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How to Plan for Retirement

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

HelpRetire.com has created financial success for people planning for retirement — Showing how to eliminate bad debt, reduce risks, generate better retirement returns, higher investment income and more tax advantages. Here are twelve of the things we have learned.

1. There are only 3 ways to increase your retirement income. Save more every month. Increase your current investment rates of return. Find an additional income source during retirement. Most retirees fall back on the 3rd option and work during retirement. However, options 1 and 2 are rarely ever explored.

2. The most important decision. How you reduce your risk of loss. Many people get into speculative investments. They have zero control. They are unable to see market shifts. And have great exposure to potential loss of capital. This exposure causes many to lose money. Which can mean being unable to retire.

3. Use the Rule of 72. This rule tells you how long it takes for your money to double. You divide 72 by the rate of return. If you have an 8% rate or return the math is as follows: 72/8 = 9 years. This means it will take 9 years for your $100,000 investment to become $200,000 if you have an 8% rate of return. This number helps you forecast what rates of return you need to retire.

4. Cash Flow is King. Many retirement minded individuals fail to have cash flowing investments. Building additional sources of monthly cash flow is intelligent. It provides consistent monthly income. Cash flow also gives tangible returns you see on a monthly basis. This helps if temporary set backs occur with your working income.

5. Insure your assets. Protecting against loss is simple. Use insurance. If your investment is unable to come with insurance against loss, then it is best avoided.

6. Look for hidden tax advantages. Most investments have zero advantages for your taxes. Look deeper into utilizing investment vehicles that do. For every dollar an investment saves you in taxes, you have an additional dollar for retirement.

7. Take a comprehensive view. Retirement is made up of many factors. Age, income, and savings are standard considerations. Also view: Monthly cash flow. Safety. Stability. Insurability. Overall Returns. Tax advantages. It is best to weigh all of these options together with each investment you look at. This gives you the complete picture.

8. Stop doing what everyone else is doing. If you are doing what the average person is doing, how can you possibly expect anything other than average results? Most people invest their retirement funds into a combination of

• Stocks
• Bonds
• Mutual funds
• CD’s
• The average yearly return with this combination is 3% to 6%.

9. Account for Inflation. Inflation is when prices rise and your money decreases in purchasing power. Every year, the government releases an estimated rate of inflation for the previous year. Usually, it’s about 1% to 2% per year. The problem is it’s never in their best interest to release a high inflation rate because it shows the government is printing too much money. You can more accurately figure out true inflation by how much the cost rises for things you buy regularly. For example, according to the USA Today, the prices of these common items went up:

• Eggs went up 5.7%
• Tomatoes went up 6.9%
• Sausages went up 8.7%
• Potatoes went up 6.9%
• Oranges went up 12.2%

A standard 5% annual inflation is generally accepted and agreed upon by financial experts across the nation. If your retirement funds are growing at 6% yearly returns, this means you are effectively earning only 1% per year.

10. Define your objectives. Did you know a new study shows 83% of Americans aren’t going to be able to retire on time? The days of counting on Social Security for your retirement are long gone. Sadly, most Americans will never be able to maintain their lifestyle in retirement and that is primarily due to never defining clear objectives. By having clear objectives and deconstructing your retirement needs into tangible, bite sized, steps you are far more likely to reach your retirement objectives and needs.

11. Consider Alternative Investments. You might think getting a 11% yearly return is hard to do. Actually, it’s not. There are alternative investment vehicles which offer greater security with higher rates of return that grow tax free. Only most fail to look at these solutions because they aren’t marketed to you the way larger financial institutions do. These alternative solutions don’t make institutions money. This gives institutions zero motivation to tell you about all the options available to you.

There is a huge difference between a low rate of return and a high one. If you obtain better returns on your investments, you can drastically reduce your time to retirement and considerably increase your monthly budget. Here is an example using Bloomberg’s retirement calculator, starting with $0 savings, from age 35:

Annual contribution Return on Investment Total at age 65

$1,200 5% $79,727

$1,200 15% $238,825

As you can see, having a higher rate of return significantly affects your retirement savings. One rate leaves you working through retirement and possibly till you pass on. Another rate can have you traveling the world, doing as you please during your golden years.

How to integrate safety and security with higher rates of return for your retirement planning

In collaboration with you, HelpRetire.com offers a unique 360 degree approach to retirement planning. Objectively analyzing your current state of affairs. Where you want to plan toward reaching. Then building a clear roadmap to take you where you want to go.

Having full analysis with a complete financial perspective provides insights. Each insight gives valuable solutions to where holes exist in your complete retirement plan. Which should mean greater speed of growth, better safety, and more efficient use of your retirement dollars.

Invitation

HelpRetire.com has a comprehensive 45 minute training on retirement planning. We discuss the full range of options available to you, including alternative solutions which you may have never considered until now. If you would like to see the complete picture of solutions available to you for your retirement, please click here to grab your spot on the training.

How to Invest in Safe & Secure Real Estate Using Your Retirement Funds

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

The new landscape of America requires that most people rethink their retirement income goals and get smart about taking action steps to secure a safe cash flow.  Passive income in the form of tax-free returns in real estate has emerged as one of those safe methods for gaining retirement income flow. In fact 13% cash flow has been the norm for those who have gotten on board with this Turnkey Investment Method. For those who are reluctant to learn one more thing, even if it will benefit you, this method has a zero learning curve. Zero! Seniors with retirement funds can invest in real estate in this seamless process and reap great dividends.

Turnkey rental properties that have been rehabbed, are occupied by a great rental tenant and are under professional management provides those with a self-directed IRA to invest are turning to this option. That’s right – you don’t have to rehab the property yourself, find someone to rent it nor manage it. Those duties are taken out of your hands. That’s why this income is referred to as a zero-sweat equity opportunity.

If you’ve spent your years exerting effort, and you are at or near retirement – you don’t want to be that senior greeter at Wal-Mart, on your feet for a whole shift. You don’t want to take on that second job in order to stretch your retirement funds. You worked hard, and you should be able to retire in comfort and enjoy the fruits of a productive life. This is the answer for you if the image of getting up and getting dressed to go out in all kinds of weather to report to a job and clock in and be under someone’s watch like a little kiddo makes you shudder. Those days should be behind you instead of ahead of you.

There are many options for investing in real estate, but this method is dubbed as a help retire option. The website borrows from that concept – it’s helpretire.com. Income generation at 13%, which is tax-free should carry a lot of appeal. The fact that the guesswork has been taken out of the equation is a bonus.

In fact, there are so many winning elements to this, that it’s nicknamed the Turnkey Trifecta Method. It will enable you to retire rich, even if you are just now taking this goal seriously. You don’t even have to have a lot of money to participate. You don’t have to be monied. It’s a method that can work for the average person.

So, if your years until retirement are few, or you’re already in that status – you can still participate and grow tax-free dollars.

If you have a certain retirement lifestyle in mind, this can help you live that life. If you cringe at the notion that your money will run out while you are still healthy, vibrant and living life, this can help you avoid that unfortunate outcome.

The words, high-yield, positive cash-flow, equity appreciation potential, outstanding, cash-on-cash and stable are appropriate terms for this investment opportunity. Instead of worrying, fretting, risking the stock market, taking numerous peeps at your investment portfolio; you can do something about it through this hard-asset investment.

Remember, this is a hand-off opportunity. There is no labor on your part, no effort to upkeep the property, no property restoration or management headaches. Visit helpretire.com today and begin your journey toward a sweatless retirement victory.

The Investment that Warren Buffett Actually Likes Better than Stocks & Mutual Funds

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

Many people know Warren Buffett as the champion of value and index investing. But there is an asset class Buffett prefers even to value stocks and mutual funds. “If I had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single family homes, and had a way of managing them … I would load up on them,” he said in a 2013 CNBC interview . The low interest rates and distressed prices from the Great Recession may scare off some investors, but they provide just the kind of long-term growth opportunity Buffett is known for finding.

Real Estate investing differs from stock and bond trading in several ways. Stocks and bonds are backed by a piece of paper and by how much everyone else believes the company can pay you back. By contrast, real estate is a ‘hard asset’: regardless of what someone else will pay you for your land, you own that land and can develop or sell it. There are also tax advantages over stock and bond investing: owners can deduct mortgage interest payments and depreciate properties, and can use 1031 exchanges on sales to defer capital gains taxes.

Lastly, Real Estate returns differ from traditional investments like stocks and bonds. Even during a period with the dot-com bubble and Financial Crisis, Real Estate investors saw a bigger cumulative return than US stock owners:

Many investors take their cues from Buffett on which companies and sectors to invest in. The opportunities in real estate provide tangible assets with tax advantages, and deliver returns unrelated to the stock market’s daily movements. Companies like ours offer management solutions to Buffett’s condition above, and provide great direct access to property investing.

How a Garbage Man Turned $100k Into $10,833/mo. to Secure His Retirement

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

by Brian Bagnall, Best Selling-Author

$1.28 Million.

That’s how much investment experts say you’ll need if you want to retire at age 60 and be able to draw just $3,000 a month during retirement.

If you’re like most people, you probably feel like that’s a lot of money to save to only draw $3,000 a month. You probably also feel like you’re severely behind in saving as well.

You’ve probably got some money saved but don’t really know what to do with it. Maybe you’ve put it in the stock market or mutual funds because “that’s what everyone else is doing.” Or worse yet, maybe you’re too scared to invest in anything at all and just have your money sitting in a money market or savings account.

The wealthy know the fastest way to secure their retirement is to get help from an expert.

But I get it… it’s hard to know who to trust. That’s why I want to go over a detailed case study of what we did for one of our clients so you can see what’s really possible.

Our client is a garbage man from Chicago, IL who turned $100k of his investments (between his 401k and IRA) into $10,833 a month during retirement using our methods.

This decision ended up securing his retirement literally overnight without having to save huge sums of money over a long period of time.

Here’s the Scoop

He bought the 2 rental properties pictured below that we recommended to him. We’ve researched over 400 markets and we know where to buy and, most importantly, where not to buy. (And yes, you can buy real estate using the funds in your IRA and 401k.)

Most people know that real estate is the only way to build true wealth, but it can also be scary to the average person. The truth is, real estate is actually a lot safer than investing in the stock market or mutual funds like most people do. Real estate has made more people wealthy than any other investment.

Each property that he bought was in tip-top shape, with a quality tenant in place, and was professionally managed so our client never had to deal with a tenant or a repair. Everything was completely hands off.

Here are some details on the properties:

Property #1: Talford Ave., Cleveland, OH

• 4BR, 2BA, Newly Rehabbed
• Purchased for $50,100 (yes, you can buy quality properties for $50k)
• Rented for $880/month
• Expenses $332/month (property taxes, insurance, management, 12% repair allowance)
• $546/month net profit ($6,552/year)
• $6,552/$50,100 = 13.1% NET ROI

Property #2: Toronto Ave., Toledo, OH

• 3BR, 2BA, Updated
• Purchased for $49,900
• Rented for $860/month
• Expenses $311/month (property taxes, insurance, management, 12% repair allowance)
• $549/month net profit ($6,588/year)
• $6,588/$49,900 = 13.2% NET ROI

One of the keys to this plan is increasing your annual rate of return to a high 13%.

That’s compared to investing in stocks & mutual funds and only making 6.3% per year as evidenced by this 100+ year chart of stock market returns.

Now, remember the yearly positive cash flows for each property:

When you add the cash flows together: $6,552 (Property #1) + $6,558 (Property #2), he’ll be making $13,110 a year (after all expenses).

When you take the average property price of $50,000 and divide it by the total cash positive flow of $13,110, you find out that in 3 Years and 9 Months our client can buy his 3rd property JUST by reinvesting the profits (not adding any additional out-of-pocket funds beyond his initial $100k investment).

After that, he’ll be making $19,665 a year in positive cash flow.

2.5 years down the road, he’ll be able to buy another (his 4th) property just from the profits. And then he’ll be making $26,220 a year in positive cash flow.

Then 2 years from when he bought his 4th property, he’ll be able to buy his 5th property. And then he’ll be making $32,775 a year in positive cash flow.

And then in less than a year and a half, he’ll be able to buy his 6th property. And then he’ll be making $39,330 a year in positive cash flow.

But something cool happens after purchasing the 6th property…

After that, he’ll be able to buy at least 1 new property every single year until he retires.

Is the power of real estate beginning to set in yet?

He wants to retire 20 years from when he bought his first property. When he retires, he’ll have 20 rental properties, $10,833 a month in positive cash flow, and $1,038,708 in cash and equity.

That’s all from just an initial $100k investment to buy 2 properties and just reinvesting the profits. And as long as he keeps the properties, he will always have $10k+ per month in cash flow for as long as he lives (and then his family can enjoy the cash flow after he’s gone).

If he would have continued to make 6.3% on his money investing in the stock market (instead of investing in real estate), his $100k would have only turned into $339,364 by the time he was ready to retire.

He’ll now have $699,345 MORE by choosing to invest in real estate.

The Big Question Is…
How Much Money Are YOU Losing?

Assuming you’re getting average returns on your investments right now (6.3%),

• If you want to retire in 15 years: For every $100k you have right now, you’re losing $306,049
• If you want to retire in 20 years: For every $100k you have right now, you’re losing $699,345

This is the amount you’re losing by choosing not to invest in real estate. And that’s for every $100k that you have in your investment accounts. Shocking isn’t it?

That’s the impact that investing your money like a pro can have on your long term financial future. If you like the investment plan I laid out here and you want to reclaim the money you’re leaving on the table…

There’s Really Only 1 Thing To Do Next…

As I stated before, getting help from someone who has years of experience, knowledge and success under his or her belt can skyrocket your results, especially if they help you design a custom tailored strategy for your specific investment goals and current situation.

Every month, I hold 10 Investment Boosting sessions where I get on the phone with people who have at least $45k in investable assets and are committed to improving their financial future and living comfortably during their golden years.

While the spots may be filled by the time you read this, you can learn more about how the process works and apply for an Investment Boosting session by clicking here.

If I do get to jump on the phone with you, you’ll walk away with a retirement plan with specific, measurable financial goals and a custom investment strategy to fit your needs.

If for any reason we don’t get to talk, I still strongly encourage you to find a retirement investment coach who has a proven success record. It can cut years off your retirement plan and seriously increase the money you’ll have available once you do.

It’s never too early (or too late) to start making changes to your retirement plan to make sure that you’re getting the best return possible so that you can enjoy retirement on your terms and avoid running out of money when you need it most.

Click here to access my schedule and pick a date and time that works best for you.

If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to share it… maybe it could help someone else too! And leave a comment below too.  I try and respond to every comment.

This One Thing Will Keep You from Retiring

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

According to AARP, A healthy, upper-middle-class couple who are 65 today have a 43 percent chance that one or both partners will live to see 95.

Many experts recommend that retirees live by the “4% rule,” whereby they withdraw 4% of their savings in their fist year of retirement and then adjust that percentage upward with inflation in following years.

A June 2015 Government Accountability Office analysis found that that average Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 have accrued about $104,000 in retirement savings.

Read more: The Average Retirement Savings by Age for 2016 | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/011216/average-retirement-savings-age-2016.asp#ixzz4CJpvYw5g
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A famous financial planner’s rule of thumb is that you can spend 4% of your initial savings per year  (See: “The Retirement Spending Solution“), adjusted for inflation, and it will last for 30 years. If you have $500,000 saved, 4% of that is $20,000 per year. Can you live on $20,000 per year, plus whatever you’re going to get from Social Security and a pension (the $20,000 and—for now–Social Security would be bumped upward for inflation)? If you can’t, then you’d better start saving more or thinking about when and how you plan to retire.

You can calculate the amount you’ll actually need to save if you follow the 4 percent rule. “U.S. News & World Report” says retirees should plan to live off 4 percent of their savings each year. This will allow a retirement portfolio to replenish itself each year. That means if you get an average return of 4 percent each year and take out 4 percent, you will not decrease the value of your portfolio. When you know the amount you want to live on, you can find your savings target. For example, if you plan to live on $50,000 a year, divide that figure by 4 percent and you will see you need $1,250,000 in retirement savings.

Currently, the average retired worker is receiving $1,341 per month from Social Security, and if you include spousal benefits, then the average monthly household’s haul from Social Securityclimbs to $2,212

According to Healthview Services, the average healthy couple retiring today will spend $395,000 on Medicare B, D, and supplemental Medicare plan premiums and out-of-pocket cost sharing, such as co-pays.

Given those numbers, it’s no surprise that the Employee Benefit Research Institute reports that only 21% of U.S. workers are very confident that they’ll be financially secure during their golden years. If you’re one of the 79% that isn’t so confident, then there’s no time like the present to begin making changes that could have a big impact on your retirement nest egg.

There’s the amount you save and then there’s how you invest.

The bad news is that people are spending more in retirement on health care, utility bills, and particularly on mortgages. “The real reason why $1 million is not enough, sadly, is because a lot of people still have mortgages coming into retirement these days,” says Eileen Freiburger, a fee-only planner in Manhattan Beach, Calif. “I would never let a person retire if they haven’t learned to live within a certain dollar amount,” she says.

The $15,978 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook

Stocks, Annuities or Real Estate? Here’s Where to Grow Your Money

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

by Brian Bagnall

Are you searching for your ideal way to grow your investments? You’ll want them to earn passively at the highest rate of return possible, while still making sure your money is safe so that you can live the retirement lifestyle you want to live.

It’s a dream many chase, but only a few manage to achieve. That’s evident by the number of people who are retiring broke.

It’s a shame, too, because it really isn’t that hard to set up a real, hands-free, growing stream of passive income that delivers high returns safely and securely. Those that have lived long before us knew how to do it. And it’s responsible for building the fortunes of many of today’s millionaires and billionaires.

Anyone with a bit of money to invest can get involved, and you don’t need an advanced math degree or a gambling spirit to grow your money safely and securely.

Let’s take a look at 3 of the most common investment strategies.

Stocks & Mutual Funds

A lot has been said about stocks; they have strong proponents and boast of many self-made millionaires, but at the same time many more investors have lost it all. The fact is, few stock investors ever strike it big. Do you personally know of anyone who struck it big on a stock?

There are several common myths about stock market returns. Some believe an investor can expect an annual rate of return of 10%. Some say it’s 12% and others say as high as 15%. Unfortunately for many investors, this just isn’t true. The facts are that the average annual rate of return for the stock market measured over a period of 100+ years has been 6.3% annually. This is a far cry from the 10% to 15% many investors are expecting. This chart illustrates this:

Even the greatest stock investor to ever live, Warren Buffett, agrees:

Investing in stocks sounds very hands-off at first, but once you dig into the details it sounds a whole lot more like…well, running a business. Even though investing in stocks is better than leaving your money sit in a checking account or investing in bonds or CD’s, Investors should be well studied in daily financial news to assess the state of their portfolios, paying careful attention to quarterly earnings, commodity prices, unemployment reports and interest rates, to name a few.

Generally, investing in individual stocks is a task best done by investors with more time on their hands. You might eventually be able to make a killing investing in stocks but it takes years of hard work—same as in the job world.

Or you can leave it to a stock broker to invest your money. However, a stock broker doesn’t have any legal responsibility to do what’s best for you. Brokers make their money when they buy and sell your stocks and they get bonuses for pushing certain stocks, so it’s in their best interest to keep turning over your portfolio.

Mutual funds represent another way to invest in stocks. In addition to stocks, mutual funds can contain bonds or other cash alternatives. Basically, your money is pooled, along with the money of other investors, into a fund, which then invests in certain securities according to a stated investment strategy. Fees for mutual funds can be excessive. Common fees are the fund manager’s fee, a front-end load upon initial purchase, a back-end load upon sale,as well as early redemption charges.

Stocks and mutual funds have no guarantees – a bankrupt company can liquidate all its shares and leave investors with nothing. Also, a company can lie about it’s profits and losses like Enron did and wipe out your investment account overnight.

Annuities

Just like stocks, you’ll hear a lot of passionate opinions on both sides about annuities. Let’s cut through some of the confusion.

An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company that requires the insurer to make payments to you, either immediately or in the future. You buy an annuity by making either a single payment or a series of payments. Similarly, your payout may come either as one lump-sum payment or as a series of payments over time.

Make sure you consider the financial strength of the insurance company issuing the annuity. You want to be sure the company will still be around, and financially sound, during your payout phase. As with stocks, you have to worry about the insurance company going bankrupt.

Here are some of the drawbacks of annuities:

• They are very expensive. There are fees for the insurance, charges built into the investments, mortality and expense risk charges, administrative fees, fund expenses, and fees if you try to get out of the annuity (called surrender charges) that are in effect for years or longer. Annual fees can be 3-4%.
• Your money can be tied up forever. After-tax annuities can’t be undone and your money must remain in one forever.
• They offer mediocre insurance coverage.
• Brokers and insurance agents get big commissions on annuities and they can be driven to sell them to you. That’s always a good reason to be wary. Commissioned sales people are NOT required to put your interests before their own interests.
• One of the biggest overall drawbacks for the average person is that they are hard to understand. You have to decide between deferred and immediate options, variable, fixed, and equity-indexed versions. Even if you understand the options, you can still choose the wrong one. The SEC even says most financial advisors don’t understand what they’re selling when it comes to annuities.

Since annuities are sold by insurance companies who have the best number crunchers on the planet, you can be sure that you’re not going to come out ahead when making a deal with them. Generally speaking, investors can do far better for themselves elsewhere.

Turnkey Real Estate

The old saying is almost right: “you have to spend money—or time—to make money.” As we’ve covered, stocks, mutual funds, and annuities require you to spend both time and money to make money. Real Estate does too, but with some large scale differences. Real Estate only requires an initial investment and the very occasional email—as little as once a year, when everything goes smoothly.

Real estate has probably made more people and families wealthy than any other investment. When you own something of real substance that real people need, the income is all but guaranteed. You need to be investing in the right properties, of course, and all homes need ongoing maintenance, but it’s easy to make the task of finding and maintaining profitable properties completely hands-off.

Turnkey real estate investing is a truly passive way to earn a steady and growing income, and it couldn’t be easier to get started.

In turnkey real estate, someone else does all the property hunting, identifies the best investment properties, then purchases them and fixes them up. They’ll put a management company in place and often even sign tenants to a lease, then sell the property to an investor who likes the idea of a monthly rent check coming in, but doesn’t want the hassles that come with one-on-one land-lording.

There are also tax advantages that come with real estate income that don’t apply to income earned through other business ventures — which virtually all “passive” income streams are — meaning you get hands-off earnings that the IRS keeps their hands off of, too!

The housing hiccup of the past decade left many wary about entering the real estate realm, but if you look at fifty years of history instead of ten you’ll see that no investment is as secure a way of building wealth. Fewer investors means better returns for those that jump in, with returns of 10% common and many properties returning 13% or more annually.

Any worthwhile passive income stream requires at least a little bit of learning. You need to know what your money’s doing even if you’re not doing anything yourself. You can learn more about turnkey real estate and generating a truly passive income in this web class, and get started building your work-free future today!

BANNED VIDEO: Reveals an Average Man’s Method to Retiring Rich Even If You Have a Small Budget & Not a Lot of Time

Warren Buffet Prodigy Reveals Why Real Estate is His Number One Investment Pick for 2019

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

Do NOT read this if you’re looking for forex, bitcoin, or any other fringe investment advice.

Do NOT read this if you’re a ‘risky’ investor that is okay with potentially throwing away  large parts of their portfolio for a chance at a ‘slightly’ higher return.

If, however, you’re looking for a ‘safe as houses’ investment with a rock solid track record, you’re in the right place.

Most investment “experts” will tell you that index funds are your best bet for a safe and relatively lucrative investment.

They’re not completely off the mark.

For example, the S&P 500 has had an average return of 11% over the past 70 years. That sounds like a pretty darn good investment!

BUT that’s not the whole story, and it’s far from the BEST investment. 11% is the average return over a period of 70 years. During that period, there were HUGE amounts of volatility that would make your stomach churn day in and day out. Take 2015 for example. If you were to have invested in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund in 2015, you would have actually LOST 5.4%.

No one, regardless of what they want you to think, really knows where stocks are ultimately headed next week, next month, or next year… and if they did, they probably wouldn’t be sharing their secrets. And forget about betting on regular ‘ol stocks too. They have only returned an average of 6.3% over the past 100 years.

Think CD’s or savings account are a smart move? Think again. When you account for inflation, you’ll actually be LOSING money every year. You may as well light your money on fire, it’s that much of a bad investment.

So what is the solution to your problem?

What if I told you that there was an investing tactic that was so simple to implement, and almost obvious, yet for whatever reason, you didn’t have it set up? And you know that if you did invest in it, you’d be making a lot more money without the risk?

You’d think I’d gone mad, right?

Well, prepare to be blown away as I disclose an investment vehicle you’re probably not using (but should be). The VERY same investment vehicle that is Warren Buffett’s Investment Pick for 2016.

It’s the very same investment vehicle that has personally allowed me to generate a 14% return in 2015.

So where are the pros putting their money in 2016?

[DRUM ROLL] Real Estate.

You’ve probably heard it before, but not in this way. And, no, not all real estate. Particular properties that have a track record of sustainable growth.

How good are we talking? 14% YEARLY. And that’s 14% even after you take into consideration the various expenses. In fact – it even includes professional property management to do all the hard work for you.

So, what makes Real Estate such an amazing investment vehicle?

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• For starters, it’s a REAL, PHYSICAL asset that you control (not an intangible line item on an investment statement)
• You have the ability to IMPROVE your investment. You can renovate and change your properties to increase their value rather than just ‘hoping’ your stock options increase in value… the power is in YOUR hands.
• You get to take advantage of what Einstein called the 8th wonder of the world: the power of compound interest
• When you retire, you can live off of the cash flow without touching the principle so that you can pass the cash flow on to your family when you are gone and they can pass it onto their children when they pass. A great way to build up your family fortune!

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Others, just like you, are ALREADY making a killing in the Real Estate Market.

One of our readers, Marty Murray invested $84k total to buy 2 investment properties a few months ago. He wants to retire in 20 years. As long as continues to reinvest the profits until he retires (compound interest), in 20 years he’ll have 24 rental properties, $141,120 a year in cash flow, and $1,061,550 in cash and equity.

If he would have invested the same amount in stocks, making the average return of 6.3%, he would have only had $285,065 at the end of 20 years. That’s a big difference.

And the biggest thing? Before Marty read any of our guides – he had ZERO knowledge about ANYTHING related to Real Estate… and now he’s on track for a $1,000,000+ payday.

But it’s not always rainbows and good times.

Real estate can have its ups and downs, even if it’s nowhere near as cyclical as stocks. The sudden kind of big crashes like we saw in 2008 are far outside the norm. By investing for cash flow instead of appreciation, you become all but immune to real estate bubbles.

If predictability and peace-of-mind are what you’re after, real estate offers a much safer alternative and that’s what I’m going to show you how to do on a 100% FREE webinar I’m putting on for people who are interested in making SMART and RELIABLE investments. Click here to attend our FREE webinar and secure your financial future.

Don’t think you have the money to invest? Think again.

Most people don’t have the extra cash needed to buy real estate just laying around in their checking accounts. BUT most people don’t know that you can actually use the funds from your retirement accounts to invest in real estate using a self directed IRA. That’s a game changer that we are going to show you how to take full advantage of on our free webinar

Don’t know how to manage a property? Don’t worry.

Owning real estate often creates images of getting calls at 2am to deal with an unclogged toilet, or dealing with unruly tenants.

And there’s a trick to avoid ALL of that.

There is a way to get all of the advantages of real estate without dealing with any of the hassles of being a landlord by selecting turnkey properties.

Selecting turnkey properties makes everything simple for you. The property is selected by an experienced investor in a neighborhood that is statistically great for rentals (low vacancy, high rents, good returns). The property is then fixed up, filled with a quality tenant, and set up with a professional management company that will take care of everything from collecting the rents to dealing with repairs.

We’ll show you how to do ALL of that in the webinar… so you don’t have to do any hard work! Sign up here.

Is it risky?

Every investment comes with some element of risk. Real estate just happens to be one of the safest and most secure things out there (a lot safer than stocks). Buying a turnkey property helps eliminate most of the risk because it eliminates the learning curve of going off and doing it on your own. You’re leveraging other peoples YEARS of experience.

The important thing when investing in turnkey real estate is that you are open to investing in areas outside of where you live. Often times, the best investments (and returns) are only located in a few select cities. My saying is “Live where you live and invest where it makes sense.” And the turnkey aspect of that, where properties are fully managed for you, makes that totally possible.

Jay Dao, a 30-year-old engineer who lives in Santa Clara, California, felt priced out of the market in the Bay Area, so he turned to investing in more affordable regions and now owns properties in Chicago and Indianapolis.

“Turnkey investing is a much more passive form of real estate investing for busy professionals or investors who simply don’t want to put in that much work themselves, but still would like to own rental property,” says Dao, who chronicles his adventures in real estate on the blog FIFighter.com.

So if you want to learn about how Warren Buffet is planning to attack 2016, or how you can generate your own $1,000,000 fortune, click here to sign up to our free webinar where we’re going to give you ALL the information you need to start your own real estate empire from scratch using nothing but your EXISTING retirement fund!

This training is happening this week only and there are only 250 seats available so if you’re serious, you NEED to click here to register now.

Your financial future DEPENDS on it.

Warren Buffett’s Investment Advice for the Average Person

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

Most people know Warren Buffett as the guy that made his money by buying huge companies.

Unfortunately, that’s out of reach for most people.

I was sitting at the bar

“I’d buy up a couple hundred thousands single-family homes if I could.”

“Houses are even better than stocks.”

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

“Diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.”

Here’s What To Do Next

You can click away from this page and forget what you just read and continue getting average returns on your retirement funds.

Or you can join me on my Free Training Webinar (absolutely nothing will be for sale).  Just good quality information.

Now, I learned a lot more from “Mr. X,” than I can share in a blog post. So I wanted to create a training for you.

Are You Making This Huge Retirement Planning Mistake That Could Prevent You From Retiring on Time and Living the Retirement Lifestyle You Want to Live?

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

by Brian Bagnall

Did you know that a new study shows that 83% of Americans aren’t going to be able to retire on time?

That’s staggering.

And that number only continues to get worse.

This has lots of ramifications. It means that you might have to continue working well past your retirement date. Or you might have to pick up a 2nd job. Or you might have to decrease your cost of living. Or, worse yet, you might never be able to retire (this is becoming more common).

The days of counting on Social Security for your retirement are long gone. And even retirees who have saved for retirement during their working years have had to make drastic changes in their lifestyles in order to adjust to their new incomes.

In fact, 56% of retirees are “not confident they will be able to live comfortably throughout their retirement years”, according to data from AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons).

Sadly, most Americans will just not be able to maintain their lifestyle in retirement and many will see their savings and investments come up short for even the most basic of expenses. But you’ll be one of the few who will be financially set if you follow the advice in this article.

What is the Most Common Mistake People Make When It Comes to Their Retirement Investments?

It’s actually quite simple. The most common mistake is doing whatever else is doing.

Most people invest the funds in their retirement account into a combination of these things: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or cd’s.

There is one major problem with this.

If you’re doing what the average person is doing, how can you possibly expect anything other than average results?

And the answer is: you can’t.

The average yearly return investing using a combination of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and CDs is 3% to 6%.

By the time you factor in a few percentage points of inflation every year, you’ll find that your money really isn’t growing as much as it needs to maintain your current lifestyle through retirement.

One of the Most Under-looked Investment Techniques

Hands down, one of the best things that you can do make sure that you retire on time (or early) and still be able to maintain your current lifestyle is investing in real estate using your IRA.

Now, before you go running for the hills… it’s not the get calls at 2am in the morning to unclog a toilet or rehab a property in a war-zone kind of investing in real estate. It’s completely hands off. You’ll definitely want to read until the end before you judge.

Real estate has created more wealth in America than almost any other method of investing. It provides the opportunity to generate income from rent and appreciation. Real estate tends to perform really well over long periods of time and the rewards can add a great deal to your chances of retiring on time.

Buying real estate in your IRA isn’t a new concept, in fact it has been a possibility since IRAs were formed back in 1974. Many investors and even real estate professionals are unaware that retirement funds can be utilized to invest in real estate.

The Best Way to Do It

You can use your IRA to invest in any type of real estate but the best investment technique you can use in your IRA is to buy rental properties. You can do this hands off where you never make a repair or meet a tenant.

1. Open up a Self-Directed IRA (SDIRA) Account. You can transfer funds from a current institution, rollover an old 401(k) plan, or simply make an annual contribution.

2. Find a property that’s in good shape that gives you at least a 10% yearly net ROI (preferably with a tenant in place). The formula for determining ROI is:
(Yearly Income – Yearly Expenses*) / Total Purchase Price
If the answer is 10% (.10) or above, it’s a good investment.

* Expenses include property taxes, association dues (if any), utility bills paid by owner (if any), management costs, and a 5% per year repair allowance.

3. Place it with a management company to manage the property so that you never get a repair call or have to deal with a tenant. You simply deposit checks and pay expenses.

These are the basic action steps but there’s a bit more to it. We actually have a FREE service that can help you with all of this (including opening up your SDIRA, finding a property, and selecting a management company). If you’d like to schedule a time chat about it (and get a copy of our FREE report, “Cash Flow Investor’s Report”), just click here.

Do’s and Don’ts

If you want to use your IRA to buy real estate, you need to understand what you can and can’t do. Violating any of these things could cause you to lose your IRA to lose its tax-free status.

• You can’t live in the property yourself or have use of the property in any way. So you can’t use this method to buy a vacation home that you would use.
• Income generated by the IRA-owned real estate must go back into the IRA.
• You can not pay for any property related expenses with your personal funds on behalf of the IRA. All expenses must be paid from the IRA.
• Maintenance and Improvements cannot be performed by the IRA holder.
• You can’t get a traditional mortgage loan in an IRA, so you really need to have enough money in your IRA to purchase properties for cash if you plan on having the property as a long-term rental. (Don’t worry, you can purchase a cash-flowing rental for as little as $35,000.)
• Don’t restrict yourself to buying rental properties in your own backyard. In fact, in most cities, you can’t earn a 10%-15% return on your money anyways. You want to look for cities with low property prices and high rents. This usually eliminates highly populated places like New York, Chicago, LA, Dallas, San Francisco, and other major cities where investors typically only earn a few percentage points on their money because property prices are so high.

What are the Benefits of Holding Real Estate in my IRA? 

There really are many but I’ll detail the main ones here:

• Real Estate is a tangible asset; you can see it and touch it. Personally, I never liked the idea of investing in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds because all I get is a statement to look at every month. I have no control over whether the companies I invest in do well or not. I’m basically gambling and hoping for the best. Besides, if you’re just investing in whatever everyone else is investing in, you can’t possibly make more than average returns (average activities get average results).
• Your money grows tax free. That’s right, the income from your properties will grow tax free (as well as the appreciation).
• Make double digit returns. The average rate of return investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds is 3% – 6%. After you account for inflation, you’re only making a few percentage points on your money every year. To really be able to see your money grow, you have to invest in instruments that will yield at least a 10% on your money every year. Investing in rentals can do this for you. In fact, it’s not uncommon to make 15% on your money every year.
• It’s safer than most investment methods. Don’t let anyone every tell you that any investment method is 100% safe. They would be lying. But, I have never found anything safer. Rents typically don’t go down so your cash flow will be safe. And even if rents do happen to go down (have you ever had a landlord lower the rent?), property values typically go up. Also, we recommend that you don’t invest in high appreciation areas (like California, New York, or Florida) because as fast as the value can go up, it can come crashing down even faster. Average appreciation is best because then we won’t be affected by any real estate bubbles. Besides, we’re in this for the monthly cash flow. The appreciation is just a bonus.

Most people don’t realize the huge difference between a low return on investment and a high one. If you are able to obtain better returns on your investments, you can both drastically reduce the time it will take you to retire and considerably increase your monthly budget once you do so.

Let’s look at this graphically (based on someone that starts investing $1200 a year at age 35 and retires at age 65):

Annual Contribution	Return on Investment	Total at age 65
$1,200.00	5%	$79,762.62
$1,200.00	15%	$521,694.18
*This numbers were calculated using Bloomberg’s retirement calculator at: http://www.bloomberg.com/personal-finance/calculators/retirement/

Shocking isn’t it? Well, this is the impact that investing your money like a pro can have on your long term financial future.

And don’t worry if you’re over the age of 35 and haven’t started yet. No matter what your age is, there is still time to make changes that can have a lasting impact.

 So What Now?

So you’ve read this article but what exactly should you do next?  Well, you have 2 choices:

1. Be average
2. Be smart

An average person would click away from this page and continue to make average returns investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

A smart person will say to themselves, “I really need to stop procrastinating on my retirement accounts and take an active interest right now.”

It’s never too early (or too late) to start making changes to your retirement plan to make sure that you’re getting the best return possible so that you can enjoy retirement on your terms.

To help those that are smart, I wrote a guide called the “The Cash Flow Investor’s Report” to help you get a better idea of what your next steps should be when it comes to adding real estate to your portfolio. In the guide, I detail what you can do to make sure that you retire on time (or early) and have a secure retirement where you’re doing the things that you want to be doing.  And I want to give it to you for free.

While there is really good information contained in the guide, there’s nothing like a seasoned investment expert personally reviewing your portfolio and giving you customized advice.  And I want to help you do just that… for free too!

So go here to request your free guide (and be sure to check the box on the form to request your Free Investment Boosting Session with me personally).

www.FreeRetirementTips.com

When we jump on the phone, you’ll walk away with a retirement plan with specific, measurable financial goals and a custom investment strategy to fit your needs that you can immediately implement to double or even triple your current ROI.

If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to share it and leave a comment below.  I try and respond to every comment.

Will These 4 Common Mistakes Prevent You from Retiring Early and Maintaining Your Current Lifestyle?

By Brian Bagnall | Uncategorized

by Brian Bagnall

Did you know that a new study shows that 83% of Americans aren’t going to be able to retire on time?

That’s staggering.

And that number has only gotten worse.

This has lots of ramifications. You might have to continue working well past your retirement date. Or you might have to pick up a 2nd job. Or you might have to decrease your cost of living. Or, worse yet, you might never be able to retire (this is becoming more common).

So what are people doing wrong to cause this shift?  Here are 4 of the major ones:

1. Doing What Everyone Else Is Doing

Most people invest the funds in their retirement account into a combination of these things: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or cd’s.

There is one major problem with this.

If you’re doing what the average person is doing, how can you possibly expect anything other than average results?

And the answer is: you can’t.

The average yearly return investing using a combination of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and CDs is 3% to 6%.

2. Not Accounting for Inflation

Now, a 3% to 6% return ins’t horrible… until you factor in inflation.

Inflation is when prices rise and your money decreases in purchasing power.  This happens for a number of different reasons but stems from the fact that the government keeps printing money.

Every year, the government releases an estimated rate of inflation for the previous year. Usually, it’s about 1-2% per year. The problem with the rate that the government releases is that it’s never in their best interest to release a high inflation rate because it shows that they are printing too much money. Investment experts agree that the real rate of inflation is about 5% per year.

You can roughly figure out what inflation is by paying attention to how much the cost of the things you buy on a regular basis have risen. For example, According to USA Today, last year the price of eggs went up 5.7%, tomatoes went up 6.9%, sausage went up 8.7%, potatoes up 6.9%, oranges up 12.2%.

But let’s take the 5% figure that most investment experts agree on. Let’s assume that you’re making 6% on your retirement funds, which is the high end of average. When you subtract 5% inflation from your 6% yearly return, that leaves you with earning 1% per year. You’re not going anywhere by making 1% on your money except to the poor house.

3. Not Having a Plan

The Employee Benefits Research Institute recently performed a Retirement Confidence Survey which revealed that 60% of workers have not calculated how much money they need to save for their retirement income needs.

This isn’t something you can leave up to your investment broker. Most investment brokers are paid their fee whether you make money or not. You have to take an active interest in your own financial future.

Sadly, most people spend more time planning their next vacation than planning their financial future. And as you know, failing to plan is planning to fail.

When working on your retirement plan, it is very important to consider how long you’ll need your retirement savings to provide for you. While average life expectancies are published each year, there are more things that you need to take into consideration when defining your investment’s time horizon (like inflation, cost of living increases, and your specific retirement goals).

If you haven’t taken the time to set measurable and specific financial objectives in writing and designed and implemented an action plan to achieve them, there’s a very high chance you won’t be able to enjoy freedom and independence in your golden years.

______________________________________________________________________________________

FREE Guide Explains: The 30-Minute Retirement Plan So You Can Retire on Your Terms

CLICK HERE >>>

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4. Not Seeking Out Alternative Investments

Assuming you have a typical pension from your 9 to 5 and are managing to put a few bucks away each month on top of that, it would be wise to look for opportunities to invest your savings into something that will give you the best returns.

It really depends on the economic climate at the time but there are many ways that you can increase your savings and future retirement income if you are smart about how you invest.

For instance, most people don’t know that you can put real estate into your retirement portfolio and your money can grow tax free. Real estate tends to perform really well over long periods of time and the rewards can add a great deal to your chances of retiring on time.

So What Now?

It’s never too early (or too late) to start making changes to your retirement plan to make sure that you’re getting the best return possible so that you can enjoy retirement on your terms.

You’ve read this article and found some things you could be doing better. But what exactly should you do next? That’s a complicated question that depends on a variety of factors. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all investing advice. If there was, everyone would be doing it.

So I wrote a guide called the “30 Minute Investing Plan” to help you get a better idea of what your next steps should be.  In the guide, I detail 4 things you can do right now to avoid running out of money in retirement.  And I want to give it to you for free.

While there is really good information contained in the guide, there’s nothing like a seasoned investment expert personally reviewing your portfolio and giving you customized advice.  And I want to help you do just that… for free too!

So go here to request your free guide (and be sure to check the box at the bottom to request your Free Investment Boosting Session with me personally).

www.FreeInvestmentTips.com

When we jump on the phone, you’ll walk away with a retirement plan with specific, measurable financial goals and a custom investment strategy to fit your needs.

If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to leave a comment below. 🙂  I try and respond to every comment.