Protecting Your Retirement Income from Volatility and Inflation

8.22.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

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

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

Speaker3:
Welcome, Russell. Drivers. I'm Ford stokes chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our senior financial advisor and cohost over the last five plus years now. Mr. Sam, say hello to everybody.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the week end result. Drivers hope everybody is enjoying their weekend. Ford. It is back to school time. It is kind of that end of summertime. Which means that football season is right around the corner. I know a lot of listeners here in the South are really excited about. That means that hopefully the weather's going to cool off a little bit and we'll be enjoying time outside just without the scorching heat of summer and really just feeling good for it. As we head into kind of the fall season football season, and we're continuing to help a lot of drivers who are reaching out to us, either listening to the radio show or the podcast. And I'm also really excited that we're going to be getting back out at different public libraries around the Atlanta area here pretty soon. We've been in Hall County. We've been up near Cumming, so if you're listening and you would love us to do a free retirement class at a library near you, please let us know. Give our office a call and we'd love to schedule one of those events in your area.

Speaker3:
We have an office in Midtown, and we've also got our main headquarters is in Alpharetta. We're right off of exit 12 on the other side of 400 from Halcyon, about just a couple of miles away from Halcyon. Then we're also in Kennesaw with V2 Financial Marketing. They're our wholesaler on the annuity side. And, um, they've got a great office that they let us use their big conference room anytime we want. And we'd love the opportunity to meet with you if you're in Kennesaw or in the Kennesaw area. Anybody in like North Cobb, um, or obviously Cherokee County, even Pickens County. Come on down and see us over there in Kennesaw. And then also, we'd love the opportunity to talk to you if you're in Forsyth County or north Fulton County or Gwinnett. And if you're around Suwannee area, even Hall County, we get a lot of folks coming over the bridge and the dam road this way. Dam road. Um, to come meet with us from Gainesville over into Alpharetta. And then also we're entertaining putting in an office in Hall County. For Matt, it will be either Hall County or Gwinnett County here in the next year. Matt McClure did a great job. By the way, Sam, while you were out in Europe, we'd love to hear about that great trip. Um, I think Matt and I were both very jealous. And we we find that Matt and are always together when you're doing something really fun, so that was pretty interesting.

Speaker4:
Well, maybe you guys should have some fun while I'm away having fun on vacation. It was a good time, and I did get a chance to listen to those episodes. It's a it's a long flight, ten hours coming back. So I had time to listen to retirement results and hear what you and Matt were up to. Maybe making some jokes at my expense, but that's okay. I deserve it when I'm on vacation, uh, my wife, uh, she has done event planning, large event planning, and wedding planning in the past, and she's spent the last year and a half or so planning a very special wedding for a couple of our friends. Uh, that was in Lake Como, and it was beautiful. Um, the bride comes from an Italian American family. So there were some cousins that only had to drive a couple hours, and there were people that had to fly, you know, 14 or 15 hours to get to the location. But, um, it was beautiful. It was stunning. It's everything you see in those photos and more, um, had a great time. Spent 12 days over there, but very happy to be back stateside and working with all those pre retirees and retirees. Um, you mentioned the halcyon area near our main headquarters, for that is a great place. If anybody listening has not been over there, you know, grab something to eat for lunch. There's some great spots for dinner. Uh, some really cool entertainment over there. Really, like, good for the whole family. There's, you know, an area where the kids can run around in play. So, um, I think a great thing to do would be schedule your free retirement consultation with us here at Active Wealth, and then maybe go over to Halcyon for dinner or lunch afterwards. It's just right there down the road.

Speaker3:
Yeah, we love going to Ocean and Acre and cattle shed and then also trying to get a little dessert or a little chocolate fudge or chocolate covered pretzel or something over at Kill Winds. Um, one of our friend's daughters, Sadie, she works there. Uh, she's a senior over at West Forsyth High School. I think it would be a really good idea to go come hang out over here at Halcyon. It's, um, pretty nice place again. We're on the other side of the highway, just a couple of miles away in a brand new office complex. We've been here about a year and a half now, and it's it's. They did a great job. Chris. The builder here just did a great job on that. But we got to get back to this trip. The photos you sent me of Lake Como, you're going to have to post some of these photos in our episode, um, for this for this podcast because I got to tell you it, they are breathtaking. It is the most beautiful lake in the world in my opinion. And um, gosh, Bailey, what what great friends y'all have and also what an accomplished wedding planner to be able to do. Oh yeah, I've done a Lake Como wedding. That's a pretty good deal.

Speaker4:
Oh man. And she would admit it was her biggest challenge yet, because you're doing a lot of the communication over just email or WhatsApp because of the time difference. And a lot of the time there's there's some translation involved and you're just trying to make sure that all the important details are going to be confirmed. And. Okay. Um, and I think everybody, you know, listening has been to a wedding and knows it can be such an emotional event. But I tell you, when people walked in, they were brought to tears by just the view and the vows and all of that. The speeches hadn't even started yet. And, uh, there was not a dry eye that evening. And it was it was just a beautiful event. And, um, always grateful to you and Matt for continuing to bring good information to all the listeners while I'm away.

Speaker3:
Yeah, we had a great time, Matt. Obviously, he's great at what he does. We'll make sure we keep, uh, airing all of his reports for, uh, for us too, and for all of our listeners. That's great. So on this week's show, and again, welcome back, Sam, after a couple of weeks over there in Europe and, you know, just really doing yeoman's work and really having a tough time over there making, you know, small rocks out of big rocks, like you're going to the coal mines or something. But clearly that wasn't the case on Lake Como. I mean, it's, uh, that's places where, like Julia Roberts and George Clooney and people hang out. Um, so you're kind of a big deal. Uh, but it's, uh, that was really neat to see those pictures. That's a once in a lifetime trip and also wedding planning done. And also, anybody wants to get their wedding planned by by Bailey Davis. All you got to do is reach out to us. Uh, you can just reach out the same. You just call our office at (770) 685-1777, and we'll put you in touch with, uh, Bailey. No problem there. But retirement by the numbers. Here's what we're talking about on today's show finding peace of mind and a paycheck. A lot of people are looking for that paycheck during retirement.

Speaker3:
Uh, believe it or not, to if if you're getting a paycheck on a monthly basis, like a pension or, um, a personal pension, check that you're getting from a fixed indexed annuity with bond replacement. Believe it or not, it's kind of been proven that people live longer because they're trying to live to that next check that they're getting. Um, so that's good to know. Um, it's it's helpful information there. Uh, but also we want to give a shout out to all of our resolve drivers, all the people who have made us the number one. Listen to radio show on Am 920. The answer on the weekends. Uh, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for making us the number one. Listen to your show here on the weekends. Not just financial show, but any show on the weekends here on and 920. The answer? We've been here for over five years now, and it is a really big deal that you guys and gals will listen to us and and we're getting calls when we're talking about new products. We got calls about the American national Palladium product. We're also the Security Sentinel Life product that we'll talk about today. That product is really great. It's a it's a personal choice. Omega. It's a five year omega paying 5.9%.

Speaker3:
It's a five year omega paying 5.9%. And that's compounded interest over five years. So if you'd like to get paid 5.9% guaranteed, that's kind of our beating the bank seed segment this this week. It's a really good idea. So if you want to get 5.9% guaranteed interest each of the next five years on a five year, multiyear guaranteed annuity, go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit. Retirement results.com. We've even set up a landing page for you to find us at and be able to put your name, email and phone in and we'll get back to you and get started right away to try to help you better plan for your overall retirement. Um, we'll all that that website is retirement results for an that's retirement results plan. And let me just tell you what you get when you work with us. You're going to get out now. It's like a $2,850 value. You get $350 worth of free Social Security planning for myself and or Matt McClure. Uh, we're both registered social security analyst, and we're also busy running those Social Security plans, and people love them. So go ahead and reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. So number one is you get a RSA roadmap which is a Social Security maximization report. Number two is you get a portfolio analysis of your your portfolio.

Speaker3:
So you understand the risk you're taking, the fees you're paying. The risk would be measured by standard deviation. It's a metric measurement done by an independent resource including an institutional level Morningstar report and a quantity report. Quantity is the name of the software that we use for that. So these are objective, not subjective analysis of your current portfolio, what you hold now. And we also will then put that into a financial plan for your 95th birthday, which is number three with your current plan, your current portfolios that have nothing to do with us. And we'll plan all the way up to your 95th birthday. Then number four will give you a financial plan, your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios. So that's pretty great stuff. And number five is we'll give you a financial plan, your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios all the way to your 95th birthday, like I said. But we're going to do this also with a Roth ladder conversion. We come back, we're going to talk more about how to build a smart vision for your retirement and how to build that smart retirement plan for you with smart, safe and smart risk investments. You're listening to retirement results right here on Am 920 Answer and WD.

Speaker2:
Call 6851777 to schedule your free, no obligation meeting with us today. You're listening to. Retirement results. Visit Retirement results.com to schedule your free, no obligation consultation today. Now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back result. Drivers on Fort Stokes for chief Financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us on the mike. He's our senior financial advisor and cohost back from Europe. And we covered that in the first segment. Um Bailey did a great job playing that wedding. So good on you there. Great stuff great photos. And if you want to see those photos from Lake Como, the wedding that Bailey Davis planned, uh, go ahead and check those out at retirement results. Com but just click on the episodes page and we'll make sure some of those pictures are up on the episode posting um for this week. So that'll be good stuff. Um, we're talking about really retirement beyond the numbers, finding peace of mind and a paycheck for your retirement. If that's something is interest to you, then this show is going to be great for you. Uh, then also we're going to talk about smart vision and what will your retirement look like in the future here in a second. But, Sam, why don't you go ahead and share this week's financial wisdom quote of the week.

Speaker2:
And now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Speaker4:
This week's quote of the week comes to us from one of our favorite economists and financial commentators, Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman once said, inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation. And really, what Milton's telling you here is that this isn't something that you have any say in. Your elected leaders often don't have any say in this. Sure, there are certain market forces that can make inflation better or worse. But this is something that is happening over the generations, whether it is Republicans in the white House or Democrats in the white House. We're continuing to see things cost more. I mean, when was the last time you went to the grocery store or the gas pump? And you're like, boy, everything's just gotten so much cheaper. That's just that's just not the way it is. Things are getting more and more expensive everywhere you go. Um, if you went on a summer vacation or traveled this year, you've noticed more costs with airfare and hotels and all of those things as well. So you need to have a plan, not just a plan that works for you the day you retire, but works for you decades into the future. Because for when we're doing these plans for people, we're projecting out 30, 35 years often so that they know their plan is not just going to get them to retirement, but it'll get them through retirement as well.

Speaker3:
Yeah. The good news is, I think Donald Trump and them have figured out, like getting rid of USAID and other things. They've really tried to cut costs and keep the government from just blindly printing money and blindly spending money. And so that's really helpful. Um, I think that's a really good thing. Uh, also, it is good to see that you've got other liberal media groups that are not getting propped up by USAID money, including the BBC, that wasn't even, you know, they've got offices in the United States, but there was like 7 to 8% of their budget was getting paid by the federal government. Are you kidding me? Uh, Milton Friedman also said that inflation comes from one place. It comes from Washington, D.C.. I do believe there will be some inflation passed on through tariffs, but very little. I think a lot of those are going to be absorbed by those governments and the manufacturers of those because quite honestly, they they're going to like China is going to really make sure that their labor costs are down because they're going to take advantage of the labor stuff that they take advantage of. And you know I think tariffs are not necessarily going to drive up inflation. I think what does drive up inflation is a government spending money and printing money, and specifically just just going willy nilly and crazy with all what they were doing with USAID and other instances.

Speaker3:
Also, you know, the Republicans aren't immune to this either. You know, the Pentagon, they had $1 billion shortfall in an audit several years ago. Um, so we want to make sure that our tax dollars are going to the right thing. And I think that's going to help with inflation. But inflation is going to continue to happen. And we've got to make sure. To your point, Sam, we've got to make sure that your retirement is built inflation proof and ready to go. Uh, you need to stay invested. That doesn't mean you can just bury your your money in the backyard and coffee cans and get out the metal detector to go find them when you need some money. That's not going to help you. What's going to help you is staying invested. And there's also ways to do some smart, safe ways of investing and staying invested in the market. We'll cover that here in the next couple of segments. But let's first talk about a smart vision for retirement. Sam, let's go ahead. Why don't you give the definition of what we kind of call a smart vision for retirement. And we'll kind of talk through that.

Speaker4:
Yeah. The smart vision is, you know, other than your financial statements and your basic numbers, that smart vision is what we like to see. People come into our office with that idea of, what are you going to be doing in retirement? Who are you spending your time with? Uh, do you have to take care of anybody? Do you have older parents that you're taking care of? Do you have children who are still dependent on you in some way? You know, what are those goals for your retirement? You know, everybody's is different. You know, generally, Ford, I think people want to spend time with their family, their friends, maybe pursue some new hobbies, maybe, uh, feel reinvigorated about some older hobbies they didn't have time for. Maybe it was you didn't have time to fish as much or play golf as much when you were raising the kids. And now that you're retired, you can do those things. Or, you know, you can work on classic cars. If you're like my dad, that's what he loves to do. He was telling me, I just got to make sure I've got some space, you know, make a few car garage to work on my cars. So start thinking about those things. Ask yourself those questions. What is it that I want to do in retirement? And that helps us forward when we're putting together a plan to get you to those goals?

Speaker3:
Yeah. It's you really want to just kind of go, okay, what am I doing in retirement? Who am I with during my retirement years? And you could be retired as long as 20 to 30 plus years, which is almost as long as you worked. If you go out 30 to 35 years. So you got to make sure that money lasts. And then also where am I? Like, where are you spending your time with all these people and what you're doing during retirement? Where are you living? Are you living in Florida in a no tax state and near the beach? But you got high insurance costs and you gotta commute out of, um, out of Florida a couple times a year for hurricanes or whatever that looks like. Um, or are you living in Georgia where you've got family and friends and your kids, or have moved back to Atlanta or something like that? Are you living near the grandkids? Um, how much are you helping out with grandkids during the preschool years? Things like that. Uh, you know, what does that look like? Uh, and then the last one in and one of the more important parts of it, it's not the most important. I think the most important is just having that smart vision, who you're going to spend your time with, what are you doing and where are you living, but how are you going to fund it? I think that's a really big one and the best way to do that.

Speaker3:
Remember, you're in the cumulation phase because you stop working, you're no longer accumulating assets. You're now going to take assets away. You're going to withdraw assets from your IRA accounts. Your your 403 B, your four one KS, whatever that looks like. You roll those over into an IRA and then if you if you've been smart enough to do a Roth IRA conversion like like we preach about just about every week here on the show, when you're taking out money, you want to probably take out money from your tax deferred accounts or your taxable accounts first, and then leave that Roth money as sacred and let that money really grow over time. And believe it or not, you can also do a bond replacement within a Roth IRA, too. We'll talk about that here in the next couple of segments. But you really need to understand how are you going to distribute money to yourself from your nest egg? Do you have a pension? Do you, you know, do you have, you know, a plan for taking money out and making sure you're living on that? And also, do you have a plan to maximize your Social Security income? I can tell you, making the right decision on when to take your Social Security income benefit will literally be the number one or number two decision you're going to make during retirement regarding your retirement income.

Speaker3:
And I would ask you, why wouldn't you just do that with a registered Social Security analyst like Matt McClure and myself? Again, we're just two of 23 to 24 registered Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia, and we're almost 10% in our firm. Of all the registered, um, Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia, we've got a lot of. We've got two really good experts here. Go ahead and utilize us. It's going to be a $350 value. We're going to give it to you. Absolutely complimentary and help you maximize your Social Security income benefit. And if you're within five years of retirement or five years after retirement, you're in that red zone of retirement, that retirement red zone. We can help you. So Sam and I and Matt and our team of advisors, we're ready to ready to help you. How are we? Can all you got to do is reach out to us at retirement results. Comm for. That's retirement results. Dot com slash plan. And also you want to get a good idea on Medicare because Medicare has got a two year look back to.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And I'd say it's really one of the most important things is figure out when to take your Social Security and figure out that smart vision. You know, a lot of people we meet with have a lot of stress and anxiety when they first come to see us when it comes to their retirement and their financial plan. And that's usually because they don't have that clear vision, they don't have that written plan. And you mentioned that shift from saving and accumulation to spending and accumulation. That's a tough change, especially for those who we work with who don't have a pension. Maybe you worked in education or you worked for the government military. You have a pension. Those people tend to be more excited and less stressed about retirement because they know they have that pension income. It's going to come every single month. And so forward when we come back, we're going to get into that smart inspection, helping you figure out where you currently stand with your retirement and help you implement a personal pension. That's something that we really believe in. Is having that personal pension for yourself in retirement, so you can feel like you have that freedom to spend each and every month. So when we come back on retirement, results don't turn away. We're going to come back and we're going to talk about smart inspection. You're listening to retirement results.

Speaker2:
We'll be back in just a moment to continue helping you navigate your financial journey. Stay tuned for more retirement results.

Speaker5:
Just a small town girl.

Speaker3:
Hi, this is Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor. With retirement results. You've saved your whole life so you wouldn't have to worry about your money when you retired. But you worry now more than ever. You've been a good saver. You have 500,000, $1 million, or maybe even more. You should feel confident, but you don't. You're worried a big loss will wipe you out. You want to retire, but you don't. You're worried you don't have enough. Any of this sound familiar? It should, because we hear these things all the time from people just like you who are preparing for retirement or even already retired. So why do you worry so much? It's because you don't have an actual plan in writing, nothing to guide you through retirement. Retirement results helps people just like you. You'll get a free, customized written retirement plan. That's right. Free and no obligation. Schedule your meeting now at retirement results plan. That's retirement results. Dot com forward.

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

Speaker3:
And welcome back result drivers to retirement results on Ford Stokes chief Financial advisor we got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our co-host and senior financial advisor. And Sam, without further ado, I want to recognize a great American. He's a friend of mine. He's a he's a client of ours. Um, his name is Andrew. I'm not going to share his last name just for privacy reasons, but he works in a division of the Department of Agriculture, and he has worked in that department for decades. And he is going to finally retire at the end of September. And he is very excited. He took his deal, uh, got like 6 or 8 months, I think, as part of the Trump plan. He is 70 years young. He's a great American, great guy. He is really smart with his money. He's got several different types of diversified investments with us. He's got fixed indexed annuities, multi-year guaranteed annuities, even his invested into structured note or a structured note ladder. Several times over, he tries to invest a little bit into structured notes each and every month. He also tries to invest into different multiyear guaranteed annuities because he knows that those are paying better than the bank CDs. And we'll go ahead and reiterate and do our beating the Bank CD segment and dedicate this Bank CD segment to Andrew. But I've known Andrew Cash over 4 or 5 years now, and he's been listening to our radio show. He called us from the radio show, um, when he heard about structured notes and he heard about fixing Nick's annuities, and he also moved two of his variable annuities over to fix the next annuities and reduced the mortality and expense ratios with those. He's looking to do that with another product as well, but he just invested into this new product. And let's go ahead and play that. Be the banks that he's dedicated to. Andrew, who works in a special division within the Department of Agriculture.

Speaker2:
Need a higher rate of return from your safe money? Listen up. It's time to beat the bank CD rates.

Speaker3:
This is the product of the week that we're going to share on beating bank CDs. They're a triple B rated carrier, so they're highly rated. They offer for a five year, multiyear guaranteed annuity. It's a fixed rate of 5.9%. You get 5.9%. And you can do it with an income, right or without. But he wanted to do it without an income rider because he wants to maximize the money he's getting, doesn't want to pay a fee. He doesn't need to withdraw money because he's he's been able to save a lot of his money. And and he's done very well over his life. And, um, he's got a great spot, um, in Georgia, a great kind of nice farm. He actually does some farm rents to some people, too. He's just really well diversified. He's diversified between, uh, insurance products like fixed index annuities and multiyear guaranteed annuities. He's also diversified with smart risk investments like structured notes that are paying high interest rates. And he also ladders those on a monthly basis. So he does like five notes in a row with five different banks and five different starting points, um, on the indices with five different interest rate amounts, but are generally going to be very high interest rates, way higher than what you can get with beating bank CDs. If you want to understand the types of interest rates you can get with fixed indexed annuities or multi-year guaranteed annuities or a structured note ladder, I would encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 again, (770) 685-1777 or just visit retirement results.com. That's retirement results.com. Again we want to dedicate this beating the bank CD segment to Andrew who works in a special division within the Department of Agriculture here in the state of Georgia. And just say congratulations on a on a great career, um, at the Department of Agriculture. And just wanted to say thank you for your service to our country. And thanks for being a client of Active Wealth Management and a listener of retirement results.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I'd love to extend my congratulations to Andrew as well. It's one of the best feelings in our office is when we're actually able to get someone across that finish line for retirement. You can see it on their face in many cases, that relief, that excitement that they're going to have all this free time and that they're going to be able to meet those goals, you know, and actually see that smart vision become reality. And that's really I think what life is all about is setting goals, having a vision and then making it come true for yourself, and just so grateful that we were able to help him. And that product was a good solution. Um, you know, and this is a great option if you have any money that you want to kind of have in that safe bucket, but not give up on returns, actually get some guaranteed returns while having money in that safe bucket. Um, it could also be a good option for anybody looking to replace an annuity currently forward. Um, just before I left, a couple of weeks ago, we did a annuity x ray for somebody that I'm working with, and they had a variable annuity with more than 3.5% in just fees on that variable annuity. And we're going to get that down to either 1% or 0%, depending on the final product that they choose. They're thinking either the nationwide peak ten or that a speed of synergy choice right now. And you know, the nationwide has a 1% rider, but it has a lot of good things that it's giving you in exchange. And the speed is a great no fee option. So if you're interested in any of those products, definitely reach out. Retirement results, comp plan or give us a call. You'll find the number on the website as well. Um, you know, this is a great option for a replacement. It's a great option for your safe money. And we'd love to help you out. Just like we helped Andrew, no doubt.

Speaker3:
And I think it was great that you were able to help out Maggie. Uh, a female client, um, really reduce her expenses dramatically. Um, because that mortality expense is with the variable annuity that she had, um, was just outrageous to me and also her principles at risk in the market. And she saw a pretty big dip in that variable annuity in April when the tariffs hit and the reaction to the tariff tantrum. But luckily that came back. And then now she's going to move that money and roll it over into a fixed indexed annuity and get really 8% guaranteed interest each year into the income account with that nationwide P10 that she's going to invest in. She's also getting a 25% income bonus, and she's also going to get 310% participation rate in the BNP Paribas Global H factor index. That's going to give her the market like gains into the account value as well. So I think that's a really big deal. Too quickly. Let's go ahead and talk about smart inspection.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And this is figuring out okay where do I stand now. This is really kind of that first step. Whenever anybody reaches out to us by giving us a call, you know, booking directly into our calendar or just go into retirement results plan that smart inspection is the first place we start. We've got to figure out where you stand now. This is essentially a checkup and an analysis of your current financial picture. So we'll go over your entire portfolio. We take a look at all your statements. We're able to extrapolate what you're paying in fees, what that risk is that you're currently taking in your portfolio, what those returns have looked like for you in future years and show you based off your goals, your budget and your specific needs, how likely that plan is to succeed for you in retirement. And we actually give you a score and a letter grade, you know, between 0 and 100% and show you, okay, right now where you stand with your current plan, you know, you are getting a C or this is a failing grade, you're not going to make it if this is your current plan. And then after that smart inspection for it is really where we get in with our recommended plans. And usually it's only, you know, maybe two, maybe three little changes to your portfolio, some adjustments to really help you reduce your risk, reduce your fees, and if possible, reduce your taxes as well. That's something that a lot of retirees aren't thinking about, but navigating taxes and retirement can save you a whole lot of money just by getting those plans in place on the front end.

Speaker3:
No doubt about it. And it's something you got to do. And if you want to do it, all you got to do is reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. We really want to make sure that you're you're getting that portfolio analysis that checkup on your current financial picture. You also you ought to plan your 95th birthday. Let's go ahead and plan for that longevity risk. And let's also make sure that you've got that Social Security maximization report in there in the form of an RSA roadmap. Let's go ahead and get that going as well. And listen it's tough to remember a phone number. So just go ahead and remember retirement results.com. That's retirement results. Com just reach out to us. Our phone numbers there. You click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. That's there. We're here to help you and help you get started right away. Thanks so much for listening to retirement results. We're coming back for the last segment. Um, we're going to talk about one way to build smart income for your retirement. And you're listening to retirement results right here on Am 920. The answer and we run around Gainesville and the like.

Speaker2:
Don't go away. Retirement results will be right back. To schedule your free no obligation consultation visit retirement results.com.

Speaker1:
You may already know what you want your retirement to look like, but do you know how to start planning to get there? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amira Life.

Speaker6:
Where am I? I don't know.

Speaker1:
That's a question you must ask yourself before you start plotting out your retirement planning journey. After all, if you don't know where you are, it's pretty much impossible to get to your destination. Step one is keeping track of money that's coming in and what's going out. Otherwise known as a personal budget, it's an important thing to have. But a Gallup poll from 2016 found only 32% of couples keep a written budget of any kind.

Speaker7:
A lot of people tend to think of budgeting as prediction, estimating what you'll make in future months and how you'll want to spend it. But the most effective budgets work exclusively with present dollars. After all, you can't give orders to soldiers that don't exist. So the size of your army is only how much money you currently have in your bank accounts. And as general, your role is to give every last one of those soldiers a job to.

Speaker1:
Do that from PBS $0.02. Now, once you have a basic idea of what you're dealing with, reach out to a financial advisor or professional who can go more in depth.

Speaker3:
We want you to do a financial checkbook checkup. It's just like getting a checkup at the at the doctor's office.

Speaker1:
Ford Stokes is founder and president of Active Wealth Management. He says getting a smart inspection of your finances is essential.

Speaker3:
You want to review your accounts. You want to look at your IRAs, your following KS anywhere you hold assets, including cash. You want to check your balances. You want to review rates of return over the last 12 months, three years and five years. You want to answer this question? Do you have an income gap or do you have an income surplus?

Speaker1:
Understanding where you are now will help you plan for the retirement you want, leaving your future in your hands instead of the hands of the market or the IRS. So are you ready to reach out to a financial advisor for a smart inspection of your current situation? That's a key question to consider before you start your retirement journey with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by a mirror life. I'm Matt McClure.

Speaker2:
This part of today's show, Retirement Results, is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement results.

Speaker3:
Com and welcome back result drivers to retirement results on Fort Stokes chief financial advisor. And I've got Sam Davis here with us. Who is your senior financial advisor and co-host? And Sam, we want to talk about in this last segment, one way to build a smart income plan. And that really starts with that bond replacement, uh, from bonds to fix the next annuities.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I would say, you know, bonds are a good investment vehicle to pay you income, but you can do a lot better and you can eliminate that reinvestment risk, because when you're invested in bonds, there's no guarantee you're going to be able to get that same rate when that bond matures. And you could end up with a situation like we saw between 2020 and 2022, when bonds really did not do well for all the pre retirees and retirees that had those in their portfolio. What if you replaced that with something that had no fees or very low fees and could actually pay you that personal pension, that steady, predictable income that you're going to need in retirement. That plus your Social Security income, plus your, you know, modest, you know, 4%. Try to keep to that 4% rule or less. Withdrawals from the remainder of your portfolio usually yields an income that all of our retirees that we work with can live on.

Speaker3:
Yeah. Let's go through these main benefits of fixed indexed annuities one by one. There's a lot of you know, there's a lot of talk about fixing externalities. What's interesting is a lot of that talk and chatter really kind of stopped in 2008 when people didn't lose money in 2008, whereas so many other people that were invested in, like in the S&P 500 into spider spider indexes and things like that, they lost 50.1% of their assets from March oh eight to March oh nine. It was six years for it to come back. It was over six, and it was like just over six and a half years to come all the way back. So let's go through these one by one. I'm going to do the first one and you'll do the second one and and so on here Sam. So the The number one main benefit of a fixed index annuity is protection from market volatility. Fixed indexed annuities provide protection for market volatility because the annuity is linked to the performance of an underlying stock market index. It's a way for you to stay invested, folks, and the income is not directly affected by short term market fluctuations. It also doesn't involve interest rate risk that bonds do. This makes them an attractive option for investors who are looking for a steady and reliable income stream. So that's the number one is protection for market volatility is a reason to replace the bonds in portfolio. We're just talking 20 to 40% of your portfolio. We're not saying doing the whole thing and moving all of your money into a fixed indexed annuity. We're saying take 20 to 40% of your portfolio and move it into an income portion of your portfolio so you don't have the bonds being a drag on your market value. Value when it goes, when interest rates go up, when interest rates go up. Your bond is going to lose market value.

Speaker4:
Yeah. That's right. And it's not that we're encouraging people to take all their money out of the market. In fact, most every client we have that we work with, we're helping them manage some of their money in the market. We have some of our own money in retirement savings in the market. What the fixed indexed annuity allows you to do is take some of that market risk off the table, especially as you get close to retirement. You have more saved than you ever have before. That means you have more to lose than you ever have before. So put a protective shield around a portion of that, and that really gives you the confidence and maybe a little bit higher risk tolerance to stay invested, fully exposed with the remainder of your portfolio, knowing that that annuity is going to give you the income you need for retirement. And the number two benefit of a fixed indexed annuity is that tax deferred growth. The great news here is that this means that you can invest in a fixed indexed annuity with your IRA money. You can do it with your 401 way rollover. You can do it with a brokerage account. You can do it with your money that you just have sitting in the bank. You can enjoy that tax deferred growth and keep that same tax treatment without having an event. So if you're rolling over a portion of maybe your own pension or your 401 or your IRA. All of that is possible with a fixed indexed annuity.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it's it's the same kind of tax treatment as your IRA. Also, multiyear guaranteed annuity is far superior to a bank CD in that regard because there's no taxation until you surrender the policy. Whereas each and every year where the bank said you have to pay taxes on the interest, even if you're leaving the interest in that bank CD account. All right. Now, number three, on the main benefits of fixed index annuities, when you're replacing bonds with fixed indexed annuities is lifetime income stream. Don't worry about breaking your budget. And and really, you should just enjoy the retirement income you can count on and quite honestly, never outlive whether you live to be 80, 90, or 100 plus annuity companies continue to make payments as long as you live. We tell this joke all the time, but you know why? Farmers hats are bending on the sides. Well, it's because they're looking in the mailbox for a subsidy check. What we're trying to do is help you get mailbox money, just like farmers get when they get the farm subsidy check. Um, to whether they're supposed to plant crops or not. Um, you're really it's really great to get mailbox money and get that monthly paycheck. Not just Social Security, but also get a paycheck from your own personal pension. That really helps compound your income and helps satisfy all the expenses you're going to have on a monthly basis during retirement.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I love to see my active wealth clients have diverse income streams. They've got their money coming in from Social Security. They've got their money coming in from their personal pension, their annuities. Hopefully they've got a pension from their, uh, employment, you know, during their working career. Um, those, those regular withdrawals from their other accounts. I like seeing those different income sources. And that's the great thing about an annuity. Whether you live to be 80, 90 or 100 or 110, those payments are going to keep coming. And for that, the annuities that we're working with are not the annuities from past generations. Often we like to see the growth of the accounts actually outpace the withdrawal rate, which means you have a death benefit and you have a contract value left over to give to your beneficiaries should you pass away sooner than expected. And that is, you know, the real benefit to wrap up our list is that additional account value for your beneficiaries. So this isn't like, you know, if your retirement only lasts ten years, you pass away too soon. The money goes away. We like to really treat it as its own account, that own personal pension account that really drives your lifestyle in retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I'd say you want the account value growth. We don't want to see the account value go down. We're just you're only getting income from your annuity. We want to make sure you've got money for your heirs to inherit from your annuity as well? You can. We've been able to show it and see it. We've been able to see that account values are growing, even when people are taking withdrawals. With some of the annuities that we have access to and proprietary annuities we have access to. So I'd encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com. Again, it's tough to remember a phone number. So just remember retirement results.com and call us off the phone number that's on the website. We're happy to help you. Listen, if you've been a long time listener, be a first time website visitor to retirement.com. Check out the episodes, but also be a first time caller. You just call us off the phone number that's on on the website and we're happy to help you. Let's get started today and go ahead and reach out to us at Retirement results.com. And now the final countdown. So on this week's show we talked about retirement. But beyond the numbers, finding peace of mind in a paycheck. We went over smart vision and the importance of having a smart vision.

Speaker3:
Like what are you doing in retirement? Who are you with? Where are you living? And even more specifically, how are you going to fund it and how are you going to fund it during your accumulation phase of retirement, not just your accumulation phase of retirement. When you're working, you're accumulating assets. When you stop working, you're going to start accumulating assets. You can live and enjoy retirement. Also, we're going to help you with that smart income plan as well. With Social Security on when to take your Social Security. Uh, that's a really big deal. And again, Matt McClure and myself are two of 24 total registered Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia. Go ahead and reach out to us at retirement results. Comm. We're happy to get you that free RSA roadmap. And then we talked about smart inspection. You want to inspect what you expect regarding your retirement portfolio and understand the risk you're taking, the fees you're paying. What's your expense ratio. What's your measurement of standard deviation with the assets you currently hold in your portfolio, and what's the overall correlation of your assets? We like to compare your top 20 holdings to each other and see, hey, wait a second, how correlated are these 20 assets to each other? Um, if the market moves or is the entire portfolio going to go down, or do we have some negatively correlated assets would be a really good thing to get some negative correlation in the portfolio as well.

Speaker3:
And we also would like to implement strategic asset allocation and tactical asset allocation together when we're managing portfolios. And lastly we really went over the importance of hey, you really need to get an income plan. You need to figure this thing out. And um, we're going to do a great job with you and making sure that you can meet those monthly expenses. And one last time, we want to give a shout out to Andrew with the Department of Agriculture. Thanks for your service to our country and to the Department of Agriculture for decades, and we really hope you enjoy retirement. You're you're one of our favorites. And thanks so much for listening to your retirement results. Um, a year many years ago and calling us, and we've just really enjoyed building our relationship with you, Andrew. When we come back next week, we're going to talk more about how to build that smart retirement plan. And we're going to offer if you want to go ahead and reach out to us for retirement results. Com forward slash plan and we'll email you at my free book, The Smart Retirement Plan. Have a great week everybody.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. You deserve to work with an independent team of fiduciary advisors that will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets. To schedule your complimentary financial consultation, call us now at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777. To connect with a qualified advisor. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit retirement results comm investment advisory services offer 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 BCA, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Speaker1:
Registered investment advisors and investment advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients, and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure. The ADV 2 a.m. four for additional information. Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

Speaker2:
Get started on your free portfolio analysis and financial plan right now by visiting retirement results.com.

Speaker4:
And welcome to the Retirement Results bonus segment for all of our listeners on WW n in Gainesville. Up and around the lake and all of our listeners on our podcast feed. If you're hearing this on WD one, you can actually listen to retirement results on demand wherever you listen to podcasts. We'd love to have you subscribe and reach out to us. We love hearing from our listeners. And for during a time like this, it's important that people are diversified in their portfolio, not just with their holdings, but with their income streams as well. And so for this bonus segment today, we're going to talk a little bit about how you can improve your income potential in retirement with multiple income streams.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I'm excited about this bonus segment. And I think it's going to be a great one to be a place on our Retirement Results YouTube channel. So make sure everybody checks out the Retirement Results YouTube channel as well. Uh, the first one is Social Security. It provides a monthly income to eligible retirees. In the United States, you got to have 40 credits. You got to work over ten years or have credits where you're making enough money. That equals the 40 credits. Social security benefits are based on your earnings history and the age at which you start receiving benefits. As a registered Social Security analyst. Um, I'm just really passionate about helping people maximize their Social Security income benefit because you've paid in for years. You deserve to get the money back out. Delaying Social Security benefits can increase your monthly payments. It's actually going to go up 8% per year. You wait after your full retirement age of 67. And by the way, if you're born after 1967, I mean, by the way, if you're born after 1960, congratulations, your retirement age is 67. If you're born before that, it's like 66 in a few months. According to the Social Security ministration, Social security benefits make up about 33% of the income of the elderly population in the United States, and that is growing. So we did a good job at maximizing that Social Security income benefit for you.

Speaker4:
Yeah. The next income stream in addition to Social Security is pensions, if you're lucky enough to have one. Pensions are an employer sponsored retirement tool that provides you with an income for life. And like I said, they're becoming less common. With many employers shifting to 401 K plans. We've seen that largely over the last 40 years, that employers don't want the burden of having to pay out income for life to all their past employees. They would rather have it be self-managed. So pensions we don't see too often for it. If you do have a pension, you're out there listening. Understand the terms and options for receiving payments. You may be able to take a lump sum on the entire pension, or maybe even part of the pension. That can be a useful tool sometimes, so you can actually diversify with your own personal pension with a highly rated insurance carrier. And in fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 16% of private industry workers had access to traditional pension plans. That was in 2019. I expect that number has dropped significantly since then. So if you have pensions, you're a lucky one. If you don't, you may need to look into a personal pension.

Speaker3:
And also if you've got a pension, I would encourage you to reach out to us. You can get that pension to x ray. We're happy to help you check that out. Um, there's a great way to get an understanding of like, hey, wait a second, I could actually get 20 or 27% bonus on the money that I put into a fixed indexed annuity. Those pensions are implemented from employers. Those are single premium immediate annuities. They are not market linked. So you won't get market like gains. You're going to just stay flat throughout the time. And also there'll be no contract value or account value to pass on to your heirs. If you take the lump sum, you're going to have, um, an actual account value that you can pass on to your heirs if the actual growth rate outpaces the withdrawal rate. And we have annuities where that is set up to do exactly that. So I'd encourage you to go and reach out to us if you want to get 20 to 27% on your pension money in a lump sum immediately, and get a larger pension just by taking the lump sum. Reach out to us at Retirement results.com. Click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. We'll get started right away.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So if you want to learn more, that's our next income stream in a personal pension established through a fixed indexed annuity. These are essentially contracts with life insurance companies. And here at Retirement Results we only work with highly rated insurance companies. Annuities can be purchased from these insurance companies with various payout options. They can provide contractually guaranteed income for the rest of your life, no matter if you live to be 90, 100 or 110. Those checks keep on coming. According to the Insured Retirement Institute, investors invested 241.7 billion in annuities in 2020 alone. And that is remarkable for a lot of people are looking for guaranteed income. They're looking to supplement their Social Security with another income stream.

Speaker3:
Annuities, plus, Social Security is a great way to get all of your income that you need on a monthly basis or retirement all the way done, where that you can let the rest of the portfolio grow. So that's something that I would encourage you to do. Also, it's going to make it where you don't watch the stock ticker as much as well.

Speaker4:
And if you have any questions about how to better diversify your plan for retirement, not just diversifying your assets, but diversify your income streams as well. Make sure you have multiple streams of income in retirement. We'd love to help you here at Retirement Results, just visit Retirement Results Comm to get in touch with us and get started. Or give us a call today at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777. We're located just down the road. Our headquarters is in Alpharetta, Georgia, and four nine. We'd love to meet with you.

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

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