Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 06.02.26 Ask An Advisor With Wes Moss About this episode Should You Help Your Adult Kids Buy a House? & 5 Things You SHOULD Spend More On Is helping your adult children buy a home a smart investment, or a threat to your retirement? In this episode, Wes Moss breaks down the harsh realities of today's housing market. With the median age of first-time homebuyers skyrocketing past 40 due to high prices and interest rates, more parents than ever are wondering if they should step in with down payment assistance. Wes shares the specific dollar amounts where helping your kids starts to negatively impact your happiness and retirement security, and why shifting your mindset from "spending" to "investing" changes the game. Also, Wes shares the story of "Around-the-World Robin" to illustrate why we often feel financial guilt even when we are totally on track – and outlines the five things you should actually consider spending MORE money on to maximize your happiness. Mentioned on the show: ROTH CONVERSION DECISION TREE Plus, Mallory shares your #AskWes questions and Wes gives his take. All this and more on the June 2, 2026, Ask an Advisor episode of the Clark Howard podcast. Submit your questions: WesMoss.com/ask We hope you enjoy our weekly Ask An Advisor episodes. Let us know what you think in the comments! Learn more about Wes: BOOKS BY WES MOSS Wes Moss, CFP® Wes Moss - Clark.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 You've spent your career building a retirement nest egg. Now, where will your monthly income come from? Meet the Simplify Target 15 Distribution ETF. Ticker XV. Designed to target a 15% annualized distribution rate paid monthly. The target isn't guaranteed. Distributions may vary and the rate isn't investment return. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information. Visit simplify.us/nestegg to learn more. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest. Distributor, Forside Financial Services, LLC.
0:41 Speaker 01 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
0:53 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
1:01 Speaker 03 Welcome to the Clark Howard Podcast. We are here with Ask an Advisor featuring Wes Moss.
1:08 Speaker 04 Where's Krista DeBias? She's on vacation. She deserves it and we miss her, but she'll be back soon.
1:13 Speaker 03 Man, I'm ready for her to get back, but you know she's going to come back better than ever.
1:17 Speaker 04 She will be better than ever, which will be awesome. And, but it's great to have you, Mallory. Great to have you here.
1:22 Speaker 03 Appreciate being here.
1:23 Speaker 04 I know we've got a lot of questions today. We're going to dive into, and then two topics. But the first one we want to start out with is this very simple question. Should you help your kids buy a home?
1:37 Speaker 03 I know a lot of kids who would tell you the answer is probably yes.
1:40 Speaker 04 Please.
1:41 Speaker 03 Absolutely.
1:42 Speaker 04 I know what kids will say, but the question is, should you help? And then we're going to talk about five things in retirement that you might, you maybe should be spending more on.
1:52 Speaker 03 Are we allowed to talk about this on this podcast? I'm pretty sure it's only spend less, isn't it?
1:57 Speaker 04 It's only spend less, but there are a few things that really lead to retirement happiness or help support it. That, I'm not saying money's buying happiness whatsoever, but the financial. And it's really about financial and lifestyle habits that I've, I continue to study and have for 15 plus years. And I want to share some of those.
2:19 Speaker 03 Oh, I'm intrigued.
2:21 Speaker 04 Some of those ideas. Some of it has to do with travel. So I think this group is going to be excited about that.
2:25 Speaker 03 Are you telling me that I should spend more money on fun things and not just like the really basic necessities?
2:31 Speaker 04 Well, we're going to see. You're going to have to wait till later in the podcast. But again, I've been researching this for so many years. The Retire Sooner Method, I almost said my old book. The Retire Sooner Method is now, for the first time, available.
2:44 Speaker 03 Oh, where do they find it?
2:46 Speaker 04 Same place everybody finds every book, which is basically just on Amazon. But if you do get the Retire Sooner Method, it's still in preorder state. There are three or at least three different bonuses that you would receive because you're buying a preorder.
3:02 Speaker 03 Oh, well, can you, can we hear what they are? What are these special bonuses?
3:05 Speaker 04 You came up with them, so I'm not sure. One I know is the Retire Sooner Method workbook. Number two is a video that I have done that has the charts, some of the charts in color, and it explains the methodology of the five steps in the Retire Sooner Method.
3:20 Speaker 03 It's a GPS, the Retire Sooner Method GPS video.
3:23 Speaker 04 Global Positioning System. So again, this is a book about happy retirement and getting there sooner. It's the five secrets of America's happiest and unhappiest retirees. So if you get it preordered, there's that plus, there's one other thing. Oh, a signed, signed book plate.
3:38 Speaker 03 Signed book plate, yeah.
3:38 Speaker 04 But if you do preorder on Amazon for the Retire Sooner Method, you can go to retiresoonermethod.com to claim those.
3:46 Speaker 03 Love that one. When does the book come out and what is it about?
3:49 Speaker 04 Not until this fall, but it is available now.
3:52 Speaker 03 Okay, okay.
3:53 Speaker 04 It's exciting. I'm excited.
3:54 Speaker 03 It's very exciting.
3:54 Speaker 04 But let's talk about this topic. Should you help your kids buy a home? Here's why we're struggling with this in America. And I've had a lot of questions about this with families that I work with over the last couple of years. It's come up more and more. It's because, first of all, we all know that the price of housing has essentially doubled over the last, call it half a decade or so.
4:12 Speaker 03 I think anybody who's been shopping feels that.
4:14 Speaker 04 Dramatic, right? CPI, the Consumer Price Index is up over 30% over the past five years or so. But the price of housing is up even more than that. And depending on where you are, it can be even worse than that. So we've had this giant surge in home prices. And we know that it's unaffordable relative to how it used to be when we were all younger. Because of the numbers, we measure first time home buyers and their median age. And it's essentially, if you go back, let's call it 10, 15, 20 years, it hovered in that early 30s range. It was not uncommon for somebody in their late 20s to be able to buy a home.
4:55 Speaker 04 And then it kind of crept up and it's floated around that age 30 median first time home buyer age. Now it's over 40.
5:03 Speaker 03 For the first time home buyer?
5:04 Speaker 04 First time home buyer, median first time home buyer. It takes forever to be able to buy a home because home prices are so much. Number one, and number two, interest rates are now much higher than they were during that zero interest rate environment that we had for so long. So of course, we know that it's a double whammy, one, two punch, if you will, higher prices and then higher mortgage rates, which make the payments more difficult to be able to make and afford. So that's the problem.
5:30 Speaker 03 Why is that a problem?
5:32 Speaker 04 There are very few things in America besides our 401k that help us get started on building wealth. That's the problem. So I look at the generation today, we're going to go back 15 years. And let's say you could buy a home when you were 28. Well, you still own a home today and you're now in your late, mid to late 40s. You've been able to accumulate great home equity during that period of time. And that's a great advantage for the generation that was able to do that. What I worry about is over the next decade, for people that continue to have to put off these home purchases, they're not able to build equity in a home and they continue to pay rent. And renting is not always a bad option, but it certainly doesn't allow you to build any wealth.
6:14 Speaker 04 And the longer that gets delayed, and we see it in the numbers, it's been essentially a decade delay, the harder it is to be able to be in a financial position to retire sooner, which is I'm against not being able to be in the position to retire sooner. So how do we solve for that? Well, of course, adult children are saying, hey, mom and dad, can you help me with this purchase? And mom and dads are saying, hey, do you want me to help you with this purchase? But it's a big one and there's a lot of thought that should be put into it. That's what we're going through. So number one, I feel as though, and I've done a lot of research over the years around financially supporting our children and what that does, how that impacts retirement happiness.
6:59 Speaker 04 Adult parents support their kids. It's a sliding scale because they're 100% on our payroll. Then they go to college and they're still mostly on our payroll. And then there's that long transition time. Some it's not, and some it's quick. But for a lot of families in the United States, because it's expensive to live in America in the big city, it takes a long time for folks to be able to get fully financially independent. So our parents almost have to do this declining scale of financial support.
7:29 Speaker 03 So you're saying that for Larry, I'm going to be putting the bill for him for years now?
7:33 Speaker 04 Well, no, because I think you've started the year zero savings plan.
7:37 Speaker 03 I did, I did. I'm not, you, you talked about that and I was like.
7:40 Speaker 04 Year zero savings plan for baby Larry. By the time he's 18 or 20, he's going to be in great shape. But most of Americans are not in that position. And so families that were able to buy in their twenties, let's call it a generation or two generations ago, they're in the position to maybe help. However, just getting your retirement on your own, that is tough for a lot of families too. The financial support data though, and how that relates to retirement happiness is, is very clear as well. It's not uncommon and it's not a terrible thing to help your kids out, your adult kids. But on a limited basis, and I see, once those numbers get to the point where families
8:22 Speaker 04 are spending over $900 per month on average, I do see it impact happiness levels for the mom and dad, the adults, or the close to be retirees or the retirees. If you're spending closer to 600 or less per month, then I don't see it impact happiness. It's kind of a, maybe a little bit more maintenance. And then I look at this as the danger zone for families that we've measured that are in that $2,500 per month range, which is tons of money. You add that up over the course of a year. I see a big impact on happiness at the parent level because they're now sandwiched. They're struggling. They're struggling to help their kids to afford life. And they're probably sandwiched because they're adult parents.
9:07 Speaker 04 Their parents, the sandwich generation, they need maybe potentially help as well. So I think it's good to keep that in context. It's okay to support our adult kids, but too much support gets them overly dependent. And that I think can be a problem because it leads to these financial fights, financial disagreements between mom and dad, between dad and daughter, dad and son, mom and daughter, mom and son. So it just creates these financial strain. So I'm kind of advocating for two separate things here. When it comes to housing, if you're thinking about helping your kids, adult kids buy a home, it's not so much that you're spending money on the kids. Because it's very different that, hey, I need to get a better car, mom and dad.
9:52 Speaker 04 I need to join a country club, mom and dad. I need this extra fancy school, mom and dad for our kids. I need to go on this vacation and I've spent all my money elsewhere. So I need help, mom and dad. That's spending support that can lead to real financial strain between parents and adult children. So I would advocate against that at all costs because we want our kids to be financially independent. And as you can imagine, that gives us a sense of, wow, our kids are in good shape. And as a parent, there's nothing more that you want in the world than my kids are in good shape. If we're spending and helping them live a lifestyle that they can't really afford on their own, that's a problem.
10:34 Speaker 04 But when it comes to housing, I look at it a little bit differently or very differently is that when we're purchasing a home, we're not really spending money. Sure, we're spending, money's overflowing.
10:45 Speaker 03 That's an odd, odd way to frame that. Hang on.
10:47 Speaker 04 We're investing money. We're investing money into an asset.
10:51 Speaker 03 Okay.
10:52 Speaker 04 And we are investing money into an asset that should at least, at least somewhat appreciate over time. Yes, in the comments, you're going to say, there's insurance that doesn't come back. There are utilities that doesn't come back. There are property taxes that doesn't come back. Well, a lot of those same things, property taxes as an exclusion, are the same if we were renting. So if a parent shifts the mindset to I am helping invest in this home. And depending on how you want to structure the ownership, you are allowing your adult children to be able to start to build some wealth and build some equity. First thing, if you're going to help kids with a home, there should be a mind shift that
11:35 Speaker 04 you're helping them with an investment that's not just spending, even though there's a part of each of those. It's, in my opinion, it's much more about helping them invest. Now, there's a couple of other keys that I would look at here is that this is the three point test. One, can the adult children carry the home and the payments and everything that comes along with that?
11:57 Speaker 03 You really don't want to pay that $2,500 a month, I guess, for the mortgage.
12:00 Speaker 04 Correct, because in my opinion, that's helping support a lifestyle on an ongoing, ongoing, ongoing basis. Two, mom and dad need to have their own oxygen mask on first. Your retirement needs to be taken care of first, and this shouldn't impact that in any detrimental way. And then the third is a softer piece of research that is less numbers based and more proximity based. Happiness levels rise when we live in close proximity to at least half of our adult children.
12:31 Speaker 03 I love that one.
12:32 Speaker 04 Now, as a parent, I don't know if this would get into bribery, hey, I'll help you buy a house if you stay within the state. But I can tell you with great certainty, if you live in Pennsylvania and all three of your kids move to California and all three of them want help to buy a home, I give you permission as a parent to say, I don't think so. It's just too far away and I'll never see you. Kids closer to home, I would probably be a little bit more interested in helping. That is a very real issue in retirement. There is, it's very rare to see a good situation where a family is in 20, 10, 15 states away from all their kids.
13:15 Speaker 04 It just doesn't work, at least for mom and dad. Kind of not a great situation. So I'm a big believer in proximity. You don't want to live with your kids. You don't want to live necessarily on the same street with your kids, but you do want to live within some sort of distance where you're able to see your kids and your grandchildren. I'm a very big believer in that, whether it seems like... Favoritism, but it's okay. And by the way, let's say you have four children and you, you could always choose your favorites to live near.
13:48 Speaker 03 Someone with four kids.
13:50 Speaker 04 So think about this, the carry. The carry means that you have the determination, probably let's start, start first, your own oxygen mask, meaning that the amount you're going to be able to spend on the down payment, invest in the down payment should be totally fine within your own financial plan. That I think should go without saying your oxygen mask on first before you're helping your adult children. And if you can afford to help with that down payment and it help invest in that down payment, then that will help you manage for the kids what they're able to afford monthly. So number two, you determine the down payment, which will also determine what the payment is monthly on the home. And
14:35 Speaker 04 our adult children should be able to carry that on their own. So it shouldn't be, I'm going to help invest in the home with a down payment, which could be a large number, but I'm also going to help you carry this every single month. That's when we get into problems. So I would say that you're better off financially as a family with less conflict if once you helped with the down payment, the adult children are able to support that housing lifestyle, whatever the payment ends up being on their own without having to come back every few months to say, I need money, I need money. Again, that leads to conflict. So put all that together. I think this is a story. Should we help our kids buy a home?
15:18 Speaker 04 And the answer is it's going to be different for every family. When we make the mindset shift towards we're going to help invest in the home, if I can afford it for my retirement, mom and dad can afford retirement, then I'm fine to help you invest if it still works and it doesn't make it so that mom and dad have to work for extra years just because of the kids. It's a tough housing market. It really is. What's tough is that it delays wealth accumulation. And I don't think it's a bad thing to look at our family, to some extent, as a holistic family finance. I would vote for most people, if you can help your kids afford a house, otherwise, then I think it's a wonderful thing to do.
16:03 Speaker 03 Well, I love that. I think that makes a lot of sense. Well, on the note of wealth accumulation, should we get into some questions?
16:08 Speaker 04 Let's get into some Q and A.
16:09 Speaker 03 Let's get into some Q and A. All right. The first one we have is Bill from Arizona. He wrote in and he asked, Wes, I am planning on retiring next month, but my wife would like to work a couple more years. She is not 65 yet and eligible for Medicaid. We have $2 million in IRA slash 401k and would like to start moving it to a Roth account or use it for spending. As I have been earning well over 10% lately, it's been 16%. As it is growing, I think I can withdraw $200,000 each year until RMD, age 75, and stay under the 24% tax bracket. Do you agree with the strategy?
16:46 Speaker 04 There's a chart that we should put up and we'll do this as soon as we're done this show. We'll make sure you see this chart. But there is a chart that we've recently been using that has proven to be super helpful for folks when it comes to should you or should you not do a Roth conversion. It's essentially a decision tree chart. And it starts at the top. I will see if I have a copy of it here. It starts at the very top with this one question, which is, is your current marginal tax bracket less than 24%? And he mentioned, Bill mentions the 24%. If the answer is no, the decision tree takes
17:26 Speaker 04 you down a path where it's likely not ideal or less ideal to think about Roth conversions. But if you say yes to that, if you answer yes to is your current marginal tax bracket less than 24, then the decision tree takes you down another path where you may end up a strong candidate to do a Roth conversion. That's what Bill is really asking here. His wife is working. He's stopping, but his wife is working.
17:53 Speaker 03 Correct.
17:53 Speaker 04 All right. I would say two things here. One, I think that you're answering yes, Bill, to that decision tree, which is You're already under 24. I like to think of these conversions as only filling up certain tax bracket buckets. And usually I don't want to see people fill more or pay more than that 24%. So that's the right way to think about this, Bill, is that you you're converting X amount per year and you're still staying under at or under the 24% tax bracket. The only caveat that I would say is that if she's only going to work another year or so, you all still have that income.
18:35 Speaker 04 So you've got a little bit of a double whammy income with your wife's wages, even though you're not working, you're going to retire soon. Then anything you convert is income. So if you convert another 100, 100,000 or more, 200,000, whatever that number is, that's just like wage income when it comes to filling up your federal tax brackets. So I would be inclined to A, don't go beyond the 24 bracket. B, maybe wait a year until she, because I assume you'd be filing jointly. And with your wife's not working and you're not working, you probably will have a couple of years where your income is really, really low besides the Roth conversion amounts you
19:20 Speaker 04 do. You may want to wait just a little bit, depending on what she makes. If she makes $20,000 a year, maybe it's not an issue. If she's making 100 or 200,000 a year, I would probably be waiting until she's stopping work for that window of Roth conversion.
19:37 Speaker 03 Perfect. All right, well, we're going to keep going. We've got Rich from New York. He wrote in and he asks, Wes, my 83 year old mother recently bought a condo near me in New York and plans to remodel it before selling her Connecticut home and moving. Her pension and social security.
19:51 Speaker 04 Near, I love that. Mom near son.
19:54 Speaker 03 There you go. There you go. Her pension and social security cover most of her living expenses, but most of her assets are in traditional IRAs and she's already taking RMDs. We used her 2025 and 2026 RMDs plus a little extra to buy the condo. Now we need to fund the remodel until she sells her home, likely within the next two years. We're considering a HELOC at around 6% interest, then paying some of it down with her 2027 RMDs. But we're trying to weigh that against taking additional IRA withdrawals now, which would likely be taxed at 22% or possibly 24% plus state taxes in New York. How would you think about this trade off? Is a HELOC a smart bridge strategy?
20:38 Speaker 03 Or does it make more sense to pull more from the IRA now? And if her tax bracket possibly won't change much, what's the real value of delaying those taxes? I enjoy your show every week and appreciate all the advice you and Clark provide.
20:50 Speaker 04 Rich from New York, I appreciate the question. I think the simple answer here is you're weighing, because she's already done her RMDs and she's living on that plus the pension. You're still paying 22% or more for every dollar you pull out. So for every dollar you pull out of that IRA, it's really only worth 78 cents. It costs 22%. The HELOC is, I love how Mallory's shaking her head.
21:20 Speaker 03 And nobody likes paying taxes.
21:23 Speaker 04 We all have to deal with this. The 6% HELOC, you're spending 6% versus spending 22%. I don't know if it's a perfect way to look at it, but directionally, that's the way I look at it. So yes, particularly because you only need this bridge for, you said, one to two years. So it's only going to cost you 6% on the amount you're pulling out for a year or two, which mathematically should be way less than taking out a big chunk, paying 22% plus all these other state taxes, maybe even putting her into another higher tax bracket.
22:05 Speaker 04 That's why home equity lines and mortgages, that's fundamentally why a lot of them exist. There's always this question, I've got a million dollars in my 401k and I'm going to buy a house, it's $500,000. I don't want a mortgage. So should I take out $500,000 to buy the house? The answer is almost always no, because now you've got half a million in income. Your tax bracket goes up, a third of it goes away. So it's very much about managing in this situation, her income.
22:32 Speaker 04 And a huge way to do that is the spigot that is on her IRA. And this allows you to keep that spigot as close as possible, still pay for the renovation, sell the home in two years, HELOC gets paid off. I think mathematically, it's probably, from what I'm hearing, I would absolutely lean towards the HELOC idea.
22:54 Speaker 03 All right, we're going to go to the next question. Bruce in Florida, he wrote in and asks, Wes, I'm 60 and working full time and my wife is 61, turning 62 in October. Because we were military and moved around a lot, she worked enough to qualify for social security, but her benefit would only be around $500 a month if she claims at 62. I plan to work until 64, but delay my own social security until 67. Given our situation, I don't see much downside to my wife claiming at 62. My understanding is that she could collect her benefit until either I pass away, at which point she could switch to my survivor benefit, or until she passes away and her benefit stops. We also have a strong pension base on retired military and have a survivor benefit plan,
23:38 Speaker 03 receive non-taxable VA disability, and we have retirement savings in a 457B, TSP, Roth IRAs, and a fidelity investment account. Our mortgage is paid off.
23:48 Speaker 04 All right, Bruce.
23:50 Speaker 03 Are we thinking about this correctly? Is there any meaningful reason for my wife to delay social security past 62? Or does claiming early make sense in our case?
23:57 Speaker 04 This is always the golden question, Bruce. And the math is really similar, almost at any age you decide to start your payments, because every time we wait, we collect forever seven, almost 8% more for life. But it takes about 12 years to make the money back we didn't take. So the math works the same. If you wait one month and your amount goes up, that next month, it'll take 11 to 12 years to get back the 500 bucks that she waited that one month for.
24:31 Speaker 03 That's pretty valid.
24:32 Speaker 04 With a higher payment. So it's about longevity. None of us know exactly how long we're going to live. You're very correct in thinking that you waiting to 67, if you pass before her.
24:45 Speaker 04 Then she gets that survivor benefit that is higher. If yours is 3,000 a month and hers is 500, you pass away. She will then step up to your higher amount. So that's very much a, almost an insurance policy for income for her. And I agree with that. But the same question comes back to 500 bucks a month versus $530 a month versus $570 a month as you wait year after year after year. And the math is the same, whether you're waiting on 500 or 1,000 or 1,500 or 2,000, it still goes up by the same percentage. The way I look at this is that you know, you're going to keep waiting and you're still working full time.
25:29 Speaker 04 And I would suspect that you probably filing taxes together. So I may be a little leery of her turning on social while you're still working, meaning that you're already in a fairly high bracket. Now, it sounds like some of your income is VA disability, but you're also, it sounds like you're working too. So your tax situation is pretty complicated. So one, you absolutely need to, I would dig into this with a CPA as well. But as far as waiting, I would probably think about waiting to take social a little bit longer. I, again, I know Clark is an advocate for waiting till later. If we can get to 70, great, but we know it takes till 81, 82 to break even on what we forewent.
26:14 Speaker 04 But at the same time, if you're going to take the funds, maybe you're paying a little bit higher taxes today on that. Because again, you, all that different income and you're still working than you would in the future when your income is lower. So that's one reason to wait. If you don't wait, Bruce, I would advocate that it sounds like you don't really need it from a spending standpoint. So it should be invested. Maybe this money, this 500 a month, if you do decide to take it, at least, and you don't really need it, be investing that money as you would any other retirement money so that it has the chance to grow by five or 10 or 15% depending on how markets do. So that would be my couch. I would tend to want to wait till he stops working.
26:57 Speaker 04 Bruce, if you guys do decide to take it, you don't really need it. I would be investing it.
27:02 Speaker 03 Love that. That's great. All right. Well, that is the questions for this segment. And when we come back, we're going to talk about five things you should spend money on.
27:09 Speaker 04 Or should spend more on in retirement.
27:11 Speaker 03 More on, even better.
27:13 Speaker 01 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with Egg Extra Value Meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
27:26 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
27:29 Speaker 05 They're running a cover two defense. But you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go-to restaurants. Or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats. Order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.
27:59 Speaker 06 This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
28:29 Speaker 07 Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand. With unlimited 5G wireless data and hotspot, designed to keep you connected. Powered by Verizon's 5G network. And no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month. Or get the premium Visible Plus Pro Plan and save $10 on your first month when you use promo code HACK. Make the switch at visible.com. Terms apply. See visible.com for details. Low energy, unfocused, foggy? You might be dehydrated. Gatorade Zero Powders have been scientifically designed to help improve hydration balance in the body. With a clinically proven electrolyte blend and no artificial colors or flavors.
29:14 Speaker 07 Great tasting hydration, no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade. Hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist.
29:29 Speaker 04 Welcome back to Ask an Advisor here on the Clark Howard Show. I'm Wes Moss along with Mallory Boggs filling in for Krista D. today who's on vacation and we are diving right back into questions. And one quick topic before we get to that, Mallory?
29:44 Speaker 03 Yes, because we are actually giving the Clark Howard audience permission to spend more.
29:49 Speaker 04 Well, it's, let's say, refocus our spending on areas that you should have no guilt around.
29:54 Speaker 03 Okay, but that's a little different.
29:56 Speaker 04 And this came out, this was a real life situation where someone I've worked with for a very long time, single, probably not getting remarried, age 71, we're going to call her Round the World Robin. Because she, one of the big things we planned for last year was for her to go on this Round the World cruise.
30:18 Speaker 03 Ooh, that sounds fun.
30:19 Speaker 04 And I know this audience loves travel and some of these Round the World cruises are just, they're fascinating because you're literally going around the world. You're seeing dozens and dozens of countries, dozens of ports. And this started, let's say, in the fall of last year and ended in the spring of this year. It was five and a half months.
30:38 Speaker 03 That's a long time on a boat.
30:40 Speaker 04 For Round the World Robin, which is not actually her name, but anytime I meet somebody who's doing a Round the World cruise, I think of a listener from back in the day from one of my radio shows that we called Round the World Robin, who called in with a question about can I afford this trip? And the answer here in this real life situation, we had to plan for it and it was within, it's not inexpensive at all, but it was within Robin's annual spending. So she gets back and this one was curtailed a little bit because of the, all the unrest in the Middle East. She ended up doing a more Pacific oriented tour, went through the Panama
31:17 Speaker 04 Canal to Mexico, Cartagena, I'm getting these out of order, LA, Hawaii, Asia, Indonesia, ended up in Alaska, back to LA, et cetera. I mean, just a fascinating trip.
31:30 Speaker 03 Fabulous.
31:31 Speaker 04 And 2,000 people on the boat, 1,200 of these folks were kind of elite, had the elite Status because they'd been on so many cruises. She was a pretty much a fairly new, it's only, I think her second cruise, fairly new cruise newbie. But she was surprised at the folks that had the elite status and had been on like 50 cruises. Were definitely, she's a super young 71.
31:56 Speaker 03 Ah, okay.
31:56 Speaker 04 So there were a lot of folks there were not super mobile, maybe they had walkers or there was, there was part, a big chunk of the cruise. Not super mobile, not going to exercise classes, but she was.
32:07 Speaker 03 Oh.
32:07 Speaker 04 And there were tons of people in their 50s as well. And so that she was with the group that was super active. She walked a couple of miles every day. It's so funny to hear, I walked a couple of miles on the boat every day. Exercise classes five days a week. So she kind of found her people and.
32:21 Speaker 03 Great community.
32:22 Speaker 04 Great community and just, these are lifelong friends, some of the folks she met. So I think it was, it was a really wonderful thing. For her to do, when she got back, something had happened to her HVAC.
32:33 Speaker 03 Uh oh.
32:33 Speaker 04 So that was like almost 10 grand. That was a huge number. It was actually six. And then her car, which she'd had for almost 15 years, died and she had to get a new car and that was 60.
32:45 Speaker 03 Oh.
32:46 Speaker 04 Then it, around the same week, it was time for her to go and pay the big down payment on her next trip for next year. Which was, which was like 40,000.
32:58 Speaker 03 So she, oh, so she's spending in like a week a hundred thousand dollars.
33:01 Speaker 04 So the, right. So this is a, let's call this, I think it's called a ship expedition. Much smaller ship, a hundred folk, starting in Cape Town, I believe, and going up the African coast, all the way up to Europe and ending in, let's call it Portugal.
33:15 Speaker 03 Okay.
33:15 Speaker 04 Another, right, amazing.
33:16 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, sign me up.
33:20 Speaker 04 And she called in kind of a panic and said, you know, I feel like I'm, I'm spending way too much. I feel guilty that I'm doing, I'm putting a down payment on this next big trip. And just was nervous about her spending.
33:34 Speaker 03 A hundred thousand dollars is, should make you nervous.
33:37 Speaker 04 It does, right. The reality here is that when we went back to the table and looked at her spending, she has a big, a big amount of social security. She waited till she was 70.
33:48 Speaker 03 Okay.
33:48 Speaker 04 So she's still early retirement, worked all the way till she was 70, saved plenty of money. She's well into the financial green zones when it comes to retirement savings. Financial green zones that I describe in, in my new book, The Retire Senior Method, which is just available now on Amazon for preorder. So she's well into the financial green zones, which are important. But the reality is that she has a well documented written plan. And that's great, but the reality is we kind of forget what's in the plan.
34:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, of course. You, you want me to hold on to a bunch of numbers?
34:21 Speaker 04 She was reviewing her financial plan when she was in Hawaii, Alaska, Tokyo. I'm just all over.
34:27 Speaker 03 I would be so disappointed if she was.
34:28 Speaker 04 So she kind of forgot, right? She's kind of forgot and all these things hit her at one time. And just as we do as humans, we extrapolate. Something happens this week and then it happens next week. Our minds say it's going to happen every week. That's scary from a spending perspective. So we just went back to, we didn't have to go back to the drawing board. We just went back to the board we drew on. And she realized that she's still within the 4% rule for the year.
34:56 Speaker 03 That's fantastic.
34:57 Speaker 04 So, and, and she's a little, let's take out a 4% plus, she's a little over, but that's okay. We, that's planned for. And the resolution of that was that, oh, I just, I, A, I feel so much better. And I know I can afford it, but, but here's the, here's the last piece. But I still kind of feel guilty. What else, Robin, should you be doing while you've now gotten to retirement? Don't feel guilty. But there's this guilt that we're spending and we're spending on us. And so here are five quick things. There's a, well, we'll post this, there'll be an article on Clark.com, but I want to at least run through these five things that I want you to have no guilt on. And I'm not saying you should spend extravagantly on any of these things, but if you were to direct your spending to focus in on some areas
35:42 Speaker 04 that I think are very much in line with the habits of happy retirees versus unhappy retirees. Here are the five areas. One, adventure, travel. Travel and adventure and adventure core pursuits show up very prominently in my happy retiree research, on the happy retiree side and not the unhappy retiree side. And those two things totally qualify. Now, those are expensive versions we just talked about for Robin, but they qualify as-
36:11 Speaker 03 I bet a lot of the listeners here can find some good deals on some adventure travel.
36:15 Speaker 04 Maybe Clark should do a show on adventure. Well, I'll leave that up to Clark. I'd love to hear what his thoughts on pricing on that.
36:23 Speaker 03 We'll have to pull him in for that.
36:25 Speaker 04 Family experiences instead of family support, right? We just talked earlier about supporting financially our kids. I see the results being so much better when a family or grandmother or mom says, or grandfather or dad says, hey, let's go on a trip together versus, hey, I'm going to just keep paying extra per month so that you can eventually afford the trip you want. Family experience is number two. Three, home base. Home base, we are going to be in our home likely more than we ever have been now that we're retired. We want to get the big things done, like the new roof,
36:59 Speaker 04 done before we retire, God willing, if it works out that way, new AC before we stop working. And then so during retirement, we can say, well, what am I using more that I wouldn't, didn't have before? Maybe it's a new sunroom. Maybe it's a new deck. Maybe it's a new grilling area. Maybe it's new landscaping because you're home all the time. Maybe it's new gardening. I think that there's a very positive impact when we focus our attention on that from a spending perspective. Number four, movement, sports, health. You almost can't, you can't overspend in this category. Now, yes, there are good gym deals and terrible gym deals. But when it comes to focusing your financial energy on health and wellness and exercise, very rarely are you going to be spending too much in those areas.
37:44 Speaker 04 And number five, anything that has to do with socialization. Now, by the way, socialization and health can work hand in hand because there's walking groups, there's exercise groups, just like- Robin's story about having a five day a week exercise class on that long cruise she went on, always walking the ship with friends. We're not talking about paying for friends, but certainly memberships and teams and leagues are wonderfully helpful and positive lifestyle spends when it comes to a happy retirement and socialization is such a key piece of all of that. Those are my five things that you should have little to zero guilt on when it comes to focusing some money attention on those in retirement.
38:27 Speaker 03 I love that. All right, let's get into some questions now.
38:30 Speaker 04 Lightning round.
38:31 Speaker 03 Lightning round. Here we go. All right. Kenneth in California wrote in and he asks, "Hi Wes, I'm a max saver. I've maxed out my 401k and IRA contributions and am now opening up a taxable investment account. I want to mix in some international equity exposure into my investing. Would it be better to invest in the Fidelity International Zero Fund in my IRA and my normal Fidelity S and P 500 index investing into the taxable account? Is there any benefit to a certain arrangement where I put either? Thank you for all that you do and for helping Clark get more time off. I've really enjoyed your weekly segment and it's helped me to think more deeply about investing."
39:07 Speaker 04 Kenneth, let me tell you a quick story. When I was a child, let's call it my first year or two in the investment business, I learned about time horizons and assets, some of the volatility and expected return of assets, a higher volatility, more expected long-term return. One of my first IRA contributions, I think it was back when the limits were like $2,000 a year was-
39:31 Speaker 03 Wow, that was a long time ago.
39:32 Speaker 04 I thought, you know, look, I'm in my, I'm my early twenties. I'm going to pick the most aggressive investment because it's going to be in this IRA forever. Can't even touch it for 40 years, right? Oh, I used a broad index Emerging Market International Fund.
39:48 Speaker 03 Oh, that was pretty risky.
39:50 Speaker 04 Just, just like what Kenneth's asking about.
39:52 Speaker 03 Yes.
39:53 Speaker 04 And I did it in the IRA because I thought it would have the largest growth over time. Well, fast forward 25 plus years, Emerging Market Fund has done about 700%.
40:07 Speaker 03 That's, that's pretty dang good.
40:09 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's good.
40:09 Speaker 03 700% is not something to snooze at.
40:11 Speaker 04 But the S and P 500 has done about 1,200%.
40:14 Speaker 03 Oh.
40:14 Speaker 04 So the S and P 500 is won by 500% Mallory. Okay. So you don't know, Kenneth, what's going to do better? You don't know. We don't know the S and P 500 is going to be better than the international index that you pick? Or vice versa? If you knew, Kenneth, then why would you buy the other one?
40:34 Speaker 03 Yeah.
40:35 Speaker 04 Right?
40:35 Speaker 03 Yeah.
40:36 Speaker 04 If you knew, why would you buy the other one? So we don't know. And we have to admit to ourselves, we don't know over time what's going to outperform. So for you to say, I'm going to put the international one in the IRA because it's maybe got a longer time horizon. The logic is broken there because you don't know which one's going to do better. We diversify because we don't know which areas will do better. So we want to own multiple areas around the world.
41:00 Speaker 03 That makes sense.
41:00 Speaker 04 Right? Now, there is one technicality that may actually lean towards having your international stock investments in your taxable account because of the foreign tax credit. Even if you own an ETF that's international companies, you may end up getting a little bit of foreign tax credit back. Again, it's everyone's situation is different from a tax perspective. But the answer is when you're diversifying, US international is a great example. We don't know which one's going to do well or better over different periods of time. So I don't think you can make the call of which account they go in or another. If you like them as investments, they can go in both.
41:41 Speaker 03 Oh, so that's a recommendation. Just buy a little bit of both in each one?
41:44 Speaker 04 That's my call.
41:45 Speaker 03 I like it. All right, well, let's keep going. We got Mary in Pennsylvania. She wrote in and she asks, Wes, I am 61, my husband is 62, and we are both still working. Through company provided financial advisor review, we were told that we can both retire today if we want to. That's exciting.
42:01 Speaker 04 All right, Mary in PA. Okay.
42:03 Speaker 03 Through a series of events, our emergency fund was depleted over the last six months. To get back on track, I have reduced my company Roth 401k to 9%. Matches 6%. Did not touch husband's 19% lower salary than mine. Starting from zero, it doesn't look like we will build our dry powder back up before retirement. Say it will be 65 years for both of us. My question is, should we start withdrawing from our retirement funds now up to the top of the 24% MFJ bracket? About 40K per year, less than 2% total retirement assets? Or just keep the plan and chill, knowing we can tab those funds if they are ever needed in the future? Or something else? Thank you for your advice.
42:42 Speaker 04 What kind of accounts do they, does Mary have?
42:45 Speaker 03 A Roth 401K, for sure.
42:47 Speaker 04 Ah, Roth 401K. Is that where the bulk of this is?
42:54 Speaker 03 Yes, it does look like that's the case.
42:56 Speaker 04 Okay, so that really matters here, Mary in Pennsylvania. Remember, your dry powder, or your safety assets, let's call it, that are there for safety and stability for, let's call it, three years' worth of what you need for withdrawals. They don't have to be in a taxable account versus an IRA. Doesn't have to necessarily be one and the other. More importantly, you've got the best of both worlds because you've got a Roth 401K. So it's tax-free money anyway. Don't be afraid to say, look, if I, if you feel as though you don't have your dry powder as a cushion, from an investment and a balance standpoint, you can go ahead and do a rebalancing in your 401K because it's a Roth.
43:38 Speaker 04 And one, there's, there's no tax issues when you're doing a rebalancing within a retirement account anyway. And two, it's tax-free money when it comes out, so it's just like a taxable account. So don't be worried that you've shifted your allocation away. You don't have enough in safety assets. You can always have more safety assets through a rebalancing. Now, the only thing that's a little perplexing to me, Mary, is that if you just spent down your quote "dry powder", and it's going to take you five years to get it back, and at the same time, you guys are in a position to retire today. I don't see how that all can be true at the same time. So if you've depleted a fund that is three years' worth of spending,
44:22 Speaker 04 and it's going to take you five more years to get it back, yet you can still Still retired today? I don't know how those numbers would add up. So maybe there's something I'm missing, but I would be going back to that financial advisor rerunning those numbers, Mary, because maybe I'm missing something. But what I will say is it sounds like a lot of your assets are in the Roth 401k. That's such a great kind of account to have to cover so many of your bases.
44:49 Speaker 03 Absolutely. All right. Last question. We are writing in Tony from Utah. He wrote in and asks, I received notice from Fidelity that the S and P 500 fund is no longer considered diversified due to the size of the mag seven companies. I was surprised to see that this even applied to the total US stock market fund. To force proper diversification, I'm thinking about these four stock funds, the S and P 500 at 35%, mid-cap index of 15%, small-cap index of 10%, and the international stock index of 15%. And the remaining 25% in total US bond fund and money market. Is it okay to use a total US index to diversify? Or am I overcomplicating my portfolio for no good reason?
45:31 Speaker 04 You know, yeah, Tony, this has been a brewing issue for it just keeps getting worse over the last five years plus where you're getting weight concentration at the top. So much so, it's very telling that fidelity sends out that letter.
45:49 Speaker 03 Yeah.
45:50 Speaker 04 Hey, your S and P 500 is not that diversified anymore. Wait, aren't there 500 stocks? Well, 35 to 40% of the of the movement of that fund is in only seven, eight, nine, 10 stocks. So it's technically, it's really not that diversified. So it's telling that you got that letter and you're absolutely correct in thinking the only way to add diversification is to own some other areas. And if the mag seven is weighted towards ultra mega cap to get some diversification away from that, you would need to be adding mid, midsize, small cap and international ETFs. So no, you're not overthinking. I think you're being smart about it. Another way to think about it,
46:34 Speaker 04 there are funds ETFs like that are equal weighted so that every component in an index as as an example, the S and P 500 has the same weighting. So every single piece is weighted not by the size of the company, but just equally among all 100, 200, 500, depending on the index you're looking at. So take a look at equally weighted funds or ETFs as well to help fix that issue.
47:05 Speaker 03 Wonderful. All right. Well, that's all the questions for today. Thank you so much.
47:09 Speaker 04 Keep them coming. Keep them coming.
47:11 Speaker 03 Where can people send those?
47:12 Speaker 04 Yep. Folks are now sending in questions at wesmoss.com. There's an Ask Wes on the Clark Howard Show button right there on the homepage of wesmoss.com. That's W E S M O S S dot com. We love to keep hearing from you. Thank you so much.
47:29 Speaker 03 You're so great. Thank you.
47:34 Speaker 01 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
47:46 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
47:50 Speaker 05 They're running a cover two defense, but you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go to restaurants or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats. Order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.
Previous 06.01.26 WARNINGS: AI Privacy Risk & Ponzi Schemes Net Millions Next 06.03.26 Enter Entrepreneurs / Facts On Finding Unclaimed Funds Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
