When my grandparents were looking forward to retiring, they had a couple options. One of those options being, a great big pension plan. For those of you who don't know how pensions work, the gist of it all is that the employer you worked for would take care of your retirement for you. Sure you could put some money away and continue to save for your retirement, but that's exactly what you were doing...saving for retirement. Pensions would allow you to have a set income for the rest of your life throughout retirement. Granted, people weren't living all that long after retirement when pensions were given, but hey! A lifetime income is a lifetime income right?!

Now if you're a part of Gen X, you'll know that in 1978, good ol' congress passed the Revenue Act of 1978 which created the almighty 401(k). This changed the retirement game by storm! Now, the employers were let off the hook! No more need to provide YOU with a lifetime retirement income, that was YOUR job now. However, to help you sleep at night, they'd still be able to match your pre-tax contributions (some of these matches dollar for dollar) that way you can live out the rest of your retirement like you had a pension. They even created cute formulas to show you how "on track" you are for retirement. One thing this "tracker" doesn't show you are the taxes you'll have to pay back to the government when you go to collect on your money.

Now, I know what you're thinking..."It's fine, my money is going to outpace inflation, and since it's pre-tax i'll make enough in the market to pay it all..." Let's take a look at the 20 year average of the S&P 500, as of this writing the avg is 7.45% and to adjust for the cost of inflation it's sitting at about 5.3% year over year. As of this writing inflation is up to 8.5% in the U.S.! I don't know about you, but simple math says...the current market and the past data that's supposed to foretell the future of the market, isn't passing the test. Not only that, you're going to be in the 24% Ttax bracket when you retire, so if you were lucky enough to save $400,000, you're only going home with about $260K and some change. If you live till you're 85, that's only $13K a month in retirement. *womp womp*

I know what you're about to say again, "but Josh, most years we get over 20% returns on our money in the market, regardless of the years we lose, we'll still make that money back!"...Are you sure? How does compound interest work? Einstein said that compound interest is the "eighth wonder of the world, he who understands it, earns it. He who doesn't, pays for it." Compound interest only works in one of two environments, completely negative or completely positive. It CANNOT work in a mixed environment! In order for the revolving balance to rapidly grow, in either direction, it needs to be the same value. Let's take for example your credit card APR. 24.99% is broken down into 365 days, if you were to take your revolving balance and multiply it by 24.99%, I can guarantee that your amount of interest would be more at the end of the year. The reason is because the interest is compounded daily and has the same value. Banks know this, lenders know this, so why don't you? It's how they keep us all in debt! Ok...let's get back on track...how does compound interest affect our savings? We need compound interest, which compounds daily, to rapidly grow our savings, this does not work in the market, which is where most of Americans have their savings linked to.

Once your savings takes a negative day, what happens? You lose. Your money and compounding interest stops. Here's an example: If you have a balance of $1,000 and lose 50% your new balance is $500...if you then gain 50% on your balance of $500 your new balance is $750...losses affect us greater than gains do. Essentially it would take DOUBLE the return just to get back to our original balance of $1,000. So if our savings is tied to a market that has negative returns and losses, you can clearly see why it isn't a great idea and why it's failing.

Every day, month, and year, people are losing more and more money to the market. Numbers are fickle...but they don't lie.

Is there a way to grow your money safely and where compound interest can actually work for you? Yes! There are in fact many options that people have to be able to grow their money safely and where compound interest can truly work for them.

One of those places is - drum roll please! - a properly structured Indexed Universal Life (IUL) policy. I know what you're thinking, "WHOA WHOA WHOA, Josh...c'mon...Life Insurance?" And I'm here to say YES. An IUL can help you achieve three main things, 1) protection for yourself, 2) your family, and 3) your MONEY! As of this writing the IUL 20 year avg is 9%, and that's not including the extra interest from daily compounding interest! The IUL brings you guaranteed returns every year so you never lose your money, not only that - your money grows TAX FREE. You can also borrow tax free and in some cases, interest free. This is the real solution to the struggling investors problem. Don't take my word for it though, below are the IRS tax codes on the IUL making everything about it tax free. Imagine being able to retire with an actual $400,000 balance and living with $40,000 tax free every year for the rest of your life...

Stock Market/401K/IRA's = loss and taxes

IUL = guaranteed tax free cash

So... what are you waiting for?

Now it comes down to your final question or thought. HOW do you get started and set all of this up? I'm not only a financial solutionist, I'm a Financial Professional! I can show you an in depth personal plan to meet your financial needs. 

If you'd like to connect, please click on the booking link below and either myself or one of my trusted associates will be more than happy to help you.