Don’t Worry, Retire Happy! Practical Tips to Improve Your Financial Future

5.3.24: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

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

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

Speaker3:
And welcome to Retirement results result drivers. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. And I've got Sam Davis, our co-host and senior financial advisor here with us. Say hello to everybody. Sam.

Speaker4:
Welcome to the weekend result drivers. Welcome back to retirement results. We're here to give you the information you're looking for. A lot of people reach out to us forward every single week with questions about their own personal financial situation. And when we come on the air here in Atlanta and also in Huntsville, Alabama. Now we've got some great listeners out there. We're here to bring them the information they need to know to help them navigate a lot of the common challenges that are out there facing retirees, but also those of us who are still working and thinking about retiring in the next 10 or 20 years.

Speaker3:
Yeah, we want to give a shout out to all of our longtime listeners here in Atlanta on Am 920. The answer, and also want to give a shout out to the listeners in Huntsville and then also to our viewers of our new television show, Retirement Results, that's launched in Huntsville on the Fox station in Huntsville, uh, channel 54in Huntsville. And interestingly enough, channel 54, also Wgst in Columbus, Georgia. And we're we're airing pretty near, um, the time slot for Fox News Sunday and on both of those cities and both those stations. And we would not have been able to launch a television show without our longtime listeners here in Atlanta on Am 920. The answer and we appreciate you. Result drivers, thanks so much for listening to the Active Wealth show that's now turned into retirement results. And we're just super excited to kind of get going and helping people protect and grow their hard earned and hard saved wealth through tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient financial planning. And the title for today's show is don't worry, Retire Happy. I know a lot of you have seen some losses in your accounts, especially if you're not with us. We've seen some losses in in accounts where people are coming to us for the first time. In the markets where they saw some retraction with some seasonal, um, kind of constriction or contraction to the markets.

Speaker3:
And a lot of people trying to sell off stocks and things like that to pay for their tax bill in April, things of that nature. And we want to let you know that you can build a stable foundation for retirement with some pension like income. There's also ways to get more tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient with your own investment portfolio. With assets under management, try to minimize some of the bonds within your portfolio. And we just want to again give a shout out to our listeners, our result drivers. We really appreciate you all. And if any of you are nearing retirement or you're getting closer to Social Security or Medicare age eligible, I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at 1-888-814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304 or just visit retirement Results.com that's retirement Results.com a really great sub website on that site is retirement results. Com slash plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. Just put your name email phone and we will get started on your financial plan. You could always just book an appointment directly into our calendar by clicking that. Schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. So that's all the ways you can get in touch with us for sure.

Speaker3:
We're super excited about that. But we're going to on today's show, we're going to talk about taking steps to prevent a retirement tax bomb and how we can help you build a tax plan. Number two is we're going to talk about where did pensions go. And also Americans are looking for reliable income and retirement where they can get that. And also why pensions provide retirement security and how we can create your own personal pension. That's number three. And then number four is. If you want to live till 100 years old, we discuss how much of that could cost you if you actually live that long. And in segment two, this next segment, we're going to have our problem solver segment that is legit and can't wait to go through that one, because a lot of people are going to, I think, benefit from this one. Uh, because it does talk about how to try to get your expenses in line and also ways to improve your portfolio by reducing your standard deviation, increasing your average annual rate of return, and also just making sure you've got a retirement income plan and you're not violating that 4% rule, um, for withdrawals. And now, Sam, can you go ahead and share our financial wisdom? Quote of the week.

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

Speaker6:
This week's quote of the week.

Speaker4:
Comes to us from Josh Mandel, and he is a Republican from the state of Ohio. He's also a former United States Marine. He served in the Marine Corps from 2000 to 2008. And he once said, I believe when hardworking citizens have earned their pension, it's wrong for Washington bureaucrats and politicians to take their pensions away. And Ford, we're going to have some conversations today about kind of where the pensions have gone. The 401 K plan kind of became status quo. And and we've talked over the past few weeks about Social Security's issues and how the OAS trust fund is really struggling, expected to be depleted actually, within the next ten years. And so Josh Mandel, this Republican from Ohio, is is really just trying to to call out the Washington bureaucrats and make sure that as our population, our community ages, that we're going to have that income, that we'll need to retire successfully. Yeah.

Speaker3:
I mean, you know, if you don't think pensions are important or if you don't think Social Security is important, try taking away from somebody. And I want to kind of piggyback on one of those things. You talked about the Oasi trust fund, the Old Age Survivors Insurance Trust fund. That's the trust fund is there to pay for, you know, all of our retirees. And that's scheduled to be depleted by 2033. And what that means is a 23% across the board cut, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And according to. The Social Security Administration and. That's a real concern. I mean, a lot of people don't want to have to live on 23% less in Social Security income, because that's really a lot of times. That's what a lot of Americans are living on. And if you don't want to be a burden to your kids, then I would encourage you to get a retirement income plan in addition to just a retirement investment plan. And the best way to do that is just to visit retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. And we'll get started on your plan today. When we come back from the break, we're going to talk about taking steps to prevent a retirement tax bomb within your portfolio. So many of you are nearing retirement or are at retirement, and you've got a 401 K, and a majority of your assets are likely sitting in A41K or a 403 B or 457, or a simple IRA or a Sep IRA. And unfortunately, the IRS is your partner in those retirement accounts, and we want to help delete the IRS from being your partner in retirement. And we try to help you deal with that retirement tax bomb.

Speaker3:
We're also going to talk about how to get more. Fee efficient and tax efficient and market efficient with your overall portfolio. How to reduce that standard deviation within your portfolio? Which is really one of the more important aspects of investing, is reducing that risk level. Standard deviation is a measurement of risk. So that's really important too. And we want to try to get you in general a higher average annual rate of return through diversification. One of the things we can do is also invest in things like structured notes, or we can invest in in exchange traded funds also. 50% strategically managed portfolio funds that are. Rebalance about once a year, and also tactically managed portfolios, which means that we're much more active in our management of those portfolios. We're going to try to manage those on a monthly basis, try to rebalance those at least on a monthly basis, reallocate because we don't want to ride the lowest of lows down to the bottom of the valley of a market downturn. And many of you may have seen AA1, two, 3%, even 4% loss in the last 30 days in your 401 K or 43B, because you've just kind of rode the wave. And I would encourage you to try to do things differently. We want to help you. Better manage that for one K better manage that IRA and go ahead and reach out to us at retirement results. Com slash plan. That's retirement results. Com slash plan or call us at 1-888-814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. We look forward to helping you Sam. Any thoughts on that before we kind of move towards the break here? Well, I.

Speaker4:
Just want to say thanks once again to all of our loyal listeners. I love hearing from our listeners. A lot of them like to call us on Monday mornings after the weekend. And we they appreciate how specific we get on this show. You know, a lot of financial shows keep it really very general. And 50,000 foot view. And I think that's a good place to start. But I really, you know, love hearing how they appreciate the specificity. And and if you've missed any of our recent episodes, you can actually go back, pause, rewind, save it. Listen again. Our podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts. It's also available at retirement Results.com that website has been updated. We encourage you to check it out. We've got pictures of the team on there, and as Ford mentioned earlier in the segment, visit retirement results.com/plan. All you have to do is fill out your name, email, phone number. You'll get in touch with us and we'll get started on building your complimentary personalized financial plan. A lot of people just get that general information from maybe their HR department, maybe a few quick Google searches. But if you're looking for specific personalized information that is tailor made for your situation, visit Retirement Results. Com slash plan and we look forward to working with you. And when we come back forward, like you said, we're going to get into some steps to preventing a retirement tax bomb. You're listening to retirement results.

Got myself into something strange.

Speaker7:
In your neighborhood. Who you gonna.

Speaker1:
Call? Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.

Speaker2:
Money questions? Money answers. You're listening. To retirement results.

Speaker4:
And welcome back to retirement results. Result drivers I'm Sam Davis joined by Ford Stokes, our chief financial advisor and registered social security analyst for. We get a lot of calls from people because Social Security can bring a lot of questions. Questions about will the programs still be here in ten years? Will it still be here in the same way? Um, how do I maximize my Social Security benefit? That's something we're getting a lot of people reaching out to us right now about simply how to maximize that Social Security benefit. And what has it been like, Ford, to go through that process, becoming an rssa in the past few months and continuing that education and helping people hands on with their Social Security?

Speaker3:
Yeah, I haven't done that process last year. Um, and becoming one of only 15 registered Social Security analysts in the state of Georgia and only one of seven in the state of Alabama. That's been a really rewarding experience because it's allowed us to work with so many more people, um, and help them get fully prepared for retirement, because Social Security is going to be number either the number one or number two. Most important decision that you're going to make for your own retirement is when to turn on Social Security. And there's over 2000 decision points. And there's a lot more decision points, especially for married couples. And if you've got questions about Social Security, about when you want to take Social Security, or also you just want to get an idea of when you should be taking Social Security a little bit earlier. Let's say you're in your early 60s or late 50s, or even you're at 65 years old and you haven't turned on Social Security income, and you want to see, should I turn it on now, or should I wait till 67, your full retirement age? Then I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us. Um, you can just call call me at 1-888-814-0304 or go to retirement results. Com and we're happy to help you get started with your own RSA roadmap. It's kind of a Social Security maximization report gives you all kinds of different options on when you can turn, you and your spouse could turn on Social Security. We've found that people's eyes are open, wide open.

Speaker3:
Sam. When they get that RSA roadmap, they feel like they've got a roadmap for their Social Security income for the rest of their lives. They also get that results in advance retirement plan from us all the way to their 95th birthday. And here's what they get with that. You get your portfolio analysis, a complete total 100% comprehensive portfolio analysis from a third party. We use Morningstar. They give us an institutional level. Morningstar Portfolio Analysis of your portfolio has nothing to do with us. That way that you'll get an understanding of what your. Average rate of return is over the last 20 years from the assets you currently hold. You'll also get the standard deviation. That's your measurement of risk within your portfolio. And you'll also understand something called an expense ratio. And that's the expenses within your portfolio that don't necessarily show up in your monthly statement. Right. It's you're going to see it where it's literally just a hole in the bottom of your retirement bucket where money is leaking out. And we want to try to fill up that hole by, instead of investing in mutual funds, try to utilize exchange traded funds to implement our portfolios. That's what we do. Are typical. Expense ratio on our portfolio averages between 0.15 and 0.17, whereas when we see people come in with 41K plans, their expense ratio is averaging between 0.7 and over all the way up to over 1%. So you could have be paying out over 1%, plus administrative fees and other fees that you don't even know you're paying, because those mutual funds are charging things like 12 be one fees, Aswer fees, and C share fees.

Speaker3:
And we want to get more fee efficient for you immediately. Then we're also going to give you a retirement income analysis. And they also give you that's number two. And we'll give you a RSA roadmap, give you that Social Security maximization report number three. Then we'll give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday. And number four that was your with your current portfolio has nothing to do with our our portfolios or our recommendations. But we'll give you an idea and even a score. We're going to give you a retirement score and see what what it looks like between now and when. You turn 95 years old, and if you're going to outlive your money, if your money's going to outlive you, I think you want your money to outlive you. So therefore you don't become a burden on your kids. And then number five is we're going to give you. A financial plan. Your 95th birthday? Absolutely at no cost to you with our recommended portfolios. That also includes a strategic Roth ladder conversion plan, so you can delete the IRS from being your partner in retirement. And we're going to save you over six figures during retirement. If you have over $400,000 of investable personal assets in your IRA, or 4k or 43B, etc.. So that's a mouthful. There's a lot. But to quickly recap for everybody Sam number one is they're going to get that portfolio analysis.

Speaker3:
Number two is they're going to get the retirement income gap report. Then number three is they're going to get that RSA roadmap. So they understand the Social Security maximization that they can take those those steps they can take to maximize their Social Security. Number four is they're going to get the portfolio analysis with the retirement plan all the way to 95th birthday. And then we're gonna give them that portfolio analysis slash retirement income and total overall retirement plan with our recommended portfolios. That includes a Roth ladder conversion. So those are five things you're going to get. It's about a $1,500 value at no cost to you because you are a result driver. You are someone who listens to retirement results. We appreciate you. We care about you. We are a fiduciaries. We got to put your needs ahead of our own, and we're going to do all of that on the front end for you. Absolutely at no cost to you. Complimentary so that you can make an informed financial decision about what to do with your hard earned and hard saved wealth. Listen. Your wealth matters to you. Therefore it matters to us. It's really important to us because it is important to you. We are here to take care of you and Sam. Why don't you go ahead and start talking about the steps that people can take to prevent that retirement tax bomb? We've touched on a few items here, but I want to make sure people understood what they get when they come in to meet with us.

Speaker4:
Yeah, it's a fantastic offer. And once again, just visit retirement Results.com slash plan, punch in your information, and we'll reach out right away so we can get started on your plan. But if you're interested in taking steps to prevent a retirement tax bomb, let's first kind of understand what a retirement tax bomb is. And too often we're finding that people are coming in to meet with us, are keeping most of their hard earned retirement savings in tax deferred accounts. That means it's a 401 K for 57 something where the money is being saved pre-tax into the account, which is a nice benefit. It allows you to save more, accumulate more. But what happens is when you get to retirement, the government's going to start wanting you to take that money out so that they can get the taxes that you haven't paid on that money. The idea we talked about this on the show last week. You know, they want to tax you on the harvest versus the seed because they know that the harvest is going to be a lot bigger. And we're happy to see, you know, when people come in and they're so, you know, excited to start planning for retirement. But what concerns us is the tax liability that they currently have. So try and take a look at your portfolio. You know. Or if you get in touch with us we can help you. If you have too much money in those tax deferred accounts, you haven't paid taxes on that money yet. And the government will force you to take that money through RMDs eventually. So let's walk them through this example. We've got a great example of kind of what a tax bomb looks like when it's in action in someone's retirement. So let me give you.

Speaker3:
That tax bomb example. Let's say you've made it to retirement. Congratulations. You and your spouse are both in your 60s and decide it's time to go on that bucket list. Vacation. Maybe it's a trip to Europe. It could be a cruise, or even a great American road trip to visit some of our national parks. The vacation will be three weeks and a budget is right around $10,000. However, when you withdraw the money from your tax deferred retirement account, you will owe taxes on the money you withdraw from your IRA. For this example, let's say your federal tax rate is 24%, with 24% going to Uncle Sam. You only have $7,600 to go on your trip. If you need to spend $10,000 on this vacation, you'll need to withdraw $13,100 to cover both taxes and expenses. And here's the solution for that. You want to take advantage of tax free investments and implement a Roth ladder conversion. You'll no longer have RMDs on that portion of your portfolio, and you could draw the money tax free any time you want. There are waiting periods. You've got to wait five years from the time you open up a Roth IRA account, and also you five years after you implement a Roth ladder conversion for each conversion.

Speaker3:
Meanwhile, the money remains invested in the account and will grow tax free. Is that any good? I mean, growing tax free is pretty great stuff, isn't it, Sam? So if you should choose to leave your wrath to a beneficiary after you pass away, the money will be passed down. Guess what? Tax free. That's a big deal. So if you're interested in maximizing your retirement savings and learning what a Roth can do for you, get in touch with us at retirement results. Com that's retirement results. Com and our phone number is 1-888-814-0304. That's 1-888-814-0304. Or just visit retirement results. Com slash plan. So many of our television listeners are going to that because that's the website that's displayed and also has a QR code during our television show in Huntsville and Columbus on Sunday mornings. And also, you should look for us in your listings, um, in your TV guide there. But as always, our consultations are completely complimentary and there's no obligation. We're here to help you get a better understanding of your finances and help you plan for that successful retirement future.

Speaker4:
Yeah, and when we come back from the break forward, we're going to give another example in our problem solver segment, another little case study to help all of you listening understand your money a little bit better. You're listening to retirement results.

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

Com Summer it turns me upside down. Summer, summer, summer. It's like a merry go round.

Speaker2:
At Active Wealth Management. We know you've worked hard for your money and you've worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement, Ford Stokes of Retirement Results is passionate about helping people protect and grow their wealth while educating them on all their options so they can choose what's right for them. Visit retirement Results.com to schedule your no obligation consultation today. It's a $1,500 value provided at no cost to you. Book yours now at retirement Results.com. You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results. Result drivers I'm Ford stokes, your chief financial advisor. I've got Sam Davis, our co-host and senior financial advisor here with us on this week's episode. And this week's episode is called Don't Worry, Retire Happy. We're doing everything we can to help you get better prepared for successful retirement. Try to reduce those fees that you're paying in with your portfolio with your 41K. Also, if you're looking for A41K review, we're here to give it to you. We're going to give it to you. Absolutely no cost to you. All you've got to do is visit retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. And we'll give you that free portfolio analysis. Absolutely at no cost to you. Here is this week's problem solver.

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

Speaker3:
So Jim and Mary Catherine have been listening to our show for over a year now, and they came in, they called us, they came into our office and they met with us and Jim and Mary Catherine, they've got $3 million. They live kind of in the Marietta area, and their house is. Appreciated quite a bit and their house is now worth $2 million, which is great. They've got $3 million in retirement assets. They do have quite the tax bomb. Almost all of their assets are in gyms 401 K and um, and they're they're about to retire. He's about to retire. And their plan was to have $180,000 a year to be able to spend. And when we looked at it with their current plan. It was a real concern because there that a high standard deviation that there were high in fees. Uh, their expense ratio was actually 1.07% a year. And by implementing our plan, they their plan was that a 73% chance at that plan being successful at an annual withdrawal rate of $180,000, including their effective tax rates with the current tax laws. And then we took their inflation rate up 3% a year between now, when they turn 95 years old, they only had a 73% chance at of their plan being successful. So they they were over a passing grade, but not very far over a passing grade.

Speaker3:
And then we showed them our plan and they had a 97% chance at. Success with their financial plan, even at the same expenditure rate of 180,000, and we worked with them to try to reduce their monthly expenses. They paid off the rest of their house, um, with some other proceeds from a rental property. And therefore they were able to get completely mortgage free, which is great. A lot of other advisors don't recommend that. We do. We like people being completely mortgage free because if you have a home mortgage, it's likely that it's going to eat up one of your two Social Security checks during retirement. And that's a real frustrating for a lot of people. It's also, you know, Sam, you and I talk about it quite a bit. It's part of that American dream is to purchase a home and actually own that home and own the dirt underneath it, um, or own the condo, you know, within the condo building. That's kind of a big deal. And some of our happiest clients actually own their own home. So that was big. And then we saw that. There was an opportunity for them to reduce their expenses a little bit further, do one less trip, and we were able to get their expenses down per year to 150,000, and they were well over 100%. Of a successful retirement plan, and we did several things there to solve their problems.

Speaker3:
Number one is we gave them the full financial consultation we're offering to each one of you listening to the show this week. And it was a $1,500 value. And then they came back a week later and got their full plan. They also were able to reduce their expense ratio by moving their assets to us. They opened up accounts with our high level custodian, Charles Schwab. We don't ever take possession of anyone's assets. So there's no made off with your money situation with us. Um, as what happened with Bernie Madoff in New York was tragic and horrible for so many people. And we're just so happy that, you know, it's so great that we can work with custodians like Charles Schwab and Fidelity and Altruist and others as our primary custodians and. That way your money is safe. They just serve as the bank, and we have limited trading authority within the account to trade the account to protect and grow that account or those accounts plural. And we were able to reduce their standard deviation. Significantly wear it when a large part to pay for our advisory and portfolio fees, and they also enjoyed the discounted advisory portfolio fees. If you want to learn what kind of discount you can get. By investing with us on advisory and portfolio fees. All you have to do is reach out to us at retirement Results.com that's retirement Results.com slash plan as well, and we're happy to help you get started there.

Speaker3:
But Jim and Mary Catherine really appreciated one getting a little bit more in control of their expenses. They they felt like they needed to do that, and they were really excited to find some ways to do that. And then all we did was just pay a couple of things off. And then the second one is just to reduce their risk level, and the third was to reduce their expense ratio within their portfolio. And then now they're also going to invest in a nationwide peak ten fixed indexed annuity, get 330% participation rate in the underlying index. Um, and then also get an 8% simple interest growth. They're going to be able to defer up to four years. So they're going to get 8% times four. So that's 32% on their original principal guaranteed over the next four years, which is really helpful. And they're also getting a 20% immediate income bonus. So that's extremely helpful as well. So if you want to backfill some of the losses you may have seen in 2022, or even if you had some losses in the last 60 days with this seasonal correction going into tax season, just reach out to us at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. And we're happy to help you.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And we really believe for that, all of our listeners should be working with a licensed financial advisor. We hope it's us, but we want people to make sure that they're getting help from someone who's a fiduciary who really has to put the client's needs ahead of their own. They're obligated to do that. Actually, a recent study from Northwestern Mutual showed that 71% of people surveyed felt that their financial planning needed improvement, but only 29% of people were actually working with a financial advisor. So if you're in that 71% of people that are not currently working with an advisor, I'm not talking about the contact that your workplace 401 K plan or your workplace HR department, or your buddy on the street. That feels like he's pretty good with investments, but an actual licensed financial advisor, because research actually suggests that people who work with an advisor feel more at ease about their finances and could end up with about 15% more money to spend when they inevitably get to retirement.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I think it's just a no brainer. Get an idea. Get an idea of what you're what you're facing. Um, if here's a couple really good tests for your portfolio. If you should get in touch with us. Number one is, do you know what an expense ratio is? You may know what it is now, after we've told you, it's just the hidden fees within your portfolio. The number two is. Do you know what your expense ratio is? If your advisor has not shared what the expense ratio is within your portfolio, or if you do not know what the expense ratio is within your 41K or 403 B or 457 or or Sep IRA. Then I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us at retirement results. Com also, if you don't know what your average annual rate of return is over the last 20 years with the assets you currently hold, then I would encourage you to reach out to us again as well. I think that would really help you. And if you don't have a retirement income plan, that is a really big lever to pull to go ahead and and say, hey, you know what, I don't have a retirement income plan for it. I need one. Go ahead and reach out to us for sure. And then the last one, which is probably the most important, is if you don't have a plan for Social Security and you don't know how to maximize your Social Security income, I would encourage you to reach out to us because I am a registered Social Security analyst, and I'm here to help you.

Speaker3:
And I'm only one of 15 in the state of Georgia, only one of seven in the state of Alabama. And I look forward to helping you maximize your Social Security plan by giving you that RSA roadmap. And we helped out Jeannie, and she's actually based in Florida. She's super excited. She she got her own plan. And she had an interesting case. Sam. Where. She had to take. She was going to take 50% of her ex-husbands for a while. Then she was going to turn on her own because she works as a real estate agent in Florida. And she found us because she listened to us on retirement results. Com uh, in our episodes and just found us on that in our podcast. So. We can help anybody in all 50 US states. We're happy to help you and also really want to focus in on helping our listeners and viewers in Alabama and Georgia. Um, and again, shout out to all of our long time result drivers who have listened to us here on retirement results for the last five years between the active wealth show and retirement results on Am 912. The answer and also in Alabama, um, on the on our iHeart station as well.

Speaker4:
Yeah. Ford. And when we come back we're going to talk about where did the pensions go. Americans are looking for income that they can count on in retirement, and how you can create pension like income for your retirement, even if your employer does not offer a pension. We'll be right back. You're listening to retirement results.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. Schedule your complimentary financial consultation now at retirement results. Com or by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. Are you concerned about rising taxes and how they could affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over $400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying during a 35 year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your no obligation Roth conversion consultation with Ford Stokes of retirement results. Learn more and schedule an appointment at Retirement results. Com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Visit retirement results. Com for more information. You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker4:
And welcome back result drivers. This is retirement results I'm Sam Davis, senior financial advisor at Active wealth management. I'm here alongside Ford Stokes our chief financial advisor and registered social security analyst. We're in segment four of this week's show. Hope everybody's enjoying. If you missed the first part of today's show, be sure to check us out wherever you listen to podcasts. And you can also go to retirement Results.com. We archive all of our episodes there. We want to do a little bit of talking Ford about pensions. Where did the pensions go? Because Americans are looking for income they can count on in retirement. The Congressional Research Service recently found that defined contribution plans, which are retirement plans like your 401. S that rely on your biweekly employee contributions and are at risk in the market. Those started to overtake defined benefit plans, which include pensions in the mid 1980s. And we have a graph if you want to take a look at this we can send this your way. Just reach out to us at retirement Results.com, and you can go to our contact page and get in touch with us there. But you can see kind of in the early to mid 1980s is when the defined contribution plan actually became more popular than the defined benefit plan, better known as the pension. You know, some of you out there, if you work in the public sector, government, military, if you're over there at Dobbins, you likely have a pension coming to you someday. But the large majority of us out there in the private sector do not have access to a pension. You know, also take into account the future of Social Security is very uncertain. Ford, you're registered social security analyst. I know you get this question. A lot people are worried about future cuts to Social Security. And what do you advise to those people who are kind of concerned about where the program is going?

Speaker3:
Well, one is you've got to be informed, right? You really should run that RSA roadmap to see when you can maximize your Social Security benefit. You've also got to kind of relate it back to your own current situation. You don't want to over withdraw money early in your retirement. Remember, you and I talk all the time, Sam, about that retirement red zone that five years before retirement, the five years after retirement, those ten years are really important. They're really important to not over withdraw money. If you can start out that way, you're going to be a really good spot because also there's going to be your prime travel years too. So you don't need to go crazy and binge travel. You can enjoy travel, but you don't want to go nuts, right? And I would encourage people just to reach out to us and go to that retirement results.com/plan to really determine when to take Social Security. I don't think the answer is just take it at 62.5, because I feel like everybody that's listening to the sound of our voice, Sam, and those of us, those folks who are listening to us also on our podcast, I really don't think they should only get $0.70 on the dollar. They don't need to leave $0.30 of every dollar that's owed back to them on the table. So trying to get closer to full retirement age is a good idea every year. Also, that you wait after your full retirement age is another 8%. And even if Social Security is going to get cut 23% across the board, it will be better for you to have a higher base in which to deal with that. Right? So let's do everything we can. To maximize the church carry income benefit, but also under withdraw money from your retirement accounts in that the ten years of that retirement red zone, that five years before retirement and the five years after retirement, really treat those monies really like they're precious.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And I think one of the reasons why people are so concerned about Social Security for it is that they're counting on that monthly income that they can never outlive, because Social Security is designed to pay you every month for the rest of your life. And when the first spouse passes away, you only get to keep the larger of the two benefits. But that larger of the two checks will continue to come as long as that person lives, along with cost of living adjustments, which we've discussed in the past. But people are looking for that pension like income. In fact, this is some new data from the National Institute on Retirement Security. 82% of American women say all workers should have access to a pension so they can be independent in retirement. For I think this is really interesting. Women typically live longer than men do. 82% of women said that all workers should have access to a pension, that income that comes every month as long as you live. You know, a recent study on centenarians, Americans aged 100 and older, 78% of the centenarians alive today are actually women. Women live longer. So it's it's no surprise that they want that pension, like income for their family and then for themselves, because it's more than likely that they're going to outlive their spouse. More than three fourths of people say retirement is only getting more difficult for these top reasons inflation, rising health care costs, lack of pensions and debt. So if you do not have access to a pension through your employer, did you know you can actually reduce the risk in your portfolio and establish a personal pension that creates a lifetime income stream with one simple strategy? It's something we talk about almost every single week, and Ford, we love to set people up with a strong income plan that can help them fund their budgets in retirement. Yeah.

Speaker3:
Also, just to get, you know, an immediate income bonus, it also helps them get higher than that traditional 4% withdrawal rate. And you also get 0.1% more each year that you age with our retirement income plans. And you can also get guaranteed interest each year that you defer withdrawals. And you can get 330% participation in an underlying index. Those are all really important aspects and factors of a robust and successful retirement income plan. And if you've got questions about it, you want to get your own illustration to see what your retirement income plan could look like. All you've got to do is visit retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan and we'll get started. Also Sam a majority of us couples do not have an estate plan. This is according to FOXBusiness.com. The data is according to a new research from Ameriprise Financial's Couples Money and Retirement report, 95% of couples agree they are honest and transparent with each other when it comes to their finances. 91% also say they share the same financial values, and number three is more than 52% of couples surveyed. That's more than half said they have not yet set up an estate plan. So we would encourage people to not be intimidated by the concept of estate planning. We offer a lower cost estate planning service that also works with a licensed estate attorney in your state. Uh, we do not do the plans.

Speaker3:
We we'll gather the information, but we make sure we get the information to a licensed estate attorney, and we're able to do it for literally not pennies on the dollar. A lot less expensive than you can get off the street. We really enjoy working with this service. We did it to try to help minimize the amount of money that people pay out, because again, we're trying to be more fee efficient for our clients. Estate planning is about making decisions about what you want to happen after you die, or in the event you become incapacitated and can't make health related or financial related decisions on your own. Listen, you ought to really consider revisiting your estate plan at least every five years and also after any big time, big life event. Estate plans need to be updated as your life evolves, whether you've got kids or grandkids, things like that, to ensure that they reflect your wishes, and big events such as birth of a new grandchild, major shifts in income, a divorce, acquisition of an inheritance, or a new property are just a few examples of when your estate plan may need to be revisited. Also, encourage you to take charge of your retirement and your financial future. All you have to do is reach out to us at retirement results comm slash plan and we'll get started. It's the fire.

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

Speaker3:
Today's show was titled Don't worry, Retire Happy. We took steps to help you prevent a retirement tax bomb. We also talked about where did pensions go. We also discussed why pensions provide retirement security. We also talked about how to reduce the fees and expenses and even the risk level within your portfolio. And we also talked about what people are doing that live to be 100 years old. And Sam gave us our financial wisdom. Quote of the week from Josh Mandel, which stated, I believe when hardworking citizens have earned their pension, it's wrong for Washington bureaucrats and politicians to take their pensions away. We agree with that and we want to do everything we can to help you build that tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio so you can build your own successful retirement. And all you've got to do is reach out to us at retirement results. Comm slash plan. That's retirement results. Comm slash plan or just visit retirement results.com and click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. And you can also call us anytime at (888) 814-0304. That's 1-888-814-0304. And we'll get started on your customized financial plan, your 95th birthday with a complete portfolio analysis and Social Security maximization report with your own customized RSA roadmap. All of that at no cost to you. It's a $1,500 value, and we're here to offer it on the retirement results show to all of our result drivers. We appreciate you. Remember, if you're looking for retirement information, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly, be as aggressive as possible in seeking as much info as you can and minimize the fees you're paying. Minimize the risk you're taking, and maximize your average annual rate of return and maximize your retirement income. And for Sam Davis I'm Fort Stokes. Have a great week everybody.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. You deserve to work with an independent team of fiduciary advisors that will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets. To schedule your complimentary financial consultation, call us now at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777. To connect with a qualified advisor. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit retirement Results.com Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, 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 exists, please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV Two.a, page four for additional information.

Speaker1:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer. Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company. You may not receive the bonuses if the contract is fully surrendered, or if traditional annuitization payments are taken, and if the policy is partially surrendered, it could result in a partial loss of bonuses. Because these are bonus annuities, they may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods, lower caps, higher spreads, or other restrictions that are not included in similar annuities that don't offer a bonus feature.

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