TPOR 6-24-22 FULL SHOW.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

TPOR 6-24-22 FULL SHOW.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:
Welcome to Take Point on retirement radio. Welcome to our listeners. And now I believe we're also bringing on listeners in the Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Sarasota market. So that's super exciting. Welcome to those listeners. Also, welcome to the Adventure Coast, the Nature Coast, Tampa Bay in general. And we also have the pleasure and privilege of having Mr. Randall Woodruff, CPA extraordinaire, with us today. Mr. Randall, say good morning to everybody.

Randall Woodruff:
Well, good morning, everyone. I'm kind of flattered by that and humbled by that intro. I don't like a lot to live up to there, but. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. And we have a great show plan for you and lots of great information. So I won't I'll just stop there and let Eric get right into it.

Erick Arnett:
Well, thank you, sir. Yeah, I mean, tons of always good stuff to talk about. Literally too much to talk about in a our time frame. But we're going to try to talk about as much as we can. And if you don't catch it, you can always catch us on our Take Point on retirement podcast channel, all of our shows rerun there. So any of your Spotify guys or any place that you get a podcast, right?

Sam Davis:
Sam Yeah, that's right. The listeners can find you wherever podcasts are found. So whether you miss part of this show, you got to run and you can't catch the end. Or maybe you missed part of another show. You can go on to the podcast feed and find take point on retirement there. You can poke around on the website, take point on retirement, watch some videos, listen to some shows there as well. And also book an appointment with Eric and the team over there at Point Wealth Management. And yes, Eric, we're on a new station this weekend and happy to be in the Nature Coast, Tampa, and then all the way down towards Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. And so we are bringing information to more listeners than ever this weekend. So we're glad you're with us.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah. And if you guys want to reach out to me, you're listening to the show and you have questions. It's pretty simple. I mean, you just take your smartphone and Google take point on retirement or take point wealth and our website will come up there. You just click on that. And in the upper right hand corner, you can actually select a time to chat with me and on your own schedule and it'll pop right into my schedule. And really we'll just the first appointment or first time is just a real laid back chit chat just to see what's on your mind, what questions or concerns you might have. And, and I know that this year, 2022, has been a quite, quite a volatile year, quite an exciting year. And I'm sure that a lot of folks have a lot of questions. The show has been extremely successful and quite humbled with all of the folks that are listening and the calls that we get. And unfortunately, Sam, I get a little passionate about this, but I still am hearing so many mistakes that people are making. So I just have to get real here. And the topic of the show or the outline for the show today, we called What What I would Do If I Were You. And, you know, I really just need to share with folks, if you're listening, please take the time to sit down, get a pen and paper and write this out, because I feel like people are just constantly being steered in the wrong direction and it's really disappointing and concerning.

Erick Arnett:
I'll just use an example. The gentleman call in a few weeks back and and he had he said he had 450,000 in his portfolio and it had crashed to around 300,000. And he sold out. He panicked. He said, Eric, I panicked. I sold out. And I said, All right, well, listen, you know. Not a lot of damage has been done here. Let's get back together. Let's put a plan together because obviously this gentleman didn't have a plan in place and he admittedly so has words to me was yeah, I was probably in the wrong thing at the wrong time. And so there's so many people out there I think can learn from this particular example. And, you know, the gentleman was supposed to come in and see me and we were going to do a retirement plan and put together a full plan like we call our smart plan, which we'll get into early later on today and end up call and say he's not coming in and he was going in a different direction and that he figured it out. So, you know, I'm not quite sure what he figured out, but I believe probably what's happened is, you know, these big companies out there have guys, really skilled people on the phone and probably called in and said, hey, you know, I'm probably going to move my money.

Erick Arnett:
And they coached him to just go right back into a passive static mutual fund portfolio. Again, because I know this particular company and you know, I want to talk about I think we've talked about on past shows, but it's really important how that traditional portfolio, that portfolio of conventional wisdom, that kind of blanket portfolio strategy that's been put out there by the industry and everybody, it's been drilled into everybody's head and even advisors out there and financial, financial advisors, brokers, insurance guys, you know, they've been trained one way and they they just lead with that over and over again. And it's basically this, you know, it's like, okay, we're going to have you fill out a form. It's called a questionnaire, an investment questionnaire. And from that questionnaire, you're going to get a score and we're going to score you. And that's going to tell you. Tell us what portfolio you should go in. And it's going to be for most retirees, it's going to be that moderate to moderate, aggressive type portfolio where you got about 60% in stocks, 40% in bonds or fixed income, maybe a 5050 blend, maybe even a 730 blend. I've been pointing out to folks that if you have that much fixed income in your portfolio, it's really hurting you. And it's been dragging.

Erick Arnett:
And sure enough, year to date alone, the bond markets down 12%. So that side of the portfolio that was supposed to be that hedge against the stock market, that was supposed to have an inverse relationship to the stock market, when the stock market goes down, bonds go up and it's supposed to be your safety net. Well, guess what? There's been several occurrences now over the last five years where that's exactly the opposite of the case. When bonds are going down, stocks are going down. This year has been a perfect example. Everything's been going down other than maybe energy. Right. So it doesn't matter if you're in bonds, cash, short term bonds, long term burns, corporate bonds, stocks, dividend paying stocks, Dow stocks, small cap, large cap, mid mid-cap. It doesn't matter where international doesn't matter. Everything's been pulled down in this market decline. And so, you know, so not only are you losing money in the stocks, but you're also losing money in your fixed income and you're paying a fee on top of that for someone to manage the money, or you're probably paying some internal fees on mutual funds. And so that conventional portfolio that's worked, you know, for 50 or 6000 years, that conventional wisdom, hey, we're just going to stick you in a mutual fund portfolio and we're going to rebalance it for you. I mean, if you have all that fixed income in your portfolio and 95% of America does, because I talk to people every day, I look at portfolios every day and it's the same thing.

Erick Arnett:
And even those target return funds that folks have in their retirement in 41k plans, just a disaster. You know, and looking forward, if you even talk to some of the best of the best in the bond market and the stock market, they're saying that if you have that conventional portfolio, you're lucky if you're going to make 2 to 3% on average after fees. So how are you going to keep up with inflation? You're just treading water. So there's a completely different way. We've been talking about it for years and we utilize a lot of different investments that in that are alternatives to fixed income and alternatives to the bond market. Because one thing that we've been talking about for years and years and years now is interest rate risk. When you have extremely low interest rates and the interest rates start to rise, either whether the Fed is increasing them or whether they're just rising based on general market conditions, that your bond portfolio is your fixed income mutual funds. Heck, you might even have a mutual fund that you think doesn't have bonds in it, and I bet you it does have some bonds in it somewhere. So in a rising interest rate environment, which we're in current. Bonds go down in value. They have an inverse correlation to the prices.

Erick Arnett:
So. So not only you're losing in stocks, but you're losing in bonds. And so that anchor, that traditional hedge, that conventional portfolio has not worked over the last 2 to 3 years. And I venture to say it won't work going forward now either. So we have answers here at take point on retirement, take point wealth, and we can lead you in the right direction and set up a great plan for you, what we call the smart plan. And we can actively manage that for you. And we'll show you and we'll teach you and educate you on the alternatives that we're using for bonds, which is really important when you're a retiree, because you need safe money, you need safe growth, but more importantly, you need income and you need safe income. And I venture to say, unfortunately, there's probably a lot of people out there, even some of our listeners right now that may have a portfolio that has fixed income in it, and they think it's safe and it's going to produce income. But if you're losing principal value, then it doesn't really help at all to get the income right. So and if you get lured in by some kind of like, oh, you know, we have this really high rate and it's going to take care of your income needs. Guess what? There's probably some risk there somewhere that you've got to be careful about.

Erick Arnett:
And so just a common, common mistake. If you have that just traditional good old portfolio, it's time to allow us to kind of flip your brain and reeducate you. We have a ton of tools to do that. We offer free books. We offer our time completely free to you. We don't charge you a dime to help you and lead you in the right direction. So I just want to kind of talk about that in the opening intro today. It's just a big, big, big looming mistake that I see constantly happening. And if you're in the right plan and you're in the smart plan, guess what? Our phone hasn't been ringing. You know, our clients, our our our folks are comfortable. They're in a great plan. They understand what's going on and they're well diversified. And we've already headed off a lot of those certain conditions at the off at the pass a year ago or more by changing the portfolio. So just real, real important to to to call take the time. I know it's summer. I know we got a lot going on and the last thing we want to talk about is finances. But it's more important now than ever. It is to take a little bit of time and sit down and educate yourself and walk through it. And that's why we're really hoping that you all give us a call.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, and I think that's a great message to the listeners. Eric So whether this is your first episode of Take Point on retirement or you've been listening to Eric and the team talk here on tape point on retirement for years, it's time to get in touch. You can go online to take point wealth dot com. You can listen to the show, watch some videos and learn more at take point on retirement dot com or give them a call at 3526160511.

Randall Woodruff:
You know, Eric, a few minutes ago, you mentioned as you were talking, you brought up a great point that so often financial advisors will have a client come in, fill out a questionnaire and they score. Then they put them in some portfolio that's already been predetermined and hear a take point. We don't have any predetermined portfolios. Everything we do is is custom built, custom made custom design for you, you, the client, and what your needs are both today and long term. So it's very important that here again, I've said this before on prior shows, a lot of this have worked at companies where go into HR, when you go to work, there you go, sit down with the HR director and they give you, you know, ten, 15, 20 mutual funds to pick from. And you really don't get any management advice. You get no financial advice. And so we've kind of become accustomed to that's how investment should be. That's just what we've learned from where we worked at. Yeah, yes. I didn't forget it. You know, and you know, you don't have to do that. You know, you don't have to do that anymore. So please come in. Come see us. Let us sit down with you. We're going to spend a few meetings with you, getting to know you, understanding what you need, what's been, what's going to benefit you here again, both today and in the future. And we're going to put together a plan that works for you today. And we're going to put together you put together a plan that we can that's going to be nimble, that we can change up as your needs or as the market, or is the economy or as the circumstances run as change. Your plan is going to change with you and it's going to be so. But it's important that you come in and you come see us. And the interaction, the communication is very important.

Erick Arnett:
We believe that there's now now's the time more than ever to really look at three things. And one is most importantly, Sam. Right, stay invested. In our intro, we talked about this one particular case. You know, for those folks that are kind of jumping in, jumping out, you know, in time in the market, it's going to be quite damaging. You know, there's numerous, numerous studies out there. Don't take our word for it. One of them's the Dow Bar study. You can Google it. Dal Bar, just Google Bar and read it. Read it yourself. You know, investors, the retail investor, the common investor, the folks out there listening that are trying to manage their own money or just managing it with somebody over the phone at one of these big companies and these big mutual fund companies. I won't mention their names, but, you know, they're they're going to they they they based on this study, they underperform the markets by more than 50% this year. It was even worse in 2021. They underperformed another -10% below what the markets are. So it's huge. So all these mistakes are being made, but mostly because of panic and fear and emotions. A lot of emotions around money. And that's one thing that, you know, at some point it might make sense for you to hand over the reins and let the professionals take care of your money for you.

Erick Arnett:
You still got to get involved and be educated and understand what's going on. But we don't. We take all the emotion out of investing and we build portfolios. We build long term retirement plans that stand the test of time. And we basically will show you how we do that. We'll walk you through it and we will show you how we stress test what you're currently doing. We can test what you're currently doing. We'll throw 1000 scenarios at it. Good markets, bad markets, combinations thereof of higher rates, lower rates, deflation, inflation. I mean, you name it, we throw everything at your portfolio to see how it's going to hold up and we can pull out the risk, we can pull out the fees, we can pull out the, you know, the inefficiencies and truly optimize your plan to where it's going to work for you long term and work for you personally. What are your goals? What are your needs? They're very different than your neighbors. So you just can't you can't have the same old conventional portfolio that everybody has. And if you are working and you are working hard and you were just putting away in your 401k and you had one of those target return funds and just, you know, you didn't really know exactly what you were doing, but you just knew you were contributing and saving towards retirement.

Erick Arnett:
That's fine. But now you're in a totally different stage. That was the accumulation stage. Now you're in the preservation and income stage where we've got to teach you and show you the ways in which you can create income and long term stability in your portfolio. And so and we can do that and we can show you we have the tools where we can reduce the risk, reduce the fees, and at the same time protect the portfolio and give you the growth and income that you need going forward. So but it's going to take a little effort on on your on your part. The listeners, you've got to give us a call and just give us your time. That's it. Give us your time and we'll do everything else for you. Schedule our appointment now it's 35261605. One one. I'm standing by the phone all the time. If you get my voicemail, please leave me a message. I'm probably talking to somebody else on the phone. But call today, you know, call us tomorrow. If you don't have time to call right now, write this number down. 3526160511. Absolutely free, no obligation. We will show you our smart plan, which includes our smart safe, our smart growth legs. And, you know, they've stood the test of time and we really want to share that with you.

Erick Arnett:
But you got to stay invested, Sam. You need to have that smart, smart risk investments like structured notes, you know, and most people, this is probably the first time they've heard that name structured notes. So let's talk about it, learn about it. But you can you can get some really attractive rates, you know, and it's an alternative to fixed income. These are typically one year terms. So your money is locked up for a year and you're going to get some kind of coupon rate of return. That's guaranteed. But they're also tied to the markets in ways in which they utilize options to enhance returns. So there is some downside, but your portfolios are really protected substantially in the decline. We need to show you how that's buffered and how that works. But just another creative tool to add to the portfolios as a fixed income, fixed income alternative, because right now call your broker and have him talk about this. I would like for you to ask him. Let's just talk about fixed income only. How much fixed income are is in my portfolio currently. What am I paying for it in fees and what has been the return on that portion of the portfolio? Please, folks, just if you don't do anything, reach out and get that information the way you're currently invested and then call us and we'll show you the alternative to that.

Erick Arnett:
So also, you've got to take advantage of two types of tax free investments, the Roth IRAs and then life insurance, you know, Roth IRAs. You pay your taxes up front, then you take free withdrawals as you wish. And it's one of the most valuable and most important and unfortunately, most forgotten of the investment tools. It's tragic. We talk about this all the time. Nobody has a Roth. Nobody really knows how they work. Oh, I know. I hear a lot of times while I can't do a Roth. No, that's not probably true, because the laws of change is a lot of different things and you can definitely do a Roth conversion. But these are ways in which you can save on your taxes. Life insurance can also be a life insurance retirement plan where you build cash value and you can also take money out tax free. So I'm going to let the tax man ring in here a little bit and talk about some of the things that you see. Randi, you're working with folks every day. You're doing taxes every day, close to 30 years now. And so give us a kind of an insight on some of these tax advantaged ways to invest.

Randall Woodruff:
But thank you, Eric. And you bring up a great point that not many folks have a Roth IRA. And it's it's been around, say, 15 years now, maybe longer. And it's amazing how many people don't have them and how they've heard about them, but they don't have one. And so we are we are educating our clients have been a lot more in the last at least five years, especially the younger generation. You get that compounding effect of starting earlier, just like in a traditional IRA, but you put the money into the Roth instead. When you get to retirement, you're going to have a significant amount of money coming out tax free. And as we've spoken on this show many, many times over the last couple of three years, you know, tax rates are on sale as our belief. And and you take a look at how much debt we have nationally, over $30 trillion now. So tax rates are going to have to go up. And the usually you've heard the expression you can't get blood out of a turnip, you know, so they're going to they're going to tax people that can afford to pay. And typically, people that have excess income, passive income, that's usually where they're going to target. So they're going to say they're going to target the wealthy, the millionaires first. But, you know.

Erick Arnett:
For you.

Randall Woodruff:
Yeah, this usually starts once they start, you know, potentially they they keep trickling down. You know, one of the things I want to talk about just briefly in terms of of tax and how I'm doing this now almost 30 years and every year inflation's gone up every year, depending upon what year was, inflation had been more or less aggressive. But they Congress has not raised in at least 28 years I've been doing this and many years before that the Congress has not raised the baseline of when Social Security becomes taxable. So every year, a little bit a little bit more of your income, especially your Social Security, becomes taxable. So, you know, here again, I think it's important. And that's. And you don't feel it. It's a little bit here. A little bit there. But that begins to eat away over time at your retirement dollars. And so these tax free investments, a Roth IRA, definitely everybody needs to be looking at. Look at that. Talking to your children and grandchildren about it, doing a Roth conversion, as Eric mentioned, also to life insurance. I know that I've heard many, many times that a popular belief is, you know, it comes to life insurance by term and invest the rest.

Randall Woodruff:
You know, don't buy a whole life or don't buy other types of policies that build cash, surrender value. And, you know, maybe that's true. And maybe when you're younger in life and you don't have a lot of excess income and you're trying to allocate where you need to put those life insurance dollars and you have limited resources. Okay, maybe you do need to buy just a term life insurance policy, but as you age and you begin to have more income to invest. Life insurance is not just a tool to protect against risk. It is an investment is an investment class. As we've talked about on this show many times. It can be a tax free, it can be tool, it can be a tool for tax free income and retirement. So, you know, don't rule out life insurance as an option, as an investment. And especially if you're looking for tax free income and we all should be looking for tax free income. Life insurance is a very, very powerful tool to help accommodate that.

Erick Arnett:
Very well said, sir. And while you are speaking so eloquently, I was had a thought and I think it's important for our listeners to know is that is just not a guest speaker on our show today. I mean, he's a part of Take Point Wealth Management team and that's, you know, at Take Point when we're building our team and building our company, we thought it was so, so important that folks had the tax the tax advice and the tax side of things, as well as the wealth management, the financial planning and the retirement planning. So we've created, you know, a team here where we're a one stop shop. We're going to be able to do your taxes for you and make sure that they're right in line with what you're doing. On the investment side, you know, typically 95% of America, Randy, you know, they're going to have their CPA over in one part of the town working in their shop and then they got an advisor somewhere else. And those people may not even talk at all. They might even be adversaries. You know, I don't know. But one thing that we love and we think works great for our clients is that we're in we're in meetings together. So if you're a tax advisor or CPA for in the business for 30 years is in the same room with your investment advisor that's been in the business 25 years. I think there's a lot of power there and we have caught so many mistakes and have been able to help people by having that power in one room. And so it's so, so important that everything's synchronized and working well and and having that team in place to be able to provide that for you and be that one stop shop, I think is super important.

Sam Davis:
I'll visit them online at take point on retirement. Thanks for listening to Take Point on Retirement. And we'll be back in a moment.

Producer:
The heat is likely not the only thing making you sweat this summer. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by a life. With energy prices soaring and record breaking heat waves across the country, the cost of cooling your home could set you back a pretty penny this year. The Wall Street Journal reports the average American household will pay $540 in electricity bills during the summer months, up $90 from a year ago. An air conditioning can make up a big chunk of that total, especially in hotter and more humid areas of the country. Sarah Baldwin is with the think tank Energy Innovation.

Sam Davis:
Because we have a confluence of factors, the increased price for both gas and oil, as well as natural gas in homes and buildings and a an extremely hot summer and likely to be record heat all over the country as well as the world, largely due to climate change. We're feeling the pressures on both sides.

Producer:
But if you think there's nothing you can do to ease the pain, you'd be wrong, Baldwin says. There are some things you can do that will cost you only a little, if anything at all.

Sam Davis:
Paying attention to when you're turning on appliances, when you're turning on the AC, if you have a thermostat that you can program setting that thermostat to a modest temperature instead of going straight to really, really cold, looking at what kind of window coverings you.

Producer:
Have, other improvements may be a bit more costly.

Sam Davis:
Update your air conditioner to the most efficient unit. A heat pump. Air conditioner is going to be your best bet. You can also look at replacing windows and doors. Those can be a bit more costly but can have huge benefits in the long term.

Producer:
And don't overlook your power company. It could have some programs or incentives to help you cut back on energy use and save yourself some money in the long term, Baldwin says renewable energy is the way to go since prices are much less volatile than things like oil and gas.

Sam Davis:
The sun, the wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, other carbon free sources like nuclear are all generally very cost stable relative to their more volatile and spiking fossil fuel counterparts.

Producer:
So how will you survive the summer heat and its impact on your wallet as you plan for retirement? That's a key question to consider as the mercury and inflation keep going up with the retirement radio network powered by a marine life. I'm Matt McClure. 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.

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

Randall Woodruff:
Derek, you bring up a great point about about us working together and it's been for me for years I've been looking for someone to partner up with you have in the office because so often I'll meet with a client, we'll talk about their investment, their portfolio, how unhappy they are with the market and happy with their performance. And or there's talking about retirement ideas, you know, and, and so and so we would have discussions and they would leave the office and nothing would get done, you know. So having you in the office, having you right literally right around the corner, you know, to meet with those clients, to least make an introduction, to come in for a future meeting. And then if you want to collaborate, know, we talk several times throughout the day about client issues, ideas, strategy, whether it be investments, whether it be tax. And and as Eric's in here, especially right now, when people are looking to move their portfolio around a little bit, you know, shifting things around, there's potentially tax complications with that. So being able to Eric can just call me, I can walk into a meeting right around the corner, answer the question for the client right there. You know, that just increases the I to call it the efficiency of the meeting, but it definitely helps decisions get made. The conversation can continue and the client can can walk out of the meeting, making decisions, being informed, and being able to execute on a plan we put together for them.

Erick Arnett:
So we're a holistic family advisory firm. So Randall is also a licensed real estate broker. He's also very well versed in business business transactions, setting up LLCs, whether what kind of structure you should have, you know, and then talking to multiple generations on how we're going to pass the wealth down. Estate planning, that's huge. We we don't have an in-house attorney, but we kind of do because we have a partner who's part of our family. He's right across the street hanging back and hang your spark. They're an amazing firm, and that's all they really focus on is estate planning, real estate transactions. So we bring them into the team. I spent the beginning of my career working inside a trust and investment management department, and that's all we did was trust high net worth estate planning. So Randy brings the tax side to everything. So there's nothing we can't do here, which we're proud of. You know, we can also do all the complicated insurance legacy planning so we can actually build. We can actually now build a tailored life insurance plan for each family in each situation. So we've been able to structure and we have relationships where we can structure holistic life insurance plans as well. So we do the whole thing here.

Erick Arnett:
We do it all all under one umbrella. And you know, what I need to stress to folks is and it's not expensive. You know, a lot of times when you sit down with us and we do the fee analysis of what you're currently doing and kind of what you're doing on your own, it's kind of a mis, I guess, misrepresentation out there or conventional wisdom thinks, oh, if you work with an advisor, it's expensive. And that's not the case. A lot of times what we show people is when we're done and we're putting our plan in place, which includes structured notes, indexed annuities, stocks, you know, life insurance, Roth accounts, whatever it may be, it might even be less expensive to work with us. When we show him, we'll show you everything in black and white as a fiduciary. We're licensed fiduciaries. You know, we share the fees. There's no hidden fees. You see that? Come right out on your statement every month so you know what you're paying and that's important. And so, you know, when when it's all said and done, it might not be more expensive to have a team by your side. And so the best of the best out there, the smartest entrepreneurs, the most wealthy businessmen, the most wealthy investors.

Erick Arnett:
Heck, Mr. Buffett. Right. If we think of the most smartest investor that we kind of as a famous guy in our country, Warren Buffett, I mean, he has a team of people around him, right? So if you're an individual sitting out there or you're the head of the household, why would you not surround yourself with a team? You're still in control. You're still calling the shots. It's your money. But you have a team by your side that's going to treat your wealth and your money and your retirement plan just like it was ours. You know, that's how passionate we are because your money is important to us. It's extremely important to us and it's extremely important to us to grow it. You know, we don't do well unless you do well. If if if the if the market's going up, if fees are going up, or if your portfolio is going up, that means we're doing well. Because if the market goes up and your account goes up, then so is our revenue. And so we're in the game with you. So it's we have all the skin in the game. We want to grow your portfolios. We want to grow your retirements long term.

Randall Woodruff:
You know, more than one occasion I've been very impressed with I've had a client come in, they can get their taxes done. We start talking about income and different things. And I see them more than one occasion where we have been able to offer, I'll say, one type of product that saw multiple needs, needs for a client. And so one of the things I've been impressed about we're working with Eric is his knowledge of product just product knowledge, all the different things that are out there that that clients can participate. And we talked earlier in the show about Roth IRAs and life insurance and and how those just the Roth IRA and then life insurance, how many different options people can use life insurance for annuities. There's tremendous amount of annuity products out there and and riders and add ons that you can do to cover multiple risks. And that's one of the things here you're working with Eric that, you know, his his product knowledge is just really tremendous. It's immense. And so if you if if if you're not working with an advisor and you think that you can do it on your own or you've been doing it on your own, you really owe it to yourself to come in, educate yourself, because there you know, you'd be surprised. I'm surprised so often about the things that we can do for clients with products. And and here again, I'm not the product guy, but I'm just amazed time and time again at the different products that are out that we put our. Lines into and and how they'd benefit from them.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah. And Randi, it's really just about. Communication and having the time to treat each family, each individual that comes into our office as just that an individual. And to customize and to tailor and to take the time to truly get to know that person and that family, what their needs are, what their goals are. Long term objectives. Unfortunately. There's so many people out there that have fallen into this investment model with these bigger companies, and they're just basically prescribed the same thing across the board. And that's why mutual funds have so much money in them. You know, you don't know the mutual fund manager. You know, he doesn't know you, you know. So it's just so, so important. You might be pleasantly surprised that you can work with a great team here on the Sunshine Coast. I mean, I guess we're all the way up and down the coast of Florida now, which is so exciting. And, you know, let's have that chat first and foremost over the phone and just get to know each other and figure out what it is that we can possibly help you with. Give us a call. 3526160511 or jump on your phone. Just Google take point wealth or take point on retirement and you'll come right to our website and you can click in the upper right hand corner for a free consultation and get right on our calendar. And that's the first step is just a chit chat. You know, there's absolutely no obligation.

Erick Arnett:
You're only going to work with us if it makes sense and it's best for you. And quite frankly, we don't work with everybody. Not everybody is a good fit for our program and our process. And so that's OC But you know, let's at least go through that exercise and figure it out. Figure out if this 50 years of combined stuff that's stuck up in our brains can help you out with because we're we are true students of the game there's never a dull moment here at take point on on retirement or take point wealth. We're always in the game, constantly educating ourselves, you know, going all over the country, going to different investment seminars and meetings, bringing new ideas, new strategies and learning ourselves. I learned I've been doing this almost 25 years. I have all kinds of licenses and taking all kinds of investment courses, economics courses, you name it. And I'm still learning every day. And that's what that's the kind of advisory team that you want by your side as someone that's going to get in the game with you and takes great pride and constantly bringing new solutions to the table. And this year I think that's more important than ever. And it's probably going to bring to light some of the inefficiencies and problems that were maybe in some of America's portfolios. And now more than ever, we're offering to you our proprietary, what we call smart plan.

Erick Arnett:
And that smart plan has several legs to it. And, you know, Smart Safe, which is indexed annuities, the smart risk, which is smart growth, you know, utilizing structured notes, utilizing actively manage stock portfolios, using commodities, using gold. You know, we use a combination of all those to get you the get you to your two and three retirement. And so, you know, and then the smart tax part of it, super important. That's why we have Randy on the team. Smart tax planning. Those are the silent killers, fees, taxes and risk. Those are the three things. If we just focus on those three things, folks, we can really optimize your portfolio and your retirement plan for the long term. And that's what it's all about. It's not about trying to test this thing over a year or two or short timing things and time in the market. This is a plan that we put in place and we and then we test that plan for you right before your eyes. And we show you we do a stress test on on what we're offering and what our best ideas are to show you how it's going to hold up and what it would look like over time. So just confidence, clarity and hit your head on the pillow at night knowing that you're in the right place with with our proprietary take point smart plan, you owe it to yourself to reach out to us and learn more about it.

Randall Woodruff:
And Eric, you mentioned those three things. And one of the things was risk. One of the things that sticks out of my mind that we've we sat with clients so many times. We've seen, as you break down their portfolio, what they actually have in their portfolio, how how often they're surprised at how much risk they actually have in their portfolio and don't know it. They think they've got their portfolio spread over, you know, five, six, seven different mutual fund families and they think they've got diversification. And when you break down the underlying assets in those mutual funds, they're mostly holding the same assets across several fund families. And so, you know, so I think it's important that people really understand what risk is and how to define risk and how to quantify the risk, how you know, how much risk you actually have in your portfolio. And again, I can't stress enough if you haven't had Eric run your portfolio to a stress test and also take a look at the risk you have in your portfolio. You really owe it to yourself, especially if you're managing your own money. You might be unpleasantly surprised at how much risk you actually have in your portfolio.

Erick Arnett:
And those are all great, great points. And that's why we offer these stress tests or these x rays. So you may currently have annuities. If you're listening, we will offer you a free annuity x ray and we'll analyze your financial situation. We'll we'll dissect that annuity or whatever annuities you may currently have. And then hopefully we can offer you some better, better alternatives if we can. But we'll find out the fees you're currently paying. We'll find out the risk in that annuity, how it's structured, and compare your current situation to what's possible. If you work with us, if you haven't heard from your advisor lately, talk to us and get a second opinion. Fixed index annuities will allow you to eliminate and delete a portion of your portfolio and advisory fees that you are currently paying. So we right off the bat can reduce fees by introducing the indexed annuity as as the bond alternative into the cash alternative. And so and if you currently have an annuity, it might not be the right one for you. Maybe you might have maybe you were sold the wrong product. You know, and and that's one thing that we pride ourselves on here is being the experts and having the broad knowledge. We don't have to sell annuities. We're we're a full service licensed fiduciary firm. You know, we don't just sell annuities. It's not what we do. But if it makes sense to be a portion as a portion of your portfolio and it acts as a good tool, then I think it makes sense to have that and then to not ignore that and so reach out to us.

Erick Arnett:
Sam I think you can get we can get folks to Annuity 360 book and also possibly maybe we could play a chapter from Annuity 360 for our listeners just to give them a little taste, but a super great book written by a colleague of mine. Really easy read. Well, a great tool to educate yourself. We've got a stack of them here free in the office that we'd love to mail out to you for free just to get that out to you so you can read that. We had a gentleman read that book almost eight times, and I know I talk about him on the show all the time, but it's just a great story that if you don't get in the game and educate yourself, it's your money, folks. You know you're responsible for it. So make sure you get that book and reach out to us. And we're going to provide that free financial plan all the way up to age 95. You know, people are living longer. So we've got to think about this not as a what am I going to make this year in my portfolio? You know what? We've got to build a plan that's going to be successful, be stress free for your entire retirement. So that's well into your nineties. People are living into their nineties. So we've got to do that long range plan for you and we'll show it to you and we'll test it and put a little bow on it and let you look at it.

Sam Davis:
Yeah, we want people to learn more about what's out there and what's possible with their finances and planning for retirement. So you can reach out to Eric and the team over at Tech Point Wealth Management. Just go online to take point wealth dot com or go online to the show's website, take point on retirement, the phone numbers on the website, you can book a consultation as well. And yeah, get a copy of that book and learn a bit more about annuities. It is a life insurance product, you know, traditional life insurance such as term life or whole life, you know, that protects you from not living long enough, but an annuity protects you from living longer than maybe you expected because it truly does provide you an income for life. And Eric, yes, we are going to play a sample of that audio book now. We can send you a hard copy of the book, but we're going to go ahead and play an audio book chapter pertaining to bond replacement with fixed index. Annuities. And when we come back on the other side of this chapter, we'll talk a bit more about bond replacement.

Ford Stokes:
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 funds. At 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. 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.

Ford Stokes:
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 bonds 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 annuities. 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 of loan, 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, 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%.

Ford Stokes:
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. 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.

Ford Stokes:
Business risk. There are two types of risk 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:
Sam I absolutely love this book. And just to wrap it up, I mean, hopefully folks call in and we'll get that out to him free. But you're going to learn how to replace bonds with fixed indexed annuities. And bonds have just been like a melting ice cube strategy in this summer. It's been pretty hot out. Right. And you're slowly just your fixed income and bonds are just melting away. So you get market like gains without market risk. Delete advisory and portfolio management fees on that portion of your wealth and your portfolio. And most importantly, you've got to generate income that you can never outlive. And that's also something that these index annuities can do. And so having that smart income plan, you know, retirement is more about income than it is about building up one big nest egg. Many people will make the mistake of thinking that they have saved plenty for retirement than they actually have. So don't forget that an IRA is also tax deferred account. You know, Uncle Sam hasn't received his cut yet, folks. And, you know, we've been told that taxes are going up in the future. So he's licking his chops. He's going to be a 20, 30, 40% partner in your tax deferred retirement account. So let's talk about strategies to get him out of your pocket. And Randy, you want to say.

Randall Woodruff:
Something, you bring up a great point. And I think that people don't think about that near enough is as as people are putting together their their they'll do a personal financial statement or they'll do a personal balance sheet. And you just bring up a great point. People don't realize that those retirement accounts, those taxable retirement accounts, you know, you're looking at 20 to 30%, maybe more, depending what your income is, haircut on that account. So you don't have all the wealth that you think you do if you have a lot of your money in those taxable accounts.

Erick Arnett:
Yeah. And the other thing is when that money is rolling out of there, out of those qualified accounts, there's IRAs and those for one case, it's creating more taxation on your Social Security and increasing your Medicare premiums. So we've got to get a handle on that, get a handle on it quick. And that's why we encourage people also to budget spend wisely and consider implementing those fixed indexed annuities to protect and grow your wealth. I just wanted to reach out to all our first responders and our veterans out there. Take Point. Wealth Management is a veteran owned financial planning firm, so we're super proud to help you folks out. Give us a call. We've got a lot of incentives to really help help those folks out. And we're so thankful that you're listening and we hope that more and more tune in to us, our veteran nation. We're super proud of you and you're a part of our family and we're always going to take care of you guys, first and foremost. So just wanted to reach that out to everybody who's listening and and just stress once again that working with Take Point on retirement, we're going to focus on making your retirement fee efficient market efficient and tax efficient.

Erick Arnett:
So don't pay fees on bonds you're holding to generate income. So with fixed index annuities, you may you may pay no fees on that portion. So don't overpay for an underperforming asset class if you're in the markets, eliminate risk by moving some money out of the market and into an index in a way that offers you market like gains without market risk. And consider implementing that Roth IRA, that Roth conversion, you know, utilizing life insurance for the life insurance retirement plan so we can get the tax man out of your pocket. You know, it's just simple, real laid back when you work with us, give us a call. We're going to first just talk and chat a little bit and try to get you on the right path. So but having that plan is key, folks. Maybe you have a plan, maybe you don't have a plan. But if you do have that plan, let's test it. If you don't have a plan, let's build one for you. That's what we're passionate about here and super excited. Please give us a call. Can't wait to talk to you guys. Randy, anything to wrap up? We've got a few 30 seconds here.

Randall Woodruff:
You bring up a great point about there being no pressure here. You know, we're not here pushing products. We're not here pressuring you. We're not stock jockeys over here trying to say the latest stock that's hitting the market, the new IPO. You know, we're trying to build a plan for you. We're trying to build relationships for you that are going to get you into retirement and help you create that stress free retirement. So please give us a call. Don't delay. I'd love to talk to you. As Eric said time and time again, we love to talk to you. We're standing by waiting to take that call. And Sam, I think you're going to close your show out for us.

Sam Davis:
Give them a call. The folks over at Take Point, wealth management would love to work with you. Give them a call. 3526160511. And the phone numbers online at the website take point. Well, thanks, Eric.

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 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:
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Producer:
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.