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Shownotes Transcript
Welcome to the Stay Wealthy Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor Schulte. And today I'm excited to share that just like last summer, I'll be stepping away from the mic for a few weeks to spend a little time with my family, work on some improvements for this show and just re-energize.
But don't worry, I'm not replaying old episodes while I'm out like all those other retirement podcast hosts. I would never do that to you. Stepping in for me once again is friend of the show and personal finance expert, Jeremy Schneider. Jeremy is the owner of Personal Finance Club and now has close to 400,000 followers on Instagram.
If you're a longtime listener, you might remember that when Jeremy first joined me on the show back in early 2020, he was only about a year into Personal Finance Club and he had around 100,000 followers. So needless to say, his platform has grown tremendously and for very good reason. He's honest, he's funny, he keeps things simple, he puts the consumer first, and like all of us here, Jeremy is an advocate for low-cost index fund investing.
He also has a passion for uncovering all the hidden fees, dangerous investments, online scams, and common misconceptions in the investing and retirement planning world. Jeremy's first guest episode airs right here next Tuesday. And as you'll hear, he's kicked things up a notch since taking over last summer. He was overwhelmed recently by the relentless and misleading sales pitches for indexed universal life insurance products.
But instead of just talking about the pitfalls of these policies, he went out and he bought one for himself. And through that process, he uncovered 10 lies that are told about these complex and very much misunderstood products. He'll be sharing those with you.
From there, he'll be covering the Vanguard target date fund debacle that you might've caught wind of, iBonds, how to invest for your kids and grandkids. And finally, in his last episode, he'll be sharing his ultimate investing checklist, which includes seven different steps that you can use to measure your own investment strategy against others that are out there.
So enjoy your time with Jeremy, and I will officially be back behind the mic the first week of August. But before I hand the controls over to Jeremy, I did want to leave you with some important information on Medicare Irma here in 2022. Before we dive in, just a quick note that you can grab the links and resources mentioned today in this episode by going to youstaywealthy.com forward slash 157. So for those who aren't familiar with Medicare Irma, it's essentially a surcharge.
that high-earning Medicare members are hit with each month. For those that have income above a certain level, Irma increases their Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D standard monthly premiums. Irma stands for Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, and it's based on your modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI.
However, what makes this surcharge unique is that it's based on your income from two years ago. In other words, the 2022 IRMA brackets are based on your MAGI from 2020. And if your 2020 amount is not available, your 2019 is used.
Earlier this year, I wrote one of the most in-depth guides on the internet on Medicare Irma and the updated 2022 brackets. And by the way, it's not one of those, give me your email address and I'll send you the free guide thing. It's live, it's public, it's free, it's on my website. I'll link to it in the show notes for you so you can keep it handy and dig deeper. But one thing to note is that your Maggie for Irma purposes is different than for non-healthcare purposes.
I share the formula for calculating your Medicare-specific modified adjusted gross income in that article if you're interested in crunching the number yourself. And with that number, you're then able to determine if you'll be hit with an IRMA surcharge by looking at the most recent brackets, the updated 2022 IRMA brackets. In short, if your Medicare-specific modified adjusted gross income in 2020 – remember, IRMA looks at your tax return from two years ago –
If your Medicare specific modified adjusted gross income in 2020 was $91,000 or less as an individual or $182,000 or less as a married couple filing jointly, you will not be hit with an increase to your Medicare part B and D premiums this year. However, if you are above those limits, your Medicare part B premiums can be increased by as much as $408.20 per month.
and your Part D premiums by as much as $77.90 per month. There are five different income thresholds, each with a different premium increase. So if you wanna see where you fall and what the surcharge is, just head over to the show notes and review the table in my guide to Irma, which again can be found by going to youstaywealthy.com forward slash 157. I've also linked directly to the guide in this episode description inside your podcast app for quick access.
So naturally, when retirement savers like you learn about this Medicare surcharge, they begin wondering what they can do to avoid Irma or even reduce it. And in the guide that I wrote and linked to, I lay out 10 different ways that you can avoid or reduce Irma surcharges.
One in particular is charitable giving, but it's important to understand the different types of charitable gifts and how each is treated so you can determine how much of it will impact your Medicare premiums. And I've summarized all of that for you. I also included strategies around generating tax-free income, avoiding investments that secretly spike your tax bill, Medicare savings accounts or MSAs, tax-efficient withdrawal strategies, and I even shared the process for appealing IRMA.
Medicare IRMA and strategies to reduce it are often hyper specific to the individual. So I'll spare you the details here and just suggest that you read the article if you're interested in learning more. So check out the guide if you're interested in all the details. Lastly, before we go, because we're already halfway through the year, in the article, I also provided the projected 2023 IRMA bracket.
So if you're already thinking ahead, which you should be, and wondering what your premiums might look like next year, that's all laid out in a nice table for you as well. However, just note, and I noted this in the article, that the 2023 IRMA estimates are based on an assumed 0% rate of inflation. And we all know that's not the case. So expect those estimates to be a little higher than stated.
If you only take one thing away from this short episode on Irma, it's that your income this year will have a direct income on your Irma bracket two years from now. I regularly talk about on this show not to look at your taxes in a vacuum or in a single year and to ensure that you're looking through a longer term lens when making tax planning decisions. And Medicare Irma is one of the many examples for why that's so important.
Once again, the links and resources for today, including my giant in-depth guide on Irma and strategies for reducing it, can be found by going to ustaywealthy.com forward slash 157. I hope you enjoy your time with Jeremy. Thank you for continuing to listen to the show and follow along. And I will see you all back here in August.
This podcast is not engaged in rendering legal, financial, or other professional services.
