063 Dennis Miller: Your Comfortable Retirement Guarantee

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welcome to

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fun with annuities with your host me

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stan

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the annuity man america's annuity agent

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can annuities be fun

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can contractual guarantees be fun

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absolutely they can

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find out the brutal facts about

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annuities with no sales pitches or high

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pressure nonsense

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just the brutal and factual annuity

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truth which is all you need to hear

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let's have some fun with annuities and

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let's have that fun

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start right now

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[Music]

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welcome to fun with annuities the number

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one annuity podcast on the planet i'm

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your host standing udyman america's

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annuity agent licensed in

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all 50 states today we have a special

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guest with us it's dennis miller

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he has a very good newsletter called

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miller on the money that i encourage

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everyone listening to my clients anybody

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that's that's wanting to be a client

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anyone that stumbled across this podcast

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please go to his site at

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milleronthemoney.com and sign up it is a

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free i repeat free newsletter and he's

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been writing and helping

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since 2015. i want to i want to uh

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welcome everybody on all the plot

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podcast

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platforms like itunes and stitcher and

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spotify and all those

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and also the people that are watching

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this uh this video portion

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and we filmed these as well on the fun

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with annuities youtube channel and again

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i also have a youtube channel called

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stan the annuity man for all things

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annuity now a little bit about dennis

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and then i'm going to let him go and and

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talk about a lot of things um he was a

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writer for casey research he's he's

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really knows his stuff

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both him and i were were uh what's

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called retired mentors

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we we wrote for market watch and they

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called all of us people that were

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contributing at that point time retire

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mentors um

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he's just a very smart guy the good part

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about dennis is he's not an advisor

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he just has it in his heart and has a

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passion for

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helping people in retirement shooting it

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straight so there's really no agendas i

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mean his

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his newsletter is free why wouldn't you

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sign up i mean for goodness sakes

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um now we're going to go through a lot

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of things and a lot of things aren't

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going to be about annuities now dennis

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does understand the value of annuities

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and where they fit in the portfolio for

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lifetime income like an immediate

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annuity or if you want to peel off

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interest with like a multi-year

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guarantee annuity

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but uh with that being said let me just

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introduce and welcome to the fun with

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annuities podcast

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dennis miller thanks for being with us

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well thank you stan for inviting me i

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appreciate the uh

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introduction now i got to live up to it

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but thank you

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absolutely um hey let's jump right in on

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a couple of things you have a great

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um article that's getting ready to uh or

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pod uh post on your website

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and on your uh on your newsletter on how

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good

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is your comfortable retirement guarantee

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and i want to dig

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into that and if you don't sign up for

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us for his free newsletter for that

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i don't know what you're doing here um

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but i want to

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start with some fun stuff um you have a

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saying that you use called romeo

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r-o-m-e-o

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and i laughed when i read it because uh

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tell people what romeo

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is and and how that affects

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how you write and how it influences you

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well that's interesting you should ask

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that stan because

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i retired in 2005

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and bluntly i thought i was set for life

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i put a

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certain percentage of my uh portfolio

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into fixed income

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you know guaranteed what does that mean

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to income

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let's stop right there in your world

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back then that was cds and peeling off

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interest correct

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absolutely as a matter of fact stan i

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did something i chatted my father for

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uh because i saw my father and my mother

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invest heavily in cds they were getting

4:00
ready to retire

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and they went into the carter years yeah

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and oh their money was guaranteed but by

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the time their cds matured

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inflation ate away uh 25 percent of

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their buying power yeah

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so here i am 65 years old doing what i

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chided my father for

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in that i put the bulk of our

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investments into cds

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guaranteed so that i knew i would have

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enough

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money to pay the bills and then i put a

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portion

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of our portfolio into the market to

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hedge against

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inflation and stand for three years it

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worked like a charm we were

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actually at the end of the year we'd

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lived a good year

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what were your subjects yielding what

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was the average just ballpark of the

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yield back then oh no

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six solid solid six percent expert

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now on to under the romeo

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all of a sudden in 2008 i log into my

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brokerage account

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and i'm not joking when i say there was

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a whole bunch of cash there

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and where the heck did this cash i said

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to my wife did you win the lottery and

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not tell me where the heck did this

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money come from

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and then it got to be very unfunny

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because i realized

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that was the day they passed the day

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after they passed the bank bailout bill

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and literally all of my cds got called

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in

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yep now i didn't lose some time yep

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but i lost my theoretical guaranteed

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income

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and so i start looking for cds and

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basically they dropped from six percent

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to two percent

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right so i took a 66

5:43
income cut now stan let me tie this to

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romeo's

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uh romeo stands for retired old men

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eating out

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okay and i was a retired owner

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so so women would be rojo right retired

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old women i don't know they had

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they had a julia just us ladies

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got it okay so tell me about the romeo

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how does that play in well

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it wasn't a few days later i go off to

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our romeo breakfast which was every two

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weeks

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and that was the subject that

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everybody was talking about now we ended

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up in

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three different groups one group had

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government retirement plans so the bank

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bailouts

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no big deal they still got paid the same

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anyway yes

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the second group was folks like me

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who had our money in cds and bonds

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they got their bonds or cds redeemed so

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they didn't lose anything

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but they're saying my god how am i going

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to replace the income

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and sad to say the third group

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was people that were heavily invested in

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the market they were still

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not not investing for dividend income

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they were investing for growth

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right and one of the guys half jokingly

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said

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my 401k just turned into a 201k

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and stanley's still working today and

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i'm 80 years old i was

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68 at the time it's very very sad so

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that was the three groups

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so i joined a bunch of these newsletters

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because now i'm trying to figure out how

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am i going to

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invest this money to re replace this

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theoretical guaranteed income

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and i started writing to them and said

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you guys aren't getting it

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you don't get the problem that middle

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class america has

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and i started writing casey research

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which was where i

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ended up meeting you and they wrote back

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and said

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you're right we want you to start

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writing a newsletter

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address to middle america because

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the wealthy people they can afford and

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i'm talking multi-millionaires now sure

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the wealthy people can afford financial

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planners and they can

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pay them to help them but you have this

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huge middle class instead our romeo

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guys they were ex-vice presidents

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of major corporations they were very

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successful people

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and all of a sudden now there was no set

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it and forget it like we thought we had

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with the cds

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and i remember at breakfast one of them

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said i don't care how we made our money

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dr lawyer indian chief whatever

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we're all money managers now and our job

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is to make sure

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that our money lasts throughout our

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retirement

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so i started writing for casey research

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and then uh you and i got involved with

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market watch writing as retired mentors

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right and i told casey research i'm not

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a stock picker

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that's

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dennis does not give advice i mean he's

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not going to put together your portfolio

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but what he does

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provide um are details and facts and

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and and the reason he's on on the

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podcast with me is he's

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100 factual in there and there are no

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agendas i want to kind of

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since our time is limited i kind of want

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to pivot a little bit and get your

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comments on a couple subjects and then

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maybe then

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we can go back to the the article or the

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post that's coming out on your

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newsletter about retirement guarantees

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etc

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um give me your insight right now

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because i know you're a follower of of

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this

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tell me where things land with you and

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what you're telling your readers about

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interest rates right now because you

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know as i tell people

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they're at perceived lows when you when

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you look at jimmy carter

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yield from a long time ago right but if

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you look at senior treasury equivalents

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across the globe we're

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still pretty high what are you telling

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your readers right now other than oh my

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goodness

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goodness i wish they were higher no

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yesterday yesterday

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take that down no one's going to see

9:59
that at all yes

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go to his site and go to a miller on the

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money to he

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he just held something up to the camera

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and of course the camera spit that out

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so give us your opinion on

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in on interest rates well my opinion on

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interest rates are

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that they are so low now i mean

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literally i was showing

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the camera yesterday i ran something off

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about

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bonds and cd interest rates uh if you

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want to buy a five-year cd now

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you'll get point nine percent interest

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and by the way hold that thought real

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quick the sister product for

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annuities the multi-year guarantee

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annuity the cd

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uh their cd alternative in the annuity

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industry you can get three percent on

10:40
five years

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you can get two and a quarter on three

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years so the annuity industry

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has their own cd products so if you're a

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cd buyer

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you might want to go to my site and look

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at the live rates the annuityman.com we

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have a

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listing of all carriers with live rates

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so keep going on those rates because

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i do want people to know there are are

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alternatives to cds that work just like

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them

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10-year treasuries 1.66 now stan you

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asked what i'm telling my readers

11:06
i'm saying there are no safe

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fixed income products today that i would

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ever buy myself other than very short

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term

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to hold cash that are going to beat

11:19
inflation

11:20
so if you want to lose money go buy a

11:22
stop buy a 10-year cd

11:24
let's talk about let's talk about

11:26
inflation i'm going to disagree with you

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a little bit because i'm

11:28
introducing you to multi-year guarantee

11:30
annuities which are the annuity industry

11:32
version of a

11:33
of a cd and if you can get three percent

11:36
i don't know what your

11:37
your um idea on inflation is but

11:40
we are we are raising money by the by

11:43
the millions and millions for people

11:44
that can't buy the cd at point nine

11:47
but want to buy a multi-year guarantee

11:48
annuity at three percent or two and a

11:50
quarter

11:51
but tell me about inflation you you

11:53
threw out inflation

11:54
tell me what you think that really is

11:57
what is that percentage to you

11:59
well the percentage for inflation you

12:02
know that you get all these pundits

12:03
saying it's two percent

12:04
and they do all the technical math and

12:06
the government stuff

12:08
inflation is a very personal thing okay

12:11
uh with me being close to 81 years old

12:15
the cost of medical care has skyrocketed

12:17
so for me my inflation would be higher

12:20
than somebody that's younger however i

12:24
like what you just said but tying it

12:26
back to the article that you mentioned

12:28
where we talked about

12:30
how good is your retirement income

12:33
guarantee because what i'm telling my

12:34
readers

12:36
is i took annuities cds

12:39
bonds dividend-paying stocks preferred

12:43
dividend-paying stocks

12:44
and i i sliced every one of those as to

12:47
what was really guaranteed

12:49
and one of the guarantees is are they

12:51
guaranteed to beat inflation

12:54
and what i'm telling my readers today is

12:57
if you're going to survive as a retiree

13:00
and make your money last

13:01
you've got to diversify and combine them

13:05
and i i think i even put a line in the

13:07
article where i said

13:08
people like the guaranteed income from

13:11
an annuity

13:12
and let's start right there let me

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clarify for people there's two types of

13:16
ways to get income from an annuity and

13:18
there's

13:18
seven different primary annuity types we

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talked about the multi-year guarantee

13:22
annuity which is the annuity industry

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version of a cd

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you can peel off that interest and never

13:26
touch the principle but there are the

13:28
unique

13:28
benefit proposition on on on four

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different types of annuities

13:33
that can provide a lifetime income as

13:34
long as you're breathing that is

13:36
that is unique to the annuity world so

13:38
the question is for

13:39
for people out there your readers my

13:41
listeners is how do you want to take

13:43
income do you want to protect the

13:44
principal and peel off the interest if

13:45
you do that

13:46
we know where interest rates are well

13:49
whether you want a lifetime

13:50
income stream whether it's with yourself

13:52
or joint life

13:53
that's a completely separate strategy

13:57
and there's

13:57
no way to figure out roi until you die

13:59
so with that being said

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go go from there well here's what i want

14:05
as a retiree

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i want to know that money's coming in

14:09
regardless of what happens in the stock

14:11
market

14:12
regardless of what happens and let me

14:14
throw a caveat

14:15
into that because something happened to

14:17
me recently

14:18
which again too many of us

14:22
assume guarantees and let me give you an

14:25
example

14:27
we get social security which i know you

14:29
have said many other times is one of the

14:30
best annuities on the planet it is

14:32
everybody assumes their social security

14:35
is guaranteed

14:37
and it's interesting because my wife had

14:40
part interest in a family farm been in

14:42
the family for 100 years

14:44
and they sold it in 2019.

14:47
well they had a nice capital gains but

14:49
honestly stan we can't take the proceeds

14:52
and invest it and earn nearly what she

14:54
was getting from the farm

14:56
lo and behold i get a notice and she

15:00
gets a notice

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our social security has been dropped

15:04
by 9 000 this year because

15:08
well oh no no social security hasn't

15:11
been dropped your social security

15:12
benefits are the same

15:14
but they raised our medicare premiums 9

15:17
000 bucks

15:18
so here i am thinking i had guaranteed

15:21
i could always count on that deposit

15:23
every month being the same amount for

15:25
social security

15:26
baloney i said to my wife if we had

15:29
money invested in an annuity

15:33
they are contractually obligated to pay

15:35
me that every month

15:37
where as we know now the social security

15:40
the government's changing it all the

15:42
time

15:42
so when i'm talking guaranteed i'm

15:44
talking about

15:46
that is the one part of your retirement

15:49
plan that you

15:50
know you can count on bluntly come hell

15:52
or high water

15:53
yeah in annuities or transfer risk

15:55
products you're transferring the risk to

15:56
the annuity company to either provide a

15:58
lifetime income stream

15:59
or protect the principal and peel off

16:00
the interest let me ask you a question

16:02
about social security

16:04
um do you think in the near future that

16:06
will be

16:07
means tested changed altered because

16:11
and the current path that we're going

16:12
where we're printing money and using as

16:14
much toner as humanly possible to print

16:17
it

16:18
what do you think what's your prediction

16:19
down the road for

16:21
social security and people that are

16:23
already getting it

16:24
do you think they'll be grandfathered in

16:26
and nothing's going to happen what's

16:27
your take on that what do you think is

16:28
going to happen

16:29
well i think you're asking a good

16:32
question yes

16:33
when you take a look at the numbers it's

16:35
impossible for the government to keep

16:37
the promises

16:39
now they're going to try to grandfather

16:42
in

16:43
people that are already have it but stan

16:46
you've educated me that you've used that

16:48
term contractually guaranteed

16:51
yes so if an annuity company wants to

16:54
change my benefits

16:55
i can take them to court absolutely

16:57
without a doubt

16:58
if social security wants to raise my

17:02
medicare premiums

17:04
okay i'm screwed so that

17:07
i believe in the then and there there

17:09
have been proposals in the past where

17:11
they wanted

17:12
to means test it okay uh

17:15
and now they're talking about a wealth

17:18
tax

17:19
and other things so i'm telling

17:23
my readers that yes you should plan for

17:25
social security in some form

17:28
but when you're running the numbers it's

17:31
not a solid

17:32
number i've learned that the hard way

17:34
yeah and i think that

17:35
um and people say well i doubt if

17:36
they're going to mess with social

17:37
security because

17:38
you know those people vote and that's a

17:40
voting block you know with 10 000

17:42
baby boomers reaching the age of 65

17:44
every single day some of them retired

17:46
some some of them not retired but all of

17:48
them thinking about retirement right

17:50
yeah you know that's a voting block they

17:52
want to mess with but i do think they

17:53
will mess with what they perceive

17:56
the politicians perceive and define as

17:58
rich

17:59
and unfortunately a lot of our listeners

18:01
and viewers are probably going to fall

18:03
into the rich category and they don't

18:04
even know they're rich i mean they've

18:05
just penny

18:06
pitched and saved and worked hard and

18:08
done without and done the right thing

18:11
my fear is they're going to punish that

18:13
if they're not already doing that

18:14
they're going to punish it even more

18:16
because politicians in my opinion look

18:18
at everything as a

18:20
voting bloc and rich people are a small

18:22
voting bloc

18:23
in my opinion that's that's where i

18:25
think it's it's going to

18:27
is going to go let me pivot and get your

18:29
opinion

18:30
on the markets right now now

18:33
we're in raising bull market territory

18:35
there are things that are out there like

18:36
bitcoin and

18:38
and cryptocurrency and blockchain

18:40
strategies i did a podcast on that

18:41
recently with an expert in that

18:43
um but these are these are weird times

18:46
even you can admit that having watched

18:48
this for decades and decades and decades

18:50
what are you telling your your readers

18:54
about current market environment and

18:56
valuations at this point

18:58
don't they seem high yes they are i

19:01
stand i want to address one

19:02
real quick point about you and the

19:04
government definition of rich

19:06
they have a history of doing that uh

19:08
when bill clinton passed

19:10
what was the biggest tax increase in the

19:12
history of man

19:14
uh it was to tax the rich and i took an

19:17
article out of the wall street journal

19:18
and sent it to my children

19:20
when you looked at the tax rates while

19:23
they were blaring

19:24
it as rich the wall street journal

19:26
looked into it

19:27
and rich was defined and this is back in

19:29
the clinton years

19:30
as a married couple with combined gross

19:33
income of 75 000

19:35
or more i sent that to my children i

19:38
said they're not going after dad they're

19:40
going after you

19:41
with kids and mortgage payments so that

19:44
you have the rhetoric

19:46
versus the reality of the rates and what

19:48
we're gonna see is the rhetoric

19:50
but then when you start looking at the

19:52
rates it comes out something different

19:54
now

19:54
onto the market yeah you know for 10

19:57
years

19:58
we've been sitting there you know they

20:00
were going to have one bailout to end

20:02
all bailouts in 2008.

20:04
right now we've had we've had two of

20:06
them in the last 12 months and the third

20:07
one

20:08
going so all of this has been pumping up

20:11
the stock market

20:12
so a lot of pundits myself included are

20:16
saying this cannot go on forever

20:18
i mean look at history the problem is

20:22
investors don't have any place place

20:24
else to go

20:25
like they used to it used to be that if

20:29
the stock market got high

20:30
you'd go to bonds and cds right okay

20:33
that's off the table now yes annuities

20:36
can certainly help

20:38
so that the real issue is when you

20:40
diversify and put together

20:42
together a portfolio you hedge your bets

20:46
you have some preferred stocks you're

20:48
looking for dividend

20:50
income stocks as opposed to those

20:53
that are up 200 this year but you want

20:55
them to go up 200

20:57
next year so i'm not investing

21:00
for appreciation whatever i get as a

21:03
bonus

21:04
i want to buy stocks and solid companies

21:07
that are sending me dividends every

21:10
quarter

21:11
that aren't likely to fold if

21:14
the business turns down uh and i've got

21:17
some preferred stocks that i've i've

21:19
been in

21:20
that i'm very comfortable with but again

21:24
you don't put all your eggs in one

21:25
basket because if you do

21:27
you're taking huge risk let me get your

21:29
opinion on this and i don't know if a

21:31
lot of our readers and listeners

21:33
our readers your readers my listeners

21:35
and viewers

21:36
uh understand this but i read an article

21:38
recently that

21:39
over 85 of all trades in the market

21:42
are non-human they're algorithmic black

21:45
box high velocity

21:46
trades computers fighting against

21:48
computers 24 7

21:50
365 and us peons get to go in and play

21:52
from 9 30 to 4.

21:54
sure um the next downturn and me and you

21:57
have been around long enough to see

21:59
multiple downturns i mean i always tell

22:00
people there's a lot of advisors out

22:02
there that i have cowboy boots older

22:03
than that

22:04
than they are and they've never seen any

22:06
they've never seen anything go down

22:08
so everything is a dart throw for them

22:11
how do you think on the next

22:13
hiccup downturn event

22:16
have you given thought to just the fact

22:18
that it's not traders on the floor

22:20
anymore it's

22:21
it's 85 is computer-driven algorithmic

22:24
how is that going to play out well it's

22:27
interesting you say that because i i

22:29
read some stuff recently and i i'm

22:30
thinking i wrote a little bit about it

22:32
and that you know they have

22:34
theoretically

22:35
the plunge protection team so that

22:38
the downward thing spiral starts and it

22:42
goes

22:43
like straight down theoretically that

22:46
they have

22:46
stops that they can put in uh to stop

22:50
the computer trading

22:51
and i read a couple of pundits lately

22:53
that says

22:55
it's going to overwhelm the plunge

22:56
protection team i mean eventually

22:58
they're going to have to open that

23:00
market back up correct

23:01
so i'm you know and that's part of the

23:05
problem you know

23:06
i'm a believer in stop losses on certain

23:08
stocks

23:09
it'll blow through those stop losses you

23:11
and i well the problem is going to be

23:13
when the market shuts down

23:15
you may not have hit your stop loss

23:17
right when it opens up the next day

23:19
you're 100 bucks below your stop loss

23:22
and

23:23
now what are you gonna do in other words

23:24
it will do just what you said it'll blow

23:26
right through that stoplight

23:27
and what's what's interesting about the

23:29
whole thing is you know we

23:31
in 2008 we all had the comments from

23:33
people that said well

23:34
yeah i'm never going to forget this this

23:36
left a scar stand i'm never going to

23:38
forget this

23:38
we're back we're back once again at

23:41
all-time highs and i don't even think

23:43
the

23:43
the true leverage of some of the

23:45
derivatives and some of the the

23:47
the alternative products out there

23:49
that's happening i don't even think

23:51
that can be calculated i've read i've

23:54
read numbers that are just

23:55
astronomical and so high you can't even

23:57
get your arms around like

23:58
60 trillion or some nonsense like that

24:01
don't quote me on it

24:02
but i've heard that and then the other

24:03
thing that that i think is interesting

24:05
i'd like to

24:06
like your comment on family offices have

24:09
kind of taken the place of hedge funds

24:11
and the reason family offices have taken

24:13
the place of hedge funds is family

24:15
offices

24:15
as of the time of this taping they don't

24:17
have to follow the regulations

24:19
procedures and and withhold

24:21
and um and in being transparent on their

24:23
holdings

24:24
like a hedge fund or a brokerage firm

24:26
has to so now

24:27
all of the talent or whatever or the

24:30
speculators are in

24:32
family offices the the guy from archigos

24:34
that just lost 20 billion dollars

24:36
in two days that was a family office

24:39
what's your thought on that and and have

24:42
you alerted your readers to

24:45
what's happening differently this time

24:48
yeah i have but but stan i have to go

24:51
back to day one

24:53
once you get retired you're not buying

24:56
stock that's on margin you're not going

24:58
into hedge funds no now stop for a

25:00
second you're assuming that

25:02
you're assuming and hoping that that's

25:04
you're right but you and i both know

25:07
that greed is overpowering and there's a

25:09
lot of people that are

25:10
long and doing more and and exposing

25:13
themselves to more risk in these markets

25:15
because it's that fomo fear of missing

25:17
out you call it romeo

25:19
i have fomo so yeah in a perfect

25:22
like you can talk about the perfect

25:24
world of this is what people should be

25:26
doing

25:27
but how do you convince your readers

25:28
that aren't doing that to

25:31
start taking some risk off the table

25:33
well i think my biggest problem with my

25:35
readers is

25:37
once you retire your mindset changes

25:40
you've lost your primary source of

25:42
income from your job

25:44
so now you go to oh my gosh i can't lose

25:46
this nest tag it's got to last forever

25:49
here's where my readers are vulnerable

25:52
they go to their local stock broker and

25:55
the stock broker has this fancy title uh

25:58
senior

25:59
investment welfare architect how about

26:01
that yeah yeah

26:02
yeah exactly exactly okay uh

26:05
and you know we asked him what his last

26:07
job was was he sold used cars

26:10
and but the point is they say oh no we

26:12
will take

26:14
and give us the amount of money you want

26:16
you tell us your

26:17
your goals we're going to run it through

26:20
our computer

26:21
and we will give you a safe diversified

26:24
portfolio

26:25
now there's two fallacies for that

26:27
number one is

26:29
the purpose of the computer program is

26:31
to take the

26:33
investors money and shove it into as

26:36
many fee based products as they can

26:38
okay which is not in the clients best

26:41
interest but here's the second problem

26:44
when they start going into these mutual

26:46
funds

26:47
you've got to really read the fine print

26:50
that says are these funds leveraged

26:53
so that my audience is getting that

26:56
exposure

26:58
to high leverage high risk in mutual

27:01
funds

27:01
without even being aware of it so i'm

27:04
telling my readers

27:06
you better dog unsure know what that

27:08
fund is in

27:09
agreed or take the top three or four

27:11
stocks and buy them individually

27:13
because they're having a risk they don't

27:16
know about

27:17
well and here's another thing i tell

27:18
people because my previous life at

27:19
morgan stanley ubs payne weber indeed

27:21
winner

27:22
i do know my way around the bond world

27:24
pretty well sure but when people

27:25
are are buying mutual fund bonds or

27:27
closed in bond funds

27:29
you have to be very careful how much

27:31
they're leveraged because a lot of those

27:33
for instance closed

27:34
closed in bond funds are leveraged now i

27:36
don't give investment advice

27:37
i'm a fixed annuity person only but i

27:39
have a background in that to know

27:41
that when peop people are just buying

27:43
the surface same thing with annuities i

27:45
always tell people there's no urgency to

27:46
buy is the urgency is to understand

27:48
what you're buying and i think the

27:50
that's the same thing with people

27:52
um right now looking for the right

27:55
investments

27:56
another thing i wanted to ask you and

27:57
get your take on any time that we're in

28:00
a

28:00
low perceived low interest rate

28:02
environment i think we all can say

28:04
it might not be low compared to everyone

28:06
else in the in the world but it feels

28:08
pretty darn low

28:10
and it is um that when that happens

28:14
you know the the two good to be true

28:16
products and the two good to be true

28:17
pitches start coming out

28:19
what do you tell your readers about you

28:21
know when they when they contact you and

28:22
say well listen this

28:24
this investment um this guy says six

28:26
percent or twelve percent in fact

28:28
i i'll i'll finish with this and then i

28:30
want to hear your your answer

28:32
there was just a ponzi scheme run out of

28:35
uh hollywood california

28:36
from a from an actor that was promising

28:39
20

28:40
returns by taking supposedly movies and

28:44
selling them to netflix whatever the

28:45
story was

28:47
what do you tell your listeners about

28:48
that because everybody wants it to be

28:49
true don't they

28:51
yeah yeah they do and you know stan this

28:53
one you might want to comment on but i

28:54
got into it on facebook recently

28:57
some somebody posted on facebook about

29:00
an annuity that's guaranteeing you i

29:03
don't think it was double digits it was

29:04
eight or nine percent on your money

29:06
and it can't let me explain that real

29:08
quick well that was my that was what i

29:10
said

29:11
what that is and what that that's a

29:13
semantic word game sales pitch by by

29:15
some sociopath

29:16
um and unfortunately the annuity

29:18
industry has a few um

29:20
anytime you see anything like five six

29:22
or seven percent in the annuity world

29:23
that's what's called an income writer

29:25
it's it's an attachment to an index or

29:27
variable annuity that's a monopoly money

29:29
and a phantom account and not real money

29:30
and you can't cash it in

29:32
and you can't peel off the interest you

29:33
can only use that

29:35
lovely jimmy carter type growth to fact

29:37
to to

29:38
turn on a lifetime income stream so

29:40
someone i get calls every day

29:41
hey stan is about eight percent annuity

29:43
no you didn't and if they argue with me

29:45
well then call then call the annuity

29:46
company and cash it in but yeah

29:49
the person that they're just playing

29:51
word games with people and i think

29:52
people just need to be smart

29:54
out there you don't want to be the rube

29:55
at the table and if you're asking

29:56
yourself in vegas who the rube at the

29:58
table is as i always say

29:59
it's you and you don't want to be that

30:02
so

30:02
go forward with that and the and the

30:04
fraud i saw one last night literally

30:08
where somebody was talking about a

30:12
fund that is paying 33

30:15
yield so i go into my schwab account and

30:18
by golly it is paying 33 yield

30:22
they're in the metals market playing

30:25
options

30:28
okay that's not guaranteed by the way

30:30
for anyone no

30:31
no that's not guaranteed nor nor is it

30:34
guaranteed even from month to month but

30:36
you see stan this goes back to the

30:38
mindset and

30:39
realize now how many in the population

30:42
are baby boomers

30:43
we've got to go back to the fundamental

30:46
premise

30:47
that once your primary source of working

30:51
income has stopped

30:53
you can't take those kinds of risks that

30:56
you did

30:57
when if you screwed up you could make it

30:58
back by working another five years or

31:01
ten years

31:01
i've seen too many of my romeo buddies

31:04
downsize

31:05
i've seen too many of my romeo buddies

31:07
go back to work

31:09
okay and the fact remains is

31:13
you can't take any kind of those unusual

31:17
risks

31:17
if it sounds too good to be true you're

31:20
probably better off continuing to do

31:22
your research because

31:24
the question i ask is you put ten

31:27
thousand bucks in it

31:28
and you lose seven of it can you afford

31:30
it well and i also tell people this and

31:32
i think that um

31:33
your readers will will get a kick out of

31:35
this when they when they listen to this

31:36
review this

31:37
i always tell people the only true

31:39
protection you have from a sales pitch

31:40
is to write down

31:42
exactly how you heard the sales pitch

31:44
how you believe the product's going to

31:46
perform

31:46
in detail in the in the way that you

31:48
understand it

31:50
and then it'd be very detailed at the

31:51
end sign in data and then have that

31:53
agent advisor wealth architect master of

31:55
the universe

31:56
sign and date it as well what you will

31:58
find is either that

32:00
pin weighs a thousand pounds and if they

32:02
do sign it then they own it

32:04
otherwise you it's it's your word

32:06
against theirs but if it's going to be

32:07
your word against theirs

32:09
have it in writing and i call that my my

32:12
in my world my annuity statement

32:13
statement

32:14
of understanding but it really is an

32:16
investor statement of understanding

32:18
um so if you're using an advisor or a

32:20
master of the universe retire

32:22
you know ria or someone's managed your

32:23
money and they pitch you something

32:25
that's too good to be true

32:27
you know use that as a way to protect

32:29
yourself and always tell people but

32:30
don't trust

32:31
anyone trust the contract trust the

32:34
actual

32:34
facts um and that's hard for people to

32:37
do because they want

32:39
they want a golfing buddy they want

32:40
their friend advisors

32:42
should not be your friend financial

32:44
experts

32:45
should not be your friend we are heart

32:48
surgeons or cancer surgeons where

32:50
we got to shoot it straight because it's

32:51
your money and it's your retirement

32:53
money

32:55
so what are people doing here dennis

32:56
from the standpoint of

32:58
are are your readers kind of scared of

33:01
the markets at these at these levels

33:03
what are they saying at this point my

33:06
readers

33:07
are asking for help let's start with

33:10
what do you want

33:11
we want we want to be able to pay our

33:12
bills we want to know we can pay our

33:15
bills

33:15
for the duration right we want to be

33:18
able to sleep at night

33:19
and yeah we'd like to be able to leave

33:22
something to the next generation

33:24
okay so when you take fixed income off

33:28
the table

33:30
what my readers are asking for is help

33:33
okay how do i navigate this minefield

33:37
and i want to throw something in about

33:39
minefield i read something in the

33:40
charlotte observer recently

33:42
that said we normally get a major tax

33:46
change or bill every 10 years

33:49
right we now had three in the last two

33:51
years

33:52
and may have multiple bills coming this

33:54
year

33:55
so that my readers are not only

33:57
experiencing change

33:58
but it's just like how many bailouts

34:00
have we had in the last two years

34:02
the rate of change is accelerating

34:06
and so what they're asking for is

34:09
the goal hasn't changed i'm not working

34:12
anymore i've got to be able to pay the

34:14
bills

34:15
how can i navigate this minefield safely

34:19
and balance this whole thing so that i

34:22
can enjoy what's left of my retirement

34:26
and that's that problem's not going away

34:28
not going to hold you to this but

34:30
do you think interest rates will move

34:32
significantly up

34:34
significantly down or stay kind of in

34:36
the same range

34:37
in the near term one or two years i

34:40
won't hold you to it

34:41
this isn't investment advice this is me

34:43
and dennis talking what do you think

34:45
i i think it's inevitable that our

34:48
government will do two things they will

34:50
go to zero interest rates

34:54
then when they go to zero interest rates

34:56
we're going to find

34:58
digital currency and then once they have

35:01
digital currency

35:03
uh you know because you go to zero

35:04
interest rates or worse

35:06
negative people start hiding their cash

35:08
under the mattress okay

35:11
and the government will not want

35:13
competition

35:15
so you know if you're investing in

35:17
bitcoin

35:18
you better understand that i personally

35:20
this is opinion i'm sure

35:22
not as an advisor i personally think

35:25
that

35:26
governments throughout the world within

35:28
10 years

35:29
are probably going to outline all kinds

35:32
of digital currency

35:34
uh and we're going to see i mean

35:35
negative interest do you realize

35:37
like half the bonds in europe now are

35:39
negative interest rates

35:41
it's crazy yeah people ask me all the

35:43
time how low can it go and i'm like

35:44
zero or negative and here's the

35:47
interesting part about where we are

35:49
at a country as a country right now we

35:51
printed all these trillions and

35:52
trillions and trillions and trillions of

35:54
dollars

35:55
so the the government is not motivated

35:58
to raise interest rates on themselves

36:00
it'd be like me and you raising our

36:01
mortgage rate

36:02
just because we want to if we don't want

36:04
i mean we don't want to do that they

36:06
don't want to do that so there's no

36:08
incentive for them to raise interest

36:10
rates they painted themselves into a

36:11
corner

36:12
and if i'm up there i'm probably

36:14
bullying the fed to go low just so that

36:15
my interest payments aren't as high

36:18
that that dog won't hunt long term as

36:20
they say in the south

36:22
but um where do i mean what's the

36:26
government going to do right now and

36:28
except just raise taxes and and and try

36:31
any type of legal confiscation of

36:34
people's money what are they doing we've

36:36
covered those two the other one is

36:38
uh historically governments have tried

36:42
to inflate their way out of debt

36:45
so that they're paying their obligations

36:47
with cheaper dollars

36:48
right and they made a major change

36:50
remember the fed said they were

36:51
targeting two percent

36:53
yes now they change it they say well we

36:55
want it to

36:56
average two percent but they don't tell

36:58
you how they're going to keep score

36:59
they don't tell you how long over a

37:01
period of time yeah so

37:03
if we get five or six or jimmy carter

37:05
type inflation well yeah but we're

37:07
averaging it

37:08
so that the reality is you know

37:11
let's go back to what you started we

37:13
have 28 trillion dollars now i think we

37:15
just hit for our national debt

37:17
and that's not the unfunded obligations

37:19
like social security correct

37:21
figure one percent of 28 trillion

37:24
dollars

37:25
if if our interest rates went from the

37:28
one percent today back to the six

37:30
percent

37:31
the federal budget would double because

37:33
the interest rates

37:35
would be so high the federal government

37:37
isn't going to do that

37:40
so we just have to learn to live with it

37:42
and work around it

37:44
and you know americans are ingenious

37:46
people

37:47
the the class that you're dealing with

37:50
and my readers

37:51
they're looking for help to try to

37:53
figure out how to do it

37:54
right and and they will but a lot of

37:57
people that don't are going to get hurt

38:00
yeah and that's my fear is that people

38:02
are are

38:04
too long in the markets they have long

38:06
positions or there's too much risk

38:08
or they're leveraged a lot of people are

38:09
using leverage and margin and they

38:11
really don't understand it

38:13
um you know it just seems like it's the

38:15
thing to do and it is in a raging bull

38:17
market so i

38:18
you know i'm working with the same

38:20
people that are your readers which are

38:22
people that are either thinking about

38:23
retirement or already retired and trying

38:25
to figure out how to

38:26
navigate through these really what i

38:28
call blue water we've never seen

38:30
this there's no tick data that we can go

38:33
back and say well the last time we

38:35
printed and whereas

38:36
we're 28 trillion in debt this is what

38:38
happened or the last time

38:40
that all the markets globally were

38:42
interconnected this is what happened or

38:44
the last time

38:45
that we're going to cryptocurrency etc

38:48
this is what happened and getting

38:49
getting back to the cryptocurrency i

38:51
think that governments are going to

38:52
embrace cryptocurrency because it's

38:53
going to be the most efficient way

38:55
to collect taxes and not no one's going

38:57
to be able to hide the money

38:59
because the blockchain technology

39:03
they're going to embrace it and um i

39:05
just saw today at the time of this

39:06
taping the first

39:07
i think cryptocurrency is going public

39:09
um

39:10
and so we're going to see some things

39:11
happen who knows if bitcoin's gonna be

39:14
the winner

39:14
it's gonna would you agree with this

39:16
statement and let me let me ask you this

39:19
at the end of the day i cannot see

39:23
uh any any form or fashion that the

39:25
government

39:26
and the top five banks in this country

39:27
aren't are not going to control or at

39:29
least be a huge part of cryptocurrency

39:32
what's your opinion on that my opinion

39:34
is you're right

39:35
but i want to i want to add a caveat

39:38
the fed chairman recently said that the

39:41
federal reserve

39:42
is looking into a cryptocurrency right

39:44
now we're in a world cryptocurrency race

39:47
with china

39:48
okay so that while you i agree with you

39:52
on cryptocurrency it will be

39:54
government controlled cryptocurrency i

39:57
agree with eliminating

39:58
but even then they're talking now and i

40:01
recently wrote an article about it

40:04
that it it may have an expiration date

40:07
so you have a cryptocurrency balance in

40:09
your account

40:10
it's going to go down which is basically

40:13
negative interest rates

40:14
encouraging you to spend wow

40:18
and the fact is that the government's

40:20
going to know every time you spend

40:22
where you spend it punish their

40:24
political uh

40:25
enemies and reward their political

40:27
friends so yeah

40:29
i'm with you on cryptocurrency i just

40:31
don't think it's going to be independent

40:33
from the government

40:34
i don't either and i always tell people

40:35
you know bitcoin may or may not be the

40:37
winner

40:38
but remember when the internet first got

40:40
going a long time ago you had places

40:42
like myspace

40:43
aol.com and they were not the winners so

40:46
just because you're first to the party

40:48
doesn't mean that there you know it's

40:50
going you're going to be the winner and

40:51
in this case

40:52
it might be bitcoin might not um but i

40:54
do

40:55
truly believe that the the government's

40:57
government's plural

40:58
all over the country but let's just talk

41:00
about ours they are going to be involved

41:02
they're going to be integrally involved

41:04
and the five big banks are going to be

41:05
involved

41:06
um and and just people get used to it

41:10
it's getting ready to happen and that's

41:12
one of the things that

41:13
um five years from now i think

41:14
cryptocurrency in whatever reform it

41:17
ends up being

41:18
is going to be the norm dollar bills i

41:20
mean there's some times

41:21
i go out and i'm travel all the time and

41:24
i try to pay for things with cash and

41:25
they don't accept

41:27
cash do you think cash is going away

41:30
they

41:30
that's eventually uh i think they're

41:32
going to outlaw cash

41:34
because that becomes competition to

41:36
their government digital currency

41:38
right but what's sad to me is i wrote an

41:41
article about it where the chinese are

41:43
testing their cryptocurrency

41:45
and some of them they gave certain

41:47
citizens the amount of cryptocurrency to

41:48
spend the interview

41:50
and one of them said well i don't care

41:54
if the government knows

41:55
where i spend every dime you know i'm

41:58
willing to give up

41:59
a little bit of my sovereignty for

42:01
convenience

42:03
and my answer if that's a little bit of

42:05
sovereignty what's a lot

42:07
that's that's a slippery slope

42:09
definition i've ever heard

42:10
oh absolutely and that's that's part of

42:13
the concern

42:14
it will end up giving the government

42:17
through the banks the banks are going to

42:19
be the enabler just like

42:20
the banks now are enabling the deficit

42:22
spending through the fed

42:24
okay and the banks are going to be the

42:27
enabler but that's going to enable them

42:30
to control

42:31
every facet of people's lives

42:35
and you know i tell my readers those are

42:38
things at this point we don't have any

42:39
control over

42:40
what we have is control over where we

42:42
invest our nest egg

42:44
okay because i also believe something

42:46
else happened i have friends that live

42:47
in argentina

42:48
and argentina has been through this

42:50
thing a half a dozen times

42:52
sure and eventually the sid assistant

42:55
citizens rather develop a system of

42:59
barter to replace the currency that

43:02
becomes outlawed

43:03
so we'll figure it out yeah we always do

43:07
but it ain't going to be pretty stan i

43:09
think no no it's the sausage being made

43:12
it's going to be it's going to be ugly

43:14
big brother

43:15
big brother some final thoughts as we

43:17
kind of wrap it up

43:18
um where do you well you know kobe has

43:21
been a weird one you know and it's

43:23
continuing to be a weird one um

43:27
what's your outlook right here from the

43:28
standpoint of just um

43:30
the country the markets and where we're

43:32
at

43:34
i think covet has certainly had

43:37
a major impact on shutting down our

43:40
economy

43:41
i did an interview yesterday with a very

43:44
well-known

43:45
economist who has a newsletter and

43:49
forgetting the health side he made some

43:52
interesting predictions i hadn't thought

43:53
of

43:54
in that covet basically shut down

43:58
the imported goods okay

44:02
so that'll enable the u.s manufacturers

44:05
to pick up market share and

44:07
raise their prices in the process and

44:10
his contention is when the covid

44:13
restrictions come off

44:15
our porch are already starting to see

44:17
and being flooded with import

44:19
so now we're going to have a market

44:22
challenge where they're fighting over

44:25
market share

44:26
and his contention is that

44:30
that's going to delay inflation

44:34
where prices are going through the roof

44:36
because

44:37
the import of the foreign cheaper goods

44:40
and the u.s manufacturers not wanting to

44:43
lose share

44:44
but eventually you know we're going to

44:47
come back and a lot of those people that

44:50
lost their jobs during covet that's one

44:52
of the things this economist said

44:55
companies are looking for ways to

44:57
offshore jobs again

44:59
and they are looking for automation so i

45:01
think the long-term impact of the cobalt

45:04
is going to be more than just health

45:06
we're going to have a lot of people

45:08
in the workforce that are going to be

45:11
the victims of that when it comes to the

45:13
job market now that may not be where you

45:14
wanted me to go but i thought he made it

45:17
think that i hadn't thought of it you

45:18
know i think that's fantastic i do

45:20
once again i do encourage people to go

45:22
to uh miller

45:23
on the money all all one no spaces

45:27
milleronthemoney.com and sign up for

45:30
dennis's free

45:31
and i repeat free newsletter and he's

45:34
got all kinds of

45:35
offers and downloads and charts and i

45:37
mean it's a it's a

45:39
it's a no-brainer you go there and one

45:41
of the reasons i wanted him to be on is

45:43
just

45:43
for my listeners and viewers to to get

45:45
to know dennis if you didn't already

45:47
know him

45:48
he's well known and well respected in

45:49
the industry because he's a straight

45:51
shooter and he really does have

45:53
compassion and empathy

45:54
for the retiree out there or the person

45:56
struggling to figure it out

45:58
and try to filter out all the noise this

46:00
isn't the last time we'll have dennis on

46:02
but

46:03
hey dennis i really appreciate you being

46:05
on fun with annuities

46:07
and i hope to have you back soon well

46:10
thanks

46:10
for inviting me you know there's a whole

46:14
millions and millions of baby boomers

46:15
out there and they played by the rules

46:17
they worked hard they did it right

46:19
they saved their money they deserve a

46:21
better shake and

46:22
you know you and i and a lot of folks

46:25
are trying to

46:26
help make sure that at least we can as

46:28
you said navigate the blue waters

46:30
abs absolutely well said listen

46:32
everybody listeners and podcast uh

46:34
uh people viewing it on fun with

46:36
annuities youtube channel and the

46:37
podcast listeners thanks for joining us

46:39
we'll see you next week on fun with

46:42
annuities

46:48
thanks for listening to fun with

46:49
annuities please hit the subscribe

46:51
button and make sure to go to my site

46:54
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46:57
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47:02
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47:07
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47:09
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47:11
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47:13
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47:15
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47:18
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47:20
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47:21
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47:24
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47:24
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47:28
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47:30
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47:32
so join me next time for the number one

47:34
annuity podcast on the planet fun with

47:41
[Music]

47:50
annuities

47:52
you