Protecting Your Retirement from Inflation and other Risks

TPOR Full Show 7.27_R.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

TPOR Full Show 7.27_R.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
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.

Producer:
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 Tape 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:
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for listening again to take point on retirement radio. And today, we have a great show and we're going to have Randy Woodruff with us today, CPA extraordinaire. We're going to talk about some real estate. We also have Mr. Sam Davis, our DJ host, Extraordinary with us. Always great to have Sam here pulling everything together for us. And so today's show, we're going to talk about some financial wisdom. We're going to talk about what a full retirement plan consultation really looks like. We're also going to play right or wrong today, and we're going to have a few problem solvers. We also are going to have a free gift. So stand by and listen for that and why people need a comprehensive retirement plan. And we're also going to have a couple of story examples. And so just a great show. Thanks for being here today, guys. You know, we always open up the show. We talk a little bit about this week in the market. The market has certainly been volatile. We're in heavy and earnings season. However, there has been some positive or what I see as a silver lining. Over 70% of the corporations that are reporting up to now have beat analysts expectations. So earnings have not dropped off like most feared. And so corporate earnings are still very strong. And so that's kind of, I think, keeping the market in a nice range here.

Erick Arnett:
We have moved off the bottoms considerably. You know, the S&P is up over three and one half percent, 5% off the off off last week on the on the Nasdaq. And so certainly going to continue to be volatile, but more than ever, let's talk about what you should be doing out there if you're listening. So I think that more than ever, your money has to be in the right places and in the right stocks. It's not. In the past when we were in a bull market, a kind of rising tide will float all ships. This is a more selective market we need to be actually looking at and being more selective at our stocks. What parts of the market we're in, whether it's the growth, the value of small caps, midcaps international and then again talking about fixed income, we're a huge proponent of not having fixed income and that can we're going to talk a little bit about that conventional portfolio where people have always been using bonds to kind of hedge the stock market. We've actively been shooting this down for quite a while. We think it's a big no no. And we do continue to think that there's much better alternatives to bonds and fixed income in your portfolio. Real important, if you're out there listening today, pull your portfolio, take a look at your statements, look at that asset allocation.

Erick Arnett:
How much do you have in fixed income and bonds and how much have you had? Because that's hurt your portfolio. It will continue to hurt it. So give us a call at take point on retirement. We're happy to take a look at your current portfolio and give you a second set of eyes and some ideas. Our website is there's a couple of websites actually, but to make it simple, you can reach us at take point wealth. And in the upper right hand corner we have a little box you can click and you can set up an appointment, a chat session right there with us in the comfort of your own home. And we're happy to chat with you and talk about some of your concerns and also share some of our ideas with you. So give us a shout. Also at 3526160511. That's our direct line. We're happy to talk to you directly on the phone and you can certainly subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or on all of those apps and sites. And so wherever you may listen to podcasts, go ahead and tune in to us. And just I think you just type in take point wealth and we should pop up, right? Sam That's right.

Sam Davis:
Eric Just go to take point on retirement dot com online you'll come right up or if you're on wherever you listen to podcasts, whether it's on your iPhone or if you have an Android or Google phone, go to your podcast app, just type in, take point on retirement, you'll find the show that way as well. So if you miss part of the show live or if some week you're out of town and you miss the show, but you still want to hear what Eric and Randy have to say, you can listen to them on demand at your leisure.

Erick Arnett:
Awesome. So yeah, multiple ways to get a hold of us. We look forward to talking to you and solving some of your concerns. And if you more than ever, I think like we've talked about on previous shows now more than ever, with the decline in the markets, the volatility in the markets, the ever changing climate, the economy, inflation, you've got to redo your plan. You've got to reevaluate things and take another look at stuff. And we're that's we're willing to step up and do that for you. Absolutely free if you call in off this show today. That's our free gift to you. It's over a $5,500 value. We will take the time. Our team will spend the hours to pull a plan together for you and get you on the right track. And maybe you feel like you're on the right track and you're doing just fine and you're comfortable. Hey, why not get another opinion? We'll do a stress test on your current plan. We throw 1000 scenarios at your current plan. We use a monte Carlo simulation, and it's going to throw good markets, bad markets, high rates, low rates, high inflation, low inflation combinations thereof. Black swan events. We're going to stress test your current plan and then we're going to show you what that's going to look like over a 20, 30 year period and give you some real clarity as to whether or not you're going to reach your goals. So first and foremost, we're not product pushers, we're not investment pushers, we're not commission guys. We're all about building a goals based plan for our clients and our families to get them to and through retirement successfully. And then we pick the right strategies and the right products to reach those goals, and then we actively manage it and monitor it for you. So more than ever, please give us a call. 3526160511. Let's get your plan in place and let's get that going. So with all that being said. Randy, we have a pretty cool financial wisdom quote of the week I like to share with our listeners, and I would like for you to give that to them.

Randy:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. And I will have a couple here. We have. First one from we all know, Mr. Benjamin Franklin. And that quote is Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. I think that's something we can probably be reminded of every day and we can learn a lot from that. Next one is from a guy named Milton Friedman. Less popular, less known, but still a very great quote has to do with taxes. And it says, Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay. I think we've heard time and time again over the last several years about as there's been discussions about raising taxes and the 1%, the 2% or whatever percent is going to pay. I think we've all been hearing quite a bit of that. So I think that quote is more timely than ever, that as there's talk of raising taxes and talk of increasing the revenue at the government level, more than likely it's going to somehow trickle down. Back to you. It may not hit you right at first, but somehow it's going to wind up hitting your pocket eventually.

Erick Arnett:
Thank you for that, sir. And and one of the themes this year, Randi, has obviously been the increase of interest rates to fight inflation. We've had a record rate of inflation. And in our in the markets this year we've had the first half of the year in the market was record declines. And so with inflation, with the feds fighting that and raising interest rates once again, they're going to be out this week raising rates probably 75 basis points and probably a couple more times prior to a year end we'll see some rate increases. But we feel as though that will start to taper off as as the economy and the rates kind of get more in line with ten year Treasury yields and whatnot. But and more than likely next year, they might start lowering rates again as the economy slows down. So they're doing a good job. The economy is slowing down. And one of the things, Randy Randy works in the real estate industry as well and is a real estate expert. And he has some some things to share with us today about real estate and kind of interest rates and some insight into applications and mortgages and things like that. And so we like to bring you something extra, sometimes more than just the regular retirement planning investment management stuff. So let's talk a little bit about real estate and and where we think that's headed and kind of what's going on currently. I think folks might be interested in that.

Randy:
I had a phone call with a good friend of mine who's involved in mortgages here in the Nature Coast and runs a manages a mortgage office and and had a conversation with this person this past Monday. And as expected, refinance applications for mortgages are down significantly, not just 10 to 20%, but probably well over 50%. As Eric mentioned, rates have been on the rise. We all know rates have been on the rise. The Fed's talking about raising rates again and that all affects mortgages on someone's home. So rates are going up. Refi applications have gone way down significantly, but also which I expected. I didn't know the know the number, but I'm hearing that applications for the purchase of a new or existing home are down about 25%. I knew they'd be down. I just didn't know how much. 25%. Am I surprised by that? Not really. As we know, rates are going up. Also impacting that is a lot of folks are still paying cash. You know, if you've tried to buy a house recently and you talk to a realtor and they've been talking to you about getting prequalified and what you're going to need to do to be able to stand out with the high number of offers that come in on the house. So that's changed here last month or so. But there is still uncertain properties if the price right, multiple offers coming in.

Randy:
So the way to stand out in the crowd is to be able to pay cash. And so quite a few cash investors still in the market. And so that here again, they wouldn't need to fill an application out. Also, this is this starts probably about two weeks old here in the Hernando County area on the local mills here we've seen about over the last eight weeks here again, the stats about two weeks old or week old, we've seen about a doubling of the number of listings on the local mills. You might think, oh my gosh, they doubled in eight weeks, but they went from probably 180 to 200 up to around 350 to 400. So we're still, you know, way below where we need to be at to have a healthy inventory, to have a good, healthy, consistent real estate market. So inventory is still very, very low. Inventory is going up. Now, what's causing that? Could it be the fact that people are now realizing we're all hearing about the housing market cooling down because of rates, because of inflation, because of the potential fear of recession, all of us starting to cool everything off. So maybe people are starting to realize, okay, I've waited this out as long as I can. The prices are as high as they're going to get. I need to get my house on the market to get top dollar.

Randy:
So that probably is driving some of those listings. But at the same time, people are probably starting to think it's time to maybe they're moving wherever the case may be. But we are seeing more homes coming on the market as we've talked on previous shows. I also and I build spec homes here, the Nature Coast area. And so I'm always interested in what's going on with foot traffic in in builder models. And so I've had a conversation with my business partner in the homebuilding business and this time last year they seen a significant slowdown in the traffic, foot traffic in the models. That's because the summertime people are on vacation and people are moving whatever the case may be. And so they're not as much traffic in the models the last fall, traffic picked up in the models in a tremendous way. So it's the same thing going to happen this fall. Don't know yet. But I think that in historically, whether it has been whether it be this year, last year or two years ago, 20 years ago, traffic does kind of slow down in the summertime. People are on vacation. Kids are out of school. So, so more more to talk about in the fall. And there's a traffic. And here again in mortgage rates and how they actually impact the market. But it still is a pretty tight housing market out there, especially if you're in the Florida area, because we've seen looking at the data, a lot of people are moving to the southeast, sometimes the southwest or more specifically to Florida because of our policies here, our political policies here.

Randy:
So that is driving a lot of traffic here. So more to come on that on future shows. But I just wanted you to know what's going on out there in the real estate market. Things are inventory still is tight for if you're looking for a home there's more and more options on the market than there were a couple of months ago. But still, inventory is tight. So if you're looking to buy a home, please make sure you get pre-approved and make sure that you have the excess cash available. Make sure you can come to the that you put a contract in where there is no financing and or an appraisal contingency. Because here again, prices are still elevated and appraisals depending upon the price you you you lock in the contract at and appraisal may not the house may not appraise out. So just keep all that in mind and to make sure that if you are trying to lock in a home and it is competitive, you make sure you give yourself the best advantage. If you have a good realtor, they'll be able to give you all that advice as well as a contract being prepared.

Erick Arnett:
You know, real estate plays a big role in our overall retirement plan. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home, whether you're looking to downsize, do you have investment properties? So here at Take Point, Wealth Management, we have the team, the total package. We also are very strong in real estate analysis and as well as tax analysis. Randy's a CPA close to over 30 some odd years and he's on the team here. So we have your tax concerns, tax questions, and it's all about creating cash flow, reducing taxes the best we can, reducing risk in your portfolios, and also reducing fees. So more than ever, we think that getting together with us here at take point, it's easy. You can just go to our website, take point, wealth management dot com, you can click on it upper right hand corner, set up a chat session or an appointment with us. You can also just give us a call. We're standing here by the phones listening. 3526160511 or on the phones. Now, just listen in and then give us a call. We're happy to chat with this this Saturday or Sunday morning. And, you know, once again, we're excited and we're standing by. We want to provide that comprehensive consultation at no cost to you. So if you're listening today, just pick up the phone all. It's going to take us a little time. And there's absolutely no obligation to work with us.

Erick Arnett:
You know, at the end of the day, you're only going to work with us if it's best for you. We're going to analyze your total financial situation. We will closely examine any annuity or annuities you may currently have. You may have some annuities, some variable annuities, some indexed annuities, some immediate annuities. You might have some kind of annuity. You're not quite sure how it's doing, how it's performed, or whether it's even the right tool for you. So give us a call. We'll do an annuity stress test for you. We'll answer all your questions on annuities. In fact, if you give us a call or you do click on our appointment button up there and upper right hand corner and you request the book Annuity 360. We're happy to get your copy out to you any time. Annuity 363 sixties a fantastic book it just kind of takes everything about annuities wraps it up in a little bow and an easy read and I think that super important for folks out there listening to more than ever to understand annuities and how they work. It's not it's not a bad word. The word annuity. It can be a great word in certain situations. And and so don't avoid educating yourself even further on annuities, including fixed indexed annuities, which we think are a great replacement for bonds these days.

Erick Arnett:
And then, you know, have you ever wondered what exactly you're paying for or currently paying and how can you cut those costs? You know, one of the main things that our plan focuses on is fees and what are the expenses, what are the hidden expenses? We've found in certain cases that sometimes people are paying highs four and 5% on their internal charges, internal costs inside their investments, and they had no idea. So let's pull it out for you and show you what you're actually truly paying. You know, I often hear, well, I'm not paying any fees. Listen, folks, that's really probably not the case. Wall Street didn't get all those high res, high rise buildings, those multimillion dollar buildings in Wall Street, just giving stuff away for free. So there are some costs and fees there. Let's look at that, evaluate that and see how it could potentially hold you back from reaching your goals. And then what about Medicare, Social Security planning? We have the team here to also offer you that. Medicare planning, Social Security planning. When do I take Social Security? How do I take it? There's multiple ways that you can if you're if you're a couple, there's even more ways and more strategies. So it's real important to talk about Social Security, how it's going to affect your taxes, how it's going to affect your Medicare. So we have also have Medicare consultants and a full Medicare team here to offer you some advice and to look over your current Medicare programs and costs.

Erick Arnett:
And if you're reaching 65 and you need to sign up for Medicare, give us a call and compare your current situation to what's possible if you work with us. You know, Sam, we had a phone call off the show last week and I was actually kind of shocked. It was a gentleman, you know, and he had a significant amount of assets under management with his former broker, and he hasn't heard from him in two years. And I was shocked to hear that, especially with what's going on, you know, in the economy and in the markets, I mean, more than ever, we need to be communicating with our clients. And so, you know, if you're out there listening, quite possibly you haven't heard from your advisor or your broker in quite a long time. And if that's the case, we just think that that's a shame. We think you deserve better. It's all about communication, constant communication, active management of the portfolios. So get a second opinion. Get a third opinion. Hey, I recently realized that I probably need a knee replacement. I've gone to two or three different doctors and surgeons, so I'm going to get two and three opinions and then formulate my decision. So that's all we're offering is this is another opinion, another strategy, another way to look at things.

Erick Arnett:
So take the time. All it costs you is time and that's it. We'll do all the work and absorb the cost for you and deliver you a solid retirement plan that's comprehensive to get you to and through retirement successfully goals based plans. Sam Quite often we find that people are just interested only in what their returns are going to be. But there's so much more to financial planning then, hey, I just need to stick my money in some kind of investment and then hope to get the best returns, right? I mean, you know, there's so much more to it. We've got to have an income plan. We've got to have a fee evaluation. We've got to see if we have too much fixed income in the portfolio. How is our Medicare or Social Security affected? Do we need long term care insurance? Do we need life insurance? There's a lot of fabulous strategies for life insurance planning. We're going to get to that a little bit later on in the show and talk about how we can get some tax free investments inside of our portfolio as well. So anyways, if you haven't heard from anybody in a long time, we're here waiting to talk to you and give you the advice and the consultation that you deserve.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, absolutely. Eric, I think that's great advice and people can go online to take point on retirement dot com to learn more. Here are some other episodes of the show. Get in touch with Eric, Randy and the team over there. Take point on retirement and yeah, Eric, listening to that story from from that caller, two years is quite a long time to not hear from the individual that's responsible for safeguarding your money. I mean, I feel like I hear from the gentleman that cuts my lawn at least every other month. So why is the guy that's that's not why is he not giving you a call if he's looking after your money? So if you're working with with someone like that, particularly if they're with one of these bigger companies, you know, get in touch with us. It costs nothing to get a second opinion. And more than likely, we feel like you could save by working with Eric and Randy.

Erick Arnett:
You put together some pretty cool questions here, right or wrong. So if you're out there listening, play along with us. We're going to we're going to go through these here. And Sam, take it away.

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

Sam Davis:
So. So first statement, you should keep working and stop contributing to your retirement accounts to maximize your Social Security benefit.

Erick Arnett:
So that is obviously wrong. Do we have like a buzzer like and I'll just. There we go. There's the buzzer right there. So you want your money working as hard as you do, right. So it's important to get that Social Security maximization plan. You could be getting $0.15 on the dollar versus controlling 100% of the dollars you're investing in your future retirement. So real, real big, important piece of retirement planning is that Social Security maximization plan. So we're also going to put that together for you as well as a part of your total comprehensive free financial plan and retirement plan. So definitely want your money to grow and work as hard as you do.

Sam Davis:
All right. Second statement, there is no way to grow your money tax free in an IRA.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, so that's absolutely wrong. We know that the Roth IRA will allow you to pay taxes up front and then tax free distributions and retirement with no RMDs. So we love, love, love Roth IRAs here at Take Point Wealth Management, we feel like they are underutilized tool. And if your current advisor isn't talking about this strategy or this plan, then you're really missing out. It's something that needs to be talked about and delivered to everybody. So the Roth IRA is just a solid, solid, great tool to build up that tax free retirement. And we often see the most the majority of Americans money or is locked up in in that 41k or that traditional IRA which is not tax free. So at any time you take a distribution out of there, you're going to pay taxes at your current income rate. Plus, it could raise taxes on your Social Security and increase your Medicare. So it's important for us to be able to do that intricate planning there to alleviate some of those problems that you may face in the future. And so real, real important. Definitely the Roth IRA for sure.

Sam Davis:
All right, Erik, last statement. We've got just a few minutes left here in this first segment. What we've got time for one more right or wrong. And here it is, a 6040 portfolio with 60% stocks and 40% bonds is a tried and true method and is still the best way to construct a portfolio for retirement.

Erick Arnett:
So that's a big wrong. And and the reason why I love this industry is because nothing ever stays the same. You know, when I came into this business 25 years ago, fixed income was extremely strong. I mean, you can park your money in a safe bond and make 8%. And so but that's not the case anymore. And that's been an ever changing dynamic that's been in effect for quite a while. But, you know, we've been on the show almost two and a half, three years now, ringing the bell, yelling and screaming from the top of our lungs. No fixed income in your portfolios? None at all. And sure enough, just alone this year, fixed income bonds have been down have been down a -13% this year. So can you imagine a portion of your portfolio that's been put into your overall plan to hedge against the stock market? Right. To alleviate downside or to create income and is doing neither. So it's not alleviating downside. It's not the way to hedge against the stock market. And that's kind of what it was utilized for in the past, that traditional, you know, 50, 50, 6040 portfolio. So if you just kind of lived by, let's say, the rule 100 where you take your age and you subtract it from 100, and so let's say you're 60, subtract that from 100. That's saying you should have 40% in growth or equity or risky investments in 60% in fixed income. Well, imagine if you had 60% in fixed income over the last couple of years. You're paying a fee on it on a losing asset class. And so that's why we feel so strongly that you've got to constantly, constantly be looking and changing and actively managing that portfolio to optimize it and to get the best out of it that you can.

Erick Arnett:
And unfortunately, it's sad because 95% of the people that call in on the show that ends up coming in that we meet with, they have this portfolio, you know, they're all people pretty much in their late fifties or early sixties or even in their seventies. And they've been sitting on this portfolio of bonds and fixed income. And they're they don't hear from their advisor or advisor never makes any changes and just says, oh, you know, just kind of hold it and everything will be fine long term. Well, you know, that is a drag on your retirement that you just don't need and you deserve much better. And that's why we're big proponents of active. Money management, tactical money management. I love the word tactical. Because. Why? Because I'm a veteran. I'm a combat veteran. And everything we did had to be tactical. And you've got to stay ever vigilant. You just can't sleep at the wheel. You've got to have tactical plans in place. And that's what we do here at Take Point Wealth Management or a tactical advisor, a tactical team constantly bringing new ideas. And so we haven't been using fixed income in our portfolios for a very, very long time. And we have the alternatives, structured notes, indexed annuities, you know. So you need to educate yourself on exactly what these are. Schedule your appointment now if you're listening. Scheduled appointment now. 3526160511. Call us here at Take Point Wealth Management. We're standing by to listen to you and to help you out and to give you that second set of ears and and the communication that you deserve.

Sam Davis:
Absolutely. Give them a call. 352 616 0511. The number is also on the website. That's take point on retirement and take point on retirement. We'll be right back.

Producer:
You're listening to Take Point on retirement. To schedule your free no obligation consultation visit take point on retirement dot com. 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. 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. We've got our second segment here. And so today we brought in some interesting ideas. I think we're calling this segment The Problem Solver here.

Producer:
It's time for this week's. Problem solver.

Erick Arnett:
One of the big problems that we see and we talk about it all the time, obviously, is people not having any portion of their retirement or their money in a tax free bucket. So there's obviously there's three buckets out there. You get your taxable bucket and that's the money that you just kind of have working in a brokerage account or in your bank account and or some type of non retirement investment that's paying you some type of income and it's taxable, right? You're going to get a 1099 every year and pay tax on that interest or those dividends or the or the growth or the profit. And then we have what we call a tax deferred bucket. And fortunately or unfortunately, 95% of America has the majority of all their retirement assets in what I call the tax deferred bucket, which is your 401. K, your IRA. And unfortunately, people get a little upset when we talk about, hey, did did you think about the fact that a good 20 to even potentially 40% of what you've saved for retirement is actually going to go to the IRS or to the government, the tax man. And people don't like to hear that, but it's definitely the truth. And one of the things why and one of the other reasons why people hate RMDs, right. Required minimum distributions. When you get to the age of 72, you're going to be required to take that distribution, whether you like it or not, from your traditional IRA or your 401. K.

Erick Arnett:
And quite often people don't even need it. I was talking to a lady the other day. She was getting like an $18,000 RMD and she doesn't even use it or need the money. This kicks out right onto our tax return on top of her pension. On top of her Social Security raises her taxes through the roof. It's going to increase her Medicare. So it creates it creates a big problem. So we love to get out in front of that problem now or as early as we can and to get some money and start rotating money or get as much money as we can into what we call the tax free bucket. And the tax free bucket is wonderful because you get the money in there gross tax free, right? And then when you take the money out when you're needed in retirement or you need it for income or you may need it to buy a home or you may need it to buy an RV or a second property or whatever it may be. When you take that money out, it's also tax free. So it's a beautiful thing. And there's no RMDs. There's nobody holding a gun to your head, forcing you to take money out when you don't need it and pay taxes. So you gain more control, more control than ever of your own money in your own future. And that's why we're huge, huge proponents. So if you're listening right now and you have a Roth, that's great. But maybe you don't have a lot of money in the Roth, or maybe you don't have any life insurance.

Erick Arnett:
Maybe you don't have a Roth at all. Let's talk about how we can create and build this tax free bucket for you. And when we do these projections for folks and we show them the difference and they take the time to truly sit down and educate themselves, the savings and the cash flow on the back end of retirement is massive. We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. So don't just look at the immediate problem or concern or deal with the immediate immediacy of things in front of you right now. Let's look at the big picture long term and how we can save money and improve your retirement long term. So super, super important. We're huge, huge proponents. It gives me a lot of passion, a lot of energy. I love doing this kind of planning for folks and helping them transition into that tax free bucket. So once again, the Roth IRA just underlies underutilized fantastic tool pay. Pay taxes up front, allows your money to grow tax free and take out those tax free distributions. No required minimum distributions. That's huge. And here's what's even better. It includes a tax free benefit to your beneficiaries. So if you if your money is all tied up in a41k or an IRA and just leave it there over time and you're forced to take those RMDs and pay those high taxes. Well, guess what? When you pass, your your beneficiary is going to have to pay all the tax on that portfolio as well.

Erick Arnett:
So that's huge. It could throw them up into a 30 to 40% tax bracket. And imagine if you had 100,000 portfolio and you had to give back 400 grand, 300 grand. Think about how long, folks, you had to work for that money. Think about how much time it took for you to build up that money. And with improper planning, boom, one swipe of the pen. It's all gone to the point where you're paying all those massive amounts of money to the tax man and you could easily avoid it with a couple of hours of of of of free financial planning and some free advice that we're offering you. So, please, all the stuff we talk about on the show, if you don't if it doesn't ring a bell, that's fine. But this has to please give us a call so we can get you on that track. And we love, love, love it. Life insurance. Life insurance can be utilized. As a retirement planning tool. It's not just to protect a risk. Traditionally, yes, term policies, term life insurance. You're putting that in place to protect or risk, pay off your mortgage, put your kids through school, or provide an income for your spouse should something happen to you. But we look at it also as an awesome retirement tool because you may not qualify for Roth or or maybe you've already have plenty of Roth investments. So we can utilize life insurance, what we call it, an IUL or an index, universal life policy, and take tax free loans from your policy in the future.

Erick Arnett:
So this allows your money to be protected and it's also tied to an index, some type of equity index for beneficial growth. So not only does your cash flow, is your cash flow 100% safe, 100% preserve, it can also grow nicely and allows you to take those tax tax free loans from the cash value of your policy in the future. So we call it alert a life insurance retirement plan. So we love, love, love to talk some more about that and see if it's a good idea for you guys. If you're out there listening today, please give us a call. 3526160511. Where take point on retirement. We're going to get you to and through retirement successfully and we're going to optimize that plan for you. Focusing on fees, focusing on taxes and focusing on risk. Those three major points have got to be reined in and we'll look at and evaluate it and also closely manage. So, you know, one of the things that I think, Sam, we should offer right now to folks, you can kind of fill them in a little bit on is that annuity 360 book offer? I think with what we're talking about with tax free investments and so Annuity 360 is fantastic. It's going to talk about the rule 100, the bond replacements get into tax free investing. So, Sam, how do folks get that book?

Sam Davis:
Yeah, all they have to do is get in touch with you, Eric. They can give you a call the phone numbers online at take point on retirement dot com or you can just Google take point wealth and you'll find Eric, Randy and the team over there at Checkpoint Wealth Management you can give them a call at 3526160511. And that book Annuity 360 is going to teach you all that you need to know about annuities, which ones to avoid, which ones to potentially buy for a successful retirement. Because if you're interested in not in the market investing, but you still want to protect and grow your wealth, I feel like you're going to learn something in this easy, quick read that's going to give you an idea of of maybe a better option out there compared to what you're doing now. So, Eric, you know, once people do get in touch with you, whether it's for the book or maybe, you know, like you said earlier in the first segment, they haven't heard from their current advisor, their current broker in a couple of years. You know, once they get in touch with you, what's that process like as they start to get a second opinion and see if maybe you can provide a better plan for them?

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, we make it super easy. You know, we want it to be easy for folks to get that knowledge, that information, and build that confidence and clarity in their plan. And if they don't have a plan, hey, we're the ones that are get together, get it together for you. That's all we do. Goals based, planning focused on it 100%. And so we make it super easy. We've got the website take point wealth. If you've got your smartphone in your hand, just type it in. Right. And we're going to come up. You can click on it and it's going to bring you up on the top right hand corner. You'll see schedule of consultation. Just click that button. You go right into our calendar and it's just a 15 minute chat or a phone call. You know, we're just going to talk to you, get to know you, find out what it is that might be on your mind. You might not have anything on your mind. Maybe just like, Hey, maybe I'll just give these guys a call and just have them kind of check up on what I'm doing. That's fine, too. We love that. And so and then it's going to be an exchange of information and data to where we can really kind of evaluate things for you. And then we're just going to come back to you and offer you 25 years of experience of the mistakes that we've seen.

Erick Arnett:
So imagine doing this for 25 years, day in and day out, the mistakes that we've seen. And so I think we have a pretty good knowledge and a pretty good basis basis for helping folks optimize. We want you to be able to optimize your retirement plan and maybe your retirement plans, even meeting your goals currently. And you're like, Hey, I'm fine, I don't need to change anything, but are you truly optimizing it? Something as corny as an analogy like, Hey, my car is running great, but if I take it in for the tune up and put a little gas additive or what's that STP stuff in there, I might get some more horsepower, I might get some better gas mileage or whatever, you know, just corny analogy, I get it. But, you know, I think that it's interesting to me how we'll plan for a vacation. Well, we'll run around like chickens with our heads cut off doing all kinds of things in life. But we won't sit down and evaluate and take care of our money and put the time and effort into. It might be a lot of things. It might be. It might be a lack of trust, you know. And, you know, that's what we pride ourselves on.

Erick Arnett:
We're relationship people. We're relationship managers. We're fiduciaries. We put your interests before our own and we're truly, truly passionate about it. And, you know, it's so, so important. Too many people think that their retirement planning is just about that rate of return. But guess what? They have no income plan. And so what's the number one thing that folks worry about? The number one thing that's surveyed is running out of money. So you've got to have an income plan if you're close to retirement or in retirement. It's not just about a rate of return. Let's let's get a solid income plan in place for you. You know, we we find that too many people have no clue about their bonds. And in many cases, bonds are 40% of their portfolio. So we've talked about it. We've harped on it. You're paying fees on that 40%. That 40% is also got a negative return. It's dragging your portfolio down. It's not hedging against stock market risk any longer. So we've got to make changes there. We also find that too many people have no plan for health care expenses. This is a big problem, Sam. A big problem. Folks are not planning for their health care expenses. And health care is going to be extremely challenging, extremely expensive throughout retirement.

Erick Arnett:
So we've got to plan for that and put strategies in place to be able to optimize that as well. And it surprises me how many people have no legacy, no plan for their beneficiaries, no will, no estate plan. You know, everybody has to have at least the most basic estate planning. We have a large background, an extensive background in helping folks put together a solid estate plan. So we can also help you with that and make sure your beneficiaries are in place. Sam, you had a horror story you were telling me earlier about how somebody found out that after their spouse passed away, they forgot to change the beneficiary on the life insurance and it went someone somewhere else as opposed to where it was really needed to go. And so that's a huge problem. We've got to we've got to reevaluate beneficiaries, reevaluate your estate plan. If you've recently moved to Florida, you need to have a Florida will a Florida trust signed, documented, witnessed by a Florida attorney. You know, that's paramount. So let's let's get together that estate plan. And how does that estate plan work inside of your retirement plan or your long range plan? Do you have life insurance in place? Are you potentially going to be paying high estate taxes? We don't know. So let's look at that for you.

Erick Arnett:
In our experience, many people haven't even thought about what they want to do every Saturday, so and how they're going to pay for it. So one of the first things, you know, like you said, how what's it like to work with us? I mean, the first thing I ask people when I pick them up, pick up the phone and start channeling them, I was like, so what are you doing? You know, are you in retirement? Are you close to retirement? What's retirement look like to you and what are you doing in retirement and what are you going to be doing in retirement? And let's build a plan around that. So it's so, so important to constantly evaluate this. Every family, every individual, every business, every everybody out there has to have a solid budget in place, a solid income statement in place, which is your cash flow expenses in, money in, expenses out. You've got to be evaluating that constantly, especially with all the inflation. Right. We're going to go through and list off some kind of shocking increases. Inflation. I know everybody's feeling it. They're feeling it at the pump. They're filling out at the grocery store, you know. So it's crazy to me that people haven't sat down and just thought about this and said, hey, what's retirement look like to me? What am I doing? And how can I meet those goals comfortably and and sleep at night? And we can pull that all together for folks.

Erick Arnett:
And that's what we do and that's what we love to do every day and we're passionate about. Can't wait to hear from you. Give us a call. 3526160511. If you if you just want to click on our website right there on your phone, you can schedule a consult to come right into our calendar and we'll be happy to chat with you. So we're just going to deliver to you free of charge, the most optimized plan that we can put together for you under current conditions. And then we're going to test that plan 1000 different ways to make sure it stands up to future conditions. And so there's no surprises. And and we want you to have that confidence and that clarity, no matter what's happening in the world, no matter what's happening in the markets where the feds. Raising rates, lowering rates, whether it's inflation, deflation, whatever there is in combinations thereof, we want to be able to for you to be able to weather all storms and have that tactically managed, constantly evaluated retirement plan with constant communication. And that's just how we that's how that's just how we roll here at take point.

Sam Davis:
Yeah. Eric, it's so interesting what you pointed out there that people have been working hard 30, 40, sometimes 50 years. They're making good money. They're saving good money. But too often they're they're concerned about just that rate of return. Right. They haven't even thought about what they want to do once that day comes and they cross that finish line, so to speak, in their career and all of a sudden they're retired. Every day is like a weekend day. And, you know, really what what you're able to do is you're almost a problem solver for people as they plan and enter and maybe they're in their first few years of retirement. You know, what are your goals and how are we going to accomplish those financially? Because you've worked hard for these decades, like we mentioned, and now we want to help you make sure you check off every box that you want to check off, whether it's traveling, whether it's maybe helping out children, grandchildren with weddings, college expenses, whatever. Everybody has different goals, like you said. Right. And you just want to make sure that you're able to fund those goals and also enjoy the retirement you worked so hard for.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, I mean, I can think of numerous examples of how we've helped and how we can continue to help folks. And and it's just about sharing our experiences and sharing what we've learned in the past and the mistakes that people make and, you know, things that are overlooked. And and Sam, you know, there's got to be new ideas brought to the table all the time. So if you haven't had or received a new idea from your advisory team in a long time, you know, then things are getting a little stale. You know, we we treat our clients at least on an annual basis. We reevaluate everything again. And maybe we change things and we reevaluate and we get and make some changes. You know, we're not just putting something in place and letting it sit there for 20, 30 years. And we're you're not going to hear from us again. You know, it's got to be constantly massaged and change them. I can think of this one example recently we've got a a divorced female and she had over 400,000 a split tax deferred retirement account. And, you know, her current advisor just was going through the motions and was like, hey, yeah, you know, it is what it is. And, you know, here's your IRA. It's all set up for you and you got to take these RMDs or whatever and you got to take this big disbursement.

Erick Arnett:
You're going to pay taxes. And and so there was no there was no strategy. There was no innovation. There was no ideas brought to the table. And we just introduced one what we think is a simple topic or a simple idea that folks tend to overlook. And it was like, hey, you know, you're concerned about taxes. And so what about investing in a ten pay in index, universal life policy? You know, she's going to put $2,000 a month away that allows her money to grow in an index. And she's also has this huge death benefit now as well. And this also allows her later on in life to take loans or take money out of the policy tax free. So this is a legal and ethical strategy for protecting and growing your money tax free and one that's constantly overlooked. So, you know, whether it's converting now or even if you're in RMD phase and you're getting those RMDs, let's look at putting a life insurance policy in place and magnifying multiplying that money. Life insurance is an awesome multiplier so you can take a certain amount of dollars and instantly multiply it. So really important to just constantly kind of be bringing those new ideas to the table. And that's something that we pride ourselves here at take point.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, you know, I'm thinking back to our right or wrong game that we played in the first segment and we were talking about the traditional 6040 portfolio. And some people are still honoring that tradition for some reason, even though it's it's not exactly the the best strategy for investing in 2022. You know, you Eric, you're entrenched in this stuff every single day. You've been in the business for years and there's constantly new products, new strategies, new ways to arrange people's portfolio depending on their goals. Maybe they really are interested in growth. They have enough money they're happy with with what they've got from pensions and Social Security. Now they just want to grow their money for others. They want to protect what they have. And so you're able to bring these new strategies to the table, strategies such as structured notes and other options to help people protect and grow their wealth.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, because, you know, more than ever. You know, our retirees and our pre-retirees, you're going to be faced with some some really high expenses, ones that we never even saw coming. The big increase in inflation is is hitting everywhere. So your medical costs are going to be higher. Your food costs, your gas costs, your travel, everything's going up. So if you have your money just sitting in a fixed income vehicle for protection and safety and it's not yielding anything, you're falling way behind, you know, way, way behind, you're losing money. That real rate of return is a negative. So if you're you know, and that traditional 6040 portfolio, not only is it crushed this year, you know, probably down 20%, 15%, maybe 30%, down huge, even in a regular kind of year where, you know, things are bumping along, that portion of that portfolio is not is yielding you to 3% if you're lucky. So let's just say you got a total return on a 6040 portfolio in a good year of 5%. Well, if you take out your fees now, you may be net 4%. Well, if inflation is running an eight, 9%, you've lost those real dollars, that real money. And it's it's taken this to really kind of wake people up because we've talked about this for so long that and people just kind of don't think about it. Well, I'm not concerned about inflation. It's because we went through a lot, probably a ten year period where we had no inflation.

Erick Arnett:
Things just kind of stayed the same. Prices weren't really moving up in a crazy fashion. And we kept warning people about higher inflation, higher taxes. We've got a plan for this. And so if you have a portfolio that's just kind of dragging and it's making four or 5%, it's not going to cut it. You know, we've got to beat inflation at a minimum. So it's all about bringing these tactical strategies like structured notes, like index annuities, quality stocks, quality dividend paying stocks, you know, all of these types of things to meet that total return goal to where we can get you the income that you need and not have to worry about running out of money. So real important. If you've got those questions or those concerns, please give us a call. Reach out to take point wealth or schedule your appointment now at 3526160511. We're sitting by the phones. We can't wait to hear from you, can't wait to help you out and deliver some of our 25 years of knowledge. Also heading off at the pass, those potential mistakes that we've seen made throughout the years and so and also bringing new strategies to the table. So if you're sitting there and you haven't talked to anybody in a long time and you haven't implemented any new strategies or new ideas to your current retirement plan or portfolio, it's time. It's definitely time. You need to act now.

Sam Davis:
You know, Eric, I want to talk about I talked to a lot of people that have just entered retirement or getting ready for retirement. And, you know, the conversation starts just like you were outlining before. You know, what are your goals? And one of the most common goals that that in my experience retirees have is travel, right? They want to see the world, you know, they want to visit Australia, they want to go to Costa Rica. They want to travel all over the United States and see all the national parks. And I want to take a look at some of these inflation numbers, but just a few minutes left in the show today, because if one of your retirement goals is to travel, see the world, maybe go over to Italy, see what the pizza tastes like over there on the other side of the pond. And, you know, airfares just over the last 12 months up 34%. We all know about gasoline. You know, that contributes to the costs of travel, increasing regular gasoline up over 60%, hotels up 11 and one half percent. And, you know, we don't have a crystal ball. You know, we don't expect inflation to be quite as bad as it has been in the last 12 months forever. But how often in life do you see prices really dropping and things getting easier for you? So if one of your goals is to travel, you know, you definitely need to make sure that you're understanding that inflation is going to make things more expensive as we move forward.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah, great key points, man. I mean, eggs up 33%, butter up 21%. I mean, I know even my wife, she's gotten way more creative. I mean, she instead of just shopping in one spot, she's shopping multiple stores for the best prices. And and it literally she's shown me it saves hundreds of dollars a month. I mean, so that's huge. That's real money. So, you know, our retirees our seniors out there, they've got to be doing the same thing, you know, looking shopping during senior hours or shopping at stores that offer those senior and military discounts. You know, do that coupon clipping, you know, and look for those deals a buy one, get one, freeze, you know, all that kind of stuff. So. Shopping at convenience stores. Prices will be, for example, 80% higher for for peanut butter, 75% higher for milk, 53% higher for bananas. I mean, these are crazy astronomical increases that we've seen in such a short period of time. And we don't know for sure if those are going to go back down. I mean, you know, we have supply chain issues. We have huge transportation issues to get goods to and to and from where they need to be.

Erick Arnett:
And so these high prices might be with us for a long time. We don't know. So we've got to get more creative and find ways to add and increase that cash flow, money coming in versus money going out, creating that solid, solid income plan, taking everything into account. And guess what? A big part of that income plan is not getting creamed on taxes. Every time you sit down and write out a check to the taxman, we've got to try to reduce that as well, because that's a huge expense. And if your CPA or your tax account isn't talking to your advisor on a minimum of an annual basis, swapping ideas, going over your tax returns and finding ways to try to save, then that's wrong. We can offer you that here at take point wealth management, we have that total team. So we're looking at taxes, we're looking at fees and we're looking at your risk. We have all the tools in place. Medicare, Social Security maximization, plans. Please give us a call for a one stop shop. We're going to bring all that to you and build you the best possible optimize long term retirement plan that you deserve.

Producer:
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 BCM 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, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
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. Structured notes involve risks not associated with an investment in ordinary debt securities. The securities are not bank deposits and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. Nor are the obligations of or guaranteed by a bank. The securities will not be listed on any securities exchange and the secondary trading may be limited. Therefore, there may be little or no secondary market for the securities. Accordingly, you should be willing to hold your securities to maturity. The securities are subject to the credit risk of the issuing bank, and any actual or anticipated changes to its credit rating or credit spreads may adversely affect the market value of the securities. 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.

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