What Are You So Afraid Of?

Here are Providence Financial, our goal is for you to have a stress-free retirement. After being a retirement advisor for almost 25 years, I’ve realized that most retirees are afraid of the same things – and many of them aren’t even aware they’re afraid.

Here are some common fears:
– fear of dying itself
– fear of how you’re going to die
– fear of what will happen to your stuff once you’re gone
– fear of having to go into a nursing home or assisted living and not having the money to pay for it
– fear of running out of money before you run out of life

Knowledge and preparation are power and can bring peace of mind. Listen in for more.

Investing by Direct Contract v. Indirect Contract

What does it mean to be invested by contract? It means that you have a direct contract with the investment company; you own that contract and you get the guarantees listed in it. Outside of bankruptcy, you can count on those guarantees. If the contract says the investment will pay you a certain income, you can count on that income. At Providence Financial, we believe in retirement planning, not retirement guessing; so investing by contract is something we specialize in.

Here are a few other reasons why I believe investing by direct contract is superior to investing by indirect contract – listen in.

Your Retirement Flight Plan

I recently attended an air show in Camarillo, California. Between the F18 zooming by at over 700 mph, the WW2 bombing simulations and plane formation aerobatics – it was an amazing experience.

What caught my ear was the announcement made before the show started, stating that every single maneuver had been carefully planned; each plane knew exactly when to take off, each turn and twist and loop was meticulously choreographed, and so was the landing. Nothing happened by accident because safety was the utmost goal, and the only way to achieve safety is to carefully plan every single step.

Retirement planning is no different. You don’t want to fly by the seat of your pants (to stick with the aeronautics theme). Let’s discuss.

Overcoming Fear of Spending in Retirement

As a retirement advisor for over 25 years, I’ve come across many retirees (especially in the last couple of years) who are deathly afraid to spend down their retirement savings. They would never pay for things that they can actually easily afford – such as flying first class, for instance. If you’ve worked hard and have successfully navigated the accumulation phase of life, you’re now in the distribution phase and it’s time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

You do need to be invested properly, however. If you’re still invested for growth and, in order to spend money, you have to sell shares,  then next month you’ll have fewer shares. If you keep cannibalizing your principal, eventually you’ll run out. You’re in a race against time.

So how do you need to be invested in order to actually enjoy your retirement? Find out.

5 Reasons Why Impatience Can Hurt Your Retirement

We’ve all heard it said, “patience is a virtue” – and that’s certainly true. But when it comes to real life, how many of us actually believe and practice patience? Southern California freeways come to mind, for instance. Most of us tend towards impatience.

During retirement, being impatient at the wrong time can really hurt you down the road. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. market timing risk
2. chasing short term gains
3. emotional turmoil
4. lack of discipline
5. taking too much risk

Listen in.

Q&A – Long Term Care, Annuities and Investing for Income

Back by popular request – a Q&A show, and today we’ll cover 3 topics:

1. long term care

2. annuities

3. investing for income

We’ll also discuss how these seemingly separate topics actually tie in together perfectly (hint: you can use an annuity to fund long term care as well as invest for income). Listen in to find out how.