Our Financial Checklist for 2025 & What Retirees Fear Most

1.3.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

1.3.25: 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 advisor Ford Stokes.

Speaker3:
Welcome to retirement. Results result drivers I'm Ford stokes your chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us for the year. He's our co-host and senior financial advisor. Say hello to everybody Sam.

Speaker4:
Happy new year result drivers. Welcome to the weekend and welcome back to retirement results. Ford I'm so excited for a whole new year with our result drivers listening here wherever they listen to podcasts. And on Am 920. The answer here in Atlanta. We had a fantastic year connecting with so many of you in 2024, and we're here to help you start 2025 on the right foot and hopefully meet with you in person in one of our offices here in Atlanta at some point here in early 2025, because Ford, it's a new year. It's a new plan that we need to help people get in place.

Speaker3:
No doubt about it. And again, thank you. Result drivers, thanks for everybody who listens to this show. You've made us the number one listened to radio show on Am 920, The Answer on the weekends. You've also delivered over 40,000 plus downloads over the last 12 months. We sincerely appreciate you and thanks for making us just a successful radio show. Hopefully you're learning a lot and you're getting a lot of great information from us. We try to provide more detail than the typical financial advisor show. We want to make sure that we're really educating you and helping you actually protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. And we're going to go over a lot of things that we do. This show is really about how to start 2025 on the right foot financially. And we're going to help you get going there. Um, Sam is about to give us our financial wisdom quote of the week. Uh, we're going to talk a little bit in detail about some of the things that we do here at Active Wealth Management that could help you get going on the right foot financially in 2025. And then we're going to talk about how you can really jump start your new year with our financial checklist. Also rebalancing your portfolio to start 2025. Signs you may actually be ready to retire, or maybe even possibly relaunch. Um, also, we're going to give you some New Year's resolutions that you can keep and then we can help you keep. And also we'll discuss a little bit about what retirees are fearing most and how you can handle that as a pre-retiree or retiree. And also, just like I said, we're going to go in detail about what it's like to work with us here in segment one. But, Sam, why don't you go ahead and share this important financial wisdom? Quote of the week.

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

Speaker4:
Yeah. For anybody listening to retirement results for the first time, we've always liked to give a quote of the week. I mean, for the last few years, we've started so many of our shows by giving a quote of the week, and this week's quote comes to us from former US President Franklin D Roosevelt, who once said, the only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today. And so I would really just encourage anybody out there listening this year who has maybe felt over the past year or in recent months, that they need to take some action with regards to their finances and maybe get a financial checkup. If you're approaching retirement, now's a great time to do that. But there's really no bad time to make sure that you are in the right place with your finances. I mean, here to give you a little bonus quote, Ronald Reagan once said, trust but verify, and we want to help people verify the health of their portfolio. Sometimes it's good forward, but sometimes it's not so good. And we're able to help people make some important adjustments.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it's it is really important to kind of inspect. Did you expect. Do what Ronald Reagan said trust but verify. Um, I just really want to make sure that everybody gets a good understanding of what, what it's like to work with us. What else can happen and really can really change your world and change your financial outlook during retirement. So there's a few things that we do. Number one is we'll give you a free financial consultation at absolutely no cost to you. That includes a portfolio analysis that helps you understand the risk you're taking, the fees you're paying. Then also, we're going to give you a retirement income plan that includes a Social Security maximization report that comes in the form of an RSA roadmap. I happen to be one of 15 registered Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia, and I'm here to help you maximize your Social Security income benefit. So if you haven't taken Social Security yet or you have taken it inside of the last year, you really should reach out to us at retirement Results.com click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner, or give us a call to schedule a meeting with us at (770) 685-1777. Again (770) 685-1777. Then we'll also give you a financial plan for your 95th birthday. That does not include anything to do with us just at your current plan. So you get an understanding of it's literally a grade between 0 and 100. Okay. How am I doing? And do I have like a 90% chance of not running out of money by the time I'm 95 years young? Or is it more like a 65% chance? And I've got a failing grade.

Speaker3:
So we're going to help you understand that. We'll also give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday. That's number four with our recommended portfolios. And then number five is we'll give you a financial plan, your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios. That also includes a strategic Roth ladder conversion plan to help you delete the IRS from being your partner in those retirement accounts. So go ahead and reach out to us again at (770) 685-1777. Or reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. And just put your information in and we'll get started. Again that's retirement results.com/plan. But let me just give you these big three buckets. And Sam you and I were talking about it right before we started the show. These are the three big things that we do at Active Wealth Management. So the number one thing we do is we protect and grow our clients. Hard earned and hard saved. Wealth and protects is first. The tagline for our company is protect and grow. We want to first protect your assets. And then secondly, we want to grow your assets. We're also super excited that President Trump won. The white House is going to be inaugurated on January 20th and Lord, please keep him safe, especially with everything that's happened in New Orleans and also out in Las Vegas with terrorist attacks and both of those cities, um, you know, one person died in that Tesla Cybertruck explosion.

Speaker3:
And, um, and luckily, the the Cybertruck contained the blast mostly. And and then, you know, 15 people lost their lives and over 30 people were injured, um, in that horrific terrorist attack, uh, in New Orleans. And, um, that was just a real concern. And that so our thoughts and prayers are with those families. But number one is we're going to protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. Number two is we seek to build tax efficient, market efficient and fee efficient portfolios. So we want to if you could just be tax efficient and fee efficient, that has nothing to do with market growth, right, Sam? I mean, we see such an opportunity for people just to improve on the plans they bring in, especially the ones that have old for one case or for one case currently, and they're about to retire and they don't even understand what their expense ratio is. Not that, you know, it's it's it's a huge problem for you not to know. But if you don't know what an expense ratio is or you don't know what the expense ratio is within your portfolio or within your 41K, your 403 B, your 457, your Sep IRA, your simple IRA. You really should reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. But Sam, your thoughts on building that tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio for your clients?

Speaker4:
Yeah, I will when people give us a call forward, or if they go to one of our websites to schedule an appointment online, we get started on that portfolio analysis as soon as possible. And as we seek to help build these tax efficient, be efficient and market efficient portfolios for our clients, we really are inspecting what our clients are expecting and pulling out some key pieces of data. So when it comes to building a fee efficient portfolio, we want to know, hey, what is your current expense ratio? Can we help you delete some fees? In some situations, we find some spots where people are getting really overcharged in fees. So it's important to make sure that you aren't one of those people, uh, market efficient. We want to see what your current level of risk is. Is that current level of risk in your portfolio in line with your actual risk tolerance? Some people tell us, hey, I'm a really conservative investor. I don't want a lot of market risk. But when we take a look inside, so much of their portfolio is exposed to that market risk. So we look to see where we can bring that in line. And with regards to taxes, we want to see, hey, what bracket are you in currently? How can we help you save money on taxes in retirement? Because if you're still in your 50s or 60s building up to retirement, you've got a great opportunity. Many people can do a Roth conversion and start to delete the IRS.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it's a huge deal and I would just encourage people to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or or just reach out to us at retirement. Com forward slash plan. Just submit your information, your contact info and we'll get going right away. When we come back to the break, we're talking about how we build truly diversified portfolios and what a truly diversified portfolio means to you. Thanks for listening to retirement results. You're listening to us right here on Am970. The answer. We'll be right back.

Speaker2:
Retirement results. We'll be right back. To learn more and schedule your complimentary retirement consultation, visit retirement Results.com.

When I think about you, I think about.

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 Ford Stokes of Retirement results. Learn more and schedule an appointment at retirement results. Com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Visit retirement results.com for more information. You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
Welcome back. Result drivers I'm Ford Stokes your chief financial advisor. And I've got Sam Davis here with us our co-host and senior financial advisor. And again retirement results is our radio show. And it's powered by the advisors at Active Wealth Management. And right now we're talking about what can we do for you as clients. And the first thing we're going to do is we're going to protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. We're going to do it in that order. We seek to protect people's money first and then look to grow it so we don't overreach. We don't overstep. Number two is we try to build tax efficient, market efficient and fee efficient portfolios for folks. And then now we're going to kind of cover the big bucket. The number three is we build truly diversified portfolios. Now a lot of people will say, well, I can build, you know, a diversified portfolio between, you know, stocks and bonds and maybe ETFs and mutual funds, but they're all traded in the same markets. In our opinion, that's not a truly diversified portfolio. And also true diversification has got a lot of meanings to it. Number one is you need to be diversified within asset classes and asset allocations. Number two is you also should be diversified within your tax treatment buckets, whether you've got taxable or or tax free or tax deferred accounts. That's an opportunity to get better.

Speaker3:
Um, number three is you probably want to look for other alternatives other than bonds to give you income during retirement. We also help our clients consider Roth ladder conversions, specifically a strategic growth ladder conversion that usually lasts between 5 and 10 years. Most of them last between 5 and 7 years. So we can minimize the tax you're going to pay during the Roth conversion, and you're going to delete the taxes you would have paid over a 30 plus year retirement. And we're going to help you maximize your Social Security income with an RSA roadmap and give you that Social Security maximization report that comes in the form of an RSA roadmap. Rsa stands for Registered Social Security Analyst, and I happen to be one of 15 of those in the state of Georgia. So I encourage you to take advantage of that service and reach out to us at either active Wealth.com or retirement results. Com forward slash plan. So what is a truly diversified portfolio. It's a it's a it's a portfolio that has that implements tactical asset allocation. It's going to rebalance at least on a monthly basis. It's going to include strategic asset allocation. It's going to rebalance about once a year. We don't make money on fees on trading fees. We're not here to churn your accounts. We're here to make sure that your accounts grow. Because when your accounts grow, our flat advisory fee grows as well.

Speaker3:
Number two is we're going to try to really get to an an income portion of your portfolio and replace the bonds in your portfolio with fixed indexed annuities and get you 20% immediate bonus, 8% guaranteed interest into the income accounts. We're going to get you potentially, if you want, with with another product. If you want to invest in the SPDR Synergy Choice Bonus ten, you could get 85% of how the Invesco Q-q-q performs with no downside risk. That's a pretty great situation as well. We're also going to make sure that you're starting with a positive retirement income surplus, and not a negative retirement income gap in whatever stage of retirement you're in, whether you're a pre retiree retiree, Sorry. You've been retired for five years, ten years, 20 years, whatever. We're going to make sure that you're going to have a positive retirement income surplus with us. That includes Social Security. It includes any personal pensions you can generate yourself, and also includes a 4% withdrawal rate from your IRA accounts and taxable accounts, etc.. And we're just going to help you in general, make sure that you get a truly diversified portfolio between stocks and bonds, ETFs and insurance products like fixed index annuities and or life insurance, but probably fixed indexed annuities first and foremost. And also try to get you a Roth IRA account, IRA accounts, and taxable investment accounts.

Speaker3:
We can help you build a really strong portfolio that is truly diversified, and all I do is encourage you to reach out to us at active Wealth com or retirement results. Dot com forward slash plan or call us at (770) 685-1777. Again (770) 685-1777. And the last thing I want to leave everybody with saying before you get started and share this financial checklist to jumpstart the new year financially for folks is I really want to make sure you understand a truly diversified portfolio is not just a diversification between stocks and bonds. It is a diversification between stocks, bonds, ETFs. Try to minimize the mutual funds. Try to minimize the bonds. Include an insurance product like a fixed index annuity, by the way. Many of you don't know. But fixed index annuities are products that are there as insurance against you living too long. Whereas life insurance is insurance against you living too short. So I hope this helps, and I hope you understand how to really, truly build an actual diversified Portfolio, and I hope this is a really good segment for you to learn. And also just reach out to us at retirement. Com forward slash plan. Now, Sam, I want to get your final thoughts on a truly diversified portfolio. But also you can go ahead and start sharing this year's Jumpstart your New Year financial checklist as well.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I just want to remind all of our listeners the result drivers, as we refer to them out there, that we're providing so much value. For those of you out there who are listening to the show now, give our office a call or visit one of our websites and schedule an appointment. This is how you can partner with somebody who's sitting on the same side of the table as you. Because we tell people this all the time, Ford, it's your money. And if it's important to you, it's important to us. Our job is to help you make the best decisions for you. And all of that starts with having a real smart inspection of your plan. All of these things that we're outlining here and we want to help you do that in 2025. There's no time like the present. And let's let's take some action today.

Speaker3:
I mean, we really are here to help you. We're here to put your needs ahead of our own. We're fiduciaries means we've got to put your needs ahead of our own. And we look forward to helping you get started on the right way. If you've always been thinking about. You know. And I really need to get a second opinion on our portfolio. I really need to understand what's going on. I haven't heard from my advisor or I've just I have A41K. I don't have an advisor. I feel like my portfolio could have done better over the last couple of years, especially after a down year in 2022. We've got a really great problem solver on that very same topic that we'll talk about in segment 3 or 4, depending on on the timing of that. But it was really interesting client that we met with, um, who's now a client who could have been a client three years ago and really regrets not being a client for the last three years and is happy to be a client now. So I'd encourage you to just reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. And Sam, go ahead and start us off with this financial checklist to jump start the new year.

Speaker4:
Yeah I just want to go through some of these items. So if you're looking to get started and improve your finances this year, really the best thing you can do is visit our website or give us a call and we'll give out the website and phone number multiple more times here before the end of the hour. But here's just a little checklist to kind of go through in your mind. Or if you'd like to get this checklist, just give our office a call or send us an email. You can reach me at Sam Active Wealth. Com or reach Forward at forward at active Wealth.com. We'd be happy to share this list with you. But step number one it's the beginning of the month and the beginning of the year, so pay off your credit card balances. We find that a lot of credit cards have really high. Um, April's like 20% or higher. So you want to make sure that you get those credit card balances paid off, preferably every month, because you don't want to carry a heavy balance like that.

Speaker3:
Yeah for sure. I mean, it's what we really encourage people to do is try to get credit card debt free when they are going to work with us, because it's it's a lot easier for us to really grow their money, what's left over and not have that leaky hole in the bucket that is pulling assets out and just giving money to the credit card companies. There's no reason to keep those balances. Let's go ahead and get rid of them and get started on on a new path, which is a path of being 100% debt free.

Speaker4:
Yeah. Next step on our checklist is maximize your tax bracket with a Roth conversion. So what that means is we take a look at what your current top marginal tax rate is going to be for 2025. And we want to make the most of that bracket. So if we've got room we don't want to bump you up into a high tax bracket and pay high taxes. Now, the goal would be to pay lower taxes now, because many people anticipate the taxes will be higher in the future. So something to do this year. Maybe a note to take when you schedule your appointment with us. Hey, Sam. Hey, Ford, can you help me maximize my tax bracket with a Roth conversion? And, Ford, this is something we do very regularly.

Speaker3:
Yeah. Also, this is a really good thing to bring up when you come in and meet with us and you give us your, your statements and your what you think your monthly expenses are and what your Social Security income is going to be. And we pull all that together into a plan we actually have. We put your entire retirement in like 2 to 3 pages, depending on how when you meet with us, if you come in and meet with us when you're 50, it's going to be three pages. If you come and meet with us when you're 70, it's going to be two pages. And it's really interesting. We're going to be able to show you year over year what your effective tax rate is and how that right after you're done with the Roth conversion, your new tax rate and you're going to really like it. Usually it's about 10 to 11, 12% less once you're done with your, uh, Roth ladder conversion plant. So we've got like 30s left. We're going to continue with this checklist, the financial checklist to jump start your new year in 2025. You're listening to retirement results right here on Am 910. The answer come right back.

Speaker2:
Schedule your free, no obligation consultation now by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304.

That's cool. Tonight. Share the spice of life. Baby spice is back. We've got a group.

Speaker2:
At Active Wealth Management. We know you've worked hard for your money, and you've worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement, Ford Stokes of retirement results is passionate about helping people protect and grow their wealth while educating them on all their options so they can choose what's right for them. Visit retirement Results.com to schedule your no obligation consultation today. It's a $1,500 value provided at no cost to you. Book yours now at retirement Results.com. Thanks for listening to retirement results. Schedule your complimentary financial consultation now at retirement Results.com or by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304.

Speaker4:
Welcome back result. Drivers to retirement results. My name is Sam Davis. I'm your senior financial advisor here with Ford Stokes, our chief financial advisor. Wishing you a happy New Year. And we are here helping you jump start your New year with a financial checklist. Step one was make sure you've got those credit card balances paid off. Step two was get started on a Roth conversion and really maximise your tax bracket. And we're here at number three, which is an important one. It's one of the basics. It's set a monthly budget for your retirement. So you know what your expenses are every month now. And if you don't try and take every expense you have for a couple months, add them together and divide by two. Get a good monthly average of your expenses and start thinking about what are my income needs in retirement. Because when you start building that retirement plan, you'll want to make sure that you have enough income, actually a surplus of income, to meet all of your needs in retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah. And can you talk about this all the time? We steal a line from Dave Ramsey, which is, listen, you want to set a budget because you want to direct where you want your money to go, not wonder where your money went. And so we want to make sure we're setting that monthly budget. It's actually the wonderment of a budget. And sticking to it is very gratifying. And it and it makes for a happier retirement. And everything we've seen.

Speaker4:
Next one on the list is develop a plan to pay your house off. So if you're coming up on retirement, or maybe if you're still just in those first few years of retirement, we find that the happiest retirees we work with have no mortgage payment. And Ford, you're our registered Social Security analyst. And when it comes to people's budgets, you've seen time and time again that if people don't have that mortgage paid off by the time they retire, it's really eating up sometimes. One of the two Social Security income checks that's coming into the house.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I imagine if you had the mortgage paid off and you can get both of the Social Security income checks that come in and then also build income with a personal pension with a fixed indexed annuity, and then also build income with by taking out 4% of your assets each and every year. That would be a really great retirement plan. All you got to do is reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. We'll get started for you. Yeah.

Speaker4:
And speaking of Social Security that is where we're going on the next item on our checklist. Maximize your Social Security income benefit. You know you can increase your benefit by 8% each year you defer past your full retirement age to age 70. We think that's a smart idea if you can wait, but the timing is not the same for everybody. Some people are married. Some people are single. The important thing to understand is you want to maximize your benefit and make that decision at the right time. And for you as an Rssa are able to help people do that in a very cool way.

Speaker3:
Listen, if you're born after 1960, your full retirement age is 67. If you're born before, it's like 66. In a few months. But let's just say it's 67. Is your full retirement age? If you if you wait 68, 69 and then turn it on at 70, you're getting a full 24% more in retirement income benefit. But some people can't afford to do that. Some people also might be over withdrawing from their accounts to be able to make that happen. So we it's usually comes down to a customized plan. And I would encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777. Or you can reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan.

Speaker4:
The next item on our list are. Financial checklist to jump start your 2025 is implement a bond replacement to delete fees and also stop the bleeding in your safe money and Ford. I'd like to kind of make a shout out to all of our listeners out there who are listening to retirement results this weekend. If you have any bank CDs that are coming due soon in the coming months of this year, I would really encourage you to look into all of your options for your safe money, and not just take whatever the bank's willing to give you when that CD expires, look into all your options. We found a lot of people are really sacrificing a lot of potential growth by just playing it way too safe and down the middle. And if you want to be a conservative investor, if you want to have a big bucket of safe money, that's fine. We would just encourage you to look into all your options.

Speaker3:
Yeah, definitely reach out to us on I don't know if the yield on the ten year U.S. Treasury is going to stay high, that Janet Yellen, she did refinance like 9 trillion of the US national debt to basically come due in the next three years. We'd like two and three year treasuries. Us treasuries. You didn't do the ten year US treasuries. She made it very difficult on the incoming president. But I'm sure they'll figure it out and they'll they'll fix that piece. But take advantage of it right now because with interest rates high, these annuity companies can give you more because they're getting a higher interest rate than they typically give. I mean, the yield on the ten year US Treasury today is 4.59%. I mean, that's more than triple of what it's typically been like between 1.4 and 1.8% throughout my career. So if it's a 1.4, obviously it's going to be three times. Therefore the annuity companies can give you three times the interest. They may take some of it and give you some of it. But imagine if you can get something where contractually you can never lose your principal.

Speaker3:
You can also get an immediate bonus of 15 to 20%, depending on which product you select. And you can also get 85% of the yield on the Invesco Kukuk index or 290% on how the BNP Paribas Global Factor Index performs. Those are both really attractive options. A lot of people really love the Q-q-q. We ran this just about a month ago, and the nationwide peak ten would have delivered. When you include the 20% bonus and the growth over the last two years, 52.08% growth, and then the SPDR would have delivered 90.213% would include a 15% premium bonus and the performance of the Invesco Q-q-q times basically an 85% participation rate. So I promise you, it's not too good to be true. You really ought to reach out to us, give us a call at (770) 685-1777. We look forward to helping you build your own personal pension and get that retirement income plan. Set the way you want it, and make sure you've got enough money to outpace the withdrawal rates and really enjoy retirement, your family and friends.

Speaker4:
Well, I just want to recap this checklist forward so we can get our listeners their problem solver of the week. Step one was pay off your credit card balances. Don't carry credit card debt this year. Get that paid off. Step two is maximize your tax bracket. With a Roth conversion, you can give us a call and schedule your appointment. We'd love to help you get started with that. Number three was set a monthly budget for your retirement. This is a fundamental, and we think it's really important for everybody to understand what their income needs will be in retirement. Step four develop a plan to pay your house off. We say the happiest retirees we work with have no mortgage. We'd like you to be just as happy as them. Step five was maximize your Social Security income benefit. Our chief financial advisor, Ford Stokes, is a registered social security analyst. He would love to help you maximize your Social Security for both you and your spouse, and the one we just gave you. Implement a bond replacement to delete fees and stop the bleeding in your safe money. And one final item on our checklist. Schedule a retirement consultation with us today at either active Wealth.com the name of the show retirement results. Com or by giving us a call right here in our Atlanta office (770) 685-1777 for I think that's a great checklist for people to go through. If you missed part of it, you can go back and listen to the show wherever you listen to podcasts or reach out to us and we'll send you this list so you can have it in your hands. But Ford, that brings us to the Problem Solver of the week.

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

Speaker3:
Yeah. So this week's problem solver comes from David and Amanda in Dunwoody. And we used to have an office at Dunwoody. We've got an office in Alpharetta now a little bit further north, and also one in Midtown and one in Kennesaw. But David and Amanda, they met with us about two and a half, almost three years ago. And that included, you know, some 20, 2022, wherein the markets weren't doing well and then recoveries over the last two years after that. David was kind of self managing the money there, worth about $4 million, but 2 million of it is sitting in retirement accounts. Between the two of them there are 69 and 68 years young. They've recently retired in the last six months, both of them. And they both work for major employers here in Atlanta. They've got about a couple million dollars in rental real estate. And I guess their other their main house, too. So they're probably their total net worth is probably right around 5 million. But he lost over 20% of their IRA accounts since we last met with them, because he was kind of self-managing. And he was like, I guess I'm just too emotional. I'm doing it wrong and I need to get safer.

Speaker3:
And so they're taking 40% of their assets, about $800,000, and they're going to put it into a nationwide P-10 and the SBA. They're doing different ones, and they've done a major Roth ladder conversion. Upon our recommendation three years ago. And they're going to use all the money they've got within their Roth IRAs to fund these annuities because they feel like, you know, getting tax free income during their retirement from their Roth IRAs is the right way to go. And they really like the fact that both of these products illustrate and show that they will likely outpace the withdrawal rates that they're going to have. So they've got money to give to their kids, and they're going to give their kids the money that is 100% tax free, which, again, Roth IRAs and life insurance are the nicest things you can give to your kids because they're tax free. That's an incredible problem solver. What solved the problem was him being overly emotional as an investor. He didn't do as well. And now he's going to take 800,000 to make sure their income is saved. But also he's got tax free income because he's got 800 of the 2 million is sitting in Roth IRAs.

Speaker3:
He's got 1.2 still sitting in IRAs. That's a really good situation. And that Roth money is the most valuable money they have, because it's truly tax free. And they want to make sure the principal is protected and they want to generate income from it. As you drive around Atlanta or you're listening to us on this podcast and, you know, obviously, if you're one of the listeners that make us the number one listened to radio show on Am nine, 20 a.m. on the weekends, my question is, you know, could you do better? Do you have money that's extremely valuable to you, that you want to make sure it's protected so you can generate income from it? Or do you feel like the retirement income portion of your portfolio is a little bit too much at risk, and you also want to just get a higher rate of income and just more income during your retirement years. If you do, I'll encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. When we come back from the break we're going to talk about more of how you can get off on the right foot financially in 2025 retirement results.

Speaker2:
We'll be right back.

I got chills, they're multiplying and I'm losing control.

Speaker2:
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Speaker3:
And welcome back result drivers I'm Ford Stokes the chief financial advisor. And I've got Sam Davis here with us, our co-host and senior financial advisor. And you're listening to retirement results. And if you're wondering who a result driver is, it's someone who listens to this show, someone who wants to build a tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolios they can build for a successful retirement. They're also seeking just to protect and grow their hard earned and hard saved wealth. And we're going to help you do that. Right now. We want to talk about we talked about a lot of things in the beginning of this show. And, you know, the title title of this show is How to Get Off on the Right Foot financially for 2025. And right now we want to talk about what retirees fear the most. And bottom line is, the number one fear that all retirees have is running out of money. It's more than death because they know that death and taxes are real and they're coming. She they just want to make sure they don't run out of money since they work so hard to save it and to make it. But, Sam, why don't you share how it can happen to hard working Americans out there?

Speaker4:
Yeah. One thing. One thing that retirees really fear. This is something that we have conversations with our prospects and clients about all the time is Social Security cutbacks. We know that the Social Security Administration and the Congressional Budget Office are making regular announcements about the solvency of the Oasi Trust Fund. The fact of the matter is that in 1940, there were 40 workers per retiree when Social Security was a very young program, and the ratio is expected to be 2 to 1, only two workers per retiree by the year 2050. So you have fewer people paying into the program and more people who are retired and needing to pull income for their needs in retirement. We know that there are likely to be some sort of cutbacks. That's what they're announcing. We're hopeful that the next administration can shore things up and get things solved, but we just aren't quite sure what the future will bring. The most important thing you can do is build a strong income plan that doesn't need to be too dependent on Social Security, and also make a good decision about when to start taking your benefits.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I mean, with the OAS, I trust fund scheduled to be deleted by 2035, and you're staring at a 23 to 24% across the board cut. If Congress doesn't do anything about it, it's a real concern for people. Also next, you know, people fear that taxes are going to increase in the future. That's why they voted for Donald J. Trump. Hopefully we're going to be okay with that. We're basically historically at low tax rates and they're lower than they used to be. So definitely it is a concern. One big concern that a lot of our pre-retirees and retirees have is for how much are they going to take in taxes? When I'm taking distributions from my retirement account, I realize that the government is my partner in my retirement account. They're not the kind of partner I want. How can we get going on Roth ladder conversions, things like that. But they realize that it's likely with $36 trillion and growing, you know, we're looking at we've got to figure out some way to pay back this debt. So we'll see what that looks like. Just a real concern there. Sam. What's number three on your list?

Speaker4:
Yeah. Something else that retirees fear is inflation. And if you look at the cost of living adjustments over the last three years, it reflects about an 18% rate of inflation. We believe from what we're seeing that the actual rate of true inflation is much higher. We've had John Williams, the economist with Shadowstats.com on our show before, and and he thinks that the cost of living adjustments aren't even keeping up 50% with the actual rate of inflation. And so people fear a rising cost of goods and services because Ford, it seems like the things we need the most is where we're seeing the biggest increases.

Speaker3:
Yeah. What John Williams told us was he thinks the actual inflation rate is closer to 14.6% a year, which is crazy town. It's just it's just a lot and it makes it very difficult to afford things. Then Sam portfolio balances going down too quickly is another fear. Just the markets I mean they they've lived through zero eight. They've lived through many of them lived through 1987. They lived through zero eight. They've they've lived through 2018, 2022. They've seen some significant drawbacks and drawdowns in the markets. But, I mean, nobody can really forget 2008. From March to 2008 to March 2009, the S&P 500 lost 50.1% of its value. They're fearful of this, and that's why we work hard to protect and grow our hard earned and hard to save well for our clients. We want to do a really good job at making sure at least the retirement income portion of our portfolio is 100% protected. We like doing that with fixed index annuities and replacing the bonds in the portfolio. And we ask our clients all the time like, why are you investing in bonds and paying portfolio fees and advisory fees?

Speaker4:
Yeah. Something else that people are fearing in retirement forward is healthcare needs and what that healthcare is going to cost. I mean, between prescriptions, procedures, potential long term care expenses, a couple retiring may need to spend upwards of $315,000 or more on healthcare in their retirement. That's why it's so important to protect and grow your wealth, and make sure that you have enough wiggle room in your monthly budget to take care of any healthcare expenses that come about as you age.

Speaker3:
Also, in the last number seven on the list is a big one having to care for a loved one. A lot of people have a fear of that. There are over 40 million unpaid caregivers in the United States, according to reports and surveys that we've read and seen and talked to people about, that is remarkable. And so you've got to do a better job at planning for retirement planning or being an assisted living facility, being able to afford that, whether you're self insuring against that or whether you have long term care insurance, that should be a real concern. Also, there's some fixed indexed annuities that you can get higher payouts if you cannot meet two of six activities of daily living. And what's great about that is you don't have to go through medicals to qualify. So it encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777, and we're happy to help you with any long term care insurance as well. It's the final.

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

Speaker3:
Countdown. So on this week's show, we talked about how to jump start your new year with our financial checklist. And we'll let Sam go through that. We also talked about what it's like to work with us and what you get. Five things you're getting is number one is a portfolio analysis. Number two is retirement income gap analysis. And also it also includes a Social security maximization report that comes in the form of a registered Social security analyst roadmap. And I'm an RSA happy to help you do that. Number three is we give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with your current plan. That has nothing to do with us. Number four is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday. That is with our recommended portfolios. And number five is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios, but also includes a strategic Roth ladder conversion. We also shared the problem solver of David and Amanda in Dunwoody, and how they are really excited to have protected their Roth IRA money and getting income from their nationwide P-10 and Aspida synergy choice bonus ten annuities. Between the two of them, it's about $400,000 apiece. If you didn't know that you could actually invest in a fixed index annuity with Roth IRA money, I would encourage you to reach out to us as well. Also, if you got Sam had mentioned, if you've got some bank CDs that are coming due in the coming year, I would encourage you to reach out to us. You can understand what you can do to maximize the growth on that money, and also protect that money with a multi year guaranteed annuity or fixed indexed annuity, or in structured notes or any other different financial products we have available, including a brokered CD that could be paying you higher rates of return as well. Sam, go ahead and share in detail the financial checklist that we went over earlier.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So really quick here is how you can jump start your new year. Here's the checklist. Step one pay off your credit card balances. Make sure you're not carrying any credit card debts this year and get those balances to zero. Step two maximize your tax bracket with the Roth conversion. We'd love to help you with that. Here at Active Wealth Management, just give us a call or visit our website to schedule your complimentary meeting with us. Step three is set that monthly budget for your retirement. Figure out what your income needs are now and what they may be in the future, and we can help you do that as well. Step four develop a plan to pay your house off. We feel like the happiest retirees we work with have no mortgage, and we want you to also have no mortgage and have some financial flexibility in retirement. The next step is maximize. Maximize your Social Security income benefit. And Ford Stokes, our registered Social Security analyst, can help you do that by creating your free RSA roadmap. And next, implement a bond replacement. Delete those fees. Stop the bleeding in your safe money. Stop settling for whatever the banks are giving you with CDs. And the last and most important step is schedule your consultation with us today. It's a free meeting with us.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I just hope everybody has a great week. Just remember, if you are seeking information about your retirement, if you feel like you could be doing better, you feel like you don't have a retirement income plan. You feel like you don't have a plan to delete the IRS from being your partner in your retirement accounts. You feel like you could be doing better. You could be saving more. You could be generating more retirement income. If you feel like you know what? I don't really know what the expense ratio is within my portfolio, and I'd like to know what that is. And if you feel like you don't know what the risk level you're taking with your current portfolio as measured by standard deviation, if you just feel like in general, you could be doing a better job and just need to do a better job at inspecting what you expect. Regarding your portfolio, I'd encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit. Retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. We look forward to working with you. Have a great week everybody and happy New Year and welcome 2025. We can't wait for President Donald J. Trump to get inaugurated on January 20th.

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 Visor 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 Adv2 to item four for additional information. About 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. 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.

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