Hi, my name is Jason Bergquist and I’m a Certified Financial Fiduciary. What that means to you is that I am licensed and registered.
And I continually update myself with the education needed to help you prepare yourself for your retirement. My goal in everything that I do is to help you create the Retirement of Your Dreams!
If you go to my website, JasonBFinancial.com, you’ll see that my goal is right there on my tagline.
My goal is to help my clients and those that I’m working with create “the Retirement of Your Dreams.”
Today we’re going to talk about inflation.
Inflation is going to be something that you’re going to have to really pay attention to.
It’s something that we just inherently see happen every single day.
And we don’t necessarily think about it. You know, if you think about what the different costs have been in your life.
For instance, look back and think to yourself, what was the cheapest gas price that you remember? For me, I live in Utah, I’m 43 years old (in 2021).
And I remember back when I first started driving or noticing prices just before I was driving. And I personally remember gas prices being less than a dollar.
Somewhere in about the $0.85 – $0.95 cents a gallon range. I know that when it hit a dollar a gallon, I remember my parents complaining about it!
Depending on where you live and what part of the country, gas prices are somewhere, here in 2021, between $3 and maybe even $4+ dollars a gallon.
And if you just use some of those experiences you can get a sense about … “where are prices going?”
It’s even easier to think about, what did your first car cost you? What did your first home cost you?”
So, where I’m going with this … in retirement most retirees have a bunch of fixed costs, right?
They know exactly what it’s going to cost them every single month to live: either what their home and utility costs are.
Some of these things that’re never going to go away.
Whether you carry a car payment, you have car insurance.
Everybody has a cell phone payment. So we have these fixed costs. We call them fixed costs because it’s the same dollar amount that’s costing us every single month.
But again, those costs go up, right?
For instance, the cost of internet or phone. And so on, these prices continue to go up.
So, you have to plan for inflation!
If we look at the United States over the past 50, 60, 80 years, average inflation in the United States is 2 – 3%.
So, if we know that costs are going to go up 2 – 3%, we need to know that we can cover those costs. In some of my other videos, if you go back and look at them …
… you’re going to see me talk about some of these different costs that are going up and how you can avoid them.
Today, we’re going to specifically talk about the fact that if you have your social security coming in …
… or if you have a pension payment coming in, they have a COLA or a “Cost of Living Adjustment” an increase attached to them.
On average, those cost-of-living increases are somewhere around 1-1.5%.
In other words, they’re about half of the increase of inflation.
So, you have to think to yourselves, “Okay, if I have X amount of dollars coming in every single month right now. And I know that I have these specific costs every single month right now …
“… Overtime, those costs are going to go up.”
And over time, maybe that income via the Pension or Social Security is also going to go up. But it’s not going to keep up with the increasing costs of all the different goods and services out there.
So, we’ve got to keep track of what is it we’re going to do.
One of the ways, and you can also reference this back in my other videos and more videos to come, there is a way to basically buy your own pension …
… and have a structured set up to where you have an increasing amount of money coming to you every single month.
We work through different systems, options and processes for each individual because everybody’s situation is different.
For instance, some only have Social Security as a continued guaranteed income coming in for life.
Some still have a Pension. Some of those Pensions are really good and some of those pensions are struggling.
We have options out there, where we can actually utilize the lump sum option from that Pension.
And actually, put it into a process, an investment and annuity structure where we have control of it. And where it has this increase that’s coming to us.
So, we’re not reliant on the fact of whether that company or that state or wherever our Pension is coming from is actually going to fulfill their duties …
… in either making sure that we get a payment every single month for the rest of our lives or how they manage that pension.
We know a lot of pensions are going by the wayside. We need to take back control. My job is to help educate you on those options.
Look at the different options that are out there, understand how it is that we can either, basically, buy our own pension (something we have control over).
But again, the focus today …
… is what do we do to make sure that we covered that inflation that’s coming?
For instance, if you know that $1,000/month is what you need coming in every single month to cover your expenses ….
Now, if you want more coming in… discretionary funds … such as vacations, taking our family out, our grandkids, doing those things we want to, that’s a separate conversation, and we’re going to have that conversation …
But the number one thing we need to do is to make sure that you aren’t stressed out.
And that you do have the retirement of your dreams …
… Let’s make sure, first and foremost, those fixed costs are covered every single month. And then we need to work in a plan for inflation:
So, a $1,000/month coming in today to cover a $1,000 of expenses.
Well, if you still have the same thousand dollars a month coming in 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, that same $1,000/month or $12,000/year, isn’t going to get you as far in 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, as it does today.
So, we’ve got to make sure that $1,000/month is increasing every single month or every year. And that increase is actually keeping up with inflation.
Now, maybe you’re thinking, I’m talking about having money in the Stock Market. I’m not a huge fan of having money in the Stock Market.
I think there’s way too much risk in there. Or you have to be way too overly conservative, to make sure that those funds keep up with your needs.
Now, is there a time and place for that? Yes.
Are we going to discuss that? Yes.
Do I have another video that discusses that? Yes.
But what we need to do is make sure that we sit down together. We go over your options. You understand what’s out there.
Maybe think outside the box on some things, and look at different ideas that maybe you haven’t looked at before.
We’re going to make sure, that in order to get you the retirement of your dreams, you have enough money coming in (that includes covering the cost-of-living increases such as costs of goods sold).
Plus, we should be talking about construction costs, right? The cost of wood or the cost of steel. Maybe you’re not building a home. Maybe you’re not worried about construction.
But any of those type of additional costs … cause other things to cost more money.
We want to make sure that you have a plan that takes care of you.
No matter what our economy does. No matter what the market is doing. And that it has the ability to increase and keep up with inflation.
So, click the links below. There’s a couple of documents that’ll allow you to look over your situation, gather some information.
Look those over, then schedule a time where we can go over those items together. Don’t forget to go watch the Free webinar!
Plus, I have a whole series of videos, like this one, on inflation, on other topics. I look forward to meeting with you.
I can’t wait to go through this with you.
I can’t wait to help you and “Empower You to Create the Retirement of Your Dreams!”
And make sure that you have an increasing income that’s coming to you for the rest of your life.
My name is Jason Bergquist. I look forward to meeting with you. Have a great day!
Next Steps:
1. Click here to download documents
2. Click here to register for our FREE Webinar
3. Click here to schedule your FREE Retirement of Your Dream Call
