Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, June 18th 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

Making the Most of Life’s Seasons

We pass through a number of different periods in our lives.

There are the learning years when we are in school, followed by the earning years when we are actively fulfilling our careers. Eventually we reach our golden years, which for many can be described as their yearning years. That’s when they find themselves yearning for more time, more money, better health, etc.

Not everything turns out exactly as we’d planned. By the time most people start thinking seriously about retirement planning, a good many of them are realizing that they wish they’d started sooner.

Their attitudes evolve as they get approach retirement age. Some of them feel optimistic while others feel isolated or scared. A growing number of people worry that they might outlive their nest egg.

There are some solutions they need to consider.

One of the most important things they can do is recognize that there is a world of difference between at-retirement planning and for-retirement planning. It’s often necessary to reinvent yourself, figuratively speaking, once you’ve crossed that retirement threshold.

But money is only one part of the reason we plan ahead. Connectivity is another essential part of our lives that affects our relationships with family, friends, and community. It can also include the mentors or guides we trust to help us navigate life’s waters.

In this latter group, some of our connections serve as a kind of OnStar button for us in that they can see exactly where we are at and can advise us on how to get where we’d like to go. Again, this is about more than just our finances.

It’s not uncommon for Missed Fortune wealth architects to help people learn how to strengthen their marriages and teach responsibility and accountability to their children or grandchildren, all while helping them build their wealth. They help to transform family businesses into business families that will last for many generations.

This typically does not happen when following the crowd.

Freedoms and Values That Empower Generations

There are four entrepreneurial freedoms that allow us to successfully chart a course of our choosing throughout life.

They include learning how to manage our:

• Time
• Money
• Relationships
• Purpose

These freedoms allow us to succeed no matter what we choose to do. For instance, if we love fishing, we can use these four freedoms to make money helping others to be successful at fishing or any other pursuit.

Traditional values are another key element that enables us to reach the future we’ve envisioned. We want to have new experiences while helping family and friends and communities by being philanthropic.

When you’ve planned in such a way that you are in no danger of ever outliving your money, it’s easy to find ways to engage in philanthropy. Whether it’s building hospitals or doing dental work for the needy, there are innumerable ways to use our wealth and our time to change the world around us.

These kinds of traditional values go well beyond money in teaching our children and grandchildren how to live full and productive lives.

If this sounds like a future that you’d like to be a part of, it’s not too late to begin.

The key is being able to use the right tools to get you safely there. Imagine that you were going to play in a golf tournament. Would you rather have a pro golfer like Phil Mickelson’s swing or his clubs to help you out?

Some would prefer to simply divvy up the golf clubs but the best answer is to have Phil’s swing which includes his skills and his strategies. Likewise, many financial advisors will happily hand out the equivalent of the tools to save for retirement, but what really carries the day is having the correct strategies and skills.

This is important to you as you prepare for your brighter future, and it also is important to your kids and grandkids. This is because they too will fare better when they understand the right skills and strategies than if you simply dumped wealth on them and expected them to use it wisely.

If you’d like to get started on that path, start by visiting with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

The Right Information Makes All The Difference

3 finance professors at a major university were asked about the topic of a 15 year amortized mortgage. Each professor admitted to regularly counseling students to purchase their first home using a 15-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage.

Many financial advisors recommend this, but they’re assuming that the only way that people will pay off their homes is if the mortgage company is threatening to take it away.

These professors honestly believed paying the higher principal and interest payment would help a person pay off their home in 15 years. Then, it was assumed, they could sock away what they were no longer paying in additional interest.

What these professors didn’t realize was that by looking at the differential between the 30-year amortized payment, which is less, and the 15-year payment, which is higher, a person could do much better. When the differential is pooled with the tax savings achieved during those first 15 years of a 30-year mortgage, that money could be saved in a conservative side fund and earn a predictable 8 or 9% rate of return. That way the money could remain liquid, but still continue to work and grow.

When shown the math, the professors were shocked to recognize that this method could produce enough income to completely pay off the 30-year mortgage in only 13.5 years. Keeping real estate equity separated from your mortgage is a proven strategy to enjoy liquidity, safety, and a predictable rate of return that allows you to get out of debt sooner.

The extra money that can be accumulated by not paying off your mortgage unnecessarily can easily swell to an extra million or two million dollars over the term of a 30-year mortgage.

Time Is Too Precious to Waste

Most Americans tend to accumulate money throughout their lives in one of two places. Real estate is the first one. For many people their primary real estate is the home they live in, though some choose to own real estate or investment properties for other purposes.

The second place where Americans accrue money is in a retirement savings account. More often than not this would be an IRA or 401(k).

What most Americans don’t realize is that clinging to these methods of saving for retirement, they’ve been sabotaging their success. It’s the equivalent of trying to drive down the highway with a foot on the gas and the other foot pressing on the brakes.

Most often, they aren’t aware of what they’re doing, either before or after their retirement.

What if there was a better way to move you steadily toward your brighter future? How soon would you want to know about it? A prudent person would say, “Just as early as possible.”

Often people don’t recognize they’re making a mistake because they don’t quite understand how money works. Anytime you deposit money in a bank, a credit union, or an insurance company, there are basically four things you can do with that money. You can spend it, lend it, own something with it, or give it away.

Banks borrow money from us when we put it into the bank in savings. In return they pay us maybe 1%, if that. This means that for every $100,000 dollars we deposit with them they’ll pay us $1,000 in interest.

But the bank is loaning that money out to other people, say for a mortgage, and charging them 4%. On a $100,000 mortgage that means the bank is making $4,000 in interest compared to the $1,000 they’re paying you for saving your money with them. That’s 400% greater than what you’re getting paid. Get the picture?

What if you were able to put these same principles to work in your life? What if you could borrow money at four percent that gave you a predictable rate of return of eight percent? You’d be creating the same kind of predictable rate of return that a bank does, but that money would be working for you.

Learn how to make this a reality by visiting with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, June 4th 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

An Abundant Life Requires More Than Just Money

The great Marshall Thurber used to teach that the vast majority of failures were due to the lack of a system. This is true in virtually every area of our lives. It can apply to how a business is run, how we take care of ourselves physically, or how we manage our money.

In the latter case, SYSTEM can also represent an acronym that stands for Save Your Self Time Energy Money.

Thurber taught about the importance of predictability in ensuring quality results. For instance, if you followed the exact recipe for a given dish, you’d get a perfect result 90-95% of the time.

This same principle can be applied to systems that create predictable wealth.

Most people, who are familiar with finance, tend to focus on creating predictable rates of return and predictable results with their money so they don’t have to worry about their money.

There are a number of ways to accomplish this.

This includes structured cash flows. There is also the option of putting money into a maximum funded insurance contract. During the past 12 years—possibly the worst 12-year period since the Great Depression—people who have done this have enjoyed predictable rates of return at a time that was utter chaos to others.

Many investors saw up to a 40% loss in their savings twice in the past 12 years, first in 2003 and again in 2008..

But those individuals, who used systems that gave them predictable returns, saw their money double and triple during that same 12 years. Most importantly, they did not lose a dime when the economy declined.

Ongoing market volatility is part of a triple whammy that includes higher taxes and rising inflation. But having the right system in place, can produce predictable tax-free returns while building a nest egg that continues to produce tax-free income throughout your retirement.

It all begins with learning the right strategies.

Prosperity Requires Following Certain Rules

On September 23, 1908, in a game against the Chicago Cubs, Fred Merkle of the New York Giants was on first base with Moose McCormick was on third base, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The score was tied. The next batter singled home McCormick from third base. But Merkle, caught up in the excitement, failed to touch second base and ran to celebrate with his teammates.

The second baseman noticed this, picked up the ball and tagged second base and then appealed to the umpire who called Merkle out. This nullified the run just made by McCormick. In the ensuing chaos, the game was called a tie and the Cubs and Giants had to meet in a playoff game. The Cubs won that game.

Had the giants won that September 23^rd game, that playoff would have been unnecessary and the Giants could have won the 1908 World Series that instead ended up being won by the Cubs.

The lesson here is that sometimes in life, we forget to touch all the bases and it can come back to bite us later.

We must keep things in their proper perspective. This is especially true when referring to money. It’s great to to accumulate money predictably and tax-free whether in good times or bad times. But we cannot forget to touch all the bases while doing it.

This means all of the bases like your health, your family, your relationships, and your values. You’ve got to get your intellectual assents, your wisdom, your knowledge, and your experience in alignment as well. It’s also important to touch the base of what you give back to society.

What good is wealth without these other foundational areas? A person will struggle to be truly happy if they don’t remember to touch these bases.

Our knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits contribute greatly to the kind of abundance that we all hope to enjoy.

Getting the right systems in place to enjoy the abundant life, starts by visiting with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, May 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

The Two Places Most Americans Accumulate Their Money

There are two primary places where most Americans tend to accumulate money throughout their lives. Real estate is the first one. For many people their primary real estate is the home they live in, though some choose to own real estate for other purposes.

The second place where Americans accumulate money is in their retirement savings vehicles; most commonly IRAs or 401(k)s.

What most Americans don’t realize is that by following these methods of saving for their golden years, they’ve effectively been defeating their purpose. It’s like they’ve been trying to drive down the freeway with one foot on the gas and their other foot pressing on the brake.

Most often, they are oblivious to what they’re doing, both before and after retirement.

Suppose there was a better way to move you swiftly toward the brighter future you’ve envisioned. When would you want to know about it? Most of us would say, “Just as soon as possible.”

One of the reasons that people don’t realize that they’re making a mistake is because they don’t understand how money works. When you put money in a bank, a credit union, or an insurance company, there are basically four things you can do with that money. You can spend it, lend it, own with it, or give it away.

Banks borrow money from us when we put it into the bank in savings. In return they pay us maybe 1%, if that. This means that for every $100,000 dollars we deposit with them they’ll pay us $1,000 in interest.

But the bank is loaning that money out to other people, say for a mortgage, and charging them 4%. On a $100,000 mortgage that means the bank is making $4,000 in interest compared to the $1,000 they’re paying you for saving your money with them. That’s 400% greater than what you’re getting paid. Get the picture?

What if you were able to put these same principles to work in your life? What if you could borrow money at four percent that gave you a predictable rate of return of eight percent? You’d be creating the same kind of predictable rate of return that a bank does, but that money would be working for you.

Why The Well-Informed Do Things Differently

During a meeting with 3 finance professors at a major university, the topic of a 15 year amortized mortgage came up. These professors admitted that they regularly counseled their advanced students to buy their first home using a 15-year mortgage rather than a 30-year mortgage.

This is a position advocated by many financial advisors, but it operates from the notion that the only way that people will pay off their homes is if the mortgage company is threatening to take it away from them.

These professors sincerely believed that by paying the higher principal and interest payment, a person would have their home paid off in 15 years and then be able to sock away what they would have paid in additional interest.

What these professors hadn’t realized was that when considering the differential between the 30 year amortized payment, which is less, and the 15-year payment, which is higher, a person could actually do much better. This is because when the differential is combined with the tax savings achieved during the first 15 years of a 30-year mortgage, that money could be socked away in a conservative side fund earning a predictable 8 or 9% rate of return. This way the money remains liquid, but continues to work for you.

When shown the math, the professors were amazed to see that this method produced enough money to completely pay off the 30-year mortgage in just 13.5 years. Keeping your real estate equity separated from your mortgage is a proven way to enjoy liquidity, safety, and a predictable rate of return that allows you to get out of debt sooner.

The extra money that can be generated by not paying off your mortgage unnecessarily can easily amount to an extra million or two million dollars over the course of a 30-year mortgage.

Think about what that extra money could mean to your family when you’re gone.

If you’re ready to learn more, contact a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, May 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

All Progress Starts by Telling the Truth

There’s a saying to the effect of “You can tell where someone is at by where they’re at.” This is true whether it’s applied to where a person is spiritually, psychologically, or financially.

Right now a lot of people are getting, and spending, their tax returns. What a lot of people don’t realize is that by simply investing the average tax refund in America, a person could realize an extra $500,000 in savings over the next 30 years. Over 40 years, that refund could result in an extra million dollars.

So why don’t more people do that? Simple. They don’t know what they don’t know. They continue to waste money on otherwise payable taxes that could be safely and legally directed toward other causes that they support. There’s no shame in paying our fair share in taxes, but being taxed to the max is not a good way to go.

Case in point, IRAs and 401(k)s used to be a good way to go, but from a tax standpoint they are now poor at best. This is because of where we’re headed in America with future higher taxes a near certainty.

The most important thing you can know when you set out to take a journey for the first time is knowing exactly where you are currently. Once you’re clear on where you’re at, then you can chart your course for where you’d like to go.

This clarity of knowing where you’re at includes where you are physically, intellectually, spiritually, socially, emotionally, and financially. What good does the money do unless you have your act together in these other areas?

A good example of this are those individuals who spend their health trying to build wealth and then find themselves, in their golden years, spending their wealth trying to regain their lost health.

It’s essential to stay balanced if we wish to obtain a brighter future. That’s what frees us up to focus on what matters most.

Free to Focus on What Matters Most

When we reach our golden years, we don’t want to have to worry about our money. We want to know that no matter what happens with government, such as taxes going up, that we are immune. This can only happen when our money is accumulating and distributing tax-free.

We want to know that if serious inflation is headed our way, due to government printing so much money, that inflation won’t affect us.

We’d rather know that inflation would actually help rather than hinder us because our returns are tied to those things that inflate.

We want to know that we are immune from the effects of continuing market volatility and economic uncertainty. We want the peace of mind of knowing that our money is not at risk in the market but can safely grow when the economy grows, but not lose a dime of principal during those times when the economy shrinks.

When we have addressed these three potential roadblocks, we can enjoy real peace of mind. But the first step, as always, is to have clarity of where we are currently.

Once you understand exactly where you’re at, you can chart clearly where you’d like to go. You can find balance and bring harmony between your money, your life, your values, your family, and your time.

If this message is resonating with you, it may be time to get that needed clarity and starting moving toward that balanced and brighter future you deserve.

Take that first important step by visiting with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, May 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

Abundance is More Than Just Money

The great mentor Marshall Thurber taught that 94% of all failures are due to a lack of a system. In this case, SYSTEM is an acronym that stands for Save Your Self Time Energy Money.

Thurber taught about the importance of predictability in ensuring quality results. That means if you put a certain amount of wood into the fire, you’d get a certain amount of BTUs. Or if you followed the exact recipe for cinnamon rolls, you’d get a perfect batch of them 90-95% of the time.

This same principle can be applied the systems that create predictable wealth.

Most people, who are familiar with the world of finance, focus on creating predictable rates of return and predictable results with their money so they don’t have to worry about their money.

There are several different ways to accomplish this.

One is called structured cash flows. Others include putting money into a maximum funded insurance contract. During the past 12 years—possibly the worst 12-year period since the Great Depression—people who have done this have enjoyed predictable rates of return at a time that was utter chaos to others.

Many investors saw up to a 40% loss in their savings twice in the past 12 years, first in 2003 and again in 2008. It’s no wonder people were running around in a panic.

But those who used systems that created predictable returns saw their money double and triple during that same 12 years. They did not lose any money when the economy went down.

That ongoing market volatility is just one part of a triple whammy that also includes higher taxes and rising inflation. But once again, having the right system in place allows a person to enjoy predictable tax-free returns while building a nest egg that continues to produce tax-free income throughout your retirement.

Having a life of abundance begins with learning the right strategies.

Building Your Dream Life of Peace and Prosperity

On September 23, 1908, in a game against the Chicago Cubs, Fred Merkle of the New York Giants was on first base with Moose McCormick was on third base, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The score was tied. The next batter singled home McCormick from third base. But Merkle, caught up in the excitement, failed to touch second base and ran to celebrate with his teammates.

The second baseman noticed this, picked up the ball and tagged second base and then appealed to the umpire who called Merkle out. This nullified the run just made by McCormick. In the ensuing chaos, the game was called a tie and the Cubs and Giants had to meet in a playoff game. The Cubs won that game.

Had the giants won that September 23^rd game, that playoff would have been unnecessary and the Giants could have won the 1908 World Series that instead ended up being won by the Cubs.

The lesson here is that sometimes in life, we forget to touch all the bases and it can come back to bite us later.

We have to keep things in their proper perspective. This includes money. It’s fine to learn how to accumulate money predictably and to accumulate it tax-free in good times or bad times. But we have to remember to touch all the bases while we do it.

This means touching not only the financial bases, but also the other bases like your health, your family, your relationships, and your values. You’ve got to get your intellectual assents, your wisdom, your knowledge, and your experience in alignment as well. It’s also important to touch the base of what you give back to society through your contributions.

What good is your money without these other foundational areas? It’s impossible to be happy without remembering to touch these bases.

Our knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits contribute greatly to the kind of abundance that we all hope to enjoy.

If you’d like to learn how create greater predictability in your wealth without losing sight of those other essential areas of the abundant life, visit with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

Never Settle For Less Than the Best

Here’s a saying you may want to commit to memory: “Good. Better. Best. Never let it rest, never let it rest, till good gets better and better gets best.”

When it comes to planning for that brighter future, the difference between best and good can be astonishing. In terms of your retirement nest egg, that difference could be as much as 50% more net spendable retirement income.

To put it another way, when we apply this distinction to financial strategies, it could be the difference between outliving your retirement savings and having money to spare.

A good example of this can be found in the way some people still put their serious retirement money into tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s. For many years people have believed that this was a better way to save for the future. But the truth is, it’s far from the best and it’s not even good any more because taxes are going up.

Shifts in conventional wisdom are not uncommon. For years we’ve been told that fossil fuels are destroying the planet and now some are saying that proof exists that fossil fuels are dramatically greening the planet. The point here is that billions of dollars have been spent chasing an assumption that fossil fuels were bad when there is convincing evidence that they are beneficial.

Not only have we spent decades wasting money on pursuing biofuels, but other associated costs in other areas of our lives have skyrocketed as well.

The bottom line is that sometimes we buy into faulty assumptions simply because we’re so used to simply following the crowd. When someone comes along and points out a better way, we’re amazed that we didn’t recognize it sooner. This is has been especially true in how people plan for retirement.

Reading the Writing On the Wall

Anyone who is paying attention should recognize that the only direction taxes will be heading is higher. Not just a little bit higher, but dramatically higher.

The assumption we made years ago that we were better off saving in an IRA or 401(k) where taxes are deferred to some future perceived unknown advantage is proving to be dead wrong.

Our assumption was that most of us would eventually end up in a lower tax bracket at some future point. A large percentage of Americans assumed that they would be retiring on 60-70% of their normal income and that they would therefore be in a lower bracket. But this has not been true for more than 20 years.

In reality, by the time we’ve retired, we no longer have the deductions we enjoyed during our prime earning years. Our dependents have moved on. Our homes are paid off. And we’re no longer contributing to our retirement accounts.

Even though our income may be 60-70% of what it was, we now have Social Security added on top of it and we’re being taxed on 85% of that benefit.

Too many people are finding that they are actually paying a higher percentage of federal and state income taxes than they were while they were working. Meanwhile, Congress continues to create more tax brackets and to raise taxes as a means of paying back the money that it is borrowing to support its spending habits.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see where this is leading. Higher taxes, combined with rising inflation will deplete your retirement nest egg in a shorter period of time than you thought possible.

The only way to know with absolute confidence that your money is immune from the effects of taxes, inflation, and ongoing market volatility is in a tax-free vehicle. Using the best strategies, you can strategically roll that money over from your 401(k) or IRA, pay the applicable taxes now at the lowest possible rate, and then enjoy tax-free growth from then on.

Learn how to take your future from good to better to best by visiting with a Wealth Architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, April 23th 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

Tax Hikes Are Just Beginning

The Tax Policy Center is reporting that roughly 77% of American households will pay more this year in taxes. This is due, in part to the agreement Congress passed on New Years Day in order to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Here’s why this is so. A number of Bush era tax cuts were temporarily extended, while others were allowed to expire. It was reported that the tax hikes in the legislation would only affect those with incomes of $400,000 a year or more. But the bill’s true impact goes well beyond that.

Even if Congress goes the rest of the year without another tax hike, virtually taxpayer is still paying another $500-$1,000 more in taxes this year.

This bill supposedly saved 99% of Americans from a tax hike, but we’ll all be paying more because the Social Security payroll tax cuts were allowed to expire. This is a roughly $1,000 tax increase to workers making $50,000 a year.

FICA and Medicare withholding all the way from 4.2% back up to 6.2%. This means that most Americans will experience a 50% increase in the amount withheld from their checks for Social Security and Medicare.

Other fallout included increases in capital gains and dividends for high income earners such as married couples filing jointly and earning over $70,000 annually and single earners making more than $35,000. The capital gains increased from 15% to 20%. And, finally, there was a phase out of the itemized deductions and the addition of a health care surtax of 3.5% that went into effect on all investment income.

While the higher income earners are taking it on the chin, every income earner is noticing that they are paying more in taxes this year.

The fiscal cliff may have been avoided, but serious issues like the debt ceiling and spending cuts were never even addressed. This means that economic uncertainty will continue for now.

This is prompting many Americans to consider what is happening to their taxes and to explore what they can do to immunize themselves from the effects of future tax increases.

Tax Hike Immunity Is the Answer

What if the prospect of Congress raising taxes was something you could simply shrug off as irrelevant? How would it feel to know that your retirement money was immune from tax hikes and continuing market volatility? Would you sleep a little better at night knowing that you had taken the steps to protect it?

People who are keeping their retirement money in IRAs and 401(k)s will not have this luxury. This is because their money is being accumulated in a tax-deferred vehicle that will subject them to those anticipated rising tax rates the moment they begin taking their distributions.

Not only will they be facing almost certain higher tax rates, but they’ll also have fewer deductions to offset their tax liabilities. Their homes will have been paid off; their dependents will have left the nest, etc. It’s entirely possible that many retirees will find themselves paying more in taxes during retirement than they did during their working years.

They’ll also be dealing with the effects of rising inflation that is shrinking the purchasing power of every dollar they’ve saved.

And with their retirement savings in an IRA or 401(k), their nest egg will be exposed to the economic uncertainty and market volatility that has been so common for the past 10 years.

On the other hand, there are people who have learned how to get their money out of their IRA or 401(k) through a strategic rollout, pay their tax debt now at the lower rate and get their money safely into a vehicle where it can accumulate tax-free from then on.

They’ve learned how to beat the ravages of inflation by tying their returns to those things that inflate. And they’ve learned how protect every dime of their principal through indexing strategies that allow them to participate in every market upside, but protects them during those years when the market declines.

Immunity from higher taxes, rising inflation and continuing economic uncertainty is a result of learning and applying the right strategies and a conscious refusal to keep following the herd.

Take the essential first step and visit with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, April 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 will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

You’re Too Successful

You’ve heard about the government of Cyprus seizing money from its citizen’s bank accounts. But Cypriots aren’t the only ones who need to be concerned about the safety of their savings.

President Obama’s budget, which was recently released, will limit how much wealthy individuals may keep in IRAs and other retirement accounts. This proposal would bring in around $9 billion over a decade according to a senior administration official.

The thinking behind these proposed limits is that wealthy individuals can save much more money in IRAs or 401(k)s than is necessary to fund a “reasonable” retirement. In other words, if you are too successful and save too much money, this administration official is saying that you must take some of yours and give it to those who didn’t save.

This is nothing new. We saw it back in the 1990s before they repealed the so-called “success” tax in 1997. This was a favorite redistribution of wealth tax in that if you were deemed too successful in saving money in your retirement account, you were dinged with an extra 15% excise tax.

Pay attention, the “success” tax is being brought back.

People around the world are facing similar government attempts to grab a portion of their retirement savings. Australian citizens who have responsibly set aside savings for their own retirements are also facing a proposed new 15% tax on all their income over $100,000 drawn from their equivalent of an IRA.

What makes this appalling is the fact that this income is supposed to be tax-free because they’ve already paid the tax before they put their money in the account. They’re being taxed on both ends.

The bottom line is that people who government considers “rich” have a huge target on their backs. If it can happen to others, it can happen to us.

Protecting Your Money Is Paramount

Highly successful people can still make foolish decisions. They follow the crowd and keep their retirement saving in IRAs and 401(k)s. They assume that they’ll be in a lower tax bracket at retirement and not outlive their money.

But sometimes they don’t know what they don’t know.

When they learn that they can do what’s called a strategic rollout that allows them to do a conversion of their money from their IRAs and 401(k)s into a truly tax-free vehicle, they cheer. Then they tell their successful friends.

You deserve a most amazing future. But to get there you’ll have to cut through the noise to learn what you can control and what matters most. Where most Americans default and keep doing what they’ve always done, you must instead learn to focus your time and money on today’s best choices.

We all have good intentions. But we all face distractions, we fall behind, and we can eventually run out of time by doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.

The best choices are readily available once you know what they are.

The best ways to protect your retirement nest egg keep your money tax-free. They allow inflation to actually help you by tying your returns to those things that inflate. When the markets are volatile, these strategies protect your money so you don’t lose principle, yet they allow you to participate in any market upside the moment the markets recover.

The best ways of protecting your retirement savings allow you to enjoy liquid assets safely earning predictable rates of return.

Take the first step by visiting with a wealth architect 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

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees will receive $997 worth of valuable gifts, including a customized LASER Retirement Brief, The Success Formula audio program, and access to The Secrets to a Tax-Free Retirement event..

An Asset You Shouldn’t Overlook

Let’s say that you have a home that you bought for $500,000 that doubles in value to be worth $1 million in ten years. Would you consider that a good asset?

If we apply the Rule of 72 and divide 10 years into 72, we find that your asset grew in value at an annual rate of 7.2%. That’s not too bad.

Now, suppose you had other assets that not only doubled or even tripled in value over that same 10-12 year time period, but what if they did it tax-free. That would be a fantastic asset.

Going back to the Rule of 72, if you had your money earning 1% interest in the bank, it would take 72 years for your money to double. If you were earning 2% interest, it would take you 36 years to double your money. At 5% interest, it will take about 14.4 years. If you earned 10%, your money will double in just 7.2 years. You get the picture.

Now consider that people who used indexed Maximum Funded Tax Advantages life insurance contracts saw an average return of 7.2% during the period of 1999 to February of 2009. Why is this significant? It’s noteworthy because that was the single worst 10-year period since the Great Depression. And they still doubled their money tax-free during that time.

If you want to be protected from higher taxes, rising inflation, and continuing market uncertainty, you need to know what these folks know.

The Best Bank In Town

What if you were to hear of a new bank in town that is rated about six notches higher than any other bank in town? In fact, let’s suppose that this bank is the repository where other banks in town put some of their money so they can enjoy liquidity, safety, and predictable rates of return. The banks put their money there because they know that they can safely earn 4-5% and it’s tax-free.

These banks only have to pay the people who put money in their bank 1%, so they’re making 4 to 5 times what they have to pay the public who puts money in their bank.

Let’s say that this bank is safer as well since it has nearly double the reserves on hand that other banks have. This translates into greater liquidity since if the people need to get to their money, they can do so.

This bank will also pay you 4-5% interest that will be totally free of tax. You won’t have to worry about getting a 1099 form for the interest you’ve earned like you would at other banks. Remember, those other banks would most likely only be paying you 1% interest.

Here’s another unique advantage to this new bank; anything that you deposit into the bank will blossom instantly if you should happen to die. In other words, this bank will insure you so that for every $100,000 you have deposited, it will instantly grow by 2.5 times to $250,000. This, in turn, will be paid to the beneficiary of your choice such as your spouse, your children, your church, or your favorite charity. And it will go to them tax-free.

By now you’re probably wondering exactly what type of bank this is.

This is actually a description of a Maximum Funded Tax-Advantaged (MFTA) life insurance contract under section 101a of the Internal Revenue code.

This is exactly where many of the millionaires and billionaires who utilize Missed Fortune strategies put their money. And they continue to earn an average of 7-9% tax-free just like clockwork. Some years they earn even more, like last year when they earned an average of 12-18%.

If this intrigues you, wouldn’t you want to learn how to put these same proven strategies to work toward your brighter future?

You can start today by  visiting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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