Author Archives for alexhouse
March 3, 2015 10:31 am
Published by alexhouse
It’s the time of life that you have been waiting all your working years to experience. Retirement has finally come, and you can enjoy what you have been working so hard for. But suddenly, a flood of questions stream through your mind: What will happen if the market takes a sudden downturn? How safe are my investments from losing value? Did I save enough to receive income for life? If you are similar to many Americans, then these are questions you have already asked yourself...
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February 27, 2015 9:48 am
Published by alexhouse
The probability of achieving your life’s financial goals can be a direct result of how efficiently you manage your financial resources such as savings and investments including expenses, debt and cash flow along the way. There are many moving financial pieces to a comprehensive financial planning puzzle as it relates to savings, investments, taxes, capital purchases (auto, appliances, college funding, etc), personal debt, and mortgages— to name a few. How each asset or liability is handled could either have a negative or positive impact on...
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February 25, 2015 10:19 am
Published by alexhouse
This is a question I get asked a lot in my practice. However, this question is asked for many different reasons. There are several issues this question refers to, and each of them should be answered specifically in accordance with their real, underlying question. At what age should I purchase an annuity? This is a broad question, and will be answered in more detail as we work through some of the others. Generally speaking, most people under the age of 40 should not purchase an...
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February 19, 2015 9:17 am
Published by alexhouse
Annuities have been around for almost 2000 years and the public’s understanding of how they work is at an all-time low. “I Hate Annuities and So Should You” is what one investment firm says in their full page ads from coast to coast. Why do they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on those ads? The answer is to attract attention because there is so much confusion about how these products work. What they don’t tell you in those ads is that there are good...
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February 17, 2015 1:53 pm
Published by alexhouse
Believe it or not, Tony Robbins, motivational guru, has joined the ranks of advisors offering fixed indexed annuities to the American public. He realizes that people in the United States today find value in the benefits that a fixed indexed annuity provides. What other investment can protect you from market risk while simultaneously producing tremendous streams of income guaranteed to last you for life, and also the lifetime of your spouse? There is no other product offered today that can do what a fixed indexed...
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February 6, 2015 1:44 pm
Published by alexhouse
More misconceptions and myths swirl around annuities than any other financial product. Some of the confusion may be due to the fact that annuities have greatly improved over the past 10 years, offering more options and benefits than ever before. One of the most flexible types of annuities is a fixed indexed annuity (FIA). An FIA is a financial product sold by insurance companies. The insurance company guarantees to protect your principal and give you the potential for growth linked to an index, such as...
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February 4, 2015 12:12 pm
Published by alexhouse
I don’t think I have received more questions or have seen as much confusion as I have concerning annuities and life insurance. For today’s discussion, we are going to focus on annuities – how they’re sold, how they’re bought, and what is important when buying not just annuities, but any financial product or service. The only product that may be more confusing to understand and explain than annuities is life insurance. They are similar in many ways, but most notably that they are both insurance...
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January 14, 2015 11:59 am
Published by alexhouse
So consider this source: I am an independent advisor, and I have been in the industry for 15 years. I have worked for big banks, small banks, a retail brokerage, fledgling hedge fund managers, registered investment advisory firms, and now I am completely independent and objective. I have seen it all and have had exposure to almost every tool or investment product that exists out there. I don’t say this to brag by any means. There are probably far smarter and better experts (as they...
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November 18, 2014 8:56 am
Published by alexhouse
The “Bond Blues” are beginning to show their ugly faces. Your supposedly safe investments are now showing losses, and if certain bond issuers don’t reorganize their affairs, they could possibly default. What do you do? Where else can you get favorable tax treatment on your money and a decent rate of return with little or no risk? The answer is twofold. First, you wake up from your lazy portfolio slumber and take action, that’s what you do! You realize your bond’s real return. You need...
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November 3, 2014 5:10 pm
Published by alexhouse
A first-class fixed indexed annuity puts you in position to collect a pension-like income, guaranteed to continue for as long as you and your spouse are alive. These annuities allow you to profit from the stock and commodities markets with no risk. This type of annuity simply uses financial market indexes, like the S&P 500, as outside reference points to determine your interest. Whenever the market (index) goes up, you make money; whenever it goes down, since your money is never invested or at risk...
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