RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:00:01]
ANNOUNCER: You’ve found it. It’s your safer place for retirement planning. Prepare to be coddled in pure fiduciary goodness, with your host and President of Decker Retirement Planning, Mike Decker. This is Safer Retirement Radio. If you’re in or near retirement, listen up and learn about a math-based, principle-based approach to retirement that is designed to help you enjoy a safer retirement. These strategies are to help protect and grow what you’ve saved. And live the life you want today. So, grab a pen, because your safer path to retirement planning starts now.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:00:37]
MIKE: Welcome everyone to Safer Retirement Radio, where you get the transparency that you deserve. I’m Mike Decker.
CLAYTON: And I’m Clayton Bradshaw.
MIKE: We’re having a good time already in the studio here. This show is about a focus on four tips to help avoid the next downturn in your market, and hint, it’s not going to cash. We’re gonna be breaking down those four tips today. This is gonna be a great show. I’m laughing because Clayton, you were just telling me about a story about your college days of when you were working at 1-800-CONTACTS, right?
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CLAYTON: Yep.
MIKE: Can you just tell that story one more time? ‘Cause it’s relevant to today. These tips of how to help avoid the next downturn are authentic. They’re principle-based and they’re not some stupid, like, sales tactic to try and sell you a product. You operate off of principles, not sales off of a product. And this is just such a classic example of marketing teams.
CLAYTON: Yeah, so, it was pretty funny, because when we were there. When I was just on the call floor, kind of doing that call center thing and there were…
MIKE: Good old college days.
CLAYTON: Right.
MIKE: Just take a job like this.
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CLAYTON: And their marketing team came out said, “All right. Everybody that’s answering the phones, needs to answer it by saying, ‘Thank you for calling 1-800-CONTACTS, where we are passionate about your eyes.'” I think it was the thought of being excited about their product. I think that was there, but there was a disconnect because there were several people who, when they heard…
MIKE: It’s on the phone.
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: How can you even know that?
CLAYTON: Right. And then we’d have people that would answer, and they’d say, “Oh, I never had anybody say anything that they were passionate about anything about me.”
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CLAYTON: So, it lasted for about a week or two, before it kind of fizzled out. And they realized that that could be taken out of context.
MIKE: Now, for all you Safer Retirement Radio listeners, the reason why I wanted to start with this joke, one, you just told me right before, so I had a hard time not laughing when the show started. ‘Cause that’s just so ridiculous. But two is, the financial industry is full of stupid tactics like this to try and get you to sign up for a product. Or do this single-minded strategy that doesn’t take the whole picture. Your retirement assets, your investments, have much more responsibility than growth.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:02:54]
MIKE: Which is all they had to do when you were in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, because you had income. You had employment. They just needed to grow. But in retirement, there’s a lot more than that. We’re gonna talk about that. Also, how to help avoid the next downturn so much more. I mean, I’ll just tell you right now, we’re gonna disclose one secret on diversification. We’re disclosing a secret on income. Hint, it’s not income annuities. The third topic here is about writing an effective retirement plan. And the fourth secret we’re gonna talk about or tip, is understanding your investments. There’s one or two questions that you can ask yourself to understand, “Is the investment correct for you or not?”
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:03:38]
MIKE: What you don’t wanna do is just parrot that one or two lines that your financial professionals told you to say in situations like this. Because, let me ask you. Last two weeks or so, how’s your portfolio doing? How’s that line working out for you? How are you feeling about your retirement after the coronavirus went in there and just shafted the markets? Here’s a statistic. This is not verified, so please don’t quote me on this. But this is the kind of statistics that people are parroting out there right now, and it’s just crazy. Someone said to me, saying that they claimed they heard it from a news source.
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MIKE: That 40 to 70 percent of Americans are gonna get the coronavirus within the next year or so. Now I don’t believe that to be true. But, oh my gosh. The things people say when they’re scared. So, it makes sense why the market is scared.
CLAYTON: Well, the market’s been doing a rollercoaster. I just looked at the five day, and I know it’s Wednesday when we’re recording this. I just looked at the last five days, and it is a rollercoaster. It’s been up, it’s been down. And it’s just kind of right back to where it was five days ago.
MIKE: And unless you have a crystal ball that tells you exactly when to buy and when to sell, understanding your diversification plan is critical.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:04:55]
MIKE: And all of you listening up right here, what I’m about to tell you is absolutely critical, because this is a huge flaw, I think, in financial suitability that is happening to you right now. Financial suitability revolves, essentially, around two data points. The first one is your age. Okay, that makes sense. Suitable investments for a 20-year old are very different than a 70-year old. But the second one revolves around your declared risk tolerance. And here’s my pushback.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:05:28]
MIKE: One, okay, you can declare whatever you want. But there’s no other conversation really about all the other investment goals that you have, because it’s your declared risk tolerance, and then the rest is just fancy sales footwork, like what you had to do at 1-800-CONTACTS. Your eyes are important to me on a phone call, which is just weird. But all things aside, those data points are insufficient for any retiree or near-retiree to understand how they should diversify their assets. Does not work.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:06:00]
CLAYTON: And Mike, the thing that I see a lot with clients, is they’ll come in and they’re trying to wrap their head around the idea of retiring. Which for a lot of people, that’s an uncomfortable thing, and it’s totally normal to feel that way.
MIKE: It’s overwhelming for most people, and that’s understandable.
CLAYTON: It’s a massive change from what you’ve been used to. And now you’re going into this new phase of this, for a lot of people, as they come into the beginning of our process, it’s concerning. They don’t know if they’re gonna have enough. And then obviously, as we get through the process, they can see that they’re gonna be okay in most cases. And if they’re not, then we talk about those contingencies.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:06:37]
MIKE: There is no one-size-fits-all investment. And I’m gonna say, for semantic purposes, that there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Here’s how I’m defining a strategy. It is a group of investments that have a single purpose. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy, because you can’t have a group of investments with one strategy, with multiple strategies, unless you have sub-strategies, and now we’re going down a rabbit hole. A written plan is compiled of multiple strategies to accomplish all the different goals.
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MIKE: In point of fact, Clayton, besides growth, are there any other investment purposes that you would have when you’re in 20s, 30s, and 40s, and are employed?
CLAYTON: No. Growth is all you need.
MIKE: You can’t think of anything else?
CLAYTON: For your investments.
MIKE: I mean, maybe buying a house and having some savings. Maybe.
CLAYTON: So, emergency cash, right. That’s the must for whether you’re accumulating or whether you’re distributing your assets in retirement.
MIKE: But that’s it, right?
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: It’s just growth.
CLAYTON: Right.
MIKE: Okay. I hate leading questions. I’m not going to give you a leading question.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:07:43]
MIKE: I’m just gonna say it. I hate leading questions. I had a sales guy call me and say, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is that important to you?” Well, of course it is. You led me into a trap, and I said, “That’s a very leading question. Do you wanna rephrase it to be neutral, so I have an option to actually answer honestly? Because you’re trying to trap me.” I hate when people do this. And for the record, anyone that visits with us at Decker Retirement Planning, you’re not gonna get leading questions. They are open and honest, and we are comfortable with you saying, yes and no. You can’t say yes unless you can honestly say no. Quick aside, I hate that.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:08:20]
MIKE: So, I’m not gonna give you a leading question, I’m just gonna say what’s on my mind. Clayton, for retirees, growth is not the only purpose they have. If you’re like many retirees, Safer Retirement Radio listener, who’s listening in right now. If you’re like many retirees, you also want to have income in your retirement. You also want to minimize your taxes and, if you’re working with Decker Retirement Planning, even get to a tax-free retirement. If you’re like many retirees, you want to reduce your risk. And that became a very big reality over the last few weeks with the corona crash. Whether that’s it or there’s more to come, no one really knows for sure.
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CLAYTON: Well, and Mike, you’ve talked about age and risk tolerance as kind of the two suitability factors that people need to take into account. One of the things that’s interesting to see, is I get a lot of people that come in that, yeah, they’re in their late 50s, they’re in their 60s. They’re looking to retire. And they still say, “Clayton, I want high risk. I love risk. Give me all the risk in the world.”
MIKE: How are they qualified to even say that?
CLAYTON: Right. And it’s something that to me, and I had a few people come in that would say, “Hey, I love risk. I want all the risk in the world.” It’s like, “Okay. Well, what happens if the market takes a 30 or 40 or 50 percent hit?”
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:09:37]
CLAYTON: And they’re like, “Well, I’m not worried about that. ‘Cause I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”
MIKE: That’s not the question. They’re dodging the question.
CLAYTON: They’re dodging the question.
MIKE: They’re used to risk being upside-only potential, because of the last 10 years of our bull market. Which, by the way, has been great. Really love the bull market that we’ve had.
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: But that’s not a forever situation.
CLAYTON: I mean, really, for somebody that loves risk and has the high tolerance for risk, a 50 percent drop shouldn’t scare them.
MIKE: Yes.
CLAYTON: But they have to realistically think through what that’s going to do to their portfolio.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:10:14]
CLAYTON: And when you’ve got a written plan, when you’re diversified across growth accounts, principle-guaranteed accounts, and liquid accounts, you’ve got that ability to really see, “Okay. If this money does take that hit, I’ve still got my income coming from another source.” If you’re in accumulation mode, if you’re in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, you’re working. You’ve got that income coming in.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
CLAYTON: So, your growth accounts can take that hit and you do have that tolerance. But as you’re approaching or in retirement, it’s a different scenario, because you have to depend on those investments for your income, in most cases.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:10:49]
MIKE: Yep. Risk suitability or risk tolerance, the declared risk tolerance that people have, in my opinion, is a way that the industry tries to prevent you from suing them when it’s recorded wrong. “Well, you told me you were high risk, and this is what it meant.” And a lot of people are not being properly educated on their actual risk tolerance. How many people can take a 50 percent hit and still be okay? Not lose any sleep at night. It is a very small amount. Yet, so many people are saying, “Well, it’s moderate risk to high risk,” and they’re invested. I know a woman who said “Low risk. I just can’t handle losing money.”
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MIKE: And so, this broker put her in a bunch of bond funds that still lost money. She said, “I thought these couldn’t lose money.” He says, “No, it’s just low risk. You told me you were low risk.” She says, “I’m no risk.” Well, there is no low risks. Or there is no no risk in my practice, so it had to be low risk. And she was livid, losing thousands of dollars on bond funds and was not properly educated. When it comes to diversification, here’s the principle behind it. You diversify by purpose, using the investment triangle. The purpose is, “Do you need income?” That is a purpose or a goal in your retirement. “Do you need tax minimization?” That is a purpose and a goal in retirement.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:12:06]
MIKE: You write all of those out. Then you also record your age. Then you record the time frames of which this would happen. And then you start to unravel how you’re going to diversify that by purpose. Let me explain. The investment triangle is a tool that you can use to help you diversify by purpose. Principle-based purpose. There are three parts to an investment triangle. Triangle, three. Okay? At the top you’ve got growth. At the bottom left, you’ve got principle protection. And the bottom right, you’ve got liquidity. Any investment, you can only choose two.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:12:41]
MIKE: Most people try and do an investment strategy by only choosing two, having all of your eggs essentially in that investment strategy basket, and hoping that it works. Well, if all your assets are growth and liquid, that means you can lose money. Are you okay with that risk? Are you okay if the markets take a 50 percent hit or not? Most retirees are honestly not.
CLAYTON: Right. And so, Mike, what we’re saying is, make sure you understand why you’re diversified in your portfolio.
MIKE: Yeah. Purpose base. Purpose based.
CLAYTON: Don’t just diversify for diversification’s sake but understand why it’s happening and what that money is used for.
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CLAYTON: And we’re gonna talk a little bit more about that later on in the show. About understanding your investments is our fourth topic today.
MIKE: It’s been so funny. We’ve got hundreds of clients throughout the nation. With these different clients, and we’re local, we’re independent. But what’s fun is people listen to the show, even in Arizona and Minnesota, in Florida, people hear about us. And will do virtual meetings with us because of what we’re doing, which is so unique. We’re independent, we’re local to those that are in Washington state, California and Utah. We’re not the guys on Wall Street. We’re doing something different, that is changing people’s lives for the better.
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MIKE: It is so empowering, when we do suitability, understanding, “Okay, you want this. You want that. You want that. Great.” And then we build a structure and even the person, without a financial degree or an economic degree, is able to understand how that’s gonna happen. How it all works. And how it’s principle-based. Do you know how many calls we got of panic over the last few weeks, ’cause of the coronavirus and the crash that’s happening?
CLAYTON: Not a lot.
MIKE: I have not heard of one call that we received of panic.
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: We did get an email saying, “You know, this is incredible. I’ve never experienced markets going down this much and we’re okay.”
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:14:31]
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: Principle-based planning. When you are diversifying by purpose and use the tool of the investment triangle, oh my gosh. There is so much more in-depth and appropriate suitability done than trying to put the blame on you by saying, “Okay. Well, you told me you were high risk tolerant.” No, that’s ludicrous. That’s biased. It’s prediction error. It’s not appropriate for a financial professional to do that to you. But it’s being done to you right now. And that’s what gets me crazy.
CLAYTON: So, to our listeners, if you wanna talk and come learn more about the principles that we follow and have our clients follow, give us a call.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:15:10]
CLAYTON: 833-707-3030. Now, to our listeners, imagine this. Just picture this. One morning, let’s say you’re getting ready to leave. You’re gonna go meet a friend for brunch. And before you leave, you turn on the news and you see that the market is dropping, due to an unforeseen event. And we saw this with the coronavirus. This last week and the outbreak. Now, if you don’t have a plan, you’ll probably end up wondering how you should react. Should you start to panic? What are you gonna do? How are you gonna handle this?
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CLAYTON: Now, imagine that you’ve got a plan in place.
MIKE: A written plan.
CLAYTON: A written plan, retirement plan, put in place, because you prepared ahead and talked about these contingencies. Now the only decision you’ve gotta make is how you’re gonna dress for the occasion and where you’re gonna go.
MIKE: Yeah. It’s that simple. And folks, let’s be very clear about who do you wanna be? Do you wanna be the person with clarity, with a written plan? Or do you wanna be the person that the news can upset the very day that you have? The financial markets. Who do you wanna be? Here’s what this visit is. We’re inviting you to do the following.
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MIKE: We’re inviting you to come in for a Safer Retirement Review. From a fiduciary standpoint, which is the legal term to say, we’re local, we’re independent. But we also are required by law to do what’s in your best interest. Period. Have a Safer Retirement Review with someone who’s legally bound to do what’s in your best interest. To go over your retirement plan, however it is right now. And to then show you either that it is a good plan, it works, keep doing what you’re doing. Or here’s some changes that need to be happening before the market continues to tank. How liberating would that be to you to have that kind of clarity? It won’t cost you a dime. So, leave your checkbook at home.
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MIKE: And we’re not even gonna ask you to make financial decisions. All we’re doing here is, in a relaxing environment, giving you more clarity and transparency to your retirement situation, in an effort and hope that we can help you see what a better retirement could be from wherever you are right now. We are here to help people just like you enjoy a safer retirement. So, for all you listening right now, we wanna invite you, at no cost to you, to call us. 833-707-3030. Call right now. 833-707-3030. When you call in, you get that friendly voice. They’ll sign up and we’ll reach out to you within one business day to schedule that visit.
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MIKE: We look forward to those visits with you. Again, we’re local, we’re independent. We’re not the guys on Wall Street. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re here and you’re the boss. And we wanna help you do that. This is Safer Retirement Radio, where you get the transparency that you deserve. I’m Mike Decker.
CLAYTON: And I’m Clayton Bradshaw.
MIKE: And we were just talking about the first tip or secret on how to help avoid the next market downturn, which was understanding really what your diversification looks like. It’s not risk diversification. It’s purpose and principle-based diversification. If you’re just tuning in, you can always go to our website deckerretirementplanning.com, catch this show, our other previous shows on podcasts. We’re on podcasts. Most of our listeners are on podcasts now, did you know that?
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:18:17]
CLAYTON: Yeah. And that makes it easy too. ‘Cause then you can pause it. You can listen to the whole show. You can go at your own speed.MIKE: That’s great. Up next, we’re gonna be talking about the tip or secret about understanding your income and structuring your income. Quick spoiler alert, these are not income annuities that we’re recommending. If this is the first time you’ve listened to the show, just wanna be clear about that. We’re not recommending you to have lifetime income annuities. For all of our longtime listeners, you’re just rolling your eyes, going, “I know. I know, Mike. You can stop on that.” But it’s important. Income annuities are plaguing the industry, in my opinion, and we wanna be on the forefront to stop people signed up for toxic investments.
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MIKE: Anyway, we’re also gonna be talking about understanding your written plan. The secrets and tips of having a written plan that will help avoid the market downturns, as well as the secrets and tips of understanding the investments. You’ll never guess what someone told me just last week, Clayton, about understanding investments with retirement. So, stay tuned for that and more. Here on Safer Retirement Radio. Let’s talk about understanding income. Clayton, can I set the stage for this one?
CLAYTON: Yeah. Let’s hear it.
MIKE: Okay. When you’re in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, where do you get your income?
CLAYTON: Working, I hope.
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MIKE: Yeah. And if you’re like Gary Vee and his followers, you’ve got a side hustle as well. Or a side gig. Maybe you’ve got income from your rental properties as well. But do you rely on income from your investments? No. Unless it’s rental, in which case, well, it just happens and it’s a wonderful situation. But it’s your employer. You’re working for a paycheck. Financial freedom is when you don’t need that anymore, and you can rely on your investments. Here’s the Catch-22 on that statement. Financial freedom is when you no longer have to work, but you’re choosing to work. Well, that’s all nice.
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MIKE: But when you have enough to live off of, from your investments, okay. How do you use those investments? I mean, can you imagine? I’m not a baker. I love to cook, but I am not a baker. And if you put all the ingredients without any measurement in front of me to bake a cake, that cake would be disastrous. There’s no way. I don’t know the measurements. I don’t know. Okay, I need this much flour and this much salt and this much canola oil or whatever. I don’t know any of that. So, to expect someone to take basically all the ingredients to bake a cake and they’re just going to know how to do that, is the same thing of expecting someone who has a massive 401k.
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MIKE: They’ve got savings and retirement. It’s all invested. And to understand then how all the ingredients would work to create income streams appropriately. It’s not. And, Clayton, this is why you see in the industry, people resorting to those who claim that they have high risk tolerance being diversified, all at risk. And hoping that there’s more growth than loss, and that they’ll be fine, and they can outgrow their lifestyle. Or those who are panic-stricken and do income annuities and are getting around two percent or so every year. Year after year, for the lifetime.
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MIKE: With a self-made pension that’s locked in for life. Those are very extreme situations. And they’re not appropriate. Retirees don’t need to retire with extremes.
CLAYTON: Well, and Mike, I see this a lot with folks that come in. And one of the things that I always made sure to talk about, is, okay. You’ve got a transition that’s gotta happen when you retire. You go from taking your income. It’s your 1099 and your W2 income. You’re getting that paycheck every couple of weeks or once a month. And for the few that kind of have worked in that sales industry, at that point, they’ve figured it out.
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CLAYTON: They’ve got a routine process.
MIKE: Yep.
CLAYTON: And so, they’re still comfortable with it. But there is a transition that happens when you retire. And it takes three to six months to go from transitioning to taking your income from your employer that you felt comfortable and confident in, because you trusted your own abilities. And now you’re taking it from a different source, from a principle-guaranteed source. And for a lot of people, that is an uncomfortable thing. And it’s totally normal to feel that way.
MIKE: Yep.
CLAYTON: But that transition happens, because you’ve gotta have that income from somewhere. And drawing it from the safest place you can, we feel, is one of the most important parts of a retirement plan.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:22:31]
MIKE: Now for all of you listening right now, I wanna explain what the first principle is of retirement planning. And the reason why this is the first principle is because the number one concern retirees have is income. “Will I run out of money before I die? I need to provide myself income. I need to have my livelihood sustained and there has to be at least one stream of cash coming to me that I can spend.” Okay. Little bit of a soapbox there. But income is, for almost everyone, the number one concern for retirement. And they don’t wanna run out of money before they die.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:23:07]
MIKE: The first principle is to only draw income from principle-guaranteed sources. That means you only draw income from accounts that cannot lose money. Now let’s be clear. What I am not saying is that all of your accounts should be in principle-guaranteed accounts. That all of your accounts have no downside protection. Like I said, there’s no one-size-fits-all investment. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. It doesn’t make sense, at least for me, to have all of your investments in principle-guaranteed sources.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:23:44]
MIKE: That doesn’t seem financially prudent in your interest. But, Clayton, if you’re retired. Let’s say you’re retired and you’re 60 years old. Not a leading question. When do you think you’re gonna die? That’s a morbid question. Should we go to deathclock.com or whatever that’s called?
CLAYTON: Gosh. Yeah. No kidding. I need to go. I don’t know. The tables tell us that we’re all gonna kick the bucket in our early 80s, right? That’s what the mortality tables tell us. We’ll go with that.
MIKE: Okay. And let’s say you retire at 50 years old.
CLAYTON: Okay.
MIKE: Or, no, let’s say 60 years old.
CLAYTON: Okay.
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MIKE: ‘Cause that’s when a lot of people are retiring right now and Social Security and all that.CLAYTON: Yeah, early 60s.
MIKE: So, you’ve got 20 years. Do you need to have complete liquidity and access to all of your funds in the first year? Like, what catastrophe could happen that requires all of your funds to need to be spent in the first year that then disregards the next 19 years of income you probably need. Is that ever a situation?
CLAYTON: Right. And I ask people this all the time. I say, “Okay. Why would you need all of your money tomorrow? Or next week?”
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:24:47]
MIKE: Are you ever gonna blow all of your retirement savings in the first year of your retirement? Now, for medical reasons, if that were to happen, I can’t think of many banks, insurance companies, municipalities. I can’t think of many investments that medical reasons can make exceptions. There’s a lot of situations that are extreme like that where exceptions can be made. But that all aside, let’s be very, very clear. You still need income in your two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. I feel like Nicolas Cage in that one where he rattles off the alphabet and still makes it interesting.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:25:26]
CLAYTON: Well, so let’s compare to what most people are used to, that accumulation phase. Where you’re in your 20s, 30s, and 40s. During that time, ideally you have emergency cash, right? A lot of people in their 20s, that’s gonna be a struggle. But ideally, that’s what you’ve got. You’ve got emergency cash. Then you’ve got income coming from a different source. That’s coming from your employer.
MIKE: Yep.
CLAYTON: And then you’ve got your investment, your 401k, your IRAs. You’ve got those retirement accounts set up that you’re contributing to.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
CLAYTON: Right? And so, with those three things, as you transition out of your accumulation phase and into retirement.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:26:02]
CLAYTON: Where is that coming from? You don’t start drawing your income out of your 401k, if it’s riding the train with the stock market.
MIKE: I mean, can you imagine taking a job, saying, “I’m not sure if I’m gonna be here for the next month or the next year.” You take a job thinking you’re gonna have job security. And that you’re gonna be there in your perceived mind, for five years or 10 years or whatever that is. Why in the world would you not do that for your own sanity in retirement? Now, okay, Clayton, you’re gonna be retired for 20 years and then probably die. Are you comfortable having some of your assets laddered out to pay your income guaranteed for the next 10 years?
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:26:41]
MIKE: Keep in mind, 10 years, not for life. So, this can’t be an income lifetime annuity. It is laddered principle-guaranteed accounts. Laddering accounts that cannot lose money. And the next 10 years, regardless if a market crashes or things like that, your income is going to come to you for the next 10 years. How concerned are you now about the corona crash?
CLAYTON: Right. And it’s like somebody who’s 40 years old and still has 10 or 20 years to work.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
CLAYTON: Yeah. They’re gonna have that. And you’re not gonna be worried.
MIKE: Yeah. Now remember, you still are diversified by purpose, like our first segment that we were talking about that secret. And so, when you talk about diversified by purpose, using the investment triangle, you still have a lot of assets that are liquid for those lifetime events.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:27:24]
MIKE: You have killed two birds with one stone. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone. We’re not really killing birds here, it’s the expression. But this is how you can have your cake and eat it too in retirement. You’re accomplishing multiple purposes, and you’re not ignoring the first principle, which is to only draw income from principle-guaranteed sources. Because if you don’t, that means that you are drawing income from accounts that can lose money. And if you draw income from accounts that lose money, you’re accentuating losses and your income is now incredibly expensive. And typically, what happens during a market crash, you cannot, at that point, afford to continue to live.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:28:03]
MIKE: As in, you have to go back to work. And if you don’t believe me, look at your journaling or diaries of 2008. You saw when this happened. You saw it happen in 2008, because people destroyed their retirement, because they were taking income from accounts that either went flat or in 2008, went down hard. Don’t break this principle. Don’t invest all of your assets in principle-guaranteed accounts, but ladder it out so you’re not stressing about, can you stay retired. It doesn’t have to be that way.
CLAYTON: And so, to our listeners, if you wanna talk and learn more about how to understand your income in retirement, give us a call.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:28:41]
CLAYTON: Our number is 833-707-3030.
MIKE: Springtime’s coming up. I want you to all imagine this right now. Imagine that you’ve picked up a new hobby in the outdoors. Whether it’s fly fishing or you take an art easel up on the mountains, you’re painting, whatever it is. Hiking. You’ve taken up a new hobby outdoors to just enjoy nature and the beauty that’s all around us. And while you’re out there, you see a friend. And the friend’s there and is trying to relax. It’s a Saturday. It’s a beautiful day. But your friend doesn’t seem to be doing well. And you say, “Hey, what’s going on, so-and-so?”
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MIKE: And your friend says, “Well, my spouse and I are going back to work. Can’t be retired. We’re concerned about this, that, and the other.” And just despair is palpable in the air with him. Or her. And you’re out there enjoying your new hobby, because you have a written plan. Is one visit worth it to you, to have that kind of confidence, transparency, and clarity? That kind of stability in your retirement. If it is, I hope you call us.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:30:00]
MIKE: If you’re comfortable with what the other person is doing, the friend that’s in despair, that is a very reality. Even Warren Buffett is saying that’s a reality. A 50 percent correction is not a far-fetched idea. Especially with what’s going on right now. Who do you want to be? That’s our invitation is to allow you to be the person who can continue to enjoy that new hobby that was just picked up.
CLAYTON: Now, we are local. We’re independent, so when you call, we’ve got somebody that’s gonna grab a couple pieces of information. Your name, your number, your email. And then we’re gonna reach out to you to schedule an appointment. You don’t have to divulge all of your life story over the phone.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:30:40]
CLAYTON: We’re gonna have you sit down with one of us as fiduciaries. And we’re just gonna find out what’s important to you. What you’re looking for in retirement.
MIKE: And fiduciary is an important word. It means we’re legally bound to do what’s in your best interest. When you walk into our office, you’re the one in charge, not Wall Street.
CLAYTON: Yeah. What these visits aren’t, is they aren’t a time to make decisions. You don’t have to bring your checkbook. This is just a time to sit down, understand what you have in your plan and make sure you’re ready to go forward.
MIKE: And if you don’t feel like you have a plan, or a written plan, that’s okay. There is no shame in not having a written plan right now.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:31:18]
MIKE: There is shame that you may feel, if you don’t take action, the markets crash, and now you’re going back to work. We are inviting you. We’re extending the olive branch to help you avoid that situation.
CLAYTON: Well, and these visits apply to everyone. Those that are just thinking about this. This is new and they’re trying to wrap their head around what they’re gonna do for retirement, to those that think they’ve got a plan in place, and they’re just looking for a second opinion. And everybody in between.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:31:44]
MIKE: Mm-hmm. Call right now. 833-707-3030. That number one more time, 833-707-3030. We look forward to your call and scheduling you within the next business day. You’re listening to Safer Retirement Radio, by Decker Retirement Planning, where you get the transparency that you deserve. I’m Mike Decker.
CLAYTON: And I’m Clayton Bradshaw.
MIKE: And we’re talking about four tips or secrets to help avoid the next downturn. And the hint is, it’s not going to cash. You wanna hear what you’ll never believe that I was told?
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:32:19]
CLAYTON: Well, first off, I wanna talk about the cash. And then yes. But going to cash right now, you’re gonna get beat by inflation and you’re gonna lose money on your cash accounts.MIKE: So, very wealthy individual, this is up in our Kirkland office. The partner was planning with us, but he had just said, “You know, I’ve been doing this a long time,” and this is the guy, very wealthy investor. Very smart. Okay. I don’t wanna disclose who it is. But here’s the kind of guy it is. He has a hydroplane and does the races at Sea Fair and other places around the nation.
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MIKE: He does that for fun. Very high net worth. Very sophisticated investor. And he says, “Yeah, I know the markets are gonna crash sometime soon. I’m just in cash until they crash, and then I’ll invest back in the market.” He said that. Guess when, Clayton? I never told you this story.
CLAYTON: No. When did he say it?
MIKE: 2017. Can you imagine sitting in cash, waiting for the markets to crash since 2017? How much did you lose out on trying to time the markets?
CLAYTON: He’s probably been getting one and half to maybe, two percent if he’s lucky on his savings-checking accounts.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:33:37]
CLAYTON: I mean, with interest rates near historic lows, that’s why I bring that up. Because your cash accounts, I think the national average is sitting closer to 0.2 percent. And so, unless you really go out and look, which we have. We know where the highest earning accounts are.
MIKE: Yep.
CLAYTON: We’ve done the research, but unless you know where to look, you’re not gonna be doing great on your cash accounts.
MIKE: Now, he has enough wealth that he can sit on inflation and be fine. He doesn’t spend an exorbitant amount of money. He’s got a lot of money. But can you do that? Chances are you can’t. You can’t just sit on cash and wait for the next market downturn.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:34:14]
MIKE: I’ll never forget this quick story. And then, actually, I’m gonna share a story. I was at lunch. Brian Decker and I were at a conference in Las Vegas. And we were at lunch with some of the brightest minds on Wall Street. And when I say brightest minds, Yale professors, hedge-fund managers. It was a very interesting and intelligent group of people. And you’ll never guess what one of them said. I can’t say their name, because, dear friend. Love ’em to death. But I won’t say his name.
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MIKE: But in just a moment, I’m gonna share what that person said to me. And I was floored. But before we get to that, I need to explain the third secret. The third tip on how to help avoid the next downturn, which is understanding your plan. A strategy is not a plan. A strategy is a singular idea on how to invest and accomplish one thing. A strategy for income. A strategy for growth. A strategy for tax minimization. A plan is a collection of strategies for many different goals and purposes. The overall purpose being your ideal retirement.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:35:22]
MIKE: Most people don’t understand that. And they’re telling other people what their financial professional told them to say. Even when the corona crash started. And all I’m saying is, how do you feel saying those words that you’re supposed to say. You know, your one or two lines that you say over and over again when your assets were losing money. What, 10 percent in a week?
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: How do you really feel? What did your plan tell you to do? Because if you’re calling up your advisor, saying, “Hey, what do we do?” And he’s saying, “Oh, hold on. It’s gonna be okay.” That’s not a plan. That’s hoping that you’re not gonna pull the plug with your risk tolerance for whatever it actually is. And then, get out of the market at the wrong time.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:36:06]
CLAYTON: Well, and Mike, hearing this, I think about that saying. I think, was it Mike Tyson that said, “Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth? Or punched in the face?”
MIKE: Yeah.
CLAYTON: Here’s my thought on that. With a distribution plan, with the written plans that we go through and build out for our clients, we look at those contingencies. And so, I view, in terms of retirement planning, and investing, getting punched in the mouth is a 50 percent drop in the market.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
CLAYTON: Now that’s something that our written plans take into account. Which is why, like we mentioned, we set them up so you’re only drawing income from principle-guaranteed sources.
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CLAYTON: Right? And you’re using a written plan, a distribution plan, so that if you get side-swiped by something that you’re not anticipating, these plans are pretty thorough.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
CLAYTON: And we do feel like there is a lot that can happen. That these plans can take into account.
MIKE: Here are some examples of what the plans can take into account. Income stability, not using lifetime income annuities. When I say income stability, next 10 years, regardless of what the market has, it doesn’t matter.
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MIKE: You’re earning income. You’re good to go. And I’m not saying just CDs, earning at 2 percent. Those are measly. The principle-guaranteed accounts that we’re showing clients are earning more than twice that. More than twice the national rate of CDs right now. If that’s a shock to you, I hope then you’re gonna call us. Because that’s something you need to know. Our investment accounts that are at risk, I mean, they sailed through the corona crash. We didn’t make a lot of money, but we didn’t lose any money really either. I mean, I think our average portfolio was maybe around, within 0.5 percent up or down during the corona crash, when most people lost 10 percent.
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MIKE: I think it was around there. Not that bad.
CLAYTON: Right. Well, and depending on the setup of the plan, and this is where the plans get very specific to each couple or each individual that comes in. That you’ve got a certain percentage in your emergency cash, very small percent. You’ve got another percentage that’s in your principle-guaranteed income. That’s where 20 years of your income is coming from in retirement. Well, 15 to 20 to 25, depending on the person.
MIKE: Yep.
CLAYTON: And then you’ve got the longest term account, which is that risk account, and that’s the one where it’s a smaller portion of your overall portfolio, that can be affected by market drops.
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CLAYTON: But because of the two-sided approach that we use, it helps mitigate that drop as much as possible. And that’s why we use what we use in that.
MIKE: Our written plans help give clarity on income. They help give clarity on, let’s say that we have a new tax environment, and taxes go up significantly. We’ve got a plan for that. We’ve got a plan for if markets crash. We’ve got a plan for if markets crash for one year. We’ve got a plan if markets crash and stay down for three years. We’ve got a plan for… The list goes on. These are written plans. So, if you’re nervous, you look at your plan and say, “Oh, I’m good.” And then you move on doing what you actually wanna do.
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MIKE: As opposed to then reacting in regards to whatever your retirement is. Or whatever your alleged pie chart plan is probably.
CLAYTON: Yeah, and I’ll give a hypothetical here. Let’s say that 70 percent of the portfolio is in principle-guaranteed sources, or principle-guaranteed accounts, in one fashion or another, that can’t lose value.
MIKE: Yep.
CLAYTON: That money isn’t gonna drop with the stock market crash. 70 percent of your money cannot. The other 30 percent, while it can. Let’s say the market takes a 50 percent hit, and let’s say our managers are flat. Or even our managers are down a couple of percent on that.
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CLAYTON: Looking at the overall effect on your portfolio, it was a drop in the bucket. And that’s how we do our best to protect our clients from these market drops.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
CLAYTON: Is we structure the account so that they have income that is protected. And that’s what is important for, at least for most people I saw. That’s what they wanted, was protected income in retirement.
MIKE: Yeah. They want stability. Just like they understood their paycheck was coming from their employer, they want their paycheck to just keep coming in. And they don’t want it to be destroyed by whatever Wall Street decides to do. That doesn’t make sense.
CLAYTON: Yeah, and then you can see in front of you, all of your income streams. You can see all of your assets.
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CLAYTON: This is what the distribution plan does. This is what the written plan does. And it shows you, down to the month, net of tax, how much you can spend ’til age 100.
MIKE: What’s interesting is, even though we say this over and over on the radio, over podcast, at our live events, on our webinars. Until you see it, it is difficult to understand how incredibly life-changing it is for the better. It’s something you just gotta see. Clayton, Brian and I were at a conference, different time. Go to a lot of conferences. Especially, Brian gets asked to speak at a lot of these conferences.
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MIKE: He speaks on economics and I tend to speak on leadership. It’s fun. Anyway. Brian was asked to speak on a conference, and it was panel of two. There was one person that was a high-up VP of a major bank. Okay. Then there was Brian. And then there was another advisor who was up there that was rather successful. These are people that, some of them, if I were to say their name, the common person might even recognize. They’re that high up. Okay? And the panel, this panel was asked a simple question. “With the economic environment of today, what do you think is the appropriate withdrawal rate for a retiree?”
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:41:54]
MIKE: Keep in mind, if you want to have principle-based planning, this is not a discussion that you have. “Oh, hey, you know, the economy changed a little bit, so instead of drawing five percent from your portfolio, you now need to be drawing three percent from your portfolio. I hope you’re okay with a 40 percent income reduction.” That’s what they were debating.
CLAYTON: Well, and Mike, this stems from that rule of thumb that a lot of the bankers and brokers follow. It’s termed the “Four Percent Rule.” And it was William Bengen that came up with this a while back. And even he, the creator of this, has discredited it.
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MIKE: Yeah. What a courageous man. To discredit something that you put your name on and that the industry was all using.
CLAYTON: And so now for the audience, for the panel, for anybody to want to debate what that percentage is, to me, seems irrelevant.
MIKE: Yeah.
CLAYTON: Because it’s not a matter of, “Well, what percentage should I draw?” There’s so many other things that have to be taken into account.
MIKE: You know what was cool, though, about that panel? The first financial advisor, he spoke. And he gave his semantics and sales tactics on, “Oh, well, I think it’s this. And blah, blah, blah. And this is my interpretation, and blah, blah, blah.”
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:43:12]
MIKE: Then the guy from the bank spoke and he had some good economic data, but really dodged the question altogether. Then Brian gets up. And he says, “You can’t have a withdrawal rate.” Explains the three principles. Explains his financial forecast of what he thinks is gonna be happening, and then says, “And any of you that are gonna be using the Four Percent Rule, or any of these withdrawal rates in retirement, is committing malpractice.” He accused the entire room. It’s like that guy at the Big Short who raises his hand and upsets the entire audience. And the guy speaking doesn’t know what to say. It was a mic-drop moment. Because there was a hush over the audience.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:43:52]
MIKE: Why was there a hush? Because they knew he was right. He knew that he was right. They all know what’s going on. They see the writing on the wall.
CLAYTON: Well, and it just makes sense. It’s just logic.
MIKE: But they don’t do it, because they don’t have the technology to do so. They don’t have the technology to follow the, at least, the third principle, which is using a written retirement plan. A written distribution plan. They don’t have the technology. How can I say that? We made the technology for you. Remember, we’re not owned on Wall Street. We’re not owned by a company saying you have to push a bunch of products.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:44:31]
MIKE: We’re building written retirement plans that can articulate what your retirement goals are, and then give you stability. So, it’s not a question of, “Well, hey, economy is saying you need to take a 40 percent income hit.” No. Hey, you’re following the first principle, and well, good to go for the next 10 years. And markets will probably recover at some point. But it’s okay. You’re diversified over here for long-term growth, so that’s not a big deal. And if anything tragic happens, well, you’ve got your emergency cash here. You’re good to go. So, the real question is, retiree, are you gonna go to Bora Bora this year on your vacation or do you wanna do an African safari?
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MIKE: Or are you gonna keep visiting and doing the circuit with all of your grandkids. How do you wanna spend it? Because financially, you’re good to go. I know markets are down 50 percent. But your plan’s still intact. That’s the kind of conversations that we’re having here. That’s the why, at that conference, there was a mic-drop moment. And there was a hush over the audience. And that’s why Decker Retirement Planning is growing exponentially. Is because people, when they hear truth, they feel it. And they want it.
CLAYTON: Well, you’ve gotta ask yourself, for our listeners. You’ve gotta ask yourself these couple of questions. Do you have a written plan? And if so, what does it tell you?
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CLAYTON: Is it telling you that you can, if the market goes up, here’s what you can do. If it stays flat, here’s what you’ll do. And if it goes down, here’s what you’ll do? Or is it telling you how much you can draw down to the month, net of tax? What is it telling you? And how are you able to follow it?
MIKE: So, for all you listening right now, if you wanna get a written retirement plan. I’m gonna invite you in at no cost to you, to come in and see what it looks like, and get a Safer Retirement Review. Just call right now, it won’t cost you a dime. 833-707-3030. When you call in, you’re gonna get a friendly voice on the phone, who’s gathering very basic information.
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MIKE: Like, what number are we gonna call you to schedule your visit? What email to send you that information to? And what your name is. That’s it. And then we call you, and if you wanna inquire with more information, we’re not gonna spam you. Just call, give the information and we can do a phone call, so you can gather more information or ask some questions. We’re here to help you enjoy a safer retirement, period.
CLAYTON: Now to our listeners, imagine this. Imagine that you recently retired. And your spouse has always wanted to go on a nice trip somewhere far away.
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CLAYTON: But since the recent retirement, you just haven’t been comfortable, or felt like you could financially make it work and still have the money to pay the bills and survive. Because you’ve been guessing, right? At how much you’re supposed to draw. Now, imagine that you’ve got a plan that tells you down to the month, how much you can spend until age 100. That trip is now a reality. It becomes a reality. And if you’re like our clients, you have a written plan, and you can see how much you can spend, and you can start hitting that bucket list.
MIKE: If that’s something that you want, call us. 833-707-3030. Here’s what this visit is.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:47:35]
MIKE: The visit is a time for you to get financial clarity and stability in your retirement, so you’re not worried about if the coronavirus or whatever catastrophe could happen, is gonna collapse the markets. This is how you get out of that stress. This is how you get out of the fear trap that your broker has you in, of you have to just buy and hold. And liberate yourself to enjoy the retirement, your golden years, how you want to enjoy them. Here’s what the visit is not, though, and this is very important. We’re not asking you to make any decisions. We’re not asking you to write us a check for any amount of money. We’re not asking you to commit to anything other than just come in. And have a open discussion about what your retirement plan is.
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MIKE: If you have a written plan, or a plan, we’ll compare that. If you don’t, that’s okay. We’ll show you what a written plan looks like. It is a visit of clarity and confidence building. Call us. 833-707-3030, at no cost to you. That’s 833-707-3030 for your chance to get a free Safer Retirement Review. This is Decker Retirement Planning show, Safer Retirement Radio. I’m Mike Decker.
CLAYTON: And I’m Clayton Bradshaw.
MIKE: And we’re giving you the transparency that you deserve. Now, I said a while back. I was at lunch in Las Vegas, after a conference, with some of the top minds on Wall Street.
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MIKE: These are Yale professors. These are hedge fund managers. These are quantitative developers who build the complicated investments that either do well or don’t do well. I mean, these are some of the most brilliant people on Wall Street. We’re gathered around this table. Big round, circular table here. And food is just served and after this kind of fun chit-chat of, “How you doing? How’s the wife? How’s the kids? How’s the husband?” You know, all the fun semantics. You’ll never believe what this person says. And I’m gonna tell you right now, because it sets up our next conversation of understanding your investments and how they all correlate.
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MIKE: This investor, after debating about what’s the withdrawal rate that was appropriate, said, “You know, I know my guy, hedge fund manager, and you know, he does really well for himself.” This is a guy that consults a hedge fund, he doesn’t actually run the hedge fund, okay? Smart guy on Wall Street. He’s a professor, I won’t say the college that he’s in. But he says, “You know, I’m convinced the markets are gonna crash.” This is in 1998. “I’m convinced the markets are gonna crash.”
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MIKE: And he pulled out of the markets. 1998 and 1999 were some of the best years in the markets. And he missed them completely. Smart man on Wall Street. A professor in Finance and Economics. Pulls out early. Trying to time the market. And the reaction everyone had against him was just, “Oh.” Pounding their chests. “Oh, well, if you would have invested with me, then I would have done this, and I would have this.” All biased. And he says, “No. Markets tend to crash every seven or eight years and I’m okay with that.”
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MIKE: And then Brian steps up and says, “Well, help me understand. You’re smart. You know about absolute return models.” These are two-sided models, for all of you who are not familiar with the term. They’re designed to make money in up or down markets. It’s not market timing. It finds the momentum and then it goes along with it. And he says, “Why didn’t you do that?” Says, “Honestly, I should have. In the late 90s, I didn’t have confidence in doing them.” They were still new. Computers were new. They were still being developed. They were developed originally in the 80s. Brian’s been using them since the advent of them.
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MIKE: And just said, “I didn’t know. I didn’t have confidence in them at the time, but had I realized the power behind them, it would have changed everything.” Now, a hush kind of came over, because these are really smart investors, who are all focused on diversifying their assets and their hedge funds on a buy and hold strategy. They’re buying up shares of company, influencing companies, all of that. And Brian says, “Well, for the average investor, they can’t do that. So, why would we ask someone to buy and hold, when it’s a two-sided model? Or when it’s a two-sided market.” Markets go up, they go down. It seems like a disadvantage.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:52:11]
MIKE: And then he continues to ask questions like, “Why should these only be available to high net worth? Why should these models that are designed to make money up or down markets, be available to only the sophisticated investor? Suitably, historically, mathematically, objectively, it’s what’s in the client’s best interest.” There weren’t any good answers done there. And I wanna give credit to Brian and what he’s done. Because he’s gone out to largest databases in America. He’s paid a lot of money to get access to these. And he has scoured, spent countless hours, to find the top managers, that sure, have high-minimums.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:52:54]
MIKE: And then says, “Hey, I’ve got millions and millions and millions of dollars of retirees that need access to these. Can we negotiate something?” Then he negotiates access, so people like you, Safer Retirement Radio listeners, can get access to what the high net worth, the 50 millionaires, the 100 millionaires are having access to. So, you can have a model. And access to a model that can make money in up or down markets. This is why our clients didn’t panic when the corona crash was happening.
CLAYTON: Well, and Mike, I wanna jump in here. ‘Cause I want to make sure that the listeners know.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:53:35]
CLAYTON: You mentioned earlier there was a couple of questions that they need to be asking themselves about their investments. Number one.
MIKE: And this is the secret. Understand your investments and what they’re doing.
CLAYTON: Right. So, you’ve got to know what you have, first of all. Don’t just walk into an office and say, “Here you go. Do whatever you want. Just send me my statement.” You need to know what you have. And the second part, and this is probably the most important part of this, is to know why you have it.
MIKE: And yeah. Why?
CLAYTON: What’s the end goal? Right.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:54:06]
MIKE: Why are you invested that way?
CLAYTON: Yeah.
MIKE: What are you trying to accomplish?
CLAYTON: Ask these questions. If your current advisor can’t answer those questions for you, that should be a massive red flag for you.
MIKE: And if it doesn’t make sense, feels wrong, or feels sales-y, like they’re dodging the question, and if you don’t even believe it. As in, you’re not unified with the purpose that’s being presented, that’s a problem. What’s so interesting is when we talk about two-sided models, most people say, “I didn’t have a clue that this was available to us. Didn’t have a clue that I could get access to this.”
CLAYTON: Yeah. Well, and Mike, too, I meet with people all the time that they come in and they ask those questions.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:54:48]
CLAYTON: And these are people that, finance, economics, they are not from that background. They might be from healthcare, they might be from some other field. Totally unrelated and that just has never been their strong suit. Even those people, with their previous advisors, something didn’t sit right.
MIKE: Yeah.
CLAYTON: And so, trust your gut. If something feels uncomfortable, you’ve gotta trust your gut. You’ve got to listen.
MIKE: This is all about what we call Safer Retirement Investments. It’s all the investment options that are available to you. And we’ve done a lot of due diligence to get you access to the best investments out there. And we do our best to make ’em as accessible as possible.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:55:23]
MIKE: We’re running out of time for the show. I wanna extend an offer. If you wanna talk about two-sided models, a safer retirement, or anything we’ve talked about in the show, call us at 833-707-3030. You’ll get a friendly voice on the phone. And they’re going to give us the information so we can call you and help you get a Safer Retirement Review. A second opinion. I mean, here’s what I want you to imagine real quick, towards the end of the show. Imagine you’re in a movie theater and it’s a split screen. You’ve got two movies. One’s on the left, one’s on the right. The one on the left is your experience in 2008.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:55:58]
MIKE: The one on the right is what your experience would have been, had you had more clarity on what your investments do, why you have them invested, and you’re using, for example, two-sided models. Now, replay in your mind, on the left, the losses that you had. Now look on the right. You’re making money. Fast forward to 2009. You’re down on the left. You’ve made money on the right. What is the difference over the next 10 years of your life? Would you have retired sooner? Would you have taken an extra vacation?
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:56:37]
MIKE: Would you have bought that fun toy that you wanted to, but couldn’t after 2008? You have the opportunity right now to make this decision of who you want to be. Do you wanna be the guy or gal on the left, that could just have to ride out the next crash? Or do you wanna be using investments that are more suitable for you? But sure, the high net worth is getting, but you’re also getting access to as well, through Decker Retirement Planning. If that’s something that you wanna do, I hope you call us right now. 833-707-3030. That number one more time is 833-707-3030.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:57:14]
MIKE: The visit won’t cost you a dime. We will show you the returns and the managers of these two-sided models. We will show you safer investment options. We’re gonna show you the principles and how they affect your retirement for the better. We will show you the clarity that makes up a safer retirement, so the corona crash or the financial instability does not keep you up at night anymore. And you can focus on the golden years of what matters most to you in a safer retirement. This is Safer Retirement Radio. I’m Mike Decker.
CLAYTON: And I’m Clayton Bradshaw.
MIKE: And I thank you for listening to the show today. As always, you can listen to the show via podcast, on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:57:49]
MIKE: Or you can go to deckerretirementplanning dot com, catch this information, and more information all free and available to you right now. Thank you so much.
RR S3 E37 4 TIPS TO AVOID NEXT MRKT DOWNTURN [00:58:00]
