1.13.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

1.13.23: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to the Active Wealth Show with your host, Ford Stokes. Ford is a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor who places your needs first. He'll help you protect and grow your wealth. The Active Wealth Show has grown because activators like you want to activate their retirement planning with sound tax-efficient investing. And now your host, Ford Stokes.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome to the Active Wealth Show Activators. I'm Ford Stokes, our chief financial advisor, joined by Sam Davis, our esteemed executive producer. Been a while since I said that, Sam but you are we really appreciate you. And we've got a really important show this week we're going to talk about how to delete fees, taxes and expenses within your retirement plan this year, or at least get on the road to success there. And we're going to talk about that in detail as part of building a smart retirement plan. And next week, we're going to start in earnest a three part series on how to build a smart retirement plan kind of chapter by chapter. I've got my book basically finished called The Smart Retirement Plan Book. We're going to go through those points. We're not going to play the chapters. I don't have the audio book done yet, but you're going to I think you're going to like what you hear, and it's very comprehensive. But as part of a smart retirement plan, it is important for us to get more efficient and more tax efficient and I would say more expense efficient. In other words, let's reduce our expenses to within your overall retirement plan, because if you're living on a fixed income, reducing the stuff that goes out and keeping the stuff that comes in will give you more buying power and will let you have more peace of mind.

Ford Stokes:
It'll let you have less pressure during retirement from a budget money perspective. And I'm super excited about where we're headed here with this show, so we really appreciate all the activators out there. You know, if you're wondering who and Activator is that somebody who listens to the Active Wealth Show, listens to this radio show on AM 920, the Answer is somebody who wants to build a successful retirement. They're looking to protect and grow their hard earned and hard saved money, but they're also looking to build a tax efficient fee efficient and market efficient portfolio for their retirement future. And just shout out to all the activators out there. Thanks for listening to this show. And Alan, Lucy, I know you all are listening and you all are fantastic clients of ours and we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, Alisa. Thanks for listening to us as well. And Ken and Karen, you guys are and gals are awesome and we really appreciate all of the listeners. Earl and Martin, thank you guys for, you know, just being great clients and really smart people down there in the Emory area. And just a shout-out to all of the listeners out there of the Active Wealth Show. And if you're looking to at least understand what you're facing in retirement, you want a free financial consultation, you want to understand the fees you're paying, the risk you're taking, and what your retirement could look like in advance with a results and advance retirement plan From us right here on the Active wealth show.

Ford Stokes:
From Active Wealth Management all you've got to do is visit ActiveWealth.com that's ActiveWealth.com. Click that schedule a consultation button the upper right corner and we will help you. Get booked directly into my calendar, or you can book yourself directly into my calendar and all you got to do is bring in your statements, your Social Security statements and your financial statements and bring your monthly expenses, kind of where all that is going on what your income level is when you plan to retire, if you're already retired. And we will build a retirement plan for your 95th birthday at no cost to you. You can also reach out to us at 770 685 1777 again 770 685 1777. Diane and her team are are sitting by ready to take your call and if you want to get a free copy of my latest book before we come out with a smart retirement plan book you want to get a copy of annuity 360. All you've got to do is visit Annuity360.net That's Annuity360.net . And Sam, why don't you tell them how they can find us on all the podcasts out there?

Producer:
Yeah, we appreciate all the activators tuning in to the Active Wealth Show this weekend, but if you miss part of this weekend's show or if you've missed part of any of our recent episodes, you can check out the Active Wealth Show wherever you listen to podcasts. So whether you got an iPhone or an Android, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, anywhere you listen to your shows, just search the Active Wealth Show and we'll be there and be sure to click subscribe. So that way you'll be notified and you'll be able to catch up on every new episode that we put out.

Ford Stokes:
And thanks for that. And we are getting more and more subscribers and more and more listeners to the podcast and downloads the podcast every week. Just shout out to all of our podcast listeners as well. Thanks for everybody being on there. And Sam, we've got a lot to cover on how to delete fees and risks and and how to reduce your your expenses, or at least delete expenses from your monthly budgets as well. On this show. So it'll be an important show for people to hear. But we've got a really neat and apropos and timely this week in history.

Producer:
It's this week in history.

Producer:
Everyone knows it's football season. That's a little bit of a hint there. And it's time for the playoffs. So this week in History, 1967, Super Bowl one, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. Final score was 35 to 10. Super Bowl one was played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It remains the only Super Bowl to have been simulcast on two networks, both ABC and NBC. And how about this for ticket prices? Everybody knows that Super Bowl ticket prices are among the highest in sports. The average price of a ticket to super Super Bowl one was $12. So in 1967, you know, you could take your whole family to the game for under 100 bucks. But the average price of a ticket for this year's Super Bowl, 57 is $8,000 a seat. How about that for inflation?

Ford Stokes:
Wow, that's a whole lot of money. That's quite the experience there for sure. Wow, Inflation's gone crazy. Is that the face value?

Producer:
Yeah. So I just looked up at a few different websites, what the median price was, and it rounded out just a little bit over 8000. So, you know, taking the whole family to the big game this year would be the choice between the Super Bowl and maybe a new car.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, that's amazing. I also probably, you know, college football playoffs just finished and congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs. It's good to keep the national championship here in the South and specifically in the state of Georgia and also within the SECC. So that was quite the impressive showing by the Georgia Bulldogs versus TCU. Poor TCU. My wife was really sad for all of them the whole time she was watching the game and what an exciting game Ohio State and Georgia had and Georgia prevailed. It was a that was a tough field goal kicking attempt that Ohio State had. But congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs for that impressive win against TCU. And and now let's kind of talk through kind of what the show today is going to be. So. We're going to we're going to do everything we can. To help you build the right kind of retirement plan, things that you can control. We're going to help you control them and we're going to help you first, how to delete fees from your retirement and segment to Segment three. We're going to talk about how to delete taxes from your retirement plan. Segment four, We're going to talk about how to delete expenses from your retirement plan. We're also going to talk about where US retirees are moving. Now we've got an important inflation demonstration. And now let's go ahead and share our financial wisdom. Quotes of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.

Ford Stokes:
Nathan Morris, who is who's a personal financial expert, author, speaker and financial coach who specialize in teaching people how to achieve financial freedom. He's got a quote and the quote says, Every time you borrow money, you're robbing your future self. And there's no better example that than pre retirees who are still borrowing money. Be very careful about borrowing money when you're in that retirement red zone between the first five years before retirement and the five years after retirement, those ten years are really important to consider where you're headed and what's going on. And then Dave Ramsey's got an important one. It says A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Again, he says a budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. And so we need to. We need to really get an understanding of. You know, our monthly budget, what we're spending and what we're doing out there and. And if. And also, if you've lost more than you're comfortable with in your portfolio in the past year and you're looking for Answers and would love to find out more about what you can do to get more market efficient, more efficient and more tax efficient, we'd love to provide you with a free, complimentary consultation. All you've got to do is call us at 770 685 1777 again 770 685 1777.

Ford Stokes:
Or you can visit our website at ActiveWealth.com that's ActiveWealth.com and you can click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner to get placed directly into my calendar to get started on your retirement income plan today and we'll give you that results in advance retirement income plan at no cost to you. So also what it's like to work with us. We provide comprehensive consultations to our listeners at no cost. There's absolutely no obligation and no cost to you. The meter is not running. We're doing that on the front end so we can help you make an informed financial decision about your financial future. We also help you cut unnecessary costs in your IRA, your four, one K or any other retirement savings account. And we can also help you with Medicare and maximizing your Social Security income benefit as well. We're glad you're with us here on this special edition of the Active Wealth Show, where we're talking about how to delete fees, taxes and expenses from your retirement. You'll see Active Wealth Show right here on AM. 910. The Answer? Come right back where we're going to share how you can delete fees from your retirement right here on the Active Wealth Show on AM 920. The Answer.

Producer:
Remember, all of Ford's listeners receive a free financial consultation just for listening to the show. Visit ActiveWealth.com to learn more and schedule an appointment. Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth show and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ford Stokes:
Welcome back. Activators the Active Wealth Show on Ford Stokes for Chief Financial Advisor. I've got Sam Davis, our executive producer on the board with us. And Sam, you were talking about deleting fees now from your retirement, all part of a smart retirement plan. And then we're going to talk about that Smart Retirement Plan series over the next three weeks. And you've kind of read through the Smart Retirement Plan book. You've you've followed kind of the steps there as well. Your thoughts on just building a smart retirement plan and how it could really benefit folks, too?

Producer:
Yeah, You know, we're going to lay out step by step, going through these different categories, all the different things that it takes to really build a smart retirement plan because we want to help our activators have a more efficient, market efficient and tax efficient retirement. So it really we're going to start with deleting fees because before we get into all the details of whatever your plan and maybe what your specific investments may be, you want to clean house and starting with that is taking a look at where the money's going out the door and trying to reduce that as best we can.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I mean, well said there. So believe it or not, you can delete fees on 40% of your portfolio or even more with just one change. Bond prices are moving in the opposite direction of interest rates. Interest rates rise and bond prices fall. Interest rates fall and bond prices rise. Right now, the Fed is raising interest rates. So the bonds you previously held, let's say in the beginning of 2021 or even beginning of 2022, they're worth less today from a market value perspective because people want the higher interest rate on the bonds they hold. Also, when interest rates rise and bond prices fall, there's no guarantee when you'll be able to get your money back. There's no guarantee on when the interest rates are going to come back. Also, if there's a more attractive other investment vehicles out there, you don't know if more people if money will rush into bonds to recover the market value that you lost. Many in many respects, the 14 to 15% that people lost in 2022 with bonds, they probably need to cut their losses and do something different and potentially even get a bonus of 10 to 20% of their money that can help fill that back in. And the way to do that is to take advantage of this interest rate environment and replace the bonds you currently hold in your portfolio is to invest in fixed indexed annuities. By doing so, you'll delete the fees for that portion of your portfolio because there are no advisory fees or portfolio fees with a fixed indexed annuity.

Ford Stokes:
The annuity company or the insurance company they pay the advisor directly or the that insurance agent directly. And there's no advisory fee or portfolio fees because it is an insurance product. It's not a financial management vehicle. Also the old 60 over 40 portfolio. Harry Markowitz was given credit for being the founder of that in 1952, which is now over a 70 year old strategy used to be 60% stocks and 40% bonds. Now what we're recommending is 60% stock portfolio. That's aggressive stock portfolio all the way to aggressive, not even moderate or moderate aggressive or even moderate conservative. We would just say go ahead and invest 60% of your portfolio into aggressive stocks so that you don't have any bonds in your portfolio at all and replace the 40% of bonds with fixed indexed annuity to really complete that bond replacement strategy and delete the fees associated with 40% of your portfolio. So we're getting more fee efficient just by doing that. Also, annuities are a safe and fee efficient way to generate a lifetime income stream that you will never outlive, that you can lean on to cover your expenses throughout your 30 plus year retirement. Most people that come in and talk to me, their number one objective is, Hey, I don't want to be a burden on my kids during retirement for OC.

Ford Stokes:
Well, what that means is income. It means you've got to do a good job during the accumulation phase when you do accumulate your assets after you've retired and you're going to start distributing them out to yourself and also eventually giving whatever's left away to your kids when you pass away. What what happens is it's a very complex. You've got to figure out which buckets of money you're taking withdrawals from so you can minimize your taxes and minimize your ordinary income total. So therefore you minimize the taxes you pay on your ordinary income. You also need to figure out how are you going to get consistent income during retirement? How do you smooth out the ride, if you will? Also, how do you lock up some of your assets so that they're not exposed to market risk? Also, how can you get to tax efficient distribution of your wealth, even tax free for a portion of your wealth? Those are all things to consider. And if you don't have the Answers to that, then I want to encourage you to reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com and we're happy to help you. We'll help you during that accumulation phase. We'll give you a strategy on the front end. That's what we call it, results in advance retirement planning. It's a big deal and you really should have a budget in mind. You should also have a plan in mind that you can plan your work and work your plan so you can have success during retirement.

Ford Stokes:
Listen, if you're driving around out there in Atlanta and you're headed to Home Depot or Lowe's or to the grocery store, to Publix or Kroger out there or Ingles or any of the other grocery stores or Aldi or anything like that, or even Wal Mart and Costco. Or you're headed to a child's or a grandkids athletic event today. I would encourage you to really take action. Tony Robbins says you haven't made a decision unless you take action, and that action could be just picking the phone up and giving us a call at 770 685 1777 or visiting ActiveWealth.com that's ActiveWealth.com. And we want to help you. Plan for your retirement. And it's an easy way to do this just by deleting the fees from 40% of your fees within your portfolio, just by making one change. By instead of investing in bonds, you get more fee efficient by investing in fixed indexed annuities and paying zero advisory and portfolio fees. It's pretty simple. It's straightforward. It's an easy thing to pull the trigger on. All right. And Sam, you've got a really interesting survey that was done by U-Haul from their consumers and tracking of where trucks are going. Go ahead and share with the audience what's going on with you. Hauls moving around the country.

Producer:
Yes. So U-Haul tracks everywhere that their trucks are going to and coming from. And I'm going to pull up the full list. And if you want to check out the video of this episode, you can go to Active Wealth show. And we're going to take a look at this full list of where people moved to and left from in 2022. So taking a look at the very top of the list that the states that people are moving to from U-Haul consumer data, Texas and Florida come in at number one. And number two, not too surprising. We've got a couple more states in the south up at three and four with South Carolina and North Carolina, as well as Virginia and Tennessee to round out that top six. So Ford, my first impression and take away is that really the top six states all kind of in the southern part of the United States and towards that southeast area.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I think when they're trying to get to better weather, they're also trying to get the better taxes. Looking at this list, there's only two of those six that are blue states that have blue governors. There's four out of the six that are red states and then have lower taxes, two of which have no taxes. Which Texas and Florida or number one. And number two.

Producer:
Yeah. And taking a look at the bottom of the list. So this is where people left from and did not return to. The number one state that people left was California, followed by Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, in Maryland was number 44. All of those states are high tax states. They're also all Democrat controlled states. Both governor and the legislatures as well. And I got to tell you, it is remarkable to me that it's taken this long, but it's also very interesting and very telling. People are are seeking freedom, they're seeking rights, they're seeking lower taxes, they're seeking warmer weather. And all those factors are there and they all factor in. And you really can't tax and spend your way to to being a successful state. You're financially you just can't do it. And. I just hope the policies in Georgia remain. It's difficult that we've got Democrat senators. There was there was a runoff and Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker, which, you know, wasn't the way I wanted the election to go. But it seems like we got a little bit of a fairer election, in my opinion, this time around. You know, I just hope that people vote with their wallets and their retirements in mind because I, I care deeply about our clients and I want to make sure that. You know, they're doing everything they can to be tax efficient for efficient, market efficient.

Ford Stokes:
And, you know, why do we have to pay the government more of our hard earned and hard save dollars? We just can't do it. And so make sure in the future you're voting with your wallets and your retirement in mind. And I think it's a very telling survey. And I thought it was just interesting to share with the radio listeners. I'm glad you did the research and really appreciate you doing that research for our activators out there. And again. We're here to try to help you become more efficient and also how to delete. We're talking on this show, how to delete fees and expenses and taxes. And the next thing we're going to talk about is how to delete taxes from your retirement plan. I think it's very important. We've talked about it on the show before, but I think you're going to like the additional detail. And so come right back. We're talking about how to delete the IRS from your retirement accounts right here on the Active Wealth Show on AM 920. The Answer?

Producer:
You'd think that people would have.

Charlie Kirk:
Had Charlie Kirk here. If you're concerned about your investments, rising taxes from the Biden administration, then I encourage you to listen to the Active Wealth Show hosted by my good friend Ford Stokes right here on AM. 920 The Answer Listen to the Active Wealth Show Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 11:00 AM. The Active Wealth Show right here on AM 920 The Answer.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC BCM a registered investment advisor, not an actual client of active wealth Management. Thanks for listening to the Active wealth show. If you like what you're hearing, make sure to rate our show on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back. Activators the Active Wealth Show on Forge Stokes, Chief Financial Advisor, joined by Sam Davis here on the board. And we're talking about how to delete things from your retirement. We're trying to delete fees, we're trying to delete taxes, we're trying to delete expenses. What we're going to talk about in this segment, as we tease the last segment, we're going to talk about deleting taxes from retirement. With the national debt nearing $31.5 trillion, according to US debt clock dot org, we believe, like many others, that taxes are likely going to go up in the future. With a Roth IRA. You are taxed when you contribute, so your money is protected from increased tax rates that are out of your control. Government spending continues to increase as years go on. Here's five reasons why we think you should consider implementing a Roth conversion. Number one is tax free growth. Contributions to a Roth IRA are made with after tax dollars, so all future growth in the account are completely tax free. Number two, tax free withdrawals. Qualified withdrawals from a Roth IRA are 100% tax free. Number three, flexibility. Roth IRAs have more flexibility than traditional IRAs when it comes to withdrawals. Roth IRAs don't have required minimum distributions rules. So you can leave your money in the account as long as you would like. Number four, there's no age limit. Traditional IRAs have an age limit for contributions, but there is no age limit for contributions to a Roth IRA.

Ford Stokes:
And actually, traditional IRAs have now been changed with the new omnibus bill and the Secure Act 2.0, where if you still have ordinary income, you can continue to contribute to your traditional IRAs as well. Number five is tax free inheritance. Roth IRAs can be passed on to your heirs without them having to worry about paying taxes on the account. So let me give you a couple of really good hints on how to implement a Roth ladder conversion properly. What you want to first do is you want to. Make sure that you're ready to go, that you're you've got all of your things in order. So specifically all of your accounts, you want to try to consolidate all of your. Four for one case for three B's, your SEP IRAs, all that stuff consolidated into. An IRA account of some sort, whether it's a Sep IRA, which is what business owners have, or your own personal IRA and an IRA enter an individual retirement account. So it you don't want to have accounts all over the place. You don't leave for on case you want to consolidate into an IRA. So let's do that first. Next is. You want to open up a Roth IRA if you don't have one already? Also, you need to be mindful of the five year waiting period for the time you open up a Roth IRA. To when you can start taking out money with principle and gains completely tax free.

Ford Stokes:
It's five years. You also must wait. Five years can be the same waiting periods. It's not compound on top of, but it could be the same five year waiting period for when you do a conversion. Each conversion you do. Let's say you've got $1,000,000 sitting in your IRA, You convert 150,000 each year, or maybe you're going to convert 500,000 over the next six years because you got to take into account you're going to have growth on that money. So let's say you take 200,000 a year for the next six years. You've got $1.2 million that moved well each year of the 200,000. You need to wait five years when you did each conversion. By the time you're almost through the conversion, that Roth latter conversion, where you're doing a conversion each year for the next six years, each one of those conversions is a kind of a rung on the ladder, if you will. You can then at at the end of year five, you can start taking out principal and gains from that first $200,000 conversion. You actually fill out a form with the money custodian. We work with TD Ameritrade. So you fill out the the form. And you'd be ready to go. So that's not a bad idea. The next is when you go to move money, especially when you let's say you've had losses in the last year as the market is not done well with the S&P 500 losing 29, I mean, with the NASDAQ 100 losing 29% and the S&P 500 losing 18% last year.

Ford Stokes:
Likely you have losses and you've got depressed holdings that you've got. So what you want to do is move those over in kind to let. So you're going to pay the taxes on the on the assets you're moving and we're going to try to pay those from a taxable account. So you've got a taxable account like an individual investment account or a savings account or even your own checking account. And you're going to take that money and pay the taxes on that money. So your money is moving dollar for dollar from your IRA to your Roth IRA. In other words, So you're as your IRA depletes, your Roth IRA will grow dollar for dollar in there. But the key is to move those assets over in kind so that when the market recovers. You'll see those assets grow and you're paying taxes on the lower amount. And then as the market recovers, you'll be able to grow at a greater rate and you're going to pay less taxes than you would have if you paid it on the actual complete, total grown amount. So. Here's a couple of keys. Number one is you want to be able to move your money in a Roth IRA year over year and do it in a laddered fashion over a 5 to 10 year period, because you do not want to pay more than 24% taxes.

Ford Stokes:
So. An example is the current 24% bracket actually ends at $362,200 in 2023. So you don't want to start converting money that's above that amount because any conversion you have is going to count as ordinary income. For that year because you've got to pay the taxes. You got to pay the fiddler. The the Uncle Sam wants that money. Also one key important point to make sure you know and remember, any conversion does not count as a as a distribution. So your you must do an RMD distribution in addition to doing a conversion. So if you're over 72, it starts compounding. So you kind of want to get out of the conversion business by the time you get to be 72, unless you're converting just a little bit at a time. Now, what does this do? It deletes the IRS out of being your partner in retirement. It also deletes the out of being the partner in the account once you give it to your heirs or your beneficiaries. Listen, retirement is about two things. It's about being able to pay yourself so you can have a lifestyle that you can that you can enjoy during retirement. And the second thing is, it's about giving money away when you die. The best way to do that is to make sure that you're doing a Roth conversion so that you can give your loved ones. A Roth IRA. So they don't have an inherited IRA.

Ford Stokes:
An inherited IRA. They have to take the money. Over a ten year period and likely it's going to be in their prime earning years. So chances are they're going to be paying even more taxes on the money that are distributing themselves from your IRA. So it's a really good idea. To go ahead and pull that money. Over into a Roth IRA. So they have no taxes on the money and they they do have to take it within a ten year period. But they're taking a tax free and it doesn't contribute to their ordinary income tax. So it's a great way to leave a family legacy. And I hope this segment is really helped you understand how you can delete the IRS and delete taxes from your retirement. We're going to talk a little bit more about another way to delete taxes from your retirement income, especially if you're in your thirties, forties or fifties. We're going to help you do that in the next segment. We're also going to talk about how to delete expenses from your retirement in this segment for So glad you've been listening to us. Thanks so much for listening to the Active Wealth Show right here on AM. Not tweeting the Answer. Come right back to hear about how we can delete more taxes from your retirement income and also how to delete expenses from your retirement. You'll stay active while show right here on AM 920.

Producer:
No matter what you do, there's always someone looking to separate you from your hard earned and hard saved cash. I'm Matt McClure with a Retirement dot Radio Network powered by a married life. Danger. Will Robinson. Danger. Online scams are nothing new. Things like fake Craigslist ads or emails from a Nigerian prince offering you his fortune in exchange for a couple thousand dollars of your own money have been around for years. But the scams do keep changing as scammers tactics evolve. Aarp recently released its list of red hot scams in 2022. One of the newest came in at the top of the list, the Google Voice scam. Here's how it works. If you're selling something online and include your phone number for people to reach out, a bad actor could call and say they want to make sure you aren't a scammer. They'll then tell you that you're about to receive a Google verification code. What's really happening is they're opening up a Google Voice account in your name so they can pose as you while cheating others out of their money. Aarp says to avoid this one, don't ever give out verification codes to anyone. Another one on the list involves fake jobs. Scammers will get your information from an online resume and contact you with a fake job offer. Then they'll ask for payment for things like supposed home office setup fees. This one is similar to income scams that make big promises for easy money but don't deliver.

Rhonda Perkins:
Here's the reality There's no such thing as a guaranteed way to make money. If you see an offer like that, it's a scam, period. The FTC has sued and shut down lots of companies that have made fake claims like that.

Producer:
Rhonda Perkins is an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission.

Rhonda Perkins:
So before you invest in a program that says you'll make a lot of money, stop, take your time and do your research. Be skeptical about success stories and testimonials. Also, check with your state attorney general's office.

Producer:
Also on the AAP list, rental assistance scams, Fake Amazon employees, cryptocurrency ATM payments, Imposters offering to settle your tax debt, Fake emails that look like they're from a friend asking for a gift card payment and demands through money transfer apps like Venmo or Cash App. With any of these, it's essential that you verify the identity of the person you're speaking to. Never give your personal information to anyone you don't know, and if necessary, report it to the authorities. So are you prepared to protect your money from online scams? That's a key question to consider as you try to grow your wealth for retirement. With a Retirement dot Radio Network powered by Amerilife AI.

Charlie Kirk:
Are you concerned about the Biden administration, how rising taxes could negatively impact your retirement? Then I encourage you to talk to Ford Stokes and his team at Active Wealth Management. Ford and his team of experienced financial advisors will help you understand the fees and risks involved with your current portfolio. Simply visit Active Wealth Dot com to book your free financial consultation and tell them Charlie Kirk sent you.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC BCM, a registered investment advisor, not an actual client of active wealth Management.

Ford Stokes:
Welcome back to the Active Wealth Show Activators. I'm Ford Stokes and Chief Financial Advisor got Sam Davis, our executive producer with us and we're talking about deleting taxes from your retirement. And another way to delete taxes from your retirement income is to take advantage of one or both of the truly tax free investment vehicles out there available to Americans. Number one is Roth IRAs. We just talked about that in the last segment. You should implement a Roth ladder conversion year over year during a 5 to 10 year period so you can stay below the 24% bracket. So you're converting it between 15 and 24% a year and you're paying the taxes on that amount that you're converting each year. So you can kick the IRS out of being your partner in retirement over your 30 plus year retirement. You're going to also save six figures during retirement by doing it. If you live to the ripe old age of 85 plus years old over. If you let's say you've got an IRA at over 600,000 or more, you're going to save six figures. If you implement a Roth ladder conversion over time. It's just straight math. The second type of tax free investments out there, life is life insurance. And if you're in your thirties, forties or fifties or even early sixties, you ought to consider an index universal life policy.

Ford Stokes:
I've got a young lady whose name is Linda. She's a marketing executive here in Georgia. She works in the aerospace side. She's a significant executive. She's great at what she does. She makes over 250,000 a year. She's paying in 2000 a month for ten years. She's going to do a ten pay IUL with a ten pay. Iul is illustrating to pay her $42,415 a year tax free by the time she turns 67 years old. That's a remarkable result. She's paying in 24 grand a year for ten years straight, and then she's done paying just call a ten pay. You're paying for ten years. So if you want to figure out how to generate more than you're getting in Social Security income, but you're getting it tax free, that I encourage you to consider an IUL with us and go ahead and. Visit us at ActiveWealth.com. You can also call us at 770 685 1777. Again that number is 770 685 1777. And we'll actually get an illustration done. We work with a couple of really great insurance carriers that are great at getting you approved at preferred and standard levels that also reduce the cost of life insurance and then also give you a retirement income that's consistent and tax free because the income you're going to get from these index universal life policies come in the form of loans against the policies so that there are no taxes on loans.

Ford Stokes:
And it's called a rule 7702 plan. It's actually the I.R.S. code, which is the IRS tax code of 7702. You can Google it and look it up. All you've got to do is reach out to us and give us a call at 770 685 1777. We're happy to help you generate tax free income either through Roth IRAs or life insurance or both. Now, the last thing I want to talk about, I want to talk about how to delete expenses from your retirement and couple a couple of big buckets here. Number one is we want to pay off your mortgage or downsize your family home. The happiest people who meet with us for their annual reviews are the ones who have paid their primary mortgage off. If you continue to pay a monthly mortgage, it can absorb the entirety of one of the two Social Security income payments that come into the household for a married couple or take up almost an entire single person's monthly Social Security income benefit. I strongly encourage all my prospects and clients to pay off their mortgages in a smart way. That said, try to avoid paying off the family home with your IRA money because you will owe taxes on the money withdrawn. Remember, you wouldn't pay 20% in Real Estate commission.

Ford Stokes:
You don't want to have to pay 20% in taxes when you pay off the mortgage on your family's primary residence. Either consider using money in an investment accounts, withdraw cash value from life insurance plans, savings accounts, and liquidating collectibles, or selling a separate piece of real estate to raise funds to pay off the family home. The tax burden on the sale of these types of investments are minimal or zero. Housing is among the biggest costs retirees face. Eliminating your mortgage removes a sizable monthly bill from your retirement expenses. I mean, it's really a big one. The other is go ahead and take a look at your monthly expenses. Two months in a row, September and October of last year. Add all that up and then consider dividing that by two so you can get an idea of what you're spending on a monthly basis. I guarantee you it's going to shock you, especially with all this. What's going on with interest rates? We just did the analysis for us on our grocery store bill and we couldn't believe how much we were spending in groceries a month. It actually wasn't as bad as eating out. It wasn't as bad as what we're getting from fast food. And I would encourage you to consider really taking a good, long, hard look at what you're spending on your grocery bill.

Producer:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It's time for an inflation demonstration.

Producer:
So we spoke earlier in the show during This Week in History about Super Bowl ticket prices and how the price of a ticket since 1967 to the Super Bowl has increased from a $12 average to an 8000 average, this time on the inflation demonstration, we're taking a look at beer prices. A lot of people like to enjoy watching their favorite team with a cold beer. So beer inflation has certainly hit shelves across the United States. And beer has kind of long been considered recession proof. But beer prices at retail stores rose 7% during the last quarter of 2022, which is a steep rise in a pretty short amount of time. Some beers, including the popular Bud Light, Miller Lite, Yuengling and Coors, saw prices rise by as much as 10% and lower priced below premium. Beers saw sales gains in December. So as beer prices go up, people maybe reevaluate their beer decisions. And how about this fun fact? Americans spend 1.3 billion on beer in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday and consume 325 million gallons of beer on the big game day itself.

Ford Stokes:
That's amazing.

Producer:
Yeah. Truly, truly remarkable. So enjoy the enjoy the NFL playoffs and please drive safe when you're out there on the roads. Make sure you get a designated driver if you need one for sure. It's the final.

Producer:
Countdown. So let's recap what you may have missed. It's the final countdown.

Ford Stokes:
What we talked about this week, This entire show was all about how to delete fees, taxes and expenses within your retirement plan. Starting this year, we talked about how to delete fees specifically on how to implement a bond replacement and move to a fixed indexed annuity to delete at least up to 40% of your portfolio from your advisory fees and portfolio fees. That's a really good way to do it. We also talked about how to delete taxes by implementing a Roth ladder conversion or investing in life insurance. And we also talked about a couple of different ways to delete expenses. Another way is also to try to even change your check card or credit card so you could under the number on those cards so you can stop some of the old subscriptions that are hitting your account. It's actually a big thing that's that hits retirees as well. So we want to make sure we're doing that. And also, we talked about where retirees are moving. They're moving to the warmer states, like kind of like where we are. They're also moving to avoid taxes and get away from the 13 plus percent in taxes in California, as an example. And all a lot of red a lot of blue states are losing businesses and workers to the warmer red states as well. We also shared some inflation demonstration stuff with what's going on with beer prices on the rise and also how the Super Bowl tickets have gone up from $12 to over 8000. Average ticket price from 1967 to today. We also talked about how it's likely with 31, almost $31.5 trillion in US national debt, that we are looking at taxes going up in the future.

Ford Stokes:
And it's a really good idea to consider implementing a growth ladder conversion or investing in in life insurance because those are the only two truly tax free investments out there that are truly tax free. Municipal bonds don't qualify because interest from municipal bonds actually increase your taxes on your Social Security income benefit and also for additional Medicare surcharges. So we want to make sure that that's not really truly a tax free investment by the definition. And Roth IRA is your best friend. It's also a great way to build your legacy as well by implementing a Roth ladder conversion. So you're in your heirs can inherit a Roth IRA versus an inherited IRA, where the IRS will be their partner over ten years and also where your loved ones would have to take out distributions over a ten year period, which also would likely fit into their prime earning years, where it would make it where they're going to get less of the money you're giving them. And we're trying to get you on the path to investing with in a smart retirement plan. A lot of advisors, we're getting calls every single week where they're brokers. A lot of people are shopping in this January period. If you're shopping, we encourage you to visit ActiveWealth.com and are shopping for a new advisor. We'd love the opportunity to serve you and help you. A lot of their advisors are telling me that they haven't had a conversation about Roth IRAs or Roth ladder conversion.

Ford Stokes:
They haven't had a conversation about bond replacement with fixed indexed annuities to to delete the 40 up to 40% or more of their advisory and portfolio fees. They also aren't talking to advisors about how to build tax free retirement income through life insurance investment within a short period as well. And we can help do all of those things. We are here to help you delete fees, delete taxes, and delete expenses from your retirement. Also help you with your budgeting as well. We've got a neat spreadsheet that we can share that can help you with budgeting for the household as well. So go ahead and reach out to us at active Walmart.com. You'll click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner and you'll book an appointment directly with me. And also you can call us at 770 685 1777. Go ahead and reach out to us. We're happy to help you get you booked into my calendar. And next week we're going to start on our three part series on how to build a smart retirement plan. And I hope everybody has a great week. And remember, if you're considering retirement, it's going to be a bear, be a grizzly, be aggressive about seeking information about how to retire successfully, how to protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. And we hope everybody has a great week. And congratulations again to the Georgia Bulldogs for being back to back national champions and the College Football Playoff. Have a great week, everybody.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard-earned assets. To schedule your free consultation, call your Chief Financial Advisor Ford Stokes at 770 685 1777 or visit ActiveWealth.com.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC become a Registered Investment Advisor. Bcm and Active Wealth Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multi year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity. Contract guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

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