Welcome to How to Retire on Time, a show that answers your questions about all things retirement, including income, taxes, Social Security, health care, and more. This show is an extension of the book, How to retire on time, which you can grab today on Amazon or by going to www.how to retire on time.com. My name is Mike Decker. I'm the author of the book, how to retire on time, but I'm also a licensed financial adviser, insurance agent, and tax professional, which means when it comes to financial topics, we can pretty much talk about it all. Now that said, please remember this is just a show.

Everything you hear should be considered informational as in not financial advice. If you want personalized financial advice, then request your wealth analysis from my team today by going to www.yourwealthanalysis.com. With me in the studio today is my esteemed colleague, co host, friend, and mister David Frandsen. David, thank you for joining me today.

Hello. Hello.

Alright. David's gonna be reading your questions, and I'm gonna do my best to answer them. You can send your questions in right now to 913-363-1234. Again, that's 913-363-1234, or email them in at hey mike at how to retire on time.com. Let's begin.

Hey, Mike. With interest rates going down and savings, CDs, and bonds going down with it, where should I go for protection with better growth potential?

This is a tough one. Because when interest rates go up or down, it's a rising tide. It affects everything in almost real time. Let me answer it this way. There's no such thing as a perfect investment product or strategy.

And so if you're trying to live off of CDs now, when rates go down and your CDs mature, you could end up with matured CDs and cash in a worse environment and have to live with it. So people that try to live off of CDs as a dividend strategy, when their CDs renew after a year or 2, whatever it is, it's very difficult to move from living off of 5% of your assets to 2% of your assets. Because the dividend, the interest, more specifically with CDs, is just less. So on the risk to reward standpoint, here is my my order on assets that offer protection with more or less growth. So as interest rates are going down, the first part of the category is the ones that will be affected the most.

The end of the category has more growth potential even during lower interest rate environments. High yield savings will be effective first. Right? It's great to have liquid protected assets, but they will go down the first.

CDs are the next. They're maybe good for up to a year. But if you if you need long term growth or longer term growth, more than a year, it may not be best for you. Bonds, specifically treasuries or credible corporate bonds or municipal bonds that aren't going bankrupt, maybe good for up to 5 years or so.

And I know people are gonna argue, well, there's 10 year bonds. There's 30 year bonds. I get that. But all things being even, bonds are, I think, only competitive up to 5 years. So if you need growth in a part of your portfolio longer than 5 years, it may not be worth it.

Then you've got fixed annuities. So if you're 59 a half or older, fixed annuities could be a good CD alternative. I find that they pay a little bit more, as of what I'm seeing right now, than a CD for a longer period of time. And that might be good up to 7 years. Maybe.

But this is also a changing environment. But notice the order. High yield savings is the lowest growth potential overall long term than CDs, than bonds, than fixed annuities. I do believe and this is not just anecdotal. This is also based on my research that I've done.

That if you choose the right fixed index annuities, I do believe based on what I've seen that in research that they have more growth potential over the long term, so 7 years or plus or 5 years or plus, then CDs, bonds, or fixed annuities. But you gotta look for the right one. There are so many annuities out there, so many fixed index annuities specifically, that just are not competitive. And people say, well, annuities stink. Well, if you bought a CD in today's rates at 0.1% and say all CDs stink, you just didn't do your research. Sorry. Or you worked with someone who wasn't doing their research. And I wouldn't even blame you for not doing your research. Aren't you supposed to work with a financial professional that's supposed to do their research?

Yeah. Oh, anyway. And then if you're young enough and you can fund a cash value life insurance, typically in the index universal life category has more cash value growth potential based on what I've seen than any of the other categories, but it takes years to fund. The fees are heavy at the very beginning. It's a long term play to even consider that.

That's my opinion of it. Be very careful of your own research. And I'm not saying that you're dumb. You're not. K?

There's just a lot of false positives out there. So for example, I, a dear friend of mine recently shared this site called blueprint income. Blueprint income. It's allegedly a neutral site that you can put in what you want and shop annuities. Kinda like bank rate for CDs.

Okay. K. I'm intrigued.

Well, annuities are much more complicated than CDs. Yeah. K? That's the first red flag. The second one is when I did a little bit of digging, this site is owned by an insurance company.

It's a front. And even though they offer other insurance products from other companies, so there is a genuine comparison, the insurance companies or the fixed index notice that I have found are doing a reasonable job from a cash growth standpoint were never mentioned on this site. So you you do your own research, but how can you say yes or no to something you don't even know exists? I mean, it is just ridiculous. It gives you this false sense of hope that you're empowered and you can make your own decision, but it preselects what they already want to sell you.

And you have no idea. Be careful out there if you're a DIY investor looking to do your own due diligence. Just because I said it, doesn't mean you're gonna find the thing that I'm referring to. And it's an ever changing environment. So proceed with caution.

And if you want to pick our brains and understand really what's out there, text analysis right now to 913-363-1234. That's keyword analysis. To 913-363-1234, or go to www.yourwealthanalysis.com. We are happy to share our research. We are happy to show you what we have found, and then you go do your own due diligence.

We want to empower you to understand what's out there, to understand what's going on so you can make an informed decision. You can't say yes to things you don't know exist. You can't answer questions you don't know to ask. Your wealth analysis, we've been told many times, has offered more context and clarity than many financial plans after completed. And that's just our analysis.

K? Yes. We're bragging a little bit about it because we're proud of it. Because I got tired after years years of the sales pitch crap that manipulates people into buying a predetermined product that people wanna sell you. I frankly don't care what you end up with as long as it's in your best interest, and it makes sense, and it supports your lifestyle and legacy intentions in coordination with the risks that you're willing to take.

If you want to keep all of your assets in the market, great. Let's just stress test it and then run a few scenarios and then have a conversation of are you okay with that risk or not? If you want to put all your assets. No. Actually, never do this. I was gonna say, if you want to put

all your assets inuity, go for it. No. Just don't do that. Please don't do that. I've seen people do that.

That's a red flag. That's not suitable. There are hard extremes that are always wrong. That would be one of them. Balance in all things.

When you hear absolutes, that's a red flag. When you hear anything alleged as a perfect investment, that's a red flag. It's wrong. It's imperative to understand the benefits and detriments of the decisions that you're making before you move forward. And if you don't understand it, doesn't mean it's wrong.

It means you pump the brakes, slow down, and continue to learn. Mhmm. This is a what is right conversation, not a quick fix conversation. Text analysis to 913-363-1234. I will do everything I can to make sure it's worth your time.

That's all the time we've got for the show today. If you enjoyed the show, consider subscribing to it wherever you get your podcast. Just search for how to retire on time. Discover if your portfolio is built to weather flat market cycles or if you're missing tax minimization opportunities that you may not even know exist. Explore strategies that may be able to help you lower your overall risk while potentially increasing your overall growth and lifestyle flexibility.

This is not your ordinary financial analysis. Learn more about Your Wealth Analysis and what it could do for you regardless of your age, asset, or target retirement date. Go to www.yourwealthanalysis.com today to learn more and get started.