We all know that inflation is running rampant these days and the federal governments national debt is now $31 trillion and counting.
Today, we’re going to cover the three things you can do today to protect your family and your business from the effects of inflation down the line.
The first thing you can do to battle the effects of inflation is to go long on your debt, and to go long, particularly, on your mortgages. You may be wondering why that is. Well, it’s real simple. When you go and take a loan from the bank and extend it as long as possible. You’re locking in those payments for that whole term. And what this allows you to do when you pay back your mortgage, the longer you can go on the mortgage, the dollars are worth less and less the longer you can stretch it out. Inflation is affecting those dollars just as it’s affecting your gas bill, your electric bill and your water bill.
In a nutshell, a dollar today is going to be worth less in the future, and 30 years down the line, it’s going to be worth potentially a lot less. So it’s going to feel like you’re paying pennies on the dollar because, quite frankly, you are.
Another reason why you want to go long on your mortgage is because if interest rates go down in the future, you can always refinance to create more cash flow. However, if interest rates go up in the future, you’re locked in at a lower rate and now the bank has the interest rate risk, not you.
Third reason you would want to go long on your mortgage is really simple. If you qualify for the interest tax deduction, you will be paying more interest with a longer mortgage. And the more interest you pay, the higher your tax deduction. So that tax deduction can offset the effects of inflation by giving you back more of the money that you spent.
The second way you could combat the effects of inflation is by deferring taking your Social Security income. Preferably at least until age 70. Now, a lot of people say, I don’t want to wait that long because I’m not sure Social Security’s going to be around. Well, let’s face it, if Social Security truly isn’t going to be around, does it matter whether you take it at 65 or 67 or 70?
So the point is this if you defer taking Social Security, that means you’ll get a larger check every month. And that larger check can allow you to counteract the effects of inflation.
The second reason you want to defer taking Social Security is because it will leave a larger survivor benefit for your spouse.
And finally, the third reason why you would want to take Social Security at a later age is because by getting a larger check, you now get cost of living adjustments on a larger base. That larger base, with the added cost of living adjustments, can help counteract the effects of inflation on your monthly retirement income.
Inflation erodes the buying power away from our dollars, but in retirement, we’re no longer working. So it’s important to make sure those dollars that we have are working as hard as possible for us and that we’re setting ourselves up and the best possible solution in retirement. By deferring, taking Social Security, you’re increasing your benefit amount and helping counteract the effects of inflation on your retirement income.
The third thing you could do to decrease the effects of inflation on your life is by purchasing a specially designed whole life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation. And you may be wondering why is that? And the reason why is simple. Because specially designed whole life insurance policies designed for cash accumulation have the power to make all of your other assets even more efficient.
So one of the ways that a specially designed whole life insurance policy can increase the efficiency of your other assets. Let’s take, for example, your house. Your house is there. You’re living in it. It’s not producing any income for you. So what if you took a reverse mortgage against your house?
The problem with that is most people say, “Hey, we’re leaving the house for our kids.” No problem. The kids might have moved out of the area. They probably don’t want the house, but they do want the money that the house is worth. Having life insurance gives you the permission to spend the equity in your house and you can leave them the money from the life insurance. So that’s one reason.
The second way a specially designed whole life insurance policy can make your money more efficient is by using it as a volatility buffer. Well, what does that mean? In the years that the market is down, you don’t want to take money out of that portfolio and have a down year. So what you do is you take money from the life insurance policy instead of from your portfolio, and that gives your portfolio some time to regenerate it`self, gain back the money that you lost in the year that it was down.
Another way you could use your policy to combat the effects of inflation is by using the dividends to help supplement your retirement income, often on a tax favored basis. And think of this, dividends from a whole life insurance policy should not be subject to federal income tax or State income tax. They won’t subject you to a Social Security offset tax, and they won’t contribute to a higher Medicare premium. And in most states, the death benefits will pass to your children, inheritance and or estate, tax free.
Another point to consider is when you buy a whole life policy, you’re locking in those premium payments. So it’s just like the mortgage, the dollars that you are spending on the premiums today are going to have a lot less buying power in the future. And so it’s not going to be as painful making those payments.
And finally, another way that whole life insurance can counteract or help reduce the effects of inflation. If inflation is higher, that means interest rates are higher. And if interest rates are higher, that means your dividends should be higher. As we mentioned earlier, those higher dividends could help supplement your retirement income on a tax favored basis.
If you’d like to get started with a specially designed whole life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation, be sure to visit our website at Tier1Capital.com to schedule your free strategy session today.
And remember, it’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you keep that really matters.
