How To Protect Your Retirement as the Market Drops

4.11.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

4.11.25: 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:
Welcome to retirement. Results. Result drivers. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial adviser. And we've got Sam Davis here, our senior financial advisor and co-host on the show here with us. Sam, say hello to everybody.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the weekend result drivers. Thank you so much for tuning in once again to retirement results. Just want to shout out to everybody listening across the great state of Georgia. Whether you're listening in Atlanta on Am 920 The answer or Up around the Lake on Wdan. We really appreciate you listening. Uh, we also really appreciate our podcast listeners and our podcast subscribers, Ford. We have people listening in many states across this great country, listening to retirement results, trying to get better with their retirement plan, and really inspecting what they expect, especially during a time like this.

Speaker3:
Yeah. So on this week's show, the title of this week's show is Are You Terrified of Losing More Money? Sam was a little concerned. That was too much of a dad joke, but now I thought it was right. I thought we needed to put that in there. But we're going to talk about how retirees can navigate tariffs, inflation and market volatility today. Yeah, we've all seen all kinds of things going on regarding the tariffs this show and these advisors that work with active wealth management who power retirement results. We are on the side of Donald J. Trump our president the United States. We are glad that we're finally redoing the world order here and trying to bring more jobs back to the United States. Let's be quite honest and factual here, folks. The United States, we are the consumers of the of the world, and almost all countries have trade. Give us a trade deficit. So they are exporting their goods to us. We have trade deficits with every country in the world that export to us. And it's almost every country also. Donald J. Trump and all of his team have decided, hey, we're also going to keep these other countries from pushing their goods through other countries that don't have. Tariffs on them. And so that's why he's tariffed everybody at a certain level.

Speaker3:
And so I think we've got a real opportunity to bring the American dream back. Bring 99,000 manufacturing plants that we lost, um, since the signing of NAFTA back. I think we're being a lot better spot for sure, but we're going to go through. What you can do as a retiree to really navigate these tariffs kind of. Fight inflation and also how to deal with this market volatility that we've seen. And it's been a significant amount of market volatility. We've seen losses of. Basically the gains of the last year in the last few weeks here Sam. So today's show. We're going to talk about tax Day is April 15th. Coming up another fun thing. There's less liquidity in the market when people are paying their taxes. That's another factor in what you're seeing in the marketplace. And then stock markets tariff tantrum. We take a look at the data in our market, update how retirees are also reacting and what moves to make or not make during a time like this. And then also we're going to help you retire smarter by avoiding these mistakes, helping people retire with a lot more confidence out there. And Sam, go ahead and share this week's financial wisdom quote of the week.

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

Speaker4:
This week's quote of the week comes to us from Warren Buffett, the renowned investor sometimes referred to as the Oracle of Omaha. And Warren Buffett once said, never test the depth of the river with both your feet. And I think what Warren Buffett's really getting at here forward is all about risk management and risk tolerance. You know, if you're going to take a risk, don't go all in if you're unsure how something's going to turn out for you. And during times like this with market volatility, the people who have a protected portion of their portfolio where they know they don't have to worry about their retirement income, are riding this out a lot better than those who are fully exposed and approaching retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I mean, that's that's 100% fact. I mean, right there people that have replaced the bonds in their portfolio that have gotten an income stream they can never outlive, they can count on for 20 to 40%, maybe as high as 50% of their overall portfolio. They're good. They they feel like they've done everything they need to do. And they're getting the income. They're getting that mailbox money that they can count on. And it's kind of a big deal. Um, let's go ahead and talk about retirement tax strategies for this tax season, and we'll get back into tariffs and what you should be doing now. So final reminder Tax day is coming up on April 15th. Consult with a tax professional. Uh we do a lot of tax planning with Roth ladder conversions. We are not tax preparation professionals. We're not CPAs. We do partner with some CPA firms. We can do some referrals if you want a referral to my accountant. Um. He's fantastic. He does a great job. Um, but if you have a complex financial situation or unsure about certain tax matters, consider seeking advice from a licensed tax professional. They can help you ensure that you're taking advantage of all available deductions. One example is take advantage of that over 65 tax deduction for each one of you within a family. A lot of people don't do that. And so make sure you're taking advantage of that. And then you also want to file your taxes on time. Make sure you file your tax return by the deadline which is April 15th. If you need more time you can file for an extension. But remember that an extension only extends the time to file, not the time to pay any taxes owed. And there are only two types of tax reimbursements out there. As a reminder, there's life insurance and Roth IRAs. And we help people delete the IRS from being their partner in retirement. All you got to do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777 or visit us at retirement results.com forward slash. Submit your information and we'll get started right away. Again that's retirement. Com forward slash plan.

Speaker4:
And if you're listening to this show over Masters Weekend where Augusta National is is hosting one of the best golf tournaments, if not the best tournament of the year this weekend. That means that tax day is only a few days away. So you might be listening to this on the podcast months from now, but if you're listening and it's Masters weekend, you've only got a few days left to do your taxes. Um, I highly recommend working with a professional. Ford I've been working with the same licensed CPA for the last five years now, and I cannot tell you how helpful it is to have somebody be able to help you make sure you're taking advantage of all your deductions. Uh, if you're a small business owner, that can be particularly important. Um, and my wife has a ton of 1099 income and tax documents from different places. It's always just good to have somebody be able to answer those questions. And that's why we recommend people come to us when it comes to their retirement planning and and building that smart plan for their future. Um, just have somebody that you can ask questions to and for. That's the role we really play as fiduciaries. And we're going to be having a lot of honest conversations with folks over the next month or so while we ride out this volatility.

Speaker3:
Absolutely. And there's been a lot of people that have been concerned about what's going on in the markets. Over the last 2 to 3 weeks, we've seen a significant amount of market downturn, a lot of market volatility. By the numbers. Here's the stock markets what we're calling the tariff tantrum. It's what our chief investment officer Mark Diorio is calling in as well. Um and this came from a Financial Express article American savers are going through a difficult period, particularly those who are getting close to retirement. The impact of tariffs and imminent risk of a US recession is causing havoc in in the In the stock market, causing significant damage to Americans following retirement accounts. Last week, US markets saw $6 trillion wiped out, leaving investors in a state of shock. Stocks lost a total of 6.6 trillion in value on April 3rd and April 4th, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The US stock market lost around $11.1 trillion of market capitalization since January 17th. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 11.9% since January 20th, while the S&P 500 index is down 15.4%. The Russell 2000, the small cap stock index, has fallen by more than 25% since reaching a record closing high of 2440 203 on November 25th, 2024. For those who are still at least ten years away from retirement, this market downturn could be a very nice opportunity to add more to the portfolio For others, de-risking process should begin when one is at least five years away from retirement.

Speaker3:
When you're in that retirement red zone of retirement, which is that five years before retirement, the five years after. Listen, if you are already retired, not all is lost. There are things that we can do to help you kind of grab back on these losses that you've seen. And and there's ways to get bonuses on products and ways to get income. You can never outlive and get market like gains. And we can we'll walk you through that here in segments two, three and four this week. Um, our retirement income tip of the week is you can reduce the risk in your portfolio and establish a personal pension that creates a lifetime income stream with one simple strategy. And again, if you're looking to get more information on this, all you have to do is reach out to us at retirement. Com forward slash plan. Put your information in and we're happy to get started. You can also go to retirement. Com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. A lot of people are doing that. So just go to retirement. Com and on the home page, it's tough for people to remember a phone number, Sam, but it's really great for people just to go to retirement. Com and click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. They get booked directly into our calendars.

Speaker4:
All right. And when we come back, we know that the news hasn't been the best lately. But we're going to get into some tips about what you can do now if you're a pre retiree or if you're a retiree and you're just concerned about losing more money. We've got some help for you just on the other side of this break. Thanks for listening. You're listening to retirement results.

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

Speaker6:
Just a small town girl living in a lonely world.

Speaker1:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

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

Speaker3:
Welcome back to retirement results result drivers I'm Fred Stokes your chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our co-host and senior financial advisor. And Sam, you know this is a very important show. I mean, a lot of people are really concerned, like, how do we navigate what's going on out there. And a lot of them are result drivers. And people are wondering who a result driver is. It's somebody who listens to this show who's looking to build their retirement, willing to protect and grow their hard earned and hard saved assets. They don't want to give up 20% of their assets in two weeks, like some have done. And like we've seen a lot of 41K plans that performed. We're seeing the 41K plans are losing double, triple, quadruple what some of our our clients are losing. I mean, it's really kind of scary out there. And I wanted to share a little bit about from Mark Diorio what he said, what investors and retirees and Pre-retirees should know.

Speaker2:
Your active wealth market update.

Speaker3:
The recent market sell off has been driven by policy uncertainty and tariff policy shock. Importantly, the recent market sell off is not driven by the financial system imbalances, unlike 2008. The US private sector is not facing major structural imbalances. This is coming from Mark Dwyer, our chief investment officer. He's also a certified financial analyst as well. The market is responding to potential for downward pressure on corporate earnings and possibly a mild contraction. History offers some useful parallels the euro crisis contagion 2011 oil crash in 2015. The fed rate hikes in 2022, during which time the equity market fell around 15 to 20% in 2022. We all are familiar with what happened in 2022 and also who was president of the United States then, which was Joe Biden. With the equity market down around 17% from record highs, we may be nearing the tail end of the sell off. This has been an extremely quick market decline, with the market dropping 10% in just two days, Thursday and Friday of last week, there have been only three other times the market has dropped that quickly. October 1987, November 2008 and March of 2020. While each instant did not necessarily mark the absolute bottoms, they came very close and were ultimately followed by higher prices. The market may be fast entering peak tariff tantrum is what we're calling it these days, with the market's fear gauge, the VIX soaring to levels consistent with market bottoming phases, the tech heavy Nasdaq index has declined a little over 20%.

Speaker3:
Obviously, since the US is so dominant in technology. We're going to be the ones hit by retaliatory tariffs is what what the market's baking in in my opinion. However, historically after the Nasdaq has found its bottom, it has taken an average of just 13 trading days for the Nasdaq to rally more than 20% from that low. It has taken an average of just 13 trading days for the Nasdaq to rally, more than 20% from that low. No matter how bad the news is, there's always a price which you want to be a buyer and this time is no different. The situation remains fluid and we will continue to monitor the market conditions for sure. But you need to stay invested. It's just your bottom line. But there's ways to stay invested that are different than what your typical stock and bond portfolio. The typical 60 over 40 portfolio of 60% stocks and or ETFs or mutual funds and 40% bonds, you can do better. We absolutely can do better than that.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I would say that if you're somebody driving around or listening to retirement results, whatever you're doing this weekend, or if you're a podcast subscriber listening on your favorite podcast app and all of this news lately you've been seeing it. You've been seeing the markets drop and and you feel scared to check your 401 K balance or check your IRA balance. That's something that we've been hearing from people. We've heard that before. We're hearing it a lot right now saying, you know, hey, Sam, I just I haven't even logged in. I'm scared to see what it looks like. And, Ford, I know you've been hearing the same thing. If that's you, that's a really good sign that you need to give us a call this weekend and visit retirement Results.com. Find our number. Give us a call. It's (770) 685-1777. I mean, why wouldn't you work with a team of fiduciaries who can do that? Smart portfolio analysis show you the risk that you're currently taking, show you the fees that you're currently paying and offer some some sound strategies. And ultimately you get to make the decision because it's your money. Um, and do you want to ride out this volatility in the same way that you're doing now? Do you want to do that again in the future and decades into retirement? Ford I think a lot of people are looking for a smoother ride and and really get to those guarantees where they can and not to say that they shouldn't be invested.

Speaker4:
They absolutely should. But if you can protect your retirement income with 50% or even less, often we're able to do it with less than half of the portfolio, then you're not so concerned about your money that is invested in the market. But Ford, here's how people are reacting to the stock market sell off following some new tariffs. It's an especially tough time for those who are nearing retirement. You know, the sequence of returns risk, those who are hit with those losses close to retirement. It takes a while to recover. You know, if the market drops 10%, you actually need to gain more than 11% to get back just to even just to where you were before. Not only are Pre-retirees portfolios losing value at a time that they can least afford it, they're often the people least able to absorb higher costs on their fixed incomes. If you're retired. Many are living on fixed income. If you're getting ready to retire, you're trying not to draw down those assets too quickly. You're trying to save as much as you can before you actually leave the workplace.

Speaker3:
Yeah, and we're also seeing so many folks that pre-retirees and retirees are now postponing large or nonessential discretionary purchases. It's really worth being intentional about your spending right now. So be careful there. Um, other retirees are interested in shifting strategies from concentrated stock positions to a more truly diversified portfolio, and really get diversified in their holdings, not just, hey, we're going to invest in stocks and bonds on the same market indexes. What we're going to do is we're going to invest some in insurance products, some in ETFs. Um, you know, and we're going to try to be non-correlated negatively correlated with our assets. And if you don't have a truly diversified portfolio, you don't really know what one looks like. That's okay. You've done a great job at earning your money and saving your money. Let us help you build that successful retirement that you really deserve. Go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Again. (770) 685-1777. Or also reach out to us at retirement Results.com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. We're happy to help you get started right away.

Speaker4:
Yeah, Ford, I would say now is really an ideal time to reassess your market exposure. Consider reducing your stock allocation if you have too much exposure based on your actual risk tolerance. Sometimes, Ford, we sit down with people. They're afraid of the stock market. They're entering retirement. They don't want to have to see red arrows or green arrows every day and let that affect how they feel. But then when we get into their portfolio. What they're actually invested in doesn't align with what they're telling us and what their tolerance is in the retirement lifestyle that they're looking to have. And that's where we really want to bring it more in line. And one thing that I think people really appreciate is when we do these portfolio analysis of everyone's portfolio, we give them a grade on their current plan that has nothing to do with us. And then we show them, based on the changes that we're recommending, what the grade of that plan would be based on their personal expenses. And I think a lot of people also appreciate Ford, that all of our plans are personalized and tailored to each individual family's specific needs.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I think you really need to inspect what you expect regarding your portfolio and also do what Ronald Reagan said trust but verify. We really think you ought to verify your current plan, whether you've just got A401K that's been sitting there, you don't have an advisor. We're really good at working with folks like that. We also So have folks that are with major wirehouses that, like with Morgan and Merrill and other wirehouses that come to us, and they are shocked to find out how much they're paying in expense ratio, also in advisory and portfolio fees. Um, in our in our problem solver. This week I've got I'm going to share one problem solver in the next segment that talks about the significant amount of, uh, of advisory and portfolio fees that are being charged to a local principal here in the Atlanta area. He's a principal of one of the area major high schools, and he couldn't believe how much more cost effective we were. So be sure to tune into that and make sure you can, um, hear that problem solver, because it's a really remarkable one. Um, and we don't usually lose out a lot to those folks because with the major wirehouses, because they're usually charging too much money, when we come back, we share a problem solver and five steps to help weather the recent storm of market volatility. You're listening to retirement results right here on Am 920.

Speaker2:
Answer and don't go away. Retirement results will be right back. To schedule your free no obligation consultation, visit. Retirement Results.com.

Speaker7:
Rosanna. Rosanna.

Speaker3:
Hey, this is Ford Stokes with active wealth management and retirement results. You've gotten used to getting higher interest rates on your savings accounts and bank CDs, but the fed has been lowering rates. If you're 55 or older and have at least $250,000 to invest, and you'd like to lock in to higher interest rates, we can help. Currently, we can lock in income payout rates as high as 8%, 9%, or even 10% guaranteed for life. Even if interest rates drop back down to 1% or lower, you'd be locked into higher income payout rates for as long as you live. You can do this with your IRA for one K for three B pension. Rollover. Current bank savings or even brokerage accounts. Schedule your free meeting with us at active Wealth.com, and we will help you battle lower interest rates by locking in great income payout rates for the rest of your life. Call our office today at (770) 685-1777 or visit active wealth.com.

Speaker1:
Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Guaranteed income streams refer to fixed insurance products only and are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company.

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

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.

Speaker2:
Retirement results. We'll be back in a moment, but in the meantime, take a moment to schedule your free meeting with us at Retirement results.com forward slash. That's retirement.

Speaker3:
And welcome back all drivers on Fort Stokes chief financial advisor God Sam Davis here with us. Our senior financial advisor and co-host of the show. And Sam we we talked about a problem solver. Let's go ahead and play that problem solver. Sounder.

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

Speaker3:
All right, so this for a principal and his wife. Both of them are educators. Uh, he's a principal of a major high school. He wants to invest $303,000 in qualified money. He's got in his his 457. He wants to move that over to the nationwide peak ten. That thing is set to grow over the next ten years. Returns on income at age 66. That's going to grow to 829,000 from 303,000. So almost two and a half x basically of where it is right now. And then when he turns on income at age 66, he's going. He's scheduled to get it's estimated he's going to get 52,000. Zero. $49. So 52,049 bucks a year. And it grows from there because it's getting market like gains. He's also getting 8% guaranteed interest each year that he waits on that money, but he wants to have that $52,000 a year to help them travel. Sam, they're going to travel. They're going to enjoy themselves. They're going to go to Europe. And because they're educators, they want to see history and all that stuff, but they also want to backfill for income when they lose one of their two Social Security payments. They've worked a lot of years ever since college, and they work very hard. And they also have done two jobs. So they've been able to really generate a lot of income. They're working a lot of hours every day, five days a week. Now they get their time off at Christmas and also during the summer and all that's great in spring break.

Speaker3:
And they so they get some breaks, but they have to work a lot because you've got to be there for the school and they really want to be able to travel and all that stuff. But when he looked at his portfolio, he's only going to take 30% of his million bucks that they've got, and he's going to put it into the nationwide peak ten. And that's going to satisfy the pensions, their Social security and this personal pension they're going to create by investing in the fixed index annuity called the nationwide peak ten through us. And only 1% of financial advisors have access to this, Sam and you and I both do. It's a really good plan because they've done a lot of things. Number one is they're planning for the eventual death of one of the two spouses to backfill when they lose up to 33% of the Social Security income that's coming into the household. Number two is they're able to fund their retirement travel, and they're really going to enjoy their retirement travel and all that kind of stuff by investing in this product. That's a really good idea. And they're not going to take any additional withdrawals from the rest of their money. They also replace the bonds in their portfolio with this $303,000 going into the fixed indexed annuity product. And it's really a no brainer. And they don't have to worry about the stock ticker anymore. And your thoughts on that? Problem solver for them?

Speaker4:
Yeah. I mean, think about, you know, what do you really want your portfolio to do, especially if you're saving for retirement. What everybody out there is really hoping that their portfolio can do for them is fund their expenses for the rest of their life once they choose to retire. And really, one of the only ways that you can guarantee that it's going to continue to pay income is have a strong income plan that takes into account timing your Social Security at the right time. Understanding that when the first spouse passes away, you're going to lose some of that income. So to your point, you need to be able to backfill that somewhere down the road in your plan. Uh, and then supplementing that income plan with a fixed indexed annuity. These aren't the annuities of old. These are fixed indexed annuities. Annuities that offer often a high bonus. We have multiple carriers, multiple products to compare because just like not everybody's situation's the same, not all annuities are exactly the same. Some pieces fit a little bit better into different people's plans. I mean, also considering how the nationwide peak ten is paying a 20% bonus to the income account value.

Speaker4:
If you've suffered some losses recently in your portfolio, that's a great way to protect a portion and also recover some of those losses that you've experienced recently. And and Ford, I'm really fired up about what you've been able to do for them in their plan. I'm so glad that they're going to get out there and travel and see the world and travel to Europe and retirement. There's so much to learn over there, and I think it's really important for retirees to continue to stay curious, to continue learning. They understand that as educators and and they'll stay active by traveling, especially in those early years of their retirement. And so the end result is they gave us a call. They had their portfolio inspected, they had their pension plans inspected, and they worked with us to design a plan that paid them the income that they'll need for the rest of their life, and they're still staying invested in the market. They know that the. Stock market is a long game, and now they can really afford to keep that money parked there and let it grow over time.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, the second job they've got, they've really worked hard to, to really save like crazy. They've also got other savings, other, other avenues that one of the things they're going to do is they're going to take some of the money that they're sitting in in a bank CD, and they're going to invest it into a brokerage CD with us getting paid a half a percent or almost a 1% higher. Um, so that's pretty helpful. And then, um, they're also going to invest tactically and they're going to invest aggressively into aggressive portfolios with a mix between our BCM stock growth basket and then also our you know, our dividend stock basket with also our our BCM array star portfolio that focuses on the Nasdaq. As as you know the Nasdaq has taken quite a hit. It could be a good time to invest in the Nasdaq 100 or Invesco Q-q-q, things like that. Um, so we're we're doing a lot of different things, and we're also taking a look at a few individual stocks that they have interest in. And we're putting it all together into one big diversified plan. But their portfolio is truly diversified. It's it's diversified between stocks and insurance products and ETFs. We've eliminated the the mutual funds. So we probably get more fee efficient with their portfolio. And then we're also have eliminated the bonds. And so they don't have any more interest rate risk with the bonds.

Speaker3:
They don't have to experience what uh their their 457 experienced in during the Biden years where interest rates were going up and the bonds they held before the Biden was elected, those those bonds were worth less and they had to be discounted. So they lost value. And so they didn't like that. And so they've been able to kind of get out of a lot of those, um. Investments and at the right time. And now they're ready to go and grow and. Have a truly diversified portfolio that's got insurance products, ETFs. Stocks all together including their real estate their house being paid for. So they're there. They won't have a mortgage payment eating up one of the two. Social security payments that's coming into the household. All that's really important. So I would. Encourage everybody to consider a truly diversified portfolio right now, especially what's going on with market volatility, with the tariff tantrum of the markets. You want to get diversified with insurance products like fixed index annuities and and also with ETFs and stocks and things like that. We come back from the break. We're going to talk more about how to deal with these this tariff tantrum of the market and what you should be doing right now. Thanks for listening to retirement results. We'll be right back.

Speaker2:
Call 851777 to schedule your free, no obligation meeting with us today. You're listening to retirement results.

Speaker8:
Last night, I had the strangest dream. I sailed away to China in a little rowboat.

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 customize written retirement plan. That's right. Free and no obligation. Schedule your meeting now at retirement plan. That's retirement.

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

Speaker1:
Filing taxes isn't fun, but if you're a procrastinator, you'd better get to it. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network Powered by Life. The tax filing deadline is just around the corner on April 15th. Mark Steber is chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt.

Speaker9:
The deadline is a real deadline. And by deadline I mean there are teeth penalties and other consequences for failing to observe it. There's a failure to file penalty, which is exactly as it says, a 25% of any taxes that you owe for failing to file by the deadline. You got to do something, file a tax return or file an extension.

Speaker1:
Steber says one of the biggest misconceptions is that if you do file for an extension, you may think you don't have to pay the IRS a penny right now, but that is not the case.

Speaker9:
It's a six month extension. You file the form 4868, or you mail it in or file electronically or get a pro to help you with it. But you file that and you immediately stop, or at least put the back door, the failure to file penalty.

Speaker1:
But there are other penalties that still may apply.

Speaker9:
There's a failure to pay penalty separate from the failure to file. It's another separate 25% penalty on any balance that you might owe plus interest, as is on the failure to file penalty at 25% plus interest. And then if you owed money throughout the year because you had side hustle or retirement income that didn't have withholding or you had crypto gains, you might have an underpayment penalty separate from the other two.

Speaker1:
If you live in an area affected by a natural disaster last year, you could get some extra time. But Steber says.

Speaker9:
More importantly than that time extension, which is good, are the tax deductibility elements that are available as it relates to a loss on a disaster. So if you've actually suffered and you're in a federally declared disaster, which is just about all of Florida and all of North Carolina, among other areas, you have a lot more options and a lot more tools in your tax toolbox, the least of which is a tax deduction for an economic loss.

Speaker1:
And if you feel overwhelmed by the process, get help from a professional.

Speaker9:
There's lots of people with extra hours, extra staffing, but you do need to take action. Find those documents, get to your favorite, uh, trusted, branded, uh, local tax professionals and simply get your taxes filed. It's the smart thing to do at this time of year.

Speaker1:
If you don't. Uncle Sam has some hefty penalties waiting for you with the retirement radio network powered by Amira life. 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 to retirement. Results. Result. Drivers on Fort Stokes. Your chief financial advisor got Sam Davis here with us. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host. And Sam, this is our final segment. This is a very important show. I hope people come back and go back and listen to us and listen to this episode on retirement. Results.com. Talking about the tariffs, talking about what you can do, how you can get truly diversified with your portfolio, be invested where you really don't worry about the stock ticker as much, and kind of let the rest of the markets kind of play their way out. But right now, what we're going to do is talk about how to retire smarter by avoiding these five mistakes. And I'll take the first one to, you know, kind of to do retirement, right. You need a solid plan that includes a clear vision for what you want to do with your retirement and what it's going to look like. What are you doing? Who are you with? How are you going to fund that retirement? Number two is you need a plan for when you'll take Social Security. Next is an income plan that will allow you to beat your budget. And then fourth on this list here, of the five mistakes we're trying to avoid is a sound investment strategy for any retirement accounts you may have, however, behind these seemingly simple principles lies a complex set of ways it can all go wrong. That's why on this week's show, we're sharing the list of five mistakes that you really should avoid so you can retire successfully and really plan your retirement with peace of mind. So the first one is the first mistake that you really want to avoid is failing to plan. Many people carry on living for decades as if retirement will never arrive, but for a large majority of people it does. Not planning to retire encourages more mistakes, like failing to budget, save and invest so that you'll be able to afford living expenses later in life when working becomes difficult or even impossible.

Speaker4:
Yeah, and I would say, you know, for a lot of people are a little too focused on that one big magic number. And we don't blame them because they've been working 30 or 40 years throughout their career, saving every two weeks, continuing to squirrel away money for a rainy day and save that money for retirement. And they're just a little too focused on that large magic number and they feel safe. They have a sense of safety because they have more safe than they have ever had before, but they also stand to lose more than they've ever lost before, as evidenced by the last few weeks in the market. And that's why it's important to have a plan that protects that portion of your income that you're going to need in retirement, and really just start to get those details in a row, because you've done a great job saving. Now it's time to make sure you do a good job planning and a better job investing for the future. And mistake number two, that we want to help people avoid is mismanaging those tax advantaged retirement plans. A lot of people aren't contributing enough to their workplace IRA or 401 K to get that maximum employer match. So make sure that you're taking advantage of that free money. That's essentially a 100% return on a certain percentage of your contributions. And Ford, we see every company do it differently. I would say typically it's about a match up to somewhere around 5%, and you just want to take advantage of that.

Speaker4:
If they're offering you that, um, make sure you're taking advantage. You know, sometimes those for one can have some limited investment choices. But as fiduciaries, Ford, that's something we help people do all the time is simply optimize their 401 K. We have clients. We have people calling us who are still working and can't move that money out. But we'll help you invest better within that 401 K. Uh, that has nothing to do with us. You also want to do everything you can to avoid taking those early withdrawals. So if you're worried about all this volatility in the market, the last thing you want to do is pull that money out, take a early withdrawal penalty and be subject to income taxes on that money. So avoid taking those early withdrawals. Understand that that money you're saving in there is for retirement, and it's going to go a longer way if you keep it in that vehicle for your retirement. Um, also, one last tip do not invest too much of your hard earned retirement savings in shares of your employer's company. We see this offered a lot inside of employer 401 plans. Just because you work there doesn't mean you have to invest your hard earned savings for the future in that company. Just make sure that you're diversifying your investments to avoid risk.

Speaker3:
Yeah, for all those things in the number two mistake to avoid. Just remember it's your money. It's your hard earned savings. Once you've saved that money, it's not the employer. It's not part of your employment agreement. It's your money. It's the money you put aside. So I would just say do everything you can to, you know, really make sure that you're taking advantage of the match that you're that Sam just talked about, but also do a great job at protecting and growing your money. And remember, it's your money. It's not the company's money, especially if it's sitting in a 400 K. You've earned it. You've saved it. That's your dollars. Those are your dollars. Period. End of sentence. So and then Sam, go ahead and share number three.

Speaker4:
Yeah. Well I'd love to tee you up for this next one because the third mistake we want to help people avoid is not planning for Social Security. And over the last year plus forward, you've been a registered social security analyst, working with members of our community here in our office to help them make that decision about when to turn on their Social Security benefits. It's really helpful for married couples to time that decision to understand when to file for a spousal, versus maybe when to file for your own benefit. Um, just there's so many decision points. And for what's that been like working with people specifically on the Social Security planning side?

Speaker3:
Yeah, I mean, it's it's really rewarding. We love helping everybody maximize their Social Security income. And what you and I ask all the time is, why wouldn't you want to maximize your Social Security income? I mean, really, Sam, social security is a primary source of retirement income for American retirees. It's either the number one or number two source of income. To qualify for monthly or lifetime benefits, all you have to do is work the required number of years, which is ten years, or get 40 credits to be able to qualify for Social Security. And also you need to be married to a spouse. If you divorced that spouse, be married to him ten years, um, while contributing through mandatory payroll taxes. Social security. Sounds simple and straightforward, but there are some mistakes you'll want to avoid. For example, if one member of a retired married couple dies, the survivor must carry on with just one monthly check. The larger of the two. For this reason, the higher earning partner may wait to claim benefits as long as possible, because delaying your benefits increases your eventual monthly payment. Many people also make the mistake of relying too heavily on Social Security to fuel their monthly budget needs.

Speaker3:
Your Social Security benefits have built in inflation protection, with cost of living increases which occur almost every year. However, many people believe these cost of living adjustments only partially cover. What is the true rate of inflation in America today? Now obviously Social Security, their finances have been in the headlines and they've been under pressure. There's been theft. There's been over 5 million people that are over 120 years old have been receiving benefits. There's been fraud. And good news is Doge and the Trump administration is doing everything they can to solve that problem. And listen, if you've got questions about your Social Security income, how you can maximize it, I would encourage you to definitely urge you to give us a call. We're working with hundreds of people here on doing this stuff. I would encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. And again, if you can't remember the phone number, it's tough when you're driving around. Just visit retirement. Com that's retirement. Results.com. Click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner, and we're happy to help you get going in maximizing your Social Security income benefit.

Speaker4:
And we're coming up towards the end of this week's show forward. So I'm trying to get these last two mistakes out there for the folks. Mistake number four emotional investing. Avoid that. Especially during times like these. Uh, kind of amateur investors tend to buy high and sell low. Obviously you want to do the other way around. I mean, Warren Buffett says try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. So really avoid the emotional inside of investing. And mistake number five for this is one of my favorites to really talk about. Uh, but you don't want to focus on just the financial side of retirement. Make sure you have that smart vision. Make sure you have a good understanding of what you want your portfolio to do for you in retirement. Do you really want all of that just to be invested? Uh, set it and forget it. Riding the highs of the highs and the lows. The lows. Or do you want to turn that portfolio into multiple income streams and really get to the guarantees where you can and enjoy your retirement.

Speaker10:
It's the final countdown.

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

Speaker10:
The final countdown.

Speaker3:
So on today's show, we asked the question, are you terrified of losing more money? Um, we we talked about how retirees can navigate tariffs, inflation and market volatility. What to do about all that? Um, reminded you that tax day is April 15th. We also talked about the stock market's tariff tantrum. Uh we talked about how retirees are reacting and what moves to make. And we also talked about, uh, how to retire smarter just in this segment by avoiding those five mistakes that Sam just went through. Listen, if you're seeking information about retirement, about investing, about your portfolio, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Don't just bury your head in the sand. I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement. Com and we're happy to get started in helping you get on the right path to a smart retirement plan where we can protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved assets, and hope you guys all have a great week. We're going to talk more about how to get prepared and how to deal with this market volatility in next week's show, and hopefully we'll have a much better week. It looks like we're having a better week right now with, um, hopefully there'll be some resolution on a lot of these tariffs with countries seeking out to talk with the administration. And we'll go from there. Have a great week everybody.

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

Speaker2:
Get started on your free portfolio analysis and financial plan right now by visiting Retirement Results.

Speaker4:
Com and welcome to the Retirement Results bonus segment, just for our podcast listeners and our listeners locally on. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Retirement Results and Ford for this week's bonus segment. We really want to just make sure people are informed when it comes to what's happening in the markets right now, people are concerned with the volatility, especially those who are approaching retirement. Um, here's what investors, retirees and pre-retirees should know. And also I really want to touch on this is a really important time to have your portfolio inspected. And for what would you say to all those out there who are just maybe a little too scared to log into their accounts right now and see how this recent tariff tantrum has affected their investments?

Speaker3:
Yeah, I would say you really need to inspect what you expect and also do what Ronald Reagan said, which is trust but verify. We've got to do everything we can to make sure that we're maximizing our hard earned and hard saved wealth. Um, if you're not planning on going back to work, let's say you're a retiree. You're already retired. You don't want to go back to work. You really should be understanding what's going on with your portfolio. Now, you don't necessarily need to do a knee jerk reaction and react and overreact because those who are, you know, if you sit there and say, hey, you know what, I'm going to go to a money market fund or I'm going to go to cash only during this time and you miss the bounce back days, you're going to miss a significant amount of income. Uh, you know, we've got some really great data in here from Mark Diorio, um, that talks about how quickly some of these markets actually will recover. So I would encourage people to really be calm about it, but you really should be interested in what's going on and have a plan. And if you don't have really a safer plan, if you haven't invested in a smart risk and smart safe plan together and truly diversified your portfolio between insurance products like fixed index annuities and also exchange traded funds and stocks, and trying to eliminate mutual funds out of it and variable annuities out of it. You want to invest in fixed index annuities, ETFs and, um, and stocks and other products. That's the way to get to a truly diversified portfolio. That's not going to cost you too much money in expense ratio. And also you really just want to get those costs down. Um, because withdrawals from your accounts right now are deadly because you're taking money out and you're not going to be able to rebound because you're not going to have those assets in the portfolio ready to rebound as well.

Speaker4:
Yeah, that's absolutely right. So if folks are looking for some withdrawals right now, try to take that of out of sources that aren't invested in the market because like you said, Ford, you don't want to lock in, uh, your losses there at that lower level, but just a few initial details that people should understand. And that's that this recent market sell off has been driven by policy uncertainty in tariff policy shock. I mean, you have the leaders of major players on a global stage engaging in these trade conversations, and the market is reacting day to day according to how investors feel. And I think something that can give investors a bit of hope that this may not be so bad. The recent market sell off is not driven by financial system imbalances, unlike 2008. The US private sector is not facing major structural imbalances. And Ford, I would also say that kind of some comparable times, maybe the fed rate hikes in 2022 or even March of 20, 25 years ago, during the initial pandemic drop, we saw markets rebound relatively quickly. And when that happened in 2020, it was under a Trump administration that made some moves to get some more capital there in the market, get people spending and feeling good about being a consumer again. So those are some things that I think can give people some hope.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I think so. And also there's a lot of hope in this update from Mark Diorio, our chief investment officer, um, with Brookstone Capital Management or Brookstone Capital Management, our registered investment advisory firm. Uh, it's got over $8.5 billion under management. And, you know, so there's safety in numbers there. There's also we've got a significant amount of, um, cfas that that do a great job at planning all of our portfolios. So we appreciate them. Um, but also history offers some useful parallels to the euro crisis. Contagion in 2011, the oil crash in 2015, the fed rate hikes in 2022, during which time the equity market fell off 15 to 20%. And all those markets, um, with the equity market down around 70% from record highs, we may be nearing the tail end of this sell off. Um, there. This has been an extremely quick market decline, Sam, for sure. With the market dropping 10% in just two days, that was Thursday and Friday of last week. There have been there have been only three other times. The market has dropped that quickly. October 20th. October 1987. November 2008 and March 2020.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And just wrapping up some of the final points here in our bonus segment. Uh, Marc Diorio, the chief investment officer at Brookstone Capital Management, said the market may be fast entering what he's calling peak tariff tantrum, with the market's fear gauge, the VIX soaring to levels consistent with a market bottoming phase. So maybe investors who have some money parked on the sidelines, maybe looking to invest, can get in at a time where prices are good. Um, you know, no matter how bad the news is, Marc Diorio says there's always a price at which you want to be a buyer, and this time is no different. So for maybe some people looking at this as an opportunity, if you're getting close to retirement or you're in retirement, maybe living on more of a fixed income. This is time to really inspect your portfolio. Take a look at what you're invested in. What's your risk level? While we're in there, you know we do complimentary portfolio analysis for anybody who listens to the show and gives us a call. Let us show you what you're paying in fees and see if we can help you do better. Actually, by deleting fees in your portfolio, either through a bond replacement or possibly just giving you a better management fee compared to what you could be paying now with your current advisor.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I mean, listen, also the tech heavy Nasdaq index, I want to give you guys some specifics here has declined a little over 20% over the last few weeks. However, historically, after the Nasdaq has found its bottom, it has taken an average of just 13 trading days for the Nasdaq to rally more than 20% from that low. So be careful about selling off too quickly here and make sure you stay invested. Listen, if you got questions about how to deal with these tariffs, a question about your portfolio, a question about how to delete the IRS from being your partner, retirement, how to eliminate fees within your portfolio and reduce that expense ratio and reduce your risk risk level. I'd encourage you to reach out to us at retirement. Com that's retirement. Com and we look forward to helping you and get started right away.

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

Speaker11:
Information provided is not intended as tax or legal advice and should not be relied on as such. You're encouraged to seek tax and legal advice from an independent professional. Ford Stokes and Active wealth management are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.

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