In this episode, The Annuity Man and Bob Carlson discuss:

• Hedging for rising inflation rates
• Accessing institutional shares through 401k
• What are your digital assets?
• Watching out for blockchain technology

Key Takeaways:

• The inflation rate that you experience is probably lower than what data that is shared suggests. However, don't forget that inflation rates are still rising, showing signs that it won't be transitory.
• 401k plans allow access to institutional shares, which have the lowest expenses. Doing a roll-over from a 401k to an IRA will give you access only to retail shares, which have the highest expenses.
• Digital assets are a much broader category than a lot of people realize. It's a federal crime for others to access your digital assets. You have to specify and give people permission. List and organize all your digital assets.
• It would be wiser to be more interested in blockchain technology than just the cryptocurrency part. Watch out for how companies will utilize this technology and if its biggest problem will ever be resolved: its impact on the environment.

"This is how you decide how much you love your family: are you gonna take time to sit down and write this stuff down, or are you gonna leave them a big electronic mess that's gonna take a lot of time and effort to resolve, and might not eventually be resolved." — Bob Carlson.

Connect with Bob Carlson:

Website: https://www.retirementwatch.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RWcommunity

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RetirementWatch

Most Recent Book: https://www.amazon.com/Wheres-My-Money-Secrets-Security-ebook/dp/B0853F3R7R

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator

In this episode, The Annuity Man discussed:

• Addiction to the market
• Reflecting on what you really want
• How would you like your retirement to look like
• When you don't need an annuity

Key Takeaways:

• It is possible to get addicted to the market, and when you're at that point, you'll need to give yourself an intervention. At some point, you're going to have to stop.
• Be honest, do you want to subject yourself to the daily ups and downs of politics and the markets, tracking it, hoping it goes well, hoping that you'll get a bump? That would wear anyone out.
• What do you want your second chapter to look like? Do you want to be at peace with the lifestyle that you want, or do you want to be chasing the market constantly?
• Never buy an annuity under the premise that it has market growth and principal protection. It does not.

"Contractual guarantees - make sense to me. Most people that have accumulated wealth have done it in a slow, methodical way." — Stan The Annuity Man

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man and Mr. FIA-X discuss:

• Annuity companies do not give free money
• Ways to know if you're dealing with a qualified advisor
• Sales pitches that you should watch out for
• Buying a product that you understand

Key Takeaways:

• Upfront bonuses are candy for the stupid. There are no philanthropists in annuity offices giving out free money to clients. They'll chip away at you in different ways to recoup those dollars. They haven't been around for hundreds of years because they gave money away.
• If your advisor says "guarantee your principal" and "rider" in the same sentence, that disqualifies them. They are not capable or qualified to be your advisor.
• Hypotheticals are hypotheticals for a reason. Zero is not your hero. There's no such thing as a hybrid annuity. When given a participation rate, ask the advisor what you're participating in.
• Do not buy a product if you don't understand it, and definitely don't buy it when you can see that even the agent doesn't understand it. Simple is always better.

"I think simple is better, I also think they need to be careful when they explain all these wonderful things that the annuity can do. Just because they can do these wonderful things doesn't mean there's not a cost for it. You're paying for it somewhere. If it does this wonderful thing, it means you have something less wonderful somewhere else for them to afford that one wonderful thing." — Mr. FIA-X

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man discussed:

• The annuity industry's bad reputation
• Don't trust the sales pitch
• Are all annuities bad?
• Ask for the contractual guarantees

Key Takeaways:

• The annuity industry has unfortunately earned its bad reputation despite its monopoly on lifetime income. That's because some agents target people who are not financially informed.
• When something sounds too good to be true, especially in annuities, it 100% is. There are no perfect answers, just bad sales pitches. If you don't know who the sucker at the table is, it's probably you, so don't fall for their bad pitch.
• Social security is an annuity; pensions are an annuity. People who say they hate all annuities truly don't know what they're talking about.
• Don't fall for hypotheticals or back-tested and projected numbers; ask for contractual guarantees. If you can't explain it to a nine-year-old, don't buy it. Don't let somebody rush you into buying something you don't understand.

"I don't care if you're smart in other things, but if you say 'I hate all annuities' or 'all annuities are expensive' - you are a moron; you should not speak. If you don't know the answer, don't bluff. I'm not out there talking about cooking; I can't cook! But I know annuities." — Stan The Annuity Man.

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man and Marcia Mantell discuss:

• Retirement planning is personal
• The uncomfortable "unexpected."
• Who are the best financial advisors?
• Lasagna style income planning

Key Takeaways:

• Friends and neighbors are not your friends when it comes to retirement decision-making. It's all completely personal.
• If there's anything that's not unexpected, it's that we know we are one day going to die. We just don't like to talk about it; we don't like to think about it.
• The best financial advisors are those that aren't born from money. They understand what it's like to come from a family that doesn't have much, so they've been repeatedly taught in their youth to respect and value money.
• If you can make lasagna, you can also make a retirement plan. Retirement planning is a layered process; there has to be a plan in place, you can't randomly do it, and there's a myriad of ingredients.

"Starting early is the key. If you miss 50, start wherever you are today. This is not a weekend project - it's too hard and complicated. The best thing we can all do is take ownership, we have to understand social security to make good decisions, and we have to understand medicare." — Marcia Mantell.

Connect with Marcia Mantell:

Website: https://mantellretirementconsulting.com/about/meet-marcia-mantell/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marciamantell/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarciaMantell

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man discussed:

• Which annuity provides historically higher guarantees?
• Being wary of ignorant advisors
• Getting the highest payout for yourself
• The choices for non-narcissists

Key Takeaways:

• An income rider attached to Fixed Index Annuities historically provides higher contractual guarantees and has less fees than variable annuities.
• Suppose a financial advisor or anybody tells you never to buy an annuity, that all annuities are expensive or that they hate all annuities. In that case, that person doesn't know what they're talking about.
• You can choose life-only if you want the highest contractual guarantee payment with an annuity. Keep in mind that you will be the only one who benefits from it and your spouse, too, if you structure it.
• With income riders that are attached to Fixed Index Annuities and sometimes to Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities, when you die, whatever's left of that accumulation value goes 100% to the beneficiaries.

"If you die, the money goes poof - that's only one of forty ways to structure annuities - and what they're talking about is life only, and life only is the narcissist pension plan. Because you're shouldering some of that risk even though you're transferring the risk to the annuity to pay you for as long as you are breathing." — Stan The Annuity Man.

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man and GUEST discuss:

• Why annuities get a bad rep
• What's a tontine?
• Beating inflation
• Planning for health decline

Key Takeaways:

• Annuities are often complicated, and they are typically sold to a group of vulnerable people. That could be a recipe for disaster.
• A tontine was one of the many ways that people used to finance themselves in retirement; it was a scheme in which the longest living people got the most amount of people, and the people that didn't live a long time got a small amount of income - it was a type of annuity.
• With a tontine scheme, the denominator keeps getting smaller as time goes by while the numerator stays the same - meaning the same amount of money is being split between fewer people. Mortality becomes a real interest rate. People don't care much about this because inflation wasn't that much of a hot topic, but nowadays, people should look into it.
• There's a big difference between health span and life span, but they can have a short gap in between. Long-term health care is important because it allows you to use more of your lifetime income for things you like rather than split them between things you like and things you need.

"You have a product that's meant to help people that are eventually going to cognitively decline and help them deal with the finances; there's a higher burden of care there because you gotta make sure that they understand what they're buying, they continue to understand what they're buying and in many cases, annuities are quite complicated." — Moshe Milevsky.

Connect with Moshe Milevsky:

Website: https://moshemilevsky.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RetirementQuant

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man discussed:

• Why do agents tell stories?
• Protecting yourself from bad pitches
• Don't listen to these stories
• The only two important questions

Key Takeaways:

• In sales, managers will often tell their people that stories sell and that they do, so you have to watch out for hypotheticals, testimonials, and anecdotal "evidence."
• Here's how you can protect yourself from liars who'd sell you stories: write down their sales pitch exactly how they said it and how you understood it. Sign and date it at the bottom and flip it over to them. Have them sign the contract, so they're on the hook if they lie in their pitch.
• Never base your decision on a back-tested number; those are basically stories. If they tell you all about the people who own what they're selling, don't listen - those are stories. Never base your decision on up-front bonuses; you're smarter than that - there's no such a thing as free money.
• There are only two important questions: "what are the contractual guarantees" and "when do you want those contractual guarantees to start." By answering those two, we can determine whether you even need an annuity or which type will provide the highest contractual guarantees if you need an annuity. There are no stories with contractual guarantees.

"Don't buy the dream because you're going to own the contractual reality. Don't buy the story, buy the contract." — Stan The Annuity Man

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man and Martin Parlato discuss:

• The biggest problem the government created
• How to send a country into stagflation
• Cryptocurrency is worthless
• Planning in six-month projects

Key Takeaways:

• The problem is government spending and the supply chain - which the government can't fix. People being paid to stay home contributes to production and supply chain problems, leading to a lack of advertisements, resulting in layoffs and further unemployment in advertising sites like Facebook.
• If you can't increase supply, then all you can do is decrease demand, and if you try to decrease the demand side so hard that it compensates for the supply side, that's when you send the country into recession - that's when you send the country into stagflation.
• Crypto is worthless, and it doesn't do anything. Many people buy cryptocurrency because it's untraceable by the government and unstealable by anyone. Except, there have been many incidents of hacking, often involving millions of dollars in stolen crypto.
• Retirement planning is done in six-month projects. The world changes fast; we are already in a different world than six months ago.

"The retirees need to understand that elections matter. You elect stupid people, this is what you get - you get a series of bad decisions that affect your retirement. Politics affect your money." — Martin Parlato.

Connect with Martin Parlato:

Website: https://www.lighthouseretirement.com/

Connect with The Annuity Man:

Website: http://theannuityman.com/

Email: [email protected]

Book: Owner's Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!

In this episode, The Annuity Man and Martin Parlato discuss: 

• The biggest problem the government created
• How to send a country into stagflation
• Cryptocurrency is worthless 
• Planning in six-month projects 

Key Takeaways: 

• The problem is government spending and the supply chain - which the government can’t fix. People being paid to stay home contributes to production and supply chain problems, leading to a lack of advertisements, resulting in layoffs and further unemployment in advertising sites like Facebook. 
• If you can’t increase supply, then all you can do is decrease demand, and if you try to decrease the demand side so hard that it compensates for the supply side, that’s when you send the country into recession - that’s when you send the country into stagflation.
• Crypto is worthless, and it doesn’t do anything. Many people buy cryptocurrency because it’s untraceable by the government and unstealable by anyone. Except, there have been many incidents of hacking, often involving millions of dollars in stolen crypto. 
• Retirement planning is done in six-month projects. The world changes fast; we are already in a different world than six months ago. 

"The retirees need to understand that elections matter. You elect stupid people, this is what you get - you get a series of bad decisions that affect your retirement. Politics affect your money." —  Martin Parlato.

Connect with Martin Parlato:

Website: https://www.lighthouseretirement.com/ 

Connect with The Annuity Man: 

Website: http://theannuityman.com/ 

Email: [email protected] 

Book: Owner’s Manuals: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/how-do-annuities-work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCXKKxvVslbeGAlEc5sra2g 

Get a Quote Today: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/annuity-calculator!