In a recent post, I wrote about the importance of having a winning game plan for retirement savings. I was reporting on a Safe Money Show broadcast in which Singer Financial Group president Brian Singer and his co-host Bruce Ford spoke with Singer Financial client Tim about how Americans are living longer, with many outliving their retirement savings. Working with Brian, Tim had crafted a game-changing retirement savings plan based on this winning game plan: the best offense is a good defense.
Think I got that wrong? Oh sure, the usual turn of phrase is that the “best defense is a good offense,” but in these uncertain economic times, the opposite can be a powerful truth. By crafting a retirement savings strategy that protects your principal, locks out losses, locks in gains, mitigates your tax burden and guarantees you a monthly paycheck, you can defend against threats to your quality of life in retirement. Brian Singer calls it “Safe Money” for a reason.
Consider this:
If your retirement savings were tied up in the stock market a few years ago, you were probably hit hard by the recession and the resulting bear market. Even if you held your ground and stayed in the market long enough to see your portfolio rebound, you still lost time. Can you afford to lose more time? Can you afford to lose your principal (let alone gains) if another recession hits?
Brian Singer likes to say this: “If you prepare for rough times, you’ll do fine if good times unfold instead, but if you count on good times coming or continuing, your portfolio can be wiped out if they fail to materialize.” He also says that, “No one ever went bust preparing for tough times.” That’s what we mean when we say that a good defense can be your best offense.
How about you? Are you thinking about saving for retirement or trying to figure out your best long-term retirement strategies? Brian and the team here at Singer Financial Group in Brownsburg, Indiana can help you put together your best defensive retirement savings game plan of principal-protected and guaranteed income components.
But now is the time for action! Take the offensive. Defend your retirement. Take our Ready 2 Retire survey and put your Financial GPS in motion. Then call Brian Singer today at 317-852-9153. You’ll be glad you did!
Bob
The Singer Financial Group Blog Team
Americans are living longer than ever, and in the game of life, this is like going into overtime or playing extra innings. In sports, if you have a “deep bench” and are prepared for extended play, you will be well-positioned to come out on top. It’s the same in the retirement savings game: prepare to play a longer game and you’ll be a winner. Of course, it helps to have a master strategist and coach who can help you prepare a winning retirement savings game plan. That’s where Brian Singer and the pro team here at Singer Financial Group in Brownsburg, Indiana come in.
As Brian and co-host Bruce Ford shared on a recent radiocast of the “Safe Money Show“, going into overtime by living longer can certainly be a blessing. But it can also bring concerns over rising costs, health care challenges, and quality of life issues. These were some of the concerns of Tim, a Singer Financial Group client. Tim joined Brian and Bruce on the Safe Money Show and was very frank about his initial skepticism over “safe” money and guaranteed retirement income. You see, Tim recently joined the ranks of the semi-retired after a sudden corporate upheaval, and one February afternoon found himself listening to the Safe Money Show. Listening and doubting, that is. Armed with a healthy dose of skepticism, Tim contacted Brian and started an exhaustive process of “due diligence” as he considered the safe money, guaranteed income and tax-free retirement alternatives Brian presented. Tim now says he is confident that he can live comfortably in retirement, stay in his home, and handle any major medical event. What led to Tim’s new level of confidence? A game-changing multi-faceted retirement savings and income plan from Singer Financial Group.
What about you? Are you a skeptic like Tim? There’s no time like the present to call Brian Singer and ask him to prove to you that you can go into the extra innings of life and come out on top. Not quite ready to make that call? For a sneak peek at some of the retirement savings issues, considerations and alternatives, take our Ready 2 Retire survey and put your Financial GPS in motion.
But do something! The game clock is ticking, so it’s time to get off the bench, get in the game, and prepare yourself to be a winner in the game of life for many years to come.
Bob
The Singer Financial Group Blog Team
April was Financial Literacy Month in America, so what better place to talk about financial information and education than at a Retirement Forum at the University of Indianapolis? That’s exactly where Singer Financial Group President Brian Singer and co-host Bruce Ford conducted a recent Safe Money Show. And who better to discuss essential financial information and planning with Brian and Bruce than Dr. Rachel Smith, Associate Professor of Finance, and Coordinator of Undergraduate Finance Curriculum at U of I?
In case you missed it, here are some key messages from Brian, Bruce and Dr. Smith:
They discussed the challenges facing Baby Boomers entering their retirement years. Dr. Smith noted a recent study in which 82% of respondents in their late 40s reported being more afraid of outliving their retirement money than they are of dying! In these uncertain economic times, it’s a valid fear.
Dr. Smith noted, however, that because Baby Boomers are typically healthier and live longer than their parents, they may choose to work longer and defer taking Social Security and drawing from their retirement savings. During that time, they can continue to save. More important, however, is the fact that they should craft a prudent retirement plan. Brian, Bruce and Dr. Smith agreed that such a plan should be proactive, but simple. It might include a way to reduce debt (highest rate debt obligations paid down first), and include the creation of an emergency fund. Finally, a thoughtful retirement plan – as appropriate to one’s unique and individual needs – could include a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, commodities, and Fixed Indexed Annuities, or FIAs.
But again, the first step to a safe, secure and happy retirement is to improve your financial literacy; and a great way to start that learning process is with the help of the Society of Financial Awareness, or SOFA, a 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit organization. SOFA is a speaker’s bureau of financial experts who will be more than happy to give a no-cost, no-obligation presentation to your community, religious or workplace group. Brian Singer is the President of the Central Indiana chapter of SOFA, so visit the SOFA link on the Singer Financial Group website today to learn more.
Finally, remember this: Knowledge is power, and once you become better informed about your retirement savings and tax-free retirement options, you can eliminate your fears about retirement and move confidently into the best time of your life. The Singer Financial Group in Brownsburg, Indiana is ready to help you plan your safe money retirement. Call us today, won’t you?
Bob
The Singer Financial Group Blog Team
When you think about your retirement years, you probably picture a stress-free life of leisure. The last thing on your mind is going into battle to hang onto your hard-earned retirement savings. But make no mistake: planning for a financially secure retirement means you’ll need to be fully armed against enemy landmines, snipers and poison-tipped spears lurking in the guise of economic uncertainty. Yes, securing your retirement is a battlefield. But the team here at Singer Financial Group in Brownsburg, Indiana, is in full battle gear and ready to arm you with a Safe Money Battle Plan for a more secure financial future.
On a recent radiocast of the “Safe Money Show”, Brian Singer and co-host Bruce Ford pointed out the vulnerabilities of world economies and how they can impact the financial futures of people like you and me. Ours is a global economy, with nations linked and woven together in ways most of us have never imagined. Because of this, what happens to a national economy in, say, Greece, can quickly become a weapon of mass destruction that brings financial pain and suffering to those of us halfway around the globe. It’s scary, but the first step to devising an effective battle plan against inadequate retirement savings is to recognize the danger.
The next step to ensuring a more secure financial future for your retirement is to make sure you save enough during your earning years. But even if you have been diligent in saving, you could still be undone by these seven tactical errors in planning for your retirement:
1. Assuming you have control over when you stop working
2. Ignoring the tax impact of retirement income distributions
3. Not saving enough for medical costs
4. Failing to lock up lifetime income
5. Retiring too early
6. Underestimating your life expectancy
7. Drawing down your retirement savings too rapidly
Seven ways to fall victim to the enemies of your retirement financial security! Luckily, the Singer Financial Group team has your back. Here is Brian’s 3-step Battle Plan to help fortify your retirement savings plan:
1. Survey and assess your retirement financial situation with our Ready 2 Retire survey
2. Plan your retirement savings battle campaign with our Retirement Roadmap
3. Engage and conquer those enemies that threaten your retirement security by activating your Financial GPS
Still not sure you are armed and ready to go to battle to safeguard your retirement? Call us today. At Singer Financial Group, we can help you take charge, keep your money safe and win the war for your financial security!
Bob
The Singer Financial Group Blog Team
Remember the Tina Turner song, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Just the mention of it embeds the rhythm in your head, right? With Turner laying down the vocals, the song could just as easily have been called “What’s Luck Got to Do With It?”. After all, even in her 70′s, Tina Turner is not only a high-energy entertainer, she’s also a survivor. Hers is a great comeback story. Rather than merely accepting the rough times in her life and wishing for better times, she took control of her future and put herself solidly on the road to success and prosperity. Luck had nothing to do with it. So, as we think about retirement planning and guaranteeing adequate retirement income as we age, we can take a lesson from Tina: Preparation – not luck – is the key to prosperous and tax-free retirement living.
Tina Turner is not the only singer who can teach us something about success and prosperity for our later years. Brian Singer, president of Singer Financial Group in Brownsburg, Indiana belts out solid financial planning advice and insights that can put you in the groove and on the right track for a more secure financial future. You’ve probably heard Tina on the radio, but have you heard Brian Singer there yet? Along with co-host Bruce Ford, Brian hosts “The Safe Money Show”, filled with essential investment advice and information to help you achieve your tax-free retirement and financial planning goals.
For example, on a recent Safe Money show, Brian shared these words of advice from Howard Marks, founder of investment powerhouse Oaktree Capital, shared at the March 2012 CFA Investment Forum in Indianapolis, Indiana:
• If you prepare for tough times, you’ll do fine if good times unfold instead
• If you prepare for (and count on) good times, their failure to materialize can knock you out
• No one ever went bust preparing for tough times
In other words, preparation is the key to protecting against financial risk and guaranteeing a better financial future and more secure retirement living for seniors. It’s all about planning. Luck has nothing to do with it!
How can you begin preparing for your best retirement living? Download our financial planning white papers and strategy information. Better still, give us a call today. To paraphrase Tina Turner, if you’ve been thinkin’ about your own protection, we at Singer Financial Group can help you take on a new direction!
Bob
The Singer Financial Group Blog Team
After watching Willard Scott on TV the other day, I went to the store and happened to check out the Smuckers product line. Smuckers, you may recall, sponsors Scott’s Today Show segment where he salutes people who are celebrating their 100th (or higher) birthdays. At the store, as is my habit, I turned the jar to examine the expiration date and found that I had about 2 years to use up the contents of the jar. No problem, right? With food products, you are supposed to use the product before the expiration date. But if you do that with your retirement savings – use it up before you expire – then you really are in a jam, aren’t you? Luckily, Singer Financial Group CEO Brian Singer and the “safe money” team here at SFG in Brownsburg, Indiana can help.
On a recent radio broadcast of their Safe Money Show, Brian and co-host Bruce Ford shared some information that was, frankly, jarring. Did you know, for example, that, on average, retired households spend about 80 percent of what working households spend, but their earnings are only about 57% of those of working households? Obviously, that continuing deficit can quickly eat into retirement savings.
What’s more, the “4% Rule” (the widely held belief that retirees can pull about 4% each year from their retirement savings with a high probability that their savings will last 30 years) no longer seems a reliable rule-of-thumb. In fact, a 2011 article by Wade D. Pfau, Ph.D., asserts that “safe withdrawal” rates have actually been lower for many years and continue to decline. Pfau’s model, for example, predicts a safe withdrawal rate from retirement savings of only 1.5% for retirements beginning in 2010. Could you live on 1.5% of your retirement savings each year? If not, you may be in a retirement savings jam that not even Willard Scott can put a happy face on.
So how can you make sure your retirement savings are safe and won’t expire before you do? The answer begins with a visit to our website to download financial planning white papers and strategy information. Better yet, give us a call to discuss how you can achieve your financial planning goals with tax-free retirement and safe money retirement strategies. Bottom line: We can help you create a safe money plan to preserve your retirement savings and avoid the retirement savings jam.
Bob
The Singer Financial Group Blog Team
The book Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin has been made into a documentary movie currently airing on HBO. Tune in or record it if you can – it’s an accurate and fascinating review of the behind the scenes realities of the 2008 financial crisis. Here’s the really scary irony of Too Big to Fail – the “solution” to the acute pain of the crisis, resulted in new consolidation of the very financial institutions that were already deemed “too big to fail”. Stay tuned – you haven’t seen your last serious financial crisis.
If you think the derivative crisis is over, think again. Get to know Brooksley Born and some interesting history on the realities of the derivatives world. We need to heed her warning. Like Warren Buffett says; “One thing we learn from history, is that people don’t learn from history!” Check out these links. It’s fascinating stuff! We ignore the warnings at our own peril.
Crooks and Liars Video
PBS Video
Sept 4, 2010: Today on the Safe Money Show on Fox News Talk radio 1430AM we talked about – What if….
1) What if….Your retirement account had an income account value guaranteed to grow at no less than 8% annually – ON TOP OF a 10% bonus credited to all first year deposits for up to seven years? (So….$100,000 turns into $110,000 on day one and then grows at no less than 8% annually for future income)
2) What if…..You could have safety and opportunity on the same dollar at the same time?
3) What if….Your principal protected retirement account had demonstrated the potential to capture a 53% annual return during one of the most challenging financial cycles we have ever experienced?
4) What if….Every year the market went down, you could demand your money back, and then reinvest at the lower price?
5) What if…. Your account would automatically capture a percentage of the upward movement of the market without any funds needing to be liquidated?
6) What if…. Your principal protected, market linked account not only GREW TAX FREE, but provided TAX FREE CASH FLOW that never even appeared on your tax return?!?!
Sound too good to be true? The simple truth is – you don’t know what you don’t know. At the Singer Financial Group, we work with successful people who choose to know. What about you? Are you ready to take the guess work out of retirement and income planning? Come see us. We’ll show you how to implement the Five Keys To Financial Longevity.
And….Beware those who think the worst is past – Check out the Financial Times article dated Aug 30th, 2010. This is based on a paper presented at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where central bankers gathered at their annual conference last week. Ignore these economic realities at your peril.
Check out what the WSJ had to say about The SEC’s Annuity Smackdown. The key points from the July 21st article on page 17……
This particular illegal SEC land grab began in 2008, when then chief Christopher Cox announced his agency would regulate fixed indexed annuities. These niche products, like traditional annuities, guarantee buyers a return of their principal and a certain level of interest. The bonus is that they also earn interest on the upside performance of stock or bond indexes. If the S&P 500 goes up, the annuity holders profit. If it falls, investors still get their principal and interest.
Fixed indexed annuities have long been treated as insurance products, subject to strict state insurance regulation. Yet Mr. Cox and his merry band argued that these annuity products ought to be considered “securities” (and thus under SEC purview) because they involve market “risk.” Never mind that the only risk to investors is that they might make more money than expected.
The SEC’s rule, which passed in December 2008 on a 4-1 vote, required annuities to be registered with the SEC and sold by registered broker-dealers, rather than insurance agents. This was a slap at state insurance commissioners, particularly because the SEC couldn’t provide a legitimate reason that states should be robbed of their regulatory authority. A coalition of insurance commissioners sued, as did the insurance industry. Current SEC chief Mary Schapiro could have pulled the plug at that point, but true to her history she plowed ahead in court. (See our editorial, “The SEC’s Annuity Grab,” March 7, 2009.)
Lo, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week threw out the rule in its entirety, noting it was arbitrary and capricious given existing state oversight. And in case the SEC didn’t take that hint, Congress included a provision in the new financial regulation bill that more or less bars the agency from regulating these products. Even Democrats decided this SEC power grab would serve no purpose other than to make fixed indexed annuities more expensive, and cost their home state insurance industries jobs.
Perhaps now, the SEC can focus on the securities industry, and figure out a way to bring consumer awareness and transparency to an industry that ignores the need to protect principal when it comes to retirement and income planning. I know – that is more than we can hope for – in fact, it’s just not possible. It’s the nature of the beast.
I’m proud to focus my practice on the protection of principal AND income solutions. Providing safety and opportunity, on the same dollar at the same time. Wow! I’m so thankful that these powerful and innovative SAFE MONEY solutions continue to be offered and regulated as insurance products. Why? Because insurance companies manage risks – they don’t take risks.
These insurance products allow the Singer Financial Group to remain true to our mission; We show you how to never lose money, and never run out of money in retirement!
In a recent post, I wrote about the importance of having a winning game plan for retirement savings. I was reporting on a Safe Money Show broadcast in which Singer Financial Group president Brian Singer and his co-host Bruce Ford spoke with Singer Financial client Tim about how Americans are living longer, with many outliving their retirement savings. Working with Brian, Tim had crafted a game-changing retirement savings plan based on this winning game plan: the best offense is a good defense.
