From the category archives:

Risk

Eliminating Roadblocks To Get Your Money Back On Track

January 22, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Eliminating Roadblocks to Financial Peace of Mind

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

Were you giddy, optimistic and excited?

Or did you feel frustrated, anxious and disappointed?

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

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

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

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

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

But the actual result looks much different.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Volatility of the Lost Decade

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

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

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

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

Whose shoes would you rather be in?

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more by contacting a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Turning Obstacles Into Opportunity

January 15, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, January 17th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

Transforming Common Obstacles Into Golden Opportunities

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

It consists of the following steps:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s where specific actions come into play.

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

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

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

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

What Your Financial Advisor Doesn’t Know Can Hurt You

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more about how to implement these strategies and others by contacting a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Making the Changes That Make All the Difference

January 1, 2012

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

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

Click Here to Register Now

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

Change Can Be a Reason To Cheer

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

This is particularly true with respect to our financial futures.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three Marvels of Wealth Accumulation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The three marvels of wealth accumulation are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn how to make these principles work for you by contacting a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Different Results Require Different Action

December 25, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, December 27th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

Resolving to Make the Right Changes

As we make our New Year’s resolutions, a question to consider is whether this is the year you’ll do things differently.

This is especially true with respect to your financial future.

More people need to start taking ownership of their future instead of waiting for the government to take care of them or making Social Security the basis of their future retirement.

Too many folks have simply kept following the crowd hoping to recoup their losses. They’ve continued to sock money away in tax-deferred savings vehicles thinking they’ll be in a lower tax bracket when they retire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An investment that has all 3 of these qualities will be a good investment.

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

The 3 Big Secrets

Zig Ziegler used to talk about the difference between a $10,000 racehorse and a $1 million racehorse. He’d ask if the million dollar racehorse was worth 100 times more than the other one because it was 100 times faster than the $10,000 one.

The answer was “no.”

Sometimes the only measurable difference between these two horses was a few thousandths of a second.

His point was that the horses started out on a much more level playing field than you might suspect.

When it comes to those who accumulate great wealth, the same principle applies. Many didn’t inherit their wealth; they simply saw opportunities that others around them did not.

The three marvels of wealth accumulation are:

Compound Interest. Einstein called it the most misunderstood phenomenon on the planet. If you could fold over a piece of copy paper 50 times so that it doubled in thickness each time, it would be over 93 million miles in thickness.

Money can likewise accumulate at an astounding rate thanks to compound interest, but only when it grows tax-free.

Tax-Free Accumulation. The second marvel of wealth accumulation is one of the most important especially when considering the likelihood of taxes going up in the future.

A million dollar tax-deferred nest egg will only be worth around $666,000 after Uncle Sam claims his share.

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

If you’re borrowing money at 4% and are able to leverage that money where you’re earning an 8% rate of return, you’re now getting infinite return.

These three marvels are just a few of the principles that make all the difference for those who accumulate wealth in any economy.

Learn how to make them work for you by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Predictability Is a Good Thing

December 18, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, December 20th 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.

Outliving Your Money Isn’t An Option

We’ve all seen or heard of the parlor trick where members of the audience are asked to pick a number, take it through various mathematical manipulations, then to pick a corresponding letter, animal, country and fruit.

After walking through the many steps of this exercise, roughly 80% of the audience will find themselves envisioning the same animal, country and fruit. This exercise is not so much a mind-reading demonstration as it’s a great example of creating predictability.

Predictability is extremely important. A good example of this would that of Dr. Edwards Deming who, in the 1970s, correctly predicted that the Japanese automakers Honda, Toyota and Nissan would one day dominate the American automobile market.

The Big Three U.S. automakers laughed at him.

They’re not laughing now.

Deming was hired as a quality management engineer for in Japan and he created the predictable quality that defines Japanese automobiles today. Good management creates predictable results and this is true regarding how we manage our money.

When you’re getting predictable liquidity, safety and rates of return on your serious retirement cash, your financial planning success is almost certain.

On the other hand, so many Americans tend to simply follow the crowd and continue to put their retirement money into IRAs, 401(k)s or directly into the market where it’s at risk. Their advisors have told them to “hang in there” with the promise of an average rate of return of 12%, but when taxes and inflation or market volatility strike, the returns are much more modest.

Using Doug Andrew’s Missed Fortune strategies, a person can see their serious cash safely accumulate tax-free with a predictable rate of return averaging 8%, even in the worst of economies. These strategies have worked for the past 30 years, including the dizzying ups and downs of the Lost Decade we’ve just been through.

Since 1998, Doug’s strategies have included indexing as a means to prosper even during a down economy.

Many financial advisors simply can’t fathom why anyone would consider capping their rate of return at 14, 15 or 16% when the economy could go up 30%. But when you consider that the past decade saw the market make two major drops of 40% that will take years to make up, the reason for indexing becomes clear.

Those who were using the indexing strategy didn’t lose a dime during those precipitous down years. By not losing money, they didn’t have lost ground to make up and the second the market began to recover; they got to enjoy the upside potential.

Every year they made money, these investors using indexing got to lock in the gain.

Predictably.

By contrast, for those putting their money in the market in growth mutual funds, the average investor rate of return according to DALBAR was only 3.83%.

Following the Crowd Is a Losing Game

There are 3 kinds of people in the world:

Those who make things happen
Those who watch things happen
Those who wonder what just happened because they missed the boat

This is especially true when it comes to understanding how money works.

For many it’s so easy to follow the crowd, to save for the future in IRAs and 401(k)s, to “hang in there” waiting for a 12% return on their money.

If you averaged 12% on every $100,000 that you had back in 1990-1991, you’d have $1,100,000 today. But people just aren’t averaging 12% returns.

Even if you had $1 million dollars in your nest egg, by the time you figure in the taxes you’ll have to pay when you start accessing it, you’ll really only have about $666,000 left to work with. If you pull out $72,000 annually, you’re only going to net $48,000 in a 33% tax bracket.

More and more people are realizing that they’re not going to be in a lower tax bracket when they retire because they’ve done away with all of their deductions and exemptions by the time they reach retirement. Also Congress keeps raising taxes.

Taxes keep going up. Inflation is around the corner.

Plus market uncertainty is expected to continue.

These three factors constitute the triple whammy that will threaten most people’s retirement nest egg throughout the coming decade.

This is why it’s so critically important to have the proper strategies in place to address each of these threats.

Your money must be able to accumulate, distribute and transfer tax-free. Your savings vehicle should be tied to those things that inflate so your money grows at a rate that’s greater than inflation. And it should be able to participate in any market upsides without being placed at risk in the market.

Learn how to put each of these strategies to work by meeting with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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Why Your Your Money Should Outlive You

November 20, 2011

Podcast: Download (22.9MB)

This week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Free Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, November 22nd at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

The Question that Keeps the Boomers Awake at Night

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shielding Your Nest Egg Against Taxes, Inflation & Market Volatility

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

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

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

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

To learn more, visit with a Missed Fortune advisor today.

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

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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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Skip These Mistakes & Own Your Financial Future

November 6, 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 8th 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.

Welcoming the Prospect of a New Painful Era of Self Reliance

ABC News recently reported on president Obama speaking at a San Francisco fundraiser warning that America was poised to enter a “new painful era of self-reliance in America.”

Do you know what they call people who rely upon themselves? Adults.

Taking ownership of one’s future is not only possible; it’s essential if we wish to be free to prosper. Aren’t we supposed to be self-reliant?

It’s not reasonable to expect government to pay off our mortgages, to pay for our healthcare or to pay for our kids’ college education.

If just 20% of the $3.6 billion in stimulus spending were instead given to employers to expand their workforces, it could have created a $50,000/year position for two years for every unemployed person in this country. Instead unemployment went from 7.2% to 9.2%.

We need to get out of the mindset that big government should be taking care of us. We need to take ownership in our future. Ownership makes great things happen.

When’s the last time you washed a rental car or changed the oil in one? If you own your residence, it’s almost certain that you’ll take better care of it than if you were just renting it.

Taking ownership and being self-reliant is the American way. This is especially true regarding our financial future. When we have incentive to take ownership of our own future, we can redirect otherwise payable taxes to causes you support.

These aren’t tax loopholes, they’re decades-old, grandfathered sections of the IRS code that even tax attorneys and CPAs are rarely taught in their training. These include section 163 of the Internal Revenue Code, which provides tax incentives regarding home ownership.

You need to take ownership in providing for your own retirement instead of counting on the government to provide it for you. After all, the government is still on the hook for $115 trillion in unfunded liabilities including Social Security and Medicare. They’ll gladly try to take care of your retirement, but you can do better.

If you take ownership of your own health or even caring for the poor, you get incentives in the form of tax deductions. All of this is possible if you understand legally how to redirect otherwise payable taxes to the causes you support.

So why don’t more people do it?

The problem is that we simply don’t know what we don’t know and powerful opportunities are missed as we follow the herd.

Seven Ways Most Financial Advisors Fail to Protect Their Clients’ Money

Here are seven things that more than 90% of financial advisors don’t know how to do to protect their clients’ money.

Give you guarantees with an upside potential. Traditional financial planning in this country usually gives you guarantees but usually without upside potential if the economy does well. Or they may give you upside potential without any guarantees if the economy loses. This is one of the reasons so many people lost a third or more of their IRAs or 401(k)s during the last decade. Missed Fortune Indexing strategies enable you to earn a predictable, conservative rate of return even if the economy loses. At the same time you can enjoy upside potential up to a certain capped rate of return when the economy grows. Few advisors know how this is done.
Protect you from loss of principal. The key here is not only to protect your principal you invested, but also in any year that you make money, to turn that money into new protected principal that’s not subject to loss.
Protect you from the effects of inflation. We’ve been fortunate for the past two decades to have inflation remain steady around 2-3%. But those days are gone and inflation is likely to rise due to the incredible amount of money that’s been and is being printed. This means that your rate of return must be able to outpace the rate of inflation, and most investment advisors don’t know how to do that.
Protect you from the danger of rising taxes. Most advisors simply hope that when the future arrives, you’ll find yourself in a lower tax bracket when you retire. But that often doesn’t happen for various reasons. Your dependents have moved out. Your home is paid off. You’re not only missing out on these deductions, but Congress is looking to raise taxes too.
They don’t know how to get tax-free returns rather than just tax-deferred returns. Most people are in a for a rude awakening when they see just how quickly taxes will eat up their nest egg as they’re taxed before contributing to their IRA or 401(k). They’re then taxed upon withdrawing their funds and taxed again when they try to transfer what’s left to their heirs. A better way is through investment vehicles that have been grandfathered for more than 4 decades and have been around a lot longer than IRAs or 401(k)s. They’re safer than municipal bonds and pay a higher rate of return than municipal bonds, plus they accumulate money tax-free and the money transfers tax-free at your passing.
Provide predictable rates of return. The stock market has only averaged a 3.83% rate of return for the past two decades. Trying to get an average return of 12% is just not realistic. But if you choose, you can convert all of your income to generate predictable rates of return of about 8% tax-free.
Help people get their money out of their IRAs or 401(k)s with the least amount of tax impact. This is where a strategic roll-out can help protect you from some of the tax-deferred woes by getting your money out of those IRAs and 401(k)s and into a vehicle that will allow it to grow tax-free.

If you’d like to empower yourself to learn how to overcome these common mistakes make by many tax planners & financial advisors, it’s time to learn more by visiting with a Missed Fortune Advisor.

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

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The Economic Power of Choosing Wisely

October 16, 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 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 receive a bonus hardcover copy of Last Chance Millionaire, Doug Andrew’s New York Times best-selling book.

Two States At An Economic Crossroads

With so many eyes focused on the efforts of state and national government to turn the economic tide towards recovery, the states of Illinois and Wisconsin have provided a powerful object lesson. One state demonstrated exactly what to do to promote economic and job growth, the other showed us exactly what not to do. All states should learn from their examples.

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

Only one of these approaches is consistent with making unemployment go down.

In Illinois, lawmakers raised taxes in January of this year and saw unemployment increase dramatically.

This is described in detail by Business Insider magazine:

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

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

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

Ask yourself, if you were a business owner in Illinois, would higher taxes motivate you to grow your business?

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

So what did Wisconsin do differently?

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

The results speak for themselves.

If we wish to see unemployment grow and business continue to wither, Illinois is a great example of how to do that. However, if we want to see unemployment reversed and business incentivized to grow, Wisconsin is the better example to follow.

Economic growth and prosperity only occur where job creators are operating in a climate of certainty and confidence.

Certainty and confidence are the result of sound strategies. This is true of states, nations and individuals.

Standing At Your Personal Financial Crossroads

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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