Dave and Molly Sept 8 Numerica Jon Maroni

0:00We now return to the Dave and Molly show. Hey, welcome back everybody. Dave and Molly show continues. Look who here, our friend John from New America Credit Union. Normally, we just hear him on the phone, but now you get to see him in person. I know, I am a real person. I'm here. I am in the flesh. We always get to learn about stuff like what's about like once a month or something. Yeah, absolutely. We usually talk money once a month. Yeah. One is very timely because I did not know this, but Friday is national 401K day. Yes. Less remember than 9.11, obviously, but yeah. And not something, yeah, not something that a lot of people are thinking about. But I think it's an important thing is that that 401K can be a game changer in terms of financial security for folks in term. Sure. Yeah. Let's talk about that in terms of people like us. Okay. Fair enough. Obviously. So, had a 401K and then when you get dismissed early, then it turns into an IRA because nobody

1:00else is going to get into an IRA. But now, so, and then because nobody else is contributing, it's just me now. So you turn it into an IRA, but you're talking about 401Ks that people can start themselves. So, does that work? Well, yeah, there are a lot of different retirement options. The most common one would be the employer provided 401K and losing it so powerful is sometimes it comes with a match and it has, you know, things like if you're making student loan payments, you can sometimes get the match from your employer, which is really cool. But yeah, so for folks who don't have access to an employer plan, there's lots of options. They can open up an IRA or individual retirement account. They come in a traditional or Roth flavor as I call them. And really, that just has to do with when you might want to pay the taxes on those. Do you want to pay them now or later? And so for a lot of folks who have paid them now means, you know, no less income taxes in retirement. And the Roth, you pay the taxes upfront. And then when you get the money later, it's free money. Absolutely. And so it can be especially powerful for young adults because they, you know, you're going to be in a low tax bracket now, especially if you're just starting out and you might be

2:02making more money in retirement. So, so there, I think one of the things, there's always options for folks. Even if you're doing like Uber or DoorDash side hustle stuff, there's still options to begin to saving for that retirement. Okay. So, then we just go, do you go to an American say, hi, I want to talk about my 401K? Oh, it's a great question. Yeah. So, so for folks, again, so for folks who have a 401K, one of their best resources is going to be their plan provider, whoever options. So like in America, we have a fidelity is our plan provider and you can get access usually to a lot of resources for free. And so, because again, your employer is paying for that plan and so, and they want you to be successful. And so that's going to be your best option. So talking with your HR team or whoever manages your plan, because a lot of folks, they, you know, they don't understand what is this thing? How does it work and how can I really take advantage of it? When you're almost always, in fact, I think always, always, you want to max out on the number that you need to hit the match. Yes. Because that's the free money. It's great. Yes. In this life, if anyone wants to offer you free money, the answer is yes.

3:02Yes. And the nice thing about a match is employer is saying, hey, based on what you contribute, we'll match it dollar for dollar up to a certain amount. Right. Common, it can be common, maybe a 4% match. So first, you know, 4% of your paycheck. And then the powerful thing is your employer might be doing, you know, half of the heavy lifting for you, which is a pretty generous thing. And so, yeah, if we can, now some folks can't yet afford that. So they have to slowly build up to it. But plans have lots of flexibility, like some have an annual increase option, where you can automate it to where, hey, I wanted to increase 1% per year up to a certain amount. So you don't feel the pain of that paycheck as much as doing it all. And you can have them take it out. Just let's say you're on your own, like we are. You know, so it's up to us to create our own retirement plan, but you can still make it so automatically just gets taken out of your bank account every 30 days or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like so for myself, you know, for a time I was not working a traditional job. I was a freelance writer doing financial writing. And so yes, I set up my Roth IRA to just do automatic withdraws and then contributing

4:05into the investments that you picked inside of it. And so, you know, I always like to think about money as we're trying to kind of get it into a lazy river. You know, I was just at Silverwood. So I'm thinking about this. I'm like, hey, this is moving us along and it's improving our financial situation. And the automatic contributions, just like you said, can be a real good way that we do that because it's just building in the background and moving you towards that long term financial goal. And then with the market the way it's been, it's just everything is growing. Things have been, yes, that is true. I know it's so interesting, right? Because, you know, when folks are looking at the prices of things, you know, the economy is really challenging. Yes, when you look at the market itself, it has been, we've been in a very healthy market for quite a while. And so one of the ways that, one of the benefits of 401Ks, it lets you participate in that. Life is really expensive. But right now the market has done well and we want folks to participate in that at the same time because otherwise the price of gas, the price of housing, the price of healthcare, the price of groceries, that's going to be incredibly challenging if we're not participating

5:07in that growth that's happening at the same time. So. Years ago I did the 509 for my grandson. Oh, the 529, yeah. Oh, yeah, 509's are, are you about half? That's amazing. Anyway, I do $50 a month. That's all I've ever done. That's great though. So it is built up. He's 13 now. By the time he's ready for school, what I love about that too is if he doesn't want to use it for education, one of the other kids can use it. It's transferable. And you can use it for all parts of education, for housing, for my family. It's really flexible. Oh, yeah, you've talked about that before. Remember, we talked about that before. And cool thing as well is if there, if a grand kiddo or a kiddo or whoever, like so yeah, I have one for my six year old daughter. If there is the option to begin to roll that over into a Roth IRA for them solely over time. So it's up to 35, it's up to $35,000 lifetime. And then you have to, it's based on the max contributions into a Roth IRA, which I think is about $7,500 a year. It's like, you know, a 22 year old who graduates and let's say there's still 35,000 in that

6:07529. So 26, they could probably have all of that rolled over if they're working. So that's seed. So the nice thing about that 529 is it can be a kiddo's first retirement account. Yeah. So that's kind of how I'm viewing it for my daughter. If she doesn't need it for college, which we'll see. Yeah. It can be a good option. So there's a lot of flexibility with those. Yeah. Yeah, I like that part about it. It doesn't have to be a traditional just, you know, okay, you're going to a university and you're definitely doing it if it's a trade school and you have it at a beauty school, whatever. And there, you know, there's all sorts of different ways to kind of slice and dice that creating financial security for yourself in the future. I mean, one of the things, again, this isn't related to 401Ks, but health savings accounts or HSAs. I did that. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So if you're on a high deductible health plan that has an HSA, that is one of the only true tax free accounts you can get money you contribute. You don't pay taxes on. You can invest excess proceeds if you want to. And then if it's used for healthcare for you or anyone in your family, you don't pay taxes on the withdrawals.

7:07It's all pre-tax free. So if you're like, I want to avoid all the taxes, the HSA can be a good option. So I did that. And then I had a lot of dental stuff come up this year. And it was perfect. It was like, well, just use that. Yeah. And so, and I think, you know, one of the things that I always tell folks, because, you know, we've thrown out a lot of different terms, right? And it can feel really daunting like, okay, 401K, HSA, 529. There are often resources, especially at your credit union or at your employer that can just help you understand how to maximize those things. And the number one thing I always say to folks is, small financial moves made now that are given time to work and make a big impact. You talked about it with the 529 plan for your grant. 50 bucks a month can translate into much more, depending on the circumstances. And so, you know, people always say, oh, when should I kind of start this retirement journey? It's like, well, of course, the best time was however many years ago. But the next best time is today. Right. And so whatever we can do today, even, you know, logging into your account, if you haven't looked at it in a little while, maybe increasing the contribution, if you're already contributing or if you're not, they just take it to 1%.

8:07And so we know life is really expensive. But if we can make some small moves, it can make a big time impact. I like that. Today's the next best day. Absolutely. I mean, it's true for so many elements of life, right? Everything, yes. Everything. I meant to go to the gym yesterday. Okay, you didn't go to gym yesterday. Today's the best day. Right. And so I think it can feel like it's like one of the things I'm doing this year, I'm teaching a personal finance class at the community school for a semester. And we're giving, and we're giving students some, we're taking a small, investment portfolio, splitting the class into two groups. And each of them is going to manage $1,000. And they're going to invest it over the course of a semester. Okay. And we'll see how they do. I did this with students in this spring. And they did well. They generated about an 8% return. And so I think, you know, so many people, they haven't gotten to experience that investing piece. And so what I'm always telling those students is, hey, this is going to feel intimidating, but we want to get over that fear so that we get into it because there can be significant potential benefits to it. And so, yeah. And so I'm hoping for the years, young folks, they'll be like, I know exactly what a 401K

9:07is because I talked to that gentleman. And it goes right back to the 401K because usually you can't, as a, just a regular person, you can't buy into the stock market. But you can with a 401K, you can manage different parts. And I want a more aggressive one or I'm a young person. I got lots of time ahead of me. Absolutely. I can, you know, take a long road. So what's your hot tip? What's the hot? What's what's happening? Oh, man. Oh, well, you know, don't give a specific investment advice. But what I would say is, I think the number one thing I would offer to folks is, and I said this to students in the class, this class last Friday, I said, many people are scared of losing money. Right. I genuinely understand that. The reality is, in our lifespan, we're all going to lose some money. And you're going to see that balance go up and down. It's going to happen. So if we can embrace that and get over that fear, we can get into that 401K and we can use it to our advantage. And time is always your friend. Time is always your friend.

10:08And you know what, I'll, again, I keep using this example of students, but I'll ask that, you know, one of the things I'll also ask them is, hey, what is a resource that you have a lot more of than I do? Now it was hilarious in my last class. One student said, hair. Wow. Because he had glorious flowing locks. I was just like, this kid is amazing. And then another one said, I think time was like, yes. And so when you have time, time is the most powerful financial resource that anybody has. And I don't, I don't even think money comes close. And so, yeah. So a small financial moves that are given some time can make a big difference. I like it. Yeah. And then you have all this information online, where do people go if they want to? Yeah. There's lots of good resources. Yeah, if you're looking for new America specific resources, go to numeracuscu.com. You're going to go to the financial wellness section of our website, which is right up there on the top page. We have options for, you know, connecting with New America financial services, which is the investing portion of our credit unit. Lots of articles on what is a 401k? What is a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA? And how do they work? And I think just, again, what I would offer to folks is if you feel like you don't have

11:09someone you can connect with, the place that you're keeping your money is one of those resources. Okay. So you connect with them and say, hey, I'm just looking for some advice of what I can do. Who can I connect with? Right. So, yeah. Well, this is all very good information. Yeah. It is. I always learned something when we talk to you. Yeah. That's very generous. I think, you know, normalizing money conversations is one of the things that I live for. And so anytime that I can do that, I consider it a real honor. And I didn't know that you were freelance financial writer. I had, yes, I wasn't a past life. So my- What are you writing about? Well, that's a great question. So my journey into banking is very eclectic. I went to college. I studied theology and religion and ministry. And I became a youth pastor for four years. I went to grad school for pastors. But one of the things I was just interested in how money worked because I knew I wasn't probably going to make very much. Transparency. And so my wife and I started a financial blog for young adults. It was called Two Copper Coins at the time. And it was really just us writing about our own finances. So paying off our student loans, learning how to invest for retirement when we were in

12:10our 20s, buying rental properties, which is something we did. And then when we moved to Spokane, I had a gentleman that I met who was in the military and he was looking for financial wellness resources for veterans. And so I started doing some side financial writing for him. And so, yeah, he owned a business called Military Crash Pad, which was, which provided rentals for, uh, airmen who were going to be deployed like, you know, for maybe six months to a year by a particular, uh, military base. Oh, oh. And so he was like, hey, we just want to help them level up their finances because they have, they make quite a bit. They're young and they tend to spend a lot of it. And I was like, no problem. And so that was kind of, and then my journey into banking kind of evolved from there. I thought, hey, I just, I'd like to be able to talk to people about money in a, a lot of professional capacity. And so thus I've landed where I am now. So. And then how long have you been at New America? I've been at, I started there in March of 22. So just over four years. Okay. And it's been, I mean, one of, one of the things I love at New America is we, we kind of have that combination of, you know, we're a credit union. So money is our business. But the, we want to normalize financial conversations and we want to use the money that we're able

13:13to generate as a credit union to make a real, um, impact in the communities that we serve. And you guys are doing that. Yeah. Me and a man everywhere you turn, America's doing something great. I work, it makes me very proud to work for you. Yeah. So yeah. So that's my journey into, into banking. I didn't like, if you ask people at New America, many of us did not intend to get in banking. It wasn't like our, what we thought about in college, but, um, but I think it, it creates a really cool flavor of folks that we have. So I just, I just like normalizing those financial conversations and so. You got a lot of good people there. Yeah. I would agree. So I feel lucky to be among them. All right, John. Thanks John. Thanks for having me. Yeah. And I love it. Yeah. Be here all the time. Oh, I'll do my best. Yeah. That's better when you come in. And then tomorrow, they'll be a pig in your seat. So, oh, well, oh, say, so you're upgrading your guests then. I mean, I can't compete with that. We are seeing pancake the pig and everybody we tell about pancake the pig. They have the same questions. Oh, hi. Is this like a little Sebastian phenomenon from Parks and Rec River. And it's like, I'm obsessed with pancake the pig and they're like, yes, you're here. I'm not sure.

14:13Okay, you're going to find out. I don't know how big pancake it. Oh, okay. That's, I don't know that if you could lift pancake, or pancake as a walker. Yeah, all I know is that if there's going to be a pancake the pig and studio, we've got to make sure that people see them. Okay, like I don't want to, I don't want to be down here. I said, oh, trust us. There's a big right down here. You got to get them on camera. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if you figure it out. I think we have another chair. We have another chair. We put pancake up on a chair. I don't think if he's too big or she, I don't know. Can we hold him? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I guess they tuned for it tomorrow because you're fine now. Well, and also we could maybe move the camera if he has to stay on the ground. We could move the camera around. And then we could also do Facebook Live and stuff too. The more like straight on pig thing. No, wait, what day is that again tomorrow? Tomorrow. Okay, all right. I'm going to have to make sure I tune in because I got to see it. If you hear, if you hear us go, oh, not in the carpet, all pancake, then you'll know something went wrong. Fantastic.