Tag: retirement

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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Adjusting Your Retirement Mindset

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retirement mindset
How to Manage Common Challenges in this Phase of Life

At Peak Financial Freedom Group, we work with people every day who are preparing for retirement. We talk about when they’d like to retire, any goals they have, and what they envision their retirement lifestyle looking like. We review things like assets and liabilities, and we discuss cash flow. We use conservative risk-reduction strategies to help them protect their investments and provide the opportunity for growth. In short, we help our clients start working toward achieving the financial freedom they desire so they can enjoy a retirement free of money fears.

Alongside all this financial preparation, though, we have found that it’s also important to prepare your mindset for retirement. It represents a significant life change – and a massive psychological shift, too. That’s why you shouldn’t go into this phase of life unprepared from any standpoint. So, let’s discuss a few common mindset issues, and what near-retirees and recent retirees can do to overcome them.

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Adjusting to Retirement: 8 Helpful Tips

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adjusting to retirement
Many Retirees Find This New Phase of Life More Challenging Than They Bargained For

Many new retirees are shocked to find that, though they have dreamed for decades about how they would enjoy their golden years, adjusting to retirement is actually quite difficult at first. On the surface, it would seem like leaving the stress and busyness of work behind and embracing a daily schedule of leisure would be ideal, but many retirees find it hard to navigate this “new normal.” That’s because retirement can often mean a loss of identity, and most people don’t prepare for this psychological challenge. Whether you identified as a lawyer, banker, chef, teacher, or small business owner, it’s easy to begin to question who you are now that you’ve retired.

Other issues can trip up new retirees, as well. While you may have more time for hobbies and the people you love, you may also have less money and feel less purpose in life. This can lead to anxiety and depression and, in fact, a study in the Journal of Population Aging recently found that retirees are twice as likely as working people to suffer from these mental health issues.

So, what is a new retiree to do? Below we’ll discuss eight helpful tips for adjusting to retirement that will help you navigate the challenges you may not have been expecting.

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How to Keep Your Relationship Healthy in Retirement

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retirement
Six Tips for Keeping the Spark Alive During this Chapter of Life

When you and your partner have spent your whole lives working, it’s natural for retirement to change the dynamic of your relationship. Just as with the financial aspects of your retirement, it’s important to plan ahead to keep your relationship healthy in this phase of life, too. You might have a fantastic financial advisor and all the money in the world, but if you haven’t taken into consideration how retirement will impact your relationship – and vice versa – then you’re missing a crucial part of retirement planning.

Below we’ll share six retirement and relationship tips to help you fully enjoy this phase of life with your spouse or partner and thrive together in your dream retirement.

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Your 401K Plan: Take Control at Any Age 59 ½ – Or Earlier

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Are you comfortable with the risk, volatility, and potential losses in your 401K plan? We have found most people have a large portion of their retirement savings are dependent on their 401k plans, yet they don’t understand or even like their 401K. They feel stuck.

If you’re working and 59 ½ or older, the IRS allows you to enact an “In-Service Transfer” of your current 401K plan to your IRA of choice, and you won’t pay any income taxes on the transfer. An “In-Service Transfer” can be very beneficial for a 401k plan, if you are trying to reduce risk, fees, or establish a plan now that will provide you guaranteed lifetime income when you retire.

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How To Turn Your Portfolio Into Dependable Monthly Lifetime Paychecks

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The number 1 fear almost every retiree has is running out of money during retirement, however, there is a way that you can set yourself up for dependable income in retirement. If yours is not guaranteed to be paid to you for as long as you live, you’ll continue to worry day-after-day, year-after-year.

You can eliminate your fear of running out of money by creating income in retirement that’s guaranteed to be paid to you for as long as you live, regardless of stock market volatility, losses, or longevity.

Stocks can’t provide you a high level of income guaranteed for as long as you live, neither can mutual funds, bonds, bank accounts, or CDs.

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5 Financial Attitude Adjustments To Make For Retirement Success

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For decades you’ve been a dedicated saver for retirement, seen crashes and rallies, gotten a lot of advice, and have tried to do all the right things with your money, but you still worry. The biggest problem isn’t your lack of understanding; it’s that you don’t have an actual written plan.

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9 Questions You Must Be Able to Answer For a Secure Retirement

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Here are 9 basic questions you must be able to answer for a safe and secure retirement, so you can stop worrying about your money:

#1 – How much money can you safely take out of your assets for income?

#2– How long will your money last?

#3– Does your portfolio guarantee you won’t run out of income for as long as you live?

#4– How can you protect your assets against volatility and large losses?

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