- And good evening.

You've got More Than Money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial advisor.

Happy to be with you this evening.

Happy to be of service.

If you're a loyal viewer, you know exactly how this works.

We take lots of your emails that you've sent to us, and we craft a show around you.

So, whether you've got interest in retirement, investments, real estate, perhaps, stocks and bonds, income tax issues, Roth conversions 4001k Plans, estate planning questions, who should be your executor?

Who should be your trustee?

Who should be the guardian of your children?

Or maybe it's a business question.

You've come to exactly the right spot, and we're happy to serve you.

The way you do that, you send us your emails to Gene@AskMTM.com We answer every single email back to you, every single email, even the silly ones.

We answer right back to you.

Not all of your questions can end up on our show.

Of course, we simply don't have enough time.

But every single question comes back to you.

So, allow us to serve you.

Allow us to be your financial resource when you have questions, concerns, observations that need to be addressed or any other...

It's called More Than Money for a reason.

Anything that comes up in your life that you're concerned about, send it along.

We'll be happy to help.

As we do in many of our shows, we have a very special guest for us this evening.

We're also going to answer a bunch of your questions.

So, we've got guys, a bit of a hybrid show for you.

Isn't that very 21st century?

To have hybrid television shows, where we're mixing and matching all the things that you have said that you like the most, hearing from very interesting people and hearing the questions that are being offered up by your friends and family.

So, let's go to our financial correspondent, the ever-talented Miss Megan, and see what's our first question for the evening.

- Hi, Gene.

Our first question says, "I plan to start Social Security soon.

"My CPA says I need to pay tax on 85% of my benefit "at a rate of 24%.

"I'm wondering, how do I make sure the deduction is "taken out each month?

Thank you for your help."

- Oh, excellent question.

And for somebody who's just now entering retirement, pretty reasonable question to have.

If you've been in retirement, you'll go, "Please, that's so simple.

That's such an easy question."

That's because you're a couple of years down the road ahead of this individual.

So, as a new recipient of Social Security, you need to be comfortable knowing you can have taxes withheld from your Social Security benefit check.

So, with a little bit of financial calculation, either done by your CPA or your financial advisor, or, if you're comfortable, yourself, you'll look at 24% of 85%, figure out what that percentage is of your overall.

We'll give you a quick example.

If you're base benefit's $3,000, 85% of that would be about $2,700.

That's how much is taxable.

And you apply 24% to that 2,700 tax, you're going to pay about $700 a month in tax.

You can instruct Social Security, to withhold that from your check, and you'll be just fine.

By the way, you can adjust that year by year as your tax situation might change.

Good question.

Gene@AskMTM.com is where the next email came.

Megs, what do you got?

- Our next email says, "My husband and I are 79 years old.

"We have a will but think we may need a trust.

"We own a home for 54 years in Pennsylvania, "and also a condo in Florida, where we are now residents.

"We have two children, so we plan to split it equally.

"Do we need an attorney from Florida, or can it be "from Pennsylvania, or does it even matter?"

- It matters.

It matters a lot.

There are no universal estate planning regulations, rules, laws, regulations.

So, you are a resident of Florida.

You need a set of documents drafted by someone in Florida, admitted to the bar in Florida.

Perhaps somebody in in your hometown in Pennsylvania is dually licensed, but not likely.

So get a good recommendation for an attorney in Florida, and that's where you'll have your new will drafted.

I'm sure it'll go fine.

Gene@AskMTM.com is where the next question came from.

Megs?

- Our next question said, "I need help with a small amount of cash, 250,000.

"My wife and I are both collecting Social Security, "and I have a city pension.

"I'm wondering, should we pay off our mortgage?

"The balance is about 130,000."

- I want to be where you are, where 250,000 is a small amount of money.

That's a pretty glorious place to be.

The reality is, that's a lot of money.

You've got to think very carefully through your options.

Certainly paying off your mortgage is one option, but it's not your only option.

You could certainly invest your 250,000.

Use some of the profits from that block of money to make your mortgage payments, and keep the rest.

That way, you're paying your mortgage off over time, hopefully at a very nice interest rate.

Up until just the last year or two, a lot of mortgage rates were fantastic.

And if you could invest your money and make, no guarantees, but make 5%, and your mortgage is 2.5%, goodness, you're making 2.5% net, even after paying your mortgage.

And if you're getting a tax deduction for your mortgage, even better, more profitable for you.

So make sure you understand your financial situation.

Consult with your tax professional, or your financial professional, as well.

Look at the options.

Invest and pay the mortgage.

Take the cash and pay the mortgage.

I'm a big fan of paying off mortgages when it fits, and any other options that may come to bear before you make your decision.

Good question.

Speaking of good questions, now it's on me, because I have to ask good questions of our guest.

We want to welcome to our studio a young lady who's been active in business for a few years, and I think will give you some insights into what it takes to get from point A to point B and live to tell the tale.

Faith Sarisky.

Faith, welcome.

- Hi.

- Thanks for being here.

- Thank you for inviting me.

- Oh, our pleasure.

We have a wonderful opportunity here to share some of what you've experienced, and see if we can help some other folks, as well.

- Okay.

- The folks who know you best, how would they describe Faith and what she does?

- I think they would describe me as a hard worker.

Fun.

I think I like to have a lot of fun.

I think I have a reasonable personality, and I'm a real estate broker for most of my adult life.

- Goodness.

So real estate broker, you own your own company.

- So, for folks out there who are not familiar with the operation of the industry, there are real estate agents.

And then, there are folks who own companies.

And you can employ real estate agents.

- Yes, exactly.

- And do you employ folks?

- Yes, I do.

- How many do you have?

- I think currently, I have ten agents.

- Which is a substantial company.

- Yes, one of which being my son.

- Oh, fantastic.

Multi-generations, even better.

How did you get into real estate?

- Well, back in the day, I went to secretarial school.

I tried this job, tried that job, I tried...

I tried about 18 jobs.

- Oh, my goodness.

- It did not go well.

I realized at a young age that I was not a 9-to-5 gal.

I really didn't want to work for somebody.

I wanted to have children.

I wanted to have the flexibility to be with my kids, and not have to put them in daycare all day.

So, I decided to get a real estate license and give it a try.

- That was pretty fortuitous for you, that obviously has, in hindsight, which is 20/20, that worked out really well.

Now, you talked about 18 jobs.

Really, 18?

- Yeah, I counted them one time.

- Oh, my goodness!

- I mean, and that went back to working at Thrift Drug, and I was a chambermaid for a little while, when I was very young, I worked for my dad's business.

Many, many jobs.

- Being a business owner has its challenges.

There's no question.

Advantages, of course, because you can have a family, you got a lot of flexibility, but challenges.

Now, you mentioned your dad's business.

What type of business was he in?

- So my family business, they were tailors from Italy.

And my grandfather came to Newark, New Jersey.

He had a tailor shop.

He made custom uniforms for police and firemen.

My father moved to Hope, New Jersey.

Him and my uncle continued the business.

So, I come from that kind of a background, and I think... - A business background?

- Yeah, a business background.

So the leap from "I can't do 9-to-5" to "I can be a businessperson."

You already had some... What, advantage, in that you've seen it, you saw how it worked.

- Yeah, definitely helped.

- My associate, Alyssa Young, will be very jealous.

She just got back from Sicily.

So, the Italian background and all that put together will be of great interest to her.

- Was there talk around the dinner table about running the business?

Did your dad talk about that?

- The family business?

Yeah, of course, he wanted my brothers to take it over and talked about me taking it over, but they ended up retiring and selling the business.

And it's still alive and well in Rosetta, Pennsylvania.

- Which is a wonderful little town.

- Yeah, a wonderful little town.

And I decided to become a real estate agent.

- When you heard the talk around the dinner table about running a business, what were their lessons that they tried to share?

Or was it just, "This is normal"?

- Well, my dad would say, you know, "I don't care what you do, just stick with it."

Because of my 18 jobs, you know, he would say, "just find something you like and stick with it."

And, you know, just put your nose to the grindstone, and it will pay off.

And that would be the words of advice that I think helped me the most.

I didn't really see myself in the garment industry, so to speak, but, you know, I kind of like marketing and advertising.

I did a lot of that in the past, and real estate fit nicely into that.

- So, from a, goodness, flexibility standpoint, being able to raise a family and run a business, anyone out there that's even attempted to do that knows those are two full-time jobs.

- Absolutely.

- How did you do that?

- You know, real estate never stops.

I don't want to say it's 24/7, but you have especially now, with the phone you have a phone on you constantly ringing.

But, you know, you can still take your kids to the park and answer a question.

You could still go on vacation and help customers.

You know, especially now that I have agents working for me, I have other arms that can assist me in doing the things that I need to do.

So it's worked out nicely for me, it's been a nice business.

- Tell us about your children.

- Well, I have two children.

I have Michael, he's 27.

He's a broker also.

He's got a license in New Jersey.

And he works for me as an agent, very successful, doing very well.

He just bought his first five-unit investment property.

- Wow, congratulations to Michael.

- Yeah, and my daughter, Rachel.

She's 24.

She's going to be 24.

She has her bachelor's in communications, and she just got a job at CIT, in Forks.

- Fantastic, so you've got to be very, very proud.

- Very proud, they're both well on their way.

- In the interest of full disclosure, one of my first ventures as an investor was buying rental properties.

I bought my first three-unit when I was 19.

And eventually got to 65 units.

- Oh, wow.

- That was crazy.

- It's a lot.

- Unbelievably crazy.

I was young.

I was foolish.

We make mistakes.

Real estate can be a tremendous investment.

It's a lot of work.

It's a business.

For a lot of folks who say, "Hey, I'll dabble," please don't.

Please don't, really... - There's more to it than people realize - When you were raising your family, your children, big part of your life, of course.

Did you learn lessons from them along the way, as you were raising them?

Obviously, the results have been fantastic.

But what could you share with our audience about being a mom and running a business, and how that relationship with your kids actually works out?

- Well, I think the kids actually grounded me.

I think, left on my own, I would be a workaholic to an extreme.

I think that's part of my makeup.

So the kids grounded me.

I have to step back sometimes and say, "No, it's about them," whether it's taking them to the park when they were little or, you know, helping my daughter with some college stuff, or even listening to my son when he has real estate questions, because that's constant.

- Of course.

- Yeah.

Yeah, so...

But there's more to life than just work.

- Does that philosophy carry over with your interactions with your employees?

- I think so.

I mean, we try to do fun things.

I've learned that you have to be fair.

You have to, you know, again, my personality is just sort of to bulldoze through stuff and work.

But I have to remember that these are human beings and that I have to treat them fairly and have fun once in a while, you know, and not just make it business, business, business, you know, understand what's going on in their lives and what they have going on.

- So, if they're on their way to the office, you want them to have a smile on their face because they're going someplace that it's a pleasure to be, and it's a pleasure to work?

- Right.

- Now, it's an unfair question to ask, because you've shared that Michael is one of your employees.

Have there been any lessons you've picked up from your employees along the way that you think, "Wow, that was valuable."

"I'm glad that they're part of our team"?

- I think just paying attention to them and hearing what they have to say.

I think initially, when I was first a broker, I was maybe self-centered and just doing what I thought without taking them into consideration.

So, I definitely try to know what's going on in their lives, and even picking up tips of things that they're doing a little differently, or listening when one of the agents says, "Hey, why don't we try this in advertising?

"Why don't we try that?"

To say, you know, "Maybe there's some validity to that.

"Let me try it that way."

You know, let's put our heads together and come up with some ideas for the business.

- Real estate has been on a tear, white-hot now for years.

Sadly, interest rates have started to creep up.

Has that started to impact your business at this point?

- Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely, we see a difference.

I wouldn't say a slowdown, but it doesn't seem to be such a frenzy.

Buyers are stepping back and thinking about it, doing inspections, just some more of the normal things that they didn't even have a chance to think about, you know, just a frenzy... - Make an offer and it has to be countered, and countered, and countered all within an hour, right?

Yeah.

It's hard to think clearly.

But now things have slowed down a bit.

Are you predominantly residential?

Are you predominantly investment, or a combination?

- Predominantly residential.

But I've done a lot of investment in my career.

I own my own investment properties, a lot of commercial, so a little bit of everything, but mostly residential, of course.

- There are women out there right now thinking, "Oh, I think I could do that."

What advice would you give to a young woman who's saying, "I think I could own my own business"?

What couple of lessons maybe you've picked up along the way that you would say, as a young person, "Make sure you remember," what?

- Make sure you remember to keep it in balance.

Of course, your family and your friends, and your business, but you definitely have to put 100% into it.

It doesn't come easy.

I mean, every spare moment of my life to this day is, "What can I do to make it better?"

- Fantastic.

- "Who should I call?"

- I know that you're very committed to your community.

You've been very, very active.

There is a program called Beautify Bangor.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- Beautify Bangor was a suggestion from the Chamber of Commerce.

They came to the brokers in the area and said, "What can we do to clean up these storefronts?"

There were a lot of vacant storefronts.

It didn't look great when you drove into town, kind of blighted.

And I just got this crazy idea to get my kids downtown to paint probably the worst looking building in Bangor.

And we painted it, and the mayor said to me, "Hey, how about we do a mural?"

And we reached out to the artist and she did a mural, and I put my sign on there, "Compliments of Realty Solutions."

And I thought, "Wow, that's a good idea.

"I'll call everybody I know, every building in town, "and we're going to start painting this town."

And I had read a book during COVID, this all happened around COVID, and I can't remember the name of the book, but it talked about a town in Germany right after World War Two that had been blown up.

And it was terrible, depressing, gray.

And the mayor got an idea to paint one of the buildings orange.

And from there, the town improved.

It started to get color, there started to become life.

And it just stuck in my mind, if we just paint...

If we just paint and clean up, it will make a difference.

- Of course it does.

Many folks, particularly where we live, easy access to New York City, remember that for many years, there were parts of New York you simply didn't go to.

You would never ride the subway.

And Rudy Giuliani, during his tenure as mayor, decided one of the first things he would do, clean up the subways.

- Wow.

- Every single subway car was cleaned, painted fresh, no graffiti, if it was graffiti it was immediately cleaned.

It changed the attitude of the people riding the subway.

They took better care of it, and it seemed to snowball throughout the health of the city.

So, we're on our way with Beautify Bangor.

How many do we have?

How many buildings have been...?

- I think we have 45 murals.

- Oh, my goodness!

- Yes, in about a two-year period.

- That's incredible.

- It is incredible.

- The excitement has to be tangible.

- It's just unbelievable.

I never imagined that it would snowball into such a massive project.

- And we'll make sure we get some pictures for the show, as well, so folks can appreciate exactly the impact that you're having there.

- Yes.

- Bangor is a historic town.

Rosetta is a historic town.

- Quality of life, they're fantastic.

So, anything that you can do to imbue... "Beautify" is a great word, but that lift... - Right, yes.

- That attitude is fantastic.

- And I will say that there was some thought in the beginning that, you know, it would be vandalized, that people would graffiti - nothing.

Everybody's been beautifully respected, the kids in the neighborhood, the teenagers would help me carry ladders, help me move scaffolding.

It's just really been nothing but positive.

- That's fantastic.

Well, congratulations.

- Thank you.

- And to everybody that's part of that whole process.

Congratulations.

Faith Sarisky.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- We'll going to turn our attention back to the mailbag, and make sure that Megan keeps me on track, make sure that I'm answering your questions.

A hybrid show, something great fun.

Megs, what's our next question?

- Hi, Gene.

Our next question says, "I will soon start collecting Social Security and RMDs "from other accounts. "

My questions are, may I have my federal income taxes "withheld up front, so to speak, "from each monthly payout?

"And second, do I base my withholding on my IRS tax rate, "12%, or my tax bracket, 25%?

"Thank you so much for all you do to help us."

- Well, you're very welcome.

And thank you for sharing your question with us.

Because your question is many people's questions.

There is a very real difference between the rate of taxation that you're paying and your tax bracket.

And in this case, it's radically different.

A tax bracket, 20% plus, but the rate of taxation is 12%.

So, if you're setting up your withholding to make sure that you're covered, make sure that the IRS is totally disinterested in you, come tax time, you will set it up on the rate that you are paying, that 12%.

That will be the effective tax rate for you.

Tax brackets are marginal.

It's what would you pay on the next dollar of income that you have.

But the effective rate is your tax divided by your income, just as you've set it up.

So, make sure that your RMDs have taxes withheld.

If you're a resident of the state of Pennsylvania, I have some good news for you.

State of Pennsylvania does not tax distributions from retirement plans, IRAs, profit shares, 401ks, etc.

So you'll have federal tax withheld, but you won't need to have Pennsylvania tax withheld.

Isn't that a good thing?

Social Security, as we talked about earlier in the show, you can instruct them to have taxes withheld, as well.

And that should work out really, really well for you.

If you can avoid, it's not dreadful, but if you can avoid the requirement of quarterly estimated payments, it will simply simplify your life.

"Simply simplify."

You knew what I meant.

It will significantly simplify your life because it's one more thing you don't have to worry about every three months.

And of course, then there are the overlaps where one quarterly payment's due the same time as your tax return.

So, make sure that you do exactly as we described.

I think you'll be in very, very good shape indeed.

Megan, next up on the list is...?

- Our next question says, "My wife has her own adviser "to help her with money she inherited three years ago.

"She recently asked me to take a look and give her my opinion.

"The thing that bothered me is he has her in bonds with "over half of her money.

"I've heard you talk about the problems with bonds right now.

"My wife said this is the way it's been since "she opened her accounts, there's been no changes.

"She is 55 and is looking at this money for her retirement.

"I'm wondering how often should an advisor be making changes?

"Thank you."

- Well, I can assure you that you're wondering even more than how often should advisors be making changes.

Because there's so much to unpack here that causes me concern.

I'm sure you're having similar, or even greater concerns, as well.

No changes in three years might be appropriate, but not in this case.

No changes in three years, if you're 35 years old and you're investing for the long-term, long-term, 10-30 years, if you've had no changes in three years other than the standard reviews, hey, everything seems to be on track, that doesn't surprise me significantly.

If you're 55 years old and you've been invested half in bonds for three years, that concerns me.

Not because of the age, not because of the time frame, but because the bond portion itself has struggled so dramatically that any financial advisor that has simply walked away from their fiduciary responsibility to do what's in the best interest of their client, this is a significant problem.

A significant problem, one that would cause me to raise my hand and say, in all likelihood, 90% plus likelihood, not the right financial advisor for you.

Wrong investments held for too long without changes, little or no communication.

This just doesn't seem to fit.

Which leads me to the other reason my spidey sense is heightened.

55 years old now.

When she was 52 years old, he put half of her money in bonds.

This is money intended for retirement.

What was the thought process that said, "I think half the money in bonds would be a really great "idea for what for her is likely at that point "a 12-18-year time horizon."

Most, if not 100% of that money should have been in growth investments, stock, real estate, alternative assets, commodities, things that grow, not things that hold you to the ground, not anchors that hold you back, during the three years that she's been invested, at least a year-and-a-half of that, perhaps even two, the markets were up dramatically.

And she got nearly half, maybe not quite half, of the return that she should have gotten.

So in answer to your question, "How often should advisors make changes?"

That's up in the air.

What isn't is how often should those accounts be reviewed?

In the More Than Money world, we recommend every 90 days.

Every 90 days, you should have an investment advisor conversation to at least review, "Where were we?

"Where are we?

"Should we make any changes," and answer any questions that might pop up about non-investment issues, as well.

So, every 90 days, I think, is a good structure, a good system, a good framework that you can follow to make sure that you're on top of things, how often you make changes as a function of what's appropriate for you.

And in this case, I think from the get go, it wasn't set up correctly, hasn't been adjusted.

I think it's time for you to look for another advisor.

Folks, thanks for spending part of your evening with us.

We just have a minute or so left in this edition of More Than Money.

So it gives me just enough time to, number one, thank Faith Sarisky for being our guest.

And hopefully, you picked up a lot of ideas that either give you some comfort in your adventures as an entrepreneur, or maybe even encourage you to take that step out and be your own boss, build your own business.

That could be exciting, as well.

And of course, we invite you to be part of the More Than Money family.

Have your questions be part of, if not the heart of a show that will come up in the future.

And so, send those to me on any financial topic, Gene@ AskMTM.com.

Works very, very well.

Investments, income taxes, estate planning, business, if it's got a dollar sign and you've got a concern, you'll send those to us, and we'll make sure we answer every single one back to you.

Again, thank you so very much for spending part of your evening with us.

We hope you learned enough.

We hope you were entertained enough to return next week when we come back with another edition of More Than Money.

Goodnight.