You may be getting ready to tuck into your favorite holiday movie, but not quite yet! There’s more to learn about Social Security, thanks to Retirement Equals Freedom’s very special Part III episode all about the gift that keeps on giving!

Host Josh Bretl, founder of FSR Wealth Strategies, is closing out the year with a recap and deeper dive into some of the variables we all need to weigh when deciding when to tap federal benefits.

He’s explaining the potholes that often trip up retirees and suggesting strategies to consider when making these all-important decisions, including a look at the financial legacies we want to leave and the amount of taxes we want to pay (or avoid paying) Uncle Sam.

You’ll also enjoy some fun revelations about how Josh and Dave (that’s co-host, high school bestie and all-around impresario Dave Schmidt) relax their minds (interesting revelations!) and why having a good coach is important when it comes to making tactical decisions (about both passing the ball and maximizing our assets in retirement).

Time to celebrate the season with more Retirement Equals Freedom wisdom – and a cup of good cheer! And we look forward to seeing you in the year ahead!

This episode was fueled by Cometeer Coffee!

Click here to learn more about or listen to previous episodes of The Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast. Don’t forget to sign up for the show’s new weekly email at this link and definitely come join the conversation at our new private Facebook group, which you can find here.

Click here to explore the services that FSR Wealth Strategies offers and schedule a discovery call with one of the team’s CPAs. When it comes to living your best life, it’s never too early to get started!

I'm actually going to argue this will

be the most important episode on social security.

And when you should take social security?

I tell this to clients all the time.

It's equal part science to art.

It's not a defined, " This is when you should do it."

It's also not like some floofy like, "Ooh, what about

this, or this, or this?"

backed by good logic and good numbers, but there's

a lot of unknowns that you have to kind of adjust for.

And so today I want to talk about those variables that

people don't think about.

Get your eggnog ready, y'all, cuz there's more

to learn about social security!

In part three of everyone's favorite topic, Josh dives

deep into things most people don't think about, before they

turn on their social security.

What are some common pitfalls that trip up retirees?

Are there any non-mainstream strategies that could help

you with this decision?

And what type of financial legacy are you

interested in leaving?

It's time to celebrate the season with more Retirement

Equals Freedom wisdom and fun.

This is The Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast, and your

host, Josh Bretl, is the owner of FSR Wealth Strategies.

And for the last few decades, Josh has been

helping fine folks like you thrive in your retirement.

And me?

Well I'm Dave.

Josh's longtime friend, co-host, and self-proclaimed Buddy the

Elf of the podcast industry.

So now let me, let you, let me end this introduction so

y'all can enjoy the show.

FSR Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor

located in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Information and opinions contained in this audio

have been arrived at by FSR Wealth advisors.

All information herein is for informational purposes

and should not be construed as investment advice.

It does not constitute an offer, a solicitation or recommendation

to purchase any security.

FSR is not providing legal, tax, accounting, or financial

planning advice in this audio.

These views are as of the date of this publication

and are subject to change.

Man, Josh, we are back in person and I'm

already feeling the flow.

I'm feeling the juices going here.

You were sick for a month kid.

All of November.

And listening to episode 27, you could hear it in my voice.

I sounded like death.

And this is the only time that I talk

to you wearing headphones.

And I get your voice, that it is in, now it just digs

deep into my ear canals.

That's kind of creepy.

Yeah, you like it.

Hey Erin, last episode we gave

a shout-out to Finn.

Did he hear it?

Yes.

He did.

He loved it.

Did he?

Good?

He was in the back seat and I could see his eyes.

Right before we recorded our last

podcast, Erin told me that Finn likes the song a lot.

We've mentioned that last podcast.

So in my head I went, "Oh, I'm going to bring that up."

And I didn't know if he heard it or not.

Yeah.

Good.

I mean, so Finn makes number, I don't know, what is it?

74?

He's the 74th on a list of people that want a signed

autograph t-shirt of me.

I think.

It's got to be up.

That number's got to be creeping towards the seventies now.

The other day we were, was with Maggie and she

said to me, she goes, "Dad, do you ever post something on

Facebook for your business?"

I said, "Yeah, Mags, we do."

And she goes, " Does that mean you're internet famous?"

I was like, "No.

We get a hundred people that look at it."

The mouths of babes.

Well if you remember at that age,

you don't think there's a world outside of your town.

And to know that there's other people watching

you is kind of amazing.

Actually, I don't remember at our age ever, I guess we

didn't have the internet so it didn't really matter, but you

just wanted to play basketball and hang out with friends.

I don't know.

So Dave, I got a really funny email.

Actually Erin, got this email and she forwarded it to me.

And this is from somebody who I talk to, frequently.

He is an avid podcast listener.

My dad.

Not your father.

I don't talk to him very often.

Alex.

Not Alex.

We don't let him listen to the podcast anymore.

Finn.

Finn?

No.

Finn.

I don't think I've talked to Finn much in the last year or

really ever for that matter.

But this would be my sister's father-in-law, Dave.

He is an avid podcast listener and he now has named himself

a friend of the show, and our official podcast fact-checker.

Ooh, quite the lofty

self-proclaimed title there,

Dave, actually, I'm a little embarrassed by

this because I talk a lot about social security and I tell a

story quite often during that, and I told it on a podcast about

the history of social security and where the age 65 came from.

This came from a reputable source, my story.

And it was all about Chancellor Bismarck and the railroad, and

I didn't dig further because I trusted the source, but

Dave, sent us a screenshot of clipping from the Social

Security Administration website.

And I was wrong, it did not officially come from

Chancellor Bismarck.

What?

I know, and this is years and years

and years of being wrong.

I mean my kids are right, apparently because

I'm not always right.

Okay, so what, come on, don't

leave me hanging here.

Let's dig into this.

So this comes from the social security website.

It's kind of interesting, but it says one persistent myth

about the German program.

It says...

We based with the German program, is that it

was adopted age 65 as a standard retirement age.

But in fact, Germany initially set age 70 as a

retirement age and Bismarck himself was 74 at the time.

And it was not until 27 years later, the

age was lowered to 65.

And by that time, Bismarck had been dead for 18 years, so...

Yeah.

But it goes on further to say what is the

origin of 65 as the age?

And it said at that point there was 30 states, that ran pension

systems and they had 65 as well as railroad retirement.

A lot of the actuarial programs inside of social

security is based off of railroad retirement, which is

pretty much social security for railroad employees.

They use 65.

So Dave Milburn, you are officially our show fact-checker

and I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm also kind of excited.

It means we actually have a fact-checker.

Do you think it had anything to do with the

fact I left such a lasting impression on him when I sang

Biz Markie on the podcast?

Dave, I'll see you at Christmas.

Let me know if you know who Biz Markie is, because I really

don't know who it is either.

So we're good.

Dave.

Dave, "Oh baby, you..."

I'm not going to do it again.

You can go back and listen to episode 25, I think six, 26.

But yeah, I've been known to sing a tune.

You have been known to sing a tune.

So we were talking a little bit earlier, we have this new

podcast table that we ordered.

It's going to be this really nice studio, we can do this more

easily and things like that.

And it's been taking a long time, but do you think in

the new year, and I'm going to ask you something that

you weren't planning on, we can commit to our listeners

to putting this up on video?

Yeah.

Josh, I...

Video, I've mentioned it before.

I adore video.

That's the whole reason we started a podcast.

I thought it was going to be exclusively a video podcast.

So 100%, I'm on board.

I will start going back and re-editing them for

video and slowly dripping them onto YouTube.

People don't even want them edited.

They just want to see us, and our beautiful

studio that we have.

Actually this is studio version

four from when we started.

I think we have four different settings.

Josh, listeners, let's do video.

Absolutely.

Now, there are a few different styles and I won't go into

the now, but maybe I'll play with the format a little bit.

Man, if you think I'm boring when

I talk about taxes.

Dave, talking about video podcast styles is really boring.

Oh gosh, you hurt my feelings so often.

But, you know what's not boring, Dave?

Taxes.

No, those are pretty boring.

Oh.

Social security.

Oh my God.

And it's so not boring, that I'm making

you do a third episode.

Don't worry, there is no fourth episode on this that

is really, really deep in the weeds, if we want to go fourth

episode on social security.

I have vivid memories of the

first two parts to this.

So I am on the edge of my seat.

What are we going to learn about today?

Well, I'm actually going to argue this

will be the most important episode on social security.

And when you should take social security?

I tell this to clients all the time.

It's equal part science to art.

It's not a defined, "This is when you should do it."

It's also not like some floofy like, "Ooh, what about

this, or this, or this?"

But it's equal part arts to science.

It's backed by good logic and good numbers, but there's

a lot of unknowns that you have to kind of adjust for.

And so today I want to talk about those variables that

people don't think about.

So the last episode, we talked about some of the

acronyms, PIA and FRA.

We talked about how social security is calculated.

We talked about what happens if you wait

longer, if you start early.

We talked a little bit about spousal income, but

there's other things that go into that decision-making

process, that you have to take into consideration.

Cool.

This episode hopefully can drive home

all of the things that we talked about before.

Social security is a large part of most people's retirement.

In fact, for well over 90% of the population, it can

represent the vast majority of someone's retirement income.

And so that decision is not something to be made lightly.

And there are lots of calculators out there on

Google that you can go out to and type in, "When should

I take social security?"

And where I find the most value in those calculators,

is if you have a complex social security situation.

So if you have a pension like a teacher in Illinois, but you

also worked on the side, so you have other earned income.

Or if you have a husband and wife and one has a big

social security one has a small social security.

I mean, there's some things that can be really helpful for.

But what that's going to tell you is always how

to take the most money from the US government.

What our argument is, is that it's not how much money you can

get from the Uncle Sam, but it's how secure and how comfortable

you can make your retirement utilizing social security.

So does that make sense?

Makes sense.

I do love the opening quote I put from last episode.

You said people think they want to get the most out of social

security, but that's not, that should not be their goal.

Yeah.

I'm not saying it's a mini, you don't want to minimize it.

You need to know how it works, but there's other

things that go into it.

So let's get into a few of those.

First is, you just plain need the money.

There have been numerous times where we've talked to someone in

their mid-sixties and maybe they just got laid off, maybe they've

been retired and they are drawing down assets like crazy.

They're spending their savings, they're spending their 401k

and they don't have a ton of it, but they're trying

to wait and wait and wait and take social security.

We've even seen situations where people are going into

debt, they're putting money on credit cards because

they don't have the income.

If that's the case, start social security.

I mean you need to live, But taking into consideration

your other assets.

So knowing what else you have, because this is where

the part art comes into play.

You don't have to start social security.

You can draw down your other assets and if you

have other assets that you want to draw down.

So if you want to draw down your 401k or if you want to draw down

your savings account or whatever they may be, that allows you

to let social security grow.

But you will get less years of it.

All right?

So knowing what other assets you have, making sure

they all work together and coordinating the distribution

is extremely important.

So this is where we've talked about this on a

prior episode, having an income plan really matters.

So tying social security in to where your income comes from,

is probably one of the single most important things you can

do in retirement planning.

Yeah.

Sure.

Now, here's another one that very

few people think about.

Is it important for you to leave money to your kids or

a charity or a loved one?

Or whatever it might be.

Or in your case, a really good friend

you've known since high school and you love dearly.

Yes.

Yes.

In that case.

Murray, really I want to take care of him.

Oh no, that hurt.

But there's a lot of people who, they want to

leave money to their kids.

They want to leave money to their grandkids, they want to

take care of somebody else.

When you start social security, you don't have a beneficiary.

The only person who benefits from you waiting is your spouse.

You need to take into consideration both

people's longevity.

But let's say you want to leave money to Landon.

All right?

You've got some money and you say, "Hey, I'm going to

wait till I'm 70 to start social security because

that's what the Google calculators tell me to do."

And between 65 and 70, you need to spend down your

massive 401k you built up.

So your 401k, let's, I'm using round numbers here,

starts at a million bucks.

And at age 65 and you have to draw down five years

worth to get to age 70.

All right?

Now, let's say you needed 60,000 bucks a year.

To live.

To live.

Now, because you haven't started social security, it's all

got to come out of your 401k.

So that's 60,000 bucks a year.

Now, your 401k, let's say because of market fluctuations

and everything is now $800,000.

Multiply that by 20, if you're talking

about me personally.

Yeah.

Personally.

Yeah.

Personally.

But that $800,000, you can't get back what you've spent there.

And so now you at age 70, you don't have to take out as much.

Maybe now you're only taking out $20,000 a year because you've

got social security to take up-

I see a good chunk of that.

Gotcha.

But you're starting from $800,000, whereas when, and

then at some point in time you pass away, you have a smaller

amount most likely that it's going to be left to Landon

and your other loved ones.

And just to be clear, social security,

unlike a pension, does not pass down to beneficiaries.

And pensions usually don't either except for spouses.

Spouses, do have a continuation on social

security in most pensions depending upon the election.

Got it.

All right?

But let's say, you start at 65 and or you start

your social security at 65.

Now, you're going to get less.

Let's say you're only going to get $30,000 as

opposed to 40,000 bucks.

But now we only have to draw down $30,000 in.

So we're drawing down less money, which leaves a larger

pot available to earn and to grow, and at some point

in time when you pass away, you will pass away with

a larger chunk of money.

I see.

I see.

Now, another consideration in this, and it

kind of goes along with it, is we're seeing this a lot right

now, is market fluctuations.

We talk with retirees a lot about sequence of returns risk,

where when you're drawing money out, if you start in a down

market, it has a huge negative impact on your retirement.

Well if you start social security, you don't have

to draw down as much and it doesn't have as great of a

sequence of returns risk.

So like the volatile market that we're having right now,

for a lot of our clients turning social security on, even though

it may get them less social security in the long run,

provides a heck of a lot more security because we don't have

as much sequence of returns risk in the assets being taken out.

Ooh man, this is getting deep.

I like it.

So I mean, Google's not going to tell you that.

Google doesn't know what's the volatility in the market

and what are you spending and where's your money coming

from and all that stuff.

This is where the equal parts art to science comes into play.

This is why I still use AOL

as my search engine.

They tell you this stuff specifically.

I want to know how many of our listeners still

have an AOL email account.

The last thing I want to talk about today, I think we

need a little bit of Alex.

Hashtag tax nerd.

Because even with social security, taxes

come into consideration.

I love taxes, Josh.

You never thought you would ever

have a career where you cared so much about taxes?

I was doing some research.

I think I might open up a tax related t-shirt shop online.

I think I can make it huge.

People just love to wear tax related quotes on their shirts.

Prove me wrong.

Well, let's talk about the two tax

considerations because they're a little different,

but they do go hand in hand.

The first is what we call strategic tax

bracket management.

And with 401ks and with IRAs that money is yet to be taxed.

So here's what we see quite often will happen and this

is a great situation to be in, but you could be better.

You retire in your mid to late sixties and you have enough end

savings or whatever it might be.

You don't need to spend your 401ks or IRAs and you don't

turn social security on.

Both of those are good decisions.

But you are really happy because you have minimal

taxes, because you're not, don't have wages, you might

have interest dividends and capital gains, but if you can

keep your income low enough, those are negligible and you're

just living pretty because, "Hey, I don't have wages, I

don't have social security.

I'm not taking money out of my IRA and 401k

because that's taxed."

Life is good.

But then all of a sudden you get to RMD age and

at RMD age, all of a sudden your social security gets taxed.

Your capital gains and your dividends get a higher tax rate.

And now because of all of that, it throws your IRA

and 401k distributions into a higher tax bracket.

So you went from zero to the worst possible case

scenario really fast.

And you were feeling really good a few weeks ago, a few months

ago, a few years ago, and now you're really, really hurting.

So what we preach a lot a strategic tax bracket

management where you want to recognize those taxes.

So one of the benefits to delaying social security is it

allows you to do larger Roth conversions because you're not

collecting social security, because social security does

get added to your income.

Okay?

So by doing that, it does allow you to do more Roth conversions.

Now, that is it pales in comparison to the taxation

on social security.

Is that the second part?

That's the second part.

This is part-

that's taxation on social security.

Taxation on social security, because social

security, it is that FICA tax you see on your paycheck and

that money has yet to be taxed.

It's not like your 401k, it's not like your IRA.

That's money that's yet to be taxed.

And when social security was signed to the law in 1935,

President Roosevelt promised us that we'd never pay taxes

on social security, while those rules have changed twice.

And now we have what we call the provisional income rule.

And so if your income is low enough, if you can keep

your income low enough and for a married couple it

comes to about $42,000.

And so how they do that is they take half of

your social security and pretty much all your other

income and they add it up.

And if you can keep it less than $42,000, you can get

away with zero to minimal tax in your social security.

And for a single person that number's 34,000.

Now, what happens though is with some strategic planning,

you're able to keep your social security low enough or even

time it to where we can keep your provisional income low

and you'll pay no taxes on your social security forever,

for however, as long you live.

But if you don't do anything up to 85% of your social security

may be added to your income.

So that could be, depending on what it is, that could

be an extra six to $12,000 a year in taxes that you pay.

Which means that money has to come from somewhere else.

So that's a legitimate tax that for a lot of people

you could avoid if you do some planning with it.

And timing of when you take out social security can impact that

provisional income calculation.

So that's a big one that very, very few people talk about

or think about, and Google definitely doesn't look at.

Dave Schmidt:

Definitely not Google.

Dave Schmidt:

We had an episode where we talked about where

Dave Schmidt:

physically to retire?

Dave Schmidt:

What state, if you're going to stay in the US?

Dave Schmidt:

So we're talking all about all these taxes and whatnot.

Dave Schmidt:

Does that also play a factor into this conversation?

It can.

I mean, it really can.

So let's say you live in a state that taxes social

security and there's less states that tax social security.

A lot more states taxed retirement income than

tax social security.

But let's say you're going to move to a state that

doesn't tax social security.

Maybe you want to wait a little bit because you'll get more

money, but that's not as big of a consideration, that's

more of a consideration as to where, And I did find out

recently, because we have a clients moving to Italy.

Social security is one of the few things Italy doesn't tax.

Oh wow.

I mean that's one benefit.

Italy taxes the snot out of you.

So that's a good one.

But I remember that, wasn't

it number 50% or higher?

It's 43% for where this client is moving to.

Okay.

So it is so fascinating.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

To wrap up our social security talk before I get to know

you a little bit better.

Yeah.

Because you barely know me.

Barely.

Yeah.

People have to take all of these things into consideration.

It's not black and white for most people.

There are occasions where it's more black and white,

but all of these things have to come into play.

And working with somebody who specializes and works with

social security day in and day out is immensely helpful.

So we get a lot of clients who did quite well their entire

lives, we're always able to manage a portfolio, but how do

you coordinate taxes and social security and income and all that

stuff in your consideration?

That it's normal, it's okay to ask for help

at that point in time.

this is why we specialize in retirees in our office, simply

because these variables become so much harder to manage at

that point in time in your life.

Let me reiterate something that

you all should know by now.

When Josh says, "We here in the office."

Not me.

If you come in...

You can see Dave if you want.

It's like a circus animal.

We kind of keep him caged up but...

I'm Josh's shining new pet.

Yeah, no, don't ask me questions on this because

I'll run away, screaming.

But I am impressed.

I mean, I was interested sitting here thinking about

this, your knowledge of our old shows and stuff.

I feel like you've learned more financial topics just

doing this podcast with me than I ever thought possible.

Yes.

Those are three nice considerations we

got going on there.

However, this is better.

"Hey Mr.

Josh, let's take a break.

You've been talking for so long and my ears are sore.

Let's not make them snore.

Listening shouldn't be a chore.

So let's get to know Josh and Dave and watch

our ratings soar!"

The bird's my favorite.

I think you actually started

the bird last week.

I think you did a cuckoo?

Was that me on the cuckoo?

I think it was you.

I heard it on the show.

Yeah.

I generally don't like to talk over those things

because I don't find myself funny in those situations.

But it was really good.

How do you feel-

cuckoo!

about me leaving in the part where

I almost died on camera?

I thought...

I did laugh at that.

It was so obnoxious, but I just couldn't

find it in me to delete that.

So I left it in.

Oh man.

I'm still finding chunks of coffee all over my

floor and my desk at home.

If we get this new podcast desk and you spit

coffee out of your nose and on all over it, I am really upset.

I'm in trouble.

I get it.

All right.

What you got for me, Josh?

Because...

All right.

Yes, you will not let me choose cards anymore, so.

I won.

I'd like to be in charge of it.

So now you and I have both talked about this.

We can both get stuck in our own head.

And so I was kind of curious to find out what you do here.

So here's the question.

What do you do when you want to get out of your own head?

What do I do when I want to

get out of my own head?

It has to just be one things, I do kind of have two go-tos.

Yeah.

Look, give it to me.

I could learn a lot here.

The first is, I am a big meditation guy.

I didn't...

Really?

Yeah.

So I'm not your typical, sit down and a pose, hold

your fingertips together.

But I have been this last year just been relying a lot on these

different apps on my phone.

It could be-

which apps do you like?

I like Calm.

I like Insight Timer.

So yeah, I love to meditate.

Could even be two minutes.

I found that it doesn't have to be so formal.

You could just literally just close your eyes and

just breathe for a few minutes and you're good.

The other one is video games.

I'm still a kid at heart, so that just

helps me just zone out.

Zone out.

Yep.

The world goes away.

Unfortunately, I found myself playing until two o'clock in

the morning the other night and I woke up realizing, "Yeah,

I'm not 22 years old anymore.

Can't be doing that crap."

So that's a great question Josh, how about you?

What do you do to clear your head?

Well, I too meditate.

I can tell when I don't do it enough because my head

gets cloudy and crazy.

But actually in the summer when it's nice out, I go, I'll get

up early and go for a long walk.

And there's a spot at Elmhurst College that it

sits right in the quad.

It kind of backs up into a corner and you're surrounded

by bushes and you look out over the quad and you see

Hammerschmidt Chapel over there, which is really pretty.

And I can sit there, 5:30 in the morning.

I'll meditate for 20 minutes or so and then I just kind

of sit there and space out.

And you can see the sun will come up and it comes over

and it hits Hammerschmidt, it's the most beautiful,

wonderful start to the day.

I love that.

So I didn't know you meditate every day.

Yeah.

That's actually cool.

Yeah.

See I learned something new, really new about you.

Funny story about Hammerschmidt Chapel.

Erin, I'm not sure if you were with us.

We were leaving our annual team meeting, and we are going to

our cars and Diane was with us.

It's you, me, Diane, and Erin and I can't remember who else.

And I'm like, "Oh!

I'm so turned around.

I just don't know where I parked or where I am."

And Diane looks at me, she points, she goes, "Dave,

that's where you got married."

Pointing to Hammerschmidt Chapel.

I'm like, "Oh.

Yeah, you're right.

My bad."

I told Carla and she could not stop laughing.

She's like, "You idiot, how could you forget?"

I'm like, "I'm sorry it was a long time ago."

but the other thing I really do, because I guess

we're both giving two here, is I will actually love to cook.

And Missy will know this sometimes she'll be

like, "You need to cook."

And I will spend all Sunday afternoon cooking, making a

giant disaster of a mess, and it just makes me so happy.

Now, do you clean up your mess

or does Missy kind of...

Well, since Missy doesn't actually listen to

this, I can say yes I do.

But if she ever does, she'd say, "Not well enough."

oh God.

We have this joke where Carla cooks like her mother and it is

just hazmat city in our kitchen after she's done kit cooking.

I mean, I never knew it took 14 spoons and eight knives

just to make a pot of rice, but Carla finds a way to do it.

Oh it does.

Not a doubt.

I mean it does.

It does.

We're now living in our basement and we have a

hot plate that you can't run at the same time and turn Zach's

fan on two stories above.

Or the Christmas lights outside are apparently

on the same circuit too.

So cooking becomes a lot more of an adventure right now.

Yeah.

So I was just sitting here thinking like, "Dave

relates to retirees, yeah."

There are many considerations a retiree and soon to

be retiree must make.

And you did a great job, Josh.

I mean, I commend you for presenting these three different

variables and considerations, but I can relate.

Oh good.

There is a time circa 1997, 1998.

I'm going back there.

Oh, we're going to high school.

Okay.

Going high school.

Where you and I played basketball together and there

were many considerations I had to make on a day-to-day

basis, whether it be practice or whether it be a game.

When it came to practice, I mean, I'm not sitting here

saying it's as important as you know, "Oh, do I have to

play basketball because one day I'll have a kid that I have

to give my basketballs to."

No, it was more like, " Hmm, I see Josh over there, he's

a beefy looking fellow.

Now, we're about to do a loose ball drill.

Should I just be nice or should I...

No I'm going to go tackle him."

So I made this decision to tackle you in the middle of

practice to prove to you that, "I am the alpha male here, I'm

a senior, you're a junior, I'm going to take you down son."

So I did just that.

Now, another consideration to make.

This is certainly way more important than tackling you in

practice was, we played a few minutes together on the court.

Not many.

A few.

And there was one point where I said, " I could pass to Josh

or I could take the shot myself and get just pad my stats."

And do you remember what I did?

Oh, without a doubt.

You padded your stats.

Incorrect.

This one game I passed you the ball.

I mentioned before in the podcast.

I passed it to you, you got the layup and I was mad at

you because you didn't point to me and give me credit for

giving you that pass, but I thought, "You know what,

Dave, be the bigger man here.

You're still going to get your 14 to 16 points.

Josh, well, he doesn't play that often.

Let's throw him a bone."

So that was a big consideration I had to make.

So Josh, I can't imagine there's any way possible to be in touch

with retirees as much as I am.

So what do you think?

So David.

Yeah.

We were discussing before we started the

podcast how you were going to relate to retirees and

I thought, I know where he's going to go with this.

And, did I?

I was right.

Oh, man.

I didn't think he'd bring out the loose

ball drill again, but-

It's one of my finer moments in life.

It is equal parts art to science.

For a retiree, they have to worry about themselves

and they have to make sure that what they want to have

happen is taken care of.

And sometimes it's difficult to actually understand

what you want or what you need in retirement

to make those decisions.

Kind of like you on the basketball court.

I mean, are you going for fame and glory or are you

going to try and win the game?

Or be a good teammate?

Yeah.

I mean either way.

But even if you were trying to be a good teammate and pass

it to me, I mean my shooting percentage was pretty darn

low, even from 10 feet away.

So there was that to consider too, but it's

not all black and white.

Yeah.

I get it.

As we said there.

That's a nice gray area.

So, I do hope that the retirees are as

happy with their decision as you were to pass to me.

But like us on that team, we had a coach and the

coach said, "David, good job passing that ball."

He sure did.

And you made a good decision.

I did.

Well, if you retirees, if they need a coach,

now is a great time to do it.

Whoa.

Did not see that one coming.

No.

That one just came out of nowhere.

Great job, Joshua.

Well, so we just finished our third

social security episode.

I don't have a fourth in me.

And I actually think this was the best social

security episode we've done.

So hopefully your editing makes it sound that way.

If it doesn't.

It's your fault.

My fault.

This episode will post a few days before Christmas.

So those that celebrate Christmas, Merry

Christmas, Happy Holidays.

All that good stuff.

I am a little shocked I didn't get any mentions of my necklace.

Well, I know since this isn't going on video that

I didn't have to bring it up, but this is the third time I've

seen Dave in the last week, and every single time you've

had that specific necklace on.

And what am I going to say?

I mean, that hasn't been said already.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, I aspire to be like Buddy the Elf.

I'm just in the Jolly Holiday spirit.

You are a little buddy the elfish.

I'm a little buddy the elfish.

Yeah.

So this is not a Christmas episode per se.

I know we thought about doing one like that,

but maybe next year.

Yeah.

I mean, we went with taxes instead.

That there's a gift that keeps on giving.

But what's your go-to Christmas movie in your house?

Do you guys have one as a family you traditionally watch?

Well, I just learned this, that whenever

my kids go to my parents' house, they watch Elf, which

I think is kind of funny.

I didn't realize that.

My mother apparently loves Elf.

You know what they love, is on Disney they have these little,

I think they call it Mickey's Christmas or something, and

it's three or four, 10, 15 minute little things all in

a row, all about Christmas, and they just love it.

So it's one of their favorites.

Also, The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix.

Yeah, those are really good.

Yeah, Kurt Russell is the best Santa ever.

He is awesome in that.

Even I get stuck, I sit there, I'm like, "Oh

man, I love the show."

yeah.

For sure.

We're just Christmas movie fanatics, all of them.

We watch all of them.

However, this Friday night, we just watched a Christmas

Story Christmas, it's a sequel to Christmas Story on HBO

Max, Carla and Landon fell asleep within 10 minutes

because they were overtired.

I loved it.

I had low expectations going in.

Really?

I laughed so hard and through some cheesy

moments, but I thought it was really well done.

It did not take itself too seriously.

Highly recommend it.

And it's safe for our kids.

I mean, there's a couple bad words, but it's a solid PG.

Christmas Story Christmas.

Yeah.

Nice.

It was so good.

Okay.

So anyways, Josh, I hope your kids don't

see Mama kissing Santa Claus.

And with that we will say, bye.

Holly Jolly Josh.

That's great.

That was a pretty good one.

That's a good one.

That was a really good one.