Proactive Steps You Should Be Taking for Your Retirement

5.5.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

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

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

Ford Stokes:
Welcome to the Active Wealth Show Activators on Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. And I'm joined by Sam Davis, our executive producer. Sam, say hi to everybody.

Sam Davis:
Welcome to the weekend activators and thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show. And if you missed last week's show, we had a fantastic interview with Gus Morris, who is a 30 plus year veteran SEC football official. Check it out on ActiveWealthShow.com.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, it's always great to get you the weekend ambassador to welcome everybody to the weekend. And also it's a good reminder I thought that was a great interview. It was just fascinating to talk to a 31 year vet of SEC football officiating. He'd been knocked down five times and one time was really scary for him at South Carolina. And so I just thought that was just interesting to hear. And so if you want to hear those stories, check out ActiveWealthShow.com and that episode from last week. And so we're going be a little more prescriptive on today's show. And what we're going to ask you to do is be proactive, not reactive. The Fed this week raised interest rates by 25 basis points again. And you know, again, they're trying to tackle inflation. But this is what happens when you you print $8 trillion worth of paper since 2015. It's just mind blowing to me. And we need to do a great job at protecting and growing our wealth, but also invest so that we can get market like gains so that we can keep pace with inflation as well. If the Fed's keeping pace with inflation, don't you think you should do? And so we just really appreciate all of our listeners. We appreciate the activators out there and activator. You might be thinking, hey, wait a second, who's an activator? And Activator is somebody who listens to this show, who listens to Sam and me every week. And usually we have a unique new and different show because we try to bring new information and education to our listeners every single week.

Ford Stokes:
And Activator is also someone who is seeking to build a tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio. They're also somebody who's looking to protect and grow their wealth and just build for a successful retirement and have peace of mind during retirement. They don't want to have to check the stock ticker every day. They just really want to have a plan. And my recommendation is to be proactive about it and consider a smart risk and part of your portfolio being smart risk investments, another portion of your portfolio being smart, safe investments. And then also really have some smart tax plans, whether you're growing your money, tax deferred or whether you're growing your money tax free. You can do both or you can do one or the other. We need to just help you do that and all you've got to do is reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com . Also, if you want to watch any of. Our shows, any of our previous shows to continue to learn. A lot of our content is evergreen on purpose because we want to give you. Sound financial advice. For the long haul, not just, hey, how's the stock ticker doing this this week? And we would just encourage you to check us out at ActiveWealthShow.com and, and click the episodes button. You can watch our shows anytime. The other is. You ought to click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. You'll be glad you did because you're going to get booked directly into my calendar. I'm going to help you protect and grow your wealth. We're going to run a free portfolio analysis.

Ford Stokes:
You can understand the risks you're taking, the fees that you're paying, and some of them could be fees that are hidden to you that aren't showing up on your statement. But they show up in the prospectus on the mutual funds that may be placed or invested into your portfolio, whether it was originally purchased with the 401. K and you still have the same asset, the same assets and the same asset allocation from your 401. K with limited investment options, or whether you had a financial advisor or a broker that puts you in those originally and you just moved your your business over to your own IRA and you started managing it yourself, or whether it's with a current advisor that you're not sure if they're doing a great job or not. And you haven't been happy with the recovery that you've hoped for in 2023 after you saw a significant downturn in your portfolio in 2022? Regardless of your situation, we can help you and all you've got to do is pick up the phone and give us a call at (770) 685-1777. We had several long time listeners call us this week and book appointments and schedule their free financial plan and and retirement plan all the way to their 95th birthday. They got it all for free and you can too. All you've got to do is call us at (770) 685-1777. Also, Sam, can you tell them how they can check us out on YouTube and some of the new features and aspects that of the Active Wealth Show that are now showing up on YouTube?

Sam Davis:
Yeah, absolutely. So if you love listening to the Active Wealth Show, we appreciate it. And we would like to let you know that you can now watch the Active Wealth Show as well. Just go to YouTube, search the Active Wealth Show. You can go to our channel, you can subscribe so that you never miss any of those special pieces of content, those highlights that we put up there. And you can also watch full length episodes if you go to ActiveWealthShow.com and while you're there you can actually book a complimentary consultation, get in touch with Ford and be talking about your own personal financial situation with Ford Stokes in no time flat.

Ford Stokes:
So here's the overview for today's show. Sam's going to talk about the quote of the week, which I think is a really great one that we all need to kind of heed and put into practice. We're also going to talk about bad money habits that could impact your retirement. We're also going to kind of share what it's like to work with us. And we're going to discuss how you can really be proactive about retirement. We've got seven strategies for your success in planning for a successful retirement. Absolutely. A no cost to you. So we've got that for you today.

Producer:
And now wholesome financial wisdom. It's time for the Quote of the Week.

Sam Davis:
This week's quote comes to us from Stephen Covey, an author best known for his bestseller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And Stephen Covey once said, I am not a product of my circumstances. I'm a product of my decisions.

Ford Stokes:
I mean, no truer words were said. Right. And. Again. I was like, Oh, if I just gotten this? Or if somebody had just done that for me or whatever. If you just plan for yourself and you, you'd save 15% every single year or even 20% every single year from the time you started working. You might not have to keep working so long. Also. If you retired early during Covid because you're just fed up and you couldn't deal with it anymore, and now you're suddenly seeing, you know, 20, 25% erosion from your portfolio. Plus you're taking out 10% of your portfolio each year to live on, and now you've got to go back to work. Then you're literally not a victim or a product of your circumstances. You're a product of the decisions you've made. I want to be clear. I want to remind everybody the rule of 100 here. Please make sure that you're doing a good job at planning. And and also planning against the risk part of your portfolio. So if you're 60 years old, subtract 60 from 100. That's 40%. That's how much of your portfolio that's the percentage of your portfolio that should be at risk in the market. That's 40%, folks, not 80%. The other thing I want to remind you of is the 4% rule. Please do me a favor. Do not withdraw more than 4% from your portfolio each year so you can make sure that your money outlives you. The biggest fear retirees have. The number one fear they have is not death because they know that's coming. The number one fear that retirees have. Is running out of money and becoming a burden on their children.

Ford Stokes:
Because they're going to feel like their entire life was a failure, which isn't true. I mean, they raise kids, they did all kinds of things, but financially, they don't want to be a failure at the end of life. I would encourage you to do not spend more than 4% of your portfolio every year. And if you want higher payouts than 4%, then I would encourage you to consider a fixed indexed annuity. Because I think you're going to find that you're going to get higher payment bands or higher percentage of your principal that is in your annuity account every year. Plus it's going to go up 0.1% a year because the mortality credits. And then plus you're going to be able to pass on money to your heirs if you're in the right type of fixed indexed annuity product. We talked about the nationwide peak ten here on our show last week. Nationwide, Peak ten is paying out a 20% bonus. There's no portfolio fees or advisory fees. There is a 1% income rider fee that comes with it every year, but they're giving you 20% on the front end. I would strongly encourage you to consider that product. There's also other products out there that are going to appeal to you as a pre-retiree or retiree. We're happy to walk you through a lot of your options in segment two. When we come right back, we're going to talk about how to beat bank CDs. We're going to talk about a one, two and three year multi year guaranteed annuity that you're really going to like as a great cash and money market alternative. You'll see Active Wealth Show. We'll be right back.

Producer:
Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company. You may not receive the bonus if the contract is fully surrendered or if traditional annuitization 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, and other restrictions that are not included in similar annuities that don't offer a bonus feature.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch videos from this program and other recent episodes.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back. Activators The Active Wealth Show. I'm Ford Stokes, Chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis on here with me. Sam, let's go ahead and play the beating the bank sounder.

Producer:
Need a higher rate of return from your safe money. Listen up It's time to beat the bank CD rates.

Ford Stokes:
I'm getting a lot of questions about, Hey, Ford, what do you have as an alternative to putting money in a money market or CD? Because the bank CD money has gone down. Also, the bank CDs that are available at the bricks and mortar banks. You know, at the Truist and Bank of America and Wells Fargo, those are actually really low. Also, more and more people are concerned about depositing money into banks because there are, you know, fractional lending and there'll only be a 10% FDIC Federal Reserve requirement where they have to have 10% cash on hand of of all deposits. And so there's just a real concern around banking with the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank and also First Republic having to be bought by JP Morgan. And so I just wanted to share a couple of alternatives here. So. The number one alternative is basically consider investing into a multi year guaranteed annuity or omega. Omega is the acronym. So I want to talk about three different multi year guaranteed annuities. And these annuities are presented by Clearspring Life. They're an annuity company. They're A-minus rated by a m best. And if you want to invest between 10,000 and $249,999 under 250, obviously. They're going to give you a 4.30% rate of return. Guaranteed has nothing to do with market performance. It also is based on the claims paying ability of that annuity company. But they are A-minus rated, so they are considered a highly rated annuity carrier.

Ford Stokes:
And if you want to invest between 250,000 and $1 million, they'll give you 4.4% back on your money. So let's say you put $1 million in, you'd get $44,000. Back at the end of the year, plus your $1 million. So your million dollars would look like 1,044,000 at the end of 12 months. If you want to put in just 100 grand. You would get 4.3% or $4,300 on your money. And so your 100,000 would look like 100,000. 4300. That's for the. The one year product. So you only are locking up your money for one year. Also, you don't pay any taxes until you actually surrender the policy and you take the policy and the interest. The minimum, the maximum age that you can invest in this or folks that are 90 years old and younger. The second. Multiyear guaranteed annuity I want to share is the preserve multiyear guaranteed annuity from Clearspring life. That is a two year annuity, a two year mega. And. If you can invest between 10,000 and 249,999, they're going to give you 4.5% on that. If you lock up your money over a two year period and there's a 7% surrender charge in the first year and a 6% surrender charge in the second year. But if you can go all the way through 24 months, you're going to get 4.50% on your money over the two years.

Ford Stokes:
And that's compounded interest as well. If you want to invest over 250,000, up to $1 million in that multi year guaranteed annuity, they're going to give you 4.6% a year. And again, the maximum age to be able to invest in this multi year guaranteed annuity is 90 years old. Okay. Now we've got a three year annuity and this comes from upstream life and it's called the Secure Legacy three. And. If you invest in this annuity, this multiyear guaranteed annuity. Your annuity will be credited with a first year interest rate of 5.65%, which is guaranteed for three years. The minimum single premium is $10,000. The maximum single premium on this is $1 million. And the age restrictions are you have to be 80 years old or younger to invest in this. There is a 10% surrender charge in the first year, a 9% surrender charge in the in the second year and an 8% surrender charge in the third year. That's a pretty attractive rate for to lock your money up for three years. How'd you like to get 5.65% over the next three years? It's not a bad idea. So I would strongly encourage you to consider these bank CD alternatives, especially where there's concern about banks defaulting to depositors, even though the FDIC has stepped in and said, Yeah, we're going to cover the depositors at Silicon Valley Bank. But they're not covering the common stockholders of Silicon Valley Bank, which I think was over $62 Billion in Market Cap loss.

Ford Stokes:
Market capitalization loss. That's a pretty significant loss. But if you've got questions and concerns, I mean, I've got I've got folks that are calling me for it, I'm concerned about even depositing money in my checking account right now. Should I be concerned about that? And I don't. I hope not. But I would encourage you to do everything you can to diversify your risk. And for me, I like investing in 100% financial reserve product, which is what these three annuities are. Annuities are regulated by the states and the states require. Annuities to invest in products like the ten year US Treasury and Reserve 100% of the money off of that. And what they do is they take the interest generated from that. And they invest into options and other things. But these are all fixed annuities where they were. They'll actually give you a fixed rate of return and they're going to hopefully make more money than that with your money and. These folks can buy options cheaper than we can. They buy $100 million blocks. And also these folks have more money on hand than their liabilities. And that's why these carriers are highly rated as well. Also, full disclosure, Upstream life is not currently rated by a m best, whereas. Clear Spring life is an A minus rated carrier. So just wanted to make sure we gave everybody full disclosure on that.

Ford Stokes:
But I would I would say. Know what you're investing in, know the companies you're investing in, but also. I personally would rather invest in a 100% required financial reserve required product, then a 10% financial reserve requirement product. That is familiar. That's kind of that's what bank CDs are. Fdic regulations. If you're if you've got if you're a bank of $100 million, you're required by law to in their regulations, you're required to have 10%. Cash on hand of your deposits. Whereas. If you're an annuity company or an insurance company, you are required to do a 100% financial reserve of the money people give. And then what they do is they make money off the interest that's generated from your money. And they and they give you deals. And this mega deal, you know, on a one year paying 4.3 to 4.4 and on a two year paying out 4.5 to 4.60%, depending on how much you deposit into it. And then on a three year. Paying out 5.65% over the next three years. If you can lock your money up for a portion of your money up for 36 months and get 5.65%, I would ask you, why wouldn't you do that? When we come back from the break, we're going to talk about the bad money habits that could ruin your retirement. You'll see Active Wealth Show right here on AM920 The Answer.

Charlie Kirk:
Charlie Kirk here. If you're concerned about your investments, rising taxes from the Biden administration, then I encourage you to listen to the Active Wealth Show hosted by my good friend Ford Stokes right here on AM920 The Answer. Listen to the Active Wealth Show Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 11 a.m. The Active Wealth Show right here on AM920 The Answer

Producer:
Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor, not an actual client of Active Wealth Management. You don't have to sacrifice style to save money on clothing. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement.Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. If you like designer brands and the latest looks, you don't have to buy them at high end clothing stores. Andrea Woroch is a consumer expert and recently told Fox 32 Chicago When.

Andrea Woroch:
It comes to clothing, the best way to save is to purchase your clothing second hand. And there are so many resources, whether it's your local consignment store or an online resale site.

Producer:
Websites like poshmark, Thredup and others have become go to places for those looking for bargains on clothes. Warrack says other sites even allow you to send in your old clothes, which will earn you credits. Then you can turn around and use those credits to buy clothes others have sent in. Then, of course, there are consignment shops and thrift stores. There may be a certain stigma attached to those options, but Goodwill store manager Troy Sanders told Fox 32 That's changing.

Troy Sanders:
Many items we get. They're brand new with tags, you know, so that stigma of coming in, getting, you know, used, you know, items at a goodwill, it isn't entirely true. I actually think that's a misconception that's going away. We found in a lot of our stores, we have younger customers that are coming in and they don't have that same stigma, you know, that previous generations have had.

Producer:
And shopping at a thrift store could get you those new clothes at a fraction of the cost of buying them new. So are you ready to save money while still looking dapper every day? It's a key question to consider, and it's one of the 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023 with the Retirement.Radio Network powered by AmeriLife. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
To get your free copy of 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023 give for to call today at (770) 685-1777 or go online to ActiveWealth.com .

Charlie Kirk:
About the Biden administration how rising taxes could negatively impact your retirement then I encourage you to talk to Ford Stokes and his team at Active Wealth Management. Ford and his team of experienced financial advisors will help you understand the fees and risks involved with your current portfolio. Simply visit ActiveWealth.com to book your free financial consultation and tell them Charlie Kirk sent you.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC BCM a registered investment advisor, not an actual client of Active Wealth Management. Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show. If you like what you're hearing, make sure to rate our show on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back to the Active Wealth Show Activators. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis with me here as our executive producer. And we're talking about the bad habits that could ruin your retirement. And what we want to do is we want to shine a spotlight on some habits to watch out for, because developing any one of these bad habits could put your future and your retirement at serious risk. So, Sam, I want to let you kick off each one of these topics, and I'm going to try to address each one.

Sam Davis:
Absolutely. So taking a look at some bad money habits, we've got ten of them on this list. Number one on this list is living paycheck to paycheck. Did you know that as of January 2023? So just at the start of this year, at least 60% of us adults are living paycheck to paycheck. Too many people are spending every dollar they make soon after they're paid. And we understand that times are tight at times, but encourage you to be careful that you don't make a habit of living beyond your means and always waiting for that next paycheck.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, what we try to encourage people to do is save 15% of what they make. Try to pay yourself first. And we have a lot of pre-retirees that listen to this show. It's not just retirees that listen to this show. Especially when you're trying to do that catch up after you're 50 years old. Just please do me a huge favor. Try to set aside 15% a year because you're going to be glad you did. It's going to give you even if listen, let's say you maxed out on the 401. K and you can't put any more money away and you only get so much amount, you're getting 3 or 6% match on what you're putting in. Do me a favor. Start investing into an IRA. You can invest up to 7500 if you're over 50 years old, starting in 2023, and then also put money away into a taxable account or buy a fixed indexed annuity. Try to save up to 25 grand or $50,000. Try to save up to 25,000 or $50,000 and buy a different annuity each year if you're making a good amount of money. And then that way you can turn on annuities at different times. A lot of the annuities we work with, their minimums are between 10 and $25,000. It's not a crazy, huge amount of money and you can do that. It's better than just having your money whittled down from a checking account because you felt comfortable with your money. Just sitting in a checking account. Please try to do more.

Sam Davis:
Next item on this list is don't make a habit of carrying credit card debt month to month If you think the interest rates coming from Jerome Powell and the Fed are bad, take a look at the interest rates on credit cards. Most APIs, that's your annual percentage rate is typically between 20 and 30%. In addition to paying that high interest and fees, I know a lot of the better credit cards out there that offer the better rewards, whether it be, you know, the Delta Rewards card or one that's tied to a specific chain of hotels. Those will have annual fees. Carrying a balance will have a negative impact on your credit score that could prevent you from borrowing money when you really need it or receiving a more favorable rate when you decide to go purchase a new home or buy a car, or even get a personal loan for your own business. So credit card debt is a major source of financial stress in the United States. Living paycheck to paycheck is no way to live. Just imagine if you're carrying credit card debt month to month as soon as you get paid. Your first thing is not paying yourself. It's paying down your credit card debt. So be on the lookout for that.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, we encourage everybody to try to pay off their credit cards every single month. Sometimes it's a little bit dangerous to to have a check card because then you're kind of living paycheck to paycheck, even if you're living Social Security. Check the Social Security check as an example. Sometimes it's better to use the envelope system and have certain money bucketed for each type of whether it's entertainment or, you know, paying the mortgage or paying for food or whatever that looks like. But I would encourage you to at least pay off the credit cards every single month. Yes. You might be getting Delta, SkyMiles. You might be able to get one extra or two extra flights out of it each year. That's a good idea. But one thing that Dave Ramsey says is you never get rich off of your delta SkyMiles. You never get rich off of your hotel rewards or your rental car rewards. You can't take that money really to the bank. You might be able to save some money and not pay for a certain bill one time, but you're not getting rich. It's not like money. You can actually put in the bank and start withdrawing anytime you want. Now you can use those points anytime you want, but also those programs continue to get more and more onerous on the actual spender. And they're they're giving you less flights for more miles. And and it just you got to be careful out there if you're trying to just be that points grabber or that Delta SkyMiles grabber just be careful and we're not hating on Delta or not hating on Delta SkyMiles by any means. I've got a Delta, SkyMiles, Amex. And you know, it does pay for some things, but I can tell you I'm not providing for my twin 16 year old girls and my wife with my Delta SkyMiles account. Now I'm using that for them to fly down to Orlando for the Summit cheerleading championship this past week. I did do that, but at the same time, I cannot take those miles and deposit it into my Truist bank account.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, that's absolutely right for it. And I would echo exactly what you just said. Credit cards do have a place if you're able to pay them off month to month and you don't get stuck in that trap of not thinking that that's a bill that you're not going to have to pay. Right. And I have the Delta card myself. And it's nice when you get a free upgrade or you get into that Sky club or you get that free flight when you're traveling to see family. But I would much rather have a dollar in the bank than another point on my Delta account anytime. So I think that's some great advice there. Number three on the list of bad habits to watch out for is having no emergency fund. A lack of emergency savings could lead to long term financial problems. According to a study by the Federal Reserve, 40% of adults said they would have difficulty covering an unexpected expense of only $400, and 12% said they would have to borrow or sell something to cover that expense. And what I would say for it is don't make a credit card, your emergency fund. Make sure you've got that emergency fund separate set aside for when you need it to cover an emergency.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing I would caution people on, try to get to that 3 to 6 month emergency fund and don't exceed it. There's too many people that are putting in 2 or 3 years worth of emergency funds in their bank account. It's above $250,000 as an example. So above the FDIC insurance rating, if you're one of those people, take some of that money and put it into a multiyear guaranteed annuity for a year and earn much more than what you're earning now. So if you've got any questions about that, go ahead and reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com . We're happy to help you. You can just. Click that, schedule a consultation button, or you can call us at (770) 685-1777. We're happy to help you.

Sam Davis:
Next bad habit to look out for is just not knowing where you spend your money. And Ford I think this comes down to just having clear financial goals and knowing what you want to accomplish in the long term. And when I think about people who don't have a plan, you've got to have a plan for when you bring in that extra money. So if you get that unexpected check, that unexpected bonus from work, you've got to have an idea for what you're going to do with that money. So you could say, hey, 50% of that's going to go towards paying down my mortgage. 25% is going to go towards my retirement and I'm going to have fun with the other 25%. Maybe I'm going to put that towards a family vacation later this year.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. I mean, knowing what you spend and knowing that you have more money coming in or more money on hand to be able to handle those expenses, that just equals peace of mind. It generates peace of mind. And I would encourage you to really plan your work and work your plan, even if you're in retirement. And it doesn't mean you need to beat your spouse up about spending. It means that both of you need to understand what you're spending and how you can get those expenses in line. And then when you're ready to push in on that grandkids gift or wedding reception or a rehearsal dinner, you've got that money on hand to be able to do that and really get that extra satisfaction of helping out a family member or you're maybe saving to help out a kid, a grandkids college fund. Those things are all really important.

Sam Davis:
Next bad habit to look out for is just not wanting to get more out of your career or not wanting to advance in your career. You know, improving your income. Ford is the best thing you can do to increase your net worth over the long term. And, you know, if you can't improve your income at work, you could consider improving your schedule. Some companies offer a four day workweek that gives you some extra time to do with as you please or even go after an additional side hustle.

Ford Stokes:
I want everybody to hear me, especially this pre-retirees out there. I want you to lean in to the radio right now. With everything that's going on with labor shortages, 3.5% unemployment, I promise you, if you put your resume out there, you call headhunters that or recruiters who work in your industry, whether they're contingent recruiters, where they work on a contingency fee to if they place the position or if they're retained search recruiters where they actually get paid by the company to post the position and then they just get paid to basically conduct the search. Your income is your greatest wealth generator. You need to generate more wealth. You don't want to just be there just to be happy. You don't want to just be there for the 100 extra square feet you may have in your office, or because you get to work from home a little bit more. You want to make sure you maximize the income that you're generating so then you can save that money and so it will contribute to your retirement and contribute to your lifestyle. That stuff matters.

Sam Davis:
All right. Ford And when we come back from the break, we're going to go through the rest of these bad habits to watch out for. Don't forget to visit active wealth, show.com. Check out our special interview with Gus Morris, sec official for 31 years. Last week's show was fantastic. Check it out on ActiveWealthShow.com. We'll be right.

Producer:
When it comes to saving money this year, why not do it the old fashioned way? Clipping coupons? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement.Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. Coupons are still a great way to save money in the digital age, with a lot less paper cuts. You can still find coupons and sales promotions in newspapers and magazines, but things have changed over the years. These days, there are a lot more opportunities to save money by searching online.

Jason Test:
The tools that are available now online make that really easy for shoppers to find the very best offer.

Producer:
That's Jason Test with the coupon website. Honey Speaking with NBC's Today show, the shift away from traditional paper coupons coupled with inflation does make it harder for some people to save. Take Kirsty Tureck, an extreme couponer, for example. She recently told the Today Show.

Kirstie Turoch :
I'm saving about 15% less than I was last year, but I'm also seeing probably 50% less sales and less moneymaker items.

Producer:
Still, she says, there are plenty of ways to save if you know where to look. Websites like RetailMeNot have been around for a while, but there are also newer apps dedicated to couponing helping you keep the savings at your fingertips.

Kirstie Turoch :
Do not pay for toothpaste. Don't pay for shampoo and conditioner, laundry detergent, personal care items and household essentials. Always, always, always. Have a coupon.

Producer:
So do you know where to go to find coupons that could save you a pretty penny? It's a key question to consider, and it's one of the 23 retirement cost cutters for 2023 with the Retirement.Radio Network powered by AmarAmeriLife. I'm Matt McClure.

Sam Davis:
Welcome back to the Active Wealth Show. I'm Sam Davis here with Ford Stokes. We're going over some bad financial habits to watch out for. We've done the first five, and number six is not knowing how to minimize tax and Ford. What are some key strategies for that?

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. I mean the two types of tax free investments out there that are available to Americans or Roth IRAs and life insurance, and you can invest in both specifically in your 30s and 40s and 50s. You've got a really good chance to minimize the amount of taxes you're going to pay in retirement on retirement income. If you can invest in, say, an index, universal life policy or whole life policy, we like index universal life policies to get more market like gains. We really encourage people to reach out to us. At (770) 685-1777 to go ahead and get a plan for a Roth ladder conversion. We do that as part of our overall retirement plan. We call it a results in advance retirement plan and investment plan. So we're happy to help you do that. But the best two ways to do that is to invest in indexed universal life policies and or implement a Roth ladder conversion so you can delete the IRS from being your partner in the income that you generate during retirement.

Sam Davis:
The next bad habit to look out for on our list is being unwilling to take normal risks with your money. And Ford I know that here on the Active Wealth Show we encourage people to do their research. Knowledge is power and it is possible to implement a smart risk plan, no question.

Ford Stokes:
I mean, you can implement tactical asset allocation. There's always going to be market risk when you're investing in the financial markets. You can also do some smart, safe investing with fixed indexed annuities as well. You've just got to be a little bit smarter and do a balance between smart risk and smart, safe and also minimize the fees that you're paying when you are taking the risk, because that can compound the risks you're taking and we can help you address all of that. All you've got to do is visit ActiveWealth.com and click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner and you'll get booked directly into my calendar. And I'm happy to help you plan for your retirement.

Sam Davis:
Three More Bad Habits to Watch Out For on Our List. The next is waiting too long to invest in your retirement. And Einstein once said that compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. So put that wonder to work as soon as possible. Yeah.

Ford Stokes:
The one thing I would say is when should I invest today? Or if you're listening to this on the weekend, it would be Monday morning. You need to just do it as soon as possible and don't waste any more time. Also, I wouldn't spend time wringing your hands and lamenting over IRAs or things that you may have blown through, or for one that you didn't invest in, you didn't save in. I would encourage you to step up and just start doing it right away.

Sam Davis:
The next bad habit on our list is just the general belief that money is bad. And Ford what we've noticed that in our country is that money is kind of a taboo subject for a lot of families and a lot of people. And we would just encourage people to have the conversation with a professional when it's something as important as your money. You know, people don't like to talk about health problems either, but you go and see the doctor, you get the help, you get a second opinion and you put that plan in place.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, we're happy to help folks kind of take the wonder off of investing and and also take the worry off of investing as well. I mean, yes, if you're investing in the markets, you're not going to be worry free because there you know, markets do involve risk. But at the same time, you can invest in, you know, investments like life insurance or fixed indexed annuities to get market like gains without market risk and also get more at least grow your money tax deferred and some. Some vehicles like index universal life policies. You can generate tax free income from those as loans against the policy. According to the IRS code rule seven 702. So we can help you do all those things. All you got to do is reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com .

Sam Davis:
And the final bad habit to watch out for is simply not saving enough money into an investment account. You want to make sure you're taking advantage of those maximum contributions for 2023, it's $6,500 for those under age 50 and for those over the age of 50, you can contribute up to $7,500 into an IRA. So before you buy that next big want, consider paying yourself first, like Ford, Stokes says, and investing in your future. And Ford. That wraps up our list of bad habits to watch out for.

Ford Stokes:
Absolutely. I think that's a good one. And if you want a list of all these and you want to see what we say about them, all you got to do is send me an email at Ford at ActiveWealth.com that's Ford at ActiveWealth.com and we'll get that report to you. Also do me a favor and go ahead and check out ActiveWealth.com /resources where we have a lot of our tradable reports sitting right there for you again ActiveWealth.com /resources now Sam let's go ahead and do what we promised at the beginning of this show. Let's talk about how to be more proactive and less reactive about your retirement.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, first one on the list. It's simple. We've been talking about this for at least the past six weeks with all of the banking volatility. Just don't keep more than $250,000 in a single bank. Don't keep anything close to that FDIC limit in our opinion.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. Do me a favor. And that's per household, not per person in the household. I don't want you investing more than or depositing more than $250,000 in an individual bank for the family because you never know in a settlement situation, they may be like, well, the family, we got you 250 grand, even though you had $500,000 in there. Just do me a favor. $250,000 per family, per bank, no more.

Sam Davis:
The next item is, hey, get more proactive by establishing that retirement income plan today for someone once told me that someday is a road that leads to never. And so if someone's saying, Oh, I'll do that someday, what I'm hearing is that they're likely never going to do it. So get in touch with Ford Stokes and the experts over at Active Wealth Management and get that plan in place.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, so many people just try to plan for a big nest egg number and they don't plan for how they're going to generate the income from that nest egg. And we can help you do that with tax deferred dollars and tax free dollars. All you've got to do is reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com . Yeah.

Sam Davis:
And the next item kind of hits right on those two types of tax free investments. You want to take advantage of those tax free options And once again, Ford what are those? Yeah, again.

Ford Stokes:
It's just Roth IRAs and life insurance. Reach out to us. You can call us at (770) 685-1777. And we're happy to help you build a tax efficient plan for your retirement.

Sam Davis:
Just another quick proactive tip in here. Work with a legal expert when it comes to putting a will in place for your final wishes and your estate planning. If you don't have that legally binding, will your family could be in court for years. And yes, it sometimes can take years while your final affairs are settled by the state. So consider working with a legal expert with something as important as your family.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I just want to settle this down for everybody. Just do me a favor, Get a will. Just go get a will. We've got my nephew does Wills and he can do them for, I don't know, 600 bucks around there. Don't overspend in Buckhead for an estate attorney to do a will for five grand. Just please don't it just. But just get a will because you don't want the state making decisions on where your assets go.

Sam Davis:
Also, Ford along the same lines, have a plan for when you or your spouse passes away. And the biggest thing here is oftentimes the spouse who was kind of that do it yourself retirement planner passes away and leaves that surviving spouse with so many questions and no idea who to turn to. Yeah, this.

Ford Stokes:
Is actually the the number one post retirement mistake that we see people make is they don't have a plan for what happens when one spouse passes away because when one spouse passes away, guess what? The household's going to lose 33%, at least in Social Security income. It just that's just the way it goes. And so you really need to have a plan for that. And we can give you income products like a fixed indexed annuity or life insurance or have an idea of a Maya or a multi year guaranteed annuity over a certain period. We can do a lot of different things to help you generate additional income to backfill that 33% loss in Social Security income.

Sam Davis:
The next proactive tip for your retirement is simply understand how your Social Security benefit is calculated. You can go to tsa.gov, get started. Take a look at the information in your account, and you're likely to have a lot of questions. And Ford, what can they do if they have questions about their Social Security?

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, we're happy to run Social Security maximization report for you. Absolutely. For free. It's about between a 50 and $250 value for you. If you were to go get one on your own. It's pretty detailed and gives you some what if scenarios and. And I think you'll really like it. I would encourage you to call us at (770) 685-1777. If you want to get your own Social Security maximization report from the professionals at Active Wealth.

Sam Davis:
And our last proactive tip before our final countdown. And Ford, you actually talked about this a little bit earlier on in the show, and that's determining your big budget items before you retire. So you may want to help pay for a family wedding or a grandchild's education. And you want to have a plan for that in advance. And you also want to consider, hey, if you want to travel a lot while you're still in your 60s, you want to build in a good, healthy vacation budget and that will be able to be incorporated right into your plan.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, this is something that I get a lot of the females and the males both come in with an idea of like, we got to pay for a couple couple more cars, We've got a wedding coming up, we've got a rehearsal dinner coming up, all that kind of stuff. And people are really good at it. So I would encourage you to do that, but try to write it down so you can really understand and put it into a spreadsheet and print it out and then take notes on that. Because if you do, you're going to find that you're going to actually going to address those big budget items during retirement. It's the final.

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

Ford Stokes:
So on this week's show, we we talked about how to beat bank CDs with multi year guaranteed annuities. You can also beat bank CDs with a fixed indexed annuity. We have some fixed indexed annuity products are only five years in length on a surrender period, so you can reach out to us on that. We also talked about how to be proactive, be more proactive and less reactive during retirement. We also talked about the bad money habits to avoid for successful retirement as well. And that took up a lot of our time today. I hope that really helped you out. If you've got questions or let's say you came into this show halfway during the show, we're happy to help you. All you got to do is reach out to us and we'll give you the full reports from this week's show about how to be more proactive and less reactive about your retirement and also the bad money habits to avoid to plan for successful retirement. All you've got to do is send me an email at Ford at ActiveWealth.com or visit ActiveWealth.com . Remember when you're seeking knowledge about retirement, it's really important to seek as much knowledge as possible. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly, be aggressive about seeking knowledge and learning as much as you can about how to invest and retire successfully. We're going to talk about how to take steps to prevent a retirement tax bomb during next week's Active Wealth Show. Have a great week, everybody.

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

Producer:
Investment Advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC BCM a registered investment Advisor. Bcm 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.

Producer:
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.

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