On this week’s edition of Your American Retirement, Randy discusses the importance of leaving a smart legacy for future family generations. Plus, he explains how smart safe investments work and why annuities could take away a lot of your stress in retirement.
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12.15.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
12.15.23: 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 your American Retirement with your host, Randy Sams. Get set for a full hour of financial information and economic news affecting your bottom line. Randy works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for, and he can help you too. So now let's start the show. Here is your host, Randy Sams. Well, hello again, Central Arkansas. I hope you're having a great Saturday morning. I want to welcome you to your American retirement. My name is Randy Sams. I want to thank you for joining me on this Saturday morning. I hope you've had your coffee or whatever else it takes to get you cranked up for, uh, Saturday. Folks, we're headlong running into, what, Christmas? And then before you know it, it's going to be 2024. So I just want to let you know, I appreciate you guys that have been regular attendees or listeners to our program throughout the year 2023. We're not done yet. We got a couple of more shows for y'all. But today I want to let you know we got a jam packed show on tap for you. Lots of information. And also, folks, don't forget to check us out. You can check our show out on podcast whatever podcast provider you use Apple, Google, Spotify, whichever is your favorite podcast, please check us out your American retirement, or you can visit youtube.com and look for your American retirement. You'll see my smile and face on there. Now, folks, YouTube is going to be a little bit different than our podcast.
Speaker2:
As I've said before, what we do on YouTube is we take little snippets, um, little segments, maybe two minutes, three minutes, not very long, uh, of what we feel like are some of the most important or highlights of today's show or any previous show. And we put those on YouTube. And then from there, you can either go to your podcast provider or go to your American retirement.com, and you can look up previous shows and you can listen to any show that we've recorded over the past two years. Okay. But again, I want to thank you for listening. Want to shout out to all our listeners, Ian. Of course, little Rock. How about Saline County, folks? Y'all in Saline County, I just want to give you all this information. I, Randy Sams, will be running or am running for justice of the Peace in District nine. So some of you may not be familiar with what justice of the peace district you're in. You can look that up, but if you're in district nine and you are a listener to this show, I would appreciate your vote come 2024. Alright, enough about me folks. We want to thank our listeners and, you know, don't hesitate to call us, you know, the number or go to the website because we love hearing from and helping our listeners, which we get comments maybe not on a daily basis, but a weekly basis. Comments and suggestions from folks who are, I guess you should say, loyal listeners.
Speaker2:
To the program that understand that our focus at SMG Financial, Your American Retirement, is to meet with you. To have a consultation with you doesn't cost you anything. Utilize our 38 years worth of experience in this market to help set you up for a safe retirement. We want to educate you on what your options are, what risk that you will more than likely. Be involved with, okay. What risk will occur, be it financial, health, whatever in your retirement years. So we want to set you up for a safe and a happy retirement, not a risky retirement. And just remember you can call us (866) 990-7664. That's toll free (866) 990-7664 or go to your American retirement.com. Just leave us a voicemail. Leave us your contact information. Tell us we're doing a great job. Give us some some good critique okay. Go easy on us. Or if there's something that you get stressed out about or that you're concerned about, you're getting close to retirement. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you've got concerns about Randy. I've got questions about such and such, whether it be long term care, whether it be Medicare, whatever it might be, guaranteed income. You've got questions. We're here to help you answer those. So again, please give us a call. Go to the website. Because like I said earlier, we love helping and hearing from our listeners. So again let's get this thing started. So hey, I want to do a little public service announcement for those of you, if you were a member, it's probably been a few weeks, probably right before the season started.
Speaker2:
So it was probably either sometime in September or early October. I let you know that if you have United Health Care. All right. So if you have a it doesn't have to be a Medicare product. It doesn't have to be a Medicare Advantage plan. Uh, but if you have a Medicare advantage plan with United Health Care or if you have a if you're working and your employer, your group health plan is with United Health Care and you're here in central Arkansas. And your doctor, your doctors, your doctor's clinic, ferm, whatever you may want to refer to them as if they are part of the Baptist Health System, which also includes the Baptist Hospital in Little Rock. Right now, you're not a health care, and the Baptist Health System have not reached a contract for 2024. So what does that mean for me? Randy? Great question. So those of you who have Medicare Advantage plan right now and you're in central Arkansas or your doctors or your hospital might be Baptist Health System. As of January 1st, 2024, they are no longer in that, so they will not be a network provider. They would be considered out of network. Okay, so. That's where you need to get in contact with your doctors and find out if they are still if the contract hasn't been agreed upon between now and what that gives us a couple of weeks between now and January 1st, 2024.
Speaker2:
You need to get in contact with your doctors if they're part of the Baptist Health system. Now, that's not for everybody. If you have United Health Care and your doctors that you go to are part of the Baptist Health system, you need to probably make a phone call and find out what's going to happen to this or what's going to happen to my care in 2024. Will you still? Except UnitedHealthCare. Now, if it's a group health plan, the answer is probably going to be no. If it's a Medicare Advantage plan, some of the United Health Care Medicare Advantage plans, which I also market. Uh, they will also pay for out of network coverage at the same level most of the time. Okay. But you need to make sure that your doctor will accept it. So that's the first deal. But I just want to let you know, okay? I'm not trying to scare you. I just want to keep you informed, because. What what do we talk about here on your American retirement? We talk about retirement. We talk about financial issues. We talk about health issues. And part of that is going to be where you're going to get your health care at. And right now, you're not in health care as of when you're listening to this program. December 16th, 2023. As of right now, United Health Care and Baptist Health Systems do not have a contract for January 1st, 2024.
Speaker3:
Want to know where your hard earned money is going. It's time for an inflation demonstration.
Speaker2:
Let's talk about something else that that that we look at when we meet. You all go, you guys know and it's Christmas season. Sorry, I just covered up the camera if you're listening here, but we're watching, uh, it's Christmas season. And one of the things that we talk about is inflation. All right. So let's give a little inflation demonstration using the NCHS, CPI which stands for Christmas Price Index. For the last four decades, the PNC Christmas Price Index is an annual tradition which shows the current cost for one set of each of the gifts given in the song The 12 Days of Christmas. You know, on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. You don't want me to sing anymore, okay, a promise. So. So it's similar to the Consumer Price Index, which measures the changing prices of goods and services like housing, food, clothing, etc., etc. but this is a fun way to measure consumer spending and trends in the economy. So even if five golden rings don't make your gift list this year, you can still learn a lot by checking out why their prices have increased or decreased over the years. So to start with, a partridge in a pear tree has gone up 13.9%. It's now $319.18. Two turtle doves has gone up 25%. Increase $750. Three French hens. Up 3.5%, which will now cost you $330. Four calling birds stayed level $599.96. Five golden rings. Guess what? They didn't increase either. $1,245. Six geese A laying up 8.3% $780 seven Swans a swimming 13,125. Same price as last year. Eight maids a milking, same prices last year $58 nine ladies dancing, $8,308.12, which was the same. And guys look. Ten Lords a leaping up 4% this year, $14,539.20. That was your top ten. You guys come right back and we're going to get the 11th and the 12th day. When we come right back, you're listening to your American retirement.
Speaker3:
Are you interested in ways to protect and grow your hard earned money? Your American retirement is here to help.
She loved him so.
Speaker3:
Are you anxious about retirement? Concerned that you could outlive your money? Randy Samms is a little Rock native who has nearly four decades of experience helping hundreds of Arkansans retire with confidence. If you want to get the most out of what you've worked so hard for, or if you're interested in learning how to maximize your Social Security, call Randy today at (501) 249-2343. That's (501) 249-2343. Or visit your American retirement.com. Visit your American retirement.com to schedule a free consultation with Randy today. And now back to the show.
Speaker2:
Hey, welcome back to your American retirement on 101.1 FM. The answer where little Rock comes to talk. So folks, don't forget to check us out on your YouTube page or our YouTube page, your American retirement.com. So visit youtube.com and again, search for your American retirement. You'll see my smiling face. All right, folks, let's get right back into it. So we're going to look at inflation. How has it affected the song the 12 Days of Christmas. All right. We just went through the top ten the first ten days. Now let's look at 11 and 12. So 11th day is what 11 Pipers piping that is increased 6.2% or will cost you $3,207.38. So it's a tight labor market out there. So that means the 6.2% increase in the cost for these musicians. It's gone up. It cost you more for them to play for you. This year, 12 drummers drumming is up again 6.2%, which will cost you $3,468.02. So again, faced with the same labor conditions as the Pipers, the 12 drummers are setting the beat for a 6.2% increase in price for their services this Christmas in 2023. So folks, for a total you add up all 12 days of gifts. That would be a partridge in a pear tree. Two turtle doves, free French hens. Four calling birds, five golden rings, six geese a laying, seven swans a swimming, eight maids a milking, nine ladies dancing, ten lords a leaping, 11 pipers piping, 12 drummers drumming for a total Christmas price index of $33,604.86, which is when compared to the prices in 2022. That's an increase of 3.7% more for the same gifts in 2023 as it was last year. So again, this represents the total cost of all the gifts bestowed by your true love. When you count each repetition of the song totaling 364 presents, spreading cheer throughout the year in 2023 cost 2.5% more in 2022. Now listen to this. In 1984, when they began measuring the cost of 12 days of Christmas, the gifts the total cost in 1984 was $20,069.58, compared to this year $33,604.86. So folks, that's your inflation demonstration for this week's show. Hope you enjoyed that.
Speaker4:
And now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.
Speaker2:
How about some financial quote of the week? The financial wisdom quote of the week is given to us by Mr. Benjamin Disraeli. And the quote is the legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. That's wisdom right there. So the legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example, again, that's been given to us by Benjamin Disraeli from 19 or 18 oh 4 to 1881. Mr. Disraeli was a British statesman, statesman, conservative politician, writer who twice served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and he played a central role in the creation of the modern UK Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. So, Mr. Disraeli, thank you for today's wisdom. Quote of the week. All right. Now how about let's look at so folks, what we're wanting to do right now. This is the end of 2023. We want to kind of bring you up to date. We want to get you prepared, first of all, to kind of do a thorough examination of where you're at right now in 2023, ending the year. How was it for you financially? Did you make any money? Did you lose any money? Did you keep any money? How much guaranteed income do you have anyway? What we want to do, make sure that you've got yourself in a great position to end the year 2023.
Speaker2:
But. Also get yourself prepared to going into 2024, because what we're going to talk about today is how to leave a smart legacy for future generations. And we're going to talk about smart risk, smart safe, smart tax and smart income. What do you think the key word is today? Randy. It's called smart. Be smart. Again. We want you to be smart. We want you to go in to 2024 and be prepared. For what? For a safe retirement. Not a risky retirement. So let's look at smart risk. So do you know how to take smart risk in your portfolio. All right. Now folks I don't do a lot of risk I can't talk to you about investments. I can't talk to you about stock markets. I can talk to you in generalities, but I don't do any stock market investments. Okay? You know my philosophy. I believe you worked very hard over your 25, 30, 40 years that you've been employed and you've created a 401 K. Uh, IRA, whatever it might be that you have your retirement funds in, hopefully you have your retirement funds in. But now you're getting close to that point in time where? You're not going to receive a paycheck. So if you're not receiving a paycheck from your employer, where's the paycheck going to come from? And risk is something that we have to talk about right. So you got to ask yourself these questions. What does a successful retirement look like to you? Not to me.
Speaker2:
This is your plan, not mine. What are you doing and who are you with? Do you have anybody giving you advice? If you don't, you know who you can call? What are you looking to accomplish and do you have any specific goals? Are you going to travel? What do you want to do? You want to join the country club. You want to be able to take care of your grandkids. You see how I've jumped right over the kids and children went straight to grandkids, you know? Yeah, your grandparents will go get that. So how do you plan to create income each month and how much guaranteed lifetime income do you currently have? Those are just some of the questions that we're going to ask when we meet, and that you need to ask yourself right now. And one of those things we're going to address is risk. And one of the things that I talk about folks is this. How much of your portfolio should you have in risk or risky investments versus safe investments? And I always go to the rule of 100. And if you've listened to the show in the past, you know what it is. For those of you who have forgotten. The rule of 100 followers of this. Now, what it does was it gives you a number that you should not have certain percentage of your portfolio should be in equities or risky investments.
Speaker2:
And a certain percentage should be in safe money investments. All right. Call them boring if you want to, but they're safe. All right, so here's what we do. Rule of 100 works like this. Take your current age. So take 100. Subtract your current age and whatever that number happens to be, that's the number that you should have in equities or more risky or higher risk investments. All right. Call it stock market bonds whatever you want to call it okay. So if you're 65 years old right now 100 -65 is 35. So we would say a safe amount of your portfolio to have in a higher risk investment stock market, whatever. You might want to look at is 35% no more than 35%. Ready. What I'll do with the other 65%. The other 65% should be in safe investments. Okay. Safe money, investments, whatever that might be. Cds, savings accounts, annuities, something where you're not putting your money at risk. All right. Let me give you an example of how this worked. So I've been working with a gentleman. Matter of fact, I've been working with this guy for a long, long time. I mean, it's been a couple of years we've been in contact with. This gentleman is in Texas. And he had been trying to sell his business. And he had some buyers and they were kicking tires, but they never could get the negotiation price correct.
Speaker2:
Well, finally they did. And this gentleman was happy because he was ready to retire. And he wanted to, you know, make sure look at some options on what he needed to do and how he needed to invest the money that he had. And so what really was funny. Was that there was an investment advisor. He called him his broker. Uh, that actually helped me make the product available to the client, because during the conversations that we had, this client, you used that word that a word annuity. Now, guys, I'm just going to tell you. A lot of your investment advisors. Your portfolio advisors, your money managers, whatever you want to call them. They do not like that word annuity. And I'm going to tell you why. Because an annuity does not generate them a fee, as long as they have your money under their management. It's called AUM assets under management as long as they have your money. Under their management and they charge you a fee 1%, one and a half, 2%, whatever that fee might be. You are an annuity because an annuity is basically what. It's a product that will generate a guaranteed stream of income or revenue. And as long as they can charge you a fee on your money. You're generating them that guaranteed revenue. Okay, so that's why most advisors, investment advisors don't like annuities. I love them, you know I do.
Speaker2:
But the investment advisor, the broker basically told my client, well, at your age and get this, the gentleman's only 71, so I don't consider that to be old. But he said, at your age you don't want to lose. And that's what he told me. Now, he said that to try to make him think that with an annuity he was going to lose. All right. So I just took that and agreed with that broker 100% made him look like a superstar. And I told him why the broker was exactly correct, because what we did was we put him into a guaranteed interest, a fixed rate, a guaranteed annuity, a mega. This mega was paying. This will pay this gentleman 6% for the next ten years. So this gentleman is going to be able to. This was a million, $5 that we were working. 5,500,000. 1.5 million is what we worked with. We put these funds into a ten year mega that allowed him to take 6% interest, which guaranteed payment, okay, guaranteed payment of 90,000 for the next ten years. Plus at the end of ten years. Guess what, folks? He still had his $1,500,000 waiting for him to use as he wants to. So, folks, if you want me to put you in that position, call me (866) 990-7664. We'd love to have a conversation with you folks. We're going to be right back and we're going to talk about safe money.
Speaker3:
Missed part of today's show. Your American Retirement, is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at your American retirement.com.
Sometimes wonder why all the flowers. Had to die.
Speaker1:
How much risk are you willing to take with your investments? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by a mirror life. Who. If you're a thrill seeker, you probably enjoy the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a plane, bungee jumping off a high cliff, or kayaking down a raging river. But when it comes to your finances, do you still find a lot of risk exciting? Or does the danger of losing your hard earned money change your perspective? Think back for a moment to the 2008 financial crisis. Thanks to market risk and some shady Wall Street deals, the S&P 500 fell more than 46% between October 2007 and March 2009.
Speaker5:
If you go back and look at the risk that we took 25, 30 years ago, and it was kind of way out there, and a lot of these firms, including some of the things that happen at Morgan Stanley, we were so mesmerized by the great traitor and the money they made that they got more and more autonomy until it was too late. We had huge losses.
Speaker1:
That's former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack speaking with Yahoo News. So how do you protect yourself if we have another year like that or even another 2022, when the markets had their worst performance since 2008? Financial advisors will tell you that to maximize your investment growth, you need to take some risk with your money. Just be smart about it.
Speaker6:
You want to have an actively managed portfolio strategy. You just do. It involves shifting investments in your portfolio to take advantage of pricing anomalies and strong market sectors. You want to reduce the risk. You want to have smart risk as part of your portfolio. You want to increase returns and you want to truly diversify your portfolio.
Speaker1:
Active Wealth Management founder and president Ford Stokes says smart risk investing is based on the concept that all investments carry some amount of risk, and that the only way to reduce that risk is to diversify. This means investing in a variety of different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and other financial instruments. Everyone's situation is different, and that's why it's important to work with a fiduciary financial advisor to get the most out of your hard earned and hard saved money. So how much risk are you willing to take with your retirement? That's a key question to consider as you invest for the future. With the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amira Life. I'm Matt McClure.
Speaker3:
Welcome back to your American retirement. Here's Randy Sams.
Speaker2:
Hello, folks. Again, thanks for joining us on this week's edition of Your American Retirement. So be sure to check out the podcast version of the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, folks, we're talking about how to end this year and start 2020 for being smart. We talked about smart risk, how much you should have at risk, how much you should put into safe. All right. So now what we're going to talk about is we're going to talk about smart safe smart safe okay I call this safe money myself. All right. Because when when I meet with a client, you get a husband and wife. If it's an individual, you see, everybody seems to have a better idea or the next great idea, but somebody, when they meet with someone like I'm talking to them and they say they spoke to someone and they have a plan that they offer to everybody. Okay, now, folks, I'm just going to be honest with you. I don't go in with a preconceived notion or concept that this is what you're going to have, because until we meet and we go through your financial situation, what we have to work with, what you have to work with, what some of your objectives might be, what do you want to do during your go go years? Those are the years that you retire. And so every day is Saturday and every hour is happy hour.
Speaker2:
What do we want to do? How are we going to make that happen? So what we do is we're going to come in and listen to what you have to say, what your objectives are. And that's how we create our retirement plan for our clients. It's not a one size fits all or a cookie cutter plan. All right. So we want to take an honest look at your current situation and how it matches your timeline. Okay. We're going to have to gauge your assets, calculate your risk management and then plan for guaranteed foundation of income income, social security, pension, guaranteed annuities. Remember, one of the questions that I always ask is how much guaranteed income do you currently have or have available? If you're getting close to retirement, do you have a pension? Have you turned on Social Security? When are you going to turn on Social Security? Do you have money that we can in a 401 K or an IRA that we can roll over into an income annuity? Okay. So there's things that we want to talk about because folks people are living much longer. And mortality. Stats have changed due to complete surprise called Covid 19. So while individual life may not be affected as a group, life expectancy has actually decreased for since the first time a long, long time or ever.
Speaker2:
All right. Ad budget deficits, political nonsense, stock market volatility. And that's what makes planning for the individual more difficult. That's why you need to seek advice. You can call me (866) 990-7664 or go to the website. Your American retirement.com. Love to sit down and meet with you and see what we can put together, but many people folks have decided to reduce their risk exposure. Remember that rule of 100? You don't need to have 75% of your retirement funds in a risky investment. You don't 25, 75, 25 in more risk, a higher risk product, 75% in safe. All right. So. You have to be able to look at how can I transfer that risk? We want to take the responsibility and put that responsibility to a risk bearer. And you know what a risk bearer is? In my world, it's an insurance company. So what I look at, people ask, people refer to annuities as investments. Folks, I don't use that word. All right? I am not an investment advisor. I'm a retirement planning expert. All right? That's what we do. That's what I do. I look at it as an annuity is a risk transfer vehicle. Did you hear that an annuity is a risk transfer vehicle. You're transferring the risk of you running out of money, spending it too much, not spending enough, whatever it might be. You're transferring that risk from off of your shoulders over to the annuity company slash insurance company.
Speaker2:
So that's how I look at an annuity, because a lot of people, when they get into retirement, one of the first things they have to look at is my concern is running out of money too early, as I refer to it, as your retirement account hits zero before your blood pressure does. So we all understand that we don't want that to happen. All right. That's called longevity risk. The risk of outliving your retirement funds. The longer you live that risk is there. Unless we put you in the right product and we transfer that risk from you over to the insurance company. All right. So. What is safe money? Uh, safe money is free from exposure to risk. Uh, FDIC insured bank funds. Whatever you think about the FDIC, if you feel that makes the bank safe, that's your decision. Uh, US treasuries or insurance company annuities. That's why I utilize them. Okay. It's because during the lifetime, you've got face a slow economy, political volatility, mortgage meltdown, federal budget deficits, uh, mounting health care costs. So it seems to never stop. But most of the people that I deal with and folks that are listening to the show today, you want stability. That is what safe money is. It's called stability. Boring money that provides guarantees and stability. That's what I deal with.
Speaker2:
Okay. That's what I deal in. So when talking about safe money, it can mean so many things to so many people. But given this context, what is safe money for those planning for or already at the door of retirement? Safe money means risk management, freedom from loss or exposure from risk. So baby boomers that are listening. You need to listen to this, because the baby boomer generation has introduced a new concept and that is income has become king. The rule is simple and one most retirees are living by. It's not how much money you have, it's how much income you have each month, folks. I've said it many, many, many, many times over the course of the last couple of years that we've been doing this show is you do not retire on assets, you retire on income. All right? Assets can be lost. Guaranteed income cannot. So that's what I talk about. I've never met someone who's in retirement today or someone who's getting close to retirement, or someone who's thinking about retirement. Could be five years or eight years or ten years down the road. But they're thinking about it today. I've net. I've yet to meet one person that we've that we've talked to that is not concerned about having income because remember what I said you retire on income not assets okay. So the new retirement rule is safe money.
Speaker2:
So baby boomers are different from their predecessor, the Greatest Generation, in one simple way. Baby boomers spend more and save less. Did you hear that? Baby boomers spend more and save less. So having an income each month is more powerful to a baby boomer than how much savings account your passbook savings account is that you have money on deposit. Okay, financial security begins by considering. A few questions. Have you planned for Decumulation? You know what that is? While you're working and you're putting money into an IRA or a 401 K or A43B, whatever it might be, you're in the accumulation stage. Hopefully you have an employer that's also matching a certain percentage of what you put into your 401 K plan. All right. That's accumulation. But when you hit retirement folks and you're no longer making contributions to your 401 K or your IRA, your employer is no longer making contributions. So it's not accumulating. You're not adding to it. You're going to start what taking away from it. You're going to start the decumulation phase. That's where the risk of longevity comes in okay. Sequence of return risk comes in a lot of things we look at. So you have to look at what's your risk exposure and how does it compare to your time horizon. Where do you invest. Remember the rule of 100. That's a good rule to use.
Speaker2:
So what's your time horizon? When are you planning to retire? How far out? How many years do we have to work with and who has earned your trust? Hopefully you've been listening to this show and you understand that that's what we're all about. We want to earn your business, folks. You don't owe us a dime when we come and meet with you. Hopefully we'll put together a great retirement plan for you and your family, you and your spouse, and we'll be able to do business with you. Alright? We'll be clients for a long, long time. We'll be friends for a long, long time. And listen to this. Does moving to safety damage your accumulation goal? So, folks, this is what I've asked. You've now hit 59.5. Why is that? 59.5 a magic number? Because at 59.5, you now have the ability to take withdrawals or move your 401 K or your IRA without any penalties. Okay. Now, what I mean by move, if you start taking money out, then you're going to have to pay taxes on the amount you take out. But what I mean is move. We can transfer that 401 K money. You have all of it, a percentage of it. Whatever we work out, whatever we look at and we decide between the two of us or the three of us, whatever many people are involved, how much of that 401 K do we want to move? Okay.
Speaker2:
So you're going to ask yourself, well, Randy, how can I protect my money while at the same time grow or accumulate? So you're 59.5, you don't plan on retiring until, let's say you're age 70. So how can we do that, folks? We use a guaranteed income annuity. It's an indexed annuity with an income rider. All right. So let me give you an example. You got guaranteed roll ups. And you've got the guarantee that you're never going to lose a dime okay. Zero is your hero. But with the guaranteed roll up as an example, I have an annuity that will give us a guaranteed 8% for the next ten years. And then you can start taking an income guaranteed 8% growth, zero loss or a separate annuity gives us a guarantee of 7% compound interest. Both of these are compound interest for the first ten years. And then for the next five years, we're guaranteed to receive no less than 4%. So guaranteed 8% compound interest for ten or guaranteed 7%, compound interest for ten, plus another five years at no less than 4%. That, folks, is how you can protect your money and still grow it. So come right back because we're going to talk about annuities. The first step towards safe money. You're listening to your American retirement on 101.1 FM. The answer?
Speaker3:
Thanks for listening to your American retirement. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch videos from this program and other recent episodes.
It turns me upside.
Speaker1:
Do you have a vision for what you want your retirement to look like? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Amira Life. Planning for retirement can be overwhelming. A survey from Gobankingrates shows that one third of Americans don't think they know enough about retirement, and they're probably right. So if you fall into that category, how do you know where to begin? Well, you've got to know where you want to go before you start planning how to get there. That's where having a smart vision for your retirement comes in. Whether you want to be a jet setter during your retirement years. Want to take it easy in a quiet cabin in the woods, or start a new adventure by opening your own business, you should set that goal and keep it in mind throughout your working years, retirement expert Dean Waguespack said during a recent Ted talk. I want to.
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Challenge all of us to redefine retirement away from depart, remove withdrawal to a new definition a blending of pay, passion and purpose until.
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Retirement looks different for everyone. Sit down with your spouse and talk about your retirement goals. That will make it easier to determine how fiscally responsible you need to be now, and how much income you'll need to make it happen after you retire. That's right, I said income. More and more retirees are finding that cash flow is more important than one big nest egg number.
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That's when you want to say, hey, listen, I want to start thinking about all of this accumulation that I've done through these decades of working. How do I begin to think about turning what I've saved and what I've accumulated into paychecks after I retire?
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That's Lee Baker, president of Apex Financial Services. Speaking to CNBC. He says annuities are a great option for most retirees to generate an income you can never outlive. That's especially important since life expectancy has grown over the years, so you'll need to plan for a longer period of time than you may think. So do you have a smart vision for your retirement years? That's a key question to consider as you start planning how to get there. With the Retirement Radio Network, powered by Amera life. I'm Matt McClure.
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All right, folks, good morning. You're listening to your American retirement. Please join us every Saturday at 10 a.m. right here on 101.1 FM. The answer where little Rock comes to talk. So folks, we're talking about basically smart retirement, right? We talked about smart risk. Now we're talking about smart safe or what I call safe money okay. Boring money. Eliminate the risk. All right. Stability. So why we use annuities. Annuities. What I consider is the first step towards safe money. And I feel like annuities are an important part of any retirement plan. As they are safe, they're secure and they're risk free. Now let me elaborate on that. Risk free because they're going to be some people are going to say, well, Randy, I lost money, folks. I don't deal in annuities that put you at risk. Again, like I told you earlier. I don't do any investments in the stock market. So that means that Randy Sam's smug financial your American retirement. I do not utilize a variable annuity. Variable annuities still has your money at risk, folks, because it's tied to the stock market. If the market goes up, that's fantastic. But if the market goes down, that's not so good, is it? Okay. So what we want to look at is risk free, just like the gentleman I told you earlier as an example, he had 1,500,000 folks. It doesn't take that much to work with me. This is just a gentleman I've been working with for over two years. Things finally fell into place for him.
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But listen to this. $1,500,000 put into a ten year mega, a guaranteed annuity with a guaranteed interest rate for the next ten years of 6%. This annuity allowed him to take that interest as an income payment. So you do the math. 6%, on an annual basis of $1,500,000, guarantees this gentleman $90,000 for the next ten years. Guaranteed. No if, ands, or buts. That's great, Randy, but how much is it going to have left after ten years, a million, 500,000? Because he still has his original investment in the guaranteed interest rate annuity, the mega he's he's removing the interest on an on an annual basis. And at the end of ten years, his original million five is still sitting in there. And you're going to say, somebody's going to say, well, look, he had this million five in a ten year annuity and he just has 1,000,005 left. Exactly. But guess what, folks? He drew 90,000 a year for the ten year period that that money was in there. That's $900,000. You do the math he got, he's going to get paid $900,000 over the next ten years. And at the end of ten years, he still has his original investment. Folks, that's risk free as far as I'm concerned. If you think it's risky, call me. Go to the website at tell Me Why. I don't see it as being risky because his money starts out with he has the same amount. All right, so it's safe. An annuity allows you to accumulate funds for retirement if you're young enough.
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The example I just gave, he already had his funds and he wanted to start taking income. But if you're 59.5 or 60 years old and you want to take some of your 401 K money and put it into an income annuity and let that grow at a guaranteed compound interest of 8% over the next five, seven, eight, nine, ten years. Guys, that's guaranteed growth. No stock market volatility, nothing that you have to worry about. That's guaranteed growth. With the peace of mind knowing that you're not going to lose a dime okay. Accumulation with removing the risk. So you can receive an income from the annuity that the insurer can guarantee to last either a fixed number of years if you want it paid out that way, or it will last as long as you live. Or we can set it up to where not only will it last as long as you live, but if you're married, we can set it up to where you have a joint income, where it pays you, and when you pass away, it will pay your spouse the exact same amount. Okay. So quickly annuity benefits are going to include tax deferred earnings if you're wanting it to accumulate no contribution limits. We have the flexibility in the decumulation phase. How you want your money paid out. No required minimum deposits okay. Not distributions but deposits and proceeds may not be subject to probate if there is a named beneficiary. I feel like annuities represent a formidable option for someone looking to enhance your retirement planning strategy.
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Not only do they add to the mix of tax deferred growth you may be getting from your IRAs your 401, but they also offer significant investment and distribution options. All right, there are many types of annuities that can be offered. But you can give us a call. First step is to call us (866) 990-7664. We can give you an annuity quote. You can go to the website. Leave us your information, your American retirement. We'd love to send you a quote and be able to gauge how an annuity would best fit into your specific financial plan. Because, folks, this is the way I look at it. Annuities equal safety. So that's your smart, safe portion. How about smart tax folks. We got to be able to look at avoiding retirement tax bomb. So do you know that different investment accounts are taxed differently. Most of you should by understanding how different accounts are taxed you can ensure your money is working, how you need it and when you need it. Okay, so we want to. Divest the IRS from your retirement accounts with two strategies Roth IRAs slash Roth conversions. Okay, a Roth is a type of individual retirement account that's an IRA that allows you to contribute after tax dollars to an account that grows tax free. This means that you pay taxes on the money you contribute to the account up front, but you don't have to pay taxes on the money when you withdraw it during retirement.
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Future tax increases should not affect this portion of your portfolio. So benefits of a Roth IRA or setting up a Roth conversion tax free withdrawals. So if you're eligible, we can do a Roth conversion so we can convert your traditional IRA or annuity into a Roth. That would be beneficial if you expect your tax rate to be higher in retirement. Okay. You think tax rates are going to decrease. You know, as you get older you're not working. Your income may be lower. You might fall into a lower tax bracket. But do you think tax rates are going to go down, stay level or go up as we get older? Okay. With a Roth there are no required minimum distributions. So unlike a 401 K or traditional IRA, there's no requirement to start taking your distributions at age 73. Okay. Potential for compound growth. The money in the Roth can grow tax free, which means that the account has the potential to grow faster than a traditional IRA or a taxable investment account. Liquidity. You can withdraw your contributions to the Roth at any time, although you will owe taxes and penalties on the earnings if you withdraw. Remember that magic age 59.5. So if you withdraw that before the age 59.5, there could be some penalties. But after that you're good. Okay. Estate planning, Roth's IRA assets, or any type of Roth like a Roth conversion can be passed on to beneficiaries without the need to pay taxes on inherited assets.
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Okay, so folks, we utilize. Roth conversions quite often hear quickly a Roth conversion, as we can put your 401 K money into a an annuity that allows us to take 10% out on an annual basis. So we take 10% the first year rolling into a Roth conversion. We pay taxes on that, just that amount. And then we do that over the next nine years. And all that money that's been rolled over into that Roth conversion, it's tax free. You've already paid the taxes on it, and you can let it grow, and you can let it grow and you can let it grow. So you can utilize that product or that concept and pass that on to your heirs, to your children, grandchildren, whoever you want to, to your beneficiaries. And it's totally it's it's held or taxed differently or not taxed to them like it would be if it was a 401 K. Okay. So we also use permanent life insurance. We use whole life insurance, we use universal life insurance. And we use indexed in and indexed in insurance. That's easy for me to say. Right? So folks, listen, I want to thank you for listening to your American Retirement Today show. Remember, if you've missed any part of today's show, go back to the podcast archives on Apple, Google, Spotify, or whichever platform you get your podcast folks go out and have a great rest of your Saturday. Have a great week. Go hogs! God bless you. We'll talk to you next weekend.
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Thanks for listening to your American retirement. You deserve to work with experienced, licensed financial insurance professionals who can offer sound strategies for protecting and growing your hard earned money. To schedule your free, no obligation consultation, visit your American retirement.com today. That's your American retirement.com, not affiliated with the United States government. Randy Sams does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. A mirror life assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or the results obtained from the use of this information. Do you want a steady stream of income for retirement? Then it's time to consider annuities. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amara Life. Gone are the days when most employers offered pensions with guaranteed lifetime payouts to their workers. But what if I told you that you can build your own personal pension? It's possible with an annuity. An annuity is a financial product that provides a series of regular payments to an individual over a specified period of time, often for the rest of their life.
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There are several options for you to consider when choosing an annuity. Be confident in knowing that there is an annuity out there that can meet all of your needs.
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Fort Stokes is founder and president of Active Wealth Management and author of the book annuity 360. There are several different types of annuities, including fixed, variable, and fixed indexed.
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A fixed annuity offers a specific guaranteed interest rate on their contributions to the account. A fixed indexed annuity is an accumulation based product offered by an insurance company. The growth of your fixed indexed annuity is dependent on the performance of a chosen stock market index, but your money is not actually invested in this index. This offers you great growth potential and exceptional protection for your investment.
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While each can provide tax deferred growth and a lifetime income stream, variable annuities put your principal at risk in the market.
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If you are currently investing in a variable annuity, your funds could be in serious trouble if the market experienced any downturns.
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With so many possible choices to consider, it's essential you speak to a financial advisor or professional to help you make the best decision for your future. So are you ready to consider an annuity as part of your retirement plan? It's a key question to consider as you approach what should be your golden years with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amira Life? I'm Matt McClure. Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.
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