Bringing Your Retirement Vision to Life

9.20.24: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

9.20.24: 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:
Welcome to retirement. Results. Result drivers. I'm Ford stokes, your chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis here with us as our co-host and senior financial advisor. Sam, say hello to everybody.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the weekend result drivers. And welcome back to the show. Welcome back to retirement results. Hope everybody is enjoying what has been a really pleasant start to the fall. We've got some big news and updates to talk about this week. You've probably seen there's been some changes with the fed and interest rates, but we've got a lot to talk about today. Ford we've also got a special interview as well. So tell the folks what they're going to hear about today.

Speaker3:
So we've got Gunnery Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff, who is head of the veterans for Trump and the Veterans Affairs for Trump and for the 2024 Trump campaign, uh, trying to get Donald J. Trump to be the 47th president of the United States. She's going to be on with us in segment two. Yeah, that's going to be a great interview. Can't wait to talk to her. And then we the title of this week's show is Bringing Your Retirement Vision to Life. We're going to help listeners take action and improve your retirement future. You're going to want to listen to this show. This this is an important show. Also shout out to the folks in Pennsylvania. Obviously, this show airs in a lot of parts of the state of Pennsylvania. Shout out to all those great Americans and great patriots and great veterans in Pennsylvania. We're also pleased. Get out the vote in, you know, Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia, and all the New England states where this show airs. We're airing on 21 stations right now, and we've got quite the bully pulpit. And we want to make sure that everybody understands that it is really important to get Donald J. Trump elected for your retirement The bottom line, and also for our own country and so many pre-retirees and retirees are worried about our country. They want to make sure that that the country is there for their kids and so their kids can have a better life than even they had, or at least the same, if not better level of living.

Speaker3:
And right now, that's pretty difficult vision with what the other side has given us. Also, if you have questions about how do you get started with active wealth management, how do you get started on getting your own financial plan to get your own financial future kind of in focus? I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. And we're just super excited. We're going to talk about how to create your own smart vision for retirement. And we have two great problem solvers. In this week's show I want to encourage you to go ahead and tune in for that. And we're going to talk about that in segment three and segment four. Welcome to retirement results. We're here to get you better retirement results. Also want to thank John Fredericks for interviewing me this past week, where we talked about the disastrous plans for Kamala Harris and her campaign. Um, if she gets elected, what happens from a tax perspective? Um, just at a minimum, there's 44% tax on unrealized capital gains. That is a disaster for the markets and disaster for the real estate markets as well, because a lot of people having to sell stuff. And I would encourage each and every one of you to make sure that you're voting for Donald J. Trump in November, to make sure he's our 47th president so we can protect those assets. Next. Sam, why don't you share our financial wisdom? Quote of the week. It's a great quote from Henry Kissinger.

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

Speaker4:
And as you said for this week's quote of the week, comes to us from Henry Kissinger. And the quote goes like this. If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere. And I think this is a perfect quote for this week forward, because this week we're talking about having a smart vision and making sure you know where you're going so we can help you get there the best way possible.

Speaker3:
Yeah that's right. We're we're going to do everything we can to help you figure out the best starting point, no matter whether you're in retirement or you're five years for retirement, ten years for retirement, 20 years for retirement, or you're ten years into your retirement, we're going to help you figure out from this point the best way to start with a smart vision for your retirement. And I'm going to overstep my bounds a little bit as a financial advisor. And I'm going to try to not necessarily get into your kitchen, but I am going to ask you a couple pretty hard questions. So The first thing I'm going to ask you is, what are you doing in retirement? What do you think your plans are? Are you going to start a charity? Are you going to relaunch and start a business? Are you going to go work in an industry that you've always wanted to work in? Are you going to sell products or are you going to just travel and, and and you spend more time with family? Um, what what is it your what is your vision for retirement? What are you going to do during those retirement years? Many of us are going to have a 3035 plus year retirement.

Speaker3:
That's a lot of time. That's almost as long as you've worked. Question is, what are you going to do during those years. So that's question number one. Number two is who are you doing retirement with? Who are you spending your time with. So number one is what are you doing. Number two is who are you spending retirement with. And number three is how are you going to fund it there's other questions to ask, like, who are you taking care of? What are your goals? But a really important question to ask is how do you plan to fund your 30 plus year retirement? If you don't start with a clear vision and set goals for your retirement? Just like Henry Kissinger said, you could experience a lot of unknowns down the road. 37% of Americans feel they need more education on retirement planning, and 52% of Americans wish they had more education on how to invest. And we're here to help you do that today. Sam, your thoughts on developing that smart vision for retirement and how important it is for your clients?

Speaker4:
Yeah. Well, I mean, so often, Ford, when we're sitting down to meet with people, you know, if they're a pre-retiree, maybe they're in their mid to late 50s or early 60s or if they're just about ready to retire, because unfortunately, a lot of people wait until they're ready to retire to start planning. And that's not what we like to see. But, you know, all they know is I've saved up all this money. I've worked hard, I'm done working and it's time to retire. And when you actually sit down and level with them, whether that be one of our consultations on the phone or virtually or right here in one of our offices, you start to ask those questions about like, okay, so what are you doing in retirement? You know, who are you spending that time with? You know, those questions you just outlined forward. And it really you see them think and and start to to form those plans. And those plans become goals. And those goals become things that we can aim for with their plan. Because it's about taking all of that hard earned money that you've saved up over 30, 40 years of working and making that last for the rest of your retirement, for both you and your spouse and your family. And and that's really, I think the fun part of the retirement planning process forward is figuring out, hey, what are those goals, how are we going to get there? And pretty quickly, we can figure out that a lot of those goals that people have for themselves are achievable.

Speaker3:
Yeah, we've got five things that we want people to really kind of consider that. We recommend that you sit down with your spouse and family and consider some important factors that will affect your golden years. We've only got a few minutes left in this segment, so we're not going to dive into those yet, but we've got five of them. Um, and let me just share what you're going to get when you sit down for your complimentary financial consultation and retirement plan with us. Number one is you're going to get an analysis of your portfolio. You're going to understand the risk you're taking, the fees you're paying, and the correlation of your assets. Number two is you're going to get a retirement income plan. So we're going to make sure that we start with that positive retirement income surplus and not a negative retirement income gap. It's really a good idea to do that because if you've got inflation like we've seen over the last four years, you're looking at seriously that gap widening. Number three is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with your current plan and has nothing to do with us. We're going to help you for free. Analyze your current plan, and you'll get an idea of how successful your plan is going to be. We give you a score from 0 to 100, so it's just like school. We're going to give you a grade, and that way you're going to be like, hey, you know what, Ford? I've got a really good chance at retiring on my own right now.

Speaker3:
I'm good. Or how can I make it better? Then number four is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios. And then number five is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with a strategic Roth ladder conversion plan that's going to help you delete the IRS in your retirement accounts. So if any of you are interested in deleting the IRS from your retirement accounts, I would encourage you to give us a call at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304 or visit us at retirement results.com. Now listen. Retirement Results is powered by the advisors at Active wealth Management. Active wealth management is our firm. Retirement results is the radio show and also the podcast. We are here to help you protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. Whether you go to active wealth. Com or you go to retirement results. Com you can click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner and get booked directly into our calendars. So we're here to help you do that right away. When we come back from the break, we're going to interview Gunnery Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff with the veterans for Trump Organization. And also she is supporting Donald J. Trump 1,000% to become our 47th president of the United States. You're going to hear from Gunnery Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff, right. When we come back from the break retirement results.

Speaker2:
We'll be right back to learn more and schedule your complimentary retirement consultation, visit retirement Results.com.

One of these nights. One of these crazy old nights.

Speaker1:
Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.

Speaker2:
You're listening to retirement results. And now, back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome to retirement results. I'm Ford Stokes, the chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis here with us as our co-host and senior financial advisor. But we've got a very special guest, Jessie Jane Duff, who's a former gunnery sergeant and head of the Veterans Affairs and Veterans for Trump for the 2024 Trump campaign. Jessie, welcome to retirement results.

Speaker6:
Hey, thank you so much for inviting me. So the actual coalition that I'm the executive director of is the Veterans and Military Families Coalition, and we call it veterans for Trump, because that's a much bigger not such a big mouthful, but I'm excited to be here to talk about the movement that we're going to get Donald Trump back in the white House in 2021, and we must win on November 5th. Amen.

Speaker3:
I mean, this could be the last real, fair and hopefully legal election in this country can have.

Speaker6:
Many Americans have probably gotten tired of the oh, this is the most important election. So I'm going to kind of run this down for people. Ronald Reagan said we were one generation away from losing our freedom. This generation that he spoke about in the 1980s is now coming to an end. This is now the most important election because had people paid attention to what we were saying, let's say a decade ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, we wouldn't be in this precarious position because your freedom isn't taken away abruptly. It's usually with a particularly in a socialism type mindset that we have seen with the Bernie Sanders and the AOC's, and now with the current administration, of course, because what they try to do is present it as security, that giving the government more control is going to leave you safer, when in fact, the very systems that we're supposed to leave us safer have been basically weaponized and used against us, and we've seen this in countries where your freedom has been taken abruptly, where the government has taken absolute control, or where people have voted it in. That's really what the only difference is between socialism and communism. One is taken and one is voted in. We have slowly voted in more and more liberal policies that you've got young people today that believe free speech should be censured. You shouldn't have threatening speech. You shouldn't have speech that is allowing people to voice their views where they feel the government is corrupt because, oh, it's misinformation, according to Hillary Clinton. But if you look what's happening in in Europe, you see people that are actually going to jail for praying outside while it's even happening here in the United States, praying outside of an abortion clinic.

Speaker6:
You've seen people that make posts on Facebook that have had to face against illegal immigration, or even just the hostilities they've experienced with the immigrant community that has overwhelmed their social services. You've seen them get prosecuted for posting things on social media. So when is that going to come here to the United States? You know, and we have heard Democrats say that they should monitor the free speech. Kamala Harris has stated that she's even on the record as having said that they should be able to go into your home and see that you are taking, ensuring that you are managing your weapons correctly when here you are a legal gun owner who's already gotten licensed, and now they're going to walk into your home and surveil whether your weapon is secured the way that they so deem is appropriate, whether you're managing your security of your household correctly, this is absolute government overreach. But it's not just that. Look at the national security issues we faced under Donald Trump. Iran was quiet because he cut off the siphon of money from Washington, D.C. oh, and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had turned that spigot on, sending billions of dollars over to them. Now, the proxies of Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis have been attacking Israel relentlessly, nonstop, every single day. And this is something that would have never happened under President Trump. Regardless of how you feel about Israel, I happen to be very pro-Israel, but under Donald Trump, we didn't have these attacks.

Speaker6:
We didn't have this weaponization of basically terrorist organizations enabled by Iran. And then look at their Ukraine and Russia debacle. Again, they did nothing as Russia circled the Ukraine for over 50 some odd days and then scream outrage that Russia shouldn't be doing anything. And instead of ensuring that they negotiate for Russia to hold off by stopping any money flows, making sure that they weren't enabled with their oil, ensuring that they weren't enabled financially, and stopping this aggression that they had demonstrated. They decide to just send more money to Ukraine. So we are in this constant turmoil by our own devices, and President Trump has been one that has made it very clear we're not going to sacrifice Americans to go overseas, to fight proxy wars, to ensure other countries can learn how to be free. We must put our country first. We must ensure our people are not being suffocated by government overreach, inability to use fossil fuels, and a skyrocketing energy prices which filter down to our food prices and every other aspect of our life, including housing, which is now out of reach. Everything is mortally expensive for many families who have become homeless and lost their ability to own their own home. Very simple principles, and when we do engage overseas, is to ensure that we do not allow our American troops to have to go over to defend a country that's one of our allies by preventing the conflict from the onset.

Speaker3:
Amen. And Jesse, so I grew up during the Reagan years. I was I was in school and in grade school and in middle school when Reagan was around. I can remember when the Iran hostage crisis happened and all of a sudden Reagan got elected and bam, the the hostages were back. Backs of peace through strength is a big deal. During Trump's first term, it was clear that Donald Trump was really just one person, and it felt like he didn't get enough help. It felt like the deep state was really on him. I feel like J.D. Vance is going to be a huge difference maker this time around. He's got the military background. It's similar to you having a military background. How do we get America all the way back to what what we all grew up with in the 1980s and before, and how will it be different this time, with a new Trump administration as him being the 47th president of the United States? Well, I.

Speaker6:
Don't know that the United States has ever been. We've always been an imperfect nation, but we've always strived toward perfection. That's what has made America great, is that we've overcome every, um, every single, uh, hurdle that has impacted our freedom or impacted many of our citizens freedoms. You know, we've had a long way to go from the Founding Fathers, but they set up the template for us to be able to do just that because I did go to the National, uh, it was the black conservative Conference that was President Trump spoke at. And I went deliberately on purpose, because this is an audience that has often been disenfranchised from conservatives and yet been placated and coddled by the left, never delivering. And he did admit to them that America has not always been great for many, such as African Americans. And I think that that acknowledgement was very profound. However, at the same time, under his administration, he had promoted what's called the platinum plan. And the platinum plan was one that would go into urban areas and rural areas. So you have low income whites, blacks, Latinos, all low income areas, regardless of race, creed or color. But it would focus on these urban areas that have just become wastelands in the middle of cities.

Speaker6:
You can go to any major city and not, but maybe ten 20 minutes from the wealthiest areas of the city. You can see abject poverty. You can go into Los Angeles right now, which is considered the Hollywood of America. And you see the drug cartels running as if this is a reality TV show. Now there are people being abducted, people being shot, people being raped. They have absolute chaos in parts of Los Angeles that are so horrific because of this drug infestation that the homelessness now has rampant homelessness right on the streets, looking like a third world country. Go into Oakland, you see parts of that. But then 20 minutes away, you have the hills of Oakland with absolute wealth. This is a problem. We are not Buenos Aires, where you have the wealth on one side and the poverty on the hillsides that are drinking sewer water now. Guess what? No, we're not at that point, but we are pretty darn close in many of our cities. That is because of weak government policies. And the government really has one job and that is to keep us safe.

Speaker3:
Amen. Jesse. Thank you so much for being on retirement results. We. We appreciate all your education on what's going on. We wish you all the best to you and Donald Trump and JD Vance on the campaign trail. And let's win in November.

Speaker6:
Well, thank you so much for inviting me. I want to tell everybody, if you want to get involved, you can volunteer at Trump Force 47. Trump force 47. The numbers four seven. Com that is an opportunity for everybody to get engaged. You can become a poll worker. You can go after, uh, try to get in touch with neighbors and friends and contacts in your community that are low propensity voters, people who've been registered but just don't vote. We have a huge population of those conservatives. We have to do better than we did in 2020. We have to be too big to rig. It's important that every registered voter does vote, that we know is going to get out there and support Donald J. Trump. Go after your low propensity voters. And not only that, if you're a veteran, I implore you to sign up for our coalition. Join our coalition at veterans Dot Donaldjtrump.com veterans Dot Donaldjtrump.com. Veterans and Military Families, the largest coalition we want to have for any sitting or former president.

Speaker3:
That's fantastic. Thanks, Jesse. And again, go ahead and give those two websites again just so everybody can get in touch and and actually campaign.

Speaker6:
Yeah. If you want to get engaged with the campaign and sign up at Trump Force four 7.com. Trump force four 7.com. That's Trump force 47.com.

Speaker2:
Schedule your free no obligation consultation now by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304.

I used to be a rolling stone. You know, if I called it right, I'd leave to find an answer.

Speaker1:
When it comes to retirement planning, focus more on income than building a big nest egg. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Amira Life. It may sound counterintuitive but that big nest egg number you probably have in your head means a lot less than the income you'll have each month in retirement.

Speaker7:
The math has all changed here, but the bottom line is time is your superpower. Save as much as you can.

Speaker1:
Nbc news senior business correspondent Christine Romans recently said on The Today Show that you should not just rely on Social Security in your retirement years.

Speaker7:
Social security alone is not likely to support you in the manner to which you are accustomed. Right. You want to wait as long as possible to get that maybe 70. If you wait till you're 70 to collect Social Security, you'll get the biggest check.

Speaker1:
And she says, contribute to your retirement accounts early and often.

Speaker7:
So this is from fidelity. They say at age 30 you should have one time your salary in a retirement account when you're 30. So think about what your salary is at age 30, and that's how much you should have in your retirement account. By 50 it should be six. This is where I start to freak out, because I know a lot of people can't and don't do this by age 67, it should be ten times a personal pension.

Speaker1:
Using a fixed indexed annuity is also a great option for many pre-retirees and retirees to consider. It offers protection from market volatility and a guaranteed stream of income that will last the rest of your life, no matter how long you live. Having a big nest egg may sound nice, but focusing more on income will set you up for success in your golden years. So, do you know where your paychecks and paychecks will come from each month when you leave the workforce? That's a key question to consider as you plan for what's ahead with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by Amira Life. I'm Matt McClure.

Speaker2:
While Washington's spending keeps growing, your retirement doesn't have to shrink, protect, and grow your hard earned money today by calling us at (770) 685-1777.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results. I'm Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor at Sam Davis here, our senior financial advisor and co-host with us. Sam I thought it was really enlightening hearing from Miss Jessie Jane Duff and I agree with her. I think we're going to have to have good government policy, and we're going to have to really get aggressive with these cartels and protect our border and also take care of our veterans. And the one thing that I took away was, listen, you 735,000 veterans in the state of Pennsylvania, please get out and vote for Donald J. Trump, if you do that, that that is a huge prize for the Trump campaign. If they can win the state of Pennsylvania, that would be really helpful. Um, but also what an impressive young lady she is. And, um, I just really appreciate her service to our country and also for everything she's doing to help Donald J. Trump get elected as the 47th president of the United States.

Speaker4:
Yeah, that's absolutely right, Ford. And we want people to be informed voters and have a plan to vote because, like Jesse mentioned, we're less than 50 days away from the election. I think one great resource to use. In addition to all of that that's already been mentioned on the show is Ballotpedia.org, and that's a non-profit that's simply going to let you see what your ballot is going to look like when you step into that voting booth in November, or if you're voting early, what it's going to look like. Because in addition to the presidential race, you're going to see all of the different state and local measures on there. And it's good to know what you're voting for before you step into that booth. Yeah.

Speaker3:
One big thing she said is we do need to be too big to rig. I agree with her and Laura Trump. We've got to do everything we can to make sure this election is too big to rig. It's got to be a big margin where it's really impossible for the Democrats to cheat it. The way that I feel like they were the Republicans were cheated and Donald J. Trump was cheated in 2020. Um, there's too much empirical evidence or too many people that have actually been prosecuted and gone to jail. There's there's just too much evidence out there. If you look at the two 2000 mules movie, things like that, there's just too many things that are just just unsettling regarding the 2020 election. Nobody can convince me that that election wasn't stolen from Donald J. Trump. Um, late in the night, hours on, you know, on that that night, it was really just frightening to me. Um, but let's get back to what we were talking about at the end of segment one. So we're talking about a smart vision for your retirement, what your retirement will look like in the future. And I can tell you your retirement is going to look a lot better if Donald J. Trump is your president in starting in 2025. But we're asking you to have a smart vision of your retirement, trying to figure out what are you doing during retirement, who are you with, who are you taking care of, what are your goals? But even more specifically, how are you going to fund it? How do you plan to fund your 35 plus year retirement? And we've got five factors that we want you to sit down with your spouse and family and consider these five important factors that will affect your golden years.

Speaker3:
Number one is risk tolerance. How risky do you want to be? Do you want to be moderately aggressive or moderately conservative or conservative with your portfolios? Also, how much are you willing to risk within that risk tolerance of your income portion of your portfolio? Most people are like, I don't want to risk a single cent of the income portion of my portfolio. If that's the case, then you need to consider replacing the bonds in your portfolio with a fixed index annuity, because with a fixed index annuity, you've got 100% financial reserve. You've got income you can never outlive. And your money is not invested in the market. It's invested in the ten year US Treasury. And they take the interest from the ten year US Treasury bonds and they invest it into options. But let's say those options go to zero and the market goes goes really poorly like it did in 2008. Well, if that's the case, then your your interest will go to zero, but your principal will still be there. So zero is your hero and all the money you put in, let's say you put in, you know, half $1 million into a fixed index annuity to generate significant income for you during retirement.

Speaker3:
All $500,000 that you gave that insurance company or that annuity company would still be there. Only the interest and the growth would be at rest during a one or 2 or 3 year protection period. Well, what the industry calls a point to point. So what they do is they lock in your gains from a starting point to when they do the measurement of how the index performs with those options, and they start over. So they help you lock in your principal and your gains. Most products we work with have a 1 or 2 year point to point or protection period, and that way people can see how they're doing with their money each and every year or every two years, and they can get significant growth on that money. Now that's number one. That's the number one factor I want you to consider, which is hey what's my risk tolerance? How much money am I willing to risk? And also am I willing to put the income portion of my portfolio at risk at all? And I would imagine that answer is no, Sam, you've got the number two factor that we want people to talk about with their spouse and family as well.

Speaker4:
Yeah. The next thing we want people to be thinking about is Social Security. And this is something we get a lot of questions about. You know, number one, we don't want people out there to be depending on Social Security as their retirement income plan, you need to be having multiple streams of income in retirement in addition to Social Security. But it's a very important benefit to consider. I suggest everybody get started by going to Ssa.gov and making sure that you can log in and see your earnings history, and have your information for both you and your spouse ready on that account. That's going to help you make some good decisions. And we're so fortunate here that Ford, you are a registered Social security analyst. There aren't that many of you out there. It's a really impressive certification and very helpful for our clients and the people we work with who give us a call just from listening to the radio show or the people who just come into the office, we're able to take a look at for both you and your spouse, all the different decision points and figure out, hey, should you be taking it at your full retirement age, whether that's age 67 or another age? Or maybe you should be waiting all the way till age 70? Or in some cases it makes sense to take it earlier. Everybody's situation is different, and you can't know the best decision until you have all the information in front of you and Ford. That's what you're able to help our prospects with.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, many seniors assume that Social Security will be around and be enough to cover the bulk of their retirement financial needs, in other words, specifically their monthly expenses during retirement. Unfortunately, it's just not the case. Social security will generally only cover about one third of your expenses during retirement. You think about travel. You think about supporting family. You think about just even Christmas gifts for the grandkids. When you're when you're trying to do that grandparent competition and you're trying to be the the coolest grandparent where they love you the most. Um, that stuff starts to adding up. Also, while people commonly assume that they're stuck with a predetermined benefit, you can increase your payout by delaying when you take this benefit. Also, there's a lot of things that married couples can do. Um, they can between the the spousal benefit and also the actual benefit of of the breadwinner who didn't win as much bread as the primary breadwinner. So let's say a typical household where the male worked and the, the female stayed at home, raised the kids, and she worked harder and couldn't get fired from the job, right? Or couldn't quit the job. Let's say the husband is making like $30,000 a year in Social Security income benefit. That spouse gets 50% of his, which would be 15,000.

Speaker3:
But when that spouse passes away, let's say the the the dad passes away, she gets his, but she loses hers. She loses 33% of the Social Security income benefit. The day he dies, you got to have a plan for that. And we can help you get a plan for that. Also help maximize that Social Security income benefit. You know, Sam, I don't know anybody that doesn't want to get as much money in Social Security as they possibly can for the government, and also make sure that they stay ahead of their monthly expenses during retirement. And if you're in that camp, if you want those two things, you want to maximize your Social Security income benefit, and you don't want to spend more than you're making during retirement, then I want to encourage you to reach out to us at retirement. Com that's retirement results.com/plan or just go to retirement results.com and click that consultation button in the upper right corner, and we're happy to help you. Sam, we only got a couple of minutes left in this segment. Why don't you tee up. What's the number three factor that we want people to sit down with their family and friends and consider that will affect their golden years.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So number one was risk tolerance. Number two, Social Security. And our third thing to consider when you're thinking about your retirement is taxes. A common misconception is that your tax rate will dramatically decrease once you stop working. This is something that you can't count on. Ford. When we're doing our live events with people, one of the parts that I feel like we get the most questions on, and we really start to get people's attention, is when we look at historically where taxes have been in the past.

Speaker3:
Yeah. No question. I mean, did you know that from 1960 to 1963, the current 24% tax bracket was actually 56%? That's 8% higher than two x of where we are right now. And my question is, do you have a plan for tax rates changing during retirement. So you can keep more of your hard earned and hard saved money? The number one recommendation we do on that one is a Roth ladder conversion. And try to convert from your IRA to your Roth IRA over a 5 to 7 year period. And we try to get out and make sure all of your IRA is converted before you turn 73 years old when required, minimum distributions kick in. So let's be very careful out there and make sure that we're not giving more of our money to the US government if we can help it. And we come back from the break. Sam, we've got our last two factors that we want folks to consider during their golden years. And we're going to recap all five of these as well. And again, make sure everybody gets out and votes for Donald J. Trump in November. Thanks again to Gunnery Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff, who was with us in segment two. Come right back because we're talking about a smart vision for your own retirement.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. Schedule your complimentary financial consultation now at retirement Results.com.

Speaker8:
I'm riding in your car. You turn on the radio.

You're pulling me close.

Speaker1:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear 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.

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

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement Results. I'm Ford Stokes and chief financial advisor, And I've got Sam Davis here with us, who's our co-host and senior financial advisor on the show. Sam, we're talking about smart vision and what your retirement will look like. But specifically we've talked about five factors that you need to consider that will affect your golden years, that a lot of people really need to kind of major in these and really understand and kind of get a PhD level understanding of what's going on with these. So the first three were risk tolerance. You want to understand how much risk are you willing to take, but specifically how much are you willing to risk of your retirement income portion of your portfolio? Most people would say zero. I don't want to risk any part of my income that I'm going to need during retirement. And and I would agree that is a really smart way to go. And if that's the case, you need to consider a bond replacement strategy and we can help you do that. All you got to do is reach out to us at (888) 814-0304. We work with folks in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, the New England states, and then also Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia. Um, all these folks can hear us and hear our voice. And also, we've got over 14,000 downloads of this show this year. And so if you're listening to us on Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, iTunes, whatever, wherever you get podcasts, I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at (888) 814-0304 or visit retirement Results.com. The second one was Social Security, and I am a registered Social Security analyst. And we can help you maximize your Social Security plan. All you got to do is visit retirement results.com and click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. And we talked about taxes. You need to consider taxes. Try to delete the IRS from being your partner in retirement. Sam go ahead and share the last the fourth and the fifth factor that people really need to consider and really get a great education on for their golden years. Yeah.

Speaker4:
Number four is Medicare. So once you turn 65, your Medicare Care eligible. A lot of people assume that Medicare is going to cover everything from your hospital stay to your regular visits and long term care, and that is not the case. Your basic Medicare plans will cover hospital stays and physician visits. You can also get prescription drug coverage added, but there's no long term care add on, and that's definitely something that you want to be thinking about. As you get older, it's likely that you're going to have more medical appointments and healthcare needs than when you were younger during your working years. So we want to make sure that people have the information they need. They know what kind of coverage they need, and they're covered on the Medicare side. And then the last item that we want people to think about is life expectancy. Life expectancy. In the US, those rates have doubled over the last 200 years. A lot of people are not building their financial plans forward to last past 90 years. Here at Active Wealth Management and Retirement Results, we start by planning to everyone's 95th birthday, and we do that because we want to make sure that they have a plan that's going to make sure their needs are met throughout their entire retirement. We don't just want to help people get to retirement. There are a lot of advisors out there that say they can help you retire, and they get you to retirement. We want to get you through retirement and understanding that having a plan that will last into the 90s, even if you don't need it to last that long, is the right thing to do, and it's a right and proactive thing to do.

Speaker3:
Yeah, we're going to make sure that your retirement is built to last. Bottom line. And again we want to recap all five of those. So number one was risk tolerance. You need to really consider your risk tolerance. And also how much you're willing to risk on the income portion of your portfolio. Number two is Social Security. It's going to be the number one or number two. Most important decision for retirement is when you take Social Security. Number three is taxes. And if you don't think taxes can go up in the future, we would beg you to reconsider. Um, and really get a plan for taxes and consider deleting the IRS from your retirement accounts. With a Roth conversion, we can help you do that. We do it all the time. And number four was you just mentioned Medicare. Really got to get a good understanding of Medicare, whether you're going to do Medicare Advantage or a Medicare Medigap supplement insurance plan, you really need to address the 20% co-pay. And then also what are the deductibles look like? So you can get a better budget understanding, because healthcare is going to be one of the most important expenses you're going to have during retirement. And then lastly, we just talk about life expectancy. Cdc says that if if both folks within a married couple live to be age 65 or older, there's a significant majority chance, over 50% chance that one of them is going to be live to be over 90 years old, it's likely going to be the female. Females live longer than those guys. It's the bottom line, and we need to make sure that the finances are in place to make sure we take care of our spouse for the long haul, and make sure that you've got your plan built to last.

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

Speaker3:
All right, so this problem solver is for a young lady named Kimberly. She's in. She's been kind of in her early 50s. She's she's just about to have a daughter graduate from high school. And she works with a major employer in Columbus, Georgia. And she's been there 27 years, and she just got laid off. It's been the only job she's ever had. Even though she's African American and she's in a white collar job, it is a white collar layoff. We are seeing a significant white collar recession out there, folks. And she's she's got a plan because she's been with us for five years. She's got over $1 million saved up in between her IRA and her 401 K. Um, she's got her income in line. She's got money saved up in a 529 account for her daughter to go to college. Her daughter wants to, um, go to college and actually is she wants to be a dentist, and she feels a lot more comfortable. But she's she really wants income because she doesn't want to retire at, you know, in her early 50s, obviously. And she's also willing to consider relocating things like that. And super sharp. She was a director. She had direct reports and they had a consulting firm that came in and just said, well, we we see that these roles aren't necessarily needed and they use that.

Speaker3:
And and because she's been there so long, they gave her a six month severance because she would she actually deserves, uh, over a year because she's been there 27 years, but at two weeks per year, she would have gotten, you know, 54 weeks almost right at almost a year. But because they have this arbitrary cap at six months, that's all she's getting. Well, she's going to get an attorney and try to figure it out. But the problem solver is this she's taking the income portion of her portfolio. She's going to take $400,000, and she's going to put it into a fixed index annuity, and she's going to live off savings for the next couple of years, the severance and the savings over the next year and a half to two years. And then if she has to, she'll turn on the income for that fixed index annuity, and she's going to let the rest of the portfolio grow. She's also been able to pay her house off, which is really fantastic. But she lived within her means and she's a single mom of one. She's got one daughter, and it's the same age as my girls. And I gotta tell you, Kimberly, this lady is a great lady. I loved talking to her.

Speaker3:
Um, so sorry that she got laid off. And she's out there pounding the streets trying to get a new job, for sure. But the moral of the story is this one live within your means so that when it's raining, you can plan for a rainy day. She's planning for the rainy day. She's protecting the income that she's going to need in retirement. If she defers for years, she's going to be able to get over $40,000 a year in income for that $400,000. That's not a 4% withdrawal rate. That's a 10% withdrawal rate. And hopefully the income portion and the account value will continue to grow, because the goal is, is to have the interest rate actually outpace the withdrawal rate. So therefore she's got something left over to pass on to her daughter as well. So we're super excited About her future, but she's and we're really pleased that she's been able to prepare. But she's done it all by herself. And my problem solver is make sure the income portion of your portfolio is 100% protected. And if you want to do that, all you have to do is reach out to us at retirement. Com that's retirement results.com. And click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. It's the final.

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

Speaker3:
Countdown. Well, we had an action packed show today. We talked about smart vision for your retirement and all the things you need to do. We talked about the five factors that you need to consider. Um, for your golden years. We went through all those and then I want to just personally thank Gunnery Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff for her leadership and everything she's doing to help Donald J. Trump get elected in November to be our 47th president. And also, thank you, Jessie Jane Duff, for your service to our US military and for protecting us and keeping us free. We appreciate you. And listen. When you're planning for retirement, remember, if you're seeking information about retirement, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Do everything you can to seek as much information as you possibly can. Let's plan for that successful retirement. Let's also protect the income portion of retirement 100% and come back next week. We're going to talk more about how to build a smart retirement plan. We're going to dive into smart inspection and a few other portions of our smart retirement plan here on 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 06851777. That's (770) 685-1777. To connect with a qualified advisor. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit retirement Results.com. 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 BCA, 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 exist, please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV Two-a, page four. For additional information.

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