We all want to maximize our assets and push the limits of our financial planning abilities. It’s only natural to ask for as much as possible, but when do those requests start receiving push back?

On this episode of the Money Wisdom podcast, we’re talking all about those unreasonable requests. We’ll lay out a few examples of times when someone’s wishful thinking goes well-beyond what’s possible in a comprehensive financial plan.

The first things people want is bigger returns. That seems like a fair expectation, right? The problem comes in when you want that higher rate of return but you’re not willing to take on any additional risk. If there were ways to create better returns on your money without any of the worry, financial advisors wouldn’t need to work. We’d be on a beach somewhere enjoying an early retirement.

These unrealistic expectations seem to be much more prominent right now in an era of Robinhood traders and others that have seen massive returns over the past year. They haven’t seen much downside yet so there’s a misbelief that there’s no downside. Be careful getting caught up in this because corrections will always come.

The second unreasonable request we want to talk about is negotiating to lower fees. Everyone wants to get the best bargain for their money, but you pay for what you get in nearly every situation. Think about the sports car you’re willing to pay extra for when a much cheaper car will get you from point a to point b. You spend more because it’s worth it, right? That’s the same situation with a financial advisor. Experts get paid expert money for a reason. There’s additional value in return for those fees so keep that in mind when you want to pay less.

The final request we’ll hear from people is to eliminate the tax obligations for the money in their IRA and 401k account. There are ways to leverage those retirement accounts to make sure you heirs get as much of your money as possible, but there’s not a way to avoid taxes all-together. Tax planning is a big piece to retirement planning and we’re happy to go through the options you have to minimize your taxes.

Remember that you can set up your complimentary Money Map Retirement Review and we can get your retirement plan started and on the right track.  

[1:12] – I want to get bigger returns with little to no risk

[6:21] – Can you reduce the fees for me?

[11:10] – How can I get out of paying taxes on the money in my IRAs and 401k accounts?

[12:02] – The Money Map Retirement Review

Thanks for listening to this episode. We’ll be back again next week for another show.