Preview:

In an era where retirement depends on an individual’s ability to save, the statistics tell us that America has a real problem. Ryan saw a few stats on tv recently that raised some major concerns, and it’s time to address the root of the issues.

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More About This Episode:

Today we’ll share the numbers that caught our attention and talk about the steps pilots need to be taking to ensure they aren’t falling behind.

The reality is that 50% of Americans have saved nothing for retirement. This staggering figure raises critical questions about financial literacy and planning, especially within the pilot community. While pilots may have better access to retirement savings plans, many still face challenges when it comes to saving adequately. Discover the importance of starting early, the power of compounding interest, and practical budgeting tips that can lead to a secure financial future.

Here’s what we cover in this episode:

0:00 – Intro

1:30 – Are pilots in better shape?

3:58 – Savings tools

8:13 – Forced discipline

11:15 – Getting help


Resources:

Retire Pilots – https://retirepilots.com

Get your FREE Retirement Toolkit – https://bit.ly/3ZmZsaX

Pilot Tax – https://pilot-tax.com/

The Pilot’s Advisor Podcast is also on video. Watch & Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3EIEBW2

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

Episode Transcription:

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

Walter Storholt: Foreign of the pilot’s advisor is here, Walter Storholt alongside financial advisor to the Pilot world, that being, of course, Ryan Fleming. Ryan, good to talk to you. How are you?

Ryan Fleming: Amazing to talk to you, Walter. How you doing today?

Walter Storholt: Yeah, pretty good. Looking forward to what you’ve got on the table for us. You know, sometimes we come in with a plan, folks, and sometimes Ryan surprises me. He just rolls the ball out there and says, I’m gonna, I’m gonna. I got something for you. And that’s today’s episode.

50% of Americans haven’t saved a dime for retirement at all

Ryan Fleming: Well, I just wanted to talk about something I saw today on tv. And I’m not saying everything on TV is fact checked or what have you, but what it was. 50% of Americans haven’t saved a dime for, uh, retirement at all. Nothing a dime, and don’t plan to.

Walter Storholt: So there’s no savings for 50%.

Ryan Fleming: Yeah. And then the other, the other statistic was that 48% of Americans have saved $10,000 or less. And I’m always saying that I don’t think people have a clue how much they truly have to save to produce that income in retirement. But when you start seeing those figures, and I think the last one that they talked about was that, uh, for Americans 55 and over, there’s still 40 million Americans still working because they have to. And, you know, I just see some of these figures and it makes me go, wow, you know, not only, I think, are individuals not prepared for retirement. That just goes to show you how big the problem is that we have half of all Americans that aren’t saving at all for retirement.

Walter Storholt: Yeah. Now, in the pilot world, you’re not running into those kinds of figures. Right. I mean, that’s, that’s certainly the large population numbers, but I would imagine pilots are in a little bit better shape. Or do you still see some of those lack of savings habits creeping into the pilot world?

Ryan Fleming: Well, I think no, we have a little bit different situation because in most of the airlines, um, their companies are putting so much money into their 401k for them, what we call B fund contributions, where it matches, you know, 15, 19. It just depends on the company. Say 19% of anything you make is automatically going into the 401k. They got a lot of those after the airlines went bankrupt and lost their pensions. So obviously you don’t have a pension anymore. But how many companies out there actually automatically save for you for retirement? So pilots are in a much better spot because of that. But even beyond that, depending on how early you started, you still might be behind on saving.

Walter Storholt: So you still see this problem creep into, into the pilot space. So I, I would imagine there’s a dangerous game here where you could see that on TV and obviously be motivated if you’re in that group that hasn’t saved to hopefully start saving. But I could see a negative impact where you might look at that and say, well, I’m way better than that average, so I should be in good shape. Uh, and that could be a falsehood.

Ryan Fleming: Well, I mean, pilots in general like to, you know, procrastinate, kick the can down the street. And trust me, I get contacted by many pilots that are, they’re in their 50s and they’re finally thinking about it, going, whoa, I can’t do this forever. I’m, um, way behind. I started late. And of course that makes the pain that much worse because you have to be that much more aggressive. And you know, if I could scream from the top of the hills. Time is the biggest factor with saving for retirement. So if you can get that, you know, that person that’s in their 20s or 30s and get them to start saving at all, it is way better in the long term. And you know, I think, Walter, you’ve been fiscally responsible over the years through some of our conversations, and just starting early changes everything.

Walter Storholt: Yeah, you really start to see the impact as you spend more time in the market. Um, it just really starts working for itself over the years. So it can be painful at first when you’re not seeing that kind of initial growth and you go through maybe some downswings in the early on days. But boy, it’s really helpful to see that long term impact as those savings increase over and over into the future. And uh, it does take discipline though, to make sure you’re not touching that, robbing those retirement accounts to go out and do fun stuff. So we’ve got to be aware of kind of a lot of different pitfalls.

Ryan Fleming: Well, absolutely. And I mean, you know, when we have, uh, qualified accounts, whether that’s a Roth IRA, an IRA or a 401k, the whole reason why the government allows you to do that is they’re trying to help you get to retirement. And that’s why there’s a 10% penalty for you to rob those funds because you’re basically saying, hey, I agree for these special tax treatments and I won’t touch it till I’m 59 and a half. So they’re trying to help you out. But you know, of course in many cases we are our worst enemy. And I see people liquidating Roth IRAs, 401ks, taking loans out against 401ks, you know, and I get that life happens. I get that inflation’s a big issue, but, uh, some of it’s just simple budgeting. I mean, I look at what my parents survived off of and I’m amazed we were able to eat. Um, but a lot of it is just budgeting, personal finance. And of course, I’m not really sure our, uh, children are getting that education at schools.

Walter Storholt: Yeah, I know that can be a bad word, but it’s incredibly valuable if you take the time to, even if you don’t go live off the budget, run the budget, like, see what you’re truly

00:05:00

Walter Storholt: spending on items, and it can make a huge difference, at least getting the awareness of what’s going out the door. I actually, I’d been meaning to do this for a couple of years, Ryan, and, uh, I know I’m not a pilot, but I think this is pretty universal. And, and I knew I was overspending in some categories. And so on January 1st of this year, while watching college football, I brought out the spreadsheets and I busted out different categories. I went through the entire year of spending and put everything into the categories and saw some areas where we could easily, easily start trimming and without even really disrupting the lifestyle much. And so that’s our big goal for this year, is to continue to stick to that plan. We’re not living off of a strict budget, but we identified four or five areas where with just a little bit of cleanup, we’re going to be able to add a, uh, significant amount to our savings on top of what we were already doing. And it was like, boy, that’s a no brainer. Why wouldn’t you make that trade?

Ryan Fleming: Well, uh, I’ve been married long enough to know that, uh, wives don’t like budgets. So I’m sure she was not happy with you that day. Kids don’t like budgets. Um, but the power of compounding interest is all about building that snowball. And the bigger the snowball you get, the more savings you get. You start seeing the true power of that. But you got to get there early. And, uh, I mean, when you start seeing it, you’re like, oh, my God, I wish I would have been smarter with my money. I wish I would have saved, started saving earlier. And, you know, we talk about it all the time with Starbucks and the $8 coffee. I mean, that alone, if you cut.

Walter Storholt: Starbucks one of our five areas, uh, for me it was Ziggy’s, not Starbucks. But local. Local chain to our area. Ziggy’s. Um, but, yeah, I had to cut back from the six to seven times a week to the three is my goal. And it’ll make a dramatic. It’ll cut that expense in half.

Ryan Fleming: Well, absolutely. And, uh, you know, I think a big problem we see today, too, is buying these extravagant cars, trucks that are $80,000. And then you’re strapped with this big, uh, car payment. Yeah, you look really good in that truck. But guess what? It’s not helping you get where you need to get. So you can put your feet up and retire at 65 and not worry about anything.

Ryan’s retirement toolkit is tailor made for pilots like you

Walter Storholt: Attention, aviators. When you’ve spent years in the cockpit managing the complexities of flight, isn’t it time you navigated your retirement with the same precision? Introducing retirepilots.com right at your touchdown zone. Uh, on our homepage, there’s a beacon flashing. Get my free toolkit. Click that, and you’ll be cleared for a direct route to Ryan’s retirement toolkit tailor made for pilots like you. Inside, you’ll find two of his important works. The Pilot’s Advisor and Pilots Retire early. Between these two books, you can decipher the nine critical decisions when retiring before 65 and discover the seven lessons to help pilots land safely in retirement. But that’s not all. This toolkit is packed with altitude high value, including extras to get your retirement plans off the Runway and, and light the afterburners on your 401k.

Ryan: Start early and save and aggressively for your retirement goals

Vector on over to retirepilots.com to grab your toolkit, and let’s embark on this journey together. So, um, I’m hearing that the lessons are start early. If you didn’t start early, let’s get aggressive, and let’s really. Not just the importance of a plan and of a true outline of your goals seems to become more and more important. Maybe when you’re in your 20s and 30s, it’s all about just put money away best you can, throw as much in there as you can, try to increase it as you go through the years. But if somebody’s waited until they’re in their 40s or 50s, uh, it sounds to me, Ryan, like, that’s when it’s really important to m. Meet with somebody who can put you maybe on a strict plan to start saving, see what’s realistic and kind of, I don’t know, the more we can put that pen to paper in that plan, so to speak, maybe the more serious we can get about execution.

Ryan Fleming: Well, and I always talk about the forced discipline force Yourself, to pay yourself first. It’s one of the oldest financial laws from back in the day is to pay yourself first before you pay any other bill. You get a paycheck, pay yourself. And what does that mean? I mean, I think they started with like, hey, save 10% of whatever you make. Put it away for retirement. I would argue put 20% away. And the reason why I say that is if you do that and you do it while you’re young, it becomes habit. And if you’re putting 20% away at some point in time, you’ll see that you’re ahead of the game. And if you’re way ahead of the game and you’ve already built that snowball, you’re in the driver’s seat now, you’re not playing catch up. And the worst thing is, is to see somebody in their 50s that started late and they realize their back is against the wall and the time factor is not there anymore. So, uh, you know, the walls are kind of closing in on you, and you’re going to have a drastic change in the lifestyle that you wanted to live or the lifestyle you’re living now, because the numbers just don’t add up. And it’s a very sad thing to see. And, uh, I don’t want anyone to have that stress. And that’s why I try to preach starting

00:10:00

Ryan Fleming: early and saving and aggressively save.

Walter Storholt: The sacrifice of saving 15% versus 10% or 20% versus 15%. If you can squeeze out those extra percentage points earlier in life, you’re not going to feel that pain a ton. And in those early years, and then if you stick with that habit, you’re not going to feel that pain even as your income increases with when you get older. But, yeah, the pain’s gonna be huge. When your advisor says you’ve gotta save 50% of your paycheck or more in your final 10 years of working in order to even have a chance of getting close to your retirement goals. Or even worse, you’re not gonna be able to achieve those goals that you’d set out 100%.

Ryan Fleming: And just having leverage and being in control changes everything. It’s kind of like having a, uh, emergency in the air, flying an airplane, and your airplane’s not on fire, but you have a ton of fuel. You have all the time in the world. Take a deep breath, talk about it, look at the books, even call maintenance, call the company, and just try to figure out the best way to handle the issue. Um, you know, having fuel is. It eliminates a lot of stress. Uh, same thing in the financial world. I mean, 98% of all the problems out there can be solved with money. That, uh, 2%, that’s what you got to really focus on.

Walter Storholt: Okay, very good.

Ryan: If your GPS has gone out, you’re flying blind in retirement

So to kind of wrap this one up, Ryan, if I’m a pilot and, uh, you know, my GPS has gone out, my coordinates have gone out, um, I’m flying blind a little bit. My goal is to get to retirement, but I’m kind of rudderless, so to speak. I’m mixing metaphors all over the place.

Ryan Fleming: But, yeah, no worries.

Walter Storholt: If, uh, if that’s my situation and obviously, if I come talk to you, I’m thinking I’m going to get that direction, I’m going to get that roadmap. I’m going to get that ability to get on track.

Ryan Fleming: Yeah, I see where you’re going with this. And if you’re lost or you’re nordo or, uh, you know, if you like, I think about this in the flying world, where you’ve lost essay, you’ve lost situational awareness, uh, or you have the bends, it’s time to, it’s time to fess up. Put your hand up, say, hey, you take the airplane. I need some help. Best, uh, way to do that is go to retirepilots.com, order our free retirement toolkit. You’ll get a couple books I’ve read, you’ll get some other nice, uh, treats and golden nuggets in there, and we’ll start looking at your situation and come up with a plan going forward. Let’s, uh, just not kick the can down the street. It’s time to come up with a plan and start taking control, uh, take control of the airplane so we can help you land safely in retirement.

It’s easy to remember retirepilots. com in the show description

Uh, once again, retirepilots.com yep, retirepilots.com we’ve.

Walter Storholt: Got it linked in the description of today’s show. Whether you’re watching on YouTube or listening on your favorite audio podcasting app. Uh, again, just check the description or the show notes section and you’ll find that link. It’s also very easy to remember retirepilots.com Ryan, thanks so much for the help on the episode today. We’ll catch up again soon.

Ryan Fleming: Always enjoy talking to you, Walter. Hope you’re doing well out there in Colorado. We’ll talk to you soon. Information is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax, investment, or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified investment, legal.

Walter Storholt: Or tax professional before taking any action.