Social Security Updates & The Government Shutdown

10.17.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Speaker1:
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.

Speaker2:
Welcome to Retirement Results, the national radio show and podcast for listeners like you who want to protect and grow their hard earned money in a world filled with so much uncertainty and financial risk. We seek to cut through the noise and build successful plans for hard working Americans on their road to financial freedom. Retirement results is powered by Active Wealth Management, a team of fiduciary advisors who always place your needs first and now your host. He's a registered Social security analyst, member of the Forbes Finance Council, and author of multiple books on retirement planning. Here's your chief financial adviser, Ford Stokes.

Speaker3:
And welcome to Retirement Results with all drivers on Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor I got Sam Davis here with us on the Mike Sams, our senior financial advisor and co-host. Sam say hello everybody. Welcome to the weekend result drivers.

Speaker4:
You are listening to retirement results, whether you're listening on the radio here in Atlanta or on your favorite podcast app, we're so happy that you've chosen to tune in once again for, you know, driving to the office this morning. The colors are changing. Fall is here. College football is in full swing. Nfl football is in full swing. The Atlanta Falcons got a big win on Monday night. And yes they.

Speaker3:
Did that was there for it. It was amazing.

Speaker4:
Yeah it made me so happy to see a picture of you and your brother cheering on the Falcons to a big win. So I hope everybody's enjoying the fall and football season. And we're happy to have you with us.

Speaker3:
Yeah it's fall y'all for sure. Um on today's show we are going to talk about why so many Americans worry they'll have to go back to work, and how we're going to try to help you measure twice and retire once. We're going to try to do everything we can to make sure you don't have to go back to work and help you better protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth, help you build that tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolios. So many result drivers, the folks who listen to this radio show and podcast, we want to thank all the listeners of our podcast who helped us grow like crazy, helped us grow our YouTube channel to over 200,000 views. Um, that's a big deal. We really appreciate you on that. Um, also, thanks for making us the number one listened to radio show on Am 9:20 a.m. on the weekends. Our last show will be November 2nd. Here on this radio network, we have chosen to invest more time, energy and effort into our podcast and resources in our podcast. We've asked the great folks in our family here at WJBK, you don't always get along with family. You don't always agree with family. We have begged WJBK to get on the FM dial. They have refused to do so.

Speaker3:
They said, hey, we're going to invest more in podcast stuff. We've begged them to give us a weekday show because since we're the number one listen to show on the weekends, they have not been able to do that because of syndication. And so we've just made the decision that we're going to bet on ourselves. And, um, and we're we're really good at that. We've done really well. Um, but we're going to bet on, on helping each and every one of you. So what I encourage you to do wherever you get podcasts, uh, just search retirement results. We're going to do at least a weekly show. We'll probably do it more often than that. I think we're going to do some 20 minute segments or 12 to 20 minute segments during the midweek as well. But we're going to do a, you know, 48 to 60 minute show each and every week. And we're also toying around with doing a Q&A A session on Sunday nights. So, um, from our YouTube channel. So I encourage you to go out and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the updates. Our YouTube channel just just type in the search bar retirement results and we'll come up and you can see us right there.

Speaker5:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the quote of the week.

Speaker4:
This week's quote of the week comes from Warren Buffett. And Warren Buffett had a great quote about planning in advance, and it goes like this. Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. And, you know, it's interesting for this brings to mind, I just went back to Kansas for a family wedding, and I was at the house where I grew up. And it's unbelievable how just a few years goes by, how big those trees grow. If you just plant that seed, give it a little bit of time, you'll be amazed with the results, I was amazed I could hardly recognize my old front yard when I went back home. And you'll be amazed if you do just a little bit of planning now for your retirement. How much better off you can be in the future?

Speaker3:
Yeah, I would encourage you to try to just save money first. Invest money. Let it. Let it go and grow. Don't take withdrawals from your investment money. Really let it go and grow. Um, so you've got that opportunity, um, to really generate an income during your retirement that you can never outlive, and also one that you really are going to enjoy where you're able to enjoy those Viking River cruises, or you'll enjoy time at the lake or the time at the beach with the family, and you'll get the opportunity to spend more time with your family. We spell love in our family time. We try to spend the time together. That's why we've got a lake house on Lake Martin. That's why we've got our house here in Cumming, Georgia, and we've got a pool with it so we can do pool parties for family stuff. And now we're getting nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. We. Don't have grandkids yet. Thank goodness. Our girls are 18 and they're freshmen over at Auburn University. But, you know, we're really looking forward to someday being grandparents to you need to really build that vision for your retirement. You want to figure out who you're going to be with, what are you doing and what are you going to do to fund it, like, how are you going to fund it? And we want to make sure that you really, on this show, measure twice and retire once. We're going to talk about Social Security updates and what you need to know during this government shutdown.

Speaker3:
What's going to go on there with the cost of living adjustment? We've got an update on that right after this. We've got fear of unretiring why Americans are rethinking what retirement actually means building lifetime income, creating a paycheck that doesn't retire. We'll explore how to blend multiple income streams to cover essentials for as long as you live. We'll also give you a market update. New numbers show a lot of workers with a for1 K moved money into safer investments last month. We'll talk about why, and we'll also talk talk about the shutdown showdown. We think this stalemate goes all the way through October. You know, this this no Kings Day. Um, that's coming from the Democrats. And, you know, hopefully the government will open up back after that. There's a lot of things that the Democrats realize that they're not going to be able to win a national election again, and they're starting to get desperate. So be careful about that. Be careful about your own retirement. Regarding that backdrop. And now let's give you what's going on with the important Social Security updates. The Social Security Administration, the SSA has confirmed the date of the 2026 cost of living adjustment, or Cola announcement, after it was pushed back due to the ongoing government shutdown. The original announcement was due on October 15th, but was delayed due to the government shutdown. Furloughing. Bureau of Labor Statistics employees postponing the release of inflation data, which the annual update is based on.

Speaker3:
They again measure from July through September of each year, more than 70 million Americans rely on Social Security payments as a source of income and really their primary source of income. And the annual Cola determines how much more they'll receive in 2026. To keep up with rising living costs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will now release the September 2025 CPI on Friday, October 24th. That's in a week at 8:30 a.m. eastern, allowing the SSA to meet its statutory deadline for applying for the 2026 cost of living adjustment. So, you know, if you think, let's say, the cost of living adjustments between 2 and 3%, it's likely not keeping up with the amount of how much groceries and gasoline are going up and so and also your rent, your utilities, your mortgage, you know, any of your trash pickup, any of utilities. And so but the cost of living adjustment does help backfill some of that. One of the greatest things to do is to try to invest your own personal pension that will grow over time. It allows you to stay invested safely, what we call smart safe investing. We have also talked about several products on this show for the last couple of years, one of which is the nationwide peak ten. The other is the Synergy Choice bonus as well. And then also we've got some Equitrust products and North American products as well. Equitrust interesting enough affected. 1021 they are reducing their rates because interest rates are going down.

Speaker3:
More and more annuity cares are starting to do that. The folks over in nationwide are not doing that. And I would encourage you, if you want to get 8% guaranteed interest into the income and benefits account each and every year that you defer withdrawals, you would get a 25% immediate bonus, and you want to get a 310% participation in the global age factor index. And if you defer for years, you want to get over, let's say, 10% of your original premium each and every year, guaranteed for life, then that nationwide peak ten is probably worth looking at. You probably ought to reach out to us to get your own illustration, so you can understand how you can supersize your own personal pension and get a much better pension than if you were to get one from an employer. There's only 16% of employers still offer a pension, and also those are funded by Spia or single premium immediate annuities. You want to fix the next annuity backing your personal pension, because that's going to help your your money grow at market like rates and hopefully outpace withdrawals. When we come back from the break, we're going to talk about the fear of unretiring and why Americans are rethinking what retirement means. Reach out to us at retirement comm. We'll get started right away on getting your financial future set in stone. Come right back. We're going to talk about the fear of unretiring.

Speaker2:
We'll be back in just a moment to continue helping you navigate your financial journey. Stay tuned for more retirement results. Hello. Are you concerned about rising taxes and how that could affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over $400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying during a 35 year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your no obligation Roth conversion consultation with Fort Stokes of retirement results. Learn more and schedule an appointment at retirement results. Com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Visit retirement.com for more information. You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results. Was all drivers on Fort Stokes. Your chief financial advisor got Sam Davis here with us, our senior financial advisor and co-host here on the show. And we're talking about how to measure twice and retire once. And we're talking about this segment on the fear of retiring. But really the first step you can do is by giving us a call to kind of get an understanding of the risk you're currently taking, the fees you're currently paying, and the correlation your assets with a free portfolio analysis on a financial plan, your 95th birthday. We offer that to our radio listeners and our podcast listeners absolutely for free. All you gotta do is reach out to us at retirement comm. We were talking to the break and you've got an impassioned plea for folks that have been listening to the show for a long time.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I just wanted to, you know, shout out everybody who's been listening to retirement results and before that, the Active Wealth show for so many years. When I first moved to Atlanta, I started working with Salem stations. And this station right here that you're listening to was one of them. So I've been on the air here on this station for seven plus years now, which is hard to believe. But if you've been listening to us, if you feel like you've ever gotten a good piece of information from this show, uh, two asks from you. One would be, give us a call. We'd love to hear from you. Uh, we talk to a lot of folks on Mondays who give us a call after listening to the show over the weekend. It's great getting to know our listeners and also helping them out with their retirement. That's one of our favorite things that we get to do. And my second ask is subscribe to our podcast. We're leaving the station, but we are not going anywhere. Our office is still headquartered in Alpharetta. We've got an office in Midtown. We're looking at some other offices around the city as well, and we'd love for you to continue to listen on our podcast and also stop by one of our offices and come see us.

Speaker3:
Yeah, we'd love the opportunity to meet with you. You can give us a call at (770) 685-1777 again (770) 685-1777. Or you can say, why don't you go into a little bit more? I mean, I totally agree with you. Thanks so much for your impassioned plea for long time listeners to actually give us a call. We look forward to working with you. It's a good thing to kind of get started before Thanksgiving as well, but give us a call. Also, Diana and her team are standing by this weekend to take your call. So go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Sam, you were going to talk a little bit about the fear of unretiring and why Americans are rethinking kind of what retirement means right now.

Speaker4:
Yeah, we talked to a lot of folks who are in their late 50s and early 60s who are ready to retire. What I hear from a lot of people is, yeah, I'm getting to that point. It's coming up pretty soon. You know they want to retire, but they're worried that if they leave the workplace, then at some point they may have to unretire and go back to the office. But retirement used to be seen as that time of rest and reward. But that vision of retirement is changing for some. According to a recent Newsweek article highlighting data from US banks 2025 report, many Americans are no longer confident they'll stay retired once they stop working. More people now fear they'll have to unretire just to make ends meet. 63% of Americans say they expect to return to work in some form after retiring. 61% believe their retirement could last 15 years or more, but only 58% of those retirees feel that their money will even last that long. 81% of people say retiring today is harder than it was for their parents. I would say the disappearing pensions intentions definitely makes that a lot harder to retire today than it was for previous generations, but we'll talk later in the show about how you can set up a personal pension for yourself, and that growing anxiety is really reshaping how Americans plan or don't plan for life after work. For what I see a lot of times is people may be in a position where they actually can retire between their Social Security and what they've already worked so hard to save, but they just feel like they keep working. They need to keep working rather than sit down and do some planning, talk with some licensed professionals, some fiduciaries who can really show you where you stand now.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I agree. I think it's a really good idea to kind of inspect what you expect regarding your retirement. And if you haven't done that, I'd encourage you to do it. Also, people spend more time planning their spring break vacation than they do in planning for their retirement each and every year, and we think it's an opportunity for you guys to really plan your retirement. Kind of. Kind of. Really get going. Figure out what you're going to do in retirement, who you're going to be with, who you're going to spend time with. And and again, how are you going to fund it. So let us go and try to help you do that. All you gotta do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results.com.

Speaker4:
There's a few reasons for why people are so worried that they might have to unretire or run out of money in retirement. That shift from employer sponsored pensions to self-funded retirement plans like the 400, one K or the IRA or the 403 B, maybe a 457 is what you have. That puts the risk and the responsibility squarely on you as the individual and the retiree. And and that's hard for people. Combine that with inflation, rising costs, market volatility, especially over the last five years, that's made it harder to feel financially secure. Longevity risk. We talk about this all the time. People are living longer. Uh, and in some cases, they're living longer than their savings and they become dependent on Social Security. That's a major factor driving the fear. Planners often now work with clients well into their 90s or even 100 Ford. When we do all of our plans, we do them out to age 95. So we kind of split the gap right there. A lot of people say, hey, there's no chance I'll ever live to age 95. But we'd rather you have a little bit of a legacy for your beneficiaries and loved ones and a little bit extra in there. Rather than run out of money in your 70s or 80s, that would not be a good thing. And then the psychological element, you know, that fear of potentially running out of money can create a scarcity mindset. And we don't want our clients to feel that way. You know, our active wealth clients have the Social Security check they can count on. They have pensions or personal pensions that we help them establish that they can count on. You want to create a situation like that for yourself, where you have that income you can depend on every single month, so you don't have to feel like you have to, you know, stretch every dollar as far as it can go in retirement. We want you to enjoy what you've worked so hard for.

Speaker3:
No question. We definitely want to make sure we get to the real result, which is you guys and gals enjoying your retirement with peace of mind. That includes smart risk investing, smart safe investing, smart tax investing as well. And if you want to get a free copy of my new book, The Smart Retirement Plan, it's an e-book. We're going all digital here at Retirement Results. All you gotta do is reach out to me. Just send me an email at Ford Comm. It's f o r d at Active Comm. Happy to email you an ebook copy and we look forward to working with you as well. You can also call us at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results. Com.

Speaker4:
Ford. You mentioned most people spend more time planning their spring break vacation than planning for retirement. You know, you can still spend hours and enjoy, you know, talking to the family about what you're going to do on your trip. Planning for retirement really doesn't take as long as you think. For what would you say? I think our first appointments with folks typically last about an hour, maybe less. And half that time is really just getting to know each other and talking about the fun stuff, that vision of what you want to do in retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah, that first that first meeting is really a fact finding meeting. We're just trying to understand, okay. What are your monthly expenses going to be in retirement? What's your current income? When are you going to when do you plan to retire and turn that income off? When you plan to turn on Social Security, would you like help with turning on Social Security? Because I am a registered Social Security analyst, so is Matt McClure. In our office, we're two of 24 registered Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia. So, you know, we're almost 10% of the rsas in the entire state of Georgia. So I'd encourage you if you got questions about Social Security, reach out to us at Retirement Results. Com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. You can book yourself directly into my calendar. We're happy to get going there. Um, but yeah, it's we really want you to seek to understand and kind of inspect. You expect, like we said, but it's it's a really quick meeting and it goes by really fast. So um, and, and we get, we get all your information, it takes about a week to put all the plans together, including a RSA roadmap includes a portfolio analysis so you can understand the risk you're taking, the fees you're paying with an expense ratio and or standard deviation measurement, which is a measurement of risk. We'll also give you a retirement income gap analysis. See if you start with a positive retirement income surplus or negative retirement income gap will give you a financial plan, your 95th birthday with your current plan. And we'll do one with ours. That also includes a Roth ladder conversion plan that also includes our recommended portfolios. I encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results. Com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. We look forward to working with you. Let's get started right away.

Speaker2:
Call (770) 685-1777 to schedule your free, no obligation meeting with us today. You're listening to retirement results.

Speaker6:
Think about it. There must be higher love down in the heart.

Speaker1:
You may already know what you want your retirement to look like, but do you know how to start planning to get there? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Merrill Life.

Speaker7:
Where am I? I don't know.

Speaker1:
That's a question you must ask yourself before you start plotting out your retirement planning journey. After all, if you don't know where you are, it's pretty much impossible to get to your destination. Step one is keeping track of money that's coming in and what's going out. Otherwise known as a personal budget. It's an important thing to have, but a Gallup poll from 2016 found only 32% of couples keep a written budget of any kind.

Speaker8:
A lot of people tend to think of budgeting as prediction. Estimating what you'll make in future months and how you'll want to spend it. But the most effective budgets work exclusively with present dollars. After all, you can't give orders to soldiers that don't exist, so the size of your army is only how much money you currently have in your bank accounts. And as general, your role is to give every last one of those soldiers a job to do.

Speaker1:
That from PBS's $0.02. Now, once you have a basic idea of what you're dealing with, reach out to a financial advisor or professional who can go more in depth.

Speaker9:
We want you to do a financial checkup. Checkup. It's just like getting a checkup at the at the doctor's office.

Speaker1:
Ford Stokes is founder and president of Active Wealth Management. He says getting a smart inspection of your finances is essential.

Speaker9:
You want to review your accounts. You want to look at your IRAs, your four K's, anywhere you hold assets, including cash. You want to check your balances. You want to review rates of return over the last 12 months, three years and five years. You want to answer this question? Do you have an income gap or do you have an income surplus?

Speaker1:
Understanding where you are now will help you plan for the retirement you want, leaving your future in your hands instead of the hands of the market or the IRS. So are you ready to reach out to a financial advisor for a smart inspection of your current situation? That's a key question to consider before you start your retirement journey with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Amera life. I'm Matt McClure.

Speaker2:
Schedule your free, no obligation consultation today by visiting Retirement Results. Com. Now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to Retirement results result drivers. Again, if you're wondering how a result driver is, it's someone who listens to this show or listen to the podcast. Who wants to build a tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio to last the rest of their lives. They've got one check to The last the rest of their lives, and they need to do a better job at protecting and growing that one. Check and we can help you do that. All you gotta do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. We look forward to helping you better protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth as a result. Driver, reach out to us and say, hey, I'm a real driver, Ford or Sam or Matt and I want to work with you. I want to, I want to understand and get my free portfolio analysis. All you gotta do is call us at (770) 685-1777, and we'll get started right away. So now we're talking about in this segment, Sam, we're going to talk about building lifetime income, creating a paycheck that doesn't retire by blending annuities and Social Security. We prefer you to take the lump sum on annuities. Also, if you've got a pension, if you work with a company like AT&T here in Atlanta, they offer a pension. A lot of people are taking lump sum pensions from that, and then getting a 25% bonus into the income account or getting a 2,728% bonus into the account value, and invests over the life of the annuity over ten years. And then they're also getting market like gains without market risk. So a lot of people are doing that. If you want a pension, x ray or annuity x ray, let's say you've got an old variable annuity. We would really like to talk to you because we'd love to help you build a more efficient annuity portfolio for yourself. Just call us at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement.com. Go ahead and share the three ways that we've got to build lifetime income.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So we want you to stop working. But we want your money to keep working for you. And the first way to do that is with a pension. Hopefully you're one of the fortunate few. Maybe you work for the government, maybe you work in the public school system and you get a pension through your workplace. That's fantastic. Most people don't. And you can establish your own personal pension and we can compare different options. Highly rated insurance companies actually can help you establish your own, uh, a lot of them will have features like great participation rates in underlying indexes. So you can still participate in the stock market without having your principal, your investment, actually be at risk in the stock market. Uh, in immediate bonuses is another feature. Some even have guaranteed growth, like nationwide has guaranteed 8% simple interest roll up as long as you defer taking withdrawals. So annuities and pensions, that's one way to make sure that you never run out of income in retirement. You know, keep those paychecks coming. Um, Social Security, that's a big one, especially right now amidst the government shutdown. It can be tough to get the answers you need. Uh, Ford, you mentioned earlier in the show you're one of only a few registered Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia, and you're able to put together these fantastic reports for people, whether you're single or even if you're married, put together a report to show you exactly when you should take Social Security. If you really want to maximize your benefit, not everybody's situation is the same. Some people need to turn on that income a little sooner. Some can afford to wait a little longer. But for what? Do people really get out of that report when it comes to figuring out the timing of their Social Security? Because that's an important decision.

Speaker3:
Yeah. So you get like a heat map of of also how much money you're going to make, you know, depending on which years you or your spouse take the income. Also, you understand any survivor benefits. Um, also spousal benefits, divorced spousal benefits, things like that. But what's great is you really understand kind of break even points too. Um, but the biggest thing that we see is that people understand, okay, how much money am I really going to make per month, depending on when I take Social Security and they also get an understanding, okay, what's my net after they take out from my Medicare Part A and B, what does that look like? And so it's just good to really maximize your Social Security. We encourage everybody to get us their XML files. Go to SSA gov. You download your XML files x ray Mary Lima are the three letters. It's right underneath the PDF download on SSA gov. Once you get into your SSA account and it's in a blue text and you just click download XML file and you'll be able to see your XML statement, get that to us. We put it into our system and we'll be able to give you a 16 page report that's full of great graphs and colors and everything else. Most people are like, man, this is incredible. I thank you so much for doing all this work for us. We've seen those XML files get started. Sam.

Speaker4:
Yeah, and that Social Security report is really the cornerstone of your plan. Once we start working with you, we're able to figure out when you're going to turn on your benefit. If you're married, when you and your spouse are both going to turn on that benefit and the difference between your budget, your expenses that you need to pay every single month, and what your Social Security can pay you in retirement, that is your retirement income gap. And then really the next strategy is that blended approach using a personal pension. A pension, if you have them from work and your Social Security to create all the income that you expect to need during retirement. If you have that solid of an income plan, you can feel free to let the remainder of your assets be invested in the market. Depending on whatever your risk tolerance is, and you just have that peace of mind knowing that whatever may happen on Wall Street, that you're going to be taken care of in retirement, those paychecks will keep coming for you.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, income matters the most in retirement, in my opinion, and just having that monthly positive retirement income surplus versus a negative retirement income gap. Also, remember that your negative retirement income gap can really widen if inflation is out there. And obviously the social security cost of living adjustments don't keep up with the real rate of inflation. So you really want to start with that positive retirement income gap. Start on, you know, a foundational plan that's built on bedrock, not on sand. As I say in the Bible. Let's go ahead and get a sound plan going. If you've never done it before, you're getting close to retirement. You're in that retirement red zone either five years before or five years after retirement. We'd love to hear from you. The other thing is, and we'll talk about this right after the break, if you've got kids and grandkids that want to get on the right path, we have more and more people that are taking the retirement income portion of their portfolio. They've got old IRAs or orphaned 401 K's, and they're investing it into one specific product, saying that you're going to talk about right after the break.

Speaker3:
It is really remarkable. And it's kind of become a trend and a fad. We we actually I talked to one of our clients that owns both the nationwide Peak ten and the Synergy Choice, and their kids are now investing in one of those two products. And we're going to share that right when we come back to the break. Thanks so much for listening to retirement results. Thanks for so much for making us the number one listen to radio show on the weekends. Thanks for helping us continue to grow our podcast. Please get out there and subscribe to our podcast. Anywhere you get podcasts, type in the search bar retirement results and we'll come up and just hit that bell button to subscribe. And we come right back. We're going to talk about this one product that even younger people are investing in. And we've got more smart risk and smart, safe investment ideas for you. You're listening to retirement results on I Am Not one of the Answer and our award winning podcast.

Speaker2:
Get started on your free portfolio analysis and And financial plan right now by visiting retirement results.

Speaker10:
Don't you know if they move too quick away? They're falling down like a domino. All the fathers are men.

Speaker1:
Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Do you want a steady stream of income for retirement? Then it's time to consider annuities. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Amara Life. Gone are the days when most employers offered pensions with guaranteed lifetime payouts to their workers. But what if I told you that you can build your own personal pension? It's possible with an annuity. An annuity is a financial product that provides a series of regular payments to an individual over a specified period of time, often for the rest of their life.

Speaker9:
There are several options for you to consider when choosing an annuity. Be confident in knowing that there is an annuity out there that can meet all of your needs.

Speaker1:
Fort Stokes is founder and president of Active Wealth Management and author of the book annuity 360. There are several different types of annuities, including fixed, variable, and fixed indexed.

Speaker9:
A fixed annuity offers a specific guaranteed interest rate on their contributions to the account. A fixed indexed annuity is an accumulation based product offered by an insurance company. The growth of your fixed indexed annuity is dependent on the performance of a chosen stock market index, but your money is not actually invested in this index. This offers you great growth potential and exceptional protection for your investment.

Speaker1:
While each can provide tax deferred growth and a lifetime income stream, variable annuities put your principal at risk in the market.

Speaker9:
If you are currently investing in a variable annuity, your funds could be in serious trouble if the market experienced any downturns.

Speaker1:
With so many possible choices to consider, it's essential you speak to a financial advisor or professional to help you make the best decision for your future. So are you ready to consider an annuity as part of your retirement plan? It's a key question to consider as you approach what should be your golden years with Retirement Radio Network powered by Amara Life. I'm Matt McClure. 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.

Speaker3:
Hi, this is Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor. With retirement results, you've saved your whole life so you wouldn't have to worry about your money when you retired. But you worry now.

Speaker9:
More.

Speaker3:
Than ever. You've been a good saver. You have 500,000, $1 million, or.

Speaker9:
Maybe even more.

Speaker3:
You should feel confident, but you don't. You're worried a big loss will.

Speaker9:
Wipe you.

Speaker3:
Out. You want to retire, but you don't. You're worried you don't have enough. Any of this sound familiar? It should, because we.

Speaker9:
Hear these.

Speaker3:
Things all the time from people just like you who are preparing for retirement or already Ready? Retired. So why do you worry so much? It's because you don't have an actual plan in writing. Nothing to guide you through retirement. Retirement results helps people just like you. You'll get a free, customized written retirement plan. That's right. Free and no obligation. Schedule your meeting now at retirement. Com forward slash plan. That's retirement com forward slash.

Speaker2:
Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor.

Speaker1:
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.

Speaker2:
Miss. Part of today's show retirement results is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement Results.com.

Speaker3:
Welcome back to retirement results result drivers I'm Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor at Sam Davis here with us. So, Sam, one of the things we're seeing is a pretty big trend in people that are in their 30s and 40s investing in a specific product. And I've got one for folks that are kind of 45 all the way to 75 years old. Really 45 to 80 years old. But why don't you share that one product that people in their 30s and 40s are buying right now?

Speaker4:
Yeah. So this one comes from a spider. A spider is an A minus rated carrier. And they have two different fixed indexed annuities. And the minimum age is 18. So pretty much any anybody can invest in this one as long as you're 18 or older. They have two different fixed indexed annuities, both with indexing options and the Invesco Q-q-q. If you're an investor just on your own in an investment account, or if you've been driving through downtown Atlanta and just looked at the, you know, billboards up there lately, you're probably familiar with the Invesco Q. It is an ETF highly weighted in the technology industry. So there's a lot of tech stocks in there, a lot of Nasdaq stocks in there. And the SPDR Synergy Choice Bonus uh, offers investors a 12% immediate bonus on their principal and then a 75% participation rate in Invesco Q-q-q, which means that, however, the Invesco Q index performs over a two year period, there's two year protection periods. You get to enjoy 75% of however that index does, and that gets credited to your account after the two year protection period. You do not have to expose yourself to any risk.

Speaker4:
So if the index went down, zero is your hero and you would not have any losses there. So it's fully protected and 75% of the index gains would be credited to your account after the two year protection period. They also have the synergy choice Max, which has no bonus on your investment. However, it provides a 105% participation rate in the Q-q-q and with that being an option and you can get that on a ten year contract with Aspida. If you're someone out there who's invested in the Q-q-q index already, and you're fully exposed to all the ups and all the downs. Why wouldn't you diversify and put some of that money into the Aspida synergy choice? Max. They're giving you 105% participation on two year protection periods, and your principal is 100% protected and not at risk in the market. So those are a couple of appealing options for you've got one for folks that are 45 and older. But Aspida will take investments from folks 18 and up. And they have a high credit rating of A minus.

Speaker3:
The Aspida synergy choice max that max product and you can get 5% more than you could have gotten if you just invested in the Invesco Q-q-q. And you can't lose money, you can't lose your principal. So it moves up like a stair step rather than moving up and down like an EKG. So I would encourage you strongly to consider that. Also, if you want to get your kids on the right path, you want to limit them from market losses, limit them from margin losses on bonds with interest rate risk and reinvestment risk. Then I encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results. Com that's retirement results.com. So the nationwide peak ten is offering a 25% bonus. The immediate bonus into the income and benefits account. It's offering 8% guaranteed interest in the income and benefits account each year that you defer withdrawals. So let's say you invested into it at 45 years old and you turn it on in 20 years later, you've got 8% compounded interest each year for 20 years. Start generating your income.

Speaker2:
It's time for this week's Problem Solver.

Speaker3:
I have a client. He's 50 years young. She invested just $100,000. She's going to generate $27,892 from her $100,000 a year, starting at age 65, just 15 years later. And that amount, when she turns on that income that first year, that's guaranteed for the rest of her life, which would be year 15 or 16 when she's going to retire and turn on the income. She does medical billing and she runs a medical billing team. And she really understood the bedrock of it. And she wanted she's like, you know what? I need to just carve out just part of the income portion of my half million dollar IRA. My husband's a pilot. Um, she actually lives in Nashville. She's a friend of my wife's, and she got one of our blog articles on Facebook. She saw one of my blog articles getting shared on Facebook, and she was like, this is exactly what I need. So I would encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 to get your own personal pension illustration. I think you'll really like what you see and hear on that. And if you've never done it, just be fun. Should be fun to understand what kind of personal pension you can generate, and the money you'll have left over to give to your heirs. Because of the normal company pension, there is no money left over to give to your heirs. With our personal pensions hybrid product, you can get the best of both worlds. We like investing in products that are a minus rated and above like like the A and triple A+ rated buy for nationwide by a m, Best and Standard and Poor's. But we also like investing in products where the interest rate will outpace the withdrawal rate. So all you gotta do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777, and we'll get started right away.

Speaker4:
Ford I wanted to mention once again, if anybody out there listening to this week's episode of Retirement Results has some questions about their future Social Security benefits, now would be a great time to reach out to us. Ford is a registered Social security analyst. So is Matt McClure. You know, during the best of times when the government's fully operational, it can be tough to get the answers you need about your Social Security. Now can be a great opportunity for you to reach out and get some answers. When a lot of other people are really just sitting there waiting, Um, you know, the Congress was unable to reach an agreement on the federal budget before the latest deadline, so we are shut down. Um, we're recording this segment on Thursday, so we're not sure if anything's going to happen on Friday or over the weekend when you might be hearing this. But since 1976, there have been 20 different shutdowns. They last an average of just eight days. I thought that was interesting. Um, there was a record 35 day shutdown in 2018 and 2019. Uh, but normally they last just an average of eight days. And for what do you have to say to anybody out there who's, you know, maybe looking for some answers on their Social Security right now?

Speaker3:
Yeah. And that cost of living adjustment come out on the 24th. But the best way to get answers is to get us your XML files so we can put them into our system and run reports for you real metric ones. So we can look at your top 35 earning years and really give you an accurate reading. More accurate, actually, than you'll get from the aggregated PDF where they're aggregating ten years at a time and they're off about 5% to your detriment, doesn't mean they're going to give you a lower rate at the end, but the estimates are actually probably a little bit lower than you've got the Medicare coming off of it, because they they take that off net off of your Social Security payment. Go ahead and reach out to us so we can get you started on the right road for your own Social Security income benefit. To maximize that income benefit. Just go ahead and reach out to us at retirement results. Com click that Schedule Consultation button in the upper right corner of our website. We'll get started right away. And now the final countdown.

Speaker11:
It's the final countdown.

Speaker2:
So let's recap what you may have missed. It's the final countdown.

Speaker11:
The final countdown.

Speaker3:
So on today's show, we gave you the Social Security update that the cost of living adjustment is going to come out on out Friday at 8:30 a.m. on the 24th of September. We talked about the fear of unretiring, why Americans are rethinking what retirement means, and how they're really concerned about having to go back to work. Building lifetime income, creating that paycheck that doesn't retire. We talked about how you can get that pension x ray or that annuity x ray. All you do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. And we'll give you a full analysis of your current pension or your current annuity. We also gave you a quick kind of update on what's going on with the shutdown showdown. Uh, the longest shutdown government shutdown was 35 days. We could be headed there, but we'll see how that how that goes. Listen, if you got questions about your retirement, you want to get started right away. You've been a long time listener. You've never called us. I encourage you to reach out to us, give us a call at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results. Com. Remember, if you're seeking information about retirement, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Be aggressive as you possibly can, and get as much information as you can. And we're here to help you. Visit us at Retirement Results. Com we'll get started right away for you. Thanks for listening to retirement results. Have a great week everybody.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. You deserve to work with an independent team of fiduciary advisors that will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets. To schedule your complimentary financial consultation, call us now at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777. To connect with a qualified advisor. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit Retirement Investment Advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor 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.

Speaker1:
Registered investment advisors and investment advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure. The ADV two item for. For additional information.

Speaker2:
At Active Wealth Management, we know you've worked hard for your money and you've worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement, Ford Stokes of Retirement Results is passionate about helping people protect and grow their wealth while educating them on all their options so they can choose what's right for them. Visit retirement Results.com to schedule your no obligation consultation today. It's a $1,500 value provided at no cost to you. Book yours now at retirement Results.com.

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