Avoid These Common 401(k) Mistakes!

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2.2.24: 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 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, an author of multiple books on retirement planning. Here's your chief financial advisor, Ford Stokes.

Ford Stokes:
Welcome to Retirement Results. I'm Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor. And we've got Sam Davis, our co host and senior financial advisor here with us on this week's show on the John Fredericks Radio Network. And today we're going to be talking about we're really just ask the question is your 401 K an asset or a liability? Unlocking the power of your retirement savings could be the difference between you having a successful retirement or having a failed retirement. We just want to say welcome to the show. All of you result drivers out there. Uh, Sam, say hello to the folks.

Sam Davis:
Welcome to the weekend result drivers. And welcome back to Retirement Results. Appreciate all of the listeners out there across all of our stations here in the United States who have reached out to us with questions, reached out to us with their comments and support for the show. For this is our fourth week on the John Fredericks Media Network, and we're so proud to be here because this is a show for our listeners. If you're out there and you want to learn how to better optimize your 401 K, this is the show for you. If you're looking to maximize your Social Security and figure out what's the best decision to make for you and you and your spouse, this is the show for you. And if you're interested in discovering how much you're paying in fees and cutting costs inside your retirement account, this is the show for you. We've got a lot of great information, so stick around with us.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, we're going to have guests on, you know, a lot during, uh, you know, the next 52 weeks. Um, or I guess it would be more like 48 weeks for the rest of the year. Um, it feels like we've been on the John Fredericks radio network a lot longer than week four here. But mainly, I guess, because John has been so kind and generous with his time to interview me on his show and, um, a few times. And that's been really great. But. If you want A4K review to better understand the fees you are paying and the risks you are taking with your 41K and how to optimize your 4k with just about everybody has A41K or a 403 B or an IRA. Feel free to give us a call at 1-888-814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304, or dial pound 250 and say the keyword Retirement Results. That's all you got to do is dial four digits. You dial the pound number two, five, zero and give the keyword Retirement Results. Also, if a majority of your foreign K is invested in a target date fund, there's a real possibility that you can do better. And we're here to help you get that done. On this week's show, we are going to be talking about a lot of different things about around the 41K, how to get more fee efficient, tax efficient and market efficient with your 41K and your IRA. And here's what we're going to talk about on this week's show. Number one is we're going to do the quote of the week. And Sam, our co-host and senior financial advisor, is going to do that. He's going to share that with us here in just a second to kick off the show.

Ford Stokes:
We're going to go in depth about bond replacement and what you can do to replace the bonds within your portfolio. We're going to talk about some 401 K mistakes. How to avoid the missteps that millions of Americans are making. We're also going to talk about a little bit about Social Security, what you need to know in order to maximize your Social Security income benefit. And we'll also talk about how you can discover how much you are paying in fees and if we've got some time. Real quick, here's a quick overview of the difference between strategic asset allocation and tactical asset allocation. So strategic allocation is kind of that buy and hold strategy. It's selecting what you feel like is the best allocation and the best assets you can invest in for the year and then rebalancing next year. They literally go 365 days or longer and then reallocate and rebalance your portfolio. Tactical asset allocation is looking at the asset classes that you're invested in, and then reallocating those at least as frequently as a on a monthly basis, because we feel like that's an important thing to do. Feel free to reach out to us by dialing pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. And we're happy to help you get more efficient with your portfolio as well. We're also going to dive into all these topics. Again, I just want to I want to go over these. I'm going to do the quote of the week. We're going to talk about bond replacement for one k mistakes, how to maximize your Social Security income benefit, and then also discover how much you are paying in fees. Sam, go ahead and share that financial wisdom. Quote of the week.

Producer:
And now wholesome financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Sam Davis:
This week's quote comes from Will Rogers, and Will Rogers quote goes like this A man only learns by two things. One is reading, the other is association with smarter people and Ford. I think this is a great insight because whatever it is that you're trying to learn about, it's great to seek the advice of someone who knows best. One of my best friends is a welder. When he graduated from high school, he knew nothing about welding, but he went to technical school, associated himself with professionals, and now he's built a fantastic business. I know when I first picked up golf, I had so many issues, but when I sought out some lessons in the help of a professional, they were able to get me on track. And I think Will Rogers quote is just fantastic here, because you can read and learn so much, and you can also associate yourself with smarter people and learn anything that you're looking to pick up.

Ford Stokes:
Especially when you're looking at retirement planning. I mean, I were so fortunate that John Fredericks just felt like it was so important that we would be on his radio network on the weekends, and I would just encourage each one of you to really pick up the phone and dial pound 250 and give that keyword Retirement Results to get put in touch with us or visit Retirement Results. Com we know what we're doing. We're going to help you get more tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient. We're going to help you get that done within your retirement portfolio. We're going to help you build for that successful retirement that you're all looking for. And more importantly, we're going to make sure you've got a positive retirement income surplus during your 35 plus year retirement. And if you're still working and you've got A41K and you want to get more efficient and just figure out, hey, I've got these 12 investment options within my 401 K Ford and I have no idea what to do with them. I would encourage you to reach out to us and just dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. You'll get put directly into a phone call with our office. Diane and Deborah are standing by to take your calls, and we'd love to talk to you. We'd love to help you out. Um, we want to help out all of the listeners for the John Frederick Radio Network. Each and every one of you are great patriots. Um, you know, we're all pulling for President Trump these days and make sure you're voting with your retirement in mind. And I would just say you ought to just go ahead and do the right thing for yourself, too. I know you're you're doing the right thing for the country.

Ford Stokes:
You're voting the right way. You're you're trying to stay conservative. You're trying to vote for a sane immigration law and trying to stop the invasion that's coming into our country. But also that affects you and your retirement too, and your safety in retirement. And, um, I would just recommend that you do everything you can to take care of yourself and just pick up the phone and give us a call. So that way we can work with folks who have experience in managing retirement portfolios. We don't just look at it as an average rate of return. We try to reduce your fees. We try to reduce, um, your standard deviation. We try to reduce your risk level. We try to reduce the correlation of your assets. We also try to implement at least a 50% tactical asset allocation model within your portfolio. In addition to a strategic asset allocation model. We don't get paid on overtrading your accounts. We get paid on managing your money, and we make more money when you make more money. And so what I would encourage you to do is pick up the phone and give us a call. Just dial pound 250, give the keyword Retirement Results. We're we're on the same side of the table as you are. And one of the things that our clients really love is that we can help them implement a Roth ladder conversion to delete the IRS out of being their partner in retirement. Sam. And so, Sam, we've only got like a minute and a half left in the before the break. Just your thoughts on the rest of the show and and also what we've talked about so far and what listeners really need to be cognizant of, um, going forward this year in 2024.

Sam Davis:
Ford. We've been getting a lot of questions from people coming in off of the show and giving our office a call about 401 K's. There's millions of people out there with 401 s. And so we're going to make that a big topic in this week's show. You know your 401 K plan is great. Anybody who has access to a 401 K plan through work should absolutely be participating in that because there's a very high contribution limit. So you can start putting away quite a bit of money annually for your retirement. But more than likely, your HR department at work and your plan administrator for your 401 K plan isn't giving you a lot of help with regards to the investing that's actually happening inside that portfolio. Maybe they give you a little bit of a pamphlet or a brochure, send you a piece of mail once or twice a year. But that's really all the help that most people are getting with their 401 K's. And for most people out there, the 401 K is such a sizable portion of their retirement savings. So if you want to be a good steward of that money and that hard earned money and hard saved money that you've stashed away every two weeks for who knows how many years you've been with that company, give us a call. We'd love to help you answer as many questions as you have, and get that 401 K on track so it can set you up and be an asset for your retirement and not a liability.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. And when we come back from the break, we're going to talk more about this. And and specifically we're going to talk about replacing the bonds in your 400 K or your IRA or 403 B or your 457 or your Sep IRA, and try to get more efficient with a new 6040 portfolio with 60% stocks and ETFs and 40% as a bond replacement. And we'll talk more about what you're going to do to replace those bonds and what you're going to invest in instead of bonds within your portfolio. Right. When we come back from the break, you're listening to Retirement Results right here on the John Fredericks radio Network.

Producer:
You're listening to Retirement Results to learn more and schedule your free retirement consultation, dial pound 250 from your cell phone and use the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250. Key word Retirement Results. You're listening to Retirement Results. And now back to the show.

Sam Davis:
And welcome back to retirement. Results. Result drivers I'm Sam Davis, senior financial advisor here at Retirement Results. Joined by our host Ford Stokes chief financial advisor and member of the Forbes Finance Council. Ford, you recently wrote an article with Forbes about why Pre-retirees and retirees should consider replacing the bonds in their retirement accounts with something else. So what's going on in that article? What can people learn? And and let's bring it to life here in this segment for all of our listeners.

Ford Stokes:
You know, we've talked about on the show a little bit, but, you know, back in 1952, an economist named Harry Markowitz was given credit for being the founder of modern portfolio theory, which basically stated, if you put 60% stocks and 40% bonds, they're basically traded on this in the same US financial markets. You'll get an efficient investment frontier. So the the prevailing thought is that as money moves out of stocks, it'll move into bonds. The problem is that hasn't really happened really in oh eight and really hasn't happened. In 2022. Um, 20 2018, we had a little bit of a down year in the market. Um, the pandemic for 3 or 4 months that hadn't really happened. And also over the last three years when you're facing. Interest rate risk with those types of fixed income investments. You're looking at a significant. Problem because the bond portfolios have have lost. A bunch of money over the last three years. And in fact, the 60 over 40 portfolio had its worst year in the past 41 years in 2022. A little bit about Harry Markowitz. He was born in on August 24th, 1927. In 1990, he was a Nobel Prize recipient in economic sciences for developing the modern portfolio theory. His work popularized concepts like diversification and overall portfolio risk and return, shifting the focus away from the performance of individual stocks, which was a good step in the right direction. But also in 1952, it was groundbreaking. But that's also 72 years ago. And I, as you're driving around listening to Retirement Results here on the John Fredericks Radio network, or if you're listening to the podcast on Smart Speaker at your house or wherever you're listening to the Retirement Results radio show, I would just ask you this question.

Ford Stokes:
Do you feel like you're comfortable investing in a 72 year old investment strategy, or do you would you like to try to do something new, and would you like to try to do something that's not necessarily new and groundbreaking, but also has a lot more sound investment with with much higher financial reserve and principal protection, with an income guarantee. And I would say that most people would say yes to that, but then they would really say yes to it also is a way for you to delete up to like 40% of your portfolio and advisory fees and also get the retirement income you can never outlive. What I'm talking about is investing a portion of your portfolio that's supposed to generate income and get more fee efficient with it at a minimum, but definitely get more market efficient as well. And here's how we would do that. We would just take 20 to 40% of your assets. In your IRA. Your 41K, especially if you're over 59.5 years old. And we can best help people who have over $500,000 in their 41K or their IRA sim. But we've got a real chance to take 20 to 40% of their assets, get our high rate of income by investing into fixed indexed annuities instead of bonds.

Ford Stokes:
And again, I'm going to ask you another question. You as you're driving around out there, why are you paying for portfolio and advisory fees on the portion of your portfolio that's supposed to give you income? Because if you're in bonds, you're probably not in bonds for the market growth on bonds, you're in bonds for the income that will provide, just like you're probably in some stocks because of the dividend income that they provide. But there's risk inherent risk with bonds because you've got interest rate risk as interest rates go up, as we've seen over the last year and a half with Jerome Powell and the fed going up. Almost seemingly every month over the last 12 months. Now you're looking at. The bonds that were held the year before or the year before that, or the year before that, being worth a lot less because everybody wants the higher paying interest rate bonds and therefore the bonds you held 24 months ago. Are worth less than the market. And I would just ask you, why are you taking interest rate risk with the income portion of your portfolio? I don't think you need to do that. I think you need to. Lock that up, lock up the income. And here's another hint. And I want to make sure everybody leans into the radio here. You can let the rest of your portfolio grow in stocks and ETFs. Also, we believe in investing in ETFs and stocks to implement our portfolios.

Ford Stokes:
We do not like investing in mutual funds because they're higher in fees because they have 12 be one fees. They have, um, administrative fees, they have a share fees and C share fees. And and. Those are all things that erode value within your 41K or your IRA. And by the way, Sam, we can talk about it. I, you know, foreign cars are laden down heavily with mutual funds because that's how. These employer plans can actually make their money. And they are their expense ratios are like generally when we're analyzing A41K, we're analyzing and we're looking at 0.72 over 1% because the person's got so many mutual funds and they don't know there's other alternatives. You might have A41K plan administrator that's giving you an option of one ETF. And maybe with stocks and then one ETF with bonds. And then the rest of the investment options are target date funds that are fraught and loaded down with mutual funds. And then you've also got it where there's only mutual funds available. And they're charging significantly higher expense ratios and annual fees that, yes, those fees are shared within a prospectus, but they're not. They don't show up in your statement except for the bottom line, where you can see your account value has actually been eroded. That was just your thoughts on. All of that salmon. And just what, you know, poor foreign investors are facing every two weeks. And they put money in there and their employers are matching those contributions.

Sam Davis:
Yeah. Well, first off, I want to commend the people out there. The result drivers who have been great savers and a lot of people who come to us for their free 401 K review and portfolio analysis are great savers, but they do need some help on the investing side. And like you mentioned, too often, people who come to see us are using that traditional 60 over 40 method that 72 year old strategy. Would you feel comfortable if your doctor or dentist was using 72 year old tools? Would you feel comfortable if you were taking a trip and you were in a 72 year old plane? The same philosophy goes with investing in preparing for your retirement. Don't you want to use the most sophisticated tools available and what best fits you in your situation? And that's exactly what we try to help people with when we do a bond replacement.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I think that's right. And we're just trying to help you get better allocated. You can also reach out to us by dialing pound 250 and giving the keyword Retirement Results. And you'll get put directly into our main phone line at the headquarters of Active Wealth Management. And our private wealth management firm will be there to take your call. Um, if not, we'll call you right back. We do get a lot of calls over the weekend, so if we miss your call, we'll call you right back during the weekend. We will call you back well before Monday. I would just encourage you to reach out to us, you know, also, call us direct at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. And here's another cool thing. You can go to Retirement Results.com that's Retirement Results.com. And click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner, and you'll get booked right into my calendar. Uh, Sam and I are ready to help you. We've got a team. Um, within our RA. Ra has over $8.8 billion in assets under management. Are registered investment advisory firm. Uh, in our partnership with Brookstone Capital management has $8.8 billion with a B in assets under management. Um, and we've got a team of investment professionals that are cfas ready to manage the portfolios for you. But also our team is there to make sure we're taking care of you. We're taking care of your entire overall retirement portfolio.

Ford Stokes:
We also will help you maximize your Social Security income. We'll talk about that in the next segment. You know, I'm a registered Social Security analyst. I did that on purpose. There's only like 15 of us in the whole state of Georgia as an example. And there's not a lot of a lot of rsas up the eastern seaboard, which is where our radio station reaches and we reach all the way north to Wilmington, Delaware. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shout out to just about every town in in Virginia. Uh, shout out to Richmond and Fairfax. And obviously, we're really excited to be on the air in Morgantown in West Virginia. Shout out to the mountaineers up there. We're always happy to be in Music City, uh, in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Atlanta, Georgia. So we just really appreciate each and every one of you. Result drivers who listens to the show. We're getting a lot of calls and a lot of people reaching out to us on on X, which is formerly Twitter, and also engaging with our Facebook page. We're trying great results on Facebook. So, so glad you've been reaching out to us. But we're going to talk more about this, but I would encourage you to consider replacing the bonds in your portfolio, deleting the advisory and portfolio fees in your portfolio by investing in fixed indexed annuities and generate the income you need in retirement.

Producer:
Fixed indexed annuities can help protect your retirement savings against market ups and downs. Nationwide's peak ten can help protect against market risk and provide guaranteed income for life. Peak ten also has an optional rider that offers an immediate 20% bonus based on your principal applied to your income benefit base. Dial pound 250 and use the keyword Retirement Results to connect with a qualified adviser now. Indexed are fixed. Annuities are not designed for short terme investments and may be subject to caps, restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company. They may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods or lower caps. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Guarantees and protections referenced within are subject to the claims paying ability of Nationwide life and annuity insurance company nationwide. Peak ten is issued by Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company, Columbus, Ohio. Neither nationwide nor its other entities are associated or affiliated with Brookstone Capital Management, LLC. While Washington's spending keeps growing, your retirement doesn't have to shrink, protect, and grow your hard earned money today by dialing pound 250 from your cell phone and using the keyword Retirement Results, that's pound 250 keyword Retirement Results.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back result drivers. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. And I've got Sam Davis, our co-host and senior financial advisor here on the show with us. And Sam, you know, we've just been talking about you really need to look at how to optimize your 41K. We also talked about bond replacement replacing the bonds within your 41K or your IRA or 43B or 457 or Sep IRA. But all those qualified accounts, all those retirement accounts. But. Right now we want to talk about the four mistakes that millions are making with their four one K's. Most baby boomers are either retired or on the cusp of retiring. Members of this generation, now ages 59 to 77, need to be very careful about the decisions they are making inside of their 401 K. We want you to be aware of some of the common mistakes you can avoid if you want to improve your retirement outlook. Sam, why don't you go ahead and give us the first one?

Sam Davis:
The first mistake that so many are making with their 401 KS is simply not saving enough for their retirement and their future. And the solution is pretty straightforward that whenever possible, you should try to max out your 401 K contributions. Budget that into your monthly expenses to save for retirement. A lot of people will tell you I don't have enough money to save for retirement. But Einstein said compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. By making regular, consistent contributions, you'll be able to dollar cost average. So for 2024, the 401 K annual contribution limit is $23,000. So you have quite a bit of room there. But if you're over the age of 50, you know, a lot of our listeners are over the age of 50. You can actually take advantage of additional catch up contributions of up to $7,500 a year. So be sure all of our result drivers out there be sure that you're saving for your retirement and your future. Pay yourself first before you take care of anything else.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, and Thomas Jefferson said the best time to save money is when you have it. So what I would encourage you to do is do the following with four KS. Make sure you're at least investing in saving and contributing up to the match of what your employer is giving you, and the employer is not giving you a match. Then I still would consider putting in 3 to 6% so you can continue to save money, and you can also save beyond what you could within a traditional IRA.

Sam Davis:
I'm glad you brought up Thomas Jefferson Ford because he was such a forward thinker. He was investing not just for his future, but this country's future. He was one of the masterminds behind the Louisiana Purchase. The United States purchased 828,000mi² of land west of the Mississippi River for only $15 million. That's $0.04 an acre. So grateful that Thomas Jefferson was a forward thinker and helped us expand this great nation so many years ago. And you should take that same philosophy when you're thinking about your future. That's maybe only a decade or two away.

Ford Stokes:
No question about it. I mean, I think the Louisiana Purchase and also the acquisition of Alaska and also just us kind of, I guess, absconding Hawaii, all those would be considered some of the best land acquisitions in the history of the world. But the Louisiana Purchase has got to be up there. Number one, at $0.04 an acres. Pretty good stuff. You know, I'd imagine if you try to get, uh, some Mississippi River frontage now, it's going to be a little bit more than $0.04 an acre. So great job there, TJ. Now, the next mistake that we see that millions are making with their four one K's is investing your money into target date funds. And it may seem easier. These target date funds are there to make it easier on the 41K plans to manage, and to be able to communicate with you and make it easy so you can just check a box. The problem is that these things do a lot of damage to your portfolio, especially in the last five years in which you retire. We call the five years before retirement and the five years after retirement, the retirement red zone. You've got to do a really good job and be extra careful, just as all these teams that are, you know, in the NFL playoffs, you got two teams left the Super Bowl with, you know, San Francisco 40 niners and the Kansas City Chiefs. When they're in the red zone they got to take care of it. They've got to take care of the ball. They got to do everything they can to get points. And hopefully they can get seven points out of it. But take a look at the last five years performance from a major issuer of target date funds.

Ford Stokes:
Vanguard Target Date Retirement Fund 2025 lost 6.1% over the last five years. There are 2030 fund lost 2.5%. And there. 2035 target date fund lost 1.8%. What's interesting is the one that has the most equities in it and the least amount of bonds that and has the longest time horizon is their retirement 2050 fund, which gained 10.9% over the last five years. It should not surprise anyone that that's the case, because bonds have had their worst run over the last three years than in four decades. I would just ask you, why do you keep suffering with these target date funds? Why won't you do more? Here's what's going on with target date funds. There's a lack of customization. Target date funds are designed to be a one size fits all, which means they likely will not align perfectly with an individual's specific financial goals, risk tolerances, and needs. Also, Phe's target date funds often have high management fees, which can erode returns over time, especially for long tum investors. Some target aid funds may invest in other funds, leading to layers upon layers of fees. This can make it challenging to understand the total cost of investing in a target date fund. Risk tolerance may not match your situation and needs. The level of risk taken by a target date fund will not align with every investor's actual risk tolerance. For some, this could result in overly conservative or aggressive portfolios. You know what, Sam? We ought to get on. The network with John Fredericks and share this. We ought to ask him about that. What do you think?

Sam Davis:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, we've talked about Social Security. You've gone on with John and talked to him about the issues with that. This is just another issue that's affecting so many people. And so we'll reach out to John and get on an upcoming episode of The John Fredericks radio show, and be sure to tune in to his show daily throughout the week. The next mistake that we're seeing people make with their 401 K plans is taking early withdrawals from their 401 K plans. A recent survey found that 1 in 4 baby boomers have already taken a withdrawal from their 401 K plan, with the top reasons being to pay down debt or to cover health care expenses. Now, this could be particularly expensive of a mistake if you withdraw money prior to reaching 59.5 years old, because you're going to face an early withdrawal penalty, and you want to avoid unnecessary fees and penalties as much as possible to preserve your hard earned money. So the solution is simple do everything you can to not take money out of your retirement accounts too early. Be careful not to live beyond your means and have that emergency fund in place so you can take care of any unforeseen expenses.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, so let me just put it in local American homeowner economy talk here. We have a lot of prospects that call us and say, hey, should I pay my house off? And they're 57 years old and I'm going to use the IRA money to to do that? Well, no, because you've got an early withdrawal penalty of 10%. Plus you're going to pay your effective or your top marginal income tax rate on that money. So I would encourage you to not do that until after 59.5. We also like to see people not take money out of their 401 K or their IRA to pay their house off. We'd rather see them downsize, sell and and get more equity back and take equity from there. Be very careful about that. Um, because a lot of people don't like paying the 6% to real estate commission. It's even worse when you're taking money out and you're paying 14 to 20 plus percent in taxes on that money. And when we come back from the break, we're going to share one more mistake that millions of Americans are making with their 401 K. Come right back. You're listening to the Retirement Results right here on the John Fredericks Radio Network.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Retirement Results. Schedule your free financial consultation now at Retirement Results. Com or by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304.

Mom and. Dad away. To get a good job before paying your. Okay.

Producer:
Ford Stokes is a fiduciary, series 65 licensed financial advisor and president of Active Wealth Management, and he is now offering an exclusive product that can help retirees and those preparing for retirement. Nationwide's peak ten fixed indexed annuity can help protect and grow your savings to generate income you can never outlive. One of the attractive benefits of peak ten is its optional bonus Income Plus rider, which includes a 20% bonus based on your principal applied to your income benefit base. Plus, this rider provides an 8% simple interest roll up for the first ten years or until the first withdrawal. With Nationwide Peak ten, you can add your spouse and generate joint income, so you're both covered for life. To help manage inflation risk, peak ten has five index options designed to help provide higher returns than traditional fixed investments may offer. Choose one or allocate among them to further diversify your portfolio, Ford and his team are proud to offer an annuity from nationwide. Nationwide is a strong, stable mutual company with nearly 100 years of experience helping people prepare for and live in retirement. To learn more about Nationwide Peak ten, call Ford and his active wealth team.

Producer:
Dial pound 250 from your cell phone and use the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250. Key word Retirement Results investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Guarantees and protections referenced within are subject to the claims paying ability of Nationwide life and annuity insurance company nationwide. Peek ten is issued by Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company. Columbus, Ohio. Neither nationwide nor its entities are associated or affiliated with Active Wealth Management or Brookstone Capital Management, LLC. Indexed or fixed annuities are not designed for short Tum investments and may be subject to caps, restrictions, fees, and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company that may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods or lower caps. Dial pound 250 from your cell phone and use the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250 key word Retirement Results. Like what you're hearing. Subscribe to the podcast and listen to Retirement Results anytime, anywhere.

Sam Davis:
And welcome back to Retirement Results. Result drivers I'm Sam Davis, your senior financial advisor and co-host. I'm here with Ford Stokes Ford. Before the break, we were talking about some of the biggest mistakes that people are making with their 401 K plans. And we have one more mistake that we want to help all of our listeners avoid this weekend.

Ford Stokes:
And the last mistake we're seeing millions of Americans make with their 41K is not seeking professional advice about their hard earned and hard saved money, and probably hard match money, too, because they had to work hard for that employer to get the employer matching as well. Baby boomers who seek financial advice tend to have bigger 4k balances than those who don't. A recent survey found that participants who have sought the advice of a financial professional had saved an average of $333,085, while those who have not sought out professional advice only have an average of $286,671 saved. Here's a solution. Get in touch with us so we can help you plan for your own successful retirement. All you got to do is dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250. With the keyword Retirement Results, we tried to reduce the number of digits you have to dial on your phone to just four. So you just dial the pound sign and 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. You'll get dialed directly into our headquarters at Active Wealth Management, and Diane and Deborah and their team are standing by to take your call. We will call you back this weekend as well. So all you've got to do is pick up the phone and dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. You can also visit Retirement Results anytime to listen to this show and any of our other shows. We've got archive back four plus years. So check that out. And Sam, you're going to talk more about Social Security next. And we don't have a we've got I don't know another eight minutes left in in this last segment. But I want to make sure we get through how to maximize the Social Security income benefit for folks on the John Fredericks radio network.

Sam Davis:
Absolutely. Next to 401 K questions, social security questions are a big one that we hear when people come or give us a call at (888) 814-0304. And that rings right to our office. For you're a registered social security analyst, you're able to help people in such a great way maximize their Social Security benefit. People out there have been working so hard and paying into this Social Security system for decades, and they want to get the most for their money, and we feel like they deserve that. So we've got three steps to help all of the listeners out there today start to maximize their Social Security benefit. Yeah, absolutely.

Ford Stokes:
And also, if you haven't heard from your advisor lately, I think you owe it to yourself to just go ahead and give us a call at (888) 814-0304. Just dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. We're happy to help you. I'm very proud to be a registered Social Security analyst. There's not a lot of us across the United States of America. If your advisor is not a registered Social Security analyst or you don't have a registered Social Security analyst helping you maximize your Social Security income benefit payout, especially what's going on with the old Age Survivors and Insurance Trust Fund being projected to be depleted by 2033, according to the Congressional Budget Office. I would encourage you to do everything you can to work with an SSA to make sure you know what all of your options are. There's over 2000 decision points within Social Security that you can make, especially for married couples. I would encourage you to go ahead and pick up the phone and give us a call and just dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. But yeah, we're here to help you on Social Security. So let me give you three steps to receive the most of the money you've already put in to Social Security, because we want to help you maximize that Social Security income benefit. Step one is work a minimum of 35 years. So what happens is the Social Security Administration, they look at your top 35 earning years and they help calculate something called Aim which is your average income monthly earnings. And they'll give you a number, your full retirement age, what you're going to get if you reach that 67 years old or 66 and six months or whatever it is, if you're born after 1960, congratulations.

Ford Stokes:
Your retirement age is 67 years old. If you're born before 1960, it's going to be 66 and and a certain amount of months. Number two is we want to make sure that you can earn an income equivalent to or greater than the wage cap. You want to do everything you can to make sure that workers pay taxes on their earnings for Social Security purposes only, up to a certain point, and that level varies from year to year. In 2023, the wage cap was $160,200. So income beyond that threshold is not taxed. But I mean not taxed for Social Security to claim the maximum monthly Social Security benefit, your earnings much reach or exceed the wage cap for 35 years. It's very difficult for people to do that for 35 plus years, but do everything you can to get as many years over that wage cap that you can. No, step three is delay your Social Security claim until age 70. You get 8%. Lift on your Social Security income benefit for each year that you wait after your full retirement age. So if your if your retirement age is 67, you wait till age 70, you're going to get 24% more. Then what you would have gotten if you take it at age 67. Also, let me ask you a question and lean into the radio here, or lean into the the smart speaker. Do you deserve more than $0.75 on the dollar that you've put? Into Social Security. We think you do. And if you think so, I would encourage you to reach out to us by dialing pound 250 and giving the keyword Retirement Results. And we're happy to get you going on. Maximize your Social Security income benefit. It's the final.

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

The final count.

Ford Stokes:
On this week's show, Sam gave us the quote of the week, which was from Will Rogers. A man only learns by two things one is reading and the other is association with smarter people. Maybe that's also watching TikTok these days or YouTube channel stuff. Um, then we also talked about the power of bond replacement and also how to get more efficient and more effective with your 4k and those typical 41K mistakes that people are making and want to make sure you're not making those same mistakes. And we talked about ways to maximize your Social Security as well. So. Sam, I felt like today's show was very educational. I felt hopefully a lot of people learned a lot of things. Um, but specifically we went over four mistakes. Mistake one was not saving enough for retirement. In your future with the 401 K mistakes. Number two was investing your money in target date funds. We want to avoid those. And number three was taking a withdrawal from your 401 K plans before age 59.5. And number four was not seeking professional advice about your hard earned money.

Sam Davis:
And if any of the result drivers out there have questions about what we've discussed on today's show, feel free to give us a call. Dial pound 250 and just say the keyword Retirement Results and you'll get connected right into our office. You'll work directly with us. And if you miss part of today's show, Retirement Results is available wherever you listen to podcasts so you can stop, start, pause, rewind, and listen to any of these segments again, along with any of our past episodes. And Ford, I'm just so grateful to all of the result drivers and listeners who have taken the time to listen to us this weekend and across our podcast feed throughout the week, and it's so exciting to be speaking to so many different people and so many different states, and we love hearing your voices come through over the phone. Look forward to working with you and look forward to helping you in 2024.

Ford Stokes:
Amen. And just remember, if you're seeking information about retirement, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Be as aggressive as you can, get as much information as you can. And the best way to start is by dialing pound 250, giving the keyword Retirement Results to get your own results during retirement. Have a great week everybody!

Producer:
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 free financial consultation, dial pound 250 on your cell phone now and use the keyword Retirement Results to connect with a qualified advisor. That's pound 250 key word Retirement Results. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit Retirement Results.com. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM, 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. 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 disclosure of any conflicts of interest, if any exists, please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV two, page four, for additional information. Ford Stokes is a fiduciary, series 65 licensed financial advisor and president of Active Wealth Management, and he is now offering an exclusive product that can help retirees and those preparing for retirement. Nationwide's peak ten fixed indexed annuity can help protect and grow your savings to generate income you can never outlive. One of the attractive benefits of peak ten is its optional bonus Income Plus rider, which includes a 20% bonus based on your principal applied to your income benefit base.

Producer:
Plus, this rider provides an 8% simple interest roll up for the first ten years or until the first withdrawal. With Nationwide Peak ten, you can add your spouse and generate joint income, so you're both covered for life. To help manage inflation risk, peak ten has five index options designed to help provide higher returns than traditional fixed investments may offer. Choose one or allocate among them to further diversify your portfolio, Ford and his team are proud to offer an annuity from nationwide. Nationwide is a strong, stable mutual company with nearly 100 years of experience helping people prepare for and live in retirement. To learn more about Nationwide Peak ten, call Ford and his active wealth team. Dial pound 250 from your cell phone and use the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250. Key word Retirement Results investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Guarantees and protections referenced within are subject to the claims paying ability of Nationwide life and annuity insurance company nationwide. Peek ten is issued by Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company, Columbus, Ohio. Neither nationwide nor its entities are associated or affiliated with Active Wealth Management or Brookstone Capital Management, LLC. Indexed or fixed annuities are not designed for short Tum investments and may be subject to caps, restrictions, fees, and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company that may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods, or lower caps.

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