From the category archives:

Taxes

Positioning Your Retirement Money For the Coming Tax Hikes

March 4, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Here Come the Tax Hikes

Missed Fortune listeners won’t be terribly surprised to learn that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has recently released a new report confirming the likelihood of tax rates going up 30% or more over the next two years.

This will be due to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of this year and a corresponding massive increase in the national debt. In just the past 3 years, our runaway national debt has soared from $9 trillion to over $15.3 trillion and there are no signs of it slowing down.

In response, President Obama has been openly calling for higher taxes, which means that married couples earning over $200,000 and singles earning over $100,000 may find themselves paying tax rates as high as 62.5%. Sadly, a poll taken in late last year indicates that many Americans appear eager to “tax the rich” out of a sense of making the wealthy pay what politicians say is their “fair share”.

What too many of those clamoring for tax hikes fail to understand is that placing higher tax burdens on those who create jobs also tends to produce higher unemployment. Higher taxes are a powerful disincentive for producers to grow their businesses.

Another segment of the populace that will feel the sting of higher taxes are those who have their retirement savings in 401(k)s and IRAs. Not only will their tax rates increase, but these individuals will also have fewer deductions available to offset their tax liability. For many people, there is a possibility that they’ll find themselves in a higher tax bracket than they occupied during their peak working years.

Among the more disturbing revelations of the CBO report, “In particular between 2012 and 2014, revenues in CBO’s baseline shoot up by more than 30%, mostly because of the recent or scheduled expirations of tax provisions.” The report also refers to “the imposition of new taxes, fees and penalties that are scheduled to go into effect.”

What this means, in plain language, is that the tax hikes will be hard-hitting and will be coming from multiple directions.

What Can Be Done

There is a limited window of time, before the end of this year, in which action can be taken to avoid paying higher taxes on your IRA or 401(k).

In order to protect your retirement savings from the effects of dramatically higher taxes, now may be the time to consider a strategic rollout.

This strategy allows a person to move their money from an existing IRA or 401(k), paying the applicable taxes at today’s lower rates, and then repositioning their money into a different vehicle where it can accumulate tax-free from that day forward. In this scenario, your money remains tax-free when you begin to access it at retirement and ultimately transfers tax-free to your heirs.

Rather than deferring those taxes to a later date—when the rates will almost certainly be higher—or paying taxes on your increase every time your money compounds, you can instead harness the power of compound interest in a tax-free environment. A good rule of thumb to remember is that a dollar that doubles every time for 20 cycles will grow to over a million dollars, but only in a tax-free environment.

This is a possibility thanks to certain key sections of the IRS Code.

These sections of the Code are entirely legal and have existed in the tax code for many generations. The only reason they aren’t utilized more often is that many people, including tax attorneys and retirement planners, don’t understand them.

If you miss this window of opportunity to perform a strategic rollout before these tax hikes arrive, you may find that even a sizable retirement nest egg can be drained in just a few short years due to the taxes you’ll be paying.

Visit with a Missed Fortune advisor and learn what you need to know before the tax hikes arrive.

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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A Simple Quiz With Surprising Answers

February 26, 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, February 28th 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 Few Simple Questions

Where would an average investor have realized the best internal rate of return, meaning net; after taxes, on a lump sum investment of $125,000 invested in January 1990 to an account value today worth in excess of $1,000,000?

a. A mutual fund that followed the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Index.
b. A variable annuity.
c. A municipal bond.
d. A maximum-funded, indexed Universal life insurance policy.

It’s remarkable how many financial advisors would choose “a” as the correct answer. But according to DALBAR, the reality is that the average investor during that 22-year period only managed a rate of return of 3.83%. This means that the original $125,000 investment would only be worth $289,910 today.

Compare that with a maximum-funded, indexed insurance contract that included rebalancing and lock and reset strategies, the same investment would be worth $1, 028, 930—tax-free.

Here’s another question: A dollar doubling every period for 20 periods would be worth how much?

a. $27,000
b. $72,000
c. $666,000
d. More than $1 million

Believe it or not, each one of these amounts could be the correct answer depending upon your tax situation.

If you were paying taxes as you earn the money in a 33% tax bracket, your dollar doubling every period for 20 consecutive periods would only be worth about $27,000. Those who live in a state without an income tax might see that dollar grow to $72,000 after doubling 20 times.

If that dollar were in a tax-deferred account like an IRA or 401(k), it might grow to over a million, but the IRS would still claim about a third of that money in taxes, leaving you with just $666,000.

In a totally tax-free vehicle where the money accumulates tax-free under IRS Code section 72E and remained tax-free upon distribution under section 7702, you’d have over a million dollars. And at the end of your life, the money would transfer to your survivors, tax-free. This is yet another example where the maximum-funded, tax-advantaged (MFTA) life insurance contract comes out on top.

Another question: According to the rule of 72, at a 7.2% inflation rate, the cost of living will double every 10 years. Therefore, 20 years from now, a million dollar nest egg earning 7.2% or $72,000 per year will be only worth how much in today’s dollars?

a. $4000 a month
b. $3,000 a month
c. $2,000 a month
d. $1500 a month

The answer is “d”. This means that a million dollar nest egg that provides you with $6,000 per month in income will only have the purchasing power that $1500 per month can buy you today. That’s just considering inflation and not taking the effects of taxes into account.

One final question: Let’s say you incurred a loss of 50% on the value of your retirement account. What amount of gain will you need to realize to get back to where you were before the loss?

a. A 50% gain
b. A 100% gain

The answer is “b”. You need a 100% gain to make up that lost ground. Consider that if you started out with $100,000 and suffered a 50% loss, you now have just $50,000. A 50% gain would only take you back to $75,000. It take’s a 100% gain to make up the loss and get you back to where you started.

This quiz illustrates the importance of not only understanding the effects of taxes and inflation on your retirement nest egg but also learning how to position your serious cash to protect it.

You wouldn’t believe how many financial advisors don’t understand this concept. They haven’t yet learned the proven Missed Fortune strategies that have helped our clients enjoy tax-free, safe, predictable rates of return for decades.

But you can learn them 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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Last Chance Millionaire Has Answers to Your Financial Future

February 19, 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, February 21st 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 Book With Answers for Your Financial Future

If market volatility, inflation or the prospect of higher taxes have been causing you anxiety, you need to know that there are solutions to these problems. If you’re worried that retirement will find you a “broke boomer” instead of a “blazing bloomer”, there’s a book you need to read.

Doug Andrew’s New York Times/Wall Street Journal best-seller “Last Chance Millionaire” will empower you and teach you how to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of your future financial well-being.

In Chapter 2, you’ll learn about the 10 most common baby boomer blunders including the belief that tax-deferred accounts or an IRA or a 401(k) are the best way to sock away money for retirement. “Last Chance Millionaire” will show you that these accounts may not be the best way while teaching you strategies, vehicles and methods that provide 50-100% more retirement income.

Another baby boomer blunder regards how to best get out of debt. Let’s be clear, it’s not by sending extra principal to your mortgage company. You’ll learn how to get out of debt much smarter and much safer while learning how to become your own banker.

Chapter 3 will help you see the value of taking ownership of your retirement instead of depending upon the government to do it for you. Social Security and Medicare should be a bonus, not a basis for your retirement income. This chapter will also show you how to alleviate the kind of losses many people experienced during this last decade.

With the indexing strategy you’ll learn how many people have managed to double or even triple their money during the worst decade since the Great Depression.

In Chapter 4, you’ll come to understand the three marvels of wealth accumulation including compound interest, tax-free saving, and safe, positive leverage can boost your net worth. You’ll also learn how to liberate yourself from IRAs and 401(k)s if you’ve painted yourself into a corner.

Using a strategic rollout, you can spring yourself from the IRA/401(k) trap and transfer up to $60,000-$80,000 per year with no tax consequence.

In Chapters 6,7, and 8 you’ll get powerful information on real estate management, real estate equity, and how harness the power of safe, liquid equity as well as how money really works. You’ll learn how to become your own banker and how the key to your own retirement may be sitting under your own roof. You’ll never view your finances the same way again.

Better Results Require Better Strategies

The dangers of taxes, inflation and market volatility and economic uncertainty have the potential to affect each of us financially. But, with the right knowledge, you can eliminate these dangers and move confidently toward your financial future.

Many of these strategies are not widely known in financial circles. It’s no exaggeration to point out that 90% of financial advisors don’t know some of the best tactics for protecting their clients’ money.

But when you have been shown what you did not previously know, you’ll understand that it’s entirely possible to see your money grow no matter what the economy is doing. With indexing strategies you benefit from any market upside, yet you don’t lose precious principal during down years.

Do you realize that in the last 60 years of stock market history, if you eliminated 100% of the down years and only captured the gains of 25% of the up years, you’d still have done better than having your money in the stock market?

Did you know that by linking your returns to the things that inflate, it actually helps you rather than hinders you when inflation goes up?

By saving your serious money in a vehicle that allows it to accumulate, distribute and transfer tax-free, you enjoy far greater predictability in your retirement income.

These are just a few of the strategies understood and practiced by Missed Fortune clients. They are the key to peace of mind amidst the economic uncertainty today and a secure, financial future down the road.

Learn more by visiting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Higher Taxes and Your Window of Opportunity

February 12, 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, February 14th 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 CBO Confirms Taxes Will Be Higher

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has recently released a new report that confirms the probability of taxes increasing 30% or more over the next two years.

This comes as no surprise to Missed Fortune listeners who are well aware of this likelihood due to expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the massive increase in the national debt. The runaway national debt has soared from $9 trillion to over $15.3 trillion in just the past 3 years and it shows no signs of slowing down.

The president has been calling for higher taxes, which means that married couples earning over $200,000 and singles earning over $100,000 could be paying tax rates as high as 62.5%. A poll taken in late 2011 confirms that many Americans appear more than willing to “tax the rich” out of a sense of fairness.

What most Americans don’t appear to recognize is that placing higher tax burdens on the job creators will also produce higher unemployment due to the disincentive to grow their businesses.

These higher tax rates will also be felt by those who have their retirement savings in 401(k)s and IRAs. Not only will the tax rates go up, but also these individuals will have fewer deductions available to decrease their tax liability. This means that they’ll be in a higher tax bracket than they were during the time they were working.

According to the CBO report, “In particular between 2012 and 2014, revenues in CBO’s baseline shoot up by more than 30%, mostly because of the recent or scheduled expirations of tax provisions.” The report also references “the imposition of new taxes, fees and penalties that are scheduled to go into effect.”

The tax hikes will be dramatic and they’ll be coming from multiple directions.

This means that we have a limited window of time, before the end of 2012, in which something can be done to avoid paying higher taxes on your IRA or 401(k).

The Window of Opportunity

Those who wish to protect their retirement savings from impact of dramatically higher taxes would be wise to consider doing a strategic rollout.

This allows a person to move their money from an existing IRA or 401(k), pay the applicable taxes at today’s lower rates, and reposition their money into a vehicle where it can accumulate tax-free from that day on. Not only can your money grow tax-free, it also remains tax-free when you access it at retirement and transfers tax-free to your heirs.

Instead of deferring taxes to a later date—when tax rates will almost certainly be higher—or paying taxes on your increase when your money compounds, harness the power of compound interest in a tax-free environment. A dollar that doubles every time for 20 cycles grows to over a million dollars, but only if it’s tax-free. That’s the miracle of compound interest that Einstein described as the world’s “least understood phenomenon.”

There are specific sections of the IRS Code that make this possible.

They are entirely legal and have been grandfathered into the tax code for generations. The only reason more people, including tax attorneys and retirement planners, don’t utilize them is because they don’t understand them.

People who miss this window of opportunity before the tax hikes kick in will find that even a million dollar nest egg will be quickly depleted in just a few short years due to the taxes they’ll owe.

Visit with a Missed Fortune advisor and learn what you need to know before the tax hikes arrive.

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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You Have More In Common With the Super Wealthy Than You Think

February 5, 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, February 7th 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.

Good Habits & Prudent Investments

Many investors, over the past 10 years, have seen their retirement nest egg lose, on average, nearly 40% of its value. Why do they keep doing what they’ve been doing?

When people continually put their retirement money into 401(k)s and IRAs where taxes are deferred, they do it with a perceived future tax benefit in mind such as being in a lower tax bracket when they reach retirement.

Many choose to keep their money in the volatile market, expecting to ride out the ups and downs while waiting for the economy to recover enough to regain their losses.

But the future reality is that most will be facing higher taxes rates at a time when they have fewer deductions to offset their liabilities.

Those who’ve been willing to make necessary changes in the way they save for retirement can expect to achieve different results. For example, thousands of Missed Fortune clients have chosen to use a strategic rollout to safely move their money from their 401(k) or IRA.

By doing this, they pay the applicable taxes today and then move those retirement funds into a vehicle where their money can accumulate tax-free from that day forward.

These are the people who’ve learned to utilize indexing strategies that indirectly link their money to market performance in such a way that they don’t lose a dime when the market goes down yet they benefit from any upside immediately. Is it any wonder they don’t lose sleep at night no matter what the market is doing?

They’re simply applying proven principles and getting very different results from when they were simply following the crowd. They have confidence in the future and peace of mind.

They’ve learned that liquidity, safety, and rate of return–in that order–are the hallmarks of a prudent investment. These three ingredients combine to form the acronym LSRR (Laser) that is familiar to Missed Fortune clients everywhere.

If you have them, chances are that you’re watching your money grow safely year after year. When potential investments are lacking any one or more of them, you’d be wise to reconsider.

Sadly, most of the popular investment strategies advocated by many advisors fail the Laser test miserably. You must understand how each potential investment stacks up in order to avoid choosing poorly.

Comparing Yourself To the Wealthy

What’s the difference between you and the super wealthy? Not as much as you might think.

Fans of horse racing will especially appreciate this object lesson.

The Arlington Futurity racecourse is a mile and an eighth in length. The winning horse may cross the finish line a mere head’s length before the second, third or even fourth place horses. That’s a difference of just 1/3000^th of a second. If the winning horse beats the others by a nose length the difference is only 1/72,000^th of a second.

The point of this observation is that, in most ways, the horses are quite evenly matched, and end result of the race comes down to those who recognize an opportunity and go for it.

There is a terrific lesson in this for anyone who wishes to utilize the Missed Fortune strategies.

Applying that same principle to the truly wealthy among us, we find that a clear majority of them didn’t just inherit their wealth—they worked for it and earned it.

So many Americans fail to understand the miracles of wealth accumulation. Too often, their financial advisors don’t recognize these marvels either. A follow-the-herd mentality prevails as they leave their clients’ money at risk in the market in hopes of regaining their losses.

The first marvel of wealth accumulation is compound interest. Albert Einstein referred to it as “the most misunderstood phenomenon on the planet.” If you were to take a standard sheet of copy paper and you were able to fold it in half 50 times, how thick would it be after doubling in thickness each time?

The answer is a staggering 93 million miles.

If you were to take a single dollar and double it for 20 consecutive periods, it would total $1,048,000. But, it this is only possible when that compounding interest accumulates tax-free. If it’s taxed as earned, that same dollar will only be worth $27,000 at the end of that same 20 consecutive periods.

This brings us to the second miracle of wealth accumulation—tax-free accumulation. If your million-dollar nest egg is sitting in an IRA or 401(k), it’s not really worth a million dollars. Uncle Sam will be looking for his cut in taxes, which in most states will amount to about 1/3 of your money.

When you consider the prospect of taxes going up for the average middle income American over the next decade, it’s essential that your money accumulate in a tax-free environment.

The third miracle of wealth accumulation is that of safe, positive leverage. If Donald Trump were to go shopping for a skyscraper, he wouldn’t just write out a check for the full amount. Instead, he’d put the least amount down possible. And then he’d try to borrow whatever he put down back out as soon as possible.

The idea here is to keep from having too much of your money tied up in your assets. If you’re borrowing money for your business or for real estate at 4% and you can predictably earn a rate of return of 8%, you now have the potential for an infinite rate of return.

It’s like hiring an employee for your business for $40,000 per year who turns around and earns your business an extra $80,000 per year.

These miracles are understood and practiced by the super wealthy thrivers among us. When you understand them and apply them along with the Missed Fortune strategies, you’ll see that you have more in common with the super wealthy than you thought.

Learn more by visiting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Setting Intentions for a Better Financial Future

January 29, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, January 31st 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.

Setting Intentions for a Better Financial Future

One of the great benefits a new year brings is the opportunity to improve our individual situation from the previous year.

Some people choose to seize that opportunity by setting goals pertaining to weight loss, stopping smoking, or accomplishing new ambitions. The key to realizing a brighter future always hinges upon doing certain things different than they were done previously. If we persist in doing things as they’ve always been done, we cannot expect to get a different result.

A good example of this can be found in how a person goes about taking ownership of their financial future.

Too many people have persisted in habits like following the crowd and continuing to put their retirement money into 401(k)s and IRAs where taxes are deferred. They do this with some perceived future tax benefit in mind such as being in a lower tax bracket when they reach retirement.

They stubbornly keep their money in the market where it is most vulnerable to economic volatility and they ride out the ups and downs waiting for the market grow enough to regain their losses.

But the future reality they’re more likely to encounter will include higher taxes rates at the precise time that they have the fewest deductions to offset their liabilities. It’s entirely possible that they’ll end up paying higher taxes than they did when they were earning more.

The past decade has been especially tough on those whose retirement nest egg lost, on average, nearly 40% of its value.

On the other hand, those people who are willing to make necessary changes in the way they do things will get different results than they did before. For instance, thousands of Missed Fortune clients have learned how to use a strategic rollout to safely move their money from their 401(k) or IRA.

By doing this, they pay the applicable taxes today and then move those funds into a vehicle where their money accumulates tax-free from that day forward.

They learn to use indexing strategies that indirectly link their money to market performance in such a way that they don’t lose a dime when the market goes down yet they benefit from any upside immediately. People who’ve implemented our indexing strategies sleep soundly at night with zero stress over what the market may be doing.

They’ve taken the time to learn and apply proven principles and they get very different results from when they were simply following the crowd. This brings confidence in the future and peace of mind.

Three Things Investors Must Know

There are three critical components to a prudent investment. When potential investments are lacking any one or more of them, you’d be wise to reconsider.

The three essential ingredients of a prudent investment, in order of importance, include:

Liquidity. This is a primary concern whether it involves your serious cash that you’re earmarking for retirement. In simple terms, liquidity means your money is accessible when you need it and isn’t tied up in your real estate, your IRA or anywhere else that you cannot get to it.
Safety. The safety we’re looking for is not just of an institution, but also safety of principal. It’s not enough to simply protect the principal that you invested initially. In addition, any year that you make money, your gain should also become newly protected principal that also continues to grow tax-free.
Rate of Return. A predictable, safe rate of return that is tax-free is the ideal.

These three ingredients combine to form the acronym LSRR (Laser) that is familiar to Missed Fortune clients everywhere. In order to choose the best investments that pass the Laser test with flying colors, you need to understand how the various investments stack up.

The sad truth is that most of the popular investment strategies advocated by many advisors fail the Laser test miserably. Liquidity, safety, and rate of return–in that order–are the hallmarks of a prudent investment. If you have them, chances are that you’re watching your money grow safely year after year.

If you don’t yet have them, it’s time to visit with a Missed Fortune advisor and learn how to put them to work for you.

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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Eliminating Roadblocks To Get Your Money Back On Track

January 22, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Eliminating Roadblocks to Financial Peace of Mind

The last time a 401(k) or IRA statement arrived in your mailbox, how did you feel when you opened it?

Were you giddy, optimistic and excited?

Or did you feel frustrated, anxious and disappointed?

If your response is best described by the latter emotions, you’re not alone. For the past 4 years or so, record low rates of returns and the prospect of paying higher taxes have left many people feeling isolated and hopeless. They feel as though they’re not gaining any ground.

Wouldn’t it be preferable to have a definite game plan that allowed you to avoid the roadblocks that are frustrating so many today?

The roadblock of volatility has stood in the way of those who’ve been taught to expect average rates of return of 12%. They’ve been taught to “buy and hold” and that the market will always go up.

These are myths promoted by Wall Street that simply don’t reflect reality.

If a prospectus shows that your return will be up 50% the first year and down 50% the second year and then back up again 50% the third year and down 50% the fourth year, most people assume that they’d break even.

But the actual result looks much different.

If your $100,000 increased 50% up to $150,000 and then you lose 50%, you’re now down by $75,000. Let’s say you gain another 50% that takes you back up to $112,500 and then you lose another 50% that now takes you down to $56,250.

Far from breaking even, you’re actually down 43.75% from where you started thanks to market volatility.

This shouldn’t be surprising considering that the average rate of return for investors in the S&P 500 over the past 20 years has only been 3.83% according to DALBAR.

You can do much better. But you’ll have to do something different than what others have been doing.

Using an indexing strategy, you can protect your principal from loss when the economy declines and when the economy grows; your money grows as well. Any year your money grows, your gain becomes newly protected principal.

People who used indexing during the past four years found themselves up by 45-50% at time when others were taking a very unpleasant rollercoaster ride.

The Volatility of the Lost Decade

From January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009 we saw a lot of changes in the market. $100,000 at the beginning of that time period was only worth around $79,000.

If you had used indexing during that same period, you could have locked in gains during 5 of those years that saw positive market growth. The market declined the other 5 years, but with indexing, your gains during the up years would have become newly protected principal and you wouldn’t have lost any money during those down years.

The reason your money was protected during the down years is that it was indirectly linked to the market’s performance rather than being directly at risk in the market.

Under this strategy, that $100,000 you started out with in 2000 would have been worth over $200,000 at the end of 2010.

Whose shoes would you rather be in?

Another roadblock is found in the record low rates of return.

How can you expect to row upstream at a low rate of 1.6 miles per hour when the current is moving downstream at 8 or 9 miles per hour? In this case the upstream rate represents your rate of return while the speed of the current represents inflation.

You have to have a strategy that automatically earns a rate of return 5-6% greater than the rate of inflation. Indexing makes that possible by linking your returns to the things that inflate when we experience inflation. This way inflation helps you rather than hurts you.

It’s shocking how many financial advisors don’t understand how to do this.

Missed Fortune strategies work. They remove the major roadblocks that have been preventing people from taking ownership of their future.

Learn more 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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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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Making Money Or Making Up Lost Ground?

January 8, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Making Money Safely

From October to January, Doug Andrews applied a formula he’d been given in order to not gain weight during the holiday season.

At the first of the year, Doug was happy to see that his weight had been maintained.

By understanding the ratios and portions and the effect of personal activity on his body’s ability to utilize the carbohydrates and fats, Doug followed the formula and got the desired results.

Moreover, he did this at a time when most people were justifying eating things that are fattening and unhealthy.

This can be likened to how many of us can either follow formulas or follow the crowd when it comes to setting aside money for our future.

When we follow the crowd, we put our money into 401(k)s or IRAs. We tell ourselves we’ll be in a lower tax bracket in the future. We tell ourselves to keep hanging in there with our money in the market, waiting for the average 12% rate of return we were promised.

The reality is that 401(k)s and IRAs deny us liquidity. Our tax liabilities can still increase due to rising taxes and disappearing deductions. And according to DELBAR, most people who put their money in the market have averaged just 3.83% rate of return over the past 2 decades.

But there are proven formulas that allows you to successfully and safely earn a conservative, predictable rate of return averaging 8% net cash on cash. Even during the worst 10-year period since the Great depression—2001 to 2011–this formula has allowed people to double their money, safely and tax-free.

By following a predictable system, they got the results they desired.

Of all the resolutions to make this year, choosing not to follow the crowd any longer, may be the most significant.

This means you don’t continue to put your money into investments that are vulnerable to taxes, inflation or economic uncertainty.

Instead, choose to take charge of your financial future by learning the formulas that allow your money to grow tax-free, to outpace inflation and to remain safe when the market declines.

Two Steps Forward-One Step Back

Many of us remember the childhood game of red-light/green-light. You’d take nine steps forward and then have to take 4 steps back. Your net gain was never as much as you’d have liked it to be.

That stopping and starting sensation is a familiar one to anyone who lost a third or more of their retirement nest egg over the past 10 years. Some years they’d make great gains only to lose spectacularly the next year.

After 10 years of market uncertainty, very few investors have even managed to break even with the amount of money they started out with. Once they were accustomed to earning 6-8%, but now they’re earning just 1-2%.

They’re struggling to make up lost ground and feeling frustrated and hopeless.

Whether you have $150,000 or $1.5 million in an IRA or 401(k), that money isn’t really all yours. Uncle Sam and the state in which you reside will likely claim about one third of that money through taxes when you retire.

When you consider the cost of taxes, fees and the effects of inflation, you’ve taken plenty of steps backwards financially.

Getting different results in the coming year is going to require doing something different than they’ve been doing up to this point.

This is a prime opportunity to get your financial house in order so that you can create predictability in your life and in your financial future. This is how to gain the confidence that you will not outlive your money.

The Missed Fortune strategies can teach you how to accumulate your nest egg, tax-free. That money will distribute tax-free at retirement or any other time you need to access it. And best of all, it transfers to your spouse or children tax-free when you pass.

The only step backward you’ll be taking is the actual cost of the vehicle in which you’re putting your serious money. But you’re still moving nine steps forward for a net of eight steps ahead of where you started.

This is only possible when you counter the three major threats of the next decade:

Higher taxes
Inflation
Market volatility

Learn how to eliminate these dangers and safely and predictably grow your money without having to make up lost ground.

Learn how to make these principles work for you 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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Making the Changes That Make All the Difference

January 1, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Change Can Be a Reason To Cheer

We each have a choice regarding whether or not this is the year we’ll do things differently.

This is particularly true with respect to our financial futures.

It’s a perfect time for more of us to start taking ownership of our future instead of making Social Security the basis of our future retirement or waiting for government to take care of us.

Even among those who’ve been saving for retirement, too many people have simply kept following the crowd hoping to regain what market losses have cost them.

A perfect example of this is those who keep putting their money at risk in the market and “hang in there” waiting to realize the average 12% returns they were promised.

They don’t understand that if, over a decade, their return goes up 10% for half of those years and goes down 10% for the other half, they won’t break even. Instead they’ll end up with only 95% of the amount they started with. No one can afford to lose money on a regular basis.

This common error is compounded when many of these same people continue to sock money away in tax-deferred savings vehicles thinking they’ll be in a lower tax bracket when they retire. But with taxes on the rise combined with the loss of critical deductions, they may well end up paying higher taxes even though their income is less.

If your answer is to keep doing what you’ve always done, you can expect to keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

If those folks had used the Missed Fortune indexing strategies instead, they could see their money safely grow as the market goes up, but enjoy safety of principal and not lose a dime when the market declines. Over the past decade, these indexing strategies have enabled many people to earn 7.23% actual return—and that’s tax-free!

This may be the time to make a resolution to start rerouting some of the money you’ve been sinking into 401(k)s or IRAs and start taking distributions before the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of next year. This is known as a strategic rollout and it will make a world of difference when we see taxes go up again.

If you do want to learn how to do things differently, now is the time to empower yourself. Thousands of people have found a better way to take ownership of their future through learning and implementing the Missed Fortune strategies.

With these strategies, you’ll clearly understand the three key elements of a good investment:

Liquidity- The ability to get to your money when you need it.
Safety- The practice of protecting your principal by making turning the money you make in any given year into newly protected principal.
Rate of Return- This means that you are earning a predictable, tax-free rate of return that allows you to outpace inflation.

An investment that has all 3 of these qualities is far more likely to prove a good investment.

This is the kind of knowledge that promotes confidence and certainty at a time when so many are struggling with confusion and a sense of isolation.

Three Marvels of Wealth Accumulation

Motivational superstar Zig Ziegler loved to quiz his audience about the difference between a $10,000 racehorse and a $1 million racehorse. He’d ask them if the million dollar racehorse was worth 100 times more than the other one because it was 100 times faster than the $10,000 one.

After careful consideration, the answer was usually “no.”

Ziegler would point out that sometimes the only measurable difference between these two horses often came down to a few thousandths of a second out there on the racetrack.

His point was that the horses actually started out on a more level playing field than most people might suspect. What made the real difference was the way they were trained and how they applied their training.

When it comes to those who accumulate great wealth, the same principle applies. Many of the world’s wealthiest individuals didn’t merely inherit their wealth; they earned it.

More importantly, they earned that wealth because they learned to recognize opportunities that others around them did not. They didn’t possess superhuman capabilities or powers of discernment; they simply learned the principles of wealth accumulation and applied them.

These principles are not widely practiced, but they’re not secret, nor are they shrouded in mystery. The reason everyone isn’t practicing these principles of wealth accumulation is that they are simply not widely understood. They will work for anyone who is willing to learn them and apply them.

To better illustrate the kind of principles we’re dealing with, let’s look at three of the main ones relating to the accumulation of wealth.

The three marvels of wealth accumulation are:

Compound Interest. Einstein called it the most misunderstood phenomenon on the planet. One way to visualize how compound interest works is to imagine that you could fold over a piece of copy paper 50 times so that it doubled in thickness each time. By the 50^th time that paper had been doubled, it would be over 93 million miles in thickness.

Money can likewise accumulate at an astounding rate thanks to compound interest, but this is only true when that money is able to grow tax-free. Tax-advantaged vehicles are grandfathered into the IRS code, but they must be set up correctly.

Tax-Free Accumulation. The second marvel of wealth accumulation is one of the most important especially when considering the likelihood of taxes going up in the future. Taxes can quickly deplete even a sizeable nest egg within a matter of just a few years. Outliving your retirement money is a definite possibility.

Consider that your million dollar tax-deferred nest egg will only be worth around $666,000 after Uncle Sam claims his share. Get those taxes out of the way up front and your money will grow, distribute and eventually transfer tax-free to your spouse or children. There are specific sections of the IRS code that make this possible.

It’s in your interest to learn what they are and how to apply them.

Safe Positive Leverage. This describes the ability to own and control assets with very little or none of your money actually tied up or at risk of being lost in the asset.

If you’re borrowing money at 4% and are able to leverage that money where you’re earning an 8% rate of return, you’re now getting infinite return. The main reason most people don’t avail themselves of safe positive leverage is that they don’t know what they don’t know.

These three marvels are just a few of the principles that can make all the difference for those who wish to accumulate wealth in any economy; including our current struggling one.

Learn how to make these principles work for you 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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