EP 1 – Welcome To The Washington State Retirement Planning Podcast

Welcome to episode 1 of the Washington State Retirement Planning Podcast.

In this episode, we share our background, the story of why we decided to start this podcast, and our own firm. We also share our ultimate goal of helping Washington state employees retire early and reduce their lifetime tax bill by promoting education on your unique benefits.

Transcript

EP 1 – Welcome To The Washington State Retirement Planning Podcast

Transcript:
(00:01) [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to the Washington State retirement planning podcast the goal for this podcast is to help bring Financial education to all Washington State Employees I’m your host Ethan Meikle and I’m thrilled to have you here but before we dive into all the nitty-gritty details of your retirement benefits as Washington employee I just want to tell you a little bit about myself and my background so I’m actually from the big island of Hawaii and when I was growing up when I was in the fifth grade I had a
(00:44) teacher named Mr nickel who made us from the mile pretty much every week for PE now most kids hated it but for some reason or another I really liked it and one of my best friends actually got me to join the track team that year there was like two weekends for the year something like that wasn’t much um but that kind kind of got me in the door of it and I stuck with track all throughout high school and when all that was said and done I didn’t want to be over yet so I explored you know where else could I
(01:09) run track at University of Hawaii doesn’t have a men’s track team so I was forced to look elsewhere and I ultimately ended up at Central Washington University I competed for them for four years my specialty was the high jump and currently I actually coached Selah High School’s track and field team as well anyways after I graduated Central Washington I ended up getting recruited by a firm called axe advisors you probably know them now as Equitable so they have a division that specializes in working with Washington


(01:41) State teachers they call them the RBG retirement benefits group so that’s all they do is retirement benefits so I was in that group for almost four years so that’s kind of how I got into learning about how the state pension systems work the intricacies of it so ultimately I decided to leave them a few years in to start my own firm so I could do things my own way now when I left to start my own business I could have done anything I wanted to but I decided to stay with helping Educators the main reason was I
(02:07) just saw there was a giant lack of education and that I knew things could be so much better for them I know teachers had a really big impact on my life growing up and I want to give back in any way I can now one of the most profound moments that kind of lead me to the decision of leaving and starting my own you know firm and eventually this podcast was one day I was actually at Gilbert Elementary School in Yakima and going to meet with this cook who had been there for about 35 years she was about 68 years old and she was about
(02:35) ready to retire she wasn’t sure if she could do it yet but she was just physically done and just you know couldn’t really keep up with the demands of the job anymore so I went into her office and it was this it was you know a clutter little thing open the door up there was like one desk you know there with a computer screen a chair and then maybe a little chair next to it there was you know the room was small you could barely fit two of us in there um so we sat in there I had my little yellow pad no desk so I actually had to
(03:03) put it on my lap and kind of had to learn to write upside down for that meeting and just kind of going through you know what she had and the benefits you know just kind of a normal meeting she handed me her tis3 or actually I guess it would be PERS three statement she was a Public Employee um anyway she handed me the statement there and she goes it’s not very much and yeah it was like you know 100 maybe 150 at best there she goes I’m not sure what to do with it how it works so I went back and said hey you know let’s just go through
(03:30) how your pension works I’m like so your plan is actually two parts and her eyes W and she goes what do you mean two parts I’m like there’s another part here that you’re not seeing and she couldn’t believe it that for 35 years she was slogging money away into this retirement account had the actual confirmation that shows her contributions Investments and she didn’t realize there’s a whole hidden piece to it now after going through how the pension worked it was maybe 1,200 bucks a month for her but
(03:53) that was all she needed to put her over the edge to retire and she just broke down in tears she was just so happy that this income that she had no idea existed was now coming in on a guaranteed basis in addition to her social security and she was just you know crying emotional and just ultimately happy and honestly had she known this few years earlier she probably could have retired maybe two three years earlier than that so seeing someone so sweet have to work three extra years because she didn’t know how
(04:20) her benefits worked really kind of irked me I knew there was a need for more education now she’s not the only one ear this year I had the exact same thing happen with the teacher of the Tri Cities so I know there’s a lot of education and there’s not a lot of resources for you guys out there yes there’s a department of Retirement Systems but let’s be honest they don’t make the best effort to educate people they started their podcast which I don’t know any episode that actually goes over
(04:43) any for benefits they’re all kind of like fluff pieces in my opinion you can call them up usually going to be waiting on hold the person you talk to may or may not know the answer so sometimes you get an answer and it could be wrong and that’s happened to my clients even myself a few times when I’m trying to get information from them they have their you know live in person webinars or stuff like that but the person giving those webinars typically aren’t the people you’re talking to on the phone
(05:07) and they’re really just not license to give you any kind of advice they don’t know what goes into building up to retirement the retirement process and then what happens after that they can help you answer questions and then you’re out the door and that’s it so I know there need to be more education out there and the same goes for people’s employers and school districts there’s no licensed advisor on staff they’re going to refer you up to Department time systems there are other advisers that
(05:28) can come in occasionally but one thing I want to drive home cuz this keeps coming up is there are no advisor financial institution that’s employed by any Washington State employer so if you have a school district and say oh this is the rep for the school district they’re not employed by them they might be the rep because that’s what their company decided that they are but there are no official documentation on that they they usually come in they’ll meet with you for free and nine times out of 10 they’re going
(05:55) to try to sign you up for something 403b is us what they’re going to go for I’ve Liv live that world for four years I know all the tricks and kind of what they’re up to there now not to say these people are bad I’ve done it for four years it’s just that these people coming in there when they’re employed by other institutions they often are limited in what they’re able to offer you and their education isn’t as broad as it could be so they know 4 3bs they know their product lineup and that’s it and they’ll
(06:22) try to talk you out of doing things like the DCP or talk you about the tap annuity or talk other some other person’s product cuz they’re trying to commit for their commit so I know that needed to stop so I actually started my YouTube channel about 3 years back we have almost 200 videos on your education benefits so you can go on demand you can click learn what you need to know ask questions in the comments and never once you have to pick up the phone and call somebody or meet with someone and be in a
(06:47) high-pressured you know sales environment so that’s UL my goal of delivering more education for you guys this podcast is just a way to brought in the reach here so if you know anyone that could benefit from learning more about their education on their retirement benefits feel free to share this with them so now what can you expect from this podcast so beyond just your state pension plan which a lot of people think it’s you know it’s just the pension the income for life and that’s it there’s a lot more that goes on
(07:11) beyond that right knowing the pension form is a great start but that’s just giving the surface that was the first video I put out on YouTube and I’ve done you know hundreds after that going to the final workings of it all so knowing the investing requirements the investment components to it all as well as the outside pieces like the fourth B the Deferred Compensation Plan pep Healthcare System what’s the VEBA so we’re going to cover all that but again that’s still inside your Washington State shell you still have your federal
(07:39) benefits like Social Security and Medicare think about then you have General planning like tax planning and estate planning so those are all the pieces we’re going to try to work into this podcast so you guys become more well-rounded financially so to break it down my mission is simple I just want to provide more education for free to people so they can make better decisions make less mistakes and Hope hopefully that will help you grow your wealth maybe retire earlier Pay Less in taxes and ultimately enjoy your own free time
(08:05) cuz we all know you deserve it future depends on what you do today so thank you for joining me on this journey I’m excited to have you guys along

all right before I sign off just a real quick legal disclosure that we’re required to say as licensed fiduciary advisors so remember that this is the podcast it is designed for educational entertainment purposes only I don’t know you personally therefore I cannot give you any personal advice so please don’t take
(08:28) anything that we say on the show as being personal financial legal or tax advice if you want that kind of stuff make sure you seek out a professional so they can help you with the strategies and Investments that are right for you also please remember that despite the name of our show we are in no way associated with Washington State or the department Retirement systems or any other Washington employer we’re a private owned firm that specializes in working with Washington state employees which is why we know so much about this stuff to
(08:55) remember we don’t work for state in any way shape or form so please don’t confuse this as being an official representative for the state all right that’s it for the legal stuff I’ll catch you guys all next time

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