Coasting In Retirement with Josh Null

On this week's episode, Josh and Michelle talk the hot topic in the retirement planning space, Roth Conversions. Mistakes in a Roth conversion can cost an investor thousands of dollars, and as with most things their industry, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly.

In our industry, there's something Josh calls the "401k Rollover Shark". On this week's episode, Josh and Michelle are going to give the shark repellant you need so that the 401k rollover sharks don't leave your retirement accounts maimed, or worse yet, torn to bits.   

In this week's show, Josh asks Jay a simple question: has life insurance ever been easier to get than right now?

On this week's epsiode, Josh will describe somewhat complicated investing concepts and ways you can navigate not only this current stock market, but future stock markets that will undoubtedly experience more volatility as the United States, and really the world, navigates a rapidly changing investing environment. 

Michelle is back with Josh on this week's episode to compare some real-life returns of annuities vs advisory investment accounts.

Josh and Jay revisit their "B.O.S.S. Series", an acronym that stood for "Business Owner Strategies & Solutions", where they discuss key topics that mature business owners can use to potentially reduce taxes, plan for the future of their business and how to reward and retain key employees.

Michelle is back with Josh Null to attempt to answer the question: should investor's hold individual stocks in their retirement accounts?

On this weeks show, Josh discusses what we learned this past year, that is, things we learned about investing, or financial planning, or risk management, or basically anything that pertains to our audience, then later we ask Jay for his thoughts on what financial decisions and activities we recommend for folks to start the new year.

For today's show, we are going to attempt to answer the question: Is my generation and any other generations old enough to have adult children, are we raising a generation of gamblers?

With all of this concerning news floating around regarding an AI bubble, mass layoffs, and high inflation, Josh brings on John Luke Tyner to dicuss why investors should remain bullish heading into 2026.

Today we are going to explain why your broker is a dinosaur, and why, if your financial advisor isn't leading with financial planning, and only handling your investments, they are go the way of the do-do bird in our business.

This week, Josh has a CPA on the show to discuss taxes! We asked this CPA, Sam to come up with 3 tax topics that seem to be top of mind for you mature business owners.

Josh is joined by Jay Stubbs to cover everything health insurance related and Cigna's group solutions on this week's episode of Coasting in Retirement!

On this week's episode, we will cover specific action items Josh derived from paying attention to his happiest retired clients combined with his own personal opinions on choices he's made that have made him happier. No, Josh is not retired, not by a long shot, but he's lived a broad and expansive life and has made a ton of mistakes and learned incredibly valuable lessons from them.

While we've done past episodes where we discussed what we do at Gulf Coast Financial Advisors, what we've haven't done to date is produce a show that spells out the type of client we are looking for, our ideal client so to speak, and that is exactly what we are going to do today.

Do I need life insurance in retirement? Most of us carry some type of life insurance during our working years to replace the catastrophic loss of income to our surviving dependents if we prematurely pass away. But what if the kids are grown, the debt is paid, and our surviving spouse has plenty of assets and income to financially survive the passing of a loved one?

On this week's episode, we discuss 2 questions with John Luke. 1. Are we in a stock market bubble? And 2. If we are in a bubble, does it matter?

There are many commentators and market analysts claiming that we are in the middle of another stock market bubble, this one fueled by sky-high market valuations of tech companies that are heavily investing in artificial intelligence, or AI for short. There's a saying that history doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme, so over the next 2 episodes were going to do a deep dive on the current state of the stock market and if investors should be worried about a market crash similar to the dot.com crash of 25 years ago.

For our listeners that love to travel like Michelle and I do, our topic for today's episode is "How to travel affordably in retirement" and it was inspired by a recent trip that you and I took. How about we fill in the listeners in about our trip?

One of the most common questions we get from clients is what should they do with their 401k, specifically the question "What should I do with my 401k when I retire?". And more often than not the 401k accounts are probably the largest retirement assets a client has. So what I want to do today is answer this question, and probably just as important, answer what NOT to do.

Josh interviews David Stidham of IL Group and Crye-Leike Vacations in the first episode of Coasting in Retirement Shorts!

The title of today's episode is "How to Avoid Financial Advisor Fraud". And we are going to expand that to include investment managers and hedge fund managers – basically anyone that manages other people's money. In this episode we are going to detail some of the boxes you want to check with anyone with which you wish to invest, and discuss the red flags to look for, some obvious, some not so obvious, unless you know the business well. 

Josh Null and John Luke are here to discuss the silent killer of your money: purchasing power. The purchasing power of your dollars has been going down steadily over the years, what can you do about it? We are here to explain all of the details of why your purchasing power is decreasing and how you can solve the issue.

Our role is to use math, our various financial planning tools and our experience to help clients put all of the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out if they can retire, and if so, what retirement looks like financially. So listeners today Jay and I are going to discuss this very important question that many of you probably have asked: How Do I Know When I Am Financially Ready to Retire?

I wanted to take the opportunity of having someone so young on this show, of such a different generation than me and most of our listeners, and get your opinion on some of the various topics that we discuss often on the show. I'm calling this episode, "The Future of Everything" and we are getting first hand knowledge of what a Gen Z individual thinks of all the recent technological and financial developments.

Today Josh is going to translate our different financial investment roller coaster approaches to how investors view the stock market. He is also going to explain a concept for those of you, that are like him and don't care for roller coasters, especially those of you that don't think you can stomach the extreme ups and downs of recent stock market volatility. There is a concept in the investing world called "Fear of Missing Out", commonly known as FOMO. The Oxford dictionary defines FOMO as "anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere", with the implication that you are missing out. The bad side of FOMO can lead to impulsive decisions by investors because they see people. Josh and Michelle will go through how to handle every financial FOMO on this week's episode.    

I want to discuss what is called an "evergreen" topic with Jay Stubbs on our show – Long Term Care. I've been getting a lot of questions about long-term care recently, and as Jay is considered an expert in this field, I wanted to spend 15 to 20 minutes with Jay discussing everything a person should know about long-term care insurance and how to financially navigate an extended health care event. Let's start with this because many listeners have probably never had this type of protection explained in detail to them – Jay, how do you define long term care insurance?

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.

Michelle and I recently went on our delayed honeymoon, to a place that Michelle always wanted to visit: Costa Rica! So were going to begin the show by talking about our trip, then, because this is a show about enjoying your best life in retirement, we will pivot to travel tips and tricks for those of you looking forward to enjoying seeing new places when you have more time in retirement, especially around those of you that travel on a budget like Michelle and I do.

Alright, let's get to our main topic today. Jay and I are going to break down the science behind how life insurance, disability income and long term care insurance work, the differences between individual and group coverages, and probably most importantly, the steps you need to take to get these different types of coverages, if you are interested.

As of this recording, the stock market is on a tear, apparently reacting very positively to the election of Donald Trump for president, with indexes like the S&P 500 posting all times highs recently. For many investors, this recent market run-up has provided quite a bit of reassurance with their portfolios, but for some, there's a fear that they be missing out on these gains, some investors fear that the market is overvalued, some investors have fear of an ever-looming stock market correction, and finally, for some of you all, there's just a general fear of the stock market itself. All of these issues is what we are going to tackle today.

As many enter the retirement red zone, five years prior to your targeted retirement age, many have to consider if your employee benefits are enough. Some people may choose never to retire, but there is a moment in time where you do need to make some decisions specific to our world. You may have to make Social Security decisions, Medicare and health insurance decisions during your retirement years, or your quasi retirement years, and then some other decisions you need to make with respect to your group benefits that might be a part of your full time benefit package with your employer. On this episode Josh and Jay discuss how to manage your finances and particularly your employee benefits to see if they are enough to fit your retirement needs.

Our topic today is what most, if not all, insurance carriers that offer annuities view as their product of the day. Really, the product of the past 2 decades - that is, Fixed Index Annuities, or FIAs for short. Regular listeners will recognize that term and for today's show we are going to concentrate on the dominant player in the annuity space right now, and that is FIA's - by a mile. 

So Jay and I thought we would test each other's insurance knowledge and hopefully shed some light on common questions, sometimes common misconceptions, about insurance. Specifically, life insurance, disability income insurance, and long term care insurance. We are also going to delve into the news of the week and our predictions for the future. We may even get into the effects of the election on financial investors.  

Michelle and Josh are here today to discusses financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast. Takeaways You may be unknowingly paying thousands of unnecessary fees in your investment accounts to these financial vampires  There really is no need for the average retail investor to pay a commission anymore, there are simply too many low-cost and no commission options out there, especially with the rapidly growing ETF world Recent Harris Research poll that revealed that 71% of Americans have bought a lottery ticket and 24% of millennials said they've spoken to a fortune teller, but just 33% of Americans have spoken with a financial planner

Josh is here today to discusses how he started out and where he is now. Josh also discusses financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast. The market is holding steady, but the softing of some business in the job market is a little concerning, though the federal government is trying to create a soft landing  The stock market is not a direct reflection of what is going on the economy Alabama could be a great place to retire

Michelle and Josh are here today to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast. Takeaways We work with investors of all sizes – should you describe an investment asset level? If so look at your ADV, I think it's $100k but be sure to say that you work with all sizes and you bet on the person, not the account balance The advisor needs to be able to produce something in writing AND easily describe how it works  Frequent disclosures, or complaints, that have a consistent theme, which FYI is usually around unsuitable investment recommendations or illiquid product sales

Josh is here today to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast with Jay Stubbs. Takeaways Jay has the esteemed credentials of CLU, which stands for Chartered Life Underwriter, meaning that Jay has high level training in life insurance and how that ties into estate planning In the past when the estate planning exemption was $2 million, or $1 million, or heck, just $650k at the turn of this century Trillions of dollars in tax breaks enacted by former President Donald Trump are scheduled to expire after 2025 if congress does not take action

Josh is here today to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast with JD Gardner. Takeaways When someone refers to value stocks, technically they are referring to companies that have a share price below what their fundamentals say it should be There are differences in tradability, tax efficiency and transparency between ETFs and Mutual Funds On average , stocks performed best during periods of stagnant inflation

Josh is here today to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast with Will Steih. Takeaways Along with financial advice, the show discusses lifestyle topics like travel, leisure activities, health and wellness, and overall well-being in retirement. Diversifying investments, minimizing taxes, managing cash flow, and preparing for unexpected events. Navigating the changing economic landscape and adapt to new trends in retirement planning.

Michelle and Josh are here today to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement living your best life along our part of the gulf coast. Takeaways: May Day park area, you can paddle board or kayak a lot of the creeks that feed Mobile Bay 11 Reasons You'll Fall in Love with Fairhope, Alabama Foley Beach Express Bridge tolls are set to end at noon on May 23rd