00:00 Speaker A
The Trump administration’s retirement policy has been put into the spotlight after the President State of the Union address. The headline of Trump’s proposals offering workers who don’t have employer backed 401K access to a similar plan offered to federal workers. The president says the government will also match contributions by up to $1,000 each year. The first part of that is actually a Biden era policy, the second era policy, the second is a new Trump invention. And let’s unpack all of this.
00:31 Speaker A
Joining me now Dale Smothers, RDS Wealth Management President and CEO for this week’s FA Corner brought to you by Capital Group. Good to see you Dale. So, um, you know, it’s a little confusing here, the the changes here. I mean, as I said, the first part of this, the fact that, um, 401K, people who don’t have employee sponsor, employer sponsored 401Ks will get access to the federal program.
00:54 Speaker A
That was part of the Secure Act which was passed back in 2022. Um, so what is that going to mean? I mean, how many folks don’t have this kind of access that could potentially get it?
01:04 Speaker B
There’s several that don’t have access. As a matter of fact in the state of the the union address, uh, President Trump mentioned this that the reason he is adding this additional match is because of the number of employers who just can’t afford to match their employees in their retirement accounts. I think this is a great thing and it’s something that we should be considering uh an exciting bit of news, especially when we move to the match.
01:31 Speaker B
There’s a lot of people out there who just don’t have the resources in their small business to be able to match employees and those employees for that reason are having a tough time maybe setting aside money into IRAs or maybe they don’t even know how. This is going to give them the access to do that and I’m excited to talk about what this can do for them in the term of the big picture. That extra thousand match goes a long way, Julie.
01:50 Speaker A
Well, and it it comes in the form of a federal tax credit, right? So how exactly is that going to work?
01:57 Speaker B
The details still are not completely clear. So this is where the the the math is clear, but the fuzziness of the logistics behind it all. just like everything the federal government does, Julie, still not 100% set in stone. And if I’m not mistaken, I believe this starts next year. Am I right on that? That that uh that match will start in 2027. The federal tax credit is likely to essentially supplement the let’s say $2,000. If you were used to putting 1,000 in, now put 2,000 in, you’re going to get back $1,000 with a tax credit.
02:30 Speaker B
Credits are different than deductions. So it’s important for us to remember that. That would be an additional $1,000 check over and above any deduction or any uh return rather that you would normally receive. So, uh in in essence, it’s going to be a match, but it’s still money you’ve got to put out in in your own cash flow.
02:47 Speaker A
Yeah, you better make sure that you you actually use it for that. Um and you’re right, 2027 is when it’s supposed to start, right? Okay. So you mentioned the math. So let’s talk about the math, right? What is that um match going to potentially do for you? How should people be thinking about it?
03:05 Speaker B
This is exciting. and again, there are challenges because cash flow is the issue with most people who don’t already contribute to retirement accounts. So you’re still having to put the the money out every year into your retirement account, but you’re going to get that tax credit back. So let’s talk about $1,000. just if you were to put $1,000 a year towards retirement and let’s just use a a 35-year- old as an example. If you crank out that math at say 10% per year for 35 years, you have put $35,000 into your retirement account.
03:41 Speaker B
It has grown with 10% compound interest to a $270,000 account balance. But here’s the match that if you spark it and you you ignite this match, it could cause a fire to occur inside of your retirement account, which is a great thing. You’ve still only put $35,000 in, but instead of 1,000 going to work, now you’ve got 2,000 a year. And at the same 10% rate of return, Julie, that account has now grown to $550,000. So you put a thousand in,
04:12 Speaker B
you put 35,000 over the next last 35 years. You’ve got a $550,000 account staring you in the face because of this additional match. And here’s a really neat tool that we talk to our clients about when we’re talking about employee matches, we are big on maxing out every bit of the match because it’s free money. You’re essentially getting 100% rate of return if you did nothing with that money. So you put in a thousand, the government puts in a thousand.
04:42 Speaker B
This allows us to put a lot of risk into that portfolio that we may be otherwise hesitant to put in because if you think about this, Julie, you could take a 50% hit in the market and you’ve still got every dollar that you put in. You put 1000, government puts in 1000, market moves back 50%, you’ve still got your thousand. So with that added risk, let’s just crank that average rate of return up to 12% now and you see that $35,000 seed money how has now grown in 35 years.
05:13 Speaker B
Again, this is a 30-year-old retiring at 65. 35,000 contribution over 35 years growing to $860,000. This is huge. This could be your uh uh spark if you will to maybe start saving a little bit of additional money, especially if you’re young and don’t have access to those types of accounts now.
05:35 Speaker A
Right. And the sooner you start doing it, the better, of course. Dale, thank you so much. Appreciate it. That was FA Corner brought to you by Capital Group.