Peter Dunn: [00:00:00] All right. So I got breaking news to start the show. It's November 1st, 20 Dame. What is it for 2024 breaking news as we're getting ready and pre show today. Kristen blows my mind. I welcomed them to the program. Kristen. Hello. Hello, Dame. Hello. Good morning for those watching on the live stream.
Dame is wearing a hat and it happens to be a really cool looking hat. And it's the logo of a local title company. Best local title company logo in history. Stamp it. Kristen, we were talking beef. We were odd thing to talk about at 9 54 on a Friday morning. However what you said to me was something I did not know.
And that's that. You only eat male cows, which aren't cows. What's happening? That's not what I
Peter Dunn (2): said. No, you, I said, you said you never eat a cow. I [00:01:00] said you don't eat cows is what I said.
Peter Dunn: That's what I just said. Ah. Okay, you don't eat cows. You don't eat cows. Correct. Help me out.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay.
Peter Dunn: Cow is a lady heifer?
Kristen Ahlenius: A female bovine.
Peter Dunn: Is called a cow.
Kristen Ahlenius: Correct. That's had a baby. That makes her a cow.
Peter Dunn: This is like the LSAT. What? Okay. And what is a male bovine called?
Kristen Ahlenius: Either a bull or a bull calf.
Peter Dunn: And does it matter if he's, Shaved that matters.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. Or a steer. Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Okay. So if I go and have a prime steak, what am I eating?
Kristen Ahlenius: Probably either. You're probably eating a heifer or a steer. It's not a cow . So
Peter Dunn: confused A cow is [00:02:00] once they've given birth to a baby calf,
Kristen Ahlenius: correct? They are a cow.
Peter Dunn: Then they turn, they go from heifer to cow. It's like going from Mr. Mrs.
Kristen Ahlenius: Sort of. Yeah.
Peter Dunn: And so I wouldn't eat a cow once it's producing dairy milks.
Kristen Ahlenius: Sometimes you do and so this is where you cut me off because I was like when you go to the grocery store or Someone has like a really cheap like ground beef. I think that's when it's the cow
Peter Dunn: I just for the sake of Everything here. I cut you off because I wanted to save it for the show I didn't cut it off as in Kristen quit yapping.
Right this time Dave did you know any of this? You
Damian Dunn: Yeah, and some cows are raised for dairy purposes, so you're not going to kill milking cows until they don't produce anymore, but some, it's possible to eat female cows along the way. It's just more common [00:03:00] that you're going to eat male cows.
Peter Dunn: What percentage of the population knows this? Because I'm feeling very dumb right now. I know a lot of stuff, but I do not know this.
Kristen Ahlenius: Now, I would say most people don't know, and I had Indirect exposure, like through 4 H and stuff, and I don't know that I could have recalled all those names off the top of my head.
Damian Dunn: And, go ahead Dave. I will tell you if Mrs. Advice is watching, she is nodding along right now, agreeing with everything that Kristen said. Mrs. Advice knows this? Yeah. I
Peter Dunn: wonder if Mrs. Planner knows this? Do you want to call her on the air? That always works out well. Alright, let's call her. This seems like a bad idea.
You have a hard out, by the way. I know, I have a hard out. Sorry, Jeremiah. Can you hear it? Yeah.
Peter Dunn (2): Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Great. Okay. Hello? Hello, hey, I'm on the air, and you're on the air too. Can I ask you a question? I guess so? Okay, this could go poorly for our marriage. Did you know, in terms of eating beef, [00:04:00] that you don't, Eat cows really that cows are beef things that have had a baby And then you don't actually eat cows you eat heifers And or steers, did you know that?
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't know. I guess i've never really thought about it. So No, maybe not.
Peter Dunn: Okay, I didn't know that either, and these country folk here are judging me. All right, that's all. That's all I got. Go back to your day. I
Peter Dunn (2): didn't know that.
Peter Dunn: I'm so very sorry. I love you. Goodbye.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh, thanks. Highlight of my day.
Peter Dunn: Okay, bye.
She
Kristen Ahlenius: lied. Highlight of my day.
Peter Dunn: She's a liar. Okay. Let's move on because I do have a hard out. By the way. Taylor Swift about to ruin the city of Indianapolis for a weekend with a traffic nightmare.
Kristen Ahlenius: Ruin?
Peter Dunn: I'm not going to There's money she's
Kristen Ahlenius: bringing to the [00:05:00] local economy?
Peter Dunn: Is she carrying it in a satchel?
Other people are bringing the money. Yeah, only because she's here. I'm here. I just don't want to,
Kristen Ahlenius: are you on the side of the Marriott?
Peter Dunn: No, it could be. All right, let's go. Let's do it. We'll do it. We'll start with the second email first, which would make it the first email. Is everybody tracking?
Peter Dunn (2): Yeah,
Peter Dunn: sure.
You just read it. We'll re we'll respond. Okay. Oh, I need to write on some things. Okay, here we go. In three, one, this week on the Pete, the planet show, we answer your money questions. Here's how the show works. You email us. Ask Pete at Pete, the planner. com that's asked Pete at Pete, the planner. com. And here's what happens.
We either read your answer on the air. Wait a second. We read your question on the air and then answer it We ignore the email or it's gone to spam because we don't pay for good Email service joining me as always is kristin alanius. Big in the beef industry. Hello kristin [00:06:00] Hello, Pete. And Damien Dunn that knows his way around a heifer.
I am not going to dignify that with a response. We were talking beef pre show, everybody, and I'm just learning a lot about beef. Okay. How do you? I really feels like a blind spot for as much beef as I've eaten. As a person who looks like they've eaten a lot of beef, you feel like I would know more about beef.
Dear Kristen and co. I could use some straightforward but nonjudgmental advice. You've come to the wrong show. That's exactly right, Kristen. Okay. My wife and I share expenses, but we don't fully combine our finances. We each cover different bills and it's worked out fine so far. Quick timeout. Granted.
Dame, everything's cool here, right? So
Damian Dunn: far everything's calm. Yeah. It's not unusual for couples to manage their own finances separately. It's maybe not quite as common as combining everything, but it's very possible to have a rather separate [00:07:00] financial life. In the confines of a relationship, it's worked out
Peter Dunn: fine.
So far being the operative phrase, it's like, it's fine. The shoe hovering out over the floor. We're just waiting for it to drop. The problem is, oh, there we are. I went through a rough period where I was overspending and I ended up maxing out two of my credit cards without her knowing.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yay.
Peter Dunn: Now I'm trying to figure out how.
Oh, we're not judging, though, so you can't make that sound. Kristen. Take it back.
Now I'm trying to figure out how to pay this down on my own. My plan so far is to cut back my 401k contributions, get rid of any discretionary spending so I can put as much as possible toward the debt. I've also thought about taking out a debt consolidation loan to help manage the payments, just to be clear.
I'm really not interested in advice to tell my wife about this. We'll come back to that later. I'm committed to [00:08:00] handling this on my own and want to know if you think my approach will work. If there's anything else I should consider. Thanks so much for an insight. I'm not giving you my name. Darryl Johnson from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one, two, six, seven Walnut drive.
Oh, no, I don't. That's not the person's information
Damian Dunn: unless it is which Wow.
Peter Dunn: Wow. Can you have Matt? What are the chances? I'd be amazing, dame. Are we even able to do this? Dismiss dismissing a primary element, which is
Damian Dunn: coming clean. Can I just lob a grenade in the room?
Peter Dunn: Oh my, that's not so much violence to the show.
Okay, yes, you can lob love into the room if they have separate finances. Is it her business? Oh, geez.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh my,
Peter Dunn: the, is it her business? Seems like a campaign t shirt. Okay. Dave, can we park that for the [00:09:00] side can we park that for a second? Sure, I, no,
Damian Dunn: to be clear, I'm not saying it's not her business.
I'm just asking the question to get it out there. Okay, so you don't feel that way? Not personally, but I'm just asking the question.
Peter Dunn: Mind your business, Margaret. Is what you're, that's Dame's perspective. Margaret Johnson in Wisconsin? Yeah. Yeah, we call her Mags. Kristen, where do you begin with this?
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay, let's entertain the idea of you don't tell your wife because that's you said you weren't interested in our advice about telling your wife.
What happens if in three years from now, you guys want to go buy a house? You don't quite have this debt under control and you're sitting in front of the mortgage officer, the loan officer, and they say, Hey, your credit score is six 50. And we see here that it's because you have a high balance or had a high balance on this particular card.
My concern is that I [00:10:00] don't think that you get out of this unscathed. It for the next seven years,
Peter Dunn: can I play in that sandbox real quick? Cause I like that. I like that Kristen, but I think it stops short of that. I think this person, if let's say the couple's Hey, we want to buy a house. This person pumping the brakes on that conversation.
Why not? No, we shouldn't. We shouldn't. Why not? That's going to cause this conflict even before they get to the mortgage officer's desk. And And that will
Damian Dunn: chip away at their marriage. I think there's another wrinkle in that as well. I said the plan for Daryl, I believe was his name. No one knows.
Cut back on his 401k contributions. While most people, it's not uncommon to have separate financial lives and you're controlling different things, but in retirement, it's, I think it's way less common to have separate financial lives in retirement. And if you're cutting back on retirement contributions, you're actually impacting your spouse by not saving towards that goal.
And if you're going to cut back for four or five, seven years, [00:11:00] while you get this sorted out, there is a potentially substantial impact to her future, their future.
Peter Dunn: All right. So here's where I'm at so far, and this is going to be a couple of segments. It feels like, cause there's a lot here not my take a couple of segments, but we've got a lot to explore. What about instead of all these other things like cutting back on my spending and 401k and debt consolidation, which is a terrible idea.
Why not sell some stuff? Why not have an offering to the financial gods in part with something of meaning of yours that you own, not your wife's car? Right? I feel like there's gotta be some like goat sacrifice or something. Like a, some pagan ritual of sacrifice. Can I
Damian Dunn: Hypothesize as to why that might not work.
Sure. If you're trying to raise some serious money, you're either going to sell a whole bunch of stuff or [00:12:00] one substantial item. And the question would likely arise, Hey, what are you going to do with that cash?
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay. But that brings me to what I think is very interesting. That's not here, which is. If previous to this like period of overspending, they had their financial life together and now this person is not spending as much, do you guys really think that the wife doesn't know?
If there's a change, obviously there was a lot of lifestyle creep here. If in what sounds like a relatively short period of time, we've maxed out two cards. I guess we don't know the Maybe it's not an astronomical amount, but You don't think that there were clues along the way that like we were spending too much money.
Damian Dunn: Interesting point. I like how long did it take to accumulate this? Because if it happens slowly over time, it could be completely under the radar. You thought like maybe you were living within your means because you're only exceeding your [00:13:00] income by, a few hundred bucks a month or whatever it might be.
But before you know it, two cards are maxed out. But if, if you went crazy and went on some vacations or whatever, I, yeah, I mean it would be a little bit easier to see oh gosh, something's completely different now.
Peter Dunn: Okay, let me tiptoe through a minefield here real quick of judgment.
Maxed out two credit cards after going through a rough period using the air quotes there, rough period. That can mean all sorts of things. It could mean was drinking a lot. It could mean, Eating a lot of fast food out at lunch at work days, it could mean gambling debts, like it could mean all sorts of stuff.
So Kristen, I say that in the sense that I don't know if she necessarily would know of that rough period, if it was that type of thing.
Kristen Ahlenius: That's fair. I didn't think about it through that lens.
Peter Dunn: Let's do this. Let's take a break. We're going to come back, we're going to try to navigate this under the rules that the emailer set for us, which is, the rule is, I [00:14:00] can't tell my wife.
We're going to try to navigate through those rules and then we're going to remove the rules. And give you our best answer, right? It's like a Hollywood squares. You give a fake dumb answer that everyone giggle giggles at, and then you give the real answer and then shadow Stevens blocks with the ax we'll come back right after the break.
I'm Pete, the planner. Kristen has no idea who shadow
Damian Dunn: Stevens is going to ask. No way or watched Hollywood squares and BFG knew who shadow Stevens was.
Kristen Ahlenius: I watched a lot of Game Show Network with my grandparents. I'm pretty familiar with a lot of it.
Peter Dunn: Why you just basically are like Dame and I are your granddads.
Do you, okay, Dame, I don't know if you're, I'm setting both of us up for something bad here. So I'm sorry, I'm just, you're going to have to take this, Kristen. Do you think more of us as contemporaries, other parents or grandparents? And you have to like, take a breath and answer this honestly, brothers, parents or grandparents.
[00:15:00] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Brothers, parents or grandparents. None of the Oh, male models. Oh, male. Nailed it. Okay. No,
Kristen Ahlenius: I feel like you guys fit in like the fun uncle category,
Peter Dunn: funcle. Funcles. Fun uncles ruin lots of holidays, I just want to say.
Damian Dunn: Pete is Shadow Stevens a top ten voice? Oh, yes. Shadow
Peter Dunn: Stevens for the block. He's a big booming voice. Guys quick note here. The soccer dad chat was popping off this morning. Oh, Taylor. Soccer, not Taylor. How glad we're not going to the Taylor Swift concert. No, it's just Dame you, Dame, you understand this as a Funko yourself, half the fun of youth sports is that you just make friends with the other parents and they become like your community.
And you don't realize that at first, or you don't see the value in that, or you don't think you will like it. And then ultimately
Damian Dunn: it's like the greatest pleasure of it all. [00:16:00] Swim fam. You spend more time with them than almost anybody else that you were around because you're either dropping off, picking up at practice, you're spending weekends away and you got to find some way to try and stay sane.
Yeah. Youth sports becomes a tight knit community pretty quick. Oh, it's popping off. Kristen is
Peter Dunn: making a face. Like she just ate sour patch kids.
Peter Dunn (2): Yeah. That's how I feel about that. Okay.
Peter Dunn: Neat. All right, let's continue the show because I've got a hard out. Sorry, Jeremiah, we can't all just be poll workers, which actually means people who work at polling locations, correct?
As opposed to three to back on the Pete the planner show Kristen We just received an email in which a gentleman I believe Said I actually don't know the gender, but he did gentlemen Ran up credit card debt on two credit cards max them out and his wife doesn't know He wants to solve the problem on his own [00:17:00] without telling her You And his rule to us as we try to help him is you can't say, don't tell her, have I updated it?
Are we good so far?
Peter Dunn (2): Yep.
Peter Dunn: At first we've talked about why we think this will fall apart. But Kristen, can this actually be solved? The way he wants it solved.
Kristen Ahlenius: So if this person is committed to not telling their person, my advice would be that in good faith, you can not do anything that will continue to affect your wife.
So what I mean by that is the pay down of this debt has to come from his discretionary spending. It can't come from the 401k. Okay. He can't take out additional loans to pay this off. It has to be through his sacrifice. If he's committed to not telling her,
Damian Dunn: can I ask the question you said it can't come from the 401k.
Are you talking about just [00:18:00] the contributions in general, or are you talking about a 401k loan to help me out with some clarity here?
Kristen Ahlenius: Both because my, what you said in the last segment, Dame, which is that people generally are combining finances and retirement. I don't think it's fair to potentially rob her future stability.
If you're committed to not letting her in on this,
Peter Dunn: what if this guy goes and finds a girlfriend and they share finances and he uses that money to pay off the debts that he has with his wife?
Kristen Ahlenius: You're a genius.
Peter Dunn: Thank you. Now,
Here's my concern, Kristin.
Kristen Ahlenius: I have several.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, there's, this is a, it's a minefield, right?
And I'll say, Dame, as financial planners and Kristen, how often does someone set ground rules that they think makes sense, but actually make no sense to trying to solve the problem? And this is a classic example of that. So Kristen, let's say this guy's I'm going to Uber, I'm going to DoorDash, I'm going to do whatever.
And I don't mean order DoorDash. How do you [00:19:00] contextualize being gone more. Having your car smell like cheese steaks, which would be great. And then that money not improving their life in the eyes of his wife. Like I how does that work?
Kristen Ahlenius: It doesn't. The only way that this works is if he has considerable discretionary income to toss at this.
If he does not have that margin to make this work, it doesn't happen.
Peter Dunn: Dame, is there any circumstance, trying to be realistic and boiling it down here, is there any circumstance in which this guy can functionally solve the problem? In a fair way, without telling his wife.
Damian Dunn: Not as efficiently as if she knows.
Peter Dunn: Do you feel like not, okay, this Is not telling her dishonest? Yes. As opposed to being asked about it and lying about it. Are they both on the spectrum of dishonesty? [00:20:00] Correct.
Kristen Ahlenius: Withholding the truth is dishonest.
Damian Dunn: Dame. It's on the spectrum. Oh boy. Correct.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm calling Mrs. Advice. He's rethinking his answer.
Damian Dunn: I don't want Mrs. Advice knowing that I feel this way about something. No, I, I don't know. My, my initial judgment is it's on the spectrum, but it's not as severe. And the whole reason I say that is because they have split finances.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, here's where He may think he's trying to protect her feelings.
He may be like, I'm doing this so you don't get upset. What he's really saying is I'm protecting your feelings about me. So it ends up being about him, right? Not about protecting her,
Kristen Ahlenius: right? Yes. I think that she only stands to lose. In this scenario and withholding the information. I think you nailed it.
Pete is protecting her image of him, which is who is that benefiting?[00:21:00]
Peter Dunn: All right. So here's where I'm at and I'm breaking this person's rules. Why? Because they didn't leave their name. So what do I really care? Sure. Listen, Steve, what do you say? The guy's name is called him Darryl. You guys, you expect me to remember that? That was like 13 minutes ago. Yeah. Darryl goes to his wife.
And this is the tone I'd go with. Hey baby, just start there and then pause. Long pause. I have terrible news. I'd love to hear me if you hear me out. I got into some credit card debt and I was too embarrassed, too ashamed to tell you. I still don't want to tell you, but I feel like it's the right thing to do.
All I'm asking for here is that you hear me out and allow me to try to fix this and I need to clear my conscience because it's killing me and I can't sleep. And I've been eating a lot of low quality
Damian Dunn: beef and it's making me unhealthy. What if what if he does [00:22:00] this at a really nice dinner, tells her this, and then says, and based on the information I can't pay for it, I'm going to need for you two.
Oh my. Can we go
Peter Dunn: Dutch? I met a Dutch guy the other day and I asked him if, whenever he goes out to eat, if everyone just pays for their own meal and he didn't see the humor in it. Yeah. And it was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable. And I think it was at a business setting and I wish I hadn't let it fly.
Anyway Kristen, what do you think about that? About just like coming clean?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, I think so. What's interesting to me here is I think there's an opportunity for both people if they really have each but each other's best interest in mind to recognize that they did leave opportunities in the way they set up their personal finances for one of them to do something like this and also recognize that it's not uncommon for people to get in a place where they've spent beyond their means.
Like he's just taking it to a place where we don't feel that he can get out of this on his own. [00:23:00] And so how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? And how do we do that As a pair, as a couple and set ourselves up for future success.
Damian Dunn: I'm really wondering if there's been past issues with this and she helped dig him out once prior and said, never again, we're never doing this again.
I promise you, honey. And here they are again. He doesn't want her to know.
Kristen Ahlenius: If that's the case, then the solution at the time would be to set up mechanisms to not allow that to happen. We should have had more joint accounts. There should have been more visibility to hold each other accountable, not in a controlling way, but in an accountability way.
I don't know. I feel like if that were the case, then I don't have, I don't want to say not as much empathy, but You can't set yourselves up to make the same mistakes again.
Peter Dunn: Okay. So here's the situation. We just received another email just now and it's from a woman and said, my husband just told me that asked out two credit cards [00:24:00] and he didn't want to tell me, but he told me, what do I do?
So Maggie mags. So what do I do? So what do we do? What do we tell Maggie once, what's the guy's name, Rick?
Kristen Ahlenius: Daryl.
Peter Dunn: If he does the right thing, what do we tell Maggie?
Kristen Ahlenius: That the 2 of you have to set up mechanisms to protect your financial interests. That's whether that's additional visibility, whether that's Maggie taking over the personal finances for a while.
Maybe Maggie's not qualified to be the sole. To be the one who's solely in control of the finances, either it has to be a joint effort. And then to say, okay, and then how do we want to tackle this problem? Now that we know that it exists, maybe that is a consolidation loan. Maybe Maggie has really great credit and she's going to co sign on a loan so that they can work themselves out of this hole or allocate 401k.
I'm not here to say which one makes the most sense, but [00:25:00] they need to set up that plan.
Damian Dunn: And Maggie gets to check Darrell's annual credit report. com whenever she wants to see if there's any new credit lines out there.
Peter Dunn: Yeah. Accountability seems like a good idea until you don't want to be held accountable.
Yeah. You think Maggie should offer let's do this. Let's take a break. Let's everyone calm down. Kristen, we will, sorry, we're going to come back. We're going to answer this, wrap it up. And then we've got another email about liquidating retirement assets to pay off lingering debt.
All that's next right here on the Pete, the planner show. I'm Pete, the planner. Kristen, are you doing anything fun this weekend? Why do you laugh, Dame?
Kristen Ahlenius: She's always doing
Peter Dunn: something fun. It's a silly question.
Kristen Ahlenius: It's my dad's birthday.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, see? That's fun. Is there cake? Is he a pie guy? What will you do there?
Kristen Ahlenius: Pizza pie.
Peter Dunn: Just pizza?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. Okay.
Peter Dunn: Dame, I've told you this story I, right out of college, a couple years after college [00:26:00] one of my buddies moved to New York and he was married. And he got a divorce. And so all the boys rally, fly out to New York for a little boys weekend. And this is our friend, he's from the south side of Indy, he's just a good old midwestern boy.
And we get there and we're at his apartment, and he was like, You guys want to grab some pies? And we were like, What? What happened to you? You guys want to get a pie? We're like, What? He's Some pizzas. I was like, What is wrong with you? We're like, What is wrong with you? They're just pizzas and we did and they were delicious.
Ayyyyyy. Ayyyy, where'd it go? Pie! I was like, okay, Trevor. Calm down.
Okay Dane, you got anything good this weekend?
Damian Dunn: Swim meet,
Peter Dunn: swim fam.
Damian Dunn: It's
Peter Dunn: a bunch of soccer in our house and some cheer. Hey, get to watch. Neither of you are real football people. Former Colts wide receiver, pro [00:27:00] football.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh,
Peter Dunn: touché. Pro football with all due respect. Pro football. College, yes. Pro, no.
T. Y. Hilton, former Colts receiver. His son plays for a local high school and my daughter's team that she cheers for is playing that team tonight. So I get to watch him and he's like a big fan. He's going to Wisconsin, maybe, then he is a college, gonna be a college football player, and then you'll know about him.
I told you first. His name is Eugene.
Damian Dunn: Eugene Hill. You think he'd play for Oregon, but How's he gonna do the E? Because T Y used to do the T Y, so how's he gonna do the Yeah. There it is. That's it.
Peter Dunn: Okay. Good question. Family tradition. I figured you got to carry it on. You got to keep it going. I got a hard hour in 3, 2, 1.
Back on the Pete, the planner show. All right. So the final ruling. Maggie comes to if you just joined us, email or emails us and we're calling him [00:28:00] Daryl ran up a bunch of credit card debt. His wife didn't know, and he wants us to help him solve the problem. But he said, the only rule is he can't tell his wife.
And we said, that doesn't make any sense. Then we said, what if another email came in from Maggie, obviously Daryl's wife. And she has just been told about this financial issue and what is she to do? How is she to help move forward? Kristen, you gave some thoughts, Dame.
Damian Dunn: I, as I said at the end of the last segment, make sure that she has access to annual credit report.
com to make sure that there are no new credit cards or credit lines being taken out while they're working through this issue. Seems reasonable for some accountability as you're going through and then also support and give him the space that he's going to need to, work that second job or that side hustle encourage him, support him to go through that celebrate wins, recognize the hard effort that he's putting in.
To get this alleviated. And then hope that it all works [00:29:00] out.
Peter Dunn: I'll end with this. Here's the one reason I want him to tell her. Because if he tries to go through this without her knowing, he will end up resenting her. Because he's going to need support to get through this and work hard and to sacrifice and she won't know of their those things.
And so he'll just resent her and it will actually make their relationship worse. I watched a lot of Dr. Phil back in the day. All right. Hi, Chris Nenko. I will try to make this email short. So I will use bullets to avoid many timeouts in a meandering paragraph. Timeout.
Damian Dunn: I understand the
Peter Dunn: show. That feels like a real shot at me.
When you read them, the good income is nearly 400, 000. Not under the new tax plan by I'm just totally kidding. I don't, I'm just actually kidding but not really, but yes, retirement assets include 1. 2 million in an IRA and 300, 000 [00:30:00] in an employer plan. Are we good so far? We've got to feel 400 K income, 1.
2 million in retirement and an IRA and 300 K in an employer plan. Inheritance. Oh man, this person's got someone in their sights is looking like about 2 million, but we know that we should not be considered. Although I brought it up as the third point in an email, So go ahead and strike this from consideration while still allowing people with the rules.
People like, Hey, financial experts and Pete, can you guys answer our questions? And but here are some rules. The bad five kids ranging from teens to twenties, three are off the payroll. Okay. Is it two still on the payroll? We are 47 man. Can you imagine how tired they are with all of that going on at 47?
Dane, what's that
Damian Dunn: I have no idea. 47. I don't know [00:31:00] what you're talking about.
Peter Dunn: Three of the kids ha have had significant medical expenses resulting from mental health concerns, not fully covered by insurance. Okay. Current debt, primarily medical and travel to seek medical help is about 200,000. With much of it at high interest credit card debt.
Yes, we know that we made some poor decisions, but some of it was out of immediate medical necessity. I'm going to call a timeout here. Yes. It's okay. Like some, you gotta do what you gotta do, especially if you're dealing with medical situations of your kids, no judgment here. Proposal. We would like to take money from our IRA to clear out all the debt, the taxes and penalty may be worth the peace of mind and stress relief, knowing that the debt is gone, it's our money.
And we still believe we're looking at a healthy retirement thoughts, objections, blessed and bruised. I was going to have a little coffee shop in Crawfordsville called blessed and bruised. It just sounds like a [00:32:00] small town coffee shop that's off the mark. Come get a chai tea latte at Blessed and Bruised.
Try our scones.
I'm sorry, do you want to answer this question?
Kristen Ahlenius: I have an opinion.
Peter Dunn: You always have an opinion, that's why you're on the show.
Kristen Ahlenius: The answer is no.
Peter Dunn: Wow.
Kristen Ahlenius: And
Peter Dunn: he's cold, dead heart. Go ahead.
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't know who wrote this blast or bruised, but you clearly are a frequent listener because of the way you set this email up and the inside baseball that's going on.
So I would hope that you know us well enough to know that we are empathetic and we just want what's best for you at your income level. You have an opportunity. They make what five, six times the median household income. You have the opportunity to scale back your spending to make significant progress on this.
And that doesn't have to dip into your [00:33:00] retirement. And I think you have to do that for yourselves right now.
Peter Dunn: I'm going to let you go and then I'm just going to agree with you. But I would love to know how much their debt services each month. I would love to know how much
Damian Dunn: Dame. It's a big part of it is. Is it close to runaway spending or runaway debt at this point? I don't think taking money from the IRA is the answer because of penalties is one of them.
You're essentially going to end up wiping that out almost to clear everything off between income tax and penalty. The other issue is they've got about 1. 5 in retirement set aside right now. If it doubles two more times before the age of 67, that gives them 6 million and that gives them about 240 [00:34:00] percent withdrawal rate.
And plus social security so that I don't know that they can afford to cut away from retirement right now exactly
Peter Dunn: Let me be very clear here. The two people you just heard from are trained financial professionals certified financial planners With the registered trademark designation. I the namesake of the show don't have any of those things And now i'm going to disagree with my co hosts who are actual experts first I want them to take a home equity loan, except for the fact that They probably already have because everything sets up that they've got to have four to 500, 000 of home equity.
They have to, we see situations like this all the time. They have to three to 500, three to 500 of home equity. That's where I would start beyond that the debt service matters, because what you could do is you could say, [00:35:00] okay, what do you guys think? 200, 000 what do you think the debt
Damian Dunn: services on that?
Said high interest credit cards. Even if we're very generous on the interest rate that they're getting and call it 19 percent which is I don't think it's anywhere possible. And how much of it do you think? How much do you want to say is high interest credit card debt?
Peter Dunn: 120 to 150. Oh, it's Whatever two thirds.
That's a lot of cash. Can you calculate it in a minute? Probably not. I'll say this I think if they are just replenishing You Their account with their cashflow savings that they've eliminated. It's not a, it's not terrible. It's not my preference, but I like it better than just keep on keeping on and killing their income.
Kristen Ahlenius: No, cause I don't think that you would give that advice to someone who made. [00:36:00] And a sixth or a quarter of their income,
Peter Dunn: of course, I wouldn't that's why I'm giving this advice to someone who makes six times that like,
Kristen Ahlenius: why can't they reduce their discretionary spending and dig themselves out of the hole in retirement spending to
Peter Dunn: I think they are spending significant amounts of their income on this.
They are doing that. I just think, I don't know, I'll just say they're dealing with mental health challenges. They got two other teams going on. That is the stress involved. This is not a vacuum question where it's everything's fine except for the fact that we've got debt. There's a lot going on here.
Sure. Dame, are you coming to an answer?
Damian Dunn: Yeah. It, that service in that first year is going to be around 20 grand. That's not that bad.
Kristen Ahlenius: See
Damian Dunn: if it, yeah. At 19%.
Kristen Ahlenius: At their income level, I just, I don't know.
Peter Dunn: Some food for thought, blessed and bruised, enjoy the scones coming up after the break, [00:37:00] biggest waste of money of the week in the news.
Beat the planner. I would not give that advice for someone making. 120, 000 to your point, right? But with 400, I don't know. It's what's I got? I, we need so much more information. Oh, where's the money going? I think they're aggressively saving for retirement. You could arguably cut back that.
Cause to Dame's point, it's already going to have two doublings without any more contributions.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. You could come back to future savings potentially, and then try and make it up on a, on the back end of becoming that free if you wanted to, but it's, I don't think you can take away from it.
Peter Dunn: All right, let's rock and roll. Cause I'd love to be done a little early so I can prepare for this call.
Those that are wondering I'll give you a little inside baseball. I'm writing another book, which I think I've shared. Haven't I? I think so. And so I'm [00:38:00] interviewing some experts in particular fields. And so those expert interviews start today. So I can finish the book, get the book out and be have another book.
So that's what I'm doing today. So I've got to talk to someone who knows what they're doing about something In 20 minutes,
Damian Dunn: you mean another published book? Not that you're going to start another book after this, a subsequent book. After this
Peter Dunn: is the book I'm working on.
Damian Dunn: Okay. It was just the way you phrased it.
It caught my ear
Peter Dunn: entirely. Dame, you should know by now, I have no idea what I'm doing in three, two, one, this week's biggest waste of money of the week right here on the Pete, the planner show is working on it. Stand by everyone. Calm down, Kristen, calm down. It's a cow. It's not a cow. It is none other than coach prime's locker.
When he took over as coach at the university of Colorado, Deon Sanders or coach prime called shield to [00:39:00] build a custom locker for his office. Now they're offering 15 lucky fans, the opportunity to gear up. Just like prime coach, prime's lockers modeled after the one in his office, measuring over 10 feet wide and three feet deep highlights include integrated lighting, custom stitch, seat cushions, a backlit signature panel topped with.
Primes you look good mantra, which is you look good. You feel good. You feel good. You play good. You play good. They pay good. A wireless charger and a wardrobe cabinet with a felt line jewelry drawer and backlit shoe cubbies. Design manufactured and white glove installed by shield. Only 15 will be made with a portion of the sales going to the CU affiliated 5 4 3 0 Alliance NIL collective among the 15, only five signature editions will be available.
Which include prime and see you gear and the locker autographed by the coach himself for what it's worth. I am not a hater. I am an appreciator, a celebrator of coach [00:40:00] prime. I will pause there. So Kristen, what does this fancy locker. Cost.
Kristen Ahlenius: Did I hear that right in the copy? He's only going to autograph a third of these.
Peter Dunn: That's right. There's 15 main. He's going to take five and sign them to face them if you will. Yes. Interesting. Okay.
Kristen Ahlenius: I think that these are Eight. Oh my, I hate this. These are 6, 500.
Peter Dunn: Okay. Andy did ask in the comments assembly required. No, these are going to be installed by, Oh
Damian Dunn: service. I believe they said,
Peter Dunn: yeah, it's white glove service to install.
Do you want to refine? Chris, my
Kristen Ahlenius: guess is terrible no matter what, but now it's probably low.
Peter Dunn: Okay. 6, 500? Yes. Okay Damian Andrew Dunn.
Damian Dunn: This looks like fancy Ikea, but cabinetry is really overpriced. This is 16, 000.
Peter Dunn: Oh, just a bit outside. 125, 000. [00:41:00] American dollars. American dollars.
Here's the worst part is you try to say it's okay. Cause all the proceeds are going to pay college football players via NIL. So depending on how you feel about that, this is even worse or somehow better. Dame, what's in the news this week?
Damian Dunn: Sorry, I'm just still gathering myself after the bomb. Russia.
Okay. You thought that was ridiculous. One up. Yeah. Yeah. Russia find Google. Did you hear about this? Oh yes. But I didn't know what I saw the number, but I don't know what the number is.
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't know how to say that. I'll
Damian Dunn: tell you. 20. 5 decillion dollars over YouTube content moderation. The silly sounding number reflects that Russia is.
Big mad at the video platform for failing to restore the YouTube accounts of state media outlets, which the tech company considers pro Moscow propaganda channels. The fine, which is 20 followed by 33 digits increases by 1 million every day until it goes every day it goes unpaid [00:42:00] digital trends reported that the 20.
5 decillion is equivalent to all the money on earth multiplied by 23, 809, 523.
Kristen Ahlenius: All the money on earth
Damian Dunn: multiplied by 23 and call it 24 million. Russia might also still be smarting after youtube suspended its adsense program in the country over the summer meaning creators can no longer Monetize their content with ads.
Does anyone else just see putin going?
Peter Dunn: 20. 5 decillion dollars My second austin powers reference of the week during a team meeting this week. I said my head looks like mr Bigglesworth and I saw all of our younger colleagues You Look confused and a couple of the middle aged people like myself go, clever, Kristen, Mr.
Picklesworth. This is terrible.
Kristen Ahlenius: Sorry.
Damian Dunn: I, game? You have one less thing to worry about the next time you're stuck at the airport. A new U. S. rule went into effect this week that requires automatic refunds for passengers whose [00:43:00] flights get canceled or significantly delayed. No powers of persuasion are needed.
The onus is now on the airlines to give you back your money in full. You no longer have to request a refund using U. S. money. Your original payment method, your dollars must be returned to you within one week, if you paid with a card, and within 20 days if you use greenbacks or points. On the books, the new rule standardizes carrier's refund policy by officially defining quote significant delays as how many hours?
Three, four, three hours for six hours for international. According to the department of transportation. Additionally, you are entitled to a full refund of the airline changes. You're arriving or departing or acting airport adds a connection or switches you onto a plane that's less accessible. If you have a disability airlines also must recompense baggage fees for lost luggage.
You still have to file a report though. And it's for services like wifi or seat selection if they were paid for, but not provided. If this rule has been in place last year, it could have caused United. [00:44:00] American and Delta more than a billion dollars each in refunds according to the travel publication upgraded points.
First recompense, amazing
Peter Dunn: word, truly a great word. Number two, thanks friend of our show, Pete Buttigieg. Yeah Kristen.
Kristen Ahlenius: I have a question. Airlines can like the significant delays. They have creative ways that they can circumvent that, right? Because like when we got stuck in Vegas a couple years ago for 12 hours, an airline who will remain nameless would put us on the plane, even though the plane was not prepared to take off because then they didn't have to refund the tickets.
So we got on and then. Off two different planes in 12 hours.
Peter Dunn: Come on. Get on it. Friend of the show. Pete Buttigieg.
It's wild that he was on this show before he announced his run for president in 2020, right? Is that one? Or was it before [00:45:00] that?
Damian Dunn: Was, it would have been because I was here. So that would have been. Yeah, 2020. Yeah. Wild. Wild. Anyway what else is in the news? Dealer's choice, would you like to know about some college information or would you like to know about cheese wheels?
Cheese. Cheese, please. The naked chef needs your help tracking down a thousand cloth wrapped wheels of cheese collectively weighing about 48, 502 pounds. Jamie Oliver put out a plea to his social media followers to help find the expensive artisan cheese That was stolen last week from Neal's Yard, a posh dairy in London.
How did the thieves pilfer about 390, 000 worth of Hafad Welsh cheddar? They posed as agents of a French supermarket and told the real purveyors to deposit the goods in a particular warehouse for inspection. But once the cheese was dropped off, authorities believe it was transferred elsewhere by the Stooges for criminals.
Peter Dunn: When I hear this, the first thing that comes to my mind is just no way
Damian Dunn: That was a stretch. I got it, but it was a stretch.
Peter Dunn: That was really good. [00:46:00] Have they talked to the Kurds? Okay. We have . What No way is incredible because you separate the KDS in way. That is I know. 400 level doesn't mean it's funny.
It was just wi sometimes I don't need a laugh, I just need a knowing Glance. I Oh, okay. I gave you one. I know. Okay. We have a minute left in the show. How much, who wins the presidential election? Our predictions, you have to predict this is not who you want. This is who you think wins. And it does. And obviously we're probably not even going to know by the time we have our show next week, we aren't, that's true.
Who wants to go last? Kristen wants to go last. I will go first. I believe Donald J. Trump will win.
Damian Dunn: Dame? Last week I would have said Vice President Harris. I am becoming more and more convinced that former President Trump will win. Kristen?
Kristen Ahlenius: I [00:47:00] actually have the exact same take as Dame. If you would have asked me a week or two weeks ago, but now I think.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, that's why things gonna happen. And we'll leave it at that. All right, everybody go vote. No, cause it seems like an adult thing to do. And we'll talk to you next week. The country will still exist next week at this time when we have the show, we'll figure it out together. Sending you good vibes.
Because good vibes are all that's in the budget. If you listen to the show on the podcast or on the radio, I highly recommend you go to youtube. com slash beat the planner and watch the show. Cause it's better that way. I'm Pete, the planner. This is the Pete, the planner show. We did it.
Damian Dunn: We did it 10 minutes
Peter Dunn: to spare
Damian Dunn: plenty of time.
Peter Dunn: We'll see what happens. Okay. So a little more nuanced to the question. When is the winner declared by the, by. Okay, of the three big how many big networks do we want to say with CBS, ABC, [00:48:00] Fox, NBC, and CNN? Okay. We call those the big five? Is that fair? How, at what point do at least three of those declare the winner?
The same winner. Thursday. Thursday. Okay. Kristen?
Kristen Ahlenius: Wednesday.
Peter Dunn: Saturday afternoon.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh my. Okay. Okay.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, I'm just telling you, I think it's gonna be Saturday afternoon, but I will say this, and this is not conspiratorial at all. I promise. The weird thing is, I think Trump will win, but oddly, if somehow they announced it on Saturday, I feel like Harris would win, which makes no sense whatsoever, right?
Cause I think he's going to win, but I feel like if it was on Saturday for some reason, and again, not a conspiracy, not like things are being switched around, it's just like a dumb thought. I think she'll win.
Damian Dunn: The longer it drags on, [00:49:00] the longer, the more I think she's favored.
Kristen Ahlenius: That's interesting.
Damian Dunn: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Okay.
Not looking forward to any of it. I'll tell you that. I'm really, I don't think I've dreaded a period of time in quite some time.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yes.
Damian Dunn: I completely agree. Once upon a time, Pete, there was a part of me that really looked forward to election years when I was young and naive. And now I dread them because of the consequences of fallout.
And I, there's just, there's no good ending to this. Half the country is going to be upset one way or the other. Here's
Peter Dunn: the thing. Our podcast will carry on and tens of people won't care. Okay. Have a good weekend, Dame. Kristen, I honestly, I want to say something very sincere to you. I hope some way, somehow, magically, mystically, you get Taylor Swift tickets and you end up at the concert.
Stop. And if you do, I just hope [00:50:00] you're out of traffic in time to come to the next week's show.
Peter Dunn (2): That's fair.
Peter Dunn: All right, everybody, stay getting money.
