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PP Full 7.29.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
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.

Producer:
Welcome to Prosperity Principles with your host, Ed Cruz. Each week, Ed and his company seek to educate Americans like you by providing real strategies for protecting and growing their hard earned money. Get it for a full hour of financial information and economic news affecting your bottom line. Ed wants you to reach the financial freedom you've worked so hard for. So now let's start the show. Here's Ed Crews.

Ed Cruz:
Welcome to Another Week of prosperity principles. I am Edwin Cruz, the owner of Prosperity Financial. And with me is Matt McClure. My co-host. Welcome, Matt.

Producer:
Hi there, Ed. Great to talk with you. Another weekend and I hope you've had a nice week.

Ed Cruz:
They had another interesting week as as I mentioned before, I was just getting over a I don't know if it was a cold or what it was allergies, combination of the two. But whatever it was, it kind of it kind of lingered through throughout another four or five days here. So I'm finally feeling back up to about 95, 97%. So still got a couple of little a couple of steps to go, but feeling much better. Thank you.

Producer:
Well, good, good. Yeah. No, I'm glad to hear it. And you'll get you'll get back up to 100 in no time at all, I'm sure. But folks, this is once again, as Ed said, prosperity principles. And we're going to talk a lot today about money, about retirement, about planning for retirement. And if you want to find out more about the show or about Ed, you can also go to my prosperity team. That is the website, My Prosperity Team. The phone number 3862285769. That's 3862285769. And of course, you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. That's, you know, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, the big ones. You can go there and subscribe to us. Please leave us a rating as well. We really appreciate that feedback.

Ed Cruz:
Yeah. And I also want to remind the the listeners out here that when you call in, what we'd like to do is offer you the Annuity 360 book. And what we want to make sure you know is that there are many things that you will learn. You know, I've heard a lot of crazy stories from clients when they explain to me what their advisors had explained to them. And you'd be surprised what you hear out there. And of course, we want we want to be able to show you or at least describe to you how our planning works, why it's different, how all fixed indexed annuities are not created equal, how to use the rule of 100, the 4% rule the rule of 72. Why is a fixed index annuity better than a bond? This book is going to help you understand why you should replace some of your securities out there that are costing you on a on a monthly and annual basis to possibly a no fee solution. And so these are things that we want to make sure you understand, thoroughly understand and not just hearing it from our mouth, but reading it from a book. Therefore, you have a better understanding of of what it is that we can do for you and help you with.

Producer:
Yeah. And we'll actually hear a bit from that book Annuity 360. We'll give you a little bit of a teaser of it coming up a little bit later on in the show as we learn about one of the things that you just mentioned there added that would be the rule of 100 and our listeners will learn a bit more about that. Well, it was a week where people got a little bit more uneasy about the state of the economy, the state of the markets as well. A lot of volatility in the markets because of some economic news. The Fed raising interest rates again this week by three quarters of a percentage point to three quarters of a point, I should say. And so that sort of sent things kind of a little bit wild. Not that it was all that unexpected, but it still sent things a little bit crazy in the markets. And then you had the GDP numbers come out, which is the look at economic growth or as of right now lack thereof in the country, which showed, you know, some some shrinkage, some contraction in the economy for the second straight quarter. So there's a lot of uncertainty out there. And what have you been sort of watching and paying attention to this week and the economic world?

Ed Cruz:
Well, you know, I've had I've had multiple friends call asked me and I see about in the parks as I'm as I'm doing my walks or running and they ask me, you know, why is gasoline dropping at this point? You know, what is this administration doing for that? And and and I kind of say absolutely nothing. It's not what they're doing. It's what's actually happening in our economic world here. And what I will say is that if there is less oil being used, if there are fewer. Of a recession. And globally we see oil stockpiles coming back up as we see that if there's not demand for it, then prices will naturally go down. And so, again, this is this is one reason that we have high inflation. So hopefully this helps to somewhat tapered off. They have been talking about possibly another run on on oil. But, you know, we'll wait till till we see that. But again, last week I mentioned and I think, again, looking at data and seeing the the mortgage demand one more time, you know, when you see rates at the beginning of the year, 30 year rates were at 3.25%. And I revisited that number. And we're looking at five and one half percent now for a 30 year rate. And remember, that's for people with a credit. If you're below that number, let's say 750, 740, you can expect to be up closer to 6% range or tick above. So and as this happens, you know, the the consequences of that and we're seeing it we're seeing new home purchases on the decline. And the top ten cities in America have seen 6% decrease in in home sales, new home sales. So as this problem persists, we can expect to see more of this happening throughout America. And and for for once we hear that two contracting quarters may not necessarily mean that we're in a recession. I've never heard this before, but it's it's new to us now.

Producer:
Yeah. So so much is new to us now as far as as far as this economy goes. Because it is weird, right? Because we have economic contraction or, you know, a shrinking in the economy for two quarters in a row, which generally has been the definition. Right. Of that's what we've always heard. That's a definition of a recession. At the same time, though, you do have a strong jobs market. You've got a lot of things in the economy that still look strong. It's just a weird, weird economic time for everybody. And it's like, okay, what does all this mean? What how do we sort of navigate this? And I think that's why it's so important for people to have someone who is an expert on these kinds of financial matters and can help them sift through all of the confusion that's happening in the world right now.

Ed Cruz:
Yeah, absolutely. And again, when we when we talk about especially our segment of of who we're trying to help, we're talking about retirees or soon to be retirees. And again, we need to concentrate, as we have said for weeks now, we need to concentrate on how we convert those lump sums into income. And so I guess we'll cover a little more of that. But I guess at this point, you may want to cover the our famous quote of the week.

Producer:
Yeah, that's right. We've got we always like to share a little financial wisdom with our listeners as we start off the show here in the in the early minutes of the show. And we do that through our Quote of the week. And this time around, it comes from Milton Friedman, who said, quote, Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay.

Ed Cruz:
And, you know, when you're $30 trillion in debt, I guess at this point, we still haven't figured out who's going to pay. But as soon as we see taxes going up, then we're going to find out who's paying that.

Producer:
That's right. And it is it will be us. It will be the taxpayers. And, you know, that's that's funny, that quote, I sort of had to laugh because, you know, you're being convinced that somebody else is going to pay. Hey, I like it when somebody else pays, but it doesn't always tend to work out that way, does it?

Ed Cruz:
You know, we've heard the term kick the can down the road too many times. At some point they're coming. They're coming for us.

Producer:
It's coming. The can may kick you in the face at some at some points. Well, and, you know, as we talk about all of the economic uncertainty and, as you say, the national national debt continuing to grow and and all of that and how that is going to affect all of us and potentially our retirement planning. I think that's an important thing to sort of stick a pin in for people who are close to retirement or people who may be a little bit younger and are not quite close to retirement, but are looking at this economic situation. And they're the ones with the anxiety right now. Right. And and saying, okay, how do I navigate all of this? That's why you actually offer this free, full retirement plan consultation to really help people out and help people navigate these choppy, choppy waters that we find ourselves in.

Ed Cruz:
Oh, absolutely. You know, the old thinking is stick your money somewhere in in a blue chip stock. And 20, 30, 40 years down the road, everything's going to be fine. The problem is, how do you define a blue chip stock nowadays? And, you know, we have to start thinking of how am I going to save enough when this market goes down? How do I protect my assets? Is tax deferral good for me at this point? And there are ways to to to fight this two prong. You could you could look at ways to to save and get your tax deductions today. And. We could split that plan with a with some type of a Roth plan where you don't get the tax deduction today. But you but you have that available to you tax free tomorrow. And how do we do this while maintaining liquidity? Right. If we're looking for something safe but we're looking for growth, obviously, you're not looking at a CD. If we're looking for something safe with growth, you're not necessarily not necessarily looking at a at a bond either. And then what clients out there, they also like to know that they have some type of liquidity. Again, that that kicks out some of the other asset classes that are out there. And how do we avoid probate? How do we guarantee income? So when we talk about a full retirement plan, a consultation, you know, look at what you're doing today or what you're not doing today.

Ed Cruz:
What investments are you most most proud of? What's worked for you? What hasn't worked for you? What would you like to change? Because there's always there's always a for as good as we may think we're doing, there's always things that we can do to tweak our plans to help improve upon what we're doing. So the bottom line is, you know, if you do have some growth, but you're not exactly happy with with the markets today, with the risk that you're taking, how would you like to increase the returns on your savings while minimizing the risk that you have? So again, our our consultation is, is risk free. There's no cost. There's no arm twisting. We're going to go fully on on the facts, on information. We'll leave you with literature. And the educational part is is second to none. So this is why this annuity 360 book enhances part of this education and why it's so important to have something in writing, not just from a financial firm, but let's say from a third party firm that has no skin in the game. You know, why not get that second opinion? It'll be well worth your time.

Producer:
100%. And folks, if that sounds like something that you would be interested in, whether it be the free, full financial consultation or just simply a copy of the book that has been talking about here, annuity 360. You can go to our website. It is my prosperity team. That's my prosperity team dot com. Or you can give a call to 3862285769. That number once again, 3862285769.

Producer:
Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in right or wrong?

Producer:
Well. And what we do, of course, in this right or wrong segment, it works a little bit like kind of like just a true or false. I will make a statement and then Ed will tell us whether or not it is right or whether or not it is wrong. So that's that's where the name comes from. It's it's pretty simple, but hopefully it's going to be a little fun and you'll learn something in the process. Well, Ed, are you ready? Ready for statement number one.

Ed Cruz:
Here I am. Let's get to it.

Producer:
All right. All the synapses are firing. He's good to go, and so am I. Here we go. With right or wrong, here's the first statement. You should keep working and stop contributing to your retirement accounts to maximize your Social Security benefit. Is that right or is that wrong? Add.

Ed Cruz:
Well, that's an interesting statement. But it's wrong. It's wrong. And I'll tell you, you always want your money working as hard as you do. There is no substitute for what's called the compound effect. Right. And so if we if we stop investing, then you're just cheating yourself. And it's important to continue to work also to get your get your Social Security at a at a maximum point. So we definitely don't don't want 50, 75% of what we could have achieved in Social Security. So you want it's important to get a Social Security maximization plan and understand what's helpful for your long term. You could be getting $0.15 on the dollar versus controlling 100% of the dollars that you're investing in for your future retirement.

Producer:
So all right. So that one I got wrong. Let's try and see if I can redeem myself here. And with statement number two, there is no way to grow your money tax free in an IRA. Is that right or is that wrong?

Ed Cruz:
Well, traditionally that would be right. But the statement in itself it's wrong because we can always do Roth conversions or Roth contributions to allow you to to pay taxes up front and take the take the tax free distributions in retirement with no required minimum distributions. And that's another important point. Not only do you get to take it tax free in retirement, but you can also control when you want to take it, right? If you have a traditional IRA, you're mandated to take this by the age of 72 due to the changes in tax law. But a Roth IRA, you may be able to if you don't need it, you may be able to get away from the from the distribution. So there's another advantage to the to the Roth IRA.

Producer:
Yeah, there you go. All right. Well, I am only zero for two. I am I am not doing so well up at the plate this time around. But let's see what I can do with statement number three. Here we go. In right or wrong, a 6040 portfolio that is with 60% stocks, 40% bonds is a tried and true method and is still the best way to construct a portfolio for retirement. Is that right or is that wrong?

Ed Cruz:
Oh, that's so wrong. And, you know, that's what many retirement advisors out there want you to believe because they want to hold your your money under their asset management and and get paid a fee for that. But it has been has been disproven time and time again recently here that that bonds just don't have that upside. And just here recently, bonds have been down as much as 13%. And there are better safe money solutions for your wealth like fixed index annuities. And we mentioned that before. You know, there's a significant difference in your or can be a significant difference in your retirement portfolio should you choose that mix to be more like stocks, mutual funds and fixed indexed annuities. I think that for the for my clients today, they've noticed a significant difference and and they can't thank me enough, in fact, so much so that at times that mix becomes more like 60 fixed index annuity and 40% mutual funds and stocks. And in some cases, they really dwindle down those stocks to about 20, 25%. So they have noticed the the the advantage of having that fixed indexed annuity. And when it comes to having that guaranteed income stream, again, there's no substitute for it. And so therefore, clients are jumping all over that.

Producer:
There we go. Well, I you know, what was it last week or week before? I think I was I was three for three in right or wrong this week. Oh, for three. So I guess I won't be making the right or wrong Hall of Fame anytime soon.

Ed Cruz:
But, you know, though, if you were a baseball player and you were batting 500, you'd be getting paid about $1,000,000,000 a year for over a ten year period, let's say.

Producer:
That's right. That's right. Absolutely. I would I would be. But if I keep going the way I've been going right now, I guess everybody gets into a slump. Right. But if I keep going the way I'm going, I might get sent to the minors. Who knows?

Ed Cruz:
Yeah. But you know, again, with all that being said, you know, all of these items that we're covering here again, are in the Annuity 360 book. And and so, again, there's the importance of of wanting to to call for that book at 3862285769. Learn all you need to know about annuities. It's it's it's it's going to change the way you see things and the way that your portfolio grows.

Producer:
It's time for this week's Problem Solver.

Producer:
And this now, of course, Ed is probably one of my favorite times of the week is the Problem Solver segment. And it's fairly it's a fairly simple concept and something that I'm used to because I am the one who presents the problem. I often present problems and Ed always presents solutions to my problems. So here we go. I'll present a problem. And Ed, you'll come up with a solution here in our Problem Solver segment. So the problem this week is, you know, is an important one to a lot of folks. We've talked a little bit about at least one of these options so far, but I want to hear about anything else that you might have to add. So the problem is people wanting to generate tax free money for retirement. What would you say? What would be maybe your top recommendations for them if they can generate tax free money for retirement?

Ed Cruz:
Yeah. And again, we we kind of touched on this on the on the previous segment and obviously solution number one. And and I have CPAs that that that love to offer this to their clients and they get me in touch with people so that I can help them because it seems like nobody ever wants to help them with Roth IRAs. Why is it that they just continuously want to contribute and get there and get their taxes deducted? Now, that's because they don't think about the future. They don't have someone guiding them on on when that's going to be more important to you. Is it more important to take those deductions today? It could be. But there comes a time where having tax free income in retirement is going to be especially important for you once you're on a fixed income. Right. Today, we have the ability to to earn all that we can through our through our regular job at 40 hours a week or whatever it might be. And a little side hustle, right. We might be able to make those extra dollars.

Ed Cruz:
But in the future, once you're once you're up there in your seventies, eighties, you're not going to be thinking about where you're going to go out to to to entertain yourself, to make a couple extra dollars. You want to really go travel, go golf, go spend time with the grandkids. Right. And so a Roth IRA, right? Pay the taxes now. Take advantage of the tax free income in retirement, no required minimum distributions required, as I said earlier. And it includes a tax free tax free death benefit also for your beneficiaries. And, you know, a lot of times we fail to think about what we're leaving behind and the and the mess that we leave behind at times. Right. If you leave $1,000,000 to your to your son and daughter and they're at their prime time of earning in their life and and they're already sitting at the 24% tax bracket. Wouldn't it be so nice of you to put them now in a 33% tax bracket? So thinking about our beneficiaries in the future, that's also something that could be quite important.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. That you know, I think a lot of times when people think about even if they if they do think about the future after they are gone and what they're going to leave behind for the next generation, they think of life insurance. They think of the traditional life insurance. They think of like a whole life policy or a term life policy, maybe, for example. And they think of that lump sum payment going to their beneficiaries. They don't necessarily think about life insurance being something that could benefit them while they are still alive. They think of death insurance, you know. So it's it's an important thing to note that life insurance can actually be beneficial. Yeah. While you are still alive, right?

Ed Cruz:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, talking about life insurance, of course, you know, there are multiple types of life insurance as well. You know, people just think about whole life because that's what the let's say at this point, the older generation and I'm starting to creep up up I'm starting to creep up there. But my my clients, you know, they're constantly talking about whole life, whole life. But, you know, there's also something called universal life, which is which is a cost savings to to the to the actual purchaser of life insurance. And then we have indexed universal life. And what a fantastic way to grow what you have through the indexes. And if it's something that you want to leave behind your beneficiaries, this could be something that in the long term, because of the because of the growth inside of it, if you have a, let's say what's called option A and option B, if you have option B on your life insurance, the growth of that death benefit could be quite substantial, leaving your heirs, your beneficiaries. With a whole lot more of tax free money. So that again, that would be that would be the two solutions, you know, Roth IRAs and life insurance when it comes to tax free planning and by the way, that index universal life. Not only do we look at that as as ways to provide a great death benefit, but the the index, universal life, the cash value that builds inside of it can also provide you with a tax free income that could last you for decades to come. So two ways to think about insurance and Roth IRAs. Right. We can talk about them in the form of of of a death benefit. And we could talk about them in a way, thinking about long term income. So two great solutions to that problem.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. It can be done, folks. So there we go. That is the solution to that problem. Well, as we move along here, Ed, we have been talking about the book Annuity 360 throughout the show so far. And as we sort of reach just about the halfway point of the show here today, I wanted to give our listeners just a little taste of that book and some of the information that they can learn when they read that book. And actually, the author of the book, Ford Stokes, is going to read just a little bit of it for us right now, the audiobook version of Annuity 360. And he's going to talk about something called the rule of 100. Now, you might be asking yourself, okay, well, you know, it actually listed off a little bit earlier, just some different rule, the rule of 72, the rule of one 100, the 4% rule, you know, all of these different kinds of things that can be used as as guidelines when thinking about retirement. And you might have a little bit of trouble keeping them all straight in your head. So this one is about the rule of 100. Listen to Ford Stokes talk about it from the book Annuity 360. And then we will come back on the other side and chat about it for just a second as well. Here's Ford Stokes.

Speaker4:
Chapter six, The Rule of 100. Big idea. You want to risk less as you get older because you have less time to make up any big losses. As you get closer to your golden years, many financial professionals advise gradually reducing your risk. Retirees and pre-retirees don't have the luxury of waiting for the market to bounce back after a dip. The dilemma is figuring out how safe you should be in certain stages of your life. For years, a commonly cited rule of thumb has helped simplify asset allocation. This rule states that individuals should hold a percentage of their stocks that is equal to 100 minus your age. For example, a six year old would have 40% of their holdings in stocks and 60% in fixed income products like bonds or fixed indexed annuities. Why you should follow the rule of 100. Take our current example of a 60 year old at age 40. Your risk capacity is higher. You have more time to rebuild your wealth should you experience a dip in the market. However, at age 60, you can't afford to risk as much of your portfolio in the market because the time horizon to rebuild your wealth is much shorter. Rule of 120. Many financial advisors now advocate the rule of 120 so they can get a significant rate of return for their clients and maintain management of the portfolio. I disagree with today's market volatility. A retiree does not want to go back to work in a job making less than what they made before. They must consider following the rule of 100 or at least a 5050 smart financial plan that is built equally with smart risk and smart, safe investments.

Producer:
And that was Ford Stokes, the author of Annuity 360, talking about the rule of 100. What do you think they're at? I think a lot of great information for our listeners in a fairly short period of time there.

Ed Cruz:
You know, these rules that we speak about, they're not overly complicated. The problem is that people are being programmed to think one way. And, you know, if you truly understood these simple rules, you could take your finances to a whole different level. And the simple rule of 100 can really get you to diversify in a different way that you never thought of, because you're just programmed to think that stocks, bonds, mutual funds are are just the one and only way to go. But when you start realizing that part of your assets need to be somewhere safe. Because as we age, we're just things just don't rebound as quickly and we don't know when we're going to go. Right. So just understanding these little simple rules can can take us a long way.

Producer:
Yeah, that's thing like stocks, bonds, all of those types of investments all come with risk. This is something that we were talking about, that initial principle that you invest that you that you put into that annuity, especially we're talking about something like a fixed indexed annuity, which we've mentioned before. That principle that you put in, it's safe, it's protected. It'll be whatever index that annuity is tied to. When that index goes up in value, so does the annuity. But then when it comes back down, it falls down, you know, through the basement. That money that you initially put in, you don't lose it.

Ed Cruz:
Yeah, that's right. And, you know, we we speak on on fixed indexed annuities all the time. But, you know, with the rising rates of another annuity that is becoming quite attractive right now are three, four or five year multi year guaranteed annuities. If you're looking for something safe, if you're looking for something a little shorter term, if you're if you're looking to know what type of return you're going to get, we definitely have the solution for you there as well. If you're looking for for an income plan and you want to know what it's going to look like in the future, if you want a guaranteed rate on your income plan, we can help you there as well. So again, switching over, using that rule of 100, thinking of of a comprehensive retirement plan, thinking of the things that we should be doing versus what we're what we hear we should be doing. What we actually should be doing is is finding out what's really going to help us here in the in the near and long term future. You know, we find that that too many people think that retirement planning is only about rate of return. Right. And we again, we talk about this all the time.

Ed Cruz:
We have to start thinking of all this of all this money in terms of income. What is that going to provide for me? Too many people have no clue about their bonds that really for that matter. You know, I ask people all the time, that mutual fund that you're holding, you know what? All what all does it involve? But what are your internal fees? What what do you have going on in there? What different stocks make up that mutual fund? I can never get anyone to tell me what they actually have in there. And. But when we speak to them about these safe products, they want to know everything about it, you know, all the nuts and bolts. You know how the engine works, how that transmission goes in circles. You know, it's amazing to me sometimes how we're offering a safe solution, but you want to know more. But when you think about a mutual fund, you don't care to know anything about it. So, you know, we have to start thinking of what we're doing and really put it into context, right? So there's just a lot to learn for for our for our listeners out there.

Producer:
Absolutely. And folks, if you would like to learn more, you can go to the website, My Prosperity Team. That's all one word, my prosperity team, dotcom. Or you can give it a call at 3862285769 and get a free consultation. Also get a free copy of the Annuity 360 book, which we just heard from a couple of minutes ago from the author himself, Forbes Stokes So that is absolutely free of charge to you both. The consultation and the book are yours absolutely free if you call the number or go to the website. Well, right now, Ed, as we move along here, I wanted to share a little bit of a couple of minutes of a story that I produced this week about planning for retirement, of course. And I was actually surfing the web the other day and came across an article on MarketWatch which was entitled The Eight Things that Seniors Need to be Worrying About or that Retirees Need to Be Worrying About. And you know, they come up with some some obvious ones, like inflation is number one, of course. But then there are some things that you might not think about in there. And there's one especially that I wanted to focus on. And we can we can chat about it all when we come back here on the other side. But listen to this, folks. This is eight things that seniors and retirees need to be concerned about right now.

Producer:
And we will chat about it coming up on the other side. Big changes could be coming and they may affect your retirement. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by a of life increases in costs, market volatility and fears of a possible recession. All have people who are close to retirement worried about the future. Some people who were considering early retirement are staying in the workforce, while others who had already called it quits are going back to work. Marketwatch recently published a list of eight big things retirees and pre-retirees should keep an eye on. Some of them are pretty obvious, like number one inflation, as the prices of goods and services continue to go up at rates not seen in four decades, just paying for everyday things could eat through your retirement savings more quickly than you thought. Another concern, Social Security. The trust fund is set to be exhausted by the year 2034. Potential changes to save the program could have a big impact on your retirement years. Two items on the list have to do with savings how much money to set aside for retirement and how to address a growing gap in that amount versus what most of us have actually saved. Yahoo! Finance contributor Vera Gibbons recently reported that the savings gap has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with a lot of folks dipping into their retirement accounts just to get by.

Vera Gibbons:
We are in an inflationary environment here, and some of the experts I spoke to said given the fact that costs are going up for just about everything, they expect more people to actually tap into their retirement accounts or contribute less this year. Also, keep in mind that people are still quitting their jobs at a record rate and that group may also be tapping into their retirement accounts to to cover their costs.

Producer:
Health care spending and drug prices are two more things on the MarketWatch list of retiree concerns and they could be impacted by the last two items on the list diabetes which continues to affect more Americans each year and uses up a good portion of the nation's health care resources and exercise, which could actually bring costs down by helping you stay healthier longer. So which of these items is your biggest cause for concern heading into retirement? That's a key question to consider as economic uncertainty continues to cause headaches for us all with a retirement radio network powered by a life. I'm Matt McClure. Well, I think that that's a very interesting look at some of the things that retirees need to be worried about right now, need to be concerned about. Of course, the big thing that I sort of thought was the most interesting in there is the amount of money that a lot of the the experts, the powers that be say that that retirees should have saved up versus the amount that people have actually saved. There's a big gap there that that savings gap is something that people really need to be aware of, I think, and need to make that a priority for them to to have that comprehensive plan that you've been talking about.

Ed Cruz:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, run into that all the time where people say, well, you know, it says here my Social Security is going to be $2,500 a month. And for those few lucky ones out there that still have pensions, you know, my pension is going to be another 2000 a month, but I need about six, 7000 a month to to to stay living the type of lifestyle that I want to live, you know. And so when we speak to these people, we sit down and we show them what that what that income gap is going to be. You know, the interesting part is if you go to your broker and you ask them, well, how are we going to how are we going to guarantee and make up for that for that gap based on what I've saved with you? Chances are they're going to try to solve this problem with what's called the variable annuity. And the variable annuity has the opportunity for for some great upside. And during periods like now, as has very much a lot of downside potential as well. So that's where the fixed indexed annuity comes in.

Ed Cruz:
And the nice part is that we have we have opportunities in our in our income streams here where we can provide a bonus for you, a guaranteed interest rate of 7 to 8% on an annual basis. And we can actually show you what your income is going to be so that we can fill that in for sure. Depending on the years that you're telling us when when you're going to retire, if it's shorter, we're going to need probably a little extra cash from your from your from your savings in the in the markets. But the bottom line is, you want to know for sure that you fill in that income gap, because if you don't, you know for a fact you're not going to be able to live that that lifestyle that you're currently living. So if you're looking for that type of solution, if you're looking to make sure that that you have all the income you're going to need in retirement, we can show you a plan in writing guaranteed so that you don't have to worry about the shortfalls when it comes to income in retirement.

Producer:
And do you find that that's one of the things when clients come to you or potential clients come to you, that they just want first and foremost, a lot of the time, at least this is what I would imagine anyway, just security and a sense of they know even in uncertain times what is going to happen to their money and to know that the money that they are putting aside for retirement and hoping that it will grow, that at least that in that money is at the very least safe where they where they put it.

Ed Cruz:
Well, absolutely. You know, when we when we speak to clients and they talk about where their money is and how it's growing, you know, I ask them. Is growing your money the most important thing or is is securing what you have. More important at this point. And so of course I'll hear that. Well, yeah, I want it to be there for me, but I want it to grow. Okay, fair statement. I tell them. So now that we've covered that, we know that you don't want to be in the in the securities where it's at now. Have you thought about income? What type of income were you planning to get out of what you have right now and at times? Oh, gosh. You know, it disappoints me when I hear people say, yeah, I'd like and I can expect about 10% a year out of that. And it's just not realistic. And you have to you have to educate people on why that's not realistic. And when we take them down the path and we show them how in five years, seven years, ten years where we could take them, guarantee that income stream, and also show them that at the end of the tunnel there may be a death benefit available when we when we can provide them with all those assurances that that level of education is just second to none. So this is why people come to us. People come to us not just to grow their money. We can do that, but to provide them with those with that security, that safety, that that guarantee. That's what we're here for.

Producer:
Yeah. And guarantees are so few and far between in life. And so that is really, really reassuring, I'm sure, to a lot of clients and a lot of potential clients out there. And if you kind of fall into that category, folks, my prosperity. Time.com is the website and the phone number once again. 3862285769. You can call for a free copy of the Annuity 360 book or for a free consultation.

Producer:
Here's the cost cutter of the week.

Producer:
Let's save people some money, shall we? You know, Ed, we talk a lot about people just paying a lot more for everything these days because of inflation. But we also need to realize that people, you know, pay a lot more for things just out of convenience, you know, even regardless of the economic times. And that's kind of a little bit about what our cost cutter segment today has to deal with right now.

Ed Cruz:
Absolutely. And, you know, it's funny that you say this, because just last week I was sitting there filling up at a convenience store and my wife says to me, you know, I wonder what the price of milk is in there. And out of curiosity, you know, we looked and we come to find out it's significantly more at a convenience store. And so why would we want to do that? Right. Just just out of convenience, like we said, button. But, you know, all these things add up. You think about if you if you do this on a weekly basis and you're costing yourself an extra, you know, an extra $10 on a weekly basis, there's there's $40, right? Multiply that by 52, not just as people would say, four weeks. You've got to add a little more into that, you know, but when you start adding this up, you know, it's a whole lot more. You could have gone you could have gone to the grocery store an extra two times and paid for that for those same items twice over. It's almost like getting it for free if you're if you have the bad habit of going to a convenience store. So, yeah, we don't want to pay an extra 75% for 50 to 75% for milk. You don't want to pay more for produce in a place like this, 80% higher for, let's say, peanut butter. Now, I did read something that talked about shopping during senior hours. I haven't looked into this. I can't verify any of this. I don't know when senior hours are, but maybe some of you out there can do a little research and shop at stores that offer senior or military discounts. We definitely know that exist, especially if you go to a barber, you'll give you a it'll give you that senior discount.

Producer:
Absolutely. Well, and then now I think nowadays, too, there are places that offer teacher discounts and discounts for frontline workers and nurses and doctors and things like that. Those those people who have really become, you know, heroes to us all, just every day heroes as well. So those are all things to look out for and ask about, because sometimes they don't even they might not even advertise that they have a certain discount at a particular store. You might have to ask if you fall into one of those categories, particularly like a veteran or or, you know, teacher or something like that.

Ed Cruz:
Yeah, absolutely. My son is a Navy veteran and he's constantly telling me about. Yeah, hey, dad, you know, I could get a discount here on this day and a discount there on this other day and during these hours. And he kind of has my brain in a pretzel there when he's telling me about all the different. Here he is, all the different places he can go to and get these discounts. That's awesome. And we definitely want to support those places that support our first responders and all of our veterans. Yeah.

Producer:
And just one last comment. I think about the whole convenience store thing to add is that it's funny because, you know, we look at that as as a matter of convenience. Right. But it's really the only reason that a lot of people would even go in and buy things like you just mentioned, peanut butter and milk and, you know, bananas and other produce and all that kind of stuff is just because it's there and it's and it's convenient. They don't have to go anywhere else. But a lot of times convenience stores, where are they located? In like an out parcel, literally in the parking lot of a grocery store or of a big chain store, like a Wal Mart or a Target or something like that, where you could literally go inside and buy the thing for much, much cheaper than you could just travel the extra 100 yards and you can save yourself a lot of money, right?

Ed Cruz:
Well, you know, it's an extra 100 steps, too. So some people don't want the exercise, but I'll take it all day long.

Producer:
That's right. Well, see, that goes back to the to the vignette, to the story we were talking about earlier, because, you know, they mentioned health care costs in there. And if you stay healthier and if you exercise more, then you're going to cut down on your health care costs in the later years. So that also getting more steps in can keep you healthier longer and keep you with smaller bills as far as going to the doctor and that sort of thing.

Ed Cruz:
Yeah. And you know, as we as we talk about inflation, again, for anyone that has heard me in the past, talk about obviously we know inflation is is a loss of purchase power. Right. And we have we have seen that we go to the grocery stores, we go to we go to shop for our goods, even online, go to Amazon. And if if you've bought something over the past 12 months and you have that price laying around somewhere, go back, revisit Amazon and see how much more you're paying for things today. You know, when we look at our our our meats at the store, you know, we see that in general, they're up from nine into the 13% range baby food. First of all, we have shortages, of course, and sadly, we have shortages of baby formula. We look at just so many things that are just so much more my son's pickup truck, gosh, when we went to go buy that thing, a used pickup truck, what I probably would have paid for about 75% of what he got it for just a couple of years ago. To think that a used truck with 100,000 miles today is running you for about $20,000. It's just mind blowing.

Producer:
Yeah, it really is. I mean, the the used car market in general has just really taken off because, you know, there was the semiconductor shortage and all the supply chain issues with actually getting parts to build the cars, to assemble the vehicles into place so that they can actually be assembled. So the supply of new cars just really fell off the cliff. And then so you saw all these used car prices just skyrocket because there was so much more demand for those. And that's a prime example right there of something that has just really taken off. And, you know, we've got, of course, as we talked about earlier, the gas to put in those cars, especially a pickup truck going to cost you more. And so it's just really hitting everybody hard and especially, I think, folks who are looking at planning for retirement. So the question then, of course, leads leads us right into how does inflation affect retirees?

Ed Cruz:
Well, again, with the loss of purchase power, you know, when we retire, what do we want to do? We want to be able to travel, right. That's going to cost you a whole lot more. You know, we want to be able to spend some time with our family members. We want to buy things. You know, I have a granddaughter now and I could just imagine myself getting your things as I age. And so, you know, if we get to a point where everything's everything just becomes so expensive, unaffordable, how much can we do for others? Right. You know, how much can we give above and beyond for just for how do you say that for 505013i, I do give to some of these to some of these areas. So again, inflation, the cost to to retirees, it affects everyone. And you can, you'll, you'll be especially vulnerable if you're retired on a fixed income. It harms you when you're on a when you're on Social Security and a pension. And if you have limited withdrawals from your retirement portfolio, it's just not going to go well for you in retirement if you don't plan now. And and like I've said in the past, work your. A plan in the future. And to that point, sustained inflation over years can can drastically reduce your buying power, especially without cost of living adjustments in pension payments or strong investment markets that would grow your retirement account.

Ed Cruz:
Think about it. If you were thinking about retiring sometime now and you've lost 10 to 20% in the market from the beginning of the year. You know, there are people that are saying, you know, I was thinking about doing this, but I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to work it out a little more and say another six months a year, see if my C of my retirement plan comes back. This has already happened. And gosh, if I if I turn back the clock to 2008. 2009. I could go over a list of people that would just come up to me, call me and say, You know, I was thinking about retiring. What do you think? I've lost X amount of dollars. Here's what I'm thinking about income. Here's here's what I have, what I know I'm going to get from Social Security. And when you put it all together. You know, that was the loss of the market. Today we have the loss of the market and inflation. So you start coupling all these things and it just really doesn't look good for the for the soon to be retiree.

Producer:
Yeah, but of course, folks, as we like to say, there are solutions out there. And if you would like to hear more about those potential solutions for you, because it's not a one size fits all thing. You know, we we talk about a lot of different topics here on the show. But, you know, one of these solutions might be right for you. It might not be. So to find out exactly what could be right for you, contact Edwin Cruz and the whole team at my Prosperity Team Time.com and the number 3862285769. It's this week in history. So this week in history. And a lot of things happened that were very, very important in our country's history and in the history of entertainment and all of that. So, of course, on on this date. Well, not on this date, but on July 29th. So just, you know, not far from this date in the music world, I think just an absolutely great song came out because The Doors began a three week run in the number one spot on the US singles chart with the hit song Light My Fire, and I'm singing it in my head right now. It was originally actually cut down for time purposes, but many of the stations began playing that full six minute and 52nd album cut as well. So that's just unheard of in the in the radio world to play a song that's that long. But it almost reminds me of the full version of American Pie. You know, that's nice. It's like 9 minutes in something. And I used to work at an oldies station, several. I'm not going to say how many years ago, but we would play that. We would play that song and the whole nine minute version of it was in our playlist. And I just remember, okay, if I, if I got to like, you know, run, get some coffee or run to the restroom really quick, that's the song you put on, you know? So the door is almost the same thing.

Ed Cruz:
Perfect. And, you know, when you think about songs today, you're lucky if you get a 3 minutes, three and a half minutes, right? Oh, yeah. And gosh, some songs start today and you're you might daydream for a second, say, oh, that song is over. So yeah, I mean, a song playing for 6 minutes and and 50 seconds, boy, is that long. On that theme of This Week in History, I'll jump over on politics. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the amendments to the Social Security Act of 1935 that established Medicare and Medicaid as of 2018. And, of course, you know, the government always drags their their numbers. You never get anything that's so up to date. But in 2018, Medicare provided health insurance for over 59.9 million individuals, with more than 52 million people age 65 or older, enrolled in the program. So that's a lot of people.

Producer:
Yeah, a lot of people provides coverage for a lot of folks and totally growing, especially right now with all the baby boomers aging into Medicare eligibility age and all of that. And also at on this week in history, there was a famous birth day that was celebrated this week, and it's the Governator, if I can do my sort of halfway pitiful Austrian accent. But Austrian and American bodybuilder, actor and politician, the former governor of California himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was born on this day in 1947. So I didn't actually realize that that Arnold had had gotten on up in the years so far.

Ed Cruz:
He's aged and, you know, you never know. But I'll be back.

Producer:
That's right. I'll be back. And of course, as we know, he was the 38th governor of California, by the way. And I remember that crazy election back in was 2002, 2003 when he was elected. That was.

Ed Cruz:
Wild. Well, you know, he being a bodybuilder, my my older brother was always inspired by him and went on a run there on a weightlifting run there. And we were about the same body, Bill, that at about 16, 17 and next thing you know, a year or two later, my brother was almost bench pressing me, so. Oh, wow, quite a difference. But we can thank we can thank Arnold Schwarzenegger for that one.

Producer:
Yes, very, very much so. Well, just about time to start wrapping things up here, Ed, but we like to have a little fun with our This Week in History segment and talk about some things that that happened around this time in years past and. We also like to talk about what's happening in the present, as we have been doing for most of the show and all of the craziness that's happening in the markets and the economy right now. Tell the folks one more time before we have to run here in just about a minute, what they can do to reach out to you and hopefully get some answers on planning for their own financial future.

Ed Cruz:
Well, again, I want people to know that they're under no obligation. There will be no pressure put on you. It's not the type of person I am. For 24 years, I've been just simply educating people on how they can enjoy safety while while default, while deferring their their investment, providing clients with a with a reasonable rate of return and showing them how to avoid probate. So those are those are the main topics. And again, you know, we want to make sure that again, in order to understand these things, read the book, read annuity 360 3862285769. Call me, get a copy. It'll talk to you about protection. It'll talk to you about maximisation. It'll it'll also show you how to reduce or and at times eliminate taxes on on what you're earning. So there's just so much that we can that we can help you with. And again, it all starts with understanding retirement and how to and how to better yourself. So that's what we're here to do. So please call us.

Producer:
Absolutely. Do it, folks. And we will, of course, be back with the show again next week. This has been Prosperity Principles with Edwin Cruz. I'm Matt McClure here alongside Ed Crews. Ed, thank you so much, sir, and we'll look forward to doing it again next week.

Ed Cruz:
We'll do have a great one.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Prosperity Principles. You deserve to work with a financial and insurance expert who can offer strategies for protecting and growing your hard earned money to schedule your free no obligation consultation. Visit my Prosperity Team dot com or pick up the phone and call 3862285769. That's 3862285769.

Producer:
It's not affiliated with the United States government. Edwin Cruz does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they 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 a specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. A married life 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 of the results obtained from the use of this information.

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