Find Out If You Can Retire Today!

5.2.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Speaker1:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only, and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment, and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

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

Speaker3:
And welcome to retirement results result drivers. I'm Ford stokes chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host of the show. Sam say hello to everybody.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the weekend result drivers. So happy that you've chosen once again to tune in and listen to retirement results. Also big shout out. Appreciate all of our podcast listeners who are listening to us, even outside of the Atlanta metro area. You know, we come to you every weekend on and, uh, but we have a lot of podcast listeners forward throughout the state of Georgia and throughout the southeast. And so just want to shout out them this weekend. Hope everybody's having a good spring. And Ford, we've got another great episode coming up. We're going to help people find out if they can retire today.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it's really important to kind of get an understanding, get that score on your retirement, like from 0 to 100. Like, hey, how am I doing? How does it look? If you want to get that score, it's 0 to 100 on your retirement plan, with your portfolio, with your expenses, your income sources. You want to get all that today and figure out, hey, how do I get going? It takes about seven days to put the plan together. We do it all for free. It's a $2,500 value. All you got to do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Again (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement. Com we've got that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner where you also could visit retirement. Com forward slash plan. Put your information in. It's just name email and phone and we'll get started right away for you. You just give us a call at (770) 685-1777. But before I get started on all that, Sam, I wanted to give a shout out to you and your team at retirement results here with us. And you know, and also my twin girls are part of that too. And Shelby and other people that are on our team are doing it, but we now have 65,000 views on YouTube of our videos. And also we're the number one listened to show on Am nine, 20 and on the weekends. And we're growing fast on WDHN. Just want to say just great job Sam, you and your team to make sure that our message is being heard. It does matter. People do like to get retirement education. They want to see where they stand. And today we're going to talk about exactly how to do that, how you can plan for your income and taxes during retirement.

Speaker4:
Yeah, we want to make sure that we're meeting people where they're at. A lot of people spend time on YouTube watching videos, learning, you know, enjoying entertainment. And we want to be right there with them, uh, just like we're right here with you in your car, driving around Atlanta on the radio or listening to us on on the podcast. Just really appreciate all of you. And if you do want to get started, retirement results. Com is the place to go. It's a lot easier than people think for you just have to get together your statements, fill out a little bit of information and if you really are stuck and not sure where to get started, just click that set of consultation button. Have that meeting with us and we're fiduciaries. We have to put your needs ahead of our own, and we're happy to answer your questions, whether it be about Social Security, retirement planning, and for the question we're going to help people answer today is can I retire today?

Speaker3:
Yeah. And here's some of the other things we're going to talk about. I think it's the biggest question to ask. Right. And it's the biggest question to get to get the answer to. And so many of our listeners are doing a great job learning from us, Sam, each and every week. But I would encourage each one of you who are listening to us to take the next step, be that first time caller. You know, Tony Robbins says you haven't made a decision unless you've taken action. Go ahead and take the action. Give us a call at 706851777 or visit retirement. Com and get started on that financial plan. Portfolio analysis social security maximization report in the form of an RSA roadmap. And also get that retirement income gap analysis done. We'll do all that for you. Absolutely no cost to you. That includes a Roth ladder conversion to delete the IRS out of your being your partner in retirement, and out of your retirement accounts. Specifically, we can do that before you turn 73 and hopefully protect and grow your wealth along the way and get more tax efficient, more efficient, and more market efficient with your overall plan and portfolio.

Speaker3:
But let me give you a quick overview of today's show. And then, Sam, we're going to go right back to you to give us our financial wisdom. Quote of the week. So on today's show we're going to talk about how to improve your cash flow and budget, all part of how you can find out if you can retire today. Number two is we're going to ask you to be proactive, not reactive. Actions you can take today to protect your finances tomorrow. Number three is preventing a retirement tax bomb. What percentage of your portfolio is in tax deferred accounts. And number four is we're going to play another game of right or wrong, everybody's favorite financial game show. And we're going to test your knowledge about personal finances during retirement. Everybody loves right or wrong. So we're going to have another one this week. And Sam, why don't you go ahead and share this important financial wisdom. Quote of the week from the late, great George Foreman. And he was made famous by George Foreman Grills. But he was a heck of a boxer too.

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

Speaker4:
Yeah, this George Foreman quote is a great one for today's episode, because George Foreman once said, the question isn't at what age I want to retire. It's at what income? And this is perfect because income planning is a cornerstone of what we do here at Active Wealth Management and at Retirement Results. We want to make sure that you have that income in place to fulfill all the needs you'll have in retirement. Those obligations like healthcare expenses, food, utilities, but all of the fun stuff as well, you know, spending time with the grandkids, the family going on cruises, you know, spending time with your hobbies, playing golf, playing pickleball, tennis, whatever it is that you're doing. So think more of it like it's not at what age I can retire, it's at what income. And that's going to be kind of our guiding light today forward as we help people find out if they can retire.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, I you know, my wife and I, I plan to work a lot longer than probably my wife does, mainly because I want to make sure that my income stays the same or continues to grow. Um, many of you probably feel the same way, although we do see the happiest couples actually retire at the same time. But I'm going to keep working probably into, you know, when I passed when I turned 70 and it's that's a lot of years from now, but that's my plan. I plan to keep on working. Um, you're a young man. You're going to be working for decades and decades. But, um, you know, I plan to work on a couple another decades here.

Speaker4:
I would say for it, it really helps when you have a profession where you're able to help people achieve something that's so personally fulfilling for themselves as well. I mean, we spend our days doing a lot of planning. Sometimes we're the bearers of bad news. But at the end of every, you know, client we work with is a successful retirement and a retirement result that they're happy about. And that's one of the things that gives me no hesitation and that I'm going to be at this a long time. I want to help people get not just to retirement, but through retirement. And this is a very Uh, fulfilling thing that we help people do. And so I wouldn't be surprised for it if you if you follow after your father and you end up working for a long time, too.

Speaker3:
Yeah. My dad, 87. He just. He just hung it up. He just hung up and said, hey, I'm not. I'm not working anymore. And, uh, he also just relinquished his driver's license, and we got him off the the insurance there. So saved some money there. And I want to give credit to my sister Heather, for doing that and getting that done. Um, my stepmom is is running the household, and dad's still hanging in there doing a great job, but he's he's finally hung it up, although at the ripe age of 87. But all right, let's talk about the this plan on how you can plan to retire today and, and try to get an actual score and all that stuff. So how to master your cash flow and create a budget for retirement? Here are five steps for pre-retirees and retirees. And Sam, why don't you go go through each one of those? I don't know how much time we've got left in this segment. But let's go through these.

Speaker4:
Yeah, we've got enough time for the first step. But this is a five step plan. And step one is really kind of what we've been talking about so far in this episode is assess your financial landscape, find out where you're at today. And that will help us determine how to get where you want to go. So you want to gather all that financial information. Those are those statements that you've probably been looking at lately, either online or received a quarterly statement at the end of March. And if you're one of those out there that's too afraid to pull those statements and look at that information, that's a really good indicator that you need to give a fiduciary a call. You need to work with an advisor who can help you really take a look at that. But when you're assessing your financial landscape forward, you want to take a look at your budget, your financial obligations, and really just figure out where you're standing now so you can figure out how to get where you want to go.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, it's just a good idea to seek to understand your current situation. And that's what happens when you come in and meet with us. You bring in your statements, you bring in your your you email us your XML statements from gsa.gov, and then we go straight at it and give you a full financial plan that and give you an actual portfolio analysis and a financial plan. Your 95th birthday. Absolutely no cost to you without us being involved. And then we give you one with our recommended portfolios and we show you the difference. And so it's a pretty eye opening experience for a lot of people. Listen, we're going to go through more of these five steps for retirees on how to master cash flow and create a budget for retirement right after the break. You're listening to retirement results on Am 91 The Answer and WGN.

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

Speaker6:
I'm your boogie man. That's what I am. I'm here to do whatever I can be. An early morning.

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:
Schedule your free no obligation consultation today by visiting retirement Results.com. Now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis here with us. We're senior financial advisor and co-host of the show Sam. We're talking about how to master cash flow and create a budget for retirement. This is all part of answering the question today of can you retire? How can you retire and can you retire today? We're trying to answer that one big question on the show all four segments. And what's fitting into that right now is how to master cash flow and create a budget for retirement. We're talking about five steps that Pre-retirees and retirees can do. Step one was assess your financial landscape. We just talked through all that. Try to bring in your expenses. Try to bring in your statements and all of your assets, and then also any income sources. And we try to put together an actual financial plan for you and that portfolio analysis. You understand the risks you're taking and the fees you're paying. What is step number two and mastering your cash flow and creating a budget.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So once you assess where you're at now, you've kind of had that x ray that that MRI if you will, of your current situation. Step two is set clear financial goals. And for I know that in your latest book, The Smart Retirement Plan, you call this smart vision. Really having an idea of who you're with in retirement. What are you going to be doing? Where are you going to be at? Are you going to, you know, stay right here in the family home? Or are you going to downsize or are you going to relocate somewhere, maybe by the beach or by the water? What are your goals for retirement? And Ford, that's another early step when we're working with people and helping them get to retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah. For sure. I mean, listen, you gotta plan your work and work your plan. So when you're when you're thinking about retirement, I want you to figure out, hey, what am I doing? Who am I with? How am I going to fund it? What am I doing? Who am I with? How am I going to fund it? And therefore, you can really get an understanding of of hey, just exactly what you're going to do if you want to travel the world, it's going to cost you some money to do that. If you want to sit at the house and you've got your house paid for, it may not cost as much. If if you've got your country club set, you know how much your dues are and you're going to play golf every single day and you don't really necessarily want to travel for golf, you don't play the same course. You've got a better plan for how much it's going to cost you, or at least your side of the relationship. And then also, if you've got kids all over the place and you're going to travel a lot, you have to plan for that too. So just set your clear goals, understand what your expenses are going to be in retirement and then really how to fund it.

Speaker4:
And that brings us to step three forward, which is track and categorize expenses. So this is where we're actually budgeting. This is where the rubber meets the road. Figuring out what your expenses are diligently for at least a month. We like to recommend that people take a look at two months, three if they can, and find out a good average of their monthly expenses and then start to understand, you know, okay, what percentage of my expenses are taken up by, you know, housing and utilities? Do I want to try and pay off that mortgage so I don't have to have a mortgage payment in retirement? And one of, you know, either me or my spouse's Social Security payments are going to have to go towards taking care of that mortgage payment every month. You know, figuring out what your discretionary expenses are, like you just said, for how much are we going to travel? Is it going to be twice a year, three times a year? Are we going to spend $10,000 a trip? Are we going to do, you know, maybe closer trips around the the area here in the southeast and then figure out areas where you can maybe make some adjustments, reduce some expenses where possible. And and when we're doing income planning forward, we try to make sure we give people some wiggle room because we understand that especially especially if you're retiring in your 60s, you know, those go go years every day Saturday, which day of the week do you spend the most money? It's Saturday and Sunday when you're out with the family and the kids and you're enjoying yourself.

Speaker3:
A great opportunity to inspect what you expect a little bit with your expenses. Um, Sam, can you give the folks your line about building a budget?

Speaker4:
Yeah, I you know, I feel like I had some inspiration from, you know, listening to Dave Ramsey growing up and, and others on the radio. And I try to tell people, you know, figure out, tell every dollar where to go instead of wondering where it went. You know, if you start treating those dollars on your paycheck like your little soldiers, you know, you want to make sure that they're doing the most important work and you don't have money that's going towards stuff that you're not using, things that are wasteful, and that will free you up to have many more decisions in retirement. You know, money may not buy happiness, but it definitely gives you choices and you want to have more choices in retirement. Simple as that.

Speaker3:
Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. And then what's number four, Sam.

Speaker4:
Four is allocating your income. So taking a look at, you know, what percentage of your income is going to go to these different goals. What are those income streams in retirement. We want to make sure people are diversified in their investments. But we also want to make sure they're diversified in their income streams. If Social Security is your only guaranteed income source in retirement, then an income might be a weak point in your retirement plan. And I don't know about you, but I don't want my income to be up to chance in retirement. I want to make sure that those paychecks are going to keep coming. They're going to keep coming every month, and I'm going to have all the cashflow I need, not just for my bills, but for all the discretionary expenses as well. You know, summer's coming up. People are going on vacation. You'll want to continue to do that long into retirement.

Speaker3:
Thinking about trying to hey, how do I what's the best way to generate income? What I encourage you to do is consider replacing the bonds inside of your portfolio with fixed indexed annuities. And we've got three great annuities. We're going to go over those in segment three. We're going to go through all those like I said in segment three. And I think it's going to be eye opening for you. Usually the fixed index annuity portfolio is always outperform the bond portfolio. I've never actually seen the illustration where the bonds performed better and gave higher income than the fixed indexed annuity. So because they're more hybrid products and you can get market like gains without market risk. And we're not saying go invest all your money in fixed annuities. What we're saying is take 20 to 40% of your portfolio, Probably no more than 50% of your portfolio and invest into, uh, some of these fixed index annuities today that are paying really high participation rates. They're giving between 15 and 27%. A lot of them are 20% in immediate bonuses, and some of them are bonuses going directly into the account value, not just the income account value. Uh, these are just a lot of important things you need to do to generate as much income to allocate that income. So you can do what Sam said and get those soldiers working for you. Um, at least in paying the bills. Right. So but we really want to make sure that you've got enough money to protect and grow your money and really enjoy retirement.

Speaker4:
So to recap, before we get to step five forward, step one was assess your financial landscape. Really find out where you're at now. Step two is finding out where you want to go, setting those clear financial goals. Step three is track and categorize your expenses. This is budgeting. This is figuring out what your expenses are, improving where possible, and figuring out what you need your income plan to do. Step four is allocating your income, including diversifying your income sources, whether that be with fixed indexed annuities or pensions. Social security um, talk to us about your fixed indexed annuity options. Next segment we're going to compare a few current options that some of our prospects and clients are enjoying. And step five Ford is work your plan. You have that plan. Now it's time to work your plan. And you also want to review and adjust regularly. If this latest, you know, spout of stock market volatility has changed your risk tolerance. If you're, you know, in your 60s or 70s and you don't want to have that kind of risk anymore. Make sure you make those adjustments as time goes on.

Speaker3:
Yeah. You kind of want to like I said before, you want to plan your work and work your plan, but you you need to really adjust, at least on a, on an annual basis. If you're seeing losses in the market like you may have seen this year, or you're or you're withdrawing money and you're not staying at the level of actual assets that you thought you were going to do through a managed portfolio. And you're taking out too much money. Let's say you're taking you're annuitized income from your annuity, or you didn't, but you started taking out more than 5% of the assets from your annuity each and every year. Be careful. We don't want you running out of money. We don't want you just have to live on Social Security later on in life. We want to help you do that, help you maximize your retirement, and really enjoy your retirement. And again, back to George Foreman's quote. We want to make sure that you're retiring at the income you want to retire in and stay there. And so that's one of the things we do, Sam, is we'll do that retirement income gap analysis. And hopefully we help you start with a positive retirement income surplus and not a negative retirement income gap. Because if you start with that retirement income gap, that negative retirement income gap. It's going to widen over time because of inflation.

Speaker4:
And when we come back, we're going to talk to you about how to be more proactive and less reactive about your retirement plan, putting an emphasis on putting some things in place now before you retire, to set yourself up for success down the road. You're listening to retirement results. Learn more. Visit us at retirement. Com and we will be right back.

Speaker2:
We'll be back in just a moment to continue helping you navigate your financial journey. Stay tuned for more retirement results.

Speaker6:
I'm solid gold. I've got the goods.

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 annuity 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.

Speaker4:
Hi, this is Sam Davis, senior financial advisor with retirement results. You've saved your whole life so you wouldn't have to worry about your money when you retired. But you worry more now than ever. You've been a good saver. You have 500,000, $1 million, maybe even more. You should feel confident, but you don't. You're worried a big loss will wipe you out. You want to retire, but you don't. You're worried you don't have enough. Does any of this sound familiar? It should, because we hear these things all the time from people just like you, who are preparing for retirement or are even already retired. So why do you worry so much? It's because you don't have an actual plan in writing. Nothing to guide you through retirement. Retirement results helps people just like you. You'll get a free, customized written retirement plan. That's right. Free and no obligation. Schedule your meeting now at retirement results. Compensation plan. That's retirement.

Speaker2:
Plan investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. You're listening to retirement Results, where we help you protect and grow your hard saved money. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back. Result drivers I'm Fort stokes chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host on the show. So we promised that we would give you three different fixed indexed annuities. That could be great solutions for a bond replacement. So I want to give you kind of here's what's going on with these. And then the first one is the Aspida synergy choice bonus ten. Now it offers a 15% immediate bonus. It also offers 75% of how the Invesco Q, Q, Q index performs over the life of your annuity, but it specifically has a two year protection period. So you're getting 75% of how the Invesco Q-q-q does over a two year period. Then it locks in your principal and your gains each and every two years on your anniversary date. Now, what's interesting about that is if I were to come to you and say, hey, I'm going to give you 75% of how the Q-q-q does, but there's no downside risk. That'd be a pretty great situation. The last ten years. Looked it up right before the show. The Invesco Q-q-q has done 380.24% over the last ten years, and the S&P 500 has only done 221% over the last ten years. So it's almost double what the S&P 500 has done. That index is a high performing index. Got a lot of Nasdaq 100 in it. That's one of the reasons for the growth. They do a lot of emerging stuff. They look for stuff that's going to be big over the next five years when they when they add those to the to the index.

Speaker3:
So I would encourage you to consider the SPDR Synergy Choice Bonus ten. You're going to get 15% immediate bonus. It goes into the account value, not the income value. That's really attractive. We're putting a lot of younger people in there because there's no age limit. It is an accumulation focused product, but you can throttle up and throttle down your withdrawal rates. We start most of them at 5% and the nationwide pick ten is. And by the way, SPDR is an A minus rated carrier according to Am Best and Standard and Poor's, which are the top two rating agencies for annuity companies and insurance companies. The second one is the nationwide pick ten. Nationwide pick ten is offered to own, offered by only 1% of financial advisors in the country. Sam and I are two of those. Of the 1%, so is Matt McClure. Care a little brandy seeds? Those are all folks that work with us, and the nationwide peak ten offers a 20% immediate bonus going into the income account. That's the account that they're using to take the the money out and pay you each and every year when you annuitize the money. It's also an A-plus rated carrier by Am best and Standard and Poor's. It's a mutual insurance company, so their policyholders are their shareholders. So they're not trying to make a fiscal quarter or anything like that, and they're not trying to cut corners and look you over because you're one of the shareholders.

Speaker3:
If you're a policyholder. Then what else is really great about the nationwide pick ten is they give you 8% guaranteed interest each and every year into the income account that you choose to not turn on income or take withdrawals if you defer withdrawals, you get 8% guaranteed no matter what. But then the really great thing is they give you 310%. If you invest over $100,000 into the BNP Paribas Global Aids Factor Index, you get 310% of how the index performs. So if it goes up 4%, guess what? You're getting 12.4% less a 1% spread rate, so you're getting 11.4% a year. If it just averages 4% a year, well, 11.4% a year on a two year protection period, each of those two years would be 22.8% of your money every two years. And that's going into the account value. That's really attractive. They have a 1% fee and a 1% spread rate. The spread rate only happens when you have growth. The fee happens each and every year. So the nationwide peak ten is the second annuity we really like we like the speed of two. It's not necessarily an order of importance, just order in which we're talking about it. Mainly I'm doing I'm going from lowest to highest bonus. The next one is the North American Charter plus 14. The 14 stands for 14 years is a 14 year product. So it's got a surrender period of 14 years. You're probably going to be in it for a while.

Speaker3:
They're offering a 27% immediate bonus that goes into the account value that vests over the life of the annuity. So over the 14 years, 27%. So if you've got any old annuities, that North American charter plus 14 is a great product because they can get a 27% bonus that will more than make up for the surrender charge you've got on that old annuity that might not be performing. We've seen a lot of alliance policies coming into us because the Alliance policies weren't performing, not picking on aliens. I'm just telling you that's just what we've had in some of those older products. The two, two, two and the three, 360. We've also seen some American equity bonus gold coming in for replacement as well, because they were so sticky when they had high surrender charges. But right as they came out of surrender, people were like, you know what? I really like that North American Charter plus 14. I really like that nationwide peak ten because I got 20 or 27% bonus. They're giving you a significant participation rate in their underlying indices as well. They've got multiple indexes. I'm not really going to go into those, but you need to call us. You need to go ahead and call us today to get more information on that, on that North American charter plus 14. But getting a 27% bonus is a great place to start. We're here to protect you as fiduciaries, want to really make sure that we're doing the right things by you, the client.

Speaker3:
And again, it's all part of an overall plan. We we do manage portfolios each and every day. We employ tactical asset allocation and strategic asset allocation. With our portfolios. We like to generate income two ways. One is from income from annuities, and the second is from 4% or less withdrawals from the overall portfolios. Sam, I want to recap these real quick. First one is the Aspida Synergy choice bonus ten. It's a ten year product. That's what the ten stands for. You get a 15% bonus. You get 75% of the Invesco Q-q-q performs and is a minus rated product. Nationwide peak 1,020% immediate bonus going into the income value 8% guaranteed interest each and every year that you defer withdrawals. And they're giving you 310% of how the BNP Paribas Global Factor Index does. That's a very attractive product. The next one is the North American Charter Plus 14. That's offering a 27% immediate bonus. And it's got significant growth on all kinds of different indices that you can choose from between S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, things like that. Um, and you're going to want to call us to get more information on the North American Charter plus 14, if you're really interested in that 20% immediate bonus into the account value, by the way, that's going to vest over time. Visit retirement Results.com. Click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner to get started with us. We're happy to help you. You can also reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Again (770) 685-1777.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And Ford really just want to, you know, echo what you're saying and encourage anyone out there listening who has been a bit concerned by this volatility. They maybe a bit concerned about even checking the balance of their IRAs, their 401 S, or any of their retirement accounts? Just they know that it's going to be less than the last time they checked. And they don't want to see that. You know, if you want to manage some of that risk and also generate that personal pension for your retirement. Get in touch with us. Let us show you some illustrations of what each of these products would look like as a part of your plan, and a part of your idea of what a smart retirement is going to be. And we think a smart retirement starts with making sure you've got the income that you need, and you can then live out that smart vision. And so we just felt like it was important to share those examples today. Encourage you to get in touch with us at (770) 685-1777. And Ford, when we come back, we've got more for all of our result drivers listening today you're listening to retirement results.

Speaker2:
Hang tight. We'll be right back to continue helping you navigate today's financial landscape. Stay tuned for more of retirement results.

Speaker6:
To last forever. One that will never fade away. I want to.

Speaker1:
Help you if you've got credit card debt. You are not alone. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Amira Life. Consumer debt is piling up in this country. In fact, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says as of this year, Americans hold more than $1 trillion in credit card debt. That's trillion with a T and the average interest rate, it's hovering around 20%, sometimes even higher. That means if you're only making the minimum payment each month, most of your money isn't even touching the balance. It's going straight into the lender's pocket as interest. And that debt. It adds up quietly, consistently, and often painfully. One of the smartest money moves you can make is to avoid going into debt in the first place. Robin Crawley is head of consumer deposits at Bank of America.

Speaker7:
Even if you're spending with a credit card and you have a bit of a higher limit, don't max that out, right? Just spend with what you've allocated for in your budget. But anytime you're spending on that credit card, you have to make sure that you're paying that monthly balance off on time and in full, because that's really the key to building your credit history.

Speaker1:
But maybe you're not there right now. If you feel like you're drowning in a sea of credit card debt, there is hope out there. A debt management plan, often offered through nonprofit credit counseling agencies, can help you consolidate those payments into one monthly amount, often with lower interest rates. These aren't shady payday loans or too good to be true ads. Experian says these are regulated, real programs built to get you back on your feet. And here's why that matters your credit score. Grealy says it's not just a number.

Speaker7:
Well, a good credit score is so important to our financial journey, right? And all the doors kind of that good, good credit score can, can open for us. So things like renting an apartment or getting a favorable rate on an auto purchase. A good credit score is so important to be able to do those.

Speaker1:
And so if you've been avoiding your statements or feeling the stress build every time your phone lights up with a balance alert, make a plan and ask for help if you need it. Because this isn't about shame, it's about taking back control. For retirement results, I'm Matt McClure.

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 result drivers. I'm George Stokes, chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us, our senior financial advisor and co-host. And we're here for segment four. Folks we have this show is flown by. So we promise we're going to play right or wrong. Let's play right or wrong.

Speaker2:
Come on down. As we test your financial knowledge in right or wrong.

Speaker4:
All right, Ford, if you listen to last week's show, you heard right or wrong. And if you missed last week's show, I'm going to read a statement. And Ford is going to help everyone out there listening to us on the Retirement Results podcast or on or on here in Atlanta radio. He's going to help us understand if that's right or wrong. Here's the first one. The Social Security Administration has come out and stated that if no changes are made, the Social Security trust funds will be depleted by 2035, according to most recent projections. Ford. Is that right or wrong?

Speaker3:
Unfortunately, that's right. Although I do think the Trump administration's got real plans to fortify Social Security. But what people have speculated for for decades appears to be coming in in about ten years. Social security has a funding problem. They also have a fraud and spending problem that Doge and President Trump and Elon Musk and the administration is trying to fix. They're in need of some serious changes in order to continue paying benefits for both current and future retirees. Right now, the Oasi Trust Fund, which is the Old Age Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, is scheduled to be depleted by 2035. Now, that doesn't mean you wouldn't be paid your Social Security benefits, but what it would mean is it would mean probably a 24% across the board cut if things are not done by the administration and or by Congress. Um, but this is also one of the big reasons, Sam, why we stress the importance of having a strong income plan and not counting on Social Security as the main component of your retirement. I mean, look, right now, Social Security is, is either the number one or number two income source for American retirees. We've got to do everything we can to make sure that you've got an income plan that With and works regardless of Social Security. I do think Social Security's going to be around. I do think they're going to make sure they further extend that 6.2% tax that you and the employer have to pay, which is 12.4% total. I do think they're going to fortify that tax. I think I think you're going to see that continuing to extend throughout the entire year, not just up to $176,100 earned for the year. But also, I feel like what they're going to do is they're going to take out the fraud and make sure that Social Security is around for years to come. But let's get a income plan first so we can take care of ourselves first.

Speaker4:
Just get in touch with us at retirement results.com, or simply pick up the phone and give us a call this weekend. Or give us a call on Monday morning after the weekend. (770) 685-1777. Ford is our registered social security analyst in the office. He'll put together that maximization report for you and everyone here would love to work with you and help you build that income plan for retirement. Here's the next one on right or wrong. If your employer doesn't offer a pension or other defined benefit plan, there is no other way to establish a personal lifelong income stream. Is that right or wrong?

Speaker3:
Well, I've got good news here that is wrong. Annuities allow anyone to protect and grow their wealth by establishing an income stream that they can never outlive. You can get market like gains here without market risk. Fixed indexed annuities are often used to create a personal pension plan for pre-retirees and retirees. The investments performance is tied to the stock market index, allowing you to enjoy market like gains without worrying about the stock market risk. Your principal is 100% protected because it's 100% invested into the ten year US Treasury and those annuity companies, they use the interest generated off a ten year US Treasury, and they put that money to work with options in underlying indexes. They take a portion of the gains and you take a portion of the gains. The worst you can do in any year with a fixed index annuity is a 0% growth. That's pretty attractive considering what's happened with the tariff tantrum that the markets have had over the last couple of months. Some annuities also offer bonuses. We went through those in segment three. You've got a 15% bonus as an example of the Aspida synergy choice ten or bonus ten. You've also got a 20% bonus with a nationwide pick ten, and you've got a 27% bonus immediate bonus with the North American Charter plus 14. Not all annuities are created the same, and annuity is a contract between you and the annuity company. You need to understand what you're doing with them and also have a licensed agent and financial advisor like us to help you navigate through all of those.

Speaker4:
Yeah, that's absolutely right, Ford. And for those who may have been a little too invested in the stock market as they approach retirement, they may be thinking right now, oh, I need to work another year or two to make up for these losses. Well, we would encourage you to give us a call and find out if you can actually retire today. Take a look at what would these personal pension options look like for you after a 15 or 20 or 27% bonus, a lot of people were meeting with like what they see, and we look forward to meeting with you as well. Here's the next question. After you turn 65, Medicare will cover all of your healthcare costs, including any long term care needs.

Speaker3:
Well, I mean, the main reason why this this right or wrong is wrong is mainly because the long term care portion of it. But many people believe that the government will take care of them and their medical expenses once they're on Medicare, but unfortunately, it's just not the case. You need to be prepared for any and all of these costs during retirement. Monthly Medicare premiums that come out, they're actually deducted out of your Social Security check, annual deductibles, co-payments, prescription drugs for your Medicare Part D plans that that literally double tripled, quadrupled over the last year thanks to the Biden administration taking money out of Medicare and putting it into social programs that failed. That's absolutely what happened, in my opinion. I thought that was improper, if not illegal, services not covered by Medicare, such as vision and dental care. And then the big one is long term care. Medicare doesn't cover long term care. In fact, if you want to be taken care of by the state and being a skilled nursing nursing facility with a state or something like that, you're going to have to be at a point where you only have $2,500 to your name, you have to transfer everything out. And also there's a five year lookback, by the way, Sam, on all that the by CMS, um, and by the state. So you want to do everything you can to move those assets if you're going to go that route way earlier in the process before you actually need care.

Speaker4:
All right then that brings us to our last question on right or wrong. This is related. You can use an annuity to fund your expenses for Medicare during retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah. Believe it or not, we we think it's a really smart idea. You can actually do it. You can invest, you know, a couple hundred thousand or $100,000 into an annuity and get paid the amount of money you've got to take out to fund your Medigap supplement insurance plan. We encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 again (770) 685-1777. And we're happy to help you get that started right away and get a plan for Medicare to fund the extra Medicare supplement insurance, um, costs, and then also plan for the eventual loss of a spouse and you will lose at least 33% that comes into the household.

Speaker6:
It's the final countdown.

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

Speaker8:
The final countdown.

Speaker3:
So in this week's show, we try to answer the question of how you can find out if you can retire today. And we absolutely can help you do that. All you got to do is reach out to us at retirement Results.com click that, schedule a consultation button, and we'll get started right away on a plan for you to help you determine, literally get a score between 0 and 100 if your plan is right for you and right for your retirement, right for the expenses you have slated for retirement. We're here to help you navigate retirement and help you really retire with peace of mind and retire successfully. And also in today's show, we talked about how to improve your cash flow and budget. We gave you a checklist for our retirees and pre-retirees. They're listening. Next week we'll talk about how to be proactive and not reactive. We ran out of time on that one. We did play right or wrong here in this one. And we'll also talk about how to prevent that retirement tax bomb on next week's show. I just felt like it was really important to go through the top three annuities that we are working with clients on right now, and that the speed of synergy choice, where you get 75% of how the Invesco Q-q-q performs, um, without any downside risk, that's very attractive.

Speaker3:
The nationwide Pick ten, offering 20% plus an 8% guaranteed interest rate into the income account each and every year you defer withdrawals plus the 310% participation rate. We thought that's really attractive. And then the North American Charter plus 14, that's also really attractive because it is a 27% immediate bonus that vests over the life of that annuity that goes into the account value. That's money you can once the surrender period is over, that's money you can just take with you. So something to think about there. Those three big ones again, try to replace the bonds in your retirement. If you're seeking information about retirement, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Listen to retirement results. Reach out to us at retirement Results.com. And let's get started on your sound financial plan today. 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 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 BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

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

Speaker2:
Visit retirement results.com. To schedule your free, no obligation consultation today.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the Retirement Results bonus segment. Shout out to all of our viewers on YouTube, our listeners on the Retirement Results podcast and of course, all of our radio listeners on way up and around the lake here with Lord Stokes. I'm Sam Davis and Fjord. On this week's bonus segment, we're going to talk about how people can take steps to prevent a retirement tax bomb. And this all centers around the fact that too often, we find people are keeping most of their retirement savings in tax deferred accounts, like their work based 401 K or that IRA that they've been contributing to over the years. And they feel like they have a solid retirement plan. I mean, let's say you had $1 million in that 401 K. Well, I mean, maybe 22%, 25% of that might not even be yours because you're going to owe money to the IRS. If you live here in the state of Georgia, you're going to pay five and a half, almost 6% to the state of Georgia. So we want to make sure that you don't have too much money in those tax deferred accounts. And if you do have a clear Understanding about what your retirement nest egg actually looks like.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, if you're going to go out, let's say you're going to go out on a cruise, you're going to take out $10,000 or maybe even, let's call it $20,000 for you to go on a cruise today. And you're going on a really nice one. Let's say you're going to go on a Viking River cruise or whatever. You're going to take the money out. But let's say it's 20 grand and all of a sudden you're in a 20% tax bracket, you're going to owe another $4,000. So you're going to take out over $24,000 to pay for that cruise. And the government is going to get 4000 of that 24 grand just for you to go on that cruise. Imagine doing that 20 years after you've stopped working. That is crazy. You really need to figure out how to delete the IRS from being your partner in retirement and what we recommend. We recommend trying to do a Roth conversion plan where we're taking money from your IRA, moving it over into your Roth IRA. Dollar for dollar. And we're taking the taxes from a taxable account or a checking account or rental income or whatever, and out of savings. And we're going to pay the taxes. We're going to take taxable money and pay the taxes on tax deferred money, transitioning and converting over to tax free money. We want to make sure we're taking let's say we're going to convert $100,000. We want to convert $100,000 out of your IRA, put it into your Roth IRA and take $20,000 from a different account. Let's say it's a savings account or a checking account or an investment brokerage account, and we want to pay the 20,000 taxes directly to the IRS from that within that quarter that we do the conversion, and then we get to wait five years to access the money tax free.

Speaker3:
So you want to do a little bit at a time. Also, one hint here is you want to really prevent that tax bomb. You want to get rid of all the money in your IRA accounts by moving them over to your Roth IRA. By the time you turn 73, because conversions don't count as RMDs. And so with required minimum distributions, you have to distribute money out of the IRA and then also take the conversion. So both of those together are kind of a double witching effect. You're going to be taking out eight, ten, 12% of your leftover 401 K or IRA accounts, or 457 or 4 403 be any of those federal tax deferred accounts. And that's going to really hamper what you can do. And also it's going to drive up your tax bill if you're doing it after the age of 73. We encourage you to try to get rid of and be done with all of your conversion by the time you turn 73 years old. So start around 65, 66, 67. You'll get out in time. We like to do Roth conversions, Sam, um, between 5 and 10 years. Generally, they're right around seven years. Um, but it's a great way to delete the IRS. And you're going to if somebody has over a $400,000 in an IRA, they're going to save over six figures by doing a Roth ladder conversion plan. And we're really good at it, and we'd love the opportunity to help people do that.

Speaker4:
Yeah. Too often folks just have maybe two buckets in their retirement portfolio. They have that tax deferred bucket with the 401 K or those other tax deferred retirement accounts. And they have the cash bucket. They have the money for now. You know, the withdrawals they've made, the income they're making. You want to get a little bit more in that tax free bucket. You know in addition to the withdrawals being tax free after that waiting period, the gains are also tax free. And another benefit you may not be thinking about, but your family would certainly thank you for, is the benefit of inheriting a Roth IRA, is that there are no taxes on that event as well. So a few great reasons to consider a Roth IRA. Find out if this is something that works well with your plan. And it all starts with that complimentary financial consultation you can visit retirement Results.com. To get started, schedule that appointment with us or give us a call at (770) 685-1777. We'll help you get those statements together. Fill out your financial workbook. And that's when you get that analysis and we get started on that plan. So if you're interested, don't hesitate. Give us a call (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement Results.com.

Speaker9:
I never knew the day when I'd be saying to you, don't let this good love slip away.

Speaker1:
Hi, this is Matt McClure, senior financial advisor with retirement results. You've saved your whole life so you wouldn't have to worry about your money when you retired. But you worry more now than ever. You've been a good saver. You have 500,000, maybe $1 million or even more. You should feel confident, but you don't. You're worried a big loss will wipe you out. You saved so you could spend during retirement, but you don't. You're worried you'll run out of money. You want to retire, but you don't. You're worried you don't have enough. Does any of this sound familiar? Well, it should, because we hear these things all the time from people just like you who are preparing for retirement or even already retired. So why do you worry so much? It's because you don't have an actual plan in writing. Nothing to guide you through retirement. Retirement results helps people just like you. You'll get a free, customized written retirement plan. That's right, free and no obligation. Schedule your meeting now at retirement Results.com. That's retirement.

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

Speaker10:
Fort Stokes, an active wealth management, are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Information provided is not intended as tax or legal advice and should not be relied on as such. You are encouraged to seek tax or legal advice from an independent professional.

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