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Market Addiction Kills Retirement Dreams: Shootin' It Straight with Stan®
Today's topic is, addiction to the market can kill retirement dreams. Your addiction to following the stock market and investing in the stock market and taking risks with your money can literally kill retirement dreams, especially in these volatile markets. I had a call the other day which prompted this topic.
I was talking to a couple and they had advisors, and I'm sure they're well-intentioned advisors and they've been told the line, "If you stay in it for the long haul, it's going to be good," and all that's true. I understand. I used to work for Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Paine Webber, and UBS, been there, done that. But they had lost $400,000 or $500,000. That's a lot. If you have 100,000 and you lose 50,000, that's a lot. I've been there. And they were being told, "Well, just stay the course." And they give the stats. "Well, if you pull out the money now, there's five days, and if you pull out the five days, you're going to lose," all that stuff. They're being told, "Stay the course." They're being told, "Historical returns." They're being told, "It's okay." They're being told, "Hang in there." They're being told, "Don't watch." They're being told, "Don't worry." They're being told, "Don't stress." They're being told, "Don't lose sleep over it." That's easy and cavalier for someone to say that because it's not their money and it's not their retirement and it's not their plan, and it's not their chapter two, and it's not what you're trying to achieve, which you are at the retirement finish line and all of a sudden things aren't going north anymore. They're going south. So these market dreams and this market addiction to growth are killing retirement. It's killing people's retirement plans. What I have to ask you is this, what are you chasing? What's the percentage that you're looking for?
What Are You Chasing?
I want you to know this. If you were a money manager, hedge fund person, private equity guru, master of the universe on Wall Street, and you've consistently got 7% or 8% year after year, they would build a statue for you right beside the bull on Wall Street if you were that person. Yet every single person, I say, "What type of market returns are you looking for?" "7% to 9% consistently." My question to you is, why are you chasing an additional 2% or 3%? You can get 4.5% and it's getting ready to be 5% if interest rates keep moving north. Now, if you're a professional trader, go for it. But you have to ask yourself if you're in your 60s or in your 70s, why are you chasing this?
Is this an addiction? Have you been taught to do this? You have just been fed the line, "Well, we all have to go to college and we all have to buy a house. We all have to have kids and we all have to go to church, and we all have to be in the markets." No, we don't. We don't have to all be in the markets. Now, if you're in your 40s or early 50s, you're still working, yes, you've got time. People call me all the time in their 30s and 40s and say, "I want to buy an annuity." I'm like, "I'm hanging up the phone right now. Love you. Mean it. Bang. Stay in the markets." But for people that are transitioning to chapter two of their lives, you've laid it on the line, you've put the kids through college, you've paid the house off, you scrimped, you saved, you've done without, you've done the good vacations, but not the vacations you wanted to go on, now it's time for you. Now it's time to live like there's no U-Haul behind hearses. Now it's time that it's about you.
How is it about you if you're still addicted to the markets? If you're watching CNBC and Fox Business. I've been on those networks, love them. But you have to ask yourself, why are you still doing this? Now, if you enjoy it and if you're not a golfer and you don't fix up a '56 Corvette and you don't have a garage band, and this is your Jones, this is what you wake up in the morning, this is what really, really interests you and attracts you, the markets and how they work and crypto and managed futures and option strategies and all that stuff, then go for it. I have those clients that they say, "Hey, I'm 81, Stan. I still love the markets. I'm going to do some annuities over here, but I love the up and down. I'm good with it." If that's you, that's fine. But most people out there, the 10,000 baby boomers plus, I think it's 11,000 now, they're hitting age 65 every single day, that's not who you are, is it?
It's Your Money
Are you listening to your advisor tell you to stay the course because you like them? Who cares if you like them? The advisor's not your friend. It's not their money, it's your money. Stay the course for what? Life is fleeting. I don't want to be gloom and doom, but we all are at an age now where we have friends that are passing away unexpectedly and it's a wake-up call every time it happens. So, what are you doing with your money? Are you still chasing market returns? Are you still chasing 7% to 9%? Is it out of proportion? In other words, is it too much of your money doing that? Have you put in the amounts that are principal protected so that you don't have to worry about it? Have you put in a plan in case you lose your cognitive ability, we're all going to lose some of our cognitive health sooner than later. Have you put those plans in place for your spouse?
Have a Plan
By the way, if we all live long enough, it's going to happen to most of us. I have the plan in place if my Learjet hits the mountain. When I die, translation, I have that plan in place. I have that plan in place so it's turnkey for my spouse. Do you have that plan in place so it's turnkey for your spouse? Or if you die tomorrow, are you going to leave her call options that are open, managed futures, and stock she doesn't give a crap about, and she's going to have to talk to these advisors who are going to say, "Stay the course."? Are you going to do that? It's time for you to stop. Stop the nonsense of chasing this. Markets are going to be volatile (my opinion, my prediction, hope I'm wrong) going forward. If you haven't noticed, there are a lot of things happening in the world. Do you really want to go south? Do you really want to lose 20%, or 10%? But be careful.
This is where the bad chicken dinner seminars come in and the Indexed Annuity people say, "Buy this. It's got an upfront bonus and good market upside with no downside." That doesn't exist either, period. I love Indexed Annuities, but they're CD products. So, if you're getting that sales pitch, "Well, look at the back-tested numbers. You'd make 11%." Give me a break. You're smarter than that. Don't be the sucker at the table.
Is your market addiction ruining your retirement? Is it ruining your plans for retirement? Is it getting in the way? I don't know. Maybe it is. Addiction to the markets can kill your retirement plan. Addictions to anything can kill. Addictions to alcohol, addictions to drugs, addictions to anything, fill in the blank. And the blank that can be filled in is markets. It can be addictive and it can ruin things. Don't let your addiction to the markets kill your retirement dreams.
Never forget to live in reality, not the dream, with annuities and contractual guarantees! You can use our calculators, get all six of my books for free, and most importantly book a call with me so we can discuss what works best for your specific situation.