Os Money|Life|Politics
Years ago many American middle class
workers that worked for the government or private corporation for 30 years or
more could look forward to having a pension pay them x amount of
dollars upon retirement. That amount would be paid to them until they
died. You could say that most Americans were content with that outcome or
tradeoff for all their years of service provided. They at least knew they
would not be destitute. It was a security blanket they would have and
they needed not worry about how or what investments were made to make it
so. They had what is called defined benefit. Now, fast
forward to 2015 and you do not much see any defined benefit programs anymore,
especially not in the private sector, and if you do they are not as secure for
recipients, either because of insolvency of the backers or because politicians
now want to change the rules. We are largely in the age of the defined
contributions era with option you know as the 401K. The 401K is the
new vehicle for American workers to provide for their own retirement. The
corporations are no longer providing that option, much to the delight of
shareholders and CEO's pocket enlargement. As Americans, we are free and
independent, so no biggie right? Maybe, let's look at this history
briefly though.
We are going from no need to worry about investment strategies used to
giving us defined contribution where you're having to pay a financial adviser
to provide and implement an investment strategy for stock and bond investment
or you doing so yourself. I graduated from college in 2006 and defined
contributions was well into effect then, would you believe, there were no
financial education classes offered to allow me to learn about what would be
such a big stake for my financial future (more to be written later on this
topic)! There probably still is not any financial education around
retirement in institutions of higher learning. As you know from the stock
market crash of 2008 - 2009, even if you did everything you were supposed to,
you are in a financial position for retirement that feels so much more
uncertain, but you are being preached to that the 401K path is your best or
only option. I disagree and object to the notion. I have a
different message and focus that you probably rarely hear mentioned. So,
forget your 401K and the company match, if any, and take control of your monies
direction. A different type of retirement starts when you have better
control of your money positioned for safer returns than the stock
market.
A different type of retirement can be three-pronged, two-pronged or
one-pronged depending on circumstances I will mention later and even these can
be limitations that I will leave to you to decide. If possible, the
bedrock of your different type retirement plan should be cash value life
insurance from a mutually held company (a company that does not have
shareholders) like New York Life. The policy should be optimized for cash
value accumulation and there are agents that specialize in doing so at Paradigm
Life and The Insurance Pro Blog. This can be used effectively if you or
your spouse is insurable and the younger you implement the policy the
better. If you are not insurable, then your bedrock should start with
positive cash flowing rental real estate. This can be single family
houses, apartments, commercial buildings, etc. I do realize that education may
be needed and I will mention where you can get started later. So why
these two investment vehicles? In 401K strategy, the aim is accumulation of
money and then extraction of it for cash flow for living expenses which is so
backwards. In this strategy, the aim is not accumulation, but instead, is
for continual cash flow. No need to sell a stock because you need to pay
the light bill. I provide the options of cash value life insurance and
real estate as retirement plan vehicles and I am using these two options
currently for my retirement plan and I feel much more certain about my
financial future than with the 401K plan. I use the two options together,
which is preferable, or individually is possible. The life insurance can
be looked at as similar to a defined benefit because some can be structured for
you to pay premiums until say 65 and then you can draw down x dollar
amount via policy loan income tax free until x age (I usually
guesstimate average life expectancy for male in design), unlike the 401K which
is taxed as ordinary income tax rates upon distribution, and should you pass
still provide a death benefit to your loved ones. Real estate is a means
on which you can build a great stream of cash flow where the insurance option
is not even needed. If you see your working career span as being 30 plus
years, during this time, you could and should be buying investment properties
that cash flow $200, $300, $400 plus per month and if you extrapolate that out
how many properties you need will depend on the income you figure to need to
live a comfortable lifestyle. The other option which I would not use without
the cash value life insurance is to buy stocks or distressed assets when they
are cheap and sell at the highs. There is a component of cash value life
insurance that you can borrow against the cash value via a policy loan.
The loan has no term but does have a small interest rate applied from time the
loan is out, but think of the scenario where you could arbitrage the
difference. The crash of 2008-2009 would have been optimal time to use
this tool, but surely your money was all tied up in the stock market at its
crash.
So, I've outlined above some of the options for a different type of
retirement plan and the designs as three-pronged plan would be cash value life
insurance, real estate, and arbitrage of distressed assets, the two-pronged is
cash value life insurance real estate, the one-pronged could be either cash
value life insurance or real estate. In my humble opinion, these options
provide a far safer, more reliable, and controllable outcomes than investing
via only the 401K. You have better control of your monies and how you are
going to invest it and add value and you do not have to take the utmost risk in
order to retire securely in the future using this different type of retirement
plan!
Note:
I learned real estate investing principals via Lifestyles Unlimited in
Houston, TX. They provided education to out of state investors as
well. http://www.lifestylesunlimited.com/
I will be expounding on points mentioned in this blog in future writings
with more details on the benefits provided by this approach and examples.
Os
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