Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: 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.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome to Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida, the show that puts you in control of your financial future. Your hosts, Bradley and Madison Hardin, are a trusted husband and wife team dedicated to helping you design a retirement that fits your lifestyle, your goals, and your vision for the years ahead. From smart income strategies and Social Security planning to protecting your wealth and living life on your own terms, this is the place where financial clarity meets coastal confidence. Whether you're just entering the retirement red zone or already enjoying your golden years, Bradley and Madison are here to guide you every step of the way. This is retirement your way. Let's build the future you deserve.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: Hello once again. Welcome to Retirement your way. I'm Matt McClure. Thanks so much for joining us. I am here with Bradley and Madison Hardin from Amerilife of Central Florida. Hello once again.
[00:01:21] Speaker D: Hello, Matt. Good to see you.
[00:01:23] Speaker C: It's very nice to see you both. As always, a lot of great stuff to get to in the show today. We're going to talk a lot about accumulation of your, you know, retirement funds and how you go about building what you're then going to live on in your retirement years. Before we do that, though, I want to get to a little bit of an introduction. If they're like Bradley and Madison Hardin, who in the world are these people?
Tell them who in the world you are.
[00:01:50] Speaker E: Yeah. So we are financial professionals with Amerilife and together we have a combined 17 years of experience helping seniors navigate retirement and all things income planning, Social Security planning and all sorts of financial tools.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: A big part of that, too, health care, helping people plan for health care and all of that, because there's a lot of things that the people might not think of and that's going to be one of your biggest expenses in retirement as well. So a lot of a holistic picture that you take a look at.
[00:02:21] Speaker D: Right. And trying to help, you know, people that are either coming up to retirement or in retirement just enjoy it a little bit more, maybe a little bit safer. Maybe it's that 5 o' clock somewhere retirement that you're looking for. And Whether it's only 4:30 in your life, we want to help you possibly get to that 5 o' clock somewhere.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: Feeling fire up the old margarita machine. Actually, it will Be there. But yeah, no, that's, that's my kind of retirement and it's what I hope to do. And so I'm, you know, I'm, this is my thing. I'm hopefully on my way there and I hope that you are as well as a viewer of the show.
But today's main topic is really about how you get there, right. How you can get from wherever you are. Now if it's 4:30, if it's 8:00 in the morning, whatever the situation for your financial life is, it's all about accumulation.
You know, a lot of people think that to accumulate assets you have to be invested in the stock market and the stock market alone. Right. But at the same time they're probably afraid of a lot of market losses.
Talk about that, if you will. Bradley, I know you have a stat that you like to share with folks about how often we see a market crash actually happens probably more often than people might think.
[00:03:34] Speaker D: Right. And so if you go back to the opening of the market, statistically speaking, it's going to crash every seven years.
And so we've experienced that with the 2000, the dot com bubble, the housing crisis of 2008, Covid in 2020. So these are just a few since the year 2000 that we can pinpoint.
And retirees are living longer. So we see 85, 90, 95, sometimes even 100 years old. And so if, if you're 60, 55, 60, 65, that could happen another four to five times during the, your retirement. You may see the market crash. So we try to provide risk free solutions to overcome that fear of what happens if the market crashes again like it did in 2008.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean you think about it, if you have, you know, these big losses like we saw in the markets in say 2000, right around 2008 or even 2022, the, the most recent sort of big market drop that I believe it, you know, in the 25% range or something like that, at least in the, the NASDAQ was down quite a bit. If you were invested heavily in tech, for example, you lost a lot of money that particular year, then you act, you have to make, you know, if you lose 50% for example, to get back just to even, you have to make 100% on what you're left with, you have to double your money. That is something that very, very, very rarely ever happens in, in life and in the investment space.
So people really need to be on the lookout for safety, especially as they get closer to their retirement. Yeah.
[00:05:17] Speaker E: And a common thing that we hear is, you know, it's the market, it's going to go up and it's going to go down. And while this may be true, what happens if it's going down when you're set to retire? You know, we're seeing folks have to work longer, you know, maybe adjust course a little bit because of the market and in our opinion and how we run our businesses. And it doesn't have to be that way. You know, there are options where you can participate in the gains of the stock market but not participate in any of the losses. And, you know, it's just more predictable in retirement. And when I think of retirement, that's how I would like to view my own personal retirement would be predictable safety, knowing that when I'm ready to receive that income, it's going to be there. And we have lots of tools to accomplish that.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: Yeah, and a lot of different tools in the, in the toolbox. Right, that can, you know, meet different needs. A lot of those, as you alluded to, are for the specific purpose of accumulation, a lot of them for the specific purpose of retirement income. And all those things, which of course, throughout the course of this show and future episodes, we'll talk about all of those different aspects of a lot more, though, about accumulation to come. We're going to kind of dive into a little bit more of the specific vehicles that we were just talking about about, you know, getting that market like gain without the market risk and how all of that works. As always, you can give Bradley and Madison a call.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: 386-977-9684.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: That's 386-977-9684. You can also visit plan retirement your way dot com. That's plan retirement your way dot com. We're talking a lot about accumulation today, right? Like building up that nest egg, for lack of a better phrase here, that you're going to live on in your retirement years, you know, accumulating funds that you can, you know, make that life that you want in retirement, that five o' clock somewhere, retirement, if that is what your desires are. Now, we were talking just before we took a little break there about a particular vehicle that can give you a market like growth without market risk.
That particular investment vehicle is actually something called a fixed indexed annuity. Now, I know if you heard the word annuity out there, you're probably like, oh, God, I've heard bad things. I've heard bad things about annuities. But I have to say, the annuities that we're talking about here in this particular scenario are not like your grandfather's annuities essentially used to be.
You would give your money to an insurance company, a big lump sum, and they would charge you a fee for the privilege of getting your own money back and in monthly payments. Then if you die when there was a balance left on the account, then they would keep that money. The company would keep that money.
Not at all. The way that it works these days, Right, right.
[00:08:12] Speaker D: And with the way that it's evolved over time is that these companies know that creating legacy and passing that down is also just as important sometimes as having that guaranteed income for life. And so with a, with the fixed index annuity, as you're drawing down that income, it's still earning market like returns with no risk. So the probability of being able to leave something behind is a lot higher. So compared to, as you mentioned, like a grandfather's annuity is once you turned on that income, it essentially died with you. Whereas the way that they've evolved, you can now continue that income to your spouse and whatever balance is left over in that account now passes down to your beneficiaries of your choosing. So again, we've seen them come a long way in recent years.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: Yeah, they really have. Like I say, they've evolved and changed and you know, all of those, in all of those different aspects that you mentioned as compared to the old version, and really improved a lot, especially when it comes to this fixed indexed annuity. Because I think we're on the subject of accumulation here. It's like as that, you know, growth is happening, yes, it's tied to the market, but your account is not actually invested in the stock market. So you could be tied to, let's say a common index that it may be tied to is the S&P 500. So like, based on the performance of the S&P 500, your fixed indexed annuity will grow that, you know, certain amount, a certain amount of that growth. And it could be, it kind of varies, right, with different products that are out there. But you participate in the growth of the market. But then if you, the market goes down the next year, the 00 is your hero, as you like to say.
[00:10:03] Speaker E: And I think the best way to kind of illustrate that, especially to our clients when we're trying to get them to understand the concept, would be it's similar to stairs. So when you do gain with the market, that is now your new floor that you cannot go below so you can earn, and then you may have a flat year where you, like you said, earn zero, which in this case is good because if you weren't in that vehicle, you would have returned some of that principal or some of your money that you've invested. So it's like a stair stepper, so it's more predictable. It's not this big peaks and valleys scenario that you have to wake up and be afraid to check on it, so you kind of can set it and forget it, so to speak.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: Right. And which is, you know, sometimes, you know, can be a good thing, at least for this particular portion of your investment life. Like a lot of the time, you know, people might say, oh, well, I just, you know, and sort of setting in for getting my, my stock market investments and that sort of thing, and say with that, it's right. Riding that, riding that wave, that Wall street roller coaster, for example. But this is something that you can actually put in place. And as you say, sure, you can make adjustments along the way in a lot of these cases, but if you are in a situation where you can, you just set it, forget it. You don't have to worry about it. To me, that's the biggest sort of advantage here, is the getting rid of the worry, because I feel like that's going to be the biggest burden that people have to kind of deal with.
[00:11:28] Speaker D: Right. And when we meet with our clients each year we, we can rebalance, you know, those index annuities. And maybe one year we had it more heavily on the S and P, but maybe we think the market may not do so well. Elections, you know, all the things that, that go on behind the scenes that kind of dictate the economy. And maybe the next year we just want to be into a fixed side. So part of our process, when we do our annual reviews with our clients who already own those contracts, is we take a look at, maybe we should rebalance it. But keeping in mind that no matter what we choose, you cannot lose anything that you've earned and you cannot lose anything that you put into it. So it is peace of mind knowing that once I start this plan, I can never go backwards.
[00:12:16] Speaker C: Yeah, you're always going to at least have what you have initially put in. Your principle is protected 100%. And also, you know, another thing to give people a little bit of peace of mind too, is that these annuity companies, insurance carriers, have a 100% reserve requirement as well, so that that money is on hand compared to like the bank, which is like 10% maybe. So it just gives you a lot of peace of mind, a lot of assurances going into your retirement years. So don't be afraid of that. Dreaded a word that we were just talking about. Annuity, right?
Stick around. We've got much more of Retirement your Way to Come right after this.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: You're listening to Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida to schedule a no cost, no obligation consultation. Give the team a call at 386-977-9684 or visit planretirementyourway.com Remember, you can listen to the show anytime, anywhere. Just subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This is Retirement your way back after.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: This.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Do you find budgeting too difficult or time consuming? Let technology do the hard work. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network powered by Amerilife.
If you let out a sound of frustration when trying to keep up with your monthly income and expenses, you're not alone.
[00:13:43] Speaker F: Up until a couple of years ago, I was very anti the idea of creating a budget because a who has the time and b I know what.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: I'm spending that personal finance expert Nikita Turk of NerdWallet. She says her own personal experience led her to make budgeting a priority.
[00:14:00] Speaker F: When I actually decided to sit down and evaluate my finances, I realized how inconsistent I was being with my spending and by extension, my saving.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Budgeting apps like Mint, Y, N, A, B or Honeydew can help you track and break down your expenses into categories like health care, groceries, entertainment and dining. Turk says there are other ways technology streamlines the process.
[00:14:22] Speaker F: They can be more convenient and easier to set up than some more traditional methods. They also do a good job of giving you a clear snapshot of your finances.
Typically, budgeting apps will sync with your financial accounts in order to categorize your expenses.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Tracking your spending this way is vital to see where your money's going so you can identify areas where you may need to cut costs.
So are you ready to use technology to help you track your money? That's a key question to consider with the Retirement Radio Network powered by AmericanLife. I'm Matt McClure.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Retirement isn't a one size fits all, and neither is your plan. You're back with Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida to schedule a no cost, no obligation consultation. Give the team a call at 386-977-9684 or visit planretirementyourway.com welcome back to Retirement Your Way.
[00:15:24] Speaker C: I'm Matt McClure. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm here with Bradley M. Madison Hardin With Mary Life of Central Florida. You guys ready to play a little bit of a game here?
[00:15:33] Speaker E: Yes, ready.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: Okay. They got the game faces on. Everything is good. They've been prepping for a lifetime for this moment when we play Right or wrong.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in Right or Wrong.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Now what I want to tell you folks is that I want you to play along as well because I'm going to give a statement here, actually several statements in a row, and they're going to tell me whether that statement is right or if it is wrong.
And you know, I try to fool them a little bit with some of these, but I haven't fooled them once yet. So, you know, they're still batting a thousand. See if you can do the same at home as I give you these statements. And statement number one in the right or wrong game this time around is if your employer does not offer a pension plan, there is no other way to create a personal income stream that you can never outlive.
[00:16:37] Speaker D: That is wrong.
So there are vehicles out there in particularly a fixed index annuity that will allow you to create an income you can never outlive. And because those vehicles are attached to indexes in the market, you can have the opportunity for market like growth. But their main job other than income is to provide safety. So you know that for no matter what happens in the economy, that paycheck will be there and the account can never lose value because the market went down. Yeah.
[00:17:11] Speaker C: And that is so key, I think, to give people that peace of mind because you're giving them that safety. But also, you know, to know that in the, as we've been talking about today on the show, in that accumulation phase, you can get that market like growth.
But when you say, you know, it's, it's attached to the market, that does not mean that it's invested in the stock market directly. That's just the performance of that account. Right. Is is tied to the performance of a particular market index. It could be something like the s and P500. It could be something that's like a proprietary index that, you know, a particular carrier uses, but the performance is tied to that. So you get to partake in the growth of the market. But on the downside, you're completely protected.
[00:17:52] Speaker D: Right. And it's not like, you know, your grandfather's annuity where if I invest in this and I can only collect payments for one year and pass away back in the day, the insurance company would keep all that money where now that's not Very attractive. So what would happen is if, if you turned on that income and unfortunately passed away maybe a year into the plan, the rest of that account balance will pass down to your beneficiaries or if you have a spouse where at the time you could have elected a joint payout to where if you passed away, that income now goes for the rest of your spouse's life and it stays in the family.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it's again, more peace of mind that you can offer to folks. All right, so number two, in this edition of Right or Wrong, there is a retirement investment that offers protection from market volatility, but still allows people to participate in the gains of an underlying stock market index. I think I know what the answer might be to this one.
[00:18:50] Speaker E: That's correct. Yeah. So as Bradley was saying, there is a product where you can safely invest and participate in the gains while eliminating all of your downside risk. And as we've mentioned in previous episodes, it sort of eliminates the peaks and valleys of riding the wave. You know, in retirement, we want something that's going to be predictable, something that we know that's going to be there when we need to draw that income. We're also just knowing that we can't below what our initial principal was that we put into it. So that is a huge part of how we help our clients.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, that you're at least going to have this much. And then as we were saying, when that principal gets credited each time that's your new floor, it can only go up from there.
And so that is, you know, that, that particular, you know, class of investments or investment vehicle that, as we can can say here is, you know, something that I don't think a lot of people know necessarily even exists. And if they do know that it exists, they might have heard, you know, people say negative things about the, you know, annuities in general. You know, we mentioned the word annuity earlier. People might be like, oh, that, that's a bad word. I've heard bad things about those.
But again, as you say, it's not your grandfather's annuity. Things have changed, grown, evolved over the years.
[00:20:10] Speaker D: Right. And the consumer that's looking for that safety, that peace of mind to know that I'm never going to go below when I started. And a big phrase is zero is your hero.
So we don't. We love calls from our clients annually to say, because if they look at their statement and it shows a zero return, well, what that person knows is that the market must have went down and the reason that they're calling us and they're happy is because, well, guess what, I didn't lose anything. And so. Okay, well, Mr. Jones, let's just reset, rebalance it and next year, let's see how it goes. But always knowing that zero is your hero.
[00:20:47] Speaker C: Yep. Absolutely right. It becomes your best friend in those down years in the market.
All right. And number three, last one here for this particular edition of Right or Wrong is this. You won't learn much in a first appointment with a financial professional.
[00:21:04] Speaker E: That's wrong.
So we really take a lot of pride in educating our clients on all of their options in their current position and where they may be able to adjust course to really know if they're portfolio is meeting their expectations of what they want out of their retirement.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: Yeah. Inspect what you expect or anything.
[00:21:28] Speaker D: And as Madison said previously, you know, if you can track it, you can change it. So therefore meeting with somebody that, that's going to give you that advice on, well, maybe you're a few years out from retirement, maybe you're in retirement, maybe you want to be less, less risk adverse. Those are all topics that we discussed on that first meeting and know we look forward to doing that.
[00:21:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And really everything that we are discussing on the show this time and every time, it's all customizable to the individual or to the family or whomever you're, you're doing a plan for. It's definitely not a one size fits all. It's not like you're going to go down to the, the big box store of retirement plans and be like, oh, let's pull this one off the shelf and this is the right one for you. No, I mean it's all completely customizable and individualized. I, I like sort of liken it to if you've ever worn anything or bought anything that says it's one size fits all, it doesn't know it doesn't fit anybody.
[00:22:23] Speaker E: Right.
[00:22:24] Speaker D: Right.
[00:22:24] Speaker C: So there you go. That's if you run across anything that's a one size fits all retirement plan or run far, far away, call these guys instead. All right. Bradley and Madison Harden with the Merrill Life of Central Florida would be glad to help you out with a customized plan just for you.
You can give them a call at 386-977-9684 or you can visit planretirementyourway.com that's planretirementyourway.com or 386-977-9684 covered a lot of ground today in our discussions. Talking about accumulation and also, you know, being able to build that, you know, sort of retirement nest eggs, but do it with safety in mind as well, you know, balancing that out. Right.
What's one big takeaway, you think, from. From the show today?
[00:23:14] Speaker D: I think a big takeaway is to make sure that you're diversified. And so we've spoke on the rule of 100 a couple of times where, you know, maybe in your younger years, you know, maybe you're 30, so then you can afford to have 70% be really aggressive and but as you near retirement, as you age, that number should start to shift a little bit to more safety because the whole goal of accumulation is to have something to retire with.
And so there are ways to be able to still earn market like returns but have no downside risks.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that, you know, when we talk about that, it's each and every time that, and this is a good illustration that you brought up, I believe, before Madison was that each and every time that there is that interest credited to the account, that's your new floor, you can never go below that. And that really is even more than like just having a financial safety net like that is, you know, a lot of peace of mind for people as well.
[00:24:15] Speaker E: Right. It's predictable and you're not going to wake up and have that moment where your account lost value overnight and you're having, you know, that would cause you a lot of stress in retirement. I can imagine. So you really can have the best of both worlds when it comes to these products. You can see the growth with the market, but you're not going to experience that downside risk. So that is a huge benefit to our clients and something that we try to educate people on in every meeting.
[00:24:43] Speaker C: That we have and leads to those happy phone calls from the clients that you work with as well. Right, sure.
[00:24:48] Speaker D: Right. And we've had people, you know, as they're accumulating and working, if they hear on the news that, oh, the market's down or something going as is going wrong, they just don't log into their accounts and they don't see how much damage that it has done to them personally. And so as you mentioned, when we have those reviews, we're never worried about showing up to a client's home or they come into the office and having a negative return on that statement. So we are happy to be able to provide that peace of mind. And in fact, in 2024 alone, there have been over $40 billion going into that alternative asset class at we'd be happy to share with you when we do meet.
[00:25:26] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a huge number. And so a lot of people, you know, looking for that safety and that growth at the same time because, you know, that really is, especially when you get closer to retirement, as we were saying when we were talking about the rule of 100, you want to be taking less risk and you also want to still be getting that reasonable rate of return. So it's not like those are mutually exclusive things like, oh, if I'm in safety, I can't have any growth.
You can kind of have the best of both worlds in a way.
[00:25:57] Speaker E: Right. And it's customizable to each individual and couple and what they're looking to get out of those alternative asset classes, as Bradley mentioned. So, you know, we don't know how long we're going to live and we don't know what the stock market's going to do. So it's important to rely on more fixed income streams and those guarantees in retirement. And you're not going to have to give up any of that growth potential.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: Yeah, get to those guarantees. Absolutely. And so, you know, if people do reach out to you, if they scan the QR code that's right on the screen right now, or maybe go to the website or call the number that's there, what are those sort of initial interactions like when you sit down with somebody for the first time for that initial kind of consultation?
[00:26:43] Speaker D: Well, the first thing we do is we want to get to know you, and then we want you to get to know us.
And so we try to take your temperature and figure out what your goals are and how you can retire your way. And so we try to outline, you know, what's your goals? Do you want to travel? Do you want to see family? Are you okay staying in your hometown? And as you mentioned, just sipping a beverage on the porch, what does retirement look like? And once we can have that initial consultation, we'll go back to the office, do some studying, and come back and try to propose a plan to help you live retirement your way.
[00:27:17] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a great way to start in just that very sort of informal getting to know you kind of a way, and then you get down to, okay, what are my wants, what are my desires and my needs for my retirement years? And that's how you come up and craft a plan. Working with folks, not not, you know, working to just tell them what to do. But it's a partnership, as we've said.
[00:27:38] Speaker E: Face to face, as we've mentioned before, is really something that we put at the peak of importance.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Getting to know the person in person is very, very important. And folks, if that sounds like something that would be good for you and your situation, if you have even just just a bit of doubt about where you're headed toward your retirement, Bradley and Madison will be glad to help you out by coming up with a plan for you. Well, Bradley and Madison, thank you again so much for being around and sharing your wisdom and knowledge and experience with us and we'll do it again soon.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:28:08] Speaker D: Thank you, Matt.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: Thanks so much and thank you for joining us for this edition of the show. And we'll see you again next time for more Retirement YOUR Way.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us for Retirement your Way with Amerilife of Central Florida. Our goal is to bring clarity and confidence to your retirement journey. Remember, Bradley and Madison Hardin are here to help you create a personalized plan for the future you deserve. If you'd like to schedule a no cost, no obligation consultation, give the team a call at 386-977-9684 or visit planretirementyourway.com and don't forget to tune in next week, same time, same place for more strategies, insights and support to help you live retirement your way. Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, llc, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Amerilife are separate companies but are affiliated through Common Ownership Insurance. Products and services are not offered through bcm, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents not affiliated with the United States Government. Bradley and Madison Hardin do not offer tax or legal advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended to 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.
