In My Day...
In My Day...
Saving U
With the start of school right around the corner, Dave and Ryan are joined by teacher Gracie Furnish Reynolds to talk student pranks, learning styles, and the absolute best way to save for college.
David Smyth and Ryan Petrunyak talk about family, finances and fun. Learn more about Family Financial Partners at familyfinancialpartners.com.
Securities offered through The O.N. Equity Sales Company, Member FINRA/SIPC, One Financial Way Cincinnati, Ohio 45242 (513) 794-6794. David Smyth is an Investment Advisor Representative offering Investment Advisory services through O.N. Investment Management Company. Estate planning services provided in conjunction with your licensed legal advisor.
Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of In My Day with Ryan and Dave. How you doing today, Dave?
Dave:Hey Ryan. I am doing great. I'm here in the Sunshine state of Florida and on the phone recording today. But looking forward to a wonderful episode.
Ryan:Absolutely. And today we have another guest on Gracie Furnish Reynolds is our resident kid and teacher expert, and we are very happy to have her on today. Thank you for coming on, Gracie.
Gracie:Yeah, no problem. I don't know about an expert, but we're learning.
Ryan:Well, we're gonna call you our expert for today at least.
Gracie:That sounds good.
Ryan:Gracie. Tell everyone a little bit about yourself and what you do and your family and everything.
Gracie:Yeah. So I'm Gracie, like Ryan said, I live in far Western Kentucky. I'm originally from Cynthiana, so maybe some of y'all know where that is. But my husband and I and our son Noah, live in Hickman County. And I am a high school agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. So last year was my first year teaching and I'm about ready to start year two. I'm also a new mom. Our son is almost six months old. That's really crazy to believe. But his name is Noah and he's just a blast.
Ryan:Well, that's great. You said Noah is almost six months now.
Gracie:Yeah, he'll be six months on August 12th, so he's like five and a half.
Ryan:Okay. So what stage is he in for someone who doesn't have a kid like me? Does that mean he's running around yet? I'm just kidding.
Gracie:He wants to, he really wants to. He is rolling around everywhere. Right now he's in ExerSaucer thing. Playing. Yeah. We'll put him down on a rug and a blanket and We'll come back and he'll be like halfway across the room, just rolling around.
Ryan:Oh, there you go. He's gonna roll away from you. So with it being August and we're getting ready for back to school, everybody wants to hear some funny stories from a teacher's perspective. So what are some funny stories you have for us from your years of teaching Gracie?
Gracie:Yeah, well I had a student teaching experience that lasted a half year December to May. And then like I said, this past year was my first year, so I'm probably not as seasoned with the funny stories as teachers who have taught for 15 or 20 years. But this past year had a pretty funny experience. It wasn't very funny in the beginning, but then it got funny. Ag Shop So Ag. mechanics, welding, those sorts of subjects. And that is definitely not my strongest area in education. So trying to learn as I go, but it was a couple months into school, maybe September. And one of our classes was working on a small engine project, taking apart an engine probably like the engine size and a lawn mower or something like that. And I told from the beginning, keep track of all their parts, so we go through the lab in one of my class periods and then another class period. We're working on a woodworking project. So I tell that class not to touch any of the other classes, stuff I say, don't bother it. Don't touch it, leave it alone. Just do your own stuff. By case you bother it, you're gonna be in trouble. So in that class, I have some pranksters I should've known it was not going to go well and we're down there working one day and come to the next class after their class. And a few of the students, pretty responsible students come up to me and say they're missing like three or four parts of their engine. So I asked the whole entire class, you know, pretty seriously. I'm like, has anybody taken their steps? Anybody misplaced it? We look all over the ground, all over their working table, that type of stuff just to make sure it hadn't just fallen off or something. So I know that none of them have done it, that some my upperclassmen, I know I can trust them or hope I can. So next day I talked to my other class of my underclassmen and I'm pretty serious with them because I'm pretty for sure I know who has done it. And I tell 'em all, you know, you're gonna get 50 points off of the project you're working on if nobody faces up. So pretty stern. I make write definitions, sit out from doing their work in the shop that day. And One of the guys has rounded up like five or six of the other guys in the class, and they come back into my room and they're like, Ms. Reynold, can we talk to you? And only one boy is talking the more responsible of the crew. And he said, we each all six of us took a piece. We put it in the hole in the toll room wall. So this is like a big block concrete wall, mind you. And somebody had like taken, I guess a sledgehammer and made a big hole in it and hid pieces down in the wall from the engine. Yes. So anyway, they fessed up to it. I did not tell them that there were only like three or or four pieces. They all fixed, said that they took a piece and put it in there and so them all out. Frog down in the hole as well. So that was another interesting piece. And so just some different things like that have happened. A lot of times it's more my boys my male students. I won't say that my girls don't, but a lot of times it's them. And I think it was all in good fun that kind of had to lay down the law from the beginning that we can't mess with people's projects and stuff that pertain to a grade.
Ryan:So you're saying as a boy mom, that Noah's gonna be the future prankster of the high school teachers?
Gracie:He might be, i don't know be more like his dad and be a little like responsible. But I could definitely see it. So I don't find the fun prank, you know, that nobody's like harmed or nobody's, like schoolwork is affected. But yeah, sometimes I just had to draw the line, but then sometimes it makes for good fun and that's a funny story now.
Ryan:Fair enough. So getting ready to go back to school as a first time mom, are you nervous? Are you excited? Tell me a little bit about that.
Gracie:Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. I was looking at my calendar like last Saturday and looking at all the dates and everything that's coming really fast and I'm just like, I am not prepared for this. I've tried this summer, you know, to work on some stuff and I'm on an extended contract as an ag teacher, so I have to work some in the summer, but try to have a good balance of just enjoying my time with Noah. But I think it's a little bit mix. I'm excited to see my students and get back with my students, but I'm also sad i won't be with Noah every day or won't get to take him with me. But luckily he's going to a really great place with some other kids and an in-home sitter, and so I think he will have a really good time.
Ryan:Yeah. Yeah. Now, Dave, as a parent of a bunch of teenagers, are you feeling very sad and nervous about them going back to school?
Dave:You know, Ryan, I think Gracie and I are on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Like out here in Florida, in St. Augustine, we have three of the five boys with us. And not to say that the number four, number five, we're hearing from all the time they're both trying to line up work. Anything they can do right to make some money. But we've got one at Sophomore Transy. We'll have two down. Two are gonna be at UK, which is super exciting. And then our, we'll have a sophomore high school to handle that, you know, watching him here at the beach. He'll get up and it'll go on beach walks. I don't actually think when I wake him up at five 30 in the morning for a beach walk here, I don't actually think that he's gone to sleep. I think he's just like taking a nap. It's a little too early when he's awake. And because he gets home from the beach walk at like six 30 and we don't see him till like two in the afternoon. Ah, right. And he's just out and he's got a, he's like on a totally different nocturnal schedule. But I remember when I was that age, I think that's the way I was too. So, and then the 10 year old, right. Who's gonna be going to glamorous fourth grade? You know, it's, it's, it's hard to see a child just happy and bounced around, whether it's in the pool of the ocean and boogie board and having all the fun we're having down here. You know, to think of them just sitting in a classroom all day and getting in trouble if they move at all or say anything at all, that's not part of the conversation. And it's it's gonna be interesting because he's the one that he needs to be in motion and he's easy and, and easy to when he is in motion. But apparently the school system doesn't agree quite as much when he's in motion in the classroom. And Gracie, I'm sure you can, you can appreciate that.
Gracie:My younger brother, I'm the oldest of four siblings and my younger brother's kind of like that. And I definitely have students who are like that. They just need to be moving or doing something with something with their hands.
Dave:Yeah, it's just wild, I mean there's just so many different ways that children learn and I think that's the thing probably that I've taken the most from having kids go through school is just, they all approach school. Some of 'em are very studious and some of them are, Or, you know, kind of shop kids and, and they don't want the books, they want the hands-on approach. And and then there's, you know, you know, one of the five, you know, he just doesn't like any kind of education learning because he already knows it all. Honestly, that makes, it, makes it really easy to parent him because I don't even have to correct him because he, he knows it all already.
Ryan:That makes your job real easy.
Dave:It really does. It takes the pressure off. I'm like, well, it's a good thing you know it all because, you know, I didn't even know that.
Ryan:Well, there you go. There you go. So, Dave, are you, are you looking forward to the routine of school or do you enjoy the summer freedom as a parent?
Dave:You know it, when I'm in Kentucky and I'm working during the summer and the kids are out of school, I do not like that. I feel very guilty during that time period because I feel torn. I feel like I need to almost kind of, maybe like a new parent does. Right. I remember having a brand new child thinking, I wanna do my job, but I wanna get home to my baby, right? Yep. That's right. And you understand that Gracie, I'm sure. Yep, absolutely. But now I'm like, With the kids, they're on break. I wanna spend time with them, right. I wanna see them because that's the only chance we have. And it's also the only reason that we're in Florida in July, Florida just had a couple state record hot days, I've never seen heat advisory warnings on the beach in Florida. And they've actually said from two to five, you, Hey, I want to go outside. You're gonna burst in the flame. And so we've been careful about that, but now we're past that heat wave, but it's now just hot as heck July and Florida. But the only reason we're here is because that's the kids' school schedule. So I don't mind being down here with the kids because I'm kinda out of my normal routine in the office. But I know as soon as I go back, I'm really gonna be glad about the kids going back. And what I really enjoy about going back is all of the parents, I think are kind of getting back into that school routine. And or if it's grandparents, they're still getting back into the kids' school routine because they don't have the kids as much at their homes. So everyone's coming back in the office for meetings and everybody's starting to talk about their planning plans and their goals going forward. Yeah.
Ryan:Yeah, absolutely. So Dave, if you'll speak a little bit if there's a new parent out there like Gracie, And they're thinking Noah is probably a genius and Noah's probably gonna get a full scholarship someday. And obviously he's super smart. But just in case not, will you talk a little bit on some college planning strategies that some people use just generally?
Dave:Yeah, sure. Before I go into that, I mean, Gracie and I were talking about this before we went on air here, but you know, Noah has already been on his first tractor ride. What age, what age was he, Gracie, when he went on that tractor ride?
Gracie:Oh man. Probably three months, three months old, I would say. Yeah. And in the sprayer too. Yeah. So he, he enjoyed it.
Dave:Gracie, to give you an idea of how much of a city boy I am, I don't even know what the sprayer is.
Gracie:Yeah, that's all right.
Ryan:Gracie's, like, we're not even gonna go into this.
Dave:She paused and judged me right there. I heard her.
Gracie:No, no, no. I totally understand. So spray with like fertilizers or spray like for weeds and stuff like that to flourish and to help maybe get some of those needs that it maybe can't get on its own.
Dave:Well, there you go. Okay. So that takes us right into the idea of, of waiting for college, right? That's right. That's right. So every child, right, whether they go to private school, whether they go to you know, a college right? The in state or, or out of state, a, you know, public or private. It doesn't matter or whether they go, they even go to like a trade school. Eventually they're gonna need money for their education. Right. And Just like Gracie, I know Noah is different. Noah is different than the curve. But of the five boys. Of the five boys right now, right? Three are college age, right? Two freshmen and a sophomore. Only one of those three got like a complete full ride. Doesn't need any money for college, right? And the other one got a 50% ride. The other one we're paying for. So you know, if we just break down those numbers, if someone's listening, they have two or three kids, the odds are against you. All of your children are gonna get full rides, so therefore we need to save some money. And how we can do that really easily is the things called education savings plans instead of Kentucky. They're five two nines, right? And what they do is they allow you to put away after tax money and invest for that child. And they don't own the account. You the parent, own the account. Why that's important is the last thing you do is you want, that you wanna have, is you wanna have an 18 year old child with, you know, $25,000 that they, that they are in possession of, that they could make the decision, do I buy that red sports car I want or do I go to school? Right? So we always make sure that it's in mom and dad's or grandparents' name. And the beneficiary is the child. And what that allows us to do is save money and put money in there, whether it's money like automatically monthly or money from a bonus or money from the grandparents at birthdays, and they're like, Hey, I mean, you know, Noah's just so small. There's, you know, maybe I, my budget was a hundred dollars for his birthday. But the reality is Noah's happy with a with a box. That you drool on. So, so, and, and help him stand up on. So I'm gonna take that same a hundred bucks and give an Amazon box to play with and take that same a hundred bucks and put it into 5 2 9 and allow that money to grow. And then as long as that money's taken out for education expenses and there's a long list of those, won't go into all of 'em, but there's a lot of things it covers right then that money can be taken completely tax free, right? And complete penalty free and used for that child. And the best part of it is, and Ryan, I don't know if you do this or not, but the best part is for the parents out there. They're like, yeah, I mean, maybe my child will get a full college scholarship. Well, the one child that I did have that, that has the full ride we can actually take that scholarship and UK he's at UK will give us a price of what that scholarship is for the four years. We can turn that in and we can, we can turn that in against the money we just put away for his 5 2 9. And pull that money out. And that money while we have to pay taxes on it, there's no penalties due on it because, so in other words, you really can't over save for a child's 5, 2 9. So that's something just like you guys are out spraying the fields and ma and doing some preventative ma maintenance, I think it, it makes sense for every parent listening out there, it's putting their kids back in school. If you haven't taken a look at starting a college savings plan, an education savings plan as they're called now, a 5 2 9, it makes sense to do that.
Gracie:Absolutely. We've already, I mean, Noah is only five months old, but we've already started talking about it with Ryan about what we wanna do. Fortunately my parents they saved some money from the beginning, but were able to help me out a little bit with school and I'm just really grateful for the way that set me up, not being in a ton of debt. And I think the earlier we can start with Noah we'll be better off. And so I'm thankful that Ryan has helped us through those conversations.
Dave:Oh, that's absolutely wonderful. Ryan, what were you saying?
Ryan:I was just gonna say the, the earlier start, the better is the thing that we see.'cause the, it it, the same people that put in $50 a month from the get go, from when the before the kid can walk tend to have a better situation than the people that wait until the kid turns 10 and put $200 a month. So it's just a lot easier. On everybody. If, if you can start it early. So that's all, that's all that's my big advice for people out there. It's never too soon.
Dave:Well, and the great part is if, if the child doesn't go, let's say there's just one child, there's no other brothers or siblings or any blood relatives that could use that money if the child doesn't go to school, right? It says, Nope, I'm not going to school. The good part about that education savings plan is you can leave that money in there, right? So I did not know that. So, yeah, so even if Noah's like, well, mom, dad, I'm not going to school. I just wanna, I just wanna be a farmer, right? Yep. Yep. Period. And you're like, well, that's your choice. You can still let that money sit there and grow for him and grow and if it decides at some point, you know, this isn't my calling. I wanna do something different. Yep. Then, then so be it. He has, he has years ahead of him for that decision, and if there's any other siblings that eventually come along, then they also could benefit from that plan and use that money. So it's not all on Noah's shoulders to have to like use it or lose it. Right, right. Yep. That gives a lot of flexibility.
Ryan:Gracie, any other, do you have any questions or anything that people think as a new parent, like what should I be doing to save for Noah's future? Any, any questions that pop to your head?
Gracie:Yeah, I think they covered almost all of it because Jonathan and, I mean, we've been having lots of conversations about it, and the main thing I asked him was, what if Noah decides to not go to college? If he wants to go to a trade, into a trade or a training school or wants to come back to the farm, you know, can we still give him that money? And so, That was really good for me to clarify because, you know, I didn't wanna make him feel like he was forced to go to college if he wanted to do something different. So but yeah, that, those are my biggest questions with it. And I mean, what other tips y'all have? I mean, minimum of $50 to go into and how much can you put in it per month or per year?
Ryan:Yeah, so the, the minimum. Dave, I, I, I don't know the maximum off the top of my head. The minimum usually is $50 per, per deposit just because of the, to make it worth it fee wise. But it, that just depends on the kind of account you do. Dave, is there a maximum on 'em currently?
Dave:Maximum the last time I looked at it, it's been a couple years, Ryan, to be honest, but I believe it's 55,000 a year. For five years.
Ryan:Yeah. It's a significant amount that you, you, you really don't wanna hit the maximum, to be honest.
Dave:We never almost, what, 28 years of doing this? I have, I've never seen it come into play, hit the maximum. There's, the thing is, think about it like when we, when we do college playing for families, right? Before we even start the college family, this kind of goes into our, our fee for plan for new arrivals, right? For parents that have just have new babies, right? We have a planning product that we use as a solution for, for families that are just starting off and they're like, well, I just need to make sure my benefits are aligned correctly. Wanna make sure my tax withholdings are correct. I wanna make sure I'm. You know, maximizing my work, retirement plans and insurance plans and all the things I can get for almost free through my work. Right. And then, and we do an assessment of, now that you have this new little one right. Are there, any other areas that you need to cover? Right. Are there any other kind of potholes potentially in the family's plan that there could be a blind side that we need to address? Because, we know that. We have a new baby in the family. The last thing both parents are coming home from, from their jobs, right, with new baby and discussing are their long-term financial goals, right? The, I mean, you're, you're coming home and you're like, okay, who's making dinner? Who's changing the diaper? Yeah. Who's do we need to warm the bottle or, you know, are we doing all natural tonight? You know, what, what do we, what do we have going on here? And okay. It's bedtime. Okay. You're gonna take the baby, take the baby. I'll I'll take the trash out and the sort, and we'll get all these things done and, oh, what's our day like tomorrow? And then let's just get some sleep. Because somebody's gonna get awoken in a few hours and have to do a feeding and, and yeah. So I just wanna sleep. And that's like, that's like every day on repeat for a while with a new baby. I, and I know because I've been there. And the last thing you ever do is have long-term discussions about like, not much, like, not even as little as like, where do you wanna go on vacation this summer? People just don't even, they're like, I can't even imagine going on vacation. Right, right. Am I right? We're just gonna The grandparents? Yes. It's like you all plan a trip. We'll show up. So, so the thing is, for couples in that stage of life, if we can pull them away for just a couple hours and just get a couple hours of commitment out of them and put a plan together for them that actually looks at what the next three to five years look like, right then, then it means that once finally you can, your head comes up and you can breathe for air and the child's sleeping completely through the night and there's no, you know, Issues and everyone's good and, and you, like, you're, you're gonna look back and be like, that was a couple years and, but your financial plans have progressed, right? You've made more financial progress. You're not behind the eight ball per se. So that, that, you know, fee for plan solution that we have for. New couples that have a new baby, right? Really fits, I think, into this conversation, especially as kids are going back to school and whether that you're expecting a baby or just had a baby, or just have small children, right? And you're just in the literally, literally, and you're like in the midst of this stage. This really speaks to you because all we wanna do is help you organize your financial life, get those puzzle pieces in order, and allow for you to focus on your family. Your spouse, your significant other, and work, and if we can take care of the rest for you and make sure that in 2, 3, 4, 5 years when you raise your head out and you go, okay, we can breathe again. Now we're in sports activities, so during practices we have time to like check on our accounts and, and check on our to-do list and this and that. You can at least see that like we've made some really great progress. And so I think that's the thing that I'm most excited for as the kids go back to school, is the ability Ryan to. To get parents that maybe have, you know, just gotten through the summer and survived the crazy schedule of having the kids out of school. And, and I mean, it's a lot of work, believe it or not, a lot more work in the summer to take kids to and from summer camps and after, you know, summer programs and pool parties and all the different stuff you have to do as a parent, then just like drop 'em off at the school or jump on the, on the bus in the mornings or take 'em to daycare and drop 'em off and then go to work. It's like the fall becomes. It's like suddenly you get this, this time that was just literally taken from you over the summer. You get it back. And so there's times we can kind of realign and get back to a good place. And, and so I think there's an opportunity for anybody listening that's like, Hey, I would like someone to kind of help me organize my financial life, Ryan and I can do that for you. And I think that's the excitement of fall outside of, you know, UK football obviously. You know, and, NFL starting up, there's just the excitement of that, of everyone going back into a schedule. And there's something that is, is somewhat you can count on it.
Ryan:Everyone's back to their routine and no longer sitting in St. Augustine calling in for podcasts. They're back in person
Dave:100%.
Ryan:And from someone who struggles with technology, I'm very much looking forward to that. Well, Gracie, thank you very much for two things. One for coming on and taking the time today to do this with us. And then two for educating city boy Dave and City Boy Ryan about basic farm equipment. We, we appreciate it. And hopefully we'll be a little more educated next time.
Gracie:Hey, that's fine. Anytime. That's what I'm here for. So
Dave:thank you, Gracie. You've been awesome. Y'all.
Gracie:Thank you all so much. Thanks for what you do and all your all's help for our family too.
Dave:All
Ryan:right, well thank you everyone for listening to another episode of In My Day, and we'll see you next month.
