You Already Won! Why Are You Still Playing?: Shootin' It Straight With Stan (TAM Classic)

Hi there. Welcome to Shootin' It Straight With Stan. I'm your host, Stan The Annuity Man, America's annuity agent. I know that you are waiting for this because I have been energetic, to say the least, on the past few Shootin' It Straight With Stans. I don't know why. Life is good. Glass half full. Let's get to it. Today's topic is a good one, and it is this. If you've won the game, then why are you still playing? I want you to think about that for a second.

‌Client Example

‌I was on a call the other day, and yes, you can schedule a call with us. You can also run quotes on our proprietary calculators, get my books, watch videos, etc. But these nice people had scheduled a call with us for 30 minutes. And yes, we were talking and they were giving me all their stuff and they were entrepreneurs and they'd done well and they'd made some money and they were just confused because the advisor that they knew and they've been using and said, "Well, you need to do a 60% equity, 40% bond split. You need to always have some exposure and blah..." Just all the nonsense. "Well, the 4% rule. You just never have to buy an annuity. You peel off the 4%." That's garbage. And then they said, "Well, and then he ran a Monte Carlo simulation." A Monte Carlo simulation is some software stuff that's been around forever that's projections, projections, projections. I'd rather you go to Monte Carlo and watch the car race. It's better. It'd be better for you.

‌The bottom line with these nice people is I was looking at their numbers, and they're talking 60/40, and the wife was saying, "Well, I really don't like risk," and the guy was saying, "I really don't either. I'm kind of at the finish line." And I said, "You've already won the game. Why are you still playing?" And literally I thought I'd lost them on the phone because I could hear nothing. I was like, "Hello? Hello?" Finally, they said, "You're right, Stan The Annuity Man, America's annuity agent. Why are we still playing?" And I told them this because they gave me their income needs, they gave me their beneficiaries and all that stuff, and I said this, "If you would just get 3% on the money that you have, wouldn't that be sufficient to live the life you want to live, to live the life that you've worked so hard to achieve? Just get 3% and never touch the principal. Just peel off the 3% interest." And they're like, "Yeah. Why wouldn't we do that?"

‌Well, you could do that with a combination of Multi-Year Guarantee Annuities and CDs, treasuries, or something like that. You don't have to buy bonds because bonds are volatile. Bonds can go down in value if interest rates go up. But the bottom line is, "Why are you trying to squeeze another 200 basis points?" in English, that means 2%, "Out of equities and all this stuff?" I understand the historical data. I understand, "Well, if you put money in the markets..." I understand John Bogle. I understand it. I get it. But there are many people out there, and you might be one of them, going, "I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to follow the markets. I don't want to have volatility. I want to go live my life. I've worked my butt off to have the opportunity to accumulate this money and go live my life."

‌Peel off the Interest

‌So, the question I have for you is, can you do that by just peeling off the interest? I'm not talking about annuitizing. I'm not talking about turning on the lifetime income stream. Yes, you can do that. Some people have to do that because they don't have enough money to peel off the interest. They have to convert it to a lifetime income stream. But there's a lot of you out there that don't have to do that. You don't have to follow the 60% in equities, 40% in bonds, napkin close that they draw the pie chart and say, "Well, with your age when it goes up, then we're just going to increase the bond portfolio to..." That's crap.

‌Remember, you already own two annuities. One is Social Security. It's the best inflation annuity on the planet. Nod your head. Yes. It's a lifetime income stream. The other annuity is what I call a forced annuity. If you have an IRA at age 72, at the time of this blog, the IRS is going to tap you on the show and go, "Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. We want our money," and you have to take money out until there's no money, but it's going to be for your lifetime in most cases.

‌Those are two income streams you're going to have. Let's look at the other amounts of money and if you can peel off interest without touching the principal and live your life. Can you? Are you going to be able to go to the cocktail party when you retire and hear some idiot lying at the cocktail party going, "Well, I bought Apple at 12, and I bought Tesla at 14, and I bought Bitcoin at 100," lying through his teeth? And even if he isn't lying through his teeth, or she, who cares? Who cares about the other person? Who cares about the risk that they're shouldering? Who cares about the fact that they're engaged all the time in watching markets and listening to Jim Cramer?

‌By the way, Jim Cramer wishes he was me, Stan The Annuity Man. Number one, I'm taller than he is. He's a little vertically challenged. And I'm not against that. I'm just 6'6. I'm 6'8 with the hair. If I took the hat off, I've got this like poof, the poof hair. Okay. Here's the thing. Let's go back over what the title is. If you've won the game, why are you still playing the game?

‌Other Options

‌Now, for those who don't have enough money out there to just peel off the interest and live life period, let's look at a lifetime income stream product. Let's look at an Immediate Annuity or Deferred Income Annuity. Let's turn on a lifetime income stream. Let's figure out what that income floor is that you need to hit your bank account every month and put that in place contractually so that as long as you're breathing, you'll get paid that. If you're married, as long as one of you is breathing, and we can structure it so that 100% of any unused money goes to the list of beneficiaries. The evil annuity company doesn't keep a penny even though they're on the hook to pay.

‌I love it when people say, "Well, I've never bought an annuity because when you die, the annuity company keeps the money." That's one of 40 ways to structure it, player. You don't have to do that, and most people don't do that. You can. You can if you want to, if you have the narcissist lifetime income stream, meaning, "It's all about me. I don't care about my beneficiaries. I don't want the highest payment. That's life only." But most people don't want to do that. But whether you have enough money to peel off interest and protect the principal and that's enough money to live off of or you create a lifetime income stream to fill in that income floor gap to combine with IRA and Social Security income and whatever side hustle things you've got coming in, then why are you continually playing the game? Why are you continually putting your money at risk? And don't say, "Well, I could buy an index annuity and get market upside with no downside." You're not that stupid. Please don't be that stupid. Please don't be the sucker at the table. Those are CD products.

‌Multi-Year Guarantee Annuities

‌But in my world, Multi-Year Guarantee Annuities typically beat Index Annuity returns. I know I'm going to get hate mail. I know I'm going to get all kinds of quant people sending me studies about indexing. Stop it. For people that are at chapter two of their life, the finish line, they don't want to track crap. All they want to track is where they're flying to, where the grandkids are and where they're going out to eat. And that's what you should be looking at, period. Once again, if you've won the game, why are you still playing? Can you put all your money into annuities? No, you can't, and you shouldn't, and I won't let you. But a portion of that can protect the principal and you can peel off interest. A portion of that could be put in a lifetime income stream that you can never outlive as long as you're breathing.

‌Why are you still playing the game? Why are you still buying into the fact that you got to be in the markets, you got to have growth, you got to, you got to, you got to? Why? Why? I don't know why. It's one of those things in America that we've just taught people, "Well, you got to be in the markets. You have to buy a house and own a car. You have to go to college." There's one, right? We're finding out that that's crap. "You got to go to college and incur debt and go to blah, blah, blah, blah. You must be in the markets, blah, blah, blah."

‌Look at the Scoreboard

‌Now, if you enjoy the markets, go for it, but a large portion of the 10,000 baby boomers that are hitting age 65 every single day say, "No, no. I'm done. I did the 401(k). I tried my best to do the markets, get some growth, and squeeze out some growth. And I've been through..." I'm speaking for you. "I've been through markets ups and downs. And I'm tired of it, Stan. I'm tired of it." I want you to call us and say, "Let's look at the fact that we've won the game and we're not going to play anymore, and how do we solve it so that we go live our life?" Because most of you reading this right now, you've won the game or you're going to win the game. You're on track to win the game. So, plan for when you win the game to stop playing the game. Look up at the scoreboard. You won. The cheerleaders are going crazy. The band is playing. The confetti is falling. It's great. You won. Why are you still playing? That's all I have to ask you.

‌We get these calls constantly from people saying, "Well, our advisor..." Your advisor says that because they get paid on assets under management. That's why they're saying that. Ask your advisor that when they come with the 60/40 blend, the target date fund, something like that, ETF, crypto, whatever, and say, "Hey, John or Joni," or whatever their name is, "Do you think I've won the game? Do I have enough money to consider myself a winner, and I've won the game, and I can live off the money, whether it's principal protection, peel-off interest, or structure in the lifetime income stream without taking any risk? Have I won the game, yes, or no?" From a fiduciary standpoint, they have to look at it mathematically and go, "You know what? I think you have?" And if they say, "You haven't," they might be lying.

‌Client Example

‌This nice couple, and I love them, they're from Alabama. They were entrepreneurs who sold their businesses and had been hit from all sides, from salespeople to financial advisors to fee planners to all kinds of people. And everything was just convoluted. And it hit me, "Hey. You've won the game. Why are you still playing?" They had enough money where if they just got 3%... Yes, you can get that now contractually. And if rates are going to rise, then you can roll it to a higher percentage, and you're going to live even better, and you never touch the principal. How beautiful is that? It's doable. It's achievable. It's contractual. It's rational. And I'd like to be a part of that conversation.

‌Let's talk about the game. What is the game? The game is to win, and winning means lifestyle. And if we can figure out how to give you that lifestyle that you want, contractually, not hypothetical, theoretical, projected unicorns chasing the butterfly, "If you'd have owned it 10 years ago, you'd have got this return..." Crap. I'm talking about Armageddon contractual guarantees. That's what I'm talking about. Let's find out if you actually have won the game and you don't have to play anymore. You can play the game from chapter two of your life. That's what you need to do. Remember, there are no U-Hauls behind hearses. And if there is, take a picture and send it to me. My point is you can't take it with you. Live your life. And that's Shootin' It Straight With Stan. 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.