Retirement Income Planning - The Insurance Pro Blog

Exotic Investment Schemes are NOT Always Better

Have you ever met someone who has had the next great investment idea? It may be a really good friend, perhaps someone that you see on the cocktail party circuit or in many cases it’s your friendly investment advisor, insurance agent, stock broker, financial planner et. al.

I’m not talking about the guy who always has the inside scoop on the latest stock pick necessarily. No…I’m talking about the guy who in 1991 had the inside track on how to make a fortune in the Russian telecommunications business. Guess what?? You can be a part of it for only $100,000.

As we’re sort of famous for saying, “That’ll work out good for someone….probably not you, but someone’s gonna make a lot of money”

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CNBC Thinks Life Insurance Works for Retirement Income?

by Brantley Whitley

Yeah you read that right. In a recent story over at CNBC, How to Invest for a (Mostly) Tax-Free Retirement life insurance is actually given a little a tip of the hat!

Clearly, the world is coming to an end. The mainstream financial media usually takes great pleasure in beating up on whole life insurance and all types of cash value life insurance for that matter. What's more…they typically take a few swipes at life insurance agents just for good measure.

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Stock Ownership Hit’s New Low According to Gallup

by Brandon Roberts

Earlier this month, Gallup released data it collects concerning stock ownership in the United States. The data show that stock ownership among Americans is at its lowest point since Gallup began tracking the data in 1998 with just 52% of American’s surveyed claiming to either directly or indirectly own stock in a public company.

Historical data from Gallup shows us that American stock ownership peaked around 2007 at 65% reporting direct or indirect ownership in stocks, and this percentage has been on a consistent decline since. Not surprisingly the sharpest declines in ownership took place during throughout 2008, but somewhat counter-intuitively—or at least that’s what some experts would have you believe, the trend continued in the same direction despite what has become a pretty good market rally since the 2008 fallout.

Is this a sign that it’s time to get back in?

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Be careful how you save—Your IRA and 401k may be a trap

by Brantley Whitley

Since I’m never really one to go with the flow, today I’ll hold true and bludgeon the sacred cow of all financial advice gurus—the IRA and the 401k. It’s not that I’m trying to be controversial or contrary to spite Dave and Suze.

That’s just an added bonus.

I am concerned about the conventional wisdom that says the IRA (both traditional and Roth) and the 401k are the best ways to save for retirement. In fact, these sorts of qualified plans could trap you and really put a squeeze on your retirement plans.

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The Rule of 72 Example

by Brandon Roberts

I know what most of you are probably thinking: the rule of 72? Have the Insurance Pro Blog guys run out of ideas for post topics? Or busy week? Maybe they didn’t have time to come up with something more creative than a boring post about a finance topic known the world over.

For those who don’t know the rule of 72 is a simple rule of thumb used to determine the amount of time an investment will take to double given a certain interest rate. You simple divide 72 by the given interest rate and boom you have the number of years it will take the investment to double.

Simple enough, and no real need to labor this issue any further. So, happy Monday and we’ll be back to you on Wednesday when the next episode of the Financial Pro Cast goes live.

Unless of course, the Rule of 72 is wrong…

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Suze Orman on Prospecting: If you have to, you must not be very good at your job

by Brantley Whitley

Normally we leave Suze Orman alone, but now I've written a post about her two weeks in a row. I promise next week not to talk about her at all.

Actually, this piece has been in the works for a while. Brandon started it a while back when a colleague steered him to yet another video capture from Suze's talk show where “real” callers call in to discuss their financial woes.

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Killing Another Sacred Cow-Why buying a house is NOT an investment.

by Brantley Whitley

Today, I’m venturing a ways off the strictly insurance-related path to discuss a topic that is more closely tied to general personal finance. While it’s an important topic to address, the majority of financial bloggers/writers/authors tend to screw it up.

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Retirement Savings Roulette

by Brantley Whitley

As of late, it would seem that a great many people are engaged in a bit of retirement savings roulette and I’m afraid it’s not going to end well for them.

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past four years or so, interest rates paid on traditional income generating retirement vehicles—i.e. CD’s, Bonds, Fixed Annuities, and Money Market Accounts is abysmal.

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How Much Money Do I Need to Retire? A Million Dollars Ain’t What It Used to Be.

by Brantley Whitley

We have a lot of conversations that start with the question, “How much money do I need to retire?” The answer is a lot more than you might think, especially if you’re used to scraping out an existence on a six-figure income.

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What is Value Investing and How Does it Work?

by Brantley Whitley

First, I guess I should define value investing. The best thing I can really do is to let you know from the beginning that I believe that being a value investor is much more of an investment style than it is an adherence to any one set of strict criteria.

That being said, there are some basics tenets that are universally agreed to in regards to value investing.

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