Your Wealth & Beyond

Whether you’re an individual working for a company or a business owner, you need to understand your 401(k). Along with Social Security, your savings, and a few other key assets, your 401(k) is probably going to be the single most important account you have.  Today’s guest, Brian Hartstein, is the Director of Corporate Development here at Bayntree. For nearly 30 years, his passion has been retirement planning, and he has extensive experience answering all kinds of tough questions about 401(k)s. In this conversation, Brian and I dig into why it’s so important that people understand these assets, how best to take advantage of them, and the major mistakes people make as they create (and manage) their 401(k)s. In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:  How eliminating pensions in the 1970s and early 1980s put the onus on employees to save for retirement. Why choosing to take ownership of your retirement funds, as opposed to putting them on autopilot, is likely to help you retire with much larger accounts. Why not

Whether you’re an executive speaking in front of your colleagues, an entrepreneur leading a sales presentation, or even just talking with your friends, at some point or another, you’re going to have to speak in public. If you’re like a lot of people, it might terrify you – and the COVID-19 pandemic requiring almost all of our meetings to be virtual probably hasn’t helped. Fortunately, there are self-proclaimed speech geeks like Terri Sjodin out there in the world to help us improve. Terri has spent the last 30 years working to help people and businesses build and deliver more polished, persuasive, and effective presentations – and, since March, has focused her work on the tools and technologies you can use right now to forge more authentic connections. Today, Terri and I are talking about the shocking mistakes that tons of professionals make when they speak in public, as well as sharing some techniques you can use right now to become a better speaker, no matter where or how you’re meeting.  In this podcast in

Do you want to give more, but feel like you need hundreds of millions of dollars to be a great philanthropist? Are you wondering how to be a more effective giver in your community and the world at large? Are you wondering how to teach the younger generation the value of giving?    If so, today’s episode of the podcast is for you. On this Giving Tuesday, we’re doing a show all about philanthropy. Our guest, Kris Putnam-Walkerly, has spent over 20 years advising families, individuals, and Fortune 500 companies on how to create game plans and roadmaps to help them be more effective givers.  In our great conversation, Kris and I talk about what you can do to change your mindset around giving, how we can all help each other get through tough times like the COVID-19 pandemic, and how to stop thinking in terms of scarcity and embrace abundance - in both our giving and our lives.  In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:  The difference between someone who simply donates money and someone who uses their philanthropy

No matter who you are or where you grew up, there’s a pretty good chance that you didn’t learn enough about financial literacy in schools. Whether you own a business or you’re a young professional considering starting one, knowing how to avoid the mistakes that will haunt you for years to come is incredibly important in the early stages of running a successful business. My guest, Tracey Bissett, has spent much of her career helping people become financially fit, with a special focus on entrepreneurs. On countless occasions, she’s walked people through the nature of profit and loss, how balance sheets really work, and what sustainable cash flow actually looks like. She’s also had to help people navigate extraordinarily tricky situations caused by a lack of understanding. Today, Tracey joins the podcast to talk through the mistakes she’s seen many entrepreneurs make, things you can do right now to get on top of your financial game, and what you should be thinking about in the months, years, and decades to come

More than ever before, local businesses and small business owners need your support. If you’re a business owner, I’m sure you know this by now; if you’re a consumer, you’re probably wondering what you can do to help your community and stop big chains from taking over even more of the landscape. For the last 15 years, Thomas Barr has been helping communities answer these questions. Thomas is the executive director of Local First Arizona, an organization here in Phoenix that provides business owners with networking, education, and guidance on how to operate more efficiently.   Today, Thomas joins the podcast to talk about why the odds have always been stacked against small business owners, how the COVID-19 pandemic has made things that much tougher, and what you can do to support your favorite businesses in this precarious time. In this podcast interview, you’ll learn: Why shopping locally as opposed to with a chain store has such a big impact on your community. How seemingly unrelated local businesses can inn

Most people are better at planning a vacation than they are planning for retirement. People think of it as something far off that they ignore for years or decades. They make major mistakes, choose products that don’t suit their needs or meet their goals, or fail to take advantage of the opportunities provided to them.  Sarah Holden understands well why this happens. She worked at the Federal Reserve Board, where she analyzed the US retirement system and studied the retirement market. She now is at the Investment Company Institute, where she is focused on researching what people do at the beginning and ends of their careers as they plan for and transition into retirement.    Today, Sarah joins the podcast to talk about how to turn the daunting prospect of planning for retirement into a multi-step process, the important questions you should be asking your financial advisor at every stage of your career, and the three keys to success when it comes to saving for retirement.  In this podcast interview, you’ll lear

The Retirement Red Zone is a critical point for those getting closer to retirement. Similar to the distance from the 20-yard line to the end zone in football, this is a place where it’s so important not to make mistakes.  This phase is crucial to ensure that your retirement will be stable and you’ll have a chance to truly enjoy your “golden years,” no matter how much you’ve saved, accumulated, or stored. Without a game plan, it may all blow upon you. Today, we’re talking about the common mistakes that people make in the Retirement Red Zone, the risks that are out there, and how to avoid making them. In this episode, you’ll learn:  Why social security and investments are the two means that most people now have to get them through retirement. Why longevity and healthcare costs are the biggest risks in retirement.  How many retirees fail to understand how their financial situation changes after they retire - and why not knowing how much money you truly need in retirement makes this worse.  How to optimize your

We’ve all been there: you’re at a business conference or a dinner. You get introduced to a handful of people, you introduce yourself, you hear their names, and within two minutes, you completely forget all of them.  One person who hasn’t had this problem for years is Chester Santos. Chester won the US Memory Championship over a decade ago and has spent the last 15 years training individuals, business owners, and executives how to use simple tips and strategies to remember names, information, and even entire presentations without notes. You don’t need any innate talent for memorization to be great at it - you simply need to spend a little bit of time training this muscle.  Today, Chester joins the podcast to share and demonstrate tactics you can use right now to improve your mind and your memory.  In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:  Why anyone can develop a powerful memory with practice - and why Chester says he was merely “above average” when he first learned about the US Memory Championship.  The prov

To say that we’re living in interesting and unpredictable times is an understatement. For business owners and leaders, this is especially true. However, no matter what industry you’re in, or what you do, there’s still no tool more powerful than a team that’s ahead of you and allows you to focus on your unique ability. They give us the power to grow our businesses without giving up even more of our time and to see our visions through.  Gina Rainey understands this better than almost anyone. She’s the leader of AE Coach at Advisors Excel, where she specializes in “total practice management.” She helps advisors bridge the gap between leaders and their employees, and has helped countless businesses struggling with a lack of structure and high turnover become high-performing organizations.  Today, Gina joins the podcast to share what business owners can do right now to lead their companies, be the person that their employees look to, and get through these (and other) difficult times together.  In this podcast inte

With schools, camps, and colleges either closed or reassessing the safety of operating as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been spending more time with our kids than ever before. My 14-year-old daughter, Winter, has been helping me out at Bayntree, and has taught me a lot about TikTok, YouTube and how Gen Zers think about money along the way.  Today, Winter joins the podcast to share what Gen Zers think about retirement, money, and what she’s doing (and what we’re doing) to help her get a better understanding of money.  In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:  Why Current helps kids go beyond a basic allowance to track their spending, set budgets, and learn the value of money. How to explain Social Security payments, the pension system, and retirement funds to your kids.  How to teach kids about investing by putting focus on companies they already know about.  What makes Zoom so good for business but a difficult replacement for traditional schooling. 

Like never before in our lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has us facing the same challenges, no matter who we are or where we live. Virtually everything about how we live and work has been changed by the pandemic, and it can be harder than ever to feel like you have control over your life.  For years, Dr. Jen Hartstein has been helping people get and stay on track. She’s a New York City based mental health specialist, a contributor to Yahoo News with past appearances on Today and Dr. Oz, and the author of Princess Recovery: A How-to Guide to Raising Strong, Empowered Girls Who Can Create Their Own Happily Ever Afters.          Click HERE to request a copy of the book.  Today, Jen joins the podcast to talk about what you can do to take back control, break through the noise, and focus on your physical and mental health during tough times. We can’t control what the pandemic will look like, but we can control what we eat, our rest, and how we feel.  In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:  Why we benefit from predi

Social Security is a massively important asset to build a comfortable retirement. You don’t want to outlive your money or your lifestyle, and it’s very possible to do both. The Social Security code is even longer than the tax code, there’s so much misinformation out there, and there are countless tricky situations you can end up in if you don’t position yourself correctly. This is why I’m thrilled to be speaking to Larry Kotlikoff. He’s the one person I look to on a daily basis when it comes to Social Security. He’s the author of Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing our your Social Security, a professor at Boston University, and the founder and president of Maximize My Social Security, a software tool you can use to find the best strategy to increase your benefits. Today, Larry joins the podcast to discuss the importance of patience when it comes to Social Security, how to time your benefits to get the most out of them, and the nuances and details of the program that so many people have questions about. I

The CARES Act has made massive, sweeping changes to our tax system and our business landscape. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an employee, someone who was recently laid off, or a retiree, you probably have big questions about the programs available to you. How can you best use your money to get through this trying time, and how will you keep up with the constant influx of new information? To help you make sense of it all, I’m thrilled to bring my friend Liz Mason back to the podcast. She’s the editor at the Tax Practice News as well as a serial entrepreneur who has built five companies. She’s been reading, watching, and synthesizing the vast amount of tax news over the last month, and she can explain what’s going on far better than a TV news pundit or a low-quality article that doesn’t teach you anything useful.  Today, Liz takes us on a deep dive into the Paycheck Protection Program, disaster loans, and retention tax credits for business owners. We also dig into how retirees can make the most out of their r

Congress just passed the biggest stimulus bill of our lifetime. The CARES ["Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security] Act is a massive bill of all bills, totaling in the trillions of dollars, and it’s going to have significant impacts on us as business owners and individuals as we work together to get through this tough time.  Today, I want to address the big questions you may have about the bill: how will it affect your retirement, and what’s in there for you as an individual?  To help you make sense of the chaos, weed through the noise, and take advantage of what the government is doing to prop up the economy, I’m thrilled to bring back my good friend and mentor Ed Slott, President of Ed Slott and Company. Ed is one of the best sources for IRA advice, someone I’ve known for over a decade, and a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal.  In this emergency episode of Your Wealth & Beyond, we dig into how the CARES act will affect your 401(k) and IRAs, the updated rules concerning deadlines, co

The SECURE Act of 2020 made some of the biggest changes to retirement planning in the last decade. Business owners and employees alike have a number of options, opportunities, and potential issues to consider in the wake of these new rules and regulations, and great advice can be the difference between saving big and missing out.  Joining me today to talk about these developments is Brian Hartstein. Brian is Bayntree Wealth Advisors’ Director of Corporate Development. He has over 30 years of experience handling 401(k)s, CPAs and CPA firms, and pension plans, and even worked in his family’s third-party administration firm’s office when he was a middle-schooler.  Today, Brian and I talk through how the SECURE Act is changing tax planning and what you should focus on and look at as you review your plans and make changes. As an added bonus, if you have a retirement planning question for Brian that wasn’t covered in today’s episode, email us at info@bayntree.com and he’ll answer it, no commitment necessary.  In th

This SECURE Act is the biggest change we’ve seen to retirement policy in the past decade. While many of these new rules and regulations are designed to help your retirement dollars grow a few more years and last you even longer, they almost all but guarantee that you’ll need to revisit your plan and make some changes in order to make the most of your money.  In this short episode, I’m walking you through the SECURE act, why now is a great time to revisit your retirement and estate plans, and what you need to look at and update to avoid missed opportunities.  In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:  How the changed age requirement for required minimum distributions impacts retirees, when it goes into effect, and the types of accounts affected. What the death of the Stretch IRA means for beneficiaries and how to revisit your trust or estate planning to address this policy change.  How to use qualified charitable distributions to save on taxes. Why you need a cohesive retirement plan now more than ever.

Though many simply think of them as a jam band, the Grateful Dead are one of America’s longest-enduring, most unique, and best-performing businesses. Over the course of a career that has lasted over five decades, they have created a culture, a highly profitable business, and a mindset out of organized chaos. Furthermore, they have survived as a leaderless organization and cemented their legacy in the decades following the death of founding guitarist and effective bandleader Jerry Garcia in 1995.  If you want to look to numbers for proof, consider the fact that the band made over $50 million almost exclusively from touring and merchandise sales in 1994, and that Dead & Co., the band’s current incarnation led by John Mayer, grossed over $40 million from ticket sales alone, not including merchandise, in 2019. Joining me on today’s podcast is fellow Deadhead Brian Mohr. He’s the founder of Mohr Impact Group, a consulting firm focused on organizations who want to unlock the potential of their people by honing

There are more scams, major cybersecurity incidents, and cases of identity theft happening now than ever before in history - and countless opportunities for you or your loved ones to be taken advantage of.  Few people understand the ins and outs of these scams better than Steve Weisman. Steve is a highly respected cybersecurity expert who has built a career helping people protect themselves, both online and off, and is the author of The Identity Theft Alert, The Truth About Avoiding Scams, and many other books. He’s a professor of white collar crime at Bentley University, a sought after public speaker, and a frequent guest columnist and expert for outlets including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and networks such as ABC, CNN, and MSNBC.  Today, Steve joins the podcast for a must-listen episode. You’ll learn why keeping up with cybercriminals is a never-ending game of cat and mouse, the common security mistakes that people make that can lead to massive financial and personal consequences,

As we approach the end of 2019, I wanted to take some time to talk about Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). For those approaching the age of 70 ½, the government requires that you start taking out a portion of the money in your retirement accounts that you've been deferring for all these years.  Understanding what’s required can get complicated - and a lot of times mistakes are made. So, today I’m going to walk you through the top 10 RMD mistakes, goofs, and blunders to avoid.  #10: Rolling Over an RMD You cannot roll over your RMD. Let's say you have a $100,000 IRA account and your RMD is $3,800. You have to take that money out and pay taxes on it. You can do a lot of things with it - put it in your bank account, use it to travel, pay a credit card… But the one thing you can't do is roll it back into your IRA account (or another one for that matter).  Be very careful of that, especially if you have a 401(k) plan that is requiring you to take the RMD out.  #9: Husband & Wife Combining RMDs Another com

No client has ever said “I want to pay more in taxes.” However, many business owners make financial decisions that are effectively choosing to give more money to the government, especially when it comes to retirement planning. Few people understand this better than Brian Hartstein. Brian is the Director of Corporate Development here at Bayntree Wealth Advisors, and he brings more than twenty years of experience to the firm. His areas of focus include tax, business, and retirement planning as well as all types of specialized and general insurance procurement and planning. His approach consists of educating clients, as well as working with their accounting and legal advisors, to create efficiency in their overall planning thereby enriching their personal lives and the lives of their families. Today, Brian joins the podcast to talk about how solopreneurs, small and medium, and large business owners can build plans to meet their needs, retain employees in this time of extremely low unemployment, and be proactive