: maturing, raising a family and expanding your career options, even creating new ones. Autumn becomes a time to shine as the next empties and reaping the harvest of a successful career and your life investments. Winter brings a variety of multi-generational blessings from grandchildren, retirement, stepping into the roles of role model and mentor and sharing the wisdom that decades have accumulated. Overlapping Season combines Springtime, Summer, Autumn or Winter with one or more of the other seasons resulting in a wondrous and welcome rebirth and rejuvenation. New classes, new careers . . . a new you!

ERIK: Hi I’m Erik Bowman your host and owner of Bowman Financial Strategies, where we provide straight answers so you can make confident decisions to live the retirement you have always dreamed of. Today I’m speaking with Kristina Lynn Marshall of Kristina Lynn Photography. Kristina, thank you so much for joining me today.   KRISTINA: Thank you so much for having me.   ERIK: Before we dig into a discussion on photography and how the average person can significantly improve the quality of their pictures, whether they use a camera phone or their own digital camera, I want to give you a chance to tell everyone a little bit about yourself.   KRISTINA: Yes, absolutely. My name is Kristina Lynn Marshall. I am a portrait photographer based in Stillwater, Minnesota. I also have a satellite studio in Clarion, Iowa, which is my home town. And then I also come out to Denver, Colorado a couple of times each year. I have had my business for about ten years now. January will actually be my ten-year anniversary of starting my own business.   ERIK: Nice.   KRISTINA: I mainly specialize in portrait photography which means high school seniors, kids, families, weddings, corporate headshots. But I also do some product photography, some architectural photography such as real estate, and interior design photos.   ERIK: Very good, and just for full disclosure Kristina actually took photographs for Bowman Financial Strategies and if you go to www.bowmanfinancialstrategies.com, you’ll see a selection of photographs that are on that website that Kristina actually took for us and it was a great experience, so I highly recommend utilizing her if you ever do need professional photography services. Let’s move into really addressing some of the concerns that maybe our clients and friends of the podcast might have and specifically we know that many times a professional photographer is necessary. And a photographer is necessary for things like wedding pictures and maybe senior pictures and a professional shoot like you did for Bowman Financial Strategies, but of course people also want to take good pictures when they are on vacation or they’re visiting with their grandchildren. We can think of a lot of different moments in time where somebody just wants to take a picture and they might only have their iPhone with them. So let’s talk a little bit about some of the things that people should be thinking about when it comes to photography. And maybe we can start with what I have heard you refer to as the pre-shoot preparation. What should we do before we even think about taking a picture to give us the best chance of capturing a great picture?   KRISTINA: Everyone has a camera on them almost any point and time of the day with their phone. Right now, you are seeing a lot more photos being taken, and life being documented in photography. And so yes, there’s lots of really great tips I can share with you to take those photos and can make them a little bit better. For example, a couple pre-shooting tips I have. One is clean your camera lens. So you have your camera or your phone in your pocket all the time and you are grabbing it and you are touching it. A lot of times the camera is exposed, whether it is a front facing camera or rear facing camera, and so it gets finger prints on it a lot. So one of the first tips I usually do when I pull out my camera or phone to take a picture is to wipe off the lens.   ERIK: That seems so obvious and yet I can’t remember the last time that I actually cleaned the lens on my camera or on my phone camera. And if I did, I’m sure I just did it with my thumb and smeared more grease onto that lens so using a soft cloth and just not forgetting to clean that before you shoot that sounds like basic but extremely important.   KRISTINA: Yeah, even now as a professional a lot of times I will quickly pull my phone out of my pocket to take a picture. And I will take a picture and look at it and it is not as sharp as it could be and it’s because my lens is dirty. So it is a very common thing and it happens all the time, but it is a very quick fix to make your photos sharper.   ERIK: Awesome, well thank you for that. Why don’t we talk about some basic concepts that everyone should follow, whether they’re using their camera phone or if they are using their DSLR or digital camera. What are some of the basics they should understand and maybe we could break this into pieces, the first one being lighting. Does that sound like an appropriate place to start?   KRISTINA: Yes absolutely. So when you are taking photos, one of the trickiest things to kind of think about and after is the lighting. And that is because the camera doesn’t have as much dynamic range as your eye does. So what you are seeing does not always translate into the camera. Because your eye’s adjusting to the differences between the lightness and darkness. Lighting is a really big part of taking good photos.   ERIK: Can you highlight a little bit when it comes to different environments, perhaps maybe it’s a birthday party indoors compared to maybe an outside bright sunny day? What are some basic ideas about how you should think about that lighting when you’re taking a picture?   KRISTINA: So if you are, for example, taking photos at your granddaughters first birthday party. The best place to take the photos if you’re indoors is closer to a window because that’s going to give you more light, more natural light, and you won’t have to rely on your flash as much. So the closer you can move your subject to the window is usually best. If you are outdoors and you are trying to photograph something, finding shade is probably your best bet. Because you are not having to deal with really bright conditions where your subject is squinting, or your camera is trying to figure out if you are backlighting with the sun behind your subject or if it’s in the front. So shade is really good and overcast days are really good.   ERIK: So Kristina, when you are talking about working in the shade as an example, are you saying that the subjects are in the shade or the photographer is in the shade?   KRISTINA: A lot of times for sure your subject is in the shade. You know, if you are under a tree, me as a photographer and if I’m not in the sun, it is not that big of a deal as long as the sun is not shining directly into your camera lens. It is more important for your subject to be in the shade just because the lighting is more even. If both of you can be in the shade, even better.   ERIK: What would you recommend then out here in Colorado, you may very well be at a place like Daniel’s Park where there really is no shade and you want to get that background of the mountains or the backdrop of the mountains? How do you handle that if it is a bright sunny day, what are some tips?   KRTISTINA: Usually, shooting earlier in the morning or later in the day when the sun is a little bit lower in the sky makes for better even lighting. So a place like Daniel’s Park, it all kind of depends on what your goal is. If you were just out there photographing the mountains and wanting a nice landscape scene, it’s better to shoot earlier in the morning because the sun will be to your back, the photographer’s back, and shining on the mountains. If you’re shooting a family out at Daniel’s Park, it is better to photograph them in the evening, closer to sunset, because then the sun is behind the subjects and you can get it so it’s maybe slightly back lighting them a little bit. But that way you don’t have the sun directly in their eyes and they are squinty.   ERIK: And you know that seems counter-intuitive, I think that naturally most people who don’t do photography for a living, they think that a bright sunny day in the middle of the day actually is probably the best. And what I’ve heard you say is that it is probably the worst time of the day to get a really good picture, that you get better color, better shadows, and maybe better contrast, by taking your photos early in the morning or late in the afternoon.   KRISTINA: That is exactly right. This morning I photographed this family and it was cloudy out and they made this comment of, oh how this must be horrible lighting for you. And I said no, actually a cloudy day is perfect for me, because everything is nice and even lighting, you don’t have to worry about really bright highlight spots and really dark shadows. It is more even. And it opens up the opportunity that I can take you kind of wherever and not have to worry about, well will you be facing the sun, how do I get the sun to your back.   ERIK: Excellent. I have a question that keeps popping into my mind and I know when I take photos with my iPhone or really any camera, the one thing, especially if I am taking pictures of the mountains or a landscape if you will, is that it just doesn’t do it justice. You know, a sunset, as beautiful as the colors may be, you just don’t seem to get the, I don’t know, the depth or the detail or the expansiveness that you are seeing with yours eyes. What is it that causes the difference between what you are seeing and a photograph that just doesn’t really pull it out and make it look as great as you think it is when you are looking at it live.   KRISTINA: Great question. It all has to do with, your eyes are very dynamic. Because, you know they are attached to your brain. And so your brain kind of knows that this is the thing you are looking at and you can see the different colors whereas when you are taking a photograph, you are at the mercy of your camera and what your camera thinks is how it should be. Especially when shooting with your smartphone. Your smartphone is programmed to kind of look at the entire scene and kind of average it out so that your brights aren’t too bright and your darks aren’t too dark. It will kind of be in the middle. When photographing something like a sunset on the mountains, it can be kind of tricky because you have that sunlight pouring into your lens

ERIK: Hi everyone and thank you for joining me today for the first episode of Mastering Monday’s, the interview segment, with our amazing guest Rolf Potts. Have you ever considered travelling to far off lands and staying not just for a few days or a week, but for three weeks, one month, or maybe even longer? If the thought of living in another country and exploring their culture and not just sight-seeing excites you and gets you dreaming about places you have never seen, you must get familiar with Rolf Potts. Rolf is perhaps best known for promoting the ethic of independent travel and his book on the subject, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel from Random House 2003, has been through thirty printings and translated into several foreign languages. On a personal note, Vagabonding has transformed how my wife and I think about travel and has propelled us to action. We now have some very exciting travel plans in this next year, but that’s for another day. More about Rolf. Rolf Potts is reported for more than sixty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, the New Yorker, Outside, The New York Times magazine, Sports Illustrated, National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. His adventures have taken him across six continents and include hitchhiking across eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, driving a Land Rover across South America, and travelling around the world for six weeks with no luggage or bags of any kind. His collection of literary travel essays, Marco Polo Didn’t Go there: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer (Travelers’ Tales 2008), won a 2009 Lowell Thomas award from the Society of American Travel Writers and became the first American authored book to win Italy’s prestigious Chatwin Prize for travel writing. Though he rarely stays in one place for more than a few weeks or months, Potts feels somewhat at home in Bangkok, Cairo, Busan, New York, New Orleans, and north central Kansas, where he keeps a small farm house on thirty acres near his family. Each July he can be found in France where he is the summer writer in residence and program director at the Paris American academy. And I am honored to have Rolf with me today, so without further ado, here is my interview with Rolf Potts.   ERIK: Thank you for joining me for another episode of Mastering Monday’s. This is the interview segment, and this is the interview segment that I mentioned in the last Mastering Monday email with Rolf Potts. So Rolf is with me today, Rolf thank you so much for being with me today.   ROLF: I’m happy to talk with you.   ERIK: I’m really excited to speak with you. I know that many of the concepts in your book, Vagabonding, have actually impacted my way of thinking about travel, and actually how my wife and I think about travel is a more accurate description, and I want to thank you for that because the information in this book has just truly revolutionized the way I’m thinking about our future travel. We are currently engaging in the planning and the dreaming of what this potential travel is going to look like 2019 and we’re looking at doing an experimental trip of maybe four to six weeks over in Europe or maybe south America, but I thought maybe you could take just a moment and provide a high level summary of your book Vagabonding, which is the source of my inspiration, and how do you experience or how have you experienced long term travel and the primary way that long term travel differs from traditional travel and vacationing.   ROLF: Yeah, well the core idea is to enable people, practically and just as importantly philosophically, in a matter of attitude. Travelling the world in earnest for weeks and months and years instead of just previously allotted vacation time. You should think about how you spend your time and spend your time in a way that enhances your life and causes you to dream. And so quite simply, and I’m not going to knock vacations, because vacations are rewarding activities, but often times vacations are very short term, they are very constricted, they are sort of bought like a commodity. You tend to throw money at a vacation. Whereas Vagabonding is more taking your life on the road. And there are some parts of the world where you can literally spend less per week than you spend at home, with rent and food and everything else. And so you are travelling not as a consumer but just sort of moving through the local economy, finding a way to save money and make it pay out in time. And really just to live those travel dreams that most of us have had our whole lives that we don’t think apply to us. When in fact not only do they apply to us, that we should take practical ways to make sure that they can happen to us.   ERIK: Right, you know as I have listened to your book and read your book, I have done it both ways, that way I can tab it and mark things that are interesting, I have just wondered to myself, “How did you begin doing this?” What was the impotence or the origin of you deciding to travel and maybe you could offer my audience a short story that describes how you became such a world traveler in the first place? And maybe even how that relates to your ability to write about that so poignantly in your books in essays.   ROLF: Sure, well I am a very American soul. I grew up in Kansas, right in the middle of the country. I always loved going on vacations when I was a kid, but I didn’t see the ocean until I left because my family travelled locally but not very much far distance travel. And I really grew up thinking that I would save all of my travels for the end of my life, I didn’t even think about it too much. This describes my travel plans as it was post-retirement. But then as I got older, there were several factors that made me realize that regardless of how you shape things out in your life as a traveler, it’s good to optimize travel now. And so I was in my early twenties when I thought this, but I’m not saying this in a way that should deter the older demographic such as your clients, but I just thought that based on a summer job in Kansas stocking shelves in a grocery store, I really didn’t like it very much. And then I realized that any ongoing work, regardless what relation it was, I didn’t really care for, was sort of what I was in for. I thought I was going to create my own alternative to the American workaholic life – I’ll take a dream trip and then I can go back to being an American workaholic. So when I was quite young, actually I was still in college, I graduated in college and I worked as a landscaper. A good blue-collar job. Saved a lot of money, got a van. Travelled around the United States for about eight months. And it’s still one of my favorite trips, and I have been to many more exotic places since then. But you can only have that first deeply meaningful trip once I guess. And I just realized that travel wasn’t as expensive as you might think it would be. It’s not as dangerous or difficult as you think it might be. Travel was something that I could accept, not just travel in the vacation sense but long-term travel, as something that I could access my whole life. And so I later went and started to run out of money. I went to Korea to teach English oversees for a couple of years. And that is something we can come back to, working oversees and teaching oversees. And that can apply to all different kinds of all ages and demographics. But I saved some more money, and two years working in Korea afforded me two and a half years of travelling around Asia full-time, and that is when I transitioned into being a travel writer. That was twenty years ago this November, nineteen years and eleven months ago that I was still in Korea doing my work. And now I have been a travel writer. That Asia and European and Middle Eastern Vagabonding trip brought home the lessons from my first Vagabonding trip. That travel doesn’t need to be super expensive, you can take your time, you don’t have to micromanage it, you can learn as you go, and it can be a really life enhancing project. And so I have sort of internalized that, it’s not like I have been travelling fulltime for the last twenty years. I alternate periods at home, I actually have a home, a home base at least, back in Kansas. As a travel writer, I am gone most of the year, probably more often than not. But I have a place to come home to. And travel has really enhanced my life and home has enhanced my travels. And it has become a, well it’s a normal way of living for me. And my book Vagabonding, which showed up on your radar, has been out for fifteen years now. And it’s been out as an audiobook for about five years now. And I’ve just had this conversation with many, many, people over the years and often times it’s just a matter of reassurance. It’s just a matter of me reassuring people that it can happen. You don’t have to be an extraordinary Indiana Jones person for this to happen. You just have to make some small adjustments to enable it to happen.   ERIK: Right, you know when you hear about how you started your travel life, it seems so unique compared to the experience to most people. And I just thought of so many questions as you were describing that. So really, in no particular order, one of them is that yes, our listeners are transitioning from this stage of accumulating wealth so that they can retire and not have to work anymore and maybe they haven’t had a chance to do that. And they may not be interested or physically able even to do a year at a time, but maybe certainly more than a week at a time. Which is where you get that buzz of sight seeing that can be a little unfulfilling as opposed to living somewhere and getting into the culture and getting to know people. One of the other associated, I think, built in limitations that people have, are that they presume they need high end accommodations. They presume they need a granite counter

 Discussion of Richard Koch's book the 80/20 principle and digging into the Pareto Principle  

Hi All! Thank you for taking the time to read Episode 2 of Mastering Monday. My name is Erik Bowman and I hope you are having a fantastic day, after all, it is the only like it you will ever experience. The primary reason we create financial plans at Bowman Financial Strategies is so you can live the life you want to live without worrying about finances.  I like to think of it as creating a predictable Income Plan and an Exciting Retirement.  So in order to provide ideas, tools, life hacks and resources to help you enjoy your Retirement (or any phase of life for that matter) keep reading! Below are areas of focus for me this week.  I’d love to know if any of these ideas inspire you and how.  Enjoy!  You can listen to the audio version by clicking here: Mastering Mondays Episode #2. SAUNA..get your heat on! Sauna.  This one is too good to keep from you any longer.  Sitting in a hot Sauna feels great but also seems to have scientifically proven health benefits.  Here are the noticeable changes I have seen.  First, after I Sauna, I just feel amazing.  I feel calm, focused, relaxed and have and experience an elevated mood.  Second, I have almost no post-workout muscle soreness since I started Sauna.  Finally, when we do sauna at night, it feels like I’ve had a glass of wine and I sleep like a baby.  If we have had a long day of work, we will sometimes go to the gym, skip the workout and just do Sauna.   As I write this, I just came back from a second sauna session of the day.  I admit I am addicted.  If I have limited time, I will pick sauna over workout at this point and we have done so many times.  This is a new lifelong habit I wish I would have started decades ago. Sauna is a cultural tradition in Finland and thus provides a perfect cohort of people to study and evaluate the benefits of heat acclimation and sauna.  For the details, click the link below to see a comprehensive Finnish Study reviewed by the Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(18)30275-1/fulltext. The study showed for example, a 62% reduction in Stroke, reduction in risk of Sudden Cardiac Death, protective effects from Nuero-Cognitive Disease, improved lung function, and 78% reduction in psychosis.  The data are so astounding it’s hard to believe Sauna isn’t used by everyone.  It seems to be gaining traction however.   Interesting note, one of the most common behaviors of provably successful people in their field……Sauna!  My wife and I started Sauna about 2 months ago and we now use the sauna 5-6 days per week directly after a workout. Most fitness centers have them.  We go to 24-hour fitness and they have a very nice, clean, dry-sauna.  The first few times we went, it was a bit of shock and our duration was only a few minutes (3-7). However, after about a week we built up a tolerance and now stay in the sauna for 20-30 minutes at roughly 185 F.   A few keys to successful sauna time; 1) bring a water bottle filled with ice and water. 2)  Build up to 15-20 minutes as that is the recommended duration the studies have shown provide measurable cardiac benefits, 3) Use flip flops.  The floor can get hot! In general, we change into a bathing suit (many stay in workout clothes) and sit on a towel on the upper bench.  Within 3-6 minutes the sweat will begin to show.   We sip ice water the entire time and have met some very interesting people during our visits.  After our allotted time of 20-30 minutes, I immediately go into the coldest shower possible.   That too was a shock the first few times. Now I just walk right into the cold water and it feels great.   It immediately cools you down and forces the blood back to your body core.   Another benefit of the cold shower is you won’t be sweating for the hour following the Sauna.   Decrease the temperature gradually if your coldwater-phobic. Reading is Fundemental Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris.  This book explores the daily habits of over 150 billionaires, icons and world class performers.  What I like is that each person is asked similar questions and you can pick our tactics that are a good fit for you.  Examining their approach to life and evaluating their habits (daily morning rituals), reading list, problem solving methods, techniques for controlling their emotional outlook and methods of communication provides some truly powerful information.  You can skip around the book looking for people, or categories (i.e Athletes) that interest you.  I have changed my entire workout routine and applied many principals learned from this book.   It’s a book you will keep on your bedside table for a long time! Photography “The interview segment” You won’t have a professional photographer with you when you at your grandchild’s birthday party or when you’re having dinner at your favorite restaurant.   Listen to my 25-minute Podcast with professional Photographer Kristine Lynn to learn tips and techniques used by the pros to take better pictures with your phone or XLR camera.   Topics include, staging a scene, lighting basics, framing a picture, and importantly convenient ways to back up your photos so you never lose a cherished memory due to space constraints on your phone. You can listen to the podcast by clicking the link:  Mastering Mondays Interview Segment 2 (time 26 minutes) Take Action If you read these pages and think, “I really should do that” or, “I will read/do/drink/experiment with that”.  Don’t wait ~Take action. “It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there will be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi Master your Monday and have a great week.  Erik

Mastering Monday’s is a podcast designed to provide you with tools to live better. Hi, I’m Erik Bowman your host and owner of Bowman Financial Strategies; Where we help you create a boring retirement plan and an exciting retirement.   Hi all I’m Erik Bowman your host and I really hope you are enjoying this day. It is after all the only one like it that you will ever experience, so welcome.   This is the inaugural podcast of Mastering Monday’s and I want to give you background on why I am creating this and what you can expect. Future Mastering Monday podcasts won’t have this prologue so bear with me for just a minute or two and then we will dive into the first Mastering Monday topics. I’ve been thinking very hard lately about ways that I can more fully serve the needs of the people, that I am grateful to be able to call my clients and friends. The primary reason we create financial plans at Bowman Financial Strategies is so that you can live the life that you want to live without worrying about finances. I like to think of it as creating a predictable or boring income plan and an exciting retirement. To this end, I am going to be sending out an email on the first Monday of the month called Mastering Monday. I will discuss various topics and obsessions of mine that revolve around living well. There will also be a podcast, you are listening to it right now, that goes into slightly more detail than the email. Target listening time should be no more than five to ten minutes at the maximum. I am also going to be creating additional content including interviews with people who have uncommon knowledge that may be very useful to you. The first interview segment, unbelievably to me, is with American author Rolf Potts. An amazing guy, world traveler, extraordinaire, and an excellent writer. You can go to bowmanfinancialstrategies.com to listen to that podcast. I highly recommend it if you ever think you will travel again, it may change the way you approach the whole idea of travel.   More about the Mastering Monday series: there are many personal and communal aspects to living well. Thoughts that come to my mind are number one being as healthy as you can be. Number two, hobbies. What is it that we do for enjoyment that don’t revolve around work. Growing by giving. Number four, spiritual satisfaction. Number five, nurturing relationships. Number six, continuous education. And number seven, goal setting and personal progress. Now this list is really just a start and I would love to hear your thoughts on living well. You can email me at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com. That’s Erik with a k, E-R-I-K, or you can post it onto Facebook at the Bowman Financial Strategies page, or simply give me a call. I’ve already been provided great ideas by my clients, friends, and readers of Mastering Monday – the first edition. So, your input is appreciated as I want to discuss ideas that you find relevant. So, let’s dig in to how you can master your Monday.   Reading is fundamental. The earliest self-help guru of all time maybe Benjamin Franklin. I’m currently listening to his autobiography. The perspective he writes from is from himself to his son as he imparts his personal history and passions in writing. A few takeaways from the book include the fact that he apparently was quite a physical rockstar. Most depictions and representations of him are of him as an older gentleman and appearing a little bit more portly. However, just as he applied ongoing learning and turned it into action in his business and relational life, he also applied it to his health and well-being, with great success I might add. He was known to be an avid and competitive swimmer and to have uncanny fortitude to pursue his business goals late into the evening and rising before everybody else to start again. He was writing and learning on a continuous basis, and his skills and focus on continuous improvement are extraordinarily motivating. Another notable trait was that he drank no alcohol. His reasons were that it saved him money, as all of his peers were drinking and spending money on the alcohol, therefore he had more money than his peers to pursue his business endeavors. He also simply wanted to have a clear head for clear thinking. Now I’m not ever going to claim that I am not going to stop all drinking, but the idea of moderation is one we should all take to heart. Since the book is written in the dialect of the day, in his own words, it may not be the easiest audio book to listen to before you go to bed. I found myself having to concentrate on it to decipher some of the old English delivery. However, after a night or two I did find that my brain became more accustom to it and I was able to actually understand it much more comfortably.   What’s in your mind? Many of the most successful people in the world share certain behaviors, and one of them is silent time meditation or praying. Depending on your world view, choose the one that is right for you. If Tony Robins, the Dahli Lama, Steve Jobs, and Oprah can find time to do it, it may be worth investigating. The most common idea or thought the around this silent time, the way to do it would be to sit or lie down, eyes closed, breathing smoothly, and dwelling on a couple different things. The first one is to think about what you are grateful for. The second is to visualize a successful day. And the third, commit to making someone happy. When I think about these, to unpack them just a little bit, when you think about what you are grateful for I think it puts you in the mindset to realize that the things you are grateful for have to do with what others have done for you. The environment that you are lucky enough to be in. The things that help you enjoy your life, and when you focus on those things, it’s pretty hard to start your day on the wrong foot. And second, visualizing a successful day - I specifically recommend that as you do this, you not only visualize a successful day in general, but specifically, what are the one or two things that you must get done this day to have a successful day? And when it comes to actually taking action on those items, trying to get those done the very first thing before you do anything else. And the third, trying to make somebody happy. I think that you need to think specifically about a person, whether - the other day I thought very hard about my son Jacob who is eleven years old, and not that he was going through any particular hard time, but he just really came into my mind and I thought to myself - I pictured him with a smile on his face. What could I do to help his day be happier? And it made me happy to think about that and certainly my direction for the day was guided by that thought. I recommend doing this for just five minutes, maybe ten minutes, before you start your day and I think it can change your life. If you find that it is hard to find five minutes to do this, then you might need this more than you think. You should also do this, very important, before you open up any email, before you look at your phone, before you look at Facebook, before you read the news, do not let any of that information and noise interrupt your ability to think about those three topics. Controlling the first ten minutes of your day is a great way to set a good rhythm for the rest of your day. Now a way you can facilitate this - you can consider using a free app from Kevin Rose called Oak Mediation. You can find it on the app store, although there are a lot of apps with the word oak in it, so it is hard to find there. But you can go to www.oakmeditation.com. The app is very simple to use, provides guided breathing exercises and sleep programs. During the sleep program component, you can choose different types of sounds to help you get to sleep, to play in the background on a timer. So that is really what I like most about it. My wife and I use a Bluetooth speaker and put it on the bedside table. We like the sound of a soft rain or crackling fire in the background and we have found that it really does help us get to sleep. It gives you something else to focus on other than all those crazy thoughts that may be bouncing around inside your head. And it really does seem to help us sleep better as well.   Food for thought. Well, as I just spoke about, I believe that managing alcohol intake is actually very important. And with my focus in general on trying to manage what goes into my gut, I am sticking primarily to red wine. There will always be exceptions, I’m not claiming I’m never going to have a beer, or whiskey, or vodka again, however as a general rule I do try and stay away from those going forward. And I have a glass of red wine maybe once a night or once every other night, and I just thought I would let you know of a red wine that I particularly like and I like it for a couple of reasons. First, the red wine’s name is Hot To Trot red blend and it is by 14 Hands Winery. You can find it at almost any liquor store, the bottle costs around $7.99 so it’s definitely on the inexpensive side. I’ve been drinking the red blend since my mother-in-law recommended it to me over six years ago, so I want to thank my mom, she is my mother-in-law but I do call her mom. I want to thank her for that recommendation because we still drink it to this day. I like it because it’s smooth, it doesn’t have a strong bite, I haven’t found anybody to have a glass when they come over for dinner to our house who hasn’t said that they’ve enjoyed it. And the price just doesn’t change. It has been six years and the price is still $7.99. Sometimes it is $8.99, but it seems to bounce around within that one-dollar range. So very smooth, very drinkable, and their other wines are really good too. The chardonnay is fantastic.   Well, that does it for the inaugural podcast of Mastering Monday’s. I hope you enjoyed it and got something useful out of it. If you have any ideas, please feel free to email me or give me a call and I w