Plan With The Tax Man Tony Mauro

Psychologists have determined that retirement is one of the most stressful events that some people will experience in life. In this episode, we’ll look at the ways to proactively deal with the stress surrounding the retirement process.
 
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
 
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Transcript: 
Marc Killian:
Psychologists have determined that retirement is one of the most stressful events that some people will experience in life. On this episode, we'll look at the ways to proactively deal with the stress surrounding the retirement process here on Plan With The Tax Man.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Tony Mauro and myself here to talk about steering clear of retirement stress here on this episode with Tony. We're going to see if we can help you guys figure out a couple of key places hopefully to help reduce some of that stress.
Tony, what's going on my friend? How are you?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, I'm doing good. We were just talking before we came on, it's actually cold and snowy here today. Of course, we're still in the tax season, so bad weather has not quite left us.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. It's trying. Spring is trying to completely pop up.
Tony Mauro:
Trying, yeah. We've had good weather, so I can't complain.
Marc Killian:
You guys were just warm not too long ago at the time we're taping this too.
Tony Mauro:
We were, yeah.
Marc Killian:
It's been all around the map. Yeah, for sure.
Well, but you know what? It can be a little stressful though, if we want to tie that into our conversation, Tony, right? So it's like, "Oh, good days, good days. Oh, bad days." And then it's like, "Man, I just really want some good days." You get a little stressed kind of waiting for it hopefully to show up and stay around.
So let's kind of transition that into some of this retirement stress that we were talking about and that I was teeing up, and kick it off with just understanding the fact that this is a significant gear change. I mean, often we get so focused on the X's and O's of, is my money good, Tony, for retirement, that we kind of forget about some of the little things like, "Oh yeah, my whole life is about to change."
Tony Mauro:
It is. And we've been conditioned to work our whole lives. And at least the people I see are not used to it and sometimes have a trouble adjusting outside of all the money stuff. I mean, that's part of it that causes them stress.
But we're so used to, at least in America I think, compared to other countries, we're always stressed. We're always running to the next thing and work life, personal life. I mean, you name it. You talk to people and they're stressed out.
Retirement's supposed to be, let's move away from that a little bit. So these are just going to be some good topics to talk about today.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. And so if you're thinking about that gear change, I mean, first and foremost, yeah, it's great because you're no longer on the clock, but there's still some stress that comes with it.
Tony Mauro:
There is. I mean, even though for most of the retirees, you're not working, there still is... I think the first thing that hits my clients is, "Now I have no purpose." And they get stressed out about that right off the bat.
And then little things start creeping in, such as anything from grandkids and things like that, to if they pick up a part-time job, being able to make sure they make that. Just to the normal everyday life things. What I think we need to do really is sit down and plan our days a little bit, just like we were when we were working, to alleviate some of that stress, and make sure that you understand that you still do have a purpose and you are still going out and doing things, even if you're not working,
Marc Killian:
Right. Because I mean, on the one hand you go, "Yeah, no clock, no meetings, no annoying coworkers, this all sounds fantastic." But sometimes humans don't do that great with change. And then you start kind of stre

Unpack the toolbox of technology that's promising to redefine retirement planning, but does it deliver? This episode takes a critical look at the wave of innovations, from personal finance management software to online calculators, and questions whether they truly simplify the planning process or introduce new complexities
 
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
 
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Transcript: 
 
Marc Killian  00:01
Let's unpack the tool box of technology that's promising to redefine retirement planning. But does it actually deliver? So on this episode of playing with the tax man will take a critical look at the wave of innovations, from personal finance management software, to online calculators and more. Stick around for this episode playing with a text.
 
00:22
Look up in the sky. It's a bird.
 
Announcer 2  00:24
It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero. But Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.
 
Marc Killian  00:38
Hey, gang, what's going on this week here, Tony Morrow and I back once again to talk investing finance and retirement. And Tony is going to help us talk about you know, technology, is it and how is it redefining retirement planning? What are some pros and cons of various different things we'll run through and how does he feel about it as a seasoned professional, a CPA, a CFP and an EA of 30 plus years? What does he think of all this tech and the things that he's seen through his many years of helping folks to and through retirement? So that's on the docket? We're gonna get into it with Tony this week. What's going on? Brother? How are you?
 
Tony Mauro  01:10
I'm fantastic. Looking forward to talking tech. I love tech.
 
Marc Killian  01:14
Yeah. Big tech guy.
 
Tony Mauro  01:16
I'm a big tech guy. Okay, sometimes to my own detriment.
 
Marc Killian  01:19
Aren't we all?
 
Tony Mauro  01:20
Yeah,
 
Marc Killian  01:21
that is certainly the case. Well, you know, like I said, You've been doing this a long time, Tony. So you've certainly we've seen this tech boom. And I'm not trying to make you sound old, by the way. Because I know you're not, but you just been doing this a long time. And there's been a obviously a huge boom, in various different things in the last 20 years, from a tech standpoint. So it should be an interesting conversation to have, because many of your clients and the folks that check out our podcasts and things, they are 50 over, I'm 52, right, we're starting to get older, and I'm pretty tech savvy as well. But you know, you have friends that are the same age or maybe a few years older, and you can see that some people just aren't as up with it or something, you're think you're tech savvy, then something even newer comes out. And you're like, Man, I'm I'm so tired of this stuff. I don't want to learn one more new thing, right? So it can be daunting. So let's, let's talk about a few here. Let's start with the simple big elephant, 800 pound, gorilla, whatever you want to call it. In the room, which is Google, everybody, Google something at some point, and it has certainly altered how we look up information, what's your take on it from the financial standpoint, or
 
Tony Mauro  02:27
from the financial standpoint, I think it can be good, you know, and I'll try to do goods and Bad's of of each of these that we hit. But you know, obviously, the ease of it is you can get a lot of financial questions possibly answered. Very quickly, you have many, many choices. Many people obviously, don't scroll down very far. They take about the first two or three and take that as gospel. And I think that's where sometimes it could get you into trouble a little bit on the financial side is is what you're reading from somebody what I would consider authoritative. In other words, somebody that you know, really knows what they're talkin

As much as any other threat, recognizing and avoiding scams has become a necessary skill for today’s retirees to develop. Join us as we explore crucial steps you can take to safeguard your financial well-being against the growing tide of scams and identity theft. Learn from real-life stories and gain practical advice to keep your finances secure in this digital era, all from the perspective of a seasoned financial professional.
 
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
 
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Transcript: 
Marc Killian  00:01
As much as any other threat recognizing and avoiding scams has become a necessary skill for today's retirees to develop. Join us this week on plan with the tax man as we explore some crucial steps to hopefully safeguard your financial well being against the growing tide of scams and identity theft. Look up in the sky. It's a bird.
 
Announcer 2  00:21
It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero, but Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.
 
Marc Killian  00:36
Hey, everybody, welcome into the podcast. It's playing with a tax man with Tony Morrow and myself here to talk about your financial fortress, practical strategies for retirees against scams and fraud. And for this month of March, I think Tony and I are going to kind of stay with tech as our theme. We're going to talk about some scams and stuff. This week, we're going to talk about some other technological, you know, retirement planning things on our next episode. So we're gonna kind of use that as our theme this month in March. What's going on my friend, how are you?
 
Tony Mauro  01:03
I'm doing well. How
 
Marc Killian  01:04
about you hanging in there? You and I were talking offline, as we got started that it's just you know, it's March already. And
 
Tony Mauro  01:10
we're busy, busy, busy, busy. And I thought these two topics that we're going to talk about in these next couple episodes be? Yeah, like I said, very, very timely, it's tax season. There's
 
Marc Killian  01:19
all kinds of things going on. Yes, sir. You're hear a lot from clients. So yeah, looking forward to sending information back and forth doing this, you know, the scammers they love to come out in force at different times of the year, certainly around Christmas, right. That's a good one springtime tax time, right? They tend to kind of come out there, oh, you, you know you, your tax bill is this or, you know, you owe this and use your tax, you know, return to pay for it, all these kinds of things. Right? always something going on. So let's jump in and talk about a few things. And, you know, I got this first a little news example here, Tony, that I wanted you to kind of listen to this and check this out. And then tell me things that you've seen similarly or heard, you know, within your own practice, right. So there was this news example, little synopsis here is the lady named Marjorie 77 years old, lost $660,000 to a Tech Support Scam, where the fraudsters posed as bank officials and somehow convinced her to wire her funds into crypto to protect her money from suppose a theft. Well, of course, they stole their money. Americans over 60 lost $3 billion last year in cyber fraud crazy, absolutely
 
Tony Mauro  02:30
crazy. It really is. And I think to elaborate on it, you know, most of the time the seniors tend to be the bigger targets but it can happen to anybody. And with all this tech going on and really sitting behind computers and phones all day it comes at us and you know we were just talking about how busy we are and sometimes you you're busy and you're not paying attention and you just go with it and then some potentially could happen the worst case I've seen in our own practice is we had a an elderly lady several years back just that she just uh you know, annual tax climb but she came in and she had said that

Every generation likes to talk about how much harder things used to be when they were kids. Like all of the people who used to have to walk five miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways. But they had at leastone thing that was EASIER…and that was retirement planning. Let’s continue our conversation about why on today’s episode.
 
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
 
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Transcript: 
Marc Killian  00:00
On the prior podcast we talked about every generation likes to talk about how things were harder for them than it is now. And we're gonna continue our conversation with retirement planning. Is it harder than it used to be? Here on this episode of planet tax man with Tony Morrow? Look up in the sky? It's a bird.
 
Announcer 2  00:19
It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero. But Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man. Hey,
 
Marc Killian  00:33
folks, Welcome to part two here have a conversation on is retirement planning harder today than it used to be? And I think in a lot of ways, we've certainly in the first half, we've ascertained that Yeah, it definitely is. But there's also some things that do make it easier. And I'm sure that's going to continue to be the theme throughout this episode, as well. But we certainly appreciate you and welcoming you into the podcast. And if you did not check out the prior one, feel free to do so you don't have to listen to one day to enjoy the other. But it's certainly not a bad idea. And of course, you can do so by simply subscribing to the podcast playing with the tax ban on Apple or Spotify or Google whatever platform you like to use a simply just stop by Tony's website to find those links and to take yourself right there and check out the tools tips and resources at your planning proz.com. That's your planning proz.com. Of course, you can always just type playing with the tax man in the search box of whatever app you like using as well. Funny, my friend what's going on, buddy? How are you this week?
 
Tony Mauro  01:30
I'm doing good, you know, in the throes of tax season and dealing with a lot of that, you know, but so far, it's been rough, smooth filing? Yeah,
 
Marc Killian  01:39
yeah, for sure. And it's late February. So did you were you good? Did you to take care of things for Valentine's Day, get your wife something nice or give her some flowers or anything?
 
Tony Mauro  01:49
We did do that. And we went out to eat this year, which was a little bit of a change. And so we enjoyed it. Yeah, it was but pretty pretty laid back and casual. Yeah,
 
Marc Killian  01:57
for sure. Well, I hope everybody had a good holiday or good Valentine's Day. I don't know if it's, I guess it's a holiday at this point. But but let's get into our conversation here on the next five of our conversation around, you know, is retirement planning harder. So let's go with number six here, healthcare costs, man, this has to be a no brainer, it's clearly back then it had to be a lot easier. Now we're facing massive escalating costs here. But we do have better technology for longer life, which is going to tie into another one here in a little bit. But, you know, again, it's all kind of this weird, double edged sword, we have way more tech and way more stuff. That's good, you know, for our healthcare side, but it is not cheap.
 
Tony Mauro  02:36
It's not cheap. You know, and I forgot to mention this on the last episode, but I thought about it after we had gotten off. But now that we're talking about, you know, we're in our 50s is, do you ever stop and think about? Boy, I'm so glad I'm not, you know, young and just starting out anymore, you know, because you always feel like after they got it, they're gonna have it really hard. And I wonder if our parents thought that two way back in their day, but we we survive, you

Every generation likes to talk about how much harder things used to be when they were kids. Like all of thepeople who used to have to walk five miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways. But they had at leastone thing that was EASIER…and that was retirement planning. Let’s talk about why on today’s episode.
 
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
 
----more----
Transcript: 
Marc Killian  00:01
Every generation likes to talk about how much harder things used to be when they were kids. You know, we've all gone uphill both ways to school in the snow, all that good stuff, right? But we want to make sure that we're talking about the things we need to do for retirement planning. And is it truly harder than it used to be? So that's going to be our podcast for the next couple episodes. Right here on plan with the tax man with Tony Morrow. Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No,
 
Announcer 2  00:27
it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero. But Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.
 
Marc Killian  00:40
Hey, everybody, welcome into the podcast. Tony and I are here to talk investing finance, retirement and retirement planning. Is it harder than it used to be? So we're going to break this into we get 10 points that we're going to cover over the next two episodes. We're going to break this into five and five atony and talk about these a little bit. And just see is it that that last couple of miles you know, like I said, the uphill going into snow both ways to school. So my dad used to tell me right, he's like, he's like, You guys have it so easy. I used to walk uphill both ways. I was like, wait, what? Yeah, go uphill both ways. What's going on my friend how you doing this week?
 
Tony Mauro  01:16
I've been good. You know, as we're recording this starting tax season, and it's kind of a weird thing, because our weather is was very, very cold. And we got a lot of snow and now it's all gone. And it's 60 degrees as we're taping this so it's weird. It's a weird February's Yeah,
 
Marc Killian  01:31
really? Yeah, you're warmer than I am today. If you're 60 right now, so I'm, like 52 here. And I'm in the south. So go figure, right?
 
Tony Mauro  01:39
Yeah, it's just odd to see the sun and this in February, we hardly ever get this. I'll
 
Marc Killian  01:44
take it and enjoy it. Right. Right. Right, take it and run with it. Well, I hate talking about the snow, right? So at least you gotta get rid of some of that with that sun. So enjoy it while you can. Well, let's dive into it. And like I said, we're gonna break this up into five and five. So we'll do the first five here and and see what, you know, our things are things harder now. Right. I think in some ways, they definitely are. And I think in others, we might see that there is some easier things, but it's all a matter about having a strategy and a plan that will I'm sure that's going to be obviously the overarching theme here. But let's jump in, let's start with the first one job stability and company loyalty, clearly way different now than what it was for our, you know, I mean, we're gonna we're in our 50s. So clearly different than it was for our parents or even our grandparents, for sure. That's
 
Tony Mauro  02:28
true. Yeah. And the reason that is, is because, you know, back in our parents days, and grandparents, you went to work for somebody for your entire career, you know, and a lot of times that was a goal, right? Yeah, that was that was it. And so people stayed at the same job. And I don't meet too many either on the tax side, or the financial planning side that have I mean, I've been with not only just maybe one or two employers, many, many that get into their 50s. They've been with 1015, sometimes more over their career. And so that's leads to a lot of I would say that that makes it a little h

We're back to wrap up our conversation which might be a bit counterintuitive. We’re going to question the real impact of common financial habits. Are the strategies you consider beneficial actually working in your favor? We explore the pros and cons of practices like paying off debt early and keeping up with financial news. Join us for a practical discussion, as we uncover the unexpected effects of everyday money decisions. Are your good money habits holding you back?
 
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
 
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Transcript: 
Marc Killian  00:00
Part Two of our prior conversation on our good money habits holding you back, we're going to continue to have the conversation about the real impact of common financial habits. And are those strategies that you consider beneficial actually working in your favor? So join us here on playing with the tax man with Tony Morrow.
 
Announcer 2  00:17
Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero. But Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.
 
Marc Killian  00:35
Welcome back into part two of our conversation on those good money habits. are they holding you back? Tony and I back again to talk investing finance and retirement of course, Tony is the CPA CFP a and in the big kahuna over there at tax Doctor Inc. And if you guys have questions, need some help get onto the calendar and have a conversation with him at your planning. proz.com He and his team are here to help you get to and through retirement at your planning proz.com What's going on my friend? How are you?
 
Tony Mauro  01:03
I am good in tax season is upon us now. So it's gonna be a little busier.
 
Marc Killian  01:08
I was gonna say I feel like I feel like that's gonna be the theme. I hear from you for the next couple of weeks. When we talk as tax season. It's tax season. Oh, yeah, it's tax season.
 
Tony Mauro  01:18
Now, it's, you know, the IRS, right, it has kind of delayed the start of the tax season, they always do this. And they kind of cram it into, sometimes less and less time. So it's always that that crunch, you know, and we don't well, we don't work ourselves to death, like we used to. And you know, so we have some cut offs there. And so it's not as bad, you know, as long and stuff as it used to be. But nevertheless, it's busy.
 
Marc Killian  01:43
Exactly, exactly. Well, I won't keep you long we'll finish our conversation. That way you can get back in and work on these things we got to do. But we started off with our first five right on some good money habits, are they holding us back. So we're gonna continue and of course, you don't have to listen to the prior podcast folks to check this one out, or enjoy or pick up some nuggets of information from this one. But it certainly isn't a bad idea. So make sure you go by and check that out. You can find it at your planning proz.com or subscribe to us on Apple, Google, Apple, YouTube or Spotify. Just type in playing with the tax man in the search box. Alright, so let's go to number six here have our total 10. Tony paying off debt early. Hey, you know, good habit, right? Reduces long term interest payments can provide a nice mental boost, especially when you pay something off, you're like, oh, yeah, you feel really good about that. But Why might it be bad to pay off debt early? This can be interesting.
 
Tony Mauro  02:33
I think, you know, I definitely advocate paying off high interest debt, of course, and get rid of all of that. But sometimes, especially in the mortgage area, you know, some of us that have had a mortgage over the last, what, 710 years where you've got low interest rates, if you pay it off early, you know, you could be, you know, basically using that money. In other words, you you take cash flow out of your out of your monthly budget to pay th