Lifestyle Income Guarantee: Shootin' It Straight With Stan

Today's topic is lifestyle income guarantee, not lifetime, lifestyle. Now, annuities as a category is the only category that provides income as long as you are breathing. There's no ROI until you die. Some say, "Well, I don't know about annuities, and I don't know about the return on that thing." You know what I'm saying because it's a pension. You can't say you hate all annuities because you already own one called Social Security. If you have a pension, you own two. If you have CDs, you own three because MYGAs are the annuity industry version of a CD, so it's the same thing.

They're many annuity types, so when it comes to income, and for most people looking to retire, thinking about retirement, trying to spell retirement, planning for retirement, and discussing retirement with their loved ones, it's about income. It's about lifestyle. It's about chapter two. It's about what you will do after what you're doing now. You're going to retire from your job, and you're going to retire from the markets, and you're going to put guarantees in place for lifestyle. Lifestyle income guarantees can mean two things at the time of this blog. They can mean Immediate Annuities, Deferred Income Annuities, Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts, or Income Riders for lifetime income as long as you're breathing.

Lifestyle Income Guarantees

Lifestyle income guarantees can also mean buying MYGAs, taking the interest off the top, and never touching the principal like you would with a CD. It's about lifestyle. What we will do when you talk to us on the phone, and by the way, you can schedule a call with us for 30 minutes. Nothing whizzbang is going to happen. Nothing crazy's going to happen. We're not going to try to close you on the first close. One call closed. Get them on the floor. One call closed. I had a consultant once go, "What's your closing ratio, Stan The Annuity Man? What is it?" I'm like, only some people I talk to need an annuity, so what are you talking about? You're telling me that everyone out there is a nail and I'm the hammer? No. I love sales consultants. Do you know what sales consultants are? They're people who couldn't sell at all, so they become sales consultants. It's like managers at brokerage firms. Managers at brokerage firms typically are brokers that failed. Now they're managers overseeing very successful brokers. It makes no sense, which is why it's a failed business model. But lifestyle income guarantees are what you need to be looking at. 11,000 baby boomers are turning age 65 every single day, Monday through Sunday. That means 11,000 people, at minimum, are starting to think about contractual guaranteed lifetime income, or they are starting to think about, "Hey, can I put this money in CDs and money markets and treasuries or in MYGAs and just take the interest out and never touch the principle? Do I have enough money to do that, or do I need to get a lifetime income annuity in combination with social security, the best inflation annuity on the planet?"

It's About Chapter Two

It's about lifestyle. It's about living. It's about chapter two. It's about you. I know I keep preaching this, but every month I get a call from one of my clients saying, "I should have listened to you. I was just diagnosed with XYZ" or whatever the malady they have, "and I wish I'd have spent the money." I always joke around; there are no U-hauls behind hearses. I had a client who made me do a video called "If You Don't Fly First Class, Your Kids Will." I have my kids. I got good kids, but they like the finer things, and I fly first class. Why not? Because I've worked hard for it, and you've worked hard for it too. So instead of lifetime income streams or lifetime income guarantees, I want you to say lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. We're changing our lifestyle. I'm changing my lifestyle to have enough money hitting the bank account every month, regardless of what happens with the Republicans and the Democrats and the Libertarians and the communists and the socialists and the Russians and the Bulgarians or whoever. It doesn't matter what any of those people do, and it doesn't matter what Mr. Kramer says on CNBC. It doesn't matter what Tucker says on Fox. It doesn't matter what Rachel says on MSNBC or whoever is on CNN, no offense. Throw that in. I could care less. I'm not political.

Please don't be political. In chapter two of your life, you don't have time to be political. There's no time in chapter two of your life and lifestyle to be political and get angry about all this. Life is fleeting. We all have people around us who are passing away, and it's a shock, and for a couple of days, we go, you know what? I'm going to change things. I'm going to live life. I really am going to live life. I'm going to focus on lifestyle. Do you? Is it long-term? No. You return to the normal ways of making table lemonade like my mom does when she goes out. Instead of ordering the drink, you don't take care of yourself. You don't go out to the restaurants you really want to go out to, and you don't travel like you want to. Why? Because you're not focusing on lifestyle. What can annuities do that no other product can? They can contractually guarantee the lifestyle that you need.

2 Questions to Ask

I always have these conversations with people. Now, I ask two questions. What do you want the money to contractually do? And when do you want those contractual guarantees to start? It always comes down to income. And I go, okay, how much income do you need? And they'll say, well, we need $7,200 a month, or whatever the number is, doesn't matter, whatever the number is. Is that number to pay the bills, or is that to go live your life? And they typically say, no, that's just to pay the bills. Okay, great. How about to go live your life? That's when the spouse not into investments chimes in, "We need an extra two grand per month so we can go see the kids and the grandkids and go to Europe and go to Dollywood and go to Wally World and go to all these places." What's your lifestyle number?

Income Floor

We talk about income floors, which is the amount of money you need to hit that monthly amount every month to pay the bills. What's your lifestyle number? What's that number monthly? Can we hit it? At these current rates, can we hit it by just taking the interest off the top of, say MYGAs, CDs, treasuries, and money markets? Or do we have to buy lifetime income products like Immediate Annuities, Income Riders, Deferred Income Annuities, or QLACs in combination with MYGAs and CDs? How can we get you to that lifestyle? Lifestyle income guarantees means that you can go live your life, and if the market crashes, there's a regional bank fallout or Ukraine and Russia are smacking each other in the face, you live your life.

Control What You Can Control

At the end of the day, you got to control what you can control. We can't control our stupid politicians. We can't control the media. We can't control geopolitics. We can't control those uber-rich people that seem to run everything. We can't control any of that. We are who we are. Most of us grew up poor or low middle class. Most of us love America, the country, and everybody in the country, regardless of race, creed, color, or whatever. We love them, and we'd fight like hell for any of them. You and I both know that. But at the end of the day, that same vigor, patriotism, and inner drive that you have for others and your family, I need you to have it for you. That's where lifestyle income guarantees come in. Yes, it's for lifetime income. It's lifetime, as long as you are breathing, and we can structure it so that 100% of any unused money goes to the family, not the evil annuity company. You already own the best lifestyle income annuity on the planet. Social Security. Why? Because it increases with inflation, and when they don't lower the amount, they give you the increase. That's fantastic. That's a lifestyle income guarantee that takes care of this country. That's a lifestyle income guarantee that, as a taxpayer, I'm proud to pay that.

I want people to eat and live okay, live, and live well, but at the end of the day, yes, you'll shop for lifetime income. With me, we will talk about the types of lifetime income and the four ways to do life income later. There are four contractual paths to get there, but at the end of the day, it's about your lifestyle. It's about living chapter two of your life, checking off all those boxes, and ensuring that you maximize every single day and be happy about it every day. And I'm not going to date this specific day because I write these when things hit me, but today there was another shooting in this country, and there was a shooting where children got killed, and adults got killed, and I don't know what to say about that other than we got to live life.

What Excites Stan The Annuity Man

One of the things that excites me about what I do and why I'm passionate, and people say, "Well, Stan, you have so much energy, and you do all these videos and blogs, and you do a podcast, and you talk to people on the phone." I am so passionate about what I do, and I know that sounds cliche, but I get to enhance people's lifestyles. I get to make chapter two of their life good. I get to take some of the stress and worry that's been there for so many years, and you've just been working, scraping, clawing, and doing without and planning. I'm the person that says, "It's okay. You've made it. You've won the game. You don't have to play anymore." I made a video on that, and it's one of my biggest. People watch it all the time and tell me about it. I love telling people that. It's almost like an oncologist telling someone they're cancer free. That's pretty drastic. I hate to make that correlation, but you know what I'm talking about. I get to tell people, you have enough money that we can create the lifestyle that you can go live and never worry again. Lifestyle income guarantees. Forget lifetime; it's lifestyle.

Three Phases of Retirment

Remember, there are three phases of retirement. Go go, slow go, and no go. Steve Paris, a good friend of mine on the podcast, reminded me of that. He came up with it, if he didn't, I give him credit. Go go, slow go, and no go. We'll all be at all three phases if we live long enough. Let's maximize go go into slow go. Nod your head. Because at no go there's nothing. Hopefully, you can look back and say, yep, Stan told me to maximize, and I maximized, put the contractual guarantees in place, and we went at it. We traveled, and we did what we had to do. That makes me happy. That makes me happy, and I look forward to speaking with you. Don't be afraid to schedule a call. If you haven't caught it by now, I'm not really a good salesperson. I sell a lot of stuff because I listen to people and educate them, but there's no high pressure. I will listen to you and tell you if you don't need an annuity. We're going to use as little money as possible to achieve the contractual goals that you put in front of me, and it's going to be suitable and appropriate, and I look forward to that conversation. I look forward to you putting lifestyle income guarantees in place. My name is Stan The Annuity Man. We'll see you next time.

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.