RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:00:01]
MALE: You 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 and his co-host Scott Drake. This is safer retirement radio. If you’re in or near retirement listen up and learn about a math-based, principal-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. Here’s Mike and Scott.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:00:41]
MIKE: Welcome, welcome everyone to safer retirement radio where you get the transparency that you deserve. And I hope you really can feel that here as we’re diving into some details today. We’ve got a packed show lined up today with market volatility going all over the place. There’s a lot of people are contacting us saying, hey, you know, like what else is out there? You guys talk about principal guaranteed accounts. You guys talk about two-sided risk models. We’re gonna be talking a lot about that today and how out clients have been able to, so far this year, navigate through these storms and still be making money.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:01:15]
MIKE: We’re also going to be talking about estate planning. We’re going to be talking about Social Security. If you file too early your income is hurting. And if you’re filing too late you’re hurting your estate. We wanna talk about what that really means and why for a 60-year-old for example it might make more sense to file around 68-years-old as opposed to 70-years-old. There’s some lost returns and lost income unless you can use a math-based, principal-based approach to, not only your retirement planning but your Social Security planning.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:01:47]
MIKE: And hopefully that resonates with people. A Social Security specialist can talk to you ’til the cows come home about Social Security. But when it comes to incorporating the Social Security into your retirement plan, your finances it may get lost on them. Just like most financiers seem to be lost on how to effectively manage Social Security. When I say manage, when to file. It’s a big question. Now with that we’ve got a number of great articles and content on our website, Decker Retirement Planning dot com. But you can also download these eBooks. I’ve been writing a lot lately folks. And I’m writing for you.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:02:23]
MIKE: You can download, for Social Security we have a Social Security optimization eBook free to you. You can download it and you can answer some questions that I have yet to hear another financial professional even address. You can also download Principals That Govern Proper Retirement Planning. It’s incredibly enlightening. Or if you want a larger read you’ve got The Decker Approach. Founder Brian Decker, he wrote that for you. And it’s pretty powerful. It’s heavy. But it’s factually based.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:02:54]
MIKE: As in, it’s… I’ll admit sometimes it kinda feels a little bit like a textbook. But it’s substance not just stories. Stories are great for nonfiction. You can enjoy yourselves. You know, read your Harry Potter or whatever fits your fancy. But when it comes to your retirement plan let’s get rid of the fluff. Let’s have very real conversations. And hopefully you can get that through The Decker Approach. Now I’ve got a new book coming out in a month. So stay tuned for that. Very excited about this new series of books for retirees. It’s actually, it’s with our publisher right now. Can’t say much more than that.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:03:30]
MIKE: But we’re very excited about the release of this new book coming soon. And if you want to be the first on the book released you can go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com, sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of the home page. And there you’ll be able to be the first person or first people to get, at no cost to you we’ll give it away for free, our new book. It’s with the publishers though. So stay tuned. I wanna talk a little bit about the markets right now as they are volatile. And I saw this article that really resonated with me in this particular.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:04:05]
MIKE: Markets are volatile. Bond yields seem to be making it more and more difficult for safer options for the investors. And these are investors typically using the asset allocation pie chart. They’re the ones that are buying and holding and using bond funds. And all their assets are at risk. They’re taking way more risk than they realize, way more risk. I had someone come in actually recently that said, “Hey look, these bond funds have done really well for me. They’ve done great for me over the last years.” And we said, “Yeah, it looks like they have.”
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:04:34]
MIKE: And he says, “But with interest rates and where they are this is a huge liability.” Now this is someone that has millions of dollars. He sees the writing on the wall. And hopefully you do too. Here’s the quick lesson. When interest rates go up bond funds lose money. I get bond funds for a lot of people or bond rates can be a little confusing. It’s a difficult concept for a lot of people. So I’m going to try and put it as simply as possible.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:05:06]
MIKE: If a bond… And I’ll oversimplify it here for the lesson. If a bond is three percent, interest rates are giving bonds, just an average bond, three percent. And interest rates go up and now a bond can do four percent. Are you gonna pay the same price for a three percent bond and you would a four percent bond? No. You’re gonna want the four percent bond all day. So for the three percent bonds to be able to move you have to sell it at a discounted rate.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:05:35]
MIKE: When rates go up bond funds, which buy and sell bonds, go down. Bond funds should not be considered safe money. Hopefully you can see the writing on the wall here. With interest rates being historically low bond yields and the bond markets are getting more and more difficult for people to live off of. Now because of this environment it seems like more and more people are looking to stocks.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:06:04]
MIKE: FANG for example or, you know, the company you’ve worked for most of your life General Motors or Boeing or whatever company that you have an emotional attachment to that seems stable. And that’s all wonderful. It’s good. But now you’re leaving yourself into probably a buy and hold situation. If you’re drawing income from a fluctuating account and buy and hold would be defined as a fluctuating account, it can go up or down, you’re really putting yourself into a difficult situation when you need the funds.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:06:41]
MIKE: Every year, if you’re using the pie chart guesser, not only do you have to decide what are you gonna sell and how much are you gonna sell. But you’ll have to decide when you’re gonna sell it. That’s three different tiers of timing the market. Hopefully we can all agree that timing the market just can’t be done. Subjectively, it can’t be done. As much as we wanna think that we can feel the market internals and we just… No. Timing the market does not make sense. Which is why the first principal of proper retirement planning is, never draw income from a fluctuating account.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:07:16]
MIKE: Well okay, here’s the fair question, “Then Mike, well if that’s so true and then we have to follow this principal and you say bonds aren’t doing well, what else are there?” There’s about 10 different principal guaranteed options. About half of them most people seem to not really realize that they exist and how to utilize them. Now we don’t have time to go over them in today’s show. And because of suitability purposes we’re gonna want to talk to figure out what one makes most sense for you.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:07:44]
MIKE: But there are several options out there that are principal guaranteed, they don’t have bond fund risk, that are averaging six or seven plus percent. That’s incredible. If you wanna learn more about these safer investment options… And we’re gonna talk more about them in the next segment. But call us. 833-707-3030. Must be 55-years or older and have at least 300 thousand of assets saved up for retirement. But folks, it’s an incredible conversation. It’s a fun time. Because when people see the options they didn’t know even existed it’s incredible.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:08:17]
MIKE: Now I wanna have a public service announcement before we do a quick break. What I’m about to say is absolutely critical. When the markets turn over there seems to be a trend of people leaving the markets and going to variable annuities and income annuities with income riders. Because emotionally they don’t wanna handle the roller coaster. And a fixed income stream, at that moment, seems better than the market volatility. Please, please, please do not fall for these emotional traps.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:08:53]
MIKE: We see variable annuities and income annuities come into our office all the time. And what’s crazy is for variable annuities it tends to be about five or six percent of fees that add up before you can make a dime. And the only guarantee you get is when you die. So what’s the point of that? And then on top… If we’re switching gears on income annuities, they’re using arbitrary numbers with a ghost account.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:09:21]
MIKE: Now they use a lot of smoke and mirror tactics to try and trick you into this. But these arbitrary numbers with a ghost account to pay you a terrible rate of your return. We’re finding out as these come through our office… On the daily, people come in. And it’s not your fault if you have one. Chances are you were sold one, you didn’t buy it. Because if you knew what you were getting into you probably wouldn’t have signed up for it. But they’re averaging around one point eight percent average annual return each year for a lifetime income stream? And they’ve quantified it. So they hope you die before you get a really good income on it.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:09:56]
MIKE: Which seems impossible. Because of how they’ve structured it. But they sell it with the idea, hey, get rid of market volatility. You could just have an income stream for life, a self-made pension. Doesn’t that sound nice? Folks there are so many other ways to be able to handle that suitability and get rid of market volatility with principal guaranteed accounts in a structured format that’s not gonna put you in a return that’s similar to a money market. I mean, for goodness’ sakes [PH] why would you lock up your income stream for the rest of your life and you get the same as a Goldman Sachs savings account?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:10:32]
MIKE: Or, you know, where ever you’re going that has a competitive money market account. It just doesn’t make sense. So folks, my point is, please, please, please as the markets are turning over right now don’t fall for these traps. Don’t give up a return for an emotional stability that you’re looking for. Because it’s very devastating. Especially when we consider inflation. Which these aren’t gonna help you with. Especially when we consider the financial markets.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:11:00]
MIKE: And as they’re changing, it’s setting yourself up for a very tight budget. And losing buying power. I just wanna warn everyone against it. If you have an annuity, variable or income I hope that you call me now. And you wanna talk about two-sided models? You wanna talk about principal guaranteed models? If you wanna talk about anything I just mentioned at no cost to you, if you are 55-years or older and have at least 300 thousand of assets saved up for retirement, call me now. So we can talk.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:11:34]
MIKE: These are critical decisions. And I wanna make sure you have the education to make the right decisions for you. Call us, 833-707-3030. That’s 833-707-3030. When you call in we’ll gather your information. So on Monday we can reach out and schedule the time for you to visit with us. Also you can do to Decker Retirement Planning dot com. And there you can catch articles, eBooks, a lot of content. And at the very bottom, if you feel comfortable, you can click, get started. So we can continue your research and give you the transparency that you deserve. We’re gonna take a real brief break. But when we get back I’m gonna continue the conversation specifically on safer investment options with Scott Drake. Stay tuned everyone.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:12:19]
MALE: While buy and hold investing is a very common strategy it’s important to understand it isn’t a one-size fits all solution. The appeal of buy and hold investing is simplicity. Buy and hold requires little skill or serious effort. And it completely ignores an appropriate amount of risk management with shorter time horizons. Which is crucial as you get older and closer to retirement. Think about it. You wouldn’t use this passive way of thinking to advance your career, manage your health, develop lasting relationships or any other important aspect of your life. Why would you think it would be a suitable financial strategy? At Decker Retirement Planning we actively manage your investments. The two-sided risk models we use are based on algorithms that can tell you what to buy, when to buy and when to sell.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:12:59]
MALE: They’re designed to keep up with the S and P in the up years while helping protect your assets in the down years. I know, it sound great doesn’t it? Go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com and get your portfolio review at no cost today. That’s Decker Retirement Planning dot com. Tired of guessing how much income you can pull each year in retirement? These days ideas like the pie chart and the infamous four percent rules can’t help you. That is why at Decker Retirement Planning we developed a safer distribution plan. A set of proprietary algorithms that help organize your assets while telling you down to the month net of tax how much you can draw each year for as long as you live.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:13:40]
MALE: Our safer distribution plan can help eliminate sequence of return risk, inflation risk and more. All while helping lower market risk and implementing tax minimization strategies. As fiduciaries we’re here to help you enjoy a safer retirement. If you’re 55-years or older and have at least 300 thousand dollars saved up for retirement call right now for a no cost visit to learn more. Call 844-404-Decker. That’s 844-404-3325. We told you we’d be back. And here we are, back safe and sound.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:14:20]
MALE: Ready for more knowledge for a safer retirement? Here’s more safer retirement radio with Mike and Scott.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:14:28]
SCOTT: Welcome back to safer retirement radio. This is Scott Drake and the president of Decker Retirement Planning Mike Decker. You’ve listened to Mike for quite some time. And you probably… You know, he’s not just a numbers guy. This is a person back here with feelings. He’s healthy. He cares about, you know, he cares about, you know, his own health. He cares about your financial health. You can believe that. What are your hobbies, Mike? What do you like to do when you’re not talking about numbers?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:14:55]
MIKE: You know, I’m a very physical guy. When I say physical I mean [LAUGH] well you know this. You’ve seen the pictures.
SCOTT: Yes, you are. I have.
MIKE: I mountain bike, love mountain biking the Wasatch Front. Even up in Washington, Banff or Whistler, Canada. All that.
SCOTT: Sure.
MIKE: I love mountain biking in the summer. Skiing in the winter time.
SCOTT: Right.
MIKE: Especially in Utah. If you don’t ski it’s hard to get out. So that’s a great activity.
SCOTT: Mm-hmm.
MIKE: Hiking Moab is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s an adult playground for the outdoor activities. But the reason why Scott, to be totally transparent.
SCOTT: Mm-hmm.
MIKE: The reason why I’m so physical with these activities is because I wanna stay healthy my whole life.
SCOTT: Right.
MIKE: And if I’m not physically doing something it’s like an escalator of health. I’m either getting healthier or I’m getting worse. And I don’t wanna be getting worse.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:15:34]
MIKE: I wanna be able to maintain good eating habits, good physical exercise and maintain my physical and mental health. And that’s how it should be, right? We all need to be in that category. We should be.
SCOTT: Much like when we talk about retirement planning, which is an obvious similarity here is that you have to, you know, you have to take the whole idea and look at it long-term, for the rest of your life. Which is a lot longer…
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:16:00]
SCOTT: Because of people like you who are taking care of themselves our life spans are so much longer. And we now have to account for 20 years, 25 years, perhaps 30 years of retirement without a paycheck or a paycheck that we have to come up ourselves. This is Decker Retirement Radio the safer retirement radio. 833-707-3030 is the number. Mike I wanna talk about the second principal in your planning strategy.
MIKE: Mm-hmm
SCOTT: Which is focused on safer investment options and risk. Now with everything out there… I mean, it’s so confusing for the average person to even have an idea of what they should be investing in or how they should be planning. How do you guys figure that out?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:16:39]
MIKE: You know, that’s a great question. And there are thousands, tens of thousands, I mean, there is almost limitless number of investments that are out there. Not only by category, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, you know, the securities, treasuries, all that. And then you’ve got all these insurance products that are out there. And people that are saying, oh do this, do that. And there’s a huge division of financial… It doesn’t stop. I’ll quote Aziz Ansari who had this book, “Modern Romance,” which was hilarious, by the way. A really fun read. Where he talks about at the food market, if people have 30 jams to try out in the market they’ll try a bunch then they won’t decide on anything.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:17:20]
MIKE: And then if you have four or five out there people will try a couple and then they’ll buy one. There are so many investment options out there. To be able to categorize them, quantify them and then decide if they’re good or not… I think we’re doing people a disservice by just giving them a long list. When it comes to retirement planning principal number two is, diversify by purpose not just by risk. Now of course you should diversify by risk. That just makes sense. I think we… That’s finance 101. But Scott, when it comes down to diversifying by purpose it really lends clarity and structure to anyone that’s doing their retirement planning.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:17:57]
MIKE: And here’s what I mean, Scott, imagine a triangle, okay?
SCOTT: Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
MIKE: At the top of the triangle you put growth, ‘kay? On the right side you’re gonna put principal protection. And then on the left side of the triangle, the bottom left side, you’re gonna put liquidity. Pick two. The hard thing is, we’re assuming you can only pick two.
SCOTT: Yeah, why am I picking just two? Why can’t I have the whole thing?
MIKE: Every investment only allows you to have two. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
SCOTT: Man.
MIKE: ‘Kay? And what I have found is in the financial industry, a financial professional will only recommend two. Because that’s the only two they get paid on.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:18:35]
MIKE: They specialize in one theory or one approach, typically the accumulation approach. And it’s most commonly growth and liquidity.
SCOTT: Mm-hmm.
MIKE: But what about principal protection? See, when you plan by purpose you’re taking two of each category or three different areas, three different categories and then you take that new account when you’re building your plan. This can’t be done with a pie chart though Scott, can’t be done. Do you wanna go through each one of the categories?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:19:02]
SCOTT: Well yeah. I mean, that would be great. ‘Cause I’m fascinated here. Because when we’re talking about investing… And explain the idea of principal protection. Again, this is growing and protecting at the same time.
MIKE: Yep.
SCOTT: Which traditionally are mutually exclusive, right?
MIKE: Yeah. So if you’re just tuning in right now principal number one is, never draw income from a fluctuating account.
SCOTT: ‘Kay.
MIKE: So you gotta have an aspect of principal protecting in your plan. With that being said you can’t have principal protecting and growth and liquidity. It doesn’t exist with any investment out there that I’m aware of at least. So when it comes down to organizing your plan, let’s talk about principal protection and liquidity. ‘Kay?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:19:45]
MIKE: Not a lot of money should probably be in here. There’s no growth. But when life happens and it does… This last holiday, over Christmas, I got two calls from two different clients that had family emergencies, had to get rushed to the hospital and needed their funds. And we got those funds right to them immediately. Didn’t have to wait about any sort of trade or anything like that. This was emergency cash set aside or for some clients, discretionary cash for near-term purchases.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:20:14]
MIKE: Another story, someone worked for some other adviser who does claim to be a fiduciary and put all of their assets in income annuities and IULs and had no liquidity for the roof that he said he needed to purchase in a year. He came in and we said, “Look, we’ll help you as best we can. But you literally, you don’t have any liquidity in your plan. You can’t pay for your roof this year. Maybe you can pull some out and then have a savings account of these funds and then eventually get there. Or you could take a surrender.” But we don’t recommend surrender. That’s horrible. You’re losing money because of the ignorance of someone else who didn’t give you liquidity.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:20:55]
MIKE: And we’ll talk more about that later. But when it comes down to it, near-term purchases that are big should be accounted for and in cash and ready to go, regardless of what the market does, regardless of when life happens. Emergency cash, it should be set aside and accessible immediately for when things happen. That’s just one of the categories, one of the three. Another category is growth and principal protection. Now Scott, this one is critical because a lot of people confuse this concept with income annuities.
SCOTT: Mm-hmm.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:21:25]
MIKE: An income annuity is when you pay an insurance company to give your own money back at a rate that you probably are unaware of. We found most of them are rate-of-return of one point three percent. Do you think an actuary, who is paid to make an insurance company a lot of money, is gonna give you a decent rate-of-return when the fed’s rates are this low?
SCOTT: Probably not.
MIKE: No. So a lot of insurance salesmen out there, who are good people and trying to do what’s in the client’s best interest but don’t have either the industry knowledge or the awareness of what else is out there and other ways to accomplish this, will put someone into an income annuity and then turn it on and then it runs for the rest of their life. Sure that helps with comfort. But the return on investment is so dismal, it’s near impossible to, in my mathematically and principal based mind be able to recommend that. It doesn’t make sense.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:22:16]
MIKE: So when it comes down to principal guaranteed in growth, sure there’s CDs out there, there are bonds, there’s equity in NX [PH] accounts, a number of different accounts, over 10 we could talk about. We don’t have time to go through them all, to where you can structure it in such a way that you’ve got these investment here, which are principal guaranteed and pay your income from year one to five. And then you’ve these investment over here with a higher rate-of-return that grow for five years and then pay out and so on and so forth. It’s a bucket approach. It’s laddered. And the amazing part is because you’re drawing income from the lower earning account the other accounts are able to grow and offset typically what you would have pulled out.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:22:51]
MIKE: This strategy is how you can sail through market crashes unaffected, protect your income and then for most clients that are suitable for some risk you’ve got liquidity and growth. Which is securities. You’re talking about stocks and mutual funds, ETFs. Things we’re really comfortable… Or not really comfortable with. Most of us are. But some… I can’t assume. But we’re familiar with because of the accumulation phase. But we setup a time frame to where you don’t have to touch them for over 10 years. See the beauty of this is now that we’ve categorized the purpose of what every investment can fall under and we’ve given each one a deliberate direction.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:23:27]
MIKE: We’ve taken a team and if everyone can do their job your retirement is setup for a safer retirement. Can you imagine a football team if everyone tried to play the quarterback or everyone tried to play the offensive line?
SCOTT: Mm. That would be bad.
MIKE: Your investments need to be a team. And they need to work with different parts to be able to accomplish the overall purpose.
SCOTT: Would it be safe to say that a lot of the people that you run into, that come in, you know, to talk to you about retirement planning, do you feel like they’ve really been winging it this whole time?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:23:59]
MIKE: They’ve been winging it. In their gut they feel it. But in their mind they think because of the sophisticated jargon that’s out there in the financial industry that they’re okay. They’re using the pie chart guesser. They’re playing retirement roulette. And Scott, when it comes down to it most people have no idea the amount of risk they’re actually taking. Because they’ve been talked out of believing their gut and only trusting their head.
SCOTT: If you would like to get in front of the Decker team there’s a real simple way to do that. Mike’s gonna explain a little bit about what this entails. 833-707-3030. 833-707-3030. That is the Decker 30 Review. Or… Again, that’s a phone call, right Mike?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:24:40]
MIKE: It’s a phone call.
SCOTT: Or you can get a 90-minute in-office review. Which, I mean, if it were me I would wanna see the guy behind the mic. But this is much more comprehensive. But again we would like to remove all the barriers to participate. 833-7070-3030. You can also go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com. There’s a little button there on that website that says, “Get started.” What happens when they call you?
MIKE: You know, that introductory visit, the purpose of it is to set expectations on how the market really is. We’re not bear, we’re not bullish. We just are. And we want to set realistic expectations. Especially with the way the Fed is, with the way interest rates are it’s very difficult for a retiree to retire today.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:25:22]
MIKE: On top of that we wanna do a Social Security optimization. We wanna put together a safer distribution plan. So seeing a spreadsheet, principal number three, which we can’t talk about today but we’ll talk about later, that shows you down to the month net-of-tax how much you can spend for the rest of your life while quantifying your pension, your rental real estate, all the other aspects. And get a pure-bred fiduciary to review your retirement.
SCOTT: And there was no cost to this. But there is typically a cost unless you call in right now. What’s that cost?
MIKE: It’s normally 2000 dollars to get this service.
SCOTT: Oh, okay. All right. SO 833-707-3030. You talk to a pure-bred fiduciary, somebody who has your best interest in mind. It’s by laws. But again why is it pure-bred? What does that mean?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:26:02]
MIKE: Well we’re 65 license. So we can’t receive security commissions. We’re independent. No one is telling us what we have to do. And we’re an RIA. We’re able to make money off of advice, not churning securities or different things like that, that happen so often. So when it comes down to it yeah, we set ourselves up. We painted ourselves into a corner that we have to be honest.
SCOTT: We’re going to break. This is Safer Retirement Radio. 833-707-3030. We’ll be back.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:26:28]
MALE: Retirement investing and planning shouldn’t be a guessing game. With the ever changing four percent rule as most people’s guessing metric in retirement it’s easy to feel like we’re at the mercy of the financial markets as they swing up and down. But there is a better way. At Decker Retirement Planning we operate on principals that are timeless. In 2008 those who followed these principals for their retirement sailed through the financial crisis unaffected. They didn’t even have to change their travel plans.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:26:55]
MALE: At Decker Retirement Planning we are pure-bred fiduciaries. Which means we are legally bound to do what is in your best interest. When you pair our pure-bred fiduciary standard and the principals that govern proper retirement planning you get a safer retirement. Go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com to download your free copy of our eBook, Principals That Govern Proper Retirement Planning. Or schedule your no-cost review today. Just 30 minutes for a safer 30 plus years. That’s Decker Retirement Planning dot com.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:27:26]
MALE: While buy and hold investing is a very common strategy it’s important to understand it isn’t a one-size fits all solution. The appeal of buy and hold investing is simplicity. Buy and hold requires little skill or serious effort. And it completely ignores an appropriate amount of risk management with shorter time horizons. Which is crucial as you get older and closer to retirement. Think about it. You wouldn’t use this passive way of thinking to advance your career, manage your health, develop lasting relationships or any other important aspect of your life. Why would you think it would a suitable financial strategy? At Decker Retirement Planning we actively manage your investments.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:28:00]
MALE: The two-sided risk models we use are based on algorithms that can tell you what to buy, when to buy and when to sell. They’re designed to keep up with the S and P in the up years while helping protect your assets in the down years. I know, it sounds great doesn’t it? Go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com and get your portfolio review at no cost today. That’s Decker Retirement Planning dot com.
MALE: Want to find out how as little as 30 minutes can change the next 30 years of retirement? Keep listening to find out. Or call 833-707-3030. Now here is Mike and Scott
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:28:35]
SCOTT: Welcome back. Scott Drake and Mike Decker at the safer retirement show powdered by Decker Retirement Planning. Thanks for joining us. This is a show about retirement planning. I want you to make sure that you understand the word planning. A lot of what we talk about on this show every week is around that concept of planning. ‘Cause nothing can be accomplished successfully unless you’ve got a good plan in place wouldn’t you agree Michael?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:28:57]
MIKE: Oh absolutely. I mean, you can plan to succeed. Or you can fail to plan. Which is planning to fail.
SCOTT: And what we’re gonna talk about now is something that a lot of people assume is just for wealthy people. And we can, you know, wealth is a relative term. But the concept of estate planning. Just about everybody has something of value. And when it becomes time to pass it on you have to have a plan in place for that don’t you?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:29:27]
MIKE: You gotta have a plan and a plan that articulates your wants and needs, hopes and dreams. You said something interesting, wealth is a relative term. It really is. I’ve seen millionaires come through that barely earned more than 30 thousand dollars a year. Because they didn’t need much and they saved every single dime. And I’ve seen people that make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and had nothing to their name. Who is wealthier? Financial freedom, independence, the ability to make your own decisions really comes down to what wealth is.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:30:01]
MIKE: And it’s relative to how much you have and how much do you need. Actually it brings up a story if you don’t mind me sharing. And the reason why is, we had a couple come through who really didn’t feel like they needed our service. Now why did they come through? Let me tell you.
SCOTT: Okay.
MIKE: The reason why they came through, they’re actually a longtime radio listener and the reason why is they liked a math-based principal-based approach. But they didn’t need income. They had three pensions.
SCOTT: Okay. Nice.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:30:35]
MIKE: Three pensions. Each one of them the size of what a normal person would get as a normal pension. They just had a wonderful, basically a wonderful career in different deals that created pensions. As well as their own employment. They did it right whether it was on purpose or not. A hundred percent survivability on all three pensions. That’s a good situation. They don’t need income analysis as much as the normal person would need, right?
SCOTT: Mm-hmm. Right.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:31:03]
MIKE: And they also had social security. They came to us at 68 and 66-years-old. And they had already filed Social Security. So there wasn’t much to be done there. But that’s okay. Again, they were focused on income. They had the income they need. They saw that with Social Security when they would file, if they filed it now in their pensions, that they were able to generate plenty of money. There was 7000 dollars roughly they were getting net-of-tax just by these income streams. And they didn’t need anything.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:31:27]
MIKE: House was paid off. They were living within their means. They were more than comfortable for what they were looking for. So…
SCOTT: Sounds great.
MIKE: Right. Most people aren’t in this boat. But the topic I want to talk about here when you say wealth is relative is, what do you want your funds to do when you pass? I’m not trying to be grim here. But we all have some sort of expiration date, right?
SCOTT: Sure.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:31:55]
MIKE: Very pessimistic people will say, we’re just dying one day at a time. Hopefully we’re enjoying and we’re living one day at a time. And then when that day happens it happens, right?
SCOTT: Right.
MIKE: But let’s address the elephant in the room. How do you want your legacy to pass? With some of the plans I’ve seen come through our offices people would roll over in the grave when they would find out how much Uncle Sam would take from them when they would pass. Now I know taxation changes estate plans. There’s some talk about that potentially changes as well. But regardless the way you planned your estate, not just financially but in other means as well, estate planning, wills, power of attorney and all of that, should be carefully crafted and thought through.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:32:39]
MIKE: There’s an individual I know, not a client. Some people I just won’t work with. This is one of them. Has millions of dollars and fully expects his kids to work it out when he passes.
SCOTT: Oh man.
MIKE: It’s just, it’s absolute ignorance to think that they’re gonna be peacefully dividing up millions of dollars. People go dark when this happens. And we wanna avoid that. So when it comes to giving you, my listener right now, the transparency that you deserve, let’s talk about legacy planning and estate planning. Now financially speaking we wanna follow the three principals that govern proper retirement planning, right?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:33:17]
MIKE: Never draw income from a fluctuating account. These clients didn’t have to worry about that. Because their pensions and Social Security would be considered an income stream or principal guaranteed, for the most part. Assuming corporate risk and political risk with Social Security. And then they wanted to be able to diversify their assets by purpose not just by risk. And for them that was, let’s put it in assets that would make sense for them to pass on. But they also didn’t wanna put it all in one. They wanted to different ways and different vehicles, different growths, different things like that. Which is a conversation in itself.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:33:51]
MIKE: And then they wanted to have a plan on their legacy. And so they said, well let’s, you know, you usually talk about income plan and all that. It doesn’t apply to us. But we wanna build that around our legacy. So I said, “Great, let’s talk about that.” The interesting part, before I dive into legacy Scott was the cost of living adjustment conundrum. A dollar today is not a dollar in 10 years. Their pensions were not designed to keep up with inflation. And Social Security doesn’t really seem to be able to keep up with inflation.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:34:22]
MIKE: Social Security is meant to be a help in retirement not to be your retirement. So we quickly assessed when we were looking at the basically an average inflation rate of around two to three percent depending on the client, their age and their suitability. That in a few years, they would probably not have the buying power in 10 years that they would have today. That’s an issue, wouldn’t you agree?
SCOTT: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
MIKE: Remember when a candy bar was 50 cents or five cents? I mean…
SCOTT: No, I’m way too young for that.
MIKE: [LAUGH] But, I mean, I remember when a candy bars were that age.
SCOTT: Yeah.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:34:56]
MIKE: And when it comes down to it folks, being aware that just your good now doesn’t mean you’re necessarily good later. So we actually built them a plan and put some principal guaranteed accounts in place. Because they wanted to have more buying power in the future should health care change, should Medicare, Medicaid change, should their health start to go. And they didn’t think about these things. We planned around it so they would have basically help with buying power should there be hyperinflation.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:35:24]
MIKE: I mean, for goodness’ sakes Scott have you noticed what is happening in Argentina or Venezuela and some of these countries?
SCOTT: I do read the news, yes.
MIKE: It’s insane.
SCOTT: Right.
MIKE: What if that happened here? I don’t think it would. We’re a pretty smart country. But we’re not immune to issues.
SCOTT: Well and you’re bringing up an important point here. Again when somebody says that their account is doing okay or just keeping up or staying even you’re not losing your principal, you’re losing buying power. Because of inflation. And like you said, if it’s two percent, in 20 years well that’s 20 percent. We can all imagine what gasoline will be, what housing will be
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:36:04]
MIKE: And you’re being nice, too. ‘Cause you’re not compounding it.
SCOTT: Well yeah, I am being nice.
MIKE: So…
SCOTT: Thank you for bringing that up. That’s okay.
MIKE: [LAUGH] But when it comes down to it folks you gotta be aware of this. So let’s talk now about the actual legacy planning itself. Just having an account that grows is not enough. We need to raise awareness to the ramifications of if you are, not if but when you pass what would happen? For example if you have an IRA portfolio that you grow significantly, ‘kay. Not only do you have to account for RMDs, required minimum distributions.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:36:36]
MIKE: Which may be changing in the near future.
SCOTT: Mm-hmm. Right. Secure act
MIKE: We don’t want to pay yourself into a high tax bracket corner just because you saved up a lot of money and grew it there. So making the cognizant change of IRA to Roth conversions when your windows are open is huge. Not only to you at minimizing RMD ramifications. But also to your beneficiaries. ‘Cause Roth IRAs can pass tax-free. Or at least your beneficiaries are able to distribute from them tax-free.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:37:10]
MIKE: But IRAs, not only are you forcing them to have a beneficiary IRA distribution. But it’s affecting their tax situation as well. Now okay you’re probably gonna say, you know, Scott you’re very kind to not say this, “Well Mike, should they be grateful to have money and the beneficiary should be able to lend them that?” Yeah, that is a benefit. But if you could have given them more just by doing a couple of things now wouldn’t you?
SCOTT: Yes I would, Mike. Yes I would.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:37:40]
MIKE: These are just basic practices that a lot of people are doing. Because it’s work. And how many financial advisers are willing to put in this kind of work for their clients?
SCOTT: It is something when you’re talking about estate planning obviously we need professional help like you.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
SCOTT: Is an attorney always required do you think?
MIKE: You know, a lot of people can use Will Maker, which is a great, it’s like Turbo Tax but for wills and power of attorneys, to kind of guideline put it together. And then you can have an attorney read through it and make sure it’s correct. You gotta have your team. A CPA for the tax ramifications should have an eye on it as well.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:38:18]
MIKE: I have found though that most CPAs are concerned about this year, next year and nothing more than that.
SCOTT: Yes.
MIKE: And that’s fine. Which is where a financial adviser would come in. A pure-bred fiduciary we recommend to be able to map out the tax consequences in the future. So you don’t paint yourself into a corner. We had a client that has 13 million of assets that is stuck in the top tax bracket for life. Because their previous financial professional did not build them a proper plan. And now they’re just stuck paying an enormous amount of taxes. Things that could have been avoided earlier on had they been proactive in their planning.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:38:55]
MIKE: And there’s a number of other things that we could talk about. So IRA to Roth conversations is huge. Setting up the investment vehicles that can pass tax-free. We would love Roth IRAs. Those are great as a simple example that a lot of us are aware of. There’s something else I wanna talk about with this. And that’s the tax punching bag. Tax punching bag of allowing an investment account to grow tax-free. But also be able to help out with tax burdens for your estate planning. This can be coordinated when you work with your attorney and your CPA and your financial professional. That creates a huge tax efficiency for your beneficiaries.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:39:28]
MIKE: Heck, for some of our clients I’ve put a plan together, true story, with an adviser out of Seattle, our adviser up there, who we saved seven figures for a client throughout their retirement. Because of a tax efficiency plan using our tax punching bag strategy. Which is proprietary. I don’t know anyone that’s doing it. But it can save you a lot of money.
SCOTT: And I know that this is piquing your attention right now. Whether you’re at the stage for estate planning or general retirement planning or both in order to get in front of the Decker Retirement Planning team you can call 833-707-3030. That will get you the Decker 30 Review phone call or the 90-minute in-office deep dive. Which will answer a lot more questions.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:40:16]
SCOTT: But either way it’s something that is good for you if you’re 55-years or older and you have 300 thousand dollars or more saved up this can really, really help.
MIKE: Oh absolutely. I mean, the shows motto, get the transparency you deserve. It is astounding how many people don’t know the options that are actually out there. It changes their complete world-view when it comes to retirement planning. Because they’re answering questions they thought could not be answered.
SCOTT: And you can also visit Decker Retirement Planning dot com. Click on, Get Started, to learn more. Safer Retirement Radio.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:40:49]
MALE: Tired of guessing how much income you can pull each year in retirement? These days ideas like the pie chart and the infamous four percent rule can’t help you. That is why at Decker Retirement Planning we developed a safer distribution plan. A set of proprietary algorithms that help organize your assets while telling you down the month net-of-tax how much you can draw each for as long as you live. Our safer distribution plan can help eliminate sequence of return risk, inflation risk and more. All while helping lower market risk and implementing tax minimization strategies.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:41:25]
MALE: As fiduciaries we’re here to help you enjoy a safer retirement. If you’re 55-years or older and have at least 300 thousand dollars saved up for retirement call right now for a no-cost visit to learn more. Call 844-404-Decker. That’s 844-404-3325.
MALE: Have you ever wondered how financial professionals can tell you how much income you can take each year of your retirement by looking at a pie chart? At Decker Retirement Planning we feel the same way. Stop guessing on your retirement income and get some clarity with a safer distribution plan. With our proprietary algorithms that make up a safer distribution plan we can show you down to the month net-of-tax how much you can spend with a cost of living adjustment for your entire retirement.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:42:10]
MALE: With this level of clarity you can start enjoying all of your hopes and dreams while taking care of your wants and needs in your retirement. We developed a safer distribution plan for the sole purpose of helping folks like you enjoy a full retirement. If your 55-years of age or older and have at least 300 thousand dollars saved up for retirement call 844-404-3325 today for your safer distribution plan at no cost to you. Call 844-404-3325 or visit us at Decker Retirement Planning dot com.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:42:41]
MALE: Can you handle more Safer Retirement radio? Well can you? We thought so. So feast yourself on more math-based, principal-based pure-bred fiduciary goodness with Mike and Scott.
SCOTT: Welcome back, you have joined on Safer Retirement radio. I’m Scott Drake. As we talk to you every week with my co-host Mike Decker of Decker Retirement Planning. You’re the president of Decker Retirement Planning. We don’t take that lightly. Well you’re sort of the ghost in the machine there in a lot of ways. But today we’re gonna be talking about retirement planning. Which is the consistent topic every week. Specifically today, Social Security, what it is, what it means to you but actually what it’s supposed to do and how it works.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:43:24]
MIKE: Social Security, it’s a topic almost everyone is gonna get. Now there are some government employees who will have a pension instead of Social Security. Because they work for the government. But aside from that if you work over 10 years you should have enough credits, if you worked full time, even some people with part time. If you earned money you should be getting Social Security. Now it does take over 40 years of averages and different numbers in a point system. It’s not just by dollars. It’s a point system on what your Social Security will look like.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:43:52]
MIKE: But for the most part Scott, people are gonna take Social Security.
SCOTT: Sure.
MIKE: It’s a benefit. It’s a part of their retirement plan. And it’s not to be looked at lightly. Do you know roughly, I mean, what people are getting from Social Security today?
SCOTT: I think I read that the average was something like 1600 a month. Something like that was the average I think that people are taking.
MIKE: Yep. And we’ve seen everything from just a couple hundred bucks a month to significantly more.
SCOTT: Mm-hmm. Right.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:44:18]
MIKE: The variations are extravagant. It’s just incredible. And according to Bank Rate dot com there’s 567 way to file your Social Security. Who in the world is gonna go through all 567 ways by themself? I don’t know a single person except for well us. We do that. But we [INAUDIBLE] systems that make it a little bit easier for us. But when it comes down to it this is a over a million dollar asset that you have that could pay over your lifetime.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:44:49]
SCOTT: Did you just hear that people? Driving around right now listening to this show you may be a millionaire and not even know it. Because of what it would take as an asset to give you the kind of income that Social Security can give you. And I think there was a recent study that shows that the vast majority of people, again if you do this yourself or with help, are leaving a significant amount of money on the table because they are claiming too early. Now when you think about claiming too early there’s a lot of reasons for that. One, it could be your health. It could be your life expectancy. It could be a job loss.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:45:24]
SCOTT: It could be something like that. But unless you have a professional who knows the 567 ways and again, how it all interplays [PH] with your general retirement planning, you’re at risk, right, of not doing this correctly.
MIKE: Mm-hmm. Well and that’s the normal conversation that people are talking about. There are other ramifications that Social Security has on a retirement plan that I have yet to hear another financial professional talk about.
SCOTT: Yes.
MIKE: I think a big reason why is because we use the three principals that govern proper retirement planning and understand the implications of when you file and how it affects the rest of your plan. But, you know, Scott let’s dive into it.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:46:01]
MIKE: Let’s understand Social Security as a whole. If you want to take as much Social Security as you, you think it’s gonna out, you’ll probably file at 62, right? And that’s just fear driving that. And that’s okay. We have emotions. If it makes you more comfortable that’s fine. If you want the most amount of Social Security possible and you think you’re gonna live past 84 or so then the breakeven may suggest that you would file at 70. What I think is interesting though is these decisions are being based on our perception of Social Security, how it will pay out, how I’m going to live but completely disregard the rest of your plan. Completely disregards it.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:46:43]
MIKE: I’ve said it on the show before, Scott. And I’m gonna say it again. And for everyone listening up this is probably the most important advice you can get on Social Security. So listen up, I’ll even say it twice.
SCOTT: Okay.
MIKE: And I wanna consider… This is for someone just generally speaking. ‘Cause we can’t do enough suitability over the radio to really quantify this. But if you’re 60-years-old for example, you wanna retire at 60-years-old, when we talk about Social Security, if you file too early you’re income is hurting. And if you file too late you’re hurting your estate. So let me say it again.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:47:21]
MIKE: If you file too early, as in 62, you’re income is hurting. Because 62, you take a discount for your Social Security. But if you file too late you’re hurting your estate. Because if you retire at 60 and you take income from Social Security at 70-years-old you are going to be dwindling your assets for the next 10 years. Therefore you’re estate is dwindling and there is less to pass off to your beneficiaries as well as your own backup plan, should you live longer than you were expecting.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:47:53]
SCOTT: So this is pretty complex. As we would understand based on this conversation not only for the single person but, you know, spousal benefits. Which…
MIKE: Spousal benefits. If you’re divorced and you were married for 10 years or longer with that spouse, how to get their Social Security to break even there. I mean, there is so many… 567 ways if you’re a married couple. When you add those other elements Scott it’s… Oh my gosh. There are so many things to talk about.
SCOTT: And again, I have the numbers on that study that I talked about earlier where the average person claiming too early will leave, on an average, 111 thousand dollars on the table.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:48:30]
SCOTT: There are other factors involved here as to when to claim it. But one of the things that people don’t understand is every year that you wait after full retirement age, which for, you know, the average person is 65, 66, 66 and a half, something like that. Social Security will give an extra eight percent every year that you delay. Now that’s, again, that may not be appropriate for you because of other factors. But just think about that. For example, over four years that’s another 32 percent if I’m not mistaken.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:48:59]
MIKE: It’s pretty drastic. But it’s all about break evens and if you’re a math-based, principal-based you can stop making decisions based on fear. Which leaves a wide open gate for prediction error. And you can look objectively at your plan and what’s the most important to you. See Scott, what I think is interesting, we have a lot of clients that come in that have millions of dollars. And when they come in they say, “Look, I only need so much. I wanna protect my legacy and give it to this person, my kids, a charity,” whatever their plans are with that.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:49:27]
MIKE: And so when we look at that we say, “Okay, if they don’t need a lot of income but they need to preserve their estate what are we gonna do?” We’re gonna file Social Security earlier. Because it helps preserve their estate. They need to take less income from their assets depending on their age. But if they say, “You know, I didn’t get a single thing from my folks. I’m gonna spend every single dollar. I want the most income possible.” Okay, we’re gonna file Social Security a little bit later. Because we’re not as concerned.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:49:55]
MIKE: We’re still concerned. But not as concerned about estate preservation. Now what’s interesting Scott about this, ’cause we spent hours doing research on this. Research on a topic that I have yet to hear another financial professional have with their clients. And quantitatively can you guess what the most common of a 60-year-old person whether they have 500 thousand, a million, two million or more. The best time they should file Social Security if income was their number one priority?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:50:30]
SCOTT: I have no idea. I mean, because there are so many other factors, right?
MIKE: Well yeah, I mean, if you’re looking at Social Security, you’re looking pensions, you’re looking at all the different aspects there. The most common, or the most… Let me… The most optimized age for someone to file Social Security if they wanted the most income possible was between the ages of 60 and 69. It wasn’t actually 70.
SCOTT: Okay.
MIKE: The reason was because we had to account for the assets and their growth rates. We had to account for the pension. We had to account for the other aspects of their plan. And if they were just to default to 70-years-old they would actually be also losing money.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:51:08]
SCOTT: And here’s another frightening thing too that people probably don’t understand, the majority of people don’t realize, Social Security is taxed. That can affect other things in your portfolio too, right?
MIKE: Oh yeah. [LAUGH] Absolutely. I mean, when you think of taxes, Social Security is going to, you’re gonna be taxing your Social Security, okay? Now there’s different tiers with Social Security and the different taxations. And that’s also based on how you’re taking income. If you have an IRA heavy portfolio, 401K heavy portfolio, then yeah, you need to consider the ramifications that it has on your Social Security, how much you will actually get.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:51:44]
MIKE: If you have mostly a portfolio based on non-qualified assets, you know, after tax funds or Roth accounts, that’s a different conversation. But how many people are actually quantifying this? I doubt many are. Because and this is again my professional observation, most financial professionals use a Social Security conversation to get someone in the door, hands them a little spreadsheet that they paid some third party to get, and now that you’re in their door they’re talking about how to sell you an insurance product.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:52:20]
MIKE: And that’s it. And they wanna sell you some sort of income annuity and then say, “Great, you’re good, go away.” And it drives me crazy. Because it gives financial professionals a bad reputation. Because they’re unwilling to do the work that people need and want to make the right decisions for their retirement. It should not be that way. But when it comes to our Social Security, if you’re planning with us and it takes four or five meetings to plan your retirement plan, guess how many times we’re gonna be bringing up your Social Security and quantifying it. Almost every single time. It’s that important.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:52:51]
MIKE: It’s not just a, hey, get it in, here’s a little spreadsheet and you’re good to go. No, this is your retirement we’re talking about. And as a math-based, principal-based firm, yes it’s on the forefront of our thoughts and conversation when building your plan.
SCOTT: And when you think about Social Security, that is true safety, right? And you think about a pension, that’s true safety. Very predictable, consistent income. And there are some other parts in the entire plan that need to be considered.
MIKE: Yeah.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:53:19]
SCOTT: But this is a great part of it. And when you come to Decker Retirement Planning… I’m gonna give you some options right now. This is gonna be embarrassingly simple for you. I don’t want you to do this right now if you’re driving. But call 833-707-3030. That will get you right to the Decker 30 Review. Which is a 30-minute phone call, a very simple review. Or a 90-minute in-office review. Which has more to it.
MIKE: You can ask more questions. It’s more interactive.
SCOTT: Sure. And there is value here that you will not… You’re not gonna be charged for this. What does it cost typically?
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:53:55]
MIKE: It’s normally two thousand dollars.
SCOTT: Two thousand dollars. Okay.
MIKE: Yeah, to be able to get his kind of transparency and information.
SCOTT: But to you, our beloved listener right now, you can get it at 833-707-3030. Or you can go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com and click on the Get Started button. There you’ll also find some very valuable eBooks. Which are, you know, have been written specifically for you, right?
MIKE: Well the eBooks were written to contribute to this new conversation that should be had and is not happening in the financial world.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:54:27]
SCOTT: 833-707-3030. Or you can go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com and click on, Get Started. This is Safer Retirement Radio, thanks for listening.
MALE: The term fiduciary has been used a lot by investment brokers lately. It essentially means that by law they must put their client’s best interest before their own. Though their hearts may be in the right place, the very nature of working in a brokerage firm makes it impossible to be a true fiduciary. The fact is, according to a Tony Robbins’ study, less than two percent of financial professionals legally fall into that category. At Decker Retirement Planning we are pure-bred fiduciaries.
RR S3 E11 SAFER INVESTMENT OPTIONS EXIST [00:55:06]
MALE: We always have been. We always will be. It means we are completely independent and have the ability to recommend any strategy and product available to manage growth, continuity and legacy. It means we operate on a higher level of transparency and integrity. It means we think and act strategically and always put your best interest before our own. Don’t work with someone who just claims to be a fiduciary. Go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com and get a pure-bred fiduciary review at no cost today.
MALE: Welcome back to Safer Retirement radio, home of the Decker 30 Review. Call 833-707-3030 now to find out how just 30 minutes can help bring you a safer 30-plus years in retirement.
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MIKE: You can hear the clock ticking everyone. We are running out of time today. I hope you’ve enjoyed the conversations we’ve been having and Scott for being in the studio with us today talking about safer investment options, talking about estate planning, talking about Social Security. When it comes down to it folks there’s so much relief that can happen from a math-based, principal-based approach to retirement planning. And on this show we pride ourselves in doing that.
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MIKE: Which I believe has led to getting you the transparency that you deserve. Because when it comes down to it when you’re working with a pure-bred fiduciary, not one that claims to be a fiduciary but a pure-bred fiduciary. It is an incredible situation to have that transparency, have that integrity and also to work with someone that’s gonna put in the effort, the elbow grease, the extra hours to work with your unique situation. Now we’ve mentioned on the show over and over again, if you’re 55-years or older or even I would say if you’re within five years of your expected retirement, that you can still come in and talk to us. Just have to have at least 300 thousand of assets.
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MIKE: And we work with people that have 300 thousand of assets, three million and 10 million, 15 million. We work with all sizes of clients. The bottom line is that you get the support that you need to have the retirement that you want. And you don’t spend your days playing retirement roulette with the pie chart guesser. Go to Decker Retirement Planning dot com. To learn more click Get Started. We’d love to chat with you and continue your research as you build the right retirement for you.
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MIKE: That’s Decker Retirement Planning dot com. On the bottom you can click, get started. We’ve got eBooks, we’ve got content. If you’re just catching this show we could also subscribe and get it every week on iTunes, Google Play or SoundCloud via the podcast app on whatever phone that you’re using. But when it comes down to it folks our purpose here on this show, it’s a public service announcement to help get you the transparency that you deserve. I hope you’ll join us next week. Same time, same place or on your device. This is Mike Decker with Decker Retirement Planning. Thanks for tuning in. We appreciate it. Enjoy your retirement or retirement preparations.
