Should I Hide My Money Under the Mattress or Trust an Insurance Company?

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A life insurance company offering a fixed index annuity with an income rider offers additional security.

Why No Other institution can match the Safety of the life insurance industry

The following is an excerpt from the book, Momma’s Secret Recipe for Retirement Success, by Dan Ahmad, Jim Files, and Jack Canfield, with contributions from other leading professionals from around the world. This excerpt was written by Laura Barron, president and co-founder of Barron Financial Group, LLC.

Hypothetical Case Study: Twenty years ago, Sarah and Mark were 55 years old as they reviewed their plans for retirement. They both had done an excellent job accumulating assets of well over a million dollars. Mark felt confident they could trust the expert advice of their broker at a large firm to continue making money for them in mostly stock market investments during retirement. Sarah and Mark were very confident the income from their stock market investments, Social Security, and a small pension would allow them to self-insure for long-term care, stay fully invested in the market, and live a very comfortable retirement in a nice neighborhood. They were totally confident they would never run out of money.

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Understanding the Biden Tax Plan

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Biden Tax Plan

The Democrats’ Tax Plan Would Raise Capital Gains and Corporate Tax Rates

Monday saw the release of the Democrats’ full tax proposal, which details their plan to pay for expanding access to paid family leave, education, and healthcare, as well as efforts to combat climate change. The proposal is expected to provide more than $2 trillion in new revenue over the next ten years, mostly from high-income households and companies, and the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to vote on it this week.

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Use the Correct Process for Financial Success

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financial process

Are You Among the 99% Following a Faulty Retirement Plan?

The following is an excerpt from Momma’s Secret Recipe for Retirement Success, by Dan Ahmad, Jim Files, and Jack Canfield. Get your copy here!

Many retirees do not have their assets allocated properly to give themselves the highest probability that they can receive a high level of consistent income, will never run out of money for as long as they live, and will never suffer a big stock market loss like 2008 again.

In a previous blog, we described in detail the differences between Stage One of Retirement Planning – Asset Accumulation, and Stage Two of Retirement Planning – Income Distribution and Asset Preservation.

When you meet with your financial advisor, even after you’ve retired, the conversation will often be focused on your portfolio. Your advisor may talk about:

  • The growth of your portfolio (even though it actually hasn’t probably grown much).
  • How the market is doing “so well” and you need to ride the wave.
  • How you are diversified by having your 20-30 mutual funds.
  • Adding bonds to the portfolio, if you are worried about risk.
  • How you are in it for the long-term and no matter what, you should “ride out all market volatility.”
  • How they have the best money managers.
  • How they will get you high rates of return.
  • Maybe they will throw in some technical terms like alpha, beta, Sharpe ratio, and standard deviation.
  • How it’s best to defer IRA distributions as long as possible, until age 70 1⁄2, to minimize income taxes.

The advisor might say you are now invested moderately, or conservatively, but they probably don’t define what this means in potential losses. So, your advisor says “moderate” or “conservative,” and you are thinking “low risk,” even though your current portfolio could lose -30%, -40%, or even -50% or more. In many situations, the risk is caused by the portfolio’s primary focus on growth.

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Total Fees – You Are Probably Paying Lot More Than 1% Per Year

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Do you really know the total fees you’re paying to have your assets managed? 1 percent is the typical advisor fee. An additional 1 percent is the typical money manager fee to manage your assets.

According to the New York Times, 1.23 percent is an average mutual fund expense…. you can find it listed in your prospectus. Add to this a 1.44 percent average mutual fund trading cost, which is, according to Forbes, a hidden cost at the mutual fund level, incurred when each mutual fund manager buys and sells stocks and/or bonds in the portfolio.

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Why Money Brings Up Such Powerful Emotions

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money and emotions
Tips to Tame the Fear and Anxiety You May Feel About Your Finances

The following content has been adapted from Chapter 24 of Momma’s Secret Recipe for Retirement Success, by Dan Ahmad & Jim Files.

For many people, money is scary. It produces anxiety and many other powerful emotions, too. Oftentimes, the root of fear or anxiety is that you don’t truly understand your finances. You may even blame yourself for your “lack of financial intelligence.” However, we believe that for the overwhelming majority of retirees, the confusion and lack of understanding have nothing to do with personal shortcomings. If you feel confused and don’t understand your money, it’s because you don’t have an actual plan in writing.

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Have You Had A Risk Stress Test Performed On Your Portfolio?

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You can’t suffer a big loss to your savings now you’re retired or nearing retirement, you might not make it up, and you could run out of money. Most retirees we meet with are taking far more risk than they thought and could lose twenty to fifty percent of their savings. Even if you have a diversified portfolio, you could lose a lot, so you should have a risk stress test on your portfolio. You need to know how much risk you’re taking right now before you suffer a big loss because then it would be too late.

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The Most Important Thing About Retirement Success

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The single most important way to achieve retirement success is to have an actual written plan. You can’t buy a home, get a mortgage, buy a car, open a bank account, get health insurance, or even get married without having all the details in writing. So why would you let your advisor invest 1 million dollars or more of your money without everything in writing?

It’s because your advisor said don’t worry, everything will be OK. Why would you take someone’s word for this? You can’t know for certain everything will be OK unless you have an actual comprehensive written plan. Your statements don’t count.

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7 Rules for Business Owners to Have a Successful Retirement

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Business owners work day and night for a long time to build their business and make it successful. The business generated you a considerable amount of income every year, but, at some point, you know you’ll make an “Exit.” So the big question is how to turn the sales proceeds from your business and savings into dependable retirement monthly paychecks that will last for as long as you live so you don’t have to worry about running out of money? All you have to do is follow 7 Simple Rules.

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Have You Ever Had Your Entire Portfolio Analyzed?

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No matter how much you’ve saved for retirement, whether on your own or with an advisor, you can never be completely confident of your finances without having your entire portfolio analyzed. You may have stocks, mutual funds, maybe some bonds, and perhaps you’ve even been told you’re diversified and don’t have too many risks. 

But, do you know for certain, 100 percent, that your portfolio will be okay if the stock market crashes? Unless you’ve had your entire portfolio analyzed, the answer is most likely no. The best way for you to be confident of your portfolio is to place it under a microscope and have a total portfolio audit. A total portfolio audit will:

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