Official Missed Fortune Blog

Building Personal Financial Strength In a Weak Economy

May 27, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 29th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

Weaker Than We Realize

Fox Business News recently interviewed a Harvard professor of economics and former chief economic advisor to Ronald Reagan named Martin Feldstein. While giving his take on the American economy, Professor Feldstein indicated that he believes the economy is weaker than people realize.

Though we’re hearing reports that the economy has grown 3%, Feldstein says the actual growth is closer to just 1% and we’re likely headed for a double-dip recession.

The biggest message from the interview is that we need to change our expectations about future taxes. Instead of thinking that taxes will simply stay the same, we need to carefully consider our assumptions that we’ll be in a lower tax bracket in the days ahead. This hasn’t been true for the past 20 years.

Instead, many people are finding themselves in a higher tax bracket after they retire than they were in during their peak earning years—even if they earn less. How can this be? There are a couple of reasons.

First of all, many if not most of their deductions are no longer there when these folks retire. These retirees have paid off their homes. They are no longer contributing to a retirement plan like an IRA or 401(k) so they no longer have that deduction. They have fewer exemptions because their dependents have grown up and moved out.

The second big reason is that government spending has swelled the national debt by over $5 trillion in just the last 5 years. At the same time, Congress has further complicated the tax system by adding new brackets and taking away previous deductions. Spending is not decreasing; in fact, it is on the rise still. This can only mean that taxes will be going up to pay for those never-ending spending increases.

Those taxes will take a healthy bite out of your retirement income if you haven’t planned ahead.

Reaping Rewards Without the Risk

One of the greatest challenges for anyone determined to take charge of their future, is striking a balance between keeping their serious money safely growing without settling for an unacceptably low rate of return. Indexing is a strategy that offers the best of all possible worlds.

If you had your money in the market between 1999-2003, you saw the market rise and then fall three years in a row following 9/11. By 2003, many people only had around 60% of what they’d had in the market just three years earlier. From 2004-2007 the market slowly worked its way back to where these folks were almost breaking even. But in 2008, those whose money was in the market saw their value fall nearly 39% in a single year.

This means that if you had $100,000 starting out in 1999, you saw it rise and fall until you only had $60,000 by the end of 2008. This market volatility is why those years have earned the moniker of “The Lost Decade.”

If you had been using indexing, you would have safely doubled your money, tax-free, in spite of the market’s ups and downs. By incorporating rebalancing with lock-in and reset, you would have earned about 2.6 times your money over that same time period.

When you use indexing, your money is not at risk in the market. Instead, it is safely tucked away in the multi-trillion dollar insurance industry where it can grow tax-free. That money is safely earning a general account portfolio rate that, during the worst of the lost decade, was earning 5-7%. This is a far better rate of return than the 1% you’d get from leaving it in the bank.

With indexing, if you choose, you can link your money to a particular index—like the S&P 500, without actually putting it at risk in the market. This means that when the market grows, you are contractually guaranteed a rate of return up to a specified cap. You lock in the gain you’ve made and your return becomes newly protected principal. When the market declines, you don’t lose money. And as soon as the market surges again, you get to participate in the upside. Either way, you win.

This just one of the strategies that can help can help you take control of your future.

Learn more by talking with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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The Two Forces Intent On Eating Your Retirement

May 20, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 22nd at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

How to Lose a Third or More of Your Retirement Without Even Trying

When it comes to creating a predictable retirement and future, it’s essential to stop clinging to the strategies that are failing to produce satisfactory results for so many.

These strategies include the widely accepted practice of socking away your serious money in an IRA or 401(k). It’s not that these methods can never work; it’s the fact that there are far better ways to acquire money for your future.

One of the areas where these strategies consistently fall short is how they approach taxes. Too many people who’ve saved their money in an IRA or 401(k) find at retirement that taxes gobble up nearly a third of their nest egg due to the tax-deferred nature of these accounts. They also run the risk of finding themselves in a higher tax bracket than they’ve ever been in because they no longer have the deductions they once enjoyed.

There’s a world of difference in what happens when a person accumulates their retirement in a tax-deferred vehicle vs. a tax-free vehicle.

To illustrate this, let’s suppose that you were able to sock away $10,000 per year for 30 years in a tax-deferred IRA or 401(k). With an average of 7.2% yearly compound interest, you’d have a nest egg of over $1 million at the end of that period. That sounds like a sizable sum of money, but it’s simply not enough to last most people through their retirement.

Here’s why: If you’re pulling out just the interest of $72,000 a year or $6,000 month from that account, you’re going to be paying roughly a third of that income in taxes. That leaves you with only $4,000 a month to purchase your gas, groceries, medicines, and everything else you need. This is purely from the effect of taxes. With the Bush tax cuts set to expire and the looming threat of Congress raising taxes, your monthly income could take another hit.

And we haven’t yet even touched on how inflation further degrades the purchasing power of your nest egg by increasing the cost of living. The possibility of depleting one’s retirement nest egg with eleven years may be a painful reality to many.

Those who wish to avoid these pitfalls would be wise to consider a change in strategies.

The Solutions That Are Hiding In Plain Sight

The solution of many financial advisors is to tell people to sock away six times the amount of money and they’ll be just fine. But who can afford to put away $60,000 a year when they’ve been putting $10,000 a year up to this point?

Then answer can be found in redirecting otherwise payable taxes to a retirement vehicle where your money can accumulate tax-free. Not only will the money grow tax-free, but also it will remain tax-free as you start to withdraw it and will eventually transfer tax-free to your survivors. Best of all, this is done fully within IRS Code guidelines that have been on the books for many generations.

By redirecting those otherwise payable taxes into your tax-free retirement account, even an extra $500-$600 per month will grow your nest egg in a big way as the power of compound interest goes to work for you.

Another part of your strategy is to link your returns to those things that go up when there is inflation. This way, when inflation goes up to 5%, you’ll be enjoying predictable returns of 10% allowing you to outpace the rate of inflation. By taking simple, effective steps to counter the effects of taxes and inflation, you’ll have a retirement nest egg that you’ll never have to worry about outliving.

If you don’t yet know how to do this, it’s time you learned.

Start by visiting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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The Income You Didn’t Know You Had

May 13, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 15tht at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

A Simple Shift In Thinking That Expands Your Nest Egg

For most of us, taxes are only on our minds for a tiny portion of the year. We tend to focus on them in April when the deadline for filing our tax returns comes around, but taxes can have a greater impact on our lives than many people realize.

For instance, if you’re part of a married couple earning over $70,000 or you’re a single earner making over $35,000 a year, satisfying your tax burden takes virtually everything you earn for the first 3-4 months of the year. If you’re making in excess of those incomes, your marginal income tax rate is somewhere between 30-35% depending upon where you live.

A competent tax strategist can sit down with your tax return or your financial statement and usually within a couple of minutes can pinpoint areas where you may be unnecessarily paying more in taxes than you’re legally required to pay.

Let’s say, for example, that the average American pays somewhere around $4,000 a year more in taxes than is necessary. Or perhaps they receive a tax return of $3,000-$4,000 a year which they go out and spend. The bottom line is that that a few thousand dollars a year really adds up over time.

What if there was a way to direct otherwise payable tax money into causes you support rather than into the taxman’s coffers? Let’s be perfectly clear, this is not about evading taxes, it’s about knowing how to pay exactly what you are required to pay, and not a single dime more.

The remarkable side effect of people redirecting otherwise payable tax money into more productive causes is that it actually increases tax revenue for the government by promoting greater corporate and business growth. In other words, these tax strategies actually help boost government revenue rather than hinder it.

Just consider what an extra $4,000 a year could accomplish if you disciplined yourself to set it aside and then properly applied it to your retirement nest egg.

It doesn’t really matter where you’re at today or even what you begin with. What matters, in the long run, is what you end up with in your retirement savings.

Redirecting otherwise taxable income and subjecting it to the power of compound interest could mean a difference of several hundred thousand dollars at retirement.

The key is to put that extra money to work today, so you can enjoy it in the future.

The Advantages of a Strategic Rollout

If your serious retirement money currently resides in an IRA, and you’re waiting until you’re 70 ½ to start taking minimum distributions, you may wish to reconsider. There’s a good chance you’ll end up paying much higher taxes than you originally thought.

Remember that Uncle Sam is waiting to take his share in taxes the moment you start accessing your money. Given the continuing out of control federal spending, there is also a distinct likelihood that taxes are going nowhere but up. We’re also facing the likely expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of this year.

Now is a good time to consider doing a strategic rollout that will shift your money from your current IRA into a vehicle where it can grow tax-free from today forward. The ability to pay the applicable taxes now, and then to generate tax-free income from then on will make a dramatic difference in how much you’ll be able to save by the time you reach retirement. There’s also the added benefit of that money remaining tax-free when you ultimately pass on and leave it to your survivors.

The only thing that prevents most people from putting this strategy to work is that they don’t yet know what they don’t know.

If you’re ready to take the next step, talk with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Protecting Your Future From Generation “Gimme”

May 6, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 8tht at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

The Creation of Generation Gimme

Recently Fox Business News interviewed a professor of economics at Valencia College. This professor generally asks his incoming students to write a short essay about what the American dream means to them and to outline what they expect government to do for them.

Out of 380 students, only about 10% stated that they’d like to have fewer taxes and less government interference in their ability to go out as entrepreneurs and create opportunity. They wished only to reap the fruits of their labors and to enjoy the rewards that resulted from their hard work and willingness to take risks.

Nearly 90% of the students expressed a desire to have government take care of them by providing education, health care, jobs, and money for purchasing their homes as well as funding their retirements. They had no qualms about having government tax the rich people and then spread that money out amongst the rest of society.

The professor was flabbergasted, but he also recognized a teaching moment when he saw it. The next day, he asked all of the students to place their purses and wallets on a table in the classroom where he promptly removed all of their cash. The professor then informed his students that he too had a dream of building a cabin and owning a yacht but would need other people’s money to realize his dream.

The class was predictably outraged until the professor pointed out their apparent willingness to subject others to the same type of legal plunder.

So where does this attitude of Generation Gimme originate? The professor theorized that it is the result of how these young people were taught to think from kindergarten through twelfth grade. What’s even more disturbing is how many adults tend to think this same way and how that has contributed to the financial mess we find ourselves in as a nation. We’re clearly seeing the costs associated with people trying to live off of the efforts of others and how it affects our own tax burden.

Personal Responsibility Trumps Dependence

The national debt in the last 5 years has risen from $9.2 trillion to $15.7 trillion. This year marks the first time the national debt has exceeded the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This milestone is the clearest indicator yet that, as a nation, we are in real trouble.

We’re in the middle of a crucial window in which a person can move their serious retirement money into a tax-free vehicle before tax rates are hiked even higher. Tax-deferred vehicles are proving to be a terrible retirement strategy primarily because people continue to find themselves in even higher tax brackets at retirement than they were in while they were working.

The real scope of the problem ahead of us becomes even clearer when considering the nearly $121 trillion in unfunded liabilities that government has promised to pay out in Social Security and Medicare benefits. The bottom line is that people who count on the government to provide for them at retirement are going to be deeply disappointed when the coffers turn out to be empty.

The solution is to take ownership of your future and to create your own economic stimulus plan.

Coincidently, “How To Create Your Own Economic Stimulus Plan” is the name of a very timely e-book that can teach you six simple tactics that make all the difference. You’ll also learn how to harness the power of three miracles:

Compound Interest
Tax-Free Compounding
Safe, Positive Leverage

Learn how to protect yourself, your family, and your future using sound and proven strategies. Visit with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Your Future Is as Bright as You Make It

April 29, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 1st at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

Confidence Attracts Opportunity

Wouldn’t you rather face the future with a sense of clarity and absolute confidence?

Think of the abundance and peace that you’ll feel when you know that you won’t be outliving your money after retirement. Imagine the energized feeling that comes from being balanced in your financial life by focusing on what matters most.

Confidence is what attracts opportunities while lack of confidence acts as a repellent to opportunity. This is understood by the most savvy investors, CPAs and tax attorneys, and it’s within your reach as well.

To approach your future with certainty, there are three truths you must understand.

There are absolute principles that will allow you to plot an unerring course to that brighter future.
There are certain concepts and strategies that will allow you to apply those truths to your specific circumstances.
There are also unique and predictable tools that help you implement those strategies.

With these three truths as your foundation, you’re ready to move toward taking ownership of your financial future by eliminating the obstacles that might stand in your way. Among these obstacles is the danger of taxes rising dramatically in the coming years, the prospect of rising inflation and continued market uncertainty.

Three Marvels That Make All the Difference

There are three marvels that enable you to stop relying on government to provide for your financial future and to take charge of where you’re going.

The first is compound interest. To illustrate the power of compounding, imagine that you could physically fold a simple sheet of copy paper in half, effectively doubling its thickness, for 50 times. What starts out at just 5/1000 of an inch in thickness would reach an astonishing 93 million miles in thickness by that 50^th folding. This is why it’s essential to get in gear today. The sooner you start using compound interest, the sooner your money can experience real growth.

The second marvel is a tax-free environment in which your money can accumulate. People who accumulate their retirement nest egg in an IRA or a 401(k) have chosen to defer the tax burden until they begin to access those funds. This means that, even at today’s tax rates, most of them will end up paying roughly a third of their savings to the IRS in the form of taxes. Instead of a saving your serious money in a tax-deferred vehicle, you could watch it accrue in a tax-free vehicle where your money is taxed before going in and then never taxed again.

By choosing this approach, your money grows tax-free, it remains tax-free when you start to withdraw it, and when you pass away, and it transfers to your survivors tax-free as well. The vehicles by which you can enjoy tax-free growth have long been grandfathered into the IRS code. The only reason more people don’t use them is because they don’t know what they don’t know.

The third marvel is the use of safe, positive leverage, by which a person can create predictability. Market volatility has led to some long faces on people whose money was directly exposed to the risks of the market. Many of these folks saw the value of their IRAs and 401(k)s drop by more than 39% just a few years ago, and that’s a lot of ground to have to make up.

With an indexing strategy, you can predictably and safely preserve your principal, keeping it safe from risk yet enjoying any upside potential when the market expands. This marvel alone could spell the difference between a future of abundance and the sickening prospect of outliving your retirement money.

Combined with the other marvels and the other Missed Fortune strategies, you’ll look to the future with certainty and clarity.

Learn more by talking with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Taking Action Now So You Can Rejoice Later

April 22, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, April 24th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

The Power of Redirection

People are often surprised when it’s pointed out to them that, due to taxes, they spend nearly a third of the year working for the government. This includes federal and state taxes, property taxes and all the other kinds of taxes that add up throughout the year.

While many people just accept the paying of those taxes as a necessary part of their lives, few realize that there are strategies that can enable them to redirect otherwise payable taxes to causes they support. These are thanks to sections that are grandfathered into the IRS Code that allow a person to avoid unnecessary taxes while simultaneously building their retirement nest egg.

This is why you get certain tax deductions when you borrow to buy a home or contribute to an IRA or 401(k). But with the right tax-free vehicles, you can save 50-100% more money at retirement.

Done correctly, your nest egg should be able to accumulate tax-free once the applicable taxes have been paid. And not only does the money grow tax-free, but also it remains tax-free when you access it and when you transfer to your heirs. This can mean the difference between a retirement fund that is depleted within a few short years, and a nest egg that continues to provide $70,000-$80,000 per year in predictable, tax-free income for the rest of your life through compound interest.

One way to illustrate this is to imagine that you were to go out golfing and say you bet your friend a quarter on the first hole and then proposed to double the amount of the bet on each subsequent hole. So, on the first hole you made .25 cents, on the second hole .50 cents, and so forth. By the time you reached the 18^th hole, that bet would be $32,768. This illustrates the power of compounding over time.

Whether you’re getting a tax refund or you simply don’t recognize otherwise payable taxes that could be redirected to more productive use, most people, on average let roughly $4,000-$4500 a year slip through their fingers.

By wisely directing that money to more productive use, they can effectively take charge of their financial future.

The Right Moves Now Pay Off Big Down the Road

Doug Andrews tells the story meeting with a businessman who recently sold his business for nearly $9 million. With Doug’s advice, this man is taking $4 million of that money and using it to generate $500,000 per year of tax-free income starting in about 5 years when this man is 55 years old.

Another business owner, who is 62, is selling his business for $55 million and will be allocating $40 million of that money to generate about $3.2 million in tax-free annual cash flow.

If you’re asking yourself, “How can they do that?” The answer is in knowing and implementing the Missed Fortune strategies that allow you to put your money to work earning a safe, liquid and predictable rate of return. You don’t have to be a business owner, these strategies work for the average person and the super wealthy alike.

By harnessing the earning power of that extra $4,000 a year in otherwise payable taxes, you can set yourself up for an extra $40,000-$60,000 a year in tax-free income that just isn’t possible when your money is in a tax-deferred vehicle like an IRA or 401(k). This is what is meant when we speak of optimizing assets and creating greater safety, liquidity and rate of return, while minimizing taxes.

Learn more by visiting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Unseen Thieves That Rob Us Blind

April 15, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, April 17th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

What You Don’t See Can Hurt You

You’d never tolerate a thief who was openly trying to steal your hard-earned money. But there are unseen thieves that rob us of our money just as surely as the stereotypical stick-up man hiding behind a bandanna.

Taxes, market volatility, and inflation are an unseen trio of villains that take our money from us quietly and methodically. Once you understand exactly how these influences can rob you blind, you can start to employ the strategies that will protect you from their predations.

There are three simple strategies that can keep your serious money safer, no matter what is going on in the economy.

The first is liquidity. This simply refers to having the ability to access your money when you want it or when you need it. If burdensome laws and regulations prevent you from getting to your nest egg when it’s needed, it’s of little use to you. Many people and even organizations find themselves in trouble because they lack liquidity at crucial times.

Safety is the next requirement. This refers not only to how much you trust the institutions where you trust your money, but also the safety of principal, meaning whatever you set aside or invest for the future. Your money needs to not only be protected from loss, but also any time you make money on that investment, the gain should become newly protected principal.

The third component is rate of return. You must be able to have predictable rates of return, no matter what the economy is doing. It’s no secret that mutual funds and the stock market can be a regular rollercoaster ride. But there are investment vehicles that can provide a safe and predictable rate of return that’s also tax-free. For instance, indexing allows you to participate in any market upside, but also protect your principal from loss during those times when the economy goes down. This translates into capturing the benefit of those up years and eliminating the loss of the down years.

These three components of liquidity, safety and rate of return are the basis for what’s known as the LASER test for soundness in an investment.

Indexing As a Tool for Growth and Income

There are two distinct phases in a person’s financial life. There is a growth phase during which a person will be actively accumulating income through growth vehicles. Next is the income phase in which they are taking distributions or withdrawals and living off the income provided by the nest egg they’ve saved. A key goal of the income phase to ensuring that you don’t end up outliving the money you’ve put aside.

Whether you are focused on growth or income, there is a vehicle that can be used in either phase to produce predictable rates of return. This vehicle is known as indexing and it lets you participate in the benefits of market growth while at the same time protecting your money from being at risk in the market itself.

How well does indexing work?

Well, consider this: If you eliminated just the loss years from the last 60 years of the stock market and captured just 25 percent of the up years, you would still have outperformed the average mutual fund or stock market investor. Getting the predictable rate of return is only part of the goal with indexing. The real secret to seeing your nest egg grow is to allow it to accumulate tax-free where the power of compound interest can do its magic.

To illustrate how this works in both the growth and income phases, imagine that you’ve accumulated a $1 million nest egg. Using indexing, that nest egg should generate around $80,000 per year in tax-free income. And it should do so continually without depleting the original million dollars, as long as you live.

Those who’ve had their nest egg at risk in the market have seen the value rise and drop precipitously. And those who’ve gone the tax-deferred route quickly find that when they start paying the taxes they owe, they have much less of a nest egg than they originally thought.

If you wish to earn predictable rates of return in any economy, it’s time to talk with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Redirecting Unnecessary Taxes Toward Retirement

April 8, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, April 10th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

Seeing Your Tax Liability In a New Light

It’s the time of year that people are doing a lot of thinking and talking about their taxes. That’s a shame, because if we thought about our taxes throughout the rest of the year, we might actually recognize the impact they have on us.

For instance, if you’re part of a married couple earning over $70,000 or you’re a single earner making over $35,000 a year, your tax burden takes virtually everything you earn for the first 3-4 months of the year. If you’re making in excess of those incomes, your marginal income tax rate is somewhere between 30-35% depending upon where you live.

What if there was a way to direct otherwise payable tax money into causes you support rather than into the tax man’s coffers? Let’s be perfectly clear, this is not about evading taxes, it’s about knowing how to pay exactly what you are required to pay, and not a single dime more.

The remarkable side effect of people redirecting otherwise payable tax money into more productive causes is that it actually increases tax revenue for the government by promoting greater corporate and business growth. In other words, these tax strategies help government rather than hinder it.

These strategies also greatly empower the individual who is trying to build a retirement nest egg. Most average Americans have roughly $4,000 per year in unnecessary taxes that they’re paying. Or you may get an average tax refund of about $4,000 each year. So what’s the significance?

If you could take that $4,000 a year and instead of going on a tax refund spending spree, you disciplined yourself to redirect it into an account where it could accumulate tax-free and experience compound interest, that money will grow and grow. It could mean a difference of $300,000-$700,000 more in your retirement fund. If you’re under 40 years of age and start using this strategy, it could easily amount to an additional million dollars in your retirement nest egg.

That could translate into $40,000-$80,000 per year in predictable tax-free retirement income for the rest of your life. That’s the power of compounding that money over time.

Now you can start to understand why it makes sense to put that extra $4,000 to work now so you can reap the benefits in the future.

A Strategic Rollout Now Makes a Huge Difference Later

If you have the bulk of your serious retirement money in an IRA and you’re waiting until you’re 70 ½ to start taking minimum distributions, there’s a good chance you’re going to pay much higher taxes than you thought. This is partially because of the deferred taxes that Uncle Sam is waiting to claim when you start accessing your money. But there is also the distinct likelihood that taxes are going to increase as a result of continued government spending as well as expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

It may be a good time to consider doing a strategic rollout that will roll your money over from the IRA, pay the necessary taxes at today’s lower rates, and move the money into a vehicle where it can grow tax-free from today forward.

The ability to pay the applicable taxes now, and then to generate tax-free income from then on will make a dramatic difference in how much you’ll be able to save by the time you reach retirement. There’s also the added benefit of that money remaining tax-free when you ultimately pass on and leave it to your survivors.

With the right savings vehicle, you get the best of all possible worlds: Safety, Liquidity and Predictable rates of return while your money accumulates tax-free.

Learn how to take ownership of your financial future by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Taking Your First Steps To a Panic-free Future

April 1, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, April 3rd at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

Capitalism Shouldn’t Be a Dirty Word

It’s ironic that the enemies of capitalism are the very same folks who gave it its name. They used the term as an epithet to describe the practice of capitalizing on another person’s needs and wants at their expense. A better description for capitalism would be cooperation.

This is where you create value that I’m willing to pay for and, in turn, you use my services and by so doing, we both provide for our own families and create economic growth and wealth.

Somehow, even today, a mindset exists among many politicians that capitalism or free enterprise is an evil thing. This is in spite of the fact that this very system has allowed America to create unprecedented prosperity, innovation and technological advancement.

Official antipathy toward capitalism has allowed special interest groups to shape government policies that are based in the mindset of scarcity. This is especially true regarding oil, coal and other energy sources. These policies also have led to profligate government spending which has grown our national debt from $9.2 trillion just 3 years ago to over $15.5 trillion today. Economic uncertainty is the predictable result of such thinking and such policies.

While many experts and commentators are trying desperately to predict what may be coming next, there are a few who can face the future with confidence no matter what it may hold. These are the people who have learned and implemented the Missed Fortune strategies that allow them to capture any market upside when the economy grows, but also protects their principal from loss when the market declines. Given the choice, wouldn’t you rather face the future with certainty?

Head In the Right Direction No Matter What Government Is Doing

With the economic stimulus spending of the past 3 years, our government has spent roughly $3.6 trillion and has plans to spend another $1 trillion trying to spend its way out of a recession. To put that into perspective, with just 20% of the $3.6 trillion that’s already been spent, there would have been enough money to hire every single unemployed person in the country and employ them for two years with a $50,000 a year salary.

Instead, unemployment rose from 7.2% to over 10% and has now settled at around 9.2%. Back in the 1970s, the great economist Milton Friedman was correct when he said, “When Congress tries to spend its way out of a recession, it just doesn’t work. We end up with bigger debt and we keep having this heavy load.”

Even with bold moves like the reforms proposed by Chairman of the Congressional Budget Office Paul Ryan which would make substantial reductions in government spending to balance the budget, there is no easy fix. It will take years and even bolder moves to reduce spending before our country can begin to move in the right direction.

No matter what government does, you need to be headed in the right direction economically.

There are several ways you could be doing this. For instance, if you own real estate, your equity should be in a more protected place than in the real estate itself. This way it can earn rates of return more than double the interest rate on the mortgage. If you’re keeping your serious money in an IRA or 401(k) there are better vehicles in which your money can accumulate tax-free, is liquid, and also distributes tax-free. Those individuals who keep their money in a tax-deferred IRA or 401(k), stand a very good chance of outliving their retirement nest egg within 7 to 11 years.

With a strategic rollout, they could safely move that money into an account that is protected from market volatility and rising taxes from that day forward. These are just a couple of the reasons that Missed Fortune clients are able to face the future with confidence.

If you’re ready take ownership of your financial future, your next step is to meet with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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He Who Hesitates Pays Higher Taxes

March 25, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, March 27th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

Taking Action Before The Bush Tax Cuts Expire

When the Congressional Budget Office issues a report, it’s worth taking notes.

A recent report titled “Deficit Estimate for 2012 Hiked to $1.2 Trillion” is the latest confirmation of the government’s severe fiscal problems.

While the official CBO forecast predicts the deficit decreasing to just 1 percent of the size of the economy in a few year, that estimate is counting on increased revenue due to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. When those cuts go away, the tax increase will affect income, investments, large estates and families with children.

If you don’t take action before the end of this year to protect your money against the impact of higher taxes, you’ll likely regret it. This is especially true if you still have your money in tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s.

The CBO has also extended its estimates for the costs of President Obama’s health care law out to 2022. That law is now expected to cost 2 to 3 times more than the original $900 billion it was supposed to cost.

These findings further punctuate the likelihood of higher taxes being close at hand. When those higher tax rates combine with higher inflation and continuing market uncertainty, you need solid strategies to protect your retirement nest egg.

One of the Missed Fortune strategies that has worked exceptionally well through volatility of the Lost Decade is known as Indexing. The indexing strategy allows you to indirectly participate in any market upside during years when the economy grows, but also protects you from any losses during down years.

This is a critical advantage when considering that the so-called lost decade saw 5 years where the market grew, but also 5 years where it declined. Two of those years saw the economy fall more than 40%. With indexing you eliminate the loss years. To illustrate how important that is, consider that if you eliminated all of the loss years in the history of the stock market and only captured 25% of the gain years, you’d still outperform the market.

How Banks Make Money

It’s no secret that real estate markets have their cycles with ups and downs. Anyone one who has seen the equity in their home decline may wonder how exactly a person could continue to make money under such circumstances. The answer is that they must keep their equity separated and liquid where it can safely earn a predictable rate of return.

To understand how this works, you first must understand how banks make their money. When banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve or from us, we put money in a bank where they pay us 1 or 2 percent interest. The bank, in turn, loans that money out at 4 percent interest. You’d think they’re only making a 2% return, but if they loan out a million dollars, they’re making $40,000 per year in interest which is a 100% return on the money they borrowed at a rate of $20,000 per year.

This translates into an infinite rate of return because they are making that return on money that doesn’t even belong to the bank. If you can understand this concept, then you’ll understand how it translates into becoming your own banker.

If you have a $1 million or a $100,000 in real estate equity and you’re borrowing that money at 4% but getting a predictable 8% rate of return, you’re getting that infinite rate of return. By keeping the equity separate and liquid, it’s unaffected by fluctuating property values and can continue to earn interest at a higher rate than the cost of the interest you’re paying to borrow it.

Many financial advisors don’t know teach this strategy, because they simply don’t know about it. But now you do and you can put it to work along with the other Missed Fortune strategies that will allow you to sleep soundly at night with no fear of higher taxes, inflation or market volatility.

Contact a Missed Fortune advisor today to learn more.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg. Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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