Protecting Your Retirement from Inflation and a Volatile Economy

12.1.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

12.1.23: 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:
And welcome to the Active Wealth Show Activators. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis here with me on the microphone and on the board as our executive producer. Sam, say hello to everybody.

Sam Davis:
Welcome to the Weekend Activators. Thank you for joining us once again on the Active Wealth Show. Hope everybody had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday with their loved ones. We're going to be talking a little bit more about the holiday season on this week's show, particularly why the holiday season is costing a little bit more this year. So stay tuned for our inflation demonstration. And Ford, I know we've got some really important segments that you're going to be presenting on sequence of returns, risk and how all of the activators, our listeners can better protect their retirement, because that's your goal, right? For listening to this show, you want to have a more efficient, tax efficient and market efficient retirement so you can spend your retirement years doing what you really want to do and not worrying, not losing sleep at night, not looking at the stock ticker, thinking that you have to manage the finances in your retirement day to day.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, we're going to do everything we can to help protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. Here on the Active Wealth Show today, we've got an important show. We've got a big show, um, this week for sure. Um, and we've got a lot to cover. So, um, there's less than a week to go, right, Sam, on the Medicare's annual enrollment period, which they what they call AEP stands for annual enrollment period. And the open enrollment period ends December 7th. We work with Bonnie Dobbs and the folks at Medicare and other red tape. So if you haven't gotten your Medicare plan reviewed in the last year or two, I would strongly encourage you to go ahead and visit Medicare and other red tape and reach out to Bonnie. Um, and she can help you. Uh, we don't do Medicare here, but we, um, want to make sure that you are taking care of your health care needs and obviously make sure that you're stay alive and and you can enjoy your, your years during retirement and all that great stuff, and make sure you're healthy so you can spend more time with your family. And my family, we we spell love T I'm just try to spend time with our our loved ones and and also the family and friends too. So I just our hope for you is that we can build that tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio so you can. Generate the income you want and need during retirement. On a monthly basis. You don't have stress, but also that you can spend more time with your family and friends.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, that's right board. And you know, I do want to make sure that we mention that we've been kind of teasing it a little bit, but we've got a lot of exciting announcements coming for The Activators and the Active Wealth Show over the next month. One of those things we want to talk about today, the Active Wealth Show's been on the air for over four years now, and we're constantly making changes, improvements to active wealth management and also the show so that we can better serve our clients and our listeners. Every day is a school day for us here in the office. We're always learning and trying to get better in Ford. I know that you've been hard at work over the last couple months studying hard, and you are now a registered Social Security analyst and are able to help our activators and clients in a way that we haven't been able to before. And we're excited for what this means for the people of Atlanta. Our listeners on Am 920, The Answer and beyond on our podcast, how we can help them out with their Social Security.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. So, I mean, it's very gratifying to be in Rssa to to be certified and classified as somebody who is a registered Social Security analyst. There's not a lot of us in the state of Georgia. So. I'm really proud to be able to deliver. Cogent and sound advice on when to take Social Security. There's over 2000 decision points regarding Social Security. Most people are like, hey, it's an on off switch. I'm just trying to figure out when I can turn on income. And some people are like, I need to turn on income as soon as possible because I don't know if it's gonna be around for me. Some people feel like, well, I need to wait and maximize the money. I'm going to get paid per year with Social Security. But here's the bottom line. The bottom line is. When you choose to determine when you're going to turn on your Social Security income that you put so much. Money into the system for so many years. It literally is one of the most important decisions you can make during retirement. And the first step is to go to Tsa.gov. We want to make sure that you go to the Social Security Administration's website, which is tsa.gov, and get your Social Security statement. Go ahead and do that. Download it. So that way you can understand. Really, what is your income benefit look like at what they call the Fra, which is your full retirement age, but also you get an understanding of what your top 35 earning years are according to the taxes that you filed. And according to the Social Security Administration. I would just really encourage you to do that today if you haven't done it already.

Ford Stokes:
Also, it's gonna be a little bit of a it's not too long of a of a website, but I'm going to give you one. If you wanna get your own free RSA roadmap, which is basically a Social Security maximization report, but it's got what if scenarios and gives you three different options fully analyzed on when you take Social Security, when you and your spouse take Social Security, we can turn on and and run it a lot of different ways for you, but you're going to understand also how you can save taxes. Believe it or not, by deferring a little bit longer for Social Security as well. And we can actually quantify that for you. I would encourage you to reach out to us at RSA comm slash RR. That's. Rsa comm slash SR. The SR stands for Quick Retirement Report, and I'm really fortunate that RSA set up our own website for the folks here in Georgia, the folks that listen to the Active Wealth Show around the country. It was really nice for them to do so. It's our own page. It's rc.com/sr. We'll try to put a link in an article in our blog on Active welcome and also Active Wealth Show. Com. We'll make sure that that is. Up and ready to go. But we're happy to help you. All you've got to do is visit Rvusa.com. Sure. To get your free Social Security maximization report. And it's also not too early. It's never too early to plan for Social Security. It's a good idea to get an idea of what you're going to get on a monthly basis. And one other thing, Sam, that we talk about a lot and ought to be clear about this.

Ford Stokes:
You really need to do everything you can to plan for the eventual loss of a spouse within the marriage. If you're married. You're going to lose at least 33% of the Social Security income that comes into the household on the day that your spouse dies. We've got one client that I've worked with for over five years. Unfortunately, his wife passed away after a really bad car accident. Something that was, um, under the influence of crystal meth, went over a highway and hit her head on. When she was on her way to go to Asheville to go do her every six month trip with her. Friends around the southeast and it's a really sad situation. What made it even sadder was. He lost 33% of the income that was coming into the household, because she was getting half of his Social Security income benefit. And I just. Want to make sure that you've got a plan for that. You've got a plan for. That gap in Social Security income, that's going to be immediate. We can do that with all kinds of different income needs. But one of the best ways to do that is also maximize Social Security that you're going to get. And. There's a lot more that goes into Social Security calculation with three bend points, trying to calculate your primary insurance amount, and then also trying to calculate your average income, monthly earnings. There's a lot more than you ever thought of. To deal with Social Security, and you really have an opportunity to maximize your Social Security income. Just visit Rvusa.com, slash your or just give us a call at (770) 685-1777.

Sam Davis:
It is a fantastic opportunity for all of the activators and all of active Wealth's existing clients as well. They're going to have so much more detailed information about their Social Security benefit. We talk a lot about the importance of having a strong income plan in retirement, and Social Security is there for a lot of people as a powerful income source during retirement. And now we're here to help you really make the most of that. Coming up on today's show after the break, we're going to give you the quote of the week. We're going to talk about the inflation demonstration. Christmas trees are going up all across Atlanta, but so are the prices as well. We've got a market update, some good news and some bad news. We're going to talk about sequence of returns risk, what it is and why it matters for your retirement. We've got a problem solver, an example of some listeners who called in and are now getting some help from active wealth management. And we'll also talk about what it's like to work with us here at Active Wealth. Once again, the number to call is (770) 685-1777. Or you can visit us online at ActiveWealth.com. And the Active Wealth Show will be right back.

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. You gotta have something. If you want to be with me.

Producer:
We have Ford Stokes, author of two important personal finance books, annuity 360 and taxes are on sale here on Am 920. The answer as the host of the Active Wealth Show Saturdays at 12 noon and Sundays at 11 a.m.. With the traditional 60 over 40 portfolio having its worst year in more than four decades, now may be a great time to consider more than just stocks and bonds. Ford Stokes, author of annuity 360 and host of the Active Wealth Show, wants to help you retire with peace of mind. Schedule your free consultation today at Active Wealth Comm. That's Active Wealth Comm.

Producer:
Investment advisory services are offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Thanks so much for listening to the Active Wealth Show. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back Activator's The Active Wealth Show. I'm Pete Stokes, chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis here with me, our executive producer. And Sam, you've got a really special financial quote of the week. One of my heroes passed away this week, Charlie Munger. He died at the age of 99. He would have been 100 years old if he had made it to January 1st. I wish he could have made it to January 1st just for us. Um, the Berkshire Hathaway annual stockholders meeting is going to be very different and sad without Charlie. He's been Warren Buffett's partner and he was his he was deemed the abominable no man. He would say no a lot. He was a real estate attorney. He fought for his country or was in the US Army and the US Army Air Corps. I'll let Sam, you can go into his total background, but Charlie Munger has passed away at the ripe old age of 90. At the ripe old age of 99 years young, huge fan of Charlie Munger. Um, he is also one of the largest shareholders of Costco. And we all love Costco as well. And I'm just a big fan of Charlie Munger, and he was Warren Buffett's partner for over 50 years.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, just a little bit of background on Charlie. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska on January 1st, New Year's Day, 1924. You know, I was reading a few different obituaries for Charlie Munger. Ford and I came across one really interesting fact that he actually worked for Warren Buffett's grandfather for a period of time during the Great Depression, earning $0.20 an hour. So we have come a long, long way. Uh, 99 years. What a run for Charlie Munger. And he is the owner of this week's quote of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the quote of the week.

Sam Davis:
And Charlie Munger once said. I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. Go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up. And boy, does that help. Particularly when you have a long run ahead of you. And Charlie did have a long run, almost a century, and we're all living longer. And I think that's great wisdom that Charlie shared with all of us, that if you go to bed every day a little bit smarter than you were when you woke up, that's going to compound and really pay dividends in your life down the line.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. I want to encourage each of our activators, all of the folks listening to us here in Atlanta on the Active Wealth Show or listening to the Active Wealth Show podcast, and our our podcast continues to grow and downloads and subscriptions really appreciate that. Also, our social media channels continue to grow as well. I appreciate all of the support that the activators give us, but. Do everything you can to heed that quote. Even in retirement, you might be thinking, well, that's really about my career. No, it's really about retirement as well. If you can do a great job at just learning regarding retirement and just seek knowledge. All we say at the end of this show every week is if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Be aggressive about seeking information regarding your retirement future. And also remember that retirement is more than just building one big nest egg. It's it's about income. More than that. And if you can generate income by maximizing your Social Security, by talking to a registered Social Security analyst like myself, that's a good idea. I'm a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor, series 65 licensed, got a life and health license as well. And I just I just want to share this. Do everything you can to inspect what you expect regarding your retirement.

Ford Stokes:
It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to seek to understand. You don't have to come in thinking, I've got to sound smarter than the financial advisor or smarter than the registered Social Security analyst. You may not be as experienced in the area as they are, but remember this it's your money. It is your money, and you do everything you can to protect and grow your money. Remember, if it is to be, it's up to you and me, and I want to do everything I can to help you protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved money so you can have a successful retirement. You really can enjoy retirement without having to look at the stock ticker. Like Sam said in the first segment, you really can travel and have a great time with family and friends and just enjoy life. And most of that comes with staying within your means on a monthly basis of your expenses during retirement. That that really is one of the biggest drivers of happiness during retirement. That and having a great relationship with your spouse and with your family and friends. Those are the big two drivers. And let us help you. We can put you into tactically managed portfolios.

Ford Stokes:
Actively managed portfolios. We can reduce your expense ratio. We can reduce your. Portfolio and advisory fees more than likely you. We could also reduce your risk level as measured by standard deviations. We give you a metric reduction in the amount of risk that you're taking. We can also replace your bonds with fixed indexed annuities or structured notes or even brokerage CDs. And we've got a brokerage CD that is paying 5.60% right now. And it's a 12 month brokerage CD. I would just encourage you to reach out to us and go to ActiveWealth.com. That's ActiveWealth.com and click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner and I'm happy to help you. You can also just reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Again (770) 685-1777. And we're happy to help you. We give you a free financial consultation on the front end. You make an informed financial decision if you want to work with us or not. If your current plan is better than what we could offer, we'll tell you it doesn't happen very often. But we were fiduciaries, so we're going to put your needs first. You really have nothing to lose by calling us. And all you got to do is call us at (770) 685-1777 or visit Active Wealth Comm.

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

Sam Davis:
All right. Our inflation demonstration for this week I talked about it at the end of our first segment. All across Atlanta and all across the country. I'm sure Christmas trees are going up. There's one up in my living room right now. It went up a couple days after.

Ford Stokes:
Only one I don't. We have like 12 trees around our house because we've got stuff in our girls rooms. We've got stuff in the keeping room. We have a tree that greets you when you walk in our door. We have we have trees in the basement. We have trees everywhere.

Sam Davis:
That's that's a good point. There is a big one in the living room, and there's also an additional one in my office. And then there's some other smaller kind of decorations around the house as well. So I'm glad you brought that up, because Bailey is listening, and I'm sure she would have said, Sam, we've got more than one Christmas tree.

Ford Stokes:
But she's like, looks like me here. That's right, spirit. Yeah.

Sam Davis:
We did. We did a really good job watching college football last weekend and decorating the house for Christmas. So Christmas trees are going up, but so are the prices. According to The National and the American Christmas Tree Association, the average price of a Christmas tree is up 10% more than last year, with trees averaging between 80 and $100 this season. Of course, if you put up an artificial tree that will break the bank even more. Price tags are all across the board for artificial trees from $85 to $1000 or more. I know Ford, when we were in the King building over there at the King and Queen building in Sandy Springs, they had some big trees down there in the lobby. I'm sure those run a pretty penny. And according to the Christmas Tree Association for artificial Christmas trees, yes, cost will vary. This price hike follows a recent poll that found, despite 78% of consumers expressing concern over inflation, 94% say they plan to display at least one Christmas tree in their homes this season. And we're always talking about forward, how we're living in an ever more expensive world. It seems like every year, every holiday, we're talking about how things are a little bit more. This year. I'm sure all of those listening went to the grocery store prior to Thanksgiving and realized that food is just a little bit more this year than it was last year, and inflation is a headwind that we're going to have to deal with. And it's one that you're going to face in retirement as well.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, there's no question. I just it seems like that's you know, it's also one of the largest expenses that retirees have is one of the grocery store. And. I just I get so concerned about how that is so outstripping the cost of living adjustments that Social Security is giving. They only gave a 3.2% cost of living adjustment for this past year, going into next year. And there's no way that food prices haven't gone up more than that. I mean, we've shown that literally the cost of. Of Thanksgiving was between 10 and 20% more year over year in a single year. So just be very careful about your own economy also. You really need to stay invested. You need to keep pace with this inflation. You can't just put the money under your mattress or bury in the backyard in coffee cans and go get the the metal detector. Right. You've got to you really need to stay invested. Also, I would be very cautious and careful about being so excited and happy about a 4 to 5% bank CD only, uh, because that is likely not keeping pace with inflation as well. According to Shadowstats comm. Um, they believe that the real rate of inflation is like 14.1%. And we talked to the head of the head economist over at Shadowstats. Com last month. Just make sure you're not eroding your buying power, and you can stay invested and you can stay invested with some safe investments like.

Ford Stokes:
A fixed indexed annuity. And we'll talk about one, um, that we've talked about a little bit on the show. We'll talk about one when we come back from the break as well. One other thing we're going to we're going to discuss and go into detail. We've got the new income tax brackets for 2024. That's really important information for those of you who are looking to implement a Roth ladder conversion plan starting in 2024 or continuing in 2024, you may have already done this like many of our clients have. I will tell you, most of the people feel like. The you know, for we've gotten good rates of return. We're happy with your service. We're happy to get our monthly performance reports. We're happy with the communication. We know that you care about us, all that stuff. But the number one reason why they like working with us the most is the fact that they can see their IRAs going down and their Roth IRAs going up, dollar for dollar for what they're moving from their IRA to their Roth IRA, and then growing that Roth IRA where they're the IRS is deleted from their retirement. And we come back, we're going to talk about those new tax bracket thresholds for 2024. Come right back to the Active Wealth Show right here on Am 920. The answer everybody.

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

Ford Stokes:
All right, and welcome back to the Active Wealth Show Activators. I'm Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor at Sam Davis here, our executive producer. And Sam, why don't you share a little bit of new market update data points that I think the listeners want to hear.

Producer:
Your active wealth market update.

Sam Davis:
So on this week's market update, we have some good news and some bad news. So we'll start with the good news. Black Friday shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion in US online sales. That's up 7.5% from last year, according to Adobe Analytics. The spending bump reflects consumers looking to take advantage of big deal days and finding it easier to compare discounts online. Following the Cyber Monday. Sales will likely taper off through the rest of the holiday season as retailers trim discounts. But Ford, it's good to see that there wasn't a loss in the amount of shopping following the Thanksgiving holiday and that people are out there spending, and that's a good stimulus to the economy.

Ford Stokes:
No question. You know, the it's great that we've got consumerism and we've got, you know, some positive outlook and that people are buying for Christmas a little bit concerning about what's going on with the auto market. I'm very concerned about that. It's interest rate driven. It's also high cost of the vehicle driven. And in my opinion, what that shows is, you know, it's just post, you know, supply chain problems. And I feel like. The car manufacturers went too far in the prices that they were trying to to get an exact out of people. I mean, you've got 100,000 plus. You know, Ford F-150. And, you know, for a pickup truck, it's a little bit much to be charging. Crazy. That kind of crazy money. I drive a Ford F-150. I love my Roush Ford F-150. Shout out to the folks at Roush and to Ford. But I will just tell you this. I you know, I don't think there's pickup trucks, many pickup trucks that are worth over 125 grand and some of those that a lot of people, some of those loans are being defaulted on Ford F-150, which is another concern because it's a work truck. A lot of times to. I just don't know. How the. We now have a second market that could be concerning. Obviously the commercial real estate market is a concern. With the auto industry is a big backbone of our economy, and if 1 in 5 car loans is going into default or is in default, that is a concern.

Sam Davis:
Yeah. And here's the number. Auto payment defaults hit a 29 year high. Inflation squeezed Americans are defaulting on auto loans at levels not seen in almost three decades. The percentage of subprime auto borrowers at least two months past due on their loans rose to 6.11% in September. That's 6.11% of subprime auto borrowers are two months past due on their loans. That's up from 5.93% in January, according to Bloomberg. Should the fed keep rates higher for longer on its quest to bring stubbornly high inflation back down to 2%, defaults on these auto payments are likely to persist. And to make matters worse, Americans are also defaulting on credit card loans, with delinquencies reaching 3.6% so far this year. That's according to Equifax.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, and I just want to make sure you're informed as activators. That's that's the reason why we're bringing it up. Just want to make sure that everybody understands that we had a good Black Friday good holiday spending shopping, which is good positive things for the economy. And there is reason for concern or there are reasons for concern regarding the auto market and also just the default, I mean, a 29 year high in. In auto loan default is something that, you know, literally at least raise your eyebrow out. Now, Sam, let's go ahead and go into the new income tax brackets. And it's really important, especially for those people who are. Looking and considering. Implementing a raw ladder conversion plan. And the biggest number I want to share is the the top end of the 24% bracket. So for single filers, it's gone up to 191,009 50, but it's now $383,900 for joint filers. So let's say you make $200,000 a year as a household while you're still working, and you're in your 50s or early 60s. I mean, regardless of age, let's say you're making $200,000. You've got $183,000. To move from your IRA or Roth IRA and still stay within that 24% bracket and pay 24% one time on that money, and then kick the IRS out of being your partner in retirement. That's a big deal that now the next thing that I want to share is this.

Ford Stokes:
Here's a really good hint on how to implement a wrath ladder conversion. You want to use taxable dollars, whether it's savings account dollars. Checking account dollars investment account dollars to pay the taxes on money that you're going to move from your IRA to your Roth IRA. Therefore, you can take all the money you're moving from your IRA to your Roth IRA and keep it in the Roth IRA. So it moves dollar for dollar. And you can grow that Roth IRA and grow the tax free part of it. Also, for those of you who are interested and really focused, and it's one of your biggest goals, is to have a great legacy where you're giving your kids, you know, a house that they can sell and split up, or you're going to give them life insurance. They can get it a tax free death benefit from. The two nicest things you can give your kids when you pass away, to make sure that your legacy lasts as one. Is like insurance, so they get a tax free death benefit. And the second is a Roth IRA. It's much better to inherit a Roth IRA than to inherit. An inherited IRA because getting that inherited IRA, you're going to have to take that money over ten years.

Ford Stokes:
Also, it's going to really spike your. Your tax bracket. It's going to take you to the next tax bracket, more than likely during your prime earning years, more than likely because you're probably going to be in your 40s, 50s or 60s when your your parents pass away, depending on how long they live. And that's just a real concern. But. You can get these Rs tax brackets at irs.gov. But let me go through these quickly. Versus 10% starts at 11,000. It's up to 11,600 or 23,200. For married couples filing jointly. 12% its income over 11,000 running up to 47,001 50, which is where the 22% bracket starts for single filers. For joint filers, the 12% starts at 23,200 and runs up to 94,300. Which is where the 22% bracket starts for joint filers and then the 24% bracket. Starts at 100,005 25 over that number for single filers and for joint filers, it's over 201,000 zero $50. And here's a really important number 32% bracket does not start until 191,009 50, or 383,900. So what that means is if you've got if you're making 200 grand. A year, you've got $183,900 that you could convert from your IRA to your Roth IRA, and you can convert that at the 24% bracket and use savings, checking or investment account to pay the taxes on it.

Ford Stokes:
So you're using. Taxable dollars to pay taxes on the tax deferred dollars so you can generate tax free dollars. So it's it's just a really good idea to consider converting. Remember you've got till 873. But as you take. Distributions from your IRA during retirement. Let's say you retire at 65. You got seven years, or let's say you retire at 65. You've got eight years for RMDs kick in. But. You're still probably withdrawing money so you can fund your retirement from your IRA. You're better off getting money from your IRA into your Roth IRA. You're going to save six figures on your retirement. If you've got over $400,000 sitting in an IRA. Six figures. Folks got to do everything you can to consider a Roth ladder conversion so you can get more tax efficient and delete the IRS from being your partner in retirement. And we come back from the break. We're going to talk about sequence of return risk and specifically how it's affecting your own personal economy in 2022 and 2023 going forward for 2024, there's certain things you can do to protect yourself against sequence of return risk. Using Active Wealth Show right here on Am 912. The answer come right back and learn more about how you can protect yourself and your retirement from sequence of return risk.

Producer:
All over the place. Do you want a steady stream of income for retirement? Then it's time to consider annuities. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement.Radio Network powered by Amara Life. Gone are the days when most employers offered pensions with guaranteed lifetime payouts to their workers. But what if I told you that you can build your own personal pension? It's possible with an annuity. An annuity is a financial product that provides a series of regular payments to an individual over a specified period of time, often for the rest of their life.

Ford Stokes:
There are several options for you to consider when choosing an annuity. Be confident in knowing that there is an annuity out there that can meet all of your needs.

Producer:
Ford Stokes is founder and president of Active Wealth Management and author of the book annuity 360. There are several different types of annuities, including fixed, variable, and fixed indexed.

Ford Stokes:
A fixed annuity offers a specific guaranteed interest rate on their contributions to the account. A fixed indexed annuity is an accumulation based product offered by an insurance company. The growth of your fixed indexed annuity is dependent on the performance of a chosen stock market index, but your money is not actually invested in this index. This offers you great growth potential and exceptional protection for your investment.

Producer:
While each can provide tax deferred growth and a lifetime income stream, variable annuities put your principal at risk in the market.

Ford Stokes:
If you are currently investing in a variable annuity, your funds could be in serious trouble if the market experienced any downturns.

Producer:
With so many possible choices to consider, it's essential you speak to a financial advisor or professional to help you make the best decision for your future. So are you ready to consider an annuity as part of your retirement plan? It's a key question to consider as you approach what should be your golden years with the Retirement.Radio Network powered by AmeriLife? I'm Matt McClure.

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, your chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us is our executive producer and a retirement income specialist with Active Wealth comm. So, Sam, we teased it at the break talking about sequence of return risk. And look, 2022 was a tough year in the markets for a lot of people, but the loss in 2022 was on a larger principle. And when you come back, you have to get a greater gain, come back. So let me just talk about the impact and on returns to recover losses here. If you lose 20%. You need a 25% gain to come back. If you lose 30%, you're going to need a 43% gain to come back. If you lose 40%, you'll need a 67% gain. And if you lose 50% as what happened between March oh eight and March oh nine. When the S&P 500 lost 50.1% of its value, you will need a 100% gain to return to where you were prior to the loss. That's what secret's return risk is all about. When you take a loss in the stock market, the gain required for the stock price to recover is much higher. However, you should know why market crashes are the best time to also start investing as well. It would have been a really good idea to invest starting in 2023. As an example because of 2022 was a depressed time. Also with fixed indexed annuities. When they lock in your gains and your principal.

Ford Stokes:
When you never retreat, you never go back. You never lose value of your principal and your gains as they're locked in at the end of each protection period, whether that's a one year protection period, a two year protection period, or a three year protection period. Your principal, your bonus, and your gains are locked in. So let's say you had an annuity that. Locked in at the end of 2022. You're going to have a very good statement. At the beginning of 2024 because you're your principal, your bonus and your gains are going to be locked in at the end of this year. If that's your anniversary date. If you happen to have a December anniversary date on your annuity policy, and you have a one year point to point or one year protection period. Now. We promised that we were going to talk about. This one annuity that we talk about quite a bit, and we were going to talk about it in the last segment. Let me quickly talk about it now. So the nationwide peak ten. It is a product that's offered by by nationwide. Only 1% of financial advisors have access to it. And we do. Um, through our partnership with the Mirror Life. And we really appreciate this, folks at a mirror Life and Vertical Vision. Um, those folks are great, folks. They're basically the wholesalers. Um, that there's what's called an IMO. And it's a proprietary product and for a mere life and for nationwide.

Ford Stokes:
And it offers a 20% immediate bonus. 8% guaranteed interest each year that you defer withdrawals, and a 350% participation rate in the BNP Paribas Global Tracker Index, which is a great index that is managed by French bank investment bank BNP Paribas. And it also is increasing its payout factors to be one of the highest paying income based annuities in the industry. But it also does a great job of accumulation. Got a 1% spread rate and it's also got a 1% annual fee. But the spread rate only happens when you get gains. So let's say the market goes up over the two year protection period 10%. Then at the end of the two year period, you would get 350% of that 10%. So you would get 35% growth, less the 1% spread rate. So you'd get a 34% net growth on your money in two years, and your money would not be exposed to market losses because your money's not invested in the stock market. It's invested into ten year US treasuries, and they take the interest generated from those ten year US treasuries and invested into options in the BNP Paribas Global H factor index. That's a fantastic situation. But also even if the market doesn't do well but you defer withdrawals. You are getting an 8% guaranteed interest on your money. We've got a lot of 50 year olds that are investing in this, and they're deferring 10 to 15 years, and they're so excited to get 8% guaranteed income on that.

Sam Davis:
And Ford as a retirement income specialist here at Active Wealth, I'm really focused on helping people really strengthen their income plan for retirement because they want to protect the savings that they've worked so hard for in the multiple decades that they've spent from the time they were maybe 16, 17, 18 years old, first working up until now when they're preparing for retirement. And this is a fantastic personal pension income solution that protects your gains every two years and gives you the ability to experience market like gains without that market risk. And when we were talking about sequence of returns risk, the bottom line is as you get closer to retirement, you have less time to make up for any big losses. And you really want to do everything you can to replace the paycheck you're earning now and make sure that you can match that or even exceed it. We've worked with a lot of people that have found that they can actually exceed their current level of pay as they enter retirement, and so get in touch with us if you're interested in that. Nationwide peak ten fixed indexed annuity.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. If you want to get your own free illustration we're happy to help you do that. It's the fire.

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

Ford Stokes:
Countdown. So we talked about me becoming a registered Social Security analyst. So if you want to get a free Social Security maximization report or your free RSA roadmap, I'd encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit ActiveWealth.com or check out RSA Comcar. So we can help you there. Next is, as Sam was talking about just now, if you want to get your free illustration on how much money the nationwide peak ten would pay you on an annual basis, and how you could take advantage of that 20% immediate bonus, we'll give you a free illustration at no cost to you that's customized just for your situation. Just reach out to us at Active Wealth Comm. We talked about Charlie Munger passing away. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Charlie Munger's family. Congratulations on an incredible life for Charlie Munger and his family. Um, 99 years old. Just what a life. And just we love Charlie and thanks for that incredible quote, financial wisdom quote, Charlie up there in heaven. Thanks for all of your wisdom that you've shared with us for a long time. And we talked about sequence of return risk and a lot of other things that can affect your retirement and also gave you a really important market update regarding. Auto loan defaults and also a. Good day on Black Friday. Go ahead and come back next week to listen to the active well so you can learn more about our Smart Retirement plan. We're going to start our Smart Retirement Plan series in December in advance of New Year's resolutions, because we feel like we need to generate more momentum for you. Come right back next week and start listening to our series on how to build a smart retirement plan, right here on the Active Wealth Show on Am 920. The answer?

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 investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor. Bcm, an 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. Registered investment advisors and investment advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosure of any conflicts of interest, if any exist, please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV Too.a, page four, for additional information.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short terme 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 not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. How much risk are you willing to take with your investments? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement.Radio Network powered by AmeriLife. Woohoo! If you're a thrill seeker, you probably enjoy the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a plane, bungee jumping off a high cliff, or kayaking down a raging river. But when it comes to your finances, do you still find a lot of risk exciting? Or does the danger of losing your hard earned money change your perspective? Think back for a moment to the 2008 financial crisis. Thanks to market risk and some shady Wall Street deals, the S&P 500 fell more than 46% between October 2007 and March 2009.

John Mack:
If you go back and look at the risk that we took 25, 30 years ago, and it was kind of way out there, and a lot of these firms, including some of the things that happened at Morgan Stanley, we were so mesmerized by the great traitor and the money they made that they got more and more autonomy until it was too late. We had huge losses.

Producer:
That's former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack speaking with Yahoo News. So how do you protect yourself if we have another year like that, or even another 2022, when the markets had their worst performance since 2008? Financial advisors will tell you that to maximize your investment growth, you need to take some risk with your money. Just be smart about it.

Ford Stokes:
You want to have an actively managed portfolio strategy. You just do. It involves shifting investments in your portfolio to take advantage of pricing anomalies and strong market sectors. You want to reduce the risk. You want to have smart risk as part of your portfolio. You want to increase returns, and you want to truly diversify your portfolio.

Producer:
Active Wealth Management founder and president Ford Stokes says smart risk investing is based on the concept that all investments carry some amount of risk, and that the only way to reduce that risk is to diversify. This means investing in a variety of different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and other financial instruments. Everyone's situation is different, and that's why it's important to work with a fiduciary financial advisor to get the most out of your hard-earned and hard-earned money. So how much risk are you willing to take with your retirement? That's a key question to consider as you invest for the future. With the Retirement.Radio Network powered by AmeriLife, I'm Matt McClure.

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