Creating a Retirement Plan with Pension-like Income

6.28.24: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Speaker3:
And welcome to retirement results result drivers. I'm Ford Stokes, the chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis here with us. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host of Retirement Results. Say hello to everybody.

Speaker4:
Sam welcome to the weekend result. Drivers hope everybody is enjoying their summer. It's been hot out there here in the South. And uh, we're pushing through and and Ford I think this may be the earliest in the summer. It's been this hot down here in the South. And really so many parts of the United States are experiencing this heat wave right now. Yeah, it's smoking hot.

Speaker3:
So I've got a really good friend of mine who lives in Huntsville, where we're airing our show as well, plus my lawn. Both of us were complaining that our lawn is looking awfully brown. We have to make sure we're watering it. It was 97 degrees in my. Roush Ford F-150 truck yesterday, and I'm pretty sure the temp gauge works correctly. Um. And I was like, wow, that's really hard for. You know, 2:00 in the afternoon after your seminar over there at Ruth's Chris Inn on Haines Bridge. And that was something else. So. Everybody stays cool out there. Stay safe for sure. Um, if you know anybody that doesn't have air conditioning, especially some of those seniors. Um, please make sure that they're taken care of. Um, we don't want those New York stories that we always hear about where an old person passed away because they didn't have air conditioning in the city. Um, don't want that to happen here in the South. So make sure you stay safe out there. So here's what we're talking about today. We're talking about building a retirement plan with guaranteed income. We're also going to talk about a smart financial plan where that includes building a smart, safe, smart risk and smart tax portions of your portfolio. Because again, we're trying to make your portfolio for your retirement to build for that successful trial.

Speaker3:
I'm trying to make it more tax efficient, more fee efficient, and more market efficient. And believe it or not, we can do all three of those things for you. So we're going to try to do that, but we're going to give you everything you need to know. Um, for Annuity Awareness Month. This is the last weekend, the last show of June and therefore the last. Show for Annuity Awareness Month. And so we want to make sure we talked about that. We also are going to talk about smart safe smart risk and smart tax decisions today. So overview for today's show is again June is Annuity Awareness Month. Why retirees are investing more in annuities for retirement than ever before. Part of that's because the ten year US Treasury is yielding a high amount these days. Number two is MythBusters. We're going to help explain some common misconceptions on this week's show. We're also going to answer questions from our listeners. We're going to share, um, a really good problem solver. Uh, we may have a kind of a two problem solvers, actually, and we've got some Social Security frequently asked questions or FAQs that we're going to answer some of your most common questions that we get. And first, Sam, go ahead and share our financial wisdom. Quote of the week.

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

Speaker4:
This week's quote of the week comes to us from Jim Rohn. And Jim Rohn once said, if you depend on your company to take care of your retirement, your future income will be divided by five. Take care of it yourself and you can multiply your future income by five. And Ford, I think this is a great topic for this week. We were talking about this a little bit at the seminar that we were at yesterday and how, you know, even if you are one of the lucky few that do have a pension through your work, it's not going to work the same as some of the personal pension options that you can invest in if you work with a private wealth management firm.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I mean, if you reached retirement age and it's time you think to build up personal pension, but also build a personal pension where the account value is still going to be there after you pass away, or in case you wanted to move it into something else later. Go back to Jen Rowan's quote. If you depend on your work, let's say you're you're working for a company where they're one of the 16% of the S&P 500 companies that still have a pension. Well, unfortunately, when you pass away and or if you have a surviving spouse that's getting 50% of your your pension amount or whatever when you pass away, unfortunately. There's no account value left for your heirs, your children, to inherit. We don't think that's a good idea. We don't think that's the right way to go. So what we try to do is we talk to folks, we work with folks from AT&T, we work with folks from Georgia Pacific, we work with folks from Georgia Power, all kinds of different people that actually have had pensions or have pensions, and almost all of them are taking a lump sum and they're rolling it into a fixed indexed annuity. Again, Sam and I have access in our our other advisors have access to. The nationwide peak ten fixed index annuity, and only 1% of financial advisors have access to it. It offers a 20% immediate. Bonus to the income account. It also offers an 8% guaranteed simple interest. Growth on your principal or premium that you originally invest each year, that you defer withdrawals each year that you wait. To annuitize or wait on withdrawals, and it still allows you to take out.

Speaker3:
One penalty free up to 10% penalty free if you want to withdrawal, and that they'll continue to. Give you that 8% simple interest. But. What's really exciting about that product is they have a 340% participation rate. In the BNP Paribas Global Factor Index. And that means you're getting 3.4 times. How that index does. Now they're going to take a 1% spread rate of that. So let's just give you an example. If the market in this index let's say this index goes up 5% each of the next two years during what they have a two year protection period. So that's 10% growth right. Well they're also going to take with the PA rate the participation rate. They're going to take that times 3.4. So that gives you 34%. And they're going to subtract the spread rate of 1%. And they're going to give you 33% growth on your money over two years. And your money would not have been at risk in the market. We are helping people put 20 to 40% of their assets into. The nationwide peak ten product, and they're also taking the income portion of their. Portfolio and putting it into the nationwide peak ten because they want to protect it away from financial risk. And they want to get income for the rest of their lives. If you defer for years. Here's another thing. We always talk about the 4% rule on here, Sam. Well, if they defer for years, they go through two protection periods of two years apiece. They're going to get over. 11% of their original premium in withdrawal rate for the rest of their lives. That's a pretty exciting opportunity, I would say.

Speaker4:
Yeah, that's absolutely right for whether people have a pension from their career or not. The nationwide peak ten is able to set up that personal pension, that income stream that can not just fill your retirement income gap if you have one, but give you that steady monthly income that you're going to need in retirement, that income that you can never outlive. And there's joint options with that as well. And it also maintains cash value. So unlike a pension where once you pass away that benefit is gone. There's no cash value there. You have something to leave for your beneficiaries if there's cash value in there. So it's it's a fantastic tool. If you'd like to take a look at that, we can put together an illustration. And not just for that product but other products as well as well that make sense for your situation. It'd be a great thing to do this month forward because June is Annuity Awareness Month. There's a lot of misconceptions about annuities out there. There's really just a general lack of information that we've seen. And so just a few things that we want to share today. Um, an annuity is is a contract with an insurance company. And that insurance company has a 100% financial reserve. Unlike a bank. We're going to talk a little bit about how you can beat some of the bank products, including CDs, later in today's show. But these insurance companies are required to keep at least 100% of your deposits in reserves. So the protection aspect is there. We only work with highly rated insurance companies, and it's a contract, but it's also a way for you to really plan for your retirement and still maintain some control. You have an account you can log into, you can see where your investments are at, and a lot of people are enjoying how it's able to give them a combination of both that protection and that growth.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it's a perfect situation. It's a great way to replace the income portion of your assets and your portfolio to try to protect those and also hopefully generate the income that you need during retirement while also growing your money. Get market like gains without market risk. Again, Sam and I and all of our active wealth management advisors, we have access to 50 plus annuity and life insurance carriers out there. Um, we've got some other great products, even give a higher bonus, um, as well. And we'll talk about those in the next segment. We're so glad you're with us here on retirement results. And we come back from the break. We're going to talk about why Americans with annuities actually want to purchase more annuities. Well, it's an interesting article from Thinkadvisor. Com uh, come right back. You'll hear more about that. And also how to build a smart financial plan with smart safe smart risk and smart tax investing. Your listener retirement results. Come right back.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. Schedule your complimentary financial consultation now at retirement results. Com or by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304.

Oh little Jeannie. You got.

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

Speaker3:
And welcome back result drivers I'm Ford Stokes your chief financial advisor. And we've got Sam Davis here with us. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host on retirement results. And if you're wondering to a result driver is it's somebody who wants to build a tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio for a successful retirement. That's the shortest way I can put it. It's people who listen to this show. It's people who listen to our podcast. It's people listen to this show in Huntsville. It's people who listen to this show and have been listening to the show for five plus years in Atlanta on Am 920. The answer and shout out to those good folks over at Am 920 answer. We appreciate you being part of our radio family and letting us be a part of your radio family, but also we want to give a shout out to the over 14,000 people who have downloaded and listened to retirement results over the past year. Just thank you from Sam and me. We really appreciate it. And also, I just want to say thank you to Sam. Sam, I appreciate you being our producer for years and years and also being our co-host. And, um, it's great to have you here helping serve folks and helping them build for that successful retirement.

Speaker4:
Hey, well, it's an honor to be here every single week, not just for our listeners in Atlanta, where we really got our start, but our growing listenership base on the podcast, which contains, you know, result drivers all around the country and some of the other markets that we've been in as well this year. We've really spread the word far and wide, and that's what our mission is all about, is helping people retire. Well, retire better, um, four years producing a show. I've produced a lot of shows in my in my time, um, as a producer. And I think this has been the most impactful on people's lives, because when you're able to connect with a listener, somebody who heard that show and then ends up coming into the office, you know, with their spouse and talking about their vision for retirement and helping them bring that vision come to life. Um, that's really made it one of the most meaningful and impactful things I've ever been a part of, and so very grateful to be here as well.

Speaker3:
It's also great to see how you've grown professionally. You've gotten series 65 license, Life and Health License, and that four plus year period. And and you're serving clients now. You're you're giving seminars and all that stuff. So it's really been something that's really gratifying to me. So again, good on you. Great job there Sam. And really appreciate you being there. So let's talk about Americans with annuities who want more annuities. This is coming from an article. This isn't something that's made up from us. This is from thinkadvisor.com. You can actually look this up online. Just go to thinkadvisor.com and and type in in their search bar. Americans with annuities want more annuities. Americans who already own annuities and other products that provide a guaranteed source of lifetime income. Love the idea of buying actual more annuities. Believe it or not, the American Council of Life Insurance sponsored a recent survey of more than 1000 US retirement savers ages 45 through 65, and that that age is really important. And we're going to talk about that after this article. About 26% of survey participants said they already owned annuities, and 86% of survey participants who owned annuities said they were somewhat or very interested in investing in additional annuities. 86% that is crazy high, 76% of the participants with pension plans, and 67% of participants without annuities said they wanted to invest in annuities. Listen, you can visit retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. Or you can give us a call today at 1-888-814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. And you want to talk to us about getting that annuity x ray. We can also talk to you about annuities and how that can help you. And also talk about stacking annuity income on top of other income sources like pension and Social Security payments. So therefore you're going to have that retirement income surplus during your retirement years. Doesn't that sound great getting a retirement income surplus every single month during retirement. Same. That just sounds amazing to me. Yeah.

Speaker4:
And with so many people out there working who are living paycheck to paycheck, you know, you do not want to be living paycheck to paycheck in retirement. And that all starts with making sure that you have a monthly surplus. You're going to have the income you need, not just to pay the bills, get your groceries, and do everything you need to do. Put gas in the car. And gas prices have gone up again this summer, but an extra amount of money. So you've got that wiggle room, you've got the freedom to make choices. You know, I tell people money doesn't buy happiness, but it does give you more choices. And if you want more choices in retirement, just a little bit of planning can go a long way.

Speaker3:
No question. Many retirees enjoy the peace of mind that comes with being able to plan their golden years with with predictable sources of income that they just cannot live. That's a pretty good stuff. Also, at Active Wealth Management and all the good folks that are part of the retirement Results radio show, what we do is we try to make sure that we invest into annuities that don't draw down to zero, then make sure that you have account value after you've got that income and that the account value grows over time, especially if you're going to defer withdrawals for a while, it'll be good stuff.

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

Speaker3:
And now I want to share our problem solver for the week. So we have a gentleman who called us and he's 60 years young. He's going to work ten more years. Uh, he does well in what he does. And he left a company, but he he decided to work for a company for a period of. 20 years. But he as soon as they had a Roth foreign car, he jumped on it. He jumped on the Roth four on K and said, you know, I need to get his tax free as possible. He ended up building $1 million in his Roth four on K and rolled it over into a Roth IRA. And he has recently called us. He's got. Pretty significant income needs um, during retirement for he and his wife and. He wants to take $600,000 of that in Roth IRA money. And move it into the nationwide peak ten. He's going to get a 20% immediate bonus. That's $120,000. So his income account value is 720,000. He wants to turn on income when he stops working at age 70, which is ten years from now. Because he's 60 and he's going to generate $142,000. According to the illustration, a year in income tax free. A lot of people, the reason I'm sharing this problem solver, he's got another 1.2 million sitting in an investment account.

Speaker3:
He's got some cash value life insurance as well, but he doesn't have an IRA anymore because he just he went all in on trying to do the Roth one K and then the Roth IRA. But the reason I'm sharing this is a lot of people do not understand, Sam, that they can invest Roth IRA money into fixed index annuities, and the income that they generate comes out truly tax free, where the principal and gains are 100% tax free. He's well beyond his five year waiting period because he started his Roth for a long time ago. He actually had a Roth IRA with a little bit of money in it that was started over ten years ago as well. And we're super proud of this gentleman. We're not even going to mention his name just because we're trying to protect the innocent here. But such a smart move. I'm super proud of this gentleman and. I'll tell you this. It's just a remarkable situation. But can you imagine getting 142,000 USD a year at the age of 70? Tax free and it grows. Year over year that he ages by 0.1 plus when the account value grows. Your thoughts on that, Sam?

Speaker4:
Yeah, it's it's a fantastic situation. I mean, just making $142,000 a year in guaranteed lifetime income is good enough. But the fact that that's tax free and he's already in a bit of a higher tax bracket, that's going to be so helpful for him. Um, but now because of that coming in tax free, it's actually going to help him out tax bracket wise in retirement. He's going to have a little bit of taxes due on his Social Security benefit. When you ran his RSA roadmap, I mean, you're a registered Social Security analyst. So you were able to put that together for him. Um, so we were able to see, okay, here's what your taxes are going to look like on your Social Security benefit, which is only going to help, um, him and his wife. It's a great situation. And and he's feeling so much better now that he knows that this amount of his income needs every year are going to come on a guaranteed basis. Being from that peak ten annuity and Social Security combined, that with some withdrawals from his investment accounts, he's going to be in really good shape.

Speaker3:
Yeah. He and his wife are going to generate over $5,000 a month together in Social Security income. And that's a significant amount. That's that's 60 grand. Plus the 142 is going to pay taxes on the 60 grand that for Social Security, but over 200. Thousand dollars of $202,000 is a pretty good retirement living, and he's going to let the rest of his assets grow, and it's very suitable for him. He's not taking over 70% of his assets. He's taking 60% of just his Roth he's taking he's got another 1.2 million plus. He's got, um, a, you know, a rental home and a few other things too. So he's taken about, you know, 30% of his overall total assets, um, excluding his primary home. Um, and I think that's a really good move. I think it really makes sense. But now he knows that his income portion of his portfolio is taken care of. It's not exposed to market like risk. And what else is interesting is even if the markets don't go up over the next ten years, let's say we have bear markets for the next ten years. They've estimated that he's going to get over $60,000 guaranteed in income, but it's more than likely he's going to get, if it does what it's done in the last ten years, if that index performs or, you know, if he continues to defer withdrawals and gets 8% a year, he's going to get $142,000 in income, but he's guaranteed to get 60,000 plus the 60,000 in Social Security.

Speaker3:
That's 120,000. But he's likely going to get over 200,000. That's called income planning, folks. We need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to plan income for you during retirement, in addition to having, you know, manage portfolios and doing tactical asset allocation and strategic asset allocation, I would encourage you to reach out to us by filling out the information at retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. And you can reach out to us. You can also just call us at 1-888-814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. We look forward to talking with you soon. When we come back, we're going to talk about how to beat bank CDs. You're going to be blown away by this interest rate from this multi year guaranteed annuity offered by Co Life Insurance. Come right back. We're going to talk about how we can beat bank CD rates for you right after the break.

Speaker2:
Miss part of today's show retirement results is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement Results.com. You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
Welcome back to retirement results. I'm Forge Stokes or chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis, our senior financial advisor here. And co-host Sam, let's go ahead and give the people what they want and give the people we just talked about coming out of the break. Let's talk about beating bank CDs.

Speaker2:
Need a higher rate of return from your safe money. Listen up. It's time to beat the bank CD rates.

Speaker3:
So seal Life Insurance, which is one of the multiyear guaranteed annuity carriers that we work with. It's called a mega, a multi year guaranteed annuity. It stands for Miga. They are offering a three year myga. So you leave your money in for three years, but you get 5.85%. Guaranteed compounded interest each year that you hold it. And I just ran a. Three year multi year guaranteed annuity illustration for a client of ours. And he was putting in a single premium of $100,000 at the end of the first year, his $100,000 would be worth $105,850. At the end of year two. His accumulated value will be $112,042 and at the end of year three. It will be worth $118,597. Now that's. 18.59% growth in three years guaranteed on your money. That's a pretty attractive situation, and I would encourage you to consider investing, let's say the bank CD portion of your portfolio or the safe part of your portfolio, or you may just have money to sitting in your checking account that you need to do something with that you're not doing anything with. And as we age, as retirees age, a lot of folks will just keep more and more money in their checking accounts. I would encourage you to move some of that money, just take out like 25, 50,000, $100,000 out of your checking accounts, out of your savings accounts, and get a higher rate of return. Also. Sam. Let's talk about the difference between a bank CD and a multi year guaranteed annuity with a bank CD. When you get interest each year, even if you don't take the cash into your checking account, if you leave it into the bank CD, they still give you a 1099 I. For the interest is generated and you have to pay taxes on that.

Speaker4:
And we're often trying to eliminate wherever possible, taxes for people in their retirement. Another thing that really differentiates the two forward is the reserve requirement. When you're doing business with a bank, they're only required to keep 10% of your deposits in reserves.

Speaker3:
Yeah. So for me, what I would prefer is I prefer to invest in 100% financial reserve product. And this multi year guaranteed annuity is 100% financial reserve product. They've got to put 100% of your money into the safe product like the ten year US Treasury. And they're paying out 5.85% and fixed. And you only have to leave your money in for three years. That's a pretty attractive situation. If you want to guarantee 18.59% gross on your money over the next three years total, that's in total, but you're getting 5.85% each year, compounded interest growth, and you don't have to pay the taxes until you surrender the policy. I would strongly urge you and encourage you to go ahead and give us a call at (888) 814-0304, and we're happy to help you with this multi year guaranteed annuity. It's a great thing to do with the money that's sitting in cash. Money that's sitting in bank CDs. Money. It's sitting in money market accounts. It is paying a high rate of return and higher than what we're seeing in bank CD rates, even with the internet banks. So that's our beating Bank CD segment. And I just think it's really important for people to really consider not leaving their cash, not making any money. I mean, especially the folks that just love leaving a lot of money in their checking account. Let's be careful. Let's let's carve out 25, 50 grand, 100 grand out of that large growing checking account or money market account or savings account. And let's go ahead and invest into that multi year guaranteed annuity offered by Cliff. Sam, you've got some questions from our listeners and retirees and pre-retirees who listen to our show and want to learn more about financial planning and go ahead with some of those questions. Yeah.

Speaker4:
This first one is from Catherine in Roswell and she writes into retirement results. She mentioned that, by the way, Ford. She mentioned she'd been listening for the past two years. So it's always cool to hear from our long time listeners. And Janice said, where will my retirement income come from? I've been doing a good job saving for decades, but now that I'm close, I'm trying to figure out the best way to turn me and my husband's savings into the income we need to live on during our retirement. Yeah.

Speaker3:
So, Janice, first of all, thanks so much for listening to us for the last couple of years. It's great to hear from you. We look forward to meeting with you as well. Most retirees receive income from kind of four sources. So personal savings and investments like IRAs, Roth IRAs, uh, four one K's that get rolled over into IRAs, 403 B's, they get rolled over into IRAs, etc. those are just withdrawals and required minimum distributions. We like to encourage people to not withdraw more than 4% from those type of accounts. Number two is kind of company personal pensions. And we're seeing fewer and fewer of those personal pensions. We're also seeing a lot of people take that lump sum pension and then move it over into a product like the nationwide pick ten, and we get them a 20% immediate bonus, or they move it into the North American charter plus 14. It's another product we are selling a lot of right now that we're presenting to clients, and they're getting a 26% with the bonus rider, um, in that product or with that product. So imagine making 26% on that lump sum from pension. And also anybody that's looking to get a pension, x ray or an annuity x ray, I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at retirement Results.com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner.

Speaker3:
We're happy to help you. Then the number three source of income, Janice, that people get is Social Security income. And I am a registered Social Security analyst. As Sam has said on the show today. And we talk about it quite a bit, and there's only 15 of us in the state of Georgia, which is crazy to me. Um, but I am very busy running RSA roadmaps and Social Security maximization reports for people. We can help you maximize your Social Security income as well, Janice, for you and your husband. Um, and then also, number four, is any additional earned income during retirement? Those are the four sources that where you'll see retirement income can come from. And we'd like to try to help you build that retirement income gap analysis to make sure you've got a positive retirement income surplus versus a negative retirement income gap, because we're seeing inflation really rear its ugly head and helping those unfortunately those negative retirement income gaps widen. We want to see it actually get to a positive income surplus for you. And thanks so much for the question Janice. Thanks so much. Yeah.

Speaker4:
This next one comes from Keith in Suwanee. And Keith asks how much will my income need to. Increase in retirement to keep up with inflation. I noticed how much more expensive things have become over the past few years and want to plan accordingly. Keith, that's.

Speaker3:
A great question, and I'm not going to answer your question with a question, but I'm going to give you some facts and I'm and I'm going to say, hey, it's going to be between 3% and 14%. So John Williams, who is the economist with Shadowstats.com, and I encourage you guys and gals to check him out at shadowstats.com. He believes that that real rate of inflation, based on how they used to measure inflation in the Kennedy and Nixon years and before, is actually closer to 14%. The cost of living, as measured by the consumer price index has fluctuated, but is averaged according to CPI, between 4 and 5% a year over the past 20 years. So you probably need to generate at least five plus percent to keep pace of inflation. That means you need to stay invested. That means you can't just leave it in a checking account, or put it in coffee cans and bury them in the backyard and get a metal detector to go find them when you need some money. We strongly recommend that retirees consider inflation when they're preparing for retirement. Keith. And runaway inflation over the last three years has made this even more important, and also retirement more difficult. We're seeing folks eating out less. We're seeing, um, folks being careful about where to shop and, and what where they're buying their groceries. And a lot of folks are going to the Aldi's and the and the Walmarts of the world, and they're and they're not going to the publix's of the world. Kroger's trying to compete with Walmart. Those prices are pretty close. You know, my wife loves going to Publix and I like going to Publix.

Speaker3:
Those folks are really great. Their customer service is amazing. Their stores are clean. They're they're usually in our neighborhoods in and around Atlanta, but they can be pretty high in pricing. So you need to be careful about that. But I would say stay invested. You can consider something like a multi year guaranteed annuity and get 5.85% and outpace that. But you can also get a fixed index annuity that's illustrating it between nine and over 14%. Um, right now because they're able to pay you. Three times the amount of participation rates that they normally would pay. And you can also stay invested with tactical asset allocation and strategically manage portfolios that we have as well that are generating a really good return. Our goal with those type of portfolios, by the way, Keith, is we're trying to capture about 70 to 80% of the gains and only capture about 30 to 40% of the losses. And that that delta in between those, the growth and the potential losses really is the kind of magic with private wealth management. And listen, when we come back from the break, we're gonna have our final segment. We're gonna talk more about how to build that smart financial plan. We'll talk more about Annuity Awareness Month. This is our last episode of Annuity Awareness Month, which is the month of June. We'll talk about that. And we're talking more about your questions that are coming in from our listeners. We're so glad you're with us here on retirement results. Sam. And I'll be right back.

Speaker2:
Money questions, money answers. You're listening to retirement results.

I thought you'd be here forever. Another illusion I.

Speaker6:
Chose to create.

Speaker1:
Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company. You may not receive the bonuses if the contract is fully surrendered, or if traditional annuitization payments are taken, and if the policy is partially surrendered, it could result in a partial loss of bonuses. Because these are bonus annuities, they may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods, lower caps, higher spreads, or other restrictions that are not included in similar annuities that don't offer a bonus feature.

Speaker2:
Are you concerned about rising taxes and how they could affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over $400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying during a 35 year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your no obligation Roth conversion consultation with Fort Stokes of retirement results. Learn more and schedule an appointment at retirement Results.com Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Visit retirement results.com for more information. You're listening to Retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results result drivers. And we're in segment four. This is our last segment of the week. And thanks so much for listening to us and staying with us here on the show. You're going to want to stick around for this segment as well. So hang in there with us. So Sam, you've got one more important question that came in from the listeners. And we've got some really great stories. We've got a problem solver kind of story that we're going to share on regarding this question as well.

Speaker4:
This one is from John in Marietta. And this is similar to Keith's question that we addressed before the break. But John's question is, will Social Security keep up with inflation and the cost of living?

Speaker3:
Well, unfortunately, historically, the cost of living adjustments kind of average right around 2%. And we did have, you know, an 8% cost of living adjustment a few years ago. Um, we've seen it go up a little bit more than that. But historically, the generally average right around 2% or less. So social Security has cost of living adjustments most years. But many retirees know that this doesn't make up for the true inflation that is affecting the products and services that they use the most. We do not recommend relying on cost of living adjustments or colas to keep up with inflation. Consider guaranteed income strategies that can experience market like gains with principal protection. Also specifically, consider investing. If you're a married couple, consider investing in an annuity that you can turn on when one of the spouses passes away. It may be a little bit too late and too high of a cost for life insurance, but when one spouse passes away, the household is going to lose at least 33% of the income that's coming in from Social Security into the household. And it would be great to be able to turn on an annuity income that can generate that additional income where there's no loss of income.

Speaker3:
Also, I mean, if somebody's got rent or mortgage or a lot of the expenses that come from having both spouses in the home actually still stay about the same when there's only one spouse in the home. Also, fixed indexed annuities do grow like stair steps, and the worst you can do is zero. Each year. Zero is your hero without because contractually you can't lose principal. When you invest into a fixed indexed annuity and you get to enjoy point to point protection, we call them protection years or protection periods. And that allows you to capture gains of how the index performs, but none of the losses. So that's pretty important. Sam. It also reminds me of the story we learned yesterday from a really nice lady named Caroline. She was 72 years young, but she shared a story that she experienced when she was 67 that I thought was really interesting. If you could just share a little bit about what Caroline shared with us on her Social Security Administration story, her meeting with the Social Security Administration at the local office in Sandy Springs during your seminar at Ruth's Chris on Heinz Bridge in Alpharetta. I think the listeners would love to hear about it.

Speaker4:
Yeah, it was it was a really interesting moment at the end of the seminar, everybody else had pretty much left. We had a great meal there at Ruth's Chris. They always take really good care of us when we go there to do our retirement education seminars. And people have a lot of questions about Social Security. And Caroline was the same, and we were really lucky to have you for the registered social Security analyst there who was prepared to to listen to her and her situation. But, you know, this really seemed to me like another classic case of, you know, dealing with a government office, a government agency that, you know, they're not always going to give you the best customer service. They're really stretched thin over there. So we're not trying to badmouth them or anything like that. But, um, Caroline was entitled to a lot more Social Security income than the SSA was actually giving her because of a confusion between what was a spousal benefit versus a survivor's benefit. And you were there able to attend and present the Social Security section that day because. This was a really important situation for her.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it was so when she was 65, like late in her when she was, she was almost 66 years old. Her husband, her husband died. It was her second husband. And unfortunately both of them have passed away, which is really sad. But she'd been married to her second husband for over ten years, and she was entitled to a survivor's benefit. She didn't know that she was getting her spousal benefit, which was 50% of his, and she saw something in Forbes about they were about to end the file and suspend. And this is like 2018. And so she wanted she did a bunch of research online, and she went in with all of her paperwork, and she had her death certificate of her husband passing away over a year before. And she'd reached she'd just reached her full retirement age. She'd just been passed a couple of months. She was actually just turned 67, and her, in her full retirement age was 66 and ten months. She was only getting 50% of what her deceased husband's benefit was. They said, oh, you are entitled to the survivor's benefit, so we'll go ahead and turn that on. She said she she went there in in March and said, well, I would have been here in January, but I didn't know to come in or whatever. So they're like, okay, well we'll give you February. She's like, well, how far back can you go? Because he died over a year ago. And she said.

Speaker3:
I can go back six months, ma'am. That's all I can do. And Caroline shared with both you and me, Sam and Deborah in our office. She said. If I had not asked to go back a month or two months, had I not asked to go back a year, she would not have given me any of those months. She ended up getting a $20,489 check from the Social Security Administration in one check for the Social Security income that was owed to her in arrears because of her survivor's benefit, and she was only getting a spousal benefit. There are probably many of you that are dealing with something like this. If you got questions about your Social Security, especially if you're a married couple, there's a lot of things you can and can't do that we could possibly help you when you've got two people that were Social Security income benefit recipients and also Social Security income folks who've contributed. I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan, and we'll get a Social Security income plan for you. Again that's retirement results.com/plan. Also you can call us at (888) 814-0304. Again (888) 814-0304. It's tough for people to remember phone numbers. Just remember retirement results.com. Go ahead and go to that website and click the Schedule an Appointment button in the upper right corner, and you'll get put directly into my calendar. And I'm happy to help you with your Social Security needs as well. It's the final.

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

Speaker3:
So on today's show we talked about June being Annuity Awareness Month. We talked about some smart risks smart safe and smart tax solutions, smart tax obviously doing Roth conversions. Um let's try to consider that we we did that in our problem solver. Um, we also talked about just in this last segment what happened with Caroline. So if you've got a spousal benefit that you're getting but your spouse passed away, you're entitled to a survivor's benefit. And I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement Results.com if you haven't taken Social Security yet or you have only taken Social Security in the last year, we might be able to help you maximize your Social Security income benefit. All you've got to do is reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. Or you can call us at (888) 814-0304. And also if you've got those orphan 401 or the orphan 403 B's, and you want to do something about it and you want to take control of your assets, we can help you do that. All you got to do is reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan or go to retirement results.com and click that schedule an appointment or schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. And we're happy to help you. Next week on our show we're going to talk in depth about Smart risk, smart safe and smart tax investing. With that smart financial plan. We care about you as a pre-retiree and retiree, and we care about you as a as an American citizen. Thanks so much for listening to us on this week's show. And again, if you're voting, vote with your retirement in mind. Please vote Republican. Please vote for Donald J. Trump and this year's US presidential election. Your retirement depends on it. Have a great week, everybody.

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

Speaker1:
Do you want a steady stream of income for retirement? Then it's time to consider annuities. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amira Life. Gone are the days when most employers offered pensions with guaranteed lifetime payouts to their workers. But what if I told you that you can build your own personal pension? It's possible with an annuity. An annuity is a financial product that provides a series of regular payments to an individual over a specified period of time, often for the rest of their life.

Speaker3:
There are several options for you to consider when choosing an annuity. Be confident in knowing that there is an annuity out there that can meet all of your needs.

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

Speaker3:
A fixed annuity offers a specific guaranteed interest rate on their contributions to the account. A fixed index annuity is an accumulation based product offered by an insurance company. The growth of your fixed index annuity is dependent on the performance of a chosen stock market index, but your money is not actually invested in this index. This offers you great growth potential and exceptional protection for your investment.

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

Speaker3:
If you are currently investing in a variable annuity, your funds could be in serious trouble if the market experienced any downturns.

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

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