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

Click Here to Register Now

All attendees 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..

Where the Crowd Goes Astray

Most people are conditioned to follow the crowd. This is especially true in how we approach saving for our retirement.

If we perceive that most people are putting their money into 401(k)s or IRAs, then we assume that these must be the ideal ways to save. In this case, however, there is no real safety in following the crowd.

The problem is that few people understand the difference between accumulating money in a tax-deferred account rather than in a tax-free vehicle. But it’s not just laypeople that don’t understand this distinction. Even tax attorneys and financial advisors are often unaware of truly tax-free methods to accumulate money.

Upon hearing the words “tax-free”, many people suppose that we’re referring to some sort of tax loophole that could be closed by Congress at any moment.

But the tax-free vehicle we’re talking about is no loophole. It is a perfectly legal tool for accumulating money tax-free and it has been grandfathered into the IRS code for over 100 years. Congress considers it such a sacred cow that it’s the only thing excluded from funding Obama’s health care law.

Once you understand that tax-free savings is possible, you’ll recognize that while the crowd’s preferred method of saving for retirement may be okay, it’s not the best way to save. People just don’t know what they don’t know.

The remedy is to empower yourself with knowledge. Then you’ll understand exactly how to create a dream solution that allows your retirement nest egg to accumulate tax-free.

At retirement, those who saved in tax-deferred vehicles like IRAs and 401(k)s will find that unpaid taxes will consume anywhere from a third to half of their savings. They’ll also face the prospect of being in an even higher tax bracket than they were in throughout their working years.

Lacking the deductions they used to enjoy and with higher tax rates looming, many people may outlive their retirement savings. When this happens, the fact that they went with the crowd won’t make any difference.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

What Your Savings Vehicle Should Do

There’s still time to position your nest egg for a brighter future.

Ideally, you’ll want to have your serious money in a savings vehicle that provides some key protections. It will need liquidity for the times when you need to access your money. It should also provide safety for your principal so when the economy goes down your principal does not. Additionally, in those years that the market grows, your increase must become newly protected principal.

Your savings vehicle must also earn predictable rates of return. People who have broken with the crowd and found the optimal vehicle have been enjoying rates of return averaging 9.2% while netting 8.2% for the past 38 years. Even more impressive is the fact that they’ve continued to outperform other savings vehicles over the last 10 years—the worst decade since the Great depression.

They’ve learned how to rebalance and to use indexing to enjoy even better rates of return.

These are some of the benefits for breaking with the crowd and becoming educated about these alternatives that have existed for decades. Folks who do this arrive at their goal of financial independence much quicker. They also have much more money to show for their efforts.

For every million dollars they can generate up to $70,000 tax-free annual income that will last as long as they do without depleting their principal. And at the end of the day, this principal transfers tax-free to their spouse, their children or any other worthy cause they prefer.

On the other hand, folks who leave their money in IRAs and 401(k)s will have reason to kick themselves down the road.

Even if that’s where your money is today, you can get it out today with the least tax impact possible and roll it over into a vehicle where it will accumulate tax-free from that day forward. By linking your money to those things that inflate, you’ll no longer have to worry about inflation shrinking the purchasing power of your savings.

The only thing standing between you and that brighter future is the decision to step up and learn these strategies.

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, March 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 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 First Tax Hikes Are Already Being Felt

As of January, we’ve just seen the first major tax increase in nearly 20 years for high-income earners. But all of us are feeling the pinch caused by the expiration of the payroll tax cut on employee FICA and Medicare withholding. Those rates jumped from 4.2% back up to 6.2%. This effectively means that most Americans are seeing a nearly 50% increase in the amount withheld from their checks for Social Security and Medicare.

There were also noticeable increases in capital gains and dividends for high-income earners like married couples that file jointly and earn over $70,000 annually. This also affected 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.

This realization of higher taxes is causing many Americans to take notice of what is happening and to think about what can be done to immunize themselves from the effects of future tax increases.

Many of them are choosing to abandon the tax-deferred vehicles like IRAs and 401(k)s where they’ve been saving for their retirement and doing a strategic rollout that repositions their nest egg where it can accumulate tax-free.

People who have chosen to keep 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. If this wasn’t enough, they’ll also be wrangling with the effects of rising inflation that is steadily shrinking the purchasing power of every dollar they’ve saved.

Immunity from the triple whammy of higher taxes, rising inflation and continuing economic uncertainty comes from learning and applying the right strategies and not simply following the herd.

Tax-Advantaged Growth Is the Way To Go

Would it surprise you to know that DALBAR is reporting that most mutual fund investors have only averaged 3.49% during the past 20 years? Not only is that a dismal rate of return, but also whatever money they did accumulate was taxable.

Those who have invested the time and effort to become educated understand that the best way to avoid higher taxes, market volatility, and rising inflation is to utilize the strategy of indexing in maximum funded tax-advantaged life insurance contracts.  It’s how they can maintain liquid assets while safely earning predictable rates of return.

Facing the prospect of tax hikes, some folks are moving their retirement savings away from tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s. Many use a strategic rollout to reposition their nest egg to a vehicle where it can grow tax-free. These maximum funded tax-advantaged Insurance contracts that have been grandfathered into the IRS code for generations. In them, your money grows tax-free, transfers tax-free when you access it at retirement, and is tax-free when it goes to your heirs at the end of your life.

To understand the difference this tax-free growth makes, consider the following question.

If you had a $500,000 nest egg in your IRA or 401(k) 12 years ago, is it worth $1.5 million today? If the answer is “no” then it’s time to pay close attention.

Because that’s the kind of growth that was accomplished in maximum funded insurance contracts.

There’s a reason that affluent people and banks and corporations put their tier 1 assets in Bank Owned Insurance Contracts and Corporate Owned Insurance Contracts. They maximum fund it and take the minimum death benefit for the tax-free accumulation and growth.

There’s no shame in not knowing what you don’t know. But if what you always thought to be true turned out not to be true, how soon would you want to know about it? If you’re serious about eliminating the dangers of rising taxes, you need to understand what even many professionals do not.

Learn how to take charge of your future 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 now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Recognizing Our 3 Biggest Financial Dangers

There’s a brilliant illustration that depicts a king busily making preparations with his knights for a big battle. Standing outside the king’s tent is an individual with a machine-gun mounted on a tripod and ammunition. But the impatient king says, “I can’t be bothered by some crazy salesman, we’ve got a battle to fight!”

The great lesson taught by this illustration is that too often we’re so focused on solving a particular problem that we fail to recognize the better solution that may be standing on our doorstep. This is particularly true regarding how people fight the financial battle for their brighter future.

In this battle, the dangers are fairly easy to pinpoint; they include market volatility, rising inflation, and higher taxes. Let’s take a look at each of these dangers.

It’s not just the wealthy that are feeling the tax pinch since the beginning of the year. Wage earners have seen their withholding go up from 4.2% to 6.2% since the payroll tax cuts of the Bush era were allowed to expire. But the real tax danger stems from the fact that every dime of the roughly $2.5 trillion in revenue collected by the IRS each year is already spent.

This money is already promised for interest on the national debt and entitlements like Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. But there’s another $1.3 trillion in expenses that must be borrowed every year to keep the government running. Taxpayers will be the ones to pay that borrowed money back. That can only mean higher taxes for all income earners.

Inflation is the second danger and the prospect of inflation rising continues to increase as the government printing presses continue to crank out currency to cover deficit spending. The most noticeable effect of rising inflation is that every dollar you’ve saved is losing purchasing power. Just in the month of January this year, the cost of living rose by at least 3% and the effect only gets worse when this is annualized.

This means that a person who was planning on retiring on $6,000 a month will actually have just $4,000 per month after taxes. If inflation were to rise to, say, 10%, in just 14 years that $4,000 would only be able to purchase what $1,000 will buy today. How well could you survive on $1,000 a month?

The third danger is market volatility. Many of the fiscal policies embraced by our political leaders are perpetuating fear and economic uncertainty. If your serious money is directly exposed to the swings of the market, you’re going to be spending valuable time trying to make up lost ground.

Knowing how to eliminate these dangers can immunize you from the effects of higher taxes and rising inflation and shield your retirement nest egg from market volatility.

Seizing the 3 Greatest Financial Opportunities

The first solution you’ll need to seize is that of moving your retirement savings from tax-deferred into totally tax-free strategies. Few people have been educated regarding certain sacred cow sections of the IRS code that have been grandfathered in for over 100 years. Once your money is safely rolled over into one of these savings vehicles, it can accumulate tax-free from that day forward. It will remain tax-free at distribution and eventually transfer to your heirs or your favorite philanthropic cause tax-free at the end of your life.

When your nest egg can generate an 8-10% annual income that’s tax-free, the fear of outliving your retirement money becomes a distant memory.

The second strategy is to link your return to inflation. This means that when inflation goes up, you actually benefit from it. It helps rather than hurts you.

When your rate of return is outpacing the rate of inflation, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll have the necessary income to purchase what you need.

The third strategy is to use indexing to eliminate downside risks while benefiting from upside potential. With indexing, your principal is linked to the market yet protected against market volatility because it’s not directly in the market. If the market drops, you don’t lose a dime. However, anytime the market grows, you enjoy the benefits of that growth. This means that any year that you make money, it becomes newly protected principal.

These strategies allow you to harness the best financial strengths of prudent investing. They allow you to enjoy liquid assets that are safely earning a predictable rate of return.

Don’t be like the king who failed to recognize a promising solution because he was so focused on doing things the way he always had before.

Take the first step toward your brighter future 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 now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, March 5th 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..

Your Pocketbook Isn’t Lying

According to the Tax Policy Center, roughly 77% of American households will pay more in taxes this year thanks to the New Years Day agreement Congress passed to avoid the fiscal cliff.

There are several reasons this is will happen. Some of the Bush era tax cuts were extended temporarily, but others were allowed to expire. The media is reporting that the tax hikes in the legislation will only affect those earning higher incomes of $400,000 a year or more. But this is only part of the bill’s true impact.

Even if Congress goes the entire year of 2013 without another tax hike, virtually taxpayer will be paying another $500-$1,000 more in taxes this year than last year.

Even though this bill supposedly saved 99% of Americans from a tax hike, we’ll all be paying more since the Social Security payroll tax cuts have been allowed to expire. That will amount to a roughly $1,000 tax increase to a worker making $50,000 a year.

Everybody is experiencing the expiration of the payroll tax cut on employees FICA and Medicare withholding which jumped from 4.2% back up to 6.2%. This effectively means that most Americans will see a nearly 50% increase in the amount withheld from their checks for Social Security and Medicare.

There were also 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.

The bottom line is that the higher income earners are really taking it on the chin but every income earner will notice they are paying more in taxes this year.

Though the fiscal cliff may have been avoided, serious issues like the debt ceiling and spending cuts were never even addressed. This means that economic uncertainty will not be going away any time soon.

This realization is prompting many Americans to key in on what is happening to their taxes and to ponder what they should be doing to immunize themselves from the effects of future tax increases.

Putting Your Future In Hands You Can Trust

With taxes headed higher, some folks are choosing to move their retirement savings away from tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s. Many use a strategic rollout to reposition their nest egg to a vehicle where it can grow tax-free. An example of such a strategy would be Maximum Funded Tax Advantaged (MFTA) Insurance contracts that have been grandfathered into the IRS code for generations.

Not only does your money grow tax-free, but also it transfers tax-free when you access it at retirement and when it goes to your heirs at the end of your life.

To understand the difference this tax-free growth makes, consider the following question.

If you had a $500,000 nest egg in your IRA or 401(k) 12 years ago, is it worth $1.5 million today? If the answer is “no” then it’s time to pay close attention.

Because that’s the kind of growth that was accomplished in maximum funded insurance contracts.

There’s a reason that affluent people and banks and corporations put their tier 1 assets in Bank Owned Insurance Contracts and Corporate Owned Insurance Contracts. They maximum fund it and take the minimum death benefit for the tax-free accumulation and growth.

That is where many people doubled and tripled their money during the worst decade since the Great Depression while most people in America barely broke even with their money in mutual funds

If you’re serious about taking control of your future and eliminating the dangers of rising taxes, you need to understand what even many professionals do not. There’s no shame in not knowing what you don’t know. But if what you always thought to be true turned out not to be true, how soon would you want to know about it? Most of us would say sooner than later.

Take the first step toward your brighter future 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 now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet Tuesday, February 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 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..

Stop Standing In Your Own Way

One of the most searching questions that we can ask ourselves is this one: If something you’ve always thought to be true turned out to not be true or accurate, would you want to know about it sooner or later?

Sometimes the answer isn’t simply about something being true or not, but between good, better, and best. This is of great relevance regarding how a person chooses to save for retirement.

Good could mean saving for the future in IRAs or 401(k)s where your money is exposed to the volatility of the market and running out of money in 7-11 years after retiring.  Best could mean taking that same net spendable income and creating a nest egg that you could never deplete even if you lived to be 120 years old.

This is why it is so important to understand the difference between good, better, and best. There’s an old saying that goes, “When you’re standing in your own way, what does it matter what other obstacles you face?”

When it comes to your retirement, the major obstacles include higher taxes, market volatility and rising inflation. But simply knowing about these obstacles isn’t enough, you’ve got to get into motion and become educated as to how to remove them from your path to a brighter future.

The sooner you get going, the sooner you can move toward your dream. Even a decade can make all the difference in the world when you’re moving toward your goal at a steady clip. Those who put off taking action tend to kick themselves later when they realize what they could have had.

The Difference Between Important and Urgent

When we refer to the time value of money, we’re talking about the costs associated with putting things off today that could make a huge difference in the future. Every month that we fail to take steps to immunize our retirement savings from the effects of inflation, higher taxes and market volatility, can cost us tens of thousands of dollars in long-term benefits in the future.

If you had a water leak that was costing you $100,000 every 90 days, would you not consider that an urgent matter to address, or would you only consider it important?

Many people have the equivalent of tax leaks, inflation leaks, and market volatility leaks in their retirement savings, but they don’t yet realize what those leaks are costing them in the long run.

The threat of possibly outliving their money, or paying unnecessary taxes, seems far off in the future. But those who fail to act will see the long term cost in lost resources if they continue to procrastinate.

It doesn’t matter if you are in a low income, middle income, or high income situation; taxes are going up for everyone. Political leaders are finally beginning to admit that their unwillingness to rein in spending means that they’ll have to extract more revenue from the taxpayers. This means that taxes are certain to rise.

They’ve already taken a small jump for everyone with the hike in FICA rates just since the first of this year. And more hikes are on the way.

While we each should pay our fair share, we should also understand that there are perfectly legitimate ways to direct otherwise payable taxes into causes that are important to us.

These are sections of the IRS code that have been around for more than 100 years. Other tax laws change, but these have been grandfathered in and provide a savings vehicle where you are immunized from the effects of higher taxes.

Your money will accumulate tax-free. It will be tax-free when you access it at retirement. And at the end of your life, it will transfer to your family, your church, or your favorite cause, tax-free.

When you are immunized against the effects of higher taxes, rising inflation, and the effects of market uncertainty, you can enjoy liquid assets safely earning a predictable rate of return that will safely carry you through your golden years.

Making this a reality requires action. The first step is to 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 now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.