Retirement Advice for today: Don't just sit there: MOVE your money NOW!

I'm not the only one that's been urging folks to move to "safe" savings options and current events are putting an exclamation point on the advice! I woke up today to the news that unemployment is stalled at 9.5.  This on top of GDP at all time low & Social Security in the red a year earlier than predicted, I have a feeling today is not going to be a good day for the market.  If you still have retirement savings in the market listen up.  Here are the headlines:

* Unemployment hangs at 9.5% (of course the real number is somewhere between 16-22%)

* GDP (consumer spending)  dropped again to 2.5% (when consumer spending gets this low, markets typically collapse. Last time this happened – in Jan – the market fell)

* 131,000 jobs lost in July

* Social Security is in the red 1 year earlier than predicted.  (More being paid out due to those unemployed taking early retirement.)

* Economic advisor stepping down (more changes in the administration may lead to instability)

There are two questions that you need to ask and settle your course of action:

*With stocks 42 percent off their 2007 highs, is this the time to be buying or doing nothing? Or-

*With stocks 66 percent above the 2009 lows is now the opportunity to sell before another major collapse in the market hits?

Valid questions ... But here is what's even more important: Many are expecting too much from what the stock market index offers and have illusions of its past returns. Investors often fail to understand that ... IT'S ALL ABOUT RISK

The mantra of the inexperienced is ''Buy low Sell high" - virtually impossible to do! Especially when you consider that the long-term annual average return for the S&P 500 (including dividends) is only  9 percent.  After you pay the fees, what's left?!  NOT WHAT YOU WANTED!  And your asked to take on ALL the risk for that!

I didn't mention this above but here's another indicator we're headed for disaster. Claus Vogt recently wrote in Money & Market, "The most amazing thing was that the cash level of mutual funds fell to a new record low in March and April 2010. Lower than in 2000 and lower than the summer of 2007, and we all know how those two events played out! So when you see mutual fund cash levels come down, it's usually a sign of a topping market.

The scary thing is: What will the fund managers do if investors decide to get money out of their mutual funds? They'll be forced to sell stocks, no matter what the market is doing."

He went on to say, "The weekly leading indicator from the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) has plunged from its cyclical high. It entered the negative threshold at the end of May and has since declined to -10.5 percent.If you look back in history, you'll see that when this indicator came down to a level this low, we were either already in a recession or a recession began shortly thereafter."

I wrote about some of these trends several weeks ago in my article “The Stock Market Crash of 2010 part I-II”  If you didn't pay attention then, you may want to now.  If I were talking to my mother I’d be telling her to GET OUT OF THE MARKET NOW!  Watch for a market drop TODAY!

Don’t be like these guys: putting your head in the sand and hoping it all works out and gets better won’t save your nest egg. Don’t wait to see what the market will do; by then it will be too late! STOP LISTENING TO BROKERS WHO SAY, “Don’t move your money now you’ll just lock in your loses!”  It’s NOT true and your alternative is leave it there, take more losses, & what...hope you live (and possibly work) long enough to recover enough to get some income?  DON’T LET THEM TALK YOU INTO VARIABLE ANNUITIES EITHER!

Here are you choices as I see them:

1) Leave your money in the market and watch it evaporate if the predicted double dip occurs.  (Have you noticed the only ones saying things are getting better and the economy is growing is the Feds?!  As Groucho Marx said, “Who you going to believe, them or your own eyes?” )

2) You could pull your money out and put it under the mattress!  (That WOULD BE “locking in your losses” plus the house might burn down!)

3) Put it in CD’s/money market and not make anything and what you do earn turn around and pay taxes on it.

4)  Or you can finally get serious about protecting your hard earned savings and put it in a Fixed Indexed Annuity & NEVER LOSE ANOTHER DIME!

Here are some of the benefits of these NEW hybrid annuities:

* PRINCIPAL IS 100% GUARANTEED (unlike brokerage accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds variable annuities. It’s backed by the strength of issuing insurance company – you want A rated investment grade or better – and it’s also backed by the Guarantee Association ($350,000 in NC for each account) and regulated by the states.)

* Interest is tied to an index so you can get a portion of the upside of the market with NO downside risk (over the last 10 years the S&P delivered  a negative 4% while annuities averaged around 4% depending on crediting stratey)

* Income stream can be set up GUARANTEED FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

* Won’t “tie up” your money (like your broker/banker tells you) – liquidity ranges from 10% of value to 100% depending on product – you decide.

* NO FEES (unlike what your broker/banker tells you) – in most cases there are no fees unless you add riders

*  Add an income rider and get a GUARANTEED 4%-10% growth for income depending on company and produc

* If you die the Balance goes to your heirs (unlike what your broker / banker would have you believe)

* Interest earnings are tax deferred (unlike brokerage earnings – paying taxes on money your trying to grow for income is like having one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator and trying to get somewhere!)

Doesn’t it make sense to have at least a portion of your portfolio is a product like this to insure your income? You insure your house, your car, your life....why not your retirement savings?!

If you want to learn more about the lies being told about these products and get the facts, read my ebook “Annuities exposed” in the “Freebies” section.  Also ck out by article "Are Fixed Indexed Annuities Being Portrayed Unfairly".  To learn how my clients like these products read the “Client Stories”  in the upper tab.  Let me leave you with this -

OVER THE YEARS I’VE BEEN WORKING WITH SENIORS AND PRE-RETIREES, NOT ONE OF MY CLIENTS HAS EVER LOST A DIME!!!

Safe savings – Roger

PS:  Whether this applies to you or not, who do you know that could benefit from this information?  Please forward it to them!