From the category archives:

Inflation

Skip These Mistakes & Own Your Financial Future

November 6, 2011

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, November 8th 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.

Welcoming the Prospect of a New Painful Era of Self Reliance

ABC News recently reported on president Obama speaking at a San Francisco fundraiser warning that America was poised to enter a “new painful era of self-reliance in America.”

Do you know what they call people who rely upon themselves? Adults.

Taking ownership of one’s future is not only possible; it’s essential if we wish to be free to prosper. Aren’t we supposed to be self-reliant?

It’s not reasonable to expect government to pay off our mortgages, to pay for our healthcare or to pay for our kids’ college education.

If just 20% of the $3.6 billion in stimulus spending were instead given to employers to expand their workforces, it could have created a $50,000/year position for two years for every unemployed person in this country. Instead unemployment went from 7.2% to 9.2%.

We need to get out of the mindset that big government should be taking care of us. We need to take ownership in our future. Ownership makes great things happen.

When’s the last time you washed a rental car or changed the oil in one? If you own your residence, it’s almost certain that you’ll take better care of it than if you were just renting it.

Taking ownership and being self-reliant is the American way. This is especially true regarding our financial future. When we have incentive to take ownership of our own future, we can redirect otherwise payable taxes to causes you support.

These aren’t tax loopholes, they’re decades-old, grandfathered sections of the IRS code that even tax attorneys and CPAs are rarely taught in their training. These include section 163 of the Internal Revenue Code, which provides tax incentives regarding home ownership.

You need to take ownership in providing for your own retirement instead of counting on the government to provide it for you. After all, the government is still on the hook for $115 trillion in unfunded liabilities including Social Security and Medicare. They’ll gladly try to take care of your retirement, but you can do better.

If you take ownership of your own health or even caring for the poor, you get incentives in the form of tax deductions. All of this is possible if you understand legally how to redirect otherwise payable taxes to the causes you support.

So why don’t more people do it?

The problem is that we simply don’t know what we don’t know and powerful opportunities are missed as we follow the herd.

Seven Ways Most Financial Advisors Fail to Protect Their Clients’ Money

Here are seven things that more than 90% of financial advisors don’t know how to do to protect their clients’ money.

Give you guarantees with an upside potential. Traditional financial planning in this country usually gives you guarantees but usually without upside potential if the economy does well. Or they may give you upside potential without any guarantees if the economy loses. This is one of the reasons so many people lost a third or more of their IRAs or 401(k)s during the last decade. Missed Fortune Indexing strategies enable you to earn a predictable, conservative rate of return even if the economy loses. At the same time you can enjoy upside potential up to a certain capped rate of return when the economy grows. Few advisors know how this is done.
Protect you from loss of principal. The key here is not only to protect your principal you invested, but also in any year that you make money, to turn that money into new protected principal that’s not subject to loss.
Protect you from the effects of inflation. We’ve been fortunate for the past two decades to have inflation remain steady around 2-3%. But those days are gone and inflation is likely to rise due to the incredible amount of money that’s been and is being printed. This means that your rate of return must be able to outpace the rate of inflation, and most investment advisors don’t know how to do that.
Protect you from the danger of rising taxes. Most advisors simply hope that when the future arrives, you’ll find yourself in a lower tax bracket when you retire. But that often doesn’t happen for various reasons. Your dependents have moved out. Your home is paid off. You’re not only missing out on these deductions, but Congress is looking to raise taxes too.
They don’t know how to get tax-free returns rather than just tax-deferred returns. Most people are in a for a rude awakening when they see just how quickly taxes will eat up their nest egg as they’re taxed before contributing to their IRA or 401(k). They’re then taxed upon withdrawing their funds and taxed again when they try to transfer what’s left to their heirs. A better way is through investment vehicles that have been grandfathered for more than 4 decades and have been around a lot longer than IRAs or 401(k)s. They’re safer than municipal bonds and pay a higher rate of return than municipal bonds, plus they accumulate money tax-free and the money transfers tax-free at your passing.
Provide predictable rates of return. The stock market has only averaged a 3.83% rate of return for the past two decades. Trying to get an average return of 12% is just not realistic. But if you choose, you can convert all of your income to generate predictable rates of return of about 8% tax-free.
Help people get their money out of their IRAs or 401(k)s with the least amount of tax impact. This is where a strategic roll-out can help protect you from some of the tax-deferred woes by getting your money out of those IRAs and 401(k)s and into a vehicle that will allow it to grow tax-free.

If you’d like to empower yourself to learn how to overcome these common mistakes make by many tax planners & financial advisors, it’s time to learn more by visiting with a Missed Fortune Advisor.

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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Moving Your Money to Safety

October 30, 2011

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, November 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.

Losing Trust in Our Financial Systems

A recent article by Catherine New in Daily Finance shows that Americans are losing trust in the country’s financial system.

The results of the magazine’s quarterly survey indicate that trust in our financial institutions is slipping.

The article points out:

“The latest figures from the quarterly Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index showed that only 23% of those surveyed said they trust the country’s financial systems, down from 25% in June. The index measures trust in four areas: banks, the stock market, mutual funds and large corporations.

“The findings in this issue reflect what’s been reported in the news and demonstrate the fragility of trust many Americans still have in the institutions where they invest their money,” said Luigi Zingales, a finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and co-author of the Index.

Trust in banks has experienced an even steeper decline, falling from 39% in June to 33% in October. Notably, people were much more inclined to trust local banks and credit unions: More than half of those surveyed said they still had faith in those institutions.

The survey also revealed that nearly 60% of respondents were either angry or very angry about the current economic situation — the highest level of anger measured since the earliest months of the financial crisis.”

These findings back up an earlier survey by CNN that revealed that nearly 90% of Americans say the economy stinks.

3 years after the financial crisis pushed this country into a deep recession, financial conditions are as poor as they’ve ever been.

Ask yourself: would you want to stay on board a sinking vessel that has been foundering for the past decade? Those Americans who’ve had their retirement money in the stock market have made little, if any, gains in the past 10 years.

If you had $100,000 socked away in an IRA or 401(k) you saw it take a 30 or 40% hit following 9/11. Then after growing back to its high-water mark it took another huge 39-40% decline in 2008. Even today few people have managed to break even thanks to the market volatility of the “lost decade.”

The situation becomes all the more uncertain when considering that Congress and the president are still spending with abandon. In just three years the national debt has soared from $9 trillion to nearly $15 trillion.

If you remain on board a sinking vessel by keeping your money in IRAs and 401(k)s thinking that future taxes will be lower, you’re not seeing the writing on the wall. Taxes are only one of the threats to your retirement money; the other two components of the upcoming triple whammy are inflation and market volatility.

You need a strategy that moves your money to safety.

The Triple Threat of the Next 10 Years

Taxes will be going up. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that tax rates could go as high as 62.5% for couples making over $200,000 or single filers making over $100,000. Even if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of 2012, it will be the largest tax increase in history.

Inflation is the second big danger. Over the past two decades inflation has averaged around 2-3%, but those days are over. The days ahead will likely see inflation inching up to 5% on the low end and perhaps as high as 7-10% on the high end.

It’s essential that you protect yourself from the effects of inflation as it robs every dollar you have of purchasing power.

The third big danger is continued market uncertainty. This type of economic uncertainty is what prevents employers from hiring and contributes to the growing unemployment rate.

These three dangers combine to form an economic triple whammy that requires different action than simply following the crowd.

You must understand the tax and inflation power curve.

Let’s say you socked away $10,000 a year for 30 consecutive years and earned 7.2% interest. You’d have a nest egg of about $1 million. Now if you were to withdraw only 7.2%, in order to maintain your principal, you’d be taking out $72,000 a year.

But if that money is in an IRA or 401(k), you’ll be paying a nice chunk of any money you withdraw to the IRS. Your tax situation will be complicated because most people, by this time, will have no dependents to claim, their home will be paid off, and they’ll no longer be contributing to their retirement fund.

This means their tax liabilities will be higher rather than lower. It’s a safe bet that of that $72,000 you’re withdrawing each year, about 1/3 of it–$24,000 will be gobbled up by state and federal income taxes.

Now consider what inflation will do to the remaining $48,000 a year you’re expecting to live on. Even at just 5% inflation, the purchasing power of your dollars will be cut in half twice over that 30-year period. This means that you’ll only be able to purchase with $4,000 per month what $1,000 per month today would buy.

Now you start to see why the effect of the tax and inflation power curve is so important to understand and even more important to counter.

You need strategies that reposition your serious money for the future with a strategic rollout before the end of 2012. This will allow your money to accumulate tax free from that day forward as it’s grandfathered under the Internal Revenue code.

The strategies you choose must allow you to access your money tax-free and transfer it tax-free when you die. They must tie your money to those things that inflate so when inflation comes, your rate of return is outpacing the rate of inflation.

Your strategies must allow you to index your money to the markets without putting it at risk to the volatility of the market. It should grow when the economy grows and protect your principal when the economy declines.

These are the Missed Fortune strategies that have been working for decades for those willing to break away from the crowd and move their money to safety

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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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Learning From the Mistakes of Others

October 23, 2011

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, October 25th 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.

Contrast and Comparison

One of the most simple and compelling lessons in economics can be drawn from the experience of two neighboring states and their respective experiences with taxes and unemployment.

Both states were facing budget shortfalls. Both states needed increased revenues to meet their financial obligations. Both sought to turn the tide toward economic recovery, but there’s a dramatic difference in the approach taken by each state and a corresponding difference in the results they got.

Anytime government suffers for lack of tax revenue to pay its employees and programs, it has the option of raising taxes to bring in more revenue, or lowering taxes to increase the revenue being taxed. It can either increase regulation of employees and the associated costs of doing business or it can deregulate and create certainty and confidence among employers so they’ll hire more workers.

In January of this year, Illinois chose to raise taxes to address it’s budgetary concerns. The results were swift and sure. But they weren’t the results Illinois was banking on receiving.

From an article in Business Insider:

“[I]n addition to the worst bond rating in the country, the state lost the most jobs of any state last month. The Illinois Policy Institute reported the grim news that “Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm payroll jobs in July. The report also said Illinois’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent. This marks the third consecutive month of increases in the unemployment rate.”

There is a clear correlation between the January tax increase and the subsequent drop in employment numbers. It’s a powerful illustration of the futility of trying to conceal the results of runaway spending by imposing punitive taxes on producers rather than reducing the spending.

If you were a business owner in Illinois, would the prospect of higher taxes motivate you to grow your business?

Faced with a similar budgetary shortfall, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker asked employers why they weren’t hiring people. Business leaders told him they were feeling uncertainty about whether taxes were about to go up or not. So Wisconsin chose to lower taxes and to deregulate in order to provide the certainty and confidence that job creators were seeking.

The results were astounding.

Wisconsin saw jobs increase dramatically with 39,000 new private sector jobs were created with 14,100 jobs in manufacturing. Wisconsin’s non-farm growth is now two times the national average. One other happy note: the state also managed to turn a $3.6 billion deficit into a surplus in that same time thanks to the increased revenues.

Two states facing similar challenges, took radically difference approaches and got radically different results. The lesson in this for all of us is that economic growth and prosperity only occur where job creators are operating in a climate of certainty and confidence.

This is worth remembering whenever government leaders propose policies that create uncertainty and less confidence by seeking to raise revenue by increasing taxes and regulation.

Principles of Wealth Accumulation

If you’re seeking greater certainty and confidence in your personal financial future, you’ll need to incorporate proven strategies based upon sound principles. Here are two principles that can give you an edge.

The first is the miracle of compound interest. It’s a principle Einstein said was one of the least understood phenomena on the planet.

A single dollar, doubling every period for 20 periods, will grow to $1,048,000 if that growth is tax free.

If you have to pay tax on every gain your money makes, that dollar being doubled every period is instead being eaten up by federal or state income taxes. If you’re in a 25% tax bracket that means you’ll actually only have $72,000 to show after 20 doublings. In a 33% tax bracket it will only grow to $27,000.

This is why tax-deferred or taxed-as-earned investments should be avoided in favor of strategies that allow your money to actually grow through compound interest.

The second principle is that of tax-free accumulation. Most Americans accumulate their money in the worst possible place by paying tax on their income as they earn it. Then they place that money in taxed-as-earned investments and pay tax on any of the gains they make. Finally, they pay more tax when that money is transferred to their heirs.

As a result, what should have been a sizable nest egg is quickly consumed by taxes and ultimately ends up as a fraction of what it could have been.

It’s like crawling towards the finish line of financial independence when they could be running or flying. Is it any wonder why so many Americans are dependent upon Social Security and Medicare?

A better choice would be a vehicle that allows your money to accumulate tax-free now and in the future, thanks to sections 72E, 7702 and 101A of the IRS code. Not only does your money remain safely yours, but you can access it and ultimately transfer it to your heirs tax free. That’s the power of choosing wisely.

These are just two key principles of wealth accumulation. Missed Fortune strategies incorporate these and many other principles that enable you to enjoy certainty and confidence in your financial future.

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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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Reasons To Smile Even When the Economy Stinks

October 9, 2011

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, October 11th 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.

Is the Economy Half Empty or Half Full?

In a recent CNN article titled “90 Percent of Americans Say Economy Stinks” the following observations were made:

“Three years after a financial crisis pushed the country deep into recession, an overwhelming number of Americans – 90% – say that economic conditions remain poor.

The number, reported Friday in a new CNN/ORC International Poll, is the highest of Barack Obama’s presidency and a significant increase from the 81% who said conditions were poor in June.”

Now imagine that you came across an article that said, ” Ex-financial planner reveals the secrets as to how he protected himself from any losses during the last decade and what his wealthy clients did to become wealthy and to protect their wealth during the past several years.”

Would you want to know more?

If you’re familiar with the Missed Fortune Strategies, you already know that Doug Andrews is that ex-financial advisor turned consumer advocate.

The last 10 years are often referred to as the Lost Decade because most of the people who had their money in the stock market or real estate market lost more than 40% once in 2007 and again in 2008.

On the other hand, those who followed the Missed Fortune indexing strategies, didn’t lose a dime in the last decade. Many of them actually doubled their money tax-free even if they just sat there and never re-balanced during the past 10 years.

Those who did re-balance according to Doug’s advice enjoyed an average of 9.6% tax-free during the past 10 years. Let’s put that into something we can more easily visualize.

For every one million dollars they had 10 years ago they now have $2.6 million. For those taking income in retirement, they were able to take $8,000 per month or $96,000 a year, in tax-free income, without depleting their $1 million principal.

Even during the last 4 years, arguably the worst 4 year period since the Great Depression, people following Doug’s advice have realized an average 9.75% tax-free annual return.

The past two years have been incredible since Indexing strategies perform very well in a lateral market when in goes up and down with a lot of volatility. Folks who’ve found themselves paralyzed by fear the past few years, could have instead employed the indexing strategy to enjoy a nice conservative return of 4.5% up to an astonishing 15% return–tax free–without losing a dime of their money.

When we don’t know what we don’t know, our options remain limited. But when we’re willing to learn, new pathways are opened up to us.

3 Keys to Prosper In Any Economy

The strongest financial dangers we face in America over the next decade include taxes going up. The Congressional Budget Office warns that rates make climb as high as 62% for couples earning over $200,000 and single filers making over $100,000.

The second significant financial danger we face is the prospect of rising inflation. For the past 20 years inflation has averaged just under 3% annually, but it’s likely to rise to 5% on the low end to as high as 10% on the high end over the next 10 years. This means that the cost of living could be doubling every seven to ten years because the purchasing power of the dollar is being cut in half every seven to ten years.

The third financial danger to beware of is continued economic uncertainty which is the only one of the three dangers we’ve seen in abundance this past 10 years.

These financial dangers are likely to combine for an unforgettable triple whammy in the next decade, so let’s consider 3 proven strategies to eliminate these dangers.

Analyze your situation and determine if it’s time to do a strategic roll-out. This means getting your money out of those 401(k)s and IRAs and recoup what you may have lost in a safe, tax-free environment. Move that money from tax-deferred vehicles into someplace where your money can accumulate tax-free, now and in the future. You’ll need to do this before the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012.
Link your returns, from here on out, to the things that inflate so that when we do experience higher inflation, it helps rather than hinders you. This principle works even when the inflation rate is in double digits just like it was in the early 1980s. Your money should be growing, tax-free, at a rate that outpaces inflation.
The third strategy is to eliminate the downside risk while participating in any upside potential when the economy grows, by using indexing with a lock-in and reset feature. This means that when the economy goes down, you don’t lose money. Likewise, when the economy grows, you can make money. This is protecting your principal from loss. Any year that you make money, that gain becomes new principal that is also protected from loss.

Avoiding these dangers is absolutely possible once you’ve learned and implemented the Missed Fortune strategies. Get started by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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 Economic Realities of Raising & Lowering Taxes

September 25, 2011

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, September 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.

When Government Needs Your Money

Any time government suffers for revenue, it has the option of raising taxes to provide increased funding for government programs. Or a state can lower taxes and decrease regulation in order to increase revenues through economic growth.

With so many eyes focused on the efforts of state and national government to turn the economic tide towards recovery, the states of Illinois and Wisconsin provide a powerful contrast. One state has demonstrated exactly what to do, the other has shown what not to do. Their results make for a great lesson in economics.

In Illinois, lawmakers raised taxes in January of this year and saw unemployment increase dramatically.

This is described in detail by Business Insider magazine:

“[I]n addition to the worst bond rating in the country, the state lost the most jobs of any state last month. The Illinois Policy Institute reported the grim news that “Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm payroll jobs in July. The report also said Illinois’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent. This marks the third consecutive month of increases in the unemployment rate.”

There is a clear correlation between January tax increase and the subsequent drop in employment numbers. It’s a perfect illustration of the futility of trying to conceal the results of runaway spending by imposing punitive taxes on producers rather than simply cutting the spending.

Ask yourself, if you were a business owner in Illinois, would higher taxes motivate you to grow your business?

By contrast, during this same time frame, the state of Wisconsin saw jobs increase dramatically with 39,000 new private sector jobs were created with 14,100 jobs in manufacturing. Wisconsin’s non-farm growth is now two times the national average. One other happy note: the state also managed to turn a $3.6 billion deficit into a surplus in that same time thanks to the increased revenues.

So what did Wisconsin do differently?

Governor Scott Walker asked employers why they weren’t hiring people. Business leaders told him they were feeling uncertainty about whether taxes were about to go up or not. So Wisconsin chose to lower taxes and to deregulate in order to provide the certainty and confidence that job creators were seeking.

The results speak for themselves.

Raising taxes to cover a budget deficit and shortfall stifles the very economic activity that is needed to generate increased revenues. Lowering taxes has the exact opposite effect.

Keeping Your Eyes Peeled for Tax Hikes

Right now the president is talking about eliminating $467 billion in tax breaks for wealthier Americans and corporations as part of his proposed jobs bill. That jobs bill comes with a price tag of nearly half a trillion dollars in additional governmental spending.

If this seems all too familiar, please re-read the part about how Illinois sought to handle its revenue shortfall and the results it got.

Great pressure is being brought to bear on U.S. lawmakers to pass the jobs bill or risk being portrayed as ineffectual do-nothings regarding the economy.

The tax provisions of this proposed jobs bill include a limit on itemized deductions and certain exemptions on individuals who earn over $200,000 or families that earn over $250,000. President Obama claims that these tax provisions would raise over $400 billion over a ten year period.

Make no mistake, these proposed tax hikes will hit the very people who create jobs by employing other people.

Another proposed element of the jobs bill would treat carried interest earned by investment fund managers as ordinary income rather than taxing it at capital gains rates which would raise another $18 billion.

The key message you should be taking away from all this is that taxes will be going up and our dollars will be worth less. The biggest dangers we face in the next decade will include higher taxes, inflation and continued market uncertainty.

You must understand how this triple whammy may affect your retirement money and how Missed Fortune strategies can give you the certainty and confidence you’ll need for the days ahead.

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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 More Government Stimulates the Less the Economy Responds

September 11, 2011

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, September 13th 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 Spending That Never Pays Off

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Great Recession and Government Failure” stated that this latest recession might well have been a deep one, even with good government policies.

The article goes on to say that government failure added greatly to its length and severity including its continuation to the present.

One of the more notable components of that government failure:

Nearly a trillion dollars of federal spending that was supposed to stimulate the economy enough to reduce the unemployment rates to under 8%. Of course, if you’ve been listening to the job stats that were recently released over the Labor Day weekend, you know that the actual unemployment rate is now closer to 16%.

Despite the predictions of leading government economists, who were backed up by essentially no evidence, the spending has yet to produce the intended jobs.

What the stimulus has produced is a sizable expansion of the federal deficit and debt. So what does that mean to you and me?

5 years ago the national debt was about $9.2 trillion. With about 100 million workers in this country, that means each taxpayer would have had to write out a check for $92,000 to pay of their share of the national debt. Today we are in far worse shape.

Because of the increase stimulus spending, now every taxpayer would have to pay something in the neighborhood of $146,000 each in order to pay off the national debt. A good way to illustrate this is is to compare the growth of the national debt to a person leaving the East Coast heading for the West Coast.

It took roughly 100 years to get from Washington D.C. to Dallas, Texas. But we’ve covered that much ground in just the last 8 years. That’s how rapidly our national debt is growing.

For the past 3 years we’ve had a continuing artificial stimulus that’s akin to a person pounding down energy drinks to sustain their demanding lifestyle. There’s a short-term caffeine rush followed by a corresponding crash that’s much harsher than it should have been. In the end, we’re no better off.

Another article entitled “Economy Adds Zero Jobs in August as Recession Fears Grow” points out that the U.S. economy’s failure to add any jobs in August is stoking renewed fears of a double dip recession.

These articles illustrate the necessity of creating predictability and certainty to take ownership of your financial future. The prospect of ever-increasing taxes and greater regulation is instead creating exactly the opposite.

Dr. Edwards Deming is the quality management engineer who revolutionized Japan’s manufacturing standard to the quality they put out today. He said that management of anything in your life comes down to predictability. People are not feeling comfortable because they have no predictability about the future.

So how do you create predictability in your life?

Incorporating proven strategies

At least twice in the last decade, people who put their money into IRAs and 401(k)s, where they were told to, ended up losing money based upon what the stock market did. Their nest eggs have yet to fully recover and if they have more money today than they did 10 years ago, it’s because they added more money to it.

On the other hand, those who followed the Missed Fortune strategy of indexing have safely doubled their money at a time when most Americans are just barely getting back to where they once were.

The way indexing works is that you participate indirectly when the economy is doing well, but you don’t lose when the stock market goes down. When the economy does well, you get to participate up to a certain cap.

That cap is around 15% currently, but when there’s high inflation, that cap can go as high as 20-21%. Your rate of return will generally outpace inflation by at least 5%. During down years your money may not grow much, if at all, but you will not lose a penny.

It’s a very simple concept, but those who don’t know about it don’t know what they’re missing.

In the so-called last decade where most people were losing a third or more of the value in their 401(k)s and IRAs, those who were indexing were enjoying a rate of return of 9.6% or more.

Plus your money grows tax free thanks to certain provisions in the IRS code. It’s a much better way than postponing your taxes in a tax-deferred vehicle like and IRA or 401(k) where you’ll absolutely have to pay taxes when you start accessing your money. If you’re banking on tax rates being lower by the time you retire, you’re likely in for a nasty surprise.

These Missed Fortune Strategies are the key to creating predictability and certainty in an increasingly unpredictable and uncertain world.

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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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More Stimulus Spending Isn’t the Answer

August 28, 2011

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, August 30th 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.

More Failed Stimulus Spending Is On the Way

There is widespread concern among Americans from every part of the country about where this nation is headed.

The Washington Examiner ran an article last week titled “Here Comes More Failed Stimulus Spending.”

In this article, it is reported that President Obama will be promising to provide details for more stimulus plans to “get America’s stagnant economy back on the right track.”

Spending $859 billion on stimulus policies in 2009 failed to get the economy growing, so why do they think it will work in 2011? The article asks why the American people would trust these same leaders that squandered the better part of a trillion dollars the first time, to throw hundreds of billions more down the same rate hole?

Doing something over and over again and expecting a different result is a classic example of insanity.

Every time we have a recession, the American people have to tighten their belts and decrease their outgo while increasing their income. But our government does the exact opposite by dramatically increasing its spending in an attempt to spend its way out a the recession.

In another article in the Pittsburgh Tribune titled “Obama Circling Back to the Iceberg”, a recent Gallup poll shows that only 26 percent of the American public approve of the president’s handling of the economy.

That means a whopping 71 percent disapprove. This also indicates that a growing number of Americans are feeling strong dissatisfaction and that’s not surprising.

The National Bureau of Economic Research says that the only U.S. president with a worse record of job creation than Barack Obama was President Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression.

During this past 2 and half years when economic stimulus packages of $3.6 trillion were passed, unemployment was just 7.2% and the promise was that the jobless numbers would drop. Instead, unemployment soared to over 10% and has steadied at 9.2%, nearly 2 percent higher than before the stimulus spending.

In the last 5 years the national debt has climbed from $9.2 trillion to over $14.6 trillion, which means that every U.S. taxpayer would now have to write a check of roughly $150,000 just to pay off the national debt.

If we would have just allocated about 20% of that $3.6 trillion to employers and allowed them to make the decision of who to hire, every single one of those people who have been unemployed could have been hired at $50,000 a year for two years.

Doing the same thing over and over again is making less and less sense.

Amidst all the uncertainty, the state of Wisconsin still stands out as a shining beacon of good news. Remember, this is the state that turned around its economy in just 8 months from a $3.5 billion deficit to a surplus and while creating nearly 9,000 new jobs in the month of June alone.

The state of Wisconsin increased its private sector jobs by 39,000 and its manufacturing jobs by 14,000 while its non-farm growth was two times the national average. The secret to putting Wisconsin’s uncertainty to rest was to lower taxes and business owners were given confidence to grow their businesses without fear of being punished for their success through higher taxes.

Solving the Dangers of Taxes & Inflation

One of the keys to restoring your own certainty and confidence is understanding how to solve the dangers of taxes and inflation.

Whether taxes stay the same or the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, it’s in your interest to learn how to accumulate money tax free today and in the future.

If you had a million dollar nest egg generating 7.2% interest and you pulled out $72,000 a year as a married couple filing a joint tax return, every dollar you make over $69,000 is taxed at 25% federally and includes an additional state income tax on top of that in 41 out of 50 states.

About a third of what you earn over that amount is taxed at 33%.

Single tax filers pay about a third on every dollar they earn over $34,500.

This is your marginal tax bracket or what you pay on the last dollars you earn.

If you put money away in IRAs or 401(k)s and you’re thinking you’ll be in a lower tax bracket, you’re in a for a rude awakening. When you retire and you pull out $72,000 a year, you’ll be paying roughly $2,000 per month just in taxes. And that’s if taxes don’t go up.

This is why it’s critical that your money grow tax free now and in the future.

When you add in the effects of inflation, the purchasing power of your nest egg will have dropped to the point where it will take $4,000 to purchase what you can now purchase for $1,000. Your returns must be linked to those things that inflate during inflation in order for you to keep pace with the increasing cost of living.

In addition to these strategies, you’ll need to understand how to position your serious money in such a way that it bypasses market volatility and grows when the market grows but doesn’t lose a dime when the market falls. These are the Missed Fortune strategies that have been making the difference for decades.

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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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Creating Certainty in An Uncertain Economy

August 21, 2011

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, August 23rd 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 Crisis of Confidence

The Rasmussen Report recently stated that 9% of Americans rate the economy as good or excellent while 67% say it’s in poor shape. It’s not exactly surprising.

But just 37% of those surveyed by Rasmussen say they have confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking system. That’s down from nearly 68% in the summer of 2008 and is the lowest measure of confidence recorded yet.

At a time when economists and others wonder if the U.S is about to enter another recession, most American believe the recession never ended. Only 13% believe the jobs market is better than it was a year ago while 50% say it’s worse.

It bears repeating that amidst all the talk of the debt ceiling and deficits and economic uncertainty, America does not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.

This means we need to aggressively go after ways to raise the revenue that’s being taxed and not raise the taxes.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data about the state of Wisconsin that shows that during the month of June nearly 18,000 jobs were created. Of those, nearly half of them were in the state of Wisconsin.

In fact, in the last 6 months, nearly 39,000 new jobs were created in the private sector in Wisconsin with nearly 14,100 jobs created in manufacturing. Wisconsin’s non-farm growth is nearly 2 times the national average.

Governor Scott Walker was interviewed by Fox News and asked what the secret is to how he’s turned things around in Wisconsin since he took office in January.

His response:

“We changed the business climate. When we said that Wisconsin is open for business back in January, we meant it. We passed major tort reform and regulatory relief. We reduced the tax burden of job creators, pulled away the state tax on health savings accounts, even created a new economic development corporation to show that when we said Wisconsin is open for business–it wasn’t just a slogan.”

“We didn’t wait 6 months or a year, we did it right away. On top of that, I think the fiscal reforms we put in place: taking a $3.6 billion deficit and turning it into a surplus, those are the things job creators are looking for. They want stability. They want certainty. They’re certainly not seeing it at the federal level, but they’re seeing it in Wisconsin.”

There are two key things that Governor Walker did to stimulate that turnaround.

He changed the business climate by empowering businesses to create jobs.
He reduced the tax burden on job creators.

He got government out of the way and that’s why Wisconsin is having success.

When asked what he recommended we do on a national level, Walker suggested the federal government get its fiscal house in order and get out of the way.

The Antidote to Uncertainty: Predictable Systems

If you wish to eliminate the uncertainty in your financial future, you need to learn Missed Fortune strategies that put you solidly in control.

If you’re feeling confused, isolated and powerless because of the economy, you need to learn how to create certainty in your life. Our confidence grows with our certainty.

Imagine knowing how to protect yourself from the danger of taxes going up by using sections of the IRS code that have been around for decades which enable you to accumulate your money safely, predictably and tax free.

Visualize the peace of mind that comes from linking the return on your money to those things that inflate when we experience inflation. It’s no secret that the federal government is printing money to help pay its obligations like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

Even during times of inflation, you’ll still enjoy a rate of return that keeps up with or even outpaces the rate of inflation. But you’ll need to understand the Missed Fortune strategies that make it possible to do so.

When you’re positioned to beat the tax and inflation power curve, your money will be safely hedged against inflation and will remain tax free now and in the future when you need it.

With Missed Fortune strategies, you’ll also learn how to overcome the uncertainty and volatility of the stock markets so you don’t lose when the economy goes down and your money grows when it goes up. It’s called indexing and it’s a way to create the kind of certainty that makes all the difference.

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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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Monetary Myopia: Why Soaking the Rich Won’t Solve the Debt Crisis

August 14, 2011

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, August 16th 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 Bush Tax Cuts As a Bargaining Chip

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the national debt, the debt limit debate and the likely solutions. But there are some facts that must be considered in order to see the big picture.

For instance, the Congressional Budget Office is using their March 2011 baseline rather than the January 2011 baseline when they assume that the Bush tax cuts will expire at the end of 2012.

This means that the tax cuts will not count as savings with regard to discretionary spending. In other words, the tax cuts expiring won’t give anybody any credit toward anything except a tax increase.

If those tax cuts were extended, the Congressional Budget Office would treat those tax cuts as if they added $5 trillion more to the national debt. In reality, these tax cuts would actually generate new revenue by leaving the money in the hands of the American people who would spend, save and invest it.

The tax cuts were initiated after 9/11 to bolster confidence in the economy by getting the money moving again and raising the revenue rather than raising the taxes.

From 2001 to 2003 President Bush lowered the lowest bracket from 15% down to 10% and raised the threshold from about $46,000 to $58,000 before you jumped from a 15% bracket up to a 25% bracket. By every objective measurement, during this time the government raised more tax revenue that if they had kept the tax rates high and raised taxes further.

When these Bush tax cuts expire, taxes will go up and it will hinder the economy rather than stimulate it.

The White House sees the expiration of these Bush era tax cuts as a powerful tool to influence congressional talks about deficit reduction measures. By threatening to veto any attempt to extend the tax cuts, especially for the wealthiest Americans, the president hopes to exert greater control over reforming the U.S. tax code in order to raise taxes on the rich.

The talk in Washington D.C. is to tax married couples making over $250,000 per year at a tax rate that’s nearly 20% higher than what they currently pay. Instead of being taxed at 43% their tax rate will shoot up to 62.5%.

Even single tax filers are wearing a target with those who earn $125,000 or more a year will be facing possible tax rates of 60% or higher.

The philosophy of raising taxes by going after the rich out of a sense that “they can afford it” is going to cause the economy to take several steps backwards. Unemployment will not go down. We cannot spend our way out of this crisis.

Taxes Are Only One Third of The Coming Triple Whammy

Taxes are heading up. Even, if by some miracle, the Bush tax cuts are extended, there are still plenty of unfunded liabilities that will necessitate raising our taxes some other way. Medicare and Social Security alone account for nearly $110 trillion worth of obligations that are owed to their intended recipients.

The biggest dangers of the next decade are that taxes are going up, inflation will continue to rise because the government has been printing mass amounts of money, and market volatility will continue.

The specter of double digit inflation is a daunting one for those who remember the high inflation of the early 1980s. Yet during that era, by using Missed Fortune strategies, those who linked their returns to the things that inflate were earning 15.5% on conservative, tax-free investments.

When inflation and interest rates are low, these same strategies can have you earning rates of 8-9% tax-free.

Market uncertainty over the past decade has spooked those people who, starting in 2001, went nearly 3 years on a down market and were just about to break even when the bottom fell out again in 2008. Most investors have lost nearly 40% of their IRAs and 401(k)s and their confidence is shaken. The good news is that there’s a far better way to grow your serious money.

By taking ownership of your future, you can eliminate the triple whammy of the coming decade.

Is your serious money ready to weather the almost certain prospect of higher taxes? Could you maintain your standard of living when a 5% rate of inflation causes the cost of living to double every 15 years? Is your money positioned to remain safe when the market declines and to grow whenever the market grows?

Once you understand and live the Missed Fortune strategies, your answer will be a confident “Yes!”

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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 Paradox of Increasing Tax Revenues By Lowering Taxes

August 7, 2011

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, August 9th 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 Secret To Increasing Tax Revenues: Lower the Tax Rates

In all the talk about the debt ceiling situation, there still isn’t broad recognition of the fact that our nation faces a spending problem rather than a revenue problem.

If the Bush tax cuts were extended, the Congressional Budget Office would still claim that’s costing up to $5 trillion. But tax cuts generate new revenue. The reason President Bush instituted the tax cuts in the first place was when the economy was in a tailspin following the 9/11 attacks.

Bush felt that it was better to raise the revenue that was being taxed rather than raising the taxes. When we face lean times, we tighten our belts and increase our income while decreasing our outgo.

Government always seems to be the last ones to cut back on spending in difficult times.

After 9/11 President Bush realized that the best thing to raise tax revenue for social programs was a tax decrease. He lowered the lowest bracket from 15% to 10% and he raised the threshold from about $46,000 to $57,000 before you jumped from a 15% bracket to a 28% bracket.

By all accounts, the government raised more tax revenue by getting cash flowing than if they had kept taxes high and raised them further.

When the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012, higher taxes are going to hinder growth rather than help it.

The White House has one important tool to influence Congress on budget matters, and that’s the prospect of extending the Bush tax cuts beyond next year. There’s already a lot of talk about “going after the rich” in Washington D.C. these days so higher taxes are looking very likely.

After $5 trillion of increased federal debt, the unemployment rate is still sitting above 9% despite all the stimulus spending that was supposed to put the economy back on track.

This won’t help the economy or unemployment.

The 3 Challenges Your Nest Egg Will Face In the Next Decade

One way or another we’re likely to see taxes go up. Even if the Bush tax cuts are extended, there are still over $110 trillion of unfunded liabilities like Social Security and Medicare.

When government needs more revenue, it’s a safe bet that they’ll be raising our taxes in any number of ways. If your retirement nest egg is tax-deferred, it’s highly likely that those higher tax rates will deplete your money faster than you can imagine.

But higher taxes are only one of the challenges we’re likely to face over the next decade.

Inflation is also likely to sneak up from it’s usual 3% to more like 5, 6, 7 or even 10% thanks to the government printing money virtually nonstop. Inflation will raise the cost of living and that too will increase the speed with which your retirement money is spent.

Market uncertainty is the third danger we face just like in the last decade where many people lost roughly 39% of the value of their IRAs and 401(k)s and still haven’t broken even. Even a million dollar nest egg isn’t going to cut it where we’re headed in this country.

The good news is that strategies exist that will allow you to take ownership of your future and eliminate the dangers of market volatility, inflation and higher taxes.

When your money accumulates in tax free vehicle that’s grandfathered into the IRS code, you don’t have to worry higher taxes eating up your nest egg. When you tie your return to those things that inflate during inflationary periods, your money continues to grow.

And when you position your serious money to grow when the market grows and to remain safe when the market falls, market volatility is no longer a threat to your wealth.

You have options when you understand these strategies.

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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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