Ford Stokes and Sam Davis discuss the first presidential debate of 2024 and explain how the government plays a role in your retirement plan.
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7.5.24: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
7.5.24: 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. I've got Sam Davis here with me, who's our senior financial advisor and also co-host of retirees. Let's say hello to everybody, Sam.
Speaker4:
Welcome to the weekend result. Drivers hope everybody had a fantastic Independence Day and is enjoying their independence this weekend. We're here once again with an all new episode. More information that you need to hear and understand. Whether you're preparing for retirement or if you're currently in retirement. Ford. We've got some interesting things to share today. We had a presidential debate last week and just a lot to talk about as we head into this 4th of July weekend.
Speaker3:
Yeah, we're going to kind of dive in a little bit into the Trump debates Biden conversation. We're going to do that a little bit. We're going to talk about the financial state of the union and how it kind of just hangs in the balance a little bit. And also what that means for your own retirement. We're going to also continue talking about how to build that smart financial plan, uh, especially in case, uh, the unthinkable happens. And somehow, some way, the Democrats win in November for the US national presidential election. Um, hopefully not. Uh, again, hopefully, if everybody saw that debate, if you're doing your best to vote with your retirement in mind and you're going to vote for Donald J. Trump, who is our 45th president. And hopefully he will be our 47th president, uh, getting a lot of feedback. People were like, you know what, Ford? Maybe I'll just fence ride and not really talk about which candidate you would go for. And it helps you get more assets under management and helps you get more clients. And, um, nope. I'm going to call it like I see it. We're we're going to do what we can to support President Trump and also hopefully support all the Republican candidates down ballot in November and leading up to November. And hopefully we'll have some of those folks on our show like we did in 2020. And, um, also I've done before as well. So anyway, it was something else, um, about a week and a half ago. Hope everybody had a great July 4th weekend. I am wearing my throwback, uh, kind of July 4th shirt that I got for Father's Day from my girls, which was great.
Speaker3:
And shout out to the road back, folks. It's great to have this much of a patriotic shirt on. So if you want to see us live or at least taped on, um, our video of us giving this radio show every single week and actually presenting it and airing this show every single week, we've got video of us actually giving the show and doing the show each and every week on retirement Results.com that's retirement. Results.com and just click the episode button and you'll see there are different episodes with the video of us, um, actually airing the show, and you can see my great looking Robach shirt and Sam's Ryder Cup shirt. Um, here we're being pretty patriotic and supporting US teams and all that stuff on this week's show. Um, we also just want to say thank you to all the result drivers for making us the number one listen to radio show on the weekends on Am 920. The answer? Uh, really appreciate that. Also, shout out to all the folks who listen to us in Huntsville, Alabama as well. And also just we really look forward to spending some time with the folks in Panama City in Fort Walton, where we will be aired on a local conservative talk radio station down there sometime in mid-July. Sam, you may actually have the call letters and the the station, um, number for that. Um, you may want to share that if you've got it, but we're super excited that the show just continues to grow. Also, thanks to all the affiliates that are reaching out to us and want to get more, um, who actually want to add retirement results to their lineup? Uh, that's been pretty neat stuff.
Speaker3:
And but more importantly, we just really appreciate you. We appreciate the folks that want to build a tax efficient, fee efficient, and market efficient portfolio for their retirement future. They want to have a successful retirement. They really want to kind of delete fees out of their portfolio. They want to really reduce the risk and reduce their standard deviation, which is a measurement of financial risk within the financial markets. And and we want to help you figure that out and navigate those worlds. And then also we want to try to help generate income for you during retirement, whether that's Social Security income or also build a Social Security income plan and a retirement income plan that hopefully outpaces your expenses. And, um, we're super excited about trying to help you get that done. And then also market efficiency, just trying to be more market efficient, reduce that risk and reduce the fees and hopefully reduce the taxes and implement a strategic Roth ladder conversion plan and kind of get you going towards deleting the IRS from your retirement account. So, Sam, kind of your thoughts on all that. And also, I know we're going to dive into the debate here. I just wanted to get your thoughts on what what we think about our result drivers, how much we appreciate them, and all the activators you use used to listen to the Active Wealth show before we change the name at the beginning of the year to retirement results. And, um, I just, you know, we just really appreciate those folks who listen to us.
Speaker4:
Yeah. Well, I feel like the 4th of July is a really good marker for the midway point of the year and, and kind of that early holiday that we all get to enjoy as we celebrate America early on in the summer. Um, it's been a great 2024 so far forward. We've been on more stations than ever before just in the first month, uh, first six months of this year, uh, compared to the last five years, we've just been on that many more stations. So many more people have been listening to us. Um, you're absolutely right. Fort Walton is a station that we're going to be adding very soon. That's 107.5 FM and 1260 Am in Fort Walton. So if you're going down to the beach for the weekend or if you know anybody down there in the Fort Walton, Panama City Beach area, let them know that retirement results is is coming to a station near them. And we're also talking to a station in Macon, Georgia. Um, and we're hoping to get that working so that we can start bringing some important information to the people of Macon as well. And if this is your first time, welcome. If this is not your first time and you've been listening to us for years like so many have who call in and and say hey to us, welcome back.
Speaker4:
This is retirement results. You can learn more at retirement results. Com. Be sure to check out the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can click subscribe and you can actually get a preview of the weekend's episode, because we drop those new episodes every Friday afternoon, Friday evening. It depends on when we exactly get things up and published, but you can actually get a sneak preview if you're a podcast subscriber, so that's a little benefit there for it. And you can also listen to all the past episodes. And if you subscribe to the YouTube, you're going to start seeing the episodes of the Retirement Results TV show Get Put up there this summer. Our TV show is is wrapping up its first season in the various markets across the southeast, and now we can start bringing those highlights to everybody on YouTube. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to YouTube and you'll get to hear all of the important conversations we have. And Ford, we've only got a few minutes left in this first segment, but let's jump into it for today.
Speaker3:
Yeah. Let's go. So, um, when we come back for the break to, we're going to talk about we're going to actually going to play a clip from, uh, the Trump versus Biden debate. Um, the presidential debate that was on CNN that CNN did without an audience because that's what they wanted to do. Um, which I thought was ridiculous. Um, Sam, can you also just quickly give us the financial quote of the week that kind of set up the rest of this week's show? It's a it's it's a stunner. It's a big time quote.
Speaker5:
And now Folsom financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.
Speaker4:
This week's quote of the week comes to us from former basketball coaching great John Wooden. And John Wooden said, when opportunity comes, it's too late to prepare.
Speaker3:
Yeah, John Wooden was, you know, he was a national champion. I think he won the national championship like ten years in a row. He had Lew Alcindor and and Bill Walton and all kinds of people. Um. Pretty amazing. Um, but I think it's really apropos. I think it's right on. I think it's spot on for what we're dealing with right now. You really do need to get prepared for your retirement, and nobody is going to be in charge of your retirement except you. And if you haven't reached out to us before and you want to get a plan for a successful retirement future, I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. And we'll get started right away in helping you build that tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient portfolio for your own successful retirement also gets you a Social Security income maximization report and get you that retirement income gap analysis. Going with a Roth ladder conversion and a financial plan to your 90th birthday. Absolutely at no cost to you because you listen to the Retirement Results radio show. We appreciate you joining us this week. Uh, hope you guys are having a great July 4th week and hope you're enjoying the weekend after July 4th and come right back. We're going to talk. We're going to dive into what was said during the debate and how it affects your retirement and your retirement income moving forward, specifically regarding Social Security. Come right back and you want to hear some of these really informative clips that we were able to pull from the presidential debate this past week.
Speaker2:
Money questions, money answers. You're listening to retirement results. From here. 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 on Ford spokesman chief financial advisor I've got Sam Davis here with me, our senior financial advisor and co-host. And Sam, you've got a clip from last week's debate with Trump versus Biden. And there was a question was asked about Social Security and it was very telling. Um, Trump's response, but also the lack of depth on response from Biden as well. Um, it was kind of deafening, and it was a concern for a lot of pre-retirees and retirees. And that's why we're going to go and cover this today. But let's go ahead and play this one minute clip. It's important for everybody to hear this, especially if you're a pre-retiree or a retiree.
Speaker6:
Well, he's right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death. And he's destroying Medicare because all of these people are coming in. They're putting them on Medicare. They're putting them on Social Security. They're going to destroy Social Security. This man is going to single handedly destroy Social Security. These millions and millions of people coming in, they're trying to put them on Social Security. He will wipe out Social Security. He will wipe out Medicare. So he was right in the way he finished that sentence. And it's a shame what's happened to our country in the last four years is not to be believed. Foreign countries. I'm friends with a lot of people. They cannot believe what happened to the United States of America. We're no longer respected. They they don't like us. We give them everything they want. And they they think we're stupid. They think we're very stupid people. What we're doing for other countries, and they do nothing for us. What this man has done is absolutely criminal. Thank you, President Trump.
Speaker4:
And for that clip was from last week's presidential debate between former President Donald Trump, who's looking to get back into the white House, and incumbent candidate Joe Biden, who, um, did show up to the debate. Um, left a lot of time on the clock in some situations. As you mentioned earlier, a lot of lack of depth in some of those responses. But I mean, Ford, as someone who's a registered social Security analyst and you're spending time with our prospects, our clients, helping them make decisions about Social Security, I mean, the financial struggles of the program is something that people need to be aware of. So many seniors and baby boomers out there are concerned about this specific issue. Just what are your thoughts as as somebody who's helping so many prepare for Social Security?
Speaker3:
Well, I try to stay in the specifics, right? I try to stay metrically focused, although I have some extremely passionate things to say about it, too. Um, so the objective is this. So the objective response is, well, the Congressional Budget Office and Tsa.gov earlier this year came out and they redefined what was going on with the old age Age Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which, by the way, was previously scheduled to run out of money in 2033 with a 23% across the board cut. They came back and said, well, actually it's improved now. It's 2035 because of tax revenues. And. Um, also would only be a 21% across the board cut in 2035. Here are the facts. The facts are that the Democrats refused to come to the table to negotiate and compromise on Social Security, and they've tried to villainize the Republicans, and they're trying to use it as a way for them to get elected to win elections. Bottom line. They're going off of the old Democrat playbook, which is don't let any crisis go unleveraged. And it's really concerning. They're playing with people's money. Also, did you know a lot of you are driving around right now listening to our show or you're listening? You're one of the 14,000 people who've downloaded retirement results over the past 12 months. Did you know that there was no taxation on Social Security up until 1983? Isn't that shocking? 1983 doesn't seem that long ago.
Speaker3:
It is actually a pretty long time ago. It's 41 years ago. But here's another interesting point. And I'm not here to just bash the the current occupant of the white House, but the sponsor of that bill was Joe Biden. 41 years ago. Look it up. He introduced taxation on Social Security for the very first time, and it passed in 1983. That is shockingly horrible. I found that out right during the debate. I couldn't believe it. Next is it's the stuff I'm really concerned about. Sam is the stuff that we're not seeing. Uh, you know, we're I'm in the Atlanta airport at least a couple times a month, and we travel sometimes. Sometimes the my gate is in the international terminal, even if I'm just traveling, you know, within the United States, the lower 48. And I've seen entire plane fulls of people get off the plane in the tarmac near the international gate and not enter the airport the way you normally would, and they exit out through buses and they've been able to nobody's been able to explain to me what's going on there. And from what I understand, that is plane fulls of people that are being flown into the United States, immigrants illegally, and then they're trying to eventually place those people on Social Security or putting them on Social Security earlier.
Speaker3:
You've got a case in a situation where it's been well reported that illegal immigrants are there. Hotel rooms are being paid for by the US government in New York, because Texas is busing thousands of people up to New York City and making it their problem in my concern is that they really are putting some of these people on Social Security, and they're drawing down the old age Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which is frighteningly horrible. That's what President Trump said in the debate. There was no fact checking on that by the two reporters who were asking the questions. Nobody pushed back on that. I've seen some news organizations try to say that that was a lie and try to debunk it and try to fact check it or air quote, fact check it, But nobody's been able to disprove what he just said in that clip. And as a registered Social Security analyst, there's only 15 of us in the state of Georgia. It's a shock. And also, Social Security isn't either the number one or number two source of retirement income for Americans these days. And that is you cannot mess with people's retirement income. I mean, these people have paid into Social Security for years and years and years.
Speaker3:
You can't just rob them of that money. The other thing that I'm struck with, Sam, is you've got to be the captain of your own ship. Number one is you need to have a plan for your retirement income. How are you going to outpace the monthly expenses that you've got going on in retirement? That's number one. Number two is you need to have a plan for the eventual loss of one of the two spouses within your home. Because you're your household is going to lose at least 33% of the Social Security income that's coming into the household on the day that one of the spouses passes away, at least that much example. So if a husband who's worked really hard all his life is making $3,000 a month in Social Security income, and the wife who worked even harder by raising the kids, staying at home and doing a job she could never get fired from and she could never quit. She's generating $18,000 in income a year. Right. So she's getting $1,500 a month. He's getting $3,000 a month. If he dies, she gets his. So she gets 3000 a month, but she loses hers. She loses the $1,500 a month, and that's losing 33%. That's coming into the household. That's your own personal economy, folks. I am extremely concerned about what's going on with Social Security.
Speaker3:
I'm extremely concerned about what the Democrats are doing or not doing, especially regarding the border, because they're just looking for people to vote for them or there or other reasons. And I'm super concerned about what's going to happen to the Social Security income that all these pre-retirees and retirees are due. These Americans have worked too hard. They put money in they they set us up for the future. And we've got to respect our elders and we got to take care of them. Period. And I think that's what Trump was saying. And I just, um, I don't see how you can listen to that clip and think, you know what? I'm really got confidence in this guy, Joe Biden. You just I just don't know how you could ever vote for that guy. And I don't think he won the last election either. That's just my opinion. But it's an opinion based on a lot of facts and a lot of reporting that I've seen. And the movie 2000 mules and everything else. So I got to tell you, please do yourself a favor and vote with your retirement in mind and vote for Donald J. Trump for the 2024 US presidential national election. Sam, your thoughts on what we've heard as well. And I know we've only got a few seconds left here in this segment.
Speaker7:
Yeah, well, it's hard to believe that.
Speaker4:
Four years have gone by and we're and we're doing this whole thing again. First off, I'll be watching that debate last week. It was it was really a whirlwind. And I mean, yeah, we moved on from the global pandemic. But aside from that, interest rates have skyrocketed. Inflation has skyrocketed. Um, not a lot has seemed to improve. And more people are concerned about Social Security than ever before. I know a lot of you listening are likely concerned, and if you want to reach out and get some answers about your own specific Social Security situation for you, and if you're married, both you and your spouse reach out to us at retirement Results.com forward slash plan, and our registered Social Security analyst and chief Financial Advisor, Ford Stokes, will be more than happy to answer your questions and get that roadmap set up for you. And when we come back, we're going to have a problem solver. Give you an example of how we helped some recent listeners just like you. 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.
Speaker8:
Arlo.
Speaker2:
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. Stoke's 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. This part of today's show Retirement results is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement Results.com.
Speaker3:
And welcome back result drivers I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor I've got Sam Davis here our senior financial advisor and co-host two retirement results. And we just finished talking about the debate. And I want to kind of field some questions for our listeners. But first I want to share this important problem solver. So Sam, go ahead and share that problem solver sounder.
Speaker2:
It's time for this week's Problem Solver.
Speaker3:
It's always great to have Lonnie do a great job with the voice of stuff with our problem solver. Here's our problem solver for the week. We had over like just right before the July 4th holiday. We had a couple come in. Uh, Mike and Linda. Mike is 62. Linda is 60 years old, and we've changed the names to protect the innocent here. Um, Mike had a $700,000 annuity and also a $500,000 annuity, and they were both non-qualified because, um, you kind of had his IRA dollars tied up in other things he's worth about. They're worth about $5 million. They've got, you know, a lake house and they've got their primary home over there in Roswell and the $1.2 million total in these annuities. But they were underperforming, and they came to us and they weren't quite out of surrender, but they were close. And but so the surrender value of the two annuities is like right around $1.2 million total together. So the good folks over at one of our annuity carriers that we work with, we work with over 40 of them. This is an A plus rated carrier with Am best and with the S&P with you know, with Standard and Poor's, they were able to offer a 26% bonus, immediate bonus into the account value, not the income value. The account value on this product and their $1.2 million in account value is going to be worth 1.512 million, so $1,512,000.
Speaker3:
Also, the index over the last ten years has performed at a 10.84% clip, and they're getting 80% of how that index performs. And the carrier is getting the other 20%. But it but the net to the client is 10.84%. That's a remarkable result. To take two underperforming annuities, combine them into one, and all of a sudden it turns into a $312,000 growth immediately. And this is kind of what wealth management looks like, folks. You can really get access to some great products. And this is another example of a problem solver where, okay, we've got some money that's underperforming, that's not growing, but it's not losing money because it's in an annuity. And now we can get them some growth. And also we've got some indices that are performing over the last ten years. That includes 2018 2022 where we've seen where the markets didn't do well. So we've got some confidence that can perform in a down market. And they're able to generate a significant amount of income. They can they can take up to 10% penalty free withdrawals each year. But what's interesting is they're going to take 5% on this. So they're looking at at getting like, I don't know, somewhere close to like $76,000 a year in income from these two annuities. And they were getting zero before. That's a pretty remarkable solution.
Speaker3:
So if you've got an old annuity that may be out of surrender or you've got a lump sum pension, you're trying to figure out whether you need to take that lump sum or not, or if you have 100, 200 or even just even 25,000. But let's say you've got over $200,000 sitting in a checking account or savings or both, And you're not really happy with the bank CD rates. I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. That's retirement results.com/plan or call us at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. We're happy to help you get going on protecting the retirement income portion of your portfolio. Number two is we're here to also help you get that retirement income you deserve. And it's also going to be at a greater rate than a 4% withdrawal rate. And hopefully we're going to see. And the plan is for your annuity to outgrow the withdrawal rate so that you're going to have an account value left over and you're still going to enjoy lifetime income you can never outlive. How's that sound? If that sounds pretty good, I would go ahead and reach out to us at retirement Results.com. You can click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner, or you can call us at (888) 814-0304. Now, Sam, you've got some questions from our listeners and that you want me to answer.
Speaker4:
Well, last time forward, we were answering some listener questions. And Cheryl in Alpharetta sent us a question. Appreciate it, Cheryl, but we weren't able to get to it last time, so here it is. And I think this is a good one. And really, you know, this is something we need to talk about. And Cheryl writes in and it says when is the best time to make withdrawals from my retirement accounts? When the market goes down, I'm afraid to make matters worse by pulling out the money I need. But when the market goes up, I feel like I'm getting in the way of potential gains.
Speaker3:
Yeah, Cheryl, it can be a double witching effect or really compounds the problem in the situation. If you're withdrawing money when your assets are going down sometimes. Also, you want to wait till you've got an uptick in the market before you try to liquidate, um, some money that you're going to need, you know, during retirement or try to meet your expense needs for sure. That's definitely a factor. Also, attempting to time the market and make systematic investments or withdrawals is something that we get questions about all the time. Cheryl. That's why we try to spend so much time talking about the importance of a strong income plan and taking advantage of guaranteed income solutions like fixed index annuities. And also the question is, do you really want to spend your retirement years watching the stock ticker, stressing about managing your money, etc., when you could actually just take 20 to 40% of your overall portfolio, put it into a fixed index annuity and generate the income you need during retirement. For a lot of folks, I think it's a really good idea, um, to, to try to do that, replace the bonds. But also you're going to be able to delete the advisory and portfolio fees that are associated with that retirement income portion of your portfolio as well. So I would encourage you to go ahead and get started. All you got to do is reach out to us at retirement results.com/plan. And we'll get started on trying to help you with what you need to do about generating the retirement income you need, and so you don't have to make those untimely withdrawals.
Speaker7:
Yeah.
Speaker4:
Cheryl's right there in Alpharetta, which is right where our home office is forward. So Cheryl, I would definitely recommend you give us a call and come in, find a good time to come in and see us because a lot of people have that exact same concern forward. They've done a great job saving, but because they're worried about the market, they're concerned that they either can't retire yet or they need to keep saving. And if you can make sure that your income needs are going to be met, like you said, you can let the rest of that portfolio grow and really have that peace of mind that your income needs are going to be met, but you're still being a savvy investor and trying to grow your wealth for the long term.
Speaker3:
Amen.
Speaker4:
And we do have enough time for one more question today for Brad from Lilburn writes in and says he's about five years away from retirement. That's exciting. Brad, congrats. He's always managed his 401 K and his investments on his own. And he's wondering what's it like to work with a financial advisor?
Speaker3:
Yeah, it can be really helpful to work with a financial advisor, especially after you're done working. But even more specifically, Brad, I would I applaud you for reaching out to us five years before you retire. And congratulations on your pending retirement in five years. It's a good idea to kind of get started when you're in that retirement red zone, which is like five years before retirement and five years after retirement. And what's really great about working with a financial advisor is they can give you, um, a tax plan so you can get more tax efficient by implementing, like a Roth ladder conversion and eventually rolling over that 401 K to an IRA and then converting a little bit of that IRA each and every year until you've deleted the IRS 100% out of that account. That's a good idea. Others are ways of trying to reduce your standard deviation, which is a measurement of risk so you can get more market efficient as well. And then also trying to reduce that expense ratio within your portfolio probably would shock you to know how much is coming out of your current 41K Brad in something they call expense ratio, because that's how those foreign K companies are making money.
Speaker3:
I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us, or reach out to any financial advisor and get an analysis done so you understand the expense ratio and the fees that are leaving your account each and every month. And also what are what's the risk you're taking with the assets you currently have? Um, and then also just trying to get you in a more tax efficient, fee efficient, market efficient portfolio, but also trying to get you a higher average rate of return with at a lower risk level is really the best way to do that. And also just trying to generate a retirement income plan and maximize your Social security, uh, income as well. Those are the types of things that really help when you work with the financial advisor and you come out ahead in the long run in general. So I'd encourage you to reach out to us at retirement results.com. And we come back from the break. We're going to talk about how to build a smart financial plan, including smart safe, smart risk and smart tax solutions. We've covered a lot of that today, but we're going to try to hit some highlights on that right after the break.
Speaker2:
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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.
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 or chief financial advisor got Sam Davis here with us. Our senior financial advisor and radio co-host um and also television co-host with us too. So, Sam, we just got done answering a couple of questions. We just answered Brad's question. Hey, what's it like to work with a financial advisor? And I wanted to tell everybody exactly what they get when they come in to talk with us. So the first thing they get is a portfolio analysis. We do an institutional level Morningstar report, and we also do we also get a quant report ran from two different independent services. So therefore you know that it's not just us making things up and not we're not being subjective. We're trying to be objective. So we analyse your current portfolio and we try to tell you what your expense ratio is. The fees are coming out of your portfolio each and every year. Also, we're going to tell you what your level of risk is as measured by standard deviation. We'll also share with you your the correlation of your assets. So that's number one. Number two is we're going to give you a Social Security maximization report what we call an SSA roadmap. And you also get access to the RSA portal software for the rest of your life.
Speaker3:
Um courtesy of Active Wealth Management. We're happy to give that to you. Absolutely no cost to you. Number three is we're going to give you a retirement income gap analysis that includes that Social Security income benefit when you plan to turn on Social Security and how much you're going to get and how much your spouse is going to get and when they plan to turn on that Social Security income. We're also going to look at your other income sources, whether that's pension or, uh, 4% regular withdrawals from your IRA and your investment accounts, uh, rental income, things like that. And so we try to determine whether you've got a positive income surplus during retirement or a negative retirement income gap. Those, you know, it's really important for you to have a positive income surplus during retirement. And also if you start with a negative retirement income gap, inflation is going to make that gap widen very quickly and you're going to lose purchasing power. So I'd encourage you to really try to figure out what you're going to do there. And then number four is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with your current portfolio. That has nothing to do with us 100%, your current portfolio, the current path you're on, the current allocation of your portfolio with the expense ratio you've got with the standard deviation, you've got the risk you're taking, the correlation of your assets, and also with the income plan that you're going to need.
Speaker3:
We'll do all that with your current plan at no cost. It has nothing to do with us. About 99% of the time when people come in and work with us, we do that plan and their financial advisor has never done one for them. So we're happy to help you get that done. Let's check the box on that. Let's get that second opinion. If you are currently working with advisor or if you're not working with advisor, you never have, now's a great time to start. Now's a great time to kind of get on the road to success for your retirement. So you don't have to sit there and watch the stock ticker. And then number five is we're going to give you the financial plan to your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios. That also includes a Roth ladder conversion plan over a 5 to 10 year period. That's going to help you delete fees and taxes during retirement, and also delete the IRS from being your partner or retirement.
Speaker3:
And we're going to help you hopefully save over six figures during retirement. We think that's a big deal. We think that's a really good idea too. So those are the five things you're going to get to recap real quick. Number one real quick is a portfolio analysis. Number two is a Social Security maximization report. Number three is a retirement income gap analysis. Number four is a financial plan. Your 95th birthday with your own current portfolio that has nothing to do with us. Number five is a financial plan, your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios. That also includes a strategic Roth Ladder Conversion plan that will help you delete the IRS from being your partner in retirement, and that will likely help you save over six figures during your 35 plus year retirement. All that's about a $1,500 value, and we're going to do all of it absolutely at no cost to you. We're here to help. Sam, your thoughts on what people get when they come in, how consistent it is, and also bedrock, and also using third parties to help do the analysis and make sure that people kind of have those eyes wide open, very transparent metric measurement of what their financial plan looks like for the next 35 plus years.
Speaker7:
That's just.
Speaker4:
Really important. As you approach retirement to inspect what you expect, do what Ronald Reagan said. Make sure that you know what you're paying in fees. Make sure you know what your actual risk is inside your portfolio, and maybe reconsider. Am I taking too much risk as I get close to retirement? Is this more than I'm willing to risk in the stock market at this time? Get the answers. Get the information you need that's going to put you in the position to make the best financial decisions for your future, because you've been working hard for this money, working hard to save this money for decades. And Ford, we like to say it's it's hard to earn this money, but it's even harder to save it and put it away and save it for a rainy day and get those answers, help, you know, help yourself make those decisions for your retirement because you're planning for the next 20, 30 years. And this is a really important time if you're coming up on retirement or even if you've just recently retired, it's not too late to fine tune what you've got going on with your retirement plan.
Speaker3:
Amen. Absolutely. Amen. I think that's the right way to go. Also, we get some questions quite a bit on hey for do I really do I need an A for one x ray? Do I need A4K review. Um, like 5 or 10 years out from retirement? Is it is now the time to kind of get that portfolio analysis done? Or at least how do I get to maximize and optimize my portfolio? The answer is yes. Let's get going. Um, you're consistently saving for retirement, just like Sam said. It's hard to save. It's much harder to say than even is to earn. Um, but many of you aren't happy with the rate of return. You're also not happy with the fees that are coming out of your 401 K. Let us do that 4k analysis and review for you, and we'll get going on that. And if you feel like your money isn't working as hard as you're working, then it's definitely time to go ahead and pick up the phone and give us a call at (888) 814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. It's the final.
Speaker2:
Countdown. So let's recap what you may have missed. It's the final countdown. The final countdown.
Speaker3:
On today's show, Sam shared, um, a financial wisdom quote of the week that came from John Wooden. When opportunity comes, it's too late to prepare. I would encourage you to really get prepared, especially if it looks like Social Security is going to run out of money, uh, by 2035, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That means that 21% across the board cut not 100% across the board cut. But it is a concern. Um, just get prepared for the retirement income that you're going to need during retirement and get going on protecting and growing your hard earned and hard saved assets. We played an important clip about Social Security that was asked at the presidential debate last week on the CNN presidential debate, and we felt like it was a very truthful, direct answer that came out of Donald Trump's mouth. And we. Our 45th president of the United States, we didn't see that or hear that from, uh, Joe Biden on that debate stage. And we were very disappointed with his answer. Another real point of concern for me as a financial advisor and also as one of the hosts of this radio show. It's so retirement focused. I'm so concerned that they are giving illegal immigrants Social Security income benefits, or they're trying to track to that. It would just absolutely swamp the boat and and drain all of the reserves within the Oaci and also make it where us hard working Americans have to pay even more money into Social Security. That's a real concern. Listen, if you're making over 168,600 USD a year, chances are you're going to be paying more than 6.2% on the earnings, which is what the employer, um, employee contribution each is for 2024 and 2023.
Speaker3:
It was 6.2% on earnings up to 160,200 USD, and today it's 168,600. They're going to raise taxes on folks that are making more than that and also up to that. So my concern is that we could see doubling of the income tax for Social Security. And that is a real concern for me, but also going to make sure that the money's going to be around for these seniors and all the people that put money into Social Security. The government is absolutely draining down the assets. And in 1950, we had 16 workers for every Social Security income recipient. Today, it's 2.6 workers for every Social Security income benefit recipient. And by 2035, it's going to be 2.3 workers for every recipient. So just something to be thinking about. Let's get a retirement income plan for you that's beyond just Social Security. And let's get going on the planning. Go ahead and reach out to us at Retirement results.com and click that schedule consultation button. Let's get started on your customized retirement plan today. And you can also just reach out to us at (888) 814-0304. Sam, and I really appreciate you being with us on this important retirement results show. Um, just after the presidential debate, the CNN presidential debate. And stay cool out there, everybody. It's it's going to be a hot summer and 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 and Active Wealth Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. 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.
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