Coasting In Retirement with Josh Null

Regular listeners know that I tend to be skeptical of a lot of things related to my own industry, financial services, including a lot financial advertisements and glossy marketing content masquerading as responsible financial advice, as Michelle knows firsthand, I get very, very irritated when I hear someone in my line of work espouse a bunch of info that is nothing more than lies. And in times of market turbulence, this type of misinformation gets shouted from the roof tops. So with that in mind, we’re going to play a little game of “Just Stop It”, kind of like true or false, except, everything Michelle is going to say is false, and I’m going to try to smack some sense into those of you listening that are considering these financial tactics. 

We are recording this episode on Thursday, April 10th, less than 24 hours removed from the largest single day rise in the stock market valuation, right smack dab back into another 2-3% trading dip. The word “historical” gets way overused, but in the case, it’s not hyperbole to say that we are experiencing truly historical levels of volatility, eclipsing even the crazy ups and downs we saw at the beginning of the Covid crisis. And for a radio show based on top-of-mind topics for investors in or near retirement, or any investor of any age I would say, I think it goes without saying that tariffs and resulting stock market volatility is certainly on the minds of most of you tuning in. Last episode we discussed the reasons for this volatility, this episode we’re going to talk about what to do about it, particularly you investors that may not have the stomach for this roller coaster.

Special guest John Luke Tyner of Aptus Capital Advisors joins Josh Null for an EMERGENCY broadcast to discuss the recent tariffs announced by President Trump and their immediate effects on the stock market.

Lest time JD and I were together in studio, the stock market was on a tear, we both agreed it was reacting very positively to the then recent election of Donald Trump, and all indications were that investors were headed for blue skies after experiencing so much volatility. But…a lot has changed since then! Instead of smooth sailing, we’ve had increased volatility as the markets react to President’s Trump’s various tariff pronouncements, along with stubborn inflation numbers and uncertain geopolitical situations. So what I want to discuss today with you is a little deeper dive into why the market is experiencing all of these up and down gyrations, but more importantly, what investors can do about it. Can investors do anything with their investment portfolios other than just hang tight? That is a question that JD and I will attempt to answer today.

The question we’re going to tackle today is both a timely one and a timeless one: how concerned should investors be with investing their money into tax-deferred accounts or products, versus what are the pros and cons of investing in after tax accounts? Should investors be leaning fully into what is technically called qualified retirement accounts, or is this a good time to look at beefing up their after-tax accounts, or, maybe even considering a Roth conversion? Our financial services industry has historical operated under the assumption that tax rates are going to go up in the future, but my question to you Jay is…are we so sure? I seem to recall some recent chatter about abolishing income taxes totally, right? Today we hope to both explain the different options available to investors and give our educated opinion on how to maximize the impact of them.

Most workers get paid in a couple of basic ways, maybe salary as a W2 employee like Michelle, maybe hourly or on commission as a 1099 subcontractor. Now, you would think my profession, financial planning and financial advising, would be the same, right? Well listeners, I’m here to tell you that it’s not, that the various advisors and agents and reps and planners in my line of work get paid in all kinds of ways, and knowing how your financial advisor is getting compensated is way more important than you probably realized. In fact, you can almost pre-determine the type of financial advice you’re going to get if you know how the advisor is paid before you meet them. Unfortunately, these various pay structures can produce all kinds of conflicts of interest, and if your advisor has the wrong set of conflicts for your particular situation, it can have devastating effects on your investment portfolio. What we are going to be talking about today is the eat-what-you-kill side of our business, where a regular paycheck is never a guarantee, especially when you’re new to the business. And we’re also going to disclose how we get paid at Gulf Coast Financial Advisors, including doing my best to explain any conflicts of interest we have, because we all have them.  

I think that most small business owners would agree that the idea of passing on their business to the next generation or selling it to a trusted partner can be both exciting and daunting. A well-thought-out succession plan ensures that your business continues to thrive without you at the helm, and it's something you should start thinking about sooner rather than later. So Jay, I am going to lay out some of the most common ways to pass on business to the next generation, and discuss much more on this week's episode of Coasting in Retirement.

On this week's episode of Coasting In Retirement, Josh discusses how, unfortunately, fear selling is used in his line of work. And more often than not, it’s fear-based selling intended to invoke a certain apprehension about the stock market in order to sell an insurance product. This episode is going to answer the question of how would selling the fear of the stock market help someone sell an insurance product. And in the process hopefully help you overcome your fear of stock market investing so that you aren’t leaving thousands of dollars of potential gains on the table and being steered into products that often benefit the insurance company and the selling agent more than you.

Today each of your hosts – Josh, Jay and Pedro, are going to talk about what we each learned in 2024, what we each think 2025 has in store for us. We intend to lean into with yet another opportunity ahead of us to intentionally shape our lives and the lives of those close to us. Do we have any regrets from this past year? Of course, and with this being an open and honest show, we’ll share some of them. Do we have concerns about the state of the world? I mean, as we record this, parts of California are literally on fire, our New Orleans family endured a terrible tragedy, there are so many things in the world to worry about. But part of my argument will be that in the history of mankind, there’s never been a better time to be alive than right now.

As part of the comprehensive financial planning services we offer at Gulf Coast Financial Advisors, one of the most important segments of our client’s life we want to help get buttoned up is their estate planning needs. Now given that we are not attorneys ourselves, just financial advisors, to accomplish this we reach out to our preferred attorney partners, with Jennifer King's firm being at the top of the list. While Jennifer and her husband Dusty handle a multitude of legal services, what I wanted to focus on today were the 3-4 most common questions I often get from new clients.