From the category archives:

Life Insurance

Missed Fortune RadioThis week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Complimentary Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, July 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 Optimization: How to Choose the Right Investments.” You’ll learn how to maintain liquidity and guarantee safety of principal while earning a healthy, tax-free rate of return that outpaces inflation.

Register now by calling 1-888-76-Radio (888-767-2346). If operators are busy, please call again.

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

Investors Losing Confidence in Traditional Investments

Investors are getting tired of the slow gains for a few years only to have those gains, along with original principal, be lost rapidly.

In 2008, most people lost 31 percent from their IRA and 401(k) and are still not back to what they had in as their initial principal.

Investors are getting fed up with the same traditional advice of investing in IRAs and 401(k)s, to postpone taxes and to have to deal with market volatility for the long-term gain.

According to a new survey from Prince & Associates, 81 percent of investors with $1 million or more in investable assets plan to take money away from their current advisor. An even larger number, 86%, plan to tell other investors to avoid their advisor.

Only 2% plan to recommend their firm to other investors. That’s of critical importance, because wealthy investors often get investment advice from each other.

Deferring taxes to a later date as taxes continue to rise, lacking liquidity, and placing the rate of return for a retirement nest egg in variable products are only three of the major problems with these traditional investments.

How Can You Gain Confidence and Prepare for an Abundant Retirement?

The first step to gaining confidence is to avoid falling into the investment traps that so many others are facing by deciding not to use the same investment advice that they are.

Why would you defer taxes knowing that the trend is that taxes are rising? Why you would place your retirement hopes into a volatile market and hope to time the market correctly?

By learning the 31 FLAVORS of Missed Fortune, you can:

  1. Choose tax-free investments instead of tax-deferred ones
  2. Have liquidity so that you can access your money when you would like to
  3. Enjoy safety of your principal where you can lock in gains using indexing.

FLAVORS stands for “fortunes lost amidst valid optimization and reallocation strategies.” Implementing 2 or 3 of the 31 can generate $70-80 thousand dollars a year for retirement that is tax free and will continue to be replenished year after year no matter what is happening in the market.

The 31 FLAVORS can show you key points in the different financial aspects of your life that can allow you to sleep comfortably at night knowing that you are not gambling with your retirement. They include:

  • 6 FLAVORS regarding choosing the wrong investments for retirement
  • 6 FLAVORS about your home and real estate
  • 3 FLAVORS on proper tax planning and avoiding unnecessary taxes
  • 7 FLAVORS on asset management
  • 5 FLAVORS regarding risk management
  • 2 FLAVORS about credit and debt management
  • 2 FLAVORS on estate planning

Meet with a Missed Fortune advisor and learn how to implement these 31 FLAVORS and guarantee yourself an abundant retirement.

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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New York’s Shell Game

June 28, 2010

Your Retirement Shouldn’t Be a Guess

Recently, New York came under fire for what many are calling a “shell game” as it jostles money about within its pension fund to pay the nearly $6 billion it currently owes in annual payments — by borrowing from the very same fund.

The New York Times reported:

“Pension costs for the state and municipalities are soaring, a result of enhanced retirement benefits for public employees and the decline in the stock market over the past two years. And, given declines in tax revenue and larger budget shortfalls, the governments are struggling to come up with the money to make the contributions.”

New York is not alone in this financial dance. States, counties, cities, even corporations across the country are shuffling and tapping their way through these meager times, often coming up with less-than-fail proof ways of meeting their responsibilities.

The biggest downside is that the employees who have counted on those pensions and funds for their retirement may be facing a future without them.

The uncertainties of the future are exactly why we must do what we can to make our futures certain for ourselves.

We have seen that we can’t necessarily trust the government, employers or even some financial institutions to do what they’ve said, when they said they would do it.

Take your retirement into your own hands. Learn more about how you can safeguard yourself against the ups and downs of the market, while still enjoying a safe, liquid way to save for your retirement.

Discover how you can optimize your assets and put your serious money in maximum-funded, tax-advantaged insurance contracts.

We’ve seen how this approach can help clients approaching retirement — teachers, police officers, and others who otherwise would have relied solely on government-funded pensions — find a secure path to a comfortable retirement.

You work hard for your money, and you deserve to rest well during your retirement, with the peace of mind that your retirement dollars will be there when you need them — even if your former employers’ plan wouldn’t be.

Find out more, now.

Isn’t It Time You Became Wealthy?®

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Over the last couple years, the economic upheaval has siphoned off critical value from many retirees’ 401(k)s, IRA(s) and stock portfolios.

People who had planned on riding off into the sunset are finding they might not have enough gas to get close to that twilight on the horizon.

In fact, many retirees are facing the fact they need to “unretire,” as a recent Fortune magazine article put it. The article provides advice for those forced by financial strain to return to the workplace:

“Having to go back to the office when you dreamed for years about puttering in your garden or volunteering can be frustrating, even depressing. But retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either.

“For most productive, well-educated men and women, an average of 25 years of ‘leisure’ can be terribly isolating and boring; returning to work may turn out to be a blessing after all. Remember that work is good not only for the cash flow but also keeping the mind and spirit sharp.”

While this is a positive approach to a disheartening situation, how nice would it be NOT to have to make that transition back to the workplace?

For many people who optimized assets and put their money in savings retirement vehicles like maximum-funded, tax-advantaged insurance contracts, their retirement savings has been secure — in fact, for many it’s even seen rates of return as high as 8, 14, 16 percent — during this economic downturn.

If you’re approaching retirement and want to make sure you’re able to stay retired, it’s not too late.

You can start now to optimize your assets and take advantage of retirement savings vehicles that are safe, liquid, offer a rate of return — and provide tax advantages — like MFTA contracts.

Even if you have substantial amounts tucked into 401(k)s, IRA(s) or other traditional accounts, you can perform a “strategic roll-out” to move your serious cash to a seriously smarter place.

Even if retirement is something farther out for you, it’s never too early to start. The Missed Fortune series of books can help everyone along the age continuum.

Invest the time to explore these topics in Missed Fortune 101 or The Last Chance Millionaire, because you deserve to invest in yourself and your future.

Isn’t It Time You Became Wealthy?®

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Missed Fortune RadioThis week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Complimentary Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, June 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 Optimization: How to Choose the Right Investments.” You’ll learn how to maintain liquidity and guarantee safety of principal while earning a healthy, tax-free rate of return that outpaces inflation.

Register now by calling 1-888-76-Radio (888-767-2346). If operators are busy, please call again.

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

Tax-Payers Versus Tax-Eaters

Many Americans grasp at the hope of a 401(k) taking care of them in their retirement years.

Even after taking huge hits over the last 5 years where most people still don’t have now what they had in 2006, 89 percent of Americans continue to pay into these systems. Why?

Dan Sullivan wrote in the spring edition of The Global Thinker:

“All entrepreneurs today are in a war, whether they realize it or not. They are in the crosshairs of an enemy who wants to make their businesses less successful and less profitable. The war can be stated quite simply, it is between the tax generators and the tax eaters. It is between those who are productive in society and those who live off of others productivity.”

This is important to understand. Taxes are being used less and less for the public good. Instead, they are financing the lives of people who are not giving anything back.

Tax-Eaters want to increase government spending, increase permanent entitlement programs, and increase the number of permanent government jobs.

Understand that the creation of every one of these new jobs is an attack.

Currently 55 percent of people are Tax-Payers. 45 percent are Tax-Eaters — people taking more in social benefits than they pay in.

Over the next 4-8 years there should be a shift over at least 10 percent, increasing the Tax-Eaters in our society.

Why is all of this an issue?

Government Promises are Shaky Ground

This will have dire consequences for all the hard-working people planning their retirements based on the promises of others.

For example, consider the shell game being played in New York. The New York Times writes:

“Pension costs for the state and municipalities are soaring as a result of enhanced retirement benefits for public employees and the decline in the stock market of the past 2 years. Again, given the declines in tax revenues and larger budget short falls, the governments are struggling to come up with the money to make the contributions.”

If cities and states and even corporations continue to borrow money from retirement pools to pay retirement benefits to the beneficiaries, at some point the well is going to dry up.

It is time to take your retirement into your own hands.

Learn to Protect Yourself

Learn to safeguard yourself against the ups and downs of the market. Too many people tolerate market volatility. They suffer from the “that’s just the way it works” mentality.

That is only the way it works if you let it work that way.

You have worked and continue to work hard. You should have the peace of mind knowing that in your retirement years that nest egg will be there for you.

Learn to understand that when the economy goes down you don’t lose and when it goes up you make money. And that money you make can be in a tax-free environment.

Learn the index lock-in and reset strategies and shift your thinking away from trying to time the market.

Over a five-year period you should have a 50 percent increase in your retirement savings. If this isn’t the case, if you are down or barely even, this may not be the effective strategy that so many have been sold on.

Meet with a Missed Fortune strategist to learn how you can win the financial war.

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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Everyone can agree that America suffered financial ruin due in part to actions on Wall Street. But not everyone can agree on how to repair Wall Street.

As financial reform passes the Senate and makes its way through the House, the debate rages on.

Too much oversight and regulation, and America’s financial institutions will be stymied – which could kill America’s fledgling rebound. Too little, and practices that led to the collapse could repeat themselves.

A New York Times article reported:

“Despite the outcry from lobbyists and warnings from conservative Republicans that the legislation will choke economic growth, bankers and many analysts think that the bill approved by the Senate last week will reduce Wall Street’s profits but leave its size and power largely intact. Industry officials are also hopeful that several of the most punitive provisions can be softened before it is signed into law.”

If you’re heavily invested in the market, you’re likely heavily invested in the outcome of this legislation. You also likely suffered more loss than you could have ever anticipated over the past couple years, and you’d rather not experience that again.

But what if you could have been spared the loss? What if you, like the people who optimized their assets and put their serious money in maximum-funded, tax-advantaged contracts, could have maintained their principal – even gained a rate of return of 12, 13 percent or more over the past couple years?

There are ways to prepare for your retirement, to secure your future with savings vehicles that provide safety, liquidity, rate of return, and tax-advantaged benefits.

Learn how to protect yourself, so regardless of legislation, or ups and downs in the market, you can move forward toward true wealth on a steadier, safer path.

Learn more about Missed Fortune strategies now, so you can be better off tomorrow.

Isn’t It Time You Became Wealthy?®

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Missed Fortune RadioThis week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Complimentary Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, June 1st at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern).

The topic is “True Asset Optimization: How to Choose the Right Investments.” You’ll learn how to maintain liquidity and guarantee safety of principal while earning a healthy, tax-free rate of return that outpaces inflation.

Register now by calling 1-888-76-Radio (888-767-2346). If operators are busy, please call again.

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

Who Determines Your Financial Fate?

The New York Times published an article last week entitled “As Reform Takes Shape, Some Relief on Wall Street.” The article reports on the financial reform bill working its way through congress, and says:

“Despite the outcry from lobbyists and warnings from conservative Republicans that the legislation will choke economic growth, bankers and many analysts think that the bill approved by the Senate last week will reduce Wall Street’s profits but leave its size and power largely intact. Industry officials are also hopeful that several of the most punitive provisions can be softened before it is signed into law.”

If you’re heavily invested in the market, you’re heavily invested in the outcome of this legislation. You’re left to the whims and power-mongering of Congress, the vagaries of the market, the inevitable rising of inflation.

In short, you have little to no control. You’re sitting on the sidelines hoping and praying that the changes won’t negatively affect your account.

Why not take back your control? Why not empower yourself and become immune from market volatility, guarantee your principal, outpace inflation, reduce your taxes, and increase your liquidity?

You can, with Missed Fortune Strategies. Meet with a Missed Fortune advisor to learn how.

Bonus Missed Fortune E-Book: Baby Boomer Blunders

The average Baby Boomer has less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement (which means many have less than that), primarily due to bad habits and having money invested in the wrong places where economic downturns can diminish their nest egg.

Download this e-book now at www.babyboomerblunders.com.

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Recently the Dow set an all-new record –- albeit not a record to be proud of –- when it plunged nearly 1,000 points in a single day of trading before it recovered to a loss of 348 points by day’s end.

Investors around the world watched the free fall in horror, catching their breath as the spiral finally slowed and trading improved.

As it turns out, the drop was in part due to technical errors which in turn triggered further losses, but whatever the cause, the roller coaster ride was enough to leave more than a few investors shaken.

This is just one more example that makes it clear: Serious retirement money can be better off when it is not directly invested in the stock market.

Too many soon-to-be retirees –- and those already in their “golden years” –- find themselves vulnerable to the sharp ups and downs the stock market can bring.

Similarly, those with their money in 401(k)s and IRAs can be significantly impacted by bad days on Wall Street.

On the other hand, these investors want solid returns that help their retirement savings gain momentum.

Safe but sluggish CDs, money markets and similar vehicles can take too long, with too little return to make a difference.

Ideally, it would be nice to find retirement savings vehicles that can benefit from the ups of the stock market, while being protected from the downs.

There is a type of investment that offers this safety and rate of return.

What’s more, it offers liquidity to protect you in times of need. And by properly utilizing indexing, you can take advantage of the up ticks in the stock market, while sparing yourself the agony of the down ticks.

It’s all available through maximum-funded, tax-advantaged insurance contracts; they can provide a best-of-all-worlds solution to retirement planning.

Find out more today so you can feel secure, watching the world ride the ups and downs of the stock market, while you steadily take your journey toward your retirement.

Isn’t It Time You Became Wealthy?

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Missed Fortune RadioThis week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Complimentary Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 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 Optimization: How to Choose the Right Investments.” You’ll learn how to maintain liquidity and guarantee safety of principal while earning a healthy, tax-free rate of return that outpaces inflation.

Register now by calling 1-888-76-Radio (888-767-2346). If operators are busy, please call again.

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

Next Up on the Government’s Nationalization Agenda

A crisis is unfolding with dire consequences, though few Americans are aware.

The harsh reality of national insolvency is forcing the government to look for new sources of revenue.

What’s the most logical source? You guessed it: qualified plans, meaning 401(k)s and IRAs, where Americans have saved more than $13 trillion.

Lee Bellinger, publisher of Independent Living, recently published a report entitled “40l(k)/IRA Nationalization Quietly Moves Forward.” His comments are just common sense:

“As the government’s finances continue to deteriorate, the White House and a powerful network of left-wing think-tanks, Congressional activists, and the highly-influential Ford and Rockefeller Foundations are engineering a new regulatory and tax-incentive drive to herd and ultimately force Americans to convert their 40l(k)s and IRAs into government-directed retirement accounts…

“…the extreme tactics used to ram health care nationalization down the country’s throat are a blueprint for what could be the biggest asset grab in history: the nationalization of private retirement accounts.”

It’s only a matter of time. In March of this year, the New York Times reported:

“This year, [Social Security] will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016…”

Business Week reported that new federal regulations designed to “promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams” would help drive cash into government-controlled entities such as American International Group (AIG), “the insurer that has received $182.3 billion in government aid.”

Bob Chapman of The International Forecaster explains,

“The looting of retirement plans is still in the planning stage, and you’re seeing these trial balloons go up.”

Bottom line: Major congressional overhaul of retirement plans — to your detriment — is something you should be planning for.

Roll ‘em Out!

In light of this crisis, the wisest, most logical decision for you may be a strategic rollout — to transfer your qualified plan funds into maximum-funded, tax-advantaged life insurance contracts, which provide the following benefits:

  1. Tax-free growth
  2. Tax-free and penalty-free withdrawal
  3. Tax-free transfer to heirs
  4. Guaranteed safety of principal
  5. Healthy returns that outpace inflation

If you think you’ll be in a lower tax bracket when you retire, you need to consider what the government is up to and think again.

Taxes will never be lower than they are today, and your dollars will never be worth more than they are today.

Escape the greedy clutches of government bureaucrats 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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Missed Fortune RadioThis week Doug Andrew discussed the following:

Upcoming Complimentary Webinar

Attend our free 90-minute webinar live over the Internet this coming Tuesday, May 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 Optimization: How to Choose the Right Investments.” You’ll learn how to maintain liquidity and guarantee safety of principal while earning a healthy, tax-free rate of return that outpaces inflation.

Register now by calling 1-888-76-Radio (888-767-2346). If operators are busy, please call again.

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

Family-Empowered Banks Beat IRAs Hands Down

We know that in the next year income taxes will go up at least 5 percent. And the taxes to cover health care reform will be about another 3 percent.

Our clients realize that it’s better to pay taxes now rather than postponing them and paying 8 to 10 percent more if they don’t convert their IRAs and 401(k)s now.

The government currently has $62 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The writing is on the wall: Taxes will go up, as will inflation.

You need to learn how to use the internal revenue code to your advantage to create a family-empowered bank.

In a family-empowered bank using innovative life insurance contracts, your money grows tax-free, you can withdraw it tax-free, and it transfers to your heirs tax-free.

In these life insurance contracts I’ve averaged about 9 and a half percent returns for the last 30 years. About 1 percent of this pays for life insurance, which comes along for the ride and gets paid for by Uncle Sam.

This means I’ve averaged an 8.2 percent cash on cash return. Every $1 million I accumulate generates $70,000 per year of tax-free income.

When I die my family will receive millions of dollars of tax-free life insurance proceeds.

Meet with a Missed Fortune advisor to learn how you can set up your own family-empowered bank.

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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In this frustrated economy, is buying or renting a home better?

A recent New York Times article examined the issue, suggesting readers make the decision using the “rent ratio”:

“A simple way to do the comparison is to look at something called the rent ratio: the purchase price of a house divided by the annual cost of renting a similar one.

The number 20 provides a useful rule of thumb. When you do the math, you discover that a ratio above 20 means you should at least consider renting, especially if you may move again in the next five years or so. When the ratio is well below 20, the case for buying becomes a lot stronger.”

The article went on to note that areas like New York and Los Angeles have recently gone from rent ratios of 25 to 16, so more families are considering purchasing homes in those cities than before.

But there’s more to the decision than just rent ratios.

What many traditional real estate and financial advisors don’t understand is that your home can be more than a roof over your head – it can help provide for your retirement.

Your home’s equity can be separated out and leveraged for long-term savings in a safe, liquid environment with a rate of return. And this process can happen again and again as your equity increases.

By placing the money from your home’s equity in maximum-funded, tax-advantaged life insurance contracts, you can safely prepare for your retirement with clarity and confidence.

And in an economy like this, clarity and confidence can be hard to come by.

Make sure to consider all the advantages of buying a home – beyond just a low rent ratio. And find out more about maximizing your assets and protecting yourself in otherwise uncertain times.

Isn’t it time you became wealthy?

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