Let’s talk about the election and the market. As you know, the market experiences quite a bit of volatility around election time and we’re here to talk post-election and what that will look like for your investments.

Welcome to our First Friday series, hosted the first Friday of each month by Michelle Bertram. Today she is speaking with Guy Riccardi, Portfolio Manager for United Asset Strategies.

Answering the health insurance question of where you’re going to get health coverage sometimes becomes one of the biggest hurdles to retirement or one of the most important factors in your retirement plan.

Before you reach the age of 65 you have to get some type of private insurance coverage and after the age of 65 you can go on Medicare. That also means that you’re going to need some type of Medicare supplement or Medicare Advantage plan as well as a Medicare Part D prescription plan.

Let’s break down all of these plans. Whether you’re looking to retire before 65 or you just need health insurance before then you have a couple of options.

How is the election going to affect the market? That’s a question I hear continually, almost every day right now. And Guy, you’re probably getting the same questions. Right.

Everybody’s concerned about this. It’s not just this year, but any election year. So give us a couple of thoughts from your perspective with portfolio management and money management, what are you seeing? How do you think that this election could affect the market?

The first thing that I’m telling people when we’re having these conversations is that as much as the political headline news is right up front, in everybody’s face, driving concern and anxiety, but when we actually take a deeper dive into what is fundamentally or structurally impactful for the stocks, it kind of pales in comparison to fundamentally what is happening with the federal reserve right now.

How is the election going to affect the stock market? 

It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on, there's a lot of fear concerning the election and how it will affect the stock market.

There are also a lot of articles circulating right now discussing how the market will perform depending on which party is in office or will it be better for the market if the incumbent candidate wins?

There are all kinds of stories and speculation out there right now, but here's what I can tell you, nobody knows exactly what's going to happen with the market. Anyone who tells you that they do know is lying. That's the truth of it.

“Do I need life insurance in my retirement plan?”

There is not a one-size-fits-all answer. As with a lot of things, the answer depends on your overall plan.

Let’s talk about some of the living benefits of life insurance today and when you could use them.

So, if you're not sure where to start I would suggest going through the Four Steps of Creating Your Dream Retirement video course that we have on our website. It will walk you through some of the things that you need to do to make sure that you have in place before you figure out where or if life insurance fits.

If you have questions on anything we talked about specifically or would like to see one of the reports I mentioned, then make sure you schedule a call and we'll get that report to you.

What do you think is the greatest threat to your retirement?

Is this election and who may win? Maybe you think it's the Democrats, maybe you think it's the Republicans, maybe you think it is taxes, maybe the greatest threat to your retirement is inflation, or what the government might do.

When I asked a question there could be a hundred different answers.  Right now, considering the current climate with COVID and uncertain futures, you may think that at this moment the greatest threat to your retirement is things outside of your control.

But that is not the case, in fact, none of these things are the greatest threat to your retirement.

The greatest threat to your retirement is procrastination.

Should I buy gold and silver coins or should I invest in gold and silver ETF funds? That's a question we often hear. In fact, in this last year, it has become more and more prominent.

I spoke with one of our gold and silver experts in July and he was saying that more silver went into ETF funds in the previous three months than in any time in history. So the topic of gold and silver has been hot!

In general, make sure that your entire plan is taken care of before you start investing in other areas like gold and silver. If you have questions or if you’re unsure if you have a solid plan in place, watch The Four Steps to Dream Retirement to walk through your plan.