10.6.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

10.6.22: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to Your Retirement Unbroken with your host, Merrit Strunk. Merrit is a licensed fiduciary and financial advisor who always places your needs first. Merrit works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you too. So now let's start the show. Here's Merrit Strunk.

Merrit Strunk:
All right. Welcome to the Retirement Unbroken Show. This is Merrit Strunk, president of Momentum Financial here in San Diego, and the host of the Retirement Unbroken radio show and podcast. We're so happy you're here. And we're joined again today by our trusty producer, Matt McClure. How are you doing, Matt?

Producer:
I'm doing great, Merrit. How are you? Good. Good week.

Merrit Strunk:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Fantastic. Thank you. Thanks for asking. Well, if you're joining us here before the great Unbroken nation and you're a listener and a regular listener, then you know that our mission is to transform our listeners into more educated, more equipped and financially savvy individuals so that you can make better financial decisions for your future and for your family, and that you can unlock what's possible for your financial future. So, folks, the truth is, many people for their retirements, whether they've reached retirement or they're still working on it, their retirement may already be broken. They just don't know it yet. And that's why we're here. That's why we're here. We're here to give you the information that you need, the critical information that will keep that from happening so you won't get a nasty surprise later in your life waking up and going, gosh darn it, we're out of money. So we never want that to happen. If you've never been to our website, drop by. We'd love to get a message from you. You can stop by at retirement unbroken dot com or you can always call us at 858 521 9700. And you can check out past episodes. You can see videos of me and you can give us a rating and let us know how you like the show. Send us a message because we always like hearing from our listeners. So today we're going to touch on the market. What's going on there? We're going to talk about something we've been getting.

Merrit Strunk:
We've getting a lot of emails from listeners talking about how can we get guarantees during this tumultuous time in the market? Is there a way to do that? What's the prudent way to go about that? So we're going to be covering some of those interesting things you may or may not already know about. And then the end of the segment here, we're going to put it all together and we're going to show you how one lady put many of these components together for a very successful retirement. And I think if you're listening, that's probably the most important thing, is to see how everything comes together so that you can go, okay, is that something that I can also pursue and put it together in a similar way? So like I said, if you haven't talked to your financial advisor lately, especially with everything that's going on here, why not? And if you need a second opinion or you just want to talk about things, you can get a learned soundboard sort of unbiased opinion here, then give us a call. Like I said, 858521 9700 and we'd love to chat with you. We do not bite. And I talk to everybody individually in person. So what's going on in the market today? So I want to just touch on that ever so briefly. Sometimes I go a little too technical, I think, for for some some of our listeners. And so, you know, last couple of days we've had some really nice the best run up of the market of the entire year thus far.

Merrit Strunk:
Really, really nice. And then boom, today we started out below, we kind of came above the threshold and then quickly right before close of the markets here, we dip right back down. So the Dow is down ever so slightly. So the S&P, NASDAQ and so on, oil is up. And that is probably because the news is out of Saudi Arabia. Opec is going to cut production significantly. That's going to drive prices up, folks. So especially here in California, prices already been jumping up. So, you know, that's going to hurt pocketbooks. And I'll bet when the stocks were up, everybody was looking at their 41k and IRA and going, man, finally, look how much that went back up. We're on the right road again. So related to that, there's some legislation that's brewing up there in Washington that could really impact the 401 case and IRAs of all Americans. And some people are calling this this whole batch of potential laws that are coming out as a secure act 2.0. There's also something called the ERN Act, which is Washington. So. Fond of acronyms the Enhancing America Retirement Now Act. So these bills have in it a couple of points that I want to run down with you real quick. It does allow for an increase in the maximum annual contribution to retirement accounts by 4000. And as you may or may not know, every year they kind of add on 1000 that you can put away or so to your 401.

Merrit Strunk:
K or IRA and Roth. This one is talking about 4000. And they're also talking about increasing the age which you must begin required minimum distributions. The acronym there is RMDs. And if you're retired and you're 72 and you know what an RMD is, if you have an IRA traditional IRA, you've got to take money out and it's required by who? The government. Because why? Because they want to tax you. They want their tax dollars. That money has never had taxes paid against it just yet. So they want to push that RMD back a little bit. I'd say that was a pretty good deal. And then they want to require automatic enrollment for employer sponsored plans. And in general right now 401k employer sponsored plans, you've generally got to opt out of that plan. But other plans are different. You know, they passed a law not that long ago, oh, several years ago, where they would automatically save two or 3% of your pay unless you opt it out. And I'd say that also was a good thing, especially with young folks who who say, no, I need every dollar of that money that I'm going to take home for my lifestyle and rent and so on. And certainly understand that here in San Diego. But guess what they didn't do? They didn't say, well, they were young, so they had that going on.

Merrit Strunk:
But it's not nationwide here. And then the other factor here is increasing amounts for catch up provisions for those or over 50. So in general, 401. K is in IRAs. You can contribute an additional amount than those folks who are under 50. So if you're over 50, you can put an extra amount in your 401. Case and so on and so forth. So the increase in contribution limit, so the annual limit right now for tax deductible contributions to your IRA, your traditional IRA, and if you're under 50, you're used to it at about 6000 a year. All right. And then for your 401k, that's that's $20,500. And in 2022. So if you were going to fully fund your traditional tax deferred IRA, you would put $500 away a month and that way you would fully fund your IRA. And then so your 401. K, you want to cram 20,500 in there in equal increments as a percentage of your your pay. So if you're over 50, the contribution limit for IRAs is $7,000. That's again, for a traditional IRA and for your four one case, it's 27,500. So once again, if you're over 50, you get a nice little bump there of $1,000 on your traditional and another bump there, 6000 or so for your or $7,000 for your 401. K. All right. So basically they're proposing and that's the important word here for you to remember, is those changes they're looking at is a proposed.

Merrit Strunk:
So this may go nowhere. So we'll have to see. You know, it's got to get through the house and then it's got to go through the Senate. So whether it's a Roth IRA or traditional IRA, the proposal is to increase the contribution limit by 4000 to a traditional IRA and 10,000 for your 401. K. So, you know, that would move your 401. K contribution limit to move up to 24,500 if you're under 50, which is a lot of money, if you can put that in. But that's just going to benefit you later on. So discipline, right? It's the pain of discipline now, so you can avoid the pain of regret and sorrow if you were not going to save as much money as you can. So, so so who knows, You know. And then the other one, like I said, is pushing that RMD age back in the House has passed it the Secure Act 2.0 the the House has passed it and it says, all right, you know where right now Let me just back up here. It used to be 70 and one half to take RMDs and then it changed or the secure Act to 72. Now they're talking about 73 years old in 2022. And then like we're running out of 2022, actually, but then 75 years old in 2032. So now at 72 you must do those RMDs and they're proposing that they're going to push that back to 75 years old and 2032.

Merrit Strunk:
I think it's nice. I think that's going to get some pushback because the government needs to its taxes and there are trillions of dollars sitting in deferred IRA accounts. So like you said, it still has to be passed by the Senate and it has to be signed by the president before it would become law. There's another one that this is good news that would change the type of investments that can be accessed inside of four. In one case, this is a Republican driven bill that aims to just add some more diversity with assets you can invest in, like private equity, hedge funds, you can invest in startups through those kinds of things. That sounds really risky for somebody's retirement money. How about adding the real estate investment trust or acronym, right REIT, real estate investment trusts? Again, those are pooled assets and it can be a little more risky than your average, say, mutual fund you're investing in. Commodities are on the list and that would certainly give some diversification to commodities are hot until or not. It's a little bit of a slippery slope. Infrastructure investments. That seems like one the government would certainly want you to be putting in there. And then an interesting one, which has been talked about for a very long time since back in the Obama administration is including insurance products like annuities. These would be the income annuities inside of a 401 K investment structure for employees.

Merrit Strunk:
So that's interesting. So why would your government be pushing hard to allow you to put an income annuity inside your 401. K. Well, let's just say they want American retirees to be able to have an income stream when they retire. And there's less of a burden on the the Medicare and welfare and all these other things. So you would have that access to make sure that you had an income stream later in your life. That takes less pressure on the puts less pressure on the government and the support mechanisms there. So it's interesting, I, I find, Mr. Producer, is that when you are out, say like, for instance, I'm just recognizing that people have made a living out of badmouthing annuities on the television. Billionaire investors that run their own investment offerings and services, I got no problem with that. Their marketer, I got it. And then they've chosen the path of saying, Don't do that. That's bad over there because we lose market share when you invest in those things. So I'm going to tell you it's bad. And so it's kind of after millions and millions of dollars are telling you it's bad, all of a sudden your government says, you know what, we really like you and you future retirees to do is have the ability to invest in your own income pension stream if you don't have one inside of your employer program that flips the script, that changes the paramount paradigm, doesn't it?

Producer:
Yeah, it absolutely does. And as you said, I mean, those those guys who take out those ads, they're they're marketers. They're they know, they know what they're doing and they're giving annuities a bad name and have done that for years. But, you know, now it seems like more and more people are catching on. Okay, maybe these aren't such bad investments after all. Maybe we don't have to believe the hype that's been out there.

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah, first. And it's like I say, there are good ones and there bad ones and it needs a bit of explanation into it. But it just dawns on me with this legislation here and again, Obama was pushing it under his administration and now it's come up again saying, how do we solve this problem with American retirees and help them out? And maybe it's adding commodities and or maybe adding some real estate investments in there so they can diversify their portfolios, or maybe it's adding the ability to create an income stream and therefore one K, you know, that kind of thing. And those are all good questions. You know, we'll see if it comes to fruition here. They've even talked about Matt adding cryptocurrencies in there as a selection inside of their 401. Case. And I fear with something like that, that's still very fluid, you know, very fluid in terms of regulation. And we've seen it drop suddenly out there. Whether or not that would be a good thing, because I would I would think that if other things get approved, this one would be a little harder to sell down the road.

Producer:
Yeah, Well, and I think, too, that, you know, it's funny because I actually put together a piece not all that long ago, and we can play it on the show sometime when we're talking more about crypto. But there's, there was a piece on cryptocurrency and and what a lot of people who might be regulating it or people who know a thing or two about investing say Warren Buffett had to say about it. And one of the quotes that is in there from Warren Buffett was, you know, you could offer me all of the crypto, all like say you could just give me all the Bitcoin. He goes, I wouldn't take it. He goes, because what would I do with it? You know, it's just so so that was Warren Buffett's take. And, you know, I mean, it's it's been very volatile. And just as you say, a lot of uncertainty around the regulation, too.

Merrit Strunk:
Yeah, I have heard Warren Buffett say some less than glowing things about crypto. And the way I put it is, you know, I think the train's left the station on, in my personal opinion, is it's going to be around with us. But there's a lot of unknown factors in here. And I kind of say, look, if you're going to invest in it as a part of your speculative part of your portfolio, then just play it like Vegas, only bet what you're willing to lose and just know that the door to get in is really wide and the door to get out because you've got to sell it if you're going to get out, is going to be like the back door in a nightclub where there's a fire. Everybody wants to get out at the same time. And we just went through that. You just went through that. And there was a ton, a ton of wealth lost in the crypto meltdown situation. So that conversation about how things are changing in the 401. Case and and that conversation about additional investments here we are in a in a very volatile market. We've got geopolitical issues and we've got the stark stock market experiencing tons and tons of volatility. We've got the word recession that is playing so, so much out there and our economy slowing down. And this has sparked a lot of people to say, look, if I'm going to be investing, I'm looking for some safer alternatives right now. So that's kind of sparked, I guess, the emails that we're receiving here and the calls that says, you know, is there a way to invest in generate income for retirement? Is there a way to get guarantees? And this section here, folks, is can can be in as a headline to this is get to the guarantees.

Merrit Strunk:
And so as we were asked, we're going to deliver. All right. What are those ways that you can guarantee? Now, I'll tell you this, when you're investing in the stock market, period, folks, take this to heart. There is no guarantee. If you ask a your your local stock jockey, could I lose everything I'm investing. And the answer they have to give you is absolutely, you can. There is no sugarcoating that. The stock market has a factor of risk to it. Yes, there are some that are less risky. That's why we spend such a long time talking about risk tolerance when we're putting together plans for people. So so you can you can start with some thoughts like this so you can save 25% of your income each year. And so you don't have to work as long. What do you what do you do with that? And so instead of putting money that's sitting in your checking account and right now there's tons of money sitting in checking accounts and savings accounts, you're just sitting there watching it go backwards with inflation. So. So this would be beyond your emergency fund. Right. So you're not talking about your emergency fund. Just keep that great idea. If you if you have an emergency, you want to put cash.

Merrit Strunk:
Hands on cash. So instead, 25% of your income. Then then let's say you put it in something we call that's very certificate of deposit like that you get at your bank. So if those have not been producing very well over the last several years, is a two year multi year guarantee annuity and the only way you're going to get a guarantee is is by a contract through an insurance company. You cannot get those through the traditional equities market. So that's where we look when people say where can we get a guarantee? That's where you get a guarantee. And right now, these two year, Micah's given the the interest rate situation, you can get a 3.7% guarantee compound on a two year very short term. So it's a great way to park it and then get it back later on. And some of these have the ability to take assets out of it each year if you need to, a certain percentage. So they they function like a CD where there's a guaranteed rate, except you don't have the bank and the FDIC behind it. You have a insurance carrier who's making that guarantee. And that guarantee is based on that carrier's claims paying ability to do that. And these products have been out there for a very, very long time. So they're just saying, we know as an insurance company what we'll be able to invest and make the spread on. We're going to guarantee you this rate, plain and simple.

Merrit Strunk:
And that's how they can give you higher rates than, say, your neighborhood bank. So if you can't live I mean, sorry. If you can live without that money for a longer time like you, I have got it. It's just sitting there. I don't want to put it in the market, but I am looking at getting something better than bank rates. You can go five years and right now there is a55 percent my for five years compound. Right now all you have to do is give us a call if you want information on this and we'll we'll provide it to you. You can go to our website at retirement unbroken dot com or call us at 858521 9700 and then you can get that information so imagine how much better you can do if you can generate 5% on your savings money that we talked about. So that's 25% of the income and then get get a great rate of return and just eliminate that risk. Right. Eliminate that risk due to market volatility. So that 5%, that principal. Right. The principal that's getting that 5% is not at risk in the stock market. So that's just saying, you know, can you be a smarter investor and take the risk out and park it someplace and still get better than bank rates? That's one of the answers to the questions we've been asked. Okay. The next one is, you know, that money that you're having in a bond component in your portfolio. Remember the old 6040 conversation for retirees that we had and how difficult that was having in the market for quite some time now that the reason why bonds weren't doing great, you can use the bond replacement strategy with tax free and tax deferred income strategy that you can put forth.

Merrit Strunk:
Right. And this is, again, using an insurance company to make that happen, because, again, we're talking about guarantees and you can't get those in the market. So to get protected growth and yet get market like gains without market risk and have the potential of generating lifetime income that you'll never outlive, this is the angle to go about it. All right. So those two insurance approach contracts taking market volatility, market risk off the table and then guaranteeing either market return or market upside with the income potential, essentially creating your own personal pension. Those this last one is an example of doing that. Again, this is a question we're being asked. How do you how do you do that? So we're just explaining that to you. The last one, when you're dealing with safety and trying to play on, can you layer on tax free income to that? You can. And so for American pre-retirees and retirees, there's only a couple of sacred cows out there that you can get tax free income out of. One of those is a Roth, and the other one is life insurance. And then there's a third one, which would be certain types of trust that you can do, but we are not going into that. So let's talk about how how can you use life insurance to to derive the living benefit of tax free income? This is very foreign to a lot of people.

Merrit Strunk:
And even when they hear it, they're like, ooh, one more time. How do you do that again? So I'll try to make it simple. So tax savvy investors have used this strategy for quite some time to deliver tax free retirement income. And it's great for folks who perceive this need and they're in their thirties or forties or fifties as the cost of life insurance can be very low at these earlier ages. So to to to do this, we use what's called an IUL. That's an index universal life policy and we get market like gains without market risk on it. So like I said, there's low cost of insurance. But but once that's satisfied each year you'll build cash value within that life insurance policy and that will grow over time as the money those those assets in there are linked to market indexes. So to tell you how we're going to put the example together and a little bit here, how somebody can do that and derive tax free income over their lifetime. We're going to take a break right here. But then we're going to come back and we're going to break it down for you and we're going to tell you how we use the IRS tax rules. 7702 7702 to make this happen. So join us back after we take a break. This is Merrit Strunk on the Retirement Unbroken Show.

Producer:
You're listening to Your Retirement Unbroken to schedule your free no obligation consultation with Merrit visit retirement unbroken dot com.

Merrit Strunk:
All right. Welcome back to the Retirement Unbroken Show, a great unbroken nation out there. So right before the break, we were talking about using a life insurance product called IUL that you can fund and then take tax free income out over your lifetime. And right before the break, I mentioned the IRS rule 7702. So what that allows us to do is you can actually fund this IUL over your lifetime. You can stop funding it, and then later in life you can take what's called loans against the policy as tax free income. Wow. So again, let me recap. You can have a Roth four tax free income and you can use life insurance as tax free income. And this is the way. That it is done so it can grow with market like linked growth. And then at some point in your life, you can turn on the tax free income. And in many cases, depending on the way it is structured, you can still have a death benefit to those you leave behind when you are promoted off the planet. And and some policies, you can also get chronic care. So think about it this way. If I die, there's a death benefit If I live and I just need tax free income on my retirement, I've got that. If I get ill and I need chronic care, I've got that so highly, highly flexible. And again, we're using Rule 7702 of the IRS to make that happen and in just a bit.

Merrit Strunk:
We're going to pick on our fictitious named lady named Linda, and we're going to show you how to use different components of what we've talked about to make a dynamite master plan for her retirement. So before I do that, there's one more thing that Linda coming up is going to be using, and that is a Roth conversion. A Roth conversion. So. We're not getting to Linda just yet, but we're going to pick on Rob. Rob is in this example. He's going to do a Roth conversion. And this is leading up to our case later on here to try to break it down and show you how the master plan comes together. So, Rob, in our case, is 63 years old and he has a $760,000 IRA. We worked in one place and he contributed and he grew that IRA. He rolled over for one case when he left. And so this IRA, this is a traditional IRA, which means every time he takes money out of it at RMD time, it gets taxed. And what if the government raised the taxes in the future? All of a sudden he has a higher tax rate and he is using this income is Social Security. And what other sources of income that are going to determine his tax rate. So how do we do a Roth conversion which will drop and lower his retirement tax bill and potentially for his heirs, too? All right.

Merrit Strunk:
So this this. Try to imagine these numbers. I'm not going to get to much in a number salad for you folks because this can get quite complex. I'm trying to ever so briefly break this down to where we can we could take the benefits from it. So starting this is about over 12 years so that the heavy lifting and conversion actually is when the first four. So if we took 149,000 of Mr. Robb's 760,000 IRA and we converted that about that much over the next four years each year, that would lower the traditional IRA balance and then add money into the Roth balance. So first four years we take around 148,000 per year. Move that over. He's got income of about 166,000 through his both this withdrawal and some other sources, his total taxable income. So he's got the taxable income minus Roth is 166. His taxable income is my goodness 315,000. His taxes due on those first four years is 69,000 each. But his Roth balance. Do you remember the first one we did was 149 and then we started to repeat that process for the next four years. So his Roth balance grows at 149, up to 309 up to 481 and up to 600 plus thousand. So he's paying the taxes at the time you convert. He's got to use that money from other sources and he's got it. Then eventually what happens, folks, is remember, his traditional IRA was 760,000, and it's still growing in there.

Merrit Strunk:
And now the Roth is growing as well. And yes, he converted and he moved it from a left pocket taxable forever money into the right pocket. Tax free forever pocket. I daresay we would all line up under. I want tax free forever bucket. If we had a choice. Right. So long story short. And this is the way it goes. Now, out of the 834,000. This is down to 356,000 for a tax saving. A tax saving of 478,000. So let's just say almost 500,000. He's saved almost 500,000 in taxes. His total retirement and inheritance tax savings overall, 718,000. So is this Roth conversion strategy mathematically viable or feasible for you? Do you have a larger traditional IRA that is in the it's going to be taxed forever bucket. And what I mean is, guys, I frequently call it the the tax trap, the traditional IRA tax trap where all your money is in the taxable forever bucket. Then every time you touch it, you've got to. You get taxed over and over again. And in essence, when you have to pay the taxes, you have to go back that bucket and you get taxed on that amount that you took out to pay the taxes. You know, when I meet with clients and we run through that situation and they see what their tax burden will be and the insanity of having to go back to that taxable bucket over and over again each year, multiple multiple withdrawals within the same year.

Merrit Strunk:
In order to pay for living expenses and the taxes that are due. Yeah, you should see eyebrows go up and they just shake their head. That's crazy. And very, very often nobody's ever explained that to them and showed them the math. So if you're in that situation, I would encourage you to reach out to us. Just go to the retirement and broken website and make contact. It makes sense that you do the calculation. You can always say, Look, that's not for me, that's fine. At least you're informed. And we always say here at the unbroken nation that knowledge is power. Do not wait. Ask questions. Why not? Right. So we're going to break down the multiple components that we've talked about, some guarantees, investments, a bond, alternative portfolio, and then income and tax free income strategies. And we're going to use our fictitious person named Linda. Thank you, Linda, whoever you are. Linda is a professional female. She's 50 years old and she is divorced. So, folks, I've gone through a lot of concepts here, a lot of good stuff, a lot of good tools, a lot of good information. This is what you have to listen up to. How did she together with us, put that together? So here she is. She's a professional. She's working. She's 50 years old and she's divorced.

Merrit Strunk:
And Linda wants to grow her money that she got from the divorce. Right. And the money she's making and the money she's saved. And she wants to be smart about it. So we'll give a little texture to ta ta. Linda. She's a marketing executive and she works for an aerospace engineering industry, and she makes about 225,000 a year in salary and she gets another 50,000 bonuses. So she's she's a highly paid executive here. So overall, about 275, this is not unheard of on the tax front. Linda is looking at a 35% tax bracket federal and then, of course, the state taxes. That could be seven, let's say. So her take home is about 162,937. You do the math correctly. So it's interesting, folks out there go, wow, you're not talking to me, Mary, You just said this person is making 275. Isn't it interesting that her take home is only 162 nine? Right. And she gets 5% raises on average here. Okay. So in Linda's case, we have to throw expenses in here. So. In general, $48,000 a year in expenses, which is breaks down to about 4000 a month. And she says, I want to get. The guarantees. I want to take a lot of the risk off the table. I'm okay with some risk. But look, I've got a plan and I'm just not that much at risk. So here's what she's putting in place that the we talked about that IUL tax free approach where you can.

Merrit Strunk:
Yes. Have a death benefit and depends on your drawdown. Yes. Tax free income when you turn it on for the rest of your life, depending on how you structure it. And then if she gets ill, she gets chronic care in some cases and some policies. So she says, I want to put $2,000 a month in an index universal life policy for ten years. And that policy is illustrated to deliver $44,214 a year tax free. All right. That's the moral of the story right there. Starting when when she's 65. So now she's 50. She'll put two grand in a month. And the way it looks is 44,214 coming back to her each year when she starts the income tax free income at 65. You get it. That's pretty cool. So she's going to contribute from ages 50 to 60. Then she's going to keep working until 65. Notice there is a gap there. You know, she's not funding it for the five years there. So she'll essentially like she'll put it in, let it sit. She won't take anything out of that. No withdrawals from that policy for five years after she stops paying her premiums at 60. And then at 65, she turns it on. It starts taking that tax free income because that's retirement. And if you think taxes are going up in the future, then this is an incredible return in our income bucket.

Merrit Strunk:
That's 44,214 a year and will be worth 59,050 9006 88 a year in pre-tax dollars. Interesting equivalency, right. And all she's doing is putting 2000 a month away for ten years. You get it? Okay. I hope so. So she's making she'll make a slight adjustment in her lifestyle for ten years. She'll reap the benefits from age 65 to 90. Right. That's the kind of the the end of life planning horizon there. So 65 to 90 with income that eclipses what she's due to receive in Social Security. So she's got Social Security coming in and more money coming in tax free with the EOL. Pretty cool. So she is definitely getting with this strategy, getting into the the guarantees with this IUL approach. And again, that's called life insurance as a retirement plan. So what is she getting out of this? She's cutting out future income tax rate risk. So what are the chances that income taxes are going up? She's cutting that out. She's cutting out market risk. Right. And she's diminishing inflation risk as her money will grow with market gains over time. Nice. So I'd say she would be very happy with this this situation here just as one part of her strategy. But now she's saying, all right, well, does it make sense for me to implement a Roth conversion ladder and invest $500,000 into an annuity as part of her bond replacement tax strategy? So she is also going to generate $32,462 as an additional strategy and annual income from her half a million dollar annuity.

Merrit Strunk:
She went with a 5050 allocation plan and she has $1,000,000 total in her 401 K in her IRA. So she's really saved up and done it, done a great job. So she left 50% at risk in the market and took 50% off the table to avoid risk with half of her money. So she's got that $1,000,000 for one can Ira. Then she did a rollover and put it into the annuity, and now she's generating that 32,462 when she's ready to turn that on. And another safe thing she did, because she's fairly conservative, she invested in a five year MIGA every quarter earning and we said 5%, but earned 5% for the month. Beyond her six month emergency fund. So she has a real plan, right? A really nice plan. Lots of income that's guaranteed a good chunk of it, tax free income. She's made a Roth conversion and she's got money that has a guaranteed rate of return for five years. Wow. So she's got that real plan. She's I would imagine this lady is super happy and she doesn't have to significantly worry whether or not the stock market are going up or down or there's geopolitical risk or the tax environment or anything else like that. I dare say that with our fictitious Linda, that we've built a fortress on bedrock, on guarantees, not on what could be, but what is not on sand.

Merrit Strunk:
So really, really tight plans. So, look, that was an example of how all those pieces came together to make a really solid plan. It's a possibility that some of these things are not going to be in your future or appropriate for you. But for some of you, it really is. It's a possibility if you have the conversation and take a look at it. So we provide comprehensive consultations at no cost to our listeners. So if you contact us, we'll take a look at see, see if this ideal plan can work for you. We'll help you analyze your current situation. If you've got annuities and you're not sure about them, we'll take a look at that. We'll give you our unbiased opinion on that and we'll tell you exactly what you're doing in your 401. K and your IRAs. Like what fees are you paying or what performance are you getting? And by the way, I know this for a fact, because we do it all the time when we look through 401. Case and help our clients pick what is appropriate for them or what they were in. And they've lost so much money in always, always. They have no clue. I had no clue. Why doesn't anybody explain this? And I tell them it's like because they just don't take the time to do it. It takes time to do it, but they just don't take time to do it.

Merrit Strunk:
And if you need that and you want that, why not? It's just a few minutes out of your time so we can also help you determine what's your ideal and optimum Social Security plan. Case in point, we were doing a a review of a retirement plan just yesterday. And for this client, we were looking at a lot of a lot of great things in her plans. I'm just so happy that if she didn't need the income to turn it on at 67, then if she could wait till 70 over her lifetime, that was close to another quarter million dollars over a lifetime. She said, Well, then should I do it? And I was like, Well, let's make sure that you have enough income so that that's a possibility. And if and if not, then we know we have an income gap in retirement and we may have to turn it on. But let's take a look and see if we can't make that work. So we're going to take a break right here and then we're going to come back and talk about how you can reduce costs on a cost cutter ideal for you. And then we'll wrap it up very soon. All right. So let's take a break. If you haven't been to our website, that's Retirement Unbroken. My name is Merrit Strunk, and this is the Retirement Unbroken show.

Producer:
You're listening to Your Retirement Unbroken. To schedule your complimentary consultation with Merrit, visit Retirement Unbroken dot com.

Producer:
Have you experienced age discrimination in the workplace? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement radio Network. Powered by a Life. If you're 50 or older, chances are you've either seen or personally suffered from age discrimination at work. That's true for nearly two thirds of workers in that age group, according to research from AARP.

Bill Rivera:
And the pandemic certainly contributes to that persistence, with one in four people who have been let go or otherwise left the workplace during the pandemic, having trouble finding a job if they're 50 or older.

Producer:
Bill Rivera is senior vice president for litigation at the AARP Foundation. He says spotting age discrimination is not always easy, but there are signs to watch out for.

Bill Rivera:
For example, are promotions or training opportunities or key assignments given to younger workers routinely over older workers. Do you hear around the office? And does the company tolerate jokes about age and ageism, Like referring to the idea that you can't teach old dogs new tricks?

Producer:
Rivera says if you see possible age discrimination, it's important to document it.

Bill Rivera:
And you want to do that as close in time to when it happens. So note the date, what you saw, what you heard, who else was there? Talk to your supervisor. A lot of times you can resolve these things informally, but if you can't, you may need to go up the chain.

Producer:
And he says the AARP Foundation has several resources available to help older workers.

Bill Rivera:
For example, Back to Work 50 plus, which has free workshops, tools and career coaches to help you, as well as AARP Resume Advisor, where we will for free review your resume and provide advice and tips to make your resume stand out, as well as AARP's job board to connect you with employers who've indicated they are interested in an age diverse workforce.

Producer:
So what would you do if you see or experience age discrimination at work? That's a key question to consider. As Americans are living and working longer with a retirement radio network powered by a married life. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
Are you concerned about inflation, political uncertainty, rising taxes, and how it could all affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over 400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying over a 35 plus year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your free Roth conversion consultation with Merrit Strunk at Retirement Unbroken Dot.com. This part of today's show, Your Retirement Unbroken, is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement unbroken dot com.

Merrit Strunk:
All right. Welcome back. This is Merrit, and you are listening to the retirement and broken show. I hope you got that last section before the break. Wow. Powerful. Can you imagine putting all those pieces together where you've got tax free income, you've got guaranteed rates of return, you've taken risk off the table. So all those components came together in a plan for Linda. I hope that you're a Linda out there walking around and you're asking those right questions. I think the right question for you to ask is how can that apply to me? What parts of it could apply to me? And like I say, reach out to us and we could chat about it.

Producer:
Here's the cost cutter of the week.

Merrit Strunk:
Okay. So real quick here and a little bit of time that we have left, we're going to talk about just being smart, cutting out cost and interesting. When's the last time you reviewed all those subscriptions and charges you're getting to your your credit card, Right. And little ones sneak in there and sometimes you forget about them. But if you're going to cut some costs, you might ask yourself these questions. Everybody walks around with a cell phone right now, and we had to do the same thing at Merritt's household, which is, do we really need a landline anymore? It seemed like the only calls we were getting were people soliciting us. And and unless you need it for business or something like that, you may consider cutting that off. Jump over the the line and say, you know what? We're going to go ahead and do this so you can cut that landline cost and just use your cell phone. It does pay off to go back to your cell phone provider and see what deals they have. So think about cutting that up. And also, have you shopped around for a better cell phone rate lately? There's always deals that are happening out there. Sometimes when people look at how much they're paying for their cell phones or it's bundled with their cable, there can be some better deals out there.

Merrit Strunk:
So what my wife says is it doesn't hurt to ask. You're right. It doesn't hurt to ask. And if you are watching traditional cable out there, would you be better off watching? And we see more and more of this on as we go through monthly expenses with clients and say, is this all is this all you're doing for your your cable and Internet? Or like, yeah, we don't get traditional cable, we just stream. And how do you like it? Oh, it's fine. We really to watch that much turned out we don't really miss our our cable we use Netflix or just Amazon Prime or Hulu. So could you lower your cost by just knocking off the cable and going straight towards a streaming thing as that is getting more and more of the trend here? And lastly, are you getting a package of printing on dead trees every day or weekend? And what I'm talking about is newspapers or magazines. Could you convert and go to the online subscriptions? Do you have a tablet that you can go through that or a reader that you can do that you can eliminate some costs doing those things. So those are a couple of cost cutting ideas to always ask, right? As you go through your bills and saying, well, if you added that up over 30 years, how much would you be paying? Right.

Merrit Strunk:
And could you be using that to do something better? Well, I'll leave you with those ideas. And we really had a jam packed show today. Think about that. Think about the plan that we talked about. Think about what we've been asked and we delivered on the show today, which is how do I take the risk off the table and how I put guarantees in. Instead, we talked about bond replacements, talk about guarantees, we talked about tax free retirement income. And I dare say those are some of the the top ideas that you can use to put in place the guarantees and take risk off the table. For now, this has been the retirement unbroken show and unbroken nation. I'm glad you've joined and hopefully you were fed exactly what you need, exactly when you need it. My name is Merrit, president of Momentum Financial and the show. We love to get comments back from our listeners, so go to our website at retirement unbroken dot com and send us a line or give us a call at 858 521 9700. We'll see you next time.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Your Retirement Unbroken. You deserve to work with an experienced and licensed expert who will strategically work to protect and grow your hard earned assets to schedule your complimentary no obligation consultation with Merrit. Visit retirement unbroken dot com or pick up the phone and call 858 521 9700. That's 858 521 9700. Advisory services are offered through Momentum Financial and Insurance Services LLC, an investment advisor in the state of California. Insurance products and services are offered through merit strong and independent agent. California. License number 07510. Certified Financial Fiduciary is a federally recognized professional certification.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your mp3 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you'd love including automated subtitles, powerful integrations and APIs, world-class support, automatic transcription software, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.