Reaching the Third Age…

Reaching the Third Age…

We are here meeting with Mr Joseph Arbolaez – Agency Owner of We Insure Fortress Financial Group.

I would like you to give us a brief overview of how we can better prepare ourselves as we reach our senior life stages and know what we need to have in place?

Normally people procrastinate, saying that they will do it tomorrow, but often tomorrow never actually happens.  The issue is that it can be difficult to be productive and still generate income later in life.  Retirement can be very difficult without the resources to support basic living expenses or current lifestyle. I have clients who have been preparing for more than 30 years, but many others only think about it right before retirement. Ultimately, people need to be more disciplined about saving a percentage of their income for emergencies and for their retirement.

A critical component of an effective and long-term savings strategy is the use of a Compounding. It is a process which creates additional profit on top of the interest or gains a person has already earned previously. The earlier you begin the greater the potential for greater gains in later years.

Also, and contrary to the common belief, money saved in the bank beyond say 6 months of living expenses is not actually safe of losing value. The fact that since they earn minimal returns, they are losing the value of that money year upon year if not at least keeping up with an average inflation of 3%.

Since the 1980’s, plans like the 401k, 403b and IRA’s (Individual Retirement Account) etc. were created to motivate people into funding their own retirement accounts, mostly with pre-tax money. These accounts are designed so that you invest today and grow the value and when you retire after the age of 59 ½ you only pay the taxes on what you take out. The problem today is that many people are not participating in neither these plans at work nor an IRA of their own and if they did, they have no way of knowing if taxes will not be higher in the future. Many modern studies indicate that if you do not have an account proving lifetime income and you take distributions of 4% you may outlive your savings.

What are the benefits you offer?

We work with individuals, families, and business owners to help them identify and reach their short and long-term goals.  We know that every client is different, and each plan is created with that in mind.  Some clients might have employer sponsored 401(k) accounts while others use IRA’s (Individual Retirement Account) and our job is to make sure that everything works together to create the best solution.

Our main focus is making sure that we discuss risk, inflation, social security, and taxes. Social security and taxes are a major concern.  Younger clients wonder if social security will be around while older clients worry about higher taxes.  

Lastly, we concentrate on protecting a client’s current assets.  This part of a plan will include a review of all insurance including life insurance, health insurance (including Medicare), or long-term care insurance as well as home, auto, and liability coverages.