What To Do In A Market Downturn Transcript

Producer: [00:00:00] Registered investment advisors and investment adviser representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosure of any conflicts of interest, if any exist. Please refer to our firm brochure. The ADV to a Page four for additional information. Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges, as described in the annuity contract guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer. Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to project the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer: [00:00:51] Welcome to the Active Wealth Show with your host, Ford Stokes. Ford is a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor who places your needs first. He’ll help you protect and grow your wealth. The Active Wealth Show has grown because activators like you want to activate their retirement planning with sound tax efficient investing. And now your host, Ford Stokes

Ford Stokes: [00:01:13] And welcome to Active Wealth Show activators I’m Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. So glad you’re with us here this weekend. And you know, a lot of investors got a little nervous this week with a 2.5% downturn in the Dow and the S&P 500 on Monday. And then stocks recovered, and let’s go ahead and share our market update with you.

Producer: [00:01:36] Your ActiveWealth.com market update

Ford Stokes: [00:01:41] U.S. stock indexes continued higher on Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s plans for tapering its asset purchase and raising interest rates. Also, by the way. There were three hundred and fifty one thousand new filings for unemployment, and that was up sixteen thousand on initial filings from last week. So a little bit of a concern there on the unemployment side, and we’ve seen the market recover this week after the downturn. But many of you may have kind of a, you know, an uneasiness about what’s going on in the market. You’re trying to figure out what to do when you see a market downturn in the in the market. You’re nervous and we’re here on this show today. We’re going to share what to do and I’m just going to go straight into it. Number one is I would encourage you to talk to a fiduciary like us. Go ahead and reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com or you can call us at (770) 685-1777. You want to talk to Fiduciary who’s going to put your needs ahead of their own. So example when there was a significant downturn in the market on Monday and we sent out a market update on Monday from our chief investment officer, Mark DiOrio. And this is the update that we shared.

Mark DiOrio: [00:03:05] Hi, this is Mark DiOrio Chief Investment Officer, Mr. MarketWatch. For the week of September 20th, a pullback has developed led by fears that Evergrande Group, a large Chinese real estate developer, is defaulting on its loans. As we pointed out, as a risk in the third quarter market outlook, China is experiencing a rapid credit contraction, and that’s often when negative surprises happen. As markets stalled on the upside last week, we rolled the smart option put as a recap. Earlier this year, we sold the Spy or Spy three 50 put and moved it up to the four hundred put as prices rose and as the price of Spy moved near four 50. Recently, we rolled the put up to the four point fifty put to more fully hedged those nice gains. We are also taking advantage of today’s rise in market volatility to negotiate October’s flash notes. Volatility is one of the inputs to pricing the yield, and when volatility increases, there’s often a little more premium or yield to harvest. The final terms of the October flash note will be out shortly. This has been the market watch for the week of September 20th,

Ford Stokes: [00:04:10] And so it’s good to know the reason why the downturn. It’s good to know that a major Chinese real estate company was defaulting on their loans, and they were raised wondering if the Chinese government is going to bail them out. And then the Fed came out and said, Hey, we’re going to taper our asset purchases and we’re going to raise interest rates a little bit. And but we’re going to continue to buy bonds. And so that kind of settled things down in the market and didn’t make the market even more nervous, which is great. But it’s good to know and good to hear from your advisor. Hey, here’s what’s going on in the market. This is why you saw the downturn. This is why it’s likely not a sustained thing. It was a it was a significant blip and it was a concern that, you know, a major Chinese real estate company defaults on loans. And that was the reason for the major downturn. That was the catalyst for it. The next thing you ought to do is consider a bond replacement strategy. Third would be to consider a Roth latter conversion and minimize the taxes you’re going to pay during retirement. Try to get into a smart financial plan that includes smart risk investing with tactical asset allocation that doesn’t just hang in there. As Rick Page said in his business sales book Hope is not a Strategy. Hope really isn’t a strategy. And let me ask you guys and gals if you’re driving around Atlanta right now or are you thinking I just need to hang in there and it’s OK that my broker or my advisor didn’t get in touch with me on Monday or Tuesday.

Ford Stokes: [00:05:43] But if it’s not OK with you and you want better communication and you want to receive update emails or you want to see receive a phone call, then I would encourage you to give us a call at (770) 685-1777. You can also schedule your free consultation at ActiveWealth.com. There’s just a little set an appointment button in the upper right corner. Then you just visit ActiveWealth.com and you’ll get booked directly into my calendar and you’ll speak directly with me. So we’re going to give you access, we’re going to help you. And we’re also going to help you feel a little bit better about what’s going on with things and why things are happening. Then we’re also going to try to implement a bond replacement strategy so that you’re not exposed to systematic and unsystematic risk with bonds, interest rate risk with bonds and reinvestment risk with bonds. And at the beginning of the next segment, we’re going to go ahead and play a chapter of my new book, Annuity 360, and you can get that book if you just visit Annuity three six net, that’s annuity360.net, and you can download that book right there right then, and it’s absolutely free for you. And we do that on the front end because we want you to be able to make informed decisions when you’re trying to plan for your retirement. And we don’t want you to make hasty financial decisions, we just don’t. And now we also want to share our inflation demonstration because this one’s an important deal.

Producer: [00:07:10] It’s time for an active wealth inflation demonstration.

Ford Stokes: [00:07:18] The cost of vehicles and manufacture of these vehicles is stalled due to a chip shortage and other supply chain disruptions, forcing many to opt for used cars, driving the price of used cars and trucks up by more than 40% over the last 12 months. We like to suggest downsizing to one car and making, you know, an electric vehicle your car of choice if that suits your lifestyle and weekly routine or invest in a hybrid because we’re just trying to reduce the fuel costs. The cost of operating the vehicle, et cetera. I think Tesla came out and said that driving one of their vehicles is literally like the same equivalent of driving a Honda Pilot. Over time, it’s the same cost of the vehicle because there’s no oil changes. There’s no fuel cost. You have electric charging costs, but there’s a significant difference in the fuel cost versus the electric charge. If you’re in retirement and you can get away with it, try to go down to one vehicle or make sure one of your vehicles is a hybrid or an electric vehicle because you can dramatically reduce your fuel costs. Listen, we’ve got a couple of minutes left in this segment, and what I want to do is I want to kind of just recap what a smart financial plan looks like and what you need to do during this time of uncertainty. And you’ve got real concerns about what’s going on with the Biden administration or you’ve got real concerns about what’s going on in the market and market opportunities out there. So number one is you ought to consider scheduling a financial consultation. You ought to inspect what you expect about your current portfolio and how it’s reacting.

Ford Stokes: [00:08:54] If you saw a significant downturn and market loss on Monday at the end of trading Monday, then you probably ought to give us a call and you can call us at (770) 685-1777. Most people have a tough time remembering phone numbers. All you got to do is remember one website. It’s just ActiveWealth.com. But if you’re being asked to just hang in there with your investments, then I would encourage you to do more than that. Plan your work and work your plan and go ahead and do everything you can to understand the risks you’re taking with your current portfolio. Understand the fees you’re paying the expense ratio of your portfolio. If you don’t know what an expense ratio is within your portfolio, then you should visit ActiveWealth.com and book an appointment with me and understand what your risk level is measured by standard deviation. If you don’t know what standard deviation is within your portfolio or you don’t know the definition of it, then I would encourage you to go ahead and visit ActiveWealth.com and book an appointment with me. And we’re it’s an absolutely free consultation and it’s a $500 value, but we’re doing it and we’re offering it for free for listeners to the active, well, show on purpose because we want you to make an informed financial decision about your retirement future. We just do, and we’re fiduciary. We’ve got to put your needs ahead of our own even before you start working with us. And so that’s our goal today is to make sure that we help you understand what’s going on in the market and what to do about it.

Ford Stokes: [00:10:26] And we come right back, we’re going to hear about a bond replacement strategy that can reduce the risks and get you likely a higher rate of return and generate a consistent income that you can never outlive. Just something to consider. Or we’re going to talk about bond replacement right after the break, and we’re going to talk more about how to build a smart financial plan again. Smart financial plan equals smart risk plus smart, safe plus smart tax strategies. All of that added together is a smart plan, and we’re talk more about that during today’s show. And if you’re just doing the hang in there and the buy and hold approach, hope is not a strategy. As Rick Page said in his business sales book, We need to do more than that. And I would encourage you to take that first step, that next step and go ahead and visit ActiveWealth.com and book a consult with us. And we’re happy to help you build a customized retirement plan for you. And we’ll talk about what you can expect when you come into our office in the next segment as well. You’re listening Active Wealth Show right here on AM 920 the answer We’re so glad you’re with us on this important active wealth show. After a significant downturn early on Monday, where the where we saw also the market’s rebound, but Monday was a pretty big scare for a lot of folks and we’re here to help you and the sector well, show right here on AM 920 the answer.

Ford Stokes: [00:12:15] And welcome back to the Active Ball Show activators, I’m Ford Stokes, the chief financial adviser, I’m joined by our esteemed executive producer, Sam Davis. He’s also the ambassador of the weekend, so let’s hear it.

Producer: [00:12:27] Oh man, welcome to the weekend activators. And this is a weekend that’s going to start a little bit later for me because I’ve got something big coming up on Saturday morning, a big obligation that I’ve got to take care of. Don’t you hate that when you’ve got a big obligation on Saturday morning? But once it gets over, man, the weekend is going to be right out in front of me. I’m going to be watching the Ryder Cup. The weather is going to be fantastic here in Georgia. Highs in the 70s. Are you kidding me? Leaves are on the ground. It’s fall. I’m excited.

Ford Stokes: [00:12:56] Yeah, it’s going to be amazing. So I forgot to share some news about the show in the first segment because I’m so focused on taking care of the activators out there. Sam, what did I forget?

Producer: [00:13:10] Well, we forgot to mention that this right here, folks. You’re listening to the 100th episode of the Active Wealth Show, which is awesome. I’m so excited for you for that. You’ve been able to do this for one hundred episodes, and I’m so excited for the activators that have stuck with us through a hundred episodes. And man, we went all through the pandemic didn’t stop the act. Well, show kept it going, racked up fifty two fresh episodes for the activators out there and we continue to help them today. So congratulations Ford, and we’re going to go for one hundred more and then some.

Ford Stokes: [00:13:42] Well, I appreciate that Sam and I am holding up my water bottle, toasting you and the activators for all of your help. And thank you so much to all the activators for sticking with us and listening to us for 100 plus episodes. There’s a lot of folks that have listened to every single one of them and we just really appreciate. All of you, we want to help you build a successful retirement that is fee efficient, market efficient and tax efficient. And yes, I do repeat that every single show. But it is really important, and Sam, you have been such. A help and. And thank you so much for everything you do for us to make sure that we get the message out to the folks because listen, with anything knowledge is power, but it is more important than ever to be fully educated on what to do because, you know, things have changed in the retirement game it used to be. You could do a 60 40 portfolio and you could put 40 percent bonds and you’d be fine. And but right now, it’s really not. I mean, we’re in a slightly rising interest rate environment. Bonds are losing some market value, even though they might still get you the income that they promise. And you’ve got a significant amount of bonds out there, and it’s just a little bit scary, and we’ve got to do a much better job at educating folks on the right way to properly structure your portfolio. And that’s what the show is all about. It’s about doing things a little bit differently and saying, you know, I’d love to hear from you. Your thoughts on being on this journey with us and all the feedback you get from activators as well.

Producer: [00:15:31] Yeah. And we love to take that feedback from activators. As the weeks go by and as the episodes air, we like to hear what the activators have to say. We take that into account because really why we’re here is to help others. And that’s really what it’s all about. So we continue to take steps and make the show better as the weeks go by and we’re going to do that well into the future.

Ford Stokes: [00:15:53] Yeah. And if you want to give us some feedback and you want to send us any congratulations or kudos or any of that stuff, I would just encourage you to follow us on Twitter at and our Twitter handle is at ActiveWealth.com for management. It’s at ActiveWealth.com in the letter M and also Active Wealth Management on Facebook as well. And so we’re super excited to help everybody, and it’s really a cool thing that we were now on our 100th show that is really neat. So we promise we’re going to play the bond replacement chapter for my new book, Annuity 360, and you can get that new book at Annuity360.net. Sam, go ahead and play our bond replacement chapter so people can understand the risk they are taking by continuing to invest in and bonds and what they could do to replace those bonds and how they could get a higher average annual rate of return. Chapter 15 Bond replacement

Ford Stokes: [00:16:48] With fixed indexed annuities Big idea Historically, bonds have seen volatility when the market is volatile. Fixed indexed annuities are not subject to the same volatility, which makes them a much safer investment. You might have heard a financial advisor talk about replacing your bonds with annuities to protect your wealth and grow your retirement funds. Am I firm active wealth management? We believe this is a smart way to protect your future. Many people have learned that bonds are a safe way to invest your money, but there are some downsides to bonds that should make you think twice. We’ll talk about some reasons why you should consider replacing your bonds with annuities. First, here’s some information on the history of bonds in the United States historical bond volatility. The nineteen hundred saw two secular bear and bull markets in U.S. fixed income. Inflation peaked at the end of World War one and World War Two due to increased government spending. The first bull market started after World War One and lasted through World War Two. The U.S. government kept bond yields artificially low until nineteen fifty one. The long term bond yields were at one point nine percent in nineteen fifty one. They climbed to nearly 15 percent in nineteen eighty one in the 1970s. Globalization had a huge impact on bond markets. New asset classes such as inflation protected securities, asset backed securities, mortgage backed securities, high yield securities and catastrophe bonds were created.

Ford Stokes: [00:18:16] Early investors in these new asset classes were compensated for taking on the challenge. The bond market was coming off its greatest bull market, coming into the twenty first century long term bond yields decline from a high of 15 percent to seven percent by the end of the century. The bull market in bonds showed continued strength in the early twenty first century, but there is no guarantee with our current market volatility that this will hold. See Chart fifteen point one to see the incredible difference of investing in a fixed index annuity versus investing in bonds. Why you should consider replacing your bonds with annuities. The first question you should ask yourself is this Why would you take market risk with your bonds when your bonds can lose their value? If you just look at the history of loan, you can see how uncertain the future of bonds is. Inflation and fluctuating interest rates play a big role in bond yields. Interest rate risk of bonds, bonds and interest rate to have an inverse relationship when interest rates fall. Bond prices rise due to the COVID 19 pandemic, investors have moved their money to bonds because they believe it is a safer investment option. However, this has caused bond yields to fall to all time lows as of May 24th, 2020. The ten year Treasury note was yielding 0.64% and the 30 year Treasury bond was at 1.27%.

Ford Stokes: [00:19:38] Reinvestment risk of bonds This is the likelihood that an investment’s cash flows will earn less in a new security. For example, an investor buys a ten year, one hundred thousand Treasury note with an interest rate of six percent. They expect it to earn $6000 a year at the end of the term. Interest rates are four percent. If the investor buys another. Ten year note, they will earn 4000 instead of six thousand annually. Consider the possibility that interest rates change over time when deciding to invest in bonds. Systematic market risk This refers to the risk that is inherent to the market as a whole. It will affect the overall market, not just a particular stock or industry. This can be unpredictable and it is impossible to avoid. Diversification cannot fix this issue, but the correct asset allocation strategy can make a big difference. Unsystematic market risk This type of risk is unique to a specific company or industry, similar to systematic market risk. It is impossible to know when unsystematic risk will occur. For example, if someone is investing in health care stocks, they may be aware of some major changes coming to the industry. However, there is no way they can know how those changes will affect the market. There are two factors that contribute to company specific risk business risk.

Ford Stokes: [00:21:01] There are two types of risk internal and external internal refers to operational efficiency and external would be similar to the FDA banning a specific drug that the company sells. Financial risk. This relates to the capital structure of a company. A weak capital structure can lead to inconsistent earnings and cash flow that can prevent a company from trading reduced advisory fees. Investors who trade individual stocks may know how much commission they are paying their broker, but individuals who buy bonds often have no idea what type of commission they are paying. Bond dealers collect commission on bonds they sell called markups, but they bundle them into the price that is quoted to the investors. This means you are unaware of how much commission you were actually paying. Standard & Poor’s estimates of bond markups is zero point eight five percent of the value for corporate bonds and one point twenty one percent for municipal bonds. However, markups can be as high as five percent, up to 50 dollars per bond. Bonds have finite durations. Bonds only provide income for a finite amount of time, unlike an annuity, which provides income for life. You must reinvest your money if you want to continue generating interest with bonds. However, reinvesting with a bond can sometimes come at a loss. As we discussed above, annuities will provide you with an income you can never outlive.

Ford Stokes: [00:22:24] Hope you enjoyed that chapter in your book Annuity 360 on bond replacement. Think you understand a little bit of the different types of risks associated with investing in bonds? And also, you can literally delete the advisory and portfolio fees that you pay on the bonds in your portfolio and still get an income. Because there are zero, there’s zero advisory fees when you’re dealing with a fixed indexed annuity and investing in a fixed indexed annuity because the annuity company pays the advisor. They pay me, and I would encourage you to consider a bond replacement strategy, for sure. Now this next segment, we’ve got Ray Martinez, who is the mayor of Loganville. He is running for state representative in his district. It’s kind of in that Loganville Gwinnett area and raise a great American. He’s a Hispanic American. We’re in Hispanic Heritage Month here in the month of September. Ray is a friend of the show, and I think you’re going to like what he has to say, especially for those of you who felt like you didn’t really enjoy the 2020 election, you didn’t enjoy what happened. You’re concerned about some of the things that happen around the elections in Georgia. We’ll have Ray Martinez with us right when we come back on the Active Wealth Show right here on AM 920 The answer.

Ford Stokes: [00:24:16] And welcome back activators, the well show, I’m Ford Stokes your chief financial adviser. And we’ve got a very special guest with us today. He’s a frequent guest of the Active Wealth Show great friend of mine Mr. Ray Martinez, who is the mayor of Loganville and someone who’s protected our country and again, thank you for your service. I think it’s kind of been almost your whole life, your service for our country and service for our community, Ray and just welcome the Active Wealth show

Ray Martinez: [00:24:46] Thank you. Thank you so much, my friend. It’s been I think we talked a few months ago back during COVID. During the time I was telling you what was going on, I was telling you all the great things that we’re doing in Loganville despite this pandemic. But anyway, it’s an honor for me to be here and share what’s going on in our great town with you or with your listeners.

Ford Stokes: [00:25:09] Absolutely. And also, I understand you’re running for state senator too. Is that correct?

Ray Martinez: [00:25:14] Man, I am running. I am running and I’m not looking back, even though I love me. And there’s nothing, you know, and I tell people this, there’s no better job and I know being doing what you’re doing, I know it’s a good job, but there’s no other better job than being mayor of a mid-sized city. It is just amazing. Just this morning, I spoke to a great group of folks at the rotary, and I’m here are my favorite guy, Mr. Ford Stokes. That’s right, after Ford Stokes. You guys know that’s Hispanic Heritage Month this month, and I got to go talk to a Hispanic group and at a school. And so this is the job of a mayor. Man, I mean, we don’t get paid that much for it, but we love it. Just like you said, because I’m being called to service, whether it’s our country, whether it’s our state, whether it’s our community. I love serving in the. And that’s what that’s what I want to be known for.

Ford Stokes: [00:26:10] And I’m sorry, I kind of messed up. You’re running for state representative. Is that correct?

Ray Martinez: [00:26:14] I’m running for state representative, which is one 14 District one 14. Ok. The current representative? Real quick, he’s retiring. So I’m not running against an incumbent. I’m actually running against an open seat District 14. If you recall, it’s mostly Walton County, Loganville, a little bit of Gwinnett and sure, a bit of wind there. So right now, everybody’s staying away from running from Ray Martinez. And I wonder why, right?

Ford Stokes: [00:26:39] Yeah, I bet. So because they know you’re going to win. Ray, do you have a way for people to donate your campaign? Because I’m a huge fan and I’ll send you some money? Absolutely.

Ray Martinez: [00:26:49] You know, the campaigns cost money. They’re not cheap. But yeah. Ray R e y. For number four. So it’s pretty simple.

Ford Stokes: [00:27:01] Ray6GA.com OK.

Ray Martinez: [00:27:04] And there’s a link. There’s a link there. Click on the button or what have you, or you could just mail a check. And now and you know, I could give you that information, too.

Ford Stokes: [00:27:14] But yeah, we’ve got it on the screen here. Also, if you want to see you know this, this interview, you can actually see it at ActiveWealth.com as well. But we’ve got Ray4GA.com up on the screen right here. So for those of you driving around, just visit Ray for.

Ray Martinez: [00:27:33] And a real quick Ford, this is what you’re getting. Ok. This is because I don’t play around. This is what you’re getting.

Ford Stokes: [00:27:41] Yeah, we know that about you for sure.

Ray Martinez: [00:27:44] You’re getting a retired military guy. You’re getting a freedom loving conservative. Ok? I don’t. I don’t. I don’t shy away from my values. And this is what you’re investing in. Somebody to represent you. You and the gold dome.

Ford Stokes: [00:27:59] So we need that. Goodness gracious. We need that. Can we talk specifically about what’s going on in the gold dumb and what’s going on in with elections? I mean, there’s you’ve been on this show several times. You’re a Trump supporter. I’m a Trump supporter. We’ve many, many of us feel like our vote was disenfranchised or some people even feel like their vote was stolen. And it’s also made them less enthusiastic about voting the next time. And I wanted to get your thoughts specifically about being a Hispanic-American and your experience in voting. And then also. What do you say to people that feel like, you know what their state government let them down in the last election, specifically, the governor let them down in the last election? And I’m not putting words in your mouth, but what do you say to those people and how do you get them back out to the polls?

Ray Martinez: [00:28:59] Well, you have to energize, and that’s what I’m trying to do. You try to you’re trying to energize, you know, what happened in 2020? Yeah, it’s terrible. It really is. I really believe that our vote was stolen. I really believe that. Now, can I prove it? No, I can’t prove it. I can’t prove it. But I but I can tell you one thing I was I was downtown at that Tuesday night, and you’re and you know, it was it was about 11:00 or so. And I remember and I took a picture of it. I remember seeing the street, the television screen and it said, Georgia, Georgia, OK. It had Donald Trump. They had Joe Biden. Donald Trump was up by four points, with one percent of the precinct remaining one percent. Ninety nine percent of the precincts were already called. There was one percent. They did not call that election when ninety nine percent and Donald Trump was leading by three or four points. So you’re trying to tell me with one precinct left, Donald Trump dropped four points and Joe Biden, Joe Biden gained three or four points. That’s hard to believe, but you know what? You could. You could make assumptions like that. You could talk about that. But you know what, 2020 happened. What we need to do now is concentrate on 2022. We need to have leaders in the state legislature that are for voter integrity, and I am for that as a Hispanic-American.

Ray Martinez: [00:30:23] I have never been disenfranchised. Never, never. I have voted since 1988. My first election was the George Herbert Walker Bush for president. Sure, being a Republican and I’ve never been disenfranchised. So when you hear people telling you that the minority, you know, we’re being disenfranchised because some of these bills that are coming out with don’t, that’s just talking points. They’re lying to you because a Hispanic American, I’ve never been disenfranchised. I’ve gone to the voting booth. I’ve had my ID that you need it and you know, you need you need an I.D. for just about everything. If you want to go get a drink. You need an I.D. to show, you know, to show proof of your age. What’s wrong with showing it, you know, at the at the voting booth just to see that you are who you are that you’re going to vote for. But hey, man, we need to go out there and energize our folks. This is the reason why I believe that we lost two Senate seats by short by. So a short margin back in January because people were tired and they and they said, You know what? My vote’s not going to count, and they did not go out. And right now we’re suffering in the Senate right now because we don’t have that leadership like we should have had. But guys go out there, please vote and let’s get energized.

Ford Stokes: [00:31:44] Amen. Amen. So also, you know, we need people like you in the Golden Dome to make sure that our election laws are enforced and upheld and even made a little bit more, giving it a little bit more strength, in my opinion. Because right now, you know, none of us feel like, you know, one vote counts and you know, our one vote counts and you know, one man, one vote, one woman, one vote. We feel like there’s been things that have happened where the liberal elite have made the decision that we’re not smart enough to make our own decisions. And listen, I mean, I believe you’ve got to stand for something. You’ll fall for anything. And I’m to the point where I’m putting people like you back on my show because I want to really share the good news. I mean, most financial advisers, they’d be like, Oh, you know, ride the fence, walk the fence. It’s fine. You know, that way you can work with Democrats and Republicans. I’ll be very frank. I really only want to work with Republicans to help protect and grow their money. I really do, because they complain less than anybody else does.

Ford Stokes: [00:32:52] They work hard. They save more money and they will listen. And those are, you know, the best marketing and the best PR. Anything else out there is marketing that will attract to you on a track and want to repel who you want to repel. And that’s why we’re on a conservative talk radio station. I’m an unabashed and unapologetic conservative. I just am, and I believe that, you know, you get what you earn and an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. And that’s who you are. I mean, you have not asked for more than what you’re willing to work hard, you know, working in the U.S. military, protecting our country, working as a as a mayor of a small town here in Georgia. I mean, you’re just you just give back to community. I mean, I think you’re a remarkable human being. I just we need more people like you. You’ve got a couple of minutes left in this segment, right? Just share a little bit about what you feel like we need in the Georgia capital.

Ray Martinez: [00:33:51] I’ll tell you what, what, what we need. We need people that’s been there, done for that’s been there. They have the scars to prove it, basically. I’ve got the scars from serving in the military for 25 years, I’ve got the scars from working on the local level for 11 years. After that, I’ve got the scars from being mayor. I’ve got the scars from being for Donald Trump in 2016 when it wasn’t popular. It wasn’t cool to be Hispanic after Trump in 2016. And guess what? Yours, truly. Ray Martinez was the chairman for Hispanics for Trump in Georgia, and it wasn’t popular. So I’ve got the you need somebody out there that that just that says what he believes and that does what he believes. And basically, that’s got a backbone and a spine that’s going to stand up for principle. Now you may disagree and I told people this in the city of Lawrenceville. You may disagree on some of my issues and I’m going to hear you out and we’re going to get along at the end of the day. But you know what? You’re not going to bend me. I’m very I’m not. I don’t bend very easy, and you could tell some of the folks in Bougainville that try to sway me for certain things, whether it’s development, whether it’s mass mandates, whether it’s COVID. Let me tell you one thing about Bougainville. It wasn’t popular. I kept my city open. Believe it or not, I was one of the few cities, and I think we talked about this.

Ford Stokes: [00:35:09] You really saved the city. I mean, you kept you helped business owners like crazy.

Ray Martinez: [00:35:13] That’s right. I helped that. We only lost one business, and I’m very proud of taking this to the gold dome. Ok. We only lost one business in Loganville, and that business was struggling before COVID. Most of the business, all of our business has stayed afloat during COVID.

Ford Stokes: [00:35:28] Everybody, I want you to support. Ray Martinez for State Representative Visit Ray4GA.com. Ray, thank you so much for everything you do for our communities. We really appreciate you. And welcome back activators, the ActiveWealth.com show, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Ray Martinez. And Sam, we’ve got some pretty cool stuff. I’m a big fan on this week in history. In 1969, the Beatles rolled out Abbey Road.

Ford Stokes: [00:36:38] And then we got another great one this day in history, Jim Henson was born in 1936, actually.

Producer: [00:36:51] Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side

Ford Stokes: [00:37:01] And saying, I know that The Muppets are kind of a big part of your family, I think your dad really likes the Muppets. I think it’s just because you enjoyed them when you were a kid. Just give us your thoughts on Jim Henson.

Producer: [00:37:13] Yeah, man, just we were watching a video before this segment of him on Johnny Carson, you know, operating the Kermit the Frog Muppet. So just the way he was able to make those puppets come to life is incredible. He created a, you know, all these different characters for kids and adults to enjoy alike. Honestly, I mean, I don’t I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like the Muppets. So, big fan.

Ford Stokes: [00:37:36] Yeah, me too. It was just good to share that. So. Happy birthday to Jim Henson up in heaven. We appreciate you. And then we talked about expense ratio and standard deviation as two important things you kind of need to know about for your portfolio and know what the definitions of those are. And so I want to go ahead and just at least read what the definition is of the expense ratio and expense ratio. Also sometimes known as management, expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative and other operating expenses, and expense ratio is determined by dividing a fund’s operating expenses by the average dollar value of its assets under management, or AOM. Operating expenses reduced the fund’s assets, thereby reducing the return to investors. So. Our expense ratio within our raised star and raise smart beta portfolios that are really a majority of our advisor portfolios that we share with our clients. Now through our through our Ray Brookstone Capital Management. They have an expense ratio that kind of ranges between zero point one five and point one seven. Now most for one K plans that I see that come in when people are getting ready to retire their expense ratios between like point seven and one point zero or even higher. For anybody listening to the Active Wealth Show we do it at zero point nine, five percent? And so we’re usually at much lower than what our competitors are at because we want to make sure that your portfolio is fee efficient.

Ford Stokes: [00:39:20] But what else is interesting is. Our. Expense ratio is crazy lower than most that we see out there. And it almost pays for our fee, because if you’re if you’re operating with like a one point one, five percent expense ratio and ours is only zero point one five. You know, that’s a whole point difference, and that is something to really consider. So you ought to consider reducing your fees. Within your portfolio, because if you do that, you’re going to get a higher rate of return that that stays within your portfolio and it’s going to be more fee efficient for you. And the next definition I want you to make sure you understand is standard deviation, standard deviation is determined as a measurement of risk. The standard deviation is often used by investors to measure the risk of a stock or a stock portfolio. The basic idea is that the standard deviation is a measurement of volatility. The more a stock’s returns vary from the stock’s average return. The more volatile the stock. It is a measurement of portfolio risk, and it’s usually a is a measure of a portfolio’s systematic portfolio risk unsystematic would be an individual stock or an individual ETF you may hold.

Ford Stokes: [00:40:41] But systematic would be systematic to the entire portfolio overall. And if you don’t understand that and you’ve heard those two definitions for the first time and your broker or adviser is not, share that with you, then I would strongly urge you to consider visiting ActiveWealth.com and click that set an important button in the upper right corner. And we’re happy to help you. You can schedule a free consult is a $1500 value, and we want to kind of walk you through what you expect. So when you meet with me, this is what you expect. Number one is I’m going to ask you a lot of questions. What’s going on with your monthly expenses? What kind of income sources you have, whether it’s Social Security or a pension or rental income or just what you’re drawing from your portfolio currently? We’re going to try to understand all of your assets. We’re going to understand what’s going on with your home and add up your discretionary and non-discretionary expenses to try to get to a complete plan on your retirement income. We’re going to give you a retirement income gap analysis. We’ll also give you a portfolio analysis so you can understand the risk you’re taking, the fees you’re paying and all the stuff that doesn’t even show up in your monthly statement like an expense ratio.

Ford Stokes: [00:42:02] And if you don’t know what your standard deviation is, you don’t know what your expense ratio is within your portfolio then. And you’ve listened to our show for a long time that I would strongly urge you to do the right thing for yourself and for your retirement. And Inspector, do you expect and get the knowledge you need and just book an appointment with me by visiting ActiveWealth.com? And you can click that set an appointment button, the upper right corner, and also my Calendly link is just Calendly.com/FordStokes. You’ll get booked directly into my calendar and we’re happy to help you and meet with you and. And there’s a lot of folks that listen to our shows, I mean, many folks have listened to all 100 episodes of our show because they also go to ActiveWealthShow.com. Check that out. And they’ve never called in, and I would encourage you to go ahead and just pick the phone up and call me. And we’re happy to help you and you give us a call at (770) 685-1777. Well, we’ve talked about a lot today. And now it’s time for the final countdown.

Producer: [00:43:15] It’s the final Countdown. So let’s recap what you may have missed. It’s the final countdown.

Ford Stokes: [00:43:26] So on today’s show, we talked about the market downturn on earlier on Monday. We talked about what to do and if you’re if you’re concerned about the market and you’re doing just to just hang in there approach, she should consider meeting with a licensed financial adviser who’s a fiduciary. Put your needs ahead of your of our own. And that would be us. We’re happy to help you. You can visit ActiveWealth.com to do that. And we talked about considering a bond replacement strategy and also considering a Roth latter conversion. We didn’t. We ran out of time, so I wasn’t able to share a lot about Roth latter conversion, and we talked to the mayor of Loganville, Ray Martinez, who’s running for state representative in his district over there. And I would encourage you to check out Ray4GA.com. We also played a chapter in my new book, Annuity 360, and you can get that free book at Annuity360.net. And that was on bond replacement. And that was the way we gave you a good idea of what unsystematic and systematic market risk is with bonds and then also reinvestment risk and interest rate risk. All those risks that you face when you invest in bonds and how you can get a potentially higher average annual rate of return just by investing in a fixed indexed annuity instead of investing in bonds. And you can absolutely delete your portfolio and your advisory fees that you pay on the bond portion of your portfolio, and we can help you do that as well. To do is visit ActiveWealth.com and we talked about what you can expect when you meet with us here in our office at the 29th floor of the King and Queen Building.

Ford Stokes: [00:45:06] We also follow all the COVID protocols and you can also meet with you via Zoom. And all you got to do is visit ActiveWealth.com and click that’s set an appointment button. That’s it too you’re literally going to get fifteen hundred dollars vs. worth of free financial services and planning services. Absolutely at no cost to you just by booking an appointment with me. We’re happy to help you. And we have to do this during these uncertain times. With pandemics and social unrest and election uncertainty and all those kinds of things, we’ve got to protect and grow our wealth, and we’ve got to work hard to do that and we will work hard for you. Thanks so much for listening to us on the Active Wealth Show this week. We’re so glad you’ve been with us here on this one 100th episode of the Active Wealth Show. And we just absolutely love you activators. We care about you. Remember with retirement. If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Be aggressive about your retirement. Seek as much information as knowledge as possible. Good luck to the U.S. and the Ryder Cup. Good luck to the dogs and jackets. This week in college football. Good luck to the Falcons. Obviously, we really hope into the Braves, pull it out and win the NL East Division so they’ll be in the playoffs again. And obviously, good luck to the Atlanta United as well, it’s pretty exciting to go to games there, down there at the bends, and we hope everybody has a great week. And thanks so much for being part of our one hundredth episode of the actual show.

Producer: [00:46:42] Thanks for listening to the ActiveWealth.com. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard earned assets. To schedule your free consultation, call your Chief Financial Advisor Ford Stokes at (770) 685-1777 or visit ActiveWealth.com. Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC. Become a registered investment adviser. Become an Active Wealth management, are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM that are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Are you concerned about U.S. tax rates being raised by the Biden administration and how that will affect your retirement? Tune in to the Active Wealth Show with Ford Stokes, your chief financial adviser, to learn how you can reduce the taxes you pay before and during retirement. The Active Wealth show Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 11:00 a.m..