Are you prepared for retirement Poll

Today I'd like to  stare a retirement poll.  Everyone is welcome to participate either through a comment here on the blog
or with a telephone vote #614-264-3864 
or an email financial-services@live.com
I will compile the comments and votes and share them in a blog post

When It Comes To Being Ready For Retirement I feel that I am...
A) Right on Track
B)  I was right on track until 2008-2009
C) May fall short on my income needs
D) Have no idea where to start or who to turn to

Knowing where you are going to  finish at the end of the race requires knowing where you are at the start of the race. Today is the Start of your Retirement Race.  Some of you still have an ultra marathon left, some have a regular marathon left, some have a 5K  race and some of you  only have a 100 meter dash left. Wherever you are in the race today everyone can  use some help or at least a review.

If you were to  retire today how much lifetime income would you  be able to guarantee?

Current financial SAFE MONEY opportunities

Here are some current opportunities  and  ideal candidates

1)   pay $119,332 now collect $242,138 in 15 years for a 5% effective yield 
    perfect for  someone trying to fund a child or a grandchild's education

2) pay $113,200 now and collect $250,000 split into 4 payments over 23 yr period for effective 5% yield   funding a trust or for some part of a retirement, perfect for a ROTH

3) pay $76,542 now  and collect $151,330 with many payments over 27 years for a 5.4% yield
   retirement or trust funding

4) pay $3,532 now and collect $62,000  in 43 years for a 7% return
   tax free if you use ROTH Funding for  grandchild or trust

5) pay $112,800 now and collect  $266,750 in payments between 2025-2033
   ROTH or 401K plan for someone retiring in about 13-15 years

6) pay $46,000 -70,000 now and collect 8 years of equal monthly payments for a 6% yield
   current retiree, or current worker looking  for a reasonable but guaranteed rate of return.

7) FDIC Insured variable rate CD. Guaranteed rate of 1% with upside potential of up to 7%              annual return on a 7 year CD. Minium purchase price  $30,000

These are just some of the interesting opportunities that are available. Pleas contact for more information or to determine if they are suitable for your situation.  These are all Safe Money
financial products with no Market Risk of loss of principal. All of these are subject to availability  limited time opportunities

Safe Money Financial opportunities

If you  could take a portion of your assets  and  guarantee better than 4.5-5.4% on you money for as much as 17 to 27 yrs would you be interested. What if you  could get a guaranteed monthly income over that period. Admittedly not  everyone is eligible or has enough liquidity to do this. If you are a younger successful professional or business owner this might be right for you. Another candidate would be an older individual who is interested in providing for children or grandchildren's benefit.. Someone who is tired of the ups and downs in the market could benefit.
All of these opportunities offer protection from market risk and offer a guaranteed future rate of return and a schedule of income.  It certainly would not be appropriate to allocate most of ones assets like this. However using this for a a portion of ones Safe Money Strategy could be a good  fit.

Here are some examples. Availability changes over time

 allocate $154,000  and collect 300 payments of $1,008+ for a guaranteed 5.4% guaranteed yield and a total of almost $303K in total return. Retirement income or estate planning

allocate $122 K today  get over $242K to pay for childs college or for retirement in 14 yrs  Without market risk and if ROTH funds used $120K in  tax free gains.

allocate $46,700 now get 6 payments of $11,173 over the next 16 years for a total of $67,039

Allocate 30 K or maybe more and  collect  a guaranteed 6% rate of return ewith 8 years of equal monthly payments.

Call if interested, or to find out if it might be right for your  situation.

Market Linked CDs Information for Consumers

Would you be interested in 6.25% for 34 yrs?

Would you  be interested in turning $383,000 into a guarantee income stream for 34 year and paying a total of $1,607,000. The transaction is only available to one client. when its sold its  gone. There are other similar deals available with diferent amounts, diferent payment schedules, various durations and different  nominal interest rates. Smaller deals are also available.  The payment streams are guaranteed by Billion dollar  Insurance Companies that are highly rated and very well known.  This particular opportunity is issued by an A rated American insurance company.

Whats  the  catch?
You  must qualify to purchase the  deal.
You must have adequate liquidity to afford the transaction.
You get a schedule of monthly income checks thats is modest for the  first 14 years then increases every year until the maturity in 2047
You  cant change the monthly payment amounts. The  payment schedule is available for  review
You must have a very long term focus.

Im guessing the ideal client would be a professional with  high net worth possibly a lawyer, doctor or business owner.  Possibly utilizing IRA,  SIMPLE, SEP or 401K assets. Imagine a $1.2 M  plus gain in a ROTH!  It could be a younger sucessful individual or an older client looking to  fund a Mult-generational Family or charitable trust!

What are  your  thoughts on  this  type of very long term transaction and  rate of  return??

Public comments can  be made here or 
serious inquiries would be best handled by email or phone

Savings Needed For Retirement Rule Of Thumb

An article recently appeared in  the  Columbus Dispatch  and  the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. The original article  was  written by Donna Gehrkee-White. The primary point of  the article  was  to  give savers a rule of  thumb to  help  determine how much money they need to  have saved prior to  retirement.  Whats nice  about  the approach is it doesnt assume  that everyone has  the  same  number. Of course everyones stlye of living and  retiring is differen, therefore their personal savinggs need is also going to  be  different. The  suggested  rule of  thumb is this.  You  should have 8 Years worth of income saved in order to plan on a comfortable retirement. In other  words if your last years income was 40,000  then 8 x 40,000  = $320,000 and if  your inccome was $150,000 then  you  should  have $1,200,000 in savings.  This  serves as a starting point. If a retiree has a large pension lifetime income stream  they may be able to  reduce the saving $ needed to  secure a safe  retirement. If  they dont they may  want  to  increase the amount they  save  before they retire. 

You  can  also work a  few extra  years to  increase  saving and  decrease  the  amount of  savings needed. Remember  this also increases their  Social Security income for life. We have  available a Social Security Calculator that  lets a client determine the optimum age to begin their Social Security Income benefit and if they are married helps to strategize how and when to begin taking SS income. This is just one of the services we offer to our retirement clients.  We also  help to increase their retirement income WITHOUT MARKET RISK.

Polaris Financial Services
614-264-3864

Affluent Investors not happy with 401 K Plan providers

A recent study released by Cogent Reseach says that only 45% of them are happy with their companies 401K Plan. If thats the case why are they dissatisfied? Obviously they are not happy with the plan financial strategies options available, or the ancillary services provided by the monster plan platform providers. That is a problem we can help with. The companies that use us to design and run their retirement plans do not switch to save money on fees. They switch because we offer them services they are not currently getting from their current plan platform provider. In fact, we do try and remain competitive on fees. However, we are not the lowest cost provider. We are however able to offer a range of products that the former plan providers are not willing or are not able to provide. Offering a more flexible plan requires both an expenditure of significant amounts of time and administrative resources. We offer that personal touch.

A more flexible plan has a number of advantages. We offer many employees a decent rate of return while minimizing market risk. We can help minimize corporate fiduciary risk, and we can help increase employee participation. An increase in participation rate often means that higher paid employees and officers or owners can contribute more to the plan without the plan becoming top heavy. That of course is a good thing. This lets senior employees accumulate more for their retirement.

Of course, we may not be able to help everyone but we may be able to help you!