11.25.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Producer:
Welcome to the Active Wealth Show with your host, Ford Stokes. Ford is a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor who places your needs first. He’ll help you protect and grow your wealth. The Active Wealth Show has grown because activators like you want to activate their retirement planning with sound tax-efficient investing. And now your host Ford Stokes.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome activators of the Active Wealth Show. I’m Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. I’ve got Sam Davis, our executive producer on the board with us today. And today is a special Thanksgiving version, Thanksgiving weekend version of the Active Wealth Show. We have a real winner on today’s show. We always encourage you to win, to do everything you can to protect and grow your wealth here on the Active Wealth Show so you can win during retirement. And we’ve got a real winner. We’ve got Herschel Walker, who is the GOP candidate for the US Senate. He’s embroiled in a runoff on December 6th. And make sure you get out and vote on December 6th or earlier. And I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure we get a Republican in this US Senate. We need it. We need a Republican senator from Georgia. We just do. And I’m so excited and pleased to have Herschel Walker on the Active Wealth Show. Herschel, welcome to the show.

Herschel Walker :
Well, thank you for having me on. And God bless you guys.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I appreciate you. Thanks so much, Herschel. So, Herschel, you ran the ball for the University of Georgia and are considered one of the greatest running backs in the history of college football and professional football. You won the Heisman Trophy in 1982 and the national championship in 1980. Sir, you are a winner. Why are you running to support the great people in this great state of Georgia?

Herschel Walker :
Well, that’s the reason I’m running. You know, Georgia has done so much for me. We have someone in office that has been and I hate to say this, it’s been a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s a man of the cloth, but he hasn’t really went by the biblical teaching that I went by that that that’s where it talks about a house divided cannot stand. And he seems to want to divide people and separate people. And that’s not the Bible I know. I think we need to come together. That’s how you get things solved. I was brought up on teams where teams win championships, individuals win trophies. I think all he wants to do is win a trophy and make people pat him on the back and forget about the things he forget about the people that elected him to go to the office.

Ford Stokes:
I don’t see Raphael Warnock serving the state of Georgia or the people of Georgia. I see him serving. Raphael Warnock That’s what is been pretty evident to me. So do you think Raphael Warnock has represented the people of the state of Georgia and their best interest, though?

Herschel Walker :
He hasn’t And because, you know, that’s the reason we have the high gas prices. That’s the reason we have the high food prices as well. You know, when he went to Washington, he forgot about Georgia. He forgot about the Georgia people. And I think the Georgia people need to realize that he went there and, you know, you hear this all the time. He voted with Joe Biden 96% of the time. And most of the people of America are saying they’re headed in the wrong direction. That meaning that the people don’t like where we’re headed. And I don’t like it, you know, and I ask people just to look at your pocketbook. Is your pocketbook better now? Is your retirement better now? You know, you’re now having to pay money from your retirement account rather than adding to your retirement account. He making you take money out of it. You know, that’s not representing Georgia. And yet he’s gotten wealthy. You know, his salary is going up. His income is going up since he got to Washington. And I always want to say, if you’re the captain of the ship, go down with the ship. But yet he’s making the people hurt and you see the crime. This is less than two short years. Everything that has happened has been on his watch. Everything that’s going on right now has been on his watch. And that’s less than two short years. And I’m not sure if we can take six years of this.

Ford Stokes:
I realize that Georgia has gotten more purple. I understand that, you know, blue state and red state. But at the same time, there’s no way you can say with a straight face that the state of Georgia and the Georgians want to have this incredible liberal agenda that is not going to make any sense for Georgia. We work with a lot of pre-retirees and retirees and that’s who the activators are that listen to this show We’re the number one listened to show on AM 920 the Answer on the weekends for a reason. Right now his policies are hurting retirees more than anybody because inflation is stealing their buying power and stealing their lifestyle. And it is it’s a real concern for us.

Herschel Walker :
And I think that’s one of the things I think people need to realize when they go vote. And I want everyone to vote December the six or they got to if they can early vote, early vote, because, you know, on a federal level, you want your guy on your federal level to be rowing the boat in the same direction as Governor Kemp. Raphael Warnock has not done that since he got to Washington. There’s many things that governor has tried to do that he set back on the federal level and let the president destroy it. You know, he talks about. Medicaid is spent. You know, Governor Kemp had a plan that would have worked for everyone. And then when he sat back and let the president destroy that plan that Governor Kemp had, you know, people not talking about that. That would have been a plan that would have helped a lot of people. But yet and then he talks about always crossing the aisle. Well, he hasn’t done that. You know, he’s a guy that he says a lot of things, but he does not do it. All they want to do is get your vote. And that’s the reason I said that I’m going to run. You know, I’ll represent the people of Georgia and I’m going to Washington represent Georgia. I’m not going there. I don’t need another feather in my cap. God has blessed me so much. But right now, I got to give back where I can give back and go and fight for the people of Georgia.

Ford Stokes:
So what are some of the issues that you would like to prioritize if you are elected as our US senator?

Herschel Walker :
Well, one of the first thing I like to do is try to get this economy under control. I think the way we can do that and we got to get this inflation down. The way we can do that, become energy independent again. People don’t understand what I mean by that. We can drill for ourselves right here and we can do it in an environmental friendly way of drilling. They’re not telling people we are one of the most efficient, environmentally friendly drilling of anyone in the world today. But yet we’re going to have enemies. As for gas and oil, and I think people see that utility bill right now where the reason why is we’re going to our enemy to ask for energy. And that’s not right. That’s one of the first things that I like to do. And then I like to repeal the 87,000 ERs agent that’s going to come out of the after us. They’re going to come out there and then other us people don’t realize that, you know, why didn’t they put them on the border? Why don’t they put 87 and let’s put $15 down at the border? Let’s stop people from crossing the border. But I think coming energy independent, again, to be a very, very big start. And then, you know, I think getting that under control and then I’d like to get the crime down. I think crime is a major, major problem right now. People are not afraid of all our law enforcement anymore. Well, I think we’ve got to protect our men and women in blue. We’ve got to let them know that we have their backs, that they can always depend on us. This is as tough a time, I think, in America to be a law enforcement.

Ford Stokes:
Energy independence is in lockstep with inflation for sure, because if we can get the gas prices down, food prices will go down. The cost of the family Thanksgiving has gone up over 20% this year, year over year, from 2021 to 2022, it’s up over 20% to feed your family during Thanksgiving. That’s not right. And we’ve got to do a better job, I think, at not just having these runaway government programs that are incredibly inefficient. And also, we can’t penalize the savers. We cannot penalize the people, those those people who squirreled away and and put all the nuts away for the winter. You can’t sit there and penalize them and make sure they’re buying power is less than it was before. And we just can’t do that. The reason why I wanted to have you on our show, one, I want to help you get the word out. Hershel I did. The other is my wife and I, we have twin 16-year-old daughters, and I think this election is one of the most important senatorial elections in my lifetime. We cannot afford to lose another seat in the US Senate because for my daughter’s future, I want to make sure that they’re protected. I want them to be able to walk in downtown Atlanta like I did when I was a kid growing up here. What message would you like to send to the voters?

Herschel Walker :
Well, I think one of the major messages I like to send to the voters is that we’re good people here in the United States of America, and we’re good people here in the state of Georgia. Raphael, I want to say that we’re such a racist country. You know, he preached on his pulpit. This is a man of the cloth that he said America need to apologize for it. Whiteness. And the problem with America is racism. And, you know, we have our problems, but we can solve those problems together. We’ve got to think of unity. And I said early on, when I say a house divided cannot stand where we have to come together. And he believes in bringing critical race theory into the schools. And I think you’ve got to get that out of schools. Right now. Our kids are falling behind because what they want to bring into our school, they want to bring gender ideology into our school instead of teaching them how to spell, you know, and look at the 87,000 R’s age. And we could have put a police officer in each one of the schools, the private schools, and also the public schools to protect our kids. They’re not thinking about that. Everything that’s happening right now is on Senator Warner. Watch the deciding vote that people need to realize, you know, all the votes right now, the Senate was a fifth and fifth and you had the vice president, she was deciding if it was a tie where Raphael Warnock could have said no to many things that could have helped a lot of Georgia. He didn’t. He voted to put men and women’s sports. And people are talking about that. You know, that I’m coming down on people. No, no, no. I’m saying men should not be in women’s sports. Men. That’s right. It’s women. And I don’t know who thinking that. That is correct. That. That you have, and that is not men should not compete against women.

Ford Stokes:
I hope everybody gets out and votes on December 6th. And obviously we encourage everybody to vote for your wallet and vote for your retirement and vote for Herschel Walker on December 6th. Also, everybody, I would encourage you to visit team Herschel that’s TeamHerschel.com. Donate to the campaign. It’s not too late to donate to the campaign. It can help get ads out there. Any final thoughts you’ve got Herschel.

Herschel Walker :
I just want to tell the people out there, I want everyone to have their voices heard and their vote counted. December 6th is when you want to vote. If you can. Early vote, Early vote. We got to get this correct. You know, I said I got in this because my faith and I said we’re in a spiritual battle right now. We got to have some checks and balances. And I think I’m one of those checks and balances because like I told everyone else, I’m going to Washington to represent Georgia, not to represent a party, not to represent Democrat, represent Republican, but represent the people of Georgia, because that’s who sent you there to represent them. Do what’s right by the people. And that’s what I want to do, is do it right by the great people of Georgia.

Ford Stokes:
Run, Herschel, run and win. Herschel, win. Everybody, go check out Team Herschel dot com. TeamHerschel.com. Thank you so much, Herschel Walker for being on Active Wealth Show. We appreciate you and Godspeed.

Herschel Walker :
Thank you and God bless.

Producer:
At Active Wealth Management. We know you’ve worked hard for your money and you’ve worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement, Ford Stokes of the Active Wealth Show is passionate about helping people protect and grow their wealth while educating them on all their options so they can choose what’s right for them. Visit ActiveWealth.com To schedule your free consultation today. It’s a 1500 dollars value provided at no cost to you. Book yours now at ActiveWealth.com

Producer:
Remember, all of Ford’s listeners receive a free financial consultation just for listening to the show. Visit ActiveWealth.com To learn more and schedule an appointment. Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ford Stokes:
Wow, that is the biggest interview that we’ve been able to get on the Active Wealth Show in the three years that we’ve been airing this show on AM 920 The Answer. And Sam, I’ll tell you, it’s impressive. We’ve talked to US Congressman before and congresswomen, we’ve talked to, you know, the head of media relations for the Trump campaign and the RNC before. But we’ve never had a GOP senatorial candidate going through a runoff. And we really appreciate her still taking the time to talk with us.

Producer:
Yeah, it was fantastic for it. I remember talking to Doug Collins and Liz Harrington, especially in the past. You know, we try to bring on good guests to the Active Wealth Show. And Herschel Walker is just the next in line. They’re on a long string of great guests, but important to get out there on December 6th and vote in the Georgia runoff election.

Ford Stokes:
It’s also really big for me, for street cred for Thanksgiving. I’ve got a lot of relatives that have gone to the University of Georgia, and that’s a pretty big deal. So thank you, Herschel, for that. Also, I would encourage everyone, if you listen to what Herschel had to say, how why it’s so important that we vote with our conscience out there and also with our retirement and our wallets in mind. If you don’t want runaway spending and you don’t want runaway inflation, then you really should be voting for the GOP side of the ticket. If you are concerned about your own retirement and you’re not concerned about giving up your hard-earned and hard-saved dollars for government entitlement programs that are not efficient at distributing money, then I would encourage you to vote on the GOP side of the ticket. If you are trying to protect and grow your wealth and you’re trying to invest tax efficiently, efficiently and market efficiently and you’re worried about the future and you’re worried about what happens in elections and you’re concerned about what’s going on in the elections. And I would encourage you to absolutely reach out in the in the booth, in the voting booth to the US Congress and say, you know what, I’m voting for my retirement. I’m voting for my family’s retirement, I’m voting for my legacy. I’m voting to make sure that I can pass on money to my heirs. And in my opinion, that’s the GOP side of the ticket.

Ford Stokes:
This is policies for sure For me, we need conservatives in the US Senate. It’s the legislation. Just remember what Milton Friedman said. He said that inflation comes from one place and that’s Washington, D.C. He’s exactly he was exactly right. He’s one of the most famous economists in the history of the United States, and I agree with him 1,000%. And we’ve got to stop just printing money. Stop what started with the Barack Obama years with quantitative easement. We’ve got to get more fiscally conservative, more fiscally responsible, just like you are with your own checkbook. We’ve got to do a better job at that. So certainly appreciate Herschel Walker being on the show with us today. And also, if you’re interested in trying to get a free financial consultation with us and you’re a new listener of the show because you heard that Herschel Walker is going to be on the show this week, then I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at Active wealth dot com. That’s active wealth dot com. You can click that schedule a consultation button the upper right corner and we’re happy to give you a free financial consultation that’ll include a Social Security maximization report, a portfolio analysis so you can understand the risk you’re taking, the fees you’re paying with your current portfolio, even the fees that don’t show up on your monthly statement. And then also we’ll give you a free financial plan with your own current plan that has nothing to do with us to your 95th birthday, and we’ll give you one with our recommended portfolios to your 95th birthday.

Ford Stokes:
And also finally will give you a financial plan with our recommended portfolios with a Roth ladder conversion added to that. So you can understand how you could delete the IRS out from being your partner in retirement. Also, if you’re wondering who an activator is and Activator is somebody who listens to the Active Wealth Show as somebody who wants to protect and grow their wealth, that’s somebody who wants to build that tax efficient, fee efficient and market-efficient portfolio. And we can help you do that. All you’ve got to do is reach out to us at active wealth dot com that’s active wealth dot com. You can also call us Deborah and our team are standing by at 770 685 1777. Again our number is 770 685 1777. You can reach out to us and schedule a free financial consultation. It is a $5,500 value that we’re going to give to you. Absolutely. At no cost to you because you’re an activator, because you’re actually listening this show and you’re trying to get better, you’re trying to learn and grow. And just really, if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly. You’re trying to seek as much information as you can about your own retirement. And with anything, knowledge is power and I really applaud you for listening. Active. Well, show to do that.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it’s time for the Quote of the Week.

Ford Stokes:
So the quote of the week comes from Warren Buffett. He says, do not save what is left after spending. Instead, spend what is left after saving. So you really do need to save. You need to invest for the future. Do everything you can to invest in your future. Also, I would call out and my retirees out there when you’re taking required minimum distributions, let’s say you’re after the age of 72 years old. Don’t just take that money that you’re distributing from your IRA or your your four or three B or your 41k or your Sep IRA. Chances are most of this stuff has gotten rolled over into an IRA except for maybe your Sep IRA. Make sure. That you’re saving and reinvesting some of that money that you don’t spend. Don’t just let it sit in the checking account. Right. The other thing you could do is there’s other ways you can invest the extra money that’s there. What is left after spending, right. Is Warren Buffett just said what we could do is we could actually invest it into a five year MIGA. I would encourage you, if you’ve got a question about a multi year guaranteed annuity that is a bank CD alternative, I would encourage you to go ahead and pick the phone and give us a call at 770 685 1777 again 770 685 1777.

Ford Stokes:
Also, if you’re looking for a bond replacement strategy on some of the money. Let’s say you’ve lost money in the market this year to bonds because the Fed keeps going up 75 basis points almost every single month. Then what I would encourage you to do is to reach out to us and we’ll give you a bond replacement strategy. You can also get my free report at bond replacement dot com that’s bond replacement dot com. And we can really help you protect and grow your assets in a more efficient way. Also, you can eliminate interest rate risk and reinvestment risk by positioning to a bond replacement strategy. We encourage you to do that. All you’ve got to do is visit active wealth dot com. That’s ActiveWealth.com. You can click the schedule a consultation button, the upper right corner and also Sam can you let them know how they can watch that interview again and how they can get in touch with us.

Producer:
Visit Active Wealth Show dot com that’s ActiveWealthShow.com And you can actually find the Active Wealth Show wherever you listen to podcasts. So if you’re an iPhone user, you can find us on Apple Podcasts. If you’ve got an Android, you can find us on Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your shows, you can find us there as well.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, the rest of the show, we’ve we’re just going to get back to basics. We’re going to help you understand how to retire in today’s difficult financial landscape. And also want to give you an important reminder of Medicare’s annual open enrollment period. Their AP annual enrollment period is what it stands for is from October 15th through December 7th. There’s still time to get your Medicare plan looked at, and I would encourage you to reach out to us and we’ll get you in touch with Bonnie Dobbs with Medicare and other red tape. She’s fantastic. She sat on the Council for Aging for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She still writes articles for the AJC, and she’s got thousands of Medicare customers and six or seven advisors that work for her that could help you in all different parts of the city of Atlanta. We like working with the best of the best and Bonnie’s absolutely the best out there. So also, if you’re wondering what what it’s like to work with us again, what we ask people to do when they meet with us for the first time is to bring all their statements and their expenses and their just like what they expend on a monthly basis and. And also bring their Social Security statements in. And so we can get an understanding of what their income and their assets are and also what their expense needs are.

Ford Stokes:
And then we develop a full financial plan that we deliver within a week’s time. We do all of that on the front end at no cost to our Activator listeners and to our clients or prospects, because we want to have a great start to our relationship, as you know, because we’re probably going to be together for 30-plus years if we’re if we’re doing a good job protecting and growing your wealth. And so we would encourage you to reach out to us at 770 685 1777. We give you all this information, all the reports that I talked about earlier in this segment with your portfolio analysis, your Social Security maximization report and your financial plans to your 95th birthday, that also include a Roth ladder conversion plan. We do all of that on the front end for free at no cost to you. It’s a $1,500 financial planning value. That we could charge for, but we don’t want to because we want to help you make an informed financial decision. At no cost to you. We feel like that’s the best way to do it, and not everybody does it that way. There are a lot of people that don’t have as much confidence in their plans and they they charge on the front end for their plans. And we don’t because we’re fiduciaries, we want to put your needs ahead of our own and we feel like it’s just a better way to do business.

Ford Stokes:
And also, the rest of this show, we’re talking about getting back to the basis. We’re going to talk about three important financial rules. We’re also going to share what’s going on with EFT and cryptocurrency and how this radio show and this private wealth management firm did not invest in cryptocurrency for a reason. And it’s all the reasons are now coming to the forefront. And also we want to talk about safe options since we’ve seen confidence erode with things like FDX. We want to do everything we can to help you guys and gals protect and grow your wealth and give you some smart, safe options for investing. And also, we’re going to also talk about how to manage risk and protect your hard-earned and hard save money. We’ll have an inflation demonstration. And we’ve got this week in history again, we want to thank Herschel Walker, senatorial candidate for the GOP, for the Republican Party in this cycle, this voting cycle that is going through a runoff election. And make sure you’re out there voting for your wallet and voting for your own retirement using Active Wealth Show right here on AM 920 The Answer, will be right back.

Producer:
Thanks so much for listening to the Active wealth show. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back, Activators the Active Wealth Show. I’m Ford Stokes chief financial Advisor. We’re so happy that Herschel Walker was able to talk to us in the first segment. And also I’ve got Sam Davis, our executive producer. And Sam, it’s time to play right or wrong.

Producer:
Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in Right or wrong.

Producer:
All right, Ford, first item on this week’s right or wrong, I will read a statement and you will help the listeners understand if that is right or wrong. Bonds are on track to have one of their worst years ever in 2022. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
Believe it or not. It is, right? According to The New York Times, it’s been the worst time for Bonds since 1926 and maybe in centuries. During the times of rising interest rates. Older bonds you may be currently holding are worth less because newer bonds offer more desirable and higher interest rates. This is why we recommend replacing your bonds with fixed index annuities to protect your hard earned money. Eliminate fees and guarantee yourself an income that you can never outlive, but also help you avoid. Interest rate risk and reinvestment risk that are associated with bonds that are not associated with fixed indexed annuities because you can get market like gains because what they do is they they invest 100% of the money you give them into the ten year US Treasury, which is now at over 4.2%. And that’s a whole lot of money. So if you invest $100,000 into a fixed indexed annuity, the annuity company is going to and all the all the annuities and life insurance business, it’s all regulated by the states, not regulated federally, although there are federal regulations that go with it. But you don’t have federal regulators. It’s all the state insurance commissioners you’re looking at. Let’s say you invest $100,000 into a fixed indexed annuity. They’ve got to reserve or invest 100% of the money you give them. Say they buy 100,000 worth of ten year US Treasury bonds. Then at 4.2%, at the end of year one, you’ll have 40 $200 in which the annuity company will invest your money into options and and options like the Credit Suisse, Raven Pack, Credit Suisse Momentum.

Ford Stokes:
Or the JPMorgan Cycle Index or the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ 100, etc.? Well. They’ll also give you a participation rate or not. There’s also BNP Paribas, the index that Nationwide uses that is doing very well. But there. The interest rates traditionally in my career have been for the ten year US Treasury that all the annuity companies utilize to do the 100% financial reserve is they will put it into it’s usually right around 1.4 to 2%. So they’re going they’re making. At least two times the amount of interest that they normally would make. To then go and buy these options for you. And and also they’ll take a little bit of the gains and you get a little bit of the gains. That’s a really attractive situation where, let’s say the market goes down like it has in this year. You’re going to zero, but you’re not going below zero because your money is invested in the ten year US Treasury. It’s not invested in the stock market and you might lose the 40 $200 invested in the options, but you’re not losing any of your $100,000 principal. So that’s how those things work. I would just say bottom line here, guys and gals do everything you can to start replacing your bonds and not be as leveraged in bonds. Inspector Gee, expect almost 100% of the couples and the individuals who come in to speak with us at the Active Wealth Show. After the Active Wealth Show, they come in and meet with us at Active Wealth Management in our 29th floor office in the King Queen Building.

Ford Stokes:
We’re in the King Building down there in Concourse and Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. Almost 100% of the people that come in and talk to us, they have no idea what bonds they hold. They don’t know when their bonds are mature. They don’t know the duration of their bonds. They don’t know the risk level or the yield level of their bonds. And if you’re investing 40% of your money, don’t you think you should actually understand? What’s going on with 40% of your money? What is the duration of your bonds? What is what are all the risks you’re taking with bonds? What’s the inflation risk and reinvestment risk you’re taking? We can help you with all of that. All you’ve got to do is come in and talk to us. Just visit active wealth dot com and we’re happy to help you. All you got to do is click that, schedule a consultation button. You’ll meet directly with me and I’ll help you through the whole process. You can better inspect. Or do you expect about your current portfolio and also try to get you on the right path so you can get a little bit safer. Don’t have to watch the stock and Bond ticker as much every single day during retirement and hope you can enjoy retirement and spend more time with your family and friends and really enjoy your retirement years.

Producer:
All right, next statement on right or wrong. Here it is. Cryptocurrency is a safe and effective way to grow your money in a short period of time. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
Well, I think we’ve all seen what’s going on, what’s going on with FTX, and I think we’ll play some of that in a market update coming up. But. That is absolutely wrong. Cryptocurrency investments like Bitcoin offer no consumer protection and are incredibly volatile. One of the largest crypto-investing companies filed for bankruptcy last week. That was after there were cryptocurrency exchange. And according to the Wall Street Journal article, they talked about Sam Bankman-fried and he was sitting in the crosshairs of US prosecutors as well. He was getting extradited from the Bahamas, where he was to come back to the United States. I would just encourage you to please don’t risk your hard-earned retirement dollars in the unregulated cryptocurrency market. There are safe investments out there that can provide you market-like gains with no market risk.

Producer:
Third and final item on this week’s right or wrong. Higher interest rates combined with a down market make now one of the most opportune times to consider. A fixed indexed annuity. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
Believe it or not. That’s right. With interest rate interest rates. Believe or not. That’s right. With interest rates at the highest level since 2007, annuity companies are able to generate more interest. They invest in options. So. When you invest in a fixed indexed annuity, your money, like I said before, is tied to an index without it being directly invested in the stock market. So. Your interest from. Those ten year US Treasury bonds that are generated at the end of each year. Those are. At risk. But your actual principle is not at risk because your total principal, 100% of your principal is invested into what’s considered one of the safer investments on the planet, which is the ten year US Treasury bond. Also this feature. Of annuities allows people to sidestep the market and take advantage of gains without risking their principal. So if your options that the the annuity company invests in where they’re taking a portion of the gains and you’re getting a portion of the gains. If those go to zero, guess what? Your. Your principal is still invested 100% in the ten year US Treasury, which is just paying interest. And at the end of the of the ten years they’re going to they’ll give you your principal back.

Ford Stokes:
You have got an opportunity to make sure that you protect and grow your wealth at a more effective and more efficient way than you’re doing. If you’re if you’re investing in a 6040 portfolio, 60% stocks, 40% bonds. It’s like one of the worst times ever to be in a 6040 portfolio this year because. The S&P 500 lost between 22 and 25%, and US corporate bonds have lost between 13 and 14 plus percent. And most of the losses on the bond side are all about one thing. It’s all about the US Fed going up 75 basis points, almost almost on a monthly basis this year. It’s interest rate risk. That’s all it is to it, because the bonds you used to hold, like we said before, are not as attractive as the new bonds that have a higher interest rate. So therefore, your bond must be discounted. To be attractive to buyers. So I would encourage you. To be careful about having bond exposure in your portfolio. And the best way to do that is to replace it with fixed indexed annuities or even a shorter term basis multi year guaranteed annuities where you can actually get a good reasonable rate of return without taking market risk.

Producer:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It’s time for an inflation demonstration.

Ford Stokes:
I got to tell you, Sam, you know, we’ve got to have better energy policy. I understand that the. The red side of the aisle on the left side of the aisle they want. To just have everything be running on electricity, which isn’t really possible right now. And even if everybody got their own Tesla, we’d still need coal fired electrical plants to support the electrical grid. Right? The power grid. There’s no reason why, other than political reasons why President Joe Biden, who may be your president, he’s not mine. I don’t. And I just really don’t think he was duly elected the right way. And I just cannot believe that he, on the first day did away with the Keystone pipeline and everybody said, oh, well, go get another job. That’s not nice to say to anybody. And I’m not saying that to the folks that are getting laid off or fired from Twitter. I’m because I don’t wish anybody to lose their job. I think that’s not a good situation. And I want to hopefully support everybody out there. But we need to do things like support the Keystone pipeline and and get back to being energy independent. Also, I got to tell you, there’s a lot of energy crisis going to happen this winter when Russia’s supposedly already shut off the natural gas pipeline for Europe, for Eastern Europe and Germany is going to be in a world of hurt as well. We have just got to get better. So hopefully the inflation won’t continue to go rampant and we won’t see energy prices continue to go through the roof.

Producer:
Yeah, the numbers we’re looking at for diesel prices have increased 33% for November deliveries and are expected to go higher. Obviously, diesel affects the cost of shipping for everything we need from foods, other essential goods and all those Christmas presents that are soon going to be shipped all around the United States. So not a good look. And shipping costs will affect the cost of everything. Further contributing to this tough inflationary environment we’re dealing with. But Ford, when we come back, we’ve got a big segment on bond replacement. We talked a little bit about that here in Segment three. Be sure to come back to the Active Wealth Show for Segment four.

Charlie Kirk:
Charlie Kirk here. If you’re concerned about your investments, then I encourage you to listen to the Active Wealth Show hosted by my good friend Ford Stokes. Saturdays at Noon and Sundays at 11.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC. BCM a registered investment advisor, not an actual client of Active Wealth Management.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back. Activators the Active Wealth Show. I’m Ford Stokes, the chief financial advisor. I’ve got Sam Davis with us, our executive producer. And we’re talking about back to basics. Sam talked about other things. We’re going to talk about cryptocurrency and what’s going on with Sam Brinkman Fit Freed and FTX we’re going to do that. But we’re also going to talk about two big rules. So the back-to-basics would be the rule of 100 is the first rule. The rule of 100 says you should take 100 and subtract your age from it. The result is the maximum percentage of your money that should be at risk. So if you’re 60 years old. And you subtract that from 100, you’ve got 40 left over. That means for only 40% of your money should be invested in the market. The problem is so many folks have put 60% in bonds. And they’ve also lost money this year because of the bonds. Even though bonds are supposed to give us income and be a place where people run to safety when stocks are down. That’s not what’s happening. We don’t have that efficient frontier that Harry Markowitz tried to give us as being the author of. Modern portfolio theory in 1952. That’s a 70 year old strategy, by the way. It also set up, you know. All these different wire houses to make it easier for them to manage your money because all they have to do is 60% stocks and 40% bonds.

Ford Stokes:
And they can reallocate whenever they want to, but they basically don’t. And it’s a buy and hold and and and you’re just to hold on and all that kind of stuff. You really should be thinking about doing a bond replacement strategy, as Sam was saying. And you should consider investing 40% of your assets instead of in bonds. Invest in fixed index annuities to give you market-like gains without market risk. Also, with a fixed indexed annuity, there are no advisory and portfolio fees that you pay the advisor. So you’re deleting that part of. Your fees that you’re paying to your financial advisor, that’s a really good thing. And we’ve got an example that Sam, maybe you can put up here on the screen. The example is, let’s say a couple’s got a million bucks and they’ve got 600,000 in stocks and $400,000 in bonds. Based on 2020. The Moody’s ban index did like 3.32%. The same year, a fixed indexed annuity returned a 6.99% rate of return. The annuity that I’m talking about is fee efficient 6.99% in 2020 on your money, whereas the average rate of return on the bond was only 3.32%. But here’s the deal. If you were to look at it for this year, my gosh, you got 14% losses and 0% losses on the annuity side. This equation gets even better. But in the example I just gave at the end of 35 years, the 400,000 that was invested in bonds for the couple, they would have 1.33 million, $1.33 million left at the end.

Ford Stokes:
If they spent none of that money and didn’t withdraw any money. Conversely, in that same example, if they put the $400,000 in a fixed-indexed annuity, that fixed-indexed annuity, if they took no withdrawals from it would be 4.187 million. That is a $2.854 Million difference, folks. Plus in the example, they deleted $210,000 in. Advisory and portfolio fees over the 35-year period, even if if the just if the bond had remained flat at 400 grand. So I just want to say a bond replace is try to I’ve never seen an illustration showing or any type of calculation that shows where investment in bonds over the long haul, where you’re just buying bonds and you’re not trading them every day or something like that, you’re doing a long buy and hold on bonds, US corporate bonds. I’ve never seen it where that outperforms the fixed indexed annuity because of the market linkage and the market index part of the annuity. Also, we like to invest in annuities for our clients that are tax efficient for efficient and market efficient. Market efficient would be because we don’t you know, the money’s not invested in the market, so you can’t lose money if the stock market goes down because your money is invested in the ten year US treasuries we talked about earlier on the show fee efficiently where we’re deleting 210,000 of advisory and portfolio fees over 35 year period or 6000 a year on the 400,000 in this example that we’re trying to talk about with this couple that has a million bucks and 4400 grand is in bonds and 600,000 is in annuity.

Ford Stokes:
But then the tax efficient piece, you’re a lot more tax efficient because your your money is invested into a tax deferred environment in a tax deferred financial product. So you only pay taxes when you take distributions from them. The other misnomer that a lot of people don’t know is that you can actually convert an IRA into a Roth IRA within specific annuity chassis and we can help you do that or you can invest fixed indexed annuity money, ROTH money into fixed indexed annuities and generate distributions from that Roth IRA and no with no taxes on the principal or the gains. All you got to do is visit ActiveWealth.com, click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner or call our office at 770 685 1777. We’re happy to help you so that’s the rule of 100 and we talked about bond replacement so we kind of checked off two big boxes that Sam and I have talked about on this show for this week. The next is the 4% rule, which really has everything to do with you. You really need to manage your spend. You need to avoid over-withdrawing money from your portfolio if you’re going to stop working and you don’t want to go back to work and you want to say, hey, welcome to Walmart or you don’t want to stock shelves.

Ford Stokes:
And you want to keep enjoying your retirement and spending time with your family again. We spend a lot of time in our family. The more time we spend together, that’s what we do. And and time is very important. I would encourage you. To get smart and delete the iris out of being your partner. Retirement with a Roth IRA Roth ladder conversion and also get smart and replace your bonds that are in your portfolio today. Like, I mean, I would pick the phone up and give us a call. 770 685 1777. I would I would just pick the phone up and calls. Because or I would visit active wealth dot com and click that schedule console button because you’ve got to I mean you got to stop the madness I mean why are you risking why are you losing 14% on bonds this year. Well you are because you stayed in a 6040 portfolio and you trusted your advisor. Don’t do that. Let’s have an open dialogue and a real conversation. So that you can make an informed financial decision because it’s your money. You made it. I just remember it was tough to make that money. It was even tougher to save it. And it’s your money. I want to do everything I can to protect and grow your hard earned and hard save wealth.

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

Ford Stokes:
Well, we want to really thank GOP senatorial candidate Herschel Walker. Also, former 1982 Heisman Trophy winner, former national champion. Georgia bulldog in football. I mean, college football for joining us today. Herschel, we appreciate you running for the state of Georgia’s Senate seat. We hope you we appreciate you running for us. We appreciate you. Running for freedom and running for us to protect and grow. Our wealth, but also protect and grow our lives. And we have so many pre-retirees and retirees who have families who listen to this show every week. Thank you. Thank you for running. We hope you win. We are going to support you. I’m voting for you. And I don’t mind telling everybody on the airwaves that I’m voting for Herschel Walker during that runoff election. It is also my hope and prayer that this is a legal and fair election. And that is transparent and we don’t have the problems with water main breaks and five suitcases full of ballots that were copied and didn’t have watermarks on them. That happened in the 2020 election in this state. I hope that doesn’t happen again and I hope we see a good situation. We saw our friend Doug Collins lose last time. We hope that Herschel Walker wins this time. We also talked about how to get back to basics with the rule of 100 and the 4% rule. We talked about bond replacement and how replacing the 40% are bond bonds that are in your portfolio likely now with a 60 to 40 portfolio.

Ford Stokes:
It would be a really good idea for you to consider moving that money into fixed-indexed annuities and let the rest of your money be invested into ETFs and US securities. Also, be careful on investing in mutual funds because they carry 12 B one fees and a share fees and C share fees. And an ETF is a great way to implement your portfolio. Multiple ETFs. You can do a diversification of your portfolio, therefore superior product from a fee perspective than mutual funds. Let’s make sure we do that. And we talked about what’s going on with cryptocurrency with Sam Bankman-fried and FTX. Please do not invest in cryptocurrency right now. Please be safe on everything and slow and steady wins the race here. We want to make sure we’re protecting and growing your hard-earned and hard saved wealth. And thank you so much for listening. Active Wealth Show. This is a special edition of the Active Wealth Show because we had GOP senatorial candidate Herschel Walker on this show. We appreciate he and the RNC making sure that happened. And good luck in the election on December 6th. Herschel and run, Herschel, run. Good luck. Remember, if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly. If you’re seeking knowledge about your retirement, do everything you can to seek as much information as you can to protect and grow your wealth. Have a great weekend, everybody.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard-earned assets. To schedule your free consultation, call your Chief Financial Advisor Ford Stokes at 770 685 1777 or visit ActiveWealth.com.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC. Become a Registered Investment Advisor BCM and Active Wealth Management or 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 can not be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy. Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short-term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuer.

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