From the category archives:

National Debt

Turning Obstacles Into Opportunity

January 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, January 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.

Transforming Common Obstacles Into Golden Opportunities

Entrepreneurial coach Dan Sullivan teaches a formula for success known as the VOTA Process.

It consists of the following steps:

Vision- you first establish exactly where you are and where you’d like to go.
Obstacles- you next identify the main obstacles that prevent you from achieving that vision.
Transform- next you transform those obstacles into strategies and opportunities which eliminate those dangers.
Action- a very specific action plan is created.

If you were to apply that approach to your own life today, it would probably start with a question like this, “3 years from today, what has to have happened in every area of your life–spiritually, emotionally, economically, personal relationships, etc.– in order for you to be happy with the results?”

Once that question has been answered, the next step would be to identify the obstacles that would prevent you from achieving that vision. Many of those fears and dangers will be financial in origin. There’s a great deal of uncertainty in the lives of many thanks to our economic woes.

These financial concerns often are centered in the market uncertainty that has caused many investors to lose a third or more of their serious money. Those concerns are compounded by the threat of increasing taxes and rising inflation rates.

Even a respectable retirement nest egg can be eroded very quickly when the forces of taxes and inflation go to work on it. Taxes will be going up, in part, due to the continued growth of the national debt that will soon swell to nearly $18 trillion.

Continued economic uncertainty is continuing to lead to market volatility. And with the Fed continuing to print money to keep up with government spending, inflation is just around the corner.

These are the likely obstacles that will affect our financial future. Turning them into specific strategies and opportunities requires doing something different than what we’ve always done.

Money isn’t the only thing we need to protect. Our time is extremely precious and cannot be made up easily.

This leads us to the final question that must be asked, “If, for some reason, you do not take action to solve these issues, how are you going to feel if the status quo doesn’t change?”

Here’s where specific actions come into play.

A strategic rollout, for example, allows you to move your money out of those IRAs and 401(k)s, pay the applicable taxes at today’s rates, and then move them into vehicles that are tax-free from today forward.

You can link your returns to those things that inflate so that when we have inflation it actually helps rather than hinders you.

Finally, you can implement indexing strategies that allow you to participate in the economy’s growth whenever it goes up, but protects your principal when it goes down so you don’t lose any money.

If you wish to learn how to put these actions to work for your financial future, that’s what the Missed Fortune strategies are here to do.

What Your Financial Advisor Doesn’t Know Can Hurt You

When it comes to protecting their client’s money and other assets, most financial planners don’t know what they don’t know. That can come back to bite their client’s hard.

Here are a few of the strategies your financial planner should know in order to allow you to enjoy liquidity, safety of principal and a predictable rate of return.

Indexing: When people lose money due to market volatility, it’s because their money is in the market where it’s most vulnerable. With an indexing strategy, your money is in a guaranteed instrument that protects your principal whenever the economy declines.

If the economy grows, you immediately participate in that upside because your money is indirectly linked to the market. If the market falls, however, you don’t lose a dime of your principal. The beauty of this approach is that every year you make money it becomes newly protected principal.

In 2008 when many people lost 40% of their principal in the market decline, those using the indexing strategy didn’t lose a dime. And the second the market rebounded, they were making money again.

Protection Against Inflation: When inflation was at 10% in the early 1980s, those who had linked their returns to the things that inflate when there is inflation weren’t losing sleep at night. Once you’ve learned how to do this, your rate of return outpaces the rate of inflation and your money grows fast enough to maintain your purchasing power.

Rising Taxes: If you have an IRA or 401(k) portfolio with $1.5 million, the sad truth is that not all of that money is yours. Uncle Sam expects to get his share in taxes and right now that’s about a third of your nest egg.

Compounding this problem is the fact that Congress is very likely to raise taxes in the near future with the Congressional Budget Office predicting a future tax rate of 50% or more. That means that taxes will take anywhere from a third to one half of your money as you withdraw it each year.

Your retirement money needs to be in a vehicle that allows it to accumulate, to distribute and ultimately to transfer to your survivors tax-free. Thanks to Sections 72E, 7702 and 101A of the Internal Revenue Code, there is such a vehicle. Most financial advisors don’t know about these sections of the code and that can cost you a lot of money down the road.

Learn more about how to implement these strategies and others by contacting 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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Converting Fear & Frustration Into Confidence

December 4, 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, December 6th 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.

Economic Uncertainty Fuels Anger and Frustration

A recent article by Catherine New in Business Finance talks about how Americans are growing increasingly distrustful of their financial institutions.

The article states:

“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 tend to confirm what an earlier CNN article that claimed nearly 90% of Americans regard our current economic conditions as poor or as the worst that they’ve ever been.

The solution for this growing sense of frustration and anger is found in empowerment.

This is especially true in light of the losses experienced during the so-called “lost decade” in which many people’s retirement nest eggs lost 30-40% or more of their value. Few people have made it back to the point where they’ll break even.

The seriousness of this type of loss can be illustrated by imagining a $100,000 account losing 33% of its value and dropping to $66,000 in value. To make up that amount of lost ground, you’d need to experience a 50% gain just in order to break even.

This is why so many Americans feel as though they’ve lost their future twice in just the last decade.

Congress has attempted to intervene, but so far their actions have essentially amounted to re-arranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic by adding additional spending.

As famed economist Milton Friedman once predicted in the 1970s, Congress constantly tries to spend its way out of a recession by increasing spending and passing legislation that doesn’t really have any effect. In this latest crisis, Congress has spent an additional $3.6 trillion in 5 years and raised the national debt from $9 trillion to nearly $15 trillion.

Despite all this economic stimulus spending, unemployment has increased from 7.2% to 9.2%.

When the president suggests taxing corporations at ever-higher rates, this creates a strong disincentive for companies to grow and to hire new employees. This uncertainty allows the economy to continue to stagnate. A better approach would be the one followed by Wisconsin, which saw unemployment drop and business increase when the state lowered taxes and regulation.

What to Expect In the Coming Decade

With the difficulties of the Lost Decade still fresh in our minds, it’s essential that we consider the likely challenges of the coming decade.

High on the list of probable economic dangers is the prospect of higher taxes. Couples who make over $200,000 per year and single filers who make over $100,00 could see their tax rates soar as high as 62.5%.

Even if Congress simply allows the Bush tax cuts enacted after 9/11 to expire, it would constitute the biggest tax increase in American history. Few things will drain your nest egg quicker than the burden of being taxed upon withdrawing your money.

Taxes will be going up and your economic strategy should take this into consideration.

The second big danger we face in the next 10 years is inflation. For the last two decades, inflation has averaged less than 3%, but in the days ahead, we’re likely to see inflation increase to 5% on the low end all the way up to 10% on the high end.

Your retirement planning must take this into consideration since even a modest 5% rate of inflation doubles the cost of living every 15 years. When your dollars only purchase half as much 15 years from now as they do today, you’d better have a way of growing your money that outpaces inflation.

The third big danger is that of continued market uncertainty. This, combined with economic uncertainty is what prevents employers from hiring new people and growing their businesses.

These three dangers combine to create a triple whammy that can wreak havoc on a person’s retirement nest egg. Fortunately, there are proven Missed Fortune strategies that can be put to work to counter these dangers.

When your money can accumulate tax-free, when your rate of return is linked to those things that inflate during periods of inflation, and when you can benefit from market growth without risking your money during market downturns, the danger is dramatically reduced.

That’s when confidence replaces fear and frustration.

The first step to learning what you must know is to meet 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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Why Your Your Money Should Outlive You

November 20, 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 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.

The Question that Keeps the Boomers Awake at Night

One of the biggest questions on the minds of those who are saving for retirement is whether they will outlive the money they’ve saved for retirement.

Where once they were earning rates of return around 8-9%, lately they’ve seen returns of more like 1-3%. The losses of the last decade have proven difficult to overcome and many soon-to-be retirees are looking at the very real possibility of outliving their money.

You need growth on your money in order to have income for your retirement.

For your money to grow, you must have liquidity, safety and a solid rate of return. These are the three key elements of any successful retirement savings plan.

In a nutshell, you need to be able to get your money back when you need it back. Your money must be safe and either insured or guaranteed to protect you against loss of principal. Finally, you must have a rate of return that allows your nest egg to grow faster than the rate of inflation or rising taxes.

These are essential strategic considerations for anyone who recognizes the effects of inflation and taxes and the corresponding need to protect and grow their serious cash for the future.

Those who have their nest eggs tied up in a tax-deferred environment like a 401(k) or an IRA are especially at risk to the tax and inflation power curve. Even with a $1 million nest egg, you’re at significant risk.

Federal and state taxes are likely to take at least a third of your money in taxes the moment you begin to access it. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, with increasing federal spending, many Americans will be paying nearly 40-50% taxes in order to cover federal deficit spending as well as government debt.

Many investments are not liquid, safe, or earn a predictable rate of return. They fail what is referred to as the LSRR (laser) test that measures how well an investment satisfies these qualities.

Tax-deferred vehicles leave your money vulnerable to higher tax rates because most people, at retirement, no longer have children living at home and their homes are paid off. This lack of deductions, coupled with the prospect of Congress hiking tax rates means that many retirees find themselves in their highest tax bracket yet.

Add to this the effect of rising inflation and its relentless decrease in the purchasing power of each dollar, and it’s easy to understand how even a $1 million dollar nest egg can be drained within a remarkably short time.

Shielding Your Nest Egg Against Taxes, Inflation & Market Volatility

These effects can be successfully countered with Missed Fortune strategies that place your serious cash in a tax-free environment where it can grow, be accessed and ultimately transferred tax-free. This is a perfectly legal maneuver under certain grandfathered sections of the IRS code.

Linking your returns to those things that inflate will allow your money to grow safely ahead of the rate of inflation.

And Indexing strategies provide all the benefit of linking your return to the performance of certain market indexes without the risk of putting your money directly into the market.

Those who know and implement these Missed Fortune strategies can effectively protect their serious retirement money and avoid the fear of outliving their nest eggs.

To learn more, 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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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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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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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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While the Government is Placing Band-Aids, We’re Throwing Lifelines

July 31, 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 2nd 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.

Debt Limit Increase: A Temporary Band-Aid

5 years ago the national debt was $9.3 trillion — about $90,000 for every taxpayer in America.

We’re now up to $14.3 trillion and rising — $143,000 for every taxpayer.

We don’t have a revenue problem in America; we have a spending problem.

Most Americans agree. A recent CNN poll showed that 66% of Americans support government spending cuts.

Raising our debt limit temporarily is just a Band-Aid.

We need a more fundamental and drastic approach to curing our financial woes.

A recent Forbes article reports:

“’Raising the debt ceiling and getting beyond Aug 2nd does not cure the main source of our problem,’ [said Lacy Hunt of Hoisington Investment Management]. The main problem is that the fiscal problems of the U.S. are enormous. Total federal debt is approaching 100% of gross domestic product, and the three biggest components of that debt will rise dramatically through the end of the decade. Social Security and Medicare can be reformed, but there is little the government can do about interest expense. Even if rates stay constant, Hunt said, interest expense will exceed defense spending by the end of the decade.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that interest on the debt is projected to be about 3.4% of GDP by 2021, up from 1.7% in 2001.

However, Forbes reports,

“the CBO only projects an increase in real, or after-inflation, interest rates to 3.1% from a current 1.8%. It also projects a steady decline in unemployment to around 5% and real wage growth of 1.4% a year or more. Relax those assumptions — particularly for wage growth, inflation and interest rates — and the government could get itself into a death spiral of rising interest rates and stagnant economic growth that will make the debt practically impossible to service.”

We need to cut taxes and spending and support entrepreneurs to get cash flowing again.

Cash Value Insurance: A Lifeline in a Sea of Market Uncertainty & Government Ignorance

While you can’t control what the government does, you can control your household finances.

Missed Fortune offers solutions.

During the last 4 years — the worst-performing years since the Great Depression — Missed Fortune clients are up at least 50%.

Those with $1 million or more in our products have doubled or even tripled their money in the last 10 years — and it’s completely tax-free.

They’ve averaged returns of between 7.2% and 9.6% the last 10 years, whereas most Americans are barely breaking even.

How have they done it? Through maximum-funded tax-advantaged cash value life insurance.

When structured as a superior capital accumulation tool, it can perform at an average cash-on-cash rate of return of more than 8%.

This one product can overcome taxes, inflation, market uncertainty by giving you safety of principal, an inflation hedge, and healthy tax-free growth.

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 Economic Realities That Can No Longer Be Ignored

July 10, 2011

Podcast: Download (23.0MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, July 12th 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.

Americans Aren’t Feeling So Optimistic These Days

U.S. voters continue to be largely pessimistic about the country’s future. We need to be able to think about a bigger and brighter future, but we’re not feeling that way. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters shows that 46% of those surveyed think America’s best days are in the past.

37% say they believe that America’s best days are still ahead. And 16% say they’re not sure.

Optimism about the nation’s future has generally been in the mid to high 3os for most of the Obama presidency. With a number of economic indicators hitting new lows in recent days, it’s not surprising that voters continue to favor a government with less services and lower taxes.

65% say they’d favor a smaller government over one with more services and higher taxes.

David Walker, the former comptroller for the General Accountability Office, recently resigned because he was not allowed to tell the American public the truth about the escalating national debt. In 2007 it was at $9 trillion and he said we had nearly $63 trillion in unfunded liabilities including Medicare and Social Security that we don’t have money in our coffers to pay.

In October 2009 our government was operating totally in the red for nearly a year and three months until January of 2011 when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the government was finally solvent enough to cover what it was paying out in benefits again.

Both parties say we need to cut at least $4 trillion over the next 10 years, but David Walker says that more will be required to keep the government solvent.

He says we can’t do that without both spending cuts and tax increases. Walker says first we’ll need to make several billion dollars in cuts immediately in discretionary spending. Next he says we’ll need to cut $100 billion in the 2012-2013 budget.

The third and final part of his debt remedy deal is to institute budget controls with pay-as-you-go requirements, annual spending caps and specific debt to GDP targets. If the targets aren’t hit by late 2013, buzzers would sound, lights would flash and the deal would trigger automatic draconian spending cuts and higher taxes.

Every tax payer in this country should be paying very close attention. An economic reality check is getting closer.

What To Expect In the Next Decade

Dave Ramsey recently pointed out that Americans now have more in their 401(k) than they did in October of 2007 when everything fell apart. There are actually two reasons for that.

Number one, people have added money to their 401(k) over the past 4 years. Secondly, if they didn’t add money and their 401(k) was linked to the S&P 500 Index, for instance, over the past 10 years you’ve barely made 2.99% by the end of first quarter 2011.

Contrast that with people who’ve followed the Missed Fortune strategies during this last ten years experienced predictable, safe tax-free growth of 7.23% growth and have doubled their money from where they started.

Market uncertainty will be a part of the next decade as well. Wall Street has lost more than 45% of the typical investor’s money twice in the last decade. The typical equity mutual fund investor has only averaged a 3.83% return for the past 8 years.

There is a much better way to put your serious money to work.

With a Missed Fortune strategy like Indexing, you don’t lose a dime when the market goes down and you start earning again the second the market goes up. With a Missed Fortune strategy like linking your returns to those things that inflate, inflation helps you rather than hurts you.

And with the Missed Fortune strategy of accumulating your money in a tax free vehicle, you avoid the higher taxes that are surely on the way.

Learn how to put these strategies to work for you. Talk to 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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