From the category archives:

Financial Education

Protecting Your Nest Egg By Sticking To the Recipe

November 13, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, November 15th 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.

Following the Recipe For Financial Success

The last few years have been frustrating for those who have been searching for the right recipe of how to best protect their retirement nest eggs.

This has been tricky of late thanks to the prospect of rising taxes, inflation and continuing market volatility. The key to success is following a recipe that works.

If you set out to make cinnamon rolls but you either don’t know the recipe, or received a faulty recipe or chose to wing it on certain ingredients and preparation steps, your result will most likely be disappointing.

Failing to follow the proven recipe sets you up for failure. Now, apply that standard to securing your financial future.

Keeping your serious retirement money liquid, safe and tax-free requires first knowing and then strictly following the right recipe in order to be successful.

Here’s an example:

The LSRR (laser) test is an acronym for Liquidity, Safety, and Rate of Return.

Liquidity refers to how easy it is to access your money or to get your money back when you want. Safety deals with how secure your money is and whether or not it is guaranteed or insured. Rate of return is what makes our money grow in spite of the effects of inflation or taxes.

Investment vehicles that can pass the LSRR test are a much safer way to accumulate money tax-free rather than tax-deferred like IRAs and 401(k)s. Not only should your money accumulate tax-free, but also you should be able to access it and eventually transfer it tax-free to your heirs.

The painful reality that will dawn upon those with tax-deferred retirement vehicles is that, upon withdrawing their funds, they’ll be paying nearly a third of their money in income taxes. Their tax liabilities and tax rates will likely have increased, while their deductions will have disappeared. If inflation goes up, the purchasing power of their savings will have diminished.

This means that even a million dollar nest egg will be whittled down to size much quicker than most people can imagine. Between the bite of taxation and even a modest 5% rate of inflation, a million dollar nest egg will be completely depleted in just 11 years.

There’s simply no substitute for learning and following the right recipe.

The Five Toughest Questions Most Financial Advisors Will Face

What has been the actual (cash on cash) rate of return that your clients have realized during the last 10 years?

Take whatever percent they tell you, and divide that into 72. For instance if they tell you their client’s rate of return was 12%, divide 8 into 72 and you’ll get 6.

You’re using the “Rule of 72” to determine how quickly their clients’ money is doubling. So if the rate of return was 12% you’ll ask them if their clients’ money doubled every six years.

Remember, if their clients are subject to taxes on the back end of their investment, that 12% really equals only 8% after taxes. There are better ways to get an 8% rate of return that’s tax-free.

Can you give me a guarantee of no loss of principal or at least a guaranteed return of 1-3% even when the economy is tanking with upside potential when the economy is doing well and can you make it tax-free?

The answer to this question will tell you if your advisor understands how to use indexing so that their clients don’t lose money even in a down economy and start making money the second the economy grows.

During good years they can make up to 14-15% and during bad years they’ll still make 1-3% guaranteed, and it will accumulate tax-free. Again, not that many advisors know how this is done.

Can you protect my money automatically from the effect of inflation if we start experiencing higher inflation rates?

Financial advisors who’ve received Missed Fortune training will understand how to link your returns to those things that inflate. This means that your money grows at a rate that outpaces that of inflation.

Advisors who don’t have this knowledge will likely just shrug their shoulders.

Can you protect my nest egg from the effects of taxes going up in the future?

Again, most advisors will squirm when faced with this question because many of them still advise their clients to save their money in tax-deferred vehicles like IRAs and 401(k)s that subject them to further taxes when they begin accessing their money.

There are better vehicles that allow a client’s money to accumulate tax-free, and remain tax-free when at distribution and again at transfer when they pass away.

Can you help me get my money out of my IRAs and 401(k)s with reduced tax or maybe no tax impact?

Most advisors, most CPAs and tax attorneys will be dumbfounded when asked to do this, but an advisor who knows how can help you withdraw 50, 60 or 70,000 dollars a year without getting hammered for taxes.

It’s called a strategic rollover and its another of the Missed Fortune strategies that have been helping people grow their money safely, predictably and tax-free for decades.

Simply knowing to ask the right questions can get you headed in the right direction.

The next step is meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor to learn what to do next.

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

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Moving Your Money to Safety

October 30, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Losing Trust in Our Financial Systems

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

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

The article points out:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You need a strategy that moves your money to safety.

The Triple Threat of the Next 10 Years

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

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

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

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

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

You must understand the tax and inflation power curve.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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

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Learning From the Mistakes of Others

October 23, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, October 25th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

Contrast and Comparison

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

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

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

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

From an article in Business Insider:

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

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

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

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

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

The results were astounding.

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

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

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

Principles of Wealth Accumulation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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

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Reasons To Smile Even When the Economy Stinks

October 9, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Is the Economy Half Empty or Half Full?

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

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

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

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

Would you want to know more?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 Keys to Prosper In Any Economy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More Stimulus Spending Isn’t the Answer

August 28, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

More Failed Stimulus Spending Is On the Way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solving the Dangers of Taxes & Inflation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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

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Creating Certainty in An Uncertain Economy

August 21, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, August 23rd at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

A Crisis of Confidence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His response:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Antidote to Uncertainty: Predictable Systems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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

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

August 14, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, August 16th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

The Bush Tax Cuts As a Bargaining Chip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taxes Are Only One Third of The Coming Triple Whammy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor.

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

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Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short

July 24, 2011

Podcast: Download (23.0MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, July 26th 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.

Come Retirement, Boomers Will Be Sad Consumers

Think that 401(k) will get you enough to retire with your current standard of living?

Think again.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the median household headed by a person age 60-62 with a 401(k) account has less than 1/4 of what is needed to maintain their current standard of living.

This data was compiled the Federal Reserve and analyzed the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

401(k). The Holy Grail of retirement. What’s supposed to see you through old age.

Well, that Holy Grail is rusty and empty.

Most 401(k) participants have far too little savings for retirement, even when including their Social Security and pension savings.

Even those with substantial, six-figure 401(k) savings may likely fall short before reaching age 85.

This means they’ll probably be dusting off the ol’ resume during their supposed “golden years.”

And what’s the standard advice you continue hearing from traditional advisors?

Stay the course.

Piffle and pooh.

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

Despite the millions who lost fortunes in the 2008 market crash, others didn’t lose a penny.

Those who applied Missed Fortune strategies have not only protected their serious money in a down market, but they did it safely in the worst 4-year period since the Great Depression.

Most people who follow the Missed Fortune strategies have 50 percent more than they did just 4-5 years ago.

You can do it too.

Meet with a Missed Fortune advisor today and learn how.

Taxes & Inflation: Like Acid on the Holy 401(k) Grail

Can you live on a $1,000 a month?

Of course not. Funny thing is, those who have saved at least $1 million for retirement think they’ll be just fine.

But a million dollars just ain’t what it used to be.

Because of taxes and inflation, in the future $1 million generating $6,000 a month of taxable income will only amount to about $1,000 in today’s dollars.

$1 million earning 7.2 percent interest a year should allow you to pull out $72,000 annually ($6,000/month) without depleting principal.

If you earn $68,000 a year, you’re in the 33% marginal tax bracket.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by mid-century most Americans will be paying at least 50% of their income in taxes.

If you paid a third of your income in taxes on $6,000 a month, that leaves you $4,000 of net spendable income per month.

But let’s not forget about inflation.

At a 5% rate of inflation the cost of living will double every 15 years and the purchasing power of the dollar will be cut in half.

30 years down the road you’ll only be able to buy the same gallons of gas, loaves of bread, prescriptions, golf greens fees, etc. for $4,000 a month that you can currently buy for $1,000 a month.

Do you have a hedge against taxes and inflation?

Missed Fortune clients do.

Are you ready to learn how they do it?

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

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Why Boomers Are Singing the Retirement Blues

July 17, 2011

Podcast: Download (23.0MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, July 19th 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.

Boomers Are In Trouble Come Retirement

Recently in the Wall Street Journal was an article titled “Retiring Boomers find 401(k) Plans Fall Short“. It didn’t paint a pretty picture.

The article stated that the median household headed by a person age 60-62 with a 401(k) account has less than 1/4 of what is needed to maintain their current standard of living.

The plans that were supposed to see them through old age are falling well short of what will actually be required. This data was compiled the Federal Reserve and analyzed the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Most 401(k) participants have far too little savings for retirement, even when including their Social Security and pension savings.

Even a couple with a 401(k) well into six figures could face the prospect of running out of savings before reaching age 85. That means these people could expect to work much longer than they had intended.

401(k)s used to be a gold mine for money management firms. Tax deferred income will not save you if taxes are going up and they most certainly are rising.

Some advisers still say to stay the course and to keep putting off taxes for the future but if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’re going to keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

In 30 years the 401(k) went from a small program to a multi trillion dollar industry supporting money managers. The current median amount most people contribute to their 401(k)s is a measly 9% counting the employer contribution.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Though many people feel like they lost their future when the market declined in 2008, there were others who didn’t lose a penny in that year or the subsequent down market.

Those who applied Missed Fortune strategies have not only protected their serious money in a down market, but they did it safely in the worst 4 year period since the Great Depression.

Most people who follow the Missed Fortune strategies have 50 percent more than they did just 4-5 years ago. You can do it too.

You’ll need to take ownership of your future.

Taxes & Inflation Will Destroy Retirement Savings

If you had a million dollar nest egg you’d have it made, right? Think again.

A million dollars earning 7.2 percent interest a year should allow you to pull out $72,000 annually without depleting the principal. That’s about 6,000 a month. An average couple that earns over 68,000 a year are are in a 33% marginal tax bracket.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that because of our tremendous national debt, by mid century most Americans will be paying at least 50-60% of their income in taxes.

If you paid a third of your income in tax on 6000 a month, that leaves you $4,000 of net spendable income per month. If you’re thinking, “I could probably squeeze by on that” don’t forget to factor in inflation.

Say that inflation stays around 5 percent. At that rate the cost of living will double every 15 years and the purchasing power of the dollar will be cut in half.

This means that 30 years down the road you’ll only be able to buy the same gallons of gas, loaves of bread, prescriptions, golf greens fees, etc. for $4,000 a month that you can currently buy for $1,000 a month.

Can you live on a $1,000 a month?

That million dollar nest egg generating $6,000 a month of taxable income is only going to have the same purchasing power as $1,000 a month today.

You must have a hedge against the tax and inflation power curve by linking your return to those things that inflate.

You need a strategy where your money accumulates tax free not tax deferred. At tomorrow’s tax rates, a $3 million nest egg can perform as well as a $6 million nest egg if it’s tax free.

If you lost money in the last 10 years and find yourself worried about outliving your money, stop following the herd.

You need to learn how to reposition yourself and get something better in place.

You must learn how to safely regain what you’ve lost and have it be tax free.

Meet with a Missed Fortune advisor today and learn how.

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

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The Economic Realities That Can No Longer Be Ignored

July 10, 2011

Podcast: Download (23.0MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Americans Aren’t Feeling So Optimistic These Days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What To Expect In the Next Decade

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn how to put these strategies to work for you. Talk to a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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