From the category archives:

Wealth

Setting Intentions for a Better Financial Future

January 29, 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 31st 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.

Setting Intentions for a Better Financial Future

One of the great benefits a new year brings is the opportunity to improve our individual situation from the previous year.

Some people choose to seize that opportunity by setting goals pertaining to weight loss, stopping smoking, or accomplishing new ambitions. The key to realizing a brighter future always hinges upon doing certain things different than they were done previously. If we persist in doing things as they’ve always been done, we cannot expect to get a different result.

A good example of this can be found in how a person goes about taking ownership of their financial future.

Too many people have persisted in habits like following the crowd and continuing to put their retirement money into 401(k)s and IRAs where taxes are deferred. They do this with some perceived future tax benefit in mind such as being in a lower tax bracket when they reach retirement.

They stubbornly keep their money in the market where it is most vulnerable to economic volatility and they ride out the ups and downs waiting for the market grow enough to regain their losses.

But the future reality they’re more likely to encounter will include higher taxes rates at the precise time that they have the fewest deductions to offset their liabilities. It’s entirely possible that they’ll end up paying higher taxes than they did when they were earning more.

The past decade has been especially tough on those whose retirement nest egg lost, on average, nearly 40% of its value.

On the other hand, those people who are willing to make necessary changes in the way they do things will get different results than they did before. For instance, thousands of Missed Fortune clients have learned how to use a strategic rollout to safely move their money from their 401(k) or IRA.

By doing this, they pay the applicable taxes today and then move those funds into a vehicle where their money accumulates tax-free from that day forward.

They learn to use indexing strategies that indirectly link their money to market performance in such a way that they don’t lose a dime when the market goes down yet they benefit from any upside immediately. People who’ve implemented our indexing strategies sleep soundly at night with zero stress over what the market may be doing.

They’ve taken the time to learn and apply proven principles and they get very different results from when they were simply following the crowd. This brings confidence in the future and peace of mind.

Three Things Investors Must Know

There are three critical components to a prudent investment. When potential investments are lacking any one or more of them, you’d be wise to reconsider.

The three essential ingredients of a prudent investment, in order of importance, include:

Liquidity. This is a primary concern whether it involves your serious cash that you’re earmarking for retirement. In simple terms, liquidity means your money is accessible when you need it and isn’t tied up in your real estate, your IRA or anywhere else that you cannot get to it.
Safety. The safety we’re looking for is not just of an institution, but also safety of principal. It’s not enough to simply protect the principal that you invested initially. In addition, any year that you make money, your gain should also become newly protected principal that also continues to grow tax-free.
Rate of Return. A predictable, safe rate of return that is tax-free is the ideal.

These three ingredients combine to form the acronym LSRR (Laser) that is familiar to Missed Fortune clients everywhere. In order to choose the best investments that pass the Laser test with flying colors, you need to understand how the various investments stack up.

The sad truth is that most of the popular investment strategies advocated by many advisors fail the Laser test miserably. Liquidity, safety, and rate of return–in that order–are the hallmarks of a prudent investment. If you have them, chances are that you’re watching your money grow safely year after year.

If you don’t yet have them, it’s time to visit with a Missed Fortune advisor and learn how to put them to work for you.

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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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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Ask the Right Questions To Get the Right Answers

December 11, 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 13th 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.

Retirement Questions for Business Owners

Many business owners are feeling frustrated because of the economic uncertainty of the past 10 years. The so-called “Lost Decade” has cost many folks nearly 40% of their retirement nest egg due to market volatility.

Following 9/11, the economy declined for 3 consecutive years before it started to regain traction. By 2007 those with money in the market had begun to break even with where they were prior to September 2001.

Of course, in 2008 the market took another 40% drop and it was back to square one for those investors.

Business owners who were recently taught the Missed Fortune strategies were intrigued to see proof that investors who followed these indexing strategies throughout the Lost Decade actually doubled their money. That’s quite a contrast to those who have been struggling to regain lost ground for the past 10 years.

When asked to elaborate on their frustrations, these business owners pointed first to the market volatility as a primary source of irritation. They also pointed to concerns about taxes going up as well as the likely effects of inflation.

Next the business owners were asked how long this trend had been going on. Some answered that they’d been staying the course in their IRAs or 401(k)s for 15-20 years at the behest of their CPA, attorney or other financial advisor.

One of the classic definitions of insanity is to do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.

The third question asked of these business owners was what they had tried in order to remedy their situation. Often they would reply that they tried to protect themselves and their money from further losses by putting it into a bank account that yielded 1% interest and where there was zero upside potential when the market grew.

Often they would dive right back into tax-deferred accounts again thinking that they’d see a return of the days of average 12% returns like their financial advisors spoke of in glowing terms.

But it hasn’t happened. According to DALBAR, most people actually averaged 3.83% because they tended to buy & sell at the wrong times. By contrast, the Missed Fortune indexing strategies have averaged around 8.2% percent rate of return in a safer, more conservative environment and it’s tax-free.

The next question for the business owners was “how much is this costing you?”

If the $100,000 you started out with could have grown to $500,000 but instead is sitting at just $200,000 thanks to taxes, inflation or market volatility, the missed opportunity has cost you $300,000.

The final question was, “if you go another year and you don’t change what you’re currently doing, how are you going to feel?” This question cuts right to the heart of the matter because there are proven ways to grow your money safely regardless of what the economy is doing.

Missed Fortune strategies have a proven track record of eliminating the concerns and making this happen.

10 Lies About Money

Doug Andrews is currently collaborating with Tony Robbins on a book about the 10 greatest lies about money and finance. Their goal is to help people take ownership of their financial future.

Among the top ten lies about money that people believe:

Government knows best and will take care of us in the future. The truth is that we always take better care of anything in which we take ownership.
Putting money in tax-deferred investments using pre-tax dollars is the best way to save for retirement. This is far from the best way to save for the future.
You’ll be in a lower tax bracket in the future. A lot of people who’ve built up a nest egg with tax-deferred funds have found out the hard way that Uncle Same takes a big bite the moment they start to withdraw that money.
You can average a rate of return of 12% by putting your money in the market. Actually, the average return for the past 12 years has only been 3.83%.
Real estate investments & equity pass the Liquidity, Safety & Rate of Return (LASER) test. This is not accomplished by sending extra principal payments to the mortgage company like so many advisors will tell you.
You should buy term insurance and invest the difference. Instead you can accumulate money tax-free and far outpace the buy-term-invest-the-difference approach.
You can structure a life insurance contract to perform as a superior investment vehicle. Unless the insurance contract is 100% structured correctly, you will fail in this strategy.
You should buy and hold. That myth simply hasn’t worked.
Your IRA and 401(k) are your money. Actually, 33-50% of that money belongs to the government in the form of taxes.
Leverage or debt is bad. By learning to become your own banker you can turn this lie on its head just as the thrivers of the world have done for generations.

Learn more about overcoming the pains of market volatility, higher taxes and inflation 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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Taking Ownership Distinguishes the Adults from the Crying Infants

November 27, 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 29th at 11:00 a.m. pacific (12:00 p.m. mountain, 1:00 p.m. central, 2:00 p.m. eastern), and again at 6:30 p.m. pacific (7:30 mountain, 8:30 central, 9:30 eastern). The topic is “True Asset and Wealth Optimization.” You’ll learn how to choose the right investments for liquidity, safety, rate of return and tax benefits.

Click Here to Register Now

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

A Political Puff Piece or a Metaphor for Modern America?

A recent feel-good article in the San Francisco Chronicle illustrates the mindset of dependency held by many Americans.

“President Obama spent only a few hours in San Francisco, but he spent only a few seconds to prove why he is the baby-whisperer. Moments after landing at San Francisco International Airport on Air Force One, Obama spotted 6-month-old Josie Knight, who was crying while being held by her mother, Gina Odom, 37, of Oakland.

“It’s OK,” the president said repeatedly, taking the squalling infant into his arms. Obama bounced gently and held her for about 10 seconds before flashing a smile and returning her to Odom.”

This incident isn’t just a harmless human-interest story about a baby-kissing politician; it’s actually a metaphor.

ABC News, reporting on the speech said:

“At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.”

Did you catch that? The only thing standing between us and having to rely on ourselves is the President.

Self-reliance used to be one of the distinguishing characteristics of an adult. You can’t be truly self-reliant until you are willing to take charge of your own future. This is especially true in financial matters.

If the objective of the president is to have the government provide everything for us, we’re setting ourselves up for failure on a grand scale. Government hasn’t paid off our mortgages, our kids college educations, or helped us get better jobs despite spending nearly $3.6 trillion in economic stimulus money.

If just 20% of that amount had been given to employers instead and they were allowed to hire the employees they chose to, it would have provided a $50,000 per year salary for two years for every single unemployed person in America.

Instead, we’ve seen the unemployment rate swell from 7.2% to 9/2%.

We need to get out of this mentality that big government needs to step in and take care of us. We need to take ownership in our future. Ownership has traditionally been the American way, but it appears to be falling from favor.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Ownership Equals Power Over Your Financial Future

Even the IRS recognizes and incentivizes the value of taking ownership of your financial future. For instance, in section 163 of the Internal Revenue Code, you’ll find that the cheapest money you can borrow is that used for the purchase of a primary or secondary residence.

Right now you can borrow money at less than 4.5% interest for such a purchase and deduct interest up to $1,000,000 of acquisition indebtedness and $100,000 over and above that in equity indebtedness.

So if you borrow money at 4.5% and it’s deductible, in most people’s tax brackets, it’s only a net cost of about 3%. The government does this to incentivize people in order to make it easier to own a home. This is why the deduction has been in the tax code for decades.

Should Congress decide to do away with the tax deductibility of mortgage interest, it would be a huge discouragement to potential home-buyers.

Now consider what taking ownership means in terms of your retirement.

Our government is obligated to pay out nearly $115 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next few decades. If you’re expecting government to be able to take care of you in your retirement, you’re likely in for a big disappointment.

The good news is that you can choose to take ownership of your financial future rather than expecting the federal government to pick you up and comfort you.

You can learn to re-direct, legally, otherwise payable taxes to causes you support by learning and applying the Missed Fortune strategies. By taking ownership, you become self reliant and you’ll do far better than you would by depending upon the government to meet all of your needs.

You’ll learn how to protect your retirement nest egg from the devastating triple whammy of rising taxes, growing inflation and continuing market volatility. Your serious money will enjoy liquidity, safety and a guaranteed rate of return all while accumulating and eventually transferring tax-free.

Are you ready to enjoy a greater sense of confidence and self-reliance in your financial future?

The first step to taking ownership is to meet 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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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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