Get to the Guarantees for a Better Financial Future

10.6.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

10.6.23: 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 Safe Money Masters with Greg Castle. Get ready for a full hour of financial information and economic news you can't afford to miss. Greg works hard each and every day to help hard working Americans like you navigate challenges and reach the financial freedom they desire and deserve. So now let's start the show. Here's Greg Castle.

Greg Castle:
Hello and welcome to Safe Money Masters, where our main goal is to help you, our listeners, become masters of your money and teach you how to keep it safe. Now, we hope you're having a terrific Tuesday. And one way to make it even more terrific is to offer our listeners something free. I'm Greg Kassel, and I'll be your host, along with my co-host and executive producer, Matt McClure. Matt, last week our program was all about estate planning. So as you learn from last week's discussion, there are a number of documents that go into an estate plan. Two of those documents are powers of attorney, a medical power of attorney, which basically basically dictates how you want things to happen. If you happen to be, you know, medically, have a medical issue and have to go to the hospital or to a doctor and a durable power of attorney, which is basically a general power of attorney, which covers a much broader spectrum of of powers that you would pass away. Now, if you would, those are two very important documents. And if you would like us to prepare those two documents for you, absolutely free, then shoot me an email at Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com. There's no catch and no cost. So, Matt, here we are once again with another terrific Tuesday lineup. So why don't you tell our listeners what they can expect to hear on today's show?

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. I love that that free offer there as well to start things off. And, you know, giving stuff away is is nice. You know, it's better to give than to receive. So that's the mode that we open up the show with. So absolutely love it. Well yeah we do have a lot of great stuff coming up here in the show over this next hour. Greg, we've got our quote of the week. Of course, to start things off, start our discussions with a little little words of wisdom here. We've also got a problem solver this week a problem solver segment about market volatility. It's got a lot of people worried about the future. How are some or what are some ways I should say that you can prepare for that ahead of time in case, you know, kind of the the unthinkable happens here as is happened a few times in the history of the stock market. We'll play right or wrong. We'll test your financial knowledge on things like real estate, safe investments a lot more as well. And also, you know, they always say expect for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Producer:
We're going to teach you how to prepare for the worst. Got several key tips there to share with you in case the stock market crashes. We've got going to open up the mailbag this week too. We'll have our Ask Greg segment, and then we'll get to a little this week in history before we close things out. And you know, folks, if you have been listening to the show, whether on the radio or on the podcast version, which you can get at SafeMoneyMasters.com and if you've been doing that because you're interested in improving your financial situation and hopefully here's the goal retiring someday. Yes. Don't those words sound nice? We want you to let Castle Financial Solutions help you with some one on one attention. Just give them a call. It's 813430 7100 (813) 430-7100, or you can visit the website at SafeMoneyMasters.com. They'd be happy to meet with you personally and provide customized guidance and solutions based on your specific financial needs. And that really is what it is all about. Well, Greg, time to get things rolling here. Let's let's give the folks our quote of the week, shall we?

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the quote of the week.

Producer:
This week's quote comes from fellow financial show host Dave Ramsey, who once said, quote, your income is your most important wealth building tool, and when your money is tied up in monthly debt payments, you're working hard to make everyone else rich, unquote. Oh, so your thoughts, Matt.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, no, I love that. Because if you are, if you're in debt, especially if you're if you're drowning in debt, like a lot of people are these days, you can't get ahead. You don't have resources to really put money aside for your future. You don't have money to put aside, to build wealth, to put that money to work for you as hard as you work for it, right? You're always feel like you're behind. You're trying to catch up, you're trying to stay on top of those bills every month, and then you've got nothing else left over. So you sort of get rid of that big wealth building tool that you have. And in the meantime, you could be paying if you're paying credit card bills and personal loans and all that, you know, interest rates in the teens and even higher. And so you're just all you're doing is making the bank rich. You're not really doing much for yourself.

Producer:
Well, you're exactly right. Now, everyone knows that. I don't agree 100% with a lot of things that Dave Ramsey says, but this is one I definitely am on board with. You know, Dave is a is a is a great dude. He's helped to help thousands of people over over the years. But, you know, my main disagreement. With Dave is that, you know, he sort of advocates a one size fits all, you know, approach to retirement and a reproach to, you know, saving money, getting out of debt. It gets you out of debt, may make you miserable in the process. But the, you know, a financial adviser is basically going to make sure that, you know, they're going to get into more specifics and they're going to customize and tailor a program for for your particular situation, as opposed to giving you the same answers that someone else is going to get. But this quote, you know, is definitely important. I'm 100% on board with it. Debt is not a good thing. And certainly, you know, your income is is the main tool you're going to have for most people anyway to to not only build wealth, but basically to get out of debt. So and it's hard to build wealth while you're in debt. So take that take that quote as it is. Take that.

Producer:
Take that quote to the bank thought was what you were going to say there.

Greg Castle:
Take take that quote to the bank. Exactly. Now, before we get into today's topics, you know, as always, I'd like to take just a minute to to once again remind our listeners what our show is all about. You know, the whole premise of this show is to bring you topics and tools and information that's going to help you protect and grow your wealth and retirement income. So, you know, obviously, we hope you're going to keep tuning in. You can catch us every Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. on on Money Talk 1010, which is now Think Tampa Podcast radio 1010 and also in your local FM stations 92.1 and 103.1. So if you happen to miss an episode, you can always catch a replay of Safe Money, masters.com or wherever you happen to listen to your favorite podcast. And if you like, you can also check out our YouTube channel and subscribe to see weekly video highlights. It's a special content and if you've got any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you! Feel free to email me personally at Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com. Or just give me a call at the office at (813) 430-7100. It's again 813430 7100. And if people.

Producer:
Do that, Greg and we hope, of course, again, that they do. One of the great things not only that you offer for free, you know, you talked about those powers of attorney, part of an estate plan that you would offer for free to to be completed as a service to our listeners, but also full retirement plan consultations as well. And that is, you know, not just something where you skim the surface and you look at, okay, here's what your income is, and, you know, we'll put together something that may be like a one size fits all thing, like you were talking about a minute ago, but you really do a deep dive here and and get a good picture of everybody's financial situation. Who takes advantage of it?

Producer:
You're exactly right. You know, in addition to estate planning, we provide comprehensive consultations at no cost to our listeners. And, you know, there's never an obligation. It's not a good fit for you. It's not a good fit for us. And being a good fit on your part. You don't need you don't need to be rich to work with us. We'll work with anybody that has a desire to improve their outcome for their future. We just wanna make sure there's mutual fit. In other words, we will try and be as kind and and polite and as informative as we possibly can to you. All we expect from you is that you be nice. If you're not nice, we don't want to work with you. And we fired a lot of clients over the years because, you know, even potential clients, because we just know that it's not going to be a good fit. So if you're a good person with a good heart and you just want some help, we're the ones that you want to talk to. So you know, we can help you analyze your financial situation.

Producer:
You know, we can closely examine any assets you may currently have and make any recommendations for improvement. If we see something that makes sense, we'll discover exactly how much you're paying in fees and help you cut unnecessary costs in your IRA 401 K, 403 BES, or any other retirement savings account you happen to have. We can also help you with Social Security planning. Social security seems so simple. We've said it time and time again, but there is a huge, huge manual on all the things that Social Security could actually do and what all the procedures and policies within Social Security. And just from a planning purpose alone, a planning platform alone, if you really do the wrong things, it could cost you literally tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime. You know, we can also help you explore strategies to help you maximize retirement income and minimize taxes. And as we always say on this show, just remember it's your money. If it matters to you, it matters to us because you matter to us. There you.

Producer:
Go. And that's the kind of person that you want to work with to plan your financial future. Once again, the website for the show is SafeMoneyMasters.com. That's all. One word. SafeMoneyMasters.com or call Greg at 813430 7100.

Producer:
It's time.

Producer:
For this week's Problem Solver.

Producer:
What we will do over these next few minutes is as as I often do, I will present a problem and Greg will present the solution to that problem here. Now, the problem this time around that we're going to going to attempt to solve or Greg is going to solve, is that more and more people are really expressing a lot of concern about the recent market downturn. It's been a bumpy ride on Wall Street, in other words, here over the last couple of months. And and really, you know, people are worried about that for understandable reasons. You know, we're sort of feeling the the sting of the, you know, the big market upheaval around Covid, which of course, that was something that was short lived. But, you know, the 2008 financial crisis, that wasn't that long ago either. So, Greg, let's talk about first what is going on in the markets lately, and then we'll we'll get to a solution here in just a minute. Okay.

Producer:
Uh, you know, first let's look at the performance of the S&P 500. So far this year, the benchmark index of the S&P 500 is up so far in 2023. Year to date know. But things have taken a U-turn in the past couple of months. From August 1st through the end of September, the S&P 500 lost more than 6% of its value, which basically wiped out a big chunk of the the gains from earlier in the year. It also, you know, some people are are concerned about the so-called October effect, you know, did a little research and discovered that Investopedia defines this as the psychological anticipation that financial declines, the stock market crashes are more likely to happen this month. For example, the bank panic of 1907, the stock market crash of 1929, and Black Monday, October 19th, 1987, of which I was a stockbroker at that particular time. It was the most miserable day of my life. All happened during the month of October. So a lot of bad things with the stock market have happened in October. And I remember vividly October 19th, 1987, Black Monday was going to.

Producer:
Say you did some very in-depth research on that one, Greg. You didn't have to go that far. You know.

Producer:
It didn't take a lot of research. It took a lot of bad memories. That's right. Big bumps. You know, not not a not a pretty day. Um, you know, a lot of people are wondering what to do with their investments during these uncertain times. And, you know, this show is about what to do. You haven't made a decision unless you've taken action. So don't sit around and wait for for bad things to happen in October, November or December. Take some action to try and preserve, you know, some of the some of the nest egg you've already accumulated at this point.

Producer:
Yeah, that's absolutely true. So then, you know, with all that being said, with all the worry out there, whether it's, you know, something that is, you know, let's say, whether it's justified or not based on just the fact that it's October and people get scared or the fact that it has been rocky as you as you put it, you know, over these past couple months on Wall Street, what is the solution there? So people can be prepared, you know, in case things do go south.

Producer:
You know, again, there's no one size fits all. So it depends, you know, if you're in your 20s or early 30s, you can probably ride out the markets and and live with any losses you might incur. You know, however, losses are always painful, but you most likely will have time to recover. If you're that young, you know, just just just take the example of going to Vegas. You you know, you may have money in your pocket. You're young, no big deal. You go to Vegas, you put money down, you're gambling, and all of a sudden you find yourself, you know, you've lost that money, you can afford to lose it, but you still hate to lose it. Okay? Nobody likes to lose money, even though it's just basically entertainment. And we budget for that, hopefully. But anyway, same thing is true of the stock market. You know, money's there and it can be lost. And you feel horrible when you look at your account and find out you've lost money, you know. But as you get older and near the red zone, which the red zone is basically, you know, five years prior to retirement and the five years following retirement, you need to reconsider your investment strategy. Excessive losses could have a significant negative effect on your retirement plans. And if you become a if you've been in a buy and hold strategy, like a lot of people have, but have been wanting to take some risk off the table, now's the time to consider it. Matt, you know, we've talked about one of our preferred solutions many times on this show.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we're talking about fixed indexed annuities here as this first, you know, kind of main part of the solution. And it's something that we have discussed before we will discuss many times again. But that's for good reason. And it's because it is a good solution for so many people, because, you know, it is a vehicle where you can get still those market like gains, but without that investment risk, as if your if your money is exposed to the stock. Market like so many people are experiencing, you know, that that worry and all of that, you know, developing, developing many ulcers and things like that because they're worried about the stock market risk. Well, this really does take that off the table here.

Producer:
It does. As we've said many times before, if you want to take market risk and longevity risk off the table. In other words, the money that you cannot live. There's no better solution than to take a portion of your nest egg. In other words, the portion that you want to keep safe and put it in a fixed indexed annuity.

Producer:
Yeah, that's that's true. And so give our listeners just a quick review of a lot of the elements of a fixed indexed annuity and kind of the pros and cons here.

Producer:
I will be happy to do that. You know, first of all, you got to bear in mind that, you know, a fixed indexed annuity, we'll call them fees for for the sake of the rest of this conversation. And fire is is a long term investment. In other words, you want to put your money there and you want to leave. It was basically every year you get a chance to go back and and reallocate which strategy you want your funds to be in for better growth. And, you know, basically you make a lump sum deposit, you transfer funds from retirement plans or make multiple payments over time in some cases. But your money is going to grow tax deferred. Your investment performance is tied to the market, but you're not directly invested in the market. In other words, basically, you're going to be tied to an index like the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq, or in some cases the Dow or even a proprietary index, which is normally volatility controlled. Your money's not going to be actually put into that market. You're not going to actually be invested in that market. But your your returns on the fire are going to be tied to that market performance. So if the index goes up, then the value of your I mean basically the return on your annuity is going to go up. The credits are going to go up. If the market were to go down, no problem, because you can't lose a penny of your principal or any credited interest.

Producer:
And interest is normally credited once a year in most strategies. So once it's once it's credited to your account, it's yours. It can't be taken away. It cannot be lost. So that's another plus. Um, basically, like I say, I think we already talked about this, that the, the FIA basically tracks the performance of indexes like the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite or the Russell 2000 and so forth, but it's not actually invested there. Protects against loss of principal, which means you can't lose any of the money you put into the fixed indexed annuity, which is a big, big plus, especially in these uncertain times like we had in August, September and potentially in October or beyond, for that matter. With all this going on, you can also establish a source of retirement income that you can never outlive. And that's a big plus. People are living longer and longer. It's highly possible, if not probable, if you're a decent health, that when you approach your 60s, then you can live to be 85, 90, 95 years old or beyond, for that matter. Again, longevity is constantly increasing, so the longer you live, the longer that you can potentially run out of your nest egg, because you're going to be pulling from that to live on in most cases, or most people will, unless you have a really, really strong pension and very, very little or no debt, you still got to pay taxes, car insurance, house insurance, uh, utilities, that type stuff.

Producer:
So if you have no debt other than that, then, you know, you might be able to make it on on what you got, but. At some point it only takes a it only takes a minor infraction to totally wipe you out. Something like a long term care incident where you all of a sudden, you know, you're you, you come down with an illness or you have an accident and you can't work or you can't do anything. You're having to pay medical assistance to come in and take care of you. That can really pull from your nest egg very, very quickly and wipe it out much, more, much, much faster. So a fixed indexed annuity provides a stream of income plus some other perks as well. That stream of income that you can never outlive, no matter how long you happen to be around. And people ask all the time, you know, what happens to the money that my annuity investment is. Something happens that I actually pass away? Well, the insurance company, the annuity carrier in this case does not keep your money. Your account value is your money that would go to any beneficiary you want it to go to. So the money is not lost. So basically you can also limit your losses, protect your gains. And depending on which fixed indexed annuity you happen to choose, there are some that actually have inflation protection built into it, as I've already mentioned.

Producer:
You know, if I have mentioned already, you get tax deferred growth. In other words, you don't pay taxes on anything until you actually start pulling that money out. Then you only pay taxes on the amount that you pull out. Uh, it also, each carrier for an annuity for a fixed annuity has 100% financial reserve requirement. In other words, they have to have a they have to have the money in deposits to make you whole if something were to happen. And on top of that, every state has its own guaranty association. Every state is different. In Florida, it's $250,000. They'll protect you just like the FDIC protects banks. Uh, you know, you basically have protection in addition to the carrier. And most of the carriers that we use, number one are highly rated A, B plus or better. We don't deal with B, B, minus C or B on only B plus or better. And on top of that, the the carriers we typically use have, you know, close to at least a hundred years of history where they've gone through downturns, they've gone through crashes, they've gone through other things and survive and still maintain a very, very high rating. So that's a that's one of the one of the things that are very, very important. But you are protected in an fire. Yeah.

Producer:
And so a lot of advantages there especially I think you know, that protection and safety, you know, where your principal is protected, your gains, any gains that have been credited to the annuity are protected as well. There's that 100% financial reserve requirement. All of that I think equals, you know, peace of mind for a lot of people who are thinking about this, they're like, oh my goodness, that that all just sounds like, you know, music to my ears here. But are there any disadvantages or potential disadvantages maybe, you know, depending on your particular situation to investing in a fixed indexed annuity.

Producer:
There's really only two potential disadvantages. One's going to be potential limits on gains, for example depending on the participation rate or the spread. Um. You may actually end up with, or a cat for that matter. You may actually end up only getting a partial portion of the gain participating in a partial portion of the gain. For example, if you have a 12% cap on an index and the index goes up 15%, you're only going to get 12%. And by the same token, if it were to go up 10%, you would get the 10% because it hasn't exceeded the 12% yet. If you have a cap in a lot of cases, especially today, for for a number of reasons, there are a number of indexes that have greater than 100% participation rate, and there's one that actually has a 300% participation rate, which means basically if if an index were to go up 10%. For that year, then you would actually be credited 30%, 300% of the gain. So there's a lot of potential for for an. But remember you can't lose anything. That's great. So one is a potential limit on the gains.

Producer:
The second is is comparable to a to a bank CD early withdrawal penalty. The only difference is that insurance companies or insurance carriers call them surrender charges, which means that if you were to take out all your money or exceed the amount you can take out because each one has a liquidity feature, normally you can take out between 5% and 10% of whatever the account value happens to be, and it'll never be less than what you initially put in. Whatever the account value is, you can pull out either 5% or 10% depending on the the annuity. And that's without a surrender charge, period. But if you exceed that amount, or if you pull all your money out, then you're going to have a declining surrender charge over a period of time until that maturity rate's up. Then you can do whatever you want to with the index, but with the annuity. But those are the only two real disadvantages potential limits on gains and and surrender charges. If you exceed the the liquidity features that are there.

Producer:
Yeah. And and one of those you know that potential limit on gains. That's something that is kind of obviously unpredictable because nobody has the ability to predict what the markets are going to do and what particular indexes are going to do in the future. Right. So that's something that is, you know, kind of the the known unknown or the unknown known, however you want to say it, whichever. But then you know, the surrender charges that's going to be you'll know about that up front when you when you enter into the thing, all of that will be down on paper, part of the contract. And so you'll know what the surrender charge would be in, you know, for the the entire length of the annuity there so that you're not going to go into it blind either. So let's talk about some more solutions here. As people are worried about this problem of market volatility, they're worried about potentially that continuing or getting worse as we head toward the latter part of the year here. You know the market it's not exactly crashing at the moment. It's been rocky as we've said. But you know, a lot of big name investors are actually calling for turbulent times ahead. Stock market crashes really are only typically recognizable in hindsight. A lot of the times you can't really tell in the middle of it unless it's Black Friday, you know, and back in the 80s that that one I'm pretty sure you probably knew in the middle of it. But most of the time you kind of can't. So if your crystal ball is broken out there, there are some steps that you can take to prepare for a crash on Wall Street. So, Greg, talk to us for a moment about some of these ways that we can prepare for the unthinkable here.

Producer:
Okay. You know, first of all, you need to know what you own and why you own it. In other words, you know, avoid making fear driven decisions and stick to your investment strategy. It's kind of like a coach. You know, you see NFL games all the time. The coaches have got that big piece of paper that they use to cover their mouths with the microphones with when they're playing ball. That is their game plan for the most part. This happens and this is what they're going to do if this happens, this is what they're going to do. And. Usually those are unknown, hopefully to the opposing team on the other side, and they change up weekly so no one can really figure them out. But you know, they have a strategy going into the game. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But you know, if you have a good strategy, stick to your investment strategy. Don't just don't listen to water cooler talk. And somebody says, oh, this is going to go down, or this is the greatest thing since buttered popcorn. You to put money in it, avoid it avoided at all costs. You know find a good advisor. Hopefully it's us, but find a good advisor and and have them help you in your choices in the selection. There also trust in diversification? Diversifying your investments across different asset classes can help mitigate risk during market downturns. An asset class also includes annuities. So it's still, you know, a total amount of investments what the total amount is going to be. In most cases, a lot of folks do, you know, stocks and bonds. If they don't use if they just don't go to mutual funds, but if they use if they develop their own strategy, often they're directed towards stocks and bonds, typically a 60 over 40 split, the 60 over 40 split, you know, 60 stocks, 40 bonds might be great when you're younger.

Producer:
As you get older, that split should change. And when it comes to bonds, there are numerous articles in Wall Street Journal Investment Daily, tons of different other market articles that come out that say, you know, fixed, indexed annuities outperform bonds. So if you have a portion of bonds and you want to take a look at getting market like gains as opposed to just a minimum thing, then then you need to basically take a look at some of your bond portfolio and see if it makes more sense to convert a portion of that into fixed indexed annuities. Another thing to do is basically you want you want to consider buying the dip. You know, market dips can be buying opportunities for long term investors. You know, especially if you've got cash available. Um, again. And, you know, pegging the dip time in the market is is a cautionary tale. It's hard to do because the dip could just be the beginning of a further decline. Uh. And if you really want to play that game, then you can do it. But it's you can consider buying the dip. If you're going to buy this, I would say buy low and sell high. Uh, you know, take advantage where you can explore opportunities like Roth conversions during market declines. But consult a tax professional for guidance before you do that and get expert help. Mean watch time and time again. You know most people are not financially educated when it comes to market conditions, investment strategies, social security strategies, whatever.

Producer:
And you know, just like whenever you have a medical issue you're not quite sure about, it's worse than just a little cut on your finger or, you know, a skinned knee or whatever, you know, go to the doctor, let the doctor tell you, you know, any further things going on might be nothing. But at the same time, when it comes to financial matters, you want to make sure you get expert help. Someone that can actually take a look and and and diagnose your situation. And here at Castle Financial, bear in mind, you know, my PhD is actually in in a organizational psychology. And as a psychologist, I learned a long time ago that prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. So you want to want to make sure that as a as a financial professional, I want to make sure that the things I'm going to recommend for you are going to be in your best interest and your and, and what you're looking for, as opposed to just telling you what I've told everybody else, hey, do this, do that, whatever. And we talk about fixed indexed annuities, but there are tons of them out there. And. There's not one specific fixed indexed annuity that's going to be the right annuity for everybody based on your situation, what you're looking for, whether it's accumulation, whether it's whether it's income, how long are you going to put it into something without needing it. All those things factor in to the recommendation that we would give you when it comes to annuities. So just bear that in mind.

Producer:
Yeah. And so to our listeners, you know, ask yourself this question. Do you want to just kind of wait and see what the market's like when you decide that you want to retire, or do you want to get to the guarantees in life? There are so few of them, but these are some that we've been talking about here. Do you want to get to the guarantees and start planning what you're going to do with both the paychecks and the paychecks? Yeah, that's right, said play checks that you're guaranteed to receive each month in retirement. Well, I think for me anyway, that sounds like a much better proposal. So reach out to Greg and his team for a consultation. There is no cost. There is absolutely no obligation either. All you have to do is give them a ring 813430 7100. That's 813430 7100. You can send an email to Greg personally at Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com. And once again that is Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com.

Producer:
Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in right or wrong.

Producer:
You know, Greg, a little secret here. I've always secretly wanted to be a game show host. And so right or wrong is as close as I've gotten so far. But. But I love it because I get to play a little cheesy game show music and I get to, you know, make sound effects in and all that kind of stuff. So I kind of feel like Bob Barker or, you know, I guess Drew Carey nowadays, or Wayne Brady or one of those guys. So. Or what was his. Tom Bergeron guess he used to host the Hollywood Squares. Anyway. Well, so I'm not one of those guys, but what I'm going to do is present a statement, actually several statements here, and Greg Castle is going to tell us whether those are right or wrong, what we want you to do, whether you're at home, in the car, wherever you happen to be. Play along with us. Test your financial knowledge here as well. All right. So number one in right or wrong here, Greg, is Warren Buffett says a commercial real estate crisis is coming. Warren Buffett says that. Is that right or is that wrong?

Greg Castle:
Well, first of all, I think you'd be an outstanding game show host. So, you know, if you ever need a recommendation, give me a yell.

Producer:
Thank you. Oh, absolutely I will. I'll put your name on the resume.

Producer:
Not that I carry a lot of weight, but anyway, um, so Warren Buffett says a commercial real estate crisis is coming. That is going to be wrong. But it's also a little bit misleading. It's a little trick question there. Buffet's right hand man, Charlie Munger, a legendary investor in Berkshire Hathaway vice chair, is warning of trouble in the US commercial property market, specifically regarding distressed loans held by banks. You know, Munger points out that that US banks are exposed to significant amount of bad loans as property prices decline, although he notes that the situation is not as severe as it was in the 2008 financial crisis. You know, another thing that Munger highlights? He highlights challenges in the commercial property market, such as high vacancy rates due to the work from home trend, which makes sense, and also avoiding office correction affecting office buildings and and shopping centers and other properties. A lot of shopping centers are going dark. They're closing down a lot. Big, big box stores are pulling out. Of course, you know, working from home, I don't think I've actually seen the inside of my office, but a handful of times in the last 2 or 3 years. It's just so easy to to do everything I do virtually from home. And people also are getting tired of of spending money taking. Their vehicles also won't have to travel an hour or 30 minutes or 40 minutes during traffic and fighting traffic to bring documents to to talk to a financial investor. So it's so much easier, you know, just to do a screen share and talk people through what they're doing and what they have to do. And and I think everybody enjoys that more. Yeah. But we will be we be face to face if you prefer to meet face to face.

Producer:
But anyway, always an option.

Producer:
But we'll call it wrong instead. We'll call it wrong.

Producer:
Yeah. Yeah. We were kind of sneaky with that one there, but yeah, it was the one.

Producer:
Who said that.

Producer:
Right. So it was like the statement was right. But the but the, the attribution was wrong in that. So, you know, no, no halfsies on that one. It was it was wrong, technically speaking, on a technicality. All right. So number two investor Ray Dalio is predicting the economy will slow due to a debt crisis. Is that one right. Or is that one wrong.

Producer:
Well, unfortunately, that is right. According to insider, you know, Ray Dalio is worried about America's borrowing binge and economic growth cooling off. You know, the billionaire investor warned of a debt crisis and a meaningful slowing of the economy. Dalio is gone. He's he's previously flagged interest rates civil unrest and geopolitical tensions as as concerns for the economy slowing down due to a debt crisis. Yeah.

Producer:
That's something that has been building for a long time. This debt consumer debt crisis, especially as people just racked it up over the last few years. Number three, if your employer does not offer a pension plan and chances are you fall into that category these days. So if your employer does not offer a pension plan, there is no other way for you to create a personal income stream that you can never outlive. Is that right or is that wrong?

Producer:
If you listen to our show and you listen carefully, you will know that that is wrong. Because we talk constantly, even on this show today about annuities. So annuities, especially fixed indexed annuities, allow anyone to protect and grow their wealth. I mean, that's what's important. It also allows you to establish an income stream that you can never outlive. You know, fixed indexed annuities are tied to, as we said before, the stock market indexes, allowing you to get market like gains without market risk. As we said before, your principal is 100% protected, meaning the worst you can do in a year is zero growth. An example you know, last year, 2022. Unlike when I was a stockbroker, the worst calls I got this year was, hey, Greg, you know, my annuity didn't make any money last year. I said, do you realize the S&P lost 26% last year? Did you lose any money? Well, no. So you didn't you didn't gain anything, but you didn't lose anything. So that's the worst conversation I've had to have when it comes to annuities. So life is good. Yeah.

Producer:
Seriously, that's a lot better off, you know, for for you and the client as well when you know, they as opposed to rather when people in, you know, if there were 100% in stocks back in say, 2008 financial crisis or even last year, or whenever they lose that big chunk of their investment portfolio and it's just gone, the bottom just fell out from under it. Maybe they're in the retirement red zone. That's the absolute worst time that that could happen. This is protection against it. It's that fixed indexed annuity that we keep talking about. And as I said earlier, we keep talking about it for good reason here. All right. So next question or next statement I guess in right or wrong, an estate plan is only for the rich or folks who are extremely well off. Is that right or is that wrong?

Producer:
If you listen to last week's show, you will know that that is wrong. You ought to be rich to have an estate plan or need an estate plan. Basically, an estate plan is going to consider consist of a number of documents. It's going to, you know, potentially have a will for you and a spouse of your married. It's also going to have powers of attorney like we're offering for free medical power of attorney, durable durable power of attorneys. And if you have assets that have value then a trust may be needed. All those things help you to avoid probate. It helps you to avoid, in some cases, estate taxes, because the things that are in a trust typically live on for perpetuity. So anyway, we encourage everyone to to get an estate plan. It'll make you think through where you want your things to go, number one, and who you want it to go to. Number two and number three, it will help them be able to enjoy these things for generations to come, in some cases. So we can help you with that. But again, those two documents are free. If you wanted to give us a call right now, or basically send me an email first that we would schedule an appointment at Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com. And just to spell that out for you. It's just Greg at Safe Safe money. M-o-n-e-y. Masters. Masters dot com. Safe money. Masters.com. And then we can, you know, get you those documents and start working on them. So, you know, give us an email.

Producer:
That is it. And and continuing on with right or wrong here we've got another one about estate planning. And that one is an estate plan always includes a trust. Is that right or is that wrong.

Producer:
And that is not right. That is wrong. All state players don't necessarily need to include a trust. Usually they will almost always include wheels and powers of attorney. In some cases, your assets are not in a situation where you need a trust. Trust that goes into state plans are typically revocable trust, which means you can change them as time goes on. In some cases, you want an irrevocable trust, which means basically that it is set in stone. You can't change it. Those are typically things that are going to. You want to use when you have, for example, a disabled child that's going to do something, or you got someone that's going to excuse me, someone that's going to take care of your pet for the rest of your life. You want to make sure you allocate a little bit of money for them, to make sure that that pet is going to be treated as royalty, as you treated that pet. Yeah. Chip over here is so spoiled. I hate to even think about what it would take to take him. He's only a £10 mutt, so. But he, you know, would take a million bucks for him. He he he is my buddy. So that's really. No, no, no, not all not all the state plans need to include a trust.

Producer:
Yeah. Well, there you go. And speaking of trusts, the next statement here in right or wrong, is I can put my home in a trust, even if I still have a mortgage on it with a bank. Is that right or wrong?

Producer:
That's something I get a lot, and that's a question I get a lot. And the answer is that is right. You can do that. Any. For example, what you would do in a case with a home is you would basically quit claim that home to the trust. The trust would now own it even though you're still paying the bank. Nothing changes with your mortgage. Whatever. If you need to sell the home, you would still sell it as just this case. The seller would be the trust as opposed to you, and the proceeds from that would go to the trust, in which case you could do whatever you need to do with that proceeds.

Producer:
Well, that's that's easy enough there. It seems like that would be a lot more of a complicated situation. But hey, it's, you know, and I think people to at least this is my personal experience just with some things that in the past in my family, I think people tend to overthink and and try and over complicate trust. They don't have to be as complicated as people want to make them out to be. Guess.

Producer:
No, they really aren't. They are. They are confused. And people are trust that they go in. I've got to be Mr. Money bags or whatever in order to do this. And and the reality is, you know, they're really not that complicated. And they are so beneficial to your to your financial future.

Producer:
Very true. And so last one in the edition of Right or Wrong for this time around, setting up an estate plan is difficult and expensive. Is that right or is that wrong?

Producer:
In most cases that's wrong. It would probably depend on the complexity of your estate. You know someone that's got a really, really massive estate, it's going to take time. It's going to take, you know, some research to make sure everything's included into it. You need to include into it as far as expense goes. Again, that that's going to depend as well. If it's a if you don't have a complex estate, you know, you've got some investments, you've got a home even maybe a business or whatever that you want to put into it. It's a small business then. It's not that it's not that difficult to do. It's going to take some research to make sure that you put all the stuff in there. Uh, but as far as expense goes, again, that's going to depend as well. If you go to, you know, a pricey law firm to get an estate plan done, it's going to it's going to be a pretty penny to have it done. Uh, and again, since it's not a complicated process, you can team up with someone like, like us at Castle Financial and, you know, with the assistance from our third parties and the attorneys, you know, we can create a complete and totally viable estate plan for you for a fraction of what you would pay if you go to a, to a law firm to get that done.

Producer:
They'd be equally as legal and equally as complete and equally as as as perfect as you need it. So if you need an estate plan again, we would love to help you. Uh, give us a call. And again, those two documents will give you for for free the two documents that will go into an estate plan. Those are the two powers of attorney that everyone needs. We'll help you set those up, get copies for you. Signed off by a lawyer and or basically signal to the bank, get them notarized for that, for those. And then if you ever get an estate plan that you can put them in the estate plan. But we'll help you with that. Give us a call 813430 7100 or email me personally at Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com be happy and love to help you.

Producer:
That is right and a great offer there. And folks, you know, establishing that estate plan may be one of the most important decisions that you're going to make when you plan for your retirement. And so Greg and his team there at Castle Financial Solutions Group can help you establish that plan for a fraction of what you would pay for the local attorneys or whomever to get that prepared. So give them a call. Once again, that's 813430 7100 Greg at SafeMoneyMasters.com. And those two documents that they're offering absolutely free to our listeners, that's, you know, the medical and durable powers of attorney as part of that estate plan as well. All right. So, Greg, it is time in the last several minutes of the show here before we get to this Week in history, in just a moment, with about a little shy of six minutes left, let's go into the mailbag here. We'll dig deep and find some questions for our Ask Greg segment. And the first one comes from Omar in Tampa. He says, I'm 61, married, have around 650,000 saved for retirement. Our home is paid for, and I don't plan to retire until I'm at least 67. We have a special needs son, so my wife stays home to take care of him. Other than our home, we're basically debt free. Good for them. By the way, what steps should I take to ensure that my family is taken care of in the event of my passing? What say you, Greg Castle?

Greg Castle:
Okay, well, first of all, just like you just did, I would commend Omar for for being debt free and his wife as well. And also, you know, providing a stable home for for their son. Uh, you know, there are a few steps that I'd recommend you consider to ensure your family's taken care of in the event of your passing. You know, first of all, as we've talked about time and time again, you need to develop an estate plan. You know, work with an estate planning attorney to create and update your will or work with us. We'll help you establish your estate plan. You're ensuring that it accurately reflects your wishes for asset distribution and also guardianship of your special needs son in. In his case, you're probably going to want an irrevocable trust to be part of the estate plan to make sure that there's money set aside to make sure that he is gets whatever assistance he needs going forward after your passing. Also, consider establishing trust to provide your son's long term care. And that's what we mentioned the financial needs after you're gone. Uh, special needs trusts can can as we talked about, the irrevocable trust, special needs trusts can preserve his eligibility for government benefits while allowing you to allocate funds for supplemental expenses.

Producer:
Very good. And let's get to this next question before we have to skedaddle here from Kathy in Newport. Richie. She says, I'm 65, single, about to retire. I'll have a small pension in about 350,000in my 401 K. Even though my debt is low, I will still have taxes, property insurance, Medicare, and basic living expenses to pay. It's going to be tight, but I think I can make it, she says. My biggest concern is long term care. I don't have it. I can't afford it at my age. I'm concerned about what might happen if something happens to my health and I don't have it. So yeah, I mean, that's a big concern there. Is there anything that Kathy can do, Greg?

Producer:
You know, it's great to hear that you're approaching retirement with a pension and also that you have saved in your 401 K. And while there are some expenses that you mentioned, you know, planning ahead can, you know, can sure help to ensure financial stability in retirement. So let's let's address long term care. You know, long term care is indeed a valid concern. But it's important to know that there are options available even if long term care insurance isn't feasible for you at this stage, you know, consider consider taking a look at alternative long term care options. In other words, you can research community based programs or government assistance programs that may provide support for long term care needs. That way, if you need it down the road, you at least know where to look. You know, since your debt is low, I would take a look at exploring explore converting a portion of your 401 K. Or to a fixed indexed annuity with a long term care rider. These products, or these annuities, basically offer an additional income stream that can also provide an element of long term care if needed.

Producer:
Evaluate your current health. Health is very important. So basically being in good health can help ward off the need for long term care and in a lot of cases. So take some proactive steps to maintain good health by focusing on preventive care. Healthy lifestyle choices and get some regular checkups. If worse comes to worse. Well, this is not a recommendation that I make lightly. If you need long term care and the funds have run out or run dry, take a look at. You might take a look at home equity conversion, which basically consider things like reverse mortgage or home equity line of credit. Tap into your home's equity if the need for long term care arises. And then, of course, as we say time and time again, don't go it alone, you know, consult with a financial adviser. Hopefully it's us, but a professional can assess your specific situation and and recommend suitable strategies and address potential long term care needs. And by the way, thanks for being a listener and asking your question online.

Producer:
Absolutely. And if you are looking for an expert to work with folks, I happen to know a guy and I happen to know where you can get in touch with him. Just email him Greg at savemoney Masters.com. It's this week in history.

Producer:
Being a former Air Force guy. This next one is also important on today, October 10th. On this date in 1845, US Naval Academy was founded. On October 10th, in 1979, Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky made his National Hockey League of the boot debut with the Edmonton Oilers. Tomorrow, October 11th. On this date in 1984, American astronaut Kathryn Sullivan became the first woman to walk in space. And when we all recognize in 1975, on October 11th, Saturday Night Live debuted on NBC and became a landmark of American television still running. And then in 1492, October 12th, the New World was discovered by the Pinta, which is one of the three ships participated that participated in Christopher Columbus historic voyage and When We All Enjoy. In 1810, the first Oktoberfest was celebrated in Munich, Germany. Today's birthdays Brett Favre is 53. We all know if the green Bay Packers David Lee Roth is 68. Rock vocalist with Van Halen for 74 to 85. For the NASCAR fans. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Turns 48 today. He's retired NASCAR racer who won Busch Series several times. And today is World Mental Health Day. National Face Your Fears Day. National Angel food cake day. National cake decorating day and National Hug a drummer day. I was a former drummer, so give me a hug. I definitely need some mental health. I'll take that talent like that. I will face my fears today and go buy an angel food cake. And I'll take it home and I'll decorate it with sprinkles.

Producer:
That works. That's a great celebration right there, Greg. Well, that's just going to just about do it as I look at the clock on the wall here. But thank you again for all that you bring to the table each and every week, sir. And we'll we'll look forward to doing it again next week, shall we.

Producer:
Sounds great. See you next week. Same bat time, same bat channel. Take care folks. See you next week.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Safe Money Masters with Greg Castle. You deserve to work with a financial expert who has a track record of helping clients exceed their financial goals by implementing safe and proven strategies to schedule your free, no obligation consultation with Greg. Visit SafeMoneyMasters.com. Not affiliated with the United States government. Greg Castle does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. AmeriLife assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or the results obtained from the use of this information.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

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