How to Turn Your Portfolio Into a Pension

5.9.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

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

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

Speaker3:
And welcome to retirement results on Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us is our senior financial advisor and co-host on the show. Sam, say hello to everybody.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the weekend result, drivers. Thank you once again for listening to the Retirement Results radio show and podcast, wherever you might be listening on Am 920 or on Wdan on their stations, up and around the lake, or on your favorite podcast app. We're so glad you're listening once again. And Ford, we've got a great show for folks today. We're going to help people turn their portfolio into a pension and help them align their investments with their retirement goals. Uh, some great information for the folks. So thank you once again for tuning in.

Speaker3:
Yeah, super excited about about turning the portfolio into a pension, at least a portion of it. It's not suitable to turn your entire portfolio into a pension, but taking 20 to 40%, or maybe up to 50% of your portfolio to generate the income you need in retirement is probably a great way to go. We're going to answer the questions today a little bit. Are you nervous to check your retirement accounts today and why? You might have too much risk on the table with your current portfolios. Also, most people actually don't have a pension. We explain how you can start one within your own portfolio, and how they actually pay more than the pensions that are offered by employers. Still, in the United States, about 16% of S&P 500 firms still offer a pension, but those pensions are implemented with something called a spia a single premium immediate annuity. Getting a fixed index annuity instead can get you up to 20 to 27% bonus, 8% guaranteed interest roll up or interest applied to your income account each and every year. Um, and 310% of how the underlying index performs, and a host of other bells and whistles. Uh, again, you know, fixed index annuities and personal pensions are really contracts between you and the annuity company, but you're the one bringing the capital to the table, and therefore we can get you the best deal possible.

Speaker3:
Uh, we're also in our bonus segment this week. We're going to talk about how fixed index annuities work, how they really work, and also how they're just not too good to be true. Um, and if you are listening to us on Am 920, the answer, first of all, thanks so much for making us the number one listen to radio show on Am 920. The answer on the weekends. Um, like the last five years running. So thank you so much for that. And then also, if you're Wdan listeners, you're going to get that bonus segment because we get six more minutes with our listeners. You ought to check us all out at retirement. Com and just click the button and you can hear any bonus episodes. Also check out the YouTube channel. We now have over 65,000 views of our videos, which is really kind of humbling to me. Um, super excited about that, that we're able to educate that many more folks. And if you've been a long time listener, whether you're listening to us on a podcast or listening to us on Am 920, the answer or done in any of the 50 US states, I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Be that first time caller. Go ahead and schedule your free and complimentary consultation where you can understand, hey, what the risk you're taking, the fees you're paying and also what's the correlation of your assets is with a portfolio analysis.

Speaker3:
And then also get that financial plan your 95th birthday. So you can understand what we call a results in advance retirement plan. Get that results in advance. Retirement plan. Absolutely no cost to you including an RSA roadmap. All you got to do is reach out to us and give us a call at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results. Com we're also going to talk about today how income is actually greater than and more important than assets. Why successful retirement income plans are built on the foundation of income. I just met with some folks this morning, and they've been clients of ours for about four years now, so we've had a much different conversations. He's trying to consider whether he's going to go back to work or not. And, uh, because he got he had an exit out of his company. And there's just a lot of things that we went through. But the foundation of all that was the income piece. We started with Social Security. As a registered social security analyst, I was able to tell them, hey, you make 2000 more a year. If you wait between 63 and 65, is it worth it to you? But if you wait all the way till age 67, you're going to get a substantial amount more.

Speaker3:
Um, and it really helps, especially if you're going to continue to work. So, uh, there was just a lot of conversations that we had about that. I mean, they're going to make almost $10,000 more if they wait from age 63 all the way to age 67. And he continues to work. So those are just just different examples about how income can be that foundation, even when you've got millions of dollars sitting there. Um, in the portfolio last is let me just say, and I just want to ask you a question today, why wouldn't you want to improve your plan today? And if you do want to improve your plan and you want to get that second opinion, you want to really get after it and try to say, hey, you know what? I want my income taken care of. I also want to maximize my Social Security income. And I also want to understand what is my retirement income looking like? Am I starting with a positive retirement income surplus or a negative retirement income gap? I'd encourage you to reach out to us at retirement Results.com Sam, your thoughts on all the topics we're talking about today and specifically how income really is foundational for everything that we do?

Speaker4:
Yeah, well, it's really perfect for this week. You know, we're working with a listener right now who's working on selling some farmland, which is a major percentage of their portfolio. We've actually got a couple of listeners right now that real estate is a big percentage of their portfolio. And he was telling us in our last meeting, you know, hey, Sam, I need to turn this into income without effort. You know, I'm not as young as I used to be. I can't work the land. I'm about ready to retire. I don't really have the time. So how can we turn the proceeds of this sale into that income that we can live on in retirement? Because I think a lot of people forward just want to get to that guarantee and get to that safety that they know they're not going to run out of money in retirement. And if you have a lot of assets in your portfolio, even more reason to dedicate an adequate percentage of that to make sure you're never going to run out of income and let the remainder of your assets grow tactically in the market. So great show for the folks this week. If you have to miss part of today's show and you're a radio listener, be sure to subscribe to the podcast where you can pause, fast forward, rewind, and listen to all of our past episodes as well. And for that brings us to the financial wisdom quote of the week.

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

Speaker4:
And this week's quote of the week is authored by an author himself, Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich dad, Poor Dad really popular bestseller in the 90s, and Robert Kiyosaki once said, the key to financial freedom and great wealth is a person's ability or skill to convert earned income into passive income or portfolio income.

Speaker3:
Amen. I mean, it's it's a big deal. I mean, you're also when you're growing your your nest egg and you're in that accumulation phase and you continue to work, you continue to add to everything. That's great. That's called that accumulation phase. But when you stop working and you've got to generate the income and generate your own mailbox money, that's called the decumulation phase. And we've got to do a great job in the decumulation. Phase one is to not over withdraw money from your accounts, um, whether tactically or strategically managed on, you know, with assets under management, which is what we really focus on quite a bit. But also we like to replace the bonds within your portfolio and place those with fixed indexed annuities. And if you're interested in getting, you know, 20 to 27% immediate bonus, then I encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. So whether it's your a lump sum you're taking on your pension or whether it's the bonds or sitting in your portfolio, or it's just a 20 to 40% percentage of your overall portfolio that are in bonds. How'd you like to get 20% on that money? Immediately? Well, we can do that.

Speaker3:
Absolutely. No doubt about it. And do that, guaranteed. We can also get you 8% guaranteed interest each and every year into the income account. Um, that's going to be the account that pays you. And then also, if you want you we can get you 310% participation in the underlying index. So 3.1 times the underlying index less than 1% spread rate. That's remarkable. Going into your account value. So if you start with a million bucks and all of a sudden you've got, you know, the index does 10% over a two year period and you're getting 3.1 times that, you're at 31% less a 1% spread rate. That's 30% net growth. That'll be $300,000 growth on a million bucks. I mean, that's a remarkable result, folks, especially if you're ready to generate income. We're talking about how to turn on your portfolio Into a personal pension and how to align investments with your retirement goals. We come right back. The question is, again, are you taking too much risk with your retirement savings? You're listening to retirement results right here on Am 920 Answer and wd un retirement results.

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

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

Speaker2:
Schedule your free, no obligation consultation today by visiting retirement Results.com. And now back to the show.

Speaker4:
And welcome back to Retirement results. Result. Drivers. Thank you once again for tuning in. Uh, we set up the show in our last segment for just getting people started, helping them turn their portfolio into a pension. On this week's episode, helping them align their investments with your retirement goals. You know, it's funny. Sometimes you have people come in, they say, you know, we're doing their portfolio analysis. They say, hey, I'm really afraid of the market. That's why, you know, I try to not be too invested in the Invested in the market. And you'll discover in that analysis, well, you're actually 90% of your portfolio is is in the market. Or you'll have folks that come in and say, hey, I'm an aggressive investor, but when we dig in, there's a lot of bonds in there. Not the most aggressive vehicle, uh, really, not even the most ideal vehicle if you're looking for safe money investments. So in this segment we're going to talk about risk and bringing your investment preferences really into alignment with what your portfolio is actually set up to do. Um, you know, it's important to remember that as you near and enter retirement, you have less time to make up any big losses forward. We talk about this in our seminars that we've been doing at libraries across the Atlanta area. We've been over at Sharon Falk's library. We're going to be at the coming library. Uh, we've also been at Hall County as well, just in the last couple of months. But sequence of returns risk is, is a really big thing for folks to know about, especially during like a quarter like this where we're experiencing so many ups and downs.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I mean, in 2008, from March 2008 to March 2009, during the mortgage crisis, the S&P 500 lost 50.1% of its value. I mean, if you retired in 2007 or 2008, that was a real bummer. Uh, kind of a really big deal like those folks. It took them over six and a half years to come back to their original levels. So that that was a big deal. And then, you know, also, you've got the entire lost decade from 1999 all the way through 2009, with the S&P 500, generated an annual total loss of 0.9% per year. I mean, that's crazy. Over a ten year period, that is an entire lost decade where you really can't afford to do that. So the great thing about replacing the bonds in your portfolio, too, is they that money can grow in stair step fashion where it never retreats, it that never backs up. It never loses principle or the gains that get locked in with a fixed index annuity. When you're replacing the bonds with a fixed index annuity, that's another great opportunity to really watch the sequence of returns risk. Because if you lose money, if you lose 50%, you're going to have 100% coming back because you're going to have a lower principal to work with times the growth on your money.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And we don't know what's going to happen with the remainder of 2025. There's certainly been some downs this year. There's been quite a recovery since that early part of April. But I mean, it wasn't that long ago. In 2022, the S&P 500 had a 19% down year. That was only three years ago. And if that's happening to you right as you're entering retirement, $1 million portfolio quickly turns into an $800,000 portfolio. And that's even before you start to consider taxes. We have a lot of people trying to optimize their retirement plan from a tax standpoint as well, and that's really what you get when you get in touch with the fiduciaries here at retirement results. If you're just looking for someone to take a look at each component of your plan, take a look at your statements. Make sure you're in a good place. If you're not in a good place, get you back on track. And that's what we do with folks who give us a call each and every week.

Speaker3:
If you want to see those kind of returns and you want to get more than your typical 4% withdrawal rate from your income sources within your portfolio, and let the rest of your portfolio grow unencumbered with a little bit slightly more aggressive investment strategy, with tactical asset allocation and strategic asset allocation implemented, then you've come to the right place. We can do this for you. No problem. It's pretty simple. We also can implement a Roth ladder conversion for you to delete the IRS out of being your partner in retirement as well. But these ups and downs in the market one if you can eliminate the taxes coming out, that helps you on the ups and downs of the market. But number two is if you can take 40% of your portfolio off the table and make sure you can get market like gains without any financial market risk, then I don't understand why you wouldn't do that. I think it's and also you don't have to sit there and watch the stock ticker. You can enjoy playing golf, enjoy travel, enjoy time with family. Uh, again, we we advocate that people try to get close to a body of water so that the kids and grandkids come see them, try to get on a lake or get on an ocean or whatever you can do, get on the beach or near the beach. Um, kind of tough to get on the beach these days. It's pretty expensive, but I would just encourage you to try to get a get to a point where you've got peace of mind. And again, when your money's 100% in the market, you're capturing 100% of the market losses, 100% of the market gains. And if you're not still working, it's tough because you can't put more money back in to make up the difference on the losses.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And look, you know anybody out there listening? The market is a great way to stay invested, protect your buying power. You know, as you zoom out over a long period of time, the stock market has been a great place to put your money. If you look back over the decades, despite some larger challenges. But you don't want your whole retirement to be left up to chance. Set up your income plan. It starts with Social Security fraud. You're a registered social security analyst. You're running reports almost every single day. For the folks who are giving us a call off the radio show or just reaching out to us on our website, wealth.com or retirement com. You know, that's kind of the cornerstone of the income plan. And then we start to layer in other sources. Are you lucky enough to have a pension? Are you generating any rental income? Uh, if not, then, you know, setting up a personal pension and using part of your portfolio to generate income and get to that number. What is it that you need a month? Do you need 5 or 6000? Do you need $10,000 a month to meet your expenses? Whatever your number is? You know, we can help you get to that number. You know, too often people think retirement is about that one big magic number in their portfolio. You know, I would argue it's more about what that magic number is that you can get every single month for the rest of your life. And that's how we start with our plans forward.

Speaker3:
Yeah. For sure. I mean, you've just got to get to a foundational plan. Let's try to understand the risks you're taking, the fees you're paying, the correlation of your assets. Let's understand your income sources and your expenses. And let's try to make sure that your income is greater than your expenses when you're starting out. Because we don't want inflation to widen that negative retirement income gap. If you have one, we're hoping you have a positive retirement income surplus. And we're going to help you get that positive retirement income surplus as well. Sam, also, We've I forgot to talk about this at the beginning of the show. We're in segment two, but at the beginning of segment four we're going to talk about a really great offer. And we've got a new announcement as well. That is a big deal. That's all surrounding. Um, my Smart Retirement Plan book that has just been published on Kindle. And we've got a big announcement on the next, um, format that is in store for all the folks that are interested in getting those 16 action packed and information packed, uh, chapters of, um, the Smart Retirement Plan book also. Um, Sam, I just want to say you did a great job on the foreword of that book.

Speaker3:
I thought that was remarkable. I thought you did a great job capturing, really what the goal and the essence of, and the real value of the Smart Retirement plan book, and introducing that to readers right at the beginning in that forward. Uh, Matt McClure did a great job in the prologue or the post log or the afterword, I guess you'd call it, call it, but I think we called it the Post log. Um, he did a great job in that one, too. He's a reporter on this show and also an advisor with us. Um, but we're going to have two big announcements about that. Uh, one is an offer, and one is just a great announcement coming up, um, in the beginning of segment four. We come back after the break. We're going to talk about the two biggest retirement mistakes people make. Um, and also a little bit about where to American pensions go and also how your own personal pension can provide you more secure retirement income. And really, we're going to try to help you ask, answer the question of, hey, how strong is your retirement income and can we improve on it? You're listening to retirement Results right here on Am 912. The answer and WD.

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

Speaker6:
The cradle of love. Yes, the cradle of love don't rock.

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

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

Speaker2:
Plan investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
Welcome back. Result drivers I'm Fort Stokes, your chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host. And you're listening to retirement results. And if you're curious who a result driver is a result. Driver is someone who's looking to build a tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio where they can minimize those fees they're paying the advisor. They can maximize the growth for themselves, maximize their income, keep their income ahead of their expenses each and every month during retirement. And they can protect and grow their hard earned and hard saved wealth throughout retirement. So they can really build for that successful retirement plan. But they don't sit there and worry about it. That's who a result driver is. And if you're here for the first time, welcome. We're glad you're here. If you've been a long time listener, we encourage you to be a first time caller and go ahead and give us a call at (770) 685-1777. Or you can go ahead and visit us at retirement. Com or corporate website is active wealth com. The advisors at Active Wealth are the ones who power retirement results. And as we promised coming off the break we we were closing out segment two.

Speaker3:
We said, hey we're going to try to talk about the two biggest retirement mistakes people make. Sam, you mentioned the first one and I want to dive in depth. The second one. But in the last segment you mentioned the first one, which is retirement is not about one big magic number. Retirement is much more about the strength of your income plan. Uh, last week we had, um, George Foreman talking about his quote, which is, hey, I don't retirement's not about what age I want to retire. It's about what income I want to retire at. And too many people have all the majority of their savings in a tax deferred account, such as A4K IRA, 403 B 457. This means that the government is a major partner in your retirement, and you'll be subject to significant and likely rising effective tax rates. To correct this, we recommend focusing on different sources of retirement income, including social security, personal pensions with fixed indexed annuities or actual pensions, and then also fixed indexed annuities as well, and replace the bonds in your portfolio so you're not exposed to reinvestment investment risk and interest rate risk. And Sam, go ahead and share the second biggest retirement mistake that people really make.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And that's not saving or planning early enough. Uh, more often than not, we find that the people who give us a call forward are actually really good savers. Uh, they just were maybe a little late to the game. Uh, wish they had saved longer. And they didn't plan for retirement early enough. They didn't actually reach out to us until they were right on that doorstep of retirement. Ideally, you're getting in touch with us if you're still five, ten years away from retirement or longer. And here's why. You know, Einstein once said, compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. So the earlier you start saving, the earlier you get that plan in place and kind of course, correct, set that ship in the right direction. The more time and the more freedom you're going to have to grow that hard earned money. Uh, it's never too late to catch up. But just understand that if you're in a situation where you can defer taking income for 5 or 10 years, it puts you in a really nice place. Waiting too long to plan for retirement could mean enduring a massive lifestyle downgrade. That's not what we want to see for our clients here at Active Wealth.

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

Speaker4:
Ford, I just wanted to give an example of speaking of a radio listener earlier, who we're working with, who's selling a major piece of property that could be worth, you know, something between 800,000 or even $1.2 million. And after the sale of that property, they want to take a portion of those proceeds and put it into something that can generate income for them without effort. You know, if they kept the farmland, it's certainly an asset. It can certainly produce income, but you've got to continue to work it and staff it and take care of it. If they can take the proceeds of this sale based on a $400,000 investment, this is in the nationwide peak ten that we've been giving examples with $400,000 investment. The prospects 58 years old. If you defer eight years, they would be looking at $67,000, actually just more than $67,000 every year, guaranteed for the rest of their life. If they were to put in 600,000 of the proceeds, they would actually be looking at $100,000 guaranteed every year for the rest of their life. That number would be lower if they turned on income immediately. The power of that nationwide peak ten is really in that deferral, getting the guaranteed 8% that simple interest every year you defer. So if you're planning now to retire in two, four, six, eight, something like that, you know, put off retirement and put off taking those those income withdrawals a few years, you're just in a really nice place with that nationwide.

Speaker3:
Yeah. So a couple of things there, a couple additional pieces of information there. This this guy, he's a great guy. He's 58 years young. He thinks he's going to work till he's age 65. He was going to turn on income at age 66, and he was going to turn on Social Security at age 67. So he turns on income for the nationwide peak. Ten. He was getting on 400,000. He was getting a little over 67,000. That basically meets he and his wife's income needs or expense needs. But when you include another 51,000 between he and his wife on Social Security income, it's $118,000 that he and his wife are going to live on. What's interesting is this person was, you know, didn't know a lot about fixed indexed annuities, and they were trying to run a Christmas tree farm, and they were like, you know, a couple months out of the year, we're really going to have to work really hard into our 70s and 80s, and then all of a sudden they realized they could make more money by selling it because it was closer to a major metropolitan area. And it was just kind of the, the or urban sprawl kind of was about to absorb the, the farm and, and they've gotten some offers from some really good developers, even a tax accountant, a few other people that that have property around them. And they're able to do this without a real estate agent, which is great.

Speaker3:
But my point is, instead of them having to work the farm and work the Christmas tree farm and, and have people cut it down and wrap all the trees up and put them on the cars and all those kind of things, they're able to generate a significant amount of income, actually more than the income they need during retirement from the fixed indexed annuity. That happens to come from a mutual insurance company called nationwide. The nationwide folks that are on your side, it's those folks that Peyton Manning, um, actually advertises for. And so you can trust they're an A-plus rated carrier by Am best and Standard and Poor's. And there He got a 20% immediate bonus. He's getting 8% guaranteed roll. But the cool key thing about this whole thing I want to make sure everybody understands is he's going to wait eight years before he turns on the income, if not nine, and he's getting 8% a year for 8 to 9 years into the income account. That's like a guaranteed, you know, 72% growth on the income account. Regardless, he got in addition, another 20%. So that's 92% growth on his money. And he's getting 310% on how the underlying index performs, which happens to be the BNP Paribas Global Index, which is a volatility control index that's designed to deliver, um, interest back at least a 89% of each year. 89% of the year is it's supposed to deliver an actual growth, and you're getting 3.1 times that less than 1% spread rate.

Speaker3:
That's a pretty remarkable. So the other big point I wanted to make, Sam, is if people are trying to catch up and they don't have as much money as they thought they needed in retirement, you've got Social Security there as a backstop, but you also can take out 40 or 50% of your nest egg and put it into a fixed indexed annuity and get much more than the traditional 4% withdrawal rate. I mean, this guy is putting in $400,000 and he's getting 67,000. Eight years later, I mean, it's more like 16, 17% of his original premium that he invested in the annuity in the first place. That's more than three times the traditional 4% withdrawal rate. So if you want to get more income from the hard earnings, hard saved money that you've put in there and you want to let the rest of the portfolio grow. And also you want to make sure that your annuity doesn't run out of money in retirement. Then I would encourage you to reach out to us and give us a call at (770) 685-1777. That number again is (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement. Com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. We we've got less than 30s left in this segment. We've got two big announcements coming up right here after the break in segment four. Come right back.

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

Speaker7:
If you've got credit card.

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

Speaker8:
Even if you're spending with a credit card and you have a bit of a higher limit, don't max that out, right. Just spend with what you've allocated for in your budget. But anytime you're spending on that credit card, you have to make sure that you're paying that monthly balance off on time and in full, because that's really the key to building your credit history.

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

Speaker8:
Well, a good credit score is so important to our financial journey, right? And all the doors kind of that good, good credit score can, can open for us. So things like renting an apartment or getting a favorable rate on an auto purchase, a good credit score is so important to be able to do those.

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

Speaker2:
As 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 I'm Forde Stokes, your chief financial advisor. And I got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host the show. And he's also the author of the forward for the Smart Retirement Plan book that I just wrote and published. We've it's published on Kindle right now, so you can get that on Kindle if you want to put that in your Kindle and read it while you're hanging out, uh, by the lake or by the beach for during Memorial Day weekend, coming up here in a few weeks. But also, here's the two big announcements we've got. Number one is that we are offering the book. Absolutely. The e-book. Absolutely at no cost to you. All you've got to do is reach out to us at. Retirement plan. That's retirement. Plan. Put your name, email and phone in there and we will email you a copy of the Smart Retirement Plan book. Absolutely at no cost to you. We'll send you that. And the, um, the social media covers and all that stuff. You see what the book looks like. And then the second big announcement that we've got is that the audiobook for the Smart Retirement Plan is ready. It will be published. It's published now. You can go to audible. And if you don't like reading, if you'd rather just listen while you're in the car driving around, I would encourage you to go ahead and get the audiobook. We got it read by Michael Joss. He does a fantastic job and he's one of the top, um, Narrators of books on audible, and I read the last one Sam produced. The last one, um, which was annuity 360.

Speaker3:
We felt like we had grown up, and it was time to get somebody else to read it. That is a professional actor and really good. He's very authoritative. He's great to listen to. Um, it was crazy to hear my words coming through his mouth. It was great. But the book the audio book is available on Audible and Amazon, and I would encourage you to go ahead and get it and listen to it. It's about a three hour and one minute listen. It's it's it's packed with a lot of information. And you can listen to it where you go to sleep. Maybe it maybe it'll put you to sleep. Although this guy's voice is really good, folks shout out to him, thanks for all the help on that, Michael. And, um, those are two big announcements. Number one is if you visit retirement com forward slash plan or call the office. We'll send you an email book copy absolutely free of the 16 chapter book. It's got the glossary and everything else in it. Um, we'll do that. Absolutely no cost to you because you listen to the show and we really care about you. We love you. Thanks so much for listening to us. And it's got 16 different chapters talking about. We'll talk about each one here coming up after Memorial Day, kind of through the summer. Um, and going into early fall. But we'll go one chapter a week and kind of go through here where the topics are on those chapters. And the the second one is if you want to get the audio book and you just want to listen to it, it's available on Audible and Amazon right now.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And I think this is a perfect time for the release for if you want to, you know, get your hands on it quickly. You can go to retirement. Com forward slash just fill out your information. We'll email it to you. If you want to give us a call. We'd love to talk to you about the book as well, or, um, any of the books that we've put out here at Active Wealth and that you've put out for, um, and then if you want to listen on audible, you know, audiobooks are fantastic if you want to do more reading, but you just can't quite find the time. Or if you're like me, you know, by the end of the day, if you start reading something, it's just going to put you right to sleep. Audiobooks are great if you're cleaning the grill, getting the yard ready for Memorial Day weekend, or if you're just doing those things around the house and you want to be, you know, reading or consuming some good information at the same time. We got three hours in that audiobook. Uh, you'll you'll leave an armchair expert about retirement, and we'd love to answer any questions you do have, uh, coming out of that book, but, um. Ford, great offer for all of our listeners. Just visit retirement. Com forward slash.

Speaker3:
Yeah. Now we want to talk about is how pensions can provide more of a secure retirement for you. A large majority of American women, 82% say all workers should have a pension so they can be independent in retirement, while 75% agree that those with pensions are more likely to have a secure retirement and you can create your own. And whether it's the nationwide peak ten, the Aspida Synergy Choice or Charter Plus 14, we have several different annuities available. We've got mygas multi-year guaranteed annuities. They're paying 5.85% over the over the next 2 to 3 years. We've got a lot of different options. We have access to hundreds of annuities. But Sam, let's go ahead and share three annuities. And how they've done based on anniversary dates that came up in October of this past year. That's the last time we looked at it. So I'm going to do the nationwide pick ten. Sam, I want you to take the aspida and I can take the North American. So the nationwide peak ten. Um, if you'd bought it back in October, 15th of 2023. 23. Um, the BNP Paribas Global H factor index actually did 10.04% growth over those two years, times the 325% participation rate, and that PA rates down a little bit. Now it's down to 310%, but still very attractive right now. Delivered a 33.08% growth for the two year period. So if somebody put in a million bucks, you got $330,800 in growth on your account that went into the account value, then it was less a 1% spread.

Speaker3:
So it actually would have been 30 320,800. So you would have um, instead of 33.08, you get a net of 32.08. Plus there was an immediate 20% income bonus. So the total growth on your money into the income account was 52.08% growth over the first two years, and it was 32.08% into the account value. So that's incredibly attractive. Also, they got 8% guaranteed growth into the income account in addition. So it was another 16%. That's a really big deal as well. So the nationwide pick ten is performing well. There is a 1% fee and a 1% spread rate. The fee happens each and every year. They take out 1%. There is no advisory portfolio fees coming from us, because the insurance company pays us a one time commission for us to service it over the life of the annuity. And then there is a 1% spread rate, and the spread rate only happens. They take off 1%, um, based on your growth. But you have to have growth for them to take out that 1% spread rate in this, um, actual real life actual performance example, it was only 1% that came off of a 33.08% growth, for a net of 32.08 for the nationwide peak ten. Sam, go ahead and share the information on the Aspida synergy choice ten.

Speaker4:
Yeah, with this one. Aspida is an A minus rated carrier, highly rated carrier that we work with. They have that synergy choice ten. That's got a bonus on it as well. Um, now at the time when we ran these numbers from this example, they were offering a 90% participation rate in the Invesco Q, Q, Q index. Today that participation rate is 75%. This is why we let people know, hey, if you like these rates when they're at a certain point, you want to go ahead and get that E application filled out so you can be locked in. If this is something that you want to incorporate in part of your plan.

Speaker3:
They've upped the premium bonus from 10% up to 15.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So you're getting a little bit more with that aspida on the front end. Uh, at the time you were only getting a 10% premium bonus, but just based on this example from an October, uh, case study, 83.57% was what the Q-q-q returned over that two year period. A 90% participation rate is, uh, 75.2%. Uh, so getting still 90% of those gains, not exposed to any potential downturn there, plus, that immediate 10% premium bonus at the time yielded this, uh, client, 85.2% growth in the first two years. An incredible result, uh, for a fixed index annuity that was not subject to market volatility. So just a really great result there.

Speaker9:
It's the final countdown.

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

Speaker9:
The final countdown.

Speaker3:
So the title of this show was turn your portfolio into a pension. How to align your investments with your retirement goals. We want to talk about how you can replace bonds with fixed index annuities, like the nationwide Pick ten or the SPDR Synergy Choice Bonus ten. Um, we also had a great financial wisdom quote of the week from Robert Kiyosaki that Sam read, which is the key to financial freedom and great wealth is a person's ability and skill to convert earned income into passive income and or portfolio income. Listen, retirement is about income. It's about assets too. But it's about income first. If you haven't gotten a retirement income gap analysis or a retirement income plan set and ready to go, I'd encourage you to reach out to us at retirement. Com that's retirement. Results.com. Also, we gave you the free, um, offer of retirement. Com forward slash plan. If you submit your information, we'll email you back no questions asked. My free e-book, 193 pages, chock full of the best things to do on how to retire successfully. The Smart Retirement Plan book absolutely yours for free if you visit retirement.com/plan. We run out of time folks. 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, VCM and Active Wealth Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through VCM, 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 interests of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV to item four for additional information.

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

Speaker4:
And welcome to the Retirement Results Bonus segment. Thank you to all of our YouTube viewers, our listeners on the Retirement Results podcast feed, and of course, our new listeners on the radio up and around the lake on forward. On this week's bonus segment, we get a lot of questions from folks, and we're helping them turn their portfolio into a pension. How exactly do these indexed annuities and these fixed indexed annuities work? And how are they able to pay me contractually guaranteed income for the rest of my life? And so for the next five minutes, that's what we're going to talk about on this week's bonus segment.

Speaker3:
So what they do, and I'm going to hold up a piece of paper here. So what they do is they require that, you know, all the states run, they manage all of the fixed indexed annuity. So the states run the regulation of all fixed indexed annuities, not the federal government. And the states have to balance their budgets. So what they do is they require the annuity companies to put 100% of the money you give them into the ten year US Treasury. And then what they do is they take the interest that's generated off that those ten year US Treasury bonds, and they invest into options in things like the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, the Russell 2000, the Wilshire 5000, the BNP Paribas Global Age Factor Index, the Invesco Q-q-q index, and a host of others. Conversely, if you were to compare it to bank CDs, bank CDs, really the the top end requirement on bank CDs is a 10% financial reserve requirement. Fixed indexed annuities have 100% financial reserve requirement, first of all. Myself, I would feel much more comfortable with my money being in 100% financial reserve product than a 10% financial reserve product. As an example, throughout my career. The ten year US Treasury has been averaging right around 1.4 to 1.8% in annual interest. So if you put 100 grand in, you're making 1400 to $1800. Not a lot of growth on that money. And then they would then be able to take that money and then use that to buy options in these indices. So therefore they can do it can be you can get index like growth. Well, today, as of the recording of this video, the ten year US Treasury is yielding 4.26%.

Speaker3:
That is literally triple of what it's been throughout my career. And therefore they can give you a lot more of the gains and and give you a lot more growth on your money. There's really never been a better time, in my opinion, to be invested in fixed index annuities versus bank CDs or versus brokerage CDs or versus versus anything else out there that's fixed and safe. Well, the nice thing about fixed index annuities is there are hybrid products. So you can get market like gains without market risk. Let me just show you let me just tell you how these things can work. So with the nationwide peak ten again if you've got if the index does 10% over the two year protection period and you're getting 310% as of now, times how the index does, that's 31% less a 1% spread rate. You're getting a net of 30% growth on your money over two year period. It's called a protection period because they will also lock in your gains at the end of this two year anniversary, because that's you've got you're invested into a two year protection period each and every two years. So let's say you got a million bucks, then all of a sudden you get $320,000 in growth. They're going to lock in that 1.32 million, and then you can't lose money from there because they're going to invest the money back in the ten year US Treasury. That's how these hybrid products work. They just take the interest from this generated from the ten year US Treasury, and they invest it into the options.

Speaker3:
Now listen, if the market goes down like we saw it go down in April and it came back a little bit, but let's say you were at a one month protection period and and like in April and it didn't net out to be positive. Your money still 100% invested into the ten year US Treasury. So zero is your hero and all you're doing is losing the the interest off of it. But if you have growth on it, then you're getting a multiplier, a factor of 3.1, less than 1% spread rate and that nationwide peak ten. If you want to invest in the SPDR Synergy Choice Bonus ten, you're looking at, you know, a 75% growth on how the Invesco Q-q-q does without any downside risk. How many of you out there would actually like to invest in the Invesco Q-q-q only get 75% of the growth, but be guaranteed you'd never lose a dollar? I think a lot of us would jump at that situation. These products are not too good to be true. These products actually work, and they far outperform bonds because bonds are exposed to reinvestment risk and also to interest rate risk, as we saw during the Biden administration, when interest rates were going up, the bonds you previously held were worth less because everybody wanted the higher paying interest bonds. If you've got more questions about this, reach out to us at retirement. Com and or get my free book, The Smart Retirement Plan. It's an ebook and you get it by putting your information in at retirement. Com forward slash plan retirement.com/plan. Have a great week everybody.

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

Speaker10:
Every breath you take. Every move you make. Every bond you.

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