Personal Finance

How do I protect my money from inflation?

“As long as you keep your money in the whole life insurance policy, your money’s going to grow on a tax deferred basis.”

 

 

Inflation is a rise in prices of goods and services. Inflation reduces the purchasing power of our dollars. The problem is, the longer we hold onto our money, the less it can buy for us. Here’s an example. If you were to go into your backyard and dig a hole and bury $1,000 and leave it there for 10 years and after 10 years you go back and dig it up, what will you have? Well, it’ll be something that looks like a thousand dollars, but at 3% inflation over those 10 years, that $1,000 will actually only have the purchasing power of $744. The problem is not only will you have lost $256 of purchasing power, but you will have lost 10 years of time that you can never recapture. The government is destroying the purchasing power of our dollars every time they print money. Do you think our government will need more money in the future? If our government needs more money, there’s only two ways they can get that money. Number one is taxes. Number two is they can print more money.

There are six ways that whole life insurance can help protect your money against the effects of inflation. The first way is buying dollars for future delivery for pennies. Which means the premium you’re paying is pennies compared to the dollars you’re buying in a death benefit. What better way to protect your net worth than to buy discounted dollars for future delivery?

The second way is that your premium stays the same, but because of inflation over time, it’ll feel like less. For example, if you have a thousand-dollar premium at 3% inflation and 10 years, it’s only going to feel like $744. In this instance, you have inflation working for you rather than against you.

The third way that whole life insurance can help protect your money against the effects of inflation is what we refer to as multiple duty dollars. A lot of times clients will ask us, “Hey, I want to start saving, but I have to pay down my debt first.” We actually show them how to start saving today and how to pay their debt off quicker. How we do that is through whole life insurance. We take $1 that was just going to perform debt reduction and use it to reduce debt, to create an asset, to create a death benefit, to create a disability benefit, to create a long-term care benefit and provide retirement supplement. We took $1, that was previously doing one job, and got it to perform the job of 6 multiple duty dollars.

The fourth way whole life insurance can protect against inflation is dividends. Although dividends aren’t guaranteed, dividends typically increase as the policy matures. That’s an addition to the guaranteed growth within the policy. As interest rates rise in the market, the dividends in the policy typically increase. All other safe money products, as interest rates rise, the value of the product decreases because of the inverse relationship between interest rates and price.

The fifth way that whole life insurance can protect your money against inflation is through collateralization.  The loan feature, your loan against a life insurance policy, is actually a collateralized loan against your cash value. So literally your money could be in two places at once because you’re borrowing against your cash value and getting a separate loan from the insurance company. Our clients have found that this can help them to take advantage of tremendous opportunities that are created when the market crashes because they can borrow against their cash value. When the market is down, they can buy into the market and then sell when the market rises. They can then put the money back into their policy and then use the money the profits gained from that transaction to supplement their income or to buy another policy. Our clients have found this to be a tremendous tool to show them how to take advantage of downturns in the market rather than become victims of market volatility.

The sixth way that whole life insurance can help protect against inflation is taxes. As long as you keep your money in the whole life insurance policy, your money’s going to grow on a tax deferred basis. Additionally, you’re able to access your cash on a tax-favored basis. This is a huge advantage over other financial products.

In summary, life insurance can help protect your money against inflation by reducing or eliminating taxation. It also makes your money more efficient, think multiple duty dollars. Thus putting you in a position to take advantage of market volatility, rather than becoming a victim of market volatility.

 

 

Which is better- A 15yr or 30yr mortgage?

 

 

 

How often do we think about what will happen if we get sick, hurt, disabled, or lose our job?
These are just some of the factors that we need to consider when investing in real estate. Buying a house is an exciting but stressful time. With so many options out there, how do you know which one is right for you? In this week’s video, we dive in to explore the pros and cons of a 15-year mortgage vs. a 30-year mortgage. We also explain the difference between a bank’s equity and your own, and other factors to consider. Remember, if you need approval to access your equity, is it really yours?

“It’s important to choose the option that gives you the most liquidity, use, and control of your money.”

 

Which is better a 15- or 30-year mortgage? When shopping for a mortgage, it can be so confusing because there are so many options. Buying a home is one of the largest purchases you’re going to make, and many people get hung up on interest rates. Well, interest rates are important. It’s not the only factor you should consider when choosing the right mortgage for you.

One thing to consider that’s often overlooked is inflation. When you buy a house today, you get a mortgage, the dollars have more purchasing power today than the dollars that you’re going to use to repay the bank. So the longer you can take to pay back the bank, the less purchasing power the dollars are going to have at the time of repayment.

Let me give you an example. When I was younger, my parents would send me down to the bank to pay the mortgage. The mortgage was $52.80 and at the same time, they would send me over to the local hardware store to pay the utility bills. Our electric bill at the time was about $45 or $50 and I remember asking my parents, “how much was the electric bill was when we bought the house? ” And they said it was about $4 or $5 per month.

Think about what happened over 15 years. The electric bill increased by about five times, but the mortgage stayed the same. So my parents were negatively affected by inflation on the electric bill, but they were positively affected on the mortgage because the mortgage stayed the same and they were paying that mortgage back with dollars that had less and less value over time.

Conventional wisdom tells us debt is bad, so Americans want to get their house paid off as soon as possible. You think you’re making your position safer, but the fact of the matter is you’re actually making the bank’s position stronger. Let me give you an example. If you have a $250,000 house with a $200,000 mortgage balance, if the bank had to foreclose, it might be difficult for them to break even if they had to sell that house. But if you have a $250,000 house with a $125,000 mortgage balance, it’d be very easy for the bank to break even if they had to foreclose.

Don’t get us wrong, both you and the bank are building equity, but the nature of those equities are quite different. The bank has full liquidity use and control of their equity. Whereas you would need to qualify to access the equity in your real estate. The bank’s equity is cash and your equity is real estate equity, which requires bank approval in order for you to access your equity. So, basically if you need approval to access your equity, is it really yours? The next thing to consider when choosing a mortgage is control. Think about it. If your goal is to regain control of your money, then you should not be giving up your discretionary income to the bank. That’s money that you could be using for your lifestyle or savings.

You’re taking money that you have complete liquidity, use and control over and giving it to the bank and now they own and control that money. Which brings us to our third point. What happens if you become sick, hurt, disabled, or lose your job? You may have a lot of money in real estate equity, but now you have to apply to the bank in order to access that money and make no mistake. Banks are not loaning you money because you have equity in your real estate. They’re loaning you money on the premise that you’re going to be able to repay them. Anytime you want to tap into your real estate equity, you need to go to the bank, apply and prove that you could repay the bank.

It doesn’t matter if you had a great payment history on your previous mortgages. They don’t care if you actually paid extra on your previous mortgages. They have to consider whether or not you can pay back this new wealth. Let me give you an example. We have clients who had a $175,000 house with a $50,000 mortgage balance. The husband got sick and couldn’t work. They figured they could tap into their equity when they applied to do a refinance, even though the monthly payment was going to be lower, the bank declined them because they couldn’t prove that they could pay back the new loan.

So, all along the way, while this family was building their home equity, making their mortgage payments, they believed that they were making their financial position stronger and safer. But at the end of the day, it ended up hindering them. If you need to get approval from somebody else to get your money, is it really your money?

The fourth thing to consider when choosing a mortgage is what happens if the economic climate changes. For example, interest rates can go up or down. If interest rates go down and you’re locked in for 30 years, you could always refinance if it makes sense for you. But what happens if interest rates rise? Well, this happened actually in the early 1980s people who had money outside of real estate equity were able to take advantage of interest rates on CDs and money market accounts that were 15% or 16%. If you have money tied up in real estate equity and the CD rates go to 15% or 16% you can’t tap into your equity because the bank is going to charge you more than the 15% or 16% if you’re borrowing.

It’s really going to put you in a situation where you can’t take advantage of opportunities if those opportunities arise. This brings us to our fifth point when choosing a mortgage tax deduction. Not everyone will qualify for the mortgage interest deduction, but if you do, do you want all of it, none of it or some of it.
Most people want as much as they can get. With the 15-year mortgage, there’s less opportunity for tax deductions.

In conclusion, we’ve been trained to shop for mortgages using one criterion only, interest rates. While interest rates are an important factor, they’re not the only factor you should consider when choosing a mortgage. Let’s face it, if the banks made the same amount on all the mortgages, there would only be one option. It’s important to choose the option that gives you the most liquidity, use, and control of your money. Again, if the point is to regain control of your money, does it make sense to give that money to the bank and then still have to get approval to access your money?

 

 

What are the benefits of whole life insurance?

What are the benefits of whole life insurance? In this video, we explain whole life insurance benefits and why they are essential in any diversified portfolio. A benefit of whole life insurance is that your money is continuously being compounded. There are three known factors that could interrupt compound interest, using your money, taxes, and market losses. We break these down for you and explain why whole life insurance takes them out of the equation. Another added benefit is that whole life insurance also protects you against inflation. When you own a whole life insurance policy, you’re allowing yourself to take risks in other investments!

“To call whole life insurance an investment is actually demeaning to whole life insurance.”

 

 

Have you ever wondered what the benefits of whole life insurance are? The number one reason why whole life insurance should be a part of your portfolio is because of efficiency. When we’re talking about efficiency, in this case, we’re talking about the fact that your money is continuously compounding in a whole life insurance policy. There are three things that could really interrupt the compounding of interest on your money.

The first, is using your money, then taxes and then market losses. So how does using your money interrupt compounding? Well basically you save and then you use the money to buy a car, or to make a down payment on a house, or to pay for a vacation or to pay for college, and then once you access that money, it’s no longer available for compounding. In contrast, when you take a loan against your life insurance policy, you’re able to continuously compound because you’re taking a loan against the cash value. You’re not taking the money from your life insurance policy.

The second factor that could interrupt compounding on your money are taxes. When you think about it, with traditional savings and investment accounts, you get a 1099 or a dividend statement and with mutual funds you could actually get a 1099 or a capital gain statement in a year when you lost money. Overall, it’s sort of like adding insult to injury and a lot of people don’t even realize how inefficient this really is because they’re paying their taxes from their lifestyle. They’re not taking money from their investments or savings, so they never have an opportunity to see the eroding effect that taxes are having on their investments and savings. The bottom line is, you cannot accumulate wealth in a taxable environment.

The third factor that can interrupt compound interest are, market losses. When you lose money in the market, you take a step backwards and need to restart the compound interest process. Again, with whole life insurance, you have contractual growth, which means that the growth is guaranteed by contract in the policy. On top of that, you have the ability to earn dividends and once dividends are paid, that could never be taken away. In conclusion, whole life insurance is efficient because it takes the three factors that could interrupt compound interest out of the equation.

The next benefit of owning whole life insurance is protection against inflation. Inflation is known as the stealth tax. You experience it but you never actually see it and what better way to protect yourself against the stealth tax than to purchase dollars in the future with pennies today. Use those pennies, the cash value in the life insurance, to purchase additional income producing assets. Life insurance is known as an asset because you’re able to maintain the death benefit, but also access the cash value along the way to purchase other investments and assets. When you get to retirement, you can use those additional assets to supplement your income and finally, you can leverage the death benefit in retirement to generate some additional passive tax-free income. Whole life insurance is a way to truly diversify your portfolio. True diversification is putting money you don’t want to lose in a place that you could never lose.

In conclusion, whole life insurance compliments your other assets. By owning a whole life insurance policy, you’re allowed to take risk in other investments, but understand life insurance is not an investment. To call whole life insurance an investment is actually demeaning to whole life insurance. This is because whole life insurance can do so much more than an investment.

How to navigate the current economic downturn.

 

Were you prepared for an economic downturn? Given the current situation, many people were not financially prepared for the effects of Covid-19. Whether you’ve been laid off or are now working from home, most people are struggling financially. You may have a few options when it comes to accessing some of your invested money. You can take money out of your retirement plan, you could sell your shares in the market, you could get a 401K loan, or you can access some of your home equity. This video will go over all of the implications these options have and what you could do to prepare for future economic downturns.

 

“I’ve been in the financial services business since 1985 and this is actually the fifth market correction that I’ve been through and I’ve learned a few things that have helped my clients to weather the storm.”

 

Today we’re in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, there are a lot of financial and economic uncertainty in the world and today we’re going to talk about how you could possibly position yourself to take advantage of this financial opportunity and come out better on the other end.

First, we’re going to discuss what you may be experiencing out there in your economic world.If you’re an employee, you may have been laid off or working from home during the pandemic. Either way, these changes cause stress and whether or not you’re still earning income, your bills are still accumulating and if you’re a business owner, your overhead continues. Plus, you have the added stress of knowing that the livelihood of your employees and their families are in your hands. So, at this point, most people, whether you own a business or whether you’re an employee, you’re stressed out trying to think about where you can raise some money to get through this financial crisis,
which brings us to our next point. Where do you have money stored that you could have access to it during this tough financial time?

Let’s face it, most people had money invested in the market and for 11 years that was the place to be and it worked until it didn’t. Well, now the market’s down quite a bit and with your income being reduced, you’re scrambling to get access to capital. Now may not be the best time to be selling your investments in order to pay for your current lifestyle.

Another place you may have access to money is in your retirement plan and for some people this may be your only option. There are a few things to consider if you plan on taking money from your retirement plan. First, if you’re 59 and a half, you’ll have to consider the penalty that will be applied to your distribution. Everyone will have to consider the taxable income from the distribution and most people at this point will have to consider the losses that were hit on their account.

You may not want to be selling at this point, but if that’s the only place you can get access to money, that may be the only option. You also may have options in a 401k, where you can get a 401k loan. But again, there are things you need to consider. Number one, the amount of the loan is limited and number two, the loan has to be repaid usually within a five-year period. In essence what you’re doing is obligating your future income.

This could become a problem, especially if your job is eliminated. Any outstanding loan balance would be taxable fully as income at that point. Also, if you’re under 59 and a half, you’d have to consider the penalty that would be applied. Another place you may have access to your capital is in your home equity, whether you were paying your minimum mortgage payment or paying extra on your mortgage. People have money stored in the equity of their home and they feel that it’s their money. They can get whenever they want, but the reality is the bank will only give you permission if you qualify for being able to repay that loan. The fact of the matter is during these uncertain financial times, the bank may not be readily willing to allow you access to your home equity. I remember a quote from the syndicated radio show host, Paul Harvey, and he said, “it’s times like these that remind us that there have always been times like these.” The point that I got out of it is, the fact that if you were prepared for these times, you wouldn’t have to be scrambling and looking at accessing money from places that may be have restrictions as far as accessing it.

I’ve been in the financial services business since 1985 and this is actually the fifth market correction that I’ve been through and I’ve learned a few things that have helped my clients to weather the storm. First and foremost is the importance of having access to liquid cash when these scary financial times occur. The importance of having liquid cash, cash that isn’t tied to the stock market, or money that isn’t tied to the economy tap, cash that isn’t going to leave you with a tax bill. Cash that you could access at any time with no questions asked.

What we’re talking about is cash value, life insurance. Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t new. This has been around for over 200 years. In fact, JC penny used cash value life insurance. He literally borrowed against his life insurance policies to weather the storm created by the great depression. He had 1400 stores, that’s 1400 stores full of employees that he was responsible for the well being of them and their family. He borrowed against his life insurance to weather the storm. Our point is that if you’re properly positioned, you can utilize and access the cash in your life insurance policy to help you weather Covid-19 and actually take advantage of the opportunities that are going to be created by this pandemic and created by this financial uncertainty.

Keep in mind, life insurance companies are specifically designed for times like these. They’re the most well capitalized businesses in the world. They’ve been through this before. They have a 200-year track record. They know what they’re doing during these scary financial times.

If you have a cash value life insurance and aren’t sure how to use it, please give us a call. We’d be happy to be of service. If you need help designing a policy to help you get through the next financial crisis, give us a call. We could help you design one that helps meet your needs.

Middle Class Family

Meet George and Beth: A Middle Class Family With No Way to Pay for Their Children’s College

Meet George and Beth: A Middle Class Family With No Way to Pay for Their Children’s College

George and Beth purchased a lovely home in a safe and quiet neighborhood shortly after they wed.  As a two family income, both worked 9 to 5 jobs and made a decent living.  This afforded them the opportunity to live within their means and save to start a family.  Their bills were covered, they were able to pay down their debts, and they were even able to put away money for retirement.

After having their first child, the two remained steadfast in saving for retirement as well as beefing up their rainy day fund.   Once their second child was born the family still continued to put away savings and afford their lifestyle without compromise.

They dreamed of a cabin in the mountains after retirement.  A nice quiet place to relax after working hard for their whole lives.  Beth longed to sit in front of a big window to read with a warm cup of tea, while George was hoping for a lot of acreage and big porch to enjoy it from.  They were on track with their retirement savings to be able to start building their cabin – after their kids were grown up and moved away, in about 15 years.

 

By conventional standards, George and Beth were living the dream and doing everything right financially.

As they approached their late 30’s, the couple began to see that even though their salaries were continuing to increase, it wasn’t keeping up with the increasing costs of their family. Sitting at the dinner table, bills and statements scattered about, the two faced a big dilemma.  Their current financial situation wasn’t as bright as they had hoped.

With their first born turning 11, they had begun to think about the cost of a college education.  Luckily, the couple started to look at a way to save for their kid’s education before it was too late – but even with 7 years to put money away, at their current level of income, it wasn’t possible to save enough cash to cover the classes for their first child, let alone a degree for the second.

Tapping her fingers on a calculator, Beth hung her head.  “Even if we stop saving for our retirement, there won’t be enough to cover the college tuition for the kids,” she said.  George felt sadness seep into his strong and stoic expression.  He felt like he couldn’t provide for his family, even though he had a college education and a good paying job.  The two held each other’s hands, unsure where to go from there.

 

The following day, Beth began to find other ways to get out of debt and save for retirement.

After searching all day, Beth scheduled a few consult appointments with “experts” at how to get out of the situation her family was in.  The first 3 appointments didn’t prove to be worth the time or effort, but the fourth appointment left Beth and George much more hopeful than that night at the kitchen table.

As they sat in the office at Tier 1 Capital, the man behind the desk said, “If you could send your children to college, save for retirement, and begin building your retirement home several years sooner, would you do it?”  “Absolutely?” replied George, preparing for another plan that was obviously too good to be true.  “Good. Let’s get a plan together,” said the man.

 

 

The plan was about redirecting money the couple was losing unknowingly and unnecessarily into a cash pool they could access when they needed it.

After an evaluation the couple found they were giving money away in various places, including with interest on their debt.  They also were surprised to learn that they didn’t have to pay banks for the privilege of using their money and that taking control of their money could increase their cash flow and easily accomplish all of their goals.

 

Elated and a bit skeptical, the couple agreed to create and implement a plan that would:

  1. Enable them to pay for both kid’s college educations
  2. Continue to live at the lifestyle they were accustomed to
  3. Have enough saved for retirement so that they may live comfortably
  4. Build a cabin in the woods for their retirement NOW

 

The plan they enacted worked by redirecting their cash flow and gave them access to money they were willfully making inaccessible.  Traditional tactics keep money inaccessible in times when it’s needed – even when it’s your money.  Beth and George felt privileged to finally learn there was a better way.  A way that would keep their money at their fingertips for when they really needed it, without extra taxes and penalties.

Using a cash pool created with their own money, Beth and George were able accelerate the payments on their mortgage, while saving for retirement and having the comfort of knowing that college tuition also wouldn’t be a problem for them to afford.   As they used their funds to build up their cash pool and aggressively pay down their debts, the two did not sacrifice saving for retirement.  In fact, it was just the opposite.

2 years after implementing their plan, the couple began construction on their cabin in the woods.  Something they thought they wouldn’t have been able to afford for another 15 years.  A few years after the cabin was built, their first son went off to college.  When the $60,000 per year tuition bill arrived, George and Beth cut the check without a worry about dipping into savings or retirement.  Later, they overheard their friends, who had always had higher paying jobs than them, lament over taking away from their retirement accounts to pay for their kid’s college education.

 

Today – Beth and George are pleased they found a better way to handle their long term finances.

As George sits on the front porch of their cabin discussing college choices with their second child, he smiles and says, “Cost isn’t a concern, choose which education you feel like will best serve you.”  He looks down at the boards that his father helped him nail there under their feet and was filled with gratitude.  His father, who recently passed, was able to help him build this cabin because he was able to afford to build it sooner – and finally he could provide for his family without question.

It isn’t good to be true. It’s an effective solution to retirement savings and debt accumulation.

Tier 1 was founded out of the frustration we all experience with trying to get ahead.  Our founder spent nearly a decade in financial services doing things the conventional way.  Paying down his debts and maxing out his 401K every year didn’t get him anywhere when he needed the funds to buy his first home.

Furious with the system, he began to find additional ways to secure his financial future.  Since 1993, he’s used this method to help small business owners and families save for retirement while simultaneously having access to those assets to purchase a home, a car or send their kid to college.