Erick explains why you should have your personal finances reviewed annually to ensure you are on the right path. Consider replacing your bonds with annuities to delete portfolio fees and guarantee yourself an income for life.

Call Erick today at 352-616-0511

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TPOR Full Show 8.3.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

TPOR Full Show 8.3.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Erick Arnett:
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.

Erick Arnett:
Welcome to take point on retirement with your host, Eric Arnett. Eric is a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor who always places your needs first. The experienced team at Tech Point Wealth Management takes pride in knowing they’ve helped so many pursue the financial future of their dreams. And they can help you, too. And now let’s start the show. Here’s Eric Arnett.

Erick Arnett:
Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Take Point on retirement radio. Thank you so much for listening. We really do appreciate all of our listeners out there. And welcome to the show. And today’s show we got, of course, Mr. Sam Davis with us, our DJ extraordinaire and mediator. And then we also have Mr. Randy Woodruff with us, Suncoast, CPA, for somewhat 20 years now. 30 years, I don’t know, almost, almost 30 some odd years. So we’ve got all the answers here for the for you today, folks. So just wanted to say thank you to all of our listeners out there in the Nature Coast, Tampa Bay, and even in the pointer Gorda, Bradenton, Sarasota area. We’re so thankful for all your listeners. The response has been overwhelming and it’s great to get your feedback. And the reason we’re here is for you, the listener, and we really enjoy answering your questions and helping you out so you can build and grow a successful stress free retirement. We have all the answers for you right here on Take Point on retirement radio. If you want to reach out to us, feel free to give us a phone call. 3526160511. That’s probably the easiest way to get a hold of us. We’re standing by waiting for your phone call. We’d love to chat with you and see what your concerns are. And then, of course, our website is take point wealth dot com. So if you’re on a laptop or an iPad or you’re just got that Google phone in your hand, you can Google us take point.

Erick Arnett:
Well, we’ll come right up. You can click on the website in that upper right hand corner, you’ll see a little box you can click and you can set up your free consultation today, and we’re available to answer any of your questions when it comes to retirement and wealth management, financial planning, insurance, estate planning, taxation, whatever it is you may have, we want to be a one stop shop for you. And so thank you so much for listening. And of course, we also have a great podcast station. If you missed the show or you want to catch up on some past episodes, you can go right to any podcast app on your phone and subscribe to our show. You can also go to our podcast website, take point on retirement, and we have every show there you can catch up on shows or if you maybe only catch a few minutes today and you want to catch up on the rest, I think we have a really good show today for you. You can feel free to go there and catch up on the show. And we’re available here 24 seven and we’re ready to give you an x ray on your retirement and hopefully optimize what you’re doing currently or even develop a plan for you that you may not have in place at all. So we’re standing by to do that for you. So today is a great show. We’re going to, of course, talk about a market update like we always do.

Erick Arnett:
We get some financial wisdom. Also, what is it like to work with Take Point Wealth Management? So we’ll get into some of that today. We’ll talk about what we feel you need as a comprehensive retirement plan. We’re also going to offer you a full retirement plan consultation, and we’ll talk about that a little bit. And it’s 100% free. You get the knowledge of our team. It’s over a $5,500 value. We put a lot of hours and time into helping you and we’re passionate about that. So please reach out. Give us a call right now. 3526160511. We also have a fun little segment called The Problem Solver and right or wrong. So you can play along with play along with us today and we’re going to do a financial checkup. Tell you what that’s all about. And also, what’s the what’s retiree’s biggest fear? We’re going to talk about that today. And then also on our show towards the end, we like to give people real options, real ideas. We’re really going to break down the conventional portfolio. And if you’re out there listening, currently, 95% of America has that conventional wisdom portfolio comprised of stocks and fixed income or bonds. So you probably have a mutual fund portfolio that’s a blend of both. And we’re going to talk to you a little bit more today about why we think there’s might be a better alternative to that. So with that all being said, Randy, welcome to the show today.

Randy Woodruff:
Yes, sir. Good morning to our listening audience as well. And Eric went over a great outline for today, looking forward to getting into it and sharing some topics and having discussions with other listening audience today.

Erick Arnett:
You know, let’s talk a little bit about the. And of course, you know, nothing’s really changed. We’re still in a difficult year. It’s a period of volatility. You have a very aggressive Federal Reserve that’s been silent for a long time. And they’re they’re purposely trying to put the brakes on this economy. They’re purposely trying to slow you down, the consumer. Everybody’s out there spending a ton of money in the last year or so and the last couple of years. And so, you know, the economy has been white, hot. It’s been. And then that that causes inflation with kind of the things that created the pandemic and the supply chain issues. And if you’ve been listening to the show, we’ve gone through that over and over again. And I know sometimes we sound like a broken record, but the positives are that earnings so far this quarter have been have been really strong. And so that’s kind of pushed the market higher here in the short term, quite frankly. I think we probably on past show back in June called the bottom of this market. I don’t know if it’s exactly the bottom, but we’ve we’ve definitely come off the bottom considerably. I think it was back in June that we hit the lows and so we’ve had somewhat of a recovery. However, that does not mean that we don’t have plenty of headwinds ahead of us.

Erick Arnett:
We still have rapid inflation that we’re fighting. We still have the Fed aggressively raising rates. They’ll probably raise rates several more times here prior to year end. And so, you know, we’re still looking at potentially a recession. That word’s been thrown around a lot. What’s a recession? What’s not a recession? And so we’re happy to explain that to you if you want to call in. But more more than likely, some of the concerns with inflation, the raising of interest rates, and really the Fed jumping in here to put the brakes on the economy. And quite frankly, they want to slow down the wealth, the wealth factor and take some of the wealth back of America. So they’re aggressively doing that as we speak and we’ll continue. So, however, earnings have been strong. Gas prices have come down a bit, which that’s that’s good news. But more importantly, we want to give you solutions for your retirement and build a solid, optimized retirement plan for you. So we’ve got to talk about income, right? So the number one thing that folks are concerned about is income and running out of money. So it’s more important than just talk about total returns. We need to talk about income. If you have an income gap, we can walk you through that and show you how we go about alleviating that issue. And and and so here you can reach out to take point wealth dot com and we’re happy to set that appointment up for you and talk about all that good stuff.

Erick Arnett:
And so but we’re seeing in Florida some nice retreat and gas prices, man, we’re down below $4 a gallon in Pasco, Hernando, Sumter, Citrus Counties. So that’s a nice, nice reprieve. A nice break. I know. Back in, I think it was maybe June, I pulled into the gas pump with my diesel truck and I had to pay $6 a gallon and it was about 200 to fill up my truck. And I thought to myself, is this really happening? And so, yes, we have enjoyed a decrease in the gas prices. However, systematically, I think there’s still a lot of issues out there and problems facing us going forward. This is probably just summer demand slowing down a bit, but we still have supply and demand issues, production issues. And and so I saw something earlier today where we are actually in the US just producing a lot less oil than we did two or three years ago. So production is way down and so we’ve got to change that. We’ve got to get a handle on that. And hopefully the new recruits that come in to Washington this year will maybe put that in into their focus and and really put some.

Erick Arnett:
Real.

Erick Arnett:
Some real, what do you call it, issues or real programs in place to curb inflation and gas prices and oil production.

Randy Woodruff:
So I know my comments are going to seem like a fairy tale, especially with the hyper charged political environment in Washington, D.C. But we really need a partisan I’m sorry, a non partisan energy policy to where just because one person is in the White House, they can have such a dramatic impact on our overall energy policy. We need to get to where we’ve got a non partisan energy policy so businesses, consumers alike. And because energy is the cost of energy is baked into everything that we have, whether it be, of course, gas prices are the most obvious sign. But if you go out to dinner, you know, everything costs more to get to the restaurant. If you go to the mall and buy and buy clothes, back to school is coming up. You’re going to be. Paying more for back-to-school clothes, more likely because it costs more to get those clothes to the store. If you’re if you’re a consumer of services, the that the with inflation going up, people have to pay their employees more. The service industry pays more for with that they need to produce those services. Everything is going up. Energy is baked in everything that we buy. So if we could get to a good, consistent, stable energy policy, that doesn’t change for administration and administration. I actually this is just a thought or a wonder if we had a good, stable energy policy. We were energy independent here in America. How bad would inflation really be? I think it would be. I’m not saying we still wouldn’t have inflation, but would it be as bad as it is right now where there’s much extra cost that’s baked into all the cost of goods and services because of a I want to get political, but what might not be the best energy policy, in my opinion, that we’re under right now?

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, I’m all for keeping a clean environment. That’s all great. But, you know, we can’t just flip a switch and get there overnight. Right. And so it was crazy. I know. I had one of my, my, my RV, I’d have some repairs done on it. And the, the part that they needed was like $400, but it was going to cost over 600 to ship it. So that’s just yeah, that’s exactly why things are so expensive, why you go to your local restaurants and everything’s double, you know, it just all trickles in. And what’s crazy, though, is people are still paying it, you know, and we are starting to see a bit of a slowdown in the consumer. But it’s still the consumer is pretty strong. We’re watching the job market very closely. The Fed with them being so aggressive, it is going to reduce jobs and we’re starting to see that trickle in with the jobs report. And quite frankly, and we’re still at a really good employment rate. And so my concerns for a deep recession aren’t there yet because the job market is still pretty strong. However, we are seeing some weakening there, so we’ll have to keep an eye on that for sure. But enough about the markets, you know, enough about all of the supply chain and this and that and inflation. You know, the only thing that I can say for our listeners that’s important to know about inflation is is this you have to keep up with at the bare minimum at least, or beat inflation throughout your retirement.

Erick Arnett:
So if you’re 50, 60, even if you’re 70 years old, you know, we build out these retirement plans over 30 years for our clients. And so and then we test that plan. We throw a thousand scenarios at it. It’s called a monte Carlo simulation. Good markets, bad markets, high inflation, low inflation, stagflation, combinations of their their of interest rates, low rates, higher rates. And we test this plan. And so we can get some confidence and clarity and we get a level of confidence behind the plan and the programs that are put in place. So you need a tactically managed portfolio, I I’m sorry to say, and I know there’s a lot of people out there that are disenchanted with the markets and and investing for retirement as a whole. And I understand why you’ve been let down, but you just can’t continue to go about looking at this in a conventional way, the way your brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and grandpas did it. It’s a new world. There’s new strategies out there, and we have the solutions here, take point and we want to help you implement those to optimize your retirement and to get you the income that you need to beat inflation, you have to beat inflation.

Erick Arnett:
So a lot of folks are sitting out there probably because of the market conditions and they’re sitting in cash. You know, they might have half a million dollars just sitting in cash, you know, and who knows for how long and who knows until it gets reinvested. And so if we have inflation bumping along at six, seven, eight, 9%, then guess what? Your purchasing power of those dollars has dwindled drastically. And so, you know, regardless of how you feel about the markets, insurance, annuities, bonds, whatever it is, you’ve got to build a portfolio. You’ve got to build a retirement plan that can weather all storms and at the bare minimum is going to beat inflation. And so because we just this can catch up to you folks, it can sneak up on you five years from now, ten years from now, that half a million dollars isn’t worth nearly what it is today. And with the rising cost of health care, the rising cost of food, home utilities, I mean, my I. I noticed my utility bill went up to like $300 in the last couple of months. And I’m thinking to myself, something’s going on here. They must increased. I don’t feel like I’m using. Yeah, it’s been a hot summer, but I don’t think I’m using that much more power.

Erick Arnett:
They must have increased the power charges. So it’s coming at you folks from all angles. And so we’ve got to get a handle on it and we’ve got to build a fortress. We’ve got to build a solid retirement plan for you. And we can build a plan that’s stress free. We can manage it for you tactically so you can enjoy retirement. Turn off the TV, turn off all the news, get to the beach, go fishing, you know, go on your trips, go see, go see your grandchildren, whatever it is, let us do the heavy lifting and let us do that tactical management for you. And we have some, I think, some really great solutions here because we’re not just doing what everybody else is doing, folks. We’re just not going to throw in front of you this conventional old portfolio of mutual funds and say, don’t worry. History has told us, just buy and hold and you’ll be okay. You know, that’s not how we operate here. So, you know, you’ve got to be active, actively managing a portfolio. I’ve been doing this for close to 25 years, folks. 25 years. I’ve got a lot of gray hairs. So someday when you meet me, you might see some of those. And Randy got a few.

Randy Woodruff:
I got bored.

Erick Arnett:
And it’s because we’ve we’ve seen in our 25 Randy’s 30 some odd years a lot of mistakes and we can head those off at the pass for you if you’re out there listening.

Randy Woodruff:
I want to share a quick story that I was sitting with a client. This goes back by 15, 20 years ago and now we’re talking this gentleman is significantly older than I am since passed away and he’s been an investor. I’ve been invested in the market for decades. And and we were talking about just how things have changed with investing, how, you know, you didn’t have this computer investing, you didn’t have all these quantitative formulas that that you have all this hyper trading, that going going on and it’s moving the market. And he would reminiscing about you would you you you research the company, your broker research the company, you invest it in a company and you and you stayed in the company for and you invest in it because you believed and you stayed in it for a long period of time unless things changed. And to your point at point I made earlier with our energy policy, there are so many things changing so rapidly, whether you like it or not, things are changing rapidly. You need to have a financial advisor that’s not just sitting back and letting your portfolio just ride the waves or whatever’s going on in the market.

Randy Woodruff:
You need to have somebody, as Eric said, tactically managing your portfolio to make sure that we’re not here, trying to time the market and trying to get at the exact high and buy back into the exact low. We’re just trying to get ahead of the markets and maybe the real good job of this at the end of last year, getting into more defensive positions and and paid off really well. But Eric’s point if and when my client reminiscing and kind of lamenting about why things weren’t the way they used to be, but you can’t just you know, they change and you have to accept that. You have to get used to a new way of investing and managing your money. And that’s having it tactically manage it, tactically managed, actively manage to make sure that you’re not just writing an asset down to where the values drop considerably. It can’t come back up. So our process here at take point will help you prevent those mistakes.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, good stuff, Ryan. Thanks for that. And it looks like I think we got a couple of minutes left in this first segment and got this kind of cool quote of the week. And I think it kind of dovetails into some of the things we’re talking about right now. Is interest working for you or is interest working against you? So Albert Einstein compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it, he who doesn’t pays it. So, you know, and if you and that brings something to mind, too, if you’ve got money, just sit in the bank. Guess what? They’re taking your money and they’re lending it out to other folks making six, eight, ten, maybe some, sometimes as high as 20%. And your money and what are they giving you in return for that? So we’ve got to activate that money. We’ve got to get it working. We have some really solid strategies in place for you here at Take Point Wealth, and we’d love to share those with you. So please reach out. Give us a call. 3526160511. You can also just go to take point wealth on your phone there, upper right hand corner. Go ahead and click that button and just schedule a time that’s convenient for you for about 15 minutes to chat with us. We’ll give you a free consultation for listening to the show today. Sam, what do you got for us when we got here?

Erick Arnett:
Well, Eric, we’ve got about five and a half minutes left. And Segment one. So I think this would be a good time to kind of get into our problem solver just quickly and we can talk a little bit about it on the other side. But basically for our problem solver this week, it’s time for this week’s Problem Solver. The problem is that we’re finding that a lot of people out there have variable annuities, old annuities that they are not understanding. And if they’re in a variable annuity, their principal is actually at risk in the stock market. They’re likely paying 3 to 6% in fees, possibly an income rider just to have their money paid back to them. So. Eric, what might be a solution for those people out there that have older annuities that maybe aren’t working so well for them? And what if they have a variable annuity?

Erick Arnett:
Yeah. Thanks, Jim. That’s a big problem and a very common problem. And unfortunately, there was a large amount of America retirees, pre retirees that were sold these variable annuities in the past. And and people truly didn’t understand them. And I don’t even think the people selling them understood them, to be quite frank. But the commissions were great, so they just pumped it. Got a couple of sales tips and said, okay, say this and try to sell folks. And unfortunately, we we really don’t like variable annuities. We never have, never will. And the reason is, is that, you know, there are super high and fees, a lot of expenses. We find that sometimes people are paying 3 to 6% in fees and they don’t even know it internally. So if you’re out there listening and you have a variable annuity or if you don’t even know what kind of annuity you have, give us a call. We will do what we call an annuity x ray for you. And we dissect that annuity and give you a report. You know what your returns have been, what the risk is, you know how much you’re paying in fees. And so I’ve it’s it’s tragic. I’ve seen a lot of people in these and and, you know, it’s just unfortunately, they’re even paying what we call income rider fees. And a lot of times it’s just to get your own money back over time, you know? So it’s, you know, it’s just not a not a great not a great problem or not a great solution.

Erick Arnett:
And we feel like, you know, the best solution is for folks to consider a completely different type of annuity. It’s an annuity that can protect and grow your wealth. So when you’re in a variable annuity, your money is 100% at risk. Now they’ll bait you with some guaranteed income riders, which isn’t real money. And if you have questions about that, give me a shout. 3526160511. That’s 35261605110511. If you have questions about annuities, give me a shout out. I’m happy to. I would love to discuss those with you. And so we believe in a fixed indexed annuity. We often find them. We have some great ones right now that charged our clients no fees. Their principal is 100% protected. And if markets move upward, whether it’s the bond markets or the stock market, however we allocate those indexes inside the annuity, you can gain and grow your money when markets are doing well. And in the years that they’re doing poorly, like this year, your principal is 100% protected. So you’re never going to go below what your initial investment is with these types of programs. And so we feel very, very, very confident that this is a much better solution to to your problem.

Erick Arnett:
All right. That’s awesome. We’ve got a couple of minutes left here in segment one, Eric. So we want to let people know maybe they have that older annuity. They want to get that annuity x ray, but you’re able to help people with a whole lot more. We’ve talked about that on previous episodes. So once people get in touch with you, what’s that process like here? We’ve got about a minute and a half left, just letting people know once they get in touch what they can expect.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, it’s really, you know, it’s really about just truly having a laid back conversation, you know, over the phone or over a zoom. If you if you’d like to see my my handsome face, I’m happy to do the zoom as well. But, you know, it’s really about just having that conversation and asking you, you know, it all starts with what are you doing in retirement and what does retirement look like to you? What are your goals? You know, who are you with? Let us help you provide stability for you and your family long term. And so I just tell people, you know, what does retirement look like to you? And we are a goals based plan is first and foremost. So we’re not stock jocks or brokers or investment, you know, salesmen first and foremost. What we’re going to do is we’re planners and we’re going to build a goals based plan. So we’re going to talk about what are your specific. What does retirement look like to you? And then we’re going to build you a complimentary plan to get you to and through those two to those goals and to and through retirement. So it’s not about chasing the next stock or getting that hot tip about the next best investment or chasing returns. It’s all about goals and meeting those goals and get you to those goals. And and so first and foremost, we’re goals planning our goals planning firm. And so we’re going to organize that custom financial plan for you to fund your goals and your expenses through a combination of guaranteed income strategies, Social Security maximization, and much, much more.

Erick Arnett:
Big changes could be coming and they may affect your retirement. I’m Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife, increases in costs, market volatility and fears of a possible recession. All have people who are close to retirement worried about the future. Some people who were considering early retirement are staying in the workforce, while others who had already called it quits are going back to work. Marketwatch recently published a list of eight big things retirees and pre-retirees should keep an eye on. Some of them are pretty obvious, like number one inflation, as the prices of goods and services continue to go up at rates not seen in four decades, just paying for everyday things could eat through your retirement savings more quickly than you thought. Another concern, Social Security. The trust fund is set to be exhausted by the year 2034. Potential changes to save the program could have a big impact on your retirement years. Two items on the list have to do with savings how much money to set aside for retirement and how to address a growing gap in that amount versus what most of us have actually saved. Yahoo! Finance contributor Vera Gibbons recently reported that the savings gap has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with a lot of folks dipping into their retirement accounts just to get by.

Erick Arnett:
We are in an inflationary environment here, and some of the experts I spoke to said given the fact that costs are going up for just about everything, they expect more people to actually tap into their retirement accounts or contribute less this year. Also, keep in mind that people are still quitting their jobs at a record rate and that group may also be tapping into their retirement accounts to to cover their costs.

Erick Arnett:
Health care spending and drug prices are two more things on the MarketWatch list of retiree concerns and they could be impacted by the last two items on the list diabetes which continues to affect more Americans each year and uses up a good portion of the nation’s health care resources and exercise, which could actually bring costs down by helping you stay healthier longer. So which of these items is your biggest cause for concern heading into retirement? That’s a key question to consider as economic uncertainty continues to cause headaches for us all. With the retirement radio network powered by Amira Life. I’m Matt McClure.

Erick Arnett:
You’re listening to Take Point on retirement. To schedule your free no obligation consultation visit take point on retirement. At Take Point Wealth Management. We know you’ve worked hard to earn your money and you’ve worked even harder to save it. When it comes to wealth management and planning for retirement trust, Eric Arnett and his team of experts who have been helping individuals, families and business owners find financial freedom for more than 20 years. Let us help you protect and grow what you’ve worked so hard for. Schedule your free no obligation consultation now at tape point wealth dot com.

Erick Arnett:
Fixed annuities, including multi year 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.

Erick Arnett:
Welcome back to take point on retirement schedule your free financial consultation now at take point on retirement.

Erick Arnett:
Hey everybody, welcome back to Take Point on Retirement Radio. So glad to have you back here. And so we’re going to dive some more into the discussions on what we do here at Point Wealth and what might be important to you, the listener that you prepare for your retirement or you might be in retirement already and think, hey, you know what? Might be a good time for a second opinion? And so once again, we are deeply rooted in comprehensive goals planning. First and foremost, we’re retirement planners. And so it’s not about chasing returns and picking that best stock that can get you in trouble. So there’s so much more to it. Often people think that they just need to kind of chase that rate of return. Sam But they have no income plan in place. And so what’s the biggest fear that folks have? It’s running out of that income. So we find that too many people have no clue about their bonds and their portfolios. And in many cases, bonds are 40% of their portfolio. And so towards the end of the show, we’re going to talk about our bond replacement strategy. If you’re listening, we’re going to go ahead and give you today a free book. If you call in or if you reach out to us online, I take point wealth and you click that chat button and set up a little chat session. We’re going to get you a free ebook today, Annuity 360 and I think we’re going to actually play a chapter from that book later on in the show but feel very, very strongly.

Erick Arnett:
Unfortunately, so many folks out there have been burned. They’ve been holding bonds in their portfolio. So if you don’t know how much how many bonds you have in your portfolio, then give us a shot. We’ll do a free x ray for you. All you got to do is share your statements with us. And we have several tools that extract all that data information for you, Sam. I mean, 95% of the folks that I’m meeting with today don’t even realize what their fixed income allocation is. And if they do know that they had fixed income in in there, they don’t they didn’t know how poorly it was performing and how much it was detracting from their overall return. So this year, we talked about this last year on the show, you can go back and look at previous podcasts. We talked about this even two years ago. You got it. You had to get your money out of fixed income and you still do. And so it’s super, super important to get that bond replacement strategy in place. And we have those answers for you here here at take point. Well, so we also find that a lot of people have no plan for health care expenses. This is a big problem with rising health care. It actually surprises me how many people have no legacy plan for their beneficiaries and no will in place.

Erick Arnett:
They’ve done no real estate planning. You know, it’s not about death, folks. It’s about life. It’s about it’s life planning. So and it takes about literally about 15 to 20 minutes. And we’ll get you on your way to getting a solid estate plan in place that’s so, so important and so and then in our experience, many people haven’t even thought about what they want to do when every day is Saturday. So how are they going to pay for it? What are you doing in retirement all of a sudden? Every day, Saturday? What are you doing? How are you paying for it? And so and then what are the challenges facing you going forward? We’re going to build you out a 20, 30 year plan that’s going to answer all those questions for you and truly get things optimized. And you can get solid returns, you can meet your goals and you can protect your wealth and you can still have a solid, solid retirement plan. So give us a shout and we’ll love to get to work for you. So we’re going to provide you that free consultation. And it’s at no cost to our listeners, no obligation. We’re not going to hold a gun to your head. Listen, we’re passionate about this. We feel that our way is the best way. And we’ve been in this business a long, long time, and we’ve seen it done a million different ways.

Erick Arnett:
We’ve seen a lot of mistakes. And after 25 years in this in this industry, we have a solid, comprehensive plan and we have a solid we have solid strategies in place that we feel really passionate about. So for you listening out there, we’re going to take the time to build that plan for you completely free of charge. All you got to do is give me your time and answer a few questions. That’s all I’m asking you to do. And then we’re going to completely analyze your financial situation. And guess what? You’re going to get that plan when it’s done completely free of charge, and you can do whatever you want with it. No one’s going to hold a gun to your head and say, Oh, you know, you have to move your money. You have to work with us. You may not have to make any changes at all. You’ll have to make a couple of small changes. So we’re going to help you optimize that completely free to our listeners as a gift to thank you for listening to our show and and please spread the news. You know, we’re on here every Saturday morning and, you know, we’d love to build our listener base and let people know about our show. It’s on every Saturday. And we also have the podcast sites. You can listen to us any time. You can catch up on past shows and our podcasts and help other folks out and spread the word.

Erick Arnett:
So. But we’re going to. Closely examine any annuities you currently have. So you may have some annuities and you’re not quite sure about them. Maybe you lost contact with your advisor or your agent, or you just truly don’t understand. So give us a call. We’ll be happy to go through that and analyze those for you. We’re also happy to just answer those questions for you. And the best way I know I have talked about this Sam, on past shows, but we had a guy call in last year and he was like, I hate insurance companies. I don’t believe in annuities. And, you know, and I said, listen, I totally understand why you have all those apprehensions and those feelings and those emotions, right? Those are emotions. And a lot of times emotions can block us and get in the way of success. And a lot of times we as humans just get in our own way and we’re all guilty of that. But it’s so, so important to truly understand and truly educate yourself on all the different types of annuities out there and when they can be used and what not to use, and what then when they’re beneficial or not beneficial. So we’re offering that free book annuity 360 but you know, we feel very strongly that unfortunately there’s there’s a lot of people out there in the wrong situation, the wrong products, and they’ve lost communication. And so this gentleman read our book, read this book, Annuity 360.

Erick Arnett:
He told me eight times, highlighted it, made notes. In fact, he didn’t even take my word for it. He actually called the author of the book and talked to the actual author of the book. And that’s what we’re offering you here is an education and there’s no obligation. Like I said, no one’s trying to sell you anything. In fact, I’m probably the worst salesman on the planet. And we don’t like sales here. We like education, we like goals based planning. And we’re here to answer your questions first and foremost. And you know what? If you decide to work with us and you think that some of the things that we’ve suggested are or some of the ideas that we’ve gone to make sense to you and you feel comfortable with it, then you can move forward if you like to. But first and foremost, I just love I talked Sam. I talk to people all the time and guess what? 95% of them don’t become clients. And that’s okay. That’s totally okay. And so we’re not the best fit for everybody. However, we feel as though we do have some really good, solid ideas and strategies. And so a lot of people don’t even know, like as an example, what am I paying in fees? You know, what are you currently paying? And can we help you cut some of those costs? That’s really important. You know, fees and taxes are the silent killers to a retirement.

Erick Arnett:
And now inflation, by the way, is really been the silent killer. And like right now, it’s a loud killer. Everybody knows about it and it’s right in our face. So we’ve been discussing this and warning people about this for years and years and years, and now it’s reared its ugly head and we have some really, really strong inflation. So how are we going to beat that? We’re going to help you with Medicare and Social Security planning. Like I said, we try to be a one stop shop. We have all the resources in place. There’s there’s multiple ways you can take Social Security, whether you’re single or you’re a couple. There’s multiple strategies when it comes to Social Security. And there’s also some pitfalls. You can create a lot of taxation on your Medicare. You can create a lot of taxation on your Social Security if you’re still earning income. So we have the CPA and the tax team with us also to analyze all that and pull it all together for you. But Social Security planning, Medicare, if you have questions about Medicare, we have great agents that can help you with all that and answer all your Medicare questions. If you’re turning 65, you’ve got to sign up for Medicare or there’s penalties. So make sure you’re doing that. Give us a shout. But first and foremost, compare your current situation to what’s possible if you work with us.

Erick Arnett:
So we’re going to show you what it’s like to work with us, what our ideas are, what our strategies are, and what our process is, and what we feel works for our retirees long term. And if you if it’s a process that you like, great. If it’s a process that doesn’t fit, fit for you, then that’s okay, too. And so we just happy that you’re listening and we’re happy that we can help people out on this show. And that’s what it’s all about. That’s why we do it. So maybe maybe you haven’t heard from your advisor lately. I was talking to a guy the other day and he hadn’t heard from his advisor in two years. Now, this gentleman had over half a million dollars working in the markets and a retirement plan. One advisor hadn’t heard from him in two years. This is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. You deserve better. So if the communication isn’t there, you know we’re all about communication. We have several ways that we communicate with our clients and we feel that that’s super important to build a relationship long term. We’ve got to know what you’re thinking, how you’re feeling, as well as you’ve got to know why we’re doing what we’re doing. So if you haven’t heard from your advisor lately, give us a call. We’re happy to step up. We’re happy to help you out and answer those questions for you. And guess what? Here’s the thing.

Erick Arnett:
If you do decide that it might make sense to make a change, that’s great. And if we feel as though you’re a good fit for us, we’re going to offer you our services and bring you into the take point wealth management family and build a relationship with you, a long term relationship. And so we feel very, very strongly about communication, strong communication. We’re fiduciaries first and. Foremost, we treat your money like it’s our own money. Because guess what, folks? If your portfolios are growing, so is our revenue and our business is growing as well. So we’re tightly aligned with your goals. And we we’re successful if you’re successful. So we’re not just selling you something, putting it on a shelf and then circling back to you in a couple of years. Or maybe you’re having a call the guy when you have ideas, you know, that’s just not acceptable. We’ve got to we have to deliver the best strategies and the best ideas to our clients ongoing all the time. So super, super important. Please give us a shout. If you haven’t heard from your advisor lately, just give me a call at 3526160511. Schedule your appointment now. We’ll get together face to face. We’ll get together over Zoom or we’ll just chat on the phone for a few minutes. You can also go to our website, take point wealth. Just Google that right on your phone, take point wealth dot com. And in that upper right hand corner, you’ll see a little box, just click it and it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Erick Arnett:
You’ll jump right into my calendar and I’ll give you a call when it’s convenient for you, and we’ll just chat about what could be potentially your situation or what could be bothering you or what some of your concerns are. But if you know more than ever, you’re probably feeling like this year you’re in the dark and you’ve had you have more than more concerns now than ever. And so we feel really strongly that communication in these days and these markets has to be even stronger than it is any other time. Because when the markets are all going up and everything’s doing well, I call it a rising tide floats all ships. Well, guess what? You know, everything’s going up. Everything is hunky dory. Everything’s great. So maybe you don’t need all that constant communication, right? But when we earn our stripes at take point wealth, we take the lead, we communicate, we build a plan. I bring my veteran and military background into my business every day. And it’s about having a solid plan, a solid plan in place and executing that plan and then constantly evaluating it and being vigilant with your money. So please, please get with a fiduciary take point. Wealth management is a fiduciary. I think that’s super important. Our goals are mutually aligned with your goals. If you’re doing better, we’re doing better. Take point wealth dot get a hold of us today.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah and you mentioned that education is such a priority for you and what you do over there at take point Wealth Management, we talked a little bit about the Annuity 360 book and we want to go ahead and play an audio book chapter from that book now. And don’t forget, you can get in touch with Eric by giving him a call at 3526160511 or visiting them online at take point. Welcome to request your copy of Annuity 360, but now we’re going to go ahead and play that chapter on bond replacement with fixed indexed annuities. And we’ll be right back after this chapter. Chapter 15 bond replacement with fixed indexed annuities. Big idea. Historically, bonds have seen volatility when the market is volatile, fixed indexed annuities are not subject to the same volatility, which makes them a much safer investment. You might have heard a financial advisor talk about replacing your bonds with annuities to protect your wealth and grow your retirement fund. And my firm Active Wealth Management, we believe this is a smart way to protect your future. Many people have learned that bonds are a safe way to invest your money, but there are some downsides to bonds that should make you think twice. We’ll talk about some reasons why you should consider replacing your bonds with annuities. First, here’s some information on the history of bonds in the United States. Historical bond volatility. The 1900s saw two secular bear and bull markets in US. Fixed income inflation peaked at the end of World War One and World War Two due to increased government spending.

Erick Arnett:
The first bull market started after World War One and lasted through World War Two. The US government kept bond yields artificially low until 1951. The long term bond yields were at 1.9%. In 1951, they climbed to nearly 15% in 1981. In the 1970s, globalization had a huge impact on bond markets. New asset classes such as inflation protected securities, asset backed securities, mortgage backed securities, high yield securities and catastrophe bonds were created early. Investors in these new asset classes were compensated for taking on the challenge. The bond market was coming off its greatest bull market coming into the 21st century. Long term bond yields declined from a high of 15% to 7% by the end of the century. The bull market in bond showed continued strength in the early 21st century. But there is no guarantee with our current market volatility that this will hold. See Chart 15.1 to see the incredible difference of investing in a fixed index annuity versus investing in bonds. Why you should consider replacing your bonds with annuity. The first question you should ask yourself is this Why would you take market risk with your bonds when your bonds can lose their value? If you just look at the history alone, you can see how uncertain the future of bonds is. Inflation and fluctuating interest rates play a big role in bond yields. Interest rate risk of bonds. Bonds and interest rates have an inverse relationship when interest rates fall.

Erick Arnett:
Bond prices. Rise due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Investors have moved their money to bonds because they believe it is a safer investment option. However, this has caused bond yields to fall to all time lows as of May 24, 2020, the ten year Treasury note was yielding 0.64%, and the 30 year Treasury bond was at 1.27%. Reinvestment risk of bonds. This is the likelihood that an investment’s cash flows will earn less in a new security. For example, an investor buys a ten year $100,000 Treasury note with an interest rate of 6%. They expect it to earn 6000 a year. At the end of the term, interest rates are 4%. If the investor buys another ten year note, they will earn 4000 instead of 6000 annually. Consider the possibility that interest rates change over time when deciding to invest in bonds. Systematic Market Risk. This refers to the risk that is inherent to the market as a whole. It will affect the overall market, not just a particular stock or industry. This can be unpredictable and it is impossible to avoid. Diversification cannot fix this issue, but the correct asset allocation strategy can make a big difference. Unsystematic Market Risk. This type of risk is unique to a specific company or industry, similar to systematic market risk. It is impossible to know when unsystematic risk will occur. For example, if someone is investing in health care stocks, they may be aware of some major changes coming to the industry.

Erick Arnett:
However, there is no way they can know how those changes will affect the market. There are two factors that contribute to company specific risk. Business risk. There are two types of risks internal and external. Internal refers to operational efficiency. An external would be similar to the FDA banning a specific drug that the company sells financial risk. This relates to the capital structure of a company. A weak capital structure can lead to inconsistent earnings and cash flow that can prevent a company from trading reduced advisory fees. Investors who trade individual stocks may know how much commission they are paying their broker, but individuals who buy bonds often have no idea what type of commission they are paying. Bond dealers collect commission on bonds. They sell called markups, but they bundle them into the price that is quoted to the investors. This means you are unaware of how much commission you are actually paying. Standard and Poor’s estimates of bond markups is 0.85% of the value for corporate bonds and 1.21% for municipal bonds. However, markups can be as high as 5%, up to $50 per bond. Bonds have finite durations. Bonds only provide income for a finite amount of time. Unlike an annuity which provides income for life, you must reinvest your money if you want to continue generating interest with bonds. However, reinvesting with a bond can sometimes come at a loss. As we discussed above, annuities will provide you with an income you can never outlive.

Erick Arnett:
So a super great chapter there for Stokes Friend and a great advisor up in Atlanta wrote that book for us. And and so we’re happy to give that out to you free of charge. Just get a hold of us. 3526160511. You don’t have time to do that. Just click that live chat button up in the right hand corner of our website, take point wealth and we’ll zip. All we need is your address and we’ll zip it out to you. And I love when folks request that book and then they go through it and highlight it, and then we go through it and we talk about it, you know, and and so you’ve got to be educated. It’s your money first and foremost. It’s not the advisor’s money. So you’ve got to be responsible for it. You’ve got to be educated. You’ve got to know what your money is doing and what the best is for you. So with that being said, I’ve got a couple more minutes here, so we’d like to have a little bit of fun on the show and we’re going to play wrong or right. So if you’re out there listening, please play along with us if you want. If you’ve got a pen and pad or paper, you can also write some of this down. But I’m going to bring Randy in here and he’s going to be your you’re going to be the question reader here.

Randy Woodruff:
So. All right.

Erick Arnett:
Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in right or wrong?

Randy Woodruff:
So our first question is, is it a waste of time to have your financial accounts reviewed on an annual basis? Survey says?

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, I think that’s absolutely wrong. So it’s not a waste of your time to have your financial accounts reviewed on an annual basis. In fact, when you work with Take Point Wealth, we ask you how often you want to hear from us or how often you want to review your portfolio. At a minimum, it’s going to be on an annual basis, but we like to stay in touch with our clients constantly throughout the year. Semiannual appointments. We have quarterly appointments and of course, like if we feel if anything is changing in the markets or we want to make any changes in the portfolio, we like to get that out to the clients as well. So. An annual checkup can prevent you from paying too much in taxes and fees before those expenses cause a lifestyle change down the road. So super, super important. You should balance your investment across tax deferred taxable and tax free accounts. We’ll talk about all of that if you give us a shout. But you’ve got to be constantly evaluating this, so please, please give us a shout.

Randy Woodruff:
Okay. The next question is you should balance your investments across tax deferred taxable and tax free accounts 100%.

Erick Arnett:
Right. There’s three buckets out there. We’ve talked about this on the show before, right? Yeah. You have money in a tax free bucket. You could have money in a taxable bucket or a tax deferred bucket. And if you don’t know what those are, you owe it to yourself to give us a shout out so we can go through them with you. But majority of all people have their money in the tax taxable bucket or the tax deferred bucket. We like to get our clients in the tax free bucket. And so that’s something that we do here every day. So you want to minimize the effect that taxes have on your retirement, right? So if there’s ways that we can minimize taxes, that silent killer, which is going to improve cash flow, it’s also going to improve your wealth over time. So you need to take advantage of the only two types of tax free investments that are out there. And guess what? The IRS isn’t putting out publications about this in advertisements and they’re not saying, hey, folks, you need to do this. No, the IRS wants to be your partner in your retirement and they want to tax your retirement. So the IRS doesn’t really necessarily make a great partner in retirement, but I think take point. Wealth does. And so let’s get you as close to or in that tax free strategy as we can.

Randy Woodruff:
And speaking of the different three different buckets as we’re doing investment planning and strategies throughout the years, if we have three different buckets to choose from and not only do we want to make sure we’re managing your money effectively or manage your tax liability effectively as well. So if we have different buckets to pull from, based on what’s going on in your other investments or other things you have going on in your life, if we can pull some from tax free tax deferred taxable, maybe more or less one year to the next, it gives us a lot of flexibility and making sure that we are always managing your investments in a safe, efficient and tax efficient way. So next question is you can structure your retirement accounts to deliver tax free income during retirement.

Erick Arnett:
That’s actually correct. So like I said, unfortunately, 95% of America doesn’t have these vehicles. But we feel as though you have to have the Roth IRA and in some cases the IUL policies, which we call index universal life or a life insurance retirement plan. Yes, folks, you can custom design design life insurance to be a tax free retirement for you. And so we nowadays can actually build an IUL policy almost any way we want. We can customize it for you. But these are the only two tools, the Roth IRA and the IUL that can get you that tax free retirement. There’s tax free withdrawals, and guess what? There’s no required minimum distribution. So if you’re 72 and you’re in that category, you got to start taking those pesky required minimum distributions and you don’t want to take them out of your portfolio. Especially think about this. Here’s a year where probably your portfolio is down. And you’ve also got to now take money out of the portfolio. Then you’ve got to take even more money to pay those taxes. So this is what’s what’s what’s really hindering us building that solid, solid stress free tax free retirement.

Erick Arnett:
And so we’ve got to get active now. We’ve got to do that for you now. So give it. We we specialize in this. We love doing this for our clients. And so you owe it to yourself to to at least investigate that and understand what a tax free retirement could look like to you. So are you else? Life insurance, whole life and Roth IRAs is the way to go there. You can build up cash value in life insurance and take tax free withdrawals from the accumulated cash value. So really, really great strategies, strategies, by the way, that are utilized by the wealthy. And so, you know, and the premise behind Take Point Wealth was to create a wealth management firm for everybody. So we’re not going to turn you away no matter how much you have. We feel like everybody out there deserves that high net worth, you know, presentation and high net worth plan. And so this is what the wealthy do. So we can build one for you no matter what size retirement you have or assets you have in place.

Randy Woodruff:
I want to comment on something Eric said about life insurance. And so many of us are used to life insurance and our thought processes is basically just to for that, just in case I pass away, there’s some cash there to to wrap up my state, go to my heirs or whatever. And if you hadn’t really looked into life insurance as a strategy, I think you owe it to yourself to not think of life insurance just as insuring your life. But it is a very beneficial, very often used by the wealthy, and it can be used by anybody of any any wealth status or any wealth category, any wealth accumulation as a retirement tool. So you owe it to yourself to come in and get educated on these options.

Erick Arnett:
Thanks, Randi. It’s safe. First and foremost, it’s safe. It’s it’s going to beat your bank rates and CDs and it’s also going to create that tax free distribution should you need it in the future. And guess what? It’s also going to be transferred to your beneficiaries tax free. We’re running out of time, folks. Thank you so much for listening to Take Point on Retirement Radio. Please give us a call today to schedule your appointment at 3526160511 or go to take point wealth and just reach us out. Reach out to us in the upper right hand corner. We’re running out of time. Take point on retirement radio. Have a great week, folks.

Erick Arnett:
Thanks for listening to Take Point on Retirement. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard earned assets, to schedule your free no obligation consultation visit, take point on retirement, or pick up the phone and call 3526160511. That’s 3526160511. Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor, BCA and Take Point 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 or not guaranteed, past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Erick Arnett:
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 interests of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. If any exist, refer to our firm brochure, the ADV two A Page four for additional information. Any comments regarding safe and secure products and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products. They do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company and are not offered by BWR.