The Money Advantage Podcast

This podcast discusses what the Infinite Banking Concept is not, debunking misconceptions and emphasizing long-term thinking. They address the idea that Infinite Banking is not a magic solution but a tool for saving money. They also explore the impact of short-term thinking and social media on financial perceptions, answer listener questions, and discuss the importance of starting early with the concept.

Do you want answers from the Bible about making more money and prospering financially?  The Bible has a lot to teach us about money.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc1ZUD7_VCA Today, Rabbi Daniel Lapin is back to discuss Biblical principles. For example, he'll discuss principles that you can apply to increase your revenue. He also shares how the Bible guides you to prosperity. So, if you want to deepen your faith, improve your finances, and build your financial life on a solid foundation… tune in now! Table of contentsWhy is Biblical Financial Success a Passion for Rabbi Lapin? The Bible and MoneyAncient Jewish Wisdom: The Bible and MoneyIs it Bad to Make Money?What Ancient Jewish Wisdom Reveals About HumanityBiblical Wisdom to Increase RevenueConnect with Rabbi LapinAbout Rabbi Daniel LapinView Our Other Conversations with Rabbi LapinBook A Strategy Call Why is Biblical Financial Success a Passion for Rabbi Lapin?  [3:16] “First of all, it’s satisfying because it’s complex. And what I mean by that is, life is complex. Any attempt to solve the problems of life with a slogan or keyword or simple solution is doomed to failure. And people regularly ask me, you know, what is the secret to money?” In most cases, when people ask this question of Rabbi Lapin, they’re looking for a simple solution. Yet, as he points out, it’s not a simple subject and cannot be reduced to a simple answer. This led the Rabbi to dig deeper and become more interested in the ancient financial wisdom within the Bible.  [5:47] “I’m afraid the Bible is just like that. If you’re going to try to solve this in a simplistic way and find a verse here or a verse there that helps you with finances, you’re going to be doomed. Because anybody who knows his way around the Bible will find a verse that says one thing and then another verse that apparently says the opposite.” To unlock wisdom from the Bible requires deep study to understand the context. A verse here or there is no good without the knowledge of why it exists in the first place.  The Bible and Money [6:35] “When you got right down to it, the question I was always asked was, ‘Why are Jews so disproportionately good with money?’ And it turned out to be a very worthwhile field of study that no one had really done.” Since there was little accessible information on this topic, Rabbi Lapin embraced the subject. Over the course of his work, he’s studied and identified the connections between the holy texts and cultural behaviors. Additionally, he's studied the history surrounding Judaism, and how that applies to money.  Through his books, he’s helped to make this information more accessible to people in and outside the faith.  Ancient Jewish Wisdom: The Bible and Money [17:00] “Heaven and Earth are two separate categories of information. One is information that is earthly, it’s materialistic. Another form of information is ephemeral…You can’t touch it… It’s something, again, that Jewish people have always understood, to their credit and to their benefit. Which is that there is a form of knowledge which is earthly. And this you can roughly call science, technology, discovery, and medicine. In all of these things, every successive generation knows more than the one before it… However, when we come to the things that never change, well, on those, we actually seem to know less as time goes by.” Those things that never change, as they would happen, can be sourced from the Bible just as readily as anywhere else. One of Rabbi Lapin’s examples is the relationship of parent to child, and how teenage children ignore their parent’s wisdom, only for adult children to understand and appreciate their parent’s wisdom. This has never changed, yet the Rabbi asserts there’s more value in studying something like this from ancient texts than modern ones. Because that ancient wisdom gets it right.  [22:30 “The beauty of ancient Jewish wisdom, in my experience,

Learn about the dangers of considering only immediate cash value in infinite banking. Discover the practical applications of infinite banking, including funding large expenses and college planning. Explore the benefits of borrowing against a life insurance policy and using infinite banking to increase retirement income and create generational wealth.

Reverse mortgages are becoming more mainstream. But to benefit from using one, you need to understand how to incorporate it into a responsible retirement income plan. So exactly what is a reverse mortgage? What role should it fill in your retirement planning? And should you open a reverse mortgage early or as a last resort?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fph0k20tHXc To answer your questions, we’ve invited back a special guest, Dr. Wade Pfau. Dr. Pfau is the author of Reverse Mortgages: How to Use Reverse Mortgages to Secure Your Retirement, and host of Retirement Researcher. He shares his significant work on retirement income planning to shed some light on reverse mortgages.  To learn how to get the most retirement income with reverse mortgages, so you can enjoy your money and your life the most… tune in now! Table of contentsWhy Retirement Income?What is a Reverse Mortgage?Different Strategies for Borrowing When Should You Use a Reverse Mortgage?The Right MindsetAre Reverse Mortgages Expensive?Connect with Dr. Wade PfauAbout Dr. Wade PfauBook A Strategy Call Why Retirement Income? [4:50] “I was interested in retirement income planning, it really just evolved from research I did in grad school… There was a proposal in the early 2000s to privatize part of Social Security, and I was investigating how that might work out in practice, and that's really translated into what I do today in terms of personal retirement planning. But then, in that regard, I really built a career around this insight that is not fully understood yet in the general population, which is when you're retired, investment risk changes. When you're spending from assets, you're more exposed to investment volatility.” This volatility in retirement means opens retirees up to a wide variety of income strategies that can increase the longevity of assets and income. However, many typical financial talking heads consider these strategies unconventional, and many people don’t know how to use them properly. One of those misunderstood assets is home equity, and subsequently, reverse mortgages. However, when used strategically, these elements can really make your retirement income far more efficient.  What is a Reverse Mortgage? A reverse mortgage, as Dr. Pfau shares, is when you borrow money from the home and don’t have to pay it back until the end of the loan. About 90 percent of reverse mortgages are represented by the Federal program of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM). They issued the first HECMs in the late 80s, and the government is consistently working to ensure that the program is operating as well as it can.  The amount you can borrow from your home depends on your age and the current interest rates, and reverse mortgages actually benefit from low interest rates. A HECM gives you access to a percentage of your appraised home value. What the reverse mortgage actually does is give you a line of credit to tap into. This line of credit increases over time. And unlike a regular home equity line of credit, a HECM cannot be frozen or canceled. You have access to it for as long as you choose to remain living in the home. Once you move out of the home, the loan balance becomes due. The benefit of a reverse mortgage is that it gives you more options for spending. That way, you don’t have to draw from certain assets during bad times. For example, if most of your retirement income is coming from equities, you don’t want to pull that income out while the market is down. A reverse mortgage is just one way to create that flexibility.   Different Strategies for Borrowing  The strategy Dr. Pfau proposes acts more like a volatility buffer by giving you discretionary power to pull out income as you see fit. However, there are other reverse mortgage strategies. For example, there are reverse mortgage options to pull out a fixed monthly income.  While this monthly income doesn’t help with a specific sequence of return...

The podcast delves into the concept of infinite banking and the power of policy loans. It discusses the advantages of using a life insurance policy loan instead of a traditional bank savings account, offering access to cash while maintaining compound interest growth and repayment flexibility. The podcast also explores risk analysis and collateral in financial institutions, emphasizing the importance of understanding their motivations. Additionally, it highlights the significance of liquidity and accessibility in storing money, contrasting it with the benefits of infinite banking. Lastly, it covers compound interest and the potential returns compared to a savings account.

This week, we had the pleasure of joining our Canadian friends on the Wealth Without Bay Street podcast. In this episode we talk about our business, and how we can apply the principles of infinite banking in Canada. If you've ever wondered how The Money Advantage got its start, how our perspective has shifted on life insurance, and the importance of implementing what you learn... tune in now! Table of contentsHow The Money Advantage StartedTransformational LearningHow the Message Gains TractionGetting Back to the FundamentalsDealing with NegativityHow a Near-Death Experience Elevated Our Understanding of the Death BenefitRe-Thinking the Value of a LegacyBook A Strategy Call How The Money Advantage Started The Money Advantage Podcast began after Lucas and I met Bruce and his team at an event they put on many years ago. Bruce’s team had been weary of the industry, which seemed only to be interested in pushing products over personal solutions. Yet, Bruce and the team knew there were so many good, well-meaning advisors in the industry. [3:05] Bruce: “We decided we were going to start something called the Freedom Advisor event, and we were going to open this up to people across the nation who wanted to do things in a collaborative way to help make the industry better.” Lucas and I met Bruce through this event after becoming familiar with Nelson Nash and the Infinite Banking Concept. The event put us with many like-minded people and was an incredible opportunity. Months later, after putting out our own content, the idea came to us to reach out to Bruce and create video content with him. Now, over four years later, we continue to produce educational content and love every moment.  Transformational Learning [9:26] Rachel: "I was thinking the other day how much more transformational it is to engage with material rather than just hear someone else talk about it. And I think that this is really important, even for listeners to the show.”  Engaging with information and stories helps you to relate it to your real life. You can choose to read or listen to something, and then set it aside, and that’s a fine thing to do. But when you take that information and attempt to make sense of it in the context of your world, you have the opportunity for transformational learning.  If you want to create a real transformation in your life and your finances, you have to take watching, listening, and reading into thinking, doing, and applying. With the infinite banking concept, application is key. After all, the title of Nelson’s book is “Becoming Your Own Banker,” which hints at a lifelong dedication to learning and implementing these strategies.  [24:50] Rachel: “I’m just so amazed that [Nelson Nash] did say [infinite banking is] a concept. It’s a way of thinking. It’s a framework, if you will, to be able to fit in so many of the challenges that people face financially and find a way to put control in someone’s hands. For the person who is willing to say, ‘I am responsible for my own financial future, yes, that’s me. I will choose to become educated, I’ll choose to make the right choices, and I’m going to choose not to just rely on someone else to tell me what to do.’” How the Message Gains Traction [30:45] Rachel: “I think the challenge is that because information is so easy to come by, the people who are best at presenting that little piece of information, in the most compelling way, and seeming the most confident about it, and putting the most money behind the advertising dollars to make that more visible to others get heard. And then the consumer sees that and thinks it’s the most popular so it must be the truth.”  [33:04] Bruce: “What happens is, people comment more on what they’ve heard than what they experience.” If you’ve followed our content, you’ll see that we frequently get comments from viewers who have heard that whole life insurance is bad. Yet,

Culture matters in the corporate world. It drives profitability and retention, reduces turnover, and leads to higher job satisfaction. But the family is an arena where the stakes are even higher. Without a strong family culture, all your plans, strategy, and even your legacy will fall apart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrN5LyEtcpE That’s why it’s time to dedicate yourself to building and living the family culture today. But what can you do to redeem your family and infuse your everyday life with meaningful connections?  Jeremy Pryor, Partner and Co-Founder of Family Teams is helping families build a multigenerational team on mission. Today, we’re having Jeremy back to talk about the definition of family, why you want to build and keep improving your family culture, and the practical steps you can take now to lay the foundation for children who opt into your multigenerational family team. If you’re looking for practical tools to strengthen your family culture today, so you have more connection, stronger bonds, more time together, and kids who choose to stay committed even after they grow up… tune in now! Table of contentsWhat is Strong Family Culture, and Why Does it Matter?The Importance of FamilyWhat Are the Components of a Strong Family Culture?Challenges for Modern FamiliesBeing Intentional with Your FamilyNegative Family Experiences Important Elements of a Thriving Strong Family CultureConnect with JeremyAbout Jeremy PryorBook A Strategy Call What is Strong Family Culture, and Why Does it Matter?  [4:06] “When you’re starting a family, this is one of the great privileges that you get to design the kind of family that you want to have.” When you are developing a company, you have the power to develop the mission and culture of that company. You do this by identifying the goals of the business, as well as a way of “being” within the company. And just like you can formulate this cohesive work team, you can also form a cohesive family team.  It starts with your relationship with your spouse. By identifying your shared values and beliefs, and how you wish to exist in your household, you lay the foundation for your family culture.  [5:05] “It’s a wonderful experience to grow up in a household, as a child, that has a particular culture that brings the family together. And it can be based on things that you really feel called to, that you really enjoy. There’s not a blueprint for family that is so rigid that you can’t bring a lot of distinctives into the family, and make it something that’s truly unique.” The Importance of Family [7:10] “I come at this as somebody who was very confused about the topic of family; not very excited, it just didn’t seem like something that…really was working well. I grew up in the Seattle area. There was just a lot of divorce, and I just noticed a lot of brokenness.” Family wasn’t something Jeremy believed he could choose to build. His experience with family units as a kid was less-than-ideal. This made him believe that you either lucked out or you didn’t. But over time he learned that there were families with an incredibly deep and intricate root system. The multi-generational families he met had a strong sense of identity and culture, and they supported one another. Their systems don’t implode when the kids grow up and have their own kids. Team Pryor’s work is all about proving that family culture can be cultivated by calling in your family members to be a part of something bigger. This helps family members find a sense of pride and belonging within the family unit, as well as a purpose. A family with strengthened bonds can work together for the good of all involved, and foster a system of support.  What Are the Components of a Strong Family Culture? [12:48] “One of the most basic ways to think about culture [is] the repeated actions that are distinctive to that group.” Oftentimes, companies come up with “aspirational values,

Could a reverse mortgage help you reach your income goals? How do reverse mortgages work? Is a reverse mortgage good or bad? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=820qDZ5CkFE Today, we’re talking with Mike Stanley, Regional Senior Lending Sale Manager for Thrive Mortgage. He shares everything you need to know about reverse mortgages explained. So, if you want to understand just how reverse mortgages work, their pros and cons, and the costs, and get answers to your questions so you can make decisions… tune in now! Table of contentsHow Mike Got Into Reverse MortgagesThe Baby Boomer GenerationBorrowing Qualifications for a Reverse MortgageWhat is a Reverse Mortgage? Numbers on a Reverse MortgageWhat if You’re Not Old Enough?Get in Touch with Mike StanleyBook A Strategy Call How Mike Got Into Reverse Mortgages [9:40] “Most people don’t know what a reverse mortgage is other than a myth or a rumor that they’ve heard.” Mike Stanley got into the world of reverse mortgages in 2008, yet not without hesitation. He didn’t want to be taking advantage of people, and most information about reverse mortgages is a little hazy. In reality, there are quite a few reverse mortgage strategies that can help people in different ways.  10:25] “It’s not been called, technically, a reverse mortgage since 1988. That’s when congress, in 1988, passed a law called home equity conversion mortgage. You may hear it called a HECM. At that point in time, it stopped being a reverse mortgage, but it was such slang for the terminology. People still call it a reverse mortgage even though it’s a federally insured FHA loan that has all the protections of FHA.”  The Baby Boomer Generation [13:10] “48 percent of Baby Boomers are retiring while carrying a mortgage into their retirement years… Another interesting fact, 50 percent of those 65 or older have their houses paid for, and 27 percent of those will downsize or right-size into a home that better meets their retirement needs.”  If you’re in the Baby Boomer generation, considering a reverse mortgage strategy can help you downsize. It can also help you find more retirement income by leveraging home equity. If not, those with Baby Boomer parents should be considering how they’re going to care for their parents.  Borrowing Qualifications for a Reverse Mortgage [19:25] “Right now, to be a borrower, the borrower has to be 62 years of age minimum. It is a mortality or equity-based loan… We take four things into consideration. We take in their age… we take in the value of the home, and we take in the interest rate on the loan—and how much equity we’re going to have to leave in the house.”  What is a Reverse Mortgage?  The short and sweet answer is that you give up the equity in your home in exchange for regular payments. This can provide an income to homeowners over the age of 62, or help you keep your home in retirement. There are even options for those who have children who wish to inherit the home. [24:18] “There’s a unique feature in the reverse mortgage… it’s called a non-recourse feature, which means and states that no one is ever responsible for paying their home back personally. Only the equity in the house can ever be used at the time the loan is due. The time the loan is due is when the last of the two borrowers… no longer live in a property as their primary residence, or one of them passes away, or they sell the house, or they refinance the house.” [28:14] “There are four ways of taking money out. If you take a lump sum, there are two options. There’s a fixed rate option. And whatever you take out on a fixed rate is the maximum you get; there are no more funds available. On the… adjustable rate, there is a line of credit.” [30:30] “Now they do have two other options. They could take what we call a tenure option, which a tenure is a life expectancy payout. Let’s assume that we run our numbers and based off their life expectancy and the pool of money that the...

If you're using Infinite Banking with a life insurance policy, you have multiple options to access your cash value. But which one is the best? Should you always use policy loans? What if you can get a lower interest rate by borrowing against your cash value with a third-party loan? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQdVbQ1_q0 Let's discuss all of your options for accessing capital. This includes policy loans, withdrawals, cash value loans from a third party, and even capital from separate sources. If you want to find out the reasons you might use each, the pros and cons, why interest rates are NOT the best way to make your decision, and the #1 most important thing you need to make sure you're in the position of maximum control ... tune in now! Table of contentsWhy Pay a Finance Charge? How Does a Policy Loan Work?What is a Withdrawal from Your Cash Value?How is the Interest on a Policy Loan Calculated? Are Interest-Only Payments Better?The Benefit of Unstructured PaymentsBook A Strategy Call Why Pay a Finance Charge?  One of the major objections to the Infinite Banking Concept is, essentially: Why should I pay to access my own money? Generally, with an IBC strategy, the way to access your capital is by leveraging it via a policy loan. This means that you offer your cash value as collateral for a loan from the insurance company. Because it's a loan, you pay interest on that loan. This isn’t an unreasonable question. In fact, it’s a good question to ask of any financing method you use. The right solution will depend on how much capital you need, how much you have, what you want to do, and more. But in general, accessing your cash value through a loan is a good option because you have control. Some of the benefits of a policy loan include: The flexibility to use that money on anything you want.Tax-free use of your money (* as long as the policy stays in force and does not become a Modified Endowment Contract).Full compounding interest on your cash value because you aren’t withdrawing.Control over when and how you pay the loan back.No application process. This means you can leverage a policy loan in ways you might not do with a bank loan.No credit check, and no impact on your credit report when you take a policy loan. How Does a Policy Loan Work? If you want to access your cash value without a withdrawal, you can get a loan from the insurance company’s general fund. The company then puts a lien against the policy value, or the amount that you want to borrow against your policy. When you pay back the loan, you’re paying interest to the company. As you pay back the loan, the lien against your policy is reduced, which frees up your cash value to be used again, if you so wish.  When you take a loan, the company only collateralizes your policy for the amount of that loan. So if you have $200,000 of cash value and you just want a $10,000 loan, the company only uses $10,000 as collateral. This means that if you take that $10k and a few months later have a $100k opportunity, you still have that available to take another loan. What is a Withdrawal from Your Cash Value? Instead of taking a loan from the insurance company, you can actually remove money straight from the policy values. If you withdraw less than your cost basis (the equivalent of what you’ve paid in premiums), you can access the money tax-free. However, when you take out more than what you’ve paid into the policy, you cause a taxable event. The IRS sees this as growth on the policy, and is, therefore, taxable income when you take it “no strings attached.” Unlike loans, withdrawals cannot be paid back and thus permanently reduce your policy values. How is the Interest on a Policy Loan Calculated?  If you’re wanting access to capital and thinking about a loan, you’re likely to compare interest rates between lenders and companies. Insurance companies often have competitive rates,

Most people don’t see the need for life insurance in their later years, let alone the benefit of whole life insurance in their retirement plan. By retirement, you may expect to have your home paid off, and not have the same income needs as before. You may even decide you're not retiring at all if you can help it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kq9rC5nw6I Even still, there are tremendous advantages to whole life insurance that lasts for your whole life. This includes having insurance beyond what most consider their life insurance needs. For many people, retirement planning with whole life insurance isn’t just about protection - it’s also a way to build reliable retirement savings that complement other income sources. Tune in today for this eye-opening conversation with Dr. Wade Pfau about the three key benefits of retirement planning with whole life insurance. Table of contentsThe Nature of Retirement IncomeThe Benefits of Whole Life Insurance in Your Retirement PlanHow Does the Volatility Buffer Work?Inflation RisksBuilding a Retirement Income PlanThe Reality of Stock Market ReturnsWhole Life Insurance In Your RetirementLinks ReferencedAbout Dr. Wade PfauBook A Strategy Call The Nature of Retirement Income [5:19] “What makes retirement income different is that the nature of risk changes… just in looking at how the investment world approached retirement income, I developed concerns.” Those concerns led to Dr. Pfau looking into assets that are traditionally not considered retirement assets, like life insurance. Life insurance isn't common in retirement plans because many people don't believe they need it anymore. However, life insurance has benefits that many people don’t consider, and aren’t taught to consider.  [5:56] “In the risk management context of retirement… potentially looking at different tools, not just using only an investment portfolio to fund retirement expenses, can help lay that foundation for a better retirement outcome.” When you only have investment assets for retirement, you have a sequence of returns risk. This means that you risk significant losses because you can’t time the market in retirement. After all, you’ve got to take your income to eat and pay bills. Retirement income usually comes from several sources, including social security, pensions, investment withdrawals, and whole life insurance retirement income. Balancing these streams helps reduce risk and creates a more predictable cash flow in retirement. The Benefits of Whole Life Insurance in Your Retirement Plan The value of whole life insurance is that “the cash value is not exposed to the risk of loss,” as Wade says. The cash value is a non-correlated asset and grows no matter what is going on in the stock market.  [7:25] “It can provide a resource to cover spending on a temporary basis during this kind of bad market environment so that you don’t have to sell from the portfolio to fund spending... Well, then that gives the portfolio an opportunity to recover and to make up those losses again before we have to go back to selling from it.” [8:01] “Ultimately the benefits [of whole life insurance] to the portfolio exceed the cost of the insurance to give a better net outcome, especially when we consider the tax advantages and so forth of life insurance.” Some of the key benefits of whole life insurance in your retirement plan include: Guaranteed cash value growth that isn’t tied to market swings Tax-free access to funds through policy loans A death benefit that supports long-term legacy planning Protection against market volatility by acting as a non-correlated asset How Does the Volatility Buffer Work? A "volatility buffer," as Wade Pfau calls it, is an asset that can help your investments during market downturns. The idea is that after the market dips, you can pull income from your volatility buffer to minimize your losses and give the account time to recover.