9.14.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

9.14.22: 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 financial freedom with your host safe money bob. Get set for a full hour of financial information and economic news you can't afford to miss. Bob works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you, too. So now let's start the show. Here's safe money, Bob.

Bob Loss:
Well, we want. And welcome to financial freedom with safe money, Bob. As you may guess, I am Bob. Bob loss. Glad you're on listening today. I'll give you a little bit background on me. I live in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, married with wife 20. Oh, my goodness. 28 years this year. Two kids daughter who's a sophomore in college, University of Tennessee Go Vols and a son who's a senior in high school and hopefully plans to continue his lacrosse career at a school to be determined. I'll share his choice in a few weeks when he decides finally and gives me the official ACC. But right now it's hush hush because we don't want to we don't want any of the other coaches who aren't going to get them to know what's going on until we make it official. So yeah. Bob Loss. Robert But I go by Bob. I've been in the financial services industry for gosh, 30, 1989. So what's that, 30 to 33 years this November. But back to personal life. Married, two kids, all my siblings live. We're all within probably 25 minutes of each other along with my parents. So we've all kind of come back to the roost or near the roost. So we get to see each other on occasion and make sure everybody's all right and all that. When you get these storms and blizzards and God forbid itis like last year, which we were probably the most devastated area in the country, we lost people.

Bob Loss:
They drowned. It was horrible. But we pulled together as a community, myself, my son. We helped clean up debris, people's homes where they couldn't do it themselves and get rid of it. So we're big into giving back. I also run a charity golf outing through the Moose Lodge that's an international organization. So Flemington, Moose Lodge, we've helped half a dozen families with special needs children over the course of the last I guess it'll be year 12, but 11 years because we couldn't have the event back in 2020. So we've raised over $220,000 to help these these families that not only have healthy children, but also their special needs kids. And they're super heroes, these parents. Super heroes, because we all know if you've had children just to get them when they're healthy and everything's going well, it's a big undertaking. So kudos to all the parents out there, you know, good job. So back to professionally, I started at MetLife in 1989, August of 95. I decided, you know what, I'm going to go on my own. I just figured I'll get my own shingle. Funny thing is, I got my property casualty insurance license and within three weeks I decided not to do anything with property casualty because it was very taxing, no tax. The task was very difficult and you need to have staffing.

Bob Loss:
And it just was something tough to do when you're starting out on your own. You have to working for a big company like MetLife and Snoopy. So, so fast forward maybe in 2022. So I've had my own practice for I guess 27 years. It'll be just was 27 years, August 4th. I do have a woman who works with me. She's like my work wife. She's my operation, she's my backbone at the office lease, you may meet her some day. And also I have other people helping me with ventures like this, the radio show and so forth. You can find me on LinkedIn under Robert and Loss. If you so choose to follow me, connect with me. I put up, I try to put out useful motivational quotes as well as useful information, a lot of different topics, not just financial services, because we all have to live a regular life too. It's not just about financial matters. So let's see here. All as always, just say, you know, listener, you want to book me for a free consultation to look at deeper into your situation? No obligation, no cost can be a 15 minute quick chat. It could be 30 minutes, it could be an hour. You'll have the option to pick how long you'd want to talk to me initially if to get to know if I do the 15 or the 30. If you want to dig deeper on that first chat, a virtual chat and we can have video.

Bob Loss:
You don't have to be on video. We can use the computer. The clarity is very good for. Last few years that I've been doing it almost exclusively because of the pandemic. I do have a physical office when needed. It's about 12 miles from here. It's a little east of Flemington where I do have an office, conference room, so forth. So when I did meet with people more often, that's where we'd meet normally. But we've been doing everything virtually and it's worked out really well and everybody's been very satisfied with the services and everything we've done for them virtually, because it's basically do the same thing whether we're in person. So if you wanted to book something, you're not a book on a calendar kind of person. You can always call my office at 9083592861. There's a there's a voicemail there, 24 seven someone, one of my associates will call you back to set up a convenient time to have a virtual meeting or just a call, an initial call, if that's what you like, so you can call it anytime again. The number's 9083592861. So also, let me see, what else do we have here? I guess I'm going to just go into kind of what today's show is going to be about. This is my first show, so I apologize if I'm a little rough, but I think I'll get better and better with practice episode after episode, and hopefully you can all be patient with me.

Bob Loss:
I do have webinars that I've done in the past and they all recorded. I did one specifically on Social Security. So if you want to check that out, you can let us know. Either we can go to save money, save money by ABC.com and request things from us. We do have other tools you may want to utilize that will go through over the course of our episodes week after week. And I just want to add value. You know, my kids when they were young, they before I get into what we're going to go over today real quick, they would always they say people say, what's your dad do? What's your dad do? And they're like, two, three, four, five, six, seven years old, whatever. Elementary school. I just said your dad. Just tell him. Tell whoever's asking you that question that your dad helps people help themselves. And that's really what it is. I mean, I'm a big proponent of free financial education, financial awareness, part of a non nonprofit 500 1c3 as well. Financial Education Partnership FP. Chapter here at I'm kind of in charge of would be the eastern Pennsylvania and central New Jersey chapter. The founder and also the national office is outside of Washington, D.C. So we basically our mission is just to educate as many people as we can.

Bob Loss:
Those who want to do it themselves do take the info and go, that's cool. No, no harm in that. Because if you can add one thing to someone's knowledge base that helps them, it comes back around in spades. Know many people, once they've gotten to know me, listen to me, connected with me on LinkedIn, my newsletters, whatever you, whatever you, whatever have you, they like to have me help them hold their hand. And a big point here is for any advisor, especially our mission statement at the agency and safe money. Bob, here is listen to what I'm going to listen to what you need. If we end up chatting and I end up working with you, it's not going to be me saying, Bob's going to tell me what to do. It's going to be well, you're going to share with me your thoughts, concerns, feelings, what's keeping you up at night? You know, are you worried about running out of money? Are you worried about the money going backwards, market risk, real estate, all that stuff? I'm going to listen to what you need and what you want, and then you're going to get ideas from me that you may want to implement. And if so, then I will help you do that. And if not, it's all good. Keep listening. Check out podcasts. All good.

Bob Loss:
So for this week's show, I'm going to go over a few items here. We're going to discuss Medicare, some of the nuances with Medicare. Also, how to pay for the Medigap policies, the policies that cover some of the out-of-pocket that you may incur if you do have need medical attention and have to go to a hospital and so forth. We're going to talk about annuities versus bank products. There's a lot of people don't have these these illusions about annuities know it doesn't help sometimes some commercials that don't talk about them the way they should be spoken about because they are very advantageous for the right people in the right situation. We're going to talk about the rule of 100 is pretty cool. And then another interesting rule is the rule of 72. And then we'll also go back and have a little nostalgia here with This Week in History to end the show. And that's sort of where we're at. So I guess what I'll do is I'll remind you again, we can provide complimentary consultations. There's no cost to you. You can always call the office. 908359286. One voice. Just leave a voicemail. Someone will get the voicemail and call you. Normally within 24 hours or less. Where you can go to save money and book a meeting with me on a county link or a calendar link. But we do provide comprehensive consultations. Like you said, no costs, no obligation.

Bob Loss:
If we mesh, we can work together. We'll help you analyze specific and unique financial situation. We'll closely examine any annuities you may currently have already. And it could be super. Or I could tell you, Hey, this is what I see. And maybe you can do something better depending on how long you've had that contract and so forth. And when it matures, we can discover also what your fees you're paying for and various investments you may have currently for one case. Iras. Variable annuities. Other fixed annuities. If so, manage money accounts. And we can also help you with your Social Security planning and Medicare part of our service. We actually will look at what you would get age 62, full retirement age and then our age if our a and then if you defer it to age 70 and a half because if you can get a bump up 8% a year with no market risk on your Social Security benefit, and you can burn down your qualified money here. Quick tip. Quick tip. Right here. Right now, you can burn or I shouldn't say burn if you can utilize your qualified money, that's taxable to a point where perhaps you wouldn't need as much of it and it would allow your Social Security benefits to be tax free, then that's a strategy we could implement. And this is something I went in detail with.

Bob Loss:
This was over a year ago in May when I did a Social Security maximization webinar, which I do have recorded, as I might have mentioned earlier. So any of you would like that you can reach out to us and we'll find a way to get it to you so you can utilize it. And then we'll basically compare your current situation. We like to do where where are you now and where would you where might you be in five years? Where might you be in ten years? How much do you draw on if you are drawing anything? Do you live off of pensions which allows you to create potentially we could do some legacy planning so we could tax in a tax efficient manner leave dollars to your beneficiaries if that's one of your goals, if to charity. I have ways of helping people not necessarily give their estate away while helping charities, but also in a way enhancing their estate while giving to the charity during life and also after death. So I guess if you also if you haven't heard from an adviser lately, which it depends it depends on your relationship. If you have an advisor, how actively your portfolio is being managed, you may not need to talk to that person very often. We generally always touch our clients pretty periodically, like using the newsletter method. I always say you could always call our office and set up a call with me and go over what's going on.

Bob Loss:
I love it when a client, I have clients that will call me or text me or email me. It depends on the relationship. For anything. Like, should I at least or buy a car? All right, well, do you have a business? Let's see. They do. Maybe it makes sense to lease it. Do you drive a lot of miles? Well, it doesn't matter. You can pay for the extra miles, but some don't like lease. Well, then buy it. You got to get a new. No, get a pre-owned one. Save money. Be frugal. Don't spend above your means. Too many people. You see people with big houses. I used to go with my in my life days. I go into houses and they would have this beautiful house, you know, two kids, dog, maybe a hamster, two new cars and the maxed out cable package. I guess flat screens didn't exist back then, so big TVs. And I'd go through insurance for them, and they would. Well, we can't really afford the permanent contract. We're building equity. So they'd spend, like, $60 a month on two term policies. And while I'm like, you're spending you have all this liability and it's great you're you're living living large, but you're not you're not paying yourself first. You need to pay yourself first. I pay myself first. So anything I recommend, you can be pretty sure I'm doing it already.

Bob Loss:
And I've been doing it for since I was young, since my MetLife days. And I'll go through over over the course of my shows. I'll be sharing a lot of personal experiences and also things I'm doing to make sure I've got a secure retirement, to make sure my kids don't have a lot of college debt, you know, not not being forgiven, being loans, being forgiven notwithstanding. And that's a whole nother subject I'm not getting into. But but basically I'm paying as I go. But I basically created my own financial institution, we'll call it. And I'm not I can't go through the details now because it will basically take up the next month of shows. So I'll just go back into the today's general information. So we're going to take a look at Medicare. And in Medicare. Some cool facts here. So you probably wonder how many how many Americans are currently enrolled in Medicare. Well, it's actually 61 million Americans enrolled in Medicare health plans right now. And that was courtesy of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare 2020, almost four out of ten Medicare consumers. Are also enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, which I mentioned earlier. So we're going to talk about those and also possibly ways to fund those premiums through different strategies. Very basic info, but enough to give you a good sense of, wow.

Bob Loss:
Maybe you want to talk to me about it. So 65% of respondents said they would not know which part of Medicare or parts they should enroll in 2002. Medicare Survey by Single Care. Because Medicare is complicated, I'm not an expert in Medicare. Don't try to tell anyone I am. It's a whole animal on its own being able to do those Medigap plans. But we do. You'll probably in future shows, I'll probably have a specialist in that area, maybe in the coming months on with me to shed light and enlighten everyone who wants to learn more and get advice. And we can go from there. Also, for 2022, Medicare beneficiaries have access to 3939 Medicare Advantage plans, 39 choices. And again, the last two bits of information were from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And also 89% of Medicare Advantage plans offered in 22 include prescription coverage. It's important because obviously the drugs, you know, how expensive drugs can be. Not everybody can take generic fast fact real quick. A lot of the drugs, if you look at the ingredients and I learned this from someone else, the delivery system used to deliver the drug and the generic versus the name brand is generally the difference. I think it was something I can't remember. It was like an allergy medicine or something. It was an example and I just happened to be at the hospital. Not for good reasons, but anyway, I had to get a prescription and the woman was like in the pharmacy at the hospital, well, look at here, instead of doing a name brand, you can do this, the generic.

Bob Loss:
And I go, Well, what's the difference? She's like, Well, not the drug itself, just the delivery mechanism, the chemicals or whatever were used. And also to finalize here 18 and a half percent of the US population is on a is on Medicare for single care. So it's obviously a very, very important topic and affects a lot of people, whether it be now or in the future. So anyway, let's see here. So back to let me go a little bit into Medicare Part A, it's hospital insurance is what most people think of it. It covers inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care and some home health care. You can get part A premiums, part a premium free at age 65. I'm 65 years old. If. You or your spouse paid Medicare taxes for a certain number of time while working, or you're already get retirement benefits for Social Security or a railroad retirement board. You're also eligible for retirement benefits. You're also eligible for retirement benefits but haven't filed yet. You or your spouse had Medicare covered government employment. So that's Medicare Part A, medicare part B, B, A, medicare is also known as medical insurance. So this covers certain services, outpatient care, medical supplies and preventive services.

Bob Loss:
Some people automatically get part B, but others have to enroll. You could be subject to a late enrollment fee if you don't sign up for Part B when you first become eligible. So be aware of that. If you're in your early to mid early sixties, unlike Part A, we'll definitely pay a premium for Part B, so they do take money back from you for that. A Part B premiums are typically deductible from your benefit payment if you get benefits from Social Security to Retirement Board or Office of Personnel Management. So it just be kind of like your old paycheck might have been or it's like, Oh, we're going to take this out for this and this out for that. So that's sort of where that falls in line. The Medicare Part B, again, check out medicare.gov, also known as the drug coverage. So Part D was the drug coverage plans cover a wide variety of prescription drugs. There are protected classes such as drugs that treat HIV and AIDS that most plans cover. Part D plans have drug tiers. So there's a lower tier. Drugs cost less than a higher tier drugs. It's probably similar to prescription cards you had on medical plans when you were working or if you are still working, you know, you have your generic, your name brand and then you're I call it the super duper drug.

Bob Loss:
So that's a tiered program. And what you pay for in Part D plan is you basically pay premium, you have a yearly deductible copayments and co-insurance coverage gap costs, extra help costs and late enrollment penalty if permanently added to your premium if you enroll late again, don't try not to enroll in these programs. So why would you pay late enrollment fee? As I've been talking about it already twice, at least if you don't enroll in Part D during the initial enrollment period, it costs more later. There are 63 days or more where you don't have Medicare drug coverage or other credible prescription drug coverage. So a lot of people, if you happen to get a great package, say, I work for a big pharmaceutical company, let's say retired in the last few years, your benefits are pretty good. So you may have prescription coverage there so those people wouldn't enroll in this. And then there's the the exciting area of Medigap supplemental insurance and Medicare Advantage coverage. So this is where we were talking about initial outline I gave you where we have this is something you buy on your own and it covers the most, if not all of the cost out of pocket. If you get sick and you care outside of Medicare A and B, and those do have prescription drug coverage also. So it's designed to fill the gaps. Like I mentioned, you don't have both.

Bob Loss:
You're not going to go get both of those. And about 81% of the beneficiaries who have Part A and B supplement with Medicare, Medicaid or employer sponsored plans, like I just mentioned, that's from Investopedia. 48% of the beneficiaries pay for Part D coverage. And it's also courtesy of our friends at Investopedia. So so Medicare versus Medigap, more expensive than other plans, covers any hospital or doctor that accepts Medicare. No need for prior authorizations or referrals. Isn't that exciting? Because you know how fun that's getting. It's like getting a referral when you have to go to a specialist covered anywhere in the US, which is great. If you travel and you're fortunate enough to travel, you're retired, you're financially secure and you've got the good health hopefully to do so. And it's good for people who have specific doctors or hospitals they want to use. Medicare Advantage, also known as Part C, will either have no premiums or a lower premium than a medigap plan. Medicare Advantage plans cover hospitals and doctors and often include prescription drug coverage and other covers, not including part A and B. So it's sort of like that wraparound the Medicare Advantage operates as a health and HMO or health maintenance organization, and it limits people who are covered by this plan to doctors and hospitals in the network. So you have to stay with a network like an HMO, if you had that at work.

Bob Loss:
Otherwise you're you're paying out of pocket yourself. So let's see maybe touch on this real quick before we go to our first break. So some things that smart retirees, they do this. Some people will buy an annuity. This is back to, I believe, the funding I was talking about for the Medigap plans. Some people will buy an annuity that will cover the cost of the plan, plus any co-pays and deductibles. So we can help you set that up. You'll pay taxes. You'll pay taxes on distributions because if the annuities you put in X and it's giving you water, you're going to pay tax on the gains. But it can give you peace of mind and you can start generating income not only to pay for that, but also maybe for vacation, maybe to go on a trip, I don't know, maybe like playing golf. You want to join a club, like things like that, so you can use an annuity to cover medical costs, lifestyle costs, and it's going to be there for you when you need it, which is important, especially in today's environment. I mean, we are the overall equity markets. I've been getting hammered in the last since January 1st. I think the highs last year were probably in November or December. So cool fact the market gets hammered. Nobody calls me on my clients. Nobody. Oh, a crash.

Bob Loss:
Nobody lost a dime. Meltdown in 20. We lost a dime. 2022. Nobody lost a dime. My clients aren't in the market. Can they get market returns through specific strategies I can use? Yes. Can they go backwards? No. Their worst year is zero. And guess what? It's an annuity with no fees, charges, costs. To you, the consumer. Guys that money managers and brokerages, you know, they're still getting their management fee. The funds are still getting their fees. Everybody's getting their fees. But you lose the money. What's that all about? So I think I want to end this segment on that. It's just good for food for thought. Again, I'm not saying you don't have any risk in your portfolio. I have people I work with and my own clients, they handle that piece, but I'm in the know with that, my clients. So I know exactly what's going on with that piece. And then the other pieces that I handle, you know, we coordinate it all together and it's a really cool set up so that we can handle everything. And you got got a team behind you. It's never just me. I have a team. I have multiple teams behind me, not just to be able to work for me directly that find solutions, help me find solve problems for people. And it works out really well. You know, I really enjoy what I do. So anyway, I'll leave you with that and I'll be back soon.

Producer:
You're listening to Financial Freedom with Safe Money, Bob.

Overnight. Dinner and wine. I was never. I had the time. Hustle and hurry world. Laughing Myself to.

Producer:
Sleep. I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Next time you head to the pharmacy, you could be in for some sticker shock. So do you need to plan now for higher drug prices in the future? First, let's spell out the problem, and it's not necessarily a new one. Prescription drug prices have been rising faster than inflation for decades, according to AARP. To put it in perspective, the group says if gas had risen as much as prescription drugs have over time, regular unleaded would cost more than 12 bucks a gallon by now. For seniors on a fixed income, being able to afford prescription drugs is essential. Ron Mastro, Giovanni of Health View Services recently told CNBC.

Ron Mastro Giovanni:
Whether you're affluent or whether you're the average person, I'll tell you what. When you look at your Social Security check, you're paying for health care.

Producer:
Prescription drug insurance plans provide some coverage, of course, but not all plans are created equally. And it's important that you know the details of your plan, especially what it will and won't cover.

Ron Mastro Giovanni:
You really need to look at the coverage in those types of plans to determine what makes the most sense for you.

Producer:
Lawmakers in Washington have been trying to come up with solutions on several fronts. They include things like allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, capping the cost of insulin and more. But those proposals have stalled. They were part of President Biden's build back better plan. It passed the House, but that massive piece of legislation hit a roadblock in the Senate. Even though surveys show big majorities of U.S. adults approve of those measures, it seems like everyone agrees something needs to be done to control costs, but just can't agree on exactly what that might be. In the meantime, what should you do to prepare for higher drug prices in the future? Well, putting more money in savings surely couldn't hurt, according to the experts. But that can only go so far. And what can you do now to save money at the pharmacy? Well, that is a key question to consider as inflation continues its upward climb with the retirement. Radio Network. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
Guide Questions Safe Money. Bob is here to help visit Safe Money Bob today.

Bob Loss:
And we're back. Remember, if you want to talk to me about anything complimentary free of charge, just go to safe money bob dot com and book an appointment or also call us at 9083592861. And that will allow you to leave a 24 or 24 seven. Leave a message. I'll give you a call. Two in the morning, six in the morning, 12 in the afternoon, whatever. Someone will check the voicemails and get back to you to set up a convenient time for both of us to learn a little bit more about each other. So real quick, I wanted to give you this little quote of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.

Bob Loss:
It's from somebody. Once I read it to you and they say the name, you'll probably know who it was or know who it is. So it is human nature to want it and want it now. No clue on that statement, right? It's also a sign of immaturity. True. Being willing to delay pleasure for a greater result is a sign of maturity. So everybody should act their wage. And that's a quote from Dave Ramsey. So back to what I was talking about. The wealthy people you thought were wealthy. I'm pulling up to this house. I'm a 20 something year old, one year in the business adviser and a representative for MetLife. And they don't have any money to buy insurance, but they got money for everything else. So pay yourself first. It's what I do. I've been doing it since I was 23 years old, and someday I'll share what I've got going on with all my insurance. All right. So continuing on, we were talking about Medicare and Medigap and Medicare Advantage and all that good stuff. We just touched upon setting up an annuity, perhaps to pay for some of these things. And that's something I can help you with, of course. And if you don't like the concept, then you don't have to implement it. But I can share the idea with you if you so choose. So I'm going to go into smart care here and you'll kind of understand what I'm talking about as I go through here.

Bob Loss:
But Smart Care basically is more than two thirds of Americans will require some form of long term care or assisted living during retirement. It can destroy your retirement if it gets pretty, it can get really expensive. I've watched it happen with my father in law. 100 and what was it, 12,000 plus a month. Private 6500 a month. Va And I watched it with my grandparents, you know, they, they live in a condo. My mother would end up taking care of him most of the time. Someone would come in and then they'd leave. And basically that's how they lived. And it was a lot of money going out the door and it's very stressful. I've had a few clients that I got, they got to be late, so they were busy dealing with their parents. Then they became the parent's caregiver and it got to the point where it was work and it didn't really enjoy being around their parents because you a parent, because all they did was go there and help them do adult daily living or daily living activities. So it's tough. So I watched it. I've watched it personally and through other people in my world that I live in here. So you got to really think about how you're going to handle the cost because you don't want to drain all your retirement.

Bob Loss:
And then the say your your spouse is healthy and you know, you pass on, pass away and then they're left kind of how they live. What are they going to do? He would not want to do that to your your wife or husband. Plus, why would you end up want to end up spending down your assets to a point where there's little to nothing to show after all the years of work that you put in to leave to your loved ones. So the average salary rate just give you some figures here. It's kind of staggering and it definitely differs based on where you live in the country. In the US here the average is about 27 bucks an hour for a home health care, which can turn into about 61,000 or 62,000 actually a year private room. The average cost in a nursing home was 108,000 a year, so 9000 a month where you get 9000 a month, think about that or you're getting it. You know, there's strategies that can be implemented to take care of these potential roadblocks or potholes in your retirement. And we know how to help you get there. So so also the annual cost are again, average. They said median like say an average. The average cost for assisted living is about 54 grand. So it's basically like 3000 a month if you were in, say, in Missouri, but it's up to almost 7000 a month.

Bob Loss:
You live by the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. So the overall cost of care increased in 2020 from 2021. You may say, why did that happen? And you'd be surprised increase because of the personal protection equipment. Our health care professionals, as valiant and brave as they were, they had a, you know, the hospital, so forth, how to pay for all this extra equipment, keep people from getting sick from the people they were treating due to COVID. It should dissipate. So hopefully we've gotten through that already. I hope knock on wood, you know, it's basically supply and demand. So there was a shortage, as most of you probably know or realized of these these products that we needed. So the cost would go up. Another interesting stat, every day until 2030, 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day and 710 will require some some long term care. At some point, we're living longer and longer. So that's putting stress on long term care, finding providers, facilities. There's a high turnover rate, insufficient supply of medical professionals. It's a tough gig. And it's growing. The care demand around the world is growing and it was growing even before COVID 19. So, you know, and then there's all these other things happening. So it's just the population's getting older and we have more and more people in the population. So that's what's happening. And remember this, another key point I can note Medicare does not cover long term care needs.

Bob Loss:
It's not the answer. It's not going to help you. There's life insurance policies and annuities offer benefits for you if you need nursing home care, assisted living or long term care. This is something that's relatively new within maybe the last ten or 15 years. Like when I first started out in the business, life insurance was life insurance. You either paid a death benefit or built up money, tax deferred and if properly withdrawn or borrowed from systematically a tax free income for either retirement or what have you. Emergency Fund. So basically assisted living care is 2.7 times more expensive. An adult daycare or adult day health care, just health care. And if you're concerned about the cost of care. My suggestion is go to save money, book an appointment, or call my office at 9083592861. Leave a message. We'll get back to you and we'll chat about your situation and see what's going on. So touch upon smart and reinvesting. So say what is smart? Reinvesting. Well, it's kind of back to the whole. Don't live above your means. So a lot of retirees, they get their Social Security check, they get their pension check, but they end up using it or don't put anything away. Most of my clients. I'll make sure that they. Have I asked him and my older clients, if you're out there and you become a client, this is for you, too.

Bob Loss:
Like, I'll have an exercise. Or I'll say, All right, do me a favor. I just want to make sure cognitive abilities are staying at a certain point or level. I'll be like, Can you do me a favor and let me know what your average balance was and your bank account each month for the last six months? Because I want to see if the bank account went up or if the bank account went down, if it stayed level a state level and they have plenty of other assets that are growing for them. Okay, that's good. A lot of my clients, fortunately for them, they keep having their bank accounts build up so much and I have to find a place to put their money that can grow more efficiently, get higher interest rates while deferring taxes, keeping it safe, and having no fees involved. So again, something you can reach out to me at Safe Money by ABC.com or call my office again. 9083592861. So you may think. Okay. That's great. I'm putting money in the bank. I'm not spending it all. All right, now I call that money. Lazy money. That's lazy money. It you're making little to no interest and you're getting taxed on it. And it's not even close to inflation as we know what inflation is now versus the average 3% a year or 2.5% a year or whatever you want to use.

Bob Loss:
Over history, we're like screaming red hot with inflation. So a bank account, you're actually going backwards even though you're not losing any money. So other ideas will be used like a fixed guarantee, a multi year guaranteed annuity that pays probably twice to three times higher interest guaranteed over, say, a three or five year period compared to a CD and no fees, no risk, and backed by an insurance company, which, in case you wonder, insurance companies have more assets than liabilities. Your bank, everybody loves the brick and mortar. They lend out at least ten times for every ten times every dollar they have on deposit. Now, I know you got the FDIC, but we can get into for hours about government deficits and hollow barrels and print and money and all that, but which is also helping the inflation run rampant as well. It's not just supply and demand, but there's also also fixed index annuities. You may not know what those are. And again, unless you choose no fees, no charges, no costs. And safety. Worst year, zero power of zero. Your friend is zero. And you know, over recent times, these contracts have averaged five, six, seven, eight, 10% a year. You know, I always, always say something like 5 to 7% a year just to be Mr. Conservative, because Safe Money Bob is a conservative guy, but they can perform a lot better.

Bob Loss:
It just depends what you're in. How long you keep it? Are you taking money from it? And so on and so forth. But they do have like I said, they have five year options for those ten year, seven year, ten year or 14 year depends on your state. These are generic statements and information. Depends where you live. Pennsylvania is different in Jersey. I mean, I've got clients in Florida, Georgia, let's see, Delaware, Maryland, Jersey. I think I have a one in Virginia. I do have client North Carolina, basically up and down the East Coast. So works well because I couldn't be driving everywhere and it couldn't be driving to me. The keys to again with these. Options or concepts. I just mentioned product and again, I solved I solve problems. I don't sell product, so I go by what needs to be addressed and then we figure it out together along with my team, and then present you options for you to consider that may make your make sense for you emotionally, financially and mentally. So again, the fire is 100% safe. You can't lose your money. Interest rates obviously have come up in the finance area. I do have a mortgage licence as well, so I got that because my clients asked me to. They didn't want to deal with other people when they had to get a loan. So I said, All right. So I got the licence.

Bob Loss:
It's been almost six years now, over six years, and I got a nice long set of continuing education to do for that coming up soon. So I'll be doing that. And again, you can avoid fees and riders despite some people, Ken Fisher, who like to say, I'll never sell an annuity. They have all these cost fees, whatever they can have, variable news can be very expensive. Fixed index annuities can have fees. It's just you can choose there's so many great options out there. Companies you've heard of, companies you haven't where you don't have to pay anything. I I've got people millions and few million millions this year just just in that with me but it's it's a growing segment on people's portfolios. Instead of having a bond portfolio there, they're doing that piece. This is I said before I can work. If someone has a money manager, give me the bond portfolio piece. Let me help you with your personal plan and let's let's enhance or complement each other like it's never bad to have two minds working for you. So again, whether you have an adviser or not, it's all good. We can still have a chat, so we feel free to reach out to me, you know, save money dot com or call my office again. Mike is I'm highly confident that any multi year guarantee annuity I have if I compare a three year to a three year, a five year to a five or CD if they even have those, I don't think I don't know many people with five year CDs but.

Bob Loss:
You know, it's going to be higher and it's tax deferred. So. So you don't need the money. You leave it in there if you forget about it, if you need it, when it's done, when it's maturity, you pay tax on the interest. If you don't. Wall off. It's not, Ira. You don't have to take money out of it. We can roll it or keep it where it is. And you pay no tax and you would just leave it to sit there for emergencies or to your your beneficiaries. Now, key point here, beneficiaries will pay interest or pay tax on any interest you earn on any annuity. That's not an IRA. And obviously, I can have a whole segment in the future on IRAs and distributions and how the the secure act really wasn't such a great thing for us if things had changed. Everybody just focuses on the age of 72 for required minimum distribution. There's a lot of other things, and I'm not going to call them goodies baked into cake, and I can go over that in a different episode down the road. So here I got a little what you've heard of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but not in this context. So here we go.

Bob Loss:
So variable annuities too hot. So it's in the market. There's risk, there's fees. Fixed annuity could be too cold like a bank CD. It's not going to potentially won't be inflation. Normally it will. But not in today's environment. Rates haven't gotten that high yet. But then there's the fixed index annuity which can provide growth. And again, I blend I have people blended with fixed indexed annuities and multiyear guaranteed annuities guarantees on one part of X amount of interest per year. We know exactly what the contracts are going to be worth in maturity. And the fixed index is all right. I'm not going to pay any fees. I want potential to grow it potentially twice what the guaranteed interest annuity option would give you, but I don't want to risk it. And over time, they perform well. So it's just something to add to the tool belt. Again, in lieu of a bond portfolio and in lieu of bank products, see, banks just want you to let the money sit there because they want to lend it out. They're not really they're they're not investment vehicles, per se. Cds, my opinion. Cds, bank accounts. I mean, I tried to leave all that money in the bank. It's doing nothing for me, you know, unless I have a certain liquidity need because I'm not buying real estate or investing in something. And that's a whole nother thing. I can go over again down the road.

Bob Loss:
How I invest in things and still have my money growing where I took it from. So just think about that for a minute. How does Bob invest his money but still growing where he took it from? I'll share that tidbit down the road. That's not for today. Not for sure. One. So anyway, I'm going to do a little smart rule follow up here. Recap. So here I talked about in the beginning of the show the rule of 100. So it's basically in a nutshell, if you take 100 and you say yourself, how old am I? I'm 55 years old, but let's just say age 70, by the way, I am 55 years old. So some people tell me I look younger, a lot younger than 55 in person. I kind of act like I'm probably 30, 28, but it's all good. I got kids, you know, teenagers. So they keep me keep me hopping. But yeah. So basically you would have a portfolio potentially that would be if you're 70 years old, you'd have 30%. If you go by the rule 100 and things that could go up or down with higher growth potential potentially or or then 70% would be in things like fixed annuities, fixed indexed annuities. I have clients that do not want any risk zero. They don't want worry about anything. They don't have to take risk. You know, and I've got clients who probably are worth a few hundred thousand.

Bob Loss:
Up to three or four or 5 million, actually. Sorry, 30 million. So I love working with people who want to work with me. I don't care. You don't have to be this wealthy person. It could be someone who's just comfortable, wants to grow their money safely, doesn't want to pay fees, and wants a guy working on their behalf who does the right thing for them for you got to do the right thing for you. I think that's probably why I've been in business for 27 years and then the industry for 33. As of November, poof, more than half my life, it's two thirds. About 60% of my life. 55 years old. 33 in the industry. Boy, oh, boy. Do you think I have more gray hair? But I've been lucky so far. So you may have also heard withdrawal rule, the 4% rule. It's actually some people are going to 3%. So some people like to take say you have a lump sum of money and your Social Security's coming in, you need an extra. So some people will take 3% or 4% of their portfolio, strategically withdraw it every month, annually, however you want to do it with the hope that you'll grow it. Faster than what you're taking it out. So you're still living your lifestyle. You got money in case you get sick, which, again, we have better ways of paying for long term care than using cash.

Bob Loss:
And then you're allowing your portfolio to hopefully grow so that you're leaving a legacy. Again, I have better strategies than just doing that. And you're creating a legacy. Who wants to die and not leave their kids anything? Or their nieces or their nephews or their brothers or sisters? When they can and still live the way they want and still have care if they get sick and need help. So those are some of the things that we help our clients do. And again, you never write me a check. You don't pay me. I get paid by insurance companies. If I have to do a mortgage, you get paid by the bank. You don't write me a check. If you believe in the process and the plan, you'll do business with me. And if you don't like what I have to show you, it doesn't make sense to you. You won't. And that's all good. We said before way back in the beginning of this show, like, I've educated so many people. Not everybody comes in, becomes a client. They just they like getting more information. So I give them information and sometimes I won't hear from them for a while. All of a sudden, they'll be knocking on the door. Here's the email. When can I talk to Bob? And then I'll have one of my staff like Elise, reach out and set up an appointment.

Bob Loss:
And if you don't want to do it the technical way with the website and the calendar links and I really don't care which way you do it, it's all good. Just get a hold of me so I can help you. Oh, and back. Back to the rules here. We got one more rule. I promise you. This is it. Rule of 72. So rule 72 is basically to figure out how fast your money would grow or double. So if you invested like a buck today and you made 10%, it'll grow to $2 and 7.2 years. And I believe it's 8% is nine years. So it's just you can you can we can I have tools I use I can sit there and have and again, I have an input for you like one page. It's your life and I can show you. Here's where you are. All right. We think this is going to go to we think this is going to grow at 5%. We hope we hope this is going to grow at 7%. All right. What do I have? What do I have if I'm withdrawn or not withdrawn? Well, we can do all that. And we have simple tools, like it's not hard. And I have staff that puts that all together, and we do a complete fact find. And it's not just facts, it's facts and feeling like, I want to know what's going on, what's bothering you, because normally, you know, you go to the dentist.

Bob Loss:
No, forget the dentist. You go to the doctor. And if the doctor doesn't ask you what's wrong with you and you explain in detail how you're supposed to make you feel better, or she it's the same thing. I'm like a financial doctor if you don't divulge instead of all, just all, all confidential, private, nobody knows anything. It's all protected. Basically, you share as much as possible and then share more importantly, your thoughts like what do you want to have happen now and in the future? And then me and my team help solve that, that issue, that concern, that pain so that you don't have to worry about it. So that's what we do. Let's see, here's something. I'll give you a teaser and we kind of been talking about it a little bit, but Social Security, you know, it's going to go to COLA. You had the largest, I believe, raise and have for how long? Long time recently. I think there's another one coming in October. But yeah, keep tuned in to the show. I'm going to keep giving you as much information and value as I can on different subjects and the subject will change and I'll probably have guests at some point in different areas of life that may help you and help me too. So it's all good stuff.

Producer:
It's this week in history.

Bob Loss:
Real quick. This Week in history. I want to leave you with this September 16th music on this date, September 16, 1963, the Beach Boys new single Surfer Girl was released. Song peaked at number seven on the Billboard Top 100 chart in the United States. And quickly, on September 17th, my wedding anniversary sports. On this date, 1920, the National Football League was born in Canton, Ohio. There were 12 teams that paid $100 each to join a league. Until today, the NFL remains one of the most popular sports, averaging 17.1 million viewers across linear television and digital platforms. Thank you all for listening. I look forward to hopefully listening to me in the future to your show. We'll be here. We'll be airing every week. And thank you very much and God bless all of you.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to financial freedom with Safe Money. Bob, you deserve to work with a financial and insurance expert who can offer proven strategies for protecting and growing your hard earned money to schedule your free no obligation consultation visit safe money bob dot com or pick up the phone and call 9083592861. That's 9083592861. Not affiliated with the United States government, the agency 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 specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Matter of life assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or of the results obtained in the use of this information.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

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