Preview:

Delta paid out a large profit-sharing bonus this month, which is great for those pilots who received a check on Valentine’s Day. The question we get a lot when these bonuses get paid is what should you be doing with it?

 

 

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More About This Episode:

We wanted to shoot this short video to provide some general guidance for pilots who have some extra money to invest or save. It might not be specific advice but it should give you some ideas for how you’ll use the bonus. We’d love to talk to you more about your investment strategies if you have additional questions.

 

Resources:

Retire Pilots – https://retirepilots.com

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Pilot Tax – https://pilot-tax.com/

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Connect with Pilot-Tax: https://pilot-tax.com/

 

Episode Transcription:

(Note, this is an automated transcription. Please forgive any errors.)

Walter Storholt  00:01

Welcome to the pilots advisor with Ryan Fleming of first officer with FedEx on the triple seven at the hill. On this show will delve deep into tailored financial strategies, insights and wisdom crafted exclusively for those who rule the skies will help you navigate your financial flight plan with the same mastery you exhibit in the cockpit, prepare for takeoff into a journey of financial clarity and empowerment. The pilot’s advisor starts now.

 

Ryan Fleming  00:33

Hello, Delta pilots. So I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions from all my delta clients. And I’m going to send this out to prospects as well. But obviously, you guys just got announced a really nice profit sharing, check coming up. Congrats to you guys. That’s amazing. That’s awesome. But I’m getting asked what would you do with it. So take into account that none of this is specific investment advice for any of you. This is overall generalities. And if you haven’t seen the shorts that I’ve done with Zack Smith have pilot tax on the new cash balance plan. And also retro checks and how to handle those. So you don’t have any tax surprises. I had a long discussion with him about these profit sharing checks as well. And so I wanted to tell you, in general, what I would do long term and of course, this is always us strategically tax planning. If it was me, I would go ahead and put the whole thing in after tax, and but making sure that those after taxes are set up for automatic conversion to Roth. And the reason why I would do this is I want as much Roth money as I can, prior to retirement, I want to stuff as much in there as I can. Because obviously, you know, the company is going to keep putting in their tax deferred contributions throughout the year. The biggest problem that I see for Delta pilots, once they get to retirement is the different pots of money they have. And many especially the older guys have way too much tax deferred money where we don’t even know how much the government is going to take. Okay, by the time you retire, that might be 50%. I don’t know. But that’s the way I consider it. That’s why would go Roth. Obviously, if you’re just looking for just this year, and you wanted your adjustable gross income to be less, and you wanted all that money tax deferred, well, then you’re going to be wanting to put it in pre tax or something like that. I highly suggest you talk to a CPA or financial advisor about this. You could talk to Zach Smith at pilot tax or any CPA that you work with. But I wanted to get a few things out there let you guys know the way I would look at it. Because in retirement, it’s less about how much money you have saved. But what pots of money those are in whether it’s tax never or tax deferred, because the numbers could be drastically different. But somebody with a lot more tax never money is actually in a much better position of control and not having to pay taxes where you might not have control of what tax bracket you get pushed into, especially with the pension. And then when RMDs hit many of you with too much tax deferred money. You don’t even know it yet. But you have a ticking Tax Time Bomb, no different than if when you’re in airplane and you look to the guy to the right or left of you and you know, you’re about to get slammed dunked and he has no clue. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. And that’s a scary place to be in. Congrats on the profit sharing check guys. If you have any questions for me, obviously always reach out why safe talk to you soon.

 

03:34

Information is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax investment or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified investment legal or tax professional before taking any action