Would More Money Really Change Your Life? Shootin' It Straight With Stan®

Today's topic is a good one, and it will make you think. Will more money change your life? I want you to think about that for a second. Would more money change your life? Would you buy a different car? Would you buy different clothes? Would you eat out more? Would it change your overall lifestyle? And this came up as a topic because I get a lot of people that'll call me, and they saw a video that I'd done recently called, If You've Won the Game, Why Are You Still Playing? Which is, in essence, saying, okay, why are you still chasing the markets? Why are you still going after the growth? Why are you still doing that? Is it because someone told you? Is it because you saw on television or read something that you have to have money in the markets?

Why is that? Why do you keep doing that? Which dovetails into this topic, will more money change your life? I was speaking to a gentleman and his lovely wife the other day, and they had a lot of money. Let's say they had a million dollars, just from a conversation standpoint, and I said to them, "if you had 1,500,000, would it change your life?" Or let's say they had two million, "would three million change your life? Would you change how you go about life? Would you move into a house different from the one you're in? Would it change your life?" And every single time I've asked somebody that question, every single time, the answer is, "well, no, not really, because we like our lifestyle, and we like where we live, and our house is paid off, and we just don't have a lot of bills, and we live within our means."

Hire an Advisor That Grew up Poor

And most rich people if you've read the book Millionaire Next Door; it talks about most very wealthy people did not grow up with the silver spoon in their mouth; I can relate to that; I grew up in rural North Carolina and didn't have any money, and the reason I'm in the financial business is that I wanted to find out why everybody had money, and we didn't.

And by the way, if you're looking for a financial advisor, choose one that grew up poor because they look at money differently. I had a person today ask, well, they wanted to buy something; they said, "well, this isn't a lot of money,” and they said the amount, and I said, "yeah, it is" where I come from in rural North Carolina that's a lot of money, I don't care how much you've accumulated or what you're worth now, those scars, you still have them where you had one pair of shoes to go to a school. You had a couple of shirts and maybe two pairs of pants, you remember those things. Money, I don't care what the amount is, it's important, it's important to us as my organization, The Annuity Man®, it's important to every single employee of mine, it's important to you. If it's important to you, it's important to us, period, but the question is, would more money change your life? And if the answer is no, why are you risk your money? But I'm telling you something, I'm hitting a nerve out there because people are saying to me, "Stan, that one hit me. When I heard you say you won the game, why are you still playing? It made me think", and I want you to think again if you had more money, would it change your life? No, we're at current interest rate levels; check the time of this taping because, I mean, this is evergreen content, and there'll be people watching this a long time ago and saying, "well, those rates aren't the same,” well, look at the date. At the time of this taping, interest rates with treasuries and CDs, which I don't sell, but love, and then fixed rate annuities, multi-year guarantee annuities are at a level that you never have to touch the principle; you can just take the interest out, in the south, they call it peeling off the interest.

Add It Up

You can peel off the interest, never touch the principal, never pay any fees, and have all your money there. Sound good? Yeah, it does sound good because I always ask people, add up your income floor, what's coming in? Whether you have a pension, if you're so fortunate to work for the government or a good labor union, et cetera, the state, what's your Social Security payments? Okay, that's increasing with inflation; that’s the best inflation annuity on the planet, and let's just say you have CDs, and you have 3% money markets, and you have multi-year guarantee annuities paying a really good rate. You're just taking the interest, you're not touching the principle at all, you're just taking the interest out. So, for instance, if you had 5% interest on a five-year guarantee of $500,000, you're getting $25,000 a year for five consecutive years, and at the end of the five years, you get your $500,000 back. Hello? Sounds good. Adding up all of that, can you live off the interest in combination with Social Security and everything else?

And if you can, then why aren't you doing it? And I know you're a financial advisor and master of the universe and wealth architect, and people on TV and CNBC and Fox Business and all the people that are trying to get you to invest money and listen, they've got good arguments historically, they do, they do historically, but you know what? Historically you've hung in there, historically you've gone with market ups and downs, historically you've ridden the wave; historically, you've lost money, made money, and yes, over time, it seems to work out, and that's fantastic, but again, why are you chasing the yield, when you don't need more money.

Living in a Bubble

This leads me into another point. Let's all be honest out here; we live in a bubble; people watching this video, you're in a bubble. You don't think so? You are. I read a stat the other day, and I think it's accurate, over 60% of adults have less than $400 to their name. What?

I mean, those are people that my heart goes out to because inflation, I mean, it affects them; they’re not you; they don't have lots of money that you're trying to find a place to put it or you're trying to chase the markets. I need you to have a conversation with your significant other and family and come to terms with how much money you really need. Is it three million? Is it two million? Is it 500,000? Is it 200,000? Is it a million? Is it 750,000? Whatever it is. Is that enough? Who are you competing against? Who are you trying to show off to? I'm assuming you don't tell everybody how much money you have, I hope not, and you're secretive about that.

Bitcoin

I read a story today that tripped me out that the majority of Bitcoin owners make less than $10,000 a year. What? That can't be right. I think what they're trying to say, which I think is true, is most people that are in cryptocurrency are not sophisticated investors, they're trying to get rich quickly. The people that are listening to this video aren't get-rich-quick people; they're listening to annuity videos for goodness sakes, with a guy with no last name, Stan The Annuity Man®, because you know I'm going to tell you the truth. Still, the older I get and the more I'm in this business, I've been in it for three decades, and I talk to people every day, and I have clients in all 50 states; I'm no one agent in the country, and I have my ear to the ground.

I keep asking people, "all right, so this is your income floor. Okay, great, we can get there; everything's guaranteed. Why are you chasing? Why is everything volatile? Why are you staying up at night? Why? Do you need more money?" If you do, that's fine, then go get it, but some people say, "well yeah, if I had more money, I'd buy maybe a better car, we'd travel a little bit more,” and then when we go through the numbers again, I go, "well, you can do that now, you still can do that. You don't have to chase ups and downs and volatility and put your principle at risk."

Are You Chasing?

My question to the 11,000 baby boomers hitting age 65 every single day is this, do you have enough money? And if you do, why are you chasing to get more? Is it an addiction? Is it just what you've been taught? Is it what you think is right? Is it because your advisor told you so? Is it because your family or friends say this is what you need to do? What do you need to do? What does your family need to do? What do you and your spouse need to do? You need to go live your life. There are no U-Hauls behind hearses. Life is fleeting.

Retirement Phases

People love when I say there are three phases of retirement; it’s not my ideal, the person on my podcast, go-go, slow go, and no go. If you're in, go-go, go-go, get it. Why are you chasing markets? Why are you chasing volatility? Why are you putting all your hopes and dreams, or a portion of your hopes and dreams, into potential returns, keywords, and potential? The only potential in your life should be the potential for you to live your life on your own terms because you've earned it. The potential is the potential of where you're going to travel and where you're going to eat out; the potential is how many times you're going to see your kids and grandkids, and the potential is doing things for you. You've done without, given the kids everything, scrimped, and saved; the potential of your lifestyle is when you stop chasing returns and start living your life.

Would It Change You?

So once again, would you be happier if you had more money, would you be happier? Would it change your life? Would you do things differently? For most of us grew up lower class, lower middle class, and or middle class, the answer is no. I'll tell you a story with me. My favorite foods on the whole planet, I'd been to the best restaurants for, fortunately my whole life, and I'm a fish out of water there going, "Hey Garson, what you got? What's on the menu?"

I'm a goober when I go out to eat, it's just like what, and my wife's like, "oh my gosh.” I love Waffle House; I love what I call poor food. I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, in that area, rural North Carolina; all my grandparents and that lineage they worked in textile mills; God bless them; hardworking people. I like cheap food; I like the side of the road food; I like cafe food; I don't do well in the boujee. So the question to Stan, The Annuity Man is, "Hey Stan, if you had more money, would your life change? Would you change?" No, I'm going to drive a non-descript car because I don't care about cars; I'm going to wear my sweatsuit and wear my hat and wear my tennis shoes, that's what I'm going to do; I'm going to travel where my wife tells me to travel, we'll go out nice when she wants to go eat out nice, but when I get my choice, we're eating a Waffle House, and we have a barbecue, and we have some down home good cooking.

It's not going to change my life. I'm not going to put my money at risk; why should I? And here's the thing, if you think about it, I say this all the time, investing in the markets is like trying to catch a wave beside a big boat or cruise ship; you’re going to catch away some of the time, but a lot of times you're going to get sucked under the boat. Why do you want to get sucked under the boat?

So if you've won the game, why are you still playing? And to dovetail into that, the next question is, would it change your life if you had more money, would it change your life? Would it change your lifestyle? And if the answer is no, then you need to look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Hey, why am I putting my money at risk when I don't have to anymore?" You don't have to anymore. You can live off the interest, and you can lock in contractual guarantees to get it done, in combination with Social Security, which is the best inflation annuity on the planet; you can go live through life, you can go live your life, and I encourage you to do so. My name is Stan, The Annuity Man, and that was Shootin' It Straight. 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.