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Speaker 1: You are listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, where

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you get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else

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to thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial

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Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork

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dot com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial

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Survival Network now more than ever.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome, you are listening to and watching the Financial

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Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Letz. Well, if you

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like me, you probably think about retiring quite a bit.

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I'm not quite ready to take the ultimate plunge, but

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if you're getting close, you should be thinking about it.

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And retirement expert Joe Schmidts is with us now. He's

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just written a book, Joe, your book, The two Percent Club?

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How do I join?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean it's it's a specific crowd. It's a

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niche crowd. Not every one can join it. Unfortunately, it's

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those with pensions and those with a million dollars are

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more safe. So I wrote a book about this concept

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of crowd that we specifically serve. I actually have a

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YouTube channel it's called Joe No's Retirement, and all we

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do is talk about this crowd of people and it

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has over one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers at this point,

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and we have millions of viewers from people all across

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the country. But this two percent club number comes from

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the fact that only less than twenty percent of people

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have a pension nowadays, so a lot less people have

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that guaranteed amount coming to them for the rest of

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their lives. And we know these people to be those

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that live a life of service, retired military, retired federal employees,

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retired state employees, you know, retired police officers, firefighters, and

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so these are people who are going to have that

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that livelihood, that pension coming to them every month for

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the rest of their life. Now that's one portion of

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the two percent club. The other portion is those who

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have a million dollars or more saved. And there's only

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less than ten percent of people in the entire country

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who have a million dollars or more saved in their

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investments for retirement. And so if you have it twenty

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if you have the twenty percent over here, the ten

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percent there, that's only two percent of the population that

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has both a high income and a high net worth

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throughout their retirement. So these people are going to have

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to pay a lot more in taxes is what we

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typically see, and they need a lot more advanced planning

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considering that they're in such a great situation, you know,

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compared to their peers there.

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Speaker 2: Right, So yeah, I guess they're in the minority. And

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you know what, if you're not in the two percent club.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so if you're not a two percent club, you're

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you're planning for retirement is definitely going to be more

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difficult without that pension coming in every every month moving forward,

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it's going to allow you to it's going to be

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forcing you to plan more for retirement on your own.

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And if you go back many years, pensions were more common,

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more people had pensions, more companies offered tions, and the

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reason why is because people didn't live as long as

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they're living now. And so now that people are living

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a twenty plus or even a thirty plus year retirement,

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it's making these pension funds really hard to make sure

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they can be funded for a long period of time.

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So a lot of the companies nowadays have gone away

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from pensions, and that's why eighty percent of people do

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not have pensions anymore. So, yes, they're going to be

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responsible for those that income that they're going to have

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to generate in retirement. And that's again why we tell

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our clients all time with pensions, hey you're in a

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very blessed situation. Let's make sure we take care of this.

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Let's make sure we have more purpose for the money

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that we have, because now we can either spend more,

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gift more, or spend more. Typically, people in the two

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percent club, they're not worried about running out of money

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per se. They're more so worried about running out of life.

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Making sure they can do what they want, when they want,

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with who they want. It's what we call financial freedom,

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and so really making sure they can live that out

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to their fullest capability, knowing they've worked so hard for

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like of the same company for the last thirty or

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forty years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, some of those government pensions do look a

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little shaky though. I wouldn't want to be an Illinois

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retiree with thirty years left to go, because you know

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at some point that system's going to croak.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely concerned people have with tensions,

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you know. Now, I will say with some of the

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federal pensions especially, you know, I don't really worry about

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those now, and I just more so worry for those

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who are younger aren't going to get as generous as pensions,

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that the calculations for them aren't going to be as

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generous as it used to be. Federal employees is a

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prime example. There used to be a system with them

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called the CSRS system. My aunt was actually she's a

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retired federal EMPLOYEEES. She's actually in that system. The pensions

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in the CSRS are incredible now, Like my mom, she

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retired as a FIRS employee and their pensions are still good,

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but they're not as generous as they were. And so

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it's just something to pay attention to for anyone out there,

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regardless where you're at, to definitely be aware how how

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can this pension function moving forward? Because it's just math

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at the end of the day. And for those at

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a private company, those are where we're typically seeing that

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reductions actually can't happen and have happened in the past.

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So really making sure you're aware of how that pension

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fund is doing, you know, what where are they at

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with it, Is it likely going to be paying out?

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If not, maybe a good reason to look at taking

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the lump sum option if that company offers that to

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take a lump sum pension option when you retire. We're

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seeing that become more popular nowadays for that reason, but

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also for many others. Right, if one spouse passes away first,

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then that pension may not pay on at all to

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that next spouse. So if you take a lump sum,

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now that money can go to the next generation, or

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you could use it, you know, during your lifetime and

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be able to spend more maybe in your go go

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years early on in your retirement. So lots of things

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to think about with those decisions.

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Speaker 2: Right, Okay, So what's your average client look like, Joe?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So I wrote another book called The Midwestern Millionaire,

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And so this book is all about those who have

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Midwestern values. Now, we work with clients all across the country.

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You know, about eighty to ninety percent of our clients

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nowadays come to us from outside of this state of

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Ohio where we're from, just because our niche that we

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serve is more specific. So most of our clients have

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a million dollars or more saved, and they're just diligent,

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hard working, frugal people. And I just say they're fright

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the people I grew up around you know, I grew

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up in a small rural community caro Ohio. One traffic

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light sometimes it works, and so, you know, those are

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the people that we serve, and those people typically have pensions,

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they've been diligent savers. But the thing I say most

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about these people is they are the absolute worst spenders.

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They are savers and the worst spenders. So a lot

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of times with our clients, we're trying to wrestle them

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to do more with their wealth, whether that's giving more

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away to charities, gifting more to their loved ones, or

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maybe it means spending more on this what they've worked

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so hard for. So that's the general crowd that we

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work with. And when someone hears us talking about it,

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or if they read the first twenty page of my

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Midwestern Millionaire book, they can pretty much define that that's me.

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That's me. That's me. And I actually just did a

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YouTube video that had one hundred things that these Midwestern

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millionaires have done to get to where they are. So

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it's a really fun story to share. Just what have

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they done, how hard have they worked? What are they

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sacrificed to get to this place of that financial freedom.

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We've been talking about.

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Speaker 2: I like it. I like it. It sounds good. So

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how does one contact you? How do you get the book?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so if they go to our website Peak Retirement

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Planning dot com, we will send that book out to them.

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They can request a digital copy or a physical copy

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if they want us to mail that to them. We

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wrote the books to try to get in as many

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hands as possible, and so it gives people a really

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good resource as they plan for retirement. We actually add

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in there what we call our retirement Toolkit in there too,

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so I get featured in Kipling or I write two

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articles a month for them. So we've included some of

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the more popular Kiplinger articles I've written, and also as

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long with the book and some other resources as they

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plan for retirement, so hopefully can help that they make

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the next stage. If they've got a pension, definitely requests

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a two percent club. If they have a million dollars

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or more with no pension, then that's where that Midwestern

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Millionaire Books is going to be a great one. And

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I wrote another book, Card I Hate Taxes is actually

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over my shoulder right now, and that's one of my

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favorite books I've written, and for those who hate taxes

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like myself, then this is a great book to find

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some tax planning strategies as people are planning for their retirement.

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Speaker 2: All right, excellent, So just give us your website again.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's Peak Retirement Planning dot com. That's Peak

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and then Retirement Planning dot com. If they look us

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up there, look up my name, Joe Schmidt, so be

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able to find some resources there to make sure they're

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planning the right direction.

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Speaker 2: And it sounds like the book is entertaining reading and

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like many of these retirement books which are very dry,

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and we really appreciate that. If you've got a question

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for Joe myself, shoot me an email klfcarrieluts dot com.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for coming on, Joe, Yeah, thanks for having us.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your

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solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to

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Financial Survival Network dot com. Financial Survival Network more than

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ever