EP. 144 More Knowledge, More Wealth: AM 590 Radio Show

Transcript:

Announcer:

This is More Knowledge, More Wealth, with your host, Gabriel Shahin. Gabriel is a certified financial planner and a registered investment advisor at Falcon Wealth Planning. This show is not intended to provide personalized investment advice through this broadcast and does not represent that the services or securities discussed, are suitable for any investor. Investors are advised not to rely on any information contained in the broadcast, in the process of making a full informed investment decision. More Knowledge, More Wealth, on AM 590 The Answer. Now here's your host, Gabriel Shahin.

Gabriel Shahin:

Good afternoon. This is Gabriel Shahin, certified financial planner and your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. Our goal is to give you the knowledge you need to increase your wealth. Now to the listener, you can always reach out to myself or any one of our colleagues here at Falcon Wealth Planning. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's (855) 96-FALCON, like the bird. We can help relate this show to your specific situation.

Now I'm a principal of Falcon Wealth Planning. We are a registered investment advisory firm, a fee only independent RA, might I add, but we really specialize in comprehensive planning. We do invest spending as well, manage money on behalf of our clients, but we really specialize in comprehensive planning. And that talks about where you are today, whether it's cash flow, so on, retirement planning, when to take social security, if you have a government pension, windfall elimination provision, so on and so forth.

Tax planning is our biggest niche folks. That's what you could do today and throughout retirement to save in taxes, is state planning, insurance, making sure you're properly protected, if God forbid something were to happen and investments as well, making sure you're not taking on any additional risk and avoiding those high fees, high cost, high commission type products, folks.

We are offering a free financial assessment to really help answer those questions that you have, those things that are out there that you just don't know. We hear this a lot from our clients, "I don't know what I don't know." You don't know what you don't know. And I think to help, because we see this on a daily basis, we work with people like you every single day. You're only going to retire once in your life, we retired 30 times last month by itself. If you think about it, with the amount of clients that we've seen, let alone myself, but as a firm that we have, and it's the same thing with buying a house, buying investment property, having business, working in your business, what you could do to save on taxes.

So folks we've seen this movie before, talking you off a ledge with what's happening in the stock market right now. I'm sure few of you guys are freaking out and you know what, rightfully so, because what we typically see is people don't have a strategy for when the market drops. So this is where it's time to not freak out, but to be opportunistic and disciplined, this is where you have to know what you're going to do. Not everything is downing, if so, you're improperly managing.

I've seen, sometimes people say, "I'm diversified, I've got 10 funds." Yeah, but you got the same fund 10 times over. You're not diversified, you have redundancy in your portfolio. This is why yet again, we offer a free assessment, take a look at what you're doing. You can't just have the S&P 500 Index Fund and then Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, then a Nasdaq QQQ Fund. You can't just have these, because that's all large cap. You have redundancy yet again in your portfolio. And we just see this happen all too often. It's sad, people come to us after the fact, when this happens, wanting help after they made the mistake.

And so you just have to ask yourself a simple question when you're seeking help. And that is, do you find value? Do you find value in your dentist? Do you find value at your grocery store? Do you find value on your 25th anniversary or your 50th birthday eating dinner at McDonald's or Ruth's Chris Steak House or whatever, you get my point, doesn't have to be that obscene, but you get what I'm saying.

Do you find value in those things? Right? Because really all you need is a Big Mac supersized, if they still even do supersized, but you get my point and that will make you full. Or do you want a white cloth dinner, now having a white cloth dinner every single day seems a bit excessive. But my point is, what do you value? Some people do that. Some people see value in having a private chef. Some people see value in having a private boat. Some people have value in siting in a private jet. I personally think that might be excessive for people who fly maybe twice a year, but you get my point.

So each individual is different. Our job is not to judge, it's to make and maximize what you have coming about. And if you don't care for that, "Hey, just shut up, manage my money and grow." I get it. You could see value at the place like Vanguard. How do you like that? Or wherever, or you could just do it on your own, buy a single stock and let it ride. I wouldn't recommend that, that's going to be one heck of a rollercoaster. Buy the S&P 500. Great. You could have one big above rollercoaster dropped almost 40% in COVID 2020, down 20% right now.

So you get my point. It's what do you value? Some people value that experience of walking down that path that we know you're going past. So people value saving money in more than just the stock market, making you money, not just in the stock market, but in tax planning and estate planning. For the mega-wealthy, why are they mega-wealthy? Because they're smart enough to have additional people that they can rely on to save their money because they don't know what they don't know. So they hire the attorneys and the accountants and so on. That's what every mega-wealthy people do.

But our firm's goal is we don't like just to help the rich get richer, even though that's where our core competency is, our goal is to help the aspiring become rich. We would love to help you with that. That's what we take a lot of value in. If you want help with us trying to have access to the same thing that the big guys do have, give us a call. We've got offices all across California and outside the states as well. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird. We can help put together an assessment to help relate to show to your situation and explain to you what you don't know.

By the way folks, if you're just joining us, you're listening to Gabriel Shahin, certified financial planner and your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth, here on every weekend talking about all important topics of personal finance and we are discussing today, just value.

Now, what do you value? You may value time. You just don't want to deal with the financial stuff. Maybe your spouse handles those financial stuff, whoever it does, whoever, even professionals hire other professionals to handle it on their behalf. Like myself, my own firm manages my money. I don't have the time, I'm in meetings all day long. I'm not managing my money, I can't. It's difficult. And I also get emotional about it. It's my money. It's difficult for me to sell something that's making me money because I need fund somewhere to buy what's on sale. That's difficult for me to do.

And frankly, I don't like it. I don't like to have to do that. I just value my time more. I love talking about it, right? People who love talking about the cars are they the same ones that are working under the hood? Some are, and that's fine, but not all of them are. Some people that are foodies, right? They love restaurants. They love going out. Are they sometimes the best chef? Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're really good chefs.

The point I'm making with you is, you may have an interest. I have absolute passion for the financial services industry, but sometimes you hear those saying that, "The cobbler's son has the worst shoes." Hey, don't cry a river, right? I'm doing just fine. But the fact that doing it yourself is the big question. Is that something that you even enjoy to do. That's a question you have to ask yourself and if you don't, then you will fail by doing it because you're going to subconsciously push it off. I just want you to be aware of these things, so you can be better by either doing it yourself and enhancing it and giving it the time it deserves.

Right now, this could be a buying opportunity of the decade. Heck, COVID sure was. We're still ahead of where we were from the COVID crash of March of 2020. If you think about it, where we are now is frankly, where we were middle of last year in 2021, we haven't gave them back that much, it's just last year was such a roar over year that we could argue was over inflated.

That's why it's important to stay proactive on your portfolio. That's why we took our profits from the table from 2021. People thought we were crazy by putting the money in short term bonds. "It's not going to do anything. Interest rates are going to go up." Well, they're right. It did go up. And guess what? Those bonds did drop a little bit in value, maybe one to 2% in value, but it's sure better than losing 20 and 30%.

Act now, you should be buying when those are fearful, like now. You should be selling when those are greedy, like last year, not everything, just take your profits from the table. That's sometimes the value is you do what's counterintuitive. That's what the professional would do. Where other people are the bandwagons, what do they end up doing? They're buying high. They bought Tesla at a thousand plus. Now it's what? $600, $700 depending on the day.

So just be careful. It's difficult because it's emotional. We've seen this movie before, we've seen these mistakes people have made, we just don't want you to do it. And if you want to help to analyze your situation, see the value that can be provided from an investment point of view, from a real estate point of view, from a business point of view, from a tax point of view, give us a call. You have nothing to lose. We're offering one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time at no cost, folks. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird.

We could provide value and really help protect you of what's out there. Because folks, what we've seen now with market volatility is that people are now trying to come out the woodworks and sell you junk, sell you things that are high in commissions for them and trying to promise you the world where they claim you can have your cake and need it too. You take no risk, but you get all the return. That's ridiculous. They try to sell you on insurance products, whether it's indexed universal life or your variable annuities or index annuities or whatever the case is, where you can't lose and you get all the upside.

Folks, I'm telling you, that's not how it works. You should see in the illustration. And there's a page in there that says, these numbers are not... Things would have to go right for it to look like this. Very, very right. And most likely it's not going to be this. Don't talk about the associated fees with these, the loan costs with these, the premiums that continue to go up, they're not explained to you. Beware, this is where the pre-dinner seminars start coming out. This is where the invitation start coming out. This is when you start getting the emails that are out there. This is where you start getting the infomercials that come out late at night.

Be careful folks of what's out there. Get somebody who's non-commission, true fiduciary advisor, fee only, like Falcon Wealth Planning for an unbiased opinion. We'll tell you what you have good or bad. And you decide if you want to work with us or not. We want to be one of the good guys in this space folks. All right? Now, we are going to come back. We're going to go on a little break here, but if you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird. We're going to go on a quick break, we'll be right back after a few words.

This is Gabriel Shahin, certified financial planner. You're host of More Knowledge, More Wealth, that's on every weekend. We're going over all important topics of personal finance. We're going over retirement planning, making sure you're prepared for retirement, social security and strategies, real estate, taxes, avoiding them now and in the future, investments, reducing fees, commissions, and so on, insurance and estate planning, folks, we are offering a free financial assessment that you could take advantage of. We have office all across Southern California, including the Inland Empire. Give us a call to take advantage. It's a $500 offer. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird or visit our website, Falconwealthplanning.com. That's falconwp.com for short. Enjoy the show and we look forward to serving you.

AM590 The Answer.

Welcome back folks. This is Gabriel Shahin, certified financial planner and your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth, here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. And I wanted to discuss with you, now that the market is dropping and you might be seeing some deceitful sales tactics from commission based advisors that are out there trying to sell you annuities because the market is scary and you can lose money. The markets go up over time. Volatility is normal, it should be expected, it should be planned for. That's what we do, we don't invest all your money in the stock market. Why? Because we know there's going to be buying opportunities later and we know there's going to be volatility later. So don't be a fool and put all your money in the stock market. There are proper ways to invest and there are other alternatives you could do, but don't choose the commission based ones. You don't go asking for those, they're pitched to you, they're sold to you and people just don't know any better, sadly.

So my point to you of course, is beware, get a second opinion before you dive in. You really don't know what you don't know, as we discuss in the first half of the show. We want to make sure that you are making these right decisions. Because sometimes they're irrevocable and these products that are being positioned to you, where you can't lose and you get a guaranteed 7% rate of return, it doesn't work out the way you think, it's based on the insurance side of things. You can still lose money. If they say you're going to get guaranteed 7% over 10 years and you put in a million dollars, let's forget the fact the commission is 70,000 to 200,000, plus they still make one to 2% a year, which oh, by the way, most advisors only make one to 2% a year. So they're totally double dipping and they get seven to 20 years worth of commissions upfront, which is insane of fees upfront, I should say.

So my point is, right, talk about a digression. My point is they tried to tell you that yeah, you put in your million dollars or a $100,000, doesn't matter what it is. And that grows to $2 million. Okay? At the end of 10 years, you can't just take your money out, right? Because they say 7%, if you get that over 10 years, the [inaudible 00:15:27] is you'll double your money in 10 years. So your million goes to 2 million. Does that mean you can just take your money and leave? The answer is no, you cannot. You cannot just take your money and leave. Well, how come? Well, because that's the insurance value of the money, the annuity value, that's not the actual contract value.

The contract value is still subject to whatever the fair market value is. And it could be less than the million dollars, depending. Like if you invested from 2002 to 2009, that 10 year period where you had the dot-com bubble and the 2008 recession, you lost 10%. So your million dollars would've been worth 900,000, assuming it was invested in the S&P 500, which oh, by the way, why it's important to diversify, not get these crappy products.

My point is you have to be careful, you have to be your number one advocate. This is why we're recommending an assessment for you guys, where we'll just give you one to two hours, one to two meetings of our time at no cost. This is where you can ask a bunch of questions. And we ask a bunch of questions about you, because you might ask a question of, "What should I do with this a $100,000?" "Oh, okay, was it inheritance?" "Is it your life savings?" "How much do you make? Do you make a $100,000 a year? Do you make nothing a year? Are you retired? Do you make $10 million a year, where that $100,000 means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Do you have $100 million sitting in the bank or do you have..." You get what I'm saying? Right? I can keep going on and on about this.

But this is why it's important to be holistic. What do you doing with a million dollars? If it was me, just put it on the stock market. "Hey, thanks for your advice, Gabriel. We really appreciate that." And you go on your way. Wait, wait, wait, what is the stock market again? Are you saying invest in the S&P 500? Are you saying invest in Dow Jones? Are you saying invest in small companies, medium companies, large companies, international companies, developed countries, emerging countries, large, medium, small of those? Should I invest in gas, oil, commodities, gold, Bitcoin?

You got what I'm saying, folks? There's a lot of different things. Is real estate a good purchase right now? The point is it depends on your situation, your tax situation, your cash flow situation. These are important concepts that a lot of people don't look into, they don't care for. They're not equipped to answer it because they're not allowed to give tax advice, but we are. We pride ourselves in being that tax advisor, but you have to be careful of the predators that are out there in this industry. The sales guys that are out there or sales women. Be careful, please, this is your money. This is your life savings. This is important stuff. And if you need help with this, give us a call. That's what we're here for. We do this on a daily basis. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird. Or visit our website at falconwealthplanning.com, that's falconwp.com for short.

By the way, folks, if you're just joining us, you're listening to Gabriel Shahin, certified financial planner and your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth, here on every weekend. Our goal is to really give you all the information you need to make you have a full informed, educated decision and not have people scare you into investing into an insurance product.

So I mentioned earlier variable annuities, how that works. And by the way on that same example, as if you invest a million and your money doubles in 10 years, 2 million, you can't just take in a run. What they'll do is they'll do a payout on that for life. Now you can't just be a 30 year old and do it at 40, no, there's certain ages. So let's say you do it at 55 to 65. Now it's worth 2 million. It's not really worth 2 million, but that 2 million is what they claim it's worth if you will, on the contract. But the surrender value is not that, the annuity value is that.

And so you eligible at that point to withdraw at a four, five or 6% rate of return, depending on your age. Let's say you're 65, even though it's not 5%, it's in the fours, we're going to say five for a simple math. So at $2 million withdrawing at 5% is a 100,000 a year. Okay? You do that for 10 years, right? You're 65 to 75. Now you've taken on a million dollars. But think about this. You started with a million dollars 20 years prior, right? From 55 to 65. Gave a million at 55. 65, you're able to start withdrawing a 100,000 a year.

So now you've gone 10, 20 years and taking out your principle. So you're 75 years and you've picking out your principal. Now let's say you go another 10 years and take out another $100,000 a year, and so another million. So now you've taken out 2 million in over 30 years. Well doubling your money over 30 years is less than a two and a half percent rate of return.

See how insurance companies are making money? They're just taking your money that you're fearful of, you're scared of, and they're investing it on your behalf, into the stock market. And if you die after you start that annuity, your money goes away, goes to the insurance carrier. It's sad how this works and you don't get the full picture. They don't need to give you the full picture. This industry is very tricky, it's very misleading. And I apologize on of them, but they're greedy. You got to think, they're making between 70,000 to $200,000 commission on one person. And on top of that, they're getting 10 to 20,000 a year of trails. It's crazy, but this is the reality.

And you can't even get out of it if you wanted to, you know why? Because they just got done paying this person, seven, 20% commissions. They can get out of it because they have to recoup the commissions for the person that's selling it to you. And the person that sells it to you, "Oh you don't pay commissions." That's what they say. "Oh no, the insurance company pays me." Well, hello, you only get paid if you sell the dang thing. Who cares if they're the ones that have to pay you, of course they pay you, they get the money.

Don't fall for that stuff. The insurance industry and commission based industry invests millions upon millions in marketing these things. Why? Because they make billions upon billions. That's why the insurance companies are the MetLife fields or the Lincoln Financial fields or all of these things, Transamerica fields or Cerner or Arena or whatever those are.

You go to your downtowns, look at Downtown LA, some of the biggest buildings are financial institutions and insurance companies. So just be careful folks, get that second opinion. I know the person you're talking to may sound like a good guy and might seem great, but just it's your finances, don't trust, verify. What does it say? Reagan, "Don't trust verify." So just be careful and give us a call if you need help with that. That's what we're here for. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird. We can help put a personal, confidential assessment for you, to really make sure you're doing the right thing. And we'll be very straight up with you. There's nothing for us to hide. We have nothing to lose. You're not a client, yes.

And if you like what you hear, you can work with us and we're more affordable than the other guys that are out there. Why? Because we're not commission based. So you're going to save on the front end commissions there. And with Falcon, we're an independent registered investment advisor firm. We don't have an independent broker dealer at all. So you only pay Falcon, that's it?

Well, if you go to a local bank or any of these wirehouses, they call them broker dealers, you have to pay the advisor. You have to pay the brokerage house and you have to pay the fund companies and the investment companies that are running the things. They're not technically doing anything in-house, they're outsourcing. Well, we do our investment management in-house. That's why we're more affordable. Now, we can offer a lot more value too. Give us a try folks. Like I said, you have nothing to lose. We'd love to help. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird. Or visit our website at falconwealthplanning.com, that's falconwp.com for short.

Folks, that was a fast, fast show. So much to talk about here every week. Our goal is to really give you the information you need to increase your wealth. We are on every single weekend talking about all important topics of personal finance. And if there's something you wanted to talk about specifically, folks, send us an email at radio@falconwp.com, that's radio@falconwp.com for short. Send that over, we'll address that. You can either record yourself. We'll play your question over the air. We'll be happy to answer those questions for you.

Now feel free to give us, myself or any one of our colleagues a call at (855) 963-2526, that's 855-96-FALCON, like the bird, with any questions that you have that you want to relate the show to your specific situation. We want to make sure we give you the answers you need, so you do not make those mistakes. Now this show's on every weekend, whether it's on Spotify, Podcasts or on your local radio channel, we are on every Saturday. You can download this and we'll be happy for you to enjoy the show and pass it along with your friends. So folks, if nothing else, please have a blessed weekend. Take care, be safe, enjoy your week. And God bless.