Speaker 1 0:02
With over $38 trillion in national debt and taxes near historic lows, how can retirees protect their income and outpace inflation? Today, we’ll walk through the hidden risks and the powerful strategies you need to know before your paycheck stops.
Speaker 2 0:21
Welcome in to Retire Smart Maryland Radio with Prashant Sabapathi. Welcome in to Retire Smart Maryland Radio. Your host is Prashant Sabapathi, and you can find him at Elite Income Advisors. They’re headquartered at Ellicott City. They’ve got a satellite office in Annapolis for your convenience. Prashant is an independent fiduciary. He’s also a published author of fiscal health, retirement, wealth, and a second book, Retire Abundantly, is now available. I’m Morgan Patrick. Absolute pleasure to jump on with Prashant. We do this on a weekly basis. It’s important. It’s about planning, it’s about being prepared and being proactive. Prashant, I always ask before we dive into topic number one. Have you been? How’s the week?
Speaker 1 1:04
Hey, the week’s been great. It’s nice to kick off 2026 We had a record breaking year here at Elite Income Advisors in 2025 for which I’m eternally grateful, not just to our great clients, our community, which came out to a number of our live events, and equally as important, my awesome team here at EIA. So, we got a great team of advisors, support people, client services people, new business people, tax specialists. So, truly a collaborative effort. Very grateful for the year that we had, and you know I’ve always been kind of a go baker go home guy, so it’s it’s 2025 has a bow put on it, I’m just looking to see how we can have an even bigger and deeper impact in our community in 2026 so it’s been really exciting planning for that, gearing up for that, but we’re also hopping right back into client reviews, talking about what’s coming up here on the horizon for 2026 Taxes are going to be at the forefront, obviously. Geopolitics here with everything that’s gone on the last couple weeks, and how that trickles down into the stock market. So, lot of interesting topics. I think we’re going to be gearing up for a very interesting year in 2026
Speaker 2 2:21
Yeah, I mean it’s all about planning, and I love what you said there. I mean, you had such a big year last year, and now you just grow from that. I think a lot of people have this idea, Prashant, if they come in and they meet with you, it’s like this one time meeting and you set up this plan, and then that’s it. Now this is the beginning of a relationship where you guys revisit, if not once a year, multiple times a year, because things happen, as you mentioned, retirement doesn’t happen in a vacuum, we’ve got a lot of things impacting
Speaker 1 2:52
us. Yeah, that’s right. I think doing plan maintenance is really important, but before you even get into, you know, how you pick an advisor and who you should work with, or whether we’re even the right people to work with, that first visit, when you come to visit with us, is really just a conversation to see whether or not we even share the same philosophies when it comes to money. What’s what I found in my career, you know, I’ve been doing this a long time now. What I found in dealing with some of the people that come in to visit, is that only about four out of 10 people that come to visit with us, we determine are a good fit for us, and they determine we’re a good fit for them. So, it’s got to work on both sides, right? I don’t think you should ever partner with an advisor that you are not 100% on the same page with. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to agree with everything that they say. I think you just have to have the type of relationship where everybody is open-minded to sharing really good ideas, so that you can talk about what ideas may make the most sense, but you have to align on certain things philosophically. I think you have to like each other, that should be a prerequisite for whoever you partner with, and most importantly, whoever you partner with should be a really good fit for you. When you come in to visit with Elite Income Advisors, you’re not committing to becoming a client, and I say this all the time, I’m not even agreeing to take anybody as a client just because you came into the office. All we’re going to try to do together is figure out whether or not we’re the best fit for each other, if we are, which about four out of 10 people kind of find that we are a good fit, we’ll figure out how to work together, and if not, my only hope is that you leave our office a little bit more educated, little bit more information than you had before you came in, and so that’s what the process is designed to do. Had a tremendous amount of success helping people retire, and I think that trend will continue for this year.
Speaker 2 4:45
You bring up a great point. I mean, knowledge is power, and there are a lot of you out there that you’re sitting on a portfolio, you haven’t thought about the planning process, you’ve done the heavy lifting, you’ve done the saving, you’ve done the putting away into those re. Retirement accounts, and now comes the planning stage, and there’s a good group of you that are halfway down the path, you’re working with somebody, but you’re frustrated, maybe the calls aren’t being returned, maybe your appointment’s getting bumped around, it’s okay to get a second opinion, as Prashant said, this is a get to know you first meeting, see if it’s a good fit, both sides of the coin, you’re a good fit there, and of course they’re good fit for you. So, again, these appointments, we open them up during the course of the show, they are complimentary. All you got to do is call our number, 800-653-8404 that’s 800-653-8404 and snag one, no cost, no obligation. So, you kind of led into the program, Prashant, about just kind of where we are, the environment we’re in. National debt climbing 38 trillion. Why does this matter so much for retirees? I think I know
Speaker 1 5:54
38 trillion in national debt. Let’s let that sink in. Let’s not just pass over that number, as if it is funny money, but a lot of times we think of it as if it kind of is funny money. 38 trillion is such a big number that it’s hard to actually wrap our minds around it. So, why should you care? Why should the pre-retiree, or the person just getting into retirement, why should you care? It’s because the United States is effectively borrowing from its own citizens, if you think about it, how we’re getting to more and more debt is through treasury bonds, right? So think about all the bonds that you have in your 401 k, you might have investments, ETFs that are linked to the treasury bond, in some way, those types of things impact your investments, and how that gets paid back is all through inflation. Okay, a client once asked me recently, why does it feel like groceries are up, my portfolio is up, which is a good thing, but my lifestyle is down, right? Do we know that the cost of living is going up? That is inflation quietly doing its job. And the fact is, we’ve gotten to this inflationary environment because of the national debt. We remember what happened during Covid, where you saw the national debt explode 38 and a half trillion dollars. Most pre-retirees and retirees have money saved in their tax-deferred accounts. Think of accounts like your 401 k, your IRA, your thrift savings plan. The challenge now, though, is that if taxes go up in the future and now you start depending on that money in your retirement account to live on and to fulfill your lifestyle. When you get to retirement, you’re effectively potentially triggering a tax event that could be much higher in the future than it is today. So, I think the question everybody has to ask before we get to the break here is if you knew that the government couldn’t raise enough taxes or cut enough spending to meaningfully reduce the debt, and their only option was to inflate the debt through inflation, how would you adjust your retirement plan? Okay, if the government doesn’t get this under control, how are your retirement scenarios going to be impacted, folks? If you’re not answering this question, or if you don’t even know where to start, pick up the phone and give us a call. That phone number, phone lines stay open throughout the duration of the show. Phone number is 800-653-8404 Just a complimentary conversation, not committing to anything. All you’re doing is spending an hour of your time diving into your situation, and the things that are important to you will help you structure your income and have a conversation about how to deal with some of the most common pitfalls that retirees face. Free of cost to come in to visit with our team of specialists. Starts with that phone call, folks, 800-653-8404
Speaker 2 9:00
When we return on Retire Smart Maryland Radio, we’re going to get into the strategy of the week. Strategy that week coming up next, right here on Retire Smart Maryland Radio. Well, Welcome back in Retire Smart Maryland Radio, hosted by Prashant Sabapathi, Elite Income Advisors, where you can find him, headquartered Ellicott City Satellite Office in Annapolis. This is a growing firm to service Maryland, DC area, helping you with your retirement, Prashant is an independent fiduciary. He’s a published author, couple of books to his credit so far: fiscal health, retirement, wealth, and retire abundantly. I’m Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to be on. Pleasure to talk about the importance of being proactive, to be on top of this, have a plan, and we know so many of you. Have saved, you’ve put the monies away. That is fantastic. We’re giving you the golf clap. Congratulations. Now you need a plan. We talk about this each and every week. We also give you an opportunity to get on the calendar with Elite Income Advisors, no cost, no obligation. See if it’s a good fit. If you want to roll forward, you can. And again, check out the website, it’s a resource, Elite Income advisors.com that’s Elite Income advisors.com All right, it is time for I’m gonna use my big announcer voice strategy of the week. What do you got for me, Prashant? I
Speaker 1 10:35
think it would be fitting to start 2026 off our first strategy of the week in terms of how to reduce taxable assets for the future. What we’re finding, especially through the course of 2025 and with the passing of the big beautiful bill about mid 2025 I think taxes are at the forefront of everyone’s mind when it comes to retirement planning, and so we have what I call a tax time bomb that is ticking in America. Okay, we’ve been conditioned to save our money into 401 k’s, IRAs, TSPs. We said that at the end of the last segment. The problem is, if you have a million dollars in your 401 k plan, do you really have a million dollars?
Speaker 2 11:24
You do not
Speaker 1 11:25
know, because all that money is before you’ve paid any taxes. So, by the time you calculate your tax rate, which is just based on what your total income looks like, you might not have a million dollars after you pay 2020-five, 30% potentially, or more in taxes, the true value of that money might only be 700 or $750,000 and so today’s strategy of the week is really about reducing the future tax burden by being very intentional with your income plan, and it really comes down to two things, as I see it. Number one is something that we call strategic distribution. Okay, so strategic distribution is this idea that even though we don’t necessarily need to access our retirement money today, let’s say you’re living on social security and a pension, let’s say that you’re married and your spouse also has social security and a pension, and let’s say that that’s enough for you guys to live very comfortably on. Believe it or not, I think there’s a really good case to be made that you should withdraw from your retirement accounts, even if you don’t need that money. And why is that? It’s simply because tax rates today, for a lot of folks, now everyone’s a little bit different, but for a lot of folks, tax rates today are going to be the most favorable tax environment that you might ever see in America, and so, if I have the opportunity, hypothetically, to pull money out at a 22% tax bracket, so that I don’t have to pull it out at a 30 or 35% tax bracket in the future, isn’t that an idea that, at the very least, deserves a little bit of exploration.
Speaker 2 13:03
I mean, think about this. I mean, we get on here each and every week, and we talk about the importance of planning for your overall right, the big picture, your retirement, but if you’re not thinking about the tax planning aspect of this, especially if you go to the debt clock and you see those numbers, you see those numbers climbing. You want to go into a just a real small depression. Go to that website, look at the debt clock. We’re not, we’re not, we’re not handling our debt. That means, as Prashant pointed out, right now your tax situation probably the best it’s, it’s best it’s going to be. So have those conversations.
Speaker 1 13:42
Yeah, I think the other thing for Marylanders specifically, in that big beautiful bill, I don’t know if you caught this, Morgan, but you know we talk about it on the show from time to time. There’s something called the SALT deduction, since or state and local tax deduction. The previous cap prior to the Big Beautiful bill was $10,000 in salt deductions. Okay, so think about all the state taxes, state income tax you pay, the property taxes you pay, all of that counts towards that salt deduction. They took that $10,000 cap and they increased it to $40,000 That’s a huge potential deduction that you could take advantage of now, in 2026 it actually went up another 1% to 40,400 and so Marylanders may uniquely be in a position, because the property taxes are so darn high in the area that we’re in, that you might actually be able to claim bigger write-offs and bigger deductions through accessing that salt deduction, and so this is why we talk about strategic distributions for reducing your future taxable assets, but then the second thing that you’ve heard, me and John and you, Morgan, we’ve talked about this for years now, is this idea of doing Roth conversions, right, a Roth conversion is. Just when you take your pretax IRA, you convert it into a Roth, yeah, everything you convert becomes taxable in the current tax year, so you will have to pay taxes on that at your current income bracket, but then any subsequent growth that you earn on that Roth IRA is potentially going to be tax free forever, and so, as tax rates go up in the future, the bigger your Roth IRA is, the more valuable it actually becomes, because not only are you not paying taxes, you’re actually not paying taxes at a higher tax rate. So, let me share a little story with you. This was last year, we had a couple in their early 60s, okay? They had just sold one of their rental properties, okay? When they got to retirement, they didn’t want to deal with managing rental properties and managing tenants and having the risk of tenant ruining a property, and then you have to pour 1000s of dollars into it. So, eventually, they sold the rental property last year. They were sitting on some cash. Okay, they had about $250,000 net after selling the rental property. They were asking me what to do with this 250,000 Should we invest this money? Should we put it in CDs? Should we put it in the market? Should we put it in an annuity? What we actually did is we devised a plan where we used some of the cash that they were sitting on to pay the tax on a $100,000 Roth conversion, so they had about $600,000 in their IRA account. We went ahead and converted 100,000 of the 600 into a Roth IRA, and as a result it looked like they were going to owe about $28,000 in total taxes to do that conversion, so we just took the $28,000 that they owed in taxes, projected to own taxes, and we just paid it from the $250,000 that they netted from the sale of their rental property, and now what happens is that next year, when that Roth IRA hopefully grows, all of that growth is going to be tax deferred, and as long as they hold the Roth for five years, it’s going to be tax free. And so, when we make these types of moves early, we actually stop dreading tax season, Morgan. It actually gives us more control over our money and over our financial life, and I think the myth is that a lot of people think Roth conversions are just for young people, because young people have so much more time ahead of them to let that tax-free growth compound, but the pre-retirement window, ages 60 to 72 years old, that could actually be your window, your golden window, I’ll call it, to reposition as much as you can into the most tax preferred status as you possibly can.
Speaker 1 17:55
So you know, ask this question, or think about this question, folks, would you rather plan your tax bill on your terms today or on the IRS terms later? Okay, if your advisor’s not asking you that question, or at the very least, if you don’t have a strategy for how you’re going to deal with the answer to that question, maybe it’s time for a second look. Right, maybe it’s just time to have a different conversation doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do anything differently, but you should at least know what your options are.
Speaker 2 18:27
Yeah, I think you bring up an excellent point as far as the Roth, and it just seems like a lot of the younger people out there that are in the workforce, they’re investing, they’re looking at the Roth, but we talk about this all the time, Prashant, the longevity aspect of retirement, and how things have really changed in the last 1015 years, because our life expectancy is going up. So I think the window for Roth also expands.
Speaker 1 18:54
Yeah, and you know that’s that’s an excellent point, because it piggybacks on that question of like 20 years from now, 30 years from now, do we think taxes are gonna be higher or lower in America? And I think
Speaker 2 19:06
they’re going up.
Speaker 1 19:07
Yeah, it certainly seems that way. I mean, with the big beautiful bill, we have marginal rates that are, I would argue, artificially low until 2029 2030 maybe. But that being said, with the way that the national debt is climbing. It’s hard to envision a world, in my opinion, where taxes are going to be ultra low 15 or 20 or 30 years from now. And so, to your point, if you end up living longer and taxes go up, all that translates to is less net income in your pocket. We’ve said it for years that it doesn’t actually matter what your gross income is, it matters what your net income is. You can only spend net, you cannot spend gross. And so, with that being said, tax planning is a really important piece of the picture. Here’s, here’s another thing that I’ve learned: don’t make the mistake of conflating tax advice. Ice for tax planning. Okay, I think a lot of times you know people will have their own CPA. We’ll start talking about Roth conversions. Hey, I think you should convert, let’s say, $100,000 to a Roth. They go back to their CPA and say, ‘Hey, my financial advisor said he thinks we should convert $100,000 What do you think? And the CPA says don’t do it. Why is that? Well, the CPA’s job in a lot of cases is to save you the most amount of money today in taxes, and so if you just ask your CPA to solve the problem of paying the least amount of money today in taxes, of course they’re going to tell you not to pay taxes on the Roth conversion, but this is where being forward looking really, really matters in my opinion. Right, it’s kind of like I always use the analogy, like if I was driving down the highway, am I only going to look out the rear view mirror?
Speaker 2 20:52
That’d be dangerous.
Speaker 1 20:53
That would be very dangerous. Of course, it would. You want to look forward, not backwards. Now, yeah, it is important to optimize your tax situation today, but I argue it is equally important to try your best to look into the future and pay the least amount of taxes possible over the course of your entire lifetime. Folks, if you’re in your 60s or even your late 50s, you’re sitting in a potentially lower tax bracket today, you might be in the perfect window to reposition assets before Medicare kicks in, before your required minimum distributions kick in. When you come in to visit with us, we’ll have a conversation on how to potentially map that out. That phone number, it’s 800-653-8404 That’s 800-653-8404 You call that number, schedule that retirement readiness checkup. Let’s sit down. Let’s have a conversation about whether or not a Roth conversion or strategic distribution strategy is a good fit for you. Some of you will find that it’s not a good fit. Others will find that this is the opportune time to take action. I am not saying that every single person listening should do a Roth conversion, but what I am saying, and I believe this to my core, every single person listening should examine whether or not a Roth conversion is the right thing for your unique situation. Let’s sit down, let’s talk about it. Come into Ellicott City, come into Annapolis, 800-653-8404
Speaker 2 22:22
We have more Retire Smart Maryland radio coming up. We’ve got some scenarios. We’ll continue our conversation on why it matters with all of our mounting national debt. We’ll talk about the tax situation. We’ll talk about your retirement situation. It’s all coming up next, you Welcome back in to Retire Smart Maryland Radio. Your host is Prashant Sabapathi. You can find him at Elite Income Advisors, right here in Ellicott City, that’s where they’re headquartered, and a satellite office in Annapolis, for your convenience. The website treated as a resource, Elite Income advisors.com Again, that’s Elite Income advisors.com Elite Income advisors.com and again links to the TV show, radio shows, and podcast form. Prashant, an independent fiduciary, published author, couple of books to his credit, fiscal health, retirement, wealth, and retire abundantly. I’m Morgan Patrick. Absolute pleasure to get on and just talk about what’s going on with planning, the importance of being proactive, working with professionals, working with a fiduciary, and mapping this out before you get to retirement’s door. We know you’ve done the heavy lifting, you’ve saved, you put the money away. Now you need to create that plan, and there are just as many of you out there that might be halfway down this path in the planning scenario, but you’re a little frustrated. Here on the program, we talk the talk, but we also walk the walk, meaning we give you an opportunity to get on the calendar with elite income advisors, no cost, no obligation, and see if you’re on track for your retirement. All right, so we shift gears a little bit. We’re going to talk about an income question that nobody talks about. And Prashant, before we started recording today and producing this show, you told me about a client story. I want you to share that with our listeners.
Speaker 1 24:22
You know, I was meeting with a client recently. They were in their late 50s, and they worked really hard. They developed a business, is an engineering business for a while, and he was the primary owner of the business. She was a school administrator, and so he had just sold his business. He’d done really, he done really well in the business. They both had done a really good job saving money. She was about a year away from retiring as a school administrator, you know, between the two of them and the sale of the business. This couple million dollars saved, I think it was like two, two and a half, two and three quarters million saved. They had no debt, and when she retires, because she was in the school system, she’s actually going to get a pension, so they had some guaranteed income coming in. They’re only in their late 50s, so can’t yet tap into Social Security, but they’ll be able to tap into that in the future, and so we’re sitting there talking about what they want retirement to look like, you know. I think financial advisors have a really bad habit of making it all about the numbers. When what I’ve learned over time is that clients don’t necessarily care about the numbers, they care about how the numbers translate to a lifestyle that they can feel really good about, and so we were going through the numbers, the numbers look good, you know, everything looks great, couple million, no debt, etc. But then I asked them, I said, What do you want retirement to feel like? What’s going to make retirement as fulfilling as possible, and when I asked the question, something came over them, Morgan. I saw that they both hesitated, and that caught me off guard a little bit as an advisor, because I’m looking at a couple that’s done a great job, lot of assets, pretty good income, but they were concerned, and so he said to me, “You know, Prashant, I’ve always had a paycheck coming in. My business was a cash cow for years. I’ve always had income from the business coming in, and now I have a lump sum from the sale of the business, and I don’t know now that I no longer can just go to my business and pull income out of it, it almost feels like I’m climbing a mountain, and I’m so close to just stepping off the ledge a little bit, you know. And she had a similar concern. She said, “We’ve saved money, but I don’t want to turn into a penny pincher in retirement because we’re scared to spend, and so
Speaker 2 27:05
I think a lot of people are in that second category you mentioned.
Speaker 1 27:08
You know, I’ve learned that over time it’s not about, I mean, it is about how much you save, but I think a lot of people have trouble spending their money because they’re fearful that if they spend too much today, there won’t be enough left if something catastrophic happens down the road. Makes me think of another client who she goes on a cruise every couple years, and now she’s retired, $3 million spends like 2500 bucks a month, and she cannot get herself to even upgrade her cabin on that cruise to the, like, the ocean view room. She’s always on, like, one of these internal cabins, and I asked her why, and she’s just like, ‘I’m just not wired that way, you know? I’ve never.. she’s like the type of person that doesn’t order food out, and you won’t order a pizza, but we’ll make a frozen one instead. And I think that type of stuff, it’s admirable that you’ve saved a ton of money, and it takes a certain committed mindset to get there. But you’re right, Morgan, I think spending, transitioning from saving to spending, is one of the hardest things that clients go through.
Speaker 2 28:20
So, let me ask you this. So, there’s obviously the solution is going to be different for everybody. That’s why you need a customized retirement plan that takes into account all the different elements that you have that go into this equation, but you’ve got, you’ve got a method that you use that will help your couple that we’re talking about that sold the business and is going to retire from education, but also can help others depending on their situation.
Speaker 1 28:51
Yeah, that’s right. So you know, going back to that scenario, I asked, what would make you feel comfortable? Like, I can tell that you’re concerned about this. You’re concerned because you were always able to pull income from the business when you wanted to. What is ultimately going to alleviate that concern? And he said, well, now that I have this lump sum, and I can’t pull income out of it, because if it doesn’t earn enough, and I spend all that lump sum money, it’s gone, right? It’s a finite bucket of money, it’s gone. That’s what ultimately the concern was. So I got back into the conversation of what should your monthly income target look like to me. Retirement is just a function of what I call money coming in and money going out at the end of the day, the money going out is what drives your lifestyle. So, oftentimes when we sit down with folks, one of the first things we talk about is how much money is going to get spent every month in order for you to live as comfortably as possible, and for this particular couple, they told me that in order to. Travel in order to retire in a fulfilling way, we need $10,000 per month after taxes, that covers everything, that covers fixed expenses, covers insurance, covers travel, covers everything. Well, we’re doing an analysis, the pension itself only gets them to about $4,000 per month, so we have a gap in the income of $6,000 per month, and now I start to see it. I start to see why this is creating anxiety, even though we have a million dollars from the sale of the business. $6,000 a month can really eat into that million dollars in a significant way. Now, here’s the thing: when they get to 62 years old, each of them, we can actually start taking their social security at 62 The interesting thing is between the two social securities, even by collecting it early at 62 we’ll be able to net an additional $5,000 per month, and so they’re 58 years old. We got four years before we get to social security, and we have 4000 a month coming in from the pension, but I know that we’re going to have an extra 5000 a month coming in in just four years. So, what we ended up doing is we took a subset of their money and we put it into different buckets. Okay, we’ll call these buckets the blue bucket, the red bucket, and the green bucket. The blue bucket is short-term cash reserves money, so we know we have a gap in our income of $6,000 a month that we got to fill in for the next four years, right. So that’s 72,000 a year for four years. On the million dollars from the sale of the business, we took $300,000 put it into short-term instruments like CDs, savings accounts, etc. T-bills, that is what they’re going to draw on to draw that $6,000 a month for the next four years. Then what we did is we know at 62 after the social security starts we’re going to have a gap in the income of somewhere between one and $2,000 per month. So what we did is we took another $250,000 of that million, we put it into a green bucket, and in this green bucket, it’s very simple. We use an annuity, right? And what that annuity is going to do is it’s going to close the gap on that 2000 a month, so we reposition $250,000 to fill in a $2,000 a month gap after taxes, four years from now, by the way, that is totally guaranteed to them. It’s not linked to the stock market, there’s no market-based risk, it’s just 250,000 that we converted into a guaranteed income for life. And then, lastly, all the other money, the 401 k money, the sale of the business money, all of that money goes into their red bucket, which is a risk bucket. We’re going to invest it in the market, we’re going to try to earn the best rate of return that we can earn without taking on too much risk.
Speaker 1 32:50
When they saw how bucketing the money could start sending them income, close the gap over the next four years to bridge to social security, she looked at me and she said, I finally feel like I can stop worrying about whether it’s okay to enjoy my life, and to me, as an advisor, that is by far the coolest conversation to have. It’s such a, such a neat thing, folks. If you haven’t thought about you bucketing your money and how that could benefit you, let’s have a conversation, and that’s all it is. Just a free, confidential conversation about your plan. 800-653-8404 That’s 800-653-8404 Call now.
Speaker 2 33:27
We’ve got more coming up on the other side. You’re listening to Retire Smart Maryland Radio. We’re back right after this. You welcome back. Retire Smart Maryland radio, hosted by Prashant Sabapathi. You can find him at Elite Income Advisors. They’re headquartered at Ellicott City, and a salad office has been placed in Annapolis for your convenience. The website, you can treat it as a resource, Elite Income advisors.com links to the TV show, radio show, and podcast form, just really good information on retirement planning, background information on Prashant and his team, again, that’s Elite Income Advisors again.com Elite Income advisors.com and Prashant, before we dive in on our final segment, and we’re going to talk about the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. He’s had some recent thoughts on all the debt that we’re looking at and what that means for everybody.
Speaker 1 34:30
Talk about the growth at Elite Income Advisors. This company has really taken flight. You are growing, so you can better serve your community, but you’re adding some very important pieces to an already core group. It’s been a, it’s been a great 2025 just like we talked about in the open, and yeah, we’ve added advisors, John DeFeo, who’s been on the show all. Through 2025 audience has gotten to know John a little bit. He’s a certified financial planner. I have another guy in my office, he’s an MBA, Daniel Topazo. He’s just about to get his CFP, Connor Wilson, in my office as an investment advisor representative. Nick Innerbichler has been in the business now for over 20 years, of course, our CEO, Ozzie Culhagill, is a PhD from London School of Economics. Then we have this great client services team and support team, because it’s not just about earning business from people, it’s about being able to deliver for them at the end of the day, it’s not about accumulating clients, it’s making sure that you have happy clients that feel like they’re on the right track, who get excellent customer service, and that’s what we’re really all about. I always say, you know, I do a lot of TV stuff. You’ve probably seen Retire Smart Maryland television airs all throughout the week on different channels in Maryland, Morgan, you and I have done this radio show for a couple years now. I don’t know if you have the episode number right in front of you. I think we must be at probably close, so what, 191 91 right now, or something like we
Speaker 2 36:12
are approaching a big number. I’ll have it for you here in two seconds. Yeah, but yeah, it’s.. it’s, you know, you’ve invested a lot of time in just the education piece for our listeners and also the viewers in the Maryland, DC area, and we’re talking about just, you know, knowledge is power. We are looks like this will be show 199 199
Speaker 1 36:36
Oh, wow. Okay, so then we got a big one for the next one, that’ll be pretty cool. That being said, you know, it all comes back to making sure that we are serving people in a responsible way that gets them on track, so that they can retire with all the confidence that they, quite frankly, deserve to have after three or four decades of really hard work. I love doing radio, I love podcasting, I love doing TV, but there’s nothing I love more than sitting across the table with my clients, delivering a retirement plan that they feel really, really good about, and then when they get to retirement, the best part for me is they share, they share all of their stories, and working with three four or 500 people personally over my career, it’s given me a heck of a bucket list of things to do, and it allows me to have the power of perspective. Right, I get to sit with people who are not retired, people who are retired, and I get to share the good, the bad, the ugly, the struggles, the successes that other people have, and I think that type of perspective allows you to become a better planner, a better advisor, and consequently deliver better results. And so I’m very grateful to the clients that we have. I’m grateful to our community that you know they’ve embraced the educational experiences that we try to provide, but yeah, I think it’s one of the most fulfilling things that we’ve ever done.
Speaker 2 38:03
Well, we’ve been playing this radio game for over four years. Yeah, we’ve done almost 200 shows, and the one.. I mean, I’ve learned so much from you, so much from Ozzy, so much from John, your entire crew that comes on the program, but the one thing that I’ve learned about Elite income advisors, it’s not about quantity of client, it’s about quality that you provide to a certain number of clients, and you say it all the time, we don’t take everybody, it might not be the best fit, and but that’s okay,
Speaker 1 38:36
you’re absolutely right, it’s not a numbers game to us, it’s not about getting the most amount of clients, it’s getting the right clients that are at the right stage of life that we can actually make a meaningful impact, you know. And I think that is what has been fulfilling. And by the way, there’s no animosity in that statement. When I say that people aren’t a good fit for us, it’s not an attack on anybody personally. It just means that when we deliver service, we want to make sure that that service that we’re delivering is actually going to impact somebody in a tremendously positive way. And if we can’t impact you in what we believe to be in a tremendously positive way, we will be upfront with you. And so, like I said, about four out of 10 end up becoming clients, but my hope is that 10 out of 10 we still have a really good relationship, whether we work together or not. I oftentimes joke Maryland’s a pretty small place, there’s a reason they call it Small Timor, right? And so I frequently see people that did not become a client, see them around town, and we still shake hands, we still say hello, we’re in very good spirits. So I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 39:47
Yeah, we offer up those complimentary again, there’s no cost, no obligation appointments to see if it’s a good fit both sides of the street, right? You’re a good fit there, and they feel like you’re a good fit as well. Now, folks, to grab one of the appointments, you simply call 800-653-8404 That’s 800-653-8404 Maybe you’re sitting on that portfolio, you’re a little bit concerned, you want to start the planning process, or you’re halfway down this path we talk about each week, and you need a second opinion. Grab one of them right now, 800-653-8404 so Prashant, we’re going to close out the show talking about one of your favorites, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. He has been very public talking about what we have been kind of grinding on this show, and that’s just the debt that we’re looking at, the fear of how we’re going to pay these taxes in the future?
Speaker 1 40:42
Yeah, Robert Kiyosaki recently did a social media post on this, and I want to make sure I’m given credit where it’s due, because I read this post, and I think a lot of people have this underlying question of, like, okay, I understand there’s 38 or 40 trillion approaching 40 trillion of national debt, but what does that actually mean at the end of the day? Who actually owns that debt? I think it’s a fair question, because I think a lot of people don’t understand it. Robert Kiyosaki says debt doesn’t just float in space, Morgan, it actually belongs to someone, and the answer isn’t that it belongs necessarily to foreign enemies or shadowy powers. It’s tied to ordinary institutions that are linked to everyday people. Think about your retirement plans, your pension systems, insurance companies, banks, mutual funds, central banks. In many cases, it’s the same places that your long-term savings actually live. And so, when the government borrows money, we talked about this in segment one. In a way, they’re borrowing it from their own citizens and their own institutions. Those treasury bonds don’t just disappear into a black hole, they sit inside those 401 ks, pension funds, insurance plans, bank balance sheets. Japan does the same thing, by the way. So does most of the developed world, and so when people say things, and Morgan, I’m sure you’ve heard this, probably from me, honestly, and several others, people always say the debt will come due someday, right? You heard that? Yep, people say the debt will come due someday, and we will have to deal with it, and people will say that they’re right, but not necessarily in the way that they think. Okay, the burden doesn’t show up first as massive tax hikes; it actually shows up more quietly through inflation, like we talked about. Inflation is how the bill gets paid. It allows governments to spend now and reduce the real cost of repayment later, simply by letting money lose value over time. Think about it this way: $1 today buys less than $1 yesterday, and that’s not an accident. That is how the system functions, right. And so the hard reality is that governments, in my opinion, and I tend to agree with Robert Kiyosaki on this, the hard reality is that governments can’t pay down these debts in a traditional way, meaning you cannot raise taxes to the level that could meaningfully address it, and as we’ve seen, government is clearly not going to cut spending to the point where they can reasonably attack the national debt. So, the only workable option is to kind of let the currency and let your dollars erode, and if you think about it, I thought this was really powerful. It’s not a failure of policy. Okay, it is the policy, which is kind of crazy to think about. And so, once you understand that from that framework, I think it gives you a different way of how to think about structuring the rest of your retirement plan.
Speaker 2 43:55
So, I’m so important to kind of have the bigger picture. We kind of get into our narrow spaces, our viewpoints, and you know, we’re just going day to day, and we get it. I mean, you’re busy, you’ve got your job, you’re trying to get ready for retirement. That’s why it’s so important to work with professionals, work with an independent fiduciary that has their finger on the pulse, and when I say finger on the pulse, we’re talking about that big picture. We’re talking about things are going to impact your monies, your retirement dollars as you move to and through retirement, but it all starts with the planning, Prashant, and you guys emphasize this, you stress this, and it all starts with that first meeting, that comfort feel
Speaker 1 44:42
exactly right. We talk about it every single show, you know, especially if you’re in a position where your money is quietly losing ground every year through inflation. Pure saving without growth or protection doesn’t work the way. People expect anymore if you’ve been disciplined with savings, but still feel like you’re falling behind. It’s not your fault. It’s how the system works. The key is repositioning your money to simply keep pace. If you’re not sure how to do it, or how to even have the conversation about how to do it, it’s great opportunity. Last opportunity for today’s show to pick up the phone and give us a call, that is 800-653-8404 that’s 800-653-8404 Call now, schedule that free, no cost, no obligation conversation with our team of retirement advisors here at Elite Income Advisors. Again, 800-653-8404
Speaker 2 45:42
We are here to help another edition of Retire Smart Maryland Radio in the book for Prashant Sabapathi. I’m Morgan Patrick. We’ll see on the radio next week.
Speaker 3 46:00
Family guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company. If you withdraw money from or surrender your contract within a certain period of time after investing, the insurance company may assess a surrender charge. Withdrawals may be subject to tax penalties and income taxes. Persons selling annuities and other insurance products receive compensation for these transactions. Products are subject to fees and additional expenses. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to the fixed insurance products. They do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Information presented on this program is legally factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy, and it should not be regarded as complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussion should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the investments mentioned. Professional advisors should be consulted before implementing any of the strategies discussed. Investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment or strategy will be suitable or profitable for a client’s portfolio, investment advisory services offered through Elite Income Advisors Incorporated, a registered investment advisor located in Ellicott City, Maryland. The firm only conducts business in states and jurisdictions in which they are properly registered or exempt from registration requirements. Registration is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the advisors achieve a specific level of skill or ability. Content should not be viewed as personalized financial advice. Insurance and duty products are sold separately through Retirement Planning Services Incorporated. Neither firm is affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or the IRS. Social Security, Medicare, pension, and tax rules are subject to change at any time. Insurance annuity products are sold separately to Retirement Planning Services Incorporated. President Ozer Culhagil, Prashant Sabapathi, and Jonathan DeFeo receive commissions for the sale of insurance products as insurance agents for Retirement Planning Services Incorporated. Insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Morgan Patrick is not a client of or affiliated with Elite Income Advisors. However, he has a financial incentive to promote our services because he was compensated for his work on Retirement Smart Maryland. The program is paid production of Elite Income Advisors.
