The Safe and Secure Retirement Plan Alternative for Business Owners

The idea of having a comfortable, worry-free retirement has become a distant dream for many business owners -- even for those who did "all the right things" that Wall Street and the financial gurus told them to do. Are you tired of relying on hope and luck to achieve your financial goals? If so, how likely do you think it is that following the same strategy that got you where you are today will get you where you want to be? Give Your Retirement Plan the "Acid Test" Do you know what your retirement account will be worth in 10, 20, or 30 years… or on the day you plan to tap into it? If your answer is "no" or "I'm HOPING it will be worth $X" -- you don't have a plan! And if you're relying on a financial advisor, stock broker or plan administrator for advice, ask them if they can tell you what your account will be worth on the day you plan to retire. Then follow it up with, "And will you give me a money-back guarantee if you don't hit that savings target?" The Power of Rationalization… Remember the scene from the 1983 movie classic, "The Big Chill," where the character played by Jeff Goldblum asks, "Have you ever gone a week without a rationalization?" Well, many business owners and professionals today are trying to rationalize away the fact that they won't be able to retire when and how they had planned by trying to convince themselves that retirement is overrated. They now talk about continuing to work in some capacity as long as they can. While there's no question that this can give you more of a sense of purpose and fulfillment and keep you from dying of boredom, the reality is that many people are being forced to retire earlier than they can afford to. Job layoffs and health issues are the primary reasons for this. I love what I do, and I hope to be doing it for a long time. But shouldn't the decision to retire -- or not -- be a matter of choice, not necessity? If you believe it should be a matter of choice, what's the best way to invest your money? I've researched over 450 savings and investing products and strategies over the past two decades, as a consultant to financial advisors. I ultimately concluded that Americans have been brainwashed into believing we must risk our money in order to grow it. Wall Street and the financial planning industry have led us to believe that "saving" and "investing" are the same thing. However, they are not. The money you have in "savings" is money you don't want (or can't afford) to lose. Money you "invest" is subject to loss. Most people today "invest to save," and as a result, have no idea what their nest egg will be worth when they hope or plan to tap into it. Look Beyond the Traditional Financial and Retirement Planning Strategies Consider proven and time-tested ways to grow a substantial nest egg -- without the risk or volatility of stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and other investments. Tip: For example, there is an asset class that has increased in value during every stock market decline and every period of economic boom and bust for more than a century. That asset is dividend-paying whole life insurance. A dividend-paying whole life policy grows by a guaranteed and pre-set amount every year. In addition, the growth is exponential, meaning it gets better (more efficient) every single year you have the policy, simply because you stick with it. This gives you some protection against inflation and provides peak growth at the time you need it most (retirement). And no luck, skill, or guesswork is required to make that happen. Furthermore, there are little-known options that can be added to the policy which turbo-charge the growth of your equity ("cash value") in the policy. When your policy is structured properly, you can use it as a powerful financial management tool from day one. Once credited to your policy, both your guaranteed annual increase, plus any dividends you may receive, are locked in. They don't vanish due to a market correction. These policies also give you peace of mind for retirement planning, because you'll know the minimum guaranteed income you can take in retirement, and for how long you can take it. Bank On Yourself You control the money in your policy, not the government. You can use the money to "bank on yourself" and become your own source of financing, so you can reduce or even eliminate the control banks and financial institutions have over you. In fact, many business owners and professionals who use the Bank On Yourself method have been able to get access to needed capital to start or grow their businesses – even when no banker would give them a dime – by answering just one question: How much do you want? Many famous companies used the Bank On Yourself method for start-up capital, including Walt Disney, J. C. Penney, the Pampered Chef and Foster Farms. No begging, no prying applications to fill out, no pledging your first born. And you can pay the money back on your own schedule, not someone else's. Plus, you recapture the interest you would otherwise pay to banks and finance institutions to lease or finance equipment, office buildings, and more. Some insurance companies even offer an option that allows you to use your equity in the policy, and the policy continues growing as though you never touched a dime of it! In addition, it's possible to take retirement income from these policies with little or no tax consequences, under current tax law. During the financial crisis, even as the experts lamented there was no place to hide, no one lost a penny in a dividend-paying whole life policy, and their policies continue to grow safely and predictably. There are many myths about this powerful financial tool, and no shortage of financial gurus who will tell you to avoid whole life policies. That's why I created the $100,000 Challenge. It lets you test your knowledge of the facts about dividend-paying whole life. And a $100,000 cash reward awaits the first person who has a different product or strategy that can match or beat a properly structured dividend-paying whole life policy. © 2010 Pamela Yellen, author of Bank on Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Protecting Your Financial Future Author Bio Financial security expert, Pamela Yellen, is author of the best-selling book, Bank On Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future. For more information, visit: www.BankOnYourself.com and to take the $100,000 Challenge, visit: www.BankOnYourself.com/challenge.