Chapter 2 Is About You: Shootin' It Straight With Stan®

Today's topic is Chapter Two Should Be All About You. What is chapter two, Stan The Annuity Man®? Are we talking about books? Are we talking about movies? What are we talking about? Chapter two is the second part of your life after you stop working. Some people call it retirement. I don't like the word retirement. It's chapter two. You're not going to slow down. You're going to pivot and do something else, and that something else is whatever your passion is. Whether you want to volunteer, whether you want a second career, whether you want to flip channels for a living, whether you want to be a YouTube star, whether you want to start a rock band, whatever it is, chapter two is all about you.

If you're a parent out there and you have kids, and you have scraped and saved, and they've gotten the first choice of everything, because that's what parents do, nod your head, high five. There's nothing wrong with that. We try to do the best we can and be good, but there are no books on parenting. I should write one, but that wouldn't be a good book. I did the best I could, but I was not great at it. My wife was, fortunately, bless her heart. But I talk to people all the time, and I have clients in all 50 states. I love interacting and listening to what people struggle with in the retirement stage or chapter two. And what they primarily need help with is focusing on themselves, spending the money that they've scraped and saved and done without. I keep doing videos on this, and I did one recently called Fly First Class Or Your Kids Will.

I always say there are no U-Hauls behind a hearse, period. Think about it. As I always say, I'm still working on the consultants surrounding me. I have consultants and lawyers, and it's like an entourage. I keep saying, "I want to buy a brand new customized hearse and then have U-Haul sponsor the whole thing and give me a U-Haul behind it or some trailer behind it. And I drive around the country talking about there are no U-Hauls behind a hearse." Why? Because chapter two is all about you. One of the things on the hearse or the U-Haul or whatever will be Chapter Two is All About You. Or if you're married, All About Y'all. The point is this; it's hard to come off of that. It's hard to pivot and actually take care of yourself. Think about it for a second. Think about all you've done after all these decades, getting up and going to work when you didn't want to, and you didn't like it, and those last five or seven or 10 years that were hard to go to work and do your thing. And you've accumulated all this money. And then, you get a person like me on the phone, and I say stuff like, "Well, you've won the game. Why are you still playing? Why wouldn't you just go live your life and travel and do your thing? And if you want to lease a Ferrari, go and lease a Ferrari. If you want to put a pickleball court in your backyard, then do it, period. And not worry about all of those people that you've been taking care of your whole life."

I love these sayings that I come up with, and some of my clients tell me to use them in these videos because that's where many of my good ideas come from, obviously. Chapter two is all about you, and I need you to consider what you want to do in chapter two. I was telling a good friend of mine the other day, and I played college basketball, so many of my friends are 6'9", 6'10", and 7 feet tall. I'm 6'6", and I feel like I'm small. I still feel short until I see myself in pictures. I'm like, "oh my gosh. I'm freakishly huge.

That's ridiculous." But I was talking to a good friend, and we ran hard in college. We put some miles on our bodies, partied, and did all that stuff. We were having the conversation that we're at that age where we're thinking, "Well, how much longer do we have to live? Is it 10 years? Is it 20 years?" And my friend and I came up with this, "Listen, if I get a good 10 or 15 more years from here, it's a win. It's a win." As I always said, I've burned the candle at both ends, and what a beautiful flame it was. It was fantastic. But I'm also at that chapter two stage right now and doing things that make me happy. I'm doing things that my friends think are crazy. I'm doing things that make my wife's eyes roll in the back of her head and go, "oh my God." I'm doing those things and need you to do them as well.

Now, how do annuities fit into that? They might not. But in chapter two, when it's all about you, you might want to look at contractual guarantees. Consider looking at a lifetime income stream, principal protection, peeling off interest, retiring from the markets, retiring from risk, and de-risking your portfolio. I know, CNBC and Fox Business say, "Don't do that because the markets historically have returned and this and that." Come on. Yeah, of course, historically, but what is chapter two? How long is chapter two for you? None of us know when the Learjet will hit the mountain. None of us know when the Bentley's going to hit the tree. The lady said jokingly today, and she went, "I don't know when my Volkswagen's going to run into the fence." I'm like, "I get it. I totally get it. I love the Volkswagen, etc." But she said it was a Volkswagen bus, which made me go down the Grateful Dead thing. I started singing Grateful Dead songs to her, of which she almost hung up, and I don't blame her. The point is, chapter two could be a year. Chapter two could be a day. Chapter two could be five years. Chapter two could be 10 years. Chapter two could be 30 years. There could be a medical miracle, and chapter two could be 50 years. But chapter two is about you. And chapter two needs to be a daily ascent to the mountain of fun, a daily journey to take care of yourself, and a daily checklist of things you want to do, however frivolous and crazy they might seem.

Annuities can get you there. Should you, all of you out there reading this, buy one? No, of course not. Should you put all your money in annuities? No. The annuity industry doesn't want that, and I will not allow that. But they can provide a lifetime income stream, just like the best lifetime income stream annuity you're already on called Social Security. They can protect the principal just like CDs and treasuries can and peel off an interest rate. They can enhance chapter two. They can create guarantees so that chapter two can be about you instead of it being about CNBC and the markets and risk and volatility and global markets and presidents and Democrats and Republicans and libertarians and whatever.

It's time to take care of yourself. I know there will be people out there going, "Well, that's just a narcissistic way to look at life. You're just focusing on yourself. That's what's wrong with this country, Stan. You knew what he meant." No, it's not. I'm talking to you out there. I'm talking to the person that's gone decades without taking care of yourself, that's gone decades without getting the car you want, that's gone decades without going on the trip that you really want to go on.

I'll close with this. I did a video recently called You've Won the Game! Why Are You Still Playing?. And that video is based on a couple from Alabama that are very good clients now. I just got an email from them, and they're on their 46-day vacation in Spain. And what they said at the end is, "Because we're not worried about the markets and we put contractual guarantees in place, we're enjoying ourselves." It's chapter two. So, listen, and I want you to listen closely, and I want you to think about it for a second. Chapter two has got to be about you, and there's nothing wrong with that. As I've told my kids, the last check will bounce. There's life insurance that will cover that, but chapter two, for me, is going to be fun. You'll want to be around me in chapter two, and right now, I'm in chapter two.

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.