Happy New Year!!! It’s 2019 – make it your best boss year! The BOSSES are here to help you plan for success and a major component of any good business is sound financial planning. This includes retirement! This is a topic rarely explored in the voiceover world but it's one you should be thinking about and actively planning for. It’s never too soon or too late to start.
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode
Retirement planning includes many components: life insurance, IRAs, 401K, mutual funds and more.
A financial advisor is a great way to start the process. They act as a partner and guide.
SAG AFTRA actors are better primed for retirement via the union.
Max out your annual investments to off-set taxable income.
SEP IRAs are great ways to build wealth as a business owner.
If you have a portfolio via a previous employer, you should know how to continue to add to it.
When you’re not working anymore – how are you going to get that income that sustains you now?
When you are younger, invest aggressively, and as you get older you decrease the risk tolerance on your investments.
Try to let investments be long-term. Don’t babysit them closely or allow day to day ups and downs to bother you.
Invest early if you can. Even a few hundred dollars can be a great start.
Deduct investment savings automatically so you get used to it being a regular bank transaction, weekly or monthly.
You don’t need to have lots of money to begin working on retirement planning. You can start with zero money and begin by making a plan.
A financial advisors job is to help you grow wealth. They don’t expect that you are wealthy already.
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Share ideas with your own network ++
Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
Retirement options for Freelancers – Fidelity
Retirement options for the Self Employed – Nerdwallet
Freelancer Saving’s Plans – Forbes
Recorded on ipDTL
Full Episode Transcript
>> Today’s voiceover talent is more than just a pretty voice.
>> Pretty voice.
>> Pretty voice.
>> Pretty voice.
>> Today’s voiceover talent has to be a BOSS.
>> BOSS.
>> A BOSS.
>> A BOSS.
>> Join us each week for business owner strategies and success with your hosts Anne Ganguzza and Gabrielle Nistico, along with some of the strongest voices in our industry.
>> Rock your business.
>> Rock your business.
>> Rock your business.
>> Like a BOSS.
>> Like a BOSS.
>> Rock your business like a BOSS.
>> Rock your business like a BOSS.
>> A VO BOSS.
>> A VO BOSS.
>> A VO BOSS.
Anne: Welcome, everybody, to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m your host, Anne Ganguzza, along with my Happy New Year cohost, Gabby Nistico. Hey Gabby.
Gabby: Hey! Happy New Year!
Anne: Yay! Happy New Year! I always love the beginning of a new year, Gabby. [sighs] It’s like —
Gabby: Something very refreshing or cleansing about it. Yeah.
Anne: It’s the start of an amazing year. I get so pumped up at the beginning of the year, just thinking about “oh yeah! I’m gonna do this for my business, and it’s gonna, it’s just gonna grow and improve!” and I have all sorts of wonderful, happy success manifest feelings about it. [laughs]
Gabby: Wow.
Anne: I get excited.
Gabby: My head’s in a slightly different place right now, slightly different.
Anne: Yeah?
Gabby: I literally just met with my financial advisor, because it’s that time of year, guys. Retirement, and investments, and portfolios, and we have to be thinking about all this stuff, right?
Anne: Gabby, retirement. I don’t think enough people think about retirement. I know that when I was younger, that was like the last thing on my brain as a working girl in the corporate world. The last thing on my brain was retirement. And I’ll tell you what, now that I’m getting a little bit older and I’m an entrepreneur, yeah, we need to address. We need to look ahead and plan for retirement. So Gabby, what sorts of things were you talking about in terms of retirement and planning?
Gabby: Nobody… in our business, nobody talks about retirement. I’ve never heard a voiceover refer to their career in terms of retirement, right?
Anne: Well, I have heard some SAG-AFTRA people though, because they do have a plan.
Gabby: Yes.
Anne: Right? They have a plan they’re talking about.
Gabby: Yeah, but nobody talks about it. It’s really not, it’s not a common conversation, and that’s why I think it’s great —
Anne: Very true.
Gabby: — that we’re bringing it up and exploring it. So there’s a couple of things that happen around this time every year with my financial advisor in conjunction with my accountant. We’re figuring out where can I max out all of my retirement investments in order to offset taxes, right? That’s a huge thing this time of year.
Anne: Oh yeah.
Gabby: So first —
Anne: Offsetting taxes is key.
Gabby: Oh God yeah. So first thing out of the gate is making sure that I’ve maxed out my Roth. $5500 done, in there for the year. Don’t have to think about it anymore.
Anne: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Gabby: And then, I also have a SEP for my business, which many of you might have, and if you don’t, you might want to look into it. Because what happens with a SEP account is, there’s quite a bit of money you can put into one. I think it’s up to $25,000 annually. And it too offsets your total income, and it’s pre-tax, and it’s a really, really amazing way to build up a pension for yourself and to build up that wealth for later in life.
Anne: So Gabby, talk to me about what is — or, and our listeners — what is a SEP account? What, how is that spelled, for those of you who have never heard of it?
Gabby: Yeah, it’s an S-E-P, SEP.
Anne: I’ve never heard of a SEP account.
Gabby: Ok, so a SEP-IRA is a Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Arrangement.
Anne: Ohh.
Gabby: That’s what it stands for. Can you imagine, like the fact that I’m the one giving this financial advise right now, this is hysterical, right? My tattooed behind is talking retirement. Ok, here we go.
[[both laugh]]
Anne: Well Gabby, I’m gonna hold that, hold, hold you to that thought because I, I want to address it from my standpoint too, which is coming from corporate.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: And having a pension that was provided to me. But talk — I need to know more about this SEP.
Gabby: It’s pretty straight-forward. It’s the business equivalent of a Roth IRA, which is your personal IRA.
Anne: Ahh yes.
Gabby: And you’re allowed to put a greater amount of money into it as a business owner, or partner, or shareholder. And it can really significantly help in terms of again reducing your tax debt each year —
Anne: Yes.
Gabby: — but also making it so that you’re really making some super headway into retirement accounts. Because let’s face it, the Roth at $5500, and I think it’s, you know, whatever it is, like $10,000 if you’re married —
Anne: That’s nothing —
Gabby: It’s nothing!
Anne: — to live on [laughs] in this day and age.
Gabby: Oh God, it’s pennies.
Anne: Get off my lawn! Get off my lawn! In this day and age!
Gabby: It’s so true. We’re here, we’re old, we’re tired. Get off my lawn.
Anne: Get off my lawn! But you do have to think about it. Now Gabby, I love that you brought that up because I come from a different background. I come from having, you know, 25 to 30 years in corporate. And so thankfully, ok, I had a retirement plan put in place for me by the company that I worked for. And mine, actually because I worked for an educational institution, was a pension plan. So thankfully I am vested in a pension plan. So is my husband. I also have a Roth IRA, and I have investments that I’m making towards my retirement. Do you remember, Gabby, a long time ago, I think when all of us thought $1 million was a lot of money to retire on?
Gabby: Oh my God. Oh my God.
Anne: It’s so not the case anymore. It just isn’t.
Gabby: No. $1 million is nothing.
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: That’s what’s crazy.
Anne: Yeah…
Gabby: My advisor is very vocal about that fact that $1 million per person is the bare minimum —
Anne: Yes. Absolutely the bare minimum
Gabby: — you need to have in retirement, yeah, to maintain your standard of living.
Anne: Oh I think, Gabby, really, what you’ve got, what you’ve got to do, and this is how I kind of just put it in perspective, is I have to take a look at what I spend on a monthly basis to live and figure out how, when I’m not working anymore and I’m not making the income that I am making now, how am I going to get that income? And so there’s a multitude of different things that I’m doing for my retirement, and as I mentioned, I’m very thankful that I’m part of a pension plan. My husband is part of a pension plan. I also contribute myself now to a Roth IRA, and I also have investments in mutual funds that are working for me and some stocks.
Gabby: I, I do that as well. We go ahead, and we reassess that every couple of years. I’m fairly aggressive in mine though because I still have a little bit of the luxury of being aggressive yet for probably, I don’t know, another 10, 15 years.
Anne: Yes.
Gabby: And then you know, as you get older, you kind of decrease the risk factor.
Anne: I — you know, that’s so funny, Gabby. I was thinking about that the other day in terms of, you know, my mutual funds. You know, as entrepreneurs, we are, we take risks.
Gabby: Mm-hmm.
Anne: So yeah, I’m that aggressive, I have a good percentage of my investment that is aggressive still as well.
Gabby: [laughs] So every time we make an investment, especially if it’s into an individual stock, he will say to me, you know, “do you want the S&P? Do you want to be able to see the number on the ticker?” I’m like, “no, I don’t want to know anything.”
Anne: Exactly.
Gabby: “No, absolutely not. I don’t, let it ride.”
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: And, and that’s how — I mean, that’s me personally. It’s not that way for everybody, but I see it as a long-term investment, a long-term risk.
Anne: Mm-hmm.
Gabby: Let it ride. I’m not gonna be in the stock exchange checking every day, every week to see what it’s doing.
Anne: Yep, I’m right there with you.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: As a matter of fact, when I worked — God, I was like 20-something, one of the first things I did in the company that I worked for was buy stock. And I didn’t have a whole lot to invest at the time, because I was just out of college and paying a lot of student loans, but I invested $500. And I haven’t looked back since. I haven’t looked at the numbers. I haven’t — it hasn’t made me crazy. It’s been one of those things where I just, I don’t, I don’t want to look at it every day. However, it has grown substantially in the, uh you know, oh my gosh, in my 20, 30 years plus. And it’s been a really nice, long-term investment.
Gabby: Nice.
Anne: But that, that was a savior, Gabby, for my sanity was not looking at that and not expecting really anything or, or depending on it for anything, which I think is important.
Gabby: And that’s, that’s really I think the key to retirement planning, for any industry, but ours especially. It’s, it’s, you have to be able to put aside the money that you don’t need to think about.
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: The money that you don’t need to spend in the next six to 12 months. And, and you literally, it’s like, get it out of my sight. I don’t, it’s not here.
Anne: Yeah. Mine is deducted automatically from my bank account —
Gabby: Yep.
Anne: — my contributions, and that’s really, you know, and you work for a company, same thing. It’s deducted out of your paycheck, and I think the less you think about it or look, look at it, the easier it is.
Gabby: Yeah, it really is. But for entrepreneurs, it’s so hard sometimes.
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: Because we go, oh my gosh. No, no, no. I don’t know, you know, month-to-month I don’t know what my income’s gonna be, so I can’t commit to a set amount coming out because what if I need to change it? Well, guess what, guys? That’s the beauty of working with somebody. That’s the beauty of having a team. I can call my financial advisor right now. Yes, New Year’s Day [laughs] and say, need to make a change.
Anne: Exactly. Excellent point.
Gabby: And he will do it first available business. It’s, it’s very easy to do now, and some of it you can even do yourself online.
Anne: Yeah, people just feel so overwhelmed that they do nothing at all. And so my advice is do something, even if it is a little something, every month, every week that you can put aside, to put into that retirement. You know, I started off contributing $50, you know, and so ultimately it grew over the years to my contribution, depending on how my business was being run, but I started off with a very small amount, and just, and start now. Guys, there’s no time like now, today — Happy New Year’s —
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: — to, to really, if you’ve not done, if you’ve not done this and not made the investment, get yourself a good financial advisor that you trust, and I have one that I absolutely love. I have been working with him for 25 years. I trust him implicitly to, to handle my mutual funds and to help me to make wise investments for my retirement. And he also, he, he actually comes after me. This is how little I try to have to do with it, and I know that I’m not unlike most people. Right?
Gabby: Funny.
Anne: I don’t want to think about it, but I do. And he comes at me every month, and he’s like, “Anne, let’s review the portfolio. Anne, sign this.”
Gabby: Oh wow.
Anne: “Call me.” And so at least I’m talking about it. Right? And he can bring up all sorts of wonderful points that I’m unaware of. Retirement is not something that is prevalent on my brain every second of the day. So he can say, “did you know we could do this? We could invest here. If you contributed to here more, your tax savings for this year is going to be a whole lot better. You know, there’s new tax laws. He knows all — this is what he does. This is, he lives my eats and breathes this. So I listen to him.
Gabby: You have to get a financial planner that you, that you love basically. You have got to go about an interviewing process and find the person who’s right for you. That’s, that’s number one because it is going to be a very long term relationship. But I think one of the mistakes people make is they think that they have to have a stock file of wealth or a significant amount of money to even call a financial advisor or start that process. No. That is not —
Anne: No.
Gabby: Accurate.
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: A financial advisor’s job is to help you grow wealth. So the assumption is you don’t have any wealth right now. [laughs]
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: You’re starting at nothing. And, and they make many suggestions, and it starts very simply. Like OK, so my, my very first year with my financial guy, I was not, I was not amused by the way. OK? This was a tough one for me. I had to really bite the bullet. We took a look at all of my expenses, everything, and he said, you know, you are really, you are in great shape with a lot of these things. You are living below your means. That is exactly what you want to see. You don’t have a lot of debt, credit cards are virtually nil. He said but, we need to talk about your car payment, Gabby. And I went oh [beep].
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: Basically what it came down to is he said your car payment’s higher than it needs to be. It’s unnecessary. If you trade in the car, go for a four-door model — I had to give up my little sports car. I had to do it, Anne. I couldn’t believe it. If you give that up and go to a four-door, you’re gonna save money on the insurance. You’re gonna lower the amount of the payment. And he goes, and then we have more money that we can invest.
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: He was right. He was absolutely right. So that’s what I did. And so it’s, it’s things like that that they assist you with. One of the other things that you want to be aware of is things like a solo 401(k). And that’s something they help you set up.
Anne: Yes, Absolutely. Absolutely. And that’s something that is so important if you right now are an entrepreneur, I mean, and you are not having — like I was so used to for so many years, you know, the company that I worked for providing, you know, retirement, and, and all of my investments. So when you are on your own, that is something you cannot ignore. And you do have to, you do have to start thinking about that. And of course, you know, health insurance is the other, the other aspect. So when you retire, what is going to, you know, how are you going to be able to pay for any medical emergencies that come up, and if you, if what you are going to be getting is going to be able to, to handle —
Gabby: Sustain you.
Anne: — any type of emergency — yeah, sustain you. Handle, handle any type of emergencies that might arise.
Gabby: Yeah, I mean one of the great things about this process, and look, it is scary. I get it. It, it’s not a comfortable thing for people. You have to kind of stare down the barrel of your own mortality. It’s not fun. I know, right? Happy New Year.
[both laugh]
Anne: Great, Gabby.
Gabby: It’s a little dark, but it’s coming from me. What do you expect?
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: It’s a little morose.
Anne: Gabby, I’m still happy and excited, I’m just gonna say —
Gabby: See, there you go.
Anne: — about my new year.
Gabby: We’re yin and yang, baby. Yin and yang.
Anne: Well you know, we’re educated, but we need to do is, you just need to just —
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: I feel so much more positive, and I have such a better outlook when I’m educated. And I think that every one of us as an entrepreneur, if you can educate yourself on those things that, that can help drive your business forward, and help you in the years to come, and especially in retirement, all the better.
Gabby: It’s totally about securing your future. You will inevitably in this process get in to things like life insurance and how you want to handle that, your will, trusts. There are so many different ways in which you can start to safeguard and plan. Like even things like, you know, whole term life and 401(k), solo 401(k)’s, I talk to business owners sometimes who have no idea these things exist. And I’m like, whoa. That’s scary, because what is going to happen? The time to do it is now. You don’t want to wait. You don’t want to be a couple of years away from retirement going, “oh, I got to start planning for retirement. Oo, that’s bad.”
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: You want to do it now.
Anne: And then it becomes, you make any move, desperate move — [laughs]
Gabby: Yes. Yeah.
Anne: — to try and get that money to support you. And I, I just don’t think that an entrepreneur wants to have a campaign, a Gofundme campaign, to try and live their retirement.
Gabby: Right.
Anne: So I don’t think that’s going to work really well.
Gabby: Such a great point.
Anne: And — yeah.
Gabby: And I can only tell you, and Anne, I’m sure you agree, if I could have started doing this, if I had the foresight to do this when I was in my 20’s —
Anne: Oh gosh, yeah.
Gabby: Oh my God. I would have so much more money already accumulated right now.
Anne: That’s one of the reasons I’m thankful I did start working, you know, in the corporate world in my 20’s, because I did start that foundation, and again, it was one of those things that I was like, “yeah, OK, whatever. What do I check,” you know, when I was being employed. “What, alright, how much do I have, what’s the least amount that I can give? And Is the company” — it was all that, back when companies matched. [laughs]
Gabby: Some still do. Some still do.
Anne: Some still do. But yeah, it was one of those things where I really, I don’t even want to think about it, but it’s so true. Think about that $1 million which really is not enough to support you for, you know, very long in retirement.
Gabby: No. And one of the things that my financial advisor told me way, way at the start of our relationship that has always stuck with me, he said, “the first $100,000 is the hardest to get to.”
Anne: Mmm.
Gabby: And what he means by that is $100,000 in savings.
Anne: Yes.
Gabby: Having $100,000 in accounts that you are not touching, that you are basically committed to not touching until you are at retirement age. He goes, that first $100,000 is the hardest to get to. Once you, you’re there, incrementally, it starts to do more. It builds more wealth. The process becomes easier.
Anne: Oh, absolutely. That’s a, that’s an excellent point. Excellent point.
Gabby: Yep, so start today, guys. It’s —
Anne: Yes.
Gabby: And it is a family discussion, right? Talk to your spouses, talk to family members. You know, it’s, it’s a discussion that you want to have way before you need to have it.
Anne: Yes, and start when you’re two… years old.
Gabby: Oh God, wouldn’t that be amazing?
Anne: It would, right if —
Gabby: Oh my God.
Anne: [laughs] If only. If only. But hey. Guys, it’s never too late to start. Start now.
Gabby: No.
Anne: Start now in this new year while we are manifesting success and wonderful things for our businesses and growth.
Gabby: I can’t think of a better thing to do for the new year than to think about the growth of wealth.
Anne: Yeah. That’s a lovely thing to think about, Gabby. You know, it’s like one of our favorite topics.
Gabby: Oh. So BOSS.
Anne: Money. Wealth. So BOSS. Guys, have an amazing new year. I’d like to give a huge shout out to our amazing sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and record like a BOSS, and find out more at ipdtl.com.
Gabby: For all things BOSS, we have got all of our socials, our website, so many great things up there that you can take advantage of that are going to help you to better establish and grow your business in the new year. Please make sure that you start engaging this process. This is the year to be your best BOSS, 2019, baby.
Anne: This is your year. Have a wonderful start to your new year. We’ll see you next week.
Gabby: Bye!
Anne: Bye!
Announcer: Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your hosts Anne Ganguzza and Gabby Nistico. All rights reserved, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent in association with Three Moon Media. Redistribution with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via ipDTL.
1
Anne: Welcome, everybody. Welcome, everybody, to the VO BOSS — Welcome, everybody, to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m — no. Welcome, every — [laughs]
2
Anne: Why don’t you ever admit something like that, Gabby? Go ahead, Gabby. Give me an admission of something… that happens.
Gabby: [laughs]
Anne: Something weird that happens to you.
Gabby: Admission of something? Oh my God.
[both laugh]
Anne: [indiscernible]
Gabby: Oh my God. An admission of something.
Anne: Weird. Not just something, weird.
Gabby: [laughs]
Anne: You must admit something weird.
Gabby: I don’t know what my weird things — well, I mean like you know this about me. Like I have like Tourette’s. Like I just periodically blurt [beep] out.
Anne: I’ve never noticed that, seriously. Seriously.
Gabby: Oh God, I do it all the time.
Anne: Well, I don’t expect that to be Tourette’s. I think that’s just you and your personality.
Gabby: Oh ok, well there you go.
Anne: Is that really Tourette’s? No seriously.
Gabby: It’s, it’s like a weird like tick, like whatever. Like I’m certain that I’m on the spectrum in some way. Like I should have been — [laughs] I like skirted in right under the radar.
Anne: You and a billion other people right, you and a billion other people that, you know.
Gabby: Yeah! Like, like I mean, I just —
Anne: From our generation that have — that just, you know, nobody —
Gabby: Because it wasn’t a thing!
Anne: It wasn’t a thing.
Gabby: It wasn’t a thing then. And so no, I just like, I randomly like just curse and outburst and —
Anne: Aha.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: There we go.
Gabby: And it’s for no reason. It’s just —
Anne: “I randomly curse for no reason.”
Gabby: — what must have been.
Anne: Yeah, OK. You put a label — go ahead, put a label on it, Gabby.
Gabby: So, no. I did it the other day at the grocery store. And I, and this woman was next to me. And I literally went, “I’m so sorry. That was inappropriate behavior for the yogurt aisle.” And then she laughed really hard. [laughs]
Anne: The yogurt aisle. “That was — I’m sorry for my, I’m sorry for my inappropriate behavior in the yogurt aisle.”
Gabby: And then she laughed, and it was OK. But before that she was just absolutely mortified.
[both laugh]
Anne: What did you say?
Gabby: I was just like —
[beautiful jazz music covers story]
[both laugh]
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: Oh my God, that’s so funny.
Gabby: And then like per — and like it’s, it’s a horrible word, and it’s a terrible word to come out of the mouth of a woman, but periodically, it’s just [beep]
Anne: [laughs] That one comes out, yeah.
Gabby: No reason.
Anne: I hear you.
Gabby: [beep]. [laughs]
Anne: And that’s one that I don’t like, but I’ve, I’ve softened —
Gabby: I know. Most women don’t like it, and I just don’t care.
Anne: Yeah, I just don’t like the word. I don’t like the sound of it.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: I don’t like the sound of it.
Gabby: Most women don’t.
Anne: I don’t like the intimation of it.
Gabby: I say it an awful lot.
Anne: You’re not the only one.
Gabby: There’s [beep] awful. That’s a good one too.
Anne: There you go.
Gabby: [laughs]
Anne: Oh my God, I’m blushing over here.
Gabby: [beep] waffles.
Anne: All right, are we um uhh?
Gabby: Let’s try this again, shall we?
Anne: Now that we probably have our sufficient outtakes for the year.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: [beep] waffle.
[both laugh]
Anne: Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m Anne Ganguzza, with my wonderful, glorious, loving [beep] waffle, Gabby Nistico.
[both laugh hard]
Gabby: Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
Anne: You said it. You made me say it. You know that I don’t do those things. I’m a [laughs] I’m a wholesome girl. I’m a wholesome girl.
Gabby: I’m crying. I’m crying.
Anne: [beep] waffle. Where does the waffle come into it? I don’t understand. How is the waffle associated?
Gabby: Well, and then I want to know, is its counterpart a penis pancake? Like you know?
Anne: Penis pancake! [beep] waffle. That was a healthy breakfast of penis pancake.
[both laugh]
Gabby: Stop it.
Anne: You are not. You are not putting that in. You are not going to put that in. That is not talk for an outtake either. There is no, that has never been appropriate. That’s inappropriate for outtakes even.
Gabby: Says you.
Anne: Says, says, yes. All right, here we go. [long pause] OK. Welcome, everybody. [laughs] [beep]
[both laugh]
Anne: I keep thinking about it. I just want to introduce you as my [beep] waffle. I can’t.
[both laugh]