Start Acting Annuity Rich (Wear a Suit!) Shootin' It Straight With Stan

Welcome to Shooting It Straight With Stan. I'm your host, Stan The Annuity Man, America's annuity agent, undisputed America's annuity agent, licensed in all 50 states. Today's topic is a really good one, and I want you to listen because I'm talking to most of you out there. And it's called Start Acting Annuity Rich. Now all of you out there, "Well, Stan, I'm not rich. I'm not rich. I'm just telling you I'm not rich." I'm telling you, you are compared to the vast majority of Americans.

Let me give you some stats. I read an article the other day that said, "60% or more of adults in America have less than $400 in their checking account." If you're reading this blog, I'm pretty sure that's not you. And if it is, God bless you. Go to work. You can do it. I believe in you. But for the majority of you out there, that's not you. You have IRAs, and you have non-qualified accounts. And you've planned, and you've saved. You've got 401(k)s. You're there. What I'm asking you to do is start acting rich. And I'm not talking about going and buying a Lamborghini, a Bentley, or walking around in a suit like Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island, wearing an ascot. I'm not talking about that. But I'm talking about being rational about what you have.

Client Example

I had a call this week with a great couple from the South. I won't tell you the state. I don't want to give them away. They're great people. And they were looking to buy Multi-Year Guarantee Annuities, Fixed Rate Annuities, and it's a guaranteed interest rate. It's the annuity industry version of a CD. And they had Social Security, both of them. They had worked in the state system. They had pensions. And they had enough money that they're never going to ever spend it all. And I said, "You guys will never spend it all. There's no way." But yet, they were still acting like they had no money. Now, my wife has deemed this the scars of scarcity, and I've discussed this before. We've all grown up with the scars of scarcity; most of us do not have everything we want. Many of us grew up poor and didn't know we were poor. But if you look back, we didn't have much money. And early in our life, many of us, including myself, had no money.

Scars of Scarcity

We started from zero. We have the scars of scarcity, where I tell the story about my dad taking me to McDonald's, and I don't know what I was, six or seven years old. And he, "Go ahead and order, son." And I said, "I want a large french fry." And he's like, "Large fry? We can't afford a large fry." I'm not sure I've ever ordered a large fry since, seriously. It's called a scar. We all have the scars. I can tell you another story about mine, which brings me to tears sometimes.

Early when we were married, my wife and I have been married 35 years, and I was young and struggling and trying to make it happen. I came home, and she was crying because we didn't have baby formula for our one-year-old or however old my first daughter was. We didn't have much money, so we had a credit card. I went to the store, and I bought so much baby formula on the credit card that a lot of the baby formula went bad because she couldn't eat it all. She outgrew it. But that scar's still with me. As a provider, you want to provide for your family. But there's a lot of you out there that have hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of us have millions of dollars in savings. And what I want you to do is I want you to act like you have it. Act rich.

Rich people that we don't hang out with, we don't go to those parties. We didn't grow up rich, most of us. Rich people live off their money. Currently, at current interest rates, you can live off your money. I've done a couple videos. One is, You've Won the Game, Why Are You Still Playing? Or another one's called Live Off the Interest. Many of you have enough money to live off the interest. Yet, we've been indoctrinated that we have to put our money at risk, have money in the markets, and take those risks. I'm not sure we have to do that. You don't have to do anything. The other one that drives me crazy, and this is part of you need to act annuity rich, is when people with millions of dollars start talking to me about inflation. Really? Are you kidding me? Please stop that. That's arrogant, and you're not doing the math. Run the number. You're never going to spend the money that you have in most cases. Inflation hits the low end of this country, with 60% driving around with $400 in their checking account. The next time you're on the interstate and see 10 cars, six of them have $400 in their checking account. That's who inflation hits, not me and you.

Don't Let Money Control You

I tell the story all the time about my wife when inflation started clicking up here recently, and she calls me from the store and says, "Have you seen the price of eggs? Do we want to pay that for eggs?" And my comment to her was, "We can buy the store. We could own the grocery store. Buy the eggs. We're good." Same thing with gas, she calls me, "Seen gas?" "Buy the gas. We're good." Same with you. And I know this is out of your lane, but I'm you. I grew up in rural America, rural North Carolina. I'm you. I've accumulated. I've worked hard. I've scrimped. I've saved. And I'm trying to work through all the scars of scarcity and the issues of no money back in the day that still leave those scars. I'm trying to live through that to live a better life.

I'm not saying to be frivolous. I'm still going to wear baseball caps and Adidas sweatsuits with my logo on them. I don't care how much money I have. I'm still going to drive nondescript cars because I'm not a car person. I'm still going to live in the same house because that's who I am. But I'm not going to have money control me. I'm not going to have money live in the back of my head. And I'm talking to you; listen to me. I'm talking to you.

As I tell my mom, "Go buy the drink." You don't have to make table lemonade by getting water and then putting Sweet N Low and lemon in it. You can afford the drink, even if they're overcharging. You can afford to go out. You can afford it. And with annuities, you can set things up so that there's a lifetime income stream that you can never outlive. You can set things up so there's principal protection. You just live off the interest and never touch the principal. You can set things up contractually, so you don't have to worry. Or suppose you leave money in the markets. In that case, you don't really care about it, and you're a better trader or a better investor because you already have that income floor in place. You already have a vast majority of what you have principally protected with MYGAs, CDs, treasuries, money markets, etc.

Dot Your I's and Cross Your T's

But I need you to act rich. I need you, if you have a million dollars of net worth, I need you to see an estate tax lawyer, a tax planning lawyer. I need you to act rich. I need you to spend the money to do that. I need you to spend the money to see a CPA and make sure that all the Is are dotted and Ts are crossed. I need you to think through what you have and how it's going to be disbursed if something happens to you cognitively or if you die unexpectedly. I need you to make sure that all that you've earned and worked so hard for is not going to go through probate. I need you to act rich, put on the hat, and act rich.

‌Stan The Annuity Man

‌A good example of that is Stan The Annuity Man, myself. I'm a recluse, musician, and writer. If you gave me the choice of just being by myself for the rest of my life, that's me. I love that. But Stan The Annuity Man, this guy, this character, I flip that switch on to help the consumers and to be positive about these annuity contracts and the strategies that you can put in place to make your life better.

‌Now I drink the Kool-Aid. I've been on Wall Street. I've seen that. It's not for me. The reason I'm Stan The Annuity Man is because I never wanted to lose anyone any money ever again. I wanted to sell contractual guarantees, and I love them. I'm passionate about them. And that's what I do with my money as well.

‌I go by the old Warren Buffett saying. And by the way, who's rich? Warren. And what does Warren say? He says, "There are two rules in life. Number one, never lose money. Rule number two, never forget rule number one." That doesn't mean that you don't have money in the markets. If you want the money in the markets, stay there. But a lot of you don't have to do that. A lot of you can live off the interest and act rich. Right? You can. And we enjoy talking to clients who schedule calls with us. We like to say, "Well, give us the 30,000-foot view of what you have," and they'll give it to us. And we're like, "You need to act a little rich. You need to act richer. You're the evil rich that the politicians talk about." Right? That's not saying you're arrogant. You've worked hard. You've scrimped. You've saved. You've done without. Nod your head. You have. We all have. But in chapter two of your life, I need you to put the people in place: the tax lawyers, the CPAs, and the estate tax lawyers. I need you to have conversations with your family and spouse about who will get the money. I need you to start acting rich and put that team of advisors around you because you are rich, whether you think you are or not.

‌And people always say, "Well, I guess it's a lot of money." It's a lot of money that you have. It's a lot. 98%, I'm sure, or more Americans would trade places with you reading this because if you're reading this blog, you're trying to figure out how to do it better and get better. Is there something better? Should I consider annuities? Should I consider annuity strategies? I mean, people would love to be where you're at. Yes, you've earned it. You've gotten there because of hard work, diligence, and IQ, but act rich.

‌I always tell my wife, "Buy what you want. We're at the point now: buy what you want." I know that she's not going to do anything crazy. She grew up in Nebraska in a trailer, and her parents were great people and hard workers, just like my parents. I tell her, "You grew up in a trailer. I grew up in a brick trailer." It's just the same size; it just had bricks around it. And that's okay. One of the reasons I'm in the financial business is that I have always been trying to figure out how rich people get their money. How did they do that? You know what they do? They put a good team around them, act rich, and live off interest, is what they do. And they put guarantees in place. That's what they do and what you need to do. So, start acting a little bit more rich, annuity rich, as I say, meaning have guarantees in place so you can go live your life and not worry about it. My name is Stan The Annuity Man. 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.