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Advice Management Strategy

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY PART 1: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING THE VITAL TOOL ALMOST 50% OF PEOPLE OWN, YET FEW TRULY GRASP – A MUST-READ FOR HR AND BUSINESS OWNERS!

Hey, what’s almost 50? Many people own one, and everybody wants it, yet very few understand it, including HR and Business owners.

It’s the IRA and its slightly younger cousin, the 401(k).

The IRA and Section 401(k) were established as part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 to help people save for retirement. Also, part of the Act is section 404(c), which applies responsibilities to HR and employers to maintain employee education. Your account growing tax-deferred each year was a great idea; therefore, more of your money grow because less is going to the IRS. Two years later, the 401(k) was added to the tax-saving marketplace, and this new plan became the new pension for many workers.

Tax savings was welcomed back in 1971-1980; the highest marginal Federal Income Tax rate was 70%. With that in mind, everybody started pouring money into these accounts and took advantage of the tax deduction for faster growth. Another benefit we were told of was that taxes during retirement would be lower because retired people have lower incomes.

People were so stuck on tax savings and poured trillions into these accounts. Sadly, these trillions hastened the ending of many guarantees in traditional pension plans.

Several flaws have developed or worsened over the last few decades with the 401(k) and IRA, yet we were so stuck with what we were doing already that it was hard to see the truth.

Flaw #1 Believing a 401(k) plan is a pension plan.

What is a 401(k) plan? We will tell you what it is not to get to the point. Contrary to what many believe, it is not a Pension Plan-it is a Retirement savings account. And that is very different.

A pension plan guarantees that you will receive a specified sum for your and or your partner’s lifetimes, and a 401 (k) does not have that protection. If the market crashes or your investment decreases in value, there is no floor, and you’re on your own. There is no guarantee of how much income you will get or how long it will last.

To safeguard the guarantee of income for life in pension plans. The US government created an insurance company called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). The PBGC guarantees you will get your monthly pension up to its legal limits even if the company you worked for goes belly up or the market crashes, depleting pension assets.

Was The PBGC ever used? In 2021 the PBGC paid monthly retirement benefits, up to legal limits, to nearly 1.5 million retirees in over 5,000 employer plans that ended. That’s a lot of protection you do not have with a 401(k)!

Flaw #2 Believing you will be in a lower tax bracket

That high 70% marginal tax rate that was used in marketing only affected a tiny percentage of the population, and the great majority paid much less. It is a very good possibility that taxes will rise and not be lower. I mention this because, in the long-term, the only way to deal with the National Debt, deficit, Social Security, and Medicare trust funds will be to increase tax rates. We can safely say that taxes will not be lower in the future!

Flaw #3. The New Jersey double tax.

Many people are surprised to learn that New Jersey does not allow a deduction for contributions to IRAs and 403(b) plans, even if they are deductible for federal income tax purposes. With that in mind, preserving your tax records showing your deposited amount each year is critical. Keeping old tax records is challenging enough. However, if you cannot show how much you put

  1. Then every dollar you take out will be taxed again. Wow, paying taxes again on the money you already paid taxes on. Therefore. It is critical to permanently maintain tax records to determine how much of the account has been taxed. These records are vital for our beneficiaries of your retirement accounts, who will be clobbered if unavailable.

Flaw #4 Believing your retirement savings plans can pass tax-free.

Most people realize that you can leave a large estate without having estate taxes due. However, retirement dollars like IRA, 401K, 403(b) will always be subjected to income taxes at the state and federal levels. Estates of 6.5 million and more for a couple will pass estate tax-free to beneficiaries. Income taxes will be due, and the beneficiary tax rates from the first dollar.

Flaw #5 For certain people, an additional tax is due – NJ. Inheritance taxes.

Yes, NJ has both an estate tax and an inheritance tax. New Jersey residents must be aware of the effect of the Inheritance Tax, which is applied to 100% of the balance in these accounts. Luckily, spouses, children, grandkids, and even your parents are exempted and charities.

Everyone else is like brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, and close friends. Inheritance Tax rates range from 11% to 16%, depending on the beneficiary’s relationship with the account owner and the estate’s value. For these reasons, planning for these accounts is essential and should not be delayed.

Flaw #6 Believing the family can continue these accounts.

IRS took away a great family IRA planning tool. The/Stretch IRA, as it was referred to, allowed an IRA owner to continue payments to their children, grandkids, and even great-grandkids over their lifetimes (spouses are exempted). Sometimes, this wealth-producing engine could last 80 years after your passing. Passing wealth over many generations was what the super-wealthy were for generations.

Sadly, the IRS decided you no longer could use what the rich were doing. Even though it is your money, you are being denied the ability to continue payments for decades. They decided that the inherited IRA must have some distributions taken yearly and must be emptied entirely by the end of the ten years. Decades of deferred tax growth are lost forever. I joke; the tax rules are written in pencil – easily and frequently changed.

The Six Flaws will be addressed in a little more depth over the next few days.

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Sign up for a Financial Fitness Strategy Session at Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

Go to my website https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Email me at Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

Call me or text (951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Leadership Money Women In Business

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY PART 2: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING THE VITAL TOOL ALMOST 50% OF PEOPLE OWN, YET FEW TRULY GRASP – A MUST-READ FOR HR AND BUSINESS OWNERS!

A comfortable retirement should include a traditional pension plan or a 401(k) or similar account and Social Security. Please be aware while pensions and 401(k) provide money in retirement, they are very different.

Here is a short review to understand the basics of each account, including the benefits, disadvantages, and differences between a pension plan vs. a 401(k).

An old-fashioned pension gives you and or a partner a source of stable and predictable lifetime income in retirement, so you do not have to worry about depleting assets. Pensions take the guesswork out of retirement planning.” The company funds pensions, and sadly they are declining in availability. High costs, market worries, and the promise to pay the retired worker or partner for life have become expensive promises. Companies that have dropped pensions are replacing them with 401(k)s, shifting all the costs and responsibility of saving for retirement to workers.

Having a 401(k), all the responsibility to manage risks is on you. If you don’t save enough, withdraw too much, or your investment choices drop, your retirement fund could run out of money. Even a well-funded 401(k) offers no guarantees. While you can estimate what you may have in retirement based on previous market returns, there is no guarantee you’ll grow your retirement savings at a planned rate. This can make planning for retirement spending very difficult.

401(k) plans allow you to invest your money but only between investments your employer authorizes, and you do not have access to any investment you want. However, with a 401(k), if investments fail to perform as expected, it directly impacts your nest egg. It’s a flawed system that expects an average person to become a savings and investing expert.

A Roth 401(K) may be wise if your company offers it. The tax benefits will be appreciated when taxes rates rise. The massive national debt and the need to continue meeting its financial obligations will cause taxes to increase.

Summary: Pension & 401(k) plans can be summed up as follows:

  • Employers primarily fund pensions, while 401(k) plans are primarily funded by employees.
  • Employers control pension investments, while employees partially control 401(k) assets. Pensions offer a guaranteed income for life, while 401(k) provides unknown payments
  • that may be depleted depending on an individual’s decisions.
  • 401(k) plans are portable employer to employer. Pensions stay at the company till retirement age.

All is not lost if your employer only offers a 401(k) plan. There are a few IRS-approved strategies to make the 401(k) more pension-like and provide some guarantees. Please reach out and see if any of the ideas are available to you.

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Sign up for a Financial Fitness Strategy Session at Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

Go to my website https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Email me at Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

Call me or text (951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Biography and History Leadership

The Home Run King’s Economic Home Run- How Babe Ruth Beat the Great Depression

Are you concerned about the impact the next 12-24 months could have on your retirement portfolio? With the stock market constantly fluctuating, it’s hard to know what the future holds. But what if there was a way to secure your retirement income without relying on the stock market?

You might be surprised to learn that Babe Ruth, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, was able to earn $300k in yearly retirement income during the Great Depression without relying on the stock market. And you can do the same.

It all started when Babe Ruth’s manager introduced him to his personal financial advisor, Mr. Heilman. Just months before the Great Depression, Heilman advised Ruth to move all his wealth into “no risk” investments, and it paid off. Not only did Ruth survive the depression, but he also created a wealth of income that secured his lifestyle and family’s financial future.

These “no risk” investments are still commonly used by retirees today and can be part of a Crash Proof Your Finances, you can secure your retirement income and protect your portfolio from potential market downturns.

However, not everyone qualifies for this type of retirement model. There are some restrictions based on age, profession, geographic location, and marital status.

If you have a portfolio of $500k-2m+ and want to learn more about how you can implement a Financial Fitness Strategy Session, and see if you qualify, please keep reading.

Learn how to never lose a dime in any market risk and catch the upside of the market.

We understand that retirement planning can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.

Don’t let the next market downturn ruin your retirement plans. Contact us today to learn more about how you can implement a Retirement Income & Protection Plan and secure your financial future.

Take time out of your life for your Financial Fitness so your assets are in shape and you will never out live your income

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our Podcast  “Money 911”

Sign up for a Financial Fitness Strategy Session: Meet with Kris Miller –

Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

You can reach me at Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com, (951) 926-4158

 

 

Categories
Advice Growth

UNCOVERED BRAIN BLOCKS THAT SABOTAGE OUR THINKING, AND THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO ELIMINATE

I think of myself as a very rational person- a mathematician. Grounded in facts and numbers, but sadly I question myself daily. Most humans, no matter how sure they are, may be irrational.

Researchers and economists, two of the most famous Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, have believed that humans have made logical, well-considered decisions for many years. However, researchers have uncovered some brain blocks that sabotage our thinking. Sometimes we make rational decisions, but many more times when we do not!

Psychologists and behavioral researchers define different mental mistakes. Let’s look at five frequent errors that repeatedly sway us from making good decisions.

Brain Block #1 Survivorship Bias

Survivorship bias refers to our tendency to focus on the winners in a particular area and try to learn from them while completely forgetting about the losers who are employing the same strategy.

We only hear from the people who survive. We mistakenly overvalue one survivor’s strategies, tactics, and advice while ignoring that the same strategies, tactics, and advice didn’t work for most people.

When the winners are remembered, and the losers are forgotten, it becomes challenging to say if a particular strategy leads to success. 

Brain Block #2 Loss Aversion.

Loss aversion refers to our tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains. Research has shown that if someone gives you $10, you will experience a slight boost in satisfaction, but if you lose $10, you will experience a dramatically higher loss in pleasure. 

Our tendency to avoid losses causes us to make silly decisions and change our behavior simply to keep the things we already own. We are wired to feel protective of the things we own, which can lead us to overvalue these items compared to the options.

Similarly, you might feel a tiny bit of joy when you breeze through green lights on your way to work, but you will get downright angry when the car in front of you sits at a green light, and you miss the opportunity to make it through the intersection. Losing out on the chance to make the light is far more painful than the pleasure of hitting the green light from the beginning.

Brain Block #3 The Availability Heuristic.

The Availability Heuristic refers to a common mistake our brains make by assuming that the examples that come to mind quickly are the most important or prevalent things.

Research from Harvard University has shown that we live in the least violent time in history. More people are living in peace now than ever, and violent crime is falling. 

Most people are shocked when they hear these statistics. If this is the most peaceful time in history, why are so many wars going on right now? Why do I hear about violent crimes crime every day? Why is everyone talking about so many acts of terrorism and destruction?

The answer is that we are living in the most peaceful time in history and the best-reported time in history. Information on any disaster or crime is more widely available than ever before. A quick search on the Internet will pull up more information about the most recent terrorist attack than any newspaper could have ever delivered 100 years ago.

The percentage of dangerous events is decreasing, but the likelihood that you hear about one of them (or many) is increasing. And because these events are readily available in our minds, our brains assume that they happen more frequently than they do.

We overvalue and overestimate the impact of things we can remember, and we undervalue and underestimate the prevalence of the events we hear nothing about. 

Brain Block #4 Anchoring.

This effect has been replicated in various research studies and commercial environments. For example, business owners have found that if you say, “Limit 12 per customer, ” people will buy twice as much product compared to saying, “No limit.”

Perhaps the most prevalent place you hear about anchoring is with pricing. If the price tag on a new watch is $500, you might consider it too high for your budget. However, if you walk into a store and first see a watch for $5,000 at the front of the display, the $500 watch around the corner suddenly seems pretty reasonable.

Many of the premium products that businesses sell are never expected to sell many units themselves. But they serve the critical role of anchoring your mindset and making mid-range products appear much cheaper than they would on their own.

Brain Block # 5. Confirmation Bias.

The Grandaddy of Them All. Confirmation bias refers to our tendency to search for and favor information confirming our beliefs while ignoring or devaluing information that contradicts our beliefs.

Changing your mind is more complex than it looks. The more you believe you know something, the more you filter and ignore all information to the contrary.

You can extend this thought pattern to nearly any topic. If you bought a Honda Accord and believe it is the best car on the market, you’ll naturally read any article you come across that praises the car. Meanwhile, suppose another magazine lists a different car as the best pick of the year. In that case, you dismiss it and assume that the editors of that particular magazine got it wrong or were looking for something different than what you were looking for in a car. 

Formulating a hypothesis and testing various ways to prove it false is not natural. Instead, it is far more likely that we will form one idea, assume it is accurate, and only seek out and believe information that supports it. Sadly most people do not want new information; they want to validate the information.

Where to Go From Here

Once you understand some of these common mental errors, your response might be:

  • I want to stop this from happening! 
  • How can I prevent my brain from doing these things?

It’s a fair question, but it’s not quite that simple. Rather than considering these miscalculations as a signal of a brain block, it’s better to consider them as evidence that the shortcuts your brain uses aren’t helpful in all cases. The mental processes mentioned sometimes are beneficial in many areas of everyday life, and you don’t want to eliminate these thinking mechanisms.

The problem is that our brains are so good at performing these functions — they slip into these patterns so quickly and effortlessly — that we end up using them in situations where they don’t serve us.

One method I use is to listen to different viewpoints and try to narrow down points to a simple, easy-to-understand model. Look for similar pieces and then look for opposing views. See if the opposing points are talking about the same issues. If they are, then research those points until you find a consensus. If it is not solvable by using math, then you have to make an educated guess with as much supporting documentation as possible. Don’t forget there is always prayer! 

 

Elon Musk has been in the news almost daily. So how does the wealthiest man in the world solve his most complex problems? By using a Three-Step Process.

 

  1. Use science in your thinking when you confront questions:
  2. Break it down into its simplest fundamental parts.
  3. Examine and validate your assumptions, so they are 100% true

Build your solutions and then apply steps 1&2

 

Thinking is challenging; that’s why many prefer not to do it to any great extent. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions, and conclusions are not always pleasant. It is vital to understand that the way you approach something that should be economic is often more psychological. 

 

Science is laid to rest, and assumptions are plugged in.

Many times, to fill in the blanks or to complete a story, financial entertainers today sadly use assumptions about human behavior in almost all economic models. These assumptions are probably among the most controversial and unrealistic ever devised and promoted as truths.

An economist and his student are stuck on a deserted island with nothing but a can of beans. The student is hungry and asks the economist how they can open the can to eat these beans. The economist replies, “That’s easy. We assume we have a can opener; then we use it to open the can.”

This joke is a great swipe at my economist colleagues’ use of assumptions. Many of which sometimes come out of nowhere or have some bizarre historical reference

Economists and financial advisors make many assumptions about the world that are unrealistic. These assumptions often attempt to simplify a complex phenomenon; sometimes, they lead to bizarre conclusions.

Science wins out every time if you follow the three steps Elon uses!  

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Best Practices Leadership Money

HABITS ARE NECESSARY FOR ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS, AND THEY CAN ALSO LIMIT YOUR SUCCESS WITH SELF-DESTRUCTIVE PATTERNS

Habits and practices may prevent you from achieving your goals.

Habits make us who we are, how we respond to the world, how we act in front of others, and how we think. And that’s not always a bad thing.

The importance of habits cannot be overstated. Why some habits/ patterns are needed:

You don’t have to concentrate on how to drive your car, so you can be on the lookout for danger while driving. You don’t have to think about how to walk, so you can focus on where you are going.

However, habits can also limit your success by keeping you stuck in self-destructive patterns.

More than likely, if you wish to achieve higher levels of success, you will need to drop some habits you have established up to this point.

Therefore, if you want to accomplish something that requires you to perform at a higher level, I strongly encourage you to drop these bad habits that aren’t serving you and develop new ones that align with what you want.

Do you have any habits that prevent you from achieving your goals?

Ask yourself these questions and be honest:

  • Are you late frequently?
  • Do you forget to return phone calls?
  • Do you stay up late and don’t get enough sleep?
  • Are you prone to breaking your promises?
  • Do you spend money that you don’t have?
  • If all your habits were productive, how would your life be?
  • If you ate healthy foods, exercised regularly, and slept enough.
  • How about saving money, avoiding credit cards, and paying cash for everything?
  • What if you overcame your fears and began networking with people in your field instead of procrastinating?
  • To stay on track to achieving your goals, how about creating a detailed plan broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily objectives?

Changing your habits may not be as hard as one thinks:

  • Make a list of all the habits that keep you from being productive or could negatively affect your future.
  • Choose better, more productive success habits and create a system to support them.

Follow these tips to make sure you follow through on your new habits:

  • Put up signs (yes, signs) to remind yourself to follow through.
  • Stay focused on your new habit with a partner. Talk to your partner five minutes a day, or every few days, to stay on track. 
  • Create consequences for failing to maintain your new habit. (Maybe a monetary amount, slightly painful,  for each offense to a charity.

The “no exceptions rule” is perhaps one of the most powerful ways to stay on track.

People don’t suddenly start living perfect lives overnight, and their habits play a significant role in enabling them to create the lives they want. It is up to you to decide whether to develop habits that lead you to create your ideal life or keep you anchored to your current circumstances.

Decide, commit, and watch your new life unfold. What are your thoughts?

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Case Studies Leadership

THE GOAL OF LIVING LONGER WITHOUT PAIN OR DISEASE, AND THE GOLD MINE OF THE WELLNESS PROGRAM INDUSTRY

Most Company’s Health Wellness Programs – fail to save any money

In an attempt to reduce the skyrocketing costs of health care, many companies have employee wellness programs. On average, employees spend about 6 K while companies spend about $16,000 per employee on health care. The attempt at cost-saving has not shown any success in saving money and has not proven effective in better health.

Over 80%  of large employers have a wellness program that may include free screenings of BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure, and other health indicators. There are various incentives to stay healthy, from subsidized health classes to insurance discounts to cash payouts for meeting specific goals, such as quitting smoking. 

Research has shown that preventing cardiovascular disease or other chronic diseases is the best way to save costs. Therefore companies thought that taking the preventive role some of these programs offer could help them pocket some of those savings.

Sadly, companies aren’t getting much bang for their buck with these wellness programs. This has become a $50 billion industry, and the marketing for these programs is prolific. The market is so good that 66% of those companies want to expand their wellness programs, even though very few firms have not seen any savings over the past decades.

Wellness programs do not work for various reasons, but behavioral economics is the main reason. People are more likely to stay the course when they receive an immediate reward for staying the course when the goals are abstract and distant, such as lowering cholesterol. 

Despite some minor evidence that wellness programs work in some cases, randomized trials found no difference in:

  • Health outcomes 
  • Cost savings 
  • Reduced absenteeism

Even though wellness programs sound like they should work – if we give you a little nudge, maybe you’ll take better care of yourself – the data does not support it.

The employees who benefit the most from wellness programs are already those in good health. No evidence suggests that healthy people are more likely to increase their healthy behaviors when participating in a wellness program. They exercise regularly and see their doctor, so getting a gym voucher just rewards what they are already doing. To receive the program’s benefits, they register.

It is when we talk to people who aren’t engaged with their health that they see these incentives and they want to act, but their lives are so complicated  many lower-income workers have some comorbidities; this is such an enormous cognitive burden that adding more routines is difficult.”

The goal of living longer without pain or disease is valuable to most people. Although wellness programs are well intended, they aren’t working.

The idea that these side benefits would alter the calculations for these people is just completely illogical. There is a fundamental point here: these programs redistribute incentives from the unhealthy to the healthy, but neither group changes its behavior.

Do wellness programs help you save money?

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Body Language Growth Management

THE ART OF CONCENTRATION: HOW TO DEEPEN YOUR FOCUS AND ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

Low productivity is a focus problem.

If you keep feeding your distractions, you can’t make real progress. If you are trapped in a wealth of online distractions, you must start thinking about a different approach to work.

Focus, a valuable commodity for getting real work done, is increasingly becoming a lost art.

If you’re trying to be more productive, don’t analyze how you spend your time. Pay attention to what consumes your attention.

If how you work is not working, design a different system that makes progress possible every day, increasing efficiency and output.

Your present life and career total everything you’ve focused on. If you are unhappy with your productive life, change the system that drives it.

New tools and technology are meant to help us work better, faster, and more intelligently, but they often distract us.

Many productivity apps are meant to improve our lives, but they get in the way of deep and accurate work.

You can’t stop responding to those notifications. The zero-email mindset is a productivity trap that keeps you constantly responding to emails.

How can you get real work done when you can’t stop reacting to almost every notification?

“Feed a cold and starve a fever.

To gain productivity, feed your focus and starve your distractions.”

“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein once said.

Many people have a real plan to get important stuff done — they are not necessarily lazy and don’t know how to stop feeding their distractions.

Attention distraction is one of the biggest obstacles to getting real done. “Focus is the art of knowing what to ignore.

People who cultivate their ability to concentrate without distraction will thrive:

To feed your focus, start separating your urgent work from essential tasks. And most importantly, identify your distractions and how they starve your focus. Knowing your distractions can help you understand how you spend your attention.

For every focused work you want to do, identify the potential distractions, and stop them before you get in the focus zone.

Deep workers often find that notifications, no matter how important the message, takes their deep focus away from the task, and it takes twice as long to get back to focus mode again.

To produce at your peak level, you need to work for extended periods with total concentration on a single task free from distraction. 

To feed your focus, create healthy work boundaries that allow you to concentrate on essential tasks fully. Build a system that starves distractions. Create intentional constraints that will enable you to assume focus mode.

When you’re ‘on,’ be entirely on — use headphones, and when possible, hide your phone, turn it upside down, or block notifications. Block internal and external distractions.

The ability to focus for about 30/40/60 minutes is the only difference between truly productive people and those who struggle to get things done.

Measure your work and find the most suitable focused time that works for you. Your degree of focus determines how fast you make progress.

Structure your day in chunks of focused work to make in-depth work sessions work. Start your day with intention. What is the one thing you have to accomplish today? Start your focused sessions with that task.

Set up your environment to support your focus mode. And plan purposeful breaks in-between deep work sessions. (Pomodoro method)

One final insight about prioritizing involves getting disciplined about what you don’t put on the stage. This means not thinking when you don’t have to, becoming disciplined about not paying attention to non-urgent tasks unless, or until, it’s genuinely essential that you do,

Deep work is a habit and working for long stretches at a time takes time to develop. You can start today. Do more focused work daily, and it will become a habit that helps you get real work done weekly. Better routines are the personal habits of highly efficient people.

What do you do to become more productive?

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Accounting Advice Money

BREAKING THE RETIREMENT PLANNING MYTH: WHY 100% OF STRATEGIES FAIL TO SECURE YOUR LIFETIME INCOME

100% of all retirement planning will fail to provide you with a guaranteed lifetime income.

Yes, 100% is correct. Regardless of how big the planning company is and how lucky or smart the advisor is, none can guarantee you an income for as long as you live.

The best they can do is guess how much or how long you could expect to get checks in retirement. Unlike Social Security and a company pension (not a 401k type plan) that can give you exact numbers, investment advisors can never give you any guarantees.

There are two separate and distinct areas of planning that confuse. Both of them start with the word Retirement. Retirement planning is what an employee gets when he starts working for a company and needs to learn about his investment options, risk tolerance, and dollar matching in the company’s 401(k) or IRA plan.

However, retirement “Income” planning is very different. Note the word income. How to get this saved money to produce a monthly paycheck as I or we are nearing Retirement? That sounds like a reasonable question to ask- how much can I take out for as long as we are both alive? In all honesty, it is the only question that matters. (I have put together critical questions you need to ask now). Income planning should be seriously looked at about ten years before you want to retire.

The retirement planning investment pros cannot give you an answer to that seemingly simple question. Why not? Social Security and company pension plans know to the penny how much you will get guaranteed for your life and a partner if you have one. How come to your retirement planner cannot do the same? Unfortunately, there is no way for them to do that. They can’t give any guaranteed amounts or length of time the money may last.

Why? You see, investment advisors are prevented by law from doing so. Because they can’t give you any guarantees, they need to craft a story that will convince people to leave their money with them: failure to provide a convincing story will result in them losing billions of dollars in commission and fees!

The first step is for you to believe they are the authority by multi-million-dollar advertising.

The second step is to do hypothetical case studies and use computerized projections to tell a story that looks so factual that you believe it. These projections appear authentic by predicting (really guessing) the chances your savings will last and not run out during retirement. To do this, they must apply guesses about what inflation will be projections for portfolio growth, (even though every investor knows “past performance does not guarantee future results, asset mix, and a sustainable

Withdrawal rate. These many assumptions lose any basis in reality. Countless economic studies have proven no one knows what percentage you can take out of your portfolio without running out of money. (No one can predict to future). Now your retirement planner puts these assumptions into a computer, presses the go button, and from these “guesses and assumptions,” impressive report prints.

The best part is that it looks official, leading many to a false sense of security (no guarantees) and the real possibility of running out of money in retirement.

It would be best to ask your advisor direct questions about how your money can produce income now. I have created a robust list of questions, including a guide highlighting each question and detailing what to look for. Please reach out, and I will send them.

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Strategy Women In Business

SEEING THE BIG PICTURE: HOW CAN YOU SEPARATE THE BIASES FROM REALITY WHEN CONSIDERING RETIREMENT PLANNING?

The majority of people think they’re better-than-average drivers, and mathematically, not everyone can be above average. Being optimistic is excellent, and too much may impair your judgment on many things, especially when planning for your financial future.

Being optimistic is valuable as we live our life. Frequently, overconfidence bias leads quickly to confirmation bias, and both of these biases are problematic, especially when combined.   However, sometimes our abilities begin to skew toward unrealistic, which can impair decision-making behavior.

Either alone or combined, these biases are often linked to us believing we can avoid negative things from happening to us. When it comes to retirement planning decisions, you need to separate your biases from reality; this can present a challenge.

Overconfidence in your retirement planning may cause you to overlook potential risks, underestimate the time spent in retirement, and misjudge how long your income will last. Seeing the bigger picture through another set of impartial eyes is crucial and will help you sidestep the influence of biases. Finding ways to work around these biases will allow you to see the value of long-term planning. 

Let’s be realistic about the financial future:

Over 50% of retirees retired before they planned; the most common reason was health problems. Illness can occur at any time and may lengthen your retirement requiring savings to stretch farther than planned. 

50% of retirees said their health care costs were higher than expected. 

Almost 40% said all other expenses were more than they thought. 

It’s essential to understand no one can avoid retirement risks; however, careful planning can help mitigate them.

While overconfidence can undermine the success of a long-term financial plan, clients who are secure in their decisions will likely be satisfied customers. It would be best if you found a balance between an optimistic yet realistic approach to planning.

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

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CHAINED CPI AS AN ALTERNATIVE FORMULA TO THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, AND THE COST THAT COMES WITH IT

The government wants to reduce expenses by using a different CPI version of the (Consumer Price Index). Their new attempt, known as chained CPI (Consumer Price Index) (aka C-CPI-U), this alternative formula reflects how consumers change their purchasing habits when prices rise or fall for a broad range of services, including food, housing, clothing, and medical expenses. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that government spending on Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits would decline by about $300 billion over ten years if this less-generous index were in place.

The idea of switching to a chained CPI has garnered bipartisan support to rein in entitlement spending. But at what cost? There will be plenty.

Many elements of the federal tax code — including tax brackets, personal exemptions, standard deductions, limits on contributions to 401(k) plans and similar accounts, and critical parameters of the earned income and child tax credits — are also adjusted annually for the CPI. According to the CBO, switching to the chained CPI would raise an additional $150 billions of tax revenue through 2026.

The chained CPI grows on average by about 0.3 percentage points per year more slowly than the official CPI (which is weak at best gauge to the actual cost of living). The Social Security actuaries, in their projections, assume the gap between the two CPIs will continue to average 0.3 percentage points per year in the future. 

The Chained CPI will chain you to a lifetime of higher taxes. According to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, if individual income taxes had been indexed to the chained CPI starting July 2013, by 2022, 69 percent of the gains in revenue would come from taxpayers with incomes below $100,000, while those in the highest income brackets would barely be affected. In other words, raise the taxes on the middle class while leaving the rich alone.

Higher taxes are coming; start planning now!

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Sign up for a Financial Fitness Strategy Session:  Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

You can reach me at Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com, (951) 926-4158